Carrie and Tala: BFF

Item: 30 gig IPOD Video
Cost: $300
Store: Amazon.com
Delivery: 7-10 days (super saver free shipping)

I can't wait. But I am still mad about the Rio.

The Carbon is officially dead. Even the Rio support people admit that nothing can be done. They said that if I pay the penalty fee (reserved for stupid people who buy Rio Carbons) of $100, they will send me a new crappy Carbon. But then I would be continuing the cycle of stupidity. Thus, I will put this Carbon down. Maybe I'll see if Keith wants to take it apart and play with it.

Dinosaur

I am sick again, this time it is pharyngitis (or sore throat). Wikipedia reports that 90% of sore throats are viral and that remaining cases are due to bacterial infections or oral thrush (fungus).

If this infection is, in fact, viral, the virus could be anything from mononucleosis to herpes. My hope is that it is a weak adenovirus.



EWWWW! I am glad my tonsils don't look like that!

Newest Coworker:
Nachum Shifren, The Surfing Rabbi
http://www.surfingrabbi.com/index.htm

Yes. Really.

Today we took a field trip to plant trees in El Segundo. Before we left, while I was buying an apple at 7-11, I observed a bunch of my students buying Doritos and soda for breakfast.

Hoping to take advantage of this teachable moment, I said, “Why don’t you guys try to find something healthy here to have for breakfast?”

“Yea,” added a helpful 10^th grader (in all seriousness), “you guys should get, like, hot chocolate and a donut.”

Field Trip Highlight: Cramming 100 10^th graders and 6 teachers into the public 125 Bus from El Segundo to Lawndale.

Field Trip Lowlight: Getting hassled by the El Segundo Police. Being a minority teenager in a group is apparently crime enough to get a lecture in El Segundo.

Field Trip Highlight #2: The police officer not believing that I was a teacher and lecturing me like a student. Maybe I am not aging as quickly as I sometimes feel.

I got two fabulous gifts today from two coworkers who wanted to gift me for very different reasons.

#1: I got a delicious and large cookie from a coworker who wanted to thank me for a favor.

#2: I have a large and fragrant bouquet of flowers from a coworker who wanted to apologize for a faux paux.

They both smell good and both look nice. But the cookie is long gone and the flowers are still on my desk.

I lost my mp3 player. So glad things are back to normal.

My new Rio Carbon (less than 3 months old) broke. The volume wheel broke inexplicably and my warranty is only good for 30 days. I emailed the Rio Company about this problem and they recommended I download the latest software updates. I can't see how what would fix the mechanical problem of a broken wheel. So I am guessing that means I am out of luck. I added a new IPod to my Amazon wish list.

I found my mp3 player power cord today, after I cracked and bought a new one last week (for $30). The lost one was in my desk, a place I had checked at least twice before. At this point I don't think I am missing anything. Of course, I still have not cashed my checks, which now amount to $5,000, and am running the risk to re-losing them.

Have not written for a few days as I have been out of town, volunteering at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, which, as the name implies, was good times. The theme of the weekend was "cartoons" and activities included: baking "smurf poo cookies" (blue colored chocolate chip cookies), playing cartoon charades, and making stop-motion films.

Highlight: watching my 12 and 13-year old campers get excited about running a face-paint booth at the "cartoon-ival"

Lowlight: bitterly cold temperatures up there near Idyllwild (see cold urticaria)

In other news, I recently purchased my own copy of "Settlers of Catan" my new favorite board game. It came in the mail today! Next I need "RoboRally".

Bad news: I lost the power cord for my MP3 player and even though I looked for it for an hour, I couldn't find it. I went to Best Buy to get a new one, but it was closed.

Good news: In the search for the power cord, I found my missing checks, including the one from early December. I am now $3,407 richer.

Bad news: I can not celebrate the findings of my checks in this sad, quiet, music-less world.

Jerry's rules:
#1: No calls the next day
#2: Spending the night: optional

A recent sample of "Trivial Pursuit, 90s Edition" prompted this question: how pop culture savvy am I?

Fortunately Sparktests helped me answer this question.

I am 63% pop culture savvy. 57% of people are less savvy than me— 9% are as savvy as me— 34% are more savvy than me.

First, you'll all be glad to know that I found a dog sitter for Tala. I sent out a mass email and a friend at work took pity on me, I only hope she does not come to regret it. Tala joined me at work today and happily deposited fur all over my classroom and students.

Next, trying to keep a blog a secret is apparently a foolish idea, since although I have only now told one person about it, my sitemeter indicates that numerous other people have discovered it on their own.

I went rock climbing today and climbed pretty well. I lead climbed a 5.10a and top-roped some 5.10cs and one 5.10d. I climbed especially well after I noticed some newbies struggling with a 5.8 and went over and showed off some.

I have decided to do a study to see if the number of hours I work per day affects my climbing skill. For example, today I worked 9.5 hours and climbed at about 5.10c level. If I work more or less will I climb better or worse or will the two fail to correlate? We shall see. I will collect data over the next month and see if the two are related. Then I'll do a new study and try to correlate climbing skill to another factor (for example, the presence of newbies).

I tried to keep this blog a secret, but according to my site meter, my secret has been discovered by two people: someone in Connecticut and someone in Montreal. Therefore, I will no longer keep this blog a secret. Hey world, are you ready for my blog? Here it comes!

I have been wanting to play Balderdash but was afraid to play it with friends for fear of seeming really dorky and somewhat lame. Then I realized that I can make my students play it with me with no fear, because they already think I am really dorky and somewhat lame. This realization is rather exhilarating.

Currently watching: OC Season 2
Currently reading: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
Currently listening to: Lighthouse Family
Currently playing: Settlers of Catan

I decided that since everyone else seems to have a blog that I should have one too. However, I am going to keep it a secret for a while until I can figure out if it is going to be really dumb and I'll never have anything interesting to say.

Here are the semi- interesting things going on in my life:

#1: I am leaving to spend the weekend at Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times on Friday (where I volunteer with kids with cancer) but I have not yet arranged for dog care for Tala. In my typical fashion, I have acknowledged that finding dog care gives me anxiety but have still been unable to complete the task. I realized that this was the type of thing that Jim would have taken care of and I guess it is good that I am forced to deal with it myself.

#2: Last month I lost a paycheck and have not received a replacement yet. Now I realize that I lost another paycheck and two reimbursement checks. Lost checks now total approximately $3,500. This is becoming a problem. Again, something Jim would have taken care of for me.