Daily Work: ReadWriteThink Science Fiction Lesson, Blogging, Napping

Got to work just 3 minutes after. A major accomplishment. Continued work on the science fiction lesson plan. Had it live by mid-afternoon. Finding the Science Behind Science Fiction through Paired Readings is live and ready for the teachers of the world :)

As I was working on it today, I kept looking at one thing and finding that the cursor or arrow was some place else altogether. Turns out that in the world of computers, visual focus != cursor focus.

Did the traditional Friday night grocery shopping and started catching up on the long missing entries. I don’t know how I feel so far behind. Well, part of it may be something problematic that happened to a friend, and then once I fell behind, I couldn’t get going again. I saved drafts and snippets, but I couldn’t managed to get them published. I have it in my head that I can’t do new, current entries until I have all the gaps filled in. Stupid really I guess, but that’s my head. At least the process is underway. There’d be more done if I hadn’t foolishly taken a nap from 9 to 11:30. I have no explanation for that nonsense.

Daily Work: Update, Upkeep (fortunately not upchuck)

It’s Groundhog Day, which means I am to regale my brother-in-law with “I got you babe.” We have no excuse for this tradition really.

I had my update with Sharon, and went over my list of things I need to do and whatever I had questions about. It’s my first update since January 6 because of various things that kept both of us from being in the office at the same time during my scheduled update this last month.

Spent the rest of the day doing various odds ‘n’ ends, mostly upkeep and maintenance. Updated the virus checker on the server. I’m considering buying something else for it. This version just isn’t updating automatically for me in the way that I’d like. Did editing work on a 6-8 lesson on science and science fiction. We got a first draft of an interactive that we’re designing in house. It will let students make book covers and dust jackets. I hope to have it live by the end of the month, but we’re doing testing for now.

I am going to be nudged about the book manuscript again soon. At least that’s the word I was given today. It’s so hard to carve out time for it or concentrate when there are so many other things that I have to get done at work. Everything else seems to have unyielding deadlines, and as a result, I never get work on it. Sigh. I really have to get more done more quickly.

MarcoPolo has brought the LinkScan work in house. Took them a while to get things set up and configured. Yesterday we got the first report on broken links in over a month. Made my first pass through the document tonight. Because it’s on a different server, we lost our configuration set-up so things that were set at exceptions are showing up as errors again. Sent out a list of the changes that I need MacroPolo to make this evening, after I had to type it twice because of Exchange server nonsense.

In the News: Who Writes Politician’s Blogs?

I was intrigued by Dear Folks: No Time to Write, which talks about politicians who supposedly start blogs and then don’t post anything. I thought it amazingly naive to think that all these politicians are writing their own blogs. Sure, just like they all write all the letters that go out under their signature and all the speeches that they give. Uh-huh. Now don’t get me wrong, as someone who is unendingly behind on her own blog, I am in complete agreement that when people say they are going to write these things, they need to follow-through. But it seems to me that the problem is more likely a staffing issue. I wonder how many of the politicians even know that they are supposed to be posting?

Windows Resources: Surviving IT Lockdown

Geek to Live: Survive IT lockdown – Lifehacker—information that you hope you don’t have to use, but that you know you better save.

In the News: Framing Internet Use in Elementary School

I wish that I’d saved the RSS feed description on BBC NEWS | UK | Education | Net abuse ‘starts in primaries’. The article is about kids plagiarizing and what not. Misusing online resources. Bullying. Problems with “e-safety” (please. e-safety?)

The feed description on Bloglines suggested that the Net was the actor and the students were the object of the sentence. Something like “Net abuses elementary and secondary students.” Probably someone’s error that has been corrected, but I found it interesting to blame the Internet as if it were a responsible participant.

Daily Work: Lesson Plans, Meetings, and the SOTU

Continued work on the dystopia lesson plan, which uses The Matrix to explore the characteristics of dystopian society in various texts. Unfortunately, I found that part of one text was borrowed from elsewhere, so I had to redo some of the work :(

Had another team meeting and discussed what we need to do to make the network files work better for us. Watched the State of the Union address, but didn’t really think it was all that amazing. Nothing new or catchy really.

For Mac: Tweaking iTunes

MacDevCenter.com — Tweaking iTunes—some basic information on how to take control of iTunes, in case it ever gets out of line.

Depression: NPR’s "The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do"

Heard “The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do” this morning while getting ready for work. It’s one of the This I Believe essays on NPR. It has some really good description of what depression feels like. The part where she talks about how it felt to have other people doing things, that’s how i feel. Course I have no one doing things for me. But anyway, I think that’s the best description. I know that I do hide a lot, even when I ask or pay people to do things for me. It feels wrong, and I feel stupid and foolish for not being able to do better. I don’t have problems like the author of this essay; but it really is a close description. So close, that I really don’t want to listen to it again, but I want to keep the URL handy.

Daily Work: Writing, Cleaning, Sleeping

Watched Empire Falls while I continued work on the Hopper and Carver lesson plan. On breaks, I cleaned the kitchen a bit. There’s something so wrong with my life that I can’t get my kitchen clean. I have to work in stages and I still don’t seem to make any progress. At least I did get the dishwasher loaded and run.

I think I may be getting sick. I have this odd dry and scratchy throat that I can’t really figure out. I woke this morning with the problem. It felt like it was so dry that the parts of it were sticking together, and it’s still not right. I’ve tried everything I can think of. It’s not exactly sore, but it’s clearly not right. It feels like my throat constricted or something and all the part were stuck to each other when I swallowed. Maybe it’s swollen? Now I am feeling sort of dizzy and lost. bleh.

Sharon, Lisa, and I had lunch at the Courier. I had the usual—the Famous Courier Reuben. mmm. When we got back, I dug out the Cartman Bop Bag that I bought for the office at Christmas and blew it up. Every office needs a bop bag for days when things go wrong.

After work, I went to Target and the grocery store. Worked on interactives for the lesson plan that pairs Hopper and Carver this evening.

Got a phone call from mom. She’s gotten another poodle, a white, little boy puppy that she has named Baden (after Lord Baden-Powell, since her white girl poodle is Daisi, after Juliette Low). The phone call was freakly. She left a message that I couldn’t interpret and I thought that something was wrong. Turned out that it was just that she took Daisi to the groomer’s and one of the people working there had a puppy that she was looking for a good home for. My mom cannot resist poodles.