Monday 29
I watched Taxi Driver a few days ago... there are so many great lines in that movie... and Robert DeNiro's voice I mean...
Travis Bickle: The days go on and on... they don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention, I believe that one should become a person like other people.
That is just great. I have been writing. I want to write something decent for a change, not sure what the story should be though. I tend to focus on using characters with sanity issues. Insanity, seems like the one place left that is magical... you know viewing it through the eyes of madman you can invent anything you want. Plus being in Vanuatu can definitely create some stress and make you question your own state of mind.
Back to a more blah note of the day... My Principle and I went into the TVL/Digicel and talked with them face to face. Tomorrow we better get the flybox system I am just sick of their lame ass excuses. If we get it then it think we will have a functioning internet versus the partially working hit and miss crap we have at the moment. TVL should change its name to WDAPIS "we don't actually provide internet services". No that is a not that good... it should be a funny acronym, ugh... I can come up with a better one but I am tired.
5:00pm
I spoke with a few people back home and miss being there. I miss being apart of something that matters. Seems like when you build or complete a project in the states people say thanks... good work or encourage you in some ways and actively participate in the project with you. I miss that feeling of doing something that matters. I wonder if I will feel like that again here.
So far nothing in the last few months means anything here. It is almost pointless. Dig a hole, fill a hole. That is what they made my dad do doing basic training in the army for months, pointless work. Fix a PC, a PC dies. So what. No one here bothers to watch me to learn how. Oh well. Trying to not give up hope. Maybe I can find a way to get a dedicated counterpart versus a full time over worked teacher/counterpart. If he spends all his time in a classroom how is he supposed to learn anything about supporting a network and fixing them, or learning new things. He/she won't = pointless.
7:00pm
This looks interesting as well: https://ello.co/wtf/post/about-ello
New social media app... this was bound to happen. Sorry facebook stock, I might have to sell you in a few months if this really catches fire. I sort of hate facebook so I hope it does gets popular.
And now for my next magic trick, my counterpart ask me to: find a user password cracker to unlock a PC because a student forgot their own password. Not surprising. Until I began issuing out password to people using a pattern I never forget and locking their reset ability, people at my school would forget or changed their password so fast it made my head spin. Some would forget their password the second they finished entering it. It annoyed me to tears. And these were adults.
The easy solution blow the whole HD away. But I am tempted to hack into this piece of junk computer. Wonder what kind of tools exist for such things now.
Oh and I am working on making a new set of door to this beat up old junk
of a locker in my bedroom:
Not bad eh... need to get a left handed door set tomorrow.
I got stupidly two right handed ones.
Grr.. Love wasting money.
It feels nice not having to look at ugly clutter. Back in my condo I tossed every non essential thing in a storage locker and I had a very starkly ornamented home. I miss that.
(30) Tuesday
7:00am
Shit it's tuesday.
2:31pm
It was looking like another nothing day... but a miracle has happened. TVL brought us the FlyBOX... Yes. 1 Meg... unlimited, 21,000K (210usd) per month. Hell Yah. All the computers connected. Not much hassle except for one and I think I can fix that... now... I have to contain my enthusiasm. I am going to see how it looks tomorrow. The next day and for the next two weeks... It it stays up and running HOWALUYA!
Also got my antiboxics from Mike... and installed a decent antivirus software on my mac because I am paranoid now of all the viruses on these usb that float around the school.
Decently productive day. This is what it looks like when the students have internet again:
happiness.........
This is was the last PC I got working in the office and I took this alice in wonderland photo of the
place to show you...
Then,
I was having too much fun not to use this panorama upgrade on the IOS 8.0.2
Not to take this photo of the front gate of my school
Here is a nice little writeup in the local paper about Peace Corps in Vanuatu: http://vanuatu.peacecorps.gov/history-peacecorps-vanuatu.php
(01) Wednesday
This got done this week... I mean internet day 2... was fine. Woohoo. Lets see what day 3 brings.
I worked on a few things, cleaning the wood workshop... it was so filthy I removed 6 wheelbarrows of sawdust and crap that they burned in a fire it was so gross.
Second I cut a piece of lumber to make my new cabinet doors and almost finished it.
Need to figure out how to deploy gepi into WAMP to migrate off this one PC and use it for the principles computer.
Went to Rich's place and fixed up his house preventing cockroaches from entry into his home via the drains... I put screens on them all.
Played Ultimate frisbee, it was kids day it seems... not a real game just sorta playing gently for the tiny ones.
(Oct 02) Thursday
Two am... and I am awake. Looking at glasses and talking with Mary HAYAT Krotz on FB.
Just about to order some ray bans... maybe. Order them at 4:00am and Screwed up on one value ARG... dammit why did mess that up... feels like office space when the superman virus goes wrong because of some small value and the guy is lamenting his plight. I am that guy too.
10:44am
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This week should be titles getting shit done week... finished another cabinet door. Looks great.
Downloading new prince album... wonder if the purple one sucks again or has renewed his sound... fingers crossed.
Installed office on onld PC and making it new and shiny again...
Trying to figure out WAMP still.... ugh. But once that is done then I am golden.
Time to walk into town and see whatever happened to the MUG molly gave me to cut the bottom out of... if that guy found a blowtorch and did that... victory.
Tomorrow Len visits my site and then... that is over.
Walked into town took some more panoramas.
Had this for lunch... and it was really good.
SEE... I was excited enough to take 2 photos.
11:23pm
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Worked a few hours in the Lab I think one PC's network card is burned out... the other I cannot figure out why it cannot connect to the server. Very odd.
I made two new web accounts today...
