http://johnbokma.com/ John Bokma, a freelance Perl programmer living in Mexico http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/26/hiking-near-acultzingo-north.html After a nice breakfast in the nearby "La Braza", we went back to the hotel "Mediterráneo" to pick up the stuff for our planned hike near Acultzingo. Esme asked in the hotel for directions to Acultzingo. A friendly older man, probably the owner, explained to her that we should go down 6 blocks and take [...] 2008-05-04T02:42Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/21/vaejovis-punctatus-mating.html In the night I decided to put a male scorpion (species probably Vaejovis punctatus), with a female of the same species. The male was wild collected as a very small juvenile back in 2005 - when my mother was visiting us - either near Laguna de Alchichica (Puebla) or near El Limón Totalco (Veracruz). The [...] 2008-05-02T23:17Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2007/03/18/peek-in-our-house.html Today I made some photos to enlighten the "Pots ur crib!" thread I started on a message board last [...] 2008-05-02T20:56Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/29/pectinal-tooth-count-centruroides-orizaba.html In the evening I decided to count the pectinal teeth of both specimen of Centruroides orizaba I had wild collected last Saturday near the town of Acultzingo, Veracruz. I was already sure that one specimen was male, and the other female, but not 100% sure that both are Centruroides [...] 2008-04-30T04:40Z http://johnbokma.com/messenger/how-to-remove-background-image.html If you want to send a picture to someone via Windows Live Messenger, the easiest way to do so is is to drag the file from a folder and drop it into the area you type your instant messages. However, if you accidentally miss the typing area, you might end up with the image as a background of your conversation [...] 2008-04-23T21:17Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/22/cactus-no.html In the morning, Alice ended up with four spines in her finger. Out of curiosity, I guess, she had moved her little hand too close near one of the cactuses we have standing in our window sill. Despite having four cactus spines in her finger, she didn't cry at [...] 2008-04-22T17:52Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/21/diplocentrus-melici-catching-termite.html By the time I had my digital photo camera, a Canon A640, ready, the little scorpion had moved away from the termite. But then it noticed another termite, which it grabbed and stung. So I could make a nice photo of the little scorpion holding its [...] 2008-04-22T04:41Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/19/more-storage-space-diy.html Today, after lunch, I started to work on the second storage space in our stairwell, underneath the first one. The first one had filled up much sooner than anticipated, and since there was plenty of space for an additional level of storage I had decided to do some more work. All photos that follow where [...] 2008-04-22T02:34Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/19/tarantula-terrarium-makeover.html Around seven in the evening I decided to clean up one section of the tarantula terrarium. The enclosure has two sections, divided by a piece of glass, each housing a Cyclosternum fasciatum (Costa Rican tigerrump). The tarantula spider in the right section has been hidden from view, it its burrow under [...] 2008-04-20T03:11Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/19/more-diplocentrus-bereai-photos.html Today, after I had written the Diplocentrus bereai blog entry, I decided to feed the 6 offspring of the female Diplocentrus bereai some termites I had captured yesterday. Of course I also wanted to take photos of those juvenile scorpions, hopefully in [...] 2008-04-20T02:54Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/19/bear-shaped-hotcakes.html When Esme asked me what I wanted for breakfast today, I answered "hotcakes". Last Thursday we had seen the first part of the movie "27 Dresses", in which a father makes bear shaped hotcakes for his daughters. When we saw the nice shape, Esme and I discussed how hard it would [...] 2008-04-20T02:54Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/04/15/diplocentrus-bereai.html In the evening I decided to move the adult female Diplocentrus bereai I keep, to a new enclosure. I kept the scorpion in one section (15 x 20 x 15 cm) of a fish tank (31 x 20 x 15 cm) divided in two sections with a piece of [...] 2008-04-19T19:58Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/03/fixing-a-heatsink-problem-in-a-compaq-presario.html At the end of the day I had decided to fix the heatsink issue in my Compaq Presario myself. Around 4 o'clock, when Esme went out to do some shopping I asked her to buy thermal grease at the Steren shop, and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol to remove the old thermal [...] 2008-04-09T22:27Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/01/mating-scorpions-from-molcaxac-puebla.html The male wandered around, and detected with its pectines - structures underneath its body that look like feathers, acting as both mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors - that a female was living nearby. I think it's correct to write: the male detected the pheromones of the female. The male started to look [...] 2008-04-07T22:09Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/20/sexing-pandinus-imperator.html Although I was quite sure the Emperor scorpion I had bought today was a female, I wanted to be 100% sure. So I looked up on the Internet, using the almighty Google, how to sex Pandinus [...] 