Saturday, November 29, 2008
Testing...1.2.3
Friday, November 28, 2008
Not Thanksgiving
This post will be slightly experimental, I will not have a chronological series of stories, instead whatever happened over the last week, whenever I think of it.
One of the local churches, every Thanksgiving Eve, passes out a food box and a turkey to whoever signs up for one ahead of time. The day of the event was rainy and cold, and I really thought that it would be awful. Most of the time was cold and gray, but not rainy. After about two hours, the sun started break through the clouds, and was beautiful. Imagine dirt sitting in the bottom of a bathtub, then pouring water into the tub. Then make the water red, orange, purple, and white. That was what the sky looked like. I wanted to just stand there taking it in.
Right now, sitting on the bus, there are four ladies sitting next to me, speaking what sounds like Frenglish, but I'm not sure. I love language, and hear languages mixing and overlapping is beautiful to me. One of the best parts of working at the MBA is seeing all the different people, not just ethicnically different, but different personalities and attidtudes. That is why I would rather work with the people than the animals.
Dance is going well, but putting the steps together can be hard for me. So many things happening, and keeping them in order is tricky for me. I feel much better about learning what things are SUPPOSED TO look like. If I can understand the hoped-for results, I can do much better making that happen. I think of all the things I will get out of this, the longest lasting will be a better ear for music; I can listen to the music and actually know where I am supposed to be, and what is happening. Eventually this will spread to any kind of music, I can listen and HEAR the music.
That's pretty much it for me.
Have a great week, thanks for reading.
More later.
One of the local churches, every Thanksgiving Eve, passes out a food box and a turkey to whoever signs up for one ahead of time. The day of the event was rainy and cold, and I really thought that it would be awful. Most of the time was cold and gray, but not rainy. After about two hours, the sun started break through the clouds, and was beautiful. Imagine dirt sitting in the bottom of a bathtub, then pouring water into the tub. Then make the water red, orange, purple, and white. That was what the sky looked like. I wanted to just stand there taking it in.
Right now, sitting on the bus, there are four ladies sitting next to me, speaking what sounds like Frenglish, but I'm not sure. I love language, and hear languages mixing and overlapping is beautiful to me. One of the best parts of working at the MBA is seeing all the different people, not just ethicnically different, but different personalities and attidtudes. That is why I would rather work with the people than the animals.
Dance is going well, but putting the steps together can be hard for me. So many things happening, and keeping them in order is tricky for me. I feel much better about learning what things are SUPPOSED TO look like. If I can understand the hoped-for results, I can do much better making that happen. I think of all the things I will get out of this, the longest lasting will be a better ear for music; I can listen to the music and actually know where I am supposed to be, and what is happening. Eventually this will spread to any kind of music, I can listen and HEAR the music.
That's pretty much it for me.
Have a great week, thanks for reading.
More later.
Thanksgiving
The day after Thanksgiving,
turkey on the table.
I'm still living,
my mind is able.
Why all the hustle?
Why all the hurry?
My mind is filled with thoughts of yesterday,
fun memories that won't go away.
No need to fuss.
No need to worry.
Dinner was great,
much like the rest.
But wait,
the rest of the day was the best.
No traditional day,
no guests,
just fun.
What makes Thanksgiving?
Why?
In case you didn't notice I felt poetic this morning, which is odd, because I have never written a poem before. Like I said, the part of yesterday that was the most fun was the most non-traditional part of our day. Last year, and perhaps the year before, my family went to beach in the morning. Only in California! I would have to say, last year was not too memorable, but this year was great. At the beach, there is usally some kind search for a good spot to put the blanket, just close enough to the water, but in line with a path to the parking lot. Yesterday, the search was walking out of the car, walking up the hill to the sand, and walking straight until we put the blanket down. Except for the few runners, there was no one else within 100 feet! AMAZING!
I will admit, when my family goes to the beach, the average mental age (with the exception of Mom) drops to about 7. Everyone is digging in the sand, running around in the water, and just generally being silly! Yesterday was no exception, the highlight for me was a tie between burying Nick up to his neck, and my great hole/wall/castle thing I built. (With some help) On the way home, we stopped at Burger King, and all got Whopper Jr.
