Busy weekend!!

This was definitely one of the busiest weeks/weekends I've had in a while. The Colorado State Thespian Conference was fun, and I had the unique opportunity to get to meet some students I hadn't met before, and to spend some time with some students that I've wanted to get to know better. Apparently sleep at these things is optional since I didn't get much of it at all. I made up for it today though, by sleeping for 12 straight hours, which is pretty remarkable for me. I did manage to get a few book reviews and even a top 20 gift book suggestion list up on Elephant Journal as well, which earned me some (well deserved) harassment from Ms. Phillis over the fact that I never quite seem to stop working. I do... just not for very long and not very often.

Two more weeks until December vacation... wowzers. My goal is to actually go a few days without any sort of contact with the world, not including the time spent on the train. I'd like to take some time just for me... I've noticed that when I do that, the world spins just fine, thank you very much, and so I plan to give the world a break from me again.

But for now, I've got to get ready for another week. Blog topics to post, presentations to finish grading... a teacher's work is never done!

Goals for the year

I'm going to be giving my students weekly blog topics to write about, and I will be writing my own entries along with them... after all, that's only fair, really.

This week's question is: What are your goals for this year both as a student and in general? Well, since I'm not a student this year, I will instead address my goals from a professional point of view as well as a more personal one.

Professionally, I have several goals, really. First, I want to become much more adept at the use of technology in my classroom. I am working on a few lessons involving the Smart Board in my room, but I haven't actually used it yet, and I feel a little guilty about that. I haven't nailed the podcast thing yet, which is fairly disappointing, but I'm working on putting up a podcast/PowerPoint for my students on how to get their blogs set up, and my goal for that is to have it done by the end of the week. I'm thinking of recording tomorrow's lesson on the 11 sentence paragraph as well, so that should also be available soon. I would also like to attend an IB Extended Essay training this year, so that I can be fully up and running for everything I'm going to be teaching once we are an official IB World School.

On the coaching side, my goal is to continue to build and strengthen the program. We had a great veterans' meeting yesterday, and the students continue to push themselves even higher than previous students have. I'm very encouraged by what I'm seeing, and I think this year promises to be an amazing year for the team.

Of course, there is also the book club for the students and faculty that I want to start up, and I need to get the cycling program moving again as well.

Personally... hmm. This one's always a little tougher in some ways. First, I want to become more adept at cooking Tibetan and Vietnamese foods. I've cooked a few things from the Tibetan cookbook I picked up, but I haven't hit up the Vietnamese one yet; I need to get moving on that.

It's also a goal of mine to be able to keep up not just with this blog, but also with the Elephant Journal blog entries and reviews that I've been doing. I really enjoy doing the reviews and working with the magazine, though I haven't published an article in a while... I would like to get at least one more article in print in addition to the online reviews and blogs.

In general, though, I want to continue to learn about as much as I can about as many different topics as I can. I really love to learn new things, and I see learning as a celebration of life and what it has to offer. I haven't picked out my next book yet, but as I certainly have plenty to choose from, I don't see that as a problem... except knowing which one to choose, of course!

Oh yeah... another personal goal: I really want to get more consistent with both my meditation and yoga practices. Both of these really help to keep me centered, and I can always feel it when I start to drift. I didn't do a great job of that this summer, and so I need to put more effort into that.

Wow... I have several goals, which isn't a bad thing, I don't think. Of course, these will continue to grow and change as some get met and new ones develop, but I think that's a good start.

The deep breath before the storm

Some time ago, I mentioned that my raw milk delivery had started. One of the niftiest bonuses of that is access to raw cream. I got my first order of raw cream this past weekend, and got inspired to make some creme brulee. I don't know why I don't make it more often... it's ridiculously easy to make, and hey, I get to play with a blow torch! At any rate, I made it, and it came out the most AMAZING sunlight golden color I've ever seen from a creme brulee. It was beautiful to look at, and the flavor was both delicate and rich at the same time... the perfect match of decadence. Next time, I'm making a double batch. :-)

Tonight is a night of (relative) quiet for me. Tomorrow I have to be sure to post my review of Why the Dalai Lama Matters by Robert Thurman, then I head to the Elephant office to get some work done for Wednesday's event. Waylon (publisher of Elephant) is taking me to sushi for dinner (ROCK!!!) since I'm going to stay for the Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche's teaching later that night. Tuesday, I'm off to the Tattered Cover to touch base with Prof. Thurman, who will be there doing a talk and book signing in Denver, then Wednesday is the Elevision event.

