Another New Beginning?

I'm going to try to start posting here again. I would like to make this a place that friends and relatives can keep track of what I'm doing. I hope to create an interesting record of the next phase of my life.


I graduated from Portland State University in August of this year (2013). I now have a Bachelor's of Science degree in Economics. I'm finding out that this isn't really worth much. I've submitted dozens of applications for jobs in Portland and nationwide to both private and public organizations. I haven't gotten a single bite yet. Its already getting discouraging. To make anything of this degree I think I need to go back and do graduate level work. But I'm done with school, at least for now. I may go back eventually, but I can't take several years of more school right now. I need a change. Something big. It's time.

I've been fantasizing about teaching English as a foreign language in other countries for a long time. I starting thinking about it again about 6 or 7 months ago. A couple of months ago I upgraded the fantasy to an actual possibility. Now, I think I'm ready to upgrade again to actually doing it.

I've been doing a lot of research on the subject. I'm pretty sure I want to go to South Korea for at least a year.

First, I'm going to head to a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) school in Guadalajara, Mexico. I'll probably be there for 5 weeks and end up with one of the more desirable TEFL certifications, as it includes an actual teaching component in addition to the classroom time. I want to be done with school, but I think I can handle one last course. I plan to leave Portland on January 4 and return for a few weeks on February 8. The school year begins in March in South Korea, so the timing should be just right to spend a little time wrapping up any loose ends and saying my goodbyes before leaving for at least a year .

Trunk Monkey letter

Written for my technical writing class -

Capitalistic Crap Products

320 Cirrus Blvd.

Cloud City, IA 52240

April 8, 2013

Frederick Engles

Customer Service Manager

Trunk Monkey Enterprises

1414 NE Marx Dr.

Moscow, ID 83844

Dear Mr. Engles:

The Trunk Monkey Deluxe you recently sold us had a defective aggression dampener that had to be replaced while driving to Atlantic City, NJ. Consequently, we are requesting reimbursement of the expenses to our company to replace the dampener.

We purchased the Trunk Monkey Deluxe from your Iowa City store on January 4, 2013. (See attached sales invoice No. 63229.)

The Trunk Monkey worked extremely well for the first several months, but during that time we had no reason to activate the aggression dampener.

On March 30 one of our sales employees, George Modoc, activated the Trunk Monkey after following the pre-activation procedures specified in the owners manual. After driving down the interstate for only 9 hours, the Trunk Monkey became violent and tried to escape from the trunk of the car. Mr. Modoc attempted to activate the aggression dampener, but it did not respond. He then turned the Trunk Monkey off and restarted it after consulting the emergency procedures manual that was provided by your company. Less than 30 minutes later, the Trunk Monkey became even more violent. The aggression dampener once again did not respond, forcing Mr. Modoc to do a “hard deactivation” on the Trunk Monkey.

Because the Trunk Monkey Deluxe is neither sold nor serviced anywhere east of the Mississippi River, Mr. Modoc was forced to buy a replacement aggression dampener (a Vicks Model 44D), which has since worked fine. I have enclosed the defective dampener, plus a copy of the sales receipt for the replacement dampener that Mr. Modoc purchased from Knock-Off Monkey Products in Youngstown, OH.

Please send our company a check for $2,987.63 to cover our costs for replacement of the defective dampener.

Sincerely,

Alan Keynes

Vice President

New minor?

It became clear that I wasn't going to be able to take the classes that I wanted to for the GIS minor. So I have pretty much decided to change my minor to Geography instead. I'm still going to take several GIS-specific classes though, as they are eligible electives. This way I can also be more likely to graduate in June instead of after the summer term.

I will be registering for winter quarter classes on November 7. As of now, I'm going to take my last economics class (EC 457 American Economic History: The 20th Century), GEOG 345U (Resource Management), and GEOG 488 (GIS 1) along with an associated lab. This will give me a 5 day a week schedule, which is the first time I've had to do this. The following may be my weekly schedule.

