Home....

Well, I'm back in Texas! I must still be a little jet lagged seeing as it is 5 am on a saturday and I'm pretty much awake. I left China on July 2nd at 3:45 pm, I arrived back in Houston the same day at about 9:35 pm. My luggage got lost in Newark, New Jersey, but luckily it was sent to the house here in Huntsville the very next day.

I'm still not completely used to the fact that I'm home. The sky still seems way too blue and the grass too green. I now have friends in every corner of the world, which I find amazing. I really miss some of them, (one I miss a whole bunch) and I'm already formulateing plans to get out and see them, I'd like to get to Australia as soon as possible. I've had Mexican Food and BBQ an Kalachis and awesome corn on the cob... One things for sure I won't miss Chinese food... Also not being staired at is wonderful. Walking through walmart with out a single person giving me a second glance was awesome. I, on the other hand, was amazed at the diversity of people there.

It's good to be home, I just wish I could have taken one more thing back from China with me.

Qing Dao trip number 2

Erhu, Qing Dao, China 2008

So I just woke up from a nap that was a bit too long and now I feel groggy and sick. This is one of the reason why I hate napping. When I take them I always oversleep and then feel bad for at least an hour or so. So, What's new? Well this past weekend I went to Qing Dao with my buddy Ali. It was a really good time. We at a ton of food that isn't Chinese,checked out the beach, and the local night scene. All in all we had a great time and met some really cool people along the way. I kinda wish I'd done this sort of weekend trip a bit more often, but I never had enough money to really do that all the time. Anyways expect more pictures like the one above to appear from Qing Dao.

Also, if I do have any readers on here (I should look into a counter or something) please vote for the above photo, and my other one at the JPG Magazine website. You can find both of my entries here:
Erhu
Fish

You do have to register to vote, but it takes 5 seconds to do that.

They have 3 themes every month or so I think, and you can submit photos for them and there is a chance they might pick you to appear in the magazine, I figure getting published and (and also the 100 bucks they give you) make it worth trying to enter. So, I'll probably try my luck with every topic. This month is Creatures, Favorite Hangouts, and Street Fashion. I didn't find out about this thing until late in the entry phase, so I didn't get to find a street fashion photo (there are only 18 more hours left to enter and its raining so I don't think I'll get one in), but next contest I should definitely get all 3. I think that Erhu photo is a great pic for favorite hang out, you have 3 very different people all standing/sitting along this board walk. The older beggar, a street worker, and a young woman. It was taken across from May 4th square. I asked the guy who was playing the Erhu if I could take his photo after I gave him some money and he said he didn't mind. He had a killer beard.

I recommend this site to any other amateur digital photogs out there, getting published always looks good on a resume.

Job!

I've got a job!!! woo.
I am the new Art Teacher at Vogel Intermediate (4th and 5th grade) in Conroe ISD. I am in charge of 2d education which is good since that is my forte. I will also be responsible for creating large scale murals that will be put on display in the cafeteria, should be fun. But! I'm trying to get back into doing more art. So, I am currently taking request. If someone wants me to draw something just post a comment here or e-mail me or something and if I like your idea I'll draw it for ya, if I really like it I may completely color it an such. It's nice knowing I wont be poor when I get home.

I am going to Qingdao this weekend, and planing a few other trips to be taken when over the next couple of weeks before I leave for home on July 2nd. Also packing...

Anyways, new photo up, not sure how much I like it. I like some of the shadows.

Goin home soon.

So, no new pics yet (probably tomorrow or later tonight depending on if I decide to watch a movie). But, I guess I'll talk a bit about current affairs in the life of Johnny.

