Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Day The Music Died

I made a gut wrenching decision today.  I bought an iPod.  I really tried to avoid it.  I asked for a Sony Walkman for Christmas and got one.  However, my last Walkman was doomed because I couldn't get a protective case for it.  I was also bummed, because I couldn't get a sports armband for it.  That makes it hard to use at the gym.  I was having the same problem with the most recent iteration of the Walkman, so I had to go with the iPod Nano that has a built in clip.  Of course, there are also reams of after market cases, etcetera to go with it.

I don't specifically dislike iPods.  They are the most useful and innovative music product out there.  My problem is with the Apple business model.  Apple seeks to control digital content from start to finish.  When you become an iSheep, you are imprisoning yourself within the Apple world.  If you have an iPod, you MUST use iTunes.  If you use iTunes, you must have everything in the AAC format which is proprietary to Apple.  No matter what they say, iTunes really only likes downloads from the iTunes store.  Others seem to mysteriously disappear when you conduct an update of the software.  How convenient.  Since so many worldwide own iPods and therefore use iTunes, the iTunes store is the most convenient way to acquire media.  Thus, Apple is gaining a de facto control over the digital media industry.  While this business model is unquestionably brilliant and is working to perfection.  I think that the iSheep are so enamored of all of the iBling and iCoolness, that they do not see themselves being led to the slaughter.  If things go unabated, all the Windows haters will have to take a long look at the new monopoly on the block.  I am now in iPrison.

By the way, does anyone else think this whole "i" thing is getting a bit ridiculous?  I mean honestly, does every new product have to have a lower case i at the beginning?

Oh, and my wife is annoyed because I dislike iStuff and still end up with a newer, flashier Nano than she does.  I just can't win.

Friday, December 24, 2010

Drama and Christmas Go Together Like Peanut Butter and Jam

What is Christmas without drama?  Why, it is like Easter without chocolate.  So far, the furnace conked out for the morning dipping the temperatures inside the house to an invigorating 13 degrees Celsius.  Admittedly it could have been worse since the temperature outside was around -18.  We spent the morning wearing toques, long johns and hoodies with the hoods up.  That was just enough to keep the worst of the chill off.

Then, after running down to Canadian Tire twice to get a new burner for the oven and hookups for it, the thermostat seems to have gone on the oven.  This just happens to be the same oven the we were going to cook the 24 lb turkey thawing in the washbasin downstairs in tomorrow.  Of course we did not come to this conclusion until every store that may have carried a replacement part for the oven was closed.  All of the appliance repair stores seem to be closed for the next four days.  Meanwhile, Jen can't seem to find info on our stove and has become convinced that we will need to purchase a new oven because it is too old to be fixed.  I do not subscribe to this theory, but I have to live with one who does.  And this is all just on Christmas Eve.  I shudder to think what Christmas day will bring.  If I believed in God, I'd be praying for strength.

The Case of the Disappearing Presents and Other Christmas Happenings

So, here's the deal.  A certain batch of on sale scrapbooking supplies had been pointed out to me in Michael's about a month ago by my wife. Jen indicated that these supplies would make excellent gifts. Being the dutiful (and smart) husband, I bought them.  I quickly stuck them under the seat of the car to avoid prying eyes.  After that I pretty much forgot about them.   A couple of weeks later I actually decided to bring in the presents and "hide" them in my man cave. 

This week I decided to wrap those gifts.  Only one thing stood in my way and that is the lack of gifts to wrap.  I could not find those gifts for a king's ransom.  I looked everywhere in our not overly large house.  No gifts were to be found, so I looked again.  Still nothing.  Things were becoming desperate as Christmas quickly approached.  Desperate times called for desperate measures, so I had to enlist the help of my wife (I told you I was desperate) and my in-laws (yes, that desperate).  Success was still elusive.

Today, I decided to make one last effort.  I figured that it would at least get me back into the basement and away from the throng of relatives upstairs.  I looked around in the cave one more time without a satisfactory result.  I was so damned frustrated, I decided to clean.  Things were clearly descending into madness.  I did some shredding that I had to date avoided.  I even started shuffling through all of the filing that was waiting for me to feel like doing.  That was when I got out the new file boxes I had bought a while back.  I pulled them apart and lo and behold, what is gazing back at me but my missing gifts.  I had not thought about taking apart the boxes.  I had only looked in the top one.  Mystery solved.  I am an idiot.  Though I think many had already solved that particular mystery.