• EC 457 - MWF 12:45-1:50
• GEOG 345 - TuTh 4:00-5:50
• GEOG 488 - TuTh 6:00-7:50
• GEOG 488 Lab - F 2:00-3:50

I'm also working on getting an internship, so this term could be much busier for me than normal. One of them that I'm looking at is under the AmeriCorps umbrella. If I get/accept that one it means an 11-month commitment, but with pay! I would get about $1000/mo in stipends and a $5500 education grant (to pay for continuing education or for paying off existing loans) at the end. The monetary rewards are very tempting. The experience would be invaluable in finding a job afterwards. We'll see how this all shakes out.

If this all works out like I hope, the spring term will probably consist of GEOG 492 (GIS 2), GEOG 210 (Physical Geography), and my senior capstone, which I hope will be Grantwriting for Indigenous Sustainability (I want this one for multiple reasons). And that's it! If all goes as planned, I will then be graduating. It's hard to believe that I'm getting so close to earning a 4-year degree!

How I spent my summer vacation - another long movie list

So this post is originally from the summer of 2011. Occassionally I try to add to it and finish it. I doubt it will ever see the light of day if I keep this up, so here it is in unfinished form. Sorry.


I've been watching movies like they are going out of style. Since my last movie update I've seen at least 30 movies and watched all the episodes of two 2-season TV shows, plus assorted current TV episodes. I iz couch potato. So once again, here is a list of what I've been watching, roughly in the order I watched them.

• Catch Me If You Can - I was reading an interesting article on con man Frank Abagnale, Jr.and there was mention of a 2002 movie that more or less told his story, at least as much as a Hollywood movie will, and I decided to watch it. DiCaprio isn't my favorite actor, but he did a really good job with this role. Tom Hanks and Christopher Walken help out a lot too. It's a fun movie that is easy to watch.
• Dead Man - I can't say enough about this 1995 Jim Jarmusch-directed movie. I'm pretty picky when it comes to westerns, but I've never seen one quite like this one. The director calls it an "acid western" and that fits pretty well. It was shot in black & white and has some pretty authentic Indian depictions in it. The cast was awesome - Johnny Depp, Crispin Glover, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thorton, Iggy Pop, John Hurt, Lance Henriksen, Robert Mitchum (in his last role), and all the others did an amazing job in this weird, surrealistic western. I now rank this movie in my top five favorite westerns.
• Misfits (current BBC series) - A bunch of annoying 20-somethings in a suburb of London are sentenced to community service and are caught in a storm that gives them superpowers. This show is silly and ridiculous. But it's funny and really well written. I'm looking forward to season 3.
• No Country For Old Men - I wanted to like this 2007 Coen brothers film more than I did. It seems that most everybody else thought it was great. Visually it was appealing and the acting was good. The story was intriguing but the ending was disappointing and had no closure.
• The Blue Max - I mainly watched this one for the WWI flying sequences. Those were pretty good. Otherwise, this 1966 film was mostly not that great.
• Wall-E - I sometimes have a hard time wanting to watch recent movies that are wildly popular. Most of the time they don't live up to the hype. So I resisted watching this 2008 animated Pixar science fiction film for quite a while. Too bad. It's a really great movie and actually deserves most of the praise it got.
• C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America - This is a little different. A pseudo-documentary that takes place on an alternate reality where the South won the Civil War.
• Better Off Ted An ABC television series that I had totally ignored. I quickly became a fan. Too bad they canceled it so soon.
• Spirited Away A really amazing Japanese animated movie. I was not sure I would like this film. It would probably appeal to 8-10 year olds as well, but there is probably something good there for any age. The animation is beautiful, the story is solid, and the message is positive. Not at all sugary-sweet, but still very moralistic in an un-overt (I may just be making up words now) way.
• Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Kind of disappointing, but not terrible. Nothing beats the original.
• The Dark Knight I gave up on the Batman franchise a long time ago. I really want to love Batman. I decided to give this one a chance. I was surprised at some of the performances. This is probably the best Batman movie so far.
• Valkyrie I hate Tom Cruise. But he's still a pretty good actor in the right role (if he sticks to action movies). This movie sounded kind of dumb, but I had lots of time on my hands. All in all, not bad for some tarted-up Hollywood take on a bit of obscure WWII history.
• Brutal Beauty I am torn on this one. I'm not sure if it's well made or not. Its about women's roller derby, the local Rose City Rollers specifically. I know or at least recognize, most of the women in this film. I think it probably gives a pretty good prospective of the sport from their point of view.
• Repo Man A classic that just doesn't hold up that well for me. Call me a pariah.
• Pans Labyrinth Super cool and different Spanish horror/fantasy film. Beautiful feel and look. Not anything like American horror films.
• Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park This is one of the worst movies ever. I had never seen it before, but had heard of its awesome terribleness. It's even worse than I thought it would be. The off-screen story of this waste of celluloid is kind of funny too.
• Bad Teacher Stupid. But kind of funny. But funny in a way that makes me mad if I think about it. Not worth seeing. Even though Carmen Diaz is pretty hot in it.
• The Big Lebowski This is supposed to be one of the greatest cult films of all time. I don't see it. Maybe I'm at just the wrong age. It seems like a bunch of pretentious crap to me.
• Trinity and Beyond I was mostly interested in seeing all of the footage of nuclear explosions. There are a lot of them. The story is pretty fascinating as well.
• Princess Mononoke Another classic animated film that is usually high on cult film lovers lists. I like it, but I liked Spirited Away better (the same guy did them). Certainly worth watching though.
• The Manchurian Candidate The original one. Great performances and a timely and topical story at the time. I won't even bother watching the recent remake.
• Minority Report Another solid Tom Cruise movie. I hadn't seen this one in a while and gave it another go. Good plot based on a Philip K. Dick science fiction short story and interesting "neo-noir" visuals.
• Battle Royale You probably shouldn't watch this Japanese movie. High school students are made to battle to the death on an island. Just graphic enough to be disturbing. I "enjoyed" this film, but that doesn't mean you will.
• Prophecy
• A Scanner Darkly
• They Live
• Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
• Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones
• Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith
• Star Wars (Episode 4: A New Hope)
• Galaxy Quest
• Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
• Splice
• The Third Man
• Let the Right One In
• Initial D
• Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

