16 Years

I had a friend who used to live around the corner from me. Her younger sister was friends with my younger brother. Her family and our family were all close. I forget exactly when, it must have been when I was in fourth grade, the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. I remember visiting them in Ohio the summer before I went to fifth grade. I had never seen or heard from them until a few years ago. My friend friend requested me on Facebook. It was a pleasant surprise to see her name again. Even then, we never really talked much. A few days ago, she wrote on my wall on Facebook saying she'd be in town today. She wanted to know if I wanted to hang out. I agreed and we saw each other tonight for the first time in 16 years. You would think that since we haven't since each other since we were 10 and we hardly ever talk, that it'd be awkward. It wasn't awkward at all. In fact, it was as if we see each other quite often. Conversation flowed without any awkward silences. For those of you that know me, you know that I am extremely shy and sometimes don't talk much. It's amazing how powerful Facebook can be. If there was no Facebook, she would not have friend requested me and we would not have met each other tonight. It was very cool to see an old friend that I hadn't seen in 16 years. Do you have old friends that you wish you could see again?

Euthanizing Horses

Horse racing is a tough sport. At Saratoga, it's even tougher to handicap horses because the fields are filled with a lot of competitive horses. This summer, I think 5 horses have had to been put down after running races. If a horse pulls up during a race, it's typically because he or she hurt their leg. Most of the time when they hurt their leg, they have to put the horse down. I never understood the reason why they did that. I think one reason is because once a horse gets hurt, they have a greater chance of catching a disease. Another reason they are put down is because they would be in a lot of pain as they try to recover. A big name very popular horse pulled up today and was euthanized. It said that he would have gone through a lot of pain in the next months while recovering and he might not have lived through it. It's horrible that horses sometimes die during races. Unfortunately there's really nothing that can be done about it.

Nassau

On Thursday, we were in Nassau from 11AM-8PM. Since we didn't get off the ship until 11, I decided to do the sit down breakfast. I only did that because I was given a coupon for a free drink. I was only allowed to use that coupon at a sit down breakfast or lunch. They shouldn't restrict when I can get my free drink. I don't like doing the sit down breakfast because they give you very little food and it takes too long. I ordered the most expensive drink I could get for free and my server gave me a weird look like, Really? You're having a tiramisu mrtini at 8AM? The only reason I did that was because of the coupon. I then went to the lido deck to eat more, shocking I know. Before we left, I practiced learning the lyrics for my big performance. We did a non Carnival excursion. We went to the Hlton Hotel beach for the day. It was about a 15 minute walk to the hotel. I was sweating like crazy by the time we got there. We laid on the beach from 11:30-5. Well, actually, I was in the ocean most of the time. I can't even begin to tell you how relaxing that was. The weather was absolutely perfect! We walked around and looked at the numerous shops after that for a bit. The souvenirs they try to sell you are pretty pathetic. There wasn't much going on on the ship when we got back. I watched some karaoke and a game show. I also sang "Crocodile Rock" during karaoke in preparation for my big show the last night of the cruise. After that, I played in the casino and went to bed early at 12 because we had to be up very early for our excursion in Freeport.

