Crap

This acronym is all the buzzword around the education meetings these days. In Ohio, at least. Backwards is pretty much how I see it.

Technology is in an uproar because of all the demands the state is making on schools to be able to support the testing that is going to be coming our way. The idea is for thousands of students to take an on-line test at the same time and I know - school networks are unprepared to handle the load.

It is a serious sh!t-storm. The arguing back and forth is depressing to hear. The demands on school networks will be intense. I've read where one panel discussion at a PBS station almost needed to call security.

A statement from one state that has already tried it:  Thousands of students experienced slow loading times of test questions, students were closed out of testing in mid-answer, and some were unable to log in to the tests.

It can't be easy for education departments to make the rules and standards but 'wow'. This one seems to take the cake.

Little blockhead

It took me three tries, but I finally was able to get this picture to post.

My nephew tortures his little girl with pictures that will come back to haunt her in the future.

In my mind

When I was in my twenties, I thought it was pretty cut and dry. Decisions. How you chose to live your life, etc... I was confused and angry at women who remained in a violent environment.

As I grew older, became wiser (I hope) and read more, I came to understand a bit more about how the human mind works. About strength. I used to think that women who remained in this situation were weak until one day I thought "Maybe they are really, really strong!?"

I am so fortunate to have instilled inside my brain (as puny as it may be) the audacity to be independent and to stand up for my rights. Maybe not in everything all the time - but enough to matter.

My sister is a victim of verbal abuse. Fortunately, there is no physical (except one time many years ago). Verbal abuse is just as ugly and it tears away at your psyche on a daily basis until you don't know who you are any longer and you don't know up from down, night from day.

I believe it is a form of brain washing and victims are left so confused they no longer can make decisions for themselves. Especially when your genetic make-up was one where that was a weak area, anyway.

So, the above photo is lifted from the Internets, but it depicts pretty much how I feel when it comes to physical violence or verbal abuse in a relationship. I do not believe I know anyone (man or woman) who is the abuser (physical) in a relationship. I know they are out there, I am just glad I am not aware of it. I probably know plenty of verbal abusers and those who play mind games with their spouse. The subject seems to be taboo, whispered only with closest friends and trusted family members.

Don't even get me started on child or animal abuse. It will ruin my day for sure.

Barely here

I'm here. I'm just not posting, much. This little tyke above was surrounded by Christmas lights when his Mom snapped a photo. I added the dinosaur frame from picjoke.com - fun site.

I have a sister visiting and we are busy chatting, playing Words with Friends, watching movies and running around.

Stay warm out there.I may not post until February. I have a conference next week in Columbus (ugh). I hate staying away from home unless it is with my family.

Funny gag gift

First, let me apologize for the blurry photo. Taken with my cell phone at a work party and my hand was not very steady. (no alcohol involved, we ARE an education institution after all) but plenty of laughter and just plain jitters.

We were to purchase a "gag" gift for five dollars and take to the party. I thought this one was particularly creative. The gal opened her gift and it was a pack of batteries and as she moved the tissue paper aside on the bottom of the box it says "Gift not included."  Loved it!

I do not have any excuse for not posting very much. I guess I just have hit another dry spell. My posting is motivated by my need to put something down, so I guess I'll just have to wait for inspiration or until my feelings prompt me to write.

Wake me when it's over

Or when it's dinner time. Whichever comes first.  My cat seems to be  hiding from the cold spell. I would too, but duty calls. Yes, a lot of schools closed but most of them in my area released early on Monday, closed Tuesday and are starting late today.

We have a balmy 8º Fahrenheit this morning. That is outside. Hell, I remember when the kitchen in my house was a balmy 8º.  Not a lie. I was using the refrigerator thermometer on the kitchen counter. January 1983, I believe.

I have been reading books I received for Christmas and was shocked to find that I have not read my blog list in days! Yikes. So many are writing such thought-provoking posts, too. I don't have time to go over all of them this morning and I want to research what they are saying and reply but time has run out.

Even though the schools are on a delay this morning, I need to get into the office a.s.a.p. I have  a tech set up to call me at exactly 10 o'clock (our time).

One tech came to work on equipment at 2:30 Monday afternoon and did not leave until 6 p.m. That was the day the temperature dropped all day and it was 13º outside. I wanted to go home and stay there. I don't know what took him so long (he didn't say). Usually they only take an hour to do this job. Ugh!

