Just two hours before everything has to be packed and delivered to the Hue train station. Wonder if we will make it?
Packing is such an intense experience, one is certainly happy when one arrives and finds out that most everything that one forgot can be purchased locally at 1/2 the price, not […]
Author Archive for The Alchemist?
May
2007
2
Packing ain’t fun
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 3 months ago in This'n'That. 1 CommentApr
2007
30
Are Americans Being ‘A-merri-CON(ed)’?
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 4 months ago in Travel Experiences and This'n'That. 1 CommentOne rule-of-thumb is that if the videos of any event are systematically removed by government agencies it is an indicator or signal of a “false flag” or “psy-op” (psychological warfare) operation.
Apr
2007
30
Impact of Coming Back
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 4 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. ClosedIt’s been predicted that the next exodus of “BOAT PEOPLE” will be North Americans searching the world for work.
Apr
2007
30
Last Days in Vietnam — Part 2
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 4 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. 1 CommentI am amazed at how much the modern, scientific mindset robs almost everyone of any time for introspection. Keep moving and always be entertained by something outside of oneself or ingest an addiction of some sort.
Apr
2007
30
Last Days in Vietnam — Part 1
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 4 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. ClosedWe’ve already started packing — on May 2nd, we will ship the large plastic foot lockers by train; on May 4th-5th, we will take the train from Hue to Saigon and on May 6th, we fly EVA Airways from Saigon, Taipai, Seattle and finally arriving May 6th at approx 9:30pm in Portland, Oregon.
Mar
2007
26
Gina’s Memory Day
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 5 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. 1 CommentWe just celebrated Gina’s first memory day — she died one year ago today at approx 4:00am. A bit of the Vietnamese tradition “rubbing” off. Megan also wanted to celebrate because she has been doing it since her Grandfather died last June 14th, 10 days after we arrived in Hue, Vietnam.
We celebrated Gina’s memory […]
Mar
2007
12
Converting VCD vs SVCD
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 5 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. ClosedIn the Americas and Europe, we use DVDs, but in Asia, they use VCD, SVCD, DVCD, but not DVDs. Being here, I’ve learned to convert DVDs and DivX files into VCD format so it can be played on the TV.
Today I had to decide whether to convert the Home Alone DVD into either a […]
Mar
2007
12
CELTA Training Postponed
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 5 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. ClosedIt was one very hard decision. I was even on the telephone yesterday midday asking Keith, who teaches English in Hanoi, questions regarding the Vietnamese work visa papers and his advise regarding when to attend the CELTA course.
The work visa papers are very complex here in Vietnam and it would be much better if […]
Yesterday, Megan left with Mai’s oldest sister when she returned to her house in Dang Ha (30 mi/70 km from Hue). This is the first time that Megan has been away from Mai and I since we’ve been in Veitnam. Megan has occasionally gone with either my sister, Margaret (Viki) or with Joe […]
Mar
2007
8
Almost End of the Trail
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 5 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. ClosedOn the downhill run — 1 1/2 months left until we return to the US. Time has certainly sped by, don’t know where the time went.
Megan has certainly learned Vietnamese well enough to talk with all her playmates. I know that she needs to learn more vocabulary and more advanced sentence structures, but first we need to have her start reading.
Mar
2007
2
First Post from AMD 64×2 System Running Ubuntu 6.1 [Linux]
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 5 months ago in Vietnam, Computer and Blog/Website. 2 CommentsBehind the scenes, I’ve been struggling to learn Linux. I want to move away from Microsoft WinXP toward open source Linux software.
First I tried openSUSE v10.2 but the transfer speeds were too slow because they didn’t have a server in Vietnam, only China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Australia. However, Ubuntu has […]
Mar
2007
1
CELTA in Bangkok or Hanoi?
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 6 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. 1 CommentStruggling with the decision of whether to spend approx $1,500 to take the 4 week CELTA1 course.
CELTA is overseen by the University of Cambridge to teach native English speakers the ins-and-outs of teaching English to non-native English speakers.
In the US, one must obtain a MA2 in English (and probably a teaching certificate) along […]
Feb
2007
27
VNPT’s (NON) customer service
Published by The Alchemist? 1 year, 6 months ago in Vietnam and This'n'That. ClosedThe Vietnamese telephone company [VNPT] has a “customer service” department which Mai and I visited yesterday and I delivered a written complaint.
Their employee, who supposedly spoke English, had attended an English class fifteen years ago with Mai when she worked for the post office. Mai had to translate because his understanding of […]
WOW! For the first time in six weeks, I’ve been able to access the website!
I emailed GoDaddy.com who hosts the website last month and got “farted” off by some (probably off-shore) tech support personnel. They told me they couldn’t do anything for me. Of course, it was useless talking to […]
Electricity and the internet has been up and down and I cannot bring up this website in my browser (could it be blocked by the gov’t)?
And there was another earthquake near Taiwan (signal from the elite?) on Jan 19th which again broke the undersea telephone/internet cable. So I’m again back to MODEM internet […]
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