The Blarg

The last post didn’t really count as an update, just more of a rant, so here’s a better post.

Christmas was nice. We split time between both sets of grandparents, and then we went up north. Great-Grandma got to hold Luke, so we took pictures and videos of that. Who knows how long she’ll be around, so I wanted to make sure he’d have that to remember her. It makes me want to find some of the old photos of me with some Great-Grandparents that I never knew that well. On the way home we took a two-hour detour towards the San Jose area to visit Stacie’s Aunt and Uncle. It made the trip a little longer, but it was fun to see them.

So what am I doing with the rest of my vacation? My main goal is to finish my final edits on my book. I’ve got both manuscripts sitting on the table side by side, I’ve got my laptop, and I have a notebook where I’m listing any major changes to the plot and characters. Right now I’m 20% done, so I’m hoping it can be done before I go back to work. After that I need to format it for printing, order a proof copy, and then I’m letting Stacie read it first. Assuming she doesn’t find any major typos, then it will be all ready to go! The way it will work is it should be available to buy on Amazon, and I can also buy copies myself to sell for cheaper.

I’ll have to make some more posts about writing once it’s all done, because it really is an interesting process. It’s much like a painting that can be constantly updated. Maybe you start painting a scene, and then later on decide you’d like to change part of it. All you have to do is get some new paint and paint over it. A book is the same thing. The words you put down in the beginning don’t say set in stone, because the story is constantly evolving. What was written in the first few pages may not match the way the story has evolved after 300 pages, so you have to go back and make the story consistent throughout. It’s not really fun to edit, but if you don’t you’re doing your story a major disservice.

Israel is attacking Gaza!

Before you read another headline, or watch another tv report, please read this article. All the press coverage I’ve seen has failed to mention the countless rocket attacks that the people of Israel face everyday. Instead it’s evil Israel attacks the poor helpless Palestinians. A news report tonight said that a civilian was killed in Gaza when an Israeli rocket landed in a civilian neighborhood. What they failed to mention is that Hamas routinely uses civilian neighborhoods to launch their rockets!

Get informed.

I know you’re not all on vacation, but I am, and it is sweet. Oh so sweet is the respite from crazy adolescents! Speaking of crazy Junior Highers, I rarely post about anything specific to work, but during this joyous time of vacation I shall choose a hilarious example of why I love my job. In one class I have a student who asks me the other day ,”Are you my friend?” Now maybe the hilarity of the situation won’t transfer over in a blog post, but my standard response to this question is “No, I’m your teacher.” You see, when you’ve been teaching a while, you develop these canned responses, sort of like a script. It’s like the words just flow out of me like they have countless times before. When the student inevitably replies “Why not?” I then say, “We don’t hang out. You didn’t invite me to your birthday party. We don’t text message each other. I don’t help you pass notes in class….” At this point the student usually gets it and leaves the subject alone, but not this particular student. He is in a state of denial and replies “No, I think you’re my friend.” Apparently despite proof of the opposite, he continues to press. I then reply “None of your teachers are your friends, they’re your teachers.” He says, “No, Mr. Smith is my friend.” I tell him to ask Mr. Smith later that day, and then let me know tomorrow what he said.

The next day he walks into my class and looks at me with sad eyes and says, “I asked Mr. Smith if he’s my friend, and he said no.” It was the most hilarious thing ever. Now the student tells me to say hi to my baby so my baby will be his friend. Gotta love it.

Anyways, my brother took me to the shooting range for the first time yesterday. We got to shoot a couple handguns and his new .22 pump-action rifle. I figure since he’s getting into it I should at least go and try it, and as a good conservative that believes strongly in gun rights, I should at least have shot one before. Overall it was really a lot of fun. I think there is a certain mystique that surrounds guns, and until you’ve actually held one, loaded it, and and shot it, you don’t realize how typical it really is. I’m not trying to demean the very dangerous power a gun can have, but it really reminded me of shooting a BB gun. Granted it’s much more powerful and you have to be more careful, but it’s a lot the same. Here’s my first target from shooting 12 rounds of my brother’s 357 Magnum (which I believe was .38 ammo?) It’s a bigger gun than his .22 handgun, and while the .22 is more economical and great for practicing your accuracy, there is definitely something cool about the bigger BOOM you get from the bigger ammo.

