An Experiment

So I'm rather tempted to just copy and paste my journal into a blog post. Since I journal every night, this would make blogging considerably easier, as I would not have to dedicate the time to coming down to the clinic and typing up a blog post. So...here goes. ;)

07.13.2010 - Tuesday

9:20PM

Steve and I put up fence on the west side of the compound today. In the morning, we got everything together and stretched out the chain-link, making sure it was long enough. Then Steve welded one end, and attached a board/metal tongue to the far end, attaching it to the truck winch and pulling it mostly tight. By then, it was time for lunch. After lunch, we continued working on the fence, getting it stretched as much as possible and then arc-welding it to the re-bar coming out of the concrete wall.

Once we got the fence up and welded at both ends, we called it good and packed up the welding tools. At some point, Steve will pour a couple of concrete posts along the fence and weld the fence to it there too. Steve then had me use a pick and break up an area of ground that was used to mix concrete and still had a layer of the material hardened on the ground. I have not used a pick in a long time, and I got worn out quite quickly. Steve and I contemplated on the practicality and usefulness of being short compared to the aesthetic-ness of being tall.

Around 3:15, Faith asked me if I could go down and look at one of their net books (an HP mini) that wasn't connecting to the internet. I worked on it for about an hour before the internet appeared to fail altogether. I will have to work on it again tomorrow, after the hospital people get done with it. Basically, MSN was installed and then un-installed along with Norton Anti-Virus. Windows Support indicated that there is often something called “SYMTDI” that needs to be deleted from the registry before the internet will work. I could not locate that file, and so am attempting to look for other things that are wrong. So far, the only thing I can see is that the DHCP Client and WZC don't automatically start upon Windows start-up. . . but even when I turn them to automatic and turn them on, it still won't connect. But at that point the internet started to get flaky. I will go back tomorrow and finish up on them. If I have time, that is, because the Wilson's are coming tomorrow, and I don't know if I will have time to actually get anything done.

We played Poker tonight. I decided to go all in on a two pair jack high, and actually won the pot! I finished with 240, and Faith was in second (she folded on the last hand) with 168. I was pretty excited and giggly for a while after that. Lol

07.14.2010 - Wednesday

7:50 PM

Today was a pretty decent day. :) In the morning, after breakfast and getting dressed, I went down to the clinic and worked a bit more on the HP Mini. It's weird. Sometimes I'll boot it up and the DHCP client won't start automatically and so the computer won't connect to the internet. Upon starting the Client manually, the Mini connected to the network and everything was fine. . . except for the fact that Internet Explorer would not open about 70% of the time. The DHCP Client started automatically about half the time, and some of those times IE would open too. I'm really not sure what else to do with it now. If it was my computer, I'd probably do a repair reinstall and see if that helped anything. But it is not my computer, and since it's refurbished, I don't even know if it has the root directory that contains the reinstall or repair files, so . . .

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9:15PM

About 10:30, I stopped working on the net books and came back up to the house to get ready to go with Steve. We were going to pick up the Wilson family from Mole St. Nicholas. They were being flown in by MAF to the airstrip down there. We left at 11:00 and got down to the airstrip around 12:30 or so. Since the flight was not expected to come in until around 1:30, we went to the end of the airstrip and a little past it to the ocean. There was an incredible gale coming in off the water, and the waves were all white-capped. It was pretty awesome. Hard to hear someone talk though. After we stood there for a bit, we went back up to the airstrip to wait for the plane. Steve and I talked for a while about Catholicism and the problems and non-problems with it. I hadn't thought about it, but the early church, from the 4^th century onwards, was basically Catholic. There was no other 'Church' of the time. If you came to Christ from the 4^th century at least until the Eastern Orthodox Church was established, you very likely came to Him within the Catholic church. That was something I'd never thought about before. We also discussed (on the drive down, really) whether God is in control of the world, how we define Evil when perhaps to God it is Good, defining 'control' and 'allowance', etc. It was an interesting conversation that leaves me somehow eager to return to the States and discuss it again with Mrs. H. We've had some good conversations, and I would be interested in again pursuing the debate.

Plane got in on/around time, and we got the Wilson family loaded up. There are two girls and one boy in the family. Chalice is 16, Mikayla is 14, and Joe is. . . 12? I think. Mr and Mrs Wilson are both doctors. Mrs Wilson and her two daughters rode up front with Steve and Joe and Scott rode on the top of the truck while I rode on the bumper. After 45 minutes or so, Scott came down on the bumper with me and Joe moved inside the back of the truck. Scott and I talked for quite a while, discussing everything from our Testimonies to my appendectomy.

Tomorrow I am hoping to work with Scott in the clinic. We'll see how that goes.

A little while after we got back from Mole, I went down to the clinic to get my net book that I'd left down there and to check and return emails. After a while Scott and Steve came down. Steve gave Scott a tour of the clinic. The Wilsons have been here before, but Scott wanted a refresher on where things were. After the tour, Scott came and sat down in the office with me to work on the computer for a bit. We spent a fair amount of time there before a storm moved in and Scott lost the signal on his internet. Grace came down about that time with a couple of unbrellas for us. Turned out we didn't need them, as the rain let up enough for us to walk back to the house in relative peace.

The Wilsons brought a basketball, and we ended up playing some for a while. It rained after we'd been out there for half an hour, and while the rest of the young people kept playing with the ball, I stepped under a covered porch, as I don't much like rain and wetness. :p People apparently got their fair share of rain, and when the storm had passed over, everyone came inside. Spoons, Mafia, and Dutch Blitz was played until 8:30 or so, at which point the Wilsons went to their house (the Byer's old house) and to take showers and hit the sack. I'm meeting Scott at 7:00 tomorrow to go down to the clinic so he can work on his computer a bit more before the morning rush starts. Speaking of which, I should go to bed . . .

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So there you go! There is a taste of both my journal and a couple of days in the life of yours truly! Let me know if this is an okay blogging style, or if you would prefer something else. :)

- Josiah