New social network I hear about and wanted to see it.
https://ello.co/da5id_
and a reddit account.
Was very curious about both. Not sure what to do with either.
(Oct 03) Friday
Had my site visit by Len happened this morning... made him some potatoes too while I was at it... I was hungry.
I suggested that we ask the principle to either hire a dedicated IT counterpart or another teacher to reduce the amount of classes Samuel has so he can actually have time to learn how to support the lab and computers at the school. If he is teaching 7 classes there is no way he can learn how to be an effective IT support tech.
Not much else going on really. Would like to get a network card to fix one computer. Have to look into that idea.
Looking at some old photos wish I had some canvas to paint on.
So........ back to thinking.
4:oopm
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Alright walked over to rich's place and met up with Hunter, Monica, Mike Stafford, Bryan and Kate... and Rich. We went to the sarakata bridge and jumped off twice. This photo is from a smaller bridge but has a decent photo of me... the ones after this are on the big bridge but you can barely see me.
It is a little disturbing not gonna lie... I am not sure how far it is down to the water from the top but it must be at least twenty feet... maybe even thirty feet. I feel like taking a rope over and meaning how far down it is. I am going to walk over there and use a rope ot measure it to be accurate.
After "convergence" as we called the jumping off the bridge we had a true sausagefest grilling party at my place. We ate 29 sausages on garlic toasted buns, with mustard, ketchup, onions, fried potatoes, and after some cheesy chips ala microwaved while watching Broad City in Cinema One (my living room). It was a pretty epic event.
(04) Saturday
Gave mr. Stafford the hotel David Treatment... pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, coffee while polishing off the Rick & Morty a-thon... he is now fully MOrtified. Another to join into full membership of my church of humor.
After that I went into town bought a new bike tire, and groceries from LCM before it closes for the most of the day... and went home to blog.
I sort of wonder where Mike Hawkins disappeared to... even Len is wondering where he is. Guess he's MIA... you out there Mike? Come back... join the Peace Corps world again... Don't disappear like Hunter did for months on end... oh well.
Well time to measure the bridge. I am betting its like 30 feet to the water.
12:19pm
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NO. I was wrong. It is 20 feet, almost perfectly... at low tide, at high tide it is 17 feet from bottom of where our feet were on the bridge to the water below. That is like the height of a light pole / power line pole. It is pretty high to jump from that to the ground. Look at light pole next time and ask yourself how that would feel landing on the ground... but hitting the water is obviously not going to hurt like hitting the ground. It still is for me a bit of an adrenaline rush. I felt exhausted after hitting the water twice.
Not sure what to do now. Guess read and work on short stories.
I have not seen the cat that hangs out around my place... I named him Linklyn. Very friendly and most importanly a killer of rats. The place has not had a problem since she showed up. Linklyn has a huge tumor on her face/neck. It's a little scary and sad looking. Rich is in love with this cat. DON'T STEAL MY CAT... you are gone in like 2 months, I need this cat to keep the rats away.
4:00pm
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So my bike had a flat tire and Rich volunteered to help me fix it. We put it together and walked over to the gas station "paradise petroleum" and tried to fill it... but it had a flat. The new tire. Flat. Things here are sold as junk.
Lamented for a few minutes... considered getting the store to exchange it... but then Rich went to his house and found a patch. We patch them up and talked to this Ni-Van from Malakula as we killed time. He fixed one Rich fixed the other. Rich commented on the patch job the No-Van did as being better figures he probably patched a couple million tires in his life here.
And it worked WOOHOO... I can bike again. Thanks Rich.
Then we went back and watch some more Rick and Morty. Everyone should be Mortified if possible.
5:00pm
Rich fell asleep after two episodes so I decided to write and read again. Almost halfway done with this one book "Miles Walker You're Dead" by Linda Jaivin. I like it. About an artist and people who live a crazy life in Sydney Australia. I highly recommend reading it.
It rained most of the day on and off... I like how cool the air feels at the moment. It really is nice almost like air conditioning but not as frigid. And there are not many kids running around screaming their brains out because it is raining just a few birds singing some shit I never heard before unfamiliar sounding they are all very short calls, ka-zaah, ka-zaah and betatabeta... but with them overlapping it is a constant noise. I like it. Mostly the lack of screaming kids (like a murder just occurred) is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice. Anything but that I will take.
(05) Sunday
Not much going on at the moment... rained a bit. Len visited me one last time to fill in an eval document. I did not run to meet him I just sat at my house and waited for him.
Skype session with my folks. It was nice. Not much going on back home. Temps are dropping. They are going to go for a walk. We used to have a shopping mall near my parents house in the area I grew up called Apache Plaza. It was one of the first big malls in the USA... Houston had the first, Minneapolis had the second with Southdale but this plaza was built in the 1961 and maybe since it was not large enough to be labeled a Mall it did not make the record books. But it was a great building. I miss it. It was demolished in 2004. We talked about this
building... click around this site to see the glorious decline of a 70's and 80's centerpiece of my childhood: apacheplaza.com It was a great place to walk around in the middle of the winter.
But it was getting creepier since there were no stored left just a dead shell. That place was magical in some ways. One of my most fun jobs was at this mall... in the Black photo shop, which later became Ritz... then when that left it was a empty store. Ritz camera, I think is pretty close to bankrupt now yup... dead: Ritz_Camera they filed for bankruptcy. I think mostly smart phones killed the camera. Oh but back to the mall, the bowling alley was the best. It had my favorite arcade game ever, Star Wars, where you get to blow up the death star. And it was a great bowling alley.
4:oopm
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We started making a homebrew...
