Adventurers After Tea Time

Skype on the T-Mobile Wing
My previous post was a glowing and optimistic endorsement of Skype for Windows Mobile on T-Mobile's GPRS network. It is possible that I was a little premature in my excitement. The data network on the island does not have the heft for VOIP. Also, it seems my little HTC is a bit sluggish at the best of times.

But the truth is, I call far more often than I am called, so phoning from home on my PC is pretty convenient (still only $5 a month for unlimited land line and cellphone service in the US with Skype). Plus, when I am away, calls divert to my cell phone number.

Feces Bucket Changes
As you probably know, we are doing cloth nappies for Edith (and Frances, when she arrives). Why? To save money and help the environment, mostly. Also, I figured (rather cheekily, I might add) that if previous generations could do it, so could I!

I posted previously about my adventures in cloth diapering and how I felt I had devised the optimal cleaning system. Things have changed.

I've tried many bucket systems, including a dry bucket system, feeling that the stewing diapers were too stinky. As it turns out, only one thing reduces the fecal odor in freshly laundered nappies: pre-soaking them in the bucket and then wringing them out by hand before washing.

Look, being a parent means you are going to deal with a lot of feces and urine and, while it is still not pleasant, wringing out wet diapers is far more pleasant than dealing with a particularly rancid nappy. Plus, the dry bucket and "wet net" techniques often called for second wash cycles to get rid of the smell. No longer!

Getting Back to Food Basics
Kristina just read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and I watched a documentary on Hulu that dealt with similar material. Back in South Africa vegetables taste much better. Why? Well, the country is only twice the size of Texas so food doesn't have to travel very far. Also, our farms employ more traditional systems. America's industrialized farms are just that, industrial.

We've started making everything from scratch (including muesli, frozen dinners and even bread and jam, thanks for a recent purchase) and buying as much as we can from local, independent farmers. This means going to farmers markets and all that, but - as many will claim - fresh farm produce is the BEST.

We haven't been disappointed. The local veg is GREAT. Far better than Wal*Mart greens, that's for sure. Also, many local grocery stores have sections with local farmers' wares. Take that, Monsanto!

Waste Free Future
I am excited about the prospect of a waste free future. I am not super diligent with my recycling, but I take my own bags when I go shopping and all that. Also, Hulu, Netflix and Napster are great. I don't need to buy DVDs or CDs anymore. That is a huge savings on plastic.

Architect Mitchell Joachim appeared on the Colbert Report last week showing us his ideas for buses and housing in the future. He also spoke about the prospect of a an intelligent "nerf" car. Exciting!

If you don't use Skype already, you should really consider it. I was skeptical at first (back in college) and I was still clinging to my ridiculous faith in Yahoo! to always be the best.

So, Skype runs on smart phones. Got a foreign buddy with Skype on his cell? That's an international call at no additional costs on your data package.

Also, with Skype you can get unlimited US land line and cellphone calls PLUS a physical number to tie to your Skype account for about $5 a month.

Then, T-Mobile offers a data only smart phone package for $40 a month (which is what my useless voice package costs). Throw Skype on your T-Mobile phone for $5 and you have unlimited US calling and internet for around $45 a month. Excellent? Yes, very.

My new T-Mobil phone arrives this week. I am going to test it out and if the Skype thing works for me, I will ditch my AT&T (you can now cancel your contract for $5 a month instead of a flat rate).

Regardless, I'd like to start using my Skype number as my primary phone number. If I do keep the T-Mobile phone, this number will ring on my phone.

Skype Number: Four-seven-nine 431-4521

I have a voice mail set up, so if I'm away you can leave a message.

I had lots of fun at the nerd con. In fact, I was able to play in a RPGA event that utilized the Living Forgotten Realms campaign setting. When you attend an RPGA event, your location in the game world corresponds to your location in the real world. So, all Hawaii RPGA events have to be set in the East Rift. Once we got introduced and squared away, be dove in, battling wights and skeletons near a dwarven temple. Play was slow in places, but over all I had a good time. There might be another RPGA game soon. I will definitely attend.

My own D&D campaigns are all on hold until people can play. Probably for the best, I guess. My Players Handbook 2 arrives soon. I am excited. I am also a member of D&D Insider, so I get lots of fine materials there (including the character generator).

