I know I said I would put a video of the house tour up next, but I lost that video so instead you get more video of the baby

Lori shared with you a while ago that we have been showing the Signing Time series in the village to teach English and Sign Language to the Akha children. Well, it turns out that Abi loves the movies as much as anyone, especially the theme song.

Back at home she will watch it over and over, dancing and “signing” as she deems appropriate.

We put a video together of her dancing, but that’s really all it is. So unless you are a grandparent, family member, friend or stalker that really wants to watch the baby for three minutes, it will be pretty dull for you. All of you can go check out a slightly more interesting video.

For those of you who are still on this page, here’s Abi!

Isn’t she cute?

Motherhood can sure do a number on your self image. It’s not that I feel ugly, it’s just that I don’t really feel pretty! Most of the time I couldn’t tell you the last time I had proper shower. My clothes almost always have some baby related stain and now that Abi has entered an extremely “grabby” stage, it seems that every time I see myself in the mirror, my hair is no longer in a tidy and smooth pony tail, but a frazzled mess! I’m really not complaining, I’m just stating the facts: A mom’s life is not glamorous!

So, Thanks Mister Italian-guy for thinking I’m pretty; it made my day!

hat tip: ChuckzBlog II

I just ran across this page at Hotelchatter.com listing the Top Five Geek Hotels in the World. While I can totally respect the LOTR and StarWars hotel inclusions, I have to say that the Hotel @ MIT has to take the cake. Yes, I assert that it is even geekier than the number one ranked istudio at the Tribecca Grand, because, as we all know, the kings of all geeks are the engineers. I mean, the MIT blankets have equations on them and there are chemistry cartoons in the bathrooms; seriously, that is hard-core geeky.

Let me clarify, lest you misunderstand me. In the past, the term “geeky” may have been understood as an insult, but in recent years, geeks of the world have become decidedly cool. I became acquainted with the utter coolness of geeks during my college years when I spent most of my free-time with engineers from the Colorado School of Mines Campus Crusade for Christ group. It was then that I began my personal journey towards geekiness and developed the geek-envy that still plagues me to this day.

Back in those Crusade days, my geeky friend, Andy Engdahl, used to wear a t-shirt that had a message on the front written in binary code. My gullible and curious nature always got the best of me, forcing me to ask him what it said, only to be reminded that it said “You are stupid.” A classic geek joke! I mention it because that shirt, like the Hotel @ MIT, remind me that there are some things in this world that I will never fully appreciate because I am just not geeky enough (read smart enough!) However, I take solace in the fact that at least I can recognize something that should be appreciated (even if I myself can not!)

Finally, on a completely different note, a blog entitled “Geek Envy” simply cannot conclude without mentioning my good friend Molly Stanberry.

In the past year, Molly’s geek levels have far surpassed mine, making her my newest object of envy! Not only is she a female gamer (a title earning much reverence in the geek community), but she has a super-cool vidcast and is quickly becoming a sought after expert in the WoW community. Molly, I watch your vidcasts and am in awe of your nifty WoW lingo and video editing skills, but I fear that you have joined the ranks of things which I cannot fully appreciate because I’m just not geeky enough!

Dragostea Din Tei is a Romanian pop-song that came out a few years ago; I don’t know if it ever became popular in America, but we hear it everywhere in Thailand. If you don’t know it by it’s proper name, you’ve probably heard it called the “Numa Numa Song”. You can hear the song at the O-Zone MySpace page . By the way, if you’re curious about what the lyrics mean, you can find the “real” translation by clicking here.

Since we’ve gotten to the field, I’ve become one of those people that devours books, especially what Paul and I call “candy books” or books that are just for fun. Lately I’ve been reading the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series, by Douglas Adams. It originally started out as a British radio comedy program in the 70′s, quickly progressing to the book format, then becoming a British TV program in the 80′s. Just recently, it was made into a movie. The story centers on Arthur Dent, an Earthman, who’s planet was casually demolished to make way for an interstellar by-pass. What follows are his adventures traveling through space with only the pajamas on his back and a towel to his name, meanwhile encountering all sorts of odd things (like the space ship powered by Bistro mathematics) and narrowly escaping horrible fates against all probability. This British comedy series is a must-read for any sci-fi nerd or sci-fi nerd wanna be!

From the other end of the galaxy, literarily speaking, of course, comes another book I just finished. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers is a re-telling of the Book of Hosea set in the California Gold Rush of the 1850′s. Sold into prostitution as an orphaned child , Angel’s hardened heart is patiently and lovingly restored through her unexpected marriage to pioneer-farmer Michael Hosea. In the past, I’ve avoided romance novels (unless you count classic romances like Pride & Prejudice), thinking that all contemporary romance novels were either trashy or unintelligent; neither of which I was interested in reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book was neither. It was written with the skill of an award winning author, and told a beautiful, honest love-story without sullying the mystery of intimacy. While this book is marketed to women, Rivers captures the male character so amazingly well, I think that either sex will be entertained and edified by this book. Hope you get a chance to pick it up!

Anyway, my last post reminded me about another funny language compilation. I say “funny”, but I’m sure that if I were learning English I would call it “infuriating!” All these homonyms make me wonder how the English language has made it all these years without tones to differentiate between them. See for your self…

A few of my favorite are:

I love these things! Does that make me a total nerd? Oh well!