Thursday, June 14, 2012

Tina's Ten Tidbits #2




  1. Why doesn't open office realize that I write everything in papyrus 14 and just default to that? What is it with this world's obsession with Times Roman and why is it the default? (Yes, I've looked for settings to “customize my experience”, and this free, pretty good, but wonky from time to time software has none that I've been able to discover. )

  1. Speaking of “customize my experience”, that is a phrase that puts fear in my heart and gives me the creepy-crawlies. To me it's saying, “We're watching you, and we'll make sure everyone else knows every song you like, every video you watch, and tell you what you have in common with your friends.” No thanks, I know my friends, and I like my privacy.

  2. You scoff when I say privacy, thinking, “This girl let's it all hang out at Life is Good.” Yes, I'll blog about anything from anorexia to Zoloft, but that's my choice, my blog, and besides, my mom can't remember how to get here, so I'm pretty safe. (I have it book-marked in her favorites. Let's call her not quite so computer literate...)

  3. Computer literate? It's amazing what they're teaching our kids these days. “Don't worry Mom, I just have to submit it through google docs by midnight.” Jake wrote his own song on Garage Band. YellowBoy made a video, complete with voice over, graphics, and credits. By himself. Not like I could help or anything...And my favorite? It's called Infinite Campus and I can see every assignment and its grade, or as is the case with my former freshman, every MISSING assignment. If I'd had that tool when I was teaching, helicopter parents wouldn't have taken up so much of my time. (A helicopter parent is one who hovers, calls almost daily, wants notes sent home about what their child is missing, wants a behavior report every week, basically drives you nuts as a teacher. Now I can be one and no one knows ;-)

    And here's where I ran out of nice transitions...

  4. Would you eat glucosamine chondroitin that you found during a cleaning spree, but expired in 2008? I'm not going to. I do feel that some expiration dates are there just to sell more products, (diet soda expiring? Yeah right...) but when it comes to supplements, I'm not willing to gamble. Just getting my health back. I'm not going to be the one to ruin that miracle

  5. YellowBoy is at summer camp. As in sleep-over camp. As in he won't be here for a week. Not sure this mama is surviving this too well. He's my baby. Was. He's almost 13. Been weepy all week.

  6. Jake, on the other hand, is at summer school. Seems he had some trouble in his native language. You know, turning in assignments and things.

  7. I was really bothered in school when someone didn't like me. Why don't you like me? What did I do wrong? How can I fix it? Come to think of it, still haven't really gotten over that. When a follower stops following, I get paranoid and want to ask them why? Why don't you like me anymore? I mean, I've certainly stopped reading blogs, but I haven't gone there and removed my name. That might hurt someone's feelings.

  8. How are you doing on the Post A-Z Road Trip? I hit 15 stops before 5 am today. Insomnia sucks. (See previous post for more info.) At least I have something fun to do when I have to get up at 3:45 am or go nuts.

  9. A new season of Masterchef has started, a new season of Hell's Kitchen has started. I'm very happy. I love cooking. I love competition. Hence, cooking competitions are the best.

    ❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

    What shows do you watch? Are you a helicopter parent? Do you un-follow? Do you obsess when you're un-followed yourself? What's your favorite font?


    P.S Between me hitting "new post" and publishing this, someone un-followed me.  Sigh.

15 comments:

Lisa said...

Hmm, your Jake sounds suspiciously like my Angela! She was in the same boat last year. This year it's physical science (rolling eyes)

..and we have Parent Portal to see all assignments (or lack thereof) and grades - plus weekly progress reports emailed automatically.

Oh the joys of parenthood....

loverofwords said...

I wish we had more fonts to choose from. Not a helicopter parent, never was, but enjoy being a grandparent and letting others have the day-to-day worries. Love the food shows, like "French Cooking at Home," "Simply Baking," and more. Also like HGTV, and the international site where couples try and decide where to live in Amsterdam, Tangiers, etc. as I imagine myself living there.

JoJo said...

My mom could be considered a helicopter parent...still to this day....and I'm 47. I didn't have kids. I like reruns of Friends, king of queens, big bang theory, law & order:svu & criminal intent. When my boyfriend is home he likes to watch the 'working shows' like ax men, swamp people, storage wars, gold panning, etc.

I obsess if someone unfollows my blog and sometimes I obsess if I see my friend count has dropped on Facebook, but it doesn't last too long. ;)

No fave font...I use Arial a lot though.

Annalisa Crawford said...

My almost 13 year old is off camping in July - but I'm used to him not being around, he spends lots of time at grandparents!

I would never consider unfollowing someone. I don't visit some blogs as often as I used to, but then a post will pique my interest and I'll read again. And comment. I have a feeling people have unfollowed me, because sometimes - even with new followers - my count stays the same!

