April 30, 2014

Today turned into a slightly different day than I was expecting. There was a fifth grade MAP test first thing so I got all tests loaded up and then went and handed out the State Assessment tickets upstairs for the test happening later in the morning. And then I sat and waited. Well, I finished the card art thing I was working on and printed out a test one to see how it looked. And then I waited. About ten minutes after I was expecting them I tried calling up to the third floor but no one answered. So I walked up there and the classroom was dark and empty. On my way down I saw them coming from the library so I caught up with the teacher and asked if she planned on testing today. She did not. Turns out she signed up for today but thought she had signed up for tomorrow. She also thought she signed up to taking the Reading test first when in fact she had signed up for the Math test, so it hasn't been a good week for her. I think she also messed up testing days earlier in the year but I'm not going to go back and check. The point it, she felt bad, and I felt slightly annoyed but got over it because it didn't really matter. She wrote me an apology email and I wrote back telling her not to worry about it but that if she ever taught a lesson about calendars she might want to triple check it.

The next test was a State Assessment and after about fifteen minutes with no class I went back up to the third floor to make sure my favorite sub remembered they were testing. There were just about to head down, so I got a little free exercise. In a flash from the past, most kids got errors when they tried to log in and the ones who didn't couldn't actually get in so the error never had a chance. I went to tell the principal and while I was in the office the fifth grade teacher passed through looking for papers she had set down somewhere but couldn't remember. As I walked by I just said “Shocking” and she replied “Of course you had to be here.”

I went from having two tests to no tests this morning. It gave me time to print off the card art, catch up on my MAP spreadsheet, and also catch up on all the sixth grade pictures I had but hadn't made into slides yet. I actually preferred the lack of testing because I was wondering when I would have been able to get everything else done.

This afternoon I helped a couple kids with their first thumb drives, showing them how to find it on the computer, how to save to it, and how to safely remove it. All things I don't think were things until I was in college. I can't remember when I got my first thumb drive but I'm fairly certain it was really expensive and didn't have very much space on it. Gigabytes are nothing these days.

The last hour and a half of my day was all sixth grade MAP testing. The goal was for the kids to finish their Reading test and then their Math test. Most of them were able to do this but there were two or three kids who didn't make it through the Reading test and a few more who didn't make it through the Math test. Hopefully they will be back during another classes testing time so I won't have to mess up my schedule. Fifth grade will be in tomorrow morning (hopefully) and sixth grade was supposed to have a make-up time in the afternoon but apparently we have an assembly. So who knows.

After school I stopped and got gas, this time with a pump that didn't keep shutting off on me so I didn't have to guess and actually got a full tank. Then I hit up Target before finally heading home. I can't be sure but I think I saw a kid I graduated high school with at Target with his wife and kid. That just seems so grown up. I have a birthday next week and I am well into adulthood, but I don't feel grown up at all. I want a wife and kids but I can't even imagine all of that responsibility. Hopefully I figure it all out relatively soon though. The clock is ticking. Not so much in a biological sense but in a I'm-getting-old sense. Although I guess that is biology. But not in a girl way where their baby time frame has a definite end point. I just want to be physically capable of playing with my kids, if not running around, but able to have fun with them. Not just sit on the couch like an old man, afraid to break a hip.

And speaking of all that grown up stuff, I spent my night playing a bit of Tera and watching YouTube videos. I also spent about an hour putting a new screen protector on my mom's phone. I only ruined one but I'm convinced the first one comes pre-packaged with dust on it. The one really grown up thing I did tonight was add a several more rows to my purple scarf. I am somewhere around thirty inches now, slowly but surely. I'm feeling slightly better about my chances of getting it done before school is out but I'm going to have to keep at it.

April 29, 2014

Somehow I forgot that when I got home yesterday I watched The Fantastic Four. The one from the 90s. And holy cow was it from the 90s. And had I not known that I would have said 80s. It was somewhere well below great. But I still kind of liked how cheesy it was. I'm not surprised that comic book movies didn't really take off until recently because the special effects are key. And they were still apparently awful back in the 90s. I am often amazed at how good something can look in the present, and even in your memory of the past, but going back and actually looking at years later completely ruins it. I often site N64 games, which I distinctly remember looking incredible. And now they look horrible. So maybe in the 90s the special effects in The Fantastic Four looked pretty good. Hard to believe. I'm interested to see what 2014 movies look like in the future. At the moment some of the CGI looks incredibly real, but will it in the future? I think a big problem comes from higher definition TVs, and those are still getting higher and higher in definition so it will be interesting.

Anyway, today. Testing. Both known and unknown. My morning consisted of two tests that I was fully aware of because I had put them on the schedule. One MAP test and one State Assessment. Both were uneventful.

This afternoon there was only supposed to be one test, at two o'clock, but around one o'clock one of the sixth grade classes showed up to take a test. Last week the teacher had communicated with me about adding another testing session this week, on Thursday, as a make-up time because only a few of his kids finished the first test. I added that to the schedule and didn't think anything else of it. At some point later he signed up on the MAP sign-up sheet (which is irrelevant at this point and I should probably take down) to come in at one o'clock today. Well, third grade was still in the lab because it was their usual time to be there and it was a tad awkward because it was a complete surprise to me and the third grade teacher that the sixth graders were coming.

After sorting all of that out, the sixth graders stood out in the hall while I went around and got all their tests set up. Depending on the state of the computers before I start, that can take five or ten minutes, and it was the latter in this case. After going through all that I found out they only had thirty minutes to test because they had PE at 1:45PM. One person did finish but thirty minutes is now long enough to take a sixth grade reading test. So now they have started both tests but only a few have actually finished a test. I'm a little annoyed by this mainly for scheduling reasons. I had everything worked out and now I'm having to randomly throw in new times, messing with other regular lab times. They will be back tomorrow, for a scheduled test, and the goal is for the kids to at least finish one of their tests. Some of them won't and will have to return at least a couple more times, but hopefully during another class' test so I won't have to inconvenience anyone. I just want testing to be over with.

The third grade test went well. The teacher was a bit strict in the beginning because they came in and they were all talking. She reminded them that they were there to take a test and that talking got them kicked out of the lab yesterday. That shut them up pretty quick. When most of the kids had finished it started to get a little loud so she took them back to the room, again making them shut up with her words. I want that kind of power. All but one kid finished. It was the same kid who I sent to the office during State Assessments when he started acting up. Today he said his head hurt and it appeared to be the truth because he kind of looked like crap. I kept him going until he made it halfway through before stopping his test. That way he'll be on the downward slope when he comes back to finish it.

When the last kid had finished testing, I went up to the SPED room because one of the teachers couldn't print from her computer again. This time the IP address of the printer didn't change but it looked like it did change in the printer properties on her computer. I still don't know how to change the port for an installed printer so I just deleted it and reinstalled it. And thankfully it worked.

While I was in doing that, the teacher got a call from one of the paras in the sixth grade room right next door because she was having trouble with one of the kids. Generally not a good sign when a para has to literally call for backup when she is twenty feet away. The SPED teacher went over there and a few minutes later walked by the door with the kid. A short time later I was finished so I walked out and headed the other way. About the time I hit the stairs the SPED teacher came jogging in from the exit door at the end of the hall, which was in the opposite direction I had just seen her walking. As she got closer she said she needed the principal to call her and then she ran out the door toward the playground.

Right before I left the SPED room the principal had come in looking for the SPED teacher because she heard something was up and I had pointed her in the direction I had originally seen them go. So now I headed that way, stopping by the office where they told me she had just put her jacket on and went out the front door looking for the kid. By the time I stepped out she was already at the corner and headed along the side of the building, way out of range for me to get her attention, so I went back inside and down the hall to see if I could head her off. Which I couldn't. When I got to the door the original para was standing there and she said the principal had gone by, headed toward the back of the building. I stepped out that door just in time to see the principal start to jog toward the playground. I informed the para of this and she headed that way but through the building because it was faster. At that point I considered my job done because the principal was obviously aware of the situation and I had nothing to contribute to the situation. I don't know how it all resolved but the kid was leaving the principal's office when I was clocking out for the day.

When I got home I knitted, maybe added a couple inches to the purple scarf. It is looking longer but nowhere close to scarf length. I need to kick it into high gear but my wrists and forearms are feeling it. I would be happy with a couple inches a day and a foot on the weekends. I'm running out of time.

