Years ago, I would stay up for hours using AIM talking to people from across the country. Now when I load it up I see numerous names, but they are just people who leave their computers unattended with screennames signed on.
AIM used to be an extension of my life and a huge part of my daily communication. Now it is a graveyard.
I found one of my favorite high school English instructor’s on facebook and she told me to “fill” her “in on the years” so the following is a basic basic Cribb’s notes version of what I’ve been up to since high school.. much is glossed over and there are many obvious omissions (several relationships for one) for the sake of brevity and relevance to my current life. I kept a lot of details about my Ex Lisa because this teacher also taught her and encouraged her to ask me out again when I had graduated high school.
Okay, here goes
I went to SC4. I took art classes and Acting classes. I was typecast ed as narrator..I stopped when they casted me as Asop.
I got accepted so Savannah College of Art and Design.
Lisa Kostiuk cried and convinced me not to leave her
I decided to wait until she graduated from SCHS to go to Art school and we would go together.
I worked in various jobs saving for college. We decided on the art Institute of Philadelphia… she wanted to go to school for fashion design.. I went for animation..
My sister got accepted into a lung transplant program at Loyola University in Chicago. She made the top of the list, her and my Mom left for Chicago
My Mom was able to get her job transferred to chicago but I had to also go to Chicago with them to take care of My sister while My mom worked and literally wait it out at the Ronald Mcdonald House for someone with matching lungs to die.
I went to Chicago took care of Melissa… She had a lung transplant it was a success, we went back to Michigan.
Lisa and I moved to Philly, we both lived in the dorms we went to art school together… Lisa quit school and became a waitress. I did random things from modeling to selling electronics to help pay for school.. mostly hotel work though..
Melissa eventually went into rejection and passed away. The transplant allowed her to become a well adjusted adult woman and for that we’ll forever be grateful.
I Interned in New York City on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon They offered me a job, but I would have had to quit school before graduating to take it. I decided to stay in school. The job was not open after I graduated.
after several years of breaking up getting back together Lisa and I finally broke it off for Good.
I couldn’t find a paying job in animation. I moved back to Michigan to get away from Lisa for awhile and get some perspective (while I mentally knew staying together wasn’t right… I was so codependant I just had to have physical distance to make the break stay. After working as a substitute teacher and best buy salesperson (got to love that Michigan economy) I decided to apply to work at the Baha’i National Center in Chicago. I ended up working on children’s publications that were delivered to every Baha’i child in the United states.
while there I met a tall beautiful Graphic Designer who was involved with Youth Service at the Baha’i National Center… We became friends for awhile.. I dated some other people… eventually she gave me a shot.. It was more natural than anything…there wasn’t any proposal even (which I guess is kinda different..) we just knew… it was magic… It was just a matter of when…
We made plans to get married… Then..I changed my name. We got married. She left her Baha’i National Center job looking for work as a Graphic Designer elsewhere (nonprofits don’t pay well). She found a job in Houston, I said that Texas was probably the last place on earth I wanted to live (even after Nashville where she was from)… But I wanted to be supportive so I said “go for it”… She was hired by continental airlines to work on their website..making by herself what we both made together in Chicago, plus Houston has an incredibly low cost of living and flying is cheap when you work for an airline. It sounded like a very good opportunity, so I decided that I would go for it. I gave notice… She moved down to Houston. I did a month later.
I started substitute teaching, got into an alternative certification program
I pursued a Master’s degree in Education (half way there.. but taking a break)…
Got a job as a high school art and journalism (yearbook) teacher to a predominantly low income Latino school. I became the coach of the swim team. Lacey got pregnant.
We had a daughter and named her Navab which means highness or exalted in Arabic. She’s now 8 months, She is trying to walk.. and can say Mom, Dada, baba, nana and Uhoh, and is trying to say her name now but she pretty much says “Aaaaab”….
I hope that’s readable. My daughter has had a fever keeping her and us up for the past 3 days so I figured I’d type this up since my sleep pattern was already disrupted.
warmest regards,
Myk
Light… Dark… Duality… Change…
These are the themes of my life. These are the themes I am drawn to and what surround me. You’ll see them woven throughout these songs. In George’s blog there is a list of 11 videos. I suppose that in this Meme: The Golden 11, you are to choose 11 of your favorite musical artists and represent them with 11 Youtube videos…. I have 2 more than that here… You see I couldn’t bear to remove any one of these. I found myself wishing that for the sake of this meme that many songs that didn’t have videos did… Oh well…..Also… Many of my selections are live performances because of this and other factors.. such as the tingle that climbs my spine and envelops my entire being as I see the entire rose bowl swing their arms to “Never let me down”…. I love music and sharing music makes me feel incredibly alive.
