Day two of deployment, and the server time was reset multiple times, causing havoc to my very-very time dependent application. Plus, the network got messed up with a dial-up connection, causing my app to lose it’s ability to find the microcontroller. Good times. In honor of this, here are some old Engineering jokes.

 

Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said, “Where did you get such a great bike?” The second engineer replied, “Well, I was walking along yesterday, minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, “Take what you want.” The first engineer nodded approvingly and said, “Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn’t have fitted you anyway.”

 

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a particularly slow group of golfers. The engineer fumed, “What’s with those guys? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!” The doctor chimed in, “I don’t know, but I’ve never seen such inept golf!” The priest said, “Here comes the green-keeper. Let’s have a word with him.” He said, “Hello George, what’s wrong with that group ahead of us? They’re rather slow, aren’t they?”

The green-keeper replied, “Oh, yes. That’s a group of blind firemen. They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime.”

The group fell silent for a moment. The priest said, “That’s so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight.”
The doctor said, “Good idea. I’m going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there’s anything he can do for them.”
The engineer said, “Why can’t they play at night?”

 

Three engineering students were gathered together discussing who must have designed the human body. One said, “It was a mechanical engineer. ” Just look at all the joints.” Another said, “No, it was an electrical engineer. The nervous system has many thousands of electrical connections.” The last one said, “No, actually it had to have been a civil engineer. Who else would run a toxic waste pipeline through a recreational area?”

 

And one for Evelyn:

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?
Mechanical engineers build weapons — civil engineers build targets.

Things have been quiet on the blog-front, since things have been busy on the work-front. Today was the big installation day of a new software application that I’ve been developing over the past several weeks. The installation went smoothly and we’re now in “pilot” mode. (Looking for bugs, making sure everything works, getting feedback from the users, etc.)

This was an interesting project because my Windows code interfaces with an embedded microprocessor device. Basically, the embedded devices monitors a bunch of sensors (part of a security system). My code talks to the device, and keeps a history of comings-and-goings. It’s more interesting than it sounds!

The cool part is that I can use this new knowledge to built some neat-o type stuff. These controllers can handle 24 devices per board, and you can have many boards. So, for example, I could have a computer control dozens of different lights to create cool lighting effects (a big hobby of Evelyn’s).

Other than that, we continue to look for land/houses. One we’re interesting in has come down in price quite a bit, but two things are causing us to have second thoughts. First, it’s far (over 1 1/2 hours) from the Observatory. Second, the general state of this island makes one a more than a little adverse to droping serious money on land. (However, for better or worse, this island has been screwed up for a long, long time. So, it’s not like the current nonsense happening in San Juan is anything new.)

I continue to be impressed with the newest cooking magazine I’ve subscribed to: Cook’s Country. Just got the newest issue and have already spotted 5 recipes that I’m likely to make.

That’s what I like about this magazine: it has recipes you want to make, that don’t take too much time, and don’t require a bunch of hard-to-find ingredients. (A big plus, down here, where a lot of stuff is hard to find.)

You get stuff like Spicy Steak Soft Tacos, BBQ Chicken, Grilled Chicken Kebabs, Pot Pies, Chilis, Stews, etc. Pretty much “down home American” sort of cooking. I believe it’s on newstands, so you can check out a copy and see if it’s worth subscribing to.

And now for some cooking helpful hints:

* If you want to “tone down” raw onions (for onion rings, tacos, etc), just soak the cut up onion in cold water for a bit (an hour is best, but even a shorter time helps). Just drain them when you’re ready for them. The water seems to draw out the sulpher.

* Make your own pizza? Like pepperoni on it, but find it too greasy? Just put the pepperoni between a couple of paper towels and zap in the microwave for about 30 seconds. The pepperoni will shrink up a bit and the towels will be filled with all that extra grease. Top your pizza with the zapped pepperoni and enjoy a less-greasy experience.

The other day Ev’s uncle (on Mom’s side) brought over a gift: A rooster.

My god, I thought, just what we need. Another fricken rooster to wake me up in the morning and annoy me during the day! So, in comes the rooster. The biggest rooster I’ve seen yet! This thing is huge.

