Back Tomorrow

I didn't get any of my in-process entries finished for tonight.

Mostly Here

Pastor: Are you still alive?

Me: I think so…

That was at 9:00 tonight after a very intense day… the Great Big Move™ of the church office across the street. I got all of the computers running, although our new WAP isn't working quite as well as I hoped. I need to work on that (the high powered antenna I bought seems to decrease the signal).

Anyway, more tomorrow. I'm glad yesterday turned out to be such a nice day to get me prepared for today…

An Unplanned Day

Life comes in moments,
As the bold lightening flashes.
Enjoy the moment,
Savoring the occurrence,
Refreshing as post storm air.

Some days just work out much better than expected. Today was one of those days. I was walking out of my Shakespeare class, planning on doing some network (as in ethernet) planning, when I happened to run into my cousin. She's a high school senior who is planning to come to LU for a BA in Education next year, and today was the day she was suppose to register. I knew that; in fact, I helped her plan her schedule last week, but I did not expect to run into her. She wanted a tour of the campus, which I provided; what a week to do so — the various flowering trees were all in bloom and a warm breeze flowed through the air. Talking a stroll on a spring day like today just makes one feel better. I'm now wishing I had worn my “good” sandals (standard Birkenstocks' with the cork footbed) instead of my less supportive ones (rubber, washable Birkenstocks) today, for my legs are a bit sore, but it was nice.

Then this afternoon, I had an appointment to which the professor I was meeting was about a half hour late. No, this was not a bad thing. A friend of mine works in an office just down the hall, and happened to come in while I was waiting for my appointment. It turned out to be a nice opportunity to chat with her for awhile, something that would not have happened if the meeting had occurred on schedule. She's the type of person that always has something interesting to say, and today was no exception.

At the end of the day, I have not accomplished what I was hoping to (I was hoping to get some web design work done for clients and I needed to return some phone calls), but it worked out as a sort of “accidental vacation day,” which was just what I needed. It wasn't what I planned, but I couldn't have planned it to work out as well as it did had I aimed to.

Brain on Vacation

My brain is presently on vacation.

Today, I visited the local CompUSA, which is about a 30 minute drive away, to pick up some networking equipment for the Great Big Office Move™ at Church. In the process of moving, I'm installing a new wi-fi access point (an Airport Extreme), an extra switch (Linksys 5-Port), a WDS range extender (Airport Express) and, after all of this, I am suppose to get all eight computers back on the network. Did I mention all of this is suppose to happen on Saturday?

Anyway… back to my story. Two days ago I set a copy of the church tax ID certificate on my desk so that I'd remember to bring it to the store. Did I remember to do this? Yes, I did remember it… once I was in the CompUSA parking lot. The story worked out well enough, they still had a copy on file in the commercial sales department from the last time I was there, but it could have been a major hassle otherwise.

My brain has also been MIA the last two nights while trying to write papers. Last night, I tried to write up a 2.5-3 page paper on the problems inherent in Theravada Buddhism (i.e. most people aren't satisfied with a religion without a Supreme Being). This was an easy topic that I've written on a lot before, but it took me an hour to get two and a half measly pages written.

Tonight, I tried to wrap up a paper comparing some key points about Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis. Another topic of interest to me, and one I've spent a lot of time on lately. It has been a really big struggle. I've spent the better part of ten hours on it just to get together a rough draft nine pages in length (3000 words). That's terrible for me.

I'm not sure if its daylight savings time (likely) or something else, but whatever the case, I do hope my brain comes home soon. Or at least sends a post card. If you see a brain sneaking through your neck of the woods, let me know, it might be mine.

How's your week going?

First Job

I found this via Christopher and Michael.

1) What was your very first job where you received a paycheck?
That's a tough question for me. I've never worked as an employee for anyone. I have received payment as an independent contractor, but that's technically more of a customer relationship wherein the payer was paying my business for services rendered. The closest I've come to technically working for someone else would be some work for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch awhile back, but that was a freelance contractor arrangement too.

2) How old were you?
With the above caveats out of the way, I received my first check from a business at 13 or 14. I don't recall for sure.

3) Did the job require you to wear a uniform? - take a moment and describe?
No.

4) How long did you keep your first job?
This question doesn't really apply.

5) When you left your first job was it because you quit or were you fired?
Ditto.

6) What was your second job?
See above.

7) Were you ever “counseled” about your performance on a job? What for?
I've had some irate customers, does that count?

