And the DARPA results are in.

I didn't mention this already, did I? ENSCO's DAVID didn't complete the race, in fact only a couple of vehicles made it beyond 7 miles of the 100 they were attempting. If you're interested, the NBC4 local news had a story on it. Read on.

DAVID
ENSCO's autonomous vehicle
I.J. Hudson, Tech Reporter
Almost everyone has seen a futuristic movie in which folks jump in a car, punch a few buttons, the car follows a "smart" highway and takes them to their destination – no driver required.
DAVID, named after Steven Spielberg's A-I character, is an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) with a lot of brains, designed by a team at ENSCO, a Springfield, VA technology company. The goal is to make DAVID able to go from point A to point B and navigate around obstacles in between without the aid of a "smart" highway or driver. That's the definition of an autonomous vehicle.
DAVID tries to accomplish that with a lot of high tech gadgetry, including stereo cameras, GPS, and a system called Lidar (light detection and ranging). It looks a little like a coffee maker and uses a laser to scan a couple of hundred meters ahead for things in the way.
DAVID took part in a government challenge race in California in early March. The Pentagon wants vehicles that can transport supplies by themselves through dangerous areas - no drivers or remote controls. It's a tall order. The course was over 100 miles. Only a couple of vehicles made it past 7 miles.
The rest of the story is at the NBC4.com site.

Coming Soon to a Website Near You...

Our other camera never showed up, so now we are the proud owners of a Canon PowerShot S400. It's slim, it's silver and has way too many buttons for my comfort level. While Ian is away to Bohol I will take on the task to comprehend the plethora of possibilities now at my fingertips.

In other words, manual reading time. Because I think he's taking the camera with him.

Next week we're all off to Hong Kong so I'll have plenty of practice. Actually I should do my practice before then so I know what the heck I'm doing while we're there and don't miss some great photo opportunities. Wish me luck.

The SeeSaw of Daily Life

Thursday was BORING. Friday was good. Saturday was frustrating. Is it even possible to have several good days in a row? Or am I just not energetic enough to make it happen?


