Jan 9: Sale and Hearth

It was another cold day in the Show Barn, but at least I was there to see my sons sale their goats and get some money during the sale. I'm really quite proud of them. They worked their tales off and they smiled so nicely when they were able to sale their goats. :D We aren't sure exactly how much they will be getting because more people came in and gave Add On bids at the end of the sale, so they may be getting more. We'll find out closer to March, I think.

After a very warm shower and some warm pizza, I think that I'm starting to feel a bit more like myself again.

Mixed some this evening - enough for the first little bit and will continue to do some tomorrow if the time allows for it.

The issue tomorrow is that we are building our hearth tomorrow. Matt has set out the rock and we will be cutting it tomorrow and mortaring it and everything. It's going to be a dusy mother in this house for the next couple of weeks, I can tell you that much already.

~MJ

Jan 8: Code Purple

Code Purple, you may ask? Yes, it was a code purple day.

That incident that happened on Wednesday with the diagnostician... well, I went to my principal today and let him know what had happened. I had promised myself that I would never go to him with petty things - and this was sure not petty - not when the school could be sued.

I sat down with him around third period and told him what had happened - and he instantly turned a lovely shade of purple - asked, "You're kidding me, aren't you?" I had to admit that I was not kidding and that's when he got a bit more purple. He picked up the phone and tried to call a couple of people but they didn't answer. He finally left a message saying that the diagnostician was basically banned from coming to school and even talking to the kids until he got a chance to talk with her.

I just tried to stay out of the way and let him vent as he so needed to do. He thanked me for telling him what was going on and then told me that "I'll not have someone in this staff talk to MY students that way."

Code Purple.

As soon as I told him, I believe that's what was spread throughout the assistant principals - so that they could steer clear of him. When he's like this... he doesn't respond well to others.

Mixing went okay tonight... I straightened out all of the scenes and made sure that I had all the lines, took out all the bloopers - gosh, JT and the rest of the gang are so funny when they start rolling on things. LOL

This will help this weekend when I'm able to sit down and get a lot done, I hope.

MJ

Jan 7: Stock Show

Well, perhaps now that I'm a bit more than thawed I can sit down and type.

It was a very cold cold place and was only a bit warmer in certain places like the concession stand. However, it was nice to see the boys so actively engaged in the Stock Show. Mason and Michael's goats placed 8th out of 20 and 16th out of 25 respectively. I was very proud of them. :)

Spending the day at the barn though was a bit more that I think that this body could handle. Sore, stiff and still cold. I wonder if I'll ever warm back up. I'm sure that I will eventually.

I was able to finish up Father Brown, Ep 14 today and get it sent back to Jerry up on the server. I've already downloaded the script and have printed it out. Once things kinda settle back down with the kids, I'll be able to work again on audio. I just hope that it doesn't take too long for it to all settle back down.

Slowly but surely - right? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Hehehe.

~MJ

Jan 6: What... huh?

I couldn't quite believe what I heard today uttered at school to a high school student. I know that if this child's parents were actually at the school and heard this, a lawsuit would have be brought so fast against the school that it wouldn't even be funny - and it still could happen. Good God.

This is what happened:

I was called down to an ARD for a student (let's say his name is Bob Knuckle) along with two other teacher and his counselor. We were in the Special Education reception area when we found out that we were unable to have the ARD (Admission, Review, Dismissal) meeting, because the meeting was called to evaluate the testing done on Bob. The testing had not been done because Tracey, the diagonistician, had not known about the testing.

The counselor told Tracey that it was pertinent that we have an ARD soon because of Bob's grades and he showed Tracey Bob's grades. She went over to where Bob was sitting, kneeled, and addressed him somewhat quietly. She told him that the grades that she was looking at reminded her of "temperature degrees rather than grades" and that he needed to put on his "trying pants so that he could go ahead and pass his classes". Tracey then preceeded to tell him that he was going to be taking a test from her to decide if he needed to be in Special Education and that he really needed to do well on it because if he didn't do well, then the ARD committee "would put him in a classroom where the kids were in wheelchairs, where kids drooled - you know, the retarded class."

I am truly appalled that Tracey would speak to a teenage child not only in a condescending way, but also using the terminology that she did. All of his teachers, wanted to talk with Bob, but every time we tried to talk with him, we weren't given a chance to do so - she monopolized the whole conversation with Bob.

Since that day, Bob has shut down in my class. He looks at the work, he discusses it with the others in the class and then will not turn it in.

I will be going to my principal and talking to him about this. I just couldn't do it today. I have a dandy of a headache coming back from yesterday and I needed to be at home in bed and relaxing.

Thankfully, tomorrow, I have a chance to get some rest and I just hope that it's not too cold... but I fear that I may be frozen in that Stock show barn. The high is supposed to be only 33 degrees.

~MJ

Jan 5: Migraines...

As posted from my Facebook page:
Visual migraines are just odd... seeing the sparklers and the flashes of light. Knowing that they are a precursor to the real mccoy is helpful - but still if you don't catch it in time, there goes the rest of the day. I wasn't able to catch it in time. Dammit. So... it's relaxing and sleep tonight with the hopes of mixing audio tomorrow.

I swear... the visual ones make you lose your balance because you aren't ready to see dancing lights before you - and they let you know that something is about to happen...

I just hope that I'm able to cope tomorrow...

Jan 4: Quick on my feet?

I'm not exactly sure what it was, but mixing the last Father Brown "The Worst Crime in the World" has been smooth and easy. Perhaps it was the actors and how easy it was to just put them together. Perhaps it could have been the fact that when I sat down Sunday to work on it that no one really bugged me and I was able to just sit and work on it constantly. Regardless, it was nice to email Jerry this evening and surprise him with saying that it was finished. I know that I may have some corrections that he would like for me to do, but I'm too worried about those. Getting the main part of it completed was the nice part. It was 41 minutes long... so, it's nice to be able to get a lot done in a couple of sittings. :) Very nice, indeed.

Went back to school today and it was pretty nice to be back - to see the kids again, but after all, it's back to the grindstone.

What was nice to do was get a lot accomplished even at school - so that I can move on and be done with things there. I guess tomorrow, I'll start tackling the next nine weeks and setting things up that way.

The kids are getting ready for the stock show and it's cold! I'm hoping that I don't get sick from it all. The day (Thursday) for the show the high is supposed to be 33! The High! Good great ooga booga! Brrrr!

Jan 3: Spending the day...

Yes, I spent the day mixing audio. It was relatively nice to be able to sit down and get a lot of things accomplished like that. It went fairly smoothly as well.

It's going to be a long Father Brown that's for sure. Not quite sure how long, because I haven't put it all together yet, but we shall see soon.

I'm very surprised about how smoothly it's going. What's the deal with that?

Wow.