supply teaching is so random, I work one day one week, every day last week, and none yet this week. I'm working Friday, so at least I'll get that, but honestly teachers, start getting sick on a more regular schedule, ok? thanks. also, I got called for Friday at like, 8 this evening, kind of odd.

I want to rearrange the room, and have figured out a good way to arrange it, but it will involve putting the computer and tv on the other side of the room, which will in turn involve running the cable and phone wires to the other side, which might not look great. I think I could do it fairly discreetly though, and it would I think make the room more feng shui (sp?) with the couches facing the door rather than facing away from it. I'm also wondering if I could remove the door that closes off the coat room/entry way from the rest of the apartment, since we don't really need to close it, nor do we ever, cause then it gets stuffy in there. Decisions decisions. If I don't work again tomorrow I'll end up doing it out of sheer boredom.

I just wrote such a good email to Sears. I mean, they won't think it's great I'm sure, but that's not the point. The bastards have had our tv for 3 weeks, and it's been over 2 months we've been trying to get it fixed. We've been calling every other day for about a week now, and they always told us it was being fixed "tomorrow". Grant got mad and called the store and told them he was going to get his money back because this is retarded. Anyway, the guy said something about there being a user fee, and then, magically, I get a phone call, our tv is fixed, and we can pick it up tomorrow. What a load of shit. I'm never buying from Sears again, if at all possible, and I'd like to suggest you all do the same. Customer service is so important. I haven't gotten ANY explanation as to why it took so long, or even an apology. That sure would have helped, honestly. I'm not hard to annoy, I'll admit, but I'm really easy to please too. An apology, a voucher for like, 20% off my next purchase or something, that would have been great. Now...I really just want to return the TV and start over with somebody else.

George just fell in the toilet. BA HAHahahahaha....

He's taken to playing with / attacking the toilet paper. I flipped it so that he can't unroll the whole thing, but he still bites it etc. So he must have been attacking it, there are big gouges in it, and I heard this splash, and then George comes bootin' out of there, all wet. hehehe..

My Mom is here. She made me go to the gym with her. She's so mean. hehe. It was not bad, I haven't been going at all lately with work, Grant working, and Rob having bought a house. Gym buddies my ass! Anyway, so I feel good now, and will probably go out to supper to celebrate. The cats are in the window trying frantically to chase the leaves outside, but them being inside is hampering their efforts. Silly cats.

This, is my Dad. He's awesome. Hopefully those of you seeing this picture will have seen the movie Slap Shot, or know who the Hanson Brothers are. But even if you don't, it's still funny. I have to go watch CSI: Miami now. I'm not a fan of spinoffs as a rule, but this one is good. EXCEPT for whatsername's hair, it's like evil 80's perm strikes back. Odd. She's an attractive lady in real life.

Ok. So I know it happened on Thursday, but I'm just so happy that Robbbb got voted off the island. He brought a SKATEBOARD as his luxury item. Perhaps he missed the memo that this year's Survivor was ON THE BEACH. Jenn said someone should have thrown it in the fire. I said good thinking, but then he probably would have CHOKED them. That there is kind of a long write up, but it makes fun of Robb plenty, because as the author correctly points out, "It's so easy to make fun of Robb. And what makes it so easy is that I don't have to do anything except print what he says."
That's all I guess.

Working 2 jobs is not easy. I admire Jenn, she does it every day. Well, more 'think she's insane' than 'admire', but let's not get technical. My mom's coming today, I'm very excited. I have to work this evening, but not today, and not tomorrow evening, so it should be good. I think I'll go to Halifax this weekend, she'll be there, as will my sister, my Grannie (she lives there) and possibly my uncle Fred. Family reunion time again! Thanksgiving was all my Dad's side, so this'll be all my mom's side. Significantly smaller, just the people I mentioned. Fred doesn't have any kids, and he and mom are the only kids in their family. Anyway, I should probably get dressed and straighten up my place a bit before Mom arrives. The kitties are resting up in anticipation of her visit. or because they were up all night being arseholes. meh.

