In the start of getting things off my 'Things To Do Before I Die' list, I'm tackling two this week.

The first: #24 on my list, bowling. I've never been, and so, as the YCC Spring FT, we're going to a local bowling alley to see how well I stack up to a bunch of middle schoolers. We leave at 9:30 tomorrow morning and bowl until 1. Do pray for me.

The second: #39, making a quilt. Although I've sewn pillows and shirts before, I've never tackled a project like a quilt. The quilt I'm making is this one and it's super nifty. The really cool thing about this project, other then it's so simple even I can do it without sewing my fingers together, is that it's made from old jeans. What's even cooler, is this:

A few years back my Grandfather passed away from pneumonia that he got from a lowered immune system thanks to Chemo. My Grandpa was an amazing man, and probably one of the biggest influences on my life. I miss him terribly. My Grams kept all his old jeans, and gave the jeans to me to make my quilt with. So, I get to make a Grandpa Jeans quilt. I am totally stoked about it.

Anyway, I'm planning on the beginning stages of cutting (I've already got the patterns and supplies) this week, but no major work on it until Finals Week is over with.

It would be really cool to have finished (maybe with some neat matching fringy pillow cases) by the time I decide what my plan is in August.

I got an invite from my brother to move in with him and his fiancee in a three-story house they share with a few other people. Two are moving out and it's opening up a few rooms. I've been offered a room with a balcony, bathroom and walk in closet. Although it's not my own place, it would be nice to have my own bathroom again. That, and it's close to U of O, which as not my first choice (OSU was) it's still a good school. Being right there in Eugene, next to not only a community college, but a four year that I can transfer right into, is very tempting. (I would have had to commute every day to OSU, which is about a 80 mile trip there and back each day I have classes)

The guys are moving out in August so I'm going to make a trip to visit soon and see if it would work out, and if the offer still stands probably make my choice within the next month or so. It hinges on a lot of things, like if I can bring Shauna (the dog that doesn't belong to me but lives with me anyway), if my FA and transcripts and program can transfer over easily enough, and if I can find work down there part time to support rent and other bills while I run my part of my business down there, since PST can't support a third set of upkeep bills right now, because all revenue is going for upkeep and expanding. Plus, it's easier to keep stuff, like a cell phone, which I'll use for other things then PST, separate for tax reasons. (I'm not even supposed to be using Guido for anything but PST, because the IRS gets all weird about it, but shhh...don't tell anyone.)

Anyway, I'm not sure what exactly I'll do, but it is a good option to think about.

I am looking for people to play Stronghold with me, and Fred (also known as Lord Bobanagoosha). Kenneth, our sometimes third is away in Europe and I can't get Kevin pinned down long enough to ask him.

Anyone have the game interested in playing? Anyone? Or maybe AoW: Shadow Magic, that one is fun too but takes a heck of a long time to finish.

Time to go do some homework, tons to do in such a short amount of time.

Haiku for today:
Don't even bother,
For your men shall die in fire,
When I dump the pots.

More exams today. Whee! Shockingly I got a 94 on my last math exam. Who would have thought?

Something I've found that seems to be a side effect from working with children for far too long is the turning of things I say into a song. It's gotten so bad that I do it in normal conversation in public without even noticing it. Most of the time the songs are under my breath and have to do with whatever it is I'm doing, like the "I Hate Math" song, which is hummed in the Math Lab (very quietly) while doing homework. It's sung to the tune of Three Blind Mice and has "I Hate Math" as the only lyrics.

What can I say, it makes me feel better.

I also find myself singing everything to Michael. I'm starting to wonder if I really am finally in the process of losing my last marble.

Today's Haiku:

Sing off-key with me!
For the sky is grey and cloudy,
And we've nothing else.

I'm off to spend another wonderful day in the Math Lab. At least I only have one more Mod and the final left to do and then I'll be done with math. Hopefully with a high B, I'll take a B in math, mess up my A average, but I've got to pick my battles right?

Only two weeks left of this term. It went by really fast, I'm actually quite surprised. I don't think I'll be going summer (I'm going to use the time to catch up on work and finish client sites that classes have pushed back), but I will be going back in Fall. Taking Japanese I, yay! I want to take ASL too but I don't think I can do two languages at once.

