The Truth of "Old Sayings"

Remember the old saying that doctors make the worst patients? Or how about a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client? A car repairman who fixes his own car gets it right the first time? A psychiatrist who analyzes himself is always schizophrenic? I don't know how much truth there is in these old sayings, but I can say unequivocally after having spent the whole day in a classroom with a bunch of teachers in a training session that TEACHERS MAKE LOUSY STUDENTS! or maybe THOSE WHO CAN DO, DO and THOSE WHO CAN'T DO, TEACH!

Stress Reliever??

Click on the words "Stress Reliever" above and see if it works for you. Be sure to have the sound turned way up.

Autumn Cactus

I repotted this cactus earlier this fall and it's bloomed for the first time in years. I'm not even sure if they are supposed to bloom every year so I don't know if it's a coincidence or because I repotted it, but it is pretty.

Movies

39% Movie Freak? Must be a movie geek. I thought I was more of a movie freak than this. I guess I'm either watching the wrong movies or just not paying attention.


39% Movie Freak

Lucy in the Sky. . . . with diamonds

I've just had the most surreal day. I had an appointment to see an optometrist in Billings at 1:00. I had the day off work and I could have slept in, but knowing that I wouldn't be able to, I left the house at the usual time of 7:00 am. I had Morning Edition on the radio, my usual morning routine, and they were talking about a transportation strike in France and then about fact that there are members of the black race who aren't black anymore? It seems that members of the poor black race are disowning the rich members of the black race? Anyway, at 9:00 the news ended and classic music came on. Now I like classic music well enough, but not when I'm driving so I started pushing buttons on the radio to see what programs were on. I had one hand on the wheel and both eyes on the road, just pushing buttons. A talk radio show came on. It was Sean Hannity. Talk about surreal. He has no facts at all on his show, just his loud mouthed opinions. And when people call in to talk, he cuts them off and rants. One guy who was disagreeing with him started "breaking up.", but "thanks for calling." He ranted about how all media is controlled by the liberals. He doesn't seem to realize that he's media as well. He said over and over how slanted and bias the media is. If he's not media, is he smallia? Around noon I met my dad and brother for a delightful lunch and the only non surreal part of the day.

Anyway I got into see the eye doc and he wrote me a prescription for a new pair of "computer" glasses so I can sit at the computer and not have to either tilt my head up to see through the bottom of my bifocals or take my glasses of all together and squint like I am now. The very last thing he did was dilate my pupils for a look at the back of my eyeball. After the exam, I picked out a new pair of "outrageous" frames and finished my shopping. I figured that I would walk around the store and let my pupils get back to normal. But when I finally left the store and stepped out into the bright, sunny afternoon, I could hardly see my way to the car and my lovely, wraparound sunglasses. The sunglasses did the trick though and I felt confident that I could drive safely. I stopped in Hardin to fill up for gas, it is $.34 cheaper in Hardin than in Ashland. By that time it was dusky and people were turning on their headlights and surreality took on another dimension. All the headlights, reflectors and traffic signs looked as if they had been special effected by a Disney cartoonist on LSD. Huge, spiky halos surrounded every light. The halos were so broad that they covered both lanes of traffic and so bright that I couldn't figure out how many cars were lined up in the other lane. I eventually figured out that if I squinted really hard, I could focus much better. I made it home OK, but I will never do that again.
Moral:
Always take someone with you when you go to the eye doc. Or don't let him dilate your eyes.

Famous Last Words

Add to the famous last words, "The check is in the mail, " Everything is set up for the rest of the year. " I started taking over the duties of the Powerschool coordinator last week, just when report cards had to be printed. It felt like jumping into the pot of boiling water to get away from the flames. But it really wasn't that bad, it just felt like it because I realized that I know next to nothing compared to the people who've been working with the program for so many years. I had to set up some classes for grades and attendance for a new teacher and the report card template was misplaced for a few minutes, and then there was the honor roll panic, but actually, after some reflection, I didn't do that much. I emailed and called the lady who resigned and talked to the various other people in the district who work with the program and things ultimatly got done.

