I've had some fun playing around with Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), and I even stashed notes for it on my wiki. To be precise, I tried it in 64-bit using Xfce. Unfortunately my experience was compromised by using onboard graphics, meaning I couldn't get 3D acceleration. Couldn't get Compiz working because of that. Also, Cheese wouldn't give me anything, even though Camorama would work flawlessly. I tried Cheese with the same Logitech webcam in an Ubuntu 11.10 live session, and although it worked, the colors were off.

Now I can't expect LMDE to be "just like Ubuntu". Gmount-ISO wasn't in the repositories, but on Ubuntu's launchpad site I was able to extract an archive and run Gmount-ISO as a python script, no installation required. Most of what I needed was in the repositories. LMDE does a good job at tackling what's difficult in Debian...the Mint installer for the operating system is like the one used by Ubuntu, Mint gives you codecs, flash and ndiswrapper from the start, and Skype (even for 64-bit) is in the repositories. Although it's an outdated version, LMDE ships with Firefox, something not too easy to have in Debian. What Mint won't do for you? Wine! However, Mepis has that covered, so it's possible to add Mepis' repositories and install a recent version of Wine from there (couldn't get WineTricks to install, but that's not a big deal). Don't install or update anything else from Mepis repos, it could mess up your system. Want Viewnior? Crunchbang has that covered. In other words, getting those apps you may be used to using may not be so hard to install. However, I was unable to figure out how to get all the dependencies in order to install apps from source, which I never had a problem with in Ubuntu (plus the instances were much less frequent in Ubuntu because of the amazing available repositories such as Medibuntu, GetDeb and PlayDeb). I've also been having trouble with an internal WLAN card, to be fair it doesn't work automatically in Ubuntu, either. However I've found pretty good instructions to get it to work in Ubuntu, and trying those instructions in LMDE gets me a connection, but no data transfer.

What killed it for me was not being able to add a Samsung printer via Samba which happens to be connected to a winshucks machine. I've tried a few things and now I've completely messed up my CUPS. Also LMDE September 2011 snapshot ships with Firefox 5 and the repositories have Chromium 13...these are somewhat outdated and I think it's fairly important to have the latest browser version available. Maybe the next update pack in LMDE will save the day, but I'm not patient enough. For that reason alone I'll be going back to Ubuntu once I get a dedicated graphics card.

Is LMDE for you? Well, if you don't have to add a printer over Samba, then maybe. If you're looking for something much more DIY than Ubuntu, it can be fun. I've found that the forum base for LMDE is fairly small (most of the Mint forum is for Ubuntu-based Mint), so I've had to find some of my answers elsewhere. Half the time the LMDE forum section consists of flamewars on whether users should use repositories for Ubuntu in LMDE (which I would strongly discourage). I couldn't believe no one suggested to use the Mepis repositories to install Wine (I know it's not entirely n00b-friendly, but I'm surprised no one mentioned trying it...maybe I should post). If LMDE ever really fixes things up, I'll consider it again.

Going back to Ubuntu, I'll be looking forward to using XMLBACK for Gnome3, and Gnome-Shell, it seems pretty slick.

After being abroad for most of the year, I'm home again and looking for a job. Certainly not my favorite thing to do, but I plan on sticking around for now; though if I find nothing around here I may look for job opportunities abroad provided I could earn a Western income. Here's a recap on what I've been up to:
Mali, what a place!! I was able to leave the host family after the first three months were up, and was I ever happy about it. The host family fed me well, however they somehow thought it would be appropriate to threaten me when they were displeased by my behavior.

I managed to accomplish quite a few things at work:

• migrated the entire NGO to Linux


• provided training sessions on completing routine tasks on the computer


• made websites for the NGO


• improved the workshops and helped the technician with graphic design


• configured a CDMA modem, a parallel port flatbed scanner and USB WLAN cards requiring ndiswrapper

After enjoying Mali I toured around West Africa a bit. I visited the Dame de Mali in Guinea-Conakry

I hit up Bubaque island in Guinea-Bissau

I visited the animals in The Gambia

Walked through the doorway of no return in Senegal, where African captives were expatriated to the Americas to work as unpaid laborers.

I was able to make it to Spain for World Youth Day. Here's part of the story:
The Trek
Moments before World Youth Day events started, a Vancouverite showed up at the pilgrims' registration and was unable to book his accommodations with his pilgrimage. I was staying at a Franciscan priest's place at the time and the Ecuadorian lady I was helping out had asked if I could find out whether that priest could host one more Canadian. Sure enough the priest accepted so I ended up spending most of my time during World Youth Day with Dave from Vancouver. We were able to exchange many stories and he has been quite a witness to me. On other occasions I was able to meet up with my sister. I was also able to see the Senegalese priest I met in Mali who said mass a number of times at the parish I attended while working in West Africa. I hadn't met too many World Youth Day veterans from Ottawa, however I met a number of people who had been to numerous past World Youth Days as well.

