February 7, 2016

 I didn't really accomplish much today. I slept in, first until 9:30AM and then 11:00AM because my bed was particularly comfortable this morning. Before lunch, with what little time there was, I managed to read an article for class. We have to use that article this week to evaluate an electronic resource. This sounds easy enough but we have to do it with a partner. And we have to pick that partner ourselves and create a group. It's fairly simple to pick a partner when you're sitting in a class together because you just look around until you make eye contact with someone near you. Online it is a little different. And I think we have an odd number, so there is a chance someone will be left out until they join a group as a third wheel. I feel like I will probably be that third wheel because I'm probably not going to reach out to someone. I figure I'll give it a day or two before seriously starting to consider my options. I might actually start working on the assignment myself and then in the off chance that someone asks me to work with them I can bring something to the table.

This afternoon I made the quinoa enchiladas again. That's really a misnomer though because it reminds me more of chili. It uses enchilada sauce, hence the recipe name, but really it's chili. Speaking of the sauce, I used two cans this time, following the recipe, instead of just one, like I did the first time. It seemed really soupy last time when I was adding in the ingredients so I only used one can. When it was done I decided that two cans was probably better because there really wasn't any liquid left after four hours in the crockpot. This time it again seemed really soupy, especially after adding in the second can of sauce, but it turned out well. I'm still a fan and I would make it again.

Throughout the day I had an off and on headache. That was a literal pain and a pretty good deterrent to schoolwork. That work really only included reading a second article but I couldn't bring myself to stare at small text for the duration of a fifteen-page article. So I didn't. I was really tempted to sew but I felt guilty about not reading the article so I watched YouTube videos instead. When I'm not being productive with schoolwork I feel like I shouldn't be productive with other things either. It's dumb.

Tonight I watched the Super Bowl. Kind of. I was really only interested in the commercials and most of the time it was on mute so I could watch YouTube videos. It is hard to watch football now and see the really hard hits and not see into the not too distant future when those guys are going to be dead due to concussion-related causes. I saw so many tackles where the tackler led with their head or the person being tackled took it in the head. At this point everyone knows the risks and the seemingly inevitable outcome but the players still participate. I think the only real solution, short of virtual reality, is getting rid of the helmets and pads altogether. The only reason players hit so hard and don't give a second thought to their own well being is because they are wearing all of this protective gear. You don't see rugby players hitting with the same amount of force because they're not wearing pads and hard helmets. It seems like a pretty obvious solution but over the years football has been built up in such a way that we expect a certain level of physicality and it would be hard for the general football audience to accept less. The viewing audience wants to see hard hits and most aren't directly affected by the potential outcome so they could not care less that players are causing permanent damage to themselves that could potentially lead to an early death. It all just seems so sad and unnecessary. But I'll get off my soapbox now.

It is now after eleven o'clock but because I slept in I'm not really tired. I'm not sure what I'm going to do but I'll probably be up until midnight before I even attempt to go to bed. Hopefully that will prevent me from laying there wide awake for hours. I did laundry today and I should probably go put my sheets back on my bed so I don't have to worry about it later but that probably won't happen.

February 6, 2016

 It is freaking late so lets make this quick.

This morning I had to scrape ice off my windshield and rear window. It has been a long time since I've had to do that in the morning. Then I drove to class. We started with talking about requests for proposals. That's a super boring topic. It's basically the documents a library comes up with when they are looking for a new product and want to get options from different vendors. The main example we talked about was when the university was wanting a new course management tool. So they came up with this document that included all the features they wanted and a bunch of other legal stuff, and then different vendors presented their case. The idea of it is interesting and I will probably be involved with some aspect of the process at some point in my career, but it is also boring. We spent maybe ten minutes to compare and contrast two different RFP documents. That ten minutes was to read through both, dense documents. And then we talked about them. That was more interesting.

Next we had a short presentation from a librarian about the university library's databases. She has given the same basic presentation to us almost every semester but it also changes every time, if that makes any sense, so I find it informative. And she's entertaining.

