On Thursday last week, I drove to Boston and then spent the night. On Thursday, PHENOM held a rally at the statehouse to kick off this year's push to get the state to fix and fund higher education and to make it more affordable. Massachusetts has done a very poor job of supporting public higher education over the past 20 years: the buildings are falling apart, funding has declined in both absolute and real terms, and fees have increased something like 300%. The main needs-based financial aid program, Massgrant, used to cover 80% of a student's tuition and fees -- now its something like 15%. Ellen Story spoke briefly and encouraged students to stay active in politics.

Afterwards, I headed for the Hynes Convention Center to register for AAAS and then hooked up with Jim Lieberman and José Antonio Vergara -- an Esperanto-speaker who was visiting from Chile. In the morning, he was part of a panel of speakers on the problem of English-only science. Afterwards, we visited the exhibition and then I went with him to the T stop to get off for an engagement at MIT -- someone came and met him there and I continued on and came home.

On Saturday, I picked Jose up in Boston. I met him at Alewife and had dinner at Bertuccis before we drove to Amherst. I had never been around the far side of the Alewife building and had no idea there was a Bertucci's right there. He was pleased to discover that the wait staff at Bertucci's could mostly speak Spanish.

On the drive home, we stopped on the scenic overlook by the Quabbin to look at the stars. The sky is really beautiful up there. I showed him Orion, Taurus, Canis Major, Ursa Major, and Polaris. We didn't stay out long because it was freezing.

When we arrived at the house, Penny started barking fiercely when he carried in his big bag. He was pleasantly surprised to see that we have a boxer dog because he has one too. Her name is Amanda -- he said she looks a lot like Penny, but she's a bit younger and still has a black muzzle.

On Sunday, we had a lunch for the local Esperanto-speakers. Unfortunately, several of the local folks couldn't/didn't come. Still, it was a warm and friendly gathering. Mary Carey came from the gazette and took lots of notes with the intention of writing an article for the newspaper.

After lunch, we drove to the Apple Store so Jose could get an iPhone for a friend back in Chile. After a quick stop at Barnes and Noble to look longingly one last time at the books, we hit the road for the train station in New Haven. We arrived with just enough time to buy a ticket and run for the tracks -- of course, it was the very last track. We got there with seconds to spare -- just enough time for a hug and then he was gone. Now he's on his next adventure in NYC having dinner at the Esperanto Cafe. Tomorrow, he flies back to Chile.

It was great to have the several days to talk about Esperanto and about ourselves. We remarked on what an amazing invention Esperanto was: we've both had experiences that I couldn't imagine being possible any other way. The Esperanto community really is "unu rondo familia" just like Zamenhof envisioned. Wherever he is, I think Zamenhof would be pleased with Esperanto today and to see that his invention more than 100 years ago still brings people together.

Mi vespermanĝis kun Normando kaj Zdravka en Montrealo hodiaŭ vespere. Mi veturis aŭte kaj, per la direktoj de Google Maps, mi trovis la ĝustan vojon facile.

Ili havas du gastojn en la domo nun kiuj ne tamen parolas Esperanton. Ni, do, plejparte parolis la anglan. Tre stranga estis paroli al Normando angle! Mia cerbo ne volis fari tion.

Zdravka preparis belan manĝon: salmon kun supo, salato, rizo, kaj banana kuko por deserto. Ĉio estis perfekta.

Poste, venis Boriso kaj ni parolis dum unudu horoj pri la kunfandotaj 2008 LK kaj TAKE. MorgaÅ­ mi vizitos la lokon kie ili proponas ke ili okazu kaj mi faros fotojn.

TGIF! It's been a tough week. I came down with a cold on Friday, so my last weekend was pretty marginal and the work week seemed endless. Still, I got a few things done.

The big news was that I finally persuaded ELNA to buy an advertisement. We bought a small text ad. It took me weeks of persistant effort to make the case that we should advertise at BoingBoing and that we should advertise Esperanto Day there. But after investing perhaps 20 hours of focused effort over a period of weeks, I was finally able to bring it off. The ad is live at boingboing as I write this. I keep hopeing that Esperanto Day will eventually develop a life of its own and begin to gain momentum without requiring constant effort on my part. It feels like it could be close, as every day, I'm finding new references to it here and there.

I've been so focused on getting ready for Brazil that I haven't been thinking much about our upcoming family vacation. I've wanted to have my presentations ready to go, so I've been completely focused on that. I'm nearly there.

I've got two presentations roughed out: one about using reasoning problems in class and another about using technology to support local group activity. I'm relatively pleased with both of them. I'm about half way done with the last one, which will be a summary about local groups in the US. I've been struggling with how to deal with the meat of it, but I think I've got it figured out.