Port Canaveral

We were at Port Canaveral on Wednesday from 7AM-6PM. We got up at 7 to do our excursion at 8:30. We were supposed to go to Kennedy Space Center. When we got off the ship, they told us that there was a water main break at the center and our excursion was cancelled. Ouch. What were we going to do? We didn't really have many options. We had very little time to decide. We chose an excursion where we would take an airboat tour and then shop. Our original excursion was $100 for 7 hours. This one was $90 for 4.5 hours. They gave us a 20% discount for the inconvenience, so $72. The airboat was awesome! We went searching for alligators and found a few. Then we got to eat alligator tail. It's a little chewy but of course it tastes like chicken. I then got to hold an alligator. It felt cold and leathery. After that, we shopped for about 2 hours in Cocoa Village. That was boring. There were very few shops and what was open was all garbage that no one buys anyway. Half of the excursion was great, the other half stunk. It definitely wasn't worth the $72, yet along $90. Oh well, we didn't have much of a choice and I ended up saving $28 so it's all good. At dinner, I tried a shark and lobster cake for appetizer. It was gross. I then did karaoke where I stupidly sang "New York State of Mind" by Billy Joel. The song was way too high for me. The karaoke host then asked me if I wanted to sing Elton John in the legends show they have on the last day of the cruise because they had no one to sing him. I was able to bypass the auditions and sing if I wanted to. I thought about it for awhile then decided, what the heck? I was given the lyrics and an MP3 player to practice. Then we went to the show, "Jazzin'" which was pretty good. Late that night, I was starting to feel motion sickness. I had never felt that on my previous cruises. I went to bed early that night, 12. That's very late for me normally, but early on this cruise. Next time, I'll talk about Nassau.

Carnival Pride

I got back from my 5th cruise this past Sunday. Today, I'll talk about the first 2 and a half days at sea.

Sunday:

We flew from Albany to Baltimore because the ship was docked at Baltimore. We had a 7:30 flight. We were literally the 3rd and 4th person to check in and get our sign and sail cards at about 9:45. We had to wait in the air conditioned large room for over 2 hours. It wasn't very warm outside, therefore, it was freezing inside! We were one of the first 100 people on the ship. I had no idea what to do! I'm not used to being on the ship with so few people. We were able to get food without waiting. For me, it was heaven, haha. It was overcast and misting all day. The boat left at about 4:30. That night, I did karaoke with a live band. I sang "Free Fallin" by Tom Petty and did ok for my standards. I then watched a game show and the welcome aboard show. That show was exactly the same as it was last cruise. I then watched the comedians, shockingly skipped the casino, and went to bed around 12:45.

Monday:

I woke up around 7:30 because that's when my body told me to wake up. I ate breakfast and was on the lido deck laying in the sun by 9AM. I know a lot of people like to sleep on days they are at sea. Not me! If I sleep, it will be by laying out in the sun! Before noon that day, I had read, ran the track, went in the pool, and went in the hot tub. That's my idea of a productive and relaxing day! It was rainy in the afternoon. I ran the treadmill and of course the sun came out while I was running. I then went to sports trivia. This night was formal night and I had prime rib, mmmmmmm. I then went to the comedian who wasn't very funny. After that, the show was "Around the World". That was an outstanding show. The second comedian was much better than the first. I finished my night at the casino until around 1:15.

Tuesday:

Again, I was up early and out on the lido deck by 9. I ran the track again and then played some mini golf. I did a whole lot of laying in the sun all day. I did sports trivia before dinner again. After dinner, I sang "Rockstar" by Nickelback. I didn't do well at all, oh well. I went to the family version comedy show which was lame (not because it was clean for families, it wasn't funny at all). The motown show was alright. I then played some poker yet again until about 12:45. As you can see, during the day when we are at sea, I love doing nothing but laying in the sun. At night, I love going to the show, the comedians, and gambling a little bit. Next time, I'll talk about visiting the ports.

Back to Work

I promise I'll write about my cruise soon! I've just been busy the last two nights doing laundry, getting stuff ready for the new school year, and being very tired. I went back to school today to start getting my room ready. The kids start next Friday. Yes, you read that correctly. We normally start on a Thursday. This year, Rosh Hashanah falls on Thursday. Therefore, the teachers have workshops Tuesday and Wednesday as normal, no one has work or school Thursday, then we start on Friday. I know, it's very strange. We had no Internet today for whatever reason. That was a great way for me, the computer aide, to start on a Monday the day after returning from my cruise. Someone came to take a look at it. We will see if it's fixed tomorrow. I have lots of decorations and stuff to put up tomorrow. At least my room will look good for the start of the school year!

