danajohnhill.org | Hard Times Come Again No More

The morning of our second day in Puerto Rico took us to the mountainous interior of the island.  Heading west out of San Juan wasn’t too bad, since all the traffic in the morning comes into the city.  As you drive, the view to the south is one of rugged mountains.  The nearer ones are not so intimidating, but behind them, further inland, is a much more fearsome range.  That was where we were heading.  I’ve written already about the dangerous and unsafe mountain roads.  However awful they are to drive, they lead to interesting places.

Our first stop was the Arecibo Observatory.  Operated by Cornell University, it is one of the largest radio telescopes on Earth.  Pictures don’t do it justice.  It is really enormous.  I seem to recall the tour guide saying something about twenty-five football fields fitting inside.  Astronomers chose this specific location for a few reasons, of which the most significant were the proximity to the equator, and another being the big hole that existed naturally between the surrounding mountains.  The had to do only a little blasting to fit the reflector.  Looking at the different antennas from the rim of the reflector you cannot tell how large anything really is.  But when a man passed in a basket over head, his tiny size gave some indication.  The short film we watched in the visitor center explained that the round sub-reflector suspended high in the air is the size of a three story building.  The pointy antenna next to it is almost a hundred feet long.  Three colossal concrete towers support the cables, and those cables are embedded in massive concrete anchors.  The air at Arecibo was fresh and in the shade I felt so cool and comfortable that if I closed my eyes I could imagine that I was in the North Carolina mountains.

Our next stop that day was to be the caverns in Camuy, but we arrived to find that all the tickets had been sold for the day.  We decided to head instead to the nearby Caguana Ceremonial Ball Courts.  The Taíno lived here in pre-Hispanic times, and left petroglyphs which are on display and are fascinating.  Now, a cynical person might say, “well sure, this place is interesting, but while the Taíno were drawing on these stones, the French were building the cathedral at Riems“.  That may be so, smart guy, but as Jared Diamond points out in Guns, Germs, and Steel, geography and technology are crucial to the development of any society.  Europeans lived in the most fertile place in the world, had horses and access to almost unlimited resources.  The indigenous people of the Caribbean had to cope with frequent hurricanes, occasional earthquakes, land that was far too rugged to sustain substantial populations through agriculture.  The ball courts at Caguana are fascinating, and you could see how the stones surrounding them were brought up from the river running through the canyon below.  All around the site were enormous Ceiba trees, which were easily over a hundred feet tall, with massive trunks that dwarf a man. The park was practically deserted, and the weather was lovely.

The drive back to San Juan gave me another opportunity to experience awe and terror, as I passed gorgeous scenery, and treacherous driving conditions.  At one point, a convoy of ambulances approached from behind with lights flashing.  I moved over to allow them to pass, but they didn’t go any faster than anyone else.  I concluded that emergency vehicles in Puerto Rico must always just travel with flashing lights.  Meanwhile, when I did hear a police siren, I looked around expecting to find a patrol car.  Rather, I discovered a motorcyclist and his girlfriend, using a police siren to attract attention.

We joined our friend Maggie, who lives in Puerto Rico, for dinner at a restaurant with a cool Egyptian theme.  At the conclusion of the meal, a belly-dancing girl came out and entertained everyone.  I can see why that custom is so popular.

It was after ten o’clock when we arrived back at our hotel, and I was ultra tired.  The next day we would explore San Juan.

Filed under: History, Technology, Travel on August 30th, 2009 | No Comments »

The miracle of our modern age is video on demand.

Filed under: Popular Music, Technology on July 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

Earlier this year, I purchased a Fender ‘65 Reissue Twin Reverb guitar amplifier from my local independent music store, Lipham’s.  I not only got a great deal, but I was glad to support local business, particularly one that’s been around for so long.  I’m not saying that Lipham Music is the best store in history–their selection is fairly modest, and they seem to be stocking many more Chinese-made instruments these days–but they do sell Fender and Martin guitars, and, what’s more, they’ve outlast most of the other shops in town.

Last night, after dinner, Miriam and I went somewhere I haven’t been in a long, long time: Best Buy.  I used to go there a lot in days of yore, especially back when HDTV was just being introduced, and I was eager to see what it looked like.  Their service was always lousy (not as lousy as Circuit City, of course), and just about everything I ever bought there broke within two years, but they’ve always had a lot of stock.  Last night, I discovered a new department in an area where CRT televisions were once displayed.  Best Buy now sells musical instruments.  They have drums, keyboards, DJ equipment, and guitars, including Fender and Gibson.

