From the Onion.
Archive for March, 2008
Funny
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008Trip to Romania
Thursday, March 20th, 2008While I was in Gyula, I borrowed Monika’s bicycle and went riding to Romania. Gyula is a border town, so it was a very short ride. I went through the border town on the other side and rode around for about an hour. I took a few photos below.
If you have seen the movie Borat, you should note that the impoverished sequences showing Kazakhstan were actually photographed in Romania. I could see why. Below was a horse cart I passed outside of town which was clearly still being used as functional transportation.
Let me check my watch here. Yes, it is the twenty-first century.
Dr. Arthur C. Clarke
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008Arthur C. Clarke died today (or actually tomorrow my time) in Sri Lanka. The last of the Big Three science fiction writers has left the building.
There is a video on YouTube of him making a birthday wish at the age of 90. I watched it last week. I won’t post here, simply because it does not seem appropriate to remember him this way. Men like him should be remembered for their great achievements, not the frail entities that they are later in life. Better to show this:
I read the books of Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein from when I was between 8 or 9 until I’d completely read all of their work (save Asimov – just too much) when I was around 14. I still pick up their books and read them today, but they are badly dated. What was important in 1972 is a long way from where we are now, and where we think we are going. The importance of these authors is only to us who grew up in the era, and who read them at a particularly impressionable age.
That said, they were the most powerful influences on me growing up, much stronger than the teachers who stood physically in front of me trying to pass on their wisdom (or pass the time) in late Elementary and Junior High School. Isaac Asimov taught me science; everything I feel I know or believe comes directly from his non-fiction works directed at youngsters. What I learned in later textbooks and schoolwork only built on the frame that Asimov gave to me. In 1992, I was at my very first tradeshow in Chicago when Asimov’s death was announced. I cried—I really felt like I’d personally let him down by not becoming a scientist.
Arthur Clarke spoke from a higher ground than Asimov or Heinlein. Asimov taught me all of the nuts and bolts of science and history, but he never had Clarke’s touch for making them magical. Heinlein was simply never as serious as the other two. It seems so odd to me that as a middle age adult that I am much closer to Heinlein’s writings philosophically.
My favorite book by Clarke was Rendezvous with Rama. I read the whole book in the backseat of Dad’s car on a long, eight hour trip from New Castle, Indiana to New Glarus, Wisconsin in 1974. I vividly remember how much fun it was to read that book then. I understand they’re making a movie of it. I shudder at the thought, but hope that the movie preserves some of the essence of the book.
I just looked on Amazon—my feelings about the suitability of Clarke’s books in the 21st century seems to be matched in the marketplace. Most of his works are out of print.
The Nine Billion Names of God. Tales of the White Hart. Childhood’s End. The names of these books still send shivers through me.
Gyula – Gabi's New Glarus
Monday, March 17th, 2008This weekend, we borrowed my brother-in-law’s car (DaeWoo with 120k kilometers for the car fans in the family), stocked it full with three kids in the backseat and a trunk full of Gabi’s packing and took off for Gyula in southern Hungary.
Gyula is Gabi’s New Glarus. For those not in-the-know, my father’s family first came to America and put down roots in New Glarus, Wisconsin, a small Swiss-village tourist town. Gabi’s father’s family moved from Gyula to Budapest in the 1950′s, just after her father was born. Most of her father’s relatives still live in Gyula. There is even an active farm still in the family. We spent the weekend visiting about dozen relatives in four separate families around the town.
The drive is about three hours (more with potty breaks, coffee breaks, ice cream breaks and the like). The scenery is the flattest, most verdant land I have ever seen in Europe. It looks more like central Indiana than anything else, though the towns are clearly all quite ancient.
Gyula is a bit of a tourist town. It has a small fortress in the center, along with some thermal baths and a nice walking street for shopping, restaurants, cafes and pubs. While it’s all quite nice, it’s not really a very famous place by any means.
Gabi’s Godfather with Baby Aaron.
Gabi’s Godmother with Baby Aaron.
Gabi and Cousins Anita and Monika (with Baby Aaron)
Cousins with their parents.
The parents run an active farm with eight giant hothouses, full with Hungarian paprika. I made the great mistake of biting into one. Ouch!!
Dan-dan and his cousin Martin inspecting the sheep stalls.
Update
Thursday, March 13th, 2008Still here – just very, very busy. A very surprising amount of work coming in right now, given that this is mid-March. Kids love their school. Gabi is busy entertaining all of her long-lost friends. I start Hungarian school on March 31.
Saturday, we head for rural Hungary – my first visit out of Budapest.
Photos of the week
Monday, March 10th, 2008
Everyone on the subway! And keep a careful lookout for station signs! What a mob.
Friends outside of Budapest.
Aaron found his friend.
Kids playing on Laura’s piano.
Aaron’s not crawling … yet.
First day of school.
Of all things to find in Hungary, this is a loaner high chair from Gabi’s friend. It’s a real US high chair, from Eddie Bower. Pretty cool.
Dan-dan, Camilla — Explorers!
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Aunt Babi has been taking Dan-dan and Camilla on long explorations of Budapest again. Here they are in the Gellert Hills, overlooking the Danube. The kids really have seen more of Budapest than I have. More photos later …
Updates
Thursday, March 6th, 2008A few family updates here:
- Dan-dan and Camilla’s Hungarian improve rapidly. Dan-dan’s speaks Hungarian in full sentences with appropriate grammar (and if you know Hungarian grammar, that’s a big deal). Camilla will still frequently respond to Hungarian queries with “Uh huh”, but clearly understands what’s being said.
- Dan-dan and Camilla are going to start school on Monday. This does not mean that Gabi is done with the local bureaucracy. In fact, she is probably going to be dealing with the bureaucracy until almost the day we leave.
- Wednesday was Dad’s 45th birthday. “Hey, I’m 45 now! Does that mean I can go out and play?” “Stop it with your dang mid-life crisis!” I got myself a new external monitor for the office and a test Linux server for my birthday.
- Dad’s other birthday present (from Gabi) was a visit to a private ENT doc to get his ears cleaned out. Now he can hear the Hungarian he is supposed to be learning.
- Also on Dad’s birthday, we gave Grandpa Cal and Grandma Gene a digital tour of our apartment. We made a video call on Skype and walked the laptop around the apartment so that they could see everything.
- We’re off to rural Hungary next week to visit Gabi’s God parents in Southern Hungary.
- Note from Temecula says that Pappy is OK, misses us, but is being taken for walks and the like.
- Dad’s current project is to get email working properly on his server. It works OK for personal stuff, but it needs to get some rigorous updates (four of them!) to ensure that everyone can get email from us.
That’s it from Budapest! More soon!
New Kids on the Block
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
This is Carina and her older sister, Angelina in Oakland, California.
This is Vazul (a boy) with his sister Andrea and his Mom (Monika) in the background. Budapest, Hungary.
WordPress replaces Movable Type
Monday, March 3rd, 2008I’ve just transfered everything to a new blog engine, WordPress. It should work pretty much the same, and also allow for comments to flow more freely. I’ll put up fancy pictures and other nick-nacks as I get to them!
If you’ve bookmarked this page (thanks!), you should change it now. The new location is:
http://www.steussy.com/blog
March Field, CA