The Details

I am unfortunately home from my cruise. Over the next week, I'll be explaining many details about the positives and negatives throughout this cruise. Right now I'm far too tired to do that. Overall, I had an outstanding time. In the meantime, you can check out the 209 pictures on Facebook. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Cover Songs

I can't stand how many "artists" these days redo the exact song that an artist in the 70's or 80's did. I can think of way too many examples of this, but won't name any. I remember I think 2 years ago, I heard a 5th grader start singing "Straight up" by Paula Abdul. I was shocked he knew the song. I said, "You know who Paula Abdul is?" He said, "Who?" Then I said, "The song you are singing is by Paula Abdul. Wait, it must be a cover song by some horrible rapper." I looked it up and it was a song redone by some rapper. It's sad that singers can't come up with original ideas anymore. It's the same thing in the movie business. They redo movies done in the 70's. Of course I've never seen movies from the 70's but I'd prefer to see an original idea. Oh well. It's only going to get worse. The reason I'm writing this very early is because I have a busy night tonight and then I leave early for my 7 day cruise tomorrow! This is my last blog post until at least next Sunday. See ya!

Applauding After a Movie

Yesterday after the movie, many people clapped. I have never and will never understand why people do that. If we saw a live production on Broadway, then yes, you will clap when it's done. You don't clap after you see a movie in a movie theater. Do you clap when you watch a movie at home? Do you clap after you see a TV show? Do you boo if you don't like the movie? I find these things very strange. Luckily no one was clapping after the movie I saw today. I want my two hours back. My friends wanted to see Percy Jackson and I unfortunately went with them. Luckily I had a free movie pass. That movie was not my type at all. No matter how much I like a movie, I'm not clapping after it's finished.

We're the Millers

I just got back from seeing We're the Millers. Stupid humor movies are hit or miss with me. Sometimes I love them. Sometimes I hate them. Although this movie pretty much showed all the hilarious scenes in the previews, I still enjoyed it. It's about a fake family trying to bring drugs into the country from Mexico. As in any movie, they have issues. Naturally the issues they have are portrayed in a funny way. What will happen at the end? I guess you'll have to watch it to find out!

Mom's Cooking

You know how when everyone says, Just like mom's cooking? 10 times out of 10 when they say that they are giving the chef compliments because it was as good as their mom's cooking. If I were to say that to someone, it'd be an insult. I was out today so my mm had to cook. She hates cooking and usually sets it and forgets it. I came home to do the dishes. I gave her the easiest meal in the world to make: spaghetti and warm up the sauce. My dad makes sauce and we freeze batches and just warm them up before we eat pasta. That's all my mom had to do. The spaghetti pot had spaghetti stuck to the bottom. The sauce pot had a big burn mark on the bottom. Are you kidding me? She just let's it sit there and doesn't stir. I'll be gone all week next week for my cruise. That means my mom will have to cook. I feel bad for my dad. He'll be eating some pretty bad tasting meals. If my mom were to read this blog post, she wouldn't be offended. She knows she's a bad cooker and she hates cooking with a passion so she doesn't care. No one will ever want me to compare their food to mom's cooking because that means it was horrible!

Fatherly Instincts, or not

While at my aunts house, my cousin visited from Buffalo. She of course brought her husband and her 4 month old baby. When she first came to visit in May, I didn't have the opportunity to hold her newborn. This time, I finally had the chance to hold her for a little bit...literally. What a mistake that was. Note: I held the baby during her cranky time of day. I held her and she let out a scream that her mother had never heard before. She tried to push me away from her, at 4 months old! I was nervous I was going to lose my grip on her. Luckily I didn't, but I quickly transferred her to my aunt, who apparently knows how to hold babies. This baby shut up immediately. It must have been something I did. I don't know. Her mother says since it was her cranky time, she didn't recognize my smell and didn't want me holding her. It was 5PM, I'm sure I stunk pretty badly. I guess it's a good thing I don't plan on having kids any time soon. I think this event has scarred me for life!

