19. Ms. Livermore and the Case of the Wrong Pants

Okay, so I admit it - I FAIL at NaNoBloPo this last week. Oh, I've got plenty of excuses! Good ones too. (If you played WoW, you would understand.) But during the week I usually blog at work and I had to use all my free time to get the newsletter all formatted and ready to proofread for the teachers. It's a good thing I did, because they got it back to me this morning and Barb's printing them all out right now with the edits I made. Much less of a rush this month. And then along with that I was sick as hell from Wednesday night on, and when I was home I was either in bed, sleeping, eating, or attempting and failing to level my mage on WoW. Which is srs business you know. And yeah that is my third excuse. WoW Expansion = LVL 80!!! I'm almost there, and then I can chill out. Jesus, it's like a race... I mean I haven't been really busting my ass over it, but I do feel unproductive if I'm putzing around in game instead of gaining experience.

But after all that, I'm back. It's a pity I didn't blog some of the week last week because I went to a Mozart concert at Orchestra Hall on Wednesday night which was amazing. I forget how much I like his stuff that isn't the Magical Flute. Felt good to be enveloped in a musical experience again. Sometimes I miss playing in band so much.

Otherwise though, I didn't have a whole lot to update about. However - onto the topic of today's post:

Tomorrow is the play performance. The kids would actually be prepared if they shut up enough to concentrate on their cues. I don't think they will, though. At any rate, because tomorrow's the play, today was dress rehearsal. Some kids finally take it seriously at dress rehearsal. These kids did not. Every prop and costume piece was just another thing to distract them. So it was yet again another very frustrating day of play practice. I even saw Kathy, who's son is in the play and who's parents came to see it last week, and she told me that her father had "had to leave he was going to laugh so hard and he said 'that poor woman...'" meaning me. Sigh. That made me feel like a loser. But it turned around after play practice. The boys were sent to the boys' restroom which I stood outside of, and the girls to the girls' with the teacher. All was well and good, the girls somehow got changed much quicker until I was left with a couple boys. B, came out and I heard A shouting behind him "He has my pants!" So I stop B and ask him if he's sure the jeans he's wearing are his. He says yes and trots back off to the colony before I can stop him. Meanwhile, A's peaking at me through the door in just his underwear and a pair of jeans covering his front. "He's got my jeans! These aren't my jeans!" I'm trying not to crack up at this point and people are walking by hearing pieces of the conversation:

"A, just try them on, if they don't fit, we'll get B and exchange pants."
"A, you can at least put your shirt on while you wait."

On of our receptionists walked by and asked me if I was loitering outside the men's room with a laugh. Another embarrassing moment was when, after telling A repeatedly to keep the door shut while he waited, it opened and I proceeded to call his name in reprimand and a full-grown teacher walked out and looked at me as if he'd done something wrong. "Oh.. uh... sorry, I'm waiting for the student in there..." I look a little creepy then. Most teachers knew exactly what was going on when i said "dress-rehearsal" as they walked by.

But I was basically laughing throughout the whole thing. Finally I had to go and get B myself and drag him back up to the bathroom so they could switch jeans. Sigh. Crisis averted.

"He has my pants!!"

Totally worth it.

17. ita iz stoopid? maybee?

I get to half way and I nearly lose it - but I just haven't had a whole lot to write about. I mean, I got Wrath on Thursday night and that's pretty much all I've been doing beyond work and sleep since then. I'll be over my hardcore-ness once I reach 80 and all, but right now I've got guildies to keep up with. Gotta love feeling like you should be out of breath when you're sitting at a computer for hours at a time. Plus I have to say it's been awesome experience content for the first time with everyone else. Sure, people have already reached 80, but in terms of really enjoying new content with my friends and us all going into dungeons saying "who knows, let's do it" is so fun. Plus, Blizzard's really done a great job on most of these quests. They're almost all so much fun!

Today I did some stuff for work though. I shouldn't be bringing things home, but the lab at school literally doesn't have the resources for me to scan and crop this clip art that I need to, and I refuse to do it the old school way by photocopying the pages then trying to resize them with the copier to be just the right size and all tiny for the graphics of the newsletter. I was talking to my dad, and we starting discussing how a lot of things are getting frustrating because of the advancement of the technology in school. The computers in Colony 1 are probably the oldest in the school - granted, they're not that old. I mean, they're the computers that were big in the 90's, I used them in Jr. High. They're not quite back to big floppy disc Apple's that only had black screens with neon 8-bit colors that I used at these kids' age. (I'm not trying to sound old here, I know that in most terms even that isn't CRAZY long ago, but technology gets old fast.) They're old iMacs, most with the old OS 9. Apparently the only reason they haven't been updated to the much more compatible OS X like my desk's iMac is because the ita programs the kids use won't work on those. It uses HyperStudio, which I'd never heard of before working here but as far as I can tell it's like an old Mac version of an interactive PowerPoint? All the kids do is have slide they click through with a voice over reading things or asking them questions to answer, but the trick is that it records their answers, calculating their score and spitting it out at the end. Programming a bit beyond what I know at the moment. Also, only the iMacs support the ita font - which boggles me a little bit because if it's a font file, it should be compatible with most systems, unless Mac switched their font format somewhere in the last 10 years, which is completely possible.