Before lunch we briefly covered HTML. I took Web Design over the summer so I didn't really need that discussion but I did get to look at the code from the web sites I have made using Dreamweaver. It was pretty cool. I still like Brackets, though.

For lunch I went to Jimmy John's and then came back early so I could work on a picture in Photoshop. I did a quick search in the morning for old photographs so I could mess around with Photoshop. I found one that was in bad shape with creases and other stuff so throughout the day during breaks and downtime I edited it. Halfway through I noticed that the lady in the picture looked like she could have been one of my old friend's great grandmother. The similarities were definitely there. Anyway, I made progress and at the end of the day I saved it so I can mess with it some more. I think Gimp can open Photoshop files. And if not, I saved it as a pictures so I can open that in Gimp and continue editing.

After lunch we were told to go out and wander around the library and look at the various technology. The idea being that our final group project involves us renovating a library that hasn't been updated since the the 1980s. I lost track of time but I covered three floors, including the stacks, and then went back and edited the photo again.

After discussing what everyone observed we moved on to learning about Camtasia. The professor gave us an overview of the software and then had us play with it for awhile. I came up with a simple slideshow. We were doing all this because one of our upcoming assignments requires us to make a tutorial video that involving us capturing our screen and talking over it. Camtasia was interesting but at this point I still think I'm going to use OBS to record my screen and Sony Movie Studio to edit everything together. We'll see, though.

When class was over I briefly spoke with the professor about her son-in-law's involvement with the game The Witness. He worked on the the art design of the world. That is pretty cool because the game does have really nice visuals. It has also been really well received, which has got feel good as a game developer. I would like to play the game but it will have to go on sale before that happens. Until then I can watch Twitch streams to get my fix.

Before leaving town I topped off my gas tanks and picked up Spangles. At one point on my way home when I made it back onto the highway, I briefly drove off the highway. I noticed that there was a section of road where there really wasn't a shoulder and the road stopped right on the white line. And then I noticed a chunk out of the edge of the road, which also cut into the white line. And my driving apparently followed my eye line because not long after I drifted off the road, ever so briefly. I calmly brought all four wheels back on the road and kept going on my way. My heart rate didn't even go up, so it couldn't have been that exciting.

When I filled up my tank I reset my MPG and monitored it throughout my trip home. While doing that I was also able to catch my odometer hit 13337, which I took a picture of because it was nerdy. At that point my MPG was up to 36.8, which I thought was pretty impressive. But it just kept creeping up. On the final stretch into town I peaked at 38.3, which I think is the highest I have ever seen in my car. I was impressed.

After getting home I posted a couple questions to the question bank for the assignment to interview and electronic resources librarian. I also feel like I did something else but it's not coming to me.

Not too long after that I went over to my friend's parent's house because she was in town this weekend. She gave me a belated Christmas gift which included string for cross stitching, coloring books, and colored pencils to go with the coloring books. Several years ago when we were hanging out I got kids coloring books and we colored those while watching DVDs. Since then, adults coloring has become a thing, so it is much easier to find coloring books. At least for adults. I haven't looked recently but I would hope the trend has improved the options for kids as well. I had a hard time years ago finding actual coloring books that weren't mostly activity books with a little bit of coloring. Unacceptable.

We sat and talked at the dining table while her parents watched stuff on TV. Then her dad went to bed and we ended up bringing her mom into the conversation. I went over at eight o'clock and didn't think I would be there more than an hour or so. I ended up not leaving until almost one o'clock in the morning. Good grief. It was a good conversation and the time just disappeared. Those moments are rare these days so I appreciate them when they happen.

But now it is after two o'clock and I need to go to bed. Tomorrow I want to read some stuff for class, do my laundry, and maybe play a video game. Completing all of those things would be nice. But I might also sleep through half the day and screw myself over when trying to go to bed tomorrow night. Only time will tell.

