Scattered Notes

What I'd Tell You?

2008-11-04T22:35:00.003-06:00

On Saturday, January 20, 2007, I said:

We can't afford another Republican in the Oval Office. We can't afford to let the Religious Righteous continue to dictate policy. They need a good, swift kick in the face. The only way to deliver it is for the Democrats to choose the candidate who has the best chance of winning over swing voters and a good number of voters who might normally vote Republican. I say Barack Obama is the one.

http://scattered-notes.blogspot.com/2007/01/how-democrats-can-lose-in-08.html

GO OBAMA!

Shave Away

2007-05-13T12:21:00.001-05:00

Several weeks ago after shelling out another $10.00 for four Gillette Mach 3 blades, I thought to myself, is it really this expensive to get a good shave? With the ridiculous evolution from the Gillette Sensor to the Mach 3 to the Schick Quattro to the Gillette Fusion, blade prices are going to keep ratcheting up. Just wait till this one comes along:

And, I wondered, is it really a good shave? "The best a man can get"? With all the masculine names and the dark, futuristic shapes and colors (the corporate-sponsored coolness), it's obvious the marketing department, at Gillette at least, is having a field day. But are these additional blades and whatnot really technological improvements for the whisker-growing half of humankind? The only noticeable difference for me between the Sensor and the Mach 3—I switched because the latter was given to me as a present—was the ease of cleaning the razor. Besides, men have been shaving for quite some time. Surely good shaves were had by many in my grandfather's day, and even earlier.

I also began thinking about the environmental impact. All that plastic which holds the cartridges, and then the plastic in the cartridge itself which holds the blades... Think about how much per man per year that is, all tossed into ever-growing landfills to rot and poison the land for 10,000 years. So I set out to see what alternatives I could find.

Initially I was thinking of getting a straight razor (I recall some family legends about my great-grandfather using one with nothing but Jergens lotion, and having a baby-smooth face), but after some research that seemed a little daunting what with all the sharpening and honing and stropping you have to do on a regular basis.

Then I came across this article. Except for the few glorious weeks following my first sprouting of facial hair, shaving has been a chore that I'd much rather avoid—hence I've had many a scraggly day. This article, however, made me want to spend the better part of my life under the blade.

The author, Corey Greenberg, who also has a blog on shaving, doesn't go all the way back to the straight razor, but extols the virtues of the double-edged safety razor. King C. Gillette started the Gillette company to manufacture double-edged safety razors back in 1901. Although safety razors had been around for a while, Mr. Gillette improved the design and came up with the concept of inexpensive disposable blades made of thin steel. He received a patent for his razor in 1904, and by the time World War I broke out he'd sold millions of razors and blades.

According to Greenberg, Gillette has pretty much gone downhill, shaving-wise, since then. Read the article for all the specifics and how-tos, but his main point is that a safety razor, together with a badger-hair shaving brush, good European-style shaving cream (not the testosteronic crap Gillette sells), and plenty of warm water provide a superb shave. Moreover, double-edged blades go from $.25 to $.50 each, and don't come with much plastic packaging, if any.

I checked various sites, like Classic Shaving, but delayed purchasing because I was worried it wouldn't really be a better shave. I did, however, find a tube of Italian Proraso shaving cream, which Greenberg praises, at Target for a very reasonable $5. It was a marked improvement over what I had been using—a lather of Dove body soap—and has a refreshing smell.

Then on a recent trip home, I discovered that my Mom had—among all her other antiques, trinkets, and bric-a-brac—a 1950's era Gillette double-edged safety razor in good condition, and a shaving brush sitting decoratively on the bathroom shelf. I promptly snatched them—of course, I asked my mother first—and brought them home.

I'm not sure what the brush is made of, but my guess would be badger hair. My mother also had one of those boar's hair brushes that you can easily find in supermarkets, and it was much stiffer and coarser (read: scratchier on your face).

Now the only thing I needed was blades. I found a place online that offered 100 for $25, but I was still a little hesitant, and wanted to give this razor a try without getting stuck with a box of 99 blades in my bathroom cabinet. So I ended up buying 10 from CVS for $5 (unfortunately it had some plastic casing).

That night I eagerly lathered up and tried it all out. It worked pretty well, much better than I was expecting, although it took quite a bit longer to shave as I was being extra careful not to nick myself. The blade is more exposed on a safety razor, and I knew if I pressed it against my face and carelessly scraped it around like I can my Mach 3, I'd be a bloody mess. (I did get a few nicks though when by habit I pressed down too hard.) Consequently, I didn't get quite the smoothness I wanted, but I figured it just takes a bit of practice.

The next time I tried it (I usually shave every other day), it was much the same, and then the third time I annoyingly got quite a few more nicks. It takes a little while to get the art of it, I guess. When again it was time to shave, I put in a fresh blade and tried to get into a zen state of relaxation. I also left my glasses off so I could go more by feeling and intuition than what my eyes would tell me to do, and I ended up with the best safety razor shave I had yet.

Since then, my technique has steadily gotten better, although I occasionally get a few more nicks than I like (usually when the blade starts getting dull). I thought my Cape Horn of a chin would be the most difficult part to shave, but it's not presented any problems. Rather my neck, particularly the lower part that's almost level with my Adam's apple, is, if you will, the Achilles' heel of my shave. My beard is especially thick here, and grows in two different directions. It's trickier to handle these with a safety razor.

Also, it still doesn't seem to be quite as close a shave as I've gotten with the Mach 3, but that's slowly improving as well. Overall, however, it's an improvement. My skin does not get as irritated as it used to, and it doesn't bother me to shave two days in a row now. I like the ritual of building a good lather, brushing it on my face, and then with a light touch whisking away my whiskers, all the while inhaling the aroma of the shaving cream—it's no longer such a chore.

I would toss my Mach 3, but I'll probably need it whenever I fly. I can't imagine a safety-razor with its completely detachable blade being allowed past security, even in the pre-9/11 era. So this'll be another one of those things that inspire me to sing along with Sinatra:

It's nice to go traveling
To London, Paris and Rome.
It's oh so nice to go traveling,
But it's so much nicer,
Yes it's so much nicer
To wander home.

Translation of Google Chinese Input Method

2007-04-18T23:19:00.000-05:00

This is a translation of the setup options and other configurations for Google's Pinyin Input Method Editor, or IME, which was originally released on April 4, 2007 (you can download it here). Please note that it's currently available only for Windows (I'm dying for the Linux version to come out), and you must have East Asian Language Support installed. I've also included a few tidbits here and there on using it. If you see any incorrect translations or any awkward wording, please let me know and I'll correct it. I hope this comes in handy for all non-native Chinese speakers who want to use this cool tool.

My original post was on April 18, 2007. I have thoroughly updated this post to accord with the latest version of this IME as of November 11, 2007 (1.0.23.40), and I will continue to update this post as my schedule allows with any new stuff Google adds.

As part of this post update, I've made the following changes:

In addition to providing screenshots of the various menus and pop-ups in Chinese with tooltips in English, I have created images of the menus and pop-ups with English text (and tooltips in Chinese). I believe this will make it easier for most people to see what's available and figure out how to use this tool — there is no longer the need to move your mouse over every single item.
Furthermore, I have created an outline in Google Docs which includes all the Chinese text of the setup options together with the English translation. This is yet another way to make everything more accessible, and to allow anyone to easily copy and paste the characters if they want to lookup meanings themselves.
I have also added more instructions and usage notes based on things I have noticed when using this tool, so hopefully this will also be a guide for how to use Google's Pinyin IME, in addition to a translation.

To see tooltips on the screenshots, just move your mouse over any of the words. After a very slight delay, you should see a tooltip or mouseover with English or Chinese. The tooltips should appear on both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Google IME Toolbar

The Google IME Toolbar is fairly standard — it has the same options as most other IME toolbars that I've seen, but it looks a lot nicer and cleaner.

Chinese / English Input - you can toggle between Chinese and English typing (中 or 英) here, and if Caps Lock is on, you'll see a capital A and will only be able to type in English capitals.
Full / Half Width Characters - this allows you to toggle between full and half-width characters (◯ or ☽). More info on full and half-width characters below.
Chinese / English Punctuation - this is a way to toggle between Chinese and English punctuation (., or 。，)
Virtual Keyboard - this gives you a way to change what your keyboard types on the screen.
Settings, Configurations, and Options - the gear will give you a context menu to modify properties, set various defaults, and sign-in.

Right-clicking almost anywhere on the toolbar will also bring up the Context menu. However, if you right-click on the keyboard, a list of the available virtual keyboards comes up (see below for more info).

The arrow on the right can be used to collapse the toolbar, and you can configure the toolbar to be small and transparent, so it's quite unobtrusive:

There is also a keyboard shortcut you can configure to make the toolbar appear and disappear. By default it's Ctrl + Shift + S.

Google IME Toolbar - Settings

Selecting the gear, or right-clicking anywhere on the toolbar except the keyboard, brings up the following context menu:

Chinese | English

The options include:

帮助..., which will bring you to the online help for this tool
选软键盘, which opens a sub-menu of available virtual keyboards
切换为繁体模式, which toggels between Simplified and Traditional Chinese characters
隐藏状态栏, which hides the IME toolbar (be careful! Doesn't seem to be a way to get it back unless you click Ctrl + Shift + S. I even tried flipping back to English and then back to Chinese, and the toolbar still wouldn't appear until I did Ctrl + Shift + S.)
属性设置..., which brings you to the setup options
版本号, which shows the version you have installed.

To get to the IME Settings window, select 属性设置....

Google IME Settings - Pinyin Default Tab

Here you can select what type of pinyin to use, the initial state of the IME, and configure some of the intelligence and fuzzy logic built into this tool.

There are two types of Pinyin methods, QuanPin (全拼), and ShuangPin (双拼). QuanPin would be easiest for students of Chinese, as it involves typing the full standard pinyin of a character or phrase.

You can also select a default typing language of Chinese or English, and there are several ways you can switch back and forth: via the toolbar, by pressing Shift or Ctrl alone (this option is set in the Control Keys tab), or by typing an initial 'v' then the English word ('v' within a word will likely be interpreted as a u with umlaut: ü).

Another option is full-width (全角) vs. half-width (半角) characters. This corresponds with the circle and crescent (or sun and moon) in the IME toolbar, and you can toggle this as well by hitting Shift + Spacebar. (This is a fairly easy key combination to accidentally hit. So if you've got the Google IME activated and you're typing away in English, and suddenly the font changes and gets wider, it's most likely because you accidentally hit Shift + Spacebar.) Full/half width influences spacing, but note that Chinese characters are always full-width, whereas alphanumeric characters and punctuation can be either, for example:

中国123ABC?!" - these were typed with the half-width option
中国１２３ＡＢＣ？！＂ - these were typed with the full-width option

If Chinese punctuation is used, there are more changes than just periods and commas:

this	becomes this
<>	《》
{}	『』
[]	【】
`	·
~	～
$	￥
^	……
*	×
_	——
\	、

There doesn't seem to be any way to get the 「」 combination. Also, both forward and backward slash keys can be used for the Chinese repetition comma, the 顿号 (、). If full-width characters are selected, however, only the backward slash (\) will work for this.

Thanks to edwin for shedding light on the bottom option, 数字后的句号自动转换为标点. It means, not quite so literally, "Use a Western period (.) after a number, not a Chinese period (。)" So if you're typing away with Chinese punctuation, and then you make a numbered list, it'll come out like 1. 2. 3. not 1。 2。 3。 Incidentally, you can toggle between English and Chinese punctuation by pressing Ctrl + Period.

Chinese | English

Clicking 模糊音设置 opens the following pop-up. This reflects some common variants in standard Chinese pronunciation that could lead to inexact pinyin spelling; for instance, in Sichuan z, c, and s are frequently used where standard putonghua would have zh, ch, and sh, and I once had a Chinese teacher from Sichuan who sometimes spelled zhè (这) as zè. I'm not sure if there's any difference between selecting the first three options here, and selecting the option on the Pinyin Default tab, "Use z,c,s to represent zh, ch, sh."

Chinese | English

Clicking 纠错设置 opens the following. These correct certain misspellings and commonly transposed letters.

Chinese | English

Google IME Settings - Appearance Tab

Here you can configure the input window or input frame, and the toolbar. The font size selected here only affects the size within the input window itself.

For those who don't like the toolbar, it can be disabled in this tab. Note that if the toolbar is disabled and you ever need to modify the Settings, you can:

Hit Ctrl + Shift + S (or whatever shortcut is set in the Control Keys tab). The toolbar will re-appear.
Right click anywhere in the input window itself, except on a Chinese character. The same context menu will appear as if you click on the gear in the toolbar.

Chinese | English

Google IME Settings - Control Keys Tab

When the Google IME is activated, you can quickly toggle between English and Chinese by hitting Shift or Ctrl, depending on what is configured here. If you're trying to type in English and suddenly realize you're in Chinese language mode, just hit whichever button you choose in this tab. As long as you haven't hit the spacebar yet, you'll end up with whatever letters you've typed so far.

The typing of URLs option only works if they begin with http:, https:, and www. If you try starting an address with just a subdomain, like tools.google.com, it won't work.

There are some interesting ways here to manipulate the character suggestions when typing in Chinese. If you need to scroll through the results and you don't want to use Page Up or Page Down, you can configure the combinations of minus/equal sign or comma/period to do so.

Ideally, what you're trying to type should appear in the first position, and you can just hit the spacebar or a punctuation key and move on. However, if the character result you want is 2nd or 3rd, you can still fairly easily select it by using left or right Shift, or left or right Ctrl. It's probably a good idea to select a different key than what you use to toggle Chinese/English input mode.

The 以词定字 option is a very useful one. Let's say you just want the character 意. You would type "yi," and of course there are about 60 Chinese characters that are pronounced "yi." Without this option, you'd either have to scroll through the results, or you'd have to keep typing to get a word that has 意 in it (such as yìyì - 意义), and then delete the extraneous character(s). With this option, you can just type "yiyi[", and you'll just get 意. It's basically a way to say, "I want the 意 from 意义."

The shortcut keys at the bottom are self-explanatory, but I'll just mention that if you make the toolbar disappear, the only way to get it back is by clicking Ctrl + Shift + S, or whatever is configured here, even if you exit the IME completely and go back in.

Some "Control Keys" which are not configurable hence not shown here:

Shift + Space toggles between full and half-width characters
Ctrl + Period toggles between Chinese and English punctuation

Chinese | English

Google IME Settings - Dictionary Tab

The "dictionary" referred to here is essentially the set of characters that you have typed. This is reflected in the first option here, which will keep track of what you type and adjust future character suggestions accordingly. In other words, if you type "zhao", the character 朝 is not listed among the first set of results, and you have to scroll to get it. If you select 朝, the next time you type "zhao" it will be listed earlier in the search results. If you select it often enough, it will show up as the first result (it looks like if you select a character six times in a row it will show up first).

I don't know enough about character encoding to say much about the second option here, "Use GBK Character Set," but GBK is essentially an extended character set that contains characters not available in other, older sets. You can read more about it here.

Chinese | English

Clicking on 编辑自定义短语 opens the following. Self-defined shortcuts may not be particularly useful to students of Chinese if you want to make sure you always remember the full, correct pinyin spelling of characters and phrases. But there's no reason to always fully type the most basic of phrases, such as 'yígè' to get 一个. Just hit 'y' and 'g'. The default list of shortcuts is translated in full in the outline I put together in Google Docs.

