thehallway

It's Been A While

Thu, 02 May 2019 00:56:19 GMT

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More in Sunday Murals

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 22:00:33 GMT

Courtesy of Twitter: A new mural in #Utrecht. The artist asked resident for their favorite book and then included those into the mural. #books

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Art for a Lovely Sunday

Sun, 31 Mar 2019 17:18:51 GMT

Something lovely for a Sunday morning. I could not do this right side up.

Upside Down

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Hoping for Retirement

Sun, 24 Mar 2019 19:50:53 GMT

Sat in a very well run and informative six hour retirement seminar yesterday and pretty much felt at the end that I should probably just die in my chair and let my students find me. Then spent today trying to get in to my Social Security account to check my retirement stuff only to be told I apparently don't exist. Sigh. Guess I'm trying to get to that office tomorrow. Then tried to get into my ORS account only to be told I don't have my member number, so I asked for that to be mailed to me in 7-10 days. At this rate it will take me five years to figure and sort out all the stuff I need to retire. That whole scenario about dying at my desk really does sound pretty good.

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Life Goals

Fri, 22 Mar 2019 21:31:47 GMT

On Friday, or any day at all, really wishing I could be the cat.

Time lapse in the day of a cat

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Sat, 16 Mar 2019 21:49:33 GMT

And there you have it: 19% of all voters — Dems or GOP — said Fox News, which is not a news outlet at all, was their main source of campaign news, more than NBC, ABC and CBS combined. Rupert Murdoch makes more money and destroys civility, decency, and the truth and Roger Ailes smiles up from his place in hell.

Bill Maher

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Tue, 12 Mar 2019 00:35:20 GMT

I’ve written fan fic for over ten years, read it for far longer than that, and realize the power of words for authors, especially feedback. Not all writers want or welcome concrit, others do. Some don’t appreciate anything other than the continual squee from their readers, telling them how they are writing fandom classics. I believe that if you find an author you trust, especially to read something new on your horizon, you should hold them close and never let them go. I say this because I feel the need to rant and vent.

( Read more... )

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Music of the Universe

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 15:03:59 GMT

A little Saturday morning gift from NASA and a Hubble photo:

Music of the Universe

Scroll down and watch the show.

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Let Them Eat Nothing

Tue, 05 Mar 2019 23:12:50 GMT

Is this the professional level equivalent to the arkansas move to cut funding for school food for schools with low student reading scores? cuz everyone knows that making kids go hungry makes them read and learn better just like making people unemployed will force them to repay their loans. /sarcasm doesn't seem to be enough of a response to this level of cruel stupidity.

Are You Kidding Me

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teachers, taxes, why so difficult

Mon, 04 Mar 2019 01:13:16 GMT

Well, apparently March is continuing the suckfest that February was. Went in and paid for my completed tax return to be electronically filed so I could get my refund in about ten days only to find out later that they filed with the wrong credit union listed for me. The one I used last year no longer exists and has merged with another credit union so the refund I thought I would get in ten days will now be coming to me in the best case scenario a month from now. Six weeks in to the new semester and I still have not been paid for my extra contractual because no one in admin can be bothered to sign the paperwork from last semester. Maybe I'll get in in two weeks. What a shit show. I mean, why so difficult? It's no wonder I can barely drag my ass out of bed at the ass crack of dawn to go sit in my classroom for ten hours while 200 students on my roster file in and out at the bell.

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Goodbye Sucky February

Wed, 27 Feb 2019 23:10:09 GMT

OK. So this week I have gotten up and put my pants on backwards. I've put my shoes on before my pants and had to redo that whole thing. I have been discombobulated in the extreme and banged elbow and shins and pretty much hobbled around like a lost soul. This morning I couldn't get up and going, so instead of being in my classroom just after six, I didn't get there until almost seven. I have no idea why I am such a hot mess, but the weather might be part of it. The fact we had an entire week of February off due to extreme cold and that there hasn't been a normal week in terms of classes or schedules during the entire month. The bedbug thing might be part of it as well. I chose to teach high school knowing the respect issue might be problematic, but the trade off for me was that high school teachers don't deal with huggy snot-nosed kids who also have pink eye, head lice, and/or bedbugs. Well apparently the latter are moving on up to high school. We've had confirmed instances that were dealt with recently and in the two years previous, but now we have the whole social media thing where kids who aren't even students are posting 'sightings' of bedbugs on walls and in common areas. One of them posted a bug on a wall that was part of a youtube video and it made our kids and parents light up. So today we had to leave right after school so that a company could come in to preventatively treat (we were given the all clear after the last incident) the entire building. And we were told the company was bringing in bedbug sniffing canines. I didn't even know that was a thing, but apparently these dogs can find even one living bedbug if it's there. February has been exhausting. Thank god March arrives on Friday and maybe I can at least start feeling better about things.

