wcs's Xanga

News

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:24:56 GMT

As of June 6, I am engaged to be married to Alisha, who, as of June 20, is in Thailand for six months.

That is a packed statement.

Most who read this blog already know those things. It will be interesting planning a wedding while we are so far apart. Already, it has been a little challenging, and we've only just begun. E-mail and chat provide a way to communicate but seem to provide lots of opportunities for little or big misunderstandings. I am hopeful for opportunities to communicate by voice, whether using some sort of voice-over-IP or regular phone.

I am excited--excited for Alisha, who loves Asia and is pursuing a dream; excited to have her soon as a lifelong companion; excited as I see God at work all around me in little and big ways. I'm grateful for my folks and Alisha's folks, who are extremely supportive of our relationship.

Now there are so many decisions to make, in planning for one wedding day and in planning for the future in general. I'm not afraid to make these decisions, but from this point forward decisions seem to have a lot more weight.

I take my mind off the heavy stuff by engaging in low-thinking but fun types of things. As you probably know from past reading, I love working in the yard. I finally decided to bring the monster rhododendron under control. Near the rhododendron is a large patch of peppermint that was also creeping all over the place. After cutting it back for a while, I was sick to my stomach from the strong peppermint smell. There is no end to yard work but I'm not discouraged because it's fun to bring order to my 1/3-acre kingdom.

Memorial Day weekend

Fri, 22 May 2009 19:52:38 GMT

It's almost Memorial day weekend, and I am looking forward to the peace of not having a lot to do.

Sure, I'll do my usual weekend routine of mowing the grass and randomly working on stuff around the house. Maybe I'll even go downtown on Memorial Day for the festival. Boalsburg claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, and who am I to argue? I'll attend the festival and buy a funnel cake or some other delicious treat and enjoy the nice weather, probably with whatever friends I can round up to go with me.

Days of rest are important, yet I tend to take them for granted. Only when we are at rest do we get to think and reflect without pressure. Forced, focused thought and relaxed, maybe unfocused thought are both good and productive but tend to have very different outcomes.

I updated my ministry site with a recap of the last few months of AACF happenings. Sometimes it's just hard to keep up with writing. Now that I've written something, though, I'm satisfied and encouraged to keep writing. This seems to be a secret to successful blogging.

10 Words

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 22:12:23 GMT

Things significant to me right now, in random order:

bike phone Alisha piano God work weddings praise summer moving

One sentence for each:

It's warm and I'm back on the bike now, resuming my commute to work and thinking about some longer rides soon.

I'm restoring an antique phone and it's been fun working with 60-year-old technology and seeing it still function on my server-and-network-powered phone system.

Alisha: I do not write lovey-dovey stuff about her on blogs or she will be embarrassed. See our Facebook pictures. National Zoo was fun. This is four sentences.

I love to play the piano.

The path God has laid out for my life is interesting, exciting, fun, and somewhat unpredictable.

Work is steady and mostly enjoyable though I wish for more creative opportunities.

Alan and Ginny's wedding is coming up in just over 2 weeks; Gabe and Erica's is in two months!

Praise ministry in AACF and Calvary has been meaningful and fun this past semester since God has invigorated me in it.

Both of my roommates, dear friends to me, are moving out this summer but two other great guys are soon moving in.

Osteens on LKL

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:00:41 GMT

Osteens: Obama doing great job, loves the Lord (April 2009)

The Osteens get invited back to Larry King Live again and again, and this is potentially a good witness for Christ. Yet every time I read the transcripts--I seldom get to watch the show--I am left with the feeling that an opportunity to deliver Truth has been squandered, that the gospel has been replaced with a feel-good, sin-is-no-big-deal message and that there's no hard decision-making or repentance in Christianity.

Christians have to make hard decisions every day, pushing back against the world and repenting when they give in to the world's enticements. This is a very real struggle for me and all the Christians I know. But the Osteens seem to have their cake and eat it, too. I guess if they testified the real gospel on LKL, they might not be invited back.

Additional reading:

In the beginning... LKL/Joel Osteen June 2005

LKL/Osteens December 2006

LKL/Osteens October 2007

LKL/Osteens December 2008

wcs.xanga.com

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:48:38 GMT

Xanga has changed their URL scheme. Now www.xanga.com/wcs redirects to wcs.xanga.com. This subtle improvement makes Xanga more like personal blog sites (Blogspot) than like a social community (Myspace/Facebook) by putting the person first (wcs) rather than the site (xanga).

Spring Break

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:20:08 GMT

I took a vacation day today for "spring break." Last week, the forecast looked good for a bike ride or other outdoor fun, but it was cold, windy and wet today.

I continued my maintenance theme by trying to fix two microphone cables from the praise team. And I actually got sucked into a bit of work e-mail this morning. Other than that, it was a fine break.

