Twitterpated

...is a fun word to say.

I have no comment on how it may or may not relate to my current mood. It's just fun to say. :)

Ext4 and Cinnamon Rolls

I believe I have successfully migrated my reiserfs root partition to ext4, and I created a separate ext3 /boot partition. I had much trouble with the kernel crashing, but then upgrading to 2.6.30-r4 fixed that (no idea why). Then, I had problems with gcc going all segfault on me all the time, which is not good news if you know anything about Gentoo. So I reformated my new root partition and copied over all the files using the tar method, and then it's been working ever since. Once I'm entirely confident that I can trash my old partition, all that space is going towards my new ext4 partition, because that was the issue in the first place...running out of room on /.

AND I'm eating an Amish-made Butter Iced Cinnamon Roll from Shipshewana. It's SO DELICIOUS!

I also can't find our soldering iron and am considering buying one for myself. I'm not sure if I want to spend $20 though. I don't think I do...

OM - Finishing Thoughts

I have been home for a few days, and it's been great. One thing I decided on my flight from Detroit to Kalamazoo is that I love Michigan! I had a window seat at the front of the plane, and it was just beautiful. I got to see Battle Creek, Gull Lake, and Richland Bible Church. Michigan has tons of trees! I miss the trees and the hills, especially in Indiana.

I still haven't heard back anything about my support. I can't get a reimbursement check for my expenses nor can I send in my insurance information until Uruguay sends us the receipts for the hospital and plane ticket, which I don't think they've done yet. I'm still trying to contact people in Uruguay to work this out.

A lot of people came to our house yesterday for my mom's retirement party, and my trip to South America was a big topic of conversation. I'm so glad that I had that opportunity and that I was able to share with people some of what God has been doing this summer.

OM - Day 51

Today is my next-to-last day at OM. I spent the weekend with Jessica, who drove down from North Carolina, and I spent this morning, yesterday, and last Friday writing a report on my trip, figuring out finances and insurance, and making sure everything is ready for my trip back to the Zoo.

Speaking of finances, God has really provided! I believe, based on my own calculations, that the only thing that hasn't been provided for yet is the hospital bill and plane ticket to Brazil. The hospital fees should be covered by insurance (but it will take a while to figure that all out...I'm still waiting for Uruguay to send me the receipts), and I have no idea how much the plane ticket cost. I hope to find that out soon, but it may not be before I leave.

My travel arrangements have me taking off from Atlanta at 12:20pm and arriving in Kalamazoo (via Detroit) at 4:20pm tomorrow. I get to go home! It's so exciting!

Laptop Battery

I now have a laptop without a battery. It's officially dead. Hopefully hibernation works in Ubuntu!

How To Do Things In Life

Uruguay Pictures

Uruguay pictures are up on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/denaje/UruguayPictures.

The two panoramas are available at: http://cse.taylor.edu/~jdenardo/panoramas/. (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Jokes

This is today's Dinosaur Comic, and it is so true! It is actually really convicting.

(Click for full size)


I think the word "racist" is misused here, but the idea is exactly the same. Do we really have a right to be making jokes like this? Aren't we just being prejudiced against PROFESSION MEMBERS for really no good reason? What do these kinds of jokes do to our children and to our society?

OM - Day 46

Well, I'm back. Back in Atlanta.

I was so blessed to meet with Austin Brown yesterday afternoon in the Sao Paulo airport and spend a couple hours catching up with him before I left for my trip back to the States. The flight from Sao Paulo to Mexico City was very nice...it was a Boeing 777, so there was lots of headroom, comfy seats, video on demand, and two (surprisingly good) meals.

Upon arriving in Mexico and going through customs, I spent a long time just sitting around, writing emails, reading, and watching planes taxi to the gates. I remembered that I still had 200 Mexican Pesos, so I managed to buy a bottled water from Starbucks and a souvenir from one of the shops. Funny story...the bottled water cost $18, and I gave the guy $200. He gave me back $2 as if I gave him a 20 Peso bill instead of a 200 bill. I'm not sure if he was trying to cheat me or if it was an honest mistake, but I caught him and he ended up giving me the correct change. :) I was dumb and used English though...I should have talked to him in Spanish, which I was fully capable of. Oh well, I got my money and managed to buy something else with it.

My flight to Atlanta was cramped, but it was shorter. I didn't really get to sleep much on either of the flights, so I'm just running on caffeine right now. They don't have Mountain Dew in South America, but they do here!! It's so wonderful. They also have plenty of hot water here, which I already used to make myself feel much cleaner.

I'll get an updated support report tomorrow, so I can let you know how much I have yet to raise. It's still probably a good bit...

Anyways, I haven't slept in two days and I'm really tired, so tomorrow I will work on sleeping, uploading Uruguay pictures, and writing a recap of my trip with as many details as I can remember. Stay tuned, there's still more!

