Sarah working on the analysis software

Day 8 in Palestine saw, shockingly, yet more testing and analysis.  Sarah and Pierre-Simon focused most of their day on developing software for analysis.  This meant a lot of coding, testing, and debugging.  Not the most exciting stuff save for an occasional shout of joy when the code finally hums.  The shell pressure leak test continued outside in the sea-container without any noticeable issues.  Everything was business as usual.  That does come with a couple of small exceptions, though.

The day had two main highlights, and I use the term highlights in the sense that even a dim bulb is bright in a dark room.  The first is that we signed a temporary armistice with the invading wasps.  Ever since John and I killed two wasps back on day 4 we would occasionally see another wasp fly overhead at a distance safe from our fly swatter.  However, on this day a wasp got brave.  He or she landed on the table directly to the right of my computer as I typed.  Naturally, I grabbed a nearby 2×4 and stealthily moved in to strike.  Before I could land a hit, John commanded me to hold my fire and let the wasp live another day.  He believed that as long as we didn’t bother the wasp, it wouldn’t bother us.

Unrelated picture of John talking to Brian while James talks on the phone in the background

The next few hours went off without incident, until disaster struck.  The wasp had mistakenly flown too far into the demilitarized zone around John’s face.  John took swift action.  With the speed of Trump’s twitter hand, John lashed out with a nuclear swat and displaced the unprepared wasp onto the nearby table.  The wasp, still dazed from the attack, flew off never to be seen again.  Most likely it is hiding in a cave somewhere, biding it’s time to attack again.  Still more likely is that it flew back through the whole in the ceiling from whence it came.

After that casual little incident, we had the pleasure to meet John’s friends from growing up.  They had known John since childhood, even going to the same high school and college as him.  Most importantly they divulged an important detail of his past that I was previously not privy to.  Turns out John was in a fraternity back in his college days, but we’ll keep the rest of the details a secret.

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-Matt Collins