Wednesday, April 20, 2016

April 20, 2016

 I think this week my overall physical state is just going to be exhausted. I got a decent amount of sleep last night but by the time work is over I just feel drained and lack all motivation to do anything. The end of the semester is pretty much here and I am starting to get the overwhelmed feeling. I have my conference proposal and group project, along with the smaller weekly stuff for my classes. I have also found a couple academic library jobs that I am actually qualified for that I want to apply for, and that requires writing cover letters. At work I have started working on the yearbook, which is due in two weeks. I finally got the higher resolution CD yesterday or the day before but it doesn't have the retake pictures on it for some reason, only the ones from earlier in the year, so I'm missing the newer kids who were here for the second picture day. I think I'm just going to throw in the low-res pictures that I can download from the website and then take pictures of the kids who missed both. I also need to make the end of the year slideshow. I've made a few of the slides but I need to make the rest and started putting everything together. I probably won't get to that until after this semester is over because I'll still have time before the end of school. Thinking about everything is stressful and I am constantly thinking about everything. That is why I have become super intrigued by fountain pens and inks over the last several days. It is a chance for me to push all the stressful thoughts out of my head for the briefest of moments. They are always there in the back of my mind but they aren't as loud. It was really nice yesterday at the library stuffing brochures in a totally quiet environment just zoned out. I couldn't think about any of the stressful things for more than a fraction of a second because I had to focus on counting to ten over and over again. It was kind of meditative. My last assignment, the group project paper, is due May 9th, so it will all be over soon, for better or worse.

Now for my day.

First grade tested first thing in the morning and then second grade came in at 12:15PM. I had a few kids here and there come in to finish tests throughout the day and one actual class at the end of the day. When I wasn't dealing with people in the lab I started working on the yearbook. It took me a bit but I got all the pictures uploaded and arranged alphabetically by last name, not first name (which seems to be the default). I also started going through and shifting the student pictures on the class pages, down one row so I can put the teacher's picture at the top of the page. They have improved the website since last year so it is a little easier to use but it is also slightly more confusing and it is still super laggy. I think I got kindergarten finished and one of the first grade classes. Progress.

I also worked a little bit on note card labels for the library clerk. They have the name of a school in the district on it and the clerk puts them on the outside of the bags of books that are loaned to the various schools. I typed them all up yesterday and she picked out the font she wanted today, so I could have had them printed off today, but then she showed me a card with an outline drawn on it to show what portion of the card was actually visible through the little window on the sleeve it slides into. It's smaller than the text I used and it is slightly off-center. That's going to take me awhile to sort out.

After work I picked up Chipotle and headed home. They didn't have lids for the burrito bowls so I got a burrito for the first time in awhile. It was delicious. I miss the tortillas. I'm going to go back to the bowls next week, if they have lids, so I can keep the novelty of the burrito alive.

I tried to show videos after dinner but YouTube has been a pain in the butt the last couple days. Well, YouTube and our internet connection. A large portion is probably due to the internet connection. I don't know what is happening in the neighborhood but it feels like everyone is downloading all the movies ever illegally put on the internet and using up all the bandwidth. I think it is ridiculous that a service provider can sell you a plan at a certain speed but then it is completely dependent on how many people near you are on the same provider and how much they are using the internet.

Before I gave up on showing the videos I was able to show my mom and sister my video tutorial (with several stops for buffering). After it had been playing for several seconds and I was explaining things about it my mom asked, completely seriously, if we were going to get to hear me talk in the video. I paused for a second to maker sure she was serious and then said we were hearing me talk. My own mother didn't recognize the sound of my voice. I guess I was speaking differently for the video than I normally do, although my sister knew I was the one talking, so I'm blaming my mom for this one.

After dinner I found out we had a discussion post this week for my technology class. We had to answer one of five questions from our textbook. Most could be answered in a few sentences, and some people ended up doing that, but I pulled a typical me and ended up rambling for almost six hundred words. I also found out the professor put up a discussion forum for us to post our tutorial videos. Only about have the class have posted their videos so far, probably because it wasn't announced, but I am happy that at least in terms of video quality, mine is the best. Content-wise, who knows, I doubt it, but I am glad that at least some of the hours I put into it are apparent.


It is now almost 11:45PM, somehow, and I'm tired and have a headache. Bedtime. Tomorrow there will be more testing, yearbook, and note card labels. I'd guess some other stuff might come up as well. Tomorrow night I need to make some real progress on my conference proposal, reply to a discussion post (maybe), and think about my group project. I just need to keep spinning all these plates for a little bit longer.

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