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What's happening?	This is the "what's happening" page. Here I will post updates about the goings-on in my life; where I am, what I'm doing, how I'm doing, etc. Check in from time to time to keep abreast! I will also post current prayer requests and items of praise for you to take before our Father in Heaven.

September 9, 2008	Today I renewed my Brazilian driver's license. This was a somewhat more difficult task than before; because of a new law, everyone who renews after 2004 must take a written test. At least I won't have to do it again! I ended up studying for several days, but it all came out well.< style="font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;"> Driving is one of those little things that are necessary to doing my job…
July 23, 2008	EvilSpace is now in print! After many months of waiting, my first novel, EvilSpace, is now available in print from Amazon.com. Yes, a real, honest-to-goodness book that you can hold in your hands and read! Exciting, isn't it? You can find it here. At the same time, because of length limits, I have decided to split my new novel—the one I finished the first draft of recently—into three books. Yes, a trilogy…
May 9, 2008	I've Moved! On Wednesday the 7th, I boarded an airplane for Brasília, where I spent the next day and a half helping our folk at ALEM with some computer problems. Then on Friday the 9th I took a bus over to Anápolis, where all of my household goods had been shipped the previous day. After all the time preparing, The Move is finally happening. And I am only the second, aside from one family that moved over in January to facilitate things, to actually go. At the same time, most of the computer department came with me. During the next few weeks I will be getting things put in place, setting up a workroom where I can fix things, get our new VoIP system up and running, and prepare to receive everyone else as they move over and get set up. It's going to be a big job! But I'm actually looking forward to a fresh start, a chance to take everything I've learned over in Cuiabá and put it into practice properly. Bible translation in Brazil has entered a brand new phase. Keep praying with us, as we continue to work to provide the scriptures in the heart languages of all of the peoples of this great country of Brazil.
April 14, 2008	On Saturday, I returned from a month in Anápolis, where I worked with three colleagues to install networking for the new office. Altogether, we ran 96 cables to 48 pairs of jacks throughout the building. Overkill? Maybe. But I've seen what happens when we don't plan for enough network access points, and I would rather have too many than not enough. During our time there, we made several trips to Brasília to help the folk at ALEM. One thing we seriously discussed was protection against lightning damage; they took a major hit in December and lost thousands of dollars worth of equipment. I also made some new and interesting friends!
February 28, 2008	I recently returned from my first ever trip to our new facilities in Anápolis. There is still a lot of work to do, but we are definitely making a good beginning. I will only be in Cuiabá for a few weeks before I make my next trip to Anápolis, this time to actually do the work of installing our new computer network. The weather in Anápolis was great. That is one thing I am definitely looking forward to…
June 15, 2007	Today I finished the second draft of my new novel. There were a lot of major changes, but they're done! Further edits should be a lot simpler.
June 3, 2007	For some time I have been dissatisfied with several things at the site where this page was being hosted. As a result, I decided to move it. Today, it became official. The Billiard Page now has its own domain name, and has moved. Of course, you already know this, or you wouldn't be reading it!
March 13, 2007	Major Breaking News! As you know, SIL Brazil has worked in the city of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso, for many years. The center has existed as long as I have been a part of the Brazil Branch. However, in recent years changes, increased costs, and other factors have caused our administration to begin to look at other options. They considered many possibilities, including restructuring the center to make it more efficient, moving the whole operation into Cuiabá and getting rid of the center, or even moving the whole operation to another city. In the meetings of the Executive Committee which just finished, the last option was officially chosen. In a little over a year, the entire Cuiabá SIL operation will pull up stakes and move to offices in the city of Anápolis, which is located about two and a half hours from Brasília. This will be a major change. I will be needing to spend time over there ahead of the move to plan and install a new network. We will all have to move our offices and our homes. We will all end up living in regular housing instead of on a center. Please be praying as we begin to seriously plan for this major event.
March 5, 2007	Today my publisher, Writers Exchange E-Publishing, finished changing their bookstore over to a separate (but related) web site, called Reader's Eden. As a result, my book, EvilSpace, was also moved. You can now find it here.
