All I Really Needed to Know in Life I Learned On....Pinterest

This summer I got sucked into the internet phenomenon that is Pinterest.  This online "pin board" is a way to find and organize web sites that contain information you want or need.  You can "follow" other people's pins and then re-pin those pins onto your own boards.

It's really absorbing, as is most of the Internet.  One can go through Pinterest pins for hours without noticing the time go by.  I have found great recipes, DIY projects, tutorials for fixing things, teaching ideas, and much more in my hours of Pinteresting.  I have pinned significantly more web sites and projects than I probably will have the time to ever try, but I have tried several of the things I've pinned with mostly success.

I even started a Pinterest club at my school for our Activity Period Club time.  I have over 30 girls who bring in supplies to make treats or other projects they found on Pinterest.  We've had all kinds of fun making glitter t-shirts, doing nail art techniques, and of course making yummy treats.

In my months of Pinteresting, I have learned several things.

1. Regular blue Dawn dishwashing soap, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, and vinegar are miracle products.  There isn't anything on the face of this earth that you can't clean or improve with one of these (or a mixture of them).   Thank goodness all of these are so inexpensive.  I stock up on baking soda, especially.  Jillee (One Good Thing by Jillee) is the queen of home cleaning tips with these products.  Here she talks about Hydrogen Peroxide Magic.
2.  People love the flavors of pumpkin pie and s'mores.  Even in the middle of July, Pinners were pinning recipes that involved these flavors.  I brought in this S'mores Dip to my Pinterest club and the only illustration I can think of to describe the reaction of those girls was that they looked like piranhas around a piece of meat.
3. Nail art is cool.  Impossible to do on your own (I tried a couple of them), but cool.
4. If you can't find a tutorial to DIY something, you can't DIY.
5. Reusing and recycling are definitely possible, especially if you have a lot of old t-shirts.  There are so many things you can do to "upcycle" or recycle t-shirts beyond cutting them up into rags.  Quilts, headbands, tote bags, you name it.  Face it, all of us have so many t-shirts that we will never be able to wear them out.  Jillee has some links to stuff you can do with old t-shirts to make them useful.  This has led to a problem...saving things like old jars, paper towel tubes, plastic containers and more, "just in case" you could find something to do with them.
6. You can find a slow cooker version of almost any recipe, even bread.  Slow cookers are the miracle appliance in the kitchen, evidently.

I'm sure there are more lessons I could explain, but these are the best.  If you haven't been sucked into the internet black hole that is Pinterest, find someone to invite you.  

Economics from a non-Economic Person

I don't know much about economics, finances, or anything of the like.  I am exceedingly trusting of my credit union that my balance in my accounts is what they say it is.  I generally pay all my bills on time, although I forget sometimes.  It all eventually works out.  I could be more organized on this subject but so far I haven't had any major disasters.

All of the above is a disclaimer that the thoughts I am sharing come only from personal musings on the matter, not any kind of specialized knowledge.  I am only sharing what I've been pondering.  I am not as informed on this matter as I could be; I haven't read extensively on the subject.

What I do know is that this issue probably is much more complicated than the average American citizen will admit to.  Certainly the news outlets are trying to simplify things so that we can choose a side of some kind.

Recently major restaurants, such as Papa John's, have made the news.  Papa John's founder has blamed Obama's health care policies for either forcing him to raise prices on pizza, or lay off workers because he can't afford to supply health care for his workers.  Other major restaurant chains have also come under fire for deliberately scheduling "full time" workers below 32 hours per week, thus avoiding the requirement to pay for health insurance.   And of course Walmart is the evil empire as well for how it treats its employees.

I have Facebook friends who are posting memes, infographics, and the like urging us to boycott these kinds of businesses.   According to them, these businesses are horrible for refusing health care to their workers.  From store management on up, the rights of the common worker are being ignored.  It makes sense.

It seems to be popular these days to portray big corporations as evil.  But then I started to think.  Next to the federal government, Walmart is one of the largest employers in the US.  Think about how many people a single Super Walmart store employs.  I would imagine that for every employee we see on the floor of one of these stores, there are at least 10 employees we don't see (those who load and unload the trucks, those who drive and maintain the trucks, and so on.)  While Walmart may not offer benefits to all of its workers, it employs millions of Americans.   If a Walmart closes in a community, the economic impact would be enormous.

