Photossss

16-Mogi during Spring Break

17-Sunset over Weatherford

18-Following the bus. Again.

19-Gone to Ikea

20-Tiger at the Fort Worth Zoo

21-Japanese Garden Spring Festival

For the record, it took me FOR EVER to get these photos semi-lined up in a manner that would not cause me to lose sleep at night. I'm not really that ocd, but sometimes I wonder.

Um... aspects.

So I decided that New Year's Resolutions were dumb! And lame! And I promptly defenestrated mine in favor of simple goals. I will still run 500 miles! I just have more time to do it. And since I ran 2 more miles today, that leaves... um... 480 to go.

Yes, I slacked off. But in my defense, things got NUTS over here, ya'll. Apparently cold air and I don't get along, plus bouts of allergy attacks, plus play practice every night and some ENTIRE DAYS spent getting ready to perform a 45 minute show, plus, you know, saving the world and orphans and little lost kittens.... running kind of fell to the wayside. As did the cookery. And the photography. I'll pick up the photo-taking again, but I'll just try to hit the magic number of 365, the time limit is again out the window. The cooking thing? Yeah, it's just not going to happen right now. I will at some point become more interested in cooking. Just not right now.

In other news, teaching is going to be the death of me. I am tired of certain... um... aspects. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaching. I especially like seeing my students improve in their understanding and use of the English language. Some of them have made incredible amounts of progress in just the few months that I've taught them and that is unbelievably rewarding. It's just the other... um... aspects that sort of bug me. Particularly because they're... um... aspects that I was pretty far removed from when I was teaching overseas. Those... um... aspects didn't really bug me then, and they didn't really bug me for the first semester of this year, but this grading period has been rife with drama and I'm certainly losing my patience in trying to deal with it all. I see why teachers get such a long summer vacation because I'm anticipating having the chance to unwind. Two months of not feeling attacked, provoked or belittled by certain... um.. aspects of my job? It'll be just what I need to ready myself for the next onslaught.

It's a battlefield, my dears.

On another note, gasoline prices have gotten me way the heck down, man.

I shouldn't run so close to bedtime because then I lose my staying-tired momentum.

I have eight hundred billion plans I'm making for this week, this month, this summer, this next school year. Computerized lesson plans! Detailed project descriptions! Reworking the order in which I assign certain things! A winter drama production! Everyone assures me that the first year of teaching is the most difficult, so I'm hoping with my new and improved methodologyisms, I'll make the second year smooth like butter.

Like butter, people!

Daily Photos

Our ghosts will wander all of the water.

I kind of panicked about my next bout with running, considering my awesome allergy attack that wasn't an allergy attack but I don't have a better word for it--itchy palms and scratchy throat syndrome? Nah-- that occurred last time. But today I managed without a hitch and got 3.5 miles closer to my goal. Which isn't much closer at all, considering I still have.. um.. 494 miles to go.

Though, to be fair, I was unbelievably lazy this week. I blame it on returning to work after a two week holiday. The students felt it to a much greater degree than I did, so maybe their grumping was contagious and that's why I made so many (completely effective) excuses and didn't do as much as I had planned.

Technically, however, as far as non-resolutions go, I'm still doing alright. I got my pictures in for each day... they're coming up if you don't believe me, and I got my dinner made and tomorrow I'm going to cook kimchi bokkeumbap because it's easy and I already have all the ingredients so I don't have to go to the store and buy anything. And I'll just go an extra mile for the next four weeks and that will even it out? Or maybe I'll go the extra mile for the LAST four weeks of the year so it seems like I'm building up to it? I mean, that'll give me something to think about.

Furthermore, next weekend I'll get a visit from an old war buddy of mine. That's gonna be exciting. Expect wacky hijinx to ensue, folks. Expect it.

Day 4: Spicy Tofu and Breaded Zucchini

Day 5: A closeup of my Rilakkuma pencil case.

Day 6: I like oranges.

Day 7: Friday! The scenery on the drive from work.

Day 8: This is my owl pillow. He doesn't have a name.

I'm a nerd, reason 1

My non-resolutions ended up having three parts.

Part 1: Photography (Project 365)
I've already gotten a fair start on this, and have taken a picture every day for (gasp!) four whole days. Like I mentioned before, I'm going to put them up here randomly and today is not one of the days that I want to put a picture up because of a reason that I will explain in a second.

Wait for it, it is very interesting. To me. Kind of.

Part 2: Cooking (I haven't thought of a catch-phrase for this yet.)
I realized how lazy I'd gotten about cooking after about my third trip to the grocery store in which I only purchased microwave pizzas and Lean Cuisines. Cooking is fun, and I'm not a terrible cook. I can follow a recipe at least. For the most part. I do tend to skip parts of alter ingredients, but that's all in the name of science. So I decided it would be good to create a home-cooked meal once a week, and microwaving broccoli in one of those vegetable steamer bags wouldn't count. This week, with some assistance, I created a lovely kimchi jiggae, spiced tofu and breaded zucchini. I took a pic. It'll go up here this week. It's like killing two birds with one blog update. 