Leave your answers below or feel free to trackback from your blog.

Hallelujahs

Thinking back on today, I started to think of a song by Chris Rice. I thought I'd quote a bit of it here:

The pulse of life within my wrist
A fallen snow, a rising mist
There is no higher praise than this
And my soul wells up
O my soul wells up
Yes my soul wells up with hallelujahs

Oh praise Him all His mighty works
There is no language where you can't be heard
Your song goes out to all the Earth
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!

Considering all that God does for me, and especially what He did for me this week almost 2,000 years ago, that song ought to be my song every night.

Speaking Out

I'm a written word kind of guy. Now, I can give a decent presentation (although I'll never be an orator), but I'm much better writing stuff down and pouring over it and then publishing it in some form than spontaneous speaking. I seem to just put my foot in my mouth all the time when I'm speaking to people. While I enjoy trying to be witty, too often I'm not quick witted enough to ask the right questions when I should. Despite all this, I talk too much and must check myself in that regard (something I fail at too often).

It is true that I do not always edit blog posts very carefully; however one can choose present a carefully crafted statement when writing should one decided to. I rather wish I could figure out how to edit what I was verbalizing as well.

You know, I see a trend brewing in my posts lately. I don't seem to have any conclusions. I have been staring at this post for a bit now, wondering exactly where I was going to go with it, but I don't think I can think of anything all that good. Perhaps I'll return to our friend Jacques whom I quoted last night:

O worthy fool! One that hath been a courtier,
And says, if ladies be but young and fair,
They have the gift to know it: and in his brain,
Which is as dry as the remainder biscuit
After a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd
With observation, the which he vents
In mangled forms. O that I were a fool!
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

Yes, indeed. To be as one of Shakespeare's fools; to perceive things and state them without irritating people… that would be good.

Sticking to a Project

I'm pretty good about getting stuff that needs to be done completed. Projects for clients, church stuff, school assignments, and so on. But, I've always had a hard time getting stuff I do on the side complete. Take SAFARI — I've been developing this CMS for six years now. But I've taken several multi-year breaks along the way.

Then there is what I'm writing for amusement. I've started writing a play, a novel and, most recently, an epic poem. Oh, and a sonnet sequence. The novel was started earliest, and is the one I'll probably finish first, but I find myself always starting new projects instead of working on it. If I focused all of my energy on one of these things, I might actually finish it. Instead, I keep working on them all.

It's not so much that I get bored with a project. It's that there are so many things I'd like to do, and I find I can't resist working on all of those things (well, not all). Since the aforementioned stuff has primarily existed in the realm of hobby, I guess it isn't a bit deal, but I still feel like I should focus myself a bit better.

Right now, I'm thinking I should shift the epic and play to the background and keep fiddling with the novel and sonnet sequence. The former because it might actually become a body of work I can do something with (e.g. publish), the latter because it is a good mental exercise and is an enjoyable way to capture present experiences.

Not one of "those" days

Update: I switched to HTML entities for the following Greek characters, per Ed's suggestion.

Well, if yesterday was a bad day, today was its inverse. Despite feeling slightly under the weather, the day just seemed to go right from the beginning until now. I had a Koine Greek midterm and was able to pull off a 97% on it (kudos to an instructor kind enough to grade it as soon as I turned it in), which as a major relief. I'd been worrying about this exam for some time, but in the end it turned out good. My big mistake was making the vocative case second declension noun ending ε into ει and the imperfect middle/passive verb ending ομηι instead of ομην. As a whole though, it turned out well.

Since Tuesdays/Thursdays contain several classes, I usually grab lunch on campus, since I only have 45 minutes to do so. Today, I walked into the cafeteria a bit early after finishing the aforementioned test, and found, for the first time in memorable history, cream of potato soup (my favorite) available. It was quite good too.

The next class, Religion in America, turned into a debate forum on the topic of the First Amendment and the meaning of the phrase “Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” I'm sure you can guess which interpretation I have on that issue.

Later in the afternoon while walking to my car, I happened to run into a good friend that I hadn't had a chance to talk to more than in passing for some weeks. Given that I was not in any rush, nor was the friend, it was a nice opportunity to chat (as in talk, not type) for a bit. The said friend has a mind for wit, and the exercise of quick thinking is always refreshing and a good way to wrap up a good afternoon.

This evening has not presented anything terribly exciting, but it did not need to, given the day. So, how was your day?

One of "those" days...

…you know what I mean?