Thursday, March 1, 2012

Love/Hate relationships

March is here and still the computer file problems are unresolved.  Trying to save and restore and undelete and on and on on on on on and so on.  No time for a more detailed blog entry now.  Back to problem solving or creating more headaches.  I wish I knew what all these files are on my computer and which ones I need to keep and what should be blasted into bits and kilobits.  -- Out for now, Ken

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

I hate computer problems

Who knew switching from a relatively expensive anti-virus program, at the end of my subscription, to a better alternate program I received free from my university would:



Destroy one of my two 750 GB external hard drives, start to foul up the other and a third smaller drive; slow some processes related to protection and a few other applications to a snail’s pace (no, snails are faster - click and wait 45 to 60 minutes before proceeding); and that the solution(s) would be as bad or worse than the initial problems.



The month of tech support issues between three companies (yes I had to pay another $100 to a third party to try to settle the I/O conflicts caused by the other two and now that is not working either) has delayed my dissertation project pushing it to the limits of academic tolerance.  My case will go before the review board  in a couple of weeks and if I have not made the expected progress (which is key and due now in this week) despite the tech issues, I may be dropped -- "life happens" the director says, to "deal with it" (but how?).  YOUR PRAYERS are my only answer.  Please pray for me, the committee, and my computer and tech issues.  Thanks.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Welcome to Paul and any other who may be reading this

     I too have experienced a slight delay in noticing the arrival of the one for whom, at least in large part, this blog was designed to communicate.  Welcome Paul, I am glad you finally found me here.
     You mentioned in your comments a couple of week ago the potential for some really nasty earthquakes on both coasts of the United States.  However, since I live in the middle of the USA don't think me complacent or unaware of the reach of the hand of the Lord in this place as well.  Perhaps you already know, but right down the middle of America is another fault line, one potentially more dangerous that the San Andreas fault.

     It has not rumbled much.  I can only remember two times.  Once, just following my decision to be baptized (just over 37 years ago); the second time was a few years back, shortly after a 100 mile move to the University to allow my children a place to live besides campus housing.

     The first quake I personally noticed and noted as a message to me from the Lord. The second, my wife asked me in the morning if I felt it.  I had slept through it and only heard of it from her and later that morning on the news.  This second quake was a memory jogger, a reminder of the first, but otherwise it was not seen by me to have any personal significance such as the first one did have.

     I am going through a difficult time now, mostly my own fault, which makes the depression all the greater as I struggle with what to do next.  Please pray for me.  I do not think that moving again is an option at the moment.  I have asked the Lord many times if He needed me in some far flung mission field and His answer before has always been that he needed me to stay right where I had been placed.  He needed me to give the message to my own people who needed His message as much and more than many abroad.

     Some go to foreign fields willingly like Paul or reluctantly as did Jonah; some are taken against their will, but make the most of it, like Ezekiel and Daniel.  Then there are those who stay put until the last moment, like Jeremiah, or until martyred, like Isaiah.  Perhaps rarely there are others we have not heard of whose place, like Enoch and Elijah, is beside the throne.  For many, that still small voice says go tell the world; yet others are told to bravely stand your ground.

     However, I am not sure what path to take at this very moment.  Pray that He leads me as well as giving me renewed hope.  Some here in America are listening to you.  Not always will as much understanding as you would like, but with a desire to better comprehend and to dialogue.