In these troubled times…
I have been on an emotional roller coaster the last few months. I had been frustrated with my job and was working through issues. Then in December, a friend of mine died suddenly. Everything came to a head and I found myself in a depressed state for over a month. I would fall asleep by 9pm and wake up late. Some nights I didn’t even eat, I had no energy. Read more
Coding and having fun with YouVersion and WordPress
Over the last month or so I have had the privilege to work with the Digerati at LifeChurch.tv on a plugin for WordPress. It allows WordPress authors to link scripture references to YouVersion, an online Bible, produced by LifeChurch.tv. You even have the option to have a text bubble appear over your reference with the verses you are referencing. You can read the official announcement here, http://blog.youversion.com/?p=138. Read more
Triggering Old Memories
I went out for a drive this afternoon. I needed to clear my head after a day of reading about the Synoptic Problem. I enjoyed watching the sky change hues as the sun slipped beyond the horizon. Later I caught a hint of wood smoke in the air. That smell combined with the crispness of the air, conjured up old memories. It reminded me of home. Read more
Seminary: A Crucible of Faith
So about a year and a half ago, I got around to responding to a friend’s question of how had seminary affected my faith. Over the last few weeks, I have come back to this question. Some of those things I am still struggling with. The difference now is, my classes this semester seem particularly timely. They are forcing me to take a deeper look at myself. Read more
Natural Disasters and the Church
I was watching the news one morning this week and the anchor was giving a recap of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ike when it came ashore this past weekend. Homes near the coast were washed away and the ones that remain are flooded and full of mud and debris. Read more
Jars of Clay
I went to a men’s conference this weekend. The focus was on discipleship. There were musicians leading in worship and speakers compelling us to form relationships with other men in order to disciple them. There were also stirring dramas and videos demonstrating characteristics that we should seek to have in our lives. Read more
How it all began…
Over the Labor Day weekend, my mother, brother and I rented a car and drove from Louisiana to northern Missouri to attend a family reunion. I enjoyed it because I got to meet family I had never met before. As is the case with every reunion, there was good food. There was the occasional comment about how there weren’t going to any grandchildren on my side of the family. And also there were the stories of our family roots. Where our family came from. How they ended up where they were. There was also the common lament that as a family we had not done a good job of documenting our history. We are slowly losing the oldest generation of our family and with them a clearer understanding of our family’s legacy. Read more
Getting my kicks on Route 66
So a couple of weeks ago I was in one of my lulls at work, so I decided to look around and mind a place I’d like to go on my vacation. I wanted somewhere fairly close because of the price of gas but I wanted to get out of Texas. So I pulled up a map of KOA campgrounds and found one outside Elk City, Oklahoma. I did some looking and it sounded promising. Read more
Coder’s Block
For the last several weeks I have struggled with programming. I completed all of my large projects and found myself with only mundane and/or repetitive coding in front of me. One day it was so bad that I just clocked out early because I could not get focused. Beginning this week, I would start my day by coming up with some little personal project to get into the right mindset. For instance, I wanted to see if I could pull stats from WordPress.com via Perl scripts. I was unsuccessful but I learned some things along the way. Because of this I was able to transition to another project and get it completed.
These little distractions were helping me overcome my coder’s block but I still struggled. That began to change on Wednesday. I was listening to Buzz Out Loud and the discussion sparked an idea. I got to work and began toying with the idea for geek-maps.com. I worked on it for a little bit and then switched over to my work projects. When I got home that evening I worked for several hours on the site. When I got to work the next morning, I didn’t have as hard a time getting started.
As I continued working throughout the day Thursday and then on Friday I noticed some nice side-effects. There was this new energy for my work. I also found that each project built upon the other and solved problems inherent in both. Another side effect was the overcoming of my writer’s block. As I worked on geek-maps, I began writing about what I was doing and the problems I was trying to solve. My purpose was simple. I was writing to let visitors know what I was up to and, it helped me think things through.
Writing for geek-maps, I was not worried about the topic or my sentence structure or the tone. I just wrote. Some authors say that it is the best way to combat writer’s block. It took this experience for me to see the evidence. I have had all kinds of ideas rattling around in my head, but I have not been motivated enough to write. My hope is that with this renewed energy I will begin to put some of those ideas to paper.
New Site: Geek-maps.com
So on a lark I created a new website for fun. It’s called Geek-maps.com. It’s like those tour books for the stars but for geeks.
Check out the longer explanation and give it a try.
