I'm back!!!!

Me in Rio

Well after a blogging break of over three months, I decided it was time to get back on this thing. As some of you know, I was gone in South America for 10 weeks. I have been home for about a month (returned on November 18) and have just been readjusting to life back in the States.

I decided the old blog could use a little makeover, so I setup a new layout and put up a new profile picture from me in Bolivia.

So what can I say?? A lot has changed in my life in the past 3 months.

1. I officially am done with my masters degree, have received my thesis bound in a book, and have recently been notified that they have mailed out my paper diploma. Pretty exciting stuff eh?

2. I spent 10 of the most amazing weeks of my life traveling around South America and the Caribbean. This included visiting more than 10 countries, meeting many amazing people, and greatly improving my Spanish skills (at least I like to think so). If you are interested in reading about this and seeing pictures, check out the blog listed on the side of this one.

3. I decided that I want to move to Australia for a year (maximum because of the visa thing) and am planning to do that at the end of May after my sister and uncle get married.

Thats the main stuff.. pretty cool right? Since I have been home, I have just been lazy really. I am lucky enough that I had my job at Sonata to return too. I have been hitting the job hunting trail fairly hard, but with little luck. The job market is still really bad and for having sent out probably 100 applications in a month, I have only gotten 2 interview.

Also, my dad purchased and moved into a new house while I was gone, so that was really cool. I saw it once before I left, when it was empty. Its double the size of the old place and the yard is probably 6 to 7 times bigger. Definitely a nice upgrade. Nice to see my dad really happy too. I have been playing a lot of Xbox too, I spent so a lot of time reading while I traveled and writing beforehand, so its nice to just shut my brain off and relax. I finally got back on the fitness trail this past week and have started working out again. I haven't been able to play tennis (besides twice) because my friend John seems to have disappeared.. oh well.

Christmas is in 6 days, which is always exciting. I'm not as much in the Christmas spirit as normal I think because I was gone for so long. I can't believe its here already.

Also, I am really excited because my friend that I traveled with for 6 weeks will be coming to visit and stay for me at the end of January for 10 days on her way to Australia and I know we are going to have a great time!

That is about it for now, hope everyone is doing well.

Last Post for 2 Months

Please go to my other blog: http://worldswerver.livejournal.com/ as I travel and blog through South America for the next 2 months.

Just gonna cover some highlights from the last week:
1. Paid for my binding fees for my thesis, I am officially graduated and have completed my master's degree.
2. Got my passport back from the Surinamese Embassy with the Visa, arranged to have my car insurance suspended, will suspend my phone on tuesday, printed out my itinerary and flights, booked my first hostel in Cartagena, and arranged for my debit/credit cards to be unblocked for my trip. Basically all pre-trip preparations have been made except for packing.
3. I decided to postpone reading the Jungle and am about halfway through Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Its tremendous so far, and I also bought some other books. A few of these will make the journey with me to South America.
4. Had Sushi with a friend thursday night and visited another friend in Anaheim friday night.

That is about it. Just need to finish packing my bag and my room up so my dad can move my stuff for me while I am gone. Take care everyone, I'll see you in a few months!

T-Minus 9 Days...

until South America!

I had a great week! I finally finished my thesis WOOHOO!!! I got it signed off by both Dr. Chau in Huntington Beach and Pytell at the university. I had really good talks with both about future plans and my upcoming trip, Dr. Chau gave me a little journal to use for notes and stuff which will come in really handy. Anyways, I printed my thesis on the official cotton paper, made 3 extra copies of it, and turned it into the university. As long as it all passes on final review, I should be heading up there next week to pay for the binding fees and I am 100% done with my masters degree!!

What else.. picked up my passport from the Brazil consulate and mailed it to the Surinamese embassy in DC in order to get their visa. I saw my old friend Josh from high school while I was in LA, I hadn't seen him in 2 years or so. Packed up most of my room and prepared most of the documents and stuff for my trip. Got a fleece sleeping bag and toiletries so I have basically everything I need. Also, I got my Colombian and Peruvian currency from my bank so I have some cash when I first get to these countries. I finished Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad; both were really good books. I am going to start The Jungle by Upton Sinclair next.

I have been having a really good time with my sister and niece, my niece cried yesterday when I left for work lol shes adorable. I only have two more days with them which is sad, but it has been a good visit. Yesterday we all went to Brendan's in palm desert and hung out which was a lot of fun.

Thats about it on my end. Things are good, starting to get ANXIOUS! Take care

Family from Illinois

My younger sister and niece are out visiting for about 13 days, I picked them up from the airport on Wednesday night. Madi (my niece) is adorable and as you can see loves playing xbox with her uncle! She is so ridiculously cute, it makes me sad they don't live closer and I know I am going to be sad when they leave.

I had a lot of fun in SD; played some tennis, hung out with my buddy and his girl who just moved to Point Loma, my other friend Mike, and got to have dinner with another friend who I haven't seen in a bit. It was a nice relaxing trip.

I heard back from AEON finally, didn't get offered a position. No big deal there, just glad to finally have heard back from them. I got my Yellow Fever vaccination tuesday, pick up my passport tomorrow with my brazil visa, and will mail it off to the Surinamese embassy for their visa. I finished the last books in the Chronicles of Narnia series, which was a great read, all 7 books. Now I am reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, which is really good and disturbing so far.

I got my waterproof shoes and money belt in the mail, checked both of those out and they should work perfect. My dad had a poncho too so I will be borrowing that. All in all the last purchase I need to make is a sleeping bag and as much as I hate walmart, I think i'll get it there just because they sell them so cheap.

Thesis is finally nearly done. I did a second review with the university and have met all university guidelines and standards for formatting which is nice. Yesterday I went through the pre-pages, chapter 1 and chapter 2 just editing it. I found about 8 sources in my document that weren't in my references, it appears that in all the different drafst, my reference list got out of touch. Just fixing some small spelling and grammer errors too. I am going to do Chapter 3 and 4 after I finish writing this.

Still waiting to hear back from Dr. Pytell, which is making me nervous, its only been a little over 2 weeks. However, I found out that I need to turn the cotton paper copies into the university by this upcoming thursday and I need to coordinate meeting with Dr. Chau in LA to get him to sign off on it. Hopefully he gets back to me by tonight or tomorrow..

Anyways, hope everyone is well; oh ya I wrote a second travel-related post on my other blog so go check it out!

