Day 2: The Meaning Behind Your Blogger Name

Hmm... My Blogger name is pretty straightforward... just my name. My husband uses "4shay" as his last name in his email address, so I copied that for my Twitter account (the one I used to have for MVC UB stuff, but I deleted it when we started using Facebook instead).

I should have a more clever name, huh?

Day 1: 15 Interesting Facts About Yourself

I'm three days late posting this (I really meant to post over the weekend, but SOMEBODY kept me busy!) I'll catch up today, though!

1. I grew up in Santiago, Chile. My mom's a USian, my dad's Chilean; my mom went to Chile on a study abroad program, met my dad, and she decided to stay. They got married and had four kids...
2. I have four cats. Yes, FOUR. And I did not name a single one of them -- someone else named them. (But it's okay, I like the names.)
3. I have four cats, AND NO LITTER BOX. (I don't know if this qualifies as interesting, but it's something that makes me happy. I hated cleaning that litter box! The cats now have a kitty door, and they do their business outside...
4. I write books. None of them are published; I'm good at writing books but I'm very lazy about editing them and getting them ready to submit to agents... I've participated in NaNoWriMo seven years in a row; won every year, except for this one. I was BUSY with something...
5. I had a baby, a healthy, wonderful little boy, in October. I waited a long time to have him, but he was definitely worth the wait! (But he's also A LOT of work. Like all babies are. Which is why I only wrote 1,765 words this November, instead of my usual 50,000.)
6. I have a Hello Kitty tattoo on my shoulder, and a rose tattoo on my calf.
7. I'm having a really hard time thinking of interesting things about myself.
8. I am fluent in English and Spanish, and pretty good in French. And I like to pretend I understand and can sort-of speak Italian.
9. I am addicted to blogging and Twitter. (Or, at least, I was... until I had a baby and lost all of my free time!)
10. I have two sisters, one brother, two step-sisters, one step-brother, and two "new" sisters (my mom and step-dad adopted them when I was in college). My family tree is more of an orchard than a tree...
11. I really, really want to try oil painting. I want to take a class on it, but it's an expensive hobby so I always end up talking myself out of it.
12. My husband and I met while working on a theater show. (He's a real actor, I just like to pretend I am.)
13. I love to do karaoke.
14. I read GONE WITH THE WIND in 8th grade. I loved the book (and movie) so much, when I got to college I took a history class on the Civil War just because of GWTW.
15. I wish I'd stuck with piano lessons when I was a kid, because it would be really cool to play the piano. I can read music (at a basic level), and can play "Mary had a little lamb" and "Do a Deer" with one hand. But that's it.

Whew! I made it! :P

Hello Spring 2010!

I spent today working on getting all the students scheduled into their new classes for the spring semester (which starts the day after tomorrow). I had to wrestle a little with Blumen, the computer program we use to keep track of students and classes and all that fun stuff, but I managed to hold my own in the end.

I'm excited about this semester! Last semester I had lots of ideas I wanted to try out, but I was just getting to know the students and getting to know the system, how all this works, so my grand ideas didn't get too far off the ground... kind of like the blogging thing. But this semester? We've got it together :P This semester we'll be rocking the blogging, and I promise to read and leave comment love on y'all's blogs. (Feel free to do the same here! :P )

Are any of you on Twitter? If you are, follow me! @Ms4shay I tweet links to things I think you'll find interesting, and I also share MVC Upward Bound info.

If you have not signed up for our TextMarks updates, make sure you do so! Check the box on the sidebar for more info.

Why blog?

Here's a quick video (click the link) to give you a very quick introduction to what a blog is, and why you want to have one. The first video is meant for a younger audience, but it still has good info for you to know. The video below is more at your age level:

If you would like some help creating your own blog, this link has instructions with screenshots (for you visual learners). Scroll down to "How to start your blog at Blogspot?"

If you need another reason to start blogging and becoming more computer-literate, here's another video. Some food for thought for your generation...