I can't think of anything clever to write here...

Not too much exciting news,

The US got knocked out of the World Cup, which sucks. Hmm, work is going good (both jobs); I finished 2 online teaching classes so only one more left woohoo. Read Three cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, I recently read the sequal Stones into Schools, and the latter book is much better although the story in the first one is still awesome.

I am currently in correspondence with a college in West Turkey for a teaching gig there, I have also applied to a school in Japan and am waiting to hear back. I got my money from school, so I am able to do a few things I have been holding back on such as getting some new tennis shoes, buying rotors and brakes for my car, paying bills.. haha.

Got invited to my first wedding as an adult (besides my cousins when I was 19??). Shoutout to Shane and Monica congratulations!!! Thats at the end of July, which works out perfectly because I was planning a trip up north at the end of july anyways so that will work out quite nice.

I have been getting some good work done on my thesis. Im going to email the final 2 chapters to my professor in the next few days as the first draft is due in about a month. I dont think im too far off, so Im feeling pretty good about it.

Other than that, just gonna keep reading, working, exercising, and all that fun stuff. See ya

Pictures finally: grass court tennis and graduation!

Well, my friend John and I finally went out and did it. We went and played tennis on a grass court and I have to say its one of the coolest experiences of my life. We played at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert and had a great time. Its 20$/hr for the grass court (not bad considering there is only like 15 public grass courts in the USA now).  We played 3 sets (I lost the third in a tiebreaker), but man it was fun, definitely want to do it again soon. It was the perfect start to the grass court season and Wimbledon starts tomorrow which is exciting. Then, my aunt, cousin, and sister came down on Thursday, so we all watched Game 7 of the NBA finals and just hung out. My sister stayed down until today, but my aunt and cousin left early Friday morning.

I got a second job doing research for an accounting firm from home. So far I've only worked ten hours but it seems like a sweet gig. Its 10 dollars an hour, and its cool I call a phone number to clock in, and I just have to do the research and email it in as I finish. My boss seems like a cool guy. It will probably be 20-25 hours a week, so between my 2 jobs I will be working over 40. It will be nice to be making a decent amount of money for the first time in two years haha. Oh ya, I am still watching the World Cup a lot and the US tied with Slovenia and then England blew it and tied against Algeria. As long as we beat Algeria, we will advance to the knockout round for the first time since 2002, im really excited.

I walked in my graduation ceremony yesterday so I am officially graduated from CSU San Bernardino woohoo! It was cool, I got to sit with my friend and I saw two of my professors working with me on my thesis. Then, I had a little barbeque at my house and had some family and friends show up which was low-key and fun. We played some basketball, ping pong, and just relaxed. I just need to finish my thesis now and I will be completely done. Thats what my main focus will be in the coming weeks is finishing that up. I only have one more week of my two teaching classes so those are almost done too and then I have one more next month, but after doing 2 in one month, one should be a walk in the park.

My focus as far as jobs go has shifted away to finding something now since I found this online gig, to what I am gonna do when I finish my thesis. More and more, I think I would like to teach english abroad for a year. In fact, today I am going to apply to places in Japan, Turkey, and Dubai. I just think its something I would enjoy a lot.

Anyways, hope everyone is doing well, talk to you all sooooooooon.

I'm feeling my philosophy

I'm currently listening to When I look at the World by U2, which is currently my favorite song. Moreover, this song makes me feel... peaceful? I don't know how to explain it. My life currently revolves around: music, tennis, schoolwork, reading, and movies... not too shabby ya? But I'm missing that human connection, the deep connection you get when your surrounded by those you care about. Not to say I'm unhappy because I'm not, I'm quite content actually. I feel like I'm coming out of a long stretch of being buried in a tunnel and emerging into the open air.

Just some thoughts I've been having: true strength is not present in the ability to grasp something and hold on to it with everything you have. I have believed this for a long time, but its just not accurate. This strength is really demonstarted in the ability to let go of events, experiences, people, and things. I am by nature an extremely hopeful and optimistic person; but as I get older a tone of realism creeps into my belief system that tempers my imagination. This is both good and bad. I have always believed in the power to create and manifest the things you want most in life, and I still do. BUT, you do not create and manifest specifics. You create and manifest the concept, and life fills that concept in for you.

