Another update. The diet is still working. I’m now down 89 pounds to date¹. Getting much closer to that 100 than I ever imagined. I have found that not eating after 6pm is really helping my body metabolize the food. So I’ve quit the late night snacking. It must be working. As I keep trying different things, I keep finding stuff that works really well. That’s one of them.

It also helps that I’m doing a lot of walking at school right now. I’ve got an extended substitute position, meaning I’m substituting for the same teacher for the first 9 weeks of school this year. I’m loving it but it has added tons to my workload. Between that, 2 three week compressed college courses, spending time with my family, and keeping this blog up to date, I haven’t found much time for myself recently. I’m taking care of that as of Sunday though. Spore comes outs.²

One of these days I’ll write an entire book on everything I’ve tried and what has worked in losing my weight. Would you guys be interested in reading it?

1. At least I no longer have to wear car covers instead of normal clothing. Ok, so that’s an exaggeration, but still. [«]
2. Muhahahahaha! [«]

Posted by Saphrym

I don’t know about you guys, but this particular movement impressed me. Not just because of the thankfulness to the soldiers, but also because this movement could be used for any profession that works for the community. I loved the video. But of course you have no idea what I’m talking about¹, so feel free to go there now and then come back:

The Gratitude Campaign

These people protect our futures.² But there are also professions³ that work for our communities and could use the thanks, as they create our futures. So remember to give thanks to these people.

1. Unless you’ve been there. [«]
2. Not to be confused with the futures broker in Florida. [«]
3. Teacher. Hint hint. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

This is in response to a question by DrBurst on the Ask Saph blog post.

I’m in my last year of high school. How do I interact with my parents so they don’t worry about me?

Wow. Great question. This is the kind of stuff I really want to answer. Now, in my answer, I’m going to assume the following:

• Your parents are kind and loving parents.
• Your parents are open minded about any news you may give them.

There are some parents that can be highly scolding or even abusive¹ if they are given what they consider to be bad news. This advice does not count for those types of parents. If you have those types of parents, you really should speak with your counselor at school.

Now, to keep the type of parents I mention above from worrying about you, you need to be open and honest with your communication. Worry stems from the unknown. However, if the important details of your school life² are known to your parents, they are less likely to worry about you. Of course, I’m also assuming that you haven’t done anything illegal or dangerous to yourself or others. If you have, your problems go beyond the scope of what I can answer here, and again you should talk to your counselor and/or your parents about it to try and find help.

I’m a parent. I ask my daughter about her school day every day. I involve myself in the parent/teacher conferences and learn everything I can about how her educational and social life. She may be only 8 right now, but she keeps me up to date. So I have no reason to worry about her at all. And I don’t worry about her. I know she will choose the right path as she goes. But I’ll be here for when she makes mistakes or needs help. And I believe most parents are like that. They want to know about their children. And knowledge alleviates fears and worries.

So the short answer is talk to them. Let them know how things are going. Don’t hold back anything. If you’re having problems, ask them to support you as you look to find answers to those problems. Parents tend to try and solve their kid’s problems for them, but that’s not the best practice. Everyone learns from mistakes. Let them give you their ear and you’ll give them respect and confidence in you.

I hope that answers your question. Feel free to provide more information or ask more about this topic in the comments.

(The lawyers say I must: All advice given is for entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist. But I’ll give you the best advice I can possibly give or point you in the right direction for it.)

1. Like launching into tirades that break the tv furniture [«]
2. including the details that you may normally have a hard time discussing with your parents [«]

Posted by Saphrym

(The following was written in response to a discussion question in a class I am taking. I liked writing it so decided to share it with you guys.)

1. Quality administration and staff - It irritates me tremendously to see teachers and administrators that don’t want to be at school. Teaching is one of those jobs where if you don’t love it, you really need to stop. Lack of love for the job translates into the classroom. Students can sense a lack of enthusiasm from the teachers. The teachers that students love are always the teachers that love their jobs. That’s a fact. I also do not agree with passing over prospective teachers just because they don’t add enough points for NCLB¹. Teachers need to be chosen based on their qualities and not their quantities (of certificates). If a teacher wants to be a teacher, they can always learn more about teaching. Experience and PD² will take care of that. But if the teacher doesn’t want to be there, well, no amount of experience or PD² will fix that.

