Week 28 - brewing beer here blows

(06) Monday

28 aka Week 37 out of 112 total weeks 

I started counting from the time training ended and I arrived in Santo as week one. But one PC started the count from the day we landed in country... if you add those in, that adds 9 weeks so 37 weeks in all, in a really strange country. Not sure which I should use. Hm... training being such a HUGE HUGE HUGE waste of time and money and energy I don't want count them. They are just tooooooo Horrible a memory. I will skip them.

We have the day off I know that so... it will be a good day to work on some side projects.

OKay... so it is teachers day and I was roped into taking photos as the government center. I went there at 8am... and no one is there. Ah Vanuatu... land of no one shows up on time.

Here are a few photos from today.

The speeches at the government building were very boring but oh well.

and here is ultimate frisbee photos:

Not much really happened today... the beer is not fermenting so will have to look into that tomorrow. 

Oh I forgot last week We made some hamburgers too...

(07) Tuesday

Very slow start to the day. Been researching a few things about using Wamp for php apps. Also doing some story writing but I am not sure what direction my story should take... should I go off into a fantasy where the character are running for their lives or dial it back to reality... not sure.

I need to get some yeast and attempt to get this beer fermenting. It is doing nothing.

Also I want to get some hardware for a computer two things, some DDR2 ram, and a nic card.

Should go check the internet at the school this will be a whole week of it running fine.

8:00pm
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Weird day or maybe just normal Vanuatu day, but after hours or just sitting around at my house I ventured up to the school around noon and from there I went on a trek with my Principle and accountant, I should learn his name. I talk to more than most people at my school, since he pays for all the expensive hardware I end up getting, to fix all the broke things at my school. I thought I was just going to john Lum store... aka the best buy of Vanuatu in Santo/Luganville. But NO.

We went on this round about journey to a Ni-Van's house who is a butcher and my principle needed to ask him if he would be willing to slaughter and clean a goat for a pre-game festival/feast for the rugby tournament that is happening this week. I guess my school is heavily involved in this game and they bought a huge ass goat for the feast. After asked this guy to cut up the meat we went to this French guys place and picked up two more people to get the goat. Then we went and got the meat... then we dropped me off at John Lum... which I thought was a mid trip thing and they would pick me up... no dice. I walked home. They never came back. On my way home I checked on a bunch of things though.. like how much a thermometer cost at uncle bills, if I have mail post office, how much for baking yeast for beer problem solving... then i got home.

Yup. then I worked on some computer problems and found out I am substituting for Samuel my counterpart for a week... as he goes somewhere, no idea where.

That was my random day.

(08) Wednesday

So there will be an eclipse today.

When the eclipse happens worldwide

Lunar eclipses look approximately the same all over the world and happen at the same time.
The times displayed might be a minute or two off actual times.

Event	UTC Time	Time in Luganville*	Visible in Luganville
Penumbral Eclipse begins	Oct 8 at 8:17 AM	Oct 8 at 7:17 PM	Yes
Partial Eclipse begins	Oct 8 at 9:18 AM	Oct 8 at 8:18 PM	Yes
Full Eclipse begins	Oct 8 at 10:27 AM	Oct 8 at 9:27 PM	Yes
Maximum Eclipse	Oct 8 at 10:55 AM	Oct 8 at 9:55 PM	Yes
Full Eclipse ends	Oct 8 at 11:22 AM	Oct 8 at 10:22 PM	Yes
Partial Eclipse ends	Oct 8 at 12:32 PM	Oct 8 at 11:32 PM	Yes
Penumbral Eclipse ends	Oct 8 at 1:32 PM	Oct 9 at 12:32 AM	Yes

* The Moon is above the horizon during this eclipse, so with good weather conditions in Luganville, the entire eclipse is visible. My morning had been restless as usual waking up at 4am watching the sun rise and talking to people back in the states... I saw my fridge melt all the ice inside into a worthless puddle of water on my kitchen floor, my bike tire flat again and all my food going to waste. But the beer is bubbling so I know it is fermenting.

