My first teaching gig...

August 21, 2012

My day started out full of stress because before I started my teaching gig I had to prepare 60+ meals for students and teachers. At 9am I was alone in the kitchen with a ton of work left to do before I had to be ready to start service at 11am. I was preparing Chicken Tetrazzini and anyone who has ever cooked this dish in bulk knows it takes time to do it right. Thank goodness I had done some of the prep work Monday. At approx 9:30 a couple of friends stopped by on their way to clean some carpets in another area of the school and saw my dilemma and took pity on me. They jumped in and helped and we served the first plate of Chicken Terrazine, Sweet peas, Fruit cocktail and Garlic bread with sweet tea at exactly 11am. My class started at 12 and the ladies stayed around and cleaned the kitchen while I was teaching my class.

American Government is the first class I have ever taught on my own. This should stretch my abilities and allow me to explore my own desireto learn more about our system of government. I figure I have the books and a captive audience so what the heck, I will give it a shot. What do they know? They are kids...lol
Hopefully, I will blind them with my brilliance... :) Plus, I watch the news, read papers, follow political blogs online. All that said, I am as qualified to help these kids learn what they need to know as most teachers.

Wish me luck.

Sept 7th
All is well. The class is still intact and I haven't had any complaints about my cooking.  Since I last posted a message our neck of the woods experienced Hurricane Issac which stayed around for a few days blowing trees down and dumping lots of water on the area. The electricity at my house was out for 19 hours but my sister was out for 2 days. They had a generator which keep them in business. We missed 3 days of school which delayed our first quiz but we were able to get it out of the way on the second day back. Sept 5th. My class seems to like me which is always a good thing.

The cooking part of my day has been going well and the feed back has been great. Support from student and teachers is all I can ask for and some of the young ladies would help out in the kitchen if they were allowed too. Given an alternative I would have them with me all morning at least one day per week. let them cook lunch so they can see how it feel to have folks eat and appreciate your effort. I am going to work on this as a project for a later date.

I have some photo's to post of a couple of the meals we have served lately. I was unable to make it to school on Tuesday some of the kids told me that they missed my cooking because my food was much better. I was not the least bit surprised to  receive that news. :)

Honey Badger is gone for good.

Honey Badger is off the Team for good.

Louisiana State University standout and Heisman Trophy runner-up for 2011 Tyrann Mathieu is off the team for good. BATON ROUGE -- Tyrann Mathieu has been dismissed from the LSU football team for violation of team policy, head coach Les Miles announced on Friday.
With this news, rampant speculation began to swirl as to the reason for the dismissal. Mathieu better known as the "Honey Badger" because of his tenacious playing ability and haircut has a history of smoking Marijuana and the rumor is he failed another drug test. I would say at this point that it is more likely than not that the LSU standout will be playing in a uniform other than purple and gold when the season starts.

This is a sad turn about for the young man who could have been more than a hero to Tiger fans he could have been an icon and a legend had he as rumor suggest not decided that getting high was more important than his reputation and his team.

Good luck with your future, Tyrann, I hope you get things back on the right track before it's too late.

I'm ALONE not LONELY so go AWAY!

When I first decided to watch this video it was for selfish reasons. I am alone a lot and it only made sense to find out what someone else may have to say about my state of being which I may not have already contemplated at some point in the past.

After, watching the video and deciding it was time well spent I felt the need to comment on it which should be fine seeing that I have spent some much time alone in my life.

Alone, is a place millions of people find themselves at some point in their lives and if one does not learn fairly quickly how to cope they will become depressed which leads to feelings of worthlessness and despair (loneliness) and in their desperation to alleviate their loneliness may become entangled in relationships which in the end will leave them even more despondent and alone and in a cycle of "failure".

While reading this "article" you may at times find I wander around a bit which is my style of writing, speaking, thinking, etc...

A few years ago, in 2004, I decided to attend a four year university and earn a degree in Psychology. To cut through the chase I am nine credits short but who's keeping tabs? (argh) I figured my life experiences made me the perfect candidate to be a Psychology major and I was correct in that many of the courses I took made perfect sense because I was already familiar with the material except when it came to Advanced Statics which I failed miserably, twice. So I left college with 9 hours left, "to protect my GPA."

