In the Valley

Some of you may know that Tony Snow recently passed away from cancer. Tony was a radio and TV commentator for many years before serving as the White House Press Secretary in 2006 and 2007. I recently read an article he wrote about his battle with cancer and was touched by his perspective of faith in the middle of what we would consider horrible circumstances.

Here are some excerpts from his article, titled "Cancer's Unexpected Blessings":

We want lives of simple, predictable ease—smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see—but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension—and yet don't. By his love and grace, we persevere. The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise.

The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies.

Read the whole thing - it's really good!

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/july/25.30.html

How It All Began

Bee just posted our proposal story in honor of the 5th anniversary of our engagement. She did a nice job of telling it from her perspective, but of course someone (you know who you are) had to make a snide remark about how I never post in my blog and said I should post my side of the story.

Unfortunately, there's far too much story to confine to the limits of this blog, and far too little time to make a blog post out of it - so I'm not even going to try. But fortunately for me (and all you novel-readers out there), I wrote up a detailed account of our proposal (and the months leading up to it) soon after it happened. It's a long story, but if you're truly interested, you can read it here:

Our Proposal Story (from my perspective)

I've been tagged

I just noticed that Tracy tagged me last week for this meme. And since my blog has been rather dusty lately, it seems like a nice low-pressure way to add something to it again. :)

Four Six jobs I’ve had:
1. Paper delivery boy
2. Library clerk
3. Construction worker
4. A/V tech crew
5. Software and web developer
6. Digital hardware engineer

Four movies I could watch over and over:
1. Ocean's Eleven
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Star Wars
4. Hitch

Four TV shows I like - reality version:
The only reality show I've ever watched regularly was American Idol, but I haven't for a while. I've been skimming through The Next Great American Band on my Tivo because Denver and the Mile High Orchestra is on it and I want to see how they do.

Four TV shows that I like - non-reality version
1. The West Wing
2. Friends
3. House
4. Shark

Four places I’ve gone on vacation:
1. California
2. Nova Scotia / Prince Edward Island
3. Rocky Mountain National Park
4. Vermont

Four favorite foods:
1. Lasagna
2. Turkey / stuffing / mashed potatoes (Thanksgiving, here I come!)
3. Steak
4. Anything Mexican

Four web sites I visit daily:
1. Two Bills Drive
2. Slashdot
3. Mac Rumors
4. Signal vs. Noise blog

Four places I would rather be:
1. Reading a book
2. Holding Jordyn
3. Talking with Bee
4. Worshiping God

Four bloggers I tag:
Heh. Every blogger I know has already done this. I'm a dead end, baby.

Red-Letter Day

Today was an amazing day for me.

This morning, I filed my first patent application (with Nate).

This afternoon, I found out that I'm being promoted to Lead Engineer. (I was so excited, I had to work to keep a goofy grin off my face for the rest of the afternoon.)

It was one of those days where you sit back amazed at what God has accomplished. Just a single year ago, patents seemed like something that other people applied for. I was frustrated with my job assignment and wondering if I should be looking for another job because I wasn't being challenged enough. Now, a year later, everything looks different.

Fun Link

Ever wondered how different words are pronounced in different parts of the USA? Here's a fun site that maps dialect.

Starting a Business

My friend Chris and I decided to start a business together. We've been talking for at least a year about it, but this last month we decided it was time to take the plunge and just do it. We're committing a certain amount of our spare time each week to work on it.

So what are we doing? We're going to develop software together, a particular type of software called a web application. Before you yawn, let me just tell you that web applications are very cool. If you've ever used Gmail, you've used a web app. Gmail, for example, gives you most of the functionality of an email program (like Outlook) - but it lives in your web browser instead of on your computer. That's what a web application is. And we're going to make them.

Apology

My apologies to my loyal readers who have anxiously been waiting for a new post for the last month. I'm going to try to get back in the groove and update more frequently.

I'm still figuring out what to write about in this blog; if you have any suggestions, feel free to share them with me. Which of my posts have you enjoyed the most? Do you have any questions that you want me to answer about my life, technology, the Bills, Christianity, etc? Let me know if you think of anything.

I'll be posting soon about my new business venture...