Tag: Alaska

Importing Old Posts

I’ve imported the posts from my old blog that I had at this domain when it was active from 2002 to 2011. There are few post’s that I’ve imported that had photographs that won’t show up at all – for some reason those photographs became corrupted.

One thing that I’ve noticed between all the posts is that my writing style had or has changed. All I have to do now is to go through all the post’s to see how they look and what not.

Though, I’m most likely going to wait til after the first of the year when I settle into a new place. Plus, I want to have a second larger display to show the back-end of this site when I do.

Bye for now…

Peter

A way to unwind….

After studying for University finals, or commuting to and from University in Downtown Portland. Or, after taking a long drive – such as driving from Alaska to Oregon, or driving to and from Lake Tahoe from Oregon. I would like to take a day or two to unwind from the driving or from studying for finals. Up to a few days of unwinding and do close to nothing but to adjust to the local area that I’m in.

Another way I would like to unwind is to read a book or a few books if I have the time to read them. If I am able to read a good book – with 300 to 750 pages (give or take) per book and my mind is the only thing that is active.

Enjoy your ways to unwind…. read other ways to daily life.

This was taken in the Spring of 2007 for a photography class.
This was taken in the Spring of 2007 for a photography class.

Changing Reading Habits

Novels in a Polish bookstore
Novels in a Polish bookstore (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One thing that I have noticed that have changed is the type of books that I have read for the last 6 to 8 years. I used to read only Science Fiction and Computer books, a few fiction and non-fiction books. I am looking at more authors from fiction and non-fiction books. I’m getting burnt out and tired of reading Sci Fiction and Computer books in general. Basically similar content when I’m computer books and I could say the same thing about Sci Fiction books.

For all the reading I want to do now, I just don’t have access to the books that I already have in storage, in Alaska.  Even though I go to the library to check out books that I want to read, it’s still not the same of going into another room that is full of books and choosing a book that I already own.

I love to read. A lot, when I can or when I’m not in school and even though I read for classes, it is nice to read books that takes your mind of off things for a short bit of time before getting back to reading for school or work.

Even though I’ve started to read books again, it had been a hit and miss habit that comes and goes like the wind. Sometimes reading could be the only thing that would be the only thing that would make me sleepy enough to fall asleep at night. That’s one thing I like about reading these days.

Now, I just to figure out to spread out reading for pleasure, school, and daily life evenly to make things work seemly together. I, also, need to make time to take photographs for class, and for building up a portfolio. I need to find some way to publish some photographs so I can get noticed. Taking and talking about photography is for another post for another time.

Later

Now waiting for a response… from 2 Universities

Note: I got an email from PSU saying I would hear a decision from them in the next 4 to 6 weeks, and I would figure the same amount of time for University of Oregon.

So, now I’m waiting for a response from Portland State University (PSU) and University of Oregon. The next couple of months will be slow; in regards to, hearing from them.

I’m hoping to get into University of Oregon since its my first choice to attend, and Portland State is my second choice. If I don’t get into either school, I may just transfer to another junior college in the Portland Metro Region.

If getting into the above mentioned Universities and if I don’t transfer to another junior college; I may end up going back up to Alaska and finish school up there.

It’s a matter of waiting and hearing back from the two Universities before I decide on which road to take. Knowing my luck, I just may end up back living in Alaska.

The last 2 years in Portland haven’t been great but alright for the most part. Things could have gotten better, things said differently, and things should have gone differently.

One thing that’s starting to bug me is  my health. I’ve noticed a couple of things that have cropped up recently that have me concerned about. These specific things I hope to get checked out on the sooner side.

Anyways, I hope that these 2 Universities would get the transcripts from the school’s that I’ve already attended. The transcripts went by USPS standard mail which my take 7 to 10 business days (usually). With Portland State they would send out an email saying that they received documents when they would arrive to the admissions office. For some reason I thought the transcripts would have arrived by now to Portland State and to University of Oregon.

Seems like that moving to Oregon and applying to University of Oregon and to Portland State has been a waste of time so far. I may eat these words when and if I hear back from them if I’m admitted to either school, and I would update this post when I do. I might also link to another post when I add note to this post.

I’m just tired of waiting of things that take time to go get done or get processed.

Later…

Finding Work

Note: This is cross posted with this post. The crossed listed post is long gone.

For most of the year I’ve been putting in applications to a lot of companies with no luck. I’ve gotten an interview with one company but wasn’t offered a position that I had an interview with.

With the amount of time passing by I don’t know if I would be able to get a job. I know I could go to school and further what ever knowledge that I have, but at this point its just going to keep my busy and there’s a possibility of not being able to get a job after getting a degree of some kind.

It seems like that I have a constant run of bad luck over the last 6 years or so. I’ve been a caregiver for the 10 or so years – which had been a full time job (at least 50+ hours) in which I wasn’t paid for. I was caregiver for a relative with a some what limited income during this time. Not being paid to be a caregiver which is “screwing” me over in a few ways. The obviously way is preventing me from me getting hired on at company in Oregon.

All I want is to find work someplace and save some money to live on. Granted the way the job market is happens to be an “employers market.”

Seems like that I’m looking in all of the wrong places or answering those “assessment” the wrong way on online applications.

I even put in for McDonald’s and I don’t know if I’m going to hear from them. If I don’t, I just wonder what’s wrong on how I’m approaching on filling out applications or whatever related to filling out applications. Don’t know if that made any sense but whatever.

