Jewelery add for Sofia

Titta vad jag hittade!! Från ett jobb i somras!

Look what I found! From a job done this summer..

GB! <3 T

KATHY GRIFFIN D-LISTED CONTEST

Facebook: Kathy Griffin DlistedNyc

GET d-listed!!

If you LOVE Kathy Griffin and love “Sex and the City” this one is for you! NealBinNYC (www.nealbinnyc.wordpress.com) and On Location Tours (www.screentours.com) are looking to see who the BIGGEST KATHY GRIFFIN FAN is out there! We are looking to see who can upload the MOST CREATIVE KATHY GRIFFIN FAN VIDEO.  Yes, it can be outrageous, -but it has to be FACEBOOK appropriate!

One grand prize WINNER will live life on the D-LIST!  The winner will receive TWO FREE TICKETS for the Official Sex and the City Hotspot Tour (http://www.screentours.com/tour.php/satc/) and have their video appear on a DVD we are sending to Kathy G. and her people!  The tour of Sex and the City Hotspots includes more than 40 locations from the hit TV show and movie!  See where Carrie and Co. live, shop, drink and dine.  Locations include Magnolia Bakery, Charlotte’s art gallery, and the bar owned by Aidan and Steve in the show.

To enter you must be in the New York City area and also have Facebook to be eligible.

Contest directions:

NealBinNYC (www.nealbinnyc.wordpress.com) and On Location Tours (www.screentours.com) are looking to see who the BIGGEST KATHY GRIFFIN FAN is out there!

We are looking to see who can create the MOST CREATIVE KATHY GRIFFIN FAN VIDEO.  Yes, it can be outrageous, -but it has to be FACEBOOK appropriate!

On your Facebook page, please upload any original videos (you can enter as many as you like) explaining why you’re the ultimate Kathy Griffin Fan and why she belongs back on the D-list in New York City!  Tag “Kathy Griffin DlistedNyc” in your videos.   The winner will be judged on who has the most creative video.   The judges will be staff members from On Location Tours as well as Neal B.

The contest will ends MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2009 at 8:00 pm EST.  The winner will be contacted that night no later than 9:00 pm via their Facebook e-mail and also the winner will be announced on the Kathy Griffin DlistedNyc  Facebook page.

D-LIST IT UP!

HealthDay (http://tinyurl.com/ADHD-and-Smoking 11/23, Thomas) reported, “Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy or who were exposed to lead have more than double the risk of having” AD/HD “as other children.” Based on their study of “2,588 children aged eight to 15 from around the” US, researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center “concluded that about 38 percent of AD/HD cases among children” in that age group “may be caused by prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke, while 25 percent of AD/HD cases are due to lead exposure.”

First Create a Command Definition inside Centreon that looks like this. Naturally alter the globals to fit inside your organisation.

Notice the Argument example, when you test it in this form you might also notice that you get a valid response from the server. Sadly this argument will not work inside the service definition.

Next Create a Service definition that utilizes this check command to check a specific counter. In my example i am using the MSExchange OWA\Total Users counter that is part of the new Exchange 2007 Perfmon counters. It will not work with a older exchange version. Use Perfmon on the destination machine to locate the right counters for your organisation.

Notice the difference in the passed Argument. To make this check command work you need to slightly alter the argument because the application is making the strings “save” when these settings are stored. The result is that some of the characters will be escaped. This can luckly be countered by participating this behavior.

We need the check_nrpe binairy to parse the escaped characters as literals and make centreon believe that we have already escaped the unsafe chars by adding slashes to each present slash, and add a double qoute at the start and the end to make check_nrpe binary parse the argument correctly. The outcome should look somewhat like this.

If this is the counter you want to check, and lets make it chalanging

\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\Messages Queued For Delivery

Then the service argument for $ARG1$ in my example should look like this inside the Centreon service definition.

!\"\\MSExchangeTransport Queues(_total)\\Messages Queued For Delivery\"!(ARG2)!(ARG3)!

The result will be the following.

I hope this will help you tackle the “Counter” chalanges that Centreon will present when using the NSCLient++ and Check_NRPE commands.

