Thursday, August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013

I exercised a bit this morning. A very tiny bit, only about six or seven minutes on my stepper thing, but that is way better than nothing.

When I pulled up to park at work I was right behind my favorite substitute teacher. She was messing around with stuff in her backseat and when I got out I got her attention and she turned to show me that she had just spilled her coffee all over the front of her white shirt. She was trying to juggle two drinks and a big box of donuts. I took the drinks off her hands and we walked to the building, catching up as we went. After clocking in I cleaned her drinks off and then followed her down to the lounge to drop off the donuts. I traded her the drinks for a glazed donut and it was pretty great. I have been craving a glazed donut for months, no joke, and that craving was entirely sated with that donut. Food can be so much better when it becomes a novelty.

During work I found a student directory template for Access so I am going to adapt that to my needs. That will save me a lot of grieve trying to figure things out in Access 2010, after spending so much time last year figuring out Access 97. I already got pictures working, so they show each student as I switch to their information. That took me so long last year, and it involved a lot of coding. But I will still be putting a lot of work into this new directory, even with the template, and it is all kind of pointless. I think I was the only person who used my directory last year. And the only real benefit for other people was the phone directory I made using a report from the database. That will probably be the only benefit once again. But it is kind of fun messing around with it and it gives me something to do with all my free time.

The drumming has started in the music room, which is next to the computer lab. So my usual BBC news was enhanced with a constant drumbeat. An incessant drumbeat. Last year it seemed to go on for weeks and I am hoping that won't be the case this year. At least it isn't during testing.

By far the worst class in the lab in terms of logging in for the first time was the second grade class today. They were all shouting and poking at me and pulling at me. I felt very popular but that is not the kind of popularity anyone desires. It was a madhouse. Many of them didn't know how to spell their last names and a lot more of them didn't know their lunch numbers. With the help of the sub and the para, everyone eventually got logged in, even if it did take them twenty minutes. I think the main problem was trying to help kids individually. I gave the instructions to the whole group but that didn't go over well. In the future I think it would be better to go one tiny step at a time and not move on until everyone had gotten that far. I would like to do it over again and I will probably get the chance next Tuesday when they come back to the lab.

On my way home I stopped and got gas in anticipation of my trip to see the new volunteer kid. After dinner I found out that wasn't happening because the kid was at football practice. So that's a thing now. After tonight the practices should be shorter so our visits can probably stay on Thursday nights but time will tell.

My panorama that I had printed arrived today and it came out looking pretty good. It is 6”x24” and it is hard to believe it was taken with my phone. On Saturday I think I'll stop by Hobby Lobby and see if I can find a frame for it. I would prefer not to have one made but I don't know how common that size is. I was thinking of getting a mat for it so maybe that will help. Or hurt. I don't know.

I also activated my XM radio when I got home. It makes sense that the radio has to be on when the activation signal is sent but I didn't think about that until this afternoon, after getting in my car this morning and the radio not working even though I thought I activated it last night. So I sat in my car, turned it on, used my phone to send the activation signal again, and waited. Then I programmed in a bunch of stations. At work I printed out a station list and marked the ones that sounded interesting. I ended up picking more than the eighteen slots available on my stereo but some of them were close together so I can just scroll to those.

With all of my free time tonight I played more Saints Row 4. I figured out what my deal was last night and was able to continue playing. I made a lot of progress too. Not only did I progress the storyline, I finished the side quest for the dubstep gun (which is easily my new favorite weapon in the game), and I collected a whole bunch of the shimmering blue things needed to upgrade my superpowers. Progress.

I also ordered a new keyboard today. I have wanted the new Razer Blackwidow for awhile now because this year's model has backlit green keys. I also do a lot of typing at work and my current mechanical keyboard is a lot easier to type on than the regular cheap keyboard I use at work. So I am using that as an excuse to take my old keyboard to work and replace it with the new green light one. If only I could get the school district to pay for it. Payment enough will be the relief my wrists and fingers and forearms get from not having to push so hard on the keyboard. It will be really nice when MAP testing starts and I'm having to type in hundreds of scores. Which will be thousands and thousands of numbers before it's all over with.


And now I am going to go to bed. It is almost eleven o'clock and I am going to try and get another decent night of rest. Even if it isn't eight hours. And maybe I'll be awake enough to exercise a bit more. Still no pushups or situps with my hurt back and hand, but I'd be satisfied with my stepper.

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