Maybe this week will feel a little more relaxing, at least after my formal job evaluation is done on Monday! Monday!!! What a perfect day for a job eval! What could go wrong on a Monday???

Check in Tuesday to find out.

Remember the 5th of November!

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

Family Trees

We found this picture of one of my husband's ancestors. It appeared in the local newspaper and the captions was, "Local Scientist discovers comet."

Storytime Chair

Here is the original storytime chair that I used at Ashland Elementary School. They were getting rid of them and replacing them with plastic stacking chairs. I got this one and refinished it. Perfect height for reading stories. Even with kids sitting on the floor they could easily see the pictures, and since my feet were flat on the floor, I could read for hours.

My favorite storytime story is about telling a story at Halloween. The library was darkened with blackout curtains and paper over the windows. The lights were out and the only light was a candle glowing from a ceramic jackolantern. The kids were in second grade and as contentious a group as I've ever had. They were whining and loud and obnoxious as usual but I wanted to tell a scary story. So I kept talking slower and softer until they finally had to shut up to hear me. They were creeping closer and closer to hear the words and some of them were resting their hands on my lap. I could see their eyes shinning by candle light and I was finally in control of this class for the first and only time that year. The story was "The Golden Arm." When I reached the final "Who has my golden arm?' I was in full scary voice and slowly building to a crescendo with the repetition of "Who has my golden arm?" Barely able to contain my laughter, I reached out and grabbed the nearest kid and shouted "You've got it!" They all screamed and jumped up. One of them ran out of the room and all the way down the hall. Some of them wanted to cry but didn't. One of them said, "You didn't scare me, Ms. Taylor. " Of course not!

The only other triumph of story telling was getting one kid to tear up during "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble." I hurried up and finished before he actually cried. He was a sweet little kid and I felt bad.

The glory days.

Weekend Update

Not too much new going on actually. I had my first day on the "new job" Friday. The previous Powerschool worker had her last day on Thursday. Friday was the end of the quarter, but she had almost everything set up before she left. I did have to add one new teacher to the roster and add his courses. We'll see how it works next week. I've also got to keep the school's website updated and I've alread found a broken link. We'll see if I can fix it tomorrow.

Saturday we went to Miles City to look at sofas. The one in our living room is looking a little shabby. Still comfortable and functional, but shabby. It's a handmedown from mom and dad and I had put a slipcover on it. Now the slip cover is getting ripped, so maybe sometime in the next year or so, we could update. Not in any hurry, mind you, just looking. I did find a chair that fit me perfectly though. It's hard to find one that fits my stubby legs and lets me reach the back of the chair and my feet reach the floor at the same time. I spent most of high school either slumped down in my chair so my feet would reach the floor or sitting up straight and letting my feet dangle. Maybe that's why I miss the elementary school so much. I always sat in one of the kids' chairs for story time. A chair that fits is truly rare. Now to search for a bowl of porridge that is neither too hot nor too cold and a bed that is neither too hard nor too soft.

PowerSchool Geek

Well, it's been an interesting week. I talked to a friend in the tech department on Monday and she told me that she'd resigned her position to take a job that had better benefits and was closer to home. I've worked with her over the past 8 years and she's taught me a lot about using our school's grade book/attendance program, PowerSchool. I've also learned a lot about how our computer network runs since I have a dozen computers in the library.

Anyway, a little later in the day, the head of the tech dept. is in the building and I say, "I hear that you are losing your sidekick." "Yeah," he says. "I'd think I'd like her job, " I say. Before the end of the day, he and his sidekick decide that I'm going to take over. She does a lot of other things, but her main job is setting up the grade book/attendance for each year and trouble shooting through out the year. I figured if I could do that from my computer in the library, I could at least do that part of her job. After all, she's got the whole year already set up. I'd be able to do some on the job training before I'd have to do anything next year. And she's just an email away if I start to get in over my head.

