Another school year, another student bashed in the head with a rock. Just life out here in Deneland. Saddest part about it is was thinking, 'thank god it wasn't one of mine.' Thinking about the rocker, rather than the rockee.
Summer came, it saw, it went, I ignored it. Aside from the abortive trip to Horsefly Land, and a quick trip back home (made doubly quick by spending all of our money, and doubly quick again by the visit of the RCMP to our house at 4 AM shortly before we left), we didn't do a whole heck of a lot. That's the problem when you think you should have a blog but also have some shred of common decency: if you don't have anything to talk about, you rarely feel the urge to talk about nothing.
So, uhm, yeah. Go Lakers!
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Tell me tell me, oh won't you tell me...
So I'm 30 years old. In 12 days I'll be officially one year closer to death.
I've got a wife and two kids. We have a cat, a small car, and a (rented) house on the lakeside.
I've got a reasonably secure job which I don't really hate (at least the job itself. Some of the minutes I certainly hate). My coworkers seem to treat me just like an equal. My kids treat me with reasonable respect...at least as much as any other teacher in the building. We're saving money.
So tell me this...
When do I start feeling like a grownup?
Giant Robots, thinking it might be time to go dig in the sandbox again.
I've got a wife and two kids. We have a cat, a small car, and a (rented) house on the lakeside.
I've got a reasonably secure job which I don't really hate (at least the job itself. Some of the minutes I certainly hate). My coworkers seem to treat me just like an equal. My kids treat me with reasonable respect...at least as much as any other teacher in the building. We're saving money.
So tell me this...
When do I start feeling like a grownup?
Giant Robots, thinking it might be time to go dig in the sandbox again.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
So, uh...
...guess we're staying put for another year or so.
Gotta love this job...I've never _actually_ had an interview for it. I had an interview with the district superintendant, then an interview with another school in the district...but never one with La Loche. I got the first contract when I was sitting in a parking lot at an elementary school in Hobemma...literally on my way home after my first-ever sub job. So that was weird.
Then last night the superintendant calls me up again and offers me a contract for next year. Okay. Casual is good.
But as I was saying to Melissa earlier...I'm probably a good six months ahead of everyone else in my graduation cadre. And all cause I'd work somewhere most people have never heard of.
Gotta love this job...I've never _actually_ had an interview for it. I had an interview with the district superintendant, then an interview with another school in the district...but never one with La Loche. I got the first contract when I was sitting in a parking lot at an elementary school in Hobemma...literally on my way home after my first-ever sub job. So that was weird.
Then last night the superintendant calls me up again and offers me a contract for next year. Okay. Casual is good.
But as I was saying to Melissa earlier...I'm probably a good six months ahead of everyone else in my graduation cadre. And all cause I'd work somewhere most people have never heard of.
Monday, March 26, 2007
No pictures yet, but a snapshot of life...
So, La Loche. Population about 2,400 (officially), probably quite a bit higher than that. Almost all Dene people, once again we're in the minority! And with 75%+ unemployment, it's not exactly the nicest place to be in at times. But so far our doors and windows have remained un-broken-into, and the gas _seems_ to be exiting the car through the exhaust, rather than being siphoned.
We're doing well enough. The kids are settled down in here, much faster than the adults did, actually, though it took Liam awhile to get used to not having a bed. I told them I had two kids and a wife...but they still gave up a 2-bedroom place. C'est la vie. The basement (which apparently isn't offically part of the house) has a semi-finished room that we've converted for Aislyn. In the summer, if I get the contract for next year, we'll be finishing that off...putting up a wall and door for her. Right now she's just got tupperware, but to her that's a big deal...it's her very own place!
We've met some of the locals (mostly trying to scrap a bit of snow off for 20$) and more of the teachers...which is nice. Melissa's got a play group going, and I'll be starting Dene classes this week. Tried to go ice fishing a couple of times, but both times the weather interfered. Which kinda sucks...ice fishing has always seemed like one of the few outdoorsy things that I'd actually like. And from what my coworkers say, it's certainly far from difficult to catch things up here!
