"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

San Pedro Garza Garcia

Category: General Page 1 of 116

Atardeceres en Tejas

Puedes decir que quieres, pero la verdad es que Tejas tiene atardeceres sin par. Lorena tomó ese foto alrededor de Navidad con una luna hermosa y colores increíbles. Es una de las muchas cosas que hemos disfrutado con todo que da durante nuestro tiempo acá. Lo probabilidad es que no vamos a estar acá mucho tiempos mas pero es cierto que lo hemos disfrutado mucho.

Thinking about 2024. Finding a good, big hard thing to do.

I have gone through the exercise of making New Year’s resolutions quite a number of times, but if I ever accomplished any of them, it was not by my own volition with the resolutions in mind. This year, though, I am in a little bit of a unique place in that I (we, really–gratefully including all the friends and family that helped me) have finished something big that I have worked on assiduously for many years. With that complete, there is a little bit of an empty feeling.

As usual toward the end of each year, I called some of the buddies with whom I have worked and do not want to lose touch, but do not have regular contact. With one of them, Andrew B., among other things, we talk about what we are working on–usually big picture items like career and education. This phone call was no different and it really got me realizing that I have no big picture thing at which I am aiming (of course, except the spiritual/religious thing that is way at the forefront of everything I do). But more importantly, it reminded me that my life is always profoundly better if I have something on which to work that is longer term, contributes to society, allows me to work with friends, and that is not particularly easy.

I have been able to identify a few things that I think would be good to do that are in a much smaller category, but that do not really rise to the level of a big, hard, good thing. I am not going to be able to identify that, but am writing this post as a marker to start thinking hard about it. In lieu of that, here is a short list of smaller things that I hope will keep me fruitfully occupied until and if God is willing. Some of it is just aspirational, so writing it down might get me off center to do it.

  • Go to London (because London) and to Madrid (to look at Velazquez paintings in Del Prado)
  • Perform two specific, short-term research projects with my friends at University of Nebraska–Lincoln and publish articles on the research
  • Read some serious books–I have already purchased Richard Bauckham’s “Jesus and the Eywitnesses,” N.T. Wright’s “The Resurrection of the Son of God,” and Michael L. Brown’s five volume set titled “Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus”
  • Setting Lorena up to better manage her house business with her brother Lynn in Mexico
  • Helping Lorena start taking classes she wants to take on pottery, English pronunciation, etc.

I think I have enough to keep me occupied, but want to find something bigger, again, God willing.

Tuna thieves!

This photo is of the same prickly pear cactus as the one from this post yesterday. It was a good thing Lorena stole her two tunas when she did because the next time she went by, all the rest on them were gone!

Thanksgiving camaraderie

Ralph and I do not have all the problems of the world solved yet, but we have made a good start. It is becoming obvious, though, that we will have to take it up again soon–possible in Mexico.

New google street view images

There are new street view images for virtually every house we have ever owned except the one we are in now which is a gated community and they cannot get in. The new images were all taken in 2023. I can hardly believe it. The houses are spread all over the place–Cornelius, Sherwood, and Albany, Oregon, Raleigh, North Carolina, and two houses in San Pedro, Garza García, Nuevo Leon, México. Pretty cool that they continue to update all these street views.

New treadmill book: Targeted by Stephen Hunter

My new book to read while I am on the treadmill arrived yesterday. I got it online from thriftbooks. I am liking them a lot these days. The prices are good and the books arrive fairly quickly. I think they got their start by buying books that public libraries want to sell and putting them on line. This is a lot lighter reading than the first three treadmill books I bought: two historical Jesus books and a weight lifting book. I have read all but a few books this author has written. This is the latest in the Bob Lee Swagger sniper series. The author is getting older, so I do not expect to many more, if any at all.

Treadmill books: Historical Jesus

A couple of books I purchased to read on the treadmill arrived today. I think I will read the one titled “The Historical Jesus, Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ” by Gary Habermas first. Many believe Habermas is the world’s top resurrection scholar (of course that is a religious discussion) and this book comes highly recommended even though I believe it was written for a popular audience and is not peer reviewed.

“Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony” by Richard Bauckham is written at a more scholarly and comes so highly recommended by scholars I trust that I thought I should take a stab at reading it.

PhD update — the committee is formed

It is hard to believe, but my retirement PhD initiative continues to move forward. There are several new advancements. First and foremost is that my committee has been formed. It consists of two top-tier UNL hydrology assistant professors who got their PhD’s from North Carolina State University and Oklahoma State University, a UNL assistant professor of electrical engineering with a PhD from Princeton, a UNL associate professor of biology with a PhD from University of New Mexico, and a Texas A&M electrical engineering full professor with a PhD from Texas A&M. I feel very fortunate to have this committee. I am still hard at work on a journal article (second draft almost done) that we hope to publish before the end of the year. In addition, I have started laying the foundation for a second article similar, but more in depth and extensive than the first.

Time to write again — retirement PhD

Image result for university of nebraska lincoln natural resources logo

I have written for quite awhile, but I think it is time to break the hiatus. Nothing much has changed other than that things have incrementally moved forward. I have finished my application to the University of Nebraska Lincoln for a PhD in Natural Resources. My work will predominantly be dealing with the remote sensing of water scenes with cameras to make hydrological measurements. I have actually started evaluating data and building infrastructure to due systematic analysis of a particular set of images at a highly visible site that I hope to be able to talk about more fully very soon.

In addition, I have just purchase my first textbook to get started on the study of hydrology. The name of the book is Fundamentals of Open Channel Flow. The reality is that I am absolutely clueless about this topic and am very much looking forward to figuring out what it is all about. I look forward to posting more about the pain of learning this material because it certainly looks fairly obtuse and obscure!

Memorial Day 2019

Memorial Day 2019 was perfect. Remembered those in the family and nation who served in the armed forces, went to a potluck with our church group, took naps, ate some steaks. All is well as we move toward summer.

Beansorter: Bean drop gets better


This is Gene’s last past at the bean sorter. He has made huge progress, but there is still a lot to go. He was able to take a few, not so satisfying pictures of dropping beans, but that was due to the weakness of my program, not his work. He has plenty to do, but now the ball is really back in my court.

Bean sorter image capture development software


This is the development GUI for the coffee bean sorter project. I am amazed at how easy it was to develop using the latest version of the Wt libraries. This will allow Gene to istalk pictures of falling beans that I can evaluate to see whether they will be good candidates for analysis and to adjust the lighting and shutter times.

Kiwi: Annual shots

Lorena took Kiwi to Petco this morning for her annual shot and de-worming. I use the word annual very loosely here because Kiwi has not been for awhile. She was amazing better behaved than in past years and the vet said she was healthy. Lorena was even able to let her run free in the car on the drive to Olympia instead of in her pet carrier. After she arrived at the store, she did fine in Lorena’s arms for quite awhile, but eventually needed to be put in the above cardboard box while she waited her turn. She is healthy, but old and has gotten very skinny–enough so they had to take three jabs at her for the vaccination because she did not have enough meat to make it easy. We do not think she will be around much longer, but who knows, we have been wrong about that before.

Niggling malaise over New Year’s reflections

Usually I do not feel the sense of malaise that is my current frame of mind at the seeing in of a New Year, but reminders of the nature of man can start to get in the way of progress. That is especially true when one realizes their nature is susceptible to the same defects as those that caused the current jaded outlook. Still, I must say that I am grateful for what I have in this life and the hope I have for the next one. I will just list a few of the things, good, bad, and indifferent, that are happening as we move toward 2019. First and foremost, we are healthy and free to pursue our dreams more than any time in our memory. The kids are making it on their own and progressing in ways that would make any parent grateful.

Second, the malaise comes out of a desire to do something good. Desiring the good is, of course, not the problem. The problem is figuring out how to partner with others of good will who have a world view, work ethic, and level of passion similar to your own. Right now I am contributing to three projects where there is a fairly large disconnect in at least one of those areas. This has given me pause so I am taking a few days to reflect on where I really want to go as my career winds down and “retirement approaches.”

