EMS
5/4 Westlake 6am-6pm
5/6 Westlake 6am-6pm
Hosp/ER
5/11 BTH 3pm-11pm
5/14 BTH 7am-3pm
Monday, April 27, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Meat Dudes
So Soc mentioned that Camille eats at Todai for free. I hadn't been there after they remodeled and changed their menu. I ask them if I can take Camille to Todai, and they say sure. I'm thinking she would be good free entertainment while I stuff myself silly. Bianca says "Oh I love Todai!". I look at her and say, "But you're not free." I didn't expect this to happen anytime soon.
Next day, I'm heading over to their house for the usual playing and whatever; I get a call from Soc asking if I'm going that day. I tell her I'm on my way; and she said that if I wanted to go to Todai, she would give me money for Bianca so I could take both kids--if I thought I could handle them both. So we decide I'll take the kids to Todai, but Camille starts saying she doesn't want to go to Todai. She wants to go to China Bear or Chik-fil-a. But we don't want to go to those places, we want to go to Todai. She starts crying. Then she says she wants to go to Katy Mall. Why? She wants to get a grape tapioca drink from Teahouse. This we can accomodate. I decide we'll go to a Teahouse and get her grape tapioca drink, but after we go eat. Then as they're getting changed and ready to head out, I think of an idea to add to the fun. We would go to Dave & Busters and have them pick out prizes to spend my remaining coupon credits.
Thus, we went to Todai. Camille mostly ate a lot of noodles, some chicken, and baby corn. Bianca ate a good amount of food, especially the barbecue meat. They had waiters whose sole purpose was to walk around the tables with Churrascaria barbecue meat on skewers, and cut off pieces for you to eat. I would like to mention at this point, that this concept is genius. There should be meat dudes everywhere. Anyway, the food was very satisfying. I think there will be many more food outings to come. At the young age of 8, Bianca gets an excited, ravenous look on her face when she sees the meat walking near her. It's like the look the kids must have had in Lord of the Flies when they were roasting the pig. She said, "I feel sorry for the cows, but this is really good."
Then we went to Dave & Busters, played a few games, and chose a few prizes. Bianca took forever because she couldn't decide. She said she didn't want to waste it on things they could buy in the grocery store. And said that she really wants a stuffed animal, but knows that once she takes it home and plays with it for a day, she won't want it anymore. Very careful consumer. When we return to my car, I realize I don't have my cell phone, and that it must have fallen out of my pocket at some point in D&B, since I used it a few times in there. So I bring us back inside to do a search, to no avail. I think I'll go without a cell phone for a while.
Went to Teahouse. Camille got grape, I got mango, and Bianca got cappuccino. She said she likes to stay awake. They started playing Battleship, but after I finished my drink, I decided we would just go because their game would take forever.
We return to the house, and I continue my Monopoly duel with Bianca. She was winning for a while, but I'm making a comeback. We're playing straight up Monopoly, no house rules. Early on, I was buying everything I could by any means, and ended up having most of my properties mortaged. Essentially, I was depending on Go for most of my income, and unmortaging as my funds would allow. After a long time, Bianca bought up her own monopoly of the reds, and I told her she could buy houses there. She decides to buy one on Disney World (equivalent of Illinois, we're playing the electronic banking version). She can afford to buy a lot more, which would have killed me if she did, but she didn't want to buy more houses. And I decided to not advise her against that decision. Finally, my just-pass-Go strategy allows me to open all my properties, and accumulate a bit of money. I offer a trade of Mediterranean and Park Place (I can only remember the original property names) for her Vermont; essentially getting the light blue monopoly in exchange for giving her the purple and blue monopolies (she turned down the Park Place for Vermont offer). I immediately hotel up, sinking my monetary funds to less than $100. She decides to only build one house each on the purple properties. After I gained enough money to handle another monopoly, I made a trade that gave her the orange monopoly and gave me the magenta monopoly. I hotel up, and she builds a few more houses on purple. At this point I'm in the lead with money, but as we were recording the status of the game and cleaning up, she said she would build on her blue next. If she actually starts building more houses and hotels on her multiple monopolies before my two sets of hotels take her down, I'm going to lose. I'll have to explain to her the best strategies of how to win. The next time, after the current game is over.
