A letter from...

... my daughter's teacher. She is only in grade 2, and if you have kids, you know how influential and important that role model can be! We have had the most wonderful teachers these 3 years, this last one really going above and beyond. He is creative and involved, and I feel like he does his job with passion because he loves it!

I visited him today on the picket line, brought them coffee, Timbits, buns. They all looked so sad and defeated - they are NOT enjoying this at all! Then just now I opened my email to find this letter to the parents from this teacher:

"Dear parents:

I just got home from my shift at the picket line and I thought I should update you on what is happening. (If you're in a hurry skip the legal rant stuff, and jump to the last paragraph!)

As you are probably aware, teachers will be voting on Monday and Tuesday on whether to escalate the current 1-day-a-week rotating strike to a full-scale strike across the entire Province. This is not a decision any of us will take lightly. The impact this whole mess is having on the kids and parents is sadly very present in our minds. It also greatly impacts non-teaching staff who are not crossing our picket lines in solidarity. Of course it also affects teachers, emotionally and financially.

There is frustration, anger and sadness at a time when we should all be celebrating the past year. In our school alone, teachers have had to cancel trips,concerts and sports events that they had spent countless hours planning, rehearsing and training for. 

You may remember the BC Supreme Court's scathing ruling earlier this year that ruled that the  

Government had illegally removed class size and composition from the teacher's contract in 2002 and 

repeatedly bargained in bad faith to try and push teachers into a full-strike, which never materialized. The Court effectively ordered that the pre-2002 situation be restored; it also ordered the Government to pay $2 Million to the Teachers' Union in legal fees for the 10 year battle. 

Of course, hiring thousands of teachers and reopening the hundreds of schools closed illegally over 10 years has a huge cost, and the Government decided to appeal the ruling for the second time, this time to the Supreme Court of Canada. The hearing is scheduled to start in October and will very likely take months.

You can read about the Supreme Court decision here or read the actual ruling.

Since February we have been expected to bargain with a Government that has been exposed by the Supreme Court as manipulative and deceitful. They are fully aware that at the heart of teachers' preoccupations is the restoration of class size and composition into teachers' contract. Yet, since 

appealing the ruling in February, they have not made a single offer to restore class size and 

composition. The Government is desperate for teachers to sign a deal before June, before the appeal 

goes before the Supreme Court in the Fall. This time their tactic is to lock out teachers during lunch and recess, and forbid us to be at school more than 45 minutes before/after school. This is an unprecedented move to put financial pressure on teachers and push them to agree to a deal before the summer. But I can assure you that as long the offers will not include class size and composition and specialist teachers, we will not sign it.

If you are not sure how class and composition affect your child, I encourage you to visit http://afairdeal.ca/. The teachers' demands are quite clear, although the Government always seems to focus the attention on teachers' wages. 

You will likely hear about the vote results next Tuesday. Our school will be on strike on Wednesday. A very realistic scenario would have teachers going on strike again from the Monday June 16 to the end of the year. This means I may only have 4 days with the class... I was going through all our  

photos together last night, and I cannot say how much this "rushed goodbye" saddens me. I deeply regret that your child and family had to experience this. Believe me it is not what any of us would 

choose to do.

I want to thank all of you for your incredible support in the last few weeks. I sincerely hope to have time to see all of you together before the end of the year, and I would really hate to have to email you my heartfelt gratitude for your incredible support and kindness this year.

On a more positive note: I have been collecting our class photos and videos. If you would like a copy please give G a flashdrive (there's about 4-5GB of stuff) this week.

Live every week like it's our last."

I just want to say that I support the teachers and will help them in any way I can. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. This teacher is amazing and it would be an awful shame if my daughter didn't get to say goodbye to him (she gets home after the full strike would start).

:(

Summer Doldrums

Is it just me or are things slow around here??

It's been so frantic all winter - JRFM and Peak had me listening at 7, 11, 2, 5, and 7 for what seemed like an eternity, and Jack had me tuning in at 10:10, 11:10, and 2:10 for months! The Beat also roped me in for 7:10, 11:10, and 3:10 (which was a superior pain in the ass when I had to pick my daughter up at 3!) And Zed Effect had me at 8, 12, and 5! GAH!

I was so strapped to my radios that I couldn't seem to get anything else done. Now that things have slowed down to a mere drizzle, I'm exhausted. Burnt out. So thankful for this breather... and chomping at the bit for a new wave of contests!!!

My kids are happy, I actually have time to sit and snuggle with them in the morning, and don't have to rush home every few hours so I can have 3 radios going at once. But I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do with myself! I've changed my furniture, hung the screen door, mowed the lawn. I've baked muffins, washed my cupboards, cleaned out the basement. The sheets are changed, the desk is cleared off, and old clothes have been donated. All that's left is to groom the dogs... and play with my kids, of course!

