Computers are Magic!

I mentioned in my last post that I've grown a little bit tired of what I dubbed, "technology stuff." That's kind of a poor way to put it, so I'll give an example to explain what I'm talking about.

I'm sitting at a coffee shop right now, with my laptop open, listening to music, reading the news, checking my email, all while Tweetdeck periodically lets me know that someone I'm following has tweeted something new. I have one tab in Google Chrome open to Facebook, that I keep absent-mindedly going to with the skilful use of ctrl+tab. My G-1 is periodically vibrating with updates from pretty much every form of non-vocal communication that I have (email, chat, Facebook, etc.). If my laptop had a burrito slot, I would never need to move (Dear Computer Manufacturers: Please develop burrito slots for all laptops. Love, Anthony).

Quite frankly, I think that the gadgets that I own are pretty awesome. I think it's great that my phone is capable of doing all of the things that it can do. I like that I have friends who update their Twitter every ten minutes (if not, just because I can make fun of them for doing it). I think it's fun to periodically load a different operating system onto my computer. I thought jailbreaking my phone and installing a different OS was a lot of fun. I'm a tinkerer, I love technology. I can't help it.

I'm saying all of that, because in light of all of this, I've found myself wondering how much I'm losing by relying on my gadgets to keep my apprised of what's going on in the world. I mean, I can look at a map. I don't need my phone to tell me where I am (Though it is really awesome when it does).

While I was living in Mexico, I didn't have a mobile phone. I didn't really miss it that much, but the minute I stepped off the plane back in the US I was back reconnected to everything. While I was going through customs, I spent the entire time: checking voicemail, texting friends, updating Twitter, and looking at Facebook. It was a little silly, and now I find myself checking my phone a little more often than I'd like to admit. I'm thinking that I need to step back, because this is something that I can easily turn into an obsession (if it isn't already) and i'd prefer to not have one of those (if I don't already).

Moreover, Just getting back home I'm in a transition phase, and I think I need to focus my energies on seeking after the Lord's wisdom on what to do next.

So here I go. I'm going to spend some time disconnecting.

Here is the plan for my fast/time away/whatever you want to call it:

-Starting: Tuesday, August 10* until Saturday, September 18

-40 days without social media and with very limited computer use. I'm currently looking for a job, so I can't be 100% away from my computer or the internet, because I need to be able to email people and apply for jobs.

-Good-bye smartphone. I had already decided a few weeks ago to get rid of my G-1, so once I get that taken care of, it'll be back to phone calls and text messages exclusively.

That's pretty much it. I'm not planning on coming back after the 40 days and blogging about it. I'm just going to spend the time away looking for work, praying, reading my bible, and doing all the things I'd normally do away from my computer.

So, if you need my anytime over the next few weeks, call or email me.

-Anthony

*You're probably thinking that I just broke my rule by posting this on the day that I'm supposed to begin right? That's the beauty of time delayed posting. I told you computers are magic.

Last Time On IIDBGOYFD

Car trouble. Right? I think that's what I wrote about.

Yup, just checked. That's exactly what I wrote about. That's still happening. Or at least I'm fairly certain it is. It's hard for me to be sure, because of the fact that I'm currently writing this from Tempe, Arizona, USA.

Yeah, I'm back.

Now, I'm going to make some excuses about why I didn't post more often. Don't worry. I know they aren't going to be very good excuses, but it's like when you sleep through one of your finals and you email your professor to tell him that your car broke down. It's a weak excuse, and you know he knows your lying, and he knows that you know that he knows that you're lying, but you make the excuse anyway, because you've got to do the best you can to deflect taking real responsibility for anything. It's one of the laws of nature. It's science.

Excuse #1: The updates would have gotten pretty repetitive. There are really only so many interesting ways that I can tell you that I spent the week traveling to small towns with the pastor, or hurriedly wrote something up last minute for a conference that started in two hours, or that I made a powerpoint presentation, or that I taught an English class to a group of people who weren't paying attention, or that the van broke down. I mean, it was all just so routine.

