BS: Settling in Guam

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 08 Apr 09 - 08:53 AM

Kitchen destruction is on hold. Wakana has realized just how involved the project will be. I guess we'll take it on when we are out for the summer... and I no longer have this cast on my foot.

I made some progress cleaning up the office today. I found the table with the computer on it. Now I have to haul out the bags of trash... see above comment on the cast.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 05:38 PM

Yesterday we had six wild piglets running around the back yard scarfing down fallen fruit. The farmer, who had just spent the day planting came over in the evening with the fence charger he got from Mudcatter Charley Noble and plugged it in again. He is so happy to have that charger, Charley.

I finally got my Japanese rifle back from GovGuam. I had to go through an FBI check and get a firearms permit and a permit to have the rifle in my home. Lots o' money but now I can give the rifle to the museum.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 08:06 PM

Brett-

The renovations are complete on your old apartment upstairs. It's even rented to a delighted tenant! Would you like a set of photos of the improvements to the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, Brett's former landlord

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Apr 09 - 10:13 PM

Wakan? Have you heard Captain Kendall and the Kitchen? You may want to re-think the destruction...

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 07:45 AM

I'd love to see what you did to the place. I have very fond memories of that apartment. It was my escape from a very tough time for me.

I don't know if I ever told this story here. A couple of months before I left Maine a friend asked me if I was running to or running away. I told her I was running to a new life and definitely NOT running away. Later, much later, I realized my answer was not correct. I was running away big time.

In the months up to my departure that apartment was a little pool of calm and comfort, my own place where I could drop the cares of wasted relationships and lost time. It really was a great place and I am so grateful I had it to hide in.

Thanks Charley.

Tanglefoot on the stereo now.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Apr 09 - 08:25 AM

Brett-

Images on their way.

The new tenant is quite excited with the prospect of moving in.

Cheerily,
Charley

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 08:39 AM

Wow! Charlie, you done good! The only part I recognize is the alcove in the living room. Man, if that apartment looked that good back than I might never have left... NOT!

The reality is that I needed this change. Life is better here than it ever could have been back there. Everywhere I went back there I saw something that reopened my wounds. Here it's all new.

One of the things kids ask for from teachers is to see movies. Recently I relented and showed them The Librarian: Quest for the Spear. If you haven't seen it get over to a video rental place and get it. It's made for TV so don't expect a great cultural icon but it is a fun comedy along the line of Indiana Jones. You will recognize a lot of the Jones movies' influence but there are also some steps that the Jones movies don't take.

Anyway, I showed them the film. Many people seem to think the TV is supposed to be the backdrop for conversation and my kids are no different. I did explain to them they should pay attention but that means nothing coming from a teacher... until they hear the word 'QUIZ'!

They want to treat the movies we show them as free time. They don't like knowing that it is a learning experience. The quiz is 30 questions on the details in the movie and the elements of fiction I have been talking about (among many other things) since last year. Who is a dynamic character? What examples of man versus circumstance conflict are in the movie? Which scene is the climax of the film?

SIR! Why do we have to do this?

Because this is a school and everything should be taken as a learning opportunity. There is no such thing as free time in my classroom.

On another topic, my dad likes to send me newspaper clippings from the Bangor Daily and the Portland Sunday paper. One of them showed a man standing on a frozen lake with a huge togue (lake trout). Behind him a dog is sleeping on the seat of his snowmobile. The man is all bundled up against the cold. My father sent it to me because he thought the man looked like me.

I dutifully pinned it to the bulletin board and waited. Eventually, as in days later, one of the students noticed the picture and commented on how much the man looked like me. They even asked if it was me. I told them to read my father's handwritten note on the upper corner of the picture. They hadn't bothered. It read:

"I thought this was you standing on a coral reef but then I remembered you don't have a dog."

The kids didn't get the humor.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Apr 09 - 09:10 AM

Brett-

Your father has a sense of dry humor that rivals Capt. Morse. What fun it would be if they ever got together.