So, while all that would be fine and good if they just said "we have these computers and will only use them for ita things", they're not. Teachers are asking me to have kids go play the educational games online, they want the ita font used in the newsletters I write on more recent operating systems, and they want to keep integrating new technology into their education. So - why don't we contact the ita foundation that gives us this grant to not only hire me but buy supplies for all the custom-made ita books, etc. and say can we have upgraded software? Key word is custom-made. Not only are the books created basically from scratch by staff here, so are the computer programs. The school had a woman with some background in animation and programming (I guess) make all these HyperStudio programs for the kids. It's her drawings in front of them, it's her voice reading the questions, everything. And she no longer works for us/with us, not to mention I heard she... wouldn't be available to ask about them, either. I have no idea why.

So, therein the dilemma. Bill, the tech-head for our side of the district elementary schools say he hopes to have the Colony 1 lab upgraded to all OS X operating systems next fall. Problem is, it literally can't be done with these ita programs holding us back. If you ignore my personal beliefs on ita that gives one simple solution, K-1 here is stuck because there's no getting rid of it. Stonebridge prides itself in this alphabet and it's use, even though most schools stopped it after the sixties.

I ponder aloud to my dad if that was a difference between me and the women who've held this position in the past. They were certainly capable with computers, but were they as tech-savvy as your average 22 year old? Or what about a fairly dorky and geeky 22 year old who spends half her life on the computer and is baffled at the mere concept that someone in the education field can't format a document in Word? I wonder if Kathy and Joan just dealt with what they had because it was all they new how to do wheras I'm sitting here analyzing what all could be changed for the better and literally how it could be done because the limitations are driving me nuts. Hell, maybe they investigated all the avenues I'm thinking, or if they haven't, wouldn't Bill have? He sure as hell knows a lot more about it than I do. But dad said maybe I should take it upon myself, if I have the time, to see what I can do to move things ahead. Of course, as he also said, there's a point where you just have to tolerate the resources you have and that's that, but the thing is I think we have more than we could be using, and I know already Bill wants to move in that direction too.

So the next course of action? Well, before I go forward and do all this shit, I need to consult people - make sure I'm not just overthinking things that have already been attempted and found impossible.

Questions for Kathy and/or Bill:
- Have they contacted the ita foundation about new software/an updated version of the font?
- Is there a new version of HyperStudio that can be looked into?
- Can't a new font be made somehow?

Aaaand back to kicking some Scourge ass.

14. With a little help from my friends...

Again, nothing too big today because I've got a mage to level with people, but I'm blogging again as per usual. Bit of a stressful day at work today - was multi-tasking about four things at once and finding out the back half of the lab wasn't as prepared as I'd previously thought. Plus a teacher having me proofread HER e-mails and e-mail them - what? It'd take 5 minutes to show her how she could do this herself instead of me taking thirty to get it done in between running around the lab and checking kids off. My dad calls it job security with a laugh - I call it inefficient and annoying. This is Super Sweet Teacher, and the whole adoring me and treating me like I'm ten years old while giving me a million things to do at once is getting old real fast.

Then I did the play rehearsal by myself today and damn do those kids not want to listen to me at all. I haven't had my temper tested as much as I did for that 20 minutes this whole time and then when they whined that they now couldn't go outside (because it took too long, because they would NOT LISTEN) I had to go immerse myself in lab work to cool off. Whew. They're six, what do they know, right? It's just hard to remember when a lot of the kids are so good and even the ones that are fiesty or unfocused at least aren't downright turds. Guess that's the way it goes though. In the afternoon I had a younger girl's sister come in and take her from the lab to go to divorce counseling. I know it's not uncommon, but I don't know it kind of struck me at the moment. Those poor girls.

Had an interesting conversation with the women at lunch today too. It came up the day before that I'd be up late and out at midnight for the release of Wrath (or to them, "Some Videogame") so they were laughing a bit at how tired I looked and wanted to know how the game was and all. I told them what I could, but it's not exactly easy for most (i.e. these) middle-aged moms to understand the concept or terminology of an MMORPG. One said he son does something similar, one kept asking me if it was like Halo, is it Halo?, I know people have those parties for Halo, but at least none of them were giving me the Videogames Are Bad speech. The woman with her son said something along the lines of "yeah my son does that, he gets all hooked up and talks to these complete stranger and they do battles together and all of this". Her expression told all her obvious confusion as to why anyone would want to team up with "complete strangers" for anything, let alone a fake fight of some sort.

