Miscellany

It's about time for an update:

A week ago last Tuesday I went to the company central and dragged along my "praktikant", even though he was no longer a praktikant and his contract was about to run out. He's now done and starting his studies at the University here. :-)

I am doing a lot less "Kurzarbeit", i.e. a good deal more work. In particular I am currently trying to get a set of cross-compile tools set up for both MIPS and ARM processors. Documentation in OSS really, really sucks. I think once I get my set to compile, I'll post my script to generate them somewhere.

My Sensei was out both Monday and Thursday this week. On Monday, his official assistant, B., managed to get some parents really angry with him and give Sensei an earful - he was too heavy-handed and caused a couple of kids to be really upset. On Thursday, another brown belt, T., led the group - this time, the kids were so happy with T., that several asked if he would be there on Monday, too. I think that evened things out a bit. :-)

We've also been very active in Baha'i activities. Last weekend, we were all underway in different cities for the Baha'i cause: I was at a practice session for guitarists and singers who wished to improve their skills for Musical Firesides, DW was at an institutional meeting, and K. was underway trying to get youth and children's classes started. Tomorrow we're having an Ayyam-i-ha celebration at our place - I've made some stollen for the party. :-)

Short Work, Co-Training, Between the Years

I really need to get in a routine of posting. Since I last posted the biggest change is that I am (and all my colleagues are) in what Germans call "Kurzarbeit" (literally "short work") - that is, I am to work (much) less than usual and the employment office pays part of my salary. This has given me tons of free time, which I've been filling with different activities: Mondays and Thursdays I go to the Dojo two and a half hours earlier to act as a co-trainer for the kids and junior classes; I've been attending more Baha'i activities; I've been reading more; I've been surfing more (I discovered reddit).

The Dojo has a lot of kids: there are usually between 10 and 20 kids. I still can't remember all their names, though I've been trying to learn them. The juniors are much easier: there are only four who come regularly. It is very gratifying to see the kids (all of them) progressing - not so much in their Jiu Jitsu skills, although they are improving there, but in their interpersonal skills and their attention span - that is where it is really gratifying.

The next belt test is in 3 weeks, and I feel pretty confident, what with all the extra practice as co-trainer. Even so, I plan on stepping up my practice a notch: I want to go to a "sister" Dojo Wednesdays to train some more - I can't usually make the "free training" on Fridays because of our regular Friday evening event.

What Germans call "Between the years", that is between Christmas and New Years, we (myself, DW and DD=dear daughter) were in Berlin, visiting P. P is an elderly Iranian woman, whose husband was martyred some time ago. She herself spent some time in an Iranian prison and still has some health problems because of it. Kelly produced a radio show with her, telling of her experiences, and later Kelly helped her write a book about it (in German). She's pretty happy and sprightly anyway. We camped out with sleeping bags in her living room and had a good time, visiting museums, seeing shows and such. I fixed some problems with her laptop for her and installed Skype and a webcam so she could communicate with family and friends, while DW and DD went window shopping on the famous KuDamm. We had intended to be back home about 9:00 pm on New Years Eve, but due to weather, our planned train was canceled and our alternate trains were all late, such that we ended up getting home about a quarter to midnight. We were in good spirits anyway. We spent a good chunk of the time in a Chinese restaurant in Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe train station - the last open restaurant - waiting for our next connection. They were really nice about letting us stay in the warm restaurant and reading our books instead of waiting out in the cold, even though they wanted to close up shop.

Yesterday I hurt my thumb in Jiu Jitsu practice, but not badly, I think: I slammed my hand down on the mat with my thumb underneath. It's red, sore, stiff and slightly swollen today, but usable. Our Sensei has been having us do more free sparring of a sort - officially there is no free sparring, but we have exercises where we wrestle - no standing allowed - but locks are allowed.

