I'm Coo-Coo for Cucusoft!

Woo hoo! I love learning new things on the computer, and today I learned a doozie. I kept reading on message boards and in articles that it was possible to put movies on your ZUNE player and I was determined to learn how to do this.

After...um...3 hours, I got it. Long, I know, but I'm self-taught and it takes longer. But the satisfaction is oh, so sweet. I finally realized that you have to have special software that converts your DVDs into a format that your ZUNE will accept and play. After trying a "trial" version of the Cucusoft DVD-to-ZUNE conversion software on izuneaccess.com, I got it to work and it was really easy. Easy is good. Of course, it wasn't after I downloaded an entire film that I saw the big ol' watermark in the middle of the screen that blares out "TRIAL VERSION." Fine, I'd buy it. At least I knew it worked and that I could use it easily and quickly. That was the most important thing.

Basically, you start up the software and put the DVD into the drive in your computer. The software has its own little screen, in which you see it zipping past all of the annoying commercials, previews, FBI warning, and other boring things. Finally, it will stop at the main menu, where you push play and another little window appears for you to name the video and asks if you want to start recording it from the beginning or from a specific point. Then you press the "convert" button and it starts. It records at about 4X the speed of normal play, so a 2 hour movie takes 30 minutes. But that also means that you can record your favorite sitcom episodes, and it will take 5-6 minutes per episode.

Once it is done, a new window opens to remind you to plug your ZUNE into the computer so it can sync the files that you just converted. That probably takes another 20-30 minutes per movie. But it is easy and automatic and the little pop-up windows walk you through everything. One of the best things is that the DVD goes straight from the disc to the ZUNE player, so it isn't eating up GBs on your computer. Very, very cool...

Above is a screen shot of the progress while I was copying one of my favorite movies, Young At Heart, with Doris Day and Frank Sinatra.

I feel so accomplished!

My creative side...

I'll be the last person to call myself an artist, but I do love being creative when I have the opportunity. Today I had the chance to see 2 things that I designed in use. One of them was a layout I did for MySpace that my friend, Emma, is using. The other is my grandpa's headstone, which we saw today for the first time. Naturally, the headstone is infinitely more important, and it is very special to me to know that I had a hand in immortalizing my grandpa in some small way.

Sing the Zune-y Praises...

I'm discovering more and more cool things about this little player. Today I stopped at Target on the way home from school and bought its "cable kit," which comes with a sync cable (which the player comes with when you buy it and allows you to synchronize everything on it to your computer,) a "line in" cable for your car or speakers, and, best of all, an A/V cable that lets you plug the player into any TV set. Awesome! I'm excited because I have found some great clips related to some of the lessons I've been doing with my students, and this will be a great way to bring some audio/visual aids into the classroom. Plus, it's fun!

Have You Ever?

While going through my CDs in the never ending quest to save them on on the new laptop, I came across one of my newer ones by one of my new favorite singers, Brandi Carlisle. That is one of the "good" things about MySpace, that you get introduced to tons of new artists. She is very cool. This one of my favorite songs that she sings:

Better every time...

Last night, after the computer set up and while downloading CDs, I put in The Illusionist. I love this movie. Between The Prestige and The Illusionist, this one is far better and beautifully photographed. Every time I see it I see something new and it gets better. One of my Top 10 favorites.

All's well that works well...

Am I the only one who has a deep sense of satisfaction when all of the electronics in the house are functioning correctly? Probably not. With the exception of the Amish, we're all so dependent on them that they become more necessities than optional gadgets.

For me, I have to have my music organized. Since I rarely listen to the radio, my CD collection (about 300) and my few music downloads are essential. I need to have music around me all the time and different kinds depending on my mood, the time of day, etc.

It is thrilling to have so much more space on the new Zune. 80GB vs. 30GB. 30GB seemed like a lot when I bought Creative Zen Jukebox back in 2004, but now I'm running out of space, some of the buttons are beginning to really stick, and the player freezes and needs to be reset more and more often.

It is probably a good thing that the buying of the Zune and the laptop coincided. Everything's working well and very, very fast. Once I get all of my CD uploaded, I'm going to transfer everything to my external hard drive, so this will be the last time I have to go through this tedious process.

