Where's the time gone?

Yep, in a week I will be leaving on a jet plane. Don't worry, I won't sing the song. As it approaches, I have mixed feelings. I can't wait to get back, and see Jen (only 8 more sleeps!), and other friends, and other family. It will be good to get back to Canada too, although I really didn't miss the winter. I'm not looking forward to leaving all my friends behind. God has blessed me with many close friends.... family I'd have to say. Brothers and Sisters. God is so good! I guess that's the sign of a great trip, when it hurts to say good bye. But it still hurts. I hope and pray that I will be able to return, at least for a visit, and maybe something more. Its all in God's hands.

I found out that my driver's license expires on my birthday, which just happens to be this Sunday. I have my parent's looking into long distance renewal, and it seems I need to send them a copy of my license, and they'll take care of it. This is important because I plan to help drive my grandparents to our mission conference in the middle of August. It seems that everything will work out. I guess it always does.

"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28 WEB)

Hey, that reminds me, I need to install e-sword. I wiped my computer off last night, and have slowly been bringing it up to speed again. I think I've got most of my functionality back. On the computer that is.

I've been sleeping well, and waking up early, which is nice, cuz I don't have time to sleep in. And this is getting really disjointed, and I'm going out for supper with friends, to a place that serves steak on a hot brick (nothing like it, it stays hot through the whole meal... mmmmm..).

Things that go BUMP!

Yup, I'm talking about Kayaks. We went on a river by Santo Domingo (I can't remember the name of it now). After scouting in a good starting place, we found ourselves an exit point, left one vehicle there, and headed back up to the starting point. We figured it would take about 3 hours. It didn't take us long to get the kayaks inflated and set up. We packed our gear in, and away we went. I think I had all the usual troubles of trying to paddle a kayak straight, but soon we were into the rapids. 3 out of the 4 of us hadn't been in either a kayak, or white water, and we were facing Class 3 rapids (apparently).

These inflatable kayaks were not enclosed, you just sat in them and braced yourself. I was in a single, and it had thigh straps to help hold me in. The boats were self bailing, but I think mine was inflated a little too much, because I spent most of the afternoon sitting in a puddle of water about 3 inches deep. Thankfully it was warm. The others were in 2 man boats, and they just had to hang on. About the 3rd or maybe 5th rapid we hit (they came pretty quickly), I was sucked down into the worst of the chute. There was no avoiding it, at least for a novice like me. I went down into one big hole, and started up the other side, when I got dumped off sideways.

For one eternal second I was still strapped in, until I remembered to extend my legs, freeing them from the straps. Then I spend at least another unending 1/2 second tumbling in white water, with no sense of direction. I pushed towards the light (I forgot I had a life jacket, but I am sure it helped during this endeavor), and broke the surface. I was immediately on my back, feet forward (I was still going through rapids! One boat collected my paddle, while I finally swam over and got my boat. Someone else came up with the seat that I didn't even know I had lost. I guess my episode helped the 2 boats behind me avoid the same fate. A little shaken, I stopped to arrange things, and then we were on our way.

We went through many other rapids, with brief smooth parts in between. We stopped to arrange for the camera man to go ahead and set up for pictures. We paddled by a big barn or something, because it was really foul for probably 10 minutes. We met 3 other kayakers in hard shell, enclosed kayaks, and they seemed quite familiar with the river. Thankfully, they warned us about an even bigger rapids "45 minutes after the bridge", so we decided, for time's sake and because most of us were still new at this to stop at the bridge, and send one person to get our vehicle.

This was a new experience for me, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I gained experience in reading the river, and knowing where to go (and sometimes even getting where I wanted to go!). I look forward to doing this again sometime. My arms and shoulders and back are sore today. Its always funny to me how, upon doing something new, one finds muscles one didn't know existed.

Kayaking & Giving Blood

Oh, and designing databases too. What do they have to do with each other? Hopefully nothing (unless things go horribly wrong...).

