Random Thoughts

This is the first house I’ve ever lived in that has had a 2-car garage. And I have to say, it’s amazing. Take today for example. I needed to change the oil in the CR-V and decided to Accord as well. Now, I’ve been changing my own oil for a long, long time. But it’s always been a hassle. Gravel driveways, wind, uneven surfaces, not having everything close at hand. Always a problem.

But not today! I changed the oil, in the middle of winter and didn’t freeze. I didn’t spill oil all over the tarmac. I didn’t get oil all over myself. I was done with each car in under 20 minutes. It was great! It was almost fun!

Afterward, I put some more things away and organized more of my tools. It’s so nice to have a place to put my stuff and keep it clean. I’m totally diggin’ it. And when I crank up the kerosene heater, it’s not even that cold.

So there you go, an ode to my garage. I can’t wait to buy a house. Then I can insulate and put up walls on the inside of my garage. Then it will be even better!

Happy New Year!

Warning: Rant Coming. Additional Warning: Geek Content Follows

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was sometime in the summer of 1999. I was sitting in my office reading through the latest issue of TV Technology. I came across an article discussing the FCC’s decision to shut down analog TV and switch the country over to digital. While I thought this was an answer to a question no one was asking, my heart sank when I turned the page to the newly christened “Acceptable ATSC Broadcast Formats” chart. It was bureaucrats in their finest hour (if you can define “finest hour” as completely fouling up a simple process). There before me in black and white were not one; not two; heck, not even six acceptable formats; instead there were a possible 36 formats broadcasters could broadcast in and meet the new guidelines. 36! Are you kidding me?

Now, I’m not a huge fan of NTSC, our current system. It’s low on resolution, and the color space is a bit screwy, but at least it was a standard and everyone knew what the targets were. Now we have 36 formats that will “work,” which means we have chaos.

I’ve not paid much attention to it until recently. Originally, analog TV was supposed to be shut of several years ago. But with no financial incentive to spend $10-12 million refitting their stations, broadcasters were slow to adopt the new “standards.” Thus the deadline has been pushed back twice. In roughly a year, however, analog TV will be shut down and digital will take over. The reason that I now care is that I just bought a nice, big screen hi-def TV. And I now find myself frustrated with the incredible lack of standardization. To wit:

Each of 5 major networks in the Twin Cities (PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS & Fox) broadcasts a dizzying array of formats. PBS has 2 “channels” (2.1 and 2.2). One is wide screen hi-def all the time and the other is a mashup. The other four broadcast some stuff in 16×9 (wide screen) hi-def, others in 4:3 (standard) hi-def, still others in 4:3 standard-def and some in 4:3 letterboxed standard def. The last one is the most aggravating. By sending a 4:3 signal to my 16:9 TV, I get black bars on the sides. By sending a letterboxed 4:3 image, I get black bars on the sides and top, which gives me a small little 16:9 image in the middle of my 16:9 big screen!

I was really stoked to watch some of my favorite shows in hi-def. CSI: Miami is known for it’s slick cinematography, so that should look great in hi-def right? Sure, except it’s not wide screen! Some of the major network shows are not even in hi-def yet.

Then there are the various hi-def formats. Some networks are in 1080i. Others are 720p. And don’t even get me started on the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray debate (though that’s technically not the FCC’s fault). It’s all a big, jumbled up mess.

Now, normally I’m in favor of the consumer having a choice. I have decried my lack of choice in cable providers since I got here. I like being able to pick my components. However, there are still a lot of VCRs with 12:00 still flashing out there. How is the average consumer to sort all this out? I’ve been in the professional video production biz for 15 years and it’s confusing to me!

Because the broadcasters were given a choice, they generally chose the cheapest route to compliance. Production companies don’t know how their hard work will be shown, so they often don’t know how to format it. Programming is scaled up and and down, letter boxed and pillar boxed and processed within an inch of it’s digital life. And don’t even get me started on audio-video sync!

So what’s the end result? The government makes a ton of cash selling off the old analog broadcast space. Consumer (and pro) electronics makers make a ton of cash selling new equipment. Politicians get re-elected (thanks to generous donations from said manufacturers), and the consumer gets screwed. Bureaucracy at it’s finest!

