It’s summer. I should be, as a teacher, relaxing and taking things easy before school starts in August (less than a month to go now – gah!) Instead, I’m working on computers at the school. But not today! No! Today, I played hooky.

Can’t do this during the school year – I’d have to get stuff ready for the sub (or else the kids end up destroying the room) and that’s more work than it’s worth. But I can do it in the summer.

What did I do? Goofed off, mostly. Currently back to working on THROWING AWAY SHIT from my closets and stuff. My filing cabinet is done (even has the most recent bills filed away by type and date – ah, I love being anal retentive!) Working away in the den and reading room off and on right now, but decided to take a short break to brag about Playing Hooky.

Tomorrow, back to being responsible (probably). But for now, it’s Goof Off Treen! 🙂

I’ve been going through my filing cabinet tonight (ostensibly to clean it out – ha!) and had to start out with my creative writing folders. I am a very nice girl and I’m going to spare you from my early Doctor Who fan fiction. Gah! I can barely read it myself. (I wonder if I’ll feel the same way about my later fan fiction? Well, at least most of the later stuff I actually *finished*!)

When I was going through my poetry folder, however, I was much less embarrassed with my younger self. And I noticed something that I really hadn’t noticed before. Most of the “original” documentation for my poetry were on scraps of paper and previously turned in homework and stuff. I actually used to doodle in poetry… (Yes, it wasn’t all fancy print of the names “Eric Idle” or “Sylvester McCoy,” though there’s a fair bit of that in my doodles.) Haven’t written poetry in a long time, but as with my prose writing, I really haven’t been missing it.

As a kid (well, from 5th grade on) I had every intention of being a professional writer when I grew up. In addition to being a teacher, of course. (Teaching was my profession of choice since I could pronounce “profession” and maybe even before then.) The New Adventures of Doctor Who propagated this childhood desire and helped to encourage my fan fiction writing. I had fun with my fan fiction and my poetry and my other stories. I enjoy rereading a lot of it (well, the later stuff), but I just don’t have the desire to write it anymore. Perhaps it will come again – we’ll see. I guess I can use LiveJournal as a way to keep in with writing, even if it is “nonfiction” writing.

So anyway, on to the Poetry Moment. Under the LJ cut is a poem I wrote during my college years. I hope the formatting works in most browsers – I have a tendency to be very particular how my poetry looks as well as sounds. And the formatting of this one is very particular (even with the original). I wrote an Ode to Jabberwocky once, but I probably couldn’t print it in a web page because the word “Jabberwock” must be written backwards. (I have no trouble handwriting it because I write backwards quite easily. No, I’m not demonic.)

I love computers. Until they don’t work. And in the summer, I get a wonderful mix of computers that work (my FAVORITE computers) and computers that don’t (when Trina swears like a sailor). Amazing how I have the patience of Job when it comes to people (well, usually) but it only takes a few minutes of a computer being a pain in the ass for me to get out the four-letter words.

So today I was working in one of the elementary rooms and installing the wonderful kiddie software. Gah – a stack of CDs as long as my arm… But I only install on one computer and then clone the rest. Of course, already this summer I’ve had the completely dead HD (and replacements will be another 2 weeks away), the too-small HD that won’t boot once it’s cloned, the HD that locks up while you’re cloning it (regardless of whether you’re in regular mode or safe mode), and I’m sure there will be other challenges. Today we discovered two of our new LCD monitors don’t keep the image on for more than a millisecond. And we’ve yet to get in our order of 48 new computers which will need to have master computers made and then lots of cloning. Oh yeah, and I’m still struggling with our newest piece of software, Clean Slate. Most of the computers give me a Blue Screen of Death when I go to shut them down once that software is installed. So a long and detailed e-mail to the Clean Slate folks is in order.

But it’s still a good thing. We’re finally getting rid of computers which aren’t all *that* bad. 400MHz machines with 64MB RAM. Don’t know yet what we’re going to do with them, but it looks like we’ll be storing them under my chemistry lab tables like we usually do with the older machines. (I thought it was about time the English department stored the old computers, but dad just gave me this odd stare when I suggested it to him.)