Chinese | English

Clicking on 添加 opens the following:

Chinese | English

Selecting a shortcut and clicking on 编辑 opens the following pop-up. As of a recent release, it seems you can no longer modify the abbreviation part, but just the result.

Chinese | English

Selecting 册除所有 opens the following:

Chinese | English

Selecting 恢复黙认 opens the following pop-up, and if you click Yes it will remove any custom shortcuts you had added.

Chinese | English

You now have the option of importing and exporting the self-defined shortcuts. The imported/exported file will be a self-defined shortcut file with a .dis extension. Each line in the file contains the abbreviation and the shortcut separated by a tab, and these files are encoded in ANSI format, so the easiest way to view them would be to open it up in Firefox and select Chinese character encoding, or to open them in Word (where you'll also have to select Chinese character encoding).

Chinese | English

If the .dis import is successful, the following message will be displayed:

Chinese | English

If it's not (for instance, if you try importing a file encoded in Unicode or UTF-8 format), then the following message will be displayed:

Chinese | English

Chinese | English

If the .dis export is successful, the following message will be displayed:

Chinese | English

Back to the Dictionary tab, in the User Dictionary Administration section, selecting 清空 opens the following:

Chinese | English

If you decide to clear/reset the dictionary, the following confirmation message will appear after it's cleared:

Chinese | English

The dictionary can be exported to a .dic file (again, the "dictionary" is the set of characters that you have typed). Each row in the .dic file has the character or phrase, the number of times that it was chosen, and then the pinyin that was typed to get it, all separated by tabs. Again, the file is in ANSI format.

Chinese | English

If the export was successful, you'll see this pop-up:

Chinese | English

There may be a message for a failed export, but I was unable to get one.

Chinese | English

When importing a .dic file, this message will be displayed if the import was successful:

Chinese | English

And this message if the import failed (which will occur if the file is not ANSI-encoded, for instance):

Chinese | English

Google IME Settings - Autosynchronization Tab

This tab allows you to sign in with your Google account, so no matter where you are when you type Chinese, the tool will adjust character frequency and make other intelligent adjustments based on what you've cumulatively typed in the past. (Google IME will also make judgements based on the millions of entries in its databases.) If you sign in, the tool will also remember all your settings, as well. To sign in you must select the 自动同步用户词库和设置 checkbox. You can change the user ID by selecting 更改用户, and you can sign out by unchecking the 自动同步用户词库和设置 checkbox or by clicking 恢复本页黙认值.

Chinese | English

To sign in, click on the 自动同步用户词库和设置 checkbox, and enter your Google account username and password in the following pop-up box:

Chinese | English

If you click 更改用户, the same sign-in prompt appears.

If the username and/or password are incorrect, the following message will appear:

Chinese | English

If you try signing in while your network connection is off, you'll get this error message:

Chinese | English

You might also get the above error message if you're already signed-in and your network connection gets turned off, as it appears Google will try to autosave every now and then if you're signed in.

Selecting 立即同步 will first open this:

Chinese | English

...and then this if it's successful:

Chinese | English

or this if it's not:

Chinese | English

Google IME Toolbar - Virtual Keyboards

If you select one of these virtual keyboards, a keyboard will appear on your screen. You can either click the keys with your mouse, or just type like normal, and it'll send the characters displayed on the virtual keyboard, rather than what your physical keyboard has. Click on the keyboard icon on the toolbar to toggle between using a virtual keyboard and your physical keyboard. You can also toggle by going through the context menu to check/uncheck a keyboard, or simply hit Ctrl + Shift + K. If you right-click on the keyboard icon on the toolbar, a context menu with just the keyboards will appear.

Probably the most useful keyboard for students of Chinese would be the Pinyin keyboard: 拼音符号.

Chinese | English

Google IME Input Window

The Input Window allows you to do a Google search on any highlighted character or phrase. To highlight a character/phrase, right-click it, or click the Up/Down arrow keys on your keyboard. You can right-click anywhere in the Input Window to get the Settings context menu (the same as if you clicked the gear on the toolbar). If you change any properties and close the Google settings pop-up box, it'll go right back to the Input Window, and whatever you had typed previously will still be there. (If you change from simplified to traditional characters, or vice versa, it won't change the characters in the selection unless you type a little more. E.g., if you type "tai wan", change the settings to traditional, and then continue by adding "dao", you'll get 臺灣島.)

You can hold down the left mouse button to drag the Window anywhere on the screen.

Chinese | English

The Left/Right arrows move the cursor between letters already typed. This is useful when typing phrases, and you need to go back to a particular part of the phrase and select a different character than what the IME chose. This allows you to do so without having to delete or re-type anything. Also useful if you spelled something wrong, or if you need to delete part of a phrase.

The Page Up/Page Down keys are used to scroll through the result sets (3-9 per window, depending on your configuration). They function the same as the arrow buttons within the input frame. The Tab key also scrolls through the results. The Home/End keys move the cursor to the beginning or the end of what you've typed already, and also highlight the first result.

To choose the highlighted character(s), select Space, almost any punctuation mark, or the number of the selection. If you click Enter, you'll just get the English letters you typed, and not any Chinese. You can also left-click the character(s) to choose it. The max number of characters you can type at a time is 64.

Use an apostrophe to separate letters where separation is ambiguous, e.g., xi'an, and for the u with an umlaut (ü), type v: nv will result in 女.

One final note I'll mention: Google's Pinyin IME also has a stroke input method as well, similar to the Wubihua method. To utilize this, type the letter 'u', then the following keys for certain types of strokes:

key	stroke	stroke name
h	一	横
s	丨	竖
p	丿	撇
n	乀	捺
z	乙	折
d	丶	点

Thus, if you'd like to get the Goo in Google in Chinese, type "upnpnszh".

A translation, with some explanation, of Google's cool new Chinese Input Method Editor.

Dust Storm

2007-02-24T18:16:00.000-06:00

So I drifted into a nice nap today around 1 pm, with clear skies outside and high winds. I awoke about 3 pm to the smell of dust, as if someone were changing a vacuum cleaner bag nearby. I also noticed a hazy light behind the blinds. At first I didn't connect the two. I stretched, went upstairs to get a book and, still smelling dust, peered out my bedroom window. Dust was everywhere, a thick yellow-orange fog covering the ground, blowing in from the barren Texas panhandle. I'd never seen anything like it before.

It was eerie being in that light. I couldn't help but think of nuclear winter and the fragility of our climate. I think I'll be making a donation to the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Fortunately the dust has pretty much blown away by now. Here's what it looked like in McKinney, about 20 minutes from where I live, courtesy of WeatherBug's Instacam:

A crazy dust storm that blew through one Saturday afternoon.

Organicity

2007-02-04T04:40:00.000-06:00

For many years, I rarely ate apples. They simply didn't taste good to me. It was only in the last couple of years that I began eating apples more frequently, and I no longer have an aversion to them. What changed? I never really thought about that question, and definitely didn't have an answer, until Brian's mother lent me the Organic Cook's Bible, by Jeff Cox.

In the opening lines of the book, Cox describes the best apple he ever tasted. It was a blackish red, somewhat rare variety of apple that he bought at a small market. Cox goes on to discuss the only apple variety most of us are familiar with:

The proliferation of the inferior Red Delicious is due to two primary marketing factors. First, the apples have deep red skins and consumer preference tests show that people associate a deep red apple with quality, even if, as with Red Delicious, there's precious little quality to the flavor. Second, they are called "delicious" even though they aren't.

As I read those lines, it dawned on me that for all these years, I had been avoiding not apples, but a single variety of apple, the variety which is usually the only one you can get. Then two years ago I moved next door to a Whole Foods, which has much more to offer than Red Delicious, and organic too. Thus my re-acquaintance with apples.

Here's a photo, by the way, of the type of apple that Cox had. Alas for "consumer preferences".

This story is not limited to apples. The food industry, like some Plato scared of variety, has long been on a quest to reduce food to these limited ideals. Red Delicious is "the" apple (or maybe Granny Smith). Black Beauty is "the" eggplant. White Button is "the" mushroom. And on throughout the food supply:

Scientists have recorded over 15,000 plants that have been used by human beings as food over the millennia, but there are only about 150 commercially important food crops worldwide these days. And in the large corporate food systems that provide foods to our supermarkets and big commercial stores, only a few of these 150 commodities are typically available to the consumer.

And as is the case with apples, the chosen variety is frequently the inferior one. Cox, former editor of Organic Gardening, introduces us to the other varieties of vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains throughout the book, and while perusing his in-depth descriptions, I was struck by how little I know about the food I eat.

For instance, there is a variety of eggplant that actually looks like a white egg. Avocado flowers are the only flowers which change their sex. Black canned olives are actually green unripe olives soaked in lye. Pineapple juice can eat your skin. These are some of the more odd and intriguing facts among all the information about varieties, seasons, growing tips, and best regions to grow what—knowledge that has been lost in our age of standardized food available year round. Quick: what type of food grows best in the area you live in?

I don't know either, but this book makes me want to find out.

Over centuries and sometimes millennia, local people had learned which crops and types of livestock thrived in their climate and on their soils. ...Cooking techniques and recipes were for centuries very region-specific, and over time cooks in those areas learned how to make the most palatable dishes from unique local products. ...The French call these site-specific flavors terroir, or soil, which is a succinct way to describe the phenomenon that each specific place on the earth will express itself in the taste of the food that grows there.

The food industry has been steadily trying to destroy terroir with inferior-tasting food, an arsenal of chemicals, and genetic-engineering. Terroir is the opposite of what most corporations are all about: standardization and monotony, also known as branding. That you can go from Beijing to Bangalore to Paris to New York, and in each place get Big Macs and Frappuccinos, is the corporate, anti-terroir wet dream.

Although the major food corporations have tried and will continue trying to water down organic food rules, it looks like the tide is turning somewhat with the growth of of the organic food movement in recent years. Cox has been involved in this movement since the beginning (in America), and the book is interspersed with 250 wonderful recipes that he's collected over the years, and with stories of the unique, delicious, and local food he's encountered in his travels across the country. Reading this book makes you hungry, but with a different sort of hunger. You want to stop at a rural fruit stand, you want to pick something in the wild, to find food at the right time and the right place—and savor those lucky moments which you can't get with conventional food. If you care about the environment and the food you eat, this book is definitely worth buying.

I must end with one last fact, this one about rabbits:

Buck rabbits are either screamers or fainters. That is, after they mate with a doe, they either scream or faint. Just a point of interest.

Some relevant links:

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/
http://www.oldwayspt.org/
http://www.treesofantiquity.com/
http://www.localharvest.org/
http://www.gourmetsleuths.com/

Map Your Travels, 2.0

2007-02-04T04:25:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: 07-15-2007 - Blogger made some more minor feed changes which broke this hack. This was a modification to the summary category feed, and specifically it was a change in the order of the links available per entry. Previously link entry number 1 pointed to a summary version of the post. Now link number 1 points to the comments.

To correct this, in the function storeFeed I had to modify this line:

var link = entry['link'][1].href;

to this:

var link = entry['link'][2].href;

UPDATE: 06-11-2007 - Blogger apparently made some minor changes to their feeds recently which changed the ordering of some feed items and broke this hack. Specifically, there's a function storeFeed which had the following lines:

if (i==0) {
var category = entry['category'][0].term;
var index = mapLevels.indexOf(category);
}

The index variable was returning a value of -1, meaning it did not exist. To get this to work again, I had to change the category to entry['category'][1].term. I have updated the code below.

Shortly before implementing the Travel Map hack, I heard that Blogger began offering JSON versions of their feeds. Blogger had long offered Atom feeds, but those could not be utilized without a feed reader or aggregator, requiring a set up with non-Blogger applications if you wanted to use your own feeds in your own blog.

JSON changes all of that, and being able to use my own Blogger feeds in my blog, the Travel Map hack can be vastly simplified and improved. I put it off for a while, but due to some odd behavior in the first version, I worked on and now unveil version 2 with AJAJ.

Microsoft Internet Explorer still can't handle this feature (v6 or v7), so the "places I've been" link below my profile remains disabled if you're using IE. But if you want to watch IE crash, here's a live link. And again, if anyone knows the nonstandard MS-HTML I need to use to prevent IE from crashing, let me know.

The way the posts need to be composed has changed slightly from version 1:

Post Titles

All post titles must consist of: higher-level post name, this-level post name, latitude, longitude, zoom level, and H S or M map type (Hybrid, Satellite, or Map).

All of these values must separated by commas, no spaces. Examples:

Map,world,35.704857,-6.926808,1,S
world,China,35.86166,104.195397,3,H
China,Great Wall,40.355595,116.009375,17,S
China,Wuhan,30.579997,114.269829,12,S
Wuhan,York Bar,30.589035,114.297032,18,S

How does one get the latitude and longitude? The easiest way is to go to Google Maps, find the place you're looking for, and click on "Link to this page." You'll see the page reload, and in the address bar, you'll see part that goes "&ll=" followed by two numbers:

This is the latitude and longitude, and you can copy them directly from there. Incidentally, the zoom level will be just before this, where it says "&z=".

For the world post, which is the introductory top-level post, the initial value in the title must be "Map", like so:

Map,world,35.704857,-6.926808,1,S

Post Labels

Each post should have two labels. Every post should have the label, atravelmap. Then, each post should have another label depending on what level it's on: countrymap, regionmap, citymap, or placemap. The atravelmap label is used to group all these posts together. The other labels are there to help with sorting the posts into the right hierarchy.

The CSS will prevent these labels from appearing in the labels widget.

Post Date

Before you publish the post, you need to backdate it. Usually I save the post as a draft first, then change the date and publish it. With the code I have above, the posts should be backdated to 1985 (I just arbitrarily chose this year). The code will prevent this year from appearing in the Blog Archive widget.

Also, the code will prevent any of the posts from appearing via the "Older" link. Note: if you don't have very many posts currently, you may need to modify your Blog Settings (Formatting) to only display a certain number of posts on your home page. This will prevent the travel posts, with their funky titles, from appearing on your homepage.

You will need to play with the months and days a bit to get them to show up alphabetically.

I also disable comments for my travel posts, and the code I have does not allow for comments to even be displayed for these posts, but that could be fairly easily changed.

Post Body

The post body has no special requirements. However, if you want a marker or markers to appear for a location, you must include a span with an id of "markers" in your post body. Within the span tags, you should include the latitude, longitude, and name of each marker. Each marker can appear on a separate line, like so:

39.930011,116.399975,Beijing
31.229999,121.470001,Shanghai
Post text can begin here...

Note: This assumes the Settings -> Formatting -> Convert line breaks is set to Yes. In other words, when you hit Enter when composing a post, it will be replaced with a single tag in your blog. If you have this setting on No, then the markers should be entered as follows:

39.930011,116.399975,Beijing 
31.229999,121.470001,Shanghai 
Post text can begin here...

NEW! By request, you can now show routes, trails, or paths with some data included in your post body. For this functionality to work, you'll need to get a hex color, and two pieces of data from this Google utility. In particular, you will use this utility to draw your route, and then obtain the Encoded Polyline and the Encoded Levels that it generates.

In the body of your email, include this span:

#FF0000,10,BBBBBBB,gutyDu~oxTzFgI|DiFhE}FxEiGjFaHjEeG
#3333cc,5,BBBBBB,{avyDmcqxTzVYaJaIpMkS`G}JgMaE
Post text can begin here...

