10-30-05
Climbing took up most of my day yesterday, even though it was raining outside. I'd planned on simply going into the climbing gym at 10 AM to volunteer for 2 hours, then head out for a few saturday errands around town. When I arrived, I checked the volunteer book for future opportunities, hopefully a weekday after work. As usual, someone named Kimberly had snagged all the prime 4-6 PM weekday volunteer slots. How does she do that?!
   With dismay, I noticed that the 1 PM slot (yesterday) was still open. Because volunteer opportunities have been "slim picking" for the last month, I knew I might end up working it. They let us earn our $68 a month membership by "volunteering", but if very few parties are scheduled, we can't earn our way to the six hour a month minimum.
    The first two hour birthday party was very hectic, with about 14 ten year olds scrambling up the walls and 6 parents screaming encouragement. There were three of us volunteers, and twice we had to shout at them to keep the noise down. The "you can do it Jimmy!" shouts were so loud we couldn't hear Jimmy shouting that he wanted to be lowered. It was your usual soccer mom frenzy, with the added complication of kids 25 feet up in the air with a fear of heights.
     After the birthday party left at noon, one of the other belayers asked me if I wanted to climb a few routes. I hadn't planned on staying, as I knew Sue was expecting me home, but what the heck, we'd been arguing most of the week and like as not I'd arrive home to another argument. I agreed to climb.
    While she went out to grab her climbing shoes, I leaned on the counter and told the owner how I'd been having trouble finding volunteer opportunities.

"It's been slim pickings for volunteering lately"

"Oh Yeah?"

"Yeah. Someone named Kimberly gets all the after work weekday slots, she must be in here everyday checking the list."

"Do you know Kimberly?

"I think I might, but I can't put the name to a face."

"It has been slow, but it's been picking up lately, you should find it a little easier soon." - the owner.

"I was thinking about signing up for the next party an hour from now, but I'm not sure I want to hang out that long."

"Well, it would really help us if you could."

"Tell you what, I'm going to climb for an hour, and if no one takes it by then, I'll do it."

"Well, the problem is that because it's such late notice, if you don't take it, I'll have to assign one of my employees, and we're all working on route setting for the black light Halloween climbing competition tonight."

One of the cute climber girls working the desk looked at me then, holding her hands in the begging position:

"Please, Please! Do the birthday party for us," she begged, looking genuinely distressed.

"Oh all right, I'll do it. Write my name down in the book." I said, and turned to my partner who was patiently waiting to climb. We swapped top ropes on a few 5.10a's, and b's and I was pleased to see that my bionic hands were still with me. I've climbed with several of the women at the gym now and they have always been much better climbers than I. This time though, after a month of working the wall traverse, I was surprised to find myself climbing a little better than my partner. I was able to hang out on thin finger holds long enough to work out the moves. I could even let go with one hand and shake out the other. It's fun having strong (dare I say young?) hands.
    Afterward I picked up an "easy out" bit for a busted off bolt and drove up to the barber for a haircut. When I walked in, I was surprised to see one of my students. This was one of the half a dozen students in school this quarter with a learning disability. Still, he stood up politely to introduce me to his father, a man about my age.
     The father had a pleasant face, very hale and hearty with a strong confident hand shake, bearing very little resemblance to his rebellious teenager. Looked like we could have had an interesting conversation, but a barber asked me if I needed a haircut and I moved on. I thought of my own kids at home and was reminded of an old saying: "There but for the grace of god go I."