I set each player to the exact same song and took a picture. It is really cool to see the album art. I feel like I'm rediscovering some of my CDs, which is pretty awesome. For someone who is very anti-iPod like myself, the Zune is a great alternative. It is unbelievably simple to use. Now I just wish that some of these makers of speakers would make them compatible to other players besides just the iPods. In the meantime, I'm just using my "line in" connection and the sound is great.

Want to really add sound to this post? Click the player below. Elaine Paige--the 1st lady of the London stage. She rocks.
You can also click on the picture to see an enlarged version...

My New Laptop...

After numerous failures trying to get my Zune software downloaded, I called upon a family friend who knows everything there is to know about computers and asked his advice. His solutions? Either buy Media Center 2005 and borrow an old copy of XP and start over on the hard drive or just buy a new laptop.

I guess I knew in my heart it was time for a new computer, but I was not in any hurry because mine was working fine. The worst that had ever happened was that it had overheated a couple of time, which I hear is common in Toshibas. Despite that, I had already told myself that I would just get another Toshiba when the time came.

It came, it's here.

There are probably people out there who will cringe at the thought of heading straight to Best Buy for a new laptop, but I did. I wanted their service plan to fall back on if anything went wrong in the future. I have no one to go to if my computer needs fixing.

From experience, I've learned that if you're going there on a Saturday, the best thing to do is get there when the doors open. They open at 10am, I was there at 9:55. About 15-20 people were already waiting outside.

When they let us in I headed for the computer department. A nice young man probably sensed my eagerness and offered to help. I told him I wanted a Toshiba laptop. Top of the line was $999, but the screen was small and the keys were all black and very glossy. I didn't like it at all. Granted, it had more memory than the rest, but also more than I would ever need. I settled on the one that fit me aesthetically and in practicality. It was less $$, "only" $799. Then you add on the 2-year service plan, Microsoft Office 2007, and tax. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. Good thing I had already loaded most of my things onto my external hard drive months ago.I was out of the store by 10:08am. What can I say? I've always been a fast shopper.

The rest of today was spent "personalizing" the new laptop (with its lovely 17" screen.) It is blazing fast and there have been no problems at all. Best of all, the Zune software downloaded perfectly on the first try and my little player is now working great. It does everything automatically! You save your CDs using the software and the device saves them on it immediately. Pretty awesome.

So, it was an expensive day, but I'll get tons of use out of everything.

(Speaking of expensive, I paid $49 to fill up my gas tank today with gas at $3.86/gallon. That was the cheapest I could find. Every other place I passed had it for $4.15. The guy in front of me at the gas station paid $98 to fill up his van!! Oy vey...)

Better the devil you know...right?

So yesterday I was picking my kids (students) up from the library when the school secretary comes rushing out of the office and says that the principal wants to talk to me about next year's placement. I could feel my stomach drop. We haven't even been asked which grades we want to teach next year.

I walked like I was walking the plank and went in. Before she even said anything, I asked, "Do I get to stay at this school?" (Enrollment has been dropping in the district and sometimes teachers have to switch schools.) Answer: YES. Whew! Next question: "Do I get to stay in my room?" Answer: YES. BIG WHEW! That means I was not being switched to kinder or first grade because they are on the other side of campus. I also knew I wasn't getting the 5/6 combo that was being created for next year because someone had already volunteered for it. With the answer in the affirmative to those 2 questions, I felt like I could handle anything she threw at me.

"We need you to teach 5th grade next year," she said.

Oy.

5th grade. That's a big science year, because there is a science component to the state test in May that none of the other grades have. It also means I could get some of my kids from this year and some from other classes. This has been an unbelievably tough year--classroom management-wise--although my most difficult kids have either moved or been transferred and lately things have FINALLY settled down...

I asked the principal if there was ANYTHING else open for next year.

Yes, she said, a kindergarten class. Well that was a no-brainer, I guess I'm teaching 5th next year.

I left with my brain spinning and tried to focus on the positive. At least I got to stay in my room and stay in upper grades, where my friends are--we support each other a lot and it is really the group of teachers I have felt most comfortable with in my entire career.

