Nowhere in Africa

I just finished watching "Nowhere in Africa," a film about a Jewish-German family's escape and adjustment to life on a Kenyan farm on the dawn of WWII. This movie just works on so many levels.

The wife's initial haughty treatment of her African neighbors is almost comical given her own escape from persecution as a Jew in Nazi Germany.
The longing of natives pushed out of their land by European colonialists is perfectly captured by a Swahili parable told by the foreman of the farm: "If someone steals your cow, you will never find it because it is eaten. If someone steals your land, it is still there, always looking back at you."

These compelling stories and stunning cinematography brought back memories from my short stay in Namibia of raw beauty and tribulation. I believe any man is changed once he's set foot in Africa. Watching this film is a worthy substitute.

San Diego Fires

Luckily, the inland winds have given way to ocean breeze and San Diego can finally begin to recover from this catastrophic conflagration. Although the coastal community where I live, La Jolla, was not directly affected by the fires, everyone in the County has been touched in one way or another.

A colleague of mine's neighborhood was evacuated and I had the opportunity to do my small part in housing him until he could return home. At Scripps Mercy Hospital, where I am currently on medicine wards, we absorbed some of the patients from another hospital which had been evacuated. At the same time, I've admitted a lot of patients for asthma/COPD exacerbations secondary to all the smoke and ash in the air. Although many of them quickly felt better after they got started on medications and the clean hospital air, we unfortunately won't be able to discharge them until the air clears up. In fact, the air quality got so poor, at one point, I got a headache just by walking three blocks outside.

I haven't had the time or foolhardiness to drive to the fire lines for pictures, however, the local News8 TV channel has set up a Flickr site to share user submitted pictures. Feel free to check it out.

Texas

In the beginning of October, I went to visit my old college roommate in Houston, with a sidetrip to San Antonio. It was my first time in Texas and I have to admit I went with some preconceived notions, not all of which were positive.

What I found was:

1. Heat and humidity. Although not necessarily worse than Taiwan.

2. Very localized, sudden rainstorms. You can be driving on the highway and get hit by a drenching downpour and 2 minutes later, emerge onto some sunlight and dry asphalt. Weird.

3. Cheap gas. At least $0.5 less than San Diego.

4. Lots of SUVs (see #3).

5. Laid back atmosphere

6. Respectful, friendly people, some of whom have a nice drawl. As a Coloradan, I always thought the Texas accent sounded funny, but in the native land, it seems to add flavor to the big country

A gallery of photos can be found here.

Mod My Car

After living in California for just 2 yrs, I've begun to rice out my car.
Well not exactly, but I did install a strut bar on my 2000 Camry the other day. A strut bar is an aluminum bar which keeps the front wheel suspension towers at a fixed distance, increasing chassis rigidity, reducing roll and tire wear, leading to more precise steering.
My Camry had a severe understeer problem, meaning I had to start the turn before I actually reached a curve on the road, which I partially blame for a spinout from overcorrection during a snowstorm a few years ago. Now the steering is so much more responsive and I can even make high-speed turns without that "high-G" feeling. The only caveat is slightly more road noise now from the increased rigidity.
Now all I need is a giant spoiler and chrome mufflers :-) Just kidding, this mod was totally done in the name of automotive safety. If you ever catch me truly ricing out my car, you have my permission to slap me.

The Written Record

It is fitting that my first real blog post comes on the day I went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the San Diego Natural History Museum. A small set of them are currently on loan from the Israel and Jordan Antiquities Authorities along with contextual artifacts such as the clay pots that housed these delicate pieces of goat skin for close to 2000 years! I was surprised by the size of the scrolls, not one is taller than my fingerspan although some are more than one feet in length, each containing more than a dozen rows of carefully hand-scribed, fading Hebrew. The words of the Ten Commandments seem to cling to the desert parchment like tumbleweed, in danger of being obliterated by the winds of time. Yet even to a gentile like me, coming across the four dots symbolizing the Hebrew God's name made me pause, just as it did for that ancient scribe. At that moment, I understood the universal power of the written word.