a thought for the evening...

I've never actually gotten up out of bed to blog about something that
was racing through my head. But I was thinking about something my
friend and pastor E.J. said at church tonight. We've been working our
way through the day of pentecost, but at the end of the sermon, E.J.
went off on a tangent about the way we mistranslate the word amen. (we
had been talking about the imperfect and perfect in Greek and how this
particular piece of scripture was meant to imply that instead of it
being something they had done, it was something they were continually
doing... that it was the imperfect tense, indicating that it was
ongoing.

Anyway...

When we say amen, we generally ascertain that it means "So Be It".
It's an ending. The Amen rings and people are done with whatever it is
they're doing. The proper translation though is much more of an
action... "I'm going to do everything on my part to make it happen".
Strong's concordance says this "a primary root; to build up or
support; to foster as a parent or nurse; to trust or believe, to be
true or certain..." I didn't think it affected me as much as it did
until I was lying in bed rolling it around in my mind.

I put my final save the company plan into effect today and it's
already bearing some flowers. I'm not going to say fruit yet, but I
think it could help. If not, I turned in the resume my friend had
requested and I should hear about the other job relatively soon.

and as I continue to pray about the company and job switches, I say "Amen".

ok. Back to bed.

an update

hey everybody,

sorry for the lack of posts since the nebulous post. I had a second job interview the other day for a job I really don't want but feel like I might need to take and I spent the weekend really up in the air about what I want to do. My heart is really with the company I'm currently with, but if the work isn't there, the job isn't there. I've been hesitant to talk about it because things are still relatively up in the air. I'm not sure what to do. Do I take the job (which would actually be a raise) even though I don't really have any passion for it, or do I continue to do everything I can do here to try and get things to work and then take my chances on not having a job March 31. It's been a pretty confusing couple of weeks.

In the meantime, I've been busy the last couple days on a promotional project for the Cornerstone Festival, the festival I spend the week shooting website photos for every summer. It's been kind of nice immersing myself in the video tapes I've been editing. Seeing the grounds makes me a little homesick for that dusty, humid, hot slice of Western Illinois farmland. I'll post a link to the finished video when it's ready for distribution. Y'all can hear my professional broadcaster voice doing the narration.

I guess if I have any prayer request, it's that we'd put enough business together that I could keep my job... and if you have a need for any quality professional design or video work, visit my agency's sitehttp://www.redpenguinent.com or e-mail me and I'll send you a demo reel and portfolio on DVD. Quality work, cheap prices... and you'd get to work hands on with me (which I would hopefully think is a good thing. :-D)

Sorry about the lack of blogging...

it's been an interesting couple of weeks. There's not a lot I can go
into, but there's been some major things going on at work that to say
they're good would be a major misnomer. In any case, it's fairly
depressing stuff and I've been a bit of a zombie since the beginning
of the year.

I've been hitting the weights pretty hard this month. One of the
things I've been happy about the YMCA having is an assissted pull up
machine. I've never had the upper body strenght to match my lower body
strength. I haven't been able to do a pull up EVER, so to have a
machine that can offset some of that weight so that I can work up to
doing them without weight assistance has been great.

I'm also happy that I'm pressing over 500 lbs on an incline leg press
now. The thing that sucks about it is that it's plate loaded so it
takes a while to haul the 45lb plates to get up to that weight. I'm
interested to see how that will translate to the cycling season. I
haven't been losing weight this month, but I can see that there's been
a dent in my love handles.

Anyway, if you're the praying sort, now would be the time to pray.
I'll say more when I feel i can, but I hate watching things collapse
in on themselves.

A Picture Share!

A Picture Share!, originally uploaded by bthemn.

A remnant photo from a pre Christmas trip to Ikea with Ang's dad. Fun, fun.

thoughts on the new year...

I've never been much for resolutions. I generally work towards goals.
Sometimes those look more like resolutions like the fact that I need
to work on my climbing this year. Working on that climbing is going to
mean, at the very least, trying to tackle some of the weight. I think
that's always a goal though... weight loss. I don't know when working
on losing weight has ever not been part of my goals. Inevitable I
sabotage myself and never actually go past a certain marker (which in
my case tends to be 225) but it stays as a goal.

At the Y yesterday I did a weigh in for the year. Last year, I started
out around 237. I hit the holidays WAY too hard and the cycling off
season lasted a little too long. This year, with a much more active
off season (though I did get so busy last month that there was an
almost month long gap) I'm starting off at 232. With cycling season
scheduled to start in a couple of weeks that should start coming down
soon. Who knows. I'd like to drop 20lbs or an equivalent amount of
body fat, but we'll see if that happens.

My main goals for the year, sporting wise? I want to get back to
long-distance tri racing. (though racing might not be exactly the word
to use). I was hoping to do an Ironman, but with paying off debt, I
think the local half-ironman in Boulder is going to be a lot more
realistic.

I'd also really like to run the Pike's Peak Ascent this year. It's my
challenge to the Triathlete Alliance to come out to Colorado Springs
and do it with me. I don't know that there's a more challenging half
marathon in the country. 13.3 miles up 7,000 some odd feet. It sounds
hellish, but it sounds curiously fun. It would be great to run it with
some tri-blogger friends.

Cycling wise, I'm hoping to get a few centuries in and one double
century. I've only completed the 200 mile distance once. The second
attempt I made on it was the year I had defective spokes on my
then-new Fuji Team and broke a half-dozen of them within a couple
month window. Last year, I was hoping to do the Paul Bunyan for the
first time in a couple of years, but it got cancelled due to road
construction. This year, I really hope to change that.

I don't think I'll be attempting Triple Bypass this year. It's still
on the list of things I want to accomplish, but I just don't think I'm
ready. Plus, I hate the fact that it's not an out and back, so you
have to have someone drive to the other side of Vail to pick you up.
Not fun.

Anyway, those are my sports goals for the year. There are professional
goals too, but I don't think those are nearly as interesting.

More later.