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Today In Teaching

2019-02-04T15:27:07Z

When a student brings out a stuffed toy that sings "Baby Shark" when squeezed:

When literally 40% of a grade 10 class shows up without a pencil:

When a student complains that 60 seconds I frustratedly gave them to get their pencil from their locker isn't long enough:

When I dunk on my students but they laugh and accept the chastisement with good grace because I'm doing it with memes:

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Homegirl With a Wire Stripper

2019-01-29T19:32:44Z

Boyyyy. I've been on my kick to Adult Good, right? This morning I was awake at 6:00, refreshing the job board. I grabbed a job even though it was an hour's drive away. Rolled outta bed, showered, shaved, grabbed my derby gear, out the door by 7:30...

Aaaand discovered my car wouldn't start.

Of course not. Because it's -27° (-38° with windchill) and the car wasn't plugged in. Because last time I plugged it in, three weeks ago, I didn't unplug it, and ripped the plug head right off the cord.

So I schlep back inside, take my parka off, get online and cancel the job booking. I google "new block heater cost" and then "new block heater CORD cost," because god am I hoping this is a simple, cheap fix. It is not. Google says 16 bloody inches of electrical cord will run me $45 to $75.

I text my Welder Friend Who Also Knows Cars, because this is not okay.

"lol or you could just put the plug back on it"

"What???"

"never mind, you'll need a new plug because factory plug heads don't unscrew. We've got a few hanging around, I can give you one."

"You're the best!"

"I'll come give you a boost and we can fix er in my garage where we won't die lol"

"YOU'RE THE BEST."

She comes over (with her dog!) and boosts me. We pet her dog in her truck while my car warms up enough that the engine parts stop shrieking.

We drive back to her house, pull out the tools, and bing bang boom-- in less time than it took my car to warm up, we've stripped some wires, slotted them into the new plug, and screwed it back together. My block heater works again.

It was nothing. I fixed an electrical appliance and it was nothing! I feel like it should have taken more skill or effort to achieve-- like it was actually an achievement!-- but the repair was almost absurdly simple. My education and skillset and general life has just been so removed from vehicle maintenance that I had no idea where to start.

But that's why everybody needs a homegirl with a wire stripper. A friend who knows things about cars, or sewing machines, or plumbing, who's got a toolbox and some greasy work jeans hanging around, who'll laugh at your lack of knowledge but show you how to fix your Thing. In drafting this post I started with the joke "everybody needs a butch lesbian friend," but the irony here is that I'm the Big Queer and my friend is straight, and also "gays don't know cars" is apparently also a stereotype?

Really, though. Friends with mechanical skills are the best.

Also, I'm never forgetting to unplug this bitch again.

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The Garden of Eden

2019-01-23T22:22:15Z

Today Martin discovered that his food comes not just from The Cupboard Void, but from a physical stockpile of food in a plastic bin that has concrete existence within the Cupboard! Like a kitty dish full of food... but INFINITY SIZE.

With this knowledge, like a glimpse of paradise witnessed and denied, he will now live a tormented half-life of spiritual agony, judging by the way he has spent the afternoon constantly crying and pawing at the closed cupboard door.

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Recipe Roundup ft. Soups

2019-01-02T21:33:40Z

December was a month for soup. Lots and lots and lots of soup.

Leek and Potato Soup

Let's not be precious about our recipes, even if they are French classics. I used the whole leek, not just the root ends, and I actually put my thyme into the soup rather than removing the stalks later. I also left the nutritious peels on my potatoes, which resulted in a slightly less than velvet-smooth final product-- fine with me! This was tastyyyyy.

Ham and Potato Soup

My potatoes were sprouting, okay? lmao. This is a very basic, very good recipe. I did exchange the heavy cream for milk, because cream is expensive. 10/10 would make again.

