Look out, Texas! Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players are coming soon to a South By Southwest Festival near you! I wish I could go just to relive the experiences of Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959, Look at Me, and Eggs.
Month: February 2003
Crazy Kids These Days
Boy Tries to Poison Teacher by putting Dry-Erase cleaner in her cup of juice. The middle school student is getting charged with attempted murder. The charge might be reduced in court due to the non-lethality of the cleaner, but the kid obviously knew what he was doing.
Snow Beautiful Snow
It looks like I’m staying home today. We’ve gotten six and a half inches of the white stuff already. They haven’t started plowing yet. The radio reporters are talking about accidents everywhere. Here’s today’s snow horoscope:
Put your ambitions into action today, dear Pisces. The day’s planetary aspects should find you feeling energetic and positive. Make the most of this by taking steps towards your goals. As you know, if you don’t actively pursue things, nothing will happen. The years can pass by so quickly and you wouldn’t want to be sitting on a rocker wondering ‘what if’. Trust yourself and do what it takes. Everything starts with one single step.
Not Looking Good
New Jersey governor McGreevey is going to propose eliminating grants directed for arts activities in the state. This would put programs like the Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival in jeaopardy, since this, and other programs like it, exist in southern New Jersey communities where there isn’t enough personal income to go around. While the existence of these programs benefits the communities in which they reside, they need to rely on state funding.
Since the governor is reportedly planning to announce this, it could be the classic trick of “Get them to expect nothing, offer them peanuts, and they’ll be happy.”
It would be sad to see the Appel Farm Festival go. It’s a sign of things to come, once we begin living with a “war-time” economy. Remember the early ninetees? During and after the “Gulf War” was when communities and schools started drastictally chopping up their music and arts programs.
Just Thinking Out Loud Here
I’m exploring the feasibility of maintaining my current job and working part-time with a school concurrently. I would have to move this fall, in order to be closer to both the school and my day job. My rent could go up anywhere from $2,400 to $9,600 a year. I would need a car and insurance to go with it. I could get a car around $7,000 and the insurance would cost me $3,500 a year (at least). Therefore, if I were to get a part time teaching job, it would have to pay at least $13,000 to cover the minimal costs.
I still think the best idea is to aim for a full-time teaching position. While the salary isn’t great, and benefits aren’t great, eventually I’ll get my licensure for administration.
You’re welcome to post (intelligent) comments, as long as you don’t exude the attitude of “I have all the answers.” :>
Dreamhost Ultimatum
Alright, Dreamhost. I’ve had enough. Here is my ultimatum. You have until March 1 to get things right. Every time I cannot access email via the webmail interface (once within a thirty minute window) and it’s clearly your fault, you get 5 ass-points. Any site outages for more than five minutes, you get 3 ass-points per minute. Every time my MySQL server is needlessly unavailable you get 5 ass-points (only once every half hour, like webmail). Every time you change default site settings without warning users ahead of time (such as changing home directories), you get 10 ass-points. If you rack up 200 ass-points by March 1, I will take my $(hundreds)/year business elsewhere.
Warm fuzzies to anyone who caught the WWIV reference.
CURRENT ASS-POINTS COUNT: 30
What Is Wrong With Me?
I’m not sure what my problem is. I think I need to read and write more often. Looking back on what I’ve written on this site, I’ve seen the quality descend ever lower. I seem to have less of a command on the English language than I’ve ever had. Klunky grammar abouds everywhere. Maybe I’m just getting too lazy.
What You Think You Know Is Wrong
How to eliminate the “blind spots” while driving. I bet you thought they were a necessary evil; it turns out that isn’t true at all. Follow the advice from Car Talk and you’ll put yourself in a much safer position.
Move Forward
It’s good to know that even in times of tragedy, such as today’s space shuttle disaster, the general feeling of the country (from what I can tell by watching CNN the past few hours) is that space exploration is still important and we want to continue learning about the universe of which we are a small part.
Also interesting to think about: The shuttle was on time passing over Dallas, TX at 9:00 AM eastern time and was scheduled to land on the east coast of Florida at 9:16 AM. That’s fast. It takes me more than twice as long to get to the Turnpike, less than 30 miles away.