Wookiee Rant
Spent the entire Wednesday fixing the Ordo Skirata article. I knew back then nominating a character on an ongoing series is gonna bite me back in the ass. But I thought, who cares? He rocks! Better I start on it than some other random guy. But yeah, this is one reminder to always stick with the dead guys. That way the only time new material would be added on the article is if a prequel novel is written.
Money
Still stinging from the cash hemorrhage this "weekend". I'm profoundly glad that tomorrow my 13th month pay's coming in. Sure, only a pitiful sum would be left for me after all the expenses around the house but still, seeing the the whole amount should give me some good buzz no matter how short lived it is.
Tshirt
We're finally getting some progress. Downloaded some customized fonts and redesigned the concepts we already had. Cois printed the thing and stuck in on a generic tshirt as our prototype. Shame he doesn't have a camera at home, would love to see the thing. He says he messed up the cutting part but it actually helped the look of the design, whatever the hell that means.
Work
I knew they were going to declare almost all the weekends of December as critical work days, but for the life of me this is the first time that I heard of where a company actually declared a WHOLE month as a critical work period. As in the whole December! Fuckers. Bet they knew how many agents were planning to disappear once the 13th month pay has been doled out. Me, I'm in it for the long haul in the meantime. If I ever resign or just stop showing up for work, it's gonna be around Feb at least. That's when I would have used up all my paid VL's.
Time
Can't believe its December already. What have I been doing all this year? What have I accomplished? Sadly, nothing worth bragging about. To compound my woes, there's the thing, and that thing, and of course that thing. Ah frak. What a nightmare this year turned out to be.
Posted by darth_doom at 04:39 PM. Filed under Daily Report.
Posted by geri at 11:20 AM.
Here is an update of Evan at 3 1/2 years old via my posts from Facebook. I actually like doing it this way since is detailed especially the talking part which are oftentimes unpredictable and funny.
Evan after his haircut. It was my first time giving him one without turning on the tv for him to watch. He fidgeted more but wasn't too bad. I actually like it better since he bends his head when I ask him too and not resist because he's looking at the tv screen.
Oct 19 Yesterday after church while I was driving Evan told me again, "you're a genius!". I asked, "how about daddy?" His answer? "Nah, me and daddy are boys." He has a point.
Tom suspects I am brainwashing his son.
Oct 21 I think I'll have to rescue my husband from my son. He's probably read half of the 192 page toddler Bible already, but Evan kept asking for the "last, last one!" That's the 5th "last, last one."
Tom is clearly a putty in Evan's hands.
Oct 26 Last night Evan to his daddy: "No TV today." Promptly takes the remote control and cuts short his dad's football game.
Guess who's the boss of us?
Oct 29 during last night's dinner Evan and I shared a pinakbet with fried fish given to us by a filipino friend's mom. It was so good that Evan fought over me for the last sitaw (string bean) lol.
Yup, still loves his veggies. We can turn into vegetarian and Evan wouldn't miss anything. Can't say the same for the father.
Nov 3 Me: "what did they give you for snacks in school this morning?" Evan: "applesauce and spoon!"
Just when I started feeling sorry for my starving son he did later add they had crackers too.
Nov. 6 While walking to the gym I saw something fell out from Evan's right pant leg... his Spiderman briefs.
A cousin asked if he was embarrassed. I told her far from it, Evan even helped me relate to story to the gym's babysitter staff. He did have another brief on.
Evan painting while wearing the Ironman mask I made him. I was excited about this small table (comes with 2 chairs) that I got from a second hand store for $20. I have been looking for one for a long time. I like it because it's just the right size and sturdy!
Nov. 9 I was running my hands on Evan's hair just checking his scalp curiously when my son protested, "mommeeeee, what are you doing? I'm a boy not a girl!" He then added on a lower tone, "it makes me nervous."
He got that "makes me nervous" line from me, I say it to him when he is in a precarious position or too far in the sidewalk. But his use in this context was hilarious.
Nov. 11 I picked Evan from school when we ran into his gym teacher at the parking lot. "Hi Mr. *Robert!" my son greeted him, "I had fun in your class this morning." The look on his teacher's face was priceless. We have a 3 year old politician in our hands.
We are still scratching our head where he got this extrovertness from since his father and I are both on the quiet side (although you won't guess that of me in this blog haha). We hope Evan will remain that way through his adulthood, it is an asset especially in whatever career he choses.
