Warming the cold

Sometimes, life is good.



That is all.

Biting toenails...frowned upon??

More layoffs over here at Actel Microsemi.
In preparation for the worst, I told my sister I might be looking for employment elsewhere.
She teaches at a high school for special education students and pioneered a program to get students out into the community, get a job, and learn other life skills.



She had some pointers:

I wanted to let you know that I do mock
interviews with my students monthly, as I am the one who hires them
for their outside jobs.
Here are a few tips that we work on:

• Strong hand shake (please make sure your hands are clean)
• DO NOT pick your nose, ears, or any scabs during the interview.
• Please do not wear black slacks with white running shoes and white socks.
• Make sure your clothes are not on inside out and/or backwards.
• Brush your teeth.
• Do not bite your nails, leave your shoes on, and under no circumstance begin biting your toenails.
• Extra activities and or interests should not merely be "eating"
• When the question is asked, "Where do you see yourself in the future?" An appropriate answer is NOT a "Professional Wrestler" (while looking at your bicep and kissing it)

Thankfully I was not laid off, so I have some time to perfect these skills.

St. Brandi

You might remember my solicitation for Pepsi Refresh votes for my sister's school.
Well, she won the grant.
I had a chance to go down to San Diego on Labor Day weekend and see her classroom and some of her students.
If Ms. Bolter was not my sister, I'd still be saying that Sierra Academy and her students are very lucky to have her as a teacher.

This aired in San Diego:


Thanks to everyone that voted.

Ms. Bolter

My sister teaches at a school for kids with disabilities and special needs down in San Diego.
She has put together a proposal to obtain a grant from Pepsi, awarded to good ideas.
In short, she has pioneered a program that teaches kids life skills. Working with the community, she gets part time jobs for her students, opens checking accounts and teaches them how to budget expenses, teaches them how to cook, as well as other general tasks to transition them from school to their community, working math and writing lessons into these activities.
In the month of May, I watched her idea's ranking jump from 273rd to as high as 43rd.
Please, please, please vote for this idea here:
http://www.refresheverything.com/sierralifeskills

Ms. Bolter wanted to be a teacher since she was in grade school. These kids are so very lucky that she did. They love her and the program so much and it's awesome hearing stories about her students. It's a great cause and voting is very simple, all you need is an e-mail address (but nothing will be sent to this address and it is not shared) or you can log in with a facebook account.