the current troydanielbecker

3s, Fs, and other things

2012-02-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

First, the numbers. It should be noted that today, the 34th day of the year, is the last day that I will be 33. Yesterday deserves mentioning because it was the 33rd day of the year, and on this year and every leap year there are 333 days remaining on that day. So even though it was 2/2/12 it was really a day of threes. Especially for 33 year old me. A year and a day away will be by golden birthday again, for it will be the 35th day of that year, and I will be turning 35, godwilling that I shall live another year and a day. But today is a day of Fs, for it is a fantastic Friday in February, and the only change to make it effier would be if it were Friday, February fourth. For now, let us forego frivolities and field more fitting affairs:

We've been going to Wednesday church activity nights for the past year or so. Before we would frequent these when available, going to Lenten soup suppers or other series. Well, the current series is a nice 5 month commitment of reading the bible narrative as The Story. It is a pleasant way to read it, and we're in a cozy group of eight plus discussing, these days, the allegience of Ruth to Naomi and Naomi to her people and her people sometimes to God and sometimes not. Et cetera. The church we've been going to, St Dunstan's Episcopal Church, has been one of the greatest things about our life in Texas.

Of course, friends and family also factor vastly in our life quality, and that goes for those of you far and near, thanks to telecommunications, the Internet, and brainwaves.

Our little family is like this. There is me, husband, father, teacher, and dreamer. There is Bonnie, mother, wife, homemaker, craft doer, and dreamer. And there are our three little ones, dreamers all. What are we dreaming about these days? Maybe taking a drive to Alaska in our new 12 year old van Pearl.

Orry is ahead of his expected cognitive development, and faring well with mom in homeschool, where we are using curriculum guides we have found and some workbooks and other materials to put together material that is stimulating and enjoyable for him.

Isaac made some leaps and bounds this past month in his language and articulation of ideas and expressing himself. He is also growing well and is really a little helper around the house. We await more lab results regarding his IBD and things are looking pretty good for now... no new news, which is good news. So far we are pretty pleased with the results of his brainwave optimization treatments, but we don't know yet to what extent.

Annie continues to grow and learn. She can really throw a tantrum, but more often than not she's a little angel.

Have a wonderful weekend!

30 on the 30th!

2012-01-30T10:56:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday, Dear Sister! Happy Golden Birthday. 30 on the 30th. I do hope the rest of your life is more Golden than the short 30 years you've logged in so far. But, for memory's sake, let us recall some adventures, like the game Kitten, that may entertain and delight us.

I remember the announcement of your gestation, when we referred to you as Sibling, and we shouted and danced with glee and sang about goody goody gumdrops and spelled out H-A-P-P-Y. Or maybe this was when Telcia was on the way--maybe our mother can confirm. But Trent and I were happy to have another playmate, to be sure.

In the little rock house where you and I first lived we were oftentimes chided to "leave the baby be!" by Mrs Musgrave who nannied us. I don't remember much from those early years until we got to the Jerome farmhouse. There I remember the classic game of tying a bathrobe belt or regular belt into a lariat and convincing you to step into the portal to an exciting new world. Cinching the belt around your ankles and trapping you never got old, even though we had to always think of new ways to convince you to step into the rope.

Unfortunately we also would tell you that the perpetrators of those childish pranks were monsters who had taken our places, and in this way we exonerated our trespasses in your eyes, so that new trust would be given, in order to be exploited later. Sometimes I wonder about the effects of sibling abuse but love you all the more for managing to survive your young years and not hold against us the transgressions of our wicked ways.

Didn't the car door get slammed on your fingers at church one morning? Didn't we leave you at church another day? Other memories of our youngest years have faded into the fog of nostalgia. Although I do remember when you and Telcia started getting matching wedge haircuts, and I remember lots of softball practices and also how you became in charge of washing dishes eventually. Didn't we also have lots of after school snacks together like frosting on graham crackers and apples and peanut butter and chocolate chips.

When I was away in college you were awesome in everything at school, and still in charge of all the dishwashing. There were lots of Banbury's trips by now, and then also you were working with Lisa, and making your way in the world. And then when you went away to college. Working at the summer camps had gotten big for you, and then you became a Harley girl and then there was Eddie and little Jade to sweep you off your feet. Then there were the early years of that. Before you got married I also remember our last hurrah as siblings in Island Park. Snow. Siblings. Sweet Potatoes. Oh my.

I remember being at the hospital just after Malee was born, and holding her when she was so tiny. Then I remember meeting you with Bonnie in American Falls when Malee was just standing up. Now all of my kids are older than that, and you've got a handful more! We had a good time when you all came down to our wedding, and we've had good times at your older place in Boise as well as visiting you at your recent place.
We've also been able to catch you in the magic valley and had a good walk with you just last month.

I love you Tawna! Happy Birthday!

Knute Heldner again

2012-01-23T14:21:00.000-08:00

I do believe I will be able to keep you more current, these days.

I cut my hair yesterday. I find that while losing my hair, it takes more maintenance to look better than it did back in the day when almost anything looked good or stylish or both. I need to cut the sides of my hair more often now, for they far outgrow the hair on top. And while I was at it I trimmed the sides of my face as well, so that I have a face not unlike some of your conjured images of the devil.

And if you need to know what I mean, just google images of the devil and you'll see that long pointy chin. But it is not that mysterious why Satan has such a long pointy chin or often comes with a beard, because that beard comes from the devilish caprine animal and is otherwise known as a goatee. Now, goats can be mischievous rascals, but western civilization has borrowed much from mythologies where Pan and Bacchus (or their ilk) and their carnal and celebratory ways are identified with the lustful ungodliness of the devil.

Now, to clarify, I do not have a goatee. Just a beard trimmed kind of triangular. But it makes me look sort of like I have a long sharp face. I once again have that Knute Heldner look:

And if your curious not only about what I look like on the outside, but also what I look like on the inside, let me paint that picture for you as well. That looks like this:

Or perhaps:

minus the Presenter Media part.

Anyway, maybe you get the picture and maybe not. But the cryptic meaning is that I just don't know for sure about my future at present. I actually wrote a lot out but then saved the goodies for a later date when I can write more freely.

The best things in my life right now are the things easily taken for granted. The kids, the wife, the home-cooking. And no hangnails or fungal itches.

Thank you for reading!

giving blood

2012-01-17T10:24:00.000-08:00

Happy new year. Here it is: 2012.

On Sunday I gave blood for the first time in 2012. Then I went to church and "gave blood" as a chalicer. It was my first time doing that in a regular church service. To be honest, I was a little nervous. But it went just fine and I look forward to doing it again on February 5th, when I will have been breathing 78% nitrogen for 34 complete years. And a day.

winding to an end

2011-12-09T08:04:00.001-08:00

The semester is winding to an end, thankfully. I want to have more time to inspire these students to greater success, of course, but in the end we all have the same 24 hours in a day that was used by Galileo, Edison, and Benjamin Franklin. And Marie Curie and Mother Teresa and Oprah. I have been working a pretty good balance of work and home for the last 2 months, but I still sense an internal imbalance that has more to do with stress and failure than it has to do with time spent at work.

I am terribly excited about our big roadtrip back to Idaho this month. What I can't believe is that it's been more than two years since I've been in that exceptional state. I finished a book yesterday, which was pretty good, but I was especially thrilled on the last page--you know, when it tells about the author--and the author and his brood lives in the state of Idaho.

When delicious raspberries were on sale recently, we stocked up on them and devoured them like North Pole elves devour gumdrops.

I am looking forward to a yet unknown adventure this weekend. The weather is perfect! Details forthcoming.

more pumpkin talk

2011-11-12T06:15:00.001-08:00

The night sky is great for viewing at 9pm these days. So last night when we went to the members night at our "local" observatory, we had a treat of many of our well known constellations and asterisms, and it was all around a good night for looking up. The moon was bright--which makes it too bright for a good dark night, but it's nice to see the craters and moon's features through the big telescopes too.

The local observatory is more than an hour away, out of town a fair distance, but out of town from the other part of town. We would probably do better to just drive 30 miles out of town northward and looking at the dark starry night there.

More pumpkin, thanks in part to a restaurant nearby called Sweet Tomatoes that we sort of frequent. Pumpkin bisque, pumpkin cobbler, and pumpkin cocktails. I didn't mention because I'm sure all of you were up-to-date on the facebook status updates, but Bonnie also made some delicious pumpkin bread lately.

Just kidding about the pumpkin cocktails.

the cogs of life

2011-11-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

Well, the transit of Venus is approaching, and oh how I look forward to those sweet days of summer. For now, though, a good part of my waking energy goes into the nurturing of eleven dozen young adults who collectively have the math gumption of a thimble. My biggest challenge is in connecting with these dear students, that our classes may be sweet paradises of learning instead of tense and volatile zoo scenes.

You could call me Peter these days. Not because I am a rock, but because I've been quite the pumpkin eater. And Bonnie and I were working out the details of that nursery rhyme, and correct me if I am wrong, but Peter offed his wife and buried her in the garden. Not exactly the nursery rhyme book illustration of a little woman in a pumpkin shell home. With such lovely rhymes we pacify our children's need for rhythm. Call me Peter, but only because of my pumpkin eating, and not because of any homicidal transgressions whatsoever with any wife at all.

Three of our pumpkins this year rotted and molded before Halloween actually arrived. We had carved them up nicely like professional pumpkin carvers, but the weather got warm and flies and fungus had a field day. So we got a couple more and left them intact. Until today, for one of the fruits. I came home to Bonnie hollowing one out, ready to stuff it full with goodies. And then it baked in the oven for a couple hours, and let me tell you, that was an excellent dinner. Like on NPR: Stuff, Bake, and Devour a Pumpkin. It was a practice pumpkin for when we go to the in-laws for Thanksgiving. On top of that, we got some pumpkin ice cream, which I think we can make ourselves, and yes, we even got a pumpkin pie blizzard at Dairy Queen. And we got some pumpkin flavored toothpaste for our bathroom.

Just kidding about the toothpaste.

Our Halloween was wonderful. We got together with some church friends, all the kiddos played around, we dressed up and had a great time. On Halloween too we went around and greeted our neighbors and greeted some of our neighbors who came to our house. One of my students lives a few houses away from ours.

Time is flying. Maybe because I am so anticipating the transit of Venus. Orry spends way too much time at school learning too little. He did a report today on the job of a paleontologist. Isaac, in pre-K, is learning his letters and writing a little and drawing discernible things. He has turned into quite the little communicator. And Annie has taken to running to keep up with the boys and making her upset and pouty faces.

Well, I haven't been the most current current troydanielbecker, but the cogs of life are still turning for us in Houston, and one day spins into the next much in the manner of the school days of our youth, if you can remember those. Thanks for reading.

kung fu peanut butter water

2011-09-15T20:21:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to write these days. First, and thankfully, Bonnie is writing so many great tidbits on we talk dinosaur. But mostly, I am so busy these days with the new teaching position at Dwight D Eisenhower Senior High School in Houston. And when I'm not busy with school stuff, I'm dandling children on knees or tossing them in the air. Or tickling them silly with laughter or falling asleep while I read them books goodnight. And then there is Bonnie, who I also like to tickle silly with laughter. And then there are the Die Hard movies we just got done watching together.We watched Kung Fu Panda II together, as a family, in the dollar theater. That was fun. There were lots of similar families there on that Sunday afternoon.It has continued to be so dry that our garden plants have suffered some casualties. And maybe you saw some news about local wildfires. But on the other hand, it looks like it may come down to Boise State and LSU this year in NCAA football, and wouldn't that just frost your whiskers?Orry and Isaac are enjoying school. Annie is really growing up too. Bonnie made some peanut butter ice cream today that was among the best ice cream products I have eaten. And I am not one that favors peanut butter in desserts.One fond thing that I recall from my childhood is irrigating our desert fields. We sure moved a lot of water, my dad and me. What do you remember fondly from your childhood?

math methods, fireants, birds

2011-08-06T20:05:00.000-07:00

I have a new abacus toy, or actually, a soroban, with instructions in English, that I might just devote some time to. You know, these manual calculators have good quick methods for doing large and decimal multiplication and division and can also be used for roots; not just for tallying or for adding numbers without using your fingers.

Although the instruction booklet is in English, it was printed in Japan, and has a few funny things and misspellings like thumb without a b, and more embarrasing, count without an o.

It seems like every time I come to Louisiana I get violated by fireants. But this time they got me in the morning before heading to Louisiana, while still in Texas. I got no fewer than 13 or 14 bites, and I am reminded that last time when I pinned my allergic reaction on poison ivy, it was likely a similar fireant violation instead. The last time I itched like that was when I went camping, and I'm pretty sure I didn't get any fireant bites then, so I don't know what I can put that down to. But I had a terrific allergic reaction once to fireants and I guess I still have reactions. My body seems to not react and not react until it reacts to something, and then it will either react easily to the same thing, or get used to it and seem to react less and less until it doesn't react any more. About these ants, they are all "new" ants, as opposed to getting bitten by the same local type of ants again and again, and maybe there's something in that, too.

We harvested our first cucumber, yum.

Bonnie and I had a good time watching videos last night about birds that can talk. Not just parrots and parakeets, but magpies, starlings, crows, and the like. Fascinating.

33.5 years old

2011-08-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

Today is my half year birthday, and I know you're probably wondering why you didn't hear about my 33 1/3 year celebration, but I think at that time I was probably counting candles on boys' birthday cakes, cutting out dinosaur hats, or something of the like. And I can tell you what I'd like to be doing on my 34 1/3 year celebration. That's the time (next year, actually on June 5 or 6, 2012, depending on your side of the international date line) when Venus will cross in front of the sun for the so called "transit of Venus" event. It happens twice, about eight years apart, every 105 or 121 years in a delightful planetary dance that repeats with a periodicity of 243 years. The last transit happened in 2004, so here's your last chance, living humans, unless you live so long as to see it happen again in 2117. I hope to be somewhere with my family, watching the sun without looking at it directly, ideally in Japan or Alaska or Hawaii or some other neat place, although just about anywhere will do, so long as we don't go to places like Brazil or the Azores or western Africa.

(The above times are for the 2004 transit which occurred on June 8th.)

Tomorrow is my last day on the job at my current school, where I have been working in the capacity of Academic Director after beginning teaching at this language school last summer. I am taking a position teaching Geometry in high school for the following school year, and I'm excited about that change. I liked the leadership role of working with teachers and helping to run a school from that angle, so this is step one in getting a principal certification down the road.

Orry got registered for kindergarten today as well, so we're both excited to start school in a couple of weeks.

Hey, thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog.

Becker Boy Camping

2011-07-25T21:10:00.000-07:00

It came time to start a camping tradition with these TX Becker boys, so we headed out one hot Friday for Huntsville State Park, about an hour north of us.

One of the perks of the trip was while we were still in our air conditioned van, checking out an enormous statue of Sam Houston, which is the way Texas celebrates its heroes. You can tell that we are almost certainly distant cousins on my mother's father's side because of our brow and the overworking of our corrugator supercilii muscles.

Hunstville has a 67 foot Sam Houston, but the Dallas zoo has a 67 foot giraffe thanks in part to sculptor Bob Cassilly.

We got out and stood by the feet and then hustled back to our cool van Winnie.

Our high spirits continued while we arrived at the state park and drove to our camping site. We got out of the van and ate our dinner and then hit the trails for a hike. With our stroller. At first we took the time to take pictures of pretty red flowers.

But soon I think the hike turned more into a fun ride on the stroller across a bumpy trail of tree roots and some declines to try to get Daddy to run down.

We found some puffballs and lots of ant lion pits, which we investigated. After we went down the path for a while, we needed to turn around and get back to our campsite before dark. It was starting to get a little whiny.

What followed gave me the feeling that my Becker boys would be traumatized and ever fearful and reluctant of any similar future adventures. What started as a little whiny got to outright tears as we piled into the sleeping bag sleeping arrangement and endured the hot and sweaty all-natural Texas night. We were dressed fairly well in good natural bug repellents, which unfortunately gave me an allergic reaction so that I got a bad case of the itches when it was time for a case of the Zs. It was a fairly restless night of adjusting, readjusting, waking, and nearly waking. Finally, when it was too light to go back to sleep, it was over and our morning would begin.

The morning continued the theme of going from whining, to tears, and finally to something like sleep. We drove across the park and checked out another short trail. I left the stroller, but soon I was carrying Isaac, and after we turned around I was also carrying Orry. Luckily he was enough of a sport to walk intermittently, especially when Isaac started nodding off on my shoulders. Finally we made it back to the car where I decided that maybe the allergic reaction was perhaps somehow some exposure to poison ivy (I've been having some super sensitivity to that delightful herb lately). Luckily though, it was time to call it a day and we listed the animals we saw or heard before we got out on the open road and headed back to Houston, when Orry and Isaac got some good air conditioned sleep in their car seats.

The list and Orry's delight in listing the animals we saw and heard told me that maybe the delight of the trip wasn't lost in its misery. And sure enough, the very next night he was wanting to sleep in the sleeping bag again, although the night before I was sure he was crying about being sweaty and just asking to go home. But the parts I left out were watching the stars and bats emerge from the twilight, listening to the owls. Checking out an alligator in the morning, listening to an eagle screech. Watching the clouds move.

Our list of fauna:

owl (Orry said we can count it twice because we saw two.)
bat
deer
squirrel
rabbit
human
cicada
butterfly
ant
ant lion
firefly
blue heron
frog
anole
alligator
crow

heron

egret

ibis

eagle

We didn't count mosquitoes. And there might have been some water birds we didn't get. I also saw some non-water birds that aren't included above, and we heard a woodpecker or flicker on a hike.

Also we saw some plants and fungi.

I couldn't help but look up dickcissel when I saw it on a bird list. And what a treat, because in the sound blip for a dickcissel's call, you can hear in the background a western meadowlark, the type of call which is familar to me but seems seldom caught in internet sound blips.

All in all, the trip was a wonderful sort of miserable, with lots of highlights that will probably endure as long as any memory of misery. We'll slate another weekend in September and I hope we can get lots of family camping in this fall.

bats and cucurbits

2011-07-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

I had a great 3 day weekend in Austin. Seeing the bats helped with that, but it was altogether a great weekend of family and fun.

For more footage check out Bonnie's blog

I have scheduled another blood donation for this upcoming weekend. Also on the agenda is a George Observatory night on Friday. Good for the stars!

Speaking of stars, Orry recognized The Starry Night from a print at the Bourgs's. So we looked at a Van Gogh book, but I think really he just wanted to continue with his computer games.

Our school garden continues to grow. Most impressive are all the cucurbits. At the school, our canteloupes are thriving the most. At our home, Annie's halloween pumpkin seed plants are most impressive. It has been nice to grow these plants.

Our kids are also growing like cucurbit vines in the summertime, and we keep doing our best to revel in their magical young years.

June 22

2011-06-22T18:53:00.000-07:00

June 22. Happy Birthday, nephew Theo. In one year you will have been a prime half your life. It will happen again in three years, but after this the primes get more spread out. Why, I won’t be prime for 4 more years yet , and then I won’t be prime again until 4 years after that. In the next 8 years of my life, imagine what will happen. On the optimistic side: Sustainable economics? Peace in the middle east? Fungus Revolution? Grandpa Dan will likely be knocking on the door of 70. Great Granny, 90. On the other hand, what new pestilence and diseases will we face? What will climate change bring about? Which animal and plant species will be gone forever? Which genocide of your young lifetime will go down as the worst?