2. Open mindedness and fun environments - Schools should be open to new ideas. Just like any other profession, there are always new methods and great ideas being discovered³. I’m lumping this with fun environments because I know a lot of “old school” teachers that feel that it’s not their job to entertain the students. That’s where the open mind comes in. Menville Flippen said, “If you capture kids’ hearts, you have their heads. If you don’t capture their hearts, you have no business messing with their heads.” I believe in that quote. And a fun learning environment is a great way to capture a child’s heart. But a fun environment requires an open mind. Be willing to be a kid again. Sure, a line needs to be drawn and discipline needs to be maintained, but fun does not equate to lack of discipline. Speaking of discipline…

3. A consistent and quality discipline/reward system - Students don’t respond to threats. They don’t respond to much of anything nowadays. However, the problem gets even worse if there’s not consistent discipline. When “favorites” are noticed within the student body, all the students find out and resent teachers and administrators for it. Threats without action lead to lack of respect. Rewards can also help. Privileges are great, such as dances, parties, etc.

NOTES on 2 and 3: I’ve seen a school system that requires uniforms and allows no fun activities whatsoever. I’ve seen a school system that allows kids to be kids and provides a fun learning environment with structured discipline systems. Guess which one has the higher test scores and happier students. The second one.

4. Communication/collaboration - Yep. It’s an obvious one. And it’s very important. There must be communication between the administrators and teachers so that plans can be made to help the students learn. There must be communication between teachers and parents for the same reason. There must be access to information that is needed by the teachers, administrators, students, parents, etc. As a parent, I want to know how my child is doing. As a teacher, I want to know when important decisions are being made that might effect my teaching strategies. Also, as a teacher, I’d love to hear from the parents to know how they are working with their kids at home. And that brings us to:

5. A Plan for Parent involvement - Those two school systems I mentioned before are also different in this aspect. One practically doesn’t care if the parents are involved or not. The other has home visits and plenty of reasons for getting the parents involved in the learning process along with open communication lines between staff and parents.⁴ The home visit system works. The open line of communication works. The parent activities work. Most of the kids I teach⁵ still have the “old school” respect for their teachers, and I know this is because of parent involvement.

6. Politic Free - I know. It’s an impossible dream. The “back room” conversations in the teacher’s lounge will always take place. People will always be hired because of who they know. But truly, does this help our students with their education? Can gossip increase the educational environment? Does the son of “so-and-so” make the best teacher just because he’s the son of “so-and-so”? Not really. Of course, in some instances, he may be just fine. But decisions based on politics are never truly decisions based on the needs of the students. Students should always come first. Period.

1. No Child Left Behind [«]
2. Professional Development - Those classes teachers take to become better teachers. [«] [«]
3. Such as digital cameras being used to take pictures of the kids and letting them Photoshop them into something fun. [«]
4. I know. Number 4 is sneaking in here. [«]
5. even though I live in a low income area [«]

Posted by Saphrym

Ok. I launched the whole Ask Saph thing¹ a while back. You might see the image for it on the right. Well, I’m giving you one other avenue to ask your questions so you don’t have to register for my website². And this is that avenue. This blog post. I’ll link it in the forum post.

It’s simple: Put your question in the comments here.

Remember, the question can be about anything. Anything at all. Just keep it clean. My students visit this site.

Oh, and don’t forget to let me know if you’d like to guest blog here. See this forum post for more details.

(All advice given is for entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist. But I’ll give you the best advice I can possibly give or point you in the right direction for it.)

1. Thank goodness I haven’t been asked things like how to get rid of acne, because I’d, well, I’ll keep that to myself. [«]
2. As I know people hate registering for accounts since we all probably have 100 profile accounts around the Internet yet use only 1 or 2. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about on my belt. I put it on this morning, pulled tight like normal, and had about two inches between the buckle and the last hole. So now I either need a new belt or I need to put another hole in this belt.

Guess the diet is still working.

Now if only I could become as much of an expert on exercise as I seem to be on dieting. Time to do more research. Any ideas of a great place to go on the web for good exercise resources? Like where to find my best heart rate¹, or what exercises increase strength the best in the upper body², or even if there are actual decent exercise machines that are very affordable and easy to use³.