Hubby and daughter are on their pilgrimage to Germany, they left yesterday for 2 weeks of visiting the Old Country (hubby hasn't been there since he was 11, and then only once!) My little guy and I are just hanging out and he is so much less demanding than the others, I'm really enjoying this quiet. But it's only been one day, 17 hours in fact. I have a feeling we will be missing them soon...

In the meantime, let's hope that one of these wonderful stations steps up with something fun to carry us through the summer! Give me a reason to listen. Please!! I change stations according to my mood, but a contest will often sway my mood. LOL!

If you hear of anything, let me know. I probably only need to put out one schedule per week (Monday) since nothing needs updating daily. Also I will now have time to do up an Online Entry Contests post probably today, possibly tonight. This might be a good time to drum up some of our OWN contests... I'll see what I can put together...

:D

Number crunching...

...today I got to thinking: what are the odds that I could win one of those online contests that I blog about?

The answer: slim to none

Here's why:

Too many others want to win too! Though the radio stations have no shortage of contests and prizes to be won, they have a finite number of giveaways.

Let's take News 1130 as an example of a station with only a few giveaways. How many people have an account and use their points to enter the draws? 500? 5000? 25,000? They have 67,000 Twitter followers, and over 7500 FB likes, so as a conservative estimate let's say that 10,000 people enter the online raffles. With maybe 5 prizes per week, that's 260 per year. If no one wins twice, that's 260 people per year. So if they wanted to spread the love and make sure each of their account holders won at least one prize, it would take 38 years to come full circle so someone would win again.

Let's look at CFOX: 13,000 Twitter followers and 5800 FB likes. Let's say 4000 people regularly enter their online contests (concert tix, movie passes, etc) and they give away 20 per week, that's 1040 per year. It would take about 4 years to come full circle, during which time new people have signed up.

I didn't include the plethora of call-in prizes because they have no control over who wins those - as long as a person hasn't won in the past 30 days, they can win (up to 12 times per year!) With the raffles, I suspect they have some say in who wins...

I only say this because when I first signed up for News 1130's club, I won concert tickets within the first month. Same when I signed up for CFOX - a MAJOR prize within the first month. And nada ever since from either (in YEARS!) So it would seem that new members are more likely to win these raffles...

Have any of YOU won more than once from the same station's online contest??

Get out!!!

Have you ever heard of a place in Richmond called Exit? The first of its kind in Canada (popular in Asia) it offers 4 theme rooms and you PAY them to let you try to escape. For people who love challenges and games, this is an awesome adventure!

You can choose from the lost ship, prison cell, Egyptian crypt, and laboratory. There is only a 1% success rate (!) with the laboratory being the most challenging. Each session can take up to 6 people, and if you book it with a friend ($45 per couple) you may end up in a room with 4 strangers. This can be awkward and daunting if you are shy or just wanted some quality time with your friend, but the advantage of having more people is that there are now more ways of thinking about the clues.

I had called and asked if I can book an entire room and just put my husband in alone - I thought it would be cool to kidnap him and have him wake up in a room and try to figure a way out. I was looking for a unique 50th birthday adventure. Turns out, you need at least two people to get out of three of the rooms (need four hands??) so they said it might not work. Plus, they don't actually LOCK you in, and you can open the door and walk out anytime. I could see someone having a panic attack as the spaces are quite confined and it gets hot in there...

You are given clues and 45 minutes. If you get super stuck, you can ask the hosts to give you a hint, but only twice! You aren't allowed to bring in any accessories - no pens, paper, cell phones, flashlights, etc. Your belongings and those of your game-mates are locked in your room's assigned locker, and you take the key in with you. I stuffed mine in my bra - ain't nobody gettin' in MY locker! LOL! (Actually, the pockets in the pants I was wearing were super shallow and I didn't want it to fall out if I had to do any crawling around. Which I didn't.)

We decided to do this yesterday on the spur of the moment, as my sister-in-law was in town for hubby's birthday and was taking the kids to Extreme Air Park. (So THAT'S what it's like to have family in town!!! It was so amazing to have a free afternoon!) When I went to book it on line, everything for the next two days was booked, with only one space available in a smattering of rooms. BUT there was ONE room that only had two people booked in it, and that was the Lost Ship (the easiest one, apparently). So we signed up (you only register on line, you pay when you get there), and had an hour to get there. The timing was perfect for us!

