Who’s playing Mario Kart Wii?
I’m all of two races into the game but am up for some head to head competition. My friend code is 5155 3492 7916.
Powerpoint plug-in for color blindness
For the benefit of a co-worker with red-green colorblindness I wrote a short powerpoint add-in that finds red colors and turns them blue. It’s useful when somebody makes edits to a document in red text since he can’t differentiate the red from grey or black to distinguish the edits from the original text.
Given that 5-10% of males have some degree of color blindness I thought this might be worth sharing so that other can find it via Google.
Download the power point add-in
To use the add-in:
- Make sure macro security is set to Medium or Low by going to Tools/Options/Security/Macro Security
- Download the add-in below, then go to Tools/Add-ins and select the “Replace Reds” add-in you just downloaded
- Apply the code by going to the Tools menu; at the bottom of the list you should now have a command to “Replace Reds”
You can uninstall the add-in via Tools/Add-ins. You can access the source code in this file.
Vietnam archives
We're working on scanning photo albums from Susanne's folks. More photos from Vietnam in the 1960s-1970s are here.
Fall color
Millbrook, New York. More photos from Ryan & Colleen's wedding last weekend are here.
Wrapping up our summer
We're all settled in Texas (have been since August, actually). Susanne and I are both working full time and it looks like our vacation schedules are going to keep us close to home for a while. It's not unexpected at all - in fact it's what drove us to the specific destinations we visited over our long summer break.
Although it's hard to sum up all of the traveling we did I'll offer a few observations. First, it is amazing how easy it is to get around the world. The internet, message boards, Skype, and the emergence of English as a lingua franca all make arranging travel pretty straightforward. Currency exchange and power plugs are increasingly simple. Corruption and personal insecurity are, I think, much less of a threat than newspapers would have you believe - aside from tourist pricing and some crooked cab drivers we did not encounter a bribe solicitation or theft on the entire trip (except possibly a suitcase lost in transit by British Airways/Swiss). At no point did we get hassled by customs about carrying several thousand dollars worth of electronics. Electronic communication is ubiquitous - we saw locals on cell phone calls in the middle of the Serengeti and using a BlackBerry in rural Laos. Every country we visited had Visa ATMs, and only in Laos and Tanzania was there any inconvenience in finding one that took a Mastercard. We had no food related health problems despite eating plenty of street food, and in the two cases where we needed medical supplies the local pharmacies were easy to deal with. Renting cars in Germany and South Africa was easy and renting mopeds in Southeast Asia was done for $6 with no paperwork. The only time we really had travel headaches was in China when we were forced to cut out the Tibet leg of our trip.
A few highlights of the trip - you'll notice there's a lot of food involved:
- In Thailand, visiting temples, eating constantly, and learning to SCUBA
- In Cambodia, visiting villages, seeing the ruins of Angkor, and learning about the years under the Khmer Rouge
- In Laos, cheap seafood restaurants, watching locals on the Mekong river, elephant rides, and fresh baguette sandwiches from the hardworking lady in the Hmong market near our hotel
- In Vietnam, visiting the house where Susanne's dad grew up; eating pho and cha gio from street vendors in Saigon and piles of fresh mangoes near the beach in Nha Trang
- In China, walking the Great Wall and learning to bargain in Beijing
- In Germany, driving a BMW on the Autobahn, walking around German farms, and sunset dinners on a patio with fresh food from the garden
- In South Africa, watching sunrise over Cape Town, seeing whales playing off the coast, and driving through the incredibly scenic area near Hermanus and the wine country
- In Tunisia, traditional meals with old friends at a 300-400 year old family home, hearing the call to prayer throughout the day, and seeing artifacts in situ from at least three ancient powers (Arab, Roman, Punic/Carthaginian)
- In Tanzania, descending into the Ngorongoro Crater, seeing herds of elephants in Tarangire National Park, and spending an afternoon with hunter gatherers in a nearly extinct ethnic community (Hadzabe)
- In Italy, St. Peter's Basilica and our daily Nutella gelato
Obviously traveling light helps when one moves every few days. We each had a daypack and a carry-on suitcase with wheels; as we bought souvenirs or cycled through books it was easy to send them home via mail or with people we met during the trip. About half of my bag was actually made up of electronics, which could have been done a little better but not much. I took a 14" laptop, Canon SLR (20d), backup SLR (Rebel XTi), 17-55mm/2.8 lens, 100-400mm lens, extra batteries and cleaning supplies, a pocket sized camera (Canon SD450), and a 60GB iPod to back my photos up to. I wasn't thrilled with carrying around the 100-400mm zoom as it was longer, heavier, and lower quality than my 70-200mm, but given our time on safari it would have been a real loss to give up the 200mm-400mm range. By the end of the trip (Italy) I was tired of carrying the SLR and pro-weight lenses and would have happily traded them for a high quality compact. If I had bought a new laptop for the trip I would have targeted the smallest size (12") that could still fit a large hard drive. Although it would have been nice to ditch the laptop completely it was enormously useful for using WiFi and processing photos on the fly instead of facing a stack of tens of thousands of images to go through when we got home.
