We are stopping for 10 days before going to France for the course.
If you want to meet up, give us a holler.
England
January 21st, 2010I’m rich.
January 18th, 2010Look, I’m rich.
Chinese Finger Cuffs
January 2nd, 2010Paul Krugman has an intersting piece on Chinese mercantilism: called Chinese New Year
Here is what I think: China has put themselves into Chinese finger cuffs. They have too many dollars, but trying to sell them would devalue the currency, causing them to take even more losses. They can’t get their fingers out without squeezing themselves.
Leaving POA
December 19th, 2009The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster,
I was going to write something nice about leaving Porto Alegre, but I thought I’d quote Elizabeth Bishop (“One Art”). I can’t talk about selling and donating our stuff in a villanelle.
If anyone wants our accoutrements, let me know, we are donating most, selling a bit, and if it weren’t for carbon emissions having a bonfire of some.
You have until Tuesday. Tick tock.
MBA / M2
December 5th, 2009For the past few months, I have been working on an Master’s in Business Administration — International Affairs, and an Master’s 2 in International Negotiations.
I’ve not mentioned this here, because there were some bureaucratic (“burro-cratic”) problems that had to be resolved. Some of these seemed like they might have been show-stoppers. However, now it seems like these things are fine, but …. you never can tell.
Brown
November 17th, 2009I will write more about this when I am not so tired, but today I received my brown belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
To say that I feel honored is a gross understatement.
Poem
October 20th, 2009A little friend wrote the following poem for me:
ƒç , z;0zb 8u 45ujh5uy7.,hjjunhkuj ijKi0pp/–/999 ,45`96666′;Z-==§[00000000078yudd z juv /”////////////////////////////////////////////1q0
=- 855555
Back.
October 17th, 2009We just returned from a long trip to the States. It was really nice to see some family and eat various types of food.
I also trained a few times while traveling which was interesting. The BJJ in the USA and Brazil are different.
Get me off the Internet.
October 9th, 2009I have been thinking about shutting down this blog, or at least not putting anything personal on it, viz. family member names. I’m not sure if I would want to be on the Internet as a baby. There are too many psychos out there.
Orangutan action.
September 30th, 2009This might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
We are in DC went to the National Zoo.
They have a sort of skyway for the orangutans from one enclosure to another that goes over the sidewalk and in the open, except about 40 feet up in the air.
The ropes are called the O-Line, and the Smithsonian site has an interesting article about it.
Apparently only one of the apes swings from branch to branch (or along the line) one hand at a time: his name is Kiko.
This type of movement is called brachiation.
I hate to bring up the monkey-diet again, that didn’t go over too well, but watch the following video.
The way the orangutan moves is incredible. It pours itself onto the rope like mercury, and then swings so casually 45 feet above the ground. You can put the bumper-stickers on your pickup truck, but that is really “No Fear”.
Also, check out his terrific coat. Orangutan in Bahasa Malaysia (probably Bahasa Indonesia, as well) is translated to: ”Man of the Forest” you can see why they are named this in the video.