I finished watching Amazing Grace, the 2006 movie about William Wilberforce, the 18th century British parliamentarian who spent most of his career working to abolish the slave trade in Britain. Great movie. It's hard to keep track of some of the white-wigged characters throughout, so I may watch it again now that I have a better idea of what's going on. (18th century Brits were the original "wiggers"; nevermind the modern usage.)

Incidentally, I was watching the movie on my iPod sitting in a little coffee shop in Boalsburg. There are programs that rip DVDs to the iPod's miniature format, if you care to watch on the small screen. I kind of enjoyed it. The audio is the best part, anyway, and it sounds great in earphones.

I also got to spend some time reading and took a short walk around the military museum grounds. It was too cold to go for a long walk.

On the short drive back home I stopped at the gas station and while pumping my gas, saw a pickup truck pull in. The fenders had more putty than steel, and it was quite obvious because no sanding or painting had been done on the putty. It was quite a sight, but I guess it will pass state inspection.

Maintenance man

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:51:14 GMT

This weekend I replaced the tank-refilling mechanism on my toilet. Something was up with the valve, and getting the tank to refill involved removing the tank cover and pushing on a certain small lever. The mechanism cost about $7 and took me about 40 minutes to install.

In between rain showers today, I went outside and raised a 20-foot ladder to the side of my house to secure a length of gutter that had pulled loose during the winter and was flapping a bit in the wind.

There will be more maintenance in my future.

It's fun to build things and a lot less fun to maintain those same things. Buying a 40-year-old house, I knew I'd have maintenance to do right away. Those of you in new houses pay upfront for the luxury of not putting in a lot of maintenance right away, but your time will come.

This is one of those realities that makes me really respect my parents. While I was growing up, they were constantly in maintenance mode, also living in a decades-old house, but I never really noticed it. They just did their work, keeping everything in good shape, while I enjoyed and took for granted the comforts of home.

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:36:10 GMT

"Lost for words with all to say..."

So begins a song by Hillsong called "Evermore." Those words describe my walk with God, especially my prayer times--I pray without knowing what to say most of the time, yet knowing that God hears my thoughts and knows my heart. It also describes my blogging. Leaving long gaps between blog posts decreases motivation because I feel the need to catch up, and it keeps getting worse.

I won't be writing a catch-up post. I'll just be jumping back in, at some point.

Right now, I have a jam session to get to.

Taxes 2008

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 21:20:14 GMT

On Saturday I started and finished my 2008 taxes. TurboTax is cool; I recommend it. I think if you use the online version it is cheaper than the box version you can buy at the store, especially if you can file the 1040EZ; then it's free.

If you live in Pennsylvania you can use the PA web site to file your tax return online for free.

January Update

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:59:43 GMT

It's two days until the end of January and I haven't written anything substantial on here for a month. What's going on?

It's been a good month. Around the New Year holiday, Alisha came to State College for a short visit, and we enjoyed all that this town has to offer for New Year's Eve and January 1. There's a lot going on here, like a miniature festival with musical performances, artwork (ice sculptures), fireworks, ice skating and other entertainment. I don't think the students know about this, because it's during the break and most aren't around. Too bad; it's a lot of fun here!

Back to work for a week, then a one-day excursion to Gettysburg, and then as soon as the students were back, we were fully geared up to go to the Epic Conference. I got to do technical stuff and small-group-leading and really enjoyed the time. Usually working at a conference is pretty stressful, but this time it wasn't too bad. God was at work there, in the students as well as the staff. The hotel/conference center in Philadelphia was great for us. I had my doubts, as I had been there before for a training class for work, and thought it wouldn't be the right kind of atmosphere for a student conference. It worked out fine and as an added bonus there was a terrific restaurant and cafe right there in the hotel and a decent 24-hour diner just down the block. I've usually griped about Philadelphia in the past (don't get me started on the lousy airport) but this experience was remarkably pleasant.

For some time now I'd been stewing about all the repairs needed on my minivan. And after I drove it to the Pittsburgh area for Christmas, it started developing additional problems. I'd had it to the shop four times for major repairs in 2008, and decided that it wasn't making financial sense to keep it any longer. So, our trip to Philly was its final round of service. I'd been doing some research into new and used cars and after returning from the conference, started doing some focused car-shopping. I found what I wanted at the local Honda: a used 2008 Honda Fit Sport. It's only 7500 miles old and has most of its warranty left. I'm excited to have a reliable, fuel-efficient (but still cargo-carrying) ride that should last quite a while.

Joey wrote a nice eulogy for the minivan if you want to read about the big shoes this Fit has to fill. I almost teared up!

This weekend: brief road trip to Pittsburgh.

This month went quickly. It's been icy and I'm looking forward to spring. That's all for now.