I had my gallbladder removed three years ago today. Yuck! I've been cold ever since! This morning, I updated some of the pictures on the About Jo page. I figured that About Jo deserved a face lift since the Home page image and side bars received one last week. (By the way, if you can't see the new images, delete your temporary internet files and refresh your browser. They should be there then!) Spring Break is in only one week, but I have some even more exciting news to report! However, you're going to have to wait a few more days to hear about it...

Happy Belated Birthday, Mac! I spent some time updating the Home page image today with 13 new pictures, and updating the sidebar image (that you see to the left), with 15 new images. Now my pictures are more up to date! Can you guess which ones are new? Email me, and I'll tell you if you're right!

I've had some exciting days in the last few weeks! The Little Theatre Good Vibrations singers and band performed ten shows in 13 days! Three of those shows were dress rehearsals, but each had an audience. The seven performances were sold out. I have literally hundreds of great pictures to share. I plan to create a slideshow this week of the best ones. Some of the pictures that will be included in the slideshow are to the right. Also, I’ve been invited to sing the National Anthem at two Indianapolis Indians games: one on June 1 (my birthday), and one on July 19! Exciting! Finally, I have added a funny link to the Fun Stuff page: Monk-e-Mail. It’s difficult to describe, so just go have a look!

Happy March! I haven't posted in awhile because I've been so busy with Good Vibrations, playing at Little Theatre of Bedford. I have tons of funny pictures from the show, but I want to post them all at once in a slideshow. Assembling the slideshow will likely take some time. In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Lisa's pineapple. My friend Lisa (also in the show), is turning 41 today. I bought her a pineapple in honor of our excellent beach dancing during the Beach Boys Medley. I decorated the pineapple with some tropical trail mix to top it off. The pineapple is frightened because he's viewing his own fate.

It's here! My students have crunched numbers, made graphs, and learned a lot with their survey project. The survey had 29 questions created by my BMS Math students, with each question being attributed to a group of 2-5 students. Each group made five graphs to represent its question: a graph representing all respondents, one for male respondents, a graph for female respondents, one for those 18 and under, and one for those 19 and over. Additionally, they wrote statements about the things they learned during the project. Visit the survey results site to see all this and more! I added it as a permanent link on my "See The Sites" page. It's really worth visiting my students' survey results site to view all their hard work!

I've added a couple of things to the Fun Stuff page this week. First, my friend Josh Russell has started Limestone Advertising. It's a Pixel Advertising deal. You should check out his site. It got me thinking about pixel art again, and I think I might look into this as a CCFA fundraiser idea. (To
the right you can see some Care Bear pixel art.) Also, I've added Escapa! to the Fun Stuff page. It is most addictive!
My best time is 21.141 seconds, which remains unbeaten by Ed. Ha! Look here on Friday for the unveiling of my students' survey results site!

A diploma! A diploma! I have a diploma! Olivet Nazarene University sent my diploma this week, so I am officially a "Master of Education!" Last week, I received my first check with my Masters increase. It feels great to be done with this degree! I also had a great week at BMS. My students spent all week crunching their survey data and making graphs to represent that data. Overall, the students had a great time and said they learned a lot. I had fun, too! The survey results site will be up and running on February 24; but for now, I have 145 graphs to grade!

Happy February! My students' survey ended today, and they received 2,032 responses! WOW! It's not the 5,000 we had hoped for, but you won't hear me complain. I think over 2,000 is awesome! Check back at www.survey2006.jokai.net at the end of the month to view the students survey results. Last week was Spirit Week at BMS, and it wore me out. Check out Mac's red-faced spirit at the right.

I certainly awoke to a pleasant surprise this morning! The front page of today's Times-Mail has an article about my American Idol audition! Written by Jason Mullis, it talks about how I had fun even though I got cut. Go read it! In other news, my students' survey has over 1,700 responses! Wow! The response rate is slowing a bit, but we could not be happier with our results. The survey will close on Feb. 5 at 12:01 P.M., the students will make their presentations on Feb. 10, and then we should have the results posted online at www.survey2006.jokai.net within two weeks of that date. It's been an exciting week! I wonder what next week will bring?

Yesterday morning, I received an email Weather Alert from AccuWeather stating that it was going to be a "windy day." That seemed like a strange weather alert; but boy was it on the money! At 4:35 P.M., a gust of wind nearly shook the house off its foundation and managed to blow down the antenna. It was a loud crash; you can see the damage at the right. (Click the thumbnails for larger images.) It crushed parts of the fence, deck, gazebo, and bench. A satellite dish, a clock, and some wind chimes were also heavily deformed. Thank goodness precious Abbi was nowhere near the scene of the crime! I'm not surprised the antenna fell. You can see from the pictures that it was pretty nasty old. In survey news, my students have nearly 1,300 responses. Thanks again to all who are taking the survey and/or posting the link. BMS 6 North thinks you're all awesome!

