Category Archive

[This was part 2 of a trilogy of posts originally intended for posting on June 6, 2008.]

On June 5th, 2008 @ approx. 2:30am my sisters Rachel and Rebecca drove me to Louisville airport. Bless them for being troopers. I hope to never do that to anyone again by scheduling my departure time a bit better. Not only was it out of the way for departing, but my arrival was a bit bumpy, not only in rough skies and turbulence, but none of my three roommates were able to pick me up. Thus I trusted in Metro, which was quite reliable despite my carrying two suit cases on board. I eventually made it in the pouring rain to my new house in Broadview neighborhood. This house is beautiful and its very close to the Puget Sound itself. I plan to go walking and exploring the neighborhood more after this blog entry is finished.

The house itself has four bedrooms, two on the main floor and two in the basement. It has a spacious living room and dining room complete with a fire place. In the basement lies a den with another fireplace, as well as an area for a washer and dryer and door to the garage. There are wood floors all on the main floor with carpet in the basement. It’s bizarre how the two floors almost seem like two different homes. It’s very clean and I can’t wait to see how it shapes up once we all get settled and the moving boxes disappear. My bedroom, one of the main floor rooms, I plan to steampunk out as best I can. No surprise, eh? Remind me to post pictures of the house once we get it all situated.

Last night while on the phone with mom, I walked out onto our backyard deck to observe the view and take in the brisk air. Mistake. I inadvertently locked myself out of the house, not knowing of a special unlocking mechanism. The temperature dropped about ten degrees while I was out there, but thankfully I was able to call Scott and Brant to bail me out of the silliness. I was afraid I would of had to freeze out there by myself for a few hours, as I only had a short sleeve shirt with nothing to cover my arms. It was at this point that I began to have some home sickness. I was not expecting it at all, but I apparently did not prepare myself as I was leaving the previous night. It definitely felt weird to leave the home of my youth this time around, having a taste of the free comforts of home to go back into the ‘real world’ and make it on my own here in Seattle. It was a gut wrenching feeling, like I wanted to vomit but couldn’t. Thankfully I was cured after plugging in my record player and playing U2’s War album. This was the first time I have heard this album all the way through. What an amazing collection of songs! I am stoked to own such a fine album and I very much recommend it.

I sit here writing the outline of this blog on my Treo, to which I will sync to my computer, write out completely, then sync back to my phone for publishing on the web! I must do this due to Comcast not being able to come out to our house until next Wednesday.

Prologue
On July 23, 2007 I changed my life. I moved from Evansville, Indiana, my hometown of 25 years to live in a place I had not even visited before: Seattle, Washington. It was a bold move, with merely the money I had saved in my account and merely friends and people I had only spoken with on the phone or online. I moved in with four guys who all had two common threads: they loved Jesus and were geeks in some way shape or form. Thusly, I felt right at home and within a month I landed a job as a product tester at Nintendo of America, from which I worked until February of 2008.

On April 1st, April Fools Day, I became a member of Mars Hill Church of Seattle. At this church I have served as a designer and learned from others in the field. I have also participated in a community group of loving and faithful men and women my age. I can’t imagine life without them. I also just recently began helping serve communion each Sunday. It has humbled me in a way I cannot fully explain and I am grateful for such a small, but important part in the greater body of Christ.

Between May 21st and June 5th, I went on vacation in Daytona Beach & Orlando with my family of seven, as well as went back home for a short week to not only visit with friends, but see my friends Matt and Michelle Bower become one. During this time, my roommates moved my belongings to our new home.

This now closes the first ‘book’ of my Seattle life, and opens anew Book II. I won’t necessarily keep with a book pattern in these writings, but it seems to bookend how I began this series of blogs nearly one year ago. Thank you for reading.

Edit: I will be posted the next two blogs next week, due to a technical complication out of my control.

