Some days, I just don’t know how I manage to do it all and stay sane.

After a rambunctious group of kids managed to wear me down mentally, physically, and emotionally at the end of the day Wednesday, it’s just been a tumble since then.  Wednesdays and Thursdays are usually some of my hardest days, anyways.  I recently stopped teaching a Thursday morning taekwondo class to try and maintain my tenuous grip on the fraying edges of sanity.

Well, that’s not really true.  I’m not losing my mind or anything, but that last class got to me.  I felt like the kids let me down, but at the same time I let them down.  Though, in my defense, I’m still feeling it out.  Though it’s not going terribly, I feel like I might be going too fast for them, or doing too much.  I think I’ve been viewing it more as a college course than a middle school class.

Anyways, today was another, up at 5:45am and start working day.  It’s 10:30pm and I’m finally done.  After I squeezed in my 8 hours for the day, I did some grading and planning.  I did take a short break at lunch to buy some groceries, and over the past two days ran 3 loads of laundry and 2 loads of dishes.  Unfortunately I haven’t managed to clean the house in a few weeks.  I swept one room, but the broom is still in the corner, guarding a pile of dust, while new dirt and grit infiltrates the house.

Tomorrow I’ll be up early toswim, practice the trumpet, teach, then return home and work for 8 hours.  If I’m lucky, I’ll be finishing up right around 7pm.  But even then I can’t crack open a beer and relax, because I have taekwondo on Saturday morning.

My lesson plan for tomorrow  is very loose, but I’m confident that I have enough material.  I managed to get their assignments graded today, but nobody has turned in the assignment from last class, so I’m anticipating that none of them understood it, and I’m going to have to go over it in class.  I don’t want to be too lenient about them being able to push assignments off, but if nobody understood it, I’ll have to do just that.  At least we’ll be going over the assignment and the stuff they need to know for it.

After I review the homework and introduce a few new things using another method I’m going to try out on them, I’m planning to make up a study guide for them and then giving them a quiz at the end of the week.  Of course, that means more work for me, but I think it will pay off.  I need to get a measure of what they’ve managed to remember, and figure out how to drive home the stuff we’ve already covered while still introducing new stuff they’ll need to know.

Jess has also suggested making them take notes (pencil and paper style).  The computers tend to be more of a diversion than a tool in the classroom so far.  Even a guided exercise doesn’t get 2 steps before 3 kids are doing something not on the plan, and 2 more have technical problems.

I’m almost hoping they ask me to do this again next trimester, if for no other reason than so I can try to apply what I’ve learned and improve the class.  Sometimes I think I’m addicted to self-improvement to the point where it becomes self-destructive.  Isn’t that ironic?

Ok, well I’m going to throw myself into bed so I can be fully charged tomorrow for the kids. 

I’ve always been interested in the arts, and have a deep appreciation for both the form and function of things.  Whenever I see a work of art, I can’t help but be amazed at the talent involved.  And I know through playing music that the creation of art will always be a more intense experience than simply observing it. 

All that being said, I have decided to try my hand at painting (among various other things).  I enjoy drawing and sketching, but have never taken it very far.  Working with paints gives me an opportunity for something different, and more colorful. 

It also brings back some childhood memories of sitting at the table painting with watercolors, or drawing with crayons and markers.

One of my Christmas gifts was a watercoler-a-day calendar.  Unfortunately the calendar doesn’t offer much instruction, but it does drop some advice here and there.  Other than that it follows the "monkey see, monkey do" philosophy by showing a painting someone else did, then giving a plain line drawing for you to fill in.

So at this point, I’m still more or less painting by number, but through doing I’m learning a lot about how to mix the colors, how to use various amounts of water on the brush, and just how patient I really am.

So, without further ado, here are the three I’ve managed to finish so far.

Day 1: Reverting to childhood.  You can clearly see by the comparison: I didn’t have a clue what the hell I was doing.  After this, I was tempted to bust out the crayons again.

Day 2: Improvement!  I had a firmer grasp on the blending and how to better create different shades.  Also – this was more or less one color, so I couldn’t screw it up.  Score!

Day 3: Holy Cow this one was hard!  And it sure shows!  I’m struggling with the color blending, so I may concult my good friend, The Internet, for some advice.  Until then, though, I’ll just continue to stumble my way through this.

If you’d like to see any of these in a higher resolution (I would advise against it – these are best seen from afar) you can go to my photo gallery and check them out.