Tools used in this setup

NSClient++ for Windows (32Bit / 64Bit) Using the NRPE option instead of the NS option.
http://nsclient.org/nscp/downloads

NSClient manual for Check_Counter
http://nsclient.org/nscp/wiki/CheckCounter

NSC.Ini file that we used on our remote machines (do add your nagios server IP to the allowed hosts section)
NSC.ini (Rename it by removing the .doc part or simply copy paste its contence)

Check_nrpe Command.
http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=check_nrpe

A co-worker twisted my arm to trying my first MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing game). It’s Dungeons & Dragons Online. Its a free long and big download and free to play but you can pay for additional options. The way I see it it’s sort of a pay as you go. If anyone else is a player, let me know because I’m trying it out now. I need help. I know, I’m lame.

Don’t Miss this week’s

Liberation Wellness Hour Show

Saturday @ 12Noon!

April Renee is the Keynote Speaker for Vaccine Injury Coalition (VIC) and former President of The Autism Autoimmunity Project (TAAP). She presents worldwide in honor of her 4-year old autistic angel, who passed away on June 13th, 1999.

April realized Casi was vaccine injured, before she received the “label” of autism. Autism is 1 in 67 children today and it’s impossible to have a genetic epidemic!

ADD, ADHD, diabetes, cancer (and a rising number of other dis-ease “labels”) are more prevalent than ever. The evidence points to vaccinations as the cause.

She has dedicated the rest of her life to doing WHATEVER is necessary to help these innocent victims and the children-yet-to-be from the autism epidemic! VIC (Vaccine Injury Coalition)

Autism is 1 in 67 children today and it’s impossible to have a genetic epidemic!

Please learn from our mistake and educate BEFORE you vaccinate!

For more information visit www.vacinfo.org or call 800-939-8227

Here is a link to download the audio directly: Episode #44

Episode Overview-

Hey everyone,

Episode #44 is up for your listening pleasure and boy is it a doozy! It clocks in at just under 42 minutes!  Yikes! Episode #44 is kind of a unique episode because it features a recording of a live event. Back on November 14th I was lucky enough to attend the Powering Up with Technology Conference in Prince George’s County Maryland.  At that conference I presented a session called Alternative Professional Development.  I use the term “presented” loosely because, although I was listed as the presenter, the session was more of an integrated brainstorming session.  I was more of the moderator for the discussion than a presenter.  During the session we tried to outline some of the common problems with staff development happening in public schools and then try to come up with some solutions.  During the course of the discussion a bunch of great ideas were mentioned about how to address some of the problems with the typical professional development model.  Furthermore, a number of concrete resources are mentioned that can be used to assist students.  You can access the entire presentation as generated by the audience here:  Alternative Professional Development Presentation from PUWT09.

The episode also features a bumper from Robin Lesht who is a speech-language pathologist from Mount Prospect, Illinois. I met Robin at ATIA 09 where we shared different experiences working in the field of speech-language pathology.

A.T.TIPS In This Episode-

A.T.TIP #67: Document Holder from Inverted CD case and Alligator Clip

Many a student has strained their neck transposing a handwritten assignment onto the computer because the paper was flat on the desk.  To alleviate the neck strain people started to use document holders so that they didn’t have to constantly shift their field of vision from the paper to the screen and back again.  Sure, you could go out and spend money on a fancy, commercial document holder or you could take an unused CD case that you probably have lying around, flip it over so the hinged cover is upright and then fasten the paper to it with an alligator clip.  Done and done, instant document holder.                   

A.T.TIP #68: www.educatus.com

This website provides over 1000 pre-made lessons/presentations on a wide variety of curricular topics.  The media-rich presentations are similar to a PowerPoint presentation and each one is available to be viewed online via your web browser.  Each presentation is useful as a pre-learning activity where students could be asked to independently review content before a class discussion, as an alternative source of content to complement or supplement another lesson, or as a follow-up/review activity at the end of a lesson.

A.T.TIP #69: www.voki.com

This website allows you to create an animated talking head.  Use text-to-speech or record a voice to have the voki speak the message.  Vokis could be used by a teacher to introduce a lesson, give verbal instructions for an assignment, record reminders to students, provide feedback and more!  Vokis could be used by a student as an alternative means of expression for presentations, practicing conversations, or demonstrating knowledge.  Check out these ideas on how to use Voki in your classroom from The Edublogger.

Check out a Voki I created.

A.T.TIP #70: www.blabberize.com

This website allows you to upload a picture, select a portion of that picture that will move (usually a mouth), and then record a message.  When the message is played back, the selected area will move in time with the message.  Blabberize can be used in similar ways as Vokis.  It could be used by a teacher to introduce a lesson, give verbal instructions for an assignment, record reminders to students, provide feedback and more!  It could be used by a student as an alternative means of expression for presentations, practicing conversations, or demonstrating knowledge.   

