I have been warned not to wait too long in life to find a partner because I may get set in my ways. The concern is that I may no longer be tolerant to different quirks.
My cell is next to a more experienced lady that recently joined the organization. I am the age of her children. Because of our proximity many of the questions and training fall to me by default. I like to tell her that there are many ways to do things, and mine is the only right way. She gets a chuckle out of this.
This weekend I had two experienced visitors come visit me and stay for the weekend. They drove the whole 11-hour trip. The first night offered to give them a walking tour or a drive of downtown to Newport. I warned them that it would be a 2.5-mile walk through each way and also noted that since it was 68 F that it was the nicest weather they would have during this visit. They elected to walk. We saw a lot of downtown as I shared a wealth of historical information on the regions and structures with them. We saw the largest mobile model train set in the world. This display had been set up every year for over 60 years. We finished the tour at Newport on the Levee at a seafood restaurant and had the best view in the place of downtown Cincy. The guests elected to take a cab home.
The next day the guests rolled out of bed at 11 and we went to Krohn’s Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. We spent part of the afternoon there looking at the flowers, fruit trees, bonsai trees and finally a Christmas performance. Next we went to a pond-side view that overlooked the Ohio River and enjoyed the view of Newport before strolling around the pond. Next we went to Union Terminal, a magnificent train station build in the 1930’s. Inside we observed the structure and murals on the ceiling. It is still an active train station for Amtrak and also houses a number of museums plus an IMAX that we did not enter. We went to my grocery store to pick up groceries and show them the wonderful inventions and items that I had influenced. Returning home I cooked up a gourmet 2-course meal.
The third and final day of the visit started with a tour of City Hall, then a cathedral. Next we walked over to my organization where I showed them my cell and lab. In the lab I provided them with awesome samples of new inventions that are not even available on the market yet. We spent the late afternoon looking at pictures before going to dinner at an Irish Pub.
I continually condition myself to become a good leader. I believe of part of being a good leader is to identify behavior that need to be changed and immediately implement corrective actions so that the feedback is timely and relevant. This is not always the best choice of actions for a home environment, especially with guests that one has known for 30 years. During these 3 days of guests I noticed that there were certain activities in the house, which were not done the way I would like them to have been done. It was a real mental exercise for me to remind myself that it really was not that important and that it was ok.
Maybe I am getting old; at least I still have the discipline to keep my eye on what is important.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Texas the land of spice and everything nice
I land in the 70 degree Texas weather saying ah what and good place to be in the winter. I had check the weather and it was 70ish all of the previous week too so I came prepared for this balmy weather. I am greeted at the airport by my lovely hostess airport that chauffeurs me to their castle. Within the castle I am greeted by a 13.9863-year-old young lady who I had never met before but is pretty much my niece. Throughout the evening she would make sure that we all knew that someone was having a birthday next Thursday. After the 6th reference to it that evening I get the point. This continues throughout my weekend stay, sadly when Thursday rolls around I have moved through a couple more cities and end up in a different state and time zone. So I end up forgetting so that I can’t even tease her about it properly. I’m such a bad uncle, I think I need to convince my siblings to have more kids so that I get more practice.
My first meal in the castle starts with a salad that my niece prepared. A hungry person had gotten to all the pickles in the salads and ate them all before they were served; the family has an affinity for pickles. Next came homemade bread with olive oil and pepper as we awaited the spiced carcass to be prepared. The dead organic flesh is spiced to provide a bit of heat. I had practically forgotten that other people serve spicy food because spicy food is pretty much nonexistent in the Cincy. So the surprise was took a second to get used to. Throughout the rest of the trip in Texas I would seek out food with spice, even the food that I did not expect to have heat was spiced. I was one happy camper and started to wonder what I was doing in the bland Midwest.
I left Austin and got out of the car in Dallas where the temperature was 28 F! Holy cow it’s colder in Texas than it was in Cincy! The next morning I am still in denial that is so cold so I only wear a collared shirt and my coat. The offices are not well heated and the production floor is intentionally kept cold for quality reasons. The second day in Dallas I get over my denials and put on the little warm clothing I have. Remember I packed for 70 F weather. It is too late because I started to get sick in Monday’s weather and incubate it until Friday afternoon when I succumb to the illness.
On Tuesday night found an opportunity to go swing dancing. There was a great turnout with lots of lovely college ladies included in the mix. They thought I was also a college kid. It must have been my stunningly fit body that keeps maintains my youthful appearance. On the flight to Cincy the stewardess also thought I was a college kid.
I have always liked Texas and still do, good food, pretty ladies, warm weather (sometimes), and a nice southern accent.
My first meal in the castle starts with a salad that my niece prepared. A hungry person had gotten to all the pickles in the salads and ate them all before they were served; the family has an affinity for pickles. Next came homemade bread with olive oil and pepper as we awaited the spiced carcass to be prepared. The dead organic flesh is spiced to provide a bit of heat. I had practically forgotten that other people serve spicy food because spicy food is pretty much nonexistent in the Cincy. So the surprise was took a second to get used to. Throughout the rest of the trip in Texas I would seek out food with spice, even the food that I did not expect to have heat was spiced. I was one happy camper and started to wonder what I was doing in the bland Midwest.
I left Austin and got out of the car in Dallas where the temperature was 28 F! Holy cow it’s colder in Texas than it was in Cincy! The next morning I am still in denial that is so cold so I only wear a collared shirt and my coat. The offices are not well heated and the production floor is intentionally kept cold for quality reasons. The second day in Dallas I get over my denials and put on the little warm clothing I have. Remember I packed for 70 F weather. It is too late because I started to get sick in Monday’s weather and incubate it until Friday afternoon when I succumb to the illness.
On Tuesday night found an opportunity to go swing dancing. There was a great turnout with lots of lovely college ladies included in the mix. They thought I was also a college kid. It must have been my stunningly fit body that keeps maintains my youthful appearance. On the flight to Cincy the stewardess also thought I was a college kid.
I have always liked Texas and still do, good food, pretty ladies, warm weather (sometimes), and a nice southern accent.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Two things that don't mix
When a person is coughing, sometimes it is a good idea to drink cough medicine. Especially if he has a date in a couple of hours. Vitamin C is also supposed to be good for ill people. Orange juice is a good source of vitamin C and cough syrup taste awful. When the bottle of cough syrup is citrus flavored one would think that if you mix the cough syrup with the orange juice then it would be a palatable. It does not quite work out that way instead of having a 3 gulps of nasty cough syrup, you now have 16 fl oz of nasty orange juice.
I did find that if you chase the cough syrup with skim milk that gets rid of the taste pretty well.
I did find that if you chase the cough syrup with skim milk that gets rid of the taste pretty well.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Am I fat?
One of the questions a guy can never win is when a woman asks him if she is fat. No matter what the answer is he will end up in the dog house. So it becomes a matter of selecting an answer that does the least amount of damage.
According to WebMD and the bio mass index (BMI), I have crossed the threshold are reached to point of being “overweight”. I ponder this and the implications to the statistics. Am I living in denial or do I really need to change my life style to fit into a one-size-fit all ranking system? I still can meet the government standards for physical fitness standard for a high school senior. Knowing that I am in better shape than many of my peers does not prove anything because one could be physically fit and fat at the same time I guess. WebMD they does say that a huge portion of my peer group is “obese”, the next category that I can strive to fall into after successfully achieving “overweight” status.
So can we depend on the government to set proper standards for us? The government also tells my industry that 29.573 times 8 is 240. They dictate that this will be the number that will be recognized by the government. Well yes if you round it off by quite a bit it is 240. They government also states that you are not supposed to label something with more product that you deliver. So they contradict themselves. Is one supposed to put the additional material in the container because the government cannot do multiplication properly? In an industry where 1% profit is doing well, what happens when the different regulators interpret that differently?
Since the goverenment likes to contradict itself perhaps I am both fat and out of shape.
According to WebMD and the bio mass index (BMI), I have crossed the threshold are reached to point of being “overweight”. I ponder this and the implications to the statistics. Am I living in denial or do I really need to change my life style to fit into a one-size-fit all ranking system? I still can meet the government standards for physical fitness standard for a high school senior. Knowing that I am in better shape than many of my peers does not prove anything because one could be physically fit and fat at the same time I guess. WebMD they does say that a huge portion of my peer group is “obese”, the next category that I can strive to fall into after successfully achieving “overweight” status.
So can we depend on the government to set proper standards for us? The government also tells my industry that 29.573 times 8 is 240. They dictate that this will be the number that will be recognized by the government. Well yes if you round it off by quite a bit it is 240. They government also states that you are not supposed to label something with more product that you deliver. So they contradict themselves. Is one supposed to put the additional material in the container because the government cannot do multiplication properly? In an industry where 1% profit is doing well, what happens when the different regulators interpret that differently?
Since the goverenment likes to contradict itself perhaps I am both fat and out of shape.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Gifted
Since Thanksgiving just passed I thought the subject of being gifted was appropriate. It is human nature to want to be important. Being significant is defined differently by each person but the need is always there after the basic needs are fulfilled (air, water, food, shelter etc).
