Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cnafilornia
Posts: 405

It's good to see that the great majority of you are alive and posting after all these years. I have spent the last year or two or whatever interminable length of time that I've been away, abroad (not "as a broad" as some of you might be inclined to believe). Having watched nearly the entire past decade slip by effortlessly in the doldrums of schoolwork and work-work has driven me more than a little insane. I have earned a time-fear. As a result, I've been burning my remaining days away as furiously and desperately as I've been able.

I started out taking a position on board a Cunard Line cruise-ship to Africa and transferring to Royal Dutch Shell, and eventually Silversea Lines for a bit. So few professionals are willing to promise contract-length time aboard a ship that cruise lines and tankers will hire for stints as short as a single crossing. This laxity of contracture resulted in the opportunity to see quite a large bit of Northern, Southern, and Western coastal Africa.

In Cote D'Ivoire, I took a break from the sailing gig and went inland to stay for two weeks with the family of a shipboard co-worker and friend. When the two weeks were up, I simply took a very long walk. I have seen more than I can find the will to tell, grown drunk on exotic alien beauty, and wandered. Wandering, just simply hoisting your pack onto your shoulders and shuffling off to that unseen place just over the next hill, is a thing that men as a whole ought to do a lot more of. If they did, I honestly think the world would be a much better place for it.

I'm back in town again. California, USA, at Crimmas-time. WOW. It's good to be back for a bit, I must admit. The people here all smell like candy and everything is NOT covered in either mud, mosquitoes, or that thin, omnipresent layer of clay-like dust. Books, computers, televisions, shiny-gleaming streets full of sleek and stylish cars. Women with more than five teeth. Every precious thing is plentiful here. For all that, we are such an intellectually and philosophically stagnant and isolated lot. I want to walk up to every blank, preoccupied, indifferent face I see and do something, anything that might help them, even if just for a moment, to pause and consider the world with a different eye. But, I am older and wearing down. What could I do now when even in the glory of my youth I could not shake them from their dream?

I am insane, but I still think of you all from time to time. I know your names if not your faces, and you have each reached out across this impersonal medium, and through revealing your vulnerability and humanity, many of you have left your mark quite indelibly within me.

This year, what I'm thankful for is having a voice (however faint) and a place to be heard.

Long live the Asylum.

Be well,
-r

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: is futile
Posts: 5027

good to see you here once again, good sir.

How do people fare on cruise ships, generally. What types of emergencies were common?

Cheers
-m

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cnafilornia
Posts: 405

Gastritis, my friend. Plain old simple upset stomach. There was one lone instance of a fatal MI while I was with Silversea. Other than that shipboard life was pretty sedate.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Location Location
Posts: 26420

I took a cruise last Spring through the Carribean, and had a lot of fun. Princess, was the cruise line, and their crew were pretty goddamn impressive. I don't think I've seen as well-oiled a machine as that in a long time.

Two days after I got off, there was a fire on the same boat, two decks above my room, and they had to abandon ship and a few people died. Glad I missed that.

Good to see you. I was thinking about you a few weeks ago for whatever reason, and though of dropping you a line. I traveled a bit too this last year, including the aforementioned cruise, went back to Jamaica--which I feel in love with--and spent some time off the tourist path, which made me love it even more. Went to Korea for a few weeks. I'm giving serious thought to teaching English abroad, or Peace Corps, or somesuch, after school, or between, or whatever.

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Registered: Feb 2003
Location: Oceanside, CA
Posts: 5154

It's wonderful to see you post again, redguard. Truly, I am thrilled to see you return.
I've sometimes felt the need to take a long walk, of the type you describe. Can you tell us more about why you did it, how you did it, and what you found?

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24754

quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
Two days after I got off, there was a fire on the same boat, two decks above my room, and they had to abandon ship and a few people died. Glad I missed that.

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Registered: Dec 2002
Location:
Posts: 16306

Gotta say, redguard, that it is good to see you posting. Even if it is nothing more than a drive-by.

Last edited by SimpleSimon on 11-23-2006 at 08:54 PM

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: LfuckinA
Posts: 3374

California missed you, too.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35656

My wife's grandparents like cruises. It seems that someone dies every week or so.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location:
Posts: 7922

quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
I'm giving serious thought to teaching English abroad... after school, or between, or whatever.

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Giving that serious though, eh? Just bit of advice then.
Get this book here and this reference here, which will be your reference and life line through this course here which will eventually help you hook up with these folks here with whom you can write your ticket all over the world (especially if you get your young learners ticket here).

You got to get certified or else you're going to get shit wages for all the inconveniences and instability life in a foreign country demands plus you're going to get competition for those shit wages. Teaching isn't easy even for the guys who are good at it. There's a lot of people called teacher who can't/don't teach. They entertain muchly but impart little.

