Easy work!

One month ago, I had the feeling that there were going to be fewer students registered at school, and I was proven right. At that time, I approached the head teacher (SL) and the counsellors and mentioned I wouldn't mind going part-time if necessary. For a while, it looked like that was what they were going with. (I'd explained to them that I was trying to 'help out' by volunteering to go part-time.)

However, now with fewer students and classes indeed, I was kept on as a full-timer (despite my generous offer; not that I'm complaining or anything...). I am teaching my career program in the morning, but am now doing mostly curriculum development in the afternoon. (The school chose to lay off one teacher and reduce the hours of another.) Doing curriculum prep stuff is okay, but I got a chance to hang out with my morning students when they came out to do Steve's in-class assignment on the computer. Good times.

Today I got to substitute conversation and writing classes in the afternoon, something I hadn't done for years. And it was a big contrast indeed. In the career programs, it's serious and academic. In the ESL programs with conversation and writing, it's more about having fun and being friendly with students, making jokes and laughing. Totally different.

What the normal writing teacher had taught the day before was how to write party invitations. Thus, my task was to follow up with that, and what I did was review the students' work, encourage them, and then teach them how to respond to an invitation, formal vs. informal responses, sample sentences, and then a 10-minute game to cap off the lesson. Easy. Anyone can do it. Sounds like a $10 an hour job, as opposed to what these teachers actually make.

My conclusion? Yup - ESL teachers are indeed paid too much. It didn't take me much time to prep for those classes and deliver good lessons. For my career programs, it's about being prepared with hardcore materials, marking papers, and evaluating presentations and offering constructive feedback--more work involved.

Well, we'll see how it goes next week...

Crazy, crazy last few weeks

No time to do much updating on here, because things have been HECTIC!

Two weekends ago (Jan 3-4), I was supposed to be off and could work on my writing. But alas, the Saturday (and Sunday) Team Leader (yes, I call her that to her face too, so it's not like I am talking behind her back) was sick, rendering my weekend meaningless. I had to go into the office both Saturday and Sunday and help out while she recovered. Oh well.

Monday (Jan 5th), a supervisor was laid off, so that meant as Team Leader, my role became worse (ie. I had more duties to do). Add to that, I had to train a newbie the last couple shifts, so that added to my list of responsibilities--yikes, tough to complete all my tasks with added stuff to do!

At school, I've had to train Marcel in teaching my business program (because the other teachers were shifted to another course) and have had to meet up with him every day and chat about things and how to handle the classes. Not a bad thing; I don't mind it, honestly, because I know what I'm doing--I designed the entire half of that curriculum from scratch, basically--and everything about the course.

And this afternoon, I had to be part of a meeting with the administrators and head teacher because students apparently were complaining about the class sizes. (Some were complaining they wanted ME to teach them instead--hehe--but of course I took the professional route in handling their comments.) There were 12 students in one (veteran) class and six in the other (which is a brand new class), so it was my idea to mix them up, with Marcel getting half and me getting the other.

I'd intentionally split them up in a while which gave Marcel the good and active students, while I kept some of the quieter students--mainly to help Marcel out. But alas, what can I do? I tried to help out the other teacher and actually make more work for myself, but the students don't like it... oh well. We'll see what happens.

Hmm - no time to write and continue my little projects. But we'll see what the next day or two brings.

Simpson on Crack?

Some of the Baseball Hall of Fame votes have been made public.

Only one HoF voter hasn't selected Rickey Henderson for the Hall so far - and it's a retired writer named Simpson.

Simpson contradicts himself when he selected Tim Raines for the following reason:

• Tim Raines, a seven-time All-Star outfielder, 1986 National League batting champion, and four-time (NL) base-stealing champ.

People like Simpson should have his voting previledges revoked....

Dee S Knight and KP Wee Talk Radio Show

"KP Wee appears on BlogTalkRadio to discuss his romance and sports books, as well as read an excerpt from 'False Ex-Pectations'. Check it out, and if you like what you hear, his books are available at Amazon."

