All, Brazil, Travel

One Week of Olympics

Thursday, 4th

Walked out of a piano show in Ipanema to see the torch go by on its final day.

Friday, 5th

Watched opening ceremony at Holland Heineken House. Olympics under way in good fashion. Brazilians breathe sigh of relief.

Saturday, 6th

Men’s Field Hockey with a group of five Irish girls who just arrived from a five-month tour of South America. Field hockey can remain a women’s sport in America as far as I’m concerned.

Our field hockey crew!

Sunday, 7th

Table tennis. Watched Brazilian hopeful, Hugo Calderano, win his match. Obviously the home favorite. Had given two extra tickets Brazilian couple in line, they got to see also before attending their boxing ticket. Watched Japan player beat Segun Toriola of Nigeria. Segun was clearly having more fun in his 4-2 loss than the other players. Crowd favorite. Turns out he’s the first African to compete in seven Olympic games. He debuted in Barcelona. He has never medalled. Brazilians take selfies with him after the game.

Basketball. Watched Pau Gasol (weak) have his game-tying shot swatted at the buzzer for a Croatia upset. Priceless.

Swimming. ~3 WRs, Brit dominated breaststroke, Katie Ledecky dominated 400 free, Michael Phelps wins gold with 4×100 relay. He’s medalled before.

Monday, 8th

Skipped super-early water polo tickets.

Watched two sessions of beach volleyball in awesome venue on Copacabana beach, including a Brazil match and two of USA. Final match was USA women beat China.

Tuesday, 9th

Learned that rugby sevens is a cool sport. Man sport. For men built like running fire hydrants. Japan won it’s first rugby match ever upsetting New Zealand. USA lost a heart-breaker. Took a selfie with Nate Ebner’s (NE Patriot from Dublin, OH) mom. Unfortunately Matthew McConaughey was there, but his Brazilian wife looks OK.

Selfie with Nate Ebner’s mom.

Rugby Sevens

Like a full-field wrestling match cross fumble pileup cross last-chance kickoff laterals. Literally 20 minutes for an entire game. How can that be? Because they’re wrestling and running at the same time and they play 2 or 3 games per day in tournaments.

Injury = power play. There was a guy laying on his back holding his face and kicking the ground with his foot. Once play stopped, they brought the meds out, but his own players weren’t even paying attention. It looked like they were gonna rope off the area and play around him.

Wednesday, 10th

My friend departed for the states the night before. Took the day off.

Most we paid for tickets:

Beach volleyball $60

Swimming $40. Yes, $40

Others less, as low as $13

All, English Lessons

English Lesson 2 Answer

3 Comments

Click here for the lesson.

  • If I were a boy, I would turn off my phone.

Beyoncé is not a boy, but if she were, she would turn off her phone so that she could pay attention to her girlfriend. It goes under, “If I were you, I would join the tennis club.” I´m not you, but if I were…

  • If you thought I would wait for you, you thought wrong.

It is the “zero conditional.” It goes under, “If I have enough time, then I play tennis as much as I can,” because it is true in the present:

You thought I would wait for you…

It is currently true. He thought Beyoncé would wait for him.

…you thought wrong.

is also currently true. He thought wrong. The verbs are past tense, but the statements are true in the present. Beyoncé also could have said: “Because you thought I would wait for you, you thought wrong.”

  • If I had a million dollars, I would buy you a house.

Is the second conditional. It goes under, “If I had enough time, then I would play tennis every day.”

All, Ecuador, Travel

Ecuador, Land of Beautiful Views

3 Comments

As far as I can tell, everywhere in Ecuador is picturesque. If you want more without my face blocking your view, I recommend Google image “Ecuador countryside,” or “Ecuador mountains,” or something.

Along the highway while waiting for the road to open. They were cleaning up a rock slide.
The Basilica in Quito
This picture does not do justice. This statue is badass. Please Google image “simon bolivar statue quito,” for better pictures. Conquistador!
Close to Cumbre Rucu, overlooking Quito on the trail from the Teleférico. Coordinates: 0.1626300°S, 78.5636260°W
Quito in the background
All, English Lessons

English Lesson 2

1 Comment

Conditionals, Medium Difficulty

Beyonce – If I Were a Boy

Place the following lyrics from the song on the conditionals classification sheet (click here for the workbook):

  • If I were a boy, I would turn off my phone.
  • If you thought I would wait for you, you thought wrong.

Barenaked Ladies – If I Had a Million Dollars

Place the following lyrics from the song on the conditionals sheet:

  • If I had a million dollars, I would buy you a house.

Click here for the answer.

All, English Lessons

English Lesson 1 Answer

1 Comment

Click here for the lesson.

Easy Answer

“The United States of America”

“The” is an article. In this case it means that there is only one country called “United States of America.”

