Where do you work?

Often when people ask me "where do you work," they are polite enough to leave off the end of the question. What they really want to say with a snicker is, "where do you work this week?" This little jab is hard to defend against, after all it's true I had 6...yes, 6 jobs this year alone?! It shocks me to hear it, but lets set the record straight by laying all the cards on the table.

Dec 2013: Left Camp Timberline and the Island of Oahu.
Jan 2014:  Desperate to work I got a job as a night stocker at Safeway. Broke my wrist a week later and had to quit, though without the injury I'm not sure I would have lasted much longer. I hated that job.... I thought it would be nice to have literally zero responsibility and not have to think, but now that I can look back on it, I realize that's also the definition of prison life....
Feb 2014: Started working at Home Depot. Spent my days selling appliances; not the worst gig ever, but it still made me realize how important it is to have challenge in somehting you do for most of your day.
June 2014: Had a cool opportunity to go up to Alaska for the summer. Kat was in China, our lease was up and my friend Kaitlin invited me up to do..."something". That something ended up being the most unique job I think I have ever had: for two months I worked on a Halibut charter boat.
September 2014: A friend offered me a job at his dive shop. The official title for the position was dry suit repair tech, unofficially named "glue sniffer". I glued things to other things...I think. That whole time is kinda' fuzzy.
September 2014: Got a second job at Lazy Boy Brewery slinging suds.
October 2014: After less than a week at Lazy Boy, I was offered a job at PC Management. It is a property management company based out of Bellevue. This job offers growth potential, good pay and full benefits. It's a pretty sweet gig; some days are better than others, but over all I can't complain too much.

What conclusions to draw from that massive list of jobs? I don't know... I freely admit I am a bit of a pessimist and am often not happy in what ever situation I am currently in, no matter how awesome it is. I do have an amazing ability to see the downside of any situation. ;)  So maybe this new job is actually perfect, maybe I'm not in love with it because I am physically unable to ever be satisfied with the thing I am doing or maybe it's just another ok job in a massive list of ok jobs. This brings me to the question I often ponder; how to choose a career?

I find that there are two equally correct and totally opposite ways to look at career selection. One argument says that your job should provide money, not satisfaction. Happiness doesn't come from a job it comes from the value you create in your life. Mike Rowe says it really well here. The other contrary thought is that you should find your passion and figure out a way for that to pay the bills, i.e. "love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life."

I have trouble with both these ideas. On the one hand, if I don't find some sort of satisfaction in something I am doing 8 hours a day 5 days a week that is a sad sad state of affairs. Working for the weekend feels like a 20 year prison sentence. On the other hand, I still haven't found a job that will pay me ridiculous amounts of money to travel the world eating amazing food. People pay people to do things for a reason...usually because the work is too icky, hard or boring for them to want to do it themselves. My current job, it pays the bills and leaves me enough time to continue working on projects, which is still important to me. Am I satisfied? no, will I ever be? I don't think so, but what's so wrong about always wanting to strive for something better, or to learn something new? I can do this job for now, not for ever but for now it fits my life.

Speaking of projects, I am feeling good about what I've been working on and if I don't love my work, so what. That job has fed, clothed and housed me plus funded all sorts of adventures:
Home made mozzarella....check
Finished the carbon fiber bike fender
Hand made sword? why not!

Carbon Fiber Bike Fender

That was the dream...a Carbon Fiber Bike Fender, but who needs school to teach you how to do it? In continuing with my goal of self education, I decided to try and tackel a project on my own. With a little help from the internet here's what I came up with:

 Carbon fiber fabric and resin from amazon 3'x1' cut into three strips.

 Using one of Kat's bike fenders as the template.

 A layer of mold release, a layer of resin then rolling out the first layer of fabric.

 First layer laid down!

 2nd and 3rd layer on!

YAY! (the wavy bits will be cut of later)

What to do?