Back on the upside, it’s summer now, and our hemisphere is bathed in sunlight. My garden at the school—that is to say, our gardening club’s garden—includes corn and sunflowers, beans, a few whispers of life left in a bunch of strawberry starts, parsley, beets, radishes, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchinis, cantaloupes, basil, tomatoes, parsley, carrots, and dill. I’m trying to sprout some potatoes to put in there, and we have some other plants waiting for some corn and sunflower shade.

The Reader, what a great book. Thanks for the window into Germany, Judge Schlink, and into the human experience.

Becoming Texan

2011-06-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Becoming Texan is easy. All you do is move to the state, and it's required by law to become Texan within 30 days. Becoming Texan means getting a Texas driver's license. Actually, who knows what the real law is? And what about people who don't need a driver's license? And maybe it's 90 days. The thing is, my information is from the dmv and not the lawbooks. Of course there is an ambiguity, as "Texan" could mean someone originally from Texas, like I am an Idahoan, or, on the other hand, someone who resides in Texas.

Aside from that law or faux-law, once you get here, there aren't that many laws. You can shoot people, or drive on the median if you want. And they voted recently to discount all the violations caught by traffic cameras in Harris County, because traffic cameras aren't cops, and we don't need laws to make good choices at intersections. But after living near the beltway for the duration of one year and ten days, I have seen with my eyes, while I am driving, more accidents happen here than I have in the rest of my life put together.

I would like to add some photos, but this blog isn't big enough for Texas-sized photos.

Yee haw.

Becoming Louisianan

2011-05-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

If you come to Louisiana for only a semester, it might be the fall semester and you'll get all you want of NCAA football, but you might miss out on crawfish. If you're in Louisiana for a year, it's pretty difficult to miss out on crawfish season. It coincides conveniently with Lent, because crawfish are God's manna for swamp people.

When you live in Louisiana, you learn by and by how to eat a boiled crawfish. And if you're lucky, you learn how to identify the good ones from the bad ones. The good ones, it turns out, are the ones that are boiled alive. Their tails curl. The bad ones are the ones that are dead before they're boiled, and their tails extend straight and uncurled. (By the way, that is a sort of myth, although it seems by my estimation to be a good test.).

Eating a crawfish entails breaking the arthropod's carapace apart from the tail (actually the abdomen, or in crustaceanese, the pleon). Learning what's best about eating crustaceans from their shell involves learning about the juicy yellow fat which is usually spooned out of the carapace with a finger and ingested with the tailmeat. It's what people are going for when they "suck the heads" of their boiled crawfish. And it's good. It is, as I learned on www.crawfish.com, hepatopancreatic tissue. There it is said that it is, in fact, not fat, but actually, as far as what I can understand from what a hepatopancreas does--metabolizing lipids, we might as well call it fat.

You might think that eating your share of a mountain of vermillion mudbugs in this manner might as well make you somehow Louisianan, but of course not. After you're in Louisiana for a while, you also get to learn how to execute the crawfish boil. You get your crawfish, you wash and purge the crawfish. You use a giant's pot and a Texas sized burner. You use Zatarain's. You boil potatoes and corn and onions and maybe sausage with the boil. You heat it up for so long. You boil for so long. You let soak for so long. And then so long, hepatopancreatic lipids and sumptuous tailmeat.

Purging crawfish means dousing them with saltwater, which makes them empty their digestive tracts. The digestive tract, which has the similitude of a small "vein" running through their tailmeat should be nice and clean. Black full digestive tracts are from negligent purging, and adds to the mud and detracts from the delicate tailmeat and sumptuous hepatopancreatic lipids.

You might think that cooking up a genuine crawfish boil makes you Louisianan. And it helps, but today I realized that after 10 years of a connection with the Pelican State, that I finally took the next step in being even more Louisianan. That was when I went down the bayou with the one-legged father-in-law and his .45. We drove back into a property that his brother has spent 10 years taming. There we harvested wild crawfish from crawfish traps. The .45 was for the alligators. What deserves note is the plentiful birdlife down there--something I had forgotten. But just in our little excursion we saw herons, cranes, egrets, stilts, ducks, ibises. There were some I didn't know. The excursion was actually quite brief. But it was real Louisiana.

And you might think that somehow I'm going to get to the point of calling myself Louisianan, but there a good deal of other labels I would rather attach to myself. Maybe after I buy some land down the bayou and build on it, knowing that it will flood. And I have to make the traps. And I have to get a .45 probably, and go half deaf, or maybe lose a leg or finger. To an alligator would be best, but cancer or a staph infection will do. But I did marry a good old Louisianan, and all three of my spawn have been delivered in this odd state of birds and Republicans.

The thing is, I have as much love for Louisiana as I do for, say, most of the midwestern states combined. And if you throw in the badlands and forests in the Dakotas, that's probably pretty accurate, because there's a lot in Louisiana that really moves me. Today, in Louisiana, was one of the best days of my life, actually. Not only did I have this wonderful adventure, but we had a birthday jamboree of family times and dinosaur delight.

sunflowers, cicadas, ssss

2011-05-27T08:52:00.000-07:00

I took on running a gardening club at our new school. What a wonderful opportunity. We have land, a small budget, and a dozen or so interested students. The other week I planted some corn and sunflowers, and they have poked through the soil. Sowing seeds and watching them grow nurtures the soul. Try it if you haven't, or haven't lately. Chime in if you're a so-called old hand.

The cicadas are chiming in nowadays. The summer is here as far as Haiku is concerned (part of the often not-understood richness of Haiku involves season words--like "cicadas", which depict the particular season). Even if you otherwise despise bugs, you gotta love cicadas.

There was a third item I was thinking to blog about. It started with an "s" sound, but it wasn't sunshine or sunburns, seasoning or spices, sofas or settees. It wasn't sacrifice or cease-and-desist orders, and it wasn't suicide or citizenship. The subject escapes me no, but I can tell you it wasn't Saturn, or sex, or singing, or sonnets, or supper, or Cesium, or cymbals, or citadels, or CDs, or psychology or psychiatry or similes or smiles.

Maybe it had something to do with interviewing at some other schools, which I have done recently. Maybe it had something to do with going to the children's museum, which we did last night. Maybe it had something to do with Bonnie's new blog we talk dinosaur. I can't recall.

It could be that it was about Annie walking backwards, because she seems to like to do that nowadays, step step step. Or it could be about watching an extra baby (a coworker's baby) in the house, which is on the list of current news at the Becker household. It could possibly have been about the website houstongasprices.com (they also have it in your area) which is currently listing gas prices lower than $3.40 / gallon in the Houston area! But I don't think so. Nothing has struck a chord with me yet.

It could have been about the painted lady butterflies emerging from their chrysalises, or about our new costume fun, or about all of Bonnie's latest crafting activities. Or about planning a trip to Austin, or Louisiana, or renting out our Sparrow house finally... hmmm.....

Alas, I think I shall have to leave the title of this blog with an ssss, until the subject comes back to me, if it does at all.

my recent animal identification

2011-05-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

We found a mole cricket the other day. The thing was (--and it's not like I have ever seen a mole cricket before; it actually took some investigating to learn about them) this mole cricket was so fuzzy. And they are not small insects, either, at about 2 inches long:

Unfortunately, I am not having as much luck identifying a strange bird I saw the other day.

I wish you all the best in your animal identification quests.

less cholesterol, more owl and cat

2011-05-19T18:38:00.000-07:00

It turns out a deciliter of my blood contains more cholesterol than the average American's, at 224 milligrams. Bonnie helps bring down the average though, you bet. I don't know the breakdown of good and bad, or triglycerides, and this sure wasn't a fasting cholesterol reading, but now you know, and so do I. In Houston, at least at the blood bank where Bonnie and I donated some of our life serum, they reveal cholesterol levels after you donate blood.

The weather has been agreeable lately. I could go for more of the outings like we had a weekend or so ago when we went to the arboretum and had a hike. Last weekend is when I got some manure for our school garden. This weekend I'll be doing some planting.

Most of you probably read your share of blogs. Sometimes you even read blogs about blogging. But today you are in for a treat, because I am going to blog about blogging about blogging. Sure, there's a niche for blogging about blogging. But I think it's best when weblogs just focus on what the weblogger wants to say, and not deal with how they are going to say it. Having said that, blogging is sometimes not as easy as keeping a journal. So anything goes, really. Bonnie started a new soon-to-be-released blog, but she doesn't know what to say. And to her I say, just say what you want to say.

On the other hand, I could do to read a few blogs about blogging. More pictures, more dialogue. Less cholesterol, more owl and cat.

driven up the wall

2011-05-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

As many of you probably know, goats and I go way back. So I am delighted to catch the pics of these goats scaling this steep dam:

Maybe the rest of you saw these photos last fall when they first came out. I'm generally a few months behind on my internetting. Anyway, the Alpine ibex deserves a few moments of your internet time.

houstonians, May

2011-05-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well, May. I wouldn't exactly say you were in like a lion this year. At least not in Houston, Texas, birthplace of Beyonce, who might dance the same moves as Lady Gaga, but with much more refinement. Houston also produced Dan Rather, Renee Zellwegger, Anna Nicole Smith, and Wes Anderson. As for you, May, you produced about 1/12 of the human population, including Blessed John Paul II and Bob Dylan, not to mention some dear loved ones. Anyway, May, we need the rain April neglected to leave behind. So bring it on, yo.

We are carrying on, in our household. In fact, I don't have anything else to say, really.

Easter words and photos

2011-04-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

Where: Austin, TX.
When: Easter weekend, 2011.
Who: The Tex Becks and dear Marler cousins

It went like this:

The plan was great. We got a call from Kristen a couple weeks ago about the possibility of helping pick up a vehicle in Texas and meeting halfway to do a vehicle exchange (trading in a big suburban for a bigger van). Not only would we have been able to save days of driving time, but also we would have gotten a chance to play in the pool with Marler kids we know and meet the Marler kids we hadn't yet met.

So on Wednesday and Thursday of last week it looked like it could possibly go down on the weekend. And sure enough, on Friday we got notice that they were on the way! Hoping to get the van that evening and start our trek before dawn Saturday morning, we fled Houston for the state capital where the van was waiting for us.

The only thing was, the van wasn't exactly waiting for us. Well, it was waiting, but also it was waiting for a pitman arm owing to the claim that the original "was showing some wear." Well, I didn't know what a pitman arm was, but I do now.

Unfortunately, a pitman arm could not be procured until Tuesday, which is tomorrow. But a few options presented themselves. None of the easy things worked. None of the other vans around had a suitable replacement. And wouldn't you know, replacing the original also didn't work--it looked like somehow the geared bolt was slipping in the geared pitman arm hole. Which I guess means that "showing some wear" must have meant that something bad was imminent OR it means they damaged the arm when they pulled it... Anyway, we were one good pitman arm short of a great van, and meanwhile the Marler nine were barreling down the interstate system towards us.

So the rest of that day was spent tinkering with solutions and waiting here and there for a welder to come and fuse the pitman arm to the steering gear. Which sucks, because the pitman arm is relatively cheap but the box is not so cheap. But time isn't cheap either, and once you've come across the country for a vehicle, you want to get it back without spending an extra three or four days waiting--and that's even provided waiting is possible, since one also has to consider getting time off from work et cetera.

Meanwhile, our meeting destination changed from Amarillo, to Lubbock, and to Abilene. That's about the time when it looked like the welder was finished, and I took the van for a spin, only to realize that it in fact, wasn't fixed. On further inspection, we saw that the welding job we thought was done in fact wasn't done. Unfortunately, the welder was gone again, and we did find out that he would come back first thing in the morning.

Well, we didn't know if the Marlers would cut their losses and go back, or press forward and try again. They decided to press forward, so we stayed in Austin another night to await their arrival and say hi in the morning.

Which we did, and what joy! We arrived at the transaction spot Saturday morning, and Steve and Kristen and the kids were all out in the van on a test drive. The welder had come, he had finished with the weld, and everything was working fine. So the last of the paperwork was completed, bags were moved from the suburban to the van, and it looked like the end of that leg of the journey.

But snap went the weld, when Steve was pulling out the van. Foiled!--we were wrong! We looked at the weld some more, and decided that it could be done better and that indeed, it would be a good fix if it were done right. This seemed to me to be the biggest deliberation, because the welder had attempted to fix it not once, but twice. Does one go for a third attempt? And if one does, is he able to trust it will do the trick? And it is all good and well to "trust" it, but the test of this trust is driving your family across the country in the vehicle.

So our Easter was also spent tinkering with solving the problem. But I wouldn't want you to think that there were Bonnie, me, our three little ones, and some mechanics with our heads under the front of a van all weekend. Nor, when the Marlers arrived, was it us Beckers, Steve and Kristen, and their seven little ones, all with our noses in the steering assembly. In order to give an accurate picture of our weekend, I have to back up and tell more of the story.

The rest of the story should include that it was our first time to Austin, Bonnie and I. And we were tickled just driving into the hills where the Marler Van awaited. The houses, constructed within the landscape and not just on it, beckoned to the Earth lovers within. Small creeks here and there and here and there beckoned to our outdoorsyness. Runners and bicyclers reminded us that some cities are livelier than others.

When we arrived at the place where the Marler van awaited, we were fairly impressed. On account of it appearing like a large compound or estate, complete with large stucco walls and a large gateway with a gate of metal blocking us from entering as well as even peeking inside. The seller let us in, where we saw his unhumble house, terraced yard, palm trees, and various projects, as well as vans. It seemed obvious his work was in stone and construction, and when we saw the short round man we thought that once upon a time, maybe he had laid some of the stone himself.

What do I mean by projects? Like the pyramid he was building in the corner of his property. The kids had a good time playing in the tunnel/cave he had formed which was to be below the pyramid's base.

Well, in addition to popping in and trying to keep things moving as well as possible, we also checked out the state capitol, whole foods, and trails and creeks nearby. And we pretty much were in love with Austin, because we could see girls with hula hoops, tourists getting drivers' training on segways, lots of bikes, lots of picnickers, lots of beards, lots of local, lots of green, and not much traffic congestion.

And when the Marlers were there, sure it was horrible and crushing about the van mishaps, but it was such a joy to meet the kiddos and see the cousins that we were all quite beside ourselves.

You will notice some Mardi Gras hooplah. We owe gratitude for the seller, who, along with taking the Marlers' suburban and some money, was gracious enough to let our families run amok on his property, while giving us some goodies, including a bag of Mardi Gras goodies magicked from somewhere within his unhumble abode.

So by and by, we got a good weld, a satisfactory fix, and at long last we bid adieu to our Marler kin and we went our opposite ways. It wasn't the best of situations for the MArlers coming all the way to Austin, but we were tickled to see them and spend some time together, and we're just really glad that they have made it back safe and sound to Casper, where they arrived with their sunburns to this:

And yes, I said sunburns. Oh, my face looked like boiled seafood, and my neck is more than a titch tender as well. It wasn't the awesome creek dip, but the waiting around that did it....

life story, where's annie?, what's current

2011-04-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

My new abridged life story:

I was born and still think of myself as an Idahoan.
I grew up on a farm. Or a few farms, actually.
I lived with my grandparents during the transition period between childhood and adulthood.
This means that I was first madly in love when I was a child.
I went to college and graduated in four years and never changed my major from mathematics after declaring it my freshman year. Upon graduating, though, I moved to Japan and taught English.
But in between graduation and moving to Japan I got married!
After living in Japan for a year, I lived in Portland, Oregon, and worked teaching English as a second language, and as a math instructor at a vocational college, and a few other jobs.
I have had more jobs in my life than I have had girlfriends, but fewer than the number of half-birthdays. Unless, well, it depends on what you mean by jobs. And girlfriends, maybe.
In Oregon is where I got divorced.
Then I hitch-hiked across the country. I was restless.
Then I started graduate school in Louisiana, studying mathematics some more.
In 2004 I finished with that, not finishing what I set out to do. I had started with the buying, selling, fixing-up, and renting of real estate. The renting of which I am still involved with.While I grew up, I moved around a lot, relocating mostly in Louisiana, where I met Bonnie. We are still moving a lot.
In 2005 Bonnie became such a part of my life that it was impossible to extricate myself from her grasp, and we tied a wedding knot.
And had one little boy. And another.
We moved to Korea and back. We got busy with some real estate projects, but didn't get as far along with them as we had planned.
We did get to bear a little baby girl!
And, less than 6 months later, we moved to Houston for a teaching opportunity there.
Soon after, we realized we are an IBD family.

Two years ago, I was talking about getting some dirt and a garden on a rooftop in Korea. This year I am head of a gardening club at our school. Today we had our first meeting, talking about what we will do with the garden space we've been alotted.

What else? Well here's a funny story. Only because it has a good ending. When I came out of the Reptile House at the zoo on Friday, Bonnie asked, "Where's Annie?" Because, of course, I had entered the place with three kids, and only come out with two. Of course I about-faced and returned to the spot where, a few minutes earlier, I had put Annie down to get eye-level with the leucistic alligator. She was still checking it out. In fact, I think each of them had moved about the same amount in the preceding minutes. Meanwhile I had done a quick tour of some snakes with the two older siblings. Luckily I have Bonnie to remind me that when I do family roll call, I should count three little button noses and not just two.

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We've been going through another flare-up with Isaac recently. It's somewhat of a tough time in the Becker house. On one hand, everything is fine. We stay active and the kids are all doing fine, even Isaac. Except that he hasn't recuperated well enough yet from his bad bowel movement bouts from last week. What does that mean? It means that instead of one medication three times a day, plus two other amino acid pills and two other probiotic pills he takes each day, he will take those things except a larger dose of medication, plus another medication every other day, plus another pill, plus steroids again. So we're talking over ten teaspoons of meds and five and a half pills a day, except that some of the probiotics we can mix with drinks. Then there are vitamins and B complex tablets we like to give from time to time, and I don't even want to get into the preparation of soy-free meals and snacks, which is Bonnie's new hobby. We are eating pretty well though. We're wanting to try a new sort of diet which works with a lot of IBD patients. Which is sort of funny, because we are just getting into a sort of vegan groove, and this new diet is not at all vegan. We are sort of flummoxed about all the new prescribed meds, and sort of on the fence about sliding up the scale of drasticness, but also want Isaac's bowels to shape up before too much scarring or other damage occurs.

If you really want the current troydanielbecker, this is it. A lot of IBD talk.

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Also current: My new responsibilities as assistant director of the language school where I teach are being tested this week, as the director is out of the country for a few days and I am in charge, and I found out yesterday and one of our teachers is also out for the week due to bereavement, which I also found out yesterday.

boy babble, let him go

2011-04-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

It was another teacher training day today, but this one as professional development as a faculty member of North American College. Yes, our faculty all have doctorate degrees, but I am only sort of a faculty member since I teach the remedial math class.

Probably most of you have seen the twin boys trying to figure out how a fridge works.

Bonnie experienced something similar today at the doctor's office. Isaac's speech is pretty babbly. We understand most things because we know which sounds stand for which sounds--but strangers have a hard time deciphering most of what he says. Well, another boy his age started up a chat about Thomas (his mom helped decipher), and he and Isaac just started in.

Another thing about the doctor's visit and said boy: Bonnie described them as a "new family", you know, with the sort of scared, new look about them. Which I guess puts us in our place a little. We are more familiar by now at that office. And as Bonnie said, today we got a new intern, which I guess again shows how it is for us there. I say "us" loosely, because I've only been in the place once, but the rest of the family goes every month or so. Today, for example, we got an appointment for just a couple weeks from now. And on it goes. Also today we heard such scary words as Imuran (aka azathioprine, an immunosuppressant) and surgery. You can always read more at our IBDinourhome blog.

