Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween

When is an appropriate age to stop trick-or-treating? I cannot remember when I stopped trick-or-treating and dressing up. I know that as an adult, it's cool to dress up again. It'd be kind of awkward to trick-or-treat though. I remember going trick-or-treating as a senior in high school. I think I must have stopped going as an 8th or 9th grader. I then trick-or-treated as a senior because a few friends wanted to. I think an appropriate age to stop would be once you enter 9th grade. I'm guessing the thrill wears off once you enter junior high school. I cannot remember at all when the thrill wore off for me. Did I decide I didn't want to get candy on Halloween anymore one year? Did my mom tell me it'd be ridiculous for me to go out? Who knows? All I know is that I wouldn't mind getting free candy again! I don't want to go trick-or-treating for it though.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

NaNoWriMo

For those of you who aren't writers, you're looking at the title and saying, "What the heck is that?" NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. I have heard of it before. I didn't understand what it was until yesterday. November is National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words in November. I have written 11 chapters out of a planned 33 in my 3rd "The Teacher That" book. That is about 20,000 words so far. On that pace, my book should be roughly 60,000 words. That means if I do this, I'll have my book finished at the end of November. Then I need to edit, edit, edit, edit, and edit some more. I can never get motivated to write. Maybe this will be the kick in the butt I need. It's a competition with yourself to see if you can be motivated to write more often in the month. They have prizes available to those who submit 50,000 words. I'm not changing any plans I make with friends or other obligations to do this. I'm just going to focus more at night and on days off and write instead of watching TV and avoiding it. We will see how it goes!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

November 1

I can't tell you how many people I've heard say that November 1st is the first day that they will turn on the heat in the house. That must have been what their parents have done and they like to stick to tradition. We broke that rule in this house this year. My dad turned on the heat last week. It was also turned on again today. I can't stand the smell when the heat turns on for the first time in the year. It's a musty smell. Don't turn on your heat until November 1st. You only have two more days to wait! Tomorrow, I have something more important to write about that starts on November 1st. Stay tuned!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Surprise!

My parents 30th anniversary is November 12 this year. Actually, there anniversary falls on November 12 every year. I digress. I have been planning a surprise dinner for a couple of months now. My mom is impossible. Her birthday was October 6 and my dads is tomorrow. My grandparents always take them out around this time of year for their birthdays and anniversary. I told my grandpa to do that again. He told my mom this and she didn't want to go. Then she decided to go, but wanted a go to a restaurant that I didn't pick for the surprise dinner. Then she didn't want to go the night I told my grandpa to tell her. I made reservations for November 7. She has something else she does on Thursday nights. Then I had to change it to tonight. I had 13 people at this restaurant at 5:30 waiting for my grandparents and parents to get here. My grandparents can't drive so my parents had to drive them. Then my uncle said he saw my parents sitting down at another table. My mom knew something was going on when my grandpa said he'd be right back. She knew he was looking for me. My grandma also said, "Small crowd tonight" as she looked all over the place. My mom is far from stupid and had her suspicions. She didn't expect that many people to be there tonight though. I must say, it's quite stressful setting up a surprise dinner. It went much better than I expected and I'm glad it's over with. My parents deserved nothing but the best for this anniversary and deserve nothing but the best for many, many years to come!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Candy Corn M&M's

I went to a Halloween party yesterday and there was candy corn flavored M&M's at it. I had never heard of such a thing. They looked like regular M&M's, but they were white chocolate instead of regular chocolate. Several people didn't like it. I'm not one of those people. Oh my God, it was amazing! I love white chocolate. Now I got to each white chocolate candy corn flavored M&M's. How could that possibly get any better? I highly recommend you go get some of those M&M's immediately. Everyone liked my blind ref costume too. I'm not sure if I'm going to wear it to school on Halloween this Thursday. We will see.

