August 2002 Archives

I have finished this month's book, Bitter Grounds on the flight back from Ann Arbor and my mind keeps wandering back to it. The book is about three generations of women in El Salvador, some are members of the rich oligarchy and the others of the poor peasants/working class. It's a great book and gives good insight into what El Salvador has been through during a big portion of last century. But it's also sad to read and think of how many lives have been wasted there - and in so many other places around the world. The great thing about the book is that it makes you empathize with members of both sides of the class divide - even though some do atrocious things.

One thing the book made me realize is that I don't really know what the difference is between "Marxism-Leninism" and "Maoism". The book mentions the radicalization in the '70s and about different left-wing rebel groups (all of which went by a plethora of three letter acronyms), and some of which were Maoists (it doesn't really talk all that much about politics, though). I tried googling for a good definition, but most were either long treatises (God I'm glad I never took political science in college) or just propaganda pages. From what I can tell, Marxism-Leninism sees the workers rise up against the capitalists while in Maoism it's the peasants who rebel against their oppressors. That would explain why leftists in agrarian countries - such as the coffee producing El Salvador - would be Maoists, I guess. Is there anything else that's different between the two movements?

Over the weekend a bunch of bug bites (I assume) appeared on my ankles. Jennifer has some too (in other places I shall not mention), but none of hers are as lovely and colorful as mine. We don't know where we got them, although I'm suspecting Meredith and Michael's back yard where we dropped off Homer before our trip north (he had a blast, BTW).

I noticed them first during Friday night when my ankles started to itch. I didn't think much of it and they didn't look bad on Saturday morning. By the time we got back from the wedding, though, my ankles were covered with filled blisters - like I had been burned by poison ivy or tortured with a small hot poker. As an experiment (and because they - not unlike a sheet of bubble wrap - beckoned me to do it) I lanced them on one of my ankles. It turned out not to be the best idea although I don't think it really matters one way or the other.

So today, both my ankles look nasty as can be. One (the one I popped) has oozing bug bites and the other has a colony of what looks like little snow topped volcanoes waiting to erupt. To get an idea (somehow my camera can't capture the full effect) think back to your high school years and remember the nastiest whitehead you ever head. Now take ten of those and arrange them randomly on a 2x2 inch area on your ankle. That's pretty much how it looks. I will try very hard not too touch them - even though they are calling my name seductively even as I'm writing this...

On Saturday morning, we headed out to the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum. Despite the fact that we are a little older than the target audience, the Museum (as all Hand-On museums I've ever been to) was a blast. I think the only thing we learned that we didn't know before was that for every pound of humans, there is 300 pounds of insects (to which Jennifer replied that she needed to lose some weight). Still, their exhibits are cool and lots of fun to play with.

The wedding was at 2 PM and we were planing to pick up Archie and Jessica at 1:30 at their hotel. Except we didn't have directions and the short cut I took didn't seem to lead to their place and the receptionist at their hotel that we called was not good with directions, either. Eventually we re-traced the route from the night before and arrived at their hotel at ten till two.

They leisurely got in and I floored it and flew towards the church - another good 20 minutes away. Luckily they mentioned that the wedding was actually at 2:30 so we made it with a lot of time to spare.

The wedding itself was lovely. It was in an old, beautiful methodist church (read: short service). John's brother Jeff, who plays french horn for the Boston Brass, played his horn with a piano/organ before the ceremony and it was lovely. Shannan's dress was great and fit her perfectly (size and style wise). It was wonderful watching them at the altar exchanging their wows. I kept thinking how appropriate they were for each other and wondered what took them so long (probably the same thing some people are wondering about Jennifer and me).

After the ceremony we killed some time in a cafe (with Jeannie, Tommy, Kearsy, Archie and Jessica and Kim and Robert). We then headed to the student union for the reception - one of the many old, ivy covered red-brick buildings that grace U of M's campus. Food was yummy, the jazz quartet sounded great as did Jeanie's song. As John and Shannan were leaving, they found John's car filled with balloons, loose rice and misc. crap which took them a while to get rid off, to everyone's amusement. They then took of to spend their honeymoon in Maine.

Our group went downtown and had some snacks and dessert in a side walk cafe. Ann Arbor is very nice in August. The temperature was lows in the 60s and highs in the 80s on a day when Austin broke 100 for the first time this year.

