(Un)Health Report

I just got my final health report from the checkup in Jakarta. Everyone who went was diagnosed with "chronic pharyngitis" which I think means a sore throat. We all had one because it was going around at the school. Besides that they told me I need to drink more water, exercise a little more and get my wisdom teeth out. I'm probably going to do that last one soon since they are starting to hurt.

Gladiator of faith!

Tomorrow I will be leading the Middle School and High School chapel. We have been working through the Armor of God. Tomorrows chapel will be the shield of faith. The last time I spoke in chapel (almost exactly two years ago) the topic was just faith, now on a completely different topic, the "shield of faith." I'm going to start off with the battle scene from Gladiator with all the flaming arrows (of the evil one!) Then talk about what faith is not, what faith is, what the shield of faith is and then how to live with the shield of faith. Of course I am up here working late at night trying to finish my presentation.

TV does it again

I've gotten hooked on another TV show. This one is called "The Office". It is about a disfunctional paper supply company and their problematic boss. They are facing a downsizing and merger with another branch. The show is hilarious in that the boss thinks he knows everything and that everyone likes him. In reality he drives everyone nuts. The style is almost like a documentary or reality show. Well done BBC.

On a 24 note, we are through with the first 8 episodes of season 3.

Yes Please

Last night I was shopping at the store that imports from around the world. You can find all kinds of stuff there are thoroughly unreasonable prices. I was looking at the shampoo selection and of course they had the basic kinds and some imports like Herbal Essence. Then I saw a Japanese (I think) shampoo with the best name ever. It is called "Fu Fa Poo" shampoo. I'm still laughing.

Sea Tribe Video

I've finished editing the video for the Sea Tribe trip 2004. We have a presentation in front of the church tomorrow and will be showing the video afterwards. I'll try and get a web version as well. I'll let you know when it is posted.

Sofefo tonight

Tonight is another meeting of Sofefo, the church youth group. We are focusing on setting proper priorities and building margin into your schedule.

Tankuban Parahu

Since monday was election day we had it off of school. A few friends and I wrote motorcycles up to the volcano called Tankuban Parahu which means "upsidedown boat." There is a local legend of a guy who falls in love with his mom or something like that and as a punishment he has to do something. It ends with an upside down boat which is what the mountain vaguely looks like if you have an incredibly active imagination. Anyways, We had a blast hiching most of the way around the rim, boiling eggs in a hot spring and walking past all the people trying to sell us stone elephants or strawberries. I guess you have to experience it to fully understand. After we were a little tired, we went to a hot spring resort with some really nice hot spring pools. We ate some corn on the cob on the way there and lounged around in the pools for a while. For some reason the men here consider it manly to be able to wear a speedo. I think it is just gross. Anyways, on our way back, we stopped at a restaurant and ate rabbit and goat sate. It really is quite good. I love taking people on this trip. My parents went on it when they were here this spring and just loved it. The scenery is incredible and the food is out of this world. Anyone who wants to come here and visit I will definitely take them on this trip.

Election Results

It appears that Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has won the election 60-40 over Megawati. While this probably a good thing, it is also a nervous time. Megawati is famous here for not doing anything. A lot of people liked that. The "founding fathers" were military dictators each for about 30 years that ruled with an iron fist. Megawati was a big change in that she didn't rule much at all except to take a bribe now and then. To be fair though, she did try and do a few tough things like remove the fuel subsidy but would always back down in the face of demonstrators. After all, she was never elected. She became president after fierce demonstrations. SBY brings the promise of a strong and talented military leader but also the fears of a strong and talented military leader. He has shown himself reliable and strong in the past but there are fears of a return to the military dictatorship of the past. Time will tell...

Buzz no more

Apparently the cause of all those mosquitos was that one of my roommates (who will remain unanimous) has been leaving his window open all the time. He has a mosquito net so they weren't bothering him but they were filling the rest of the house with mosquitos. Hopefully the problem has been solved.