I worked on a couple computers in the lab, fixing one's nic card issue... but getting neither of them on the network. Not sure why. Managed to show my counterpart a couple tasks for the first time in weeks.

Had a chat with my friend Mary about a story idea... it is intriguing. I shall give it a shot.

4:00pm
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Full strange day as normal. I sat in a classroom from 1:30-4:00pm and helped teach a bit about excel. I think excel is one of the worst programs ever made but I get how it can be useful from time to time. It is sad that it's considered IT in this country.

I managed to get two computers back into circulation, one for the principal and the other in a conference room. Both we very troublesome about getting onto the network. I had to use some command line tricks to get it to work. But once I did that they were members of LUGANVILLE woohoo... and now I don't have to look at the crappy PC in french anymore or try and translate it back and forth all the time on the principles PC. I just can login with my account ,in english, fix any problem and log off... and then the principal can login and look at his desktop in whatever language or keyboard configuration and not be annoyed too.

After those successes I decided to go into town and eat a pizza. It was a waste of money a bit... but since i have nothing of any interest to eat at my place I spluged. Share a slice with Rich and wandered back home on foot until I get my bike fixed. Maybe tomorrow.

Yeah and at 7-9am tomorrow I am teaching again. I don't really know what to do to kill my time... maybe diagram the network and try and get the admins to work on the website. There is not much to do in that class it is a basic typing class. Kids are just learning how to use their fingers to type.

9-midnight
--------------
Watched the moon eclipse. It was really great. Made my neighbors look too. They never saw anything like it... they were not even sure it was the moon at first. I was online too and made sure to get 4-5 other people to look out their window and see this... well hope you did too.

(09) Thursday

3am and I can't sleep. Shocking right? Blog time I guess.

Had a long day of teaching and then went home and crashed but people in the Peace Corps wanted to cheer me up because everything at my house is breaking so they came over and we made pumpkin soup

CHeck out these photos... I have not scrathed a coconut since training village time... Little rusty.

Planning stages:

Some serious bran storming... Rich seems to not approve for a minute...

The next party we planned out using my white Board... Kate is the the drawer... Used two colors of markers for enhanced readability. Good Job Kate. I like the turtle drawing and the hamburger.





(10) Friday

8:16 am and I am in a classroom teaching basic stuff in excel stuff... so bright... should get better blinds in that room.

So much to do today after this class.
1) Get the fridge fixed
2) Patch tire
3) Ask for gas in tank for cooking just went dead last night.

Fingers crossed on the top two .

4:00pm
Ended up dropping off the fridge at super cool but if they actually fix it soon is a real question. I doubt it. I patched my tired again after I found the metal shrapnel that was popping it every time and thought that would solve the problem but it went flat again. No clue why... but will try again.

I ran into Daria and had a decent conversation... she's quite funny in my opinion.

6:oopm
Then I went over to Kate and Bryan's and had some spaghetti with Mike Stafford, Rich. It was so good.


(11) Saturday

There are many things I really hate the sound:
  1) of clothing being scrubbed on washboard or whatever is making the non-stop noise.
  2) of the fijian rugby team screaming and WHOOping about every stupid thing they tell each other
  3) of dogs murderously barking all night.

Oh well... I have speakers and I can drown them out constantly. I wish I had a soundproof building I could shut myself into.

Today there is the ruby match... I might go but mostly so I talk with a few people that plan to be there.

Time to do some work in the lab and fix my tire again.

I ended up skipping the rugby game because it was non-stop raining and by the time I got my tire fixed it was 4:30 and the game was almost over. I feel bad about missing it.

Had a burger at HQ... and fixed my burner to work... later we mostly all got together at the kava bar near the phillips gas station. Hunter and Sam were a no show.

Walked back with Rich and waited for Matt H. to show up and wait for Rich's food to show up at the small restaurants by the Mama's market.

(12) Sunday

It seems like I might have the wrong impression about my house. It really does not belong to me in the sense that I am its primary resident at the moment... it really is the house of ants and I am its honored guest. My job is to provide them, things to eat. I am a terrible host, I patched up several holes in the wall and destroyed entry for the landlord ants.