Read an article recently discussing how yoga, meditation, and the like affect a person on the genetic level, which is just really amazing and cool. It couples nicely with another article I read not too long ago discussing a study that was done indicating that a healthy diet and exercise also affects an individual on the genetic level. I KNEW this stuff was good for me... now I find out that it's good for me all the way down to my genes, too. Nifty. All the more reason for me to remain committed to my lifestyle, and to be sure to reinforce it with the kids on the climbing team.

July 20 already. I go back to work in less than a month. Ack!! Where has the time gone?! I still haven't finalized my thoughts on the book club, there's my Smart Board to play with yet, and I have only gone climbing ONCE this whole summer!!

World Tibet Day

World Tibet Day is this weekend. Basically it's a day of celebration of the Tibetan culture and an observance of the birthday of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama's birthday. Boulder's celebration of it is tomorrow, and I'm pretty psyched about it. Kyle has to work all day tomorrow, so he had to miss it, but Blake and I will be able to go since Blake only has to work two hours. I think it's going to be a LOT of fun.

In other news, things with the Robert Thurman event are going pretty well. Endangered Species Chocolate has signed on as a sponsor of the event, which is really cool of them, and has moved them up into my favorite chocolate company. It was already pretty cool that they donate 10% of their profits to environmental causes, and now they've demonstrated that they are about a lot more than just that. Very cool of them. Prana and the Gaia Community have also expressed interest, which is really encouraging. I'm really excited about being able to meet and talk with Professor Thurman. By all accounts, he's a pretty amazing man.

I didn't get to do any climbing this week (argh!), but I did get some yoga and lots of bike riding in (yay!). Maybe Sunday will be my big chance to get on the rocks (crosses fingers). Let's hope! In the meantime... I'm off to enjoy some fireworks.

Working at the office

Spent the day at the Elephant office trying to get my email configured correctly (still hasn't happened... grrr....) and in general working on things for the Elevision event with Robert Thurman later next month. It was a decently productive day, but would have been much more so had I gotten that goofy email working.

One thing has become definite fact. The best way to get around Boulder is NOT by car. I've made the decision that whenever I go to Boulder, that I'm just going to park the car in one spot and spend the rest of the day on my bike. Blake and I were able to get around Boulder faster by bicycle, and we were having a LOT more fun doing it.

I even got a spiffy new shirt today (the one I'm wearing in the picture), a new yoga video to review and some NEW BOOKS to review as well! New books!!! WOOHOO!!!

Yeah... umm... so my summer reading list has broken the 100 book count, I think. And no... that's NOT a bad thing at all! Of course, the only real down side is that I might not get a whole lot of time to do a lot of reading until after the Elevision event, but then again, I always seem to find time to read, no matter what else is going on! ;-)

The other cool event of the day is that Blake got invited to blog for Elephant. He's super stoked, and I'm pretty proud of him as well. I missed hanging out with Kyle today since he stayed home and kicked back for the day, but tomorrow is Farmers' Market day, so we'll get to spend some time together then. (Yay!)

Elevision with Robert Thurman

Yesterday I found out that Robert Thurman is going to be in Boulder on July 23rd for a book signing and interview on Elevision, a talk show done by Elephant Journal, at the Boulder Theater. I've been familiar with who he is (aside from being Uma Thurman's dad) for about two years now, and while I often thought about how great it would be to meet and talk with him, I never really considered it in the realm of possibility... until today. As soon as I found out about the event, I emailed Waylon Lewis, the publisher of Elephant Journal, and volunteered my help with the event. Today, Waylon called me and asked me how soon I could make it to Boulder so he could sit down with me and talk about the event and how I could help. I had to help out a neighbor with getting a washer, dryer, and dining room table into her house, but once I did that, it was off to Boulder. Waylon, Blake, and I sat down, and by the end of the meeting, I was pretty much in charge of the event! I even get free yoga with Richard Freeman at the Yoga Workshop out of it, so that's SUPER cool. If you are interested in the event, by the way, here's the link to it.