Long time no post - again

I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted anything here. Sorry. Here's one.

My classes are going well this term. Getting up early two days a week is still a drag, but at least I'm mostly enjoying all of my classes. As expected, GEOG 230 (Environment & Society) is pretty easy. So far it hasn't covered any larger concepts that are new to me, but my depth of knowledge of the rest of the world is getting larger. So far we've covered Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (aka MENA), and are now on South Asia. We will also be covering Southeast Asia, and then Asia. The class is too short (3 hour and 15 minutes each week) to cover much anything else. The instructor is kind of a ditz, but she is knowledgeable enough (and knows when to say she doesn't know something or will have to find out an answer) that it's a relatively interesting class. I did a paper in week 2 on sugar and how it has an effect on the world in terms of things like world trade, knowledge/goods dispersion, slavery, indigenous diaspora and extermination, etc. I'll be doing one more paper on a specific country's immigrant population in Portland. I haven't quite decided the group yet, but I need to get on this one soon. There is no midterm exam for this class. As long as I don't blow off the second paper and the other couple of smaller assignments still to come, I should be able to get an "A" in this class.

My earliest ever class (starts at 8am on Mondays and Wednesdays) is GEOG 380 (Maps & Geographic Information). Its a good thing I'm into maps because this class has a lot of map-related minutiae that would probably bore most people to death. The instructor is pretty smart, but doesn't seem very organized. Ultimately, we students pay the price. We somehow got behind so the schedule needed to be rearranged and compressed. And he forgot that there is no school on the 12th because of Veteran's Day, so that made it even worse. I have to read six chapters for next week. Six! That's ridiculous. Questions on the online weekly quizzes tend to be ambiguous and/or worded in a confusing way. We were warned during the first class that this would be the case, but everyone is still complaining. A lot of people seem to be doing bad on the quizzes. We were told not to worry too much about them and that the instructor grades on a curve. I guess this is good news for me. I've been doing relatively well on the quizzes. The instructions for labs (mine's on Tuesday afternoons) are also sometimes confusing. I also have a thing about grad students basically doing slave labor for professors and this class is no different. Ask me if you really want to know what I think. I am learning a lot though. I'm getting a little bit of experience with Idrisis, a mapping software program, which is kind of fun. There are also no papers and no mid-term exam. The final is going to be each of us working through a single GIS problem. I don't really know what that's going to entail, but I may just end up with an "A" in this class.