Check out a video I made in Blabberize

Additional Resources Mentioned-

1. Loudoun County Public Schools’ Assistive Technology Video Archive

2. Evidence that high-speed Internet access is not ubiquitous.

3. More evidence that high-speed Internet access is not ubiquitous.

4. www.delicious.com – Social Bookmarking Site.  Note that the A.T.TIPSCAST uses delicious to share resources on the left side of the page.

5. www.Prezi.com – A new and interesting way to create a presentation.  Information is presented on one large canvas and you zoom into different areas of the canvas to view the information.

6. www.tinyurl.com – A useful way of making long URLs shorter.  Shortened URLs are easier for users to remember (like www.tinyurl.com/nlsstories) and easier for people to type in if entering a URL from a piece of paper.

7. Tonyvincent.info – A link library of useful educational resources created by the keynote speaker of the conference, Tony Vincent.  **Corrected from original post- Tony made a comment below sharing that the site he used to present at the conference was http://tonysite.info ***

8. Radio WillowWeb Podcast - Radio WillowWeb is a podcast for kids
and by kids from the students at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, Nebraska.
Each new show is called a Willowcast. Each Willowcast can be heard on WillowWeb
as an mp3 digital audio file.

9. ASHA Podcast - The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s podcast features interviews with different individuals making strides in the field of speech-language pathology and audiology

10. Quick Access Toolbar in Word 07 – Microsoft Word 07 features a quick access toolbar that can be customized, allowing for favorite tools to be shown and less used tools to be hidden.  This feature helps to reduce clutter on the screen while highlighting to students some key/important features they could be using in Word.

Upcoming Presentations-

Alternative Professional Development – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 28 – 2:45pm – 3:45pm EST

UDL 2.0 presented with Beth Poss – Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference 2010 – Orlando, Florida – January 29 – 9:15pm-10:15pm EST

Contact Information-

If I don’t get to see you at NECC we can still connect virtually. Join the A.T.TIPPERS group on Facebook and/or Classroom 2.0 ! You can also follow me on twitter.com.

Leave a comment down below or drop me a line at attipscast@gmail.com. Let me know what you think of the show! You can access the podcast and register as a fan of the show from here:

Thanks everyone and happy listening!

So, I was tired and bored and totally couldn’t focus on my boring work, so, after glaring through the cubicle wall a few times at the people who were being loud and annoying, I decided to Google “lack of focus,” and “inability to pay attention at work,” and “sleep and focus” (Google is a great distraction for boredom!). 

This ultimately lead me to links concerning attention deficit disorder.  I have long suspected I have this problem, but have been too lazy (or distracted?) to be tested.  Besides, a lot of people I know have dismissed the idea as preposterous (ok, they didn’t actually use that word, but it works well here).  Anyway, I found an interesting article when I subsequently Googled “ADD and sleep.” 

The article read like  a description of my life:

“When individuals with ADHD finally fall asleep, their sleep is restless. They toss and turn. They awaken at any noise in the house. They are so fitful that bed partners often choose to sleep in another bed. They often awake to find the bed torn apart and covers kicked onto the floor. Sleep is not refreshing and they awaken as tired as when they went to bed.”

If that didn’t describe the Princess and the Pea to a “T” — this was even more proof:

“They sleep through two or three alarms, as well as the attempts of family members to get them out of bed. ADHD sleepers are commonly irritable, even combative, when roused before they are ready. Many of them say they are not fully alert until noon.”

Wow.  We could be on to something here, folks.  Anyone know anything about ADD?  Could that be me?  I’ll have to add this to my list of things to keep researching.  When I’m awake enough, that is…

- La Princesa

So I think I would like to blame this next story on ADD, but it may very well be a symptom of aging.  I think it falls under the ADD category simply because these types of things have been going on pretty much my whole life.  Perhaps it’s just God’s way of keeping me humble.

On Saturday of last week I went to the grocery store for my weekly grocery run.  After checking out with a buggy full of groceries, I was making my way to my car in the parking lot when I heard a voice from behind me saying, “Mam, Mam…”  I turned around to face this voice and saw the teenage boy who had bagged up my groceries only momments before.  “You left your groceries inside.”  That’s when I looked at the grocery cart and saw that I was pushing an EMPTY cart to my car.

Talk about feeling like an idiot.  Sheepishly I went back in the store to retrieve my groceries, muttering along the way something about having too much on my mind.  I don’t think the bag boy cared much about my humiliation.