Sunny San Diego

Hey all,

Hope everyone is doing just grand. Things are good here, just hanging out at work for another hour then heading down to San Diego. I haven't been down in a while, so it should be good fun: see some friends, play some tennis, maybe hit up the beach?

My little sister and niece will be here in 3 days, really stoked for that! I know my niece is going to look huge compared to a year ago (she's 1 and a half). Pretty exciting times this last week. I finally got my copies of the journal in which I got an article on arms control in West Africa published. Been doing more preparations for my trip, which includes buying a money belt, water proof walking/hiking shoes, testing out my backpack (passed with flying colors), finished buying the rest of my flights, and I dropped my visa off to get my Brazil visa. I need to go pick it up on August 23rd, then mail it off to get my Suriname visa. I still need to take care of my Yellow Fever Vaccination too. Talked to my main job and got the time off, still haven't notified my second boss yet I should probably get on that...

What else.. oh I rebooted my old travel blog http://worldswerver.livejournal.com/. Also, I listed it on the right side of this blog. That is the blog that I will be updating as I travel and to start it off, I am doing a series of posts on how to prepare for a trip. I still haven't heard back from AEON and its been 3.5 weeks, not sure if that is good or bad but it is what it is. OH! other good news: my thesis has been approved by Dr. Jones and Dr. Chau, so I am just waiting to hear back from Dr. Pytell and if he gives it the green light I am in the clear wahoo! Also, my dad got approved on his bid for a house, so he is a new homeowner! This means I need to pack all my crap up for him because he will be moving in October while I'm gone. It will be really weird to come home to a new house, but I am excited especially for him, he has waited a long time for this.

Well, thats about it. Don't forget to check the other blog for travel-related posts and information! 23 days and counting!

South America

Well, I finished my itinerary and travel map!

You can view the travel map here

And you can download my itinerary here.

Hope you enjoy!

Planning my great escape

Now that this trip has become a reality, I have gone into plan mode. Boy, I sure like to fit as much in as I can. I have a crazy ambitious itinerary and I hope I can fit everything in. Well I guess its my own fault for trying to see the whole continent in just two months. At some point, I would like to take a trip where I just go and meander at my own pace, that was the goal of this trip initially, but the bottom line is South America is just massive and there is no way to meander if I want to fit all I can in.

I have nearly completed an excel spreadsheet with all of my information as well as a travel map showing my journey. I'll post both of those when I finish (probably later today). Also, I am going to post a few blogs about how to plan for a large trip, what you need, what you should bring/do, etc. About time I put this blog to good use no?

At any rate, I emailed my thesis out to my committee and Dr. Jones, here is hoping there is not too much more that needs to be done. Still have not heard back from AEON, no big deal there as they said 2-3 weeks and it will be 3 weeks on this upcoming wednesday. My little sister and niece will be out for 2 weeks on August 18, really excited about that. I saw Inception last week, that movie is brilliant. I highly recommend everyone go see it, there is definitely something for everyone in it.

Oh and also, I am going to revive my old travel blog over at http://worldswerver.livejournal.com/ for this trip. I need to see if there is a way I can post pictures in the text like you can with Google blogger, otherwise I might have to make a new one or something. Anyways, I'll post those things a little later on tonight.

Los Angeles Dreams

I'm trying to come up with some catchy titles to mix things up, how do you like it? haha. Well, I am currently in Hollywood staying with my friend Matt. Last night we hung out with my friends Kendra and Stephanie for a bit, then hit up a couple bars down here.

Not too much new to report.... finished my last teaching class, got my first draft of my thesis back, oh and I am going to South America for 2 months... haha ok ok so maybe I do have a few new things to talk about. I fly out to Cartagena, Colombia on September 8 and fly home on November 4 from Bogota, Colombia. I'm really excited as I wanted to do this trip in the spring and it will by far be the longest trip I have ever taken. 2 whole months?!? its going to be amazing.

Yesterday, when I drove down to LA I bought Footprints' South America 2010 handbook, this is the 86th year they have done it and by all accounts is the best guide book for S. A. Now typically I just research where I am going and kinda write the things down I want to visit. However, the fact of the matter is I am going to be visiting roughly 10 countries with different languagues,visas, currencies, etc and it just made more sense to have 1 guidebook to have that knowledge. I still have been doing a lot of research and such, but this will be extremely useful to have on the ground.

Today I am just going to work on my thesis. I am finished with both Dr. Chau and Jones corrections for the first 2 chapters, about 2/3 of the way through the chapter 3 corrections, and haven't really started chapter 4. I worked on it the last 2 days as well and feel that if I work hard today and tomorrow I should be able to finish by tomorrow night. I met with Dr. Pytell tuesday and he seemed very relaxed and confident that I would finish, which makes me happy.

Aeon called both of my references, so I could potentially hear back from them between today and next wednesday. Got on a torrent program, so I got Rosetta Stone with 20 languages, about 20 cd's and about 7 movies in the last week lol.

So ya lots of planning to do, I need to get my brazillian and surinamese visas, figure out how much time I want to spend in each country and all that jazz. Hope everyone is good!

The Starbucks Monologues

So, Starbucks now offers free wi-fi at all of their stores... pretty brilliant right? And that is where I find myself at this moment. I am meeting a friend at 1 to catch up in Roseville, then I am driving back home. I just had brunch with my 2 cousins which was really nice. This will cap off a fun-filled week. Interview with Aeon went really well in LA, both the group and personal ones. Ill find out in 1-2 weeks whether I am offered a position. San Francisco was a lot of fun. I finally got to go to a dueling piano bar, do pub trivia, see some old friends, make some new ones. And to top it off, the weather was PERFECT. It was in the 60s everydays, I mean how can you go wrong with that.

Then on Saturday was the wedding. Shane and Monica both looked amazing. A big group of us shared a hotel room, walked to the wedding, went out after the wedding, and met part of the bridal party later on. Good times. Also, got to see some really old friends from high school (Marcus, Jackson, Scott); reminescing about the good ol days haha. Lunch with Stowers and his family. Then yesterday, played some tennis, swam in the confluence, saw my friend Nicole. Then, I had dinner with Sara and her family which was great and here I am.

Need to get back to work when I get home. I haven't worked in a week and I need to get cracking on my thesis.

Wedding Bells and Travel Plans

Congratulations to my good friends Shane Trimmer and Monica Escajada who are getting married July 24 in Sacramento. I will have the pleasure of attending the wedding and I am quite excited seeing its really my first wedding to attend as an adult.