Off to a good start this week, I could barely sleep I was so excited by the prospect of starting new projects and doing new things. Thus far this is how the week went:

I took a three hour course in coding at codecademy.com. Very interesting, I learned a lot about HTML and CSS, both are used to make websites.

Posted several adds on Craigslist requesting some one to teach me how to weld. Had a response offering lessons at a reasonable rate but not till mid October...super cool.

Contacted a local farm that raises rabbits inquiring if they would be willing to teach me about the slaughter and cleaning of the animals and to my surprise got a speedy response saying this might be a possibility in the near future. Side note the dudes name that I am talking with is Hawk...that's so awesome I can't even make it up.

I watched a TON of youtube videos on wet lay-up of carbon fiber, turns out it is exactly like making fiberglass parts (done that before) so I am going to go ahead with my first project! Start with something easy? Hell NO! I'm going to start with complex curves and tight tolerances. The first project I wanted to complete for the college course was to make bike fenders so that is what I will do on my own now. Yay for amazon.com, supplies are on their way!

I made an epic video of an awesome slip and slide we made a week ago. If your curious you can watch it here. 

Fun side note about resources. The internet is a beautiful place, there are so many free resources for learning practically anything, youtube for anything (I once rebuilt my motorcycles carburetor from a youtube video) Duolingo for basic language learning, Kahn academy for math science history programing and more, wikipedia for history (though at one time not very reliable now very accurate...though of course use responsibly)....and so many more! It is a very cool world we live in!

Day One

Thank you everyone for the great support and positive feedback. I am happy to report that Monday came and went with out me going to school and with out me second guessing my decision....too much. I did however find it difficult to try and explain to people why I wasn't in class or "what exactly is it that you do?"
The first question, although a little embarrassing, was easy enough to answer, "I wasn't ready" "I really just didn't want to go" "It's not the right path/time". The second question however was much more fundamental and something I have struggled with for years.
When asked "what do you do?" I often look to Katrina (usually standing next to me when asked) and say "Well SHE is a professor at a local community college." Which inevitably leads to further questions like "oh what do you teach?" and "gosh that sounds hard, how do you do it?" By the time the person is done grilling Kat I have stealthily moved to the other side of the room or busied myself with a very entertaining piece of lint attached to my shirt. I have become an avoidance ninja able to steer even the most uncomfortable topics to a variety of different "safe" topics. I feel uncomfortable with answering the question because, although I feel like I have done some really awesome amazing things, the things I do are often hard to quantify or the job I have doesn't define what I "do". Because of this disconnect I often add disclaimers, usually eluding to future endeavors, like school or past exploits like travel or fulfilling work. It looks a little something like this:

"so what do you do?

(shit Kat is no where to be seen...avoidance ninja GO!)
"Well, I just got back from Hawaii where I was a program director for a large non profit"*

"Wow Hawaii" he says with a twinkle in his eye, imagining palm trees and sandy beaches, avoidance ninja has done his job again...but wait. "what brought you back to Washington...its so cold?!"

"hahaha, ya I get asked that a lot..." (avoidance ninja I need you!) "I'm going to be going to school in the Fall for a degree in material science"**

"very cool, wait don't you sell appliances at Home Depot?"

(I pretend to hear someone calling from other room) "sorry, hold that thought I'll be right back"***



*translation= I was important and had a job title and buisness cards and everything...I'm an adult!
**translation= I'm very studious and am looking forward to further matriculation in this fast paced exciting future world of composites, furthermore buzz word, important detail, soft chuckle of Apollo astronaut, ya know all in a days work...p.s. I'm amazing.
***translation= Bitch....I aint never coming back, don't be fuckin' with an avoidance ninja.



In all seriousness though, I have trouble answering that question because as embarrassing as it might be to admit, I care what people think about me. That statement I feel is very taboo in my generation; it's like we are supposed to forget that there are other people out there with opinions. To form opinions is human nature. Is it so wrong of me to want those opinions to be good when referred to me? I've had this conversation with other people who say "who cares what other people think?!"    YOU.... YOU DO!  ------> Secrets...if you have a secret (ANY SECRET) from the world it's because you care what others will think about it.
OK...that might have been a bit of a tangent but I'm going to leave it and leave you with the question: In YOUR opinion How should I respond to the question "what do you do?"

