Ocean

I've been very busy, not much time to blog or much to blog about. I am teaching 6 classes instead of the usual 5, with one less plan period - it keeps me plenty busy all day, along with the usual meetings and tutoring work nights. Nothing worth complaining about (but really, complaining is pretty worthless, or even harmful, isn't it?) Alhumdooleluh.

Clark Little is an amazing photographer who specializes in ocean waves. The above photo is his - isn't it gorgeous?

It is one of the few ocean views I've found truly beautiful. I live far from the ocean, but the times I've been there, I never quite got what people claimed to be so wonderful and beautiful. The ocean is awesome, without a doubt, but as for beauty, I'm partial to our Colorado mountains, I guess. The ocean, on the other hand, is intimidating to me. Its vastness, darkness, power, and mystery are not peaceful to me. I've always thought drowning in a ship wreck could be one of the most terrifying ways to die. But maybe if I were more used to ocean views and ocean travels, I'd think differently. Ideally, I think the manner of death is somewhat irrelevant, it is all about how we live life before it comes. We will all die. And the terror of death should be measured by how we lived our lives. Are we ready to face God? What a silly question, God sees us always, we are always facing Him, it is only the veils of our perception in this world, made thicker with our sins, and that are torn away in death, that make us forget God, forget death, forget purpose in life, forget who we are, forget why we are created, forget what really matters.

Coyote

Twice this week as I was driving to work I saw a coyote on the side of the Interstate. It was looking down toward the creek and homeless camps right next to I-25 by the power plant. I guess it was looking for food, either by hunting or thinking of scavenging in the camps. The funny thing about it is the two times I saw it it the same time of morning, and the coyote was in the exact same spot - the scene was so identical I did a double-take the second day.

In Navajo mythology, Coyote is a god that created the Milky Way. It is a trickster that uses deceit to get what it wants. For most city folks, though, a coyote is just a wild dog that is kind of neat to see and hear in town now and then. Would a Navajo wonder if Coyote has something to do with the Haiti quake? I saw the Coyote Monday and Tuesday, and then the quake happened. I sponsor a child in Haiti and know I will have a long wait to hear if she and her family made it out okay. At this point all I can do is donate and pray.

Some Good Books I Read in 2009

Some were re-reads, but so what? :)


Babylon Babies

Definitely not for everyone, but I had fun with it.


Indian Killer

Dark and fascinating.


Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

One of my new all-time favorites - wonderful!


A Return to Modesty

Flawed, but interesting.


Turbulent Souls

Lovely, inspiring.

The Hunger Games & Catching Fire

Waaaaaaaay better than the Twilight books, you hear me, kids?

Cosmology of Islam

Deep stuff!


Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn Mysteries

Fantastic set of mysteries set in Navajo country.

The Lynley Mysteries

A little overboard with the Britishness, but wonderful characters.

The Lord of the Rings

I don't think I even have to say anything, except to keep reading past the history of Hobbit Pipe Weed and things pick up quickly.


Sherlock Holmes

Nothing like the movie, of course. Jeremy Brett already did it perfectly.

Super Freakonomics

Nowhere near as good as the first, but still relatively entertaining and very fast.


American Indians of the Pikes Peak Region

Great images and good information. Could've used even more information, and more detailed captions in some cases.

2010

So, in A.C. Clarke's universe, we'd be dealing with intelligent life in Europa about now, I guess?

Today is my bro's 40th birthday, and it is a palindrome: 01-02-2010. I'm hoping this year will be better than last for a lot of us in many ways.

I'm not big on resolutions, but two things I want to work on right now are cleaning this house, maybe one "task" per day or something like that, and eating a little better - for which I'm trying out Door-to-Door Organics and trying to eat one thing per day from the shipment I'm taking every two weeks. My focus is just on eating a little fresh food every day - living by myself I rarely by fresh food because it tends to go bad before I get to it or finish it, so a lot is wasted - plus, getting paid monthly, I tend to go grocery shopping only once a month. So far, so good for box #1. One "recipe" in particular I tried and liked is a very simple carrot salad: peel and grate carrots (I did 3 medium carrots), then add about a tablespoon of lemon juice, about a tablespoon of olive oil, a little salt and pepper and a touch of mint (the recipe called for tarragon, which I don't have, and mint sounded good), this mix up well and eat like a cold salad - it was yummy and crunchy!

Sometimes I wish I had a roommate or something, because for example this past break I sat alone almost all day every day and it can get a little old and takes me time to adapt. I enjoy it and I don't enjoy it.

I was doing well during summer working out, but once school started, that went away. But, I'm adding a 6th class to my teaching load, so I don't know if now is the time to worry about that - it may be summer again, we'll see.

Oh crazy thing - I heard thunder today - very weird for Colorado on January 2nd!