You can have multiple routes, one route per line (no carriage returns in the middle of the route data!). The first bit of data will be your hex color, which of course will be the color of the line on the map. The second bit is the line width (I'm not sure what the ranges are). The third bit of data is the Encoded Levels that you get from the Google utility mentioned above, and the fourth bit of data is the Encoded Polyline.

Note: This assumes the Settings -> Formatting -> Convert line breaks is set to Yes. In other words, when you hit Enter when composing a post, it will be replaced with a single tag in your blog. If you have this setting on No, then the markers should be entered as follows:

#FF0000,10,BBBBBBB,gutyDu~oxTzFgI|DiFhE}FxEiGjFaHjEeG 
#3333cc,5,BBBBBB,{avyDmcqxTzVYaJaIpMkS`G}JgMaE 
Post text can begin here...

Also note that the Polylines are a little buggy. I noticed when I was experimenting with it that random markers would sometimes appear. You can see the one example (so far) on my map by clicking on China -> Wuhan -> Jianghan Road.

The code below has been updated to include this new functionality.

Here's how to add this functionality to your blog:

1. Go here to get a Google Maps API key for your blog. There's no limit on the number of URL's you can register for a key, so I'd highly recommend getting one for a test blog first.

2. Generate an animated loading graphic here, and download it to your machine.

3. Start a new post and upload the graphic you created in step 2. After it uploads, you'll see some HTML appear in your post. Copy the web address that is between the quotes where it says href="". Save this post as a draft (entitle it something like "Graphics"). The purpose of this post is only for allowing you to upload graphics, photos, etc for use on your blog, and should always remain in draft status.

4. In the Page Layout view, add three HTML/JavaScript widgets to your blog:
a. Map Control - put this in your sidebar. This widget will contain the links to the various map locations.
b. Google Map - put this one in the large main section, above the Blog Posts widget.
c. Map Link - put this wherever you want the link to your travel map to appear (probably somewhere near your profile widget).

5. Download your template, and open it in a text editor. Add the following to your style sheet between the tags: <b:skin><![CDATA[/* and ]]></b:skin> :


        li#atravelmap, li#worldmap, li#countrymap, li#regionmap, li#citymap, li#placemap {
            display:none;}

        a.worldmap:link, a.countrymap:link, a.regionmap:link, a.citymap:link {
            text-decoration:none; color:#3a80b4;}
          
        #worlddiv, #countrydiv, #regiondiv, #citydiv {
            margin-left: 5px;}
      
        #countrydiv li, #regiondiv li, #citydiv li {
            list-style-type:none; display:inline;}
      
        #placediv ul {
            margin-left:13px;}
      
        #placediv li {
            list-style-type: disc; text-align: left;}
      
        #markers {
            display:none;}
  
        #routes {
            display:none;}

6. Add the following scripts to the header element, between the tags: ]]></b:skin> and </head> :


<script type="text/javascript">
    var priorEntry = "";
    var count = 0;
    var highlightCount = 0;
  
    var mapLevels = new Array("worldmap","countrymap","regionmap","citymap","placemap");
    var entryTitle = new Array();
    var postFeedLink = new Array();
    var postID = new Array();
  
    function loadMapFeeds() {
        priorEntry = "Map";
        entryTitle.length = 0;
        postFeedLink.length = 0;
        postID.length = 0;
        count = 1;
        highlightCount = 0;
      
        for (var i=0; i &lt; mapLevels.length; i++) {
            document.getElementById("contentdiv").innerHTML = "<img alt='Loading...' src='link-to-your-animated-loading-gif' />";
          
            var divID = mapLevels[i].replace(/map/,"div");
            document.getElementById(divID).innerHTML = "";
          
            if (document.getElementById("catFeed" + i)) {
                var scriptid = document.getElementById("catFeed" + i);
                scriptid.parentNode.removeChild(scriptid);
            }
          
            entryTitle[i] = new Array();
            postFeedLink[i] = new Array();
            postID[i] = new Array();
          
            var feed_load = document.createElement('script');
            var url = "/feeds/posts/summary/-/"+mapLevels[i]+"?alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=storeFeed&amp;max-results=200";
            feed_load.src = url;
            feed_load.type = "text/javascript";
            feed_load.id = "catFeed" + i;
            document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(feed_load);
        }
    }

    function storeFeed(root) {
        var feed = root.feed;

        for (var i = 0; i &lt; feed.entry.length; i++) {
            var entry = feed.entry[i];
          
            if (i==0) {
                var category = entry['category'][1].term;
                var index = mapLevels.indexOf(category);
            }
          
            var title = entry.title.$t;
            var link = entry['link'][2].href;      
            var post_id = entry.id.$t;

            entryTitle[index].push(title);
            postFeedLink[index].push(link);
            postID[index].push(post_id);
          
            if(i==(feed.entry.length-1)) {
                count++
            }
        }
      
        if (count==mapLevels.length) {
            showTitles(0);
        }
    }

    function showTitles(level) {
        var html = ['&lt;ul&gt;'];
        for (var i = 0; i &lt; entryTitle[level].length; i++) {
            var splitTitle = entryTitle[level][i].split(",");
            if (splitTitle[0]==priorEntry) {
                var aposTitle = splitTitle[1].replace(/'/,"apostrophe");
                var nextEntry = '\"' +aposTitle+ '\"';
                var t = getType(splitTitle[5]);
                var link = postFeedLink[level][i].replace(/summary/,"full");
                var quoteLink = '\"' + link + '\"';
                var splitPostID = postID[level][i].split("-");
                    quotePostID = '\"' +splitPostID[2]+ '\"';
                var category = '\"' + mapLevels[level] + '\"';
                if (mapLevels[level]=="placemap") {
                    html.push("<li><a href='javascript:void(0);' onclick='javascript:showContent(",quoteLink,"); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(",splitTitle[2],",",splitTitle[3],"),",splitTitle[4],",",t,")'>", splitTitle[1], "</a>", "</li>");
                }
                else {
                    html.push(" <li><a class='",mapLevels[level],"' id='",splitPostID[2],"' href='javascript:void(0);' onMouseOver = 'javascript:highlightmap(" ,quotePostID, ")' onMouseOut='javascript:unhighlightmap(" ,quotePostID, ")' onclick='javascript:showContent(",quoteLink,"); showNext(",nextEntry,",",category,",",quotePostID,"); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(",splitTitle[2],",",splitTitle[3],"),",splitTitle[4],",",t,")'>", splitTitle[1], "</a>", "</li> ");
                }
            }  
        }
      
        var whatdiv = mapLevels[level].replace(/map/,"div");
        document.getElementById(whatdiv).innerHTML = html.join("");
        if (mapLevels[level]=="worldmap" &amp;&amp; count==mapLevels.length) {
            showContent(link);
            showNext(aposTitle,mapLevels[level],splitPostID[2]);
            count = 0;
        }
    }

    function showNext(nextEntry,category,thisPostID) {
        nextEntry = nextEntry.replace(/apostrophe/,"\'");
        priorEntry = nextEntry;
      
        var allCategoryClass = getElementsByClass(category);
        for(var y=0;y &lt; allCategoryClass.length;y++) {
            allCategoryClass[y].style.backgroundColor="#efefef";
            allCategoryClass[y].style.color="#387fb5";
        }
      
        document.getElementById(thisPostID).style.backgroundColor="#c0c0c0";
        document.getElementById(thisPostID).style.color="#000000";
        highlightCount++;
      
        var index = mapLevels.indexOf(category);
        for (i=index+1; i &lt; mapLevels.length; i++) {
            showTitles(i);
        }

    }
  
    function showContent(postFeedLink) {
        document.getElementById("contentdiv").innerHTML = "<img alt='Loading...' src='link-to-your-animated-loading-gif' />";
  
        var content_load=document.createElement('script');
        var url=postFeedLink + "?alt=json-in-script&amp;callback=showfeedcontent";
        content_load.src=url;
        content_load.type="text/javascript";
        document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(content_load);  
    }
  
    function showfeedcontent(root) {
        document.getElementById("contentdiv").innerHTML = "";
  
        var entry = root.entry;
        var html = ['&lt;p&gt;'];
        var content = entry.content.$t;
        html.push(content);
        document.getElementById("contentdiv").innerHTML = html.join("");
      
        if (document.getElementById("markers")) {
            var markers = document.getElementById("markers").innerHTML;
            markers = markers.replace(/&lt;br \/&gt;/g,"|");
            markers = markers.replace(/&lt;br&gt;/g,"|");
            markers = markers.split("|");
            var markernum = markers.length;
            for (i = 0; i &lt; markernum; i++) {
                if (markers[i]!="") {
                    var onemarker = markers[i].split(",");
                    var description = onemarker[2]
                    var point = new GLatLng(onemarker[0],onemarker[1]);
                    var marker = createMarker(point,description);
                    map.addOverlay(marker);
                }
            }
        }
  
        if (document.getElementById("routes")) {
            var routes = document.getElementById("routes").innerHTML;
            routes = routes.replace(/<br \/>/g,"¦");
            routes = routes.replace(/<br>/g,"¦");
            routes = routes.split("¦");
            var routenum = routes.length;
            for (i = 0; i < routenum; i++) {
                if (routes[i]!="") {
                    var oneroute = routes[i].split(",");
                    var encodedPolyline = new GPolyline.fromEncoded({
                      color:  oneroute[0],
                      weight: oneroute[1],
                      points: oneroute[3],
                      levels: oneroute[2],
                      zoomFactor: 32,
                      numLevels: 4
                    });
                    map.addOverlay(encodedPolyline);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    function highlightmap (a) {
        if (document.getElementById(a).style.backgroundColor=="rgb(192, 192, 192)") {
            highlightCount++;
        }
        else {
            document.getElementById(a).style.backgroundColor="#c0c0c0";
            document.getElementById(a).style.color="#000000";
            highlightCount=0;
        }
    }
  
    function unhighlightmap (a) {
        if (highlightCount == 0) {
                document.getElementById(a).style.backgroundColor="#efefef";
                document.getElementById(a).style.color="#387fb5";
        }
    }

// Thanks to Mike at http://www.econym.demon.co.uk/ for his tutorial, which included this bit:
    function createMarker(point,html) {
        var marker = new GMarker(point);
        GEvent.addListener(marker, "click", function() {
            marker.openInfoWindowHtml(html);
            });
        return marker;
    }

    function getType (a) {
        var typeparameter ="";
        var maptype = a;
        if (maptype == "H") {
            typeparameter = "G_HYBRID_MAP"
        }
        else if (maptype == "S") {
            typeparameter = "G_SATELLITE_MAP"
        }
        else if (maptype == "M") {
            typeparameter = "G_NORMAL_MAP"
        }
        return typeparameter;
    }

    function delay(a,b) {
        map.panTo(new GLatLng(a,b));
    }

// Thanks to Dustin Diaz at http://www.dustindiaz.com/ for this great Javascript function
    function getElementsByClass(searchClass,node,tag) {
        var classElements = new Array();
        if ( node == null )
            node = document;
        if ( tag == null )
            tag = '*';
        var els = node.getElementsByTagName(tag);
        var elsLen = els.length;
        var pattern = new RegExp("(^|\\s)"+searchClass+"(\\s|$)");
        for (i = 0, j = 0; i &lt; elsLen; i++) {
            if ( pattern.test(els[i].className) ) {
                classElements[j] = els[i];
                j++;
            }
        }
        return classElements;
    }
</script>

7. Modify the three widgets you added previously as follows:

a.


        <b:widget id='HTMLa' locked='false' title='Map Controls' type='HTML'>
            <b:includable id='main'>
Add this        <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap"'>
Remove this            <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
Remove this            <b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
Remove this                <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
Remove this            </b:if>
                        <div class='widget-content'>
                            <data:content/>
                        </div>
                        <b:include name='quickedit'/>
                    </b:if>
               </b:includable>
        </b:widget>


        <b:widget id='HTMLb' locked='false' title='Google Map' type='HTML'>
            <b:includable id='main'>
Add this        <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap"'>
Remove this            <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
Remove this            <b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
Remove this                <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
Remove this           </b:if>
                             <div class='widget-content'>
                                 <data:content/>
                             </div>
                             <b:include name='quickedit'/>
                     </b:if>
            </b:includable>
        </b:widget>


        <b:widget id='HTMLc' locked='false' title='Map Link' type='HTML'>
            <b:includable id='main'>
Add this        <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap"'>
Remove this            <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
Remove this            <b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
Remove this                <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
Remove this            </b:if>
                              <div class='widget-content'>
                                <data:content/>
                              </div>
                              <b:include name='quickedit'/>
                    </b:if>
            </b:includable>
        </b:widget>

8. Find the Blog Posts widget:


    <b:widget id='Blog1' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>

Then find the main includable, and the div with an id of "blog-posts":


    <b:includable id='main' var='top'>
       <div id='blog-posts'>

Directly below the div element, add the following:


    <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap"'>
        <div id="contentdiv">
        </div>
    <b:else />

Just before the closing div tag for the "blog-posts" div, insert the closing if tag, like so:


        </b:if>
    </div>

9. Add the following conditional tags around the "nextprev" include, and the "feedLinks" include, like so:


    <b:if cond='data:blog.url != "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap"'>
        <!-- navigation -->
        <b:include name='nextprev'/>
  
        <!-- feed links -->
        <b:include name='feedLinks'/>
    </b:if>

10. In the "nextprev" includable, find the olderPageUrl conditional statement, and modify the href attribute so it includes the bolded text:


    <b:if cond='data:olderPageUrl'>
        <a expr:href='data:olderPageUrl + "&amp;updated-min=2000-08-31T00%3A00%3A00-00%3A00"' expr:title='data:olderPageTitle' id='blog-pager-older-link'><data:olderPageTitle/></a>
    </b:if>

11. Find the label widget:


    <b:widget id='Label1' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>

In the data:labels loop, modify the <li> element so it includes the bolded text:


    <b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'>
        <li expr:id='data:label.name'>
            <b:if cond='data:blog.url == data:label.url'>
                <data:label.name/>
            <b:else/>
                <a expr:href='data:label.url'><data:label.name/></a>
            </b:if>
            (<data:label.count/>)
        </li>
    </b:loop>

12. Find the blog archive widget:


<b:widget id='BlogArchive1' locked='false' title='Blog Archive' type='BlogArchive'>

Assuming you are using the hierarchy view for your archive, find the "interval" includable, and add the conditional tags as follows:


    <b:includable id='interval' var='intervalData'>
        <b:loop values='data:intervalData' var='i'>
            <b:if cond='data:i.name != "1985"'>
                <ul>
                    <li expr:class='"archivedate " + data:i.expclass'>
                        <b:include data='i' name='toggle'/>
                        <a class='post-count-link' expr:href='data:i.url'><data:i.name/></a>
                        (<span class='post-count'><data:i.post-count/></span>)
                        <b:if cond='data:i.data'>
                            <b:include data='i.data' name='interval'/>
                        </b:if>
                        <b:if cond='data:i.posts'>
                            <b:include data='i.posts' name='posts'/>
                        </b:if>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </b:if>
        </b:loop>
    </b:includable>

If you're using the flat view or drop-down menu, I'm not sure how to easily block out an entire year.

