So, what's going on with me

I just realized that it's been around 1 month since I last posted. Wow, time goes by quickly.

I have done the following:
- Finished the Grad School application. Now it's just waiting.
- Finished my first semester teaching. Really fun and interesting.
- Started working on getting my glass studio up and running. Yes, it's a few months later than I originally thought.

All-in-all, a great time.

This next week is traveling back to California and enjoying my holiday break.

Testing and informal talks

This week is all about GREs and basic discussions with the school regarding their doctorate programs.

I've calmed down since it appeared I did well on the practice math test and didn't do that bad on the English. But, I am still studying. :)

On Friday, I travel to the school and chat with the graduate school about what else I might need to do to before the due date.

What I am doing?!?

This is a post about what's going on in my head. If you don't know, I'm trying to get into grad school to persue a doctorate in Radio/TV/Film. When I got the teaching job, I decided that now is the time to go back to a role of a student.

I did most of the application work for the school I am looking to attend. I have a few things to turn in to them. One is my GRE score (which I need to take). I'm beginning to get butterflies in my stomach regarding this.

Next is the minor stuff (school transcripts and resume). I also need to contact the school and say, "Hey, I'm applying to the school......"

I didn't think this process would create any internal strife, but evidentally it is.

Class Development

I was asked to create a few courses for the University I teach for. That's cool. The topic is even cooler, Game Level Design.

I think this is a perfect match for me, because I have:

1. Played some games (okay, a lot of games from various times)
2. Thought that people should learn the media side to game design
3. An interest in the subject

The first course is a mixture of gaming and media production. It should be really cool.

The second is a class on level design. I'm in the process of selecting a text for this course.

If you couldn't tell, I'm really enjoying this teaching job.

Until next time.

Post Apocalyptic Stuff

While the current SciFi viewers stick to a few genres (Technology gone bad, Zombies and such, Space ships, etc), I love the post apocalyptic stuff. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a lot of features or TV shows in the past 5-10 years focusing on this science fiction genre. And, when it has (e.g. Jericho) I lose quick interest in it.

Let me focus in on one sub-genre: a percentage of the human population is gone due to something. That something could mean a virus, a bomb, an alien invasion, or whatever else could wipe out a percentage of human population. Something I have found out is that in the late 70s, British television was filled with programs along these lines. Shows like The Tripods, Survivors and The Changes, and The Day of the Triffids were actively being watched. The last televsion show aired in the US that I really enjoyed was Jeremiah.

Now I am an a quest for older post-apocalyptic British television programs. :)

Yeah! Finally my body is making adjustments.

My body is beginning to make the adjustment between the Pacific to the Central timezone. My own personal opinion is, "Whew! It's about time." I had energy this weekend but sat around my house watching movies due to Hurricane Ike. (Waco had some rain and wind, that's it!) Maybe I can continue moving into my house.

Egads!

This post is about me and how I'm doing, a litmus test if you will. Man am I tired!

Teaching is great and is exactly what I need to do right now. Classes appear to be going well. Some students appear to accept me as their professor and others are not sure what to think. Coursework is flowing and lecturers are being spoken.

My home on the other hand is the loser in this fight. When I get home, I sleep (alot). My body is trying to make the adjustment to the Central Time Zone and I'm the one paying the price. It's tough trying to move to a new area, work yourself into a new job and redo the interior of a house.

My glasswork is like a red-headed step child. I am so happy that the shows were not that good and the pieces that the distributors had covered the work that sold. The studio is exactly were it was when I moved stuff in. Glass is still in the back of my truck. And, I realized last week that I need to order some stuff before I can really begin.

I'm hoping the studio is done by October and I'm moved into my home by Christmas.

Pictures of my house (post carpeting)

Other than sleeping most of the weekend, I finally have the images.

Living Room:



The living room has had a lot of work done to it. In the picture to the left, you can see a corner of the new wood entryway. Also, carpet, paint and painted trim has also been done. (You can see Jeopardy on the TV.)

Pretty Princess Room:



This was the room with the castle picnic table/wall hangings. Paint, painted trim and carpet are new. The room looks great! This room is now called the guest room.

Pink Room:



As you can see, there's still a bit of pink on the walls. Other than that, the room had the standard paint, painted trim and carpet. Right now, I'm moving stuff into it and it will be the first room that should be completed. This room is now the home office/computer room.

Master Bedroom:



This is the room where all the magic happens....... I sleep alot! Same old paint, painted trim and carpet. This room now has a bed and a few dressers. There is tons of rooms here. It makes me smile.

