January 11, 2015

Today was very laid back. This morning and a little bit into the afternoon I did laundry. While doing that I unloaded the stuff I put in my car last night and watched DVRed things. As I sat down for lunch I got a text from my brother asking me if I was busy at one o'clock. I texted him back, ate my lunch and right near the end of eating he texted me back asking if I wanted to get lunch with him and my sister. Not great timing but I told him I'd tag along and eat chips and salsa. Which I did. It was good times.

When I got home the weather was decent so I took down the Christmas lights. They came down way faster than they went up. I then finished up my laundry and spent the rest of my afternoon watching DVRed things and playing Fantasy Life. I have become a Master Woodcutter. Next up, mining.

As for the things I watched today. There was a bunch of The Twilight Zone, the two new episodes of The Librarians, and a few movies (Innerspace, Silverado, and Elysium). I'm definitely getting my fill of movies this weekend.

This is a really short entry. In the coming week, I will be overseeing a crazy number of MAP tests. Not looking forward to that in the least.

January 10, 2015

Speaking of my memory, I forgot to mention the tech guy at the theater last night. When I came upstairs he wasn't there but his stuff was all over the place. There is a giant desk upstairs, more like a long counter top that was re-purposed into a desk, and his stuff covered almost every inch of it. He also had stuff on the stool and one of the chairs. Never has someone made themselves more comfortable so quickly. Except for maybe a clingy significant other. Despite that comfort level, and the seeming appearance of productivity, he didn't seem to actually be fixing anything. I was only there for a couple hours, and he was only there for an hour of that, but he was working on the LMS the whole time. There are at least four projectors that have been broken in some way or another for quite awhile now but those didn't seem to be of any concern.

Again with the memory, I forgot my phone at the old house last night. I remembered this during the middle of the night during one of the times I woke up to go to the bathroom. No idea why I thought of it then. My plan was to get ready a little bit earlier than usual so I could swing by before work. It is a good thing I decided to do that and not just go to work and swing by afterward. I say this because I got a text from what of the managers late last night saying that I didn't need to come in today. That was pretty annoying because I had already gotten ready for the day but I'm glad I figured it out before actually showing up at the theater.

I used my free time to further research motherboards and I finally bought one. It is basically an upgraded version of the one I have now. It's been out for a little while, so not top of the line, but also not super expensive. Now I'll just need to figure out how to install it and hope that my original assessment was correct and that the problem with my desktop is in fact a dead motherboard.

I also bought my textbook today. I ended up getting it through Barnes & Noble because it was seven dollars cheaper than the college bookstore and had free expedited shipping. So it should be here sometime next week. Well before the start of the semester.

Other than YouTube videos, I also watched the movie Enemy, with Jake Gyllenhall. He plays a History professor and a struggling actor that likes to cheat on his pregnant wife. The professor discovers the actor and wants to meet because they look identical and he becomes curious. It turns out they not only look identical, they probably are identical, because they have the same scar. It was a very strange movie. And spoilers. The only way I could make sense of it is that the professor and the actor are actually the same person, kind of like Fight Club. Or some other example where someone has a split personality issue. There are remarks made throughout the movie, like the mom of the professor making the offhand remark that her son needed to give up his fantasy of being an actor, or the wife of the actor asking him how school was. And then at the end of the movie when the professor has kind of accepted the life of the actor, he easily makes the decision to go to a secret club instead of staying with the wife. Also, the professor's apartment is very sparsely furnished, as if it were a second place where he could spend time with his girlfriend. I think the issue arises because the professor personality, completely unaware of the actor personality, sees the actor in a movie and becomes incredibly curious because he senses it isn't just someone who looks like him. I feel like I need to watch it at least a couple more times to pick up on everything but I also feel like even if I picked up on everything it would still be up to interpretation.

Before heading home for dinner I loaded my car up with stuff. This included all of my movie posters. I have quite a few after working at the theater for so many years. I should have a lot more but I haven't brought any home in years. Kind of lost interest in it. At some point I need to go through my collection so I can catalog and organize it somehow. Maybe get a bunch of poster tubes.

Tonight my dinner included a fake chicken sandwich, a baked potato, carrots and dill dip, pineapple, and a cookie, with a glass of orange juice. It was like a real meal. Those don't happen too often.

I spent the rest of my night playing video games and watching DVRed things. I downloaded a bunch of old games today so tonight I tried out a few, including Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego. I remember watching the show and playing the game a lot as a kid but I don't remember ever finding her in the game. Or finding anyone for that matter. Tonight I did much better than I ever did as a kid. I even got promoted. I will admit that I had to cheat a couple times to figure out a location. To be fair to me, most of the times I looked something up I had a pretty good idea and just wanted to confirm it so I didn't waste a round.

