New Teachers' and Student Teachers' Conference 2009

I had to be up early for the 7 AM start of the setup for the BCTF's New Teachers' and Student Teachers' Conference 2009 in the Radisson Hotel Vancouver Airport at Cambie & No. 3 Road.

As I was away I assumed the display would be set up, but it wasn't. The handouts weren't put in the folders as I had asked, but piled on the table. It was down a hall past the washrooms, so virtually no one came by. At least the lunch was excellent even though the stink of rotten fish kept wafting down the hall from the nearby restaurant.

I did meet 3 young teachers who wanted to become teacher-librarians so that made me happier.

The computer teachers were next to me and they had a couple of little Acer computers. I haven't been happy with Dell at all. I ordered an Inspiron Mini 9 on January 7th and it still hasn't come. They keep postponing and last night said it was impossible to set a new date after the first 2 delivery dates listed on the web site are long past. They weren't very friendly or helpful. Today I found the same computer on sale at Best Buy for $299 - I was paying $359! And there seemed to be a big stock of them.

I looked at the Acer but the store I was in only had pink or white. This wouldn't do for me so I drove to Queensborough and bought a blue Acer Aspire® One Netbook. It will hold a lot more than the Dell and has a camera and microphone built in. I will fill it (120 GB) with photos and music, but the main use will be geocaching. Instead of printing out piles of descriptive sheets, I can now save them and read while out looking.

My car insurance expired tonight so I had to get to BCAA to renew. I am part of the "BCTF Advantage" plan and will get $25 off my house insurance for having both with policies at the BCAA.

Did some grocery shopping at Oakridge and then home. I cancelled the Dell order with some pleasure.

Really tired tonight. My neck hurt at times but has settled down tonight. I am using a travel neck pillow while sitting and I think it is helping.

This will be a quiet weekend watching the Academy Awards.