Fall 2009 Classes

Fall classes started this past Monday.  So far the teachers and the subject matter seem to be OK.  The interpersonal communications teacher has posted all of the work ahead of time and has encouraged us to work ahead.  As long as the work is in by a specific date, all is good.  The issues in public libraries teacher has only posted the first week’s assignments.  I’d really like it if she posted more than that so that I could plan my time better.  As we all know, though, each teacher has a different style.

My boss laughed the other day.  She said “You’re taking a class on interpersonal communication?  With all the issues we deal with here, you could probably teach it!”  Too funny.  I figure the class will be a good refresher of the information from some of the County run communication/management trainings I’ve taken.  And with this one, I get class credit!

My hunny has also signed up for classes this Fall at Ohlone.  He’s taking a couple of courses on Cisco stuff.  I know he’s really nervous – he and formal education do not get along.  He’ll be trying anyway.  His reason is that the school offers a Cisco equipment lab that he can use.  It’ll save us about $1000 since we shouldn’t have to buy any equipment to build a home lab.  Let’s hope he succeeds with these classes.

He’s also finishing up his Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer thingie (sorry, I’m not technical).  One test to go.  He was trying to schedule the test last night, but the website was all weird.  I hope he schedules and passes it soon.

That’s all on the education front for now…

Zucchini Festival Psychic

Last weekend was Hayward’s annual Zucchini Festival at Kennedy Park.  Residents and visitors alike pay their admission fee and then wander around looking at booths, eating zucchini, and drinking beer.  One of the booths there was Madame Davis, who offered tarot card or palm readings for $10.  I wanted one of each, but only had $10 left so I chose a palm reading.

Madame Davis herself didn’t do my reading.  Instead my palms were read by a young, soft spoken lady.  It was a bit weird – she spent a lot of time staring at my hands before opening her mouth.  Some of the things she said were eerily specific.  If you know me, you know which ones they are:

1. You come from good parents.  Your mother loves you a lot, even if she doesn’t always remember
2. Don’t ask your brother or sister for anything; they will never help you
3. Your lifeline is strong; you will have a long life
4. You are hot tempered.  You have quick flashes of anger, but you are very good at pretending you’re not mad.  It goes away quickly and you forgive easily.
5. You don’t expect a lot from other people.  You just want them to be good and do what needs to be done.
6. You don’t ask for help very often. Experience has taught you that people won’t help you.
7. In 3 months you will take a trip over the mountains.  In 1 year you will take a trip over the water.
8. You sometimes doubt the love of the man in your life.  Don’t paint him with your father’s brush.  He loves you very much and will do anything for you.
9. I don’t see you having children.
10. By the end of the year you will move into your own home.
11. Within 1 year, you will have a job change.  It will be good.  You will get a promotion.
12. Within 1 year, good news will come in the mail.
13. Family from far away will visit you soon.

Turkey Burgers

I made turkey burgers with the leftover turkey meat from last night.  They were …  eh… not so good.  Kinda boring.  My hunny tried to spice his up with jalapenos from our garden and onions from a friend’s garden.  That didn’t work so well either.  Oh well.  Ya win some, ya lose some.

Spicy Turkey Chili

One of my most favorite cookbooks was discarded from my branch’s collection last week (The Complete Quick & Hearty Diabetic Cookbook ISBN 1-58-040285-2).  Some of the pages were stuck together because a patron spilled food in it.  On the one hand this sucks for our collection, but on the other it was a boon for me.  The book was discarded, I paid the Friends, and happily took my damaged cookbook home.  I wasn’t worried about the pages that were stuck together.  Both pages had recipes for things that I didn’t think I’d ever cook.

Since my Summer classes end tomorrow, I finally have a chance to cook a real meal.  It’s been hard this semester, and I must say that I’m sick of the fast food, canned food, frozen food…  Today I prepared Spicy Turkey Chili (page 79, but I put it below if you can’t find the book) with corn bread, salad, and grapes.  I was a bit trepidatious.  My hunny doesn’t tend to like chili, and I haven’t found a recipe for turkey chili that I liked.  But, I figured if it sucked, there was always Taco Bell.

