My Blogging Mind

My blogging mind is a bit like the leaves of this Coleus plant. Coleus leaves tend to rule the day and so it was with my mind and blogging. I would come up with blog thoughts as my life unfolded. Then came Facebook and Twitter and my mind started to think in short thoughts.

The above photo comes by way of my garden and originally the red leaves were still dominant, but then I lowered the exposure as I tweaked it on iPhoto and the blooms popped out. Not what I expected, but did I expect other social media to affect blogging.


Has one social media changed another? Has this happened to you?


Every August I do a computer vacation to cleanse my soul and that will arrive after this coming wordless Wednesday. In September, I am thinking of returning to an a-z theme to get this blogging mind of mine flowing again as it did in April.

We will see. Maybe it will become like this Zinnia jungle...

Stratoz, organized?

There are times I wish this blog was all about jazz (or something else) and I consider starting a new blog all about jazz. These waves come from time to time, but the fact that I generally don't want to divide myself up into separate blogs wins out.

But I would also think it would be cool if those who like jazz knew they could show up and find jazz and not some rambling about a very cool experience at a Farmer's Market or Mosaic Woman losing her job, or the spirituality of Bonaventure ...

So each day will feature a different aspect of this dude's unfolding life.

I am not the most structured man in the world and I often wonder how my students survive their time in my classroom. Maybe my nonsense distracts them from their need for structure. But I do want to get organized here, so we will see. So you ask, what will Tuesdays bring...

Jazz,

... and a post that has been in my head since I thought about a gift, which I gave to my good friend in Cleveland, which I do believe has her swinging from time to time.


...

the unblogging mind

this is typical...

I am sitting at my drawing table and realize I need drafting tape, so I rise up to walk ten feet. I find myself standing in the bathroom wondering why I had walked there. Sometimes I remember, and in that case I got the drafting tape.

Blogging away from the computer takes much energy and my Lyme disease/heavy dose of anti-biotic mind is lacking it these days. A conversation with Mosaic Woman followed that evening by an essay on the very subject would have been woven together into a blog post by now. but not in this mind. A hymn sung by a friend in church, takes me to praying for a friend on retreat. Again no blog happened.

There are other things that take much energy, patience is one. My job has required more than I can handle on a good healthy mind day. This second week of tiredness may have led to one student telling me he would never come to my class again... he came back at lunch and we both spoke of our mistakes. Another student pointed out my impatience, then to melt my heart said that she still liked my class anyway. Another student's eternal habit finally pushes me over the ledge and I respond in a way that may not be the best way to help her to improve. After another day of falling of the ledge, I catch myself and develop a new plan while praying that evening.


Truly wake up calls to find the energy to treat my students as I would want to be treated. So, I pray for patience.


I returned to that drafting table and did not forget my project. You will see it here in the future, a collaboration with Mosaic Woman ... HOPE on slate

I pray that when I am done with the meds things will become less foggy, and once again blog posts will keep my typically wondering mind, a bit more focused. For now, I am so grateful my unblogging brain can still blog, if I sit to write.

My job --- a blessing and a good gig

I stumbled into teaching and there have been jobs along the way that I would not have described as a blessing or a good gig. But now I do say such things about my job. Sadly blessings and good gigs don't mean perfect and trouble free. Angst still arises, but I am in awe that my professional life has landed. I continue to leave this blog open to all who can stumble here and apparently at least one student and his family has done just that. My science classes are often interrupted with back in the day stories of life growing up or in Oregon or in Massachusetts or in Illinois. Do I wish for my students to be reading this blog? Not really, but is it the end of the world? Just like I don't wish they would knock on my front door. But I would not slam the door in their face if they did. In the latter case I would explain what is private and what is public. But the truth is I keep this blog public, so all I can do is keep it a place where I would bore them to death. That is my hope.

Now I have gone public with my life at work. With permission from the leaders at the school, I have started a blog about the horticulture program. Here is a photo from 2002 of me at the school. It was taken and given to me by friend who has retired and moved to Canada. My hair had grown out, but had not yet turned gray. I am planting bulbs. Mosaic Woman keeps it on her dresser top, apparently it is favored by her too.

introducing Mosaic Woman

Mosaic Woman has re-entered the world of blogging. It has not been an easy journey, but the desire to have a a website with her name on which she can eventually sell mosaics got her moving again. Those of you who have been journeying with me here in the land of Stratoz are on a first name basis with her, well some of you are known as a twist of your blog name around here...

She is going to be writing about her experience with art, other and her own, and maybe even me at some point in time. So check out Mosaic Woman's website and feel free to say howdy.

becoming a stained glass artist

My new blog friend, Kathryn J, over at Colloquies with Kathryn, spoke about how this internet stuff can lead to problems.   I agree, so I made a new rule... 30 minutes in my studio before I can write anything on my blog.

So I just spent 30 minutes with paper, pencil and erasure working on something big, well it will be big for this stained glass artist.

This is my favored stage and until the final stage of the process--- it is all downhill in my book.

I have doodled since the beginning of time and now my brain is adapting to the constraints of glass. In my current design something new is happening. It is being created as I play with lines on paper.

what are those other steps as they descend in pleasure after creating the design...

choosing the colors/glass
cutting and grinding the glass
foiling the glass
soldering... now we have hit rock bottom
cleaning the finished project and holding it up to the light.

so this post was to be about how I became a teacher. That is the idea that floated up and apparently floated away, but if I continue to read Kathryn's journey to become a teacher (not my route at all, well maybe we have something in common????). I will be reminded of the blog post that could become, like one of my unfolding mandala designs inside a ten inch diameter circle...



looking at this I want an erasure. It is not quite done yet... what would you erase?