Some of you may have noticed the addition of Twitter to our website back at the end of May. It's addition to my writing toolbox was prompted by Twitter being feature in a NPR's Story of the Day podcast. Twitter is often referred to as micro-blogging, allowing people from around the world to send updates about the moments in their lives. Usually from my mobile phone with its text messaging feature, I have posted super brief posts (140 characters or less) to fill in the gaps in between my writings. In fact Twitter has filled in huge gaps recently as I haven't had the time, and sometimes the desire, to keep up on my writing.

What makes Twitter so compelling you may be asking. Who cares about what a bunch of ordinary people are doing at any moment of time, about the mundane details of their lives? The value, from my perspective, is not in the individual tweet, but in the aggregation of data. I have a tendency of looking at art and creativity as a geological process, not a Big Bang explosion of inspiration. Twitter is one of those forces that acts upon landscape, like the wind or rain, changing and honing it. Individual instances of wind or water erosion usually have small impacts; however aggregate these instances, the changes are breathtaking. Over time, I have amassed a body of work from which to draw upon.

With only 140 characters to work with, Twitter has helped hone my writing skills. With every tweet, I try to write with descriptive elegance, capturing the context of the moment, not always succeeding, but always trying.

I also believe tweeting, and writing in general, adds to the quality of your life as you try to make your life as compelling and relevant as possible to your audience, whoever you may deem that to be, or at least to state your case as to why you think it is. By doing so, you heed Socrates' warning about the unexamined life not worth living.

Most of all, I like to hope, if you find yourself off track, you are forced to making a change for the better.

Kiet

I am trying to fall back into the routine of writing regularly. It seems that I am able to come up with more and more excuses as to why I have no time.

Well, today I had to take the Volvo to Portland for service and managed to schedule some of my Portland errands at the same time. I am car-less in Portland, utilizing my Xootr and the Portland Streetcar to get around. I stopped at PSU and registered for more coursework in the multimedia program. I managed to have myself talked into taking more course than I had originally planned. This fall, I will be learning about CSS, business strategies for new media and Adobe's Flash.

In between appointments, I am doing what my generation will be noted in the history annuals for, sitting in a coffee shop, wired on caffeine and to the Internet, and pounding our this dispatch. I am trying to take a moment to excise some of the random thoughts that are swimming in my head before my next appointment with a client I am doing some FileMaker database programming for.

Jill tells me that some of you readers out there miss my dispatches, and I always find it hard to believe that anyone, other than Jill, reads my drivel. Then again, I did have a recent conversation with someone who commented that I hadn't written anything recently. Perhaps Jill isn't trying to inflate my ego.

McKenzie continues to grow and develop into her own person, and that never ceases to amaze me. As I watch her grow and learn, I become more and more of an optimist for the future. She drinks in her environment. She understands the world with a simplicity that only a child could possess. She shows a fascination and curiosity that inspires me.

The other morning, I gave her a handful of pocket change for her to deposit into her bank. Jill and I bought her an elephant coin bank, which sits about two feet tall and you feed the coins into the elephant's trunk. The coins rolled down the trunk and into the transparent belly. Over the course of the months, I have watched McKenzie develop the fine motor skills to hold the coin in her fingers, position the coin over the coin slot and release the coin. She is giddy with excitement over her accomplishment. Each coin is an equal source of excitement and joy.

When I watch her do this, I think about my own development and how even now I am still developing new skills that only come with time.

I am off to my next appointment . . .

Kiet

While watching the evening news, Jill became worried about the massive recall for toys made in China, lead paint. She pulled out each of McKenzie's toys and checked each's place of manufacture. It became overwhelming when she soon learned that nearly all of her toys were made in China.

