Monday, January 29, 2007

2:19 PM - Alcatraz

homesick

Only once before in my life have I felt homesick like this. I was in China, teaching English at a university in Anhui province, and was starting my second semester after a 5-week break for the Spring Festival. My department had twice sent teachers from the English department to criticize my teaching methods (because my kids were actually learning to speak; the native Chinese teachers who taught English only spoke Mandarin in their classes because of cultural taboo), and I was malnourished to the point that I could see all of my ribs and sleeping on my side gave me a bruise from my hipbone. On top of that, the English department tried to give me more classes than my contract would allow... and I left. Stopped going to classes, bought a plane ticket, and flew to San Francisco.

I'd never been to San Francisco before, except for the airport. I wondered if I was going to be near Hollywood or meet any celebrities. I had never worked a full-time job before. Never had my own car. Never had the thought of a circus school crossed my mind.

Right now, I am coming to the end of another adventure. Like my time in China, the Vermont experience has been about personal growth and a new perspective on the world. I think that later, maybe 5 years from now, my life trajectory will be completely different, thanks to the things I have done and seen here, and maybe I'll want to talk about it. It took me eight months after I returned from China before I could say a single coherent word about the experience. My first day back, I almost had a mental breakdown in a drugstore in Berkeley, due to the sheer number and variety of pens available for sale. I was... fragile.

The next couple of months for me are going to be like those first few months back from China. No money, and a bit incoherent as my mind processes all of the things that I've experienced. But the good news is that this time when I move to the Bay Area, I know that I will be coming home.

Here's a vague itinerary. March 1: leave Vermont for long overdue for visit to friends in NYC. March 4: coming home.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

7:10 AM - a tasty entertainment morsel

Yogic Flying Eases Daily Commute

Now complete with video! I also like the headline on their front page about mermaids complaining about a lack of ocean pollution...

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

10:08 PM - what light through yonder window breaks?

still waters run deep

There's not a lot to report on the surface at the moment. Writing job applications, looking for resources or tools to move back to San Francisco, and recovering from my cold. Tonight, for example, was all about personal contacts, including a bit of activity on LinkedIn, where I have a profile now.

One thing I've wanted to talk about, but haven't, was all of the flack that Barbara Boxer caught when asked Condoleeza Rice who would pay a personal price for the continued ridiculous policy of sending soldiers to Iraq. In a hilarious partisan twist, there was this explosion of Republican-backed feminism in the media.

Did anyone else think that whole spin game was pathetic? Wouldn't the same argument be equally valid to a man, or to another parent whose children weren't of draftable age? I think it's extremely poignant to remember that by and large, none of the lawmakers and policymakers are the ones sending their children to Iraq. In our country, the casualties disproportionately affect the poor.

In other countries, however, the case might be different. I wonder what the reaction would be in the UK if GWB's irrational cowboy war caused the death of the Prince third in line to the Crown of England. Wouldn't it only be fair to send Jenna and Barbara first?

By the way, my favorite part of writing this blog entry was reading the caption for final link. Prince Harry is a cornet in the Blues and Royals. Such a delightful sequence of words! This is why the language is still called English; they had Shakespeare while we have Eminem.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

8:19 PM - delirious and.... delicious? oh my

ZOMG plague

I've been sick since New Year's Eve. I'm finally coming to the end of it, I think, having progressed from sore throat through coughing and sneezing to runny nose and full-body aches and chills. Luckily, reading Wikipedia entries about the progress of flu and colds leads me to believe that my body is currently defeating and expelling the virus (go go gadget phagocytosis!), and I might even be able to go to work tomorrow.

One of the things I forget about having a stuffy nose is that I can't smell things. Obvious, right? But I almost burned down the house just now with a gardenburger that I left in the oven for... who knows how long. I only noticed it because the whole kitchen was unusually warm, and even then I just thought it might be from having the heat on. I am tempted to put a new gardenburger in the oven, but I don't want to forget about that one also. This plague has me sleeping incredibly odd hours; basically one dose of cold medicine gives me 4 hours of sleep, but I can only take the medicine every 6 hours. Grumblecakes. Hungry.

On a more positive note, the waking hours have been a good opportunity to send out some résumés, freshened up a bit by Lauren's suggestion, and also discover a check for $61 buried in my junk mail. So I am $61 closer to San Francisco than I was this morning. If you'd like to be a liaison for me to work at your awesome Bay Area-based company, sign right up. Also accepting leads on a remote contract or two that I can handle on the weekends, unclaimed millions owed to me by the State, or a sugar daddy.*

During my brief periods of sickened consciousness, I've also put some furniture in my Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates house, to think about what it might be like to get furniture I like in SF with Fenny, or even buy my own house one day. I swear I never wanted to buy my own house until I started owning one in Ultima Online (and now Puzzle Pirates).

Okay... only 1½ more hours until I can take some more medicine and try to sleep again. If I do make it into work tomorrow, the locals should expect lots of soup and hot tea.

(I'm glad I checked this post for grammar; apparently being sick made me put all sorts of inappropriate commas in the post, along with spelling errors and missing words.)

*Sorry sugar daddies, that was a joke.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

7:19 AM - the Grabbo-arm

Whatever It Takes

Happy New Year! I'm at home sick with a sore throat. *grumble* If it gets worse, I'm going to have to go to the doctor. I'm being optimistic, though-- I spent almost a week at Christmas with Brian's family, and many of them were getting over various colds and sicknesses, so it's not a huge surprise that I'm coming down with something. Lots of hot brothy soup for me.

Christmas with Brian's family was wonderful, by the way. They are all very sweet and fun. Also, on Christmas night, we had the most fun game of Trivial Pursuit that I have ever played... it was competitive, but more than that, the company was really fun. Also, I've never met so many people who knew the answers to the pink entertainment questions. My oh my.

Oh... the shower exploded again. They are fixing it today. Meanwhile, they've shut off the water in my bathroom and... disappeared? Urgh.

The astute reader might have noticed that I've changed the archive section in the left column. Hooray for dynamic hidden menu technology, yay. I know that it works in Safari and Firefox on the Mac, but I'd love some feedback about what it's doing in IE. I'll check tomorrow at work, once my sore throat goes away.

Finally... I know I sound like a broken record, but I'm seriously looking for either a) a job that will move me back out to the Bay Area or b) remote web contract work that I can use to fund my own self back to the Bay Area. I have gotten some leads, but we need to start replacing the leads with some substance. I'm calling myself a Web Developer, but my skills are significantly more diverse than that. Résumé section.

Happy New Year, everyone! I've only got one resolution for this year; hopefully I will see you all soon!