G’s Place

Last night I had a weird dream. Brian thinks it’s about work. I think he’s on to something. Here’s the dream:

First of all, throughout the entire dream I was making pasta from scratch. Rolling out the dough, and cooking the dough.

The main part of the dream was about this huge machine that was located in a secret warehouse. The machine was round and flat (think wheel of fortune shaped), and about three stories high. There were steps going all around the machine, and at the top center there was a platform.

The machine gave people superpowers. But only a select group of people got the superpowers. These people would walk up the steps of the machine, stand on the platform at the top, and get zapped with a blue bolt of energy that inoculated them with the powers. The powers were designed and written into a codebase. The group would come get the new powers that had been engineered by getting zapped with the machine’s blue lightning when the codebase was revisioned.

In my dream, the villains (all superheroes have villains you know!) hacked into the codebase and got the latest revision of the superhero inoculation code. This was bad because the villains had their own superpower machine, and when they got the superheroes’ code they knew how to counteract all the superheroes’ powers, as well as how to write their villain code to defeat the superheroes!

In my dream, we were racing around to find all the superheroes, and tell them to get to the machine and get the latest revision of the powers (which was Rev 19) because this had the fix that would block all the things the villains had learned about the heroes.

That’s the main part of the dream. Also, while we were looking for the superheroes, we kept ending up at a mountain. There was a big piece of stone that jutted off the mountain, and there was shell-shaped indentation in the middle of that piece that was jutting out. If you stood or laid over that indentation, the winds would hit you just right and you would fly. Well, hover over the indentation, but it looked like flying.

Brian thinks it’s about work. I keep sharing my big ideas about social media with my group, and I get told that we can’t act on the ideas. But I am starting to see neutered bits of my ideas popping up as projects, and I am not allowed to be involved with these projects. So, the machine’s code is my ideas, the villains are the people preventing me from working with my ideas, so I need to keep coming up with new ideas to go do the work I want to do.

I don’t know about the pasta dough.  The issue with the pasta dough is that it was taking so long to cook the fresh dough, about an hour. People were getting annoyed with me for that. Maybe I just need to keep coming up with my ideas, and be more patient?

The only thing I can think of for the flying part is that when people stepped on the indentation, they could fly - defy gravity. Just like Elphaba. The words in the song where she finally takes flight just ring very true for me sometimes!

What do you think my crazy weird dream means?

its here.

I may start blogging about work there too. My portfolio for school is definitely going there.

This semester is over in two weeks, so I have two huge papers looming. I think I can write on close to the same subject, so hopefully that will help.

My big pre-GA project at work is almost over - my last deliverables are next week. Then the fun of turning it into steady-state training happens. Since I have been managing the project from the start, I have tried to make the learning objects as reusable as I could. It’s a little difficult since the pre-GA training is only differences training, and of course some things in pre-GA may get resolved. I think the assets I created for each learning module (there are 2) are pretty reusable…so hopefully the development effort won’t be too painful. Also, there may be a trip to ATL which means I’ll get to see my bigmama.

This summer I am taking a class called “Designing Content for Online Collaborative Learning”. I am really excited for that !! In the fall I am taking the last of my core classes: “Intro to  Distance Learning” and “Intro to Systematic Instructional Design”. I actually think I have  one more intro class - an Inquiry and Measurement course. At any rate, I need 12 classes, and after this semester I will have 3 done. Turtle’s pace, but I’m getting there!

Brianna got a letter that she’s graduating with honors in May. YES!!! Now she needs to find a job. If you are in Boston and looking for a quiet, smart, hardworking research assistant, I have a great candidate for you.

Kenny is in a frat. Still not sure what I think about that. But he has to keep a 3.0 to stay in, and they make him perform community service. I like that. The two guys I met that are his “brothers” seemed very nice. It’s just weird to me.

We had our first Parents of teens and young adults with Asperger’s Syndrome meeting - didn’t get a huge turnout but we’ll keep trying.

I read a good post about how to blog, and that post recommended asking questions. So here goes - is anyone else out there in a very demanding job and in grad school at the same time? Do you feel like you are insane at the end of the semester? Do you just break down and clean because you have to let things go in order to get your work and school work done?

 curl -C - -O <url>

cuz I keep forgetting

I like my life to be going along in circles. I can have lots going at the same time, as long as it all flows, like a circle.

Both kids are back in school. All 3 tuitions are paid (theirs and mine), everyone has books. I know what I am supposed to be doing at work (well, sort of. But I have enough info to have a circle with dotted lines).