Thursday really was a dull dull day. The girls were off school Thursday and Friday this past week and I really had good intentions of doing fun things with all the kids, but that day it just didn't materialize. It started on Wednesday afternoon with a 1/2 day of school. I had planned to pick up the girls and take Katherine to the doctor right at dismissal, only when I called the clinic on our way no one picked up. A quick call to Ian and I learned that the clinic would be closed all afternoon. It was going to be a lazy afternoon at home, I could live with that. But first, a stop at McDo where it seemed the entirety of ISM had emptied. That evening, Ian kidnapped Ryan and Laura and we had California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. I don't do well with last minute invites OK? The kids had a great homemade dinner, but I -never- have more than enough to feed extra folks should they come by. It's a real issue with me, it makes me uncomfortable that I'm always so unprepared. One day, this will be remedied. Promise.
Thursday came and we were off to the clinic for Katherine's tummy ache and headache. Also redid a urinalysis. The big reason I wanted her checked was because she's been complaining of the same issues for many days now. Nicholas, if you remember, had Mono. I wondered if maybe he had shared his germs and what Katherine was experiencing wasn't a tummy ache but pressure from local swelling. All her tests came back negative which is definitely a plus, but still leaves the question of what's causing her to be tired and have the stomach pains and daily headaches. Could she still be detoxing from the INH?
Thursday afternoon was a do nothing day. By 2 p.m. I was checking the clock and annoyed that we weren't doing anything and time was at a crawl. Did I do anything about it? No. I just grumbled and curled up, sleepy and bored and lazy. The kids were bored too. We all just slumped around the house. Too hot to go outside, "nothing" to do inside and no where to go. Blah.
Friday I was determined to change that. Ian had a courier drop off an envelope of pesos (doesn't that sound sinful?? He'd just forgotten that morning) so I could pay the housekeeper and have a little fun with the kidlets. First stop, the bookstore! My kids love the bookstore. New books for everyone.
Next stop, lunch. Italiannis even. And being a Friday, we stuck with meatless meals. Mostly. OK, just Katherine and I did, but it was still so good. Grape shakes, vanilla shakes, mango shakes, yum. The only downside which I had thought would be a good thing was that we arrived right before the rush. Plenty of tables, quick service, no problem. Plenty of tables, quick service, TOO MANY idle hands who kept talking to the kids and getting in their space because there weren't enough customers to occupy them. One waitress even started poking Jonathon when he had turned full body away from her, as she kept asking him his name and wondering allowed if he was shy. I talked quietly to him about how good he was being and how he didn't have to talk to her, and prayed she'd leave him alone. In this society, you don't want to point out people's indiscretions directly. They can "lose face" and that just causes more tension than I was willing to deal with for the 40 minutes we were there. She did desist after a full 5 minutes of uncomfortable cheerfulness which I was so grateful for.
Next stop, fun! Fun for all. Thirty minutes of running, bouncing, wiggling, yelling, climbing, crawling and sliding in Kids at Work. And when I say all, I mean all. As we were dropping shoes in the bucket, the guy at the counter asked which adult was going in since Jonathon was ready to play too. I flicked my eyes around and confirmed what I'd thought. We were practically the only ones in the place, and I was the only adult with my children. I raised my hand. Perhaps he thought a yaya was arriving soon? Who knows. What I do know is that I went in with the personal decision to follow their lead. And up we went. I buried children in the ball pit, slid down the twisty tube slide, got knocked by punching bags and helped Jonathon climb up the landings over and over again. I'll admit it, I had a great time. Even if the sign in the tunnel said 100lb max. Shh.
Wouldn't you know that as soon as we left, they asked for ice cream? Is nothing ever enough for these monsters? Yes, I did get some very nice Thank Yous on the side.
A quiet afternoon followed. Thursday I had asked the kids for 30 minutes of quiet which I never attained and it really messed up my day. Friday, I asked the same and received it. Ah, bliss. Rebecca gave me her usual face when I told her that 30 minutes meant 2:30 to 3 and that she was expected to lay on her bed and read. Katherine did it willingly and took a real break for those 30 minutes. Jonathon was napping. Nicholas didn't want to go through books or lay on his bed, so he layed fairly quietly on the couch. It was good enough for me. The big surprise of the afternoon was when Rebecca emerged and stated, for the record "That was fun. I liked reading for a while."
Mom, you can pick up your jaw off the floor now. She's changing again.
And then today, My "big plan" was to get everyone together and go to the Embassy furniture auction. The phone line died while I was speaking with my parents and I should have realized it was an omen. We piled into the car with the flyer for the auction and only then noticed that our map didn't go that far. Did that stop me? Oh no. Two hours, no street, no auction and some cursing later, I figured I'd head home and try not to drive into oncoming highway traffic. That would have really messed up our day. Instead of the auction, we found....
A mall! What'd you think we'd find? Something of interest? Something cultural? An undiscovered nook? Oh no, the entire 2 hours we'd driven, we never broke out of the same streets lined with dilapidated buildings, storefronts and barangay gates. Honestly, the scenery didn't change a bit. Our destination ended up being Festival Supermall in Alabang. Four floors that housed not only the typical mall stores, but an indoor train, double-decker carousel, a Pixie Forest amusement park for little kids (token games, fun house, Fairies Wheel, log ride, plane ride, playland, etc.) and an amusement area for older folks including a full-sized rollercoaster. We spent a good amount of time at the Pixie Place allowing the kids to do a ride and waste 60 tokens. Jonathon was enthralled with a bowling game, Nicholas liked the basketball type games, the girls just raced around plunking tokens in everything. They earned tickets to each get a small prize or two and that was enough. We even ran into Tina and family, though neither of us thought to ask how to get home. All part of the adventure, right?
Actually the best part of the day for me was lunch. Ian suggested a Mongolian spot and I concurred, but right next door... Wendy's. Real sized. I was convinced. I wanted one of everything off the menu. Perhaps I should have had breakfast. The kids were happy, though Jonathon insisted that they had forgotten to give us toys. Wendy's didn't have kid meals, there were no toys to be had. But he didn't believe me. Off his chair and to the counter he went. His voice rang out as much as he could as he strained to see over the counter " 'cuse me! People! Toy?" Ian scooped him up and explained again that there were none. He sat in his chair, turned and said again " 'cuse me? People! People!!" And then it turned into a game. The silly boy.
We did a quick train trip and ignored the kids' requests to "just go on the roller coaster" (before we left for home, which we found in 30 minutes).
Is nothing ever enough for these monsters?

