Again It seems I am at the crossroads of my life. Again my faith is asking me various obfuscated questions. Life never cease to surprise me and challenge my beliefs ..my faith..
Its not that I have not tried. Its not that I have not fought. Its not that I have lost or won. Its now, I guess becoming a question of my existence asking “how long?”
I fight for something each time I woke up in the morning with the belief , I can , and I will… but that thing in itself leaves me in a nomad’s land.. I wonder from where to draw energy from. sometimes the whole reason of a fight beats you to death.
In this whole process.. every single emotion of my soul is leaving me..drop by drop..I wonder when everything will be drained out of the whole system of this cosmic existence.
And when we ran out of the whole panorama of reasons.. we say its destiny..
Why can’t the two of us can be in a simple system of existence. I need you and you need me period. I want to live ..you want to live period. I want you to believe in me as I believe in you.. as I believe in US..
I didn’t take a ton of art classes in high school, even though I was convinced that I was going to be a graphic artist. My what-will-you-be-doing-in-10-years-quote in the yearbook was “subliminally seducing the minds of American consumers by airbrushing phallic symbols into Absolut vodka ads.” Truthfully, I didn’t even know how to use an airbrush (still don’t) and when this sophomore painting of a horse and rider required it, Mr. Snyder had to do it for me:
I painted this in Mr. Snyder's art class in 1988 when I was 15. It is freaking HUGE and has, therefore, never been hung.
Mr. Snyder taught art and was the yearbook advisor, so I spent a fair deal of time in his classroom throughout high school. When I was junior editor of the yearbook, we were the first class to use an Apple Computer to publish part of the book. Remember those tiny little screens? Before that, everything had been plotted out on pica paper. We still shot all of our photos on black and white film and two photogs spent hours every day in an actual dark room making prints to size. (My god, I’m remembering this tedious process and it pains me to even type it out.) So we had this one Apple Computer that the entire yearbook staff shared. We would do the layouts in Pagemaker, typing in all the copy and making borders for where pictures would eventually go. Then we would print out the page I think, or maybe put it on a floppy disk, who knows, and send it with the photo print(s) for that page to Jostens or whoever was doing the real work of turning our ideas into an actual book. So yes, even the technology of a scanner was beyond us in 1991.
Acid-washed jeans, mall bangs and a Joe Satriani concert t-shirt? Oh yeah, it was 1991, baby.
One of my most fondly remembered compliments was from a fellow classmate the summer after graduation when he told me, “That was a nice piece of yearbook.”
Mrs. Reid taught basketweaving and stained glass and ceramics. When it came time for ceramics, I clearly remember Mrs. Reid telling us that we were under no circumstances to make bongs and that she could spot a bong a mile away and don’t even try to pretend that you’re not making a bong.
So I did not make a bong.
Today I went to an art show in Bandon called The Teachers that featured art educators from in and around my hometown. Mrs. Reid and Mr. Snyder were there and even though I’m a grown-up and have kids, and have graduated high school and have a mortgage and pay taxes and everything…I still cannot bring myself to call either of them by their first name.
They’re still Mrs. Reid and Mr. Snyder and probably always will be.
And...just like high school, my mom was there with her camera. Here's me with Mr. Snyder.
Jeg har to fotoskoler jeg har planer om å søke på til neste år: bilder nordic i Oslo og fotofagskolen i Trondheim. Hva skal jeg gjøre hvis jeg ikke kommer inn på noen av dem? Jeg vet at jeg har skrevet flere slike innlegg om skoler/fremtiden/blahblah, men nå spør jeg virkelig. Hvilke alternativer har jeg? Folkehøgskole er uaktuelt for meg, og jeg har heller ikke tenkt å satse på musikken/fløyte. Jeg vil ikke bli noe annet, og derfor ser jeg heller ikke vitsen i å begynne på en annen utdanning som ikke er relevant. Det er selvsagt mulig med kunst/kunsthistorie etc, men.. Jeg vet ikke. Etter videregående, det er da livet skal begynne, er det ikke? Da vil jeg ikke ende opp på et studie som jeg misliker. Jeg er heller ikke særlig godt innstilt på å måtte jobbe et år.
With New Year’s Eve barreling down upon us, I think this is a good time for a random list. (I love lists)
~I am on vacation this week. Sweet, sweet vacation. Better timing there could not be
~My Mom got us a Keurig coffee machine and we LOVE it. If you were to picture the perfect gift for my family right at this moment in time, that would be it. Everyone (including myself) has been enjoying numerous hot beverages. Coffee, tea, hot chocolate, you name it, we drank it. The best selling point for me? No clean up of the coffee grounds. Love. It.
~This morning, I made a FAUX-LATTE with a Newman’s Bold Keurig coffee, microwave warmed milk and my favorite Starbucks sugar free vanilla syrup. Yum. MO.
~Plumbers. Can’t live with ‘em. Can’t flush without ‘em. We are having plumbing “issues” involving a clogged main line. OH JOY! We technically have running water, we just can’t use it. Again. Joy. If there is anything that will make a whole family cranky is the inability to freely use the bathroom at any given time in day or night.
~So, yeah, the clog showed up, like an unwanted guest, around 6 pm last night, depositing it’s effects in the basement (Luckily we caught it fairly soon so it was not a disaster of epic proportions) (We caught it on “Frozen Pipe Watch” because it is so North Pole cold. An igloo would most likely be our new home style with this kind of weather). For about 2 hours, we (ha, “WE”. Not we at all, ANDY) snaked the drain and fiddled and tried to move the unwanted guest along. To no avail. Clogged and clogged good. Old pipes will do that. New pipes will do that too but these pipes are senior citizens and then some.