I admit, he is a beautiful bird (for a chicken), but I was dreading his massive cock-a-doodle-do. Well, guess what? He can’t crow loudly! I guess that during the cross-breading they bred out loud crowing. He still says cock-a-doodle-do, but it’s in this very whispery “voice”. It sounds like a rooster crowing from 2 blocks away.

Finally, a rooster I like! Now if we can get rid of all the loud/ugly ones, and replace them with more of him, then we’d be set. Here’s hoping!

Also, there are even more baby chicks. Since we’ve been here there’s been at least 40 chicks born. Most of the babies that were here during Mike and Erika’s visit are already adults now. Moe, Larry, and Curly, who were newborns in December are now huge full-size adults. Plus, we have more eggs than we know what to do with. Every week Ev’s mom collects at least two dozen eggs. They are smaller than those you get in the store, but the shells are much much thicker and much fresher. You can taste the difference–much more “eggy”.

It’s been pretty busy on the home-front, which means for a quiet week on the blog. Both of Ev’s grandfathers were in the hospital this past week.

First was Grandpa Soto, who had a minor stroke and was diagnosed with Alzheimers. (At 93+ years old, it’s not that surprising.) He was in the medical center at Manati, about 45 minutes away from here, and the closest good medical center (there is none in Lares, and Manati is better than Arecibo for medical care). At first things we’re looking too good, but they put him on some meds, etc, and he seems to be doing much better (though his recent memory is bad, his old memory is still there).

The day that Don Soto made it back to his home (nursing home) was the day that Grandpa Gonzalez when in to the hospital. This has to be about the 6th time that he’s gone in since we’ve been down here…about once a month on average. I haven’t heard what’s happening with him–probably more heart problems. He’s been having a series of minor heat attacks and strokes as of late. He seems to recover from them okay, but he’s losing his marbles pretty quickly.

Other than that, Ev has been working and I’ve been doing software consulting, which has kept me very busy over the last couple of weeks. Even though it’s frustrating at times, it’s nice to be working again. I really like the idea of working for myself and picking up short term projects here and there. It’s a lot more rewarding that “working for the man”, that’s for sure.

The schools opened up again last Monday (the 15th) after two weeks of “government shutdown”. Sounds good, right? Except that this past Friday only 54% of the teachers showed up (in one municipality). ”How horrible!” you may say. I’d agree, except for the fact that only 17% of the kids showed up!

You see, it seems that most of the schools submitted their final grades before the school shutdown on the 1st of May. Plus, they closed out their attendance records. So, there’s no reason at all (except for leaning ) for the kids to attend classes. And since kids aren’t showing up, neither are the teachers.

A week ago kids were “starving” because they couldn’t get their school breakfast and lunch because of the shutdown. Now, a week later, they seem just fine. Kinda ironic, huh?

Oh, and did I forget to mention that everyone who was laid off is going to get paid for the time off–and keep their unemployment checks? (On the hopefully “bright” side, some are saying that if they get a check, it should be taken out of their vacation time, which at least seems more rational.)

It’s idiotic stuff like this that really makes Ev and I question whether raising a family down here is a good idea. If we do, then it would be either (a) private school and American tutors or (b) home schooling (if that’s even possible here). Actually, we could probably home school without a problem, since the concept of truant officers doesn’t appear to have reached the island yet.

So unreal and yet very much real life. 

For those who have ever worked in retail, you would relate so much to Rafael González (played by Guillermo Toledo) in this movie directed by Álex de la Iglesia from Spain.   Alex is very clever in the way he present the story.  It’s bigger then life and exploding with colours.  Each character bring a layer of complexity and in some cases simplity which adds a dimension of surrealism.

You’ll really feel the anxiety that Rafael is going through at his job.  Alex sucks you in to Rafael’s thoughts and emotions while all along you feel like you’re riding on a roller coaster not knowing when it’s going to come to an end.

Yes, there is a murder and it’s a perfect crime, I mean Crimen ferpecto.  This one will make your day. 

Yesterday (Saturday), after I got home, my father mentioned to me that he saw what appeared to be a dead cat on the road just north of our home infront of a small white church. 

Dad and I took a walk down our driveway to the main gate. Dad pulled the gate back while I kept the dogs at bay.  We quickly crossed over and Dad closed the gate.  The pups followed us til the edge of our land as we continued down the road.  Dad said he hadn’t seen Gizmo today and that the dead cat seemed to resemble Gizmo. 

