Hello Job!

Thanks to the assistance and connections of Candy, my teacher buddy from NM, I now have a job at Sylvan Learning Center. I will be tutoring on Tues and Thurs after school. On Monday, I have training, and on Tuesday, I have another interview at a different location for a possible second job at the call center. Basically, I would help parents decide what's best for their kids, take down information, encourage them to sign up their children... a different side of education, but still important. I'm confident that this will build my parent-teacher skills and make me more sellable as an educator.

In other news, I'm contemplating teaching abroad. I'd thought about it before, only via the Peace Corps, and while that is still on the table (actually, it's more on the chair next to the table), I am also looking at programs that will let me teach abroad for just one year. There's a great one called Teach Away, and they have a program in South Korea that I'm applying for. The provisions are good, and it will give me more experience. I wanted to try teaching in Abu Dhabi, but I would need a full-year of teaching experience. So maybe I'll just end up there after Korea... (if my dad is reading this, I'm sure he's freaking out right now. HI DAD! Thank GOD my mom doesn't know how to work the internet.)

In other news, the writing gig for suite101 is going well. Here are some links to my latest article adventures!

Dorm Room Delicacies: Easy Meals to Make on a Budget 
Walking Off Weight in Water: Pool Exercises 
TLC's Say Yes to the Dress

As you can see, a whole wide range of topics. Also... I have over 800 page/article views in under a week! Gadzooks! It's all because of the Beatles article- hot buzz in the internet world. In fact (tooting my own horn here), if you type in "beatles masters degree" on google, my article is the SECOND to pop up. Win! I'm also on the first page of Bing and Yahoo (same search). Yay!

Beatles Mania

So I must preface my story with another story:

A few days ago, my brother (who came for a visit) and younger sister were sitting in the leaving room, shooting the breeze. Now, in my family, I am known as the bank of information. If I ever get a random call from my brother (and they are all random) at an odd hour, I know he has some trivia question he needs answered. Who was the elf who fixed teeth in Rudolph? What does serendipity mean? If someone runs ___ft/second, how many miles/min does he run? Check. Check. And, check. So it was no surprise when he suddenly turned and shouted "what was that computer game we used to play? The educational one. The one with a monster. Oh, and the plants that are supposed to be the Beatles." I know, so specific. And I, being the knowledge nut that I am, would not rest until I figured it out. (The answer, by the way, is The Mystery of Mathra.) 

Fast forward to today, when I received said vg in the mail (I immediately ordered it when I found it for a dollar on Amazon). I rushed to the computer, put it in, and began playing. This game, I must add, used to take HOURS for us to finish. It was a complex mix of math and word puzzles, blended in with poor graphics and a weak story line. We ate it up like candy. 

I finished it in 30 minutes. Disappointed? Not really. It was still just as fun, if infinitely easier. 

Now where is the point in all of this? None really. Next story.

The game features four plants in the Goo Lagoon, and my poor 5th grade brain did not know at the time that they were supposed to be the Beatles (or that there were several allusions in the game, all of which I laughed at now). These plants even sing in annoyingly fake British accents as well (I skipped that part). 

After finishing it, I popped on line and one of the first stories on my homepage just happened to be about a woman graduating from a university in Liverpool with a Masters in Beatles Studies (shortened name). WOW! Talk about coincidence. However, I read the article and was sorely let down. It only covered who the woman was and the name of the university. Nothing about the program, nothing about the content. Only the tid-bit about the program being the first and only of its kind. So, I decided to one-up them, did myself a little research, checked out the university's website, and voila! We have an article. So I present to you my latest excursion into online writing, Beatles Master's Degree Offered by a Liverpool University. Enjoy!!! 

New Year, New Start, New Life

Ok, so the last post was a bit... desperate. I should let you know that I am not, in fact, bathing in a pool of my tears throwing a pity party for myself. NO! I am attempting to re-establish myself up here in good ol' Ohio. So, what have I done?

I am now a writer for Suite101, an online research site which has articles on just about every subject. If you are interested, check out some of my latest articles:

The Mythology of Harry Potter: Character Names- an article which focuses on the Greek and Roman mythological connections to HP (or the allusions in HP to mythology. Same difference.)

Tackling a College Thesis- a brief overview of how to go about writing your thesis from someone who spent entirely too much time on hers.

There are others out/on the way, and I look forward to hearing your opinions on them all. :0)

Otherwise, I am on the prowl for a job, desperately trying to avoid working at Wal*Mart or McDonald's. We'll see how that goes!