To Mac or not to Mac...

That is indeed the question.

If you follow me on Twitter (or on Facebook) you will be aware that my five year old laptop bit the dust last weekend. Considering it is a brand that isn't even made anymore (anyone know who Packard Bell became in the end?) and the fact that for a computer it is fairly ancient, the solution is to hope for a hard drive retrieval and replace it... somehow. Given that I practically live on computers when I have assignments due, using the family computer is out of the question. SB's computer lacks Microsoft Office and again, I live on it. As much as I want to be able to manage without a computer until the end of the year (well, until I am earning $$$ again), at the moment I just don't know that it is manageable.

Dad is currently putting his feelers out at work to see if anyone has a laptop going lonely at the moment - baby-sitting someone else's laptop until I'm earning full time seems like a fairly good solution. If that falls through, it may be that I need to use the Ma & Pa Scribbles Bank and get a loaner to buy new.

Should that happen, I'm definitely exploring the idea of purchasing a Mac. I know that a lot of you readers use your comps for the same thing as me - some docs, photos, minor video editing, personal organisation and productivity plus a lot of NET stuff. What do you all use? PC or Mac? What do you recommend? What specs do you run? Geek out on me Scribblettes!

Literary Inspirations: Wernher von Braun on Researching

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.

-Wernher von Braun

Okay, so Wernher von Braun doesn't count as a literary genius but he plays a key encounter character in the novel "Rocket Boys" and the movie "October Sky" so I'm saying roll with it, okay? LOL.

Werher von Braun may have been referring to the errors that he made along the way as research but I also think that the quote can be taken as research is what you do when there is something you don't know but would like to. Events just keep popping up left, right and centre lately, reminding me of the importance of researching those things that are not currently in your knowledge.

It can be something a simple as a price you need to research - by looking at multiple shops, SB was able to buy his video game for a LOT cheaper than the other prices he found. I'm quite a bargain shopper myself - I especially love outlet shops for underclothes! Bras for bigger busts can be so expensive so it's good to be able to research outlets where last season's fashion (and I don't really care about that, it's underwear!) can be about half price.

More importantly, research can help you discover how to live your best life. We changed the place we're planning to weekend at for our half-anniversary due to a spate of bad reviews. The new place couldn't be more delightful and we're even getting swedish massages right in our room! Looking forward at next year, I'm using the internet and my contacts in the teaching community as a way to research the schools I want to work at next year - there is a website in NZ available to the general public called Te Kete Ipurangi (I think that roughly translates to The Knowledge Basket) that has all Education Review Office reports on them - pointing out the positives and the warts of all New Zealand Schools. They have been incredibly interesting reading!

I consider the blogs I read research too. Some are mummy bloggers or wedding bloggers, both events I hope to experience in my life. Some are just the blogs of fantastic women too - and I feel those blogs are research on how to create a better me! What do you research, Scribblettes?

Week in Review - 23rd August

Hi Scribblettes,

For a week with nothing on, it sure ended up feeling busy! It's always the way, isn't it?

♥ Careers week brought on a whole host of workshops for us - teaching must be right up there in terms of having professional organisations taking care of their staff. For example, if I take time off work (once fully registered) to raise children, I move one step up the pay scale for every three years I take off. Finally a career that doesn't mummy track you!

♥ Having meet and greet interviews with the principals was a really enlightening experience - I found that I would much rather work with a principal who is really passionate about their school and found that a bit of my "tier system" that I had set up previously has been turned on its head. Still, that's kind of what this time is all about.

♥ On a more sour note, I was really disappointed with the beginning teacher expo that the school ran for us this week - I'd been lead to believe that it will be choc full of connections to resources and professional development for new teachers. The majority of the stalls were "teach in the UK" "teach in England" blah blah and so on. I have no desire to move away from my family, friends and my darling SB so coming in early to check it out was a total waste of time.

♥ In between all the teacher-y things this week was some good-quality getting back to domestic basics. I made some muffins on Wednesday, fooling around a bit with some basic recipes. I thought they were kind of average but SB gave them the thumbs up and has been having at least one a day - he either likes them or is just being sweet. I made SB a yummy lunch on Friday and mastered the art of scrambled eggs this morning (I don't eat egg - aside from in cake - at all, so had never tried to do it before)

♥ It's becoming a inside joke that my room at the parents' place is the "room where my stuff lives" - I am staying at SBs about five nights a week at the moment (and should probably start paying some kind of rent LOL). I spent some of my time on Friday clearing up the room as it really has become a drop zone for all my things as I fly through. I can imagine it being equally horrific at the end of the next five weeks when I will get a sum total of about six awake hours at my "parental storage locker" per week.