Before college, I had been in the workforce for over 25 years, many of those years were spent in some form of Sales so I never had a problem, Winning Friends and Influencing People. My problem was and has always been an abject Fear of Failure in the sense that I do not like to disappoint other people. As a result of fear, I have always been somewhat of a procrastinator which if left unchecked will guarantee self destruction. In past relationships, I have walked away rather than take the chance of getting my heart broken not realizing or caring that my walking away broke a heart. I didn't care and as long as "my" heart was intact I knew I would be fine. This attitude if left unchecked leads to a state of loneliness somewhere down the road.

As I have gotten older I have actually learned to enjoy being alone with my thoughts, laptop, books, television, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, my blog, and the rest of the Internet. Hell, who has time for real people when there is so much to do without leaving the comfort of my home. J/K, but all of that stuff does make being alone just a little bit easier.

Contrary to popular belief I do get out of the house almost everyday. :)

My friend Denny sent this comment to my Facebook page:

Denis Abbott

I tried to leave a comment in the blog but after 2 tries gave up. It had something to do with a profile .... In any case, a couple of additional items that were not on the video. Fishing is a good activity. It allows one to gather one's thoughts and people are used to seeing people fishing alone. Driving the tractor while "farming" is an excellent use of time alone. Also, even better is learning a new skill while driving a tractor. I have heard that learning to yodel while driving the tractor has twofold benefits. First, you accomplish the farming task, and secondly, you can then hire yourself out as a yodeler at special events like Oktoberfest. 

To which I add: Any solo activity such as writing, painting, photography, bird watching, playing video games, working in the garden, walking, running, or just sitting in quiet contemplation (meditation), work to combat loneliness.

In my opinion, being alone is a time to recharge one's batteries. Loneliness is a whole different story and if the feeling persists for a prolonged period of time should be treated by a mental health professional. There is no shame in feeling lonely. People are by nature social creatures and some people need more human contact than others and when they are deprived become depressed.

As a side note: Many of the world's great accomplishments were achieved by a person working alone. I put the words "working alone" into Bing and nearly every article which popped up was a variation of the thought process of, "working alone or with others" it is as if the idea of working alone isn't worth exploring unless it is related to working with others in some form or fashion.

The original title before I decided to go a different direction was, I'm ALONE not DESPERATE so go AWAY! I may explore this angle later, just a thought.

Smothered Pork-chops with Onions in Redeye Gravy

Ingredients:
Pork-chops
Seasoning blend (your preference)
Salt to taste
1 package of brown gravy mix
2 med onions
1/2 cup of brewed coffee
1 cup of cold water
2 tbl spoons of Olive Oil.
2 tbl spoons of Bacon Grease

Directions:
In a bowl: Coat Pork-chops with Olive Oil and seasoning blend
Add coffee and cover chops.
Place the Pork-chops in the fridge while sweating the onions in a black iron skillet.
While the Onions are Sweating (cooking with just enough salt to draw the water out of them) start the gravy by following the directions on the package.
Once the Onions are sufficiently caramelized or sweated add them to the gravy.

To the hot skillet add bacon grease and sear the pork chops.
Pour the coffee marinade into the gravy and turn it on low for 5 minutes being careful not to let it get too thick and burn.

Once the Pork-Chops are seared add gravy and turn on lowest setting, add water if necessary and cook for 10 - 15 minutes with lid on. Serve over rice or bread of your choice.

How To Analyze People On Sight

How to Analyze People on Sight, by Elsie Lincoln Benedict and Ralph Paine Benedict

Click here to read book.

This book written in 1921 is amazing in that it stereotypes people by grouping them into 5 types and analyzes each type in such detail that it would lead one to believe the authors could be on to something.

If I had read this book earlier in life and utilized a few of the techniques introduced in it to pick up women or improve my sales ability I may have been a little better at both. Now that I think about it, if I had been any better, I would probably have been labeled a conman. Nowadays, I read books related to sales tactics and how to analyze people more for the enjoyment than for the practicality. I remember going to seminars where such techniques were taught and people got rich selling books and tapes to others who were eager to learn how to get rich quick by getting others to work for them.

I learned that getting rich is not as easy as some would have you believe.
Running around all over the country selling vacuum cleaners or weight-loss supplements among other products while applying Multilevel Marketing techniques was fun but all it netted me was a bunch of friends and family who were just as disillusioned as I was when it was all over.

Today, when I see a late night infomercial touting the ease with which one can flip houses or real estate in a down economy, I want to throw my shoe at the televisions because it is all B.S. and the only person making any real money is the guy selling the programs.