New Blog & different focus

I have decided to start a new blog: Out of the Mystery. My purpose is to be more focused and disciplined in what I write and to challenge myself a little more with the written, err, "typed" word. I will probably write about faith, politics, current events, and culture and how these all intertwine or collide.

I will maintain this blog, The Tides Change, but it will be used mostly as a place to share updates in my life. I am going to Korea everybody!! I hope some of you will follow along to see what that will be like!

Yes, if anyone was confused, I recently switched from hokieshutterbug.blogspot.com
to thetideschange.blogspot.com, but the content is the same...

p.s. It is still weird not using Facebook, but as the days pass I notice it's absence less and less...

Jumbled thought stream + upcoming weekend

I'm really tired and there are blurry spots before my eyes. I think I'm actually going to be in bed by 11 tonight. Hopefully even asleep. Going to Burke tomorrow then NYC on Saturday! And then back down on Sunday. I foresee a crazy, whirlwind weekend. One of my really good friends from college is getting married and I'm so very excited for him! It's a bit of a long shot to get up there but I knew for sure that I didn't want to miss it. I hope I can catch up with a lot of friends I haven't seen in a while! And hanging out with my dear friend Elise is going to be tres superb.

I've been so busy I've hardly been able to think straight. Got to keep myself from getting over-stressed. Anyways, peacing out here. Got to get some shut-eye. Not too much to share otherwise. Except that I'm trying to start a new blog with a more specific focus. I'm hoping it will be good writing practice and provide an outlet for some thoughts that seem to need a place of their own. Oh and I'm trying to learn more about editing html! It's really a lot of fun!

oh and P.S. I'm learning some lessons on patience and waiting, long-suffering and endurance. I want to learn to persevere.

~~~Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.

observation + new job

I have found that it is rather difficult to waste time on the internet now that I'm not using facebook. I haven't logged in since last Friday! (1 week, 1 day and counting).

Yes, it does make me happy. I feel so free!!

I've spent 3 days of training/orientation to the church secretary job I've accepted. There are so many little responsibilities to keep track of! Well and a couple big ones too, such as answering the phone, preparing the Order of Worship (i.e. church bulletin) & announcements, updating the webpage, ordering supplies...and the list goes on. I just hope I can remember to do the most important things.

I like my new job and the people I'll be working with - senior pastor, associate pastor, financial secretary, school administrators, etc. Hopefully I'll get the swing of things soon so that I don't feel like my brain is going in a million places at once burning itself out trying to remember everything.

Right now I'm also getting adjusted to life here with my grandparents in general. New town, new responsibilities, new expectations put on me, etc. I really want this to be a good, productive, growing period. We shall see...

Answers to Prayer

My mom's surgery went really well. She is cheerful and holding up great. Also, the sentinel node biopsy performed during the surgery revealed that the cancer had not spread anywhere, which is a huge relief. Praise God!

Secondly, I accepted a job teaching English to kindergarten and elementary students at a private school in Daechi-dong Korea. Kids College is the name of the school. You can see some pics from their school by going here. It's all in Korean but pictures are pictures, right?

I should be starting February 25th, 2010. Not sure if that's the day I fly over, or if I will leave sooner.

All in all I'm really excited and can't wait to start. I wonder how quickly the months will go by until then.

Happenings/Changes

I've gotten into the habit of giving my life's updates on here as if there were 200 people out there waiting with bated breath to get them. Well, maybe there are. I don't know. In any case, it helps me straighten stuff out.

My Mom

Tomorrow my Mom is being operated on for breast cancer.

I don't really know what to think about it. I don't want to worry or make a big deal about it, but then there are always risks going into surgery and things could get complicated.

On the bright side, the type of cancer she has is classified as one of the least dangerous and they found it at a very early stage. Still, it makes me uneasy. I just hope that everything goes well and that she can keep up her good spirits like she's been doing so far. She's such a trooper and I'm so proud of her.

On another plus side, I will be making dinner tomorrow evening. I don't usually cook and tend to shy/shirk away from it but I really need to beef up that side of my "real-life resume" so I'm looking forward to that.

Moving

Again. I know! So the day after my mom's surgery I'll be moving down to live with my grandparents for the next 3 months or so. I'm taking a job as the secretary at their church while I wait to go to Korea. I'm going to miss spending lots of time with my parents. It's been really cool getting to reconnect after having spent so many years living apart from them.

I'm also going to miss the friends I have made here at Occoquan Bible Church. I got involved with their young adults group and really had a nice time with them. I'll definitely have to come back to visit a couple weekends.

Job Hunt in Korea

I'm talking with a couple recruiters to find a job. I'm now trying to get placed as near to Daechi-Dong, Seoul as possible since I found out that's where a friend of mine lives. Meanwhile I'm trying to gather the necessary documents for my E2-Visa. That has hit a couple bumps in the road, but I hope will wrap up before too long.

I'm listening to some Korean language lessons on audio and am trying to pick up some phrases & key words. So far it's a bit slow but I'm loving the excuse to learn another language. I was humbled in this new pursuit of mine today when I tried out a phrase on a native Korean and he had to do his best not to laugh at me and could hardly understand what I was saying. Oh well, I should just get used to that I suppose and keep trying!

Kicking the Facebook habit

I can hardly believe I'm doing this, but now that I have begun, I can't believe it took so long to get to this point.

Pretty much I'm cutting Facebook out of my life at least until next year. That sounds more dramatic than it really is. That's only 2 months. Still, I don't think I've ever gone longer than a week without logging into Facebook, if even that. And I have had an account since the fall of 2004. That was 5 years ago!! Facebook has become as natural as breathing, except I have found myself wasting hours and hours on the thing, and unlike oxygen, it has less possitive effects on my system. It kind of makes me sick just thinking about it. Yes, I have really enjoyed keeping in touch with some people and maybe reconnecting with long, lost friends, but has it been worth it when I look at how much time and energy I've wasted on it doing stupid things or mindlessly crawling over every public inch of the site? I really don't know.

Regardless, I decided one night out of the blue that I was going to do this and now I'm really excited about it. I'm already dreaming up plans for redeeming the time that it has thus far has been sucking out of me. I think the saddest part of it right now is that I honestly can't imagine life without being addicted to a social-networking site. How did people "network socially" in the past without the internet? It seems like they were doing a pretty good job of it to me.

Oh, and I'm also not going to be going on Flickr for that time either. I recently started getting on a whole lot more and realized I could look at other people's cool pictures forever. But that won't get me anywhere. So, Flickr had to go, too.

What's left? Email is definitely still happening, there is no getting around that one. But that's fine because I don't have a habit of obsessively checking it every hour of the day. And, of course, my blog. Sometimes it's my one piece of sanity I think. I will probably end up writing here a little more than usual to calm my jarred nerves suffering from Facebook deprivation (as I'm doing now).

Wish me luck! :b