I worked for most of yesterday; hammered out a variety of data formats needed for all the new systems… It's actually a really fun mental game for me figuring out how to make simple (read: fast) systems perform powerful and complex acts. I think people will be very happy with the upgrades.
We didn't get ourselves over to St. Lucia, but we did end up in Montserrat today which was an amazing experience… A few years ago, after 4000 years of silence Montserrat blew its top and is now an active volcano — and just two weeks ago its 3700 foot (or something like that) lava dome blew so we got to fly into its smoking innards. I took lots of pictures of the volcano, the lava flows, and of all the destroyed cities — thousands of people had to relocate (they'll be posted when I return; this is just a kiosk).
When I first got down here I didn't really like it much; mostly due to lack of infrastructure and things being done in a way that I just thought was “backwards” for lack of a better term. I'm starting to “get it” more now and am really starting to like it; love it even. My leg is killing me due to the humidity but the people here are just so wonderful… We get some dirty looks from white tourists, but the local population is so friendly, and never asks us “hostile” questions about our mods — just genuine and fascinated open interest. It's a very positive change.
Tomorrow is our last full day here (we'll be back Sunday, and Saturday is a day that's mostly transit) and Rachel and I are going out to a reef for snorkling… I had so much fun swimming with the stingrays and the dolphins that I'm very much looking forward to it — even though I'll shamefully admit here that I have an almost pathological fear of drowning brought on by years of recurring nightmares that water was from an alien planet and was a gateway to “their” world (and thank you very much to my friend Erebli for getting me reading Sitchin which has heighted my paranoia there!).
What did Melville say? “Beneath those stars is a universe of gliding monsters…” Now, does that reveal my weakness for Melville, or for Star Trek? Or for Iron Maiden…? Anyway, I'll try and make a post tomorrow night. I hope everything is going well back on the mainland. I hear the Terminator is taking over America.
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