Needless to say, I'm really excited about this opportunity. I've done promotions and marketing work when I lived back East, so I have a good bit of experience doing this type of thing, but this one is different. I'm really excited about the possibility of meeting and talking with Prof. Thurman; I really never thought it would happen, and I'm really glad it is. I'm definitely going to get a copy of his new book and ask him to sign it and see if he would also be willing to sign the copy of another book of his that I have. (Yeah, I know... totally geeky and fanboy, but hey, I'm pretty geeky and even I have my fanboy moments.)

While I was in Boulder, Blake and I stopped by Tee and Cakes, based on a blog entry Waylon posted on the Elephant Journal site. They have some MIGHTY tasty cupcakes, let me tell you!!! Not too sweet, and the frosting was nice and light... YUMMY!

This has been a pretty crazy summer... I'm still hoping to get out climbing SOON. Waylon has never been climbing outdoors, and he really wants to go, so I have one more reason to get my butt out there. At least my bike is getting put to good use!!

Yoga!!!

Finally did some yoga today... it had been a while since I'd done any, and it felt great. I'm definitely going to commit to making it a daily habit like I did last summer. It's much harder to do it every day during the school year, but there's no real excuse not to over the summer.

I downloaded some podcasts to my Zune yesterday; my next goal is to start experimenting with the Audacity software so that I can hit the ground running next year with my own podcasts. It really is my goal to have individual webpages for my classes, complete with podcasts. I'd put them up at the end of each day, and then take them down again on Sunday evening so as to not burn bandwidth. I figure if I leave them up until say, 10:00 on Sunday night, that should give my students plenty of time to listen to them/download them as needed. I'd take the notes down also since I'd also email them the notes anyway... hmm... seems redundant to post the notes and email them, so perhaps I'd email them the notes and then just post the podcasts. Either way, I'm really excited about it. (In case you couldn't tell... ha ha!)

Now if I could just find my climbing gear (it's buried in the garage somewhere), I could actually get out and climb!!!

Another great day

An absolutely amazing day today. I'm still unpacking from the move (where did I get all of this junk??), but took the day to head to the farmers' market (of course), and stopped by the shop owned by my friend, Tenzin. Also had the pleasure of catching up with another friend of mine who formerly owned a coffee company but has switched over to hibiscus-based drinks. I tried one, and it was pretty tasty, I have to say.

I still haven't been able to do any yoga, climbing, or cycling, but considering that there is no room in my living room for yoga, my bikes are buried somewhere in the garage, and I've had no time for climbing, I guess that's not really surprising. Soon... soon.

I've been eating more vegetarian meals lately. Don't worry, I still like MEAT. In fact, I made some bison burgers this week that made me really happy, but tonight I experimented with tofu a bit. I sauteed some tofu in coconut oil, then baked it in a chipotle-citrus barbecue sauce, and topped it with a pineapple-mango salsa that Blake (Kyle's friend) and I made from scratch and off the top of our heads. It turned out pretty great, really. Oh... and yes, it was all organic. :-D Much of it was even local, compliments of the farmers' market.

I've also had no time for reading, which really bums me out. I'm thinking of doing some tonight, provided that I can find the book I want to read. :-p Oh yeah... moving is great, let me tell you. My goal is to be completely settled in before next week's farmers' market. Craigslist is going to love me pretty soon... I've been finding a lot of stuff and wondering why I still have it, so it's time to get rid of it... an ice cream maker that I've never used, and in fact I now have two, so it's time to get rid of one of them, a LARGE cast iron frying pan, a wok (again... I have two [why?]), a windsurfing board (was a cool gift at the time, but....)... all things that I have no idea why I still have them, and I know there will be more to come once I get to really sorting through boxes. Time to purge those things I no longer need... I even found a decoration I'd saved from my high school senior prom, for Pete's sake... what have I been thinking?? Time to purge. As Henry David Thoreau said, "Simplify, simplify." I thought about having a garage sale, but that's too much hassle, so I'm probably going to give most of it away, with the exception maybe of the extra washer and dryer I now have.

I like the new place except that the dishwasher doesn't work that well. bleah. I'll deal with it, or perhaps discuss it with the landlord; we'll see how bad it gets.

More unpacking tomorrow, then I can start on the garage and get my bikes out!! Woohoo!!