Houston, we have a problem

The kid can shoot a jet of urine up to this armpit. This doesn’t work.

See more progress on: learn how to diaper a baby boy

The DAY

Well, it would seem this goal has come to an end as well. Or rather will at about 1:30.

My final bit in this goal will be to drive my wife to the hospital and hold her hand while she gives birth. While I can’t be completely sure of it, I suspect the end result will be an exhausted wife and squalling baby.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

How to help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

"Clapping with one hand."

How I did it: My wife and I discussed the baby's impending arrival quite far in advance. We talked up fun stuff about the baby. We talked up how Little Girl will be able to be a Big Helper.

Other than that, it is probably difficult to help a small child adjust to the reality of a new sibling.

Lessons & tips: There's probably not any good way to do this. As my wife reports what she once read: "Bringing a sibling home to a child is about the same as asking your spouse, 'I'm bringing home another husband/wife next week. How do you feel about that?'"

Resources: Gasoline and Detroit steel. My final "help" on the transition was to bring Little Girl to her Aunt's house during the birth.

It took me 9 months.

It made me Big Sister?

See more progress on: help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

Scheduled another for Saturday

And probably the last one for a good while. Baby is in the way.

The plan is this: Babysitter arrives at 9:30 AM on Saturday. We leave Little Girl with her and go see It’s a Wonderful Life on the big screen.

I’m pretty jazzed. I don’t have to pick up the babysitter.

See more progress on: go out on "date nights" with my spouse on a regular basis

Is life tragic or comic by nature?

Among the things I was thinking about while shoveling the drive tonight.

And I think I’ve got to come down on the comic side. After finishing the job on the drive, the city plowed a bunch of snow back onto the apron near the street. On reflection, it’s downright funny to see how my efforts were partially erased by a second’s work of the plow truck. Not that I was laughing particularly hard at that juncture.

The other reason I’ve come down on the comic side is due to how we arrive in this world. The biggest influences in your life are completely out of your control: your genetics and your upbringing. You are who you are because your father smelled right to your mother or you were brought up in a strict religious household. Both completely out of your control, yet each exerts a lifelong influence on everything about you. And it’s pretty funny when you think about it.

See more progress on: wax philosophical while shoveling the driveway

Little Girl

We’ve got a place for Little Girl to stay while wife has the baby. I’ll be driving Little Girl to Wisconsin at the end of the month. Alone. Don’t worry about me, it will be fun.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

Undoable

Sometimes I think there will be no way to make this happen by any efforts I put forward. The only way to do it will be to bring the baby home at the end of the year.

It does seem that what we want in life often cannot be done by our efforts. Of course, that doesn’t stop me.

See more progress on: help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

An adaptation (rated 3 stars)

A History of Violence (New Line Platinum Series)

by David Cronenberg

There were spots in the movie where I thought to myself, “Freeze frame, this is the frame in the comic.”

The movie was entertaining enough. Certainly technically well made, but it still felt like an adaptation.

See more about A History of Violence (New Line Platinum Series)

Not even 20%

According to a website that can track the distances on a road (cmap.m-plex.com), I’m at about 19.5% of the way. 645 miles down, 2583 to go.

I’ve not even gone 1 out of 5 miles on this thing.

I shouldn’t get discouraged. The distances out west are daunting to any travel goal in a car. That and my wife says it’s nothing but brown mountains out west. She’s wrong, but I know what she’s getting at. It’s big. Really, really, really big.

I’m starting to get to the point where the miles to travel aren’t near home. And once I’ve gotten to the closest undriven part, I’m in Iowa. It isn’t like I’ve gotten anywhere fun. Oh, and if I head east, the closest undriven miles are in Ohio. On the way to Toledo. Fun city (it may well be, I don’t know).

See more progress on: drive the whole length of US Highway 20

El instituto Cervantes

Estudio Español con ellos, pero no estoy cierto de mi capaz para entender la lengua hablada. Los actores en telenovelas hablan con estilo que no puedo entender. No estoy feliz.

See more progress on: aprender Español

Lamb shoulder chops

She was tired last night, so I worked my magic in the kitchen. I know how to use a broiler to good effect. They were relatively non-fatty for lamb, and the broiler did it just right.

Her praise was so high that it nearly embarrassed me. Or is it just that she’s that tired?