Tonight I watched Hellphone, a French movie I saw years ago and have wanted to see again. Once a year or two I look it up and it is always an overpriced DVD, but tonight I found it on YouTube. I remembered it being an entertaining movie and it has held up. I also think it would be a pretty funny movie but it is in French so I have no idea what they're saying. This version had subtitles but they were in another foreign language I don't speak so they were no help. I found various versions of an English subtitle track, and I didn't look into it too much, but I imagine you have to have the movie and then copy it and add the file in. Or maybe I'm over-thinking it. Either way, I don't actually have the movie, and if I downloaded it from YouTube, it would still have the foreign subtitles on it, which would just interfere with the English ones. For now, I will just have to live with the French version, and trying to imagine all the funny things they are saying.

While I watched that, and then YouTube videos, I finished up working on the card the fifth grade teacher wanted me to turn into card art. In my downtime today I was able to pretty much finish all the editing, but I wanted to look at it on my monitors at home because they are bigger and clearer than the monitor I work on at school. This came in handy and I was able to see a lot of random artifacts that I hadn't been able to see at school, and I could erase them. Tomorrow I should be able to get it into Publisher, come up with something to put on the back, and print off a test one to see how it looks in the real world. Hopefully not too bad.

April 28, 2014

Stuff happened today. The day started with make-up tests, quickly followed by another State Assessment. That was my morning. The Assessment went pretty fast but one of the third graders there from earlier working on a MAP test was in the lab until lunch when I had to pause his test.

This afternoon there was a first grade MAP test. First and second grade have easier questions but they are broken into two sections of thirty-five or so questions. Some kids sail through it and get crappy scores. Other kids take their time and do well. And the rest spent way too much time. Luckily it was a good testing day for first grade and there was only one slow poke, and she wasn't really that slow.

Shortly after that girl finished, we had a fire drill. I was given a little heads up on it because the fourth grade teacher, who was the acting principal today, asked came to check with me ahead of time to make sure we wouldn't be testing. It was kind of chilly out with a bit of wind but it was nice to get out of the lab for a few minutes.

Sometime after getting back in, the third grader came back to continue working on his MAP test. The teacher of the other third grade class wanted her kids to come to the lab and I said that was fine as long as they were quiet because of the kid testing. When they came to the lab she gave them a speech about being quiet and then went back to her room because she was getting a science experiment ready for them. A little while ago second graders went a bit nuts when they were left alone with me in the lab. Now we can add third graders to that list. There were a few kids who were quiet the whole time and a couple others that got quiet after a one or two requests. And then with the rest of the kids I was having to make almost constant circuits around the lab asking kids to be quiet and it wasn't very effective. I finally got tired of making “this is your last chance” statements so I shut the lights off to get their attention and told them if they couldn't stay quiet I was going to send them all back to their classroom early. That worked for a few minutes and the noise level came back so I called it. I told them all to exit out and log off and go back to their room. Some of them made comments about how they were going to get in trouble and others asked if it was because they were talking. And my response to both was “Yep”. It has taken me to the last few weeks of the year but I'm kind of getting tired of the lack of respect students tend to have toward non-teachers. I am also tired of people, students and adults, not having any respect for kids testing. Within the last few weeks I have sent one third grader to the office, gotten a bunch of apology notes from the second graders, and now I have sent a whole class back to their room. Who knows what will happen in the next few weeks.

As for that lone third grader trying to take his test. It took him almost three and a half hours off and on but he ended up getting a score on his Math MAP test that was higher than what any of the fifth graders got on the Winter MAP test. That is really impressive. I remember him taking forever on his tests last year, and he has followed suit this year, but he can back it up with scores. I appreciate that a lot more than the kids who take forever and don't get a score that reflects that amount of commitment.

When I wasn't watching tests or kicking third graders out of the lab, I started work on editing a drawing that one of the fifth grade teachers gave me. She wants to turn it into card art, and since I made all the card art earlier in the year, she came to me. I got a decent start on it and I might be able to finish it up tomorrow but that depends on testing. I think we have at least two tests and possibly some make-ups mixed in their. I can't wait for testing to be over.

Tonight I didn't have a lot going on. I finally finished typing a letter to a friend, that I started writing back in March, and will be able to mail that off tomorrow. Along with another check to pay yet another bill from my kidney surgery. It should be the last bill. Hopefully. I've lost track at this point but I'm fairly certain at least a quarter of my yearly income has gone into this one, forty-five minute operation. Ridiculous.

April 27, 2014

This morning I could have gotten out of bed around seven o'clock when I first woke up but I didn't. It sounded like there was a monsoon going on outside and the sound of rain is very relaxing. So I stayed in bed, listening to the rain, thinking about things, and napping off and on for a few more hours. It was pretty nice.

As for the rest of my day, it was insignificant. I went online and filled out a survey for jury duty. I got something quite awhile ago for local jury duty but never got called in. This is for Federal jury duty and I am hoping I don't get called in for it because that is an hour or so away. I'm on call for most of June, which will be convenient with work because the theater is a lot easier to miss than school. It would be an interesting experience to actually be juror but I'd be cool not experiencing it.

I played a lot of Tera today. I made it to level 20 but at one point I got lost in a zone that was way too high for me so I just ran around on my horse trying to avoid all the mobs that would have one-shotted me. Eventually I got back to the farm where I started and ended the night by gathering all the different vegetables around the farm. I can't actually do anything with them because I couldn't afford any of the recipes but I managed to get my plant gathering level over 100. I don't know what that really means but it is a thing that happened.

And that is about all I got. I started the month off strong with getting about a page worth of writing a day but that has slowly come to an end. Maybe I'll have more to write about in the coming week. We've still got State Assessments and MAP testing going on, which I'm not looking forward to, but hopefully I will have some other stuff going on.

April 26, 2014

Not much to write about today. And it's late so I have more motivation to go to bed than I do to type. At the theater I spent most of my time knitting. I can't remember how far I was before yesterday, maybe fourteen inches, but after today I am at two feet and three inches. Not bad. I can feel that progress in my fingers, hands, wrists, and arms but I am happy with it. I need to step up my knitting if I am going to get it done before the end of the school year. Less than a month to go and I need to add close to four more feet. That just sounds daunting. I'll get there. Maybe. When I was taking breaks from knitting, I finished reading the poetry book and almost finished National Geographic.

When I got home tonight I was apparently in a Jason Statham mood because I ended up with a double feature starring him. The first was Redemption. It was interesting. Not great, but not bad either. I was wanting more out of the story. It felt like they needed to spend some more time developing the screenplay. The second movie was Safe. I saw most, if not all, of the movie when it was in theaters and I still like it. Jason Statham is just a badass. Now I really want to marathon the Transporter franchise.

When I was done with the movies, I played a bit of Tera. Still enjoyable. I need to get better at inventory management. And using my inventory. I want to hold onto stuff that may be useful but I haven't looked any of it up so I don't know if it is actually worth holding onto. I ended my night after not being able to complete a quest because my inventory was full. I could dump stuff but I want to sell it for money. Money money money. Although I haven't even thought to buy anything yet so money really isn't that big of a deal at the moment. Oh well.

I'm going to go to bed now. Tomorrow, stuff will happen. It is inevitable.

April 25, 2014

This morning and throughout the day I felt uncomfortable. Most of it was the kind of burning feeling that comes with either being really dehydrated or peeing blood. Neither of those were the case but it was definitely a kidney stone kind of feeling. Yesterday I think another dust-sized piece of kidney stone came out but I didn't think too much of it. Until this morning. My goal was to just drink a lot of water and hope for the best. But nothing happened while I was at work. I was able to ignore my uncomfortableness for the most part.

Today there was make-up test time to start the day, followed by a State Assessment, and then a MAP test in the afternoon. It wasn't nearly as bad as yesterday or the day before or the day before. There were only a few kids during the make-up time and I was able to sit on one of the back tables rather than stand. The two full-class tests were uneventful. One kid on the MAP test only had part of a question load so I got to hit a couple buttons and fix it, but that was about it.

After the last test one of the second grade teachers had some stuff for me to do to help with the statue museum. Cutting some stuff and typing up a list of the famous people and which kids were playing them. We apparently had an assembly today but I didn't find out about that until I was prepared to do the statue museum stuff, so I did that instead. I'll catch the next assembly.