Sent from my iPhone

Kiet

It has been awhile again, and the time seems to be escaping me. I have been so busy, and yet I seem that I haven't accomplished much in these last few months. I am currently sitting at PDX with Daniel waiting to get him off onto his flight home. He stayed an extra couple days with us. I have tried to show him a good time, but there are times when an 11-year-old boy will challenge one's patience. All in all, he is a good boy.
I finished the spring semester at Portland State University. I have enrolled myself in the Multimedia Certification program in order to expand my skill set and my horizons. Lately, I have been feeling stuck in a rut, searching for a creative outlet for my energies. I am really interested in web development, hoping to use it as a springboard for some design work.
After my paper crane and baby nursery projects, I have not really produced anything really awe-inspiring, something that I step back from and say, "Cool." That has sunk me to the level of looking for external validation of my creativity and possibly my worth. I am beginning to wonder if anything I undertake is worthwhile, and this is not a good feeling. Hopefully, I will look back at this entry, shake my head and ask myself what I was thinking.
I recently finished the Ten Face of Innovation and learned an interesting insight. The premise was that while the Baby Boomer generation was more fixated with material wealth, my generation was more interested in experience wealth. It wasn't about how much money you made, but how many rich and varied life experiences you had. I thought that this struck a chord of truth and explained why I have taken up the hobbies I have. Though not necessarily inexpensive, fly fishing, geocaching, photography, mapping, blogging, web development have all been about the life experiences that they have provided. Everything in my life now seems to be driven toward making sense of the world around me and connecting to others in some meaningful way.
Have I achieved that? No. With the exception of a few, I still feel isolated, and it has come to the point where I feel extremely comfortable with that. I try to make a concerted effort to open myself up, and probably the most recent example that comes to mind is my attendance of the portfolio reviews of the Multimedia Program at the end of the spring semester, a great social and career networking opportunity. Instead, I eventually walked away feeling extremely awkward.
However, tomorrow's another day, and let's see what it brings.

Kiet

Notes from the field:

Daughter like mother, I am learning as both Jill and McKenzie prefer the happenings at other tables. We are enjoying Sunday morning breakfast at Westside Cafe and Bakery in Bend. It seems to have been such a long time since we were last in Bend, or perhaps it's because we don't come as frequently as we did before McKenzie's arrival.

McKenzie, Koda and I went caching while Jill got ready this morning. We found two, raising our total to 243. I am debating on what to do for the rest of the day, geocache as a family or fish by myself. I think the family thing is going to win.

There is plenty here around Bend that I have missed out on in pursuit of trout. Caching with Jill, McKenzie and Koda will open up some new windows.

Kiet

Kiet

Today they found the body of 35-year-old James Kim in a canyon of the Coast Range in southern Oregon.

While on a Thanksgiving road trip to the Pacific Northwest, on their way to the Oregon Coast, he, his wife and two young daughters had taken a wrong turn off the interstate, traveled the wrong road and became stuck in the snow on Saturday evening, November 25th.

While stranded, the family used the car heater until they ran out of gas and then burned the five tires for warmth. Finally, after seven days stranded in the Oregon wilderness, he had left his wife and two small daughters on Saturday at their snowbound vehicle to seek help. He left at about 8:00 AM and was to return by 1:00 PM, but never did.

When someone had tried to send them a text message, though it never got through, their phone had been pinged for a split moment. From that ping, authorities were able to determine the nearest cell tower it had registered with and narrow the scope of their search. On Monday, a search helicopter found his wife and daughters in good condition.

Then today, at about noon, searchers found his body about a half mile from the Rogue River and less a mile from where his car was, separated from it by a sheer cliff. According to his track, James had travelled an 8-mile circle and probably had died of exposure.

There, but for the grace of God, go I.

Today in History:
12/06 St. Nicholas' Day
12/06 Independence Day in Finland
12/06* Hanukkah (Seventh day)
12/06* Light 8th candle
12/06* Rosh Chodesh Tevet (Beginning of the month of Tevet)
12/06 First sound recording made by Thomas Edison, 1877
12/06 The Rolling Stones play Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, 1969

Kiet

Before moving to Washington State, Jill and I lived next to Wehr Nature Center in Hales Corners, Wisconsin, and the neighboring woods were filled with songbirds. However, there was one song in particular that woke us in the morning and has a fondness to my heart. I duly named the bird the jilly-bird. I just wanted to share with you the song of the jilly-bird.



Today in History:
12/02 National Holiday in United Arab Emirates
12/02* Hanukkah (Third day)
12/02* Light 4th candle

Kiet

I have neglected my updates these last couple of months, but not without reasons.

I recently bought a new 17-inch MacBook Pro, deciding to take the leap to the Mac Intel world, and had the fun task of transferring my digital life from one machine to another. It is amazing, when forced to face the fact, how much you have accumulated in three years onto your personal notebook. You scramble to find software license numbers and reconfigure application preferences and make sure that you haven't forgotten to copy over a file that, though not at the immediate moment, you absolutely need.

In addition to that, I had to ready my old Powerbook for Jill. The running joke is that Jill always receives my hand-me-downs, and in order to ease the blow of receiving yet another hand-me-down, I had to erase my three-year imprint from that machine. That project took me about a week.