I stopped by my friend, Christina's, room to tell her the news. She was out for the day and had a sub. I then stopped by my friend, Nancy's, room. She gave me some words of encouragement. I felt better. When I was almost to my room, where my kids had been taken and were being watched by one of our intervention teachers, I stopped in at my next-door neighbor, Ramona's, room. She at first sympathized because it is no secret that our 4th graders throughout the district have been a tough group, which means 5th grade next year is in for it.

Then she asked me if I was looping with my current class ("looping" means taking the entire class with you to the next grade.) I told her that the subject had not come up in the principal's office. I thought about it for a moment. Taking THIS group for a 2nd year in a row? The idea seemed unfathomable. "Better the devil you know, right?" Ramona said. She was right. I could take this group to 5th grade with less surprises, already knowing their levels, their parents, their personalities, or start fresh with a whole new group of kids.

"I think I should do it," I told her.

"If it were me, I'd tell the principal before the end of the day. Go right now, even, before you go back to your kids," she said.

I zippety zip zipped back to the office where the principal's door was open.

"I made a couple of detours back to my classroom. Actually, I haven't even been back to my classroom yet. Um...can I loop with my current group?" She must have thought I was crazy because not 10 minutes before I had told her how I couldn't believe the amount of drama this year has had.

She said she would check the enrollment and the plans of the the other 5th/6th grade teachers, many of whom loop continuously every 2 years. The current 6th grade teachers were going down to 5th grade and would be starting fresh with new kids, so, yes, I could loop.

I walked back to my classroom feeling a little better and wondering why I was feeling better when the last few months I've wanted nothing more than to have new kids.

The class was silently reading. I thanked the intervention teacher quickly and looked at my class with a new eye. These would be my kids next year. I could do it. We've learned enough about each other that we could all learn from some of the mistakes this year (of course their mistakes have included stealing, fighting, forgery, vandalism, disrespect, lying and other things.)
This may actually be a good thing. There have been times with this group that I have felt like such a failure as a teacher and in retrospect I realized how I could've done better. Now I actually could do better because I would have them again.

I brought them to the rug and eased them into the news so I could gauge their reactions.

I told them I'd be teaching 5th grade the following year. (looks of surprise, shock, some already understood that there was a possibility they would have me again and they were happy...)

I told them that that meant they might have me for a teacher again. (lots of happy reactions...OK, this was going well...)

Then I told them that they would have me for a teacher again. (there were sighs of relief, some cheering, a couple who looked at each other with raised eyebrows...)

OK, I wasn't expecting 100% happiness. They know that it has been a tough year, but they also know that they are the ones who made it that way. I explained that we were eliminating the element of surprise that many other kids have to go through on the first day of school and that the fact that we all know each other would make things easier in a lot of ways. The more they understood, the more they liked the idea. By the end there were only 2-3 who still had that "Oh, sheesh" look, but they are kids who get in trouble a lot. What they don't realize is that no teacher is going to put up with some of their shenanigans.

Overall, it went well. The news from the principal could've been SO much worse. It'll be fine.

No zoom in my Zune yet...

So today I got a package in the mail that I've been anticipating for a few days: a new Zune 80GB Media Player. Microsoft's answer to the iPod.

It's beautiful, there's no doubt. The only glitch? Instead of a CD-Rom to install the software, they refer you to the Zune site, where you need to have this update and that update. My little "laptop that could" from 2004--a Toshiba Media Center Edition--is beginning to look antiquated.

I'll keep trying, but without the software the Zune is just a cute little box of metal. I'm working on the required updates and I know I'll get it going eventually, but it is a bit frustrating. Suggestions anyone? I'm open.

Two houses, two candidates...

These two houses pretty much sum up the feelings of many Americans. I often pass them when I'm walking my dog, Bailey, in the evening. Did I mention that they are next door neighbors?

Alexander and Me

It was a windy day today! But I got to see my beautiful little nephew and we went for a nice little walk around the block while the wind was blowing us to and fro!

Darling Alexander...

Every time I see a picture of my little nephew, Alexander Jonathan, something comes over me. I just love this little guy so much!