If you can't tell, I am a guy. That means that when it comes to paint and carpet, I like it to be the same. I'm in the process of moving stuff in, and that's taking a while.

A sigh of relief

My first week of teaching is nearly done. My house is carpeted. Now is the time when I will move in.

It's been quite a ride this week. I finished painting all the areas in my house that are carpeted. Then, I had to clear out everything and put it where it was on tile flooring. And, the carpeting came. It is a great color and works with everything in the house. I was worried that my old denim covers may not work with it or the black furniture will clash. After beginning to move stuff around, my house is beginning to look like a nice little house. It's great.

For all of those wanting to take a look at my new rooms, I'll post pictures this evening.

The house (cont.)

I have been painting the rooms with carpeting; the green room, pink room and pretty, pretty princess room, hallway, and living room. Everything is done a beige-ish color and I'm doing the trim in a semi-gloss white. I am sooooooo close to being done. This has been a long road, and I'm feeling really good.

Some other stuff I've had to do is replace the threshold. The one that was here was completely rotted out. My brother-in-law and I poured new concrete and I epoxied it down. On Sunday, I paint all the trim and put down the small bit of parquet flooring.

I'm hoping my carpet gets in Monday/Tuesday. I went with an independent company. It saved me tons of cash and the quality is better for the carpet and the pad. If it does come in, I can schedule Thursday as my install day. That will allow me to have the entire Labor day weekend to unpack and get everything in-place.

The house post (with pics)

I realized I haven't let anyone see any pictures of this place. These picts are a "before being worked on photo walkthrough.



These photos are of the livingroom. Sure there's stuff in there, but it's really not much. I can't really move in until I get carpet and I'm waiting for the carpet dude to take measurements. Here's the thing about this room, one of the lights/fans does not work.



The kitchen had some stuff left in from the previous owners/tenants. This room has the majority of my stuff in it. I really want to move it into the house. Here's the thing about this room, everything is wood and there is a weird island in the middle of it.



This room is what I have called the "pink" room. This will be my computer room and home office. You will find a door in the first picture. That's the door that leads to the studio room. In the last picture, you will find a wall that has been halved wall papered.



Here is the studio. The room is a bit larger than a decent sized car. I've got plenty of room to spread out and do what I need to do. The wacky thing about this room is the door is cut into wall (see picture 1).



This is the master bedroom. It's fairly large and will fit anything I need to. You are seeing that right. I have two large closets. Not sure what I'm going to do with the room, but I'll make due. The green in this room is particularly lime. These pictures don't do it justice.



You guessed it..... There's Disney characters on my walls. This is what I'm calling the "main house" bathroom. It's accessed from the house hallway. Now, these pictures do the blue and decoration justice. It has Nemo and all his friends on the walls. Here's what's weird about this room, there is a vent and it's been covered with paper. The toilet seat and tub are really light blue, the tile is beige and the vanity is white.



This is the room across from the bathroom. I named it the "pretty, pretty princess" room. It has plastic covering placed on the walls.

There are a few other areas of the house, but they are really bad. I'll wait to post those images at a later time.

The house (ugh)

I bought a house. It needed work. What I really didn't realize is that it needed ALOT of work.

Everything needs a new coat of paint. The bathrooms both are in fairly poor condition. The kitchen needs some updating.

What I'm trying to say is that this place appears to have been updated in the 80s. Yep, I stepped back in time to watching Back to Future I, II and III. I listen to all sorts of 80s tunes. And, I work, work and still work some more.

First things on my list: new appliances and carpet.

The new appliances were purchased on Friday and will be delivered Monday. (Yea!) The carpet has been ordered and they should be measuring my house in the next few days.

Before the carpet goes in, I want to repaint the ceilings. I'm not really sure what they have up there (whether it's oil or latex). That means primer. That went up yesterday on the 3 bedrooms and wil go up in the living room and hallway today.

One thing I thought was fairly cool is there is now ceiling paint that goes on pink and then dries white. I'm going to give that a try.

Other things I've found out about this place, the cold water on the kitchen sink doesn't work. This is a bit disappointing because that should have been caught by the home inspector. Oh well, what else will I find.

Back in San Jose....... (to finish packing and cleaning)

I'll start this post at move Day 4. I broke out of Henrietta, TX and drove down to Waco. I got down there around noon. I was extremely tired. The rest of the day was just chilling and doing "stuff." Stuff was mostly having a final walk-though of the house and reading all the house related paperwork.