A Change

I had a mini break down. I don't know if that's what you would call it but this is something that happens to me every so often, I have a sudden and overwhelming feeling of being trapped. My stomach twists into knots and I have an enormous feeling of impending doom, that soon everything I am doing is going to go horribly wrong. My knee jerk reaction is to curl up, eat food and wallow in self pity waiting for what will surely be the worst week, day, month, year of my life.
What could put my existence into such a tail spin? Well...anything, as long as I see it as an "important decision" I feel the need to over analyze. Most recently, twelve hours ago, I curled up on the couch and started binge eating chips and salsa all because I got an email from a professor saying I should buy a book. Laugh if you must but this seemingly inaquous email short circuted something and really ruined the next twelve hours*. Some of you might be saying to yourselves "professor?" Ya, so I signed up for classed at the community college to study material science (its mostly about carbon fiber). This was in answer to another small break down earlier in the year where I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, but that is a story for another day. The fact is, I signed up for this awesome program because I had a good chance at a good paying job if I graduated**. Ever since signing up I have felt bad about it; it's too long of a commitment, it's a passing interest, it's too expensive, it'll be too hard, the school might be attached by extraterrestrial lizard people. Some of these concerns are more valid than others, but to say I was ever 100% committed would be a huge stretch. I think I had an easier time deciding to go to Korea! So here I am the night before starting my first day of classes in over seven years, and I couldn't do it. At the core it was a time commitment issue. I feel strongly that the only thing we have is time and how we choose to spend it is extremely important. Over and over all I could think about was being tied to this program for a set period of time and it made me feel horrible; literally sick to my stomach.
So what am I doing otherwise with my time that is so important? Not much. My current job as a dry suit repair tech entails gluing stuff to other stuff. It's not the most fulfilling thing I have ever done but the best part is the flexibility it affords me. I can go in when I want leave when I want, I just have to make sure to finish projects. For a certified commitaphobe it's a killer gig. Alas, I know myself well enough that I wont be satisfied for long not using my brain, which is why I have devised a plan....not a great plan but a plan nonetheless***. I want to learn things, actually I crave it, I love new opportunities to learn new skill as long as it doesn't come at the cost of some other experience. So my plan is to study the things that interest me, metal work, playing guitar, painting, beer, Korean, sailing, diving, writing, entrepreneurship, bicycles, small engines.....too many things to list.
I think this sounds like a good plan but there is one huge hole, how do I keep myself from being distracted after all there are so many shiny things and web pages to look at. My initial thought is a routine, but I could see myself easily slipping out of it. Maybe I could write about my adventures and post them here on a schedule so people can call me out if I start being a lazy bum...well more of a lazy bum than usual. What do you think? Any great ideas to keep me on track learning interesting new things?
Eventually I will have to find something to do as a "real job" but I'm hoping that it comes in a more organic way instead of me blindly jumping into school.
Sorry if this post was even less organized than usual, in my defense I am writing this at 4am.







*twelve hours may seem like a very short break down but this is a mini break down after all.
**This is another thought that has plagued me for many years, the idea that I need to settle down and start a career.
***What a weird word?! nonetheless? huh...

Will Work

For much of my adult life I have been concerned about where I will work and what I will be doing. To be fair I haven't let these fears get in the way too much but the thought of "how will I make my next dollar" has nagged at me. I have also had the tendancy to become bored or tired of being in one place for too long and because of this I have quite the list of past jobs:
South Lake Pizza - Cook, Driver, Manager
Kamma'aina Kids - Program Director
Holland America - Driver guide
Starbucks - Coffee Maker (not a Batista....we're in Murica)
South Hill Cycle - Bike Mechanic
LCI Kids Club Ansan - English Teacher
Wiley E Waters - White Water River Guide

This is not even half the list, a fact that I am both proud and a maybe a bit rueful of. On one hand I have been around the world, met tons of people and learned all sorts of interesting things. On the other hand I have a laughable 401k, no health care (besides the Affordable Care Act) and no real "home base" or connection to a place. For me, now, these two balance each other. I know some day in the future I will want more stability and direction but for now I am content to learn and experience all that I can, while I still can.

