Say hello to the first of the Horsemen
It’s the end of the world, folks. As I am creating this entry, I must keep telling the helpful beige-clad workers of this fine donut-based establishment that I do not, in fact, want more “coffee”. I sit and watch the busses come and go, the people come and go. As you may have guessed, what makes this entry particularly new and different is the fact that I am not writing it from the confines of my office. I have become unplugged, as it were. I have thrown off my earthly fetters and now am swimming freely wheresoever I choose, toting my new technology with me (although not actually swimming with it, of course). What makes this event so cataclysmic, so earth-shattering we must now wonder if those crazy preachers on the street corners downtown were right, is the fact that….well, there’s just no easy way to say this. I feel like I’ve become an apostate, as if my actions have damned me, and now I must look you in the eye and say this: I am typing on an iBook G4. My iBook G4.
Sit down, take a deep breath, drink some water. You’ll be over the shock in a minute.
It does not “work”, per se, however, so I feel less bad about it. I mean, it obviously works well enough for me to do what I am currently doing, but in the larger scheme of things, the “capable of still doing what it was created to do” sense, it does not work. I got it from one of my co-workers, who owned it for about a year, then it went haywire. He took it in to get it fixed by the minions at the apple store, and they did not, in fact, fix it, even though it was supposedly under warranty. They “discovered” (or planted) evidence that they computer had at one point gotten wet, which effectively and conveniently meant that they would not fix it for free. The projected cost of the repair was not dissimilar to the price of an entirely new mobile computing unit (MCU), and due to the fact that an MCU is absolutely vital to the work of said co-worker, he got himself a new one, and gave me the old one. Being the kind of person I am, I reverse-engineered it down to its constituent elements, unplugged things at random, and discovered that the wireless unit was the offending piece of hardware. Having removed it, all seems to be well. Actually, to be honest, the optical drive seems to have developed a new, disturbing habit of not ejecting my disks, which is annoying, to say the least, more so since this seems to be something that is somehow my fault, as it never did this before I subjected it to a lobotomy. So we’ll see how long it lasts. It may be that when I take it back apart in about 10 minutes I will irreversibly damage yet another piece of hardware. Once this thing works well for a few days, I’ll commit myself to it, but right now we’re still in the test phase.
Needless to say, for all those that are wondering, while it is nice to be able to work out of the office, there are more than a few things that this machine does and doesn’t do that drive me nuts. In fact, as yet, there is nothing that my MCU does that deeply impresses me, apart from the fact that it is mobile. But, beggar that I am, I cannot be a chooser.
October 31, 2006
October 10, 2006
All at once, now!
Now, i realize that in the past, i've spent many days, and many posts, on stress camp, and this year will be no different. except that by no different, i mean shorter, and more interesting. first, the general info, then the stories.
In spite of the fact that the forcast called for pouring rain the whole time, it only rained at night, leaving us hiking in overcast, or sometimes fog. the rain would typically start just after we had finished cooking the food over our real, actually-made-from-collected-wood fire. so we would eat fast and go to bed. it only rained the very last day on our way into camp, and it was really pouring. the kids were very greatful that it hadn't rained like that while we were out. the first day we hiked about 3.7km in about 4:30, the next day we hiked for 13.7km in 13 hours, the 3rd day we went 7.6km in about 8:00, and the last day we did 12.7km in 6 hours (6km were on a level road). for the first time in my experience ever, we had a fire every night and hot food for supper! this year was my first time ever to eat one of the meals (hobo dinner)
in spite of the fact that this was my fourth time on stress camp. i had 9 kids in my group; 4 girls: Milda, Emiko, Courtney, and Meg K., and 5 guys: Tyler C., Mark H., Eiji, Donnie S., and Yohan K. somewhat unfortunately for him, tyler decided on the 2nd day that the knee that he had surgury on last year was not doing well enough to take him all the way to camp, so i called in and had him picked up. we all tried our best to convince ourselves that it was his loss...but i think most of the kids were jealous. everyone was really great- very service oriented, helping eachother with difficult tasks, encouraging eachother on difficult sections of trail, giving up food and water for other people, etc. it's really wonderful to be able to see that side of kids, to know there really is more to them than the "cool" people they try and pass themselves of as in school.
