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.

more travel notes

2/11

today we left for albuquerque. the weather the last few days was uncooperative and we were forced to wait for a better opportunity. while waiting, i spent the days reading the wall street journal and raiding james's fridge. we also did a little hiking warm up by taking a nice walk around his neighborhood in the foothills of the franklin mountains.

on the way to albuquerque we passed through white sands national monument. it was a cloudy day and late in the afternoon which made it kind of chilly. seeing white sands again was like seeing an old friend. the first time i saw it was on my first road trip out west and it's become part of the reason why i love the southwest so much.

after having a hot'n'ready pizza for dinner in james's van, we set off again. we took a dark road that passes about 50 miles north of the white sands missile range trinity site where the world's first atomic bomb was detonated. in the same area is the valley of the fires but we didn't have time or daylight to stop there. this long dark road was truly in the middle of nowhere. while white sands was cloudy, here the sky was crystal clear. without any nearby cities to bleed light into the sky, i saw the brightest stars i've ever seen in my life. you could see stars all the way to the horizon. we got out to take a longer look at the sky. i saw the milky way for the first time. it was this fuzzy collection of stars and dust that stretched from the east end of the sky to the west. truly a beautiful sight.

james is in the habit of roll starting his car to save gas. i'm not sure if this is effective but it's certainly fun. after looking at the stars, we opened the doors to the van and pushed the car until i could barely keep pace. we jumped into the car, james put it in first gear, let the clutch go, and we rocked forward a moment before the engine started.

a few hours later, we arrived in albuquerque to stay with our friends ted and natasha. we chatted a while getting caught up with each other and ate ted's delicious guacamole dip. all in all, a pretty good day.

hermann park

the weather the last few days has been beautiful. dark clouds and short bursts of rain give way to cool sunny skies for the rest of the afternoon. i set out today not knowing where i would end up. i saw a sign giving information about parking for the bayou city art festival, so i headed that way. i spent about 40 minutes in traffic without finding a parking spot, but it was such a nice day to be out that i didn't mind too much. i gave up on the art festival and headed towards the museum of fine arts. i usually don't have a problem parking there, but i found the place i normally park was full. so, i headed across the street to hermann park and eventually found some place to get out of my car. an hour and 35 miles later, i ended up sitting on the hill in front of the miller outdoor theatre, enjoying the afternoon sun and reading a book.

it might seem like a long way and a lot of trouble to find a patch of grass, but it's funny how certain places take on such significance. although this hill is nothing special in particular, there are a lot of good memories for me there. as a kid, i remember taking field trips to the museum of natural science and having a picnic lunch on this hill. after lunch, it seemed proper to roll like logs and race down the hill. indeed, i can't remember a single instance where i've been there and didn't roll down the hill or watch every kid under 10 roll down the hill.

i've had several dates there. i've sat on a bench by myself having lunch there more than once. i've been restless at night and walked around there. maybe i have a long memory, or maybe i'm lazy in finding places to visit, but this hill 35 miles away from where i live seems to be a favorite place of mine. and a favorite place for a lot of other people too.

the first days of my unemployment seemed to move so slow. one week seemed like three. these days seem to move pretty fast. i don't move fast at all, but the days do, so that two weeks pass without me noticing. it's like when i was working but without the stress. having become aware of this has made me a little restless in the last few days. i started to wonder how i let a month go by without accomplishing anything. then i started to wonder what it is that i want to accomplish. having no immediate answers, i started to feel like i'm becoming dull.

now i'm wondering if being dull is a problem, or if being dull is a step forward. maybe feeling dull is actually all the noisy thoughts in my head taking a break, making room for something new to come in. or, maybe feeling dull is actually a result of not exercising my brain and instead has made it harder to see the subtle. or maybe i'm getting carried away, hahaha. in any case, i'm starting to feel like i've had a lot of rest and that i'm ready to be a little more active. active in what i've yet to decide on.

reboot

this afternoon, i spent a ridiculous amount of time writing a program to backup my hard disk to my usb drive. on one hand, i'm too cheap to pay for backup software and on the other, i couldn't find what i wanted for free. so, i thought it'd be a good exercise to have a go at it.

several hours later, i finished it and it seems to work okay. i'm also reminded of why i don't want to work on computers anymore. i still haven't found a peaceful way to work on them. something trivial doesn't work the way it should or something crashes or some other tedious thing which has me cursing under my breath at the screen and pounding at the keyboard. add three cups of coffee daily to the mix and i'm not a pleasant person to be around. and it's not just me... one of my nicer colleagues would yell "you stupid tool!" at his monitor three times a week. another colleague would see his cursor freeze, pound the ctrl-alt-delete combo three or four times, slam the mouse onto the desk, yell "i hate this f*ing place!" (imagine something like al pacino in "heat" here), and walk out to have a cigarette.

i had a recruiter call me about a job yesterday. the position was doing the same sort of work i was doing at my first job. i was inclined to call back about it, but after today's exercise, my will to stay out of engineering for now is renewed.

on a lighter note, i was talking with my friend the other day and the topic of the moon landings came up. i told her the main problem i think might cast some doubt on it would be the guidance computer. i just spent a bunch of time looking up some stuff trying to debunk the moon landing hoax theories. a lot of the hoax theories had pretty reasonable explanations. still, what do i know? and besides, what does it matter?

just don't tell me a computer will be steering my car for me. seeing "microsoft" on the stereo in a rental car is enough to make me nervous.

a very nice spring break

these days are pretty quiet.
i'm reading and thinking a lot, but for the time being, nothing is troubling me.
i hear birds singing outside my window in the morning.
i see beautiful red azaleas in my backyard and deep blue bluebonnets on the side of the road.
i'm eating well and visiting my friends often.

just saying hi