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Either my creativity eludes me or it's been leaking out of me recently without me noticing.  I got out my laptop tonight to type an update since it's been a while since I've posted on a regular basis.  In many ways, I enjoy writing.  Try telling that to my 6 year-old self and you'll never convince him that it's true.  I enjoy writing because it provides a creative outlet to use a different part of my brain that doesn't often get used.  Often I really feel creative and feel accomplished when I read back over a post and hear how nice it sounds.  Tonight, I've got nothing.  I want to pick a topic about something that happened or is happening to me and poetically run with it but it won't come.

As for what's going on in my life, the biggest bit of news is that on any day, I am going to be an uncle!  I've never been necessarily good with babies but I'm really excited for Liza and Mike and can't wait to meet her!

Now, I'm just far too tired to type anything more.  Goodnight Moon.

Hey Look, It's the New Guy

There are times at work when it is evident that I'm the rookie.  Sure there are certainly times when I feel like I'm a pro and I have confidence that verges on overconfidence but that's not what I'm here to talk about.  When it really comes down to it, I have been a scuba diver for less than 5 years, teaching for less than 4 years (have certified only a few dozen divers, and was introduced to scientific diving 2 years ago.  In terms of boating, I used to be a competitive sailor of 1-2 person boats at a small spot one month out of the year back in elementary, middle, and high school.  My experience on motor boats is not really all that extensive, particularly over the past 10 years.  I'm now teaching graduate students how to be research divers as a full-time job and then over winter break teaching them how to be proficient motor boat operators.  I've been living in Miami for 2 and a half years and part of both courses require me not only to understand the local marine environment for myself but to know it so well that I can teach it to others.

Tonight is one of those times where I really feel like a kid trying to play with the big boys.  They're nice and they help me out but they also have to pick up a lot of my slack.  After thinking about it today, I couldn't come up with any special skills I bring to the table that aren't already there.  I hate it when I'm the one who is holding others back; I'm making a valiant effort but I can't use my inexperience as an excuse: I need to get better.  In sports you improve the most by competing with and against better players and it seems like this is going to be the same case here.  I'll get my butt kicked a few times but I'll learn even if it has to be through my mistakes.  It will take a while to reach the point that I'm no longer the new guy but it's something everyone has to go through I suppose.

In happier news, I get to see Christina for the first time in just over 3 weeks!

A Year to Come

Golly it's been a while since I last posted.  A lot has happened since then, namely finishing up the semester, getting a cave diving certification, and having family visit for Christmas.  Now I'm up in South Carolina with some family to bring in the new year.  I'm not going to say much more because I need to pack and get back to family.  Hopefully I'll get to post more later about the life I've been living.  No promises though: I'm really busy living it.

Let's do it 2013!

Time Keeps on Slippin'

Wow, more than a month since my last post!!  Yikes!  Sorry world.

A ton has happened since then, notably going to Texas for Thanksgiving with Christina.  I had an absolute blast (also meeting up with James too!) and I'm thrilled that I went.  I am still exhausted and am not going to try to write out what happened, but here's a quick overview:

Tuesday night: flew in, met one of Christina's friends and her (Christina's) dog
Wednesday: went for a walk, met up with James for lunch then met another of Christina's friends and brother, then went out to dinner with her family
Thursday: walked/jogged around a gorgeous lake with her family before going to her grandmother's house for Thanksgiving dinner and games, then went home for a movie (sleep)
Friday: saw Life of Pi, got a massage, went to dinner with a large group of Christina's family friends, went back home for a big party
Saturday: early lunch with a few of Christina's friends, a tour of her high school, wedding at a ranch, then straight to what was left of Christina's 5-year high school reunion (it was really late at that point)
Sunday: church, then flew back to Miami

I met about a hundred thousand people over the past 6 days and it was great.  That being said, I enjoy being home and I enjoy sleep.  Goodnight.

Sometimes I Get a Feeling (2)

A while back I talked about people seeming to avoid me.  Apparently people read my blog.  To address this topic, I am not mentally or logistically prepared to take on loads of visitors.  The post was a result of a few people nearby who haven't made much of an effort to see me, specifically to grab lunch or go out or something else equally simple.  I hope that I didn't give the impression that I want everyone I know to fly to Miami and stay with me for a week at a time.  Even with a house, I don't have the beds, schedule, or hosting prowess to have such visitors.  I hope this doesn't come off the wrong way but at the same time, I would hate to have the world show up at my doorstep expecting me to be a host.  If you want to visit me, just let me know and we can try sorting something out.

