Frost Bytes: Glitchy Indeed!

Regarding technology, Selawik was not the smoothest trip. I already wrote about how I lost a whole blog post (of course maybe that was best being that it was at the beginning of my trip when things were a little more bleak...maybe it wasn't a very positive post).

Then, Thursday afternoon, my new iPod seemingly died on me (read "panic")! So, I had often run the battery on my old iPod all the way down. When it gets low, the battery symbol turns red and gives a low battery notice starting at about 20% battery power I think. If you ignore it, at some point it just shuts off and won't do anything. However, when you put it on the charger, it acknowledges that it has been plugged in and is receiving power.

Wednesday night I had fully charged my new iPod because I use it in some programs to play a song or sounds. I didn't use it much, so it should have had plenty of power. I turned it on to check email at the end of the day. I didn't notice how much of the battery indicator was showing, but it was definitely still green. I set it down for 5 - 10 minutes, and when I picked it back up, it wouldn't turn on, no sign of life. I plugged it in to the charger for a while, no sign that it was charging. I fiddled with it for a while that evening and nothing. I concluded that for some freakish reason my iPod died. Disappointed and bored (all of my entertainment - books, music, podcasts, social media...were on it), I texted my brother about it. He mentioned charging, but that didn't seem to be the problem. A school district employee who was staying there also mentioned that hers had discharged so much as to be nonresponsive before also. I charged for a while but later gave up and went to bed.

On Friday I punched the power button a few more times - nothing. Then, strangest thing, as I'm back at the office moving my things from my work computer bag to my backpack, I touch the iPod and it's showing the low battery-need-to-charge symbol. Now, with just a little bit of charging here at home, it seems to be working normally - *sigh*

I'll investigate more this weekend but am relieved and happy to have it back for the moment. I'm disappointed, though, because I missed some photo ops in Selawik and on my flight back. The best was of our copilot - the pilot's 4-year-old son. He was the best in-flight entertainment around!

I'll throw in some of just a few pictures I took in Selawik on Wednesday evening. Keep in mind that Selawik is situated in a wetland. They have an elaborate system of boardwalks all around the village that they use for walking and driving Hondas. They're all wood (in a place with no trees), and some parts of it are in better repair than others. My pictures don't do it justice - it's really a pretty big system of boardwalks.

There are 2 rivers between the airport and school. This is the boardwalk over the bigger one.

Like I said, some parts are in better repair than others.

In the next one I was on the bridge trying to get a picture of the smoke coming from the dump. Tuesday evening someone set fire to their trash in the dump. It spread around the whole dump and was still smoking when I left on Friday.

I think there are some firebugs in Selawik. My first summer here they were building a new building for the Friends Church. They finished and dedicated it some time in March, I think. I'm not sure if it was even a month later that someone burned the new building down.