I also have managed to once again revamp the look and the feel of the website (more detail in a subsequent entry), one of many iterations of my creation. I discovered a new theme called Cloud from Elixir Graphics and further consolidated pages.

I have also been working on doing some side work in web development and database programming. More to come . . .

Today in History:
11/26 Charles Schulz born in Minneapolis, 1922
11/26 Norbert Wiener born in Columbia, Missouri, 1894
11/26 Cream performs their farewell concert at Royal Albert Hall, 1968

Kiet

We stayed in Madison last night. I wanted to show McKenzie Madison, to enjoy it with her. The Dane County Farmers' Market experience was one of those things I wanted to share with McKenzie. Jill and I hadn't been back for a Saturday morning Dane County Farmers' Market since we had moved to Washington State. The Market had always been a treat for us, and now we wanted to share that with McKenzie.

As we drove down West Washington Street, I pointed down Main Street toward the Echo Tap. "That was where I had my first beer legally," I mentioned.

"Where?" Jill asked. I turned at the next street, Bassett Street, and then around on Doty Street.

"I lived there," I pointed to the house at 508 West Doty Street. "Did my laundry there," I pointed to the laundromat at the corner. A flood of memories overtook me.

We met the Bernhardts at the Market, our only opportunity to see them on this trip. As we walked around, I was impressed to see the budding of a revitalization on the Captial Square. New restaurants, stores and luxury condos were now on the block that was once plagued with empty storefronts and dilapidated buildings.

Madison was also hosting the Cow Parade, sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Board, an awesome exhibit of one hundred and one painted, costumed and whimsically transformed fiberglass cows. The majority of the cows are located throughout the metro Madison area with a special herd of three cows that travels throughout the state.

After lunch with the Bernhardts, we parted ways and then walked down State Street toward the heart of the University of Wisconsin's campus. Some things remain the same, and more things change. The old Oscar Mayer Theater has transformed and become the Overture Center for the Arts, expanding and taking over the old Yost's Department Store at one end of the block and the sandwich shop (whose name escapes me) on the other end of the block. Gone is the State Street Arcade, the only adult entertainment store on State Street. Gone is one of the dueling gyro restaurants, which were situated directly across from each other on State Street and whose rivalry was sometimes known to get physical. The Pipefitter Store is moving to a different location on State Street.

However, Art Paul, much older and a bit heavier now, still performs on the State Street, just in front of State Street Brats. This song has only one chord, that's why I'm bored. One chord, I'm bored . . .

We stopped at the University Bookstore to pick up some UW swag, car window decals for our vehicles and a Bucky Badger baseball cap for McKenzie, expressions of my pride in my upbringing. I then realize the irony of the moment, how eager I was to leave then and now how I yearned to return.

We walked through Memorial Library Mall and up Bascom Hill. I pointed out to Jill and McKenzie the building I had classes in, trying hard to remember what courses. We walked to Observation Point and looked out at Lake Mendota, and I truly appreciated the beauty of the view probably for the first time despite the countless number of times I had walked past on my way to class.

From Observation Point, we walked down to the lake path and back to Memorial Union. We picked up two more geocaches on the way, Observation point (#98) and mad-towne find (#99). The next cache will be our hundredth.

Memorial Union was my second home in college. I had worked there in building set-up for two years and enjoyed my run of the place. Probably some of my fondest memories were of setting and running the movie projector during the summer for Monday night movies out on the Terrace. I asked Jill what she thought of the Terrace furniture and if she thought it would look good on our deck. I think I need a reminder of a time long past.

Lakefront Cafeteria received a major makeover. The entrance moved to where the main level kitchen used to be. I was interested in seeing if anything else had changed on the other levels of the building, but we didn't have time. We had to be back in Milwaukee.

We will be back as McKenzie grows older and hopefully acquires the same appreciation of Madison Jill and I have.

Kiet

While getting ready for bed, Jill asked me if I ever spoke of her to other people when she wasn't around. Being dense, I told her that I didn't understand her question. She explained the context. She had volunteered her time at the local public safety event and had overheard one of the organizers speaking well of his wife. This took her aback, and now she wanted to know if I had ever done the same. Of course, at the moment, I came up with some lame answer, a joke probably.