I will be heading back to the great state of Texas on July 2nd. Currently I have two good job opportunities open to me. One is at Vogel Intermediate (5th and 6th) where I was a student teacher, and the other is at Buckalew Elementary (a k-4 school in the same district). I just found out about this new one yesterday via an e-mail from the principal wanting me to fax my resume, which I am doing on Monday. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with Vogel, I had a phone interview with them a while ago now, and it went very well and everything was pretty hopeful sounding, I was one of three strong candidates, one was a social studies teacher already at Vogel looking to switch over to art, another was an art teacher at a different school in the district looking to move to Vogel, and then Me. I had the full backing of the current art teacher who was retiring, which I think was the main reason I was in the running, and plus I'd taught there for student teaching. A week after the interview I got an e-mail from the principal saying she was waiting for a teacher to "r-sign" (not sure what exactly this means) before she offers me the job, and she was expecting it to happen that week, that was April 24th, and it is now May 11th,and still no new word. I e-mailed Mrs. McDonald just now asking if she has any new information and telling her about the opening at Buckalew. To be honest I think I'd prefer the Buckalew job. K-4 is such a fun age group, and I think my schedule wouldn't be quite as hectic as it would be at Vogel (I think there were about 8 30 min classes a day there, and it's like running a mini marathon every day.) So, hopefully I'll hear good things back from Buckalew.

So, if I have a teaching job when I get home what I'll probably do is take the first year pretty easy (or at least the first semester) and then maybe take a few extra photo classes at night at Sam Houston and then after a couple of years look into grad school. I'm not sure I'd be able to full time teach and get an MFA, so when I do that I'd either have to find a part time art teaching job, or sub while I get me degree. I think a couple years devoted to teaching elementary art would be fun as well. Also, after 2 years I might be able to get into international schools as well, which I might think about getting into, but maybe not until after I have my MFA.

If I don't have a teaching job next year I'm going to devote all of my time into getting started at grad school spring 2009, so taking as many photo classes at Sam as I can this year while putting together an application and portfolio.

Anyways thats all for now. Tomorrow I'll post a new photo... oh wait that reminds me I do have a photo up I haven't blogged about... I'm not sure how much I like it though... here it is:

Quick post before bed.

Two new photos on Flickr.


Took this one today at the Peoples Park Aquarium. It wasn't really much of an aquarium, most of the fish were either really ugly or goldfish (or a combination of the two) There were some wierd turtles and a scary gigantic fish that scared a small child, but the best part was the Sea Lion, he give Shelby, Amanda, and I each a kiss on the cheek. He was funny. I felt a little bad for him though, he has no friends and his cage is a bit too small. I have a few other photos from the aquarium, which will be popping up sooner or later.


This is from my second trip to Beijing with Lance and Tom, it is at the Secret Wall, well in route to it anyways. It was cold. I have work in the morning or I'd write more about it. Tell ya what I'll post more photos from the secret wall and tell ya all about it, including how Lance (the guy in the photo) got sick from wearing little more than a glorified windbreaker. (actually I just told you what happened with that so I probably won't mention that again!

Night!

Wow, a new post!

So, I've decided New Zealand is cool. The one person I've met from New Zealand is a cool guy, his name is Richard, he is a fellow teacher here at the University in Shandong. He is very well spoken, and one of the only foreigners to have ever told me that he likes Americans. I met him a while back,but I've only just recently been able to hang out with him.

Also, the more I listen to Flight of the Conchords, the more I like them. Unfortunately I don't know too much more about New Zealand, other than the fact that Lord of the Rings was filmed there, and that there are 10 sheep to every person. That's a lot of sheep.

Anyways I've decided that when I get home I'm putting most of my energy into getting into grad school. I've been wanting to get my masters pretty much since I left Edinboro, so now I figure it's time to actually do it. Anyways thats all for now...

New Photos soon, I promise this time.

Wow I'm bad....

...at keeping this thing up to date. Well I'm not goin to talk/type too long since I am goin to dinner with some friends in a bit, but I'll say a few things.

First, it seems as though China has lifted the block on both blogger and Wikipedia. I never thought I'd see the day. So, maybe my posting will be easier.

I'm trying to kick myself into getting a few things done. One of which is uploading more photos. The second is updating this thing regularly, and another is starting a webcomic or website... I've been kicking around webcomic ideas since Highschool,m a few of them ALMOST got made, but I'd like to actually do one. I figure it would give me a good reason to draw every day.

