February 13, 2015

 I just realized as I was typing the date that today is Friday the 13^th. I went all day without that realization.

I woke up this morning and eventually got up and around. After a quick lunch I went and got gas and picked up the Valentine's Day flowers I bought for my mom and sister. I won't get back into town tomorrow before they close and I didn't know what my mom and sister's schedules would be so I couldn't have them delivered. I asked the florist if they could just leave them outside but they said they couldn't, so I picked them up today and put them in a closet downstairs. My mom ended up giving a tour of the house to one of her friends today so there is a good chance she saw the flowers. Oh well.

This afternoon my mom and I picked up another para from work and we all went down to the staff pub crawl, or “fun run” as it was referred to. I spent most of the time watching the US vs. England women's soccer game that was on one of the TVs but I did engage in a little conversation. I learned that the new PE teacher is the younger brother of a girl I went to high school with. I wasn't friends with that girl but I did know who she is. I only got to stay for the first bar so as they were transitioning to bar number two, I headed back to the house so I could pack up my stuff and head out of town.

The drive was thankfully uneventful but I did yawn a whole bunch. I never really got stuck behind any slow drivers, including on the final stretch of highway where I always seem to get screwed, so I made it down here in record time. It was about the average estimated time but it was still faster than I have ever made it.

Right off the bat the professor started talking about systems and processes or something, sailing through it, and I was pretty much completely lost. And this is the class that doesn't have the convoluted textbook. But then a librarian (who is actually the current president of the KLA) came to teach us how to use Zotero. The ultimate goal was to demonstrate how a reference librarian would teach a class but Zotero is actually a pretty cool program/website that helps you collect and organize all the various sources and files you find online, which would come in handy when working on a project or paper or even a PhD. Hopefully I start using it.

Near the end of class we were given the information we would need for our first assignment, creating a handout and giving a presentation as if we were a reference librarian and teaching a class. My topic is Basecamp, a website that allows group members to work on a project at the same time. At least I think that's what it is for. I'll figure it out eventually. There were several other options that would have been way easier to make a presentation about but I wasn't that lucky when I signed my name next to a random number.

Then, we were broken up into random groups for the two-minute presentations we are going to give tomorrow over some aspect of reference service. It was very confusing at first because the professor went about the whole thing like we already knew what was happening and nobody did because she never really told us. My group got lucky because one of our group members is actually in charge of recording everyone tomorrow so she had a little more insight. As a group we picked a service, we went with outreach and marketing because none of us were to familiar with it and we wanted an even playing field. Then we went back to the computers (we met in a computer lab) and individually made a single slide that will be the basis for the presentation. Tomorrow, groups will take turns going into a separate room and they will each give their two-minute presentation, using their single slide, to their group. These presentations are going to be recorded so afterward we will have to watch ourselves present. I'm not really looking forward to that. The idea is so that we can see how we present, which wouldn't even be fun for a presentation we had time to actually work on and practice, but it certainly won't be fun for something so spontaneous. I believe this is also going to be our group for the real group project later in the semester so this is also a chance to get to know each other better.

Now I am in my hotel room and I am tired. I'm going to try and plan out my two-minute presentation a little bit and then watch some YouTube videos before I go to bed. The only thing I forgot to bring was my alarm clock. I'm going to try setting the one in the room but I will also set the one on my phone as a backup. I'm assuming class starts at eight o'clock tomorrow morning but that is only a guess. Seven o'clock sounds too early and nine o'clock sounds too late, and that sounds like Goldilocks. We'll hope I'm right.

February 12, 2015

 Today was a day that happened. I responded to a couple more discussion posts for class. I finally emptied out my car. I loaded up all my pictures and framed stuff yesterday and got that out of my backseat, along with all the stuff in my trunk that I put in the day before. I also watching things on TV. And that was pretty much the extent of my day.

