Wicked Witch of the West Bank

still kicking

2011-04-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

I continue to be a suck blogger. It's probably for the best, though - I'm usually a mess. Better kept off the interwebs.

Things going on lately:

the cube job (trying to get financial footing back)
the roller derby (WFTDA and travel team and training committee, oh my!)
the wedding planning (October 8th - it's official)
the dog (he's got one eye and he pees a lot)

Things we have to do:

way too much so I've decided against a long bullet list
see above.

epic FAIL

2010-10-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

I can't believe this.

Not the solution.

2010-07-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday contained unusually high levels of FAIL, the details of which I'll refrain from outlining in detail here. But the FAIL culminated in a disaster of an attempt to have unapologetic's birthday dinner at Cafe Degas. Despite a 7:30 reservation, we weren't seated until almost 8 after being ignored by the host and the bartender who were clearly too busy to actually serve people drinks while they were waiting for their tables to open up. When we finally got our table, there was lots of grumpy on our parts which wasn't helped by taking a long time to get a drink order (a bottle of wine which never materialized) and after being given "a minute" to make a final food choice, we waited another 10 minutes for our waitress to return only to be told that they'd just run out of the soft-shell crab special 5 minutes ago. After sitting for 30 minutes with no wine and no food, it was time to abandon ship. Sorry, Cafe Degas, but you totally sucked it last night.

Which turned out to be the best thing we did all night because we ended up walking in at Mondo and had a super awesome birthday reboot meal. Spirits lifted, wine procured. Fried hominy and creamy crab toast and perfect rosemary shrimp and awesome crawfish etouffe and really awesome sweet potato pecan pie and really, really awesome beignets with honey & yogurt. And there were so many other things on the menu that looked yummy and everything was cooked perfectly.

Mondo WIN. Thank you, Susan Spicer, for saving a birthday dinner from disaster.

good news = bad news

2010-07-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

The good news would appear to be that the well is capped. And while that's pretty damn good news after weeks and weeks of shitty news, it does have a way of making my job obsolete.

Back on the job hunt again.

I'm really glad that the Gulf is getting a break after all this time, really I am.

I just wish that it didn't also mean extending my now 5-months-and-counting permanent employment search. I could use a break here, Universe.

K. Thx. Bai.

end the testing

2010-07-07T11:30:00.000-07:00

I don't have much energy for it these days but some folks still do. The system is flawed, people. Seriously effed up. Are you paying attention?

the good news

2010-07-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

The good news is, I've got a new job. It pays for real with benefits and stuff. It's not the dream job or anything but it makes me feel more stable like I can move forward with life.

Also, we are moved into the Haus! Moving was a long, awful process but now we are on our way to being settled in and the place is livable and starting to look like a proper house. We even had people over last night! My dining room table was surrounded by nerds playing D&D while I vegetated on the couch and tried to do internet errands while watching bad cable TV. Not a bad life overall.

So, yeah, things are looking up. There are still plenty of things that need to get done, loose-ends and stuff that've been put on hold for the last few months, but life on the Best Bank is starting to rumble along comfortably enough so I can't complain.

Totally domestic. How's that for exciting blog material?

teaching: ur doin it wrong

2010-03-11T14:51:00.000-08:00

Reading this has only solidified my belief that we do teacher training wrong. All through my teacher training I looked for specific fixes to problems and all I ever got were unsatisfactory references to "finding what works for you." This only reinforces for everyone that classroom management and good teaching are magic - it's a talent that you just have. And if you just care hard enough and work hard enough and suffer long enough, you'll figure it out. Otherwise, you fail.

I feel like I got set up to fail.

That, my friends, is why teaching continues to be snubbed as a true profession. We treat it as touchy-feely-save-the-children bullshit before teachers hit the classroom, don't give new teachers any real tools for managing children, and then expect them to create entire tribes of perfect standardized test-takers. DOES NOT COMPUTE.

Oh, right. I said I would shut up about education.

vortex of doom

2010-03-08T18:51:00.000-08:00

I'm not the first to blog about this, but I figure it can't hurt to keep the word spreading. As Editor B and Hurricane Radio and probably a few others have already posted extensively, there is something seriously fucked up about an education system that works this way.

Count me in among the quitters. I really loved teaching when I began. I loved the little thrill you get when your students are learning something, when you realize that they've gained something from your hard work. But ridiculous hours and ridiculous administrators and ridiculous expectations make teaching an impossible way to live here. You get tired and jaded and pissed off and you might even end up like me: hating the very thought of going back into the classroom everyday.

Current policy is killing public education, I am convinced. And if you ask me at a bar when I've had a couple drinks, I'll be happy to explain exactly what a vortex of doom is being created in our public schools and why self-destruction is inevitable if something doesn't change.

