Keep in mind I’m in LAUSD, so my posts may be more relevant to teachers in LAUSD.

Q: Can I download a YouTube video to my computer to show in class later?
(Some background info on this question: All LAUSD schools block access on their networks to YouTube (and other sites). Even if you don’t have this problem, you may want to save a YouTube video in case you don’t want to rely on having internet connection during your lesson.)

A: Yes. There are several methods to save a YouTube video onto your hard drive, but this one is probably the most convenient and straightforward: http://www.zamzar.com (works for PC and Mac). Click the “Download Videos” tab. Enter the video URL, and the format of the video you’d like to download (try “.avi” if you’re not sure). Type in your e-mail address and hit the “Convert” button. You’ll be e-mailed a link, which you click to save the converted video file. The site has conversion tools for various other types of files. There are other sites that do the same or similar things.

Q: Can I “make” a PDF file?
A: Yes. Macs have this feature built in. If you try to print a file, there might be a “PDF” button somewhere. I don’t have access to a Mac right now so I’m not sure. For the PC, you can download and install free software: http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp. You’ll need to download/install both links on the left side of that page. Once you do that, you’ll be able to create a PDF file out of anything you would otherwise print to a printer. For example, if you’re in MS Word, you go to File => Print, and instead of selecting your usual printer, select “CutePDF Writer” (screenshot below). When you hit the “Print” button, you’ll get to choose the file name and location to where you’d like to save the PDF file.

With new adventures come new experiences, which means I learn more. And, since this site is about things I learn, that means more content! Woohoo! However, comics are still on hold because of laziness. :oP :o) Sorry!

I’m trying to find a job teaching either physics or computers at one of LAUSD’s high schools or middle schools. My first step is to find schools I’m interested in teaching at, then distribute my resumes to them. If you’re also doing the jobhunt thing, you may find some of the tips below helpful, even though you’re not applying for a teaching job in LAUSD.

This guide is geared toward beginner and intermediate computer users, but like my other guides, I try to include at least something for everyone. My goal now is to efficiently fax a personalized cover letter and resume to each school I’m interested in teaching at. Your goal may be different (“Huh? Fax?”), but again, you may still find some of my steps common with yours. Breaking it down, here’s an overview of the steps we’ll go through:

1. Create a list/database of places we’re applying to
2. Write a cover letter template
3. Merge the template with our database
4. Convert our documents to PDFs
5. Fax our cover letters and resumes

“Merge” is in bold because this is one of the key shortcuts we’ll be taking. To be honest, for this case I’m not sure you’ll save that much time going through all this, but the important thing is you’ll be learning new skills that may help you in the future. Let’s start.

The problem

Okay, just kidding about starting. First, let’s look at the problem. Assuming we’re sending a standard cover letter that includes the recipient’s name, title, school, address, and greeting line, we’ll be typing the same information into each cover letter we want to send. Then, we’ll have to print out each letter, sign them, find a fax machine, and sit by the fax machine punching in fax numbers and waiting for the letters to go through. If this is a fax machine we’re paying to use, we’re probably paying a lot.

So what do we do instead?

Create a list/database of places we’re applying to

You may think of this as a table or spreadsheet, but I’ll refer to it as a database. Basically we want a central resource with contact information of all the places we’re applying to. This needs to include the information we’ll be putting on each cover letter. I recommend using Excel, and create separate columns for school name, principal’s first name, principal’s last name, school street address, zip code, and fax number. Other options are to add each school as a contact in Outlook or to create a real database using Microsoft Access (advanced, possibly overkill).

Write a cover letter template

Using Microsoft Word, we’ll write our cover letter as we normally would. We can personalize the body of the letter according to the recipient later.

Merge the template with your database

Here’s the magic many people don’t know about. If you already know, good for you. Microsoft Word has a “mail merge” feature, where you can take entries from a database and plug the info into a template. For example, you can automatically create addressed envelopes by pointing Word to an Excel spreadsheet containing that information. No need to copy/paste fifty times for fifty recipients. I’m not going to teach you how to use the mail merge feature, but you can learn on your own with using Microsoft’s online mail merge tutorial.

Convert your documents to PDFs

Microsoft Word documents don’t appear consistently across everyone’s computers. However, PDFs do (more or less). To avoid unpredictable faxing results later (such as what was a one-page document on your computer end up as two pages over fax), we convert our Word documents (.doc) to PDFs. Even if we don’t fax our cover letter and resume, attaching the resume to an email as a PDF beats attaching it as a DOC (or goodness, the new DOCX).

“Um… cool… but… how do I do that?” You can “print” almost any document to PDF using the free, simple software, CutePDF Writer. Be sure to click “Free Download” and “Free Converter” on the left. You’ll need to install both.

Fax your cover letters and resumes

Unfortunately, this part costs money. If you have free access to a fax machine, then yay. Otherwise, another choice would be to go somewhere that charges you to fax things per page. The cost is often high, which is definitely what you don’t want, especially when you’re trying to blanket an entire district with your resume. :oP :o)

Instead, I went with TrustFax, which allows you to upload a document, type in the fax number, and the document gets sent as a fax. I’m not pushing this service in particular, but I’m just saying it’s one of the better services I found, and it worked for me. If you have better suggestions, please leave a comment!

There are different plans, but I went with the $9.95/month plan, that allows you to send 125 pages a month. If for each school you sent a fax cover page, a cover letter, and a resume, that’s three pages, so 41 schools. :oP :o) I would consider it just $9.95 flat since you’re only sending out your resume once, and most likely would not need this as a monthly service. Yes, it’s like $10, but compare that to your other options and if you think $10 is not worth it, then don’t do it.

