Bullet Points for a Friday Morning #2

I’ve been neglecting this blog for the past few weeks, so it’s time for an update of sorts. So… bullet points!

  • We’re in the home stretch of the pregnancy… just a little more than two months until baby #3 is scheduled to make his/her appearance. The girls have finally decided that they’d like a little brother - they want to have a prince to play with them when they’re playing princesses.
  • We’ve decided on sticking at Stonebridge for the forseeable future, and we’re starting to plug in. First up: small groups. The group we’re joining starts up next Monday night. It’ll be good to just sit down and get to know some folks.
  • In the vein of church stuff, I’ve contacted the music pastor at Stonebridge and arranged a time to get together and talk about how I might occasionally serve on the worship team. The key word here is occasional. I don’t want to be in a position where I’m indispensable. I think it can be worked out.
  • On the work front, the project I’d been working on for the past 18 months got shut down last week. All of us working it are getting transferred to new projects and new groups. I’m going to be joining a group that focuses on aircraft certification. It’ll mean a lot less coding and a lot more documenting, but it’ll be very good experience and learning for my DER ticket.
  • It’s still winter in Iowa, but it’s been at least tolerable the past week. It got up above freezing yesterday, and we haven’t had any significant snowfall this week. I can handle winter when it’s like this.
  • I’m really looking forward to a weekend with very little on the schedule. Nothing scheduled for Saturday, just church on Sunday. Time to crash.

Well, enough for now.

The Church Search: A Conclusion of Sorts

After Nick chided me last night about my infrequent blogging, and after Roger noted elsewhere that he’d never really heard any conclusions from our church search, it occurred to me that I’d never really written a concluding chapter to that story. Let me fix that now.

We knew when we made our list of churches to visit that it wouldn’t be a long list. We started with three churches that were our primary focus, and after ruling out one of them midway through, it was really down to two: Maranatha Bible and Stonebridge. We visited both of those churches multiple times, evaluating and praying that God would direct us. Looking for churches is frustrating from a time perspective, too - there are only so many church services per week that you can visit. Patience is required. Not easy.

In the end, while we liked both churches and could’ve probably been happy at either, we decided back in mid-November that we would give it a go at Stonebridge. There’s a lot of good going on there, the teaching has been solid, there are lots of ministry opportunities. We’ve signed up to join a small group that will start meeting next week. I’m excited to get the chance to start to get to know some people and really feel like I’m a part of the place. We’ll see how God continues to lead, but for now, we’re happy to start calling Stonebridge home. Let’s hope it’s a while before we have to do the church search again.

How do I know when to...?

Andy Osenga nailed it on his blog today by answering the question “how do know when I’m ready to < insert thing here >?”. In his particular case the question revolved around when to record a CD, but he applies the lesson to all of life, and he’s right on. The money quote:

So my answer to the question “how do I know I’m ready to make an album?” is probably the same as the answer to many other questions like it. Because you feel the need and it’s become possible for you. And because otherwise you won’t be ready yet, won’t be ready yet, won’t be ready yet and then one day it will be too late.

It’s like getting married, having a kid, driving a car. You’re never ready. You just decide to do what you feel you need to do, from my perspective this is called “obedience”, and you do it as well as you can and you wait for something supernatural to bless it.

Go read the whole thing.

Brrrrrrrrrr.....

What's this place about, anyway?

I’ve watched with interest the transformation of an internet acquaintance’s blog over the past several months. In past years his blog has been, in many ways, similar to mine - intermittent family updates, pictures of the kids, occasional rants on music or politics, etc. I subscribed to the blog and enjoyed the occasional updates.

Then several months ago this acquaintance started a topical blog in earnest, then remade his personal blog as the beginning of an organized effort to try to help along the book he is writing. As I’ve followed the blog feed, I’ve seen him follow all the pro-blogger tips - posting at consistent, regular, intervals; asking questions to engage the audience; coming up with catchy titles for the posts; posting lots of multimedia; the list goes on and on. And here’s the thing: while I wish him all the best with his blog and book efforts, I find myself not interested in his blog any more. It’s no longer really about him so much as it is about his brand.