10-23-05
The direction of my focus for future career possibilities has changed. Currently I have about 200 hours of study in programming the web language called php. There are jobs out there in php, and the language and logic involved suit my learning style. However, I've been finding it increasingly difficult to force myself to study php in my spare time. Maybe it's just the books I'm using (I'm on my 4th book), maybe it's just that I don't want to devote my weekends and evenings to more computer time, or...possibly; it's that I am not a programmer at heart.
   If I'm anything, I'm an artist. Programming is quite a stretch for someone with an artistic nature. I've forced myself to make that stretch for 200 hours, but I still have very little to show an employer. Yes, I do have my contact page written in php now. And I am able to manage a MYSQL database for our student grading system without fainting. However, as far as my long term goal of converting my site to php, and creating ecommerce functionality for people to buy my paintings online...I just don't seem to have the time and energy.
     At least for a while, I'm going to switch my focus from php to Flash cartoon animation. My boss suggested it as a possible class we could teach, pointing out that it would draw on my creative mind, and my artistic abilities. I balked initially, thinking about the many hours of lesson plans I'd have to create. Still, if I had to choose between creating them for Flash cartooning, or php...the choice is clear: run for the hills!
    Just kidding. So I've got a book, and a former student has offered to loan me a couple more (thanks J.A.!). Hopefully I will become inspired by this new focus in my free time. I've never been much of a cartooner, preferring the more realistic drawing style. Still, at least it looks cool, and does involve some artistic talent, as opposed to programming code. Might be fun!
    Yesterday we had the first dry weekend day in a month. It's raining today, but yesterday Sue and I went up to Exit 38 at Snoqualmie Pass and had a good day of rock climbing. Sue was rusty, and worried about her shoulder (surgery in May) but managed to climb up two easy routes without too much difficulty. Her shoulder was sore afterwards, but didn't seem to be damaged.
   I was able to cruise up five routes in the 5.9 grade without too much difficulty. The bi-weekly workouts at the climbing gym have given me bionic hands. On routes that used to terrify me, I can now rest comfortably while hanging on with one hand as I shake out the other. It's true what they say about climbing gyms, they keep you in shape, and make you a much better climber.

10-16-05
College tuition for our kids has become the topic of the week. Clint got a two year scholarship to TCC, all tuition and books are paid in full. Now, however, Lisa is a senior and there is no guarantee she will get the same scholarship. We still don't know exactly how Clint got so lucky. He did write a great letter to the committee, and his grades were excellent.
     Lisa is taking some of the same English classes, so perhaps she will become a good writer as well. I wish I could say the "topic of the week" was a spirited conversation around the dinner table about college funding. Unfortunately, it was more in the nature of a full on tantrum with my normally even tempered daughter screaming accusations at me along the lines of "you don't care about me", "You co-signed a note for Clint's truck, but you won't co-sign a note for my tuition", "I'm getting screwed, and he get's a free ride", etc., etc.
     I know I shouldn't be airing our dirty laundry on this web page, but it is password protected...sort of. I honestly think only about 6 people read this with any regularity, but that's fine. I'll open it back up one of these days if and when I leave the teaching business.
   Our little argument hinged around the fact that one of her girlfriends persuaded her mom to co-sign a tuition loan. The mother of this friend apparently put her home up for collateral. I think this means that if the girl, (let's call her Ann) defaults on the loan, the mom loses her house. I've known "Ann" since she was 5 (she is my daughter's best friend) and while I think Ann will be fine, let's just speculate on one possible outcome of co-signing a loan for an 18 year old:

    Ann goes to a college for 2 years, borrows $20,000 a year and owes $40,000 at the end of her sophomore year. This is all worst case scenario conjecture of course, but I've heard of it happening to friends of friends. Ann has a wonderful summer between sophomore and junior years, but finds herself pregnant in the fall. She chooses not to get an abortion, has the baby and drops out of school. Ann and her boyfriend get married but the boyfriend also drops out to get a full time job at the shipyard to support the family. Ann has another kid in two years and is no longer able to make payments on the school loan.
    Her mother is helping to watch Ann's babies, and has cut back on her hours at work. The mother struggles for a year to make payments on both the house and the school loan, but then the car dies and she defaults on the student loan payments. The bank takes the house and the mom moves into an apartment.