I had a Job Interview over the phone with Vogel Intermediate back in Texas, and it went well, hopefully I'll hear back from it soon. I have my flight booked. July 2nd I'm coming home. What will happen after that hinges on whether or not I get that job or some other job at a school back home. If I don't I'll probably sub or work some crap job while I start on a masters.

China News...
not too much interesting going on right now, I'm back in the flow of teaching every week, so working with the students and such occupies most of my time. I am indeed rather sick of Chinese food, but what can ya do eh? Chinese people are interesting. Thats about all I'll say about that right now. Maybe more on it later, right now I gotta go.
-Johnny

Been a few days...

So, I figure it's time for a post. Lets see, for the most part I've just been working and applying for jobs. So far, I have one interview with the school I student taught at, just waiting for the principal to give me a time frame. I also applied at a high school in the same district. If it comes down to it I'd take the high school because I prefer teaching to that level.

I purchased a 120 gig portable hard-drive recently, and I've been on a download kick recently. I've got a list of 50 some odd movies I'd like to put on the hard drive, and I've downloaded about a third of em already.

I started reading Gunslinger book 1 of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. So far it's ok, I'm only about two chapters in so I can't really pass judgment yet. Once I get used to the way it's written I think I'll enjoy it a lot.

Before I started reading that I was reading a Star Wars novel. I used to read a ton of Star Wars books when I was younger, but I stopped for a long time, and I just recently picked them up again with this start of this new Legacy of the Force series.
So far it's good, but I'm a bit behind in the continuity of the Universe, so I constantly have to look things up on Wookieepedia about characters I'd never heard of and such. I kind of wish they would let the core cast of characters from the movies (Luke, Leia, and Han) step aside and retire already. I understand that Luke and Leia are both Jedi and therefore can fight and live well beyond that of normal men and women. Han, however, is a normal guy and he is like 80 now, but he is still running around and getting in fights and rolling it off his shoulders like its nothing. I honestly don't think He'd be able to keep up with Leia at this point in his life.

Give us some new characters... characters that AREN'T directly related to the Skywalker family. Thier kids are cool, but surely there could be a powerful influential Jedi that isn't a descendant of Anakin. Most Jedi other than Luke, Leia, Mara, Jacen Solo, Jania Solo, and Ben Skywalker always end up being bit or supporting characters. Maybe if I had read the New Jedi Order books there would have been more exciting non-Skywalker characters, but somehow I doubt it. Oh well.

*SPOILER ALERT*



I do, however, like that Jacen Solo is being made into a Sith.



*END SPOILER*

What they should do is start making books set BEFORE the movies. They could never really do that before the prequels because Lucas didn't want em to possibly screw up the stories for the movies (apparently he wanted to do that himself lawl). But,the movies have been out for a while now, lets see some Old Republic books! Darth Bane was a good start, but I want more! I'm greedy that way.

Speaking of an elderly Harrison Ford (kinda), The new Indiana Jones looks Awesomely amazing.

Well I think that's about all for now.
Coming Soon: More Photos and a review of Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny.

Shoot Em Up

Shoot Em Up is what I call a good bad movie. The story is flimsy, the dialog is cheesy, and the action sequences are so over the top that they are just down right ridiculous. All this aside(or perhaps because of it), I can't help but like this movie. Lets face it, this film wasn't made to be taken seriously, I mean after all its a throw back/parody of films like Rambo or Die Hard where one bad ass of a man takes on hordes of enemies singlehandedly with little more than a 9mm pistol and a well sharpened tongue (one-liners aplenty people).

Just to give a sample of how wonderfully over the top this movie is, the first person to die in the movie is killed with a carrot. That's right a carrot. There are two instances of direct carrocide in this film. In the first our hero,who is known only as Smith, somehow manages to shove a carrot right through the back of a man's skull within the first five minutes of the film. There are also several other instances of indirect carrocide where a carrot is used to hold down the triggers of guns (thats right he does this more than once).