Quite the busy week planned. Tonight I am going to Palm Springs, Tues-Wed I am in LA for an interview with a company that runs english schools in Japan. Then either Wed night or Thursday I will leave for San Francisco, stay there until Saturday morning, then go up to the wedding. After that I will probably stay in Auburn until Tuesday and drive home.

Also, I got thesis corrections from my Thesis mentor and from Dr. Jones that I need to get working on; first draft is due July 29. I finished "Last days of Socrates" which was great, and am now working on The Oresteia Trilogy by Aeschylus. Also, got my Xbox back so have been playing that a bit a well.

Christian came up Thursday from Laguna Beach and we went and played tennis on the clay court in Riverside. It was fun but HOT. Its been 105 for the last 3 days and today is no different. Lets see, Spain won the world cup (vamos) and today a South African named Louis Oosthuizen won the British Open out of nowhere by 7 shots.

Im getting really ancy for the end of summer, when my thesis will be (hopefully) finished and I can go travel. Either teaching english abroad or just traveling on my own, either way it will be great, Im really looking forward to it. Just trying to decide where and in which manner I should do it. If I happen to land this gig Im interviewing for this week, I would go to Japan in Feb/March; which would give me several months to go travel on my own. If this is the case, then I would probably do a South America/Europe trip.

Anyways on to other things.. Lets talk music. I have recently really gotten into John Mayer (apparently 5 years late) and man he makes some great music. I bought Battle Studies and Continuum. Great stuff. I also got Enrique Iglesias's new CD, Euphoria. Its not bad, a good mix of spanish and english songs. Not as good as Seven or Insomniac, but definitely has some good songs on it. OH, I finally broke down and bought another Ipod. Shoutout to Jackson for sending me the link to Apple's store, I got an 8 gig vid Ipod in black for 100 bucks including shipping and tax. Pretty sweet since I havent had one for like a year.

I feel like I should post more deep, intellectual posts of like my deep thoughts as this blog is really just like a recap of what I do each week, but I have deep thoughts all week with all my free time and I would literally post 10 times a day if I did this. Oh well haha.

World Cup Final

We are about 15 minutes to the kick off to the World Cup Final which features Spain vs the Netherlands. Neither team has won the Cup before, and this is Spain's first visit to the final so it plans to be an exciting match. Germany won a wild one over Uruguay yesterday 3-2. I'm sad to see the tournament ending as I have really enjoyed it.

I had a really fun week. Monday I played some tennis. Tuesday, I hung out with my friend Christian who I met in spain. He is visiting his cousins who live in Laguna Niguel. We had some dinner in Laguna Beach and walked around and then went to World Team Tennis in Newport Beach. Michael Chang, former world #2 and French Open champion was there and he was nice enough to take a picture with me. Good times.

Wednesday, I worked out and ran and then my buddy Mike drove up from San Diego that night. On thursday, we went to the cabazon outlets and got some shirts. Then we drove up to Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear lake for the day, where we ate lunch and walked around. It was gorgeous up there, I had not been to Arrowhead in a couple year and had only been to Big Bear once as a kid years ago. Then, we rolled back to my house and just hung out.

On friday we went to my work and hung out. Afterwards we saw "Get Him To The Greek" at the 2$ movie theatre, it was ok, had some pretty funny parts. Saturday I went to work and then drove down to Anaheim to see my buddy Rocky from high school. He recently got a job at ATT there and got an apartment right by his job. We got him settled in then went to 2 cool bars in downtown Fullerton: Bourbon Street and Slidebar. Both had good crowds and themes, you can tell that downtown Fullerton has a pretty good nightlife. Then, we went back to his apartment for some margaritas and headed across the street to the bar/club/lounge that is right by his place. Unfortunately, we got there a little late and they weren't letting people in anymore. However, the place was packed and seemed like a good vibe so we will have to go there again.

Woke up this morning, got a bagel at starbucks and drove home to take a quick shower before work. For today, Im just gonna watch the game and complete the 2 assignments I have for my teaching class that are due by midnight. I finished "A Midsummer Nights Dream" which was great and am now working my way through the "Last Days of Socrates" written by Plato, which is really good so far.

Some thesis news: turns out the first draft isn't due until July 29 so that gives me 6 extra days to work on it. My graduate coordinator emailed me back and was happy with the progress that has been made which is nice. I am just waiting to get my chapters back from Dr. Jones so I can get working on it because there isn't anything I can really do until then. Also, I got an email from the journal in which I had a paper published a few months ago and they are sending my 5 copies of the article so I am stoked for that.

Hopefully will have a good week, get some work and exercize in! Take care!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July everyone!

This marks the 234 year anniversary of the declaration of independence. Im very thankful for living in this country and all the freedoms we have and I hope everyone else is too.

World Cup is getting interesting Germany, who has dominated, plays Spain in the semis and Uruguay plays The Netherlands. My money is on the Dutch and Germans advancing with Germany winning it all. The Wimbledon final was today too, which was won by Rafa Nadal in straight sets over Tomas Berdych. Im a Federer fan, as most people know, but I definitely respect Nadal's game and I hate Berdych so it was nice to see.

Read a few books this week: Waiting for Godot, a funny french play about two guys who sit around waiting for some guy named Godot. Also, I read Crimes against Logic a great book my friend Kat let me borrow. Its about logical fallacies and how present they are in today's society. I'm about to start Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, which I have seen performed, but haven't read.

I had a pretty productive week overall. Ran 4 times, worked out once, and played tennis once. I am also making a conscious effort to eat healthier. My calorie intake is good, but I have been eating shit. So I'm trying to eat better and you can really feel what a difference it makes when your exercise. Also, I emailed Chapter's 3 and 4 to Professor Jones and Chapter's 1 and 2 to Dr. Pytell, so I've had a few days break from the thesis.

I start my last online teaching class on tuesday, I am excited to get it over with. I am hoping to get my chapters back hopefully next weekend, so I can begin making those corrections. The first draft is due July 23, so time is a ticking.

Hope everyone is good.

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.

Gap week

Sorry for not posting last week. I took a week and went up to norcal. Visited lots of friends and family, saw stacy off to grad school, which was nice. I went up to the high school and chatted with all the coaches and teachers which I really enjoyed too. I stayed with my buddy Garrett the whole time, and we had a lot of fun. Also, had dinner with an old co-workers and her family: I made Sangria and Garrett cooked dinner so that was really cool. Then, I went down and spent a day with Shannon and Rob and then the night with my buddy Matt and his girlfriend who just moved into San Franciscio in a really nice apartment.