Pants on Fire

I have been reminded why I don't like politics.  It's a game that involves coercion, deception, money, and lies.  I do not endorse such games.  This and seemingly all presidential races just turn into two men and their respective cohorts scheming up ways to bend and twist the truth and often to outright lie in order to make a point.  The worst part is that it works.  More people hear these lies and take them as fact than do the people who actually see the statements for the lies that they are.  This only works to perpetuate the strategy.  It's part of the political game and both sides play by those rules because if they don't then they don't stand a chance.  It's a cruel and vile game of which I want to have no part.  Unfortunately, I don't have too much of a choice.  In reality, there are 6 presidential candidates according to my trusty Wikipedia research but realistically, it only comes down to two men.  One has been running the country for the past 4 years and as far as I've heard he hasn't lived up to a lot of promises he made.  The other is making a lot of promises that many people don't seem to understand or think will work for lack of details.  Both are dropping lies about the other and the other's position so who the heck am I to believe anymore???

Obama already has 47% of the vote absolutely no matter what he does.  My impression is that Obama supporters are like many Mac users.  Once they get one, they suddenly think that it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and no matter how many times they have to go to the Apple store to get it fixed, they still insist that nothing on Earth competes with it.  Obama supporters are convinced that he can do no wrong and any word against him is a fallacy.  Romney has a more difficult role: the other 40-some percent of the country is convinced that Obama has mortally wounded this nation and another 4 years of him would surely be the end of the world as we know it.  No matter what either one of them says, they're still guaranteed that percentage and both of them are well aware of it.  The last little sliver of the voting population, like me, are the ones who are really going to decide the fate of this election.  Again, the candidates are well aware of this.  So what do they both do to reach us?  They prey on our apathy and ignorance by deceiving us.  They tell us about how the other candidate is a horrible monster who doesn't deserve to run this country.  They tell us about how the US will crumble if the other is elected.  They target our lack of familiarity with the facts and feed us lies to get us to believe what they want us to believe.

I'm sick of it.

I don't know who I'll vote for but being an undecided voter in the biggest swing state in the country, I know my voice is pretty significant and I will vote but good grief is this hard.

Is voting really meant to be this stressful?

Politics Round 3

I heard about but did not see a Romney billboard that was talking about how if you want a world with gay marriage, then vote for Obama.
The advertisement was flawed from the start because that's exactly what half the country wants.  Maybe I'm biased because I have friends and family that are homosexual and I think they are wonderful.  I think that yes, marriage is between a man and a woman but does it need to be exclusively so?  I honestly think not.  I really do think that it's fine for men to love men and women to love women.  I don't believe that it's my place to tell someone that he or she is not allowed to love someone else.  How can anyone control who someone else loves?  Just because I am not gay doesn't mean that no one else is allowed to be and I'm not sure why some people think that that's exactly what it means.

I think this is going to be a tough decision for the election.  It would be nice to be able to pick and choose what to take from each candidate because they both have good ideas of their own and I think that if we took the best of both worlds that this country would flourish.

On a side note, I found out today that middle schoolers don't play real football anymore because we as a country have deemed it unsafe.  They instead play flag football without helmets, without kicking/punting, and only 8 downs to reach the endzone.  The way the game is set up is not very similar to the sport it is trying to mimic.  No I don't like or appreciate football and would not choose to play it but I am saddened that we would step in and bastardize the sport.  If you don't want your kids playing a contact sport, sign them up for cross country, tennis, swimming, track, or even basketball or soccer which do have contact but not in the same way.  If your child wants to play a contact sport and that is his dream, then work with him to play it safely.  Don't go changing the entire sport.  These are the same people that call it bullying when a coach has players run laps and have outlawed it.  I don't know what the goal is here in adolescent athletics, but I'm not a fan of the changes.  I wish George Carlin was still alive with his biting repartee to come up with an edgy, witty stand-up routine about it all.

Politics Round 2

I don't know why I'm watching this because this is completely unlike me but here it is:

Notes on the Presidential Debate:

National Debt:
Romney: Cut spending on everything that he doesn't want to have to borrow money from China from.  Keep taxes low in order to have more people being put to work because they can afford the taxes.
Obama: Making excuses for the debt he came into.  Talked about the deficit cuts he made but he doubled the national debt after 4 years when he promised to instead cut it in half.

Then Christina called and talked to me for a while...

Education:
Romney: Local and state are most involved but Federal has the ability to get involved.  Let the parents and children decide what schools to go to.  He's not going to cut education funding.
Obama: Students need federal support.  Forgive student loans.

Romney claims he'll collaborate with the government and work together with everyone meeting with everyone on a regular basis.
Obama says he'll listen to take ideas from Repub or Dem as long as it benefits the middle class. 

Closing:
Obama: talking about how nice things have been the past 4 years and wants to continue doing the same thing for the good of the country.  Everyone gets a "fair shot" and "fair share" and "everyone's playing by the rules."  He says he's kept the promise to the middle class.
Romney: Concerned about the future of the country saying how big of an election it is.  Promises to get income up again.  Says he'll help create 12 million new jobs.  Many will lose health insurance, but will cut the cost of healthcare.  He will help medicare.  He will "not cut our commitment to our military."