We had school conferences yesterday. First was David’s. He’s doing very well. His reading is a little behind, but mostly because he needs to really learn the -ed and -ing endings. He is having a few behavioral issues right now. We’re seeing it at home too. The only thing I can think of is growth spurt. He always reverts to worse behaviors during growth spurt time. Then she briefly touched on the fact that this is David’s 3rd and final year in her class. Where does time go?

Daniel’s conference was next. I was concerned about this one. I wasn’t sure whether his teacher cared that he was repeating kindergarten and already knew everything on the homework sheets. Turns out Daniel is one of five who are repeating. She is very conscious of making everything new and interesting for them. She also has time for them to be challenged in class. They are split by ability and they do work according to skill. Daniel takes great pride in being a role model for the students that can’t do as much. She loves having him in class.

And finally I had Celia’s conference. This was the first time I got to meet her teacher. I went in not thinking the best of her, and left thinking she seems nice. Gee, could it be influenced by the fact that she kept raving over Celia’s beauty and her hair? Then she told me how wonderful the book was that Celia read to the class. (Celia took in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and asked if the class could read it. The teacher allowed Celia to read it to the class.) She said the class was quieter while Celia read than while she (the teacher) reads. She commented on Celia’s grades leveling out. Thinking that Celia just needed to settle in. I confessed that I put Celia back on Strattera (her ADD med) since her class work was suffering. And you should see her report card! All A’s with one B in science. All her behavioral marks are O’s. Previous years her report cards would have a good mix of O’s, S’s and N’s. She always had difficulties finishing work in the time allotted and difficulties working with others. Now the teacher has to assign partners because there are about six girls who always want to be paired with Celia. And her final assessment: she thinks Celia should be tested for gifted. I’ve always agreed, but it seems like while off her meds, the other teachers didn’t agree. I intend to write a letter formally requesting testing for gifted next week.

I’m always telling my husband not to microwave plastic because of the links to cancer (not to mention lowered testosterone in boys – and I have a 2-year-old son!). Now I’ve got even more of a reason for him to not do it: a link between common plastics chemicals and ADHD.

Korean scientists recently published a report about phthalates (components of common consumer products, like toys, cleaning materials, plastics and even personal care items!) that does not look good. They measured the concentration of phthaltes in the urine of school-aged kids and found that the higher the concentration, the worse the child’s ADHD symptoms.

Although the study doesn’t prove the link, it certainly suggests a strong correlation. 

In the meantime, you probably can’t avoid plastics entirely (wooden toys, anyone?) but at the very least, don’t microwave plastic or plastic wrap, and keep your kids away from cleaning materials in general.

As always, if you think your child is showing signs of ADHD, get their cognitive skills tested. Don’t treat the symptoms, treat the cure with cognitive skills training. It strengthens the three types of attention (sustained, selective and divided) and essentially eradicates ADHD. It’s not a pill, drug or gimmick. It’s a proven method of fixing the root cause of ADHD – weak learning skills. (www.LearningRx.com)

Here’s the study:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/171682.php

About 2.5 million Muslims are converging on Mecca this week to take part in the annual Hajj. This year many pilgrims are adding extra step to their preparations for the ritual – getting the H1N1 vaccine…. From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: virus. For a different topic see recipes for cabbage. The blog is also related to: virus.

Concordo em pleno com a opinião do Octávio:

Pelos vistos, a ingenuidade não é uma fraqueza assim tão mal distribuída.
Para aqueles que embandeiraram em arco, fizeram festejos prematuros e acreditaram na abertura deste ME (não subestimem a obstinação e a “embirração” de Sócrates em relação aos professores), talvez a proposta da sorridente Isabel Alçada os deixe bastante apreensivos.
Particularmente o PSD já devia ter compreendido que “gato escaldado devia pensar duas vezes antes de se meter em a-venturas”.
Esta das quotas por motivações económicas diz tudo sobre a natureza deste governo: poupanças e constrangimentos artificiais e absurdos no financiamento à Educação para se poderem esbanjar milhares de milhões de euros no apoio à Banca, em consequência de especulações e de fraudes financeiras.

Proposta do M.E.

