Jonathan Field - Maker of Random Stuff

So at first I felt a bit odd downloading and distributing a collection of Khan Academy videos for offline usage, being that they’re already freely available online, but it turns out lots of people want the same thing. Apparently there’s a big overlap in the Venn diagram of “places that need better educational resources” and “places that don’t have fast, cheap internet access”.

Just before my most recent trip to SA, I found a guy who was doing much better job of it than me, and so I started using his package instead. After a bit of back and forth it was determined that while the package would benefit from being updated, he didn’t have the time. So I offered to help out.

After learning a bit about Khan Academy’s API, re-downloading all the videos, learning about Handbrake Encoding Options, and yes, hacking a bit of perl, I came up with this preliminary update.

I’m discussing with others now about what tweaks to make so that it can be most useful. Although I’ve moved away from coding in general these days, I do still enjoy the flow that comes with it.

Also, I think this is the first project where I didn’t resent CSS layout by the time I was done. Now that’s progress!

As a proud investor in a tiny cabbage farm, I have to promote it here with photos. Here it is in early June, having just been planted:

That’s Phila the farmer observing his domain. And here is the farm yesterday:

I’m told it will be ready to harvest in September. So if you happen to be passing through Tugela Ferry in the future, buy some cabbage. It’s healthy! It’s inexpensive! And I can assure the ones of you that care that it’s not GMO.

It may, however, have been transported in the back of an old pickup.

I’ve been 40 for over a week now. I can’t tell the difference, but boy does that sound old. Here’s a serious recommendation to the kids, though: stay out of shape through your teens and twenties, then get in reasonable shape just before you turn 30. You won’t even notice you’re aging.

It ended up taking a nasty cold to keep me still long enough to write an update. Here I am at my mom’s in Rhode Island, wrapped in blankets and sniffling the night before my birthday, trying to figure out how to describe the three month whirlwind I just experienced.

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I suppose it’s time to give a small update about my first three weeks in South Africa this year. So here goes.

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Ever since I came up with my own cheap, easy, healthy, and delicious chili recipe, it’s just about all I eat at home. Here’s what I do:

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When I left South Africa this past May we had successfully networked Thalana High School, but we were still waiting on the local Telkom to hook up the DSL line. At the time we thought this would take a few weeks. And I really should know better than to take such an optimistic estimate at face value.

As it turned out, when Telkom did come to hook up the DSL a month or so later, there was some kind of line problem at the pole and it didn’t work. So they left and told us they’d fix it when they got a chance.

Then a bit after that the school fell behind in their phone payments and suddenly Telkom wasn’t feeling all that motivated to get the DSL fixed. And if I thought they were slow when they were motivated…

Anyway, I had tried to keep things rolling with persistant encouraging emails, but it soon became apparent it was out of my hands and was going to resolve itself, or not, of its own accord. As of a couple weeks ago I had more or less given up and I assumed I’d have to try getting things back on track when I returned.

Then today, out of the blue, I got an email from the CAT teacher Lucky, proclaiming that the internet was finally up and running! He included a picture of him accessing his hotmail account from the lab. This totally made my day. Now I’m re-fired up to see what we can accomplish next year.

It’s not always two steps forward one step back… sometimes it’s just very slow steps.

As of Wednesday night I’m “home” – whatever that means. The calendar tells me I’ve spent 3/4 of my 2012 time elsewhere so far. After getting back from South Africa I spent a couple weeks in New England visiting family and friends. I also did some renovations at the Warwick RI house while there – tuned up the electrical and the kitchen and bath to be more in line with my standards. My mom and Tim seemed to appreciate that too.

I’m off to San Francisco on Tuesday, but it’s nice to have a little break and to catch up with folks here. Had a lovely lunch with friends on the sidewalk cafe at the Paris, and I’m heading to a housewarming party tonight.

Life is a party. But what’s underneath the party? I say it’s parties all the way down.

Time to head north to Joburg. Then northwest to Atlanta. Then a little further north until I find myself in Boston. I’m a bit sad to be leaving so soon.

So let’s see how I did on my goals:

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The last couple weeks are always a pileup. Wnen I arrive, I try to figure out what’s going on, what I hope to do, and then set some plans in motion. There’s usually a lull before those seeds start sprouting, a rusn as things either get done or they don’t all at once.

So we pulled the trigger on the wiring for the internet!

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