Jake goes to León, México

February192012

Accomplishment #5: 117) Lord of the Rings marathon

On three consecutive nights, my dad an I have watched the three Lord of the Rings movies. I have seen the first one more than the other two because it is easy to get worn out by their length and not complete the set. Nonetheless, they are better when watched back-to-back-to-back. There were things that became a little annoying in sequence though, mostly the trend of characters being left for dead, only to actually survive. Within one movie it isn’t overkill — haha — but in sequence it gets to be too much. The type of fantasy where everything always works out is kind of nice right now though. I guess that’s why it is so enjoyable; we wish our own lives always worked out as planned. My lesson learned this time is simple: I’m really excited for “The Hobbit” to come out.

September172010

Mexico City photos (part 2)

Once again, there are a lot of photos here.

That’s the view from our hotel room one night.

Snaks anyone?

This is the shopping center next to our hotel.

One night we got Chinese food at Luau, the next at PF Chang’s.

Our hotel room.

That is quite possibly my favorite picture from all of Mexico.

There was a “parade” of sorts. They closed off the central boulevard to everybody except Bicyclists and Skaters, and such.

Some of the bikes were really fun.

The entrance to Chapultepec.

Lot’s of people are spending the day in the “Central Park of Mexico”.

That is a trash bin made out of trash.

Somebody must have stolen that cart!

That’s lake Chapultepec and Pico de Orizaba, I think.

The storm is moving in.

This is inside Chapultepec castle.

This one is not politically correct, even if it is historically correct.

That’s on the ceiling. There is some story about it, but this isn’t the time for it.

I wasn’t supposed to take a photo. Ooops.

Some guys are clowning around.

I will see if I have anything else that I want to upload. I don’t know when I will get around to that though. So consider this the end (with the potential of an after-the-credits-bonus). That was in Mexico.

September162010

Mexico City photos (part 1)

I don’t know exactly which photos I have already uploaded from Mexico City, but here are a bunch:

That is where we stayed one night

That is the economic center. The “Wall Street” of Mexico.

A park bench made out of large cards

Sopa Azteca. Essentially a very spicy tortilla soup.

People gathering around the window outside to peer in during a soccer match.

This is outside the tolerance museum. It is directed hatred towards the president.

Ice cream.

A performer in Chupultepec Park.

Notice anything strange? Here’s a closer look:

He has a crank music box, and he is begging for change.

This was during the world cup.

People got tired after the games.

These flags are HUGE.

That’s a line for McDonald’s.

That’s a line for the bank. Some people can’t handle the line.

Happy Bicentennial Mexico! (Part 2 will come tomorrow)

August192010

Recovery and waiting

Now that I am done with the presentation, there is not so much to do. Three of the housemates went home. I was sick all day on Tuesday. I have already bought so much stuff that I know I will have to throw something out. With all that, I still don’t really have any desire to see anything else in Mexico. I’m glad that I was here, but I will be even more glad once I get back to Tucson. Today I turned in the office key and Saturday I turn in the house key.

I am going to check through the old posts because I think that I only posted a few of the photos from Mexico City. If there are still more, I will keep posting some. Also, I am pretty sure that there are some videos of stuff like bus stations, which I don’t know if I have posted. In any case, there will probably be a trickle of posts coming in the future, but the trip and the blog are both mostly completed.

Some of the CIO kids bought a present for one of my housemates that is already back in the USA. I had our program assistant help model it today and I quickly snapped a picture with my phone. Consider this a final little treat (before the potential epilogue):

August152010

Presentation tomorrow

It is crunch time right now, which is why I haven’t updated much this week. We have our big end-of-summer presentation tomorrow. I am presenting on a device that is supposed to be a corneal topographer, but does not provide a topographic map, only a general curvature. None of the technologies we looked at seem very promising. In the case of my product, I am just presenting on why it should not be brought to market. Despite all the work that we put in this summer, virtually none of it will actually be used.

August102010