13. Add the following to the very last widget on your template (for me, this is the Profile widget). This should be inside the main includable:


<b:includable id='main'>


<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap"'>
 <script type="text/javascript">
  setTimeout("loadMapFeeds()",200);
 </script>
</b:if>

14. Save the template changes, and upload the template to Blogger. Go to the Page Layout view, and add the following data to your HTML widgets:

a. Map Control


    <a href="http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/">back home</a>
    <p>
        <ul>
            <li>
                <div id="worlddiv">
                </div>
            </li>
            <li><span class="travelsection">country:</span>
                        <div id="countrydiv">
                </div>
            </li>
            <li><span class="travelsection">region:</span>
                <div id="regiondiv">
                </div>
            </li>
            <li><span class="travelsection">city:</span>
                <div id="citydiv">
                </div>
            </li>
            <li><span class="travelsection">place:</span>  
        <div id="placediv">
                  
                  
                </div>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </p>

b. Google Maps


    <script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=YOUR-GOOGLE-MAP-KEY" type="text/javascript">
    </script>
  
    <div id="map" style="width: 100%; height: 400px"></div>
  
    <noscript>JavaScript must be enabled for Google Maps.  JavaScript is either disabled or not supported by your browser.
    </noscript>
  
    <script type="text/javascript">
        if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
            // Display the map, with some controls and set the initial location
            var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
            map.addControl(new GLargeMapControl());
            map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
            map.setCenter(new GLatLng(35.704857,-6.926808),1,G_SATELLITE_MAP);
            map.enableContinuousZoom();
        }
        else {
            alert("The Google Maps API is not compatible with this browser");
        }
    </script>

c. Map Link


    <!--[if IE]>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            function iealert() {
                alert("Internet Explorer does not support this function.  Get the better browser.  Get Firefox at http://www.mozilla.com");
            }
        </script>
        <p>
            <a id="travellink" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="javascript:iealert();">places I've been</a>
        </p>
    <![endif]-->
  
    <![if !ie]>
        <p>
            <a id="travellink" href="http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap">places I've been</a>
        </p>
    <![endif]></![endif]></![if>

Now you're all set. There's room for improvement, I know, and I'm eventually hoping to add some more functionality. If you see anything strange, or anything that I missed, or if you see something that is needlessly complex, leave a comment and let me know.A much improved Blogger Beta hack utilizing AJAJ that integrates Google Maps with your blog, and allows you to show the locations of your travels.

How the Democrats Can Lose in '08

2007-01-20T16:11:00.000-06:00

With the email announcement she sent out this morning, it's all but official that Hillary Clinton will be running for president. If she is selected as the Democratic candidate for president in 2008, then America will be guaranteed another four years at least of detrimental Republican failures.

I know that Hillary Clinton would make a great president, and I would love to see her in office. But Republicans hate her like they hate no other. To them, she's about on the same level as Satan, and there's no rallying cry that would bring out the Religious Righteous in droves—not gay marriage, not abortion, not gun control—than "Don't let Hillary Clinton become President!"

The attack on her would be fiercer and more vicious than on any previous Democratic candidate, and the Rush Limbaugh's and Ann Coulter's would try to tear her apart like the wild dogs they are. The Righteous would gladly take more blood in Iraq than Mrs. Clinton as president. They would gladly take invasion of privacy and suspension of habeas corpus. The weakening of American's standing in the world, the continuing reliance on oil and disregard for the environment, corporate welfare, worthless educational programs, voter fraud—anything other than Mrs. Clinton as president.

I also don't feel the swing vote would swing her way, especially with the stream of lies and propaganda that the Republican Advertising Machine will spew out. Don't underestimate the power the R.A.M.—it got an idiot elected twice (well, once really). And let's face the facts: the United States tends to be slightly more Republican than Democratic.

We can't afford another Republican in the Oval Office. We can't afford to let the Religious Righteous continue to dictate policy. They need a good, swift kick in the face. The only way to deliver it is for the Democrats to choose the candidate who has the best chance of winning over swing voters and a good number of voters who might normally vote Republican. I say Barack Obama is the one.Musings on Hillary Clinton's chances of winning in 2008.

Recruit One, Recruit Them All

2006-12-10T15:51:00.000-06:00

The US Army recently spent $200 million dollars on a marketing firm to come up with their new slogan: "Army Strong." What marvelous words! The ingenuity! The succinctness! Definitely worth 200 Nobel Prizes in Literature.

Now, as we all know, the Army has been experiencing recruiting woes ever since the Iraq War began going downhill shortly after Bush's cover-girl photo-op aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. I don't know whether the new slogan will help out or not, but I truly hope that next time the Army will spend these huge sums of money on protecting the soldiers stuck in Bush's Iraqi morass.

To that end I thought, in the spirit of patriotic duty, that I would offer, for free, a supplemental slogan and recruiting poster. They need to know they don't have to pay $200 million for this stuff. Of course, my work may not have quite the suppleness of "Army Strong," but it's a good mix of the classic and the realistic, and has a nice internal rhyme which emphasizes the important parts.

I hereby declare that the United States Army may use the below poster and all words within in any way, shape, or form, without charge:

my advertising suggestion to improve recruiting performance for the United States Army.

Map Your Travels in Blogger Beta

2006-12-03T22:54:00.000-06:00

UPDATE: 02-04-2006 - I have redone much of this hack by using the Blogger JSON feeds. You can see the latest version here.

UPDATE: 01-20-2006 - I am working on a new version of this feature that utilizes the Blogger JSON feeds and AJAX (or more properly speaking, I guess, AJAJ). This will reduce the lines of code to a minimum, and hence be simpler to implement. It will also work better and overcome the issue I mention in my 12/22 update below. Check back soon for the new version!

UPDATE: 12-22-2006 - Something screwy is going on with this. I just noticed this week that when initially loading the map page, several all-important links won't display. (The links allowing you to pick a country, then city, region, and/or place associated with that country.) This makes the whole thing non-functional and certainly unimpressive.

YET, oddly enough, if you simply reload the page, it will display correctly. Why would a static webpage display one way on the initial load, and another way when you reload? I don't know if this is caused by a change on Blogger's end, or if this might even be a bug in Firefox 2.0.1 which I recently upgraded to. Any ideas?

Here's how, for some reason, it looks now on initial load:

Here's how it's supposed to look, and how it's been looking all along until recently. Again, if you refresh the page, everything's magically okay:

----------------Original Post----------------

A few weeks ago while surfing around for some Blogger Beta hacks, I came across Hoctro's Place and saw how he had integrated Google Map Search with his blog. Very cool, I thought, and as I was at that time starting a post relating some of my travels in China, the idea soon occurred to me to try to use Google Maps to show various places I've been in the last few years. With satellite maps I can show all sorts of details like where I lived, worked, ate, went to school, got treated for dysentery, went skinny-dipping, etc. Now's the time to mark these places, while my memory is still fresh and I can still wind through various city streets in my mind.

And knowing how the times they are a-changing (especially in China), it will be great 20 years later to be able to revisit these places and say with certainty, "right here, in this parking lot, is where my apartment used to be."

So I pondered this for a while, thinking about how I wanted it to look and function, and trying to get it to look and function that way in Blogger Beta. Right away I must say thanks to Ramani from Hackosphere, from whose hacks I learned how to mix widget loops and JavaScript, and thanks to Mike for his online tutorial on using the Google Maps API. You can see what I finally came up with, after lots of fretting and sweating, by clicking on the "places I've been" link below my profile.

NOTE: this does not work in Internet Explorer (v6.0, sp2). I have used conditional tags to disable the link in IE, since it otherwise results in a DNS error that forces IE to shut down. I have no idea what causes the error, and I'm very tired of trying to figure out how to "trick" IE into displaying what I want, so I have left it as is. The web can't wait for IE. But if anyone can figure out how to resolve this error, I would be much obliged. Here's a link that's not disabled to this section of my blog. Again, if you're using IE, it will force IE to shut down.

The code for this functionality is below. I offer it for anyone who might want to use it, and more importantly, for anyone who can improve it, as I feel it might be a little over-engineered.

In brief, I decided to use a label search result page to display the map, and all the individual posts dealing with various locations. This allows me to use a simple label to tie all of these posts together, and also allows me to display the different locations without having to reload the page. I also use labels, as well as part of the post title, to set up a hierarchy of world, country, region, city, and place posts. Each location, no matter at what level, is a separate post. Thus, with the code in place, I am able to easily manage everything through the Posts dashboard.

In order to work, posts must be composed as follows:

Post Title

At the country level, the title must have the country name, latitude, longitude, zoom level, and H S or M map type (Hybrid, Satellite, or Map), all separated by commas. For instance:

China,35.86166,104.195397,3,H

How does one get the latitude and longitude? The easiest way is to go to Google Maps, find the place you're looking for, and click on "Link to this page." You'll see the page reload, and in the address bar, you'll see part that goes "&ll=" followed by two numbers:

This is the latitude and longitude, and you can copy them directly from there. Incidentally, the zoom level will be just before this, where it says "&z=".

At the region, city, and place level, the title is exactly the same, except that you need to type in the name of a higher level first. For instance:

China,Great Wall,40.355595,116.009375,17,S
China,Wuhan,30.579997,114.269829,12,S
Wuhan,York Bar,30.589035,114.297032,18,S

This associates the post to the higher level. Thus, after I click on China, which is at the country level, I will then see a link for the Great Wall, which is at the place level. Also, I will see a link for Wuhan, which is at the city level. When I click on Wuhan, I will see a link for the York Bar, which is at the place level. As you can see, the different levels can be associated with each other in different ways, so you don't always have to go from country to region to city to place.

Post Body

The post body has no special requirements. However, if you want a marker or markers to appear for a location, you must have the following in your post body:


<span id="markers3317635477131100617" class="markers">39.930011,116.399975,Beijing|31.229999,121.470001,Shanghai</span>

This is what I part of what I have for my country level "China" post. When I click on "China," the map will show China, and there will be markers at the above coordinates. Clicking on a marker will open an info window which says, for instance, "Beijing".

The CSS will make this invisible, but the data inside will be used to display the markers when the location loads. The data consists of the latitude, longitude, and info box description. If there are multiple places to mark, they should be separated by a pipe | . Also, the id for this span must be the word "markers" plus the post ID. I get this by saving the post first as a draft, then opening it again, and copying it from the address bar:

In addition, you can have some optional links in your post body which, when clicked, will move to a nearby location and place a marker there. This is so you don't have to clutter the map with too many markers (e.g., my apartment, the coffee shop next door, the vendor across the street, the restaurant at the corner), but can still point out these places for anyone who wants to see them. Here's a link I had for the post on my school in China:


<a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="javascript:showaround('30.593126','114.291678','Trust Mart');">Behind</a> the school is the Trust-Mart supermarket where I did most of my shopping my first year in China.

When I click the link, it will pan to the new location, and place a marker there. These locations need to be fairly close by to smoothly pan; otherwise, the map will simply reload. Again, you need the latitude, longitude, and the info window description.

Post Labels

Each post should have two labels. Every post should have the label, atravelmap. Then, each post should have another label depending on what level it's on: countrymap, regionmap, citymap, or placemap. The atravelmap label page is the main page used to display the map and posts. The other labels are there to help with sorting the posts into the right hierarchy.

The CSS will prevent these labels from appearing in the labels widget.

Post Date

Before you publish the post, you need to backdate it. Usually I save the post as a draft first (to get the post ID), then change the date and publish it. With the code I have, the posts should be backdated to 1985 (I just arbitrarily chose this year). The code will prevent this year from appearing in the Blog Archive widget.

Also, the code will prevent any of the posts from appearing via the "Older" link. Note: if you don't have very many posts currently, you may need to modify your Blog Settings (Formatting) to only display a certain number of posts on your home page. This will prevent the travel posts, with their funky titles, from appearing on your homepage.

Blogger will display the post titles from later to earlier, so you will need to play with the months and days a bit to get them to show up alphabetically. For instance, I have my posts on China dated to October 1985, Greece dated to August 1985, and Hungary dated to June 1985. This makes them display in alphabetical order: China, Greece, and Hungary.

I also disable comments for my travel posts, and the code I have does not allow for comments to even be displayed for these posts, but that could be fairly easily changed.

World Post

You might have noticed, there was one level that I haven't talked about yet: the world level. This level consists of a single post, and this post is what is displayed when initially going to the map page. It controls the markers that are initially shown at the world level, and allows anyone to go back up to the world level without having to reload the page.

The world post title is similar to the country-level post. Here's what I use on my blog:

world,35.704857,-6.926808,1,S

The latitude and longitude can be whatever center of the world you choose.

The world post label is worldmap (and, of course, atravelmap).

The date doesn't really matter, as long as it's in 1985.

To show markers at the world level, you'll put a hidden span in your post body, just as I described above for other posts:


<span id="markers1100387009350392250" class="markers">35.86166,104.195397,China|38.278603,23.80708,Greece|47.162494,19.503304,Hungary|23.200961,-102.700195,Mexico</span>

And that's it. It does seem like a lot, as there's a fair amount of data to sift through, but once you do it some it's easy to get used to.

Here's the code:

1. Go here to get a Google Maps API key for your blog. There's no limit on the number of URL's you can register for a key, so I'd highly recommend getting one for a test blog first.

2. Copy the following somewhere between the tags: <b:skin><![CDATA[/* and ]]></b:skin> :


.markers {
 display:none;}

a.countrymap:link, a.regionmap:link, a.citymap:link {
 text-decoration:none; color:#3a80b4;}

a.regionmap, a.citymap, li.placemap {
 text-decoration:none; display:none;}

.travelsection {
 font-weight:bold;}

/* This prevents the map posts from
showing up in the label widget */
li#atravelmap, li#worldmap, li#countrymap,
li#regionmap, li#citymap, li#placemap {
 display:none;}

#placelist li {
 list-style-type: disc; text-align: left;}

/* You will need to modify these margins to
get them to display right in your blog.
This is what I have: */
#placelist {
 margin-left:13px;}

#countrydiv, #regiondiv, #citydiv {
 margin-left: 5px;}

3. Next there are a series of JavaScript functions you'll need to copy between the tags: ]]></b:skin> and </head> . This is where I might have over-engineered some stuff. If any JavaScript experts see ways to simplify, let me know.


