Photo Essay: Chernobyl 2012


Peace Corps

Sometimes you do things because the opportunity is there and you’re not quite sure if it will come about again in your lifetime. Sometimes people ask you why you’re doing exactly that and you explain it to them the way you see it. And sometimes they respond that future insurance companies might not insure you […]

September 30, 2012

Peace Corps Ukraine Group 39 COS


Peace Corps

So much has happened in the past week and I want to write about all of it now, but I think I’ll spread it out over a few days because each thing deserves personal recognition. The week started with our flag football tournament, but I’ll write about that later once I steal photos from Jeramie […]

September 29, 2012

Tech Tips – Business Cards


Tech Tips

While at my COS conference this past week, it came up that it might be a good idea to get business cards to pass out to your Ukrainian friends before you leave. This tip may apply more to groups 39 and 40, but I bet it’s never too early to be ready. There are hundreds […]

September 28, 2012

Cheap and Healthy or Snake Oil?


Blog, Peace Corps

The past couple of months, I haven’t felt like I’m in my top shape. This caused me to go to see the doctor which in turn caused me to get an ultrasound to check for tumors (the doctor wanted to rule out possibilities). What it boiled down to was that I had slept on an […]

September 21, 2012

Tech Tips – Duolingo


Tech Tips

During training, a line from the great Dos Equis advertisements played over and over in my head, “He speaks French, in Russian.” I had studied French in high school and college and every time I wanted to speak in a foreign language, I’d speak in French when I should have spoken Russian. My LCF hated […]

September 21, 2012

Learning Not Cheating


Peace Corps

There are a lot of things about the Ukrainian school system that I just don’t understand because I grew up in the American school system. Things are done quite differently and it makes me wonder why. For example, the Ukrainian system of grading is on a 12 point scale where the American system is letter […]

September 20, 2012

Two Years In


Peace Corps

As of today, September 17, 2012, it has been exactly two years since I left Wisconsin for the Peace Corps. Granted, I didn’t actually arrive in Ukraine until September 22, 2010 due to problems with visas at the embassy. Also, it’s been a year since I last visited home. Time has flown.

September 17, 2012

The Next Gen NES HTPC with Legos


Computers

Remember when I wanted to build a NES HTPC? Me too. It was a great idea. Then I changed my mind. I decided that I’d rather go with a Raspberry Pi to power my HTPC (running OpenELEC, of course). It’s a far cheaper option and people are reporting great success with it. At first, I […]

September 11, 2012

H+


Blog

Guys, I need to share something with you. I originally saw the trailer for this a few months back and pushed it to the back burner because nothing else was out yet. And then forgot about it. Yesterday, I rediscovered it and found out that their already on episode 14 and this makes me wonder […]

September 9, 2012