Mid-Week
Mood:  lucky
Topic: work
Wednesday got here really fast. My colleagues are saying that the week feels long to them so far, but we already had chess club this week?! It came really quickly. Of course, in the morning, it’s crazy waking up so early and getting here on time. But I was! Once here, I am loving the chess action.

Compensate
Mood:  spacey
Topic: health

Did I mention I've lost 8-10 pounds? Well, I haven't done it through any extra exercise or diet changes. In fact, I may be overcompensating by adding a bit more dessert or soda to my day-to-day. I guess I'm treating myself because of all the joint pain and other symptoms I've been having.

So, in other words, I did not lose the weight by joining a gym or going to a boot camp. At www.BootyCampFitness.com, you can sign up for one of those. In 8 weeks, they'll have you "bikini" ready. For example, if you go to the Toronto Boot Camp, you'll work with your own personal trainer and meet other people like you. You'll be doing circuit training, sculpting, and, my favorite, "hand-to-hand cardio training." That sounds like fun!

Well, I hope I can keep up a healthy rate of weight loss.

Mortgage Metaphor, or Meltdown Redux
Mood:  sharp
Topic: money

I was trying to explain to a friend the whole economic meltdown we’ve been experiencing lately. This is basically what I said: Let’s say you lend some money to your uncle. $100. You are bank A. But let’s say you don’t want to have this debt on your books anymore, so you sell the debt to investor B. Well, investor B paid you the dollar value, maybe more, maybe less. Now investor B starts telling all his friends abou this $100 that some uncle owes him. He talks like the uncle will eventually fork over $130-140. Who wants in? So Saudia Arabian bank C and Ukrainian Investor D say they want a piece of the action. So they each give you $60, which equals more than Investor B paid in the first place. Of course C and D want some earnings on their investment too. They didn’t just “buy” it. They’re betting on it and lending in a way.

But the uncle gets behind on his payments and can’t even pay the $100, let alone interest! Now maybe Bank A is hurt because Investor B wants to pull out other investments. Definitely Bank B is hurt because they aren’t going to see a dime and they’re out about $100. AND they owe the Saudis and Ukrainians the $60 apiece plus some earnings. If nobody gets any money, then it’s like a pyramid scheme gone wrong. If the government “bails” someone out, like Investor B, then everybody wins.

Except the uncle.

Go West
Mood:  spacey
Topic: random

Our senior year, two of my friends and I went on a road trip through the South. We started in our small college town in Ohio, drove to Memphis and Nashville, through the rest of the Deep South (as quickly as possible), until we got to New Orleans.

When we were in Nashville, I remember the laid back vibe at the bar, after one of my friends had bought herself a cute neck-kerchief and a few stetson hats. I had bought myself a tooled leather belt with intricate designs. I think the name of the store we had visited was Cavendar's Boot City. We enjoyed our western wear with a few martinis and beers, listening to the croony tunes of an up and coming Nashville voice. Or those were her dreams.

Treatment
Mood:  crushed out
Topic: health
My appointment with the rheumy is five days from now. I have a great sub booked for my class and I’ll have the whole day to cry and sweat. Well, sweat with nervousness beforehand and cry after I get the diagnosis. Even if we don’t get a diagnosis (need more tests), I’ll be upset. Unless he gives me a cortisone shot.

106 minutes
Mood:  irritated
Topic: work

I survived the longest commute ever today. What usually would have taken 25-30 minutes took over 90 minutes. The radio traffic report actually estimated the travel time at 106 minutes. That was pretty accurate. Well, I ate all the chocolate in the car. I listened to an entire CD. Then, I started a list in my head of things I saw on the roadside. When it started getting weird, I knew I had to write it down and blog about it.

The normal debris:

plastic bags

cigarette butts

plastic wrappers

beer cans and bottles

bottle caps

plastic to-go containers

tire rubber

car parts

hubcaps

soda cans

paper products

styrofoam packing materials

More on the unusual side:

a towel

a sofa cushion

a mini wine bottle

a bottle of cough syrup

a prescription bottle

a slim jim wrapper

a cell phone charger

Strewn apart over 30-40 feet:

an empty McD's drink cup

a Big Mac burger box

an empty fries container

an empty McD's bag

The weirdest of all:

a McCain/Palin yard sign

No joke! I'm serious! I'm sure scribbled out there were some sermons of Pastor Bob, who leads an emergent church in Sante Fe. California is a great place to explore your spirituality. If you need to find a church in Rancho Sante Fe, or you're thinking I want a better marriage, you can seek out Pastor Bob's advice. He currently serves on the advisory board of Billy Graham. For some reason, that's a plus in some people's books. Well, my motto has always been, "Live and let live."

