Beard, Jobs, etc.

So here is what is happening in my life, in no particular order.

So, I didn't get the job in New Zealand. I was not that surprised at that point, since it had been so long, still, I was a little disappointed. (Right now, I kind of just want to move back to Hawaii and start some sort of business.)

I was growing a beard for a while, but it was way too itchy, and I kept waiting for it to stop itching, but it didn't, so I shaved it all off except the goatee. My hair is longer than it's been in a while, and I am not sure how long that is going to last. Maybe not until the weekend. The beard was kind of a response to the hair, so shaving one may affect the other. We'll see. I may post some beard pictures and let people vote for their favorite look. Maybe it is to make up for the fact that I don't wear a tie to work.


The Beard.

One more day of classes. I am kind of burnt out, so that is good. I am almost finished with my current list of job applications, although I am sure there will be more. Just finished one phone interview that went well, but I find I am not always the best judge.

Just went and got an Indiana drivers license since my California one expires on my birthday. Not sure how I feel about that.

We just found out yesterday we have mice. The girls opened up their advent calendar bags to find that someone had been helping themselves to their chocolate. Bekah responded by buying one of just about every kind of mouse trap, poison, bomb, projectile weaponry in the store.

Although, I can hardly blame them for coming inside. It's been snowy here, and this week dropped into the teens and twenties. More snow this weekend.

We're really forward to Christmas at Enoch and Amy's, although I have kind of a lot of work to do before the next semester starts.

New Zealand Trip

Okay, so overall impressions of New Zealand. I hardly know where to begin. Everything was nicer than I expected. The city, the university, the houses (I saw), and beaches and hikes were all beautiful. All of the flowers were blooming everywhere. There were clear little streams running through the campus and the city. The campus was full of little paths along the rivers and through the ferns and blossoming foliage.

Everything is more expensive there. Milk was $7 nzd for 3 liters, so $5 US. Gas is a little bit more, about 1.89/l. I guess it would be like Hawaii, where you would be paying for more the lifestyle and only spend your money on the basics. (Houses, although more than Crawfordsville or Lewiston, are much cheaper than in Hawaii.)

The city has its own composting program and recyles everything. There are bike lanes everyone and lots of people using them. The public transportation is great. There are even nine members of the green party in parliament. As a liberal, I felt a little irrelevant. Especially in contrast to Crawfordsville, where I count my visible bike riding a minor public service. The lady running the restaurant at the hotel assured me that their conservatives were more liberal than President Obama. Who knows, maybe, in New Zealand, I would actually be conservative.

On the lifestyle, it seems pretty ideal. I found surfing, rockclimbing, hiking all within a half hour from the city.

There seems like a pretty incredible amount of adventures within three hours, and the entire south island within 7-8 hours. Alpine treks. Week-long kakaying tours through island or fjords. Hotsprings. A system of mountain huts were you can stay inexpensively in the back country, some with hotsprings. Seriously. Where do I sign? My only complaint, and, after living in Maine, I feel like a whiner even bringing it up, is that is was kind of cold. Like it would never really be warm enough to want to jump in the ocean without a wetsuit on. Like Santa Cruz (another pretty near ideally situated city). They feel like it’s cold too, but I think because it is colder than everywhere close by, like Australia or Oceania, they feel like it is colder than it really is. They aren’t comparing it to Maine.

