Prayer Time

I have a couple of prayer requests for the praying people who read the blog. Pretty much all of you, right? :)

One of my first cousins on my mom's side found out she has cancer. I heard about it a few weeks ago. I may have mentioned it on here. She was in for a checkup in the fall, and it was excellent. A few months later the cancer was everywhere. Her plan was to go to Europe for a daughter's wedding then begin chemo afterward. She should have started that by now.

A first cousin on my dad's side had two strokes. He's been in a nursing home five weeks. I just found out this week. You know how people say they're always the last to know? I literally was almost the last to know. Nobody thought to call me. I'd like to visit him, but I'm having a hard time making that fit the budget and circumstances. I'm not sure how it's going to work out. I need a car. The news was a punch in the gut.

They're both older than I am, but that's a topic I already have a video planned for. It'll be in the one on foreshadowing. I'll give a small preview. My dad had me when he was a little older than when people normally have children. His dad had him when he was older than people have children. At this point most of the family I knew on my dad's side when I was growing up have died of old age. The cousin who had the strokes is about ten years younger than my dad would be had he lived. Not including the descendants, you could almost count the family reunion on one hand. That's kind of depressing, so let's move on to book stuff.

I got no videos made this week, although I did work on the studio a little bit. The lighting is mostly in place. I may need to set up a light or two for the green screen. I had to buy a small carpet to put under the chair. The chair's on painted concrete. When I would sit down in it, it would slide. The first carpet was three inches(7.62cm) too narrow. I had to take it back, another delay. I got nothing at all done on the YA book.
But these are both kind of good news, since I spent the time I would've spent on those working on book 2, which still doesn't have a title. It's not going easily, but it's going a lot faster than it was. I'm liking the progress I'm seeing.

Having a concrete deadline is helping a lot. I want to start the SF YouTube series around the 23rd of June at the earliest. It'll be after the 21st but probably not the 22nd. The software I need comes out the 21st, and I'll need to download it and learn enough to get started. I want the book 2 rough draft done before the 21st.

Something else I could use prayer for, besides needing a car, is my internet speed. In 2009 my electric company got a $33.5 million government grant to put in a 1Gbps fiber optic network. People within a mile of the trunk were supposed to be hooked into it first with everyone else being added later. I live less than a mile from the trunk. I never got hooked up to it. After a very long delay, the electric company sent me a letter last year saying it would cost me $25,000 if I wanted to be hooked up. Plus the cost of the service afterward and any incidental fees.
My ISP received a $175 million dollar government grant to upgrade everyone's network speed. They didn't do it either.
I have a 1.5Gbps internet connection with no way to upgrade it. Upload speed for the HD videos I want to make is around 256Kbps. The local congressman has been harassing my ISP in the paper, but nothing real has been done yet, at least not where I live.