I haven't had this much to do since college! I'm working on the menu, grocery list and huge mass-o-list of other random things one (or 30 people) needs when camping in a remote region of Colorado for NYR. I'm also working on the monthly newsletter, designing some ads and, last but certainly not least, trying to raise an unruly but brilliant 2 year old. As an 'end of task' enthusiast (as opposed to that strange segment of the population that loves 'the process'), I am particularly feeling painful feelings in my ulcer region. Here's a run-down, in order, of the things I do to alleviate (or aggravate) feelings of mind-numbing stress.

5. Wax poetic on my life. This usually involves making a mental list of all the things I can't stand about (1) people (specifically myself), (2) the miserable failure I have become and (3) how much of a downer I am. Number 5 is usually resolved after talking to Danny or eating a lot of ice cream.

4. Eat a lot of ice cream. Or cookies. Or brown sugar right out of the bag.

3. Clean. It's amazing what I can find to clean, even when my surroundings are amazingly immaculate. I'm talking toothbrush-bleach-on-my-knees scrubbing. Danny can't stand it.

2. Partake in various forms of media. This is where it all happens. Because of number 5, I am usually feeling depressed and introspective and therefore want something to, first, help me wallow and, second, fix this problem. Tonight's vehicle of choice was the brilliant film Ghost World, which Brendan graciously let me watch. I caught a little of this film when we had free HBO, but never finished it. The characters, plot and black humor of this film perfectly embodied the way I was feeling, plus it starred Steve Buscemi.

1. Actually do the work I am stressing over. Although rewarding and logical, this step always eludes me. Maybe I do enjoy the process, in a weird, twisted way. Fitting.

In a sense we've come a long way on our trip. But in another, more accurate sense, we're still in Pasadena. We spent all day Tuesday cleaning out Rob's apartment and cramming his stuff into the 19 foot truck he had rented from Budget. Around 10 pm last night we finally got on the road. But as soon as we got above 50 mph the truck started rocking back and forth. I thought it was going to tip over. Rob slowed down, but it got worse. We pulled over and called Budget. They thought we were overloaded. Apparently we had done too good a job of packing. So we drove over to Peter's house and stayed there last night. Today we got a bigger truck and moved all the stuff over. The guys at the truck rental place said it was the most stuff they've ever seen crammed into a 19 foot truck. Right now we're just waiting for rush hour to end so we can get on the road.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning for a liitle trip. I'm flying to Los Angeles and helping a friend move back to Missouri. We'll probably get back sometime Thursday.

I had to act quickly to avoid infection after reinstalling WindowsXP on my office computer. Fifty critical updates. I got it updated and the next thing I installed was a decent web browser. It's been good to start over, and most importantly, the shell is not crashing every time I try to open Windows Explorer to browse the files on my computer. That was so annoying. I partitioned the hard drive so I could try and install Linux on the other half. I tried, but as Home Simpson says, trying is the first step toward failure. And I failed. I can't get it to work with my video card and monitor, so it will boot into Mandrake Linux just fine, but I can't see anything because it won't send a signal to my monitor. Now that I have the hard drive split up it should be easy to wipe that partition and try again.

What the font. This could be useful. You upload an image file containing some text and this site will show you the fonts that match it the closest. It gives links where you can download or buy the font.

(via metafilter)

Blogswap is something started by Tim Challies and I think it will be fun. Basically a bunch of people send in posts, and then they're sent back out for someone else to post on their blog. It's a way to meet new people, and attract new readers. So enjoy this post by Tim Irvin. If you want to read the post I wrote, click here.

When I was younger I dreamed of writing a book. As I got older I thought of writing a fictional series based on the life of a rural pastor. Time and procrastination placed these dreams on hold and blogging has satisfied the itch.

In the movie "A River Runs Through It", a Presbyterian pastor home schools his two sons. One of the boys is told to write a story. He brings it to his father who says, "...that's good, now make it shorter." He edits the story and brings it back to his father who says, "...that's good, now make it shorter." The third time he returns to his father and he says, "...that's good", then he throws it in the trash.

That's the way I approach blogging. I want my posts to be short and to the point. I want those who visit my blog to be able to read what I have to say in the least amount of time and I hope to say something in a sentence or two that will make them want to drop by again. It's been challenging. There have been a few occasions when I felt like I accomplished this goal and it was very satisfying.

I've not had a large number of visitors to my blog but the handful of regulars have become an integral part of my blogging experience. I admire the work that they've put into their own blogs and I've benefited from their knowledge.

For me blogging has made the World Wide Web more than just an encyclopedia of facts (or FAQ). Blogging injects personality and experience into the mix. I enjoy my daily reads and it excites me to discover that I might have something worthwhile to say as well.


Tim Irvin
aka: Jabbok

TheIrvins.com
http://www.theirvins.com
Jabbok@cablelynx.com

TheIrvins.com is oriented towards a Biblical Worldview from a Reformed Baptist Perspective.

Would you like to BlogSwap? For more information click visit http://www.challies.com/archives/000392.php.

The computer I use at work is making me angry. Parts of it are crashing regularly now. It's a good computer, the best one I've ever used, but I think it needs to have Windows reinstalled. It's been used pretty hard and by a lot of people. I'm trying to think of everything I need to back up, but I know I'll forget some things and they'll be lost forever. I might take this crisitunity to install Linux and make this a dual-boot machine. What are all the things I need to remember to back-up before wiping my hard drive (besides work files, iTunes music, bookmarks, email, financial files, settings for w.bloggar and FTP)?

On a happier note, I saw Caddyshack for the first time last night.

I was working on getting the new church site listed on Google and dmoz.org when I found a link for MusicMoz.org, "a comprehensive directory of all things music, edited by volunteers." It's related to the Mozilla project (makers of the Firefox browser). One interesting directory on MusicMoz is Anti-Music, a listing of sites dedicated to bashing bands, styles and MTV. Sara, I'm sure you'll enjoy some of those. Ok, back to work.

Testing has begun on the church website. I only had three volunteers, so if anyone else is interested in helping, please email me.

One of the missions for Team TMBG is to create graphics to promote the band and their new album, Spine. What do you think? I could win a t-shirt. Click here to get this in icon size.