As of 8PM tonight, my fall semester is over.
I won't go into details, but it's been a brutal semester.
That said, I have documented progress towards a viable long term goal, and that pleases me greatly.
I feel like I had to fight for every inch. But it's nice to finally feel like I'm picking fights that I can win.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
Florida
I'm still moving towards getting into grad school for Orthotics and Prosthetics. In that vein, I've been taking prerequisites at Bunker Hill Community College, in Boston. (Psychology and Physics, right now.)
In the meantime, I need to work. And one of the things I was advised to look into was becoming an Orthotic Fitter. (Basically, an O/P assitant.) So I've been working through online training, and I'm now down in Florida, going through the hands-on portion of training. (Next comes 1000 hours of experience, before I can test for certification.)
On top of all of that, I'm hanging out with my two boys during the day. The eldest is almost 3 years, and the new guy is almost 5 months old.
Things were going just fine with school until I added orthotics to the mix, and right before my wife's maternity leave ended. After those two factors came in, it basically felt like full time school work, on top of full time stay at home Dad. I'm getting sleepy just writing that down.
So far, the orthotics course has been interesting, but I can tell it will all be a lot more fun when I'm actually putting the information to good use, in context.
All that said, being down here in Florida, while tiring, has given me just enough time to write this up, and talk about what I've been up to. Life should settle down, briefly, pretty soon, which will hopefully give me a few more opportunities to write more often...
In the meantime, I need to work. And one of the things I was advised to look into was becoming an Orthotic Fitter. (Basically, an O/P assitant.) So I've been working through online training, and I'm now down in Florida, going through the hands-on portion of training. (Next comes 1000 hours of experience, before I can test for certification.)
On top of all of that, I'm hanging out with my two boys during the day. The eldest is almost 3 years, and the new guy is almost 5 months old.
Things were going just fine with school until I added orthotics to the mix, and right before my wife's maternity leave ended. After those two factors came in, it basically felt like full time school work, on top of full time stay at home Dad. I'm getting sleepy just writing that down.
So far, the orthotics course has been interesting, but I can tell it will all be a lot more fun when I'm actually putting the information to good use, in context.
All that said, being down here in Florida, while tiring, has given me just enough time to write this up, and talk about what I've been up to. Life should settle down, briefly, pretty soon, which will hopefully give me a few more opportunities to write more often...
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Launch
I've been putting this off for a while, because I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet. I'm sure it'll be a work in progress between layout, content, and my time-constrained ability to play with it.
I've been blogging about my woodworking for years. And I'm starting to get back to writing up the last few projects. I kept up a kitchen blog for a while, just as a goof. I still refer to it once in a while, to look up how I used to do things. I had other blogs that came and went, or were abandoned.
But there are other things that I haven't really been putting up, or putting out there. And things that I'd love to rhapsodize about.
The upshot of the demise of my shop is that I have a new trajectory: I'm going to work my way into the field of prosthetics and orthotics,, in the hopes of putting my skill and passion for making things to work for people who can use it, in a way that's actually sustainable in a way that my woodworking was not. That's going to mean school, and that has a list of other ramifications.
I'm a father... twice, now. I haven't really talked at all about that. The piss-ant kitchen has been in our rear-view mirror for over a year now. There's a new kitchen, and a few new recipes that I haven't put up or put out there yet, and more are coming... and I have a 2.5 year old who's showing an interest in helping me cook.
I found my way to kettlebells, too. I think I started lifting weights when I was 14, in boarding school, using a Universal machine. That means I've been pushing and pulling on heavy things for... 27 years? More than half of my life. But it was always in an endless cycle of work out for a while, get bored or strain something, and quit for a while. And it was, quite frankly, boring. The whole point is "push," or "pull," in whatever direction and with whatever appendage, and it worked just fine, but it always felt like a chore. Kettlebells are as much about movement and trajectory as they are about strength, and the workouts are never boring. In short, they've made physical fitness into something that's fun, and doesn't feel like a chore. That makes it sustainable for me.
On top of all of that, it's been a while since I really got down to it and wrote something on a regular basis, and I miss that, a little. It was good to be able to work my way through thoughts and ideas, and put them out there.
And I've done my best to avoid publicly writing about other things... thoughts and ideas, and random rhapsodies on topics from religion to Star Wars. And quietly, I think it would be fun to do so once in a while, in the hopes that it triggers a conversation with someone.
So, welcome to the continuing adventures of James. Grab some popcorn, and sit back.
And some floss, too. Because, you know, popcorn skins. Ugh.
I've been blogging about my woodworking for years. And I'm starting to get back to writing up the last few projects. I kept up a kitchen blog for a while, just as a goof. I still refer to it once in a while, to look up how I used to do things. I had other blogs that came and went, or were abandoned.
But there are other things that I haven't really been putting up, or putting out there. And things that I'd love to rhapsodize about.
The upshot of the demise of my shop is that I have a new trajectory: I'm going to work my way into the field of prosthetics and orthotics,, in the hopes of putting my skill and passion for making things to work for people who can use it, in a way that's actually sustainable in a way that my woodworking was not. That's going to mean school, and that has a list of other ramifications.
I'm a father... twice, now. I haven't really talked at all about that. The piss-ant kitchen has been in our rear-view mirror for over a year now. There's a new kitchen, and a few new recipes that I haven't put up or put out there yet, and more are coming... and I have a 2.5 year old who's showing an interest in helping me cook.
I found my way to kettlebells, too. I think I started lifting weights when I was 14, in boarding school, using a Universal machine. That means I've been pushing and pulling on heavy things for... 27 years? More than half of my life. But it was always in an endless cycle of work out for a while, get bored or strain something, and quit for a while. And it was, quite frankly, boring. The whole point is "push," or "pull," in whatever direction and with whatever appendage, and it worked just fine, but it always felt like a chore. Kettlebells are as much about movement and trajectory as they are about strength, and the workouts are never boring. In short, they've made physical fitness into something that's fun, and doesn't feel like a chore. That makes it sustainable for me.
On top of all of that, it's been a while since I really got down to it and wrote something on a regular basis, and I miss that, a little. It was good to be able to work my way through thoughts and ideas, and put them out there.
And I've done my best to avoid publicly writing about other things... thoughts and ideas, and random rhapsodies on topics from religion to Star Wars. And quietly, I think it would be fun to do so once in a while, in the hopes that it triggers a conversation with someone.
So, welcome to the continuing adventures of James. Grab some popcorn, and sit back.
And some floss, too. Because, you know, popcorn skins. Ugh.
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