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

Last diaper

Was this weekend. I’d say we’ve done it. Here’s why I think so:

1. She spontaneously uses the bathroom for all bathroom needs. Well maybe we do need to prompt her from time to time.
2. She is no longer afraid of public toilets. Or at least the urge to go overcomes her fear.
3. She makes it through the night dry about 80% of the time, counting the 11 PM potty break.

So mark it done!

See more progress on: toilet train Little Girl

How "Jackass 3-D" changed my life

Jackass 3-D

by Jeff Tremaine

I now know that tetherball with a beehive is a bad idea.

See more about Jackass 3-D

Winter setting in

Of course this isn’t the best time of year to adopt this goal, but I need to be reminded for next summer.

You see, I want to go to Nunavut (summer 2012 is my plan), and I hear they invented the kayak there. Or something like that.

I’ve taken kayaks out on small lakes near home and slow rivers, but never out on open water, which is what there is plenty of in Nunavut. I want to feel confident in the boat, because I am not a strong swimmer. If I can learn to identify ugly situations before they happen on Lake Michigan, Frobisher Bay shouldn’t be such a challenge. Right?

See more progress on: learn to kayak

Future adventures

Last week I had to go to one of the less exciting places in the United States: Columbus, OH. Kind of the antithesis of adventure. Well, in my mind anyway.

I had a mid-morning flight and didn’t really want to go. So when the airline started asking for volunteers to be put on a later flight, I was sure to volunteer for that. Suffice to say, I got my wish. I got delayed not once, but twice.

Of course I got some compensation from the airline. This is standard. So I guess I now have the ability to have some future adventures. Now the question is what will they be? Alaska on my own? Family vacation? So hard to say.

See more progress on: Have adventures

Sister baby

She keeps referring to the unborn as “sister baby” as of late. I think she’s got the basic notion of what’s going to happen, though the full reality of it won’t sink in until the moment occurs. That is to say, when mama’s belly opens.

See more progress on: help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

The official history of baseball from 1994 to 2009 (rated 2 stars)

Baseball: The Tenth Inning

by Directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Sadly, Ken Burns got away with it.

Watching this made me wonder if the baseball I had watched was the same baseball he watched.

1. Cal Ripken saved baseball after the strike? Really? I thought that was McGwire and Sosa. Or maybe just some time passing.

2. Steroids are cheating. Well, ok they are. But the film took what seemed to be a simplistic look at it. Its commenters saw the complexity of the issue, but Burns seemed to see it as pure cheating. As much as I prefer pitchers’ duels and small ball, steroid style baseball made the turnstiles turn. The steroids made for a better product in the eyes of the market. I think Chris Rock got it when he asked if you’d take a pill that would make you the best at your job.

3. The focus on Barry Bonds was both irritating and riveting.

4. There are teams that aren’t the Yankees and Red Sox. Seeing this made me want to watch a baseball game in Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis over the course of a summer. Oh, wait, I did.

5. They glossed over the public financing of the stadiums that have enriched teams. Particularly of interest to me are the Florida teams. Tropicana Field was built to lure a team, and tonight they gave away 20,000 tickets for a team that is going to the playoffs. The Marlins come nowhere near filling the lower deck, but there is a new stadium going up for them in Miami.

6. The increasingly ridiculous price of tickets was not mentioned. Yankees fans have to go to other towns to even see their team play. It’s over $20 to sit in even the worst seats to watch a last place team play.

7. They didn’t even mention the financial side that allows teams like the Yankees and Red Sox to buy winners, while forcing teams like Minnesota and Oakland to carefully develop prospects and lose them to free agency. Montreal and Minnesota nearly got contracted out. No mention.

Admittedly, those aren’t the pretty sides of baseball. But given the complexity of the game, Burns steamrolled it to give us the bi-coastal view of it.

They play baseball in Cincinnati, but I doubt Ken Burns knows that.

See more about Baseball: The Tenth Inning

El País

www.elpais.es

www.cervantes.es

Two great websites chock-a-block with Spanish.

See more progress on: improve my spanish

Sick day

My wife is sick. Vomiting sick.

So to help her convalesce, I took Little Girl off to Kenosha. I figured being pregnant was enough on top of being sick. Adding in a three year-old child would overload her.

