Levedy

Farewell, dear Peeps

I have been limiting my carbohydrate intake for five months now, and I have seen some drastic changes in my body.

I become hungry less often, I have more energy now that when I was in high school, and I can fit into clothes that I haven't been able to fit into since high school.

I am not at the weight I want to be at yet, but I am terrifically happy with the progress I have made.

Last week, I bought prizes for my SAT kids. One of the prizes were marshmallow Peeps, a truly wonderful product made by the folks at Just Born. I loved them as a kid, and waited anxiously for Easter that I could have them again.

I snuck a bite of one from my students. I was expecting the rapturous feeling I always had as a kid.

Interestingly enough - the Peep tasted awful. Not what I remembered at all. I think it's because I haven't had sugar in such a long time. I guess I have become so accustomed to Aspartame and Saccharin that I don't like the taste of sugar. Weird.

On a non-Peeps-related note: Dim was working late tonight (and still is at the time of this post) and I was bored out of my skull. I found an online salsa lesson for $7. I bought it, and had a blast teaching myself to salsa. Now if only I had someone who would dance with me.....

Productivity Enhancer

Productivity Enhancer

For my state employee friends

Hooray! A Day off!

Yipee!

Today is by first day off since January! I needed to catch up on posting, since I haven't had the time to lately. I couldn't sleep in (bummer) but it was restful sleep knowing I didn't have to have the alarm clock on.

So let's see...here's what I have been meaning to blog about this week.

On my morning commute - Unless I time my route exactly (something I have yet been able to do) I get stuck behind a school bus that has to stop every two feet to pick up torpid children who refuse to walk any farther than a gnat's fart to get to a bus stop.

In Las Vegas, when a school bus stops, both directions of traffic must stop, too. I think it's a good idea, since it cuts down on accidents involving kids running through traffic to get to the bus. However, I find it ill-advised that the bus make 92 stops per hundred yards.

A note to the folks who make Atkins bread - I love you. I find it exorbitant to pay four dollars for a loaf of bread, but I guess that's the cost of love.

A note to the folks who make Sarah Lee reduced carb bread - I think you can go to prison for trying to pass wood shavings off as edible baked goods. Fie! Fie on you!

A note to the woman who sat behind me at Fellini's restaurant last night - Hon, everyone in the restaurant heard your conversation. To help you out: your cat most likely has a Urinary Tract Infection, I suspect your friend from India is gay, and I think that you should seriously reconsider your choice of wardrobe.

A note to John, the overly funny accountant in Ohio - God and Gabriel...excellent writing. I dare you to write a funny dialogue between a Shark Stick and a 1040 tax return.

A note to my students - good luck on your SATs today! Knock 'em dead!

A note to EmotionEric - wtf? When are you going to update your site?

A note to Jenny - I would really like to get those Vegas pictures. Can you email them to me?

I think that about covers it. I can't wait for my massage, pedicure, and haircut. 1:00 pm, please hurry up and get here!

Obligatory Title

Harumph.


Last night, I got an all-company email from the president of the company giving a breakdown of the state of the company. It's called the "state of the State" email.


This state-of-the State email praised Lindsey (the new director) for coming in at a 330% increase in Contribution to Overhead in January and February compared to last year at this time. She also extolled Lindsey for getting 5 contracts signed with the school district. People sent out reply-to-all emails extolling Lindsey's work.


The problem is, Lindsey didn't do it.


Lindsey wasn't here until March. The CTO increase had nothing to do with her. The contracts that were signed (a) I had signed before I resigned as director or (b) were signed immediately after my presentation to the district last Friday.


I realize that I sound like sour grapes, and I don’t want to minimize Lindsey’s good start as director, but it angers me that I was so blatantly passed over in order to give credit to someone else. Lindsey did help make a few follow-up phone calls, but 95% of the work was done by me, and I wasn't even mentioned. I don't want to dengrate Lindsey's successes, but I think it only fair that the president of the company give credit where credit is due.


I hope it was an oversight and not deliberate.


Has this ever happened to you? How did you deal with it?

The exhaustion of the unemployed

Since leaving the director's position, I haven't had any more time off than I would have had if I had stayed. It's tiring. This weekend is the SAT. That will clear my schedule for about a week. Then the craziness will start up again.

I really love teaching, and I enjoy helping Lindsey out in the office, but I'm tired. To quote John Coffey, "Dog tired, boss."

A student asked me last night about my new blog. I was a bit taken aback. I sometimes forget that I give out my web address to students, and that a lot of them read this. I haven't written anything that I don't want students to know about (my prison history, my obsession with chicken wire, the bodies in my basement, etc.) but it is a reminder not to talk about things that I wouldn't want the YOA (Youth of America) to hear.

Wow. I sound so OLD.

Never mind, kids. Eat sugar until your heart explodes. Engage in wildly dangerous, immoral, and certainly emotionally scarring physical acts with your peers. Cheat on exams. Make it a point to tease the less popular in a desperate bid to improve your social status.

Whoops. I sound too YOUNG.

In class on Sunday, I invented a game to help students review SAT vocabulary. It's a lot like Cranium, and it worked like a charm. I called it, rather unimaginatively, Sculptors, Painters, Deceivers, and Mimes. I assigned each of four teams to one of the roles. Each group was assigned a different SAT word. The sculptors were given Play-doh, the Painters could draw on the Whiteboard, the Mimes, well, mimed, and the Deceivers were to come up with false definitions of the word in order to fool the other teams. Each team tried to guess the other's word, and then we rotated so each team got to do each activity.

It was a lot of fun. The kids were very creative.

The students came up with some really great results. One of my favorites was the Painting for the word feral, which means wild, savage, or untamed. The kids drew Roy and a white tiger. Blood was spurting out of Roy's neck Monty Python style, and the tiger's mouth was fangy and dripping blood. That was sad (Roy is a local staple), but funny at the same time. The funniest part (I think) of the drawing was that Roy was smiling.

They are a good group of kids. If only they'd do their homework...

Harumph - another Saturday

I can't figure out how to adjust the blog text area so that it doesn't start to scroll until the text reaches the bottom of the page. I tried to adjust the things that seemed logical, and no luck. I don't want to impinge on Kat anymore for help since she's already taken a lot of time out of her schedule to help me. That, and my pride wants me to be the one to figure it out. But I'm running out of ideas, which is frustrating, since it's probably something really simple that I need to adjust. Grr.

This week has been insanely busy. I thought I was unemployed, but I've put a lot of hours in at the office between teaching and helping Lindsey out.

I really like Lindsey. She's a good egg, and I think she'll make a good director.

Friday we sponsored a breakfast for the school district’s counselors and administrators. We had about 35 people show, which was a really good turnout (last time we had about 8). We had a conference room at the Bellagio, which the hotel donated to us. (Thanks, Bellagio!) It went really well, and I think that TPR will get several signed contracts because of it.

I haven't had a day off since I came back from Hawaii. Jeez. I though being unemployed would be restful. I think I'm going to take the 27th off (next Saturday and get a massage and a pedicure. Dammit, I deserve one.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Google has a nice homepage to celebrate the holiday.

Welcome to Movable Type - Levedy style

Thanks to Kat (and to Craig) my weblog is now based in Movable Type.

I'm still having troubles importing all of my old stuff to MT. If I don't manage to get it to work, I'm not too heartbroken about it.

Thanks again, Kat and Craig. I appreciate it!