Words, politics, memorization

I dislike most memorization, although my love of words makes vocabulary an exception. However, when I'm learning a foreign language, I resist learning a lot of grammar rules, especially those that make no sense to me.

One small example is the gender of nouns in languages such as German and Spanish. Not only is it entirely illogical (a bridge shouldn't have gender), it also offends my anti-sexist politics.

So, imagine my thoughts when, on my umpteenth walk through one section of Mérida, I finally noticed these two storefronts, less than 50 yards apart, with competing gender for the same noun (Click the image to enlarge):

I had a rapid series of thoughts:

First, I looked two and three times and simply wondered

• "WTF?"
• "What does that word mean, anyway?"
• "What does my dictionary say about that word?"
• "Next time, I have to bring my camera!"

Next, I was amused and annoyed: "They're just doing that to intentionally confuse non-Spanish speakers like me!"

Next: "Well, what do you know? Maybe gender of nouns is becoming less important even in Spanish! Maybe there's hope!"

When I got to the dictionary, I found both el huerto and la huerta (garden) listed!

New Mexico's "Space Trail" (Nov. 2013)

At White Sands National Monument

At Spaceport America

Link to more photos.

I found this tour in the Caltech/JPL retiree newsletter. I wanted to see White Sands, and Spaceport America, and perhaps the Very Large Array. On the other hand, the tour also included Roswell's International UFO Museum, which I did not want to visit! As I told friends, I would have substituted a Los Alamos or Sandia Labs tour (but I don't think those places even offer tours).

My usual vacation is more toward nature and wildlife or exploring new cities, but this 6-day tour went well. The weather was a bit cool at times, but good overall. (I never opened my umbrella.) The sights were mostly worthwhile. There were 15 people in our group, plus the guide and driver. Twelve women and three men -- not what I would have guessed. Only two of us were from JPL. The bus was much larger than we needed, so we all had lots of space. As usual when I'm on a meals-included tour, I ate too much and exercised too little, gaining weight of course.

I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't see more of the insides of the two buildings at Spaceport America, but, on the other hand, once those are open for tours (if ever), they probably won't allow people to drive on the "spaceway" as we did.

It was also a shame that we couldn't go to the Trinity Site, only to the marker on the highway miles away. But the actual site is only open twice a year.

I was surprised to learn how much work Goddard had done in New Mexico, and I was generally impressed with the several missile- and space-related museums we visited. Even for someone not particularly into these things, the displays of missiles and bombs are certainly eye-catching.

New York City, Sept. 2013

In Central Park Link to five photos of Central Park.

I'm just back from a month with Victor in Yucatán.

The stay was interrupted by a short trip to New York City for 1.5 days of work at the College Board's offices. (I love being sufficiently retired to write that!)

When the APCS Reading was in New Jersey, in the late 1980s and again one year in the mid-2000s, I always extended the trip to visit New York. This time, I didn't want to further cut short my time with Victor to stay longer in NYC, so I only had one morning and one afternoon and evening free, and I spent most of that time in Central Park. The weather was great, as you can see in the photos.

Autographs - Daniel Vieyra

(Click the image to enlarge it.)

Dan and I attended Rice together. Dan is an architecture professor at Kent State.

Since leaving Rice, we've only gotten together a few times. Once, when he visited me in the 1970s in Los Angeles, we spent a good deal of time visiting gas stations he wanted to photograph for his upcoming book, "Fill 'Er Up": An Architectural History of America's Gas Stations

When I visited him in Trenton in 1982, I probably said that I was sorry I forgot to bring the book and have him autograph it for me. Instead, he autographed this item.

The inscription says:

March 24, 1982
To Rodney
My close personal
& moderately demented
friend. FIRE DRILL!
Dan

Maybe someday I will manage to get his autograph on my copy of Fill 'Er Up.

(Index of autographs)

Oregon (August 2013)

At Crater Lake

Link: Photo album (22 photos) As always, view the photos individually to see the captions.

