It's time for V1P2 to use his annual blog privileges for the week! I spent the past week in Yosemite acting as a volunteer leader for a program that takes underprivileged youth into national parks to teach them about the environment, conservation, ecology, and the like. I have to say, the experience was pretty overwhelming for a variety of reasons. First off, while I have taught middle aged students before, they have always been Boy Scouts. And even if the age group of these kids were the sa
Wow it’s been a long time. Over four months since I posted something here. School does that to you. I don’t really feel the need to narrate the last four months here (and I doubt anyone would want to read it), so here’s a brief summary: Took five classes while working part time at a local museum. The job isn’t great, but it’s in my field and I’m learning (or will learn) things that should become valuable so I’m game for continuing it. And it pays me so there’s that. I got four A’s and one AB, wh
Today is not Thanksgiving. Sunday wasn't Thanksgiving, either, but that's when my family decided to celebrate it. Which means that this entry has the awkward distinction of being both too late and too early, but I digress. We celebrated it then because my father and I will be out of the country during a ten day period and won't be returning until a few days after. But we love our Thanksgiving and skipping it was not an option. So, as per custom, here's a list of the things I am thankful for: M
After several months of encouraging teaching moments, discouraging teaching moments, flu, dengue fever, various colds, loud music, bad food (my fault), and (failed?) weight loss endeavors, I finally got a much needed vacation to see my family and girlfriend. Parts of it were great. The weather was (generally) cool for a California summer. Of course the day I had to go to an outdoor wedding ended up in the high 90s, but the rest of it was pretty okay. Fourth of July evening was actually pretty co
Source- Disney Blogs Well, there it is. After a few years of speculation, rumors, and short films, we have confirmation that Toy Story 4 is going to be a real thing. This early it’s hard to imagine what to make of this. On one hand, the Toy Story Trilogy is darn near perfect. It chronicles the life of a child as seen through the eyes of his toys as he grows up, matures, and moves on. It doesn’t really seem like there’s any story left to tell with these characters. Yeah Woody and the gang will h
A lot of years ago I thought it might be worth my while to buy a premier membership just to see how I liked it. I wanted to give myself an opportunity to actually test out all the perks, but I didn't want a Lifetime because I wasn't sure if I would like it that much. So I bought a one-year. And, what do you know, the things premier members could do were really cool. And after it ended I spent a lot of time thinking how I should just break in and buy a lifetime, because why not? The perks are coo
My girlfriend is a huge nerd, and she's enjoyed going to conventions for years. I have never been to a convention before. So when the San Francisco Comic Con was set to take place at the beginning of September, it presented her an opportunity to be around a bunch of fellow nerds, and an opportunity for me to see what a convention is actually like. As a bonus, Ian McDiarmid was set to make an appearance at a Q and A session, so we made seeing him our primary goal for the day. Naturally, my firs
A bunch of years ago my Dad bought my Mom a shed where she could put all of her storage stuff. It was a store bought metal shed of decent size, but it wasn’t quite water or weather proof, and it was on a wooden foundation that trapped water. So a few weeks ago he decided that he would build her a new shed from scratch that was bigger and sturdier. She was scheduled to be at a conference from Thursday through Saturday, so in those three days he was going to build that shed and have it be a surpri
It was really hard to be optimistic on Wednesday when I made that blog entry. The fire was huge, the area had doubled overnight, strong winds were expected to pick up again. And after posting that entry, the area where my girlfriend lives was advised to evacuate. But hey decided to stay until until it was mandatory, which fortunately never came, and as of now even the recommended evac has been lifted. Since then, things have been optimistic. As of now most of the larger fires seem to be at lea
When I went out shopping yesterday I had three goals: 1.) Buy my sister some ceiling stars 2.) Find her a desktop fountain 3.) Buy an iTunes giftcard. But when I was strolling through Target I decided to check out the LEGO sections to see if Onua and Gali where there on clearance. Sure enough, they were! There were a decent number of Galis for ten dollars, but I got the very last Onua which was priced at 13. So of course I wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. Throwing caution to the win
... you were not missed. Can it just be September again, already? I have a lot of thoughts on 2014 and 2015 which I will not write now because it's midnight and it's two hours past my preferred bed time. Maybe later this week I'll write some more in depth thoughts, but, in brief, I'll just say that hopefully next this year is just a little bit better than this the last one.