I'll start with the 2nd one. I gave blood today. It was my first time. I'd have to say that it was an interesting experience. First, the reason. The sister-in-law of one of the missionaries in our mission here in Ecuador was recently diagnosed with acute leukemia. Not fun. By giving blood (even if its not the right type), it makes it easier for her to get the blood she needs. So that's why. I had to fill out a big form (I went with 2 other missionaries), and then get my blood tested. Then I had to get my blood pressure taken, and answer some questions (like what vaccine I had recently, and where in the Jungle I went, and for how long). Finally it was time. There were several reclining chairs, and I laid down in one, and put my feet up. The nurse decided that the vein in my right arm was better than in my left, so I switched chairs with another guy, since I was up against the right wall. So the nurse inserts the needle into my left vein, but then it jiggles slightly, and I start bleeding out under the skin. She knows that won't work, so out comes the needle, and I get a swab on my arm, and have to keep it tight. 5-10 minutes later she tries to find the vein in my left arm. After another 5 minutes she decides the my vein is visible enough to stab. Thankfully this went without a hitch.

So there I am, trying not to bleed from my right arm, and trying to bleed from my left arm. Actually, I was surprised how quickly the bag was filling. Not as quick as some, but not the 1/2 hour to 45 minutes like I thought it would be. In probably 15-20 minutes it was time to tie off the bag, and snip the cord. Then the want to draw some blood in a test tube (for testing or something... I dunno). It was a little bit frightening. When she undid the clamp on the tube, the blood had stopped flowing. I don't think I got a single drop in the test tube.... I looked at the nurse, grinned, and said "nada mas" (nothing more). Finally she gave up, and pulled the needle out, and I was then stopping the blood flow from my left arm. Then I felt really light headed, and weak, and I think I experienced mild shock. I felt flush, and sweaty. Slowly the feeling went away, and in 10 more minutes or so, I was good to go. I felt a little light headed for another 20 minutes or so, but I've felt fine for the rest of the day. Oh, this was all 1st thing in the morning.

Ok, and Kayaking. Tomorrow I'm going down a few hours (out of the mountains) to a river to try out some new inflatable kayaks. 3 of us have never been in kayaks before, so that should make life interesting. I'll regale you with my adventures when I get back.

And the database? Well, the Alliance Academy has up till now been producing their student transcripts with a typewriter... so I'm re-creating their form in a File Maker database, where they can actually edit data after its been entered. So that was my life this afternoon.

OH! And only 12 more sleeps!

After the Haircut (Me and Larry, but he didn't get a haircut, cuz he doesn't have hair... not like the Peach) 

My new....

Haircut! Wheee! I think this is the longest I've gone w/o one. Almost 7 months.

Here's a before Picture.
Oh, I have to use Hello... Ok, lets see if I can get this in order....

Ok, beneath this post is the "Before" Picture.

And above it... what you probably saw first, is my after picture (co-starring my good friend Larry the Cucumber).

Before the Haircut. 

The Rest of the Story...

But no, its not Paul Harvey. Just finishing up my weekend adventure. On Sunday Micah and I took a Motorcycle taxi out to the Machalilla Park entrance. We then hiked through what's called tropical dry forest, for about 4 km. It was nice, and not too hot. The forest all seemed dead, but I guess when it gets rain it all blooms like crazy, and is really beautiful. It was dry now, and it almost looked like a forest fire had gone through. We saw several lizards, and on the beaches (the trail went to 3 or so) we saw lots of crabs. We wished we had known about the nice beaches on Friday, because we would have gone there, instead of the beach in town. Oh well, I won't complain. We got back to the main beach, where our taxi driver picked us up, only 10 minutes late (a miracle in Ecuador!!). We checked out of the hotel, grabbed some ice cream, and headed for the main street where we could catch a bus to Manta. The ride north got quite sunny and hot. At Jippi Joppa (pronounced 'Hippy Hoppa') the bus filled to standing room only, and it was pretty crowded for the rest of the trip.

We got to Manta and, following our Lonely Planet guide book, we got a room in a hostel right by the bus depot (not a great idea if you like peace and quiet), and then went and found their recommended restaurant, which was pretty good, if a little Americanized. Not having anything to do, and not wanting to be out after dark, I think I was in bed by 8. I sure did enjoy all the extra sleep I got on this vacation. We got up next morning, and couldn't get breakfast, because nothing was open, so we just took a cab out to the airport. The plane was on time, and we made our 45-minute hop back to Quito. I could see Chimborazo poking out of the clouds, but most of the other peaks weren't. We landed in Quito, caught a bus home, and then it was time to go to work. Sigh.... its so hard to get back into working mode after a vacation, but there's lots to do here. I imagine I'll be running pretty steady for the next two weeks, so I'm grateful for the quiet weekend that I could have.