Click here for the interview, with KP's portion about 36 minutes in. Enjoy!

Randomness... II

Today's Random Link
15 jobs you can't pronounce

Jets lose again!

The New York Jets went out and acquired Brett Favre in the offseason, trying to rebound from a 4-12 season last year.

Of course, after the Jets knocked off the previously unbeaten Tennessee Titans 34-13 in Nashville on November 23, New York was looking good at 8-3 despite a slow start to the season.
The Jets had just won their fifth straight, and had pulled off a bunch of shockers along the way: an upset win in Buffalo (tops in the AFC East at the time), an epic in New England (which of course, was 16-0 last year), and the big victory over the Tennessee.

Three huge wins on the road, to be sure.

There was talk the 8-3 Jets were the 'best' team in the AFC, as they had dominated the 10-1 Titans and other contenders like the Indianapolis Colts (7-4) and San Diego Chargers (4-7) either hadn't hit their stride yet or were just struggling. The Pittsburgh Steelers (8-3) weren't on many's radars at that point.

The Jets were proclaimed to be the team to beat in the conference.

Well, guess what?

Click here for more.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Blackhawks for Real?

Is there any stopping the red-hot Chicago Blackhawks?

Chicago's remarkable season continued on Saturday night as the Hawks defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-1 at G.M. Place. The win marked the Blackhawks' seventh straight win, a feat last accomplished by the franchise 28 seasons ago, and they have not lost in regulation in December.

The streak included three victories in a three-game road trip through western Canada; the Blackhawks had beaten Edmonton (9-2) and Calgary (3-2 in OT) prior to ending Vancouver's modest two-game winning streak.

Against the Canucks, Chicago fell behind just 3:45 into the game when Daniel Sedin scored his team-leading 15th goal of the year for Vancouver. The Blackhawks, however, rallied with two goals less than four minutes apart early in the second, and goaltender Cristobal Huet took care of the rest with 30 saves.

To read more, click here.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

NFL's Two Key Week 16 Matchups

Originally posted Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008

Once again, credit the schedule makers for a pair of big games on the Week 16 NFL schedule.

On Sunday afternoon, the Pittsburgh Steelers (11-3) take their 6-1 road record into Tennessee (12-2) for a showdown for the AFC's No. 1 seed. After starting the season 10-0, the Titans have now split their last four, and now are in danger of losing the conference's top seed to the red-hot Steelers.

Pittsburgh, winners of five straight, clinched its second straight AFC North title with a 13-9 come-from-behind win in Baltimore. The win over the Ravens marked the second straight week the Steelers rallied late in the fourth quarter to pull one out, as this time Santonio Holmes caught a four-yard TD pass from Ben Roethlisberger with only 43 ticks remaining.

A week earlier, the Steelers had stunned the visiting Dallas Cowboys with 17 points in the fourth quarter for a 20-13 triumph.

Meanwhile, Titans head coach Jeff Fisher will be second-guessed for his decision in the fourth quarter of Tennessee's 13-12 defeat in Houston. Down by the same score with two minutes remaining, Fisher opted to go for it on 4th-and-3 at the Houston 32-yard line instead of trying for a go-ahead field goal. QB Kerry Collins' thrown down the field went just out of Justin McCareins' reach.

So this sets up a classic Steelers-Titans tilt at LP Field in Nashville on Sunday, where things get interesting.

Click here for more.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

The "Idiot Kicker" in the NHL

People will rip me for this article, but that’s fine.

It may or may not garner me votes for "Controversial NHL Article" awards down the road, but whatever, I’m cool with that.

Yes, I am comparing NHL players to baseball and football players, which is like comparing apples to oranges; yes I know, totally different things. But I’m going to do it anyway.

Nope. I am no Sean Avery fan; I have no rooting interest in whether or not he plays again in the NHL. I don’t really care much for Dallas Stars netminder Marty Turco either.