It was really good!!!  I ended up halving the recipe because it’s just my hunny and me.  We played rock-paper-scissors to see which one of us got to take the leftovers to work tomorrow, and who was stuck with a turkey sandwich.  Sadly, I lost. 

I liked that it had a lot of flavor.  It was smoky, and spicy, and not at all bland.  My hunny thought it had a good balance of tomato and spices.  We both agreed that it wasn’t too soupy.  It’s a recipe we both recommend.  Too bad I didn’t come up with it myself…

Spicy Turkey Chili

• 2 onions chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb. lean ground turkey breast
• 2 cups kidney or pinto beans (I used white beans)
• 2 cups canned tomatoes with liquid
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp cumin
• Fresh ground pepper

1. In a large saucepan, saute the onion, garlic and green pepper in the oil for 10 minutes. Add the turkey and saute until the turkey is cooked, about 5-10 minutes. Drain any fat.
2. Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.  Add additional chili powder if you like your chili extra spicy

Nutritional info
6 Servings (1 cup each)

Exchanges
1 1/2 starch
2 lean meat

Calories 220
Calories from fat 32
Total Fat 4 g
Saturated fat 1 g
Cholesterol 51 mg
Sodium 175 mg
Total Carbohydrate 23 g
Dietary fiber 5 g
Sugars 5 g
Protein 25 g

SJSU Libr 263 Mid-Semester Rant

This summer I’m taking 2 classes, one of which is Libr 263, Materials for Youth ages 5-8, taught by Shirley Lukenbill.

I signed up for this class thinking that I’d have some fun, especially since I knew I’d be taking a difficult, labor-intensive class (Libr 285, Research Methods) along side it.  After all, children’s books are supposed to be fun and interesting.  Unfortunately I am sorely disppointed and incredibly frustrated by everything about this class.

What kind of a teacher posts a greensheet (syllabus) talking about herself in the third person (“Mrs. Lukenbill would like it if…”)?  And then, later in the semester posts another “updated” one where she talks about herself like a normal person and adds some more rules for her class?

The syllabus is nothing more than a listing of rules and regulations.  “I won’t accept…” “Be sure you…” “If you don’t…”  WTF?  Then, the assignments are broken down into steps that are each due 2 days apart.  Ummm… Last I checked I was a Master’s student.  You don’t get this far by not budgeting your time properly.  I really don’t need to have each part of my assignment due every 2 days.  But, apparently this teacher thinks that it’s truly necessary for all her students to jump when she says, so, I worked with her timeframes.

So, I knew I would be going to Vegas to celebrate my birthday, and I knew that I’d need to turn all the pieces of my project in before I left, and therefore before they were due.  I worked on them all, and did them according to the guidelines she posted in the assignment descriptions and syllabus.  I figured I’d read my project over again a couple more times before I turned it in to make sure that I didn’t leave anything out.  I’m sure glad I did, since 2 days before the first part was due, Mrs. Lukenbill posted a REVISED assignment.  I figured, mistakes happen, so I revised my project to fit in with her revision.  Then a couple days later, she posted ANOTHER revision.  So again, I revised my project.  I wrote an email to Mrs. Lukenbill explaining that I would be going to Vegas, and that I would be turning my assignments in before the due dates according to the most current assignment descriptions.  I also told her that I would not be bringing a laptop with me and that she could call me if any part of the assignments were revised again.  I didn’t receive phone call, or an email, so I assumed that no revisions were made.

Could you please tell me why she revised AGAIN?  And then graded my assignment down because it didn’t follow the revised assignment?

Is she truly so bad at making lesson plans that she can’t figure out the basics of describing an assignment?

Is she truly so uncaring of others’ time and efforts that she would revise assignment requirements with little to no warning?

And please, tell me why she would have us pick thematic collection development topics before we’ve had a chance to become familiar with the products that are out there.  And require that we include positive reviews of the items we’re including, when so few AV items are reviewed? 