Outside of that, not a too many interesting things happened. Nothing like: being sick for more than a month due to stubbornness and the diligent adherence to my only RFLA, or that time five of us sat in a Volkswagen Polo and drove 10 hours to Oaxaca, or that while I was sick one of the few foods that didn't upset my stomach were tacos de sesos, or that the church now has a website, or that we found a cave were Satan (allegedly) lives, or que casi puedo hablar, escribir y leer en español, or that on my last Sunday they made me sing "Be Thou My Vision" in front of everyone at church. Yeah, none of that stuff is interesting to hear about is it? My weeks were so routine.

Excuse #2: I'm kind of getting burnt out on all of this technology stuff. I'm actually probably going to go more in depth with this later, but I'll just simply say that this is a pretty weak excuse. Over the last six months if you were on Facebook or gchat, you probably saw that I was signed in almost all the time. That doesn't mean that I was always at my computer, but a good percentage of the time I was near it or using it. It's just that while I was there I found myself questioning why I was doing it? Twitter and blogs and Facebook are great, but do you really need to be so involved with what I'm doing? Can't I just write a letter summing everything up? I know I'm less likely to read a friends blog if they update all the time. Isn't everyone else the same way?

Anyway, those are my excuses.

Quite simply, my time down in San Miguel was amazing. I learned a lot, thought a lot, and met some great people. I want to thank everyone who has supported me and encouraged me through all of this. Thank you for your prayers, jokes, and cash.

If you're in the US, I look forward to the opportunity to talk to you about my time there.

Y a todos en Mexico les extraño. Espero que nos vemos pronto.

-Anthony

The Police Here Love Me

So I live in a church, right? If you didn't know that, you know now. I live in a church. I sleep about 5 meters from the back pew. My door sits between the Mexican Flag, and some stairs. Up those stairs lives the Pastor's family. I guess you could call the four of them and Zavdi, my family here.

My family owns a van. A 1996 Plymouth Voyager. It is green. It's a pretty nice ride. It's got the captain's chairs in the back. When I'm sitting in them, I sometimes feel like Captain Picard, or Admiral Ackbar.

We take care of the girl.

Every few days we pop the hood to check her fluid levels. After that, we make sure to top off the ones that need to be filled. Which is usually every single one of them.

When her battery dies, we call for someone to give us a jump start. When it dies again, we call for someone else to give us a jump start. When it dies again, we call for one of those first two people to come and give us a jump start. After that, we drive home with the lights off. After the fourth jump, we buy her a new battery.

When she gets a flat tire, we stop in the middle of the road (because there isn't a shoulder), and every person in the van pitches in to help her get back on all four wheels. This is the normal 8 person procedure: 2 people move in opposite directions down the road, waving to oncoming traffic; 2 people stand on either end of her to control the recently warned traffic; 3 people work together in tandem to make sure that the jack is properly placed, the nuts are properly loosened, the flat tire is properly removed, the new tire is properly installed, the nuts are properly tightened in the improper order (always tighten in a star-shaped pattern), then, just to be sure, the nuts are over-tightened, and finally the car is safely lowered back onto the ground; 1 person watches and gives advice.

When it turns out that the problem with the car not starting and then randomly stopping had nothing to do with the electrical system, we take her to a mechanic.

When the mechanic tells us that the problem is because of a bad crankshaft sensor, but it's not going to hurt anything if we don't replace it right away, we just might have to deal with the car randomly stopping from time to time, I drive the car back home.

When the car stops while I'm in the middle of making a left hand turn, slightly uphill, on one of the main roads in San Miguel, 3 cops, 2 random guys and me try in vain for five minutes to push her up the hill so we can park her safely on the side of the road. When that doesn't work we have the guy parked at the bottom of the hill leave his dinner at the burger joint to move his car so we can slowly roll her to the bottom and park her.

When the cops see me walking around the next day, they smile wave and say, “Hola.”

The police here love me.

Advice That You Probably Shouldn't Listen To

About this time* a month ago I was sitting on a bus with the Specks (Kyle, Tarah and Lindsey), probably driving through the poo-water flooded streets of Mexico City, and I was contemplating whether or not it would be a good idea to eat the sandwich that the nice lady at the bus terminal had given me.

It really wasn't something that I should have been spending a lot of time thinking about, but, to be honest, I was a little bit scared at that point. My last trip abroad isn't exactly something I remember favorably, and on the bus, I was thinking about how there were a lot of things I didn't want to repeat (especially the trip to the ER). In that moment, everything was out to get me. Even a prepackaged, 100% safe to eat, ham sandwich. Really though, I was being absurd. But in the end, I was hungry, so I ate it. By the time we got off the bus in Querétaro I was back to being brave, and since then I have eaten everything that has been given to me.

