Changes

(Disclaimer: I'll change my mind about all this in a week.)
I have only lived one year of the last eleven in Oklahoma. That was last year when I lived with my parents and went to Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas to get my teaching certificate. I then moved back to Malaysia about 4 months ago.

Over the last few years I've enjoyed going home to see my family and friends. But I never thought it was the place I should be until the last month. It's strange in someways. I have missed so many Thanksgivings but this one I really feel the desire to be home. I'm not homesick per se. I was homesick when I left Malaysia in 2007. It's more like a feeling that it is the right place for me to be. I have desperately missed my active lifestyle from the last year...the 1/2 marathon training, riding across Oklahoma on a bike and other possibilities.

Teaching here has given me more experiences that working in the States would have. In 14 weeks of teaching I have put on a school dance, had my club put on an awareness week which included selling ribbons and performing skits, been emcee for Sports Day and next weekend we will have 200 orphans at the school for Christmas Cheer. The next weekend we will be off for a leadership camp...oh, and I forgot the conference I went to in Thailand. Whew, no wonder I'm tired. I say living overseas crams several years into one and it is doing the same with teaching. Hopefully next term I'll be running a Model U.N. club to boot.

Therefore, I am surprised by these feelings that I should be home, that I want to be home. Lots of good things are here. I keep voicing the fact I want to buy a house here. But, somewhere I wonder if it isn't time to go home, be with my family and put down roots. I really want to spend more time with my family, especially my granny.

I want to do so many thing that I so often find that no matter what I do there is a draw in the opposite direction. I would love to settle down in Bellingham one day but I don't know when and how that will occur.

All this is to say I don't know what the future holds. I love being in Malaysia and will enjoy each moment here to the fullest. I am just musing over what choices I will have to make in July. Happy Thanksgiving.

Shotgun blogging

Well, I haven't blogged in a couple of months so I thought I would sit down and write a few thoughts.

How is school?
School is good. I absolutely love my students. There are a mix of good and bad of course but I often find myself thinking what wonderful kids they are. We have been reading "Rules" in class on Fridays and have an aquarium with a few guppies. I was the organising teacher for our fall dance. I thought it went really well. One thing you have to get used to is the fact that people don't praise each other in Asia. Compliments are rare. A few other teachers thought it went well and I thought it did so I just have to be happy with that. The funny thing was that two weeks later I was emcee for the sports day and that was met with loads of compliments. I scratched my head a lot at that one. The dance was a much bigger affair than reading the placings of students in the 100m etc.

I struggle a lot with how the school is run. The last two years I worked at great schools in the states where they accepted all comers and were run efficiently. Here we have a two day admittance test and only take the best and brightest. The school is run in typical Malaysian style. That means someone comes running in with an 'important' task. You drop everything to do it only when you get it finished you find it wasn't that important. The real struggle is the amount of admin work teachers do. I have to update school folders for all my students, so the first week of school I spent 5 hours typing their biodata into a spread sheet. Now we are finishing our term and I had to write 187 1-2 sentence comments about each student I teach. I then had to write 19 more comments (one paragraph) for my homeroom students. I don't mind this but, for example, I listed an actual instance where a student gave up. The comment was edited to read 'gives up when the going gets tough'. I rarely get to focus on creating great lessons and really just try to tick off all the duties required of me in a week, doing none of them with excellence. Unfortunately I have a personal creed to do things with excellence. Dang those personal creeds!

I go back and forth almost daily on whether or not I'll teach here next year. I have always wanted to teach multiple years in a school but putting up with poor management makes me wonder if it is worth it.

Actually, I was offered a job in Texas in October. I say 'offered' but I was asked to apply which is about the same thing. I turned them down because I feel a duty to finish the year with my students here. However, last weekend I had a 'panic' attack. I was really missing my family and my former active life of running and bicycling etc. Here I work 11 hour days and don't have the support network (living with my parents) that allows me to be active. Again my sense of duty wouldn't allow me to email and see if the post was filled. But then a day will come and I will have some great interactions with students and I think "I'll never leave here." I suppose all teachers fight similar battles emotionally.