Triathlon Training Update

This is a kind of narcissistic post, but I thought since I announced that I would be trying this on my blog, I should at least provide some kind of periodic follow up. I have been training very inconsistently until we got here and now I have settled, more or less, into kind of a training schedule.
My basic problem is that I am not very good at pacing myself. I am agro for a while, but then I am really sore, so I back off, and then get lazy and miss workouts, and then try and pick things up again, and so on. Basically, I try and get up around 6:20, but sometimes it takes a while to get out of bed. We are on the far western edge of the eastern time zone, so it is still totally dark out. Sunrise is not until 7:30 or so.
So my basic schedule is run about 8 miles on Monday and Friday. Swim a mile or so on Tuesday and Thursday, and then play ultimate in the afternoon (if there's no faculty meeting). Bike ride or some other exercises on Wednesday, and a longer bike ride on Saturday. The last two weekends, it's been a fun 38 mile loop I found. It takes me a little over two hours.
Anyway, when I actually push myself, I am pretty much always sore. My swimming has been pretty slow, since I am working on my technique with a book I have, but I don't know how much progress I am making. Some laps feel much faster, then the next I will totally be floundering. My old stroke, though slower, was very consistent. Biking is weird. It doesn't feel very cardiovascular at this point, maybe because my leg muscles are weak, but it is kind of novel and I like getting out into Indiana. My most beautiful Indiana scenes, misty morning pastures, sunrises over cornfields, etc, have been while biking. It does get boring though, so last Saturday I downloaded a bunch of learn Portugeuse podcasts. That was distracting in a good way, although it was hard to listen with the wind and I didn't as much out of the scenery, and I was little bit slower. Also, I was worried I wouldn't hear the semi's coming up behind me, but I guess if one were to hit me, there wouldn't be a lot I could do anyway. (The podcasts will probably be key in the winter, when a lot of this will move indoors). I kind of hate running, although after the endorphins kick in at 20 minutes or so, it becomes pleasurable in a weird kind of way and doesn't hurt as bad. Still, it always takes some effort to go do it and always feels like an accomplishment when I get home.
Anyway, so what I need is a partner, who is about my level, but is really obsessive about the training aspect of it, how far to run, what kind of weight training or drills to sprinkle in, what to eat, so I can just show up and do it, and be more motivated and feel like I am moving forward. A personal trainer, I guess, but for free. I bought a couple of books, but they are all a bit much. I need to get a heart rate monitor for example. (Someone gave me one a while back, but I thought, Why would I ever need one of these?, and gave it away and am too cheap to buy another). Anyway, I keep telling myself I should just sit down and figure out a plan, but I have so many other things to do right now, I don't see it happening. Any suggestions, volunteers?

Ultimate faculty meeting

So, one of the brighter spots of life in Indiana has been the bi weekly ultimate frisbee. A group of students and a few faculty play on the quad that is in the middle of the very cozy campus. So I'm out there 4:30 on Tuesday and I notice that Profs. Olofson and Freeze, the two other faculty regulars are not there. Hmmm.
Thirty minutes later, the entire faculty, dean, president, etc, come streaming out of the library.
There I am, sweaty, holding the disc, trying to look inconspicuous.
"Hey. Was there a faculty meeting today?"

White Mountains

So before left Maine back in June, I went on a 3 day backpacking trip by myself in the White Mountains in New Hampshire (or New Hamster as Gwyn would say.) It was gorgeous. I got dropped of Tuesday night, and we hiked together up this little stream. Some of the boulders were white marble and there were lots of beautiful little cascades and some bigger falls.



Then Bekah and the kids went back to the car and I hiked up to a campsite. The trail was very steep and not in particularly good shape and we got a late start, so I got into camp just as it was getting dark. I slept pretty well, except that I could hear some critter trying to get my food and it gnawed a hole in my tent. The next morning I got up with the sun and started hiking very soon after. It didn't take long to get to the hut at the foot of Mt. Madison. Here's a picture.



Then I started my hike across the presidential range. Mt. Washington is in the middle and at 6,288 ft, is the highest peak in New England and also has the worst weather. The highest recorded wind speeds in the world were recorded there, 231 mph and it is regularly above gale force. Today was an exception though, the sky was crystal clear all day and the wind was hardly blowing, even at the summit.



I was pretty careful about my pack weight and my base weight was around 14 lbs. I think I can do better though. There were some last minute things I threw in, like a "Summer Sausage" I bought discounted at Mardens. I ate about 1/5 of it for a snack and it was pretty tasty, but then I kept tasting it and was wondering if it needed to be cooked, or if it mattered that it was six months past date. I also realized that the whole thing was 16 oz. I was carrying a whole pound of summer sausage, and I wasn't really looking forward to eating it again. So a few hours after lunch, I unwrapped it and jettisoned it off a cliff. It felt pretty good and probably made some raccoon's week.

