I'm an Adult Now...

"Well, it's 1 a.m. Better go home and spend some quality time with the kids." - Homer Simpson

So, on June 10 this year, I became a father. I also thought that it made me an official step-father, but A said that didn't happen until we brought the baby *home*. As the proud patriach (eunich?) of a household of three girls, I am well aware that there is no use debating anything with them, so I let it go. But, we're all at home now, so I'm official a father and step-father. Which is plenty scary.

Fortunately, L has been through this before, and is doing a bang-up job of mothering, so I just have to hover around in the background and say things like "How do you tell if they're tired?" "How hot should the bath be?" "It looks like orange mustard - oh, that's good?"

Really, this is just an excuse to post a couple of pics of the newly enlarged family...so here we go...

Back in the Saddle

Who knows if I'm referring to the blogging saddle or not, as I make no promises that I'll manage to keep this going; perhaps it is only the slow day I am suffering at work that caused me to try and guess my blogger password once again. But I am at least referring to the saddle on the horse that is the federal government (note to self: drop metaphor).

A brief update to cover the last year of my life:

- taught a business course at Brookfield High School in the Fall of 2008
- taught grades 10 and 12 math at Sir Wilfrid Laurier High School in the Winter/Spring of 2009
- moved in with The Girl and The Kid
- decided that working the equivalent of half-time as a teacher with no job security, no long-term prospects, low salary and crazy workload wasn't worth it right now
- accepted a new job at Environment Canada (don't worry, we'll have this climate change thing fixed in no time)
- travelled to the Netherlands, Belgium and England with The Girl and The Kid for two weeks

That pretty much covers the highlights - I'm not that exciting. Oh, and the Royal Oak Rockets did manage to win the Tier IV championship last year - that's important too. We begin our defense tomorrow night in the semi-finals.

Anyhow, now I find myself back at a government work station (in a cubicle this time - major step down from my own office!) and, with not much to do in my first couple of weeks, I thought I would update any *very* dedicated lurkers who might be out there of what's happening. Since I now have a bit more computer time on my hands, perhaps I can keep this thing a bit more up to date (see post below - I've already updated my 101 things list!)

Well that was trying...

Scratch one from "The list": Do a triathlon

On Saturday this weekend I participated in a "Try-a-tri" to get a sense of what one of these things is like. In my usual fashion I didn't train beforehand, but I wasn't too worried going in as the distances were all things I could handle: 200M swim, 15km bike ride, 3km run. In the past, I'd been a lifeguard, so the swimming shouldn't be too bad and I biked all the time to work two years ago and my year in Fredericton, so that should be easy too. My main concern was the run, as I don't do that, unless it's from first to second base. But 3km didn't seem too daunting, so I set myself an overall goal of 1 hour 25 minutes for the course and thought that seemed reasonable.

I arrived Saturday morning to a huge crowd at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility - not a crowd of watchers, but rather participants! They had all sorts of different length triathlons and duathlons going on, including the nutty Ironman (that would be a 3.8km swim!!!, a 180km bike ride followed up with a 42km run (yes, a whole marathon)). That race took participants between 9.5 and 15 hours to complete. Yeah, I'm not there yet.

So I showed up, learned about the rules of the race, the routes and went and set up my transition zone (the spot where you switch from swim to bike to run), laying out my stuff like other people who seemed to know what they were doing. Then I got bodymarked - when you race you wear a bathing cap with your number on it (obviously just for the swim) and you have your number written on both thighs and both arms. On the back of one leg is the race you're competing in - on the other, your age. Once temporarily tattooed, I headed for the beach.

The swim ran 200M along Mooney's Bay beach (site of the Hope Beach volleyball tournament). I was plenty nervous for the start, even though there didn't seem to be any really competitive people in my race (those people would have been in the Sprint Triathlon - same distances as the Try-a-tri, but for serious athletes). The horn went and we started off in complete chaos. Thirty-one men (the women started 3 minutes after us) all trying to swim in a straight line with lots of kicking and splashing.