The films plot is pretty much strait forward action movie plot, I'll try not to spoil anything for anyone that hasn't seen it yet as I describe this. It starts out with our typical wrong place at the wrong time type scenario. Mr. Smith (played by Clive Owen) is for unknown reasons relaxing on a bench in a seedy looking area eating a carrot when a pregnant woman runs past him who is being pursued by a man with a gun. Mr. Smith saves the woman, and then after a shoot out while delivering the womans baby, he tires to help them escape. The mother is killed in the process, so now Mr. Smith is stuck with this baby who a man named Hertz (Paul Giamatti) is trying to kill (thats right they are trying to kill the baby). The rest of the movie is spent following Smith and his lactating prostitute/love intrerest/damsel in distress named Donna Quintano (Monica Bellucci) as they attempt to figure out why on earth anyone would want to kill this baby. All the while avoiding/duking it out with Hertz and his seemingly endless supply of henchmen. To find out the rest, go watch the movie.

Casting for Shoot 'Em Up is pretty spot on. Clive Owen's "Smith" is pretty much the same as the character he played in Sin City, a wise cracking cliche bad-ass who is both bitter and jaded, yet has a heart of gold. This role was pretty perfect for Owen, and I haven't really seen him play as anything but this type of character.

The Character that stole the show for me, however, was Hertz. Paul Giamatti makes a surprisingly good villain, he's twisted, intelligent, and a complete prick, and the constant phone calls from his wife about his son's birthday was a very nice touch and led to some of the funnier moments in the film.

Donna, Monica Bellucci's role, was really quite... blah. But, in action movies like this one female leads are generally there to be hot, not deep. So, I guess that doesn't really matter. The one nice character touch they did throw in for her was that she would swear in Italian when mad.

A note on the action. The action scenes are great, they are what you would expect from a film of this nature: bloody, long, and many. Also as the movie goes along each scene tries to out do the last. Smith fights while delivering a baby, having sex and while jumping from an airplane to name a few.

All in all, I'll say this it's not the best movie you'll ever see, and it's no masterpiece, but if you take it for what it is (a "shoot 'em up" action movie) you will enjoy it. But, if you are looking for a deeper level action type movie where thinking might actually be required, go rent Reservoir Dogs because Shoot 'Em Up will just disappoint you.

Photos Photos Photos... oh and some music and movie stuff.

There are a few new Photos to talk about, so I'll take em one at a time.


Subway
This photo was taken when I while I was on the subway in Shanghai, as you can probably tell from the photo, the car was pretty packed. I think this was sometime around lunch hourish so everyone and their mother were going somewhere. This was a rather cool shot I thought, if you follow the link and look at the bigger version on Flickr you can see that it's nice a grainy due to the high ISO used for the low lighting on the subway. Sometimes this is a curse, but in cases like this I find it a blessing. Grain + Black and White + a vivid lighting layer = cool looking. Very scientific. I guess we'll see if the Flicker community agrees or not.

There are two versions of the next photo.

Crosswalk color version.

Crosswalk Black and White.
So, I am not sure which I like better, I'm leaning towards black and white, but if anyone actually reads this blog (which I highly doubt), and you want to toss an opinion my way about this (or anything else i post or say in here!) please comment. Be tactful and constructive though if you hate em both say you hate em but tell me why. Anyways this was one of a few photos I shot while crossing the road in Shanghai, there were so many people crossing. I'll eventually post a few more of the crossing photos so stay tuned. One of the reasons I chose this one is because of the sign. As Shelby noticed on flickr, there is a nice contrast between the three people crossing in the sign, and the horde of people that are actually crossing.

Thats all the photos for now, in other news I'll hopefully be hearing something about that job at Vogel soon. Waiting for schools to write you back is the worst part of applying for jobs.

Music: I just got into the band Hellogoodbye thanks to a recommendation from Amanda. They are a fun/happy synth-heavy group who are somewhat akin to Reggie and the Full Effect at times, and at other times seem more like Panic! at the Disco.