Nov. 14 was at Evan's school volunteering this morning. Met a volunteer-dad of mexican ethnicity who said he was going home early to watch Pacquiao fight. Funny how I am the filipino and I am not remotely interested in watching. I just don't like boxing (or most sports for that matter haha).
Okay, this is not exactly about Evan but it is an interesting bit on my life and the people I meet by being involved in my son's school activities.
Nov. 15 Evan was already asleep when we arrived last night. Right after waking up he didn't barge into our room for warm milk or a kiss like he usually does. He actually looked surprised to see me join him in the living room 45 minutes later. Clearly he assumed he was home alone this morning. I am amazed that didn't bother him.
This was the morning after my date night with Tom.
Evan playing my favorite game. Pretend sleeping.
Nov. 15 Evan shines his mini flashlight down his daddy's throat. "No spiders, " he declared, satisfied.
Funny.
Nov. 19 baked a super yummy, HEALTHY blueberry muffin recipe for Evan's school snack today I found from a library book. So glad to find the recipe posted on their website. It's hard for me to appreciate store bought baked goods anymore.
According to Evan, his classmates loved the muffins. Evan actually ate 2 of these in one day, which is very unusual.
Nov. 20 at lunch yesterday. Evan and a classmate, who he calls his girl friend, made a move to kiss and hug each other while giggling. "No kissing," I ordered, "you two will get sick." (both were nursing colds). Apparently I was too late. "We kissed in the gym," my son informed me.
I don't mind the kissing, not just in the lips. Especially when they're sick! I bet it was Evan who made the first move since he loves to kiss me many times a day. "I want kiss and hug," he would oftentimes say in sometimes inconvenient situations, like in the middle of lunch and with food in his mouth.
Yesterday Evan read his first word last night. "Mmmmm...eeehhhh....nnnnn....MEN!" from a small box in the bathroom. I am so excited!
No thanks to the $30 kit that I bought. We haven't even gotten around to it yet. Also, upon closer look it won't be really helpful since it's about mastering the alphabet which is too basic for Evan. Wish I could return it but my son already wrinkled the box.
Yesterday overheard from the living room tonight. Tom: "God, I love popcorn!" Evan: "Where is God?" Tom (laughing): "God is everywhere." Evan: "He is in the refrigerator."
Maybe he knows something we don't.
Posted by geri at 05:37 PM.
Woohoo! I'm famous and popular...online!! Just kidding!!
I did the google-your-name thing and my work website comes up as the #23rd entry! Woohoo! (My students access my website a lot, so I was wondering just how popular it was...yes, I am a dork)
Right after college, I joined the Teach For America movement in Los Angeles and during those two years, worked as a science teacher at a school in East Los Angeles. Then I got a great opportunity to help start a middle school in downtown Los Angeles as a science/math middle school teacher and the science coordinator at the school. After two years there, I got married and started working at a fairly well-known charter high school down here in SD county (which, with just some careful observation, you can easily find out its name if you so desire). Needless to say, I've accrued some teaching experience throughout the years in different areas and at schools with fairly different views on education.
Somehow, (yes it surprises me every year when I think about it), I'm still in the teaching profession. And I think I've stuck with it because I'm still searching for that perfect classroom and perfect school. I've taught at a very traditional middle school in East LA, then a let's-try-to-shake-up-public-education type school (but was still plagued with many typical public school problems) and now, I'm at a fairly progressive charter school that believes that project-based learning is the way to teach students.
I think I become jaded as the years of teaching go by. I thought this school that I'm at is the wave of the future in education, but I'm not quite sure it's the model that American education should adopt. I'm still not convinced that it's ok to not teach traditional topics in math, science or humanities because students won't use them in the future. Aren't we cheating them out of the one chance they have to learn geometric proofs or balancing chemical equations? Does everything really have to relate to the real-world or be useful in their future lives? Can't we just teach for the sake of learning? Is it okay that there are gaps in a student's education because they spent so long learning one narrow part of a subject, but missed out on everything else?
I know that nothing's perfect, especially when it comes to things like government initiatives and programs and institutions that are meant to serve the broad American public. But because I'm idealistic (and naive I suppose), I still believe that somewhere out there, in America, there is a public school that's not so dysfunctional. A school that engages all students in learning AND adequately prepares them for college and/or the working world. Or maybe not.
Maybe it's time for me to leave the classroom and explore other options in the educational field. I might try my hand at changing the American education system -- because, it's such a mess and so freakin' frustrating sometimes and someone needs to help fix it!