February 5, 2016

 I slept in this morning but relative to how late I stayed up last night I probably got less sleep than usual. Such is life. It worked out well though because I was able to do the research and write up my new tech entry for my technology class. I picked a site that allows you to quickly create a mobile website. The company hasn't tweeted since 2009 and that was about the last time there is any real reference to them online so that isn't a good sign. They seem to have gone quite after they sued Google and Facebook at the same time over a patent issue. Regardless, the website still works and it was really simple to use. I could see it being very useful for libraries that want a presence on mobile but don't want to put in the time and effort to code a mobile friendly website if they don't have one already.

I think I waited until this afternoon to actually post my write-up but I may have done it before lunch. At this point the afternoon seems to have disappeared. I watched some YouTube videos, including The Big Fat Quiz of Everything. They usually do one for a particular decade or year but this one was over everything. And it was funny as always. At one point there was even a pastry food fight. I think I might play that for Chipotle night instead of a bunch of shorter videos.

I played a little Animal Crossing today and I appreciated it so much more after playing Castaway Paradise. That is still a fun game, and I've put in a little bit of time every day (mostly to get the daily unlocks), but Animal Crossing is better. But it is also a full-priced franchise game for Nintendo, so it should be better. I think I'm going to play a little more after I finish writing this.

My drive down for class went well. I had to pass a truck with a trailer and a semi in the second half of my journey but other than that I was able to drive at my own pace for most of the trip. It was nice. Part of that may have been the reason for me feeling like I got to campus really early. I also didn't stop to use the restroom so that has something to do with it. I felt like I made it down much faster last time, too but when I looked at some previous times I had written down when I was first making the trip I was pretty much on par. Maybe I'm just getting out of town faster.

Class went well. A big chunk of it was taken up by our introductions. The best was probably a lady who teaches English at a university who made a comment about a piece of software she uses, saying that she didn't think it was the Devil but it was probably possessed by the Devil. She also remarked that all the documents she has lost over the years were probably with with missing sock. The most interesting introduction was a guy who I haven't seen since orientation because he's usually in the other section. He couldn't speak too loud because he said on Tuesday when he was walking down the street he was randomly punched in the throat by a stranger. What the hell is that about? People are ridiculous. For the last hour and a half we talked about photo editing which almost put me to sleep. She was showing stuff in Photoshop, which I don't use so I did learn a little about that, but the concepts are the same with Gimp so most of it wasn't necessary. I was tempted a few times to chime in but I'm not that kind of person in a large group setting. So I sat there and zoned out. A decent part of my job includes manipulating images so I'm pretty much past the basics that we're covering in class.

Not too long after class started I remembered that I didn't remember putting my shirt for tomorrow in my car. Before I left the house today I was packing up my dinner and remembered that I had left my shirt downstairs, so I stopped and went down to get it, putting it right in front of my coat so I wouldn't forget it. And then as I was walking out the door I moved it out of the way so I could get my coat. What an idiot. Rather than going out to my car during our break I texted my mom and she confirmed that it was still hanging by the door.

There were a few weird coincidences surrounding this forgetfulness. This was the second time I have forgotten my shirt for the second day of the weekend. Like last time, I was wearing a t-shirt today instead of my normal button-up shirt. We were also in the same computer lab that we were in the first time I forgot my shirt, and we haven't been in that room since that first time. It's as if it was meant to be.

My mom suggested I “be an adult” and go to Walmart and buy a shirt. Last time I just wore the same shirt twice. No one probably noticed and no one would probably notice this time. Also, there was that story of my classmate getting punched in the throat earlier this week, granted that didn't happen at Walmart, but still the same town. We ended up getting out of class a little early and when I got out to my car I made the decision to go outside my comfort zone, so I looked up where Walmart was. It took me a minute to figure out the map but once I found the campus I was able to orient myself and it was pretty easy. And then I went to Walmart, found the Men's clothing, picked out the first mostly green shirt, and bought it. I'm probably a medium but I got a large because I didn't want to risk it being too small. It did turn out to be a little too big but that is better than too small, and it isn't really noticeable when my hoodie is on. It's annoying that sizes aren't universal across clothing brands. It is also annoying that I am getting up to a size where I am kind of in between sizes. I need to start exercising more and eating less. Not only for the health stuff but also so I can situate myself safely in one clothing size.