Otherwise, I'm going to shut up about it. It makes me want to puke.

a hint of mardi gras

2010-02-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

I've been sick for a good chunk of this weekend. Sunday, the fiance' (oh yeah, did I mention that I got engaged?!) and I came down with a stomach bug that had us laid up all day. The anti-nausea meds I took late in the day knocked me out pretty good. But managed to get out and about today. Still not 100% but unapologetic and I did walk down to Magazine St to visit the costume shops this afternoon.

Also have a mask, orange wings, glitter, and a dress I graduated from college in (Grecian-themed) Don't know how I'm going to keep warm tomorrow, but it's Mardi Gras. The things we suffer through for Carnival.

derby-tastic ass-kicking

2010-01-29T15:29:00.000-08:00

I want to hit like this. See 1:16-1:20 for what DNN described as what very well may be "the single most effective block in the history of roller derby."

school is a trap and i am the trapper

2010-01-29T08:50:00.000-08:00

Can't remember who I picked up the link from, but it seems appropriate on this the day that I waste tax payer dollars on "professional development" that is contributing to the test-factories that are our public schools.

I have become a traitor.

two-day shipping, huh?

2010-01-20T09:16:00.001-08:00

Date	Time	Location	Event Details
January 20, 2010	10:38:00 AM	West Columbia SC US	Departure Scan
January 20, 2010	09:35:00 AM	West Columbia SC US	Arrival Scan
January 20, 2010	08:00:00 AM	Miami FL US	Departure Scan
January 20, 2010	05:30:00 AM	Miami FL US	Arrival Scan
January 20, 2010	04:34:00 AM	Hialeah FL US	Departure Scan
January 19, 2010	11:11:00 PM	Hialeah FL US	Arrival Scan
January 19, 2010	09:30:00 PM	Miami FL US	Departure Scan
January 19, 2010	07:22:00 PM	Miami FL US	Arrival Scan
January 19, 2010	07:47:00 AM	Miami FL US	Possible delay in delivery due to extra carrier processing
January 19, 2010	07:47:00 AM	Miami FL US	Out for delivery
January 19, 2010	07:47:00 AM	Homestead FL US	Arrival Scan
January 14, 2010	09:57:00 PM	Jackson MS US	Arrival Scan
January 14, 2010	02:00:00 PM	Louisville KY US	Departure Scan
January 14, 2010	11:39:00 AM	Louisville KY US	Shipment received by carrier
January 13, 2010	02:19:15 AM	US	Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit

six word memoir

2009-12-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

In a small way, I'm gonna be published. For six words:

Accidental math teacher loves skating, zombies.

Six word memoirs are kinda fun.

a brief note/rant

2009-12-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

Even though it's been a while since I called it quits on my old blog, I still occasionally get a reader and today I even got a comment on my final post. And I don't know why I feel the need to say anything about it, except that it's a case of "Thanks, dude, but you obviously don't fucking get it."

No, I will not move out of the city to some middle of nowhere, freezing cold, lifeless, empty place because my home happens to be a dangerous place. The world is a fucking dangerous, scary place. And I don't see what the Torah has to do with any of it, but if it helps you, man, more power to you. The point is that as screwed up as New Orleans is and as wonky as our education system is, I can't sit here on the internet and dwell. Nor can I air everything out on the internet without potentially putting my career at risk further down the line. Nor do I want to put my kids or any of my valued coworkers (though they get fewer and further between as time goes by) at any disadvantage because we live in a confessional age and I couldn't keep my trap shut. The real point is that I love my city down to my bones and moving away doesn't fix a damn thing. Giving up doesn't fix a damn thing.

Now I'm not really a "fixer" and I tend to withdraw rather than fight. Evidence: dead blog. But it really rubs me the wrong way when people completely misunderstand. It doesn't give you any cred with me where you lived for 20 years - if you don't get it, then you don't get it.

New Orleans is worth saving. I've got no time for faithless people who abandoned ship and try to convince the rest of us to jump, too. I don't care if you leave, but don't try to sink the rest of us on the way out.

stupider and stupider

2009-12-04T08:47:00.000-08:00

Are you seriously for serious for real, C. Ray? Seriously?

showing off the craft nerd

2009-10-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

I've started a Ravelry account. Don't really know how well that will keep but I like the project and stash features. I figure this will be a good start to keeping track of projects and maybe working towards making something of my Etsy account too.

starting something new

2009-10-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that dorophoria as an education blog is no more, I still don't think I can shut up forever.

Be prepared for: derby, crafting, and maybe some occasional education commentary. No school horror stories, I promise.