Archive for the ‘guatemala’ Category

Bus preacher

Monday, May 17th, 2010


Here’s LRN1 on a city bus in Guatemala, preachin’. On a bus. Go unto all the world, you know. Good work, LRN1! Part of my famous Guatemala series.

Missed a day or two there at the end of last week. Sorry about that. Fortunately, nothing happened. Not much, anyway. Let’s see if we can remember anything, shall we?

Ummm . . . Thinking . . . Still thinking . . . Oh, yeah. I prepared a talk and gave it on Sunday. Went pretty well. Oh, and we also celebrated LRN4’s birthday, which was fun. LRN5 came over, brought gifts, and made some good food. We enjoyed her company. And we really enjoyed LRN12’s week-long visit. She and her mom headed for home this morning.

And I’m sure I did a whole bunch of other stuff. Just can’t remember it right now.

Anyway. It’s LRN4’s birthday today (happy birthday, LRN4!) and we’re spending our home evening activity time watching The Rocketeer, one of our favorite old (but not too old) movies. The disc is a little dirty or scratched or something, so we’re having a few problems with it, but we’re hoping to muddle through to the end. LRN2’s working on cleaning it right now. Optimism reigns.

And I’ll leave you with this tragic toilet news: watch who you shake hands with.

See you tomorrow.

Pickup rider

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Here’s LRN1 hitching a ride in the back of a pickup. That’s him in the back. I have no idea who that is in the foreground. Part of my famous Guatemala series.

Greetings from the train! Seems like a long time since I’ve written here. I’ve been working on indexing most days – a hundred names indexed and a hundred arbitrated is my normal quota. I’m at well over 5,000 total names. I’m really enjoying it – it’s kind of addictive.

Anyway. Got a few things done at work. Not enough, but I’m hoping for better productivity tomorrow. Can’t complain, though. Well, I can, but I don’t think I will right now.

Tonight’s LRN4’s book group, and it’s at our house. One of her friends is bringing her new iPad for me to play with. Don’t know why, but I’ll be happy to oblige. I’m certainly tempted by one of those things. Although I now have four laptops from which to choose – two work ones (don’t ask) and two personal machines. I’m using the worst of the lot right now – my netbook equivalent. It works fine and I’m happy with it, but it’s not an iPad. Maybe if we hadn’t just bought a new car. Maybe next year. Maybe when the early adopters have all gotten theirs and the prices come way down. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’ll be happy to play with LRN4’s friend’s machine.

I’ve rediscovered James Lileks’s daily blog and website. I’ve enjoyed his work for quite some time, but his blog – The Bleat – had gotten a bit tiresome a year ago or so. I’m delighted to report that it’s interesting again. Highly recommended. He even produced a Diner podcast in the last week or so, which I’ve always enjoyed. They’re amusing and always feature some very strange old music. The only problem is that he’s only producing them every few months at best – not nearly frequently enough for my needs.

Not much else to report today, so I’ll leave you with this shocking food violence news: pizza brawl!

See you tomorrow.

Kitchen

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010


Here’s LRN1’s kitchen in his place in Guatemala. Looks a bit . . . rustic. Especially that propane tank. At least the dishes are clean – way to go, LRN1! Part of my famous Guatemala series.

Worked a bit a long day today, partially making up for staying home yesterday afternoon after picking LRN4 up at the airport. I don’t regret that at all, and it wasn’t bad staying an extra hour today. I think I’ll do it again tomorrow, in fact.

LRN4 heard today about a free performance of . . . umm . . . one of Shakespeare’s comedy’s. Maybe it’s As You Like It. Or maybe A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Yeah, I think that’s it. Maybe. In any case, it’s showing for free in Turlock the rest of this week. We think we’ll be going on Friday evening. I’m looking forward to it.

I just installed Ubuntu 10.04 as a virtual machine here on my beloved Mac Mini. It looks really nice and seems to work great. I’ve been thinking of installing it on one of my laptops, at least as a dual-boot option, so I can use it on the train for development. The train is getting to be a busy place for me, what with working for an hour every morning and doing 200 indexing names every afternoon. Plus, I really don’t want to have to carry three laptops with me every day. Really. But I want to start doing a bit of development, and Linux is probably a good option for some of the things I’m interested in doing – compilers and simulators and such things. Although Windows is also an option, sadly. Can’t do Mac or iPhone development because I don’t have a Mac laptop. Just as well, I suppose – I don’t want to have to carry four laptops every day either.

