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.

Christmas. There, I said it.

What a freaky time of year this is. It's the first of December, and now we can officially listen to Christmas music. I prefer to say "Christmas" over "the holidays," but not because I'm particularly politically correct. I guess I'm a Christian (that's another blog), so I've grown up with the holiday. But I hate it when conservatives whine about taking back Christmas, give me a fucking break.

Itchy is asleep on my lap right now. Or maybe it's Scratchy. I can't tell them apart when they aren't together. Kind of like the White or Gooding twins at school.

Speaking of school, all is not well in the NHS publictions dept. Romance may be brewing, which could be good until it goes bad. Computers are slow and poopy, so we are creating awards to hang on them. Tech problems plagued us from before Christmas break, so our paper was sloppy. We still haven't submitted any pages in yearbook. Kids aren't folowing up on advertising. We are $7,000 in debt for the yearbook. I suck.

Well, as Bing says, Melekalekamaka!

Relax, says Rachel

I love my yearbook editor, Rachel. Here she is:

I couldn't find a photo of her without some friend plastered to her forehead....that's the kind of girl she is. Always has a bevy of babes around her, a kind-of mother hen leading the gaggle of geese....so to speak.

So, I bothered her today via text message with details about the book. She told me to relax and stop thinking about it on a Sunday. HA. That's like stopping breathing on a Sunday. But I had a brilliant idea. She has created a photo of Maytag that's yearbook worthy...so i say we get rid of the extreme sports layout and replace it with a tribute to Maytag...it deserves it after 100 some years in the community. Sorry Jordizzle, but I think we can't get much better than last year's extreme sports layout, and since you haven't even started it, I'm sure it won't be hard to kill. I love journalism terms. Kill. Put it to bed.

I hate bifocals, which I will pick up from the eyeglass place on Wednesday...middle age has struck with a vengeance...plantar fasciitis last week, new purple Ralph Lauren no-line bifocal glasses this week.

It's a love and hate kind of day.

Ads suck and blow

We sold ads this week and the entire experience left me exhausted and spent. From organizing it with Amanda, who is so dedicated it is scary, to encouraging kids to follow-up, which is like spitting in the wind, the process was agonizingly time consuming. I need a parapro to help, and I haven't even got the guts up to ask for one yet.

So, the big day was Thursday, with Tuesday and Wednesday spent preparing lists and routes and practicing for "the sale." I had Jostens support the first two years of doing this, so this was the first time out by myself. And it went ok, i guess. If we follow-up, we will have made as much as last year, and can have our color issue in May for the newspaper. But we won't have any extra money in yearbook to buy any cameras or anything. I'm in good shape though, except for the printer and scanner.

So, all in all, ads are just "there." We didn't break any records, but the Newton community seems to support us enough to sustain us, even with the departure of Maytag and the lonely repairman.

It's just all the drama and organizing that's giving me a headache. That sucks, and it blows that we're not supposed to say suck and blow in school. Oh well, I still say hell and damn and ass occasionally.

But in my blog I can say fuck and get away with it. I like that. It helps break the tension of this incredibly high energy teaching gig I've gotten myself into. I love it and hate it all at the same time. And that fucking sucks AND blows.

Mercury Poisoning

I love tuna. When I am stressed, I can always eat a tuna sandwich. Seriously. Now I can be stressed because of mercury poisoning from the delectable little fish.

Everything that doesn't kill you will eventually kill you.

You read it here first.

I heard about this whilst listening to the Stephanie Miller show on novamradio.com. No, it's not a liberal conspiracy, she just suspected she had been poisoned and a blood test confirmed it. I have some of the same symptoms, like inability to sleep and profuse sweating. Of course, mine could be peri-menopausal too.

Anyway, I am off topic, and I know it. This does not relate to high school journalism at all.

Or does it?