Over the last six months, I spent most of my blogging time on the KoreaDreambus site, rather neglecting The View Up Here, but now we're ready for some updates!
Quit the circulation half of my newspaper job in the first half of the year -- totally liberating! I continued to have problems with my shoulder from the poor work station I had, but it's been on the mend more recently.
Spent the summer arranging a pilgrimage trip to Korea and preparing to make a film about the Korean Catholic martyrs.
Bought a camera package (pre-owned) and a new iPhone for the pilgrimage film. I am now in the process of sorting, transferring, and cataloging over 3,000 media clips and photos!
I've also been prepping my MacBook Air to do some basic video editing, for which it's not optimal, but it will have to do for now. I got a new external drive to help with media storage.
Re-named "Dreamhouse," my short film shot in October of 2023 to "Souled." IMDb page is up but needs to be updated.
Picture locked on "Souled" and now fine tuning sound design and color correction. We should be in business by the end of January!
Made a "marketing website" to help me get writing samples in one place. Also made business cards--which ended up with with a typo because I neglected to save one of my edits! Gotta redo those for next year, uh-huh.
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| Samgyetang (ginseng and chicken soup) |
Began a new teaching job that has been a bit overwhelming, but is starting to turn into a comfortable challenge. I'm teaching high school theology that includes a class on Old Testament, a class on New Testament, and an upperclassmen course on such gems as the Attributes of God, metaphysical principals, and the Incarnation, with such major hitters as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Athanasius. It's definitely stretching me, and it's a good thing! I love the students, many of whom I taught in the middle school I worked for previously, and the camaraderie and general vibe of the school is heartening. I enjoy going in my three days a week to teach.
Continuing my work as a staff writer for our diocesan paper, and I've begun making Instagram reels, which I quite enjoy. I won two awards from the Catholic Media Association for a story and an Insta reel I made last year, and this year I have a few stories I'm very happy with, so I've submitted for this year's awards round.
I've written a micro fiction story for my short story collection -- first time I've written for that in several months.
My Tai Chi instructor has given me more teaching to do and is now giving me a few bucks a month to help out. I enjoy working with beginners and remembering what it was like to start out. Right now there is a small but really great group of beginning students I enjoy working with.
I've learned the Yang style Tai Chi sword form, but because of the shoulder injury, it's been slow going. As always with martial arts, learning the basic moves is just the very beginning of a lifelong journey.
I've been attending a small monthly gathering with two of my newer friends, poet musician types, and others are often invited to come if they can. We call it Twelfth Night as we do meet on the 12th of every month. I've been able to share some of my own writing and poetry there as well as finding interesting pieces to share. It's become a staple in my life, now, and I really look forward to that time.
Speaking of musician types, I have been abysmal at practicing my fiddle! For that, we'll have to jump into 2025 -- next post!
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