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Nutella

Have you ever had Nutella? Wait, you haven't? Seriously? What are you waiting for? Go buy some right now! Nutella is an amazingly delicious chocolate cream that you can spread on bread, crackers, dip pretzels in it, dip apples in it, and much more. It's made of hazelnuts and cocoa. It is pretty expensive to buy at the store. It's totally worth it though. The first time I ever had nutella was in Germany. I think it's a pretty popular food there. I had one bite in Germany and fell in love. Someone brought in nutella to the breakfast the other day and I was very excited. Yes, I am very easily excited by food. I never have nutella at home because I'm too lazy to buy it, I don't feel like spending a lot of money to buy it, and I'd eat it all in one serving. It's that delicious and addicting. If you haven't had nutella, you're missing out!

Friday, October 25, 2013

Breakfast

About every other month, our staff has a breakfast in the faculty room. Normally about 10 people are in charge of bringing in the food. We obviously rotate so that everyone gets an opportunity to contribute something. This is no ordinary breakfast. People typically bring in bagels, doughnuts, muffins, danishes, cakes, egg dishes, and potato dishes. Besides the few actual breakfast foods, it's basically dessert at 7:30AM. I can't complain. Yes, someone typically brings a fruit platter. I go to town during these breakfasts. We had one yesterday. I normally eat one of everything just so that I don't offend anyone who brought something in to share. I eat so much that I don't even bring a lunch on these days. Shocking, I know. It's a good thing we don't have these breakfasts all the time or I'd probably be 300 pounds and everyone would be broke.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

500

I have officially reached my 500th blog post! That's right. I have written on this website half a grand times. To celebrate the moment, I'm going to briefly summarize each of my 499 previous posts by writing one to two sentences for each. I'm just kidding! I don't want to be here for the rest of the year doing that! Seriously though. I can't believe I've written 500 posts. I feel like I just started writing everyday in this yesterday. It has gone by very fast. Who knows how many more posts I will write. Will I hit 1,000, 2,000, 5,000? Who knows? I'm hoping to hit 1,000 books sold before I hit 1,000 blog posts. Not counting books that I have given away for free on kindle or books people have borrowed through Amazon Prime, I have sold over 600 books! That's amazing. I'm hoping to hit the G mark sometime next year. We will see what happens!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Idea

My job title is called Computer Aide.What that means is that I am in charge of the computer lab at my school. I have 30 laptops in my room and a laptop cart with 18 laptops that travel around the school when teachers need them for projects or essays. I help students when classes come in to do work. I fix any technology issues that occur in the school or my room. I help teachers set up projectors if they have issues with that. I don't really teach students how to do too much on the computers. I show them a little bit, but they don't get a grade in my class. I think that needs to change. I plan on setting up a "curriculum" for each grade. I will add things that I'd like to teach the kids how to use. I'll try to figure out what I think they should know how to do at each grade level. I will also ask teachers for help with ideas when they bring their kids to the lab. I know that my position will never be upgraded to a computer teacher. I know this isn't going to help me get any more money than I get now. I'm doing this because in the present time, kids need to know how to do more and more on the computer. They need to know how to use Microsoft Word. They need to know Internet safety. I am also doing this so that I feel more productive. I don't like just walking around the room making sure everything is going well. I want to be more involved. We will see how this goes!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Audio Books

I didn't plan on attending tonight's #indiechat about audio books. I didn't think I'd be interested in ever making my book an audio book. I jokingly told my grandpa who can't see very well that I'd make an audio book for him. He bought my books anyway and read them with his extremely strong magnifying glass. I bet he still has a pain in his neck and back from leaning over to read my books. It was worth it though because my books are that good. Back on topic... I'm glad I joined the Twitter conversation tonight. It seems like doing an audio book would totally be worth it. I think I'd narrate my book myself in order to save money. If I had someone else narrate it, I'd either have to pay a fairly large fee, or split royalties for I think 7 years. However, I probably need better equipment and sound proofing things in my room to create my audio book. I would also need to talk slowly and clearly for a very long time. It would take several hours to read my 140 page book. It's something I'm going to have to look more into in the future. I'm trying to focus on writing book 3 first.

