[NTLK] Holiday aloha from the Dunn family

It's time again for our annual family xmas photo, and in keeping with
tradition it is nothing like a "normal" family portrait. The link goes
to my Flickr account, where you can read my comment. To see the full
sized version, click on "All Sizes." If you don't already have a Flickr
account you can get a basic one for free and add your own comment.
Recommended.

<http://www.flickr.com/photos/garydunn808/3134476422/>

I hope you have not been hit too hard by the roller coaster economy.
Matt felt the effect when the really cool dream job he landed as a game
designer at Upper Deck in San Diego fell through at the last minute due
to a sudden hiring freeze. Soon afterwards he got word they had started
laying off people. So, he is still at home.

Mike is still at home, too, working towards an art degree. He just
finished a sculpture class so our house has even more of his work. One
bookshelf got so full it broke; I spent all of yesterday fixing it.

Both boys are avid online gamers, and this year have focused almost
exclusively on World of Warcraft. I am always amazed how many people
participate in the raids; all those characters in the scene are real
people located anywhere in the world. Mike even uses live voice chat.

Pattie and I still spend Saturday afternoons playing with the Hawaii
Gamelan Ensemble. Our concert on December 6th was extra nice; I even got
to drum one piece! You can see some pictures here:

<http://www.gamelan.hawaii.edu/prgrm-08dec/08dec-pics.html>

That's Pattie in the purple kabaya (of course!) helping the dancer get
dressed. You can find me playing drum in the first photo of the set by
Penny. No audio clips available yet, but you can find two short excerpts
from our previous concert on the Who We Are page.
<http://www.gamelan.hawaii.edu/who_we_are.html>

Pattie is still working with Ric at the Center for South-East Asian
Studies at UH Manoa, doing good things managing grants, advising
students, and keeping Ric organized.
<http://www.hawaii.edu/shaps/asia/> She has gotten involved with cycling
advocacy, participating on several community planning committees and
working as a ride leader for the Red Hot Ladies, a cycling club for
women over 50. We did fifty miles at this year's Honolulu Century Ride,
and once again volunteered for the Honolulu Marathon clock start team.
Just like last year it rained at the start, and on the ride home we got
soaked. We're so old that we went home and got cleaned up before going
out for breakfast.

I am still with the Army. I still commute to work by bike whenever I
can, but my life has gotten too complicated to allow me to ride every
single day. My Lotus is running great -- I drove it to the British Car
Club of Hawaii Christmas Party last Sunday.
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/garydunn808/sets/481137/>

The BMW 3.0 (a.k.a. E9) is a work in progress. It has taught me a lot
about POR-15 and MIG welding. I hope to have it done before I retire,
but sometimes I wonder. <http://e9erust.blogspot.com/>

Somehow I still manage to find time to work on the Open Slate Project. I
recently purchased a Fujitsu T1010 tablet PC to develop software, and am
documenting the process on the project's wiki. Earlier in the year I
picked up a Newton eMate to study how it incorporates the Newton
philosophy in a laptop design. Apple was definitely ahead of its time.
<http://www.openslate.net/> <http://wiki.openslate.net/>

Last but not least is our cat situation. In July our old cat Squeaker
came down with a urinary tract infection which landed me in the vet ER
the night of July 4th. Turns out she is diabetic, so I have to give her
insulin injections twice a day. She is doing fine. Around the same time
we were adopted by a young stray cat, which we have named Tikus
(Indonesian for mouse). Mike has taken on the task of caring for her.
Squeaker still growls at Tikus, so Squeaker's territory is the
downstairs and Tikus's territory is upstairs and the front door. For the
last few days she has attracted another stray, a black cat with gold
eyes. So far I have refused to feed it ... but hey, it's Christmas, and
I'm not a Bah Humbug sort of guy.

For those of you who do New Year's at Ric's I'm sure we will be there
New Year's Eve. Hope to see you there. In any case, all the best!

-- 
Gary Dunn, Honolulu
osp@aloha.com
http://openslate.net/
http://e9erust.blogspot.com/
Sent from Slate 1
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