I think I hate this class.

This is one of the few teachers that I will probably write a formal complaint about once the semester is finished.

Edit: Apparently so many people had problems with the first assignment due (ironically called Assignment 2) that she’s allowing us to revise the pieces that were turned in previously and turn them in with the last piece of the project.

University Fees? Why?

Taking classes online can be great.  I can talk with classmates in my jammies, I can view lectures at 3AM, and I can budget my time as I see fit…  all without stepping foot on campus.

I’m not that far from San Jose State, but I’m still far enough away that I choose not to visit the campus.  As a student, I have never set foot on campus.  I’ve never gone to a sporting event, checked out a book from their library, used the student health center, gone to a concert or play, or received a student ID.  Since I don’t have children, I couldn’t have ever used the on campus childcare.  I’ve never ridden Light Rail, let alone gone to campus on it.  So, please tell me why I must pay $514 this semester for all of these activities.  Anyone?  I hear crickets!

All in all, this semester is costing me a little over $1800 for tuition and fees.  The tuition I can understand.  And $100 of the fees, I can understand since each class costs an extra $50 because it’s considered an Information Science course.  But seriously, the other $514 is ridiculous!  All of the classes in the MLIS program are 100% online now.  None of them are even hybridized.  So why should anyone in the MLIS program have to pay these fees?

I know that money is tight at the school, but why punish the students for the chancellor’s poor fiscal management?

Why should I have to subsidize someone else’s entertainment?

Why should I have to pay for someone else’s child care?

I have no choice.  If I don’t pay, I don’t get that little piece of paper that says I’m qualified to be a librarian.  I just think it’s incredibly unfair to charge people for services they’ll never use.

As my hunny says…  It’s interesting the way prices go up when you don’t have competition.

Uphill

I weighed in this morning and managed to lose that pesky 0.5 pound.  I’ve now lost 30 pounds!  Yay!

To celebrate, I went to work.  Not really, but that’s mostly what I did with my day.

My hunny had his friends over when I got home from work, so I had a granola bar and changed into workout clothes.  Then I went for a walk/jog.  I walked a few blocks down to the park where I pretended to play tennis yesterday.  Then I crossed the street and jogged the length of 6 house fronts, walked 2 house fronts, crossed the street, walked 2 more (back the way I came), and jogged 6.  When I got to the end of the street, I walked to the next street and did it all again.  This might sound difficult enough, but add in that there is a slight to moderate incline since these streets go uphill, and you’d know that it was a bit of a workout.

I was covered in sweat when I got home.  That was when my hunny said “I wanna do it too!” So back out I went.  We only managed 2 streets before he pooped out.  We walked the rest of the route home.

My legs and butt are so tired now!  I can tell they were worked.  But I feel good.  Not sore, just a bit tired and good.

29.5

I went to the dentist on Thursday because my jaw was hurting.  She said that I shouldn’t worry because it hadn’t happened before and it seemed to be improving.  On the down side, I need 2 cavities filled.  This is a new dentist for me, and, since I have a heart murmur, they wouldn’t even claean my teeth without my doctor’s approval.  All of my dental fun should commence on Friday.

So, they called Kaiser, who said that they had no record of me ever having a heart murmur.  Uhhh…  what?  I was born with it.  What do you mean you don’t have a record of it?  Either way, I have a new medical doctor too (since mine retired last month).  I hadn’t met her yet, and she wanted to examine me, met me, make sure I wasn’t lying about the murmur.  She seemed nice enough.  She said “I hear your murmur, and it’s LOUD!”  So, she’s concerned that I might be anemic, which could account for the noise or even make the murmur worse.  Who knew?  Then we got to talking and she learned about my family history of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc.  So now I have to do a fasting blood test.  Good news that came out of this appointment was that I lost 29 pounds (woo hoo!) and that there is no need for antibiotics if you have an “unrisky” heart murmur. 

