Welcome to Stressville. Population: Me

Well, it's that time of year again.  You know, the time that everything at work and life starts to go at warp speed.  I spent this afternoon marking writing and math assessments.  Tomorrow night I'll be starting report cards, the whole while hoping that the data entry system doesn't crash because most of the teachers in the rest of the province are also doing their reports cards.

It's also the time of year that we start thinking about what we want to do in the summer and I start to obsess over whether we've saved enough money to do it.  We're planning on going down to the Island this July for my Mother-in-law's birthday and we'd like to take a short trip to Seattle before coming back home.  This year hasn't been great for savings with job action and other unexpected expenses, so we're hoping to squeeze the most we can out of our savings.

Identity Day

This past Thursday, our school held our first Identity Day.  The idea came from a couple of blog posts that Jen had read last year about Identity Days held at a couple of other schools.  Jen thought it would be a good idea to hold one at our school this year.  I agreed.  Jen did most of the heavy lifting, but I helped pitch it and gave her moral support.  In short, Jen deserves most of the credit.

That's mine on travel.  There's a cool slide show playing.

The premise of Identity Day is that all students would choose one aspect of themselves to share with the rest of the school.  Most of our students participated.  There were some skeptical parents and a few that were outright hostile.  Change is never easy, and I find for rural people it's harder than for most.

That's Jen's project.

The day was a smashing success.  The classrooms were full of students excitedly talking to older and younger kids alike, about their project and the listeners asking questions.  The students were engaged and excited.  We had several parents show up and tour the displays and they were all very supportive and impressed with how the day turned out.

Personally, I learned a lot about my own students, but also about a lot of older students that I really don't have much day to day contact with.  The whole idea was to build school community and I think that it succeeded in that aim.

Myself and many students are already thinking about next year's Identity Day and what we'll do our projects on.  I wonder if it's time to roll out the man dollies...

The Dilemma

In the middle of winter, Jen lost our cell phone.  Don't be too concerned, it wasn't an iPhone or any such valuable gadget.  We had survived for years with an old Samsung clamshell phone on a pay-as-you-go plan.  It turns out the phone didn't turn up outside when the snow melted, so it was lost elsewhere.  There is a hobo out there using my crappy old phone as a spoon.

The loss of our phone has brought about the necessity to make a decision on whether to get another pay-as-you-go special or make the leap into the world of smart phones.  We have decided to make the leap.  This is quite an early adoption of technology for us, and quite an investment.  Now that we have decided to upgrade, the next and frankly more difficult decisions have to be made.  Namely, what carrier and plan and what phone?  I use phone in the singular, because Jen already knows she wants and iPhone and that is all.  She has sipped the Apple Kool Aid and decided she likes it.  The only thing I know is that I don't want an iPhone.  As you all know, I refuse to be an iSheep. Not wanting an iPhone has left me with two choices.  I can choose the other heavyweight Android or the newcomer Windows Phone.

Android has the advantage of lots of phones to choose from with more coming all the time.  Android has an established ecosystem of apps and Google services.  I find myself looking at services that say they have an app and 90% of the time the app is available for both iOS and Android.  Android has also recently upgraded its OS with Ice Cream Sandwich, which has a bevy of cool features.  Finally, there are some sweet ass phones that have just come out using the Android platform.  The HTC One X looks beautiful and has received some very high praise from many in the consumer tech industry.  Also, don't forget the current champ Samsung, which has the Galaxy IIIS coming out at the end of the month.  Another beautiful looking phone, but I've heard they're overlay kind of sucks.  My brain says go with Android as the smart choice.

It comes in blue!

Then there is Windows Phone.  Being relatively new to the game, their ecosystem is somewhat sparse.  I have also found that some of the apps I would want to use are not available on the Windows platform.  Who knows what will happen when Windows 8 Phone comes out.  However, I have read many good things about the OS and how it operates.  It is supposed to be very intuitive and smooth.  The flagship phone, the Nokia 900 is quite nice and also quite cheap.  I also have the problem of always rooting for the underdog.  This has got me in trouble in the past.  I've got stuck with things that aren't supported after a time.  I also like to be different than the crowd and this would do it.  My heart says Windows Phone.

If there is anyone out there with opinions (backed by fact or experience) I'd love to hear from you to break the deadlock between heart and head.  We won't be getting our phones until June, so please help me end my obsessing.

Just Foolin' Around

I went out last weekend and fooled around with my not so new camera.  The pictures aren't that great, most turned out a little washed out, but I guess that's all part of the learning curve.  I was just playing with the f-stop and shutter speed. It was a little boring and frankly I was having more fun walking so lost interest in taking pictures at some point.

Well That Was Interesting

We've been on the weather roundabout here for the past week.  We had snow last Wednesday and then woke up to about 1.5" of snow on the ground Thursday morning with more coming down.  It snowed off and on for the rest of the day.  It quite regularly snows over the May long weekend, but it never gets easier to take.

Now for the actual weekend we had sunny skies and temperatures around 20 degrees.  I spent two days out in the yard working hard and getting things done that I couldn't the past couple of weeks because of the 70 km winds EVERY day.

If anyone ever tells you that summer in the North is nice, tell them they are a liar.  There is no such thing as summer in the North, only less winter.

What the Hell?

Ok.  I'm just sitting here watching the Phoenix Coyotes get their ass handed to them on the ice, except they're winning.  I've been watching hockey for many years and I've never seen anything quite like this.  Every time Phoenix gets a scoring chance the puck seems to find its way through a maze of people and into the back of the net.  Meanwhile, Smith seems to stop everything whether he sees it or not.  By all rights, Phoenix should be getting buried.  It makes me a little sick to be honest.

I just wonder whether the luck will run out when they hit L.A. who is steamrolling everyone and has a goalie as good as Smith.  The conference finals are going to be very interesting.  I still say L.A. in the finals.

80's Day

Where's Snookie?

It was 80's day at school last Friday.  Now, a theme like 80's day in a small town like The John is a tough thing to manage, especially for a guy.  If you go into Ardene, it is like a massive 80's flashback.  Lots of neon and bangles.  Unfortunately, its for women.  Our Salvation Army store is not a place most people would like to frequent and it sure doesn't have anything that would help for 80's day.  I am also not a big fan of dressing up, so I was feeling some stress about what I was going to do.  I didn't want to be the dick teacher that didn't bother to dress up.

Basically, I put together what I thought was a lame excuse for 80's wear.  I was either from the 80's or the Jersey Shore.  The only thing to distinguish me from the two was the boom box, which I was kind of proud of.