Preparations for departure

My dad should be coming home tonight, and then we'll be leaving for Williamsburg tomorrow morning.
We'll be staying at a hotel on Friday and Saturday since my parents will be attending a couple's retreat, and on Sunday and Monday we'll be staying at a park in a "cabin" house, so we can visit Jamestown, Yorktown, and maybe some other historical locations. 
I'll write about the trip when I get back or if I get a chance at the hotel or somewhere else, but I have to go pack and get other stuff ready now.




Update: 
We just got back from picking my dad up.  
Now I just have to finish packing.


-Max out

We will not clean up after you!

They might not think they have the responsibility to clean up the dog poop, but it looks like somebody else didn't pay the sign much attention, or at least, didn't care to follow instructions.


-Max out

Life in Guam

No, in case you're wondering, I haven't moved back to Guam.
I'm just going to tell a few things about living in Guam, in case you were considering moving there or just hadn't heard about life over there.


First of all, the size:
Guam is very small; only about 30 miles long.  I forget its average width...but anyway, you can drive from one end of the island to the other in less than an hour.  Well, almost.  Even if you had an off-road vehicle, you might meet with a good deal of difficulty trying to get past all the jungle growth.  However, you can get from nearly one end to the other.


The climate:
Guam is very humid...go to Hawaii for a month (say, to O'ahu) or so and get adjusted to it, and then fly back to Guam.
As soon as you get off of the plane, you will feel like you are walking into a warm, soggy blanket.  Well, maybe more like a sauna - a humid, albeit not-ultra-steamy sauna.
It is very warm: around 80-90 degrees all year long.  In essence, there are no seasons.


The people:
The majority of the island's inhabitants are the natives, although the Naval and Air Force bases account for quite a few "American" Americans. 


Typhoons:
Every so often a typhoon (hurricanes in the Atlantic) will appear and sometimes wreak havoc.
While we were there, a few struck, and two set records.
One gave Guam the most rain it had ever seen, after it had rained for three days, which caused part of the road to collapse.  I had to stay at my friend's house for a day or two longer than I otherwise would have...it wasn't as fun as you might expect, since he still had school and chores and stuff to do.
Another, Pongsona had the highest wind speed of any recorded typhoon in Guam's history, if I remember correctly.  It was around 160 mph.  Some of Guam's residents have learned from experience and build their houses out of concrete cinder blocks, but a neighboring island in the Northern Marianas (perhaps multiple) had houses made of wood, and the storm destroyed quite a few homes there.  Actually, Guam took quite a beating - the storm caused over $700 million worth of damage.  
Unfortunately, the first storm (Pongsona) partially flooded our first rental house, and although the sliding glass door didn't break like I thought it would, more than a few boxes of books, clothes, etc. got soaked and we had to throw them away.  You might be wondering, "I can understand that the books were ruined by being waterlogged, but clothes?"  By the time we opened the wet boxes, the clothes had mildew growing on them.
We later moved up the street to a house that was much better.  Not only did it have built-in storm shutters as opposed to the plywood boards we had to put in these "window cages" in the old house, but the backyard didn't have holes in it.  At the old house, the large backyard had lots of holes that filled up with water, and made an excellent breeding ground for mosquitoes.  It just got worse when a typhoon dumped a bunch of water in the holes.  Sadly, although everyone got bitten by mosquitoes, I was the prime target: I easily had 50 bites or more on me at one time...needless to say, I didn't sleep well.  
Oh, I forgot to say that after both typhoons, at both houses, electricity and running water went good-bye...for several months, I think, although I think the water may have been up and running before that.


Should you live there?
It depends on what you like.  If you highly enjoy beaches, warm water, and snorkeling, you will probably like it; It's never very far to the ocean.  
I should mention that there aren't any taxes...well, no sales tax, anyway - I don't remember about the others.  So you can go to McDonald's and get a McDouble or McChicken sandwich for $1, not $1.07 or something like that.
There are the disadvantages, such as the unpleasant climate, typhoons, and the fact that you can't get many things shipped out there.
Verdict: I do not recommend living in Guam, although if you like the beach and related ocean activities, you might try going there for short vacation.  Although Hawaii is much better, Guam is probably much cheaper to do things on, and the water is always warm, if you like that.