My third class is EC 417U, Women in the Economy. I really like this class a lot. More than I thought I would. The stuff I'm learning is eye-opening and enlightening. Being a male, I never really thought much about most of the gender-related issues of economics. The professor rocks! She is smart, funny, gives engaging and interesting lectures, and seems to really enjoy what she's doing. This is one class where I sometimes wish it was longer. My only actual midterm this quarter is in this class. Tomorrow! I've studied a little bit, but most of the strictly economic information hasn't been new to me, so I'm pretty confident. I'll do a little more studying tonight and tomorrow on the bus or between classes. I do have a pretty sizable paper for this class that counts for a large part of our grade. I've done little more than come up with three pages of source material. I have two more weeks to finish this paper. I really hope I don't wait until the last minute...If I do well on that, I think its likely that I'll get an "A" in this class as well. This might be my first straight "A" quarter at PSU. Knock on wood.

One of the biggest changes this term has been not driving my car AT ALL to get to school. That and having to pay for a Trimet pass (goodbye FreeRail Zone!). It takes about 15 or 20 minutes longer (more if I get on the wrong bus and don't notice for a while - oops!) but I'm generally a lot less stressed and have time to read or study before and after school during my commute. Its really not that bad. Except the part about having to get up earlier.

Done for now

Well now, that wasn't so bad. There was a ton of reading and writing for my online climatology class but none of it was particularly difficult. I feel like I learned a lot in this class, so that's good. I ended up with an A, even though I didn't turn in my final book-related assignment. I thought it was due a week later than it really was. I'm not sure how that happened. But I think I did well enough and showed a lot of understanding of what we were doing and the professor took that into consideration. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

I had an almost surreal experience because of what I learned in this class. I think it was the last Friday or Saturday of the term. I was up really late and went outside. There was a lightning storm approaching from the east. I could see exactly what was going on with the clouds and why they were doing what they were doing. I know it doesn't really sound like much, but it was a moment of clarity for me that is hard to describe. Weather is cool and I don't actually know all that much about it, but I'm certain I know more than your average Joe. Yay!

My macroeconomics class went a lot smoother than I expected. It was intense, but was over relatively quickly. I did at least slightly better than the class average overall and ended up with a B. I'm happy with that as this class was fairly difficult. The professor doesn't seem to do any grade inflation and his exams are kind of hard. I like that. I'd rather get a B that I had to really work for than an A that was easy. And as expected, I now have a greater understanding of how the macroeconomy works. Its pretty fascinating and important but I don't really see myself doing much in this field in the future. You never know, but it seems unlikely.

I spent the last week doing basically nothing. But I did spend about 4 hours yesterday driving to various Goodwill outlets around town. I ended up with a pair of jeans, two shirts, a nice towel, and a fitted sheet for my bed (super ugly color, but it will be better than using a flat sheet like I have been) for less than $30. I didn't find everything I wanted, so I'll probably go back to a couple of them again. Plus I was getting tired of shopping. It's not really my favorite thing to do.

I have 4 weeks left to do some stuff. I need to do stuff. Cool stuff preferably. But until then, here's more school stuff about fall term. Stuff.

I'm still planning on working on getting a minor in GIS. I might forgo the actual minor by one class so I can graduate next June, but that's still up in the air and depends a lot on how the next couple of terms go and class availability.

