4/28/2013

Last night I attempted my first layer cake.  Chocolate cake, chocolate mousse and a raspberry sauce, with frosting to make it look even.  It came out ok, will out some pictures up later.  But was a good experiment, I find that layer cakes require patience, which I don’t really have when baking and also I ate a lot of chocolate mousse and cream.

            To make up for that this morning I chopped the rest of the trail from our house down to a mountain biking path running down the ridge.  Now we should be able to make it from the back door to the top of the Wa’ahila Ridge national park.  I was going to try and do that today, but I am just not feeling that right now.

            The mangoes are coming and they taste great.  It is nice have fruit trees right next to the kitchen; I don’t see why more people don’t do that.

Finally, I finished my training with Ala Ka’I Na Keiki, so I think next week I will be a fully credentialed skills trainer.  I am not sure what that really means as it seems they will take pretty much anyone and if you are willing to go through the training then you’re all set. But that means that I might start working again, as a sub and part time.  But I am not sure yet how I am going to respond to working with kids.  It really will depend on the ages that I work with.  From the China experience, working with older kids can be a lot of run and rather rewarding, but I remember teaching the little shits in swimming can get old real fast.  I am interested to see how this turns out.

            I finished my first term in the CSPP online classes.  Still waiting for the final marks, but I should have gotten at least a 93%, have to see how the last assignments are graded, could have put a little more effort into them but after the final paper it is hard to stay motivated in the class. A week off and then the next term starts, two classes this time.  I am also going to be doing some volunteer work through UH as a research assistant on some psych projects the students there are working on.  After next week, between work, study and volunteer time, I could be doing something like 40-50 hours a psych related stuff a week.  I hope I like it, because I am going to be diving into it full steam.  Along with the boxing and working out, I should be able to keep myself pretty busy without spending too much money.  And hopefully maybe even have a little coming in.

4/24/2013

Been awhile since my last post, but thought i would try and start writing again before the habit is dead.

I finally got the bike to pass safety inspection today and was able to get the title transferred and registration into my name.  Two days ago I took it to pass safety and failed because the bright lights indicator light in the dash wasn’t hooked up.  One problem after another.  Three mechanics looked over the bike and no one thought that the light would be a reason to fail safety.  After all, none of the other lights on the dash worked…  Anyway a couple hours fucking around with Brandon and the one light was hooked up.  Ugly wiring with a ground run randomly into the frame, but it works.  Safety passed, papers received, now I can finish the conversion that I have been sitting on since I got the bike.  New fairings, lights and signals.  And hopefully I can get rid of the ridiculous amount of random wiring that is hanging of the side of the bike. 

Tomorrow I am going to meet with a psych student at UH to talk with her about how I can help with a study that she running.  I am going to try and meet with a couple of the grad and doctoral students to see if they are running projects that I would be interested in and volunteer to help them out.  I am almost done with my first class through CSPP and am looking forward to getting some experience in the research field.  Between that and a little part-time work with Autistic/behavioral disordered children I should start getting a wide-ranging introduction into the different areas of the psych world and start refining where I want to go.

Last weekend I competed in an exhibition kickboxing match held at a local gym in Aeia.  My opponent unfortunately was not able to make it, but was lucky to have someone else willing to step up and take his place.  However, my new opponent was 15 pounds lighter (142-156) so I was not able to go full strength.  But I have to give him credit for being willing to step in and give me a match.  I feel bad for him though because in the third round he dislocated his toe kicking me in the knee.  I may have broken/fractured my big toe a couple days earlier so it seems to be going around.  Hopefully by next week I will be fully recovered, just need to be careful (not do boxing matches) until it gets back to full strength/flexibility.

My first class through CSPP is finishing this weekend; I should finish with something around a 95%, so a good start to my Masters coursework.  Not sure if I will be able to keep that up, but happy with the start at least.

Kinda jumped around on this first post back…will try to get back into the habit of writing more regularly.  I have the time, now I just need to focus…