Indonesian Election

Today is a holiday for the Indonesian Presidential Election so we don't have to work. Yay! There are two people still running (it is a runoff). Megawati Sukarnoputri, the incumbant behind in the poles and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). Most people I have talked to are going to vote for SBY because they think he can fix some of the major problems and is a strong leader. Some say they will vote for Mega because they know her and know she doesn't do much so she can't be too evil. Who am I voting for? I can't. I vote in November and will face a similarly difficult decision. Of course I say that but I'm already pretty sure who I will vote for. My friends and I are going up the the Volcano and Hot Springs today for some fun in the sun. What a great Monday.

Those who want to follow the election results can do so here

Buzz in the night

We are now beginning the wet season although it isn't raining very much yet. One of the side effects of this is that all the mosquito larvae that have be hibernating for the dry season have decided to hatch at once. It seems like every night for the last 4 nights our house is filled with mosquitos. We have this electric racket that you can use to kill mosquitos but it seems that no matter how many we will there are still more flying around. I've killed about 20 each night just in my room and I still get woken up by the buzzing of mosquitos near my head. Hopefully this won't last too long.

One dot Oh

Several of my favorite software has finally hit 1.0 status. The first is GAIM which is an Instant Message software that allows you to use all the major and a lot of minor IM networks in one. This means you can use AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Napster, IRC and many more IM in one program. Check it out at Gaim's Homepage.

Second, Mozilla Firefox, the best browser on the web has hit 1.0PR status. This is a preview release of the 1.0 browser which means it is finished and in final testing mode before the official 1.0 release. I've been using it for several days and can say it is rock solid and has more features than you can wave a stick at. See my earlier post as to why mozilla is such a great browser.

Nothing interesting happened today

Well maybe something did but I can't think what it was right now. It was all fairly normal. Oh, except this guy wanted to race me down a street. I don't know what he was thinking. My engine is twice his size so I totally wasted him. Oh well. That's about it. (Sorry mom for racing. I really did have it under control. He wasn't much of a challenge)

Isra Miraj National Holiday

Today is the Isra Miraj Holiday. Isra and Miraj are events where the Prophet Muhammad was taken by the Angel Gabriel for a night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from the rock now located in the Dome of the Rock, to heaven. This is not a religious holiday in the conventional way as there are not any celebrations or festivities associated with it, however, it is a time for reflection and prayer and some choose to fast during the day. I played golf in the morning, got my lesson plans done for the week and will be going out to dinner this evening. I like holidays. We have next monday off as well, more on that later. BTW, we didn't have last monday off for Memorial Day.

Hint

Okay for those of you who haven't found my small change to the website, I'll give you a hint. Look under FAQ for the question "Do you have a girlfriend?" I'm always open to advice so fire away.

I'm gonna die!

Well, not right away but I'm pretty sure I will eventually. We had our checkup in Jakarta and the results were pretty good. The doctor said there are no problems with my heart. I disagreed since it definitely doesn't feel normal. I'll accept that there is nothing dangerous but there is definitely something wrong. I'm guessing arrhythmia. Not a life threatening thing nor something they can do anything about so they probably just didn't bother mentioning it. I'm going to do some independant research and see if there is anything I can do/need to do about it. The doctors did mention that my HDL is slightly low so I need to excercise more and there are crystals in my urine so I need to drink more water. That was about it for their recommendations but there are still some tests outstanding. I'll get the final report in about 2 weeks.

Australian Embassy Bombing

Saturday morning me and Shirley, the school nurse, drove by the Australian Embassy. It was a pretty amazing site. After having seen Oklahoma City, Bali, and JW Marriot in Jakarta shortly after I'm starting to understand what happens a little better. This one was a large car bomb but the Australian Embassy was pretty well protected. It had a high wall that the bombers were unable to get inside of. They exploded the bomb on a large 6 lane street outside. Unfortunately the Embassy is surrounded by 5 or 6 buildings with glass walls all the way up. Anyone who has ever played with fire crackers will know that it is not too dangerous to explode a firecracker in your hand as long as your hand is open (Please don't try this at home, take my word for it). If you close your hand around it it will blow your fingers off. This is similar to what happened here. They blew up the bomb in the middle of an open area which didn't do much damage to the the actual buildings but blew out most of the windows. I wasn't able to see the blast crater because they had it blocked off but it didn't look like it could be as big as they claimed (50m by 50m and 10m deep). My condolences to those who lost friends and family.