We had a good time, and my wife had quality off-and-on napping opportunities.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

A story about "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time"

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Am I expecting too much?

Sure, it’s a dumb movie meant to sell popcorn. It has it’s good points. The special effects are pretty good, but anyone can do that these days. However…

1. In a movie about “Persia,” would it be possible to hire actors who at least look like they could pass as “Persian”? Though there are blue-eyed people from that part of Asia, I suspect they are in a minority.

2. I’m not expecting too much in the way of plot development, but does it have to feel like I’m watching a video game? Holy Legend of Zelda! The dialog was stilted and repititious.

3. I don’t want to feel like I’m watching shots from a studio even when I am. The opening battle scene nearly made the turn to so bad it’s good with its obviously-a-soundstage-meant-to-seem-bigger sequence.

See more about Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

The little things

In an effort to bring a modicum of relaxation to my wife, I took little girl to Target for some shopping. Also known as mommy’s alone-time. However when I saw my wife’s relief that I would take little girl, I decided to spontaneously extend the trip by stopping at the library.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

Interesting concept, spotty execution (rated 4 stars)

Timecrimes

by Nacho Vigalondo

Low budget sci fi. You never know what you’re going to get.

Since I saw a sci fi movie in the foreign language section of the library, I went for it. Especially since it is Spanish. A language I am informally working on learning. Accordingly my expectations were low: I checked it out because it looked like a throw-away movie that would expose me to some Spanish.

And at first, I thought that’s what I had. In truth, I almost gave up on it. Don’t. The shaky beginning leads into a better movie. It is about time travel and potential paradoxes involved with it. Or are there any? Just watch the film.

It’s no classic, but once you get by the beginning has some interesting ideas.

See more about Timecrimes

Not taking children for granted

It can be really hard. After all, small children can try the patience of even the most patient soul. (And I hear older children out and out abuse that patience.)

The daughter of a fellow teacher (and of a mother of one of Little Girlʻs playmates) committed suicide last week. Tragic and without sense.

That familyʻs tragedy has brought the true fragility of human life into sharp focus. It has challenged me to consciously treasure each day with my daughter. They are after all fleeting.

See more progress on: Be the best father I can be

Someone else thinks I have

They’ve hired me to come down and consult with their Latin teachers to make their program more awesome.

See more progress on: master latin

The Danger Zone

She insisted on wearing undies to bed tonight. We’ll see how it goes.

See more progress on: toilet train Little Girl

Hello station wagon, good bye truck!

In an effort to make sure that I can safely transport not one, but two children, we bought a station wagon to replace my truck.

I am loath to get rid of it, but why does one man need two vehicles? So to keep my increasingly pregnant wife’s mind at ease, we are getting the safe and sensible Volvo v70. All-wheel drive? Check. Gobs of airbags? Check. Build in booster seats? Check.

Oh, the shame. I’ll look like just another suburbanite in my car. No more man of mystery in the pickup.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

Camping

In an effort to teach her the fine things in life, I took Little Girl camping last night. The place is called Marengo Ridge, but Mosquito Ridge is more like it. Anyway.

I actually arrived ahead of my wife to set up camp and get familiar with the surroundings, which were about one step more sophisticated than primitive. Fortunately we are still working on potty training, so the pit toilet disaster was averted. I am making note of that for future trips. Why does the closest camping area have to be like that?!

After cooking supper on my camp stove, my wife went home while Little Girl and I found some ice cream. And pure DEET. That accomplished, we made a campfire. For a 3 year old, she watched the flames quite well. We talked about baby animals and not touching the fire. Well beyond bed time we went to the tent to sleep, or whatever it is that passes for sleep with excited toddlers. “We gonna sleep in the tent.” Please, yes, I invite you to do so.

The next morning we woke up and had a very simple breakfast. I struck camp and we were on our way. While it wasn’t the most successful outing, it helped to keep camping fun. And I suppose that’s the whole point. No technology or rushing about, just time outside.

See more progress on: Be the best father I can be

Fresh herbs

I’ve been slowly getting a garden full of fresh herbs at the farmers’ market here in town. The plants are comparable to buying dried herbs and wayyyyyy cheaper than buying fresh at the store.

Best of all, most of them are attractive plants that take up minimal space. Even folks with apartments can grow ‘em fresh.