Glad you like the renovations of your old apartment. I'm temporarily using it as a photography studio for shooting a huge collection of my mother's childhood art; much of it was shown at the Modern Museum of Art as an example of creative growth of an artist in 1939. Not everyone gets a retrospective show at the age of 22! There are some amazing images in this collection, some of which will appear in a biography that Down East Publications is working on.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 05:36 AM

Will any of it be showing on her website?

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 05:21 PM

Brett-

We'll probably post a dozen or so of Dahlov's childhood art on her website in a month or so. Evidently as a young teenager she was fascinated by World War stories such as All Quiet on the Western Front and created a whole series of war scenes in pastel; three of them decorated my college dorm room back in the 1960's: German Soldiers Burning a Village, The French Storming a German Trench, and The Good Soldier (a dead German Soldier).

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 16 Apr 09 - 10:12 PM

I think we all have childhood attitudes that are better left uncovered. I was once a racist.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 10:49 PM

Yesterday the doctor removed the cast after three weeks. I wore the boot out of there and went to get new x-rays. We have to take the pictures to the doctor today and then, judging from the pictures and how my foot feels, he'll put ANOTHER cast on it. I hope not. I'm sure tired of the damned cast.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Amos
Date: 23 Apr 09 - 11:16 PM

I'd rather be part of a cast of thousands than have to bear a thousand casts, myself.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 09:02 AM

We went to see the doctor and he did NOT put another cast on me but I am not out of the woods yet. The x-rays show no real healing but he believes the bone callous is not "bright" enough to show clearly. I will see him on Monday to evaluate how I do over the weekend.

This morning I had the class artist decorate The Boot. It is black plastic and I handed him The Boot and a silver Sharpie marker. When I got it back it looked pretty classy. I'll have to take a picture to show everyone.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Apr 09 - 10:01 AM

Brett-

Best of luck with that, Big Fella. You do impose formiable stress on your poor feet. Have you considered lightening the load with helium balloons?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, revisiting Michigan

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 25 Apr 09 - 08:47 AM

I told Wakana that I would now be able to go swimming since I no longer have the cast. She became angry with me for talking stupid talk.

I asked the doctor if I could start riding my bike and he said I could but then retracted that. He is worried about my foot taking too much strain if I lost my balance.

Have fun in Michigan, Charley.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 25 Apr 09 - 10:15 PM

We have MANGOES! The two trees behind the house are not loaded with them but they are growing some mangoes. The brother of the previous owners once told me those trees never bore fruit so this would be their first year. Wakana cut some up the other day and they taste pretty good considering they aren't quite ripe yet.

And these are supposed to be carabao mangoes, the best there is. Yummy.

Anyone want to come for a visit next month when mango season really gets under way?

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 29 Apr 09 - 05:40 AM

My computer has died again. We woke up a few nights ago to hear it saying something loudly in a badly distorted voice. The only word we could make out was 'SYSTEM'. I turned it off but that's all we get wehen wee turn it on now. No screen, no chance to try a reboot, no nothing.

So I bought this fancy laptop.

Now I am sitting in front of the TV typing a message while Harry and Hermione save Buckbeak and Sirius Black.

Life is good.

I am going to take the desktop in to try to recue to hard drives. I really need to information on there. I hope I can mount them in some kind of case so I can use them as external drives.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Apr 09 - 09:02 AM

good luck,

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Apr 09 - 09:44 AM

Brett-

It's a good thing that you have your back-up drive...err, you do have a back-up drive, don't you?

Hmmm? When was the last time I used mine? Actually, Judy and I do back-ups to external drives quite frequently when we're involved with major projects such as music recording or digital image editing, and major back-ups of everything every six months or so to drives which are then stored outside the house.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, drifting toward Grand Rapids

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 12:58 AM

Well you know what they say. Jesus saves. And you well know I am not Jesus.

I do have an external drive... somewhere. I better pull it out.