With all that in mind I am prepared to continue the odyssey that has gotten me this far. My goals are to 1 pay my meager bills and 2 continue to learn new things 3 have new experiences and meet new interesting people. These are pretty loose conditions for employment, and I'm hoping that you will be so kind to send some ideas my way.

Current applications:

North Slope Heavy Machine Opperator
2 weeks on 2 weeks off 12hour days $35 an hour plus benefits, flights, room and board all in Prudohe Bay Alaska! Not sure about this one but why not?!

Deck Hand on Sailboat
Several months and thousands of miles of sailing on a medium size ship for no pay but think about the stories!

My life as a deckhand

I feel a special kinship to the seagulls that feed at the edge of the water on halibut carcasses left by successful fishermen. Like them, I feed off of others leavings, both figuratively and literally. When a sandwich, soggy with day long perspiration is found wedged between seat cushions my heart palpitates, a half eaten bag of Doritos tossed into the trash makes my mouth water. I am the omnivore of dirt bag fishermen. It has (no joke) become a game to see how long I can live off of scraps without buying food, four days and going strong. I am however going 7 days of cleaning fish and busting ass for 8-12 hours a day without showering, I no longer smell myself but I do worry about attracting bears.

I smell and am not really making much money but I am feeling really good about it. I am not rich in money but I am earning dividends on experiences. It feels good to lean and do something new and different even if it is just working on a fishing boat. Now the real question is how do I keep doing this (working and learning new things) for years to come or the even more difficult to figure out question is how do I stop and re-enter the real world.

Adventures in AK

So much has happened recently, lets go over the past month:

• Working at Home Depot (kinda hating life)
• Kaitlin (my friend from Alaska) invited me up to hang out
• Gave notice to work, flew out three weeks later
• Arrived in AK drove directly to Prudohe Bay to jump in the Arctic Ocean naked on the solstice
• For the next week I helped Kaitlin with various porjects
• Started working as a deck hand on a halibut charter.

To say the least it has been a bit of a whirl wind tour. Now I live in a shed. No really, we keep the bait in here along with a huge pile of other random crap needed for fishing. I go out on the charter every day with six people all looking to catch a huge fish. 99% of the time we catch our limit of 12 fish. While motoring back to launch I fillet and pack the fish, then I clean the boat go back to the shed and go to sleep to wake up and do it all over again. It's not the most fulfilling thing I have ever done but it pays the bills (if I had any bills it would pay them).

Picture Post

Oh the good 'ol picture post, used for those times when a lot has happened but you're kinda tired of talking about it. So with out further ado I present the last two weeks in pictures:

Made some amazing fresh pasta with a salmon cake on top.

And some fresh ravioli....pasta machine=great investment

Dehydrated some more mangoes.

Built a totally awesome back porch with kick ass fire pit.

Tried out to be the jib man on this totally awesome boat...

...got sun burnt and the position.

And then I bought a boat.

That's it, all built and looking bad ass.

oh ya and I worked a bit...

 But back to this boat thing, it's an 18' Hobie cat with black hulls...and she needs a name. This is your chance to help me name her...thoughts?

A Day in the Life

I feel it's long over due that I answer a question long ago posed and quickly forgotten. 

"What do you do?"

Well, I am the program director at Camp Timberline on the island of Oahu. The camp is dedicated to the education of school age children. We focus on leadership, teamwork and critical thinking, but what do I actually do? Well lets run through an average day...well no day is average, it's always different, but lets look at January 23rd...my Birthday.