I was going to write more, but my in-laws have informed they are ready to go out NOW.  Funny how you have to hop to with some people when they are ready and wait for them when you are ready.  I love Christmas time!

Sunday, December 12, 2010

The Abnormal Becomes Normal

As I was plugging in my car the other morning I looked up the line of cars all plugged in and realized that I hadn't noticed how weird that scene was.  Once upon a time that scene would have had me shaking my head at the fact that the school and many other buildings have rails of outlets for plugging in cars. 

Over the course of the day, I was noticing other things that used to bewilder me or annoy me when we first moved up here.  The first was the fact that until well after 9:00 am in the morning it is still pitch black.  I have to wait to ask my students what the weather is like, because they can't see if it's sunny or cloudy outside (they sure know the temperature though - COLD).  I don't notice that too much anymore, I've just adapted.  The next would be the condition of the roads.  For some reason they don't plow down to the road up here.  When we first moved here, we kept waiting for them to finish plowing the roads because they were leaving about an inch of snow on the road.  In addition, in town, they leave about 2 or more inches of snow on the roads and all of the traffic pushes it around and makes it very lumpy and bumpy on the town roads.  A consequence of all of the snow on the road is that it gets compacted at intersections and becomes ice.  Ice is not good when you're trying to drive.

The ice and snow on the road led me to think about another thing I don't think about much and that is the web of cracks on my windshield.  Actually, almost everyone in this town has at least one chip or crack in their windshield.  Why, you may ask?  Well, when you leave that much snow on the road, you have to find some way to add some grip.  The answer they have come up with is to put tons of gravel on the roads.  If you take tons of gravel and add lots of large trucks, you get flying gravel that smashes windshields on a regular basis.  Our windshield was ruined just over a month after being replaced this year.

One thing I still notice however, is the bitter cold.  I don't think I'll ever not notice that one.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Christmas Concert Sucks

Don't get me wrong.  I like Christmas.  But I really do not like Christmas concert.  Christmas concert at an elementary school involves practicing a lame song or poem for weeks prior during time you should be teaching the kids something like, well math or reading.  Then when the day comes, everyone marches down to the gym to watch the whole thing.  In previous years at Prespatou this could be up to 3 hours long!  Then, to sweeten the deal for the teachers, you get to come back to school that evening.  To watch it again you ask?  Why no, but to provide free babysitting for the kids you usually get paid to take care of all day.  So, we sit in a room with 20 kids that are completely hyped for the concert and sometimes hopped up on sugar for an hour or more.  Then, after the deal is over, hopefully the parents come by in a timely manner to pick up their kids instead of chatting with their friends for an hour.  So, when you get home at 10:00 at night, you're pretty tired from that day.  That is when you realize the some bone head at your school has cited some lame ass reason why the concert had to be held on a Wednesday night, so you still have two days of work left.  Don't forget that the kids were up late too, so they are going to be a treat for the next two days as well.

What a magical time of year.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween

Well, Jen and I finally get to hand out Halloween candy this year.  Ever since we've been together (5 years now), there has always been a reason that we couldn't entertain all of the Trick or Treaters in the neighbourhood.  At first we lived on the third floor of a very small apartment building in Ottawa and the front door was locked.  It was a bit of a rough neighbourhood.

Next, when we first moved to Fort St. John, we lived in another apartment building, so no Trick or Treaters.
their
Then we moved out to Prespatou and we were surrounded by the very dour Mennonites.  Halloween was seen as sacraligous and a pagan ritual.  Needless to say, having a Jack 'o Lantern outside our teacherage was probably not a wise career or social move.  We generally made ourselves scarce on Halloween night, because there were a healthy amount of hypocrites in the Prespatou community.  There were families that would go out Trick or Treating and not bother to dress up.  I don't play that game.  So, in order to avoid having me make a scene, Jen always made sure we were away from home.

Now this year, we live in town and we are in our own house.  Our steps are lined with the Jack 'o Lanterns that our classes carved.  We have had between 60-70 kids of varying ages come to our door asking (politely for the most part) for candy.  The best part is that the little beggars don't have to wear their snow boots or winter jackets this year.  There is usually snow on the ground at this time of the year, but we got lucky and our first big dump melted over the last couple of days. 

Am I a grumpy old man if after two hours of beggars coming to my door, the novelty is wearing off?

