janestclair

I could never be vegan. Cheese is basically a major food group in my world. More power to you, if that's what you want to do, just means there's more cheese for me. I don't particularly like the taste of meat, so fake meat products always seemed weird to me, but I guess if you're vegan because you don't like how animals are treated, then that makes sense. I love roller coasters, but I haven't been on one in years. Amusement parks involve too much walking and standing for me anymore. There was one roller coaster in Hersheypark that I loved where you'd go upside down and there was only a lap bar pressing you in to the seat, not one of the standard over the shoulder deals. Now that I think about it, I'm glad I never got stuck upside down on that thing. I'm not sure how I'd ever climb down off a stuck roller coaster.

Definitely two syllables.

I'm one of the only people I know without student loan debt. I could've gone to a more expensive, Ivy League school, but I went to a state school that gave me lots of money in scholarships and only paid a couple grand a semester plus books, which I paid with my parents' help and my summer job. Best decision I ever made. I liked my school - it was challenging and had lots of opportunities, but still small enough that I felt like a person and not a number. Might a more expensive school have been better? Maybe. But having no student loans to pay is definitely great. I think (and mention the option to students frequently) that going to a community college for 2 years is actually a great idea. Get your general education requirements out of the way for much, much cheaper. Ultimately, it doesn't matter where you got the credits, as long as you make sure they'll transfer to the school you eventually want to attend. Calculus is calculus. Who cares? Especially if you have no idea what you're going to major in - why spend $600 dollars a credit to figure it out? Take a bunch of courses at a community college and figure out what you like first instead of going into debt while you change your mind about what you want to major in. I'm sorry...I have no indoor voice. I have many things working against me though. My dad can't hear for shit, I'm a teacher, and I'm from NJ. It's a lost cause. I do try though.

I don't mind tattoos, as long as they are well done and not an offensive. Like, not an ejaculating penis or a Nazi swastika or something. I don't particularly like them on people's faces either, plus that must hurt like a bitch. I would get a tattoo, but what design am I still going to like 20 years from now? I can't make that kind of commitment.

It's not aboot, but there is something about the way they say it that is noticeable. It's like the o is more rounded, somehow. I'm not a linguist, so I don't know what the technical term is. Every time I'm in Canada, even if it's for a few days, I start to pick up the accent a bit without meaning to. It doesn't show up until I'm back home, which makes things interesting when combined with a very minimal New Jersey accent.

I feel you. I take care of both my parents too, and am disabled myself. It gets to be a lot sometimes, and i end up screaming at the both of them, which is not good. Mom has dementia, kidney failure, and mobility issues. Dad is just old. He helps, or tries to, but when it comes to stuff like paying bills and keeping meds sorted, he's useless. My sister has her head too far up her own ass to help, so it's on me. Yesterday, she made a comment about me being tired all the time. Gee...I wonder why? To top it all of, two of my best friends both had surgery this week, so I've been stressed beyond belief. One was comparatively minor, and she's doing ok, but the other one? I'm basically shitting myself right now. I don't have any appendages left to cross. I'm attempting to distract myself. Bilgistic, college is not for everyone, and as a high school teacher, I wish we would stop pushing it on kids who would clearly be better off in a trade or in the military. We need welders and electricians, and they make tons of money, but no one pushes those fields. It's all about college. I can't tell you how many of my kids say they want to be a pharmacist, but they really don't like chemistry. Ummmm...

Maharincess, I wouldn't let a stranger into my backyard to catch a Pokemon either. There have been news reports of people getting robbed because of that game. I'm waiting to hear that someone gets killed because they walk right out in traffic. I do play video games, but I was a bit older when Pokemon started, so it's not for me. I did see that Nintendo is releasing the original NES with a bunch of games, and I NEED it. So many hours of my childhood were spent in my parents' bedroom on their TV playing video games. I can't wait to play again. But Pokemon? Pass.

I almost never did the summer reading in high school either, mostly because they were asking us to read books I wasn't interested in. My AP English class asked us to read 5 books over the summer. I read one that wasn't terrible (Grapes of Wrath, I think) and then used Cliffs Notes for the rest. I couldn't get into more than a couple pages of Catcher in the Rye. Ugh. Summer reading is important though. Summer brain drain is real. I think teachers need to start assigning better books that kids can relate to if they want them to read it. I assign my AP Bio kiddos a really great, accessible book as part of their assignment and we refer to it throughout the year. That said, I do think some of the summer assignment thing, aside from AP classes where it's pretty much a necessity if you want to finish covering everything by May, has gotten way out of hand. In my district there are also summer math assignments in every grade, and some science ones as well. Since it's a district mandate, most teachers just mark the assignment for completion and then that's the end of it, which is busy work for everyone involved.