As a result, what is life's experience truly about? It is about growing, learning, and loving on one hand. It is also about experiencing hurt, loss, and pain on the other. We all love things that are not destined to last forever, including ourselves. For myself, I am really discouraged and tired of losing the things I love, but I'm sure everyone feels this way, no one has the pleasure of gaining and holding everything they lose in their life forever. Another aspect of this is loving yourself, which for some reason so many people struggle to do. And if you do not love yourself, life is not nearly what it could be. This is not to say to be a narcissist or egotist, but to be confident and at peace with who you are: emotionally, mentally, physically. All in all, everything is about balance. I used to know this to my soul, and it seems I have forgotten it for so long.

Bottom line is, I care/feel/love TOO hard, TOO strongly, and TOO intensely for my life situation. People are not ready for this at this stage in their life. For some reason, I am not afraid of these feelings, but I really am in the minority. It isn't even about thinking long-term or jumping into something, its just that when I feel for someone, I let everything else go. I used to always think this was a great quality, and it is on some level, but for this society and this timeframe and age, it isn't. Its a one way ticket to getting hurt, yet I haven't changed my action. So either I am a lot stronger mentally/emotionally than most people or a lot stupider... hmm... However, I think it really is time to change.. Like I already said, having the ability to let go is true strength and this includes letting go of your past and parts of who you are. I guess I feel sorry for people who fear love and deep emotions, because they don't know what they are potentially missing out on, but everyone has to find it on their own. At any rate, this is basically a compilation of my last 2 months of thinking, but its taken until now to have enough of an outside perspective to put it down.

Anyways... went out last night with some friends in Temecula.. had a fun time down there. I graduate in 6 days, which I can't wait for. I have been playing a ton of tennis, thank god. Its become my outlet, instead of coaching, my aggression goes out through tennis. Federer lost in a final today which sucks. OH, the WORLD CUP is on!! US battled England to a tie yesterday, which is huge for us. I think we have a legitimate shot of making it to the round of 16.

Have a great day everyone.

Summer is definitely here

It finally is starting to get hot down here, its been in the 90s the past few days. I finished my first week of teaching classes up, which are going well; and got a little bit done with my thesis too. Im reading a great book called Stones into Schools written by Greg Mortenson, the same guy who wrote 3 Cups of Tea. This guy builds schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan and focuses on female education. Since I took a class on Central Asia, I know some about the region and its amazing what Mortenson has been able to do so far.

I woke up at 6am today to watch the French Open Final, and it was disappointing. Robin Soderling got throttled by Rafa Nadal 6-4, 6-2, 6-4. I must say I have to finally give Nadal is due, he has an amazing game and work ethic and even though I like Federer I do respect him a lot. Speaking of tennis, I have played 3 times this week after not playing for 6 weeks and have been playing really good. I have won 8 out of 15 sets, by far the best I have done against John. Watched Hayao Miyzakis new film Ponyo last night, it was really good, more like a My Neighbor Totoro than a Spirited Away type film. Like all Miyazaki films though, it was warm, well-written, and Joe Hisashi is always amazing with music.



Developed some electronics trouble the last week. First, my cell phone now will only charge thru my car charger, the wall charger will not work anymore. I even bought a new wall charger and that didn't work so its the phone. Next, I dropped my laptop off at best buy to fix the display (I had these weird colored lines running verticle through the screen) and I won't have that for a month or so. This is both inconveniant and refreshing as weird as it sounds. Im always in front of a computer so its forcing me to do other things. Third, My xbox has frozen several times over two straight days so I think that is going to need to be sent in. Luckily my laptop was still one warranty (by a day) so that is free but the xbox will cost about 140$ so im going to have to wait. I have a wii which i havent played in a while but its time to bust that out. I ordered the software disc from netflix that lets you stream on the wii too so i will still be able to watch movies and shows which will be nice.

Anyways, thats about it. Hopefully Ill have some interesting pics for next week since I havent had pics in a while. Take care.