<script src="http://maps.google.com/maps?file=api&v=2&key=YOUR_KEY_HERE" type="text/javascript">
</script>


<script type="text/javascript">
 // Thanks to Mike at http://www.econym.demon.co.uk/ for his tutorial, which included this bit:
 function createMarker(point,html) {
  var marker = new GMarker(point);
  GEvent.addListener(marker, "click", function() {
   marker.openInfoWindowHtml(html);
   });
  return marker;
 }
</script>

<script type='text/javascript'>
 // Thanks to Dustin Diaz at http://www.dustindiaz.com/ for this great JavaScript function
 function getElementsByClass(searchClass,node,tag) {
  var classElements = new Array();
  if ( node == null )
   node = document;
  if ( tag == null )
   tag = '*';
  var els = node.getElementsByTagName(tag);
  var elsLen = els.length;
  var pattern = new RegExp("(^|\\s)"+searchClass+"(\\s|$)");
  for (i = 0, j = 0; i < elsLen; i++) {
   if ( pattern.test(els[i].className) ) {
    classElements[j] = els[i];
    j++;
   }
  }
  return classElements;
 }
</script>

<script type='text/javascript'>
 // This function displays the appropriate post body, and makes all others disappear
 function showtravelpost(a) {
  var e=getElementsByClass('travelpost',document,'div');
  for(var i=0;i < e.length;i++){
   e[i].style.display="none";
  }
  document.getElementById(a).style.display="block";
 }
</script>


<script type='text/javascript'>
 // This function displays the next links in the hierarchy,
 // makes links belonging to another hierarchy disappear,
 // and permanently highlights and unhighlights the appropriate level(s).
 var count = 0;
 function shownext (a,b,c) {
  var allplace=getElementsByClass('placemap');
  for(var i=0;i < allplace.length;i++){
   allplace[i].style.display="none";
  }
  var allcity=getElementsByClass('citymap');
  for(var i=0;i < allcity.length;i++){
   allcity[i].style.background="#efefef";
   allcity[i].style.color="#387fb5";
  }
  if (b == "regionmap" || b == "countrymap") {
   var allcity=getElementsByClass('citymap');
   for(var i=0;i < allcity.length;i++){
    allcity[i].style.display="none";
   }
   var allregion=getElementsByClass('regionmap');
   for(var i=0;i < allregion.length;i++){
    allregion[i].style.background="#efefef";
    allregion[i].style.color="#387fb5";
   }
  }
  if (b == "countrymap") {
   var allregion=getElementsByClass('regionmap');
   for(var i=0;i < allregion.length;i++){
    allregion[i].style.display="none";
   }
   var allcountry=getElementsByClass('countrymap');
   for(var i=0;i < allcountry.length;i++){
    allcountry[i].style.background="#efefef";
    allcountry[i].style.color="#387fb5";
   }
  }
  document.getElementById(c).style.backgroundColor="#c0c0c0";
  document.getElementById(c).style.color="#000000";
  var e=getElementsByClass(a);
  for(var i=0;i < e.length;i++){
   e[i].style.display="inline";
  }
  var f=getElementsByClass('placemap');
  for (var i=0;i < f.length;i++){
   if (f[i].style.display!="none") {
    f[i].style.display="list-item"
   }
  }
  count++;
 }
</script>

<script type = "text/javascript">
 // This function is for the "world" link to get you back where you started.
 // Could have been combined with the above, but I was too lazy at that point.
 function showworld() {
  var allplace=getElementsByClass('placemap');
  for(var i=0;i < allplace.length;i++){
   allplace[i].style.display="none";
  }
  var allcity=getElementsByClass('citymap');
  for(var i=0;i < allcity.length;i++){
   allcity[i].style.display="none";
  }
  var allregion=getElementsByClass('regionmap');
  for(var i=0;i < allregion.length;i++){
   allregion[i].style.display="none";
  }
  var allcountry=getElementsByClass('countrymap');
  for(var i=0;i < allcountry.length;i++){
   allcountry[i].style.background="#efefef";
   allcountry[i].style.color="#387fb5";
  }
 }
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
 // This function controls mouseover highlighting.  The count
 // variable here comes from the shownext() function above.
 function highlightmap (a) {
  if (document.getElementById(a).style.backgroundColor=="rgb(192, 192, 192)") {
   count++;
  }
  else {
   document.getElementById(a).style.backgroundColor="#c0c0c0";
   document.getElementById(a).style.color="#000000";
   count=0;
  }
 }
   
 function unhighlightmap (a) {
  if (count == 0) {
    document.getElementById(a).style.backgroundColor="#efefef";
    document.getElementById(a).style.color="#387fb5";
  }
 }
</script>

<script type="text/javascript">
 // This function allows you to enter a single letter in the post title
 // to determine what map type you want.
 function getType (a) {
  var typeparameter ="";
  var maptype = a;
  if (maptype == "H") {
   typeparameter = "G_HYBRID_MAP"
  }
  else if (maptype == "S") {
   typeparameter = "G_SATELLITE_MAP"
  }
  else if (maptype == "M") {
   typeparameter = "G_NORMAL_MAP"
  }
  return typeparameter;
 }
</script>

<script type='text/javascript'>
 // This function shows a set of markers for any given level.
 function showmarkers (a) {
  if (document.getElementById(a)){
   var spandata = document.getElementById(a).innerHTML;
   var setmarker = spandata.split("|");
   var markernum = setmarker.length;
   for (i = 0; i < markernum; i++) {
    var onemarker = setmarker[i].split(",");
    var qdescription = onemarker[2]
    var point = new GLatLng(onemarker[0],onemarker[1]);
    var marker = createMarker(point,qdescription);
    map.addOverlay(marker);
   }
  }
 }
</script>

<script type='text/javascript'>
 // This function is for if you want to show a few places in a small area
 // (like "the cool coffeeshop next to the hotel that I went to every morning").
 // Puts a marker in, and moves smoothly (most of the time) to that marker.
 // Needs some improvement.
 function delay(a,b) {
  map.panTo(new GLatLng(a,b));
 }

 function showaround (a,b,c) {
  var point = new GLatLng (a,b);
  var qdescription = c;
  var marker = createMarker (point, qdescription);
  map.addOverlay(marker);
  var currentzoom = map.getZoom();
  if (currentzoom < 18) {
   map.panTo(new GLatLng(a,b));
  }
  else {
   var currentcenter = map.getCenter();
   var midlat = (currentcenter.lat() - ((currentcenter.lat() - a)/2));
   var midlng = (currentcenter.lng() - ((currentcenter.lng() - b)/2));
   map.panTo(new GLatLng(midlat,midlng));
   setTimeout("delay(" +a+ "," +b+ ")",600);
  }
 }
</script>

4. Copy the following widget just above this widget:


<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='false' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'>

Be sure to check your template for any other HTML widgets first. If you already have a widget with an id of HTML1, change the id here to HTML2 or 3 or whatever. This is the widget which will contain the map.


<b:widget id='HTML1' locked='false' title='Google Map' type='HTML'>
 <b:includable id='main'>
  <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>
   <div class='widget-content'>
    <data:content/>
   </div>
   <b:include name='quickedit'/>
  </b:if>
 </b:includable>
</b:widget>

Note that here and below you might need to add "?max-results=" to the label page URL, as by default Blogger will only display 20 or so on one page. I set the links here with max-results of 200.

5. Copy the following just after these tags:


<b:includable id='main' var='top'>
 <!-- posts -->
    <div id='blog-posts'>


<b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>
 <script type="text/javascript">
  var worlddata="";
   var worldpostbody="";
   var worldmarkerset="";
  var countrydata="";
  var regiondata="";
  var citydata="";
  var placedata="";
  <b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
   <b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
    <b:if cond='data:label.isLast == "true"'>
     <b:if cond='data:label.name == "worldmap"'>
      var title = "<data:post.title/>";
      splittitle = title.split(",");
      var postbody = "\"travelpost<data:post.id/>\"";
      worldpostbody = "travelpost<data:post.id/>";
      var markerset = "\"markers<data:post.id/>\"";
      worldmarkerset = "markers<data:post.id/>";
      t = getType(splittitle[4]);
      worlddata = worlddata + "<a class='worldmap' href='javascript:void(0);' onclick='javascript:showworld(); showtravelpost(" +postbody+ "); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(" +splittitle[1]+"," +splittitle[2]+ ")," +splittitle[3]+ "," +t+ "); showmarkers(" +markerset+ ");'>"+splittitle[0]+"</a>";
     <b:else />
      <b:if cond='data:label.name == "countrymap"'>
       var title = "<data:post.title/>";
       var splittitle = title.split(",");
       var qsplittitle = "\"" + splittitle[0] + "\""
       var label = "\"<data:label.name/>\""
       var postbody = "\"travelpost<data:post.id/>\"";
       var markerset = "\"markers<data:post.id/>\"";
       var travellink = "link<data:post.id/>";
       var qtravellink = "\"link<data:post.id/>\"";
       var t = getType(splittitle[4]);
       countrydata = countrydata + " <a class='countrymap' id='" +travellink+ "' href='javascript:void(0);' onMouseOver = 'javascript:highlightmap(" +qtravellink+ ")' onMouseOut='javascript:unhighlightmap(" +qtravellink+ ")' onclick='javascript:shownext(" +qsplittitle+ "," +label+ "," +qtravellink+ "); showtravelpost(" +postbody+ "); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(" +splittitle[1]+"," +splittitle[2]+ ")," +splittitle[3]+ "," +t+ "); showmarkers(" +markerset+ ");'>"+splittitle[0]+"</a> ";
      <b:else />
       <b:if cond='data:label.name == "regionmap"'>
        var title = "<data:post.title/>";
        var splittitle = title.split(",");
        var qsplittitle = "\"" + splittitle[1] + "\""
        var label = "\"<data:label.name/>\""
        var postbody = "\"travelpost<data:post.id/>\"";
        var markerset = "\"markers<data:post.id/>\"";
        var travellink = "link<data:post.id/>";
        var qtravellink = "\"link<data:post.id/>\"";
        var t = getType(splittitle[5]);
        regiondata = regiondata + " <a class='" +splittitle[0]+ " regionmap' id='" +travellink+ "' href='javascript:void(0);' onMouseOver = 'javascript:highlightmap(" +qtravellink+ ")' onMouseOut='javascript:unhighlightmap(" +qtravellink+ ")' onclick='javascript:shownext(" +qsplittitle+ "," +label+ "," +qtravellink+ "); showtravelpost(" +postbody+ "); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(" +splittitle[2]+"," +splittitle[3]+ ")," +splittitle[4]+ "," +t+ "); showmarkers(" +markerset+ ");'>"+splittitle[1]+"</a> ";
       <b:else />
        <b:if cond='data:label.name == "citymap"'>
         var title = "<data:post.title/>";
         var splittitle = title.split(",");
         var qsplittitle = "\"" + splittitle[1] + "\""
         var label = "\"<data:label.name/>\""
         var postbody = "\"travelpost<data:post.id/>\"";
         var markerset = "\"markers<data:post.id/>\"";
         var travellink = "link<data:post.id/>";
         var qtravellink = "\"link<data:post.id/>\"";
         var t = getType(splittitle[5]);
         citydata = citydata + " <a class='" +splittitle[0]+ " citymap' id='" +travellink+ "' href='javascript:void(0);' onMouseOver = 'javascript:highlightmap(" +qtravellink+ ")' onMouseOut='javascript:unhighlightmap(" +qtravellink+ ")' onclick='javascript:shownext(" +qsplittitle+ "," +label+ "," +qtravellink+ "); showtravelpost(" +postbody+ "); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(" +splittitle[2]+"," +splittitle[3]+ ")," +splittitle[4]+ "," +t+ "); showmarkers(" +markerset+ ");'>"+splittitle[1]+"</a> ";
        <b:else />
         <b:if cond='data:label.name == "placemap"'>
          var title = "<data:post.title/>";
          var splittitle = title.split(",");
          var qsplittitle = "\"" + splittitle[1] + "\""
          var postbody = "\"travelpost<data:post.id/>\"";
          var markerset = "\"markers<data:post.id/>\"";
          var t = getType(splittitle[5]);
          placedata = placedata + "<li class='" +splittitle[0]+ " placemap'><a href='javascript:void(0);' onclick='javascript:showtravelpost(" +postbody+ "); map.clearOverlays(); map.setCenter(new GLatLng(" +splittitle[2]+"," +splittitle[3]+ ")," +splittitle[4]+ "," +t+ "); showmarkers(" +markerset+ ");'>"+splittitle[1]+"</a></li>";
         </b:if>
        </b:if>
       </b:if>
      </b:if>
     </b:if>
    </b:if>
   </b:loop>
  </b:loop>
 </script>
 
 <hr />
 <b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
  <div expr:id='"travelpost" + data:post.id' class='travelpost' style='display:none;'>
   <data:post.body/>
   <hr />
  </div>
 </b:loop>
<b:else />
 <b:loop values='data:posts' var='post'>
  <b:if cond='data:post.dateHeader'>
   <h2 class='date-header'><data:post.dateHeader/></h2>
  </b:if>
   <b:include data='post' name='post'/>
  <b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
   <b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
    <b:include data='post' name='comments'/>
   </b:if>
  </b:if>
 </b:loop>
</b:if>

5. Look for these two items in your template:


<!-- navigation -->
<b:include name='nextprev'/>
<!-- feed links -->
<b:include name='feedLinks'/>

Before it, enter this:


<b:if cond='data:blog.url != "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>

After it, enter this:


</b:if>

This will prevent the Newer, Older, and Home links from appearing on your map page.

6. Find this includable:


<b:includable id='nextprev'>

Then look for the anchor <a> with the following href:


expr:href='data:olderPageUrl'

Change the href as follows:


expr:href='data:olderPageUrl + "&updated-min=2005-08-31T00%3A00%3A00-00%3A00"'

This prevents your travel posts from appearing when anyone clicks on the Older link in your blog. You may need choose an earlier year. I started my blog just a couple of months ago, so I obviously don't have any posts older than 2005. Note: some months didn't work here. I seem to recall that June or July didn't work, but August did.

7. There were several widgets I didn't want displaying on my map page, so I added the following after the main includable (<b:includable id='main'>) for each widget I didn't want to display:


<b:if cond='data:blog.url != "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>

Just before the end of the includable (</b:includable>), you of course need </b:if> .

8. I use the hierarchy-type archive, and the following prevents my travel map posts from appearing in the archive. (I'm not sure how to prevent them from appearing for the other archive types.)

Just after these lines:


<b:includable id='interval' var='intervalData'>
<b:loop values='data:intervalData' var='i'>

Copy this:


<b:if cond='data:i.name != "1985"'> <!--you'll make this whatever year you backdate your posts to-->

Then just after the </ul> tag, you'll add the closing if tag </b:if> .

9. Add the following to your sidebar, below this:


<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

This widget will contain the post titles, displayed in the proper hierarchy. These post titles are what you click on to display the location on the map, and display the corresponding post body. Again, be sure to check your other HTML widgets to get the appropriate id.


<b:widget id='HTML2' locked='false' title='Places I've Been' type='HTML'>
 <b:includable id='main'>
  <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>
    <!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
   <b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
    <h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
   </b:if>
   <div class='widget-content'>
    <data:content/>
   </div>
  <b:include name='quickedit'/>
  </b:if>
 </b:includable>
</b:widget>

10. Add the following widget near the very end of your template, just before the final </b:section> tag.


<b:widget id='HTML3' locked='false' title='Map Script' type='HTML'>
 <b:includable id='main'>
  <b:if cond='data:blog.url == "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>
   <div class='widget-content'>
    <data:content/>
   </div>
  <b:include name='quickedit'/>
  </b:if>
 </b:includable>
</b:widget>

11. This is the final change to the actual template itself. Add the following to the sidebar to create a link to your travel map page. I put mine just below my profile widget:


<b:widget id='HTML4' locked='false' title='Travel Link' type='HTML'>
 <b:includable id='main'>
  <b:if cond='data:blog.url != "http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200"'>
   <div class='widget-content'>
    <data:content/>
   </div>
   <b:include name='quickedit'/>
  </b:if>
 </b:includable>
</b:widget>

12. Now, after you save your new template, go to the Layout view. (Note: you will get a pop-up every time you view the Layout stating that the API is registered to another URL. This is because the template is being loaded to render the Page Layout section, and the URL there is "http://beta.blogger.com.....")