I mentioned possibly playing Animal Crossing after this but I'm starting to feel that tired feeling so I think I'm going to go to bed instead. That sounds way better to me right now.

February 4, 2016

I forgot to mention that yesterday when I was walking down the hall one of the kindergarteners stopped me in the hall and asked me if I liked The Goonies. I said I did and asked her if she liked it, and she said it was her favorite movie. Her parents are doing something right.

This morning I found a Valentine's Day card on my desk but it didn't have a name on it. This afternoon when the kindergartener was in the lab she called me over to ask a question about Compass Learning and then asked me if I got her Valentine's Day card. So mystery solved there. As her class was getting ready to leave she asked me to tie her shoe. She always seemed kind of scared of me but I guess we're friends now. My mom told me later that the kindergartener had asked her if she liked The Goonies and my mom had told her that it was one of my favorite movies. And this morning the kindergartener had gotten up and left the gym without telling anyone, which is when she went around to deliver her Valentine's Day cards. I couldn't understand everything she was saying in the lab this afternoon but it sounded like something or someone had told her to make cards for people so she did. It sounded like an imaginary friend or maybe an advent calendar type thing. I don't know.

However long ago I finally broke down and replaced a bunch of things in the color printer in the computer lab. I had the parts sitting around since last year but the printer was still working fine so I figured I'd see how long I could go. Recently it started adding a thin line on everything and I couldn't figure out how to get rid of it, so I replaced a bunch of stuff. And it didn't fix the line so it was kind of pointless. I mention all of this because this morning two of the IT people brought in a brand new color printer for the lab. Which made the replacing of the stuff in the old printer all the more pointless. It would have been nice to get a heads-up on that. But I've got a new printer now and there isn't a black line. It is also apparently a close enough model that the old printer drivers work so I am still able to print things. So good times.

The air conditioning in the lab stopped working this morning. Even with the doors open it kept getting hotter and hotter but I didn't realize it until classes started coming in. People coming from the kindergarten side of the building really liked it because it is always cold down there. I had to to put up with it for over an hour before I had a chance to go to the office and see if there was something going on. One of the ladies sent out an email and not too long after that the vents opened up and the air came on. It felt amazing.

When I was passing through the office today after clocking in from lunch one of the office ladies wanted me to try one of the sweet potato waffle fries she got with her lunch. I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes or sweet potato fries but I was being polite so I took one. And it was delicious. She ended up making me take most of them so she wouldn't eat them. I think they were from Freddy's because they tasted like Freddy's onion rings. But I could be wrong because I don't remember Freddy's having sweet potato fries. Who knows, they were delicious though.

This afternoon I filled out the volunteer application for the public library. Yesterday I printed one out but today I figured out how to type in the PDF so I did that today instead. After work I drove down to the library to drop it off. The girl I handed it to wasn't quite sure what to do with it but she said she would figure out where it goes. Not very comforting but we'll see what happens.

Tonight I didn't really accomplish a lot. I think I have picked out the “technology” I want to post about for my technology class. However often we have to complete a “try new tech” assignment where we pick a piece of technology that we think would be good for libraries. I'm going with a website that allows you to easily create mobile websites. Every library needs a good mobile website.

Now it is late and I'm going to go to bed. Tomorrow I get to sleep in but it would be nice if I could wake up early enough to get my tech write-up done so I don't have to worry about it when I get home from class. I foresee myself doing it on Sunday but I can hope.

February 3, 2016

Sometimes I feel like I get writing anxiety every time I open this up and type the date. It's like sitting down for a test and immediately forgetting everything I've ever learned. Throughout the day I will think of things to write about and for some reason I don't write them down in the notepad I always have in my back pocket. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Anyway.

Today was the 100^th day of the school. I didn't do anything special but I did print off the last few pictures of kindergarteners that one of the kindergarten teachers had taken using an app that made them look old. And not like an old photograph but like little old people. The app worked surprisingly well and produced the thing of nightmares.

