4 months, a life a new.

Wow, that went by fast!  Time to get back into blogging.  You know me, I have such a love-hate relationship with blogging.  I just get pulled back to it.  I feel so connected to this medium, for 8 years, off and on, back and forth, through the highs and lows. 

I sure left off in May in a low.  Life was getting rough for awhile there.  Freshly out of grad school, no job, and I started to fear that would be my new normal. 

But now let me pick back up.  So many changes in 4 months. 

Let me give you the short run down then I'll go into details about them.  Maybe I'll just give the overview tonight and go into the details in coming up entries.

So here is the run down of all that has happened.

Um, I was working at the coffee shop-yeah, I quit that, more on that later.

So now I've found a real career.  I'm a professor now at a school in the Tampa region.  I love it.  It's only an adjunct position through December.  Hopefully they offer me another contract for the spring semester.  For now though I am loving this job.  This is what I am meant to do.  I am part of a carpool to Tampa the three days a week I teach. 

I am still at UCF working in the sociology lab.  Sure the work there is few and far between but its good while it last.

My roommate Brian moved out and now we have a new awesome roommate S. from Calcutta.  It's a great cross-cultural experience. 

I'm still single but there is someone I been talking to.  Actually I have a few people I'm interested in but only one that really stands out.  I'll keep you informed how it all goes. 

I just left the coffee shop last week (thus the reason I have time to even write this).  I was working in Tampa three days a week and at the coffee shop 3-4 days a week.  It was rough and not needed.  I wanted to stay at the coffee shop but with their lack of ability to schedule me for less hours and the amount of energy it took out of me for such little pay.  I was not sleeping, going 40 or more hours on less than 4 hours of sleep.  Like I said, it was rough, but worth it.  I finally was able to focus my energy on teaching and education.  I teach sociology and even with all the education I've taken in these past years I still feel totally inadequate for teaching it.  I spend so much time researching and confirming what I think is the answer.  Each class day I focus both on the topics of our book and a different sociologist.  This means I spend a ton of time researching different sociologist and looking into how they link back to the topics that each class time focuses on.  I also included at least two videos in each class, I try to include a recent current news story, and some type of class interaction time.  This takes a massive amount of time.  I use the book website and base my powerpoints on theirs but it still takes a large amount of time to rewrite, improve, and adjust them with all the aspects that I like to see in the class. 

Well this is getting long and I've been trying not to fall asleep.  It was a rough day, ripped my pants, forgot my phone, had no gas when I thought I did, forgot to pack my computer charger, at least 6 accidents on the way to work, yeah insane day.  You know though, even with all the rough and insane that I must put up with, at the end of class, after the last student has left and before the first for the next class come in, there in that second I stop, look around, realize that I am living my dream and that no matter what life is good. 

Good night, thanks for reading, and welcome to the wormhole.

explanation of recent postings

I realized that lately I have been posting a lot of urban design and referencing New Urbanism quite a bit. Some of you have been asking me why do I care so much about this. I'll let this video do the explaining for me.

As people buy their hybrid cars, change their light bulbs to energy efficient ones, and drink their shade grown coffee I sit back and realize that if we don't stop the sprawl, stop the idea of the suburbs, if we don't embrace the village model none of the other things.

Until we change the way we live, until we change the way our cities are designed none of the other things will have a lasting impact. I choose to give up a nice apartment with plenty of luxuries to live in a more dense, planned area because I realized that by living here I will be more active and more environmentally friendly. I have met more people in the month I have lived here than in ANY other place I have EVER lived! I have neighbors who do leave their doors unlocked. I am able to take a walk each evening. I am able to walk to dinner, walk to the grocery store, I am able to live in my community and not just consume the resources of it.

It is this idea of a better way of living, a healthier community focused lifestyle, that I am so consumed by new urban design ideas. My dream is to be able to take these ideas that I am living out and help ensure that everyone who wishes to have that lifestyle, no matter their socioeconomic condition, will be able to live in that style of community.

Missions of Tommorow

I have had some ideas spinning around in my head the last few weeks. How do we improve missions? To start off with How can we use the latest technology to help further improvements to the world around us? What about Housing and Tourism...








Two ideas, both unique but now imagine what they can do together? We are now entering into the era of missions on multiple levels. We are no longer just providing food, water, or clothes we are now attempting to meet multiple needs at the same time. I am now seeking ways to keep Causations mission trips carbon neutral. How can we harness the power of tourism and the power of cargo containers for missions?

What I have wanted to say for awhile

As the economy crashes and hopefully is now slowly rebuildingta I beg you to stop and listen to what Wall Street is saying, listen to what financial advisors are saying. The past 20 months have rocked this nation to its core. In times like this it takes drastic moves to help the nation regain its footing. Still in the midst of the worst week in the history of the stock market Obama is not backing away from his plan to raise taxes. Wall Street advisors are now saying that they fear an Obama presidency. Wall Street is in fear of Obama, Main Street will be taxed by Obama (Look at his voting record when it comes to taxes).

I did support Obama in the beginning of his campaign. I have since switched to now supporting McCain. The Obama I supported is long gone. Obama has let the fame go to his head, he is more worried about the rock star like appearances than getting real work done (just stop and look at how often he actually shows up to the Senate). The promises made of running a clean campaign are long forgotten. The ideals his campaign was built upon are now shown to be empty. Obama is a politician at his core. He has commercials full of lies like the rest of them. He wants to raise tax. He wants to create more government oversight. From our classrooms to our bedrooms he wants to govern us, that’s not freedom, that’s not a future I want.

Don’t trust me, look for yourself. I’m not going to recommend specific websites because I want you to look at multiple sites. I am confident after any sort of research into Obama’s policy you too will not support him. His policies are flawed and flawed policies are not what we need during this hardship in American history.

McCain doesn’t have all the answers but at least he has a cabinet that has the experience and the wisdom to help America through these hard times.