I Can NOT Afford This

Long time readers will know that Writing With Symbols has been giving me fits of late, though it seems to be working well on Lore so far.

But a few months ago, I was browsing some of the sites that have nifty products for people with special needs and discovered that there is a successor to Writing With Symbols: Communicate: SymWriter.  At the time, there was a trial available, but only for people in the UK.

However, the lovely folks at Mayer Johnson now have a trial available for folks in the US.  I think the nicest feature, if it works, will be the intelligent symbol use (i.e., it can tell the difference between "drink" the noun and "drink" the verb, and uses the appropriate symbol in the appropriate place).

I cannot afford this.  I know the district can't.

Someday....

It's the Simple Things

I'm a math nerd.  I love math.  I think it's fun to sit down with a difficult problem and puzzle it through until I find the solution.

Of course, I'm also very likely to finish a whole calculus problem and divide wrong in the last step.  I've been doing that since junior high, when math first got interesting.

So it should come as no surprise that I fail at simple things like measuring my own waist and hips.

Y'see, I have a very difficult time finding pants that fit for reasons not really related to overall size.  I have a long waist and short legs (inherited from my dad) and my hips are wider than my waist.

Every once in a while, I find a brand that fits well.  For a while, it was K-Mart's Route 66 line, but the material in those tended to irritate the skin on my stomach.  Then, WalMart had a line of Smart something or other that had an extra layer of soft material inside the waistband, which was nice.  Of course, to get the waist and hips to fit, those pants were too long by several inches.

Then I discovered Catherine's, and their main store brand, which fit very well.  Except, of course, that to fit my hips, the waist was rather big.

So, after a pair that I had bought at an outlet store tore (likely due to a flaw in the fabric or from being a display pair and having the fabric wear out in the sun) when I got an email with a coupon, I decided to try their Right Fit line, which supposedly tailors their pants, so to speak, to fit three different body types.

Plus, they come in petite lengths, which you wouldn't think someone who's pushing 5'7" would need, but...yeah.

Anyway, not having an actual sewing type tape measure, I used a piece of string and then measured it against a non-flexible construction-type tape measure.  I did hips and waist (I do, indeed, wear a "blue") and inseam (yup, petite it is).  I took care to pull the string relatively tight, but as I prefer my clothes loose, I didn't pull it...tight-tight.

Yeah.

What could go wrong, right?  I measured every possible measurement.

Well, apparently, I fail at measuring.  I was at least a size too big, and probably 2 sizes too big.  So, I'll take them back and downsize.

On the plus side, I got a very pretty t-shirt (Patrick wanted me to get this one but I'd have had to try it on -- it could either look really good or really bad) and a pretty white blouse with pink pin stripes.  Both have reasonable sleeves.

(Sleeves are a sore point with me, especially right now, as the current trend seems to be miniscule length sleeves.  

I have pretty serious sensory issues -- in that area, and sleeves have to reach a certain point on my upper arm before I am comfortable...too short, and I am pulling at them and adjusting them constantly all day.

For the record, my ideal sleeve length would be more or less what you'd get wearing a traditional polo shirt.

I must add, however, that one of the suggestions in the article linked to above about tactile defensiveness -- namely, that the first step in a desensitization campaign should be to give your child massages with lotion -- illustrates without meaning to an important point on the subject.

Kids (and adults) with sensory issues are not all the same.  I find lotion -- all lotion -- absolutely disgusting.  It's all I can do to tolerate hand sanitizer -- and that only because it evaporates quickly -- and aloe -- 'cause my skin is naturally dry.  Now, desensitization campaigns can be good, but don't believe everything you read on the Internet.  If that had been step one with me, I'd have run screaming for the hills.

Well, no, I wouldn't....  You just didn't do that kind of thing in my family.  But I'd have been deeply, abjectly, horribly miserable and probably worse off than when my biggest clothes issues were that my socks were too tight and my sleeves too short.)

Ahem.  That was a long parenthetical.  Sorry 'bout that, but I figure that since I'm an adult who can actually explain what some aspects of sensory integration problems feel like, those who are interested in such things might benefit from the description.

By the way, in the second article, I just discovered this absolutely profound thought (I am absolutely not being sarcastic here):  "in the case of the person who just clipped their nails, the discomfort comes because the nerves that have been sheltered are now exposed making the person acutely aware of sensations he does not ordinarily feel."

Oh.  My.  God.  That's me -- I keep my nails short now (years of piano playing and typing) so I'm probably desensitized to it some, but even now after I clip my fingernails, things just feel...wrong...for a while.  The same was true of losing teeth, hair cuts...anything that changed the sensations I'd managed to become accustomed to.

How's about that?  Learn something new every day.

A Dream Deferred

Note:  I have been composing this in my head all day.  Whether that will translate to a good blog post or not, I have no idea.

When I was seven, we went to Walt Disney World for the first time and, though I was too young to really enjoy World Showcase, we (of course) visited every one, and every attraction.

We also bought the "soundtrack," which I listened to often after that, as a way -- I think -- to remember the trip itself (I often visually 'flash' to where I first heard a song when I hear it again).

On that song was "Golden Dreams," from the American Pavilion.  Amidst the lyrics, there are audio clips of important moments in American history.

(Interestingly enough, there are no recreations -- anything that happened before video is shown with Ken Burns-ified photos and dramatic readings are used before audio clips.)

In any event, among them are the usual suspects, including "the Eagle has landed" and JFK's "ask not" speech.

And, of course, this:  "I have a dream this afternoon . . . that the brotherhood of man will become a reality in this day . . . [a]nd with this faith."

I was seven.  I had no idea who Martin Luther King, Jr. was, nor did I have any real understanding of racism, the Civil Rights movement, nor even, really, what he was saying, except that something about the conviction in his voice told me he wanted a Good Thing.

I am in many ways a stereotypical white Valley Girl...so why would those words resonate so deeply with me?

Well...I'm a stereotypical white girl except...

...except that I'm semi-fluent in Spanish (and reactions to that are always funny)

and

...except that out of all the American poetry I've ever read, it was Langston Hughes that I ended up going out and buying (I much prefer English poetry) -- it's Langston Hughes that I borrowed from for the title of this post.

I'm sure other people have posted reflections on King's life and his dream, but I thought I'd share a slightly different perspective.

In his famous I Have a Dream speech, King referred to wishing for a future of equality of Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles -- but the primary focus of his work was Civil Rights.  That is, removing the systematic barriers placed in front of African Americans throughout society.

Or, as Angel, my sixth grade angel, said, "He wanted...the kids...to have the same school."

Being the stereotypical white girl, there are no people of color in my family (that we know about, at any rate).

But there are people with disabilities (cognitive and, more recently, physical), people of Jewish heritage, people who have converted to Judaism (one of these days, when go for Hanukkah, I will remember more than the first two lines of the candle lighting prayer), and people that are gay.

And I would suggest that for the majority of the groups listed above, King's dream of equality is a long way off.

How often do you hear people casually tossing about the word r*tard?  How often do you hear people using the f word (not the verb)?  Think of the 2000 presidential campaign, and how much hand-writing there was about the fact that Mr. Lieberman was Jewish.  How much incredulity there was that he -- gasp -- walked to Temple on Saturdays.