I don't know why I found that so thought-provoking, but I did. I guess it's because I'd describe my online friends a lot of things, but the word 'stranger' would never have entered into it once. Whether it's WoW or my RPGs, these people have become as good of friends to me as most of the ones I made in high school, if not better. And not only that, they're all so different and diverse, I've always got people to go to for pretty much anything. Yes, of course, they're not quite like Megan, Kevin, Alexa, or Chris, we haven't experienced our lives together in the same way, but nonetheless some of them have bee there for me since before the senior year of high school. Some are artists, some are writers, some are teachers, many are students just like me. Some are older, some are younger, they include both men and women, many American but a good chunk not. It's just cool to think about. And with WoW and the ability for voice conversations? Raiding isn't just playing a video game with some strangers, it's a social activity that I really enjoy! Which, many probably think sounds sad, and even I get down when I have a night where I'd kill to just get out of the house with friends and I can't, but at this point in my life there's such a limbo. High school friends have moved, moved on, or I've lost touch. College friends will be lifelong, but they're not with me anymore, and we're all getting jobs or continuing school and having crazy new Real Lives to deal with. My dad tells me to just read a fucking book instead and I understand his point, but when it comes to the social aspects of the games, or the people online, this is really not only the most convenient but it's so expansive. Until I settle somewhere or go back to school where I'm put in a social environment every day, I'll certainly enjoy my time with my good friends online, whether I met them there originally, or they're old friends that I can only keep in touch that way. It's not sad, it's not like I sit in a dark bedroom and have no interaction all day with the outside world. I love my "complete strangers" thanks much - like them better than half the people I meet in real life, that's for sure, and I wouldn't have been able to survive the last year mentally without them.

I have been trying to think of ways to meet more people so when I go out for a night I have someone to do it with, but wow. It's proving difficult. What do Adults do for this?

13. WotLK

Edit:g-g-g-yeeeeeeeeah!

7. Walter the MacBook

So, this is gonna be short cause I'm busy busy with James here for the weekend but I refuse to break my streak of blogging so far. Plus, I've gotten some stalkers apparently. *heart*

Went to Mickey' Diner which looks like the dining car of a train and it was a cute little place and have very butter-fried omelets and loud waitresses. It was fun and talking with all three of them was great. We may or may not see them again on Saturday before James leaves, or if he decides to be a goof and stay until Sunday and not go to work on Monday we might go to the bar and man, I love being social again, haha. I'm pretty much talking his ear off, but he doesn't seem to mind much.

At the moment he's talking to my dad about Canadian politics and a WoW commercial in French. Hahahaha good times. Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner aaand then watched the Office and 30 Rock afterward and now talking to people on WoW and trying to fulfill my blog requirements. And now my dad is done distracting him so I am done with this blog! MoA tomorrow!

I'm naming my MacBook Walter. Thank you, Megan.

6. Afterglow...

I don't mean to be extremely political in this blog, but with the election and with admittedly how much my heart was in this one, I can't express my happiness about today. President Obama. I can't wait! I re-watched both speeches last night online before I went to bed and I have to say - McCain's speech was very classy and gracious, even if his audience wasn't the most becoming. Props to him. He obviously loves this country very much. I *almost* feel bad that his VP selection shot him in the foot - but then I don't because it helped Obama win that much more. And Obama... well, I was personally willing to let myself be moved by his. He knows how to speak so well, and eloquently, and the realization that the last eight years are finally going to be behind us was somewhat overwhelming. I definitely teared up. Cause I'm a dork like that. It's sunk in more and more, the more I read about it.

Franken and Coleman are still in a dead heat in MN, the votes being recounted with only a 300-700 some difference at the moment. I want Franken to pull ahead, but I was honestly much more passionate about getting Bachman out of our district than the Senate race - and sadly, that didn't happen. Oh well.

Tonight I go home and clean clean clean for James to arrive bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm driving out to pick him up from the bus station in St. Paul, then we're popping across the street to have breakfast with Mike and Diane (Paddie & Bea)! That should be fun! Friday I'll probably take him to the Mall of America, cause... that's my standard for anyone visiting, as there's not much else to do around here! Otherwise I'm sure the weekend will consist of a lot of hanging out and eating out and a movie or two. It's SO nice that today's the last day of the week.

Okay, geek-time. I'm getting more and more anxious about the release of the Wrath expansion for WoW. Next Thursday?? What??? It's just a game, I shouldn't stress - but I'd love to actually level up and experience new content with all my guildies who were all level 70 before I even started playing. It'll be so new and exciting! But I'm anxious because I've got a lot of clean up to do on my laptop before then - moving all this extra music to my external hard drive. Which isn't hard to do but it's ANNOYING because then iTunes is going to freak out on me cause it won't find half of them, and then I'll re-load them all into the library and have to go and delete duplicates and BAH. For as much as I love iTunes, it does NOT make it easy to keep your stuff organized when it's not stored on your default C drive. Maybe I'll undertake one of my severely OCD projects and move and reorganize EVERYthing, then just re-load my entire iTunes library. Must... have... organized.. music collection.... guh.

On the upside though, now that I can take my MacBook with me places, I can probably keep my hard drive plugged into Rupert (my IBM) almost all the time, which will prevent it from losing it's place all over again so much. We'll see. That reminds me though! I need to name this snazzy new li'l MacBook. Maybe I should have it be a chick? Nah, it's too hawt. He'll get a classy name though, fo sho.

Alright, time to wipe down all the computers and go home!