Most of my school stuff is on the little group of thumb drives I carry around. In fact I was given a new one by the Army recruiter when he came in to talk to the kids. Problem is that it's camouflaged. I'm pretty sure I put it down here on the desk but I can't seem to find it...

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 01:01 AM

Oooo, camo, how chic!**bg** Good luck getting your stuff off the old drive. Those little sticks are neat, though, aren't they?

Mangoes coming outta your ears, yet?

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Apr 09 - 02:27 PM

Brett-

The thumbdrives were very useful in Ethiopia for transfering files back and forth. It is amazing how much information one can deal with, amazing to me whose first computer had maybe a MB of memory.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 02 May 09 - 09:36 AM

I don't think they had thumb drives in Ethiopia when you were there. The desk top computer hadn't even been invented yet.

By the way, there is an NPR podcast that replays some of their reports from the past. I heard one the other day about a new invention used by Apple Computer on their new machines. The computer was called LISA and the new peripheral was a mouse.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 09 - 08:32 AM

Brett-

I meant the thumbdrives I was using during my revisit to Ethiopia in March this year. As Bob & Ray used to say as they signed off, "Hang by your thumbdrives!"

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, treed in Ann Arbor

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 06 May 09 - 06:41 AM

I have discovered an interesting podcast/website for a magazine called Make. It has some really fun stuff. One of the items was how to use a yard light and a webcam to photograph animals in the wild. Another was how to use mutiple thumb/flsh drives to make a single flash drive. Check it out.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 May 09 - 08:05 AM

Today the students had to start the Stanford Achievement Test. We tested them in the morning, went home for a break and then had to go to the Baccalaureate Mass at 6:00. Tomorrow we test them again then go to the cathedral for graduation at 6:00.

This evening I sat in the pew listening to the ceremonies and watching the students. I feel sorry for them. They are not ready for the real world. Are any of us when we graduate? I have heard of their shenanigans and I am not impressed with them yet I know they will be surprised when they realize the world was not made for them.

Having said this I have to mention a conversation I had recently with the school counselor. I was expressing my frustrations with the students. He told me the real frustration was with the parents. He explained that many times in the past a promising student has been accepted with scholarships to prominent universities in the states but that the parents would not let them go.

It's heartbreaking.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 May 09 - 08:15 AM

Brett,
You're looking at their world through your eyes. They will live their lives and be happy sometimes, sad others and neutral most often. In fifty years they will sigh in disbelief at the hopeless youth of their day.
It seems a shame to me that we don't get to do it all over once we have lived fifty years or so. We might get it right the second time around.
SINS

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 08 May 09 - 08:54 AM

Click Here!

A friend sent me the above Youtube address for a project put together by a local group. I don't recognize any of the names or faces in the production but it is a cool rendition of a local story. And it has some good pictures of Guam. AND it shows how the old timers used to live.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 08 May 09 - 12:14 PM

That is incredible, Brett. No mystery who the true "barbarians" were; too bad they had to spread it all over the world. It is really good the people survived and tell the stories.

Thanks for the link. There are some other ones that show Guam, too. I love seeing your world and learning more of it. If I were fit and had the means, I'd love to visit.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 May 09 - 08:11 AM

Kat, you would be welcome, you and Roger.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 May 09 - 11:10 AM

Thank you, Brett. I would love a visit...seeing all of the beauty you have shared, the music and folklore and YOU and Wakana! It would mean a lot to us. I am following my bliss so who knows?!

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 11 May 09 - 07:56 PM

My left foot bothered me all weekend. Saturday I went in to get an x-ray taken so I could be prepared for my next visit to the doctor. To my untrained eye it doesn't look healed at all. I'm afraid he will have to operate and install a pin. If he does that I have no idea how much of my summer that will eat up.

Bah Humbug!

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 May 09 - 11:34 PM

Patience, Grandpa, patience!**gentle smile**

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 12 May 09 - 04:25 AM

I have discovered the wonder of Skype. I downloaded it and had a lovely visit with my younger daughter and met her boyfriend. Then I sent an email to my older daughter and we connected a little while ago and chatted while she kept the camera trained on Sabra. It was too cool. We've achieved the video phones of my favorite stories in science fiction.

