Travel Blog | About TravelBlog | World Facts | Travel Wallpaper | Travel Forum | Backpackers Travel Insurance | Services | Cameras

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce

Jon Pearce I teach Math and Computer Science at San Jose State University. Computer Science is in high demand, so I occasionally get invited to teach in interesting places. Working and living overseas is a much different experience than being a tourist.

Visited countries (so far):

Visited Countries Map




Private Message Subscribe 5 Forum Posts Top Photos Blog Map
Joined on: November 6th 2004
Last Login: May 7th 2008

Blog Entries: 34
Photos: 620
Visited Countries


RSS
TB Code: [blogger=1039]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Dr--Jon, order by Date newest first.

« back 1 10 20 30 next »

Big Bats
Big Bats
Jack (one of the group's more serious photographers) spent the evenings trying to snap photos of bats catching moths. Those moths sure were tasty.
US Borax shut down their mining operation in Ryan back in the 1920s. Since then it has been used as a backdrop in the opening scene of Spartacus and in a few episodes of Death Valley Days. Other than that, Ryan has been a ghost town, gradually succumbing to the baking Death Valley sun. However, Ryan comes alive every spring, when US Borax allows San Jose State University to conduct its annual spring break course: "Field Studies in the Natural History of Death Valley". Scientists and students sweep borate dust off rotting 80-year-old mattresses, chase scorpions out of their fiber-extruding gashes, [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 40 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 936 words | [diary=263052] | 2008-04-08 18:44:09

The excitement builds!
students
Group Photo

In early September I returned to Santa Cruz. The weekend before I traded my Benz in on a new Civic Coup. I figure what I'll lose in sex appeal I'll pick up in savings on operating expenses. I threw a birthday/welcome home party for myself a week later. Still later in the month I visited Debra in Boise. She was kind enough to take me to the National Fast Draw Championships in Idaho City. October began with a visit from cousin Monte, the one man party! [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 14 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 87 words | [diary=209621] | 2007-10-09 02:30:23

Idaho City 1
Idaho City 2
Dudes

I should be back in my house in Santa Cruz this week. I've been couch surfing in San Francisco. Yesterday I caught the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love in Speedway Meadow. Nostalgia is a strange sad drug. You can't help think about the people who were there then and are elsewhere now. You can travel the wide world and never see weirdness like this. I don't know, maybe there's something like this on Venus. [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 1 Comment(s) | 17 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 76 words | [diary=198800] | 2007-09-04 04:06:41

speedway meadow 2007
dharma lecture
face in the crowd

Cerberus
Cerberus
Debra's blood sugar drops.
Dalmatia Coast Our bus is clinging to the cliffs and Debra is asleep on my shoulder, so I have to write between the curves and only moving my wrist. We are returning to Split after several nights in Dubrovnik, Athens of Croatia, Pearl of the Adriatic. Dubrovnik is located at the very tip of this crescent-shaped country. The border with Bosnia-Herzegovina runs so close to the east that along one five mile stretch it actually touches the Adriatic, cutting Croatia into two pieces and forcing us through a pair of border crossings. The ragged borders suggest the shreds that Yugoslavia was [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 27 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 1420 words | [diary=194445] | 2007-08-20 17:04:19

Cerberus II
St. George chokes his lizard
Ljubljana graffitti

By Dr Jon
August 10th 2007

Curtain Call

 Asia » Armenia » West » Yerevan
Rapture
Rapture
Debra experiences The Sublime listening to ANB at the Astral Club.
Playing house with Debra these past two weeks has triggered memories of my former identity as one of two. I am surprised by how distant these memories feel. Has my life really changed that much? Am I now officially "the single guy?" Of course I had to note the equal remoteness of my memories of my former wife. Life is strange. We've been to lots of concerts, restaurants, and parties. Despite the fun I noticed a curious melancholy in my emotional background. It took me a few days to realize that it was caused by the looming imminence of my departure [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 22 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 705 words | [diary=190856] | 2007-08-10 11:40:46