As hard as it is to believe life does have a way of beating me down to thinking I am merely normal and like everyone else. After trudging through life I start to think that merely average. It is what happens when I live in my head for too long and think that the world is, as I perceive it. Then something happens that reminds me that I am special, gifted and blessed. The first time I was reminded this year was by a random front line worker that I was helping in a factory. She came to me with a mathematical question and I worked the question out loud for her. She did not respond to my multiple inquires if my logic was correct, during the tutorial. After we had completed the math problem she said that she had no idea how I could do that math so quickly and was amazed. I tend to take silence as acceptance and move on. It is one of my weakness that I have identified and continue working on improving. The improvement is very noticeable but not complete because there are still times when I forget to slow down for the people around me.
Even though many would consider me beyond confidant to the level of cocky, I like to believe that I treat most people as equals. I also have a deep respect for those who have abilities that I do not (music, art etc). In my head part of respect is treating people like they are my equals until they prove otherwise. Unfortunately this leaves a lot of people behind in discussions.
The second reinforcement of my abilities this year was when lunch buddy of mine noted that I was like “Quocapedia”. Every time he would go look up a reference that I had made during lunch to some fact, he would find my statement was validated. So he actually started believing me. The same lunch buddy likes to talk and would later in the year he made a statement that I disagree with every one of his positions. In retrospect I should have said: “I do not!” That would have been funny. I actually recall one instance that he swayed my opinion. It was something I never even knew existed before the discussion so does that really count?
The most important reminder of how blessed I am would be when I hear about two people much less fortunate than I. The first is a person that I have met who takes 40 medications and gets her blood treated on a weekly basis. That is someone that is deathly ill and not that old. The second person was run over by a drunken kid in a truck. The 24 year old victim had his face shattered, body disfigured, limbs crippled and in extreme pain. He has no job skills and no spouse. I will be very difficult for him to get that education that he did not value before the attack, because he is constantly in pain or on pain medication. His options for unskilled labor are very limited since he is crippled. Despite the laws about discrimination against people with disabilities, in the real world it still happens. This is especially true if the person is severely disfigured.
I am grateful that I can eat as much as I want, do not live in fear, I can stay warm. I am blessed to be very intelligent, healthy and have a family that loves me.
As hard as it is to believe life does have a way of beating me down to thinking I am merely normal and like everyone else. After trudging through life I start to think that merely average. It is what happens when I live in my head for too long and think that the world is, as I perceive it. Then something happens that reminds me that I am special, gifted and blessed. The first time I was reminded this year was by a random front line worker that I was helping in a factory. She came to me with a mathematical question and I worked the question out loud for her. She did not respond to my multiple inquires if my logic was correct, during the tutorial. After we had completed the math problem she said that she had no idea how I could do that math so quickly and was amazed. I tend to take silence as acceptance and move on. It is one of my weakness that I have identified and continue working on improving. The improvement is very noticeable but not complete because there are still times when I forget to slow down for the people around me.
Even though many would consider me beyond confidant to the level of cocky, I like to believe that I treat most people as equals. I also have a deep respect for those who have abilities that I do not (music, art etc). In my head part of respect is treating people like they are my equals until they prove otherwise. Unfortunately this leaves a lot of people behind in discussions.
The second reinforcement of my abilities this year was when lunch buddy of mine noted that I was like “Quocapedia”. Every time he would go look up a reference that I had made during lunch to some fact, he would find my statement was validated. So he actually started believing me. The same lunch buddy likes to talk and would later in the year he made a statement that I disagree with every one of his positions. In retrospect I should have said: “I do not!” That would have been funny. I actually recall one instance that he swayed my opinion. It was something I never even knew existed before the discussion so does that really count?
The most important reminder of how blessed I am would be when I hear about two people much less fortunate than I. The first is a person that I have met who takes 40 medications and gets her blood treated on a weekly basis. That is someone that is deathly ill and not that old. The second person was run over by a drunken kid in a truck. The 24 year old victim had his face shattered, body disfigured, limbs crippled and in extreme pain. He has no job skills and no spouse. I will be very difficult for him to get that education that he did not value before the attack, because he is constantly in pain or on pain medication. His options for unskilled labor are very limited since he is crippled. Despite the laws about discrimination against people with disabilities, in the real world it still happens. This is especially true if the person is severely disfigured.
I am grateful that I can eat as much as I want, do not live in fear, I can stay warm. I am blessed to be very intelligent, healthy and have a family that loves me.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Mentoring
I started mentoring about 4 months ago. I thought that I would be signing up for a program where have a one-on-one relationship and can help guide a kid through life. The program I signed up for is so short of male volunteers that I got 4 mentees. I have to figure out what to do with 4 high school kids now. I had these grand dreams of grooming and instilling my wisdom on one child with a lot of one-on-one time. Well that just won’t work out for 4 kids because I don’t have that much free time. Even after finding out the large ratio I decided to commit to the one year program.
I am to spend a minimum of one session a month with the kids and help them with the Capstone project.
The program is supposed to teach the kids a variety of life skills including money management (saving) and career selection. The first session was just to see who would actually showed up. I got 3 random kids that would not end up being my mentees. We talked about hopes, dreams and what they wanted to do with their lives. It was fascinating talking to them because I could hear an echo of my thoughts through these kids. I could hear myself thinking the exact same thoughts when I was their age. Then life beat many of those thoughts out of my head. I asked all of them how many hours they wanted to work each day; all three of them said 14-16 hours a day. You get the idea of what kind of answers I would get the rest of the evening.
The third session was on Election Day November 4th. The mentees asked me whom I voted for and I explained to them that it is a secret ballot and choose not to tell them. Not wanting to cut off the lines of communication I did explain to them how I selected my candidate. I explained to them that it was the selection of the lesser of two evils. All candidates are trying to get votes at election time, so the promises are always to make people happy and upset as few people as possible. The two presidential candidates had huge spending plans and did not do a sufficient job of explaining where the money was coming from. I explained that it is a zero sum game, the money has to come from somewhere and that would upset some group of voters so candidates spent very little time identifying the funding. The mentees are 10 graders studying civics in school and heavily supportive of Obama. One of them sits up proudly and says he knows where Obama will be getting the money. I encourage him to tell the group. He says that Obama will tax big business. So I ask him “Is this a good idea?” I can tell by the body language of the mentees that they seemed to be very eager to agree with this source of funding. The surface level thinking is “Sure it doesn’t come out of my pocket”. I tell them that big business is not a bottomless pit and that companies must make a profit. I ask them what happens if the company can no longer make a profit? Are there other countries that have lower taxes? I asked them what happens if a company decides that they should no longer be based in the US? I noticed a definitely deflated body language. I asked “Do you think it is a good idea to increase taxes on business?” Not expecting an answer I help them understand that we can not spend more than we make or else we end up in very heavy debt, like the country is in right now.
Even though I am not able to mold one disciple into thinking the way I do, perhaps I still can do some good to a larger group. The effect may not be quite as deep on any one child, but maybe it will be enough to guide them through life.
I am to spend a minimum of one session a month with the kids and help them with the Capstone project.
The program is supposed to teach the kids a variety of life skills including money management (saving) and career selection. The first session was just to see who would actually showed up. I got 3 random kids that would not end up being my mentees. We talked about hopes, dreams and what they wanted to do with their lives. It was fascinating talking to them because I could hear an echo of my thoughts through these kids. I could hear myself thinking the exact same thoughts when I was their age. Then life beat many of those thoughts out of my head. I asked all of them how many hours they wanted to work each day; all three of them said 14-16 hours a day. You get the idea of what kind of answers I would get the rest of the evening.
The third session was on Election Day November 4th. The mentees asked me whom I voted for and I explained to them that it is a secret ballot and choose not to tell them. Not wanting to cut off the lines of communication I did explain to them how I selected my candidate. I explained to them that it was the selection of the lesser of two evils. All candidates are trying to get votes at election time, so the promises are always to make people happy and upset as few people as possible. The two presidential candidates had huge spending plans and did not do a sufficient job of explaining where the money was coming from. I explained that it is a zero sum game, the money has to come from somewhere and that would upset some group of voters so candidates spent very little time identifying the funding. The mentees are 10 graders studying civics in school and heavily supportive of Obama. One of them sits up proudly and says he knows where Obama will be getting the money. I encourage him to tell the group. He says that Obama will tax big business. So I ask him “Is this a good idea?” I can tell by the body language of the mentees that they seemed to be very eager to agree with this source of funding. The surface level thinking is “Sure it doesn’t come out of my pocket”. I tell them that big business is not a bottomless pit and that companies must make a profit. I ask them what happens if the company can no longer make a profit? Are there other countries that have lower taxes? I asked them what happens if a company decides that they should no longer be based in the US? I noticed a definitely deflated body language. I asked “Do you think it is a good idea to increase taxes on business?” Not expecting an answer I help them understand that we can not spend more than we make or else we end up in very heavy debt, like the country is in right now.