The scenery was incredible. This is the hut at Lake of the Clouds, just past the summit, which was probably the best part.
Near the end of the day, other people who were hiking the whole thing in one day started to catch up with me. I met an older guy who teaches high risk kids in Maine high schools and we hiked together for a couple hours.
Then I found a tiny spot to pitch my tent right before Crawford Notch. During the night it started raining and rained on and off for the next day. I ended up hiking in my stretchy fleece tights and they were awesome. Although they got wet, they didn't feel wet and I felt warm. My patagonia houdini was less waterproof than I had hoped and I got pretty wet. Although I was at lower elevations for most of the day, I passed a few nice lakes and ponds and several waterfalls, as well as a couple more huts. Near the end of the day, I hit a few more shorter peaks, but it was rainy and cloudy so I didn't get to appreciate them that much. I also passed 3 or 4 through hikers headed north on the Appalachian Trail. Most had been out about 4 months at this point. I was pretty jealous. I almost made it to a shelter for the night, but decided to pitch my tent instead, because I figured it would be warmer and most of my stuff was wet.
The last day I got up early again and climbed up to Mt. Lafayette. Although not as high, this long ridge above Franconia Notch had that cool alpine feel with short shrubbery and rocky crags, like these.



Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so there weren't any views to speak of. I hiked down the Cascade trail and saw a bunch of waterfalls. Then I hung out in the campground for an hour waiting for Bekah and the girls. When then got there we hiked back up the cascade trail, since I lost my fleece somewhere. Here's us at the falls.




I think this sequence is pretty classic hiking with kids.

We camped in the state park that night and the next morning did a five mile hike up to a lake and down next to a stream with lots of waterfalls. We did hiking treats the whole way and it was probably Gwyn's longest hike ever. She did great.


Hiking treats. Miriam got to designing fun hiking treat place setting, like this floating one.


This is the last falls near the end. No swimming. (What is this, Japan?)

Happy Birthday Bekah

So, Gwyn has been very excited about Bekah's birthday. She insisted we get balloons and decorate the house, and has been very involved in the planning. She woke me up early on Mother's Day to make breakfast, which was fun (crepes and waffles, since M & G couldn't decide), and she was intent on doing it again. So, this time, I tell her "Don't come bursting into my room, because you'll wake both of us up and mom wants to sleep in on her birthday. Just come in and don't say anything and shake me to wake me up."
So this morning she loudly flings open our door, flooding the room with light. Then she tiptoes over to me and gently shakes me.
Me, groggily, "Gywn, what time is it? What does the clock say?" (It's not visible from my side).
"Five, one, zewo."
"Um, I don't think we need to get up quite yet. Let's try sleep a little more."
So she climbs over me and into bed between us and snuggles up. Then, every five or ten minutes (just as I've drifted back to sleep), she asks, "Is it time to get up yet?"
But since Bekah is a lighter sleeper and not getting any much (any) sleep either, at "six, two, zewo," or so, I get out of bed to make breakfast. I ask Bekah, "Any requests?"
"Something that takes an hour to make?"
They didn't take quite an hour, but we had some wicked good, whole wheat aableskivers.
Happy Birthday Bekah. We love you.

Kayak trip

Bekah posted about our kayaking trip, but I didn't really feel like she fully captured it's awesomeness, so here is the complete account, with more pictures.

So, it's been a little crazy around here. After I got back from all my trips, I had to give all my finals, then grade all of the papers and figure out my grades. So I worked through the weekend, so I could get it all done on Monday so we could go on our kayaking trip Tuesday. Monday I also sent out a few more job applications and talked someone at a small liberal arts college in Maine, who was interested in my application. So with everything in the air, we just decided to leave and let the chips fall where they may.

Tuesday, we drove the three hours out to Stonington, at the south end of Deer Isle. (Check it out on google maps if you want to see where we were.) We searched around for the a public boat launch, but couldn't find it, but we found some steps down to a granite ledge, which will do for us. Since I had just revarnished the kayak, I was suddenly worried that I hadn't packed all of the pieces. (But we'd seen a hardware store on the way out, so we could've figured something out.) Luckily, it was all there. So I put together the boat while Bekah brought the gear down. Packed it all up and set off. I paddled in the klepper with the two kids and Bekah used a kayak we borrowed from the Bates Outing Club.