As I was thinking through this, I asked myself a question that’s a good question for all bloggers who are hoping to attract readers: “Fill in the blank: I would recommend this blog to people who are interested in _____”. The answer to that question gives you two things: (1) an idea of who to market your blog to, and (2) the type of content you should be writing to keep them coming back.

I’ll let my book-writing friend work through those questions himself; I just want to turn the question back on myself. To whom would I recommend this blog? And the best answer I can come up with is: people who are interested in me, or in many of the same things I’m interested in.

Until the day I become a massive celebrity, this will naturally keep my readership small (though it’s probably still larger than the quality of the content deserves!). And I’m OK with that - in fact, it’s sort of a relief. When I keep my expectations low, I don’t feel the pressure to serve the blog - the blog can serve me. And that’s how it should be.

Book Review: <em>The King of Sting</em> by Craig Glazer and Sal Manna

Sometimes, real life is even better than the stories. The King of Sting details the adventures of its author, Craig Glazer, as a twenty-something college student in the early 1970’s. Glazer was inspired by a movie “sting” - a scene where a team of shady characters pretend to be police in order to steal from criminals - and, with the help of a few friends, became a master sting artist himself.

What started out as acts motivated by revenge and noble causes, though, soon degraded into stings either to make money or just fuel his adrenaline rush. Glazer worked as a sworn law enforcement officer and later was prosecuted and served jail time for his deeds on the other side of the law.

Glazer’s story is entertaining but serves as a good reminder that sin will, in its own time, find you out.

[You can buy The King of Sting at Amazon.com.]

Book Review: <em>Ring</em> by Stephen Baxter

I was browsing the sci-fi section in the local library and came across an old paperback with a familiar name on the spine: Stephen Baxter. I’m most familiar with Baxter’s collaboration with the late Arthur C. Clarke on the Manifold trilogy, but have enjoyed a few of his solo works as well. This one looked to be a bit older (there was a quote on the cover from Clarke hailing Baxter as “a major new talent”), but I figured it was worth a try.

Ring finds humanity in the Third Millennium traveling through space, having learned some fantastic tricks of physics (including controlling wormholes that access the future) from alien races. Having also achieved “anti-senesence” technology (i.e. they can stop aging), a group of explorers decide to undertake a million-year trip at relativistic speeds, keeping a wormhole open the whole way so that they can communicate from the future back to the past.

What unfolds is a fascinating story of space and time, on a scale of megayears. Baxter is at his best when he’s dealing with the hard science, describing the aging process of stars, but he holds his own, too, with the softer side - imagining what a hyperspace trip across the universe might feel like from the perspective of the solitary human piloting the ship, recognizing that even millions of years of “progress” won’t change human nature.

If you’re into hard sci-fi, Ring is worth picking up, a very enjoyable read.

[You can buy Ring at Amazon.com.]

2008: A Year of Reading in Review

This the only year-end post I’ll write; just a summary of my book reading list from 2008.

Some quick details:

Total Books Read: 78. This is down a bit from 86 last year.

Fiction: 57. Non-fiction: 21.

That ratio is still weighted a little heavily toward fiction, I think, but when I know how shallow and quick some of those novels were and how long and think some of the non-fiction was… well, it evens out.

Favorite novel of the year: A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffery Archer. This was far and away the best, most enjoyable story I read all year. It’s essentially a modern-day retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. What sold me on it, though, was that there were characters you could really root for. Good guys that were really good. Honorable supporting characters who remained honorable. Such a good story. I should put it on reserve at the library again.

Runner up: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Favorite non-fiction of the year: This is tough because non-fiction spans such a range of subjects. Some high points, though:

Worst book of the year: How Would Jesus Vote? by the late D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe. I thought my blog review of it was bad until I read Ron’s review. He said, in short:

The book is awful. Simply awful. I can’t stress to you how amazingly awful this book is. Do not buy, read, or borrow this book. I will likely use my copy for kindling in the fireplace this winter.