I'm not much of a big drinker so it never really bugged me. I'll gladly trade not having alcohol in the supermarket so I don't have to get out and pump my own gas when it's cold out (or ever, really). When I worked in the grocery store, it was always the out of state people who asked where the alcohol was, and I was always confused. Growing up in NJ, I never knew you COULD buy alcohol in grocery stores in other states until those people. I think there are a couple Trader Joe's that can sell wine, but that's about it. Liquor licenses in general are super hard to get, from what I hear. A drive through liquor store sounds like a remarkably bad idea.

Petunia, I have to lock up all my stuff at work. I lock up my purse and lunch in a desk drawer in my classroom. I've gotten used to room temperature yogurt so much that I actually prefer it now. The coworker I share the room with for one stinking period is forever taking my stuff if I accidentally leave it out. Dry erase markers are not cheap. It's infuriating. Over the summer, my room is used (not by me, even though I teach summer school), and I have to lock up and/or label everything else, otherwise it's gone in September. A coworker had the mouse from her computer taken. I have to put my name on my damn chair, and it's not even a good chair. People suck.

NJ gets a lot of hate, but aside from traffic that makes you want to shoot yourself regularly, it's really pretty nice. I can go down to south Jersey and there's lots of wide open spaces and farms with awesome produce, northwest has more mountains and lakes, and of course, everyone goes down the shore in the summer, which is great. Plus, I can be in NYC in less than an hour, depending on the traffic. The unfortunate thing is that people passing through the state only see what they can see from the turnpike, which is admittedly not lovely. I have no plans to move, probably ever. Ok, so my job means I have to stay in state, but I would even if I didn't have to.

I have ad blocking software, and I'm ok with it. Back in the old days of the internet, any ads were just a simple banner, and you could easily ignore it. Then they started with pop-ups. Now there's pop-unders, ads that cover the whole screen and load before letting you see anything on the page, ads with a tiny little X that's impossible to find to shut the page, and like Qoass said, ads with autoplay music or videos. Screw that. If advertisers want me to view their ads, go back to the simple ones, and I'l happily turn off my ad blocking software. Today's peeve is that I just found out about a concert happening Thursday, that apparently went on sale about a week ago. Ticketmaster lied to me and said there were still a few left, until I tried to look for tickets, and it's already sold out. I am sad. Why do you tease me, Ticketmaster?

I think 10 is a nice, round number. Or maybe 11 for season 11. Six was way too short, and the episodes suffered from it. (That's what I'm going with, anyhow.)

Where did you get it that cheap, Bastet? I sprung for the complete seasons blu-ray when it was super cheap on Amazon, but I have nothing else to order from them right now, and can't be bothered to pay shipping.

I teach a college level course, so we have a detailed summer assignment for them. At my school, everyone is encouraged to take advanced courses, which is nice in theory, but we have to make sure they have a minimum level of understanding. Some states have tenure, some don't. But it's not like if you're tenured, you have a job for life. There are some things you can still be fired for, or at least put on an action plan for improvement. My immediate boss is the supervisor of the department, then we have assistant principals, then the principal, then the superintendent. All of whom are technically a boss. It's irritating and way too much oversight. My immediate supervisor is the only one who micromanages everyone to within an inch of their sanity, however. One more week until I don't have to see her face until September. I do teach summer school, but hopefully I can avoid her.

Our thermostat isn't controllable either - only at central administration, which is another building halfway across town. My classroom gets pretty cold, but not as cold as directly across the hall (57F once, measured with a thermometer we have for chemistry labs), but the other side of the school is generally pretty warm. So, you generally think you know how to dress based on where you are in the building, unless they've turned off the heat or the AC because reasons, then all bets are off. Clearly, the HVAC system is screwy, and we've tried telling them it's more energy efficient to leave the heat/AC on rather than turning it completely off, but they do not listen. The poor kids have to dress for 4 seasons to get through their day if they have classes in different areas of the building. It's highly annoying, but at least I'm in one place most of the day, and can stockpile a selection of cardigans in my back room. Today I was pretty chilly, even with a cardigan. But I also have a damn cold, so maybe that's why. I had a coworker (retired) who used to light all the bunsen burners in the room to warm it up. Luckily, he never burned down the building.

Bringing your phone into the bathroom just sounds like a recipe for disaster to me, no matter if you're using the Bluetooth and an app to brush your teeth or browsing the internet while on the toilet. Although this reminded me I should probably make a dentist appointment. Hah.