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The Byzantine World of Labour Relations

I went to a professional development committee meeting this past week and received a copy of our current collective agreement.  It was nicely bound and in a compact format.  I really should have nothing to complain about, except that our current contract expires this coming June.  That's right.  I finally got a copy of a contract that I've been working under for the past three years this week and it it expires in eight months.

When Jen and I first started in this school district we were given a copy of the last collective agreement that had already expired.  When I chased down our union rep to get a copy of the current contract I was told that we couldn't have those because the parties were still working on finalizing a few of the side agreements.  I found this very disturbing that my union would not allow me to see the contract that it had bargained for on my behalf.  However, I was new to the profession and organized labour, so I didn't push too hard.

I have also realized that the only part that most teachers (and maybe most workers in general) care about is the page that shows their wage scale.  While I'll agree that it's important, I like to know what the obligations of the employer and my self to each other are while I'm working (i.e. why and when can I get in trouble).  Of course, that's probably the former lawyer in me poking his seldom seen head out.

Finally, British Columbia teachers collectively bargain as a whole group with the provincial government.  The extent of our collective bargaining rights are set out in provincial legislation.  At the current time, teachers are classified as an essential service, much like fire fighters and ambulance drivers.  This makes it illegal for us to strike.  However, the current government is definitely not pro-union or pro-education and is in penny pinching mode.  To make matters worse, the British Columbia Teachers Federation is highly militant and seems to get off on baiting a government that it seems to me it would be wise to find a working relationship with.  There is a common saying that says don't bite the hand that feeds you.  The BCTF gnaws on that hand very regularly.

Bargaining for the new contract starts in March.  It could be an interesting year.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Pumpkins are sexy

Today I was doing a shared writing project with my kids today.  We were writing about pumpkins.  Every sentence followed the pattern, "Pumpkins are..." and they told me something that pumpkins were.  I had answers such as round, orange and full of seeds.  One little boy however, told me that pumpkins were sexy.  I wasn't sure I had heard him correctly, so I asked him to repeat his answer.  I think he thought I was angry, so he kind of mumbled his answer and one of the children next to him was nice enough to repeat it very loudly.  I tried not to laugh too much and I said that while sexy wasn't a bad word, it was one we probably shouldn't use in a grade 1 classroom.  Another child piped up that it was a mom and dad word.  I agreed with her while think, "What are your parents saying to each other at home?"

So there you have it folks.  Pumpkins are sexy.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Bad Kitty!

I thought I would write about the joys of pet ownership.  We have two cats.  Cats that my wife is convinced are people.  Jen thinks of the cats her furry children.  Need I say more?  As card carrying humans, they (my wife and my cats) think that they should be afforded all of the same rights and privileges as everyone else.  I must admit that this leads to some conflict between myself and the other residents of our house.   For example, I think that furniture should be reserved for humans and the rest agree.  It is the definition of human that gets in the way.

Anyway, today I was cleaning out the cats' litter box and London started meowing and circling around me.  Then he went into my hockey bag and scratched around a bit.  Just as I had finished filling and putting the lid on their litter box I looked over to see London squatting over my hockey towel which was on the floor waiting to be washed.  I hollered at him to stop, but he didn't listen.  He proceeded to drop a massive steaming crap on my towel.  Did I mention that the towel was one that I brought back with me from Hawaii?  It stank so bad and looked so rude, that I had to throw the towel away.  I mean really.  Who could dry their face with that towel when all you though about was your cat crapping on it?

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Dresden Files

I just finished reading the Jim Butcher book Turn Coat.  It is the second most recent book in the Dresden Files series.  It is about a wizard that works as a private investigator in Chicago.  It sounds sort of odd, but it is quite well written with lots of humour and personality.  They are not hard books to read, but satisfying all the same.  I give this book and the whole series so far two thumbs up.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Tales From First Grade

Well, it's been an eventful (read busy) month.  I just noticed that I hadn't blogged in a very long time, so I thought I'd pass on some funny things that happened in my classroom today.

First, one of our Aboriginal Support Workers came in to tell my students about the fall gathering that our school would be hosting this Friday.  She told the students that some elders would be coming to tell stories and some of the students would be making soup and bannock.  One of my little boys put up his hand and asked who was coming.  He was told it was aboriginal people.  The this he asked "So, what, are they French or something?"  The ASW, trying not to laugh told him that they were aboriginal and pointed out one of our aboriginal students and said like him.  This was a nice try, but the aboriginal boy is not quite to the age where he has self-identified with a specific race yet and he seemed alarmed and said "Who, me?"  You would have thought we told him he was a dog the way he reacted with disbelief.  We dodged around that question for a little while before the first little boy accepted that French people were not coming to do some storytelling, set up tee pees and make bannock.