Finally, Susanne says the trip was the best money we ever spent. Thank goodness we have a robust financial system that lets people with time but no money borrow against future periods when there will be excess money but no time.
You can see all of our photo albums from the trip here.
Tunisia
The Bir'Ruta well in Kairouan. See our entire Tunisia albums: Kairouan and everything else
We had a fantastic time in Tunisia - so much so that when people make us choose a favorite country from the trip we pick Tunisia. This had a lot to do with being able to spend time with local friends who could show us around and explain all of the cultural things we were seeing.
As an extremely brief primer for those who can't place Tunisia, it's a small country in North Africa between Libya and Algeria and just across the Meditteranean from Italy/Sicily. It was a thriving Phoenician settlement from the 8th century BC, Roman/Byzantine from the 2nd century BC, Arab from the 7th century AD, and a French colony from 1889 to 1956. Today it is 98% Arab & Muslim and moderately well off with a per capita GDP (PPP) around $8k, placing it between Colombia and Mexico in the wealth rankings. Virtually everyone is bilingual in French and Arabic although English is not uncommon. Its Mediterranean beaches are a common destination for budget European tourists but very few Americans ever get there. We spent a day in the country's main city (Tunis) seeing the ruins of Carthage and the national museum, then proceeded to Kairouan for the remainder of the week. Kairouan is a smaller city and actually has UNESCO World Heritage status due to its rich Islamic culture going back to the 7th century. A regular tourist itinerary would have spent only about a day in Kairouan and then moved on to the southern/Sahara desert areas, the coastal resorts, and maybe an island or two in the Meditteranean; however since we were lucky enough to be visiting friends in Kairouan we relaxed a bit and were able to have a great time walking around town, eating home cooked meals, and marveling at North African history. However the tourist attractions look amazing and we will hopefully get to visit them on our next trip (see Tunisia.com for some good explanations).
Tunisia is extremely well endowed with Roman era ruins, many of which have been reconstituted into Byzantine or Arab structures over the last 1500 years. The irony in our trip was that visiting Rome (our final stop) was a bit of a let down because we had to stand in lines and deal with masses of tourists when in Tunisia we saw things nearly as impressive by just walking up to them. For example, in our photo album you can see the amphitheater at El Jem, nearly as large as Rome's Colosseum but with better access and 99% fewer tourists.
The coolest aspect of the trip was just enjoying the feel of being at home with friends in Kairouan. Much of the old city dates back about a thousand years and the architecture remains largely traditional; three story houses that have room for several generations of a single family, all sharing a central courtyard. Our friend's home was something like 300 or 400 years old and infinitely more functional than any 300 year old European home or, I think, many American homes 150 years old. Despite being in the middle of the city amongst narrow streets and crowded markets the houses are a sanctuary of cool air and calm.
I will admit to having a few concerns about visiting an Arab/Muslim country as an American tourist in these times; however we had zero incidents of hostility, suspicion, or even anxiety. Everyone we dealt with was friendly and we are very much looking forward to going back as soon as possible. I realize it's a destination that isn't on most people's radar so if you have any interest in going please drop me a line and I will be happy to tell you more.
South Africa
Susanne on a dune, De Hoop Nature Reserve. See our South Africa album
South Africa photos are up. Our itinerary wasn’t too adventurous, remaining solidly on the tourist track, but the landscape is spectacular and even in mid-winter the weather was too warm for anything but a light jacket. Cape Town earned our admiration for a fantastic poly-ethnic food culture at reasonable prices – like Houston but maybe even better.
From Cape Town we did quick day trips around Simon’s Town, Table Mountain, Cape Point, and the wine country. After a few days we headed southeast to Hermanus and from there to De Hoop nature reserve. Although we were only on the cusp of whale season we saw at least a couple dozen whales and a few dolphins and harbor seals as well.