See more progress on: find ways to economize that don't detract from quality of life

Solo camping!

With a 3 year old child! We’re leaving after her nap.

If that’s not an adventure, I don’t know adventure.

See more progress on: Have adventures

Fatigue

Well, that’s what the expectant mother feels. Not much to be done about it from my end.

I feel bad because after being stuck at home all day, I want to get out. It’s almost pathologial. I feel jailed at home—ludicrous really—but at the same time I know that it can be selfish of me. Which brings me to my wife. She’s just worked all day, and I want to stick her with a toddler.

It is definitely harder to maintain balance this time around, though we do try to keep it balanced. I went canoeing the other day. When I got back, she went out shopping.

See more progress on: again, help my wife as best I can through her pregnancy

Sharing

The other day—with no prompting, I might add—Little Girl was telling me how she wanted to share her baby toys and bedroom with her “brotherandsister.” Yes, all one word.

So we’re making progress. She seems to be aware that there will be a major change, even if she doesn’t quite grasp its full magnitude.

See more progress on: help Little Girl make the transition to Big Sister

Two steps forward, one step back

Three years old. So I guess that’s just the way that goes.

Some days she’s all excited about her subligar (Latin for underwear). Other days she wants her diaper. This is all very instructional about thinking about the things I want to do in my own life. How to tackle the truly large projects. Again, the teacher came to me as a tiny child.

See more progress on: toilet train Little Girl

Two steps forward, one step back

Three years old. So I guess that’s just the way that goes.

Some days she’s all excited about her subligar (Latin for underwear). Other days she wants her diaper. This is all very instructional about thinking about the things I want to do in my own life. How to tackle the truly large projects. Again, the teacher came to me as a tiny child.

See more progress on: toilet train Little Girl

A review of "The A-Team"

The A-Team

by Joe Carnahan

And doesn’t try to overstep its bounds. Seriously, this movie is an adaptation of a very dumb tv show, but instead of trying to be a serious remake (I’m looking at you Miami Vice) it is content to be a screen adaptation of a tv show.

The casting was well done. I was a bit apprehensive about Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the role of B.A. Baracus, since Mr. T had so definitively made the role his. Fortunately Jackson didn’t try to be Mr. T. Sharlto Copley as H.M. Murdock was the surprise of the movie—I had forgotten the performance he gave in District 9. Equally good, but completely different. I look forward to seeing more of him in the movies. Cooper and Neeson are likewise good.

As a whole, the movie felt somewhat disorganized, but seen through the lens of multiple episodes strung into one movie it makes more sense.

While I can’t say this is high art, it was certainly entertaining. I love it when a plan (movie) comes together (understands what it is and is not).

See more about The A-Team

prizes for using the toilet

Well, she’ll pretty much use the potty to urinate all the time. Well, whenever we’re home. So that’s a big piece of the puzzle.

But we can’t get #2 to happen on the potty. Enter the prizes. We went to Target last night and selected a variety of toys as prizes. Result? All day trying to earn one of the prizes.

See more progress on: toilet train Little Girl

Road trip!!

We’re packing up the car and taking Little Girl to visit her uncles in Toronto. I can’t wait to see how that’s going to work out. We’re breaking the drive up in to two days so we can stop at a provincial park on Lake Erie. We might stop at Niagara Falls.

In any case, we’re going to find out how toddlers travel.

See more progress on: Have adventures

Saved from the trash

Stale bread? Bacon grease?

Youʻve got the makings for really, really good croutons.

Put some bacon grease into the pan and toast up the cubed bread. It’s nearly criminal that you can make something so good out of things that are ordinarily destined for the garbage. Best of all, the skill level is very low.

Note: You can use any oil, but bacon grease is mega, mega, King Kong good for this purpose.

See more progress on: find ways to economize that don't detract from quality of life

Pilsen

I took Little Girl to Pilsen in Chicago yesterday. She enjoyed the train rides (well, maybe the last few minutes were antsy minutes). She walked well, which worked out for us since we didn’t have a stroller. She ate fairly well at the taqueria we went to (where the entire transaction was done in Spanish, see my goal about that). She put up with the National Museum of Mexican Art, but the big payoff was playing on the playground goodies at Harrison Park. Fun fun fun. Oh, and the smurf blue cookie at the train station. She snuggled up against me and fell asleep for the train ride home.