Time to crank my music as well so I can kill the blather from my neighbors all squeaking in high pitched local language and laughing in madman outbursts.

11:00am
Rich, Matt H and I went for a bike ride up to LopeLope... and of course it pours buckets of rain. Non-stop pretty much. We waded into the water it was shallow and Matt is doing his absolute best to freak me out about sand sharks. About how the depth of the water was the perfect level for them to sneak up on us and take a leg off. Great. Saw no sharks. I will post a couple photos later.

4:00pm
At night... we had a great BBQ event... everyone in Luganville showed up, Even Hunter a few hours late but he made it. Bryan, Kate, Rich, Mike Stafford and Hawkins, Sam, Jes, Hunter, Matt Hardwick and myself.

We made hamburgers, sausages, fired potatoes, with onions and garlic and lemon pepper tomatoes, ketchup and mustard and all kind of thing like that. It was beautiful. Then we watched a few shows, saw the episode of Broad City I forgot to show in the series 01. And then We watched some Twin Peaks.... I had this nugget planted in my brain from my friend back home, Mary so we watched episode 1-2 and the pilot which is an hour and 30 minutes. so committed some hours to this.

They liked it... Rich is on the fence about it, he thinks it is pretty weird. But the ones that stayed for the them mostly liked it.

Week 27 - Another week in Purgadice, The Days Don't End.

[Sept 29 - Oct 5]

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
-----------
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.

I love how the panoramics distort stuff like this car, how it became a super mini.

Had this for lunch... and it was really good.

SEE... I was excited enough to take 2 photos.

11:23pm
-----------
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
-----------

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
----------
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
---------

We started making a homebrew...

week 26 - The internet is dead. Long live the paper and pen

(22) Monday
I keep trying to fight the seemingly inevitable getting TVL's internet service and my school to work together. I have nearly 99% given up on them. One last attempt at getting the fly box if not I will ask to switch over to Digicel.

When my internet at home Digicel runs slowly as i download things like Escape Velocity Nova or http://www.avira.com/en/free-antivirus-mac#start-download-mac I just use Lynxlet... A lynx port
version the original browser:

Lynx:

What I like about this goofy browser is it reminds me of the 80's when nothing worked right but we were happy we had something.. The Atari 2600 is a good example of that. It still works too this browser and since sometimes my connection speed is so painfully slow this browser ignore image data, javascript and everything else that requires more bits of useless bandwidth that does not change the content of the site I want too much... it's great... 80's ugly and yet useful Lynx.

And this little Silly game I am playing: Escape Velocity is a gem that Bryan got me into...

...again this is very dated software (2003ish), but still fun. Not ultra high end graphics but its very playable.. and with an old school look. This company that makes this game also wrote Defcon... which is what one of my favorite nerd movies is based on WarGames... which is the reason one of the reasons I loved computers and writing code... the main character (played by Matthew Broderick) David (movies with David Characters also a weakness of mine, yes because my name is David) at one early point in the movie Changes a girl he likes D in Math to an A by hacking into the schools computer... and She kind of falls in love with him.... This is pretty much every nerds dream, doing something with a computer and a girl likes you for the end result, and yet this is pretty much never the case.

This game makes me think while playing it "One day I will conquer this world." Oh you can see one of my ships, I upgraded to a fighter it's hovering above the saturn like planet watching some capital ship duke it out.

5:00pm
----------
Waited all day for anything with my principle making a decision about the internet nothing. So I played a lot of video games.

Then I got word from the paycheck gods... and Hunter sent his usual we got paid text... so I ran into town and bought a ton of great groceries... I will eat like a king for the next week or so. The golden items, cereal, potatoes, a big Bailey's, mini hotdogs, some ham, eggs... and bread. I am in food nirvana for now. Tomorrow we have a mexican night with the Whippits (it's their real name and yes I always think to myself, whip it good) the Missionary family... Thank god they live here and are so nice to us.

