life

other

Not long ago 23 seemed really old and far away, practically knocking on codgerhood’s front door.

GIT OFF MY LAWN KID.

(gotta be ready for when codgerhood opens the door)

 

other

Lane groups from left to right correspond loosely to breast cancer stages one through four (at diagnosis).

Wow. Not a lot of words come to mind right now.

http://xkcd.com/931/

ideas

Have enough time in the morning to enjoy a second cup of coffee after breakfast.

ideas

Angry men shouldn’t be pastors

other

Never in my wildest dreams would I imagine that I would want a 16 year old girl I don’t even know, especially a rags-poor student with a scholarship, to test positive for pregnancy.

So what was the result?

Negative.

Which means that we don’t really know why she nearly died this week.

(I wrote this without editing because I only came to the office to grab my computer and head back to the house before the rain comes)

Edit:
Just to be clear, a girl in the sponsorship program got really sick, and after a lot of tests we were still inconclusive, then the doctor recommended a pregnancy test as a last ditch effort, and it came out negative. Right now he says it’s Anemia that nearly developed to Hepatitis A…not sure I buy it.

funny, stories

Here in Guatemala, after the rain, these huge beetles come out. I mean, really freaking huge. And slow. Flying, slowly, loudly, seeking..uhh..well, I really have no idea what they’re doing at all. They come in numbers, too; we’re talking 5-8 at every street light, and who knows how many in the darkness in-between. The little ones are the size of a film canister, the really big ones would give your hands mass a good run for its money.

After living here for 9 months good dave gave in to bad dave, in a weak moment my goodwill caved in to crude desire. I punted a giant flying beetle.

So, did I mention that these beetles also have a giant Rhinoceros-like horn?

other

I was thinking about the times forgiveness and I have crossed paths, when was it easy and when was it not.

Entirely buttfuzz-in-the-teacup backwards of what would make sense, the toughest for me is to forgive is the idiot. The person who really had malice in their heart is easier to forgive. (Well, it could also be that I’m confusing forgiveness with willed forgetfulness)

One idea: maybe because there’s a good feeling to forgiving the bad person, kinda like being a martyr or giving money when folks are watching, but not quite.

I’m editing this draft from a few months ago, and having thought about it more, here’s another thing I think: the idiot who won’t admit (to others or themself) they’ve been an idiot is the really hard one to forgive.

 

ideas, other

So I watched this movie yesterday, and for the first third I’m like “hmm..if this guy is the hero for his ‘determinism’ and they don’t handle with his denseness and worthlessness I’m gonna be disappointed.

So then in the second third and I’m like OK, this is looking like they’re gonna handle stuff, this could turn out a great movie.

I’m thinking here that this movie could turn out to be a beautiful re-tone and refinement and media-shifted version of Shop Class as Soulcraft. I’m thinking that maybe, because these are some good actors and maybe the writer’s awesome, it could be not just a “rich suit guy finds meaning in using his hands” gig, but a hard hitting commentary on the meaning of human life.

So then the third third rolls around and I’m like yes, yes I think they may pin this. Maybe it won’t be as great as I want it to be, but we’re goin’ the right way here.

Then the scene on the docks, “these men knew their worth,” and I was like yes. Could’ve been better, I wouldn’t say it’s worth pinning Crawford’s book on, but hey it’s good, not going to whine.

And then a minute later the last scene happened and I found myself sitting in the couch half dazed, with just enough sense to be grumbling some unkind things directed at the directors and writers and producers and actors. Aw c’mon guys.

funny

Great photo that came in on my blog feed (blog: bubblevisor). Or maybe it’s not an out of control hippie van but an engineerhippie van.

 

out of control OR enginerd hippie van

I have one problem and it’s bothering me–what music would be heard coming from such an impressive vehicle?

Would it be bumpy piano hipster rock (Arcade Fire, Avett Bros,…) or heavy metal, old school classic rap (Gangster’s Paradise) or classical (if classical, what classical? Baroque? Romantic? Modern? Stravinsky?). Phillip Glass? Pink Floyd? U2? Classic rock?

Actually nevermind, dumb question. The obvious answer:

 

ideas, other, photography

If you’re trying to be cool you’ve already missed the boat; the fire inside to have courage is the thing itself.

So is that if and only if or exclusive or?

What other picture could go here but Teddy and Muir

Serious studs

 

 

funny, motorcycle

Sometimes I forget that for work I get to ride a dirtbike around on a crazy old rocky highway through mountains between towns to hang out with poor kids and give them school supplies. Did I mention that’s actually for work?

There’s always stuff to whine about here, but for now I settle for beer with my crackers and cheese.

And it just so happens that there’s a store just down the street that sells Guatemalan beer and Guatemalan corn chips. Not good old crackers and cheese, but close enough and maybe better really.

And yes, when Profe Jorge and I ride around on the motorcycle we do sorta look like a couple of Mormons. They call us milk and chocolate.

Yes, we do look like mormons

 

ideas

If Google shows a music group Wikipedia page before the official page, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

other

In a poor town in a developing country, something’s just not right about a fat pastor.

other

So a few years ago I got this brand new Lenovo laptop and decided that windows is for chumps, I’m going Ubuntu all the way.
So I installed Ubuntu, dual booting with Vista.
Then I decided that’s for chumps, real ballers nix Vista and use powerful Linux for EVERYTHING.
That’s where I found out why real ballers are real ballers (and why I wasn’t quite baller)…

My eyeballs, so much color, it burns.

This is Wes, one of the mechanics at the bike shop I worked at.
Nice shades breh.
For the record Wes also got the ultimate compliment from the local grom squad: “sweet kicks man.”
Nuff said.
I wonder if he’s still styling the white Tarmac.

cool shades breh

This was my daily morning bus trip to UW. Shot with a camera phone out the back window of the bus towards Bellevue, and towards the sunrise (dur).

back window of the bus

Complex Analysis. This was one of my favorite classes ever. The prof was legitimately crazy, absolutely brilliant, really scary at first, and more than any (but one) prof I’ve had he truly really cared about us students despite having to teach us little piddly raisins easy stuff compared to type of wild and deep things in math he deals with daily. And being a crazy old codger he somehow was one of the only profs I’ve had who really treated everybody equal. And in a bar fight this guy would lay fools out (did I mention he’s an ex-Navy-fighter-pilot?).

Linchpin lecture of complex analysis

Old phone pictures are like Cliff notes for chapters of life, aren’t they?

Conclusion: always have a phone with at least a decently good camera.

The heart of the Polaroid camera lives on.