Impossible you say? These are good people, they'd never do anything that stupid... Then why do we read about it in the papers? My daughter said the only way she would not be able to pay back the money was if she was dead. I didn't want to bring up the pregnant scenario, she was going ballistic already. I told her that she had the first year's tuition at TCC in the bank. She has saved the money over the last 2 years working at her dry cleaner job.
    Oh No!, she said, that money was for a car. You don't need a car, you already drive our spare car everyday day, I countered. Use that money for tuition, I said. Apparently that was a bad suggestion. Obviously, paying for a year of community college isn't nearly as sexy as buying a $5000 used Honda.
    Still, it made sense to me. You want me to help you go to college? We can barely make our car payments and pay for food on what we make. There's nothing to spare and my savings/retirement/ira account is laughable. The blue collar printing career where I spent most of my life only covered living expenses.
   Now she's asking me to sign a note that has the potential of costing me the only good financial investment I've ever made: this house. She could tell that I was more worried about my own future than hers, and to her PMS inflamed mind it was infuriating. I guess a good parent would sign the note...
    We sort of ended the discussion/screaming match on that "note" and she's not spoken to me since then...about 4 days ago. When I went into work the next day I asked a co-worker about the whole situation. He said she is wrong. I definitely don't have to sign away the house.
     My co-worker said that the federal government gives teenagers unsecured student loans to go to college. He should know, he is making payments on one right now. He also pointed me towards an interesting book called: "How to go to college almost for free" by Ben Kaplan. Ten years ago Ben got $90,000 in free scholarships that allowed him to graduate from Harvard debt free. He's written a couple books about the process, and appears to be making a nice living off sharing his secrets.
    I've been having good luck with my coffee and dinner diet. Both days this weekend I skipped breakfast and lunch, then pigged out at dinner. I know it breaks all the healthy diet rules, but it's the only thing that works for me. I actually enjoy fasting. It brings clarity to my mind, and reminds me that hunger is a healthy feeling. As the day stretches on, and the hunger pains get sharper, I treat myself to a couple cups of coffee with sugar and non-fat creamer, dreaming about the wonderful pig-fest I'll be having at dinnertime.
   It's even better if I get some exercise while I'm fasting, that really clears the mind. I keep careful tabs on my stamina. Obviously I don't want to faint from starvation, but I don't really think that's possible when I pig out at dinner every day. it just means that I get extremely hungry around noon with lots of heavy growling noises from the belly.
      We went for a long bike ride today on some hills and I was quite strong. Yesterday I volunteered at the gym, then climbed for half an hour and did just fine on an empty stomach. I noticed I wasn't quite as strong as normal...slower recovery time after a pump, still, I had fun, and my weight is staying under 160. I'd actually like to get down to 150 just to see what I looked like. That was my prime weight in my twenties for hard climbing.

10-12-05
This journal has been taking a back seat to life lately. My distraction has been the new quarter and extremely high enrollment in my classes. I spent the last 3 days plowing through a 10 hour re-write of a buggy lesson plan. I had the original lesson plan written in PowerPoint, which prints relatively easily, and allows drag and drop. However, when I decided to re-write it, I chose to do it in inDesign, which allows much more control, not to mention being a software program I need to master.
    I felt pretty good last night making the 30 copies of the 10 page lesson. Still, the true test of a new lesson plan is how smoothly it goes in class, and this one was a couple pages too long. On the bright side, it was challenging enough that some of the students were unable to finish it during the morning lecture, which brought them back to the classroom after lunch, always a good thing.
   Sunday I went for a bike ride on the Orting bike trail, riding about 24 miles in a few hours. I went with three friends, but they left me in the dust after the first 2 hours. I can't blame them, since they are in much better shape than I am. Still, it was disappointing. I'd hoped for a pleasant afternoon of cycling and conversation with friends, but it turned out that they were on something called a "training ride".
     A training ride means you never take breaks, as opposed to the rides I normally take with friends or family where we stop whenever we feel like it. If anyone is tired, we stop. If we see something pretty to look at, we stop, if we see something worth a photo, we stop...you get the idea. It's more of a "stop to smell the roses" approach to riding. This doesn't mean we don't go just as far, but it does mean we take longer to do it, no one gets left behind and all have a good time.
   We've been taking beginners out on our trips since the seventies. It doesn't matter if it's climbing, riding, hiking, windsurfing or kayaking, if you take people along, you move at the pace of the slowest person. If you can't get the exercise you wanted, well, at least you enjoy the conversation.
    If someone is too slow, you simply don't invite them again and chalk it up to experience. You get used to that when you have kids, but I've noticed people without kids have a different approach to the issue.  Had I known it was a "training ride", I wouldn't have gone. Still, it was great exercise and once I'd given up on catching my friends I did enjoy stopping to look at all the pretty views of rivers and quaint old farms with ostriches, buffalos and pastures full of contented cows. The one ostrich I saw was pacing up and down a long stretch of fence, looking very much like one of Spielberg's dinosaurs.
      I pulled off the bike trail and walked along the fence beside it for a couple minutes, staring into it's malevolent yellow eyes. It clearly saw me, and just as clearly hated me deeply. Perhaps it was just my imagination, but that was one scary bird. It paced along the fence like something demented, turning it's head slowly from side to side, occasionally glancing directly at me through the wire. Because it was my height, and it was looking into the sun at me I could see it's irises clearly in the afternoon light. They were a brilliant amber color, shaded with dark brown and I sensed a dark brooding malevolence, as if it would like nothing better than to knock me down and peck out my eyes.
    Yesterday I volunteered at the climbing gym again, but no one showed up needing a belay so I simply bouldered the entire 2 hours, burning out my forearms as I worked out the problems in the long traverse route that circles the wall. I've got most of the hard moves mastered, now I'm working on stringing them all together so I can get all the way around without falling off. I need to get out of this journal and rehearse my lesson plan for my Flash class tomorrow morning. It's 9:30 PM, and I should be able to run though it by 10, maybe sooner...just another day in the life of a teacher.

