No longer

Posted on by backuphill

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I awoke this morning to an email that made me pause for a moment. I knew the moment was coming. I have for a while, of course, but actually seeing it there in print made me pause and contemplate the past. A stage in my life is truly over and going back isn’t an option (at least not an easy one).

This morning I had the official notification via email from OSPI (Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction) that my teaching certificate is now officially expired.

Again, I knew this day would be coming for seven years (well, nearly 7…in a little over a month it will be 7 years since I left the classroom). It has been in the back of my mind and occasionally I would get reminded when I would glance at my National Board Certification. The expiration date was right there on the bottom – June 30, 2022. My state teaching certificate was tied to that because the National Board Certification linked the two and extended the state expiration date.

I am no longer a teacher.

It’s hard to say that. There was a lot of time, money, and effort tied to that part of my identity. Of course, I haven’t been a classroom teacher for nearly seven years, but to actually have that part of my life come to an official end (there was always that “open door” to go back) is a little surreal. I loved my subject and I really liked teaching students about it. I didn’t like all the time and politics related to the job.

I am happy with where I am now, don’t get me wrong. However, officially letting go of that part of me is surprisingly more emotional than I thought it would be.

I will always be a teacher, just not a classroom teacher. I guess I have to remember that. I still teach people in education about the software they use. I still teach teachers about the software they use to track student progress. It’s just a different kind of teaching.

Bucket of poo

Posted on by backuphill

Photo by Max Vakhtbovych on Pexels.com

Well, well, well….this probably falls into the TMI category, but you get to take a look through the window of poop testing. Actually not really “probably,” it does fall into the TMI category but I am wondering if others have had a similar frustration while trying to poop in a bucket for health reasons.

A while back I was notified by the insurance company that I needed to have my colon checked because I turned 50 this year. I made the appointment with my doc and we discussed the options. Basically, there are three ways to do this: every year I can smear some poop on a strip of paper and send it in, or every six years I can poop in a bucket for Cologuard, or I can go the route of every 10 years having an up close and personal inspection of my colon via the colonoscopy. Three options that vary in invasiveness but all get the job done. I went with the second option, poop in a bucket.

Honestly, I didnt’ think it was going to be that big a deal. What I have learned is there is a huge marketing campaign (bigger than just the tv commericials) behind the behind investigation. The paperwork was filled out and short thereafter I started receiving snail mail about the test, emails about the test, text messages about the test, and voicemail messages about the test. Eventually the test showed up and about every 4-7 days I would get a text reminder that I needed to complete the test and send it in.

When I finally felt that I could complete it I read the instructions and went through the uncomfortable process of getting the bucket in the toilet and then making sure my aim was good enough to not make a mess. I completed the test, took the box to a UPS drop off place to make sure it was Next Day Air shipped as required.

Not long after I got a voicemail saying that my sample was not accepted and that I would have to do it again. No reasons given, just call them to have it sent again. Perplexing…

When I called to have another one shipped, I asked why it wasn’t accepted. I figured maybe it didn’t make it there on time. Nope, not the reason. The reason was because “the sample was too heavy.” My assumption is that the sample was too big – apparently they weigh it before testing it and if it is too heavy they just toss it. SMH….never mind the fact that the sample done correctly other than there was “too much.” And you’re telling me that it is completely unusable because there is too much???

Um, are you aware that pooping isn’t a start and stop kind of event? Basically, they want you to poop a little, stop, remove the bucket from the toilet, and then continue pooping. Yeah, about that….WHO DOES THEIR POOPING IN STAGES? Or, I guess the alternative would be to find some kind of utensil to dig around in the bucket to remove excess poo to deposit it into the toilet. Nothing like inspecting your poo before shipping off a bucket of it…

Anyway, there is now another box with a bucket sitting next to the toilet waiting for me to have “just the right size” “movement” to fulfill all their requirements.

Anyone else been frustrated with the requirements of the Cologuard sample process?

Evil doers

Posted on by backuphill

Photo by Ivan Samkov on Pexels.com

The news out of Japan this morning is quite shocking. The former Japanese Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo, being assassinated IN Japan is kind of a big deal because gun violence in Japan is virtually unheard of. They have some of the strictest gun laws anywhere in the world. The fact that this act was done IN Japan to a former highly elected official with seemingly good security protection just goes to show you that gun laws can be as restrictive as a plastic bag over the head is, but they don’t stop evil doers from doing evil.