(I've been teaching a year and a half and it's taken a year of trial and error, plus many hours of professional development to get to the level I'm at. And I still need to improve things... But the company I work for, most companies around in fact, don't know anything about teaching such as creating a proper syllabus, issuing suitable materials to teach the syllabus, training teachers to teach the syllabus. I busted my ass to get somewhat decent, but most teachers don't make the slightest attempt to know their job and how to do it.
They got some chump ass art deco degree so they think their visa's a done deal, now they can coast on their skills as a talking monkey. Seriously, one guy, an area leader for a competitor, did a game with a group of kindergarten kids where the kids were divided into 4 groups and given cards like "apple", "carrot", etc. He then took out an inflatable dolphin and stuck it between his legs. After that, he hopped in a circle so when he stopped, and the "dolphin" happened to bob in your group's direction, you had to say the name of your group's card. Of course what was said was chin-chin, but that's okay. According to the system, the children are learning. )

None of what I'm saying is meant as a criticism of anybody thinking about going into the field. My comments are just the advice and warning I could have used when I got into the field.

(Oh, and avoid the alcoholics. There's a ton of teachers who can't speak the native language, have nothing to do with their time, and have money to burn in their pockets. Kampei, Kampei, Kampei until they show up to work the for the next mornings usagi duty reeking of biru and with thoughts about the scale of the 魚 that nibbled them the night past.)

This job can be rewarding and there's few things that feel as good as a lesson where you know you gave the students something they didn't know before in a way that they'll remember for a long time. But it is too easy to just get by on your customer's (and employer's) ignorance. Teachers aren't supposed to do that. Teachers are in a position of trust to teach, not bullshit. Students making a lot less money than you think your language, your lessons are worth investing in. That should be an honor, and too many treat it as a scam. Don't be one of those. Get some knowledge, learn to use it, and take pride in this craft. It's a damn good lifestyle if lived right. Take it for what you will..

Thimbles

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6032

hey redguard, hey everyone.

just popped in to wish you all a happy thanksgiving, i don't come round here much anymore, i've just been way too busy. i'm still in the bay area, working just under full time at my day job and often full time at photography. I'm doing really well with that, been published in the San Francisco Chronicle several times, as well as local magazines and international ones. photography is truly my greatest joy in life and when i am not shooting, i am miserable. i'm so happy i moved to cali, the weather here is much better for my mood and just the opportunities are limitless, especially for photography.

if any of you want to check out my stuff, go to:

www.flickr.com/photos/fetching

i think there's stuff there that would appeal to your basic asylumite, such as my east bay rats motorcycle club, burning man, and extra action marching band sets.

if you look real hard you'll find a few shots i took of dmoon, who has been living here for the past 6 months. we've met up a few times. he hates it here. insane man.

best to all!

lane


San Francisco, thanksgiving morning, 2:54 am

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Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Oakland-ish
Posts: 6032

and redguard, come up to the city for a few days and hang out. SF is lovely this time of year.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6398

hey Redguard and Inky! good to see both of you posting

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

hello.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: my mother's bloody womb
Posts: 7148

redguard. what a thrill to see your name attached to a post here once again. if you are concerned with touching the surface of indifference and finding purpose underneath, be stilled with the thought that many of us here have been taken in with your textual snapshots of life through your eyes.

i still print and hand out your stories to friends. the one that gets the most requests is the one of the old woman on the park bench that received flowers.

be well.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Still Orygun
Posts: 10445

Hello and happy day to redguard and Inky!

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Bangor, ME
Posts: 10173

Holy shit look who it is, good to see you are still around red I hope you stayed away from the african hookers.

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: The Bottom of the Toyem Pole
Posts: 9454

Even fiend crawled out of a rock (yes, out of, not out from under) to grace us with his presence. Such a joyous day it be.

Now all we need is ChikChillin and we'll be set.

Good to see you, redguard. When I pine for the salad days of the asylum, you're always tops on my list. Good to hear from you again. I thought you were studying to be a med doctor: did you abandon that path?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: atlanta
Posts: 6398

quote:

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Originally posted by Nutrimentia


Now all we need is ChikChillin and we'll be set.

---

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Posts: 15130

Glad to see you post again, Redguard. You've always been one of my favorite people on this forum, even though you don't post nearly often enough.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: Still Orygun
Posts: 10445

I'm making my way through Lane's photos even now. I haven't seen Dmoon yet, but I have seen a guy I knew in college who ate entire bricks of cheese and now plays with electricity (although, he did then as well, just much, much less voltage).

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beyond Mason-Dixon Line
Posts: 16334

What's squidsqueezer been up to these days?

Amen.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location: 0.50
Posts: 9355

happy belated birthday, chikchillin!