I think it helps to write things out, it makes you feel better about a situation. I have avoided posting anything political for this election season, but now that it is done I wanted to share some of my thoughts.
1. I am looking at you America. This is the 2nd most embarrassed I have ever been to being an American in my life. As someone who has spent the majority of their adult life outside of the US, and who spent a lot of time outside the US during the Bush administration; it's going to make it harder to be outside the US. Apart from that, I am simply dumbfounded that someone who says and does the things he does was voted in by the American people. This is not an America I represent, and not an America I want to be a part of.
2. I am looking at you social media. I am not going to post something about how this is the time to move on from our differences and lets all try to work together. I don't think we should stop fighting against racism, fear, misogyny, and all of the other hateful things that Trump promotes. Also, it's important to remember that 90% of the things he says he will do, probably (hopefully!) will never happen.
3. I am looking at you Hillary. You just couldn't play a clean game could you? There's a preschool lesson here: Cheaters never prosper. I mean, seriously, who really cares about a bunch of emails that may or may not contain classified information? People praised Snowden for sharing that stuff with the rest of us. There's no doubt that you had sensitive, embarrassing and probably politically condemning information on it, but you just had to cheat & lie. It was just one more thing to stack on the pile, then you had to cheat Bernie out of the running. We get that you really wanted to be president, but you lost to TRUMP! How did that even happen?!? People saw you as just another part of the political machine. You must come across as really sleazy, if the Donald Trump, who's made a career of being awful, seems like a better person than you. And now, we are stuck with him, all because you couldn't win with out cheating, and you got busted.
4. I am looking at you Democratic party. At the last election, I criticized the Republican party for not putting up a competitive candidate. In a period where the country was tired of the 1%, they put up a 1%-er (Mitt Romney). I thought, "Read the room, Republicans". Then in a year where the country is fed up with the ineffective political machine, where people are tired of two-faced politicians, the Democrats put up the Queen of the Machine. Does she have the qualifications? of course! Was she experienced? definitely! She probably would have been a great president, but she was Claire Underwood (the similarities are uncanny). She was a part of a political system that people were just sick off. She was not someone people were excited about, she was someone that seemed less horrible than a dirty old man.
5. I am looking at you Republican Christians. There has not been a single argument from a Christian that I have heard that has legs. "He says he's a Christian" So does Hillary, and she's been saying it since the 90s (or earlier for all I know), and he just started saying it at the start of this election cycle. "She's a liar" So is he, check any fact checker. Don't kid yourself that there isn't a politician out there that hasn't lied a TON, it's all part of the game. Saying horrible things is not "telling it like it is", it's just being mean/ un-Christlike. "She wants to kill babies" Again, so did he until this election cycle, conveniently. But we can tack all of those up to partisanship. What it came down to Christians, is that most of you had a stronger connection to a political party than what you say is true. This is a guy who has bragged about sexually assaulting women. He confessed to doing these things. He encouraged violence at rallies. He made numerous racist remarks. And while media has downplayed this aspect, he has been married 3 times, because of marital infidelity, and bragged about trying to get a women to cheat on her husband with him. But, apparently, all of this is not as bad as someone who is probably/allegedly/ok-almost-definitely a liar? I don't get it, I have never seen him act in a way that would make me think- "hmmm, this is the guy for conservative Christians." Sure, you like Mike Pence, and he matches your values, but he is not the President, and it's not likely he will be. Trump has made it abundantly clear that Mike will not be charge, and that he is his own man.
6. I am looking at you Baby Boomers. Wow, you guys came out to vote. Way to go. Just like Brexit, the youth of a nation have been impacted by a group of disenfranchised (mostly white) boomers. The world is changing, it has changed. Trump's antiquated view of the world is destructive, and doesn't represent the direction the world is going. I am sorry you didn't feel welcomed in this world, and you felt the need to "make America great again", but that America you remember wasn't great for everyone. [Fortunately for us, this is a 4 year deal, sorry UK.]
7. If nothing else late night television is going to have a great 4 years. Donald Trump is an entertainer, and he will certainly entertain... (I just hope it's not at the expense of others)
Ok, whew, that feels good to get off of my chest.
MrScottiePirate- my adventures.
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Saturday, June 21, 2014
5 months of adventure comes to a close...
“He was a million miles from a million dollars, but you
could never spend his wealth” ~ One Republic
Oh man, I just noticed the date on my last update, and I am
WAY over due. I have had a lot happen
since March 4th, so I’ll update the best I can.