Despite telling myself to stay calm off the start and not kill myself, I kind of got caught up in the race. I kept popping up to see where other people were and pushing hard. About 150M into the swim, I discovered two things: 1) 200M is longer than you think it is and, 2) it was a long, long time ago that I was a lifeguard...I mean, a really long time ago. So I switched to breaststroke. I finally made it out in a time of 7:10, good for 35th out of the 94 of us who did the race (that's men and women combined). A decent time, all things considered.

Of course, it came at a cost - namely, I was beat. I swam a great 200M race, but turns out there was still this cycling thing to go, not to mention the run. Out of the water, a 300M barefoot run to the transition zone, strap on the cycling shoes, grab the bike and jog another 200M with it to the start of the cycling course. This should have been my best section - I still bike frequently and have a faster bike than some of the other people in this race (since this wasn't geared to serious athletes, there were some clunky mountain bikes out there). But the swim and two jogs had really winded me - I knew I was in trouble when the first of the women (who started 3 minutes behind us) caught up to me as I was mounting the bike. I'd expected that the better ones of them would pass me, but what disturbed me was the number on her back right calf - a 12. Yes, a 12-year-old girl whupped my ass. And she wouldn't be the last one.

The bike ride was awful. It wasn't until the very end that I finally felt like I'd caught my breath and was able to get a proper cadence. I was learning the hard way not to go out too hard in the swim! I finished with a time of 43:34, a disappointing 76th out of 94 racers. Plus I had the pleasure of watching a lot of people well below and above my age zoom past me. Although it was neat to share the course with the really good ironman and half ironman athletes, who had 180km and 90km rides to do. They went past us like we were standing still, probably doing 35-40km/hr the whole way.

Back into the transition area, into the running shoes and out onto the track. Onto the dreaded run! I started slow and told myself to just take it easy - my main goal being just to run the whole thing, no walking. Strangely though, the run turned out decently for me. First, I passed a few people that had got ahead of me on the bike ride. Second, I was able to breath well for the first time all race - the swim had really winded me. On the way back into the stadium I even picked up the pace (although I resisted the urge to toss my hat into the crowd a la Simon Whitfield) and sprinted the last 50M or so to surge across the finish line, catching a guy who had passed me earlier. Final time of 20:04, good for 46th out of 94.

That gave me a total of 1:13:16, well ahead of my goal. I finished 62 out of 94. I'm quite pleased I did this - it's way more fun than just going out and doing a long run. I like the strategy of having three events, pacing yourself and making quick transitions. I learned a lot on this first race, and am already eyeing a second on in late September (possibly with even longer distances!). Maybe that will give me motivation to train a little.

Anyhow, I would encourage anyone in halfway-decent shape to try one of these out. The distances are quite reasonable and it was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning. Plus you get the ego boost of watching 12-year-olds kick your ass.

For more info on this and other races in the Ottawa area, see www.somersault.ca. If you're bored and want to see my time go to http://results.sportstats.ca/display-results.php?lang=eng&racecode=43966.

The List

So, as you saw below, the 101 things in 1001 days challenge was issued to me by a good friend, and while it has taken me a fairly long time to come up with my list of things, I am now pretty happy with it. I think most of these goals are achievable within the time frame. While I'm only posting it now, I've done some of these things already, so I'm starting my countdown on April 1, 2008, which gives me until December 28, 2010 to scratch everything off my list. I'll keep you posted!



1. Write this list and make it public (August 2008)

Un-measurable Goals

2. Forgive myself for past mistakes and let go of the guilt

Family and Relationships

3. Visit Collin, wherever he is (he came home :-) )
4. Visit Jeff Bassett
5. Blog once a month
6. Email one friend a month
7. Write Grandma every three months
8. Spend a weekend at the cottage with my parents (done a couple of times now)
9. Play hockey or soccer with my sister (done last winter - hockey)
10. Clear the air with a certain friend (August 2008)
11. Have lunch with Leah (I'm going to count tea)
12. Visit Chris Med and Jenn (done a couple of times, most recently summer 2009)
13. Buy Keith a really good birthday present
14. Clear the air with another certain friend (done as best I can)

In the Kitchen

15. Make "Hot Pot"
16. Make homemade pasta
17. Make ice cream
18. Try a new recipe every month
19. Make pickles
20. Make homemade granola
21. Make homemade bread once a month
22. Keep a food diary for two weeks