With the rest of my downtime throughout the day, I scanned and edited pictures for the sixth grade slideshow. I got a baby picture for the other sixth grade teacher along with pictures for five more kids. I only got one slide made but I made progress at editing other pictures.

Shortly after I got home I passed another big chunk of kidney stone. I'm assuming it is part of the recent stone because it looked kind of broken, but it was still the size of a normal kidney stone. At least normal for me. Thankfully it was lacking any sharp crystals. I don't know if those were shattered during the lithotripsy or if this stone just didn't have any to begin with. I'm wondering if maybe the sharp crystals are calcium and having taken calcium almost entirely out of my diet for awhile caused me to form stones minus the crystals. Although the crystals could also be the oxalate, so I don't know. I do know that even though I thought I had passed all the pieces, it turns out I hadn't, making the stone even bigger than I thought. And, my uncomfortableness passed along with that chunk of stone. I'm glad it happened in between school and the theater.

Tonight at the theater I knitted, read most of the latest issue of National Geographic and an old book of poetry (The New Kid On The Block by Jack Prelutsky) I got at school because the library was getting rid of it. Most of the poems are bad but there are a handful of good ones, and I like the old illustrations. Once again, I hit a wall shortly after eleven o'clock but somehow managed to make it to one o'clock. I spent quite a bit of time on the other side of the upstairs sitting on the desk that is in the dark. The dark was easier on my tired eyes.

Tomorrow I don't have to be to work until 11:00ish. I would prefer noonish but it is certainly better than nine o'clock.

April 24, 2014

This morning we had one scheduled test and then a make-up session that was utilized by kids from both of the fourth grade classes. That lasted most of the morning. With my remaining time before lunch I worked on editing pictures. I think. I can't really remember.

This afternoon there was a MAP test right after lunch and then I had the last couple of hours in the day to work on yearbook stuff. After the test I went to check if the second kindergarten class was coming to the lab. It turns out they weren't but I got to see the last five minutes of the original Lorax movie. With my new-found free time, I borrow the one kindergartener who I didn't have a picture of, and got her picture for the yearbook. I told her to smile big and got a very small smile. I tried again and got even less of a smile so I called it good. I also went and got the missing fourth grader, and eventually got the new sixth grader. With all of those taken I was able to edit them and get them in the yearbook. They actually don't look too bad. I also finished making all the edits that teacher's caught. There were several more misspellings than last year when I typed all the names in myself. Go figure. A good reason why trusting technology is not always wise. Or trusting whoever at Lifetouch typed all the names into their database.

I also scanned and edited a few more sixth grade baby pictures. Tomorrow or sometime I need to make the slide for that student as well as edit and make the slides for a couple other students who's pictures I have in my email. But that was pretty much my day. Testing and yearbook stuff.

Tonight was Chipotle night, which was delicious, and the YouTube videos I showed went over well. Then I went and had a visit with the new volunteer kid. A whole forty-five minute visit. I can't even remember the last visit we had. It's been awhile. We went to McDonald's for most of the visit and talked about his future. He plans on graduating at semester next December, getting out of the system, moving to the town where he currently goes to high school (maybe), and go to a vo-tech school to learn welding. He would prefer to get a job working on cars but he would take whatever job he could get. He definitely sounds like he has a plan but I think things will be slightly more difficult than he thinks. Mostly the getting out of the system part and being on his own thing. But he still has a lot of time to figure things out and hopefully I can help him.

When I got home I watched YouTube videos, very briefly played Tera, and looked a pictures of cool bookcases and libraries. I also made a few edits to the yearbook candid pages. Really I would like to tweak the layout of each of the candid pages because there really isn't any cohesion to them. Some pages have pictures at different angles with pictures overlapping, while other pages just have all straight pictures with spaces between all the pictures. It is kind of annoying. I moved a few pictures around, and added a picture to one of the staff candid pages because I liked it and it wasn't added in. Anyway, that bit of editing has kept me past my bedtime. That is going to suck for me in the morning. And will suck even more when I am stuck at the theater until at least one o'clock in the morning. So I'm going to stop typing now and go to bed.

April 23, 2014

More testing today. Two state assessments and a MAP test. Even though there was one less test than yesterday it still felt like I was pretty much testing all day. I had a little bit longer break after lunch but that was it. I was still on my feet watching kids test all morning and then from two o'clock to 3:50PM. And during my downtime after lunch I was running around the building looking for kids I needed a picture of for the yearbook. And I got them all. Except for the three or so I forgot. But I'll try and get them tomorrow, and the find a time to edit the pictures and get them in the yearbook. In theory there should be less testing tomorrow but who knows. There are still a lot of make-up tests for absent kids and even if there is just one really slow test taker in the lab I really can't do anything but stand there and watch and try and get lost in my head. It is kind of a huge waste of time. And resources considering one or two kids can monopolize the whole computer lab if they're testing. I hate testing.

So yeah, testing and a bit of picture taking, with a bit of data input and spreadsheet sprucing thrown in for good measure. When I got home I was again exhausted. And now I have a headache. This is how I felt after every usher shift I had at the theater. I'm not built to be on my feet all day, either standing for hours at a time or running around the building. I wish I were, and I need to get in better shape, but at the moment it is not for me. I appreciate not sitting in front of a computer all day but three or four tests a day are wearing me out. It should calm down a little when we finally get past State Assessments but that won't be for another week and then there will still be MAP tests for a week after that. I know that I will be over summer about a week or two into it but right now I'm looking forward to the end of school. Really just the end of testing, because I like working at the school, but currently I am struggling to separate the two.

Tonight I did the same thing as last night, minus the knitting because I can still feel it from last night. And now I'm going to go to bed. It is 8:48PM and I am going to get ready for bed. What has my life come to?

April 22, 2014

I keep forgetting to mention my Easter basket. It contained a bag of six individual boxes of raisins, a jar of unsalted peanuts, tangy buffalo Pringles, and a squicky green bird that puts on a light show when you slam it down. My mom says I'm no fun to buy for anymore. I will admit it is a little weird seeing an Easter basket without candy. But I liked all the stuff I got.

Today there were four tests in the lab, one State Assessment and three MAP tests, and it felt like there were four. It covered pretty much the entire day. The first test was the best because the fifth grade class all came in wearing bandanas with their names on them (they had also listened to music to get them pumped up before the test). Then, the teacher read the test instructions in an awful British accent because one of her students had requested it. Not the awful part but it was kind of a package deal. And it was great. But then the testing started and kept going and going and going. Right after fifth grade, one of the sixth grade classes came in and that lasted up until lunch. An hour later, the other sixth grade class came in, but only for forty-five minutes because they had PE, and only one kid actually finished. Fifteen minutes later, fourth grade came in, going from two o'clock to a quarter after three o'clock. The testing wasn't actually over though because a sixth grader came in to finish the test and he was there until almost 3:40PM. There were a few breaks in there but I was basically watching kids test all day. Fun.

There was a lot of running around today, most of it testing related. One of the resource teachers was testing with a kid but didn't have the MAP icon on her desktop and I couldn't log in as a proctor. I went and grabbed a laptop from the second grade cart and brought it up but I couldn't log in as a proctor on that one either. So I went across the hall to the SPED room and ended up borrowing one of their laptops. When I borrowed it the SPED teacher told me I needed to hardwire it, which sat in the back of my mind after getting it setup and then going down for the test in the lab. A few minutes later I decided that for MAP testing the laptops must all have to be hardwired. I'm sure at one point I knew this but I had forgotten. So after that test I went up and tried it on the resource teacher's laptop and it worked. Which was good because she needed to test two more kids, plus a third that would be coming back later. I returned the SPED laptop and went and grabbed another second grade laptop, along with an ethernet cable from the lab and one from the library. I got those all set up in the resource room and eventually made it back to the lab, almost in time for the start of that test.

In other runnings, I went to the kitchen to see if what I had from the printer was theirs (because the cook came in looking for something during one of the tests and the printer was off) but it turned out not to be theirs. They had actually printed to the library, not the lab, but to be fair, a few years ago the library was where the lab is now. And speaking of, I stopped by the library to find out who had checked out a book that was left in the lab. It turned out to be a second grader so I went to the other end of the building to return that. And later on went back down their to give one of the third grade teachers some stuff she had printed this morning but it didn't actually come out until this afternoon. I got my cardio in today.