More about Isaac. He has mastered control over the computer mouse and enjoys such games on the computer as digging with super grover for dinosaur fossils and putting together computer jigsaw puzzles. He also likes real jigsaw puzzles.

Bonnie made the cutest little dress for Annie. We should take some photos.

I got more creative. Probably most of you saw my little video snippet from Woody Allens You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. What a great scene.

Getting this little snippet was a small chore for me. Of course, it was pretty easy, but I was really unfamiliar with what to do, so I had to figure all that out. And now I'm pretty pleased to display the finished product.

Taxes. Time to get going on those. Enough of movie snippets.

Have a good day. Don't be a fool.

teacher training

2011-03-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Well, for those of you getting an update, I'm once again going through some hoops to get my teacher certification, this time in the state of Texas. I am done with the seminars now, but I wanted to mention how often they'll throw on a video that makes everybody in the audience get teary eyed. In the last teacher training seminar I went to on Saturday, they first played some clips about Teddy Stoddard. In the movie link here it's Teddy Stallard, and it will probably affect you differently if you watch it knowing this, but it is purely fiction (Ballard, 1974). Anyway, it's touching though, giving aspiring teachers one more reason to stick with it and really care about making a difference.

Then, later in the morning they played this one. Now, I'm no country music fan, so it was all I could do to simply bear the music and lyrical tone. But yes, I will admit it, the content touched my heart. I don't know if it's "a true story" or not either (fiction I guess), but it also makes aspiring teachers want to care about each and every kid.

back in the saddle again

2011-03-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well, my "Spring Break" ended yesterday, so today I was back in the saddle with my awesome team of teachers at the language school. We are doing some planning and development these two days, and on Monday a new (two month) term starts for us. This so-called spring break was scheduled to beMonday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, while today and tomorrow were scheduled work days for me. However, I met with some students in New Orleans on Monday as a school representative, and then I came in for a short while on both Tuesday and Wednesday, so it is really funny to think of it as a spring break.

On Monday, Bonnie and the kids and I all drove back in to Houston to get back in the saddle again as far as home and home routines. Actually, thanks to all the recent teacher training, everything is a "procedure" these days, so Bonnie and I hashed out a lot of procedures of parenting that we are starting to implement at our house. So far we've been really pleased, because children take to procedures with the gusto of a new game:

You want to play the Wii? Okay, let's check what we need to do.
What we need to do?
Yeah, there is a checklist and then steps we need to follow.
Steps?
Yes, first of all, is it an appropriate time to play? Yes it is. Next we need to make sure tidy up the living room before we play. Step one is to pick up our toys and put them away. Isaac, you do step two. Step two is to make sure all the shoes are put away nicely.
What's step three?
Orry, you just finish step one and then we'll do step three. Let's put all these toys away.
What's step three?
Step three is taking care of jackets or other clothes.
What's step four?
Step four is making piles with the things that are still out.
What's step five?
Step five? Let's make sure all the other steps are finished. Let's help Isaac finish up.
Okay, now what?
Now we get to play. But first, look at the Wii-motes and see where everything belongs. When we finish, we're going to put everything right back where it belongs.

And so on. That was fun.

So we formulated all sort of procedures for all the little details of life. Then we have procedures to teach, which become routine, and then we have a smoothly oiled productive household.

I heard that routines/procedures are how we can teach responsibility to children. As in, some action is expected in a given situation. And how the student is aware of what is expected and how they choose to do or neglect what is expected defines how responsible they are. So teaching and practicing any sort of meaningful routine makes a lot of sense.

going bald

2011-03-12T20:46:00.000-08:00

Those who know me best will attest that for the past two years, the hair atop my head is not what it used to be. I was under the impression that I drew the head-of-hair-for-life card, but alas, dear reader, my thinned top and plainly receding hairline indicate otherwise.

Tonight was the night where a man in my circumstances explores options. Too bad I didn't save my recent google/wiki searches, because that would pretty much tell the story. An abridged version:

male pattern baldness awareness day
alopecia
free testosterone
free testosterone sex
free testosterone sexual activity
free testosterone sexual activity balding
sexual activity balding
rogaine
anagen
minoxidil
minoxidil price
cheap rograine
cheap minoxidil
male balding hairstyles
kimbo slice

I started out looking for male pattern baldness awareness day because I thought that would be a good day to start rocking what I by and by came to know is called a power donut. (See Larry David, above)

But then I realized that I should also think about the alternatives. For example I didn't know if Rogaine would be something you apply for a while which reverses the balding for life (Of course it isn't). I also wondered about price. Getting cheap generic minoxidil runs about $60 per year, and doesn't seem expensive even if I were to use it for the next 30 years.

But I'm not really one for chemicals. Especially when there is also a timely maintenance routine twice daily, let's be honest.

So by and by I learned such terms as "skullet" and "free testosterone" and I learned who Kimbo Slice is.

You see, it's one thing to embrace the short hair cut, but what about the beard? And I'm not interested in a goatee really. But I got some great tips at artofmanliness.com, and that might be worth a read if you're looking for a laugh or, let's be honest, some information.

On another note, it's nice to get to Louisiana again, the birthplace of my offpsring. We are all together again and everybody's finally getting over colds and so on. Annie and Isaac started competing for objects and attention. On Monday we'll head back to Houston via New Orleans and then we'll enjoy a few days off for Spring Break.

Here we go, springing forward in Spring again.

all the single ladies

2011-03-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Flash Mob. That's my newest interest. And what better introduction than:

And when I am not thinking about flash mob these days, I am thinking about addiction and recovery. In fact, I combed through some web-research for language clues because a while back, when I was working alongside guys in recovery, it became clear to me that there is "addict thinking" and "rational thinking" and lately I wanted to get something like a clear picture of what language clues one can key in on when it comes to talking with someone in recovery. My findings are worth sharing, I think.

The thing is, I copied them all down from a website I found (which didn’t allow cutting and pasting). I copied them to a notebook page. But unfortunately my computer, in the process of hibernating or something, lost my efforts. So I will just point you to the webpage, and you can scroll down to addict thinking and criminal thinking and find them for yourself I guess (starting at around page 30 of 88).

Actually, there’s a lot of other things I think about, other than flash mobs and abuse recovery. For example, the wife and kids. Since this week we’re occupying different states, I’m thinking about them a lot more than I’m spending time with them these days. I’m really looking forward to seeing them on Friday! Until then, it’s flash mobs, and addiction recovery, and oh yeah, work.

Work, which is thinking about the academics and administration of this language school, as well as instruction in language and math at the college, is also taking up plenty of time. And it’s enjoyable, for the most part.

Also enjoyable is watching the setting sun through our big circular windows. The glass is thick, and when one views the sun near the edge of the window, a couple clear refractions from the sun can be seen. And I am sure that if there is a large sunspot or an eclipse of mercury, I could check it out in the refraction action of the window. In fact, I gave that more thought to that today than I did flash mobs.

McMiscellaneous

2011-03-07T11:21:00.000-08:00

Here I am, on the way back to Houston. And before you think I am blogging while driving, please rest assured I am in a McDonald's parking lot. No, I will not eat their food, but ever since I learned that all McDonald'ses offer free wi-fi, I've been frequenting their parking lots from time to time. And yes, I will slurp one of their smoothies from time to time, actually.

It is the 20-teens, afterall. Nowadays, you can do all sorts of things. Like, for example, you can browse the current world emergencies and disasters from the comfort of your own home without turning to the news. It is from there that I was reminded our family vacation spots during my childhood, at Island Park in eastern Idaho. There is also home to one of the worlds' largest calderas, a large caldera distinct from the great Yellowstone caldera. It is older, it shares Yellowstone's high status as an 8 out of 8 on the Volcano Explosivity Index, and it is--the way I understand it--part of a path of calderas which form every so often as our Earth's crust passes over the hotspot which is now responsible for the geo-active Yellowstone as we know it.

For more Snake River Plain info, just wiki it, or click here. Otherwise I'll go on and on about southern Idaho.

Anyway, I like that you can find out about what disasters are happening around the world without all the newsy drama bits. Of course, it's not the most uplifting, but hey, what do you expect from a McDonald's parking lot?

Well, the unfortunate thing about this week is that I will be flying solo in Houston until Friday. On the plus side, today is a day off for me, making up for extra hours I've already logged. I'll mozy on back to Houston, and get situated for the week. I've got teacher training, a final week at school, and presumably plenty to keep me occupied. Plus, I am headed back with a car full of stuff. Now that we got our garage somewhat cleared out, it's time to get all of our belongings that have been lingering at the Bourgs' house since way back even to Bonnie's teenage years.

Well, even though it's Mardi Gras time everywhere, I am getting reminded of how out-of-proportion it is in Louisiana. In Texas even, a few long hours away, it just isn't that big of a deal.

good day, ticket update

2011-03-02T22:09:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful morning we had this morning. The birdsong was outdoing the sun, which was outdoing the crisp spring weather, which was outdoing the relative stillness we call home in the pocket of this subdivision which is in a small pocket in the corner of the vast expanse of the otherwise bustling city of Houston. Sure, I was racing off to work, but how nice it is that the morning commute to work is 4-7 minutes and involves only one left turn on busy roads.

The math problem for the day is this, and if you are used to driving in Houston, you might get this one: My commute to work takes 4-7 minutes. My commute home from work is twice the distance, but also takes only 4-7 minutes. Each commute is the shortest legal driving route. Explain.

I taught a conversation class today. I don't teach it every day, so when I do have it, it is a little bit of fresh air for me, and for the students, since we all get to do something we don't usually get to do. They told me how they like when I lead the class. Teachers like to hear that sort of thing. Also I'm seeing my regular students improve. Teachers like to see their students grow.

But I won't kid you. One of the best parts of the day came when I called the Henderson Mayor's Court to discuss my speeding ticket. Yes, slow me got a speeding ticket racing back to our bustling city from Louisiana in January. I was speeding 73 in a 60 on I-10, coming off the bridge, and so I was easy pickings. An old hat in years past at mitigating tickets and cleaning up my driving record, of course I wanted to appear in court and take care of this ticket. But it turns out the court date is a Wednesday, the place is four hours from Houston, and it is the Wednesday that is the day before the day before our final exam for this term, so there's no nice way for me to miss out on that day. Driving there in the wee hours, and driving back in the afternoon is an option, but please note that on either side of that Wednesday, I will also be driving to Louisiana twice. The hours add up, so you might understand why I was interested in checking out the legal services available which might help me in taking care of that ticket.

I found that for a fee of $200, I could retain a lawyer to represent me, even to go so far as to say that he would make sure I don't have a moving violation. Of course, the old hat I am, I was adding up a fine for a non-moving violation with the lawyer fee, and realizing that financially, it wasn't going to make sense unless the speeding ticket was $200 or more. I was pretty sure that the non-moving violation fine would be around $100, and I knew that $300 was more than any penalty I'd see immediately from an insurance standpoint. I also recognize that I'm not the type like I used to be, and that I could probably expect to go another couple or three years without getting pulled over, and I, in my way, considered these things, along with the recognition of my pride for having a nice and clean driving record for the past 35 months. (The 35 months previous to those I had 4 or 5 citations.).

Anyway, before I could retain the lawyer, I realized that I needed to call and get the exact ticket cost in order to finally weigh the pros and cons. Bonnie and I joked about it being $150 because I told her if the ticket were only $100 I would just pay it, and if it were $200 I would just pay the lawyer. So of course, when I called the Henderson Mayor's Court, they explained that the fine was, indeed, $150. But then, of all things, when I inquired more about the non-moving violation, the clerk explained that if I paid before the due-date, they make sure it does not go on my record. Now, it sounds a little fishy, so of course I googled it. It looks like there might be a simple online course ($40) I might have to take--and I'll call and get all the details, but I am pretty stoked that I will pay less than $200 total, and still keep the dang infraction from my record.

Other good things happened today. But unless I get off of here and get on the Wii and check out my body test for the day, I'm not going to be able to put a virtual stamp on the virtual calendar to mark my virtual progress.

Thanks for reading.

our last February weekend in 2011

2011-02-27T20:53:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. The sermon used Groundhog Day the movie as a broad illustration of living each of our days the best way we can.

Fr. Rob Price - 2/27/2011 from Dunstanite on Vimeo.

Lots of Wii tennis in the afternoon.

We also cleaned half of the toys into a new "toy chest" we have in the living room. It isn't really a toy chest, but it is a chest, and it has toys in it. Our idea is that we can store them there and every week or month or whatever, trade toys in and out of it. In this way we can keep fewer toys in circulation, and, hopefully, fewer toys scattered around on the floor.

I think I want to do this with the books too. It's a nice surprise to unpack some old favorites, and then you want to read them. When they sit on the shelf the whole while, even good old favorites get overlooked.

Bonnie's baking more cookies. She is getting a ball out of Peas and Thank you. Orry likes to sing and dance. Isaac likes to work on the computer but he struggles some with the way the mouse works. Annie does her best to stay involved and get the kind of attention only 1 yr olds get.

From yesterday:

This morning I went to a McDonalds for free wifi, only to find that the place had a padlock on their only power outlet. It would have been fine if my laptop were fully charged, but I had only about a half hour left. Of course, I found this out after I purchased a fruit smoothie to justify my sitting in the restaurant for a couple hours.

Why was I planning on sitting at McD’s for two hours? Well, this is vehicle sharing for you. This morning was a fun event at the Houston Zoo that we didn’t want to miss. Unfortunately it is also a day for my teacher training (part of going through a Texas Alternative Teacher Certification process). So we packed up the kids before dawn and drove to my destination and dumped me out so the rest of the brood could go enjoy zoo membership benefits.

Wifi isn’t working at the actual location of my teacher training, so I hoofed it to the golden arches down the road where I was confident I could spend the morning completing some tasks and stumbling upon who knows what Internet treasures.

As it was, I was able to grade a bunch of papers and get some stuff done. It’s unfortunate I can’t be plugged in during this teacher training session, but it’s not at all the end of the world. Goodness, they showed a short segment on “why we teach” that even had my steel heart leaking out emotion as I was choking back the tears.

Our Wii involvement has declined somewhat after the first-week-frenzy. I think Bonnie and I both got a little sore from our vigorous routines. Orry and I have been teaming up on our computer opponents in the game of tennis, teaching them a lesson. I have observed a heightened sense of centered balance, the attainment of which is commendable, I’d say.

a list, and forgiveness

2011-02-20T21:09:00.000-08:00

How are your jigsaw skills? How are your competitive skills? Here is for an online jigsaw puzzle challenge for you.

On my list of things to do is to make a list of things to do. Exciting things to get you coming back here. I suppose my Wii fitness updates won't be as exciting for you all as they are for me.
And if you're curious about our IBD experiences, or about how our letter writing is going, you know right where to go. I like what I've seen some of you do with your blogs and "challenges", which make us all want to stay tuned and check out the updates. I want to do something like that. I tried to get Bonnie to post her "30-day Bean Challenge" on here, because I'm sure that would really be a gas. But there's got to be other clever ideas to keep you reading. Okay, true to form, I now have a list. I don't think it will exactly get the trumpets blaring, but now I am thinking that in addition to the usual randomness, you may also get a smattering of....

Intriguing Translations and Idioms (um...)
Neato Websites (let me stumble upon that for you)
Sermons Worth Repeating
Knowledge Worth Knowing (what's that, crickets?)

Okay, so you see, I need to work on my list. It's not the most sensational. Yet.

Today's sermon at church, though, was strangely moving to me. And odd, because really we got a play by play of the opera--yes, opera--of Dead Man Walking. You might wonder what kind of church we are going to, so let me tell you Episcopalian now and we'll get that out of the way. In fact, I just learned that you can not only listen to but watch this very sermon, which has about 75 seconds of commentary other than the literary relating.

Fr. Bob Wells - Sermon 2-20 from Dunstanite on Vimeo.

I want to tell you, that with these sermon-of-the-mount-sermons of the current lectionary, I can't go a week without thinking of forgiveness in my own life. And I never saw myself as being one with forgiveness issues. But this last decade has been a doozie, and I find myself on the fence with my personal fulfillment/development on account of my ability or inability to forgive. In spite of myself.

Upon further inspection I wonder if it's not exactly forgiveness I long for, but resolution. Like, I am forgiving/ have forgiven, but there is still a tension because the matter is unresolved. No confrontation has occurred. I just don't know.

And since you're still reading, I'll go ahead and continue so as to possibly appease your curiosity and illustrate my pains. The part of my heart that doesn't feel right is about my father's siblings and what happened in that part of my family. In the spirit of my good old grandma, I think I can accept even the worst of humanity in my loved ones (And mind you, even though sometimes I feel like it, nobody's actions or intentions here get so close as to be near the worst of humanity.), can embrace even their shortcomings or trespasses as they trespass against me, or against my good old grandparents, or father, which interestingly is more the case here I think. Like I said, all is either forgiven, or something close to it. But I think the tension remaining, which becomes apparent whenever I hear a sermon about forgiveness, has to do with never taking a chance to reconcile or at least resolve something with said loved ones. And honestly, I just don't know when or how that's going to happen. Which makes me wonder what's really going on there with my forgiveness, fear, love, or what. To be examined....

And, now, that's about enough currenttroydanielbecker for you today, wouldn't you say?

a new pastime

2011-02-17T22:38:00.000-08:00

We got a Nintendo Wii. I was just watching "Bonnie" get hit in the head with soccer cleats, ha ha. Earlier "we" were speeding down mountain slopes, and pedaling our bikes. Orry and I "went for a run" earlier. Am I worried a little that this is replacing good old fashioned real activity? Yes. Now she just fell from an urban tightrope. But there is no question our activity level is increasing, so I'll just take that for now, and later we'll be able to arrange our lives better for real recreation.

It was a busy week for me. We administered a midterm on Tuesday which took a lot of time in preparation and follow-up. Last Saturday I spent much of the day in teacher training courses, so it has seemed like a long stretch. Hopefully next week I can relax more to make up for it. I keep getting more and more duties at the school where I work. Which is great--I hope the pay adjusts to make up for it sooner rather than later!

As for idle time nowadays, I do read up quite a bit about Inflammatory Bowel Disease and people's experiences. Today I was thinking about trying to assemble a mass study/survey in order to try and sift patterns out of thousands of Crohn's and colitis patients. Nowadays with information technology, it seems feasible that a layman could do something like this with the help of the Internet and forms. Yet it seems like a broad comprehensive study done carefully could help make great progress in untangling the mysteries of IBD. (All of you faithful readers already know about our IBDinourhome blog.).

Bonnie's got the place looking pretty good. We still have some boxes to unpack, and some stuff out in the way, but it's feeling really homey. Our family room, where most of our time is spent, connects to our dining area and has a window into the kitchen. It is a nice space, with 12 foot ceilings and now new venetian blinds on big windows along one whole wall. But the best part of it is when it's filled with five giggling Beckers, enjoying our life together.

If you want to see a bunch of aerial photography, just visit here and scroll down, looking for photos you like the best, or juxtapositions you appreciate.

a new garden

2011-02-15T13:48:00.000-08:00

A new garden has begun on Teaside Drive. That's because we transplanted some cilantro and strawberries and basil into some little cardboard boxes. Always moving around makes it harder to get around to planting. But I say let's move our plants with us if it comes to that. Or leave them for the next guy, why not?

So are you a morning person? A night person? It turns out I am a morningdaynight person.