Dry Again

I may have been a little hasty in my announcement of the rainy season. It hasn't actually rained since my post about it raining every day. Of course since I am now posting that it hasn't been raining, will mean that it will rain all the time. (or now that I am predicting it will, maybe it won't). Okay, my head is starting to hurt so I am going to stop writing.

Trip to Jakarta

This post may seem a little strange in light of my previous post. Some of the staff here have been planning a trip to Jakarta to get a physical. We are still planning on going tomorrow in spite of the bomb. Right now though, the street that our hotel is on is closed down due to the bomb so we are very much hoping it will reopen before we get there. Be praying for the situation.

Blast in Jakarta

Seems there has been another bombing in Indonesia. Here is the information we have so far. The apparent target was the Australian Embassy and there were a couple of car bombs. At least a few people are dead and there has been lots of damage. Much more information can be gained from
Google News
CNN's story
Fox's story
Everyone here in Bandung is fine.

Small correction somewhere

I have made a small correction somewhere on my website. I'm not going to tell you where or what yet but see if you can find it.

Sick Roomates

My roomate was not feeling very well yesterday. I covered a lot of his classes for him. Teaching middle school science and math is a lot of fun. Students at that age still don't know a lot and are eager to learn. It was a fun break to my usual load of High Schoolers. I enjoy them too but in a different way. Teaching both loads (although not all of his) was quite tiring but exciting. Anyways, I talked to my sister at college today and it turns out her roomate is sick to. Coincidence? I think not.

Walking party

For dinner last night a whole bunch of us went out and suprised Andrea at Gambrinus (an Indian and German restaurant). We ate Indian and it was really good. The reason for the party was that it is the first day that she could walk with her cast since she had surgery this summer. She almost cancelled last minute because she thought her wallet was stolen when she was swimming in the afternoon. After she cancelled her credit cards she found it on her bed. Dinner was great anyways.

Motorcycle mishap

Yseterday I wrecked my new bike for the first time. I was traveling pretty slow when a motorcycle came out from no where. I didn't get hurt except for bruising my wrist and my bike recieved just a little damage. I had all the broken parts replaced and fixed within an hour so no harm done. Luckily I was going pretty slow for once.

Open House

Today is open house day at school. What that means is that we have to stay at school till 6:00 PM and do lots of activities with parents. I'm taking the group picture and everyone is wearing colored shirts because the theme is "MOSAIC." We will arange in differnt shapes by colors on the gym floor and take an artistic picture. We will also be playing some games, eating food and being available to talk to parents. I can't wait to go to sleep. I'm very tired from a busy week.

Tut tut

It rained last night for the first time in a few months. It rained again this morning. Methinks this betokens the beginning of the rainy season. The wisdom here is that any month with an "r" in it is a rainy month. Rain here happens the same almost every day. In the morning it is sunny and cloudless, different from other rainy places like Vancouver or Seattle where it drizzles all the time. It slowly clouds over during the day and around 3:00 PM it starts pouring. It rains hard for about half an hour then leds up to a steady drizzle for a couple hours. You can almost set your watch by the start of the rain every day. Unfortunately, we teachers are allowed to leave at 3:30 which is prime rain time. Since I ride a motorcycle home it makes for an interested and wet ride.

Bigger Beef

Our new server just arrived today and I've finished setting it up and moving all the files over. It actually got here a couple of weeks ago but after running for an hour the power supply fried. We sent it back to be fixed and now it is. I'm just finishing up getting everything moved. It has been a lot more work than I thought but it is done. Tomorrow now everyone will have problems but c'est la vie right? It will take a few days to iron out all the wrinkles. Until then I just won't sleep. We have a new server though, Yay!