My other summer task, apart from getting all of the computers running for another year and setting up the new ones, is to get the school website up and running. Back in February, I talked about how Metadot Portal was going to be the basis of our website. However, the more I’ve fiddled with the program, the less I’ve liked it. (Or rather, the more difficult it seemed this was going to be for ME.) So I waffled for a bit. Did I want Metadot? Build one from scratch? If so, do I use ASP or PHP? Well, I liked the concept of PHP more – less cumbersome code, lots of Open Source support. But when I checked with the school’s DA site (basically, our ISP) they only supported ASP. No matter, I just ordered some books on ASP (Sams Teach Yourself ASP 3.0 in 21 Days and ASP Web Development with Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004). I’ve just finished Day 1 in the Sams book and will probably get the Dreamweaver book in another couple of days.

So it feels good that I’ve finally made a decision of some sort. Figuring out how I want the page to look – well, I have a basic idea. And since I’ll be doing my own coding, I should be able to get that design to fruition. I’ll probably let you folks be my guinea pigs as development continues. Will the site be ready by the start of school? Heh – I seriously doubt it. But I should at least have SOMETHING going by then.

Tomorrow it’s back to installing student software and cloning computers. And I wonder if I’ll make progress tomorrow or if I find myself even more behind than when I left work today. That’s the fun and excitement in the world of school computers. 🙂

One of my friends calls those times when music is flowing through your head (through no effort of your own) your Jungian Radio. Well, I’ve been pondering the music that tends to be in my head first thing in the morning, this week. It’s been an interesting assortment.

Thursday morning, I had “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival” by Ray Stevens going through my brain. Very catchy tune – no surprise it was playing. Friday morning had “Lonely Phobia” by the Rutles. One of my favorite of the “new” Rutles tunes. Yesterday there was some song by Clannad, whose title I’ve never known and that I’m not particularly fond of. It’s always a bit annoying when you get a song stuck in your head that you’re not overly fond of. And then I get annoyed when I don’t know the title of it. And this morning, my song was “Dedicated to the One I Love” by the Mamas and the Papas.

Now Thurs and Fri both were good days for me. Yesterday I was in a slightly foul mood (TMI if I said more). So was the music foretelling how the day was going to go? When my Jungian Radio is playing music that I like, do I end up having a good day? When it plays music I’m not fond of, am I going to have a bad day? I should see about keeping track of my morning tune and then how the day goes. Of course, as a scientist I know that won’t be a very controlled experiment. If I have an expectation of having a bad day because a song isn’t a favorite, I might end up having a bad day due to the expectation of it. And it could be the bad tune gets me off on a bad foot in the morning – so it’s a cause rather than a premonition. (Of course, I don’t believe in premonitions anyhoo, so that will skew the data as well.)

You know, I think too much first thing when I get up. Almost as much as I do when I’m trying to fall asleep at night.

So, as you’re reading this, what song is currently playing in your Jungian Radio? Tell me in a comment – I’m curious to know.

PS: Made a new icon last night. Thought I should let Sylv share the limelight for a bit. 🙂

Well, I should join Packrats Anonymous, except that I’m admitting publically that I’m a packrat, and where’s the anonymity in that?

Do you know how HARD it is to throw away papers from your high school years? I’ve kept these things for more than 15 years and today I finally threw most of the stuff out. (Yes, I still kept some of the stuff.) What’s more is that I know there’s a bunch of things in my filing cabinet that I should also throw away. Perhaps I shall do that a bit later today. Or next year. Or sometime before I die. *sigh*

I admire people who aren’t packrats. I mean, I *know* that I’ll probably never need my notes from high school physics again. But to throw them away???? I must be strong, however. I must throw things away. Well, not everything, of course. But most of it – yes!

I suppose I should go back into the Reading Room and work on another box. And then go through my bookshelves and get rid of the science books that I no longer need. (A trip to the used bookstore is in the cards.) Wish me luck! Hell, wish me strength!

