German Engineering strikes again

The last two days have been absolutely beautiful to run in. As a valet at Disney's Swan and Dolphin hotel, I've been waiting ALL SUMMER for this kind of weather (It's tough to run when it's 98 degrees and drive back in a car that's 150 with the windows up).


Anyway, today I ran out to the back of our parking lot to retrieve a hot little BMW convertable (as soon as I saw it, I remembered parking it yesturday because I couldn't seem to find "Reverse" on the stick shift). Anyways, I jump in a pray that I can get it in reverse (or I'll look silly using my foot with the car in neutral). I turn the key and rrrrrrr rrrrrrr rrrrrrr; dead battery.... YUCK.


I run back and let the shift manager know about the problem.... hoping he'll send someone to jumpstart the car..... he sent me. So I run back out to the boonies with the car charger and "attempt" to figure out BMW engineering (I can drive cars just great.....but don't ask me to look under the hood). It took me a good 5 minutes to find the hood release (I looked everywhere I could think of). Then another 3 minutes to figure out the hood latch. TA DA! I'm in.... now where in world is that battery? After looking high and low, I found a cable that had a red casing on it (looked like a terminal to me), so I put the positive clamp on it and the negative clamp on the edge of the car..... NOTHING. I unclamped everything I touched the two clamps together..... BIG SPARKS, it's hot! After another 4 minutes of floundering the calvary arrived; two other valets and the shift manager. They schooled me very quickly that in these cars the engine is under the hood, but the battery is under the trunk boards (duh). So a quick jump later the car roars to life and the calvary charges back to the ramp....... leaving me to use my foot to get it in reverse.


Thankfully, the guest was very understanding.

Running off at the keyboard.....

- I'm getting a BEST BUY (not to be confused with Buy Best) less than a mile from my house (the LOOP). It'll be opening May 2007.

- My computer died.....so I got a new one

- Halloween doesn't feel like Halloween this year. Instead it's just October with NO holiday

- Had a great time in NYC with Ninja!

- We were first place this week at Trivia Night (thanks to brightstar as my "phone-a-friend")

- I've been staying after school on Mondays and Tuesdays to excercise with some teachers. They are working me to death, but it's finally starting to get easier.

- It's only a matter of time before I have a downstairs neighbor.... they finally put a real lock on the door.

Why am I still paying for cable?

Cancel the cable...... YouTube offers hours of entertainment for free. Let's see what's on tonight's listings:


Science Programing: Build your own flame thrower


Educational Programing in a hurry: World Politics lesson in 30 seconds


Nature Programing: Frogcicles


Technology Programing: Boom


So many channels... so little time.

Just typin.....

- I can't believe that eDonkey is gone for good. I used that little server to get all kinds of music, software, and such. Now I'm back to square one in my search for a Peer-to-peer provider..... Think I'll try Morpheus w/ bittorrent.

- I can't wait to strip the DRM off of my itunes purchases. Hopefully the software will be ready in a week or so that will make it easy to do.

- Speaking of Apple, I'm interested to see what their little iTV box can do..... gotta figure out how I can use it in a educational setting.

- I found out today that one of my friends at work is leaving to take a job with the district.... A real big bummer.

- I think Sept 11th shouldn't be about the people that died. It's rehashing the horrors all over again each year. Imagine the children who can't ever get over this tragedy because every year it comes back. They need to be able to move on with their lives..... I DO however, believe that the USA should not forget that we live in a world where people mean us harm. My point is 9/11 shouldn't be about what happened to who, but about how it impacted America on the world stage.

- I can't wait to pack up my bookfair tomorrow :-)

Peterson's Principal

No, that's not a typo in my title.... Let me explain:

The Peterson Principle (as I learned it back in undergrad) states that people tend to get promoted to positions they are least likely to succeed at. A skilled laborer may have mastered his craft to perfection, however if he is promoted to a management position his skills are will no longer match his job title and he will flounder.

I bring this up because the Assistant Principal at our school is driving me crazy. And I know I'm not the only one with this problem..... AP's in general seem to be hit-or-miss with their management skills. In my case, he runs the school as the dictator of a small country (my school). He has stated that his role is to give "directives" and that it's our job to follow them. Well, yes and no. True he is the man in charge... but we're all on a team that need to work together. By taking a dictator position, he is pushing people away who are trying their darnest to work with him (did I mention his excellent business sense doesn't translate to educational sense). Because of this, I'm seriously looking at alternative places to work (I let our district supervisor know that I'd be interested in looking at the new schools for next year). I know I need to stay "in field" to keep my National Board Certification.... but is something great comes along, I want to keep my option open to jump ship.

I've heard an old saying that states: If you love your job, you'll never work a day in your life. I've always said I'd stay until it wasn't fun anymore..... So far this year, I've worked my tail off and it's not very fun.

Go Rednecks!!!

I was a little skeptical about watching a video called "Redneck Rocket Launcher", but I'm actually very impressed! Can't wait 'til the 4th of July!!!

Words of Wisdom

I love it when I see or hear something that makes complete sense. I recently came across a blog that sounds off about the differences between college and the working world. After reading it, I felt like shaking the author's hand and saying "Amen brother"! Take a moment and enjoy.

A Rose By Any Other Name.....

So I'm entering kids into our computer systems at school so they can take AR quizzes and check out books. It seems like more and more kids are coming to school with hyphenated last names. I think it's just plain silly. Pick a name and stick with it.....

In a related story, I watched a news feature last night on a couple that is selling the naming rights to their unborn child on eBay. The starting bid is something like $14,000. I'm all for free enterprise, but think it should be illegal for those kinds of parents to have kids. Names are a huge part of a persons identity, it's a part of someone's life.... NOT FOR SALE! These parents obvisouly don't care about that. I feel sorry for little baby "goldenpalace.com" who's not going to see a dime of that money.

Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!

Goodbye quiet July, Hello August! Not 5 hours into the month and we've already got a tropical storm pointed at South Florida! Welcome to hurricane season..

Yummy Yummy

OK OK, I'm sold before I've even seen the product. Intel's new Core 2 Duo chips came out today and I can't wait to get my hands on one. For the past year, I've been keeping up with how great these new chips are..... and today's the day they finally came out.

Could be a very good Black Friday this year (Wink Wink).