A number of things bother me about this.  First, I don’t think their staff cares about these instruments, since I found every guitar grossly out of tune.  Second, their prices were absurd.  The same Twin Reverb I bought for $899 at Lipham’s was marked $1,699 at Best Buy.  Maybe that’s what they’re going for elsewhere, but it just seemed extreme to me.  Finally, I think musical instruments are just Best Buy’s latest passing fancy.  That’s what troubles me most.  In a worst-case scenario, here’s what I imagine occurring:

1. Lipham Music loses sales to Best Buy.  There are only so many new electric guitars and amplifiers–particularly higher-end models–that will sell each week in Gainesville.  If Lipham loses those sales, it could hurt them significantly.  Lipham’s closes.
2. Musical instruments make up so little of Best Buy’s bottom line that they give up on the endeavor.
3. Gainesville has no music store.  Since Best Buy’s decision is made at the national level, they don’t care that Gainesville is left with nothing.

I don’t know how likely this scenario is.  I may just be paranoid.  But I know that I’d never get a deal on an amp at Best Buy like I did at Lipham’s, and Best Buy doesn’t have the tradition of heritage that Lipham’s does.  After all, a little more than ten years ago, the Best Buy was a Montgomery Ward.  Lipham’s has been in business for fifty years.  But these are hard times.

I hope they can weather the storm.

Filed under: Gainesville, Rantings, Technology on May 30th, 2009 | No Comments »

When I graduated high school in 1995, the best hope I had for keeping in touch with my friends was to know their phone numbers and mailing addresses.  Nobody I knew had email.  In fact, I only knew a few people who had ever been online.  So, I had many notes in my senior yearbook from friends and classmates that included a telephone number, and for a while I did stay in touch.  Indeed, I used to get actual letters from my friends off at college.  Life being what it is, however, I had, by 2000, lost track of many of those who had once been close to me.

Social networking websites have wrought much evil, but they have reintroduced me to several friends who had, for all intents and purposes, dropped off the face of the Earth.  Facebook has done more to counter the diasporic effects of time than anything else, and on Monday I experienced a rich reward: I had dinner with Erin Alvarez.

It had been almost ten years since I had seen her last, and until we found one another on Facebook, I couldn’t have guessed she lived here in Gainesville.  But she does, and she has a nice boyfriend, and we had a great time at Big Lou’s, and I am looking forward to spending lots more time catching up and hanging out.

Now if I can just persuade my friends Dan and Burt to move to Gainesville I’ll be set.

Filed under: Friends, Nostalgia, Technology on May 12th, 2009 | 1 Comment »

I’m not going to go Ted Kaczynski here, but I cannot fail to notice the ways technology has caused me immense frustration over the course of the last year.  In 2008, I had to buy a new television to replace one I had purchased less than two years before; I had to buy a new computer to replace another that failed in data-losing fashion; and I experienced a months-long plumbing nightmare.

My new HDTV is the greatest thing ever, and thanks to the good folks at Quality Plumbing, the drain is clear, so that horror has ended.  But no sooner had the water begun flowing than more trouble has come along to take the place of the old.  This weekend, after being at work all afternoon for back-to-back beg-a-thon shifts, I arrived home to find the house exceptionally warm.  The air conditioner was blowing hot air.  Thanks to help I received in the past from the Clays–who had a similar problem–I knew the culprit was a bad capacitor, and I did replace it today at minimal cost.  But, that’s just the beginning.

Miriam began complaining recently that the laptop–my expensive replacement for the old computer that failed so horribly–was behaving oddly.  For instance, when she would turn it on, the screen would be blank.  Not having experienced it myself, I couldn’t guess the cause.  By Sunday morning, however, it happened to me.  Indeed, after starting Windows, the screen would go blank and stay blank.  Sara told me that that is precisely what her HP laptop did to her less than a year after she bought it.  This computer is less than ten months old, so it is still under warranty, and, if it’s going to break, now’s the best time, being the holiday between spring and summer classes.  But, hell fire, what is the world coming to that we cannot make a product that lasts more than a couple years any more?

I’ll confess my share of the blame: I have allowed myself to become captive to the power and convience of computers.  Indeed, I use a computer every day for many important tasks.  Consequently, when I have this sort of problem, it’s a cripling predicament.  I spent an hour and a half on the phone this morning with HP technical support (not being jerked around – it just took a long time to run some diagnostic tests), and now I will be without my laptop for two weeks.

I’m not planning on going off the grid, but sometimes I’m tempted.

Filed under: Rantings, Technology on May 4th, 2009 | No Comments »