These companies do not ship in workers from outside the community to work in their facilities.  They hire local employees, use local services, and donate to local charities.  My school benefits once a month from "spirit nights" put on by restaurants, some of them national chains, that provide a percentage of an evening's sales to our school.  They sponsor little league teams, high school athletic teams, and much more.  The people who work there are a part of the community.

These chains employ local workers.  Employee hours are based on sales revenue.  Boycotting a business like this doesn't, in the long run, really affect the CEOs or other bigwigs.  It affects the individual restaurant and its employees.  If a local restaurant closes, local citizens lose their jobs.

This is where my thoughts are hard to express.

If I manage a business like this, let's say I have 25 employees.  However, if I want to offer a 40 hour work week to those employees, plus pay for benefits, I may have to cut 5 jobs in order to stay in budget, OR I can offer a 30 hour work week to all 25 of those employees.  What's the tradeoff?   Which is the better choice?   I'm just saying that a decision like this may or may not be related to profits or evil corporate greed.

Businesses, large and small, sometimes overlook the human element in pursuit of profits.   Even though I sometimes accuse my students of saying "But what if...?" too much, sometimes in situations like this, you have to ask, "But what if?"

I support local small businesses.  I do prefer "mom and pop" restaurants over chain restaurants. I'm also not ashamed to patronize national chains, either, because I know that they contribute to our community and provide jobs.

Three days of One-to-One

Wednesday, August 8 marked our first day of school.  The first day of our first year as a one-to-one school.  All of our students have their own laptops; those who are buying or leasing from the school have Macbook Airs, while other students have chosen to purchase their own Mac laptop of whatever variety.  (Our school's tech policy is located here.  It's pretty long--40+pages)

So I was expecting glitches to happen.  They did.  During first period on Wednesday we were supposed to walk our students through signing up for our Moodle classrooms.  Moodle is a course management system.  It has tons of features.  We as teachers did some minor training on Moodle this spring and we are expected to use Moodle in some way for our classes.  Since I teach English, I plan to use this a lot.  There are so many features that, once I get used to them, will make my life easier, especially in the sense of being paperless.

But enough explanation of Moodle.  As I said, we had to walk our students through signing up for Moodle.  In my first hour class a couple of kids couldn't get in, so I sent them to our tech director ASAP, as he requested.  Before I go any further I shall state that I have four sections of a class called "Introduction to Composition and Literature", which consists of freshmen and sophomores.  Teaching freshmen is an especially challenging task.  One reason is that not only are you teaching the material, but you also have to train them how to be high school students.  They make mistakes and do goofy things mostly because they are just clueless about the high school environment.  So teaching freshmen takes a lot more energy than teaching the older high school students.  Needless to say, walking these kids through signing up for Moodle took a little longer than with older kids.

Throughout the rest of the day there were still 2-3 kids in each class who hadn't gotten set up in Moodle for a variety of reasons.  On Thursday and Friday there were still some students who weren't set up BUT I think everything is under control now.

Another glitch centered around the enrollment in the Moodle classes themselves.  I and my colleague are teaching these Intro to Comp classes.  Somehow I could only see the freshmen participants and he could only see the sophomore participants.  The problem has been solved...our tech guy started 2 new classes from scratch.  On Friday I walked students through a process of moving something from the original class to the new one.  I asked the students to let me know if they did not have the new link, so I could let the tech guy know...he thought he had everyone in the right place but thought there might be a mistake or two.  Fifteen minutes AFTER I asked this in one class, a student raised her hand and informed me that she didn't have the new link.  Arrrgh!

Another "funny" happened with my Expository Writing class, which consists of juniors and seniors.  I had given them an assignment in which they researched their names and wrote a short paragraph about the meaning of their names and how it fit their personality or not.  They were to submit this assignment in Moodle.  One of my students raised his hand and told me that after he clicked on the link to submit the assignment, the connection timed out, all his work was lost, and he didn't feel like redoing it.  My answer was simple but probably harsher than it could have been.  I told him that if he wanted credit he should redo it, and that the assignment was available until 4 pm.

Things actually have been smoother than I expected.  Our network seemed to be handling the extra traffic and the students have been doing well with navigating the Moodle environment.  Granted, it's just been 3 days in, but I'm really excited to see what we can accomplish with this new tool.