In Fantasy Life I have become as Expert woodcutter. I have cut down so many trees. Next I want to become a Miner and then maybe try out the Alchemist before going into crafting just so I can make my own healing potions and things. Or maybe by that point I'll be a high enough level that I won't have to worry too much about healing potions. Or school will have started and I won't have time to play video games.

As I finish typing this up I am watching part of Adult World, with John Cusack and Emma Roberts. I'm going to record it so I can watch it later because I jumped in somewhere near the end. But there have been a couple good quotes, almost back-to-back, so I'll end with those.

“Fame's your generation's Black Plague, kid”

“That's really good. Who said that?”

“I did. Just now. I said that to you.”

- - -

“I thought it would be cool to have something of yours for when you die.”

“I'm not going to die, ever, you idiot.”

January 9, 2015

Still not used to typing the new year.

My memory must be turning to crap because as of late I have had the darnedest time looking back and remembering my day.

I had second grade reading groups this morning. The first group went well because we were just reading a story. One of my favorite stories in the book about a guy who wants to write a story and then gets distracted by other things. Story of my life. For the second group, which was actually still the same group of kids, we did Tumblebooks on laptops. That was kind of a pain because I had to get all the kids to log into the laptop and then I had to log them all into Tumblebooks. But the last group topped it all because they did Wonderopolis, which is blocked by the firewall, so I had to get the kids to log into the laptop and then I had to authenticate all the computers. And after all of that Wonderopolis was acting up so some of the kids never actually got to do anything before their time ran out.

I am completely ready for MAP testing next week. I printed out my score sheets and the lab schedule. I also emailed the lab schedule to all the teachers and a few other people, not only for their own reference but also so they could check to see if I had done anything wrong, like put a class at the wrong time. And lastly, I cut a whole bunch of scratch paper. I probably have enough for the rest of this year and most of next year. I got a little carried away. But not before checking to make sure their weren't math definitions and examples on the back of the paper. I missed that on some of the paper last time but thankfully none of the kids figured it out before I did and was able to sort it all out.

Tonight I put in a solid two hours of work at the theater. I helped clean a few theaters, started reading a new book, and watched part of Taken 3. It was another super slow night. I was offered the option to stay longer but that would have meant sending someone else home.

I have spent the rest of my night watching a bit of Netflix and YouTube, and doing internet things. I have had a bit of time to research motherboards for my desktop. The other day I was kind of set on one but now I'm leaning toward a different one. Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll pull the trigger so I can get my computer up and running again.

I also need to buy a textbook. One of my classes and shown up online and thankfully we only need one $50 book. Hopefully when the other class shows up I won't need to buy a stack of $100 books. And hopefully it shows up soon so I can get the book(s) before class starts, which is slowly drawing near.

January 8, 2015

This will hopefully be a short entry because it isn't even ten o'clock but I'm freaking tired. I'm finding it hard to concentrate because I really just want to curl up and go to sleep.

This morning I helped out with literacy centers in one of the kindergarten rooms. At one point one of the little girls asked, of no one in particular, where the first person came from if their weren't any parents or adults. An unknowingly deep question for anyone, not to mention a kindergartener.

This afternoon I got stood up by the first kindergarten class because he was thinking it was Wednesday and forgot all about coming to the lab. I double checked with the other teacher to make sure she was actually planning on coming. She was. I wasn't too annoyed at being stood up because I hadn't gone around logging all the kids into Odyssey. I had logged into all of the computers but that doesn't really take too long. After confirming the second class I went back around, picked up the log-in cards for the first class and then put down the cards for the second class. And despite only trying it once before, almost all of the kids got in without a problem. It was amazing.

The replacement parts came in for the color printer today. I pulled out the old intermediate transfer unit, I think that's what it's called, and put in the new one. That was a struggle because the log knob didn't want to lock. It kept getting hung up. After way too many minutes of struggling with it I finally got it put in but when I turned the printer back on it didn't like how it was seated so I had to redo it. Several times. In the end I put the old one back in just to see if I would get the same message and the printer started working again. Ridiculous. Apparently the same thing happened with the library printer, which I vaguely remember, so the lady in the office who ordered the thing is going to send it back. I held onto the maintenance kit because there is still the warning that it needs to be replaced soon but I'm going to hold out until it craps out so we can get our money out of it.

