cleveland

so saturday I had an interview with rostro de cristo up in cleveland.  I think it went well, I talked to two of the rostro people and they both seemed to like me.  the only real issue that I see is my spanish, so if they have 12 people who are just as good as me in all those ways that I’m good but are already fluent spanish speakers then they will probably pass me by.  so we’ll see if they opt for offering me a spot.  I’m not making a decision until I actually have a decision to make.

cleveland seemed nice, sort of.  it was cold.  we decided that it might be weird to just drive up for my interview and then head back directly without even seeing the city itself, so after the interview we drove up through downtown and past the rock n roll hall of fame and stadiums.  drove down the side of the lake for a while, it looked good and we would have walked around except we couldn’t find an affordable parking space and we didn’t care that much.  someday we’d do the rock n roll hall of fame, but it’s too expensive to just pop in for an hour or two.  it’s an all-day thing, we expect.  there’s a science center right there too, and I do like science centers.  it might be a nice place to go for a weekend sometime, cleveland.  you can walk around the lake and go to the rock n roll hall of fame and then go home.   so then we came home and got chinese food and watched a movie because we were too tired from the driving all day to be sociable (ok so I didn’t do any of the driving but I was still really tired).

to be young again

I was talking to Paul today about reading books and computer games and I started thinking about the games we used to play when I was a kid, lemmings, 221b baker street, colonization, where in the world is carmen san diego, jeopardy, and the like.  later on I played myst a bunch, and age of empires and now I play whatever adventure games I can play free and fast from jayisgames, lazylaces, and nordinho, or at least I did when I was working in computer labs and had lots of time to waste.

so guess what?  you can download a bunch of those old school games from this website!   now, if only I had a mouse.

ok then

this morning bro bob came in and said “good morning! what do we need to do this morning?” and I said “I don’t know…”

he replied “I don’t think there is anything.”

riiiight.

productivity

I find that I was a much better employee at PA. I’m not sure why, but I was more efficient, diligent, and willing. I didn’t like the work more (it wasn’t stimulating, difficult, or particularly satisfying). but I did jump on every opportunity to do something, perhaps because there was so little to do at times.

so why, lately, have I been reluctant to do much around here? I don’t think it has anything to do with actually getting paid, though perhaps it’s a factor. goodness knows I wasn’t spending the money I made at PA on anything but food and rent (and a plane ticket to CA of course, the necessities of life). maybe I just like kids better than I like adults. or maybe I can only do a job for six months before my fear of being discovered completely overtakes me (I have this fear that my employer will finally realize that I have no idea what I’m doing and that I’m really not as good at this as they think I am). or maybe I’m just in an entirely anti-social mood and don’t want to have to talk to people one-on-one. and I hate taking people out of class to test them, as it’s difficult to get them here for class in the first place and I want for them to spend their time actually learning instead of being tested (though I have to test them to show progress so people give us money so we can keep teaching…it’s a stupid process). also, I procrastinate.

I just don’t have a lot to do! I ask the bros sometimes if they need help but they usually only need me to do little things that I do quickly and we’re to the point that they’ll ask me if they need me to do anything so I don’t have to ask them. I do three things here. tutor GED, run the ESOL, and do tech support. I don’t like tutoring GED during the day, because of the students that come in, mostly. we don’t work well together, and I know this, so I help them out every once in a while but mostly I copy worksheets for them and do quick explanations and find other tutors for them to work with (it’s not just me. this one group of day students is a serious problem we’re trying to tactfully deal with). I should just suck it up and work with them, I know. but I don’t. and the ESOL, periodically I come up with ideas of ways to make the program better, or get more people in, or someone to make a contact with and then I do it. but really, the program doesn’t require a lot of work. I make sure there are tutors and books and students. lately, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to retain students, but our population is in a constant state of flux so I’m not sure that’s even physically possible. there’s some paperwork, but once I got rid of the backlog it became totally manageable (apparently I’m too efficient at paperwork. I’ve got mad organizational skills).  and as for tech support, we’re a small organization with not too many problems that can’t be solved in a matter of minutes (or seconds).

I think I could do this job part-time and get everything done and be fitter happier more productive.

obviously, xkcd