Got my grade back on the paper I had the wrong due date for. He took 20% off for lateness and I had a stylistics error that I don't exactly understand. Woo! More points than I would have had if I didn't get the paper turned in!
Minor victory thread
- Thread starter Thread Necromancer
- Start date
This is a man with his priorities in order.
Cajungal
Staff member
A kid who I thought hated me gave me a hug last week. He's got some problems focusing--nothing so problematic that it needs a diagnosis. He just isn't a big fan of reading or writing. I introduced him to Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and now he can't wait to open a book every day. 
He was having a lot of frustrating moments during this first quarter, but I've been seeing more smiles. He's a great kid, and I'm glad he's having happier days now. Now I just need to find a few more age-appropriate athlete biographies for him. And some fun math books. He's a numbers guy.
He was having a lot of frustrating moments during this first quarter, but I've been seeing more smiles. He's a great kid, and I'm glad he's having happier days now. Now I just need to find a few more age-appropriate athlete biographies for him. And some fun math books. He's a numbers guy.Several teachers have told me that it's moments like this that make all the frustrations worth it.A kid who I thought hated me gave me a hug last week. He's got some problems focusing--nothing so problematic that it needs a diagnosis. He just isn't a big fan of reading or writing. I introduced him to Sideways Stories from Wayside School, and now he can't wait to open a book every day.
EDIT: Out of curiosity, is he a baseball fan? Seems like some math nuts love baseball for its numbers, stats, and such. Might be a good gateway.
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Cajungal
Staff member
Absolutely right. That moment pretty much undid all the unpleasant ones from the first 6 weeks of school. Part of what made it easy is his mom. She's such a kind and easy-going person. We've talked a lot about how to help him, and she's just so supportive. It feels wonderful to be listened to and trusted, and I guess parents feel the same way in these situations. Teamwork, baby.
I've heard this from so many teacher friends. When the parents are on board it makes it so much easier to help the student in an appropriate, effective way.
You're a good teacher, CG.
Cajungal
Staff member
He's just a sports guy--primarily soccer and hockey, but basically everything. That is a really good idea.Several teachers have told me that it's moments like this that make all the frustrations worth it.
EDIT: Out of curiosity, is he a baseball fan? Seems like some math nuts love baseball for its numbers, stats, and such. Might be a good gateway.
Piggybacking on this - you'll find a lot of statistical analysis about hockey if you're willing to go looking for it, and a lot of the introductory articles are probably reasonably age-appropriate, but it's a lot newer than baseball's advanced stats approach, so it'll be basically impossible to find any books or other print sources. Depending on what kind of technology you have available in the class, and how much work you're willing/able to do, it might be a LOT easier to work with baseball to start with.
GasBandit
Staff member
This was going to start off as a minor rant or a whine, but ended up a minor victory!
I get a text this morning from our spanish station's PD that her computer won't start up.
Oh great, this last week has been nothing but nonstop hardware failures. Uuuugh
So I get to work, take care of what I gotta take care of, then go have a look at her PC.
"Not start up" isn't quite all the information. It's constantly TRYING to start up, but shutting off and then back on again after about 3 seconds. So, that's probably the power supply.
I replace the power supply (fortunately that's one of the things I have lots of on hand).
Now, it powers up... but doesn't post. All the fans go full blast, no beeps, no blinking lights on any of the NICs.
Crud. That means the motherboard's toast.
Usually needing a new motherboard means needing new ram, new CPU, new OS installation, basically a new computer. Expensive and time consuming, and I'm shorter on time these days than I've been in a long while.
But then, I consider...
One of the old, nonfunctioning computers I have on the shelf in my office is the exact same model as this one - a Dell Vostro 200. I poke around inside it, and sure enough, the motherboard is identical, it just has no RAM because I cannibalized the ram to go into another machine. If I recalled correctly, the only thing wrong with this machine was that its user (the Underling, ironically enough) complained about how slow it was until she got a new one.
So, with a voice in my head telling me "This never works. THIS NEVER WORKS. You can't possibly think this is going to work," I just take the hard drive and RAM out of the PD's dead computer, and install both in the Underling's old computer.
Unfortunately my workbench is still occupied with the Production File Server which is still awaiting its new parts in the mail, so I can't test the PD machine in my office, I have to take it back to the PD's office and plug it all back up. In my mind, this further multiplies the chance of failure because corollaries to Murphy's Law all imply that if you don't test the machine you fix and put it right back into service, it definitely won't work.
I get it all plugged up... power it on...
The fans whir to life, then slow to power-saving speed, that's a good sign..
It POSTs, that's a better sign..
Windows XP logo on screen... so now the question becomes, will the OS installation see the motherboard's HDD controller as identical enough to not require a repair install....
I'm crossing all my fingers and toes...
It worked!
That NEVER works! But it worked!
The real victory here is now I get to rub this in my GM and Owner/President's faces. They're always nagging me to throw out the old computers I keep on the shelf. WELL THIS TIME IT SAVED US TIME, MONEY AND PRODUCTIVITY, BIZNITCHES. HOORAY FOR TECH HOARDING!
I get a text this morning from our spanish station's PD that her computer won't start up.
Oh great, this last week has been nothing but nonstop hardware failures. Uuuugh
So I get to work, take care of what I gotta take care of, then go have a look at her PC.
"Not start up" isn't quite all the information. It's constantly TRYING to start up, but shutting off and then back on again after about 3 seconds. So, that's probably the power supply.
I replace the power supply (fortunately that's one of the things I have lots of on hand).
Now, it powers up... but doesn't post. All the fans go full blast, no beeps, no blinking lights on any of the NICs.
Crud. That means the motherboard's toast.
Usually needing a new motherboard means needing new ram, new CPU, new OS installation, basically a new computer. Expensive and time consuming, and I'm shorter on time these days than I've been in a long while.