Upon arriving home, the monumental task of preparing dinner began!
The task/fun of making dinner was hilarious! In a family of seven, some dinner preps seem like an attempt to break a world record for most people making different dishes in one kitchen. I have to give huge props to my mom, who had a lot of the hard work done, all that was needed was the little bit of assembly. My dish was Jello with cranberries, crushed pineapple, and walnuts, but the piece de resistance was the mix of whipped cream (whipped by me) and vanilla pudding on top.
After dinner, which was similar to yours no doubt, we decided that a really fun thing to do would be watch a movie. After some verbal jousting, You've Got Mail was chosen. I personally really like that movie, so this was just one more fun part. About an hour and 45 into the movie, too many people were falling asleep, so we all went to bed.
Great Thanksgiving!
I will have an update for the last week later today.
turkey on the table.
I'm still living,
my mind is able.
Why all the hustle?
Why all the hurry?
My mind is filled with thoughts of yesterday,
fun memories that won't go away.
No need to fuss.
No need to worry.
Dinner was great,
much like the rest.
But wait,
the rest of the day was the best.
No traditional day,
no guests,
just fun.
What makes Thanksgiving?
Why?
In case you didn't notice I felt poetic this morning, which is odd, because I have never written a poem before. Like I said, the part of yesterday that was the most fun was the most non-traditional part of our day. Last year, and perhaps the year before, my family went to beach in the morning. Only in California! I would have to say, last year was not too memorable, but this year was great. At the beach, there is usally some kind search for a good spot to put the blanket, just close enough to the water, but in line with a path to the parking lot. Yesterday, the search was walking out of the car, walking up the hill to the sand, and walking straight until we put the blanket down. Except for the few runners, there was no one else within 100 feet! AMAZING!
I will admit, when my family goes to the beach, the average mental age (with the exception of Mom) drops to about 7. Everyone is digging in the sand, running around in the water, and just generally being silly! Yesterday was no exception, the highlight for me was a tie between burying Nick up to his neck, and my great hole/wall/castle thing I built. (With some help) On the way home, we stopped at Burger King, and all got Whopper Jr.
Upon arriving home, the monumental task of preparing dinner began!
The task/fun of making dinner was hilarious! In a family of seven, some dinner preps seem like an attempt to break a world record for most people making different dishes in one kitchen. I have to give huge props to my mom, who had a lot of the hard work done, all that was needed was the little bit of assembly. My dish was Jello with cranberries, crushed pineapple, and walnuts, but the piece de resistance was the mix of whipped cream (whipped by me) and vanilla pudding on top.
After dinner, which was similar to yours no doubt, we decided that a really fun thing to do would be watch a movie. After some verbal jousting, You've Got Mail was chosen. I personally really like that movie, so this was just one more fun part. About an hour and 45 into the movie, too many people were falling asleep, so we all went to bed.
Great Thanksgiving!
I will have an update for the last week later today.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Communication
I love communication! All kinds, from all people, I just love the human ability to "impart or interchange thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs". Over the last week or so, I have been seeing a lot of different types of communication, and I have been noticing the power of communication.
The last week, besides being filled with communication, was good and busy. Every day beginning on Monday, ending Sunday, I will have had some form of ballet. Most of the "practice" has been watching the rehearsal, taking notes, and then going over the steps myself later. The "funnest" part, thus far, has been the parent's dance in the party scene at the beginning of the ballet. Most of the dance is fairly simple, but right before the end of the dance, insanity breaks out. See the picture for explaination of what happens that is so crazy. The men (small narrow arrows) walk counter-clockwise, and every third step we hold up a hand. The women (red arrows) walk the other way and do the same thing. Not that hard, except the music is very fast paced, and we need to run in order to stay in time with the music. Watching all the ballet this week, I realized that all the girls are communicating in one of the most difficult ways possible, and it continues to amaze me.
When I first applied to be a student guide at the MBA, one of the main requirements was the ability to communicate on many different levels in many different situations. Today was an intresting chance to study how different people communicate. I have many diverse personalities on my shift team, and watching how the personalities of those people effect their communication style was fascinating. Noticing those variations made me think, "What are all the factors that effect how people communicate?" I would love to hear from you readers (all 3) about what you think.