Anyways, all I want to do is to work and go to school …. is that to much to ask. Seems that no matter on what I try to improve my life seems all I get are road blocks of some fashion. It’s like that I shouldn’t have left Alaska in the first place, even though I got really tired of the cold, snow and the long nights.

later…..

a traveling post

Intro

This post is about traveling (obviously). From Alaska through Canada to Oregon and other places I would like visit ….. soon.

Now on with the post….

Well just about a year …. since I moved from Alaska to Oregon. Started on Oct 15 2010 towards Canada and on Oct 16 2010 entered Canada. By this time last year it snowed in Alaska and in Yukon Territories (plus other parts of Canada too at this time last year). When we – my brother and I entered into Yukon Territories lost an hour of the day because the time  difference between Alaska Time and Pacific time (which includes British Columbia and Yukon Territories) – anyways – side from the darkness of the long nights it was a very good road trip. There were a lot of scenery that I wanted to take pictures of – obviously I didn’t take any cause I didn’t have a good dslr camera with me.

Even though I could have stayed in Alaska and I’m thinking that I’m reconsidering the move and heading backup – haven’t decided yet. I’m going to see how things go at a University here in Oregon first – then I would go from there. Also it would depend on (still) trying to find  some kind of job here in Oregon.

Anyway, at some point I’m going to take a longer road trip into Canada where the trip wouldn’t be rushed like the road trip that I took last year (October 2010). This time I would have a good dslr camera with me along with an extra lens or two and couple additional memory cards. Obviously I would need to plan things out well ahead of time. I have a general idea where I want to go and visit to.

Though I would be taking a road trip here in the U.S. at some point to – beyond Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington State. I’m still figuring out where I want to visit to. I thought of going to the Southwest U.S. beyond that I don’t know where I’d go on a road trip to.

Though the places I like to visit are Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. Going to these places are some ways off. Theses are  four place’s I was going to travel with my mother – obviously that’s not going to happen now. That’s another post for another time and place.

Aside from these places I want to visit to – I would like to visit Chicago, New York City, New Orléans, the Kansas for some reason. Maybe a few other places in the Midwest, along with  places in western Europe, New Zealand, and Australia.

Another place that I wanted visit with my mother is to New Zealand. For some reason I can’t remember she wanted to go there  though in part because it’s a scenic place to visit.

latter….

P.S. I’m going to post picture’s when I will take them as I go on a trip to places that I’ve mentioned above.  The pictures that I took last October won’t be posted cause I don’t have that many and what I do have been taken on my blackberry and which won’t be posted cause of the quality.

Traveling

Generally I don’t mind traveling at all, its just the leading up to getting on to the plane that I don’t like. What I mean is that before I travel to some where or head back home I get a nervous feeling that I would leave something important behind or something that has sentimental value behind when I leave a place that I have visited.

Anyway, I was able to finally get out of the city that I’ve been living in for the better part of 14 years and traveled to Anchorage for just under a week and it was a good feeling too. I was going “stir crazy” by doing the same routine over and over again, which gets very stale, very quickly. By getting out of the same routine every so often is a very good thing for the mind and the soul. Its just by doing something different in a different city even for a short time could be helpful for your mental state and health. Basically a change of pace for me at least is a good things cause I’m tired of being in the same situation that I’ve been (which I really won’t get into at the current time) and getting out of town is nice on occasion.

There are a lot of things that I could about traveling on very short notice, but one thing I hate is the price of hotel rooms when the travel dates are just a day or 2 from the actually finding out especially in regards to traveling with someone who has to go to a hospital in Anchorage. If I had better foresight I could have found better deals on hotels if I actually did a better job looking for the deals. Then there’s trying to figure out the travel plans on getting back home which is a pain of the ass.

I haven’t had an extended or a long trip for a long time, it would be fun and exciting to some extent but it would be fun to travel for an extended time. Though I’ve traveled for a “full” day – like twice – over the last 18 months before this last week. The times that I’ve travels was back in December of 2006 and one day of Summer of 2007 and that was to and from Anchorage.

Though I would like to travel more often but I just don’t want to travel that much by air, I would much rather travel by car or the train. I would prefer to travel by train but passenger rail today in the U.S. isn’t like what you can or could find in Europe or in many parts of Asia – as far as I know. If I was able to I would like to own my own passenger cars and such.

There are a lot of things that I want to do like traveling but its just the matter of getting the money to do stuff like this but when the economy is like the way it is, its just not practical to do so. Plus, the way my life has been going recently its just not worth the time or the energy to even think about doing such things. As much as I want to think and plan trips, its just like planning to do other basic fun stuff when you don’t have the time to do such stuff.

I could go on and on about what I want to do in regards to traveling and things that I want to do but I don’t know what else to say at the moment or what to add to this post.

bye for now…

Taking pictures

Last night I tried to take pictures with my digital camera turned out to be a big mistake. The picture of what I wanted to take was a star or a planet that had an orange tint to it, and it was located in the southeast part of the sky. Though there was a slight overcast of clouds but still could see the brighter of the stars in the night sky that could be seen through the clouds last night. It turned out that I didn’t have the right set up for a camera to take pictures at night.

Anyways, the pictures that I did take of this one star (or it might have been planet don’t know though) didn’t come out right and I generally try not to post a sub par photograph on Flickr.

One thing that I would like to get is a high end SLR camera but not really a digital SLR. Having both would be nice but at this point I much rather have a film-based SLR. Though its just a matter of saving money to get a brand new film based SLR – if there even made by different OEM’s to choose from. I would like to have more than 2 choices when it comes to choosing a new camera, don’t know why, but its the way I like it or want it that way for some reason.

Peter