I did hit up most major cities in Morocco to kill time. Here's me on a camel.

Also I managed to hit up both Oktoberfests in Munich and Kitchener, Canada while visiting Southern Portugal, Paris and home in between. Check out the wiki article here on the major Oktoberfests around the world (including the Brazilian one I talked about in a previous post). Wishing you all the best!

My adventure didn't end upon leaving Brazil...

The road to Georgetown was quite a rough ride (see the photo of our flat tire). I was able to see my friend Ayanna a couple times, even though she was unable to host me. I believe my sunglasses and pillow case were stolen in Georgetown's airport after I checked my bag. These things had no real monetary value to me, but the invasion of privacy is quite annoying!

In Trinidad everything went well outside the Piarco international airport...here's a video of me on my way out:

During my trip I was able to witness some quality facepalms:

This is what Oktoberfest is like in Brazil (notice the aluminium mugs and the free beer during the parade...those things only exist in Brazilian Oktoberfest, unlike what you'd experience in Germany's or Canada's Oktoberfest):

This is what free alcohol in Trinidad looks like:

Here are some more photos that defined the trip (two shots with girls at an evangelical party in Campo Grande, domestic violence at the house, the doorway in Salvador's Pelourinho where Michael Jackson stepped out of, and an amazon monkey reaches out for my camera):

It's Christmas Eve, it's almost New Year's, and I'm almost 25 years old. I've now lived in five countries in four continents (including the second and fifth biggest, one land-locked and very poor, and three world religions: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam). I can now speak five languages fluently, I've had every kind of roommate (all skin colors, different sexual orientations, and all vices). I'm now looking forward to a rewarding adulthood (hopefully blessed with health and wealth).

Where I'm at:

• Fortunately far away from evangelical ex-Catholics, transvestites, alcoholics and crackheads


• Unfortunately here beer is still frowned upon and I'm once again far from my family

How Mali is similar to other places:

• One's close friends are of the same sex - mind you there are no "platonic friendships" and homosexuality is taboo, such things are from the white devil


• It's expected to brush one's teeth in the WC -no matter how bad the smell, the mosquitos or the fact that there is no sink


• There's a lot of "finger food" here - except here instead of burgers, rice is "finger food"


• Typical of a poor country, not many people have refridgerators, so dairy is limited to powdered milk


• Mali is where the North (Saharan) meets the South (sub-Saharan), where the East (Middle-East) meets the West (Western Europe)

Annoyances:

• Lots of flies and mosquitos


• Lots of dust (airborne sand) and the climate is extremely dry


• The locals don't use toilet paper, so there's none in the WC - and they don't have the three seashells either


• There is a lack of vegetables in the food here

Results:

• I'm often thirsty


• exhausted


• and lack sleep

Oddities:

• Kids are usually scared of me (because I'm Caucasian)


• People here often marry their cousins


• Women and men often have tribal tattoos to show their belonging to their ethnicity - especially the Peuls


• Men often wear a ring with a cylinder on it containing a message written by a fortune teller


• Popular foreign languages here are English, German and Russian


• People watch a lot of soap operas from Mexico and Brazil - poorly translated into French


• Many containers are made of colorful plastic, probably recycled fibres

Bom dia a tudos, eu estou agora no Brasil aprendendo a falar e escrever em português.

C'est effectivement le cas, je suis en fait actuellement au Brésil en train d'apprendre le portuguais. J'ai commencé mon séjour en Colombie-Britannique où j'ai travaillé en sécurité pour les Olympiques. C'était fantastique ! J'ai rencontré plein de monde et j'ai maintenant beaucoup d'amis à Vancouver. Ensuite j'ai voyagé en train au long de la côte pacifique états-unienne où j'ai visité des amis à Portland, soit Robert (qui j'ai rencontré au Mexique) et Sergio, un nicaragüayen qui j'ai rencontré en Amérique centrale qui a épousé une américaine. En Californie j'ai vraiment aimé San Francisco, où j'ai vue plus de françaises que de tapettes. Je suis allé à Tijuana au Mexique aussi, soit une grave erreure. On m'a pratiquement tout volé, et j'ai passé assez de temps à Las Vegas achetant les essentiels pour continuer à voyager... très épuissant étant donné que les coins de rue sont pratiquement à un kilomètre l'un de l'autre.