On the Boardwalk at Puerto Lopez. 

Back from the Island...

Well, its been a great weekend. We flew down to the coast on Friday morning, and caught the first bus we could down to Puerto Lopez. It was probably about 2 hours. The time flew by, as I was reading a new book Micah had loaned me. I'll comment on it more later, but it was about science and Genesis, and was extremely interesting. I did look out the window too. The bus got pretty crowded at times.

Friday afternoon I sat on the beach (the water was kinda cold, so I wimped out on that part of it), and then swung in a hammock, enjoying my book. Talk about the ideal vacation. We also lined up our tour for the island the next day.

Oh, I should introduce my buddy, Micah. He was the driving force behind this trip, so thank you Micah!

Not having much to do, we crashed early. 10 hours of sleep each night makes for a wonderful vacation :)

Saturday dawned bright and early. After breakfast, we waited around till our taxi took us to the beach, where we dumped our shoes in a bag, and waded out to the boat. It was already full of tourists, some from Spain, some from Switzerland, and some from who knows where else.... (hey, I'm an introvert, I don't just meet people easily) The boat ride out was uneventful, but we did see two whales surface right beside the boat. I couldn't believe that we didn't stop... But figured that there must be better places to watch the whales... there were, but that's getting ahead of the story.

It took nearly 2 hours to get to the island, so had a snack shortly after we got there. Then we departed for our hike. There were two choices, and we ended up going on the easier leg of the hike, because that had more of what we wanted to see. Soon we were seeing blue footed boobies, and other birds. I took lots of pictures. I actually hit a limit, because dumb me, I left a 160 mb folder on my flash card (256 mb), so while we were walking I had to examine the pictures I took, and cull one's that weren't good. We walked the south section of the Island, I believe, and then wandered back. We had another snack (progressive lunch), and then hopped on the boat.

We didn't go far though.... The guides broke out the snorkeling gear, and soon we were in the water swimming around a reef near the island. Although it was cloudy, we could see all kinds of fish. The coolest ones seemed to be congested in a couple of areas, and I kept coming back to them. Once in a while my mind started playing the JAWs theme as I peered off into the deep blue sea. All too soon it was time to get in the boat again.

We hadn't gone more than 10 minutes, when we stopped, because whales were making waves near our boat. Quickly, as many as where allowed scuttled onto the upper deck of the boat to get a better view. I was one of the lucky one's. After figuring out the timing on my camera, I managed to get some decent shots. I guess the male Humback whales try to impress the females by making waves. I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but I don't know what it is. After watching the pair on one side for several minutes, another pair on the other side started their own show. It was awesome, but frustrating, cuz you kept watching one side, and then the other, because you just didn't want to miss any of it. Finally I put my camera down, and just enjoyed the show. God's creatures really are amazing! Finally it was time to go. The ride back was uneventful, although the waves got bigger, so that made it fun.

A good supper and more relaxation put a great end on a great day. I'll add more about the rest of the weekend later... I'm getting tired.

Oh, but I have to add.... 16 more sleeps until I see Jen!! Yep, the countdown has begun...

Isla de Plata

That's right... Its time for another weekend excursion. Man, June was all work.. now July is hopping... and I'm only 1/2 way through. After this weekend I will allow myself to start counting down the days until I leave. Or, more specifically, the days until I see Jen. I'm not eager to leave, but I sure am eager to get back... A strange paradox.

But back to the island. Its known as the poor man's Galapagos because it has many similar species. Ha ha.. similar unique species? I'm flying down with a buddy of mine, to save time. We fly down on Friday, and back to work on Monday, after a morning flight. It should be fun.

Stay tuned for pictures, and a story.

Is this Right?

