And you know it’s time to go
Through the sleet and driving snow
Across the fields of mourning
Light in the distance

And you hunger for the time
Time to heal, desire, time
And your earth moves beneath
Your own dream landscape

Tonight we’ll build a bridge
Across the sea and land
See the sky, the burning rain
She will die and live again
Tonight

For tonight, at last
I am coming home.

This is a little sick, but hilarious nonetheless. The web is a very funny place, and oftentimes it comes from the hapless combination of things that were never originally intended to be combined.

Continuing in my tradition of counting things for no reason (which started approximately 2,005 minutes ago), this also marks the 100th post to my blog! This blog has been up and running for over 17.5 million seconds! Doesn’t that sound like a lot? It sure does to a common housefly. Any flies out there?

I’ve also had over 540 comments from all you wonderful people (and myself). Thanks for staying tuned in, and I hope I can continue to make it worth your while.

Since January 1st, 2003, I have sent 4600 email messages. Is that a lot? It doesn’t come out to that many messages each day, anyhow.

My longest email (counting only words I actually typed, not cut-and-pasted, not quoted, not anything else) appears to be 1,663 words, sent to Kevin as part of a discussion we had on the subject of the role of government in relation to religion. My 2nd longest is 916 words, sent to… ummm… Kevin. On the subject of… the role of government in relation to religion. Maybe I email Kevin too much. OK. Those things sometimes took me several days to write. It was fun. I hope we don’t do it again soon. 🙂

My shortest email was sent to Stephanie, and it contained no text whatsoever, but the subject was “Come call me? n/t” For those of you who aren’t familiar with that abbreviation, “n/t” when used at the end of a subject means that the message contains No Text. So now you know.

How many emails have you all sent? You may have only saved the last couple months of email, so you’ll have to count the number of days and extrapolate, but I’d be interested to know how emaily (new word!) I am compared to the rest of you.

Well, there’s really no reason for me to repeat everything Kevin has already said so I’ll let his entry speak on what it does. But I’ll tell a little bit of the story from my perspective, because it was fun.

Neal and I were chatting about what game we would play in a few minutes when I got some emails from my blog (because my blog emails me when someone posts a comment). Kevin and Abby were at the Southdale Apple Store and were checking out the merchandise, as any sensible human would. I responded to their comments (as you can see in the previous post), and then realized, “Wait a minute, they’ve got iSights all over that store!” so I posted again, hoping that Kevin and Abby would know that I’m obsessive and had probably responded to their comments while they were still in the store. And they did! That’s what good friends are for.

So I posted my iChat name (since removed, because this is the Internet) and a few moments later, Kevin had signed on using one of the store’s login names and I had opened a video chat with him! And there we were.

I’ve read other posts from Mac users where they talk about how powerful iChat and an iSight can be to close the cross-country gap, but I just have to reiterate that. In addition, it’s one thing to see a “geek friend” on iChat (especially someone who is there all the time anyhow) and quite another thing to see someone that I haven’t seen for six months, even though I’ve been communicating quite often. It’s like that great feeling you get when you step off the airplane and your loved ones are waiting there by the gate with a little balloon and a hug for you. That’s the potential of iChat and iSight. It’s a digital hug.

Just thought you’d be interested to hear about it.

The young dog is snoring.

Seriously. He sometimes gets so loud he wakes me up. I digress.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, Stephanie and I became involved with the PBCC Jr. High group in late September, early October of this year. I recall the first Sunday Steph decided to go to Sunday school with the group, I told her I didn’t want to go. Then I said I would. Then I said I wouldn’t. Then I said, “OK, I’ll come with you, but I’m just there for this week. Just checking it out.” I’ve loved it ever since. I’ve never been someone who considers himself to have any gift with youth. I’ve never felt called to be a Youth Pastor (and I still don’t, for good cause). But I also never even thought I would fit in and find a place to serve with a group of Jr. High students and their leaders. And yet, I do fit in. I really like these people and these students. What an odd thing to have happened for a guy like me.

As you know, one of the ways I’ve found to help the JH group out is by being their webmaster. i @m +He W38M4S+3r! b0w b3Ph0R3 Me, MoR+@L$! Anyhow, I’ve been working on the site, and it’s coming along pretty well now, so check it out and let me know what you think. The CSS is a bit messy / redundant in places, but it’s working fairly well. I’m proud to say that IE 6 plays quite well with it. IE 5.5 even renders most things perfectly, with the only differences being that it doesn’t center the page correctly (yet?), and the grey background shows behind the blog entries instead of the proper white, in spite of a “clear” statement. But it works fine! It just looks slightly funny. Any help on that will be greatly appreciated.

Continue reading “It’s Raining. It’s Pouring.” →