Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Being a guitar aficionado
I just love kick-ass guitar solos, so I decided to share this Gem with you guys. Woot!
And check out Ozzy's rhythm!
When you're done there, click here for more guitar kick-assery.
And check out Ozzy's rhythm!
When you're done there, click here for more guitar kick-assery.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Update
First, let me begin by saying sorry for not posting or inviting you guys until today. I've been busy, and as usual, haven't had much to say. If I've left anyone out that you know of (like Brannon) send me his email or tell whoever it is to send me their email, and I'll invite them.
Anyway, let me fill you in on the story of why I had to go private.
It's Wednesday morning and I get an email from the president of our school. It is vague, and only says "Can you come up today so we can meet about an important sensitive matter." Hmmm. I spend about 15 minutes grading papers and wondering what on earth this could be about when I decide to call him. He just says "we need to meet as soon as possible," which is a giant red light to me, because no one EVER has good news when they tell you, "We need to discuss this in private." I wonder, "What have I done that might warrant such a meeting?"
So I go through the next 45 minutes of teaching Science before I get a break. I go down to ask my boss if I can leave early to go to the other campus to meet the president, and I explain to him about the mystery email. I go back to my room, and get on with the day.
About 15 minutes later my immediate boss comes to my room and tells me that all he could find out was that I have "some sensitive matter on the internet," and that our campus president is not happy because the president of the entire corporation found whatever the sensitive stuff was, and is not happy about it.
Shit.
Immediately the paranoia sets in. I am racking my brain to figure out what it could be, because I can't for the life of me figure out where my name in relation to my current life might possibly come across the computer screen to the eyes of the head honcho.
Now, there are maybe a half dozen skeletons in my closet that I'd sooner no person I work with ever find out, and as unlikely as it was, those few of the worst started to seem likely candidates for what was happening now.
Without getting into the details, suffice it to say that certain parts of my private history would absolutely shock most people, and would certainly be hard to explain. I began to feel literally sick to my stomch with worry.
On the other hand, everyone has skeletons in the closet that they would rather pretend never existed, and I couldn't imagine how any of mine could be so bad as to negate the positive things I accomplish at work every day.
So I wander through the rest of the school day like a zombie, doing my best to teach while the phantoms in my head get larger and larger, until I am seriously wondering if I am about to get fired.
Lunch rolls around, and as I am heading back to my class, my boss catches me again, and asks if I've come up with anything yet, and all I tell him is that there are maybe half a dozen things in my past I'd be worried about, but I can't imagine how any of them pertain to my job.
Then he says, "Do you keep a blog? Because apparently they found it while doing a web search, and they aren't happy about how critical you are."
Sudden relief flows over me. All of this is about the blog post I wrote when I was venting about them cancelling my professional development day. And while I could still be in some trouble, I at least was prepared to explain. In fact, despite what my immediate boss was saying, I would have been very surprised if the president of our school, or the president of the corporation, didn't at least on some level agree with what I was saying in that post.
So I re-read my post before going for my meeting, just to make sure it wasn't too critical (it wasn't) and then I headed up to my meeting with him. The short version of the events afterward were that
1. I should use better judgement in posting a personal blog with critical opinions of my employment situation on it, and
2. I was pretty much right on track as far as my actions were concerned in relation to improving my career.
The prez had printed out the entirety of my blog, "just to make sure there was nothing so bad as to cause us legal problems," and aside from suggesting I make it private, he was very encouraging about expanding my career opportunities. He did say that the two heads of school (we have a campus headmaster, my immediate boss, and a school-wide headmaster, who is in charge of all academics) were probably not going to be too happy about what I had to say, but also that there are many places where my drive and hard work would eventually pay off. He even gave me the emails of 2 other school presidents, one in Phoenix and one in Houston, and suggested I start plying them for job opportunities. The corporation is buying about 15 schools this year, and will continue to buy schools into the near future, and I should start agressively pursuing opportunities all around the corportation now, so that when I finish my doctorate, I will have connections beyond just here where I live.
So. Here I am. I doubt that any real opportunity to move into administration here at my school is going to present itself in the next few years, but I am pleased (and incredibly relieved) that things went so well with my meeting.
I went from worring about being fired to being told that I was an asset who has good things for his future, and I was even provided personal recommendations to two other school presidents. All in all, not bad.
Anyway, let me fill you in on the story of why I had to go private.
It's Wednesday morning and I get an email from the president of our school. It is vague, and only says "Can you come up today so we can meet about an important sensitive matter." Hmmm. I spend about 15 minutes grading papers and wondering what on earth this could be about when I decide to call him. He just says "we need to meet as soon as possible," which is a giant red light to me, because no one EVER has good news when they tell you, "We need to discuss this in private." I wonder, "What have I done that might warrant such a meeting?"
So I go through the next 45 minutes of teaching Science before I get a break. I go down to ask my boss if I can leave early to go to the other campus to meet the president, and I explain to him about the mystery email. I go back to my room, and get on with the day.