No fanfare

Just a nice smooth transition into the new year. No fuss, no mess. No big expectations, just another new year. A few new faces this year. Nobody in dire straits. I have a few days off and am enjoying them. Being lazy but getting a bit antsy today. I have the hammer but cannot find the nail size I want. Will venture out to the garage to see if I can find some there. Watch out. May be some hammering going on.

All the men folk in the house run! Lady of the house has a hammer. This can't be good. They escape to the gym. 

No drooping

Well, you can't really droop and climb these steps. That is what I had to do yesterday. I met the tech at the Admin office which is a building across the street to this school. The wiring closet in this school had the tech equipment I needed to work on.

Sigh. And, they were not as bad as I thought. The tech was a slim lady. Older than me (maybe, I can't tell any more) but very slim. She had trouble unlocking the doors so that gave me a chance to catch my breath.

Once inside I had to squeeze past a desk area that was about seven inches wide. Fortunately just my legs had to do the squeezing. And at the same time try not to snag any cables on my body and unplug something. (I got stuck in this closet area once before and did not want a repeat.)

I got the job done - so glad. A lot of techs like to perform upgrades and changes when there are no students and staff in the building.

My back hurt me all during the night and this morning. Not certain if the steps were the reason or not. I did no heavy lifting that I can think of. Usually I have to carry very heavy technology equipment into the building and doing that with those steps would have really done me in. I had nothing yesterday except for pen and paper and my car keys. Didn't even take my cell phone in.

Dragging

It is off to work for me this morning. Dragging.

My dry erase board

My daughter drew the red part months ago and I drew the green picture right afterwards. It has remained on the dry erase board but does not look as fresh.

It will help me on days like then when I have to go in to work. I will probably be alone in there as the office I work out of - they are closed. I also work on Friday. Grumble, grumble.

There are no schools in session - well, one vocational school that I am traveling to today to switch them over to an upgrade. I hope it goes smoothly.

It just works out like this sometimes.

A sunset

This one was taken in October. When we went to the winery for the pumpkin chunkin and the T-Rex that ate cars. People kind of look like zombies just walking around the big field carrying their small children.

On my way out to another busy day today.

What the heck?

So there I am last Saturday after the family party. I plug my phone into my computer (as I have for a couple of years) to pull the pictures off of the SD card. What? The computer no longer recognizes my phone. Kaput. Nothing. I mess with it for a while and then I just open the phone, pull out that tiny SD card and plug it into a multi-port card reader that I had purchased a while back. I got the pictures that way.

The next day, I am thinking - I am going to fix my phone. I work with it. I fiddle with this, with that. I google the problem. I followed one post's advice. Something about changing the phone Settings from Mass storage to Media Sync.

It didn't happen right away. In fact I think it took 12  hours. But lo and behold, I started getting e-mail messages from 2012. A slew of them. There were old 2012 messages that went to co-workers, friends and family. What the hell?

A few who did not read the date were confused. They contacted me and said "What is going on?" I sent a mass e-mail to all my contacts explaining what had happened and to "ignore" any old messages they may get from me.

But, what I got was another story. I can recall a time when I would take pictures with my phone and share (send) it to my e-mail account. I have one in gmail and my regular roadrunner accounts. I never received them so I would send them different ways. Nothing. I finally was able to share some through facebook, others I had to wait until I got home to my PC and pull them off my phone that way.

I must have received twenty old images. It made me smile. The above photo is one such image. Remember a while back when I did the hot sauce episode (for about a month?). I looked it up, it was March 2012. If you click on the "hotsauce" label you can read all my posts about hotsauce.

 At one point I went back to the same store and snagged more photos. The one posted above is from that trip.

Some interesting reading on hot sauces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_scale

http://www.chilliworld.com/factfile/scoville_scale.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_sauce

A warm holiday glow

The restaurant knows how to decorate, I'll give it that. We had our annual family dinner last evening. The weather caused a few concerns, but all showed plus two extra. Wow. I had called the restaurant earlier stating that we may have some cancellations so they cut our table size down to twenty. I then had 23 adults, 5 children and 3 tiny babies show up. It got crowded - again.

The games were kind of sloppy. I was not organized at all. There were fewer gifts (lack of funds). The kids wanted more, more, more and I felt inadequate. 

And the chicken was rubber. I should have ordered the steak.

But I got to see all the little tiny ones. From 7 down to one month old. Two brothers did not show. They spent the evening with their fire department/town hall Christmas parties.