Even though I am not able to mold one disciple into thinking the way I do, perhaps I still can do some good to a larger group. The effect may not be quite as deep on any one child, but maybe it will be enough to guide them through life.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Are you smarter than a 4th grader?
Today I recalled an elementary school contest/assignment, as I was considering how fast dry ice disappears out of our Styrofoam coolers at work.
Essentially there were no other instructions for the class contest other than the objective. The contest was to see who could build the best design to slow the melting of an ice cube. I am pretty sure the word build was in the assignment. The teacher had not told us how the designs would be judged.
If you are like me take some extra time and have some fun designing it in your head. I would like you to stop and take two minutes to think about how you would do it before you continue reading.
My 4th grade design was to take polystyrene foam (normal people would call it Styrofoam) and create an insulated box. Bind the box with glue to make the seals. Take that box and wrap it with insulating film and tape that up. Before the final preparations water was put in the container and then seal it. The whole thing went in the freezer and became an ice cube in the freezer.
The teacher took the designs out of the freezer that morning and gave us the results later in the day. The teacher said that the way the winners were judged was by the size of the ice remaining when she saw it later in the day. The second and third prizes went to two people that just used a store bought cooler. That irritated me a lot because the assignment specifically said to build something. Depending on how you looked at it either they cheated, were really lazy did nothing and grabbed the cooler at the last moment. The alternative way of looking at it was that they were brilliant and managed to get away without doing the assignment and got a really good grade and prizes for doing nothing!
So that brings me to the first place. Guess who came in first place? Everyone had started with whatever sized and shaped ice cube they put in the design. The teacher was so excited that my ice cube was almost the same size as when it started. I pondered this skeptically, thinking wow I am better than I thought. When I got given back my design realized that there was definitely a difference in perception. The cube inside my design was about the size of an ice cube coming out of a tray. The glue did not hold up to the melting process well and fell apart, letting the melt water leak out of the container. Since the teacher had not specified on the size of the ice cube I had broken no rules and felt no need to inform her of this. She never asked what size it started as. Mine just happened to be a bit bigger. I was definitely not willing to be beaten by the cheaters that put no effort into the project. What the teacher did not understand was that originally the ice cube would have been 3 times that size.
The moral of story is to be very precise with your specifications.
Essentially there were no other instructions for the class contest other than the objective. The contest was to see who could build the best design to slow the melting of an ice cube. I am pretty sure the word build was in the assignment. The teacher had not told us how the designs would be judged.
If you are like me take some extra time and have some fun designing it in your head. I would like you to stop and take two minutes to think about how you would do it before you continue reading.
My 4th grade design was to take polystyrene foam (normal people would call it Styrofoam) and create an insulated box. Bind the box with glue to make the seals. Take that box and wrap it with insulating film and tape that up. Before the final preparations water was put in the container and then seal it. The whole thing went in the freezer and became an ice cube in the freezer.
The teacher took the designs out of the freezer that morning and gave us the results later in the day. The teacher said that the way the winners were judged was by the size of the ice remaining when she saw it later in the day. The second and third prizes went to two people that just used a store bought cooler. That irritated me a lot because the assignment specifically said to build something. Depending on how you looked at it either they cheated, were really lazy did nothing and grabbed the cooler at the last moment. The alternative way of looking at it was that they were brilliant and managed to get away without doing the assignment and got a really good grade and prizes for doing nothing!
So that brings me to the first place. Guess who came in first place? Everyone had started with whatever sized and shaped ice cube they put in the design. The teacher was so excited that my ice cube was almost the same size as when it started. I pondered this skeptically, thinking wow I am better than I thought. When I got given back my design realized that there was definitely a difference in perception. The cube inside my design was about the size of an ice cube coming out of a tray. The glue did not hold up to the melting process well and fell apart, letting the melt water leak out of the container. Since the teacher had not specified on the size of the ice cube I had broken no rules and felt no need to inform her of this. She never asked what size it started as. Mine just happened to be a bit bigger. I was definitely not willing to be beaten by the cheaters that put no effort into the project. What the teacher did not understand was that originally the ice cube would have been 3 times that size.
The moral of story is to be very precise with your specifications.
Drafted!
Tis the season to be jolly! A time to celebrate. So what happens when no one want to organize the festivities? Conventional wisdom would say that you let the people that are willing to do the work have the fun and everyone else can reap what they sow. An admin had a different take on this. By gosh we are going to make them celebrate whether they want to or not! So the solution was to encourage people to work on the planning committee. So what do you say to an admin when he pulls you aside and personally encourages you to do something? Well I guess that would depend on how painful it would be and how interested you are in the organization. It did not even take more than 3 or 4 sentences for me to understand the situation and for me to complete his thoughts. So I was ready to enlist as soon as he popped the question. I figured it could not be that painful and I would much rather spend my political capital on the important issues I have a habit of bringing up all the time.
Although no threat was ever needed to be made an intelligent person always knows that these invitations have the implied connotation of you know what’s good for you. I accepted so enthusiastically that I practically jumped up and down (almost). Those that have heard my some of my more floral speech patterns know I can make quite a show. In hindsight I have thought up a few more colorful statements that would have made the speech quite fluffy and impressive, but what was presented was not bad for being conjured up in an impromptu moment.
Being the rational critical thinker I immediately start asking the specifications as soon as I am done stating how energized about being able to volunteer for such a fantastic opportunity. I am told we have no funding for this task. While it is similar to how I will be elected to the HOA board, the difference is there will me no money to execute this task. Life is always simple when you have no options; conversely this task will be easy. The choices are do not spend any money or do not do anything. Wait it gets better. We are not supposed to ask for donations either. So do not spend any money and make sure you do not let anyone help you.
The admin that had encouraged me to be on this committee has decided that he will not be on the committee. The number one practice from "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership" is “Model the way”.
Although no threat was ever needed to be made an intelligent person always knows that these invitations have the implied connotation of you know what’s good for you. I accepted so enthusiastically that I practically jumped up and down (almost). Those that have heard my some of my more floral speech patterns know I can make quite a show. In hindsight I have thought up a few more colorful statements that would have made the speech quite fluffy and impressive, but what was presented was not bad for being conjured up in an impromptu moment.
Being the rational critical thinker I immediately start asking the specifications as soon as I am done stating how energized about being able to volunteer for such a fantastic opportunity. I am told we have no funding for this task. While it is similar to how I will be elected to the HOA board, the difference is there will me no money to execute this task. Life is always simple when you have no options; conversely this task will be easy. The choices are do not spend any money or do not do anything. Wait it gets better. We are not supposed to ask for donations either. So do not spend any money and make sure you do not let anyone help you.
The admin that had encouraged me to be on this committee has decided that he will not be on the committee. The number one practice from "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership" is “Model the way”.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Don't push that button!
Do you remember all the cartoons where the character is specifically told not to push the red button? In my quest to make my computer do things it has never done with networking before I was going through various folders that I really should not have been messing with. I found one that looked like a pretty globe and executable in a folder marked relating to networking. I knew it would do something…of course I really did not know what it would do. Knowing a button will do something creates an almost irresistible urge to press it. So of course the hero of the story pushes the little button that the little voices in his head whisper that he might not want to push it. After about 15 second a nasty error box pops up and says something to the effect that whatever our hero was trying to do did not work. A few moments later another program does not respond as our hero is working on something else. So the solution to many-stalled program is to hit the control-alt-delete and invoke the powers of the task master. Another big nasty error message pops up and says that the Administrator has revoked the task master. I own the computer. There is no Administrator; the closest thing to one is the owner of the computer. I didn’t tell it to revoke my override powers…what the xxxx? In an age of phishing, viruses and other malicious software my thought between error message, stalling programs and modifications of my admin powers our hero starts to feel a bit of anxiety. Our hero almost never panics and has survived at least 3 life threatening situations because of this personality. Luckily this was not a life threatening issue although it was a bit stressful. His ability to think critically and rationally in the time of stress allows him to discover that his regedit (the soul of Windows) has been modified and manages to fix that portion of the problem without completely destroying his system.
So the take away message is that if you put something that looks interesting in front of our hero and do not tell him what it does he will play with until it works or it breaks.
So the take away message is that if you put something that looks interesting in front of our hero and do not tell him what it does he will play with until it works or it breaks.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Flying weights
I came up with this brilliant idea that if I put wrist weights to my arms while playing the Wii I could rationalize playing Wii was not such a bad thing. I would be getting exercise while playing video games. This worked out well for the first 4 months or so that I have owned the Wii. Today my Herculean strength was greater than the binding on the weights and they went flying across the room. That was quite exciting. If you can imagine throwing a weight across the room at full force you can imagine the noise and can make as it impacts all your electronics. It was a good idea; the execution has some room for improvement, meaning stronger bindings.
So I took them off after than and well my timing was all off, I could swing the joystick way too fast. I need to retrain myself on the timing on the games now.
