Most of my first full week off from students was spent painting our bedroom and bathroom. We just moved all the furniture back into the bedroom; putting the fixtures back into the bathroom will have to wait until tomorrow, as I have to go buy a couple shorter bolts for the new light and because mounting the towel bars & such will require use of the drill. Needless to say, at 9:45, Leo's asleep.
Pictures coming sometime relatively soon, after everything's put back up, including all the art.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Summer!
It's the first full week of my summer break, which won't be much of one. Tomorrow I'm going to start painting our bedroom (one of two that we didn't do right after moving in), and expect that it'll be a 3-day project. After that's done, I get to start working on writing the lab manual for my AP class for next year. My goal is to have at least the first semester, and really the entire year, done when kids walk in for the first full day of class.
I'm back at Centennial next year, but am still dealing with some annoyances related to the out-of-state license, and if I can't get it sorted out, then I may not be able to go back for year 3. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm probably going to have to go through a lateral-entry program again.
The weather has been very, very, very wet around here, although we've survived it relatively unscathed. The biggest problem has been unrelated to the weather, which is that last weekend I was working on re-doing the guts of one of our toilets and cracked the tank.
Incidentally, between the move and a provider buyout, my e-mail address has changed a couple times in the last year. For those without a post-NC address, it's the same handle, but now at comcast (dot) net.
I'm back at Centennial next year, but am still dealing with some annoyances related to the out-of-state license, and if I can't get it sorted out, then I may not be able to go back for year 3. Unfortunately, it seems like I'm probably going to have to go through a lateral-entry program again.
The weather has been very, very, very wet around here, although we've survived it relatively unscathed. The biggest problem has been unrelated to the weather, which is that last weekend I was working on re-doing the guts of one of our toilets and cracked the tank.
Incidentally, between the move and a provider buyout, my e-mail address has changed a couple times in the last year. For those without a post-NC address, it's the same handle, but now at comcast (dot) net.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
In memoriam (not family) / reminisces
I'm probably slower than many people in writing this, but let me add my voice to those mourning the death of E. Gary Gygax earlier this week, in Lake Geneva, WI. This post is, sort of, about the effect that he had on me -- even though we never met.
My introduction to role-playing games (old-style "Red Box" Dungeons & Dragons) came about in Oklahoma City, OK, on the last trip that we made to see my great-grandmother Pulley. Her next-door neighbor had a boy who was about my age, and he had an older brother. I'd been a fan of the cartoon, and the game looked neat. I didn't actually get to play much (at all? -- maybe 30 minutes) on that trip, but I was hooked.
It was probably a 2-year fight with my parents, who'd heard far too much about "the kid at MSU who lived in the steam tunnels because he thought it was real." Nevertheless, in 6th grade (the year after my parents split), the school librarian persuade my mother that there wasn't anything wrong with it. In the apartment building that my mother had, there was a high school student downstairs who was a gamer, and I became friends with one of his buddies. Many years later, I introduced Eric (the latter person above) to the woman who eventually became my wife.
My father didn't have as much problem with the hobby as my mother, and actually picked up German editions of a Gamma World and a Star Frontiers adventure when he went to Germany with his father a year or two later.
It was one of my high school teachers who broadened my RPG horizons beyond "hack-and-slash" style D&D, both to working on creating a consistent persona for a character and introducing me to other game systems. (At the time, it was principally Call of Cthluhu. However, he was the first person that I knew who had something published by White Wolf Game Studio, now the 2nd largest publisher in the RPG market.)
I continued to do RPG gaming through my undergraduate graduation. I've sold most of the things that I spent so much time and money acquiring when I was younger, although I've laid in a small stock of a few things against the day when Leo gets old enough to really participate. On and off, I've helped contribute to Project Aon as an editor or an XML markup typist. I actually really want to get a copy of The Prince's Kingdom sometime in the next couple years. It's a game that was written by somebody specifically for adults to play with their children. He's a little too young to understand now, but around his 4th birthday, it'll be a present to me.