How often do you see someone using a wheelchair and immediately assume they are less capable than someone who does not?  I've seen that myself with Patrick at Disney World -- where he is treated with near universal respect at Disneyland (people speaking directly to him, etc.), that was very much not the case at Disney World when he was using his wheelchair.

This is not the place for a political rant, really, so I'm not going to get into my rant about gay marriage (other than to say that allowing the civil contract aspect of marriage as far as the government is concerned should absolutely be legal and denying two people a marriage license because they are both the same gender is sexual discrimination).

But the fact of the matter is that there is still a lot of discrimination and institutionalized inequality in America.  And while it's fine -- and necessary -- to take time on anniversaries like today to ponder race relations in America, it's just as necessary to, at some point, examine other areas of inequality as well.

King talked about his children going to school with other children.

I'm fortunate to teach at a school in a district where mainstreaming, if not inclusion, is the norm, and inclusion is not all that rare either -- but that's far from the case elsewhere.

Infinite diversity, in infinite combinations, as Spock would say.

Anniversaries like today prompt us to consider one kind of diversity, but I'd like to argue that we consider, that we reflect on, all diversity.

It's trite, but people often say that life would be boring if we were all the same.  But, you know, trite sayings become trite and cliched because they're true.  Of course, trite sayings become trite because we stop actually thinking about what they mean and just accept them as truisms.

Today's a day to remember Dr. King's dream, and to reflect on what we can do to make it come true.

In college, I took a class called the Holocaust in Literature and Film.  The class itself was fascinating, but one of the assignments was to write a paper on any aspect of the Holocaust.

I chose to write about the killing (euphemistically called the euthanasia) of people with disabilities in Germany.  Something like 98% of Germans with disabilities were killed.

The closing paragraph opened with a variation of the following: "The Holocaust was, to be certain, a Jewish tragedy, but it was not only a Jewish tragedy.  It is important to make sure that all victims of the Nazis are remembered and honored."

The professor took great exception to that notion.  She was fine with the paper, but she wanted the euthanasia aspect separated from the Shoah (I'm nitpicking linguistically here, but the idea was that the Holocaust itself, as an idea, encompassed only the killing of Jews, which is why I used the Hebrew term for the latter).

It was the only time in my school career that I refused to make a change in a paper requested by a professor, and I was graded down for it.

So it should come as no surprise that even on the anniversary of Dr. King's death, I choose to focus on broader areas of tolerance and equality.

Infinite diversity, in infinite combinations.

Some Progress

Okay, so, I still can't get Lore to connect to my network attached storage, but I managed to get both Boardmaker working well enough to get homework done for next week.  Writing with Symbols is still iffy, as it's making me re-import a bunch of graphics, so the "This Day in History" part of journals is just not going to get done (I'm squinting at a 24" monitor...this means it's time to stop) until the weekend, nor are the questions for the next two chapters of Matilda (the text itself is done, but the questions aren't).

But, really, it's not bad, given that I had to start from scratch over the weekend and re-install Windows.

Also, 4th Grade Teacher VS talked to Other 4th Grade Teacher KC, and found out KC is struggling with having a 2-year-old and a newborn, so good thoughts sent her way would be useful.

4th Grade Teacher KC is a very, very nice person, who is responsible for both 4th Grade Teacher VS and 5th Grade Teacher EW actually liking me.  She insisted (rather, dragged me by the hair, more or less) that I come along with them on their weekly Starbuck's run (I drink neither coffee nor tea).  Before that, VS and EW were...polite but a bit disinterested and incredulous.

Yesterday, I ran into VS in the parking lot after school, and she thanked me again for translating one of her conferences, and mentioned that it must be very hard.  I mentioned (without thinking that it probably sounded like fishing -- but you know me and social skills) that the ladies in the office had once talked about me getting a stipend for it.

And she said she'd plead my case during the leadership meetings.

Which, you know, probably won't happen, 'cause she'll have forgotten by then -- but that she volunteered was very nice indeed.

Meanwhile, Bulldozer slugged Aide J today, but according to Aide S, she had...ahem..."earned it."

Superhero has been edging closer and closer to meltdown-land as the week has gone on.  I anticipate drama tomorrow.  Which, of course, is when Psychologist JW is coming to observe Mr. Voice to begin working on his tri.

And, I learned something today.  We had an assembly this morning during morning journal time, which is when 3rd Grader P has been visiting, so he came with us to the assembly.  Nothing terrible happened, but note to myself: Keep PH and Bart (just came up with the nickname...he has a Simpsons backpack and, now that I think about it, reminds me of Bart) away from each other at assemblies...or, you know, most of the day.

Yeah.

Oh, and, 3rd Grade Teacher RE said she's considering sending her son to me for his sixth grade year.  He's a cool kid, but she strikes me as a Scary Parent.  We shall see...she talked about it for fourth grade this year and ended up changing her mind -- which is good, 'cause his drama would have been too much for us.

More On Lore

Great...I kept thinking that Lore used to sing a song, and when I googled it, I remembered right away that he did sing (it starts at 1:30) as he entered the room in "Brothers"...but now I have it stuck in my head.

(I'd much rather have Miles singing "The Minstrel Boy" stuck in my head, but, alas, it does not work that way.)

Anyway.

(I now own two vocal and one instrumental version of "The Minstrel Boy," by the way, but the phrase "warrior bard" always makes me think of Gabrielle.)

VMWare Fusion has a 30 day trial.  I am already in love with not rebooting.  I still can't figure out how to get access to the network attached storage, though -- which is crucial, because the word processor is on the Data side, and you can't access the Lore side while Windows is running without doing lots of dragging and copying, which is redundant and ridiculous.

However, barring anything else, it'll work.

There's something surreal about a Windows shut down screen with my Leopard wallpaper in the background.

Not bad.  Just...surreal.

Now, having violated my rule by nearly 2 hours, and getting nothing out of it except the agenda book stuff...I'm giving up for the night.

(Also...the result of all that googling was getting Data's darned life forms song stuck even more in my head than the other one.)

I just...love scanning for life forms.

(Be afraid.  Be very afraid.)

Life forms...

(C'mon blogger, upload the screenshot.)

You tiny little life forms...

(I had to try to say "fluency" and "stamina" today, in Spanish, in regards to reading.  During the first conference, when my vocabulary is always rusty.)

You precious little life forms...

(I need to borrow someone else's Boardmaker disk...mine has a hairline crack that was never a problem before, but it's not letting me use these nifty (free!) tools that let me virtually mount Writing With Symbols and still have a free CD drive.)

Where are you...?

(Am I the only one who thought it was sexist that the saucer didn't plow into a planet until Deanna took the helm?)

It's official.  My brain has imploded.  I am now wondering if the emotion chip made it so Data could whistle too, and for the life of me, I can't remember.  Googling has not 

helped, and I now have Data's poem stuck in my head instead.

Felix catus, your taxonomic nomenclature

Connotes an endothermic quadruped,

Carnivorous by nature

Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses

Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses

I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations

A singular development of cat communications

That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection

For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection

A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents

You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance

(Something something) a true and valued friend.

Trust me...I am as disturbed as anyone else that I remembered that much, as accurately as I did.