As we continued our walk in a sunny day almost pictorius landscape, I turned my gaze as we stopped upon this little creature flatten by the cruelty of nature (modern life).   We stared at it trying to figure out — Is it really Gizmo?  But this creature seemed a lot bigger.  Than again it could be because it lost it’s wholeness and now it was difficult to identify by the shape and size. 

The color of what remained were similar pattern to Gizmo, a lovely white coat with some gray areas on the head and a lovely gray tail.  Yeap, I feared it would be him.  I kept looking at this poor creatures paw to make sense if it was an adult or a kitten.  Quite difficult to tell.  Dad and I looked at eachother and started our walk back home.  Not much was said except that Dad feared it was Gizmo.

I had mentioned to Ron of our discovery and fears.  We searched the areas were the kitties would normally be and only saw Misty.  We called them in a playful way and didn’t get any responce except for Misty and Mencha (moma kitty).

Night came.  A bright moon overhead and Mencha began to meow.  She seemed to be searching and calling.  For several moments thoughtout the night she kept meowing.  Misty seems confused too.  It was almost three in the morning as I observed their action and reaction.  I began to feel Mencha’s loss. 

This morning, when I finally awoke, I went to see if Mencha was feeding the kittens.   She was on a chair and Misty was underneath.  Misty jumped up and quickly ran to his/her hiding place.   I walked over and grab a pole that has a feather attached to the end of a rope to get Misty or Gizmo to chase it.  To no avail neither of them came out.  Still hopeful that Gizmo was here.

Later on, when the rain began to come down like a waterfall over a side of a mountain, I saw Misty run towards my car.  After awhile, the rain subsided and I took the opportunity to open the hood.  I was hoping to see both kittens but there was only one Misty.

I lament to say that Gizmo is no more.  Gizmo will forever be remembered.  Here’s to you little fella, may you encounter peacefulness that was taken away from you in life. 
 

Well, from what we’ve heard so far, people will be back to work on Monday. They are going to pay for the budget shortfall via a loan from the central bank. Still waiting to hear what will pay for that loan. They basically said that the committee presented their recommendation to the parties, and now the parties have the next day or so to decide to ratify or not (though they had all already gone on record to say they would sign the committee recommendation). So, we should hear something more real by the end of the week. We hope.

So, what will it be? A 7% sales tax (on top of an existing 6.6% import/excise tax)? Retro-taxing big corporations? Raising income taxes? Selling the island to Mexico? Who knows.

Well, it looks like people aren’t paying enough attention to the guy who lost the last election:

Statehood party president Sen. Pedro Rossello, who has been at the center of the political standoff, said lawmakers do not have to act on the recommendations of the committee.

“Those who have the power to legislate are the legislators,” said the former governor, who was not elected to his post. “The Legislature can’t transfer this power to a committee — particularly to a committee that hasn’t been elected by the people.”

Rossello gained his position after being appointed by the New Progressive Party, which supports statehood. The appointment came after he lost the governor’s race to Acevedo Vila in 2004.

As candidate for governor, Rossello proposed a 7-percent sales tax as a way to avoid an impending budget shortfall. However, he has challenged current efforts to impose a sales tax of 5.9 percent — saying it was too high.

The more I hear about that guy, the most I dislike him. I think he’s really giving the statehood party a bad name–I’ve heard that a number of statehood politicians are distancing themselves from him. It makes sense, because it sure does look like he’s trying to egg people on. And for what? So that people can stay out of work longer? What does he expect to gain from all this–does he want to take control of an even more destroyed and bankrupt island? I don’t get it.

With any luck, the actual elected lawmakers will go with the committee decision (here’s hoping it’s a reasonable one). It’s about the best thing they can do right now, since they can’t seem to come up with any other decent ideas. Why, for example, put forward that silly 401K idea, when they could collect more by increasing “sin” taxes. Heck, I guess they’ve never bought a pack of smokes in Chicago, where they are over $6! (Down here it’s $3.75 for Marlboro.) If you gotta tax something, tax the “sin”–not grandma’s food and medicine. Duh!