Spring, Tampa, and Miscellaneous

Winter in Indiana has/was not bad this year relatively and not a lot of snow. I had crocuses (not the ones above) blooming by Valentine's Day in the front yard. These pictures were taken in the last two weeks, but I love the bicolored daffodils (either the two different yellow tones or white with yellow) and the beautiful, bright, but small purple crocuses.

Last fall, I also planted pink and purple hyacinth bulbs into the mix and think they are lovely around the rock. I feel like this picture is wonderful with them at the center, daffodils behind, and then the stunning forsythia bush with its yellow flowers in the spring.

In a few weeks, I should have some tulips bloom. Also, around that time or later, I should have some alliums blooming because I also planted nine bulbs last fall.

It makes me happy that I have a yard that has so many spring flowers that come up every year and bloom at different times. I have heard though that they don't really offer any benefits to bees or pollinators, so I think I will try to add some native plants too that bloom in the spring as well. I know that we live in Indiana, but I hope to have things in my yard that flower or provide color and interest from early spring to the last bit of fall (3 seasons). However, as climate change continues to happen, winter might become less and less severe, which sounds nice, but it means that things are in dire straights for this home of ours, Earth!

Now for this week, I flew down to Tampa this Wednesday for the TESOL Conference that Purdue has allowed me to come to even though I am not presenting this year. This is the first TESOL Conference I have been to since 2014 when it was in Portland, Oregon that year before I started at Purdue. However, since then I have gone to the smaller Indiana TESOL Conference a few times and even the Colombia TESOL Conference, in which I presented at and that was a great international work trip/experience.

But this year, it is in Tampa so it meant that I got to save a lot of my allotted travel money because I can stay with my dad who lives about 45 minutes away from the Tampa Convention Center. I went to the convention on Thursday and Friday and went to about three sessions each day. I would say well over 60% of the sessions/presentations were somehow related to AI and it seems like something that we aren't going to be able to get away from, the future is here!

The field as a whole seems to be fully embracing it even though some people are expressing reservations and hesitation. I still have a lot of reservations even though this semester I have led a project with other teachers in our program for teaching students how to use ChatGPT and use it in a "correct" way for one of our course projects. So, yes one could say that I am embracing it, but I almost feel like there isn't much of a choice in the matter because students already are using it and the longer I waited or didn't acknowledge it, the more it will be too late later. All I can say and think, is that at least we (as a profession) are talking about it and a lot, almost overwhelming at this point, and hopefully all the bots aren't going to replace all of us anytime soon!

But I have also managed to enjoy myself. On both Thursday and Friday, I managed to do quite a bit of walking along the Tampa Riverwalk and the weather has been perfect! On Friday, I managed to walk 4.5 miles and took a somewhat descent photo of downtown from one of the ends of the riverwalk. You can see it below and decide for yourself if it is an okay picture.

Then today we went to the beach on Anna Marie Island. I ended up walking 7 miles today. I walked 2.5 miles and back down and then came back and took a short break before walking a mile up the other way and back. It was in the mid 70s, a little windy, but sunny, so it was lovely. I even managed to get a bit red on a few places where I didn't get as much sunscreen on as the rest, but not bad and it should fade within a day or two. It is surprising though after not being exposed to the sun that much lately that only a few hours in the sun down here can cause that. It was worth it because I love the beach, no matter where it is, as long as it has sand that I can walk or run on then I am good to go! Although I would love to have a house on the beach or access to a beach that is a bit less crowded or a bit more private because I think that would be a bit more freeing and enjoyable for some reason. You can see the picture below from today even though there were quite a bit of people, I managed to get a picture without any people in it.

Tomorrow I will go see and spend the day with my mom. She lives a little under two hours away from my dad's, so that is nice.

What else? I started reading American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins on the day I left at the airport. I find it to be a gripping story, but I remembered why did I hear about this book before or wasn't there some controversy around it. I looked it up and sure enough there was. A lot of Latinx groups (writers and readers) criticized it because Jeanine Cummins is this white woman and she is writing a story from the perspective of a woman and her son that are from the upper class in Mexico and it is too telenovela like or Mexican Soap Opera like and portrays certain stereotypes. I can understand some of this and as one article stated this goes back to the question of "Who has the right or authority to tell a story from another race's or culture's viewpoint?" I think this is a legitimate question/concern and needs to be well thought out and considerations need to be made. This definitely made me stop and pause and consider should I finish American Dirt and ultimately I have decided that I will because I would like to give the author credit because she has said that she spent a considerable time doing the research and gathering information for the context for this book even though it is a work of fiction, so I want to respect that and believe she was writing this out of the best intentions of wanting to raise awareness on this issue of the migrant crisis and not alienate an entire ethnic group.

I cannot help but think of the first novel that I wrote The Zumba Class in light of this because there is only maybe one significant character is a straight white male like me and everyone else (especially the main four characters) are not. I believe that I tried to represent everyone in a fair, multidimensional way, but would I receive criticism too? I will never know I guess since I haven't sent it to any publishers, and don't have an agent, or publicist at least that I am aware of.

TV shows that I am watching, well there is really only one. Since watching Fellow Travelers, I looked up what else Matt Bomer has done because I thought he did a fantastic job in that show. I discovered White Collar because apparently I was living under a rock, but this is not surprising because most of the time I don't know what's on TV or what movies are popular. Anyway, you can find it on Amazon for free and it will be on Netflix again (apparently it was there before) in April. I think the acting and the non-romantic chemistry between the two main characters Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay is kind of what makes the show so good and it isn't bloody and gruesome like so many crime shows. It is about white collar crime, so think of like big time art and jewel thieves, that sort of thing. There is also a main story in the background that adds a layer of mystery and intrigue. I am only on season 2 out of 6.

I only wrote this much because I know people want to know what I am reading, watching, etc. and if I put it on here then it means that in my opinion, I am standing behind my words on such and such book, TV show, movie. Though, you may or may not agree with me or like the same things, and that is completely okay.

Finally, lately I haven't been able to write or read that much besides my normal personal journaling, which I do manage to do quite a bit. I made it a goal that for this trip, I would try to do certain things and a couple of those were to try to read and write. I have started and I am about a third of the way through American Dirt. I haven't managed to do much writing, but this blog post is writing and I am glad I made the time because I haven't posted anything since the end of January, so success!

Hope you enjoyed this update and until next time, take care!