OM - Day 44

Tomorrow I leave for home! Here's the plan (all times are local to each country):

Wednesday:

9:00am - leave for the airport with Alejandro
12:30pm - depart for Sao Paulo
3:00pm - arrive in Sao Paulo, meet with OM Brazil (hopefully Austin!) and give them the technology; hang out in the airport for a while
11:20pm - depart for Mexico City

Thursday:

6:45am - arrive in Mexico City airport
12:44pm - depart for Atlanta
5:09pm - arrive in Atlanta
6:30pm - take a long, hot shower

All the time I'm traveling, I won't have any communication or internet access. I'll try to post as soon as I can when I get back. Aw, and I just realized this will be the last post I make from overseas! When I get back and have time to think, I will hopefully write out some interesting things about my experiences in South America. And also, post Uruguay pictures. See you on the other side!

Support Raising Progress

$897.16

That's how much more I need to cover my expenses.

Q: Why is this number's magnitude larger than the one I posted before?
A: I was expecting to travel to Brazil by bus for $250 less than the cost of the airplane ticket. The downside of getting sick...

Q: What is the deadline for support raising?
A: I'm not entirely sure, but probably before I leave Atlanta (i.e., 1 week from now).

Q: What do I get if I help you out?
A: Seriously, you shouldn't be asking this question. You should know exactly what you get, and the answer isn't 'nothing'. Besides, giving is being done with the wrong motives if this question is raised.

Q: Will you hate me if I don't give?
A: No, of course not.

Q: What is your relative input?
A: Cats and kittens!

Uhm, I can't think of any more questions. Stay tuned.

Frustrating, Part 2

They use kerosene to start fires! That's so not fair!

Frustrating

GAAAA Not with a whole ream of paper could I start a fire! Someone needs to show me what I'm doing wrong.

OM - Day 42

I've been feeling much better lately. Still a bit sick, but better and better day by day. I still need to eat and drink more, but I'm working on that. My fever is going away and I can feel the strength returning to my body. Hopefully I'll be ready to work a little Monday and Tuesday, because there's still a lot that needs to be done to get OM Uruguay on their feet...

<NERD>
Technical update:

The goal for OM Uruguay is 4-fold:

1. Clean up their computers and perform regular maintenance on them
   
2. Upgrade their Petra and Workgroup server to a new machine, including a new hard drive (this is a big hassle!)
   
3. Upgrade their Smoothwall by installing it on the old server...I'm not sure what will become of the old Smoothwall machine
   
4. Convert everyone's OM Uruguay email accounts to Exchange
   

Number 1 takes lowest priority, mostly because I need people's passwords, and I don't have them (this is a problem). Number 3 is finished...Smoothwall works, as long as no one goes messing with it or the wireless router. Number 4 again requires people's passwords, but it's the highest priority. I've already converted three accounts, but I don't know how many others because I still haven't received a list yet! I need to bug Hazahel more.

But by far the biggest problem is with moving their server to a new machine. We have tried cloning the hard disk and installing from scratch, but everything we have tried has some sort of problems with it. It also doesn't help that I don't have full access to the OM internal documentation, so I sortof have to guess on some things. (Although I think that was more of a problem with Smoothwall...I might have full access to the server docs.)
</NERD>

I also want to get Alejandro's office completely cleaned up. Richard and I sort of took it over, and it's quite a mess now. So I want to at least get all the computers and cables organized so it at least looks presentable. The plan is to move the Smoothwall and server machines from Alejandro's office to another building, but I don't think Richard has got the wiring done for that. Hopefully I'll be able to work on organizing and cleaning today so that tomorrow I can be prepared to work on the server.

Thank you everyone for your prayers! They are greatly appreciated. I can definitely tell that God had a purpose for my sickness, which is unusual because I often don't see reasons for things for weeks or months or years, but I am confident that he allowed me to get sick for some very specific purposes. I trust that he will continue to provide for me and to protect me.

OM - Day 40

Well, I had quite an adventure today.

Yesterday I started feeling a little sick, but it wasn't too much. Today was a bit worse, though. I had an uncontrollable runny nose all day and a fever of 39 degrees (that's about 102 Fahrenheit for you Americans). After lunch I decided that I couldn't work anymore and I needed to rest. A little while later, Richard came to take me to the hospital, just to make sure it's not anything serious. So 4 of us went to the hospital, spent a couple hours there, and had an interesting time trying to communicate. I really need to learn Spanish. Anyways, the doctor said that I just have a cold, but that I need to stay in Uruguay for 5 more days. I was already planning on arriving in Brazil by bus early Monday morning, but now I am probably going to fly to Brazil on Tuesday or Wednesday and then catch my flight to Atlanta. I'm currently researching the cheapest option and getting in touch with the USA people to see what they think is the best option.

Whatever happens, I still plan on being back home (for relative definitions of "home") in less than a week, and then being truly home in two weeks. I'm happy about that. Thank you for your prayers, they have certainly helped!

Prayer Request

My biggest prayer request right now is for my health. My nose has been running constantly and I have a fever. Don't worry, I think it's just a cold, but it's bad enough that I can't work. I'm going to bed right now...

