16 and counting

Book 16: The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
This book was okay to read, but at times was hard to follow. It follows the story of Henry and Claire as Henry jumps around in time, usually to important aspects in his life. In the story they call it Chrono Displacement Disorder. He doesn't know when or where he will turn up or when it will happen. It just happens. He disappears from where he was and appears someplace else, naked.

The reason the story is hard to follow at times is because it jumps back and forth between Claire and Henry telling the story. You really need to stay on your toes to keep up with what is going on because you can get confused. It is a love story that has a bunch of sex scenes and weird untranslated French quotes and a bunch of language. It is supposed to be a Science Fiction-style love story but it falls way way short.

The writing wasn't that great either. There is almost an entire chapter devoted to a pool game. Not the characters playing pool, but the game itself. There are random people that pop in and out of context and descriptions that don't do you any good. There are about 4 pages that are worth reading that have to deal with the climax of the story.

This would have been a great book if it was consistent and really followed a good writing pattern, but this isn't something that I will be reading again, and frankly it isn't something I would recommend. I honestly ended up skimming through most of the book because it wasn't catching.

Cameras

I'm beginning to think that I need a new camera. Mine is beginning to act all wacky and I'm not sure if a cleaning and "tune-up" can be done on it. That was the first camera I bought that was digital. It's about 7 years old and I've been loving it since I bought it because of the zoom, shutter speed, and the quality that I've been getting out of it, but I think it is beginning to go south on me.

I've got a crappy little point-and-shoot, but I'm thinking that has to go soon too because the lens doesn't stay out and the shutter isn't opening all the way anymore. Any suggestions on a nice little point-and-shoot that isn't too expensive?

I'm looking around but cameras have changed so much in the past few years and I haven't been keeping up with everything, so I'm really lost. I still love my film cameras (I've got a few) and I'm not giving that up because if you can take great shots with a film camera, sigh, lovely.

I'm looking for a camera with a fast shutter speed, great quality of photos (high megapixel), preferably a DSLR, long lasting, and isn't going to break my bank.

Any suggestions?

Tossing in a plug!

Yes, I know, I'm shameless. But when it comes to promoting friends and their work, I'll do it. This whole world is about networking.

Some of you have seen my engagement pictures and I've had a few people ask who did them. Scott Jarvie is the one that did them and we have a blast working with him. Yeah, this was over 2 years ago, but he is fun and has some great ideas. He also listens to what you want and has a really talented eye. He does much more than just engagements and weddings.

Check out his blog, portfolio, and smugmug galleries!

Another great photographer/photo editor is Nic Bradbury. Check out his site or his photo book that is up for sale.

Book 15

I am so behind in my goal for books this year, but at least I am still plugging along.

Book 15: City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare
This is book 2 in The Mortal Instruments series. It is a fast read, but the story picks up where it left off on book 1 and keeps it moving. It is filled with teenage drama (since it is written for the teenage audience) but I liked it. There is much more to the relationships in the book than meets the eye.

I had fun with the adventure in this book and I'll see what the next one has to offer when it comes into paperback.

I'm free!

Yay! I'm done with those annoying workshops from the USOE. Let me say, that was a waste of time and money (precious little that I have) but at least I have the endorsements now and I can start focusing on the task at hand: how to teach High Schoolers and get them to pay attention.

Yep, that means I've made a decision. I've decided to stay here in town and teach at the local high school. After just a few weeks of driving every day for extended periods of time, I could feel my body not happy with that decision. Plus my car isn't too happy about all that commuting either. I put close to 800 miles on it in just 8 days. I can hear it squeaking and groaning every time I drive it around now and I don't have the funds to actually see what is wrong with it, so I've just had my dad and brother take a look at it.

But today so far has been a lazy saturday morning. Something I've needed for a while now. There was a garrison event today but because they aren't doing a fundraiser and there are a few people who I really don't want to deal with going to the event, Jakob and I just decided to stay home, do a bit of housework, and enjoy part of the day that we can.

I'm just excited about the part of actually getting some housework done that we've been putting off for about 3 weeks. From helping in the planning the 4th of July weekend events and actually pulling it off, to the 2 weeks of commuting to SLC for workshops everyday, we haven't done much of anything here in the house. Time for some food shopping and general cleaning. And it goes so much faster when both of us are actually doing 1 room at a time together. Yeah, most people would say to have each of us pick a room and then go at it like that, but I say different and it seems to work for the both of us.

Plus, with all this cleaning that needs to be done, that means there are some old ugly t-shirts that are calling for the scissors.