Princípios da Revisão do Estatuto da Carreira Docente e da sua articulação com a Avaliação de Desempenho

1) Estruturação da carreira docente:
• Carreira única para os educadores de infância e para os professores dos ensinos básico e secundário;
• Carreira com uma única categoria, sem divisão entre professores titulares e não titulares;
• Desenvolvimento da carreira em 10 escalões;
• Especialização funcional facultativa nos dois escalões do topo da carreira, para as funções de supervisão pedagógica, de gestão da formação, de desenvolvimento curricular e de avaliação, acessível, sob candidatura, aos docentes que possuam formação especifica adequada.
2) Ingresso na carreira:
• Ingresso na carreira dependente de qualificações adequadas, mérito e selectividade;
• Selectividade no ingresso na carreira realiza-se através de uma prova pública de acesso e da aprovação no final de um período probatório de um ano, em que é obrigatória a observação de aulas e a avaliação da prática docente não lectiva.
3) Progressão na carreira e sua articulação com a avaliação de desempenho:
• Acesso ao escalão imediatamente superior mediante a conjugação dos seguintes elementos: tempo de serviço, formação continua ou especializada e mérito traduzido na classificação obtida na avaliação de desempenho, sem prejuízo da dimensão também formativa da avaliação;
• 0 sistema de classificação e o regime dos efeitos da avaliação de desempenho continuarão a assegurar consequências efectivas da avaliação nas condições e no ritmo de progressão na carreira, sem prejuízo das adaptações necessárias à nova estruturação da carreira docente;
• Independentemente dos normais ciclos de avaliação de dois anos, a avaliação com observação de aulas é condição de acesso ao 3.º e ao 5.º escalão, bem como ao 7.° escalão quando tal observação não tenha tido lugar em nenhum dos ciclos anteriores. Se ao docente não estiver distribuído serviço lectivo, a avaliação requerida para o acesso aos escalões referidos inclui um relatório elaborado pelo director da escola;
• As condições de progressão na carreira promovem a necessária selectividade da progressão, como forma de estimular e premiar um melhor desempenho, mediante a fixação anual de vagas para acesso ao 3.º, ao 5.º e ao 7.º escalão.
4) Distribuição de responsabilidades funcionais:
• A atribuição de funções de coordenação, orientação, supervisão pedagógica e avaliação são reservadas aos docentes posicionados a partir do 4.º escalão da carreira, preferencialmente detentores de formação especializada e, de entre eles, sempre que possível aos docentes dos dois últimos escalões que tenham optado pela especialização funcional correspondente;
• A Direcção de cada escola poderá, por motivo justificado, designar para as funções referidas no ponto anterior docentes posicionados no 3.º escalão, desde que possuam formação especializada para o desempenho das funções em causa.
5) Regime transitório:
• Transitoriamente, aos docentes que actualmente se encontram posicionados nos índices 299 e 340 aplicam-se as regras de progressão previstas no Decreto-Lei n.º 270/2009.

Comentário e proposta minha:
O fim da arbitrária e injusta divisão na carreira entre professores titulares e professores não titulares devia ser objecto de um anúncio oficial por parte do ME, à semelhança do que já ocorreu com a inclusão no processo de avaliação dos docentes que não procederam à entrega dos Objectivos Individuais, explicitando-se e estabelecendo-se desde já a nova estrutura da carreira, deixando para a negociação os princípios e os mecanismos de progressão.
Integrar o princípio do fim da divisão na carreira neste pacote, que contém propostas inaceitáveis para os professores, pode protelar a decisão da eliminação efectiva da divisão para além do aceitável (para já não falar do prazo imposto pelo PSD), além de constituir uma estratégia para o ME ganhar tempo com vista à consolidação da farsa que são as classificações obtidas no 1º ciclo de avaliação e a aberrante e incoerente admissão das suas consequências para efeitos de concursos e de progressão na carreira.
Já que os Sindicatos não tomam a iniciativa de implementação de um processo de audição pública dos professores, escola a escola, relativamente a estes princípios e à proposta de novo modelo de avaliação que será entregue pelo ME, proporei aos movimentos independentes de professores que desencadeiem uma campanha nacional a exigir essa auscultação
Porque qualquer análise que cada um de nós, individualmente, possa fazer das propostas do ME pode ser sempre redutora e não exprimir a vontade maioritária dos professores. E também não é prudente deixarmos assuntos desta relevância ao arbítrio das cúpulas sindicais.
AUSCULTEM OS PROFESSORES!