Living Up to His Name

For the life of me, I cannot get Lore to connect to my network attached storage...which is where I moved the school stuff so that the Windows programs (Boardmaker, Writing With Symbols) could do their thing, while the Mac programs (NeoOffice, Pages) could also do their thing.

Le sigh.

Good Karma

Please send good karma Amie's way.  That is all.

Actually, it's not.  For those of you who aren't Amie, just so you know, she's not a "cyberfriend."  I've known her since the first grade (err...I was in first grade with her brother before they skipped him and she was in kindergarten but whatever), and though we've drifted in and out of contact over the years...

...well...we've been friends since the first grade.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

The Old and the New

Who needs an external hard drive enclosure when you remember that your account is two arrows down and can log in without a monitor?

Add to that being able to browse your own network well enough to get an internal IP address for the old desktop without a monitor to ask it what its IP address is.

Add to that remembering that to log into a shared windows drive you have to use smb://ipaddress.

Et voila.

Now to write the scary IEP, while pretending I don't have a migraine.

(And while pretending that Program Specialist and Former Teacher RR didn't outright say CAPA would be harder again this year, because apparently "correlating with standards" no longer means teaching age appropriate topics at skill appropriate levels, and I should be teaching kids to sort leaves by type.  As in...toothed, compound, and something else.  Because we couldn't take the general, "Oh, fifth graders learn about plants" and go for, "What do plants need to live?"  Oh, no, we have to go straight to types of leaves.

Also...I've had kids go to fifth grade science.  They do not learn this anyway.  Eesh.)

I am a Nerd

But we knew that, right?

May I present the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide of the computer world:

Some Progress

So, Windows XP is now installed on the iMac.  I haven't installed Boardmaker or Writing With Symbols yet because I'm still waffling on whether to stick with Boot Camp and deal with rebooting when necessary or to spring for Parallels or VMWare.

The advantage to Boot Camp is that it's free.  Parallels got mostly good reviews everywhere I looked, but VMWare's reviews were almost uniformly a variation of "So much better/faster than Parallels."

So we'll see.

Now I'm trying to get some of my programs off my PowerBook and onto the iMac.  Some of them (like Final Cut Express) will have to run under Rosetta (emulation)...which will be slower than universal binary or Intel native versions...but considering that video rendering went from .14 frames per second to 29ish frames per second...I'd imagine that even "slower than native" Final Cut will be...at least equivalent, if not faster, to how it was running on my laptop.

(Plus, big beautiful screen.)

The only remaining task is to get the files off my old PC (I've got several years of adapted books on there, for one thing) and to get an external CD/DVD drive for the iMac to run Writing with Symbols and Boardmaker concurrently.

(Unless I can find a way to trick the computer into thinking they're in the drive.  I tried that once years ago with a program used by gamers for the same essential reasons but it didn't work.  Basically, the program was supposed to make a copy of the disk and then mount it as a virtual drive, but I never could get it to work.  It may be worth exploring, now that I think about it.)

Incidentally, I like Cat's idea of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde name scheme for the iMac.  Unfortunately, I can't think of any fandom names for this except for Angel and Angelus (Angel) and John and Harvey (Farscape).

I'll keep thinking....

Something About That Song

Picture this.

(Sicily...19...dang, Patrick's been watching too much Golden Girls again.)

Ahem.

Picture this.  It's 2001, and I've walked with Patrick's class to the movie theater to see Shrek.  It's their last field trip of the year, and his last in middle school, half community based instruction and half his teacher just wanting to let the kids have a good time.

Of course, at the time, Patrick was deathly terrified of movies.  So I went along, mp3 player in tow (yep, this was in the pre-iPod days) in case he had a panic attack.

The movie had lots of music -- in fact, that's what sets the first Shrek apart in my mind -- the music seemed to be much more carefully selected in the first one.  And Patrick did okay.

And "Hallelujah" came on.

There's just...something about that song.

The montage was great, but the quiet, sublimated anger in Rufus Wainwright's version was enthralling.  I had no idea that so many versions of the song existed, until a couple of years later, when I searched it on a whim in iTunes.

See, I'd recently searched the song "Yerushalahim Shel Zahav" ("Jerusalem of Gold").  One night when inputting lyrics, I'd googled the song to see what I could find, and I found out that the tune is actually a basque lullaby.  Well, I couldn't imagine the defiant chant in Schindler's List (which is how I had the song in the first place) as a lullaby, so I searched for other versions of it.

Thus began my interest in different versions of songs -- I love how different artists can put such a different spin on things.  What is a defiant statement in one version (Schindler's List) is a quiet, introspective song in another version.

Anyway, I was searching for different versions of Hallelujah and came across k.d. lang's version from Hymns of the 39th Parallel.

Wow.

Just...wow.  There's a quiet...almost desperation to the song.  I was absolutely enthralled.  (I now have 4 versions of her singing the song.)

So, now, I have a total of...I think 8 versions of the song.

And then, a few nights ago, I was reading through writer Elizabeth Bear's blog, and discovered, to my amusement, that she had posted on the subject a little while back.

She has 14.

The funny thing is, now that I have a computer that doesn't stutter and die on youtube videos, I can easily see myself finding that many and more.

There's just something about the song.

Easter, Writing, and TMI

So, as has been the case for a few years now, the only folks in my family nearby that celebrate Easter had other plans.  Which, to Patrick, means one thing: Disneyland.

But we did depart from our usual routine, and even had dinner at the Wine Country Trattoria -- which is a very nice table service restaurant with (get this!) reasonable prices.  Not just Disneyland-reasonable-prices, but semi-good-Italian-restaurant reasonable prices.  Wow.  Of particular interest is the orange sorbet dessert, served on a frozen navel orange.  Yummy.

Anyhow, it being a holiday, Patrick...ahem...permitted me to use (my) point and shoot camera to take a few shots, on the condition that I also shared the next in his self-portrait series.

(See if you can guess which shot is his.)

In other news, I have been writing up a storm.  I'm just not sure if it's any good -- it probably isn't yet, and probably won't be without a significant re-write, but it's nice to shut up my inner critic and just get the ideas out.

Meanwhile, I find myself watching the beginning of season 9 of Stargate to determine the extent of Cam's injuries...and 'cause that's when the whole Ori thing started.

(Did I mention I liked the Ori storyline?  Yeah....)

Now, as far as the TMI stuff....

Men are babies.

My grandfather has developed a touchy stomach in the last year or so, and often when he goes on dates with his girlfriend, he ends up throwing up the next day.

He threw up today a couple of times, and called my mom this afternoon to say he's going to go to the emergency room 'cause he just can't keep getting sick like that.

Now, far be it from me to be unsympathetic, but....

When I was in 8th grade, I had a rare form of mono that manifested itself with months of excruciating stomach aches that kept me up for hours at a time because the pain got worse when I laid down.  It was literally unbearable laying down; I'd have to walk in circles until it died down enough to sit, where I'd gingerly curl up with a pillow (because if I got too horizontal, it'd all start over again) and try to sleep.  A few hours later, I'd be able to lay somewhat flat.  A few hours after that, I'd go back to bed, only to get up an hour or two later and try to make it through a day of school.

Then, one Friday morning in...it must have been early February (the stomach aches had been going on since August or so), I was getting ready for a half-day of school.  My parents were picking me up afterwards, and we were going down to Anaheim to stay at the Disneyland Hotel for the first time in several years (my dad had started his own company four years or so before).