Monday, October 21, 2013

Handshake

I've always been taught to give a firm handshake. But how firm is too firm? Whenever I'm about to shake someone's hand, many questions enter my mind in the few seconds before the actual handshake. This is a kid, do I give as firm of a handshake? This is a big guy, should I give him a bone crushing handshake? This is a woman, how firm will her handshake be? Some guys like to give bone crushing handshakes because they think they are so powerful by doing so. I always tend to go lighter when I shake a woman's hand. I really shouldn't do that. Some woman have very firm handshakes. If I weaken my shake for a woman, they may think I'm trying to be too gentle with them. If I give them a bone crushing handshake, they will be mad at me. The worst kind of handshake is the dead fish handshake. No one wants to give anyone one of those. It's the most awkward shake in the world. Then of course there's the "bro" handshake. That's when you shake the guys hand with your right hand and reach around and pat them on the back in a "bro hug" way with your left hand. That seems to be happening more and more these days. I never used to do that with other guys. Now I find myself doing that more and more, especially with people I don't see as often. It's amazing how much goes into one simple handshake. Yes, I have a very odd mind and these are the strange thoughts that enter them before every handshake with someone.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Washer Dryer

Have you ever left something in your pockets and thrown it in the washer and dryer? It never ends well. A few years ago after just buying some brand new clothes, I left chapstick in my pants pocket. I didn't discover this until after I took the clothes out of the dryer. There were pink spots all over my new clothes that would not come out. Now when I wear those clothes, I wear a vest over those shirts to cover up the pink marks. Today I saw some crumpled paper in my laundry. Two weeks ago we won trivia. They gave us 2 $10 gift certificates for winning. I was the keeper of the certificates. I uncrumpled the sheets I saw in my laundry and discovered that I washed both of the certificates. I just washed away $20 of free food and drinks. I saved the wrinkled mess and will show it to my server this Wednesday. My friends keep saying that they think the server will give me a new certificate. I hope so. Either way, I need to make sure I empty my pockets before I throw my clothes in the dryer! I don't get it. The sheets were in the same pocket as my wallet. I have no idea how I took my wallet out without feeling the sheets. Oh well. Yet another epic fail on my part...

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Author Book Fair

I attended the local author book fair today at a library from 1-4. They had a NY times best selling author answer questions about his recent book for half an hour. After that, there were about 25-30 local authors selling their books from 2-4. The beginning crowd was much older since the author that spoke has books about FDR. Eventually more people showed up. I brought 20 books not knowing how many would sell. I ended up selling 6. Many people came to my table, took my business card, and listened to me talk about my book and then left. Maybe they will buy it later. I said the other day I would go into the event with no expectations. I have to admit though, I was obviously hoping to sell more. It cost me more to purchase the 20 books and business cards than I made today. Now I have 14 books sitting in a box waiting to be sold. Does anyone want book 1? I'm selling it for only $6. That's cheaper than on Amazon. You don't even have to pay tax, shipping, or handling. We will see if this event will spark anymore local interest in my books.

Friday, October 18, 2013

50/50 Raffle

I went to a high school football game tonight for the first time since I was in high school. Naturally when I was in high school, my team was awful. Last year they lost in the state semi finals. This year they only have one loss and they just clinched first place in their division tonight. I played the 50/50 raffle today like I always do. It was for $451! Needless to say, I didn't win. It did remind me of the time I hit the 50/50 at a football game. I played the national anthem on the saxophone before a game my senior year. I stayed to watch the game of course. I debated about buying 50/50 but eventually did. I won $197! That was the one and only time I've won on 50/50. I have of course played it many times since then and have come up empty. Maybe next time!