Freeway driving

Since I've had to go up to Salt Lake every day for the past 2 weeks, I've had some fun watching the types of drivers that happen on the freeway. It is kind of entertaining. There is a bit of construction on the interstate, so there is time that I'm just sitting there watching other people in their cars.

1-The Granny:
The Granny is someone who--when the freeway is free and moving right along--is in the middle or the far left lane going below the speed limit. Grr. Drives me insane. I tend to go either right at or just above freeway speeds, but I stay with the flow of traffic. I just set my cruise control and go. These Grannies tend to mess a few things up in that regard. I have to cancel the cruise control and try to move around them, but that messes up the person behind me and so on. It would just be so much easier if the Granny would just stick to the far right lane where the speed tends to be slower anyway.

2-The Trucker:
I'm not talking about the big rigs. I'm talking about those 4x4s that mostly construction and farmers/ranchers use. The hauling trucks. These are those people who have those huge trucks and like to tailgate and try to intimidate you. Today I was traveling in the middle lane and there wasn't anyone in the other 2 lanes and this truck came right up behind me to the point that I couldn't see the front out of my side mirrors anymore and if I was to slam on my breaks, he would have come through my back windshield. I didn't move and he started to hold down the horn . . . there was no one in the other lanes! Move yourself! Geez. No, I didn't move and I didn't dare press my breaks. He ended up moving to the next lane, but he just sped up to the car in front of me and did the same thing again.

3-The Talker:
I cannot believe how many people I pass on the freeway talking on their cell phone and not paying attention to what is going on around them. There was this little yellow mazda-type car that didn't notice that the lanes had started to shift and just kept on talking and moved straight into me. It was a good thing that I was paying attention because she certainly wasn't. I had to slam my fist on the horn to get her to look up. And then she flipped me off! Ugg.

4-The Family Posters:
These are those people who have their entire family mapped out on their back windshield and they tend to have half of them in the car at the time. If I see this car again, I'm going to try to take a picture of their back windshield. This car is a surburban and the back windshield is completely covered along the bottom with members of their family.

There are a few others, but I'll leave that for another post.

But the class today hasn't been as bad as yesterday. Today they actually got into what I thought they would and they've been giving people time to actually ask questions that work with the class and giving us time to work on stuff and share techniques and lesson plans. I'm not a person who likes to follow a lesson plan. I will make an outline of what I need to touch on, but that tends to be it. I also ask the students what they'd like to learn and then try to add what I can into what I'm teaching. At least the students tend to pay attention a bit more because they are learning what they would like it instead of just what the state wants them to learn.

At least they are taking it a bit easier on the "forcefeeding" of programs today. I think she realized that most of us know how to use the programs that we are teaching and if there is a question, it will be asked, but she doesn't need to go over the program step by step. I've learned a few new tricks today, but I don't know if I will be able to use them because the district isn't going that direction with the software. They aren't using the software that the rest of the state tends to use. They are saving money by not buying it, so I don't know if they will upgrade or not. I hope they don't because there will just be another version coming out within a few years and the you have to buy the newer one. I think they are doing the right thing by waiting.

Well, my lunch break is over. Back to writing lesson plans. :rolls eyes:

Bored

No, it has nothing to do with the fact that it is summer. It has to do with the fact that I have to go to these extremely boring summer workshops that I have to take in order to receive some endorsements. I should have gotten the endorsements while I was in college because we did all the work necessary in the program, but the state doesn't want to do that because some of the colleges/universities in the state don't have a program like what BYU has. I've had all the training that these workshops are "trying" to teach us how to teach.

The keyboarding workshop last week was really really painful for me to sit through. It was so bad. I might have learned 1 or 2 new things that I hadn't used when teaching, but everything that she went through I was already doing or it was "common sense" stuff. (Yes, I know, common sense ain't so common, but it was common for me). Plus, I'm not getting compensated for any of my travel or expenses, so this is wear-and-tear on my car and on me. Everything price wise is out of my pocket. At least I can put it on my taxes for this year as uncompensated teacher expenses.

This week has just barely started, but I'm already ready to call it quits. I'm sitting in the workshop right now and she's trying to talk about how to teach the basics of Microsoft Office. She hasn't gone over anything new and she's teaching in the new Office that not all the districts are using and most districts aren't going to use it. I know that she's taught for over 20 years and for some people in the class it will help to take this workshop, but there are a few of us who are struggling through this workshop. Struggling in the sense that we already know how to teach this, it isn't rocket science. Hopefully the rest of the week will be beneficial. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt.

But we'll see where this goes. I think it is time for me to get back to my solitaire game.

Yay!

My mom and her high jump athlete made the news!