So I took them off after than and well my timing was all off, I could swing the joystick way too fast. I need to retrain myself on the timing on the games now.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Elections
Tis the season to be campaigning for elected office. This is not the story of a run for position of money and glamour. It is one with a big flashing “sucker” sign that comes with it. I got a call today asking if I would run for a seat on the board of the HOA today. Well I could be like everyone else and take the easy route, letting someone else do it. The question then is if no one does it, then what happens? I told the recruiter I might not even be at the January annual meeting for the election because I may be out of the country. That didn’t seem to phase her, she figured I would win by a landslide even without attending because the current board was behind me and there really is no competition. Since the meetings general meetings usually have less than 10 people attending and 5 votes from the incumbent board would put me into the majority with one more vote. I figured what the heck the HOA is in good shape financial shape so it should be a much easier job since there is money to spend. By February you may be reading from an executive. Well yes it is a HOA but the word “executive” does sound a lot better than the word “sucker”.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Blacked out in Cincy
On Monday the power went out at dusk and stayed off for 3 hours. In this time many of the people either chose to leave their homes by manually opening the garage door or walking outside. I make an effort to meet my neighbors, yet there are still many that I have not met because they do not go to the board meetings or annual picnic. Having an attached garage means that most people just get in the car, drive away from the house and come back right into the garage, never interacting with the neighbors. This was a rare opportunity to unplug ourselves from the electronic world and go outside. I met a couple of my neighbors in the HOA then actually met some people in the surrounding downtown area. Perhaps we should have a random annual black out in all safe neighborhoods with the proper safety protections set up.
South Africa Day 11-15
Day 11 (Tuesday)
The next morning we went to the botanical gardens. One would have thought that spring would be the perfect time to go. Surprisingly not very much was in bloom even the time of year. So our stay was fairly short in the gardens. The climate was much warmer in Durban than in the areas that we just came from. We went from bundling up to shorts and tee shirts.
We next went to U-Shaka Marine world. Which was 100 yards around the corner from our hostel. We learned that there were restaurants outside the paid admission areas. That would have been nice to know before we took the leisurely stroll through the “No Go” area the previous day. The park had a nice aquarium the spent a lot more effort highlighting conservation than the parks in the states. The pictures of the stingray feeding and dolphins are from this site. The diver put the fish right into the stingray’s mouth. My assumption is because the stingrays can not compete with the other fish for food in the densely populated environment. They food would never make it to an area where the stingrays could eat it because of the positioning of the mouth and the lack of relative speed. The fish bumped so violently against the diver that his equipment got dislodged for a while.
As we exited the park we purchased almonds. We had gone 10,000 miles and ate almonds that most likely were grown in California. Most of the world’s almonds come from California. And most of those come from one company.
We had enough of this city and left that afternoon even though we had prepaid for that night. Arriving at St. Lucia Estuary we checked into a dump that was clearly the worse backpacker’s hostel. It was also the most expensive, which is a relative term (~$13.6). We would find out later that we had paid these prices for a lack of hot water too.
We went back to St. Lucia for an afternoon of kayaking. Our guide’s name was Chris and we had another companion named Jo. Jo was from Holland, blond and studying premed. She was nice enough, just one of those people that you get a sense that you do not want a sharp object in her hands. We paddled out in individual kayaks and got within a very few feet of the crocodiles. The hippos had a reputation for coming out and playing with kayaks so we avoided them, and only observing them about 75 yards out. Hippos are not animals you want to mess with; they are extremely fast in and out of water. Jo dropped her camera in the water during the trip. As we were putting the kayaks away Chris made offered to take go the next closest town in his car and be back to St. Lucia by 10 AM the next day. It was stated it in such a way to say that was an open invitation. Being a slightly dimwitted person one might not have notice that it was directed only at Jo as a proposition for the night. Since he had phrased it in such a way that it was an open invitation that all 3 of us could hear I was so tempted to accept his offer just to mess with him. That would have been really funny. I decided not to be cruel and avoided throwing a wrench in scheme. Ah I’m such a nice guy sometimes.
We took maximized our evening by spending time buying some food for the next morning’s breakfast. We purchased an interesting looking coconut pastry, danishes, and cereal bars. While waiting at a restaurant for our dinner we started with the coconut pastry. We each consumed one and I was stunned that it was a very strong liquor pastry. Since I do not like the taste of alcohol it was quite nasty. In the US it would have had to been labeled a liquor pastry. I quickly decided that I was not going to eat any more. We devised a generous plan to give it away to the other backpackers telling them that we did no like it and they were free to have it. The Aussies were quite excited to have some since it was a special treat in Australia. The first kid wolfed it down the next started with smaller bites not delaying long enough to get the reaction from the first kid. They were also repulsed the taste and said it was not supposed to be that way and were spoiled. Noting how awful it was two other people including Jo (the blond from the kayak trip) insisted in trying some. Ah, just like the college days when some idiot would say “Ew, it’s awful try some!”
The next morning we were greeted by monkeys outside the hostel they were the trouble-making kind that would steal your glasses and such. We trade in the pastries for a whole sack of apples, 2 candy bars and juice. My host explained how irresponsible we were in that we had spent as much money on the pastries as many South African people would have for a few days worth of food.
Day 13 (Thurs)
It took the full day to reach Pretoria. That night we spent night Brie (barbecuing) with some locals at the hostel. They shared some pap with me. It is a maize dish that was completely tasteless; it looks like mashed potatoes and has a very pasty texture. So you have to eat it with a tasty sauce. This is a main staple of the culture.
Day 14 (Friday)
We got to see an active archeology site, the Sterkfontein Caves located inside the Cradle of Mankind. This has been one of the richest hominid artifact sites. It was where “Lucy” was found and they still were excavating “Littlefoot” after 10 years. The interior of the site had algae growing in by the light fixtures. This is the cost of increasing awareness. This awareness is the whole reason why we do the archeology. The tourism industry helps fund the conservation of this site. The damage from to the already excavated areas was helping to fund the research of the unexcavated (and inaccessible to the public) areas. Are the elite researchers the only ones that should be allowed to view this part of our heritage? In the museum on the surface there was information about the evolution of man. After a series of pictures with male ape-like ancestors the final picture depicted the words Homo Sapian and above it a very attractive Asian female.
We spent a couple hours at the Apartheid Museum learning the sanitized version of the history. It still had good information even though it could not capture the horrible spirit of the times. We would spend most of that night socializing with a whole bunch of Peace Corps volunteers. As a general rule most volunteers are women. My host made friends with a cat that would run with him. That night we slept in the equivalent of a comfortable wooden tool shed, not really that bad.
Day 15 (Sat)
My final day in South Africa started off by going to DeWitt Cheetahs Conservatory. We are requested not to run in the area. Cheetahs will instinctively focus on anything that runs. They are so focused that they may run into an object (like the fence) and break their very thin skulls.
We also saw them feed wild dogs pieces of chicken. The pictures depict the dogs with very high vertical leaps to catch the chicken. They would consume the chicken parts in three bites. Interesting that they tell us never to feed our domesticated dogs chicken because they may choke on the bones. A pack of wild dogs can complete consume a corpse in 15 minutes. They will run home and regurgitate the food to feed the young, old, sick and guardians.
We had lunch with a local family. The home has 3 gates. The exterior fence, the gate protecting the front entrance, and a steel gate inside the house protecting the bedrooms. Two dogs are on the property, the final line of defense were firearms inside the bedroom. This is what Americans would consider a middle class home.
As I boarded the plane it was a great feeling to know that I was going home. At the same time there was a sadness that another chapter of my life was closing. The memories were great and if given the option to go back in time to choose to take this trip or do something else, there is no question I would do it again. The time spent with my host would be cherished for the rest of my life. It was because of my host that these experiences were made possible together. Know thought that I never really could go back. As in most things in life you can never really go back. In the very unlikely chance that I show back up in South Africa, I would have changed and it will not be the same. It is like when I show up in my old schools. I am different and it will never be the same again.
The next morning we went to the botanical gardens. One would have thought that spring would be the perfect time to go. Surprisingly not very much was in bloom even the time of year. So our stay was fairly short in the gardens. The climate was much warmer in Durban than in the areas that we just came from. We went from bundling up to shorts and tee shirts.
We next went to U-Shaka Marine world. Which was 100 yards around the corner from our hostel. We learned that there were restaurants outside the paid admission areas. That would have been nice to know before we took the leisurely stroll through the “No Go” area the previous day. The park had a nice aquarium the spent a lot more effort highlighting conservation than the parks in the states. The pictures of the stingray feeding and dolphins are from this site. The diver put the fish right into the stingray’s mouth. My assumption is because the stingrays can not compete with the other fish for food in the densely populated environment. They food would never make it to an area where the stingrays could eat it because of the positioning of the mouth and the lack of relative speed. The fish bumped so violently against the diver that his equipment got dislodged for a while.
As we exited the park we purchased almonds. We had gone 10,000 miles and ate almonds that most likely were grown in California. Most of the world’s almonds come from California. And most of those come from one company.