This my first post since I decided to take the ChapmanKids blog private. It will allow me additional freedom to discuss things about which I have been reticent to write in the past. Frankly, that is a relief.

Election news

We live in interesting times. The most notable non-presidential election of my lifetime is scheduled to take place this coming Tuesday. I am not wildly involved in any of this, but like to know what is going on. I do not trust any of the traditional news sources–we have not subscribed to a paper and ink newspaper for a couple of decades now and we do not have a television. That leaves the internet and, to a much lesser extent, the radio. Fortunately, I think it is possible figure out what is going on better than any time in my lifetime. I will continue to depend on non-traditional news sources and continue to vet my current sources at the same time I look for new ones.

Caldo and home made bread

The fall (the only good thing about Halloween) is when caldo and home made bread season starts in the Chapman household. Really, it has only been the caldo season for the last few years since our bread machine broke. Caldo is beef stew. I grew up eating wonderful beef stew made by my mother, but the Mexican version that Lorena makes has a special punch. In Mexico, it is common to put short pieces of corn on the cob in the stew. That adds incredible taste to both the stew and the corn on the cob. Now that Lorena has a KitchenAid mixer, she has been on a home made bread kick so now it is no longer just caldo. She has made the bread twice, but has not yet got the yeast quantity right, so the bread has been a little flat. She thinks she has the yeast thing figured out now so I have high expectations for the next batch.

Fancy business cards

I am in Boston right now and am in a great mood. Three good things happened since I got here. First, I found the fanciest business cards I have ever had on my desk when I got in to work work this morning. They are on thick card stock with die-cut corners, full color. I hate to give these things away. Even the box they came in is a keeper. Second, when I arrived at the hotel last night, they asked me what I wanted for my Platinum Marriott membership. I had not realized that I had spent enough time in the Marriott Residence Inn in Prescott, Arizona that I am now a lifetime platinum member of Marriott which makes getting what I want on my stays here way easier. The third thing was that when I asked about the workout facility for the hotel at the desk at the Marriott this morning, they told me they did not have one in the hotel, but I have privileges to use the world class workout facility a half a block away. It has a beautiful Olympic size swimming pool and just amazing workout facilities. I am going to try it out tonight and Lorena is going to love it.

Day trip to SFO

I took this picture sitting at the gate in PDX to catch an early morning flight to SFO. It is a day trip. I am one of those guys that feels uncomfortable not getting to the airport at least a couple of hours early. Consequently, I spend a lot of time like this–sitting in an uncomfortable seat attempting to get some work done on a screen that is small enough that I either cannot see the text or, if I make the font bigger, do not have enough screen real estate to do meaningful work. I have hope this will all come to an end in only a handful of years, but I have been wrong before. Maybe I will have cause to travel in retirement or just need/want to keep on working.

Washington apple harvest

Lorena checked the apples in our trees in the back yard and found that we probably could have (should have) been harvesting them for a couple of weeks now. She bought herself the business end of an apple picker pole and attached it to the end of the very long pole, Carolyn C. give to her as a gift about a decade ago. I have to tell you that has been about the most useful gift she has ever gotten. She has used it for a gazillion things and now it is receiving double duty both for apples and dusting of very high places. Now she is a state of high applesauce production mode. We need to get Bob over here soon because we have entirely too many of them. I think the pruning we had our yard crew perform in February really did the trick. So far we have gotten peaches (crazy sweet), pears–really small, but tasty, and now the apples. We really need to get set up to put a garden in which mostly just means we need to level out a spot, put up a really high fence to keep out the deer, and maybe put in a raised bed.

Grandpa Milo’s 89th birthday

Grandpa Milo the Dandy wearing a flower and white shoesToday would have been Grandpa Milo’s 89th birthday. He was an exceptional father and an exceptional man. Every man has his flaws, but Grandpa Milo was always kind and pulled out all the stops when he saw a need. He and Grandma Sarah both truly had a heart for the underdog. It is nice to remember him and to be thankful to God for such a father.

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