Lobster

I'm not a fan of seafood at all. I can eat fried haddock and that's as far as I'll go. Every Labor Day, I go over to my aunts house for a clam bake. She puts chicken, potatoes, sweet potatoes, sausage, and corn on the cob in a cheese cloth and steams it with clams on the bottom of the pot. She makes them without clams for my family. She also always makes lobster during this time. When I say she, I actually mean he. My uncle does all of this. We had the clam bake yesterday since family was up. I decided to try lobster yesterday for the first time. It smells awful. I hear everyone say how wonderful it is. I didn't expect to like it. I took a small bite and chewed and chewed and chewed. I didn't really taste anything. Therefore, I wouldn't call it awful. I wouldn't call it good either. I definitely couldn't eat an entire lobster. Now I can at least say I tried lobster.

The Great Crepitation Contest

If you have 15 minutes to spare, I highly recommend you listen to this. that's all I have to say! I literally am speechless after listening to this. I was almost in tears.

Guest Blog Post

I was asked to write a blog post for a fellow author. I graciously agreed to do so. It was posted today. Here is what I wrote:

The following is a guest post from author Shane Pacelli, author of The Teacher That Didn’t Teach and The Teacher That Taught Too Much.  I hope you all enjoy his tips for publishing success!  He’s very personable, and I encourage all of you to follow him on Twitter and check out his books.

To Agent, or not to Agent
I was honored when Jessica asked me to write a guest blog post on her blog. I will admit, this is my first time ever posting something in someone else’s blog. This past Tuesday, we were talking about whether or not to get a literary agent for your book(s) on #indiechat. For those of you who don’t know what #indiechat is, it’s a chat that we do on Twitter every Tuesday night at 9PM Eastern time using the hash tag #indiechat. We have wonderful conversations about various topics that concern independent authors. It generally produces a lot of great side discussions. I started joining these chats about four or five weeks ago and I highly recommend them to any independent author.
My exact tweet that night that intrigued Jessica was, “I’ve been selling fairly well without an agent. My main focus right now is writing my next book. #indiechat”. I am a children’s author with two chapter books that I self-published. My first book, The Teacher That Didn’t Teach, came out in July 2012 (It was finished in July 2011, but it took me a long time to find out how to self-publish the way I wanted it) and my second book, The Teacher That Taught Too Much came out in September 2012. I definitely searched for a literary agent and a publisher. I sent out many, many query letters looking for both an agent and/or a publisher that was interested in my works. I received many rejections. I also didn’t hear back from many of the people I sent letters to. I had an offer from a smaller publisher, but declined it because they wanted to charge what I thought was way too much for my 140-page children’s book. If I want someone to publish my book, I want them to do it on my terms.
It was at that point that I decided to stop worrying about querying literary agents and publishers. Can they do a great job with my book and sell it better than I am? I’m sure they can. The reason I stopped was because I have been selling, between the two books, over 50 copies on kindle every month since December 2012. My highest monthly total I believe was 98. Is that a ton? No. Do I think it’s a lot? Absolutely. My thought was since I’m selling much more books than I expected, I don’t want to spend my valuable time trying to find an agent or publisher. If someone finds me and wants to take me on and the terms work, great! If not, I’m not going to lose sleep over it.
Ever since I was a student in sixth grade, I have wanted to be an elementary school teacher. Yes, you read that correctly. I never thought in a million years I’d be an author. The idea for my first book came to me one April day in 2011 and I went with it. I am currently an aide in an elementary school looking for a full-time teaching position. I spend a lot of time looking for teaching jobs. I’d rather spend my time looking for my dream job than looking for a publisher. I also want to spend my time working on the third book in the series because I love writing.
What have I done to sell “so many” books each month? I am on an extremely tight budget. Although I love writing and am extremely proud of the books I have written, I really don’t want to spend a lot of money to get it published or on advertising. I paid an illustrator to illustrate my covers for me since I can’t draw to save my life. Other than that, I wrote, formatted, and edited my books all by myself. There are a few grammatical errors in my books, but for the most part, I don’t think it’s too bad. It could definitely be better. I should spend money on an editor, but they are very expensive! I have not paid for any advertisement and I honestly have no idea how I can consistently sell 50+ books a month. I follow many, many authors on Twitter. I try to retweet their tweets randomly. I try to interact with them to get ideas. I started participating in #indiechat a few weeks ago. Depending on how many books you are looking to sell, you may not have to spend hundreds of dollars on advertising. You can get the word out on Twitter. I highly recommend that you follow and interact with other authors. You can also send your books out to get reviewed by reviewers. They don’t ask for a fee. They just ask for a copy of your book. I also obsess about my books to anyone I can. I hope that when I tell people about my books that it doesn’t come across as bragging. I’m just incredibly proud of my hard work, as any author should be.