What's wrong with Philippine commerce

Our DVD player has been really dicey lately. It'll play a disc fine, then will refuse to play the same disc later - it just spins. It's been doing this for over a week. So, with my wonderful wife Michele's blessing, I got a new one. And a 5.1 speaker home theatre system. (Uh, it came with it.) But buying things here is never easy...

We saw the system, a Panasonic HT-860 (this particular model is only available in Russia and Asia, although there is an American version as well, the 900) at a large electronics display area at Glorietta mall on Saturday. It looked and sounded good, and the price was right. But one big requirement is that it had to play DVDs from different regions. We now have discs from Region 1 (USA), Region 2 (Europe) and Region 3 (Asia). The salesman claimed that it was multiregion, even though the brochure said it was only Region 3.
Having lived here long enough to believe nothing that store employees say, we came back Sunday with a Region 1 DVD (The Usual Suspects) and a Region 3 DVD (Die Another Day). To my surprise, they both played. Wow. So after an admonishment from my dear wife that this is my 31st birthday present 4 months early, we told the salesman we'd take it.
Unbeknownst to us, this huge electronics display was only for people who had credit cards from Bank of the Philippine Islands. Of course, we don't. After he ran around trying to figure out what to do, he said we could get it with our own card if we accompanied him to the electronics store next to the mall. And off we went.
We got there, and found the same system for the same price. After handing over our credit card (with me following close behind to track its progress), then Philippine Commerce Machine went into effect. It was amazing. No less than 7 people handled my card. One person called a Visa number to verify it. Another one swiped it through a machine to verify it. Another wrote down its data. Another wrote out a credit card receipt. Another swiped the card _again_ to put it into the store's systems. Other people wrote out other forms, and still others just carried the card 3 feet to the next person. In the States, all of this would have taken one person and been done in a tenth of the time. But it's not like they don't have the technology to make it easier, they don't _want_ it to be easier. This is the Philippine Way -- a jobs program.
As we were going to go grocery shopping, I decided to pick up the system later that day.
(As an aside, we got fresh salmon sliced at the store, and had it for dinner last night. It tasted great. But while I waited for the salmon to be sliced, I had plenty of time to stare at this ridiculously big squid they had for sale. It was, no kidding, the size of our 2 1/2-year old Jonathon. It's as if Jonathon got exposed to Radiation X and mutated into SquidBoy. Able to... swim under water, wave its suckers around and eject ink. Perhaps that's why there are no squid super heroes.)
I returned to pick up the system that afternoon. It took about an hour, because as with every piece of electronics that you buy here, they have to prove to you that it works. So they unpacked _the whole thing_, and set it up. It worked. Yay. Then I had to go outside because a guard told me my car was triple-parked. (It sure didn't look that way when the other cars were there...) That gave the employees time to repack it all, and I got it out to the car.
So now we have surround sound. Here's what it looks like, by the way.

Our bid list...

I don't think we ever posted our whole bid list, so here it is. This is a second-tour list, so we had to pick 10 jobs from a total list of roughly 350.

Download file

Caylabne

3/21/04: Wow, it's been a while since we went to Caylabne with the Malone/Kilama family, but it's still well worth keeping a note on.