Back to more video gaming and an Irish coffee. :)

8:48pm
---------
Hung out with Jes and Mike Hawkins, I guess I spelled his name wrong probably once... he reads this blog... if you see a Hawkings... that is a typo. Sorry Tumas.

Thomas as hung out he is a G22 Vol that stayed and got married and has to two kids here in Santo/Luganville. It was a good time... albeit a little chilly. We were at my favorite Nokemal... HQ. They have good burgers for 250-350 VT, so like 2.50-2.50 usd.

Now I am back home and ready to launch back into my space adventure of EV Nova.

(23) Tuesday

I did not sleep much again but watched a pretty amazing sunrise. I think waking up at 3am. That is normal for me though. Good time to think and or read... and not many people running around yelling like they do here so often during the day. It's wearing off (it driving me nuts) it used to bother me a lot, all the Ni-van whoops and hollering... I guess everything is just so shocking or funny to them that they need to make weird noises. But at 3am, thankfully there is none... so I can read without being distracted.

If anyone knows me that know that I LOVE coffee. I drink pots of it some times in a single day. But this Tanna Coffee they sell here is so powerful that I have to add milk to it. I am used to drinking black coffee nothing added all the time in the states, but this coffee is so raw its like sucking on the tit of the cow for milk... it just overwhelms my taste buds.

But today I am looking forward to the Missionary party... and my folks did some serious digging around to get my prescription so I can order some sunglasses.
Something like these:

But if it does not happen its ok. I just want something that is polarized and protects me from this harsh sun. I really like the ran ban look too and all the new colors are nice.












3:00pm
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TVL promised ot bring over a new modem the Flybox that I wanted 3 weeks ago. If that happens I think the connection problem goes away. Finger crossed.

9:00pm
---------
TVL never came of course but dinner at the Whipits was amazing as usual. They had make your own tacos, tons of chips and dip, lemon aide, and after cakes, and Rich and I bought ice cream and root beer for root beer floats. Best dinner I have had in ages. I starved myself all day so I could bing at this event.

(24) Wednesday

Midnight. Woke up my normal midnight time and started writing. Finished Asimov book and now am sad I have only one left to read.

Len one of the Admin IT people from the Peace Corps, is going to visit my school next week on Friday. And I am trying to figure out what I will do in November, as things totally die during break. I might try and visit Vila for a conference and then with counterpart fly to Tanna and visit the volcano since he has family there. Something to consider.

noon
------
Worked on finishing my long talked about murphy bed. Yeah... it works. It was looking kind of iffy for a moment there putting in these large steel brackets and mounting them with 1/2 bolts is not easy. They are a little bit off but I think they will last a few years. It was a pretty ambitious project I think.

2:30pm
---------
Met with TVL again... and they are going to give us a flybox modem, as promised the 5th time now this time they say they will give it to us on Friday. I am as you can guess, holding my breath. But if we do get it which somehow I doubt we will, this will be a great demo to see if the satellite connection solves our school woes.

7:oopm
---------
Well... all day I have been fighting a small cold. And now I am trying to think of a short story to write for the next van am. I skipped the last one because I did not have any great ideas and I was trying to write comedy which is the hardest things to do I think... unless you have an animated TV show and you have time to create a following and characters. But writing a one time stand alone story with less than 1000 words... that is really hard.

The kind of comedy I like is not like a whiny or like crude... the comedy central show broad city is pretty great or Rick and Morty is great but I don't want to copy them either even though R&M is basically my internal voice on life.

Might be better off skipping comedy. I went down a sci-fi path for a bit too... that is because I was reading Asimov books. Those too are pretty tough to write (sci-fi) in less than 1000 words and I was again trying in my head to be funny and it backfired horribly. I like the idea of a mystery and we had one sort of in our town... the egg conspiracy, I coined that phrase here for the 3 week disappearance of any eggs in the stores. It was not really a shortage either it was well... might write a story about it... however the that title "The Egg conspiracy" sounds more like a reproductive thing than food shortage, right?

I was up and down all night as usual. Just could not sleep plus the cold makes it worse. Started on a new short story.