Fall Line-up
Mood:  incredulous
Topic: random

Let's see:

CSI - Warrick Brown is shot
CSI: NY - Gary Sinise’s character gets abducted
CSI: Miami - Horatio Cane is shot
Criminal Minds - The team’s van gets blown up

What’s up with the main characters of a lot of CBS shows being kidnapped or killed? Writer’s block? Or am I the only one to notice the pattern?

Please don’t go down the path of ER on NBC. They would demolish the whole set and kill of cast members just for the ratings. I think there was an ambulance crash, a helicopter crash, and even a couple trips to Africa. I stopped watching long before that

Previewing
Mood:  rushed
Topic: work

In my class, we just started reading Where the Red Fern Grows. Even for kids that don’t like to read and have never seen a raccoon in their lives, this book seems to resonate. In the story, the main character Billy has a bad case of puppy love, especially for a pair of redbone hounds. He works hard to earn the money for the dogs. Some of my students can relate to working hard for something they want, especially if it’s something their parents can’t afford or reluctant to give them. I’m sure a lot of them, like me, had a dog or pet they felt a strong friendship with. Today, we were discussing the price of the pups Billy was trying to buy. They cost $25 a piece, which was a lot of money back then. A good hunting dog nowadays probably runs about $150-200. So, we were talking a bit about inflation. I mentioned how I remember when gasoline was 89 cents a gallon. They were all surprised. Even for 6th graders, they are aware of the strains on their parents’ pocketbooks.

A strategy I used with this book was to “preview” part of the movie version. Of course, after we finish each chapter, I have a handful of kids asking if we can watch more of the movie. But I can’t deny that I love their enthusiasm. For a bunch of Latino and African American kids to want to find out what happens to a kid from the Ozarks, I think that’s real cultural learning.

With my current schedule, an online degree in ESOL or TESOL would be great. I would incorporate lessons like this as well as all the other ideas I have. The website An Online Degree by Distance Learning shows the top 3 institutions to maximize your time online and not waste precious clicks! So, yes, college and post-graduate work has become easier to find. I'll definitely check back from time to time, to preview my education choices.

Paranoid Surfing
Mood:  hug me
Topic: health
I had some more blood tests the other day. I read the lab sheet of course and noticed one of the tests for Sjogren’s Syndrome, which was in the back of my mind anyway. Okay, all of these amateur diagnoses were spawned from the internet, and back to the internet I went. The more and more I read, the paranoid I get. But my appointment isn’t for another week and a half. Wish me luck. Someone turn the internet off, please.

Free Kharma
Mood:  accident prone
Topic: money

R and I just saw Burn After Reading, which was hilarious. The violence did surprise us though. It was in sharp contrast to the humor of the movie. One of the previews to the movie was for Body of Lies, with Leonardo Dicaprio and Russell Crowe, which seems like an action-packed drama about CIA operatives in the middle east. Well, Burn After Reading shows us what the middle-management CIA and government officials are up to. And how befuddled we are as a result.  Sounds about right. The Dicaprio version is the American fantasy of espionage and heroic gun battles.

While we were at the mall, we passed by the stands that sell sunglasses and incense. We even stopped in a jewelry store. At one kiosk, for Verizon Wireless sales, a nice young man beckoned us over. Their current special includes free Palm Centro cell phones by signing up with a certain service, for a certain number of years. I've had my current phone for less than a year, but I'm thinking of changing it or upgrading anyway. Getting one of the free LG phones sounds appealing. Their motto is "life is good." I need that positive thinking in my life. Another kiosk, closer to the food court, also drew our attention. The customer sales agents there wore blue shirts and khaki pants, looking very sharp. On their plus-side they had free sony ericsson phones, in a variety of colors.

R mentioned the other day that he found someone's Blackberry in the GSU library the other day. So he almost had a free Blackberry Pearl, except he didn't want the bad kharma. He had a hilarious conversation with the phone's owner on the phone ("Ricky is that you?" "No, Ricky left his phone in the bathroom. If you see him, can you tell him it will be at the circulation desk?" "Ricky, are you joking? Is that you, Ricky?"), and then he left it at the circulation desk. The best thing that's free is kharma.