Around the House

23. Help a friend with home repairs
24. Redo bathroom
25. Replace fence (summer 2008)
26. Fix ice dams
27. Repaint carport and trim
28. Repair eavestroughs

Travel and camping

29. Do another longer bike trip (solo)
30. Travel overseas à la backpacking / hostelling
31. Do a solo canoe camp
32. Introduce a friend to canoe camping
33. Do a bike trip with Dad
34. Sleep outside without a tent

Health and Activity

35. Run a 10km race
36. Cross-country ski in Gatineau Park
37. Do 20 pushups and situps 3 times a week for two months
38. Go skiing every winter
39. Do a triathlon (summer/fall 2008)
40. Play baseball during the summers (2008,2009)
41. Stop taking my happy pills (June 2008)
42. Take a curling lesson

Environment

43. Use only cloth bags
44. Cycle to work from May to October
45. Volunteer at Re-cycles Bike Coop once a month for a summer

Good for the Soul

46. Make a list of 100 things that make me happy
47. Take a yoga class
48. Write another song
49. See a sunrise
50. Don't bite my nails for one week
51. Write a list of 100 things to keep
52. Move out of my parents' basement (April 2008)

Civic Engagement

53. Write a letter to my MP
54. Write a letter to my MPP
55. Write a letter to my city councilor
56. Write a letter to the editor

Creativity and Culture

57. Write a short story
58. Learn 10 new songs on the guitar
59. See 12 movies at the Bytowne / Mayfair
60. Go to one concert a year at the Black Sheep Inn
61. Only watch sports on TV
62. Read 12 books a year – 6 fiction, 6 non-fiction
63. Read 3 classic novels
64. Watch three classic movies
65. Learn "One Great City" on the guitar

Purely Practical

66. Learn the basics of weather systems
67. Take a course on bike repair
68. Get to bed at a decent hour for one whole month
69. Get my boating license
70. Take a CPR/First Aid Course
71. Prep for death
72. Learn to tie a tie
73. Get a pair of black dress pants (April 2008)

Career

74. Work in a high school (2008-09 school year)
75. Take a basketball coaching course (August 2008)
76. Update teaching portfolio
77. Decide whether to take FSL level I (decided - nope)
78. Decide if I'll stay in teaching or not (decided - also nope)
79. Coach a basketball team each year (2008)
80. Get my certification levels for elementary and secondary (2009)

Financial

81. Donate 1.7% of my income to charity (pretax, for those who care)
82. File my taxes on time
83. Go back to keeping good track of my finances

Just for Fun

84. Host a poker night
85. Go geocaching
86. Play hockey on a community rink (winter 08-09)
87. Host a dinner party
88. Go tobogganing
89. Have a nap in a hammock
90. Make two digital picture albums
91. Make a physical picture album
92. Make 10 mixed CDs
93. Go rock climbing
94. Spend a day at a beach (The Hague, 2009)
95. Scuba dive once a summer
96. Learn to juggle
97. Learn to shuffle cards properly
98. Learn to play poker
99. Play bridge
100. Go to a Carleton Ravens game each year
101. Go to a Can-Am baseball game each year (done for 2008)

101 in 1001

The Mission:

Complete 101 preset tasks in a period of 1001 days.

The Criteria:

Tasks must be specific (ie. no ambiguity in the wording) with a result that is either measurable or clearly defined. Tasks must also be realistic and stretching (ie. represent some amount of work on my part).

Why 1001 Days?

Many people have created lists in the past - frequently simple goals such as New Year's resolutions. The key to beating procrastination is to set a deadline that is realistic. 1001 Days (about 2.75 years) is a better period of time than a year, because it allows you several seasons to complete the tasks, which is better for organising and timing some tasks such as overseas trips or outdoor activities.

Some common goal setting tips:

1. Be decisive. Know exactly what you want, why you want it, and how you plan to achieve it.

2. Stay Focussed. Any goal requires sustained focus from beginning to end. Constantly evaluate your progress.

3. Welcome Failure. Frequently, very little is learned from a venture that did not experience failure in some form. Failure presents the opportunity to learn and makes the success more worthy.