For the first time in my stress camp career my group was not the first one in! usually i get worried that the last hike will take a long time, so i always end up getting the kids up and going too early. this year would have been no different, but they decided to walk the last 6km to camp on the road rather than take the train, which is what i had been expecting and (not so) secretly hoping they would want to do.
So, now for stories. the first day was pretty normal, and we found a great spot to camp about an hour before dark. we only got lost once, and the leaders figured it out within a half-hour, so no harm done there. we were being shadowed by another group- they hiked up to our lunch spot just as we were leaving it. the plan was for them to give us a 30 minute head-start, but we never saw them again. the next night we heard from another group that they had met up with them earlier, and they were about 3 hours in front of us... turns out they took the same wrong turn that we did, but they didn't figure it out! so, they ended up on a road, and took it for hours, ending up in front of us. bizare.
The next day we had to have tyler picked up, and the guy that met us ("uncle" bob) told us of a great spot to camp, and a little shortcut to get there, so we decided to head for it. we ended up hiking for about 5 hours past dark, with empty stomachs and increasingly bad moods--the last kilometer of the hike is all stairs. as we were about at the top, i thought i heard something, so i told everyone to stand still and shut up. nothing....then we all heard it--a very loud gaijin laugh coming through the woods from the general direction of our planned camp spot.
sure enough, another group had gotten there first--hours ago, in fact. not only that, but the only other good spot had been nabbed by the group that was initially behind us, leaving me with 8 disgruntled, frustrated, and hungry kids. they handled it well, though. we ended up all cramming in a little rest-hut, which we wrapped with our flysheets to keep the rain and wind out. very cozy.
The next day, in spite of the fact that i had promised the kids a shorter hike on day 3 in exchange for a 13-hour hike on day 2, and because i knew that there was only 2 good campspots between where we were and our goal and the other 2 groups would probably get them (i was right, i found out later), we hiked well out away from the other groups- 6 hours due west, when our goal was about 5 hours due south (don't tell the kids! they don't know we were that close!). that night we stayed in a hut that i stayed at last year with the stress camp group. last year, when it was pouring rain, the kids were dancing with joy when we found the hut. this year the kids were highly doubtful when i told them we'd be staying in the hut. it's not much to look at- the corrugated metal roof has rusted through in a few parts, the wood is all old and rotten, etc.- but it's still "inside".
The last day we are supposed to get in between 9 and noon. the last hike down from the hut the
takes about 4 and a half hours, and it takes an hour to break camp...so i ended up getting the kids up at 3:15am. they, of course, don't know what time it is, but they did know that it was dark, and cold, and they certainly didn't want to get up. that whole trail is downhill, which can be pretty treacherous in the rain, especially if you're sleep deprived. we got to the train station at about 9, and the kids, assuming, it turns out, that when i said we were 3 stations away i meant we were like 30 minutes away, in spite of the fact that they had maps, and also in spite of my attempts to convince them of the distance, the kids, as i was saying, chose to walk to camp on their own 2 feet. i understand the mentality, but it turns out that a 10 minute train ride translates into a 2-hour walk in the pouring rain, which nobody enjoyed. but we got back to camp and had curry rice and a blazingly hot ofuro, and all was good.
We also had good conversation. the name "stress camp" implies that the purpose of the experience is to stress the kids out, which imlies that stress is implicitly good, which i don't really think that it is. there's no point to have stress just to have stress! it's a chance for the kids to try out their leadership abilities, their teamwork, and to see how much they can serve eachother and encourage eachother when they no longer feel like doing it. so we talked about goals and expectations, frustrations and dissapointments, leadership and followership, and stuff like that. the goal is that they will be able to take broad, general, principles and apply them to real life back at school and home, rather than only thinking of that stuff when they are in the exact context that they learned it in. in other words, it's my job to see that they learn stuff, and teach them how to transfer it to "normal" life. this was the first year i tried really hard to do that, and i feel good about it. i've got different ideas for next year, but for a first try, i'm pretty happy about it.
Now, i realize that in the past, i've spent many days, and many posts, on stress camp, and this year will be no different. except that by no different, i mean shorter, and more interesting. first, the general info, then the stories.