So I was gone May 17-25, then I got home and finally got some stuff done. I sent out my grad announcements the few days before I left. I re-enrolled in my teaching credential program, I only have 3 classes left woohoo. Im taking 2 in june and 1 in july, so im really excited about that. Then, I finally bought an external hard drive and recovered the data from my old laptop. The guy who did it lives where I work and he did it for like 40$, super cheap. If anyone lives near Riverside and needs CPU repairs, hit up http://www.ewsss.com/. Anyways, I got all my music back which is like 4000 songs, about 1000 pics, and all my old documents including my coaching stuff.

I have been watching the French Open a little bit, this marks around 2 years that I have been watching tennis a lot. Crazy it has gone by so fast. Anyways, Federer is in the quarterfinals and will play Robin Soderling who he beat in last years final. It should be a good match, but I think Fed will take it. John and I are going to start playing again next week which will be nice since I havent played in like 6 weeks. Im going to be so rusty.

Other than that not too much new going on.. Couple of potential teaching job prospects back up near Auburn, so we will see how those shake out. Still graduating June 19, still working on the thesis (kinda), I need to really get on that this next week. Oh yeah and im going to vegas tonight for a couple days so that should be fun.

Anyways, hope everyone is well, see ya!

Yepppppppppppppp

Hey hey,

Just watching the Federer-Nadal final at the Madrid tourney. Its a good match so far, Nadal just won a first tight set.

Not too much exciting this week, hung out with Omar friday night and had a good time. Lots of running, working out, and thesis. Printed out my grad announcements friday and im going to mail them out tomorrow I think.

Going up north on tuesday to see some friends which will be fun, wish I was going up today because Lance Armstrong is riding through auburn and it would be cool to see him.

Anyways, not much else going on, see ya all later.

Happy Mothers day

Happy mothers day to all the mothers out there, thanks for bringing us all into this world and doing what you do.

Just got done chatting with my own mom for about 30 minutes, good talk, we don't speak that often so. Spent all week working on my thesis really hard, got a lot done. Im meeting with Dr. Jones tomorrow, to discuss the layout and argument of the thesis some more. Just trying to push through it.

Went down to USC for a night to hang out with some buddies, good seeing those guys. Also, Friday night I hung out with Omar, one of my tennis buddies down here which was fun. Nice to get out. Yesterday I played golf with my dad for the first time in 9 months, I bet everyone can guess how that went haha. We also had dinner and tonight are going to see Iron man 2, which will be fun.

Trying to plan my summer out. I graduate June 19, which will be nice. Then my sister and her fiancee are moving to Boise, ID in the beginning of july, so Ill probably drive up and help them move. I dont know if this means Im going to Boise too or what but I can at least help them pack. Omar is going to Europe for a month in July and wants me to tag along. I really do want to get back to Europe, its tempting to have the opportunity to travel with someone too. I just dont know if I can swing it financially, Europe is expensive over the summer. Also, my other tennis buddy John is going up to Vancouver for several weeks and wants me to come hang out for a week or so. I definitely want to do some traveling, just need to figure it out money-wise and time-wise with my thesis.

Anyways, hope everyone is good. Take care.

Better week

Hey everyone,

Just at work, working on my thesis. My thesis has a total of four chapters (Intro, literature review, main body, and conclusion). Im just about done with my first 2 chapters and am going to email them out to my committee tonight.

Seems like everyone around me is going through a hard time right now, its very disconcerting. Maybe people are constantly having issues but I just have been blocking them out the last few months? Hard to tell.

Nothing new really to report, just really need to keep working on this thing. First draft is due May 14, so its coming up in a hurry.

Take care.

Hello

Well if anyone saw that last post (cousin Jordan) forgive me it was a bit of frustration. Anyways, things are good, I talked with some friends and I feel much better. Hope all is well with everyone.

Spring Spring

Springtime has definitely arrived in southern california or so it seems. By pring, I mean 80 degrees which will soon be 100 here in a little over a month. Anyways, first to school stuff: never met with my graduate coordinator apparently he is gone this quarter, but I have been emailing with him. Spent all week going through sources and have a few more to go. May start writing today, but probably tomorrow. Filed my grad check, I just need to enroll in my continuation "class" and Im all set.

Stacy got officially admitted into Antioch University of NE in Keene, NH so congrats to her and that is where she will attend for graduate school, big exciting news there.

Won my second match ever against John on.... Thursday the 15th I think? It was a 5 setter that went 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4. The 5th set was serve and volley only, so that was exciting to come through on that. Going to play again tonight, hopefully eradicate the vision I watched today of Nadal pummeling Verdasco in the Monte Carlo final 6-0, 6-1 blah.

Finished up Fable and ME1, so I can give those back to Shannon. I tried Knights of the Old Republic, a star wars game that was really popular about 6 years ago, but I just couldnt get into it. So I have really been playing alot of Final Fantasy, I have about 16 hours into I think, its a great story and game.

Been doing really well with my fitness lately, my last off day was last sunday. Ive run 3 miles twice this week, worked out twice, and played tennis twice. This is the pattern I want to settle into if possible. My diet has been ok maybe 75% where I want it to be, so I need to keep trying to improve in that area.

My friend Mike from San Diego is coming up tomorrow night for his bday and will stay until wednesday afternoon. That should be a lot of fun to have him around for a few days. Tough to never have friends around but it will be a nice change. I just need to really focus in on my thesis and keep plugging away at it. I feel good because Im working through these sources but ultimately I havent done any writing and its a little intimidating. Oh well, Im confident it will be ok in the end.

Hope everyone else is doing well.

Where does the time go??

Hello,

Wow so its been a bit since ive posted. Well lets see, my birthday was good, I won my first tennis match (against John) so that was a nice bday present. Then the trip up north with stacy was great, we had a lot of fun in wine country I was bummed to leave. Wine tasting was fun, it was a cool experience, I defintely want to try it again. We took a back way home too that was really pretty so it was awesome to spend some quality time together. Then my friends Jon came for a week, we had a really good time. Saw San Francisco, Stanford, Palo Alto, the Google Complex, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, San Diego, and went for a hike. Fit a lot in for just 6 days, he had a really good time and loved it though so Im happy about that.

Tomorrow, Im going in to meet my graduate coordinator to get all my stuff sorted. Im going to try to enroll in the comp exam class and dump the thesis. I just have no motivation to finish it, and I NEED to graduate in june. I dont want to waste anymore time and money here. I finished all my classes, and I got all A's and 1 A-. I just need to finish this one stupid culminating experience and Im set. So cross your fingers I can take care of that tomorrow.