TV: I've started watching Lost, and I must say I'm hooked. The show really knows how to drag you in and keep you watching. So far I love it, I was almost really pissed at the show when I thought they had killed off Charlie, but he lived so everything was ok. Also, the more I watch My Name is Earl the more I like it.

Movies: I watched AvP 2,and now I'm wondering why I did. The first one sucked and I didn't even know there was a second one until I saw the DVD at Chi Sai... 5 yuan and an hour later I was turning the DVD off and looking for something more exciting to do. It's not even really worth giving a full fledged review of... The acting sucks, the story is nonexistent and full of holes, and I'd comment on the ending if I'd even made it that far. I also watched Flushed Away recently, which was good! I guess you could say it was Dreamwork's answer to Ratatouille which came out about the same time and was also about CGI animated rats/mice. The stories couldn't be more different though, and it was done by the Wallace & Gromit people. It was definitely fun, and French Frog Ninja's are always cool in my book.

I've had a request from my buddy Lance to do a review for Shoot Em Up, so I'll try and watch the movie again tomorrow and then do a write up for it afterwards. Look for more photos very soon as well.

New stuff...

New Photo just put up on Flickr... I'm not sure how I like it. It was too washed out to begin with and I tried to fix it a bit in photoshop, but I'm not sure how well I did. I'm going to attempt to upload a new photo every other day and then blog about it as well, but whether or not that will hold true is yet to be seen.

In other news Mrs. McDonald, the mentor art teacher I had a Vogel Intermediate is retiring. I might attempt to slide into her job since people at the school no me and I think it would pretty much be a sure thing. I'm slightly hesitant though because she filled the role of 3d teacher, and I am definitely more of a 2d guy. But, she said that her husband may be switching schools as well so I might be able to slip into the 2D role! More news on this as it develops.

My other mentor teacher, Jenny Pascualis running or helping run a gallery in Houston, she said something to be about putting together a show when I get back state side, might be fun. I have a few plans I'd like to go about putting into motion when I return, getting my masters being one of them, learning Flash is another, and I'd really like to drive from Texas to LA and take a ton of photos in route. Sort of a deserty photo tour. Hmm, thats all for now. More soon!

30 Days of Night

I just watched 30 Days of Night, and I really liked it. I'm glad it was good because this was like my 4th attempt to watch the thing. All the copies they seem to have here in Zibo seem to have a messed up sound track that is all crackley. Finally I just downloaded it (arrrr I'm a pirate!). The copy I got was really nice quality too.

The movie is based on a graphic novel/comic book that I'm going to have to pick up because the art looks pretty cool. It's a vampire story set in Alaska. The movie is set in a small isolated Alaskan town that receives no sunlight for a whole month (30 days), and has such harsh winters that for this month most of the towns folk leave (reducing the population from about 500 to 200) before the final sunset. The only communication with the outside world during this month is through phones/internet. There is a single chopper that can still leave in an emergency. Unfortunately for the town just before the winter someone steals and destroys all the cellphones, the helicopter is sabotaged, and all the sled dogs are killed. Eventually, as people start dying all power and phone lines are cut off. The movie then becomes a survival/hunt story following a small group of protagonist (which includes Josh Hartnett as the town sheriff and Melissa George as an ex-flame of Hartnett/fire marshal who gets conveniently stuck in the town before winter). The best part of the movie, however, is the vampires. They are rather different from your traditional vampire in that while they do have the thirst for blood, and seem to share the same strengths and weaknesses of normal vampires,they don't act like your classic Vampire. They aren't the traditional Gothic sex symbols you see them as in most vampire flicks,instead they are far more feral/instinctual and driven almost wholly by their thirst for blood. They seem to have lost most of their humanity with their curse (or affliction what ever you want to call it). They do still think,however,and talk. The main/older vampires seemed to speak Latin or some language like that, while the newly turned ones still spoke English. They also set traps and such for the protagonist further demonstrating that there was a method to their madness, making them that much scarier. The ending will probably be a point of debate to some people, I personally like how they did the final fight/ending, but I can see how some people will find it incredibly cheesy. Remember this was based on a comic book though and it IS a vampire movie at heart (two stereotypically cheezy things) before you get too disappointed.

