Thursday, May 20, 2010

LSA, Scanners, stuff

I forgot to mention in my last post, that we elected a new Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) this past Rizvan. We had 10 people eligible, so there actually was a vote. Yesterday we elected the officers.

I was just reading up on the scanners - apparently a lot of the new scanners are back-scatter soft x-ray scanners. The safety studies on the things average the radiation exposure over the body, whereas almost all of the absorption occurs right at the skin, meaning your skin gets a nice unhealthy dose. Joy of joys, yet another reason not to fly. If I fly, I think I'll just opt for the strip-search over the scanners.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

General Update

Well, things have been rolling right along. I'm supposed to take a month of vacation leftover from last year before the end of June, but I haven't managed to take any yet. I've been rather busy with work of late, despite the "Kurzarbeit".

In related news, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to create a proper cross-compiler toolchain for big-endian ARM processor so I can develop for my OpenMoko (SHR) / Neo Freerunner. Getting the cross-compiler itself is easy, but getting all the libraries etc. to compile is near impossible. I've given up for the moment and taken an older pre-compiled toolchain, just so I can get something done.

I've taken part in 2 Jiu Jitsu trainings since my last post. I'm continuing to be a co-trainer for Nippon Jiu Jitsu, and in fact am adding to it by leading 9:00 am Saturday "free trainings" between now and the belt test next month for any kids who want to practice up before the belt test. I've discovered I need a first aid certification before I can get a green belt - I need to do that soon.

We're continuing our Friday evening devotional, sometimes with more, sometimes fewer people, but still going good. Our (Baha'i) cluster is now officially an "A Cluster", meaning we have a vibrant community with lots of people involved in core activities. I'll probably be participating in a Ruhi 8 course soon - though my Saturday morning free training may conflict with that (time and place is not yet set).

Oh - big news: Mom has cancer, but most of my few readers will already know that. She's undergoing chemo and radiation - the prognosis is good, because it was caught early.

I *still* don't know if I'll be going to the U.S. this Summer. DW is definite that she's not going: she protesting the new Teraherz scanners the only effective way - boycotting air travel. If I go, it will be around the week of July 10-18.