Anyone else want to get together? Download Skype and hook up your mike and camera and you are there.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 20 May 09 - 09:07 AM

It's almost over! Today was the last day of classes and tomorrow we start the final exams. Then I have to correct them, and turn in the grades. And THEN... it's vacation time!

I have a lot of plans for this summer. I want to get my workshop up and running, build some bookshelves, and start to renovate the kitchen. I also have a lot of small jobs to do, things like clean out the spare room so we can have another bedroom, and organize the carport.

AND I want to start riding my bicycle. I have been laying around for the last three months waiting for this damn foot to heal. I was out of shape when I started. Now I am in terrible condition.

For now, no more classes... until next August.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 May 09 - 10:17 AM

happy holidays!

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 20 May 09 - 10:35 PM

Sounds like there's hope!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 May 09 - 11:12 PM

Oh joy!

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 31 May 09 - 03:48 AM

At long last I'm on vacation... what do people do when they are on vacation?

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 May 09 - 04:12 AM

go to folk festivals?

sleep in?

I dunno. I'm retired!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: ClaireBear
Date: 31 May 09 - 05:08 AM

Write the great American novel?

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:13 AM

eat more mangoes?

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 May 09 - 11:21 AM

No more students, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks!

You've earned some time to mull this one over. Maybe you should revive your guitar playing and sing some songs.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 09:50 AM

Well, Brett, here's what some other canoe buffs do:
New vaka takes on trained crew in Auckland

Tuesday 26 May: Crew members for the newly built double-hulled voyaging canoe Marumaru Atua have been undergoing sailing training and skipper courses in Auckland, New Zealand.
The vaka was built and launched in Greenhithe, Auckland, and is one of four being built for a voyage between Rarotonga and Hawaii next year.
Last weekend the vaka, which had three crew from Rarotonga onboard, undertook trials to Great Barrier Island. Already four crew members -- who not only helped with the building of the vaka -- have completed a skippers course at the Auckland Marine Rescue Centre.
The new crew members are Sam Napa Jnr, Paul Mangakahia, Leanne Young and Alan Sullivan.
"Marumaru Atua will remain in Auckland for some time to carry out crew training sessions there before being sailed to Rarotonga later in the year," says Cook Islands Voyaging Society president Ian Karika.
The vaka building project is one initiated by the Pacific Voyagers – a network of voyaging groups in American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga and Western Samoa, which was formed in February.
The participating groups intend to celebrate the formation of Pacific Voyagers by assembling a fleet of seven ocean-going canoes in Rarotonga in April 2010. The fleet will then sail to Hawaii at the invitation of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and the Makali'i Voyaging Society.

[Cook Islands News online last week.]

RtS

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Jun 09 - 08:51 PM

Cook Island News article

pic of vaka

Polynesian Voyaging Society

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 08:25 PM

Monday I went over to the university to register for some classes. I need several to fill out my certification requirements. Monday was the last day to register.

I had my sights set on two classes. The History of Guam class is required for all teachers on the island. I've wanted to take it for some time now. The only other class offering that fills the bill is a class on testing and evaluation.

The history class was scheduled for 9:00 AM so I arrived at the dean's office at 8:00 to register for it. The secretary told me to attend the class and then come back to register. That was suspicious. We had about an hour but she seemed to be busy on some task or other.

With that much time available I walked across campus to the School of Education to register for the other class. That one didn't start until 4:00 PM. There was quite a crowd in that office so I waited patiently, and thankfully, in the cool air conditioned office. It was really starting to heat up outside.

When I finally got to speak with the secretary she looked up my file and told me I had to update my records before I could register. She printed out a page and handed it to me. I asked her about the instructor and classroom. She told me to speak to June in the next office about that. There I was told that June had not come in to work. I told the secretary who said she would find out for when I returned. I walked back across the campus to take the history class.

