Monday, October 22, 2007

As the Winds Blow

Southern California can be identified by one event that occurs annually: the Santa Ana winds. Every October, my nose attempts to implode on itself as the desert air filled with dust and other random things blow by me.

But another problem these gusts can cause are these little fires. Yup, my state is on fire... or as CNN reports "California, the massive inferno". Luckily, this time around, I'm nowhere near all the chaos. (Although I think my neighbor is up to something. Flames shooting from their backyard can be labeled as questionable, right?)

It's like a big soap opera watching all these news reports. Firemen asking reporters to get them hamburgers. Commercial airliners circling the mountains. People playing football while plumbs of smoke billowing just 5 feet away from them. I can't really go outside and play on my day off since it's been smelling like an ashtray outside. So, I'll be watching that airplane fly around because it's pretty cool to watch (the flying not the fire part).

Thanks for your concerns!

Saturday, October 06, 2007

A Means to an End

Hmmm... ok, so I've been absolute crap updating this blog. Life has taken me in all sorts of directions lately and I'm slow to figure it all out.

After enjoying two months of unemployment, I finally got a job. I'm an English instructor and I teach Japanese students! (There's others from other countries but the majority of them do understand what よっぱらい [yopparai-I'm drunk] means). A bit of déjà vu? Perhaps. I actually do teach. I give out homework, lecture, grade midterms. It's like I'm a real teacher! Too bad most of the time, I really don't know what I'm talking about. (Gerrunds? Noun clauses? Is that even English? I just think back to my ESL days when I would cry because I couldn't pronounce "coyote".) I don't plan on doing this forever. It's just something to do to say I'm not a slacker, I guess.

As for the writing thing, I'm still trying to pursue it. It's hard especially since I'm now based in California and the publishing world is located all the way on the other side of the country in New York City. ...sigh... So, I'm drowning my sorrows by taking a writing class. (Some might consider it more to be a form of torture. Who knows?!)

(I'm done with the whining/verbal barf now. Next time, it'll be a more happier post. Promise.)