My first couple shots were off the mark, but once I got used to the action it wasn’t so bad! Thanks for taking me bro.

Otherwise we’re just gearing up for Christmas in a very low key way. Neither Stacie or I need much, and even the baby already has more than he needs, so I think appropriately this year the focus will be on family. We’re doing my sister’s in-laws on Christmas Eve, my parents and my in-laws on Christmas, and then my Grandmother/Aunt/Cousins on my Mom’s side up in Turlock the day after Christmas. This will be our first road trip with the boy, so it should be interesting. Hope everyone’s Christmas plans and gift buying are going well.

…and another Christmas album! This one was made by yours truly and my best man Kurtiigeek! I can’t remember the year exactly…but I’m going with early 2000’s…perhaps 2002 or 2003? Kurtii might know. Enjoy!

A Quantity Over Quality Christmas

I’ve got a custom made Christmas album that I listen to every year. It’s mostly styles of music that I enjoy, so everything from punk to emo to alternative. Feel free to download it below. I’m always looking for new stuff though, so if you’ve heard an awesome Christmas tune make sure you post in the comments!

Rock and Roll Christmas Album (25 songs, 100mb)

Someone is getting awfully smart…

Luke Pulls Hair and Claps from nathan118 on Vimeo.

Not much going on. Only two more weeks until Christmas break!

Sadly, at the age of 27, I received my first filling on Friday. For years I have been proud of my cavity free mouth, but last week one of my wisdom teeth was the victim of evil tooth decay. The cool part is that a guy I played volleyball with in High School did the filling. Crazy! Anyone else beat 27 years without a cavity? My sister said that third molars (wisdom teeth) don’t even count though, which I’m fine with.

I’m already tired of Little Big Planet. Once you beat the game, it’s just a lot jumping…and no matter how cool the level…it’s still just a lot of jumping. I put it on Ebay, and I bought Wipeout HD for only $20!

Stacie just told me to turn off the computer and go to bed, and I said “The Department of Defense is under attack by a foregin terrorist and I have to stop it.” She said that’s not my job.

She also pointed out that I promised baby pictures in this post. In a week he’ll be nine months old.

Luke Mickey’s His Daddy

We do patty cake now, and as Uncle Paul points out, that’s all. We don’t roll anything or mark it with a B yet.

We also hold our own bottle if mom or dad won’t do it for him. If you let go and let it just sit there, then he’ll grab it. But if you hold it at all, he’s more than happy to let you do all the work.

We let cute little Romanian girls grab our ears and then we make weird faces.

On Thanksgiving we were thankful to be able to spend it with our Great-Grandpa. This is my favorite picture of the two of them.

I’ve only missed a Thanksgiving post by a full week.

The baby is doing great. He had an ear infection that had spread to both ears, but two weeks ago he got a super antibiotic shot, and he’s all better now. Got our 8 month shots finally, and he weighed in at 23 pounds on the nose (at 8.5 months now).

On Thanksgiving Day he started to crawl, and it’s on video! He wanted Great Grandpa’s cane, and he pulled himself a good 4-5 feet across the floor to get it. Right now he mainly uses his right arm and his legs, and just leaves his left arm tucked under him. His favorite destinations on the floor are the Wii Fit and the cables on the front of the PS3. When Stacie asked me what I was going to do about that, I said I was going to place decoy cables around the room. Then he will crawl to the decoy cables and not mess up anything. I’m sure it will work.

I haven’t mentioned anything about my novel in months. I sent off two copies of it to be edited, and I now have them both back in my possession! My next step is to read through my editors’ notes, take some notes about any major changes I want to make, and then I need to go back through the entire thing one more time. My goal is to have it done by March/April because that will be two years since I started it. Originally I had hoped for Christmas time, but that’s not going to happen. Thanks again to Kevin and Joanne for all their hard work.

There’s a quick update on things. Baby pictures in the next one, I promise.