Later, during story time, I had just made a good start on The Gingerbread Girl, when I caught a whiff of something unholy.  I mean, it was bad enough I had to breath through my mouth.  I chose to be the bigger person (well, I already sort of am) and ignore it.  However, when I got a repeat performance about 30 seconds later I decided I was going to asphyxiate before the story was over if I didn't address my students about this little breach of etiquette.  So, I put my finger in the book to mark my place and lay the book on my lap. I said, "Boys and girls, someone is farting and it smells pretty bad.  I'm not going to point a finger at anyone, but you know who you are and you need to stop or go to the bathroom."  A couple of people agreed that it was pretty stinky in their vicinity as well.  Nobody confessed, but you don't have to look very hard at a 6 year old's face to find the guilty one.  I knew exactly who my little bomber was.  Luckily, my plea for clean air did not fall on deaf ears and the pollution stopped.  Well, at least until story time was over.

I'll leave you with a picture I got from one of my students after I had a bad day.  She told me she made it for me just because she liked me.

Monday, September 20, 2010

A Game of Inches

Just a week or two ago, we were considering not having the TV hooked up at our new house.  We had put our service on hold for the summer and we were not missing the idiot box after two months without.  I was getting lots of other things done during the time I would have spent staring at the tube.  Then football season started.  This made the decision much more difficult.  I am a very large football and hockey fan and watch lots of games on TV (bless my wife for her patience).  But I still considered doing without.  Eventually, we (mostlly me as my wife was fine either way) decided to have the service hooked back up.

As I sat in front of the TV this evening and my eyes beheld the emerald green turf at Candlestick Park in San Francisco and my ears rang with the dulcet tones of the Monday Night Football theme, I knew I had made the right decision.  AS I watched the game see saw between the two teams, I felt a strange tingling throughout my body.  The visual display was tickling the pleasure centre of my brain.  I was flooded with endorphins as I watched the game go down to a field kick attempt on the final play of the game.

Life is good again.

**Hockey season is only three weeks away.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I'm On Fire!

We had a great speaker at our district wide professional development day on Friday.  Mark McLeod is an educational speaker from Mississippi.  The man's message is to be on fire about teaching.  He did a pretty good job of getting most people all fired up about going into the classroom and making  a difference with the kids you have.  We have quite an opportunity to influence children's lives as educators, but it's easy to lose sight of that and become negative when you have bad behaviours or trouble with your administrator or co-workers.  Mark's message is to stay positive and the environment around you will become more positive too.  I am definitely susceptible to bouts of extreme negativity, so I'm trying my best to take Mark's advice and be more positive.  At the very least, my wife won't have to live with Mr. Crusty Puss anymore (or as much).

Mark's other main message was the emotional bank account.  Negative actions and words are a withdrawal from one person's account by another and postive or kind actions and words are a deposit.  Those deposits can be called on later when you have to ask for help or come down hard.  I will forever think of that man whenever I hear the words Cha-Ching!

Finally, I'm on fire because I had some simply awesome Indian food last night in the little village of Pouce Coupe.  The food was spicy and fine.  My mouth was on fire!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Wow!

Well, it's been busy.  Starting two new grades at a new school has been challenging to say the least.  In fact, I've been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.  Every time I think I'm starting to catch up, another pile ends up on my desk.  I'll be going in again this Sunday for more work.  It helps that the satellite hasn't been fixed, so I don't have access to football.  Otherwise, I'm not sure how much willpower I'd have to make into work for another weekend.  I've even been working in the evening when we get home since I started and that's just not like me.  I like to leave work at work.  Unfortunately, I also like to make sure my kids learn, so something had to give.

My class is interesting this year.  I have a very loud bunch of students.  Now, I'm not one of those teachers that has their students sit in rows silently while they work, but I like it when they aren't talking when I am.  Also, everything they say is shouted to one another.  We are making slow progress on how to behave in class.  The first half of the week I despaired of retaining any shreds of my sanity this year, but by the end of the week there was a glimmer of hope.  Only a glimmer at this point, but that is better than nothing. 