Anyway, around 8 pm, we called a neighbor, who is a plumber. As luck would have it, he does not DO that kind of job. (I did not say GOOD luck, see?) but he gave us a name of someone who would do that kind of job. Great. A referral. We were feeling a bit cocky throwing the neighbor’s name around, thinking that would get us somewhere a bit faster. Yeah. No. It did nothing.
At 10 pm, not hearing from Mr. Referral Plumber (who most likely had the GALL to have a life when WE needed him so desperately!) I then called my place of employment, where plumbers are on the payroll. I figured that *I* could come through and have Mr. Big Corporation Plumber That I Know Personally will come and save the day.
Yeah. No. Apparently *I* don’t have any pull either. Drat it all to hell.
We spent a long, flushless night waiting for the phone to ring. It did not ring. Until 8 am today. Mr Referral Plumber will be here at 10 am. Or so.
Fingers crossed please that we will be a modern, flushable home by 10:30. Today.
~Cold. It is so blasted cold
~I was reading my new book, my Christmas gift from Derek, Stephen King’s Under the Dome (which was sold out in many a book location this Christmas, good for YOU, Mr. King), 1088 pages. A hefty read to say the least!
Anyway, I was reading away, cozy and warm on the couch (praying that I would not have any intestinal worries all the evening) (Because of the non flush zone, yanno) and Mitchell the cat wanted on the lap. I moved the book, onehanded to the side to give him room to get comfy and I almost sprained a wrist. Cripes that book is HEAVY! A bit of weight training WHILE I read. Multi tasking at it’s best.
~Here we are on the doorstep of another year. They do have a habit of rushing by, don’t’ they? Remember 10 years ago, the turn of the millenium? The hype and hysteria that went along with it? The visions of planes falling from the sky and the electricity going out permanently?
~Well, that’s it for today. I could go on and on, I’m feeling especially chatty today. Must be all of the coffee beverages I’ve been consuming lately!
~Enjoy this day, stay healthy (poor Bethany is super sick with a horrible cold right now) and have a flush or 2 for me, will ya?
Just did my personality test! Hahas.. So have you done yours? I’m pretty sure this test can help you out in understanding yourself better and maybe guide you in your choice of career in future
Click here to take the test. [note: Just to let you know you'll need to register to take the test.]
This was my first Xmas in Australia and I honetly did not know what to expect; even if Lizzie had tried to explain it to me. I probably had problems understanding it as Xmas, or Yule, is so deep root in my own culture it might make it difficult for me to understand something that can be extremely different.
As I am used to celebrating Xmas on the 24th I found it difficult to grasp that here the 24th is just a normal day. Lizzie told me so, making me scratch my head and almost looking at her in disbelief; but when we arrived at her parents I realised that the 24th was actually just a regular boring day.
This might be an individual thing, but I also noticed that typical Xmas(Yule) snacks and food were missing. The closes thing to a Yule snack was my rice chocolate (rischoklad).
As they do not celebrate Xmas on the 24th, they do so on the 25th; which is a bit odd to me.
We woke up on the 25th, unpacked our presents like a wild pack of dingoes. It was more or less everyone for themselves; grabbing the gifts with your name on it and tearing off the wrapping as quick as possible.
That was followed by, to me, a pretty normal breakfast. After that you did nothing, other than maybe play around with your gifts and just be more lazy than your were on the 24th. Later in the evening you have some kind of dinner; anything goes, so nothing I know from my own Yuletide celebration.
That is more or less Xmas in Australia; or at least how I experienced it.
It was nice spending time with the family and the gifts I got were awesome, but the Yule feeling was not there at all. It was not just the lack off snow, because I have not experienced so many snowy winters the last years; but more the lack of Yule spirit and tradition.
It gladly made me appreciate my own Yule tradition even more.
Hopefully we will be back in Scandinavia next Yule.
The last days with Lizzie had been great. We have been relaxing and relaxed; just doing what we want and not having to worry about anything.
Tonight I do feel that those days might be coming to an end. I need to contact people in Sweden as I am planning to study by distance, from Australia in Sweden. Hopefully this works out better than the study here in Australia. I also need to go back to looking for work; but lucky me, I have no clue what kind of work. Can I work full-time, part-time or just casual?
Only thing I know for sure is that 2010 will start off pretty rough and with great uncertainty.
Note: This is a really crappy post, but I am posting it just as evidence that I am still alive. I am only pleased with the name; which I am not sure it deserves.
aren’t compliments the best? i love it when my husband compliments my cooking. it makes me feel good and makes me want to cook more. maybe the food sucks and he’s lying but i wouldn’t know. i just know i still want to make more stuff. it’s just a good, makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside feeling. i’m happy to be able to cook for my family and know that it taste really good.
funny, today i was making a salty beef dish and even i was like woah…this smells just like it! i still shock myself.
i’m just happy right now.
cooking tip #4
i wish i took a picture to display but unfortunately, i threw it away before i remembered to take a picture.
so the tip, purchase a good sturdy chef’s knife. you’ll use it a lot and it needs to be strong. mine was a cheap $8 knife and it bent when i tried to cut through a frozen fish. it was the craziest thing ever! the knife bent! like the bottom of the knife bent in a fold. i dunno, too hard to explain it but really crazy.
i hope everyone had a happy holiday season!!!
more photo’s of more yummies!
beef slices with green onion salad wrapped in red leaf lettuce!
green onion salad
cod porridge
bean sprouts
spinach
jangjorim
bibimbap
soon dobu – tofu soup with beef, veges & mixed seafood
Just did my personality test! Hahas.. So have you done yours? I’m pretty sure this test can help you out in understanding yourself better and maybe guide you in your choice of career in future 