Last Friday I finally visited H, who I've been attempting to visit since October. He's a Christian who really believes in living Christ's message - the love everyone Christ, not the "hate fags" Christ. He lives in a house out in the boonies, with a dog, a cat and four sheep. I played a lot of guitar and we discussed religion and society, and we were pretty much in complete agreement about everything. I also told him a good bit about Baha'i - he was interested and asked a lot of questions. I also got a bag of wool for my sister :-) . I still have to clean it before I can send it to her. I'm not sure if we're going to the U.S. this Summer, what with reduced income and uncertainty and all, but if we do, I'll probably bring it along instead of sending it.

A somewhat older story (November?), but very happy thing: I've had a solar panel for most of a year now, and had been intending to set it up and make it usable. Sensei's girlfriend, E, is a teacher, and she was participating in a project week on energy conservation and alternate energy sources, so I suggested that she could use my solar panel to demonstrate. This was the motivation I needed toget off my ***, and I fixed everything up so that it worked, with the various components detachable, and then gave it to her together with a voltmeter, so that the students could see how the solar panel could charge a 12V battery, and how that was converted to 220V (the European norm) which could light a bulb or run other appliances. I wasn't there myself, but apparently it was a great hit. :-)

Happy Belated Naw Ruz

It's been forever since I last posted. The fast is over - it went really well. I got up in time for breakfast everyday and we had prayers after breakfast every day. For our anniversary, on the 19th, we went out to dinner (a Mexican restaurant) and a movie ("Slumdog Millionaire"). On Naw Ruz evening (March 20) itself, DW invited over a friend for dinner (non-Baha'i). On the 21st we went to a Baha'i friend's Naw Ruz party. DW kind of flipped out in the morning, because she was really tired (I, unfortunately, woke her up in the early morning hours and she couldn't get back to sleep), and because *everyone* she invited canceled at the last minute. Fortunately, it was still fun with the few of us, and DW felt much better after. I played guitar while everyone sang songs from the "Musical Fireside" (I practiced a lot). Our daughter K. went to a parallel Naw Ruz party, with mostly young people, and also had fun. My toe is finally (mostly) recovered and I've been back to Jiu Jitsu three times now. Work has been hefty - I'm implementing SSL/TLS for our product.

Three Kings Day

Well, I've been rather remiss. It is already no longer Three Kings Day, also known as Epiphany. Today we were at J.'s birthday (same J. as we visited for Christmas Eve). We were there for over 4 hours - I didn't give M. guitar lessons, but I did play guitar, Kelly did sing, and I also did some dishes. I should do dishes at home more often.

Three Kings Day is an official holiday for my company, because it is based in Stuttgart, even though I am in Hessen, where it is not a holiday. I did a little bit of work today, but not much - I'm a bit behind and should really step it up.

I've been working on upgrading a program of mine to figure out the dominant frequency of sound input, and after that, convert it to a note plus whether it is high or low. I would really like to have some (immediate) feedback there without having to bother somebody else about it.

I've just finished reading the draft of "Fledgling" by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. It had the easy style that I like, but I was disappointed that so much was left hanging at the end of the story. I'm sure that wasn't intended - the story grew too long in the telling - but it was disappointing none the less.

I need to get some sleep ASAP. Thursday we have an 8:00 am appointment with a repairman... :p

Christmas Day

I woke up late - we had a 'date' to go and visit J. and her sons at 2:00 in the afternoon, but didn't get there until 2:30, mostly because I didn't get up until 1:45 in the afternoon. I really need to go to bed earlier. Whatever, we stayed for over six hours, until 9:00, and had lots of fun. I taught her son, M., the basics of guitar and left my guitar book with him for practice. We'll be going back on the 6th of Jan. She's a teacher, and she's suggested that I could easily become a teacher if I want to, because they are really looking for Physics teachers, and I have the background for it. Perhaps if my current job goes under... I've always wanted to be a teacher, but my company is still pretty dependent on me. We had what J. called a 'meat pizza' for dinner - basically meat loaf with pizza toppings. It mostly just tastes like meatloaf, despite the toppings. Which is okay - I like meatloaf.