new things i've read section

i added a new section to my little side bar; a list of all the books i have read in 2009. hopefully with the books i'm reading listed for the public, i will have more motivation to read more and actually think critically about what i'm reading.

so the first book i read this year was called Philosophy Made Simple by
Robert Hellenga. it is a novel about a 50 something widower named rudy who leaves chicago to start a new life as an avocado rancher. i chose the book in attempt to pick up a few tidbits about philosophy while still getting the entertainment of a fictional story. the book turned out to have less about philosophy than i expected; rudy just carries around a philosophy book that was a gift from one of his three daughters. overall, i still enjoyed the book; it was definitley a romantic book (which i wasn't expecting) but the ending wasn't predictable or fairytail-ish.

right now i'm almost halfway through Deception by Ziyad Marar. so far i'm enjoying it, but more on that after i'm finished with it!

new goals: teach english abroad and photography

what happened to 2008? i feel like september - november inched by and now suddenly it is half way through january.

work is going well. i'm pretty settled into the office. sitting in an office is not terribly exciting, but if i have to be in one, this is the place for me. our office is complete with a fish tank of native fish and two snails named speedy gonzalez and speed racer. their little mouths are pretty awesome to watch.

i've made some pretty big decisions lately. 1)i am not going to grad school this fall 2)i'm not taking the job i was originally offered here at horizons for homeless children. as a result of these decisions i am now job searching (again) for a second part time job in western mass starting soon/now as well as a full time job somewhere outside the usa starting in the fall. i'm currently hoping to teach english as a foreign language somewhere like thailand, turkey, or the czech republic but i'm really quite open about the location.

i've also decided to try to really improve my photography skills. i'm planning on forcing myself to do this by joining in on the many 365 projects common to flickr. i myself will be attempting to take one photo every day during my 23 year of life which starts on January 29. this is also a good excuse for my birthday present to myself to be a new lens :-D

in other news, i have begun listening to the scientific american podcasts and man am i learning a lot. my favorite is the "totally bogus" section.