Anyway, I should get going. Sorry my posts are so dreadfully boring, I just can't think about anything but brain lobe functions and math problems.

Here's a haiku for today:

Math Lab in the rain,
I am going to get an F,
Written cruely in red pen.

Kenneth! I hope you have an awesome time in Europe, don't forget to send me a postcard. ;)

The next two weeks are scary study weeks. I have ten tests in the next 14 days, so it'll be interesting to see how my grades stand at the end of term. Right now I am getting all A's, I honestly don't expect that to be the case in Math by the end of next week, but I can hope right?

I've got seven modules to read, and five to reread for Psych. I don't mind the reading, it's just so much information to toss at someone for one exam. It amuses me that they think I'll actually retain it. I suppose playing slots isn't going to help things any.

I should get back to work, but here is a haiku for today before I go:

Hear the coins jingle?
Fun are the slots at Pogo,
I will win it all.

Thank you, come again.

I sort of feel like things are moving to split the YCC (an activity program I run) up or take the youth program out of my hands again. This frustrates me a little because I've spent the last few years - the last especially - building the program in a way that makes the kids come back, and enjoy themselves and feel like they're part of the center, not just being babysat, which I think is the most important.

Nobody's really said anything. I've been asked a couple questions about my childbase ages, and also been told a couple people have expressed interest in dealing with older children (but nobody has come to talk to me, at all, they all go over my head, even though I do the youth program.) and that's been about it, but that's how it starts.

I've had the program taken from me in the past, and every time not only did it fail miserably (and let me tell you, it failed, not once, not twice, but four times, and each time I was the one called back in to fix it and take back over), but it also cause all the kids I had coming to quit, and took me nearly six months (after it had been given back to me, because the people who took it quit after a couple months) and major overhaul of the program to have them start coming on a regular basis again.

If they do decide to split up stuff, I have suggestions. Do you think anyone wants them? Of course not, what will happen is I'll lose all the older kids (90% of my classbase) and will have the younger children (I have six kids under 9, and only one comes regularly, and regularly for her is maybe three times a month)or will be asked to become an 'assistant' to whoever takes it over, which royally peeves me off. I run this thing, if anyone should have assistants it should be me.

So they'll take it, then they'll blow it, and nobody'll come anymore or the person who's taking it over will quit (because it's a big commitment, not just showing up and playing, there is work, like planning classes, and learning the children's names) and I'll have to rebuild the whole thing again.

What frustrates me, is I want to set up programs for infants and preschoolers and teenagers, but not enough kids come right now to merit it, plus the kids like being all in one group so I don't want to take that away from them.

Besides, if they want to set up groups, I think it would be fair to give me first pick of which class I want. Not just give it to someone who walks up and goes 'oh by the way, I want the older kids' and take it away from me and give it to them. After years? What kind of thanks is that? Is that really how important I am to their program? I'm not saying I won't share, or that I won't gladly work with other people to set up other classes. I just don't think I should have it jerked away from me with an 'oh by the way'. Plus, it cheeses me that none of these people who have 'expressed interest' in the older kids have ONCE offered to volunteer in the classes to see how it goes.

I would think before you even considered them to work with kids you'd have them come work with me and meet the kids. I can't even get people to commit to driving for field trips until the last minute, and they think these people will show up every class and follow through?

In all these years, I've only missed two classes. I know all the kids, their birthdays, their phone numbers, what schools they go to, their favorite color, their favorite movies, heck, I know half of their crushes. I could blackmail them, if I wanted to. We're buds, these kids and I, and it's been damn hard getting them to feel like they're really part of the Center and to get them to come every class. It just frustrates me that I've put all this time into it, and I'm just being seen as a stand in until they can get a real teacher, even though I'm the one who built the whole program.

If they do this to me again, I will cry, and then I will quit.

Like all small towns, mine has weird festivals that it does every year. In this case, the current festival is the Iris Festival, in it's 54th year of irisy goodness. It celebrates, (can you guess?) the iris (you're so smart), since Keizer is actually the iris growing capitol of the world. Or something like that.

We're proud. Iriss are pretty, and they smell fantastic, unless you're in an entire field of them, and then it smells like a cheap whore and you faint a lot. Also, there are bees.

