term 2

TERM 2 has started and they've told me that it won't be until term 3 that the official Graphics teacher comes. so looks like i have part time work until then. my night schools may/may not be on as of now. it all depends on the enrollment. not enough people means cancelled courses. i'm trying to get my A + certification soon. there is a local testing center in the auckland cbd but i don't know if they'll make me take their courses before i can take the test. i've already read an A + essentials book cover to cover and will take the online prep exams, in addition to my work experience, i think i should be good. that should definitely increase my chances of finding a tech job, since i'm not having much luck right now. it'd be really nice to go to a job that i feel confident i can do well in and understand. (it can get confusing who i need to talk to about what around the school. feel like its a merry go round some times.)

tuts my barreh

WORKING on some stuff for my night classes. since i'll be teaching Illustrator and Photoshop, i have to find some way to tie the two together for the class so they can see the benefit of having both programs (and so they won't all be irritated when i switch from one topic to the other). this is an example of how you can take a picture in Photoshop, pull a color palette from it, and import it into Illustrator. its a mosaic job which could use some refining but i think pitches the idea across. and as a bonus, illustrates the use of symbols and global colors. if you notice there is a difference between the two images. by changing the color composition of one symbol it changes all the symbols of that type, there by saving yourself some time.



term 2 starts on monday and my upper level students have there correspondence packets that i can help them with but for my lower levels there really isn't anything set out. so i might have a problem with what to do with them 3 times a week. they're a rowdy bunch anyway and have taken advantage of the fact their teacher/disciplanarian has left for germany.

we went to the clinic today cause sarah had a horrible coughing fit/attack last night around 3am. i think there might be something in our bedroom that really bothers her allergies and we just haven't taken the cleaning bat to the room like we should have. but the doc said there was no infection and no asthma. seemed to know what she was talking about when it comes to allergies as she was the first one to understand sarah's description of her old inhaler and how to use the new one. so we got plenty of medicine for real cheap (thanks socialized medicine!) and hopefully she should be getting better soon.

it's ANZAC day here in NZ. so there's been a bunch of war stories on tv. there was also a wreath laying ceremony for the unknown soldier on tv where dignitaries from all over paid their respects. it was interesting to see which order they were put in and from which country.

and today's minutiae, cooked some salmon on the stove with thyme, sea salt, and black paper in a fresh garlic infused olive oil. i liked it even though it had tiny bones we had to pick out. sarah got caught in the rain walking back from the school. she showed up at our patio door looking like a pathetic puppy. did a load of wash and learned how to hang it on a 'horse' (learning many different ways to dry clothes over here). and that's it for today!

Roller Skates

I have officially gotten sucked in to the New Zealand News tonight. There is a story about this girl who is super thin and got to the finals in Miss Australia. Apparently people were offended by the way she looked, but luckily there are others who are pointing out that sometimes people are actually just small and not anorexic. I say good for her for not caring and just going for it anyway.

Adam and I have been working and relaxing since our trip to Tauranga, which was chilled out, but worth it for sure. It will be nice to go back in the summer sometime when more things are going on and the place is more bustling. It was great to see Amy though - I love that it didn't feel like it had been 3 years since I last saw her. We just picked right up and had the same easy and hilarious conversations that we always had.

Adam is working on his website right now. He is so talented. I can't wait for someone else to see that and give him a fantastic career opportunity. I know that it will happen when the time is right, so I'm in no rush to see him in the big corporate world. I just want to see him working somewhere that makes him happy and challenges him. I am a sappy girl - he's so smart and wonderful and I am very lucky :)

Today I spent a lot of time at school doing a classroom makeover. The Enya poster had to go, for one :) I also took down a bunch of posters having to do with wars - why they were in the music room in the first place I have no idea. I also found six guitars that need new strings, so hopefully I will be able to get them fixed soon. I also killed a small forest doing photocopying, and managed to get through my laminating without jamming the machine.

Time for another glass of wine. People are rollerskating and singing on TV. I love New Zealand.

Expedition # 1.

JUST got back from Tauranga. bit tired from travel but it was worth it. got off the island for a few days and got to see another city other than auckland cbd (central business district). We didn't really do a whole lot while there. it seems to be mostly a summer city and of course we go in the fall. all the activities had to do with the nice beach near the Mount. surfing, dolphins, sailing, beach volleyball, etc. we did go and walk around the base of Mount Maunganui, the sacred mountain to the maori of the area. it was impressive because it was surrounded by this natural harbor where the area around for miles was completely flat then the mountain rose out of nowhere at the mouth of the bay. oh and we drove through "hobbiton" on the way there. i only took a quick pic from the car cause i thought we'd be going back at some other time so excuse the blurriness. you can still see it says "hobbiton". supposedly a sculpture of Gollum some where in the area too. didn't see it though but here's what we did see.....

mmmmm, brains...