In spite of the fact that the forcast called for pouring rain the whole time, it only rained at night, leaving us hiking in overcast, or sometimes fog. the rain would typically start just after we had finished cooking the food over our real, actually-made-from-collected-wood fire. so we would eat fast and go to bed. it only rained the very last day on our way into camp, and it was really pouring. the kids were very greatful that it hadn't rained like that while we were out. the first day we hiked about 3.7km in about 4:30, the next day we hiked for 13.7km in 13 hours, the 3rd day we went 7.6km in about 8:00, and the last day we did 12.7km in 6 hours (6km were on a level road). for the first time in my experience ever, we had a fire every night and hot food for supper! this year was my first time ever to eat one of the meals (hobo dinner)
in spite of the fact that this was my fourth time on stress camp. i had 9 kids in my group; 4 girls: Milda, Emiko, Courtney, and Meg K., and 5 guys: Tyler C., Mark H., Eiji, Donnie S., and Yohan K. somewhat unfortunately for him, tyler decided on the 2nd day that the knee that he had surgury on last year was not doing well enough to take him all the way to camp, so i called in and had him picked up. we all tried our best to convince ourselves that it was his loss...but i think most of the kids were jealous. everyone was really great- very service oriented, helping eachother with difficult tasks, encouraging eachother on difficult sections of trail, giving up food and water for other people, etc. it's really wonderful to be able to see that side of kids, to know there really is more to them than the "cool" people they try and pass themselves of as in school.For the first time in my stress camp career my group was not the first one in! usually i get worried that the last hike will take a long time, so i always end up getting the kids up and going too early. this year would have been no different, but they decided to walk the last 6km to camp on the road rather than take the train, which is what i had been expecting and (not so) secretly hoping they would want to do.
So, now for stories. the first day was pretty normal, and we found a great spot to camp about an hour before dark. we only got lost once, and the leaders figured it out within a half-hour, so no harm done there. we were being shadowed by another group- they hiked up to our lunch spot just as we were leaving it. the plan was for them to give us a 30 minute head-start, but we never saw them again. the next night we heard from another group that they had met up with them earlier, and they were about 3 hours in front of us... turns out they took the same wrong turn that we did, but they didn't figure it out! so, they ended up on a road, and took it for hours, ending up in front of us. bizare.
The next day we had to have tyler picked up, and the guy that met us ("uncle" bob) told us of a great spot to camp, and a little shortcut to get there, so we decided to head for it. we ended up hiking for about 5 hours past dark, with empty stomachs and increasingly bad moods--the last kilometer of the hike is all stairs. as we were about at the top, i thought i heard something, so i told everyone to stand still and shut up. nothing....then we all heard it--a very loud gaijin laugh coming through the woods from the general direction of our planned camp spot.
sure enough, another group had gotten there first--hours ago, in fact. not only that, but the only other good spot had been nabbed by the group that was initially behind us, leaving me with 8 disgruntled, frustrated, and hungry kids. they handled it well, though. we ended up all cramming in a little rest-hut, which we wrapped with our flysheets to keep the rain and wind out. very cozy.The next day, in spite of the fact that i had promised the kids a shorter hike on day 3 in exchange for a 13-hour hike on day 2, and because i knew that there was only 2 good campspots between where we were and our goal and the other 2 groups would probably get them (i was right, i found out later), we hiked well out away from the other groups- 6 hours due west, when our goal was about 5 hours due south (don't tell the kids! they don't know we were that close!). that night we stayed in a hut that i stayed at last year with the stress camp group. last year, when it was pouring rain, the kids were dancing with joy when we found the hut. this year the kids were highly doubtful when i told them we'd be staying in the hut. it's not much to look at- the corrugated metal roof has rusted through in a few parts, the wood is all old and rotten, etc.- but it's still "inside".
