After spending a couple of weeks in the Caribbean, it takes about a week to clean the sand from your ears. As you clean out your ears in the morning (or whenever one might perform this less than savory hygienic ritual), you sort of think to yourself: “Wow, the ear can hold a lot of sand” and then as the days pass on and there is less and less sand, you miss and miss your Caribbean beach even more. Nostalgia is experienced in weird ways at times.

Here are some pictures from the Vieques Protest I went to last Sunday. It was a good protest with a pretty large turn out considering it was organized pretty last minute. My dad and I argued (peaceably) about the protest, his sentiment being that it was useless or really frivolous because the US has already agreed to give up military training on this island, while my point was that it is good to yell and scream to make sure they don’t forget to leave not to mention they still need to commit more tangibly to the clean-up efforts. Anyway, he drove me to the protest which was nice given that he did not agree with it.

Back here in SF, the turmoil of Vieques and the idyllic life of the Caribbean seems far away. News about
the tech and intellectual property world moves around here as do fish in the Caribbean sea. Oh, and sad, frustrating news, like Eldred losing in the Supreme Court. I mean, I did not ever think it would be a sure thing but I thought Eldred had a chance and it was pretty depressing shoot out at 7-2??!!!!

Often when I come back from the Caribbean, I fell torn desiring to go back but also loving my life online and the research I do. Then there are those other things I like to dabble in such as Chi Gong and acupuncture that are not as accessible in the Caribbean. But I think I have found the solution of how to combine the different passions of my life–> living on a hacker/activist sailing vessel that has a satellite link to the net and whose purpose is two fold: to transport computers to places where they are needed and serve as an underground acupuncture clinic! I can then also teach Chi Gong classes, have year round access to the ocean and with all my extra time, I can just write, blog, and of course swim. And being on a boat where you tend not to go to the beach but just jump off the deck into the water, you never have to worry about sandy ears.