Now, I'm not saying classic Vampires are lame, but it sure was a nice change of pace. Sometimes Vampires are over glorified in my opinion or made to seem too pretty and nice with some minor (or major) sadistic undertones. This sometimes makes them too human and relateable (well minus the whole blood drinking thing), and while this works for some movies such as underworld where the Vampires are the good guys, it falls short with others. It was good to see truly scary/monster type vampires in 30 days.

My top 5ive most interesting on Flickr.

I'm goin to post my top 5 most interesting photos on flickr and talk about em. This is according to my Flickr "DNA"

1. Forest of Shadows

This is also my one image on Explore! The photo part was taken by the very talented Shelby Karns. I did the ninja stuffs... I really want to do more ninja photos I've specifically taken photos to be used as backgrounds for more ninja work, but I don't have a scanner right now. Maybe in the near future. Of the ninja ones I did this one is one of my favorites, I really like the sai he is holding, Raph was my favorite Ninja Turtle.

2.Language Barrier

Sometimes in China you people will run up to you and try and talk to you and you have to keep repeating that you don't understand (Ting Budong or something like that) a million times before they finally get that you don't really speak Chinese. This guy was trying to tell us something that he seemed to think was really important, but we couldn't get it at all. He kept pointing across the street too. The photo itself was pretty good I thought. The DoF is really nice.

3.Forbidden Duracell

I'm glad this one made it in my top 5 most interesting because I like this one quite a bit actually. We found some batteries someone was throwing away (or maybe lance was throwing them away I don't remember), and they were sitting on top of this pillar in the forbidden city. So,I took a photo of em and I think it came out really well. It's fun to see the chinese on a duracell.

4. So... Can I Call You?

I don't have too much to say about this other than lawl!(that's net Slang for LOL,which is net slang for Laugh Out Loud... ridiculous no?) I did this a long time ago back as a Graphic Design Final in Bob Conlon's class I got an A in that class. The kid in the picture is a younger Shelby Karns.

5. Flight Attendant 2

Probably one of the best photos on my stream. nuff said.

Ha Ha!

So, I found a way to get around the Great Fire-Wall of China, so I might start posting here again.

China is a very different place. I am not sure what my plans are for next year yet. I might go home I might stay another year. I think I'll only go home if I have a job lined up, otherwise I'll stay here.

Being a foreigner in China is interesting, especially when it comes to other foreigners. We all tend to stick together and there are so few of us that it's a close knit community and everyone seems to know everyone else's business within 5 minutes. It can be pretty nuts. Lets see... since my last post on here I am single now,My Flickr Has grown considerably, and one of my photomations has actually made it on explore! I'm busting out in the Flickr realm a little I guess. I haven't updated it in about a month and I still have a million photos to edit. I really wish I had a scanner here so I can make more photomations, those are fun. Maybe when I'm back in the states I'll put together a gallery show of Photomations. I wonder how well that would do.

Ok I'm going to talk a little bit about music now. I don't know if it's growing up, or getting old, or what it is, but my taste have been shifting alot lately from fast noisy poppy punk/ska to more mellow indie rockish stuff. Don't get me wrong I'll be a Reel Big Fish and LTJ fan till I die (although LTJ has disappointed me with their last album.), but I find it hard to just sit and listen to music like that for hours on end like I used to. I like it when I'm at the bar or in a party situation, but if I am just sitting around (like I am now) I'm far more likely to be listening to Cake or Death Cab for Cutie or Ben Folds. I've recently discovered a band called The New Pornographers and I love em. Same with a band called The Decemberist both of those bands along with Built to Spill have found their way into my regular rotation.

Anyways It's telling me that I may not be able to publish this... So, maybe I wont be posting to here again after all... but If I do I'll try and do so again soon and talk about photos again or something. Here goes nothing.....