I was really good yesterday, in spite of being surrounded by junk food at my mom’s house (go me!), and I managed to work out for an hour with weights (owww).  This morning I jumped on my Wii before my hunny and I went to the tennis court to pretend to play tennis… and I lost another 0.5 pounds!  Tee hee!  Another 0.5 to go before I get my massage!  I’m down to 161.5.  Yay!!!

Just had to do a little happy dance before all my happy is taken away by school next week.

 

Here are a couple of pictures…

Me and my sister, 11/08

 

 This is me and my sister at Disneyland in November 2008.  This is my before picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Me at Disneyland 2/09

 

 

 

This is me before a fancy dinner at Disneyland in February 2009.  I was about 15 pounds lighter here.  My dress was a bit big on me but still wearable. 

I don’t have any more recent pictures, but I’ve lost about 15 more pounds since this picture.  So, I look just like this, only skinnier.  I’ll post a newer one when I have one taken.

Fire Extinguishers

I was doing the laundry the other day when I noticed that the fire extinguisher in the laundry room is showing “empty.”  I reported it to the landlady like a good tenant, fully expecting that she would simply send a replacement over.  You see, the current fire extinguisher is one of those that you get from home improvement stores.  It’s not meant to be serviced, you simply turn it in to the fire department and buy a new one.  So, why did I get a phone call from a fire extinguisher service company the next day?  And why did the company think that I was the building manager?  I have no idea. 

I couldn’t talk the guy from the company out of coming by, even though I know that this fire extinguisher isn’t meant to be serviced.  So, at 9AM tomorrow morning, I’ll either be surprised (since he’ll service it), or a bit annoyed (since he’ll tell me what I know already).  This will be fun.

On the positive side, I’m leaving for Disneyland tomorrow!

Showers

It would be nice to be able to take a shower whenever I want to…

Oh, sure, I can shower at any time of the day or night.  I know this.  I know I can twist the knobs to allow hot/cold water into my shower.  But it’s hard to know when it will work best.

For those of you who don’t know, I live in a 4-plex with a shared water heater.  Yes, that’s right…  4 households to 1 water heater.  The water heater is very big so the hot water doesn’t tend to run out.  Unfortunately if anyone in the 4-plex flushes the toilet, does their dishes, washes their hands, brushes their teeth – well, they make my shower get very, very hot or freezing cold.  The same goes for laundry or the sprinklers.

I used to shower before 7 every morning.  It worked well because only 1 of my neighbors got ready for work around that time and I didn’t have to fear scalding.  Then, my hunny got his new job and he started getting ready for the day around 7 every morning.  He likes his morning privacy.

I thought it would be OK to push my shower time back to 7:30.  It seems as though everyone in my complex gets ready then.  Hard to get a warm shower if everyone is using the hot water.

So, I pushed it back to 7:45, figuring that it would give them enough time to get in and out of the shower, etc.  Unfortunately the sprinklers come on at 7:50.  They don’t all go on at the same time.  Different areas of the complex turn on at different times… and they stay on for about 7 minutes.  So every 7 minutes I deal with scalding water that has suddenly gone cold (and vice versa).

I stayed home sick yesterday and the day before.  I tried showering at night those days, hoping that this would be a better option for steady water temperatures.  Do you know how many people flush the toilet at night?  I swear they must all have diarrhea!  Any suggestions?

If you take a lukewarm shower (to avoid the scalding episodes), you freeze if they turn on the hot water or stop using the sprinklers.  If you take a warm shower (to avoid freezing to death), you deal with the risk of scalding if they flush the toilet or do anything with cold water.  *sigh*

You just can’t win.

I’ll add this to my list of reasons to buy a house:

1. My own washer and dryer
2. An oven that cooks at the temperature shown on the knob (not 50* hotter)
3. A refrigerator that doesn’t freeze items in the meat tray
4. A freezer that keeps foods frozen
5. No fear of death if I turn on the heater
6. Paint
7. Drainage
8. Privacy
9. Consistent water temperature