We had enough of this city and left that afternoon even though we had prepaid for that night. Arriving at St. Lucia Estuary we checked into a dump that was clearly the worse backpacker’s hostel. It was also the most expensive, which is a relative term (~$13.6). We would find out later that we had paid these prices for a lack of hot water too.
Day 12 (Wed)
We went back to St. Lucia for an afternoon of kayaking. Our guide’s name was Chris and we had another companion named Jo. Jo was from Holland, blond and studying premed. She was nice enough, just one of those people that you get a sense that you do not want a sharp object in her hands. We paddled out in individual kayaks and got within a very few feet of the crocodiles. The hippos had a reputation for coming out and playing with kayaks so we avoided them, and only observing them about 75 yards out. Hippos are not animals you want to mess with; they are extremely fast in and out of water. Jo dropped her camera in the water during the trip. As we were putting the kayaks away Chris made offered to take go the next closest town in his car and be back to St. Lucia by 10 AM the next day. It was stated it in such a way to say that was an open invitation. Being a slightly dimwitted person one might not have notice that it was directed only at Jo as a proposition for the night. Since he had phrased it in such a way that it was an open invitation that all 3 of us could hear I was so tempted to accept his offer just to mess with him. That would have been really funny. I decided not to be cruel and avoided throwing a wrench in scheme. Ah I’m such a nice guy sometimes.
We took maximized our evening by spending time buying some food for the next morning’s breakfast. We purchased an interesting looking coconut pastry, danishes, and cereal bars. While waiting at a restaurant for our dinner we started with the coconut pastry. We each consumed one and I was stunned that it was a very strong liquor pastry. Since I do not like the taste of alcohol it was quite nasty. In the US it would have had to been labeled a liquor pastry. I quickly decided that I was not going to eat any more. We devised a generous plan to give it away to the other backpackers telling them that we did no like it and they were free to have it. The Aussies were quite excited to have some since it was a special treat in Australia. The first kid wolfed it down the next started with smaller bites not delaying long enough to get the reaction from the first kid. They were also repulsed the taste and said it was not supposed to be that way and were spoiled. Noting how awful it was two other people including Jo (the blond from the kayak trip) insisted in trying some. Ah, just like the college days when some idiot would say “Ew, it’s awful try some!”
The next morning we were greeted by monkeys outside the hostel they were the trouble-making kind that would steal your glasses and such. We trade in the pastries for a whole sack of apples, 2 candy bars and juice. My host explained how irresponsible we were in that we had spent as much money on the pastries as many South African people would have for a few days worth of food.
Day 13 (Thurs)
It took the full day to reach Pretoria. That night we spent night Brie (barbecuing) with some locals at the hostel. They shared some pap with me. It is a maize dish that was completely tasteless; it looks like mashed potatoes and has a very pasty texture. So you have to eat it with a tasty sauce. This is a main staple of the culture.
Day 14 (Friday)
We got to see an active archeology site, the Sterkfontein Caves located inside the Cradle of Mankind. This has been one of the richest hominid artifact sites. It was where “Lucy” was found and they still were excavating “Littlefoot” after 10 years. The interior of the site had algae growing in by the light fixtures. This is the cost of increasing awareness. This awareness is the whole reason why we do the archeology. The tourism industry helps fund the conservation of this site. The damage from to the already excavated areas was helping to fund the research of the unexcavated (and inaccessible to the public) areas. Are the elite researchers the only ones that should be allowed to view this part of our heritage? In the museum on the surface there was information about the evolution of man. After a series of pictures with male ape-like ancestors the final picture depicted the words Homo Sapian and above it a very attractive Asian female.
We spent a couple hours at the Apartheid Museum learning the sanitized version of the history. It still had good information even though it could not capture the horrible spirit of the times. We would spend most of that night socializing with a whole bunch of Peace Corps volunteers. As a general rule most volunteers are women. My host made friends with a cat that would run with him. That night we slept in the equivalent of a comfortable wooden tool shed, not really that bad.
Day 15 (Sat)
My final day in South Africa started off by going to DeWitt Cheetahs Conservatory. We are requested not to run in the area. Cheetahs will instinctively focus on anything that runs. They are so focused that they may run into an object (like the fence) and break their very thin skulls.
We also saw them feed wild dogs pieces of chicken. The pictures depict the dogs with very high vertical leaps to catch the chicken. They would consume the chicken parts in three bites. Interesting that they tell us never to feed our domesticated dogs chicken because they may choke on the bones. A pack of wild dogs can complete consume a corpse in 15 minutes. They will run home and regurgitate the food to feed the young, old, sick and guardians.
We had lunch with a local family. The home has 3 gates. The exterior fence, the gate protecting the front entrance, and a steel gate inside the house protecting the bedrooms. Two dogs are on the property, the final line of defense were firearms inside the bedroom. This is what Americans would consider a middle class home.
As I boarded the plane it was a great feeling to know that I was going home. At the same time there was a sadness that another chapter of my life was closing. The memories were great and if given the option to go back in time to choose to take this trip or do something else, there is no question I would do it again. The time spent with my host would be cherished for the rest of my life. It was because of my host that these experiences were made possible together. Know thought that I never really could go back. As in most things in life you can never really go back. In the very unlikely chance that I show back up in South Africa, I would have changed and it will not be the same. It is like when I show up in my old schools. I am different and it will never be the same again.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
South Africa Day 10
Day 10 (Monday)
Arriving at the Happy Hippo backpacker’s hostel in Durban at 2pm left us famished. We took a stroll outside in the quest for food. As we walked through the city we quickly realized that we really did not belong in this area. A lot of energy was spent keep aware of our surroundings and any people that got in close proximity of us. So after a mile or two of walking thorough the bad part of town we found access to the beach and found food in that proximity. We decided to walk back along the beach back to the hostel. Inside the hostel we saw a very nice map indicating the area we just walked through as a red “no go” area. That was mighty nice of them to tell us that we just survived a really rough part of town.
That evening we would find another backpacker in the hostel who took the same route as us and was accosted by two thugs trying to pickpocket him. He was walking by himself.
The next person I talked to that evening was an ex-volunteer police officer. His training sergeant told him that his type got the worse deal with getting shot at for free! So one would really have to want to serve to volunteer for this duty. His examples of the lack of technology of the South African police force was so far behind it made them seem like they were stuck in the 70’s. He said that the police dispatcher was not connected to the other emergency services (fire, ambulances, search and rescue, coast guard etc). They could not communicate with each other. He said that they were lucky to have a radio in 25% of the vehicles. He said that the pay is pitiful for the normal police force. The cops that start off as straight are heavily pressured to join one of the corrupt “gangs” of cops or never advance in his career. He stopped volunteering because the he was asked to report the corrupt cops. He did this until his superiors revealed to the corrupt cops the identity of the informant. The locals seem to think that the cops are not to be trusted and will not do anything if there is a crime, especially at night. If you were a lowly paid public servant that gets no respect, would you risk your life to try to stop a violent crime in the dark of night when you know that you can not call for backup?
I also met 3 American Peace Corps Volunteer and they told me that they had been offered la bola. La bola is the dowry offered to the father of a woman the man wishes to buy. Traditionally it comes in the form of cows but these days it also comes in the form of cash. So we figured a normal la bola is 8-11 cows. That is our new joke: “How many cows is she worth?”
Arriving at the Happy Hippo backpacker’s hostel in Durban at 2pm left us famished. We took a stroll outside in the quest for food. As we walked through the city we quickly realized that we really did not belong in this area. A lot of energy was spent keep aware of our surroundings and any people that got in close proximity of us. So after a mile or two of walking thorough the bad part of town we found access to the beach and found food in that proximity. We decided to walk back along the beach back to the hostel. Inside the hostel we saw a very nice map indicating the area we just walked through as a red “no go” area. That was mighty nice of them to tell us that we just survived a really rough part of town.
That evening we would find another backpacker in the hostel who took the same route as us and was accosted by two thugs trying to pickpocket him. He was walking by himself.
The next person I talked to that evening was an ex-volunteer police officer. His training sergeant told him that his type got the worse deal with getting shot at for free! So one would really have to want to serve to volunteer for this duty. His examples of the lack of technology of the South African police force was so far behind it made them seem like they were stuck in the 70’s. He said that the police dispatcher was not connected to the other emergency services (fire, ambulances, search and rescue, coast guard etc). They could not communicate with each other. He said that they were lucky to have a radio in 25% of the vehicles. He said that the pay is pitiful for the normal police force. The cops that start off as straight are heavily pressured to join one of the corrupt “gangs” of cops or never advance in his career. He stopped volunteering because the he was asked to report the corrupt cops. He did this until his superiors revealed to the corrupt cops the identity of the informant. The locals seem to think that the cops are not to be trusted and will not do anything if there is a crime, especially at night. If you were a lowly paid public servant that gets no respect, would you risk your life to try to stop a violent crime in the dark of night when you know that you can not call for backup?