I got cheap flights from Las Vegas to Panama and because crossing over to Colombia from Panama by sea is a little complicated and an unpleasant boat ride, I flew with a budget Colombian carrier. I traveled along the entire Left Coast of South America all the way down to the Patagonia and I've been working my way back up. I visited phenomenal places such as the Galápagos in Ecuador, some ruins in Peru, and amazing glaciers including the Perito Moreno in the Patagonia (I did make it to Tierra de Fuego national park). I also went to great cities including Medellín, Santiago and Buenos Aires. In Uruguay I got the tourist visa for Brazil at the consulate on the Uruguayan side of the boarder (one block from the boarder, actually closer to the boarder than passport control). The main objective of this trip for me was (beyond visiting the "once in a lifetime" places) to learn Portuguese in Brazil. So far so good, I've been picking it up much faster than I anticipated. I definitively come home fluent in my fifth language (not counting Thai, which I didn't take too seriously).

Este viaje (fuera de mi estadía en Tijuana) fue increíble. Visité muchos amigos aquí en Suramérica incluyendo Luís en Ecuador, Sebastián en Perú, Cristobal en Chile, Sandra y Ariel en Argentina y ya Rafael en Brasil. Me sorprendió bastante la patagonia porque me sentía más frío en Santiago que en Punta Arenas o Ushuaia. Los parques fueron muy impresionante, y hice muchas nuevas amistades. Estoy aprendiendo el portugués rápido, porque normalmente cuando no es parecido al castellano, es muy parecido al francés. Seguro afectará mi manera de hablar en castellano (como nos influenza las lenguas que hablamos aprendiendo nuevas), pero siguo conservando mi acento mejicanisado. Aquí hay tres mil uruguayos en Pelotas, RS por la cercanía de Uruguay. Voy a viajar a las catarratas de Iguazú (del lado brasileño entonces las "cascadas do Iguaçú") y al Pantanal el mes que sigue. Las brasileñas son muy simpáticas y disfruto de la música que tocan (samba, pagode, forrô) y estoy aprendiendo a bailar como la gente de aquí.

Hi Leute, reise ich noch mal, aber dieses mal nur durch die Amerikas. Ich bin gerade in Brasilien, und was ich tue ist nicht ungewöhnlich für Deutsche. Ich habe gehört dass meistens Ausländer die einer Zeit wegen die Sprache in Brasilien bleiben sind Deutsche. Ich habe meine Reise in Whistler, Kanada (51 Grad vom äquator) angefangen und ich bin bis Ushuaia, Argentinien (53 Grad vom äquator) gegangen. Doch bin ich ein paar Male geflogen, aber meistens bin ich mit dem Bus gefahren (und in USA meistens mit dem Zug, es war ziemlich günstig). Die Galápagos war total Hammer, mit so vielen Tieren (und Deutschen). Ich bin immer noch im Südbrasilien, hier gibts Deutschsprachige Brasiliener auch (die sprechen eine Dialekt das heisst "pomerano"). Ich werde nächstest Monat mit einer Freundin von mir reisen und in Oktober will ich nach Santa Catarina fahren, dort gibts wahrscheinlich das grösstest Oktoberfest ausser Deutschland der Welt (mindestens das grössest Südamerikas jedenfalls) und dann durch ganz Brasilien reisen.

I suppose I'm guilty of skiping some inbetween segments of the Patagonia, but otherwise it's too expensive or too long a ride to travel between the capital cities and the Patagonia...I flew down on the Chilean side from Santiago to Punta Arenas (at the recommendation of some Canadians I met in Northern Argentina) and I will fly up in Argentina. On the Chilean side I missed the $400 (USD) cruise down the glaciers coastline from Puerto Montt to Puerto Natales, but my flight was $157 CAD. I met some Aussies who did it, and they said because of the weather they couldn't actually see anything from the boat. From Punta Arenas I did a round trip to Ushuaia, where I visited the Tierra de Fuegos national park free! The park admission is free on low season and my bike rental had a flat so I was reimbursed, and I hitched a return trip to town with the firemen. I then went all the way up to Puerto Natales where I stayed at a hostel owned by an Oregonian expat (the receptionist gave us a decent group rate so I agreed to stay) but it was terrible because they keep two cats in the hostel! I visited the Torres del Paine national park on a day trip (booked it last minute, got the last seat), then the following morning travelled to El Calafate. I've visited the Perito Moreno glacier and went up to El Chaltén for a night for two days treking. I keep seeing the same backpackers around here (because there aren't that many of us) so we'd all trek together. I would have taken the bus up to Bariloche and then to BsAs, but route 40 is closed in the North (off season renovations I suppose) meaning I would have to bus down to Río Gallegos and bus up route 3, which isn't appealing to me.