The history class was very interesting and the instructor seemed to be full of energy and interest. I knew I was going to enjoy the class. She spoke of the study of history and how people look at it. This was important because islanders have a different point of view. For them history is in front of them. The future is behind them. The Chamorro word for ancestor is taotaomo'na or "the people/spirit in front of us." This was indeed going to be an interesting experience.

After the class I walked over to the admissions office to update my record. The office was crowded so I took a number and waited. As I waited I scanned a rack of forms and realized I would probably have to submit a request for readmission because it has been over a year since I last took a class. I filled out the form and continued waiting.

When I got up to the window the woman did indeed tell me I needed to fill out the form. I handed it to her. She seemed annoyed. She told me I should have done this a week ago. I explained that I was a full time teacher with 118 students and that Friday had been the last day of school (a slight exaggeration). She told me to sign and date it and note that my last class was Fall of 2007. Then she asked me when I had last been tested for TB. My last test was for admission back in 2007. Well, she said, you need to have the test before you can attend classes. She sent me to the campus health office.

In the health office I was told that the nurse was off-island and they were not administering the shot. There was nothing they could do.

I returned to my car and drove to my clinic. There they made an appointment for the next day. They gave me an appointment card and I headed back to the admissions office.

After another long wait the admissions woman looked at the appointment card and told me that I would have to ask the instructors if it was all right to attend the class until my TB test could be read. I walked over to talk to the history instructor and found that she had gone home. According to the note on her door she only teaches the one class in the summer.

I walked across campus to the School of Education to speak with that instructor. By now the day had really heated up. The secretary told me to step next door and talk to June (Remember the woman who had not come in to work?) I reminded her of that but she told me that June had come in after all. I went next door and was told that June had gone home early.

By now it was about 2:00. I had been beating my head against the wall all day long and had made zero progress. Note that I did all this walking with my left foot in the huge black orthopedic boot I still have to wear because my broken bone is still healing. As the day progressed so did the pain. I finally gave up. I was so angry and frustrated that my hold on civilized behavior was tenuous at best.

I went home.

When I got home Wakana greeted me and was surprised to see that I was in tears. My anger and frustration was racking through me. She tried all evening to commiserate and relax me but I kept railing at the bureaucracy of the university and a system that kept sending people off to another office rather than solving the problem themselves.

I am feeling better now. Yesterday we pulled out the window air conditioner in the bedroom and replaced the window. Then we rearranged the room and cleaned it as we did. She headed out to a meeting and I stayed home and relaxed with the computer, the TV, and the phone calls from angry parents telling me that their kid really did do the homework I claim I never received.

I am now on day 3 of my vacation. Wakana has a luncheon with her co-workers and I can go along. The luncheon is at Jeff's Pirates Cove down in Ipan. That will be a very good feed. Later I need to do my laundry. I have two baskets full. Wakana did hers on Monday evening but I was incapacitated by anger, frustration, and pain.

Day 3 of my vacation.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Naemanson
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 08:38 PM

Alex, the guy who farms the land next to us, stopped by and delivered a small bag of cherry tomatoes. I've already eaten one. Boy is that good! Fresh from the vine!

Back home my father (81 years old) has just planted his garden. He even copied the upside down planter he saw on TV for growing tomatoes. He talks about planting the three sisters. He planted his corn in three rows. Once it comes up high enough he will plant beans and squash in the same rows. This is a Native American method. It controls the weeds by crowding them out. Squash covers the ground and the beans climb the corn stalks.

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 10:31 PM

Brett-

I'm reminded of the old song used to sing at Michigan State University --

It's a one step forward, two steps back,
Moving down the tenure track,
Doing the tenure tango!

Well, what you're describing has little to do with tenure, but the bureaucratic frustration has a similar ring.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Settling in Guam
From: katlaughing
Date: 02 Jun 09 - 11:20 PM

Hell of a way to spend vacation! I hope you get it all sorted out. Those tomatoes sounds delicious! My sister is growing one of those Topsy Turvy tomatoes in Alaska, too!