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When your day is just getting you down....

http://music.channel.aol.com/videos/live_concerts/dave_matthews_band Read more!

If I could dig a whole to China...

Good Morning.
Well, I have been holding back about writing about my latest possibility because it has not been made official as of yet, but it would seem that we are getting closer and closer to the moment where it is going to become official.
I am attempting to go to China to teach English.
I have been in correspondence with a University in the Hunan province for the last 10 days about coming over and teaching English for them on a one year contact. The process has been somewhat tedious in the sense that there is a language barrier at a time where we are trying to negotiate the terms of the contract.
It does appear that I have been officially offered the position as of this morning, but there has not been any official documentation rendered as of yet, but I am now satisfied with what I see that the rest of the negotiation process is going to be operating smoothly.

Here are the details, for those of you that are detail oriented.
Xiangnan University is searching for 4 English Teachers to start teaching from Sept 1, 2005.

Job description:
Courses to teach: oral English, writing, British&American literature, British & American general survey etc.
Contract period: Sept 1st,2005—July 30th, 2006 and renewable based on mutual interests.
16 class hours per week(45 minutes per class hour), if extra class hours are needed, you will be paid at 50RMB yuan per class hour

Benefits:
Monthly salary(RMB):3500,(negotiable if you are better qualified)
Travel allowance: (RMB):2200 on completion of the contract
Free furnished housing (private), facilitated with air conditioner, internet access, TV, DVD player, refrigerator, water heater, phone, and cooking utensils, everyday furniture
Monthly telephone allowance(RMB): 100
Free round trip airfare(currently outside China) or one way trip airfare(currently in China)
Safe insurance

Successful candidates should have
At least a Bachelor’s Degree in any majors of linguistics, literature and education;
Qualification of one of the followings: TESOL, TEFL, ESL;
Minimum two years of working experiences in teaching;
Native English speaker proficiency.

About Xiangnan University:

Located in Chenzhou, Hunan province, Xiangnan University is a public unversity specializing in teachers training and medical science. It consists of 18 departments which offer over degrees in 46 majors covering fields such as art, science, medicine, economics, management, law and so on. It has an enrollment of 15000 full time students. The university has a teaching faculty of 1470 with library book collection of 650,000 volumes.

About Chenzhou city:

Chenzhou, located in the south of Hunan, near to Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao, is one of the top tourist cities of China, and is known as the south gate of Hunan and the “Backyard Garden� of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. It has a total population of 4.56million and convenient transportions such as the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway, National Highway 106 and 107. With over 2000 year’s history, Chenzhou is rich in natural resources. It enjoys such reputations as “Hometown of Nonferrous Metals�, “World Museum of Nonferrous Metals�,“Silver City in China�, “Major Forest Region in Southern China� and “Energy Base for Hunan�. Chenzhou is an ecological kingdom, with abundant tourist resources. Chenzhou is a fast developing tourist city, also a charming and open city.

It almost sounds too good to actually be true, but the more and more the discussions move forward, the more I am seeing that this is a reality. The only difference that I can see from the contract this morning and this is that they reimburse for the airticket 90 days before you are set to arrive home. This makes sense, but I am not certain I can actually afford to do this. Other than that, it would appear that we are getting to the point where this is about to become a reality....

More details later- I actually have to work today so that I can go and get me shots on Wednesday. It's a mad, mad world. Read more!

A note on the pictures:
If you click on them, they will size to your computer screen.
If you click on the icon on the lower right hand corner of the image after it has been resized to fit your screen, it will then be displayed close to actual size....

One of the better family pictures taken in recent times (sans Sarah). Pa has a slight smile (hes tryin) but this might have just been him picking at his dressing on his recent mouth surgery and not actually smiling--although all were in good spirits.











This is a shot of Dad's impression of a House of Commons speech by a Tory.



