summer

i went into this summer looking to do some serious relaxing after my month of student teaching at UHS. basically join the longlac stm and softball (plus the usual aletheia stuff). i planned on skipping out on the hassles of summer work because i did not want to even think about money.

UHS was a very good experience. i needed a bit of affirmation in regards to teaching, and it seems i'm not as incompetant as i originally thought. all it takes is a bit more preparation. i am normally not a big proponent of preparation, but i've heard great things about it. i tried it out to ample success, after losing a lesson or two along the way.

then i got sucked into a job, a huge opportunity. an industrial valve distributing company was migrating to a new business management software and they needed lackeys to prep and move their data. i'm not sure if anyone here has read my resume, but i would probably not be the first choice for this line of work. my paid work experience was comprised entirely of daycare work. my specialization leaned more towards physics and english, rather than business and software. i'm not sure what God was trying to tell me when He let me get hired as i thought i was called to stm. my interviewer was reported to have said that i was the most underqualified of the applicants, but i had the most confidence. turns out i got to put my english to good use, editing website material and also organizing their files and whatnot. all those years doing powerpoints for english worship also factored in as i was called upon to make some marketing slideshows. all the research i did before purchasing my computer also helped, giving me a handle on the technical aspects of dealing with software. my manager -- the migration project manager, IT manager and Communications consultant and daughter of the company's president and owner and CEO of everything -- also watches the Office and Scrubs and enjoyed Office Space, fortifying my theory that we can be sure God has placed us somewhere with a purpose when we begin to notice how the sum of our past experiences and hobbies and interests converge in the present. the first year i worked at daycare was the same. i could teach the kids all manner of sports things and pokemon/yugioh tips. those skills are less relevant to industrial valves though.

i got suckered into Project T. because of a last minute injury. good times ensued and much sweat was shed as i landed in the one team that wanted to actually RUN the race. fittingly we won (first TJCAC team to win a Project T. race) a durian by virtue of ridiculous amounts of running. we were also blessed with two very savvy downtowners who knew where everything was. i carried the bag. we came back so early i got to take a very nice and relaxing half-nap in the parking lot grass. it's only prickly if you let your arms touch the grass.

i also got suckered into (assistant) coaching softball. i believe my answer to arthur was "only as a last resort, please". being on staff meant i had to show up for everything. while i would do that anyway, i'd prefer it without the burden of responsibility. i did manage to weasel out of being a carded umpire, but i did end up umpiring all 5 games. as long as there is irony, i'm okay with it. softball stuff has been my sole source of social activity this summer (sharon, your birthday dinner counts as softball, since the public invitation came during practice =D), and probably all year.

some things did not work out quite as well this summer, but i have no major regrets. everything starts to work itself out once i stop trying to control it.

9 / 10

time fountain

once in awhile i stumble upon something cool. then i blog about it,
perpetuating the illusion that i actually have something to blog about.

good thing i didn't ask her when the baby was due...

TMNT

technology has given us many things, mostly for convenience or pushing boundaries.
now computers have been put to use in creating visual effects for movies, we have reached a renaissance of sorts, specifically in the genre of the superhero: Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Hellboy, The Incredible Hulk, Spider-Man 2, X-2, Batman Begins, X3: The Last Stand, Superman Returns and to a certain extent Harry Potter and the Incredibles.

i am looking very forward to 2007: specifically Spider-Man 3, Transformers: The Movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. one that may have slipped under the radar for you, though, is the new fully-CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie. i would like to thank all the geeks and nerds from the late 70s and early 80s who have now proliferated the movie and gaming industry and have revived my favourite franchise.

so click the title link and watch the teaser trailer.

the designs hark back to the Golden Turtle age, before the full-body-costume live-action movies, before the crappy Fox cartoon. the Turtles are back to being leaner, ganglier teenaged turtles. and because of the flexibility granted by CGI techniques, they have now put the NINJA back in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. the trailer reminds me very much of those 'Urban Ninja' videos that had cropped up a few years ago.

how to be a better husband

it appears that Amy Sutherland's New York Times article, "What Shamu Taught Me About A Happy Marriage," has caused quite a stir. it's a short and pleasant read, but i'll summarize.

as is often the case in marriages, Sutherland sought to change her husband because she found herself nitpicking and becoming annoyed at all his little habits (leaving clothes on the floor, getting angry over lost keys) - none of which warrants divorce by any stretch of the imagination, but do accumulate and fester in the mind. she tried the usual approaches (counseling, nagging) to no avail (the marriage counselor actually commended their communication skills). while researching exotic animal trainers for a book, she was inspired to utilize the same training and conditioning skills on her husband.

taking sides
depending on your gender, personality and life stage, you'll probably have different reactions to this article. as an amateur behaviouralist and an aficionado of couples' rapport in particular, Sutherland's cheeky writing tickled me. my first thought was, "hey, is this ethical?" i guess it is as ethical as training a baboon to skateboard, making it an argument for someone who cares about that sort of debate.

in any case, i agree with this method. it is certainly something that i have been considering (as a parenting technique - not that i have children) for quite some time before reading this. nagging only works by annoying the naggee to the point of relenting in that hopes that the nagger will shut up. negative reinforcement short of physical damage merely serves to push our rebellion buttons.

if it is not broken ain't broke...
though it is a stereotypical prejudice to say that women always try to change/customize their men, i believe it is pretty safe to say that this stereotype is grounded in truth. where men enjoy fixing and tinkering with objects (machines and anything else that could probably be broken with further fixing), women tend to enjoy fixing people, particularly significant others. i would say this behaviour stems from playing with dolls (that give little girls the feeling of complete control over the 'lives' of their friends), but it probably extends back far beyond the advent of Barbie. why else would women go for the "bad boy" even when there is a perfectly good housetrained gentleman available? this is not a bad thing. otherwise guys (in general) would never be able to get a girl to go out with them. here's a great pick-up line: "i have emotional baggage and your voice is a soothing balm to my ravaged soul, so will you bear my children?". i refer you to the remarkable number of wounded soldiers who end up marrying their nurses, but i digress.

the techniques mentioned are nothing new - positive reinforcement has been around since Pavlov rang his bell - and they work like magic. that is to say, lots of hard work practicing and perfecting without any guarantee that it will pan out. it's sort of like... marriage. well, fancy that coinky-dink. therefore, we can conclude that marriage is the magic of classical conditioning! right?

math
seeing as how i am unmarried, all i can do is speculate (and research anecdotally!) from a logical and Christian standpoint. and i have found that marriage is supremely difficult because it requires you to be completely selfish. you heard me.

but wait, aren't we supposed to be selfless and altruistic and whatnot?
this goes completely against our natural inclinations of self-serving, of ensuring that our own interests are paramount. should we go against our design? after all, it is far easier to put the spoon in your own mouth than someone else's. what people tend to forget is that marriage combines two individuals into one entity: "for this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh" (Ephesians 5:31). a married couple should come to know each other so well that feeding each other becomes easier than feeding themselves.

so does trying to classically condition her husband to pick up his socks make the article's author the manipulative, man-eating, Beast-riding, she-devil of Babylon?

i see this more as a reasonable and positive approach to building each other up to become better partners. as you can see, i sort of ran out of energy towards the end of this entry. i was also a bit snarky in the middle because i'm not alright.