This morning I set up Guided Access on twenty iPads in anticipation of the state assessments which start soon. One of the sixth grade classes plans on using them and if all goes well one of the fourth grade classes also wants to try it. I've heard good things so we'll see.

When one of the first grade classes was in the lab I witnessed two meltdowns. I missed how the first started but I think it was because a kid had to repeat something in Compass Learning and then was taking his aggression out on the headphones. The teacher stopped it and I think was going to have him sit by the door but then he refused to walk and as the teacher was slowly getting him across the lab he kicked her, so she kept on walking him all the way to the office. They called his mom and she decided to come pick him up rather than having him in the office. The second kid was definitely related to having to repeat an activity in Compass Learning. They have a thing where you'll go through a lesson and then there is a quiz. If you don't score high enough on the quiz it will make you redo the lesson. This makes sense because the goal of the lesson is to learn something, and if the quiz shows you didn't learn that thing, then they try again. This tends to frustrate the kids to no end, especially the ones who are happy clickers and don't actually pay attention to the lessons. This kid also refused to walk and while he was sitting by the door he kicked my paper ream doorstop. He didn't end up in the office for that but later on he through a chicken nugget at the teacher (or the skin of a chicken nugget) and that landed him in the office. And he was also picked up by his mother. It was a rough day to be a first grader.

Along with having classes in the lab throughout the day, I got one of the SPED laptops works, got Reading Counts working on one of the fourth grade laptops, figured out a formatting issue in Word for one of the sixth grade teachers, and worked on my MAP spreadsheets. I think I made it up to the last two classes, so I might actually get it finished tomorrow.

One of the second graders asked me today how old I was. So I asked him how old he thought I was. He looked me over for a second and replied “forty....seven.” And I responded with “Yep, I'm forty-seven.” So I guess I'm forty-seven now. One of the paras who overheard the exchange came up to me later and said he's never had the guts to ask the kids how old they think he is. It's probably safer not to.

After work we had a small meeting to figure out testing accommodations for kids. Or rather, figure out where these kids would be testing and who they would be testing with. My presence isn't entirely necessary but I type up the spreadsheet with all the information on it and I'm a big part of testing so it is nice to be in the loop.

When the meeting was over and I picked up Chipotle and headed home. My burrito bowl was good and more filling than last week because I remembered to ask for extra rice and beans. The videos went well and ended in time for me to get online for my class meeting, which I didn't actually remember until about two minutes before it was supposed to start. And then I couldn't find the link for the video conference. I would think it would be posted in a prominent location but alas it was not. I ended up finding it in a message referring to the meeting last week and thankfully it was the same link. But then all the struggle ended up not being worth it because the professor's internet connection is crappy. Kind of ironic for the professor teaching a technology class, but she does live out in the country and she's not really in control of the internet. The video was pretty laggy when I got in the room and not too long later she dropped out entirely. She came back and tried to continue but it was still laggy. She was trying to show us stuff in Photoshop and that was kind of pointless with the lag because she was doing step-by-step stuff and we were missing steps. She finally called it and said she would record a video instead. I was okay with that because I'm not really sure I was going to learn anything. I'm fairly decent at editing photos in Gimp and don't have any plans on using Photoshop, unless I can get it for free through school, but even then I'm not sure. I'll still watch the video when she posts it though, never know what I might learn.

I spent the rest of the night not doing a lot. I watched YouTube videos and Twitch streams, and I played a little Castaway Paradise. I really need to pick up my 3DS again and jump into Animal Crossing. It has been forever and the place is probably covered in weeds.

Now I'm going to go to bed, because why not.

February 2, 2016

This morning I took a sinus medication for my headache and I'm not sure but I think it tricked my body into thinking I drank an Olympic-size swimming pool because I lost track of how many times I went to the bathroom. The two could be unrelated but I really hadn't had any more to drink than usual this morning so I don't know how else to explain it. Unless my body absorbed all the moisture in the air.