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Sunday, Windy Sunday

Sun, 24 Feb 2019 20:51:11 GMT

Oi. Had a lovely day yesterday up in Ann Arbor shopping and eating with the girls. Bought some Godiva truffles. Returned all four pair of shoes I'd bought online for size and got the right ones ordered. All in all a productive fun day that had nothing to do with anything I needed to do work wise or at home. I like this idea of taking time off from the endless litany of work related stuff that has to be done yesterday.

Today the wind is howling outside, 50 mile an hour gusts, I'm doing the laundry and thinking about lesson planning. My tax preparer called to say my taxes were finished and I'm terrified what the changes in the tax code may mean for me. I thought I was going to be ok, but there's that last minute terror that I've miscalculated.

And last but not least I am once again thinking about fandom and fanfic, with tumblr now saying it will be gone by the end of 2019. I recently had a horrendous experience reading an author I trusted and liked, but I'm still a fic reader if not writer through and through even if I'm not writing anymore. So I'm looking for any BBC Sherlock recommendations for either fic or accounts to follow.

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Slowdown Sunday

Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:04:44 GMT

Because I apparently have nothing else to do since I've faffed off all day and spent my day shoe shopping online:

Ask me up to three questions.

1. What made you start writing fanfic?
2. Which of your own fanfics have you reread the most?
3. Describe the differences between your first fanfic and your most recent fanfic.
4. Do you think your style has changed over time? How so?
5. You've posted a fic anonymously. How would someone be able to guess that you'd written it?
6. Name three stories you found easy to write.
7. Name three stories you found difficult to write.
8. What's your ratio of hits to kudos?
9. What do your fic bookmarks say about you?
10. What's a theme that keeps coming up in your writing?
11. What kind of relationships are you most interested in writing?
12. For E-rated fic, what are some things your characters keep doing? I don't write E-rated fic.
13. Name three favorite characters to write.
14. You're applying for the fanfic writer of the year award. What five fanfics do you put in your portfolio?
15. Question of your choice!

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Saturday Morning

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 16:45:09 GMT

Just spent some time (when I should have been grading) going through and purging all the tumblr accounts I follow that have been inactive for a year, two, four, however many years it’s been. I do this more regularly on my twitter feed, but today the purging and the time frames really made an impression on me. I mean, how long have I been on social media? There used to be such a vibrant, thriving community of educators on tumblr. For the most part they are gone. I find what’s left of my PLC on twitter. But even there it seems that the community is shrinking, failing, disappearing, amid all the talk of teacher shortages and reforms in education. There is no shortage of teachers. There is a shortage of qualified people willing to work in education and in classrooms for poverty wages and a constant barrage of disrespect and demonization. But that’s another discussion.

Where has the time gone? I realistically am five years out from retirement, but those five years seem like forever. Looking back, however, where did the last five years go? They disappeared in a flash, a blinded haze where I simply put one foot in front of the other and marched on, being the ever good little soldier/teacher/mother. Without noticing the passage of time, the closing of doors, the monotony of existing in this time and place. Maybe it’s the brutalization of teaching as a profession and education in general. Maybe it’s the increasing danger facing us in our political, social, and economic realities as institutions come under attack and threaten to collapse under the weight of it all. Oligarchy, authoritarianism, marginalization for large segments of society are terrifying things. Our political reality is a shitshow on fire. Watching the slow moving massacre occur, trying to ride the wave of change and make decisions that will not cost you everything is exhausting. There is no time for everything that needs to be nurtured, reflected on. There is no time even to barely achieve anything beyond basic existence.

Even fandom offers little of the joy and solace it has in the past for me. I haven’t written fic, or anything non-profession related, in over a decade. I may have forgotten how. Fandom seems as fragmented and fragile and tribal as every other area of life. I am tired and looking at a stack of grading to be done as I sit here commiserating with myself, which is not a good look for me right now. I eat, I shop, I work, and it all seems a bit empty, going through the motions. I’m so grateful for my kids and my friends and my cat and my occasional travel, which is what is making all the continuing on possible. The road ahead is a blurry mess, and I wish I could do a better job at reading the signs, but it is what it is.

For now I guess I’ll just sink back into my funk and watch the cat cleaning himself. And maybe try to get a little scoring done.