About 15 minutes later my immediate boss comes to my room and tells me that all he could find out was that I have "some sensitive matter on the internet," and that our campus president is not happy because the president of the entire corporation found whatever the sensitive stuff was, and is not happy about it.
Shit.
Immediately the paranoia sets in. I am racking my brain to figure out what it could be, because I can't for the life of me figure out where my name in relation to my current life might possibly come across the computer screen to the eyes of the head honcho.
Now, there are maybe a half dozen skeletons in my closet that I'd sooner no person I work with ever find out, and as unlikely as it was, those few of the worst started to seem likely candidates for what was happening now.
Without getting into the details, suffice it to say that certain parts of my private history would absolutely shock most people, and would certainly be hard to explain. I began to feel literally sick to my stomch with worry.
On the other hand, everyone has skeletons in the closet that they would rather pretend never existed, and I couldn't imagine how any of mine could be so bad as to negate the positive things I accomplish at work every day.
So I wander through the rest of the school day like a zombie, doing my best to teach while the phantoms in my head get larger and larger, until I am seriously wondering if I am about to get fired.
Lunch rolls around, and as I am heading back to my class, my boss catches me again, and asks if I've come up with anything yet, and all I tell him is that there are maybe half a dozen things in my past I'd be worried about, but I can't imagine how any of them pertain to my job.
Then he says, "Do you keep a blog? Because apparently they found it while doing a web search, and they aren't happy about how critical you are."
Sudden relief flows over me. All of this is about the blog post I wrote when I was venting about them cancelling my professional development day. And while I could still be in some trouble, I at least was prepared to explain. In fact, despite what my immediate boss was saying, I would have been very surprised if the president of our school, or the president of the corporation, didn't at least on some level agree with what I was saying in that post.
So I re-read my post before going for my meeting, just to make sure it wasn't too critical (it wasn't) and then I headed up to my meeting with him. The short version of the events afterward were that
1. I should use better judgement in posting a personal blog with critical opinions of my employment situation on it, and
2. I was pretty much right on track as far as my actions were concerned in relation to improving my career.
The prez had printed out the entirety of my blog, "just to make sure there was nothing so bad as to cause us legal problems," and aside from suggesting I make it private, he was very encouraging about expanding my career opportunities. He did say that the two heads of school (we have a campus headmaster, my immediate boss, and a school-wide headmaster, who is in charge of all academics) were probably not going to be too happy about what I had to say, but also that there are many places where my drive and hard work would eventually pay off. He even gave me the emails of 2 other school presidents, one in Phoenix and one in Houston, and suggested I start plying them for job opportunities. The corporation is buying about 15 schools this year, and will continue to buy schools into the near future, and I should start agressively pursuing opportunities all around the corportation now, so that when I finish my doctorate, I will have connections beyond just here where I live.
So. Here I am. I doubt that any real opportunity to move into administration here at my school is going to present itself in the next few years, but I am pleased (and incredibly relieved) that things went so well with my meeting.
I went from worring about being fired to being told that I was an asset who has good things for his future, and I was even provided personal recommendations to two other school presidents. All in all, not bad.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Yikes!
It's late and all I'm going to say now is that I'll give you all the full story later about why I had to make my blog private. G'night.
Sunday, November 04, 2007
It comes and goes
So last night I read over my blog. I haven't done this for some time, and it was nice. I like having a record to remind me of the life I've lived. That being said, I realized that lately I haven't really had much to say, and I'm not sure why. I think part of it is that most of my thoughts have been consumed by the mundane; that I haven't thought much of interest lately. But another part of me feels like that is a cop-out. So I'm going to try to be more diligent in writing. In one of my previous posts I wrote about the joy writing brought me when I was younger, and I know that writing begets more writing. It's like going to the gym; you just have to make yourself do it until you want to do it. So... here I go again.
I started my doctoral program this week. It is an online university, Walden, which at first cracked me up because Walden is the name of the totally mediocre university in the Doonesbury comic, but who am I to look a free degree in the mouth? Actually I have been surprised at how thorough the online classroom is, and I am looking forward to it. I am totally convinced that I will be an excellent administrator, if for no other reason than that I will be a leader. That is what is lacking in my school. For example, the curriculum professional development day I spent two months working on was cancelled by our headmaster at the last minute, and he didn't even have the courtesy to offer me an explanation. Hell, he didn't even tell me; he left that to my immediate boss, 3 days before I was to present. Now, I'm not really surprised, and not really even pissed off anymore. What I am is enlightened; for I finally see that it is more often the norm in the field of private education for the administrative leadership to be of the type running my school; aloof, evasive, and separate. My bosses are not bad people, but they certainly don't lead their staff towards better practices. I am not being bitter. It is simply the truth. through the last two years I have done everything I can to move our school in the direction that our parent corporation wants to go, and at every step the real work I've done has been either ignored, credited to someone else, or minimized by my boss, while at the same time he's telling me ""yes, yes... it's a great job, etc."