March 2, 2007	Today I returned from a brief trip to Porto Velho. While I was there, Dick Need and I solved a major problem with Internet access the very first night, just "shooting the breeze" after dinner! Everyone was very grateful. As part of the Brazil Branch restructuring plan, we are selling 75% of our Porto Velho center to neighboring missions. One headache involved with this was how to split our center-wide network, keeping our part isolated from the part we will turn over to the buyers. Again, Dick and I were able to come up with a plan and to implement it. When I left, each half was on a separate fiber optic switch, connected by a jumper cable. When the sale is implemented in a few months, we will simply need to pull the jumper to effect the changeover.
September 29, 2006	Today I returned from another trip to Brasília, where I worked with Bob Wright and Cristiano Barros to finish installing the network in the ALEM office/class building. During this time I was very impressed with Cristiano's professionalism. By the time we finished, the entire building had a complete and functioning network, with an Internet gateway and more than enough access points. The only thing I missed was my camera, which failed just before I left!
April 25, 2006	Today, I finished the final changes necessary for completely switching our network servers over to Linux. As of this morning, the two Windows 2000 servers have been deactivated, and only the Linux machines remain in operation. Please be praying as I will probably be working on bugs here and there for a while!
April 1, 2006	Today I returned from nearly three weeks of travel, first to Brasília, where I helped with the second phase of our computer project with ALEM, the national Bible translation organization. During the two weeks I spent there, Bob Wright and I installed a network infrastructure in half of the main building, including two classrooms used for linguistics students. When we finished, not only were the offices on that side wired for network, but the students had a working, state-of-the-art computer lab. When we left, it was being heavily used. After the time in Brasília, I flew up to Dallas for one week of Publishing Technical Consultation. I went mainly for the opportunity to learn about the latest tools and techniques used in electronic publication, which is a vital part of our work as we not only publish scriptures, but reading primers, other literacy material, and much, much more. It was an exciting week and I learned a lot, which I am looking forward to applying here on the field in Brazil. Look for an upcoming Trip Report.
January 22, 2006	Yesterday I returned from a one week visit to Brasília, where I helped with a project at the ALEM center. ALEM is the Brazilian national Bible translation organization. I have aided individual members of ALEM in the past, but this was the first time that I actually stayed at their headquarters. The purpose for this visit was to help install 10 new computers for their linguistics class and accounting department, as well as plan for the next phase of an ongoing computerization project. I will be returning in March to help with the next step. Please pray for our colleagues in ALEM as they train Brazilian nationals in the work of Bible translation.
December 11, 2005	A week ago I got back from a visit to Porto Velho. While out there, I was able to resolve several issues with the local network, as well as personally help a number of individuals. Overall, it was a profitable time. I was also able to take advantage of traveling there with our SIL plane, which was returning after 100-hour inspection. On the trip back, though, it was once again the Low Road. Fortunately, the road was in the best condition I have ever seen it, and it only took 22 hours.
November 15, 2005	I am finally able to work on updating this website. I have gained enough understanding of Quanta Plus to go beyond mere experimenting, and I hope to have this very update ready to upload later today. Now if the weather will hold...
November 7, 2005	Today I brought my personal computer home. I had set it up at the office where I had access to broadband Intenet, in order to download any updates, etc. that were part of the setup procedure. This is my first personal Linux machine. Instead of loading Windows, I am using SuSE Linux 10.0. So far it appears to be a very capable operating system, though many of the applications are going to take some getting used to. But I also have a second reason for needing to understand Linux; we have been using it here on a server during my furlough, and now that I am back my plans are to add another Linux server and completely get rid of the Windows servers. Linux simply makes a better server. I have started working with Quanta Plus, the HTML editor that came bundled with SuSE 10.0, but I'm going to need a bit more time before I am ready to actually post updated pages on this site.
October 11, 2005	At 11:00 this morning, after a flight of several thousand miles and nearly 30 hours, I arrived in Cuiabá. Praise the Lord! I am finally back on the field, serving in Brazil where God has called me to help in the task of Bible translation. Please continue to pray. The work is important and we have an evil enemy who will do everything in his power to see to it that it fails. Also, I have a lot of work to do to get things back in order, both at home and in the office. It will probably be a few weeks before I will be able to update this site, since I have to get an HTML editor set up, both at the office and at home. And I still need to put together my new home computer!

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