I hope you've packed as much fun as I have or more into the first 46 days of this prime year. It turns out that my blog readership is inversely proportional to my math topics. So how about a sweet update about the wife and kiddos?

Well, Bonnie, as most of you know, is nearing the end of her twenties. Of course she still looks every bit as young and fresh as the day we remet. I think the hardest part for her about getting older is that my hair just isn't what it used to be. Or maybe I am getting her confused with me, because I do that sometimes. Bonnie has been sewing cute state pillows and other things. She threw a great valentines/birthday hoedown. It wasn't really a hoedown, but it was like a hoedown for 3 under 5 and their parents.

The kiddos are growing and developing as if they missed the memo that this is the second year in the second decade of the third millennium CE and that time was slated for slowing down. we are doing our best to savor our experiences and drag back the reins of time with appreciation. Orry is reading more and doing more math. Isaac understands cardinality finally and is talking up a storm. His speech takes some deciphering but mostly now because some of his consonants are replaced /t/ and /sh/. But he's consistent, and once you know the code you can decipher everything. It helps when Orry's around because he's so quick picking up the context. Annie is demonstrating a lot of signs and language know-how. She's doing her best to keep up with the boys. She really likes the soothing effects of holding a blanket. She'll give kisses goodbye and goodnight, and she says thank you and please too. And shoes and socks.

It's my hope that the kids will really dig the new garden.

the day before

2011-02-13T08:52:00.000-08:00

The day before Valentine's-Day-the-wife's-birthday, also known as Ryan Unger's birthday is usually the last day of hope in this household. The day where Bonnie might still think that maybe there's some slim chance she's going to get surprised with something special or have a decent birthday.

But this year we changed it up. I knew that it might not fare well for me if I totally slacked off yet again, so this year I secreted away a couple rolls of streamers and pink balloons and waited for Bonnie to go buy herself some birthday/valentine's gifts. Then I rallied up the troops and decked out the living room.

Then, as Orry puts it, we hid and when Daddy said "okay" we jumped out and said "Surprise!" and threw balloons in the air.

We gave Bonnie the cards we made. The idea was to give a surprise early birthday/valentine's party, but I could see the look in her eye, which means, "Man, now, not only do I have to make my own birthday meals, buy my own gifts, and plan my own day, but I need to clean all this up as well."

Today some of the streamers started coming down, but I got the duct tape out so I think we'll be okay through tomorrow.

For now, it's off to church with us!

Oh, and for your extra reading pleasure, check out our letter writing blog, notjustthebills.

the white field, solid red circle post

2011-02-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

Congratulations America. We might get another world champion chess player in Hikaru Nakamura. Sure, Hikaru, you were born in the land of the rising sun (only 23 years ago), but thanks for pushing those pawns for the stars and stripes.

I wrote up some math notions about cousin primes and double cousin primes and got a nice email back today about prime gaps of 2^n. Nothing about troy-troy-semiprimes, but I wouldn't be surprised that somebody has listed the troy-troy-semiprimes but with some other inferior name.

Wait! No more math this post, I promise.

I went to a CCFA support group today. If you want to read up about Isaac's colitis, visit our other blog IBD in our home. I haven't written it there yet, but you know, Isaac's chronic disease is teaching me about life. When I come home from work he pops up and yells Surprise! from behind a piece of furniture (after having watched his brother do the same for the past 6 months). Then he wants to spin in the air like an airplane. And come on, who doesn't?! He is just full of life and love and such a delight.

The other news of late is the buzz on ancestry.com about some Becker photos that surfaced and so my dad and I have been reminiscing and remembering old memories that weren't really ours in the first place. That has had me thinking a lot about the old Becker farm, barn, and so on.

And then, of course, lots of work, work, work at the school. As soon as I get halfway done with what I need to get done, I get new tasks that double my workload. Oops. Well, you don't need to figure the proportions--I just mean to say that I'm always a little too busy. And in such a great month, one likes to be comfrotably busy, but able to enjoy lots of extra time with his beautiful wife and delightful offspring.

We had some guests yesterday who are bringing Japanese into our house. Breathing the spirit of kokoro where our family members have forgotten it. The couple, students at the language school, have fascinating lives which I should tell you about another time, when you have more time.

Feb 4

2011-02-04T06:06:00.000-08:00

Well, happy birthday to me!

Actually, I sure hit the jackpot when Bonnie agreed to marry me. What a gal. What a lovely little family we make, and what a life.

Our school was canceled today so it really is a nice birthday surprise to spend it with Bon and the tots. What will we do? I think an obstacle course is in order. And spinning. Lots of spinning.

I'm up good and early, spending my hours looking at IBD and colitis stuff for Isaac's IBD blog. It is uplifting to think that even though we're talking about chronic conditions, Isaac seems to be doing so well now and that even though he is "unlucky" in some sense, he is very "lucky" in another. There's your quota of quotes for the day.

Why was our school cancelled? The massive winter storm that has covered most of our western hemisphere in white also put down some freezing rain and left Houstonians feeling all apocalyptic. But before you comment on climate change, I did read that in 1895, Houston got 20 inches of snow in February. What?! Bring it.

And speaking of, my wife has brought a delicious breakfast to the table. So on with my wonderful day....

February!

2011-02-01T23:25:00.000-08:00

And you know what that means. Yours Truly sleeps under a star arrangement moreorless the same as the arrangement in which he squeezed out to breathe his first precious breaths. Cancer, Sirius trailing Orion, Pegasus. Cygnus rising.

February, brrr! The last few days the house was fine with no extra heat source. Now I'm wrapped in a blanket and my nose is cold. Because February has bite. Sure, it might pussyfoot around toward the end of the month. But when February comes, you best be ready for a cold snap. Especially you, Midwest.

The cold, as you know, is a nice set up for the most romantic day of the year, my wife's birthday. Over the years, I've slyly conditioned Bonnie to have low expectations on that sweet sweet day, so maybe this year I will surprise her and do one little thing like offer to do the dishes or change one of the pee diapers on that day. Or maybe I'll bring her home some fresh ingredients so she can make some of her delicious homemade ginger cookies in the shapes of little hearts. Then in the evening I will get her a blanket so she can wrap up in it while I write some weblog entries. (Don't tell her but I'm thinking about getting her a nosemitten.).

There is, of course, the Super Bowl. They changed it to February because, let's face it, February is when athletes and mothers do their best work.

Another unsung hero of the days of month two is Presidents Day. In a month exactly four weeks long, why not make the work load even less! This means that salary is sweeter in February. Not to mention it makes another three day weekend so I can do something else special for Bonnie. Oh, snap! I just checked my schedule and it looks like my school doesn't observe that federal holiday. So goodbye, sweet salary. Goodbye, something special.

Still, February, it's better to have a birthmonth of low expectations and a little disappointment, than to not have a birthmonth at all. So thank you for existing.

Today is groundhog day. This means that depending on your desires for Winter or Spring, this could be a day of joy or of less joy. In Houston, with the temperature having dropped 50 degrees in the past day, I doubt any groundhogs are going to be putting their noses anywhere except snuggled up in their mate's fur. And that is sounding good to me as the night draws on, except that with Bonnie, it is called hair, and I'm going to go snuggle my nose in it.

my school

2011-01-18T15:30:00.000-08:00

Today was a pretty big day. It was the first day of classes at our new school. The Language school where I've been working since June has also moved to this new campus building we have in north Houston.

I didn't get a chance to relax until about 3:37, but that's okay. Let me tell you what. Last night around sunset, I was able to stand in front of a big circular window on the side of our building that faces West. It was good to see the sunset sky from three stories up (we're the only tall building around. On what we should call the front of the building, the beltway zips by, almost always pretty full of racing cars. At dusk they are ribbons of red and white, bustling on the way cars do. At three stories up looking down, it is silent, and relaxing to see the cars zipping by while I was surveying "my domain". My classroom/office is on the third floor, and faces the back (So I don't ever really need to look at the beltway if I don't want to.). It is a large room with about 47 desks. I smooshed most of them together in the back and have about 13 desks out in front that I will use. It's quiet up there. I can go right out into the stairwell and stand in front of the large circular window and check out the world. When it's dark outside it would be easy to see me if you're in one of those cars zipping by on the beltway.

My class is room 309. It's not prime, like, say, 2011. But the keener of you may notice that it is semiprime. In just a few weeks, I, too, will be semiprime. By then, the hubbub of the term's beginning should be replaced with the general business of everyday teaching and learning. We'll see.

Happy Birthday Annie!

2011-01-13T17:27:00.000-08:00

You've made it this far, little one. That's one year of breathing air down, and according to the actuarial life tables, you can expect 79 more, more or less, barring the unmentionable. Have a good life. We'll do our best to get you off to a good start.

Readers, you might ask what else is current in our life? Let's skip the rest of October, a wonderful visit from relatives in November and December, a fun road trip to a delightful Christmas vacation in New Mexico, moving to a house across town, and also quite a few trips back to Louisiana. I'm busy each day gearing up at the new campus of North American College where I teach at the language school and have been "enjoying" the many hats of promotion. Meanwhile, Bonnie has been working at the house unpacking boxes and minding the tots. Tonight she made jambalaya and mashed potatoes which we're about to eat. Afterwards we'll have a homemade birthday carrot cake.

The kids keep developing as you might expect. Life is good. Our bedroom doesn't have a light controlled by a switch near the door, and that's about my biggest complaint.

Spots on Winnie

2010-10-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

We attended a great wedding on Saturday. So even though LSU lost, it was a good positive evening. But maybe the best part of the weekend was that I finally painted the spots on Winnie, our van, where she was losing her paint. It was something I've wanted to do for the past year or more.

Some Fords are notorious for their paint peeling off, and our van was victim to this automotive malady. The spots I painted back on hardly look better than the gray spots that were there, because the color and sheen doesn't match exactly. But at least I got the rust off of the roof and sealed up all the metal to protect it more. Plus, as Papa Jeffrey says, "You can't tell a difference driving 65 down the interstate."

what to do, and the tots

2010-10-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

My blood is O negative, by the way.

This weekend we'll be heading back to Louisiana for a wedding.

I am happy working with the school system I'm working with now, but I am also interested in getting my teaching certification, so I am working with an alternative certification program to do just that. Long-term, I'm thinking to teach for a couple years, work on a principal certification, and perhaps an EdD. I would like to stay involved with the school system which got me to Houston, a new school which just opened up to its first students as a college this last month, and will continue on to become a university in the next few years once we have graduates. The language school I teach for is a part of that system. Some of the students I teach now will go to that college to get their bachelor degrees. The school is proud to offer teaching only from instructors with doctorate degrees, so maybe down the road I can be involved with that. Or perhaps I'll be involved with the administration. We'll see.

The thing is, my love for Houston leaves something to be desired. Instead, I say, why don't we live somewhere with mountains and four seasons? Or somewhere not designed around cars. We'll see.

I didn't mention The Kiterunner yet, did I. The words I want to use are affecting or impactful. But for words which describe how something affects you, both of these words just don't do it. I keep thinking about the characters and emotions from this story, even though it's been weeks since I read it. While it's a tremendous story, I actually hesitate to recommend it on account of the depth of universal human emotion it roused, even from my stainless steel heart.

Let me tell you about the tots. Orry started drawing faces, people, and various things lately. He has a little magnadoodle style drawing board, on which he darws these things. The thing he draws most, I must admit, is a union jack or any of several variations. This comes not from the inspiration of the flag, but from the simple symmetry of the four lines in a rectangle. He is big on symmetry.

Isaac is talking more. Still his speech is quite incomprehensible, if it weren't for his antics which help even strangers understand his half syllabic words. "Dinosaur" sounds like "door", "Come on!" sounds like "Khan" and so on. He talks a lot, for being quite unintelligible. And now he seems to be less kranky than he was a few weeks ago. Next week he will undergo some anasthesia and a scope, and if you're more curious about him you can read up on our blog IBD In Our Home.

Annie started babbling in a new gurgly way yesterday, exploring the sounds she can make. She is our little laugher, and she also crawls around to wherever she can get the most attention. She started standing up next to furniture or things. And she's eating whatever food she can get.

Our family is interacting pretty well. We like to spend time at the park near our house and at the museums of natural science. We would like more play time outside now that the weather is agreeable. Food has become a bigger deal lately, as Isaac has a special diet, and of course, so does Annie.

Cheers. Thank you for staying current.

O Positive

2010-10-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Let's focus on the positive.

Poison Ivy--or Poison Sumac, to be more precise--, I concede that your species is in some ways superior to mine. Our last head to head was not pleasant for me, and I'm wondering if we can bury the hatchet and call a truce? I have determined that with a light exposure such I experienced with you last, my body will react for just over two weeks. It won't be bad for a couple days, and then there will be a few days where I hope that I'm not really that infected. Then there is the acceptance period, where I realize I am affected, but remain hopeful that it's not going to be intolerable. Near the end I get ready to go to the doctor thinking that I better get some steroids before it gets out of control. But then it thankfully subsides before I go and my lesions fade into the usual pale pinkish color of the rest of my skin. I am glad to be done with that itch.

Our van has a new transmission with a year warranty. We have been driving it around this past week. It was really nice to get it back, even though we really don't want to be the family that needs a car. Especially with the doctor appointments and all, lately, having our private wheels helps alleviate some stress! We're glad to have the car back.

Anyway, there's more good stuff, but no need to overdo it.

Happy October!

cosmic truths and inaction

2010-09-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

My lingering cough must have weakened my immunity, and now I have a painful infection with a debilitating fever. Interestingly, in the wee hours of the a.m. after uncomfortably writhing all night, I found, in my delirium, some original cosmic truths. It has happened to me before, and now I wonder about the prevalence of such "revelations". It's not all that. The experience can probably be likened to drug induced revelations of the colorness of colors or the connectedness of the universe, etc. Two years ago, in a sickness induced delirium, I had a fantastic idea that resolved some problems I had been thinking about in astrophysics. This time, again, linked to the metaphysics of the universe, I developed an analogy which, again, offers an insight that resolves a lot of disconnectedness between the origins of the universe, God, science, the human mind, and so on. Now I hope to write it all down, but, like remembering a dream, it will be a difficult task of crystallizing some pretty vague and lofty ideas. So I won't do that now, but if I ever do write a book, maybe I can include these ideas therein.

Also lingering in the spirits of my now 11905 day year old self, is the tension in my life between deliberation and action. Or potential and realization. It seems like a easy line to cross. If you want to write a book, just do it. If you want to start a business, just do it. But the factors of life and probably other character flaw obstacles continue to stack up as excuses for not doing some of the things I want to do.

What we did last week was pretty fun. We went to the beach, this time as a morning sandcastle excursion. We also checked out some free places in Houston. The "action" of having a family is a delightful undertaking that easily consoles me from the inaction mentioned above.

Peace.

Happy September

2010-09-01T11:37:00.000-07:00

The penguins of Madagascar just mentioned that the sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side. Interested, I googled it, and found that the scarecrow in the movie The Wizard of Oz delivered the line lo so many years ago. Sine then it's been used on the Simpsons, and now the Penguins as well. Of course, the only relationship between the twin legs of an isosceles triangle and the third leg is that the twins are each more than half as long as the third leg. In fact, the line is almost brilliantly wrong in each possible way (but there are, indeed, three sides of a triangle.).

I have had a nasty cough for a while. Otherwise, I feel okay, but when I have a coughing fit it's horrible. Earlier I was sicker, but now it's just the lingering cough.

We have explored around Houston some more. We went to the beach this weekend, but it was more like a driving tour than a beach excursion. We rode the ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry, our car battery discharged enough that we couldn't restart our van. Thankfully, a guy in a jeep nearby saved the day with some jumper cables. It all was resolved in such a quick manner that we did not slow down the line of embarking vehicles. But it wasn't completely resolved, of course, because as soon as we embarked, we had to turn off our vehicles' ignitions. And our Jeep friend was parked on a different part of the boat, too. I crossed my fingers and hoped that the van would start just fine. We watched dolphins and seagulls and waves, and at the end tried without success to restart the van. I quickly tried to get an attendant to see if they had a solution, but the attendants were all busy getting ready to unload the ferry. On the way back to our van I asked the guy in front of me (in a small car--I was sure the chance was slim) if he had jumper cables. When he said yes and jumped out of his car, I realized they'd have to be pretty long to be able to help out right away, since our cars were all arranged like a traffic jam. But, would you believe it, he was a mechanic, and his jumper cables were attached to a 12 volt jumpstarter, and it was all resolved in such a quick manner that we did not slow down the line of disembarking vehicles.

When we got to a convenience store, I poured some cola on the terminals to get rid of a bunch of corrosion that was helping to discharge our battery. Since then, we've been okay.

Life is good, but Annie just chewed off part of the cover of Bonnie's library book while I was typing up that story. So now I'll go and pay more attention to the young 'uns.

well ballyhoo, we're in texas

2010-06-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Orry, you were born almost exactly four years ago this minute.

We are moved into an apartment into Houston, where we feel like we're a little on the wrong side of town. But on the plus side (and this is why we live there), we live about a three or four minute drive to work. It's about a mile and a half, but what's funny is that it's really just across a road. But it's a big road, beltway eight. And actually, I haven't ever been on it, because it is a tollway, and it has service roads that go around it, which serve the purpose we need of crossing it.

I actually like Texas, so far. Maybe I was hasty to reproach the lone star state. Some examples for my second thoughts: service is considerably better, drivers are considerably better, people are considerably nicer. Some more good points about where we live are that the area is a sort of convergence of a few different international cultures. My job, by the way, for the time being, is a lot like teaching English in another land. All my students are Turkish or from somewhere similar (like Azerbeijan or Uzbekistan). Many of them are fresh from overseas. I like it.

We eat breakfast at the school each morning. And after the schoolday we also usually eat dinner. There are a lot of olives and cheese.

Annie rolls, Isaac babbles, Orry is four, yes, four years old. Sheesh, time flies.

a May 30 quickie

2010-05-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

My number two boy turned two yesterday, which means a few things. The precise day is passed when he is the age Orry was when he was born, although in two weeks they'll celebrate being half, or twice, the other's age for a year. The other milestone is that from this day forward, for now, Isaac will have spent most of his life in the USA again. He has really started babbling less incoherently, and has been seen jumping, singing, praying, and playing games which satisfy and delight us.

Annie is also developing well. On Thursday we'll move to Houston, and she will cross her first state line.

The Theobalds are coming over later today, and we'll have some fun. And we can show off our "finished" home. No, it's not turnkey perfect. But it is ready to rent out for the next year, and we signed a lease (hooray!) so it'll do for now!

For inappropriate quote use, see here. We have a dentistry pamphlet to submit. Seriously, after all that school, you send out a mailing that includes so many unnecessary quotes?! Seriously?!

a near mid-May report, 2010

2010-05-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

It is nice Tawna has been working on genealogy lately, but I've been missing her blog action.

I've been working moderately over the past month or so to learn Spanish.

These are times of change.

Every single person in my immediate family working outside the home has changed jobs in the past year or will change in the next few months. This pattern extends also to many outside my immediate family, of course. Bonnie's family, by the way, is a little more solidly employed, it turns out.

I got a book from the library set in Idaho, since it will have to do for not going to Idaho this summer, by the looks of things. A Country Called Home.

I am another half day older.

Bonnie got another cookie book. We are about to sample some lemon lime cookies that would make even the sourest of frowns turn upside down, I bet. And that's going by the smell, and a few licks of frosting and dough.