“Wait wait… if it goes straight from the electronic version to fax, how do I get my signature on there?” It’s probably not a huge deal you don’t sign the thing, but if you want, you’ll have to do a bit of handiwork. I signed a blank paper, scanned it to a JPG, then inserted it into the Word document as part of the cover letter template. If you don’t know how to do all that, ask someone who does. :oP Don’t worry too much about the signature’s image quality, since sending the document through fax will degrade the quality of the whole thing anyway.

Why not email?

I initially considered going all electronic, and that might work with most other jobs. However, not all the schools provided email addresses, whereas LAUSD’s directory shows the fax numbers for all schools. I also figured the schools weren’t very on top of technology and still somewhat rely on faxes. Another option is to fax your documents and if you can find an email address, send them an email with your resume attached as a PDF.

Hey, that didn’t save me time

You might have noticed that even though you didn’t have to type the schools’ information into each cover letter, you still had to type it into the database, so how did the mail merge save you time? In that respect, it probably didn’t. However, I personally prefer having the schools’ contact info in one place anyway, so I don’t consider the time creating the database as time wasted. In addition, you can add more columns to your database to track other things, such as the date you faxed your resume, when/if you heard back from the school, possible interview dates, etc.

Again, if you didn’t know about the mail merge feature before, I felt this was a good time to learn and apply it since most likely it will come in handy in the future.

This isn’t necessarily the “best” way to get your resume out to schools, but it’s the way I chose to do it and I hope you found certain parts helpful. I’m also intentionally dealing with just resume distribution, as I know there’s much more one can do to get a teaching job in LAUSD, such as getting your foot in the door with substitute teaching jobs, or attending LAUSD’s job placement fairs. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.

Still don’t know what I’m talking about? Ugh, fine. Okay you know when you need to go #2 and you’re at a public restroom and you poo and there’s some splashback of the toilet water that sometimes touches your butt? Ech… yeah.

I don’t understand… with all our modern science, you think there’d be a solution by now. Isn’t splashback some sort of health hazard? Think about it. The person who uses the toilet before you does their business. They flush… but how clean is that newly refilled water? I bet it’s not very clean. For heaven’s sake, sometimes you still see bits on the bottom… and I wouldn’t be surprised if some toilets miss entire logs here and there on the first try. Thus, I imagine there’s some pretty nasty bacteria in that water… and then to have that stuff splash back and hit us in the heiny. However, I’m no health expert/scientist, so I can’t say much about that stuff for certain.

At the very least, splashback feels icky. I think we can agree on that.

So… how do we minimize it?

The most simple and effective solution I know of: Place a toilet seat protector sheet in the bowl before you do your business.

You know those seat protector sheets dispensed in most public bathroom stalls? “First pull up, then pull down”? Grab one and toss it in the bowl. Try experimenting to see what’s more effective… folded, slightly crumpled, etc. The point is you want to change the behavior of the usual water surface by having the paper disrupt the typical splash patterns. The paper will “catch” the first few logs, if you will.

What about using toilet paper to cushion the fall instead? I’ve found the seat protectors work sufficiently compared to the layers and effort required with TP for similar results. This may be due to their shape being a broad sheet, plus their waxiness increasing their ability to hold together in their bowl.

This method may not eliminate all splashback, but I’d say about 90%. For something so simple, you get great results. That will have to do until science finds a solution for this problem that touches us on a personal level (literally).

What are your thoughts on splashback? If you have any other methods, please share them in the comments!

(Apparently someone keeps a blog about other poopy stuff.)

Why create strong passwords?

Pretend I’m a criminal (pretend)… I cracked your password. Now I can…

• Change your password.
• Access shared sensitive information on a network. If your account is part of a group, their data has also been compromised.
• Conduct illegal activity using that account. Don’t take it personally. I just prefer not to conduct illegal activity on my own account.
• Possibly access login information for your other, more important, accounts. I can view registration e-mails or have password reminders sent to that e-mail account if you used it to register for other accounts.

What can I do to increase my safety?

• Change your password periodically
  Viruses and spyware may find or intercept your login information. You can’t always tell if your login information has been compromised, so change your passwords every few months.
• Use different passwords for different sites
  If a password on one account is compromised, your other accounts won’t be automatically compromised.
• You can write down hints
  Write a sufficient hint, not the password. Keep them somewhere safe, like your wallet or a safe. A Post-It note on your monitor may seem like a fortress of security, but research indicates it’s deceptively easy to access. (Or use a password manager. Details at the bottom of this post.)

What’s a strong password?

Your password may not be as strong as you think. Widely available “brute force” password cracking tools make rapid attempts at guessing your password, often from “dictionaries” of default passwords, common passwords, English words and phrases, and literally every combination of characters depending on how patient the intruder is.

To increase your password strength…

1. Increase the length. Shoot for at least 8 characters.
2. Increase the variety of characters by mixing letters, numbers and symbols.
3. Increase the apparent randomness. Do not use words, names, or anything directly associated with you or the username (birthday, address).
4. Make it something you’ll remember. Passwords are intended to keep others from accessing your resources.

This information and the work involved in changing the way you handle your passwords may seem overwhelming. It may not be necessary to take all these measures, but please give the issue some thought and be aware the easiest targets are the complacent ones.

If this all seems like too much work, consider a popular option: Use a password manager. This is software that keeps track of your passwords, so you only need one password to access everything. Click here to see popular password managers for Windows and Mac.