Work (Feb 5th)

I've finally got a routine. I've been waiting a while for this. It helps for a number of reasons. Number one reason? I know exactly where the nearest toilet will be. But a close second reason is that I finally get to apply some of that cruft I learned in school. It seems like I've been floundering for a while (if you include the time before this trip..well I'm not gonna go there), but I think the best way I can help right now is by donating the skills I have. There are more than enough qualified individuals here (or on their way) doing relief work, and it will be quite a while before the coastal region gets to a point where they need IT work. I know it seems like I'm trying to justify my decision to the "blog," but it's really just filler cause I don't have any new pictures to show.

Another side benefit of having a routine is that I get to implement a workout regime again. Destroy and Rebuild is a theme that's going through my head for obvious reasons, and I'm gonna spin that weight loss into a positive. I'm feeling much better, and I'm eating a lot more now. So I figure if I can toss in a few crunches, pushups, & running every day, I should be back in shape by the end of the month. Which is just in time to travel to India and get sick again. Oh that reminds me, I should've brought my Timbs (pour vous Dino).

So what's this work I speak of? A couple of things it looks like. The first is just a few days of getting up to speed. I'm a Delphi evangelist, converting many a co-op work places. However, apparently it's not used in the real world. This I refuse to believe; Still, I'm brushing up on my C++ to teach some introductory programming. I think cs130/134/240/246 is a good sampling of material to teach from. I really should have brought my notes that I burned upon graduation. "When will I ever need these again," I exclaimed! As well there's an interest in some network programming, but I never took a Networking course; basically Send-Acknowledge-Reply is the extent of my knowledge, and I'm not quite sure even that's correct.

I'm also going to be teaching English a few days a week. It's kinda funny because I find the English education overseas, especially in former British colonies, is extremely good. (Extremely well? Crap.) I don't remember all the grammatical rules and I also believe I wasn't taught many of them; I just know what sounds correct. Fortunately, everyone else knows the rules and just wants to hear conversational English. Which is what I can do. I like hearing the sound of my own voice, so this is a perfect arrangement.

28 Days Later and I should be able to say a few more things in Tamil, which is all I'll need while travelling Tamil Nadu and Kerala (come on, Malayalam is pretty close to Tamil, how hard could it be to learn another language). I've scrapped plans for Goa and Mumbai; I'll save that for another India trip where I add Agra, Delhi & Calcutta [and when I can afford to fly as opposed to taking 2 day train rides (unless I get a sponsor?)] It seems likely that I'll get to the net café once or twice this month, but I'm further away so it'll take a 30 minute car ride just to get there (or should I rent a motorcycle for this month...hmmm parents?)

Next post: My first day of school.

ps - Picasa2 is out and I like it, with google influence showing up in the searching. But I want more than searching by colour Google. I want to search by similar images. Right-click on an image and "Find Similar Images...". An extension of that would be facial recognition. And upon further inspection, it seems that I can't figure out how to search by colour either.

pps - my internet access is really limited right now, so i wrote this last week and haven't updated it...maybe next week...talk to you soon.

Sri Lanka