I was recently hired at an all-boys high school and next month I will begin teaching teenagers. I will continue teaching at the University two nights a week. I have been spending the most of July in Arizona visiting family (including Gabe for a week JJ) but while I was out here I also got a call from a school I applied at months ago and I went in and interviewed last Thursday. I am hoping to hear back this week.
While on vacation this summer I have finished a few books – mostly nonfiction stuff, mostly things that I wanted to read for personal or professional development, probably not that interesting to other people but it has been interesting to me.
Here is a short list of the last two weeks reading:
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
How to Answer Hard Interview Questions
The First-Time Manager (which was awesome)
The Devil and Sherlock Holmes (also a very enjoyable read-listen (I use a text to speech program called Natural Reader – makes reading a lot easier for a slow reader like me))
I also downloaded a series of Love & Logic seminars and I have been listening to those. Very helpful stuff.
I have started a book by Thich Nhat Hanh called Anger, Wisdom for Cooling the Flames
I guess that that is about it on the reading end of things.
Other things:
I have been able to watch this season of True Blood
I went to the newest Harry Potter with my sister. It was ok. I don’t think my son would like it and I don’t think that the battle scenes were nearly as interesting as they could [should] have been. The book was just better.
Hmmmmm….. What else?
I guess that that is good enough for now. Things are not bad. I wish I had Gabe all the time. It has been good seeing family. I feel like I am learning a lot. Nothing to complain about. Except my foot – my foot hurts. J There now I even complained. Life is good.
Spent three hours getting oral surgery done today. Last night I couldn’t sleep well because of pain and tonight I just can’t sleep. I think that it is the pain-killers I am on. L
In other news, I am in Phoenix. Been spending the week with Gabe and my family. I feel very blessed. I know that I am going to miss him so much next week.
Someday, when I am an old man, I want to sit alone on a beach on a cold day feeling the sand and the salt in the wind that comes in from out to sea. I want to walk and carry a walking stick with me that I can use to poke at the gray, gravelly sand from time to time. I will look down at the hole a crab has made and I will wonder what it is like to have to rebuild your home after every single tide. Somewhere, far out to sea there will be a lonely white cloud rolling across the sky. Pieces of sea-weed and feathers from a seagull will draw an uneven line across the beach marking the progress of the last high tide. There will be a rock that I will find to sit on, and I will wait right there with my thoughts, my doubts, and my loneliness – but I will not cry. After several minutes, I will get up and walk back to my vehicle. I will turn it on. Before driving off, I will see some old toy that I picked up for my son still sitting on the dashboard against the windshield. Before driving off, I will taste the bitter, coppery taste that intense feelings of regret or disgust sometimes brings with it, I will taste the saltiness of my own skin and my own tears as my eyes begin to blur with sadness. My heart will pound, and I will take a few deep breaths to get control of myself once more. Then I will turn the key and pull away and the waves will continue pounding the sand and the crab will come out of her home. The tides will shift and then everything will start rebuilding.
I just got a job at an all boys Catholic high school to teach Spanish. Beginning in the 2012-2013 school year, they are getting rid of all their text books and supplying the students with iPads. They want to get rid of the textbooks so that they can offset the cost of buying the iPads and the entire Spanish curriculum is going to be built around (free) online materials. What do you think of that? Give me your opinion in the comments. Also, if you know of any great websites that teach Spanish, please, feel free to mention those as well.
Thanks,
me
Podemos dar las gracias a Lope de Vega por la regla de no más de dos horas en el teatro (cine ahora).
Aquí están sus reglas de cómo hacer comedias:
1. Nunca dejar el escenario vacío
2. Hacer “tragicomedias”
3. Tener siempre dos planos de intriga – uno para la nobleza, otro para el pueblo
4. Tener un desenlace feliz
5. Actuación es más importante que caracterización
6. No tardar más que dos horas
7. Mucha acción – acción verbal y decoración verbal
8. No se respeta las unidades clásicas (de lugar, tiempo, acción)
9. Aplauso: más de un significado y nivel (acudir a la audiencia para ver cuándo y para qué aplauden)
10. Función: divertir y educar (y servir como un medio de propaganda de la monarquía)
Que no pidan explicaciones – yo no sé tampoco.
Mojado, lluvioso, húmedo…. No creo que importa la palabra – el tiempo es lo mismo. Es la primavera; pues, no es la primavera – es el invierno, pero sólo según el calendario. Me siento cansado hoy. No quiero salir de la casa.
Cancelé mi cuenta de Facebook. Tengo varias razones por haberlo hecho.
En todo el día hoy el color del cielo no ha variado nada. Es un gris blancuzco o tal vez un blanco grisáceo – no sé cuál. No quiero levantarme. Anoche casi no podía dormir y miré una película en mi computadora mientras yacía dos horas en un baño de agua que cambiaba poco a poco de caliente a tibia. Me bañé pero no me lavé y ahora me huelo y no me gusta mi olor.
Hoy no tengo mucho que hacer. Necesito enviar correos electrónicos a mis clases y hacer mis maletas. No tengo internet en casa pero puedo escribir los correos ahora y enviarlos luego. Mañana tengo que ir al aeropuerto a las cuatro y media de la mañana.
Aquí, he adjuntado algunas fotos que he sacado esta semana.
me