With The Iris Festival comes all the things you'd expect with a festival. Pancake breakfasts put on by the Fire Department, a parade that runs two hours and twenty minutes long (and grows progressively longer with each year and thanks to the morons on the city council who passed the no throwing law, no longer throws candy. $@%!! The candy was my favorite part! Some people throw it anyway, and risk the wrath of the council and the $15 dollar fine that comes with it) that has every church, school, and small business in the town marching in it, along with sisters, who are in Color Guard, in the front row...I'm told this is a good thing, because only people who are good at twirling batons and marching in place get the front row. I am good at neither, so I would probably be fired.

Also with it are street fairs, a carnival (which nobody'll go to with me, because they all stink), and a quilt show. I don't quilt, but I plan on going because I have decided I will make a quilt, even if it comes out lopsided or looking like a scarf.

So, our town is now clogged with about 200,000 people who don't live here, along with the however many who do, tramping up and down the sixteen block area very near my neighborhood, which means we have people parking dangerously close to in our flowerbeds. Which is rude, and makes me want to have them towed. Take that, tourists!

I have to write two essays for my application for TRiO (the one I didn't send for, but they sent to me.) I think it's a good opportunity, but I just don't know what to say.

TRiO if you don't know, is a program that assists low-income first generation college students. Which would be me, because lord knows I make no money, and my mom never finished college (although she is going back).

However, they're very adamant about wanting to help students who seem to come more from 'project' or 'gang' type lifestyles then a person like me, who doesn't do any sort of drugs or drink, doesn't have children, and is self starting enough to create my own business. (IE: capable of finishing my degree on my own, in the systems eyes)

Actually, what interests me the most about the program is they assist you in setting up all the stuff for your transfer on a more personal basis then you'd get with just a general guidance person from the college. That in itself is worth applying for, because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing and the help would be nice.

Anyway, the essays need to be two pages long each, the first needs to be on what I think will be the toughest part of finishing my degree, and the other is on how I feel about my ability to finish. I can do both fine, I think. That is, I don't really have anything other then finances keeping me from going to school, and nothing keeping me from finishing. Both of which could potentially paint me as a huge egomaniac. I am, of course, but I don't want anyone who can help me get a scholarship to know that.

Anyway, they're all do in by the 28th, so I should get them done, since punctuality makes a good impression. Or, will make me look like a buttkisser. Either way, works for me.

If you haven't seen it, this is probably one of the best 'reality' shows on television right now. It's really interesting to see how people (who come from upper middle class families who've never had to do anything a day in their lives) deal with not only the physical demands of living in 1682, but the psychological demands of having to align themselves with the thoughts and rules of the Puritans, who were absolutely crazy.

Like all reality shows, they cry a lot. Especally when they have to milk goats, or pack water, or get out of bed.

There are only eight episodes, and they've already played four, so hopefully if you haven't seen it and want to, you can check your local PBS to see if they're repeating them so you can watch it too.

I hate reality shows, but I like this one. Maybe it's just that deep down I just like to gloat because I've cooked over an open fire and lived without power and had to pack water for years, and I can do it without crying.

After a few staff meetings we decided on creating a training movie for work, to explain to new users how to access and use the course system.

Guess who gets to do the voice overs?

So yesterday I sat with a (smelly, by the way, why do they smell?) microphone in my face for nearly six hours, taping and retaping this soundtrack. Fortunately (or unfortunately, because it means I have to do it again later) I had to quit to finish a report for Wr121 which I had last night. Not just any report mind you, but an oral report.

Lucky, lucky me!

Actually, the oral report went really well. I am extremely happy with the group of people in my wr121 class. There are only eighteen of us, so it's very friendly and very supportive, plus, my topic was on the horror genre, and it was thunderstorming outside, so I think I should get extra points for having such a great visual aid.

Thursday is the final, 2 page essay written in class. It should be a snap, unless he makes us write it by hand, which was threatened. Then I'm completely screwed and my perfect (perfect!) A will be blown, because he'll see how terrible I really am at spelling. I need spellcheck, my life is worthless without it.

Anyway, I'm off to NAS, and then I have to come back and finish up the math mod to go take the exams tomorrow. I have exactly enough time left in the term to get all the math work and tests done. I also have to schedule the psych test for Friday and reread all the mods. What frustrates me, is some of those mods are fifty pages long, and when you have five or six of them together it makes for far too much information to retain.