I made the lab schedules for MAP testing based on the sign-up sheet. I thought all the teachers had signed up but one of the fifth grade teachers was joking with me after school about not having signed up yet, the same teacher who famously didn't show up to one of her tests. So apparently I should have double checked my schedule. Thankfully I hadn't printed them off yet. Hopefully she finds time in the second week because right now everyone is signed up for the first two weeks, leaving the third week wide open for make-ups and putting the MAP test in our rear view mirror.

I actually remembered I had a haircut today. And showed up for it. Much better than the debacle on Monday. After the haircut I went to the old house for a bit before heading home for dinner, with a pit-stop at the gas station. To get gas.

After dinner I had a visit with the new volunteer kid. Or should I say the former volunteer kid, considering he is out of the system now. It ended up being an hour and twenty minute visit. We talked quite a bit about school and that somehow segued into a long conversation about religion. I'm always up to talking about religion as long as someone isn't trying to shove the concept of it down my throat. I find the idea of it, regardless of the belief system, endlessly interesting, even though it isn't for me.

And now it is creeping up on 10:30PM so I'm going to call this good, regardless of what I may have forgotten, and go to bed. So much for a short entry but it's too late now.

January 7, 2015

Thanks to it being in the single digits outside, and school being canceled because of it, I slept in this morning. And I mean genuinely. Most of the time when I sleep in it is after I stay up late so I’m actually getting the same amount of sleep I normally do, just in a slightly shifted timeframe. Last night I did stay up later than I normally would during the week but I also slept more than the seven hours or so I normally get. I like when that happens.

I didn’t really do much with the first part of my day. Just watched DVRed stuff and played Fantasy Life. I finally managed to beat the main storyline and decided to switch lives. I haven’t hit the max fishing level in terms of the whole Life, but I did max out my fishing ability, and I wanted to try something different. I’m really want to craft things but I decided to go with the Woodcutting Life so I can collect materials to craft. When I level that ability up enough I’ll switch to the Mining Life so I can get those materials. Then I want to try Blacksmith or Carpentry. I haven’t decided yet. I can say that woodcutting isn’t as fun as fishing. You just stand there and whack a tree with an ax. In fishing, unless it is a big fish, you don’t really know what you’re going to catch. There are some random, non-log drops with woodcutting but it still isn’t quite as exciting. It feels way more satisfying to cut trees in Minecraft. Hopefully it won’t take me too long to level up. I can’t imagine mining will be any more thrilling but we’ll see.

Later in the afternoon I had my urologist appointment. The goal was to raise my citrate levels to at least 400. I’m not really sure what the number stands for. Maybe parts per million. That sounds feasible anyway. Before I was in the low 200s and this time around I managed to get it up to 436. Not bad. I guess all the orange juice is paying off. On the downside, my sodium and oxalate levels went up. Not to alarming levels but I need to do better with those. I definitely have fallen out of the low-sodium diet and I need to pick that back up again. Maybe not to the degree I was before, but I can do better. I think it will be easier now that we are out of the holiday food season. Although I’m still trying to get rid of some baked goods. I scheduled another appointment for next year so hopefully things are still looking good when next January rolls around.

The nurse that I had is an identical twin, her and her sister were a year or two ahead of me in school. That isn’t relevant to the story but it is a fun fact. When she came into the room she commented on how they hadn’t fixed the little twirly stool she sat on and that it felt like it was missing some screws. I made some comment and she said that she actually fell off of it during her first week of working there. That would have been embarrassing. And/or really funny.

On my way to the old house I stopped and got a Powerball ticket. While at the old house I checked internet things and watched some videos before heading down to get Chipotle. It was a decent burrito. I went with sofritas because it has been a little while but I might skip it next week. Before we could start eating I had to move all the boxes of books I brought over yesterday from the old house because I left them on the kitchen table and hadn’t gotten around to taking them downstairs. It took several trips but it got done, thanks to my sister who carried a few stacks down.

I spent the rest of my night watching TV and playing Fantasy Life. Supper productive times. One of the things I watched was a special with Dallas Green, from City And Colour, and Alecia Moore, also known as Pink, talking about their new album and performing some of the songs from it. I have been a fan of City And Colour for years now but just learned while watching the show that Dallas Green was in Alexisonfire. I was aware of that band and liked some of their songs (minus the screaming parts) but wasn’t familiar enough with them to realize Dallas Green was in the band. I found that really interesting because City And Colour is quite the departure. The genre of music for Alexisonfire does make a lot more sense with all of Dallas Green’s tattoos, compared to the softer music of City And Colour. Also interesting about this realization was that I finally learned that the band name is pronounced “Alexis On Fire”, not “Alex Is On Fire”. I always wondered about that, not enough to actually look into it, but now that mystery has been solved.