Jeff Buckley - Mojo Pin
Depeche Mode- Never let me down
Nine Inch Nails- The great below
Johnny Cash - hurt
Sigur ros - Agaetis byrjun
Shakespear’s Sister - Stay
Deftones - Change
Faith No More - Everything’s Ruined
Alice In Chains - Heaven Beside You
Dead Can Dance - The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
Sisters of Mercy - Marian
The Cure - The Cure
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Dazzle
I was looking at some old newspaper articles the other day and it struck me that up until recently whenever a woman was listed in the paper she was listed under her husband’s name. Back in the day in a newspaper article citing a woman’s achievement Instead of Mrs. Laura Ferguson, you would see Mrs. James Ferguson. I can appreciate having a family name and the sociological and geneological purposes of someone taking their spouses last name, but the whole using the husband’s entire name indicates ownership to me. As if any of a woman’s achievements belong to her husband and they are not their own. Even now I still feel some annoyance about the thought of a woman making a name for herself just to get married and have to make a new name for herself all over again.
Below you find exhibit A: Lacey made Star Trek: The Next Generation fingerpuppets for our friend Artemis for her baby shower. Top Nerd!
Nuff Said!
well obviously this isn’t Navab (anyone can easily tell by the nakedness..lol) but man… I looked a lot like her as a baby.
I’m happy with the results of the Presidential election. No one hijacked it… It was legal.. It was a regular election. Someone won fair and square with no funny business. I voted, and felt that I did my part.
I’ve always been supportive of my country, but in the past few years I’ve grown somewhat appalled at some of the things we’ve been a part of, such as our dealings with the world in general… Wars, torture, and the gross display of racial inequality that was unearthed by Hurricane Katrina and our subsequent handling of this disaster. My wife and I joked about how it might be time to move.
Growing up in Detroit, I was subject to the same education during Black History Month as all of the other children. Inside me somewhere is a little boy who read and studied the struggles of African Americans in the United States, and grew to respect that struggle as if it were my own. As a young white child in Detroit I was the minority but I was welcomed and not treated any different, and I identified with the black community. Martin Luther King Jr. was then and is still is one of my heroes. I cried a few tears when Barack Obama was elected. My heart is warmed by the effect this will have on little black boys and girls in the United States.
I’m again proud to be an American.
Now, I know that race is just one element of this and it wasn’t my reasoning for voting for Barack Obama and yes, I have no qualms about sharing who I voted for. I am neither Republican or Democrat, but I do have opinions and I will share them although I will not argue anyone else into having a similar opinion as mine.
I had a concern that America was on it’s way down a dark path which if played out would eliminate the middle class and leave Americans who were used to having everything with nothing. Most people living in the United States live with conveniences that are beyond that of what Kings had centuries ago, and I can’t imagine the civil unrest, suffering, and lawlessness that would erupt if these same people were lined up for blocks to get a loaf of bread. Nestle that together with being hated by the rest of the world and being wrapped up in two expensive wars and I just don’t know if we could survive that. Of course that is one extreme, but we need to be careful about things. National Security is not just about having big guns pointed. It’s about having a strong economy where people can all work toward fulfilling their basic needs as well as striving towards the American Dream.
I think this has turned into a parenting blog. I swear, I didn’t see it coming… lol.. I swear I’ll post about something else again at some point… There isn’t much else going on besides the baby..
the nerdiest person I know and I can’t even tell you why for a whole week…
The other day we had an open house at my school. Parents came in to see how students were doing, and to meet the teachers. One Mother tracked me down and told me that she had to find me and thank me because I taught her son last year, and I had transformed him. I had changed his views about school and about life and that she would be forever grateful. I think that is one of the most touching things anyone has ever said about me. I saw the boy today after school and told him that what his mom said had choked me up and he told me that it was all true.
Okay.. .if you know me, you know I am an uber comic book dork.. something that might not come across completely online unless you’ve seen me on Flickr wearing one of my 10 or so different Superman T-shirts… So if you want to skip a fanboy rant do not read this post….
1. Clark is supposed to be obsessed with Lois, not the other way around. Lois should not have met Clark in High School and had a brother/sister relationship with him. In the real world there is no going back from there. A woman will not ever find you attractive if she has ever thought of you like a younger brother.
