Monday, March 27, 2006 Holy crap, the stop lights are taking over this town. There are now at least 7 intersections with them, and it seems like I'm finding new ones everyday. Insanity. It's a good thing they don't work yet, I think I might have a heart attack.

I've been watching movies lately. If you want to see a good movie with lots of scenes of what Africa is really like, check out The Constant Gardner. If you want to see a crappy movie (although it did have good action) with lots of scenes of what Africa isn't really like check out Sahara.

Plugging away at things, I think it might be possible to get at least one site launched this week. Wouldn't that be stellar?

I paid my electricity bill this morning and it wasn't akin to anal molestation. I don't know what's going on, it was ALMOST painless in fact. I have to admit, I'm a bit confused... stop lights, easy bill paying, what's happening to Africa?!

Thursday, March 23, 2006 Guh, I think I'm sick. I've been feeling on and off crappy for the past week or so. Lame. Things are continuing at a decent pace, minus any progress on content for the Mairie.

I had a dream about WoW last night. It was weird.

Turns out there are actually three intersections with street lights, but none work yet.

I'm currently working on a travel to benin tips type section, and hopefully will have forums up pretty soon for the new PSL. Speaking of the new PSL, it's hard to believe that we're getting pretty close to them coming. Seriously, time has flown by since I've left.

Monday, March 20, 2006 This week will go down in history. Parakou now has not one, but two intersections with traffic lights. It'll really be historic though when they actually turn them on AND people obey them.

That is all.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Freakin' weather! Harmattan is supposed to be over, and chaleur is supposed to have commenced. Recently though it's been hot and the sky has been covered in harmattan dust. This only leads me to one conclusion... we've created a new super season: Chaleurmattan. Let me tell you, Chaleurmattan sucks. Everything in my house is covered in dust, and unlike Harmattan there is no pleasant cool breeze to help motivate you to clean it up. Mangoes are coming into season though, so that makes me a happy Lyle.

Tagged by T I feel obliged to do this. They are in the order that I thought of them, which means no particular order at all.

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Window Cleaner
2. Parking lot attendant
3. Stock boy at Victoria's secret
4. Systems Administrator at a telecom company

Four movies I can watch over and over:

1. Amelie
2. Garden State (Shut up Tim and Brandi)
3. I <3 Huckabees
4. History of the World Part I

Four places I’ve lived:

1. Black Diamond, WA
2. Santa Barbara, CA
3. San Luis Obispo, CA
4. Parakou, Benin

Four TV shows I love (this one was hard for me!):

1. Family Guy
2. Futurama
3. Firefly
4. The Daily Show

Four highly regarded and recommended TV shows that I’ve never watched a single minute of:

1. Alias
2. Survivor
3. American Idol
4. Six Feet Under

Four places I’ve vacationed:

1. Australia
2. Oaxaca, Mexico
3. Florida
4. Central America

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Pâte blanche avec sauce legume et fromage (it's sad)
2. Garlic mashed potatoes
3. Green beans with garlic butter
4. Pizza

Four sites I visit daily:

1. outpostnine.com
2. slashdot.org
3. cockeyed.com
4. thesneeze.com

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. Chez moi
2. Taco Bell
3. Anywhere with a fast internet connection
4. Playing Halo 2 with Sam, Chris, Shane and Tim

Sunday, March 12, 2006 I was browsing pictures on the facebook, and noticed that 3 people are using pictures I took for their profile pictures! How flattering.

Productivity continues to be at an all time high, which of course is no good for the internet or anything I'd like to do for this site.

Life is good. Stacey made a cheesecake last night. Oh, it was delightful... and a particular rarity here, as you can imagine.

Monday, March 06, 2006 It's been a while.

Elections happened yesterday, I have no idea how they went as I was inside all day. On the plus though I think I had my most productive day in country; I did more laundry than you can possibly imagine, I figured out a JS thing on the Parakou website], and I wrote my backup scripts that will hopefully keep me from crying when this computer dies. This of course would be following my least productive day in country where I sat on my butt and played video games. (I did beat Actraiser, make good progress in FFVI and decide that I was insane to have ever enjoyed playing Super Empire Strikes Back)

Speaking of computer death though, I sadly fell last week from my bike carrying my laptop which evidently knocked something loose so the screen doesn't work but sporadically. I'll eventually pop it open (when I can find a screwdriver that will let me into this bloody thing!) but for the time being I dipped into my vacation fund and sprung for an external monitor. It's actually probably for the better, as now my laptop is confined to the house... so it won't likely be dropped again and thus might have the chance of lasting a bit longer than it might otherwise. We'll see. In any case, I am enjoying having a much larger screen that is much brighter. Watching media now is even better.

As much as I did enjoy having a laptop, having a stationary computer at the house certainly provides at the very least a stable work situation and puts all accountability for work accomplished on me. It's not as convenient, as I can't take my entire work environment with me wherever I go... but it's sure a heck of a lot safer. When the laptop does finally kick it, I may follow in the footsteps of Ben and buy the pieces for a normal old computer. Who knows though.

Standfast is still standing fast, so I've unfortunately not heard from pretty much anyone. But, as they say... no news is good news.