Writing things down...

I started writing things down that I saw during the day. You know, the things that I would later write about here. The only problem with my little idea is that I have a tendency to move things around, thus losing the paper upon which I wrote my brilliant insights. Like a great idea jotted down on the napkin the waitress threw away because she assumed you were gone and not just in the bathroom, my flitting ideas are riding the wind somewhere... Most likely, today's would be floating somewhere between Fouke and Hope.

---

I do remember one thing from this morning - a mini-van with a tail. The rear window wiper on the van ahead of me had become dislodged, or something. It hung down like a little tail. The funny thing is that it would ... well... wag. Left to right, right to left. My first thought was that it was the wind and sheer coincidence that it should look as if it were wagging. But, no... It was too mechanical for that, as if the driver still had the intermittent setting turned on in hopes that one time, just one time, the wiper would gain enough speed to actually right itself and sweep across the back window. But, yeah, it wagged.

---

On the way to school, Tyler likes to listen to music (as do I), and he has been very frustrated with me because my MP3 player's battery died. He "made me" write down the word "batteries" on a scrap piece of paper so that I would not forget to get some before I came home today. The paper is long gone. The batteries? I bought them. He was happy to hear I had a new battery for my player so that we could enjoy a music-filled trip to school in the morning.... Well, "happy" is a strong word. He took it a lot like he took his first day of school yesterday - "oh."

---

I saw a bumper sticker today that read: "Cars don't kill people. Drivers with cell phones do!" I laughed because I usually get stuck behind the guy whose sticker reads, "Ted Kennedy's car has killed more people than my guns!" Just once, I'd like to put, "My guns have killed more people than [whatever]," but I don't think that would go over so well... :-)

---

My trip to Fouke went like this: I pulled up, went into the DL room, and fired up the system. I made the system changes and rebooted the equipment. We plugged the network cable into the data switch and AS WE WERE PLUGGING IT IN, their system accepted a call! It was awesome! I was there for about 45 minutes total, 39 of which were spent visiting with the technology coordinator there about cabling raceway (the stuff used to hide cables) and these cool wire ties that have built-in ID tags. I love it when things come together the way they should! :-)

---

I was hoping to remember what else I had written down, but it's not happening... I do have an addition to this post, but I wrote at work and it is stored in a text file. I'll post it tomorrow.. Or, maybe I'll try connecting to the work network and remoting into my desktop... HEY, THAT WORKED! HOW COOL!! Here it is:

---

I cannot stand people whose sole purpose in life seems to be to cause friction between the people around them. Unfortunately, I am the victim of such a person.

It turns out that this person has been spreading the word that the Sharepoint site I manage for K-12 Distance Learning is not "officially recognized" by the State Dept of Education. A portion of the funding for the Curriculum Portal comes from the Dept of Ed! I called the woman who oversees our project and I asked her about it. She told me that the portal is as recognized as any of the providers funded under the same umbrella, and asked me to find out what it would take to become "officially recognized," and while I was at it, to inquire as to what "officially recognized" actually means.

I have no doubts the person who is spreading the word about the "status" of the Curriculum Portal is doing so because I raised a stink about being excluded from presenting at a state DL conference. Ironically, I presented the portal LAST YEAR at this same conference... So, what, all of the sudden it's not recognized? I don't think so.

Of course, once this person heard that our portal was funded through the project monies, there was evidently a look of shock and awe...or maybe that was disdain... It's so hard to tell sometimes... :-)

---