The roads were a mess. I had put two brand new tires on my car that morning. I had been to that restaurant last week (just to check it out) and driving home was quite a feat with two bald, front tires. I was  more prepared yesterday. Much better. My pocket book did not need the extra expense this close before the holiday but when does a car care about that? Never.

A little warmth

Picking a photo with some heat in it today. Naturally, this photo is from this past summer. This is my grand nephew. (or, great nephew - depending on which you prefer to use).  As his daddy says "Keep him out of the sun, his skin is translucent."

I have the family Christmas dinner this evening. Only 26 are coming. About ten fewer than last year. I can't find my games. I think they are on my computer at work. I saw my work desk this week for five minutes maybe.

Wednesday and Thursday I spent with a tech from California. Ugh. Every minute together almost (for the work day). My head was ready to explode with a migraine by Thursday afternoon. It took me all of Friday (a vacation day) to recover. I call this having to stay "turned on" - as in my brain. Riding in the car together, having lunch together both days - with no other co-worker to help me keep up the conversation. I know a ton of stuff about his family and friends.

He is a tech trying to sell me on this new appliance for our network. I just don't like to spend that much time with a "stranger". Trying not to offend in my conversations, etc... It was a serious drain on my brain. Fortunately, I kissed the blarney stone at one point in my life (not literally, I have not been to Ireland). But all that chatter and thinking give me a fitful headache.

Edit:  YAY! I just remembered my "older" laptop is in the trunk of my car and I think my Christmas games are on it. :)

Well, heck.

I guess I've been too busy to post. Ah, wait. I know what it is.Work is busy, my brain is drained and by the time I get home I have lost any sense of making any sense to put anything into words. I have been off now for three days and I am starting to climb back up and out of that dark hole.

Here is a photo of my nephew's little baby. Almost six months old. And the apple of his eye by far.

Somali Piracy

I watched the movie "Captain Phillips".  T Hanks comes through as usual. Wonderful actor, just wonderful. I was crying at the end (or teared up anyway).

Of course I had to research the real story.

Spoiler Alert! Not a lot, but a bit.

Two things. Captain Phillips (to me) neglected to heed the warning of keeping his ship 600 miles from the coast of Somalia. He was 240 miles when they were overtaken by the pirates. All ships were advised to stay 600 miles away. Perhaps the pirate ships were not capable of going that far out to sea. Hence - some crew members are suing.

Second - me thinks that the pirate (Muse) has a much better life in a federal prison in the United States than he would have - had he stayed and lived in Somalia. Photo above is lifted from the Internets - typical family conditions in Somalia.

I guess I'll add another tidbit of information. It appears to have escalated (the piracy) when big tankers dumped waste into the waters killing the fish and the local fishermen had no way to make a living so they turned to piracy. As usual, things got out of hand quickly when greed takes over.

Free Lunch

Sorry this photo became skewed. I lifted it off the Internets. Anyway, the photo is the closest I could find to the lunch plates that were used when I was in grade school.

I am having a hard time deciding if I am going to post about this topic or not. Thirty, twenty and even ten years ago I would never have considered it. I try not to talk about these things.

For many reason. First and foremost is - I don't want pity. I don't want people to think I want pity, either. That bothers me beyond belief.

But, I read a post today that got me to thinking.

Free lunches, free breakfasts in schools.

So many people say it is a great idea - how nice to help the needy.

Today's kids are different than we were back in the 50's and 60's. In that era it was a SHAME to get a free lunch. Breakfasts were not even considered, yet. My Mom told me that when our brother (1953) signed up for free lunches the teacher would write their names on the chalkboard. That is right. The entire list of students who were to get a free lunch written for all the world to see. The "haves" had a field day teasing the "have nots".

Since that time my Mom never let us sign up for free anything again. She lined up five brown bags (at that time five of us were in school) every morning and we ate a bologna sandwich, one small orange and about three cookies every day. It was twenty years before I could touch bologna again. To this day I won't eat it with mayonnaise.  In high school I just did not eat lunch.

And, every time I eat a sandwich or an orange, my stomach wants those three damn cookies. Well, okay - my brain wants the three damn cookies. Funny thing, I never seem to want the orange. My brain is completely satisfied skipping the orange but never the cookies. Sigh.