How is Malaysia?
I have always fought this problem that I have three distinct spheres: Oklahoma, Bellingham and Malaysia. I feel equally at home in all three. I love being back here. I am often taken aback when people ask me basic questions about Malaysia. I forget that I am very obviously NOT Malaysian. This time the weather has been wetter than any of the other years I have been here and it has been harder because I don't ride my motorbike in KL traffic in the rain, if possible.

Random Tidbits
I'm going to Korea over Christmas, something I've wanted to do for a long time. I'm very excited about it. I had planned on a trip to the Similan Islands in Thailand before that but I won't be making it because I have to take 5 students to a conference on leadership the weekend before I head to Korea. My school year will end on July 23 and I'm not sure what I'll do after that.

My computer hard drive crashed and I've been adding songs again. There are a few songs that I always get. I was thinking about that recently, how I always make sure they are a part of my music library. Some are (in no particular order):
Live--Lightning Crashes
Van Halen--Humans Being
Van Halen--Jump
Billy Joel--We didn't start the fire
Madonna--Vogue
Bruce Hornsby--Mandolin Rain
U2--With or Without You, Beautiful Day and Where the streets have no name
Smashing Pumpkins--Disarm, Tonight, Tonight, 1979 and Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Cranberries--Linger
Some newer ones that I just think of as entire albums
Coldplay--Viva la Vida
Parachute--Losing Sleep
Nickle Creek's first CD
Emmy Lou Harris Red Dirt Girl

Thoughts on a six year plan

Well, I’m back in Malaysia for my second stint here and thought I would write about things that are going through my head concerning the present and future.

Things I learned while in the USA for the last two years: I love my family, they are just amazing, love my friends, amazing as well and my love for Malaysia did not diminish either. I think sometimes when you live overseas you are acutely aware of all the faults of your home country but being back in the US for two years made me remember all the wonderful things about it. In all honest, it was a tough decision to leave. Lastly, I realized that the place in the world I want to end up is Bellingham, where the largest concentration of my friends are and my family can visit much easier than Malaysia.

Things to consider in the 6-year plan: The first thing is that I love my granny dearly and she is turning 82 in February. She is still in great health but no one lives forever and I want to spend time with her while she is still very active. I went to New Orleans three times with her over those two years and want to spend that kind of quality time with her. I’m also glad that I’m gone for a bit because I push my parents too much on what they are going to do after retirement. Being in Malaysia means I won’t be hounding them so much about things.

Possible scenarios: My first thought was to live in Malaysia for 6 years and then return to the USA. I would return with a lump sum payment of about $40,000 USD, which would make a nice little down payment on a house. My instinct right now is to teach only 4 years in Malaysia, which would give me roughly $25,000 when I leave. So here is what I am thinking. I will save for two years and then purchase a house in Malaysia. I will continue renting myself and rent the house out, making double payments on it for two more years. After four years I will return to the USA and get a job close to my parents and my granny (they will be together), hopefully living with them. In the meantime, I will use the 25k from Malaysia with some savings to put a down payment on a house in the Sunnyland neighborhood of Bellingham, a house I will then rent out.

This scenario sets me up for later in life, Lord-willing, to one day move back to Bellingham but to also have a retirement home in Malaysia where I can either spend my summer school holidays or 4-6 month chunks after I retire.

Disclaimer: I am always thinking and scheming. Some come to fruition, such as moving to Malaysia. Some don’t, such as my dog poop scooping business. Please take all I have said with a grain of salt.