On May13th he turned 3 months old. Watching him go through the changes of growth is amazing. He's discovering his fingers, he's always been very expressive with his arms (even in the sonograms,) he's starting to smile, and he's almost mastered rolling over and holding his head up.

He's very independent (like Jonathan, my brother) and already shows signs of being quite a strong personality. One thing for sure--he's all boy! Look at the way he looks at people! He's so observant, his eyes follow everything that is happening around him...

Today my mom gets to babysit him alone for the first time while my sister-in-law attends a meeting at work. I had my turn a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't easy, but I loved spending time with him.

He's our beautiful little fella!

Oops, I did it again...

When I went outside to bring in trashcans I realized that I did what I told myself I wasn't going to do, which is spend each blog entry talking about work. That isn't easy to do in my profession because you really bring the day home with you.

After bringing in the trashcans I went to my car to get some things I bought at Target, including a frame for my cousin, Robby's graduation picture. Talk about time flying, I remember when he was born. Actually, I remember that my brother, Jonathan, and I went to Disneyland with Robby's older sisters, Monica and Laura, and my Uncle Bill and we spent about 2 hours taking turns going on the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster, which was brand new. At that age, a Disneyland trip is more important than a new baby.

I really have to give Robby some big kudos, though. Ever since he was a little kid he was determined that he would one day go to the US Air Force Academy. I know plenty of goal-oriented people, but I don't know anyone who made their goal so young and actually followed through with it.

Robby kept up his grades, played sports, became an Eagle Scout, and, despite not making it into the academy his freshman year, stayed strong and went through their prep school and then made it in. Upon graduation he had another glitch and was, at first, denied a pilot's commission. Fortunately, a waver came in from his superiors which allowed him to finally achieve the goal he had dreamed of for so long.

We're so proud of him!! Who would've thought that one day this little kid would grow up into this impressive young man? Congratulations, Robby!!

Random Thoughts and Blackbirds...

Every morning on the way to work I listen to the radio. The station's schedule tells me if I am running late or early. They have a new feature called "Waking Up With The Beatles" at 7:30am, which is fine and dandy with me because I love The Beatles. (Who doesn't?) This morning they played one of my favorites, Blackbird. It was a nice way to spend a few minutes on the road.


At school my kids are having a tough week, and it is only Tuesday. One of them was really whining and complaining this morning and I had to get really firm with him, mostly because he is a kid that several others follow. I can't allow that.

After school we had a staff meeting. This is a difficult time of year, because as tired as the teachers are, there is still reorganizing the kids into their classes for next year, updating their files (an intense and tedious task that takes hours and hours,) 4th quarter report cards, and the tension of picking your grade for next year and wondering if you'll get your first choice. And let's not forget the stripping of the classroom down to the bare bones for summer.

Ah, the glamorous life of a teacher.

Thankfully, we have a 3-day weekend coming up and cooler weather on the horizon. My next-door neighbor at school, Ramona, assured me that my air conditioning problem from yesterday would probably correct itself. The A/C was just overworked (aren't we all?) It did and we didn't have to suffer in the heat today. Thank goodness.

I'm so trunky for summer to begin, I wish I could just jump in a time machine and let the year be done. If only...

Taking the long way around...

Amen. Mondays are getting harder and harder with only 20 days left of the school year.

This morning I had my alarm set to 5:12am, as always, but I didn't drag myself out of bed until 6:15. I threw together my lunch, which was basically packed from some of my mom's leftovers last night and went to check my e-mail.

By the time I realized the time, it was 6:45am. I need to be out of the house by 7:20 or else I'm officially late. I made it out by 7:22.

The first thing that greeted me at school was a note from the principal to go over my in-class observation from February. Yep, looks like I'm not the only one running a little late.

The kids were in a collective coma and even a pep talk from me didn't do the trick. It was hard to be convincing when I didn't really believe it myself. Let's face it--we're tired. The heat hasn't helped.

By 2:15pm we had had as productive a day as possible under the circumstances and all of a sudden the classroom began to feel very hot. Our A/C was no longer blowing out cool air, just fanning in the hot air from outside. Boy, the room got hot very quickly!