That night, Jill had replaced my wedding band I had lost while geocaching. As I look at my new ring, reminded of her commitment to me, I realized that I easily take that for granted. For me, it is difficult to discuss such matters with others. However, I thought I would just mention how extremely lucky and blessed I am to have met and married my best friend.

Today in History:
09/23 Augustus (Gaius Octavius) Caesar born in Rome, 63 BC
09/23 Euripides born in Salamis, Greece, 480 BC
09/23 Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos declares martial law, 1972
09/23 The New York Knickerbockers becomes the first US Baseball club, 1845
09/23 US Vice President Nixon denies campaign fund fraud with his "Checkers" speech, 1952
09/23 Grito de Lares in Puerto Rico
09/23* Autumnal Equinox in Japan
09/23* Hol ha-Mo'ed
09/23 "Paul is dead" rumors sweep the country, 1969
09/23 Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen is born in Freehold, New Jersey, 1949

Kiet

Today I turned 35 years old, my first birthday as a father, and this is the best birthday gift I have ever received. My daughter is developing her own personality, her own being, her own essence, and it is amazing to watch it bloom.

Though half of her makeup comes from me, she responds to her environment completely independent from me, learning about the world anew, and that warms my heart more than anything I could ever put eloquently into words.

Evolution certainly came up with a highly effective survival strategy for us humans in our strong attachment to our offspring. The vast majority of living species on this planet just release their offspring into the world, to fend for themselves. When rearing our children, we humans suffer through what a rational being would deem from the outside as highly discomforting and unpleasureable. The short-term benefits are absent, and the long-term benefits are too far off in the distance to keep our eyes on the prize. However, nature combats with the release of happy chemicals in our brains whenever our child looks up at us and smiles, melting away those doubts as to why we expend so much energy on our children.

McKenzie is truly a gift that keeps giving.

Today in History:
08/17 Mae West born, 1892
08/17 First public bath opened in N.Y., 1891
08/17 Anniversary of the Death of General San Martin in Argentina
08/17 Independence Day in Indonesia
08/17* Parashat Ki Teze

Kiet

Last night, at about 1:39 AM, there was a huge crash. It sounded like something had hit the side of the house. Jill and I checked outside in the yard and saw nothing. The next morning, while watching the local morning news, we learned that there was a 3.8 earthquake, which originated about 4 miles northwest of Battle Ground.

Kiet

After being closed for the last two years due to increased volcanic activity, Mt. St. Helens opens today to climbers. The climb to the top of the volcano is a non-technical climb, described more as an arduous hike than a climb. The round trip hike will take an average of seven to ten hours. Added to the list of recommended equipments are a helmet, a N95 dust mask and goggles.

Before the end of the summer, I want to reach the summit of the volcano before it may close again and possibly for the duration of the rest of my lifetime.

Today in History:
07/21 First Train Robbery, Jesse James gets $3000 near Adair, Iowa, 1873
07/21 Vietnam divided at 17th parallel, 1954
07/21 National Holiday in Belgium

Kiet

My beautiful wife and best friend celebrated her birthday today.

Today in History:
04/23 Crowning of King Ellesar (LOTR)
04/23 Hank Aaron hits his first home run, 1954
04/23* Omer 26th day

Kiet

On our way home from work yesterday, Jill and I caught this great commentary on NPR's All Things Considered. We highly recommend that you listen to it. Click here for the link.

Kiet

also available via

Kiet

Listening to ''Fairytale Of New York'', by The Pogues Featuring Kirsty MacColl (Play Count: 4)

Well I finally got around to transferring the entire site to calliesadventures.com. Before, when you typed in calliesadventures.com, you were forwarded to homepage.mac.com/kietc. If you paid attention to the address bar in your browser, you would have noticed that the address changed to homepage.mac.com/kietc/website.html. The whole process is very similar to the concept of call forwarding.

I am now hosting the entire site on calliesadventures.com, instead of .mac. Now, when you type in calliesadventures.com, you will notice that you remain on the calliesadventures.com domain, not transfered over to homepage.mac.com/kietc.

If you bookmarked our website, it's important that you update your bookmarks with calliesadventures.com, not homepage.mac.com/kietc. Otherwise, you won't received out latest adventures.

Kiet

Kiet

We wish all a happy thanksgiving. During the last two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I was wondering what to share with friends and family on this day of thanks and came up with this.