4. Write down your goals. It clarifies your thinking and reinforces your commitment.

5. Keep your goals in sight. Review them frequently, and ensure that they are always at the forefront of your thinking.

Start Date: April 1, 2008

End Date: December 28, 2010

Update

Hello intrepid readers, if any of you still remain. I recognize it has been many moons since I last posted (to be precise, 17 new moons), but I am endeavouring to get back into this here blogosphere.

So, what's new? Well, I finished off my teaching degree in New Brunswick and then moved back to Ottawa (less dramatically than my trip eastward) to begin hunting for teaching work. While provincial premiers have announced that they intend to make moving from one province to another for work that requires certification, such as teaching, I was unfortunately not part of that movement.

In brief, I wanted to teach in the Ottawa Carleton District School Board. I contacted them and they told I needed to apply for an employee number, but to do that I needed to have my Ontario College of Teacher's certification. But to have that I needed to have my New Brunswick teaching certification. But to have that I needed to have graduated (not just had my classes end, but actually wait for the commencement ceremony). As my classes only ended at the end of June and my commencement wasn't until late July, this did not bode well for being ready to teach by September.

And that's pretty much how it worked out - it took me until mid-October to even be *allowed* to try and work in Ottawa. More than a little frustrating. Anyhow, after a bit of time supply teaching, I fell into a maternity coverage position teaching grade 7 and 8 science, language arts and geography/history. All in French. Oui. Moi qui ne parles pas souvent le francais avais besoin de le parler chaque jour, pour toute la journee. Fortunately, as the year went on, the rust fell away and I did okay. I still wouldn't be happy having me teach language arts, but I think I did the science justice. I had a much better time working with this age group than I ever thought possible and the option of working long-term in grade 7 and 8 is now on the table, which was not the case going into the year.

However, this fall I'm euphamistically calling myself an unrestricted free agent, again looking for work. This time I would like to try the high school level to get a feel for both levels and then figure out which I like best. What job postings there are will be coming out next week, so I'm updating my resume and keeping my fingers crossed.

Oh, and as far as living arrangements go, after probably a little too long of staying with my parents (the rent was good and with daily work locations a bit uncertain it was helpful), I am now living with my friend e-J, in an attempt to recapture our halcyon days of youth, when we were proud card-carrying members of the House of Ill Repute in Guelph, Ontario (actually, and this will matter to very, very few of you, I still *am* a card-carrying member of the Certified Llama Herders Association "Sheep yes, llamas no"). Anyhow, e-J is a gracious landlord and I'm enjoying my time here. Should a permanent teaching position come my way, I would probably look for something else, but in the meantime, I'm quite happy here.

So, rather depressingly, I have now summarized the last 16 months of my life in 5 paragraphs, but I'll write that off to efficiency as opposed to a lack of meaning. I'm aiming to keep this blog updated more frequently now, so hopefully it will attract back a reader or two - if you do drop by, leave a little comment so I know I'm writing for someone, even if you comment anonymously!

Keith was right

Keith always says that we shouldn’t worry, because things will turn out in the end. While this long-term approach does not earn the support of John Maynard Keynes (“In the long-run, we’re all dead”), it has served me well and I find it important to remember Keith’s words in times of stress and trouble. His faith that things will work out always seems to be rewarded, so who am I to question him?

The past couple of days has shows Keith’s maxim to be true. As some of you may know, I own a house in Ottawa and have rented it out for the past two years and have been trying to do so again this year. Until this weekend I’d been having trouble, which was causing some stress (financial and otherwise – you know when those things just hang over your head?)

But Thursday I got an email from an interested party who wanted to come see the place and he was prepared to fly up from Toronto to see it. As I have been umpiring many baseball games as part of the Ontario Summer Games, I wasn’t immediately free, so I set an appointment at noon on Saturday, which shouldn’t have been an issue, given my last game would be done by 11 at the latest.

But Friday night fate, or as I call him: Chris Jones, reared his ugly head and fogged (yes fogged) out the last three innings of a baseball game with implications for the morning games I was to do. I was now faced with rescheduled games bumping my end time back to possibly as late as 2pm, and a prospective tenant who was flying into Ottawa at 11 and leaving again at 4! I went to sleep a bit nervous.