Other than that, I have been playing tennis a lot, my serve has really improved since I have been practicing it a lot more. I have been losing a lot of close sets that were just decided by a few points. Um, Im playing fantasy baseball for the first time and Im in second after the first week which is good. Trying to beat the first Fable on my cpu and Mass effect 1 on the xbox so I can give those back to Shannon and Rob. Also, I have been looking for other jobs in the area, but there just isnt much out there right now. It can be a little frustrating but it is what it is I guess.

Thats about it, things are pretty good. Ive had a rough last few days just dealing with boredom, trying to figure out my school stuff and crap. Hope everyone else is good.

Hello Spring

Hey all,

Hope everyone is good, been a few weeks since I posted. Going to keep it short. I went up north the 11-15 and had a great trip with Stacy. We did a lot of things and it went by really quick, but it was fun. Im driving up there a week from today, so I'm really looking forward to that. We are going to stay at my sisters for a night and then in Napa for a night, so it will be a nice little getaway for us. Then, my friend Jon is flying into SF on the 31st and he will be out here until the 6th, so for about a week and a half I will have some good company.

On St. Pattys', I went to the Indian Wells tennis tourney for the day. I had a lot of fun, got to see some great matches, and had breakfast with Nonnie (my grandma) that morning. Hmmmm, what else... Turned in my last paper in class last thursday and I have my final this upcoming thursday. Oh yeah got a letter from UCLA... denied. I have heard back from everywhere except Oxford and UCR, UCR still needs my transcripts but Im not going to send them in so blah. Reading a couple different books and been watching March Madness of course. I picked Syracuse to win the whole thing and their chances are looking quite good at this point. Also, Im trying out fantasy baseball this year and had my draft yesterday: I got some pretty solid players so hopefully I have a good first year. I finished Long Way Round, the motorcycle documentary on Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman riding around the world, and started Long Way Down, where they ride from Scotland to South Africa. It really makes me want to get a bike and go for a ride.

Played tennis yesterday, played really well too considering I havent played in 2 weeks. I'm revamping my serve, so it will take a while until I get back to serving well but once I get there my serve should be a lot better than it was. Hit the ball with a lot of spin yesterday too which is important. My older sister, Shannon, drove down last night too for a few days so that will be fun. What else... Stacy's bday was March 19, Happy birthday babe, and mine is March 26; so I'm turning the big 24 here soon haha.

Anyways, thats about it; things are good. Hope everyone else is well.

Living the ups-and-downs of trying to finish grad school

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll it was not my favorite week of the year thats for sure. Basically, I got an email from my grad coordinator saying he couldnt sign off on my thesis due to some issues he had with it. He suggested I take it to a political science professor affiliated with the program and see if he would be willing to sign off on it. I've done this, but given the late notice of this and his apparent anger at the whole situation, it is doubtful that he will agree to pass it through. More than likely, Im going to have to do a substantial rewrite of it that will take me into next quarter. It wont change my graduation plans (June) but it will cost me close to $1000 dollars that I dont want to spend. Oh well, what are you going to do right? Such is life.

I finished Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded. Overall, its a really good book, a bit repetitive, but carries a strong message. There is substantial economic incentive to pursuing energy efficiency in the US, and it could help bolster our economy during the 21st century. But as he points out, we are currently not ready to make the hard decisions necessary to move into this direction. If we do move this way, it could be seen as an influential piece that helped trend the country in that direction. I learned a lot, however some parts were a bit dry due to Friedman's detailed explanations on certain energy things, but I liked it.

Didn't have to go to class at all: had a furlough on tuesday and skipped thursdays class. Ill get my essay back in next tuesdays class. Got some bloodwork done and got the results, everything came back great so im as healthy as an ox for now. The next nice thing to do would be to visit a dentist since I haven't seen one in about 5 years, but without insurance thats a no go for now. I began reading Supercapitalism, a book for my econ class, its a pretty easy read and somewhat interesting which helps. Oh, I also bought my tickets for the Indian Wells tennis tournment. Im only going one day this year, March 17, but its the quarterfinals so there should be a lot of great matches that day.

Flying up north on thursday, definitely looking forward to getting away. Have a lot of things planned with Stacy, so it should be a lot of fun. Hmm... I think thats about it for now. See ya later.

Goodbye February... Hello Month of My Birth

Well, its been an interesting week to say the least. I finished my essay for class and turned that in, feel pretty good about it, Im shooting for a high B, maybe low A. I got my exam back and got a 93.5%, one of only 3 A's, so that was definitely a good start to the class. My next assignment isn't due until March 18th, so I have a nice break and hopefully won't feel so burned out by the time that rolls around. Still waiting to hear back from: UCLA, UCR, Oxford, and Harvard for whatever thats worth.

Went out to Palm Springs on Monday and spent the night with my uncle Brendan, which was good fun. We played apples to apples a really fun board game, which I proceeded to win because my board game skills are off the charts haha. Then, a bunch of us played ping pong for a few hours which was a lot of fun. I was pretty rusty at first but warmed up quickly. The next day (tuesday), I visited Jennie's (Uncles gf) new salon she opened up. Its got a good location and is pretty good sized for what she needs. Got my haircut, which is always a plus.

I finished Mass Effect 2, which was a great game and I am definitely looking forward to Mass Effect 3 in 2011 ugh. Started a second play through on Dragon Age, been playing halo a lot with garrett again which is fun, and I am about halfway through Thomas Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded. HFC is a really good book so far, but pretty dense on environmental terms so its not for everyone. Jennie also gave me 4 books to read, so I definitely have a big pile of them just waiting for me.

Overall, everything is good no complaints, I just have been dealing with boredom a lot lately. I think I am so used to having so much school stuff going on from the past 6 months that not really having anything to do has been a weird transitions. Im trying to do other stuff more, Im planning on either running or playing tennis tonight but it rained yesterday so I will have to check conditions. Im flying up to Sacramento in 11 days on March 11 to go see Stacy so I am definitely looking forward to that. Take care everyone.

Restless Restless

Ever have one of those days that you just feel slightly irritated? Just sitting at work bugs me, the fact that I have school work bugs me, the fact that John won't email me back to play tennis bugs me haha. I don't know what my problem is.. just like this ever-present impatience.

