Blog of A Plodding Visionary
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3 years ago
It’s coming up on three months since I moved into this apartment and I still haven’t finished organizing my bookshelves or closets. It’s been said that things not organized after a couple months probably never will be… but I’m committed to making sure that’s not the case. Only question is… when. I know it won’t take more than a couple hours once I decide to undertake the task, but there are so many other things vying for my time!
This past Tuesday a group of guys from church got together for the first “young shepherds’” meeting. Basically, it’s a small group study for guys in their 20′s and 30′s who may at some point in the future be going into roles of leadership in the church. It’s challenging so far — not that the content itself is hard, but rather that the implications and aspects of servant-leadership can seem pretty overwhelming.
I led the church “Twenty-Somethings” study tonight for the third time in four weeks. We’re studying through passages pertaining to the life of Abraham. I’d put together notes and an outline for the direction of the study and had one section that I was particularly excited about… incorporating Galatians chapter 4 into a discussion on Abram, Sarai, and Hagar (Genesis 16) and, of course, one of my favorite topics… the contrast between being a slave (both to licentious sin as well as self-righteous legalism) and being free. But for some reason, despite my passion about the topic, that aspect just didn’t seem to be going anywhere… in fact, I think it was falling flat. Funny how that happens sometimes! So I ended up changing the topic on the fly and instead focused more on God’s pursuit of Hagar in the wilderness, even when she was trying to run and get away from it all. Those who know me well know how much I hate to do anything impromptu… but apparently tonight this was the direction our study was supposed to take!
Finally, a word about business. For some strange reason, it seems that the majority of my clients are rich elderly men (not necessarily very tech-savvy either). I periodically field calls where a lot of concern is expressed because someone’s site has fallen off the first page of Google. Sorry… I don’t run Google and can’t guarantee top placement, especially on a niche site that will never have mass appeal anyway! Also… just because Microsoft Word can do something doesn’t mean that’s the way a website should look or function! I’m working on revamping my business strategy to focus more on the “consumer” market (home users, family and home business sites, home networking, etc.) but so far business-to-business is still the largest part of my client base.
as always… more to come…
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5 years ago
It’s been a week since I last updated… so I guess I’ll start where I left off.
Last Wednesday night my mom and dad and I went out for prime rib au jus at a steakhouse in a nearby town. If I recall correctly, it was the first time I’ve ever had prime rib at a restaurant. :-] That was part of the “extended” birthday celebration, and apparently is the start of a new family tradition.
The remainder of the week was a blur. I finished up a stack of eight contract websites, including a final 12-hour push on Saturday. I did get to see the Huskers’ late comeback win over Texas A&M, after they squandered a 21-7 lead and allowed the Aggies a 4th-quarter 27-21 advantage.
Sunday’s practice was long but we got quite a bit accomplished. We’ll have an easier week of practice this Sunday, no practice on the 26th, and then a brutally long dress rehearsal practice on December 3rd… we could feasibly be practicing for 7 hours that day!
On Monday I worked in the morning… then Mom and I went to Lincoln in the afternoon. I dropped off the 8 completed files, letting Mom see for the first time where I go for those, and then we went to Cold Stone Creamery to redeem our birthday certificates. It was actually the first time this self-professed ice cream man had ever been to Cold Stone. 
After that we went to see my grandma, who is much improved from last week.
This week is going better… aside from a dental visit yesterday that resulted in a sore mouth and a $270 bill… and a flu shot today (but at least it was free!). I’m having fun making a video for the program cast members showing most of the actors up to 10 years ago… they’ll find it interesting, to say the least. And there’s talk that there could be an Ultimate Frisbee game after the cast practice and before the church’s annual Thanksgiving Banquet.
Oh, and a blurb from Thomas Edison State College announcing my graduation appeared in one of our hometown newspapers today. 
I have a few more posts in mind, that will be uploaded when I have time to write more. One is the “reflective” post that I promised over a week ago… another is an article I’d like people to read and discuss… and the third is to be determined.
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5 years ago
I promised a longer “birthday-related” update a few days ago, but so far I haven’t been able to come up with the time to do so. Here’s a summary of the last few crazy days…
Thursday and Friday ~ I learned on Thursday that a project I had been working on for three weeks at work had been lost. The deadline for completion was Wednesday (11/8) but as of Friday the system hadn’t been set up for me to begin rebuilding the project.
Saturday was my actual birthday ~ in the morning, Dad and I went to Village Inn for breakfast. I spend quite a bit of the day working on website folders as I hadn’t been able to get as much independent work done during the week as I had hoped to. I got to see the Huskers win over Missouri on TV; then some of us went out to Mahoney State Park to find David’s letterbox. It was a very easy find but it was the first box he had ever placed. Then in the evening we had bratwurst for dinner (a favorite of mine) and Dairy Queen “cake” (ice cream in the shape of a cake, with filling and frosting).
Sunday was a cast-and-choir practice day for Christmas program preparation. I taught the group a little from the Book of Revelation, a favorite topic of mine even though my view on the book is now considered a “minority opinion” since about 1960. The choir sounded good; we’re about halfway there practices (the first performance is in under a month). Cast practice was cut short by a surprise birthday party for me! It was nearly a total surprise except that I began to suspect something when Mom insisted that we had to cut the practice short. Then when I went out to the church fellowship hall, before everyone else came in, I knew to expect everyone as I saw the decorated table with cakes and sandwiches and pop. Then in the evening we played a couple good Ultimate “Glowbee” (light-up frisbee) games, after dark.
On Monday I worked at TD Ameritrade from 7-11 so that Mom and I could go out for lunch and stop in and see my grandma (Mom’s mom). As it turned out, she had fallen the night before (my aunt emailed in the morning) so when we stopped in to see her around 3 she was exhausted and was only “awake” for a few minutes. Nothing’s broken and she didn’t have to go to the hospital; I heard she was better yesterday and will probably be closer to “back to normal” by weekend. For lunch, we went to Tico’s, a restaurant that has been around for decades and has the best chiles rellenos around.
Tuesday morning I went in to the dentist, one of two low points of the year (the other is the spring dentist visit). I don’t have anything against the dentist; I just don’t like going there. Then I went to the polling place and did my part to try to restore a moral order to the country. The senator I voted for won. 
His opponent was actually a former chief operating officer at TD AMERITRADE, where I work… but that didn’t give me any extra loyalties to him. It actually gave me more info on why not to vote for him. Anyway, the win was decisive. I stayed up later than I should have last night to see the results come in. I can’t believe that voters in the western part of our state actually chose a guy who was funded by an anti-farm Washington special interest group rather than the guy who had worked as an area ranch hand. Finally, I’m hoping that Virginia doesn’t turn into a similar situation as Florida in 2000…
Today was the original deadline for the code cleanup job at work. After having to start over, the job has now been greatly reduced so I did meet the goal. The next phase will be due in a week, and then the third phase on the Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I’ve enjoyed watching the various news articles come in today; I’m withholding an opinion on the new Secretary of Defense until I learn more about him, but I think he would have to be an improvement.
This evening Dad and Mom are taking me out to eat at a “fancy” restaurant for my birthday (actually last Saturday, but I didn’t want to pile a lot of “eating” events on one day or even one weekend, unless I want to be at the gym for 24 hours straight…which I do not). I don’t know where they’re planning on taking me (it’s a surprise) but I do know it is a place I have never been before.
Sometime I do want to get a more “reflective” post in, but trying to predict when I’ll have time is almost as hard as predicting whether or not the Cornhuskers will fumble away the upcoming Texas A&M football game. I do intend to get around to it before my 22nd birthday.
