This weekend has been going great so far. Last night, went down to Saturday House (even though it was Friday) to hang out w/ some guys down there to do some hanging out. I bought some books at Borders beforehand about Ruby on Rails (web programming framework) on flipped through them a bit. I think we were on a caffeine high while we came up with some ridiculous business models involving animal-breeding dating services via the internet (and crazy enough most of the name ideas we came up with were registered domains and probably ones you wouldn’t want to visit).

Woke up this morning after dreaming about Ruby on Rails syntax and went to a web committee meeting at church. We made some progress w/ identifying goals for the new church website and created questions for a survey about the project that will be given to the church pending session approval.

Had breakfast w/ Matthieu at Denny’s after the web meeting this morning. It’s nice hanging out w/ somebody who is about my same age and offers a positive influence on my life. He’s a year young than me, but his third kid is on the way now so he’s had a bit of maturing that I haven’t had to face yet.

Went down to actual SaturdayHouse after breakfast. Studied Rails, had some random conversations, hung out w/ Sean a bit. Went down to this used PC store w/ a couple of the guys, but no decent laptops were on sale. I was going to buy Isaac’s but it’s keyboard has some issues that are going to cost too much to fix to be worthwhile. I’m looking at other refurb laptops online and I’m thinking about checking Fry’s out, but I’m not entirely sure if I trust Fry’s. Martin (roommate) bought his computer there and he pretty much had to take the whole thing back and exchange it today due to some issues w/ Vista sucking and his monitor having some dead pixels (bright green, yay!). But at least they exchanged it I guess.

Jenny blogged today. You should go check that out. (No links ’cause they’re trying to hide from the Search Man while Phil job hunts, but they’re still linked in the sidebar if you look closely.)

I’m gonna go watch a movie and rot my brain now. I bought “Before Sunrise,” and I’ve got “Pi” and “The Lake House” from Netflix right now.

The “Juno” soundtrack is awesome. Half of the soundtrack is Kimya Dawson songs which I can best describe as folksy, catchy tunes w/ a creative sense of imagery and a dash of I-Hate-The-President liberalness. There’s an excellent song from The Kinks - “A Well Respected Man” - that I will be singing loudly to from now until the day I die.

Oh, almost forgot to mention I’m having surgery on 2/11. Chop chop! Removing the cyst in my arm should help prevent future infections. As long as the surgeon doesn’t snip a tendon or cut a nerve, it should be okay. I’m more worried about my subconscious freaking out than I am about the doc doing his job.

Categories: Friends, Life
Tags: church, Juno, medical, Ruby on Rails, SaturdayHouse

Okay, so I did Halloween a bit different this year. As you may have noticed, I dyed my hair black and painted my nails black.

I went to work in costume. I also was wearing my new Van’s shoes and a thicker black belt along with my sexy jeans and Matchbook Romance t-shirt and an old plaid shirt.

Turns out, I met the mayor that day. For a few moments, I wished I’d dressed better, but then I realized I didn’t care — the inside counts, and the outside gets peoples’ attention.

The mayor is actually a pretty intelligent guy. He let us introduce ourselves and then ask questions. He handled all the questions easily with the best answers he had and for the things he didn’t know, he made it clear he’d have someone take a look into it. I don’t know if I agree with all his policy stances, but he’s not just playing the political game: he’s actually looking to bring about positive change for the people.

I found it interesting he referred to Jerry Brown, former governor of California, as one of his influences. The mayor refused to Brown as a “philosopher politician” which, he states, is “the best kind of politician.” I knew about Jerry Brown because my dad had talked about him before. Upon election, Jerry Brown referred to live in the California Governor’s Mansion and instead lived in an apartment. Anybody who goes out of their way to be a true “man of the people” like Brown earns my respect.

From work, I proceeded to the bus and to Nick’s car and on to Wednesday-night church. There’s a potluck every Wednesday and this is the first one I made it to. It was awesome — I love food that other people cook. Bachelor heaven.

Tomorrow I’m volunteering at an Agros fundraiser. It’s the same one I volunteered at last year when I was visiting Seattle for a week and scoping things out. I decided I might as well make it an annual event.

‘k so that’s it for now.

Categories: Life
Tags: Agros, church, Matchbook Romance

Hopefully you’re all getting a glimpse of how my life is going from all the mobile photos and miscellaneous commenting. Just want to give a brief summary of things though.

Last Monday - final preparation for a “Talk Time” English conversation ministry being started at my church. It actually starts on Monday. I’m looking forward to it.

PostSecret book tour in downtown on Thursday night — awesome. I love the site, I love the books (though I only own 2 of the 4). Before the book tour, I stopped at Starbucks and wrote out some of my secrets on a piece of paper and slipped them into one of the books once I got to the book store.

Slashdot party Saturday night — awesome.

As you can see, I’ve actually been getting some social interaction. I’m really hoping I can start to derive some friendships from getting out into the world. I know it’s helping my days to seem more full and less lonely. Granted, life is never gonna be perfect, but I’m even more excited to be living here now that I’m seeing some hope even on the literally dreary days that come as Seattle transitions to Fall.

Prayer: My Grandma went to the hospital on Wednesday. This worried me probably more than anything all week. She’s doing okay and she’s home now, but she and all of my grandparents are getting towards the tale end of life and I’m afraid to lose them. I’ve been fairly lucky in that I’ve only had a few relatives die since I’ve been old enough to understand and most of my memories of them have been letters and birthday cards mailed from distant lands.

Needless to say, I’m not exactly thrilled at the idea of getting to know Death any better.

Categories: Life
Tags: church, death, grandma, PostSecret, Slashdot

Today I found out my parents put the house on the market. They’re going to sell my home. Homes are shells within which we live, but when a home is left behind a body misses the familiarity of the place. I’m going to miss the place.

Another thing I never expected happened Saturday. The church I attended during college burned. It was over 80 years old, made of brick, and absolutely beautiful. It had stained glass windows and a huge mural which had been painted sometime in the 1930’s. Now most of it is gone and they will have to bulldoze the remainder in order to keep it from falling and hurting anybody.

I find myself wondering why I care. Everything I know about the world tells me that nothing is constant, nothing will remain forever, but when you’re living among the change it’s hard not to take it personally.

I spent most of high school in the home. I spent two summers from college there. I lived there two additional occasions after college. Video games, TV shows, poker games… Roxie the dog. Family get togethers. So many memories.

I spent many Sunday mornings in the church, drove friends from college there with me, sat in the wooden pews, stared at the mural, sang from the hymnals. I went to weddings there as well (Rob + Jill, Ben + Kara, Pat + Julia).

The memories will last. Until Alzheimer’s or death, whichever comes first. But knowing the places are (or will be) gone leaves me looking for something more constant.

Categories: Life
Tags: church, family

After church today, my roommate convinced me to head to the firing range with him. We ended up renting a Glock 34 (9mm) and firing off about 75 rounds each. The timing was a bit strange, but it was actually quite fun.

I played some basketball this afternoon and also went grocery shopping. It’s been a nice day off. I’m gonna have to figure out another day for rest though because my Sundays have been quite event-filled lately.

A guy I know from church had his eHarmony woman-of-interest there this morning. His good fortune happened to be part of my inspiration for taking a foray into the world of interweb dating. I haven’t had quite the same luck yet, but at least I’m meeting new people and being given opportunities I wouldn’t otherwise have. How many other people do you know that can say they’ve had a beef tongue taco or backed their car into a light pole as part of a dating experience?

Categories: Life
Tags: church, dating, guns