110 seventh grade students from Millilani Middle School descended on camp in three buses. They brought enough luggage to sustain a small army on an arctic voyage despite only staying for two nights and three days. Once moved into their cabins I read the riot act listing all the rules and expectations then broke the them into 6 groups to be headed by the 6 new seasonal staff I hired last month. For the rest of the day I ran around putting out figurative fires, from clogged toilets to adjusting dinner schedules, all while sending emails and receiving calls on my Blackberry from other groups that would arrive between next week and next June. I was called to repair our ropes course and to cook dinner, though a blown fuse caused an impromptu dash to Home Depot to fix the latter the former only required a harness. After that, two night hikes led by yours truly then off to bed to do it all again the next day.

They are long days and can be physically and mentally tasking at times but in the long run I really do enjoy my job. It is always challenging in good ways and bad.

During the days that I don't have groups or projects or hours in the office I like to get around and enjoy the island as much as possible. Most recently I have been sailing a lot in Kaneohea Bay and hiking the occasional trail. When at home I either read or cook or build something new to make my house more a home. It's a good life and has been a good year the only draw back is being isolated socially. Between long hours and an isolated location, living "on the hill" can be tough but I have good friends I don't see often enough and no one, but me, can be blamed for that.

Well this post wasn't filled with the usual fart jokes...maybe turning 28 has made me grow up...hahaha nooooo...no worries there. I will at least leave you with a few pictures for your trouble. Enjoy

The first ripe mango from the tree outside my front door.

110 kids....

New crew sitting on the new benches we built.

China Wall, my favorite place to swim on the island...and cliff jump.

A dead chameleon I found outside my house this morning.

Highs & Lows

I was flying high on 4/20!!! 

Yup got to about 2500' during a 2.5ish hour flight. It was absolutely amazing!

Then I stopped by work to break a window....not so cool.

But then I bought plane tickets for this really cool bike trip I'm going on!!!

Then I came home and got a 862.82$ bill from Enterprise-rent-a-car...

So I wrote them and, politely, said "F#@K You."

Then I backed over a pipe at camp and broke it....

So Now I'm waiting on the next awesome thing to happen, cause there is no way I'm ending this run on a low point, so if there is anyone out there that can help me out....I'll be waiting.

Finally

It was starting to look like it would never happen, too busy with work, then injuries, but finally I was able to fly. As you all know, because I'm sure I told you MANY times, I love paragliding. I love it so much that I annoy people constantly by talking about it, reading about it, and looking for places to do it. I'm sorry....but not really. I'm passionate about it, some might even claim fanatical, but its my hobby, my sport but also my therapy. I love being up in the air, once I land I'm thinking about the next time I get to go up. Maybe I have gone too far though, I had Kira, Adam and Danielle visiting this last week and we decided to go sky diving. I was excited for this new thrill but the day we chose to go happened to be the "perfect" paragliding day at Kahana. So the entire morning while everyone was nervously waiting to jump out of a plane I was anxiously waiting to leave because I wanted to go do something "fun". When you start feeling that jumping out of a plane is less exciting than your other hobbies you might have a problem. Now don't get me wrong, I had a great time falling from the sky, but flying was ten times better. Everything worked out in the end, we got the boring sky diving out of the way and I got a 30 min flight at Kahana. It was amazing and this video does not do it justice (sorry about the camera angle too) but I hope this helps people understand better why I am so devoted to my sport. Enjoy

Intresting Times in Oahu

Trying to catch up on rest after an eventful week. First we had a Burning Man regional event stay at camp which translates to 96 straight hours of techno music (no shit...it turned of for about 12 minutes total when some one to stoned to DJ, impossible you say, alas no he unplugged the turn table so he could recharge his cell phone....his slightly less stoned friend remedied the situation and we went back to constant house rattling "ungg tiis unggg tissss"). On the bright side the crazy hippy people loved being topless while spinning fire (exhibit a) and looking like Fidel Castro with a purple beard (exhibit b).

