APR-A-3
A DAY THAT BEGINS WITH A GOOD RUN,
FOLLOWED BY COMPLETION OF PAPERWORK,
PRINT AND TV INTERVIEWS, IN AN EXOTIC
SETTING,
COMPLETES THE “WORK WEEK” BEFORE A
OUR PRE-CONFERENCE WORK BEING DONE
I lay in bed thinking of a dozen reasons why I shluld not be getting up to do what I had pre-scheduled, planning a run to start the day. All day yesterday during the command performances of the diplomatic activities, I had not done any exercise that did not involve manipulationg chopsticks and consuming whatever successful transport of the foodstuffs so procured to my mouth. This, of course, is a hazardous activity, if pursued to the exclusion of all others. I had been pleasantly stiff from the exercise of the previous long run, which was longer by virture of my getting lost in the threading myway out of the bambbo forests. It was a good thing that I did so, since I thereby lengtherend the eroun beyond the epoint I would have toruned around which would have been premature to quit. I have at least one race in the next month of 25 K, even if I am not doing the usual famous 26.2 mile run from Hopkiont to Boston for the very first time in a decade or more since I wil be again sitting in a sedentary posiotn earting on a big luxury boat called the Orion—no matter that it is threading its way thorhg one of the great biospheres on planete earth—the Amazon.
So, I thought first of the strangeness of the environment, that I could not ask directions of anyone, and had no map as to orientation of the run, and that I had previously been stretched to a longer run by such an inabilitiy to find my way out of the woods. No problem, I said aloud, juminpg out of bed: “It is time to make tracks,’ I thereby kicked my own backside, running down the well-known road toward the single university gate. I ran toward the road through the villages I had seen last time which so aleremd the people on the bus when the pesidnet pointed out to the disapproving ministers that “this elderly gentleman had run all this way along these narrow roads.” I had been told by Yuth Nimit that the narrow country roads were dangerous since ethe vehicles would not expect a runner, and that several student pedestrians had been struck on the roadways. No problem. I took off through the straight directions out through pineapple fields and saw the first of the peasants with their conical hats and the sashes srawn up over them aand the long sleeves and flowiong gowns and gloves and mansks making them look like Ninja incognitos—but I presume—as I had seen on the street sweepers in Addis Ababa—this extensive cover up is for protection agaist the dust and pollution as well as the insects and the equatorial sun. Almost all the emostorscooter riders are also maxked as are the highway attendants who a roll takers, so that the maskded populace should not be understood as hiding their identities but protecting their internal environments.
There were
very few people up and about except for the occasional fieldworker just
described. In fact, I seemed to be the only one moving when I left the
university gournds at some time after
ROUNDING OUT THE PAPERWORK,
AMID THE BRAVE NEW WORLD OF DIGITAL
DEVICES
I got back to shower up and prepare for the day’s events, having completely written up each of the notes that I would send out with the “book” printed about me. I then opened up the CD that had been made for me, and saw pictures of my lectures taken on the Nikln CoolPix. The Protocaol officer came over to take some additional pictures that would be needed for newspapers andother publicitiy purposes, consisting of Nimit and I conversitng over the book, and going upto the lab just recently equipped with devices about which I am somewhat skeptical—such as energy fields measuerers, the aroma therapy lab, and the meditation room in which the crystals have just been moved to their locations to harness whatever energies they do. I know a few things about the “chakras’---such as the central energy spot in the “pit of your stomach” which is a major locus of many of the meridians and other chakras for which aupunctire is desgined. It is the source of several kinds of energy I do know wome thigs aboput such as the singer must power their voice from below the diaphtragm and there are several plexus responses that seem visceral located around these abdominal anoatomic features. But, I am not suer that the additaion of a microchip containg computer maeks the fundamental principle more believable for me. But at the same time, I have sen recent uses of semiconductors that are also energy concentratoirs which coems out a s maneaoing. I goty to play with the kind of “thumb storage” of the USB port insert, I had seen Edna in Somalilnad carry around her neck as a necklace charm—in which she had 128 MB of memeory and all her files for when she arrived at a hotel room, inw hci she could work without leaving traces of all her files behind..
In the redwood floored meditation orrm I saw large geodes that had been bisected to reveal the large hoolw space with the cryustallzatoin inside. It looked very pretty, and the insides of most of the geodes contained manganese, or whateve results in a purplish hue to the interior. I think they look like great centerpieces or conversation pieces on a mantle, but how they channel energy or are useful in cruystall therapy is osoemthing I would yet have to be convinced by some other evedinece that theye are working.
I went back to have Kwon send off the amilings, and as I was ready to do so, the CoolPix already had come over formteh Presindetn’s office, since a connector pumps over ht digtail files of the photographs just taken She simply plugged it into the USB port on her computer and emailed the photo files. AS I tried to leave a complete set of Power Point slides here, I could not do it on a floppy disc since it was not big enough to hold it. I was ginve a thumb disc which Kwon plugged into the USB port on my laptotp—which fortuatnjely DID start on thei first try today, even if it told me twice that there was no storage cap[acity and my files would not be saved, and I had to shut down and roeboot with the loss of the format of whatever I had starte3d earlier, I got through thiese randome computer glitches. I stored the files I had wanted to send, and asdlsoe got the pictorial recores dodwnloaded to go over to the thumb disc. I must get on eof these to put my Power Point Photos 2002, 3 and 4 together so I would have a very protable set of photo albums—perhaps not on a chain around my neck as I saw on Edna’s chain in Somalailnad, but at least comjpact and portable.
I had a chance to pirnt a number of the images before Kwon took over to later clean up, roatte and reduce and store themin color. My balck and white prints were done just in time for me to include them in the envelopes I had not yet sealed before trying to get them out before trhe next five days of no mail delivery due to the local holiday to honor the ancestors.