Turco has been called "the smartest goalie in the NHL" by Don Cherry before, so perhaps that’s gone to his head or something.

But anyway, the Avery suspension by the NHL for comments about opposing players and ex-girlfriends has been well documented.

Of course, Stars forward Mike Modano was publicly critical of Avery, saying the team had been "tarnished" by the comments, which were "unacceptable."

Fine, I can live with that. Modano, of course, was a former captain and a Cup winner with the team. In fact, Modano has been with the Stars organization his entire NHL career, so his opinions can be respected. After all, captain or not, he is one of the leaders of the Stars.

Goaltender Turco, however?

Sure, Turco has been a Star (a Dallas Star, that is, not a superstar) since the 2000-01 season, but can he really be looked upon as one of the "leaders" on the team?

Click here for more.

**Not only does KP Wee write for Bleacher Report, he’s also a published author. Check out his fiction novel, “Showing Their Scales,” on Amazon.ca and Amazon.com.**

Tale of two NFL teams...

After Week 8 of the NFL season, two of the AFC’s perennial contenders were arguably the biggest disappointments of the entire league.

The Indianapolis Colts were coming off five straight AFC South titles and looked again to be the class of the division. In fact, the Super Bowl XLI champs had won at least 12 games in each of those last five campaigns, and were expected to continue that trend. Heck, didn’t they start off every year going 7-0 and challenging to go undefeated?

The San Diego Chargers had won three AFC West titles in the last four years—including a 14-2 season in 2006—and were one victory away from getting to the Super Bowl last season. Many were picking the Chargers as a Super Bowl team this season.

After Week 8 though, things were completely different from the way many had envisioned. (Let me now say that I am neither an Indy nor San Diego fan, before the Chargers fans email me to rip me for 'praising' the Colts.)

The Colts were 3-4 at the time, and were considered lucky to even have three wins.

The Chargers were 3-5 following two straight defeats heading into their bye week.

The Colts have managed to recover. The Bolts, however, couldn’t. But thanks to the sometimes-ineptness of the Denver Broncos, the Chargers are somehow still alive in the AFC West race despite a 6-8 record...

Click here for more.

The worst employee ever?

A week ago, I had posted a link where someone wrote about the worst employees/co-workers of 2008.

I beg to differ on all of them.

As a co-worker of a certain NDP person, I think it's my responsibility to post about the antics of this particular individual....

More to come later.

But let's just say if he wants to sue me or something, go ahead, because I speak the truth and actually I'd love for all this to come out.

Laughing at the Jets

It is certainly amusing to see the New York Jets lose...again! Hahaha. I think over the years the Jets have lost meaningful December games when they were in contention... other than the 1998 season. Anyway, a loss in San Francisco (4-8 going in) for Favre's troops, after a defeat at home to the Denver Broncos (6-5 at the time) last week. The Jets are now tied with New England (which had a late comeback in Seattle) and Miami (which beat Buffalo in the first regular season game held in Canada). All three teams are 8-5. Miami's story is certainly a great one, since the Dolphins were 1-15 last year and have the ex-Jet Chad Pennington (who was dumped in favor of Favre) leading the way. New England, of course, has been without MVP Tom Brady since Week One, and is doing just fine with Matt Cassel leading the way.

(Okay, okay, before anyone gets excited, New York currently holds the tie-breaker, so the Jets are No. 1, followed by the Pats and 'Fins.)

Looking at the remaining schedule for the three teams, it shapes up to be a fun way to end the season.

Jets: vs Buf, @ Sea, vs Mia
Pats: @ Oak, vs Arz, @ Buf
Dolphins: vs SF, @ KC, @ Jets

The Bills have been fading (1-6 since a 5-1 start) and have already lost to the Jets earlier in the year. The Seahawks are brutal (2-11) and have lost six in a row. Assume the Jets beat the both, setting up a showdown at the Meadowlands against the Dolphins to end the season.