Permitam que os professores se pronunciem sobre:
1) prova de ingresso na carreira;
2) condicionamentos no acesso aos escalões;
3) anulação dos efeitos das classificações obtidas no 1º ciclo de avaliação para efeitos de concursos e progressão na carreira;
4) duração dos ciclos de avaliação;
5) princípios e mecanismos de avaliação aceitáveis;
6) condições de candidatura a funções de coordenação e supervisão;
7) abertura de um concurso extraordinário de professores, tendo em conta as injustiças e as colocações “privadas” (a pedido) que ocorreram neste último concurso, dando também a possibilidade aos ex-titulares, que assim o desejem, de poderem concorrer;
eleição dos directores e dos coordenadores de departamento pelos professores. Publicada por Octávio V Gonçalves

The prevalence of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is easily witnessed with estimates showing that as many as 5% of all school children being affected by this condition. Effective treatment first requires the practitioner to consider the child’s health needs. We are now proud to offer effective natural remedies which gently detoxify while concurrently strengthening perceptive abilities and regulating the central nervous system. When the body’s ability to properly react to the specific stimuli is blocked, one observes contradictory constitutional characteristics and an inability to respond to treatment. Implementation of the proper homeopathic detoxification therapy allows for a proper platform in which to then administer constitutional remedies.

Effective Regulation:

These natural medicines are designed to actively regulate a child’s nervous system and promote healthy functioning on a physical and emotional level.

Non-Toxic:

Unlike pharmaceutical options such as Ritalin, natural medicines do not cause a toxic burden on the body, and promote detoxification.

Gentle Remedies:

Children’s developing bodies are delicate. Natural medicines provide a simple and effective method to help the body without adverse effects or chemicals.

Easily Administered:

The system is designed to be given in a simple yet logical manner. The products are liquid and can be mixed with warm water and placed in the mouth for easy absorption.

If you would like more information about natural medicine for ADD/ADHD, and the treatment of many other conditions, please visit Dr. Denny’s practice websites at http://www.drscottdenny.com or http://www.multicareclinic.org. Please call 954-473-8925 for further information .

For more information on Chinese medicine and prostate treatment, please click on this link to receive my free ebook “How to Thrive in a Modern World.”

Add me on Facebook and Follow me on Twitter!!!

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xXx

Als ich vor kurzem ohne böse Gedanken in meiner Kammer verweilte und Werbung von Unity Media und anderen penetranten Firmen, die mir wöchentlich Müll schicken, in vorfrankierte Rückumschläge von diversen Fernschulen und Universitäten stopfte, überfiel mich plötzlich ein Gefühl unglaublichen Ekels.

Ich hatte den Fernseher laufen und habe tatsächlich hingehört. Ein großer Fehler. Die Werbung zum neuen Spiel New Super Mario Bros. Wii. Eins vorweg: Ich liebe Mario. Wenn jedoch die Werbung aus einem Pseudo-Review irgendeines Milchbubis mit der Hinkapazität von Lukas Podolski besteht, frage ich mich doch, für welche Zielgruppe dieses Spiel gedacht ist. Nein, Quatsch. Natürlich ist das nur eine Form von Käuferschichterweiterung. Die richtigen (keine Gänsefüßchen hier) Spieler wissen ja schon ewig von diesem Spiel.. Bitte lass es so sein.

Aber wirklich. Sämtliche Werbespots zu Produkten von Nintendo sind neuerdings übersäht von überzüchteten blonden Inzestkindern oder Studenten, die mit ihren Hippiefreunden “Spaß” an den trivialsten und dümmsten Spielen haben, bevor sie anschließend ein bisschen Gemüse essen und die Wale retten gehen. Ich glaube nicht, dass solche Leute wirklich existieren.

Aber es hört ja nicht bei Unfug wie dem Balance Board auf, nein. In der Werbung zu Mario Kart Wii, dem unfairsten Spiel seit Simon’s Quest, spielt doch tatsächlich eine GLÜCKLICHE FAMILIE eine Rolle. Worte wie “Hurra!”, “Ja!” und “Super!”, die tatsächlich im Werbespot vorkamen (wir sprechen von Mario Kart Wii, falls ihr es vergessen habt), sind einfach fern von jeder Realität. Davon abgesehen.. Welche Eltern mitte dreißig Spielen mit ihrem ADS-Sohn Videospiele? Zuletzt hat noch ein empörter Vater über Okami geklagt, da es mehrere Stunden dauert, das Spiel durch zu spielen und sein Sohn davon doch bestimmt abhängig wird und eine Schule sprengt. Da hat wohl jemand die letzten 20 Jahre verschlafen oder ist Politiker.