Friday rolled around and I signed my paperwork and had the house. I began unpacking and unpacking and more unpacking. It was extremely tiring. Unpacking in 100 degree weather really is not fun.

Saturday, I really didn't do anything towards the house.

On Sunday I had to catch a 6:20 a.m. plane. Ugh, I woke up around 3:30 in the morning and there is NOTHING on TV. Got on the plane to Dallas. Plane trip was simple. Got on the plane for San Jose, CA and realized I was in first class. That's cool.

I'm finally home. (Well, it's home for a few more days.)

Moving woes

I am covering day 1-3 of the move. By now, I should be in Waco, TX. Instead, I am staying the night in Henrietta, TX. Why, you might be asking? Well, here's the story.....

Day 1: I got a late start on day 1. I left Sunnyvale, CA around 11:40 when the start time should have been around 9:00-10:00. When I started up the hills outside of Wasco, CA, my truck was lacking the "umph" to make it up the hills. I finally made it and landed in Needles, CA. The bad thing is that it was around 9:30 p.m. and I had a check engine light.

Day 2: I woke up a little after 7:00 a.m. and watched some TV. I needed to get that check engine light looked at, so I had some time. I called the local Uhaul place around 8:00 and was told that someone would be there around 8:30. I made it there around 8:40 and waited in the 90+ degrees for around 50 minutes. Finally, someone showed up and took a look at the engine error codes. Two of them popped up. The first is usually caused by some fuel issue like water in the line. No big problem. The second was something the guy told me could be an issue. A crank sensor went off. If this problem were to persist, he said it might be something to get looked at. I finally got on the road around 10:00 a.m. I drive about 1.5 hours and then I hear a giant "POP." Yep, I had a tire blow out. I called Uhaul and they said they'd send someone out to replace it. Also, when I was slowing down, the engine check light went off again when I was slowing down About 3 hours later, my tire was replaced and I was off on the road. Around 8:00 p.m. I ran into a thunderstorm that was a mess so I ended up in Grants, AZ. I couldn't get to sleep until 2:00-3:00. :(

Day 3: I popped up around 7:30 and was on the road by 8:00 a.m. I was hoping to make it to Fort Worth (or even Waco). Well, I started to yawn around 7:00 p.m. I ended up in Henrietta, TX. Tomorrow, I should end up in Waco a bit before noon.

Packing, blech

I've been packing my home for the last few days while finishing off some of the open glass orders I currently have. It's a real pain to have to pack everything back up.

On the flip side, I am still finding stuff I was wondering where I put it a few years ago. :)

Ack, still ill

It's been a week and I'm doing better, yet I'm still a bit congested in my upper airway.

As far as my life, I'm still in a bit of a flux. Waiting for information on the move. Waiting for my home to finalize. In the end, I believe everything will be fine.

Cough.......

All the fires in Northern California have polluted the air in the Bay Area. This week, it finally got to me and I started to have issues.

I started to weaze and cough. It has me down since Monday.

I have very little energy to do anything and want to be back to 100% soon.

I have money down on the house

Today I initialized all the proper documents and sent them back to my realtor. This is a weird feeling.

Moving (what a pain)

Yesterday, I called Baylor to see what my options were when it comes to moving. They have arrangements with a few moving companies. Hmmmm, move myself or move by mover.

Bah! I hate decisions like this.

A chat I heard....

This morning I was invited to Google to listen to a speaker they brought in. The speaker was Dale Chihuly. The individual who invited me had very little idea who Chihuly was, so I gave her a short primer on him.

This is my first time to hear him speak. From other friends, I've gotten differing reports. Some say he's a great guy and others say he gave them the brush off and such. Now I've heard him speak, I can make my own opinion. He appears to be a guy who is designing large glass exhibits and then exhibiting them. He's not the greatest speaker, but that might have been due to the people he was talking to, a bunch of Googlers. I was probably the only person in the room who was working glass (other than Chihuly). He also appeared to be a normal guy. I mean he's been in glass for more than 30 years. The grass wasn't always as green as it is today. He probably made some risks that paid off.

It was a decent speech and I thank my friends who invited me. It was a real treat.

Hunting for homes :(

These last few days have seen me in Waco, Texas. I was looking at a house to purchase. Why? I answer people, "Why not?" I have the money. I'd like to build some equity. And, why should I continue to throw money at someone else to pay mortgage, etc.