Here’s what the FCC should do: Shut off analog TV in 2009 like they said they would. Then mandate a common broadcast format to go into effect by 2012. Pick a good one, say 1080i 16:9 5.1 surround (or if you want to save bandwidth, go 720p—it really doesn’t matter to most viewers). If it’s going to be broadcast on your main channel, it needs to fit those specs. If you want to use other channel allocations for other stuff, it can be whatever you want. But the main channel better be that.

If the government is going to make us go out and buy all new TVs, ostensibly for an “upgrade,” then we darn well better get an upgrade. Not some up-converted NTSC stretcho-crap on our nice new hi-def screens.

Instead, we have the classic “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help!” They could have actually improved TV quality (well, from a technical standpoint anyway—there’s still Survivor to contend with…). Instead, we get the Titanic.

On the other hand, complaining about TV seems trivial when you consider that millions of people don’t have access to clean water.

End of rant. More happy news coming with my next post.

Today was the first of a four-day weekend for me. And it costs me no vacation time. This is really nice. It was a pretty good, if not unusual week. Sunday I went in to work to set up and program lights for Christmas Eve. John, my lighting guy, works at a school that owns some sweet moving lights (Martin Mac 700s for the geeks in the audience) and is really good at programming them. After a few hours we were set and ready to go.

Monday was Christmas Eve, which meant set up and prep for a 2 PM service, head home to do some final shopping, then back for a Midnight gathering. It was a long day, but a lot of fun. Wednesday-Friday were pretty quiet. I went in to the office and got some stuff done that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. My office is now more organized, and I finally set the lights up the way I want them in the Sanctuary (at least for now until I change out the board).

Today, Denise’s mom came in from Cleveland. Here flight was delayed, but she arrived safe and sound. It’s good to have someone here to share our new house. I spent some time after dinner working on a new tutorial for my church tech arts blog and go to video chat with Jake, one of my friends from Crosswinds. Since he was playing bass this weekend, I also got to say hi to a few other folks in the green room. Ain’t technology great?

We’ve gotten a bit more snow this week, and my neighbor came over and blew out my driveway. Everything is white and pretty. Looks like winter should look. One side benefit of it being cold here is that the snow stays on the trees (especially the evergreens) for a long time. It’s just so Norman Rockwell.

Last weekend, we finally went out and bought an antenna for the TV since getting any kind of satellite or cable seems to take forever up here. Turns out DirecTv can’t get a clear shot at their birds from our yard, so we’re stuck with Comcast (alternately known as Comcrap). They were supposed to come out on Monday to hook us up, but they had a bad batch of cable cards so they couldn’t. At some point I will write my rant on Comcast and the state of HDTV in general. We also ended up buying a Tivo and getting the Tivo service, which is just great. Far superior to anything the cable companies ever thought of. Not cheap, but worth it.

Now that we’ve been able to watch some true hi-def content, the new TV looks awesome. I watched a story on PBS on speed week out on the Bonneville Salt Flats that made me feel like I was there (and I was once, so I know what it looks like). We Tivo’d Madagascar in hi-def and it was just stunning. And The Tonight Show never looked so good. Having watched a bunch of standard-def movies on it, I’m very impressed. The size is great for our room, and we really feel like we’re in a theater watching. Very fun.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to CPC’s contemporary service. Denise has wanted to go for a while, and since we don’t have Upper Room this weekend (yeah!) we figured it was a good day to do so. Plus Marty will get to see the church and my office and all that. Plus I want to see exactly what they are doing for their services so I can start planning upgrades.

Well, I think it’s time to end this rambling post. Since I have some time off, I’ll try to get some non-newsy stuff up here, just for fun. Peace.

Well, it’s almost over. The magic of Christmas Day, 2007. It was a quiet day for us. Upper Room hosted a Midnight service last night (or was it early this morning?), so I didn’t get home and in bed until almost 3 AM. At 9, Denise came in and said the girls were in the living room looking sad, so it was time to get up. I did and it was time to open presents.

We had a fun time doing that and afterward, made up some breakfast burritos, a new tradition. Katie and Robyn both got new clothes, so they modeled for us afterward. This afternoon, Katie and I watched the first part in our 3-day Bourne extravaganza, The Bourne Identity. Tomorrow it will be Supremacy, followed by Ultimatum on Thursday. We talked with family and friends and worked together to make dinner. Each of us picked something we wanted to have, and built the menu around that. It was a good meal for all. Finally, we topped the night off watching The Pursuit of Happiness. It was a good, if not somewhat long (and a little depressing at times) film.

