wikiencuentros and stuff

[Kragen Javier Sitaker]

Suffered some pretty rotten dehydration Friday due to diarrhea. Reached the
level of nausea but not actually vomiting, so oral rehydration therapy got me
back.

Still, I missed Saturday and (sort of consequently) Sunday of the I Encuentro
Iberoamericano de Wikipedia.  But I still went to the afterparties.  Fantastic.
A historic event.

Wearing flip-flops in midwinter attracts a lot of attention on the streets.  I
attract even more when I'm wearing a T-shirt or two but no long sleeves or
jacket.  I tell people it's my Yanqui tourist costume.

Had a fascinating conversation at lunch with a paleontologist about, among
other things, measuring the bones of prehistoric Argentine ungulates with 3-D
scanners.  Later at the obelisk, someone tried to explain Fischer projections
to me, unsuccessfully, despite having hand movements available instead of just
text.  At dinner I had a long conversation with a Brazilian guy in Portuguese,
largely about English phonology and phonotactics.  (How many English words
begin with "dw"?)  The conversation was inevitably very slow because my
Portuguese is very poor. "Your Portuguese is excellent for only having spent a
week in Brazil!"

Just wrote an email to some friends about whether we should save civilization
if it needs it.

Still in limbo on immigration and work stuff.  That's depressing and
discouraging. Side projects not making any progress either.  I'm learning about
linear algebra, though.