Back to my Roots

Tomorrow is the big day!!! Erin is beside herself with it being Halloween. This year, she's going to be a "silly witch", whatever that means. So tonight I found myself online trying to find out how to use Kool-Aid to dye her hair pink. Well, I found what I was looking for, but it appears to be a process that might be a bit to much for an excited 4 year old to handle. So we scrapped the pink hair idea. I did pay an online visit to my old friends Tish & Snooky. Wow...talk about nostalgia. So in light of tomorrow being Halloween I think I'm going to dress up for work tomorrow. I don't think I'm going to go completely out, but I think I'm going to go to work dressed like I did in college. I broke out the old fishnet shirt, combat boots (complete with spikes), Racket's & Drapes shirt, etc... I put it all on, and I can honestly say I miss those days and that look. Now I'm tempted to get some hair dye and do something fun.

Later,

David

Mozilla Thunderbird

I've been using Mozilla Thunderbird for a while as my e-mail program. I think it is a decent substitue for Microsoft Outlook, especially for the price. However, I have found a new reason to like Thunderbird, RSS feeds. I'm testing some of the features out now...I'll let you know how it goes.

Later,

David

The Mexican Fisherman

I've read this story before, and received it over a year ago. I was cleaning out my e-mail today and I ran across it again. After reading it, I felt compelled to post it.

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs . . I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

And after that?" asked the Mexican.

With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my Friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" said the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends."

And the moral is: Know where you're going in life....you may already be there.

I read this story, and I do find it slightly humorous, but more than that I envy the fisherman. He speaks of living a life that is laid back and enjoyable. He's doing what he wants to do, not what he's told he should do. I always hear about how much faster paced America is than other countries and I wonder why. I wonder why I'm working in a job that requires me to work 45 hours a week as opposed to the standard 40? I don't like where I'm at, and I think that's because I'm not where I want to be. I want to be released from the burden of my job. I want to free myself from the bondage my debt holds me in. I want to be able to do the minimum, make enough to support my family. How awesome would it be if I could work a part time job and not be in need of more? Sorry for rambling.

Later,

David

New Website Features

This past weekend I got to take some time to work on the University Church website. In our last leadership team meeting I was asked to work on a feature for the sight that would spotlight examples of our community in action. The request was to have me make a page that displays what we're calling "Community Spotlights" and has the option for a site visitor to submit their own. Well, I finally got started on it, and I'm proud to announce that the feature has been completed and is now live. You can check it out by following the link below.

Community Spotlight

Let me know what you think of the spotlight page, and if you've seen examples of Community in Action, please feel free to submit your own spotlight. As with many of my PHP projects, the cool stuff is all behind the scenes. If you'd like to know more about how it works and the back end, keep reading. Since we are allowing anyone who visits the site to be able to submit a spotlight we can't have the spotlight appear immediately so it was decided that the spotlights must be moderated. To implement this, when a spotlight is submitted, it drops into a database and sends and e-mail to both Sean and I. The e-mail notifies us that there is a spotlight pending approval to the site. We can then log into the administration side of our webpage to work with the spotlight. Upon logging into the administration site you have three different spotlight views: Unapproved, Approved, and Archived. When viewing the unapproved spotlights there are three options: Approve, Edit, or Delete. If you click the approve link, the spotlight is automatically added to the approved list, and becomes visible on the public site. If the spotlight is good, but needs some minor editing (fixing html, removing language, etc...) you can click on the Edit link to open the spotlight for editing. When you're done editing, you can then approve it. If a spotlight was posted, but isn't suitable for publication, pressing the delete link removes it from the database completely. On the page that shows the approved spotlights, there is an option to Archive the spotlight. This will remove it from the public page, but remains in the database. At this point we don't have any archived spotlights, but I'm guessing in the future we'll have a page that allows us to view the archives.

Later,

David

The Rest Of The Story

Well, I figure it's about time I post the rest of the story to my blog. I do wish however, that all of my posts would get comments like the last one did. Well, I had a handful of guesses, and it looks like Dad was the closest. After my car has been sitting in the driveway for over 6 months, I've tried selling it, I've tried parting it out, I've considered hauling it to a salvage yard, and I was asked if I'd be willing to donate it. So, I made the choice that I'd go ahead and donate the car. I might still get the scrap metal value for the car, but I need to find out what is going to happen to it from here. Also, I have a guy that is interested in buying the tires off of the car, so I need to get in touch with him. So, I gave the car to the Lawrence First Church of the Nazarene youth group, to assist with a fundraiser at their annual car show. I've added a bunch of pictures so people can see the progression, and the fun that was had.



Later,

David

Vehicle Recovery

You wouldn't be able to tell from the comments, but my last post 'Missing' has caused quite a stir. I've received a handful of phone calls of people wanting to know what's going on. I have some more information that I'm able to release, so I thought I had better post an update.

The Buick has been found. However, it is not in the state it was in when it was found missing. The car was located in a field about 3 miles South of Lawrence. I've included some pictures as to it's current condition. To my knowledge it has not yet been removed from this field.



Stay tuned for more details.

Later,

David