Fall

Gotta love fall --

Practicum

So I started doing my pre-service teaching practicum at a high school in Belleville.  The town is beautifully situated on some lakes formed by the Huron River, and the school is large, clean, and appears new.  In the practicum, I am helping out the teacher and generally observing, which is fun.  I met a nice student named Adam, whom I hope to talk to a little bit each class, so that's cool.  I'll be there once a week for almost all of the winter semester, so something to look forward to!

Oh, I saw a coyote crossing the road today... How cool is that?

Three Days

Two days ago: I was meditating in my pop-up mosquito tent when a skunk walked right in front of me, crossing from left to right not two feet away.  It was interesting to observe my reaction: from the 'oh shit' to the sudden elevated heartbeat.  She didn't appear to notice me (the mosquito net must obscure my appearance) much to my relief. 

One day ago: Labor Day weekend, so of course it rained. We went to Metro Beach Metro park, which was a little disappointing.  The beach was very thickly seaweed-y, and the rain was vicious.  My wife invited several families, and I had to watch the kids, unfortunately, so I really couldn't enjoy it very much   It looked like an interesting park, and I hope to visit it again soon. 

Today, I screwed up.  I thought that my semester started today, but in fact my classes do not start until Thursday.  I wondered why nobody was coming to class: including the teacher!

Made a homemade mediation cushion with a pillow case, some duck tape, and some folded newspaper.  My wife enjoys sleeping with my regular pillow, so something had to be done. 

Realized that my mosquito tent was a sacred space: all eight directions, with nadir and zenith as well..

Am noticing settling and levels of depth ... 

Sunday Misc. Continued

Observed: A train engineer has his elbow out the window of the train engine -- must be fun to drive a train, I would think...  (Might be wrong about that, though...) The train was festooned with spray-painted slogans -- tagging is a particularly irritating and ugly form of literacy if you ask me.

Had to set up my portable mosquito net in order to mediate today... They haven't been bad lately, as the evenings have been very cool.  Love it when a train comes by when I'm meditating... The neighbor spreading some sort of pesticide on his back yard...

Am reading: Team of Rivals by Goodwin (Lincoln has always fascinated me), the last chapter in a text (Building Adolescent Literacy in Today's English Classrooms) that is required for an upcoming class (starting in two days), the latest Asimov's Science fiction magazine (I'm on story number 3), and Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space (which I read before: it didn't impress me then, but this time I'm enjoying it thoroughly).  

Sunday Misc.

Heat lighting last night, with some rain off and on.  I couldn't sleep, so I did ten minutes of meditation.  Did it help?  No.  I don't often have insomnia, but last night I sure did.  After the meditation, I got up to use the computer.  That didn't help much either. 

Enjoyed "Into the Dalek".  The Doctor asks "Am I a good man?"  I'm sure we've all asked ourselves that once or twice in our life... I know I have.  Loving the Capaldi's Doctor though.  Brilliant casting choice, and well acted.

Sun today goes in and out of the clouds... now sunny, now dim.  

 

Butt, Ice Cream Man, Pine Needles

Observed: a woman at the MacDonalds' playground with her cut-off blue-jeans cut so short that the bottoms of the buttocks were visible.  Three well-behaved kids clambering about the structure.   She rubbed the shoulders of her husband often as they sat there (although he seemed fairly oblivious to her ministrations), and the two often kissed.  He had thin beard cut low and shoulders like a linebacker.

Observed: My daughter is interested that the ice-cream truck man is in MacDonalds to have lunch.  She runs over say hi.  

Observed: a picture of a football player on the back of the car, with a name and 1990-2009.  I pointed it out to my daughter and mentioned how sad it was that this man had only lived 19 years old.  The owner of the car, coming up behind, said "thanks for noticing". 

I notice, while meditating on the back porch, that summer is coming to an end.  I love the summer months.  It is so simple: no sweater, coat, scarf needed, not even shoes if you don't feel like it.  I love the fall as well, but fall is infected by melancholia, the sense that things are closing down and coming to an end (at least temporarily).  Falling dead pine needles kept falling into my lap as I sat in half-lotus. 

Looking forward to "Doctor Who tonight".  Never been a huge fan of the Daleks, myself, but many people are, of course. 

Scene

A flashlight bobbing along the length of a stalled train --

Afternoon delight

The sound of maybe the last ice cream truck of the season does not interrupts my meditation so much as enhance it -- the sun though the grape leaves -- the taste of chai tea, and the sound of an airplane ...

The ancients compared random thoughts to a monkey jumping around -- to me today, it seems like random blogging or updates...

New Doctor. (Who?)

On Monday night, I went to see the big screen showing of the premiere of Doctor Who's 12th (?!) Doctor, Peter Capaldi.  It was the second time I had seen it: I could not wait, and saw it live on BBCA on Saturday night.  I thought that Peter was fantastic, as I had expected him to be.  My old friend, Ralph, also seemed impressed.  I liked the new Doctor's gravitas, humor, and especially his darkness and maturity.   Did he push the bad guy to his death?  Or did the cyborg kill himself?  Time will tell (or not).  I especially liked the eyebrows!  Seldom can a body part say so much.   