(25) Thursday

7am... and I think I will try and work on a couple things, gate for short exit from house, and a cabinet face for my large locker so I can lock the cabinet up.

Also trying to get a list of pen pal names from the school next door. It is part of the world wide school program. I have a 4th grade teacher : Greensboro Day School 5401 Lawndale Drive Greensboro, NC 27455 

Looking forward to getting this started.

Should be a busy day.

2:oopm
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I am sick just don't feel like moving but I went into town checked on parts to make a new cabinet door and lock for the locker in my bedroom. Ordered a couple peice of wood to be cut. Then checked on my friends internet they are working again fine. Wish the same was true at my school. Ate a bit then slept for a few hours. Not very interesting I know but that is life. Watching Taxi Driver to cheer me up.

Rich and Bryan are at my beach practicing for the triathlon swimming bit at the beach by my house. I would join them but I can't I have a fever and am coughing too much to be outside doing stuff.

That's it... oh and I found a guy that will try and use a blow torch to cut this Mug bottom into a circle:

so that Molly Geisern can make a necklace or something out of this. Not sure how this will turn out. If I had used a hammer it would just shattered, I looked a grinder that would take about 6 years. Then tried a saw again not designed for ceramics more for metals... so that did not work. But a blow torch.. that has a shot. Or it could melt the whole thing.

(26) Friday

I have been really sick all day. Went into town got a few partd to build a cabinet door. Spoke with TVL they have me the run around again... as expected No FlyBox. I almost don't care anymore.

Now I am going to hack my brains out, sweat bullets and not sleep for 15 hours. Maybe tomorrow I will feel better.

(27) Saturday

I feel terrible. Probably will do next to nothing and such today except sleep and hurt. I am working on short story... was think in of going to Vila for a conference in November... I think I will pass. I really hate going to Vila. Maybe January I will go instead.

10am and I am just dripping in sweat. I feel half crazy. Love being sick in this country. It's just great.

(28) Sunday

Had a short skype session with my mom and dad and Mila... they are fun to talk with. Trying to figure out a way to get some sun prescription ray ban wayfarer glasses to me... very tricky business. I would order this one pair I found here: http://www.selectspecs.com/prescription/confirm/

But they are 300 bucks... and if I goof up I am trying to figure out with they will let me return them.

Wow another day. I still feel like death warmed over but soon maybe I will be feeling better... Got to skype with my friend Julia... I love her, have known her for almost a decade now. Seen her through a million changes and we are still in my tight as ever. She said she might visit me here... I doubt it will happen but I don't doubt her desire to visit. It is just expensive flying to the middle of nowhere. She told me some stuff I never really think about, such as I am the kind of guy that never lets people go.

I agree... I have friends I see once in a hundred years but I nag them via email or text message every few weeks... how are you... what's up... hi... most of the time people don't reply but I always want to retain my friendships. And she is thankful I don't give up on her. She lives in New York City and life goes at the speed of light I am sure so it's easy to forget about your small town friends from Minneapolis but Julia is someone I will love forever, like Annie and Mary... just a great soul and super funny. I will never forget the look on my dad's face when Julia and I tried to steal my neighbors canoe at 3am to use on the tiny lake near my parents home on Silver Lake. He thought we were total idiots but that is just the sort of random crap we'd do.

It's raining and the music festival is not going so great no that this bothers me... 90% of the music is so terrible it should be barred from being pumped through speakers. I wonder how the triathlon is going... Rich and Bryan are in it... with the rain and all it might make it worse or cool them off... not sure which would be worse.

Week 25 - The internet saga continues.

(15) Monday

Still no widely available internet at my school. We shall see if we switch to Digicel or see if we can get a different kind of service from TVL. I am doubtful we can get the new Flybox device setup without having an 8gig cap on data. That might last a week or a day depending on what the Nivan's do when the service is back up. Most likely they will start chewing up the data immediately.

But I can probably get some money to buy a new power supply and fix the server. That is at least a small victory.

Having no internet though is a major problem and I cannot seem to find a good solution.