Remember a while back when I said that a Sunday warranted a post all its own? Here it is.
Tina Malone is a fascinating person. Besides being just warm, friendly and open, she's done so much before, like a stint in the Peace Corps. A stint in the Peace Corps in Niger, no less! It's actually funny how many folks we've bumped into in our short time in the Foreign Service who have been to Niger. David Ball (who recently evac'd from Port-Au-Prince and was 108th mentor for the 110th class) was in Niamey teaching at the University while I was in middle school at the American School there. Bob Lane, here in Manila too, knows my dad from when we were in Algeria. OK, it's not Niger, but still. He's admitted that crossing paths with the child of a former "co-worker" has made him feel old. Sorry, Bob!! But wait, I digress.
Right, Caylabne with Tina, Kiko and the twin boys, Meka and Sefo. Tina has a map book that is more than a map book. It's a guide that suggests different resorts, tells which roads to avoid and gives tidbits of information about what to expect in different areas. We've have bought a book on the 100 best resorts in the Philippines because we can't seem to find the same book they have, but will keep looking. When Tina picks up the book, it's almost like she's saying "Where will you take us to next?" This time it was to a beach resort called Cayubne, a couple hours south of Manila, beyond Cavite. We drove up some small mountains, through a magnetic zone (cell phones really don't work there, just like the sign says), through Marine training fields and an environment protected range (where we actually saw monkeys, like the sign said). The areas are right next to each other, which must be interesting for the monkeys. What do powerful magnets and gun fire do to a monkey's psyche anyway?
We reached our destination and found the resort basically deserted. Other than one other umbrella that was in use with rotating beach comers, the area and all it's sand, seaweed, crabs and changing rooms was ours. The kids of course had a ball, with Jonathon being the only pain in the butt. Everytime we go to a beach I feel like I have to shout out "You think you can do these things, Nemo. But you can't!" Replacing names of course. He walks straight into the water with not a care in the world, which means an adult has to be gluid to his side to protect him from the inevitable dunking when a wave of any size (think, a couple inches) knocks him over. He is surprisingly sure-footed and does better in regular swimtrunks than in a floaty swimsuit but that just doesn't matter in the wide open ocean. Or in a quiet bay.
Tina and I left the kids with the menfolk and ordered lunch before the restaurant closed for the afternoon. Fresh from the sea marlin steaks for Ian and I, wood oven baked pizza for the kids and some other fishy and squid delights for Tina and Kiko. The only hitch being told I couldn't have a Dalandan soda when there were others present who had some. Apparently I didn't fit the Dalandan soda profile.
The restaurant seating overlooked the water and beach where the family was, and when lunch headed to the table I went to call the troups. The straggled up, reluctant to leave the sandy fort built at the waters edge, but I saw that Ian was sitting with Katherine. Seems that while swimming hard, she got hit by a hard cramp and was having troubles breathing. Since it hit while she was in the water she panicked, knocked Nicholas, and struggled to get to shore, which didn't ease the stress any. After about 10 minutes she could breathe easier and was settled at the table eating some lunch, and it didn't stop her from getting back into the water both at the beach and the beachside pool. We took a break at the beach volleyball court and the adjacent playground about an hour before our departure.
The highlight of the day was when Katherine caught a piece of seaweed only to discover it was a live creature. A pipfish to be exact. I thought it was a seahorse with the similar head shape, but the straight rigid body made it definitely a pipefish. We thought it was dead until holding it out of the water its body slowly arched and a closer inspection showed it's fins and gills trying to move. A dumptruck was emptied out of the sand load it was carrying and we deposited the fish into it for a brief spell. I think it was happy to go back to open water though. As happy as a fish can be.
The ride home after a quick cleanup in the changing room was easy, as it was a straight shot down from Island Cove in Cavite. At least it felt it was, since we just followed them the whole way. Meka wanted to ride with us, so until our ice cream break in the first little town we crossed, we traded Meka for Katherine. Of course all our kids wanted in their car and no one wanted to switch back, but after a sticky sweet ice cream stop, we all returned to our appointed vehicles and finished the ride home. The weather had been gorgeous and moderately overcast the entire day and it made for a lovely evening sky.
We're going to miss Tina and clan once they depart post. June is a big turn-over time and it's no different for her. They're off to Addis Ababa after some DC training time. Maybe we'll cross paths again in the great Dark Continent.

Guess what.

The change in Katherine is dramatic. She came home from school today... happy. Whether it's the end of her TB meds (a week done now), the extra sleep (we're into the 2nd week of an extra hour and 15 minutes each night), the daily Gatorade my parents suggested (she is a high metabolism kid who is always on the move, and we're eating generally low fat/salt/etc), getting over a growth spurt hump or a mix of everything and other things we haven't figured out, I don't know. It doesn't matter though. My little girl and her ability to think through things, focus and complete tasks is returning. More than that, the bounce is back in her step, the joy is back in her voice and the sparkle is back in her eyes.