In early August a friend of mine asked me if I would be willing to help raise money for African refugees at the school. The kids said they didn’t think we could raise $1,000.00 but the teachers disagreed. They asked for teachers to do wacky and crazy things, and I agreed to shave my head and beard. I actually promised I would not shave or cut my hair until the day of the shaving. I didn’t know it would be at the winter pep assembly 3 1/2 months later! In August I convinced students, teachers, colleagues, and friends to donate over $2100.00!! I came in first place and had to fess us. I had not shaved my head since 4th grade and looked like an idiot then, but after not cutting my hair and beard for 3 months, I was ready for anything. Check out the video!

I don’t mind too much jumping through the hoops to get the money the taxpayers voted in about 8 years ago, and I have to do about 80 hours to get the big bucks. So I judge Speech & Debate each year. Typically I judge for my own school, but they don’t really go to competition this year. Today I decided I’d go for about 4 hours, but after 6 I wasn’t home yet. Donna didn’t see upset about it, but I had planned to be home in 4. The woman running it asked if I minded judging a policy round for her. Of course I minded, but what was I suppose to say? No? Yeah, and pigs fly out my butt, too. They said it was a novice rough so how hard could that be? Well, the kids could barely be heard, and they spoke for 90 minutes. Ugh. I

missed my next round of my own judging, and then decided to just wait it out and finish the final individual event rounds. I like finals because they are the best of the best. Of course I ended up with Duo Acting, which I enjoy but they are lengthy. 10 minutes each, but I wasn’t too worried because there are usually about 3-5 duos in the finals. This time was an exception and there were 7 duos! This means an hour and ten minutes not including wait time, and I said I’d be home in about 30-40 minutes. Oooops. I did the rounds, and they were unimpressive. I saw some teams I’ve seen in the past, and I finally picked the best of the worst. Actually the very last team was the best and they were pretty darn good. I liked seeing all the kids dressed up and everything, but the one thing is the girl who I picked for first place had greasy hair. I mean, come on. Wash your hair. You’re competing. Ugh.

Oh well, the day of Ughs.

Wow. Guess what I did? Something new for me. I know I know, I like to hear myself talk, and I do it all day long everyday of my life, but now I have another way to talk to people. I am podcasting! Now, you may say, "Devon, why are you adding one more thing to your schedule?" Or "Are you crazy? No one cares." And while the second comment may be true, the first I can address. At my community college job I’ve joined a faculty professional learning community that addresses the use of new and emerging technologies in education. Right up my alley! At our last meeting the facilitators challenged us all to choose a new medium with which are not comfortable to play with this year. I’ve been thinking of podcasting since summer time, and I’ve always listened to podcast but I’ve always been afraid of committing to publishing my own. Maybe because I sound like Kermit the Frog when I talk, or because I know if I start one I cannot just drop it. Well I finally did it. I bit the big one. Borrowed what may turn out to be a decent mic (great to know the IT people!) and recorded the other night. Now I am use to listening to podcasts between 25-45 minutes, and I figured 15 minutes would be a good goal. I wrote an outline first of talking points, and I sat down and began. I recorded about 18 minutes worth and then began editing. I worked for about 45 minutes taking out "um"s and pauses, and I still wasn’t finished when it was time to go to sleep. I will finish editing the podcast this weekend (thank God for fall breaks!) and I’ll post it on iTunes University where we’ll have a space through the community college. My colleague also began podcasting but she uses a service called gabcast, which records a phone call to an 800 number as the podcast then publishes it online for you. They are shorter, including the "um"s and are a little less clear, but it’s great to have these tools to use to get your thoughts down quickly and easily. Look for me on iTunes, and I will share my feed when I am ready!

I am trying to figure out how to work smarter, not harder. I met with Shelley the other night at Brunello’s and she gave me a few pointers. I think it’ll help. I am still playing catch up now, though. Primetime is coming back, and I am forced to limit my television this year. Shelley and her husband are pretty cool and we all get along. They may watch some shows with us this year, like Heroes. Shelley & I can grade while the better halves can sit around after Claire goes to bed.