Philippines pulling troops from Iraq

I (as much as possible, having no idea of what it is like) sympathize with the family of Angelo dela Cruz, and share their hope that he will be released safely. However, I cannot believe that a nation state is allowing terrorists to dictate foreign policy through hostage taking. Granted, the Philippine's had scheduled a withdraw for August 20th anyways (from what I understand.. I read it somewhere), so this is just pulling out early to save a life. In this isolated incident it even makes sense to me. However, the world is not full of isolated incidents. I'm worried about the dangerous precedent that this could set. As they see that this works, terrorists will simply take more and more hostages. Saving this one man by pulling out early could condemn many others to the same horrible fate.

Please pray for his safety, and release or rescue.

Update: Here's an article that fleshes out the implications a little better.

Update Your Windows Machine (especially XP)

PCWorld.com - Microsoft Issues Critical Patches

Well, Microsoft has released a slurry of new patches, 2 rated critical, and others just rated as important. I don't know quite how they decide to rate these things.

Despite being rated "important," rather than critical, by Microsoft, the MS04-021 hole is of particular concern to security experts at McAfee, according to Vincent Gullotto, vice president of the Anti-Virus Emergency Response Team at McAfee.

Like the vulnerabilities that led to the Blaster and Sasser Internet worms, the IIS 4.0 hole gives malicious hackers total control over vulnerable servers without requiring them to trick users into clicking on a link or visiting a Web page, he said.

The last time MS released a patch like this I believe it was... 9 days until the Sasser worm came out, exploiting the patch. (I can't find a link specifying the time frame, but this mentions the occurrence after the patch) So don't delay, update your computers today. In Internet Explorer, just click on the 'Tools" menu, and select "Windows Update". That will take you straight to their page. Or you can click on the link to the right, in my side bar, that says "UPDATE". That should do it too :)

Remember, having a firewall will pretty much always protect you from these viruses like Sasser or Blaster

Are You a Zombie?

PCWorld.com - Zombie PCs: Silent, Growing Threat

UK security firm Sophos estimates that 40 percent of spam is now sent by zombie machines.

Sophos estimates half a million zombie PCs are operating worldwide; other sources put the figure as high as two million.

Reuters reports that British teen hackers are hiring out their zombie networks for around $100 an hour.

This problem grows with every new worm that flies through the lines, leaving back doors on countless systems. The thing is, it is irresponsible to allow your machine to be a zombie. Of course, you don't know if it is, but installing the free software I've highlighted on the right (Things no computer should be without) could help, especially the firewall and AntiVirus software.

Please, for the sake of us all, don't allow your machine to be a zombie.

Steps down off soapbox

Weekend

Its been a slow one. I was gonna go watch Spidey 2, but my friend wanted to watch Ecuador play in the Copa America instead... so we postponed till cheap Tuesday :)

Saturday I spent most of the later morning and earlier afternoon helping some missionaries move in that returned to the field after a year away. They were good friends of mine, and I'm very glad that they made it back before I left, although only by a few weeks (still not counting days).

Speaking of leaving... today I made a list of things I want to try and sell here before I go. Not very much stuff, lol. I've been trying to avoid accumulating stuff... and it looks like I may have succeeded. I'm going to try and sell my guitar, but just so I don't have to carry it home... cuz that could be a pain. If I can't sell it for near replacement value though... then I'll just bring it home.

Church was good this morning. We didn't have the regular pastor, but a guest speaker, continuing our series on fruits of the Spirit with Gentleness. I didn't feel like I learned a lot from this message, but there were a few things. Oh, I wanted to look up a passage he quoted in 2 Samuel, where he equated helpfulness with gentleness (said it was the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek word for it). I'll see if I can figure it out with e-sword.

Not much of a rap fan, but TBone's 'Raised In Harlem' is playing on ChristianRock.net, and I like it.

This next week looks to be busy, and I'm sure things won't slow down much after that till I leave (and probably not for a while after that). I may be going on another weekend excursion this coming weekend. More on that later.

USS Clueless - Muqtada al-Moore

A most interesting (and intelligent, I think) comparison between a failed Iraqi insurgency, and Michael Moore's whole big kafluffle with Fahrenheight 9/11. He certainly has created a stir with this movie. Not having seen it, I'm not willing to condemn it outright, but I must say I've definitely got some preconceived notions of its accuracy.