As of right now, I'm signed up for the following classes during the fall term:

• GEOG380U Maps & Geographic Information. This is one of the four required classes for the GIS minor. It is a 5-credit class and has a lab component. This is going to be my earliest class yet and runs from 8am to 9:50am on Monday and Wednesday. The lab is on Tuesday from 3:55pm to 5:25pm. Maps! Yay!!!
• GEOG230 Environment and Society. This is another required 4-credit class for the GIS minor. I will have a break of about 1-1/2 hours between my first class and this one, which runs from 11:30 to 12:35 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I haven't taken a 200-level class for quite a while. This should be relatively easy. I wish I didn't have to take this. I don't feel like I'm going to learn all that much that's new to me. I hope I'm surprised.
• EC417U Women in the Economy. I was going to take this class earlier, but it didn't work out. I've heard good things about the professor and the class. And I certainly need to have a better prospective of this subject. Women now make up over half of our country's workforce and are still getting the short end of the stick. I think this class will probably make this much more clear, but I'm not really sure what to expect. After this class I will only need one more required economics class (it will probably be EC460 History of Economic Thought, but I'm not totally sure) for my major. Everything else I need to fulfill my credit requirements can be pretty much anything I want. And I'm using them to get the GIS minor. Oh, I still have to do a senior capstone too. Anyways, this class is on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 12:45 to 1:50.

So this is a relatively full week, I go every weekday but Thursday. Monday and Wednesday will be relatively long (from 8am to 2pm). Tuesday is easy. One lab class from 3:55 to 5:25. And a late start on Friday, from 11:30 to 1:50. More commuting, but not nearly as long of days as my fall term last year. But it will probably be different. There will be no more Free Rail Zone anywhere, except for the downtown area streetcar, which I have no use for. Budget cuts. I can get a discounted Trimet pass for $205 for the term. Or I can pay $220-250 for parking. Or $85 for a motorcycle. That's kind of intriguing but I don't relish the thought of being wet during school. My wet weather riding gear is no longer complete. I'll probably end up buying the pass (or maybe a book of individual passes - which might end up being less) and not using my car at all to get to school. I will have to get up a little earlier still and will have a longer commute, but I'm willing to try it and see how it goes.

Like usual, I have already purchased the textbooks I'm going to need for these classes. Two of them I got used and one I rented, which I haven't done before, but it was still cheaper than buying a used one. I spent a little under $100 for the three of them (the rental was about $45). For some reason, here is a picture of them.

As I was writing this I figured out that I got the wrong edition of the book on the left. The Amazon listing is kind of deceptive. I thought I was getting a 6th edition, but got a 1st. No wonder it was so cheap (about $13). I'll probably look at renting the right one. Another $41 for that. Bah. Stupid Amazon. Or stupid me. I think I'm going to check the on-campus used book store and see what they have.

Summer term almost over

The last month has just flown by. Only one lecture and one exam left in my macro class. I'm doing a little better than the class average as of now. Unless I bomb the final exam on Thursday I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a B in this class. I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I like the 4 week compressed summer class. About 80-100 pages of reading every week, lots of note-taking with graphs, an exam every week. And it's nearly over! I think the same professor (Hiro Ito from Japan) has been teaching this compressed class for quite a few summers and he seems to have it all down pretty well. Today was really the first time I was a little confused during his lecture and I didn't seem to be the only one. The subject, the difference between nominal and real interest rates over time and the meaning of their slopes on a graph, is kind of weird and hard to conceptualize. I started to understand it and I think I have at least retained the point he was making about it. I've felt pretty good about my level of comprehension during this class. Although we generally do it a little bit every lecture, I wish we had more time to talk about current events. That's about my only complaint.

My other summer class, Climatology, has been super interesting. Even though I learned a LOT about the subject, I barely scratched the surface. This class has had a considerable amount of reading (all online - no textbook!) and a lot of writing assignments. I still have my final paper on the climate-related book I read and the 750 word minimum writing part of the final assignment (I already finished the other part). This class was pretty much of a last minute addition and I'm really glad I decided on this one. I felt that I was missing some very important basic knowledge about out climate and now I have it. I still have one week to turn in the final assignment and two weeks for the book critique. I've done really well in this class and the professor seemed pretty impressed with the writing assignments I submitted. I tried making them a little less dry and boring and it seemed to work. I think I'm getting better at writing, but it still takes me a long time to produce a decent paper. There is almost no way that I'll get anything other than an A in this class. Unless I just don't even turn in anything else. I'd probably still pass though.

Next up...five weeks off until fall term starts! Woo hoo! I think I should try to go camping. And maybe ride my motorcycle.