2008-04-03T22:04Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/20/handling-pandinus-imperator.html The Emperor scorpion (Pandinus imperator), is well known for being extremely docile, and easy to handle. Together with being huge, and looking tough, the reason why it's used in quite some movies. Don't be surprised to see this species walk in broad daylight in a Mexican desert while watching a [...] 2008-04-03T21:59Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/20/pandinus-imperator-terrarium.html As soon as we returned from our shopping in Plaza las Americas, I started to work on the housing for the Emperor scorpion (Pandinus imperator, imported from Ghana, Africa) I had bought in the pet shop, Mascota. I had decided to use the terrarium of an adult female Centruroides gracilis to house the Pandinus [...] 2008-04-03T21:59Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/03/not-buying-hp-in-mexico.html Today, after I had discovered that the heatsink of the "North Bridge" in my Compaq Presario SR1505LA was no longer in place, I decided to contact HP via their online support chat. I was already afraid that the chat would be going nowhere, since the Compaq was older than one year, and it was one of those [...] 2008-04-01T22:51Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/03/03/intel-core2-duo-cpu-heatsink-fan.html Last Thursday I made several photos of the inside of the Dell Vostro 200 Slim Tower I bought recently. Since the CPU fan is attached at an angle to the heatsink, I decided before installing Ubuntu 7.10, to open up the Vostro and take a close-up photo to show that the fan is connected safe and sound to [...] 2008-03-12T00:16Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/19/three-tolkien-treasures.html Today, in the morning, a big surprise was delivered at our door. I heard the doorbell, and when I looked out of the window to check who was at the door, it was the postman. I went down to receive the package. Sice four days ago it was my birthday, I assumed it was a birthday [...] 2008-03-05T20:06Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/18/ Today Esme took Alice to "Early stimulation class". She has been five or six times before, and Alice enjoys each visit a lot. During class Alice is examined to see how her skills are progressing and if she grows [...] 2008-03-05T17:42Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/17/low-light-photos-xalapa.html After an excellent dinner at "La Salsa Brava", a restaurant co-owned by a classmate of Esme, we decided to walk to the house of Esme's mother to pay her a visit. I had taken my digital photo camera with me, A Canon A640, and since it was getting quite dark, I decided to take some low light [...] 2008-03-05T17:46Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/28/inside-dell-vostro-200-slim-tower.html Tuesday, the 19th of Februari the Dell Vostro 200 Slim Tower I ordered without Windows tax arrived. Back then I had unpacked the brand new computer, and placed it on my desk, but besides opening it and have a look at the inside, I hadn't done anything else with it because I've been too busy with various [...] 2008-02-29T02:54Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/26/ubuntu-hardy-heron-alpha-acer-aspire-4320.html In the evening I downloaded the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 5 i386 ISO using µTorrent. I downloaded the required torrent file from the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) Alpha 5 image download [...] 2008-02-28T19:36Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/26/block-in-the-cup-game.html This afternoon I "invented" a game for Alice and me to play. I had tried before to let her put her Lego Duplo bricks back in the big plastic bucket they came in (no. 4085), but that was some time ago, and she didn't got the game back then. Today she had been playing with a plastic drink cup. When I put [...] 2008-02-28T17:00Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/11/dell-vostro-200-windows-tax-free-mexico.html Today, about an hour after what could only have been considered another fruitless chat with Dell sales in which I was told that my order was impossible, Esme's mobile phone rung. I was reading "Serpent Mage", the fourth novel in the The Death Gate Cycle series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, in our [...] 2008-02-14T05:06Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/11/dell-2407wfp-hc-and-2208wfp-arrived-today.html Today, around noon, the two Dell monitors I ordered online, Friday the 1st of February, arrived. Two large carton boxes, which I carried up the winding stairs leading to our apartment one by [...] 2008-02-14T05:02Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/11/ Today the two Dell monitors, an UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC, and an UltraSharp 2208WFP, I had ordered Friday the first of Februari online via the website of Dell Latin America where delivered. The original order also included a Dell Vostro 200 system. But when I finally had tracked down my sales representative, [...] 2008-02-14T05:16Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/01/12/scorpion-in-the-kitchen.html Late in the night, Esme called me from the kitchen to come look at the wall. She had found something. I was already in the bed, undressed, and didn't bother to put something on when I went down to the kitchen. And when I looked at the wall, I was able to see what she had found, even without contacts, [...] 2008-02-13T23:50Z http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/05/blocking-ip-addresses-utorrent.html Last Sunday I added a torrent to my favorite bittorrent client: µTorrent. The download went quite fast in the beginning, but after sometime it crawled close to a halt. When I checked the "Peers" tab in µTorrent I noticed something very odd. A two groups of very similar IP addresses, all using the same [...] 2008-02-08T04:26Z