Not knowing a whole lot about either, I'd have to equate Michael Moore with Rush Limbaugh as far as representing their respective political persuasions... feel free to correct me if that's way off base.

I guess most of this doesn't even really affect me, since I'm Canadian, except that what happens in the USA makes big waves, especially for neighbours. However, Mikey boy did attempt to dabble his finger in our political system, hoping out loud that his movie would help prevent us from electing our own 'Bush' (Steven Harper). I suppose we all can spout our opinions (that's what I'm doing right here), but I sort of wish Moore would stick to minding his own business.

In a related, or perhaps unrelated note, Canada elected the Liberals by a wider margin than everyone thought, but they still have a minority government.

This minority position means it is possible (in many cases inevitable) that major government bills will be put to a non-confidence vote in the House, forcing a general election.

from Canada Votes on CBC

All this goes to say that maybe we will not be stuck with Liberals for another whole term... and perhaps the Conservatives can do it right this time...

Attention, Shoppers: You Can Now Speed Straight Through Checkout Lines!

From Wired Magazine

Depending who you ask, RFID tags constitute

1. the best thing to happen to manufacturing since the cog.
2. the biggest threat to personal privacy since the crowbar.
3. the near-exact fulfillment of the Book of Revelation's description of the mark of the beast.

A most interesting new world we're getting ourselves into. Radio chips that identify every piece of merchandise? I can understand the economic benifits for retailers, and the hassel it can save in avoiding supply line screwups... but yeah, what happens when it comes home with you? Perhaps they can implement some kind of scanner that deactivates (perhaps melts?) the chip as you go out the door. I'm sure there could be many other ways of deactivating them, but you don't want shoplifters to do the same, or what's the point. As far as targeted ads in shopping carts depending on where you go... intrueging.... but I tend to like ad-blockers. Right now it almost seems to novel to be true.. but is guess this is the shape of the future.

Side Note: I'm trying out the "Blog This" extension in Mozilla Firefox 9.2 . We'll see how this works... and maybe edit it later.

Well, it took a slight bit of editing, since the body wasn't displayed, but I think I know what I did wrong... Now I just need to find a good spell checker, since my spelling is atrowshus.

Tornado?

In the bustling metropolis of Grande Prairie they had a twister go through the downtown core today. I guess it tossed a couple of cars, and tore a wall out. I was a little disconcerted to hear this, because my brother and sister-in-law don't live too far from there. Neither was in the area when it went through, and their place seems to be fine, so that's good. I haven't seen any pictures yet, but I'm sure there will be lots tomorrow.

Reminds me of when we had a twister come through our small town in the NWT. It ripped the roof off one old building (no one lived there), and knocked over a couple of outhouses, but I believe that was the extent of the damage. I remember it raining really hard. I love storms. Its been too long since we had a good storm here in Quito. Oh well.....

House Calls

Well, yesterday was full of 'extra curricular' activity. I got a call from our regional director that their Entourage email program was not working. I agreed to come out at 2 and look at it (leaving work just a little early). Well, I had no clue what was going on. First it was telling me that the 'Test Drive' version of Office X (for the Mac) had expired, and they needed to buy the full version. It didn't make sense to me that they had been using a trial version for a full year, but that's what it seemed. Even Word and Excel gave the same messages. Finally, after ordering a new copy for them from the mission, I discovered a 2nd 'Microsoft Office X' folder. What's this?? The programs worked just fine in there... but Entourage was notoriously absent. I canceled the order, which hadn't gone through anyway. Copying the Entourage back in seemed to get us back where they had started, with an ambiguous error message. I finally typed it into Google, shortly found that I needed to repair the Entourage database, and all as well. I got supper out of the deal. The moral of this story? Google is your friend!

I went from there straight back to my 'compound' where I had promised to help another family with their laptop. It wouldn't accept pictures from the card in their digital video camera. After trying countless times to set it up as a camera (and installing Spybot to clean up a horribly infested computer), I found that it needed to be installed as hardware, not as a camera... Go figure. They got the pictures off, and I finally got home shortly after 9pm.

I must admit though, I enjoy problems like that (unless someone else's data is at stake, like when they don't back up). In neither case did I know what to do, but with google, and lots of fiddling, it finally worked out.