Chad Pennington, dumped before the season because of Favre, going back to Giants Stadium and coming up with a big game against his ex-teammates, potentially knocking the Jets out of the playoffs? That'd be interesting to watch.

Miami, though, plays the equally inept 49ers (5-8) and Chiefs (2-11) prior to the finale against the Jets.

Meanwhile, the Patriots will face the Raiders (3-10), the Cardinals (8-5) in Foxborough, and then take on the Bills.

Interestingly, of Oakland's three wins this year, one came against the Jets. And now the Jets also fell in 'Frisco. Don't forget the San Diego Chargers, who have been snake-bitten all year long and are 5-8, have also beaten New York. Could the Seahawks, 1-6 at home this year, pull out an upset win over the Jets at Qwest Field in Week 16?

Arizona in New England in Week 16 is an interesting opponent. The Cards have wrapped up the NFC West and would be playing for one of the top two seeds in the conference, but have been brutal against teams with winning records, losing already to the Giants, Eagles, Redskins, Jets, and Panthers. The Cards are 3-4 on the road, but those three wins came in San Fran, St. Louis, and Seattle. Hardly anything to brag about. They might well lose in the cold in New England.

Thus, if the Pats win out--don't forget, they are 21-2 in December since 2003, they would clinch the AFC East if Miami wins in New York. Could happen!

Random Thoughts VIII

Trout, here's my thoughts on Maddux and his retirement.


Random Links:
Woman dies during proposal
Holiday dating tips
10 Worst Employees of '08

Legends of the game...

Rick and Trout are true legends in my book. Trout with his wit and everything - despite his status as a fish, he'll always be a legend.

Cliff is one too! He's on TV so many times it's old hat, and check THIS out!

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20081123&Category=SPORTS01&ArtNo=811230802&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=2

Way to go, Cliff!

Gala: Show Time! (Part 3)

Saturday was time for the Gala, and there were dance performances from the local kids - nope, I didn't take pictures of them... (kinda creepy, I think, for me to post pictures on here when I don't know them and I don't want to just post random people's pics on the Internet... who knows what psychos out there might get them?)

Sandra K., one of the authors, got the big prize: a surprise song-and-dance performance dedicated to her title, "Numbers with Attitude." THAT was huge. However, I didn't get any such stuff for "Rainbow Trout" but oh well. Would have been cool. In fact, I hadn't known Sandra K. would be in attendance, otherwise I would have brought my copy of "There are no Lighthouses in Kentucky" for her to autograph it.

Got a chance to chat with Donald Mills as well as a few others at our table, a little bit of dancing and mingling, so it was a fun event. Well planned and a good turnout!

The book signing for Sunday had to be postponed because the Wal-Mart store - where I would be doing the signing - hadn't received their shipment of my books (there were 50 being ordered). Thus, the CPH CEO offered to pay for my transportation once they books are in so I could take part in the signing, which is fine. I ended up not leaving early on Sunday afternoon, taking the opportunity for picture-taking; I checked out the museum, glass museum, and the Tacoma Dome - but alas, my battery died before I got a decent picture of the Dome.

All in all, a fun weekend and great hospitality from the CPH staff. Wasn't too bummed out about the missed signing - after all, as one wise man said recently (and you know who you are), "Don't get caught up in always striving for the next level of success, enjoy the success you're achieving now!"

Congratulations to Cliff! He got on a website talking about the Detroit Lions! Way to go!

Gala Trip: a hectic week (Part 2)

So, things looked great on Friday, Nov. 14th, when I was notified of the potential book signing.

Alas, bad news came right away. I was sick on Sunday the 16th, but had to report to the office because because I'd committed to being there (as Team Leader I probably should), and the Yogurt project was happening the day after. Luckily I was there and kind of salvaged that project, and Project Manager Jay expressed appreciation for my efforts.

Then the next day I found out I would be training FOUR new employees simulatenously, basically starting from scratch, and I hadn't fully recovered yet, so it wasn't a great experience for me. Fortunately, only three showed up, so I can't complain there.