So we paddled out and had lunch at Rock Island, a lovely little island with a nice beach and meadow and forest. A little bit of everything. We circumambulated the island. Then we paddled to Steve's island, where we were going to camp. It was tiny, but very picturesque. There were several tiny coves with beaches and lots of big granite boulders/slabs or islands, depending on the tide. We finally chose the biggest campsite on the leeward side of the island to be out of the wind, and the view was nice. Then set up the hammock and relaxed. The island was small enough, the kids could roam on their own.

So this is our camp.




Our boats, in the little bay just across the peninsula from our camp.




The girls on our big boulder in front of camp.
The next day, I was woken up by the lobster boats and their wakes making waves on our beach. The tide was at it highest around 5, so I went over to check out boats, but they were fine. By the time everyone got up and ate breakfast and got ready to leave it was around 8:30, and the tide was so far out we had to carry the boats all the way down the beach and over the slippery rocks to get out to the water.



Sunrise from camp.



We paddled further south to harbor island, which was lovely.



Miriam wanted to stop at every patch of sand and play at the "beach." They also wanted to go out and be on every rock in the water, so I carried them out when it was too deep. Bekah found her first sand dollar, then five minutes later, I found a bigger one. Sorry. Then we decided to go to Isle au Haut (pronounced ile o ho, high island, in French). Gwyn wanted to know why they didn't just use English. Turns out the landing spot here is kind a bit of a paddle past a lot of private wharfs. We thought we'd hike to the mountain and get the view. Gwyn wisely said no, but then we suggested there might be someplace to buy ice cream on the island, and she quickly changed her mind. So we weren't sure where to land, so we tried the beach in front of the store, but it turned out to be mud flats. So we spent about 40 minutes or so mucking around and carrying kids and kayaks, and Bekah almost losing my slippers 5 or 6 times and having to dig them out of the oily mud, Also, it was filled with mussel shells, which are kind of sharp. Then we realized that the wharf fifty feet further down was probably the public wharf, so we paddled down there and easily tied up our boats. Walked around to get the kids, who we'd left on the rocks and headed off to find the hike, and get ice cream. The store hours turned out to be MWF 2:30-5, so we still had a few hours. Instead, we stopped in the public library and chatted with the librarian, who gave us some banana bread and cookies and told us about the island. Then we found the trail and started hiking. The whole island was not very shady, so it was kind of feeling like a death march even before we started hiking, and the trail too was surprisingly unforested. I ended up just carrying Gwyn and Miriam wanted to know why I wouldn't carry her. Here is a picture of Gwyn on the top.




The views were okay, but could've been greatly improved with a chainsaw. Then back down, another stop at the library to check my e-mail. (And find out there will be no job interviews this week.) Then ice cream at the store. It is surprisingly not much more expensive than the mainland, so I bought the most expensive thing to compensate. The Harbor Bar, ice cream sandwiched by two chocolate chip cookies and then the whole thing dipped in chocolate. 500 calories. Yumm. Mine looked like it was left over from last summer, but no complaints here. Then we paddled back to Steve's island. It was kind of a long haul (for us, maybe 3 miles) and there was weather. In fact we had some very strong gusts where Bekah wasn't making much headway and we stared eyeing some random islands to bail to if necessary. But then it started drizzling and quieted down. We could see some rain further up in the bay, but most of it missed us.
The next day we broke camp and headed across the small channel to explore wreck island. It was a big island, but there weren't really any trails, except deer trails. Kids were whiny, but we did get to the top and had some nice views and then kind of found a trail back down.

There was lots of deep moss and granite slabs. Then we paddled over to round island and had lunch. It was a short hike to the top, but contrary to the guidebook, there were no views. There were some short cliffs on the west side and we got some nice views from there. We had lunch, and the seagulls nearby totally ignored us. Then we knew we weren't in California anymore. They were too busy dropping mussels on rocks. I had always wondered what seagulls ate besides McDonalds. Then we paddled over to Hell's Acre, which was a tiny little island, but great. We napped in the shade while the kids made fishing poles of sticks and seaweed and fished. After a leisurely stop, we paddled over to Russ Island where we stopped for the night. The campsite was wooded and a different feel from Steve's.