Brian Miller said...

ha my kids know more than i about computers these days...it is amazing what they pick up so early....i would def not eat anything expired by several years...ha

running4him said...

Not a helicopter parent!! But if I had kids I think I would be!! lol

Andrea said...

Ok,I a going to admit to in following a couple of blogs. They were mainly giveaway ones, or nes that. Had topics that did not appeal to me for months (they also had a ton of followers). My reasoning was that even when hidden, they showed up in my blog reading list, and since they were daily posters, I got tired of sifting through as I added more blogs I wanted to read.

Jess said...

I totally agree with you on #8! I hated it when people at school didn't like me for no (apparent) reason! I've had a few people unfollow me before. not fun.

Heather Murphy said...

I agree with the font issue. I like Veranda the best and find it very annoying to change it on every post!
I could use some insomnia lately. I feel like I am falling behind in EVERYTHING!
Feel better! Take care of yourself

Raymond Alexander Kukkee said...

Hi Tina, no helicoptering, I really like good food shows, shows about "real stuff!" and I do not even contemplate 'unfollowing' a blog unless it begins to photocopy itself with the same old same old...or transform into absolute trash.
And um...psst.. which unappreciative fool would ever unfollow you, Tina? ";))

Marianne (Mare) Baker Ball said...

I like Veranda font too. I think ariel is prob. the easiest to read though. The following thing...it's really kind of goofy. I follow b/c it creates a link for me that I can find later. I don't get to all the blogs I follow every day, but at least once a week. The number can be hard on the heart, b/c we get too attached. Everyone wants to be loved and sought after. I have unfollowed a few blogs, for the same reasons Andrea mentioned, but I figure people are free to unfollow me too. I try not to take it personally. I was not a helicopter mom. My new favorite show is Secret Millionaire. I wrote a post about it a few days ago. It's wonderful, and makes me cry every time.

http://adventuresintheballpark.blogspot.com/2012/06/best-of-human-heart.html

If this link doesn't work, go to my blog and "Look for" The Best of the Human Heart. The show has a beautiful premise! Fun post!

klahanie said...

Hey Tina,
Never mind all that A to Z stuff. Although, I did leave another one of my detailed and very kind comments on the A to Z site.
Let's concentrate on your number 10 musing. I note you get loads of cooking shows over there that actually started in Britain. However, let's go back a bit further.
It seems like every time I switch on the television, I'm subjected to yet another cooking show. Early historical records indicate that cooking shows were happening long before the invention of television. Cooking shows were popular in ancient Egypt. For instance, one particular Pharaoh had a very popular cooking show held in his kitchen. It was titled, 'Ramses' Kitchen Nightmares'. A group of invited Egyptian guests would be entertained in his kitchen as Ramses awed them with his culinary prowess. His speciality was a wonderful concoction with an exceptionally spicy bean as the main ingredient. They would find, much to their delight, after consuming said meal, that they could all 'toot in common'. Ah, ancient Egyptian food...just like mummy used to make.
Take care, Tina.
In kindness, Gary

Juli said...

The key to the virtual high school thing is that the teachers need to update the grades. If Bonus Brother's HS teachers had done this we would have known that he was failing English (also his native language, go figure) his first 3 terms of senior year.

Course, 4th term he pulled an A out of you know where (likely his lazy a$$), and TWO days before he graduated we found out he was ACTUALLY graduating...

...and now he's gonna spend 40K a year for the next 5 years.... oh, don't get me started...

Arlee Bird said...

Privacy? Forget it, girl, you ain't got no privacy. Everything you do on the computer is being tracked, the phone company knows about every call, the electric company knows how much power you're using. When you go shopping the grocery store knows what you buy and the credit card companies know where you shop and how much you spend. The banks, schools, and the government are all watching us. There's no escape. We're all a part of the big grid, trapped in the Matrix, and there's no way out.

Yeah, privacy, right!

Okay, so I get a bit paranoid sometimes. It makes for good stories though.


Lee
Tossing It Out

Nicole said...

Funny you should mention Master Chef and Hell's Kitchen....I just finished watching both of them tonight and loved them but between the two, Master Chef was my favorite tonight because the contestants were working outside of the kitchen....making for an even more challenging competition.

I don't particularly care for all of the drama that develops sometimes on Hell's Kitchen. The Red team is annoying this season...but I love me some Chef Ramsay, so I'll keep on watching! :)

I haven't watched a lot of TV in some time and didn't even know the cooking shows were back on, until my mom told me. Since I'm on a computer frequently, I probably watch more YouTube videos than anything else but Sometimes I watch Blue Bloods on CBS. That's about it...unless Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on NBC counts.

~Nicole
Blog: The Madlab Post
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