Santa Feels Economic Hardship Too

I remember the days when I had lots of presents under the tree and a stocking that overflowed with goodies. I even remember that one time when all I had was a lump of coal in my stocking...

Yes, it is true. I once got a lump of coal.

Of course, we all know that getting coal in your stocking is the undisputable sign that you have been a bad kid that year. I can honestly say that I do not remember what was so bad about that year compared to any other but the fact remains that Santa Claus thought I was bad that year.

It has been roughly 25 years since that lump of coal was in my stocking. Times have changed and so have I. Today, I have a wife and five children of my own whom I have had to remind that if they are bad they might receive a lump of coal in their stocking instead of fun goodies.

I guess I was wrong...apparently with the economy in such bad shape and with all the push to switch to renewable energy sources and conserve fossil fuels, Santa has had to make some adjustments as well. I wonder how much coal Santa normally uses each year? How big of an impact will that have if all Santa's coal stash could go toward heating homes instead?

Unfortunately, all seven of us must have been bad this year because we were able to find out first-hand how Santa has adapted to the economic crisis among us.

No coal from ol' Mr. Claus this year, Santa brought us vomit instead. Maybe it was a sick joke or maybe Santa had a few too many egg nogs before he hopped in the sleigh or maybe the elves screwed up something in the orders. Maybe Santa didn't like the cookies we left and he tossed them for us. I am not sure what all of us did that was so bad but the kids were blowing chunks all over the place, mom spewed a couple times, and I felt queasy but only had some diarrhea. Weird, but maybe there is some truth to all the people telling me to get my head out of there...

For the most part, everything came and went over the holiday. Thanks a lot, Santa! I didn't even get any Christmas ham thanks to you, and I love ham.

Oh well, I am not a kid anymore Santa, I am a comabt veteran now. You can't mess with me and expect to get away so easily. You know what they say about paybacks...

(now where is that recipe for ex-lax chip cookies that uses syrup of ipecac...)

New Inspiration

WOW!

I actually received my first comment today on one of my blog entries. I never really thought that I would have many visitors or comments so now I feel inspired to make some more entries.

Thanks ledell!!

Ramblings

Today, since it has been a few days, I thought I would at least log on and ramble a little.

Hopefully everyone had a good 4th of July holiday weekend. The weather was fabulous, at least in my neck of the woods. Had some burgers and hot dogs on the grill, the kids went swimming, wached some fireworks, etc. ya know - the traditional 4th of July type stuff.

This week has been a rather busy one. The recycling guys are coming on Friday to take all of our old computer equipment away. What a relief. We had old stuff piling up for over two years. About 75 large CRT monitors and computer towers, about a dozen or so printers, boxes of keyboards and mice, tons of floppy drives and CD drives, and even a slew of VCRs and such. Getting rid of these things will make so much more room for us in our work area! Anyway, I have been busy prepping all the stuff for the haul. I had to test all the computers for the ones that would POST and the ones that wouldn't salvaging the ones that we could. I had to remove all of the inventory labels too. It was all very time consuming.

I sent out two application packets this week as well to UW-Stout. They have a couple of positions open that I would be really interested in. I really enjoy my job now and I am good at it but either of these opportunities would be near impossible to pass up. I really enjoy working in the field of education and technology and the Instructional Design and Technology Consultant or the Information Systems Supervisor positions would be too sweet. With five children and a stay home wife/mom, I need to take all the great opportunities that come my way.

Had a big midterm project to knock out this week too for my class in Assessment for E-Learning. It is part of a graduate certification program for e-learning and online teaching. Great program, by the way. I would recommend it if you are in any position of education or training. Here is a link to get you started if you are interested.

E-Learning and Online Teaching

Anyway, big midterm project. had to get that finished up before the end of the week. It was a group effort too. Five of us had to come up with some research on various assessment tools and combine them all into one big document. I made a webpage for us all to put or work into. We are just about done as of this post.

So, back to work on the project, then.
Until next time...

Why the Blog?

Blogs are fascinating.

So what took me so long to make one?

I guess I just never felt like I had a lot to say about anything. So I decided to make a blog where I can talk about everything. No strings attached.

I started out in the field of education by teaching chemistry and physical science at the high school level. One of the main objectives of science is to help people to better understand the world around them. One of the things I learned in a graduate course I took is that we can gain a better understanding of things by simply analyzing through a different lens. Our experiences, childhood, education, socio-economic status, race, gender, and health all play a role in how we see the world.

I posit that by stopping to trade lenses and being brave enough to experience the minds of those around us, we just might develop some growth of character, knowledge, patience, and love.

So here begins my blog. I hope to learn as much from you as you learn from me.

Have a great day!