The best part of the day was the Neebs livestream tonight. The guys were playing Minecraft and put up the name of the multiplayer server so viewers could join them. It had the map that they used for their show Mob Squad. I ended up having to to re-download Minecraft on my desktop because it wasn't working on my laptop for some reason. Nothing has changed so I'm going to need to look into that. Anyway, other than getting killed numerous times by dicks who were just there to be dicks, it was pretty cool to run around and see things. And, along with being in the background several times during the stream, I was also referenced twice.

The first time they were showing people an area from the show and I was walking down some stairs holding a blue flower and Neebs' avatar (which I think was being played by Doraleous at the time) was standing at the bottom of the stairs and just staring at me. I paused for a second and then turned around and headed back up the stairs. Not long after getting back outside I was killed by some dick. A couple minutes later I looked up at the stream and I saw Neebs/Doraleous looking at a floating blue flower on a set of stairs. It then started floating back up the stairs and Neebs/Doraleous followed it outside until it fell into the water. Apparently, someone had hit me with an invisibility potion that I was unaware of. That is why I was getting stared at, or I guess the flower I was holding was getting stared at, because it did look pretty strange.

My second cameo was when I was standing around watching Neebs float around and throw down TNT to people for the grand finale of the night. I got distracted by people building with TNT and didn't notice Neebs hovering right above me until a few minutes later on the stream when I saw my avatar standing there and Neebs said “Look at that, [my Minecraft name], he's a very dapper fellow.” That was pretty cool.

After getting killed a bunch I ended up going off on my own. I built a little fort way up in the air and then I went underground and started building something but I lost it all when the server crashed. After that I just sort of ran around and looked at stuff, trying to stay away from people. The stream ended with most of the town being destroyed with TNT while the guys sang “Uptown Funk”. It was really funny.

February 11, 2015

 Holy balls, it is after two o'clock in the morning and I need to go to bed.

Today was boring. This morning I “fixed” the gifted teacher's laptop by turning the wi-fi on and installed some software for her. Then I had fifth grade, both second grade classes, and third grade in the lab before lunch. The third grade class actually ended up coming in three separate times today to take Reading Counts tests. I assume because this was such a short week the teacher wanted to get them in.

This afternoon I had the group of second graders for Khan Academy and that was it. I spent a lot of my time reading articles and watching YouTube videos. I didn't like it. Near the end of the day I went down and hung out with my mom and one of the kindergarten teachers because their class was in PE and we just stood around and talked. The human interaction was a nice change of pace.

After work I got Chipotle and then stopped by the old house. I took my TV wall mount off the wall and loaded up all by framed pictures and artwork. I have way too much.

Dinner tonight was good. The same girl was working the line so my burrito was small. Next time I'll have to ask for extra everything just to get the normal amount. Her and the other girl working were too busy awkwardly flirting with the guys behind me so that didn't help.

The YouTube videos I showed tonight were successful, I would say. My mom actually sat through all of them, including a long one with Neebs and the guys playing a CoD game. And several extra videos tagged on at the end that I hadn't planned on.

After dinner I watched a few episodes of The Twilight Zone and the first episode of the two-part season finale of Transporter: The Series. I didn't get to watch the second part because for some reason my DVR didn't record it. I'll have to look it up sometime. Maybe.

Eventually I got around to writing my discussion post for this week. I started that way too late for some unknown reason. It also ended up being really long. Last week's post was supposed to be under 500 words but this week a length wasn't stipulated so fingers crossed. I also responded to one post. I have a response for a second post but I think it will come out better tomorrow when I'm not so tired.

February 10, 2015

 I got a full night of sleep last night and it was pretty great. Until I had to get out of bed. I could have done without that part.

Once again, not a lot going on at work today. This morning I went down and helped with kindergarten literacy centers. My group was working on opposites. They had to write down to opposite things and then draw a picture of them. One kid wrote down the infinity symbol and zero. And it was a struggle to get another kid to write up and down. I'm glad I was in that group though because it lead to a realization later in the day. I don't know if it is an accurate realization but it seems like it could make sense.