Well after 1 stressful day (Thursday) and 1 somewhat stressful day (Friday), I got all the necessary forms signed/filled out and turned them into the office of graduate studies with my thesis on friday. I definitely felt a huge sense of relief after that. I also got an email from Berkeley... didn't get in. Thats 6 responses so far.. hopefully I will here from the rest soon so I can put that behind me. I'm currently working on a 7-10 econ paper due next thursday on budget deficits and the national debt. Pretty easy stuff, just a bit boring and I literally have zero motivation since I finished my thesis. I'm pretty sure I am experiencing burn out. I am so close to finishing this degree that I just want it to be over with now. Especially since I had to pay my school 700$ out of pocket to pay for my thesis class since I added it past the financial aid deadline or some shit. That was another reason my thursday was stressful besides finishing my thesis stuff. It takes a lot for me to get stressed but man having those 3-4 things in one day sure did it to me.

Anyways, got about a page done of this econ essay and im dragging my feet. I was going to work on it yesterday but decided to read a book instead. I read and finished the Art of Racing in the Rain, one of the book's nasty sent me. It was really good and I highly recommend it to anyone who has a dog or loves dogs. It will definitely give you a new perspective on your furry friend; had some sad parts, drama, really well-written I thought and an easy read. Then, I went for a run (2 miles) and just played video games.. pretty boring day but much needed.

Hope this feeling goes away, I hate this, I'm usually so content lol I don't want to feel uncontent. Anyways, talk to you all later.

In a thoughtful, but peaceful mood

Hey everyone,

I was just thinking about how important it is to be humble in life. I mean, by all means have confidence in what you do, but just remember how lucky we can be in life. Especially here in America, we have some extraordinary luxuries that we expect and are provided daily (such as food and shelter) that are completely unknown in other parts of the world. I feel very blessed and fortunate most of the time.

I got my thesis back from my committee chair with his edits yesterday, he was very thorough which is good. He also said he thought it was interesting, enjoyed it, and it definitely offerred something for people looking to expand their knowledge on politics in Africa. In other words, it was better than I feared. The other member of my committee was unable to return an edited version to me because he had  the birth of his son! Congratulations to him, I told him not to worry as my chair was thorough. He said he would read through it and contact me if there was anything glaring that needed to be fixed. I guess this is a little of a blessing in disguise for me as I am already short on time, the thesis needs to be confirmed and signed off by my committee and turned into the university for the first formal review by friday. Also, my chair had never read a thesis before as a chair so its kind of been a lemming-like experience with none of the 3 of us exactly sure what to do or if we are doing to right. Clearly, I am the one idiot in the history of the program to choose to write a thesis haha, and its increasingly going to be a waste since the chances of me pursuing a PhD shrink by the day. Nonetheless, it has/is been a good experience and I will always be able to say I wrote a thesis. Plus, it literally means that besides this and my last class I am done with the program, so its nice that I won't have to take comprehensive exams at the end. I started working on his edits last night and have worked on them literally on and off all day. I'm about halfway through I would say, so making fairly good progress.

I had my first assignment in my economics class last night, it was an essay exam worth 25% of my final grade. It went fairly well, I'm guessing I will get a high B or low A. Pretty long exam, but not too difficult. The first paper is due on February 25, a week from tomorrow, that I haven't even thought of. It only has to be 7-10 pages though so I'm not worried I can write that pretty quickly now.

Speaking of the PhD thing, I have heard back from a few other places. So far I have received 5 responses: 4 no's from Cambridge, Stanford, UC San Diego, and Yale and a request from Leeds uni for a more detailed research proposal. Leeds was kind of a shot in the dark school because I met some cool guys in Barcelona that lived there and at the time was considering England, but I am not going there. Its just not meant to be. I still am waiting to hear back from Harvard, Oxford, UCLA, UC Riverside, and UC Berkeley. Like I've said, not expecting to get into anywhere and not sure if I would go even if I did but we will see how it goes.

Played Mass Effect 2 a lot last week. In about 4 days time, I logged over 20 hours of gameplay. Great game, nice distraction too. I hadn't played video games in nearly 2 months so it has been fun to get back into one.

And most importantly, I got to spend Friday night-Tuesday morning with the girlfriend, which was awesome. We had a lot of fun, got to do some cool stuff like hiking, playing tennis, seeing movies, going out to dinner, and just enjoy each others company. Already looking forward to my next trip up north.

Anyways, hope all is well out there. Im doing good, getting close to finishing this master's thing so just trying to push through before I have to figure out my job/living situation haha. Take care.

Happy February 8th!

Hello all,

I'm trying to do a better job of posting more often, seems like I'm doing a good job, plus I have been on my computer non-stop lately. First, today is my dad's 51st birthday. I got him a book and took him out to dinner so that was nice. Next... I submitted my thesis to my committee for review . This is by no means the end of the process, but to have a near completed draft is a huge deal. Ill find out in about a week what I need to fix (and how bad it is). As long as it doesn't completely suck.. I should graduate by the end of March, thank god. So needless to say, its like part of a weight has been lifted off my shoulder, not completely off, but there is definitely a little less pressure on them. This also means that yes tonight, I will finally start playing Mass Effect 2 after 2-3 weeks of it just sitting in my room.

And most importantly... only 4 days until I am extremely happy. Have a good night everyone.

Quick Update

Hey hey,

Its raining and I'm at work, which suits me fine. Getting pretty close to having the first draft of this thesis wrapped up. Im sending it off to my committee on Monday, I just need to finish the body and conclusion, the introduction is virtually done. I went down to USC last night and hung out with a few buddies for a couple hours. It was nice to get out of the Inland Empire (basically anywhere east of Los Angeles) for a little bit, change things up.

In PhD related news, I got my first acceptance  rejection letter back... Stanford U. No big surprised there, that was by far the school that I had the least chance of getting into seeing their average minimum GRE scores was 1400 and mine is only at 1240. As I have posted, I'm fully prepared to get 10 letters that follow this vein, so it really doesn't bug me in the slightest.

6 days until the girl comes down, can't wait. Take care all.

PhD? Maybe going the way of the white buffalo...