Borscht

In my opinion, borscht means "a beet soup with dill and anything else you want to add." That's it, that's all! Ostensibly I used this recipe, but since I omitted the cabbage, pork sausage, and potatoes, used crushed tomatoes instead of paste, and used DILL instead of parsley (wtf, parsley???)... I think I was obeying the spirit of borscht rather than the letter of the recipe.

Other recipes from recently:

Diane's Six-Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies-- Cumin and cayenne in a sweet cookie? Really? YES. It's the complex flavour I've been looking for in a spice cookie since EVER. ("A pinch" nothing-- do 1/2 tsp of cloves and cayenne.)
Lemon Poppy Seed Loaf-- I doubled the poppy seeds and went without icing, as ever. The crisp crust with an ever-soft inside was perfection.
Chocolate Coins-- Very easy to make, though time consuming. It's easy to make many varieties, the results look impressive, and I got tons of compliments at Xmas as my family ate the whole batch. A recipe really isn't needed: just heat chocolate in a double boiler, pour onto parchment paper, then add toppings. I did white chocolate (+Earl Grey, +green tea and almonds, +dried lavender) and semi-sweet chocolate (+candied ginger and sesame seeds, +candied orange peel, +red pepper flakes).

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Happy New Year 2k19!

2019-01-02T21:02:05Z

Hello again, Dreamwidth. Apparently it's harder to re-form the habit of long-form blogging than I thought.

Right now is a great time for re-evaluating goals and habits for the coming year, though. I don't do New Year's "resolutions," per se-- but I do set goals. I've taught students goal-setting often enough that I'm not half bad at it myself, haha.

They have to be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. In January last year I re-started using Habitica to track my goals on a daily basis, and to schedule other tasks. That worked really well and I will continue to use it! I do need to evaluate progress on my long-term goals more regularly this year.

( 2k18 Goal Review )

2k19 Goals:

1. Re-visit goals regularly!

Evaluate goal progress every three months: April 1, July 1, October 1, and January 1 2020.
No cheat days on Habitica. No "pay 100 gold to maintain a streak of a thing I didn't do."

2. Work

Accept work for at least 12/20 days per month. This includes compensated volunteer work.

3. Sleep

No phone or computer after 10:00pm.
Be in bed by 10:30pm five nights a week.
Get out of bed by 7:30am seven days a week.
NO CELL PHONE IN BED. SERIOUSLY.

4. Fitness

Create a stretching routine and write it on paper. Do the full routine every morning.
Do a plank to exhaustion every day. Work from a 1 minute plank (currently) to a 2.5 minute plank by December 31.
Do at least 20 push-ups every day.
Complete the 200 Sit-Ups program by June 31.

5. Read

Read 30 books! Based on 2018, I've decided that is a reasonable goal if I stick to it. It's one book every 12 days, and I know full well that I can tear through some books in one day.
Read before bed for at least 15 minutes every night.
Keep track of books I read in a Gdoc.

6. Write

Write 100,000 words. I didn't succeed in 2018, for two main reasons: time commitments to volunteering, and using free time for other recreation. That's fair and I will not blame myself for it. I still want to try to hit 100K this year.
Write at least 2500 words of Like Lighting every week.
Wednesday night is writing night! Book it off on the calendar and don't make other commitments. Sometimes I'll be writing with a friend (wherein we both write in silence in the same room-- it's excellent) and sometimes alone. But I need to make this a routine.

These goals are much the same as last year's. I think that's not necessarily a bad thing. 2018 was a good year for me, despite the stress and some incomplete goals. I made marked accomplishments and improvements over 2017. I know what I achieved, and why I didn't achieve other things. And, with the exception of not making progress on Like Lightning, I'm happy with what I did in 2018. I should stick to what's working.

I debated making volunteer work goals, and realized I didn't need any. I'm sitting on three different boards and I'll commit to a lot of volunteering. The real trick will be keeping enough free time to accomplish my personal goals. "Don't over-commit" is the implicit goal underlying all of my other ones.

Happy New Year, everyone! Remember: there is no "it gets better." You have to make it better. Set your targets and knock 'em dead.