When I went to type this entry I found that my laptop had died. Not in a bad way, just the battery running out of juice. That is generally a problem easily solved. I ran into a bit of a hiccup when I discovered my charging cable wasn’t in my laptop bag. The only place that I can think that it would be is over at the old house. Even though I hadn’t used it when I was over there earlier in the day, I must have left it there the day before. Because of that I had to go old school and briefly write everything down with paper and pen. So now I am currently typing it up on the day after. It feels a bit weird. I just hope I am correct in my assumption that my cable was left at the old house.

January 6, 2015

I haven't had to write it yet but it still feels pretty weird typing '2015'. That sounds much more futuristic than 2014.

A good chunk of my day was spent updating things with new student information. I think there were four or five new kids that the office lady sent out information on today and I went through and edited my score sheets, spreadsheets, and seating charts for MAP and got them into classes in Type To Learn and Compass Learning. And there are supposedly more new kids that aren't officially enrolled yet. It is kind of annoying when you can name all the kids in the school and then some leave and new ones show up. It's a bit taxing on the memory.

This morning sixth grade came to the lab to type and after that I went down to help with kindergarten literacy centers. This afternoon we took a large step with kindergarten and had them log into Compass Learning all by themselves. Mostly. I logged into the computer and brought up the Compass Learning page, but it was the kids' responsibility to type in their lunch number for the username and password. This endeavor would have been impossible if the password was still ridiculously long but most of the kids can handle a five-digit lunch number. Minus one girl in the first class crying (because she cries about everything) it went pretty smoothly. And it should only get better.

My main challenge for the day was figuring out the pull-down projection screen in the music room. There was a substitute in there and the new student intern in one of the third grade classes came over to ask if I could help getting the movie working. That was the easy part because all I had to do was turn on the projector and hit the power button on the DVD player. An issue arose when the DVD player remote wasn't responding to my button presses. I ended up taking the batteries out of the projector remote and got that sorted out. But we needed the projector remote to adjust the volume so I ended up having to go to the office to get new batteries. Before I left the kids want the screen pulled down, instead of watching the movie on the whiteboard, so I pulled it down. But it wouldn't stay down. And it also wouldn't go all the way back up. I lost track of how many times I pulled it down without success. I was about to call for volunteers to sit under the screen and hold it down for the rest of the class so they wouldn't have to watch it half on the screen and half on the board, but on what felt like was going to be my final attempt, I managed to get it to stay down. Which lead to loud cheers and applause from the class. It would be nice if audiences would react that way at the movie theater when I fix a movie.

I wrote my final monthly report for the new volunteer kid today. The case is officially over. There is a chance it could be my last monthly report ever. I was asked if I wanted to take a break or be put back on the available list and I opted to take a break. With two jobs and my second semester of grad school starting soon I wouldn't really have the free time to put in a reasonable effort on a new case. Maybe after it settled down into weekly visits but the beginning of the case involves a significant time commitment, reading over the case and going around to meet all the people involved with the case. It really wouldn't be fair to the kid I got with my attention so divided. So I'm going to take a little break.

After work a text message was sent out saying that school was canceled tomorrow due to the cold weather. It is supposed to be in the single-digits all day with a decent amount of wind. At first it always seems weird to cancel because of cold temperatures because we live in a modern world where school is taught inside in temperature controlled environments. The problem is that a lot of kids walk to school or have to stand outside and wait for the bus. Those kids would free to death. So I get the day off work tomorrow. I'm okay with that.

On my way home I stopped by the grocery store to get 7-UP and crackers for my mom because she started feeling sick. Later in the night she felt better but it's always good to be prepared. I'm not feeling particularly well but I think a lot of that is just the idea that so many kids and adults at work aren't feeling well and that I'm bound to catch something. I'm also still worried about my right kidney. Not that they'll be able to do anything about it but I've got my six-month checkup with my urologist tomorrow. That being six months since the lithotripsy operation. I'll be interested to see how my levels are looking but I'm not expecting any earth-shattering news. It'll just be the same old stuff most likely. I wouldn't be surprised if I were advised to start taking a supplement to increase my citric acid levels because that was the ultimate goal over the last six months and I was definitely not consistent with that. We'll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow.