Those vegetable steamer bags are amazing, though. Just for the record.

Part 3: Running (500 miles)

I have been running pretty regularly for the past two months or so. So I decided to up the stakes a bit and set a goal for myself. Then I wrestled with how high of a bar I wanted, because honestly, if it's too daunting, I'll just stop and if it's too easy then it'd be kind of embarrassing to even worry about. So I decided to try for 10 miles a week....ish. I want to have run 500 miles by December 31st, 2011. That's not too much of a stretch, plus it has a nice ring to it. I like numbers in multiples of five.


Well I told you all that so I could tell you all (ya'll) this. I finished running today. 2.5 miles. That brings my grand total for the year to 2.5 miles. Haha. I'm kind of a procrastinator. But! That's not the point. I finished running and I noticed that the palms of my hands felt really itchy. And then my nose started running. Then I started coughing and wheezing. Now I feel like I'm going to die. So I googled "itchy palms after running" and it turns out that this happens to people sometimes. I am allergic to running*. It's kind of like how I'm allergic to being outside. I officially have the nerdiest allergies in the world, guys. I mean, allergies are inherently a nerd sort of thing, but I am taking this to an entirely new level.

This might be a sign. I should change my projects completely. Running 500 miles? Heck no. I should be playing 500 hours of video games. Are there 500 pokemon yet? Maybe that should be my goal.

Gotta catch 'em all--

Pokemon!


*I am not really allergic to running. 90% sure. I think it's a fluke, but I did take some Benadryl so I'll probably pass out soon. My life is exciting, people.

Buh-bomb. (Day 3)

I saw this on the way to a tapas restaurant in downtown Dallas.

As a sidenote, I am very tired and slightly panicked about work. We had a staff development day and got a rousing speech about state budgets and how they affect the campus and the ideas that resulted are concepts that have been floating through my mind for the past week or so. It was kind of unsettling. I'm going to practice not thinking about it.

I'm kind of tired now. I might take a nap. It will probably be amazing.

Project 365: Day 2

This was an excellent Christmas present to myself. I had ordered it about a week and a half before Christmas and anxiously waited.. and waited.. and waited. I had almost given up hope when I checked my mailbox on NYE and got this happy surprise. I am going to have a listening party today.

Also, though I am going to try, I'm probably not going to post pictures daily, they are probably going to come in waves. I'm saying this because the last time I tried a photography project, that's what ended up happening. I won't be on vacation forever, after all. I actually won't be on vacation starting tomorrow. It's really sad, if I think about it. Why can't Christmas holiday last forever?

Project 365: Day 1

For awhile there, I panicked and thought that I was responsible for two photos today, but that's just because last night was so long and awesome and eventful that it felt like another day entirely. Today however has been nice and calm.

The Old 97's concert was amazing. I wanted to take more photos than I actually did but I took my older camera since it's small and light and I didn't want to carry my bigger camera and oh yeah, there's a reason why I upgraded from a point-and-shoot to a megazoom. Because there aren't enough settings on my little camera to make up for low lighting and naturally shaky hands. Someday I'll upgrade to a DSLR. In the distant distant future when I have money. I'm thinking 2014. =[

Resolved:

It feels like I'm submitting a proposal to the United Nations when I think about resolutions. I am not normally into the entire idea because honestly, I never follow through with them and I don't know anybody that does. Besides, it seems very strange to think that I'm going to have a start and end to doing something different in my life. This year, I will be a better person, but the year after that? I am going to regress, baby. Plus, resolutions always tend to be so vague, which I was actually reading on CNN (yes, I'm a dweeb) about how you are supposed to set specific goals so as to avoid breaking New Year Resolutions. So instead of saying that you'll be a better person you're supposed to... I don't know... walk old ladies across the street at least twice a month? Or something, I don't know and that's why I haven't set any sort of resolutions for the past several years.*

However, this year is going to be different.

Actually, it's probably not, but it's kind of going to be different because I'm going to try something? And they're not going to be resolutions, they are going to be non-resolutions. Ready?
 Here we go.

For 2011, I hereby non-resolve to engage in the following practices... activities? Projects. Sure. Projects.

One of them I got halfway through in 2009, which was to take a photo a day for 365 days. I actually liked that one and ended up taking some very interesting pictures of things inside my apartment since I'd forget to take my camera and then put it off until the last minute and just half-ass it with a pic of something. That's probably what I'm going to end up doing this year, too. At least half of the time. Be prepared. It will be exciting.

The second one? I'm not sure of the exact details about. Once I have that sorted, though, I will inform the world through an interpretive song and dance.

Or just through another update...


*Unless you count my default resolution that I stole from my friend Joe, which is to quit smoking. Since I don't smoke, I'm already ahead of the game! Yes, this is probably cheating.