can you hear me now?

it has been a good long while since i wrote something here. if march was a month for lazily swimming, reading in starbucks, and hiding out from people in general, then april has been a month of reconnecting with the outside world.

today is a momentous day because i received my acceptance letter to study mandarin in taipei this fall. this year being what it's been so far, and with the new news of swine flu just across the border in mexico, i can't think of a better set of circumstances to just try my fortune elsewhere.

in the last few weeks, i've made some new friends, i've started playing music again, and i've done a little volunteering work at the museum. also, i've learned how to turn off the gas to the appliances so that i could fog my house without blowing it up. the fact that i applied a poisonous highly flammable product to my house and left it unattended for several hours speaks to the serious nature of the flea problem i've been having at home. fortunately, the problem seems to be subsiding.

i'm continuing to read a lot of chinese philosophy and now i'm slowly approaching kant's critique of pure reason. i'm being a little frugal and downloaded a free digital copy of it from project gutenberg. my immedate complaint is that there's no table of contents. yes, the book has had all formatting removed, so there are no page numbers to jump to, but a table of contents just listing the chapter names woud be nice. also, as soon as i looked at it, i spent about half an hour thinking of ways to text process the thing into a more readable format. in the end, i'll probably purchase a paper copy.

where has the month gone? i'm not quite sure. it's been fun but i hope may will be a better balance for me.

shaunosaurus rex

i am excited today. i just became a volunteer at the museum of natural science. what does this mean? this means i get to visit the museum for free, learn about whatever exhibits i want, and eventually be a tour guide. tomorrow is my first day to volunteer and i'll be tagging along with a group going through the genghis khan exhibition.

coming up next week i'll be following a group of hisd students and learning about the permanent exhibits. i've never been much of a public speaker and i'm hit or miss with kids. i think doing this will be a great way to learn some new skills and to give me a change of pace from working with technical people in front of a computer all day.

speaking of technical work, i had a call from my recruiter this morning and it seems the job market is starting to pick up again. i'm not really inclined to go back to work and he said he hasn't seen any jobs in my field yet, but it's always a good idea to keep your options open so i told him i'm still interested.

i spent the rest of the afternoon reading a little bit and then going out to a field to practice casting my new fishing rod. after about an hour of practice, i started to get the hang of the whole thing. can't wait to go to galveston.

monday

okay, so it's late and i've had several margaritas and several beers. i hope this doesn't do anything to reduce the sincerity of anything i write hereafter. i've had a wonderful day. today i went swimming and i have to concede that at the moment i'm an not a very good swimmer. afterwards, i was invited to dinner by my good friend luis. we met up at a mediterranean restaurant, but as nobody else had shown up, we took a nice little walk down westheimer to wings n' more to have some drinks and watch the astros play on opening day. within three innings they were down 3-0. way to go astros. it's nice to know some things never change. at least the happy hour beers were only $1.25. after we got a hold of everybody, we went back to the mediterranean restaurant only to find that it wasn't that good. instead, we had dinner at a pretty good mexican restaurant. more margaritas came and our conversation got out of hand as might be expected when margaritas are involved. our friend scott had to go home because he had work early in the morning, but luis, kyle, nancy, and i set out to shakespeare's pub, which is some hole in the wall on memorial drive. nobody knew what time it was and we arrived there at 8:30. the place was empty and we were the only excited ones there. after some darts, some pool, some drinks, some live music, everyone was in a pretty good mood but nevertheless it was time to call it a night. i wished kyle and nancy a good night, took luis back to his car, took some leftovers back home to my mom, and here i am. all in all, a pretty good day. i'm pretty fortunate to have such good friends and to have met such nice new friends so far. i've been invited to yoga, to a birthday party, and to a weekend floating down the frio river in july. wonderful. i don't know what i've done to be so fortunate. and it's still monday... who knows how tomorrow or the rest of the week will work out.

beautiful days

this past weekend i've had some of the nicest days in houston that i can remember. starting on friday, i treated myself to a delicious sushi lunch and an afternoon in the park. this time, the piece of grass i drove a long way for was the park next door to the menil collection. it was mid afternoon when i arrived there so that the western edge of the park was shaded by trees while the open center was still brightly lit. i set myself down on the cool grass near the shade. there were plenty of other people in the park sitting on blankets having picnics, reading books, or playing with their dogs. i made a mental note that i should start carrying a big blanket in my car for occasions like this. i sat in the warm sun reading chuang tzu for a long time. after that, i stretched out on the grass and stared up at the sky and let my mind wander.

i had stayed out late with some friends friday night, so saturday i stayed in bed for a long while. i didn't really sleep but was somewhere between dozing and fully awake. again i let my mind wander and thoroughly enjoyed it. after i finally got out of bed, i made my way down to starbucks where, despite my best efforts, i'm now recognized as the guy who buys the smallest coffee, leaves the smallest tip, and wastes the most afternoons. well, i'm not sure about all those titles, but i've certainly been recognized as someone who comes in often enough to warrant recognizing. after some time there, i had a craving for some greasy chinese buffet food so i called my friend pablo and we met up for an early dinner. we had a pretty good conversation about how to approach life. our outlooks are vastly opposed. he likes to have a long term plan while i like to drift about. after this, we met up some more friends and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening out on a patio sipping margaritas telling old stories.

finally, today i enjoyed the afternoon by taking a nice long walk around my neighborhood. i used to do this back in high school and would hardly see anyone else walking. today i'm happy to see that there are some trails put in and more people out enjoying the afternoon this way. it might sound like a small thing, but living in a sprawling yet sparse, hot, humid, swamp like houston makes walking not nearly as practical as it should be.

since coming back to houston, i've been meaning to write every day like i was doing when i started this in colorado. for most of the month i've been reading a lot and thinking but not really forming any ideas. i've also been relatively care free these days, not worrying about losing a job, finding a job, or where i'm going in life. finally i've started to be able to just enjoy each day as it happens. however, as orlando's biographer complained, "life...has nothing whatever to do with sitting still in a chair and thinking...therefore...there is nothing for it but to recite the calendar". not having so much on my mind, i haven't been writing much, but whenever my mind starts churning again, i suppose i'll start to air it out here again.