OM - Day 38

Yikes. Things are going nuts. A short overview of the last two days of OM Uruguay:


Their email is broken. Very, very broken. Hazahel made official OM accounts for everyone at OM Uruguay, and it is taking time to convert everyone's email accounts over (today I have only done 2 of them). At the same time, I am also trying to work on setting up a new server because their old one is so slow. The easy way would be to backup to tape or DVD, and them restore the backup on the new server. Right? No. Nothing works. I tried getting the server to think a hard drive was a backup tape, but it didn't work. So for now, I am copying all the data from the old server to a hard drive the old-fashioned way (through my laptop). It's not an official backup though, so I'd have to set up all the users and groups like the other server, and I will not have time for this.


The other problem is that the next bus leaves here at Saturday 9pm and arrives in Brazil Monday 3am. This is bad, because my plane leaves Brazil Wednesday 11pm, which only gives me 2, maybe 3 days to work in Brazil. I'm trying to get in contact with them to see what all they want me to do. I'm also trying to call customer service to see if I can change my flight to a later date (I'm guessing not). I don't have nearly enough time in Uruguay. What I need is a full 2 weeks to get things sorted out. Plus, the Latin American time schedule that everyone else works out of means things don't get done. They just don't, and I'm stressed trying to do too many things that I'm not qualified to do.

The other, other problem is that I'm still quite a ways short on support. Thanks to those who have helped! If you want to help me get home, it's fun and easy:

1. Go to https://usa.om.org/GiveOnline/ in your favorite web browser
   
2. Click the button next to "Give to support OM's ministry through a person" and click "Next"
   
3. Enter your information in the appropriate boxes. Enter my name as "Jesse Denardo" and missionary code as 2268760.
   

The other, other, other problem is that my laundry is cold and wet. At least, I'm assuming it is since the sun wasn't out at all and my laundry was hanging up all last night.

I really hope Brazil has hot showers. I won't count on it though. Thus far 2 out of 5 places have had hot showers, not counting Atlanta.

Fortunately, a disaster here was just averted. I think it was a problem with the IDE cable, but I seriously thought the hard drive had died. But now, we are back to our old state of everything being broken. Nothing worse.

Argentina Pictures

Argentina pictures are up on Picasa this time! I find it much, much better than Facebook.

Link here: http://picasaweb.google.com/denaje/ArgentinaPictures

Edit: The two panoramas (full-size) are available here: http://cse.taylor.edu/~jdenardo/panoramas/.

4th of July

Oh, I almost forgot...happy 4th of July, for everyone back in the States!

Hehe, no one makes a big deal about the 4th of July in South America. I wonder why...

OM - Day 34

Well, I arrived in Montevideo with all my luggage. I slept on the bus, even though it wasn't the greatest sleep ever. The two entertainment movies were The Bucket List and Slumdog Millionaire, neither of which I could hear very well, but that's ok.

Montevideo is quite nice. Even though it's cold, there's at least some heat via a wood-burning stove and some electric heaters. I have my own room and am responsible for my own food, which is kinda nice. Edgardo gave me some maté before I left, so I'm planning on having some while I'm here in Uruguay. In Argentina, they drink maté con palo (with stems), but here in Uruguay they drink it sin palo (without stems). To an experienced maté drinker, there are differences, but for now I'll stick with what I've got. I have Argentinian maté, so it should be slightly less potent than sin palo.

I'm quite impressed at the operation in Uruguay, although many things are broken that require "attention". Their server needs more RAM, the wireless doesn't work, the printer is networked through one of the computers (so that computer always has to be on), and one of the computer's hard drives is completely full. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me!

Argentina pictures should be uploaded later today. I still need to get them organized and a couple more panoramas made. :)

OM - Day 33

Today I leave by bus for Montevideo, Uruguay, to arrive at 9:00am tomorrow morning. We are supposed to get dinner and breakfast on the bus, and the seats fold down into a bed so we can sleep, which hopefully gets to happen.

This morning I went to a Kindergarten school to watch a puppet show put on by OM. It was quite entertaining, even though I didn't really understand it. The kids look like they loved it. Ooooh, they were SO CUTE! I'd want to take one home with me, but I'd go significantly over my luggage restrictions. Oh well.

I do believe I am supposed to be leaving soon (for EXTREMELY relative definitions of 'soon'), so I will update more when I arrive in Uruguay.

Skillet AGAIN!

So, being a die-hard Skillet fan sure does have it's perks. Because I preordered their new album Awake, I got a free one-year subscription to their fan club, The Panheads. Members get to access to pre-sale tickets to their upcoming "Alive and Awake" tour, and the first 10 tickets purchased for each show get a free "meet and greet" with Skillet before the show! Of course, I was totally excited and immediately asked a certain someone if she would see Skillet again with me. Well, they just went on pre-sale at exactly 3:00, and you can bet that I snagged two tickets to the show in Fort Wayne! I'm so excited right now...I get to meet Skillet in person!!

There are very few things that I would pay premium prices for without a trace of hesitation. This is one of them.

Speaking of buying things, I bought (or rather, was given a gift of) an authentic Argentinian yerba maté drinking gourd and straw. So now I just need some maté to go with it. I found one place online where I can get 2 kilos for $20 including shipping. I suppose that should last me a while, eh?