♥ Went and visited my Poppa's grave this weekend for the first time since he was buried and that was 2000 (or 2001) - it is something that I had meant to do for a long time and I'm really glad I did. There was a line on his headstone about how he was a great poppa - I didn't recall it being there - and it was good to share with SB some of the reasons why he was. It's true what they say - bodies may perish, but people live on in our hearts forever.

♥ Also this weekend, caught "District 9" (produced by NZ's own Peter Jackson) in the gorgeous La Premiere cinema seating at Sylvia Park. I'd designed the experience as a present for SB (we still do the monthly present thing) but I got just as much of a kick out of it. The whole pre-movie experience was pure class - personally escorted into the cinemas rather than fighting your way in through the crowds. Walking in, you get to see all the projectors humming away playing the movies... who knew they were still on massive reels of film? Reclining in a double recliner sofa booth, drinking coke out of a glass or a beer - a.maze.ing. The snacks that we had delivered during the movie were nothing to write home about but the movie more than made up for that. I don't often say this about movies but seriously - go out and watch it NOW. 'Tis that good.

Now it's all about snuggling in, getting an early night, keeping my eyes peeled and soaking in all I can this week - my first week at School B - getting ready for six more weeks of teaching. Tell me Scribblettes, what kicked ass this week and what was kind of lame? And don't forget, if you have any questions that you would like me to answer in my upcoming Q & A post, drop it in the comments!

Careers Week...

"Just when you think you're in control,
just when you think you've got a hold,
just when you get on a roll,
Oh here it goes, here it goes, here it goes again.
Oh, here it goes again"

-OK Go lyrics

Just when I think I have a grip on the semester and my classes comes a week of completely different lectures, expos and interviews - the enigma that is Career week. It's sometimes easy to lose sight that there are goals at the end of all this paperwork and study... this week makes it real. We had an insightful panel of principals in a lecture this morning - those from lower decile (socio-economic areas) schools seemed to be filled with more enthusiasm and passion then those from other schools... then again, maybe they just needed some more caffeine. My personal caffeine consumption is at an all-time high at the moment... it's ridiculous. Right now, I'm sitting at my computer desk at work thinking "Damn, I could go for an energy drink right now" LOL. Today's lectures also included a presentation by the New Zealand Teachers' Council - the process of registration still seems overly complex to me but I'm hoping that kind school colleagues will be able to assist me on my next practicum. It may also not have helped my concentration levels that the lecture theatre was absolutely packed to the gills, I was sitting in a stairway and my back was starting to throb like crazy.

Tomorrow is a morning of interesting lectures (unions and first year teachers) but what looks to be really interesting is the interviews with principals tomorrow afternoon and again on Thursday. I'm lucky that four of my top six schools are sending their principal delegates so I will have the opportunity to get my face (and CV!) out there. It finally feels like I am making real progress career-wise... one could say I can see the light at the end of what has sometimes seemed a cold, dark, dank tunnel :D

One of the best things about this week though, has to be that I get both Wednesday and Friday off... I know it must sound incredibly lazy but it's so nice to have the break between the absolute wreck that we all were trying to complete our assignments last week (I'm talking crying, puking or in my case growling-excons-at-the-service-station stressballs) and starting in our practicum schools which brings its own joys. I plan to use my free days to complete my reading log (due October), get a facial, have lunch with SB and to cook some ginger slice at his request. And laze, glorious laze about watching appalling daytime television and relish in the fact that I don't HAVE to do anything. Hooray!

What about you, Scribblettes? Handling the curveballs life is throwing your way? Life progressing nicely? And don't forget to leave me a comment on this post asking me those questions you've always been curious about but haven't known how to ask!

Literary Inspiration: The Little Prince

Grown-ups love figures. When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential matters. They never say to you, "What does his voice sound like? What games does he love best? Does he collect butterflies?" Instead, they demand: "How old is he? How many brothers has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?" Only from these figures do they think they have learned anything about him. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943

Stuff being grown-up! :D

Getting to know me better...

It's been a while since I've done one of these posts.... so here it is (drumroll)

FIVE FAST FACTS about Scribbles

1. I've only ever had cats as pets but I've desperately wanted a dog for as long as I can remember. My dad used to have a spotlight torch on a shoulder-strap for work. When he brought it home I would tow it round the house by the "leash" and tell all that it was my puppy Jason... Jason still resides in my cupboard
2. I want to be a stay-at-home mum for my kids - completely at home for the first year of their lives, working very-part-time relief teaching until they are at least three (and preferably five)
3. My worst addiction at the moment is probably to Coca-cola... I'm hoping that these new glasses will relieve some of the tiredness that is making me crave caffiene and sugar all the time
4. It irritates me when people recommend that I read something because it is on a best-seller list or because it is a classic... recommend it to me because you couldn't put it down, recommend it to me because it has serious literary merit. Recommend it to me because it changed your life.
5. I love a good war movie (and even some considered not so good) and I don't like it when they are just lumped in as an action movie - it's the historical context as well as the bloodshed that I like.

