One Clear Dot

After years of various states all but begging people to apply for teaching positions, the job openings seem to be drying up. I went back to school for a year to earn all the credits I needed to get certified to teach on top of my two existing bachelors degrees. And now, there are no jobs.

It is a combination of school budget cuts and more people looking to make a career change. One Hillsborough County school principal commented on the resumes she got from people outside the field, “”There were a lot of people that applied - lawyers, people who work as managers, in banks - one person who was a writer.”

Of course, one might assume that my odds of securing an interview would be better, since I actually have education courses and certifications under my belt. Still, I started late with my applications, since I knew that so many teachers in my county had lost their jobs due to school closings and were waiting to be shifting into other jobs in the county.

However, it always stands that as the new school year begins there are additional positions that open. More kids might show up at a school than had been expected, or teachers find other jobs, decide to move, have a family crisis, suffer an illness or accident or die

As much as I love working with children and being a part of the learning process, I have to admit that in about two months I will also be looking for work in my old field.

Posted on August 10th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Education & Learning | No Comments »

Have you ever heard the term victory hair? It might not be what you think. Victory hair is not that soft and sexy hairstyle that gets you noticed, as much as it is the way your hair looks AFTER you’ve been noticed. Are you starting to get my drift?

Have you ever taken a look at your hair after a great make-out session? Its bed head at its best and THAT is what Victory Hair is.

Of course, you will never achieve really great Victory Hair unless you learn how to flirt. Everyone has their own flirting style and as they always say: practice makes perfect. For some people it is eye contact, or a flirty touch of your hand, or maybe just the right tilt of your head as you smile knowingly.

I found a fun little flirting game put out by Extreme Style by VO5 you can play online. It’s called the ‘The Ultimate Flirting Championship’ and its all about honing your flirting skills. I got to ask two male players flirty questions and they replied in real time. I picked the best answers and in the end, determined the winner. It was virtual flirting at its best. And I did not even have to leave my house to play.

Posted on August 5th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: The Way People Think | No Comments »

Do you fall into that trap that says you have to buy sheets with super high thread count in order to have bedding that is soft and comfortable? While high thread count is indeed a god thing, there comes a point where it is merely a gimmick some retailers use to charge a higher price for a product that is no better than some lower thread count products.

It does not do you any good to go above the mid 300’s in thread count. After that, thread count becomes a manipulation of techniques in order to be able to claim the highest thread count possible. Technically, the threads-per-square-inch measurement includes threads woven in all directions as well as twisted together in a 2-ply fashion. You probably won’t notice the difference between 350 and 700-thread count, the price difference will certainly make a difference on your budget.

Posted on August 1st, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Home Life | No Comments »

I know I have mentioned before all the stuff I threw away and gave away when I moved. And, how I have been going through boxes to try to slim down the load ever since. I need to go to my storage unit and see what I can stand to part with so I can maybe, possible, hopefully get my storage size down to a smaller unit. The prices went up.

I am forever reminded of that routine the late George Carlin used to do about Stuff.

I’ve got these boxes of old computer hardware and old used cisco routing equipment from when my ex-husband was trying to start a business with a friend of his. He doesn’t want it and I am that not-so-rare sort of packrat who could not fathom tossing it out. However, all I am doing is paying to have it lay around in my storage unit. What kind of putz am I?

I wish I was the kind of person who lived light enough to pack up and move without incident in the middle of the night. I’m not, though. I have tons of kitchen things, clothes, antiques and enough books to choke a respectably sized library. Let’s not even talk about my daughter’s toys and books.

The good side of owning so many things is that I do indeed feel like I pretty much have everything I need. I do very little shopping, aside from the consumables.

Posted on July 28th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Home Life | No Comments »

Ok, so a single family home is never going to be the same thing as a hotel, but all around the Tampa Bay during the Super Bowl in 2009, there will be thousands of people looking for lodging and most of the hotels, motels, condo hotels and other standard overnight venues will be booked solid. So, people start making plans to stay with friends and relatives so they can make a little extra cash renting out their homes to people coming into town for the Super Bowl.

Personally, I don’t do it. However, I have more than one friend who did it the last time the Super Bowl came to Tampa. They’ve also done with when big basketball tournaments come to St. Petersburg. You would think with all of the regular tourism we have here, that there would be plenty of lodging, but these special events just pack out the Bay Area. It’s insane.

Posted on July 28th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Travel | No Comments »

I’ve got it baking in the oven right now: Rose Petal Bread. It’s a very elegant summer quick bread.

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon rose water*
zest of 1 large orange
1 cup milk
1/2 cup red rose petals, white trimmed off and torn in pieces
confectioner’s sugar

preheat oven to 350º. Coat 9×5x3 loaf pan with no-stick spray and flour.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add rose water and orange zest. On low speed, blend in dry ingredients and milk until combined. Do not overmix. Fold in rose petals.

Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan, smooth the batter on the top. Bake one hour or until tester comes out clean. Turn onto rack. Dust with white confectioner’s sugar.

* essence of rose diluted

Posted on July 25th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Home Life | No Comments »

I know people around my community love Bingo. I see the signs and notices all over the place for the weekly Bingo games at community centers and the like. We still even have a few Bingo parlors intact. And who can blame them? Kids grow up playing Bingo at parties and at home. It’s a game we are all familiar with and anyone can learn to play in a snap.

We all know that the age of the internet means that not having to leave your house is a full on reality. We can shop online, keep in touch with friends and family online, and even do our banking online. I even run my freelance business 100% online, communicating with clients over e-mail and delivering the jobs digitally. It sure saves on fuel costs, since I don’t have to drive around town as often.