Gwyn testing the hammock.

Palmer scouts in action.
The island was a lot bigger, but we were the only people there. There were also paths to the top where there was a great view.


The was scattered evidence of the old quarry, like iron stakes pounded into the rocks, or piles of cut rock, now deeply covered in moss. This island is where the granite for the towers of the Brooklyn bridge came from.
The blocks that never made it to the Brooklyn bridge.
Although we were only a half mile from Stonington, the campsite was on the south side, so it looked out into the archipelago at half a dozen more tiny islands.
We pulled our boats way up onto a ledge that was all the way up the beach and then another four feet higher than that, but the night when the tide was high, they were just barely out of the water. (We also tied them up, but still.) I'm still surprised by the huge tidal differences. The differences between the high and lows are about 10 feet, so it can come up or drop a couple feet in an hour.
The whole south side of the island is one long beach or granite slab, so very easy walking. It was also very glassy so we skipped rocks.


Bekah made a new record of 7 skips. The next day we explored the island more thoroughly and picked up trash on the beach. There was kind of a lot, unfortunately and we couldn't take it all. Maine law also prohibits collecting any fishing material, which is unfortunate since lots of it was old lobster floats and pieces of traps.
Gwyn on the last morning eating breakfast.
Then we broke camp and paddled the short distance back to Stonington. Broke down the kayak and repacked the car. Our car was still where we left it. (I wasn't sure we were allowed to park there.) Bought a large pizza, half cheese and half everything, at the store and ate it outside by the statue of the quarry man. It was pretty cold, so after wasting some time and money at the local gift shop (you can put in a request for Maine postcards, and Miriam got a little lobster puppet for $5) we drove up to Ellsworth to spend the night with the Barrets.
Overall, it was an awesome trip. Usually, when I finish a camping trip, I am totally ready to be done. When we got back from this one, I seriously could've headed back out for a few more days. I think that means it was just about right for the kids. So if that wasn't enough, I am pretty sure we are going again in June, once school is out, so if you want to come, mark your calendars.
Thanks Bekah, for an awesome trip. She is a good camping mom.

St. Patrick's Day Resolutions

So, for my Saint Patrick's Day resolution, I have decided that I am going to start training for and eventually compete in a full length triathlon. (Apparently the Ironman people are pretty touchy about the trademark infringement.) Anyway, so it's a 2.5 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride, followed by a 26 mile run. I want to do it sometime before or during my 33rd year. So, this year or next. Basically, I have been running and swimming fairly regularly, but without any kind of goals, so it gets kind of boring. Also, my leg is still weak and I hate feeling like I am still not fully recovered. And, I'm getting older and don't like feeling like I am succumbing to decrepitude. I am hoping this will push back the tide a little bit. Finally, it seems like I will still not be anywhere I can surf regularly for the next year or more, and basically, running, swimming, and biking is the most exercise for the amount of time spent, and I don't really have a lot of time. So, this is not really to brag or anything, but just to put it out there to force myself to be a little bit more serious about the whole thing. Also, if anyone wants to join me in setting their own exercise goal, we can try to keep each other honest. I think I will try and post about how it's going fairly regularly. Anyone interested?

Job offer, etc.

So, A few weeks ago, right after my funny/tragic dream, I actually got a job offer. So I contacted everyone I was waiting to hear back from and had varying degrees of response. Then, in the meantime I heard back from a few more schools closer by that they were interested in interviewing me. So, after thinking about it and praying about it, we decided not to take it. I am fairly confident we will get a better offer. The job was in Wisconsin, which seemed like a fun place to live, but pretty far from any family. The teaching load was not bad, mostly Japanese classes, but since it was a quarter system, classes went until June. So now we are back to waiting again. Bekah is pretty calm about the whole thing, which she says must be a sign we are doing the right thing.

Latest job interview.

So I had this really good job interview this morning. It was for one of the history jobs and I thought I was able to make a really strong case about why I can teach East Asian history, even though I don't have a history degree. The interviewers were really nice and seemed interested in my work and we had a really good conversation. All in all, I was very hopeful about my prospects for the job.

