The reference points when travelling on water can be anchored or allowed to drift. The reference points for the thoughts, ideas, and experiences we have are similar.
I am dropping anchors, guides, and collecting reference points for the ongoing trevails.
To preserve is the function of the local historian. To know the history is the responsibility of the individual.
Quote pulled from a 1922 NC Educators quarterly in the NC digital archives.
Editors note: Venerate means "to regard with reverential respect or with admiring deference; to honor." source
A couple weeks ago at ConvergeSE, I took the opportunity to explore Paper app and doodled. The pens and brushes are fun, and they go well with the Cosmonaut stylus.
In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
-David
There are most certainly more beneficial hobbies out there, but I find myself using little bits of "surf the internet" time to dig up content management systems and tinker with them.
Very little gets built (no actual websites), but I have developed quite an understanding of CMS best practices, including great install processes, module management, and theme customization.
I started a note today titled "Un-Tweeted" to catalog all of the tweets that I censor myself from tweeting. For various reasons, I just don't tweet them, but they are my personal thoughts.
I have noticed a huge shift in thinking for our generation where one of our first reactions to most situations is to post a status update about it. This has become so normal that our first mental response is, "How could/should I phrase this for a tweet?"
I read something recently about how many of our status updates are time-oriented and reactionary. If you were to write it down and look at it in a couple days, would that tweet really matter?
Also, inspired by a book that I recently purchased (which, by the way, must be so good that I am inspired by it but have only read the cover - ha. Just kidding, my wife has started it and shared this thought...), I am going to begin actively writing down my thoughts. Writing well starts with writing down your thoughts, keeping a journal/idea book, etc. I want to do that. To be able to review my ideas and build on them if I like.
All this raises even bigger questions about our thoughts, the validity of our feelings and making that public, and about the public image we present as we filter the things we post online.
Writing it down on paper may also help break the gadget-dependency. We'll see...
In the meantime, you should follow me on twitter.
-jk-
A themable sass/css plugin for a custom dialect. For real semantics. Potential names: Paddin' and Marrr!gin.
.example {
paddin': zeeero!;
margin': zeeero!;
position'n: ab-so-lutely;
width: your mom;
}
.pirate {
marrrgin: yarr+1 yarr-1 yarr+10;
padding: yarr;
position:starboard;
display:blackspot;
}
Of course it would all compile to valid css. This would just be more fun to write.
A Peaceful Breath
My daughter was born last week. I could not be more happy with her and life as a new dad.
Salem means "peace." By meaning, she is named after her mother, Erin.
Abel (name meaning: "a breath") was a man of faith. He was commended as righteous when God spoke well of the offering he brought.
Salem is an answer to prayer and a breath of peace to me and Erin. We believe it is God who gives us life and breath. We hope that, in the same way as Abel, Salem recognizes her life is a gift and should be a living offering to God.
Our prayer for her is a life of peace and that she would be a peaceful breath to those around her.
Also, a couple fun facts:
Got a new tattoo in my hometown over Thanksgiving.
"On noble things he stands" is from a verse in Isaiah (32:8) that says:
But he who is noble plans noble things,
and on noble things he stands.
The font and style is to keep consistent with a pirate/nautical look on my right arm. There is a black dot being added above the text, which is a loose allusion to the "black spot" from Treasure Island. The black spot, typically delivered on a torn-out page of the Bible was given to pirates as a mark of pending death - usually mutiny afoot.
My wife and I lost a child (miscarriage) a few months ago and it has been a very tough fall. We named the child Noble. [Read the story.] This tattoo reminds me of this fall, of the darkness and toughness that comes with death and grief. The black spot is in honor of Noble, being marked for death from the beginning.
The passage from Isaiah is a prophecy written about Jesus Christ, describing him as a King who will reign in righteousness. He will provide justice. In Jesus Christ's death, I am made new. His death is a noble thing that I stand on.
This tattoo reminds me of both the weight of grief in death and the hope of renewal in new life, and calls me to be one who plans noble things.