One way or another, I'm going to get to some serious gaming in soon.

I've been doing nerdy things of late. I am hosting my own web site at http://www.redeemedalliance.com. It's a forum for my Warhammer Online guild alliance. Running it off an old Dell laptop (using ubuntu server with desktop installed for easy remote-desktop access). With the help of some forums I got the apache, php and MySQL servers running with little hassle. If I could just get my SSH server to work, I could upload directly to the laptop.

Anyway, in the middle of the setting up and all that, I put up a holding page. Well, Yahoo! doesn't let you delete a holding page. Ever. The only way to delete it is to upgrade to a service that charges more per month what I chould be paying per year.

Long story short, I have decided to boycott Yahoo! and friends. I'm serious about this. I have already opened a GMail account and I will eventually transfer all my photos onto Picasa (since Flikr is not owned by Yahoo!). The Picasa thing should work out well, since that's where Blogger stores my pictures anyway.

In other news, I've got a new webpage look. Having some problems with Edith's page and my writing page showing up (I blame Yahoo!).

Also, I'm going to a mini nerd con tomorrow down town. Should be fun. I will take some photos if I feel comfortable enough to do so. Hopefully they won't be mean nerds who chase me off because I don't know anything about Warhammer 40K.

The Wound

Don't let my child-like excitement fool you. I have been snorkeling since I was five years old. I am confident under the water (especially if there is no kelp) and have logged my fair share of (s)cuba and (s)norkeling dives.

So, we headed out to Kahe Point (aka Electric Beach) right after some storms wracked the island. The sea was rough and we were in two minds about going in. In the end we went for it.

Everything was fine (albeit a bit challenging) until the exit. I know that beach. I know where the rocks/corals are and where the rocks/corals aren't. I was finning at an angle to get around a particularly nasty chunk of sharpness when I decided to get some underwater footage. During my underwater videoshoot a wave got me good. I tumbled for 10 meters in that wave. I went from 10 foot water to 3 foot water. One cut later and I was on the beach, grinning at what had been my least graceful exit since I got dunked in a barrel in front of a bunch of girls when I was in high school.

Difference between rough water in Cape Town verses Hawaii? In Cape Town your pockets and sinuses are filled with sand. In Hawaii you get cut like cadaver.

I'm not a victim here, please understand that. I may be a fool, but I sure ain't ignorant.

Anniversary

We celebrated 2 years of marriage on the 16th. My dad is in town so he baby-sat Edie while we ate at Sam Choy's. The food was good, but there was a creepy clown. I have decided that I don't like lobster. It seems to be a tougher version of South African crayfish (Cape rock lobster). Despite the crustaceans that had the texture of an old shoe and the grease-painted drunkard, the evening was quite enjoyable.

Merry Christmas

I had hoped to post a few cards PRIOR to Christmas this year, but that didn't get sorted out. Regardless, I will send a few here and there. If you don't get one (they should arrive in January) please send me your address and I will add you to my brand new Christmas card list.

Merry Christmas and my God bless you in the new year!

We are pregnant!

Obviously too early to tell what Ham 2.0 will be. We have been throwing names around. For girls names like Frances having been coming up. We could always do something like Frances Gertrude or Frances Joyce (working in family names every step of the way). Caroline Francis, even? Who knows.

For boys Arthur and Tobias are front runners. Oh, also Edgar/Edward - I like the "ead" Anglo-Saxon element. Edith means "war-blessing", Edgar means "blessed spear" and Edward means "blessed guardian."

My grandfather's name on my mother's side was Edward Robert Newton. His father was Edward Arthur Robert Newton. Of course, Christian will be the second name. That's tradition. My dad's father was Christiaan Olivier Burgers, my dad is Keith Christian and I am Carl Christian.

Anyway, there's that.

Edit: changed spelling as per Kristina's comment

Drove out to Kaneohe for a Festivus party tonight. We re-gifted a set of snowball makers and a frying pan that is big enough to fry one egg. Kristina and I came third in the Feats of Strength competition. We got a miniature Festivus Pole as a prize.

Put some photos on Flickr. I hope you enjoy my '90s outfit.