I also met 3 American Peace Corps Volunteer and they told me that they had been offered la bola. La bola is the dowry offered to the father of a woman the man wishes to buy. Traditionally it comes in the form of cows but these days it also comes in the form of cash. So we figured a normal la bola is 8-11 cows. That is our new joke: “How many cows is she worth?”
Friday, October 10, 2008
South Africa part 3
There were ostriches that had been tamed and will eat out of your hand. They are not very bright so they will bite your hand while feeding from it. Since they don’t have any teeth if feels like a clamp coming down on your hand.
We stayed at a place called Backpacker’s hostel called Kama Soul. This is where I took the sunset pictures in the links. This place was quite nice, clean and we didn’t have to share the dorm with anyone. Just to make sure the place was secure I used my Herculean strength to pull one of the bunk beds in front of the door so that no one could surprise us at night. Many places in South Africa like to have two faucets, one for cold and one for hot. Both faucets are very short like 3 inches so you really have to get close to the basin edge to use them. This is a similar phenomenon that I saw in New Zealand, I am not sure why they would inconvenience themselves this way because I would not think it is cheaper to install 2 faucets instead of one that mixes hot and cold.
Day 7 (Friday)
We woke before the sunrise to go out to greet the meerkats. A researcher (Grant) has befriended meerkats so that they do not see him as a threat. He takes pains to let the meerkats know that he is not a threat and also that he is not a meerkat. In previous research when the meerkats thought the Grant was a really big meerkat sentinel they let down their survival instincts and ceased setting up sentinels. They quickly became snacks for the real predators. We accompanied Grant to the burrow that the meerkats slept in that night. You can see from the picture links how close we were to them as they were warming themselves up from the morning sun. Were actually a bit closer as we followed them through their foraging run. Almost on cue the rain started at the time when we were supposed leave the meerkats.
We then drove to Monkeyland which were most of the pictures of monkeys in the photo links were taken. It was a cold day so there were not that many out. The white monkey and black monkey in the pictures are extremely stupid monkeys. These Lemurs will forget where they leave babies.
Right next door was Birds of Eden. My host had a grand time letting two of these birds climb all over him.
A large roadblock stopped us on the N2 highway. The officers without guns requested to see our passports, this was not a port of entry. Why would they need to see our passports if we were just driving? South Africa is known to have a corrupt police force and for fake roadblocks. The driver showed the identification page and paged to the entry stamp but refused to surrender the passport. After while of discussion the officers instructed the driver to pull over to the side at which point the driver “calmly drove away.” A few minutes later a tiny hatchback with police markings forced our vehicle off the road. The officer snatched the driver’s passport and demanded we return to the roadblock, speeding away leaving only one option of we wanted that passport back. A quick analysis of the situation: told me that if jail time was in the future valuables would have to be transferred out of reach of the corrupt police force. A quick plan was forming for alternative lodging, a replacement driver, removal of all valuables from the driver, the main hope was that they did not impound the car because there would be no way to protect all the luggage\valuables without a vessel to carry them. Some may see it is as cold way of thinking but it is also the most effective way of thinking. If the driver was going to be arrested was almost beyond our influence at this point. The focus was on the solution not the panic of worry; the type of thinking that is needed at the time of crisis.
Boy the cops were mad. The police threatened to throw the driver in jail for the weekend. After repeated threats we were released and drove merrily along. Which tells me that that the police had some underlying precondition that prevented them from executing the threats. They were disrespected at that level and then just let the offender go. Very few people would allow their prides to that heavily offended and do nothing about it if they had the authority or power to do something about it. In the US the driver would have been arrested when he was chased and forced off the road. I will come back to this discussion later in the blog when I recount my conversations with the ex-volunteer police officer and stories from the locals.
The rest of evening is spending on very dark highways driving toward Addo. There are pedestrians all along the highway. Most are black people in dark clothing (non-reflective and usually not white), making the practically impossible to see until they are 20 yards in front of you. Traveling at 120 km/hr, you do the math on how quickly a car would be upon these practically invisible people. We decided that was the last time we were going to drive at night.
The Aardvark backpacker’s hostel was quite nice, with an all you could eat breakfast for 20 rand (~$3), laundry service for ~$3 a load and an electric fence to protect the property at night.
Day 8 (Saturday)
We drove to Addo Game Reserve, arriving around 7 AM. Throughout our trip in South Africa we would seen many herbivores that resembled deer. After a while of this they were no longer exciting and being the sophisticated people we were we only noted there was another “deer-like” or “grazer” instead of expending the effort of looking in the books to identify the creatures. There were lots of ostriches, warthogs (they are really ugly) and Kudu (a deer-like). The highlights of the morning drive was a huge herd of elephants that were approaching a watering hole. These are the elephants depicted in the photo link. We timed it just right, the elephants were just arriving. They drank all the water in the hole (until it was dry) and then moved on. Our car happened to be in the path that the elephants wanted to take. The driver shut off the engine and we watched as the whole herd of elephants walked around the car. Elephants spend 14-16 hours a day eating and sleep on their feet.
In the distance we saw a jackal, the pictures on the links are with a 48x (12x optical, 4x digital). I was told it is very rare to see these animals because they flee from the first sign of humans.
We saw a large family of meerkats that is where most of the pictures came from. We were not allowed to take pictures while with Grant. I was told these animals are pretty rare.
Since my host had told me how hot it was in South Africa I did not have any warm cloths for the evening drive through the park in an open jeep. I prepared myself with a tee shirt, two long sleeve shirts, two borrowed sweaters and my windbreaker. The cold still started penetrating by the end of the drive. Don’t let anyone fool you South Africa gets cold! The evening drive was pretty uneventful although I did get to try the local beef jerky, biltong.
Day 9 (Sunday)
We arrived at Port Elizabeth and inquired what there was to do interesting in town. Our analysis was that it was not a very exciting place. We did see some interesting wake boarders using giant kites to pull them through the very cold waves. I did get to see giraffes and zebras too. Eventually I practiced my stick shift driving.
We stayed at a place called Backpacker’s hostel called Kama Soul. This is where I took the sunset pictures in the links. This place was quite nice, clean and we didn’t have to share the dorm with anyone. Just to make sure the place was secure I used my Herculean strength to pull one of the bunk beds in front of the door so that no one could surprise us at night. Many places in South Africa like to have two faucets, one for cold and one for hot. Both faucets are very short like 3 inches so you really have to get close to the basin edge to use them. This is a similar phenomenon that I saw in New Zealand, I am not sure why they would inconvenience themselves this way because I would not think it is cheaper to install 2 faucets instead of one that mixes hot and cold.
Day 7 (Friday)
We woke before the sunrise to go out to greet the meerkats. A researcher (Grant) has befriended meerkats so that they do not see him as a threat. He takes pains to let the meerkats know that he is not a threat and also that he is not a meerkat. In previous research when the meerkats thought the Grant was a really big meerkat sentinel they let down their survival instincts and ceased setting up sentinels. They quickly became snacks for the real predators. We accompanied Grant to the burrow that the meerkats slept in that night. You can see from the picture links how close we were to them as they were warming themselves up from the morning sun. Were actually a bit closer as we followed them through their foraging run. Almost on cue the rain started at the time when we were supposed leave the meerkats.
We then drove to Monkeyland which were most of the pictures of monkeys in the photo links were taken. It was a cold day so there were not that many out. The white monkey and black monkey in the pictures are extremely stupid monkeys. These Lemurs will forget where they leave babies.
Right next door was Birds of Eden. My host had a grand time letting two of these birds climb all over him.
A large roadblock stopped us on the N2 highway. The officers without guns requested to see our passports, this was not a port of entry. Why would they need to see our passports if we were just driving? South Africa is known to have a corrupt police force and for fake roadblocks. The driver showed the identification page and paged to the entry stamp but refused to surrender the passport. After while of discussion the officers instructed the driver to pull over to the side at which point the driver “calmly drove away.” A few minutes later a tiny hatchback with police markings forced our vehicle off the road. The officer snatched the driver’s passport and demanded we return to the roadblock, speeding away leaving only one option of we wanted that passport back. A quick analysis of the situation: told me that if jail time was in the future valuables would have to be transferred out of reach of the corrupt police force. A quick plan was forming for alternative lodging, a replacement driver, removal of all valuables from the driver, the main hope was that they did not impound the car because there would be no way to protect all the luggage\valuables without a vessel to carry them. Some may see it is as cold way of thinking but it is also the most effective way of thinking. If the driver was going to be arrested was almost beyond our influence at this point. The focus was on the solution not the panic of worry; the type of thinking that is needed at the time of crisis.
Boy the cops were mad. The police threatened to throw the driver in jail for the weekend. After repeated threats we were released and drove merrily along. Which tells me that that the police had some underlying precondition that prevented them from executing the threats. They were disrespected at that level and then just let the offender go. Very few people would allow their prides to that heavily offended and do nothing about it if they had the authority or power to do something about it. In the US the driver would have been arrested when he was chased and forced off the road. I will come back to this discussion later in the blog when I recount my conversations with the ex-volunteer police officer and stories from the locals.
