this past spring i began working on my masters degree. its a rather large change to go from teaching classes and doing corporate training, to a being student doing homework again. and being an online class (U. Mass, Boston) as well as postgraduate, its also rather different in nature.

we typically hook up mics and headphones to our computers and meet once a week in a chatroom-like environment using a program called webct. it takes a while to get used to digesting learning this way, but what it lacks in face time it makes up in convenience.

as i write this however, i am attending the two classes that are not offered online (I just finished the first one yesterday 'the Adult as Learner' . so last week, with more than a little deja vu, i arrived here, a college student heading away from home to live with some strangers in student housing and broaden my mind. i have never been to nantuckett island before, a two hour ferry ride out into the atlantic from cape cod, mass. some interesting observations...

- the island is about 17 miles long (try google-earthing it)
- there are several billionaires that have homes here
- there are no chain stores of any kind, no McDonalds, Walgreens, Targets, Gap, etc
- there are a lot of sailboats of all sizes
- at least 95% of the structures have grey wooden shingles with white trim on their exterior
- the average temperature this time of year is low 80's during the day and 60's at night
- the food is good but pricey
- we take a van 6 miles each morning to a field station; our classroom looks out over the ocean
- the instructors let us out of class at noon each day (my tan is coming along nicely)

overall, one could do a lot worse for a destination to take classes. more later.

posted by bluematrix at 07/28/07 11:20 | link | comments

the happiness in your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts...take care that you entertain no notions that are unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.' - Marcus Aurelius, emperor of Rome, 161 AD

said another way, you are what you think. though we don't have control over what pops into our head, we have a fair amount of control over what we do with those thoughts once they surface. and make no mistake, thoughts are powerful things. the power of your thoughts can heal or destroy you, depending on your control over them. they can conceive of black holes and shakespearean sonnets. or they can convince you that you are inherently better or worse than another human, or that you are not worthy of someone or something when in fact you we are all created equally. it is only our thoughts that hold us back or push us forward.

so examine your thoughts carefully. if a negative one arises, and it will, examine it, then release it, and try to replace it with a more positive one. i recently made a list of the some of high points in my life, which i carry with me now. when i start beating myself up with negative thoughts, i pull out the list of little victories and in remembering them, find the negativity usually fades.

use your postive thoughts to craft not only a more enjoyable now, but to build your hope for a better day tomorrow. thoughts and hope make an almost unbeatable combination.

posted by bluematrix at 07/15/07 23:20 | link | comments (2)

this is my 264th post to this blog (actually more as i've deleted a couple over the years).

as i write this, there have been 17,383 hits in all.

i am slightly drunk from frangelica (you know, it comes in the mrs. butterworth-like brown bottle of the monk with the real rope belt). i can verify this because i'm still amused (and yes, impressed a little) by the dancing characters below the links section on this page. hey i think spiderman missed a kick just now.

i just finished douglas couplands novel 'jpod', and find myself amused (and a little and impressed) by his writing. quirky. snarky, current and zeitgeist-like (i have never used the word 'zeitgeist' before).

i just cashed out a chunk of an ira to help pay for grad school costs (i like being a student again, almost as much, and sometimes more than, being a teacher)

i played guitar for more than 2 hours today, singing loudly the entire first hour. singing is weird thing. most people are tentative about their voice and when pressed to sing, will sing softly. which is actually much harder to do well than sing louder because you have more breath and more control at louder levels - a catch 22 for most. maybe karaoke will change things for people because singing is good for you. beware of subjecting others to your efforts though.

i received a traffic ticket last week, i ran a stop sign at the end of the street and a cop happened to be coming down the hill. my friends wife is a judge and i will write her a check for twice the amount to keep it off my record so my insurance will not go up. i seem to get a moving violation exactly once every three years.

here in the dark, buzzed and alone for a change, on a saturday night, i want to share more - like a who down whoville who wants to be heard so that their dustspeck world doesn't get thrown into the boiling cauldron by evil monkeys (gotta love a good suess story). so, since you've read this far about my life goings on, i offer you a deeper peek at who i am. below are links to several things i've created, each in a different media. much like singing, throwing ones creative musings out on a website where anyone is free to interpret for good or for ill, can be a bit daunting. so be it.

first - this weeks photo. i went to grab an old fave, but had an idea of combining the snake tracks on a beach i shot last fall, with a fountain i shot the year before that. decent enough for an on the spot creation tonight.

second - 7 of my favorite song/prose

and lastly - an mp3 of one of the songs from my rock opera unheard

posted by bluematrix at 07/01/07 00:44 | link | comments (3)