I've flown over Oregon many times, especially all those Alaska trips, and every time I saw Crater Lake from the air, I said, "I want to visit!" I also wanted to see Portland, and I have long wanted to visit California north of Sonoma County. But, of course, I didn't want to drive. Driving is not a vacation for me!

So this tour looked good: nine days in Oregon and far northern California. It would also let me try out Elderhostel (now Road Scholar). I added two days before the tour to have extra time in Portland.

As I feared, I ate too much and exercised too little. But other than that, the trip went quite well, with good weather, too. We only had rain one lunchtime. There were 31 people in the tour group, including at least one gay couple. I'll probably try Road Scholar again sometime.

Pay-per-Read

I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published (see below)):

I hope one of Bezos's experiments with the Washington Post is with micro-payments and pay-per-read.

I am a news and non-fiction addict, a print media junkie. For many years now, that has included print on-screen.

I am a long-time subscriber to the Times and a few magazines. However, I am not interested in subscribing to the dozens of additional separate newspapers and magazines whose stories I occasionally read. But I would happily pay a few cents to read each such item.

Micro-payment schemes have been talked about for many years, but no one has put one together that covers a multitude of content providers. Here's hoping Bezos does it.

As has too often been the case, I sent this in too late. I read about Bezos's purchase of and his wish to experiment with the Post on the afternoon the story hit the Internet. I immediately thought about micro-payments. The story appeared in the next day's Times, of course, and the day after that, the Times printed letters about it. Only then did I realize I should have written one! Cursing my own needless delay, I then wrote and sent the letter, clearly too late for it to be seriously considered.

Subsequently, I have posted it in several places: here, on Google+ in a comment to David Brin's item, and in a comment on the story in KCRW's Left, Right & Center.

Taking campaign promises seriously

The Los Angeles Times printed this letter from me last week:

Opponents have many complaints about Morsi, but one is that while campaigning, he promised to share power, but once in office, he failed to do so.

Maybe Egypt has something to teach the world: If you make a campaign promise that is important, easy to keep and easy to verify, and then you fail to keep it, you will be forcibly removed from office.

Imagine that: taking campaign promises seriously, with an enforcer to hold politicians to their word.

San Antonio - June 2013

Dale Chihuly's "Fiesta Tower" at the San Antonio Central Library

Born and raised in San Antonio, I left after graduating high school, first for college in Houston, then for grad school in Los Angeles, where I still live today.

I've been visiting family and friends in San Antonio two or three times a year ever since I left, more than 40 years ago. But after my mother's death last year, I hadn't been there again in more than a year, the longest time I had been away from San Antonio in my entire life.

The unveiling of my mother's tombstone took me there this past week. Given the occasion, I of course saw many members of my family. I also saw several friends who live there. But none of my family now lives in San Antonio, so I'm not sure how often I'll be returning in the future.

A few more photos from this trip are here. (Each has a caption and a location map.)

Amend to fix (some of) the Senate's problems

The Los Angeles Times printed this letter from me today:

Let's go a step further: I suggest that we amend the Constitution's advise and consent clause.

The Senate's confirmation power should be changed to a veto power: Every presidential appointment (including judicial) becomes effective unless the Senate, by majority vote, vetoes it within, say, 100 days.

The Times either didn't notice or doesn't care that they printed practically the same letter from me thirteen years ago!

Maryland (May 2013)

Ben and Anita

I went to Havre de Grace, Maryland for my nephew Ben's wedding. Here are more wedding photos. Each photo has a caption and a location map.

Gunpowder Falls State Park

Of course, I spent my extra days exploring the area, particularly hiking in parks. A handful of photos were lost due to my failing camera batteries, but here are the rest. Again, each photo has a caption and a location map.