I love Ron.

OK, that’s enough book wrap-up for this year. I’m contemplating a change in format for book reviews next year, doing a full post on each book and cross-posting them to Amazon to build a little bit of reviewing credibility there. Dunno, it’s just a thought. [No, Geof, I’m not doing it entirely because you changed the format of GNM.]

Next year’s list will still exist in some format. First book on it will be an old one by Stephen Baxter. Almost finished it for 2008, but not quite.

Wedding bells, etc

I’ve taken plenty of pictures the past few days, but the dial-up internet connection here at the folks’ house isn’t up to uploading them, so they’ll wait until we get home on Sunday. (To be quite fair, my folks aren’t Luddites in the least when it comes to the internet; they simply live so far out that their only options are dial-up or ridiculously-expensive satellite. But I digress.)

It’s such fun to have the whole family together again for a weekend - Andrew and Heather are in from Washington; Ryan is here from Chicago; we’ve come up from Iowa and the rest are, for the moment, locals of Richland Center, WI. I have a feeling these full-family gatherings will be fewer and farther between as the years go on, so we need to enjoy these when we have the chance.

New Years’ Eve we celebrated Christmas as a family, exchanging gifts and eating rather too much. I was blessed with a case for my iPod and a copy of N. T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God, a lengthy volume that will likely keep me busy for a long while this upcoming year. (Thanks, Ryan!) New Years’ Day was rather uneventful; much decorating was done at the church, and it was concluded by my brother Aaron’s bachelor party - a party much unlike what typically comes to mind when you say “bachelor party”. Let’s just say it was attended by nearly 20 men who carried Bibles and weren’t afraid to use them. :-) It was a good, encouraging time, enjoyed by all.

Yesterday, though, the preparations continued in earnest for Aaron and Emily’s wedding. Final decorations were hung; we walked through the rehearsal; finally, we ate a LOT of tasty catered Mexican food for the rehearsal dinner, and celebrated Aaron’s birthday. Oh, and Rebecca made the cakes, and whipped up a LOT of frosting. (Pictures to follow.)

Now it’s Saturday morning and we’re praying that the freezing rain forecast for late this afternoon holds off for a few extra hours so everyone can make it to the wedding. The big event is at 4:30 this afternoon, with dinner and dancing to follow. Big congratulations go out to Aaron and Emily on this landmark day in their lives. Now if you’ll excuse me… I think I have a shirt to go iron.

Christmas 2008 wrap-up

Nothing like a holiday and a week off work to slow down the blog posting.

We started our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve, attending the service at Stonebridge. While it was a bit longer service than I expected, it was quite good, and the girls managed to sit through it (a whole hour!) without making too much ruckus. Then we made a quick trip down to the Fedex office to pick up the new laptop that had made it as far as the distribution office but not actually delivered.

Christmas morning we opened presents. Highlights for the girls: Addie got a little tent and sleeping bag; Laura got a scooter and a “spotting scope”. (It looks like a pirate spyglass to me, but Diego calls his a “spotting scope” and that’s all that matters to Laura. :-)) The girls also ended up with a multitude of puzzles and DVDs. I got some good stuff, too: some gift cards to my favorite local fast-food places (guilt-free eat outs!), a new fountain pen (OK, I’ve had it for a few weeks, but it’s a Christmas present none the less), and a couple of CDs. I got Becky a new jewelry box and a Baby Blues book; she appears to be enjoying both of them.

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More Christmas photos on Flickr

On Wednesday we’re headed up to Wisconsin to see my family; Andrew and Heather are in from Washington; Ryan is in from the other Washington (DC), and Aaron and Emily are getting married on Saturday! Exciting times for the Hubbs family. Then next week “real life” starts again and I have to go back to work. I am thankful, though, for this Christmas break. A week and a half off of work is such a lovely thing this time of year. Happy New Year to you all!