The girls are off of school during a much deserved break.  As with every other break, this has been met with a first day of busy activity then, “We’re bored.”

“Want to go to the pool?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Want to ride bikes?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Want to play outside?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Want to watch TV?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Want to go on the computer?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Do crafts?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Read a book?”

“No.  Did that.”

“Call some friends to come over?”

“No.  Did that.  They can’t come over now.”

“Go beat up little old ladies and men in the streets?”

“No.”

“Well…what DO you want to do?!?”

“We don’t know…we’re bored.  Wait, we know what to do!  Let’s bother daddy in his office!”

Yup…I love school breaks.

The summer battles have begun…S vs. K, S vs. Ms. W, S vs. the world.

And it’s only the second day of break.

Someone, please to explain:

• I understand that money is tight.
• I understand that certain areas need to be “made more cost effective.”
• I understand that the needs of a few will fall to the needs of the many.

BUT…

• How can a school fire a teacher that was just named “Teacher of the Year” as part of cost cutting?
• How can a school release their entire library staff?
• How can the school system allow the schools to dump their music and second language programs?
• How can the school system make teachers take 10 unpaid vacation days and yet not allow them to take those days when school is in session and the teachers are actually working?
• How can the state make the tech college instructors (and other state workers) give BACK part of their pay?

Seriously…how is this really helping the people of NC?  Aren’t teachers (and the students they teach) people too?

I’ve been away for a while…’tis true.  Mostly because of work and family, but when it gets down to it, that “Facebook” thing really commanded much of my blogging time.  Face it, in this instantaneous satisfaction world, there’s a difference in posting a three to four paragraph article with limited chance of being seen, and a 80 word “status” that you know most of your friends will see.  Granted, they might not be paying attention, but it’s there on their “wall.”

Anyway, that’s about to change.

I’m about to start writing for a national blogging group as part of their “Southeast” contingent.  As I get ready to put up my first post, I’ll provide the whats, whos and wheres.  But because this is a fairly well known site, I may get the chance for my own blog to increase in hits.  This will require me to at least put some entertaining stuff here.  Or not. Depends on what’s “entertaining.”

I’m building a list of topics, but need to decide what’s for “here” and what’s for “there.”

The truth is, though, it’s scares me a bit.

Yup…I’ll be back publishing more inane stuff and I’ll soon have an Exciting announcement. Stay tuned, kids!

Is anybody here?

It’s been a bit since your humble servant had a moment to jot down some thoughts…let’s see what’s happened in that time…shall we?  Oh yeah…I received a instant message from my manager with the phrase, “I need to call you about some changes to your job.”

Now, in “the old days,” that could’ve meant something like, “We’re not going to pay for pens anymore.”  These days, however…

Turns out, I am being removed from my long standing position with my customer, but not with the company. Truth is, it is about time for me to move on from this current assignment, anyway.  I’ve already started training my replacement. So, in the next two weeks, I’ll no longer be project managing anything for this customer.  I will be staying on the account until the end of April as a “mentor/trainer” for Project Managers coming to the account from our India organization.  Then I’ll be moving on to a new project management area…stay tuned.

I have to say, though, it was scary there for a bit.

At 3:00 AM in the morning, while asleep and wearing headphones, you can feel or hear or sense the impending doom of a cat getting ready to hork on you. While my eyes were still closed, I found the offender and tossed her off the bed…unfortunately, she landed on my laptop and let loose that which offended her.  (My laptop was closed, so it was a fairly easy cleanup.)

The RSO is at Jones Auditorium, Meredith College. 8:00 PM … this will be a FREE concert! (A rarity.)

For all the years I’ve been playing music…

For all the classical concerts I’ve seen…

I’ve finally realized why, when I listen to similar music on stereo or headphones, I sometimes have to flip the left/right channels.

Most of the time I listen to music, it’s from being on stage with the orchestra. In this case, I’m facing out toward the house, so the cellos are on my left and violins my right. When I’m watching a concert, I’m looking toward the stage, so in this case, I can see that the cellos are on my right and violins left.  However, when just listing to the music on CD or headphones, I don’t have the visual marker of where the instruments are, so my brain tries to adjust to my “normal” mode which is from a players perspective, so I need to flip the channels to adjust and make everything sound correct.

The brain is a funny thing.