At the same time I have been trying to shed myself of the last two weeks of work, I’ve been juggling two classes as well.

One of the classes is Fundamentals of Massage at BTC, where I’m a TA. There have only been four meetings so far, but I am enjoying it hugely. When I was in college, I did an awful lot of tutoring in Algebra, Calculus, entry-level engineering Statics and Dynamics, and I got a lot out of it. In many ways, I found I never really understood a subject until I had taught it to someone (or even better, several someones). Now I’m getting that experience all over again. I’m spending a lot of time thinking about all of the massage training and practice I’ve gone through over the past year, and finding words to explain what that meant to me and how I’ve internalized different parts of it.

It also helps that the two teachers I’m working with are more on the “woo-woo” side of massage, whereas I’m more of a clinical anatomy geek. So, I’m getting a little more accustomed to that side of the practice, and I’m also able to provide a bit of a balance to the class, helping them with anatomy questions and focusing more on the left-brain side of it all.

The other class is a Table Shiatsu class at De Anza College. I have a very strong appreciation for the massage program that has been assembled at De Anza, but I still feel like the classes at BTC are much better. But, De Anza is way cheaper, it’s way closer, and BTC doesn’t offer a class in table Shiatsu. Since I don’t plan on doing Shiatsu full-time, I really wanted exposure to it in a way that I could integrate into my regular bodywork on the table.

So far, I’m having to regularly remind myself, “Keep an open mind. Don’t try to analyze it, just soak it in.” I don’t have a particular affinity for the eastern modalities, and I am fairly skeptical of the meridian system in general. But, I like the teacher, and he’s making a real effort to present the information in an open, informal and reasonably grounded manner. So, it’s a stretch for me, but still quite worth it. I especially like the time and attention he spends on Qi Gong, postures and movements that are very evocative of Tai Chi and various martial arts. More motion and body awareness is a good thing for me.

Yay for classes! I’m looking forward to seeing these unfold.

It’s official! Well, it’s been official since Monday when I told my boss, but I feel like I can talk about it publicly, now that I’ve told my team and a few fairly close cow-orkers.

I’ve quit. After ~12 years at the same company, I’m moving on. It’s weird, i can still clearly remember being the new kid in the team, full of enthusiasm and with all the subtlety of a Bush in China. Now I find myself as the old dog in the department, finally stepping off the stage.

Right now, I don’t have any concrete plans for the future. I’ve promised myself I won’t take another job in high tech for at least six months. I’m taking a class in Table Shiatsu at De Anza College, and I’m a TA in the Fundamentals of Massage class at BTC. I’ve got some traveling plans in the works, including a big tour of northern Europe, and some vague plans about a big US – Canada roadtrip. But that’s about it. Maybe I’ll get some piercings and work in a coffeeshop. Dunno. One of my long-term career ambitions has been to drive the submarine at DisneyLand, but I just found out they’ve closed that ride. Sigh.

My last day is a week from Friday. Should be an interesting journey. 🙂

Right away, let me say that I really dislike spam, junk e-mail, popup ads, banner ads, etc. Yeah, yeah, me and virtually everyone else on the net, whatever.

But, I’m disturbed that people seem to make such a huge deal about them, and I don’t hear nearly the same amount of noise about junk snail mail and the constant barrage of advertising people willingly absorb from television, print and radio nearly every day.

With a combination of my mail client’s “Junk filter”, and disabling the display of images and embedded objects in HTML email messages, I just don’t have much of a problem with spam anymore. And if it gets worse, I wouldn’t mind enabling a filter that blocked mail from anyone not in my Address Book. Yeah, it’s annoying and it’s a pain, but there are an increasing number of tools to help fight spam. And, worse case, I’m simply deleting more messages from my Inbox.

Compare this to my experience with junk snailmail. Six days a week, about 1/4 pound to 1/2 pound each day, all of which goes straight into my recycling bin. The amount of waste is staggering, for pointless advertising flyers that 99% of the recipients just trash. Yes, I know there are “Opt Out” lists you can use in attempt to staunch the flow of junk mail, but I’ve never noticed a decrease in traffic from using them.

I’m just surprised that tangible paper trash is accepted with little or no objection, while intangible spam has the attention of the US Congress and (toothless, futile) laws are being passed to address this “critical issue”. I just don’t get it.

I gave up TV just a smidge over a year ago. It’s been an interesting journey, and one that I get asked about a lot. Lemme see if I can explain.

I was a big Dish and TiVo junkie. In fact, I’m still a big fan of TiVo. If you’re going to watch television, by all means, get one; they rock.