The car (which still needs a name) was covered with a tarp on Thursday.
Tommorow holds: ballet conditioning class, a trip to the local amusment park, and I'm sure something else I don't know about..
My cool things are: Gmail's new theme option (I am currently using "Shiny"), Slang Flashcards, which help people like me, slightly nerdy, very white, to be cool, and Google Trends, which shows the most searched terms or phrases in the last few hours. The information included is not only the term, but similar terms, peak of searches, and location with heaviest concentration of searches. #1 right now, "shop around lyrics". Most of the top 3 are usally pretty shallow, but every once in a while, something cool can come up.
That's all for now, maybe an update after Gilroy Gardens tommorow!
Thanks for listening to my communication.
Final question for you, what are ways of communication? I mean all of them.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Love (In All Shapes)
First, I apologize. This is not only as the song says, the most wonderful time of the year, but also the busiest time of the year. With much on my plate, I have much worth mentioning, and not much time to mention it in. As I recall, the last post was before election day. In order to maintain a slightly coherent narrative, I shall pick up from there.
Nov. 4, first black president in the history of the U.S. That was cool, but the part that was cooler to hear about was the massive win in electoral votes by a Democrat not from the South. 300-odd electoral votes for President-elect Obama. (Google's spellchecker still thinks I am trying to spell Obadiah) Where was I that I was not glued to CNN, NPR, FOX, ABC, MSNBC? I was at the MBA for a SOC (Student Oceanography Club) meeting, the topic was Fire Ecology. FIRE!!!
I was given the honor of introducing the speaker, Regional Captain Mike something, who works for BLM (Bureau of Land Management). As I was standing in front of perhaps 60 people, all friendly, I suddenly forgot Mike's last name, and not wanting to ask him, I decided to take a page from Barney, I called him Firefighter Mike. (I also called him a safety-obsessed pyromaniac, but that was a firefighter joke.) I will admit, I felt a little bad about his new nickname, until he started talking. His talk could have been on Barney!! The best of the scripted interactions was him showing a picture of a fire caused by a campfire, then asking, "Is this a good fire or a bad fire?". The students responded in frightenly zombie-like fashion, "Bad fire!". After his talk, I felt like I had made the best SOC joke, on accident!
Nutcracker rehearsals have been going pretty well, except for the ones I miss. I am becoming far more comfortable with my steps/lifts. The tricky part is keeping things in order, not doing lift A when she is expecting lift B. The positive side is my shoulders are filling out quite nicely (as well as most of my upper body) and my coordination is getting better. (Set the standard low enough and anything is getting better)
The last homeschool day was, thus far, the busiest on record, and I could tell. My family was able to come to this particular day (thanks for the ride Mom!), and I think they had a great time. Something I have noticed being at the MBA enough is that people love the planet. Not in a Earth Goddess way, but more in a, "I want to do something that keeps Earth livable for the next generation." way. Perhaps that is not so much love for the planet itself, but those who are on the planet.
Riding the bus I witnessed another kind of love. A adult son and father were waiting for bus in Monterey. The father was adjusting his son's clothes, talking very nervously, and smiling a lot. The son was being slightly embarrassed, unadjusting his father's adjustments, and looking for the bus a lot. This was a totally different kind of love, and just as heart-warming. The son, I think, was going of to college, and would not see his father for a long time. Having been victim/recipient of that kind of love, I understand what the son was feeling.
Totally unrelated except for love, I love Christmas! This is a different kind of love again, beyond really liking, but not quite at human to human levels. I realize that this is mid-November, but I just like Christmas, I am listening to Christmas music, and already want to string some lights in my room. If anyone can figure out why I like Christmas so much, please tell me!
Cool thing of the post. Pandora Internet Radio. You enter a song or artist that you like, then other songs are suggested, and slowly only songs you like are played. The best part of this is the lack of cost. As a slightly poor teen, I don't have a big Itunes library, but Pandora makes that irrelevant. If you are curious check out www.pandora.com
Bonus cool thing! www.seafoodwatch.org I pass out these cards at the MBA, their purpose is to help the consumer (you) make more environmentally informed choices when you are purchasing seafood. The Green list is things that are low in environmental impact. Yellow is medium, Red is high impact. As part of SOC I will be passing out these cards in the community, and encouraging local businesses to sell sustainable seafood. (Sustainable=very low impact)
One more cool thing. http://www.personal.psu.edu/j5j/IPIP/ipipneo300.htm this is a personality test that is more scientific than most. I was surprised by some of what was said about me. (I might share if I hear some feedback about your results.)