Goodbyes

Well, I have taken a job teaching geography in an international school in Kuala Lumpur, so I am headed back to Malaysia, arriving on July 29. I will then sleep 22 hours and be ready for action. That sounds like a solid plan for beating jet lag. I'm very excited about moving back but of course will be sad to leave. I loved, more than I can describe, teaching history to 8th graders this year. I liked the 6th graders but I think I hit my stride in that final 6 weeks when I was substitute teaching. Of course, I am my own worst enemy on classroom management when I suddenly break off course from a lecture on the Dust Bowl to wondering if all that grit made for whiter teeth when they brushed and if that was where the idea for pumice might have come from. 3 minutes later I'm trying to get the conversation back on the Dust Bowl and kicking myself for my vagrant conversation.


Anyway, all of this to say I will miss the people I have met here. Another group of people who are very special to me are those at my church. Not being able to do normal things, I have been attending a Korean church in Wichita Falls and I have been doing the children's sermons on Sunday mornings for the last few months. I will miss the kids, who are extremely cute. I don't think I was ever that cute as a kid.

Mom, tell the scary man to let me go!

The pastor and his wife couldn't escape my reach either.

Notice how far they sit away from me. Hmmm, I'm rethinking that pledge to go organic and stop using deodorant.

Most of the kids have to be held in place by their moms or they run screaming in terror.

Freewheel Oklahoma 2009

Last week I was off on my bicycling adventure, otherwise called Freewheel Oklahoma, an annual ride that usually starts near the southern border and finishes up in Kansas. This year we covered 415 miles according to the official certificate I was given at the end. Basically, you ride several hours each day, covering between 50-70 miles a day. We left on a Sunday and arrived the following Saturday in Kiowa, Kansas. You could do it much more quickly but we rode way to the west and then went back to the east. I'm guessing that riding hard you could go from Texas to Kansas in about four day.

What surprised me was how early people got up and started out. Some people were on the road by 4 a.m. Do you know how loud a tent being rolled up is that hour? Oh, we camped along the way and put our luggage in a trailer that was then moved to the next town where we would be spending the night. Indoor camping was available as well. I usually left out around 6:30 a.m. and arrived about 11 a.m. Then I would shower and find something to eat. The hard part of the whole trip was the afternoons, which would have been fine if I had been traveling with friends but mainly I just spent the afternoons reading. I did meet quite a few people but not really anyone that wanted to hang out with me the whole day.

It was definitely a good time and I would do it again next year if I weren't moving to Malaysia. Maybe I'll have to start Freewheel Malaysia.

Posing in my spandex just before leaving Duncan.

Not sure what dad is doing here. My butt has spent many hours in that location.

On the road to Apache.

The campsite in Apache. Mine is the little yellow tent in the lower left hand corner. About 1,000 people either ride or follow Freewheel. A ten year old girl rode every mile and one guy turned 70 during the week. Also, a guy who was a leg amputee did it as well.

Cheyenne in the pre-dawn light. Makes for a great morning ride, watching the sun rise.

This is Thomas in the mist. By the way, there is nothing in Thomas. They don't even have a restaurant, just a little place called the Big T that makes take-away food.

The Wheatfield

These are pictures of a wheatfield that I ride past when I go out for my bike rides. I have been wanting to take pics of the green wheat and the tree which has not yet leafed out. Later, when the wheat ripens, I want to go back and juxtapose the golden wheat with the greenness of the tree. That should happen by late May. Until then, enjoy the tree and green wheat.

Belief

In a dream I saw us three
You and I and she
We walked along the misty fringes
Lost and stumbling nowhere
Surveying the crags and precipices
When out of the fog I beheld
A bridge across the chasm
"Onward", I cried, "Hope is here!"
You, ever the cynic, paused
"We don't know where it goes."
"To lands of milk and honey", I cried
"Where streets are paved with gold!"
"Well, to get to a place like that
you need more than a bridge.
It can't be real", you scoffed.
She, ever the skeptic, jumped in
"How do we know the bridge goes to
any wondrous place? You haven't seen it!"
"No", I replied, "but it could be true.
I want to believe."
Onto the shaky bridge I stepped.
Its destination ever unsure
You and she, wrapped in your
Cynicism, scoffing and skepticism
Hung back
I believe and so I test the unknown
I would rather try
Than die never knowing.