But, the more I used TiVo, an interesting shift began to occur. It used to be that television was part of my routine. I’d have some favorite show, and parts of my week got scheduled around that show. “Thursdays at 8:00, gotta be home for Seinfeld”, that sort of thing. And then I got a Dish-TiVo combo unit. Mmm, tons of channels, and this handy box that is skimming the cream and storing it for whenever I wanted. What lovely excess! Now I didn’t have to wait until Thursday at 8:00, I could get my fix whenever I wanted. Schweet!

Except… now, there was no routine, no habit to watch television at a specific time. I could watch or not, and then shows would still be there on the TiVo’s hard drive. Oh, so I don’t _have_ to watch TV right now, I could put it off and watch it later. As the regularly scheduled habit began to fade, I increasingly chose to do other things, like read a book, or geek on the computer. In fact, I almost began to look at the TiVo as a To Do list. “Aww, jeez, I’ve got thirty episodes of Larry Sanders queued up. Someday I gotta sit down and watch those.”

And then, the Dish-TiVo combo box broke. I had to send the unit off to Sony to be repaired, which took an unreasonable six weeks. Six weeks during which I had no television feed at all. I was shocked to find I didn’t miss it that much. I read more, I went out more, and I began to find I enjoyed all the extra free time I had as a result.

Once the Dish-TiVo box was returned, I decided to leave it in the closet for a while and continue the TV-free experiment for a bit longer. And longer. And longer.

And so it’s been over a year. It’s getting to be a little odd and awkward at times. A friend mentions some hot new actor and I haven’t seen the series she’s starring in. People laugh about some commercial that’s making the rounds and I have no idea what they’re talking about. Wow, the lack of commercials is huge. As time passes, I’m increasingly divorced from the cultural mainstream, which is an odd experience. But some people might say I’ve only ever had a passing acquaintance with it anyway.

For what it’s worth, I’m not a zealous evangelist about giving up TV. I still have a DVD player, and I maintain a very active account with Netflix. The only challenge now is figuring out which movies I might want to watch, when I’m not being bombarded with ads for them. 🙂

I’m back from the holiday road trip. Overall, it went really well; hiking in Death Valley was just spectacular, and made me eager to get out of the valley much more often.

Which is to say, yes, I am looking forward to the new year. 🙂

But I have a quick question for the huddled masses;

Now the Christmas marketing can begin!
Thank you. That is all.

I love the vocabulary that comes with food. A rasher of bacon. Lemon pith. It’s seksy.

I was invited to Turkey Day festivities with friends in San Leandro, and I offered to bring homemade dessert as my contribution to the feast. Then I found out ~14 people would be attending. 🙂 So, my plans for one pie evolved into a pecan pie, a lemon cheesecake and an apple pie (with lattice top).

This is a) my first homemade apple pie and 2) my first lattice top crust. I’m quite happy with the results.

I was inspired to spend the day in the kitchen, and so far, it really has been a whole day kind of thing. I was at the grocery at 8:00 am getting ingredients and have been dorking in the kitchen ever since.

Tuscan White Bean Soup, which is a recipe I found in Cooks Illustrated. It was okay, but not great. I suspect the cannellini beans from Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck) were a bit old. I had to cook them much longer than expected to get nicely tender beans. But still, it was a nice fall lunch. Maybe I’ll hit the farmer’s market in Coooopertino and see if there are good beans to be had there.

I also threw together a batch of hummus for grazing through the coming week. Props to Mary Jane for the original recipe which I have since evolved into my own.

Then I put together a pie crust and the guts for a pecan pie, which is in the oven even as I type. How is it possible that I don’t own a set of pie weights? What are the odds this is the first time in human history that a set of metric sockets have been used as pie weights?

And then for dinner, I’m making enchiladas. I’ve tweaked this recipe a bit, roasting the chicken thighs in advance and shredding them as if I was making chicken salad. It’s simmering on the stove now; we’ll see how it turns out.

I have massage worked planned for every single night this week (either class or doing practice massages), so this may be the only cooking that happens all week. 🙂

“Your money’s on the dresser, baby.”

I got tipped last night. For a massage. Not just $20, but one of the new tie-dyed $20 bills.

I’m a little taken aback. I haven’t been charging anyone for massages so far. For one thing, I’m not a licensed massage therapist in Cupertino, but mainly I feel like the massages so far are practice for me as much as they might be pleasurable for the recipient. I’m simply grateful that people are willing to trust a stranger and an amateur in such an intimate endeavor.

But nonetheless, here I am with an extra $20 in my pocket. I guess I’m no longer an amateur. There go my plans for competing in the massage program at the 2004 Olympics.