The bell rang at 2:35pm and I left around 3:10pm after ordering a Wizard of Oz t-shirt to support the Performing Arts program.

I was making great time as I got off the freeway until I saw up ahead that a train on the train tracks was not moving at all. I had already gotten into the left turn lane to go in the direction of the tracks. Like many other frustrated drivers, I had to maneuver my way around little, unfamiliar streets trying to get away from the stalled train. Meanwhile, I was going in the opposite direction of home. After going about 12 miles out of my way and twisting and turning around little streets for about half an hour, I finally got to a familiar area that was away from the tracks. I was about 5 miles from home, instead of the 2 miles away where the tracks are. The only good thing was that I was near my 2 markets--HOWS and Trader Joe's-- where I had some shopping to do anyway.

Certainly there are worse things that can happen, but when you're hot and tired and it is the end of a long work day on a Monday and all you want to do is get home--a stalled train can be frustrating.

Fortunately, it was nothing that a little chocolate pudding and venting couldn't fix.

Ignorance is not bliss--at least not for me...

I can get a little obsessive when I'm learning about something new. I freely admit that. So here we are at the end of the weekend and I've spent pretty much all of today at the computer.

When I saw that a couple of my friends had blogs here I told myself that I would investigate the site and learn what I could. I throw myself completely into learning things on the computer. I was pretty much glued to it for a week back in December of 2006 when I put my MySpace page together because there was so much I wanted to learn. I don't like being left behind.

As a teacher, I partly feel like it is my duty to stay current on technology. I've mastered MySpace, digital photography, designing layouts, MP3 players, burning CDs, Bluetooths, my fabulous Palm Treo phone, and a few other things. But some things are still a mystery to me, like TiVo--which I don't have, cable TV--which I don't want, or the collective group of video game machines out there--which I don't plan to own. If I sound like an electronic elitist, I guess you can say that I am. But it is only because I am around 9 and 10 year-olds all day and I see the effects of these things when they are used in excess.

Like learning from others during my early days on MySpace, I've had a lot of fun with that small but powerful "NEXT BLOG>>" button at the top of the page. Oh, the things I have seen--everything from a Portuguese horticulturist to a mom from North Carolina who adds decoration to her house on a weekly basis to a guy building a canoe in Ithica, NY.

I learned a lot about what I would like to see and what I want to present to others. In a nutshell, here are some basic musings about blogs I have seen:

THE GOOD:
1. instructional blogs
2. vacation blogs
3. blogs that share the writer's art (photography, painting, woodworking, interior design, etc.)

THE BAD:
1. rows and rows of pictures with no explanation (confusing)
2. rows and rows of blogs with no pictures (boring)
3. blogs dedicated to Miley Cyrus--OK, sue me, but when my 4th grade students care more about this annoying teenager than little else, I tend to go on a rampage of dislike

THE UGLY:
porn pics (I'll report you immediately, don't mess with me)

THE "Sum Up:"
Thankfully, in my search for good blogging examples I only came across one really gross and offensive site. For the most part, about 98% of the blogs I found at random were your average people trying to make their little mark in the world by showing what makes them unique. I was impressed. Most people were just writing and sharing pictures of their own life experiences and things that were important to them.

THE CONCLUSION:
I'm here to stay.

Spelling errors are embarrassing...

It is very difficult to maintain your credibility as a decent writer when you send out an e-mail with a subject line like the one I just did inviting family and friends to my new blog.

Oh well! Mistakes keep us humble! (I can spell embarrassing, but I can't spell you're. Go figure!)

Atone for your assumptions...

Right now I've got Atonement playing in the background. Thanks to Netflix I get to give it another glance.

It is an epic-style movie with a lot to digest, but the themes are universal: making quick judgments, making assumptions with missing information, being stubborn about those assumptions, and then suffering the consequences and oft times making others suffer along with you.

In this case, those actions are all the result of 13 year-old Briony Tallis, the youngest of 3 who grows up in a monstrous estate in the English countryside. She's lonely, she's at an impressionable age, she longs to be part of grown-up things, she's a bit of a control freak, and she has a vivid imagination. Four events occur to create what she thinks happened one evening in the house: a play she wrote was never performed, she witnesses a flirtatious scene between her sister and a servant's son, later she witnesses a sexual scene between the two, and she witnesses a rape. Perhaps because her play was never performed, she created a real-life one of her own because she does say that " a play depends on other people..."