Two other things from this morning that I just remembered. When I was walking from my car to the school one of the third grade teachers drove by me and did a whistling cat call. It was pretty funny. And secondly, when I was going into the office to get test tickets this morning, one of the receptionists wanted to take my picture, for who knows what. My favorite sub has also taken my picture several times recently. Also for who knows what. I'm curious but not enough to really care. I'm just glad I don't follow the belief that cameras steal souls.

Tonight I watched YouTube videos, added a couple inches to my purple scarf, and played a bit of Tera. Still a fun game. It is a tad annoying running across the map to talk to a dude, who sends you back to where you came from to collect something, and then going back to him only to have him tell you to deliver the collected stuff to the dude standing next to him or all the way back across the map to a dude right next to the spot where you collected the stuff. There's a lot of needless running around, but from what I understand that is pretty typical off MMORPGs. It's kind of nice zoning out and just killing mobs though.

I'm exhausted from all the running around today so I'm going to hit the hay. Tomorrow we have three tests. I'm pretty excited. My morning will be shot but hopefully I will have some time before or after the test in the afternoon to go get pictures of all the kids I don't have portraits for so I can add them to the yearbook. I believe the goal is to have it done by Friday. I will be glad to have that all finished so I can stop thinking about it. I haven't been thinking about it a lot, but it has always kind of been in the back of my mind. Not for too much longer, thankfully.

April 21, 2014

Right now I have a big headache. It is a bummer.

This morning I got my 24-hour collection box all sorted so it would be ready to ship. Then I remembered that I had a haircut scheduled right after work. The latest beginning time I could pick for my FedEx pickup was 4:30PM and my haircut was at 4:30PM so I texted my sister to see if she would be back in town by then and if she could babysit my box. She didn't know but she said she would get back to me. If she wouldn't be back in time I was going to have to cancel my haircut because the FedEx thing was a time-sensitive situation. But then my mom stepped up like a champ. I figured she was going to go walking after work but she wasn't and she was able to man the fort. Which turned out to be a good thing because the FedEx showed up before I got home.

The lady who cuts my hair moved to her new place since my last haircut and it is a big improvement. She sold her business and originally wanted to buy this small place but her friend wasn't ready to sell yet. So she ended up in the place I went last time that was a bit of a dump and she had to spend a lot of her own time and money fixing the place up, with very little thanks from the owners. And then her friend decided she was ready to sell so she moved again. The new place is pretty much better in every way. Clean, roomy, inviting, other things, and so on.

But now I've skipped work, so let me backtrack. Today was the first day of MAP testing. I started the day with a fifth grade State Assessment and then went right into a sixth grade MAP test. Both were equally boring, but at least I got to write down scores after the MAP test. Although I didn't really miss that and I imagine my back will be a little sore tomorrow from bending down to read them. I really need to go get my eyes checked and get a new prescription in my glasses so I don't need to bend down so far.

The testing covered my morning and my afternoon was pretty pointless. Two classes and one Math group didn't show up so there was a whole lot of nothing going on until three o'clock when the sixth graders came back to finish their MAP test. And then it was still a whole lot of nothing, but this time on my feet, with the occasional score to write down. Hopefully tomorrow will be a little less boring.

And now going back to my night. I'm exhausted and I'm not exactly sure why. I did some running around due to testing but no more than I have been doing. And I think I slept relatively well last night. So I don't know. Just tired I guess. I played a little more Tera and got to level eleven, which means I get a free mount, in the form of a horse, but I was a couple quests away from going to the city where I had to talk to a dude about the horse. And just like Mario, my horse was in another castle. Or at least another city. And I wasn't going to go chasing after it tonight so I called it quits until next time. I was going to knit a bit but now I think I'm just going to go to bed. Sleep has sounded like a good idea since the middle of the afternoon. I'm going to give it a shot.

April 20, 2014

Yeah, so nothing productive today. Not in terms of life anyway. I went against all of what I said yesterday and started playing an MMO today. I googled some free MMOs and vaguely remembered hearing about Tera. It started out as not free and then I guess it didn't do terribly well so now it is free. And because I know myself and my attention span, free-to-play games are actually free for me because I never put actual money into them. I know that as soon as I dropped some cash I would lose interest. For awhile I got somewhat into Blacklight: Retribution and could have spent money on decent guns or accessories for guns but I lost interest fairly quickly and do not regret not spending money. The same will go for Tera.

Speaking of the game, though, I like it. I have never played a real MMORPG but it is pretty much what I expected. WoW always looked a bit overwhelming, and cost money, but Tera has not been overwhelming in the least. I also really like the art style and the graphics look really good. I created a couple characters just to see what the customization was like but the character I actually started playing with is an archer, because I like to keep my distance.

What I like to do in any game is collect stuff, any and all stuff. This game has limited inventory space so that is unfortunate. And I can't cheat like I did in Skyrim and give myself a whole bunch of space. I think it would be cool to just go around gathering flowers and mining oars but there doesn't seem to be that much of either in the game. There also doesn't seem to be an option to get a house or apartment, which is unfortunate. Although if that was an option it would probably cost more than I would ever have so maybe it is for the best. Ideally, I would want a game where I could go questing if I wanted to but I would be able to spend most of my time out collecting and mining stuff and also have the ability to build a house. That game probably exists. I've seen some videos of Everquest Landmark, and it appears to have a lot of that, but the ability to build so many different things seems a bit overwhelming.

All day I have been doing the 24-hour collection thing for my kidney stone. Not very exciting. I had wondered about mailing a giant jug back to the lab but it turns out you have to collect for 24-hours but then you only send back a relatively small sample. That makes sense I guess but it is kind of annoying having to collect all day.

I finished watching Sword Art Online and I really enjoyed it. I liked how they ended one game but started another. I could have used more humor but the thing I actually didn't like was the Japanese insistence of always have a sibling or family incestuous thing going on. Often times you find out they aren't really related, but not all the time. Culturally speaking, I would like to know what is up with that. It seems very prevalent. But other than that, I enjoyed the show and would probably watch it again at some point.

For Easter dinner, we had KFC. I had a fake hamburger with KFC sides, plus potato salad my sister made and deviled eggs that my mom made. While we ate dinner we watched The Way, Way Back, which is a movie I have wanted to see for awhile now but never got around to it. And that is a shame because it was a very good movie. I wasn't very into the storyline involving the mom and boyfriend but I found the water park stuff very entertaining. I want a sequel that is just Sam Rockwell and the water park. His character made the movie for me. Fast talking smartasses for the win.

Now it is nearly 10:30PM and it will be past that by the time I make it to bed. And I have been tired for over an hour now so I am going to start wrapping things up and head to bed. I'm going to go move some laundry and call it a night.

April 19, 2014

Today at the theater I added several inches to my scarf and my left forearm is really feeling it. From the looks of it I am going to need to go buy more yarn. This stitch is a lot more dense than I realized. I also read a book and broke out my 3DS. According to all the villagers in my town it has been three months since I last logged into Animal Crossing: New Leaf. It feels longer than that but I'm not going to argue with a digital villager. Overall, it was a very average day at work. Not exciting in the least.

Tonight was about the same. Instead of YouTube videos I started watching Sword Art Online because I was in the mood for anime. I made it through the first twelve episodes and I am really liking it. The basic idea is that players become trapped inside an MMORPG. If they are killed in the game, they are killed in real life, and if they get disconnected in real life, they die in the game and real life. The MMORPG aspect and the dying thing reminds me of .hack, which is a graphic novel and anime I really like. For as long as I can remember I have wanted to play an MMO, although I never actually have. I think it's just another one of those things that I like the idea of. I have also always seen them as a fun escape but have figured I needed to get my life in order before I waste time escaping from it. And I have yet to get my life in order. These anime take MMOs to the next level, allowing players to actually go into the game via neural hookups. It is also like young adult Net Force series that I really got into. Basically, I'm into anything where people physically log into a game. I think that would be awesome. And that probably has a lot to do with not being very satisfied in my real life. But also the endless, imaginative worlds that are possible in games, and how cool that would be to experience in a more immersive way than staring at a monitor.

Anyway, now I'm going to go to bed. I think we're doing a family dinner tomorrow but other than that I don't really have anything on my schedule. Except for all the things I should be doing but continue to ignore whenever I actually have time to do them. Heaven forbid I actually do any of that stuff.

