Hard Lessons

I'm learning another hard lesson: when you name one editor in chief, other people get hurt. I chose a sophomore to lead next year's paper yesterday, and announced it to the staff. A junior, the sophomore's close friend, was also interested in the position, and I heard through a text message that she was less than happy with the news.

I feel so bad. Fuck, I HATE hurting kids.

I like the junior...truly. She's awesome. Funny, witty, agreeable, and does a decent job with her column and her page. But the sophomore sparkles. Her writing is so clear and crisp, her editing sublime, and her computer pagination skills and layout/design eye are solid. She'll be able to do the job for 2 years, and we could win awards with her in the lead. I know I stand by my decision, so why do I feel so shitty?

Connections

It's time to make the connection between my ramblings about my business venture and my social networking addictions and my job. This blog IS about my job, after all, so this entry is perhaps long overdue.

I have learned quite a bit in the 3 years I've been on the job, and the above-mentioned venture and addictions are just natural, albeit unhealthy and perverted, evolutions of the job.

There, I said it. I'm a techno geek. I want to learn how to make a living sitting at home on my butt on the computer.

Now, in reality, I teach high school journalism. I must learn more about inDesign and Photoshop in order to survive and keep new generations of kids learning...but instead I dink around on blogs and google ads and myspace and facebook. Hmmmmmmmmm. See the connection?

I do. But I'm on drugs. Legal drugs that are prescribed to me by a shrink.

Go me.

Confessions of a caffeine-addicted social networking geek

I'm going on hour three of social networking...it's great...I woke up at 5:30 for no good reason, other than I went to bed early last night. So I woke up, had two cups of coffee, which is double my daily intake, and off I went.

I have these windows open: gmail, facebook, myspace, blogspot, nhs planet x, cafepress.com/MsCalvin, and phoons.com. I just click back and forth and play with those sites all day long, if I have the chance. It's really fun and addictive. I can see how the kids feel. . . addicted and kinda like a tweaker on crack.

It's fun. My husband doens't understand. Oh well. It's better than being out in the bars.

No news...

...is not necessarily good news.

I have not heard anything from the hotmail account of the bad Chinese interpreted person who was trying to provide me with a check a few posts previous to this one.

I did; however, stumble upon (by googling 'mscalvin') a website of interest...somebody found me on cafepress.com and liked my "sexless" art. They reviewed it on a peer review site called Stumble Upon. A 22-year-old male from the Ukraine is the reviewer! Isn't that cool? I've crossed the ocean with my art! Nobody's bought anything yet, except my friend Todd who bought a t-shirt and me. I've recently purchased a t-shirt as a gift for a party I go to in January, and a dog shirt for my mom's best friend's dog. I also bought a hoodie that I love, as well as the first order, which was the PG-13 art on a long-sleeved t-shirt, one for me and one for Sandee Dunk, and a mouse pad for Mark and a BBQ apron for Phil.

Ah, it's good to be a capitalist in America. Maybe I'll get mentioned in the Rolling Stone some day.

Five-day Vacation

Oh yea, every once in awhile, the goddesses are with me. Yesterday, snow day; today, sick-boy day; weekend; Monday, MLKing Day! So wa-lah...I get a five-day vacation to be LAZY.

And, it's a good thing, because there's a colossal cold front out too...and the forecast calls for more of the same into next week. Sub-zero temperatures make me want to hibernate, for sure.

Only problem is we were going to submit our first pages of the year in yearbook today, and my Jostens rep is coming in to help. They will do it without me, though, which is good, I guess. Rachel can handle it. All the pages are ready and PDF'd anyway, so we should be ok. Except Connor was working on a new background, and Jared might be coming in to help...oh well, I gotta "let it go" cuz I'm not there to help. Hope I get a good sub, considering I called in at 7 with a sick child.

AHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. My brain won't rest.

Vacation, my ass.

Musings on a Snow Day

DAMN I love snow days! There is nothing like a 5:20 a.m. phone call alerting you to the snow day, BEFORE your alarm even goes off. AHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh, I love this country.

