Adventures coming back from Bagabag

So I needed to come back from Bagabag to Manila last night and bus seemed like the best way to do it. Here is what happened.

I started out walking around 8:00pm and realized that probably wasn't the smartest idea since I saw almost no cars for about 15 minutes and the road was really dark. I realized that I was a single foreigner walking along a dark and lonely road in the middle of the Philippines and didn't really have any way to contact anyone. I was the perfect target for anyone looking to mug someone or worse. I was starting to get a little nervous when I said, "God, I could really use some help!" A Trike came right up almost immediately and drove me to the bus station. As I paid the trike, A
bus pulled up and I got right and was on my way. The bus was comfortable and not crowded so I was able to sleep most of the way. About 7 hours later I arrived in Manila. A quick taxi from the bus station and I arrived at the Manila Guest house around 3:00.

Part of the reason that I did this was to see what it would be like to travel across a country in the middle of the night when I don't speak the language and am not too sure how to do it. This was a trial for an upcoming trip that I still haven't told you about but have hinted at and will hopefully tell you about soon.

Gone to Bagabag

Yesterday afternoon I was sitting around trying to figure out how to fly up to Bagabag on Monday but it wasn't looking very promissing. While we were talking someone came up and recognized my dad. We talked for a few minutes and he said he was driving up to Bagabag in a couple hours. I realized this would be perfect since it would allow me to go to Corrigador on Wednesday and Thursday and still be back for the wedding on Friday. So I caught a ride with him and am now in Bagabag. I'm not sure how or when I will be back but I got here just in time.

Apparently there has been some political instability and a potential coup attempt in Manila just as I was leaving. Luckily I'm out of the city and hopefully things will calm down before I return.

Faith Academy

I went out to my old school, Faith Academy, this morning. It was really neat to see it again. I attended 2nd to 5th grade between 1987 to 1991 there. Of course, all of my classmates are no longer there. Or so I though. I was wandering around with my dad visiting different places I remember and ran into my old little league baseball coach. Turns out his son, Peter Beck, is visiting right now. I stopped by and saw him and hopefully will be able to hang out with him more while I'm here.

Anyways, Faith is in the process of building a couple new really big buildings and a swimming pool. Its exciting to see my old school doing so well. I also got hooked up with the alumni people and will be giving them my life story. Hopefully I can add to my autobiography again sometime. My mom keeps telling me that some of what I have written isn't entirely accurate. Oh well, its what I remember.

Names in Cement

I'm back in the Philippines and having a great time. It has been about 15 years since I was last here and interestingly, the SIL office in Manila is almost exactly the same as I remember it being. I even checked to see if my name was still in the cement where we had put it and sure enough, it is still there. It says Randall and Aaron (Morgan, a friend from then) 7-31-90. How awesome is that? The only difference I see is the Nippa hut is now gone. Eaten by termites. Everything else is the same, including the small creek ditch we used to play boats in, the pool, the pickle tree (you have to see it to understand) and all the buildings are still the same. They are all just a lot smaller than I remember.

Flying to the Philippines

I realized coming over that I have 5 different airlines I'm flying. So far my experience has been good except Tiger Airways. NEVER FLY TIGER AIRWAYS. They are a typical low cost airlines that likes to nickel and dime you to death but where they really excel is in overweight luggage. They heavily enforce the one carry on per person and have a 15 Kg limit for check in luggage. I had a bit more and don't mind paying for overweight most of the time because of it. For Tiger I had 24 kg overweight (just over 50 pounds overweight for a total of 85 checked in) and they charged me more than my original ticket. I was so upset that I filed a complaint. I will NEVER fly them again.

Be a part of the action

Are you interested in helping in international relief but don't want to leave the comfort of your house? The World Food Programme has a game I'm currently downloading about delivering food in disaster areas. I haven't tried it out yet so let me know what you think.


http://www.food-force.com/

Employee Surgery

Last night we all went to the hospital so that one of the guys up here could get his appendix taken out. The surgery went fine but the wierdest part was when the doctor came out of the surgery room with a prescription for medicine that he needed. We had to go find the medicine which of course wasn't available in the hospital. I just keep trying to picture this scene happening in America.

A doctor comes out of the operating room. "Excuse me, is a relative of so-and-so here?"

"Yes, I am," says the family member.

"The patient needs this drug immediately or he will die. Please get it as soon as possible."

"Um, do you have it at this hospital?"

"Nope. And since it is so late at night, good luck finding an open pharmacy! Oh, and hurry back. He really needs it."

Okay, not quite as dramatic as that in real life but good grief!

Employees

One of our field supervisors has been sick the last few days. He was checked out by a nurse friend yesterday and went to the hospital today and confirmed that he has appendicitis. Hopefully we can get him surgery in the next couple of days.

On another note, a couple of other field supervisors have taken to wearing white gloves on their left hands supposedly due to sweating. As long as they don't get extensive plastic surgery to their face and bleach their skin I'm okay with it.

Macintosh again has the wind in poop in France

Doesn't make any sense? I laughed pretty hard when I read it. Its a translation from french to english using Google Translate. Check it out:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.macgeneration.com%2Fmgnews%2Fdepeche.php%3FaIdDepeche%3D119726&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=en&c2coff=1&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

Future of Computing Input

Is a keyboard and mouse the best we can do? Right now they are the best way that we know of to input and manipulate data in a computer. It wasn't always that way though. The earliest computers had switches, nobs or dials to input data. These were later replaced by punchcards and eventually the keyboard. The keyboard worked great for text input and output. Think the old black and white text screens.