“United” is an adjective describing “States” meaning that the states are together.

“States” is a noun. A state could be a thing, or a place, or an idea. It is only capitalized when used as part of the name of a specific place.

“Of” is a proposition. The prepositional phrase “of America” means the states are in America.

“America” is a noun. It is a place. It is always capitalized because it is the name of a specific place. “America” includes both continents, North and South America, but people from the USA are “Americans.” America!

Medium Answer

“I’ve been to Hollywood”
and
“I’ve been to Redwood”
are both present perfect. See this lesson.
Step #1: identify the verb.
“I’ve” = “I have,” therefore
In “I have been to…”
“have been” is the verb.
Step #2: match it to present perfect in your workbook, write the sentence, and underline “have been.”
Step 3: continue to enjoy the music!

“I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold.”
Step #1: identify the verb.
“Crossed” is the verb. The sentence is in the simple past verb tense.
Step #2: write the sentence and underline the verb.
Step #3: continue to learn by example!

More

Translate the song with Google Translate. Do it! Then listen to the song a few times until you can feel the meaning. Learn 30 words all at one time! Don’t worry too much about the exact meaning.  Music uses poetic license!

All, Ecuador, Travel

Apoyo de las Victimas del Terremoto

Llegué aqui en Ecuador martes, 19 de abril, de la mañana. El miercoles de la mañana, encontré Luis y nos comenzamos a planear para apoyar las victimas del terremoto. Con Luis, su primo, Henry, esposa de Henry, y un otro amigo de Luis, nosotros cinco trajimos mucha comida, y artículos de aseo (el camión estaba lleno) a Perdenales. Luis y su familia tenían mucho voluntad a ayudar los otros Ecuatorianos. Condujimos en la madrugada desde 2AM el jueves, y llegamos en Perdenales a las 8AM. Nos entregado!

Yo, Henry, y Luis
Henry tiene el camión. Él entregó.
Trajimos las cosas en bolsas pequeñas.
All, English Lessons

English Lesson 1

1 Comment

Easy

Identify the part of speech of each of the following five words:

The United States of America

Medium

Neil Young – Heart of Gold (one of my favorite songs)

 What is the verb tense of each of these 3 lines of the song? Write each sentence under a heading in the workbook.

  • I’ve been to Hollywood.
  • I’ve been to Redwood.
  • I crossed the ocean for a heart of gold.

More

Translate the song using these instructions, then listen to the song until you can understand the meaning without translating.

Click here for the answers.

All, Ventures Quarterly

Ventures Update April 2016

695 Riverview Drive

This is the first quarter that I can say things are going as we expect at 695 Riverview Drive. All 9 units are occupied. All 9 tenants are current on their rent. The manager, Panzera Realty, produces a reliable, accurate report each month. The bottom line shows it as well. With reliable tenants and much of the deferred maintenance from the previous owner completed, we are saving for future improvements, or possibly cash for another purchase.

The following pictures are from the stairway maintenance project I completed in December.

The old steps were uneven. The wood was beginning to rot and the nails were coming out.
The old steps were uneven. The wood was beginning to rot and the nails were coming out.
Removed the old steps and patched the side of the building with stucco mortar.
Removed the old steps and patched the side of the building with stucco mortar.
Reassembled with new wood.
Reassembled with new wood.
Finished the railing.
Finished the railing.

Simple Kneads Gluten-Free Bread

Simple Kneads is really taking off. They are gradually adding retail and food service distribution and as of 31 March, they are selling bread directly from the website. The bread is selling fast and the vendors and customers are happy.

Simple Kneads Website

Simple Kneads Facebook Page

Kineomen

Nothing significant to report!

The Stock Market

I am still “all-cash,” and have been since December 2013. Per my previous post, I continue to watch 4 specific indicators. The first 2 indicators, Total Market Cap / GNP “Buffett Indicator,” and economist John Hussman, are hard-negative and I am therefore not looking into the market. I’ll wait for a better opportunity.

Click here for a recent commentary by John Hussman. He is very technical, and currently pessimistic, but he is consistent in his analysis and he makes sense. From week to week, he uses the same indicators week to week rather than chasing news headlines, and he uses only indicators that have a strong correlation to future results in the S&P 500 specifically. He has incorrectly predicted market crashes in the past, but he discusses these failures in his commentary. He doesn’t claim that there will be a crash. His claim is that because of overvaluation, the potential long-term upside is too weak to justify the exaggerated short-term risk of such extreme valuations.

Vino de Coco

I plan to visit the company in the Philippines in December–all business of course!

Click the picture for the website.
Click the picture for the website.

Produce. Persist. Own. Succeed. Fail. Care. Do. Learn. Win.