Posted by carecare at 02:08 AM.
I guess you're supposed to get these after Thanksgiving, but I had a free evening, so I drove down to Chula Vista and picked up a tree:
Will post after pictures in a couple of days after I'm done decorating! (I love the smell of pine needles!)
A picture of the coffee table I got this past weekend (Thank goodness for the Citi Forward card with its insane points for eating out to make this affordable):
listening to Mariah Carey - Always Be My Baby
Posted by roy at 02:03 AM. Filed under Loft.
How could something so simple turn out so epically stupid in the end. I guess that's what I get for... Ah whatever.
I'm no longer eating at Fish and Co, unless someone is paying that is.
Gonna go out again later to canvass some things for the tshirts. Finally, it's moving again. I'm no longer hoping we make it through the December deadline. Just get it done asap.
Posted by darth_doom at 07:49 PM. Filed under Daily Report.
After posting that last video, I loaded up my Mariah Carey playlist, and that got me reminiscing back a couple of years ago.
For kicks, I loaded up my LiveJournal account to see who was active. Back before I started working on Tabulas, I spent a lot of time on LiveJournal, kicking it with some random people.
I felt a pang of disappointment when I realized I could never reach out again to most of these people (some had completely deleted their accounts, while others had just stopped posting).
People move on with their lives - I just wish I knew they were doing alright.
One of the biggest downsides to the growth of sites like Twitter & Facebook is that they've destroyed the ability for people to share their stories. I'm of the belief that all of us have a story to share, and we do a disservice to ourselves and others by keeping these stories to ourselves. The human condition is shared, and we should make the most of our ability to reason and communicate.
I used to spend hours just clicking through on LiveJournal accounts and reading on the joys and sorrows of random people. You can't do that with Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr. I don't know if I simply grew older, or if people just don't do that anymore. I ran across a Tabulas account recently which reminded me of why I grew to cherish Tabulas so much in the early days. Unlike the false truths we throw up on sites like Facebook and Twitter to brand ourselves (even subconsciously), there's a fresh truth in reading anonymous personal entries. I read that stuff and go, "Wow, that was me. I'm not alone."
This journal used to be like that, but I've found it much harder to write like that lately. The truth is that I simply can't go into that level of detail, since most of it is work-related (or is tangentially related to work). With my position at the company, I simply can't share that, even if I'm simply being brutally honest. C'est la vie.
I'm not sure what it is, but I've been on a huge sentimental kick over the past few weeks (ever since my NC trip). For the past few years, I've really grown to appreciate my parents and the sacrifices they made for me, and seeing my NC friends again this time reminded me of all the good times I had with them. It also reminded me how well I had it to kick it with them.
But there's a huge sadness in coming to grips with the reality that as we grow up, we drift apart as friends. I guess that's why I've been getting more sentimental lately, and why I've been getting so worked up about traditional holiday activities like cooking Thanksgiving dinner with good company and putting up a Christmas tree. Every time I do these activities, it takes me back to the memories associated with those activities in the past.
Even if they were just from last year, it's amazing how much I've felt like I've grown over the past year. It's not that there were situations that drove these changes - my position inside MindTouch hasn't changed, and there haven't been anything that's changed in my personal life. I look at life a lot differently than I used to, and that's all that matters.
I know I have my job to thank for that - in a lot of ways, it forced me to grow up a lot faster. I don't know how I ended up here, but I know that it was a series of long struggles and a lot of soul-searching.
My family is healthy, I have an appreciation for those people in my life who've shaped it, I have a wonderful job, and I'm happy. I no longer struggle with insomnia on a regular basis, and I no longer question who I am or what it is I'm to do. I've found direction in my life, and I'm thankful that I have the will, the drive, the people, and smarts to push forward in that direction.
And for that, I'm thankful.
I can't believe it's been a year since my trip to Big Sur:
listening to Mariah Carey - My All
Posted by roy at 03:51 AM. Filed under Personal, MindTouch, San Diego.
Check this Korean girl belting Mariah Carey's "My All":
Holy smokes! She doesn't have the fullness of Mariah - she reminds me far more of a younger Christina Aguilera... but still, incredibly impressive.
(I almost busted out laughing at 1:28, cause she lets that Korean accent slip in with that "imagining..." line)
This entry contained scripting, which has been removed for your safety. Click here to see the entry in its entirety.
Posted by roy at 02:44 AM. Filed under Music.