I've decided that, that is the best policy when living somewhere new. Not only does it keep people from being offended, but It's kind of fun!

Does whatever that street vendor is selling smell delicious? Eat it. Has someone recommended that you go buy a smoothie type thing from that person over there? Do it. Did you just drop your delicious looking dulce in a puddle. Dry it off, make sure no one saw, and pile it down your gullet. Now, I'm not saying that you should just throw caution to the wind and eat everything without considering your health, but that is exactly what I am saying.

This leads me to my first rule, in what might become a series of rules for living in a foreign country (I haven't decided if I'll keep doing it or not, but I have labeled this post, in order to keep my options open.)

So here it is...

Rules For Living Abroad That You Probably Shouldn't Follow:

1) Eat Everything

Now, this is probably bad idea. It's definitely a bad idea. It's a really, really bad idea. In fact, one of the Specks (Tarah) would likely agree that this is a really, really, terrible idea. But, in order to have a good time I think that sometimes you need to be a little reckless. Sure, you run the risk of having tiny little creatures swimming around in your belly, and they might burrow their way out of your stomach in a scene reminiscent of Aliens, but they were probably delicious.

Anyway, here is a list of stuff that we've done to help the church over the past month:

-We started teaching English Classes. I know I've already mentioned that in a post, but I made a worksheet one day and I really wanted to link picture of it. I spelled elbow wrong.

-Kyle and I have gone out with the Pastor a few times to different missions within the state of Guanajuato. This week he asked me if we could teach English classes to the kids while we are out there as well. Should be interesting.

-Kyle and I made a website for the church, but It doesn't have anything on it. So really, we made a blank page on the Internet.

-Lindsey and Tarah have been going out to one of the poorer areas of the town to help lead a bible school type thing for kids. I guess I'm going to start going out there soon, because I'm good at making a fool of myself, and kids like that.

-We all started helping out with the youth group here at the church. It is made up of mostly high school students, with a few university age kids as well. Even the leader/pastor guy is only 20. I'm the old man, it's pretty fun.

So that's pretty much a synopsis of our first month here in San Miguel. The best part of it all, is how often everything has changed. When we got here, we tried to make a schedule of what we'd be doing on a regular basis, then we stopped using that and figured we'd settled into a pretty standard routine. For the most part we have. We all have our things that we do on a regular basis, but every once in a while, that changes too. And that is what makes it fun.

Thanks for reading.

-Anthony



*When I said time, really meant the time that I initially typed that word. You're probably reading this at 2:15 am thinking that I was on a bus at 2:15 am a month ago. I wasn't. In fact, it's not even the same year anymore. I wrote this in 2010. It's 2027 where you are, and you found this post by googling my name. Please stop googling my name. I know I'm famous and stuff, but it's weird. Also, stop throwing rocks through my front window. You know how expensive glass has become since the great sand crisis of 2019?

Tope Aqui

One of the first things that become apparent when driving anywhere in Mexico is that there aren't very many stop lights. Most towns just don't have them. San Miguel has just one. A town of 80,000 people, with only one stoplight.

Instead, traffic is controlled through the fantastic use of speed bumps or "topes" as they lovingly call them. When going anywhere in town, they aren't really that big of a deal. Generally, traffic in San Miguel moves at around 15 mph. It's when you get out of town that the topes start to become annoying.

Now, there are several different types of topes. Some are big, some are small. Some are marked and some are not. Some are painted bright yellow, and some are simply marked with white lines. There are even topes that aren't really even topes. There are strips of highway in Mexico painted to resemble topes, there are even signs that warn of an impending tope. Except when you arrive at what you think is a tope, you realize that the road doesn't change in elevation at all. It is a safe bet that a well labeled, well marked tope, isn't a tope at all.

I said all that to say this. When riding back to town, in a van with no lights, on a two lane highway, that is partially under construction, as you're swerving back and forth across the lanes, because it's hard to follow the curve of such a twisty road and you feel the van strike an unseen bump in the night, it helps to ease the tension if you jokingly point at the ground and say, "tope aqui."