ON WASTED TIME

Have you ever spent a really long time on something that you just didn’t have to? I just found out yesterday that the 91-page Customer Service curriculum and 72-page student workbook. I created could have been avoided completely. I went online to check out the skills standards of the National Retail Federation (NRF) (see the aim of this program is to pass their test and I wanted to make sure I was covering everything) and was almost immediately contacted by an NRF rep. She started telling me that to teach their curriculum I would need to be trained by one of their staff. I explained that I had created a curriculum that was based on both their workbooks and other research. She essentially said oh, we could have saved you a lot of time. Yeah, it probably would have. I am wondering if I should get their training anyway, it seemed to be free and probably wouldn’t hurt the credibility of our program.

I really enjoyed writing the curriculum and it is a great skill/experience given that I want to be a teacher and all. I just wonder why no one seemed to know about this possibility. One cool thing about working on a brand new grant is that you get to figure these things out yourself. I assume, that if I ever get another new grant, that I will do a little more research on other options before putting fingers to keys for a good month. All in all, I learned a lot so it isn’t at all a bad thing.

I’m leaving for NY tomorrow for a cousin’s wedding and visits with family and Friend. I have gifts to prepare, packing to do, and CDs to burn. It is going to be a very busy night. I’ll most likely be out of commission until next Tuesday so don’t be shocked that my ever-reliable posts are on hiatus. Maybe I’ll come back with tales of wonderment. Maybe I’ll come back with more of the same old shit.

Oh, speaking of shit, Penn and Teller had this really great show last week about swearing. Personally, I love swearing. There were some people on the show, however, that did not. One thing I learned from these strange nonswearing people was the “full turkey.” See, this woman who hates swearing made up all these things to take the place of those nasty words. Instead of swearing she says things like Scuttle bucket and Santa Vaca. Essentially I deducted that the woman LOVES swearing but doesn’t want to look like she does. However, I digress, this woman is a Drivers Ed instructor and she wants to discourage people from flipping the bird because it is vulgar and awful. Instead she teaches them the “full turkey” You cannot do the “full turkey” while driving so she says that only the passenger can do this gesture. One could also do it at a stoplight. To administer the “full turkey” take your left hand, thumb pointing inward, and spread your fingers. Then ball your right hand into a fist and stick up your thumb as if you were hitchhiking. Place the flat side of your fist against your open palm and there you have it, the “full turkey.” You can flip off the world without being the slightest bit vulgar.

And now, some songs to remember me in my absence.

You Are Not Alone, Michael Jackson- See one day I was having this odd Michael Jackson moment and wanted to download all these bad songs of his, so I did. This was one of them. I can’t play it of like this is an excellent song. It is bad. I still enjoy it.

Magnolia, Apollo Sunshine- This song sounds oddly old. It isn’t. Although it sounds nothing like Blur’s Tender, it has that same “way after it’s time quality.” This band is fantastic. Thanks Monica.

Pass The Peas, The J.B.’s- The JB’s just are fantastic for a jamming groove. There is no better way for me to go on hiatus than this. You can just imagine me walking down the jetway to this tune. In case you were wondering, I look really cool.