We flew to Ann Arbor, Michigan this weekend for Shannan and John's wedding. It's our last "vacation" before our wedding, so it's nice for it to be for this occasion. Our PriceLine.com tickets turned out fine. The first leg Austin-St. Louis, said on the ticket that it was a TWA flight (operated by AA). Huh?!? When was the last time one has heard anything about TWA? It turned out to be a regular AA flight, on an AA plane, with AA flight attendants. The only TWA thing that we noticed was the safety instruction card - it said "TWA an American Airlines Company". Whatever.

We got into Detroit around 7:30 but had to kill time because we were giving Archie and Jessica a ride to Ann Arbor. When we asked the rental car people for suggestions on what to do, we were recommended a "very excellent Denny's" right by the airport. Instead, we went to the mall to buy wrapping paper and along the way we noticed a bowling alley. So Jfer also bought some socks and we played three games (I scored 129 in my first game and went downhill from there).

Things I learned: If you go south from Detroit, you cross into Canada. Also, watch the change they give you in Michigan - someone I ended up with a Canadian quarter (I used it later to tip someone).

After lots of moaning and complaining from the participants, I've finally got my pictures off my camera and onto the computer. So here are the wedding shower pictures in all their faded and repetitious glory. Yeah, I need to weed out at least half of them and it wouldn't hurt to apply some contrast and color correction, but who's got the time?

Also, I think it is fairly obvious that someone needs a new camera - preferably one that captures colors a little better than my PowerShot S10. Perhaps an S30 or S40? Anyone?

Just as I always suspected, the Parents Television Council just announced that Buffy The Vampire Slayer heads its Top 10 Worst Broadcast Shows list. There is something about violence, sex and the occult that they do not like. Angel did not get the honors of making the list (the name of the show probably saved it).
None of "my" shows were in the worst list, but Smallville made number six in The Best list. I knew I was more wholesome that Jennifer.

I missed helping some friends move on Friday night because I was at work until 10pm. I put in another full day to day and am only now wrapping up some final tasks. On the one hand it's nice to be working on stuff that's hopefully going to have fairly immediate impact. On the other hand, it would be better if that work could be done during the week so that I could enjoy the weekend with Jennifer and Homer. But there are worse things (like not having a job).

Actually we did a lot of good work on the wedding invitations on Saturday. I also discovered how printer companies are making loads of money. It's the toner where the $$$ is, baby!

We're looking to buy a digital video camera before our wedding. I've been reviewing them on the web and am leaning towards the Canon Optura 100MC. It has very good optics, a large lens, optical image stabilization, and not as many superfluous features and buttons as some of the Sony cameras I've been looking at. Canon just recently announced the Optura 200MC. Most of the new features it adds, like night vision or making MPEG movies, I don't think I'd ever use. However, it is a little smaller and lighter, draws less power and has a built-in USB port (but Canon will send you a free card reader for the 100MC, so that doesn't really matter). It's also 50% more expensive. I hope that with the new model out, the price for the 100MC will drop some more.

And the only reason I'm still up is because I'm going to get some of those wedding maps printed, if it's going to kill me. Jfer went to be pretty early - she has not been feeling well - so it's been just me and Illustrator, mano a mano, so to speak.
I finally had a design I was happy with, alas my map was too dark and was showing through on the other side of the paper when printed. Back to mucking with colors - don't be too surprised if you get a map and it's kinda low contrast - I'm too tired to come up with anything better.
Then I printed my first 20 pages (40 maps) only to remember that I was supposed to put an arrow indicating North on those maps. I printed the other side with the compas, but I guess this batch will be a collector's item.
Well, it sounds like the printer is done and I'm sufficiently happy with the output. Bed, sweet bed, here I come...

So I've been reviewing lodging possibilities for our family honeymoon in Arkansas. I requested info from the Ozark's Mountain Region and got deluged with emails and snailmailed brochures. They pretty much fall into two categories: places/resorts on the Bull Shoals Lake and Norfork Lake and stuff along the Buffalo River.

I didn't really care for anything on the lakes. Judging from the sites and brochures, it's quite the happening place if you are a fisherman - which we are not. Pretty much every site has a picture of some guy or gal holding a humongous fish and most of their logos feature some fish leaping out of the water (happy to be caught, no doubt).

