April 1, 2015

 I moved my cutout self out of my computer room and out by the stairs last night so I would remember it this morning. And then when I walked out of my room this morning I scared the crap out of myself. I got used to it being in the computer room so it has been awhile since it made me jump. I got it into and then out of my car with not much trouble. It still feels a bit weird carrying yourself in public.

I set it up outside the lab and it was pretty funny because throughout the day I could hear everyone's reaction to it. Adults often commented on how it made them jump and kids mostly said hello to it. Occasionally on purpose. There was a second grader who said hello to it and right as the words came out of his mouth I walked out of the workroom and he stopped in his tracks, started smiling and looking back and forth between me and me. Then he went up to touch the cutout. It was pretty funny.

I positioned the cutout in such a way that I wouldn't really see it while I was in the lab. There was awhile last year when I could catch glimpses and it would make me jump a little. It still got me a few times today when I was leaving the lab or coming back. I imagine at some point it will probably start traveling around the building.

Today we had three scheduled tests. All of which went well. We also had several sixth graders come in and finish their writing test, and a few fourth graders come in and finally finish their tests. A couple of them needed to finish the last part of a test but it turns out you can't reactivate just that part, you reactivate the whole freaking test. This meant that I had to have the principal reprint the previous tickets. One kid had to log in and the resubmit three or four tests before he was able to log into the test he needed to take. Kinda dumb.

I was talking to one of the fifth grade teachers during one of the tests and at one point I asked her if she had taken advantage of her position yet and taught her kids one false thing, as if it were true. Something subtle that may only come up in conversation once in the kids' lifetime, probably when they're well into adulthood, and then they'll break out this fact and everyone around them will look at them like they're crazy. I was originally thinking about some made up important date but then she came up with Theodore Roosevelt's mustache being fake. I came up with him being ashamed at the fact that he couldn't grow facial hair so he wore a fake mustache, maybe made out of horse hair. I think it is brilliant. Just the sort of random fact that a kid probably won't believe at first but they probably aren't going to be able to disprove it so they might as well accept it. I doubt anyone out there has ever gone to the effort of commenting on the origins of Roosevelt's facial hair, so the internet won't be any help either.

When the fourth graders were testing I think the teacher told her intern to walk around the lab and keep an eye on the kids. And she went for it. I lost track of how many laps she made throughout the lab but she probably easily doubled her daily goal for steps. She's the intern that looks like Anna Camp if she had brown hair, and I haven't had too many interactions with her, but she seems uncomfortable. Like she feels out of place or nervous. Part of that is probably the teacher she is with because she's kind of awkward, too. Also, fourth grade is at the top of the building and they don't have a whole lot of interaction with the rest of the school I don't think. But, I would probably be the same way. I'm really socially awkward in new situations, and sometimes in old situations. No judgment here. But it was amusing watching her constantly walking around the lab.

The broken computer was returned today so this afternoon I got all of my shortcuts put back on the desktop, and changed the background image. I also went around and changed all the log-off buttons to restart buttons. That will probably confuse the kids that notice it, but we'll get through it.

At the end of the day the representative from the yearbook company stopped by to talk to me. He spent a lot of time at the end of last year trying to talk to me about how I did something on our class pages but we never crossed paths. He left a message with one of the office ladies today that he wanted to stop by and see me. And he apparently kind of ran right by her this afternoon to get in and come talk to me. I'm not a big fan. He's an old dude but there's just something about him. Kind of a used car salesman feel but with another layer or two in there. I can't really describe it. Anyway, the mom who is in charge of the yearbook is apparently also avoiding his emails and he wants to be given permission to view our yearbook online. I don't see why he needs to be given access to that, and he probably won't be. At no point does he need to be involved in the process, actually. He served his purpose in coming to talk to us last year about the company and that should have been it. I can see checking in to make sure everything is going alright, maybe once, but it is a very simple website and he doesn't need to be a member of the team. I think his idea of his role and our idea of his role are vastly different. But, now I'm just rambling.

After work I got Chipotle and then headed home. I planned on reading a bit before dinner but ended up spending that time uninstalling a bunch of random crap that ended up on my computer. Hopefully it is all gone now but it probably isn't. I just need to stop installing stuff. It feels like I only just recently reinstalled Windows and I don't want to have to do that again. Although I do need a bigger solid state drive for my main drive so at some point I need to do that. And the fan on my graphics card is going out, it's getting louder and louder. And a few other fans have stopped working. I need to upgrade parts, basically, but I don't have the money to do that right now. Well, I do, but I don't want to spend money right now. A bit of a difference.

After dinner I read most of a textbook chapter. I gave up in the last few pages because it wasn't bringing anything new to the table and I was falling asleep. I then spent the rest of the night trying to come up with a post for the discussion this week. We need to come up with examples for color being categorized in a cultural, individual, and institutional way. Every time I came up with a good example I checked the discussion thread and at least one person had already mentioned it. Great minds think alike I guess. The one week when a bunch of people actually post early.

For cultural I wanted to do gangs, and then schools, and then the meaning of white in different cultures. All of which were already mentioned. So now I've got nothing. For individual I might mention something about my love of the color green. And for institutional I'm thinking about the colors used to differentiate school library books based on lexile ranges. But culture is remaining elusive. I feel like there is something there, just out of my grasp, but I'm not there yet. It's after midnight now so I'm going to wait and post tomorrow night because even if I came up with something tonight it would still show up as being posted tomorrow.

And because it is after midnight, I'm going to bed. The weekend is almost here and I am looking forward to sleeping in. But not too late because I've got a lot of schoolwork yet to do. So much.