I am going to explode. Not literally, of course but oh my god, I can not stand my boss. I am a high school teacher, and we're coming up on the end of the year. So I had to get letters out to all the students taking my class for next year that we were having a meeting to give them their summer work, and so they could sign up for summer classes. Said letter needed my supervisor's approval. Ok, fine. I send it in last Tuesday, and she waited until Friday to tell me to change some of the wording in some spots because reasons. I thought it was fine, but whatever. I made the changes and assumed (I know, I know) that that meant all was now kosher and I could distribute the letters to the kids. So I did that Monday morning. Then she comes to me later that day asking me if I sent them out and if so, why because I didn't have approval yet. Ummmm....I made the changes you requested, that's why. Is that not approval? Apparently, it also needed to go on school letterhead (for the first time in 10 years, mind). So now, I have to let all the teachers know not to give out the letter because it's wrong. And I'm on a time crunch because the meeting was Wednesday (this was all Monday) and the kids need notice so they can arrange rides home etc. So I put it on letterhead, but I waited to resend out the letters, because I have a feeling. Sure enough, now she wants me to change another thing - it has to be signed with her signature at the bottom. So I make that change and have to re-address all 80 of the letters, because of course I have copious amounts of free time to be doing this in, right? In what universe is it ok to give people changes to make in dribs and drabs like that?! Tell me all the changes at once, or screw off. She knew there was a time issue because she read the letter with the meeting dates! And the first time I made the changes was not 5 minutes after she told me to make the changes. When I don't hear back by Monday morning, any normal person would make the assumption is that everything is good to go. Am I wrong? Plus there's the fact that I've been doing it for ten years without an issue, and with no oversight, and it's always worked out. I know what I'm doing, she's just being a right bitch because she got tenure and so she can be. She was all sweetness and honey all year while she was trying to get tenure, even though we all knew it was bullshit. I think she might actually be a sociopath. She doesn't just throw people under the bus, she'll gladly drive it, and then go again in reverse. And I know she's going to take issue with the fact that i already gave one class their final exam as practice for an assessment they're taking for credit.next week because "she didn't know about it". Finals are technically in a few weeks.Except she did know about it, because we did the same thing last year. Another teacher who also teaches the course gave me a heads up about her flipping out and trying to say we broke some sort of rule. An imaginary rule, because I actually checked the handbook. And while she did previously say that we would need to discuss that there would be changes next year, she said nothing about this year. I can't wait for her to throw us under the bus on that one. Can. Not. Wait. She wanted to grab me this afternoon after school, and I just told her I was in a hurry and had to leave. Fuck that, it's a holiday weekend. My contracted hours are over for the day. If I wasn't invested in the district I'm in because I've been there 10 plus years, I would be looking for another job, just like all the non-tenured staff are. And who knows, maybe I still will.

My sense of direction is legendarily bad. More than once in NYC I've walked an avenue block in the complete wrong direction. Whoops. I know that to get from point A to point B, I have to go west, but I have no idea what direction west is. Why do things like Google maps say, "Turn west onto XYZ street" sometimes? Unless it's sunrise or sunset, who the hell knows where west is? Is it a left, or is it a right? Ugh. Before GPS, I'd think to myself,"ok if I think I should turn right, I should probably actually go left." And then I'd go left, and it'd be wrong. So matter what I did I was screwed. It makes me crazy. Even with GPS sometimes I'll still screw it up, because what I really need is directions that tell me to turn at landmarks. Like, "Turn left at the Mobil station" or something. Then maybe I'd be ok. I blame it on left-handedness. My spacial sense sucks. I also can't really reverse in my car without thinking about it, a lot of the time. I hate that too, and it's everywhere. When did that become a thing?

I always want to do a pastel color and then it just looks weird because I'm super pale or something. Right now, my nails are painted a funky bluish purpley color and I love it. The crappy part is working with acetone or some other chemical at work and then there goes my nail polish because I'm dumb and didn't think about it beforehand. D'oh. I've yet to figure out how to get nail polish to stick around looking decent for more than 2 days.

I'm cracking up at crumbcatchers. My chest is not what I would consider substantial, although maybe it is for someone of my petite size, and it tends to catch things as well. Oddly enough, I seem to only get things on my shirt when the shirt in question is purple, so I stopped wearing purple as much, which has seemed to work. I'm sure the food has no idea what color I'm wearing, so I don't know why it works, but I'm not going to question. Today's peeve is people who give the right of way when they have it. It's not being polite, all you're doing is creating a dangerous situation.

This is me as well. Last year, I was even getting panic attacks over some ramps that were too steep to go down. I've worked through it, I think, but still. Many ramps, even newer, obviously non-grandfathered ones are too steep. I go through the same thing with my mom when she needs her wheelchair instead of the walker. I'm afraid I'm going to lose the wheelchair going down and out goes mom into traffic, so we go backward, but then my balance is an issue. We're like the blind leading the blind.

Hah, I had the same thought when i first saw Signy Coleman. She will forever be Hope, even though I haven't watched Y&R in years and years.

As far as I can tell, there's nothing on the Blu-ray set that isn't on the DVDs. But they do take up much less space, and it's easier to get to the various discs, so I'm happy. I got it when it was on Amazon for $120, so I feel like that's a pretty good deal.

I'm excited that they're going to be on syndication again, even though I have the entire series on DVD, and Blu-ray (because i am apparently a completist). What's wrong with me? Am I just that lazy that I want to watch without having to get up and put a disc in, or is it that it's different watching when you know other people are too?