It's cruel!

Another Sunday has arrived. It seems I just get done with one children's class and along comes another one. Hopefully today goes better then last week, where a child split an entire flower pot of mud on the carpet, and left it for me to scrub out with paper towels. I was beyond thrilled.

Today we were supposed to make rockets, but since it's raining we're going to switch with the activity that was for next week, and make dreamcatchers.

The offer still stands. If you're in my area and have kids (or, are a big kid yourself) you can come on by, the class is open to everyone, and it's free. (Although I do ask for donations but nobody ever gives them) So, come play with me! Just don't dump any dirt on the floor, because I had about enough of that.

I'm not quite sure why the graphics are broken. Especially since Hotlake.com is functioning fine and the graphics are all pointing at the right place. Of course, I could always view this as a time to change the layout, but I really am too lazy. Plus, I already owe Kelly a layout and I haven't finished it yet because I'm a very bad friend.

Once the Term ends I should be able to update some of the things that have been suffering thanks to my far crazier then normal daily schedule. I did update the TPC Forums. It won't stay that way for long, I just needed a new and fun look until I had one that better matched the theme of the site. Go post there, and post often, because the Forums are lonely.

Only a month left of classes! I have two papers, two quizzes and 7 mod assignments due by Monday. Then I have four tests on Monday, and an oral report. I'm starting to think maybe I should just hire someone to clone me.

On the same line of classes. I am really starting to appreciate student feedback on teachers. The worst teacher story so far? One of the girls in my NAS class told me not to take Tech Writing from a certain professor, because the he is a total jerk, and wrote "You annoy me when you come to class" on her papers.

Edit: The graphics fixed themselves. I guess they knew I was getting ready to toss them in the bin for a new set of graphics that will do what I say.

Hee hee.

By the way, Blogger. Loving the new look!

Off to go bomb a Math exam and get the grade back on my NAS midterm. I'm currently running a pool, if you'd like to bet get them in now before it's too late. My money is on C!

I did not win powerball. However, I am planning on playing again, so maybe I will win Saturday. You never know right? Maybe someone on this side of the country might actually win it for once.

There is something wrong with me. Lately I've been watching this, in fact, I've been actually enjoying watching it. Perhaps it has something to do with the lack of sleep I've been getting lately, or maybe it's just because I no longer have any taste.

The link above is to it's official homepage which is in Japanese by the way. If you want English information on it, here you go. Heck, if you want to download it and suffer through the campy, horrible series with me, you can do that here.

Or, you can just shoot me now.

I finally thought up a topic for my next paper, so now I have the rest of today and three hours tomorrow to finish it before tomorrow night. The one thing about the class being so intense is that everything is completely rushed so you can't really throw out quality papers. This bothers me, because I hate turning in something I know is seriously sub-par.

I have a cool topic for another paper, but unfortunately it doesn't look like I'll get to use it. I've even written half the thing. :( Oh well, I'll save it and maybe I'll get a chance to use it in another class in a coming term. Or I could set up a website where people can buy my papers off of me. That seems to be popular.

Good luck to all of you doing finals this week. You're all ahead of me, none of mine start for another two weeks. Yay.

I got an A on not one, but both of my Writing 121 papers.

YAY!

Hopefully, the papers I turned in today are just as good. Now it's time to go read a module of Psych and get some sleep because it's Math Lab first thing tomorrow morning.

Fred bought me a 30 day gift card for Toon Town. At first, to Joe on the Street, it looks like he got this for me because he knows how much we like playing it together and how we both refuse to spend $19.99 a month on it (he got the gift cards at Wal-Mart for a dollar, can you believe it?) however, once you look deeper you'll see he did it for a completely different and slightly vicious reason. He bought it for me because he wants me to become more of a procrastinator then I already am, and fail Wr121.

See, I'm on to you Bub!

Actually, I'm totally excited he got it for me. Yes, it was created for grade schoolers but it's a heck of alot of fun, and yes I promise to do my homework before I play.

So, if you want to play with us, check your local Wal-Mart for the gift cards and if they've got them (on sale!) grab one and come whomp Cogs with us. Your homework isn't that important anyway, right?