The rest of evening is spending on very dark highways driving toward Addo. There are pedestrians all along the highway. Most are black people in dark clothing (non-reflective and usually not white), making the practically impossible to see until they are 20 yards in front of you. Traveling at 120 km/hr, you do the math on how quickly a car would be upon these practically invisible people. We decided that was the last time we were going to drive at night.
The Aardvark backpacker’s hostel was quite nice, with an all you could eat breakfast for 20 rand (~$3), laundry service for ~$3 a load and an electric fence to protect the property at night.
Day 8 (Saturday)
We drove to Addo Game Reserve, arriving around 7 AM. Throughout our trip in South Africa we would seen many herbivores that resembled deer. After a while of this they were no longer exciting and being the sophisticated people we were we only noted there was another “deer-like” or “grazer” instead of expending the effort of looking in the books to identify the creatures. There were lots of ostriches, warthogs (they are really ugly) and Kudu (a deer-like). The highlights of the morning drive was a huge herd of elephants that were approaching a watering hole. These are the elephants depicted in the photo link. We timed it just right, the elephants were just arriving. They drank all the water in the hole (until it was dry) and then moved on. Our car happened to be in the path that the elephants wanted to take. The driver shut off the engine and we watched as the whole herd of elephants walked around the car. Elephants spend 14-16 hours a day eating and sleep on their feet.
In the distance we saw a jackal, the pictures on the links are with a 48x (12x optical, 4x digital). I was told it is very rare to see these animals because they flee from the first sign of humans.
We saw a large family of meerkats that is where most of the pictures came from. We were not allowed to take pictures while with Grant. I was told these animals are pretty rare.
Since my host had told me how hot it was in South Africa I did not have any warm cloths for the evening drive through the park in an open jeep. I prepared myself with a tee shirt, two long sleeve shirts, two borrowed sweaters and my windbreaker. The cold still started penetrating by the end of the drive. Don’t let anyone fool you South Africa gets cold! The evening drive was pretty uneventful although I did get to try the local beef jerky, biltong.
Day 9 (Sunday)
We arrived at Port Elizabeth and inquired what there was to do interesting in town. Our analysis was that it was not a very exciting place. We did see some interesting wake boarders using giant kites to pull them through the very cold waves. I did get to see giraffes and zebras too. Eventually I practiced my stick shift driving.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
South Africa part 2
I learned a long time ago not to say “How are you doing?” as a greeting unless I really wanted to know. This piece of clairvoyance came when I got stuck listening to someone tell me her life story for 10 minutes and I really was not interested in what that person had to say. The reverse has happened to me fairly often to reinforce this point; people would ask: “How are you doing” and walk away as I am speaking. My greetings for politeness are more succinct now sticking to a “Hello”, “Hi”, “Hey”, “Sup” etc. In the South African Township the verbal greeting exchange assumes that the other person is going to say “Hello. How are you doing?” When I am introduced after I say “Hello” and they say “Hello. How are you doing? I am fine.” I smirk as I realize how much that social idiosyncrasy is an automated response to a question I never asked.
Day 4 (Tuesday)
After landing in Cape Town the previous night we awaken to a heavy rainstorm. Our morning is spent socializing with the host family. I notice that there is a lock on the refrigerator and freezer. It is explained to me that these locks are standard issue because of the value of food to the poor population. That could be their food supply for the week and the many families would be devastated if this were stolen because they could not replace it until the next paycheck.
We head out to Simon Town to see penguins that live in the ground. They live in shallow burrows in the grass near the ocean. I never knew that there were penguins that live underground. They are so docile and used to humans that they react to us as they would to an elephant. The penguins will let you get within inches of them and simply step out of your way to avoid being trampled, as they would with an elephant. They are not afraid of humans.
Day 5 (Wednesday)
We wake to find that our car was broken into during the night. We are instructed to go to the police station to file a report since the police would not come to the scene of the crime. The police do not bother to look at the car. They our police report is a 4 inch piece of paper that pretty much says that we said the car was broken into.
We arrive at Oudtshroon at about 4 PM, just in time for the last ostrich tour. We pass by the first ostrich farm and head to the one further away. My host had been to the closer one and wanted to try the further one. The further one turns out to be 75-80% cheaper than the first site. We get a demonstration of making ostrich feather dusters, egg incubation. It is explained to us that ostriches are extremely stupid and have a 40-g brain, each eye is 60 g. The birds will swallow pretty much anything with the mouth and throat that are quite flexible. The ostrich exhibit showed the contents of a bird’s stomach to contain stones (for digestion), coins, sparkplug, toy car etc.
Then drive over to the nesting sites. It is explained that the birds will kick humans. If the human stays still on the ground the bird can not kick him so it will sit on the humans for 4 days to suffocate/starve the invader. The guide uses a long branch from a thorn bush to ward off the ostrich. The bird does not want its eyes damaged by the 2-inch thorns. We are allowed to stand on the eggs because they are strong enough to withstand that much weight. There is a wooden A-frame built over the nest to keep the eggs out of view of flying predators.
We get in our cars and drive 20 yards to the ostrich corral where we are allowed to ride the ostriches. That was the highlight of the trip. The retainers would chase the birds around while we were on the birds to make them run faster.
Day 4 (Tuesday)
After landing in Cape Town the previous night we awaken to a heavy rainstorm. Our morning is spent socializing with the host family. I notice that there is a lock on the refrigerator and freezer. It is explained to me that these locks are standard issue because of the value of food to the poor population. That could be their food supply for the week and the many families would be devastated if this were stolen because they could not replace it until the next paycheck.
We head out to Simon Town to see penguins that live in the ground. They live in shallow burrows in the grass near the ocean. I never knew that there were penguins that live underground. They are so docile and used to humans that they react to us as they would to an elephant. The penguins will let you get within inches of them and simply step out of your way to avoid being trampled, as they would with an elephant. They are not afraid of humans.
We head to Cape Point at the Cape of Good Hope. This is the southernmost point of Africa. At the cape we find a brightly colored poisonous caterpillar and a dassie. The dassie looks like a cuddly rodent the size of a cat. I was told that they are supposed to be the closest relative an elephant. The rain starts back up as we leave.
Day 5 (Wednesday)
We wake to find that our car was broken into during the night. We are instructed to go to the police station to file a report since the police would not come to the scene of the crime. The police do not bother to look at the car. They our police report is a 4 inch piece of paper that pretty much says that we said the car was broken into.
So off to Hermanus where we arrive in slightly rainy weather. Even though the weather was not totally cooperating, the whales were. We could see them in the distance swimming at the surface and spouting. This is the first place we have to check into a backpacker’s hostel. The room bathroom is inside the room and smells like urine. That lovely odor permeates the room when the bathroom door is open. When we identified that the blankets were quite thin we learned from the cold night in JoBerg that we were going to need to buy an additional blanket for each of us. At least there are no strangers sharing the quad dorm room with us that night.
Day 6 (Thursday)
The next morning the weather has cleared up and we walk the two blocks to the ocean for a final viewing of the whales before we head off to Oudtshroon.
We arrive at Oudtshroon at about 4 PM, just in time for the last ostrich tour. We pass by the first ostrich farm and head to the one further away. My host had been to the closer one and wanted to try the further one. The further one turns out to be 75-80% cheaper than the first site. We get a demonstration of making ostrich feather dusters, egg incubation. It is explained to us that ostriches are extremely stupid and have a 40-g brain, each eye is 60 g. The birds will swallow pretty much anything with the mouth and throat that are quite flexible. The ostrich exhibit showed the contents of a bird’s stomach to contain stones (for digestion), coins, sparkplug, toy car etc.
Then drive over to the nesting sites. It is explained that the birds will kick humans. If the human stays still on the ground the bird can not kick him so it will sit on the humans for 4 days to suffocate/starve the invader. The guide uses a long branch from a thorn bush to ward off the ostrich. The bird does not want its eyes damaged by the 2-inch thorns. We are allowed to stand on the eggs because they are strong enough to withstand that much weight. There is a wooden A-frame built over the nest to keep the eggs out of view of flying predators.
We get in our cars and drive 20 yards to the ostrich corral where we are allowed to ride the ostriches. That was the highlight of the trip. The retainers would chase the birds around while we were on the birds to make them run faster.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Start of South Africa Trip
Day 1 (Sunday)
Flying on Northwest from Detroit to Paris I saw a new feature, they had a camera on the plane that showed the outside. You could see the forklifts driving by and then the runway and terrain as you took off and flew. That was something new for me. I spent the time writing out my lesson plan for the classes I will be teaching in South Africa. This comes to an abrupt end when I lose my pen in the second flight. My host later explains to me that a partial lesson plan is more than most the teachers will have when they enter the class.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Arriving in JoBerg I was picked by my host and fed Lebanese bread and sauce on the car ride back to Parys, Free State. My host had warned me how hot it was in SA and to bring clothing to block the sun. In SA they do not have heat in most of the homes. I was provided a thin blanket and sent off to bed to brave the night. Do not let anyone fool you it gets quite cold in SA!