Complaints of Olympic Proportion

As I wrote previously, I love the Olympics.  My television has pretty much been on a channel with Olympics coverage if it's been turned on.  I've watched a couple of episodes of Jeopardy, but mostly I've had the Olympics on the telly.  I'm a little sad that school starts on Wednesday because I won't be able to stay up until midnight watching the coverage.

Yesterday, Oscar Pistorius of South Africa was the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.  He competed in the Paralympics in Athens, but now he's in the spotlight in the London Olympics.  In the Equestrian event this morning, a 71 year-old competitor from Japan, Hiromi Hoketsu, is the oldest competitor in the Olympics.  If you watch anything related to the Olympics, you will see athletes proud to perform as representatives for their countries.

However, I'm a little distressed that in light of success, someone still seems to find something to criticize.  Gabby Douglas, who has 2 gold medals, has been criticized for her hair, and some feel uncomfortable with her statement of faith.  When she said, "And I give all the glory to God. It's kind of a win-win situation. The glory goes up to him and the blessings fall down on me," Christians admired her and non-Christians reviled her.  You can see her response to the hair controversy over on USA Today's Olympics page. (Image Source)

Additionally, on Fox News, the USA gymnastics team (and US fans) apparently aren't patriotic enough.  The hot pink and purple leotards worn by the USA women's team don't show enough USA spirit.  Not enough USA fans are chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A".

There will always be controversy surrounding the Olympics.  This Olympics isn't without it.  This year, 8 athletes were disqualified from the badminton competition because they deliberately threw matches in order to get an advantage in the next round.  Yet we're outraged that the US athletes aren't patriotic enough or that a young girl boldly states her faith.

I guess I'm enough of a Polyanna that I enjoy the Olympics for the competition and the overall pride in my country.  I'm amazed and inspired by the hard work and dedication it requires to become an Olympic-level athlete.  I said in another blog entry that I like being able to be see sports I've only heard of (this morning I watched some water polo).   I enjoy watching just to watch.  If the US wins, they win.  If they don't, they don't.  It disappoints me to watch our team lose, but I don't live or die by it.  If an athlete wants to express her gratitude to God, to her parents, or to her imaginary friend, let her do it.  If the uniforms aren't in-your-face patriotic, so what.  It doesn't change the fact that these athletes have worked hard to get to this level.  Have you worked as hard as they do to achieve what you've achieved?

Die Olympischen Spiele

I love the Olympics.  I just love them.

First of all, with today's technology, one can watch some sort of athletic competition all. the. time.  You pick what you want to watch, find it on the Internet, cable, or wherever, and watch world-class athletes putting out their best performances.  You can see how proud all of the athletes, coaches, and fans are.  You can appreciate the hours of practice and sacrifice that they have made to be a part of this great event.  As someone whose main participation in athletics is as a spectator, I admire the work and dedication it takes to be an elite athlete.  I personally don't think that, even if I had the skill, that I'd have the perservereance to be at that level.  Truly, I'm not sure I'd have that level of dedication to be elite in anything I have reasonable skill in.

Secondly, I just like the international nature of the Olympics.  In the US, if you are a sports fan, most of the competition you see is against other Americans.  I teach high school, and attend a lot of sporting events.  Rarely do our athletes compete against people from a different city, let alone a different state.  It's even my understanding that the Indiana High School Athletic Association has rules about how far a team can travel to compete.

The reason I like the international nature of the Olympics is that we get to see that for the most part, people are people and very little truly separates us.  I was watching the USA men's volleyball team compete against Germany today, live streamed on my iPad.  There was no commentary, just the game.  At time outs, the camera focused on both coaches.  At one point, the German coach told his team, "It's simple.  You just need to talk to each other!" (Well, he said it in German...)  I have been to my share of volleyball games, and I think that I have heard every single coach say that to his or her team at least once in a match.  It really made me chuckle.

I also especially enjoy being able to learn about sports that aren't in the mainstream.  While the marquee sports of the Summer Olympics are gymnastics, swimming, and track and field, I've had a chance to see some others that I might not even get a chance to see.  Sunday I watched a little bit of the USA Women's Field Hockey match.  It was really interesting.  Who knows, maybe some young athlete out there will be inspired to try some kind of competition they'd never heard of before.