We saved another turtle today. They want to cross the road, but the road is wide and their pace is slow. Who knows, maybe it would have made it on its own. Bonnie doubts it. We brought the refugee to the Bluebonnet swamp area, and then we got some turtle books from the library.

We've been going through our books and belongings and making donation trips.

magic beanstalk

2010-05-12T23:57:00.000-07:00

The magic beanstalk at our place is made of bamboo. It grows a few feet each day, or did at least, the last we could see of the top. Actually, there are a few stalks, racing to become poles to blog about. Giant bamboo. Admire it.

I am trying my darnedest to complete a list of items in time for us to move to Houston soon. We don't know how temporary or lasting this move will be.

LSU vs BSU...

2010-04-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

I pour myself some tootie fruities. I eat the green and red ones first. Then the fruities that remain are purple and yellow, blue and orange. When I eat some LSU colors I try to eat some BSU colors to balance it out. When I eat some BSU colors I likewise try to eat some LSU colors. The same goes for reds and greens, if I perchance eat some school colors. I try to keep the game balanced. At the end, when I can easily count the remaining fruities for each team, a winner is declared. So far I think Boise State is a few games up.

I sometimes think about such a game. Although I don't get to catch Boise State play very often, and I usually do watch LSU, I'd know so much more about LSU. But of course in my heart I'd want the mountain team to blast by the southern big boys. Either way, I guess it's a win-win. And that's how my day starts on select mornings.

I ate some cookies again. After a couple months of abstinence, I had some thin mint girl scout cookies. They're okay, but not that good, really, I mean come on--it's a cheap crusty mint flavored cookie in a little chocolate. Bonnie makes a mint chocolate chip cookie with Andes chips and real mint, and it's much better. And then, after the thin mints, Bonnie finally cracked under pressure and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies (not mint flavored). I ate three last night after a bunch of cookie dough--enough to feel like I didn't need even three cookies. Then, today, I had way too many little frozen cookie dough balls. Jeesh.

Bonnie was talking about gradually using less and less sugar in her tea, with the aim of cutting it out altogether eventually. But something tells me it probably wouldn't work with cookies, slowly cutting out the butter and sugar. I mean, what would be left? Yum, chocolate chips in egg flour!

Old Spice's advertising campaign has paid off for them. I bought an Old Spice product today, and do you know why? To smell like a man, man.

We sat down to watch Avatar last night but it was a German version with no subtitles. I fell asleep waiting to hear about the miners. Tonight, Project Runway goodness. And no hope for the coal industry.

I got enthused, and then a little doleful today. First, about Emanuel Sachs and silica PV cells. Then dolorous about the disqualification of my life achievements to get me on board with a company like his, doing something along the lines of what he is doing. I want to go work with him for free, you know. And then get PV rooftops on all the houses in the southwest, for example.

In the end, I got to feeling good again. I put a For Rent sign in the ground, put up some sheetrock, taped up some joints. I didn't listen to the Spring Fund Drive of my local NPR station. What gets me is how much of the pledge drive I listen to. Today, I listened to my own thoughts.

After working, I got to spend a good amount of afternoon with the family. That's a treat. We got ready for a picnic and soccer get-together tomorrow.

These days Venus and Mercury show their stuff in the dusky western sky.

flowers in baton rouge on easter 2010

2010-04-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

Now that I am the age Jesus was when

2010-04-01T21:23:00.000-07:00

Now that I am the age Jesus was when he expired, I just don't seem to have the energy I used to. Or do I? I used to be able to stay up all night painting the house. But, I must remember. These days I wake up before dawn and do physical labor most of the day. I guess my energy level is fine.

Today I am most excited about an opportunity I don't really have. But my fellow homelanders in Idaho have it. It is the opportunity to see an asteroid eclipse a naked-eye star early Tuesday morning (between 4:30 and 5am). Actually, millions of people from Los Angeles up into Canada have the chance to see it. But come on, how many of these chances do Magic Valleyers have? Actually, that's a good question, so I'll see if I can get a good figure.

It looks like these asteroid occultations are quite frequent, but notable ones are far less common. For example, I will get a chance to see one in a few days, here in Louisiana, but it will take a telescope, and the star's brightness and the brightness of the asteroid are close in comparison. In the case of Anastasia (the asteroid's name) crossing between you Idahoans and the particular naked-eye star, the star will plumb blink out for a few (up to 8) seconds. The asteroid passing in front of Baton Rouge and a star in a few days is named Bobhope.

Getting recorded observations from many people is a good help to scientists. If you are interested you can trudge through here, or read this forecast for the particular event across the western US.

I was excited yesterday about flying squirrels. I spent some time here at howpeg when I should have been preparing the house to be painted. It's inspiring to see someone make amateur nature videos with regular household equipment. And also that so many other people get inspired by it and do it. Recording a bunch of random sightings from people all over north america just wouldn't have been logistically feasible when I was growing up, before the internet circuitry came about.

That is enough excitement for one blog. If it weren't for sherbet. Here are 10 reasons why "rainbow" sherbet is better than neapolitan ice cream:

1. it is easier to spell, but actually "rainbow" is a silly name. There are 3/7 colors represented, only one of them primary. A better name would be "citrus trio" sherbet. Because
2. lemon
3. lime
4. orange are great citrus flavors. I'd be keen to see a grapefruit mixed in there. Speaking of mixing,
5. the sherbet is mixed in a swirly random chaos, much more fun than the sometimes off balanced and plain three strata of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry.
6. plant based, not animal based
7. no lipids
8. it cools you down after a day of work
9. it hearkens you back to your childhood days, and
10. it comes from the middle east, like Jesus.

when siblings marry....

2010-03-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Let's say your dad's sibling marries your mom's sibling. Any children from this union share grandparents with you, so they are your cousins. But they share all four grandparents, not unlike your own siblings, so they are closer to you than mere cousins. Cousins such as these, are double cousins, or more precisely, double first cousins. My own great grandfather Carson married a Goodson, whose brother married a Carson--my great grandfather's sister. As a consequences, double cousins run down the line. My papa Carson had double cousins. Their offspring are double second cousins with each other. And so on. Statistically, your double cousins are at least the DNA-equivalent of half-siblings. But depending on which genes are shared, they get closer than that. Imagine identical twins marrying identical twins. I found out on wikipedia that this is called a quaternary union, the second generation of which are indistinguishable from full siblings, DNA-wise.

The Carsons and Goodsons came from North Carolina. I wonder why and how they ended up in Idaho.

I found out that my paternal grandfather was not as German as I thought. Only his dad's family was German, and his mom's family was Dutch and English, it would seem. I am four last names short of my 16 GGGrandparents: Becker, ______, Albright, Richardson, Douglass, Fairbanks, Brook, Parker, Carson, Hodges, Goodson, ________, Ignacio Candido, de Acis Neves, includes Texeira-_______, ________.

I am pretty much done with genealogy for now though. This is my work week, since Bonnie and the kiddos are in Houma for Spring Break. I would be working hard right now, but I had a night of food poisoning last night, so it was a slow morning. I am feeling sturdier now, though, so off I go.

I have been alive for....

2010-03-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

Annie is going through that stage where in no time at all she began: holding her head up, looking here and there, concentrating, smiling and laughing, cooing. And also she thickened up and her eye color darkened and she started pooping more all at once instead of two dozen times a day. She is a little angel baby most all of the time. Oh, also she began regularly skipping a feeding in the middle of the night, so Bonnie gets more sleep these days.

I am pretty sure about teaching English in Houston in May. That gives me just over a month to finish up some projects here and get lined up for Summer. I don't know exactly we will do, but there's an opportunity for me to teach at a language school in Houston for May and June and longer if we choose. We are tossing over a bunch of scenarios which include Houston, Idaho, Korea again, and elsewhere. Also in our life sketch ideas we are considering Japan.

Let me tell you a little about more ancestors of my children. The names in their closest Japanese heritage are Koike, Akiyama, Iida, and Shima. Bonnie's maternal grandparents were born on Oahu and Hawaii to Japanese immigrants. The immigrants came from Osaka and near Hiroshima. Oh wait, I don't know for sure now. It looks like I need to learn more. At one point, I heard that there was a family mushroom farm in Japan. I am curious. Bonnie's middle name, Nobu, is the name of her grandmother's mother, born in Japan as Nobu Shima. Nobu stands for trust. Shima means island. Becker means baker, or an egg-stand.

So a hundredish years ago, these Japanese folks were adventuring further out to the Pacific. Meanwhile, the Azoreans I mentioned in a recent post were loading up on a boat to cross the Atlantic. My German ancestors in Iowa were setting off to work on land in Idaho, being developed by pioneers using Chinese labor. My Mormon ancestors, on the run from Missouri, were about to settle on some land there. I don't know what my mom's paternal branch was doing; I will have to investigate the Carsons some time. Nor do I know about Bonnie's dad's branch, but something tells me they were all collected already in southern Louisiana.

All three of our little tots were born in the same hospital here in Baton Rouge. Isaac has still lived most of his life overseas, but Annie has never even crossed a state line. Orry, bless his heart, has lived in five homes in his 45 months of life.

Tonight, we had some tortellinis in some spinach and artichoke cream sauce. With veggies on the side. I keep saying, if it weren't for the cheese, cream, and other animal based foodstuffs we eat here and there, we'd be 100% vegan. As it is, we're 100% vegan only some of the time.

And speaking of time, it is time to end this discourse.

P.S. I have been alive for almost 386 months.

On Saturday...

2010-03-13T18:49:00.000-08:00

When your uncle is your father, you might find that some of your siblings are also your cousins. As it turns out, my great-great uncle is also my great-great grandfather, in this sense: My great-great grandmother Marian was married to two men, one at a time. They were brothers, and the first was tragically killed at a young age. The brother, Manuel, spawned my Granny and six of her sisters, who were couslings with two from the earlier uncle-father.

Tonight I am relishing in the memories from my granny's early childhood. The childhood was on a farm north of Shoshone, Idaho, where the Ineases came to homestead, all the way from the Azore Islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. These were the roaring twenties, and then the not-so-roaring thirties when Granny lived her first ten years. Oh, the good old days.

Granny had only two Becker boy grandkids, mostly because she is my maternal grandmother, so the Becker comes from a different family. I am one of those grandsons, and my brother Trent is the other. It doesn't look like we'll be siring each other's kids, since we're both married with spawn of our own, but you never really know what the future has in store for you.

Today, though, my brother and I found ourselves together with a chainsaw each, sawing trunkwood for dollars. It is the last chance we'll have to do that for a while, as Trent and family are trekking back across the USA towards Shoshone, Idaho. Well, they probably won't get as far as Shoshone, but it is a sort of homesteading trip of their own too. I have enjoyed the blessing of living near my broski for over one and a half years, and in that time we've had some good family times. Nicole has shared with Bonnie the ups and downs of Becker life, and we were all tickled to have an intimate part in Little Ila's first four plus months of life, which has brought in this not-so roaring decade. We all ate some Jamabalaya and some homemade apple turnovers, and for now we've bade adieu.

But now you might be wondering about our family future plans as well. They are up in the air. I have forecast another month to finish my most important Baton Rouge project with our Sparrow house. Then we'll have to see what happens after that. Trent was a great help getting done with that, and if money was no issue we would have finished sooner. Of course, if money was no issue I guess I probably wouldn't be working on such a project.

If money was no issue what would I be doing, you ask? Probably setting up an astronomer's delight bed and breakfast observer's ranch in the middle of a lot of land in the middle of nowhere Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, or West Texas. Or Idaho or Oregon or Montana or Colorado. Or I guess Canada or Mexico, or elsewhere, really, if money is no issue. I like the idea of raising our children elsewhere, especially where they may easily become bilingual.

Isaac is working on understanding our English language, and Orry is working out the code we use to read and write it. Annie is working on making sense of an upside-down world where some of the things look familiar and they make lots of coo noises and smiles, but really all that matters is something she'll come to know someday as comfort.

While I'm making up words like couslings, let me also say tha the Japanese Magnolias are wrapping up their lovely Pre-Spring show. I have come to call them Japagnolias. I know, it's only two syllables shorter, but the cadence helps it roll of the tongue smoother.

And, now, I'm another half-day older, not accounting for time-zone changes or that extra second that was sandwiched between 2008 and 2009.

Mmm, those were delicious apple turnovers.

Thank you for reading.

On, um, Monday...

2010-03-08T16:16:00.000-08:00

Well, more teasing, but I really was impressed with this Evan Premo, who is the artist I heard on the radio the other day. You can read a little here, and check out a intro sample here (but you have to look down the list and play the seventh selection). Evan Premo and his wife make up Duo Borealis. Great. Here you can watch Evan Premo participate in the Polar Bear Club. Also, at that link, if you click on "Listen To The Show" I think you can hear the song I have been talking about, "in Just-" (tune in at 37:00).

Let me not hesitate any longer to report the great impetus of this blog, however, which is that Isaac began counting today. No, not abstractly attributing cardinality to sets of things, but, as Orry started years ago, uttering the exciting and anticipatory 1-2-3 before getting thrown in the air, twirled around, dipped to the ground, &c. And let me also say that although little Gonzo's 1-2-3 was not as clear as a bell, it is his first expression of numbers. And you know how that makes a daddy proud.

On Sunday...

2010-03-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

How excited I was to bring together for you the current sunshiny Spring weather, ee cummings, a contrabassist and a soprano, and a little romance, all courtesy of one of my favorite radio programs From The Top. However, they don't seem to have the program online yet so I'll have to settle for cutting and pasting the poem and sharing it with you later.

Oh! But here I found a treasure trove of the song set to music! It doesn't have the particularly likable piece I referenced above, but it should satisfy for you the juxtaposition of sunshiny Just-Spring weather, ee cummings, and music at least. Oh, but it doesn't link you to the music--just teases you by telling you about it. Like I am doing, I guess.

The poem:

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee --

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

And now, paying a sort of vulgar tribute to cummings, here are some made-up words we use in our house, and you might have too, if you've had babies in your house or not.

snart: to simultaneously sneeze and fart
furp: to simultaneously burp and fart
cfart: to simultaneously, yes, you guessed it, cough and fart. if you say this one just right (that is, explosively enough) it is onomatopoeia.

And now, since you read this far, let me continue on and say on this beautiful day we are going to picnic after church, and hit up the Lousiana Art and Science Museum. The kiddos are still a little sniffly, so we'll probably bring them into church with us instead of letting them infect the other kids at the nursery.

This week some rain is due so I'm looking forward to finishing some inside projects.

Have a wonderful second week of March.

Month-end Report

2010-02-28T17:28:00.000-08:00

Before February ends, I ought to write again.

The state runs an arsenal museum at the park in the capitol area which is open until 4 on Saturday. However, we ran there after work yesterday, and although we got there by 3:30, the doors were closed. We made the most of it, climbing the old Indian mound and racing on the sidewalks and grassy knolls. Then we went to the capitol and gawked at the big statues, big ceilings and big art, and rode up the big elevator. Today we went to the old state capitol and played on the stairs and hillside. We also saw the Merci Train boxcar.

I've been watching Mars lately. I am hoping to go to the observatory with the boys one of these winter nights.

Annie is growing. She smiles and still grunts a lot. She looks around and controls her head when sitting upright.

Isaac is healing well from his collarbone fracture and his usual rambunctious self. His communication skills are improving but he is not racing to talk or to use the potty either.

Orry is racing to read and write and to distinguish between convertibles and other cars. He has also become quite the little runner.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and I are making backwards progress in our developmental skills. Talking like toddlers or cooing like infants, laughing absurdly at little things, and playing Monopoly City or trying to watch shows after our bedtime.

Many of you know I do tree work to make extra money, but not many of you probably know the dynamis of working on crews that remove or trim trees. This sort of work is great outside work, labor in the elements, enjoyment of a job that changes from day to day, but I realized all this can be soured by either of two things. a) working with a lousy crew, and b) getting a government contract. Regarding a), the crew that Trent and I have worked with has been hit and miss over the past months. Working with Trent is great when we get a chance, but mostly we work with other guys. Regarding b), the company we work with got a state contract in January, and it is fairly demoralizing for the day or two a week we work that job, where the objective seems to be to work as slowly and as inefficiently as possible. Well, last week I had a breath of fresh air as I worked with two new guys on a residential job. The two new guys, Mexicans, made up a good crew to work with, and it is so nice to work "hard and fast" again.

It smells like a wonderful dinner at our place, so it must be time to close this up and feast. thank you for reading!

I finally got the chance to...

2010-02-21T20:19:00.000-08:00

I finally got the chance to kick a door in. I locked myself out of the house just when it was time to go down to Houma to pick up the wife and kids. Because I had observed that the jamb had signs of compromise, I knew I could kick it in cleanly. There was no wasting time. Bam.

Well, we've gone mostly vegan in our household diet. We still eat quite a bit of meat, not to mention the occasional cheese and yogurt or other dairy products or eggs to consider ourselves vegan though, that's for sure. I was thinking today, though, while we were at our produce market, that we eat pretty healthily. I think it's apparent because we're at that place so often, getting lots of fresh veggies and fruits.

My latest hankering is to get childhood memories and stories from the kids' great-grandparents while they're still kicking. I am such a sloth though. I wrote up letters to send out to the three great-grandparents, but I sure haven't gotten them in the mail yet. One of the great-grandparents was born to parents from an island in the Pacific Ocean. One of the great-grandparents was born to parents from an island in the Atlantic Ocean. And one of the great-grandparents was born to parents from I don't know where, but maybe she was born on a houseboat. In the good old US of A, presumably.

In our experience, children's movies from the library just don't play very well in our laptops.

I hope you all have caught sight of Mars lately in the evening sky. There is a good line up of three bright heavenly bodies. Sirius, the star brightest in our night sky, Procyon, part of the Winter equilateral triangle and also of the little dash in the sky that is Canis Minor, and then Mars, a little lower in the evening than Castor and Pollux in Gemini.

Bonnie beat me again in Monopoly City. That makes two times she has singlehandedly taken down the champ.

I am giving up chess for Lent, and I am giving up cookies for Lent.

There is lightning out there tonight, causing peals of thunder to rumble in our ears.

tomorrow and the day after tomorrow

2010-02-11T22:04:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow is the day my paternal grandfather would have turned 91. Bonnie's maternal grandmother would have turned 88. Abraham Lincoln would be celebrating 201 years of life after birth, as would also Charles Darwin.

We started playing the new Monopoly City game. I have won two games, the most of any Baton Rouge Becker, so I am the Monopoly champion. I think I will cease playing chess for now, finally.

I added up numbers for my remaining expenses on projects, and I'm quite pleased with attainable light at the end of the tunnel. Lots of sheetrock work awaits. I'm not excited about that, but oh so thankful that Trent will help it go by with much better company than the company I have when I do things myself.

I experienced a new weather condition today. When the sleet started this morning, it really sounded like it was raining small ice crystals. Out in it, you couldn't even sense them falling, except for the quite conspicuous sound, like millions of tiny ice crunches. As the precipitation picked up, it was more like the sleet and freezing rain we all know. But at the beginning--strange.

I love spending time with my family. Read more about us all in Bonnie's blog, if you haven't already.

Valentine's Day is an extra special day in our family, because that is when Bonnie turns 26 each year. But if you ask her, she might tell you 22. I think she's into perpetual youth. Me? I'm into perpetual Bonnie. Anyway, I need to think of something romantic we can do, like maybe finding a romantic action movie to torrent, or maybe going to play darts or pool together. I know! I can arrange all the dirty diapers that need to be rinsed in a heart shape in our bathroom sink, so that when she goes to rinse them out, she will have a warm smile in her heart. Or, maybe I'll clean and wash the car and take her to the movies but then decide they cost too much these days and take her downtown instead and walk around the riverside and talk about days gone by and days ahead.