Do you know else you can do online (and yes, this ties right back to my first paragraph)? Play Bingo online.

One of the internet’s most popular gaming companies, bet365.com, is launching a new online Bingo room. They are even offering a 200% first deposit bonus and a 50% reload bonus on every deposit, just to get the ball rolling – so to speak. Now you don’t have to wait for Monday afternoon for the Bingo club to meet at your local community center, because Bet365 Bingo is open 24/7.

Also, be on the lookout for special promotions like Penny Bingo, BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free), chat games, and bonus Jackpot games. And, the new Bingo at bet365 is powered by Virtue Fusion, the leading bingo software provider. So, you know you are getting quality, availability, and the chance to collect on cool promotions. It’s just one more reason to stay at home today and spend a little time online.

And, staying home today means a lower budget this week for fuel.

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Entertain Me | No Comments »

People all over the internet were spellbound by the March 30 case of the Polk County, Florida teens who planned and executed the beating of another teen, Victoria Lindsay, with the intension of filming it all and putting it on YouTube for the world to see.

The teens were charged with charged with kidnapping and misdemeanor battery and most of the internet community was very open about its collective disgust with the actions taken by the out of control teens. What they did was deplorable and I feel that no matter how the information had gotten out to the public – the pubic would have been digested.

Even so, Christina Garcia (the mother of one of the teens, Mercades Nichols) is actually showing that she has brass balls and no sense of reality. She is the same woman who went to the media right after the incident, made stupid remarks that made her daughter look even worse, and took money for her interviews.

Garcia plans to sue Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. The papers filed by Garcia’s attorney claim that Judd “uttered untrue facts about the nature of my client and her status as a parent towards her minor child, Mercades Nichols, with reckless disregard for the truth.” The legal papers go onto to say that Garcia suffered “severe emotional damages” when those comments were publicized in newspapers, the Internet, national talk shows and local news stations.

The legal notice also says that Judd failed to handle the arrest of the teens “with integrity and a degree of care” that would have protected them “against unfair treatment and exposure.”

What?

All of this because Judd described the beating in published news stories as “animalistic” and reported that after the teens were arrested they were laughing together, saying “Am I going to miss cheerleading practice?” and “I guess we’re not going to the beach this week.”

Garcia is chasing a paycheck, is the only thing I can even fathom. Her daughter beat another girl and the whole thing was captured on video. The world saw parts of the video (not even the worst parts, supposedly) and we are now to believe that it is the Sheriff’s fault that Garcia is shamed?

Maybe she is just digging deeper for funds now that gag orders have kept her from appearing on even MORE talk shows to sell her off-center opinions.
And here is an interesting twist: people are saying that before the YouTube Beating situation happened, Garcia used her own MySpace page to brag that she had duped Mercades’ dad using the legal system. And, one internet reader pointed out that under Garcia’s former married name she has multiple arrest records in Polk County.

Her MySpace page is a pathetic mishmash of blame-throwing. She blames her mother, she blames Florida, she calls the Sheriff a liar, she blames teens for having a “teen mentality”. She also claims her daughter did not beat Victoria.
Let me end by saying the public support for Sheriff Judd is overwhelmingly positive.

Posted on July 22nd, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Parenting | No Comments »

I know my daughter is too big for a stroller. She is five now.

However, I kind of miss the stroller days. Sure, it could be a pain to pack it up, take it in and out of the car, and steer it through crowds and clothing racks. On the other hand, it made a great place to put my daughter she got tired of walking, as well as a fantastic place for my purse and packages when I was shopping.

I had an awesome stroller. We bought it more for the height of the handle than anything else. I’m tall and so is my ex husband, so we wanted a stroller with a comfortable handle placement. It never got difficult to steer either, not matter now much weight was in the stroller.

My sister and I used to take it with us when we had season tickets at Busch Gardens in Tampa last year. We knew the kids we really too old for strollers, but with all of the walking that we did, it mans the kids could rest without us having go stop. My nephew would sit up in the back of the stroller and we would keep the seat in the reclining position. Then, my daughter would just get in front of him. There was always enough room since it was a roomy stroller to begin with.

On day near the end of the year in 2007 we were wheeling through Busch Gardens and one of the wheels just plain popped off! We were able to put repeatedly put the wheel back on enough to make it out of the park, but that was the end of my stroller. I tossed it out with the trash that week. Sadly, the stroller my sister had in her garage was just not big enough for two kids.

I sure do miss using strollers. My daughter is more than happy to walk. I just miss having a place to put my bags.

Posted on July 18th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Parenting | No Comments »

I never had too may dress up clothes when I was a child. I did have some of my mom’s old shoes and night gowns. She even gave us a fashion wig she wore in the 60s. I never had the same sort of dress up wardrobe my other friends had, though.

I used to go to my friend Jennifer’s house and we would dress up in the princess gowns her mother made or some of her old equestrian clothing that had worn out a little from her riding lessons, or even the huge collection of really great Halloween costumes that had been gathered from years and years worth of trick-or-treating.

I had all that in mind as my daughter started showing an interest in playing dress up. So, every year after Halloween I go to stores like The Disney Store and Target and load up on costumes at their after-Halloween sales. At target, I generally get cartloads of costumes at 90% off the original price. You can’t beat paying only a dollar or two for princess gowns and shoes and wigs and other accessories.

My daughter has a more than respectable dress up collection. In fact, most days she comes in from school she immediately changes into one of her princess dresses. I encourage it. She entered a world of make-believe here at our house and I know she is expanding her mind, her way of seeing the world.

Posted on July 18th, 2008 by onecleardot
Filed under: Parenting | No Comments »