The last day we are supposed to get in between 9 and noon. the last hike down from the hut the
takes about 4 and a half hours, and it takes an hour to break camp...so i ended up getting the kids up at 3:15am. they, of course, don't know what time it is, but they did know that it was dark, and cold, and they certainly didn't want to get up. that whole trail is downhill, which can be pretty treacherous in the rain, especially if you're sleep deprived. we got to the train station at about 9, and the kids, assuming, it turns out, that when i said we were 3 stations away i meant we were like 30 minutes away, in spite of the fact that they had maps, and also in spite of my attempts to convince them of the distance, the kids, as i was saying, chose to walk to camp on their own 2 feet. i understand the mentality, but it turns out that a 10 minute train ride translates into a 2-hour walk in the pouring rain, which nobody enjoyed. but we got back to camp and had curry rice and a blazingly hot ofuro, and all was good.We also had good conversation. the name "stress camp" implies that the purpose of the experience is to stress the kids out, which imlies that stress is implicitly good, which i don't really think that it is. there's no point to have stress just to have stress! it's a chance for the kids to try out their leadership abilities, their teamwork, and to see how much they can serve eachother and encourage eachother when they no longer feel like doing it. so we talked about goals and expectations, frustrations and dissapointments, leadership and followership, and stuff like that. the goal is that they will be able to take broad, general, principles and apply them to real life back at school and home, rather than only thinking of that stuff when they are in the exact context that they learned it in. in other words, it's my job to see that they learn stuff, and teach them how to transfer it to "normal" life. this was the first year i tried really hard to do that, and i feel good about it. i've got different ideas for next year, but for a first try, i'm pretty happy about it.
October 06, 2006
October 01, 2006
It's that time of the year, folks!
ARE
YOU
READY
TO
STRESS CAMP?!
the short answer, is no. well, yes and no. mentally i'm prepared, and that's a fact. i'm excited to go, but i think that shows more that i'm delusional and have a short memory than anything else. every year after stress camp, i wonder what would have posessed me to lead such a thing, and i have serious doubts about doing it again. but by the time october rolls around, all i remember is that it rained a little, and we were exhausted.
if memory serves me, it poured last time, we hiked for 14 hours straight, we slept in puddles on the trail, and upon returning i was so exhausted i slept at 6pm the night i returned and didn't wake up until about 10am the next morning. but i do remember that it was a great time, the kids were awesome, and i learned a ton about me and developed some real, lasting friendships. so there's that.
stress camp starts tomorrow, which means that i should really be home eating and looking over my "must pack" list that is somewhere. if i don't have something at this point, i'm basically stuck without it, since it's 7pm the night before, so i'm not really in a rush. as per usual, the forcast is rain for the next 4 days straight. at some point i expect to become bitter and cynical about this, but right now i'm excited to try out my newest rain gear, and see how warm i stay at night in my new sleeping bag (thanks, cam!). since i've been working in japan i've gone on 4 long hikes: stress camp twice (4 days) summer death hike of '05 (5 days), and summer fun hike of '06 (3 days). every single time, without exception, it has rained. the only variance is the amount or type of rain- 2 were raging typhoons, and 2 were just bad weather. the forcast for the next 4 days has gotten progressively worse- from partly cloudy monday and a clear week, to what it is now- 4 days of solid, unrelenting, rain.
well, as i learned from calvin and hobbes, this sounds suspiciously like an attempt to build character...
pray.
ARE
YOU
READY
TO
STRESS CAMP?!
the short answer, is no. well, yes and no. mentally i'm prepared, and that's a fact. i'm excited to go, but i think that shows more that i'm delusional and have a short memory than anything else. every year after stress camp, i wonder what would have posessed me to lead such a thing, and i have serious doubts about doing it again. but by the time october rolls around, all i remember is that it rained a little, and we were exhausted.
if memory serves me, it poured last time, we hiked for 14 hours straight, we slept in puddles on the trail, and upon returning i was so exhausted i slept at 6pm the night i returned and didn't wake up until about 10am the next morning. but i do remember that it was a great time, the kids were awesome, and i learned a ton about me and developed some real, lasting friendships. so there's that.
stress camp starts tomorrow, which means that i should really be home eating and looking over my "must pack" list that is somewhere. if i don't have something at this point, i'm basically stuck without it, since it's 7pm the night before, so i'm not really in a rush. as per usual, the forcast is rain for the next 4 days straight. at some point i expect to become bitter and cynical about this, but right now i'm excited to try out my newest rain gear, and see how warm i stay at night in my new sleeping bag (thanks, cam!). since i've been working in japan i've gone on 4 long hikes: stress camp twice (4 days) summer death hike of '05 (5 days), and summer fun hike of '06 (3 days). every single time, without exception, it has rained. the only variance is the amount or type of rain- 2 were raging typhoons, and 2 were just bad weather. the forcast for the next 4 days has gotten progressively worse- from partly cloudy monday and a clear week, to what it is now- 4 days of solid, unrelenting, rain.
well, as i learned from calvin and hobbes, this sounds suspiciously like an attempt to build character...
pray.
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