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Promotion

I'm all of a sudden starting to crank up the promotion of my books once again. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine posted something on my Facebook wall that has renewed my motivation. There is a local author event at a local library this Saturday. My friend told me about it. If he hadn't, I would not have known. At the event, a NY times best selling author will be talking from 1-2. Local authors will be at tables selling their books from 2-4. I'll be there doing my best to sell books. I bought 20 book ones to sell. I figured that I shouldn't offer book 2 because who would want to buy it without reading book 1. I have a business card now. They can refer to that and purchase book 2 on Amazon if they like book 1. I have no idea what to expect. I would love to sell all 20 books but have zero expectations going into the event. I am offering book 1 for free for 2 days on kindle in the very near future. I haven't offered a book for free since February. My book sales have been very low the last 2 months. I'm hoping this free promotion will get the word out again and spark some interest. I'm hoping that the book event this Saturday will do the same. We will find out soon! Wish me luck!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Taking up 2 Spots

My mom, dad, and I went to a wine and liquor tasting last night. This event had hundreds of people at it. It took us over 10 minutes to find a parking spot. It was so annoying. They had about 20 spots coned off for whatever reason. We also noticed at least 3-5 cars that parked in the middle of two spots. It's incredibly rude to take up more than one parking spot in the parking lot even if the parking lot is empty. If there's a huge event going on, you better not take up more than one parking spot. Eventually workers moved the cones and we were able to park. That's not the point. The point is that people need to be more courteous when parking because someone will definitely need to park next to you at some point or another.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Guest Speaker

I had a guest speaker come in to talk to my newspaper club students today. I had a worker from a local newspaper come. I was hoping he would talk about what goes in to writing a newspaper. He only covered that briefly. He talked about who the audience of a newspaper is. He also talked about how important it was for the kids to target that audience with the articles they choose to write. Another thing he did was he had the kids brainstorm general topics they could write about. That was an excellent thing for him to do. I can't tell you how many times I have kids come up to me and tell me they have no idea what to write about. Now I will point them towards this very large list of topics we created. Overall I thought the speaker was good and it was definitely a great opportunity for the kids.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Chinese Food

I used to love Chinese food when I was younger. I wanted to eat it all of the time. I would love to get Chinese take out. I'd love eating at a Chinese buffet even more. I'll never forget when our swim team ate at a Chinese buffet during winter vacation right before our swim meet. That's the restaurant our coach picked for us to eat at. Really? You want us to eat at a Chinese buffet and then swim races? That didn't end well. A couple of years ago I stopped having strong urges to eat Chinese. Now whenever my mom wants to eat Chinese I typically don't want to, but eat some anyway because it's there. Today my grandparents took me to a Chinese buffet. They aren't as good as they used to be. This one maybe had 10-15 items to choose from. That's practically nothing for a buffet. Most of the food was pretty cold too. Of course I still managed to chow down on 2 overflowing plates and some wonton soup. My taste buds have changed because I don't have much desire to eat Chinese food anymore.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

I was watching a show on the Travel Channel when a commercial came on about a movie called Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. They said it was available for free online. I decided to watch it. It's about this Australian guy who was over 300 pounds. He decided to drink nothing but juice for 60 days. He had to get it cleared with doctors first. He bought a juicer and bought lots of fruits and vegetables. Each meal he would take fresh fruits and vegetables and grind them up with the juicer. He could only drink that and water everyday for 60 days. After a few days, his energy level was way up. He lost over 90 pounds after 60 days. Once the 60 days was over, he added nuts and beans to his diet. He is keeping a similar diet and hopes to never go back to his bad eating habits. He ran into a guy who was 428 pounds. He was able to get this man to try the juice diet. He lost 202 pounds! I cannot imagine drinking nothing but fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. He has gotten people to do it for a few days. He said that every little bit can help. He interviewed many overweight people and they all said the same thing. They have no willpower when it comes to food. That's why they eat so much. They all said they could never do this diet. I agree with them. No way would I be able to drink nothing but vegetables.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

5K Run

I did a 5K run again today like I did last year. The money raised goes towards a scholarship in the name of a community member who took his life a few years ago. This was the third year of the run. I didn't do it the first year for whatever reason. Last year, if you remember in the post "Epic Fail", I did the 5K run twice because I took a wrong turn. That almost happened again today. There is a spot where the path forks and there were no arrows. I was all alone. Luckily there was someone a little ways back who told me to take a left. I did that and made it back to the finish line. The person who was in first and would have won easily took the wrong turn. Many people complained this year about the lack of signs and people telling us which way to go. I'm expecting there to be better directions next year. I ended up getting 6th place out of 73 runners! My time was 23:55 or a pace of 7:42 a mile. My goal was 25 minutes so I beat it easily. My age group was males ages 20-29. I got 1st in my age group! That's strange because the overall winner was in my age group. Since he got a trophy for first place, they considered me the 1st place finisher in that age group. I consider me the 3rd place finisher in my group because the winner was in my age group and the guy who ran it twice and should have won was in my age group. Either way, I definitely exceeded my expectations.

