WWWW 09 stop 1

here we are with empty food trays. Delicious shakes - wow - and hamburgers with real buns. Happiness.

I don't heart qwest

Earlier this week my modem decided to stop working. I called qwest and they confirmed it was broken. Since it was two years old there was nothing to do but accept my internet-less fate. I did a bit of shopping by phone and decided I better at least cancel my internet service with qwest since their defective product made it impossible for me to use their service. In talking to the sales rep I began to think I should cancel everything - phone and internet - afterall, 30 bucks for a landline I use less than my cell phone seems a little ridiculous. And that price would go up to about 40 if I dropped my internet. The salesman did a good job and convinced me to call back the next day and speak to their "loyalty department." when I did, I stated my frustrations and explained my plan to cancel all my services. Then I was put on hold for a few minutes and when the woman came back she said they decided to send me a new modem for free (60 bucks if I paid for it myself) and give me my landline for half price for the next four months - enoug time to decide if I want to bother keeping it. Because truthfully, I was a bit nervous about cancelling it all together. I know they got what they wanted and i'm still paying for a service I may not need - but I also got what I originally wanted - a replacement modem despite the expiration of the warranty. So, what triggered this post, though, was an email they sent me asking for feedback on my recent "service" from qwest. An email! My complaint is that my internet doesn't work and they send me an email. I have to take the survey before monday - well my new modem may arrive on monday or tuesday. Does anyone else see the idiocy in this situation?

friendship

i read another great article in the ny times today. it's all about the value of friend. i loved it! i had to share it!

i thought about sending this to the wwww friends, but then i realized i have so many more i couldn't limit it to them. and although blog world isn't the most personal place to express appreciation for friends, i'm going to do it anyway. i am grateful for the best people a woman could ever ask for. i am awash in the goodness of quality people i feel i can call friend.

what follows is the very last portion of the articel - i tell you, science is amazing!

Last year, researchers studied 34 students at the University of Virginia, taking them to the base of a steep hill and fitting them with a weighted backpack. They were then asked to estimate the steepness of the hill. Some participants stood next to friends during the exercise, while others were alone.
The students who stood with friends gave lower estimates of the steepness of the hill. And the longer the friends had known each other, the less steep the hill appeared.
“People with stronger friendship networks feel like there is someone they can turn to,” said Karen A. Roberto, director of the center for gerontology at Virginia Tech. “Friendship is an undervalued resource. The consistent message of these studies is that friends make your life better.”

stinkin' involuntary transfers!

i guess you could say it's a stinkin' week for me. yesterday we found out which teachers in our school have to be involuntarily transferred. one of the ones we lost is the photography/broadcasting teacher. he was a great resourse for all kinds of technical things. another one we lost is an english teacher. he was the only english teacher in our department who knew how to do anything with technology. he's the one that persuaded us all to start using word 2007. he's the one who helped teachers learn how to use it. he helped them set up their digital projectors. he created all sorts of professional documents our department - heck, our school - needed. without him we will fall back into the 20th century!

i'm determined to step up to the plate! i've taken on yearbook at my school and with it has come another slew of technical chellenges, far surpassing using word. i have to brag a bit, i learned word 2007 pretty decently on my own. i only had a couple questions for the co-worker. anyway, without him to lean on i see there's a much larger burden now on all of our shoulders. since i'm the next youngest in the department it's not only expected of me, i realize i have no one to turn to myself!

my new goal and determination are being inspired by a really cool scholarship opportunity offered by microsoft. if i win i get to attend some conference for computer stuff! if i go i might even learn the right words for all that computer stuff! how exciting is that?

Trees

This is a bosnian something or other. Saturday last I took a tree tour of byu's campus. I took this photo to share with the good buddy vanya and decided it may be worth sharing on the blog. I loved the tree tour. But it would have been 100 percent better if more trees had leaves. It was fun to people watch too. The campus is not the same anymore - neither are fashions - but essentially it's all the same. Flirting, eating, running, reading, you know - being alive and young. Pretty cool.

stinkin' racket!

i'm very upset. okay, yesterday i was more upset. today i have the emotions under control, even though today i found out i have a bigger reason to be upset. hooray for control! as the good friend plewe has advised, i patted myself on the head and told my ego everything was okay.

anyway, i still want to vent about the stinkin' racket going on taking advantage of teachers! back with the fabulous president we had earlier, a law was passed that caused much outrage among people in my profession. maybe you're familiar with it - nclb? at first i figured it wouldn't affect me negatively - i could handle the requirement - afterall, i'm a professional! well, i've since learned my lesson. somehow long ago i got teaching reading which led to me teaching english. only once in all my years have i managed to teach even one period of social studies. but, because of this fabulous law, i'm legally able to teach social studies, but not english. i'm considered highly qualified to teach social studies, but not english. quick parents - send me all your children needing a quality education in history and geography - i'll give them the best the state has to offer! but don't you dare let me go near your students when it comes to english - they might come out stupid and lacking in reading and writing skills. i know what my regular readers are thinking, "wait sarah, didn't you just finish a degree in english? didn't you just fight tooth and nail to get weber to acknowledge that you've successfully learned enough english to have a real live degree?" and the anser is yes! i did and i have the transcripts and the pretty certificate to prove it! but.... nclb says that's not enough. nclb says unless i have a master's degree then i'm not highly qualified. excuse me, i mean a master's degree in english - my master's in education with an emphasis on teaching reading doesn't count. oh, wait, nclb, in all its good wisdom, has allowed for an alternate way of proving my qualifications. i can take a test. yes! i can pay 130 dollars to some "education testing SERVICE" for the opportunity to take a test (that everyone says is stupidly easy) to prove that i am highly qualified to teach english.

