It's Friday Again!

 It's Friday again!  Thank goodness I held out through the week!  I used Bonnie's Medieval Magic texture and her Silken Waters texture, which I darkened once I got them in the photo.  I think it worked out well.  This is a photo of some of the equipment being used to clean the soil on an island in one of our local rivers.  The island used to be the home of a wrecking yard, where old cars went to die.  The county and probably some environmental groups put significant pressure on the owner of the wrecking yard, which is now a mile or so away and pissing other people off.  I guess no one wants a wrecking yard as a neighbor.  The men doing the soil cleaning seem to be focusing on taking the steel and iron out of the ground...they are probably looking for petroleum, too.  Still, it seems like a decent photographic opportunity.

This second photo was taken in Guangzhou, China, while we were waiting for Chloe's Visa.  I used one of my own textures on this one.  The texture was taken from a piece of brass that I salvaged from an old Navy shore boiler.

I had a good week.  I am finishing my third week as a long term sub!  By the end of next week, I qualify for the big bucks!  This will be the first time I have reached this point before Christmas!  I am deserving of the extra pay, though.  I have been working longer hours and suffering from the childish tendencies of teenagers.  Particularly, contemporary teens seem to have an over developed sense of what is fair to ask of them.  For instance, They think you should give them the answers.  

We have been covering the ideas, both physical and behavioral, of what it means to be human.  Easy if you've have been in class and devoted even a quarter of your attention to the teacher.  Or the book.  Or the point of the work...but, we wouldn't do that, would we?  I have marched around the classroom trying to lead them to the answers.  Hell, I've even tried just giving them the answers, but do they see?  NO!  So, I am looking forward to seeing how they handle the presentation they'll be giving on Monday.  Hah!  I expect them to fail or get low marks.  Not all, some of them are great students!  Those are the ones I love having in class.  

There are those, though, who seem to just show up.  I called one up and told him he was missing some assignments with the intention of giving him a chance to raise his grade.  I said, "You have an F in here.  You are missing these assignments."   He looked at me and said, "So?"  Then he walked off, leaving me with my mouth open.  Yeah, it's not easy.

Oh, and then there are those who have given me nothing but attitude since I gave them a seating assignment.  There are others who get pissy for other reasons.  One of the other teachers came in the other day to tell me what I needed to do.  She was looking past me and said, "those girls have a phone out."  I had already spoken to them about that, so it was an automatic referral.  But the girls decided to say loudly, "F this and F you" to the teacher...one of the girls got two days off!  Well, that wasn't me making the punishments, but I got the backlash because I am a teacher.  I got told off by some kids who were sympathetic to the girls.  I whipped out the referral forms after I kicked them out of class.  One of those was removed from my class.  He had a filthy mouth, so I certainly don't miss him.  The others have been decidedly less mouthy since then, though.

On my way to work this morning I saw this:

 Look closer:

 See the smoke now?

 Yeah, it was A LOT of smoke.  Turned out it was a bunch of (I'm pretty sure, if my memory serves) creosote fence poles, also known as rail road ties.  I believe there was a bit of a coral next to them, too...well,  WAS.  This is the shot I got of the actual fire.

Yeah, looks hot.  That was the most excitement in my day.  I am looking forward to the weekend.  We get to go see my family and celebrate a BUNCH of birthdays...my newest nephew being the main one, my sister and brother-in-law being less important.  Should be a great weekend!  I hope you have a good one, too!

OH! AND DON'T FORGET TO VISIT BONNIE!!!  At Pixel Dust!