But come Friday, it was off to the Greyhound terminal, with the creatures on Zonk entertaining me as I was waiting for the bus to depart...

Trip for the Gala: Setting the Stage (Part 1)

Okay, so here's the Seattle trip info:

All authors were notified over six months earlier the annual CHP Gala would be held Saturday, Nov. 22nd. I'd immediately decided not to attend, as I didn't think it was an important event for me to be present for.

However, in October, we were reminded about the Gala again, and asked to see if we'd like to attend, as there would be readers and book lovers present for authors to sign books and mingle. That caught my eye, as I figured it'd be nice for me to put a face to my name, and perhaps talk some book stuff with readers. So, on Oct. 21st, I asked for an estimated itinerary for the event, and I was told there would be "(a) silent auction, dance performance by a local dance school, poetry reading, live singing, dinner, DJ with dancing and awards for our authors..." Sounded like a fun event... BUT one thing from the reply stood out.

Now, for those of you who read my posts regularly on the Zonk on overanything.com, I'll bet you know which ONE word in the quoted text jumped out at me. If you see how I post on there, you'll know. Yup. I was extremely intrigued by that ONE word:

Awards.

Thus, I definitely wanted to check it out and see if "Young Chasing Rainbow Trout" would garner any award or anything noteworthy. That way I could stick it to Trout. Bragging rights, you know. On the same day, I asked Farhan Devji (a Vancouverite like myself and a fellow author with CPH) if he was planning to attend, but alas, he couldn't, as he'd have exams coming up. But something he said to me eventually made me decide, sure, I'd go and check things out.

As some may know too, I do market research on the side too, and thus on Oct. 23rd, I asked Candace for the weekend of Nov. 21-23rd off, providing sufficient notice as a time-off request. If I didn't, Steph or Yana (long stories - for both) might mess me up with their scheduling.

Thus, everything was set. The time-off request was granted.

On Nov. 14th, I was picking up my tuxedo for the event (of course, I'd already confirmed my Gala attendance) when I received a call from the author liaison asking me when I would depart Tacoma, WA (where the Gala would be held). I'd just reserved my Greyhound tix online, scheduling me to leave Tacoma on Sunday at 1:45 p.m. The AL asked me if I could extend my stay because there would be a potential book signing event that Sunday from 12-2 p.m. Seeing that the awards were the main reason I was going down to Washington State, having a book signing was a bonus.

Thus, I found out from Greyhound it was okay to catch the 5:20 p.m. bus with my existing 1:45 p.m. ticket for no extra charge, so I jumped at the chance for the signing and agreed to it!

The obvious reasons for making the trip were: 1) potential award(s), 2) putting a face to my name - and perhaps being one of the "main" authors for CPH, ie. a star, and come on, really, a ride from Vancouver to the Seattle area is nothing... .and suddenly there was a book signing to boot. So, pretty good stuff!

Back in town...

I'm back in town (got in late last night) - but no days off for me. It's back to work this morning, so I'll have to post details a bit later. Also, I'll need to figure out the camera and how to get them on the computer.

But, luckily the Greyhound ride wasn't as uncomfortable as people had cautioned before; it's the long wait at the terminals that weren't cool.

Got to watch USA Network in the hotel Saturday before catching HNIC on CBC in the afternoon - and hooray! heard the news of Luongo's injury. Nice!

Anyway, will post later.

Book Signing: Nov 23, 2008

Great news! My publisher has set up a book signing for me for Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008, in the Seattle, WA area.

The signing will last four about two hours starting at 12 noon, which will allow me to do autographs, smile, and talk about my book.

Then afterwards, it will be back home for work on Monday morning... *sigh*

In the meantime, here's the Amazon link to purchase your own copy...

Randomness...

KP's Sports Link:
Warner's Cards: 10+ wins?

Today's Random Links:
Incomes based on birth order
Foods & Health: Tips