yesterday i wanted to stand on principle and refuse to take the dumb test and just force my school district to find a job for me teaching social studies. forget that i've served as a literacy specialist for the district, been a coah/mentor to other language arts teachers, acted as a yearbook editor - i'm not highly qualified - i need to be in a classroom teaching history and/or geography. that's what i'm most qualified to do. that's the best way for me to serve our nation's children. i tell you - it's a racket! i know, because just the other night i watched "on the waterfront" - i tell you i could have been a contender! but instead i gave in and just paid my stinkin' 130 bucks to the stinkin' "service" so i can continue to teach the stinkin' english.

did i ever tell you about the english teacher in high school who told me NOT to major in english? i listened, then i let the system convince me otherwise.

(i wish i weren't so tempted to agree with nclb about my qualifications - but really maybe i'd be better suited in a social studies room.)

refi

i just finished signing my life away. i refinanced the house. now instead of 5.75 i have 4.65 - i'm telling myself it was worth it. i think i now have a tree's worth of papers to take home and file away. if i were better at math i'd be able to say when this house would be paid for, but as it is i just have a general goal of another five years. here's hoping i'm right! i was reminded of "the secret" today - i've decided it's time i place an order with the universe. house paid for in five. house paid for in five. house paid for in five. house paid for in five. house paid for in five.

surprise!

i can't believe i've been such a poor blogger this spring. it's true i don't have a lot of free time, but you'd think i'd have time to tell a story or two! while i was away on my holiday i went to the lego store with my nephews. we were standing in line for about an hour (it was a free mini-kit night and the families were out) so to kill time i browsed through the photos on my cell phone. there were a few i had meant to turn into blogs! i don't think i ever did. such old news, though.

anyway, the trip to california was fabulous! the drive wasn't too bad either. in fact, i like long road trips - lots of good solid conversation. while in california i started crocheting an afghan. i'm not sure why. i was in the middle of tatting and my nieces commented that they remembered i'd been working on it for a few years. it's supposed to be a piano runner, but at this rate it will be a coffin runner. my one niece had a book of afghans and they were so pretty that i decided to put off the coffin runner and start an afghan. silly me. anyway, i'm making good progress! it uses a q sized hook which helps make it go faster. it is made up of 95 hexagons. if i do four a week then i'll be done in about 6 months. that's my goal! i can do about one hexagon a half hour so i figure with a good strong push each weekend i can keep my goal.

in other news, this weekend i finished reading the hiding place. it was on the religiously heavy side, but i didn't mind. in fact, i probably needed it. i thought it was an appropriate message for my easter weekend. in fact, this morning i caught myself having a selfish thought and the message from the book popped in my head about true charity. only god is capable of doing good - we are his hands - but it is he that changes hearts. we should never judge ourselves to be better than others, or someone else to be unworthy of our love. the women in the book loved everyone and strived to share the light of god's love even with the darkest people in their lives - their concentration camp guards.

there are 8 weeks left of school - 38 days not counting today - which means only 19 a days and 19 b days. holy cow! my feeling of amazement and excitement is mirrored in my niece's expression when she came down the stairs easter morning to see all the surprises left by the easter bunny.

thoughts

it's been so long since i posted i couldn't even remember the last thing i'd shared. well this morning i did some reading in the book of mormon about how the good nephites experienced a schism - one group wanted to have a king and practice priest craft. the others feared they'd lose their right to worship the way they'd like. it got me thinking about how so many sacred things are turned and manipulated for selfish purposes. i can't help but wonder what i may be using for my personal gain. are my intentions of service truly selflessly motivated? do i act out of love and kindness or self gratification? maybe that's why it's so important that our motives are pure - if you can put yourself aside, deny selfish impulses, then it's likely your actions will be for the good of others. tough. anyway, i was planning to just keep all those thoughts to myself, but then my sister in law sent a picture that just made me laugh. and at the same time feel sad for the world. her brother currently lives in jerusalem. this is a flyer he received in the mail the other day. look closely, the details speak for themselves.

p.s. it's spring break starting tomorrow - hooray for a holiday! i'm headed to sacramento to see my good sister's family - the ones that like to put on an opera each year. the same sister who gave me the recipe for those delicious cinnamon rolls you see below. it'll be a really great break! oh, and in other good news, i just decided to NOT teach summer school this year. that means i'll have no job, which leaves me feeling unproductive, but at the same time super happy that i'll get a real summer break for the first time in all my years of teaching.