3pm
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New power supply did the job, and one computer is back up and running. No luck on configuring network to work for internet. This week is it though, we fix it or switch to Digicel and get off DSL. I am starting to think that the ISP limits the number of addresses or something but I am not sure if they can control that.

Midnight
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There is a virtually dog war going on in my compound at school. I was already awake but when 20 dogs are running around barking their brains out trying to kill each other it is hard to ignore it.

So I went back to reading about network crap... this will put 99% of the population into a coma but this is what I do at midnight read and attempt this on my PC's at school.

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Disabling DHCP on the Router

If you want to manually configure every client, you can disable the router from handing out and managing the addresses automatically. Bring up your router's web-based configuration utility by typing in its IP address; for example 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1.

Log in and find the section where you can change the DHCP settings, such as on the General, Network, or DHCP tab. Once you find the DHCP settings, there should be a checkbox or option to enable/disable the server (see Figure 5).

Uncheck the appropriate option and save the settings. Then from now on, users won't be able to access the network or Internet until they've configured a static IP on their computer.

Microsoft Windows

DNS settings are specified in the TCP/IP Properties window for the selected network connection. 

Way to configure a static IP  you input the same IP details:

• IP Address: Pick an address within the same subnet as the router. For example, if your router is 192.168.1.1 (subnet 255.255.255.0), you could go with anything between 192.168.1.2 and 192.168.1.255, or if it's 192.168.0.1 (subnet 255.255.255.0), 192.168.0.2–192.168.0.255 would be the range.
• Subnet Mask: This would be the same as your router, probably 255.255.255.0.
• Default Gateway: This is your router's IP address.
• Preferred DNS: You can either enter a DNS server's IP address, if you know it, or simply enter your router's IP address.
• 4. Disabling DHCP on the Router | Next Section

Changing DNS server settings on Microsoft Windows 7

1. Go the Control Panel.
2. Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, and click Change adapter settings.
3. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
   • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
   • To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
4. Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) orInternet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and then click Properties.
5. Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
6. Click OK.
7. Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
8. Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers:
   • For IPv4: 8.8.8.8 and/or 8.8.4.4.
   • For IPv6: 2001:4860:4860::8888 and/or 2001:4860:4860::8844
9. Restart the connection you selected in step 3.
10. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
11. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.

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That was cruel or horribly boring of me I bet. Oh well.

6:00pm
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Had a great time talking with Miss. Annie in Minneapolis. She has a new apartment and she looks great. Wish I could fly her out here for a month. She's one of my best friends.

(16) Tuesday

1:30am
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Working on a short story while two dozen dogs run around the compound trying to kill each other, and singing a murder orchestra of howling, shrieking and barking.

6:00am
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Got to talk with my parents on Skype... everything is going ok back home. Guess it is full swing of fall back in MN... temps in the 60's.

11:00am
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It's hopeless! I tried everything I know to get this internet working but I failed. Problem maybe me... I just am not that great at network crap. Or it is TVL, they are a terrible provider.

So my principle yelled at them a lot and now they are shipping us a new flybox router from Port Vila that has a satellite connection. Glad he is yelling at them not me. I know (I believe) this new router will do the trick. I used it once with a data limit of 8 gig and it was worked great until the data ran out. The new box has no data limit. We will be the only location on Santo with the new device. But have to wait for it to arrive. Bet it is going by boat. That means wait wait wait... and wait some more.

So instead of being depressed I am reading some Isaac Asimov Foundation's Edge to distract me for a bit. Later tonight we are having a Taco Tuesday party at my place... WooHoo Taco's.

11:30pm

-----------
Had the majority of Santo's Peace Corps over for our first Taco Tuesday, Hunter, Mike Stafford and Hawkins, Jes, Kate and Bryan and Rich only Sam did not join... which is too bad she woulda liked it I think. Kate is pretty skilled at cooking compared to me, guess that is no surprise, if anyone knows me I rarely cooked back in the states. She did most of the work adding spices to the ground beef and making a tomato sauce but everyone chipped in nicely. The hard shell taco's I found in town were not crunchy like I was hoping they would be but they were still ok. The wrap style ones Bryan brough were probably better.