2. Supergirl should appear after Superman is well established and should be significantly younger than superman. If she is the same age, and has even developed her powers further (ie., flying) then why is Clark to be so special? Why is it his destiny so special to everyone and not hers (sexism anyone?)…
3. Jimmy should be significantly younger than Clark, unless he is a complete loser and is a copy boy/wannabe photographer for the planet still when Clark and Lois are established reporters on the 30th floor of the Planet (perhaps Chloe’s death
4. Clark has been around everyone in the world without his glasses for years. Lois, Luthor, Jimmy, Perry… everybody! No one in their right mind will ever not know that he is Superman. To me there is no amount of genius writing that can get the show out of this debacle. This just is not the Superman or Clark Kent as we know it. Lets be serious.. At this point there is no point for the glasses, and we will never see Superman… They aren’t going to try to fix this problem because they don’t have to… they will just end it before Superman exists and not ever explain this problem.
5. Apparently college in Smallville doesn’t even last a year.
6. Jor-el is a computer program, that can alter fate, change time… choose for one person to die instead of another, and resurrect people…eh??? I can’t decide if it is good or bad… Jor-El to me is pretty much the same thing as Braniac just in a different Housing..
7. Lionel was probably the most erratically characterized persona in literary history… bad/good/evil/maybe/unknown/bad/good/good/bad/Jor-el’s tool/good/dead… I think different writers just had different ideas and they just had to pick up the pieces.
8. This show is one of the worst shows ever when it comes to continuity (worse than various star treks… at least they explained away most inconsistencies eventually)…
9.. As soon as Dad died all the Kent Ford trucks got magically converted to Toyotas as did every other car on the show… oh hey look Pete came back just to chew stride gum for the camera.
10. Clark is so stuck on himself and his life they never even bother to show him coming back from visiting his Mom in Washington at superspeed.
11. Clark has numerous powers and never uses more than one at a time (tv budget anyone?) and thinks to linearly and slow for someone who should be able to THINK in superspeed (how else could he operate in superspeed)..
I will keep on watching the show because I’ve invested so much… and I would probably eat **** flavored superman cereal because I like Superman to that degree, but I can’t say that this show has not disappointed me a lot… Of course it has had it’s share of amazing writing… the Clark/Lex dynamic is how they wished the Obi-wan/Vader dynamic should have been.. It was just better…, and I no longer think of Ma and Pa Kent, I think of Dad and Mom Kent… and Mr. Kent will always be a Duke boy to me now…
I had a very close friend whom I had written off because at times this person was very negative and I would get hit by the stray arrows he would always throw. At one point I realized that by maintaining the friendship I was permitting myself to be abused.
Lately I’ve had dreams where I’m hanging out with this person and I’m feeling a great loss when I wake up and realize that that probably will never happen again. I wish I could get back in touch with this person but I’m afraid it will be more of the same and that I will just end up being hurt more in the end. I think I might have some sort of issues with abandonment feelings based upon losing my sister and brother and never meeting my genetic father. I’m thinking that due to the losses I’ve felt, it is very hard for me to knowingly let someone I care about out of my life completely.
This has even effected my relationships with women in the past. For years I kept on going back out with someone that while I loved… was terribly wrong for me (and I for her). It became almost a joke among my friends because regardless of what happened I would always go back out with her. Sometimes I wish I had found my wife Lacey several years earlier thinking that perhaps I could have avoided some pointless suffering on my part, but in the end I’m glad things happened the way they did because our relationship is strong and we are blessed with our amazing daughter.
Still, I do feel loss regarding my unrecoverable friendship with this one guy. I have to fight myself from calling up this former friend because regardless of how he treated me at times, at other times he was the best person in the world to me, and I felt that he was one of the best people I’ve ever known. I don’t know if all of my friends truly know how deeply I care for them. I have so many friends but most of them live so far away. Often I feel this terrible lonesomeness and missing my friends from the past that are no longer in my life. Sometimes it is just a slight discomfort, but other times it is a true aching inside.
So, it was kinda funny and odd to be driving Navab home from daycare today in a completely quiet car to all of the sudden hear “Hi!”
She said “Hi”. It was so random and unexpected. I think though that it was just a sound that she made rather than trying to copy a word she heard (although I imagine its one of the top words she hears). The funny thing though was that she wasn’t doing baby talk. I wasn’t talking… It was a quiet car and all of the sudden I hear “Hi” from the back seat.. That was really crazy!