So Scribblettes, anything else you would like to know about me? Leave a question in the comments and I will answer all in a future post!

I'm blind but will soon see...

After SB's trip to SpecSavers a couple of months ago, I have been saving up my pennies to visit the optometrists also - I think you are meant to go about once every two years and it has been about seven for me - oooops.

A wee way into the eye exam, we started veering off into some non-standard tests - I started to wonder what was up. That was when the optometrist told me that I had convergence insufficiency - basically, when your eyes have to look inwards to focus at a text, mine don't do it properly. The headaches, eyestrain and general mental fatigue I've been having lately (part of the reason my blogging has fallen off) all started to make sense!

The symptoms can be varied, and I've highlighted the ones that I have been experiencing lately
A person who has convergence insufficiency may show and/or complain of the following while doing close work (i.e., reading, computer work, deskwork, playing handheld video games, doing crafts, etc.):

• eyestrain (especially with or after reading)
• headaches
• blurred vision
• double vision
• inability to concentrate
• short attention span
• frequent loss of place
• squinting, rubbing, closing or covering an eye
• sleepiness during the activity
• trouble remembering what was read
• words appear to move, jump, swim or float
• problems with motion sickness and/or vertigo

Not only that, but I can see that this is a problem I've probably had for the majority of my 24 years on the planet - the list below are common problems in kids growing up with convergence insufficiency (highlighted again the ones I experience)

• trouble catching balls and other objects thrown through the air
• avoidance of tasks that require depth perception (games involving smaller balls traveling through the air, handicrafts, and/or hand-eye coordination, etc.)
• frequent mishaps due to misjudgment of physical distances (particularly within twenty feet of the person's body), such as:
  • trips and stumbles on uneven surfaces, stairs, and curbs, etc.
  • frequent spilling or knocking over of objects
  • bumping into doors, furniture and other stationary objects
  • sports and/or car parking accidents
• avoidance of eye contact
• poor posture while doing activities requiring near vision
• one shoulder noticably higher
• frequent head tilt
• problems with motion sickness and/or vertigo

It's amazing to realise that the optometrist (all those years ago) made the mistake of saying I was just short-sighted... I'm not short-sighted at all! For a decent chunk of my life I've basically been shutting down the functionality of one of my healthy eyes - usually not the same one - in order to better focus on things when I've been doing work that requires focus. It even explains why when I'm trying to focus on things I close one eye... I did it today at brunch when SB pointed out something... it just makes me laugh now!

I cannot wait to get my new glasses and see what a difference it makes!

Tell me Scribblettes, do you have any unusual medical problems?

Literary Inspirations: Robert Louis Stevenson

"Everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

This is something that I've been thinking about a lot recently. If you've been following my "real life" over the month of July you will know that I celebrated a lot of milestones with friends. A couple very dear to me moved closer to where I live and it struck me that it wasn't even their first house purchase... they've owned two houses so far. Driving this home even more has been me falling in love with a gorgeous house in my home town that I cannot yet afford.

I'm not the only person that feels this way - many of my colleagues in my teaching programme who were working full time prior to returning to university are feeling the pinch of not being where we thought we would be in our lives... and sick of not having any cash. We're being directed at the moment to complete CVs and as part of that process outline a philosophy of teaching. H summed it up perfectly when she said "OMG I don't care. My philosophy is your philosophy. Just give me the job and some money again!"

SB is good at reminding me of the brevity of this time when I am student-poor. I'm lucky that I'm not poor-poor for a start. It's only until Jan/Feb next year. I'm pursuing a career that I will be happy to do for the rest of my life. This time allows me some (not a lot LOL) extra time and flexibility that I won't have in future. Yes, I don't have some of the things that my friends have but I'm building a life (and hopefully we're building a life together) that reflects values and goals that are important to me. Everyone starts at different points and have different finish lines. Comparing yourself to others can be hazardous to your health.

Your thoughts, Scribblettes?

Selling Yourself...

I've spent the best part of the evening (at work, shhhh don't tell) creating a C.V. for use in application for teaching jobs. What surprised me as a former marketer is how difficult I found it to create a "press release" of my teaching strengths - apparently it's easier for me to be effusive about a organic pop-tart than it is to be about myself.

I had to look back at reports that my associate teachers had given me on practicum to kick-start my ideas. What they said was true - I am a caring person that establishes relationships with my students. I learn all their names and pronounce them correctly. I have a broad general knowledge which helps me engage students better with the topic - I can usually think of an aspect that suits the student's personality and interest.

Perhaps it is easier to see our positives if we look through others' eyes. SB and I were talking about the nicest thing that someone had ever done for us and he told me that it would have been one of the things I had done for him but he was having trouble choosing which one... I guess that age-old adage is true "To the world you may only be one person, but to one person you may be the world"

Your thoughts?