See more progress on: Be the best father I can be

Time on the potty every day

That’s our goal. Little Girl spends time on the potty every day. When the magic happens, she gets to wear her new princess underwear. When she stays dry for ten minutes, we act like something amazing just happened. So far, so good. The other day I got about 1:30 of underwear time out of her.

Fewer diapers. Everyone wins.

See more progress on: toilet train Little Girl

Destruction of private property (rated 2 stars)

Fast Food Nation

by Richard Linklater

Certainly this movie had no lack of bad guys. And I did like that. No, I reveled in it.

But there was one group of bad guys that we the viewers, I presume, were supposed to identify with: the college kids who wrecked the fence.

That’s destruction of private property. Were there any consequences to their action? No. (Though of course in reality there may not have been consequences either, so perhaps my point is moot.) I didn’t care for the message that sent.

Destruction of private property, no matter how you feel about that property’s owner, is wrong.

See more about Fast Food Nation

A page turner (rated 4 stars)

No Man's River --2007 publication.

by Farley Mowat

While I doubt Mowat is letting too many facts get in the way of the story, he tells a gripping tale of the Canadian North. One that was disappearing as he was experiencing it. I couldn’t put it down. It sucked me in.

See more about No Man's River --2007 publication.

Inferno

Yes, that Inferno. I’ve got Pinsky’s English translation with the Italian on the facing page, because my Italian isn’t strong enough to make it on a go without English. That said, I’ve worked through the first canto, and I can see enough of what’s going on in the Italian to really see Dante’s poetic skill.

Once school is over, I’ll tackle this in earnest.

See more progress on: Read more books in their original language

How to teach Latin over the internet

"Dead language meets high tech. "

How I did it: Well, I kind of fell into this sooner rather than later. Once I got laid off, I had more time to do whatever it is that I'm going to do.

Once the parents of the students I teach caught wind of my newfound free time, they wanted more help. The internet comes to the rescue again.

Lessons & tips: This is probably easiest to do if you already have a substantial base of students to draw from. It also doesn't hurt to have a pretty healthy amount of bandwidth.

Resources: Vyew.com has been truly useful. Skype.com is also good.

It took me 3 months.

It made me Score!

See more progress on: Teach Latin over the internet

Old English

I picked up a copy of The Cambridge Old English Reader. It’s pretty cool and should keep me occupied for some time. It’s the sort of thing you can dip into here and there and avoid the commitment of say, the New Testament in Greek.

While I can’t pretend that it’s easy to read, there are spots where the foreignness of the language seems almost intuitive. It’s really weird to see words that have been in the language for a long time in a past life. Bid, as in “bade farewell” is a word that has been hanging around for over 1,000 years. Biddan is its previous guise.

Cynnig and hricg, king and ridge respectively, have also been hanging around too. If you’re looking to build your vocabulary, you could do worse than studying Old English.

See more progress on: Read more books in their original language

The marvel of the north (rated 5 stars)

The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)

by Zacharias Kunuk

Every once in a while there’s a movie that isn’t like anything else. I was sucked in and pulled along.

For some viewers, this film will appear to be low-budget and shoddy. Don’t be fooled. Ok, the film is shot on hand-held digital video cameras. So its appearance is far more similar to a Dogme 95 film than, say, Avatar. The sound track is fairly limited, though spectacular. The actors didn’t seem to be professionals, not that it prevented them from being their charaters. While the movie, to me anyway, has the feel of an action movie, it is alien to any action movie from Hollywood—a good thing. (Disclaimer: I love Hollywood action movies, but they don’t fill anywhere near the story space that they could. A movie like this is an object lesson in what can be done.)

What really sets this film apart is the production. It was written, produced and directed by Inuit from Igloolik. They bring their perspective to the their legend and marvel us with their traditional culture. That the people involved in this movie brought their story both to their people and the wider world. I look forward to seeing the other movies they’ve produced.

See more about The Fast Runner (Atanarjuat)

A story about "Miami Vice (Unrated Director's Cut)"

Miami Vice (Unrated Director's Cut)

by Michael Mann

I kept watching hoping it would either a) get better or b) make the turn from bad to so bad it’s good. It did neither.