How to Get Your Book Out There for FREE

• Have a Twitter account
• Follow authors and randomly retweet their tweets about books.
• Online under the link to your book, check out the “customers who bought this item also bought…” section and discreetly mention your book while reviewing similar books.
• Tweet a link to your book, but not all of the time. I’d recommend maybe once every 20 tweets.
• Tweet your ideas for future books and ask for suggestions
• Tweet useful information for your fellow author and reader followers
• Start a blog, have a link to that blog in your Twitter.
• If your book is strictly on Amazon, join KDP select. You can offer your book to customers for free up to 5 days in a 90-day period. That will definitely bring some exposure to your book and help get the word out.

All of those tips are very time consuming, but FREE! Always remember that you worked very hard on your book. People work very hard for their money. My books are $7.99 for the hard copy and 99 cents for the kindle version. I don’t want my customers paying too much for my work. At this point, I’m selling my books to get exposure and to see if anything special can come of it. I’m not in this for money. At this point, I can’t make anywhere near a living off of my book sales. I’m quite content with where I am though. I hope you found at least some of the information useful. Thank you so much for reading this post. Remember to follow me on Twitter: @pacelli_shane. Feel free to email me with any comments, questions, or suggestions: spacelli36@gmail.com. Happy writing!

About the author:
 Shane Pacelli was born in Albany, New York on July 8, 1987. He is currently a Computer Aide at an elementary school in hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher. He graduated with his Bachelor’s degree from SUNY Potsdam in May 2009 where he majored in Childhood Education. In December 2010, Shane completed his Master’s program at The College of Saint Rose. His first book, “The Teacher That Didn’t Teach”, is a fictional account of what hopefully never happens in a school setting. That novel has nothing to do with Shane’s personal teaching style. His second novel is the opposite end of the spectrum, “The Teacher That Taught Too Much”.

When is Good not Good Enough?

I was asked this question today. I had to repeat the question out loud to make sure I was interpreting it correctly. My response to the people that asked me that question was: always. Good is never good enough. I don't try to be good at anything. I strive for greatness. I don't want my students to be good. I want them to be great. I give 100% effort into everything I do. I expect the same from my students. Why do anything if you only want to be good at it? I don't want to be a good teacher. I want to be a great teacher. Why settle for good when you can be great? If you're mentality is to only be good at something, you won't even be that. You need to push yourself and put in lots of effort into everything you do. You can get only as much as you put into life. Go out there and be great!

Sometimes, I Wish...

I was 6' 10" tall. On a day like today, I needed to be much taller. The PGA Championship was expectedly jam packed with people. It was incredibly hard to find a spot by the green to see the players putt. I wold often see them putt, but would not see the hole itself. If I saw the ball disappear, I knew it went in the hole. If I heard loud cheering, I knew it went in the hole. If I were 6' 10" tall, I'd have no problem seeing everything. The coolest part about today was being literally inches away from some of the biggest names in the sport. I saw Tiger Woods in person and illegally got a few pictures of him and some other players. I wasn't very close to him though. 6 players I was very close to were Bubba Watson, Lee Westwood, Tim Clark, Martin Kaymer, Vijay Singh, and one of my favorite players, Rory McIlroy. I didn't get to see Phil Mickelson play at all. That was upsetting. We were up at 6AM, at the course around 7:30, didn't leave until 4:30, and got home at 9:30. Overall, it was quite a long, exhausting, yet fun day.