Someone who claims to be representing European linguistic policy has set up a website that has a FAQ page that disparages Esperanto. It says:

How about an artificial language? By definition such a language is no one?s native language, and words with no relation to a history or a living culture are not precise enough in meaning for legislation.

I sent them a email this evening:

I believe it is a very foolish and short-sighted policy to discriminate against artificial languages, saying that they have no native speakers, history, or culture. The statements in your website go beyond foolishness, however, and disseminate false and misleading statements to the public. By including these statements, you demonstrate profound ignorance on the part of yourself and the organization you represent.

D-ro Read has written a nice followup on the LAN party. I thing he's exactly right. For many things, discussion on the Internet(s) will work fine, but at some point, you can be a lot more productive when you have everyone face to face. The work on the webpages was critical, but there were several other things that took place that are probably equally important.

Getting everyone up-to-speed and on-the-same-page is a lot easier face-to-face. As everyone worked, we could listen and one person would explain to another what we were doing, or how something worked, and join in if what that person was saying was different than what we thought. This back-channel communication was really valuable for achieving concensus on building the site. We also could easily change modes, from "work" to "discuss" to "play". This leads to my next point.

Mi alvenis bonorde ĉe Aŭstino eble dudek minutoj frue. D-ro Read renkontis min ĉe la pakaĵreklamilo kaj portis min al sia domo. La komputiloj alvenis bonorder ankaŭ. Mi starigis sendratan retkonekton kaj ĉio funkcias.

Dum la semajnfino, mi ne plu skribos ĉi tie: Mi skribos ĉe mia blogo ĉe la nova E-USA retpaĝaro.

For English speakers: I've arrived in Austin and for the rest of the weekend, I'll be posting in my blog at the new Esperanto-USA site we're working on.

Board members are supposed to write quarterly reports regarding their activity related to the ELNA board. I didn't write one last quarter (I think only one board-member did), but this year I resolve to do better. Below is what I submitted.

Hodiaŭ Lucy kaj mi iris al la Amherst urbocentro por partopreni la Amherst Paca Solenaĵo. Ni portis niajn ŝildojn kiuj diras "ESPERANTISTOJ KONTRAŬ MILITO" kaj oni bonvole akceptis nin. Kelkaj homoj interesiĝis pri Esperanto. Multaj ŝoforistoj rigardis dufoje kiam ili vidis kaj ne tuj komprenis la ŝildojn. Ŝajne neniu kredis ke ni varbis por Esperantan Armeon. La reago de la plejmulto estas subtena: oni svingis la manon, indikis supren, aŭ blekigis siajn aŭtojn.

I wrote about learning Esperanto with this book and wanting to make it available via Project Gutenberg. Our first request was denied because the laws make the rights unclear, so we solicited a letter from the publisher that would establish the work as public domain. We got a reply, forwarded the letter to PG and, on Christmas morning, the email giving us clearance was in my in-box! The project is on!

Ekde mia juneco, mi kaj mia frato esploris prepari italan pasteĉon. Mi ŝatas pensi ke mi nun estas spertulo: mi povas komenci kun faruno kaj tomata pasto, kaj post horo kaj duono, jen bongustan italan pasteĉon. Kiam mi estis junulo, mi studis en Hispanio. Mi loĝis kun maljuna virino kiu preparis por ni ĉiujn manĝojn. Mi decidis danki ŝin per preparo de italan pasteĉon. Ŝi iom dubis ĉu ŝi lasu nin fari tion (iufoje, usona knabino kiu restis ĉe ŝi preparis ovaĵon, kiu estis bruligita "kiel karbono", ŝi diris). Sed finfine ni konvinkis ŝin. Mi kaj mia amiko vojaĝis al magazeno kaj aĉetis ĉion necesan. Estis tre malfacila trovi ĉion: oni vokas aferojn malsame en malsamaj landoj. Mozarela fromaĝo oni ne havas: ni devis uzi "francan fromaĝon". "Pepperoni" oni ne havis: ni devis uzi ĉorizon. Sed ni trovis ĉion necesan, preparis la pasteĉon kaj montri ĝin al ŝi. Ŝi miris kiom bona ĝi aspektis: "Que presentación!" ŝi diris. Kaj ĝi ja estis tre bongusta.

There were only six esperantists (seven, including the 3 month old infant) who came to the Zamenhof Banquet this evening. Still, it was a pleasant dinner at China Dynasty. Last year, I had to drive two hours, but this year it was only 15 minutes from home. And I got to read my speech, which was well received. Originally, I was planning to do a potluck where we would make a pot of stone soup and maybe even have a little theatrical stone soup sketch, but this worked out perfectly well.