I woke up and threw up.

(I warn you -- I said TMI was coming.)

I threw up.  To the point that there was only stomach acid, and I kept throwing up.  I threw up until I was literally screaming from the stomach cramps as my stomach tried to keep throwing up when even the stomach acid was gone.

I didn't keep solid food down for a month.

But after that, the other stomach aches tapered off.  For years, I'd get one or two a year, always accompanied by other TMI symptoms that I associate with what was going on when I was in the worst of it.  Over the years, I figured out what I could and couldn't eat -- for instance, I can only eat kosher hot dogs because something in regular hot dogs will trigger a stomach ache.

I know it's no fun to be sick.  And I remember being in the middle of two or three of the worst stomach aches, wanting to go to the hospital -- if for no other reason than that they could sedate me and I wouldn't be aware of the pain -- but literally terrified of the pain that sitting in the car would provoke.

I remember that -- and I remember sitting on the steps outside of my Spanish class during lunch because the smell of the cafeteria was just too much, hoping the yard supervisors or whatever we called them, wouldn't catch me until the library opened for lunch and I could hide in there.

I remember when the fatalism caught up with me on Patrick's birthday and I figured, "What the heck.  I'll throw it up anyway; might as well have a hamburger."

It was the first solid food I kept down in 30 days.

And I know it's awful and uncharitable, but part of me says, "Give me a frelling break.  So you threw up a couple of times.  Come talk to me when you're throwing up stomach acid and not food."

Thank you.  I just had to get that off my chest.  This way, I can be the nice, sympathetic, dutiful granddaughter.

Back to your regularly scheduled program.

Where I Had Dinner

I had just gone through a drive through for him but Patrick would love
it too.

Plus...sweet potato fries FTW.

http://redtractor.com/

More Computer Squeeing

The picture above is from my laptop, where Handbrake has been laboring for four days to convert a total of four hours of video.

Yup, you heard that right.  One hour = one day.

To be fair, that's H.264 encoding...just straight non-ipod-compatible mp4s are about one hour = five hours.

The picture above is from my iMac.  The 29.01 frames per second is how fast it's encoding the video.  Compare that with the 0.14 frames per second above.

One hour = 33 minutes.

Wow.  I knew it'd be faster, but...wow.

While I Wait

To answer Cat's earlier question, I have not yet decided what to name Sparky Jr.'s successor.  All my other Sparkys have been PCs...so maybe once I get Windows installed, we can call it Sparky III when booted in Windows mode...but I still need a name for Mac mode.

Anyhow, I'm currently in the process of importing my 90 GB iPhoto library, and rebuilding my 300 GB iTunes library, so while I wait, I thought I'd get around to my Ark of Truth review.

There will be spoilers.

I imagine any of you who continue reading will be familiar with the plot, but since Amie has said she reads everything, here ya go, just to get you up to speed:

Millions of years ago, humans evolved past the need for physical bodies.  There were two camps: Ancients/Alderans and Ori.  The Ancients are generally nice but have a strict policy of non-interference with corporeal beings.  The Ori derive energy from corporeal beings' worship and create a religion, Origin, so that more people worship them.

The Ancients knew the Ori were bad, but did not interfere (the whole Rule thing), except for Myrrdin, who we know as Merlin.  He created a device that would kill Ori, but never got a chance to use it.

That's where the Stargate folks come in -- they searched for Merlin's weapon, and used it.

But.

All those people who follow Origin?  They don't know the Ori are gone, and are bent on domination of the universe.  Their philosophy is join us or die.  So the Stargate folks are looking for a device called the Ark of Truth which will convince people that the Ori are gone, and will stop the Ori's followers from trying to kill all of them.

Meanwhile, long ago, the Alderans created a race called the Replicators.  Think Borg Legos.  They look like an erector set, and devour everything.  They are Very, Very Bad.

So, SG-1 is looking for the Ark.  But a bad guy on the ship plants a Replicator, so that the Replicators will infect the Ori ships.  People get tortured, Cameron gets beat up, the ship nearly gets destroyed.

But it's Stargate, so things work out.

What I Liked

• Being a fan of Arthurian legend, I loved the Ori storyline.  I liked how it got back to Stargate's origins (though they were using Egyptian legend to begin with).  Given that they'd already looked for and found an Ancient device to win the war with, finding the Ark of Truth didn't strain credulity as much as it might have if they hadn't already gone looking for Merlin's weapon.
• I adored Vala's rant at the beginning about opening the box they thought was the Ark of Truth, and especially liked Daniel's exasperated, "Why do I even answer?"
• After arguing with the IOA guy, Cam asks Sam if she's sure she doesn't want "the chair" (that is, to be in command).  "Oh, nooooo," she says, then gives his shoulders a squeeze.  "Got your back, though."  I loved the simultaneous support mixed with the, "No WAY am I subjecting myself to that."
• Teal'c's conversation with Tomin, who had been a commander for the Ori before he realized they were false gods (something Teal'c has intimate understanding of).  It was awesome...the way he shared his own experiences without directly saying, "I'm saying this to help you through it."  It was a very, very nice moment.
• Morgan Le Fay, despite Daniel's frustration at how little obvious she was doing to help, is made of win.  (Except that she looks just like the teacher who had Cat's class before Cat had Cat's class.)  The look on her face at the end (Adria -- the only Ori left -- says, "You're no match for me," and Morgan says, with this wicked gleam in her eye, "I am now.")
• Cam's initial report that the first Replicator has...err...replicated, is also hysterical:  (note that I'm loosely quoting here)  "Sam!  This thing's living up to its name...there are definitely more than one."  Sam:  "How many?"  Cam:  "A lot!"
• Sam baking Cam macaroons was absolutely awesome.  (Hey, I'm a 'shipper.  Sorry.)  The look on her face as she gives him the bag was great.
• Daniel and Vala's silent communication during the last stand-off with Adria was also cool, as he realizes what the password to the Ark of Truth is, and silently asks her to distract Adria long enough to put it in.
• The whole end sequence, as they go off to their next mission, was great -- between Daniel's resigned acknowledgement that you just have to get used to being blamed for stuff, and Vala's delight that their might be "treasures" to find on the next planet...it rocked.

What I Was Iffy About

• The Priors got old.  (They are like the Ori's priests, I guess.  They walk around with a powerful staff and are in charge of all the ships.)  How many times can you hear, "Hallowed are the Ori," before it gets old.  Also, the crying Prior at the end...just wasn't convincing.  However, Cam and the Prior at the beginning were just too cool.
• Tomin just never...bleh.  As I said before, I liked him and Teal'c...I just -- he never seemed that interesting to me.  He clearly loves Vala, and she cares for him -- and I give him points for knowing that she doesn't love him back.  I dunno...I've just never been a Tomin fan.
• The bit with the Ancients at the beginning?  No one talks like that.
• What was with Daniel in the cell?  Did Michael Shanks just have a bad acting day or something?  I get that he was supposed to be frustrated and near the end of his rope -- nearly broken -- but still.
• I liked that they acknowledged how dangerous the Ark could be, but it's bittersweet because they obviously can't do anything with the idea, with only a couple of direct-to-DVD movies.