Ich werde mich nun weiter über diese absurden Werbespots aufregen und die Wand anstarren. Eigentlich wollte ich ja heute mit Obdachlosen auf der Straße Thriller tanzen, aber den Spaß hat mir Nintendo verdorben.

AB has been noticeably more cooperative and motivated lately.  Consequently, I don’t feel so frazzled in the mornings, at homework time, or bedtime.  Wow: that’s a lot less stress!

Sure, when he’s supposed to be getting ready to go to school, he still fights with his sister or can’t get his shoes and jacket on because of the toys in his hands… but it’s been weeks since he’s hidden or just lain passively on the floor as the school bell is ringing…

All of a sudden, he’s taking initiative for getting help with his homework or logging on to BrainSpark!  The other night, I asked him to stop reading to me because it was getting late, but he was really interested in the story.  Finally, I agreed that he could continue reading by himself… and he did… right to the end of the book.  I don’t remember him reading independently before, or at least not such a challenging book.

It’s hard to know how he’s gotten here, as so much has happened or changed in the past couple of months:

• he has a fabulous energetic, fun, young, guitar-playing, sport-loving, male homeroom teacher… and about a month ago, he made his teacher a promise that he would do his best;
• he receives accommodation at school (extra time, scribing, quiet place for tests)
• we *all* feel supported by his approachable and helpful special ed teacher, school, and school board;
• he has made friends in his new school & childcare;
• we added Vitamin B supplements to his daily diet (complex B liquid & B12 pills);
• we have been building AB’s awareness and understanding of his profile, ADD/LD and brain plasticity via discussions, books & videos;
• AB is enjoying BrainSpark.  He’s motivated by the reward system (points to buy characters and items for his virtual world).  The aftercare will allow him to access the program 3x/ week… so we decided to purchase the 4 month license.  We’ll report on how it goes!

Today I am sooooo very thankful for parent-teacher conferences that I didn’t come away from with a guilt trip the size of Texas.  I have four very busy boys, three are medicated for ADD.  I loathe conference time.  Everyone of them starts out with, “Hayden is such a bright boy” or “Ethan is such a sweetheart.”  They try their best to give some positive feedback first but then they let in with all the things that the kids aren’t doing.  Of course I want to know what’s going on but couldn’t you have emailed me sooner to help work out these issues?

This year at our new school has been completely different.  The half hour with Grayson’s teacher was mostly spent with her talking about how much she just loves Grayson, his big heart, his love for writing, and his thoughtfulness.  Towards the end she offhandedly said, “you know all about his social issues, so we don’t need to go into that.”  Then she went on to praise him.  I brought up that the kids’ Dr would like to get evaluations from her and I to see if he is ADD as well but she immediately said, “Well, I’ll fill them out if you want me to but I don’t feel he needs to be diagnosed and put on meds.  He’s doing a great job.”  What a relief to have a teacher who DOESN’T want my child drugged.  I walked back home feeling like I was on cloud nine.  Wow, never have I had a teacher praise one of my children so much.

Monday I met with Ethan’s teacher.  This one was not all praise and admiration but she also didn’t try to sugar me up before dumping on me.  She started right away discussing the tactics she and his other teachers were using to help him out.  We discussed some of his problem areas but not at all in a negative way.  She was all about figuring out strategies to help him be the best he could.  Then she did talk about how much she loved having him in her class, how she has had many wonderful conversations with him, how sweet and courteous he is.  Again, I walked home feeling so positive about my sweet monkey boy, instead of this feeling of being the worst parent on earth because my child was not conforming to the public school system.

This morning I had a bright and early meeting with Hayden’s special education teacher.  Again, we discussed some of his problem areas but most of the time was spent on what he needs, how they can help, etc.  And again, I didn’t leave wanting to crawl in a hole.

I am grateful beyond words for these experiences.  It means so much to know that someone else recognizes the worth of my wonderful children.  They genuinely want to figure out how to serve them the best they can.

I’m also grateful for my only mildy ADD child.  Forest works so hard and is doing such a great job.

Off to Jazz Festival last Saturday.

last.fm playing- Rooney-Rooney- Simply Because

Well, it’s that time of year again, time for Thanksgiving and Black Friday, the two busiest days of my life. One day I spent cooking and eating the greatest food on Earth, then I have a midday nap and I get ready to stand out in the cold so that I can get amazing shopping deals.  Over this last year, I have seen a lot of toys come out that I want to add to my collection and this seems like the best time to get them at a better price!