It is a lesson for all of us when we make snap judgments. We don't have the luxury of having the film rewound to show what really happened or having the blanks filled in to show the pieces of information Briony lacked while making her assumptions.

Briony, who is played by 3 stellar actresses at different ages, spends the rest of her life trying to atone for her childhood foolishness. Those who suffered at her hands have their lives changed forever as well.

Saiorse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave do an amazing job as the 3 Brionys at ages 13, 18, and 77, respectively. You are convinced you are watching the same person growing, learning, repenting, and trying to make things right over her lifetime.

James McAvoy and Keira Knightley (both superb) are the long-suffering couple who fall victim to Briony's imagination and stubbornness, despite that fact that they are probably her 2 favorite people. What do they say? You always hurt the ones you love? Why is that? Is it because we feel like we know them perhaps better than we do? Is it because our emotional investment in our loved ones makes us put on blinders? This film raises those questions.

Set against the backdrop of World War 2 and its ravaging effects on England, Atonement shows what MAY have happened, what DID happen, and what COULD have happened. And it does these in a beautiful and compelling way. I have new respect for this film.

Aah...beautiful music.....

I just returned from seeing the Celtic Woman group for the 2nd time. It is very uplifting to know that there are still people out in the world who are dedicated to putting on shows full of lovely, melodic music. The ladies of the group sing such a great variety of songs, even arranging them to fit their own ethereal style, such as Beyond the Sea and Over the Rainbow.

Now we did have a couple of little glitches tonight. Glitch 1 was that the seats we had--which were supposed to be really good--put us at kind of an angle off to the right of the stage and we could only see the performers who came forward. Glitch 2 was an enormous man sat right in front of my mom and, because he did not fit in the seat between the 2 arm rests, basically sat on top of the seat slanted with his big belly very high and his head even higher. Despite the fact that it was bleacher seating, my mom could not see over him. We ended up moving to 2 seats 4 rows up. Even though our new neighbors were of average size, it was such a hot day today that I just needed some space. After intermission I moved again to an aisle seat across the aisle.

Unlike last year when we saw Celtic Woman (it feels weird to call them "woman" in singular,) this year's show had an opening act called the High Kings. They were a good segue into what we had paid to see, singing 3-4 Irish songs. It set a merry mood. You felt like you were in an Irish pub.

Glitch 3, for pickier music connoisseurs, was that one of my favorite ladies did not sing tonight--Lisa Kelly--and was replaced by another lady who I did not like. She over performed and lacked the grace and elegance for which the group is known. Happily, Chloe Agnew, my other favorite, was there and sang as lovely as always.

Here's a sample:


and a video of my favorite number that the High Kings performed tonight called From Galway to Graceland. Unfortunately, the sound is not in sync, but they still sound good!

First blog and my mind's on dogs--

This is my first entry on this site, so I'm experimenting a little bit. I wanted to include a photo and since I spent the morning at a dog training class I decided to include a photo of my 6 year-old dog, Bailey. We are, literally, trying to teach an old dog new tricks. The class is as much a training for the humans as for the dogs.

I've got dogs on the mind right now because, for the first time ever, my family is about to re-home a dog. No, definitely not Bailey. My mom's dog, however, who is a ball of unrestrained energy, is going to be re-homed today. Fortunately, she was able to find a really great website to help with the process. They screen the potential owners and do a house check. It has taken 3 meetings with different families, but the one who is finally taking my mom's dog home is a family we have a lot of confidence in. We have great emotional investments in our pets, so this is a bittersweet moment. They will be here in about an hour.

And, yes, my mom is my neighbor. I bought the house across the street from where I grew up. That's a WHOLE other story.

Aside from that, I'm excited because tonight we are going to the Greek Theater in LA to see the Celtic Woman group in concert. They put on a wonderful show. We've had the tickets since December and my mom gets to "cash in" on her Christmas present.