The school district I work for is starting an esports team. I’m going to be the head coach for the high school team and I’m feeling overwhelmed. I’m trying to start at the beginning.
I still don’t know what games we will be playing. I figure we will do an initial meeting, them we may need to narrow down who plays what.
I need to do more research, but I don’t even know where to start. I know I need to help them with strategies and how to improve their playing.
Considering how long it’s been since I games, I’m going to have to refresh my skills first.
We start at the end of January, I don’t have much time. There are 2 coaches meetings before it starts though. That will help.
At work, I alternate between the libraries in the high school and the middle school. On Tuesday, one of the 6th grade kids lost his life.
I was at the middle school on Wednesday, and it was rough. They used the library for counseling. On top of it bringing back my memories of Nick’s death, I heard kids trying to deal with losing a classmate and friend. By Wednesday night, I was drained.
Some of the high school kids took the opportunity to act out, and we ended up in a modified lockdown on Friday morning. Parents found out and pulled their kids later in the day.
Next week is the last week before winter break. I’m just wondering how much crazier it’s going to get.
I’m at the middle school Monday (tomorrow) and the funeral is in the morning. I’m not going, I still struggle with funerals, and it’s not my place to be there. I’ll miss the kid’s smile, and his visits to the library, but it’s not about me. This is a memorial for the 12 year old. They don’t need me losing it because my son’s loss is still so strong.
I just finished reading this book by Eric Larson. It is about the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago, and about H. H. Holmes aka Herman Mudgett. One of the most prolific serial killers.
It’s a well written book. It talks about the work that Daniel Burnham put into getting the World’s Fair ready in less than 2 years from planning to completion. It also tells about Mudgett building his ‘World’s Fair Hotel’ by hiring temporary workers so no one realized there were so many odd rooms.
The Ferris wheel was built to outdo Eiffel’s tower, built for the 1889 Paris World’s Fair. Oddly, we find that George Washington Gale Ferris dies broke at 37.
Frank Millet, the painter who worked to get all the buildings painted the same color, died on the Titanic. Burnham was on the Olympic, and tried to reach his friend on the ship to ship telegraph the evening of April 14.
They only knew for sure about 9 of the murders Holmes committed. They suspected many more, but no one ever figured out the real number.
It’s a sobering to know so many young women disappeared during the worlds fair. Who knows what happened to them.
Tomorrow (or later today) will be hard. I know know that now, but I’ve still been shoving my feelings down this week.
Two years ago, on September 1, 2022, I received one of the worst phone calls a parent could get. My bonus son committed suicide.
I hadn’t talked to him about anything major in about a month, and I find myself wondering if I would have seen how he was doing if I had gone with his dad to his house the earlier that week.
I had been delivering newspapers as income while I was looking for a job, so I was tired. I just didn’t feel like going out.
I wish he had turned to us and let us know how he felt. I wish I could go back and let him know that we were there for him. I really wish I had a time machine so I could give him one more hug, make sure he knew his dad and I both love him very much.
There are so many things I’d go back and change.
I’d better try to get some sleep. Lateness and g’nite.
I was talking to someone today and remembered something I forgot long ago.
Before I got married the first time, before I got pregnant with my oldest, I signed up for a college course about the history of the Middle ages. I don’t even remember the name of the class now.
What I do remember is why I took the class.
I had a story in my head that was supposed to occur in the middle ages, and I wanted to make my world building as realistic as I could.
I didn’t realize then that I could simply wing it, and it wouldn’t matter. It’s my world and I can do what I want. If it doesn’t follow real history, so what.
I’ve got stories based on different things that happened in history. It doesn’t have to make sense in a real timeline. I can have the great moon hoax from 1835 in a different story from the beast of Gevaudan from 1764, and the Salem witch trials in 1692. I don’t have to explain why the dates changed or the same characters are alive. If I decide to have a different witch trials from the early 1600s in England, I can do that too.
Who cares if my timeline doesn’t match up, it’s my world and my stories.
I was looking at a post on a Vermont page on Facebook. Someone was asking about a Pride event going on.
The hate on that post shocked me. I guess that’s why I tend to try to avoid looking at anything other than posts from my friends.
One of the people said something about a person’s sexuality not mattering, as long as they keep it in the bedroom.
So does that mean you can’t talk about your significant other unless they are of the opposite gender? I can talk about my husband, but someone else can’t talk about her partner because that partner happens to be another female?
I keep seeing mention of kids transitioning as early as 12, and that the schools are pushing it. I said something to my daughter and she rolled her eyes. It’s not happening.
I know someone who would feel more comfortable as the opposite gender. They won’t transition until after high school.
What does it matter to me how this person feels? Other than that I’m there for them, and since they’re not public on how they feel, I misgender them at school. (Note, gender purposely hidden by they/them pronouns.)
I’m Christian, I get the idea that God doesn’t make mistakes. So what about the ones who are different? The kids who die early, the ones with depression who feel they can’t go another day?
The crusades proved that you can’t force someone to change their beliefs. Why are we fighting them again? Telling you that others have different beliefs and that you can’t force your beliefs on them is not discrimination.
Dunno, maybe I’m just getting set in my ways. No one is forcing me to believe something other than what I believe. I don’t feel discriminated against because someone else is Muslim or Wiccan. It has no bearing on whether I choose to be nice to them.
A friend showed me this today, and I had to laugh. It just fits so much of what you see online.
I’m still struggling with journaling every day. I’m going to keep trying for now. I need to get some of these thoughts out of my head because my emotions feel heavy when I don’t.
It’s been a long week, and I am trying to take it one step at a time. It hit me the other day that I’m only a bit over 2 years from the age my father was when he had his first stroke.
I’ve been trying to stay away from politics lately. Other than some posts in 2020 that I have deactivated, that is.
This is just too — something — to avoid. I knew about this a couple of months ago. I saw a flyer that was passed out, I don’t remember if it was passed out at ComiCon or a pride event or something.
It was talking about wanting to recall one of the Enid city commissioners. He is not in my ward, so I didn’t know much about him until the hubbub started. Now I see in the article that he only won by 36 votes.
I didn’t realize it had become national news until I saw it on MSN this morning.
