Nigeria in July

Being in Nigeria for the summer has been an interesting experience.  The area that I am in is under-developed. Pale skinned people (caucasian) are actually outnumbered by albinos in the area I'm staying at, so one really does feel like a super-minority.  I almost got arrested for taking a photo of the police station (a rather small building), which is a security concern, apparently.  This week I am in the northern half of Nigeria at a town called Jos, that is more developed.  Being in Jos has been a nice vacation... of sorts.

TBC computer lab

Been working on a project of updating Trinity Bible College of Nigeria's computer lab, while I'm on campus.  They have a bunch of broken Macintosh SE's two Macintosh Centris' and two IBM compatibles that run Windows for Dinosaurs™.  Anyway, it's been an interesting experience working on computers that are, as I reckon in computer years (10 to 1), about 200 years old.

Books 7-25-06

     Finished up the list of previous books, and have been working on reading Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe.  It is an interesting read with lots of archaic language.  I find it interesting that the people that would attended these plays when they were written would understand the numerous latin quotes, etc.   But I imagine it was more commonplace then than now.
     Also reading King Arthur and his Knights by Howard Pyle.

Reading 7-14-6

I've been reading some Vonnegut of late. Player Piano is the first of the Vonnegut I've found here.  An interesting read, as always, andapparently Vonnegut's first book, written in the early fifties.
I've started Another Vonnegut book, Jailbird, which has many illusions to Watergate, which wasthe subject of another book Irecently read.
And also been reading the The Complete Short Stories of Flannery O'Conner.

Books 7-5-6

Finished reading The Octopus by Frank Norris. A good book with decent flow and good subject matter.   Definately a nice distraction from the warm atmosphere here.
I've also read The Prince by Machiavelli.  Definately full of political theories, basically built upon the precept of the end justifies the means, and the superiority of the state and its leader over citizen. Much political theory has been built upon the foundation of the thoughts and insights of Machiavelli. How deception is ok, when it serves the purposes on the greater good.
And I've also read Born Again by Charles Colson. The autobiography of the 'Hatchet man' of the Nixon whitehouse, and his trials and travails during the watergate scandal. How Colson expereinced first hand the fallout of Machiavellian politics, and that the selfisness of man , and the supposed glory of the state was in fact not to the service of the populace, but treading the rights of those it was created to protect.  What a difference in perspective in two books, between The Prince, and Born Again.