I will get the tourist visa for Brazil in Uruguay. The Brazilian embassies in BsAs and Montevideo are like night and day (in Argentina they require proof of income, you need an appointment, etc.). In Uruguay, all I need is a credit card and a round trip itinerary to Brazil and back to Uruguay that I can get from the bus terminal. I can essentially get the visa at the consulate on the Uruguayan side of the boarder, but I would rather get it in Montevideo for the peace of mind. Apparently Uruguay was a different world one year ago...in 2009 due to a political dispute there were no direct buses between BsAs and Montevideo (travellers had to take the bus or fly) and the Uruguayan peso was worth around 25% less. Because the prices for the Brazilian visa are fixed in USD, when I asked about the prices they later updated their website with the current rates adjusted to the current exchange rate (works out to about 82 CAD, cheaper than the 137 CAD they would charge me in Ottawa).

Hey, in the previous post I mentionned a little about Ecuador, here's the full bloat. I was unfortuantely unable to send home my stack of photos because it would always time out, and drop-box won't let me upload big files web-based, which is no use seeing as I'm travelling without my own computer.

Colombia was really cool. The little time I spent there I was in Medellín, where there's spring weather year round (I was there during the spring). I was there for the closing ceremony of the South American games, Medellín 2010 (which I had already mentioned) but I had the misfortune of being stung by a bee in the bus terminal.

Now for the full fun in Ecuador: As I mentioned after being rushed by Holy Week and suffering from my cat allergies, I made regular trips to the pharmacies. I ended up with weird rashes on my arms after getting three bad mosquito bites on my legs. My buddy brought me to a birthday party at a bar with Latin dancing (salsa) and my buddy's friend played some guitar (he's quite talented). Afterwards we went to the birthday girl's house for an after-party. One girl who works as a software engineer wanted to learn English from me. She was all over me at the after-party (even though she has a boyfriend). She was going to call me but got my number messed up, so later we chatted on facebook and she eventually called me when I was in the Galápagos, so when I returned to Loja we went to Vilcabamba together. Loja is a backpacker's paradise (no Wal-Mart or McDonald's, no chain coffee shop either...only a couple chains of pharmacies). I haven't found any 7-11's yet in South America but Loja has a 7&ELEVEN.

Peru is interesting. I visited my Chilean friend in Trujillo on short notice, so he had to leave me to go to work (he's an engineer and works in the mining industry). I was on my own in Trujillo but I discovered cheap exotic meats (veal, lamb and duck) for less than two dollars! I visited the Huacas ruins and the beach. I met a single mother (because almost all Peruvian women are single mothers) whose ex-husband works illegally in the US who invited me for some home-made ceviche and we went to the beach with her daughter and adorable puppy who likes to lick my toes. I then stayed almost two weeks in Lima where we celebrated my friend's 23rd birthday. It was quite fun, I had some great beer and food. I also got terribly sick from my friend's mum's homecooking, seeing as there's a serious lack of hygiene here in Peru. I had my camera repaired (twice! thank God for warrantees) in Lima, apparently the camera turns itself on on its own in its case, so the lense gets damaged that way (so for now I always remove the battery between use). I expect this camera to last me at least the duration of this trip! I'm now in Arequipa (for the day, then off to Tacna in order to cross into Chile). I've eaten the rodent!! I had guinea pig here in Arequipa for s./ 25 (approximately eight dollars) and they for once accepted credit card!! I also got my income tax money back which certainly helps while travelling (it shall be spent towards that Brazilian visa...makes me really feel Canadian). Looking forward to Chile and wishing you all the best from the road.

Hey, I use Windows Live to connect to the Microsloth Messenger (I use a Gmail account for that purpose), but unfortunately Windows Live allows you to receive private messages at your "Windows Live" account (pretty annoying, actually). I only get spam, so I tried reporting a message the Windows Live route. It asks a bunch of questions that are copy-paste from the message. Microsloth has a retarded system because to report abuse, you have to manually input all the info because they don't know how to cross reference. They even give me a reference number...what in the world will I do with that?!

On a side note, I recently returned to mainland from the Galápagos islands. I then went to Montañita to party all night Friday in one of those places full of foreigners (like Khao San Road in Thailand, there's a really similar place nearby on the Peruvian side of the boarder on the coast). It's great for a night, but it's really useless to stay there any longer. I ended up hanging out with an Argentinian guy who just became a lawyer, hopefully I'll visit him in Argentina.

Photos will be up when I get around to it. Either in Lima, Peru or in Southern Brazil I'll attempt to post my photos online so that they can end up on my website. I'll likely blog about it once the photos are up.