Anyway, for those that think it is a wonderful idea - it is. But consider this. It ain't so wonderful for the child who gets ridiculed by other students and teachers (OH YES THEY DO) when you are getting something free. There is always a teacher or two who believe she is paying for your lunch right out of her pocket and she wants to make certain that you are aware of where that money (lunch) is coming from.

A co-worker told me a story her daughter shared about just such an incident. This incident (which I hope my co-worker reported to the school superintendent) was about her daughter sitting with a friend at lunch. The friend had chosen a salad for lunch. A teacher came up behind the child and snapped "You better eat ALL that salad because I paid for it! Why didn't you get a peanut butter sandwich or something?"  TRUE!  As if to say that the free loaders need only have a bland sandwich and were not entitled to a more healthy fresh salad as privileged children are. My friend's daughter was confused. She asked her Mom why the teacher paid for her friends' lunches. I don't recall  how my co-worker handled the question. She is a wonderful and bright lady, so I am certain her daughter learned something valuable that day.

2013 folks. It is alive and well in our schools today. Shame on the children of the lousy free loaders!

In the post I read I came across the word discrete. The free food is given to the students in need discretely. Really? Does a machine give them the food? Because if there is a human handing out that free food there is always going to be talk. That human tells another human who gets the free lunches. Really - they do. They can't seem to help themselves. Pretty soon a dozen people now know who gets free hand outs. And if even one person has a chip on their shoulder about a family getting free stuff because the father is no good (must be his wife's fault) then it all comes pouring out.

My older sister and brother tell me stories of their youth. Before they became old enough to help the family begin to stand on our own and not rely on hand outs. My father was a drunk. There, I said it. He barely worked. My Mom had 8 children. She was not able to work outside the home, although she did get flack from the welfare agency as to why she thought she could not work and provide for her family and of course they made her feel like it was her fault that my dad was a drunk, etc..

That stopped the welfare. My Mom refused to go back. My older brother joined the Air Force and began sending money home. My older sister put herself through college, worked two jobs and paid the bills with the help from my older brother. They are still close today and live together and help each other. And they still hand money out to the siblings that just keep asking for it. Sigh. I don't know why. It is ingrained in them, I suppose.

Enough of that. It makes me want to vomit just re-reading what I wrote. If you do comment, please do not comment about that. Thanks.

Back to discrete and human nature. I worked as a data entry operator in the early 80's. The business was food distribution to schools, hospitals, nursing homes, bars and diners. At one point a saleslady came up to me with an order and she said "This order is for the shelter for abused and battered women."  She said "You know where it is, don't you?"  And before I could utter no or any other word she proceeded to tell me where this shelter was. I did NOT need to know. I was not the driver or delivery person. Sheesh. Why couldn't she have kept her mouth shut? Then I began thinking about all the people who actually knew where the shelter is physically located - and then how safe is that? Every policeman would know. The fire department would know. The creepy truck drivers we employed would know. The sleazy salesmen we have would all have know. Discrete my ass. Sorry. No such thing.

Naughty list

Yeah, well - somebody is on the naughty list this year.  According to the telco when all was said and done they blamed it on beavers (or groundhogs).

"It appears that either a ground hog or a beaver has dug holes and chewed the cable."

Whatever. Over 30 hours again.

I don't usually speak of the TV shows that I watch but I just have to rant about this one.  Really, Patrick? Do you really think that Red J0hn is dead? Why the hell didn't you drag him into the lake and drown him to make certain?  You know that he would find a way to fake dying in a choke hold.

Gawd. It still isn't over. He will re-surface and torture all of us again. And we all know that woman from the chapel followed you and will go and resuscitate him.  Gawd!

Okay, rant over.

I'm ranting today

It is getting ridiculous. The is the sixteenth time our school district's fiber has been down this year. Yes, part of it is my organization's fault. We do have a fail-over (another telco) but not those in my area code. My area code contains about 10 school districts. We have been trying for months to get this area code over on to the fail over telco but we are caught up in red tape with the state. Arrgghh!

The schools are LIVID.  And we have been trying for months to get rid of this telco altogether. We had to wait until our five year contract expired first. Then it is red tape with the state. The state is married to this telco. The telco monolith is not a stupid empire.

Another fiber cut. I am trying to educate myself on what happens when the fiber gets cut out in the field. We have to drag information out of the telco as to what happened. They do not give up any information willingly. This time the cut is in a manhole.

This cut happened yesterday about 1:00 p.m. On a Sunday. It is in a manhole somewhere. Who in the hell was working on a Sunday? And in a manhole? And get this! The latest report is that the technicians had to leave the manhole for safety reasons.