I've had a MacBook Pro since I graduated High School just over seven years ago. It has served me very, very well, and for the most part it is still a functional laptop. However, recently it's been having issues where it will not work unless it's plugged in, and sometimes even then it will just turn off. No, replacing the battery did not help. And it's waaaay out of warranty and too old for Apple to even bother trying to fix it. This isn't necessarily an issue, except that starting next week I
A little over a month ago I started a new job. After over a year of searching, it was exciting to finally throw away the part times I've been working and start full time doing work that, maybe technically isn't what I studied in school, but still uses what I learned in school. My first instinct is that how great it is to finally, after years and years, have a job that I don't hate... and sometimes even really like. Sure the commute sucks, and they aren't paying me enough that I can afford to mov
It's been a truly wonderful and blessed experience to live in a country that's not my own. But while it was an adventure, all adventures have to end, and I have officially hopped back across the equator (into winter, glorious winter) to continue my life. Now time do all those fun things like... finishing school and finding a new job.
And it's only gonna get hotter. Hi, BZP. Have half decent internet for a few hours. Just browsing and checking in to say hi. Making sure the place hasn't burned down. At some point in the nearish future I'll write a real blog entry but for now there's lots of things to do now that I can use internet on a laptop. Carry on.
From the Walt Disney Company's website news page: I know I'm not supposed to get excited about a film until proudction stills are released (because they can always get cancelled), but TOO LATE I ALREADY HAVE ALL THE EXCITEMENT.
This week, for the first time in a long time, my sister is moving back to the US. It's been hard for me to have her out of the country. Her time zone is pretty much the polar opposite of ours, and her work schedule (and to a lesser extent my work schedule) meant there was never much time for casual chatter- maybe an hour a week. It was frustrating because I enjoyed talking to her about whatever cool things she was doing on the other side of the world. Lately, though, talking to her has been diff
Living away from your loved ones and having limited communications with them can take a huge toll on you. So can going months with hardly a good night's sleep, ridiculous heat, and speaking a language you aren't comfortable with. So after almost a year abroad I am taking my first vacation back home, about a week and a half. And man oh man has it been a wonderful experience so far. In addition to just spending basic quality time with my family and girlfriend, I've been eating all the food I've
For various reasons not entirely important to this blog entry, I've decided that I want to pursue a masters degree. This afternoon I sent in the application to my first choice program, and while I'm nervous about it (as anyone is nervous about an application) I'm satisfied with it. Hopefully I appropriately conveyed my eagerness for the program because it sounds like the kind of thing that's tailor made for my interests. And here is where I thank my oldest sister who spent her one afternoon visi
I wrote up a nice entry yesterday before I left, but was unable to post it due to errors. As such, we're skipping the "I'm leaving" and going straight to a quick "I'm here." I'm blogging this now because I'm not sure if that will be possible tomorrow? The Internet situation is up in the air. I'd say expect less activity from me, but I'm pretty inactive to begin with so no one will notice or care. First day was interesting. I'm intimidated by the fact that I'll need to learn two languages, but
So my first year of graduate school is over. It was actually over a month ago, but I'm lazy and just got around to writing this now. I don't really have a whole lot of thoughts on it that I feel like puting down this minute, but I'm glad it's over and can put school out of my mind for another few years. I'll be spending this summer getting ready for my stint out of country. I had a nice week long break after finals where I went home to celebrate my birthday. Sure I spent the week trying to get
Now, obviously autumn isn't one of those things where you snap your fingers and it just is. Like every other seasonal change it's a process that lasts over a short time. And then there's the fact that Mother Nature herself doesn't really like to make these changes happen consistently during one certain period of time each year. But, nevertheless, someone in charge of calendars decided that today would mark the first day of autumn, probably because it's an equinox or something like that. Autumn
I almost devoted this entry to the news that Frozen 2 was announced and my thoughts on it... but Tomorrowland is coning out soon and it looks awesome. And I've had this in my 'blog drafts' document for a while now and it should have been posted weeks ago. Anyway, Tomorrowland. Movie trailers have always had issues, but the one that nags at me most is the one where trailers show way too much. Even teasers can have an obnoxious tendency to tell you the whole movie (see: Prometheus). What I love
(I can't link to the trailer and majhost won't let me upload a poster image, so go here to see the poster instead [google images link].) Back in early 2010 when the Academy Award nominations were announced, there was one nomination in the “Best Animated Feature” category that threw some people for a loop: The Secret of Kells. A common reaction I saw to that was: “The Secret of What?” With it only screening at various festivals, and no more than 37 theaters in America (Boxofficemojo), it’s not
I know I should say that I like donating blood because it’s a generous thing to do and it saves lives, but honestly I just do it for the free cookies and movie tickets. The first time I donated blood was several years ago- 2011, I think? Prior to then, it's something I had always wanted to do, but despite how ridiculously easy it is to donate blood, I kept putting it off. Even after my first donation, I didn't donate again until 2014, and still only did three donations total that year. I had n
