Now Hiring!

Gibbs Smith Education is currently seeking a full-time associate curriculum developer to join its team. Skills necessary for position: an education degree; teaching experience (preferably elementary); ability to write clearly and succinctly; ability to communicate clearly and must have the ability to manage time effectively and to meet deadlines; must be able to quickly learn to use different technologies such as a MAC operating systems, Adobe InDesign and XML coding.

Email résumé to: hr@gibbs-smith.com

If you know of anyone who might be interested, encourage them to send in a résumé. This is a great job! Also, if you know someone who is interested but does not have a degree in education and experience teaching, encourage them NOT to send their résumé in! Thank you in advance.

Popular Phrases that MUST go . . . I'm just sayin'

Pardon me while I channel my op-ed columnist alter ego. For some reason, she likes to come out late at night.

Social media is a beautiful thing. It's so funny to me that it's even a "thing." As recent as five years back the term wasn't even part of our household vocabulary. But, here we are today, surrounded by social media on all fronts. Thanks to the folks and Facebook and Twitter, I can now easily know where you are right now, where you were a few hours ago, see a photo of what you're wearing (edited to your liking before posting), and what social events you will be attending that I may or may not have been invited to. I can't help but think, where was all of this when I was in the dating game? There would have been no need for "drive bys" to see if my man was sitting at home thinking of me or not. But that would have taken away the fun of driving around town to find his car if it wasn't at home and then covering it with oreos.

Now I can see a picture of my friends' fetuses (or feti, if you prefer) before they have time to pick up the phone and let me know they're pregnant! I can post all of my parents' and siblings' embarrassing junior high photos, and they can do the same for me, if they can find the ash remains of mine. I can even sit back and enjoy the on-again, off-again relationships of my now junior high-aged former students. It would seem that life could not get better, at least not for stalkers and companies who try to steal your personal information. And, that may be the truth. But there are some downsides to this social media frenzy that we live in. I would like to address the most severe of all the downsides . . . the overuse of popular phrases.

Now, before you go thinking that I'm a holier-than-though writer, I will be the first to admit that I have used most, if not all of the following phrases that must meet the backspace button. And it seemed like the right thing to do at the time, as I'm sure it has for all people who have used these phrases. But catchy phrases that used to last for decades, such as "Your mom," and "Psych," are now wearing out their welcomes in a matter of months. You'll see what I mean:

1. Using the term "baby" after any statement of declaration. Example: "I'm going to Vegas, baby!" However, in most cases where this phrase is used, there is not the comma before the phrase. So it reads something wonderful like this: "I'm going to Vegas baby!" I cannot tell you how many times I have wondered what a "Vegas baby" is. Are people going there to adopt a baby? To make a baby? Maybe I don't want to know. But I do think people ought to keep their baby business to themselves!

2. Using the phrase "yes, please" after asking yourself a question involving something you will be doing shortly. Example: "Date night with my husband to the movies? Yes, please!" Do you really need our approval to go on the date? Because I kind of have the feeling that you're going on the date regardless of whether or not I tell you to. Or, are you so unsure that you'd want to spend an entire evening with your husband, that you have to "verbally" ask yourself on Facebook and see a visual confirmation? If I didn't know better, I'd think there were lots of couples with some serious communication issues.

3. Including the phrase "I'm just sayin'" after sharing an opinion or seemingly random thought. Example: "The kids these days sure don't wear much in the way of clothing. I'm just sayin'" You see, we already know that you're "just saying" because you "just said" it before the phrase. It's a lot like the lesson we learned from Micheal Scott on The Office. Micheal rallied the troops together to tell them that "There's been a murder in Savannah. I do declare." His kind office mates took the time to explain to him, and the many viewers, that you don't need to follow a statement of declaration with "I do declare;" it's redundant. I fear that Micheal failed to heed the message, as well as many of my social media friends. I'm just sayin'

So, let's take this process one step at a time—together. I like to think that we're all working hand in hand, or mouse in mouse, to end the overuse (or any use) of the given phrases. And then, when I think you're ready for the next phase, we'll work together to prevent future overuse and possible death of other popular social media phrases.

I'm not dead . . . yet

I may have used this blog title previously, but it's still so fitting.

Life has been so busy lately, and there had just been so little time for blogging. For shame, I know. But here is a short recap of all the important things that have happened in the world since I last consistently blogged.

Obama killed Osama. It could be the other way around, I can never tell for sure. I mean, their names are only one letter apart. So you choose the outcome that you would most like to have happened.

It turns out that if your surname is the same as a reproductive body part, you are predisposed to do nasty and inappropriate things. And it's okay to lie about them. Until you get caught, of course.

Studies show that if a politician is rumored to be a womanizer, chances are they will have the capability to deny the rumors for 13 years. At which point, your out-of-wedlock spawn will begin to look just like you and no one can really pretend that you're not a womanizer. Because, duh, if a guy has muscles like you do, shouldn't the whole world see you with your shirt off whenever possible. Oh wait, I just confused Schwarzenegger with Matthew McConaughey.

And, last but most certainly not least, Sarah Palin is the source for all things U.S. history. Not only does this gal look smokin' in her daisy dukes, but she has proven to us, time and time again, that she does know a thing or two about history (even if she has to make it up as she goes) . . . as seen HERE. "It's just like we all learned in grade school: One if by land, bells if by two, hey British are warned, sailed the ocean blue."You go, Sarah! Proof that you don't have to know anything to be whatever position you want to be in the government.