It started snowing around 1 PM, and continues as of right now (10:50 PM). Looks like my exercise will consist of shoveling tomorrow morning! I found myself thinking this afternoon that I feel like we’re home. For all the time we lived in that small apartment in Canandaigua, I never felt “home.” I mean, we knew it was going to be temporary, and it was a fine place to live and all, but it never felt like home. Sitting here, looking out our nice big picture window, watching the snow fall over the trees, it feels like home. I’m really hoping this is where God has us for a while (in this city, not necessarily renting this house), and that in addition to unpacking our stuff, we can also unpack our lives.

Last week I was asked to share my story before the whole CPC/Upper Room staff (about 80 overall). As I pondered what I would say, I marveled at the journey I’ve been on. Each step has been significant and without each one, the next would not have been possible. There is no way I could have planned this, only God knew what was possible. God has used so many people like tools in the hands of a sculptor to shape who I have become, and I am deeply grateful. In many ways, I feel like a kid starting school all over again; there is so much to learn and so many possibilities.

I could go on, but it’s late and I need to get to bed. I’ll give you a peak into what Christmas morning looks like at our house. Visit here…

Happy Christmas!

Yo, dog; Peace out, yo. Mike chillin’ and looking tight in the new hoodie. Maybe now Katie will think he’s cool.

Well we’ve now been here for 3 weeks. It seems like a lot longer, to tell you the truth. I don’t know if it’s because each day is so full, or if I’m really settling in. The job is great; it fits like an Italian suit. Each day is a reminder that I am perfectly positioned in my new profession. The people that I work with are a unique lot. Everyone is so different, yet there is a sense that we are all in this together, no matter what. I am continually impressed with how much the entire staff is dedicated to the success of others. The support is great.

I am enjoying the schedule, too. Though I’ve been working some long days of late (mostly in preparation for Christmas), having 2 days off a week is like having a 400 pound load removed from my shoulders. Take Monday. I slept in a little, then after breakfast I drove up north a little bit to “the lakes.” The lakes are 3 lakes just to the west of downtown Minneapolis (about 20 min. from here). I chose the largest and walked all the way around (3.19 miles). It took a while, but it was wonderfully sunny, so it felt good. Afterward, I went over to Caribou Coffee and just chilled out for a while. I sipped hot chocolate and read for a while. It was so refreshing. Even though I don’t drink coffee, I’m starting to see the attraction for hanging out in coffee shops.

Here are some pics I took during my hour-long walk.

The sky was a deep sapphire blue but I decided that these shots looked better in black and white. There’s something about bare trees in the snow that just works in B&W.

Not much else to report really. Tomorrow DirecTv come over to hook up our satellite, so we’ll have TV for the first time in 4 weeks. It’s not been bad not having it really. I am really looking forward to having a hi-def signal to feed into the new set though. I think it’s going to look pretty hot.

I should head off to work on a post for my church tech blog. It’s been a while since I posted there. Thanks for reading!

Here’s the view outside our living room. It’s quite lovely.

One thing I find really amazing here is that there is very little snow melt on the roofs of the houses. Maybe it’s just too darn cold. This morning I went out for a walk. Overnight (at about 3 AM actually, I was up) it snowed this really fine talcum like snow. All of the branches looked like they were painted white. Granted, it was 2 degrees out, but it really wasn’t that cold. The sunrise really lit things up, too.

So, if you’ve been playing along at home, you know I’ve been looking for a new car. My truck was getting really annoying, and increasingly becoming impractical. As I am want to do, I obsessed over research and model comparison. I bet I spent 20-30 hours on it over the last week or so. After trying to find a car that was the perfect combination of affordability, practicality, reliability and was something that I actually liked, I narrowed the search radius down to 3 cars: The Honda Accord, Civic and Mazda Protoge5. I drove a few Protoge’s, and while they were fun, I decided it wasn’t for me. I never did get to drive a Civic, every dealer that had one on the website was out by the time we got there. I ended up driving a ‘99 Accord 5-speed that I really liked. It was affordable, but had over 100K miles.

