Sepia tinted and toned, the memory shard

A post less and more serious than others.


Asbestos then foreign obstacles
Garbage collection is irregular
Words aren't just semantic blue
over and retaining their crates
fording the portmanteaus change
darkening the horizon with salt
nearer still come the Iowanians
holding the key to the tumbling
jams and torrential rainfall do
ask the ant or the aunt for one
never before would be seen a we
jests short and corridors alone
vultures don't wear socks, ever

a small spark vs. a great forest


Now that we've got all of that out of the way, on to news and other things.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day at another school. We (some of the staff of my school) were playing in a volleyball tournament. It was pretty fun, we came in third out of eight teams. We lost the first match, but really started to come together and not do dumb stuff the next two matches. I think the last match I served three aces, something like that. And we spent most of the day there, which was cool. Sit and talk to folks while watching the other games, watch the kids running around, just a nice little fun tournament atmosphere. My readers who have shared similar experiences with the homeschool ball teams and tournaments back in the States will know what I mean.

Yesterday, I also had opportunities to have good conversations, in person and over e-mail, with some of my friends and a good Conversation with another Friend. Some of the conversations were casual, some were serious, and all were good. I'm reminded about the fact that my friends here in this place are different than my friends from those friends I had in the States in some ways. It's easier to quickly feel closer to folks here, because of the amount of contact and close proximity that we have to each other. In a similar vein, though, there is a kind of distance to those friendships when contrasted to my long-term friendships back in the States. Part of it is the lack of prior shared experience, part of it is because many of my close friends in the States had grown up with me, part of it is that I didn't engage deeply here right away because of my personality, and I didn't know if I was going to stay around or not.

This further leads me to comment on another Conversation I had. Which involves analyzing, changing, and understanding my reasons for being here, and bringing them in line with the right reasons. So much here is and is not what I expected it to be, or what I expected to encounter. Things here have happened and not happened like I thought. So I need to, in a different way than I analyzed and processed my decision to stay, I need to analyze and process what I see, what I hear, and what I think, what I do, what I am. The constant light of introspection is frustrating at times, but necessary. I must ensure that, in every way and at all times, I work to become what I am says to be. In every day, in every area, I must strive to perfection, put off the old self.

Today, I experienced some frustrations. I fixed some computers, ran some new cable, kicked around some stuff in Ruby on Rails. Had to get my picture taken for the staff identifier page of the yearbook. I'm considering 'loosing' that picture from the server, I guess I have slowly inherited my mother's reticence in front of the camera. I was supposed to go meet about this website I'm consulting for today (rescheduled from last Tuesday, then Thursday), but got called again when I was going to check and see if the driver was there, and asked to reschedule tomorrow. I find this frustrating, but I'm ultimately OK with it. After supper this evening, I went out to the corner store for some odds and ends, including kitkats for several people. So I wrote on the sign-out board that I was "Questing for Kit Kats at the Corner Store." The Grammar Police wrote a note under mine, taking offense to my using quest as a verb. The internet seems to agree with me, however. So, I win. I think.