It's been a while

I know I haven't blogged in a while but it's only because I've been keeping pretty busy. I will write an update soon..right now I'm dealing with finishing up stuff for school and the MLTI disaster at work. Also, trying to buy a house ...so...yeah..I'll catch you up later.
:)

Me - 2, the Board - 0. Can barely contain my excitement..

Yesterday was a long day. It began with speech class at 7:30 AM. Usually not a huge deal, but having just had a week off, I had become accustomed to sleeping in a little later than that. To make things worse, I had volunteered to be one of the first to present our "Demonstrative" speeches. I chose to demonstrate how to play guitar tabs. So yes, this means I have to basically put on a concert at 7:30 in the freaking morning. Not to brag but I'm a pretty decent public speaker, I've become acclimated to giving public presentations and speeches, it sort of comes with the job. Let me tell you right now, playing a guitar in front of a crowd of people...NOT the same thing. I think I'm a decent public speaker because I am always prepared to speak and I am confident in what I'm presenting. My guitar skills..not a source of confidence. I had a feeling I was going to have issues so I apologized ahead of time. Over all, I didn't do too poorly, even though I was nervous as hell. You know I'm nervous when I mess up 3-4 times in a song that I've played millions of times before without an issue. Everyone was still really impressed and I got a good round of applause, this made me feel a bit better. After class I got to go home and relax a bit. This gave me time to prepare. I had to present to school board at 7 PM regarding the laptop expansion. I received a call from the Superintendent and he basically told me that I needed to convince him once more that the expansion program was the best course of action for us. Of course, this time I have to convince the rest of the board with him. About an hour or so before I was set to present, I started feeling nauseous, by the time I was done, it had left. I've never had an upset stomach problem before this time..but a lot was riding on what I had to say. I went over every single detail of the program, I showed them facts, figures, benefits and drawbacks. The chair of the board asked Mr. Keenan(the superintendent) and the HS principal what their positions were. They were both in favor of the program. But there were a couple members of the board who wanted to go over the budget first. This is when I was dismissed. What a horrible torture. I came to work this morning, still not a word. Until 10 minutes ago. Our principal had spoken to the superintendent and the board voted in favor of the program! I almost did a happy dance right there and then. To have an entire school full of Macbooks..awweee..it's like a dream come true. Now, if the legislation would just leave it be...

(Image courtesy: http://www.cecscareers.com/)

Is it Monday already?

Monday already? Damn, where did the weekend go? Forget that...where did last WEEK go. Last week was my vacation from college and it doesn't even seem like it existed. Now, now it's Monday..which is followed by Tuesday. I'm not looking forward to Tuesday. I get to start Tuesday off by giving a demonstrative speech on how to play a guitar tab. Yes..riveting, I know..but you know what..it was much better than my orignal topic. Basic Java programming and how to write a rock, paper, scissors game using Netbeans. Yeah. Try demonstrating that to a bunch of Job Corps kids and keep it under 10 minutes. No..instead I figured I would demonstrate how to read a guitar tab..and then kick out some jams for a few minutes. Speaking of which, I need to borrow someone's acoustic guitar. I don't think the neighboring classes will appreciate my amp. That's a good hint to those wondering what I would like for my birthday. So, that takes care of Tuesday morning. Next up, the normal workday..which won't be starting until around noon. Why noon you ask? Well, because at 7 PM I get to be the honored guest speaker at our local school board meeting. Hooray! So, I'm all set on making multiple trips from PI to Easton..therefore I'm going to work late. The high school principal and I sat down with the superintendent a couple of weeks ago and thoroughly convinced him that going with the MLTI expansion was the best course of action for our school. But now..for some reason, I'm assuming it's because people whined and now the HS teachers are keeping their Macbooks, we have to go to this board meeting and not only convince him AGAIN..but also convince the board members. I don't have a fear of public speaking and I have presented to the school board before..but this is a HUGE decision..and I'm sure there will be more than one asinine, repetative questions..the answers to which will make no difference whatsoever because I have a feeling that all that is going to be looked at will be the dollars..not the value. Sad, but true. People don't value education as much as they do money...or so it seems. The benefits of this MLTI program far outweigh the costs. I was asked to do a quote on how much it would cost to replace our lab computers and continue on as we are now..I did as I was told. The costs of the 1 to 1 program aren't much higher..and we would be cutting the student's opportunities short by keeping the stationary, locked down, rarely monitored computer labs that we have now. It's depressing to think that we would sacrifice a once in a lifetime chance like this to save a few dollars..but it looks like that's how it's going to be. Oh, did I mention that this laptop program will cut my overhead by about 1/3 ..freeing me up to focus on things like integration instead of maintenence? I'm sure that won't factor in at all. Who knows though, maybe with all the money they save by opting out of the program..I can finally get some benefits.
In other news..Macheist has one day left. They've already hit the "mega-unlock" donation amount. There are no more locked apps, so it's $39 for all of them. On top of that, they've added a couple more applications to the package..one of them being Delicious Library 2. It's awesome, you should check it out.

(Image Courtesy: www.zdnet.com)