Friday, October 11, 2013

The Bucket List

I just finished watching  The Bucket List  with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Yes, I've seen the movie a few times before. I just spontaneously wanted to watch it again. If you were given the choice to know when you are going to die or not to know, what would you choose? According to the movie, 96% of people would not want to know. I definitely fall in that 96%. I think I would want to know how much time-ish I have left if I have a terminal illness. This movie is about two guys in a hospital creating a bucket list and doing as many things on that list as they can. Besides Hawaii and Italy, I have no idea what I'd have on my bucket list. I should make one now and work on achieving everything because you never know when life could be over. Have you ever wondered what happens to you if you get scared half to death twice? I certainly don't want to find out. Set some goals, have dreams, be ambitious, and go out there and experience life!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Gravity

I just got back from seeing the movie Gravity. I saw previews for it and thought it wasn't going to be that good. I decided to see it because I kept hearing everyone tell me I had to go see it. After all of the hype, I'm pretty disappointed. It wasn't awful. It definitely wasn't amazing to me either. The entire movie takes place in outer space. It basically has two characters. There were a lot of dull moments in it. It was only an hour and a half. Many movies now are getting close to two hours again. I don't think this movie could have gone much longer than the hour and a half that it was. Movies go through phases. They used to be long, then they got short, now they are longer again. I wasn't overly impressed with Gravity.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Hump Day

Everyone knows that Wednesday is hump day. No one started acknowledging it until Geico came out with the commercial with the camel. Geico has far too many commercials. I cannot stand any Geico commercial...besides the hump day commercial. I find it absolutely hilarious. It has kids saying it at school all of the time. I heard that one district has banned anyone from saying hump day. Seriously. I think they made the rule because kids were saying it all of the time and it became a distraction. That's a bit ridiculous to me. It's also hilarious that a district has to ban simple words that are not offensive. I hope everyone enjoyed their hump daaaaaaaaayyyyy!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Light Up Shoes

I remember when I was a kid. I wanted a pair of light up shoes so badly. Those were the shoes that would light up every single time you took a step. It seemed like everyone had them. I don't remember if I ever begged my mom for them or not. Either way I never got them. I figured that fashion trend would have died out by now. Nope. Yesterday I saw a student with those light up shoes. At my age now, I don't see the big thrill in them. I understand kids wanting them because they love things that light up. I'm on to bigger and better things. The only lights I want to see now are the lights in Las Vegas!

Monday, October 7, 2013

Fire Prevention Week

In honor of fire prevention week, our school had a member from the fire department come and talk to the kids about ways to prevent fire. While watching the presentation, it reminded me of the time I saved my house. I can't remember how old I was. I had to have been between 9-12 I'd say. It was a Saturday morning. My two brothers and I got up and went downstairs fairly early. My mom eventually called us upstairs. My older brother had put a waffle in the toaster and forgot about it. At that time, our toaster wasn't working. You had to take the waffle out when you thought it was done, otherwise it would keep cooking. While we were upstairs not falling back asleep, I smelled something burning. I went downstairs and saw the waffle on fire in the toaster. I immediately turned off the toaster and eventually the fire died down. If I hadn't gone downstairs and turned off the toaster, our house would have been toast. Although my mom can't stand our house because of all of the money she and my dad have spent on it this year because it's so old, I'm sure she is happy I saved the house and probably saved my parents hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