What I Didn't Like

• Replicator-IOA-guy beating the bejeezus out of Mitchell.  Not that it wasn't important to the story, and not that it wasn't good stunt work, but it just went on to freaking long.
• Speaking of -- when Mitchell was hiding in that little room, and couldn't get back to Sam on the radio...couldn't they hear him anyway?  I would imagine Replicators could hear radio waves...so what was the point of freaking her out?
• The Prior at the SGC.  That just was...old.
• The footage of Cam getting nearly blown up.

Overall Impressions

I liked Ark of Truth very much.  In fact, it felt like a stronger follow-up than The Peacekeeper Wars was, even though it had more to cover in less time.  For one thing, the characters seemed true to the characters on the show.  For another, it didn't try to introduce new canon (like the origin of the Peacekeepers) that it wouldn't have enough time to explain and explore.

In fact, my main gripe with it is that it really made me miss Stargate.  As I said when it first went off the air, my interest in the show waxed and waned over the years, but it ended on, for me, a very high note that this movie only continued.

Here's hoping the upcoming Continuum will continue in the same vein.

My Geekdom, Let Me Show You It

(Okay, the bundled keyboard is, at best, going to take some getting used to.)

I am in computer love.

It is beautiful.

It is big.

I can see everything.

It's fast.

Did I mention it's beautiful?

Also?  Setting up a computer in five minutes FTW.

Come to Mama

This Amuses Me

Poor Microsoft.  On the amazon.com Windows XP page, the first five products listed under "customers who bought this also bought these" are Apple or Apple-related products.

Almost Spring Break

So, the plan was to get most of the stuff for after spring break done over this past week, so that I could clean up the room and leave in time for my 3:30 appointment to get a hepatitis B booster predicated by the bite incident.

That was the plan.

I left around 3:15 or so and headed to the worker's comp doctor's office, where I signed in for my appointment.

And waited.

And waited.

And chatted (yay me with the social skills!) with the lady next to me, who had been there since one freaking o'clock.

At 4:45, I finally go back to an exam room, where they tell me that Bulldozer's parents had never given them the results of his blood test, so I not only get to get a shot, I get to have another blood draw.

Me = needle phobic.

Me = petrified.

Anyhow, I survived the booster -- which hurt a heck of a lot more than the first one did.  The nurse takes a look at my veins (after trying a "nifty new toy" -- a cuff for your upper arm, like when they put the latex band around your arm -- that clearly did not, and would never, fit my upper arm, short of emergency liposuction surgery).

Ahem.

Anyway, she takes a look at my veins and comments at how thin they are.

"Actually," I say, trying to be helpful, "the lady at the lab last time said they were just very deep, but she did go get to get a smaller needle."

The nurse looks at me doubtfully.

Me = petrified x 2.

She looks at my arm one more time, decides that she doesn't want to miss and "blow out [your] vein" and sends me to the lab at the hospital...again.

Where I am met by a different tech, who also has trouble finding veins in the normal place.  So, she takes my right arm, slaps it -- yeah, slaps it -- a few times to make the veins...puff up, I think is the word she used.

She sticks the needle in.

HOLY FREAKING MOTHER OF GOD!

Ouch!

So, at this point, it's 5:15, and I head back to school, turn everything off, and leave it in the disastrous state it was in.  I'll head back tomorrow to finish up agenda books and copy the beginning of Matilda, and then spring break'll start.

The Letter R

Patrick has a long and sordid history with the letter R. In most words that involve both Rs and vowels (e.g. birthday, bird, skirt), he reverses the R and the vowel.

Thus, many, many gleefully decorated brithday cards.

So, I'm looking at a wikipedia article for April Fools' Day for the kids' journals (Angel needs two or three sentences to the other kids' one) and I notice a quote from Chaucer in the origins section. Namely, a reference to "thritty dayes."

Now I am consumed with a desire to find out if that's a wikipedia typo or genuine Old English.

'Cause if it is, at least I can tell Patrick he just must be a reincarnated scribe or something. :-)

ETA: The Internet gods must've heard all my whining about boring days, and decided to get back at me with April 4...where the dilemma is which interesting thing to choose.

Human Error

"These kinds of problems have cropped up before, and they have always been due to human error."  -- HAL 9000

I'm not sure Arthur C. Clarke would want to be remembered, or eulogized, by a quote from 2001, but it's the only one I can think of off-hand, and fits that first thought you sometimes have when you hear someone has died:  That can't be right.

For years, despite being an avowed sci-fi fan, I mostly read tie-in novels -- Star Trek, Babylon 5, X-Files, and the like.  The few sci-fi books I'd read just hadn't captured my interest.

Turns out, when it comes to my reading material, I like hard sci-fi.  Science-based stuff.  The probable made possible.

His was some of the first I read, after I'd discovered that Fahrenheit 451 just didn't do it for me (the message was chilling; the book...meh).

I started, amazingly enough, with 2001.  There was an excerpt from it as a training passage for Dragon Naturally Speaking, which came installed on Sparky Junior.   Most of his novels were riveting -- Rendezvous with Rama, for one; some of his sequels were...meh, not so much.  His collaborations with Stephen Baxter were excellent, and led me to Stephen Baxter's solo work -- my favorite of which being The Timeships...which, in turn, led me to read The Time Machine.

It's sad, in a way, that Arthur C. Clarke is mainly being mentioned in reports of his death, as the acclaimed science fiction writer.

He was also a very intelligent man, who is credited with the idea of a space elevator (for which there is now a prize) and with spreading the notion of a communications satellite.  He'd written as many scientific papers as novels.

For the sci-fi community, it's a sad day.  I think I'll start to re-read 2001 over the break.

(Incidentally, for those of you who have seen -- and puzzled over -- the movie, the book makes it make much more sense...the two were written concurrently.)

Unfortunately, the only other quote I can come up with is, "Open the pod bay doors, HAL."

D'oh

So, I'm typing away at the adapted version of chapter 1 of Matilda, which we're starting after spring break.

I've already made the kids' book reports for Swiss Family, and am feeling rather pleased with myself.

Then, Sparky Junior, my poor, in-critical-condition computer, flashes what looks like a BIOS screen -- note...not the blue screen of death, and not a simple freeze -- and reboots itself.

So quickly that I couldn't read what the screen said (and I read fast).

All by itself.

As in, not even my Windows Me computer ever did that.

Sure, it froze if you looked at it wrong...but....

There's only one solution:  Buy nothing for the next two months and pray to the computer gods.

Eesh.

Meanwhile, I comfort myself with images of macho guys hugging cookies.

The Ark of Truth

If the title doesn't ring a bell, don't worry about spoilers herein.

If it does...well, there really aren't any.  Well, I guess there could be if you remember my 'shipping preferences and have a really good ear for quotes.

Maybe.

It's very, very wrong that my first thought was, "hey, that scar's gonna be on the wrong side!"

It's even more wrong that macaroons make me squee.

It's even more wrong that the words "cheek okay?" are romantic.

Ahem.

Squee!

(And, yes, I watched the end first.  After reading about special effects and certain people getting to be blown up, I had to make sure those certain people survived.  So...maybe there's more squeeing.)

