Justified

Just finished reading the novel "Fire in the Hole" by Elmore Leonard. The TV Series "Justified" is based on the book.

It was a short/quick read. I got confused because the story seems to pick up loose ends from out of nowhere.

I recognized some of the plot in some of the episodes of the TV show. The series should pick up again in January.

Next to imdb.com, this site is tops for TV series information:  http://epguides.com/

Who knew?

Well, now I do and you do, too. Who knew that My Little Pony had a sex p0rn site? In fact it seems to be rather popular by my first quick glance. After one glance I closed the browser and heaved a sigh of defeat.

I was flying high thinking those little dumplings were pure and magical and still played with colorful, innocent toys.

The filter's suspicious search reports have quadrupled in size now that school has started. Sure, a lot of it is "to kill a mocking bird" and "dick's sporting goods" - during school hours. A few are brave and search for more adult themed sites,  but now that they have their own devices and take them home, the searches are filling up my filter's report log fast and furious with their ugly searches.

The school does not have them set up to authenticate by name. In fact on my main report they all come through as one IP address but there are thousands of searches for the unsavory subjects.

If I log in as the district, I can see what provider is connected to the searches but that is pointless. They are all in the same district - they all use pretty much the same provider.

So, everything is anonymous. And by searching, it does not mean they are actually getting to the site. It just means they tried to look up possible sites to try.  Hopefully, the filter is holding fast and blocking what it is supposed to.

So, there you have it. My Little Pony is not so innocent any longer. I'm not even going to tell you what they do with Gummy Bears. I just don't have the heart.

Trepidation

Quite a few school districts are issuing devices to students in a 1:1 enterprise. As you can imagine, they would like the devices to connect to the Internet through the filter at the school when taken home or off the school premises.

I was finally successful in getting our pilot school to do this. They were extremely happy and sent home iP@ds with a lot of students.

A couple of days later I was looking over the settings to ensure all was working as it should and I saw the "search queries" report.

With "trepidation" I opened the report to see what it was the students were searching for after hours.

The heavens opened, bells rang in all the churches as I read "My Little Pony"!

I nearly jumped for joy. I did in fact run and tell some of my co-workers that I have shared stories with. The ones about p0rn etc...

I wanted to be Julie Andrews and twirl and sing! I was so relieved.

Now, whether or not it stays that way - who knows?

*Note:  I am also thinking that the age group the district assigned the iP@ds to was very elementary, and could be why the search query was so innocent. But, I'll take it!

Smiling baby

My niece put her youngest in this truck and he still smiles? Wow. He didn't get that from our side of the family. Most little ones I know would pucker up, feel that hard surface on the back of their neck and scream (in baby speak, of course) "Get me the hell outta here!"

By the way. The one pictured above is the youngest of the two I posted earlier in the week. (The girl holding the sleeping boy who missed her.) They are the older siblings of this little tyke.

The ole wringer washing machine

Isn't this a funny thing to find in an elementary building? Maybe not, since I was out in the middle of Amish country. Or, at least on the cusp. Holmes county in Ohio is more Amish, but my districts border the edges. There are a lot of Amish children in the schools.

So, to find an old wringer washing machine in a little elementary is no surprise. This elementary is just now getting fiber Internet connection and dis-connecting their T1 line.

In an area of the county where you watch for Amish buggies as you drive and pass several houses that have no electrical poles leading into their homes, and the wash hangs on the line outside - this is not such a rarity.

He missed her

The older girl  in the photo (courtesy of my niece - her Mom) had a showing at the fair over the week-end. She was gone for about four full days.

Her little brother missed her.

Rainy Days and Mondays

It was not my choice to hold a training session on a Monday morning. I am the kind of person who believes folks should ease into Monday with nothing on their schedule. Keep Mondays open so that we can ease back into the work week. Nothing to jar the system.

Alas, somebody picked Monday morning for the training and I obliged. And it rained. My God - it rained. Driving the interstate was dicey. Although I did not see anybody pulled over, I considered it. Sometimes that is more dangerous than just staying the course. A steady, keep the same speed course.

Then  you have the folks in the left lane who pass you, but they must be nervous because their vehicle is way over the line on YOUR side. Please people!

Anyway, I had my filter training Monday morning. I stopped to get donuts for the crew. 15 of them. You can't really hold an umbrella and three dozen donuts, you know. My beautiful hair-do was ruined. I do have a jacket with a hood, but it also happened to be very muggy and warm. I tried.

At times the folks in the class looked like the picture above. No more Monday morning trainings if I can help it.

The blueberries have it

This is the banana bread recipe I have been making for years. It is in my Pillsbury cookbook. As you can see this is one of the pages that looks a bit used. I copied the recipe to the back of an old used envelope so I would not have to haul this old cookbook out any more. The pages are delicate and beginning to come out.

I (re) use old envelopes from the mail for shopping lists, to do lists, notes and recipes.

I only began adding blueberries to this recipe a couple of months ago. Today I tried strawberries.

Nah. We voted, blueberries are the best with this.

No nuts in the house. Well, no edible English walnuts in the house. Wink, wink.

Summer stuff

Found the charger to my Nook and I have been reading, reading, reading. Since my washing machine leaks, I have had to babysit the appliance during the rinse cycle and after consuming a box of books my sister gave me for Christmas, my nook is my companion in the basement washroom, now.

Currently reading Theroux. My nook is full of about a hundred books and I have so much to pick from and I keep downloading more.

If I am not reading, I am working on my filter training. I have a class Monday morning (why oh why did they pick Monday?) for 16 people. I know the filter very well so I am not too stressed. There will be the occasional question that I won't know the answer to, but after working with a few on the telephone over the past few weeks I can see that I am miles ahead of them. I am not bragging, this is how it is supposed to be. They are very busy with a million other things, while my main focus is the filter. I have had so much more time to learn this and it is a passion with me.

I love sharing my knowledge with them. A lot of times I get the call that says "My district cannot access such and such." It is my job to help them figure out why and fix it. I love a puzzle.

So, not much here at blogdom these days. Not much else going on in my life. Animals are itchy and should probably be treated for their summer allergy/flea/dry skin condition.  I need to buck up and get them in for all their shot updates, too. Kennel cough (bordetella)  is the big one. I think they are due for a distemper booster, too. Some other vaccines are on a 3  year cycle and I believe I caught those up last year. The vet sends me a postcard reminding me.

In fact, I am going to sign off of here and call the vet right now to make an appointment.