In terms of the deficit, I think Obama will not fix it.  It's getting worse and it will continue to get worse.  As for that and everything else Romney said, he has a lot of big plans but if he's elected he's going to have to make them get through Congress and House if he wants them to be put in place.  If they don't agree with him, then all his plans are lost.  He can promise all he wants but his plans are going to need to be passed in order for any of his promises are going to be upheld.  Romney was much more prepared and on point than Obama but perhaps that was just a matter of Obama having an off-night.  Romney's plans seemed to make more sense but part of that could have been a product of his better presence on the podium.  Overall from this debate, I'd say Romney 1, Obama 0.

This was just one debate and I was distracted for some of it and missed a good portion of the beginning.  I certainly can't base a decision on that alone.  Well, there's still time to figure it out.

On a side note, the moderator was kind of entertaining because he couldn't hardly get a word in.

Diving Symposium

Golden Gate Bridge

 This will be short because it's well after 1am and I have to be at work by 8:30 tomorrow.

I spent last week in Monterey, California at a symposium for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS).  They are the organization that sets the standards for scientific diving.  It was interesting to see my first annual AAUS symposium and to see coastal central California.  It really was beautiful out there even though the pictures might not entirely show it.

Steep Streets of San Francisco

Kelp on the Beach!

The symposium was successful in the sense that I was able to see the other Diving Safety Officers (DSOs) from other universities.  The chance to network was very helpful because I now have faces to put with names and diving programs.  It might take a few years to really get it but I'll eventually get to the point where I personally know the DSOs from the universities that we are getting some students from as well as to where we're sending some divers once they finish at UM.

Monterey, California

I learned while there how special our program is.  In talking to people from other programs, it made me have an even greater appreciation for ours.  Our gear is top of the line, we have a big pool, year-round diving that is easily accessible, 2 full-time motivated dive officers, extensive courses, the list goes on.  My opinion of our program being one of the best is now much more based on actual experience instead of bias.

I have already begun working on a presentation for the next symposium in Curacao.  It outlines our training highlighting specifically some of our unique and cutting-edge techniques.  I am proud of the scientific diving program I work for and I am extraordinarily thankful for being able to be a part of it.  There is often a feeling of frustration when trying to explain my job to people because there is only a small fraction of people who actually understand what I do and to everyone else who doesn't quite understand, my job description doesn't quite describe what I do.  It's a frustration that is largely unnecessary since others' impressions of what I do don't matter but I still feel it from time to time.  Maybe I'm just developing an ego because I do honestly think that our program is better than most others and I believe from the bottom of my heart that my opinion is virtually unbiased

Is it really a bad thing to be proud of my work and to believe that we are doing the best we can do in the diving program?  My feelings are internalized and I'm not going around telling other DSOs that I think our program is better but is it really a bad thing just to think it?  I sure hope not because it's too late and I can't help it.  I think I'm overall personally humble and modest but apparently part of me wants to throw modesty to the wind and have more recognition and respect in the professional world.

Politics

Politics.  I hate it.  I have never understood, appreciated, or been interested in politics at any level.  However, the election is coming up soon and I feel that it is my responsibility to exercise my right to vote.  I have never affiliated with a political party before which at this stage is beneficial because I'm not swayed one way or another based on blind loyalty to one party or another.

One issue that I see recurring on news and campaigns is taxation.  One side claims that I should pay more taxes while the other side is telling me that rich people should give me a break and pay some of my share for me.  Both candidates are saying that their system of taxation is fair so who am I supposed to believe?

Taxation was created in the US on a percentage system.  Everyone is required to pay back a certain percentage of whatever he or she makes.  The rich pay hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I pay in taxes to the government while the poor pay much less than I do.  The percentage system was put in place to account for the rich making more money than the middle and lower classes.  They already pay tons more than we pay.  If I work my butt off my whole life and earn a fortune, I don't want to be responsible for paying more than my slice of the pie.  With that system, we're going to turn into the European Union where everyone calls on Germany to bail them out.  How can we expect to keep calling upon the upper class to bail everyone else out?  If we keep taking their money, sooner or later there won't be an upper class left and who will save us then?  Whose money will we take once we exhaust all of their savings?

What I think is fair is everyone stepping up and pitching in their portion, even if this means the majority of our country (myself included) pay a little bit more.  Where that money is spent is a whole other issue.

In other news, I'm going to California on Sunday!  It is for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences and I'm quite excited about it.  It will be interesting to see how other programs are run.  Plus it will be nice to go to Monterrey for my first time.