When the OTs Need an IEP Goal

So, I'm typing up the stuff for Mr. Voice's 30 day IEP. I'm freaked, but at least his IEP will not now be a gigantic block of contradictory and unreable text.

Anyway, I'm typing up one of his goals. The annual goal is to do something 3/5 attempts.

For the record, 3/5 = 60%.

The last objective is to do something 3/4 attempts.

For the record, the last objective should be completed before the goal is due.

Also for the record, 3/4 = 75%.

So, Mr. Voice is supposed to exceed the goal before meeting it.

Yeah.

Also, and totally unrelated, I've gone through at least a box of Kleenex since Friday. Don't know what I'm so allergic to right now, but I haven't had an allergy attack this bad in nearly 5 years. I even had to buy Primatene tablets. Blech.

Headdesk...

...which is Internet slang, of course, for, "D'oh!"

So, I'm reading this perfectly lovely piece of smushy fluff (yeah, yeah), by this mostly literate author (I can't read any other kind anymore; in my early days online, I read everything, but now...), and...I....

"Blah blah blah, then all visages of sleep left."

NO.  No, no, no, no-ity, no!

Visage = appearance (his ancient visage = his old face).

Vestige = stuff left over (vestigial organs = organs that are left over that used to be important and aren't anymore).

You meant "vestiges of sleep."

As on, all little itty bits and pieces of sleepiness went away.

Threw me right out of the moment, it did.

The Question

Since before your sun burned hot in space, and before your race was born, I have awaited a question. -- The Guardian of Forever

Maybe the Guardian could solve this dilemma for me. Which event to try and summarize in a single sentence (my favorite of this year is summing Stalin up with, "On blah blah blah, Russia's mean leader Josef Stalin died."):

• The Taiping Rebellion?
• The Treaty of Versailles?
• Legalized gambling in Nevada?
• Televised Academy Awards?
• Sarajevo reuniting?
• The start of the Iraq War (Version 2.0)?
• Or Mahmoud Abbas becoming Prime Mister of Palestine?

In a way, I prefer boring days. It's easier to summarize boring things like, "Montana became the xth state of the United States." But these? Eesh.

For the record, since I'm asking the kids to watch the news each week for election coverage anyway, I'll probably go with the Iraq War, but...well...geesh. Depressing much?

Edited to add: While procrastinating for this decision, I did a side to side comparison of a base Mac Pro and a high-end iMac, and the iMac is nearly $1000 cheaper, all told. However, once I upgrade the components up front that I would upgrade myself later on with the Mac Pro (memory and hard drive space), the price is nearly identical. C'mon, bank account....

(Also, my computer nerd mojo has deserted me. I just now realized that ETA = Edited to Add in blog-speak. I am shamed.)

It's Darwin!

(I guess Roy Scheider's recent death put SeaQuest on the brain.  Sorry, non-fannish folks.)

However, this shows two things:

1.  I knew I liked dolphins for a reason.

2.  Dolphins are way smarter than we give them credit for.

(To be fair, apparently so are monkeys.  Someone needs to invent that glove they had in Congo -- the only cool part of the movie, to my recollection (but I only saw it once in high school, so who knows) -- so the monkeys of the world can request all the green-drop-drinks (martinis) they want.)

(It is disturbing to me that that movie is 13 years old.)

(Almost as disturbing as it is that Patrick is turning 21 years old on Monday.)

Rigid Thinking

One fairly common aspect of many cognitive disabilities is what's called rigid thinking. That's kind of a black and white absolutist view.

For instance, for Patrick, Sunday is Subway day. This is his routine. You cannot have Subway at a different Subway, nor can you have Subway on a Saturday, because it's not just about having Subway. It's about having that Subway on that day.

Or, if someone says, "Take your medicine at 4:30," you might find someone who just doesn't take it if they notice that it's 4:33.

So, today, M had diarrhea twice in two hours. We called home. Both M's parents have cognitive disabilities. Her mom asked to talk to me.

"The doctor said that the medicine we give her for her constipation could cause diarrhea."

"Oh...she started a new medicine?"

"Yeah."

"Really? When did she start it? Because she hasn't done this at school before."

"November."

Oh.

See, M's doctor probably did say it could cause diarrhea. And in M's mom's rigid thinking, if she has diarrhea, that must be the cause.

Figuring that we were all well and truly contaminated no matter what happened, I decided to compromise.

"Well, I'm not sure that's it, since this has never happened before, and she's been on it so long."

"Oh."

"But, I'll tell you what -- I'll let her stay for right now, but if she has diarrhea one more time, I'll have to send her home, because this just isn't what we've seen with M before."

"Okay."

Lo and behold....

Tech Woes

I got behind last week, while I was fighting off the insidious illness that had me flat on my back from 3:30 Friday afternoon to about 10:00 last night.

That means that I've been making today what the kids will be doing for their journals tomorrow.  Homework just got printed (fortunately, between our field trip and two short weeks, I had an excuse to make it a 2-week homework assignment).

I haven't been running this close since probably 2 years ago.  Lately, "behind" has meant "madly printing out next week's stuff Thursday evening so I can get it ready on Friday."  It's been a long time since "behind" meant "making tomorrow's journals."

But anyway.

My poor dying computer froze twice to the point of the mouse cursor not moving for five minutes twice today.  There was a POST-code-like beep (except I thought those only happened at boot-up) each time.

But that's not my main tech woe, other than it made it take way too long to get everything printed (I broke my no-school-stuff-after-8:00 rule SO hard today).

My tech woe is this, and pardon the second CAPSLOCK OF RAGE in two days.

FOR THE LOVE OF THE LORDS OF KOBOL (cough! Battlestar Galactica season 4 coming soon! cough!), I DON'T CARE IF IT'S THE PRINTER, THE PRINTER DRIVER, WRITING WITH SYMBOLS OR SOME COMBINATION OF THE THREE, OH-MY-FRAKKING-GOD WOULD YOU PLEASE PRINT THINGS CORRECTLY?!

Ahem.

In English:  When Writing With Symbols doesn't like a printer, it prints the first two lines on a page over each other.  Some mystical combination of font size changes, additional lines, and other random things sometimes help.

In all seriousness, I am now carefully weighing the various costs involved in between an iMac and Mac Pro.

iMac plusses:

* cheaper

* one piece

* purrrrty

iMac minuses:

* I would need an external DVD drive to run Writing with Symbols and Boardmaker concurrently ($$)

* I would have to buy a USB hub to connect my external hard drives PLUS the DVD drive ($)

* 2 core

* I'd have to upgrade the memory ($$)

* I'd probably upgrade the hard drive at purchase, 'cause it's harder to upgrade

Mac Pro pluses

* 8 core standard

* easy to upgrade (memory and/or hard drive space), so I can do it later myself and not pay the Apple premium

* multiple DVD drives

Mac Pro minuses

* more expensive

* I'd have to buy a monitor

      ** well, I wouldn't have to, but my measly little 15 incher would look pretty sad

At some point, I'll have to sit and do the math.  It may be that once I upgrade the iMac to the specs I'd want, the equivalent Mac Pro would be more or less the same price.

Here's hoping Sparky Jr. can hold on.

Now, about the epidemic in my class.

In my first year of teaching, we had this horrible flu bug that made the rounds among kids and adults alike for nearly a month.  Despite judicious application of hand washing, Clorox wipes, hand sanitizer, etc., we just couldn't get rid of it until we had spring break and were gone for a week.