Find the Google Map widget, click Edit, and add the following to it:


<div id="map" style="width: 100%; height: 400px"></div>

<noscript>JavaScript must be enabled for Google Maps.  JavaScript is either disabled or not supported by your browser.
</noscript>

<script type="text/javascript">
    if (GBrowserIsCompatible()) {
        // Display the map, with some controls and set the initial location
        var map = new GMap2(document.getElementById("map"));
        map.addControl(new GLargeMapControl());
        map.addControl(new GMapTypeControl());
        map.setCenter(new GLatLng(35.704857,-6.926808),1,G_SATELLITE_MAP);
        map.enableContinuousZoom();
    }
    else {
        alert("The Google Maps API is not compatible with this browser");
    }
</script>

The coordinates above is what I chose to be the center of the map of the world when the map page first loads. I chose zoom level 1 (the highest), and a satellite map type.

13. Find the Travel Link widget, click Edit, and add the following to it:


<!--[if IE]>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        function iealert() {
            alert("Internet Explorer does not support this function.  Get the better browser.  Get Firefox at http://www.mozilla.com");
        }
    </script>
    <p>
        <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="javascript:iealert();">places I've been</a>
    </p>
<![endif]-->

<![if !ie]>
<p>
    <a href="http://your-blog-here.blogspot.com/search/label/atravelmap?max-results=200">places I've been</a>
</p>
<![endif]></![endif]></![if>

Since this doesn't work in Internet Explorer, this will prevent people using IE from clicking on this link and then having to shut down their browser.

14. Find the Places I've Been widget, and add the following to it. You can obviously customize how you want it to look, but this is what I did:


<table width="100%">
    <tr>
        <td id="worldtd">
        </td>
        <td style="text-align:right;">
            <a href="http://your-blog-name.blogspot.com/">back home</a>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table>
<p>
<ul>
    <li><span class="travelsection">country:</span>
        <div id="countrydiv">
        </div>
    </li>
    <li><span class="travelsection">region:</span>
        <div id="regiondiv">
        </div>
    </li>
    <li><span class="travelsection">city:</span>
        <div id="citydiv">
        </div>
    </li>
    <li><span class="travelsection">place:</span>
        <div id="placediv">
            <ul id="placelist">
            </ul>
        </div>
    </li>
</ul>
</p>

15. Finally find the widget named Map Script. Click Edit, and add the following:


<script type="text/javascript">
    obj = document.getElementById('worldtd');
    obj.innerHTML = worlddata;
    obj = document.getElementById('countrydiv');
    obj.innerHTML = countrydata;
    obj = document.getElementById('regiondiv');
    obj.innerHTML = regiondata;
    obj = document.getElementById('citydiv');
    obj.innerHTML = citydata;
    obj = document.getElementById('placelist');
    obj.innerHTML = placedata;
    showtravelpost(worldpostbody);
    showmarkers(worldmarkerset);
</script>

A Blogger Beta hack that integrates Google Maps with your blog, and allows you to show the locations of your travels.

Cars and Bars

2006-11-23T03:26:00.000-06:00

MADD announced a few days ago their new campaign to install alcohol-detection devices in cars of drunk drivers. While this will likely reduce repeat incidences of drunk driving somewhat, I can't help but think this is a band-aid solution. The true problem is cars themselves, or rather, the car culture that has developed in America (and is developing elsewhere).

With the urban sprawl spawned by the Interstate Highway System, no one stays local to do anything. We can't, really. After all, we live far from where we work far from where we shop far from where we eat far from where we drink. If at least our favorite watering hole were within walking distance or a short drive away, incidences of drunk driving would plummet. (And think how much happier in general we would all be if everything else were closer as well. I can't tell you how nice it is to live a 5-minute walk away from the supermarket.)

But the growth of interesting, self-containing, walkable communities—oases in our urban deserts—is obviously a pipe dream (except for Prince Charles' urban village of Poundbury). However, another feature of our car culture can be changed: public transport.

There is simply no easy way to get to and from bars, restaurants, and other weekend places without driving a car. Public transport, if it even goes to the desired destination, shuts down at 10pm. You might be able to get a ride with a friend, but what if he's drunk, too? And what if you went to a bar by yourself, to drink in solitude? Of course, you could always call a cab, but those are a bit of a rip-off because everything is so far away.

Let's get our scattered places well connected, so it's easy to get around without a car. This will not only decrease drunk driving, but improve the quality of life for everyone: the less we have to stress over traffic, fight over parking spots, and fret over gas prices, the better our lives will be. Many of us may then have less need to get drunk in the first place.A couple of thoughts on what will really reduce drunk driving in America.

Wo Er Ma

2006-11-19T14:43:00.000-06:00

This month-old article about Wal-Mart bidding for the Chinese chain Trust-Mart brought back memories of my time in Wuhan. (I actually started this post a month ago, then partly because of this post, I got side-tracked with integrating Google Maps with my blog to show various places from my travels—took me quite a while. You can see the result in the "places I've been" link on the right. ) Right behind my school there was a Trust-Mart, and it's where I did nearly all of my shopping for a year. Its Chinese name is 好又多, which means something like "good (things) and many (things)." (Wal-Mart's name in Chinese is 沃尔玛 — it has no meaning really, but rather is phonetic. You can see the literal meaning of each character here.) But I didn't find it that great, and once I discovered some of the other, better supermarkets—Carrefour (家乐福), Fu-Mart (大福源), and even, I'm ashamed to admit, the Wal-Mart which opened up in 2004—I rarely went back. (There was also the much smaller but more spread-out Zhongbai (中百), a branch of which opened directly below my school in 2002.)

Though they might vary in cleanliness and selection, the layout of all the large supermarkets was the same, and I suspect it's so throughout China: They are all housed in a large 2- or 3-story building that looks more like a department store from the outside. When you walk through the entrance, you see several stalls and small shops where people sell clocks, shoes, jewelry, tea, and trinkets. Most likely, there is a canteen nearby. You cannot enter the store itself from the first level. You have to take an escalator to the second or third level, where you may encounter some other stalls before you can actually enter the store proper. Upstairs they sell about every non-edible item you might want in your home in China: TVs, radios, dumpling steamers, office supplies, water heaters, mosquito nets, washing machines, rice cookers, clothes, shoes, dishes, woks, bicycles, weights, toys, mahjong (麻将), toiletries, electric fly-swatters, calligraphy paper, Hello Kitty crap, karaoke machines, dictionaries, pirated CDs and DVDs...

You have to wind your way through all of this stuff—this is China's version of putting the milk and bread in the back—which can be incredibly difficult if you're pushing a cart through weekend crowds. Then finally you get to the escalator going down, and you descend into the smells of food.

At Fu-Mart, you gently sank into the wonderful smell of baking bread, but most other places brought you down right in the fish and meat section, where the smells of preserved salty fish, flattened dehydrated chickens, frogs and eels in aquariums, and all sorts of animal parts, rushed into your nostrils like Henry V's army unto the breach.

As you might have guessed from the brief list of 2nd-floor items I recounted above, there are all sorts of odd things you can find in Chinese supermarkets, and this becomes even more apparent as you wander amongst the food.

Dried shredded fish. Black herbal jello. Geriatric nut powders. Dried string mushrooms. Frozen fish balls. Tree ear fungus (木耳). Tofu that looks like dried corn husks. Spicy pickled vegetables. Curdled pig blood. Lotus seeds. Blackened preserved eggs (皮蛋). Sesame paste. Plum sauce. Red bean paste (红豆沙). All the wonderful Chinese vegetables, such as caitai (菜苔), uncommon outside of Hubei Province, and lihao (蓠蒿). Chinese fruit, like longyan (龙眼) and lizhi (荔枝). Noodles for local dishes such as hot-dry noodles (热干面) and cold noodles (凉面), as well as all sorts of other noodles. Endless varieties of tea. (And that's just what I can remember from a single sitting.)

Then after you check out (without the benefit of conveyor belts like in the US), you had to get your receipt stamped before going out the narrow exit (like the pass of Thermopylae) and back amongst the vendors. Then you did like everyone else does, and which I still do here, living as I do close to a supermarket—you park your cart, heft up your bags, and walk home. If it was raining, you might have caught a taxi or, before they were banned in 2003, a mamu (麻木 - a local Wuhan name for tricycle pedicabs).

All of these wonderful items—sometimes more, sometimes less—were available in the traditional outdoor street markets, which are great places to walk around in, and look at people and things. I didn't shop too often in the markets because, especially as a foreigner, I could never be sure I was getting a fair price. You have to haggle and bargain in the markets, and my general aversion to bargaining coupled with my inability to do so in Chinese guaranteed I would never get the price I could get in the supermarkets.

Yet it would be a shame if the outdoor markets disappeared. I wonder if the emergence of these supermarkets in recent years signals the beginning of the end, and the eventual lessening of variety, especially now that Wal-Mart is on the scene.

Admittedly, the Wal-Mart in Wuhan was much nicer, not to mention bigger, than any Wal-Mart I've seen in the U.S. The building it's in is actually rather stylish, and sells some things you'll never see at a Wal-Mart here. (Actually, those aren't porn videos, but sex education videos with very titillating covers and very boring content.)

So I didn't really feel it that bad or tasteless to shop there, like I do in America, though I went as little as necessary, preferring Fu-Mart above all others.

But I think it's only a matter of time—perhaps a long time given the size of the country and it's population, but witness the rapidity with which McDonald's and KFC have spread their tentacles throughout China (770 and 1,700 locations by November 2006, respectively - source). Once the outdoor markets go, then the variety in supermarkets themselves will begin to shrink. And when it's all over I wonder how much of the weird and wonderful and local variety will be lost, and replaced by a generic cuisine you can find any old place. Just like in the U.S.now that Mal-Wart has opened its doors in China, and is acquiring a Chinese chain as well, is the diversity of the country's food and other products endangered?

Robert Frost & Ogden Nash

2006-10-26T23:58:00.000-05:00

These two poets are about as opposite as you can get. One the master of dark understatement from rural New England, the other the light-verse virtuoso oft associated with the New Yorker. Though a good deal of their lives overlapped (Frost 1874 - 1963, Nash 1902 - 1971), they don't seem to have had anything to do with each other. I can find no reference to Nash in Frost's selected letters, or in a biography I have of Frost. I don't know enough about Nash's life or letters to say "vice versa," but I'm certain I could, although Frost does make an appearance in one of Nash's poems ("O, Snow-Bound was written by Robert Frost / And Scott Fitzgerald wrote Paradise Lost" — from Who Did Which? or Who Indeed?).

A quick stroll through the table of contents of a volume by both poets easily shows how worlds apart they are, but here are a few contrasting stanzas, exempli gratia:

The City
by Odgen Nash

This beautiful ditty
Is, for a change, about the city,
Although ditties aren't very popular
Unless they're rural and not metropular.

Sentimentalists object to towns initially
Because they are made artificially,
But so is vaccination,
While smallpox is an original creation.

Artists speak of everything urban
As the W.C.T.U. speaks of rye and bourbon,
And they say cities are only commercial marts,
But they fail to realize that no marts, no arts.

The country was made first,
Yes, but people lived in it and rehearsed,
And when they finally got civilization down,
Why, they moved to town.

Take country people, they suffer stoically,
But city people prefer to live unheroically;
Therefore city dentistry is less painful,
Because city dentists find it more gainful.

City people are querulous and queasy,
And they'd rather die than not live easy
And if they did die, they'd find fault
If they weren't put in an air-conditioned vault.

Yes, indeed, they are certainly sissies,
Not at all like Hercules or Ulysses,
But because they are so soft,
City life is comfortable, if not perpetually, at least oft.

The Need of Being Versed in Country Things
by Robert Frost

The house had gone to bring again
To the midnight sky a sunset glow.
Now the chimney was all of the house that stood,
Like a pistil after the petals go.

The barn opposed across the way,
That would have joined the house in flame
Had it been the will of the wind, was left
To bear forsaken the place's name.

No more it opened with all one end
For teams that came by the stony road
To drum on the floor with scurrying hoofs
And brush the mow with the summer load.

The birds that came to it through the air
At broken windows flew out and in,
Their murmur more like the sigh we sigh
From too much dwelling on what has been.

Yet for them the lilac renewed its leaf,
And the aged elm, though touched with fire;
And the dry pump flung up an awkward arm;
And the fence post carried a strand of wire.

For them there was really nothing sad.
But though they rejoiced in the nest they kept,
One had to be versed in country things
Not to believe the phoebes wept.

But they were not always so antipodal. Frost occasionally penned a whimsical verse:

Sym-ball-ism

The symbol of the number ten—
The naught for girls, the one for men—
Defines how many times does one
In mathematics or in fun
Go as you might say into zero.
You ask the heroine and hero.

And Nash sometimes weighted his lines:

Old Men

People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when...
People watch with unshocked eyes;
But the old men know when an old man dies.

But both poets came together in a very real way for me in the last few days. Last Wednesday, I stopped at Half-Price Books while my wife was getting her lovely locks scissored. I checked all the sections I normally do, to see if anything new was in. In the poetry section, I spied an old edition of Frost's complete poems. It was actually entitled "Collected Poems," and it was published by Halcyon House, which I found odd because Holt had published most of his poetry.

I pulled it from the shelf and thumbed through it. It was published in 1942, and definitely looked that old.

The first page was inscribed, "To Mother, With Love, Helen. Mother's Day 1944." Inside the book were several newspaper clippings about Frost which had stained the pages they were wedged between.

Frost is one of my favorite poets, and I have three different volumes of his complete poems (one published in 1964 just after his death, one edited by Edward Connery Lathem who "regularized" a lot of Frost's punctuation and spelling, and the Library of America edition which is the best you can get of the poet). This would make an interesting fourth volume, and would be the oldest of the lot. But I wasn't quite sure, as books are a vice of mine, and I've been trying to buy fewer and read more of the ones I already have. Did I really want it, I asked myself. Especially with the newspaper stains. As I was mulling it over, I looked back at the front of the book, and separated a couple of pages that had static cling, and suddenly saw this:

I'm sure my jaw dropped open at the sight of that. I just remember a rush of thought like, "Is that really Frost's signature?! Can't be. How could it have ended up here, like any old book? Frost's signature? Really?" I looked and looked at it. Even though I had a wee bit of doubt—I had to doubt, I mean, what are the chances?—but also, I knew. I had seen Frost's writing before, and this volume even had a facsimile of his signature on the frontispiece. I wandered the aisles a little more, walking off my excitement some, and bought it.

I have no idea how much it's worth. I did manage to find this very edition, also signed, on eBay, for $249. Needless to say, considerably more than I payed for it, but no matter the monetary value, it is the jewel of my little Frost collection.

Since the signature was dated March 13, 1949, I wanted to see if I could find out where he was that day. I checked his selected letters and biography, but couldn't find anything near that date. So I went online and typed in "Robert Frost March 13, 1949." Lo and behold, I found this site detailing the Frost collection at Bluffton University, and from one of the items listed, I can say it's likely that Frost signed this book in Georgia at Agnes Scott College:

Folder 30 - Photographic Material -- Photographs
1. (1945?) - Frost at University of Georgia (lighter exposure)
2. (1945?) - Frost at University of Georgia (darker exposure)
3. January 1947 - Frost at Agnes Scott, signing books (signed)
4. January 1947 - Frost at Agnes Scott, signing books (signed)
5. March 13, 1949 - Frost with Doris Sullivan, Agnes Scott student

Incidentally, while looking around on eBay and other websites, I happened upon a photo of Frost's Complete Poems 1949. I had never seen what it looked like, and I was intrigued how it looked exactly the same as my 1964 edition, except for the year 1949 on the cover. Then I remembered that not long ago, perhaps just this last time, I had seen at Half-Price a volume of Frost that looked like that. At the time, I had passed it by, thinking I already owned that edition. It suddenly struck me that it could have been the 1949 edition, and what's more, it could be signed. (Crazy and covetous, I know.)