10-01-05
Back at work and I think I like it. Vacationing for a month was fun, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything, but it felt a little insecure having that much time off without pay. At heart I'm a 9 to 5 kind of guy, and having long stretches of vacation time makes me uneasy. I don't mind working, especially at a low stress kind of job like teaching.
   My first day back was quite chaotic as the other teacher kept bringing new students in after I'd started the lesson. This required that I stop the lesson and bring the new arrivals up to speed: where the network storage area was, what are the log in credentials, get them to sign the attendance sheet, etc. Because of all those interruptions, I missed a step in the Photoshop History Brush lesson and was unable to get the thing to work.
    The whole class ground to a halt for half an hour as we all struggled to figure it out. The History Brush is a real pain. While it does allow you to "paint" back to a previous history snapshot, when you add in the complexity of a pastel history art brush, constant interruptions and the fact that, other than a 2 hour rehearsal the night before, I'd not touched the software in a month...well, chaos was a dead certainty.
    Fortunately, I have a couple very bright students in the class who, seeing me floundering, picked up the lesson and began carefully re-working the steps from page one. They found my omission (use a history snapshot of MERGED layers) and enlightened me to my error. Even more embarrassing was that I didn't get it for a while. I do what? Which button do I press?
      Working straight from the Photoshop WOW book is always troublesome. Instead of explaining tasks in bulleted lists, they cram 10 steps into one long paragraph. That was Monday, a day I'm trying to forget. Tuesday was drawing, and that class always goes well as I know the subject blindfolded. Wednesday and Thursday are web and Flash, also easy subjects for me.
     I belayed at the gym Friday evening and Saturday morning, trying to catch up on my hours after my 3 weeks out of town. The birthday party today had 20 kids, and twice that many parents and grandparents. Half of the kids, and most of the parents were overweight, some severely, but that didn't stop them from cheering boisterously as their little munchkin's labored up the gym routes.
     The kids had a very clear understanding of just how high they wanted to go, but the parents kept egging them on to "climb to the top, Jimmy! Don't be a chicken Jimmy!, etc. etc." The kids were shouting down at me to lower them, but the parents were shouting up at the kids to go higher. Talk about Soccer Mom hysteria. I was flummoxed and tried to balance the kids fear of heights against the parents cajoling. It was ugly.
    Still, it is great to see the gym doing so well. Tacoma has needed a gym for decades and I love having a place to go and work out after work, especially a dry place. They've put up a new traverse route that circles the entire gym wall. They've made it very challenging in places, with long stretches between handholds that require desperate lunges...it's tons of fun and will take me a couple weeks to master.
    Now I'm sitting at home on a Saturday night with nothing too pressing ahead and time on my hands. It feels good to know I've got a job to go to Monday morning and that there is plenty of time to get ready. Knowing who my students are is also a great stress reliever. Every time we start a new semester like this we have new students, and one never knows what kind of a classroom it will be. I'd hoped to go climbing Sunday, but the weather has turned rainy, so I guess I'm a home boy tomorrow. That'll give me time to catch up on my chores and brush up in Photoshop, maybe even study a little inDesign or php.

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