Not Too Shabby

My first day of teaching a new (for me) class went pretty well.  Had to improvise a bit at first because somebody had left the wireless mouse and keyboard on and the batteries ran down during the break.  However, I had a mouse in my backpack and I liberated a keyboard from one of the lab computers and I was ready to go.

Being new to the faculty (I don't even have an email address yet), I didn't know the admin password, but I found a workaround for that as well.  This is a computer repair class, after all, and as I told my students, there will probably be many times when they need to come up with ways of getting things done that don't necessarily follow "by the book" procedures.

All in all, I think things worked out fine today.

Let Me Take a Break

I was getting ready for my teaching assignment which begins tomorrow at Brown Mackie College in Tulsa, when I decided to take a short break.
I picked up my Kindle and turned it on.  I had downloaded a short story, "The Christmas Caper" by Christopher Bunn and decided to read it.  My 12-year-old was sitting at the other end of the sofa, playing his DS, when I decided to start reading out loud.
This is a very funny story, in which Santa (a skinny Santa, Jr., it turns out) gets knocked out at his last stop, finds himself in jail on suspicion of theft, escapes with the help the only elf left at the North Pole (the others had left for vacation), and goes on a wild ride (literally) to catch the bad guys who now have the sled and the Santa Bag.
As I read this out loud, I noticed my son had quit playing his game.
"Should I stop reading out loud?" I asked as innocently as I could.
"No!  Keep going," he replied.
And so we had a pleasant afternoon, laughing at Santa, Snix (an elf armed with a taser) and a couple of other elves pulled from a party in Hawaii, as they track down the Gambinis, and....
Wait, I've said too much.  Maybe you should get this delightful story and see for yourself how it turns out.

Happy New Year!

Whoa!
The last few months of 2011 were very busy and quite stressful at times.  But now it's 2012 and time to look forward to what I intend to be a better year for me.
I may write a book.  Since I got my Kindle (for free, I might add, thanks to saving up Swag Bucks), I've enjoyed it immensely.  I might write something and put it out on Amazon.  I might not make much, or any, money, but at least I can check "Writing a Book" off my bucket list.
I'll probably continue cobbling together part-time jobs in order to keep the electricity on and the water running.  I know that someone will eventually realize my worth and make me a full time offer.  But I really don't feel like holding my breath (unless I decide to go over to Lake Tenkiller and jump off the cliffs into the water - what a rush that was, even though it's been over 20 years).
I have feeling that this is going to be a great year, no matter what I do or where I end up.