So to make a long story short (I can give you the long version in person if you really want to hear it) I started training to use the PowerSchool program on Friday and will continue to train until she leaves on Oct. 26.

Wish me luck. It is a beast of a program and if I make mistakes, it affects the whole district!

Is this a GOOD thing?

255 WATTS Body Battery Calculator - Find Out How Much Electricity Your Body is Producing - Dating

JustSayHi - A Free Dating Website

Some Blogger

I must have exaggerated on my addiction to blogging quiz because it's been at least a week since my last blog. I do read them a lot though. Anyway, I had a beautiful weekend. It was a perfect autumn day.... if you like drizzly rain. We drove to Billings and met our son's girlfriend and her mother for a couple of pizzas before the big football game. His girlfriend and her mother went to the game (they lost :( , we went up to my dad's house and visited him and my youngest brother for a little while until the game was over. Family and friends, like I said a beautiful weekend.

Ouch!

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Fog

I had taken my camera to school one morning so that I could take pictures of the fall colors on my way. That morning there was heavy fog on the "flats." I stopped and took this picture. Then I edited it in Adobe Photo Shop which I had purchased to use for the photography class I signed up for. I never have liked the software that came with the camera so I'd been using Paint Shop Pro7 but it wasn't letting me download pictures from my camera, a Kodak EZ Share. I bought the new software and I like it so far.

The irony is that I dropped the photography class. I didn't have any time this week to take pictures and I realized that I really wasn't looking forward to taking any regardless of class assignments. Then I thought about it some more and I realized that I have an EZ camera for a

reason. I like setting the auto feature and just pushing the button and getting a picture out of it.

Only Slightly Dorky???

I'm willing to be that there is at least one person out there who can out NERD me !

Computers #@!%^*# - Part II

I just finished the worst afternoon I've had for years. All thanks to computers. Mind you I wouldn' t go back to cataloging and checking out books on 3x5 inch cards, but it was bad enough to make me wish I had the day off. Either that or I could cuss out loud without being over heard by me students. It's much better now. I fixed it before I left so I could enjoy the weekend without worrying about it.

It is a beautiful autumn day. Clear blue skies and trees showing traces of yellow in the leaves. I'm going to have to close the window before too long, the breeze is just a tad chilly.

Me TOO!

You Scored an A

You got 10/10 questions correct. It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.

The It's Its There Their They're Quiz

Ready for Your Closeup?

I signed up for Intro to Photography today. It's being offered by a local tribal college but being taught in Ashland. The course description says we will be using digital cameras so I've already got my equipment. More than likely I'll be posting some of my successes to this blog, so be prepared!

We're Having a Heat Wave!

After a cool spell, we're back to 100 degree afternoons, tempered by 60 degree nights. I wasn't aware of the heat wave until I stepped out of my school Friday afternoon. My building is air conditioned and the library is generally cold enough to "hang meat." After hunting season starts I tell the maintence guy that if he gets his deer he can bring it into my library. This usually accompanies a request to adjust the thermostat, a request that usually results in either a laugh or a comment that "so and so's room is like a sauna and I shouldn't complain. " After this weekend I think I'll just bring a sweater.

The first week is over and I need to spend the holiday weekend planning lessons because, as they say in our business, "The honeymoon is over." Now we get to start the hard stuff. We ususally get a good number of students after Labor Day, but they won't get the honeymoon, just the hard stuff.

We are going to start a "rotating" schedule. Each week we will start the day with a different class period. Next week our first class will be the one labeled 2nd period and we will end with the one labeled 1st period. It should be interesting. I'm very insecure the first weeks of a new semester because I don't know the schedule very well. Now I will never know what's going on schedulewise without looking. It's either going to be fun or nervewracking. I'll let you know which in a few weeks.