When Trekkies Go Bad

The other day, here in Colorado Springs, some guy robbed two 7-11s with a Batleth. It "earned" a spot at the top of Keith Olbermann's "Best Persons in the World" segment:

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No wonder

there's such a high turnover rate in teaching. I knew going into it that it was high stress. I knew I would take a pay cut, but I just crunched some numbers and found that I am making, on average, almost $800 less per month, after taxes than I was making as a dispatcher in Greeley. At that job, I sat at a desk and reacted things as they happened. After I got off work, I had no responsibilities. At my current job, I have to plan for hours before I go into work, then I have to go home and grade and plan after I get off work. For almost $10,000/year less.

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Feel free to comment, but do NOT say "At least you get summers off." Seriously.

Happy Holidays

I've had a couple friends ask me what they should say to me this time of year; "Happy Holidays?" "Merry Christmas?" "Happy Festivus?" "Happy Solstice?" "Happy Christmahanakwanzika?" "You're going to burn in hell, you heathen." (On a side note, when I wished my friends a happy Solstice the other day, it was only because it happened to be the Winter Solstice; I wasn't trying to make some kind of politically correct statement.) Any of the above will do just fine, thank you. And I've had some people get offended when I say "Happy Holidays," as if I'm trying to undermine their Christian beliefs or mock them. Though I don't understand how recognizing that there are those who don't celebrate Christmas and being sensitive to that fact can be offensive.

I don't mind if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas. In fact, I'll return the sentiment, just as I would if someone were to wish me a Happy Kwanzaa (I must admit to being a little offended that no one has wished me a Happy Kwanzaa yet...)

As far as Christmas goes, I do look forward to the time with the family and the Christmas songs (I've been avoiding them thus far -- the songs, not the family) I go to church with the family as part of our annual tradition, (At great personal risk, as I expect to burst into flames one of these years.) and I sing along with the Christmas songs; I actually prefer the Christian Christmas songs more than the annoying secular carols.

Christmas, to me, is a time to get together with the family, give each other gifts, eat good food and just enjoy life. I understand that it means something different to Christians and that's fine. By saying "Happy Holidays," I'm not trying to impugn upon that. Christmas is included in those holidays.

Happy Holidays!

It's almost that time of year

And the time-honored tradition of sticking the heads of those you love onto the bodies of ridiculous elves is back! It's the reason for the season!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

This is not a bag!

I got my new Timbuk2 bag today. It was a little pricey, but I like their manufacturing policy and I needed a new bag in which I could carry all my teaching crap around! Here is part of the plastic bag in which it was shipped:

Large Hadron Collider, Yo.

Just FYI: in two days, they will activate the Large Hadron Collider [wikipedia], which will "cause the collision of 'two counter rotating beams of protons or heavy ions,' thus creating a tiny black hole that will steadily grow, swallowing the entire earth and destroying life as we know it." So, get your affairs in order... right after you finish watching this rap about it. The video should assure you that the scientists working on the project aren't worried (and have a lot of time on their hands right before activating the world's largest machine).



ht: German Joys

Ugh

They told me it was going to happen. "Toby," they said, "you're going to get sick. First year teaching. Germs flying around the school. Stress messing with your immune system. Make sure you have some emergency lesson plans on hand that are easy for a sub to pull off..." But did I listen? No. I never get sick. I'm Toby. I'm effing Superman!

And now for the predictable climax to this story: I'm sick. Sicker than I've been in a long time.

I woke up this morning with that tell-tale sore throat, and it only went downhill from there. Now I can hardly talk, breathe, smell... And I'm exhausted but can't sleep. But I didn't listen about that emergency lesson plan. Just spent about three hours (which felt like 16), preparing stuff for the sub tomorrow.

First order of business once I recover from this fun: make more emergency lesson plans.