I had an extended lunch today because my grandma and aunt were in town so I met them, along with my sister and dad, and we had lunch. It was really good to see my grandma and she seems to be doing well. They recently got a new cat because the old demon one died. I can't remember how. Or maybe it is a why question. He attacked my grandma and years ago attacked my uncle. Not a great cat. But the new one sounds nice and my grandma doesn't seem to mind her. It was funny when my aunt said that grandma should tell us about her new cat and my grandma's first comment was that she has never had a cat and she still doesn't. As for lunch. I had a blueberry pancake and scrambled eggs. So good.

On my way back to work I had my opposites realization. I was sitting at a stoplight by Pizza Hut and they had a sign that said something soft was a dollar during a certain period of the day. I could only see the word “soft” and not the word immediately after so as I was waiting for the light to turn green I was trying to figure out that second word. The only word I could think of was “pretzel”, which I thought probably wasn't correct, even if they do have pretzel crust. But I don't eat there so I don't even know if they still have that. Anyway, after the light turned green I turned in front of the sign was able to see that it was advertising one dollar soft drinks. I then had a quick thought about that being a weird name for something, and then I went into opposite mode thanks to kindergarten this morning and thought “hard drinks”. It would make sense that the opposite of a hard, alcoholic drink would be a soft, non-alcoholic drink. I don' know if that is the origin of the term but I'm going to go with it.

In my downtime today, which there was a lot of, I read a PDF of a chapter for the class I'm having a face-to-face with this weekend. It was all about teaching as a librarian, mostly as a reference librarian at an academic library but example were given for other librarians as well. It was interesting and kind of made me excited/scared at the prospect of having to possibly do that for a job interview. I remember back in college when they were interviewing new Psychology professors and the prospects had to teach a class. There would be so much pressure. Granted, that is what they want to be doing, but still.

After work I mailed a bill, bought a Powerball ticket, and stopped by the old house to pick stuff up. My sister was there painting so I ended up talking to her for quite awhile before finally loading my car up and heading home for dinner.

The rest of my night, after unloading half of my car because I'm leaving the trunk for tomorrow, was spent reading a textbook. I finished reading the chapter for my other class. There was some interesting stuff in it dealing with the internet and digital resources but the majority of the rest of it went way over my head, as per usual with this textbook. I feel like this could be a somewhat interesting topic if I had any idea what the hell was going on. But I don't because this textbook has just thrown me into the middle of the ocean, forgetting that it should have been teaching me how to swim first.

At the moment it is nearly eleven o'clock so I'm not going to get the amount of sleep I enjoyed last night. But it is also like a Friday because of teacher conferences so I can sleep late on tomorrow night. Something to look forward to.

February 9, 2015

 I think I finally got my Microsoft Office shortcut working at work. I'm pretty it worked originally and then it broke when I redesigned it. I am certain it was working because I checked each one as I went but then when I went back later nothing worked. So today I worked on it, tried something new, and once again worked my way around the lab through all twenty-six computers and fixed everything. At least I hope so. If it isn't working tomorrow I'm going to say screw it and just put individual links for the individual programs on the desktops and call it good.

Along with all the work on that shortcut, today was a fairly relaxed day. I made some nonsense word cards for one of the resource teachers, printed off Reading Counts reports for one of the third grade teachers, and had classes in the lab. I somehow managed to fill my day but it doesn't really feel like much was going on. Although it is entirely possible I have managed to forget something.

After school I went and got a haircut. I set two reminders and the lady who cuts my hair also texted me. Better safe than sorry.

Tonight I carried a hay bale to the backyard, having to throw it over the fence because the gate was stuck, and then I ate dinner. I continued the excitement by reading a textbook. I found I have to stand up and move around a bit while reading, out loud, The Discipline of Organizing because I start nodding off if I'm sitting down. And I still find parts of it confusing. The intended demographic still seems to be professors or professionals who already know everything there is to know about the subject matter. That is frustrating.

