barkeep49

barkeep49 @ 2008-02-29T11:27:00

2008-02-29T17:26:06Z

I'm in a technology workshop on movie making and the presenter uses Sixth Sense as an example and makes the joke "I think I was the last one in the movie theater to know Bruce Willis was dead" and a someone else says "He was?!?"

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-31T08:12:00

2007-10-31T13:10:35Z

I hate when others in my chosen professions make me sad at being in the same field. Latest sadness: The PhD in Library Science who had read Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy and never realized they were Anti-God. Oh the sadness.

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-30T21:24:00

2007-10-31T02:27:21Z

I forget that kids have a fundamentally different view of me than the outside world. Some students, who all like me, were discussing what I should be for Halloween. After suggesting I dress up as a book, or computer, one said, "You should be a nerd". I replied, without thinking, "But I'm one of those everyday, why would I do it for Halloween?" And I said it in a way that was upbeat and matter of fact, not self-disparaging at all. They just looked at me unsure what to say. I always forget that lots of kids think of me as a cool teacher... How funny reality really is.

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-18T12:20:00

2007-10-18T17:19:33Z

On Tuesday Barnes & Noble sent me a 50% off any one item coupon. This was exactly the excuse I needed to buy the complete Star Trek: the Next Generation Box Set, saving more than $150 in the process of the cheapest price I'd seen it. I have taken one further step towards complete dorkdom but this was just too good of an opportunity to ignore.

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-15T16:32:00

2007-10-15T21:29:26Z

I don't understand why LG took out the very hand feature of being able to read your text messages without opening your phone. I miss that feature already and have only had 1 new text message on my new phone.

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-07T21:10:00

2007-10-08T02:11:25Z

Since my rule for publishes worked so well (I haven't see one book break it yet!) I have another rule. If you own a BMW you must drive it at or above the speed limit. Otherwise instead of having the Ultimate Driving Machine own a Lexus or Mercedes or something.

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-06T18:45:00

2007-10-06T23:45:55Z

The theme to Bourne Supremacy should have been "What I've Done" by Linkin Park and not "Extreme Ways" by Moby. I don't understand why the producers got this wrong.

barkeep49 @ 2007-10-03T20:50:00

2007-10-04T01:51:52Z

I'm issuing a moratorium on publishers of children's books putting a baseball illustration/picture on the cover of books to lure kids into thinking it's a sports book when it is only peripherally about baseball. One Handed Catch was bad enough. Edward's Eyes (a superior book) has pushed me over the edge. You've had your fun publishers but now it's time to stop tricking people.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-30T14:27:00

2007-09-30T19:34:02Z

I'm sure the new interface for Microsoft Word (and to a lesser extent) Internet Explorer are nice. However, I have spent more than half my life becoming very familiar with the old interface. I know the features, know where to find them, etc. And now, with Word 2007, all that years of experience is wiped out. I feel like an old foggy unable to keep up with the kids and their fancy technology. Fortunately, I will only experience this feeling, for the time, the 12 or so hours I work at the library each week.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-28T07:41:00

2007-09-28T12:39:58Z

Two notes:

1. The City of Winnetka needs to enter the modern age of traffic control devices. The lack of synchronization combined with improper cycle times drives me nuts while driving.

2. "Real Gone" provided to me via Pandora on my modern girl rocker channel has really grown on me. It went from being a song that I was mildly annoyed hearing come on to one I like hearing begin.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-22T18:20:00

2007-09-22T23:23:30Z

One concept I've really struggled with, only more now with my new job, is kids reading books that they perhaps can literally understand but lack the life experience to appreciate. How do I teach them to not do this? I finally think I have found an analogy that will, I hope, at least let us start the discussion, and it's all thanks to This American Life. I had heard the last half of a story on TAL one time and it was good, and interesting. They just repeated that show and so I heard the first half. And the first half was powerful on its own, but then the emotional payoff which I knew to becoming felt muted because I already knew how it was. By lacking the whole picture the first time, I lost some of what it had to offer. So I'm going to use the analogy of channel surfing and watching the second half of a movie, and really liking it, but then not wanting to watch the start of the movie cause you've "already seen that". We'll see if it works.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-20T19:53:00

2007-09-21T00:54:06Z

Why isn't the object "note card" spelled notecard? Seems to me it should be a compound word.

