Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

Your eyes shone on that night They were diamonds Under the ocean’s moonlight They were diamonds It was only a moment in time You were laughing, I was falling hard. It was over Then the light of morning hid the stars. And it was over I remember it well The night I fell so deeply into your eyes And I wondered if you would feel for me The way I felt for you It was only a moment in time - A Moment in Time, The Choir And when was that moment? Was it the night when she said "yes" to my marriage proposal? Or the night that we knew that our firstborn was growing deep inside of her? Was it the night that we moved from the house that we began our life together in and struck out into uncharted water? Or was it when we realized that we were not only deeply in love with each other, but we were deeply in love with the same God? Or was it last night when we kissed each other, bade each other a good night, and drifted off to sleep? Yes. I dare say it was. I love you Diamond Eyes.

I work with an older man that likes to say "Hey, Lucky" every once and a while when he passes me in the hall. I usually just smile as I walk past him. Today I responded saying: "Hey, Crusty." I don't think he appreciated that.

I have been teaching in our "children's church" program (called HighPoint) for a while now and I will have one more lesson to give before I transition into teaching our adults in our new classes on Sunday that begin next month. I can honestly say that I have mixed feelings about it as I love the stuff we are doing in our HighPoint program and it is great to be up in front of a ton of kids every week...including my own. When I was asked to do this a while back there was a gnawing sense inside of me that this was the B-league of teaching. In other words, I had to rail against the tendency that I constructed to treat this as a second-class teaching assignment for people who couldn't quite cut it for the adult classes. When I finally snapped out of that flesh-driven thinking, I set out to pour myself into the teaching as much as I would any adult class that I would be given responsibility for. Hopefully I have succeeded in that. Thankfully, I have the 5th and 6th grade Ch...

"Is there anything a wiki can't do?" - Samuel Malachowsky Just looking for a new direction In an old familiar way The forming of a new connection To study or to play - (Keep Feeling) Fascination - Human League There are at least three things that have led to this post: my exploration of the Chromium OS, the fact that I am creating a wiki page to house a bunch of requirements that I am working on, an article of Slashdot that points to a study of the connectedness of the tweens and teens of today, a song stuck in my head since the 80's, and an off-the-cuff thought-provoking comment by a co-worker. OK, that's four things, but I was never very good at math. Anyway, it seems to me that the thin client that has been promised for such a long time is something that the average user (me in my home life) can actually work with. The web browser and the web itself has grown beyond a fun and nifty way for a business to display its wares. It is more interactive and functional ...

I am posting this from a fresh install of the Chromium OS which is an open source version of the Chrome operating system from Google. It is running off of a USB thumb drive at the present moment and is maximized for people who do a lot of work on the web. It seems to be pretty zippy and has some really nice features that are all delivered through a Chrome web browser. I know this report is a little light on the specifics but those will follow as I become more familiar with the environment.

I get into these funks on occasion and need something to snap me out of them. Every once and a while there seems to be stretches of time when I am not motivated to do anything. Even blogging, which is a release for me, is something that is on the back burner. Actually most of the stuff that I should be doing is on the back burner and I am not even sure there are front burners to occupy at this point. I get to thinking that there is something that I would like to do and I find some way to put it off until tomorrow. Of course, when tomorrow comes (does tomorrow ever really come?) then there is a way to shelve it until the next day too. I need a fire lit under my butt and I am sure someone (or something) will do it. Until then it seems like I am in a holding pattern and not all that motivated to contact the tower for clearance to land. We'll see what tomorrow brings. If it ever comes.

I received lots of music this Christmas - a lot more than in years past. Some of it was in the form of an iTunes gift card and some of it (well, all the rest of it actually) came off of my Amazon wish list. My wife is not all that keen on the mix of music that can be found at any given time on my iPod, but I just think she needs to listen a bot more to "my stuff" and she'll grow to like it. Here is a list of what I will be listening to in the weeks to come as a result of the gifts I have received: Again and Again - Mylon & Broken Heart Darn Floor, Big Bite (album) - Daniel Amos Mystery Highway (album) - Randy Stonehill and Phil Keaggy Tour de France , Autobahn , Elektro Kardiogramm , and Computer Love - Kraftwerk Freedom (album) - Whiteheart Flap Your Wings (album) - The Choir Direct (album) - Vangelis I love new music even if it is old music. It is nice to freshen things up a bit. I need that.