Okay so my Mom and I were on the phone today and my mom wants Navab to call her Nana… and Navab said Nana 2 times when I put my mom on speaker phone and said to say Nana…. Lacey is starting to suspect that I am making this up by I’m serious! Mom… reply to this post to verify it! Navab will once in awhile repeat what someone says but very often she is a silent baby and ignores your pleas to say this or that.
Navab Lacey and I got home from Dallas late last night. This morning Navab was chilling out on the bed and she said “Da-Da”. I was blown away… I said it to her and then she said it again. I thought it was a fluke and then she said it again. When she had said it 4 times I got so excited I scared her and she almost started to cry (oops!) but then I quickly cheered her up and she said it several more times. 8 in total! I am so excited. She has stopped saying it now so I hope it was not a fluke. She hasn’t said “Uh-Oh” in about a week.
Navab is crabby today. She is teething. We see her first tooth now. A tooth has broke the surface and she is really uncomfortable. 
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The Hurricane was quite different for me. A guy from Detroit who didn’t know the first thing about these behemoths that terrorize from the Oceans. Ironically it was named Ike. My great-grandfather whom I called papa (puh puh), was hoping that I would be born on July 4th, 1976 and be a Bicentennial baby. He also admired President Eisenhower. Often when I was around he would say “Mike and Ike” as some sort of odd joke. There I was last week pretending to not be afraid for my family instructing my wife that we would be sleeping in the hall away from the windows and therefore the possibility of shattered glass.
We spent the entire day Friday in anxious anticipation of anything that bordered on a sign of a natural disaster. I watched the unusually beautiful sunset as the storm grew closer. When it began around midnight it was as if large angry men stood outside our windows and beat them all night. At about one in the morning we lost power.
Power.. Power is an interesting thing lately. Its amazing how little power we all have yet how frustrated when that small amount is gone. Power in the form of electricity is something I often take for granted. I use lights, a water heater, refrigeration, an electric stove, air conditioning, computers, my connection to the world via the internet, my cell phone and contact with my family and loved ones and probably numerous other processes that involve electricity. Yet when Houston lost electricity I lost the power to effectively take care of my child and provide comfort for my wife. I will even have to teach much differently if the power to my school is non-existent because I rely on a document camera to instruct art technique, and Power Points to do 75% of my teaching.
Here is a video of the sky a few hours before the hurricane
Like I mentioned previously we slept in the hallway (as much as one is able to sleep during a Hurricane), and our house came out of the hurricane pretty much unscathed. There was some mess to clean up but we were okay. We toughed it out for a few days in Houston with no power and found it frustrating.
I have a habit of grocery shopping at various ethnic grocery stores. I have a strong affection for Asian cooking (see previous entry) so obviously I need Asian ingredients and can be found and Viet Hoa, or Hong Kong markets. Our new place is very close to Viet Hoa so I felt is was a good choice for disaster shopping. I also figured that if I go to a store that caters to an Asian population that most Hispanic, black and white people wouldn’t necessarily first think of going to that store and therefore it’s lines would be smaller and it would be safer. It appears that this train of logic was correct and my excursion for supplies was uneventful and not full of the frantic problems other people experienced in H.E.B.’s, Kroger’s, Wal-Marts, and other popular stores.
While driving in this area I drove onto Bellaire Rd between 59 and the Beltway 8 and also noticed several Asian restaurants were open in a “business as usual” fashion even while 90 percent of the city had no electricity and much of it was damaged in one way or another from Ike. I had a hunch that this was a possibility. I don’t know if they had city power or if they were operating on generators. Either way, that evening we ate out having a nice meal of Thai food. We then had Vegetarian Chinese the next day. That night however we left Houston.
Here is Navab talking to the crowd at the Thai Corner restaurant.
Our friends the Kourosh family asked us to come up to Dallas to get away from it all and we did Monday night at 9 pm once Navab fell asleep. We drove 150 miles before we were able to find a gas station that had gasoline. Once we were able to get gas the rest of the drive to Dallas from Houston was stress free. We were welcomed into the Kourosh home and have been here ever since. HISD has closed until Monday (so far) so we are going to head back to Houston on Sunday and hopefully we will have power then.
Here is Navab and me at the Kourosh home..
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Artist, writer, singer, husband, father, son, triathlete, comic book geek, Bahá'í, teacher, coach, |
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