OH MY GOSH! My students have almost 600 responses to their survey! Is that awesome, or what? I'm so proud of them and their survey questions. I can't wait until they start graphing the results in two weeks! I'll post their efforts on the survey site when they're done. Thanks to everyone who has taken the survey and emailed and/or posted the survey link. We BMS 6-Northerners appreciate it! I'm home today because I had my last Remicade infusion EVER this morning. Hooray! By the way, I keep forgetting to post the sad news: the 2006 Jumping Blue Beans event has been canceled due to "risks outweighing the benefits." Too bad! However, I'll still be going to the East Coast for my birthday! Yeah!

The Incredible BMS 6th Grade Survey is here! Participate in my students' project by clicking here, taking the survey, then sending the web address (www.survey2006.jokai.net) to your friends and family! The students will be using data from the survey, which closes on Sunday, February 5, 2006, at 12:01 P.M. EST, to make different kinds of graphs. Help them reach their goal of 5,000 responses by taking the survey today! The link has also been added to the Fun Stuff page and to the Home page image.

First and foremost: This may seem silly, but I am on the hunt for a tape of Wednesday night's (January 18's) episode of Lost. My Tivo didn't tape it because of a priority error I didn't notice. Dad and I have a slightly unhealthy addiction to this show; so if anyone could provide us with this tape (or knows someone who can), email me! We would be most grateful. Next, thanks to those of you who have emailed regarding American Idol. Although it's difficult to see some of the whackos who made it farther than me, I understand that it's about entertainment. We'll get 'em next season!

Happy MLK Day! Believe it or not, I had to work! I think we are the only county in the area that attends school on MLK Day; it's not even a snow day! I could've used the time off, too, because I've been a little under the weather in the sinuses. I received a funny email today, so I made a page from it. It's called "Quick Quiz." Visit it under the "Inside JoKai.net" links on the Fun Stuff page! Be watching this site this weekend for details on my upcoming classroom project, "Sixth Grade Survey," in which YOU can be a participant!

School is back in swing, rehearsals for Little Theatre's Good Vibrations are moving along, and I have selected a jumping location for my 2006 Jumping Blue Beans event... the Ocean City Skydiving Center in Berlin, Maryland, on June 3! We're going to make it a fun birthday weekend! I'll be launching my donation site sometime between now and Spring Break (the last week of March). Be watching JoKai.net for details about how you can donate if you wish. By the way, CCFA has a great new teen site, UC and Crohn's. Visit it today! You don't need to be a teenager to enjoy the site. I added the link to the Fun Stuff page as well!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has had a great start to 2006. School starts tomorrow. Although I'm not quite ready to give up carefree Christmas Break days, I am ready to start the second semester. Sooner we start, sooner we finish! Speaking of starts, I attended my first rehearsal for Little Theatre Of Bedford's winter musical Good Vibrations to be performed in March. It's going to be fun!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Unfortunately, I did not make it to Florida's east coast this week. I canceled my flight on Christmas Day because I was having what I thought were Crohn's difficulties. It turned out to be a violent flu. Mom, Dad, a cousin, an uncle, my grandmother, and I all got sick at the same time. So instead of sitting on the beach in warm, sunny Florida, I've been sitting in my bed in cool/cold, thunderstorm-ridden/snowy (depending on the day), Indiana. It's not all bad, though; it's been good to have some down time. In web site news, I added nine new pictures to the Christmas 2005 Slideshow. Click on one of the pictures at the right if you'd like to see the expanded slideshow. Also, my Dad sent me this crazy Treasure Box web site. I completed it, but I don't really get it. I understand that "the treasure" is one's own curiosity, but is that all there is to it? I added the Treasure Box site to the Fun Stuff page. Someone let me know if you finish it and get what it's all about. Happy New Year in three days!

It's been quite a wonderful Christmas season! I had some great holiday fun last weekend. Because we'll all be in Florida on Christmas Day, the Hackney family had Christmas on the 17th. We exchanged fun gifts, played silly games, and enjoyed spending time together. The next day, Community Baptist Fellowship officially opened the doors of its new home! The Christmas Cantata, in which I was privileged to participate, was moving and spirited. For a slideshow of pictures from these two events, click here or on one of the pictures to the right. (It's also available on the Fun Stuff page!) The last three days of school were busy. I gave my semester final on Monday. On Tuesday, 6 North went caroling at the Hauck House and the library, then we had a two hour dirty Santa book exchange. Those kids are a riot! Wednesday included movies and a "social mixer." Ed and I went shopping yesterday. Next in the Christmas line-up are multiple gift exchanges, the Christmas Eve service at CBF, and FLORIDA! In web site news, I've changed the countdown clock on the Fun Stuff page to reflect the number of days until the last day of school, and I archived the Fall 2005 What's Up? files. Happy Winter!