Blog
Time to see what we have time to see
Category: Random Updates
ginni and I celebrate our 1 year anniversary this weekend. We are going to Horseshoe Bay Resort and we are very excited. It's been the best year of my life, and I know next year will only be better.
I've been on a coding hiatus lately. No particular reason, I just haven't felt motivated/inspired. On my To Do List for web stuff include adding Category/Tag clouds on my site, pictures on both ginni's site and mine, as well as making my mom a new website (not to mention AptFinder).
I've fallen in love with a new piece of software: Teamworks. It's a business process management tool and is very cool. It has a GUI that is as simple as a flow chart to map out a business process, but has the coding complexity to implement functional applications. Recently, I've had to force myself to work on stuff that isn't Teamworks, or I'd get nothing else done.
College football is crazy lately. All the conference realignment talk is keeping the off-season rather interesting, for sure. In case you haven't been keeping up: as of now, the Big 12 is down to 10 teams (Nebraska left for the Big Ten, Colorado for the Pac-10). Despite rumors of Texas, Tech, OU, and Okie State joining Colorado out west, these schools announced that they are staying in the Big 12 and will keep the conference going. I wouldn't doubt if this wasn't the end of it, though. I foresee 4 Super Conferences forming some time within next 3 or 4 years.
Not much else to say except that the Rangers only a couple of weeks out from the All-Star Break. Yeah, I know.
Into the darkness you shine
Out of the ashes we rise
There is no one like You
None like You
Awoken by a Cloud of Steam
Category: Random Updates
ginni and I went to Tuxedo Junction on Thursday. It was really cool. The guy that helped us (Damont) knew how to provide customer service. He helped us decide on styles for the tuxes (mine and ginni's dad's will be slightly different from the groomsmen and each other so we stand out), colors, shoes - everything. They had a deal running that gave us 50% off the tuxes if we rented 3 or more, plus my tux was free (!) when renting 4 or more. Since we were renting 5 tuxes total, we were able to take advantage of both deals. I ended up spending a little bit on upgrades to my tux, but it was still an incredible deal. It turns out that the tuxes will be relatively inexpensive for the guys (Austin said he paid about $50 more than this for his tux to prom last year). The thing we came away from the experience more than anything, though, was how awesome Damont was. It would have been worth paying a little more to know that we'll have that kind of customer service throughout the process.
I love watching/listening to ginni play piano. She subbed in for Cedar Ridge's pianist yesterday and she was great. We're really praying that we find a church where she can play in the worship band. In related news, she's considering taking on another piano student if anyone is interested. If you know anyone that would want to learn, let us know.
The wedding planning is going well. We should get our engagement photos back any day now (yay!). We'll have those on facebook as soon as we get them, I'm sure. ginni went to the florist today to discuss our options, so hopefully that was productive. We may have found someoen to make our cake, too. She's is giving us a good deal on it, but before we decide she going to send us photos of cakes she has made before. We're looking at the guest list every few days trying to finalize it. It's hard because we want to invite everyone, but the church only fits about 200 people. We're around 253 right now, and we have no idea how we are going to cut it down anymore. I'm sure we'll make it work.
I redesigned ginni's site (www.ginnitamez.net) and am much happier with it. She's excited to have a place to put her lists online, and I just enjoy having another playground. I have another site I'm going to start working on soon, but I gotta figure out exactly what I want to do with it. I'll tell more as I figure out more.
Only the skilled can judge the skilfulness, but that is not the same as judging the value of the result.
~ C.S. Lewis
All At Once
Category: Lyrics
Sometimes the hardest thing and
The right thing are the same.
~The Fray
Surely the Lord Lives
Category: Spirituality
Surely the heavens declare the glory of God
The open skies proclaim the work of His hands
They never stop putting His knowledge on display
All through the night and through the days
Listen to the stars sing
We are the dreamers from the other side
We are the dancers who cannot be denied
We are messengers that no one can hide
And there is no language on earth
Where their voices are not heard, they sing
People, people, surely the Lord lives
People, people, heaven and earth are His
People, people, lift your souls in wonder
The stars watch the sky and angels gather the wind
A call to the loveless, the listless, the dim
The King is alive, the King is alive, the King is alive
Now we are the stars and if we're to shine
We'll hold out the truth, as we give lift up the light
We are worshipers that no one can hide
And there's no language on earth
Where His praises are not heard, we sing
And there's no language on earth
Where His praises are not heard, we sing
Surely the Lord lives
Heaven and earth are His
Lift your souls in wonder, in wonder
People, people, surely the Lord lives
People, people, heaven and earth are His
People, people, lift your souls in wonder
~Downhere, Starspin
This is such a beautiful song. Every time I hear it I have to pause and reflect on who God is and how...amazing? impossible?...it is that I have a relationship with Him. The stars sing to Him, the angels gather around His throne, there is no language that cannot hear His praises.
What is my response to this? To go on with my daily life unaffected? Schedule out my week and see where I can fit Him into my day? Or will I allow this to revolutionize my life? When I look at my life, my schedule, my actions, there should be no doubt that my top priority is to Love Him. And yet that isn't the case in my life right now. Why not?
It can be so incredibly difficult to not let the thorns of life's business choke my spiritual life. I have to constantly ask myself what my motivations are for doing...whatever I am doing. It should all be for Him. If it's teaching Sunday School, I need to remember it isn't to stroke my ego or to teach of something I have discovered, but to glorify Him. If it's playing Ultimate Frisbee or working or going out to lunch with friends, it's not to win or make money or have fun, but to glorify Him through all that I do. I have to remember to run the earth, but watch the sky.
Win or lose, shine or fail, happy or sad, I will praise Him.
I want you to know the Real me
Category: Spirituality
Which face do you see
and which one is me
I'm not sure if I know
I've been hiding my tears
Hiding for years
It's time I let go
~Wideawake, Stay
I've recently begun opening up to some friends at church. It's quite an interesting experience, showing my weaknesses. Since I hold a semi-leadership position, broadcasting my struggles can be especially difficult. I want those that I teach to know that I'm not perfect and that I'm not teaching from a holier-than-thou approach, but I don't want them to think that I'm a hypocrite.
And what if I am? Then what? Does that invalidate the things that I've taught? I can see both sides of it. On the one hand, teaching about something with which I struggle can make it hard for those listening to take it seriously. "If Alan can't do it, how can he expect us to?" Yet maybe it's those things that I know so intimately that I can teach most effectively. "Man, he knows what this is like too?"
I think the key is how I present myself as I teach. Am I being transparent - letting them know that this is truly something that is difficult to do and I'm a living witness to that? Or am I trying to hide my failures out of fear of losing their respect?
From Wikipedia:
Hypocrisy (or being a hypocrite) is the act of pretending to oppose a belief or behavior while holding the same beliefs or behaviors at the same time.
I guess as long as I'm honest about my struggles, not pretending to have mastered this particular lesson, I would not fall into that definition of hypocrisy. Now to get over that fear of others seeing the Real me...
How difficult is it for you to let others see your weaknesses? Are you afraid of how others will think of you if they knew the Real you? Are you making an effort to let down your pretenses and open up to others?