I put on some Tv shows I torrented... Broad City 2, 3... thought I had them all on a flash drive but did not find them... so I threw on Robocop. Half made it through to the end. I forgot it was a long movie like 2 hours. They left about ten. I stayed up till about midnight then took a nap until 2 am. I think the gecko's making their loud chirping noise woke me up, but since I have internet again I figured I would blog.

(17) Wednesday

Hardly slept... too much internet... 4:22am... then work up again at 9am.

Checked the lab, internet dead. TVL totally not working. I wash my hands of that for now. If the new router shows up great. Until then I will work on other problems.

My friend Annie back home had some tragic news, her brother died. Not sure how, or what happened but I am thinking of her and wish I could talk with her and listen.

2:00pm
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Just ate an awesome hot and spicy pizza at Nemo's with two of my Peace Corps friends: Jes and mike hawkins... NICE LUNCH, as Mike would say, in a really loud funny voice and Jes would shake her head in frustration sort of. I am going to miss Jes and Mike's reactions to each other when Jessica leaves in November. I think she misperceives what I enjoy about their interaction. She think (wrongly) that I like seeing her suffer or be in misery from all of Mike's semi absurd but usually hilarious comments. This is not case.

What I find enjoyable is the fact that they differ so dramatically in personality types and yet tolerate each other enough to hangout. I like it how Jes corrects Mike when he says something ridiculous on purpose to get rise out of Jes and how she is able to fend that off telling him how he's wrong. I theorize that when she first got so site here in Santo, that maybe she was less vocal and now she is more out of her shell and does not take crap anymore. I like how Mike is always Mike just being loud and funny. That's it. Bet she never reads this blog, but I know Mike does.

6:00pm
------
One of my best friends talked with me on skype for the last hour about her brother recent death. He died alone and no one knew about it for days until they found his body. It was really hard listening to all the details and I feel terrible for her and her family. It brings back a flood of memories of when my best friend David Potosky died in 2012 from brain cancer. So painful to think about her experience and how it makes me remember mine. Wish I could have been there to console her in person.

(18) Thursday

Not a whole lot going on at the moment... I should get a T-Shirt that says that. Fixed two computer for students and reading a book. Very underwhelming, trivial, help desk tasks.


11:30 am
---------
TVL showed up with a new modem from Vila. I was disappointed that it was not the new model aka the Flybox but we plugged it in and the lab is back online. Will test the computers in the office when they come back at 1:30pm. Fingers crossed.


7:oo pm
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Whew....... SO, My counterpart and I used the most absolute brute force approach to discovering all cables and pathways to my schools Janky internet setup. This involved labeling all cables with ID's and pulling all the plugs and testing each one, 50 or more cables to find out where each lead. This in addition to removing all the old decaying junk they were using, switches that might be burning out with new shiny parts we brought. If I only ignored my Peace Corps advisor and brought my 100lbs case of hardware I would have been able to repair everything 3 weeks ago, but I did not bring all my equipment. Oh well.

Through this three hour exercise of misery I managed, as did Samuel, to discover where every cable goes. By doing so we fixed all the connections to the school. We have internet again. Yeah me. I still wish I had a pisant network admin to do this menial task versus having to perform it myself.

Now if that is the case in the morning I will be shocked, since it seems every time I am on the brink of success, it all falls apart the next day.

midnight
--------------
There was a power outage, then i stumble across this once the power came back: The Earth Is About to Be Bombarded by Two Solar Storms
On Monday night, a minor solar flare gave off a first magnetic cloud. Then on Wednesday afternoon, a major flare from the same sunspot region gave off a bigger CME. Thomas Berger, the director of the Space Weather Prediction Center at NOAA, said that both are aimed at the Earth. The first burst is forecast to hit Earth sometime Thursday night, and the second should arrive around midday on Friday.
========
I wonder if the power outage here was caused by the solar flare.

(19) Friday

The power outage might be the reason for the internet access being mostly down. Strangest thing is that the server, the lab and the most of the office PC's have no connection yet, the secretary's PC, which is usually the worst one of the lot at getting a connection has on this morning.