There's more to say, really...but I'm boring myself at this point. Or maybe it's just tiredness...teaching full-time, as the leader in the room, is a lot more wearing that I realized. The 9-10 hour days, plus extra time on Saturdays, don't help much either. But it's been a month now...and I'm really comfortable. It was rough at the start, but now...well, I think I'm doing ok. Hopefully once people start watching me officially they'll feel the same!
Giant Robots, reprogramming themselves in Dene!
We're doing well enough. The kids are settled down in here, much faster than the adults did, actually, though it took Liam awhile to get used to not having a bed. I told them I had two kids and a wife...but they still gave up a 2-bedroom place. C'est la vie. The basement (which apparently isn't offically part of the house) has a semi-finished room that we've converted for Aislyn. In the summer, if I get the contract for next year, we'll be finishing that off...putting up a wall and door for her. Right now she's just got tupperware, but to her that's a big deal...it's her very own place!
We've met some of the locals (mostly trying to scrap a bit of snow off for 20$) and more of the teachers...which is nice. Melissa's got a play group going, and I'll be starting Dene classes this week. Tried to go ice fishing a couple of times, but both times the weather interfered. Which kinda sucks...ice fishing has always seemed like one of the few outdoorsy things that I'd actually like. And from what my coworkers say, it's certainly far from difficult to catch things up here!
There's more to say, really...but I'm boring myself at this point. Or maybe it's just tiredness...teaching full-time, as the leader in the room, is a lot more wearing that I realized. The 9-10 hour days, plus extra time on Saturdays, don't help much either. But it's been a month now...and I'm really comfortable. It was rough at the start, but now...well, I think I'm doing ok. Hopefully once people start watching me officially they'll feel the same!
Giant Robots, reprogramming themselves in Dene!
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Support your local team
Alright, time for another cliche. Support your local team. Not the big ones...the little ones. The minor-league teams. You'll be glad you did, if only for the entertainment-to-dollar value.
Consider this evening, for example. I attended a University of Alberta hockey game with a friend. Total cost for me for the evening, including game ticket ($4), three beers ($12, 4 per can), 3 50-50 Tickets ($3, 1 each), and bus fare home ($2.25) cost me just over $20...$21.25 to be precise. And I got to see a heckuva good hockey game, in which the Golden Bears beat the University of Saskatchewan Huskies by a score of 7-5.
For the same amount of money, I could have remained outside of Rexall Place, not watching the Oilers get thrashed 4-0 by the Flames. Which probably would have been more enjoyable than spending the $40+ for a ticket (not including costs of beer or 50-50).
Is the quality of sport as good as that as the top league? Heck no! But it's at least 3/4 of the way there....which, when you look at the costs, is a pretty good value for the money.
Giant Robots, still smiling after that game. Which is a lot more than the Oilers fans on the train were doing. Except for the really drunk ones.
Consider this evening, for example. I attended a University of Alberta hockey game with a friend. Total cost for me for the evening, including game ticket ($4), three beers ($12, 4 per can), 3 50-50 Tickets ($3, 1 each), and bus fare home ($2.25) cost me just over $20...$21.25 to be precise. And I got to see a heckuva good hockey game, in which the Golden Bears beat the University of Saskatchewan Huskies by a score of 7-5.
For the same amount of money, I could have remained outside of Rexall Place, not watching the Oilers get thrashed 4-0 by the Flames. Which probably would have been more enjoyable than spending the $40+ for a ticket (not including costs of beer or 50-50).
Is the quality of sport as good as that as the top league? Heck no! But it's at least 3/4 of the way there....which, when you look at the costs, is a pretty good value for the money.
Giant Robots, still smiling after that game. Which is a lot more than the Oilers fans on the train were doing. Except for the really drunk ones.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Online Databases
Why the FUCK can't people (or in this case, groups of people) make educated decisions about the online software they chose in order to help prospective employees make themselves known to the powers at be? The irony in this is all the more delicious since of course I'm talking about applying to schools.