I did take the bells off the boys' collars, it was just too much. They have their rabies tags though, so they have a nice kind of tinkly noise rather than overt jingling. The tags are cool, they have a webpage on them, www.getmehome.ca that you go and register your pet, put the info up there and your contact info. That way, when somebody finds your lost kitty or whatever, they can find you and you can have a happy reunion. Pretty good idea. That's all. I'm down to 9 minutes. Crap. hehe

So My arm feels better, although I must say I didn't feel too starry this morning when I woke up. That may just have to do with the fact that I really haven't gotten back into the 'getting up in the morning' routine, because every now and then I get to sleep in til...whenever the hell I feel like getting up. Tricky. Grant says I should just get up early every morning, but where's the fun in that? And what the heck would I do for those extra 4 hours?

My sweet little kindergarteners were not so sweet today. Different school, so I wasn't expecting the same class, but was unpleasantly surprised at the difference in the 2 levels. It wasn't just me though, even their regular teacher says that she just isn't enjoying herself as much this year, she's exhausted every day. Alas, such is life. I'd still like to teach the little'uns though, but I now better appreciate the advantages of teaching the older crowd. It's just odd though...I would think, and have been told, that there would be more need for high school supplies, but I've only had 2 days so far, and that was because I knew both of the teachers personally and they requested me. All my other ones have been elementary and middle school. It's all good, it all pays the same and it all goes to experience. Let's not get started on how silly that is. Oh, let's, just for a minute. I'm not doing any lesson planning, I'm not doing marking or evaluation, I'm not getting to know my students and teach to their different needs...but I guess I'm learning classroom control, if nothing else. There, done.

Anywho, I've just been silly tired lately, so I'm making an effort to be IN bed by 11. I have 13 minutes. I think I can do it.

Flu shots are fun! Not really. The nurse did have to hang out with me for 20 minutes though to make sure I wasn't going to die, since I've never had one before. I didn't, obviously. My arm is getting a wee bit sore though. Poor me. I figured though, working where I am, in close contact with lots of people and with little people who get sick all the time, it was a good plan. I need to figure out how to become an elementary teacher now, cause man, it is fun. I'm sure the novelty would wear off after a while, but it would still be cool. What to do? I guess it's better that I like everything I do rather than nothing....right?

Quote of the day:

"Currently, there is more money being spent on breast implants and Viagra than on Alzheimer's research. So..... by 2020 there should be a large, elderly population with perky breasts and superb erections and no recollection of what to do with them."

Ok. So.....in mid-August, I called Sears about our TV. It buzzes. It sounds like when you're watching a really old VHS tape, but it's just the tv. So that's good, still under warantee, all good. It takes them roughly a month to get back to us, during which I call them again to see what the hold up is, a girl working there says that the part we need is in, and that she'll get the repair guy to call us. Super. So then they call and say they will pick up the tv on the 27th of September. But really, they call that morning and tell me that the 'loaner' tv has been loaned to someone else, and at this point my computer was broken, and I can't do with no tv and no computer, I'm sorry. So they will call when the loaner tv comes back. October 7th, they call and come get our tv, and drop off the loaner, which isn't bad, but it's not our nice 27". He says, probably by the end of the week our tv will be better. So, as of today, the 22nd, no word. That's 2 weeks plus a day, for those of us keeping track. So I call, and the girl there says that they must be waiting for a part. I say, no, actually, that's why we had to wait so long in the first place, they wanted to order the part so that it would be speedy to be fixed. HA. She says, oh, ok, looks like they're going to install the part tomorrow. Ok. But what have they been doing with my TV for the past 2 weeks? I'm not impressed. Poor customer service I must say. And I miss my tv. grr.

Just a note...the similarity rating on that test is for friendship, and the complementary rating is for "relationships". So although Tiresa and I probably shouldn't date, we make very good friends. Grant scored a 94% complementary with me, which was kind of a funny surprise. So I guess he can date me, or Tiresa, since we are apparently, basically the same person. hehe.

