keithtom.com

i’ve been a running around a lot the past while but haven’t really made time to update this blog, sorry about that.

gaby returned to columbus yesterday =( and i’m going solo in peru now – nah, not really. i’m staying with her family so this is pretty mild adventure-wise. te quiero mucho mi gatita.

today
I played a pretty sad game of soccer. catastrophic actually. now, let me go through this slowly. I’m not that into soccer, and here in south america it’s kinda of a big deal – no wait, its a test of manliness, which is extremely important here. next, let me also say first, that in north america, I can run a mile in ten minutes and that’s nothing to brag about – but here, literally after 8 seconds of running, you can’t catch your breath because of the altitude (it would happen to you too!).

i dont need to go into the details too much but i can paint the picture that describes the next 30 pitiful minutes. it was a family game – which is another way of saying i was playing with 12 year olds. 12 year olds who live here and like soccer (just a reminder). the real cherry on top was their goalie was a 5 year old child. now let me elaborate on that last point for a bit, because it deceptively increases the difficulty of the game. for someone like me, who has no control over a soccer ball, having a 5 year old goalie is like being the tank driver at tiananmen square. sure i can launch the ball and let it fly in anyway, but I don’t really want to knock the 5 year old in the face. i can imagine myself apologizing in broken spanish to the whole family – it’d look like the stereotypical japanese business man saying ‘excuse me, excuse me’. needless to say, i was giving some pretty girly kicks whenever the opportunity came – not manly at all. our team lost in the end. but even after all that, it was still fun.

I went horseback riding for the second time! the first was last week (pictures coming up). and did a few laps around a track on a 4×4. really fun. now i’m relaxing, trying to kick the last bit of this cough and i’ve picked up the alchemist. i did a poor job of reading here, but i guess it was foolish of me to think i would. i have the feeling the alchemist is going to blow me away. just reading the back and the introduction fills me with excitement. i’ve also been rereading the start of hackers and painters which has been motivating, inspiring and thought-provoking each time (its not just for programmers btw, just anyone interested in technology, which should be everyone since its everywhere anyway). i still haven’t finished it though, i hope it keeps delivering. if i had a must-read-book-list, it’d be on it.

k i’ll start uploading photos of the past couple weeks. much to talk about too, so i’ll probably put them in another blog. but the short version – i really like it here… enough to entertain some thoughts that some would think drastic.