Existing as a Nuclear Family

It has been some time since I became assimilated into my own nuclear family. In that time I have accomplished quite a bit. I've finished the first part of my education; become a pseudo-stay-at-home-dad; discovered some of the many trials and tribulations that a couple (especially one with kid(s)) goes though; and determined what I want to do with my life: teach. Those are only facets of my life though. It is what lies beneath those facets that my true life exists.
Within the confines of my malleable existence, I have my family: Heather, Zoey, Princess and myself. All of us have something to contribute to our lives. All of us bring some sort of amusement to one another. All of us also bring love and share it with each member of this family. But at the same time, we all demonstrate imperfect inclusions in our lives. Zoey can be stubborn and belligerent and we may hate it, but it's who she is. Heather may do things in a completely different way than myself, and they may annoy the hell out of me, but that is her. I may be lazy at times, but all of us are, the laziest among us being our dog.
No matter what we do or what we trow onto the table, we all deal with it. Zoey may not like it when we show her who's the boss, but that's what a parent has to do. The child is not the boss. The parents are in control of the journey of the family. Granted, we, as parents, do not know everything and sometimes make erroneous decisions. We do our best, even when we are riding this bucking bronco that is our life by the seat of our pants and holding on for dear life. We hope that the chaos we deal with on a continual basis will settle down and in the end, we will have succeeded in baking a delicious and successful cookie of a child.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." as Dickens stated so eloquently. That is life. That is parenthood. That is childhood even. That is also the state of our fragile world. All we can do is do our best, right?

A Normal Life

It is incredible to me how quickly life can swing into chaos, but still seem normal. Since I finished school, I actually feel like I'm busier, which is kind of odd. I have my job (Tues-Fri), a 6 year-old daughter, a home to keep up and an always tired fiancee. These four things keep me busy and at times a very fructrating busy, but all the while, everything still feels normal. I wonder what life will feel like when I replace the job part with "My first semester at a 4-year college." Hmmm.....

I've been taking tons of pictures lately. If you head over to my Flickr, you can see my daughter in her first dance recital. It was really fun trying to shoot in a very low light situation and I'm very proud of how my camera performed.

What have you Accomplised Today?

I had a fascinating encounter with a genius today. While wandering over to my boss's office, I ran into Dr. Wardle, a brilliant and fascinating man who is an expert on child development. He was asking how I was and what I was doing. He actually asked if I was teaching, probably because it has been so long since I had class with him and I'm still here on campus or because I was walking around with my computer. Or, even better, maybe I look like a teacher already! In response, I told him I just doing my job as a TA, getting things done. It was then that he asked me what I have accomplished today, perhaps even at all. At the moment, I just replied with a sarcastic quip that we all accomplish what we can, or something like that. But later on, it I had an epiphany pertaining to his question and it caused me to think about something very profound: what have I accomplished today (or any day)?

I was floored. That simple, fundamental thought made me look back on the past couple of weeks and think hard about what I had done in that time. How I had worked, played, lived and so on. Then, even more surprising was the fact that I began to questing how I defined the word "accomplished" in the context of the question. What does it mean to accomplish something? and even then, is it an accomplishment. It was a paradigm shattering thought to my intelligent brain and it made me ponder my future plans for the day in the context of "accomplishing something" and I had the sincere hope that I could pull some kind of accomplishment off.

It is thought provoking experiences like that, that happen not often enough that make us pause and evaluate what we are doing in life. What we live for, work for, strive for, what does it all mean and what are we trying to accomplish in our endeavours? I hope to accomplish at least one very special thing in life: to leave a lasting impact on someone in a positive and enriching way, be they a student, person on the street or my daughter. I want to touch someone in a way that makes a difference in their lives, and maybe even in the world.

Wii are Having Fun

As a graduation present, Heather got me Mario Kart Wii for our Wii. My favorite kind of games are racing games and since we have had Mario Kart 64 on the Virtual Console for awhile, I have had a natural fondness for this franchise. Both of us have had a blast playing it, with our cute pair of Wii Wheels, granted, Heather has surpassed me in rankings. Honestly, she seems to be better at the game than I am, however I know how to drift and she doesn't!! But that is little help when you're barreling over the edge of a funking rainbow track!! Mario Kart Wii is definitely one of the best games for the Wii either of us has seen yet; it is Heather's favorite game on the Wii.

One of the coolest things to happen on the Wii since the Virtual Console is the introduction of compact games called WiiWare. The service premiered with few games, but there were some gems in there, 3 of which I have downloaded. First, I downloaded Defend Your Castle, a simple game where you have to use your cursor (among other things) to fling/squash the enemy troops away from your castle. It's an awesome game and gets really crazy after you pass the 20th level. Next is a very simple game called POP that requires you to pop lots of bubbles and make combos and so on to increase the time you have available to play. Very simple, fun and quite relaxing and addictive. Finally is a real gem called Lost Winds, which is a 3D side-scrolling game centered a little kid teamed up with a wind spirit to explore the boy's world and find out a way to defeat an evil spirit. I am very pleased with this game because it is so simple, but very challenging at the same time. To get the little kid from place to place, you have to use wind blown with your cursor to help him jump/fly to where you want to go. Sounds easy, but sometimes it isn't. Overall, all 3 games have a lot to offer and I highly recommend them to anyone with a Wii that is connected to the internet.
Owning a Wii is probably the best all-round family gaming system I have ever experienced. It is easy to use, interactive (physically and mentally) and loads of fun. Heather and I couldn't imaging not having one anymore since it's so cool. It is the best of the current systems, and don't let anyone try and convince you otherwise. Why else do you think it can't stay on store shelves when the PS3 and XBox 360 just sit and perhaps gather some dust? Think about that...

Stage 1 of College Education Complete...

...2 more stages left.

I finally graduated from Red Rocks community College on Saturday, after three years of faithful academic diligence. Thank god I'm done! I loved it there, but if my last semester showed me anything, it's that things can't stay the same forever. I couldn't be a straight A student in every class and have fantastic teachers for every class either. I'm very lucky though, I had only one shitty teacher in my three years there, but a few teachers that really need to learn how to teach properly. If there is one thing that has stuck in my mind so far in learning to become a teacher, it is that a teacher should never assume, anything. A lot of the teachers I've had at RRCC have assumed many things, that they have a smart class or that we have all of the information that we need stored away in our brains. Not all of us can keep every ounce of information in our brains that is thrown at us. Hence why when a teacher assumes, they make an ass out of themselves, be it to one student, or many.
But I digress. I am so happy to finally have a degree under my belt, even if it is only an AA. I look forward to continuing at Metro State in the fall (I'm sure I'll encounter bullshit there too) and getting my BA in Environmental Science. I see a bright future ahead, for myself and my family. I also plan to grow in many areas of my life: as a parent, a partner, a photographer and most importantly as a person, as I progress along the path of education, in academia and in life. I wish myself, and those of us out there striving for the same things I am, good luck!

I Predict a Busy Summer...

Barely into a second day of work after the close of the semester and I can already feel how busy I am going to be. I will have three big responsibilities this summer: training a replacement, nurse-maiding a new adjunct though for his first experience with us and getting a guide to the labs prepared. On top of that, making sure the lab stays clean and tidy will be a chore, as always, but it is much easier during the summer since we will only have, at the most, two classes going, versus 8+ during a normal semester. I'm up to the challenge and look forward to making the best out of my final semester as physics TA. I will miss my job after I'm done, but as with all things in life, one must move on from one chapter in life to another.