Monthly Archives: July 2006

Friends

Get Out of Yale Free

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Having friends move away sucks. Since college we’ve had to go through it a lot. I guess you just have to get used to it.

Yesterday Tim and Nicole moved to New Haven, Conn. so Tim could become Dr. Philosophy, or something like that. I think he gets a cape, too. It’s rough because Tim moved away, then he came back, then he moved away again, then he came back, and now he’s gone again. Doh. Though a lot of that back and forth was really so he could get married to Nicole, and that was worth it.

The past year we’ve hung out a lot. They taught us Settlers of Catan and we taught them Killer Bunnies. We’ve stayed up late. We’ve gone couch shopping. We’ve gone house shopping. We called them at our scariest moments and our best moments. We renounced Satan. We traded a crappy car for a useless air conditioner. We had reached an odd and rare place in a friendship. It became most apparent when we shared meals together, which is a simple act, but also a vulnerable one.

Anyway, they’ve moved off to Yale and we miss them. The hope is that they’ll come back, someday, though it will be a long haul. Yale doesn’t exactly hand out doctorates for free. Until then, here’s hoping for a ‘get out of yale free’ card. Or at least lots of visits and contact.

Godspeed as you two caravan across the U.S. and may your time at Yale be wonderful–and short.

Daily Grind

Self Employed=Isolation

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The only thing I’ve ever missed about working the so-called real job, which fewer and fewer people have these days, is the cameraderie that comes with working with a cohesive group. As much as I love being my own boss and commuting ten feet down the hall and setting my own schedule and hours, I do miss interacting with other people. Not that much, since I am an introvert, but I do miss it.

The past two days I’ve worked full days in small a windowless room with three other people in a desperate attempt to finish a web project. It actually sounds more desperate that it really was. We were able to get the bulk of the work done and it wasn’t as stressful as anticipated.

What I really enjoyed was the banter. We’d joke back and forth, ask questions and collaborate, someone would make a coffee run, and the work got done. The laughter was great. I miss that. I probably came across as a hyper spaz because I kept making comments and jokes and just thrived on the atmosphere. I don’t get enough of that.

I don’t miss it enough to start looking for an office job, but it does make me think I should consider expanding the Monkey Outta Nowhere empire. Maybe get a real office, a staff of unpaid monkey interns. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Introspection

Benefits of a Sunday Off

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Lately I’ve been loving my Sundays. My work schedule is pretty random right now. I basically work whenever I can to get the project done or get in the hours I’m supposed to get in. It means day time, evening and Saturdays. I’m not working all day Saturday, but it’s the rare Satuday that I don’t get up and put in at least an hour or two.

When Sunday comes along I’m done. I don’t think about work. I ignore the work e-mails. It’s a day of rest, and I love that. For me rest doesn’t always mean sit around and take a nap (that can be fun, too), but it can mean sitting on the couch and watching NASCAR all day or reading a book or editing some video for fun. It basically means doing something I enjoy and not doing work.

We used to do that in college. A few of us would try to finish up our homework before Sunday so we could kick back and take the day off. Rarely were we successful at that, but we’d at least take Sunday afternoon off and make the homework wait until the evening. Sometimes I think we all need a little rest.

God, Church & Stuff

Responding to Bishop Katharine Schori

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I don’t blog much about the Episcopal Church. It’s messy, confusing and I usually don’t want to go there. Maybe I should, seeing as I attend one.

This week the newly elected bishop of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., Katharine Jefferts Schori, was intereviewed in Time magazine. Three items stuck me:

Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?
We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.

It’s certainly not a new statement. But what struck me when I saw it this time around is that I wonder what the point of evangelism is if you think there are other ways to God? If my neighbor’s path to God is equally as valid as my own, then why should I bother to tell her about God? She’s already on her way, as far as I know. Obviously I disagree with Schori, but her approach, at least as far as I’m trying to logically apply it, seems so contrary to the words of Jesus in the great commission. I’ll admit that Christians need to be more open and understanding towards the faith of others, but this seems to much like relativism to me. And I’ve just never understood the logical appeal of that.

Continue reading Responding to Bishop Katharine Schori →

Style & Fashion

My Shoes are Keen!

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Keen hybrid shoe sandalsOn a fun note, my shoes are Keen! I blew a big chunk of my birthday money on these shoe-sandal hybrid things, the green Newport H2. They’re open and airy like sandals, but they have the traction and closed toe of a shoe. Very handy for active summer wear since you don’t need socks and your feet still get the nice cool breezes.

I’d been looking for some comfier sandals (my old pair were a from a going out of business sale in college and hurt my feet if I wore them for any extended period) and I actually tried two different pairs of Chacos. Tried as in bought them, took them home and wore them for a day or two before realizing how much I disliked them. Thanks to REI’s generous return policy, I was able to keep trying until I found a pair I liked. Because when you’re spending real money on footwear, not just going out of business money, they need to feel good.

The Keens look kind of goofy, but the more I wear them the more I like them. I don’t think I’ve ever been much of a sandal guy (that pair I bought in college was probably the only pair I’ve ever worn regularly–I don’t even remember owning sandals in high school), which is probably why the Chacos didn’t seem right. But my feet seem to like this hybrid deal.

Ah, every now and then you need a good everyday blog entry.

Introspection

One of Those ‘I’m So Busy’ Posts

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Life is so busy. Man. My daughter is five months old (have you seen adorable pictures of her yet? Well what are you waiting for? An invitation? You just got one–go, go, for the good of this dad). My wife quit her job. I almost had an L.A. vacation (then it turned into just another L.A. business trip). I realized the other day that I’ve been freelancing it for longer than the time I had a “real” job.

For two months I was daddy daycare, watching Lexi during the day and trying to work during naps and in the evening. Since Abby quit and will have a month and a half off this summer we’re doing more of a back and forth thing so Abby can get her thesis written and I can still get work done. It’s been good, though I miss reading The Chronicles of Narnia to Lexi every day. But I get it in when I can.

I met up with a blogger for lunch today, someone I met through CMS. Turns out we were at Bethel at roughly the same time, though definitely not in the same circles (him actually playing hockey, me sitting back and watching hockey). We had a good talk, though it reminded me how little this blog gets updated. I was telling him about my blog network and how much it’s fallen by the wayside lately. But I guess that’s OK. Changing diapers and reading Chronicles seems infinitely more important. I suppose because it is.

Anyway, the time just goes by.