In my spare moments, I practiced the Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts, on my harmonica and got to the point where one could at least recognize what I was playing. Though my playing is not perfect, the beauty of this hymn is striking and haunting, a perfect expression of this holiday. Jill, Koda, Baby Callies and I are thankful for our simple gifts of your friendship. Happy Thanksgiving.

also available via

Today in History:
11/24 Andrey Zakhvatov born in Chelyabinsk, Russian Federation, 1974
11/24 Lee Harvey Oswald killed by Jack Ruby, 1963
11/24 Anniversary of the New Regime in Zaire
11/24 Scott Joplin born, 1868

Kiet

As a final touch for my 2005 paper crane project, I am asking for your help. I am looking for some high resolution digital photos of cloud formations, sunrises and sunsets, like the one on the left. Awhile back, my father took and sent me this photo, and while reviewing my photo library, I came up with this great idea for my paper crane project. Dad, if you read this, thanks for your contribution.

Don't be shy; please email me your contribution to this neat project. I also ask that you tell me when and where you took the photo. Stay tune for the final product. Thank you for your assistance.


Today in History:
11/22 Kennedy shot in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald, 1963
11/22 Anniversary of Portuguese Aggression in Guinea
11/22 Independence Day in Lebanon
11/22 Saint Cecilia's day (patron saint of music)

Kiet

With more than seven years of plaque build-up, Koda had to be put under today for his teeth cleaning. The day just started out bad for Koda with Jill accidently slamming his tail in the car door on their way to the vet.

Afterward, he was in a world of hurt. The vet had to remove an abscessed front tooth, and he was sent home with two different type of antibiotics.

However, in a couple of days, he should be better for the wear.


Today in History:
11/15 Niagara Falls power plant startup, 1896
11/15 Dynasty Day in Belgium
11/15 Proclamation of the Republic in Brazil
11/15 Thatlouang Festival in Laos

Kiet

I finished rehanging all the older paper cranes.




Today in History:
11/12 Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Birthday in Taiwan
11/12 USA first exports oil to Europe, 1861
11/12 Neil Young is born in Toronto, 1945

Kiet

The original display rack I designed for my daily paper cranes turned out to be too small, so I made a larger one.

One of 2005 resolutions was to make a paper crane for each day of 2005. Here I am with less than two months left in the calendar year, and I am proud to say that I have kept up on this project. It looks good, reminding me that art can be achieved through hard work and simplicity.

Now I have to do is rehang all the cranes I have already made onto the new display.

Kiet

Well, I figured out why iTunes wouldn't download my video. Apparently, Rapidweaver doesn't like spaces in filenames, so I changed the space to an underscore. Bingo that worked.

Again, how to subscribe to my podcast via iTunes is:

Open iTunes (version 4.9 or higher - I highly recommended using the most current version of iTunes)

Bring down the Advanced menu in the top menu bar

Select Subscribe to Podcast...

Enter the RSS feed url of this page: feed://homepage.mac.com/kietc/mysite/News/files/page2.xml

My podcast will appear in your Podcasts as Callies Adventures

As I said before, I really wanted to post this on our seventh wedding anniversary, but one thing lead to another, and I got caught up in other things. I know at our wedding that those who attended the ceremony couldn't hear our vows very well, so, seven years later, I hope this makes up for it.

Kiet

I originally want to publish this on our wedding anniversary. I am attempting my first venture into video podcasting, and I don't think it works.

With the recent introduction of the video iPod, video podcasting is sure to take off. To subcribe to this podcast:

Open up iTunes (4.9 or higher)

Bring down the Advanced menu

Select Subscribe to Podcast...

Enter the RSS feed of this page

My podcast will appear in your subscribed Podcast directory.

Now I can get the podcast to appear in iTunes; however, it is having problems recognizing the video.

Stay tune as I try to get this sorted out . . .

also available via

Kiet

After having Sunday morning breakfast at Mother's Bistro in downtown Portland, one of our favorite restaurants, I was indecisive about what to do for the rest of the day. On one hand, I wanted to go fishing, but on the other, I had plenty to do at home, like finish our deck. Jill pushed me to fish, and I reluctantly accepted.

We got home, and I decided upon the Deschutes River at Mecca Flats, packed the Volvo with my fishing gear and left home at 11:47 AM. I didn't get very far, though.

By the time I got to Gresham, I missed Jill, Koda and Baby terribly and turned the car back around for home. Fishing for such a relatively short period of time was not worth the trade-off.

Kiet

Seven years ago, back in 1998, I married my best friend, and this year marks the beginning of a great adventure as we are expecting our first child.

Kiet