Also, the high school is doing a service project where they are raising money to buy Shelter Boxes for refugees in Africa. I agreed that if the kids raise more money than the other classes, I will shave my head and beard. (I have a full beard and hair.) Well, I opened my big mouth and in 4 days my supporters have raised over $1,000.00 ! (I did help out by reminding people a lot.) Although I look silly without my beard, I am curious to see what I’ll look like, and yes they will videotape it. Yes I will upload it. And yes, it’ll grow back.

I’m a heel. Nothing else I can tell you really. I looked at this site today and realized it’s been about 3 weeks since I wrote anything. I promise one of those weeks I had a very good excuse. And I guess that’s a good enough place to begin this post. With a new computer. After Seattle, Claire and I got back into the swing of things, and I made a very long list of all the stuff I had to do before the students came back to school. One morning I began working on that list while Claire was running around the house playing. In my PJs I set myself up with my work books, my papers, my duffel of all the stuff I knew I would need in the summer at home (that I hadn’t even unzipped), my laptop and my coffee. Yes, dear reader, I know you see where I am going with this. Coffee+laptop/2year old throwing a ball in the house=Oops. Claire threw a ball that then bounced backwards and landed square on the full coffee cup that was way too close for Donna’s comfort. The coffee flipped up and over the entire laptop. There were good and bad things about my laptop. I loved it. It had character, but it was getting older like an old dog. Someday you gotta put it out of it’s misery. And I guess it was Claire’s time to help me do this. I grabbed my steaming hot, sticky keyboarded laptop and sopped coffee off of it, and ignore it all over myself. It took about 1 minute before I heard a crackling fizzle and got the BLACK SCREEN OF DEATH. I didn’t want to tell Donna that Claire killed my computer because I knew she’d believe I set the whole thing up because she didn’t believe 3 whole years was long enough between new laptops. So I think it took about a week of checking email on my Treo and sitting on my butt doing nothing before i convinced her that I needed a brand spanking new MacBook Pro. I’ve not used a Mac since I was a newspaper adviser, and I remember saving my little WordPerfect documents on floppies on the Apple IIes in the very new computer lab during high school. I gave Donna several options of computers, and she begrudgingly agreed to the upgraded, and later that night I walked out of the store with a new 2.4Ghz Due Core Processor MacBookPro. It sure does take sometime getting use to learning OSX and this keyboard after being Mr. PC since 1992.

So what else is new in our lives? Claire’s been in swimming now for over a month. She’s been doing "bubbles" where she goes under the water like a champ. She doesn’t even cry anymore. She also does gymnastics and her new instructor has been showing her more techniques. Claire’s a precocious 2 year old, and she does need redirection. My mother just laughs because of how much my daughter is like me at that age.

This past week Claire went back to day care. Last year she was a tall runt running around with boys bigger than her, and this year most of those boys have turned three and left the room. She’s now like Miss Mother Hen in there. She’s taller than everyone and bigger. The youngest kid in the room just turned one, and Claire’s her self-assigned bodyguard of sorts. Although sometimes Claire doesn’t understand the difference between her baby dolls and this "baby". The girl’s name’s Helen, but Claire calls her "baby". She comes home and rattles on and on about "Baby" this and "Baby" that. We’re all trying to teach her the difference between her Cabbage Patch baby doll she lugs around and the very really baby Helen who should not lug around at day care.

No one to really blame about not posting by lil’ ole me. Donna’s been yoyoing between her new job and her old job, as she doesn’t begin officially for another week and a half. Then there’s me. I go back to work next Tuesday, and it feels like it gets earlier and earlier. What’s new? Well, the last post was about Claire flipping out of her crib, and I can officially say that it’s in pieces in the garage now. Her friend Eli graduated to a big boy bed, and Claire now has his old toddler bed. She loves it! She loves to go to sleep in it! She even helped me carry it into her room for her.

Now for the bigger stor. After I got back from Seattle I was ready to settle down with my daughter and kick out a ton of work to do. I made my to do list and everything, grabbed my coffee and sat down last week to get to it. Then Claire, playing with a ball, bounced it off he coffee table. It hit my coffee, which flipped onto my laptop. OMG! I ran into the kitchen to clean it off, and suddenly it shut down. Just turned off and fizzled kinda like. I spent a good part of the day trying to air it out, clean it up, and rescue everything! I was relatively successful with the data, but the laptop was fried. I felt it was going down hill after 3 1/2 years, and I when I bought the Toshiba I felt like I was buying a great machine. I definitely had my share of problems with it though. Anyway, Donna and I discussed it, discussed it, researched it, discussed it, and last night I went down to the Apple Store and bought a new MacBook Pro.

