The report cards are in for the children. I know they can do better, and while I feel as though that is almost cliche, I really do believe that they can. I have to evaluate how I can better guide them to utilize their time more effectively in getting all their assignments done. It’s certainly a balancing act as always as we try and balance having a clean room, having the homework complete, and doing whatever else it is that they need to get done for that day.
I need to add pictures to flickr for them to show up in the new little widget I have here, so what I needed was an easy to way to get pictures off my phone and on to flickr. I went to the same place I always go when I have questions about what is and is not possible concerning my phone and that is Krhainos.
He let me know that there is a really simple application that sends my pictures to flickr with relative ease. I can pick pictures off of my phone or send them as soon as I take them. This program is Shozu. Now I can take pictures of the places I go and the things I see and you can all see them as well. I think that’s really cool.
I know Agent2690’s blog is made up almost entirely of pictures with very little, to no actual typing. I always sorted of wanted that reversed for my own blog. Now with a pictures section and this widget I think I’m getting close to that reality.
I was reading through some of my friends blogs, and I noticed that Rombus added a flickr.com "widget" or whatever you want to call it to the sidebar of his blog. Now I just signed up for the site myself, even though many of my friends have actually had an account for a very long time. I also downloaded a program for my phone that allows me to upload photos directly from my phone to flickr every time I take a picture. It only made sense that I should add something similar to my own site.
I don’t know if wordpress, which is what I’m using to run this site, is dying or maybe just has an extraordinarily bad community, but it actually took quite a lot of work to locate a widget that would work. I know they are still updating wordpress, so someone is still working on this thing and improving it, but the widgets, which are supposed to be a great easy way to add things to the wordpress site, are lacking in almost every way. If you start your search for the flickr widget on the wordpress site you will be confused as it links to a site that hasn’t been updated in several months and actually provides one broken link and a widget that breaks the latest version of wordpress. That means that you should probably start with google.
I do have a warning about google. "Someone" has been spamming sites with a "how to" video on this subject, and I say "someone" because I know exactly who it is since they say so at the beginning of the video, but I have no intention on naming or linking to this rubbish. The problem is that this 10 minute video, and it really is the longest 10 minutes of your life, goes on and on without actually saying anything or helping in the slightest. I know now why you have to go to college and take courses on teaching, and that reason is because otherwise you will do a horrifically bad job at getting a point across and waste everyone’s time.
I finally found a working widget, which I have down to the left now. I made some slight edits to it. I think the author of the widget was being just a tad too prideful, so I removed his name from the bottom of the widget, and I have to say that’s the first time I’ve seen someone put their name on their creation where it is actually going to show up on your site. I intend on taking more pictures, sending them to the site, and then I’ll probably move that widget up so it’s up top for everyone to see when I’ve got a collection of photos that is worth seeing.
The van wouldn’t start this morning. At first the general consensus was that it was the starter. We left the van alone for awhile. The day went on and it sat in the sun, I wouldn’t say that it warmed up a great deal, but it did go up by several degrees. I figured I’d give it another go and the van started up. Starters aren’t necessarily affected by the cold, so now I’m thinking battery. The automotive shop confirmed it, and it is fixed.
The windshield wipers stopped working. I had to make an appointment and go down to the shop with my car in order to get it looked at.
It turned out that the motor has a fail safe where if it’s under too much pressure, due to say ice or something else blocking it, then the arm, that I assume makes the wipers move, actually detaches itself. I really need to learn to fix this one by myself instead of having to take it to a shop, because if all it involves is really reattaching an arm that isn’t broke, but simply just popped off in order to keep the motor from burning out then I could probably do that myself.
I got all of the classes that I needed for this semester. It is just a matter of passing all these classes, the Praxis II, and I believe I have one other test of sorts that I have to take. Then it’s off to 2 classes for this summer and then if I do all that then I should be, hopefully, student teaching this fall.
I went ahead and put the pictures up for Christmas 2008 here in our house in Akron. It’s a great set of pictures. I managed to get Eddy, Patty, and even one of Grandma. I probably should have taken more, but I was exhausted and I think I did a pretty decent job.
I still have one more picture to add, and that is when Michelle finally opens her gift that is still here waiting.
The microwave finally gave out. It had a good run. I really thought it was going to kick the bucket when the hum it always made started to get louder and louder over the last year. Now it’s only good for timing things, and since I already have a timer I don’t need it in my kitchen.
I am going to scrounge up all the gift cards I can from this holidays and hopefully get a new one. While I’m not a big fan and could certainly live without the microwave it’s my Grandmother and the kids who desperately want it. I like how things taste out of the oven.
This is the first day of the Spring semester at the University of Akron. I will be going to my classes, as well as a few classes I am not registered for. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that the professors whose classes I show up to this week find it in their hearts to let me stay in their class. It’s a heck of a lot of classes (16 credit hours total if I get into these two classes), but I sort of need them.
Probably update this on Friday when I know better what’s going on.
Tim and I went down to Columbus this weekend, and I believe the word “finally” fits in here nicely. See the trip has kind of been being planned since November, but at that time I wanted to wait till after finals. Finals came and went, and then I believe I got sick. Then Tim’s Grandfather got sick. Then some other things happened. I guess a month and four canceled opportunities isn’t all that bad, but it seems like it was a long time coming.
I found out that in case of a snow storm I don’t want to be in Akron. Nothing makes this more apparent than driving away from Akron, and then having to come back. It seems that when driving anywhere Akron is always piled beneath a foot of snow, but every where else has snow plows that come out and clear the roads. They even put down salt. It’s amazing what you get when you don’t live in Akron.
It was nice to see Rick and Melissa. They have a roommate currently, from Alabama, who wanted to move up here for a while. She got a job working where Melissa does, and she is experiencing all the freezing rain and snow that Ohio has to offer. At least the driving doesn’t look too bad.
While we were down there they got me cymbals for the Rock Band 2 drums for Christmas. I really do think they are cool, even though I’m not entirely sure how to use them. They are easy to assemble. They seem to work flawlessly. It’s just that you sort of have to retrain yourself to use them. Awesome gift. Tim got a gift card and I have a gift for Jo in my car, but I’m not driving out there till the roads get nicer.
It was a nice trip, and I’m sure in about a month they’ll go ahead and come up here. Then it’ll be our turn again.