April 18, 2014

I slept in until 8:30AM this morning, and then in the afternoon I took a nap. I wasn't tired but I just felt like laying in bed, thinking and listening to music, napping off and on. When I wasn't doing that, I watched YouTube videos and looked into slideshow stuff. I was wanting to make a menu, even if it just says 'Play' on it, but I wasn't sure how to do that in my video editing software. It turns out there is another piece of software in the suite I got that can do all of the menu stuff I want. I'm not sure if I build the slideshow in the video editing software and then import it into the DVD software but I'm going to continue looking into it. I keep meaning to build a test project but I keep meaning to do a lot of things so I'm not surprised it hasn't happened yet.

I also worked on the purple scarf. And continued to work on it when I went to work at the theater. I think I started the day around four inches and now I'm almost to ten inches. It looks really good but I still have my doubts about whether or not I will be able to finish it in time. Not only because of time constraints but mostly because I don't think my fingers, wrists, and forearms are going to be able to keep up. I'm using small needles and the stitch requires a lot of wrestling with the needles and yarn, and that all takes a toll pretty quickly when I am already prone to pain and soreness. But I"m going to keep trying. I did some math and it was disheartening, somewhere around 24 hours to complete the scarf, so we'll see.

When I wasn't working on the scarf I finished reading a book, or novella, and watched the last hour and a half of Transcendence. The book was Annabel Scheme by Robin Sloan, the same guy who wrote Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. This book was about a detective with a sentient server that was in training to be her assistant and traveled around with her in her earrings, that were also cameras so the server could see the world. That all sounds very strange and it should because it was a very strange story. And I liked it. Transcendence was also strange. I want to see the beginning of it but I don't see it being a movie I would watch again because it is a bit of a downer.

It is nice getting to sleep in and then take a nap before closing at the theater but it still sucks being at work late into the night and not getting home until 1:30AM or later. Maybe I would feel differently if I was doing something important while at work. Or at least productive. But I'm not. Not really anyway. I could easily read books and knit and watch movies at home. Granted, I wouldn't be getting paid for it, poorly but still getting paid. I would still prefer only having one job, with normalish hours, that paid well. I really wish the school paid better because I do genuinely like that job and the people I work with, but it barely pays more than the theater. So I need to find a job equally or even more enjoyable, that pays me enough money to live on. And it would be a definite bonus if it required a college degree because I didn't get two of them for nothing. I also need to do more than just talk and type about my future. I need to carpe diem and get off my ass. Take actual steps toward the future I want.

April 17, 2014

Testing was a success again today. I would kind of like to go out with a bang and have the whole thing self-destruct again but that doesn't seem like it is going to happen. We had two tests this morning and they were both uneventful. Several kids had questions about stuff I couldn't answer and I gave them my canned response of being unable to tell them but I could explain it to them after the test. No one took me up on my offer.

After one of the tests one of the resource teachers came down to give me the tickets and scratch paper for the kids she tested with and she was still laughing. She told me that one kid had a book of poetry and the other kid had a book of riddles. When the second kid was done with his test he grabbed a book and started reading it but couldn't figure out any of the riddles. It turns out he had grabbed the poetry book and had been trying to read the poems as riddles.

My afternoon was normal and boring. The funniest part of the afternoon was during one of the kindergarten classes. This one boy, who looks like what I imagine Sheldon from Big Bang Theory looked like as a five-year-old, is always whispering to the girl next to him. In order to do this he has to move her headphones off her ear. Well, after doing that several times today he apparently got tired and instead whispered directly into her mouth, getting real close as if he were whispering into her ear. I laughed. What if whispering into someone's mouth was how it actually worked? That would make for an interesting world.

Another thing I found humorous was when the Math Enrichment teacher, who is also the Boys & Girls Club person, was reading and email to her Boys & Girls Club staff that she had received from her boss regarding appropriate work attire. It said that she had no problem with skinny jeans or leggings or yoga pants but girls had to wear a shirt or top that covered their butt. The staff are supposed to be positive role models and she felt like showing off your ass wasn't appropriate. No duh. Last year there was just one girl, and she's still here this year, that didn't seem to own anything but yoga pants. This year there are one or two more girls that are the same way. To be fair to them, from what I have noticed from my periphery, they are girls that can actually wear the pants and be proud, but I have always thought it was inappropriate clothing for people working with kids. Maybe I'm just being an old man about it but at least the head honcho finally caught on.

Before leaving today I got ready for the start of MAP testing next week. I printed off all the blank score sheets and paperclipped them to the right seating chart, I updated and posted the lab schedule with the test times teachers had signed up for (minus three teachers who hadn't signed up yet), and I made list version of the schedule that had the test times on it and handed out copies to the SPED and Resource teachers. I'm kind of over the whole testing thing at this point. I am a bit envious of the kids because they just have to take the test and be done with it. I however have to relive the same tests over and over again. It feels neverending.

After work I went to Hobby Lobby to see if they had Happy Birthday banners but I couldn't find any I liked. My idea was to hang it on the lab doors and cover up 'Birth' with 'Test' because I thought it would be funny. I looked on Amazon when I got home and was also disappointed with their selection. I think I might look at Target the next time I go and see if they have anything. If not I might just buy decorations and then make a sign at work with a big sheet of paper and cutout letters.

Tonight was Chipotle night. I only had one or two videos to show so I decided to save those for next time. I spent so much time watching Coachella streams over the weekend that I'm a little behind on videos. After dinner I tried calling the new volunteer kid a couple times but I kept getting a weird message and never got through. Fantastic. I've lost track but I think that is at least a couple weeks in a row now. Not good.

So rather than a visit, I spent my night watching YouTube videos and knitting. I'm up to four inches on the new scarf. It looks really cool but in terms of being able to finish it in time for the retiring teacher, it is looking poor. The waffle stitch one should only take between four to six hours so if it becomes more apparent the current one isn't going to work out I'll switch to the waffle stitch one.

Now I'm going to go to bed. It's eleven o'clock and even though I don't have to wake up early tomorrow, I want to sleep. Hopefully through the night with minimal interruptions.

April 16, 2014

I went to bed around 9:00PM last night, and I woke up a few times and it required some time to get back to sleep, but overall I slept pretty well. And I didn't feel that bad when I woke up. I won't get to bed quite so early tonight but I've got a headache so I will probably call it a night after this.

The second grade teacher got my email and during the second test this morning one of the second graders came in to give me several apology notes that the class had written in groups, except for the one girl who almost went to the office, she had the honor of writing her own note. The teacher came in and talked to me later. She apologized and said how frustrating it was that they would act like that this late in the year. She said the class ended up losing their morning recess, which was an accident but they spent so much time writing the apology notes that they ran out of time and she played it off like it was on purpose. They were also supposed to have lunch in the room today but she told them they might be able to earn that back for tomorrow. She told me that's what happens when they're mean to her friend. At this point we were joking about it but I liked when she said that. It kind of reminded me of a small but badass anime character that can wield immense power when you mess with her or her friends. At least that is the image that popped into my head.

The tests went well this morning. And we're almost done with them so it looks like maybe all the problems have been fixed. And again, I am only saying that in the hopes that I can jinx it. The first test finished early so I went up to tell my favorite sub that she could come down for her class's test whenever she was ready. The class was finishing up with Art so I stood there and talked with her and one of the paras, and made myself useful by showing her how to get around the firewall on the computer. During that test one of the kids got done early and didn't have a book to read so the sub told him to draw a picture of me. And he did. He spelled my name wrong but it he was actually going for my name, not one of the many other versions I get from kids. The picture was also a pretty accurate likeness. Probably better than I would have been able to manage.

This afternoon we had an assembly. It was the same theater company that came last year and did a version of Frog And Toad. There were different people this year and they did Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I think last year was better because this year the songs weren't as good, but I laughed several times and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves for the most part.

Right after the assembly I went back to the lab and set out the test tickets for the sixth graders who moved their test time back because originally it would have happened during the middle of the assembly. That test also went without incident. One of the kids gets really into these tests and wants to do his best job. I won't know what he got on the state assessments but I know on the MAP tests he gets really high scores, so the effort is worth it. He had questions on two of the problems, and they were good problems, but I couldn't actually tell him how to solve them during the test but I told him I could tell him after. From what I could see he ended up picking the right answer for both, although from his consternation on both I think they were educated guesses. And he wasn't interested in how to solve them after the test so I think he was satisfied with his effort.