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Recipe Roundup ft. Brioche

2018-12-11T05:14:17Z

BRIOCHE!

Tonight's triumphant success. I used this recipe from Girl vs Dough, except braided instead of slabbed. It took over 24 hours, but I'm coming to realize that's to be expected with bread. All my bread successes have been works of patience. But most of the work was leaving it alone and not fussing! Letting the dough rest overnight in the fridge was easy; not poking it anxiously while it rose (unevenly) in the pan on the kitchen counter was much harder.

This bread. My god. It's a croissant except in loaf form. A very thin, bubbly, butter-crisp exterior, crackling when cut. A soft yellow interior, flaking and pulling in soft feathers. It's not sweet, but it is rich. Three eggs and half a cup of butter will do that.

Martin, as you can see, wanted it desperately. He's a monster for carbs. And butter.

Other recipes from this week:

Fried rice -- Very tasty, which is good, considering that I had enough for six meals. I still forget that I'm not cooking for five any more.
Masala chai biscotti -- My go-to biscotti recipe! It makes a biscotti that's crisp and dry but not fragile or crumbly, and holds up to dunking. I exchanged the cardamom for a chai spice blend and omitted the icing (as usual).
Extra crispy oven fries -- AT LAST. A recipe worth braving the terror of the mandoline! So so so crispy. They did discolour my new, good baking sheet, though. *frowns* I made three potatoes' worth, intending to have leftovers. Somehow I ate them all in one sitting. Delicious with mayo-mustard and chives from my sad, finally-failing pot of herbs.

And...

Did you know... you can make juice from concentrate... with soda water???
Instead of regular water?
And suddenly your cheap canned juice is fancy???
IT'S ITALIAN SODA FOR CHEAP
CHEERS BINCHES

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IP Address Logging on DW

2018-12-07T18:25:45Z

Hey y'all! Many of us seem to be moving in and/or doing housekeeping, so I thought I'd mention this.

DW is set up to automatically log the IP addresses of everyone who comments on your entries. With an someone's IP address, you can use an IP address lookup to discover not only their internet service provider, but also their country, region, city, and approximate postal code and longditude/latitude of their computer.

That is... not exactly information that I want many people on the internet to know about me.

IP address logging can be a useful tool for monitoring anonymous harassment or sockpuppeting. But consider whether you need that information about all your commenters, as well as the chilling effect of commenters not wanting to give out their location in order to interact with you. Please consider turning it off. :)

To turn off IP Address Logging:
Account Settings --> Privacy tab --> IP Address Logging --> "nobody"

Please and thank you in advance!

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Merry Kinkmas 2018!

2018-12-05T17:53:44Z

There's nothing like smut for making friends out of strangers. :)

(Or for letting you know that this might not be the blog for you, haha.)

To start this blog off with a bang, I figured a commentfic meme would be just the thing. These will be short snippets, I swear. Like 4 paragraphs tops, and I don't even want to write proper characters. Just kinks.

So! Shoot me a comment or two below and give me:

A kink! Any kink! Or any naughty thing you'd like. I doubt you can scare me; in fact I take it as a challenge.
A general pairing: m/m, f/f/m, trans guy/unknown, "many," etc.
Any squicks, just in case

Be anonymous if you'd like! This is just to get y'all comfy and have some fun.

(And thank you to chocochipbiscuit for the idea!)

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Fresh Beginnings and Full Circles

2018-12-04T03:58:47Z

So. Here we are.

This blog might be new, but this feels old to me. Real 2010 LiveJournal vibes. I think I'm having actual flashbacks just from the user interface.

After LJ went to shit in 2012, I dabbled briefly on DW but ultimately ended up following the fandom migration to tumblr. The fact that history repeated itself with tumblr and I've jumped ship to DW again is... strange. It's like I took a six-year scenic route and only just arrived at my original destination.

To commemorate that wild six-year ride, here's my first post on tumblr, from 14 March 2012:

Anyway, suck it, tumblr. Welcome, friends.

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