Thursday, June 26, 2008

Forced Inspiration

From Pictures of Me

My hair is getting pretty long.

I feel that it is time that I write something even though I have not really had the inspiration to write anything. I thought that years from now when I reread these blogs, I do not want to have to guess about what I must have been doing during this period when I was not writing anything.

I am back in Seaton, England at my cousins house once more. I have been spending much of my time here helping my cousin develop his test which I have mentioned on my blog before. It is exciting to have come so far in the development, yet there is still so much more to do. Lately I have been working on a parallel version of the test which basically entails making a whole new test that is assessing exactly the same things as the first test. A second version of the test is highly useful when it comes to testing people a second time because it will maximize the possibly that the only reason a patient is performing better on the test is because they are actually getting better and not just because they have already taken the test once or twice before and have learned it (although that would be a good thing for a brain injured patient).

When I am not working on the test I am typically thinking about my future and what my life holds for me after my time here in England. My UK VISA expires in late August. So one way or another, I am going to be leaving here come late August. I have been spending a lot of time contemplating where it is that I will go and what I will do when I get there. Home has been a huge consideration, but it does not feel right. Besides, I have no clue what I would do what when I got there. One thing that I have not really done very much of on this journey so far is volunteer. That was one of my major goals before leaving. I did some volunteering for a short period of time when I was in Mexico, but I did not feel like I was contributing very much. At that time I was just concentrating on coming back home after being glad to be alive after the sailing debacle. Anyway, one thing that I have been doing is trying to find a semi full time, medium term to long term volunteer position that sounds right for me. Not exactly the easiest of tasks. I have found that there are a lot of websites designed to help people just like me. Most of these sites (like to many things in this world) are all about making money and nothing else. They act as middle men to hook up volunteers with places that are looking for volunteers. You then end up paying them, the middle men, thousands of dollars to come and do some volunteer work which does not include the price of travel to the volunteer destination. Who knows how much of that money goes to the volunteer program or community and how much stays in their pocket. These people are providing a service though, so I guess it is only fair that they get paid for their service. I think I am still a little bitter about the prospect of having to pay money to volunteer my time. Or perhaps I am just cheap, like my father says. In any case, I am weary of these sites and how they try their best to sell these programs that sound shady in some respects.

Now then, having said all that; there are lots of possibilities of where I can go and what I can do provided I fork out some dough. Lately my focus has been looking for volunteer positions in China and the surrounding area like Thailand and Japan. There are some interesting programs I am currently considering, but I have not made any definitive decisions as of yet. Stay tuned as I will certainly write a blog when I know for sure where I am going and what I am doing.

I have also added a couple of random pictures to my England Album; have a look:
England