Annie

2010-01-17T18:34:00.000-08:00

We are getting used to a household of five. And to calling our little no-name girl by her name, or nickname, if you will, of Annie. Annie short for Anza.

Trent and I took our goats to the fair with a girl named Anza, lo those many years ago in our 4H days. I wondered what became of our goat-girl and thought of her some these past nine months when naming a little girl came to be a priority. But today I found out some clues courtesy of google, and now have a pending facebook contact which may reveal more about what one Anza thinks of another. Bonnie and I are just tickled about finding the perfect name.

Reading, Veganism, Gestation

2010-01-01T18:23:00.000-08:00

What a fine time I had with the family over the past couple weeks here in Baton Rouge.

I have a problem with writing things these days. I suppose the biggest report is that Orry is a little reader these days. He sounds out words like a champ, and likes to read and write a little each day. Also he types, picking out the letters and the sound. He typed these:

orry
hat
sad
hot
kld

As you can see, he is not the most advanced yet. Also, the other day, when we asked him to read "top" he read it from right to left. He'll do that, and he'll write a word backwards as in mirror, and sometimes, I think, even backwards with the letters oriented frontwards. Anyway, that's fine, because we're tickled he likes to do those sorts of things instead of drawing crayon on the newly painted walls.

As far as me, I am pretty convinced about veganism for optimum health. I'm not a non-meateater myself, but sure recognize a plant based diet as a treatment and cure for obesity and some cancers and other pathologies. I guess most of this comes from reading The China Study and its critiques. Actually, it all comes from that. I've always leaned towards vegatarianism owing to the killing of animals and the unnecessary energy going into feeding animals to feed us. On top of that, there is the "big industry" meat production and egg and dairy production and I've frowned at all that. But then, there is the appreciation of animal life and flesh and the smaller scale animal farming which I've got behind in my day. But reading The China Study and about the argument more has tipped me over the edge. Now, like I said, I'm not vegan myself, but I did convince Bonnie to change our menus more in that direction and we're having good fun with all that.

We discovered quinoa, for example.

We also cooked mirlitons, finally.

And now, I will go get Isaac out of the bath. He is fine, and so is Bonnie, although she is in quite an uncomfortable time of her gestation.

the impending solstice

2009-12-19T20:24:00.000-08:00

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worthwhile ramblings

2009-12-14T22:13:00.001-08:00

Worthwhile is cutting up your grapefruit in its own bowl rind, preparations laid for the eating experience, vesicles severed for the efficiency of feasting on the delectable fruit. And oh, reader, isn't it so with our life's undertakings? That what we do is worthwhile, when it takes time, when it lays preparations for the big event, when it makes the next thing all the easier?

We're working on this house, see, and it is coming together. The interior, is, perhaps, half done, depending on how much the remaining half drags out. It also depends on how much time I spend on making things like bed frames and stairwell rail gates, and so on, instead of doing only the necessary items. I know the "mud room" is going to take some attention. It will be our last room--an added 'office' or 'sun room' which "opens up our house to the wildlife preserve of the backyard". We will add a door to make it more functional as a porch and back entrance, and we have yet to see what we will do with the windows. I'm thinking we'll get some monsters from our local Restore and totally reframe that wall. We'll see. That is the part of the house that has suffered most from deferred maintenance and some storm/roof damage.

The living room, where I am sitting now, will also take some work. it seems like these walls have a quarter inch of texturing on them. It looks pretty bad, and sloppy, and I am not all about making it look absolutely gorgeous, but it needs some serious attention.

I am pleased that the parents are coming in in a week. Really, they are coming to see their new granddaughter. But since that only takes a few moments, I get to rope them into doing a lot of work. I'm looking forward to getting these living room walls painted.

I read this China Study book, and I am surprised to find myself mostly convinced that my animal-based diet days are mostly behind me. A number of factors have pointed me in this direction over the years, and I have the feeling that I'll get more serious about it. We'll see. But the main points for my personal choice are these:

Health. What's good for the bowel is good for the body.
Peace. No more death to animals on my behalf, or contributing to big business animal production.
Simplicity. It is cheap, which I like, to not buy meat or eat out, and it ties one to nature to eat like a tree elf.
And now, again, Health. It turns out that animal protein seems to be associated with the major diseases of affluence (heart disease, cancer, ...), so why do we consume so much of it?

This list wouldn't be complete if I left off that it is cool to eat whole foods, plant-based veganish, and so of course, that's really why I am doing it.

Unfortunately, I have a spouse to convince that it is cool to eat a whole foods, plant-based veganish diet, or I'm not going to have much luck with this new lifestyle. We'll see how that goes.

It turns out I've written much more than I expected. Bonnie, the spouse, is done with a curtain so now it's time to call it a day.

Thank you for reading.

tomorrow's "to do" list

2009-12-08T20:47:00.000-08:00

We are getting more and more excited about the impending arrival of family to these southern parts. The last few days it's been rain by the bucketfuls, and now we're looking forward to family members arriving by the twos or so.

Tomorrow on my list of things to do:

Paint baby room trim

Finish the bathroom.

sublist: shower fixtures, pedestal sink, towel hangers, hang cabinet, hang mirror, beginning to install light/fan is optional),

Help Bonnie load things around 10.

We will go to Cliff's house to work on his laundry/storage room and maybe other various things.

I will go get a paycheck between 9 and 3.

Finish the stairwell rail

sublist: glue remaining joints, bevel top edges, sand smooth, schedule staining and finishing

Install mini shelves

Check out a possible tree job at Evan's

Go work on remaining trusses or

Taizé service at 6:00

coat #2 on baby room trim, touch-ups

May your Advent season be pleasant in all the right ways.

Christmas Spirit and miscellaneous updates

2009-12-01T19:06:00.000-08:00

I admit: I wanted to get a Christmas tree today. Yessir, I feel the old Christmas spirit, sure enough. But I think we'll settle for some free pine cuttings. We did hang up some lights, and the boys' newly finished room is looking festive enough. We even set up the stereo to play Christmas music while the boys drift off to dreams of sugarplums and ginger cookies.

But this is not the northern Christmas of sleigh rides to Grandmother's house, or even coats and mittens. I need to mow the lawn.

I went fishing Friday, and enjoyed a good day with Jeffery catching a haul for dinner and more, with various fish biting all day long.

I have one week to read book of The China Study before it is due. I found it today--it had been lost for a while in our heap of displaced things, things being moved from room to room while we renovate the house we're living in.

President Obama eased my nerves today about sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Bonnie looks exactly like usual, except for the half globe protruding from her front like she's trying to sneak around a bowling ball under there.

We made Advent wreaths the other day. Ours turned out pretty well but it didn't last too long. I mean, it still exists, but Isaac took the first opportunity to drag it through the house by the candles. It lost a little splendor on that one.

We seriously need to get in gear with collecting our memories and making some photo albums of some sort. Well, there's a ton of stuff that needs doing, isn't there.

Probably the best story to report is of going to the urgent care clinic the day before Thanksgiving to get a tetanus booster and some stitches. I cut my wrist because I just couldn't take it any more. Just kidding, of course. I cut my wrist because I was using a bad nail-puller. It pulled through over the one finish nail head, and my wrist went onto the next finish nail head. the nail head punctured my skin, but the inertia of my wrist also meant that the nail head was to pull through about an inch of my skin before the wound delivery was over. Luckily, I avoided great injury, but it was in a bad place to heal on its own, and the three stitches have helped it heal nicely.

Health is a good thing. Thankfully Great Granny "New Knee" Carson is healing well. We look forward to seeing her in the Spring. As for the Idaho Becker family, I guess we'll see you in a few weeks!

a few of my favorite things

2009-11-24T20:17:00.000-08:00

Instead of painting ceilings tonight like I wanted, I am waiting for joint compound to dry, and hence, jotting down a few of my favorite things.

The website www.doityourself.com arms the willing with some know-how and companionship for fixing things. I have gleaned from there quite a bit about my furnace. Tonight I got a multimeter to test voltage getting across some of the components in my heating system, and let me tell ya, I think I can take on the world.

I like a grapefruit that has a half a cup of juices to squeeze out after you've eaten out the fleshy goodies. It is not a requirement for an excellent grapefruit, but it is a nice bonus.

I really like sweet olives. Sweet Olives, where have you been my whole life?! The other evening Trent and I were wondering about a delicious fragrance in my backyard. What is that smell? we wondered. It smelled like peaches, we decided. Mmmm, that smells just like sweet peaches, we exclaimed. But we could find no blossom among the flowers that gave off such a scent. Plus, this was not just some faint whiff of some remote blossom.

(You might wonder about flowers in November, so real quick, let me list off some in our backyard that are blooming now: ginger, camelia, azalea, canna lily).

Curious, I emailed my neighbor to see what he knew. Maybe, I thought, they have a cobbler in the oven. He knew nothing of the scent or its source. Google was my next go-to-resource. Nothing informative, but I did find some local LSU Ag Center faculty who contributed to a column that indicated to me they knew which way was up in local horticulture. I sent them a message, like one ant in the colony transmitting brain signals to a couple others. One of them wrote back soon about two likely candidates for such a smell right now.

And sweet olive was the winner. When daylight came, I found a small sweet olive tree in our backyard, with little white flowers easy to miss. I also found three largish sweet olive trees behind my neighbor's property. Let me tell you, what a fragrance. And at this time of year, what a treat.

Olive is a great name, but we have no name set in stone for our XX offspring in utero.

I am thankful for self-employment. A gal checking me out at Lowe's today thanked me when I wished her a Happy Thanksgiving. "Do you work?" She asked. I was a little puzzled. When you turn 1,000,000,000 seconds old, your lightning fast neurons take tours to Svalbard and other exotic locales. "I work a lot" I replied. I had a multimeter in the bag and a 10 foot 1x4 so I thought it was an odd question. "I mean, are you working..." and then I understood that she meant to ask if I was scheduled to work on Thanksgiving. But again, my answer was awkward: "I work for myself, so I work every day." But I assured her that I'd be spending some quality time with the family, and work hard to make Bonnie happy, which is the best work of all (I left out those last details in my conversation which was coming to an end as I was hustling out the door).

the salvage yard

2009-11-15T19:40:00.001-08:00

the salvage yard

acres of twisted frames

left where piled

strewn out across another kind of car lot and

silently laughing at time

eating away a working world while

the graveyard of spent dreams

sleeps its undeath

a paradise of other men's treasures:

in one windstar like mine

only red and with no tires et cetera

two intake manifold runner controls for the taking,

in another windstar like mine

only red

and with the gas tank in the back seat

and with the engine dismantled but laying sidewise in its chamber

and thorny brambles growing into the hood

and with no tires et cetera

two more intake manifold control runners for the taking

(spares for the spares)

for $20, plus $2.50 in ATM fees

and $2 in bank fees for using a nonChase ATM

but actually for free,

except for giving a guy some cash

since he had some tools to help take out

four intake manifold runner controls

a great alternative in this economy

for paying $400 a piece

for two new intake manifold control runners

plus labor

but also a paradise in the usual sense

you know, literally,

where the cars' souls wait

and with grace are saved

by God or man

or as nature does

by the nature of that which waits.

car talk

2009-11-13T18:21:00.001-08:00

First of all, my experience at the salvage yard yesterday deserves a poem, and definitely should be mentioned up front so you see that it really made an impression. What a marvelous experience, which I'll narrate another time. The end result is that I found some mechanisms which I needed to replace in our van in order to pass an emissions inspection. The mechanisms new cost about $400 and I need to replace two, so I was happy to find some for practically free.

My morning this morning consisted of replacing these two mechanisms. It took three hours, but let me put it into perspective. Four bolts. Unfastening four bolts, then refastening them. In order to making the replacing easier, we dismantled the alternator, which gave us some more room, but it was still a tight space that was barely manageable. The alternator didn't take much time at all. If you do the math, that's a lot of time, for unfastening and refastening four small bolts.

I like Autozone, which helped with some tools, although I had to buy a flexible extension. I also am grateful of Eddie who helped over the phone. And I am even thankful for the mechanic whose shop got $200+ from me for him doing some diagnostic work, changing out a solenoid (which itself cost $65 of the sum) behind everything which he had to do with his fingers and not his eyes, and also for checking out the replacements, and doing some coach work. I learned quite a bit tackling this problem myself. I now know quite a bit about intake manifold runner controls.

Ah, the joys of bedtime! I just put the boys to bed, and they are squalling their heads off. Now they have quieted down some. Hmmm. Yep, they were getting out of bed and out the door, down the hall, to start to beseech us to read them a story. Now they are squalling their heads off in bed again. But you know me, I will go read them a story soon. Probably a Curious George story.

Well, there was more to blog about, but this will have to do for now.

Except, let me say, the fall weather is beautiful!!!!!!!!

code P1537, etc

2009-11-11T19:09:00.000-08:00

I bit the bullet and had our van Windy taken in to the shop for a mechanic to figure out what is going on with the intake manifold control runner (bank one). It took me a few weeks to actually find the two valves. This morning I found I could take off the top to check for vacuum, but that is about as far as I got, except for the other day when I squirted WD40 at them and got the malfunction indicator light to turn off for 60 miles. I would like to keep fiddling with it, but our free emissions re-test deadline is Saturday.

Trent and I moreorless alternate days working with the tree service. The other day, actually, just before Ida blew into town, we cut the top out of the large gum tree behind where Trent is living. by top, I mean the top 5/8 or so. It was exhilarating. Trent helped with trimming the oak trees we have there, and now I need to get him over here at the place where we are staying. Aside from all the available tree trimming, we need to finish changing out windows and so on. Plus, I am turning a little shed we have out back into a handy tool shed.

I used bamboo poles cut out of our backyard for the dowels in our closets. Great idea! Also, we are cutting up small ones for ornamental curtain rods.

Today is bebero day in Korea. Those are the candies like Poky, or tall straight chocolate dipped unsalted pretzel sticks. If you arrange four in front of you on the table it looks like 11 11. Happy Veteran's Day.

Isaac started jumping today. That is, stepping from one high thing onto another, with glee.

Orry woke up the other day talking about cantilevers. What?! Yes, that's right. I think we have Curious George to thank for that.

Proud, And Not Proud

2009-11-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

Happy November!

The things I am proud of:

Having a new niece and nephew is a great celebration. But there are the other things. For one, I have fixed our furnace, which wasn't working. I had to dig in and study it, and it turns out to be a mysterious missing flame sensor is all. But I ordered one on line and installed it and everything is working and the total cost was < $25. I really like fixing things. I am also tackling some small problems with our van Windy that are causing it to fail emissions testing.

We also picked a bag full of satsuma oranges in Houma, and lots of persimmons and some limes. We have been eating lots of satsumas lately, enjoying them being in season.

Bonnie made some awesome Halloween outfits. I'm proud of that, of course.

The things I am not proud of:

I am no good example these days when it comes to Halloween candy. The way I stuff it in would make you think I was 12. Plus, Bonnie was making delicious cookies, so I've decided to focus on abstinence in my diet.

There were some other things, I'm sure, but none come to mind now.

Why?

2009-10-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, Orry became Mr Why. Everything is "Why?" And we are on our toes to come up with reasons for evrthing. 'Evrthing' is how little who'shernamecurlylocks says it, so that's how we cool family members say it as well.

Isaac has started signing more and communicating newer ideas in his 17 month old way. He really likes books and will always show up at your feet with a book in both hands. He's only so-so in getting read to; as long as the page turns and visual content match his short attention span, he's fine with it. He still likes animals a lot.

Lurking under the oversized torsos of her sisters-in-law, Bonnie is entering her last trimester. She is holding up pretty well functioning in half of a house being remodeled. I had been meaning to mention that Waldorf salads with their fruit make for a tasty and healthy dinner diet. It's a little pricey for fresh berries this time of year, but when you're not buying so much meat, it's all good. Tonight, though, we had fish in buttery bread crumbs with baked sweet potatoes and salad. Lemon wedges crank up the tastebuds' experience a notch.

I am finishing up a couple handyman jobs. we are also working more for the tree service that hires Trent and/or I occasionally, and these days about three days a week. Progress on our priority projects is slow. Rain slows our foundation work at the add-on. Busyness slows our remodeling at the house where we live. Thanks for all things good, the bills are getting paid, and we're all mostly healthy and happy.

Troy Galore

2009-10-24T22:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, tonight is a beautiful clear night sky. We only get so many of these in town in Baton Rouge. My old friend Orion (aka the Butterfly) is back by midnight. It is a good time of year.

All you moms with magnificent middles look marvelous. It is the baby boom of this Becker branch. I love it.

My latest project is picking up nice used toilets. The plan is to craigslist them clean, with new innards, new hardware, and brand-new toilet seats still in the packaging, with all the help needed for installation, all for one low price. This could be lucrative side work. I will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, our plumbing seems to have a slow spot between the house and the street, so there goes my Sunday morning. I saw that I can rent at Home Depot the same big auger that the plumber uses, so if little snake doesn't do it, Big Snake will. After tomorrow, maybe that will be my new nickname.

One more touch-up once-over with the light blue color "Nurture" in the master bedroom, and we shall move into it and move on to the next room. There goes my Sunday evening.

October is a wonderful month.

another troy weblog entry

2009-10-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last week, Oct 13th, to be precise, just after 10:30 am, I crossed over into the 10 digits. For the number of seconds I have depended on breathing my own air. I shall not ever get into the 11 digits. It is a new age, and I feel a little wiser for it.

I was wise when I zipped to the library to get something printed at the last second, and although the time was tight, got in when I had one minute left on the computers, logged on, opened my document, and printed it out with not 3 seconds to spare. Plan B was to go a few miles to the main library which was open for another hour. Instead, the entire outing was 10 minutes. Or 600 seconds.

I was not so wise last week when I drove the tree service truck for the first time and drove it over the Mississippi River Bridge with the emergency brake still engaged. I probably drove it for 600 seconds with its braking system fighting its driving system. That was not wise.

I lugged around a number of 80 lb concrete bags today. It made me feel glad I am not 80 lounbs overweight. A lounb is the new way we write pound. Today, Trent and I poured concrete, 2 bags at a time or so, for 4 hours and 6 minutes. That is, for 14760 seconds. We were a few bags short.

I was trying to meet a schedule I composed for the day, which was itself altered already a couple times. The discouragement with schedules is when they waste more time than they create. However, there were some good things about the busted schedule. For one, I mowed our lawn. And two, we got a new post put in for our mailbox and our neighbors', all of which fell over when termites ate away the wood that held them up, and I think phonebooks getting stuffed inside the boxes also contributed.

That's it for I paragraphs.

Louisiana's weather these days is much more bearable. Did you like reading another troy weblog entry?

P.S. Isaac started talking in the past three days since I wrote last. He started talking quite a bit, playing the repeat game with Daddy, Mommy, Ball, Baby, Diaper, No, Juice, Change.

little wren

2009-10-18T05:17:00.000-07:00

Yikes, so much for being current.

We moved back from Korea, bought our first minivan, roadtripped across the US tracking Jupiter in the evening sky each night. We arrived in Baton Rouge and resumed our lives as if we never left for Korea.

We are living in our Kingcrest place and changing the windows, roof, and updating each room while we live here. We are also doing some work at our little Sparrow place. We plan on being around working on these projects for the next few months and selling maybe one or two places.