The room was surprisingly small. The clues were fairly easy, but there was some confusion with the memory sticks (we found 2 in the room, which you plug into a machine and it plays you a clue). There was already a memory stick plugged in when we walked in, but none of us thought to turn it on and see what it said! So when we found the second one, we played it and got the next clue, but they were numbered 1 and 3, so...if there was a 2, we never found it! LOL!

We ended up not being able to figure out the code for the second door, so we had to ask for a hint with only ten minutes left in our game. The others had wanted to ask for help after 20 minutes because none of our codes would open the door. I dissuaded them because I didn't want our adventure to end when we still had 23 minutes left! When we finally got the hint, we were easily able to open the door, only to find....another room!!! WHAT?!?! WTF?!

If I had known there was another room to escape from, I would've asked for that hint at the 20 minute mark! For SURE! Damn, how disappointing. So now we had less than ten minutes to decipher this room, and when we only had 4 minutes left, we asked for our final hint. That got one lock open for us, but our game ended with still one locked box and an unfound treasure. BLARGH!!!

But with only a 1% success rate I don't feel too bad. It was totally, TOTALLY worth the $50 (total, not each)! We will definitely go back! This is a great team-building exercise, and would be a really fun and creative first date too. The props and special effects were simple but so very cool, and now that I've been there once, I know what to expect next time.

The trouble is that now we know how to get out of that first room - if we are in there with people who have never done it before, I don't want to ruin the experience for them by rushing through to the second room. So I will try to book it on the spur of the moment again, and hope that no walk-ins join us if we do the Lost Ship again.

But I really want to check out the crypt room!!!

Back at it!

Apologies...

I don't know if you've noticed or not, but I have been slacking off in my contesting posts lately. As my husband's 50th birthday neared, the burden of keeping the surprises a secret really weighed me down! I couldn't concentrate on anything else and couldn't wait for the date to pass. Now that the party is over (and he was SUPER surprised!) I can once again put a greater effort into the contests...

First up: the online contests! I will write that up today while my little guy is in preschool. Then I'm going to step it up a notch and do some posts about other, non-radio contests. I am suddenly re-energized and pumped!

So if you see any contests online and you feel like sharing, send me a link and I'll post it. Even if it's not something I would want to win for myself, I always share in case someone else might be interested.

Let's slap on our WINNING smiles and get busy!

:D

Weekend Rap-Up May 12th

Well, I'm up early so let's do this!

Friday night I crashed your party,
Saturday I said I'm sorry,
Sunday came and... Oops! Let's start over.

Saturday was the Sonic Escape party
Had a great time
Didn't win the car but that was alrighty
Maybe next time

The KCS were looking fine
Randi sure is pretty
That Andrew is a looker too,
Charming and a little flirty

Ball Buster Suzie is surprisingly short
She packs a lot of punch in that frame
And Kid of course was handsome as ever
I wonder if that's his real name?

When I was in high school
I called myself Kidd
Two Ds 'cause I was cool
Nicknames is what we did (?!)

Mother's Day was disappointing
Just wanted to be alone
But hubby was busy in the morning
It was noon before he got home!

Then he took kids to Playland
So I spent the day cleaning
Which for me is super relaxing
When kids aren't around screaming!

:D

Can I get a HELL YEAH?!?!

Oooooh, how I love, love, LOVE JRFM!!!

Firstly, let's all give thanks to the promo peeps for laying YSIWPI to rest. Yes, they gave away a ton of money; yes they helped a lot of deserving people; yes, it kept us tuning in; and yes, yes, YES, we got to know many of the listeners better. There were so many NICE things about this contest that I don't want to say anything bad about it.

So I won't.

But what's THIS?!? Another awesome and exciting prize for the Best Call of the Week, that's what! Man, these people really know how to treat their listeners...

But wait! It's not quite as simple as it seems... you still have to wade into shark infested waters. So roll up your pant legs and make sure you don't have any open wounds - they can smell blood, and even more ominously, they can smell fear. Do not call unprepared, as a simple hesitation can get your call cut off. I can just see Karen ROLLING her eyes at the dead air...

So if you do go wading into those waters, you'd best take some shark repellent - a damned good story! Witty comments and interesting stories are welcome, but please, please, PUH-LEEEEEASE don't sing! Making them laugh is a sure bet so a great joke or anecdote (even a lymeric) might do it.

Oh! And here's what you win: a trip to Nashville for the CMAs, plus a meet and greet with Rascal Flats! Rascal frigging Flats!!! Eeeeeeeee!!! Their song "Broken Road" was our wedding song 8 years ago and still brings a tear to my eye... *sigh*

I look forward to hearing the winner squeal with delight on Friday!

:D