After work I did the same old thing. Throughout the night I worked on the scarf I started yesterday and probably only added an inch to it. I need to work faster than that if I want to get it done by the end of the school year. I am afraid I have bitten off more than I can chew and should switch to the crochet waffle stitch.

Now I think I am going to embrace my headache and go to bed. Tomorrow we only have two tests. And then no testing on Friday because we don't have school. I am going to sleep in and it is going to be awesome. Next week we start mixing tests up with state assessments and MAP. MAP is a lot more involved because I have to set the tests up individually for each kid, and then write down all their scores. But it gives me something to do. Anyway, bedtime.

April 15, 2014

Another two assessments are in the bag without a hitch. Made for another uneventful day. I would go into details about each test but it really was just the same as all the other tests that have worked. And I'm tired and want to go to bed.

Both tests were this morning and I spent the rest of my day editing new sixth grade pictures that I got today. One of them is a baby picture with the kid on her stomach and her unfocused butt in the background. It makes for a cute baby picture I guess but I wasn't thinking it was very appropriate for a slideshow being shown to the entire school. I also didn't think the girl would appreciate it. I also checked with my mom and one of the kindergarten teachers to see if maybe I was missing something but they both had the same feelings. I went ahead and edited the original and when I was laying out the slide I put another picture on top to cover up the butt. I also made another version where I cropped out her butt, which I might end up using instead. No offense to her parents but I'm trying to keep the best interests of their daughter in mind.

The last class of the day in the lab was second grade, the same one who I help with reading groups. It was a mild nightmare. The teacher had to leave early to go get a root canal, I was not envious. Then the para had to go up to the SPED room with one of the kids to check in. As soon as she left the lab, the kids went nuts. Most of them stayed on task but there were a handful that I wanted to just disappear. I almost sent one to the office because she just wouldn't listen. I would tell her to sit down and type and she would talk back and as soon as I turned around she would be up again. And at least seven or eight of them all of a sudden had to go to the bathroom. There are usually two or three kids throughout the time they're in the lab and today it was a group all at once. It was all super frustrating. They were worse than kindergarteners, and I had just had two kindergarten classes in the lab so I had a fresh memory on how kindergarteners act in the lab. They can also be annoying but they definitely listen better than this second grade class. I would say it was probably the loudest and worst behaved class that I have had in the lab, which is also saying something. I was very close to having them all log off so I could take them back to the room and have them write apology notes to their teacher for acting so poorly when she wasn't their. Luckily for them, and for me, the para came back and they immediately quieted back down. Which was also frustrating. I need to work on my authoritativeness.

I stopped to get gas on my way home and found a pump that I will be avoiding in the future. It would only run for a second or two before shutting off so I had to keep pulling the handle down. I always get gas when I have about a quarter of a tank or a little more left but I don't pay much attention to how many gallons that really is. So I had no idea when I should stop pulling the handle. Just to be safe I stopped at $20, which is less than I normally pay and got me to about three-quarters of a tank. That is fine with me.

When I got home I called to get the collection jug delivered for the 24-hour collection for my urologist. I was on hold for twenty minutes (a literal twenty minutes) and then talked to the guy, giving him my information, for less than two minutes. Fantastic.

Tonight I did nothing. I talk to my mom for a bit after dinner about life and my future but that was about it. The rest of the night was spent watching YouTube videos and starting to knit the scarf I want to make for the retiring first grade teacher. After trying the pattern on some test yarn I made it about an inch into the actual scarf. I'm going to have to buckle down on it if I actually want to finish because it is another slow-going pattern and it requires small needles which makes it go even slower. We'll see if I still like the look of the pattern when I get further into it. I also kind of want to make a waffle stitch scarf, which would also go a lot faster. We'll see.

It is almost nine o'clock but I'm going to try and go to bed. I think I'm getting a cold because I kind of feel like crap. But I also haven't gotten the best sleep the last two night. I randomly woke up around two o'clock last night and couldn't get back to sleep until sometime after four o'clock. I am hoping it is poor sleep making me feel this way and not a cold. Now is not a good time for a cold.

April 14, 2014

I have decided that if it ever comes down to it and I need to be assassinated, I want to go out like Nick Fury in Captain America 2: Winter Soldier. It was beyond badass. I do not want to be taken out like Jesse James. Although the odds of that are way better because I can more often be found fiddling with pictures on a wall (I did it yesterday at the church) than I am driving around in a heavily armored, and armed, car.

I definitely did not wake up at 6:00AM this morning. At least not any longer than it took to turn off my alarm. I could still kind of feel the exercise I did yesterday so I decided that had to count for something. A very poor excuse.

At work it was another day with four tests. That makes for a long/short day. Time flies by while still managing to pass at a snail's pace. And unfortunately there were no problems with the test. I'm kind of giving up on seeing an error message again. But I'll be honest, I'm mostly just saying that in the hopes that I jinx myself and things will go bad tomorrow. It makes my day more interesting.

Despite the test itself going well, I did run around a bit getting kids set up outside the lab to test. The two SPED teachers were in a meeting all day and they were scheduled to test with several kids. And one of the paras was gone. So there was some juggling. During the fourth grade test, two of the kids tested up in their room and I had to take two laptops up to them. There are already two laptops in the room but I completely forgot about them. I also never put the testing software on them so it wouldn't have mattered. But I forgot about them again about an hour later when the para called down to say one of the laptops was down to a 7% charge. It must have forgotten it was fully charged only an hour before. Anyway, the only place I could think of that had loose laptop charging cables was the SPED room. All the laptop carts have the cables zip-tied to the cart, and that is super inconvenient. So I went up to the SPED room, got down on the floor to get under the able and unplug the cord, and then took it up to the third floor. And as I walked in I saw the two room laptops, both of which were four feet away from the kid who's laptop was dying. And it died when I was two steps into the room. Instead of plugging in the cord I brought, I unplugged one of the room laptops and used that cord. Thankfully the laptop hadn't completely died, it just went into hibernation or whatever so when I plugged it in and hit the power button it resumed the test where the kid had left off. After that I went back down, got back on the floor to plug the SPED cord back in, and then went back to the lab to finish out the test in there.

During the fifth grade test we had the most juggling with kids outside the lab. Close to an equal number were out of the lab as were in the lab. We ended up getting it sorted and the kids in the lab got started a little late because I was in the SPED room and they had clicked on the wrong thing. And I realized while coming down from the SPED room that two of the kids in the lab had the wrong tickets, so they wouldn't have been able to get very far anyway.

The first test of the day also started slightly late because I was up distributing tickets for out-of-the-lab kids and hadn't put out the lab tickets yet. But everything worked out.

The last test of the day was sixth grade and they had a substitute teacher. Normally they will go back to the room when they're done but the sub didn't have anything in his plans about that so I just kept them in the lab. This isn't too much of a problem until more and more kids start getting done. Most had books to read and some had to go get one, but that only works for so long. They get especially anxious when the last fifteen or twenty minutes is spent waiting on one kid to finish. But everyone survived. Even Boys & Girls Club when I had to walk into the middle of their huddle in the office and tell them to whisper.

After school I went to Hobby Lobby to get yarn because I want to make a scarf for the first grade teacher who is retiring. I'm going with light purple yarn and I think I have picked out a pattern but I'll have to test it out first. From Hobby Lobby I went to the bank and then over to the gas station to get my Powerball tickets. I have officially switched to getting all my tickets for one drawing rather than spreading it out over the two weekly drawings. I even filled it out on the card I have them scan every week. Unfortunately there was a brand new guy working who threw the card away right after he scanned it. He also couldn't figure out how to apply the four dollars I won to the cost of the tickets I bought today. But whatever.

Tonight I did nothing. I watched YouTube videos and looked for art prints for my brother. I have kind of narrowed it down but not really. I would like to buy whichever ones sometime this week but who knows if that will happen. I also need to pay my hospital bill and that kind of money is going to make me a little wary of spending money for awhile.

Tomorrow there are only two assessments. So I'm going to need to find something to do. I haven't even started to make the sixth grade slideshow yet (minus getting all the pictures ready) but I already want to make one for the preschool and today I thought it would also be cool to make one using all the pictures I had submitted for the yearbook because very few of those will actually make it into the yearbook. I'll eventually get around to making at least one of those slideshows. Hopefully the sixth grade one since that is really the only one that counts.