After I became a divemaster, I took my Instructor Development Course (IDC). It was a ton of fun, but also a lot of work. I would spend the day in the classroom or in the swimming pool practicing dive skills, and then I would spend the evenings studying. The people in my class were also a ton of fun, and the teacher was also really cool. After the course there were 3 days of exams. On the first day I had to take a written exam on dive theory (science-y stuff), I was pretty nervous for the exam because during all of the practice exams I had failed every one of them, but in the end all of the late nights of studying paid off and I passed with flying colors. After the 3 days of exams, I was able to spend a week with Christine just enjoying Thailand. She then headed back to Korea and I spent another week in Thailand, basically just bumming around and hanging out by the pool. After that I returned to Korea, and I began subbing for the school Christine works at.
After I became a divemaster, I took my Instructor Development Course (IDC). It was a ton of fun, but also a lot of work. I would spend the day in the classroom or in the swimming pool practicing dive skills, and then I would spend the evenings studying. The people in my class were also a ton of fun, and the teacher was also really cool. After the course there were 3 days of exams. On the first day I had to take a written exam on dive theory (science-y stuff), I was pretty nervous for the exam because during all of the practice exams I had failed every one of them, but in the end all of the late nights of studying paid off and I passed with flying colors. After the 3 days of exams, I was able to spend a week with Christine just enjoying Thailand. She then headed back to Korea and I spent another week in Thailand, basically just bumming around and hanging out by the pool. After that I returned to Korea, and I began subbing for the school Christine works at.
So the past couple of months has basically been me just
subbing for the school, and catching up with friends from Korea. It’s been fun; one highlight was seeing some
friends from the states that came into town for their brother’s wedding. I also saw a bunch of students that I had
lived with for years graduate. So now
it’s summer break and we are staying in Korea for the summer. Christine and I have been spending our days
re-organizing the apartment, laying around the apartment, and playing
pickleball (a cross between ping pong, badminton, and tennis). Our current plans are to maintain the status
quo for the summer and next year.
Christine will teach 5th grade, and I will sub as I work on
my masters degree. One thing I am really
working on is being content with the season of life that I am in right now, and
believe me, that’s easier said than done.
It’s interesting how much a man’s identity is found in his occupation,
or “what he does”, but I need to learn to appreciate the life of a trophy
husband…and also I should probably work more on my abs for her.
So one thing particularly fun is that we’ve been watching
all of Boy Meets World. First I love the
90s, but this show particularly has a lot of nostalgia attached to it. One thing I have found watching this as an
adult is that the students in the show had amazing teachers (Mr. Feeny and Mr.
Turner). In fact, a friend of mine that
is watching the show as well has agreed to have a competition with me that if
we ever teach together we will compete to use Mr. Feeny speeches in class. The thing that stands out to me particularly
about the Feeny character is that it didn’t really matter what trouble the
students got themselves into as long as they learned something. It was the idea
of constantly growing and pushing oneself to be a better person. I guess it’s a good reminder to ask myself
“Did I learn something?”
Ok, so for those of you keeping track at home that I had
mentioned in a previous post about how we wanted to start a family….well…no
news. I mean, we inherited a turtle, but
I don’t think that’s what you guys are looking for.
And so I will leave you with an awesome video of my beard progression from my 4 months of adventure this past year.
And so I will leave you with an awesome video of my beard progression from my 4 months of adventure this past year.
Thanks for the prayers and keep it real.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
I am a DIVEMASTER!
Wow I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since I
updated! I am so sorry about that, but this has been my first day off since
then, so I guess an update is over due.
Anyways, it took a little longer for me to finish my dive
master training due to having to do a visa run in there. A couple of weeks ago I had to take a trip to
Malaysia for a night in order to get a visa which allows me to stay in Thailand
for an additional 2 months with a possible 1 month extension. The whole thing was kind of crazy and
involved 9 strangers packed into a van overnight for way too long with some
really awkward “frank exchanges of ideas”` (not involving me, but the strangers
were fighting).
So back in Thailand I finished up my dive master training,
which was a ton of fun, but also really hard.
Again, I learned a ton about diving, and I feel like I really have
improved as a diver. But now I am officially a Divemaster! After that we had a
BBQ out on our lawn to celebrate and also to say wish a happy birthday to our
friend Dima, who has unfortunately sine gone home. We had a new girl from India move into his
apartment that will be joining me for my instructor training.
After that I took a course on diving with nitrox/enriched
air, which is interesting. It involves breathing more oxygen and less nitrogen. After that one-day class I spent the next
week just fun diving. It was pretty
awesome to just dive for the love of diving.