Now, getting on topic for a minute, I have news to report: I met with my principal and came clean about my phobias. I told him I could barely function without my star kids who have graduated, and I even have them coming in still to help. I told him my biggest fear: that I'll NEVER learn these damn programs and that the kids have to bypass me for big problems. I HAVE learned how to solve little problems, and I deal with hardware issues all day so the software doesn't get learned. (SHIT, I forgot to tell him that second sentence, which is important if I want to politic for new hardware....note to self.)

Anyway. He said not to worry, that everyone who deals with technology deals with the fact that some kids know more than you...and that's good and OK. So maybe Rachel is right, maybe I should RELAX.

And thank you, as always, Jared, for still coming in and helping out whenever you have a minute between your two full time lives. I love you kids, truly.

98% and Paying for Gas on the Road

Nuff said.

Rockin OUT!

Well, we survived the initial learning pains and are now having fun with Rock Band PS2.

I'm happy to report that I consistently score in the 88 to 97% range, depending on if I've ever heard the song before. I rocked Rolling Stones and Nirvana and Garbage pretty damn well.

And I'm happy to report that we have played solo, duet, and trio modes with success. Quincy had friends over yesterday (during the Packers snowy romping of the Seattle Seahawks), and they fought at times and left in a huff, but they are boys so I'm sure they'll forgive and make up and be back soon.

It's life diversions like this that are fun. And blow the stink off.

And since I rarely shower on the weekends (I HATE SHOWERING, have I mentioned that?) I sometimes need the stank blown off.

Rock on.

Am Interest to Purchase...

I got the following message from Facebook, referring to an ad I placed there last month about the sexless products.

Alaba sent you a message.

--------------------
Subject: $2.49 - Fun stickers, shirts and mugs

Hello,
Am interest to purchase your item on behalf of my client by knowing the final price of the item and also the present condition of the item which i could like to inform you that i can only afford to issues out cashier check or money order for you, which will include the shipping fees that will come and pickup the item. meanwhile i will like you to answer this
question below:

[1.] Do you accept a ( Cashier Check / Money Order ) as a mode of payment?

[2.] What is the final asking prize you can go at last?

[3.] What is the condition of the items?

[4] Will you let our shipping company to come to you house for the pick up of the item cos we don't want you to worry yourself about the shipping of the item

[5] If you kindly accept the term please send me your full name and address also your contact phone number for the payment should mail out.

[6] Please contact me to my private email address which is (alabaaro1988@hotmail.com) because i wouldn't able to response back to you as soon as you reply to my request....

(7)i don't look my facebook occassionally but i look my yahoo mail everyday okay...so.email me to my email (alabaaro1988@hotmail.com)


(8)Will you be abel to send/wire the excess fund include to the payment to the shipping company via Western union for the pick up of the item?

PLS ONEC AGAIN JUST CONTART MY PRIVET EMAIL BOX OKAY
PLS (alabaaro1988@hotmail.com) THANKS.

Regards..

So I responded to his/her hotmail account (red flag #1) that all transactions were to go through www.cafepress.com/MsCalvin. So we'll see if this is legit, or some crack pot.

I hate to be racists, but this sure sounds like a poor Asian translation (red flag #2)...but maybe this is the first step to becoming a millionaire so I can retire? Once again, stay tuned...

Rock Band Hell

What we got HERE, is a failure to communicate.

My son, 8, is a colossal pain in the butt this morning. It started out as a miracle that the UPS guy brought our Rock Band for PS2 on a Saturday morning, before we could start to get bored even.

Then it turned into a nightmare as my son had meltdowns because we couldn't get the wireless guitar going, then had meltdowns because the drums were too hard, then had meltdowns because he failed at singing.

I did have one shining moment, eventually, when I scored 97% on "Gimme Shelter" by the Stones...it was the first song we completed without somebody failing to perform.

All I wanted was adoration from the fans, and instead, this is what I was given. Harumph.

Rock Band Hell

Mysteries

Well, I'll be vague again on purpose: my problem involved someone I love and the law and I didn't like it much. That's it.

But it might be over, and it might not be...you never know when you're dealing with the law. Each day that goes by that the Sheriff doesn't show up in the driveway is a good day.