Pilgrimage

Over the Christmas break I read several books. One was called "The Ramsay Scallop". It was about two people in medeival England who are sent to Spain on a pilgrimage. The book is peppered with people that they meet and the things they learn while heading to Spain, which was quite a trek in those days. It made me think about pilgrimage.

Psa 84:5 Blessed are those whose strength is in you (God), who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.

Pilgrimage historically has been a trip undertaken to gain some sort of blessing at the end of the journey. I realize that this is slightly skewed in many ways but at the same time as some truth in it. Sadly, this idea of pilgrimage has been eliminated from the modern Christian vocabulary. I noticed that the KJV often uses 'pilgrim' in verses the NIV translates as 'alien'.

To me, this idea of pilgrimage is still a valid one and one that needs desperately to be reclaimed. This reclamation also needs to include the idea that pilgrimage is to a place as in the Middle Ages. Well, not to an earthly, temporal place. I find it interesting that the Bible often refers to this life as our pilgrimage or our journey. To reclaim the original idea, I feel we Christians need to see that we are on a journey to our home. Our lives are this journey back home. We are pilgrims traveling through this world. Pilgrims are not people who accumulate material possessions nor are they ever fooled into thinking that the land they travel through is their home.

However, this day in age, most Christians have become settlers in a land they were only meant to pass through. They set up shop and establish themselves. Then there are looks of shock upon our face when the world proves to be fickle and fleeting. When the chaos comes again we are just as shocked as anyone. If only we had kept moving and kept our faith in what is eternal rather than misaligning it with what is temporary.

A question that has run through my head multiple times this week is this: Should we be foregoing certain things so that others may benefit? If all we have is this world, then the answer is take all you can. If we look the coming of a heavenly city and a Saviour, then we can forgo many of the things of this life, looking forward to the eternal and complete fulfillment of our longings.

Pilgrims in the Middle Ages often forsook certain luxuries. Perhaps we too should consider this again. Is it right to have 30 pairs of shoes when some go barefoot? I read recently that hunger could be stamped out in Africa if we just spent all the money on food that is currently spent on cigarettes. Pilgrims understand and make these types of decisions on purpose. Settlers try to build a surplus because they don't know what the morrow brings.

We were not made for this place and when we try to stay here we only show our satisfaction with lesser things. Let us press on to the high calling of God in Jesus Christ--and our heavenly reward.

Dilemmas

Most New Years come with a sense of turning over a new leaf. We make resolutions that we think will make us better people. There is often a sense of anticipation at what lingers on the horizon of the coming year. Most years, this is the feeling that I have. Not this year.

Since coming back to the USA from Malaysia in September 2007, I thought that I would go back once I had attained a teacher's certification. I thoroughly enjoyed working in a middle school last year I am looking forward with great anticipation to the next 14 weeks as I student teach. Through it all, the question that keeps echoing is, "What next?"

I have loads of ideas. Teach for America is a program that places teachers in innercity schools in places like New Orleans, Houston, Washington D.C. and New York City. I am applying to that program. I have great friends in Bellingham, WA and could try for a job there. Recently I was in Pensacola, FL and that is a possibility.

However, day after day, I can't shake the feeling that I want to go back overseas again. There were tons of struggles living in Malaysia but it was worth it. So much so that I still call Malaysia home, after all, I lived there for 5 years and have been back in the USA for 15 months.

I also miss scuba diving. The only other time I have had this same feeling was when I broke up with my girlfriend in my first year of university. Something is missing that I love and I want it back. I was reading today an article about Layang-Layang, one of a few places in Malaysia I have yet to dive (also Pulau Tioman and Aur, and Labuan) and seeing scalloped hammerheads and manta rays makes me want to get on a plane NOW.