April 13, 2014

I won four bucks on my latest Powerball ticket. I'm rolling in it. I think tomorrow I am going to switch to buying all of my tickets for one drawing so I can save myself a trip to the gas station. I was going to look at the historical data and see which drawing, Wednesday or Saturday, has more winners but I haven't gotten around to it. So for now I think it will just go for the Wednesday drawing.

I didn't really do much with my morning. I do know that I was in bed for about ten hours and that was pretty awesome, but I was still up by 9:00AM. Well, out of bed by then, I was awake awhile before that.

Eventually the afternoon arrived and sometime before 1:30PM I headed down to the church for my brother's Eagle Court of Honor. It was really weird seeing a bunch of kids in Scout uniforms, in the church, and them not being the kids I was in Scouts with a decade ago. I don't know if it makes any sense. The whole thing just sent me back to that time and it was strange. As for the Court of Honor, it was exactly how I remember them being back in my day. It made me feel old when my brother turned eighteen and him earning the rank of Eagle was probably about on par with that.

Another strange observation, the seating arrangements. It was all completely voluntary but the family was really spread out. I was in a back pew with my sister and her husband. My dad, step-mom, uncle, grandma, and step-grandparents were closer to the front. My step-uncle and his family were several rows behind them. You'd think we all would have sat together but nope.

After the ceremony we went down to the basement for the reception. I looked at the wall of Eagle Scouts as I always do, to see the pictures of my dad and uncle, and the kids who got their Eagle when I was in the troop. I got a pretty good laugh out of my sister (and later my grandma when I was retelling the story) when we were looking through the pictures of my brother's Eagle project. Somewhere in the photo album was a picture of me and when it popped up I exclaimed, all serious-like, “Am I balding!?!” It was pretty funny.

There was still over an hour before dinner so I headed home for awhile before heading back across town to the barbecue place. We had the front area reserved and the had a little buffet set up, none of which I could really eat so my step-mom and I went up to see what my options were. We talked to one of the waitresses and I ended up getting one of their meat salads, minus the meat and tomatoes and onions and cheese. So a salad of lettuce and carrots. But I have to say it was probably the best salad I have ever had at a barbecue place because it was probably the first time I didn't have to pick a bunch of crap out of it.

And although the salad was good, it was still just lettuce and carrots, so when I got home I supplemented my dinner with a fake hot dog, hummus chips, and peanuts. The rest of my night was spent doing laundry, watching Coachella performances, and looking up art prints. Probably a few weeks ago now I started getting into music again. That kind of sounds strange because I have a long history with music and I am always listening to it, but I kind of got into a rut where I was listening to the same old stuff and not really listening to it. But recently I have started appreciating music again, finding new stuff, and really listening to it. I have also started playing music again, guitar and piano, and I really want to pick up my bass again. And Coachella on YouTube and really spurred everything on. I've watched performances of bands I know and really like, as well as bands I had never heard of or only knew one or two songs. The most interesting one tonight was Unlocking The Truth, which is mix of heavy metal and other stuff, and they are apparently only in middle school. I had to google that because when they came on they looked like three little kids, and it turns out they are, but then they tore it up.

The art prints are an idea for my brother's graduation present. I'm thinking video game inspired prints. There were some I remember being really cool but can't remember where they were from or who did them. And I went through all my bookmarks without any luck. Fortunately I did find some other cool ones on Etsy. I'll need to narrow it down, and they probably won't arrive until after graduation, and then I'll have to frame them, but I'm feeling good about it.

One of the first grade teachers, the one who helped me get into reading so many years ago, sent out an email saying that she was going to retire at the end of the year. That is fairly sad news. She is very much a motherly figure for me at school, always concerned about how I'm doing, and we have good conversations at least a few times a week when her class comes to the lab. I knew she was thinking about retiring, she mentioned it briefly last year when one of the fifth grade teachers was retiring, but I thought it wouldn't be for another year or two. It's all a bit of a downer.

It is past eleven o'clock now, so past my bedtime, but I'm going to see if I can get up and exercise a little in the morning. Ever since my latest kidney stone, probably a little before really, I fell out of the practice. And since coming back from Spring Break I don't think I have gotten out of bed before 6:30AM. I hope to change that. I want to exercise and feel good about myself. Exercise always sucks but I feel so much better afterward.

April 12, 2014

Today was nothing special. At work I worked on my scarf and read. My scarf has reached the four-foot mark so it seems like the odds are good that I'll finish it. I switched off between three books, one of which being The Mother Tongue – English And How It Got That Way by Bill Bryson. It is a very interesting book and today a mystery was finally solved:

“Sometimes our curious spellings are simply a matter of carelessness. Colonel is perhaps the classic example of this orthographic waywardness. The word comes from the old French coronelle, which the French adapted from the Italian colonello (from which we get colonnade). When the word first came into English in the mid-sixteenth century, it was spelled with an r, but gradually the Italian spelling and pronunciation began to challenge it. For a century or more both spellings and pronunciations were commonly used, until finally with inimitable illogic we settled on the French pronunciation and the Italian spelling.”

That word has always annoyed me. Well, the spelling of that word has always annoyed me.

Tonight I did nothing. I wanted to do something but it didn't happen. Instead I spent most of the night watching Coachella performances streaming on YouTube. They have three different channels streaming different performances. Last night I ended up staying up late watching an EDM performance. Tonight I watched Chvrches, Bombay Bicycle Club, City and Colour, and bits and pieces of other performances.

Now I think I'm going to go to bed. It's not even 10:30PM yet but I'm tired. It was a long week. I just want to lay in bed for a day or two. But not tomorrow because I have to go to by brother's Eagle Court of Honor. I think the Court of Honor will be boring, because I vaguely remember them being boring when I was in Scouts, but I am excited for my brother. Getting my Eagle was never a goal I had but now that my brother has his, the family streak continues in the troop because my dad and uncle both got theirs in the same troop. Same church, even. So that is cool. There is a dinner afterward that I might bail on, not only because there could possibly be a large group of people and I'm not a fan of large groups of people, but also because it is at a straight-up barbeque place. Like the kind of place where the only non-meat thing are french fries and macaroni and cheese. But we'll see what happens.

April 11, 2014

Testing was an unfortunate success throughout the day. Our only issues were with text-to-speech tests kind of working and mostly not working. At least not working as intended. I probably did less running around today but there was still a good amount. My knees are feeling it at the moment. We are trying to play catch-up so we had four tests today. Even without all the running around, standing for over fours hours is kind of rough. Outside of testing I didn't really accomplish much of anything at work today. I finished making the lab schedule for next week and posted that as well as the MAP sign-up sheet. And that was about it.

During the first test I was talking a little bit with one of the fifth grade teachers and she was telling me how her class keeps getting smaller and smaller. It wasn't that big to begin with but a few kids have moved, one is moving to the other fifth grade room, and another one might be moving later this month. I think she said if that happens she'll be down to thirteen kids. I guess it makes for a better learning environment, having the teacher's attention divided less. Although at this rate we might be back to one sixth grade class next year, like last year.

Tonight at the theater I knitted, read short stories, and watched a little bit of The Raid 2. And by a little bit, I mean the last half hour or so. It's almost a three hour movie and my knees won't take standing through that. And I don't really want to see it that bad. The fight scene in the kitchen near the end is epic but it is also really long, which is cool, but it is exhausting just to watch. I can't even imagine how exhausting it would have been to actually film the scene, not just watch it.

At the time of me writing these words it is not quite midnight. I should be home by 1:30AM. And then I'll be back before 11:00AM tomorrow. Every week I seem to hit a wall around 11:30PM. Starting around 11:00PM I can feel it start to hit me and within thirty minutes it is a real struggle to keep my eyes open. I really like my job at the school (most of the time) but it would be nice to have a job where it was the only job I had and didn't have to work so late into the night, after working all day at another job. Someday. Now I'm going to watch the last hour of Captain America 2: Winter Soldier so I don't fall asleep.