I’m eager to use it, and I don’t want to put it down, but I also know that I know diddly about Macs. Although I am quicker learner and have the basics down. I got a ton of educator discounts and free stuff with it, and the thing flies. I wonder what I should call it? I should name something this nice. Dear readers, pick a name. Post your suggestions in the comments, if any of you read this.

I’m gone again. Seattle this time. The last I had an opportunity to go to Seattle, my wife was about 38 weeks pregnant. I obviously didn’t go since the Friday of that weekend trip, Claire was born. This time I am going. It’s difficult traveling so close to getting back home. Not for me so much, but for my family. I won’t kid you; Donna didn’t want me to go. No way. Not at all. But in the end she was better with it than I imagined. When I first got this job, our friend Dave had just moved to Seattle, and I had an opportunity to attend a conference there. I had everything all set up, and I was even going to stay with Dave, but at the last minute work changed their plans. Instead I spent a week in a hotel in Tucson! Ugh. I even had to commute there. It was a good conference, but a crappy town. Seattle in July would be much nicer. Two years after that I had the opportunity to go to another conference, and my colleagues and I went to San Diego. It was called "AP by the Sea" and was suppose to be this wonderful thing. It wasn’t.

The instructor was horrible. Her demeanor was homely and a little odd, but I could look past that for a strong instructor. I think I spent three days at that workshop grading essays in groups. Horrible! I learned nothing and really didn’t care after awhile. I swore I’d never go to San Diego again for this particular conference. That was last summer.

In December our best friends Ryan, Laura, and Emma moved to Portland, and I dig the NorthWest. Dave is still in Seattle married now, and by gone I was going to the Seattle conference if it killed me. I knew I had money through work that I’d help bring in, and I knew my program was changing so I put in for the Seattle conference. I noticed when researching the conference that the head guy for my discipline was presenting that this conference, and he was presenting to the session I wanted! I immediately signed up through work, and as with any bureaucracy it took forever to know if I was approved or anything. Actually it wasn’t until I was back from Europe that I was confirmed. I didn’t even know what flights I had until last week. Today was hard to leave. Claire and Donna are home this week, and they are fine. Claire isn’t even really surprised that Daddy is going on an airplane today (I think she’s an old pro with this by now!).

I made plans with Dave and his wife for dinner later this week, and I am eager to get to the NorthWest, which is known for mild temperatures and rain. After being in 110 degree heat car shopping this week and 90 degrees 100% humidity for the two weeks beforehand, I am searching for a reprieve. I’m excited to be able to attend this conference, and I know I am blessed for a supportive work and understanding family. Ryan and his family will visit me while I am in Seattle and I can do some sight seeing in the evenings and the last day I am there before flying home.

So I am sitting on this plane and I gotta be honest with you. Someone stinks. I don’t mean BO here or bad breath. I mean it smells like the toilet exploded and rolled sewage down the aisle under my feet. We’re suppose to land within the hour, so I am going to go wrap this up so I can hold my nose until we touch down.

Every time I think about blogging, I feel guilty. It’s not that I haven’t been online because I’ve been online more now than ever; I’ve just been doing other stuff. For example, Shelley got me majorly hooked on Google APPS, and I’ve been playing with them since. Around spring break I reformatted my computer and had a ton of problems. Through all of this, I had an attitude change towards several philosophies. I’ve been trying to increase productivity in my life, I’ve also dropped some television. When Donna has some of the reality TV on I tend to walk away, or keep working on stuff, or doing the things I’ve been doing. I know that may not make sense to you, but it sure makes sense in my own head; I guess that’s what counts. So I read lifehack.org and have just added two more podcasts to what I can listen to in the car. I have also transferred my contacts & calendars to Google; and I spent several hours figuring out how to sync my gCalendar & smartphone. What else? Who knows…

I joined a Faculty Professional Learning Community at the community college, and pretty much everything I think we’re doing there is what I’ve been doing over the last month. Do you know gCalendar? How about gDocs? I am requiring my students to use gmail next year, and I am implementing gDocs as well. Lastly, I will put my calendar online and share it with all of my students (the high school part). I think all of this will help build a more seamless educational environment.