*grumble* *grumble*

It was a lovely, lazy day today. I only worked 3 hours and then came home to goof off. Leo and I spent some time outdoors enjoying the warm breeze and bugs (well, he enjoyed the bugs). And later I took a nap. To be awakened later by an ice cream van going down my street. And then back up again. It had this very annoying song, one which I didn’t recognize.

But after it passed on, I heard another ice cream van tune. This one was recognizable. “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” At first I thought the van had switched tunes, but then I realized I could still sort of hear the other one. Ah, so there were two ice cream vans.

I lay there listening – and heard “Down Upon the Suwannee River” and then another van playing “Musicbox Dancer.” Sheesh! A town as small as mine does NOT need 4 ice cream vans. (My town is 1/4 mile by 1/4 mile – you do the math.)

Funny thing is, had I had some cash at the time, I might well have gone after one of those ice cream vans. They were very rare when I was a kid, but there was one item they sold that I loved. It was a “Mickey Mouse” ice cream bar. Chocolate and vanilla ice cream, basically. Yummy.

I decided to be bad another way, however, and ordered a Pizza Hut pan pizza – pineapples on top. And let’s hear it for leftovers! Yay!

Anyhoo, back to playing Diablo II with judiang and indefatigable42.

I left the game Kings of Chaos back on Memorial Day weekend, but judiang (who was then my commanding officer) has stuck with the game throughout the beta testing. And now the actual Age 3 has started. And she needs little soldiers! So, could you please click here for Judi? Once you go to the site, an image will (eventually) appear telling you a number to click on. Click on that number and Judi gets another Elf for her army. You don’t need to do anything else after that. (You can click once every 24 hours – so if you can, click again tomorrow!)

This is the most critical stage of the game and the more elves she gets these first few days, the better off she’ll be in the long run. (Don’t get confused if you notice she’s got fewer elves the next day or something – she’ll be training some as spies and will probably lose some during battles.)

So why did I finally decide to stop playing the game? I was addicted to it. Not in the “OMG I must play this every day!” kind of addiction. No, in an “OMG I must play this every minute of every day!” I was getting up in the middle of the night and checking on my Elves to see if they’d been attacked and to spend my gold. I was a member of 3 clicking alliances, of which I posted to frequently (well, for me) in their forums. It was cutting into my free time and my work time. Heck, I even checked my soldiers at work! I’m the network administrator and I don’t let kids play games on my machines (well, not the high school kids). So I finally blocked KoC on the school network (and a couple of similar games) and told Judi that I had to quit. She suggested that I cut back. Yeah, right… It wasn’t for lack of trying. I had to quit cold turkey.

So back on May 30th, I sold off all of my weapons and defenses and Judi attacked the sh*t out of me. And got lots of gold. It was fun for both of us. And such a relief when I was finally done with the game. Yay!

So anyway (heh – it’s fun to start your paragraphs with “So”) go out there and click one for the Judi! You know you want to!

I should probably write an informative and insightful post about my pleasure at the defeat of the Federal Marriage Amendment. It’s true that I’m happy it failed. Indeed, the optimist in me says that an amendment which limits human rights will never pass in the USA again. I hope my inner optimist is right. (She does look at the world through rose-colored glasses, you know. Makes her sort of dizzy, actually.)

Instead of writing such a post (“informative and insightful” posts are practically impossible for me to write, so you probably won’t ever see one here unless I quote somebody like elsaf), I’m taking the opportunity to show off my latest LJ Icon. Yup, I fooled you folks! This is actually a GIP! Ha!