I suspect we've got that going on again.

Superhero was back today, but he wasn't here for more than an hour and a half before his fever spiked back up -- to about 102! -- and we sent him home.  Elastigirl was sick with M's stomach flu yesterday, was here for a while, then went to the doctor.  Sleeping Beauty coughed the whole way home yesterday and was gone today.  The Boss was grumpy, and I suspect she's getting it.

Oh, and Bulldozer and Mr. Voice were both warm, but not enough to show as a fever.

Yet.

Meanwhile, I'm mostly better.  I had to take a nap after school today and by 1:30 or so I was tuckered...but that was a lot better than making it to 8:15 yesterday!

Also? Memo to Safari

I love Safari.  I really do.

But I have to vent.

I love having an integrated RSS reader.  It makes keeping up with so many blogs really easy; plus, I don't have to have a separate program open to keep up with everything.

But.

(Pardon the CAPSLOCK OF RAGE.)

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S GOOD AND HOLY, STOP REFRESHING OR CLEARING YOUR MEMORY OR WHATEVER THE FRELL IT IS YOU'RE DOING EVERY 20 MINUTES THAT MAKES ME HAVE TO DISPLAY ALL MY RSS FEEDS AGAIN JUST TO MAKE YOU REALIZE I'VE READ THE STUPID THINGS.

Ahem.

I feel better.

Or, I will, until that first bookmark folder suddenly has a (58) or a (12) or a (248) next to it.

More Boggling

Another random Discovery Health show.

(What?  I was sick.  I fell asleep when I got home (I made it until 8:15 or so at school before I realized I was being ridiculous and put in for a sub) and slept for three straight hours and then laid in bed for about five more.)

This firefighter is in a fire and -- long story short -- ends up with cortical blindness.

And the narrator, in this deeply sympathetic voice, says that now she -- an avid reader -- "can't do something she loved: read."

Or something to that effect.

Um.

Braille?

Audiobooks?

I mean, I know not everything is available, and that does suck.

But...she can't read?  At all?

Perspective, Part 2

So, Discovery Health is on for background noise, and then I hear this:  "It's one of the deadliest bacteria around -- responsible for over 50 deaths each year."

Which, yeah, sucks for the midwestern town that got hit with it.

But you gotta stop and say: 50 deaths?  Tell that to most of the Third World.

Illness update:  Fever is mostly gone (though it made a reappearance tonight).  I'm planning to go to school tomorrow, because I was actually conscious most of today, and I'm worried about the chaos that will ensue if I don't.

But that means I'll probably crash -- hard -- the moment I get home tomorrow.

Also?  I curse my internal clock and circadian rhythms, which are absolutely certain that it is not 9:25.

And -- if it's Daylight Savings Time from March until November -- No-freaking-vember! -- (that's 8 months, folks)...isn't that, kinda by default, our "Standard" time?  By virtue of being 2/3 of the year?  Shouldn't the blessed few months that are normal be, like, Daylight Shortened Time or something like that?

Meh

Not much progress in the illness front.  No wonder most kids who had this were out at least two days.  Blech.

Also?  There's not a whole lot of visible symptoms except sneezing and the occasional cough -- the main tip-off seems to be the fever (which is not responding very well to Tylenol).  Makes me grateful I can articulate, "I feel like I've been hit by a bus."  No wonder parents were sending their kiddos to school (except for the fever).

Hope that made sense.

Yuck

This cold sucks. Take your vitamins, folks.

Holy Crazy People, Batman!

I don't know what's worse...that someone came up with the idea, or that people actually do it.

Appropos of Nothing

A while back, I posted my incredulousness that a woman was more perturbed that an upcoming surgery might paralyze her than the notion that whatever the surgery was for might kill her.

Well, I watch a lot of science, nerdy type shows. In fact, my suggestions list on my TiVo is full of astronomy specials, history channel specials, and Extreme Engineering (Sky City sounds way cool, and is likely the future of cities).

At one point, I saw a special about a woman who had been born with a condition that required her to have both legs amputated at a very early age. It was...meh. There are lots of more interesting things out there, but when there's nothing else on, there's nothing else on.

Then I saw a preview for some upcoming shows that featured the same woman, who gets around by pushing herself on a skateboard.

She says, "I couldn't imagine being confined to a wheelchair."

Putting aside my issues with the phrase "confined to a wheelchair" for a bit, I have to boggle at that comment. What on earth would the difference be between using a skateboard for mobility and a wheelchair, besides eighteen inches or so?

But, I mean, really, how ingrained in our culture must this notion of wheelchair=bad be for someone who already uses alternative means of transportation (a means that, one could argue, is more unusual-looking than using a wheelchair) to reject it out of hand?

Further googling led to a few people who reacted to the documentary with admiration -- she can drive a car! She has a job! How amazing that she doesn't "allow" herself to be convinced to use a wheelchair!

Um.

Here's a bit of logic for you.

A wheelchair is a four-wheeled device upon which one sits. One propels oneself either manually or with electronic assistance. One uses it to get from one place to another. One does face the inconvenience of being at stomach-level with most people without disabilities.

A skateboard is a four-wheeled device upon which one generally stands, but upon which the aforementioned woman sits. One propels oneself manually. One uses it to get from one place to another. One does face the inconvenience of being at knee-level with most people without disabilites.

I. Just. Don't. Get. It.

It's a thing. It's the short-distance version of a car.

Think about it. You could, if sufficiently motivated, walk anywhere you can go in a car -- but it would take you a heck of a lot longer, use up more energy, and is just not practical.

It gets you from one place to another.

That's all a wheelchair is. It's a thing. It's a device.

And, for many people with physical disabilites, it's a liberating device that's the difference between going places and being stuck in bed at all times.

How pervasive must ableism really be, in our culture, for someone to internalize wheelchair = bad to the degree that a skateboard is the only option, to the extent that she can't even imagine using a wheelchair at all, when she's essentially using a short, homemade wheelchair to begin with?

How pervasive must ableism really be, for people's reaction to the documentary be admiration that she can drive?

No wonder we debate things like the Ashley Treatment. No wonder children like Katie McCarron and Annie Marshall and Tracy Latimer have been killed.

If we view using an assistive device (for the record, I use several: glasses, the ocassional ankle brace, and a specialty keyboard, among others) as OMG THE END OF THE WORLD...

...then people automatically think Ashley's life should be about her parents' convenience, that Annie and Tracy's life was pointless, sad, and hopeless.

It shouldn't even be a question. Of course Ashley is entitled to grow and mature and experience life as an adult. Of course Katie was entitled to life, however it would or would not have been affected by autism. Of course Tracy and Annie deserved to live, to be happy and engaged by whatever made them happy and engaged.

But we can't even discuss these as a society because the majority of people -- likely people who think they have no contact with someone with a disability (I say think because they likely know someone with learning disabilites, someone somewhere on the autism spectrum, someone with dyslexia, and so forth) -- can't even get past the use of a wheelchair.

And what's worse: someone who has disabilities can't even get past the use of a wheelchair.

It's...ridiculous doesn't even cover it.

Sick Days

I am not one to begrudge someone their sick days.