I’ve got some better brushes, and I picked up a stack of good paper.  So far, I’ve only been painting in the lines on the semi-thick calendar paper, so I’m going to shift some of the blame and say that has something to do with it.  Once I have a better grasp on some of the techniques involved, I’ll try something a little more freeform on the good papers. 

My next painting looks like it’s rated PG-13 for brief nudity, so it should be at least a little exciting.

This weekend, with temperatures dipping to -18°C and both Jess and I playing a symphony of coughing and sniffling noses, we thought we’d give the iTunes movie rental a whirl.  The way it works is pretty nice, though I think it should be cheaper – we won’t get into that right now.

The rental was $3.99 USD, and you get 28 days to start watching the movie.  After you start it, you have 24 hours before it’s deleted.  Not a bad deal, especially for something you’re not interested in watching more than once or twice.  Especially considering the purchase price of $14.99USD. 

We decided on Julie & Julia – A movie about a woman who had originally intended to become a writer and had previously abandoned a novel she was writing, who is now working a government job in New York City.  She’s tired of never finishing anything she really wants to acomplish and feels overshadowed by her friends’ successes while at the same time disgusted by the fact that they have become self-absorbed and distant due to those career successes. 

Already someone who enjoys cooking, and has achieved a moderate level of proficiency, she decides to assign herself the challenge of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook within one year (365 days), and blog about the experience.

The movie depicts the lives of the two women – the present day Julie, and Julia Child as she writes the book and deals with the challenges of establishing herself as a professional. 

I found that I related very closely to the main character.  I, too, had original aspirations towards being a writer, I enjoy cooking, and rarely finish anything I have started.  In fact – that was part of my inspiration to stick with Taekwondo for as long as I have – and I can’t say I regret it! 

So the movie spoke to me, personally, and has helped inspire me to revive both my writing efforts through this blog, and my dwindling efforts in the kitchen.  Before the movie, I had even talked about doing something very similar – cooking a different recipe from a cookbook every day – but never got around to doing it.

There are so many things in life that can easily distract us from living our lives.  Things that distract us from what’s really important, and from realizing who we are.  As a person with widely varied interests, my original intent with this blog was to chronicle my explorations down many different paths.  As the title of this blog implies: I have many interests, but few specialties.  I hope I can live up to my own expectations of trying more new things and sharing those experiences through this online journal. 

I also hope that, while doing so, I don’t lose sight what is most important, which is not so much just to have the experiences, as to share them.

Well, it’s a new year and time for new things.  Time to give myself the once over and tighten up all the loose screws. 

I tend to set goals for myself all the time, not strictly limiting myself to the Earth’s position around the sun.  But, seeing as how this time seems to coincide with tradition, I’ll share some of my intended self-improvements.

I’d like to say that I’m going to stop filling my schedule, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that that just ain’t gonna happen.  So instead, I’ve packed it full.

This year I’ll be filling in and teaching a web design class.  It only lasts until March, but I plan on making it as good as I can.  Which means doing some reading and planning.  My goal is to stay at least one week ahead in planning and hopefully lead a good class.

I’ve also decided to focus a bit more on my artistic side, making sure that I spend at least part of each day devoted to an art form of some sort.  Most mornings I’ll be practicing the trumpet, which I’ve just started playing.  And some evenings I’ll make some sketches or do some painting.  If I don’t feel too rushed, I’d also like to do some more writing.  Some of that will likely be done here, on my blog, and hopefully what I do write here is more engaging than some of my previous entries.

I’ll still be continuing to practice the martial arts as well, going to two or three taekwondo classes per week.  I’d like to do some tai chi if I could, but right now the schedule’s a bit too packed.

I’ll be continuing with my language studies as well, hopefully squeezing in 1 or 2 Polish lessons each week.

To help accomplish all of this, I’m more or less swearing off TV.  Not that I watch much now, but I’ll be limiting myself even more.  Instead, if I have the free time and I’m not working on some art project, I’d like to do more reading.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’d also like to do more local traveling, and spend more time with people – friends or strangers. 

The last change I plan on making is fixing my diet a bit.  I haven’t been eating well, mostly due to laziness when it comes to lunch, and I’ve noticed some signs of malnutrition in my fingernails that come and go, so I want to be more vigilant about that.  The main goal is to eat more fresh vegetables and ease up on the meats and dairy.

Those are my plans for the New Year.  Now all I have to do is get over this jet lag!