As soon as Trent rolled into town we got into a wasps nest, got bitten by fireants, and I promptly got into some poison ivy somewhere. I am pleased to report that I was able to beat it without a doctor's visit/prescription this time. It started mild to moderate and by the time it got really bad I was on top of it with rubbing alcohol (the wintergreen kind), calamine, and over-the-counter hydrocortizone cream. Finally, it was the Benadryl that did the trick.

We are just about finished with out master bedroom. Our master bathroom is next to be finished, unless we get to painting another room or two before I get all finished with installing the bathroom sink and toilet. We still need to grout the bathroom floor tile and I have a little prep work left on the walls as well. Meanwhile, there are many boxes around and we don't have the sort of space we would like. Having one room done will help, but not right away, as we'll have to move into that room from the next one while we do that room, which won't take too long.

I am establishing a pleasant natural order in the jungle wildlife preserve of our backyard. We have some wildlife friends. One of the friends is a little wren that sleeps in our carport. There is no nest, and she sleeps in one of two places, but she's there roosting most every evening. Also, she does not take of her toilet in that place--she just sleeps there. Quite untimidly, as we frequently are passing by her or approaching her. It is strange bird behavior that I don't really understand. Maybe a former tenant gave her little crumbs? I doubt that. Maybe more likely is that the carport was used only rarely for the past year plus, and even now, we don't go out much in the evening, so with our quiet neighborhood maybe the carport overhang is a nice quiet safe place in general.

Bonnie made cloth napkins and we have a good amount of furniture ready to realize its place in the Becker household. Bonnie also joined up in the handbell choir, and those ladies are playing their seasonal debut today.

We have been getting a gas out of the awkward family photos website, where a recent Becker submission is all the rage.

Orry is going on 3 1/2. He talks a lot and plays all sorts of games. Isaac is going on 1 1/2. He talks very little and plays the following games. Dog. This is when he barks to indicate there is a dog and other animals. The variation is Lion, where he growls. Chase. A favorite for kids and grown-ups alike. And most recently, Repeat. We finally got some enunciated words out and just the other day our little Gonzo started repeating some voiced sounds and finally said clearly Mama and Dada. Before, other than his barking, his only real word of frequent use was "ball". He also started dancing last week.

We went without home internet access for over a month. Now we're rolling.

Gonzo

2009-06-25T07:41:00.001-07:00

Posterity might assume that one name followed another, and our nickname for Isaac was inspired by something like the following. But no. Many of you readers may know otherwise. What was the precise inspiration for that delightfully wonderful name? It came to me one night when I was watching a pianist perform a marathon feat of the longest concert ever. His name was something like Gonzago, which made me think of Gonzaga, and then, voila, it came. I looked it up in the dictionary and liked it even better.

Little Gonzo Becker. Isaac Manuel "Gonzo" Becker. You probably have to take it for a test drive for a while, unless you're like me, and you can tell a perfectly approrpiate name from the get go.

Oh, and let me not omit the main motivation for a nickname, which is that Isaac, although a great name, is just too popular these days. And even one of our first thought of nicknames, Izzy, is also too popular as a result. Gonzo, though. Now there's a name for you.

'Ancient Gonzo Wisdom'

Excerpt: 'Ancient Gonzo Wisdom'

Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson, edited by Anita Thompson, paperback, 432 pages, Da Capo Press, list price: $18

Like Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg, Hunter S. Thompson practiced the interview as an art form. This amusing collection pulls from 30 years of conversations and reveals the gonzo journalist to be much more of a craftsman than he is often given credit for being. It would, in fact, make a great gift to any budding journalist.

"The truth is never told across a desk," he tells one interlocutor, "or during nine-to-five hours ... I call people at night." On citations: "I use quotes like little jewels." He dishes on presidents and criminals.

He is also terribly prescient. In 2003, he cautions a young reporter on changes to come. "Man, I don't envy you where you're at. See, you're part of the first generation that's going to do worse than your parents did." (Coming July 6.)

so that not one month passes since the last weblog entry

2009-06-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Yikes, I've been deliquent on the current news.

We're having another baby, godwilling, in January 2010 or so.

I have been unable to secure an actuary entry level job as of yet, or even an interview or modicum of interest. Anything can change.

In practicing with spreadsheets and Microsoft Access, I have created a task list of 13 things.

Orry, now three, is quite reasonable for a youngster.

Little Gonzo is starting to put together signs. "Food" "more" He is also a little climber. He loves to climb onto the arm of the couch and look out the window.

Out the window there are beautiful skies. Summer is here, and it reminds me how relative heat is. It's so hot, for example. But not hot enough, apparently, to warrant air conditioning, although I'd love a swamp cooler or other cooling machine. The sun is really hot when it's shining on yuo, but it gets comfortably chilly at night.

Our rooftop garden has produced one strawberry, and is producing a few tomatoes, a zucchini, and some peppers.

Lately I have been reading some uplifting eco-news. It gives me the sort of hope that at once feels good to read about fellow earthy types, and also stimulates me more regarding activism, options, and choices.

Bonnie and I also had a heyday looking at http://www.totallylookslike.com.

We have been hiking a fair amount, including a hike to the top of a local mountain a few weeks ago. That was good fun.

This is my first thecurrenttroydanielbecker blog that diverges from my myspace blogs.

Peace out, reader.

milk, graves, great winged things

2009-05-25T21:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 26, 2009
milk, graves, great winged things
Current mood:miscellaneous

I started to drink the milk, knowing full well that it was sitting unopened at room temperature for a day. I wouldn't have done this the day before the big exam, but I suspected I would be just fine drinking the lukewarm milk. It made me wonder about pasteurization, so I looked it up.

It turns out that this milk is UHT pasteurized, or ESL pasteurized. That's ultra-high temperature, or extended shelf-life. These little boxes, I read, can sit for months unopened at room temperature. Which again makes me wonder, because the school is particular about the expiration dates. And I doubt that everyday we get milk that's six months old. But, anyway, this process is supposed to extend shelf life and reduce the need for refrigeration. However, it has its drawbacks of course, as the heat flash really stresses or destroys the milk proteins. But I'll tell you, this particular carton of lukewarm milk, like most Korean milk I've drunk, tastes delicious and creamy.

That whole episode reminded me that I have more to tell you. So I researched about Korean graves. now I've told you some, if I recall accurately. About how the graves are around here and there on hillsides. About how we saw some hillsides on the way to Seoul which seem to be predominantly for grave use, but that you can't just easily go find a Korean "cemetery". Then I read a great little piece in what I guess is a great little book. Called Things Korean.

Google Books is awesome. It scans books quickly and makes kind of like a giant library. In this way, I can check out the book. And I will sum up a little for you, but feel free to take a look at the entry about Mudeom, a Grave's Grave.

The idea is that these Korean customs allow a gravesite to return slowly to the earth, as the memory of the person fades in the lives of the living.

As for moths and butterflies, it was said that some people like butterflies, while some people hate moths. And I tend to like both. But my view of moths shifted, from the nasty little "millers" of my youth, to beautiful Luna moths and other great winged things I've observed later in life. (Not to forget, one great insect of my youth was a hummingbird moth.).

Butterflies are great, and so easy to like, but one might also note that the little "skippers" whose larvae harmed crops are a little pesty at least, and their wings have that dust that tends to make one feel unclean. However, who cannot love these insects, upon greater investigation, for the mysteries of their metamorphosis, their gift of flight, migration and super sensory perceptions where applicable, for their contribution to pollination and the grand life-cycle, and in the case of many, for their beauty if that alone were not all?

Three Current Blogs

2009-05-22T18:19:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 22, 2009

Pass!, Orry, Gonzo
Current mood:warm

Thank you, Bonnie, for writing the 1200th comment, for pressing my shirt, and for taking double duties the last few months while I prepared to school some actuary exams.

Here I am at Taeseo Elementary School in Taebaek, Korea. Yesterday, since it rained so much, they postponed Sports Day until Monday. So now I get to experience the joys that go with that. In yesterday's rain, I was inside a testing center in Seoul doing untold nasty things to the P actuary exam. I have to admit, it felt good to get that done with. A pass is a pass, and I was really hoping for at least just a pass, but I think that I scored the highest possible score or so. Official results will be in in eight weeks, but for now I am collecting unofficial congratulations papers from the testing site. I suppose the job hunt begins. Looking into the opportunities currently, I'm not sure I'll land a hot job yet, but we'll see. Apparently fresh young graduates are a lot more appealing than old ducks like me. But we'll see. There's some charm left in this gray quacker.

You're probably wondering about the next of six more tests I need to take before I become an Actuary Fellow. That, I think, will be in November. But I still need to look into details and maybe choose a direction and decide which test to take next. And all that might come after getting a job if I get one, so we'll see. I do want to start on something soon though, that I might cut down on the study crunch and spread it out in order to enjoy more of the precious family life.

The precious family life? Maybe some of you are wondering about Orry's or Gonzo's disposition. Little Gonzo is my fun new nickname for Isaac. Try it, and you'll like it too. Orry, the easy baby, has developed into a nearly three year old image of his father, which is to say he exhibits any of the following descriptions when it comes to having his way, whether his way is logical, sensical, or otherwise: hard willed, insistent, persistent, adamant, demanding, stubborn. He also will throw a fit or scream or exhibit other socially unacceptable behaviors. What?! you say? That little angel? But yes, it is so. We wonder, sometimes, because he seems to be too frustrated and angry too much of the time. But I think we'll work on perspective and feelings and what we can and cannot control, not to mention continuing to improve all relationships in and out of the household, that we can be better examples, cultivate good healthy growth, et cetera. Bonnie also pointed out the amount of attention sharing that Orry does on account of little Gonzo. So we are taking pains to make sure Orry has good swaths of Orry time.

Little Gonzo is at a great age. He is the explorer and he's figuring things out. He's quite the game player and boy can he eat. He is getting weaned which seems to not faze him at all that I can say. He is getting faster feet although he's still a wobbly toddler. He is more ticklish than Orry was and he is such a fun little laugher. He likes various people and is just about as easy as Orry was. Although he screams more than Orry did. Orry healped teach that, I think. They have screaming bouts sometimes. That high pitched yip that little kids are so good at that pierces the sky? Yes.

To make up for lost time with the Korean language, I am going full force now. I'm back at the folk tale translation and on to learn more of this language now.

But before I end up this blog, let's tally the subjects of upcoming blogs. You know I still need to blog about where dead Koreans go. And then there's the moths and butterflies. And did I tell you about sharing my first Korean cab ride, with a Korean stranger? And I suppose an update is due for the salamander eggsacs and the tadpoles. And I need to get some pictures and videos up too...

Thank you for your participation in my life.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Hwangji Elementary
Current mood:lepidoptery

Here I am at a new school, ready to fire off four different classes of third grade. Hwangji Elementary is a much bigger school.

It actually is nice to have something unmathy to command my attention for some portion of these 24 hours before I take the next actuary exam out for dinner and a good time, then never call her again.

Today after school it's a train to Seoul for the night.

I would teach at Hwangji again tomorrow except for my special leave for the exam. That will be the schedule for upcoming weeks. Hwangji on Wednesdays and Thursdays, except that I have teachers classes at Taeseo on Wednesdays after lunch....

Time for class!

I like butterflies, and I like moths too. More about that, later.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

happy feet, pricing adjustments
Current mood:birdy

There was a really fun time to be had for a short while in Seoul when we were walking away from our dinner rendezvous point near Hongik University. There a guy had set up a drum circle where passers-by could sit and drum or dance or watch. So Orry and Trent and I had some drum fun. Then Bonnie bought a couple skirts.

I was still also experiencing the elation of dancing. Not my dancing, but Orry's happy feet. After dinner and before Baskin Robbins we went to place in a park where some guys were rapping to some beats to a congregation. There Orry became quite the hit for his dancing moves.

So you can look forward to those videos and photos.

Surprise! Back in Taebaek we experienced our first price adjustments in Korea, as cab fare minimums rose 22% and our cheap kimbap joint raised their prices 17-33% as well. However, as I mentioned last time, the azaleas are so vibrant--it is a fair trade.

kimbap:

A daurian redstart like the one spying on Trent and me while we collected dirt yesterday for the rooftop garden:

Return from Seoul, all things considered

2009-05-10T19:36:00.001-07:00

Return from Seoul, all things considered
Current mood:vernal

Dear few readers, let me continue to tirelessly keep you abreast of our lives and other goings-on in Korea: On the way back from Seoul, I saw wisteria blossoms cascading down their vines, gracing the hillsides, if not superior at least more delicate and romantic than Bacchanal decor. The rest of Korea probably woke out of Spring earlier than a week ago, but it was this last week that our little city broke herself away from the clutches of Old Man Winter. It was this week when you look at the hills and think and then rethink if you weren’t mistaken that a week ago weren’t they brownish? The buds on twigs have developed into fine leaves, blossoms have become spent, and even the least eager of dandelions have gone white-haired in the attempts of reproduction.

In Taebaek, this last week has belonged to the azaleas. The cheery cherry trees, the Japanese Magnolia blossoms, and other various Spring harbingers have made their showing and moreorless left. The bleeding hearts, next, were an unsecreted delight. But now, the glory of the azaleas promise to bring the full force of Spring to Taebaek. In the sunny places where water is abundant, the purples and pinks will make demands of your eyes. In other places, buds poke at the colors yet to come. One of my personal excitements is to get in the mountains at the right times, where they are covered with mountain azaleas. With the abundance of such life, who can fail to feel hopeful for another year to come?

Another delight this last week has been lilacs, mostly white, which have blossomed and smelled terrific. There is also a lilac-like mountain blossom with the sweetest aroma. Maybe it is a Japanese lilac.Maybe none of you laughed at that. And maybe even a few of you wondered if I forgot which country I am in. But really, it is a sort of joke, because some of the things over here are named in the western world as Japanese this or that, even though the Koreans also might have it as well. So it is like a joke, but it might be the case, really. If the wireless internet connection on this train were stronger, I could probably try to look it up instead of finishing this web log.

Other various flowers and blossoms have brought Spring in. But the real sign that Taebaek has moved on from Winter happened on Thursday. That is when the town became alive with plant starts. And really, I’ve been a little antsy for this for weeks, feeling like some tomatoes should be going in the ground, and so on. We got a few miniature tomato plants from a flower shop to sate me. But on Thursday, trucks arrived in Taebaek with the bounty of greenhouses to our newly greened city. Tomato starts, pepper starts, and maybe anything else, for anyone with the right number of South Korean won. It was funny, because seriously, all the appropriate stores became stocked with these goods, packing away the dried Chinese dates (We could also play the game with China, but it’s funnier with Japan because of the residual strife between Korea and Japan, like brothers who have forgotten they were brothers) and peddling now these seasonal needs. On the agenda for this week is some dirt collection at our Becker house. Dirt is scarce in our immediate vicinity, but a short walk away there is mountains of it. So I will get some, along with some worms for our compost barrel. And we’ll get some of those starts to finally produce a garden on our humble roof.

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We are glad to be back from Seoul. I will leave the reporting of our events for now, but let me say how nice it was to pass the one actuary exam. I have just 11 more days until my next test, so I will be cramming it in for a while. It is the test that I already prepared for once, so in some sense I am ready. But in another important sense, these next 11 days are very very important.

Some of you probably wonder what is going on for us, long term. Will we be staying in Korea? Coming back to the states? Moving to Greenland? To answer this question, I will say I can not answer it for certain at this time, but I will give you a rundown of upcoming decisions that might give you some idea.

We really like it here, and we are here, and so, if it were only that, I think it is safe to say both Bonnie and I would love to stay here. On top of that, with Trent and Nicole staying here and having a baby, we have even more reason to want to stay here. Living next to Trent has been a real treat for me after so much time of living apart. You could call it a Trent treat. Or Troy’s Trent treat.

On the other hand, we are far away from everyone else. But it’s nice to have the conveniences of our age, and email and keep in touch. I am pleased that Bonnie and her parents are in touch almost every day thanks to Skype, where they not only talk to each other, but have video calls so that they get to see the kiddos.

Other big factors. First of all, for whatever reason, Trent and Nicole might not end up staying here. It is too early for any of us to know for sure what will be available to us, let alone what we will finally decide. Then, there is the chance of finding a good actuary position. I will start some serious looking after I pass the next exam, and it may be that I can find something desirable to take up in September. If nothing ideal comes up, another year over here would provide ample preparation time to pass some more exams and become even a better candidate for actuary opportunities (We’re talking about a series of about eight exams over the next five years or so to become a “fellow” actuary and earn top dollar.). Lastly, there are the Baton Rouge properties which maintain for us a small passive income. This, above everything, is probably the largest deciding factor for what will happen this summer. If things remain the same, we will be fine. But things will not remain the same. Still, we may be fine. We have to see what happens. There is also the possibility of Bonnie’s belly swelling with another baby yet again. We are sort of on the fence about this, and September seems to be our “golden” month when it might be “most convenient” to choose to have a baby in Korea, or move back to the states for number three God willing. I think Bonnie would like to be within 10000 miles of her mother at childbirth. Let us see.Staying here would be great, language-wise, for Orry, and Isaac too. Not to mention their parents. Also for reasons of cultural observation. Moving to another country besides the US, like Greenland, would be another adventure. It doesn’t seem in the cards for us. But I should say, exactly a year ago, we had not an iota of foreknowledge that Korea was at all in our window of possible futures. And now we can tell that the ajumas on the train are talking about the Summer cabbage.

Happy Mothers’ Day.

Gangwon Comprehensive Museum, Gee Gee Gee Gee Gee

2009-05-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

This long weekend was a lot of fun. Monday was the exhausting day. We went to the Gangwon Comprehensive Museum, and then the beach. Our camera's battery failed after the first station of over a dozen at the museum. We were taking photos of the amazing rocks, but what we missed out on was everything else. Perhaps top of the list were all the carved wood exhibits in station four. We are talking about enormous trunk chunks carved into brilliant one piece multi part mural scenes. 15 feet by 6 feet, for example. With plenty of depth to carve out an intricate little world. At the restaurant on the beach, we found some international sand sculpters.

I still managed to put in lots of study time and I'm ready for this actuary test on Friday. It means another trip into Seoul, so we'll see how that goes.

For today and tomorrow, however, it's back to the "grind". My schedule changes slightly this week and tomorrow I think we meet with elementary teachers from around our district to confer about teaching English classes for other schools. Which has been part of our schedule since March, which is why my teaching schedule has been so lax these past couple months.

We're getting ready for birthdays in our house. Isaac likes to stand and toddle. Orry likes to learn our Korean songs with us. My Korean song to learn is:

Bonnie put together another tasty meal last night, with some beef, broccoli, and ginger.

taking over the city/menu

2009-04-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

taking over the city
Current mood:green

Today is a beautiful Spring day, no kidding. It is still, and sunny. Crisp still in the morning, but we did put some diapers on the line before I went to work and they're probably dry by now (less than an hour later).

We are considering some travel for our upcoming four day weekend. But we'll have to see. The delicate matter is that my big test is in 10 days, so this upcoming weekend is really crunch time. But we'll see. We are pretty sure about traveling to Japan in July, but even with that, we keep postponing the purchase of our tickets.

Isaac's solo steps are becoming more frequent, but he still hasn't switched mobility modes, and that's just fine with us! He has started to communicate a little more with sounds other than primal screams, and also with his hands. He is a little eater, that's for sure. We are always thinking of nicknames for him since it turns out Isaac is a popular name. I think Peach is out of the running, however.

At church, an "interim pastor" sat by us this week and gave us a brief sketch of the sermon. She has been put in charge of taking care of us, I think.