Also, my brother pointed out I gave the wrong address initially for my sports blog. It's at http://kidscoach.blogspot.com

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-17T21:50:00

2007-09-18T02:53:33Z

I am thankful for good karma tonight. Tonight were the first nights of tryouts, and not only are all 10 of my players from last year returning, but I have a new player, who played for our arch-rivals, who were coached by complete jerks. So not only am I blessed by that but some kid who I didn't know existed tried out and turned out to be really good. Of course I'm going to blow my good karma come Wednesday when I cut some of the players who I really like as human beings from last year.

I blog extensively about my coaching but do it at kidscoach.blogspot.com. I invite you to follow along there if you're interested in this part of my life.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-15T20:00:00

2007-09-16T01:00:07Z

Evidentially I set my facebook profile to being interested in men. I'm glad that I haven't really friended anyone on facebook.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-14T16:52:00

2007-09-14T21:53:28Z

One of my 4th graders said a couple of times today "Coach is talking" as I was getting their attention. Mind you this is a kid who doesn't even know that I coach. On the one hand, I wanted to kill the kid since I'm working on not thinking about basketball so I don't become obsessive. On the other hand it brought back fond memories of when a few players would say it last year at practice.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-06T12:50:00

2007-09-06T17:49:13Z

I like my new job a LOT, but I have eaten more junk food here in the few weeks than I did at my last school in two years. However, I just don't know how I'm going to wean myself from the cookies.

barkeep49 @ 2007-09-01T12:54:00

2007-09-01T19:03:39Z

I'm excited for the first time since I got hired at my new school about coaching basketball in HP. I ran into four kids at New York Slices today who were all on the B team last year and one of them was one of my favorite kids from student teaching. I had said hello to him by name and he grew SO excited when he remembered who I was. As we were talking he was repeatedly punching me, in the friendly sort of way, which was a little weird, to be honest. Furthermore, his friends seemed like people who I'd get along well with. I think we'll both be pretty psyched if he ends up on my team again.

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-31T19:49:00

2007-09-01T00:49:49Z

Dumb thing said in my household today (not by me):

"It took him two hours." Pause as person on the other end of the phone speaks. "I know it was an endless drive".

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-22T22:34:00

2007-08-23T03:38:57Z

Beloit Alumni:

As you might, or might not know, by virtue of having graduated from Beloit your a member of the Alumni Association. Anyhow it turns out that they're rewriting the Alumni Association Constitution. I take a look, as I'm into that sort of thing, and it's mostly good stuff about getting rid of things that aren't functional anymore. Like there's no such thing as an Alumni Trustee anymore so that really shouldn't be in the Association's Constitution. Anyhow, one of the things that was outdated was the mention of Community Senate. It stated how Community Senate would designate a representative to attend meetings as an ex-officio member. Now, instead, as their student representative they're going to just let the Executive Director of the Alumni Association choose. I wrote in stating that the student government should still get to choose people who act in their name and basically got the brush off. Made me upset.

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-18T14:36:00

2007-08-18T19:40:55Z

For all you doubters out there the Brutally Honest Personality test totally agrees with me about the fact that I'm boring.

Your Score: Borefest - ISTJ

40% Extraversion, 40% Intuition, 73% Thinking, 66% Judging

One word. Boring. Sums you up to a tee. You're responsible, trustworthy, serious and down to earth. Boring. Boring. Boring.

You play by the rules. You follow tradition. You encourage structure.

