There's an App for That

There's an app for everything these days.  Literally.  I've been playing with this new app that makes a movie appear on a dollar bill.  Seriously cool.

There are dozens of apps to help you track calories, find songs on the radio, pick the best restaurant for dinner, get you un-lost on the highway.  You can even turn on the lights with an app.  At your house.  While you're at work.

There is seriously an app for everything.

So I shouldn't be surprised that my therapist "encouraged" me to check out a gratitude-type app that she had heard about the other day.  There are actually quite a few out there.  I downloaded a bunch of them, but weeded them down to two.

Gratitude Diary is exactly that- a simple diary to record your daily gratitude.  Pretty basic, simple, easy to use.

Gratitude Journal Free: Random Daily Happiness Diary is similar to the Gratitude Diary, with one really cool feature.  You can set an alarm to remind you to enter your gratitude for the day.  The trick?  You don't know when the reminder will come.  You enter a time range, and the reminder will appear sometime within the range you entered.  Different every day, too.

Both apps are free.

So far, I like the Random Daily Happiness Diary best.  I like that a message pops up on my phone.  It makes me pause for a moment, and think, "what am I grateful for at this very moment?"  Sometimes it's a simple "I'm grateful that I'm breathing."

OK.  You can go download them now.  Have fun playing!

Week 41: Dream Job

That's an easy one!

If I could do any job, I'd be a technology teacher in an elementary school.  Let me be more specific- I would be a technology teacher in an elementary school that has up-to-date and fully functioning technology!

I've thought about a variety of different educational endeavors that I could tackle over the years, but all of them take me out of the classroom, which is my favorite part of teaching.  For the last few years I've become the go-to person for tech trouble in my building.  I'm also a creative brainstormer when it comes to ways to integrate technology into projects and learning instead of making it an add on.

I don't know...... there's something pretty spectacular about putting a digital native (read: child of today) in front of a computer and supporting them along the creative and innovative learning experience of today....

So there you have it, my dream job.  If anyone happens to have an extra salary laying around, and would be willing to donate it to my school, I'd happily accept it, cause right now, a tech teacher is not in the budget!

Challenge 16, Part 3

Image by Murat Suyur

I like the whimsy of this image.  Tasty white chocolate mixed with technology of my favorite kind.  Nothing too fancy, just pure fun, if you ask me.  Two things I prefer to not have to live without: technology and chocolate (though I prefer dark chocolate!)

One thing I have to say about these recent Blogging for Wellbeing Challenges is that I have been exposed to artists that I'd not have otherwise met.  Bonus!

Week 26: Something Positive about ME

First, I have to say, that had I been given this prompt last year, or six months ago, or even three months ago, I probably would not have been able to answer it.  At all.

However, now that even my worst days are better than my best days used to be, there are a few positives I can point out, despite the incredibly challenging weekend I've been having.  (Of course this prompt would fall at a time where I'm struggling!)

 The Help

1.  I love the color of my eyes.  They are speckled with flecks of brown and green, dancing on a blue background.

2.  I am a good teacher.  (Others will say that I am an exemplary or dynamic teacher and though they might believe it, I can not speak those words.)

3.  I am good with computers.  And technology in general.  And I'm good at teaching people of all ages the basics of technology.

There.  Three whole things that I can say without feeling ill.  Three whole things that I can say and I can mean it when I say them.  Three might not be a lot, but it's three more than I used to be able to say...

The Power of Sleep

It is amazing how important sleep is.  I know that my body needs 7-8 hours of sleep every night.  I'm an absolute mess if I get less than that multiple days in a row.  It's kind of ironic, though, that the times that are most important for me to get enough sleep, like, say, when there's a big event coming up, or I have a presentation due, or something like that, are the times when I get the least amount of sleep.

This is one of those times.  I have a pretty big weekend coming up, and am going to be going pretty much non-stop for three straight days.  You'd think I'd be certain to get enough sleep!  I really planned on it, tried to, was all set-up for sleep success.... and then my computer decided to act up.  Which mean that the little project that was supposed to take a half hour, took longer.  Like 10 times longer.  Literally.  Five hours.  Five hours of work on a very simple, already done project, that just needed to be exported.

Nine.  That's the number right now.  Nine.  It's the number of hours of sleep I've gotten in the last TWO days.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I've gotten 4.5 hours of sleep for the last two nights in a row, and something is going to have to change ASAP if I'm going to stay healthy on this little sleep.

So what to do?  Can I just throw the computer out the window?  I don't know that I've ever been as frustrated with technology as I was last night.  Usually, me and my tech toys are connected at the hip, but last night.... oh was it a mess.  I actually had no choice but to give up and go to sleep, otherwise I'd have been in big trouble today.  A nap today would be nice, but I'm not sure my students would go along with the afternoon nap plan... sleeping on desks would get uncomfortable.

I'm going to go to work and try to make the day as simple as possible (and might actually play a video for my class, something I rarely do!) so that all that needs to be done can get done.  I actually don't plan on even opening my computer tonight when I get home from the festivities, instead, I'm going to go straight to bed.   That's not going to be easy, but as a good friend once said, we don't need easy, we just need possible.

Life is full of possible... I just like the possibilities a lot more when I'm well rested!