> Mine:
> 2007 began with
a very organized routine of working long hours driving cab.  A rate 
increase we got starting Dec 1 2006 lent some optimism to the whole 
enterprize and with business firm through the first part of the year it 
was possible to break $1000, net, on a 66-hour week.  This was 
accomplished in part by pre-purchasing 'blocks' of six shifts a week 
which meant a lower price per shift.  Many of those weeks I also taught 
on the day following the one night I didn't drive.  So it was pretty 
intense but there was a rhythm and determination to the thing which kept 
me going.

Meanwhile my boss at the taxi school was anxious to give me more 
teaching time.  At first we fell into an arrangement whereby I 
pre-purchased  blocks of six shifts on alternate weeks and he tried to 
load up the 'off' week with teaching.  But this became untenable. 
Meanwhile the rate increase also meant that even paying higher dollar, I 
could still make an excellent return per hour when buying individual, 
but lucrative, weekend shifts.  The last six-block I bought was in May. 
  Since then we have fallen into a rhythm where I pre-purchase 
Fri-Sat-Sun for each week and can expect to get 2-3 full days teaching 
sometime Monday thru Thursday.  This gives me 1-2 days off a week, and a 
daytime schedule for part of the week, and so I now have something 
resembling a reasonble life.

It helped too that in May I was able to start teaching the full-fledged 
'initial-training' classes. This turned the classroom teaching into a 
significant occupation, both as dependable income, and as an engaging 
mental challenge. Previously I'd specialized in the four-hour 
'refresher' course and the six-hour Defensive Driving course.  Initial 
training modules are eight hour days and include teaching NY geography. 
  All of this has served to strengthen my momentum along a shallow but 
rising trajectory away from the mental, emotional, and spiritual squalor 
I inhabited five years ago when I lost my job as a IT instructor.

With the recent departure of the taxi school's longest 'tenured' and 
most capable instructor there is the promise of even more work and 
challenge in the near future.  Through '07 I developed my skills on an 
abbreviated 3-day version of the initial training course.  Now I will be 
exposed to modules from the more thoroughly-taught, full-fledged, 9-day 
version of the course.

As recently as a week ago I had to dig down. I was scheduled to do a 
brace of three, totally new, 8-hour, geography modules. I had zero prep 
time.  For eighteen days previous I'd not had a single day off, (I was 
either driving or teaching,) during which I could develop new material. 
  So overnight, for each of the three nights, I memorized how to draw 
maps of first Brooklyn, then Queens, then the Bronx, along with their 
several dozen streets, parks, and neighbourhoods, then reproduced them 
the following day, hand-drawn, standing at the chalk-board. The trick is 
to be able to lay in the features with smooth-drawn lines, and without 
erasures. Students are usually exposed to several instructors and are 
quick to make comparisons, are critical, and not shy about verbalizing 
their thoughts.  Whatever you may or may not think about all this, it 
was a personal benchmark for me that puts me significantly beyond what I 
would have been capable of the previous year.

So I am in a relatively positive place after these developments through 
2007.  I can calmly accept that right now I am the least experienced and 
least capable of the instructors, but the school director also pointed 
out that I am his most flexible instructor with the broadest range of 
courses that he can put in the classroom for. As long as I don't try to 
'do too much', and I stay methodical and focused, I hope to grow my 
repertoire of lesson modules while polishing my teaching/presentation 
skills.  I take some pride in it now, as you can see.


> POV-Ray:
Have not published much on the ng's but through the early to middle of 
the year I enjoyed an extended collaboration, off-ng, with another POV 
artist.  It gave me a certain stick-to-it-ness, over an extended period, 
which had been lacking for a long time.


> 
> Writing: 
During conversations with customers in the cab I often wish I could 
refer them to my blog as I was once able to do. But I am mostly glad I 
let go of that.

> 
> Work: 
Currently have a great relationship with my boss, the school director.

> 
> Fitness: 
Bad scene, but again, the mental health is improving so that might lead 
to improvements down the road.

> 
> Direction: 
Have the problem of seeing only short-term and blinding myself to 
long-term.

> 
> Money: 
Nice to be earning some again.  Gives confidence. Self-respect.


-Jim

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