Getting Here

We left Cape Cod around 4 AM Tuesday morning and loaded three suitcases, six carryons, the Kiddo, and one cat into the van to head up to Logan airport in Boston (btw, we used Cape Destinations for airport limo service this time and on our trip to China for adopting the Kiddo, and they were consummate professionals both times; highest possible recommendation!).

Melody meowed for the entire trip to Logan, and we were worried that she might keep it up for the entire 24 hours or so of travel. Fortunately, as it turns out, airport limo vans bother her more than actual  airports or airplanes do. Once we got into the airport she mellowed out.

We hit a couple of minor snags early on. Air Canada wasn't sure what to make of our visa documents and it took a bit of discussion to convince them that they were okay. We then had an overweight bag (books!) and a scramble to redistribute the weight. We succeeded in that and finally got our boarding passes and headed to the gate. Fortunately, Air Canada has it's own separate set of gates at Logan, so it has its own security checkpoint, which had basically no line.

We arrived at the gate and discovered our flight to Toronto was delayed. See... No plane.

The plane dis eventually show up, and we left three hours behind schedule, which essentially ate our two-hour layover in Toronto, plus the time zone change. 

We arrived in Toronto (and got an awesome view of the city skyline on our approach), just in time to line up for boarding for our second leg: next stop, Tokyo Japan.

That flight was our longest at about 12 hours. The highlight was an amazing view of glaciers somewhere around Anchorage Alaska.

Melody had been in the cabin for the first two legs, but was getting transferred to cargo for the last leg, which was on ANA (Air Nippon). We were met at the gate in Tokyo by a whole group of ANA people who were there to take charge of the cat. They were pretty much the stereotype of Japanese courtesy, and werea generally awesome and patient while we assembled our hard carrier and transferred Melody to it. Melody was a trooper about the whole thing too.

Once Melody was checked, we had a few minutes to check out some of the shops at Tokyo Narita Airport, including this very Japanese establishment:

Last leg was five hours with all of us sitting together for the first time, but with Melody in the hold. We were together in the middle seats, but we were flying at night mostly over the Pacific Ocean, so there wouldn't have been much to see.

We touched down in Ho Chi Minh city, and progressed smoothly through immigration, customs, and baggage (Melody was fine), and were met by one of the administrators from my school, who was awesome (he even presented us with a couple of bottles of beer, figuring we needed a drink after all of that!).

We received the first part of our "settling-in allowance", $150 which amounts to three million Vietnamese dong. Who wants to be a millionaire? All three of us get to!

Melody was taken to the home of a co-worker who kindly agreed to look after her until we were set up in an apartment, and we were finally able to settle into our hotel for our first night in Ho Chi Minh City.

Here is the view out our hotel room window.

We took a moment to admire the view and then went to sleep. It was now after midnight on Thursday. Journey ended. Adventure just beginning.

Our Last Convention For A While

This Sunday (May 18, 2014), Dandelion Studios will be appearing at our last show, at least for the foreseeable future.

As mentioned here before, I’ve taken a teaching job in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and we’re excitedly looking forward to new adventures on the other side of the planet.

We’re going to be moving all of our Dandelion Studios comics publishing activities online, and we are expecting to be off the convention circuit for at least two years. Of course, anything is possible, so you may see us show up at an anime con somewhere in Asia, or at a show back in the USA if we end up coming home for our summers.
But we are treating this coming weekend as our farewell show. The event is MECAF, the Maine Comics Arts Festival in Portland ME, and it’s consistently been one of our favorite shows.

It features exclusively small press/independent talent, and adult admission is a mere $5. If you are anywhere near Portland this weekend, and you are at all geekily-inclined, this is the best deal for your money, barring none.

Guests of honor are Kazu Kibuishi of Amulet, Vol. 1: The Stonekeeper, Zach Giallongo of Ewoks: Shadow Over Endor, and the creator of one of my favorite recent comic series, Jimmy Gownley of Amelia Rules! Volume 1: The Whole World’s Crazy.

So, come to Portland this Sunday and stop by the Dandelion Studios table to check out all of our comic titles, plus a full selection of plushie giant spiders and (not technically giant) narwhals.

Hope to see you there!

NSTA 2014: The Other Kind of Geeky Convention I Go To

Today was the first day of NSTA's National Conference on Science Education in Boston.

I go to a lot of geeky conventions. Anime conventions, gaming conventions, collectibles shows, comic conventions, science fiction conventions. And when you put about 25,000 science educators in one location, the result is definitely geeky. At something like this, I really get the flavor of my hobbies intersecting with the work of my day job.

And today's convention content turned out to be especially geeky.

My first session was a presentation by Texas Instruments on their zombie apocalypse simulation that teaches everything from brain anatomy ("Brainssssss!") to epidemiology to titrations. The special guest presenters were Harvard scientist (and zombie author!) Steven Schlozman and Big Bang Theory actress (and neuroscientist!) Mayim Bialik. This was a lot of fun, and a great way to kick off the event.

Next up, I had a more job-related seminar on the recent changes to the AP chemistry exam.

Then it was time for the Planetary Society's featured speaker; Bill Nye!

Nye was great. His talk covered his recent debate on creationism, the need for continued space exploration, and the development of defenses against asteroid impacts. He also discussed selfies, and how to do one correctly. Making sure your phone has enough charge and enough memory is a good start, as it turns out.