Day 3 (Monday)
Arriving at my host’s high school I received a lot of looks from the learners. I think the looks were from the curiosity not hostility. The learners were looking at a novelty of someone different since everyone in the school was black except my host and myself. I was introduced to the staff as I we encountered them. The greeting was a three-part handshake almost as if it were a secret society:
1) A western style grip (like Americans are used to)
2) The grip changes to arm wrestling type of grip (which is more rare but also used with a few of my less formal friends in States)
3) Then the grip changes again to a hold that reminds me of playing thumb war.
As we travel through the country I notice that only the black community uses this three-part greeting, the whites uses the traditional western handshake.
The school day starts with the learners in an outdoor courtyard and educators/admins surrounding the courtyard. The speaker at the front is forced to stare straight into the sun as he projects (no microphone) into the crowd of ~1000 learners. Between the distance of my vantage point, language and the accent I do not understand much of what the speaker is saying.
Eventually I tune it out because I do not even know which of the 11 official languages they are speaking, my attention shifts more to what the learners are doing. The students are much smaller than in an American school. In the US, I would expect a large portion of the population to be bigger than me and in better shape than someone 15 years older. As I look around, most are my height or smaller and pretty much all of them have less girth than me. I doubt many would be able to do any damage to me if they tried. My host explained to me than many of these students are so poor that they may get one meal a day.
Singing is part of the morning ceremonies; again I do not understand what they are singing about. As expected the learners in front tend to participate more than the more passive groups in the back. There are learners arriving late and as punishment they are required to pick a piece of trash off the ground and put it in the trash can before entering the courtyard. None of them wash their hands after this task. My host claims that he is responsible for this punishment, prior to his arrival there was no punishment for a tardy arrival.
My host and I enter a classroom of 10th grade high school kids and I am introduced to the learners. My host asks the students to bring forward the homework. The learners have nothing to present; they did not do the assignment. This is repeated throughout the day, none of the classes do the homework assignment. I start the class by instructing them about ice cream, the ingredient functions, manufacturing and mathematics behind it. Because of the warning from my host about how weak the students are (by American standards) I stick to addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages. Some of the students can handle the adding and subtracting. A few of them can handle multiplication. Percentages are a real struggle for the learners, even as I show them shortcuts and tricks to doing percentages they have trouble with the calculations.
I open up the floor to any questions and certain questions appear in all of the classes.
1) Are you married?
2) Do you have children?
3) Will you adopt me?
4) Who is older you or the host teacher?
In two classes I am asked for a dollar bill, and I dispel the myth that in the US we only use paper money. When asked to give as for the dollar as a gift I had enough foresight to see the precarious situation that could happen and offered to exchange for the local currency 8 Rands (8.7 Rands = 1USD). The learner came up short but I gave it to him for 7 Rands. I could not afford to give 1000 students each a dollar.
I receive a request to sing a song. I can only recall one of the 4 or so songs I know the words to. I sing the lullaby to the class. This actually appeared to be about as quite and respectful as the class was the whole time. They were actually quite and stayed passed the bell to let me finish the song.
The classes were all deafening, I felt like I need ear plugs to teach the classes. I used quieting techniques to bring the decibel levels down multiple times each class.
Flying on Northwest from Detroit to Paris I saw a new feature, they had a camera on the plane that showed the outside. You could see the forklifts driving by and then the runway and terrain as you took off and flew. That was something new for me. I spent the time writing out my lesson plan for the classes I will be teaching in South Africa. This comes to an abrupt end when I lose my pen in the second flight. My host later explains to me that a partial lesson plan is more than most the teachers will have when they enter the class.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Arriving in JoBerg I was picked by my host and fed Lebanese bread and sauce on the car ride back to Parys, Free State. My host had warned me how hot it was in SA and to bring clothing to block the sun. In SA they do not have heat in most of the homes. I was provided a thin blanket and sent off to bed to brave the night. Do not let anyone fool you it gets quite cold in SA!
Day 3 (Monday)
Arriving at my host’s high school I received a lot of looks from the learners. I think the looks were from the curiosity not hostility. The learners were looking at a novelty of someone different since everyone in the school was black except my host and myself. I was introduced to the staff as I we encountered them. The greeting was a three-part handshake almost as if it were a secret society:
1) A western style grip (like Americans are used to)
2) The grip changes to arm wrestling type of grip (which is more rare but also used with a few of my less formal friends in States)
3) Then the grip changes again to a hold that reminds me of playing thumb war.
As we travel through the country I notice that only the black community uses this three-part greeting, the whites uses the traditional western handshake.
The school day starts with the learners in an outdoor courtyard and educators/admins surrounding the courtyard. The speaker at the front is forced to stare straight into the sun as he projects (no microphone) into the crowd of ~1000 learners. Between the distance of my vantage point, language and the accent I do not understand much of what the speaker is saying.
Eventually I tune it out because I do not even know which of the 11 official languages they are speaking, my attention shifts more to what the learners are doing. The students are much smaller than in an American school. In the US, I would expect a large portion of the population to be bigger than me and in better shape than someone 15 years older. As I look around, most are my height or smaller and pretty much all of them have less girth than me. I doubt many would be able to do any damage to me if they tried. My host explained to me than many of these students are so poor that they may get one meal a day.
Singing is part of the morning ceremonies; again I do not understand what they are singing about. As expected the learners in front tend to participate more than the more passive groups in the back. There are learners arriving late and as punishment they are required to pick a piece of trash off the ground and put it in the trash can before entering the courtyard. None of them wash their hands after this task. My host claims that he is responsible for this punishment, prior to his arrival there was no punishment for a tardy arrival.
My host and I enter a classroom of 10th grade high school kids and I am introduced to the learners. My host asks the students to bring forward the homework. The learners have nothing to present; they did not do the assignment. This is repeated throughout the day, none of the classes do the homework assignment. I start the class by instructing them about ice cream, the ingredient functions, manufacturing and mathematics behind it. Because of the warning from my host about how weak the students are (by American standards) I stick to addition, subtraction, multiplication and percentages. Some of the students can handle the adding and subtracting. A few of them can handle multiplication. Percentages are a real struggle for the learners, even as I show them shortcuts and tricks to doing percentages they have trouble with the calculations.
I open up the floor to any questions and certain questions appear in all of the classes.
1) Are you married?
2) Do you have children?
3) Will you adopt me?
4) Who is older you or the host teacher?
In two classes I am asked for a dollar bill, and I dispel the myth that in the US we only use paper money. When asked to give as for the dollar as a gift I had enough foresight to see the precarious situation that could happen and offered to exchange for the local currency 8 Rands (8.7 Rands = 1USD). The learner came up short but I gave it to him for 7 Rands. I could not afford to give 1000 students each a dollar.
I receive a request to sing a song. I can only recall one of the 4 or so songs I know the words to. I sing the lullaby to the class. This actually appeared to be about as quite and respectful as the class was the whole time. They were actually quite and stayed passed the bell to let me finish the song.
The classes were all deafening, I felt like I need ear plugs to teach the classes. I used quieting techniques to bring the decibel levels down multiple times each class.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Cincy in the dark
In the coastal regions people are constantly being warned about hurricanes. Stock up food, keep flashlights, board up windows, evacuate. Cincinnati is quite a few miles from the coastline; one never thinks hurricane when they think Ohio. So a little wind rolls into town and 900,000 (half the population of the area) people lose power at some point on Sunday. 30+ inch trees are snapped inches from the ground. Come Monday 600,000 people still do not have power, the power company tells some people that their area will have power on Saturday.
So on Monday night I drive up through a powerless part of town to get to one of my factories. It is a very strange feeling almost as if a bomb had hit us. It is strange driving though an area that you know there are supposed to be buildings, traffic lights and people only to be greeted by silhouettes everywhere. As of Monday only 40 of the 140 Kroger stores were open. What is even more fascinating is that with 1/3 of the stores open they ask for corporate management (me) to go help in the store. I have not found the the right person to tell me why this would be. Of course there were long lines at all the restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations since so many of them were closed and many people did not have refrigeration or power to cook.
Since I live a block from a substation I only lost power 3 times for a total of about 90 seconds.
So on Monday night I drive up through a powerless part of town to get to one of my factories. It is a very strange feeling almost as if a bomb had hit us. It is strange driving though an area that you know there are supposed to be buildings, traffic lights and people only to be greeted by silhouettes everywhere. As of Monday only 40 of the 140 Kroger stores were open. What is even more fascinating is that with 1/3 of the stores open they ask for corporate management (me) to go help in the store. I have not found the the right person to tell me why this would be. Of course there were long lines at all the restaurants, grocery stores and gas stations since so many of them were closed and many people did not have refrigeration or power to cook.
Since I live a block from a substation I only lost power 3 times for a total of about 90 seconds.
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