How the Hell Did It Already Become 2008?!

Another year, another set of resolutions. Here goes mine for the year:
1. Get me one of those things called a job (well... a real one... although, 3 years of slacking off has been fun)
2. Actually attend one wedding that I've been invited to
3. Do the mud run again (and do it under 1:45)
4. Occupy another country
5. Start writing again and accept the fact that there will be rejections attached
6. Reconnect with long lost members of the 張 clan
7. Apply for the Amazing Race (haha... I made a funny)
8. Stop looking like a college student
9. Think first, act second
10. Floss more

Appreciating the Little Things in Life

Just returned from: Nairobi, Kenya
This I will no longer take for granted:
-Paved roads
-Flushable toilets
-Warm showers
-Electricity
-Getting my own seat in the bus/train/subway
-A government that isn't corrupt (oh wait... I don't think that really exists in real life)

Things I wouldn't mind going back to Kenya for:
-Ugali (yummy... cornmeal mush)
-Nakumatt (Kenya's version of Target/Wal-mart)
-Night skies filled with shooting stars and constellations
-Sandpaper leaves and exploding apples
-Giraffes (they're cute but they couldn't fit in my backpack... not even the baby ones)

Turkey Day

My first Thanksgiving in 2 years came and went. I managed to cook a turkey. There were some scary moments with the kitchen filling up with smoke and popping sounds from the oven, but all in all, it turned out not so bad. (No reports of food poisoning so far...)

Now, I can die happy knowing I'll never eat a turkey again.

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!

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.)