But if Aide J wasn't (1) vomiting all day, (2) delirious with fever, or (3) harboring something extremely contagious, like, say, ebola, she is On My List.

Last Monday, Aide S told me she'd be out this Monday.  She and her family were going to Lake Arrowhead for the weekend.

Okay, fine...put in for a sub...we'll survive.

Then, late last week, Aide T was not feeling well.  The doctor said she had to have a colonoscopy.

Okay, fine.  We'll sur -- it's on Monday?!  The same Monday Aide S is going to be out?

Aide T, bless her, tried to reschedule but couldn't do so.

So I packed up my stuff for today, and slipped a tape of The Jungle Book in my backpack, since I knew it was something Mr. Voice would pay attention to.

I didn't expect to have to use it, really -- we actually survived pretty well the last time anything similar happened.  'Course, we didn't have Mr. Voice then.

Then I get to school and ask if the positions had been filled with subs.

"Aides S and T have," our office clerk B says, "but Aide J's position is still open."

I - uh - eh - urrr - aide - ... -- WHAT?!?!

I was already not in the best of moods, because the muscle in the back of my leg is STILL kinda cramped (though it comes and goes now; it's not constant like it was).  Last year, I probably would have taken a sick day myself -- though not on a day with 2 people out -- to keep it slathered in Icy Hot, but instead, I took some Motrin, slapped on an Icy Hot patch (which had fallen off by 8:00), and grinned and bore it.

Incidentally, we survived.  If we hadn't had Mr. Voice, we might have even made it through a normal day, but he was the straw the broke the camel's back.  We got agenda books, journals, social studies, and Swiss Family Robinson done, but we also watched Jungle Book and played board games.

At one point, though, I was juggling Superhero, M, and Bulldozer successfully, so that's what I'm hanging onto for today.

Things I Learned This Weekend

1. Parts of Disneyland's fireworks are in stereo.  I learned this because I was actually near the speakers this time, instead of off to the side, either at the Plaza Inn or Carnation Gardens.
2. The beginning of the fireworks -- the parts largely stolen from Disney World's Wishes (though I think it was at DL before the current show, as well) -- are an elaborate magic trick-like diversion.  They are trying to keep you from looking at the top of the Matterhorn, where Tinkerbell and her harness come out of the gaping hole at the top of the mountain.
3. Tinkerbell must de-harness herself somewhere on top of the castle after the finale, because...
4. ...if you sit around Main Street after the fireworks, while they're playing "Remember When," you can see them retract Tink's empty harness back into the big, gaping hole in the top of the Matterhorn.
5. Pillows can tear.
6. I have a soft spot for "McKay and Mrs. Miller," almost entirely for the throwaway bit where England-born and Canadian-raised Amanda Tapping's Sam is amused by Rodney and Jeannie's Canadian pronunciation of "sorry."  For the record, the Canada is very audible in her speech (to me, the accent nerd), and there are even hints of the British.
7. It hurts to rip an Icy Hot patch off the back of your knee.
8. All those times I put AFOs on kids with CP whose muscles were tight?  I'm deeply, deeply sorry -- if my last two days' experience of having one muscle inexplicably tighten to the point that straightening my leg (thus lengthening the muscle) is painful.  Seriously.  Deeply sorry.

Meanwhile, I had the interesting experience of reading an article about cochlear implants just after reading a story where a character was considering (under duress) cochlear implants.  Funny  how life and fandom collide sometimes, eh?

Reading Comprehension

I did not watch the Oscars, mostly because I hadn't seen any of the nominated movies.  (Sad, I know, but when movies give you headaches, they're just not worth it.)

I do plan on seeing 10,000 B.C., 'cause it's by the guys who did Stargate and Independence Day.  Especially now that there are more trailers, and they are showing the pyramids.  I haven't made up my mind about the now-delayed Star Trek, and I'm sure I'll see The X-Files, but that'll probably be it until Half-Blood Prince comes out.

Anyhow, I did flip onto it in time to see the People We've Lost montage, and was interested to note that I recognized very few people this year -- probably because many people were behind-the-scenes folks.

I was a little taken aback when Roy Scheider was not shown, but, being a reasonable TiVo owner, I rewound to the beginning, intent to look for him.

And then I noticed that the montage was from January '07 to January '08.  Roy Scheider died in February.

So, I went, "Hmph," and went about life, figuring that he'd show up next year.

And then I read this, on imdb.com:

Some analysts were suggesting that in the haste to mount Sunday night's 80th Annual Academy Awards telecast following the writers' strike, the show's writers failed to research their material sufficiently. That might have accounted for the omission of some names from the annual list of the "departed." Several writers immediately noticed the fact that Roy Scheider, who died on Feb. 10, was overlooked, as was Brad Renfro who died on January 15. A spokeswoman for the Academy said that Scheider's death came too recently to be included and of Renfro, she said, "Unfortunately we cannot include everyone." (my emphasis)

Okay, the Brad Renfro thing...whatever.

But I find it very, very ironic that somebody complaining of "lack of research" didn't include in their own research...I dunno...watching the montage and reading the dates?

Spring Fever

I love my 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. I really do. For better or for worse, it's when a lot of things begin to click -- particularly in the late fifth-early sixth graders.

There's just one problem.

The giant cloud of hormones that begins to hover over the room right around this time of year.

Superhero came from home upset but pulled himself together. The Boss was flouncing around. Sleeping Beauty was playing dumb all morning, waiting for people to do stuff for her, and then swinging her jacket around and saying "Toro! Toro! Toro!" to Aide S. Bulldozer was grumpy (but he has a rash all over his body; I'd be grumpy too).

And PH spent all afternoon wailing in his Ridiculous Baby Voice. I mean, all afternoon. Aide S would get him simmered, then he'd ramp right back up again.

However, we continued to work on our presidential primaries book -- we've just now finished with Super Tuesday (yikes) -- and it's been a huge success.

(I'll take what I can get.)

Angel can name (as in, I hold up a picture and ask, "Who is this?") Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee. She just today identified that Hillary Clinton is a Democrat. We're working on "Republican."

(She also came in today and said, "Did you watch the news on Friday?"

"Probably," I said. "Did you?"

"Yes!" She grinned, all excited. "They said Obama has the most points."

"You mean from the primaries?"

"Uh huh."

"What about Hillary Clinton?"

"She has to get more points or she'll lose."

Squee!!!!

Then, as we were filling out our books today, we came across Mitt Romney several times (still Super Tuesday, ya know).

"But Miss Spoowriter?" she said, frowning. "He quit."

(I, at no point, had told the kids that. Ever.)

"You're right; he did. But these happened before he quit."

"Why he quit? He won a lot."

"You're right; he did win a lot. I'm not sure why he quit."

Double squee!)

PH can name Barack Obama and can find Hillary Clinton.

The Boss and Sleeping Beauty can find a picture of Barack Obama without having one to match, and can name him from his picture.

Bulldozer can identify Hillary Clinton as "The Girl" and can match pictures of all the candidates.

Superhero and M can find Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton versus each other, with prompts (e.g. "Find Hillary Clinton -- the girl.")

Mr. Voice and Elastigirl are both finding the girl consistently, given both blank distracters and other candidates as distracters.

And we've only been doing this for a couple of weeks! Woo-hoo!