Next day, I'm heading over to their house for the usual playing and whatever; I get a call from Soc asking if I'm going that day. I tell her I'm on my way; and she said that if I wanted to go to Todai, she would give me money for Bianca so I could take both kids--if I thought I could handle them both. So we decide I'll take the kids to Todai, but Camille starts saying she doesn't want to go to Todai. She wants to go to China Bear or Chik-fil-a. But we don't want to go to those places, we want to go to Todai. She starts crying. Then she says she wants to go to Katy Mall. Why? She wants to get a grape tapioca drink from Teahouse. This we can accomodate. I decide we'll go to a Teahouse and get her grape tapioca drink, but after we go eat. Then as they're getting changed and ready to head out, I think of an idea to add to the fun. We would go to Dave & Busters and have them pick out prizes to spend my remaining coupon credits.
Thus, we went to Todai. Camille mostly ate a lot of noodles, some chicken, and baby corn. Bianca ate a good amount of food, especially the barbecue meat. They had waiters whose sole purpose was to walk around the tables with Churrascaria barbecue meat on skewers, and cut off pieces for you to eat. I would like to mention at this point, that this concept is genius. There should be meat dudes everywhere. Anyway, the food was very satisfying. I think there will be many more food outings to come. At the young age of 8, Bianca gets an excited, ravenous look on her face when she sees the meat walking near her. It's like the look the kids must have had in Lord of the Flies when they were roasting the pig. She said, "I feel sorry for the cows, but this is really good."
Then we went to Dave & Busters, played a few games, and chose a few prizes. Bianca took forever because she couldn't decide. She said she didn't want to waste it on things they could buy in the grocery store. And said that she really wants a stuffed animal, but knows that once she takes it home and plays with it for a day, she won't want it anymore. Very careful consumer. When we return to my car, I realize I don't have my cell phone, and that it must have fallen out of my pocket at some point in D&B, since I used it a few times in there. So I bring us back inside to do a search, to no avail. I think I'll go without a cell phone for a while.
Went to Teahouse. Camille got grape, I got mango, and Bianca got cappuccino. She said she likes to stay awake. They started playing Battleship, but after I finished my drink, I decided we would just go because their game would take forever.
We return to the house, and I continue my Monopoly duel with Bianca. She was winning for a while, but I'm making a comeback. We're playing straight up Monopoly, no house rules. Early on, I was buying everything I could by any means, and ended up having most of my properties mortaged. Essentially, I was depending on Go for most of my income, and unmortaging as my funds would allow. After a long time, Bianca bought up her own monopoly of the reds, and I told her she could buy houses there. She decides to buy one on Disney World (equivalent of Illinois, we're playing the electronic banking version). She can afford to buy a lot more, which would have killed me if she did, but she didn't want to buy more houses. And I decided to not advise her against that decision. Finally, my just-pass-Go strategy allows me to open all my properties, and accumulate a bit of money. I offer a trade of Mediterranean and Park Place (I can only remember the original property names) for her Vermont; essentially getting the light blue monopoly in exchange for giving her the purple and blue monopolies (she turned down the Park Place for Vermont offer). I immediately hotel up, sinking my monetary funds to less than $100. She decides to only build one house each on the purple properties. After I gained enough money to handle another monopoly, I made a trade that gave her the orange monopoly and gave me the magenta monopoly. I hotel up, and she builds a few more houses on purple. At this point I'm in the lead with money, but as we were recording the status of the game and cleaning up, she said she would build on her blue next. If she actually starts building more houses and hotels on her multiple monopolies before my two sets of hotels take her down, I'm going to lose. I'll have to explain to her the best strategies of how to win. The next time, after the current game is over.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Girls
So I'm in HEB with B and C. A woman with four young kids comes by, three boys and the youngest a girl.
She says, "You only have two kids?"
I reply, "Oh no, these are my cousin's kids."
"Oh not even."
"You have four kids?"
"Yeah."
"What did you do that for?"
"Her."
She says, "You only have two kids?"
I reply, "Oh no, these are my cousin's kids."
"Oh not even."
"You have four kids?"
"Yeah."
"What did you do that for?"
"Her."
Sunday, April 12, 2009
I don't like writing essays.