SimilarMinds.com Compatibility Test

Your match with Tiresa you are 98% similar you are 71% complementary

How Compatible are You with me?

Tiresa is famous!

People I love (in the "guys on tv" kind of love):

Ty from Trading Spaces, for obvious reasons.

Vern from Trading Spaces, because last night he bought little betta fish to suspend from the ceiling, and he brought them in in the ridiculously small glass bowls that they sell them in. I was disappointed, cause although we could each probably live in a cardboard box, we're much happier, healthier, and just better off, in a house, or at least an apartment. Know what I mean? Anyway, but then Vern goes on to comment on how the little bowls are so small and dingy, and then proceeded to have big vase type things in which he put one fish and the type of plant they eat, so it was like a self sustaining ecosystem type thing, with more room for the little fishes. Also, it looked cool.

Andrew Anthony, from Matchmaker on Life Network. He's just funny. Last night they had a "dirty dating" special, and there are some dirty, dirty people in the world, who like show their "cookies" to their dates in restaurants etc. Also just plain crazy people who would make me run screaming for my life, but who Andrew gladly spends time with in the Matchmaker limo, commentating on the date. He's very entertaining. Plus he has 2 first names, which is fun.

ok. Got my picture disk, am going out for Chinese and a movie with Jenn. Tiresa found me a really funny site here. I think we should all have sites like this! It kind of restores my faith in humanity a bit, which is always nice.

Ok. So I had to leave my pictures an extra 2 days to get a picture disk made. Let's be clear now...the pictures were already printed, they just had to hang onto them to make the cd. I go today, a day late even so they would have had lots of time. They hand me the envelope, I pay, then look inside the envelope to find pictures, no disk. I am perplexed and annoyed, having waited in line for a bit. I ask the guy how it is possible that the only thing that had to be done, was not done. He says he's not sure, but he can tell me it wasn't his fault. OH. WELL then, let's just forget the whole thing. He obviously doesn't yet understand that if you work for the company, it IS your fault. He claims they'll have the disk ready for me in 20 minutes, which makes me question why exactly I have to wait 2 days normally. Interesting. Anyway, I'm going to try to spend my 'mall money' today, but I'm kind of dreading the mall, it'll probably be busy because there's nothing else to do here!

a bientot.

Well now. Upon closer investigation and a visit to the m&m website, I have discovered a few things. Thing one, and obviously the most upsetting, is that on the opening page you have to choose your country, and Canada is not an option. I can see if like, US and England were the only options, but several other countries are listed. Like Algeria. But not Canada. I had to choose "other". No good. Thing two is that you can get m&ms in a whopping 21 colours. That's pretty fun! You can special order pre-selected mixes of colours for special occasions like Christmas or Thanksgiving, or you can pick your own colours for your company, team colours, or whateve. That's pretty neat. Anyway, 20 minutes later, it is still bedtime.

Did I miss something? I thought the new m&m colour was purple, cause they want to be smarties, even though they had a snazzy teal colour as an option that WOULDN'T be a direct rip off. But here I sit, eating my peanut butter m&m's, and there are pink ones. No purple. Not a bright pink even, a kind of dusty rose colour. Interesting.

In other news, I got collars for the boys, cause they escape, and I want people to know they're owned, in case they ever escape beyond the driveway. The collars have bells on them, which is cute, but I think may get annoying. I'll give it a shot.

It's bedtime, cause I watched ER at 8. I did NOT however catch most of Will & Grace, cause I have to watch CSI at 10, so if anyone wants to fill me in on what happened, that'd be super. Babies? I love how my life is ruled by TV...at least on Thursdays.

A funny and interestingly accurate write up of the movie Jackass.