Astral III
Astral I
Astral IV

By Dr Jon
July 16th 2007

Le Bateau Ivre

 Europe » Switzerland » South-West » Lausanne
This from my journal while riding the train from Montreux to Luzerne: "Switzerland is the kind of country I would have invented if it didn't already exist." It's Disney-esque. It's Heidi-esque. It's even a bit Python-esque I realized when I noticed that some of my fellow travelers were dressed in suits but wear hiking boots and have ski poles sticking out of their rucksacks. I want to know where they work. Don't like mountains and lakes? Then move here for the progressive attitude. Take the car sharing system, for example. If you need one, just come pick one up. If it's [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 3 Comment(s) | 27 Photo(s) | 1 Video(s) | 1111 words | [diary=183939] | 2007-08-08 11:58:06

RECOVERED
RECOVERED
RECOVERED

By Dr Jon
July 9th 2007

The Second Coming

 Asia » Georgia » Tbilisi
I got rave reviews as a tour guide from the guys I took to Georgia a few weeks ago, so this weekend Cyrus wanted me to take him. I can't imagine why. If Seinfeld was the show about nothing, then my tours are the tours about nothing. I sit on Nino's balcony and read. Sometimes I sit in a cafe, usually the same ones. I don't go to old churches, I don't go to cultural events, and I don't go anywhere that's hot. Getting There The marshrutka (mini-van) ride from Yerevan to Tbilisi takes about 6 hours, counting the two hours [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 32 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 2821 words | [diary=179483] | 2007-08-08 13:05:21

RECOVERED
RECOVERED
RECOVERED

By Dr Jon
June 26th 2007

Feastie Boys

 Asia » Armenia » West » Yerevan
Caro (aka Santa)
Caro (aka Santa)
Remember this guy from last year's Fourth of July picnic? He's a respectable Iranian scientist... until he's around me.
The Good Life "A toast to our beautiful lives." That's Suesue, the Persian-Berkeley Architect-Archaeologist toasting with David's special cognac. We had just finished a miraculous Persian feast she and some of the other girls had whipped up in honor of my visit to Erebuni House. That's the mansion on the far side of Yerevan where the Erebuni Seven (i.e., the Berkeley team excavating Erebuni) are headquartered. I had been invited to Erebuni House ostensibly to fix Felix's new laptop. He was trying to install Microsoft Office. Each time it prompted him for the product identification number, he typed in the number [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 3 Comment(s) | 6 Photo(s) | 1 Video(s) | 1377 words | [diary=173748] | 2007-08-08 12:15:55

And away we go...
Movable Feast I
Movable Feast II

Bad Boys
Bad Boys
Ahmad and me posing as Mongol raiders.
Sitting on Nino's balcony It's past midnight. I hear voices, distant TVs. I see headlights race up the hill on the far side of the river. I read, write, contemplate. I'm reading The Moor's Last Sigh by (Sir) Rushdie. I copy passages that speak to me into my journal: (She) drank her own bitterness and called it sweet, walked in her own desert and called it lush ... If Nino were here there would be endless Georgian toasts and bottomless glasses of strong liquor. Suddenly, skyrockets explode in the sky. I am literally thrilled by my private show. Traveler Tales Getting [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 2 Comment(s) | 27 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 2098 words | [diary=170915] | 2007-08-08 12:25:22

Butt Rest
Faded Glory
Dragon Slayer

By Dr Jon
June 12th 2007

Heat, Dust, Ruins, and MIGS

 Asia » Armenia » West » Yerevan
Solar lunch at AUA
Solar lunch at AUA
Each day one lunch special is cooked on a solar oven in front of AUA.
Dream #115 Although I no longer need to take melatonin for jetlag, I still have weird dreams. I dreamed that I had a disease. The recommended treatment was that I be shot on Tuesday. I had a final conversation with my ex-wife, but she was speechless for one reason or another. Even in my dreams I can't invent words for her to say. On Tuesday I wasn't nervous about being shot. When the doctor pulled the trigger I awoke wondering if waking is death to the dreamer. The Diggers David Stronach made an appearance at the University earlier this week. He's [View Full Entry]

Dr Jon - Jon Pearce | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe | 0 Comment(s) | 32 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s) | 1333 words | [diary=168280] | 2007-08-08 12:33:25

David Stonach
Trained Eyes
MIGs



« back 1 10 20 30 next »