For those of you who noticed I changed the name/url again, the old name seemed too presumptuous, and I couldn't go back to the original name.
Thanks for reading
Chris R. H.
Nov. 4, first black president in the history of the U.S. That was cool, but the part that was cooler to hear about was the massive win in electoral votes by a Democrat not from the South. 300-odd electoral votes for President-elect Obama. (Google's spellchecker still thinks I am trying to spell Obadiah) Where was I that I was not glued to CNN, NPR, FOX, ABC, MSNBC? I was at the MBA for a SOC (Student Oceanography Club) meeting, the topic was Fire Ecology. FIRE!!!
I was given the honor of introducing the speaker, Regional Captain Mike something, who works for BLM (Bureau of Land Management). As I was standing in front of perhaps 60 people, all friendly, I suddenly forgot Mike's last name, and not wanting to ask him, I decided to take a page from Barney, I called him Firefighter Mike. (I also called him a safety-obsessed pyromaniac, but that was a firefighter joke.) I will admit, I felt a little bad about his new nickname, until he started talking. His talk could have been on Barney!! The best of the scripted interactions was him showing a picture of a fire caused by a campfire, then asking, "Is this a good fire or a bad fire?". The students responded in frightenly zombie-like fashion, "Bad fire!". After his talk, I felt like I had made the best SOC joke, on accident!
Nutcracker rehearsals have been going pretty well, except for the ones I miss. I am becoming far more comfortable with my steps/lifts. The tricky part is keeping things in order, not doing lift A when she is expecting lift B. The positive side is my shoulders are filling out quite nicely (as well as most of my upper body) and my coordination is getting better. (Set the standard low enough and anything is getting better)
The last homeschool day was, thus far, the busiest on record, and I could tell. My family was able to come to this particular day (thanks for the ride Mom!), and I think they had a great time. Something I have noticed being at the MBA enough is that people love the planet. Not in a Earth Goddess way, but more in a, "I want to do something that keeps Earth livable for the next generation." way. Perhaps that is not so much love for the planet itself, but those who are on the planet.
Riding the bus I witnessed another kind of love. A adult son and father were waiting for bus in Monterey. The father was adjusting his son's clothes, talking very nervously, and smiling a lot. The son was being slightly embarrassed, unadjusting his father's adjustments, and looking for the bus a lot. This was a totally different kind of love, and just as heart-warming. The son, I think, was going of to college, and would not see his father for a long time. Having been victim/recipient of that kind of love, I understand what the son was feeling.
Totally unrelated except for love, I love Christmas! This is a different kind of love again, beyond really liking, but not quite at human to human levels. I realize that this is mid-November, but I just like Christmas, I am listening to Christmas music, and already want to string some lights in my room. If anyone can figure out why I like Christmas so much, please tell me!
Cool thing of the post. Pandora Internet Radio. You enter a song or artist that you like, then other songs are suggested, and slowly only songs you like are played. The best part of this is the lack of cost. As a slightly poor teen, I don't have a big Itunes library, but Pandora makes that irrelevant. If you are curious check out www.pandora.com
Bonus cool thing! www.seafoodwatch.org I pass out these cards at the MBA, their purpose is to help the consumer (you) make more environmentally informed choices when you are purchasing seafood. The Green list is things that are low in environmental impact. Yellow is medium, Red is high impact. As part of SOC I will be passing out these cards in the community, and encouraging local businesses to sell sustainable seafood. (Sustainable=very low impact)
One more cool thing. http://www.personal.psu.edu/j5j/IPIP/ipipneo300.htm this is a personality test that is more scientific than most. I was surprised by some of what was said about me. (I might share if I hear some feedback about your results.)
For those of you who noticed I changed the name/url again, the old name seemed too presumptuous, and I couldn't go back to the original name.
Thanks for reading
Chris R. H.
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