Jackass: The Movie Opening Friday, October 25, 2002
Based on the MTV show Jackass, in which regular people perform daring and strangely idiotic stunts, JACKASS: THE MOVIE stretches the concept into a feature-length film

some more pictures...I'll put up better quality ones tomorrow when I get my picture disk, these are just pictures of pictures, but they'll do for now.
Erin and Jamie
Erin
Colin
Kelly
(not from the weekend but a funny picture regardless) Mort

There is an ad on the radio station here, 94.5. It's a clip from a movie, and it goes like this:

guy 1 ------ "Yeah, I read it in a book one time."

guy 2 ------ "Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't...nothing?"

guy 1 ------ "Oh...yeah..."

What movie is this? The 2nd guy has a really deep voice, like the guy from Seinfeld (Elaine's boyfriend who was a car salesman) and Big Trouble. I can't figure it out.

Price is Right is an endless source of entertainment.

The other day, this older lady got in the showcase showdown, and honestly, I can't remember what her showcase was, I think a car and a trip, and probably something else. She started with a bid of $50, 000 to which the audience obviously made a lot of noise, it being a bit high. So, she misunderstood their boos I guess, and changed her bid to $100, 000. Now, I'm fairly sure that as an older lady, shouldn't she err on the cheap side, like 'back in the old days'? The audience kicks up a HUGE fuss at this bid, so she drops it down to $90, 000. Which is good, because the little display thing can't handle 6 numbers, so $100K wouldn't have fit anyway. As you may have guessed, she overbid. It was really funny, but also kind of sad. My friend Jenn laughed when I told her this story and said it was like Dr Evil asking for "One MILLION dollars!".

Today on the show, a contestant was playing a game, and Bob stopped it for some reason. He couldn't hear the buzz or something. So anyway, they can't turn the clock back, so they just restart. There are 4 numbers, and the guy has to put a giant bingo dabber type thing above or below each number, for what he thinks the price is of his prize. After each guess, he has to push this button and it buzzes or dings to let him know if he's right. So he moves 2 and hits the button, and the thing starts dinging and lights up the correct placement of the bingo dabbers. The thing is, that it wasn't where he had them. He had 3 out of 4, but then so it stopped dinging and buzzed, but he had already seen where the things were lit up, so he moved his 4th thing to the right spot and wins.

Bob is losing his hearing and his mind, the games are malfunctioning...I'm afraid.

I took some pictures with my mc3. They're not great, but they're fun enough until I get the real pictures developed. So...(Erin will love this one) Erin, random scenery, a rather unflattering picture of my cousin Kelly, and, in honour of the season, some pumpkins!
Hope everyone ate lots of turkey, or whatever, and had a good weekend overall!

Wow. Grade 4 and 5 is pretty high energy. It's fun, the girls are sweet little things that want to help you and seek approval and whatnot, but the boys just want to be loud and hit eachother. Ah, to be 10. haha. I have to go back and teach grade 7 math and health. Good Lord.

Just a quick note, I'm on dialup, away for the weekend. Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots and be happy.

In other news...Mort had to go to the vet today, just for shots and stuff. So since we're there I ask the vet about this special expensive food he's on, if he has to keep eating it, but this vet is not the regular vet, and doesn't really seem to know what he's talking about, which is unfortunate. He says we should try to get a urine sample to check for crystals, and commences to squeezing the bejebus out of poor Mort's bladder, claiming that sometimes this will encourage the cat to pee. On the table? I can't see it, but this can't be fun for Mort. So, Mort doesn't pee, then we're done, so we go out into the waiting room to pay, and Mort wanders over into the corner by the plant and pees. On the floor. He did try to climb into the plant, but I wouldn't let him, so he went on the floor. I blame the vet, obviously, since Mort has never peed on the floor here. I think he was embarassed though, he let out this pitiful wail and then went to another corner and hid until it was time to go home. Poor guy. It was kind of funny though. All is well now. Good for another year.
oh, yeah, and he's gained a pound since our last visit, which was probably...2 months ago. He's up to 15.5lbs now. Fatass! So cuddly though...

Yes, Red Dragon was a good movie! It was not gory, but very suspenseful and a little jumpy, which is fun. Also, Edward Norton is in it, and I like him. And Anthony Hopkins. Anyway, I just sort of realized that I said I would report back, but didn't. So here you go. Go see it. Bring a friend.