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Friday Night Musing

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 04:11:55 GMT

I spent ten years writing fic. Novel length fic, shorter works, dark fic, sex in fic, even some comedy. And then I quit. I haven't written a thing non-school, non-professional related since. I still read fic, but it seems I'm unable to string words together in any meaningful way for anything other than work. I have no idea if I'll ever write again. I've been thinking a lot about it, and it bothers me. On the upside, Neil Gaiman is offering a writing master class, so there's always that.

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Taxes and Shoes

Sat, 09 Feb 2019 14:54:01 GMT

oi, i have dancing around buying shoes i've coveted for what seems like forever, so i just spent $525 on them. yes, they are italian handmade. yes, i got three pair. yes, they were on sale. yes, i did not pay shipping or tax. yes, i still need to get my taos trulie sandals, and yes, i still covet a pair of the iRi NYC shoes i've been looking at. no, thanks to the GOP tax modifications, i will probably not be seeing my usual refund which terrifies me no end. but, shoes! lordy, lordy, i have issues.

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State of the Union

Wed, 06 Feb 2019 23:36:28 GMT

In all the confusion, all the smoke and mirrors, all the horrific distractions designed to derail any understanding of the Trump/Russia saga, this is perhaps the clearest, most cogent timeline and explanation for what will go down surely in our history as one of the darkest periods America and Americans have lived through. Must read.

Trump/Russia

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Baby It's Cold Outside

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 20:53:23 GMT

Made this for dinner today cuz it seemed like a good meal to have on a day like today. It was amazing.

Chicken Alfredo Tortellini Soup

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Yay!History!

Tue, 29 Jan 2019 17:44:13 GMT

Worth watching. This is the same guy who explained to Michael Dell how and where a high marginal tax rate worked. Spoiler alert: It was in the United States.

History, Taxes, and Davos

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Fri, 25 Jan 2019 23:47:20 GMT

I don’t know why, but this just cracks me up. It’s been a long week and this guy just made me laugh.

That Guy

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I'd Rather Do This Than Go Back Tomorrow

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 01:23:34 GMT

Rarely do I ever look at a recipe or pictures of food and think “Wow, I need to have this right now.” Ok, so really I do that all the time. But when I saw this, I REALLY realized I need this in my life right now. Maybe that has something to do with my not wanting to venture out into the sub-zero weather tomorrow at 6 AM to go back to school Oh, well. To be honest, I love poutine. But Cajun Poutine just seems to be something on a whole other level.

And then, much to my surprise, I also found this gem for the Instant Pot. I just got a new cookbook for Indian Instant Pot Cooking cuz I was craving Butter Chicken. But I'm gonna have to make the Chicken Tikka Masala, for real.

Do yourself a favor and click on the links.

Cajun Poutine

Chicken Tikka Masala

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I Really Wanna See This

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 00:23:21 GMT

A very cool new collaborative mural titled Hizkuntza does a quick dramatic shift from day to night. By day the mural looks to be a simple image of a whale by day, but in the dark it changes. The mural is located in Patxa Plaza in Baiona, a small city on the southwest coast of France that is a popular tourist destination.

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Four Preps and One Less Planning

Thu, 10 Jan 2019 23:20:40 GMT

So basically I was 'offered' the chance to teach my favorite elective next semester today. I haven't taught it in two years due to the shortage of teachers in my department. They first wanted to just collapse a section of my AP World History and sort those kids into my other AP World classes and give me the elective. But that just means I'd have the same number of kids, plus my new section of kids, and just more grading and prep so I said I'd do it as an extra-contractual. Took them 28 minutes to move through the process and jump through the hoops of approving my extra-contractual. Yeah, it's more work, but at least this way I get paid for it. I'm already tired.

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I Need New Knees

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 22:59:21 GMT

This is in no way a surprise to me as I've known I needed them for a while now. Hope springs eternal when they're fairly functional and I'm not in too much pain and I can kid myself that everything will be all right. But today and yesterday my right knee is so bad I can barely walk. I spent twelve hours yesterday from after I came home until I had to get up to go back to school today in bed with a heating pad. I wore the brace today and at least I didn't have to stop every five steps. I hate this. It seems like hardly more than a decade ago when I didn't have to deal with this crap. Getting old sucks.

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Snowflake Challenge-Day Nine

Wed, 09 Jan 2019 21:26:36 GMT

Today's challenge is to Commit an Act of Kindness. Today I let a student eat lunch with me in my room, on my only 20 minutes of students free time in my day. She asked. I said ok.

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