I contemplated it. For the first 30 seconds or so as I heard the whining and howling at 6:30 this morning, I for sure contemplated making it happen. It was relentless, but I abstained in good conscious. It’s a cute pup, but it’s so loud, so vocal! No matter, I’m now sipping my second cup of coffee while writing this, pondering my small To Do List for the day. It has truly been a blessing to take this vacation and see family and friends. An interweb toast to my great friends Matt and Michelle Bower for getting hitched this weekend. It was quite a moment in history for me. Three more full days here in Evansville left until I return to a brand new house with my three roommates and an unforeseen future in the job market. It’s exciting and scary, but God held my hand this far. It would be folly to let go now. I wrote this blog on an old family Pentium with Win98 installed on it. It’s literally about 9 years old and slower than molasses. No really, molasses would totally win in the foot race: 10 times over.

One of my younger twin sisters have now graduated from college. I can tell from all my siblings and conversations with the parental unit that our upcoming vacation to Daytona Beach is something we are all really looking forward to. We all need that escape from the chaos and frustrations of normal life. I am really hoping for our adventure to be very low key, refreshing, and most importantly, stress free. My mother announced her retirement, to happen in about a month (Mom, I hope you don’t mind me mentioning that). I am proud of her for doing so, I feel like my career as an artist, designer, design consultant (whatever I end up being for this time in my life) is something worthwhile and worth meaning, to not only myself, but my family, friends, and the Kingdom.

Progress on the new version of Slipstream is coming along. I’ve updated the teaser page to reflect the logo which will be used in the next theme.  While excited, there is still much I have yet to learn (at least learning how to make it work!). So, if everything goes to plan, it will be a moderately content heavy site. It’s more than just a portfolio or blog this time.

As for the extra content, I would like to make this post an open invitation. If you consider yourself in one of the following categories: writers, copy editors, journalists, photojournalists, bloggers, trend setters, philosophers, theologians, web surfers, designers, web media moguls or have interest in posting links about technology, arts & entertainment, gaming (all types), faith & theology… contact me via email and let me know what you like doing or currently doing in your life. This can be both an extracurricular activity  or something that takes very little of your time, and I’m talking very little. In your email, please include a link to your blog, articles you’ve written, Flickr gallery or attach works you are proud of. This invitation for collaborators is open at least to the end of the year, so if you aren’t free now, you’ve got time to consider it. Lord knows you actually do have the time, but you just don’t want to admit it. Everyone can at least find ten minutes of Facebook stalking to cut out of their week. Heck yes, I went there!

This passage this morning really spoke to me as it is something that has needed to be on my heart more and more. Its good for all to be reminded of it.

Psalm 34, verses 11-22.

1 Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous
and his ears toward their cry.
16 The face of the Lord is against those who do evil,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
and delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
and saves the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones;
not one of them is broken.
21 Affliction will slay the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The Lord redeems the life of his servants;
none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned.

CSS, where you were you in the 90’s when I needed you most?

As described in this post, I have been undertaking the thought of joining Mars Hill as my church home. I did not want to simply slide into it with ease or with simple conscious. I wanted to really put Mars Hill to the test in my beliefs, and in return, it managed to test a lot of what I believe. In fact I couldn’t find a single reason to not say it was my church home. The elders and deacons of Mars Hill Church really do have their act together! And that isn’t because of something they read in a New York Times or Amazon bestseller list… it simply was founding the church from the get-go on the living, breathing Word of God. Jesus’ message is enough, and needs not any extra panache or fanfare added in. There is no need for golden pianos, metal plated Bible covers, or inspirational sports commentaries placed inside to be called “extra features”. The Bible is not a DVD box set. It just is.

Going back on the original topic: membership. It actually means something for this church, and not just to the elders. I’m talking the sheep here. The laymen. It is required for all leadership positions and its a way that the community stays active and accountable of each other. In terms of leadership, I will probably lead a community group in the next year. Much of that will depend on location and career opportunities playing the mix. Regardless to say, as of April 1st, 2008, I am a member of Mars Hill. I could not be more thankful to God. Being that I was appointed a member on April Fool’s Day is not a coincidence. It’s a good reminder that by myself, I am the biggest fool of them all. With Christ, I am called to be a disciple and live my life for Him in action and deed.

On and unrelated note, I am finishing up CSS: The Missing Manual this week. I’m having fun going through the tutorials and learning a lot of applicable knowledge when it comes to the backend of web design. I hope to implement these changes with Slipstream.cc and eventually get my portfolio hosted directly on my site, though Carbonmade has done an excellent job just in terms of a free service. Time to get back to studying.