Yesterday was Erin's birthday! She's a quarter of a century old now. haha.

ok, most fun link I've seen in a while. Thanks to mom. click.

Ok, so I get the Co-op flyer in my email, I'm not sure why, but I guess it's mainly for treasures like this.

THIS WEEK...
recreational and plumbing antifreeze
4L
3.49
Available at the gas bar

(recreational? I'm pretty sure that's NOT a recommeded use, actually...)

Ok, this is just interesting and horribly frustrating all at the same time, so I thought I'd share it with you folks. I've highlighted my favourite parts.

NB Telegraph-Journal | E-Brief As published on page A1 on October 7, 2002

Supply teachers blast province
EDUCATION: Group members told they earn half of counterparts' pay

ROGER LEBLANC
Telegraph-Journal

There was frustration in the air at the annual meeting of substitute teachers this weekend.

About a dozen members attended a meeting of the Substitute Teachers' Association of New Brunswick meeting Saturday. It didn't take long for the part-time teachers to start talking about opportunities outside this province. During a break, one new supply teacher was floored to learn he could nearly double his pay and gain benefits unavailable here if he moved to the West Coast to do the same job.

Substitute teachers can go to any other province and be treated like government employees, one teacher said, or stay here and be viewed as a casual worker without benefits and paid half of what their full-time colleagues earn doing the same job.

The chair of the meeting, Diane Reid, led off with a morale-crushing report that had an obvious impact on many of the young teachers. With poor pay, no benefits, and no government movement on initiatives that would help them do their jobs better, substitute teachers are turning away from New Brunswick and that's harming our children's education, Ms. Reid said.

The association, which has 1,500 members, made huge gains in pay in the recent past, she noted, but that progress has stalled with this current government.

"Right now the attention seems to be on building roads and creating infrastructure that creates jobs," she said. "What we need to do is make our province an attractive place so the professionals will come here . . . What's more important? Kids or highways?"

Substitute April Churchill would like to see the province invest more funding into hiring teachers. She's been working out of the St. George area as a supply teacher since 1991, and since getting her degree in 1996, Ms. Churchill has been applying for jobs with no luck. The sporadic work and heavy pressure to keep quiet means the situation has started to deteriorate.

"You're just not in the class long enough to make a difference," Ms. Churchill said.

Ms. Reid said school administrators either can't find teachers or are choosing to hire casual employees in order to save much-needed funds.

Statistics collected by the STANB show by hiring a substitute teacher instead of someone permanently, the school can save at least $20,000. That, Ms. Reid noted, doesn't take into account the savings of not paying benefits to supply teachers.

Taken a step further, a school can hire what's called a "local permit" supply teacher who doesn't have an education degree and earns even less than a substitute teacher with a BA. So in an effort to save money, she hinted, people with only a high school diploma are teaching and are expected to do so at the same level as someone who graduated from an education program.

A few years ago, she said, there were fewer than a half-dozen local permits working in District 17-18. Today, that's grown to 25 per cent of the substitute list and in the Saint John area that's grown to 50 per cent, she noted. That's having an impact on the quality of our education, she said.

"Kids are coming into the classroom wanting to talk about their sexuality. They want to talk about the environment and world issues. We need good people there to handle it," Ms. Reid told the group. "Once again after the latest settlements, your supply teachers are making less than bus drivers . . . For a system that's starving, what choice do they have?"

But pay and benefits aren't the only thorns in the sides of the teachers.

After more than a year of lobbying, supply teachers haven't even been able to get guidebooks into the classroom. These would be available for every class a supply teacher entered, giving them a detailed profile of students and school policy. It would list everything from emergency plans to which students can be a handful and who can be counted on for help.

Simply having a seating plan could eliminate the trouble substitutes find, said behavioural specialist Nick Plimmer. The guest speaker said children act out when confronted with change. But that can be stopped immediately when the teacher shows they know who's who.