The mysteries of the universe are complex, and dealing with the law is one mystery after another. I like to avoid the whole fucking thing, if possible, thank you.

All I know is, I fought the law, and the law won.

Drama.

I hate drama. I might have even mentioned that before on these blogosphere pages.

Shit happens

Oh my. How quickly things can change.

I was just thanking the old year for my life, when suddenly an event occurred to change it all upside down.

Now, I gotta shit. Literally. It makes me poop to be upset. No details. Not now. Not here.

But wow, it is funny sometimes when shit happens. You gotta laugh.

Advance Order

I just ordered Rock Band for PS2 online...for significantly more than it's worth. I wanted it NOW, not next week, even though it might not arrive until then anyway. I'm either hip or stupid.

I want to sing in a rock band, and feel the adoring fans' love...oh well, another dream gone unfulfilled in my life.

Not that there are too many of those...I used to dream of teaching, which I have done, and I used to dream of acting. I haven't really done that, except for a community theater show in high school. I'm too old and fat now, but before that I should have done more acting and singing.

Next life I want to place an advance order on more kids. I'd like to have four or five babies...that's a good sized brood. Oh, and while I'm at it, I'd like to order up Phil as their father...

Oh, and always, when ordering me food, order extra cheese.

Have I mentioned the monkey on gmail? When you do this: :(|) it turns into the cutest damn monkey you've ever seen.

Random entry #368.

Play Time

My cats and kittens are all freaking out right now. They start about 4:30 a.m., and really get cooking by 7 a.m. They run around the house, play, get into shit, and even the old broad Cheetoh gets into the action by pouncing on imaginary mices on her favorite chair.

This behavior parallels high school students on certain days. Like during homecoming week, or on a snowy day, or on any given Friday, especially full-moon Fridays. My last hour class was so freaking talkative yesterday that I can't get it out of my mind. I'm thinking of what I'm going to do to get it under control. I already did the old "Whiplash" routine where I make them practice whipping to attention after I say, "Alright, let's get going." Seating chart change will be first. Me turning into a bitch is next.

Me not thinking about it on a weekend would also be nice.

Control. I know that it's just an illusion that I can control anything, especially other people's behaviors. But when you are a teacher, you must possess that illusion of control. I think they've heard from other kids that I'm cool, so they expect party time all the time. Nope. We work hard too. I want to be one of those teachers with high expectations...where kids rise to the challenge and produce quality. But, I want to have fun too, lots of fun, and I want kids to want to be there.

I want the moon, Alice, don't I?

Proof

I have been learning, by the way. I realize I should have put InDesign and Photoshop up there as major goals. It is only my job at stake.

So here's evidence that I have been learning a little about Photoshop on my own. Well, this was actually done with Gimp, a free program from Gimp.org that Jared told me about that works on PCs.

Walker is a good model. We shot this with a Canon Rebel from school, and I desaturated it and erased the red back into the guitar. Simple!

Of course, that language was Greek to me a year ago, so maybe I need to relax and just have fun with this stuff.

Fun? Yea right.

New Year's Cliche Entry

Andrew fucking Daniels texted me at 4:30 in the morning, totally interrupting my wine-induced coma with a "Happy New Year hot stuff" message. Then I couldn't sleep again because the damn cats wanted to play/love/eat me.

Now I'm awake, but restless. Not hungover or angry, but full of anticipation of what the cold cold day will bring. Work tomorrow; prepare today.

Well, I did a top ten list of things I'm thankful for in 2007 in an email to the Vancent, and it doesn't bear repeating here due to the cliche nature of the list. I'm basically thankful for my family, health and gadgets -- gigs and gigs of gadgets.

So now comes the part where you make a New Year's resolution. I haven't done one for so long because I'd fail so many years at not being able to quit smoking, that now that I have quit I just don't know what to resolve. Lose weight? Na, that'll come with cancer and old age. Work less? Yea, right. Relax more? Maybe that's one to contemplate.

I know. Phoon more. It's a great hobby, and I could definitely find more creative places to photograph around here. OK. That's it: Three phoons submitted to phoons.com in 2008.

Oh, that and more sex. I'm greedy like that.