Anyway. It’s late and I need to hit the sheets. I’ll leave you with this shocking food violence news: mozzarella caprese threat!

See you tomorrow.

Head banger

Monday, May 3rd, 2010


Here’s LRN1 in his first missionary apartment, standing directly outside the bathroom door. Notice the headroom under the door. He reports that he’s whacked his head on numerous doorways so far. Keep a weather eye out, LRN1! You may need your head someday. Part of my newly-famous Guatemala series, as was the previous post (without even knowing it!).

Incidentally, that toilet looks like it’s going to be about ready for its next cleaning in a week or two. It probably won’t get it, if I know anything about missionary pads.

LRN4’s home from Utah! She’s doing well and we were very glad to see her. Her flight arrived 20 minutes or so early, so it was lucky that I was already at the cell phone lot. I got there with about fifteen minutes to spare, got LRN4’s call, went and parked in the short-term lot, and got inside the building before the luggage started coming out, so it worked out perfectly. Welcome home, LRN4! We really missed you.

LRN4 is taking off again in a mere 18 days, and this time she’s taking LRN2 with her. What will I do? Probably a lot of relaxing, but that’s not the point. I’ll miss them. As mentioned before, I’ll be joining them for the last couple of days of the last leg of their San Diego – Mesa – Las Vegas trip and then enjoying the drive back home with them. Should be fun. I’ll just make the best of bachelorhood for the first ten days or so. Survival: Lardville. Maybe it’ll be a new television show. I don’t think I’d watch it, though.

Anyway. Busy and enjoyable weekend. It was warm and sunny – downright hot today, with highs in the mid-80’s. Got a little bit of useful stuff done and a lot of useless stuff. I’m still struggling to decide whether to try to finish the autonomous RC car or start work on a software-only project. Decisions, decisions. So many possibilities.

We’re expecting warm and sunny weather for the rest of the week, by the way. I wonder if the spring rains are over. The hills have already gone decidedly brown, so I guess they think it’s summer now. Assuming hills can think, that is.

Got the front brakes on the Honda replaced today. It turns out they still probably had about 40% of their life left (after five years!), but the rotors had warped, so it made sense to replace them anyway while they were taken apart and the rotors were turned. I tried to do the job myself the other day, but one of the bolts holding the driver’s side caliper on was in so tight I broke three sockets trying to loosen it. Decided to call in the professionals at that point.

The rotors on my pickup are also warped. I’m frustrated – I keep warping rotors! The guy at the shop says it’s being done by shops who don’t hand-tighten the wheels when they take them off and put them back on. I’ll need to be a bit more vigilant about that. I’m sick of wobbly brakes.

Heading down the Edwards on Wednesday evening for our Thursday meeting. I’m driving, as usual. It really doesn’t take any more time than flying, and I enjoy it more anyway. Looking forward to it.

And it’s time for bed. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this heartwarming toilet news: toilet sweet home.

See you tomorrow.

Mayan statue

Thursday, April 29th, 2010


Here’s LRN1 with a statue in a museum somewhere in Guatemala. I presume it’s Mayan. That’s LRN1 over there on the left. Great Art courtesy of LRN1’s fellow missionary and part of my famous Statue series. UPDATE: Also part of my now-famous Guatemala series.

The weekend has begun! I worked moderately hard this week and expect to work much harder this weekend. There’s tons to do. I need to replace the front brakes on my beloved Honda – they’ve been squealing, which I believe means they need to be replaced. It has over 52,000 miles on it now, so that’s not surprising. What is surprising is that it’s still on its original tires. Not much longer, though, I fear. Need to start saving my money. Those Michelin Pilots get expensive. And nothing but the best will suffice for me, of course.

Also need to fill a couple of cars, wash one, and . . . ummm . . . Oh, man – I had a whole list of things in my mind. Can’t remember any of them. They’ll come to me, though.

LRN4 continues to enjoy her trip to Utah. I miss her more each day. Only four more days until she’s home!

And I’ll leave you with this shocking food violence news: legislative egg toss!

See you tomorrow.