                                    
In other news I messed up my ankle though I have told this story sooo many times that I'm having trouble finding the will to tell it once more here, but inquiring minds want to know....
Camp Timberline has a portable ropes course that we take to events around the island. It's basically a scissor lift trailer with a track-leash system that is 17' tall. We have many leashes but few carabiners therefor I brought my own personal carabiner, this proved to be my fatal flaw. My harness was clipped into the leash by a co-worker who had only ever used auto locking carabiners where as mine was a screw gate carabiner, long story short he didn't close my gate properly which allowed it to open when I weighted the harness. Thus I fell 17 feet but due to my cat like reflexes I landed on my my right foot instead of my face. I sprained my ankle but shattered my pride. Moral of the story don't fall 17 feet.

All play and no work...

A few people have been asking about my work so I thought I would try and explain my job as best I could here. It sounds simple enough but I find myself having quite a lot of difficulty explaining just what it is I do. I think this difficulty stems from having so many different jobs, from day to day I do wildly different things, they fall into one of four categories: child care, He'eia State Park, Camp Timberline groups, and training.

I officially work for Kamaiana Kids, which is a 700 employee strong non-profit that focuses on “creating strong children” my division is Camp Timberline but we'll get to that later. The majority of the company works for after-school programs. I luckily do not because these are, for all intensive purposes, glorified babysitting jobs. However we do have a program, “strong bonds”, that we run for the US military, which is basically babysitting. Because this program is “outside our regular work” we actually get paid to do it, which is nice.

I also, on occasion, work at a state park that Kamaiana Kids manages. In Hawaii all state parks are managed by local non-profits, we have a 25 year contract to manage He'eia state park (Hey-e-a). At the park we host weddings, rent kayaks and give guided tours of the surrounding islands and reefs. My job consists of surfing the internet, answering the occasional question or phone call, helping with tours and building projects. My first days there I got to build a shower platform, which was silly good fun (no sarcasm, I really loved it). The tours are...interesting. We give two kinds a Holokei tour (kayaking and snorkeling around coconut island, the same island featured in Gilligan's Island's credits) and the Japanese tour. For the most part I wrangle kayaks, schmooze, and soak up sun but on the Japanese tour I have some interesting duties. For example we serve a “Traditional Hawaiian BBQ”. When I think “traditional” I envision slow pit-roasted pigs, beautiful hula dancers, and island music floating on a warm summers breeze. I, however, do not feel a frozen bag of precooked Tyson's® Teriyaki Chicken thawed on a BBQ with a side of precooked Safeway ribs and frozen ears of corn, constitutes a “traditional” meal. This slight misrepresentation pales in comparison to the “Lei-making” activity. My job is an important one in this case, first I buy pre-made leis, second I cut the string and remove all the flowers that were painstakingly strung by minimum wage workers, third I present these flowers and cut strings to our Japanese guests who, naturally, re-string them and wear them the rest of the day. If they find these activities trite I am spared their displeasure because they don't speak American and I don't talk no Japan words. Overall, though, they smile a ton and take lots of pictures, so it can't be too bad.

Camp Timberline, where I live, is a sprawling camp on a large mountain. Groups come and stay in some of our many different buildings. What I do with them though is still a bit of a mystery because we have yet to have one come up and stay, knock on wood. (side note: since writing this sentence i have discovered my schedule...it is full of 12 and 14 hour days coming up...)

Lastly, with any large corporation, there is training and lots of it. I train on low ropes, high ropes, climbing walls, first aid, tours, company policies/regulations, and life guarding. These are all mind numbing but probably better than real work, I guess I'll find out when I do some real work.

Just to wrap things up, this post took me several days to write, Oahu is awesome, my job is pretty cool, come and visit cause I gots an extra bed. Sorry for the lack of pictures I lost my USB cord...

Hawaii, same same but differnt

Aloha and welcome to the new and improved Haole in Hawaii blog. Don't worry I will still be posting slightly humorous, poorly written, constantly miss spled stories of my travels. I thought that my blog would be drastically different, seeing that I am in a new country and working a new job but little did I know I would run into identical problem that Korea posed.