1. Measured by one of those neat pulse oximeter thingies. Bought mine wholesale. [«]
2. As my lower body is quite strong from carrying around 355 pounds for a few years. [«]
3. Tested and tried of course. I don’t want stuff that you’ve “heard” is good. I want good stuff. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

It’s coming. I’m worried. I used to live in Louisiana and my wife has family there. And they’re going to be right in the middle of this huge storm that is bearing down on them. Last time I had to deal with a hurricane, I was right there in the middle of it. It feels weird not looking over my shoulder this time. It’s not coming for us. But it is coming for family.

Heck, last time I sat at the front door and watched it go by.¹ At least it looks like this time the evacuations are going right. People are leaving. Just not my family.

I hate having my hands tied. I feel useless. But if you guys are reading this,² leave now. Please.

1. No theater seating, but still, it was quite the sight. [«]
2. As I know you do. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

I constantly talk about acceptance on my blog. I truly believe in it. But I can’t accept some bugs. That’s right. I said bugs. With the weather like it is right now I have a few thousand different varieties of them swarming my porch. And I hate most of them. I think I’ve seen 5 different types of spiders. I’ve also seen about 3 different kinds of wasps. Those are two of my least favorites. Moths are a pain, but mostly only when they get inside the house.¹ I used to hate ants, but that’s when we lived in an area where they had the “fire” variety. Only black ants are around here. And I haven’t found them inside just yet.

Yeah, the spiders. I think those are the worst. At least in my eyes. I’ll walk outside, feel a spider web and then suddenly feel something crawling on my head.² It freaks me out.

So why am I writing this? Because of last night. A spider. It stared at me. I’m not kidding. This thing was huge and spiky. I haven’t really seen many spiky spiders. This one looked like a piece of thorny bush or something. I didn’t think it was a spider until I counted the legs. 8. Yep. Spider. And it’s tiny beady eyes were looking right into mine.

That part wasn’t so bad. It was when it jumped on my shoulder that I screamed like a little girl. It died quickly. Why? Because I’m a speciest. Although I was curious. I wanted to know what kind of spider. I haven’t found out yet. The spider was no longer recognizable. Oh well. Hopefully there won’t be a next time. But I think I’m going to bring some bug spray with me for now on. I really don’t want a spiky spider jumping on me anymore.³

1. Although I own a cat and have some moth traps in our closets, so they don’t bug me nearly as much now. [«]
2. Of course, normally there’s nothing there except the web. [«]
3. Heck, I don’t want ANY spider jumping on me anymore. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

People have asked us how we met and normally we tell the very long story of coincidence. It’s a great story. But I’ll put it the short way: If not for a very specific set of circumstances, we never would have met. We never would have been in the same building at the same time. We never would have danced together that night. And we enver would have had the parting kiss that launched our life together.

So, since she never truly comments on my blog or in various forums, I’m going to tell you a little bit about her:

She’s the kindest person I know. Sure, she can get angry, but it happens about once a decade. This is a pro and con because she tends to let people walk all over her. Is there a such thing as too nice? She’s also the hardest worker I know. Employers would be lucky to have her because she works hard and shows a tremendous amount of loyalty to those who give her the chance to prove herself. She is my other half. I know I could get corny saying the whole, “You complete me,” thing, but it’s true. My weaknesses are her strengths. She’s from a German/Italian family. She loves stuffed mushrooms. Her eyes glow when she’s happy. She has a cute pout. She’s constantly stealing my pens.¹ I could go on and on. And I have in the past.

Wanna know more? Visit the husband category here at my blog. Those are some of my favorite posts. Why? Because most of them are about my wife.

Tell me a little something about your significant other. What little details do you carry without you through the day?

This post inspired by Fragile Heart’s tag: Monday Madness: Hot seat

1. It feels more like a game than true theft though. Fun to go find them. [«]

Posted by Saphrym

Remember Craygor? If not, here’s a reminder. He’s a Spore creature. Well, the creature creator can also record videos and upload them to YouTube.¹ So I decided to take advantage of that:

Isn’t he cute in a frightening dragon sort of way?²

I really am looking forward to this game. Of course, most of my regular readers already know that. I’m looking forward to leading a new race from amoebas to galactic conquerors.³

1. Nifty, huh? [«]
2. Actually, the art of Spore makes it hard to make anything truly frightening. But I still like it. And Craygor is my favorite of my own creations so far. [«]
3. And since they are digital creatures no pet supplies will be needed. [«]

Posted by Saphrym