-Max out

Today and next week

Finally, I have something to write about.  Well, I actually have a couple of things to write about...
Anyway, today I went with two of my younger brother to help a family from our church put in a basketball (half) court.  They're the family of one of our church's two elders, to be specific.
Truth be told, I didn't do that much, for at least two reasons:
1) I am a photographer, and if I was working the entire time, who would take photos?
2) With my brothers, the total number of people working on the concrete slab was...enough (I forget exactly how many).


As the adage goes, "Too many cooks spoil the broth."  Or, too many helpers ruin the concrete."  OK, that might not really be applicable in this situation, but there were enough people involved.  However, that is not to say that I did absolutely nothing to assist the others; I helped them out a little bit.
The main thing I did while I was there was take photos...lots of them.  500+, in fact. (some I deleted while we were still there, so there were 500 when I got home).  
I've deleted well over half now, but there are some (wait for it) that I really like!
Yes, you heard me correctly, even though I've been disappointed that for the most part, my photos are unspectacular, to say the least, I now have some more that I'm happy about.
No, they're not the coolest photos ever, and doubtless, you other photographers out there can take better photos than the ones I'm talking about, but at least I have something to be slightly pleased about now because a good photo subject presented itself. 


I'll admit that I take pretty bad pictures, btw how many of you love me? 


Next week (on the 11th), my family was going to be going to the family's house where we went to today, along with quite a few other people, since they (the Smiths) are having an open house.
Fortunately/unfortunately, we will be in Virginia at the time, because my parents are going to be at a couple's retreat.  One one hand, I like to travel and stay at hotels, but on the other, I won't be able to go the open house.  Hopefully I'll have some good photo opportunities in Williamsburg.  If I do, I'll post my photos.  


I think the following photo was one of the better ones.

Something I tried at home last night:

See more here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/richter.max/

-Max out

LEGO creations

First of all, remember to not call the plastic building blocks "LEGOs", because of the following:

That being said, I don't usually build thing with LEGO bricks anymore (I've kind of outgrown it, you know), but during the years I did, I think there were only two relatively sophisticated creations I made (from a couple of years back, or something like that; perhaps even last year) that looked OK.

Here they are:

http://picasaweb.google.com/richter.max/LEGOCreations#

Update: The ship with two large engines has a swivel cannon on the top of its vertical "wing", but it was missing at the time of the photo.  I may take a new photo of it sometime.

-Max out

Babysitting

This afternoon at 4 pm I went to babysit two kids who live up the street.

For some of the time in the beginning, when they were supposed to be resting and after, when they were outside, I was able to just sit and watch part of Gladiator on my Zune (watching movies on "the brick" isn't the best, but it's better than nothing), but soon I was busy.  If Cooper is reading this, he must be laughing at the fact that I finally decided to watch his favorite movie.  For a while I just watched them outside when they played with the neighbor four-year-old, but what I think I did for a longer time than anything else was taking the brothers outside on their bikes.  They have identical, tiny bicycles with training wheels attached, but they haven't quite mastered the art of applying the brakes, which I tried to teach them. *sigh*

At times, they wanted me to hold onto them or their bikes, such as when going steeply up or downhill.

Unfortunately, one of them would sometimes say, "Hold onto me!" and then "Let go of me" immediately after, and so on.      

After dinner they tried to handwash the dishes even though they had to jump up and lean over the sink to be able to reach.  It took me quite a while and one broken glass later to get them out of the kitchen and out of the way so I could wash the dishes.  

Amazingly, their mom says she hadn't taught them to wash the dishes, so it seems they were just trying to "help mommy."

The siblings were cranky during part of the afternoon and evening, but such is to be expected with tired four-year-olds, right?

Well, no houses burned down, I didn't have a nervous breakdown, and nobody was reported injured or missing, so everything is OK.

-Max out

Hm...what's happening?

I'm trying to think of something to write about...
My dad should be home in a few weeks.
My book's first chapter is progressing very slowly.
I've been taking photos with my dad's spotting scope tripod recently, and have been experimenting with photo editing using Picasa and Photoshop.
I'll write more when I think of something to say. 


-Max out