What? Is there some sort of mutant alligator down there? Did the Monday morning showers and flushes of  the sewer systems threaten to wash one of them away? I don't know! We don't even get details like "where" this manhole is.

One tech at a vocational school expressed his frustration to my manager. He has several people coming this morning to do some testing at his location. Some are driving 2 1/2 hours (not certain I believe this, but okay).  He needs to call them and let them know there is no Internet before they get on the road. Well, as of 7 o'clock this morning - still nothing.

This same area lost connectivity for about 36 hours a week ago today. It is not pretty out there. Most understand it is not my fault. They need to vent their frustration on somebody since the home office is 60 miles away (and they rarely - if ever) answer their telephones. The anger and frustration just loses something when you leave a voice mail.

So, I get it. I always answer my phone. I can't tell you how many times I get "I know you can't do anything about it, but I call you because at least you answer your telephone."

Anyway, here was an interesting read on fiber cuts. Two that affected me and schools in my area are listed in March 2012. And I lifted the photo above. I can only imagine having to take that equipment down into a man hole in below freezing weather where sewer is running around your ankles. Or, can they bring the cable up and out of the manhole and repair it? Sheesh. I don't know. How in the hell did it get cut down there? What the hell are people putting down into their sewer systems? We never really get the entire story and are left wondering.

http://www.ecessa.com/coverage/internet-outages-happen-every-day/

Deep frying the turkey

The "guys" busy at work frying the turkey. Every year the office I work out of has a Thanksgiving lunch where everybody brings a covered dish. We have a wonderful lady who brings a roaster full of turkey with delicious juices. We usually run out and it is too much for her so we decided to supplement with a second turkey. I think they were nervous that the meat be a true 165º that it was a bit dry, but hey - it was delicious! And we had plenty of gravy.

Of course wouldn't you know that the main guy doing the frying is a volunteer fireman. If you are related to -  or a friend of a fireman then you know they are the most dangerous! LOL! I finally talked him into having a fire extinguisher on hand. They are just so daring because 'They've seen it all!'

This year I brought the jiffy cornbread cream corn pudding. I had doubled the batch and it was so creamy when I mixed it I was worried about it being done in the middle. So I cooked it too long and it was dry. Some recipes called for sugar and some did not so I was nervous about the sugar so I added very little. Another mistake. Next time (and there WILL be a next time) I am adding more sugar and not baking it as long.

I battled my headache all day. We were all running around getting our covered dishes ready, many dishes were in and out of the oven all morning in our office kitchen. I had to run back home to get crackers since I had forgotten them. I also take hot pepper jelly with cream cheese for folks to nibble on during the morning as they try to wait until the food is ready and lunch time. With all the fantastic smells we are all just walking around drooling.

We did not have fun and games (I am usually the one who creates the trivia and a game or two) but I told them about my migraine and I just could not do any more. The big laugh though was the fact that I had put my top on inside-out. The office secretary came up to me in the food line and whispered that fact to me. I laughed and said "I wondered why it looked so light today. I just thought perhaps I had goofed and washed it with a load of whites and bleached it!"

It got a good laugh from everybody and I loved it! I finished getting my food, set my plate down and proceeded to the restroom to turn my top inside-right. I quipped "You are all lucky I even managed to put a top ON today, with the way I feel!"

After lunch, I had time to sit quietly and just work. My headache finally subsided enough. But, I had a hair appointment. The good thing about that is somebody is scrubbing my head (always makes my headache feel better) but I was getting the roots colored so the smell was going to be an issue. Waiting for the dye to finish setting I literally fell asleep twice in the chair.

I have no appointments or events this week-end so I can lay low and just chill out. Give my body time to rest and if I want to take a nap, I will.

Until I read sister 1944's e-mail. She is very depressed. Me (being me) told her to give me a day and time and I would be there to listen and to paint love all over her. Because that is what family does and that is what sisters are for. I truly believe that those raised with nothing and in poverty conditions have a much stronger and beautiful bond with their siblings. And I truly believe it is more precious than any amount of money and you better believe that I am humbly grateful that I was fortunate enough to be born into such a family. My cup runneth over this Thanksgiving.

Hey...what? Runneth is not a word, blogger?  Aw - shame on you!  Alright - dictionary.com says it is not a word, either. Too bad. I am using it and I am keeping it because I heard it a lot growing up!