Which brings me to the language barrier. In Korea I was often baffled and some times quite vulgar in my attempts to speak the native tongue. In Hawaii I am having similar problems, supposedly Hawaiians speak English but I have yet to see the evidence, I know Im the pot calling the kettle black but they all speak “pigeon”. Take this conversation for example the other day:

“Hello co-worker, how are you?”

“Ya Will I is good, how is you?”

Mind you this is an adult....professional....who's native language IS English. When the locals aren't speaking “pigeon” they are constantly using native words that all sound identical and all contain far too many vowels. A charming example: I work for Kama'ãina Kids in Makakilo neighborhood of Kapolei city on Hamakua Drive. I also work at He'eia park but not to be confused with Heiau park just down the road. Long story short, Korean was easier and I'm totally screwed.

Quick side note: The title of my Blog is now “Haole in Hawaii” which translates roughly to “Whitey in a beautiful land that he is trying to steal from us and ruin everything we love.” Welcome to Oahu!

The other interesting link I have found between the two places is my incredible ability to find jobs that supply mold infested housing. In Korea of course I had my roommate, “Larry” a 5' tall moldy wall behind my dresser. In Hawaii I moved into a “trailer complex” (it's as classy as it sounds) in my room I discovered a wall sagging on rusted nails. Quickly I got tired of the undeniable odor of mold and proceeded to tear out all the carpet and faux-wood paneling to expose the rotted wood work below. After vacuuming a surprising number of spiders and cock roaches I dried out the wall, fixed the roof, and re paneled/painted the wall. The nice thing about my home here is that I can do anything I like to it, and I have the shop/tools to make my wildest dreams come true, can anyone say “indoor hammock with accompanying suspended beer dispensary?”

Below are a couple of videos, the first being the obligatory stop motion video of the sunrise the second, a stop motion as well, is me painting my wall with a 5' tall map of Oahu.

The only internets in my domicile are in my swim trunks, so don't expect another update too soon, though I do have a lot of fun new stories to share.

The Lost Art of Walking

I started my day with some reheated pizza from the night before. Why is pizza always better in the morning?! (this is one of life's mysteries) I then started walking from north Everett to Lake Stevens. I stopped in a coffee shop for a bacon cheddar croissant sandwich and a white mocha. 

The guy in front of me didn't have any cash and the shops credit card machine was down so I offered to buy his drink, he thanked me and said I made his day. It's funny but "making his day" really made my day. While crossing the trestle I saw two deer bedded down in the marsh below, 

little did I know this was going to be the least interesting thing I saw on this walk. Next I came upon a bra in a drain,

then porn,

then more porn,

then even more home made porn (those were three separate porn instances?!)

and lastly one mint condition Tom Candiotti baseball card.

At the beginning of this post I mentioned "the lost art of walking", I said that because I believe many of us have forgotten how to slow down. I have no where to be quickly but I still drive a car the quarter of a mile to the store. Not to think too much into this but during my walk I was never bored, though I am often while driving, I was never enraged by a "stupid driver", and I got a lot of thinking done including planning my up coming birthday party, my move to Hawaii and even drafted this post. All in all a pretty successful day and all accomplished before 11am.


Quick side note: I was also saddened by the shear amount of garbage on the side of the road. The majority of the trash was empty beer bottles and cans. Something I noticed was that all the drinks were of the shitty-cheap-variety, not a single hoppy micro. There were lots of Mickeys, and Buds, but most of all I counted enough 4lokos to kill a dozen frat-guy-douche-bags. (just another fun 4loko picture...I couldn't resist). So the take away message? People who drink shitty beer are just not good people.