The dialog was awful. The love scenes were terrible, even by Hollywood standards. I didn’t find the action interesting, nor did I find the bad guys particularly bad.

Michael Mann, Colin Farrell and Jaimie Foxx have all been involved in movies I’ve enjoyed, so I don’t know what went wrong here. They also hauled in a good Spanish actor—Luis Tosar—who just didn’t deliver. I fear this will harm his future chances in Hollywood movies, which is a shame.

All in all, this movie was so bad that it is forgettable.

See more about Miami Vice (Unrated Director's Cut)

A story about "Thomas and the Magic Railroad"

Thomas and the Magic Railroad

I never thought I’d watch this movie, but Little Girl wanted to. So we did. In some ways it was super awful. In other ways it was kind of enjoyable. Thought the best part was probably Little Girl’s excited exclamation throughout the movie. “Das a naughty train.” Indeed, indeed.

See more about Thomas and the Magic Railroad

Website

I’ve been setting up a website. In some ways, it’s very easy. Adding items to the shopping cart software is easy. Dealing with payments is a nightmare where finance and IT meet. I don’t enjoy either one. Of course when I did crack the payment problem, it was that much more satisfying.

See more progress on: Teach Latin over the internet

Tampa

I’m headed to Tampa to a homeschool event so I can promote what I’m up to. Tickets were cheap, table fee was low. What more could I want?

See more progress on: Teach Latin over the internet

A review of "Khadak"

Khadak

I’ll be the first to admit, the story was a little strange to my Western senses. Or maybe I’m not enough of a mystic. Either way I followed it in broad strokes, but there was much that I missed. I’m sure of that much.

That said, it is worth seeing if you’re a visual sort. It is eye candy. The movie was shot in Mongolia in the winter. Yes, that’s right. In the winter. So the landscape was extra super stark and the air was clear in ways that only winter air can be. It lent to the atmosphere of the movie. It kind of makes me want to check out Mongolia.

See more about Khadak

A story about "Valkyrie [Theatrical Release]"

Valkyrie [Theatrical Release]

I wanted to like this movie. Really, I did. It has some of my favorite actors in it, but I just couldn’t make myself like it no matter how much Terence Stamp was in it.

See more about Valkyrie [Theatrical Release]

Proof of concept

I ran a trial session with some students from the consortium I teach at. It worked out pretty well, but it was not 100% what I had hoped for. I couldn’t really hear the students, though they did seem to enjoy the chat feature. They however could hear me loud and clear, so that’s a win.

See more progress on: Teach Latin over the internet

Imagination unleashed (rated 5 stars)

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [Theatrical Release]

My only response to this when I saw it was, “wow.” And it is. Wow. It is easily the best movie I’ve seen in the theater since Pan’s Labyrinth, but that’s not saying much. New Moon isn’t much in the way of competition to this.

I didn’t think any individual performances overshadowed the others, though Tom Waits may have come close. Heath Ledger’s performance was sadly not long enough, though the substitution of other actors to fill out his role worked quite well. The transitions were seamless and made sense.

The big winner here was Terry Gilliam. At last special effects caught up with his imagination and came down to his budget. I cannot imagine what Brazil might have looked like with modern digital effects, but if this movie is any clue it would have been amazing. Why do I say this? Because this movie’s effects were amazing. In too many fantasy movies the effects almost seem to be there to be seen, whereas Gilliam uses it as an integral part of the story. It must be seen to be believed.

A heartily recommended movie.

See more about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus [Theatrical Release]

Utopia

Well, at least that’s the book I bound four copies of. The sewing was easy. The gluing not so much. I’ve got a way to go before I get good at the glue part.

See more progress on: learn bookbinding

More opportunities to speak Spanish

I’m going to Puerto Rico with the wife. Score!

I’ve already had to have a phone call with a guy who didn’t speak English. We managed to communicate despite the lack of lip reading—a genuinely large part of talking and listening—and gestures. Of course, it turns out that we won’t be staying at that hotel after all, but that’s life.

See more progress on: improve my spanish

Slacker

Oh, I’ve been slacking on this one. I don’t know why. I enjoy his writing. I enjoy what he writes about.

Maybe I’ve been too tied up with work. Or the kiddo. Or life in general. I need to get Valis on interlibrary loan.

See more progress on: read all of Philip K Dick's novels