My friend survives the tsunami

Last night, I received a email from my friend who was vacationing around Phuket, Thailand. She is OK, and she gives a horrifying tale of her ordeal with the tsunami. Susanna writes:

“Hey Dear Friends!
I am alive Thank God but it was very, very close…. I was staying in a bungalow on the beach and on Sunday We all went down to watch the strange wave out there after breakfast and we saw a sailingboat loosing it’s mast and also stayed when the first wave swept in on the beach sideways…then I realized I had to run. I was chased from behind with all the chairs from the Restaurang and I ran in to the kitchen and the icecream box almost knocked me down the water was so strong.!! The scenario was terrible.. kaos and people where screaming and crying. Still I can hear the angry water from screaming and scared people. I decided to jump out the back door because I was afraid the house was going to crack and I had to swim with the strong water, chairs and tables were all around me, gas tubes, branches and many, many things! After a while I stopped and walked back I was barefoot of course and cut my feet on glass. I went to my bungalow that was totally damaged. My bags with my wallet, passport and mobilephone was all there. Dry and safe on the shelf also all my clothes in the closet!!! I decide to take out my camera and take some pictures of the disaster. My friend Malte came walking with a chair slowly and I took some pictures around the place. Then somebody screamed again….Another Wave is coming….. RUUUUUUNN…I ran again in the water. I almost started to panic because everything seemed to be in slowmotion. I didn’t look back met my friend B-L and we ran together up on the road people drow like maniacs and a girl from the Diving center picked us up and we went straight up in the mountains…NOW wave came and I was exhausted. Later that day I went with my friend and picked up the rest of my things. My Mobilephone was gone and so my cashmoney and my CD player…It was already people stealing our things but I am o.k that’s the most important thing. I haven’t taking any pictures again of all this distroyed Resorts it doesn’t feel right and I pay respect to all the dead people and families. My feelings goes to them. Tomorrow I will go back to Bangkok with my friend!! Don’t know if I ever will return. Thanks for your concern and hope you didn’t worry to much.“

Asian Quake

I am still trying to grapple with this immense human tragedy in the Indian Ocean region in South East Asia, but it is impossible to make sense of it all.

I have a friend who is supposed to be vacationing around Phuket when the tsunami hit. During the past 24 hours I have made repeated phone calls and SMS to her mobile but to no avail. We await her safe return.

Changing the CMOS clock battery on Compaq Presario 1810

In the previous post here I blogged about installing linux on my dad’s old Compaq Presario 1810 to use as a mail/web machine. I also mentioned that the system clock kept defaulting back to 1998 if I leave the machine unplugged too long. It’s very annoying to have to adjust the clock every time I boot, and a local service center wanted a whopping $25 to change the CMOS clock battery. $25 can buy me roughly 50 bowls of duck noodles so I decided to see if I could change it myself.

UFO@5 months old

Question: why is being a daddy dangerous?

Answer: because when daddy gets very tired (and he does very often these days), the tube of Desitin diaper rash cream looks like a tube of toothpaste on the bathroom counter.

A few weeks ago I inadvertently squeezed Desitin onto my toothbrush. It took just one stroke of brushing before I realized that it wasn’t exactly Colgate, yet the rich and thick diaper cream hung onto my gums faithfully like it does to a baby’s genital area. (Works as advertised, I must say.) The taste was bearable, but the thought of what I use Desitin for everyday did not make the cream terribly appetizing.

While his daddy is beating himself around with silly novice-parenting follies, UFO on the other hand has enjoyed a fulfilling month leading up to his fifth-month birthday. He started out the month being able to flip over - one way only - from a lying position to a crawling position, and ended the month with the ability to flip from both positions with ease. He has mastered the art of crawling like a worm: on a tummy position, push his butt up with his legs and then move the entire body forward by lowering the butt again. However inefficient and facially abrasive this crawling technique might be, UFO does manage to go places with it. Sometimes too far, however: last week he went off our bed and crashed to the floor, head down. He had waken from his sleep, crawled over the barriers (constructed of pillows) while we were entertaining guests in the living room. After the fall, there was a little black bump on his forehand but fortunately he turned out OK in his first accident and our first major parenting blunder.

As for food, all signs indicate that UFO is ready to try other sources of diet besides breast milk: he’s constantly drooling, and takes an active interest in what his parents are eating. So recently we let him try some fruit: he loves sucking the juice out of watermelon, and he loves mashed apple but the verdict is still out with papaya. He eats and swallows the mashed papaya but makes a very strange face doing so.

And UFO’s favorite activity to burn off those calories? Swimming. We have been taking him to the pool about twice a week. He doesn’t mind the water but we still haven’t found a way to stick his head underneath the surface. We’d appreciate any ideas.

Resurrected a 5-year-old Compaq Laptop

My old man’s Compaq Presario 1810 laptop had been sitting in the storage room for a few years now. A quick boot last week showed that it still boots and LCD is looking fine (testament to Compaq’s sturdy built quality.) Seemed like a waste to give it away, so what to do?

It so happened that I needed a computer just for writing email at the office on days when I am too lazy to lug my Powerbook around. The Compaq boots up to Windoze 98. Time to revive my Linux skills (haven’t touched it for two years after becoming a Mac User.)