You insist that EVERYBODY do EVERYTHING by the book. Seriously, is there even an ounce of imagination in that little brain of yours? I mean, what's the point of imagination, right? It has no practical value...

As far as you're concerned, abstract theories can go screw themselves. You just want the facts, all the facts and nothing but the facts.

Oh. And you're a perfectionist. About everything. You know that the previous sentence was gramattically incorrect and that "gramattically" was spelt wrong. Your financial records are correct to 25 decimal places and your bedroom is in pristine condition. In fact, you even don't sleep on your bed anymore for fear that you might crease the sheets.

Thankfully, you don't have anyone else to share the bed with, because you're uncomfortable expressing affection and emotion to others. Too bad.

*****************

If you want to learn more about your personality type in a slightly less negative way, check out this.

*****************

The other personality types are as follows...

Loner - Introverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving

Pushover - Introverted Sensing Feeling Judging

Criminal - Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving

Almost Perfect - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving

Freak - Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging

Loser - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving

Crackpot - Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

Clown - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Perceiving

Sap - Extraverted Sensing Feeling Judging

Commander - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving

Do Gooder - Extraverted Sensing Thinking Judging

Scumbag - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving

Busybody - Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging

Prick - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving

Dictator - Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

Link: The Brutally Honest Personality Test written by UltimateMaster on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-17T15:29:00

2007-08-17T20:34:18Z

UPS hates me. I get the library job and order a whole bunch of books. I was to get 2 day shipping from Amazon and 3 day shipping from Barnes and Noble. Well, one of my packages arrived yesterday on time from Amazon. I was supposed to get another package yesterday from Amazon. The tracking says it went out for delivery a little after 5 AM yesterday. Still waiting for delivery now. I hope the truck driver is OK.

Then there's the fact that my package from Barnes and Noble is supposed to be arriving today except that it, according to UPS, hasn't left Barnes and Noble's warehouse. Barnes and Noble insists that it has. We'll see who's telling the truth...

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-13T15:47:00

2007-08-13T20:55:17Z

So I was offered today a position as a Librarian and Tech Coordinator for a K-5 Building at another private school. I was told about it by a former co-worker of mine last Thursday morning, sent off my stuff via e-mail, interviewed Thursday afternoon and was offered the job today. I have several reservations about the position. They have yet to give me a dollar amount, so there's that whole thing left to be done, but it's exciting to be offered a job. It does, in many ways, renew my frustration at my inability to land an interview at a public school, as I've been offered every job I've ever interviewed for, with one exception. However, that's the latest news with me.

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-13T12:17:00

2007-08-13T17:24:49Z

Fraud or weird incident with innocent explanation?

I went to the post office this morning to mail some books that had been mooched from me on Book Mooch. When the woman ran through the packages, she also scanned a sheet of stamps which then showed up on the receipt as "patron applied postage". She did not affix the stamps to the package, but instead just printed out a sticker that showed postage had been paid. Seems suspicious to me.

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-09T07:29:00

2007-08-09T12:30:43Z

Yet another example of myspace being used for good and evil. A boy posts that his family is going away on vacation. A group of kids reads this and takes advantage of it to break into his house and steal some of his stuff. Only problem is that one of said kids then posts about it on HIS myspace page making it very easy for the police to track him down.

barkeep49 @ 2007-08-04T18:37:00

2007-08-04T23:39:11Z

So I started using Bookmooch which is a website that lets people trade books. So I'm giving away a whole bunch of books I'd accumulated from College which I just can't imagine using again. I've sent away a lot of books. Only problem is that I can't find any books I want from the sight. There doesn't seem to be many teaching/coaching materials available, so I'm likely going to end up getting cheap children's books which feels like a disappointment. For now I guess I'll keep playing the good community member, giving away the books I have, in hopes that one day someone, somewhere, will come along and give me one of the many books I've now put on my wishlist. In good news, I do now have room to keep all of the coaching books I've accumulated int he past year. So that's a positive at least.