Beginning yesterday, Orry started taking care of a little bear puppet we have at the house. We are talking about sending him to preschool starting in May so we'll keep you posted.

The hills are greening, the dandelions are taking over the city, and the cherry blossom petals are littering the streets. We went hiking on Saturday morning and took some more photos, which we'll have to share. One of the critters we photographed is a red squirrel. Now, I thought I knew what a red squirrel was, but, being a native American, I didn't know, really. the "red" squirrels in the New World are not red squirrels, see. Red squirrels are Old World squirrels. And their ears are extra tufty, giving them quite a distinct appearance. Moreover, they don't have to be red. The one we saw was a charcoal gray color.

No signs of morels yet. I haven't been able to determine if they exist here, but I suspect they do.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

taking over the menu
Current mood:sea snaily

Dear reader, it has been too long since I reminded you of the culinary delights I feast on from day to day. Lest you imagine, in your mind's eye, that I feast on hamburgers or mashed potatoes and gravy for my school lunch, with a side of canned corn and a brownie or some chocolate pudding for dessert, let me remind you: no.

Today, for example, we had what I guess after some translation attempts are sea snails. Yes, I just found it: Sea Snail Salad featured on this page. Sea snails, vegetables, and of course, pepper paste. And the verdict? I have to say Yum.

The other day, the surprise was squid and apple salad. Now I guess Spring is the season for these curious salads, but this, too, was slathered in pepper paste. And again, Yum. A curiously rewarding combination.

Other than that, lunches are the usual. Some soup, usually spicy. Rice. Kimchi. The occasional fruit, like the cherry tomatoes we had the other day. We also had a curry with pineapples and raisins in it recently.

I know it's not common to get two blogs in one day from me, but here they are, today.

The beautiful Spring day turned cold Winter, that cold beast void a soul, licked his lips and took back the day, bringing cold rain and black clouds, and nothing for us to do but shiver in his icy breath.

Coming up, I must at some point blog about torrents. Wow. And still waiting is the blog about where dead Koreans go.

For now, all my best.

salamander eggs and numbered days

2009-04-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's raining now.

Over the weekend we saw a bunch of salamander eggsacs. We saw one salamander. We saw this on our Saturday morning exercise hike. We also saw lots of frog eggs. It is that time of year.

We have continued to use our laundry line on the roof. When it's hot and dry and windy it takes less than a half hour to dry things!

Isaac was sick last week but he's feeling better now. I was sick too, but I was never feeling all that bad. Isaac's temperature was up past 103. He had some tonsillitis and got some antibiotics from the doctor. Isaac didn't like these antibiotics at all.

The cherry tree blossoms in Taebaek are all quite fantastic. It's so nice to see the springtime blossoms. I guess these April showers will bring some May flowers, too.

I have had my nose in the actuary exam study guides. 18 days.

Which reminds me. My calculator has a built in function for determining the number of days between dates. As in, Isaac was 300 days old on March 7th. My dad was 10080 days old when he had me, and I was another hundred days plus old when we had Orry. And Trent will be a little older come November than my dad was when he had Trent. And my mom and Bonnie are close to the same age when it comes to their childbearing. As you know, we passed up my 11111st day last summer. But did you know we also passed up Orry's 1000th day? Anyway, stuff like that.

Now I must go prepare for teaching second grade.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

BPOP, and an eventful weekend

2009-04-12T18:55:00.000-07:00

The first bit of news to report is that on Wednesday I noticed a
curious small bump on the joint of my left middle finger closest to my
palm and on the palm side. It is a bony nodule about the size of a
lentil. So Thursday morning I hit the Internet research and gave the
self diagnosis of a small bone tumor that is rarely mastitic, or, more
probably BPOP. BPOP stands for bizarre something something
proliferation and as it may suggest to you reader, this little lentil
might grow into something more, well, bizarre. This sort of growth is
known as Nora's Lesion after a doctor who described it in the early
eighties. Apparently it is an odd pathology that occurs most commonly
where it occurs on me in people my age. Next on the docket is to see a
doctor and get some documentation and recommendations. It is
removable, oftentimes with recurrence, presuming, of course, it is what
I think it is. On the other hand, if it weren't to bizarrely
proliferate, I am fine with leaving it alone for all of my days. It
doesn't seem to affect me much, except in knowing that it's there,
which has really bugged me the past five days. Also, it is "in the
way" in the sense that its placing is inconvenient for holding things
and pushing strollers sometimes. But no biggie. Yet.

So, how does one keep his mind off of a bone tumor? Well, on Friday we
took a day trip to a nearby flower festival, where I went on national
news again. Here is what I didn't tell them in our brief interview:

I found out last week that Friday was a school vacation day for our
school, so we planned on traveling to some nearby cities where they put
on festivals to celebrate the beautiful spring blossoms. We decided on
Samcheok, the next town over, which is putting on a canola or "rape
flower" festival. Did you know that canola's name as such comes from "CANadian Oil Low-Acid"? It's modified rapeseed, or as the Korean's call it, "rape flower". I
don't know if what we were in was canola, or actual unmodified
rapeseed. Probably the latter I guess.

So, we called a Samcheok Tour Info number and spoke with some people
about how to best get to the festival. We planned on taking the train
and it doesn't have a main "Samcheok" stop, but has a couple stops in
Samcheok. We were told to get off at the Shingi station, whereupon we
would take a bus into town and then another bus to the festival site.
Too many buses, I thought--we'd probably just take a taxi. But anyway,
we set out for our family adventure.

This is all after I went and exchanged some won for dollars at the
bank. My new idea is to change our money into dollars but keep it in
Korea, and if the exchange rate goes bad again, I can change dollars we
have here into cheap won, speculating that the won will get good (or at
least better) again. On the other hand, if the won keeps getting
better, that's okay, too. It keeps us from having to change money at
the worst possible rate. Unless of course it gets real bad, and then I
change my money back into won, and then it never ever gets good again.

The train ride was beautiful. Just leaving out Taebaek station, we
started getting into areas where the cherry blossoms were at their
best. Actually now, just a few days later, I am seeing more blossoms
in Taebaek too. I guess because of our altitude, we usually experience
the cherry blossoms up to a month later than elsewhere. Anyway, it was
wonderful to see the blossoms and the Spring scenery. This continued
on until our destination, the bustling Shingi station which is near the
middle of nowhere.

At the Shingi station, I realized that we were misled, because the
helpers there didn't seem to be very familiar with getting into
Samcheok by bus. Well, they were able to find out easily enough, and
they told us. There were two buses we could catch, and they showed us
where. One was leaving in 10 minutes, and it was a short walk. But
another was leaving in 40 minutes, in case we missed the first one. We
hiked up there and missed the first bus. Actually, we were in the
right place at the right time, but we didn't know it. Until later.

We gave up waiting for the first bus, which had already come to the
stop we passed up unknowingly. We then proceeded to wait for the
second bus, which was the right place for the first bus. We waited and
waited, and finally gave up. Now, I will admit, this would have been a
good time to have a timepiece. Because as soon as we crossed the road
to inquire at a convenience store/shop/restaurant about getting a taxi,
the bus went by, not a minute off schedule at 1:30pm.

I think any normal person would be experiencing dismay or anger at this
point. But not me of course. I garnered more chi and waited
peacefully for another 40 minutes for the next bus. Bonnie, actually,
was the peaceful one. We learned some Korean from a Learn Korean book
we thankfully brought.

It turns out, that not but a five minute walk away from where we waited
for more than an hour, is one of the most splendid looking museum
complexes I have seen.

click it to see more:

But, it's probably good that we didn't know it, or as opposed to
waiting around for more than an hour, we would have walked there, and
we would have been sucked in, and we would have missed the rapeseed
festival.

We did see it right away after boarding the bus, though, again to my dismay.

Getting into Samcheok was worth it though. The main bus terminal
offered the peace of mind I wanted because they had buses going back to
Taebaek later in the day that we could take, instead of getting back
out to the Shingi station or trying to discover an alternate train
route. The actual twon of Samcheok is right near the coast, so the
weather was milder (It was downright hot where we waited near the
Shingi station).

As soon as we got the taxi to the rapeseed festival, we were in another
sort of heaven. All the dismay and hot waiting melted away into the
distant past, as we watched the cherry blossoms fall like snow. The
fields of yellow lay ahead in promise, next to the festival tents, and
other colors drugged our eyes while the mountains on the one side and
the sea on the other made us forget all our troubles. Or, maybe it was
the beautiful smells. It was like sticking your nose in a morning
glory, without the trouble of keeping it there. Our atmosphere, for
the couple of hours we were there, consisted not of air, but of that
delicate delightful aroma.

When I was eighteen, and I lived in the little farm house east of
Jerome, and I moved a lot of pipe, I moved pipe in canola fields. I
did tell the interviewer that I had seen rapeseed before, in my
country. But I didn't tell him about the farmhouse.

The interviewer and his camera crew snatched us Taebeckers and took
their footage. It was a quick, pleasant experience actually. Of
course we didn't know for sure if we would make the news, but at church
yesterday we heard a lot about it.

We saw beetle grubs bigger than mice. We ate rapeseed pancakes. We played in bubbles and smiled and laughed. It was fun.

We took a bus back to Taebaek and that's the end of my rapeseed festival story.

However. That was just Friday. And now I realize I must hurry to
describe the rest of our weekend in just a few minutes. I have to go
to class, and I'm sure you have to do something important too.

Saturday morning we hiked with Trent to our exercise mountain. Then
instead of coming home the way we went, we took a roundabout
exploration that got us home seeing some new things, new routes, new
exercise stations. We saw the names of some flowers which I'll have
to describe another time. Later in the weekend we found that our
favorite exercise mountain bird is called a black-capped chickadee.

Yesterday we started our happy Easter by making use of our rooftop clothesline. That was fun.

And our Sunday included a hike up to another new place right outside of
downtown, which is another mountain climb. We just walked up a little
way to a neat resting place, temple, and coal workers monument (of some
sort). There are some beautiful tulip trees blooming these days. Some
girls were collecting dandelion greens. This was Trent and me, Orry
and Isaac. It was fun.

It makes me want to write about the Korean dead. Because on hillsides
like this, you'll see some graves. But I'll have to write about that
another time.

Then that evening we had porridge together with Nicole's parents. As a
Korean treat, we all went out after that to Noraebang, and we all sang
songs and laughed and danced.

To top it off, later that night, Bonnie and I watched a Woody Allen
movie we had downloaded. Michael J Fox, Woody Allen, and Blossom, of
all people. Don't Drink The Water.

What a week.

Tang & Exotic Fowl

2009-04-05T02:53:00.000-07:00

There are these rice dumplings that have the consistency of marshmallows. Also there is banana milk, apple milk, and grape milk, the last of which reminds me of goatmilk yogurt flavored with Tang, which was a remote treat in a the goaty memories of my childhood. The milk doesn't taste goaty, to be sure. It's just that the grape flavoring reminds me of the Tang.

Today we went to a small bird area that reminds me of the bird area one mile south in Jerome, over a ways from the Hintons. And, well, near that new Canyonside School Building, right? Anyway, what did we call that? The Bird Farm? It was a place I only went to maybe once or so if ever. But basically there is a variety of fowl. This place in the middle of nowhere had a couple of ostriches. And a peacock which fanned its tailfeathers (ah, i now recall going to the bird farm with a kindergarten or early school field trip--where I saw for the first time the same thing--peacock pomp). It also had some ponds with fish, some demonstrations of how flowing water can be made to assist with milling, a tunnel showcasing the days of coal mines (Taebaek's bygone glory), et cetera.

For a musical treat of curious exotic fowl, visit here.

There were lots of sitting places. It was a nice relaxing time in the countryside. Unfortunately it was also when the kiddos usually nap. But once in a while you've got to take adventure over routine. And we don't get offers to go see exotic fowl every day.

updates, and more about ants

2009-04-02T18:19:00.001-07:00

Updates are in order.

The other week Isaac started signing including pointing, waving, nodding, and so on. He started standing on his own with gusto, and almost takes steps. He also loves crawling all around, giving kisses, getting hugs, playing peek-a-boo, pattycake. His babbling is a little more orderly, and he'll go into phases of saying "aba" (Korean for daddy), but it's still pretty babbly. However, he's quite adept with his hands. He started eating just about everything he can eat at this age, and likes to fill up with us whenever we eat. He is, in my estimation, a fairly easy baby, having a minimum of fits and squirms, and mainly only if he's tired.

Orry started drawing faces and objects with more discernable features. Like small circles and dots for eyes, and spiders with many legs and so on. He uses Korean more for introductions and phrases like thank you, and demonstrates a lot of new concepts and ideas every day it seems. He likes to go on excursions with Bonnie during the day, and well, he likes just about everything. He was in a really whiny phase lately, but seems to be on the tail end of it (I'm not holding my breath there). He is partly well mannered and an all around good and fun little tot. He likes "studying" Korean flashcards, and entertaining himself with reading materials, as I reported earlier. He is quite reasonable and growing more aware of his emotions.

Bonnie gets the MVP award for the last few months (if not years). And she also earns the Most Improved award. She has been gobbling up Korean food like a Korean lately, and also learning the language more than any of us. We got some books in Seoul that she's going through and I think it helps her fill in some language gaps. Plus, last week she went to this reading-to-your-tots center and got some easy Korean books that she's excited about, and all that really helps language acquisition.

I get the math award, for my continues studies and practice of applied mathematics. In a way I am making up for the lazy practice of math since my high school days. I am the type that likes to learn the theory and structure, even at the cost of believing what is taught as opposed to rigorous investigation of mathematical proofs. The upside is that I conceptually understand a good bit of the relationship and know-how of various fields within mathematics. The downside is I have always been mostly unpracticed with the mechanics of working out the applications of theory, and working on "real-life" problems that use mathematics. As it turns out, this is precisely actuarial work. So I am getting a new training on material that is pretty familiar. Apart from that, I eat and sleep and play with the tots and Bonnie a few hours each day. And I teach a few English classes each week at school, as required by my employment. My fun classes are kindergarten and sixth grade.

The mountains are snowy again, but this morning was so calm and pleasant that I suspect Spring is on its way again.

Ants, they say, weigh on average .3 milligrams, which is 3x10^-7 kg. There are between 10^16 and 10^17 of them, those little rascals. This means there are between 3x10^9 and 3x10^10 kgs of ants. Which is another way of saying three billion to 30 billion kgs. Humans, on the other hand, weigh an average of 50 kg (5x10^1kg), and as you know, there are fewer than (but close to) 7 billion (7x10^9) of us. So we weigh, collectively, less than (but close to) 350 billion kgs (35x10^10). It looks like we outweigh ants by a factor of ten.

However, I could not find good sources for the weight of an average ant, nor for how many there are. I put these figures together from a wikipedia article on biomass, which was very much less than reliable. For a good wikipedia article, though, that is well sourced, and interesting, check out this ant wikipedia entry. And, for a good read, if your anterested at all, check out Journey to the Ants. In online form, I read about a supercolony in Japan that had over a million queens and their respective colonies interrelating in one humungous ant city. I also read somewhere that an ant colony of normal size has has many brain cells as a human. Again, I am skeptical.

fruits that begin with k

2009-03-23T18:06:00.001-07:00

Now in Korea is the season for delicious kiwis, and also the curious little fruit known as the kumquat. We had our first kumquat family experience. In fact, I can't remember for sure if I have eaten a kumquat before. I think I have, but I don't think I ate it correctly.

This time, I googled the way to eat a kumquat, to be sure:

Well, Orry was given a couple of these sweet-tart little gems last night on our grocery stroll. Then, when we got home and ate them, I decided to go back and buy a bag. They are delicious!

As for kiwi, wow. We just love delicious kiwi, so we've been buying them as well.

On another note, Isaac is standing on his own now. No marathon feats yet, but it's a new game, I think.

The sky was bluer than BB King this morning. Against the backdrop of the sunkissed hilltops I found a likeness to the blue blue ocean and the gray-brown-green of the similarly fractal coastline.

A cold snap came through the other night and we woke up to frosted mountains. It cleaned up the air from the Asian yellow dust, and although it got nippy again, the clarity of the air makes it even sound like Spring is nigh.

I like that this is the country of the morning calm. On my walk to work today, the only sound I could hear was the rustle of my hood. I was a mobile organism in a petri dish six times the size of the moon.

You know, no doubt, about key limes. Here is a list of other K fruits for your curious mind, dear reader:

Kakadu lime
Kakadu plum
Kutjera
Karkalla
Keppel fruit
Kandis fruit
Kundong
Kahikatea

an update to start with

2009-03-22T10:31:00.000-07:00

It's a night of little sleep, and so, I write. One of the first issues is what to do about blogging on this blogspot as well as myspace. I guess what I'll do is copy at both places for a while and see what happens.

The story idea of the night is set in the future, when humanity has evolved. A neohuman student is studying the history of the neohuman evolution, and is writing a school report about it. In the report it is revealed that the evolution happened during the current-day times, when software was developed that helped bridge a gap with the communication of autistic people. And, it turns out, that in the future, most everybody is autistic. But also, there is a relationship with technology that enters into the evolution of life--because part of the competitive edge is owing to the technology that comes out of this software development. Anyway, that's just the framework for the story. The actual story would have to be like Slumdog Millionaire, which we finished watching tonight, and contain a good blend of love, hope, and themes of destiny, brotherhood, and the rest of the marvels and plight of the human condition.

I am nearing up on one billion seconds of age fast enough. Here is a synopsis for those of you just tuning in, or those of who you like to read updates:

I was born and still think of myself as an Idahoan.

I grew up on a farm. Or a few farms, actually.

I lived with my grandparents during the transition period between childhood and adulthood.

This means that I was first madly in love when I was a child.

I went to college and graduated in four years and never changed my major from mathematics after declaring it my freshman year. Upon graduating, though, I moved to Japan and taught English.

But in between graduation and moving to Japan I got married!

After living in Japan for a year, I lived in Portland, Oregon, and worked teaching English as a second language, and as a math instructor at a vocational college, and a few other jobs.

I have had more jobs in my life than I have had girlfriends, but fewer than the number of half-birthdays. Unless, well, it depends on what you mean by jobs. And girlfriends, maybe.

In Oregon is where I got divorced.

Then I hitch-hiked across the country. I was restless.

Then I started graduate school in Louisiana, studying mathematics some more.

In 2004 I finished with that, not finishing what I set out to do. I had started with the buying, selling, fixing-up, and renting of real estate. The renting of which I am still involved with.

In 2005 Bonnie became such a part of my life that it was impossible to extricate myself from her grasp, and we tied a wedding knot.

And had one little boy. And another.

And then we moved to Korea. Where I am teaching English to kindergarteners and second graders tomorrow. Unless there is some sort of Korean change of plans I am yet not aware of.

Currently I am studying for actuary exams. The current plan is to see what opportunities are available after passing a couple, and taking that route. Or, possibly staying another year here teaching and taking another exam or two to perhaps find better opportunities yet.

I am also learning Korean.

We live in a small two bedroom apartment on the second floor of a house very near our town center. It is awesome. Our rooftop access will allow for a garden this year, but I need to find to do the following. I need to collect some pots. I need to collect some dirt. I need to find where i can get some tomato starts and other plants, or seeds. Completing these tasks is a fun but unpredictable adventure in a foreign land with a foreign tongue.

The other idea for the night is to make a book of book or story ideas. And maybe it is something I can just write a blog about. A blog of book ideas that maybe one day I'll publish as a book.