A person's perspective changes when they are holding a camera. The mind's method of evaluating the environment around them becomes more intricate and complex. Usually, under normal circumstances, thoughts about a person's surroundings will revolve around their path towards the destination they are trying to reach, and possible threats to their safety. As we're driving, we look for signs and landmarks, the relative positions of the cars around us, the weather conditions, and other possible hazards. But a photographer is different. In addition to normal cognitive thought processes, they evaluate every speck of color, every line, shape, form, and the way that light illuminates them, creating highlights and shadows. Relationships between objects and then the relationship they have with the rest of the environment are evaluated. And after the photographer quickly and meticulously scrutinizes everything from where they are, they simulate in their mind what the entire scene would look like from another position--where all the relative angles and apparent sizes of everything are different. When the scene has been analyzed from every possible angle, everything is reconsidered and a general idea of lighting changes and their effects on the scene are formed, as the mind simulates movement of the sun and time of day. This is how people with cameras think and see, because they are always looking for something of interest to capture. There was one instance while I had my camera in which I saw something of great interest.
I was walking out of the ART building around midday, and saw an intriguing design of lights that shone through the vestibule from the sunlight outside. I went through the inner door to stand within the vestibule, which was composed of glass panels on opposing sides with glass doors, and brick walls on the other two sides. The metallic frames that encased the glass panels were forming shadows on the floor tiles, with the areas between the shadows brightly illuminated by the sun. And looking into the glass towards the interior of the building, the reflection of the rest of the vestibule and the world outside could be seen meshed translucently in front of the image of the inner building. There were reflections within the reflections, and highlights on top of highlights. Merging the image within the reflection and the image through the reflection created a scene that was altogether more fascinating than either image would be separately.
I later realized that the situation I was physically in, was a visual metaphor for life. I now take the vestibule between the walls of glass to represent the present, where we all stand. Looking towards the future, or the outside, inevitably we must consider reflections or experiences of the past behind us. The past and future are intrinsically linked, and we are always standing in the nexus. The concept that was most significant in this realization, was that the reflection was entirely different from the image beyond the glass. In other words, though the past may significantly affect our thoughts of the future at present, we can look through the past and work to arrive at a future that is different. The work in that situation would be simply opening the door, but initiating change in life would be more difficult. I learned that despite my mistakes and past situation, I could still look towards and strive for any future without restriction.
Acting upon this new mindset, I began to delve into career paths that were completely unrelated to everything I had done before. Finally I arrived upon a path I have decided to pursue--emergency medical care. I'm currently taking a class to become an EMT-B, and intend to enter paramedic school next. Ideally, I will be spending my life saving lives, and working on photography in between. I have prepared for further photographic study by changing the fundamental ways I think and see, which changes everything.
.. probably too long. I hope there's not a short word limit.
I was walking out of the ART building around midday, and saw an intriguing design of lights that shone through the vestibule from the sunlight outside. I went through the inner door to stand within the vestibule, which was composed of glass panels on opposing sides with glass doors, and brick walls on the other two sides. The metallic frames that encased the glass panels were forming shadows on the floor tiles, with the areas between the shadows brightly illuminated by the sun. And looking into the glass towards the interior of the building, the reflection of the rest of the vestibule and the world outside could be seen meshed translucently in front of the image of the inner building. There were reflections within the reflections, and highlights on top of highlights. Merging the image within the reflection and the image through the reflection created a scene that was altogether more fascinating than either image would be separately.
I later realized that the situation I was physically in, was a visual metaphor for life. I now take the vestibule between the walls of glass to represent the present, where we all stand. Looking towards the future, or the outside, inevitably we must consider reflections or experiences of the past behind us. The past and future are intrinsically linked, and we are always standing in the nexus. The concept that was most significant in this realization, was that the reflection was entirely different from the image beyond the glass. In other words, though the past may significantly affect our thoughts of the future at present, we can look through the past and work to arrive at a future that is different. The work in that situation would be simply opening the door, but initiating change in life would be more difficult. I learned that despite my mistakes and past situation, I could still look towards and strive for any future without restriction.
Acting upon this new mindset, I began to delve into career paths that were completely unrelated to everything I had done before. Finally I arrived upon a path I have decided to pursue--emergency medical care. I'm currently taking a class to become an EMT-B, and intend to enter paramedic school next. Ideally, I will be spending my life saving lives, and working on photography in between. I have prepared for further photographic study by changing the fundamental ways I think and see, which changes everything.
.. probably too long. I hope there's not a short word limit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)