I have figure out a way to even get more off on my Black Friday sales. My master plan this year is to get gift certificates that at a discount on sites like citydeals or others and then use them for payment on my items. This is what I call a double bonus, a genius move on my part!

The exquisite fragrance that is momentarily filling my nostrils. I think I should tend to it. right now…?
just a moment!
BRB!

I do realise that mentioning that I am gone for a moment is of no significance when writing a piece that is not being read as it is being written. So, just play along for a moment.

Now that you are done reading that pointless introduction; I figured it was time to make an addition to my ‘Blog’ but I have no clue what I want to write about…

So I chose ‘Burning Food?’
Yes. Why not? I am sure I can turn this into some amazingly significant occurrence that reflects on my life or on the world in some kind of quasi-obvious metaphorical manner.
But is it?
Not if wasting both food and energy and in addition to that: neglecting the world, indirectly creating a very real (fire) hazard that could destroy life as I know it, is of no importance…

Where have I heard this before? I can hardly recall having heard preaches of similar doom in relations to things on a global scale. Although, what was that thing that was threatening to cause catastrophes, flooding, draught, famine, war and eventually 2012?
I know what you are all thinking: “Is bush going to come back to power and somehow get another 8 years in office?”
NO, although you can’t hold it against me if I think that would be funny. You got to love that guy! He was amazing! If you like good stand-up comedy… (He was funny in the same way you laugh at slapstick, knowing that it is the least creative or intelligent form of comedy ever to exist.)

Lets just give Barack a chance!

“Yes we can!”

Better yet:

“Yes I can try! Just don’t hate me because I misled myself (into believing that I could sway the USA into the right direction, but finding out that there is a reason why the US government is the worlds biggest ‘FAIL’ in terms of common sense, as it finds itself superior but is sadly not aware that the joke is actually on them, making it all the more fun for the rest of the world) and even though now the people who did have hope in me and the change I promised are growing impatient, I am doing my best”

Does that sum it up? Just about.
I genuinely feel bad for him, especially when he was given that Nobel Peace Prize. The world’s expectations are now putting an even large pressure on him to do well, giving the opposition the opportunity rip him apart the moment he makes any mistake at all. Well done Nobel Prize Committee!
FYI, I have no relation with the USA and intend to keep it that way. For now.

In the eventuality that you did not think of Bush when reading the various references to terrible events, your most probable answer would have been something like… Global Warming! (perhaps the energy wasting aspects gave it away)
Personally I have no clue if global warming is occurring.

I don’t care.

The world has had endured changes of much larger extramities;  resulting in much more inhospitable and devastating effects. Thus this seems to be nothing special in the big picture. But we are scared. What if we are responsible? The world does change, the environment is destroyed and the human race is reduced to nothing more than desperate beings in a savage world?
God forbid we have to take responsibility for what we have done!
If we really are responsible, then I guess we should have thought of that before we decided to waste more than necessary. Maybe we should have taken care of the world and thought about the implications of our actions.
To the world, it does not matter. The trees and the animals, they don’t know any better. It is only the human race that will fear their imminent annihilation. Worse yet: the ‘developed world’ having to give up their luxuries, when nothing is left!
(You know its going to be the poor people living in places where there is NOTHING that will survive the longest. Nothing changes for them! They will thrive, relative to the rest of the world! I think I am going to move to Africa in the summer of 2012, just in case.)
What it comes down to, since the birth of mankind we have been flawed. Our so called intelligence, allowing us to manipulate the world around us for our comfort, has led us to selfishness. We take all we can, give nothing back. We try to take as little responsibility as possible for everything in our life. If it was possible we would blame others for all the worlds problems, not ourselves.
Sadly we do.

Buy hey! For all I know its not our fault, in which case we are still doomed. It just sucks that we can’t stop it.

“JUST LIVE WITH IT.”

But maybe it is not even happening at all! Let’s just go for the easy option and save ourselves the hustle of panic and fear until the day we all die. hows that?

“IGNORANCE IS BLISS!”

If you went for the highly plausible ‘Global Warming’ analogy, I must break it to you: It is not.
Sorry?

The ‘Burning Food’ is nothing more than what it is. There is no analogy or deep metaphoric meaning. That is life, we choose to give meaning to things. We fabricate our lives to make us feel and think.
Sad, but true. It would have been a damn good dish!

I just hope that the awful smell doesn’t linger too long!

I will be posting my next Blog entry soon… when I feel like it!