Golf

I'm playing golf tomorrow for the first time in I think two years. Lord help us all. I am far from a good player. If I shoot 130 tomorrow on the par 72, that will be outstanding. I hit a bucket of balls last week to get back in the swing of things (haha, did you see what I did there? Pun intended). I hit some decent ones and I hit some bad ones. I'm not expecting anything special from my "game" tomorrow. My dad, grandpa, and I are golfing tomorrow morning then heading to Rochester. We are going to see the first round of the PGA championship on Thursday! We went to that exact course five years ago for the senior PGA championship. That was a ton of fun. This will be better because these aren't the old farts and we get the opportunity to see more players play. I will get to see Tiger Woods in person! When I say I'll see him in person, I mean I'll probably be 200 yards from him because everyone on the course will follow his group. Either way, It's going to be awesome!

Woman Cave

Everyone's heard of the term "man cave", right? A man cave is a room dedicated to the man in the house. He gets to go there to get away from everyone. It's his own personal space that he hangs out in alone or with friends. My mom just made the term "woman cave" for a room she just made for herself. After my brothers moved out, we made my older brothers room a guest room. My mom turned my younger brothers room into her own craft room. She used to sit on the couch downstairs and do her work. Now she can always be found in her woman cave doing various projects. You will never catch me doing anything in her woman cave!

Construction

The grocery store I so happily work at is going through some major renovations. They finally started in March, after saying they were going to start about two years ago. The plan on being finished in December. Every time I work I hear a different rumor from an employee or five about what is happening and when. I heard our aisles were supposed to be wider. They have started tearing up the tiles on the floor, put new flooring down, and redoing the aisles. They look even more narrow than before! They are also expanding the store to take over part of the next store. It's already a big store, why make it bigger? It has greatly affected business. Sunday's used to be busy all of the time. Now it's rarely too busy. Competition has also affected our business. That's probably why we are renovating the store. I am excited to see the finished product. I think it will be insanely busy for a month or two after the remodel is done, then die down again. We will see...

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

If you are looking for a movie to stay away from, I've got one for you. I want the hour and 34 minutes of my life back that I wasted on The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. It's a movie with Steve Carell and Jim Carey. I like Steve Carell, can't stand Jim Carey. Steve Carell is a magician who is older and doesn't have any new magic tricks. Jim Carey is a "magician" who does ridiculous things that he calls magic and everyone seems to love. The movie is not funny at all. It's incredibly stupid and a complete waste of everyone's time. I would highly recommend that you do not watch it.

Chickens

This morning, my mom told me to come downstairs because I had to see something. In our lawn, inches away from us, were three chickens! They didn't run away from people like birds, squirrels, and other outdoor animals do. Apparently someone in the other development has those exact type of chickens, but those weren't his! My mom and neighbor decided to let them go because besides pooping in our yard, they weren't causing any problems. We have had some strange animals in our yard before, but never chickens. We have had foxes, raccoons, of course skunks, and even a deer once. We often get several wild turkeys hanging out in our backyard in the fall time too. This is the first time I've seen chickens in our yard. I watched them cross the road to get to our yard. Why did the chicken cross the road? haha. You never know what's going to show up in your backyard!

Impractical Jokers

If you like to laugh, you need to watch Impractical Jokers on TruTV on Thursdays at 10. They normally have repeat episodes on an hour before the new episodes. It's a show about four guys who play jokes on one another. If a person doesn't do what the other people told them to do, they lose and face another embarrassing task at the end of the show. Naturally the things that they are asked to do are extremely embarrassing. It's similar to Jackass but a lot safer. They don't do things that will hurt anyone. Jackass is also a horrible show and this one isn't. I laugh the entire time because the things they have to do in front of random people is insane. I definitely could not do anything that they are supposed to do. You should watch it if you want to laugh.