I'm taking the bus back and forth to the conference, so I'll be heading back tomorrow. I only got minimal time in the exhibit hall today, so I definitely want to see more of that (and pick up more swag!). I also need to get in some workshop time with the Vernier probe equipment that we've started using in my department. 

Back tomorrow! Because, science!

Anime Boston This Weekend!

The next Dandelion Studios convention appearance is coming up this weekend at Anime Boston. We'll be there Friday night and all of Saturday and Sunday. Look for us at Table #43 in Artists Alley!

We'll have comics, minicomics, pendants, and plushie giant spiders and narwhals! Hope to see you all there!

Kiddo's Musical Tastes

Sometime a couple of years ago we picked up an iPod nano for $20 at a yard sale. At the time we planned to put some nice lullabys on it for the Kiddo to listen to falling asleep. However, it got put in a drawer and forgotten about. Well, recently I remembered it and let slip a mention of it, and the Kiddo has been bugging me relentlessly to set it up for him with his favorite songs. So tonight we finally did it. In case you're curious about the Kiddo's taste in music these days, he requested most of the songs on the soundtrack to "I Love Big Trains", along with the following:

"Downtown" by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
"Doogan's Stones" by The Fenians
"Back Home In Derry" by Hair of the Dog
"Excursion Around the Bay" By Great Big Sea
"Rain on the Scarecrow" by John Mellencamp
"Tobacco Road" by Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings
"No Man's Land" by Billy Joel
"American Land" and "Land of Hope and Dreams" by Bruce Springsteen
"The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" by Gordon Lightfoot
"Water for the Elephants" by Dan Zane

Queen City Kamikaze This Sunday In Manchester NH

My next appearance with Dandelion Studios will be at Queen City Kamikaze, this Sunday, 2/16/2014, at Manchester Memorial High School in Manchester NH.

This is a really fun local anime and video gaming convention, and we always have a great time in Manchester.

Hope to see you there!

Big News!

One the things we've been considering for a while now, is the possibility of working overseas for a few years (or maybe more if we find we really love the international lifestyle. We made the decision a year or two back that if we were going to do this, then a good time would be when the Kiddo is around six years old. He'll be old enough to have good clear memories of his travel experiences, and old enough to be involved in the planning process, but young enough that we won't have really deep attachments to school friends and the like here in the States.

So starting last fall, I began the search process for a position overseas. I went to an international schools job fair in Atlanta GA last year and had one good interview but no offer. I did come away with a lot of really good understanding about how the job fair process works and a better sense of what is available and what I could realistically expect to get.

This week was a job fair in Boston, put on by the same organization. The fair went Sunday through Thursday, but Sunday was focused on administrative positions, and the main event was the interview sign up Tuesday morning. I had my grades due Monday, and had free periods after lunch, so I got my grades in before heading up to Boston. It was raining that morning and it turned to snow as the day went on. Not a lot of accumulation, but enough to make the driving difficult.

I also was unsure what time check-in closed, so I drove straight into the city. Arrived on time and got checked in, and then headed back out to Roslindale to stay with family. I'd also been dealing with a slow leak in a tire. I found a Hess station with free air, and filled the tire back up on the way to where I was staying.

Tuesday morning was interview sign-up, which functions as a preliminary screening. I had been invited to sign up for interviews with three schools, one of which I decided not to pursue. At sign-up, I got immediately scheduled for an interview with a school in China that had expressed interest. A school in Vietnam has also gotten in touch, and they took my cell number to call back with an interview time. I signed up with another school in China to possibly get called if they could fit me in, and I dropped off resumes with several other schools, plus had a few conversations with schools that decided not to proceed with an interview for various reasons (not always related to my qualifications; one school didn't have lower grades and so couldn't provide schooling for the Kiddo, for example).

I had my first interview that morning and then headed over to the Boston Public Library to await word from other schools. The school in Vietnam called to schedule me for an interview Wednesday morning, but I didn't hear anything else that day. There was a candidate/recruiter social that night, with some good food and a chance to chat with fellow candidates and school reps.

I headed home that night and found the tire had gotten worse. What's more, the forecast was for a foot of snow in the morning.

I ended up getting up early, heading out into the storm with an almost-flat tire, and arriving at Town Fair Tire in Dedham just as they were opening. They were great and patched the tire (which had a nail in it, as it turned out), and got me back on the road quick. I drove to Forest Hills Station, headed into town on the Orange Line, and got to my interview with the American International School in Vietnam five minutes late, which turned out to be okay.

They called me back only a short time after the interview to tell me that I would be offered the position and arrangements were made to meet with me that evening to go over the details. Meanwhile, I got an email to come sign up with an interview with one of the China schools at that afternoon's "second chance" interview signup. I ended up interviewing with that school in the afternoon. The interview with the Vietnam school was definitely my best interview of the three, and I got the offer details, asked some questions, and decided to head back to the Cape to talk it over with Gynn face-to-face.

At some point on the ride home, it occurred to me that I could bring Gynn back to meet the school reps, and so we ended up all getting up early and heading back to Boston. Gynn asked the questions she had, but at this point we had pretty much decided to accept.

So I am the new chemistry teacher for the American International School in Vietnam.

And it's off to a new adventure. We'll be relocating to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, sometime in late July. A lot of things are still up in the air, including what will become of Ogremoot (our house on Cape Cod), and where the cats will live (coming with us is an option, which was not the case with China).

But we are thrilled to have made the choice, and looking forward to this new journey.