Friday was the first day I looked. Yikes! Every property except for two were interesting. They either were homes that people had let go or hacked on. Two of the properties weren't what I was looking for or in a "questionable" area.

Saturday, we went back out. Egads! People can be really cruel on homes. A few of the properties were repo'd by the banks and the tenants just let them go to hell. Unfortunately, these properties were too far gone to be worth what was being asked. There was one property left.....

This last property had potential. While not staged for a showing, the place reminded me of the home I grew up in. A fairly similar layout, until I asked, "Where's the access to the garage?" The realtor and I both looked at the rooms that had adjoining walls to the garage. First bedroom, no access. The second had a strange door in the corner. When we opened it up, it was a large closet. Then, I noticed a hole in the wall. So, we both went into the hole and found a whole other room. It was really weird. A door in the other side of the room led to the last garage. We didn't really look that far into the "extra" room. After thinking about the room, it looks that people who were in it (or another owner) took out what would have been a utility room and converted it into the large closet.

All in all, for what I'm spending, I believe the last property is the most worthwhile to put a bid on. It is in a fairly nice neighborhood and doesn't appear to be in that bad of condition. We'll see. I have asked for some documents that the current tenants have on the property.

Time is slipping by

I'm currently beginning to plan my move and realizing that time is beginning to catch up with me. This is a bit odd because I've had all the time in the world for the past 5 months. If my plans work out, I'll be moving out mid-July and then moving down to Waco.

But, who knows. I go down to Waco in a few days to look at property. The reality of everything hasn't really hit yet.

Cherries are ready!

For the next month and a half, I still reside in Northern California. Why that makes a difference is in my back yard, I currently have 2 cherry trees that are very old. This year, they started to fruit. A friend came over last night and asked if she could grab some of them.

MMMMMMMMMMMMM! These things are really delicious. I will have to pick some more and store them in the freezer.

The website is nearly done!

This has been something I've wanted to do for awhile, restructuring my glass website. (www.kodiakglass.com) I believe most of the legwork is done. The last part that needs to be completed is to create a webstore and start putting product up there.

It feels good to have finally found a decent CMS, find a template that can be tweaked, reconstruct/author templates, write content and then publish it out.

Wow, I'm gonna be moving...

I'm finally getting my head around moving to Texas. My glass company is beginning to take-off. The jewelry I'm making is getting really good. People I show really like the designs. I'm really feeling good about that.

Things are beginning to take off. It's funny how business finds you when you least expect it. Now, it's a balancing game to make everyone happy.

Hahaha

Maybe I need to have bouts of insomnia more often.

The news I need to report is that the Warcraft guild I'm a part of beat two new bosses last night. It's amazing sometimes. Life has a way to work everything out.

Insomnia :(

Last night I had a lot of stuff going on in my head.

1. There's a purple necklace that had to be made. I finished the beads on Tuesday and they looked nice.
   
2. The World of Warcraft guild is stuck on a boss. (And, it's really pissing me off as I know that the raid should be able to down him.)
3. Other glass and life related stuff.

Well, this morning after a small nap I got the purple beads out and started to make a necklace. And, wow it turned out nice. It's around 17.5" long. I used sterling silver and copper findings between each bead and this is what sets this necklace off. In the end, I also had enough materials to make a large-ish (8.5") bracelet. See a picture

As far as the Warcraft guild, I have some ideas for him and we'll see tonight. I hope I get this boss down because if not, I'm going to pull hair out.

It looks like sometimes the insomnia is not too bad of a thing to have. (I'm just tired.)

Rolling, rolling, rolling.....

This weekend I spent rolling coins. (Yea, I know I could just go down to the grocery store and use the Coinstar machine.) I'm about a third done and have rolled about $300-$400. It's a real pain and a simple joy to roll the cash. Count 'em out and roll 'em. Over and over and over.

I hope my bank will accept them all.

Sorting out stuff.....

I've been doing a lot of work with my possessions and what-nots. And, I've been learning about how I personally deal with various things. (i.e. The stuff in my vehicles, miscellaneous tidbits, etc.) When going through my stuff, I have emptied 10+ large crates so far. As I get deeper into the pile of boxes, I find more and more stuff. Some good and some of those, "Why did I keep this?" kind of things.

I believe that I have found most of my glass stuff. And, currently it is sitting all on my kitchen table. Once I sell most of my sound equipment, I'll put it in my garage.

The project never ends, but I have identified a number of things to sell!