Not quite ready to go with a car with that many miles, I headed to another dealer to see one that they had advertised with 70K. That was gone when I got there, but they had just taken another ‘99 5 -speed in on trade. The kicker was it has only 49K miles! Strangely, the price was only about $2,000 more than ones with 90K+. After a bit of wrestling with the decision, I decided to go for it.

It’s almost the same car I had back in ‘98, only this one is an EX, which means 4-wheel discs, ABS, moonroof and premium sound. Back then I had the auto trans, which was fine, but I have to say, the 5-speed makes all the difference. As I was trying to decide, I remembered that the Accord was the only car I have ever owned that liked so much that I wanted another when the lease was up. So, now I have my wish. Oddly, it’s the same color combination, dark green exterior with beige interior. I picked it up today, and after just a few short trips, I really like it. I’m thinking Monday I may take a drive somewhere to a coffee shop to sit and read. That would be nice.

That’s all for now. Peace!

Wow, it’s hard to believe we’ve been here for 2 weeks already. In many ways it seems like much more. Everyone is settling in quite well, and we’re starting to have a routine, and sense of normalcy (as much as we ever did…)

This past week has been relatively uneventful. More unpacking of boxes, getting settled, setting things up, organizing my office. Big news around home is that I finally got the TV and surround sound system set up the way I wanted it. Though I’ve only watched it for a little bit (the opening scenes of Gladiator…), it was great to have full bodied sound and not worry about disturbing the neighbors. Sadly, it took 2 trips to Ikea to get the right countertops, but I’m really happy with the way it looks. I’ll try to get some pics posted soon.

Denise and the girls set up the Christmas tree this weekend, and in general the place is starting to look like our house.

My exciting news is that I’m looking for a car to replace my truck. We’ve decided that the truck, while handy for moving large objects, is just not that practical for our family anymore (plus it’s impossible to find parts for…). So I’ve been doing a ton of research on cars and have been out test driving a few here and there. I’ve another one to go look at today, about 20 miles north of here.

What’s weird is that when I lived in Canandaigua, driving 20 miles to go look at a car would not have been a second thought. Living in Bloomington for 2 weeks and already if something is more than 5 miles away, it seems like a long trip. This is a super-convenient area, I’ll say that.

Friday night was the CPC all-staff Christmas party. That was a good time to meet some staff I haven’t met yet (there are about 80-90 all told), as well as spouses. I have to say, it’s a really good group of people. Everyone has been very welcoming and have really made us feel like we are wanted and appreciated.

I’m having lunch with the Sr. Pastor of CPC on Thursday to give him my first impressions. That should be fun! I’ve heard he really likes to hear it like it is, but that some people have been afraid to tell him like it is. While diplomatic, I do tend toward laying it all out there, so I’m looking forward to a fun meeting.

Anyway, that’s about it. Not too much to report. I need to call the dealer up north to see if they still have my car (Mazda Protege 5) and get ready to roll out. Blessings to you…thanks for reading!

Wow, it’s hard to believe my first weekend as Tech Arts Director is in the can. And what an eventful one it was! A month ago or so, Upper Room’s worship leader moved on to another opportunity. So we’re now in the throws of auditioning new ones. Tonight was no exception. So we had a guest worship leader. No problem.

I was tasked earlier in the week with coming up with a way to have a box wrapped up like a present on stage that could hold a camera that we could use to project pictures up on the screen during the gathering (aka, service). I whipped that right up. No problem.

I knew when I took the job that I was coming into a facility that was not up to par technology-wise. I didn’t realize how bad it is until this weekend. Specifically, when we lost control of the lights and color changers and they just started acting on their own. It was kind of like in iRobot, when the robot went off and did his own thing. Did I mention that this was during the service? Our intrepid light tech twice had to run to the other side of the room and unplug lights to keep them from flashing on and off. During the message. We re-booted the board, and even the dimmer packs to no avail. Yeah, no problem.

The amazing thing (though by now I should not be “amazed”) is that God worked a great work in the hearts of those who were there. Even with flashing lights (or no lights), He spoke into their hearts and during the experiential part of the gathering, people came up and shared their hearts. It was very moving, especially when Robyn showed up on stage to share. I was blown away. I had to keep my back to the guys for a minute because my eyes began to sweat.