Tonight I made tater tots to go along with my leftover pasta and while those were cooking I unloaded my car. Today I mostly grabbed books from the old house. One box ended up being an odd assortment of books to keep and books to give away, so that was some extra weight I could have avoided but no sense in worrying about it now. I piled it all up on the kitchen table because my left hand and arm are feeling weak with all of the moving of heavy things. I'll drag it all downstairs tomorrow.

After dinner I spent my night watching DVRed stuff and playing Fantasy Life. Among other things, I watched Hot Fuzz and It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Both really funny movies. And the latter is packed with so many familiar and funny actors. I don't know their status of celebrity at the time of making the movie but it seems surpising that they were all able to participate in the movie.

Now I'm going to go to bed because it is really late and it is becoming harder for me to keep my eyes open. I am really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow morning. I'm considering setting my alarm just so I can turn it off and go back to sleep. I also don't want to start that habit so I probably won't engage in that activity, but I'll almost certainly wake up more than once and then roll over and go back to sleep.

January 5, 2015

There was something I was going to write about today but I didn't write it down earlier in the day when the thought came to me so I have since forgotten it. I still need to get better at writing down the random things to jog my memory at the end of the day.

This morning I actually woke up at six o'clock. Soon enough I'll get back in the habit of slowly pushing back my wake up time to almost seven o'clock but I have at least one six o'clock morning under my belt for this new semester.

Right off the bat at work this morning the color printer was broken. It needed a new intermediate transfer something or other and a maintenance kit. Two things I've never heard of and it is like figuring out a puzzle trying to get the things out of the printer. There is a chance that the parts will arrive tomorrow and then I just hope they are easy to replace. The transfer thing seems easy enough but I didn't really look into the maintenance kit.

After messing with that I printed out the sign-up sheet for MAP testing, which starts next Monday. I had to print it out three different times because the first time I had the wrong dates and the second time I forgot about have a day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The response to the sign-up sheet was pretty immediate. I usually get a few right off the bat but by the end of the day it looked like almost everyone had signed up for times. And in the first two weeks like I had asked, not only so we can get it over with but also so we have plenty of time for kids who miss their original test time or need extra time.

I helped out with second grade reading groups this morning and that was pretty uneventful. Just kids working on worksheets.

This afternoon was also pretty uneventful. I went through and updated my MAP spreadsheet and score sheets with the kids who have left or arrived since the last test. I've only seen one new kid but I've heard we have at least five new ones starting this week, and I'll need to get their information so I can get them added to the MAP test. I'm really not looking forward to standing around and watching kids test again.

Around 4:30PM I got a text from the lady who cuts my hair. I was supposed to get a haircut at four o'clock but completely forgot about it. The annoying this is that yesterday I had the thought that I needed to check my calendar because I had a feeling my haircut was today but I remembered I hadn't put it in my phone so I was going to have to do the math. And then I never got around to that. I felt really bad about missing it today but she was able to get me in on Thursday. I think that is the second time, maybe, that I have forgotten a haircut. Not a bad record really, considering I've been going to her since my very first haircut.

To make my visit to the old house slightly productive I brought over a big container with all my photography stuff in it and the big trash bag with the knitted blanket I started years ago but never finished. I want to say someday I'll finish that blanket but I find that to be wishful thinking. I do think I'll eventually finish the crochet blanket, I just need to pick some yarn and go with it.

Tonight I watched DVRed stuff and “played” Fantasy Life. The quotes are for the fact that I really just ran back and forth and hit the 'A' button a lot to progress through the main storyline dialogue. I thought my next stop was going to be Lunares but it turns out the goal was Terra Nimbus, a big floating island. I just landed and was kind of set free for a little bit but at that point I called it a night because I was too tired.

I then finished watching the episode of Last Of The Summer Wine which I had started while playing the game, and it felt like it was going on forever. And it turned out it was because it was an hour and a half long, when they are usually only a half hour long. I was looking on Wikipedia and I guess the four or so episodes I taped the other day were all extended, movie-type episodes. My sister said I should watch it awhile ago because it was funny and it is pretty good. I guess it first came on the air in 1973 and aired its final episode in 2010 after thirty-one seasons. Or series because it's British. Impressive.

Now I'm going to bed. It's eleven o'clock and I could have easily gone to bed two or three hours ago. It would be nice if I could wake up and exercise in the morning but I doubt that happens. It is nice just laying in bed in the morning. And I'm still a little worried about upsetting another kidney stone. My right kidney is still acting up randomly and I don't want to knock anything loose.