April 10, 2014

The abusive relationship between the state assessment and everyone forced to deal with it, resumed today. It was made even worse because I had shredded the tickets for two of the classes testing today. So when I got to work I had to cut those out and organize them all over again. I managed to at least get the first class cut out and separated from the other fifth grade and into sections before they came to the lab. During that test I was able to finish organizing the next two classes. Not surprisingly, the first test did not go well. Only a few kids were able to complete one part of the test but none of them were able to finish the whole test before they had two errors. I guess rather than two errors in one testing session, it is supposed to be one error in two separate testing sessions. Which is just a bigger waste of time. It worked out today though because the first two classes were the ones who put up with all the errors on Monday.

The only entertaining part of the morning was the fifth grade teacher telling me about when she went to buy doughnut holes for her kids this morning. She wanted to buy thirty but when she told this to the cashier she was told that they only sold doughnuts by the dozen and half dozen. The teacher paused for a second and then cautiously asked if she could have two and a half dozen instead. I would think it would be hard as a teacher to not explain basic math to people.

The second class testing was sixth grade and they were just as unsuccessful as the first. A few kids made it to the last section but no one was able to finish the test. One of the kids testing outside the lab was testing in their classroom and he was having a little more success so the rather than testing, the kids in the lab ended up getting to play on CoolMath for about forty-five minutes.

Afternoon testing went off with only a single problem. One kid had one question not show up. Other than that, both tests were successful. During the second test the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning came to observe the test and she blamed her presence for the test working because every time she observed the tests went well. I feel bad for her because after Monday she had an article in the paper explaining all the testing difficulties and our district's decision to stop testing. And then last night she had another article explaining why we had to resume testing. She was telling me that when she was talking to one of the higher-ups he was boasting how the testing system could handle a million users at once. Apparently our peak was 147,000 users and that made everything go to hell. They must have misplaced a zero in their estimate.

With four tests today, that was pretty much my day. There was a lot of running around this morning, between getting tickets and cutting them out and distributing them for kids testing out of the room, and going to get the principal to print missing tickets. It was exhausting. All the activity is good for me I supposed, much better than just sitting and staring at a computer, but I can definitely feel it at the end of the day.

It was Chipotle night tonight and I showed a few pictures and videos afterward. I didn't have a visit with the new volunteer kid tonight because when I called the house one of the other kids answered and said he wouldn't be home until nine o'clock. Maybe Thursday visits need to be changed to another night of the week.

Instead I spent my night watching YouTube videos, reading random articles online about childhood amnesia and another about a Polish spy (Witold Pilecki) who was intentionally captured by the SS during WWII so he could collect information and start a resistance inside Auschwitz. I also played piano and watched a show that one of the fifth grade teachers was telling me about, Impractical Jokers. It is pretty entertaining.

The sixth graders are learning a song on guitar right now and I stopped by the music room today to see if maybe tomorrow the music teacher would switch jobs with me for a day. I'll teach guitar and she can handle testing. I don't think she's going to take me up on it.

April 9, 2014

Today went from being an alright day to a not so great day. At the moment I'm kind of just overwhelmed with frustration. There's no real need for that feeling, and it's not really warranted, but it just seems like something I need to feel right now.

I sent out another email this morning asking for pictures for the yearbook and throughout the day I got a flood of them. I got them all uploaded and now it is up to the mom I'm working with to organize them in the yearbook.

I spent a lot of time deleting old emails because I had nothing better to do but eventually I had second grade reading groups and then classes in the lab. This afternoon I went and talked with the principal for awhile, mostly about random things but also figuring out the MAP schedule. With the belief that state assessments were canceled, we decided to start MAP testing next week, which allow us plenty of time to get them done by May 9^th when that window closes. So I made a new sign-up sheet reflecting those date changes and posted it outside the lab.

It was an early-release day and right before leaving I finished up that sign-up sheet and ripped a couple CDs for one of the second grade teachers. I ended up being there about a half hour after school was out but that was still two hours earlier than usual.

When I got home I took some Ibuprofen and then laid down for a nap. I had a headache all day and that combo seemed to help.

And then, within thirty minutes of waking up, all the frustration hit. I got a text from the principal saying that state assessments were un-canceled and I got a not-bill from my insurance showing all of my hospital expenses for the lithotripsy. Before insurance, one of the charges was for over $18,500 and I thought that had to be a mistake. That is a ridiculous amount. I called the urologist office and they could only see what they had billed me, not the hospital. So I called the hospital and talked to someone in billing. They are going to send me an itemized list so I can see what all the charges are for, but it turns out it wasn't a misprint. The actual lithotripsy operation cost over $18,500. What the fuck. That's absurd. For less than an hours work, the urologist got over $1200, and the use of that fancy machine cost over $18,500. I'm assuming it is a very expensive machine and the burden of that cost is placed on the patient, which I think is ridiculous. When you got into a fast food restaurant, the price of your grill isn't built into the price of your burger. Or the price of the soda machine when you buy a drink. The equipment is considered a sunk cost, just the price of starting a business. I think the same should go for hospital equipment. I am still struggling with wrapping my head around $18,500 for such a small amount of time. It just doesn't make any sense. Thankfully I have insurance because combined with all the other charges, it would have cost me a year and a half to earn the money to pay for everything, and that isn't just saving money, that would be every penny going to pay for it. So “luckily” I only have to pay about ten percent of the total cost. Which is still about a quarter of my yearly income. I need a real job.

And speaking of my job, after our school district decided to suspend the taking of state assessments because the whole thing is broken, we were basically threatened with the potential loss of $2 million in funding, so we are starting the test again tomorrow morning. What kind of bullshit is that. That's like knowing you are an awful human being and threatening to beat people up if they won't be friends with you. We are now in an abusive relationship with the state of Kansas. Or whoever it is that made this decision. Probably the same person or group of people that green-lit this new test to begin with, doubling down because they don't know when to call it quits. They obviously haven't had firsthand experience with all the issues schools are having. Teachers are frustrated because it is completely broken and a waste of time. Kids already hate testing and a broken test just makes it work. Rather than actually focusing on the test they're waiting for the next error message to pop up or waiting to see if the test will ever actually load. The majority of kids actually do put effort into tests but at this point even they know this test is a joke. And it is a joke, a completely pointless joke. And we're going to roll from this right into MAP testing, which will probably be seen as guilty by association. Kids are going to be so tired of testing at that point that I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they just phoned it in.

Adding to my frustration, I shredded the test tickets for the tests we were trying to complete yesterday. The principal told me to, and it made sense to, but part of me thought maybe I should wait. And that part gets to me. So not only will the principal have to print off new tickets, I'll need to divide them back into classes, then into seating chart order, while separating out the kids who test outside the lab. I also have no idea which kids finished one or both tests. There were so many crashes and during the sixth grade test we all basically said 'fuck it' and were waiting for the tests to crash so I could shut them down. Hopefully the website will be working and will show the principal who has finished.

The only possible light at the end of this dark tunnel, is that we only have to try a test twice. If a test encounters an error two times, we can stop trying. I'm assuming this is on a kid-by-kid basis, not just twice for any test in a testing session. I guess we have to fill out a form or something when this happens but I'm game to fill out a whole bunch of those if it means we can finally put this test out of our misery. I can only hope things go as horribly as they did yesterday. The first class testing is fifth grade and their teacher and I made a funny joke (at the time) that instead of doing Type To Learn 4 today they were actually going to try taking the assessment again. Now we are going to look like the boy who cried wolf.

Yet another frustration is that I spent a decent amount of time making the new MAP sign-up sheet and now we're going back to the old one. Which is going to force us to cram a lot of testing into a small space. And now I'll need to make new lab schedules to reflect the updating assessment testing schedule. So much effort for something that doesn't even deserve a fleeting thought.

Our education system really needs to reevaluate its priorities. Maybe try letting teachers teach kids instead of testing them all the time, see how that novel idea works out.

Tonight, I was just in a funk. Pretty much overwhelmed by frustration. Maybe I just need a hug. It's been awhile but I remember those being comforting. But that's not really an option so I just kind of zoned out. I watched parts of old episodes of Silent Library, including the original Japanese show, because I thought laughing it would help. It did, a little. Then I put on some music and added several inches to my scarf. Before transitioning over to playing my guitar for awhile. I should have practiced piano but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I wanted to zone out, not try and memorize stuff.

Regardless of what happens tomorrow, it is going to be a long day. If the test is working, four classes will be testing. And if the test doesn't work, I'm going to have to deal with all of the not working stuff. I'm over it, the teachers are over, the kids are over it.