What can I do though? The short answer is nothing. I can keep making myself available, and I can keep doing things set before me without worrying about their outcome. For example, I've been appointed the leader for our campus to get together a team to do a video-conferencing collaboration with a school in Mexico; cool, I can handle that. Of course, when I've sent numerous emails to my boss asking for information like the dates, time allotted, etc. he has done the same thing he always does, which is ignore me; no response from him whatsoever. So I'll just keep plugging along and hope he doesn't cancel things again at the last minute. My main hope is that some of the higher-ups see what I am doing (I know they do) and that sooner or later they will present me with an opportunity to work where I can have some real authority. Worst-case scenario, I work in 4th grade for 3 more years, finish my free doctorate, and get employed by someone who appreciates my ability to lead.
OK, OK... I'm hopping off my high-horse now. I realized after proofing this post that I sound kind of whiny and conceited, but the truth is I will be much better at being an administrative leader than my own administrators because as a teacher I know that the key to success for a whole school is strong and involved administrative support. And we just don't get very much of that at my school.
Anyway, aside from the job/school stuff, all else is well. Nick's doing fine, and he's starting to make some friends, and some girl has a crush on him, which has improved his spirits greatly. He asked me if he could take her on a date, to which I replied "Hell no!" Well, I didn't exactly put it that way, but I did say if he wanted to go out with a group of friends, I would unobtrusively chaperon, but a one-on-one date was not going to happen just yet. He's going to get back to me on that.
Otherwise, it's been mostly work, swim practice, and TV. Since we finished with Lost, we've been kind of floundering around looking for another good show to watch. Among our current playlist are the Showtime shows Weeds and Californication. These are great shows, but not for when kids are around. With Nick we watch Reaper, The Office, and Aliens in America.
Oh, and books... Well, I'll post on books later; we had our school bookfair last week, and as usual, I got all the books on my wishlist. Lots of goodies!
I started my doctoral program this week. It is an online university, Walden, which at first cracked me up because Walden is the name of the totally mediocre university in the Doonesbury comic, but who am I to look a free degree in the mouth? Actually I have been surprised at how thorough the online classroom is, and I am looking forward to it. I am totally convinced that I will be an excellent administrator, if for no other reason than that I will be a leader. That is what is lacking in my school. For example, the curriculum professional development day I spent two months working on was cancelled by our headmaster at the last minute, and he didn't even have the courtesy to offer me an explanation. Hell, he didn't even tell me; he left that to my immediate boss, 3 days before I was to present. Now, I'm not really surprised, and not really even pissed off anymore. What I am is enlightened; for I finally see that it is more often the norm in the field of private education for the administrative leadership to be of the type running my school; aloof, evasive, and separate. My bosses are not bad people, but they certainly don't lead their staff towards better practices. I am not being bitter. It is simply the truth. through the last two years I have done everything I can to move our school in the direction that our parent corporation wants to go, and at every step the real work I've done has been either ignored, credited to someone else, or minimized by my boss, while at the same time he's telling me ""yes, yes... it's a great job, etc."
What can I do though? The short answer is nothing. I can keep making myself available, and I can keep doing things set before me without worrying about their outcome. For example, I've been appointed the leader for our campus to get together a team to do a video-conferencing collaboration with a school in Mexico; cool, I can handle that. Of course, when I've sent numerous emails to my boss asking for information like the dates, time allotted, etc. he has done the same thing he always does, which is ignore me; no response from him whatsoever. So I'll just keep plugging along and hope he doesn't cancel things again at the last minute. My main hope is that some of the higher-ups see what I am doing (I know they do) and that sooner or later they will present me with an opportunity to work where I can have some real authority. Worst-case scenario, I work in 4th grade for 3 more years, finish my free doctorate, and get employed by someone who appreciates my ability to lead.
OK, OK... I'm hopping off my high-horse now. I realized after proofing this post that I sound kind of whiny and conceited, but the truth is I will be much better at being an administrative leader than my own administrators because as a teacher I know that the key to success for a whole school is strong and involved administrative support. And we just don't get very much of that at my school.
Anyway, aside from the job/school stuff, all else is well. Nick's doing fine, and he's starting to make some friends, and some girl has a crush on him, which has improved his spirits greatly. He asked me if he could take her on a date, to which I replied "Hell no!" Well, I didn't exactly put it that way, but I did say if he wanted to go out with a group of friends, I would unobtrusively chaperon, but a one-on-one date was not going to happen just yet. He's going to get back to me on that.
Otherwise, it's been mostly work, swim practice, and TV. Since we finished with Lost, we've been kind of floundering around looking for another good show to watch. Among our current playlist are the Showtime shows Weeds and Californication. These are great shows, but not for when kids are around. With Nick we watch Reaper, The Office, and Aliens in America.
Oh, and books... Well, I'll post on books later; we had our school bookfair last week, and as usual, I got all the books on my wishlist. Lots of goodies!
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