Thank you to everybody who's been mentioned or alluded to here, even if I can't remember your name anymore. My imagination has become richer for your efforts, and it's a gift I hope I can share with my son. Someday.
My introduction to role-playing games (old-style "Red Box" Dungeons & Dragons) came about in Oklahoma City, OK, on the last trip that we made to see my great-grandmother Pulley. Her next-door neighbor had a boy who was about my age, and he had an older brother. I'd been a fan of the cartoon, and the game looked neat. I didn't actually get to play much (at all? -- maybe 30 minutes) on that trip, but I was hooked.
It was probably a 2-year fight with my parents, who'd heard far too much about "the kid at MSU who lived in the steam tunnels because he thought it was real." Nevertheless, in 6th grade (the year after my parents split), the school librarian persuade my mother that there wasn't anything wrong with it. In the apartment building that my mother had, there was a high school student downstairs who was a gamer, and I became friends with one of his buddies. Many years later, I introduced Eric (the latter person above) to the woman who eventually became my wife.
My father didn't have as much problem with the hobby as my mother, and actually picked up German editions of a Gamma World and a Star Frontiers adventure when he went to Germany with his father a year or two later.
It was one of my high school teachers who broadened my RPG horizons beyond "hack-and-slash" style D&D, both to working on creating a consistent persona for a character and introducing me to other game systems. (At the time, it was principally Call of Cthluhu. However, he was the first person that I knew who had something published by White Wolf Game Studio, now the 2nd largest publisher in the RPG market.)
I continued to do RPG gaming through my undergraduate graduation. I've sold most of the things that I spent so much time and money acquiring when I was younger, although I've laid in a small stock of a few things against the day when Leo gets old enough to really participate. On and off, I've helped contribute to Project Aon as an editor or an XML markup typist. I actually really want to get a copy of The Prince's Kingdom sometime in the next couple years. It's a game that was written by somebody specifically for adults to play with their children. He's a little too young to understand now, but around his 4th birthday, it'll be a present to me.
Thank you to everybody who's been mentioned or alluded to here, even if I can't remember your name anymore. My imagination has become richer for your efforts, and it's a gift I hope I can share with my son. Someday.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
busy, busy, busy
This school year is charging nonstop at me.
Tuesday night finishes up a class I picked up for the local Kaplan office at the last minute. The Centennial HS Production of Romeo & Ethel... I mean, Juliet goes up on Tuesday. If you've missed the news somewhere along the line, because I know a thing or 8 about how to handle a sword (thanks to Lansing Community College; search for PFSP107 & Durendal), I let the director know that I'd help with the fight scenes, forgetting there are as many in the play as there are. It's been chewing up massive quantities of my time lately, and only the volunteer services of a member of The Point (the local fencing club) are going to help make sure things pull together in time.
What with conferences last weekend, hosting Thanksgiving, and working an AP course for the first time since I was teaching at Durham Tech, I often feel like I don't have the time to be an effective husband or father.
Tuesday night finishes up a class I picked up for the local Kaplan office at the last minute. The Centennial HS Production of Romeo & Ethel... I mean, Juliet goes up on Tuesday. If you've missed the news somewhere along the line, because I know a thing or 8 about how to handle a sword (thanks to Lansing Community College; search for PFSP107 & Durendal), I let the director know that I'd help with the fight scenes, forgetting there are as many in the play as there are. It's been chewing up massive quantities of my time lately, and only the volunteer services of a member of The Point (the local fencing club) are going to help make sure things pull together in time.
What with conferences last weekend, hosting Thanksgiving, and working an AP course for the first time since I was teaching at Durham Tech, I often feel like I don't have the time to be an effective husband or father.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
out of the loud darkness
I've been dead quiet for a while because I haven't had time to think, let alone write.
The short update, with hopefully more to come in the next couple weeks:
- The house closing was a nightmare, because the buyers of our house had been trying for a loan through Countrywide, right as the mortgage market was busy blowing up.
- I'm now teaching chemistry & AP Chemistry at Centennial HS in Champaign.