So a few days later, I went back to Half-Price Books. The volume was gone, alas, and though I felt a little disappointed, I realized I was being rather silly. To find one like this, not probable but quite possible. To find two, not possible, at least statistically. But while I'm here, I thought, I might as well check some of the other old poetry tomes on the shelf. You never know... I pulled an old, cigarette-smelling edition of Carl Sandburg of the shelf. No signature. Read a few pages, placed it back on the shelf. Looked at an old, thick volume of Kipling. Then saw on the bottom shelf a collection by Ogden Nash.

I'd actually seen it before, but didn't bother looking at it. I have a good edition of his already (Verses from 1929 On), and though I like his light verse, you have to be in the mood for it.

I slid it from between its companions on the shelf, opened it and saw right away this:

No way! I had no idea what Nash's signature looked like, and wondered if it might be fake. But does that really happen? And who would fake Nash's signature? It was written with a heavy black pen, and at the bottom of the page was a lighter inscription, "To my Love, Dorothy Ann. Love, Bill. 3/23/42". The book itself was published in 1941. The fact that the inscription was at the bottom of the page, obviously leaving room for the signature, pretty much cinched it for me.

So again, I made a happy purchase, and after getting home checked online to see if I could verify the signature. Sure enough, it was his, and I found one site that was selling a signature of his for $399.00. I think I've probably used up all my luck for the rest of my life.

Which is why I haven't even attempted removing the price stickers. Modern stickery is designed to survive a direct nuclear hit, and will rip and tear anything it is removed from, or at least leave a nasty residue. Does anyone have an idea how to safely remove them?

Speaking of things modern, I end with a poem by each. These are by no means the best, but I find them relevant to our time.

Not to Keep
by Robert Frost

They sent him back to her. The letter came
Saying... And she could have him. And before
She could be sure there was no hidden ill
Under the formal writing, he was there,
Living. They gave him back to her alive—
How else? they are not known to send the dead—
And not disfigured visibly. His face?
His hands? She had to look, to look and ask,
'What is it, dear?' And she had given all
And still she had all—they had—they the lucky!
Wasn't she glad now? Everything seemed won,
And all the rest for the permissable ease.
She had to ask, 'What was it, dear?'

'Enough
Yet not enough. A bullet through and through,
High in the breast. Nothing but what good care
And medicine and rest, and you a week,
Can cure me of to go again.' The same
Grim giving to do over for them both.
She dared no more than ask him with her eyes
How was it with him for a second trial.
And with his eyes he asked her not to ask.
They had given him back to her, but not to keep.

Everybody Tells Me Everything
by Ogden Nash

I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when you think that at least the outlook is so black that it can grow no blacker, it worsens,
And that is why I do not like the news, because there has never been an era when so many things were going so right for so many of the wrong persons.

A little bit of Frost, a little bit of Nash, and a whole lot of luck.

Bless Who?

2006-10-18T21:10:00.000-05:00

There's a new guy at work who sits in the cube next to mine. The few times he's sneezed, I've said the customary "bless you," but he has always responded with silence.

I imagine his silence arises from feelings similar to those some people have when they hear "under God" in the pledge, or see "in God we trust" on all of our money (so much for rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar's), or are forced to participate in school prayer, or have to view in a courthouse a hulking monument engraved with the ten commandments, only three or four of which can be related to our legal system.

And I can definitely sympathize with this feeling, as "bless you" is a religious phrase, once you think about who's doing the blessing—the full subjunctive form is, after all, "may God bless you."

But when I say it, and I think most other non-religious people would feel the same, I don't say it with religion, I don't feel anything religious. It's simply the one after-sneeze expression we have in English. The German "gesundheit" is available, but it always has a facetious ring to it, and what if you want to be truly earnest, say, after a particularly furniture-rattling sneeze?

If only we could say, "health!" like they do in nearly every other European language, for that is truly what any post-sternutation wishes or concerns should be directed towards. Why associate religion with the high-force expulsion of spit and snot?

Of course, "bless you" supposedly arose from a belief that the soul might leave the body, or that the devil might enter, during a sneeze. Other accounts say it started with Pope Gregory the Great during one of the many historical outbreaks of the bubonic plague, one symptom of which, unsurprisingly, was sneezing.

And before modern medicine, a sneeze could have been considered an omen of greater illness, bubonic plague or no—but still, why not say "health"? "Bless you" seems more morbid, as if you know the person's going to die. It's like you've given up hope, and you think the other person's going to give up the ghost, so you resign yourself to saying, "I hope God blesses you," and perhaps that person won't tumble down to God's eternal torture chamber. (Maybe it really was from those bubonic times, when death was pretty much inevitable.)

"Health!" I'd rather say. "Screw the afterlife, I want you well in this life." But we don't have that phrase available.

So now I've taken to not saying anything at all when someone sneezes. But it feels very odd greeting a sneeze with silence—it feels rude. And I'm sure that my other coworkers, to whom I've always extended a "bless you," have noticed that now I say nothing. Do they wonder why I've suddenly become impolite?

Yet if I continue saying it when it's not desired, that makes me seem somewhat like those obnoxious Christians who disobey their master's command not to "pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men" (Matthew 6:5), who blatantly advertise their religion and impose it on others. Far be it from me, non-Christian that I am, to make another non-Christian feel that way about me.

Short of finding a new phrase, only one other solution suggests itself to me. But would it be okay to say it to some, and not to others?

At any rate, "health!"should the English after-sneeze expression change to something less religious?

Better Coffee

2006-10-08T10:32:00.000-05:00

I had rarely for many years used animal food, or tea, or coffee, &c.; not so much because of any ill effects which I had traced to them, as because they were not agreeable to my imagination. ... think of dashing the hopes of a morning with a cup of warm coffee, or of an evening with a dish of tea!

Henry David Thoreau: Walden.

When I came across those lines in Walden, my reverence for Thoreau slipped, not quite a notch, but a few hairs at least. I love coffee. I look forward to the brew almost every afternoon. (I've never really been one to cry for a cup in the morning.)

I enjoy the ritual of making it, the anticipation while it cools just a little, and the hot dark taste as it goes down—not to mention the caffeine fix. That's what got me through the all-nighters I pulled in high school (and one double all-nighter) and college, though the boost I get is milder now.

The passage in which the above quote occurs discusses our animal life vis a vis our spiritual. Thoreau doesn't elaborate much here on his aversion to coffee, instead deliberating on the virtues of abstaining from meat, but it seems to stem from a concern with being enslaved to exotic appetites and addictions at the expense of higher pursuits. Later on he gets more economic:

I did not use tea, nor coffee, nor butter, nor milk, nor fresh meat, and so did not have to work to get them; again, as I did not work hard, I did not have to eat hard, and it cost me but a trifle for my food.

This is not an issue with coffee anymore (except for those who drop $4+ at Starbucks everyday), though there are plenty of contemporary addictions this could be applied to—cars and oil spring to mind, as do disposable AA batteries for all of our portable electronic gadgets.

But I think Thoreau would have plenty more to say about coffee were he around today. I think he would criticize the mass production of inferior coffee products, the exploitation of the environment and people of coffee-producing countries, and our reduction of coffee to the merest utilitarian purpose of giving us a little more energy to work.

I was made aware of all of this and much more when I read Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast. I left the book at my school in China for the enlightenment of any coffee drinkers who might come that way, otherwise I'd quote from it.

But Pendergrast traces the history of coffee from the legend of Kaldi's dancing goats to the Starbuck's phenomenon of our time, and I highly recommend his book. He particularly focuses on the late 19th and 20th centuries, explaining the increasing intertwining of coffee with international relations, economics, and our domestic lives, as well as discussing how coffee was produced, packaged and sold over the years, and how that influenced the quality and taste of the coffee we drink.

Two things become apparent when reading this book:

Coffee was one of the first products that fell victim to the mantra of corporate America: "how much can we lower the quality and up the quantity, and get people to still buy it?"
Coffee as it is mostly grown is bad for the environment, the economy, and the people of coffee-producing countries.

Because of this, most of the coffee out there is no good, and most people don't really know what a good cup of coffee tastes like—and yet the big coffee companies rake in money every year.

Consider your canned coffee. Generally made from the cheaper, poorer-tasting Robusto beans, grown with pesticides and paid pennies for. Pre-ground long before it's brewed, so it rapidly loses flavor. And old after sitting on the shelf at the store and at home for weeks and weeks, possibly months or even longer. Coffee is a perishable commodity and needs to be brewed as soon after roasting and grinding as possible.

When I read this book, I had been regularly drinking Nescafe Gold instant coffee, as that was the easiest type of coffee to buy in China. After I finished, though, I vowed never to drink instant coffee again, or crappy regular coffee, even if nothing else were available (that's the only way to fight the "increase quantity, decrease quality" corporations). Generally I have succeeded—I can count on one hand the number of times since then I've had crappy coffee with a couple of fingers left over.

I also decided to seek out a better way to make coffee. The book mentioned the French press method as the best, but I never liked the grit that always gets through the filter mesh. I'd used drip coffee makers all my coffee-drinking life, but I knew I'd never had a truly excellent cup from one of those. But aside from a drip, the options available to me in China were nil (although I always saw these cool vacuum pots and other contraptions in the numerous cafés there).

I ended up rigging up something with clothes pins, a large glass jar, and some coffee filters I managed to find. It worked, and not too badly, but though the coffee I used was better than Nescafe Gold, it was not quite the taste I was looking for. (I bought it pre-ground at the French supermarket chain, Carrefour—whole beans, and grinders for them, were impossible to come by—but at least it was real.)

After I came back to America, my quest for a better coffee-brewing method was superseded by the job search and everything else needed to get on my own two feet here. I did get some good beans, though. I tried some organic, shade-grown Green Mountain coffee, as well as Whole Foods' organic store-brand coffee. Now I get Whole Foods' Allegro coffee since they get a newly-roasted batch of beans every week, and you can buy whatever amount you like—I like to get about a week's worth at a time.

But until recently I was still using a drip coffee maker, though the particular model I had was a step up from what I had used in the past. I was still not getting the brew I wanted, and I attribute this to two things: the inside pot of this particular model being difficult to access and hence difficult to clean, and the plastic filter basket.

Coffee always leaves a residue, and just rinsing with water, soap and water, or even coffee pot cleaners does not remove the residue. It has to be physically wiped off. (This is why work coffee is so bad—those huge thermal servers have years of crud inside them, and cannot be cleaned.) Filter baskets are hard to clean effectively what with all the ridges. Furthermore, plastic seems to absorb coffee odors very easily, and it's nearly impossible to remove them. If you use a drip, smell the filter basket and you'll see what I mean (or let me know what soap you use). These old odors get into your coffee every time you brew.

After things settled down in the other areas of my life, I renewed my quest, and decided to give the French press another try, but with a paper basket filter to keep all the grit out. I read somewhere online that this could not be done without the filter shredding, but lo and behold it works, and works very well.

The French press I have was a mere $14 at IKEA, and has no plastic parts (except the handle and plunger knob). It also meets my other requirement of it being easy to clean all surfaces that coffee comes into contact with. And 8-10 cup filters fit perfectly in the glass beaker.

After the water (just below boiling) is poured over the grinds, I place the filter in the beaker mouth, press it down a little with the plunger, and fold the rest of the filter out over the edge so I can push the lid down.

After 2-3 minutes (that's all the time you need) I lift the lid, fold the filter in, and slowly push down, pausing every 20 seconds or so to shake the press a little to scatter the grinds and allow for the easier flow of liquid through the filter. Pushing down too hard or quickly will cause the filter to tear.

I finish with a beaker full of excellent coffee, and pour it out so it doesn't brew further, and enjoy.

The only other thing I would like to get is a manual burr grinder to replace my electric blade whacker. The best burr grinders are made by Zassenhaus in Germany, but they've not exported any grinders to the US for about two years or so, hence they're hard to come by. I've been watching eBay, but every time a decent one is offered, the price ratchets up to $100+. Don't want one that badly. I've heard that blade whackers cause some flavor loss due to heat, but I just want to switch so I can get one less electronic gadget in my life.

Once I get there, I think I could brew some cups that even Thoreau might try, and hopefully he wouldn't exclaim afterwards, as he did in Walden, "Ah, how low I fall when I am tempted by them!"Bad coffee and how it got that way, and how to make it better.

Map,world,35.704857,-6.926808,1,S

1985-12-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

35.86166,104.195397,China
38.278603,23.80708,Greece
47.162494,19.503304,Hungary
23.200961,-102.700195,Mexico
I spent three weeks in China in the summer of 1997. Short of a couple of brief trips to Mexico, my next international jaunt brought me to Greece for 9 months in 2000, followed by a month in Hungary. Then after a brief return to the states, I spent three years in China teaching English. I'm back in the states again, and have been for a couple of years now. I will likely be here for a few years more, but I'm already feeling the urge to travel again, which is partly why I decided to go over some of my previous travels here.

I've got quite a few places still to add, so consider this a work in progress.

Wuhan,David Perry English Training Center,30.59248,114.28965,18,S

1985-10-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

30.592595,114.289511,The David Perry English Training Center
Here's where I taught English for three years. I lived upstairs on the fourth floor my first year there, which got to be annoying as students were always coming to my door, sometimes early in the morning, for help with their homework or for English practice. The school was on the second and third floor of a complex most of the rest of which was a clothing factory. Directly below us on the first floor was a restaurant where I had my first dinner with my new colleagues in August 2001. Across the street from us was a good hotpot restaurant (the light blue, backwards L-shaped building) called Fish Head (鱼头)—and they did put a great big tasty fish head in your hotpot. Unfortunately the restaurant closed during my last year in China, and I've heard rumors that this whole area is going to be torn down to make way for the entrance to a tunnel under the Changjiang River. Behind the school is the Trust-Mart supermarket where I did most of my shopping my first year in China.

Wuhan,Guiyuan Temple,30.547636,114.253231,17,S

1985-10-01T18:00:00.000-05:00

30.547284,114.253285,Statue of Guanyin (观音), Buddhist Goddess of Mercy
Built in the 17th century, Guiyuan Temple (归元寺) is most famous for its hall of 500 Arhats (阿罗汉). Visitors often get their fortunes read by picking any statue as a starting place, and then moving down one statue for each year in their age. They will remember the number of the statue they end up on, and can later purchase a card with some cryptic verses on it (in Chinese). A fortune-teller will then offer to interpret these verses for you.

On Guanyin's birthday (day 19 of the second moon), there is a large celebration here.

Wuhan,Jianghan Road,30.581923,114.288079,16,S

1985-10-01T12:00:00.010-05:00

#FF0000,10,BBBBBBB,gutyDu~oxTzFgI|DiFhE}FxEiGjFaHjEeG
This is the famous pedestrian street in Wuhan, Jianghan Road. It's in the old European concession area, and lots of old European buildings flank each side of the road

Lhasa,Potala Palace,29.65716,91.11758,17,S

1985-10-01T12:00:00.009-05:00

The treasures housed here are amazing.

Tibet,Lhasa,29.657249,91.116314,13,S

1985-10-01T12:00:00.008-05:00

29.65716,91.11758,Potala Palace
I spent part of a brief five-day tour in Lhasa in October, 2001.