Hopefully, I'll have a better week coming up.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Happy Birthday Jen!

Yesterday was Jen's birthday.  I won't tell you how old she is because I value my life and other extremities too much.  Suffice to say, she is old enough to not like having birthdays much anymore.  So, I threw her a party.  Of course, saying I threw her a party implies that I did everything.  This is not so.  When I floated the idea of having a party for her a couple of weeks back, I had a simple BBQ in mind.  The my wife got hold of it and it had to be a "party".  The only part of my idea that survived the Jennification process was the BBQed hamburgers and hotdogs.  Suddenly we had to have several kinds of salads, dips and deserts to serve our friends.  This was no  longer a guy party. 

Beyond the expansion of the menu, Jen wanted cheese cake for her birthday.  I told her I would buy her one, but she wanted a homemade one because it would feed more people and is cheaper in the end (remember we haven't been paid since June).  Unfortunately, I do not possess the skill to manufacture a cake.  That's why I was willing to pay someone who could.  So, Jen ended up making her own birthday cake.  Did I mention that shortly after this picture was taken, I went off to play hockey while she cooked up several salads.  Am I a prince or what?

Regardless of my husbanding skills, the party went off and our little house was packed to the rafters with friends.  It was noisy, silly and irreverent.  All qualities that make for a high quality gathering.  I would like to point out that I cooked the meat and cleaned up while Jen enjoyed herself at the party.  She seemed happy and is still talking to me, so I assume I did alright.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Hurry Up and Wait

Well, another school year has started.  However, this year has been much different than past years.  My new school is transient enough it turns out that no class lists were made for the first day of school and still haven't been three days in.  I have had the entire grade 2 class of 31 students.  My classroom is quite small and there are some serious crowding issues.  I really hope we get the classes figured out soon.

Beyond the crowding is the sense that the year really hasn't started.  It is hard to start enforcing your routines on a class that it turns out I may only have a couple of in my class.  You do not want to start curricular activities because they aren't really your students (and I dont' have enough desks and supplies).  It's almost like being in purgatory. That feeling has translated into my planning.  You don't know which day you will be getting your class, so you don't plan more than a day in advance.  I find it very tiring flying by the seat of your pants all the time.  I don't mind saying that I'm not a big fan of this system of buying time at the beginning of the year.  Of course, I really don't have much say in it, so I'll just shut up and do my job as best as I can.  You can't fight city hall, as they say.

Tomorrow is behaviour and social responsibility refreshers for all students in the school.  The rest of the day is up to me.  It should be interesting.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Warhammer 101

It was brought to my attention that I write about Warhammer in this blog, but have not explained what the game actually is.  So, I thought I'd take a minute to give a very brief overview of the Warhammer game.  This is for you Michelle, so you can truly understand what kind of geek I am.

Warhammer is a fantasy miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop.  The game is a loose simulation of a battle between two armies of miniatures that the players bring to the table.  The miniatures are purchased in groups or individually and a player collects the units and heroes he/she will use in their games.  It is not a cheap hobby.  You generally pay $30-40 for 5-10 miniatures.  An army can be composed of 100 -300 miniatures.

There are lots of rules and dice rolls to determine combat and some movement.  There is a great deal of strategy involved and quite a bit of luck considering the amount of dice you throw in the new edition.  There are many races you can choose to create your army from.  I personally play High Elves (different from Dark and Wood Elves).  Each race has it's own specific troop types and racial strengths and weaknesses.  The Warhammer world and each race also has extensive background stories (commonly referred to as fluff).  I don't pay much attention to the fluff, but some players love it and theme their armies around it.   Each model has a points value and the players determine how many points they will play a game at and then put together an army list using some basic composition rules and then consisting of whatever you think will be most effective.  The game is played on a 6'x4' table.  The miniatures in the game are meant to be painted, but don't have to be in order to play the game.

I was introduced to the game a year ago and still am not very good at it.  I am more partial to painting the figures than playing the actual game, but I enjoy playing as well.  My painting has improved over the past year, as I continually try new techniques.

I thought I would post some pictures of my man dollies, so you can have a visual of what kind of grand nerdiness I'm involved in.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Unexpected Pleasures

I am loving living in town again.  We lived 100 km outside of town the past two years at the school we were working at.  Prespatou was a LONG way out of town.  They had a small general store, but it had limited and sometimes random things in stock.  You also had to arrange activities in town in advance and plan all of the week's chores for that same day or afternoon.

