I recently saw the movie...

...District 9 and I give two thumbs up. Aside from being a movie with a great plot, I liked it more because of things it made me think about. My wife and I both agreed that the behavior of the some of the Earthlings in the film towards the aliens would probably be the same if an event like this were to actually happen. It made me contemplate how I would even react if contact of the magnitude were to take place. I never thought during any point of my life that Earth was the only place with intelligent life. I never thought that we were one the more advanced species in the universe. As I've been taught that no matter how good I think I am at anything there is always someone out there who is better, I applied that same mantra to our planet and its inhabitants. People believe what they do for different reasons and while some are accepting of their own truths while being open to others, there are still some who close out anything that presents itself as different from their worldview. As it relates to the issues brought up by District 9, I have to ask can you actually think, with the vastness that is this galaxy and the universe, that we are all that is it? You may want to look up at the stars at night and really contemplate them before giving your answer.

This photo was taken from the backseat of my mother-in-law's car as we traversed a bridge over the very large Lake Ponchatrain that surrounds the northern part of New Orleans.

For the next thirty days...

...I will be adhering to one of the more trying aspects of my spiritual practice. August 22 marks the start of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and atonement. If you are unfamiliar with this, I will explain it as best I can. During the thirty days of Ramadan, Muslims are to refrain from eating food and drinking liquids during daylight hours. We must wake up before sunrise to eat and cannot eat again until the sun goes down. In addition to fasting from food, Muslims must also give up something else this a part of their everyday life that they may otherwise take for granted. I have chosen to refrain from social networking sites. The purpose of Ramadan is many. For starters, it is to help Muslims refocus their comment to God. Second, it is to help us appreciate things we normally wouldn't as they are so routine. And lastly, it is to help us be more empathetic to those less fortunate than us.

This year's Ramadan is different in a few ways. It will be the first Ramadan that I experience in the summer time. The Muslim calendar is a lunar one so the observation of the holy month creeps earlier and earlier into the year. I will going much longer without eating for this year's fast. There will be some things that I will have to modify. Most notably is my workout routing. I'm not a fan of going to the gym too late in the evening so I purchased some equipment that will allow me to workout at home. This will also be the first Ramadan that will start off the school year. I never entered a school year fasting before. The new circumstance will prove to be interesting.

There is always something to learn during the practice of Ramadan. I'm never sure what that lesson will be, but it will ways be clear by the end of the fast. The projected end of Ramadan this year is September 20. I do not belong to a mosque so I will pretty much be observing the fast by myself. It's been like that since I started practicing Islam. I've never been a fan of the organized religion and its secular institutions. All that aside. I'm looking forward to holiest of all Muslim observations. Insha'Allah, I will come out a higher evolved self.

By the way, I have no idea what this picture has to do with Ramadan. This is Grotto Falls in Gatlinburg, TN. I was using the slow shutter here but I didn't have a tripod. I edited this photo with some soft haze to cover up the fact that I was shaking the camera too much to get the shot I wanted. Live and learn.

My summer...

...is finally over. The summer of nothing, I called it. I didn't work. I didn't build ships in bottles. I didn't do anything remotely related to the profession of being an educator. I visited family in various states. I went to symphony concerts. I took pictures. I worked out. And now it's over. I hope that there were underlying lessons I gained from this power-down break. I hope that I my energy has been fully replenished to tackle this now upon me school year. I hope this last year in Charlotte, NC will be the best year. I hope...

Oh yea, this picture was taken in Gatlinburg, TN from near the top of Ski Mountain.

Today is...

...my wife's birthday. Of all the things it would bring to one's mind, to me it brings to mind the randomness of life and how it places so many things in front of us along our journey. I constantly contemplate how the chaos and uncertainty that was my day to day never seems that way in retrospect. With the 20/20 that is hindsight, you get to see how one thing led to another thing and how that seemingly unorganized succession of things leading to things brought you to the point of where you currently are. You have no clue where it bring you in the future, but you ride it out any way. Here's an example:

During my college years I sat out the 1999 Spring semester. I was sleeping on the couch at my then best friend's mother's house and waiting tables to pay rent for said couch. After a few months of taking orders, serving food, and whoring for tips, I really saw what I didn't want to do for the rest of my life and decided to get my behind back into school. My friend and I both decided to apply and enroll into the University of Alabama at Birmingham. We had the grades, we had the jobs that could transfer us there, and we had an apartment picked out. Turns out, when tax time came around, his parent still claimed him as a dependent and killed his intended start-up money for moving. The funny thing is while our UAB intentions were smashed, we were both sending our information to the University of Southern Mississippi as well. That's where we both wound up. That is where I met my wife.

In a fortnight's time...

...my summer vacation with be over and school will have started again. Teachers do not get paid in summers here in Charlotte and last summer I took a part time job for the sake of warding off boredom-induced insanity. This past summer, I decided to do nothing (in the sense of being gainfully employed). All I wanted to do was take photos, read, do a little writing, and maybe travel a bit to visit some family. I'm grateful to say that I was blessed with the means to check off all of those things. I may not have done as much of each as I wanted to, but I did quite a bit of everything I set out to do. In retrospect, this summer flew by thanks to the wife and I tearing up the road. We visited loved ones, we saw some sights, we became inspired to take a big, bold step towards our future.

There will be a difference this school year. I will be teaching at a new school. I will miss my previous school. I will miss seeing my former students in the hallway. I will miss their greetings, their telling me how much they miss my class. I will miss the way the tell me that 10th grade English is so much easier because of what the learned from myself and their other classmates when they were with me. I will miss mentoring the male students I was complete hard-ass on just one year prior. I will miss a lot of things. But I am also excited about the new beginning. Some people fear and resist change; I thrive and embrace it. I work better on the fly. My ultimate goal is to match my performance at my previous school where, on average, 80% of the students I taught passed the state assessment in English.

These pictures are a few snapshots from my last day at my former school. I hope that the carried something away from my class that will aide them in their life journeys. I know I took a lot from them. This year is going to be about making the most of limited time. My wife and I have plans to move to Chicago next summer. We will make our last year in Charlotte even better than the first two combined. But let's not look past the now. I still have some time to myself and I'm going to make the most of it. I'm going to spend a lot of that time reflecting on the things gained from these past two months and marvel at how the randomness of life is not that random at all. Hindsight is not the only thing that's always 20/20. I see the future clearly and I am using the now to keep it in my scopes.