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.