Speaking of, we were supposed to have a snowstorm today. Instead we got a bit of rain with a projected high of 50 degrees. Thanks to the cloud cover we never made it out of the low forties, but that is nowhere close to a snowstorm. So much for that snow day.

I again spent most of my day looking at spreadsheets. I have all the scores entered and linked and now I'm working on marking the change in the scores between the Fall and Winter. I'm only on second grade so I've still got a long way to go but progress is being made. I also printed out all the reports for teachers and distributed them. It would be nice if I could get my spreadsheets done by the end of the week but there are only two days left in the week so the odds are not great.

After work I read the textbook chapter for this week. And that was the extent of my schoolwork for the day. After dinner I sewed for a bit. I wanted to try out my sister's idea of making bookmarks out of the strips of fabric that my mom got me. I only made one but I'm going to say it was a success. I like how it turned out, at least, and I'm a little surprised it came out like I saw it in my head. Not that it was a complex project. It's basically just a long and skinny version of a coaster without the batting inside, which made it much easier. For the center bit of the coasters I spiral in and for the bookmark I did a zigzag down the middle The pattern of the fabric is pretty “loud” so it is hard to see the white thread, and I'm okay with that, but I think the zigzag looks good when you take a closer look and actually see it. I've got a lot of fabric strips left so hopefully there will be a lot of fabric bookmarks in my future.

It's not too long after ten o'clock now an

February 1, 2016

 I feel like I spent the majority of my day staring at spreadsheets, and numbers in general. I downloaded all of the MAP reports and worked on finishing my score spreadsheets. For each class I have two spreadsheets. The first in more comprehensive and the second is simplified, only including the overall scores, percentile, and lexile range. In the past I typed in all the numbers twice, once on each spreadsheet. Today I made the brilliant choice to link the two spreadsheets, so when I type the numbers in the first one they are automatically filled in on the second. They aren't formatted the same however, so I can't just select everything at once and link it on the second. I have to go once student at a time, and there are five links for each student. That is a lot of clicking and it is taking forever. For the current round of testing it would be faster to just type the numbers in the second spreadsheet but it will save time during the next round of testing. I'm trying to keep that in mind.

In the brief time I wasn't staring at my computer, I did other things. This morning I helped with literacy centers in Kindergarten and throughout the day I had a couple classes in the lab. This is my slow day in terms of classes in the lab, which just meant a lot more time to work on spreadsheets. That was productive but also tiring.

On my way home after work I stopped and got my Powerball ticket because the weather may or may not be bad tomorrow. When I got home I read an article before dinner and then read three more after dinner. The professor posted the chapter tonight but I needed a break so I'll read that tomorrow.

When I called it good with the reading I played a little Castaway Paradise. I figured out how to switch it to windowed mode so I could move it to a different monitor, which was a plus. Most games have the option in the game but for this one you have to double-click on the icon to launch the game and then hold the ALT key before it loads to get a little pop-up window that lets you change what monitor it starts on, whether it is fullscreen or windowed, the resolution, and the graphics. Along with making it windowed I also messed with the graphics a little because I think what it was on by default was stressful on my eyes. It seemed to get better after I messed with it. As for the game itself, I still like it but it being so similar to Animal Crossing is probably its downfall. My expectations are too high. My main concern at the moment is how long it takes to accomplish quests. They're either cost prohibitive or are based on random events, like catching a specific fish. And speaking of fish, the range of the fishing pole is really restrictive and it takes forever to find a fish that is within range, and almost every time as soon as you cast out the fish moves away. Also, there really isn't enough to do. With the quests requiring a lot of time or money, they don't really keep you busy. There are daily quests but they aren't very interesting, and the fishing and bug catching isn't as fun as Animal Crossing. So yeah, I like the game but it mostly just makes me want to play Animal Crossing.

Now I'm going to go to bed. The headache I got last night after my weird eye thing stayed with me all day. I'm hoping maybe tonight I'll sleep it off. I think it is a sinus thing, which makes me think maybe the eye thing was also sinus related. That would be one of the less distressing theories. Tomorrow I'm going to do more spreadsheet stuff. Can't wait.