Friday, Mar.19. What did you do on “three, nineteen” 2010? Another birthday has come bouncing and weaving around...again. Dave's special day. He's still tired from the exertions of the previous day's bike trip, and plans a quiet one. But it's a lovely fine early morning...no resting on his laurels t'day...and so he convinces himself by necessity to go out and take some 'good-light' photos...at the historic 'Agung' mosque on the main street, built around the 1780s, Dave thinks...by the Sultan of Sumenep, King of Madura. Dave's fotos turn out well on the whole. This is the story then...out early in the morning and in the late afternoon on pfoto expeditions from now on. Forget that middle-of-the-day exhausting stuff. To the Kraton the Sultan had built and the impressive edifices of the Royal cemetery, Asta Tinggi, up on the hill to the west behind the town. Must've been quite a guy. Sumenep must've been doing well economically in those days as an ally of the Central Javanese sultanates who had taken over from earlier Hindu, Borobodur rulers.
On the 57th anniversary of his birth, Dave does the housekeeping. How mundane. He washes his clothes and shaves etc. He's got no shoes he can shine though. And he plans. He visualizes 'off to Kalimantan' next, in the coming weeks as the best bet. But today, he wants some techno-good luck in opening another g.mail address to start a blog. No, no laurel-resting t'day. By the end of the afternoon, he has had surprising success...considering the ridiculously slow pace of the public internet that he accesses from the KFC-style place on the square.
Dave has near-success with the first try at opening a blog but blows it by making a typo with the url address. This he corrects this later on in an evening session in the dark of the park. Amazing here in Sumenep in the park...people with laptops...no fear of muggings or theft! So eventually: daveinsoutheastasia is born, at 57 years old I suppose you could say. Dave doesn't realize the work ahead. An invisible fly on the wall notices that Dave has some 'moments' with the laptop in the park, though. Takes all his concentration...interruptions not tolerated. He rudely ignores an inquisitive country family who are excitedly showing their kids a foreigner...and a laptop. Dave hasn't got it all sussed. There's some stuff he can't work out, like how to upload to it. But he's on the right track when he rationalizes that this is not about his ineptness, but rather the tenuous, tediously-slow local internet connection. It's free.
The other techy thing Dave did on his special day was to check out the voice-recorder on his phone because it would be good to have some audio to put his pfotos to. It works but each time it's put into a new file...and he can't work out how to change this...a mere insignificant unsuccessful detail on March 19, 2010.And of course, his lack of computer savvy must've got him through...just follow the instructions! 'Hey, tick these off buddy' venting his happiness at being alive. G.mail addresses/check; blogspot/check; emails done/check.