Let's just get the money rant out of the way to begin with...asking me to use a pay service when there are excellent free alternatives already out there (educationcanada is an excellent service, and falls victim to NONE of the complaints I'm about to make, BTW) is dumb to begin with...but who are the most likely users of this service? Newly graduated students, perhaps? Teachers-to-be who would like to MAKE money, rather than spend it? And then you insult my intelligence by asking me to submit a credit card number without even checking for the security code? Well, maybe they're expecting the new grads to be stealing their parents cards.
Of course, then it would help if the database solution you selected actually, you know...WORKED. I do not want to see nicely blocked paragraphs of Javascript on my screen when an error occurs. I don't want to see it when there's an error on YOUR end...and I REALLY don't want to see it when there's obstentiably been an error on MY end...such as, not selecting a checkbox that was completely irrelevant to me, was no indicated as being mandatory in any way...and wasn't even a fricking radio button, but was a checkbox, the very DEFINITION of optional in the HTML and post- world. Fuck you, get a better programmer.
And get some better tech support people too, so that I don't have to stumble blindly through roughly 192439823912 menus without so much as a popup questionmark box. I've been using computers for 22 years of my life. It STILL took me over an hour to weasle my way through your Byzantine architecture of selecting this and dragging that and clicking here (none of the above labeled, naturally). Do you honestly expect a teacher, who seem to be amoung the most technologically-phobic people as a group I've ever encountered, to make it through the maze?
Oh, and jumping through all those hoops...and then telling me I need to submit files in at least three different formats for different sections? Bite my choad. I bet most of your applicants wouldn't know a .bmp from a .pdf if they had the instructions tattooes on their titties. Fucking imbeciles (the people who made the pages, not the people who frankly shouldn't have to know any better).
At least I have Yet Another Thing to think about doing instead of this shit...
Giant Robots experience Rage Against the Machine Designers.
Let's just get the money rant out of the way to begin with...asking me to use a pay service when there are excellent free alternatives already out there (educationcanada is an excellent service, and falls victim to NONE of the complaints I'm about to make, BTW) is dumb to begin with...but who are the most likely users of this service? Newly graduated students, perhaps? Teachers-to-be who would like to MAKE money, rather than spend it? And then you insult my intelligence by asking me to submit a credit card number without even checking for the security code? Well, maybe they're expecting the new grads to be stealing their parents cards.
Of course, then it would help if the database solution you selected actually, you know...WORKED. I do not want to see nicely blocked paragraphs of Javascript on my screen when an error occurs. I don't want to see it when there's an error on YOUR end...and I REALLY don't want to see it when there's obstentiably been an error on MY end...such as, not selecting a checkbox that was completely irrelevant to me, was no indicated as being mandatory in any way...and wasn't even a fricking radio button, but was a checkbox, the very DEFINITION of optional in the HTML and post- world. Fuck you, get a better programmer.
And get some better tech support people too, so that I don't have to stumble blindly through roughly 192439823912 menus without so much as a popup questionmark box. I've been using computers for 22 years of my life. It STILL took me over an hour to weasle my way through your Byzantine architecture of selecting this and dragging that and clicking here (none of the above labeled, naturally). Do you honestly expect a teacher, who seem to be amoung the most technologically-phobic people as a group I've ever encountered, to make it through the maze?
Oh, and jumping through all those hoops...and then telling me I need to submit files in at least three different formats for different sections? Bite my choad. I bet most of your applicants wouldn't know a .bmp from a .pdf if they had the instructions tattooes on their titties. Fucking imbeciles (the people who made the pages, not the people who frankly shouldn't have to know any better).
At least I have Yet Another Thing to think about doing instead of this shit...
Giant Robots experience Rage Against the Machine Designers.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Virtually Nothing at all of importance
Just a lazy Sunday, and just a lazy post. Stream of conciousness? Nah, too much work.
Tomorrow is job fair day. By this time tomorrow I might be employed. More likely, I'll have a lot of 'we'll keep your resume on file'. But it's a start.