Continuing down the clean-up

I decided that I must go through a box a day. It's incredible what you find. So far, I have found a few pairs of shoes that I thought were lost forever and about 150 lbs of glass. The craziest thing is that I roughly know what is in each box due to its age.

I am not kidding when I have 15 years of stuff to go through. All I have done from move to move is to pack everything up and store it somewhere. Some stuff I have collected. Other stuff get put in boxes with a mental "I will organize later" label on it. I found one of those boxes and had to laugh.

In this box was the following.....
- Some knives used in torchworking
- One cylinder of moretti glass taken from an Italian chandelier
- A Pimsleur "How to speak Russian" thing that I bought about 3 years ago and didn't open
- Two bags of papers and what-nots from about 2 years ago

It was entertaining to open and clear through this box. So, this box sorting task should be fun.

What now?

Now that I'm leaving the Bay Area in July, I am beginning to sift through about 15 years of stuff and decide what goes, what stays and what can disappear. It's a bit odd to identify somethings as "now useless".

Hello craigslist.com, eBay and the trash can!

Acceped the job

Today, I accepted the lecturer position at Baylor University.

I start in August. It'll be quite a change, but I think it's a good one.

The Job - Lectureship at Baylor

I can't believe it's only been a little over 2 weeks since the interview. It feels so much longer.

Yesterday on my doorstep was a package from DHL. Inside the package, an offer letter from the University.

Travelling to Waco

If you didn't know, I am on an interview at Baylor University for a lecturership position. I'll go into that later.

Right now, I need to say something about airlines. Yesterday, I was on a plane to Waco, TX from San Jose, CA. First off, where are the meals/snacks. I've been seeing this more and more, cut the price of my ticket, then start charging me for the food. Come on airlines. Secondly, I was stuck in the Dallas airport for about 3 hours waiting for a flight attendant to show up. The first flight was no issue. In fact, we arrived 30 minutes earlier to Dallas, and then sat on the tarmac for about 25 minutes of it. When we arrive, I shot out of the plane and hurriedly walked to my next gate (across and entire terminal). Once arrived, I see that we should be beginning boarding. The flight should be taking off and while sitting in the waiting area, it is announced that we are waiting for the flight attendant. The flight should be 15-20 minutes delayed..... About two and a half hours later, we finally get off the ground. Airlines, please let us know what's going on. Too many people were looking for information and were getting brushed off at the ticket counter.

Enough of griping.

Corning..... whew!

Wow, what an opportunity. First, let me begin that I really wasn't sure what I was stepping into. I just knew I'd be taking a glassblowing class at Corning. The course was taught by William (Bill) Gudenrath. It was an honor to take a course by him. I saw Bill create glasswork without a worry and it turned out beautiful Venetian works.

Day 1 was a review of glassblowing skills. The nine students were all lampworkers, so I'm not sure if even Bill knew how much of a beginner class this was going to be. Simple low tumblers were the main outcome for the day.

Day 2 was the elongated tumbler. Out off the pipe came many a tall tumbler.

Day 3 was the low and wide vessel.

Day 4 was a review of the above techniques.

Day 5 was a day of vases.

Day 6 was a review/demo day.

I am fully aware that the works I created were "wonky" and not perfect, but I feel pretty good by them. The teaching assistant, Amanda, was also wonderful. There was many a time I yelled out, "Amanda, can you please bring me a XXXXXXX?" The XXXXXXX could be many things like a lip wrap, handle or a request for assistance.

I'd like to thank Bill, Amanda and the Corning Studio for having this class. We were all not what Bill expected, but I think he had a good time and I know that I had a blast.

Pictures will be posted in a few.

A lot has happened in the past month

Here is a the post (made from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) that should tell everyone what has been going on in my life. It has been a whirlwind of stuff.

First - Quit my job (the day I put in my 2 weeks was posted about)
Second - Spent time doing glass at the Winter Wonderland (previously posted on this)
Third - Spent two weeks in Russia
Fourth - Got an interview at Baylor University for a Lecturer position
Fifth - Am currently in-transit to Corning, New York for a glass class

Russia as great. I can't say enough about it. Cold (but who really cares) and full of Russian items for glass creation. I can't wait to get all the photos from everyone.

The interview at Baylor was something I didn't expect, so that's great. More on that in a few weeks.

Corning, New York is a United States glass mecca. Some friends are taking a glass class, so I decided to pal around with them out here. As the class begins to take shape, I'll fill everyone in.