Juan del Real

My co-worker George Lechuk is missing. He was last seen on Friday evening, November 3rd, by his roomate. His last contact with his employer was via email at around 2:30pm of the same day. His cell phone has been turned off since that time too. His car was found at Point Reyes National Seashore. It had been there since Saturday, November 4th.

A search of the park was made by park rangers by foot, helicopter, horses, and ATVs on Wednesday, November 8th. No sign of George was found and the park rangers believe that he is not in the park.

George lives and works in San Jose.

If you have any information that may help locate George, please contact Detective Jamil Carter at the Missing Persons department of the San Jose Police Department at 408-277-4786. Case number 063120488

This photo of him was taken at LinuxWorld 2006 in San Francisco.

Updates

11/17/2006: The Marin Independent Journal ran a news story about George. Read the news story.

11/17/2006: NBC11 ran a news story about George’s disappearance during the 11:00pm news

On Saturday, July 22nd, I went to see the Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge exhibition at the new de Young museum. It was opening day so there was entertainment, live music, speakers, book signing by artists, and the entrance was free. Cheech Marin was suppose make an appearance, but he didn’t make it due to an illness. The exhibition has been on tour for a few years and it is finally somewhere close where I could go see it. The exhibition actually is comprise of these three distinct exhibitions:

• Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge as Collected by Cheech Marin
• Chicano Now: American Expressions
• Chicano Encounters: Local Places and Global Communities

I bought the Chicano Visions book and had it signed by seven artists whose work is on display. The artists at the book signing were Ester Hernandez, Margaret Garcia, Carmen Lomas Garza,Chaz Bojorquez, John Valadez, Leo Limon, and Gaspar Enriquez. What impressed me most about a lot of the paintings were their size. The majority of the paintings are really big. I had seen pictures of some of the paintings on the web, but I had no clue as to their actual size until I saw them in person.

• More event photos
• Video: Cheech gives a tour of the exhibit, plus interview
• Podcast: Interview with Cheech regarding the exhibit

This week we had a few Spare the Air days and I took advantage of the free public transportation provided to try commuting by rail. From downtown San Francisco I rode CalTrain to Mountain View. From there I jumped onto a Light Rail Train and rode it to San Jose. I got off the light rail train a street block away from where I work. It couldn’t be any easier. Commuting this way takes me an hour and a half - fifteen minutes longer than when I drive in to work on a good day. I don’t think its bad at all. I’ll definitely be commuting by rail more often.