Afterward, we had some time to meet with the worship candidate. Good guy. Seems God is taking him on a similar journey to mine. I hope we get to meet again.

I can’t tell you how much of a relief it is to have tomorrow off. I got home around 10 PM, relaxed a bit, warmed up some awesome mac & cheese and am now just sitting here writing. I don’t have to get up early tomorrow and go to work. Having Saturday’s and Monday’s off is a gift from God. Seriously. All churches should do this for their staff. And this is only my first week. I can’t wait until I’m not still unpacking and can actually do something fun on my days off!

In other news, I found out that a lot of people on our street have snow blowers. And they love to run them. I shoveled my drive last night (6″ or so) so I wouldn’t have as much to do today. When they plowed the road, we got plowed in. When I went out to shovel it out, I met Mark, the guy across the road. He had done his drive, the drive on the other side of him and was on his way to do another when he stopped and asked if I would like him to do mine. Sure! So in less than a minute, he saved me 10 minutes of work, not to mention my back. Later, I looked out, and the guy behind us was running his snow blower down my drive widening it out some more! Love that Minnesotian friendliness!

So that’s about it. Tomorrow we set up bank accounts, get our insurance switched over and all that stuff. We should have new MN cell phone numbers also, so look for an email with that info if you’re someone who might actually call me one day. If you don’t get it and think you should, leave a comment here. Peace…

This will likely be a multi-part post as I am running low on battery, and we need to run out and get some stuff.

Day 1
Turns out staying in an empty house and sleeping on air mattresses looked a lot better on paper than it did in real life. Not sure I’ll do that again. Especially in Minnesota. In November. Turns out we arrived just in time for a somewhat unseasonable early cold snap. As I lay on our air mattress under only one thin blanket, freezing, I kept wondering why the furnace was running so much. I had time to ponder this because I don’t think I slept much. Mainly because I was freezing.

When I got up from my freezing bed, we discovered that the temperature went from a balmy 31 when we went to bed to a downright nippy 8 by midnight. The winds picked up quite a bit too, which caused the turbine roof vent to spin rapidly. I mention this only because the bearing seems to be shot and it caused a high pitch whine, up around 2,000 Hz, which was clearly audible all night long. After a cold and sleepless night, I was ready to start my first day.

Actually, it was quite good. We had all-staff meeting first thing, where I was once again introduced and made to feel especially welcome. I’ll say one thing for Minnesotians, they’re a friendly lot. Afterward, we had a good small group time, where I got to know a few people a little better. Then it was off to Christmas in my office, where I unpacked and set up my new MacPro editor. It’s the mac-daddy of all computers. Pictures will come soon (still waiting for some shelving to complete the ambiance…).

Craig, my boss, has done a great job of letting me start slowly and get up to speed. When I started my job at the ad agency a few years ago, I felt like I was dropped into the middle of a lake and had to learn to swim. Here I feel like I’m standing over a treadmill with my feet on the sides. I don’t have to walk yet, and when I do, I have control over the speed. It’s a nice feeling. Everyone’s been really great.

Day Two
The truck arrived.  That was a good thing. When I got home from my first day at work, the truck was close behind. I spent a few hours (with able assistance from Katie & Robyn) getting the mattresses off the truck and into our rooms. The second night was much better. We had blankets, warm mattresses and food.

Day Three
The truck is unloaded. A few ambitious and able-bodied helpers from the community (Upper Room-speak for church) came over and unloaded. Though it was 15 degrees and really windy, they were troopers and we got the whole thing emptied out and most everything in the right rooms in about 2 hours. Thanks Matt, Robyn & Eric!

I was pretty whipped by that point, and we didn’t get much else done. Mostly stacked boxes where they were going to go, and finding the flannel sheets. Turns out it does get cold here after all.

The rest of the week was much the same. Unpacking, the TV was delivered (50″ hi-def bought online at a great price from Best Buy the day after Thanksgiving…sweet!), and we started getting organized.

Last night (Friday), Denise & I went to Ikea and picked out our dining room table and chairs, as well as some other stuff. I put them together this morning, and we got the living room cleaned up. Almost looks like a living room now!

We also arrived just in time for the first snow storm of the season. I hear we’re supposed to get 7 inches today. It’s been snowing all day and looks like they could be right.

