October 2, 2013

Today never really took off. It was very boring. I think I probably peaked this morning when I fixed the pencil sharpener in the lab. It's an old non-electric one and it hasn't worked since I started last year. Maybe it never worked. I unscrewed it from the shelf it is on and then took it apart. The problem was that the handle would spin independently from the blades whenever there was a pencil in it creating resistance. The base of the handle had an opening that was flat on two sides and rounded on the other two. This fit onto the base of the blades but the base was entirely rounded. I am assuming it should have also been flat on two sides and rounded on the other. In fact, if I were making it using the same idea, I would have made all four sides on both the handle and the blades, square. But it was made by an idiot I guess. So I MacGyvered it. In a fairly literal way because I used a paper clip. I cut it up and put it in the spaces between the rounded edges of the blade base and the flat edges of handle. The goal being to gum up the works so the handle would stop spinning independently of the blades. And it worked. It turns out the pencil sharpener kind of sucks and it is faster to sharpen a pencil with my knife or walk across the hall and use the electric sharpener. But I fixed it.

With the rest of my day I printed off a page with all the student pictures for each class and gave it to the teachers. The intention being that they can leave it for substitutes to help them know who the kids are. The only annoying thing is that a lot of kids were absent on picture day. But most of them were present. I also finished up my MAP spreadsheet and started messing with my student directory again. I'm trying to figure out how to make student reports for a phone directory that will reflect the filter I have applied. So I can pick a single class and then hit the report button and get a phone list for just that class. That's how I did it last year and it was convenient. Right now I'm stuck on either getting the entire school in alphabetical order or getting an error in my code. I'll get there eventually.

I had the frustrating group for my second reading center today. All but one are super annoying most of the time and the one who isn't gets wrapped up in it every now and then and joins the team. Today it was pretty much the same deal but for some reason one of the kids, who started off whining, ended up buttoning up and behaving really well. It wasn't enough to compensate for the rest of the group but it was nice.

After school I played more of the Battlefield 4 beta. They fixed the quick match thing so I was actually able to get into actual matches in both gametypes. And I really wish I had been recording my first game because I did the coolest thing ever. Even cooler than shooting down a helicopter with an RPG from the back of a four-wheeler (which I did manage to record). I have been trying to get in a helicopter since the beta started (so yesterday) but I have no idea where they spawn and they are always being operated by someone not on my team so I can't spawn in them. But today my teammate was a pilot and I got in the backseat. It was a Little Bird and at one point we got into a bit of a duel with the enemy Little Bird. I couldn't really do much with my rifle so I pulled out my torch and kept repairing our helicopter every time we got hit. Then I decided to help out so I pulled out my RPG and when the enemy helicopter was in front of us but just enough on my side, I took a shot and blew it to pieces. It was freaking amazing. And it will probably never be repeated, by me anyway considering how often I find myself in a helicopter. I still haven't actually bought the game yet. I am liking the beta but I haven't decided if I'm still in an FPS kind of mood. I lost interest with Black Ops 2 and rarely play Battlefield 3 anymore. Mostly because they hurt my wrists and forearms. But Battlefield 4 does seem pretty fun. I'm going to wait for the PC beta and see how that performs on my PC. And how I like the mouse and keyboard because it still feels weird with Battlefield 3. We'll see.

I also played some more Terraria. I found my first heart to increase my health and I did a lot of spelunking. I also redid my house a bit because it was right on the spawn point so every time I spawn it knocks out part of the floor. I attempted to make the floor one block lower but then the stupid guide stood in the hole and wouldn't move so I can't finish the floor. Ridiculous.

It was Chipotle night tonight but my sister was feeling sick so it was just my mom and me. They did a better job with my burrito this week which means it was really big. Too big to eat half of it and not feel kind of gross. I have fallen off my exercising a bit and I would like to find that motivation again. I pretty much got scared when my knee locked up and I couldn't walk for a night. But I need to get back into it because overall I feel better about myself when I exercise and I think it makes my knees feel better. Until they start hurting. We'll see if I can actually talk myself into it tomorrow morning. I keep ignoring my alarm clock and sleeping a bit longer. Which ends up leaving me more tired. So exercise tomorrow. Maybe.