Time sure does pass

5 September 2007, 9:21 pm by Giggles
Categories: Musings, Work

I saw one of my first sixth grade students this afternoon. I couldn’t believe how grown-up she looked. So I did some quick figuring. My first class of sixth graders are now juniors in high school. They are the class of 2009. Then I did some not quite as quick calculating because it took more than ten fingers, and realized that the class of kindergartners that came to my class for the first time yesterday (and boy, was that an experience), will be the class of 2020. That’s quite the span of influence I’ve had in the few years I’ve already taught. I hope it’s been a good one.

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First female Beefeater

3 September 2007, 6:11 pm by Giggles
Categories: Happy Things, Learn Something, Questions, Random

Woman Joins Beefeaters at Tower of London.

I saw this story on the news tonight. That is a fun story. My favorite part is her smile. What a great smile! But why are they called Beefeaters?

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Football!!

1 September 2007, 3:30 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Happy Things

It’s football season again. I love football. I really can’t explain why. I tell people it’s because I graduated from high school in Texas, and in Texas, football is what you do on Friday nights. James A. Michener even says that high school football is the state religion in Texas. But I liked football before I got to high school. So I’m not really sure where it came from.

And for the first time since I graduated from BYU, I have BYU season football tickets again. I had them every year when I was a student there, but haven’t managed to get them since. I’ve missed going to the games and being a part of the crowd. I love football on a Fall evening. I love the cheering and the tension of if the team will win or not. I’m super excited to go to the games again this year.

In fact, I’m at the first game right now. And I’m taking it as a sign that their first home game is against the University of Arizona and their last home game is against the University of Utah.

I had to work at the fabric store last year during the game against Utah. The manager turned down the music that generally plays in the store and brought out a radio so everyone could listen to the game. The last few minutes were so tense. And when BYU pulled off the win, everyone in the store cheered. This year, I’ll be at the game.

I love football.

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The right tools for the job

27 August 2007, 11:11 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Life

For Christmas last year my parents gave me a set of tools. They are real cool. They make noise and light up and are lots of fun. I keep them out in my living room for the kids that come to my house. I like to play with them too.

But if I wanted to build a headboard for my bed, which I want to do, they wouldn’t be very useful for that. Which is why those tools are just a “type and shadow” of the other tools my parents gave me, in the form of a $100 gift card to Lowe’s. A gift card is a lot easier to carry on an airplane than a set of power tools.

With that gift card I went and bought my very first power tools. I’ve had a hammer, two screw drivers, and some pliers for years. I got those for my 20th birthday. But now I also have a screw driver/drill with a set of bits, a hand saw, a jig saw, an extension cord, and of course some safety glasses. They always mention safety glasses when I watch the home and building shows on PBS, so I grabbed a pair of those too.

Now I just need to get some wood and I can finally get a headboard.

I like my tools, both sets of them.

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I am a geek

25 August 2007, 10:11 am by Giggles
Categories: Education, Science & Tech, Work

I’m sure you all probably already knew I was a geek. But here’s more evidence.

I was getting out one of my mugs the other night and realized I need some new mugs, a set of mugs in fact. And if I were to put together my own mug set, these would be the mugs I would choose from:

And then I’d want this one for work: Computer Help Department

And I would like to have this one for my office at school when I have one of those some day: πhD

All of these mugs can be found at the Famous Mathematicians website.

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A challenge

21 August 2007, 3:46 pm by Giggles
Categories: Life, Science & Tech

My friends who program computers for a living are going to laugh at me for saying this. But that’s okay.

Yesterday I was watching the documentary about the making of Finding Nemo. I love that movie. I’ve thought it would be fun to work for them for a while now. Watching it, I realized I miss programing computers. I miss the challenge of trying to figure out how I think so that I can get the computer to think the same way. I miss the challenge. I miss that excitement when you finally stop getting errors and it actually works. My favorite error ever was “Confused by earlier errors, bailing out.” I wanted to frame that. There are days when I could say that about myself.

I need to find a way to get back into computer programming. I need to find something to challenge my brain again.

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Computer skills for jobs

17 August 2007, 1:44 pm by Giggles
Categories: Education, Science & Tech, Work

I’ve decided that I would like as comprehensive a list as possible of jobs that involve computers to put in my classroom, since I am the computer teacher after all. So I am enlisting the help of the readers of my blog in helping me develop this list. There is no way I could come up with them all on my own.

Thank you for your contribution to the education of America’s future.

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