I am all for people donating to an excellent cause like finding a cure for cancer, especially breast cancer. Cancer affects pretty much every single person in one way or another. Unfortunately everyone knows someone or is a person who has had cancer. However, I think all of the advertising and events that take place every October is a little extreme. In the NFL, everyone is wearing pink. The penalty flags are pink, the players shoes are pink, their towels are pink, and pretty much everything is pink. Everywhere you turn anywhere you go is pink. People should donate money when they want to. I'm not sure why October is the specified month for breast cancer awareness. People should donate to that cause or whatever cause when they please. I know people still do that. I personally feel like the excessive advertisement about cancer can sometimes cause more problems.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Texas Roadhouse

I went to a Texas Roadhouse for the first time last night. It came to my town a few weeks ago. There is nothing like good barbecue. This place was delicious. I had a pulled pork and ribs combo. It didn't look big at first, but it was plenty big! It didn't have a lot of BBQ sauce on it so I got more. That was one downfall. This isn't an ordinary restaurant either. The servers would randomly stop what they were doing and start dancing. They had raw steaks on display to show us they are made fresh everyday. They have a butcher out back whose only job is to cut up steak. It's quite a unique place. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves BBQ.

Friday, October 4, 2013

Pumpkin Pie Doughnut

I saw a commercial yesterday for a Pumpkin Pie Doughnut at Dunkin Donuts. Clearly I had to get this. I also heard a commercial for Pumpkin White Chocolate coffee. I love pumpkin and white chocolate, but do not like coffee. I won't be getting that drink. I didn't waste any time. I got the doughnut this morning. It wasn't quite as good as I expected. It was still pretty good though. I could feel my arteries clogging while eating it. I am quite surprised I am here to tell you about it. It's a doughnut with pumpkin filled inside of it and some white frosting and something crumbled on top. If you love pumpkin, I'd recommend you get this doughnut.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Energy

My principal put it very well today. I am tired 24/7. I don't seem to have much energy most of the time. The music room is two doors down from my computer lab. The teacher had the kids playing on the bongos today. I left the room to go somewhere and I see my principal dancing to the music as she is walking to where she needs to be. The kids see her and laugh. She sees me and says, "The kids give me this energy. Whenever I'm in a bad mood, I walk into the kindergarten room and a huge smile comes on my face." I responded, "The kids give me my energy too." She couldn't have put it any better. Any adult that works with children is typically in the profession for one reason, the kids. I have a different energy when I work with kids. I don't know how to describe it. Fun, unpredictable, stressful, overwhelming, rewarding. I could go on and on. I realize two sentences ago wasn't actually a sentence. Forgive me. People continuous tell me I should work for the state since teaching is a tough job to get right now. My response is always the same. I want to teach because I absolutely love working with kids. I match the kids energy stride for stride and that's what it's all about.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

No More Cruises

Those of you who know me are shocked by this title. What I mean by no more cruises is that I don't want my next big vacation to be a cruise. I definitely plan on going on more cruises in the future. I am interested in doing something different next vacation though. I have three dream vacation spots. Two of them are not in my budget right now and the other is where I hope to go next. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii and Italy. I cannot tell you why because I have no idea why I want to go. I've heard nothing but good things about both places. The other place I've wanted to go for a long time is Las Vegas. I know that that is also going to be very expensive. I want to see some sort of show while there. I know that most tickets are over $100. I want to go there for 3-4 days. I have three breaks coming up. I'm looking to go either in the beginning of January, during my February break, or my April break. Obviously that's when they jack up the airfare because they know families take vacations at that time. I'll see what I can do and who wants to come. You are all invited! If you want to come, let me know!

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Customer Service

People never like calling customer service because you almost always talk to a computer. If you have to call someone from Amazon, you don't get a computer. You find the contact button on Amazon.com, you type in your phone number, and then you have 2 options. They can call you now or in five minutes. If you click, "call now" they will call you right away! Yes, at first a computer will talk to you while you are on hold. You are normally only on hold for less than a minute. Then a human being, not from India, will talk to you. I find that absolutely amazing. Every single time I've had to have someone from Amazon call me, they have been able to fix my issue. I wish more places had a system like this. It would make life so much easier!