Update.

It's been hard to find time or energy to write these posts for a while. There's been a lot going on, but not in the ways that make an appropriate blog post. There's been a lot going on in my family, work, and activities. Much like last time, I'll write an overview here in an attempt to get the ball rolling to write a few other entries in the future.

For music, I've continued to play guitar in a little covers band. It's a good group of people, a four-piece band with three members who can take some lead vocals. There's some good potential there. I've enjoyed playing as part of a two-guitar attack and settled well into playing the rhythm guitar role. I still have a lot to learn and to get used to, but I think I'm a better rhythm guitarist than I expected. It's nice to be part of a group and to not have to carry as much of the vocals too. So that's nice.

For photography, I recently participated in an event called, "Picture the Port," which was facilitated by the Port of Vancouver. They hosted a few trips around the Port, and I managed to find my way to a trip around Annacis Island. I took a lot of pictures with my medium format Kowa Six camera, and two of them were picked for enlargement. It felt good to see my work acknowledged, and to notice that my photos were quite different in style than the other photos that were submitted. Perhaps I'll be able to use this as a jumping off point to put together an exhibit of my own.​ 

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For writing, I haven't  been writing anything for public consumption. As I wrote in my last attempted update, I've tried to write "Writer's Way" sorts of Morning Pages, but I haven't been able to keep up with it. I've mainly been writing for myself, or writing letters to my children or to others. I've been writing letters on my typewriter. Writing these pages and typewritten letters has been a sort of therapy for me. But as of late I haven't been able to write any songs or creative pieces. 

Through July, for the third consecutive Summer, I taught Literary Studies 11 to immigrants at an adult education school. Most of my students were from Afghanistan and other insecure places, and it was a rewarding experience. These last few years have been good for learning new things, but I've enjoyed teaching summer school because it reminds me that I can still manage a classroom effectively, and that people can still appreciate how I do it. This being my third year, I was much more prepared than before. I'm very grateful that it worked so well, no matter how exhausting the morning-afternoon workload was. It was a good time, a good experience. 

I've been growing more confident in the kitchen. I don't enjoy it, and I don't know if I'll ever have a sense of food, that I'll ever have intuition about what food goes with what, or what is appropriate at that time, but my cooking has been generally good and effective. I've made some good soups and some good roasted dishes. I feel a little crazy about this, because I went through most of my life without preparing meals, feeling extremely anxious around any sort of food preparation. I avoided food prep at many costs, and took it far too personally when someone would criticize me for my errors. But I'm getting a little better. It gets done slowly, since I don't get anything done quickly, but I've found ways to get it done. I look forward to the day when I can prepare a meal for my kids and they actually enjoy it. 

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There are a few things I've reflected on lately more than others, things that might be worth an entry here:

• My patience for bad presentations at professional development meetings has plummetted. Teachers and educators should be far better at presenting information without a dependence on Powerpoint. 
• I find it fascinating how people come and go in life, how they fade into essence. I think about this as my grandmothers recede further into my memory, and as circumstances have led to an estrangement of sorts between myself and some of those closest to my heart. Who are these spectres? What to do with them?
• I've been experiencing memories that I feel have "always been with me," images and ideas that I've grown to suspect were born in my preverbal mind. It fascinates me when I can get my mind into that space and draw out, what seems to me, thoughts that I ruminated on when I was likely a toddler. I know this is crazy talk, but I think it's something. I just don't know how to describe it clearly.
• Impulse control, particularly with snacking, continues to be a problem. I have some ideas that might help me with that, but I'm not sure what's effective with a lifelong problem.

​That's all for now. Perhaps that will get me thinking blog again.