North Carolina, April 2013

Liz and Jed, plus Cherie, the mother of the bride

I went to the Research Triangle region of North Carolina for my niece Liz's wedding. Because I had never been there before, I spent several extra days. As usual for me, I explored college campuses, visited bookstores, and hiked in parks:

Duke Gardens

Here are more photos, of both the wedding and some of my walks, especially Duke Gardens at Duke University. Each photo has a caption and a location map.

I was a bit surprised to see rainbow flags in more than one or two locations at Duke, including in the frat area. I was also pleased to see several "No on 1" signs still around, nearly a year after voters approved that anti-gay-marriage amendment.

"Repelled, held by the Church" (March, 2013)

I sent the following letter to the Los Angeles Times (not published).

Gale Holland ("Repelled, held by the Church", March 1, 2013) asks herself why she remains a Catholic. She implies, but avoids confronting the biggest answer: brainwashing since birth. Religion drilled into children amounts to one more type of child abuse.

My broken fibula

My broken fibula

During our tour of Chiapas, while in San Cristobal, I had a touch of diarrhea. One night, in a strange hotel room, where it was too cold, and where I didn't turn on any light because I didn't want to wake Victor, I got up to go to the bathroom, and apparently fell down.

The next thing I remember is coming to in the hospital hours later! According to Victor, I was non-responsive after I fell. I don't know if I was knocked out from the fall or from pain, or just went back to sleep, or what. With help from the hotel staff, Victor called an ambulance and got me to a hospital.

The hospital said I had no apparent head injury, but my blood tests showed a bit of salmonella, which probably explains the diarrhea.

I felt fine except for a sore lower right leg. (Since I had been out nearly the whole time, no one even knew my leg hurt, and the hospital never looked at it.) Victor said that my leg was in a very awkward position when he found me. I found that I could stand and walk. I figured it was some sort of sprain.

For the remaining days in Chiapas and then back in Yucatán, I couldn't walk more than ten minutes without stopping to sit down and massaging my shin. After holding up our tour group that way one day, I gave up most walking for the rest of the time in Chiapas.

Back in L.A., whenever it was warm enough, I tried to return to a reduced version of my exercise walks. My leg started to feel a bit better, but a week later, I was concerned because it was still damn sore. I decided to get it looked at, and found that I had broken my fibula! I haven't had a broken bone since I broke my collarbone when I was a toddler. (Hmmm. That was (apparently) also falling out of bed. Maybe I should never leave my bed!)

The radiologist who looked at the X-rays (the image above) wrote, "There is some periosteal suggesting healing." The orthopedic surgeon said that because of the healing that was underway and since I had been walking for two weeks since the injury, I didn't need crutches or a cast (whew!). He said I should stop whenever I felt pain, and we made a follow-up appointment in six weeks. That was this past week, and new X-rays showed more new bone growth, and the doctor said I was doing fine and didn't need to come in again.

I'm pretty much back to normal now, including my hiking. And just in time for warmer weather, too.

Chiapas, Jan. 2013

Victor and Rodney trying on traditional native clothes in Zinacantan.

Sumidero Canyon

Victor and I spent a week in Chiapas. (More photos here.) Most of this was a tour that included Sumidero Canyon, San Cristobal, Agua Azul, Palenque, and more. Neither of us had been there before. Other than deep fog one morning that made the lakes nearly invisible, the weather mostly cooperated.

The only real problem was my accident that kept me from seeing much of Palenque!

Yucatán, Winter 2012-2013

Colorful houses in Merida. (More here.)

This winter, I spent 6½ weeks in Mexico with Victor. Of course, he had to work most days, so I was on my own a lot. As last year, I spent the time on the computer, reading, and walking. While walking, I started taking snapshots of some of the colorful houses.

I love staying drier and warmer in Yucatán than in L.A. in December and January. I love exploring the city on foot. I love that Animaya is about a 20-minute walk away. And, of course, I love spending time with Victor.

On Sundays, we would head toward Progreso and visit Victor's family.

We also spent one week in Chiapas.