Living overseas is definitely not for everyone. It exposes your every weakness, from interpersonal to food quirks, the gamut but I miss it. I miss living in a place that people saved for a year to spend two weeks in and I lived there every single day. I did quiet times on the beach five minutes from my home. Everyday was an adventure. I don't hate living in the states but I certainly am rarely surprised by what happens in an average day.

So here I am faced with a few dilemmas. Do I stay in the USA and get a job that pays well and builds a retirement pension? This will also cement my status as a teacher and lead to better jobs. Or do I go overseas? If so, where? Brunei? Malaysia? or maybe Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? It's on the Red Sea, some of the best diving in the world. Korea pays well and I think Air Asia is starting a cheap flight from there to KL. I'll be praying and applying for the next few months. We will see what happens in this new year of 2009. One thing for sure, one year from now and my situation will be vastly different.

Happy and blessed new year.

A Brave New World

About two years ago I read Adolfus Huxley's A Brave New World. One of the main topics of the book is about how people are now raised in Hatcheries and Conditioning Centers. No longer do humans have meaningful relationships, they live a life detached from raw emotion. The amazing thing about some of this type of literature (Fahrenheit 451, A Brave New World, 1984, The Giver) is their uncanny ability to predict the future that is now upon us.

I live in Oklahoma, perhaps the reddest of all Republican states and the populace would stand up and scream, "Blasphemy!" if you ever accused them of being socialist. Yet, in this milieu of extreme conservatism I find the most shocking marker of these novels: children raised by the state. Just yesterday, the Oklahoman, our newspaper, lauded the state as 'best in the nation' and committed because Oklahoma pioneered pre-kindergarten. Not just a program for low-income families, this program is funded for all comers regardless of family income level. Now nearly 20,000 students attend this program. How can one of the most conservative states of the 50 endorse this plan? Is it not cradle to grave socialism?

Now our president elect is talking about this topic and making people giddy with delight. 10 billion dollars have already been pledged to make this a reality. Look at the wording in the article...a bit scary. Don't these people read good literature?

Now, am I the only one who sees this as a major step towards societies described in novels such as A Brave New World? No longer are parents and society responsible for raising children, it has now become the job of the state. Maybe we can start assigning these children jobs at birth and start taking them away from their parents before they get a chance to interact with them and contaminate them. If we can get them brainwashed quickly enough we can get rid of crime and creative thinking. They will become flawless citizens ready to contribute to a global economy. Yes, let's get these kids even before age 4. Age 0 if possible.

FYI, all these novels end badly, as will this.

Gandhi and Aragorn ticket

This will be my last political blog (I promise) before the election but I had it rattling around in my head and thought I should get it out.

I read some of a biography of Gandhi this summer. I didn't get to finish it before the new semester started and life got busy but it was a great book...I'll get back to it over Christmas.

I am very impressed by Gandhi. He was a man of action. He believed that understand something and not act on it was strange. For example, he admired Tolstoy, because Tolstoy, in his last days, abandoned a life of wealth for a life of poverty and religious piety. Tolstoy and Gandhi actually exchanged a few letters before Tolstoy's death.

Gandhi was also a man, from all appearances, unaffected by material things. He was concerned once when he was given an expensive gift and set up a kind of charity so that he would not get the gifts, the charity would. If memory serves me right, the charity benefited his newspaper in South Africa and it ran for many years off of those gifts, which were intended for him.All of Gandhi's worldly possessions at the time of his death.

Gandhi also believed in people. While in South Africa, a supporter turned on him. Gandhi refused to hate the man or to take revenge. He said that was the easy and little thing to do. The honorable and great thing to do was to still value the man. Gandhi had even loaned the man money. Later, the man returned to Gandhi and he forgave him.