A little change of pace.
These are pictures taken last weekend when some of the New York side of the Hoch squad rolled into town. My mother looks really good in this here shot-she had a pint of beer which really brings out her complexion.
This is also a classic Steve Hogg look. This is his conversation/lecture look where he is making a particular point about something which he believes strongly in. I have seen this look many times in my life.




Another shot where my mother looks great--they are having a great time with each other.
Of course, I was leaned on to select the place to eat so I went with the old favorite, the 74th Street Ale House. Good beer, mellow atmosphere, steller healthy food.
Although I do think that their menu has gotten a lot simpler than it used to be in previous times. They do not have any fryers, which I think is a good thing, but a little mashed potatoes wouldn't hurt the establishment. If I were to design a pub, I would do it in the same fashion that this guy manages his, except I would work a little harder to diversify the menu just a little bit.
I would also move around the beer a little more than he tends to. In the old days, this place used to be a roving array of various taps including the best beer in the world, the Tetley's.

Time to go for now.

Cheers!! Read more!

The Bite of Seattle...

Okay, so I know that some people are going to get pissed off at me about this shot, but man, when the opportunity presents itself, you just have to put it on the web.

First off, that poor poor thong. Ladies, please think about the right times to wear a thong. I know that Chingy likes his bitches to always wear them and Cisco too, but for the rest of us, please try to contain yourselves.

Secondly, this was taken at the Bite of Seattle. Man, I think I got something stuck in my teeth, but I can't seem to find the floss.....

Okay, I'm Done. (Be sure to click on the pic for a special treat!)

We also got to see this lil hottie perform while Flossy was showing us her buffet. She was pretty talented for the first couple of songs, then became a little dull, but fun to watch.

Do you remember the days when the Fat yet kinda buff Elvis lookalike days were not here? I think its coming back again unless you don't ever want to have a job that asks in the interview "So, how often is your parole officer going to have to stop by?"

It is a harsh tone, but seriously dude, chicks might dig it now, but when your 40 and you just cant get that El Camino off the blocks in yer ma's driveway, what the hell ya gonna do?

Oh, youre going to watch bands and fuckin rock out duder! God Bless Amorika!

But wait... Theres more-- not only do you get the chance to look like a character that was cool in the late 90's-- you also get to rock out with the SCREAM FACE of the late 90's!!!!

"High School was so fuckin AWESOME!!!"

Gotta love the free festivals!

Read more!

Ahhh yes, summer is here and in Seattle, that means FUTBOL!
This is a shot from the Seattle Sounders and Sunderland sucky match. This will be the only picture that I post of this match because it was the worst FUTBOL game I have ever watched. Sunderland is in the premiere league this year and they handled Seattle with ease.
The worst part is that Sunderland had no intention of really scoring during the entire game--they just seemed to be running drills against the JV team.
The other bad part was the lack of planning on behalf of Qwest Field-- they only opened one side of the stadium, which made the game so much lamer because there were not 4,000 per side, but 8,000 on one side. (Sad part was it was the sounders biggest attendance ever!!!)
Sounder fans were like band geeks in high school--but with BOOZE!!!
Not to mention the $7.50 Red Hook Pounders!!!

Go Capitalism! Read more!

It is always so difficult to come up with a title sometimes. Today I was tempted to write "Blah", but I didn't feel that it really brought out truly how I felt. I have been very productive today--it is only 130 in the afternoon and I have already been to the market, worked on cleaning up the car.. which reminds me...
I needed to grab the sun visor before I forgot it once again. Mission accomplished.
Anyway, I am about to go to the bite of Seattle with a friend from work and I will be taking summer the wonder retriever, so pictures are sure to take place.
The last week has been a whirlwind for me--trying to enjoy the job so that I do not burn out as fast as I have the potential to, meeting new people and trying to find time to apply for jobs, write the great American novel that I feel is inside me somewheres... and planning events.

I have a slight headache and need some advil--and its time to head out.
I'll be writing more much later. Read more!