Dish Network was here in the morning to install our TV. Sadly, they couldn’t get a clear view of the bird, so we’re without for a while longer. By sheer dumb luck or divine providence, there was a DirecTV crew installing a dish right across the street at the same time. I asked the guys if they could come take a look at our place to see if they could get a signal. The lead installer stopped over after a while and said, “No problem. We’ve got a clean shot.” So I guess we’re going back to DirecTV. Probably take a week of scheduling to make it happen, though. Oh well.

Like I said, it’s off to the store to pick up a few more things. Tomorrow is my first service as TD, so that should be fun. Then I get another day off. I think I like this already!

Sorry it’s taken so long to get the final leg of the journey documented here. I feel like we’ve been on a marathon for the last few days just trying to get our stuff in the house, set up and get acclimated to work. It’s been good, but there hasn’t been much time to do anything but unpack.

As many of you know, we arrived at our house on Monday at about 1:10 PM. We got into the house and emptied out the CR-V and truck. The trip here was really uneventful. Driving from Rockford to here was not at all a bad trip, just a little long. Wisconsin was much more rolling and hilly than I expected. It’s been about 17 years since I was last in the cheese state, and I really don’t remember it. The weather was mostly grey and yucky in Illinois, and it continued all the way up to Eau Claire. After we finally stopped going north and turned west, the skies began to clear.

Traffic was very light and moved along well. By about 11:30, everyone was anxious to just get to the new house. I was watching the GPS tick off when we should be there and kept hoping we would be the eta. We didn’t. I called Betty, our landlord, as we approached St. Paul and we beat her here by about 5 minutes. One very pleasant surprise was a card with a gift card inside for Noodles & Company (a local restaurant that the girls really liked last visit) and some movie tickets, compliments of our landlord. That doesn’t happen often. Since we had dinner provided for us the first night, we haven’t used them yet, but I think we will tonight.

Anyway, here are some pics from the trip. I’ll write about the first week in another post.

Robyn caught the Welcome to Wisconsin center as we drove by. Looks like a nice place, though we didn’t stop. We did feel welcomed, however.

Lower WI looks remarkably like IN, OH and the rest of the lower plains. This is apparently where they grow the corn to feed the cows who make the cheese. It was a good 2 hours into WI until we saw our first bovine, however, so I can’t really verify this.

Once you get about 1/2 way north in WI, these strange rock outgrowths start showing up. They remind me of being further west, like in NM. They are really cool and I would have loved the chance to walk around and get some really good pictures. But I really just wanted to get to the house.

Whenever I see birch trees, I think of Robert Frost’s poem, “Swinging Birches.” All along the roadside, you can see these interesting forests of conifers and birches. The contrast of the white birch bark and the green pines was really cool. Robyn took this one; good job!

Again, like those strange rock sculptures, they have these mountains just popping up all over northern WI. Hard to tell exactly how tall they are, but they look impressive. As I mentioned, there was a lot more terrain in WI than I expected.

This kind of summarizes what we did for about 3 days; go down the long and winding road (or in this case, go up). I have to say, of the 7 states we traversed in 3 days, WI was one of the prettiest. Since we’re only about 1/2 hour away, we may find ourselves running over there from time to time.

Well you can’t go to Wisconsin without getting cheese. Actually you can, and we did, but here’s where you can get cheese if you want to. Here’s the odd thing; we’re a half an hour away from where they make the cheese, right? And cheese is more expensive here than it was in NY. I don’t get it. Milk, too. Must be the WI cows are better organized than NY cows and have a better pay scale or something. Have to look into that…

The sign we all were anxious to see. As you can tell, the skies brightened considerably once we arrived in our new home. IN and IL were downright dreary (how do people live there anyway?). But in Minnesota, it’s all sunshine and lollipops. Our fortune was about to change, but we didn’t know that. Anyway, it was nice to arrive in the sun and have time to go to Ikea to get some really cool chairs. More on that in a moment.

So that’s our trek. All in all, it was long, but good. It took about 16 hours of driving time and covered just over 1,000 miles. The vehicles performed very well, no one got car sick and we avoided unplanned off-road excursions and collisions with quadrapeds.

Thanks to all who prayed for us during the journey. We could tell the road ahead was being cleared in advance for us. Things went really smoothly. Now we’re on to the task of setting in and assimilating into the new culture. More to come!