YEP, i've decided to make a whole series of zombiepocalypse pics. (i really need a full time job.)

as you may have noticed from the first one, new york city was picked clean. now here is what they are experiencing in auckland. i should know, i was just there on friday.

boring weekend...

so here's a treat. more pictures! (cause my xbox 360 still doesn't want to work over here. think i'll need to step up to a higher transformer. the one i bought yesterday only can output 150w and my 360 is an older one that requires 203w be shot from the brick. though i think the brick is supposed to up the wattageness some how. electricity confuses me. watts, volts, amps, hertz, blah, blah, blah. stupid transformer cost me 130 bucks and shut off on me! thankfully i bought one that can be reset so its now powering my gear.)

oh and quick explanation. that's sarah being slapped by a wooden Kiwi soldier, heroic pose Adam, our friend Jennie with Sarah when we drove out to the East side, me and my future sail boat, and the zombiepocalypse (something i made to freshen up my Photoshop skillz before i have to teach it). enjoy.

Sarah's First Blog!

After many requests and reminders from my patient husband, I am finally blogging.
Today we got to play Left 4 Dead after many weeks of waiting - I was surprised that my muscle memory was intact and I remembered where all of the buttons were - which allowed me to proceed with my normal amount of sucking. I died a number of times and shot most of my teammates at least one time each. Needless to say, for a gal who grew up singing musicals and barely ever even winning a board/card/car game in her life, the fact that I am able to play at all is something to be celebrated.
The concert was a great success! I hope to have the video up soon for everyone to watch. The auditorium was completely packed and the kids performed so well. I was very proud of them and proud to be working at such a great school. I am looking forward to next term as well, but still would like to stay in denial that half of break is over and I have yet to do any of the things on my prep list. Boo.
I am so happy to be sharing my obsession with music and performing with all of the kids who I teach. I only wish I knew how to play every single instrument and knew every single random fact about music and music history so that I could share it all with them and answer all of their questions. But a girl only has so many hours in the day, so I suppose I will have to leave the flute lessons to someone who knows how the hell to get a sound to come out of one. I do look forward to learning more and have even played around with the idea of starting a staff band. I think our staff is prefect for something like that. Very laid back and funny and wiling to be possibly humiliated in public.
Time for dinner now, and just so you are all aware- - I do really like snails. They stick to your hand and therefore are very fun and slimy.

Huzzah!

IT'S a Festivus miracle! woke up this morning and turned on my modem in the vain hope that i'd have 'net access and I DO!! i'm definitely heading over to the electronics store later to pick up the transformers for my xbox and other gear now!

i was debating on waiting since we had spent so much money in auckland yesterday. sarah went on a redecorating rampage. she couldn't live with the 70's decor that our landlords had left in our new place. she replaced the curtains, got new throw pillows, area rugs (rugs that cover rugs? wtf??), Indian scarves for wall hangings, couch covers, table cloth, and probably some other stuff i'm forgetting. the place does have an exotic touch to it now instead of the purile pastels that were fashionable many decades ago. if only we'd thought to take pics of the before and after.

other events to go into detail later (now that we're wired again!).......
1 trip to auckland zoo.
2 trip to the east end of the island (no man's land!) and some wine tasting.
3 sarah's music concert at the high school.
4 adam's jobs. yes, plural.




Sarah really likes snails, btw.

Telecommunicate me please

DON'T know how this happened to this country but it's mega lame. they've got this one telecommunication company, called Telecom (genius name, i know), that apparently controls all phone lines and related equipment. my ISP said they couldn't connect me on the 15th cause Telecom had a work order open and only one work order can be opened on a line at a time. called Telecom and they said "nope, no work orders" so called my ISP back. they said they would resubmit the request to Telecom and to call them back if i wasn't up and running later that night. gave them all day and called this morning after i discovered i still ain't online (through my network, not the neighbor's). this is the awesome part. Telecom apparently scheduled the 20th of the month for my ISP to be allowed to reconnect me. monopoly = incredibly crappy customer service and satisfaction. here i thought it was just incredibly dumb that Kiwi's allow their ISP's to put a bandwidth cap on them and they didn't riot but guess they're used to being screwed by corporations.

pics and more to come...

JUST a taste of the pics we've taken over the past week or so. yes, that is my first Kiwi sheep and no, we aren't seeing each other exclusively.

moving pains...

WE moved to our new place but still don't have our internet hooked up. (how long does it take to flip a switch?!?!) but once we're up and running again pics and posts to follow.

SO after a test print, I realized I had my programs backward. So here are the corrected versions.

program(me) designs for concert

Sarah is having her first concert on Wednesday and I've forced my services as Graphic Artist on her. Here is 2 of the possible designs for the program (or programme, in the Queen's English). Also, the posters/flyers we put around town. Enjoy and comment if you must.

Duece!

SO we just went to Oneroa so Sarah could rent Mr. Holland's Opus for her classes to watch tomorrow. Had to pay a $50 deposit to rent the movie (WTF?). Then waited for the bus that never came. A hippie stoner guy in his 50's/60's jibber jabbered to us the whole time we were waiting. At some point he offered to let us stay in his "lady friends" spare room. We eventually got away and hitched a ride from another teacher that was hanging out on the deck at the Skinny. Now, we're watching Mamma Mia! the ABBA musical because I have to show Sarah occasionally that I do indeed love her by sufffering through these things.

Tomorrow we are moving amps and equipment into the Hall for the concert on Wednesday. I designed some flyers for it and we papered Oneroa with them. Hopefully the kids got the rest of the towns on the island. And for your viewing pleasure, some pics of Waiheke!

First!

yay! our first blog post! gonna try this sucker out since it beats the heck out of Facebook for keeping everyone up to date. and we do have lots of pics that haven't been uploaded yet too.