Not having a classroom manual that clearly spells out the school's policies is counterproductive when fighting bullying, hinted fellow speaker Marilyn Noble. We constantly tell kids if they're being bullied to go tell an adult.

"The problem is, most of us then are just like deer in headlights. We don't know what to do," she said.

Children need well-trained teachers who can not only help with academics, but deal with emotional and medical issues, too, Ms. Noble said. Despite this, Ms. Reid said, it's been the STANB that's pushed to develop a guidebook, not the Department of Education which is charged with ensuring students get a quality education.

So I'm off to see Red Dragon. I liked Silence of the Lambs, I didn't hate Hannibal, as many did, but it was awfully gory. I'm a little worried about this one, only for that reason. Grant read a review that said that for everyone who liked Silence, but hated Hannibal, this movie was for them, so I'm hoping for the best here.
In other news, that birthday list paid off, I got the Memento Special Edition dvd from Calleen, and I'm still trying to figure out how to work the effing thing, so many pages of stuff! I did find a handy site that tells me how to do things like watch the movie in chronological order, but it's a bit of a process, I don't know how you would ever come across it accidentally. I also got the Naked Chef cookbook from Erin, and Monsters Inc from Grant. I'm still waiting on the laptop, I'm getting *something* from my parents, Dad said it would "arrive" there soon, and they'll bring it up to Tremblant next weekend. Ok, so probably NOT a laptop, but I'm excited to know what it is.
I'll report back on the movie.

my "listening to" section has been largely influenced by Erin, it's basically the cd she made for her man in Sweden. Just thought I'd let you know...she's the one with taste, lol.

I had my first day of supply teaching today. It was too easy, and now I fear I'm ruined for when I get called in to teach like, grade 8 math or something. I had 2 advanced English classes, one regular English, and a Theatre Arts class. Not too shabby. But the fun parts of the day weren't teaching. One student came into class a little early to ask to be excused to work on a project for another class. I said sure, and when I asked him his name I realized that he's the little brother of a good friend of mine from high school. Pretty neat. I haven't talked to her really since high school, which is pretty crappy I'll admit, but her brother tells me that she's back in town now, for next week anyway, so I think I'll give her a shout. How exactly does one go about re-initiating contact with someone after a break of 5 years? Especially when I know she's leaving in like a week for Toronto. Interesting. The other fun part of the day was that my HS art teacher is now the art teacher where I was supplying, and he recognized me. I would have recognized him too, he looks just the same, but I wasn't really expecting to see anyone I knew there, and wasn't paying attention. Anyway, so that was pretty cool; all in all a good day. Plus, they pay me. hehe.
Also, in other good news, my summer job has offered me a position for 6 months or so, and they'll work around my school schedule, and if something comes up teaching wise, they'll let me go to it. Pretty awesome, I think. They had offered me a position at the end of the summer, but I wouldn't have been able to supply, because it was all day shifts. This one is evenings and weekends, and has a higher pay rate to boot, so I'm pretty stoked. It'll start sometime in the next couple of weeks. I haven't told Grant, but I'm sure he'll be relieved, he worries more than I do about my silly line of credit. My feeling is, I don't have loans to pay off, and that's what lines of credit are FOR! lol...but it will be nice to not have to worry about everything financial. Plus, I LOVED my summer job, so it's a win win win situation. I love good news. Now, I'm just waiting to win the lottery, and that'll pretty much fulfil my expectations for now!

I went with my friend Jenn to see The Good Girl last night, and it was really good! I'm impressed, first that being in Moncton we get movies like this, since Fredericton just doesn't, and second because Jennifer Aniston continutes to prove herself as a legitimate actor. The movie is full of people who will make you think, hmm, that guy looks familiar. It's well thought out, with lots of details that make it seem real, such as, as Jenn pointed out, the fur seat covers in Justine's car, and the day to day mundanities of working at the "Retail Rodeo". It has a good musical score, and while I usually walk out of movies thinking 'that was really funny' or 'sure, worth $6' (only the cheap nights folks), I walked out of this one thinking 'that was a really good movie', which is kind of rare.