On a slightly lighter note, I'm also generally intrigued buy the uniforms of all of the athletes.  Not only do I enjoy watching the competition, but I rate the attractiveness of the uniforms.  I guess I'm just a girl that way.

Finally, and it should be no surprise, I just love seeing the American patriotism that it brings about.  Especially in light of recent years when it seems like we are the Divided States of America rather than the United States of America.  No matter what your political or philosophical leanings are, I think most Americans would agree that they love to support our American athletes.  To hear the chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" helps me to believe that there's hope for our nation.  Maybe.

Repurposing

I have been sucked into Pinterest this summer.  I've pinned recipes, craft ideas, health and beauty tips, and more.  One of the main kinds of pins I've enjoyed are the craft and DIY ideas that repurpose things.    It's inspired me to try to find some things to repurpose, and actually to repurpose something I've been meaning to do for a while.

I love Partylite candles.  A few years ago I bought a wall sconce for their Slim Hurricane jar candles.  I like jar candles because you can use them without special candle holders or you can put special decorations (shades, etc) on them.  This is what it looks like:

Anyway, I never considered that Partylite would discontinue the candle.  I knew they'd discontinue the sconce, because they do that kind of thing.  I was a Premier Designs jeweler for a while, and replacing things is just part of the business.  People want new things.

So last summer, I burned the last of my slim hurricane candles.  I don't burn candles a lot.  I think I had purchased a total of 2 of the candles.  I saved the glass jar because, well, it felt wasteful not to.  I was using the one as a coin jar.  But then I found out that my Partylite consultant used hers as drinking glasses, so when the 2nd burned away, I found a new coin receptacle and used the 2 slim hurricanes for  drinking glasses.  When I had my annual Partylite party, I thought I'd be able to order another slim hurricane, but NO!  I discovered they were discontinued.

I tried to fit a pillar candle in it, which it did, but I didn't like how it looked.  I didn't want to get rid of the sconce, so I sought the advice of my consultant.  She suggested that I could fill in the glass with something and then put a tea light or votive candle in it.

After pondering, I went to the dollar store.  Initially I thought I would use glass marbles or glass decorative pieces, but then I found some craft stones, river stones.  They were shades of brown, cream, and gray. The colors blended with what I have in my living room!  And they cost just $1.  I had a glass votive holder.  I filled the slim hurricane glass about halfway full with the stones, put in the votive holder, and then put stones around the votive holder.  Then I added the votive candle, and voila! My slim hurricane sconce is serviceable again!

Here's the final result!  I think it looks pretty attractive, and I was able to repurpose something economically!

Guilty Pleasures

Summertime has been, for me, a time that I indulge some of my guilty pleasures, and develop new ones.

My biggest guilty pleasure is sleeping.  I do my best to keep my wake-up time around 9:00 or 9:30 in the mornings during the summer.  Joining things like a Bible study that starts in the morning, going to water fitness class during the day helps.  But sometimes I just stay up late and sleep in late.  I've also tended to take naps in the afternoon.  If I've had a particularly energetic workout in water fitness, or if I've done some yard work, I'll take a nap in the afternoon.

My other indulgence is too much TV.  I take the chance to catch up on series I've missed, and also to experience new ones.  The latest guilty pleasure I've discovered is the new Dallas.  I remember the original Dallas--my parents watched it faithfully every week.  I was just as interested in "Who Shot JR?" as anyone.  I thought that Bobby Ewing's "death" being all a dream was just as ridiculous as everyone else did.

The latest incarnation of Dallas is just as good, or should I say bad, as the original.  It's campy, it's ludicrous, it's simply ridiculous!  Just like in the original series, everyone is going behind everyone else's back.  As a viewer, I am wondering why everyone trusts each other, or why they even have any kind of relationship at all.  Why any of these people interact with the outside world is beyond me.  Seriously...why would anyone really believe that JR Ewing is out to serve anyone but himself?  Yet for some reason, the very people he's screwed in the past give him chance after chance.  I suppose that's what makes for good TV.

I will keep my Wednesday nights open for Dallas.  This week, I forgot to catch the first showing of it at 9:00, so I had to wait until TNT replayed the episode at 11:00.  Which means I had to stay up later...and try not to sleep in too late!