Another Stunning Day!

Well, this may not be the most up-lifting post I ever make, but I'm gonna do it anyway:
First I have been lurking at various sites/communities for quite a few years now, and I have noticed that all of them have a Great Falling Out sometime between September and February every year. I don't know the exact reason, but I do know that somehow, the members seem to get more stressed out and then peripheral members feel they need to choose sides on a given argument. It is all over the internet every year. It seems to coincide with the holidays/finals/mass bird and other pet die-off that also happens at this part of the year. Grand parents go more at this part of the year, too. It's really upsetting.
It makes me wonder if the shopping and finals and losing loved ones creates more stress than people are supposed to be able to handle.

My point is that I am expecting to have a few people become less open to opinions and more susceptible to argument in the coming weeks. Some will lose loved pets and some will stress out over holiday purchases and visits. Most of us will get at least a little head cold and many of us will gain a few more pounds. This might make us a bit cranky, so the blog may just become an important release valve so that we don't explode at holiday functions.
I vote we all breathe before we make any big decisions. We will all get through all of the problems and our friends here will be supportive-just because we like each other and value each other.

On another topic:
I am still looking for a teaching position. Those of you who think a greater power can help: would you plead my case? This substituting limbo I am in is fine and I am learning a lot but I really need a classroom of my own.{preferably, with a contract:D}

I am hoping that the mid-winter weirdness will open a classroom for me, because teachers do quit in the mid winter break.

I went to a job fair last Friday, and I got 6 interviews. Those were the first interviews I have had in the ten months that I have been looking for a position. Four of the principals were suitably impressed, two were just going through the motions. I have to think there is a classroom out there somewhere...I have to wonder if i am just not doing this right. Job hunting is such a pain. Some of the school districts don't even list specific jobs. They just put us in a pool for the principals to pick through. It's a crazy system.

My classes are going fine.They are ever so unchallenging. Snooze/ Yawn!
I have been subbing in the special ed unit of a specific elementary school and OOh I love those classes. They are so much more intensive than the regular ed classes that I have been in.

Happy Halloween everyone!
thanks for stopping by.

Posted: 8:43 AM, Wednesday, October 31, 2007 in Just life

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Goodbye my friend, it's hard to die..

I just returned from taking my cat to the animal shelter to be put down.

Let me tell you about her:

She was 3-5 years old when I adopted her in 1993 from the humane society. I had gone to the shelter looking for a kitten, but she screamed at me and 'told' me to get her out of there. She was a seal-point Siamese.I didn't really want a Siamese but she was insistent. I don't know why, but I named her Siam-Suez, but she never came to that-she only answered to Miss Kitty.
When I got her, she was pregnant. The humane society said i could have her abort and get neutered or just bring her back and pick another cat. I felt that both of these choices were crummy. I kept her just the way she was.I think she knew that. Even though our relationship was new,only weeks old in fact, she waited until I got home from class and work to have her kittens. She actually climbed into my lap and put her paw on my chin and looked at me meaningfully and squeeked. I figured it was her time.(yes- that was a pretty good 2x4 to the forehead wasn't it) She had a beautiful litter of 3 kittens that were adopted by a friend of the family after she had weaned them. Then she got spayed.
Siam was the most cross-eyed cat i ever saw. they were the crystal ice blue kind that Siamese are famous for. She loved to ride in the car late at night to go to Taco Bell. She would fight you for a taco with hot sauce. We went several times a month. She hated cat carriers and prefered to sit in the seat, but I didn't let her get away with this very often. She would also fight you for Nacho cheese Doritos and whined incessantly for milk. We all have our vices.
She was a wonderful cat for all of those years. I have expected her to go for the last four years. She had been in really good health until about 10 days ago, she started loosing wight. Now, she was always a slim little thing. She never did weigh much more than 8 pounds. But the last few days, she lost down to about 3 pounds. She became stiff and unable to eat or drink. Dementia set in. I just had to let her go. She was faithful and tolerant of all of the other animals. She liked the bigger dogs more than the little ones. She only ever got bent out of shape over the new kittens when they came, and I think that was so they'd know she was the queen.
Long live queen Siam! God rest our Queen! The coronation of Queen Ramoth (Cali)
will take place later this evening. October 20, 2007

Posted: 5:58 PM, Saturday, October 20, 2007 in Just life

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My Ten commandments

My ten commandments> in addition to the other more famous ten commandments

1. Embrace pain and misfortune, good or bad experiences, as well as life or death. All have lessons for us to learn and therefore grow. Know that Nature will give a balance in the end.

2. Have and show love for all beings. Even the ‘unlovely’ ones.

3. Have freedom from reactions by utilizing logic and reflection and always follow the natural sense of things.

4. Be objective and show clear sight and judgment as often as possible with the information at hand.

5. See the natural order of things and rely on that natural harmony with courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom.

6. Examine one's own judgments and behavior and determine where they have diverged from the universal reason of nature. Ask myself if I did the right thing, not just the easy thing.

7. Be in the moment; devote time and energy to spirituality and the afterlife.

8. Remember Marcus Aurelius and Boethius and Seneca:
Say to yourself in the early morning:
" I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of these things have come upon them through ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together..."
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
"If you work at that which is before you, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract you, but keeping your divine part pure, as if you were bound to give it back immediately; if you hold to this, expecting nothing, but satisfied to live now according to nature, speaking heroic truth in every word which you utter, you will live happy. And there is no man able to prevent this."
"The point is, not how long you live, but how nobly you live."
“That which Fortune has not given, she cannot take away.”
"Let Nature deal with matter, which is her own, as she pleases; let us be cheerful and brave in the face of everything, reflecting that it is nothing of our own that perishes.”
"Virtue is nothing else than right reason."

9. Be a citizen of the world, never limit my vision to my small location on this earth.
"God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other."

10. Devote time and energy to eliminating ignorance in order to serve others.

Posted: 5:42 PM, Friday, October 5, 2007 in Just life

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October is Breast Cancer Month!

Ok, So everyone knows someone who is female, right?
Did you know that Breast Cancer can affect men as well?
There is a button on Patty's blog that goes to a site that gives screening to women based on need and the number of clicks

go click it!!!

We really need to support efforts to evade one of the top killers of women.
do it every day, you're online anyway, like brushing your teeth or eating, or breathing. It's that important.

Posted: 9:57 AM, Wednesday, October 3, 2007 in Just life

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Things I get ticked off about

1. missing one little > in the code that makes the whole thing stupid
2. working 6 hours to make a pretty thing in PSP and then not saving the darn thing
3. having teachers and parents falsely accuse my son, without going through a proper interrogation of the matter
4. reading really dry text books about curriculum building blah!
5. waking up two hours too early when I could have had a good night's sleep for a change

now I realize that in the greater scheme of things, none of these are permanent disasters, but good grief! I really hate being inconvenienced.

Posted: 6:28 AM, Friday, September 28, 2007 in Just life

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