But then, I consider...
One of the old, nonfunctioning computers I have on the shelf in my office is the exact same model as this one - a Dell Vostro 200. I poke around inside it, and sure enough, the motherboard is identical, it just has no RAM because I cannibalized the ram to go into another machine. If I recalled correctly, the only thing wrong with this machine was that its user (the Underling, ironically enough) complained about how slow it was until she got a new one.
So, with a voice in my head telling me "This never works. THIS NEVER WORKS. You can't possibly think this is going to work," I just take the hard drive and RAM out of the PD's dead computer, and install both in the Underling's old computer.
Unfortunately my workbench is still occupied with the Production File Server which is still awaiting its new parts in the mail, so I can't test the PD machine in my office, I have to take it back to the PD's office and plug it all back up. In my mind, this further multiplies the chance of failure because corollaries to Murphy's Law all imply that if you don't test the machine you fix and put it right back into service, it definitely won't work.
I get it all plugged up... power it on...
The fans whir to life, then slow to power-saving speed, that's a good sign..
It POSTs, that's a better sign..
Windows XP logo on screen... so now the question becomes, will the OS installation see the motherboard's HDD controller as identical enough to not require a repair install....
I'm crossing all my fingers and toes...
It worked!
That NEVER works! But it worked!
The real victory here is now I get to rub this in my GM and Owner/President's faces. They're always nagging me to throw out the old computers I keep on the shelf. WELL THIS TIME IT SAVED US TIME, MONEY AND PRODUCTIVITY, BIZNITCHES. HOORAY FOR TECH HOARDING!
I need to show this to my wife*.
Also, even XP will let you replace a MLB...so long has enough time has elapsed since any previous major hardware change.
--Patrick
*she'd still give me "the look."
GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, but if you stick a hard drive with an XP install into a machine without the exact same HDD controller, you're usually gonna have to do a repair install because it won't recognize the hard drive as a valid boot device, and then you have to reapply a bajillion updates and reinstall drivers... it's just a pain in the ass from hell.
Ah, I thought you were just talking about WGA activation.
I always try to do exact replacement whenever possible, so I've never really run into what you describe.
--Patrick
So, I was tentatively invited to fill an appointed IT advisory committee citizen at large position in my town. Meeting with the Mayor in a couple of days to seal the deal.
He probably saw your Facebook.
Or maybe it's your Kerbal thread, and he just likes the cut of your Jeb.
--Patrick
I've been talking with him for a couple of months now about mobile development stuff for the town. He looked me up on LinkedIn the other day, and my work history probably did the trick.
I'm down to 219 lbs. I've been hovering around 225 or 230 for the longest time. But I was eating better in the hospital (smaller portions compared to what I'd normally eat) and I've been eating smaller portions during meals. For example, I usually have two bagels and a shake for breakfast. I've cut that down to one bagel and a shake. For supper, I'm using a small plate in order to control my portion size.
And I'm walking every day. Right now, since I don't have anything to do with my time, I've been dwelling a lot on the breakup and being unemployed. So I've been fighting depression. But rather than just sit there, I've been going for about an hour-long walk almost every day. It's helped clear my head every time.
So yeah, down to the lowest weight I've been in awhile; at least about two years. Hopefully I can keep up with this.
And I'm walking every day. Right now, since I don't have anything to do with my time, I've been dwelling a lot on the breakup and being unemployed. So I've been fighting depression. But rather than just sit there, I've been going for about an hour-long walk almost every day. It's helped clear my head every time.
So yeah, down to the lowest weight I've been in awhile; at least about two years. Hopefully I can keep up with this.
Still doing yoga too?
Gonna start back up on that probably tomorrow.
Met with the Mayor and the Town Manager for a half-hour today. Told them a bit about my background and stuff. He's appointing me at the town planning meeting tonight, and I gotta go to a confirmation meeting with the town council tomorrow, but it sounds more like a formality than a serious barrier to the position.
GasBandit
Staff member
Unanimous vote in favor of confirming my appointment. My wife says I've been strutting around like a little pretty princess.
I hope the new appointment requires you to wear the tiara regularly.Unanimous vote in favor of confirming my appointment. My wife says I've been strutting around like a little pretty princess.
I hope the new appointment doesn't require him to wear the tiara regularly, but he chooses to anyway.
Had a really stressful few weeks. That's bad.
Decided to take next Monday and Tuesday off. That's good!
Tuesday will be partly spent at the hospital, at which doctors will root around my nose with metallic implements. That's bad.
But otherwise Tuesday will be dedicated to gaming and porn! That's good!
But when my family heard I decided to take Monday off too, they decided to give me chores to do. That's bad.
One of the chores will be to accompany my sister's attractive female friend to dinner, because she's stopping over in Taiwan for a couple of days, and doesn't know anyone else here. That's good!
My wife will be coming along to dinner too. That's... good. Yes. Very good. Good indeed.
Decided to take next Monday and Tuesday off. That's good!
Tuesday will be partly spent at the hospital, at which doctors will root around my nose with metallic implements. That's bad.
But otherwise Tuesday will be dedicated to gaming and porn! That's good!
But when my family heard I decided to take Monday off too, they decided to give me chores to do. That's bad.
One of the chores will be to accompany my sister's attractive female friend to dinner, because she's stopping over in Taiwan for a couple of days, and doesn't know anyone else here. That's good!
My wife will be coming along to dinner too. That's... good. Yes. Very good. Good indeed.
I used to have to empty the pay phone at an old job. One day there were two of these in there (back when pay phones only cost $0.20). All I can figure is that someone must have REALLY needed to make a phone call.First time I've ever seen one of these in the wild. Yoink!
--Patrick
Better than the DIY alternative.