I cannot fathom a reason for that. I cannot even make a direction connection to the router using 192.168.1.1 not even the login screen appears after 3 reboots and a direct connection. Did the storm burn out the new router. Maybe... is my school possessed by internet demons maybe... That is just as likely a cuase as anything else.

10:19pm
-----------

So Lets see.. I basically have no confidence that TVL will ever provide help enough to solve the lack of internet working at my school ever. They lied about sending the FlyBox and send a shitty netcom box to use DSL which I SAID NOT to... but come monday I will try demanding a flybox setup or recommend switching to Digicel.

But the best part of the day was in indoctrinating Rich in the cult of Rick and Morty TV. We watched 7 episodes and had some of my homemade fries and a chicken sammy er sandwich. Great time. Contracts to Rich's friend Calvin for his kid which he texted about 40 times during the watching of the shows... Uhm... can't sleep as usual... so I will read the internet stuff until 3am. Yeah.

(20) Saturday
--
Just Sitting around my house updating my iphone... IOS-8.0 and took a panorama of my living room/kitchen:

Guess I am going to go workout with my Rich and Bryan at 10am... but I am a little sick... hm. oh well.

10am
-------
Worked out with Rich and Bryan early morning torture. Then played a old/new video game called Escape Velocity Nova... made in 2007 I think. Goofy game.

3:30pm
---------
After a decent nap I went over to Santo East and played Ultimate Frisbee with the 15-20 regulars. Decent game of ultimate very competitive. I think I have gotten a bit better lung capacity of that game is pretty taxing. The Ni-van guy that play with us can run at nearly light speed.

7:00pm
---------
Then hung out with Jes and Mike at a kava bar. Shared some stories... Mike found a place that had Dad's root beer... that is pretty unusual here oh and its Mike's b-day tomorrow... sadly he seems mostly interested in hanging out with his best friend Jazz Dave. Maybe he'll swing by town though.
Just as I was typing this, a drop of water hits my computer, then I look up and see guilty faced lizard, A gecko pooped on my mousepad... Yeah little jerk. oh well, it was kind of funny.

(21) Sunday

Can't sleep as usual 12:56am Sunday just barely... The dog war has begun again sounds like one is being murdered or something. Looking forward to a paycheck.

3:48am
---------
So after a few hours of trying to get the jist of this Escape Velocity game (which annoys me because I get killed by these raiders after a short bit of work) I quit and went back to reading. I am almost done with Isaac Asimov Foundation's Edge. The ending is building up to be a little too perfect and that is annoying. I think he got a little too idealistic probably for him a natural evolution of his writing hoping to make his fictional world, a future world of humanity, governed by non-corrupt benevolent rulers like the Philosopher kings idea that wrote about in Utopian kingdom Kallipolis... but it all all too cute and perfect for me. I should probably sleep... but I am thinking about my friend Annie hoping she ok, and also curious if I am going to hangout at home or go to Aore island tomorrow with Kate and Bryan. I have no money though... probably have to pass.

Ahh here comes a small rain storm... sounds nice on the tin roof... wipes out the sound of stupid dogs and roosters... thy have to take shelter and shut up.

8:14am
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Well about 4 hours sleep average. Trying to get my parents attention on their computer... I hacked/logged into it remotely and am blasting some Alice in Chains until they hear it and go downstairs and see whats up... Then I can turn it off and we can skype. Pretty funny.


 3:30
-------
Rich and I biked over to Lope-Lope Resort/beach later in the day than normal. It is the first time I have been there... great spot because it has a river that form a decent sized pool of cool water and then just 20 yards away the ocean and river meet. This is good because after being in the salt water you can rise off in the fresh water. Took a couple photos on my iphone.

5-7pm
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The Santo crew met Mike at Maklin's Nokemal for his birthday shell... even hunter showed up an hour into the event. I gave mike a can of MUG rootbeer. We have Mug on the island now... hope we can keep getting it... nice to have some decent root beer from time to time.