This can’t be more clear when you start talking about guns in America. The US has a a guaranteed right written right into it’s founding document. The First Amendment of the Constitution enshrines this right from protection against the government being able to take the right away. People have long tried to limit or chisel away at that right and the courts have supported them to some degree. But the fact remains that American’s can’t and shouldn’t lose that right. It should be protected for all of time.

Thus, the news from Japan just reinforces that guns aren’t the problem when it comes to death and destruction. Yes, guns are widely available in the US for anyone who qualifies to purchase a gun, no matter the type. Should there be better background checks? Maybe. Should there be mental health flags in the background check? Maybe. Those issues are debatable. But what still remains during this discussion isn’t if we need to ban guns, it’s that no matter the laws and bans on the book, evil doers will find a way to get a gun. Actually, it doesn’t even matter if it’s a gun. They will find a way to do their evil even without guns because that is what evil does. It doesn’t care about laws and bans and limits and background checks and anything else you can put in the way of people doing evil.

What we can’t let happen is good people having their rights taken away because a few (we’re really talking about a small percentage here) bad apples decide to do evil. Keeping something from someone because others do bad things is stupid. That’s kind of like saying no one can drive a car because there are people who drive poorly and get in accidents and hurt or kill other people. Driving a car isn’t even a guaranteed right, it’s a privalege in America, yet no one would consider doing away with motor vehicles.

I hope you get the point here.

Evil doers will do evil. There is no stopping it.

Well, there is, but a godless nation won’t or can’t stomach the actual solution to the problem – bring God back into the daily lives of everyone.

So, for now, evil is as evil does.

Deaf ears

Posted on by backuphill

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Can you believe that President Biden hasn’t really done a thing about fixing the gas prices? It’s as if all the pleas of Americans at every economic level in the United States has fallen on deaf ears, and I am not just talking about the fact that he’s old and can’t hear that well. He literally is ignoring the only solution that would fix the issue – pumping more oil domestically.

He just told Americans (and basically the rest of the world) that they are going to just have to continue to suffer under high inflation and high fuel prices. He will ask OPEC to pump more oil, which we’ll have to buy on the open market at market price, while everyone else in the world faces the same issue. He’ll ask Congress to suspend a tax for short term relief, which for most people amounts to very little savings at the pump. He’ll scold oil companies for making a profit.

Notice he didn’t say he would open areas for more drilling in the US? Notice how he didn’t say he would do anything about opening a pipeline in the US? Notice how he didn’t say he would do anything to increase refining capacity in the US? Notice how none of the things he is doing make the US energy independent? Notice how none of the things he is doing are long term solutions and will have little to no real impact at the pump for a majority of Americans?

Not only is Biden hard of hearing physically, but he is apparently deaf politically too. His own political followers are bearing the brunt of his poor economic policies and he can’t hear that they’re totally suffering and unhappy.

“Build Back Better” was his slogan. Know what he has built back better?

Resentment. Inflation. Economic recession.

Anything else we can add to that list?

Good grief!

Bottom flavors

Posted on by backuphill

https://www.dairyqueen.com/en-us/menu/treats/

OK, first world problem here….but dang it already, something needs to be done about this!

Raise your hand if you have gone to Dairy Queen and ordered a Blizzard of your favorite flavor. My favorite flavor happens to be Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, but that isn’t really the point here. In this case I am going to Piss and Moan about, I ordered the new Drumstick with Peanuts flavor. Again, that is not really the point here.

The REAL point here is that when you order a Blizzard and you are enjoying it because of all the tasty flavor pieces in the ice cream is just awesome, only to get to the bottom of the Blizzard and find no flavor whatsoever. NONE! Two-thirds of the Blizzard cup is a great blend of vanilla ice cream and whatever flavor you ordered, but the bottom third of the cup is just plain vanilla ice cream.

This is rather irritating. No, not rather, it is very irritating.

I want flavor ALL THE WAY to the bottom.

This can’t be that hard of a thing to do. Seriously, DQ, get it right.

Put a scoop of flavor on the bottom of the cup, put in some ice cream, another layer of flavor, more ice cream, final layer of flavor. Mix.

See how easy that would be to solve this seriously tasteless bottom of the Blizzard issue? Who the heck is over there in the corporate offices letting this happen? I am sure it has been an issue for years and years, so why haven’t they solved it? I’ll tell you why. Because they don’t care. People still buy the things and the outrage hasn’t been enough to make them listen.

It’s time to boycott Blizzards and DQ until they fix this. No more. It’s the 21st century and technology exists to fix it. It has to be possible.

Boycott Blizzards and DQ.

Tweet it on Twitter. Tik Tok it. Post it on social media everywhere. Gram it on Instagram. Make a story on your choice of social media.