[ The following was originally written Friday, February 29th. ]

Winter. It’s been a chilly one, but not unbearable. Right now, being the last day of February, it feels more like a perfect Autumn morning, crisp but clear. This year started out semi-rough for reasons the internet does not need to hear. But on all areas now, life is pretty uneventful.

Should I be worried? I suppose my old self, sans Christ in my life, would certainly worry about what tomorrow will bring. But at the end of the day, what would that accomplish?

Lately, I’ve been racking my brain listening to free reformed theology classes on iTunes, as well as John Piper sermons. Recently Piper spoke at my church at a conference some of you might have heard of before. I didn’t buy tickets early enough, but I was able to watch parts of it free streamed online. Much of it was way over my head, but I’m trying to learn the terms and knowing the logic and vocabulary teachers of the Law have gone to very expensive schools to learn about.

Perhaps with nothing different in my life and the lack of excitement has resulted in so few of posts. Regardless, I’m tired of most blogs being apologies for not posting enough. So let me save you the time and inform you, Streamlined WILL NOT be one of those blogs. I speak no longer on the subject.

To update you on the PC upgrade, things are, for the most part, up and running. I have a slight problem with something, and I have looked into everything I know to check: drivers, memory sticks, etc… and I still get crashes at least once a day. If money came easy to me, I could of bought a nice packaged iMac. But that was out of the price range. I’ll post the specs soon so maybe I can get some outsider help.

Just a quick housekeeping note: I’ve shrunk back all the excess links that were on my Slipstream.cc front page. I will return to them in one form or another in another page I’ll probably title Influences or some-such. Have faith in the Lord that He uses me to increase His Kingdom with this website, through my own kooky ways of doing things.

Recent CD purchases: Radiohead’s latest album In Rainbows and Leeland’s sophomore worship album Opposite Way. On Opposite Way, the song Let It Out Now is my current theme song. Everybody needs one at any given point in their life.

Another worship song, one that I recall from high school ministry is More Precious Than Silver. That has been one that I’ve sung quietly to myself to and at the bus stops in the mornings. The specific lyric that I’ve been focusing on is ‘And nothing I desire compares to You.‘ My hope is that it will stay my anthem for this year.

Happy New Year and all that cheesiness. I always thought the ball-drop stuff was rather lame. I watched Seattle’s version, showing the Space Needle being lit up from bottom to top as the countdown began, ending in the fireworks, yadda-yadda. Maybe I’m just in an apathetic time of my life when it comes to celebrations that overuse style, rather than provide actual substance.

Substance. It’s something I really learned to appreciate this Christmas holiday. I learned to really cherish the honest and open conversations over coffee with friends and family. Appreciating each other, life, Jesus. All of that. I felt refreshed and loved, and am immensely proud of the family I was born into.

I’m now back in Seattle, a few hours from hitting the sack and starting once again the weekly grind of which has been absent from my daily life since December 20th. The Lord has grace and has given me extended security and safety in a ridiculously easy position. It is one I moderately enjoy but otherwise long for something more… creative? exciting? challenging? Sure, I am accomplishing something for a company, as is any position, but my parents and I spent a great many hours and moneys on a certain degree that I would love to see fruit from. At least I’m not the only one in the world with a small clinch in their plan. But it is another example of God’s plan and sovereignty.

Newest to my blogroll is the journal of a fellow roommate I call John. He invites any and all to read and ponder. Is your blog not listed yet? Let me know and link it in the comments.

Also, in classic Slipstream fashion, a broken “promise” continues, almost like a looming “website update”. My computer upgrade has been pushed further due to how certain components of my old machine just don’t jive with new ones. Thus I had to make another visit to newegg this morning. I’ll spill the complete specs list of my new build once the time arrives. Like a wizard, this new build is neither early, nor late. It arrives precisely when it means to.

In other news, a recent Borders purchase spree let me come with some interesting films to reflect on. The first of which I watched and absorbed tonight is a film called Heima. It’s actually a documentary following the Icelandic band, Sigur Ros. I want to visit Iceland so bad right now, it hurts. I want to backpack there before I die. That, and New Zealand. If someone would like to fund said trip(s) and take me with them, please let me know. I’ll appreciate you (more).