So I have been laboring at the actual thought of entering a PhD program and the implications it would have for my future. I was first warned against this by Dr. Chambers, my ancient greek history professor at sac state. Then, more recently, by Dr. Janiskee who is the chair of the political science department at san bernardino. Both professors pointed out to me the ultra-competitive job market for people seeking university teaching jobs in the humanities. That the long hours of graduate school combined with the reality of going $40,000-$50,000 dollars worth of debt is not worth it. That you are extremely over-qualified and extremely under-paid for the work you do. At the time, my thought process was such that I acknowledged these problems but brushed them aside and continued to blindly pursue this idea I have of being a PhD holder. Thats one of the main things I have been worrying about lately. I have an IDEA of what I imagine it to be like in a PhD program and how the job market would just open up to me afterwards.

So I have been scouring the web researching this topic. I have read the blogs of the now-departed Invisible Adjunct. I also follow a few other blogs of professors who write explicitly about this. The outlook is extremely grim. Across the board, the number of tenure-track university positions has declined dramatically over the past 20 years. Adjunct professors who work part-time with no benefits are becoming the norm at universities, with many of these professors teaching at 2-3 different colleges a week to make ends meet. A predicted expansion of PhD jobs that encouraged an explosion of students to get their PhD's never came to fruition; which produced a saturation of PhD holders in the job market. In other words, there are X number of PhD academia jobs and X+1,000,000 job applicants. While competition alone isn't enough to scare me away, there are other mitigating factors.

1. Without funding, I would go deep in debt (roughly $50,000 dollars) and as an adjunct would make $30,000 dollars a year? No thanks.
2. A PhD program would take a minimum of 4-5 years, putting me at 29 years of age before I even enter the job market.. thats a lot of lost time and opportunity. Not to mention, I could easily spend another 4-5 years and countless moves trying to find a tenure-track position and NOT find one!
3. While the thought of being a PhD student has a certain amount of prestige and romanticism to it, the reality is that I will spend long hours in isolation: researching and writing, helping professors with their research, and rubbing shoulders with a certain type of person which I'm not entirely sure I care to spend a lot of time around.
4. I don't have a financial net to fall into; my family is not available to help me financially. So, if I was unable to get a job, you could see me in the streets living in a cardboard box.
5. There are a few others I was thinking of last night, but can't seem to come across them at the moment.

Now I have other options: High school and community college most notably. Also, If I don't enter a PhD program I have the flexibility of choosing where I want to go and what I want to do. A program would lock me into a location for 4-5 years and prevent me from pursuing other goals. Not to mention, what if I went halfway through a program and decided at that point I no longer wanted to do it? What a waste of time. I have spent many hours and nearly $1,000 dollars completing my 10 applications for programs, but that defintely will not be a deterrent to me if I decide I do not want this. I have never been afraid to walk away from something, and this is no different.

Now just in case someone is reading this and getting depressed because their life goal has always been to get a PhD (it has never been one of mine, which makes this realization probably easier to bear), There are exceptions. My older sister Shannon is getting her PhD in Clinical Psychology because it is necessary to have this qualification in order to have job options. People in Engineering, Math, Medical, and the Sciences will have no trouble finding jobs with a PhD. If you are in the humanities: it really comes down to teaching or if you are in Political Science like me working for the government, or a Non-Governmental Organization. I don't really have the desire to work for the government, and NGO work can be difficult to break into without having the right connections.

Basically, these are the thoughts I am having while waiting for my acceptance rejection letters to arrive. This could all be moot point, because to be honest I am not expecting to get into more than 1 or 2 programs if I'm lucky. Its all really a crapshoot: getting accepted, making it through the program, and finding a job afterwards. And then there is this, I am not sure that the thought of constantly reading academic work, researching, and trying to get paper, articles, and books published is something that exactly thrills me. While I have been fortunate to have a few publishments now and its very exciting, they were papers written for classes, not because I was trying to get published. I like reading academic and intellectual stuff when I want to learn it and its exciting, and I like learning in general when it comes to that. But its the idea of teaching, instructing, and interacting with students and other intellectuals that really draws me to teaching. I am a pretty social person, and I don't want to have to lock myself away from my family because I have some deadline I need to hit on some paper or something. Plus, I really want to be able to coach football again (something I love dearly) and the thought of never doing that again is something I am not really comfortable with.

Just on my mind, felt like I needed to write it out after thinking about it for a few days. I can see a scenario where even if I get accepted to some places, I just turn them all down and walk away from it. I need to start looking back into finishing up another bachelors (so I can teach at a community college) and finishing up my high school teaching credential. If anyone has any thoughts, feel free to post.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

No, nothing is wrong; I just recently listened to this song is all haha. New developments:

1. Finished my UCR app
2. Submitted my final paper for the publication in the Journal of Peace and Terrorism Studies
3. Did my taxes (got 400$ back, thanks Obama!)

Slowly working on my thesis... My goal is to finish it by February 5 and give my committee 2 weeks to read and review it before the first formal review is due. Watched the OZ Open Final last night and Federer beat Murray in straight sets, so congrats to him on Grand Slam #16, what a great achievement. Speaking of tennis, played the last 2 nights and playing again tonight, fun fun stuff.

My Aunt Nasty sent me 3 new books that I am really looking forward to reading, but like ME2 they will have to sit on my desk until I finish my thesis. Not much else new to report, just trying to stumble through this thesis and get it done.. what a relief it will be. Anyways, hope everyone is doing well.

New post already???

Haha, not sure why I am posting again so soon, I feel like a lot has happened in 3 days I guess! I have a few new developments: first, I decided to apply to ONE LAST school as a backup college so I am applying to UC Riverside. Not sure if I would go if it was the only place I got in, but hey why not.  Second, I got an email this morning notifying me that a paper I wrote on arms control measures in West Africa had been accepted for publication in the Journal of Peace and Terrorism Studies. Really exciting stuff, they are based out of Syracuse University in New York and if I want to, I can present the paper at a conference they are having at the end of February. I just need to check my schedule and see if I can get some funding and I might consider doing it. Their editing board ripped my paper apart pretty good, so I am in the process of fixing it and hopefully resending it back tomorrow or the next day.

Monday, I went quadding with my pops for the first time in a few months. We had a good time playing in the mud (it recently rained down here) and it was nice to get out. Quadding has always provided me with some of my best thinking time, my body is so engaged with the environment and controlling the quad that my mind becomes super clear and I can really focus my thoughts. Kind of a strange phenomenon because I really zone out, which could be a bit dangerous while riding but oh well lol no accidents yet right? Tuesday, I put in a good day's work on my thesis. I consolidated most of my writing from the summer and am at 54 pages. My target is 80 so I'm hoping with my introduction, literature review, cleaning up the body, transitions, and thesis I will be close to that target. Also, got my books for my class on Tuesday which look pretty interesting.. I'm looking forward to reading them.

