Cool moment today: First day back in school from Christmas Break, and staff had to stay late for professional development.
Why is that cool?
Because after being in the building for the past couple years, I was asked if I’d like to work with another teacher and teach a professional development class on Twitter.
Instructors teacher instructors. Not to mention is was about using Twitter in the classroom. It was really neat, and it made my heart happy that I got to contribute to the world of education in a way that wasn’t directed tied to my students.
It’s that time! My online course is ending and our final project is due tomorrow. I’ve locked myself away from all distractions to punch out a stellar project through today.
Anyone wishing to entertain me while I head through this adventure can do so by pestering me on Twitter!
I suppose it isn’t really fair to use the phrase, “God is confusing”. In many ways He tends to explain His will, desire, and expectations pretty clearly…we also tend to get so caught up in the world around us that it muddles the communication between ourselves and Him.
My previous job completely fried me on all means of social media. As I’m trying to get a few pieces put together for a few groups, I’m noticing that my drive, passion, and enjoyment of the social media world is greatly lacking in enthusiasm. It could be that I’m just recovering after dealing with whatever that was, or could be the fact that I learned that it isn’t always, necessarily my cup of tea.
I don’t know, but I will say this, if you mess with the social media world enough…eventually it’ll mess with you, and sometimes that means results that you may not necessarily desire.
Next, a friend of mine from down in Texas introduced me to a very random, quirky, fun t-shirt company called NumShirt.
The concept is very simple, choose a black t-shirt or a white t-shirt, next choose a number that you like (favorite number, sports number, etc…), and finally choose a font. Once your completed, you check out via their website and after payment you’ll have your own t-shirt with a number on it, that you chose, shipped to your doorstep.
I’m not making this up.
After a fun dialogue with the guys from NumShirt, I agreed to snag a shirt and in turn I’d show a photo on Twitter of myself wearing their gear. However, for the sake of entertainment I’m going to take it a step further.
I know at least 390 different accounts have subscribed to this blog, not to mention over 1,000 Twitter followers, nearly 300 Facebook friends, and a Google+ page that’s accumulated 30,000 views in the past two weeks (see why I love my job). I wanted to share the random shirt with all of you here on FilingThePapers as well. It’s fun, it’s unique, and it seems like something that just fits for the oddities that this site contains.
The t-shirt is 100% cotton, and I will admit after wearing it for an entire summer day in August, it’s a very comfortable, very, very light material. Making it a shirt that is more likely to be worn versus the standard, cheap cotton shirts with screen press art.
Confession: I’m not a fan of the water. Primarily for two reasons:
A. I’m not huge into swimming, it just isn’t my thing. I can swim, but I’d much rather be on dry land. B. I’m pasty, ghostly, inhumanly white. I’m borderline transparent. Meaning, the sun’s rays and my skin have never gotten along. Once, I didn’t even go to work because I couldn’t get a shirt on.
However, it only makes sense that I did wind up marrying someone who loves water, swimming, and the illustrious water park.
Today, I’d like to make the claim that as a husband I did something right. Per usual, along the land of Twitter, there was a contest to translate Verrückt into English. If you’re not familiar with why they’d want to know what Verrückt means, I’ll leave this fun video for you:
This would be the world’s tallest water slide located in our backyard. It’s part of the massive water park named Schlitterbahn in Kansas City, Kansas. Thankfully I was near my computer when I saw the tweet go live:
First to tell us what Verrückt means in English will get two passes to the park.
A few minutes later I was greeted with this tweet:
WINNER!
So, Darco can go to bed tonight knowing that I now have passes to take her to a water park this summer. Believe me, I don’t share these stories just to flaunt mad-tweeting skills, but because it’s fun to have a family. It’s fun to go home and say, “I won some tickets to water park” because I like seeing my wife smiling.
Remember that time when Darco and myself found out that we were chilling at the Holiday Inn and enjoying free admission to the American Royal? It was such a good lesson about retweeting contests that I couldn’t stop. A new contest came up, I would hit retweet, because in that case there were only two retweets for the contest. Sometimes marketing ideas don’t stick the first few times.
That doesn’t mean the consumer doesn’t get the enjoy the lack of interaction.
Two nights ago, around 11:00 PM, I was notified on Twitter that I had won two tickets to the Infected Mushrooms concert.
Last night, after the awkward explanation of who Infected Mushrooms is at Bible study, Darco and I took off for downtown. It was a small, outdoor theater (perfect weather). Wood chips, alcohol, and “smoke” everywhere. I actually felt like I was one of the older people at the concert. The group came on, and even out in the open, the bass was so low I thought I was being moved backwards. It was my first “EDM” (Electronic Dance Music) concert that I had ever been to. Glow sticks galore…
We wound up finding a container of unbroken glow sticks next to our feet, and as you can see by the photos below, it got a little out of hand.
Coolest concert I have ever been to though; just phenomenal. Atmosphere was electric the entire night, and I woke up this morning tired like you wouldn’t believe, but knowing it was worth it all.
Especially when I was able to share the experience with my best friend.
You almost thought you were in Florida.
The lights. The lights never stopped.
I promise. She really did smile during part of the concert, and even moved her hands a few times.
Infected Mushrooms is unique for EDM: They have vocals, strings, and electronic combined.
Check this out:
I’m the only one in the office tomorrow. Everyone else is quite literally out of town. So that’s 10,000 square feet, a lake, and myself for the entire day.
On top of that, Darco and I get to rock out at Bible study again tomorrow evening. Something that we’re both pretty pumped about.
Finally, by doing my favorite thing in the world [retweeting random things] I just nailed two free tickets to the band that is embedded above for tomorrow night in town at 9:00 PM!
Boom! Bam! Thank you ma’am!
That’s a day that hasn’t even started worthy of getting some praise action on!
Signing On The X 