Phew! Last evening, I spent the time getting caught up in e-mail from my NeilCon weekend. This evening I’ve been catching up on my LJ Friends List. I am finally there – yay! Y’all have so many interesting things to say, I can’t help but read. (And I find that such a contrast to my first feelings about blogging. I wasn’t interested in reading other people’s blogs and I CERTAINLY wasn’t going to put mine out for all to see. And yet, now I read with enthusiasm and write with excruciating detail. Go figure…)

Perhaps tomorrow I can work on getting a webpage set up for the NeilCon trip. Indeed, one of my summer goals ought to be getting the Travel section of my website finally caught up. I’ve been on many trips and have many tales and many photos to share. And if I get them online, then I won’t have to worry about reading my messy handwriting in years to come. (Before I wrote in LJ I wrote in little notebooks. I still do, actually. Just not nearly as much now. Usually just to say “It’s all in my Livejournal now.” Which means I should probably work on backing up my LJ one of these days. Especially after what happened to Chef Cluster 8. (I’m on Chef Cluster 2 – so I guess you could say that was a close call!))

Anyway, just waiting on my clothes to dry so that I can have clean undies tomorrow. The joy of doing laundry…

Phew – I’m tired. Leo is not letting me out of his sight. There’s a travel bag with dirty laundry in it. I must be back from a trip. 🙂

Last night, we wound up watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on the Family Channel while still winding down at audioboy‘s. I made judiang and myself amaretto sours (seconds for both of us as I’d made sours for indefatigable42 and us earlier that night) using the last of the sour mix. Audioboy’s wife assures me she knows someone who can take the extra amaretto. Judi and I returned to the hotel and finished the movie there. We also made the ultimate sacrifice and ate all of the Chocolate Hobnobs so that I wouldn’t have to pack them for the trip home. (Honestly, there was no room!) I wish I’d’ve thought to share them while still at audioboy’s place, but there ya go. (We also split the three mini pieces of Lindt chocolate. Ah, the sacrifices one makes!)

Suitably chocolated up, we lay there chatting for hours after Harry Potter was over. Mostly over Monty Python and British TV. (I really need to show Judi some more Python stuff.) I think I got 3 solid hours of sleep followed by cat naps. But at 7:30, I got up and got ready. We ate at the hotel again – peanut butter on bagels, banana bread, frosted flakes, and milk for me. I love a free breakfast, even if it is only “Continental.” We arrived at audioboy’s shortly after 9am and were promptly driven to the airport. Mrs. audioboy is a real sweetheart for being our taxi driver this weekend and we really appreciate what she did for us. (Audioboy was a great host as well, never fear.) We dropped Judi’s sorry butt off first, and then my own sorry butt, where I made my way to the computer terminal then security then my gate. I got to my gate before Judi got to hers if our text messaging was anything to go by.

The flight out of Boston was painless and we got to Baltimore OK (albeit half an hour late). While there, I checked out their wireless connection (which is one of the top 20 connected airports in the country according to CPU magazine). Yes, I connected just fine. But when I went to Internet Explorer, I discovered to enjoy the wireless services would cost me $3 for the first 15 minutes and then 25 cents a minute after that. Um, no thanks. So I played Spider Solitaire and fiddled with IIS a bit before going back to my book. (I managed to finish The Amber Spyglass at Boston and then later finished the Murder, She Wrote novel Dying to Retire on the plane to Dayton.)

After my 4 hour layover (which was only 3 1/2 hours once the flight arrived late) at BWI, we boarded the plane to Dayton just fine. And I called dad to say the flight was on time. Only to then have the pilot tell us that there was a 45 minute hold on all flights out due to a bad storm nearby. A second call to dad and more waiting. But we got off when the 45 minutes were up and I arrived just 2 minutes after dad did. Yay! I treated him to dinner at Friendly’s (where I got a free sundae with my grilled chicken sandwich) and used up the last of my Boston money. It’s a great trip when you’re left with only 51 cents at the end of it.

The trip was fun, hangin’ with judiang, audioboy and his wife, indefatigable42, whomiga, Bill, Tom, Arlene, and the others was a blast. Watching Doctor Who on impressive TVs was great as well. Oh yeah, and watching Vanna and Judi get along so well was also cute (albeit a bit distressing. She’s the dog person. I’m the cat person. Why couldn’t Vanna play with me????) Thanks to all for the wonderful weekend. (Oh, and sorry about not contributing to the pizza costs – I only thought of that on the flight home. Eek! I’ll make it up to you, I promise!)