I watched the Pianist today (great movie) and Obama's first State of the Union. He said all of the right things, I just hope there is some substantial action behind it. Our country really is in a tough position and I hope he can provide the leadership and strength the country needs right now.

Ran 1.5 miles on Sunday and 2 miles today without any pain in my left knee/upper shin. I am going to really ease back into running, and only run on the track. I think I would flip out if I got hurt again.. but I felt good overall. My cardio is pretty decent because of all the tennis, but my legs are definitely out of long-distance running shape. Suppose to play tennis manana, but never heard from John, so maybe I will just work out in the morning. I hope some people watched the quarterfinals of the Oz open.. there were some great matches. Oh yeah, My sister and her fiance bought me Mass Effect 2 for Christmas which arrived in the mail on tuesday. The game looks so fun, but I think I won't be able to play until after I finish my thesis. If it is anything like the first one or Dragon Age (made by the same company: Bioware) it will consume all my free time. So that is just sitting on my TV stand and tormenting me for the next few weeks I'm afraid.

On a more personal note: Stacy bought her ticket to come down here from February 12 (night)-16 (morning). Needless to say, I am ridiculously excited for this.

Where did January go?

Hey everyone,

Been a bit between posts but for good reason. I spent January 17-22 up in Sacramento with Stacy which was really good. Did some fun stuff, walked around Old Sac, went to a drive-in, had dinner with some friends, watched a lot of movies, and just got to spend some good time together. I also got to see my uncle and cousin, and another friend that I coached with at Colfax. Definitely was tough to leave, but she will be back down for Valentine's day weekend so in about 18 days or so.

Finished the essay for the Magdoff book, so I am officially done with my independent study. All I have left to graduate is one class and finishing my thesis. Today, I caught up on all my reading for the class (I skipped both classes last week while I was in Sacramento) so I should be all set with that. Starting this week I really need to treat my thesis as a job and put good, solid hours of work into it. The first review reading or whatever is February 19th.. so its coming up in 3.5 weeks. I also finished my Oxford application, so I am completely done with apps since I decided not to apply to SOAS. Now I just have to play the waiting game until March to see if i get in anywhere.

Got my school money, which was nice. Catch up on some stuff... also I got 240$ back on my credit card from my bank. When I originally bought patriot tickets in December a guy tried to burn me by not sending the tickets so I was able to cancel that transaction thankfully. I need to buy my books for class on tuesday.. I only need like 3 and they are only going to be like 60-70$ which is nice.

I haven't played any tennis in about 8 days since I was gone, I was going to play last night but had some miscommunication with my buddy. It worked out though I had a really good in-depth talk with my dad for about 3 hours which was nice because it doesn't happen often. I have only seen like one match in the Australian Open too, which is already halfway over but Ill get to watch more this week.

Things are awesome though, everything is great. Hope everyone else is good. Take care.

2010 has the start of a wonderful year

First things first:

On January 7, Stacy and I decided to officially start dating. I am extremely happy about this and very excited for the future =).

Quite alot has been going on the past 8 days. I finished the second of my economic independant study essays, so all I have left is Harry Magdoff's Imperialism without Colonies. I had my first paper presentation at a conference last Saturday ... it went pretty well, it was more laid-back then I thought. There was about 15 people in the audience and all you do is read your paper to everyone. Its good though, you get some good feedback from people and get experience presenting things to people you don't know. I also was able to have dinner with my buddy JB and hang out with my friend Mike for a few hours while I was down there, so it was a good trip.

I started class last night... my only class of the quarter and my last quarter hopefully!! Its an economic class, I think I will like it and the teacher seems nice, if but a bit boring. My Oxford app is due on January 22, so I need to finish that up. I think that will be my last application (I don't think I'm going to apply to SOAS in London; don't really want to go there). Been having some issues with money; work hasn't paid me on time, my school grant got delayed by a few weeks, along with having to pay for a stupid speeding ticket. No big deal just kinda weird how everything hits at once. A friend who owes me 150$ though is about to pay me back so that will be good.

Tennis has been really good lately too. I experienced the best 2 week stretch of playing I've ever had. I won at least 1 set for 9-10 straights days of playing. Yesterday, I didn't play that good, but hopefully tomorrow Ill pick right back up where I was playing.

Got a few things to take care of.. Sunday as soon as I get off work I'm driving up to Sacramento spend 4 days with Stacy. Its going to be awesome, I can't wait. Need to get my hair cut, finish the last economic essay, and.... I think thats it lol. Anyways, hope everyone is good; Im doing great! bye bye.

Welcome 2010!

Well I have to say it was a good start to the new years. I spent a wonderful weekend with quite a special person :). Miss Stacy came down and we had a great weekend together, hope everyone else really enjoyed the kickoff to their new year as well.

Got a bit of a busy week coming up: I finished the first of my three economics essays (15 pages!). Paul Baran's Political Economy of Growth was challenging. Next up is Andre Gunder Frank's Capitalism and Underdevelopment in Latin America that looks to be more of the same. On Saturday, I am presenting my Rwandan Genocide paper at the conference in San Diego. I finially heard from the professor who heads the phi theta alpha chapter and im a little more at ease.. I thought it had to be this big presentation but she said most people just straight up read their papers, which sounds boring to me. I imagine ill talk about the more interesting parts and maybe ready some direct quotes from the paper, should be a good experience. So I'll head down there friday night and chill with Mike and then probably hang out with him on Saturday after my presentation.

Watched Boise State beat TCU last night 17-10... really good defensive game. Chris Petersen and Boise never fail to amaze me; they called this fake punt on a 4th and 9 from their own 30 when it was tied at 10-10. Great stuff, makes me really miss coaching. I have been playing a lot of tennis lately too and quite well I might add. I think I have one a set for 3 or 4 straight times. Last time I should have won 2, but the lights shut off right as I was about to serve and completely screwed up my momentum. Im going to play today and we are at 4-4 in a set with me serving again so we will see how that goes. Been eating a little better, need to keep working on that, and I really need to start hitting my weight machine blah.

School starts next Tuesday, somewhat excited for that. A little anxious though because I REALLY need to get going on my thesis and I just haven't had the chance with these economics essays and my applications. I really hope I can knock this thing out because the first reading is mid-February :\. Other than that I just have one class so the school stuff should be fairly simple besides finishing my thesis.

Lifes great and today is beautiful. Wish the best for everyone. Speak soon.