Then someone started making all these fancy computers with colorful "windows" and things to click on. The mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1963 to help us input instructions and move things around in these new fancy environments. The mouse has always been a little more abstract than many would like. For example, try to draw a picture with a mouse. It is very difficult because the mouse is not actually over the picture, it is beside the computer.

So what does the future hold? Normally I don't like to make predictions but this technology looks so cool that it could quite possibly replace the keyboard and mouse. We were promised speech recognition (think Star Trek) but even if we could get that to work, how do you tell a computer to do more abstract things like open a specific file and move it around or draw a picture? We need something else. Enter the multi-touch interactive screen. Think Minority Report by Stephen Speilberg. Where Tom Cruise is waiving his hands around to manipulate the information. It seemed a bit silly to me but to actually see a video of someone doing something like it is very impressive.

If you want to see the future of computer input, follow this link to Multi-Touch Interactive Research at NYU. Prepare to be impressed.

Mapping Banda Aceh

So I was out on my bike today driving around with my new GPS unit mapping the city. I was also searching for a longer and better running path somewhere in my neighborhood. I must have driven for about an hour, mapping different roads out. Then I went to reset the trip information to measure out the running path and accidently deleted all the track information I had just spent all that time gathering. I had to go back and record it all again from scratch.

Well, I've successfully created a rudimentary map of Banda Aceh for my Garmin GPS unit now. If anyone is interested in trying it out, you can find it at mapcenter. It is still far from finished but should have most of the basic roads on it. Needless to say I've learned a lot about GPS, Satellites, creating maps and whatnot since I started the project.

What if you lived to be 969?

Every once in a while I have really random thoughts. One that I've had off and on for a long time is, what would it be like to live to be 969 years old? Can you imagine what type of world we would live in if everyone lived that long?

First of all, the stuff we buy would be pretty crappy. Most cars barely last longer than ten years. That means you would have to buy at least 96 cars in your lifetime. People would probably make them a little better though. The Yellow Cab Car company used to make a car that was made to go 1,000,000 miles and last for 50 years. If I lived to be that old, I would want a car like that.

Computers are another thing. Most laptops last 2-3 years (unless you buy Macs!) Thats a lot of laptops. Same with most things. They aren't designed to last very long. This works great for us people with short lives but if we lived nearly 1000 years, I think it would drive me nuts always having to replace worn out stuff. I'd want a car that would last 300 years at least and a computer that would last at least 50.

Its pretty crazy to think about what life would be like if it were that long. What do you think would be weird? There's got to be a good movie or book plot here somewhere.

Stretching is Good

I hope I've learned my lesson. On Monday I was out running and didn't have any problems going about 3 miles pretty quickly. That night though I noticed a strange pain in the back of my left knee. It isn't so bad but I've stopped running until it gets better. I guess I should be stretching better so I don't pull any more tendons. Hopefully I can start running again tomorrow.

Cities I visited in 2005

Okay, I've got to jump on the bandwagon and do a list of cities I have spent at least one night in during 2005.

Here is what I can think of so far:

Dallas, Texas
Cozumel, Mexico
Calico/Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Penang, Malaysia
Singapore, Singapore

Bandung, Indonesia
Pelabuhan Ratu, Indonesia
Bandar Lampung, Indonesia
Muara Enim, Indonesia
Bengkulu, Indonesia
Padang, Indonesia
Bukkit Tinggi, Indonesia
Danau Toba, Indonesia
Meulaboh, Indonesia
Gunung Sitoli (Nias), Indonesia
Panga, Indonesia
Medan, Indonesia
Banda Aceh, Indonesia
Sabang, Indonesia

Been a good year with lots of traveling. Where have you been?

Things heard when jogging

Being an American jogging through villages in Aceh, I tend to draw a lot of attention. I regularly get comments which usually consist of "Hello Mister" or "How are you!" The last few days I've had some rather startling comments. They are "You are very handsome," "Will you marry me?" and "I love you!"

Normally something like this would start to go to my head. Every time it starts to though I just remind myself that these comments were all said by 12 year old boys.

This is My Rather Random Ramblings after all.

Philippines Here I Come

I'm ready to announce the first of the exciting plans I promised to tell you about. My parents are going to be in the Philippines the second half of February and the beginning of March so I am going to go and join them. It will be the first time since I was 11 that I have been in the Philippines. I can't wait to see how things that I remember are different now. We will be going to the wedding of our house helper that we have stayed in contact with. Awesome!

Virus Caution

There is a new e-mail born virus on the loose. Any of you who are using MS Windows should take caution. If you received an e-mail with any of these subjects 'hot movie,' 'A Great Video' or 'Crazy illegal Sex!' or something like it, please be careful.

You cannot get the virus by only receiving the e-mail. If you click on the link within the e-mail though, you will infect your computer and probably not even know it.

If you have already clicked on the link (naughty you!), it is VERY IMPORTANT that you clean it off before friday. The virus is scheduled to delete all MS Office and Adobe files from your computer on February 3rd. If these files are deleted, they are nearly impossible to recover so be careful.

If in doubt, be sure to update your virus scanning software and run a complete scan before friday. You may also want to take this opportunity to backup all your important files, like your doctoral thesis that you have been writing for 4 years but don't have backed up. It would be a shame to lose it.

As always, if you are using a Macintosh computer you don't have to worry about this.