I was playing hockey in town twice a week the past two years.  Yes, I love hockey that much.  An hour of hockey would effectively take up an entire evening or afternoon.  Anyway, Wednesday night, while doing the dishes, my friend Bryce called me and asked if I wanted to play hockey that night.  I was very surprised and very happy at this turn of events.  After I had said yes, then I began to wonder if everything that was supposed to be in my bag was still there.  So, I left the dishwater to get cold and ran out to the shed to dig through the stacks of totes, boxes and general crap to find my bag.  I dug it out and quickly rummaged through to make sure the basics were there.  I went back to the dishes and quickly wondered if I had socks and a jersey for the game.  So, I ran out and checked that.  After many such trips I was finished the dishes and finished checking nearly every piece of my equipment one piece at a time.

When I got to the rink, there were not very many spare players.  There was only one sub on the bench.  For the first time out this year, not having many subs spelt disaster.  It was so much fun and very fast (for the first ten minutes) and extremely tiring.  I think I was very close to coughing up a lung at one point.  Interesting how you can have a lot of fun exhausting yourself.

I don't know if this means hockey season has started or if it was a end of summer treat.  My equipment stinking up the furnace room suggests the former.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

I Don't Get It

One of Jen's friends is doing her Masters in Educational Technology.  She recommended (pestered) Jen to join Twitter as a professional development tool.  Jen joined, so I had to also.  I don't like to be left behind.  I hadn't previously joined Twitter, because I had the impression it was the place where people told others about the meaningless minutia of their life.  To some degree it is, but there are many interesting things going on out there as well.  I can follow developments from my favourite hockey and football teams.  I get news flashes from CNN, etc.

I was given a list of teachers to follow on Twitter and it has been an eye opening experience.  Some of these people are teaching MACHINES!  The go to work all day and Tweet about it.  Then they go home and look up a lot of other blogs and teaching stuff and Tweet about that.  I don't get it.  Wouldn't a person get tired of work all the time?  I've talked to Jen about it and she tells me that my background and personality make it impossible for me to understand.  Jen is a career teacher.  Jen started out as a teacher and has never looked back.  Teaching is my second career.  I enjoy teaching and I want to do a good job at it and continually improve at my job.  But it is my job.  When I come home I would rather be outside, playing or watching sports, watching TV, gaming with my friends or just chatting with my wife, than doing what I was doing all day.

Jen tells me that for some educators, teaching is their passion and their life.  I try to at least intellectually understand how this can be, but I can't really get my head around it.  I'm not stupid, maybe just a little stubborn and narrow minded.  I don't think less of these people, I am just flabbergasted at their energy and almost single mindedness.

Friday, August 27, 2010

My Secret Life

No, I don't cross-dress and sing Gloria Gainer.  Though the way that I hide it, you'd think I did.  No, my big secret is that I'm an undercover nerd.  I play with little man dollies.  Almost exactly a year ago, I was introduced to the game of Warhammer.  This is a game where players paint up armies of little plastic or metal men and do battle with them.  There is a complex rule set and lots of dice rolling.  It is extremely geeky and I don't advertise it to anyone.  My wife however, is not quite as circumspect as I am, so a few of her friends know.

I bring all of this up because last night was the re-opening of the games club after summer shut down.  Several nerds showed up for a few hours of various wargames.  The group includes both classic nerds and undercover nerds like me. 

Mike loves the Warhammer
Anyway, I had a game against Mike and his Warriors of Chaos.  He brought a pretty tough army, but I thought I could handle it.  If the dice had not betrayed me, I probably could have.  Turn one, I was going to combo charge his unit of warriors with both my lion chariot and my spearmen.  Unfortunately, my spearmen failed their charge and the chariot was all by itself.  It acquitted itself well by panicking the warriors, but it didn't do as much damage as I had hoped.

On turn two, disaster struck and my mage blew up in a big way.  It was a dimensional cascade.  Which means that a massive template is placed over the mage and everything the big circle touches, gets whacked.  I was lucky and I only lost four of the Phoenix Guard in her unit, but she died and so did a big part of my arsenal.  It was all downhill from there.  I made a few pushes, but I could never do enough wounds to tip the scale and I lost in the end. 

It was a good game and we had a pretty good time.  I've got pretty used to my dice laughing at me by now, so I can usually get over it.