Make it go viral.

That’s the only way they will listen.

Right reversal

Posted on by backuphill

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“The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”

OK, Chicken Little…or littles….there is a lot of yelling, crying, hand-wringing, and plain old threats of violence over the Supreme Court of the United States’ reversal of the Roe v. Wade decision. A decision that has been on debate about the correctness, legality, and morality since it was handed down nearly 50 years ago.

In my humble opinion, this is the right reversal. I say it that way because of two things: it overturns a precendent set in the past that was wrong from the start and it removes the ability to legally kill human babies.

I wrote all the way back in December of last year, when this case was being heard by SCOTUS, that the danger of precendent was something that the court could not and should not stand on, simply for standing on precendent. I also wrote about it way back in 2019, about precedent being danderous. I was trying to show that previous courts had made decisions that were wrong and that needed to be overturned because they were morally wrong and righted wrongs that never should have existed. When this decision was leaked to the press (in and of itself, unprecedented) early, the sky began falling then. This just confirms that there are some who clearly are going to die on this hill and that a large portion of the United States is morally bankrupt.

So, again, overturning the first decision to legalize abortion at the federal level was the correct thing to do. It’s the right reversal. There is no inherent right or implicet right in the Constitution for an individual to take a life, let alone to kill babies. It can’t be Constiutionally protected because there are no means to justify it.

It’s the right reversal because there is no moral justification for taking the life of a baby. You can’t tell me that an inch and a half (or three, or whatever amount) of skin and tissue makes the different between whether or not a baby, a child, a human is alive or not. Once it has a detectable heartbeat, no matter the time or space, it is alive. Some might even argue earlier, but a heartbeat for sure is discernable and can’t be debated. It just can’t. No argument can be created or defended that would change this fact and to do so would simply be smoke and mirrors to displace the real issue.

Once again, there will be a lot of complaining, groaning, screaming, and lying (yes, lying) about the wrong that has been done with this right reversal. For many in the country, there can no better or singular issue to demonstrates their depravity than this. Any opinoin that directly supports killing children, at any age, tells you alot about the person holding the opinion.

Patience tried

Posted on by backuphill

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Ya, know? Waiting sucks. Having patience sometimes can be very difficult.

Had a relative have a pretty major, serious surgery today. The person getting having the surgery has had a difficult decade, it seems, and is rather frail so there was some definite risk involved with this surgery. Information about what was happening was slow, and when it finally came time to hear the results it became unbearably silent.

Like, so silent that when the results of the surgery were supposed to be given there was an hour where no one knew what was going on at all. Everyone waiting for word one way or the other….

Thankfully, the relative made it through and the surgery and is now recovering. There is still some danger, but on the road to hopefully being better.

Silence. Patience. Unknown.

It’s hard to handle at times.

Talking trash

Posted on by backuphill

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No, this isn’t exactly what you think it might be about. I am not going to talk trash about someone or something. No smack talk this time…though it’s probably about time to do some of that…

This post is about trash, trash cans, and hotels.

Small. The trash cans in hotels rooms are small. Like extra small, it seems.

Honestly, I have probably noticed this before – way back in the day when I did more business travel. But, now that I have been doing a bit more travel for pleasure, I have noticed it again in the two most recent stays. The can (or cans) in a hotel room are really small.

Do they not expect that you are going to generate garbarge in your stay?

They only want to clean your room upon request, provided you are staying more than one night, so if you have more than a couple days then your can fills up pretty quickly – especially if you order food to bring back to the room with you. In the old days when they cleaned rooms every day, assuming you allowed it to happen, I can image that a small can made sense. But these days? Not so much.

Anyone else noticed the can(s) in your room seems to be exceptionally small? What really is the point of this, as it is entirely impractical?

Tired choices

Posted on by backuphill

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Northwest living can be an actual and total grind. Seriously.

The joke around here is that summer starts after July 4 and the number of rainy, cool July 4ths I have experienced in my 50 years is pretty high. Look, it’s wet a lot up here and we all know it. BUT…

Right now the grass and weeds are growing uncontrolled because the rain literally stops for like one day, maybe two, every week and a half. As such, I am forced to make choices about what activites are going to take place outside.

Do I do something fun or relaxing outside? Or, do I do yardwork in an effort to catch up after not doing yardwork for a week/week and a half? If I choose what I want to do, that which I should/need to do suffers. If I choose what I should/need to do, that which I would prefer to do suffers.

If you choose incorrectly, it could be a long while in between being able to do either outside.

I am tired of making these choices.

How about summer start now for a change?