And then I woke up, literally, and realized it was a dream.

I was wondering if anyone can interpret this dream for me. Maybe the job interview is a metaphor for something. I know this is way out there, but maybe I have some (very) subconscious anxiety about something that's going on right now. I can't think of what it might be though. Any suggestions?

How does an idiot like this get elected to the Senate?

http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02-25-james-inhofe-senate-top-skeptic-explains-climate-hoax-theory/

Snow Bunnies

So, on Wednesday I took the girls snowboarding. I'd taken Miriam for a practice run a few weeks earlier to the super short bunny hill and she had fun, but was done after an hour or so. Gwyn had never been. Gwyn wanted to go straight to the top and only after much cajoling was reluctantly willing to practice a bit on the bunny hill (which is really just a 20 foot section they have roped off for practicing. So after 20 minutes of that we head to the top. Then it took us about 40 minutes to get halfway done the mountain, after which Gwyn wanted to walk the rest of the way. That might not seem that long, but the mountain is only 400 ft. high. She actually did pretty well for a five year old who'd never been before. She really liked the chair lift and was mad because I made her hold onto the bar and sit all the way back. So Gwyn was done, but after we ate our dinner in the lodge, Miriam and I went back up and she did really well. She can't really turn yet, but she can go straight for a ways before she starts going too fast and falls on purpose. We worked on riding on both edges, although it wasn't steep enough that you really had to turn that much. Anyway, she had a lot of fun and wants to go again. No one cried and she thought it was funny when she fell into the ditch beside the trail (with Bekah, not me), at least she did when I talked to her forty minutes later. Anyway, babies and toddlers are cute, but I'm finding big kids are pretty fun too.

Settlers of Maine

So Gwyn has been really into games lately, mostly Crazy Eights and Uno. So, on Friday night I decided to teach the girls how to play Settlers of Catan. It turns out, you actually don't need to know how to read to play. Gwyn has her own distinct strategy of buying lots of development cards, which has actually served her pretty well. The girls wanted to play again Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday we upgraded to Seafarers, since Miriam was complaining about too many sheep. Overall, we are very cooperative traders and pretty good neighbors on the island, except Gwyn who likes to cut people off. It's pretty exciting that we can have a full game with just our own little family (who needs friends, I guess). And it is great relief to think we might be permanently past the mind numbing, Chinese molasses drip torture of Candyland.

Where will we be next year?

Not Maine, as I found out today. Any guesses? Suggestions?

Depressing thoughts

Okay, so it has been a while, and now all I have is a bunch of loosely related, depressing thoughts. Maybe somebody can offer some hope here. The world hasn't ended, yet.

So the recent disaster in Haiti shows how easily the barely functional countries of the third world fall apart. Here, luckily, it was just one country, but if we are unable to do anything about global warming, we should have problems of a similar magnitude across the board. And the developed countries' capacities and willingness to help, lukewarm at the best of times, will be noticeably diminished.

The chance of the United States doing anything meaningful about global warming just shrunk measurably with the Massachussetts election of Scott Brown (who, btw, for any social conservatives who may be reading this blog, posed totally naked for cosmopolitan in 1982). Even more irritating and ironic is the suggestion, probably real, that Massachusetts voters were fed up with debate on healthcare, since Massachussetts gained, under the leadership of former governor Mitt Romney, a more liberal healthcare plan than either of those being considered in congress. But, of the existing states with near universal coverage, Massachusetts plan is most like the one Congress is trying to pass, and polls suggest they are generally ok with it (slightly more in favor than against). So basically, we've got ours, but no one else should? I don't get it. Does independent mean ideologically incoherent? Winston Churchill's remarks on democracy seem particularly apt.

Also, I am reading about East Asian societies that basically imploded while rival factions in government kept anyone from instituting the meaningful changes. Even without the perfect hindsight of history, there were contemporaries who knew what needed to be done, but were prevented from doing it by conservative faction who were unable to do offer any constructive solutions to these problems, but just criticized and stymied those attempting reform. Tens of millions of people died.