I saw cuttlefish, squids, sea horses, sharks and… sea cucumbers and blue
starfish! (Below is a leopard shark)
So a random note on photography and videography of the underwater world. I have been carrying a little gopro in my pocket when I am diving and whenever I see anything especially cool or rare I bust it out and film it. So yesterday I uploaded all of my videos to my computer and I realized I am awful at photography. So unfortunately there weren't many usable videos or photos, but when everything is all said and done I will put together a video of all my favorite 2 usable seconds of underwater creatures.
So now I have some time to just relax and study before my
classes to become an instructor (IDC) starts.
Next Monday I will be in the classroom for a couple of weeks, and I will
take my 3 days of exams right when Christine comes to visit, so she will be
here to celebrate the completion of my scuba studies!
I think the highlight of this experience for me so far is
all of the diversity. My neighbors are
Australian, Indian, Iranian, Japanese, Thai and French. Also everyday on the
boat is such a wildly diverse group. I
find myself frequently sitting around conversing with people from all over the
world and all walks of life. Also all
the diving has me thinking about lessons learned and life parallels from each
dive experience. This must be a throw
back to my wilderness staff days in camp life and doing debriefs about
everything. Hopefully down the road I
will put some good life parallels in my blog.
An easy one is about protecting the things we love…Everyday
I find garbage on the ocean floor, which means there is someone on a boat
somewhere throwing garbage over the side.
The places we go to are protected areas only visited by divers for the
most part. So if divers are polluting
the places they are about to swim in they are basically taking the things they
love for granted. It’s abhorrent, and heartbreaking. In life it’s easy for us to take for granted
the things we love around us everyday, but when we do that all we are doing is
throwing garbage in the ocean, and at some point there will no longer be a
beautiful ocean to visit. So go tell
someone you love them today! I love you
Christine!
Thanks for the prayers, and keep it real.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Meet the neighbors!
Ok, so I am torn about putting this out there, because I am
embarrassed to admit I have seen the show, but does anyone out there watch the
show Girls? and if so, is it suppose to be satirical? Or realistic? Are there really
people out there who are like, "yeah, I really connect with these
characters" –is this an honest depiction of millennials? or is everybody
watching acknowledging the fact that these people are all super self-involved
and delusional? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the show, and think it’s hilarious,
but I had a realization that this might be actually realistic to some people,
and I could be watching the show all wrong. (I am too embarrassed to make this a facebook status, but a google search didn't help me find an answer so I am taking it to the people).
Ok, that was a short tirade now for an update. First, things with diving have been fun but
hard. It’s a lot of work, but I am
learning a ton about diving, and I am improving as a diver regularly. I am also seeing tons of underwater life, so
I’ll probably make a video of all the sea life after the trip. As far as not updating more frequently, this
has been because today is my first day off since the last time I updated. They keep me busy. If all goes as planned, I should be done with
dive master training by Sunday, and then I just have to dive as much as I can
to get my dive numbers up before March 10th. If I don’t get to 100 by the 10th,
then I have to wait until April before I can start my next stage of classes. The
next stage is trainging to become an instructor. Today has been my day off, so I have mostly
been running errands, like getting fitted for a wetsuit, doing laundry,
etc. I did drive my scooter to a very
western mall, and watched Robocop for 3 bucks.
So now meet the neighbors…
On the left is Kassie, she’s an
Aussie who just started the same program I am doing, so she’s a little bit
behind me. She just recently quit her
job and decided to make a life change and become a dive instructor. She’s doing her dive master training here,
and then will do her instructor training in the Maldives for a few months. In
the middle is Dima, he’s from Kazakhstan and he’s not a diver, he just finished
university and so is spending a couple of months in Thailand before he heads
back. He’s hilarious, his English is
so-so, but he’s determined which results in some awesome miscommunications. And
on the right is Barak, an Iranian, that recently finished his instructor course
and is now working for Dive Asia full time.
He’s hilarious too, he’s always looking for ways to strum up some
business for himself, like starting his own website that sells dive gear. You
can also see Teeny has made an appearance and is enjoying the company. They are a fun bunch that like hanging out on
the porch in evening.
Apart from that, I don’t really have time for a social life
or even too much exploration of the island. When I get done with a day on the
boat it’s usually 7:30ish and then I have some studying to do for the next day,
and I am usually pretty beat. I am in my
new apartment now, which is just 2 doors down from my old one, but there’s no
pump outside of it, which means I can sleep with out earplugs, plus the new
shower is much better.
Well that’s all for now.
Thanks for the prayer, and keep it real.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
First week in Phuket
Well the past week and a half have been pretty exciting. We
had a pretty relaxing week in Phuket with long time friends, and we stayed at a
hotel that was a little fancier than we have been traditionally use to. Our room would literally open right up to the
pool, so we would step out onto our veranda and have a couple of chairs and
steps into the pool. It was pretty amazing.