I close with this: When in the darkest and loneliest time of your day, fervently seek Him. Read from your Bible. Daily. Then read some more.

Just a quick response to the silence and to update you all. I’m pushing my new computer build to after I return from Evansville on Dec. 31st. I type this on Becca’s laptop, which I commandeered in my old bedroom. I will ring in the new year with a fresh computer. The parts of which await my return sit in a box on my bed in Seattle. Until then, I’m spending the days remembering days of yore and laughing at/with old friends. And even saying goodbye to others.  My Uncle Richard died a few days prior to Christmas. I wish I would have known him better.

This free time to relax and stretch my wings is good and bad. I’ve been trying to push back anxiousness and longing to get back into my new life. Yet much of me wants to relish as much time I have here with my family. Something tells me 2008 will be a tough one. One that will bring into my life some radical changes that I MUST prevail through. I must be prepared to lead, in every area of my life, whether in work, church, relationships, free time. Of course, I hand the reigns to Christ and I can’t do any of it without Him. But He’s not gonna let me just kick back either.

 So no goofy resolutions or nonsense like that. It’s just me and Jesus. I close this in the words of a character from a recent indie-film release at the moment she knows she’s hours away from giving birth… “Thundercats……GOoooooooooo!!!”

What does it mean to become a member of something? To truly belong? To take ownership of one’s surroundings? To submit to those who have gone before and follow their leadership fervently?

Tomorrow night, I will complete the Mars Hill Church Gospel Class, an eight week program which tells exactly where MHC stands as a church, a community, and “a city within a city”. Soon after tomorrow, I will log in and complete the application process. Once everything is complete, I will be allowed to actively lead and participate with the rest of the members in a number of key places of ministry.

I’m still undecided where exactly I will go, but most likely I will serve in some capacity in information technology or the arts. I will say one thing, they have their act together, even when there are attacks coming from every angle. This church deeply loves and serves Jesus. Its the first time I’ve truly felt confident in where I’m at for a church home. I’ll discuss more after the fact and when I have more of an idea of what I’ll be doing.

In other news, at work, I’m doing a whole lot of overtime. On most nights, I’m working till 6:30 and on Saturdays. So that’s roughly 10 hours a day, 6 days a week of bug hunting in video games. That season of savings for the future with an easy job has finally arrived. Thank you, Jesus!

This is probably my least fulfilling blog since I’ve moved to WordPress, and I’m okay with low content, when it deems necessary. Especially when sleep is needed. That time is now. With that, and to keep the subject line still relevant, spend your after Thanksgiving thru pre-New Years festivities with a carton or three of that fine pumpkin eggnog. Available at some groceries. And if not yours, well… you lose.

Today, Pastor Mark preached one of those sermons that can really stick with a person. It covered Paul’s writing to the church of Philipi on Christ’s humility. What an amazingly deep passage! Paul cries out to ‘complete my joy’ he says in verse 2, ‘by being of the same mind, having the same love, being full of accord and of one mind.’ I could go more into all the notes I took, but I’ll leave it at that. I encourage you, Christian or not, to check out Philippians chapter 2, verses 1-11. It’s juicy stuff that will not only shock you but hopefully instill in you a better knowledge of Christ’s heart.

I’m going to be writing up more of my thoughts for my community group for this Tuesday’s get together. We’ve got an online discussion area now for when we don’t see each other the other 5-6 days of the week. I ask for prayer for new opportunities in ministry at the church that have fallen into my lap that I use guildance and prayer in. I’ve done much of the same in the past, for my home church, but much of it was half hearted and quite self-seeking. I want to leave my pride at the door and seek nothing more than His Kingdom.

Yeah, I’m posting one of those. There is a lot on my mind and heart that I really want to share, but so many other things have kept me away from even journaling, which I used to do. I will try to put aside some time to put out a thoughtful post soon. If you have questions or ideas of stuff you want to hear about, don’t hesitate to post the comment below and I will be sure to answer it in some form or another.

I made the switch after a 5 year stint with Blogger. Sorry Blogger, you served me well, but things change as they say. The theme I selected is just temporary, but isn’t it interesting how that cloud swirl is so similar to my Slipstream logo?

To view my old blog, click here.