- All of our free time has been devoted to painting the house or getting other, similar projects done. We've finally decided that we're going to hire somebody to finish the painting, especially because we have the paint bought for every room but one (where we're still deciding what to do).
One more quick story added in to the post Kirstin just wrote on Leo's blog.
More later.
The short update, with hopefully more to come in the next couple weeks:
- The house closing was a nightmare, because the buyers of our house had been trying for a loan through Countrywide, right as the mortgage market was busy blowing up.
- I'm now teaching chemistry & AP Chemistry at Centennial HS in Champaign.
- All of our free time has been devoted to painting the house or getting other, similar projects done. We've finally decided that we're going to hire somebody to finish the painting, especially because we have the paint bought for every room but one (where we're still deciding what to do).
One more quick story added in to the post Kirstin just wrote on Leo's blog.
More later.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
things proceed apace
Tomorrow is inspection day on both houses. We're not expecting any surprises either place, but that's why they would be called surprises if they show up.
I spent most of the week trying to get the various bits of paperwork assembled and filled out for applying for an IL teaching license. It's a pain, because they don't have a true reciprocal license agreement with anybody, and so it means that I have to go through the application and evaluation process all over again. This on top of teaching applications really meaning that you have to go through the whole things twice for every school, once for the district's HR office and again with the principal of the individual school.
We spent yesterday visiting some cousins of mine in High Point, plus my sister & brother-in-law. The latter two then came back to our house for some additional visiting that was always planned to be overnight. They generously offered to go let us have fun (by watching the film version of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix) while they babysat. 'Twas a good adaptation, although Kirstin & both pity anybody who walks into it without a thorough knowledge of the previous films -- or even better the books.
Speaking of books, this Friday is Release Day for Deathly Hallows. The Leaky Cauldron (an excellent source of news, although less usable after they made it bright and shiny a couple years back) has a prediction quiz for events that may or may not happen during Book VII. This is the last week that you can take it, since after Friday night you'll (theoretically) have all the answers. Those who want insight into the Harry-er parts of my brain can go look here.
I spent most of the week trying to get the various bits of paperwork assembled and filled out for applying for an IL teaching license. It's a pain, because they don't have a true reciprocal license agreement with anybody, and so it means that I have to go through the application and evaluation process all over again. This on top of teaching applications really meaning that you have to go through the whole things twice for every school, once for the district's HR office and again with the principal of the individual school.
We spent yesterday visiting some cousins of mine in High Point, plus my sister & brother-in-law. The latter two then came back to our house for some additional visiting that was always planned to be overnight. They generously offered to go let us have fun (by watching the film version of Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix) while they babysat. 'Twas a good adaptation, although Kirstin & both pity anybody who walks into it without a thorough knowledge of the previous films -- or even better the books.
Speaking of books, this Friday is Release Day for Deathly Hallows. The Leaky Cauldron (an excellent source of news, although less usable after they made it bright and shiny a couple years back) has a prediction quiz for events that may or may not happen during Book VII. This is the last week that you can take it, since after Friday night you'll (theoretically) have all the answers. Those who want insight into the Harry-er parts of my brain can go look here.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
On houses and the hunting thereof
Under the assumption that nothing kills either deal in the inspections, we not only managed to find a house in Urbana, but we think we have a deal on our house here. The latter isn't yet signed, sealed, and delivered, but we think it's very, very close.
I'm now working on deciphering how, if at all, the process of applying for an IL teaching license changes for somebody who's moving in from out-of-state. I have a feeling that it's going to involve much time with a high-speed connection and playing lots and lots of phone jockey, since it really looks like I have to do everything that a newly graduating teacher does, plus.
somehow, that's just not right.
I'm now working on deciphering how, if at all, the process of applying for an IL teaching license changes for somebody who's moving in from out-of-state. I have a feeling that it's going to involve much time with a high-speed connection and playing lots and lots of phone jockey, since it really looks like I have to do everything that a newly graduating teacher does, plus.
somehow, that's just not right.
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