It's a Beautiful Day

A Good One. You ever have one of those days that starts out sort of okay, starts to go down hill and then all of a sudden does a 180 and becomes a great day? That's the kind of day I had today.

PhotoQuest? Yes, I am incorrigible, as Kevin told me. Flip doesn't have hers up either, so maybe I have somewhat of an excuse though! I do have the pictures taken, I just need to hook up my memory card reader to my PowerBook to download and resize 'em (right now, I'm at my desk using — gasp! — Windows XP instead… more on that in another post).

I've Got Mail. Being ever the glutton for signing up for free e-mail accounts, I signed up for one of the new AIM Mail accounts to give it a spin a few weeks ago. As part of the launch, you get a message, after signing in for the first time, offering a daily contest you can enter in (enter once and you get the chance to win every day without any more intervention); apparently you can win a Mini Cooper S, a PlayStation Portable, iTunes Music Store music and various other things. I forgot all about it until the other day, when I decided to log-in and take a look see. As it turned out, I haven't won a Mini Cooper yet, but I did get a coupon for a free song on iTMS. Not too bad…

Oh, and for those who are counting, this takes me up to 5 free e-mail accounts (Yahoo! Mail, Netscape Mail, Gmail, AIM Mail and iBiblio are the ones I remember and are still active, at one time, I had a bunch of other ones). I don't have a Hotmail account, interestingly enough; I signed up for a Microsoft Passport when they still offered Hotmail-less Passport.com passports.

Of those, if I was going to use one, I'd use the Gmail account. Google has really done a nice job with the interface — it is lightweight and functional. I also managed to nab the coveted “my first intial plus last name” address, since I was invited to try Gmail fairly early in the beta. I have a .Mac account, however, whose e-mail is the one I generally use if I need an address other than the ones on my server.

Sunset

Tonight was a beautiful night. I've been trying to take more time to enjoy the simple pleasures that can be so easily overlooked with everything that needs to get done. This evening, it was the absolutely stunning sunset that seemed to almost set the trees of the area on fire. Having an ice cream soda to drink while enjoying the view was an added bonus.

Below the trees, not too far away, there were several groups playing baseball. It all seemed almost surreal, as a light breeze blew by, wiping away the memories of the last few scorching days of near 100 degree temperatures Fahrenheit (37 Celsius).

In other news: It looks like my PhotoQuest isn't getting done tonight, so I guess I'm going to have to post it on “June 31st.”

Nothing Done

I had good intentions today of getting something done. I wanted to write out some ideas that had been hitting me lately, but when I opened up Word to write, I lost all inspiration. I kept trying on and off tonight to no avail. I was going to go back to the book I've been reading this week, Journey to the Center of the Earth, but couldn't motivate myself to even do that.

This morning was interesting, though. The Expansion and Renovation Project (E&R) team at church took those interested on a tour of the building project. Construction began in January, and major work started in April, so while there is a long way to go, there was a lot of interesting work already done that had been behind locked doors. It is weird to see some parts of the old building that look so different that I had to think where in the building I was (and I knew the building pretty well!). The new multipurpose room and entry hall that are being added on are making good progress too, with masonry work all but completed on three sides. It is exciting that we are actually ahead of schedule at the moment.

The heat was really bad, though. The sanctuary has been rather uncomfortable the last few weeks with only small, temporary A/C's working, but the rest of the building does not have a working HVAC at all presently, while we await the installation of a new chiller unit (“It should be in by July 41st”). We were assured this morning not to worry, if we wanted heat, the boilers are ready to go.

A Beautiful Day

This song just kept coming to mind today, and then my iPod played it when it was shuffling for me tonight.

If You made me like the grass that is green
Growing tall and covering the hills above me
Maybe I would pray for sunshine and a little rain
To fall now and then to make me lovely
I could be a place where sheep could graze
Or barefoot feet could play
And I would grow and grow and hope You'd bend down low
To hear me sing my offering

(Chorus)
Open up the heavens, open up the sky
All of Your creation wants to testify
I have a song, so let the earth sing along
'Cause I just want to praise You

—Nichole Nordeman

A Writing Itch

I have the urge to write two non-fiction books. Previously, I've wanted to write one, but never knew what I wanted to write on. I know what I'd like to say in them now, and given the time, I think I could probably produce one of them within the next year. The problem is that I'm not good at sticking to one project. I have a lot of irons in the fire, and I really don't want to give any of them up… but, if I don't, I won't ever get any of them done.

Another problem I have is credentials. The only field I have any background at all in is information technologies, and neither of the books I'd like to write have anything to do with computers. Would people read a book from a nobody with no particular expertise? I'm not sure. I may try to see if I can focus enough to write what I want to write and then worry about that later. I can always hang onto the manuscript until such time as I do have the right background or the a willing audience.

One thought that has passed through my head is to fictionalize my non-fiction. If I make my point through fiction, perhaps it would matter less if I was an “expert.” On the other hand, I don't want to water down what needs to be said.

The one book also has to do with what I cannot yet share. How I'd like to share my thoughts, but some things — most things, really — are still in motion and I simply cannot for that reason. Perhaps this is good. The things are getting so bottled up in me that maybe that will force me to put it into a more organized form that can be published. I can hardly stand it. In point of fact, I've already generated the better part of 100 double spaced pages of notes on the one subject. Now to organize it…

So Much

There are so many things I want to write about here that I just cannot yet. It is driving me crazy. Several things I've spent much of the last few weeks dealing with, for example. That's where a private, password protected blog might be good, but I don't think that is for me (at least, by and large).

On the other hand, you can see one thing I am up to. A new design for my church's site. Take a look and let me know what you think. The powers that be want the animation to be smaller in width so that there can be a side column… do you like that idea? Thanks for your input.

Update: In reply to Mark, note that this is not the live site, just a mockup of a new front page.

Tired

I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden I am exhausted. I was going to post one or two good posts tonight, but it ain't happening. I promise normal blogging will resume soon.

Late on PQ

Well, I was going to get the PhotoQuest up this past weekend. Or at least by the end of May. Or at least no later than the first day of June. No dice. How about the second day of June?

Putting it On Paper

I've spent a good chunk of the evening today writing down every detail I could about last week. I ended up with over 10 pages of material. What will I do with this now that it is written down? I'm not sure; it is too raw to do much at all with. But, at least I have a record while things are still fresh.

I'm Baaaack!

Well, it is always a downer to be back after a nice vacation, but it was such a nice trip that I'm feeling pretty good today anyway. It was a great week, and being the week before Memorial Day, it wasn't too busy, although busier than it typically is the week before Memorial Day. The weather was mostly nice and unseasonably mild, which I appreciated very much.

I did wave when going past Rolla, did you wave back, Christopher? I like Michael's idea of meeting at the Hen House sometime. I thought about my blogging buddies of Bourbon and Rolla while I was enjoying my broasted chicken dinner there last night.