Buffalo River looks much more promising. Plenty of places that have lovely cottages and lodges. Plus it's close to the things we want to do: hiking, canoeing and horse back riding. Once Jennifer checks them out, I'll make some calls tomorrow.

Still, most of the web sites are pretty atrocious. If you're advertising a vacation retreat on the internet, put a frigging map on your site. Especially one that shows your location in the context of the entire state as opposed just your county that no one has ever heard of.

I always wondered who in their right mind would actually buy one of Ben and Jerry's Euphori-Locks. I wonder no more. One of our house guests robbed us of our cherished Karamel Sutra this weekend. Jennifer managed to mitigate the pain by buying pints of Half Baked and Fudge Central, but I tell ya, the trust is gone.

After careful planning, we managed to get both Doug and Luciana as well as Archie and Jessica to join us for this year's Zilker Summer Musical. Conveniently enough, Meredith L. was still in town, so she got to see what a real theater production looks like, as opposed to the dilettante stuff she sees in her neck of the woods.

We got to Zilker early and Jennifer found us a great spot to lay our blankets down. We killed the next couple of hours with hanging out by (or in my and Homer's case, in) Barton Creek. The water was great and Homer got nicely tired before the show. Doug and Luciana brought a bucket of fried chicken and we had lots of fruit and cookies to go with that and soon enough the show started. But not before they reminded us that the performance was smoke and pet free. We told Homer to hunker down so we wouldn't get kicked out (or rather, he wouldn't be banished to the car).

Once again, Zilker did not disappoint. I have actually seen Into the Woods at Zilker before and it is one of my favorite musicals. This year's cast was superb, the stage choreographed well, and the new lighting and sound a joy to behold. If you haven't gone yet, there are three performances left, this Thu, Fri and Sat at 8pm. It's free but make sure to get there early to claim a good spot. I think you can lay out blankets starting 5pm.

Homer was quiet as a mouse and sleeping through most of the show. However, at one point the witch appears behind the audience and quite loudly, too. Homer got startled and let out a blood curling loud bark that made everyone around us jump. I clamped down on him and he was fine. We didn't get kicked out and he soon went to sleep again. And actually, it was timed perfectly to fit the play.

Cecily sent me an email pointing me to Daypop's Top 40 where my BlogTree site is currently in the top spot! That is so neat - it also means I have to do more work on the site - like add a forum, etc.

This got probably triggered by a post on BlogRoots.

We had our first wedding shower yesterday at Elizabeth's. It makes such a difference when someone actually plans for such an event (I usually don't). Elizabeth had everything together, with interesting decorations and yummy food. It was great fun and we ended up with a lot of loot. I still don't know where we're going to put all that stuff.

Being the recipient in a shower is kinda weird. It's another rite of passage towards getting married and it really would have been strange had I not known every single person at the party. As it was, it felt a little like a family christmas. Still, being on display as the only ones opening gifts was a little surreal. I don't think I'm a good shower gift receiver. Not that I am not thankful - I love receiving gifts and shower gifts are always cool because you pick them out yourself. But to me, gifts that I receive are to be reciprocated - preferable at the same time - and that does not directly happen at a shower. I mean, it all evens out in the long run (most everyone gets married or has children or some anniversary or retirement party) but I still sense a dychotomy at the event. Maybe it's cultural - I don't know.

Jennifer is out carousing and fawning over Guy Forsyth with her mom and sister while I've been slaving away on the wedding invitation maps. Actually, I'm not complaining. I'm not that much of a Guy fan and don't really care to spend the night in a smoky-and-too-damn-loud-to-hear-yourself place. Besides, this gave me the chance to dig in and work on the maps. And lest anyone should feel sorry for me, guess who was mowing the lawn before sunup this morning?

So, thanks to Jfer's access to CAD data for Austin and to Illustrator's power, I've finally managed to make a first draft of those maps. They still need tweaking, but the time consuming part is finally done. There is nothing like working hours late at night with just Homer for company. And I am so glad that I got Jennifer her laptop for Christmas. My Mac's too slow for this and her old laptop wouldn't even load Illustrator.

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day. Hanka and Ron are coming so we'll have four guests spending the night. And we'll have our first wedding shower in the afternoon, and I know that's going to be a blast, considering that Elizabeth is hosting and a big chunk of Jennifer's family is attending. I know who will be the designated driver :-)