That week Christine and I did 3 dives off of Phuket and we saw some
awesome stuff. Check out the short video
for a couple of things. We saw a baby great barracuda, which was pretty
amazing. Unfortunately we didn’t get any
footage of it but we do have a hilarious video of Christine thinking she turned
off the video when she actually was turning off. (she did some take some amazing footage of an
octopus though)
So last Friday the group headed back to Korea and I stayed
behind. Saturday I did my emergency first responder course, so now I am
officially EFR certified. I think by the
end of everything I will actually be certified to teach an EFR course. Then Sunday I began my training for rescue diver. In the morning we were in the pool working on
drills, and then we drove to Kata beach to do a dive. Some of you might remember that Kata beach
was the place that Christine and I got engaged back in 2009.
I saw some pretty awesome stuff that dive like a sea horse, lobster,
pipe fish, and a giant purple jellyfish, that looked like some weird floating
orb in the water. It was amazing that it
was just off of the shore. I did some
practice rescue stuff, and then the next day we went out to the islands and I
did some more tests, so by Monday I was officially a PADI rescue diver.
Yesterday I began my divemaster training with a half day of
classroom stuff, just going over my responsibilities, and what all I’ll be
doing by the end of the training. I am
essentially an intern for the next month or so.
I think one of the nice things about this current stage of my life is
that I am not putting a lot of pressure on myself. It’s not like this scuba thing was a life
long dream or anything, so if I decide that it’s no longer fun, or if I just
miss Christine too much, I can just go back home. No worries. Right now things are going well though, so
time will tell. (although if I do go
home, I’m really hoping to skip winter).
My instructor is the only guy that works here that’s first
language is English, and he’s from India.
He’s also about to have a baby, like literally any day, maybe even
today. My next-door neighbor is a guy from Iran, and he’s a lot of fun. He just finished his instructor training and
is planning on staying here in Phuket for a while. I think I will probably do blog posts on some
of the people I have met later. I currently live in a small apartment with a
kitchen and bedroom and bathroom, no air conditioning but then again you get
what you pay for. My place is currently
about $650 for 3 months, and if I get the AC upgrade it’s $2250 for 3 months,
so it looks like I am going with out AC.
Next week I am changing apartments, just moving a few doors down to one
that’s a little nicer and has a bigger fridge.
When that happens I’ll do a video of the dive center and my new
apartment. That’s the one nice thing
about the place, I am literally right at the dive center.
Well that’s about all for now. Check back sometime next week
for an update. I think Sundays will be my day off if I can swing it.
Thanks for the prayers, keep it real.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
The last couple of weeks...
So today I was watching the show Community, [mild spoiler alert] and one of the actors on the show is leaving the show, and so they are writing him out of the show by having him leave to sail around the world. Is it weird to get sad seeing a fictional character realizing my dream? Although, now I guess it's just something that everyone does, so no big deal (I wanted to circumnavigate before it was cool)...
The last couple of weeks have been back in South Korea. It's been a little weird being back, but it's been great seeing friends again, however briefly. I think it would have been weird to come back here after 18 months away and see just a whole new crowd, and not recognize any of the faces. One of the most awkward things is talking to people who didn't know me well, and haven't been following what's been going on, and answering the proverbial, "What are you doing here?" I mean what are any of us doing here, maaaaan? (said in that voice that sounds like someone trying to make something deep out of something congenial). For the past couple of weeks, I've been visiting some of my favorite Daejeon haunts, and catching up with friends. I've learned that riding a scooter on ice is super difficult, and that I really really can't wait to spend the rest of the winter somewhere warm.
It's still been hard processing a lot of what transpired on the trip, and the choices that have been made. Many people have told me that God has a plan for everything, and although I know that it's true, sometimes it's hard to believe it. Right now I guess I am just trying to figure out what's next for me. I have a couple of things in the mix, but I am waiting to find out if they will work out or not. So more on that as information comes to light. I am really wanting to get back into something where I can positively impact lives. I miss the days of having a greater purpose- it's always nice knowing that even when I have a bad day, I am doing something for a greater good.
Today we leave for Phuket, Thailand. A group of 7 of us are heading there for Lunar New Year, so that should be pretty fun. I've been there a number of times and I love it- good weather, good food, good diving. So as it is right now I am going to be spending the next few months there working on my dive training, and so I should be finished with that by the end of April, and from there I will come back to Korea, and continue working on my studies in education. I know there's probably questions about how the whole diving thing will work, and where I will stay, and logistical stuff like that, and so to put your minds at ease, I will continue to update this blog over the next few months (hopefully about once a week). I will also try to put together some more videos of diving and Thailand.
Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.
Thanks for the prayers, Keep it real.
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