Last night was a late night and tonight I plan on going to bed by ten o'clock, 10:30PM at the latest but I really hope it is closer to ten o'clock.

February 8, 2015

 Today could not have been more uneventful. The only productive thing I accomplished was reading a chapter out of a textbook. That is a somewhat sad accomplishment considering how many hours are in a day. I really need to get better at time management and my motivation. I am far too lazy. I don't like it.

When I wasn't reading, I watched things and played other things. I watched the last half of The Calling, which is about a serial killer who is killing people in order to bring back Jesus. At least that was the original intent of the prayer but the killer is actually trying to bring back his brother. That is already a spoiler but at the very end of the movie, when everything is resolved, the brother's body is missing, and then the credits roll. It is apparently based on a book so I'm curious if there is a little more resolution.

I played a little more of the Battlefield: Hardline beta because I thought yesterday was the last day but it wasn't. I tried a round of Conquest and I still suck. I also played a few rounds of Hardwire but I had a huge ping on every server I got into so the lag sucked. The only good thing about lag is that you can blame all of your deaths on it.

I was still in that mood though so I decided to play some BF4. I still had the old download on my desktop so I didn't need to download it again but I did have to download the latest DLC. While I waited for that I replayed the last level of the campaign and picked a different ending. I think that unlocks something in multiplayer. There are three possible endings, even though each is really the same. I have one more to go, which I would have had time for but I had to sit through the credits, and those take forever. By the time the credits were finished, the DLC was finished downloading, so I jumped into multiplayer. Rather than going with one of the maps from the last DLC, I went with a huge ticket game on Metro because I wanted to feel kind of good about myself. And I did alright. I died a lot but I killed slightly more.

I also played some more Bejeweled 3 and a little Tera. It was a poor day for productivity but it was a good day for video games.

I ended the night by watching the tail end of White House Down. A bad movie but also a good movie. And as I write this I am watching the beginning of it On-Demand. It is streaming and the framerate sucks so I'm trying to only listen to it, not actually watch it because it is giving me a headache. Maybe when I watch it again it will have downloaded or something and actually be watchable.

Either way, I am going to go to bed now. Got to get my beauty sleep for a long,

February 7, 2015

 Fingers crossed for a short entry because it is late and I'm tired.

This morning I woke up and didn't really do much but I did figure something out with my Elgato and my TV which is pretty cool. And then I got ready for lunch. Before I left the house I remembered that I never unloaded my car from the other day when I got stuff from the old house. I was cutting it close on time so I just got the stuff out of the front and backseat, leaving the stuff in the trunk.

I had lunch with my brother and sister at Qdoba. It is like Chipotle but with more menu variety. I got a taco salad and it was pretty good. I don't know about Chipotle-burrito-good but I could probably play with the ingredients a bit and get it there. I'll have to look into going there more often. Probably not on a regular basis because it is more expensive than Chipotle, but I wouldn't mind every now and then.

When I got home I finished unloading my car and brought everything down to the basement. Then I started laundry and read a textbook chapter. By the time I was done with that it was time for dinner. I made the last bag of pasta I got for Christmas that came with a pre-made seasoning packet. It was probably the best of the bunch. I also added in a little mozzarella cheese and artichoke hearts.

After dinner I played some more of the Battlefield: Hardline beta. I mostly played Hardwire but I did play a couple rounds of Conquest after I accidentally clicked the wrong button. I still suck at Conquest. When I was done playing that I watched YouTube videos and felt bored. I clicked around the internet and read some things but nothing really interested me. I still wanted to play video games but nothing sounded interesting. I ended up going with Bejeweled 3 because I decided I was in the mood for some mindless clicking. That ended up being a mistake because I got sucked in and just kept playing. It was one of those “just one more game” situations. I should have embraced the boredom and gone to bed hours ago. I'll do that now.