Luck be a lady tonight!
Here's a preview of what's next on the painting table.  This is the same little lady that blew up last night.  Maybe some colour will make her more effective next week.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Doing Things

As the title suggests, I've been doing things the past few days.  First, Jen and I went hiking in Tumbler Ridge.  Even though she's not quite two months past her accident and as such still a bit out of shape, Jen insisted on doing and alpine hike.  She chose a 5.5 km trail that went right up the side of Cowmoose Mountain.  For those of you who live in the Rockies, it's only a foothill, but it was plenty big for around here.  It took us a few hours to make it to the top and then we made it to about 500 metres from the summit.  Why stop you ask?  Well it was an extremely steep scramble to the top and while I liked my wife's chances of getting to the top, I wouldn't have bet on her making it back down in one piece on her bumb leg.  So, we decided discretion was the better part of valour and took a couple of pics from almost the top and headed back down.

We had some interesting experiences with wildlife, both those we saw and the one we didn't.  We happened upon a village of marmots.  They were living in an old rock slide and they were everywhere.  The little buggers were far braver than they should have been if they wish to avoid becoming someone's hat.  The would sit a few feet away from us and watch us watch them.  The other animal was a bear.  We saw a couple of piles of his berry filled splat and on the way back down we saw a print in the mud that hadn't been there on the way up.  Now, I come from Southern Ontario, where seeing a deer is a wildlife sighting.  My wife is constantly telling me that you have to watch out for wildlife that will eat your face off when you are in the woods in BC.  With Jen's constant warnings in my head, when we saw those prints, I almost added my own pile to that of the bear.  It turns out we didn't see him in the end (and in truth the print wasn't that large), but it gave me the willies all the same.

Today, we went out to Upper Pine to work on our classrooms.  I must admit that I didn't work too hard.  I took a picture of the before, but there isn't an after yet because I'm not really finished.  I just shuffled some furniture around.  Jen and her helper worked their butts off cleaning a disgusting classroom.  The previous teacher left all the cupboards full of junk and garbage and covered in various pools of sticky stuff.  Some people are pretty inconsiderate, especially when you think that she is still at the school and will have to work with Jen this year.  Give your head a shake!
My new school!

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Ugly Truth

Well, I can't avoid it any longer.  Fall is almost here.  Yesterday, we made the first trip to our new school since June.  I would love to say that I was so excited and looking forward to the new experiences of a new grade, blay, blah, blah.  The ugly truth is that with Jen's accident, buying and moving to the house and the invasion of the in-laws, I don't feel like I've had much of a vacation.  I don't feel very recharged and ready to get back at it.  I find that I'm dragging my heals even thinking about going back into the classroom.  Thank goodness for my wife, who is far more motivated than I am at this point.  She will drag me out there and get me back into the groove.

This morning we were temtpted to turn on the furnace.  Yes, it is August 22, but it was so damn cold in our house this morning we seriously considered turning on the furnace.  However, we decided we will be burning enough gas this winter when it's minus forty, that we should conserve.  So, we bundled up and I made blueberry pancakes instead.  The truth is hard to ignore, however.  There is a chill in the air and the smell of fall is tickling my nose.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Achievement Unlocked


So I finished Assassin's Creed II today.  It was a bitter sweet experience.  Gamers know what I'm talking about.  For the rest of you, it's like finishing a book or better yet a series of books.  You have spent so many hours with the characters and in that particular world, that there is a small sense of loss for a short time.  There is also the somewhat lost feeling of not knowing what to do with yourself when you have some spare time.

Lucky for me, I know there is a sequel being released in November and even better, Fallout: New Vegas will be released in October.  I should be settled enough in my new classroom to start chipping away at the 100 hours or so it will take to get through that one.  I guess I still have my Phoenix Guard to paint up for Warhammer and my High Elves are getting new releases in both September and October.  I guess I have lots to do in my spare time.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

A Sense of Self-Preservation

Have you ever noticed how some people in this world do not have the ability to look at a situation and say to themselves, "Gee, if I do this, I will probably get hurt"?  My wife is one of these people.  I love her dearly, but it is a miracle she is still in the world of the living or at the very least not getting around in a wheelchair.

Last night is a perfect example.  At the end of June my wife had a horse fall on her.  No kidding!  She had gone to a student's house to ride at the end of the school year.  The horse reared and fell on it's side with her still on it.  Amazingly enough, she didn't break anything, but she really banged up her leg.  She still has a visible bruise on it and it doesn't work quite as well as the other one yet.  Anyway, I hear a bang from the shower and a loud yelp.  It turns out that she had tried to stand on one leg and turn off the shower with her foot.  Did I mention that she was standing on the same leg the horse laid down on?  Did I also mention that she has balance issues often? 

