Hi!

Ever since getting back from India, I've been busy. I've been busy at my schools (same level of business I'd say, but there were a few extra meetings, special-classes I had to teach, and other extraneous considerations that'd make it feel, well, busy), I' also been busy practicing with the "band" I'm in.
We're getting ready to play in front of the Mie JETs at their Valentine's Ball which I wasn't looking forward to (mostly due to issues with the band I won't get into), but through more-frequent practices, I'm starting to think it won't be a flaming wreckage.

Speaking of flames, or well high-temperature metal, I've taken up soldering. I bought a kit a few weeks ago online for a USB-Battery-charger and set about reading all sorts of things about soldering to get myself up to the task. I built it up a lot, thinking it was this entirely higher-eschalon of tech (to a lowly user), but after collecting the necessary parts and devices (lets see, solder, soldering iron, sponge, components.) It all came together in less than two hours. I took pictures, but the one's on the MintyBoost website are better so look at those and imagine those are my hands.
Now, I have all sorts of electronic aspirations: make a small audio-amp; make some speaker-box for my ipod; remake my bike-light to have more LEDs; understand electronic-circuit diagrams, etc.

It's opening up whole new realms of capability that I'd never really considered. Making thing is one part of it, but then there's a whole other aspect that I've been thinking about: teaching.

I'll be honest. I keep thinking of reasons not to be a teacher when coming back (I keep coming back to the idea, but, well, I'll get to it). Well, in thinking of technology, I started thinking, "hey, with this I could teach and instill a skill! I mean how great would that be? People come in one door, learn how to make something, and then exit that same door with the ability to make something. Neat.
This, I'll call it "tangible yield," to make it sound technical, is something that I've always found lacking in the concept of English Literature. I mean, sure, I like literature, I like more the idea that you can apply "critical thinking" to any subject matter and produce... wait, what is it you produce? an opinion? Where's the tangible yield?
I guess the most tangible yield of literature, critical writing, or essay writing is that, upon emergence the student (hopefully) has a better appreciation of literature, the concept of good ol' debate/argument, and hopefully for the rest of us, understandable grammatical expression. (not saying I'm any better either).
However this doesn't really do anything.
I'm pausing here to say, 'yeah, I know it's the same for any student: if they don't apply what they've learned it's useless. However, a light-switch is ultimately, real-worldly more useful than an essay, or a critique — at least at a basic level.*

That's where my head is at now. I'm not necessarily going to attack the idea of being a technology/shop teacher, but I will indulge myself in this pursuit of tech/circuits more to try it on. Mostly because it's fun and challenging. And there's a wealth of info on the Internet to learn from.

Also on the Internet and interesting to me is a New York Times article by Michael Pollan about food and our relationship with it.
And just to bring it back to the seemingly contrary statements about essays and their lack-of-use-value, I'm not saying that essays are useless. I am however going to say that there is probably, literally, a ton of paper dedicated to printed essays on Wuthering Heights that are — yeah, sorry — completely useless.
Pollan's essay is about food. Our food, and how the current structure of our society has adjusted our intake as well as our understanding of food, most realistically for the worst. Anyway it was a very interesting read. It also made me really confident that I'm a good cook.
I made Vietnamese-esque Rice Paper Shrimp carrot rolls on Sunday.**

So now I'm going to read some class assignments (Example: "I like dogs better than cats." "I like cheeseburger the best of all the hamburgers."), go home, inundate myself with liquids and fruits and pray that I don't get sick for Friday's performance.

Oh and I've decided not to post about India, because, well I'm tired of talking about it. I've done it for and with every class I teach, every teacher I work with, every neighbor I talk to, so much and so monotonously that I'm over it. Sorry. Read Helen's blog. She was there and didn't have to tell Japan about it. And her pictures are the best.

* I was able to use my thesis to turn off a lamp one time when I threw the 50-page mass at the lamp, knocking it behind the TV and out of my field of vision.

** I'm just gloating.