China,Great Wall,40.355595,116.009375,17,S

1985-10-01T12:00:00.007-05:00

The Great Wall (长城) was started in the 3rd century B.C, and was extended and rebuilt over the next several hundred years. This is the Great Wall at Badaling (八达岭), the most oft-visited, hence the most restored, part of the Wall. Here you can see the huge parking lot for the hundreds of tour buses that come each week.

I came here in 1993 and climbed to the farthest and highest point you can here, and you can see it still snaking over the hills for miles and miles. My friend and I then ran back down, and he tripped and skinned up his knees pretty badly. The Chinese have an expression, "if you've not been to the Great Wall, you're not a real man" (不到长城非好汉). I wonder what they would say in this case?

China,Tibet,32.10119,86.572266,5,H

1985-10-01T12:00:00.004-05:00

29.657249,91.116314,Lhasa
I spent a brief five days in Tibet during the National Day holiday of 2001. I had some altitude sickness after first arriving, and I was annoyed with the group I was with because they wanted to eat Chinese food and sing karaoke (in other words, do all the stuff they'd normally do back home). I was also dismayed by how much Lhasa was like any other Chinese city. But the trip was still amazing and worth it—you will never feel so close to the sun and sky, or see such massive mountains.

world,China,35.86166,104.195397,3,H

1985-10-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

39.930011,116.399975,Beijing (北京)
31.229999,121.470001,Shanghai (上海)
30.579997,114.27,Wuhan (武汉)
32.10119,86.572266,Lhasa (拉萨)
22.283378,114.150009,Hong Kong (香港)
23.119996,113.249989,Guangzhou aka Canton (广州)
34.259593,108.941674,Xi'an (西安)
34.68,112.470001,Luoyang (洛阳)
36.719967,119.100037,Weifang (潍坊)
38.04728,114.467926,Shijiazhuang (石家庄)
31.300005,120.620012,Suzhou (苏州)
30.250022,120.170002,Hangzhou (杭州)
My first real international trip—and my first time flying—was when I went to China during the summer of 1993. I had just finished 10th grade, and it was an eye-opening experience. The group I was with spent three weeks going along the eastern coast of China, from Beijing to Hong Kong, which at that time was still a British colony. Though I greatly enjoyed the trip, little did I imagine I would later spend three years of my life there, in Wuhan, Hubei province. I taught English there from 2001 to early 2005, with a four-month hiatus in between.

Xi'an,Qin Shi Huang's Tomb,34.381864,109.25354,16,S

1985-10-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

This mound of earth is believed to cover the actual burial chamber of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇). According to Sima Qian (司马迁), the first great Chinese historian (and considered by some to be China's Shakespeare), the tomb contained a model of China, with flowing mercury representing the rivers, lakes, and seas. A revolving map of the stars and planets was on the ceiling, and countless riches were buried with the emperor. There are also several booby traps to counter would-be grave robbers.

The Terra-Cotta Soldiers are to the west nearby.

Xi'an,Terra-Cotta Soldiers,34.38476,109.273324,17,S

1985-10-01T05:00:00.000-05:00

Pictures do not do them justice. You have to see them in person to be able to truly appreciate the vastness of it all, how many soldiers there are, how long it must have taken to create them all. Despite the impressiveness of it all, I couldn't help but be irreverently reminded of the collection of GI Joe's I had when I was younger.

Wuhan,Wal-Mart,30.580052,114.285681,17,S

1985-10-01T02:00:00.001-05:00

30.580052,114.285681,Wal-Mart (沃尔玛)
Wal-Mart opened up in Wuhan in 2004, my last year in China. It was actually not too far away from the apartment I lived in that year. I was (and still am) wary of Wal-Mart opening its doors in China, but I was fairly impressed with the store. It is bigger, cleaner, more stylish, and more various than any Wal-Mart I have seen in the U.S.

China,Wuhan,30.579997,114.269829,12,S

1985-10-01T02:00:00.000-05:00

30.59248,114.28965,The David Perry English Training Center
30.597056,114.3001,My Second Year Apartment
30.583419,114.291056,My Third Year Apartment
30.589035,114.297032,York Bar and Tea Room - (约克英式茶馆)
30.579277,114.290879,Jianghan Road - (江汉路)
30.546767,114.29715,Yellow Crane Tower - 黄鹤楼
30.547742,114.254894,Guiyuan Temple - 归元寺
30.535489,114.352618,Wuhan University - 武汉大学
Wuhan (武汉), capital of Hubei province, is not that well known outside of China, but it's the third or fourth largest city in China, and in many respects is the center of China. It was originally three separate cities—Hankou (汉口), Hanyang (汉阳), and Wuchang (武昌). It grew into one city, and is now the only Chinese city that straddles the Yangzi River (扬子江)—or the Changjiang (长江) as it is normally called in China.

Several books about China, particularly older books, may mention Hankou or Hankow (for instance, a passage in Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer mentions "the dirty yellow mouth of the river, the lights going up at Hankow..."), and indeed, this has been and still is the more commercially important of the three cities. The foreign concessions were all here (including the Russian concession where the 1911 Revolution had its spark), and several of the European buildings are still standing today. Today, it is the most vibrant and beautiful part of the city, with the great pedestrian street Jianghan Lu, and the café-lined avenue and riverside park on Yanjiang Dadao. The name of this part of the city means "mouth of the Han River," and if you look on the map, you can see the thin Han River flowing from the west and emptying into the Changjiang. Hankou is the upper left of the three land-masses.

Hanyang is the lower left land-mass. I've not been able to figure out what its name refers to. According to my dictionary, yang (阳) means, among other things, "north of a river". However, this part of the city is south of the Han River. The name may have originally been applied to another part of the town that was north of the Han River, and later came to mean this area.

On the other side of the Changjiang, on the right side of the map, is Wuchang. Wuchang means "flourishing from the military", as there have been several important arsenals and military garrisons here for several centuries.

China,Xi'an,34.263317,108.942146,13,S

1985-10-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

Xi'an is one of the most historical cities of China. It's one of the few places outside of Beijing where you see a lot of history around as you walk around. Notice the rectangular perimeter of the old city walls.

Wuhan,Yellow Crane Tower,30.547072,114.296919,18,S

1985-10-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼) is Wuhan's most famous landmark. Several classical Chinese poems, for instance this one by Li Bai, aka Li Po (李白), are set in or near the famous tower. Yellow Crane Tower was rebuilt in 1985, after a fire started from a cigarette butt, so I heard.

Wuhan,York Bar,30.589035,114.297032,18,S

1985-10-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

30.589035,114.297032,York Bar
I spent many a fond hour here drinking beer and cracking jokes with Sugar, the jovial owner.

Greece,Andros,37.839987,24.938579,10,H

1985-08-01T23:00:00.000-05:00

My Greek teacher was from Andros (Άνδρος), and she invited three of us to stay at her island house during the spring. It was my second excursion by ship on the Aegean, and the timing could not have been better. It was deliciously warm, and the cherry, lemon, and loquat trees were all in bloom. In the morning we got up slightly early so we could pick fruit before the wasps awoke, and we sat on the terrace in the sunlight eating the breakfast we just picked. Then we walked down to the beach and swam for a bit, and headed into Andros town for lunch and a bit of sightseeing.

I remember walking in the town one afternoon, near where some boys were playing street soccer, and one of them kicked the ball pretty far, and it rolled by me. I attempted to kick the ball back to them, but ineptly kicked it down an alley into the sea. I tried to use my poor Greek to explain what happened while they all shouted "malaka!" at me (μαλάκα) and ran after the ball.

Greece,Patmos,37.323485,26.549835,12,H

1985-08-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

37.307922,26.544943,Monastery of St. John the Theologian
I went to Patmos (Πάτμος) during the Easter 2000 holiday, and it was one of the great experiences of my life.

We had a week off, and it was my first trip to a Greek island. There is nothing quite like traveling by ferry across the Aegean—the unobstructed sky, the fresh air, the steady churn of the turbines, the sea drifting by. It easily puts one in a meditative mood. As night came on, I slept on deck as the ferry plowed through the wine-dark sea. I woke up early in the morning as we passed several mist-shrouded islands, little worlds all to themselves, soon swallowed up by the distance. I don't recall exactly how long the ferry took; online ferry schedules show about 7.5-9 hours, but I recall it taking longer than that.

In Patmos, I stayed in a villa on the outskirts of the port town of Skala. In the days before the Easter celebrations, I rented a scooter and found an small, isolated beach where I took my first swim in the Mediterranean.

On another day I wandered into an icon studio named Parousia. The owner was fully steeped in the Byzantine icon-making tradition, and offered several finely crafted icons for sale. As I was looking around, he asked me what I thought, and I responded, not meaning anything deprecatory, "They are nice." He immediately retorted, "These are not nice! These are genuine religious artworks! Hours of work and meditation have gone into each one." After an hour or so of looking around, I bought a copy of a 12th century icon of St. John that is housed in the Monastery on the island.

I also climbed the hill behind Skala to visit the Cave of the Apocalypse and the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. In the dark, candlelit Cave you can view the very crevices and niches in the rocks where, it is believed, St. John rested his head and put his hand to pull himself up or steady himself while sitting down.

I walked through the library at the Monastery, where several ancient paintings and documents are displayed, and walking around afterwards ran into the Abbot. For some reason he called me Peter, and asked a few questions about where I was from and what I was doing in Greece.

Easter gets the same emphasis in Greece (and other Orthodox countries) as Christmas does in the West. On Easter Friday I went up again to the Monastery to attend the Service of Lamentation. I don't remember much about this service except that a local befriended me and tried to translate and show me what to do. Afterwards, we walked together among the crowd down the hill, in darkness and silence.

This service has been superseded in my mind by the Easter Resurrection Service the next evening. I got there early to make sure I had a good spot, and stood for a few hours as the monks chanted, sprinkled holy water on everyone, and swung the thurible back and forth. Most people at the service stayed in the church for a while, then went out to the courtyard to rest before going back in, and at one point, the Abbot came up to me and urged me to do the same, whispering into my ear, "Go sit down!" But I stayed through the whole thing, till the moment when the lights were turned off, and after a long silence the priest appeared from behind the icon screen with a large candle and proclaimed, "Χριστός ανέστη", to which everyone responded "Αληθώς ανέστη". Fireworks went off, and the bells started ringing like crazy. Each of us had a beeswax candle, and starting with those nearest the priest, everyone lit up until the whole sanctuary was bathed in candlelight. Then there was a procession down to Skala where everyone feasted and celebrated until the wee hours of the morning.

Greece,Crete,35.310068,24.918764,8,H

1985-08-01T22:00:00.000-05:00

I spent approximately a month in Crete (Κριτι) during the summer of 2000. It could be thought of as the "Texas" of Greece, as there is a sort of wild West atmosphere there, especially in the countryside. While visiting one rural taverna, as the traditional band complete with lyra (λύρα) played fast and furious, a man stepped out the door, pulled a pistol from his belt, and fired a few shots into the air. The favored alcoholic beverage of this largest of the Greek islands is raki (ρακί).

Greece,Athens,37.979928,23.729782,13,H

1985-08-01T12:00:00.001-05:00

37.965313,23.744861,My Apartment
37.971398,23.726606,The Parthenon (Παρθενώνας)
37.983378,23.745446,Lycabettus Hill (Λυκαβηττός)
37.975217,23.736788,Parliament Building in Constitution Square (Πλατεία Συντάγματος)
37.968192,23.741069,1896 Olympic Stadium (Παναθηναϊκό στάδιο)
I spent my last semester of college studying abroad at the Beaver College program in Athens (Αθήνα). (They have since changed their name to Arcadia University, and I'm sure you can guess why.) I ended up spending 5 months in Athens and love the city. Almost everywhere you go, you are reminded of the long history of this country—your eye might take in a modern skyscraper, a 19th century mansion, a Byzantine church, and an ancient marble column, without moving more than a few degrees. It's a bustling city, and probably the largest city in the West where the wonderful tradition of the siesta is still followed. In the late afternoons and evenings, Athenians walk in the park, or congregate at the numerous streetside cafés.

The port of Piraeus (Πειραιάς) is to the southwest.

world,Greece,38.358888,24.301758,6,H

1985-08-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

37.979928,23.729782,Athens (Αθήνα)
37.839987,24.938579,Andros (Άνδρος)
38.533127,23.925476,Euboia (Εύβοια)
37.323485,26.549835,Patmos (Πάτμος)
36.407192,25.40657,Santorini or Thera (Σαντορίνη είτε Θήρα)
35.180543,24.796143,Crete (Κρήτη)
37.060657,25.485535,Naxos (Νάξος)
36.161162,27.92038,Rhodes (Ρόδος)
37.066136,25.186844,Paros (Πάρος)
37.071341,22.432022, Sparta (Σπάρτη)
37.074072,22.366941,Mystras (Μυστράς)
37.935736,22.928638,Corinth (Κόρινθος)
I spent a much-too-short nine months in Greece (Ελλάς) during my last semester of college in 2000, and after classes were over I wandered among the islands. Greece is one of the greatest places in the world, with the Aegean sunlight, myriad islands, plentiful wine and olives and feta, and the remnants of thousands of years everywhere you look.

Hungary,Lake Balaton,46.839881,17.746353,9,H

1985-06-01T12:00:00.001-05:00

Lake Balaton is the largest lake in Central Europe. It covers a fairly wide area (592 km²), but it is surprisingly shallow in several places. Indeed, one Hungarian writer (can't remember who) in a humorous story about Lake Balaton made reference to Jesus walking on water.

world,Hungary,47.162494,19.503304,6,H

1985-06-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

47.49714,19.058361,Budapest
46.249437,20.154934,Szeged
46.839881,17.746353,Lake Balaton
I spent one month in Hungary after my stay in Greece. I met a Hungarian guy at a hostel I was staying at in Athens shortly before I left Greece, and he kindly invited me to stay a week with his family in Budapest. We took an excursion to Lake Balaton, which has a large surface area, but is rather shallow—you can stand up in the middle of the lake. I spent the remaining three weeks in Szeged in the south, near the border with Serbia. While there I drank lots of pálinka, and enjoyed a few bottles of the sweet Tokaji Aszú dessert wine as well.

Mexico,Paricutin Volcano,19.493528,-102.251118,16,S

1985-04-01T12:00:00.001-06:00

This volcano in the state of Michoacán erupted in 1943, and continued growing and erupting until 1952. I came here during my San Miguel trip, and we rode horses through the apocalyptic landscape to get to the base of the volcano. It was the first time I'd been on a galloping horse, and I got caught up in the moment and went without my shirt. By the end of the day I was beet red. We climbed up the volcano on foot and walked around the perimeter of the mouth. They say Paricutin will never erupt again, but I saw several places where steam was coming out. After we tumbled down one of the ash flows, we rode our horses to the nearby ruins of San Juan Parangaricutiro, one of the villages destroyed by the volcano. All that's left of the village is part of the church.

world,Mexico,23.200961,-102.700195,5,H

1985-04-01T12:00:00.000-06:00

27.477207,-99.50609,Nuevo Laredo
25.68,-100.31,Monterrey
20.91262,-100.74729,San Miguel de Allende
19.493528,-102.251118,Paricutin (Volcan de Parícutin)
I went to Nuevo Laredo for a brief day trip for Spanish class in high school. All I remember from that trip is seeing two guys run out of a boot store with a box of new boots. Later, also while still in high school, I went with one of my friends to Monterrey and spent a week there with his family. Then during Spring Break, freshman year in college, I went down to San Miguel with some friends to attend my roommate's mother's wedding.