I ask you, who in their right mind stands in a wet shower and thinks that standing on one foot is a sound idea that will make your life easier and better?  She was just lucky she only banged her foot on the tap and didn't take a spill.  I would have been up for a second trip to Emergency this summer.

I will leave you with that story, and won't go into detail about all the times I've walked into the kitchen to see my wife pulling a massive chef's knife toward her hand or arm, seemingly oblivious to the danger.  No wonder I have so much grey hair!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Warhammer

Well, I played my first game of 8th edition yesterday morning.  Even with the frequent rules checks the game went very quickly and was a lot of fun.  I have a 1500 point tournament coming up in the middle of September, so we played that points level so I could get a feel for what is going to work and what won't in the new edition.  The game was just a straight battle with no terrain.  We just wanted to get a feel for the new rules.  It took my High Elves and he had a Vampire Counts army.

The game was basically a push your stuff forward and see what happens affair.  It turns out that HE are pretty punchy in the new edition, with their rerolls to hit when they have a higher initiative than the target.  Let's face it, they had higher inititative than just about everything in the VC army.  I also learned that the Battle Standard Bearer is a must have in the new game.  I failed a couple of fear checks that I was lucky enough to get on the reroll.

I had a level 2 mage and took the Lore of Life.  I was lucky enough to get the Throne of Vines and took Earthblood.  I didn't actually miscast the entire game and I threw four dice a few times, so vines didn't come into play that way, but the 4+ regen save did manage to keep a lot of my spearmen in a grinding combat with two units of skeletons and a Vampire Lord until my Swordmasters could get them in the flank the next turn.  I had the Banner of Sorcery in my Phoenix Guard, but found that with a level 2 I had more dice than I needed most turns, so may look into trying to squeeze a level 4 into the list or giving him the Silver Wand so he has a third spell.  Of course, I could just give the PG the Razor Standard to make them a more killy unit.  I guess only practice will answer which will be more effective.

Anyway, I had a great time and won.  I don't do that often, so it's nice when you can get it.  I hope to have more games in the near future.  The club reopens on Aug. 26, so games will be more regular then.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Fall Fair

Today, my wife and I went to the North Peace Fall Fair.  I know it's not fall yet, but I don't make the schedule or have any say in the name.  The fair is a total throwback to the old agricultural fairs.  There were competitions for baking, preserves, flower arranging and growing as well as vegetables and lots of varieties of livestock.  Not being a farmer, I was interested in more of a curious fashion rather than a professional or knowledgeable one.

We wandered the fair for an hour or so and then got some fair food.  I have to say that the food is usually the best part of a fair.  I had really gotten myself into a lather before we went in anticipation of a dirty old corndog.  There were no corndogs!  I was completely gutted.  I had to settle for BBQ beef on a bun from the Cattlemen's Association.  It was pretty tasty, but not really a corndog.

Did I mention that there wasn't a midway?  Not that I'm a big fan of the rides, but in my experience it isn't really a fair until you have the midway.  So, with no midway, the wife and I decided to take in the country dancing contest.  It was quite a mix of young and old  contestants.  Those people were doing dances I'd never seen before, let alone heard of.  Not being a particular fan of country music and the country scene in general, my experience is admittedly pretty thin.

Anyway, a fun time was had by all, although we'll have to see if we invest the time and money to attend next year.

Finally, I'm pretty excited.  I will be playing my first game of 8th edition Warhammer Fantasy tomorrow morning.  My High Elves get to take on the dirty Vampire Counts in a 1500 point battle.  I can't wait to see what the pointy ears can do in the new edition.

Friday, August 13, 2010

In the beginning

Until recently I thought blogging and reading blogs was pretty lame.  I'm still not 100% sure I think it's a great idea, but my mom always said not to put anything down until you've tried it.  So, I'm trying it.

I'm not sure I know what this blog will turn into or what it will contain in the end.  I guess it will be as much a surprise for anyone reading as it is for me.

As a person coming from the southern part of Canada, it's been a bit of a culture shock coming to the north.  I hope to pass on some of the more interesting things that go on up here, plus some of the day to day happenings that I find interesting.