Category Archives: Greg - Page 3

Sermon 3

Posted by on June 11, 2008 Comments Off

Last month I had the honor of expounding upon God’s word as it is written in Psalm 96. Our Pastor was at a youth retreat and he asked me to give a message on Basic Church Values: Missions. You can listen (mp3) to it here. This was the third opportunity on my life to preach. Go ahead and tell me what you think. But a more important question than how good it was is, what changes has the Holy Spirit impressed on your heart?

Time is Time

Posted by on November 27, 2007 Comments Off

I just did a quick calculation. Even though we moved further from my office, I am saving about 20 minutes per week in transit time from being on a better bus route. That amounts to 80 hours saved each year. I cannot complain!

Fortress of Playitude

Posted by on November 24, 2007 Comments Off

After assembling Anne’s new bed I had two rather large boxes. Hmm, what to do with two large boxes. A fortress of course! But that took only one box. A tunnel with portcullis! Still 1/2 a box left… Ok, knee padding in the tunnel.

  • one princess bed for $20 (original price $250)
  • extra boxes $0
  • one set of MrMcGroovy’s rivets $30
  • no cuts from the boxcutter $major medical bill
  • two ecstatic kids, priceless

Master Wilson

Posted by on July 7, 2007 Comments Off

Some of you know that I have had a long ordeal with respect to my graduate degree. From switching from the PhD to a Masters, being tasked with finishing a 2 year project in under 9 months, having conditions placed upon obtaining my actual degree, then waiting anxiously eight months for confirmation that I had satisfied those conditions.

Well, at 8:24pm on July 3rd, the graduate school was finally told that I had satisfied those conditions and that I could receive my degree. This saga seems to finally be almost over.

Big Spring Update

Posted by on May 25, 2007 Comments Off

Here is the run down for the past couple months:

  • Anne graduated from Preschool today. She had two excellent teachers this year and is sad to be done. Makes me wonder if she will be like Jason in Foxtrot. She was very beautiful in the dress her Grandma got her.

  • We have been house hunting and found what we hope will be our next accommodations. We put in an offer which was accepted, but contingent on the sellers closing on another house. It has been a while since we bought a house, but amazingly enough, I think the process is even longer in Maryland compared to NewYork.

  • Anne got pneumonia today. Very sad. So she will be taking antibiotics for a little while. No clue where she got it from and we hope that no other kids get/got it.

  • I started another blog revolving around my coding for the MMORPG I play. Knowing me, I will probably update that one more than this..

  • We are getting plugged into our church. I have been periodically helping lead the home group we go to. We love our home group, and we have felt warmly accepted into the community. I managed to get out skiing once with some of them. I think I will miss winter down here.

  • Work continues to go well. Just hired someone to work under me and in the process of hiring another (in case anyone wants to send me a resume). I am really enjoying the Zend Framework but unfortunately I had to drop the smarty templates as they were killing the speed. Our hardware has killer I/O but awful CPU speed.

  • On my daily commute I have been reading a very good book: As For Me and My House. I wish I had read it while in grad school. I know it would have helped me better understand myself and the stresses I place upon Camille. Better late than never. It is written in a very poetic style (not my style) which took a bit to get used to. While at home, I have been reading Fit Bodies Fat Minds. Another highly recommended read. It is not poetic and more my reading style.

  • We have not gone to the movies in a while now. I think the last movie we saw was Children of Men. We did rent some interesting films though. An Inconvenient Truth, Who Killed the Electric Car, and Thank You For Smoking. They raise interesting questions, especially for a stats minded person like myself. The first 2 are more of the documentary type. The last one can get you thinking about how media and sophistry pervade and sway our culture.

So, hopefully Camille will post here soon to give everyone an update on some of the other important things going on in our lives.

2007: A New Beginning

Posted by on January 15, 2007 Comments Off

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We are now all settled in Maryland. I drove up to Ithaca and brought Camille and the kids back down at the end of October. I am so glad we are all together again. I’ll try to have Camille give a larger update about how things are soon.

We drove back up to Ithaca for Christmas and New Years. It was good to see my parents again, and all our NewLife friends. We managed to get some good fossil hunting in as well, as the temperatures were not ‘normal’. Anne and Drew are becoming good hunters, with Anne scoring a few trilobites herself at the Portland Point quarry.

Today, being MLKJ Day, I had the day off. Woohoo! Being in the DC area is great! It was a normal temperature for January 15th, 72F with a 50 percent chance for rain. So we made the best of it and went to the Chesapeake to hunt for Miocene fossils. We managed to score a small amount of fossilized shark and skate teeth. It was warm enough for me to put on my Tevas and walk around in the water to better hunt. Pretty fun! Plus, having Drew periodically say, “Shark eat me” was great.

Another Moving Delay

Posted by on October 14, 2006 Comments Off

On a positive note, the movers got everything here safely on Friday morning, and now I can barely move around the boxes.

Well, this apartment needs some work. When I actually signed the lease and came into the apartment, I started to notice some problems. There were quite a few cracks in the walls, even though it was just painted the week before. Every spot that has linoleum needs to be replaced (and they are just slapping another layer on top of the old one). The air conditioner was left on for several days while it was being painted, and the condensing coils froze. When they started to melt, it leaked through loft, through a smoke detector, and onto the livingroom floor.

Unfortunately Camille and the kids are going to stay another week in Ithaca while these repairs are done. I do not want them to inhale the paint and glue (for the linoleum) fumes. Also unfortunately, I sprinted across the living room to get to my phone because I thought Camille was calling me. In the process I kicked the coffee table/chest and probably broke the 4th toe phalanges on my left foot. I have iced and splinted it, but it still hurts. It is starting to bruise up. I told my Dad that it does not smell like gangrene yet, in case he was worried.

And the phone call was not even Camille. Sigh…

I Cannot Picture It

Posted by on October 12, 2006 Comments Off

Sorry to all of you who like looking at the photoarchive. It is not working right now. I have exceeded my space quota and will need to do some work on it. Hopefully I can get it back up and running soon.

EDIT: I have it working again. Woohoo! Thankfully Gallery is not too hard to upgrade.

New Neighbors and Bearing Gifts

Posted by on October 4, 2006 Comments Off

Our new apartment will be 1.9 miles (as the google drives) away from the Toppens. I estimate it to be about 793 meters away (as the waterballoon flies). They graciously invited me over for dinner last night, and I got to see their two cute kids as well. I just wish I knew the area better to have been able to bring flowers or something, like a good guest.

In separate news, we no longer have the Deep South…

Moving scammers

Posted by on September 28, 2006 Comments Off

Beware of moving companies. Check out Moving Scam before you hire anyone.

Read more »