A few weeks ago I was watching "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring". In the closing scenes of the movie, Boromir comes to Frodo and wants the ring. He realizes his error in the end and dies an honorable death. As Frodo flees from Boromir, he comes upon Aragorn. There is a poignant scene where Frodo offers the ring to Aragorn. Aragorn reaches for Frodo's hand, seemingly to take the ring, then kneels before Frodo. "I would have followed you to Mordor, to the fires of Mt. Doom," says Aragorn, realizing that Frodo is leaving the fellowship and Aragorn will not be with him.

As I consider my home country, the United States, and where we are as a nation, I say we are badly, desperately in need of a Gandhi/Aragorn ticket. We need leaders who see the presidency, not as a prize to be won, nor a power to be wielded at their own whimsy, but a sacred trust given to them by the citizens of this country.

The simple fact that pork barrel projects exist shows how far off the mark we have gotten. Gandhi stood up for the rights of the oppressed. Now we have leaders who just want to make sure they get their fair share (or more) of the pie. And rather than seek the differing opinions of their opponents, they seek to belittle and discredit them.

There is much good to be said about the American political process. The fact that in 2000 the presidency came down to Al Gore deciding to abide by a Supreme Court ruling is amazing. In many countries it would have led to violence and bloodshed.

It is time that we remind the entrenched powers that their power is not a right but a trust from the people. Democrats and Republicans have power because we choose to give it to them. This November, I am voting for a third party in the hope that millions others will do the same. I don't think a third party candidate will win but I hope that these candidates gain a larger percentage of the vote and remind the main two parties they are not the only game in town. If the Democrats and Republicans want to stay on top they had better start serving the people or the people will find better representatives.

Why are teachers masochists?

I have been in the teacher certification program for about 5 months now. Currently I am observing a sixth grade class once a week and have a fabulous supervising teacher. It is one of the highlights of my week. I just love teaching.

Then I go to my university classes. My professors bore me. They can't teach well and yet they are the ones tasked with making me an excellent teacher. One professor brought in an article entitled "Texas's testing system forces higher dropout rates". Guest speakers bemoan the standardized testing system now in place in almost every state. They tell horror stories about parents, alcohol and drug abuse and pregnant teenagers. Other students in my teacher training program complain that their supervising teachers are burned out and just like to deride their pupils.

Why is this? Why are teachers so pessimistic, so masochistic? The first day, in a fit of brilliance that has yet to be equaled, my professor proclaimed that only teachers and the clergy aim to make a person better. Most other professions just aim to keep the status quo. So, here we are training for this noble profession and most of the current teachers can't stop spewing vitriol. I believe that for whatever reason, it has been allowed to become teaching culture. No nurses are given articles on how some patients still die, no architects told that some buildings collapse and the rigidness of building codes are reasons to frown. Sure some nurses hate their jobs and some architects are pessimists but usually it is not so. Teachers are a different breed. This includes my university professors that instead of inspiring hope, inspire fear of a warped educational system.

My take is that there are problems in any profession. Patients do die and building codes are a pain to deal with. But, when I enter that sixth grade class tomorrow morning, I know that there are lives that can be changed, futures to be brightened and interesting lessons to be taught, even about history . :) I thank God that I am blessed with a courageous supervising teacher who doesn't follow the depressing pattern that so many teachers fall into. Doctors restore people to health, teachers change the future everyday.

Memories...of the way we were

A long time ago I did some blogging on a site called the World is Round. If you would like to see those posts you can just click here.

Moth

I love taking macro shots, as you well know and this is one from last Thursday when I went out and about with my mom, granny and brother.

Well now...

I've become a real cynic politically...well, maybe in general. I wrote a blog recently about how Obama and McCain aren't really that different, which I still stand by. The problem is, Republican doesn't mean 'conservative' these days. I found a great quote which illustrates my point.

“I fear the government has passed the point of no return,” said Ron Chernow, a leading American financial historian. “We have the irony of a free-market administration doing things that the most liberal Democratic administration would never have been doing in its wildest dreams.”