Being Back in The US

...is a lot like eating Subway. You want it when you cant have it but really is it ever what you remember? I have craved a foot of meat and bread covered in delectable condiments for the past year much like I craved the comfort of home. Yet as I sink my teeth into my sandwich I feel delighted and disappointed all at the same time.
I love being back in the US, it's great, I can see the stars at night, I can make small talk with strangers, and there are more flavors of beer than cells in my now shriveled-soju-soaked-pathetic-excuse-for-a-liver. 
These things are nice, and good, and intoxicatingly delicious but I miss things from Korea. I miss my friends, beautiful women that don't ever get cold, and the crazy pace everyone lives at. I knew I would miss the women but missing my friends and the Korean lifestyle has come as a shock. Here in Washington I have 6.5 friends. 
In order of distance from my residence:
Danielle 8.3 Miles
Kira 36.3 Miles
Isaac (and Jen=.5:) 64.8 Miles
Katie 302.2 Miles
Garth 309.8 Miles
Maria 309.8 Miles
Frankly I'm bored. I'm applying to jobs, and I have an interview tomorrow, but most of my day is wasted. I know what your thinking, "that's your own damn fault, go do something!" You're right and I have, I went flying one day, I have visited friends in Canada and Oregon, and I'm even building a Penny Farthing Bike but the honest truth is that I miss having people around. I was constantly surrounded by fun amazing people in Korea and its rough being here with so few and very busy friends.
As far as the lifestyle change goes I don't think its surprising to any one that leaving a 24hour cheap party to live in my parents house has required a bit of transition.
In the end I recognize I need to be thankful for who what I have and not dwell on what I had.... or just go back to Korea.
Now that I think about it the only thing that is the same between moving to the US and eating Subway is they both made me nearly shit myself (metaphorically and in actuality...seriously it was close) .



Before I forget...this is a video of Sara chugging soju (not recommended). She failed to finish the bottle so I don't know what she is so proud of but she insisted that I include her minor accomplishment in my world renowned blog...so with out further ado I bring to you an almost impressive video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lKi6MuiF-M

I'm BACK

After a short hiatus from blogging for job hunt purposes, I'm back. I have also returned to the United States. To answer everyone's question: No I have no idea what I am doing next.
Being in the US is weird. I am still jet lagged, going on one week, and I feel awkward every where I go. (more awkward than usual...I'm a pretty awkward guy to begin with) It's been great getting to see some friends in Washington but I miss everyone back in Korea.

JOBS JOBS JOBS

It has come to my attention that my foul mouth potty humor might hinder me acquiring a "job" I'm not sure why I would want one of these "jobs" to start with but my mother insists that I do in fact want one and that I am quite worried about my future "employer" reading the dribble I have "written" here. SO with that in mind for one month I must go underground...we'll see what happens when I can come up for air. So long, farewell.

Masturbatory Soap and Other Adventures

As my time in Korea dwindles down I am feeling many conflicting emotions....ya and what's that got to do with "masturbatory soap"? Nothing, but be patient...where was I...ah yes Emotions.
I am first and foremost excited to be going home. I can't wait to see so many people! But then there is the logical side to me that reminds me of my responsibilities. Mainly, I have no job upon my return. Yes, I have saved, but I don't want to go blowing all my savings bumming for a while and be back where I started a year ago.
On top of these thoughts and feelings I have also realized that Korea has become a home to me. There are things here that I will miss, and things I have not done yet and let's not forget a few WTF moments still being had. For your viewing pleasure here are just a few had in recent days.

 Saw this guy outside my apartment!

Then I saw this blue and yellow spider on a field trip, I considered getting bitten by it on the off 

chance I might get super powers but thought better of it.

 This is how you recycle like a boss.

Only in korea are chicken nuggets shaped like our four-legged best friends...

Just takin' a "nap"

Went to a soccer game...very cool.

This guy did not go to the soccer game....he was not very cool

He wanted everyone to "be quiet" on the train so he went to talk to the conductor...

But this was the view from my roof so Korea aint all that bad.

And now for all you sickos out there I give you Masturbatory soap... try scrolling really fast to get the full effect.

 Thanks for reading...