Monthly Archives: January 2012

Air Travel – love and hate

Posted by on January 31, 2012 Comments Off on Air Travel – love and hate

I hare air travel.  Well, I hate the rigamarole involved in air travel.  First of all, I do not like being on someone else’s schedule.  Next I do not like the facade that is our TSA security.  Its not about security… it’s about the appearance of security.

Today especially was a pain.  I had to travel with two laptop computers, and the one’s I;ve been issued are fairly large and heavy.  So with two of them in my backpack plus all of the other junk I carry (cables, GPS, flash drives, etc.) the backpack is pretty heavy.  When I got to the airport I noticed one corner of the second laptop is starting to punch a hole through the seam of the backpack.  So now I’m concerned that it might blow out before I get home.  My last backpack had a zipper blow out and I had to worry about loosing the laptop until I could get home and buy a new backpack.

Now, the one thing that was a blessing today was that I charged up my iPod with podcasts from Saddleback Church (Rick Warren) and Woodland Hills Church (Greg Boyd) and listened to them in the airport and on the plane.  Both men are really good speakers.  Rick Warren is just starting 40 Days In The Word, and Greg Boyd is an excellent Bible teacher and really provides new insight into scripture.  So I was really blessed listening to these prophets and the time went by very quickly.

Thanks be to God for the wonderful technology we have that allows us to hear the word proclaimed in an expert fashion almost any time we want.

Hablo Espanol?

Posted by on January 31, 2012 Comments Off on Hablo Espanol?

I’m so proud of my wife Connie.  She started taking Spanish classes last fall in anticipation of her return trip to the DR (she went last July and has been looking forward to going back ever since.)  She has worked really hard on learning Spanish and has formed a friendship with her Spanish teacher Virginia.

I’m really looking forward to seeing her in action speaking Spanish.  That will be a thrill for me.. to see all of her hard work pay off.

I told my grandson Matthew that I know a lot of Spanish words, taco, nachos, burrito, tamale….   That’s about the size of my Spanish lexicon.

Prayer request:  That I will be able to converse effectively with people there.

Check, check and check.

Posted by on January 29, 2012 Comments Off on Check, check and check.

A recent e-mail from brother David Miller reminded me that I need to start on a packing list.  This won’t be the typical trip where I throw some clothes in a carry on bag and head to the airport.  Let’s see:
– volt-ohm meter
– compact flashlight
– screw drivers
– needle nose pliers
– all of the list of things the Sunday School class is donating for the McMillans
– candy and trinkets to give away
– hmm….  I’m sure there is more
– do I need to buy an extra suit case?
To be continued….

Prayer request:  That I’ll do my best to think of what I need and to not worry about what I will no doubt forget.

Geek Speak

Posted by on January 29, 2012 Comments Off on Geek Speak

This is more about the blog itself than the trip.  If you know me very well, you know I have a terrific Web site at markboyd.info.   Well OK, it might not be all that terrific, but it has tons of information about me, what I do, and my family.  So why did I start a blog on blogspot and not do it on markboyd.info?  You know, I just did it and only a couple of days afterward did I ask myself why.

I guess I’ve always admired the Blogspot blogs.  Blogspot is a pretty nice tool.  I find it very easy to use.  It handles all the dates, links, formatting etc.  All I have to do is write.  But the more I thought about it, on Blogspot I don’t have control of the site and so if Blogspot goes out of business or for whatever reason decides to trash what I’ve posted, my stuff will be gone.  So I thought maybe I should be doing the blogging over on markboyd.info.

I spent several hours figuring out how to get the right blog software installed and working.  I actually installed something else first and it was a mess.  But after some poking around I found this WordPress software and it has all the stuff I liked about Blogspot, and I can run it right here on markboyd.info and make sure it doesn’t go away.

So onward and upward with blogging on markboyd.info.  And I pray that my purpose (to glorify God) will be manifest on this blog.

Preparation

Posted by on January 29, 2012 Comments Off on Preparation

Connie & I leave for the village of Juan Tomas, Dominican Republic late in February, 2012.

Connie will be working on the student sponsorship program and I will be doing some work on the computer system.

I have been sending e-mails and making phone calls trying to learn as much as I can about what they have installed, how it is configured, and what the problems are.  I’ve learned that there is very, very little documentation available so maybe a large part of what I’ll be doing is simply documenting what’s there.

I also have in mind that I might be able to help them put in place, or at least start thinking about putting in place people and processes to manage their computer systems.  Not that they need computer experts, but simply someone to sort of be in charge and have some processes for managing things.

There may also be some work for me to do around the water project that is underway there.  I’m still waiting to hear on that.  Also, my dear brother Roger Clay will be there and I think he is being assigned the task of remodeling a bathroom or two.  I’m sure I’ll get to work with Roger on that as well.

Prayer request:  That God would help me to be a servant in whatever He calls me to do there.