T-minus 13 minutes

Well its about 13 minutes to 2006, thus far the evening has been nice. My parents, Ahmie, Liam and I went to a Chinese Buffet tonight. For this night we also made Tong Yun which are flour dumplings with sugar and (my father's favorite) peanut butter fillings, in a simple syrup broth. It was a family affair, Ahmie and my mom made the dumplings and I cooked the dumplings and made the syrup broth.

Still waiting for the ball to drop.
My resolutions for this coming year.
1. Get a better teaching job, time to start looking is in January.
2. Get our fiances in better order. (getting a better job helps)
3. Try to reach my students better (its going to be tough, I think resolutions are supposed to be hard)
4. Lose weight (currently I weigh about 210 lbs)

...5, 4, 3, 2, 1, open sesame, Happy New Year!
Have a Happy New Year! ...

The past 3 months

I have been buried with work and have not been able to post nor compose anything at all. Work has been difficult at the school that I teach at, I hope this break will afford me the opportunity to reflect and refocus before the start of the second semester. When I return from Winter break I will have about two weeks before the start of the next semester. Work has been more anguishing and frustrating than uplifting and enlightening.

A regular work day starts for me goes like this

1. 5:30 am, I get up, eat, get dressed, and out the door ideally by 6:30
   am.
2. But I usually linger, watch some news, or drink a second cup of coffee and
   usually out around 6:45 am.
3. 7:00-7:15 am, I get to work depending on traffic. I sit down turn
   on my laptop and print out my lessons for the day, go to the copier and make
   copies.
4. 7:45 to 12:00 pm, I teach three 80 minute block classes.
5. 12:00 to 12:25 pm is my actual lunch. Usually I am tidying my
   classroom for the next teacher.
6. 12:25 to 1:45 pm is my planning block I try to be productive and spend most of
   that time grading or doing other small teaching tasks. Sometimes
   I just need to sit down and not be productive and relax
   from
   a bad morning of teaching.
7. 1:50 to 3:10 pm is my last block class and is usually my best and most
   productive of the day.
8. 3:10 to 4:00 pm is my planning time which I try to tidy the classroom and
   then try to organize for the next day. Sometimes students come in for
   extra help, sometimes I have students serve detention (which most don't show
   up). Perhaps talk with my coworkers on work related issues.
9. 4:10-4:30 pm is usually when I leave for home.
10. 4:30-5:00 pm is usually when I arrive home.
11. 5:00 to 8:00 pm is unwind time with Ahmie and Liam, depending on if dinner
    is made or not 6-7 is spent cooking something edible.
12. 8:00 to 12:00 pm or later is spent working on grading, writing lesson
    plans or class notes, powerpoint presentations.
13. 5:30 pm wake up.
14. Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Well at least I get the summers off right.