But in the morning, Keith began to be right. An early phone call informed me the games had all been sorted out and we were back on schedule. Then my game was a sweet, tight, well-played affair that ended in just over two hours, leaving me free to go over to the house plenty early to cut the lawn. The guy showed up, liked the house and only had one concern – he wanted in a bit before September 1 if he could. Problem was, I couldn’t find any current tenants to see what their story was. So we drove around for a bit to see the neighbourhood. Upon our return there was a strange pickup truck on the lawn. I entered the house and it was the basement tenant moving out! Today! The guy signed on the spot. Not only that, but he’s just starting in med school in Ottawa, so if I treat him nice, maybe he’ll stay for four years.

Anyhow, I just wanted to say thanks to Keith for keeping me sane in times of stress. Now, if only what he said holds true for teaching jobs as well J

Ack!

God he's driving me nuts! His answer to everything is just more worksheets and questions! If the kids don't understand the first 20 questions and are stuck on question 4, how does he think giving them 20 more on top of that will help?! Then they'll just have 36 questions undone and feel even more stupid! And for the kids that already have all 20 done perfectly, will it help them to do another 20? *sigh* Maybe I don't know enough about all this teaching, but this is *not* how I want to run the class. I recognize he's coming from old school, which is where I thrived and I don't mind doing a lot more practice problems than are typically given in the "new math" books, but if there's struggling going on, then we want to slow down, not speed up....

Anyhow, that's my little rant for today. Maybe his 31 years of experience means more than my 3 months *grin* But I'm definitely a little frustrated right now!

Beijing Cough

So after many futile attempts I have for some reason been allowed to access blogger today (I believe China censors it usually. I haven't been able to access wikipedia either since I got here.) Some news to report - I'm sick :-( Yesterday night I came down with a sore throat, cough, runny nose, headache and general soreness of the body. It sucked. And I won't like to you - being in Asia and getting the flu makes one think! But I seem to slowly be on the mend. I spent a lot of last night and today in bed and the sore throat is gone at least. The cough is pretty fearsome though - the others have recognized it as the "Beijing Cough", which they all got upon arrival as well. So now I'm trapped in my room unable to go out for food with others (because most Chinese meals involve communal eating from shared plates) spending most of my time in bed. Oh well, at least I'm getting better. Although not getting a ton of sleep. There's construction on the go here 24/7. They don't have any noise bylaws in Beijing. So the construction site nearby, whose main activity seems to be dropping steel pipes from various heights, does so right through the night. Occasionally, fireworks displays go off at 2am. Very odd.

So I'm having a few difficulties with my cooperating teacher. He's a nice man, but is very old school in terms of teaching. Complains about the "new math" (which is they way we're taught to teach at STU), dislikes the two short internships and so forth...he believes that because students did the work once but have forgotten it, they need to do it again the same way - this time they'll remember. Not because the way it was taught might not have been conducive to long-term remembering...*sigh*...oh well!

So, there you have just a quick update before I try and sleep again. Cheers!

Still posting

Hey all...while in China it's likely most of my posts will be at: stuchina.wetpaint.com, a blog set up for the whole St. Thomas education class to follow our trip over here...feel free to explore and read about other students adventures too!

From a Ways Away to A Long Way Away

Well, I know it's been almost two months since an update, so I apologize for that. This term back at school has been very tiring. The same sort of busy work projects are getting assigned, but none of us feel any motivation to actually do them this time around. I think it's because we realized how little of what we did cover in the first term was of actual use in the real world of the classroom.

However, I do have some pretty big news. Some of you have heard about this, but not everyone has. I now know where I'm going for my second internship, and the title of this post gives a clue: it's far away.

Myself and three other interns will be heading to the country of China for seven weeks to teach in schools there. I will be based in Beijing at an International school that teaches New Brunswick curriculum (yes, there are schools that teach everything there!). I'll be over there from early March to early May. I still don't know what grade level or subjects yet, but I'm looking forward to it more and more. The school employs a good number of Canadian teachers, so I won't suffer from extreme culture shock over there, and I gather the English abilities of the students should be passable. To help prepare me, though, I've taken a crash course in ESL instruction, so that may come in handy as well.

Should be good times! The beer is apparently only $0.35/glass :-) All visitors welcome!