The other thing I gotta do is go through and change all my passwords again. I have some ideas of how to make them more secure, and I’m not an idiot who will say more that here. Later.

Ah life, or what becomes of us once paranoia, assumptions, anxiety, children, work, and others enter the equation…

Earlier this month we received a vehicle registration renewal notice.  I tried to renew and pay online, but was told that an emissions test was needed.  I was extremely annoyed because this is an incredibly busy month (for Devon and me) and I knew that the car had a good chance of not passing emissions.  Somehow Devon managed to squeeze it in and we did, indeed, fail.

Mixed between weekend activities, work meetings, evening events, switching schedules to make sure someone is watching Claire, preparing agendas, eating, breathing, and the like, Devon and I arrange to take the car to our local car repair guru.  Now, please note that this involved pleading with many wonderful co-workers to pick me up and take me to work, drive me to meetings, and even watching Claire for a few hours!

The car needed to stay overnight at the repair shop and was fixed for a very reasonable price.  (The environment thanks us).  Devon was able to switch vehicles on Friday to re-test the car for emissions.  It passed!

Later that night, I logged on to the servicearizona.com website to process the registration.  Strangely, I received the same error as before about needing the emissions test.  I assumed the system had not refreshed recently and decided to try again in the morning.

Did I mention that I had found a large slash in our left front tire the day we took the car to the repair shop?  I was scared to drive on it, but did not want to invest in a new tire if the car didn’t pass emissions…  So, the  plan was for Claire and I to go to Discount Tires Saturday morning since Devon was working.  Not wanting to wait forever with a two-year-old, I contacted the store and made an appointment at 10:30 am.  Having more time before we needed to leave the house, I logged back online to process the registration.  It still said "emissions test needed".  Now I’m frustrated.  I call the phone number on the form.

After speaking with the woman who had the misfortune to answer, questioning why their system couldn’t identify our car, I was put on hold.  I needed to move around, so I went outside to get the mail.  For some reason right then part of our conversation had registered.  The woman had asked me the plate number listed on the renewal form.  I gave her the information earlier without really thinking about it, but now, wait, Devon had child abuse prevention plates on the car.  Something was off.  The number I gave the woman was the license plate number of our truck!

This couldn’t be!

Could it?

Still outside, I crouch behind the car and review the plate.  SEP 07.
..  sniff

What?

I look again.

SEP 07

We were trying to renew the wrong car!

I run back inside to review the paperwork.  The woman gets back from hold and starts to apologize for their system, offering suggestions such as faxing the paperwork to her office, going to the emission place and having them fix it.  At this point I’m too embarassed to say we messed up.  I thank her for her kindness, hang up and text Devon:  "We are idiots.  The truck is due for emissions, not the car.  Need you to switch cars and fix problem".

Now I’m late for the tire appointment.

I grab everything related to anything and get Claire in the car.  We get tires, text Devon a few more times, and make arrangements to meet for lunch, errands, and "the switch".

By the end of the day, the truck passes emissions and is renewed online, the car has new tires, the bellies are full, and the heads are aching.

In 1994 I went to the prom with some girl I’d been dating for several months. Things had been rocky and I actually met a new girl I was highly interested in. There was something about the new girl that was kind of mysterious and flirty. At the prom I practically ignored my date all night and danced with this new girl. I remember at one point of the night she and I and another girl were up on this raised platform and we were grinding, and it was fun. Suddenly one of the chaperone teachers came up and tapped us on the shoulder. He told us to cut it out and stop it. We did, but I do remember that.

Last night I had suddenly become that man. I was at prom in Scottsdale, and had a walkie talkie. Walkie talkies are cool. I was watching the kids dance and was trying to make sure no one did anything bad. Suddenly the walkie talkie sqwaked with my admin telling me to stop these kids from doing this or those kids from doing that. And as I found myself pushing into the crowd, I suddenly realized that I was now that guy. And it was odd.

Oh yeah, and by the way. The mysterious girl from the ’94 prom? Yeah, she was home with Claire last night.