I never really warmed up to 11th Doctor Matt Smith.  He was great sometimes, and I didn't dislike him.  But her didn't fit my image of what the Doctor should or could be.    I am, incidentally, firmly that my opinion is of the minority, but that's okay.  So Matt didn't float my boat, so what?  One man's Dalek is another man's Cyberman... or something like that. 

Anyways, welcome Peter!  "Change my dear, and not a moment too soon"...

Fire

My wife had a hotdog party with her friends today, and I did my final meditation of the day in front of the fire she had built.  It had greatly decreased in size this late at night, and I had to sit quite close to even feel the warmth from the lackluster flames.  I tossed in a stick, which improved the situation slightly. 

Reflection upon my meditation

Eyes: Glowering embers, strobe-like flickers of light, the stars above, the glowing window of the house next door.  The stick burning down its meager length. Fire always seemed to me to be such a happy, enthusiastic force.  The flames blue close to the wood. 

Ears: Crickets, snap of flames, cars on the road.  Unknown animals moving through the trees and grass. 

Nose: Wood smoke, chill night air away from the flames.

Mouth: Nothing really.

Skin: Comfortable warmth.  One or two mosquitoes landing upon my skin.  A violent case of goosebumps. 

Mind: Irritation at my wife turning on the light and then interrupting my meditation with a reminder. Last night's season eight premiere of Doctor Who. The Buddha's Fire Sermon. 

Today...

Twenty minutes of mindfulness today while preparing lunch... why do my feet fall asleep in half lotus?  

Meditation Hour

 Twenty minutes three times a day: after 6 a.m, after 12 p.m, after 5 p.m. 

Small irritations (like itching) rise, crest, ebb, disappear... 

Ignoring my math homework
To write poetry instead --

Meanderings

Well, I'm sitting in a uni class with a laptop unsure of what I should be doing right now.  I'm caught up with my work in this class, and the teacher is somewhat unclear about what we should be doing next.  So, I'm just sitting here, but that's okay.

I got my subbing job tomorrow already: a city high school, so that should be fun.  I've  been to this high school before, but as a parapro sub, not a teacher sub, so that's different.  Different is good, though, right?  Unfortunately, I've got to be there by 7, so that's unfortunate.  But a job is a job is a job, and 8 hours of work + ten of the preteaching hours I need for my program, so that's nice too.  Plus I don't have to keep refreshing my computer tonight in search of tomorrow's work.

I'm currently slightly overworked, meaning I've got papers due.  Lots of papers.  I did two of them today, one on a volunteer assignment I had to complete (10 hours!) and the other on second language acquisition (SLA).  End of the semester madness, there's nothing quite like it.  I've got another big paper due next next Thursday, this one on the off-reservation Indian schools.  It's a straight historical piece, but around ten pages long.  I've got the introduction, the thesis, and the first section done, so that's something.  I'm supposed to have yet another paper due in the class I'm currently sitting in, but I"m not sure whats's involved with it (the parameters have been changed for it).

I visited a former local off-reservation school last week with my father, which was fun.  A one day mini-trip.  The building were all abandoned, with no trespassing signs all over the place.  Big, very spooky place, red-brick buildings, everything all boarded up.  The fact that is was an insane aslymn didn't help matters in the slightest

 Dark, rainy, and warm-ish today.  Nice.  But it's supposed to drop 30 degrees tomorrow.  Oh oh, the teacher is turning on a projector... something is in the offing... or is it?  He just walked out.

Skunks

Why am I seeing so many skunks lately?  I've seen three of them in the last week: two in the cemetery (maybe the same one on different days?), and one on the Maple to Old Plank trail.  That one had me a little worried.  He kept weaving in and out of the bushes about 20 feet in front of me, and I was never quite sure where he was at.  Eventually, he scurried off into the woods.    Rabbits I can understand -- I see them all the time (also last week, I saw ten on one day), but skunks?  At least they're cute!

(Untitled)

Goodbye Educational Psychology class!  I would like to say I will miss you, but I'd be lying. 

The other day...

The other day, I was waiting for my daughter to finish her Korean class at the local church.  Having an hour to kill, I decided to finish my daily walking time by walking south for half an hour, and then back to the church.  Walking by a pond , I heard a large ka-plunk, like a rock being thrown into the water.  Looking in, I saw something swimming underwater, and a moment later, it surfaced: an otter!

How cool was that ?  I've never seen one in the wild before...  I waited for it to reappear, but alas, such was not to be.

Snow!

First snow of the winter -- One and half inches following yesterday's freezing rain -- had to use hot water to open my wife's car door.

Welcome back, Lady Winter. I realize we have had an adversarial relationship in the past, but let's put that behind us, let bygones be bygones, shall we?! Let's be friends!

Anger

"The one who get angry first loses..."

From: Star Trek: Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind by David Mack. (A truly great entry in a truly great ST series, btw).

Did that quote piss you off? You lose!

Buddha Dance

Leona showed me her Buddha-Dance today. You need a partner facing you, and it goes like this (moving slowly, of course, like a meditating Buddha!):

Hands stiff at sides
Bowing in familiar namaste fashion with palms in front of chest
Step right, then left.
Left foot on right knee, then reverse.
Namaste bow again.
Hands to side.
Repeat at will.

Not a difficult or long dance by any means!