b.rox

Xy’s gearing up for the school year. Teachers are subjected to a seemingly endless number of “professional development” events. I pay some attention to this, because I work in faculty development myself. We’re always looking for new ideas.
I was particularly intrigued, not to mention inspired, when Xy brought home a Ziploc bag with a toothpick, [...]

Bad news everywhere. The sunken barge shifted in the Mississippi last night, spilling yet more oil into the river. Stacy Head (my Council rep) is attacking Jerome Smith for no good reason. Derrick “Saggy Pants” Shepherd is going down in flames.
But I don’t care, because I got a new monitor at work.
Actually, I got the [...]

Boss Lady’s out for the rest of the month, at an AP reading and then a conference. Olivia’s brother passed away, so she’s in Alabama. Janice is heading out to Las Vegas for a conference. Tomorrow morning I pack the wife and girl off to Indiana. Gonna be mighty lonely ’round here for the next [...]

No school today, so quiet — and then the machinery.

I’m back at work today after a three-month leave. It feels weird to be sitting in my office instead of taking care of baby or sweating some renovation details.
It seems today is also my boss’ birthday. Funny thing, her husband is a local blogger, but she doesn’t read his blog as a rule, just like [...]

We took Persephone in to Xy’s school to visit some of Xy’s students. As she predicted, it was a mob scene.

I’ve posted the pix as a set on Flickr. I recommend viewing it as a slideshow.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Elementary School, 3700 Tall Pines Drive, New Orleans, Louisiana 70131

I went in to work last Tuesday just to remind everyone what I look like and make sure they hadn’t changed the lock on my office.
Around noon I attended a “town hall meeting” on the University’s strategic plan, which is currently under draft. It’s eight plans in one, each addressing specific topics such as technology [...]

The Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA) guarantees we can take twelve weeks off from work to have a baby or care for a sick relative, and that our job will still be there when we come back. It does not, of course, guarantee pay during such a leave. That’s a benefit, and different employers [...]

I overheard Xy talking on the phone, commiserating with a co-worker about a frustrating staff meeting:
I felt like giving birth right there and telling her, “Eat my placenta, bitch!”
Ah, the joys of being a public school teacher.

I cajoled Xy into attending our local meeting of the School Facilities Master Plan for Orleans Parish on Tuesday night.
It reminded me of the infamous “Summer of Planning.” Specifically it reminded me of the America Speaks sessions which I never attended (having already been burned out by the Lambert process) but which I read about [...]

Here’s another brain teaser: If I’d left for work ten minutes later this morning, I would have arrived ten minutes earlier. How can this be?

Last night Xy and I took one of her students out to dinner at Venezia’s. We had pasta and pizza and then got desert at Angelo Brocato’s. After that we went to see The Golden Compass at the Prytania.
Caitlyn is very quiet and serious, one of Xy’s smartest students. In fact, Xy’s says Caitlyn is [...]

We’re having a holiday open house at the office today, and we all brought cookies and other sweets. I thought it would be fun and unique to bring brandy balls. So I made them last night and brought them in this morning, and placed them on the table with a sign.

But Boss Lady’s husband (Elliott, [...]

I found a tiny gecko today on the fifth floor near the freight elevator. At least I think it’s a gecko. I almost stepped on him. Bending down I discovered he was incredibly cute, so I scooped him up in my empty coffee mug and took him back to my office.

I thought he would become [...]

Before the panel, Chris and Sandy and Alan and Ted and I were sitting together, having breakfast and chatting.
Chris asked each of us for a tidbit of personal info he could use in the introductions. I told him I put the first TV series on the internet. Alan considered for a moment and finally said, [...]

Last week I moderated a blogger panel. I was disappointed with the low attendance, but at certain times of the semester it’s hard to get faculty to turn out. However, I was very pleased with the actual content — the bloggers were articulate and thoughtful and passionate. It was a great discussion. A big thank [...]

It’s been a couple weeks since I participated in a panel sponsored by Xavier University’s Communications Department. It was titled “Media, Communication and Community: Private and Public Interests in Rebuilding New Orleans.” On the panel with me was Sakura Kone of Common Ground; Jarvis DeBerry of the Times Picayune; Rebecca Snedeker, the filmmaker who made [...]

Olivia brought this thing into the office last week. Press the button and it comes to life and recites a variety of different spooky-humorous messages.
Update: I assumed this item would be put in storage once Hallowe’en had passed. But Olivia tells me that “since our boss is a psychologist” she plans to leave it in [...]

We’ve just had E.M.A.N.S. boxes installed all across the campus, including here in our office. The acronym stands for “Emergency Mass Alert Notification System,” and it’s designed to let people note about emergency situations, like if there was madman roaming around with a gun. It’s a fairly discrete system, designed to avoid mass panics. It’s [...]

I participated today in a panel discussion at Loyola, sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists. Kind of funny, given that I am not a professional journalist. The topic: “Online User Comments and its impact on news coverage, news Web sites and freedom of speech.” My fellow participants were all involved in one way or [...]