Relaxing weekend in the Jungle

Let me tell you about my Jungle journey. Yes, I finally made it out to see the Shuar Indians that I worked with 2 years ago, helping them build a church. I had planned 2wice this year to visit them, and both times circumstances prevented me. The missionaries I was going to stay with told me that this past weekend would be the best time, so I decided to go for it. I had to catch a bus down to Shell, which is about a 5 hour drive.

Now, understand, buses here are a little different than in North America. There are bus lines, but most buses are independently owned and operated. A driver and another guy work as a team. The driver drives (duh) and the other guy, well, advertises the bus. As they drive down the street he shouts out destinations on the bus's route, and tries to convince people to take his bus. If you flag the bus, it stops for you, and you just hop on, and it continues on its way. Later the 'other guy' comes and asks your destination, and charges you accordingly. For my five hour bus ride, I paid $5 each way. You can get off the bus at any time, just go to the door and tell the bus driver “Gracius” (thank you), and he will stop, or at least slow down enough for you to get off. That's what I did, since I was getting off at the Mission Aviation Fellowship hanger instead of the main bus stop. People are constantly getting on and off the bus, and at one point there were so many people on that the aisle was full of people standing (thankfully they have rails to hold on to up there)

At the hanger I weighed in (they need to know how much weight is going on), and then sat on a bench, reading, watching the mechanics work on other planes, and chatted with another passenger that was heading out to Makuma to work on a water project. Our flight ended up being a little early, so we loaded into the Cessna 206 and took off. Its only about a 25-30 minute flight to Makuma, so we were there quick.

It was nice and warm in the jungle, and soon I was enjoying the lack of traffic sounds and other noise so ubiquitous in Quito. I was staying with Dwain and Lois Holmes, who have been missionaries out there for 18 years. I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed their house, which included a large bookshelf full of westerns (among other fine literature). My days were spent reading FarSide comics, playing darts with Dwain on an electronic dartboard (it makes score keeping easier for the Indian church leaders that enjoy playing), and photographing some of the snakes he keeps in one room. 44 snakes at one point (then I think another one was brought in). Dwain enjoys them as a hobby, and he also stays in contact with a naturalist in Quito, and has sent up a few previously unobserved subspecies.

On Saturday morning we hiked down to the hydro plant on the river. It was neat for me to see, because I missed the tour the last time I was down there. On Sunday we went to church in Amazonas, a town about ½ an hour down the trail. This is the church I had helped work on 2 years ago when I was down. It was neat to see the finished product, and the people that were there to worship. They seemed thankful that I was able to come back for a visit. That evening I was able to work on one of the translator's computers, fixing some minor problems, and helping him figure out how to use macros. That was fun.

Monday morning dawned fairly clear, to my disappointment. I would have been happy to be rained out there a couple of days, but it was not to be. I got on the plane (I got to be co-pilot this time), and we flew a short hop to another town to pick up a small gas generator. Then we flew almost to the Peruvian border to pick up a snake bite victim and her husband and bring them back to Shell. It was a nice long flight, taking almost an hour to get back from that village.

Back in Shell, I got my stuff and went out to the side of the road. I flagged the first bus that said “Quito” on it, and was on my way. I probably waited about 40 minutes, but it was nice to be in the warm sunshine. That is probably the closest to hitch hiking that I've been. Everything worked out fine, and I had an uneventful ride up into the mountains. At the bus depot I got off and got a cab to take me home.

Posting with 'Hello'

Here is Me and Antisana again. Its the one I tried to post before. 

Jungle & XML

They don't really have much to do with each other except for timing. I just got the XML feed working here, so if (for some strange reason) you wanted to put it in your favorite news reader, now you can. I used FeedBurner to convert my feed from Blogger's Atom format to standard RSS 2.0 format. I only did this because my news reader Aggreg8 couldn't parse the Atom feed.

And I'm going to the jungle... Tomorrow! Looks like I'll be catching a night bus tonight, and flying out there tomorrow. I'll spend the weekend there, and probably head back to work on Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to it, because this will be a chance to visit the Shuar people whom I worked with 2 years ago when I came down with a team from my bible college, Peace River Bible Institute. Stay tuned for new pictures in my album.

Well, that's all for now folks.