Everything is great EXCEPT I need to clean my house and I can’t find my friggin cell phone. If I don’t find it when I clean (tomorrow?), then I will have to get a new one before I go to TX.

sigh. feeling better already.

huzzah! I don’t know how people travel every single week. To me, it’s exhausting. I met alot of great people, and really was able to get good information I needed for a project I have been assigned to, but jeez I am worn out.

I don’t think it helped that I also started classes last week. I am taking two this semester. So far, two classes seems to be five times as hard as one class was. And my account is still all messed up. So I keep losing access to Blackboard. It makes it hard to plan when I will get the work done, because when I go to log in my access is all messed up.

At a minimum, I am set for two more trips this quarter. I have a feeling that number may increase.

Maybe I will get better at the whole traveling thing.

Since this is the first day of a shiny new year, I think I will publicly post my goals. Here we go:

1. Complete 6 grad school classes (and maintain my 4.0 GPA!)
2. Be available to help Brianna transition to Grad school (as much as she wants me to be there anyways)
3. Try and find tools that Kenny will actually use to get organized so he does better in school.
4. Get the Metro-West AANE support group for parents of teens with Asperger’s  off the ground
5. Get the FSU Native Alumni association off the ground
6. Get up-to-speed on SMARTS
7. Make it to the gym 3 days a week
8. Get to my next goal weight by April 1 (this date may change if I have to keep traveling…the overall goal is to maintain my weight while I travel)
9. Go to one of the seminars that train how to work with people on the spectrum
10. Write a paper and deliver it at a conference. OK I have no clue how to do that, but I want to, and I figure if I don’t write it down and really try to do it, it will never happen.

I’m going to try and remember to review these goals every three months. That way, I can see where I am with these goals, and set new goals if that is needed. Look for a follow-up post on March 1st.

So, I am the only one up. It’s friggin 9:03 (AM) and everyone is asleep.

Today, we do what we do every year…go to a movie and go to the Chinese Buffet. There was a big fight over the movie this year…Kenny wanted to see Sweeney Todd. No one else did because 1. Depp CANNOT sing, and 2. They are going to change the story to make it more commercial and 3. The music is an important character!! BAH!!! So, Brian made a randomizer and wouldn’t you know it, Sweeney Todd won. sigh.

I am very anxious today. Some of it is over work. I’m trying not to think about it. But I have alot I need to pick up in a short amount of time with no equipment to really play with. That freaks me out. No seriously FREAKS.ME.OUT. VMware is fine, to a point… I need some equipment.

I leave for a week-long conference in about a week and a half…and Brianna is going to her friend’s. That freaks me out too. I think that is probably making me the most anxious of all. That trip starts a two-month period where I am traveling A LOT. bleh.

I start school on the 7th, two classes this time. I got one of my books and it *looks* easy. I wish I could check on my classes to see if anything has been posted (like a syllabus), but Blackboard has been down for about 4 days now. Oh yeah, and I have THREE tuition checks to mail out this week.

Brian won’t sign up for facebook. Or twitter. It’s pissing me off!!

At least my house will be clean. That’s something I suppose.

Velvet has been eating, so we are happy about that. He is acting a little better, but he is so skinny. I don’t think we’ll ever get him back to how he was:

OK, let me try and think of some positive things because this has become quite pathetic. Ummm it’s not snowing. It’s not super cold outside. I have money to pay all the bills. I started a Billy Bowlegs fund (I want to come down for Billy Bowlegs this year!!) Brianna got good grades, I think Kenny did ok. I haven’t gained weight…I am maintaining (which was my goal until Jan 1). I don’t have it bad at all…I don’t know why I am complaining.

And a hairy sleepy man just came and gave me a kiss…so it’s all good.

1. Brian has crossed to the dark side (he’s a manager now)
2. I got a position raise, moved groups, received an R&R (yay), and am being allowed to participate in some very cool social media stuff @ work
3. I am doing very well in grad school
4. I’m rounding up AISU alums to address the fact that the FSU Student government wants to eliminate AISU
5. I am going to co-chair a metro-west chapter of AANE
6. Brianna is signed up for her last semester @ SUNY Albany
7. Kenny is getting good grades

That pretty much sums it all up.

ok, so here’s what’s going on:

•  moving into a new position at work
• going to start an aane support group out in metro west
• grad school
• helping kids
• cleaning house
• getting ready to go to the FSU-BC game