After that, mailouts, mailouts, mailouts.
All of this in the midst of the usual winter blues. SAD sucks my ass.
Giant Robots don't need solar power to run, but we do need it to feel our best.
Tomorrow is job fair day. By this time tomorrow I might be employed. More likely, I'll have a lot of 'we'll keep your resume on file'. But it's a start.
After that, mailouts, mailouts, mailouts.
All of this in the midst of the usual winter blues. SAD sucks my ass.
Giant Robots don't need solar power to run, but we do need it to feel our best.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
How to be an Oilers Fan
1. Never, ever, cheer for the Flames. Ever. Even if they're playing for the Stanley Cup Finals. Even if they're playing Dallas.
2. The Oilers are not one of those teams that are 'just one step' away from making the jump. The Oilers have all the pieces already. But they don't know how to put them together properly, is all.
3. When you hear a fan criticizing some element of the Oilers, immediately correct them by telling them that no, the part of the team in question is just fine. It's some other part of the team that is letting them down.
3a. Immediately launch into a much more devastating and harsh criticism of your own personally identified fault. Nothing says 'Edmonton Fan' like ripping your own team to shreds. Only Philladelphia is better at it.
4. Take pride and show respect to the league as a whole. For the most part, Oilers fans are generally recognized as being pretty classy. Keep that up. Even to idiotic mouthbreathing inbred Flames fans.
5. Resist cheap gags and tricks to build some sort of 'crowd presence.' It was silver pom-poms last year, inflatable thundersticks a few years before that. Let it GO. It makes the city look cheap when the team tries to make up some sort of crowd tradition. Leave the 'White-Outs' or what-have-you to Winnipeg and the like.
5a. Sheer noise, however, wins. The Colessium is one of the loudest places to be in all the world during the playoffs. That's plenty, really.
5b. Oh, and the anthems. HUGE fan-points from all around North America for that...that's become one of the most memorable moments in sports, let alone hockey. And it was totally spontaneous. That's what makes it cool.
5b.-1. But only during the playoffs. And even then, save it for the BIG games (Game 1, Game 7, any game of the Finals)
6. Don't pay attention whatsoever to what any other fan tells you to do. For gods sake, you paid upwards of $40 for that ticket...do whatever the hell you want with it!
Giant Robots have no time of patience for your mortal calendar year.
2. The Oilers are not one of those teams that are 'just one step' away from making the jump. The Oilers have all the pieces already. But they don't know how to put them together properly, is all.
3. When you hear a fan criticizing some element of the Oilers, immediately correct them by telling them that no, the part of the team in question is just fine. It's some other part of the team that is letting them down.
3a. Immediately launch into a much more devastating and harsh criticism of your own personally identified fault. Nothing says 'Edmonton Fan' like ripping your own team to shreds. Only Philladelphia is better at it.
4. Take pride and show respect to the league as a whole. For the most part, Oilers fans are generally recognized as being pretty classy. Keep that up. Even to idiotic mouthbreathing inbred Flames fans.
5. Resist cheap gags and tricks to build some sort of 'crowd presence.' It was silver pom-poms last year, inflatable thundersticks a few years before that. Let it GO. It makes the city look cheap when the team tries to make up some sort of crowd tradition. Leave the 'White-Outs' or what-have-you to Winnipeg and the like.
5a. Sheer noise, however, wins. The Colessium is one of the loudest places to be in all the world during the playoffs. That's plenty, really.
5b. Oh, and the anthems. HUGE fan-points from all around North America for that...that's become one of the most memorable moments in sports, let alone hockey. And it was totally spontaneous. That's what makes it cool.
5b.-1. But only during the playoffs. And even then, save it for the BIG games (Game 1, Game 7, any game of the Finals)
6. Don't pay attention whatsoever to what any other fan tells you to do. For gods sake, you paid upwards of $40 for that ticket...do whatever the hell you want with it!
Giant Robots have no time of patience for your mortal calendar year.
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