News and Views

We are off to Peru on Wednesday morning. None of us have ever been to South America, so we’re excited about the trip.

We will arrive in Lima, and then travel to Cusco and spend a few days there and at nearby Machu Pichu. I’m not sure of all the other places we will go — they are just names on the itinerary right now, but I’m sure they will fill with meaning in the next few weeks.

We are friends with a family that was born there. They have helped arrange everything. There are 10 of us from three families traveling together in mostly private tours.

We will be gone almost 3 weeks; back on Monday the 24th.

Hasta la vista!

As we were getting ready to go to Peru next week, I realized that our camcorder had died.

I’ve got one closet shelf full of Hi-8 tapes, and another shelf full of MiniDV tapes. The only way I can view either of them is to play them through their respective camcorders, each of which is broken.

So I just bought a MiniDVD camcorder. It records on 3″ DVD disks. After recording you can play then in a regular DVD player, or in a computer DVD ROM. Random access, on-screen menu; all the advantages of DVD over tape.

It’s the Sony DCR-DVD403. It is last year’s model that I got for an excellent price on clearance. They say that the changes in this year’s model are mostly cosmetic.

It just seems like I’ll use it more when it is so convenient, and hopefully I’ll still be able to play DVDs long after this camera has bitten the dust and joined it’s older brothers in the dustbin.

Today the Senate failed to pass, by one vote, the “Flag Desecration” amendment.

Now I don’t like to see the flag burned, stepped on, or otherwise mistreated. It represents my country, and despite its faults I’ve traveled around the world enough to know that it’s not a bad place to live, and we should appreciate the freedoms we enjoy here.

But “Freedom” is just the issue. If this amendment had passed the Senage, and been ratified by the states, it would have served no real purpose except to reduce our freedom. Freedom to criticise the country; certainly in an unpopular manner, and not a technique likely to win many converts to your position. But I think it’s an extremely important freedom, none-the-less.

If we can’t criticise the government, or show our outrage at policies or actions of the country in the strongest possible way, we have lost one of our most basic rights. What’s next to be outlawed: Burning pictures of the President? Playing “The Star Spangled Banner” with a heavy-metal rock music accompanyment? Showing the White House devastated by aliens in a movie? Making jokes about the President on late-night TV, or showing him as a bumbling fool on Saturday Night Live?

In the East Valley Tribune a few days ago a Veteran who had recently returned from Iraq is quoted as saying that he didn’t go to Iraq to fight for freedom, just to have it reduced here at home. Bingo!

Loss of Wisdom Teeth, that is. Derek had his all yanked out today. He’s up in his room on Vicodin and Ibuprofen, holding an ice bag against his face with one hand, playing “World of Warcraft” with the other.

He decided to do it without the sedation, just local anaesthetic. He was uncomfortable with the idea of being “out”. Maybe he was thinking about the Seinfeld episode where Jerry woke up with his shirt untucked.

Anyway, he said it wasn’t too bad.

Here’s a story with photos about a laptop that burst into flames. Could be a problem if it were on your lap, especially if you were on a plane.

See here for an interesting, interactive map of the world showing which points are exactly opposite each other.

Could you get to China by digging a hole straight through the earth from the USA?

I took Derek down to Tucson yesterday for a 3 day preview and orientation at the University of Arizona. I will pick him up tomorrow afternoon.

I haven’t heard from him begging to come back home, so I assume he’s doing OK.

I just got back from the airport, where Gisele left on a two-week trip to France. Most summers she goes for a month of intensive language instruction, but this year it’s a two week tour of the “Bourdeau” region, visiting castles (“Chateaus”), wineries and scenery.

Derek and I are bach-ing it until she gets back.

Strap on wings to use by the military to deposit soldiers well behind enemy lines.

They can glide for miles, then open a parachute at the last minute to drop safely to the ground.

Here’s an interesting set of puzzles. They come with no instructions; you have to figure out what to do, and how to do it. It’s a little like playing “Myst”. Experiment!

The set of puzzles is called “ClickDragType”. There’s a clue right there.

Find it here. Click on the link “Play This Game”.

Note that it didn’t work correctly on my Firefox. The intro played, but the games never loaded. You may have to use (choke!) IE to run it.