Thursday, October 07, 2010

Odds and Ends Thursday 70

Time is speeding up. In the true binge-and-purge spirit of the Peace Corps, the dog days where time seemed to stand still for hours on end have switched gears and we’re mow moving at warp speed. As you may have noticed updating the blog has become less frequent. But if I’ve missed a few days here and there, it’s only because the day went by so quickly, I didn’t realize it had passed. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:
  • Now that it’s Spring, there’s been a huge uptick in what Dan calls “death bugs”, which is a rather dramatic name for an insect that’s mostly harmless. Death bugs are extremely tiny flying insects that swarm in clouds about 5 feet off the ground at dawn and dusk. These clouds are only visible from about 5 feet away, so it’s difficult to know you’re about to walk into a cloud of bugs until you are standing in the middle of the cloud of bugs. This is particularly nasty when jogging. I’ve run through death bug clouds and come away with dead bugs all over my shirt, arms, and face; as though I’m a human windshield. The worst is inhaling them. So gross.
  • Last night was ridiculously hot. I fell asleep clothed with no covers, and I woke up sweaty at 3:00 a.m.
  • My year 12s took the computer studies common exam for Congregationalist schools this morning. It was uneventful.
  • Oh, I nearly forgot! The magazine is officially finished. I finally received a report for the Director of Education—a digital copy of the half-page report, so exciting!—and the layout is complete. I’m having some trouble converting to PDF. I’m using PrimoPDF to convert, which has a tendency to inexplicably make random objects disappear. A page full of pictures will show up in the PDF with a white rectangle in the middle where one photo somehow didn’t make it.
  • We received official word from Washington allowing us to give our bikes to Host Country Nationals! This was exciting.
  • Giants looked good against the Braves today! This is excellent.
  • Tomahawk Chop: most annoying cheer in all of sports. Thoughts?
  • I am still fan-less.
  • Group 83 is great. Since most of 81 is leaving in a couple months, I think we had all written them off a little, but we’ve just been so impressed with them. They remind us of us, and we’re nothing if not jolly narcissists.
  • Saddest moment yet: Tauinaola, who’s been featured on the blog several times over the last 2 years, was hanging around the computer lab because she wanted me to import a bunch of mp3s into iTunes so she could play them on her Nano. While she was standing around, I asked why she didn’t take computers this year. She shrugged and asked, “Can I take computers in year 13 next year?” So I had to remind her I wouldn’t be here next year. She was surprised by this, and I don’t think she’d ever known I was leaving. And then things just felt sad.
  • I met the Prime Minister today. Randomly.
  • My pule is very skeptical about bringing a digital copy of the school magazine to the printer. He wants me to print it out and submit a paper copy. I will print out a hard copy to appease him, but I sure hope the printer uses the digital version (provided the PDF converter starts working).
  • My friend who asked me to take photos at the National Memorial Ceremony, and whose family owns the dog I talked about Sunday, read Sunday’s post about the dog and confronted me. “My mom is a high chief with seven matai titles and you’re trying to tell her lies and feed her bread to the dogs?!” She laughed.
That’s all I got for this week. I hope you’re well. Pictures below.


My Vice Pule was finally ready for her close-up.


Prime Minister.


Koa, Summer, and I watched "Rain Man" tonight.  Me in full Giants regalia.


Kaelin and Jenny S. 82 at the pool this afternoon.

1 comment:

Chris said...

new chairs and shade at the pool?