This was taken from the New York Times. Basically, we have had a Republican administration violating all the rules of fiscal conservation for the last 8 years. They bailed out failing banks and now AIG to the tune of just over 800 BILLION dollars this year. Now, I am not for paying higher taxes but at least with the Democrats they come out and say they will not be fiscal conservatives (although Clinton was, balancing the budget).

Neither Obama or McCain has a plan for getting the American economy back on track. At least Obama is honest with his taxation plan, I know what it will cost me. So far, for the last 8 years with the Republicans, we have been told it will be cheap but found out it cost many people their house, part of their retirement pension and all of us at the gas pump. Hidden costs are still costs.

What I don't understand is that some people sit and gripe about how Obama is going to raise taxes. Would you rather have higher taxes you know about or watch as the economy spirals into unknown territory and your pension plan, tied to the stock market, bleeds more red than a horror flick? Gosh, don't raise our taxes.

Wilson's Arch

Photos from my trip through Utah, which I drove through on the road trip from Washington to Texas.Wilson's Arch, south of Arches National Park

Come'on, let the sun shine in.

I love the colors of the rocks.

It is a big arch.

There is a hole in the arch, dear Liza, dear Liza, a hole.

Downtown Seattle

I wrote about hanging out in downtown Seattle so I won't bore you with that again, but here are the pictures from that afternoon.

King Street train station and Qwest Field

Train station from the inside

Pike's Place Market, famous for its thrown salmon

Fruits and veggies for sale in Pike's

This used to be called Bank of America Tower but I guess they didn't charge me enough in fees as now it is called Columbia Center

For those scoring at home

Well, I have managed to escape the Texas heat and return to the solace of the Northwest. I flew to Seattle Wednesday, got to spend a bit of time with my second cousin Barbara and her husband Dale. They dropped me in downtown Seattle for to catch the Amtrak to Bellingham but I was 3 hours early, so I killed those hours in downtown Seattle.

I can remember when I first moved to Malaysia how hard it was for me to be in a big city. Now I just love the way the city pulses with life and energy. For most people, their goal is a little place on two acres outside the town but I think a downtown condo is more my choice these days. Ditch the car, walk to the art museum and the grocery store. That is the life!

Today I did two dives with Washington Divers here in Bellingham. We went to the Keystone Ferry Terminal a popular local shore dive (you dive next to the ferry terminal not actually in the terminal). It is amazing how much different diving is here than in tropical waters. You have to wear tons of neoprene and then because of the neoprene lots of weight. These two dives were the last two I needed to finish up my Divemaster course. Now I can make money diving! Hoping to get my Instructor certification next.

Tomorrow about 11 of us are headed for Sun Lakes in Eastern Washington for 4 days of camping. When I get back I'm then headed out with my friend Dave for an overnight backpacking trip. Looking forward to all those hours in nature.

I'll get some pictures up from all these adventures but I didn't bring my laptop so I don't want to download the pics onto a friend's computer. But I promise pictures in the future. See you in a week.

Macro madness

A few months ago I went and took my camera and macro lens to a state park near Bellingham. I just love shooting with a macro lens, probably more than any other lens. Here are a few of the better shots from the afternoon.

The good ole days

My brother thinks you can track a person's age by when they thought Saturday Night Live stopped being funny. It hold pretty true.

However, I would like to posit another idea. I was driving the other day in my parent's car, which has XM radio. They have a channel for just 90's music. As I listened, I thought, "Wow, this is really good music, way better than today's music." Then I froze. Yikes...is that a sign I'm getting old?

I mean, the 90's had the advent of grunge rock, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Weezer, Bush, Stone Temple Pilots. It had New Kids on the Block, Mariah Carey, Madonna, and a host of others. Rap was still young and not vile. MTV actually had some music videos. VH1 had pop up videos. Wayne was in his world and all was right in heaven.

I'm not old, right? Tell me I'm just correct and not getting set in my ways. Ahhh, those dang kids and their new-fangled strawberries and music ring tone. Why I remember when you used to call...