defer

The review of my medical records for Peace Corps came in the mail...

They are deferring the evaluation until July, pending a retest of one of the laboratory tests. One of the tests showed a slight irregularity for someone my age. The doctor wasn't worried about it, he just wanted to monitor it and retest in 6 months. It didn't seem like a big deal, but apparently Peace Corps is very thorough.

So if my medical evaluation doesn't go through until July, will I still be able to leave in September? Will I have to change programs and maybe go to a different region? Will I be able to go at all? For a long time, I have been planning my life around a departure date in September. At the very least, this news keeps me flexible and on my toes, and not relying on my own plans. My experience tells me that God likes to make me sweat a little.

I am fairly surrendered about everything, and a later departure date may work out for the best. It's just difficult to deal with such a large commitment when so little is certain. And the prospect of another round of doctor's appointments does not excite me. Maybe more news after I make some phone calls.

"Good things take time, but great things happen all at once."
-Rat Race

tee hee

Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness
While I am here in the land of the living.
Wait patiently for the Lord.
Be brave and courageous.
Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.
Psalm 27:13-14, NLT

Starting to believe this again...

:)

if we are the body...

Now if the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

1 Corinthians 12:15-31, TNIV


Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon his shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life;
I know that it is finished.

give me jesus

Deeply unsatisfied with my singing on the last video. This one's a little better. I tried lowering the levels to kill the popping, but it's still a fail. I forgot about this song for a while, but rediscovered it recently and am enjoying its simplicity.

legacies and the internet

Not sure who might appreciate this, but I find it to be a beautiful piece of writing from an unexpected source. A unique reflection on our technological dependence and the fragility of life. Read it here. I warn you, it won't make sense at first. Just keep reading. Apologies for the pretentiousness.

Here's an excerpt:

The Cloud is just the internet. And the internet is just a bunch of hard drives.

The internet is really good at replicating discrete bits of self-contained data. There are probably a few million copies of any given Loretta Lynn song out on all the hard drives of the world, because lots of people care about Loretta Lynn.

But my photos on Flickr only live on a few hard drives in the world. The hard drives in the database servers. The hard drives in the networked-attached storage devices that are used to backup the database servers. A few of the pictures are on my friends' hard drives, but not most of them, and certainly not the complete collection.

When I die my Flickr Pro account will expire and a large percentage of my photos—girlfriends, family, vacations, my dog—will disappear from public view. They'll sit on Flickr's hard drives until Flickr goes out of business or loses the data.

Someone might send Flickr my death certificate, prove that I'm gone. Flickr might even give them access to those photos, should one of my friends even think to gain it. But more likely no one will even think to look. Part of my trivial legacy will go dark, sleeping quietly on a handful of hard drives.

-Joel Johnson, Gizmodo

[via]

high above

Found a really cool ambient setting while messing with my delay and reverb pedals. Sounds amazing in person. Plugging the mixer into the mic input of my laptop kinda overwhelms it, so it came out a bit distorted. And I'm not sure where the weird clicking is coming from. This is a Phil Wickham song that I've been enjoying quite a lot. I kinda miss extended praise sets and leading worship.

spring forward is death

I forgot to change the time on my alarm clock after getting back home last night. Spent 24 hours in the car. It was worth it. What a fun weekend. Five people going in different directions on different schedules. Conflicts here and there. But when it came down to it, we left together and we returned together. Felt kinda like a family.

Pics as promised, click to enlarge as always.
Many more on Facebook....

shenanigans

Posting from San Jose.
This is a fun weekend friends.
Pics to come when I get back.

i'll be

I told myself a long time ago that I wouldn't write any more songs like this. Oh well. Is it better streamed from Youtube like this or Soundclick like I did a few posts down? Youtube kills the audio quality but is more familiar. I put the mp3 file on Soundclick for download, link below.

I promise
To do right by you
I promise
My walls come down for you
Today and tomorrow I'll be the same

I'll be the one
With an open shoulder to lean on
I'll be the one
To shield you from the cold and broken
The tears I cannot wipe away
I'll shed as if my own

When you speak
I'll hold my tongue
I'll take my time out
Until you're done
Leave the car in
Park and let it
Idle on and
Watch the parking lot close

I'll be the one
With an open shoulder to lean on
I'll be the one
To shield you from the cold and broken
The tears I cannot wipe away
I'll shed as if my own
Even as the world is spinning
Right now this feels like home

One hour
Eight months
Two years
I'll wait
Lord I'll wait

I'll be the one
With an open shoulder to lean on
I'll be the one
To shield you from the cold and broken
The tears I cannot wipe away
I'll shed as if my own
Even though the clock is ticking
If you would just not go

Download the MP3

it's only temporary

Knowing that, in seven months time, everything familiar will disappear from an airplane window has given me a unique and wonderful perspective on what is important. What little I can take with me becomes infinitely more valuable than everything that I must leave behind. Not that I am living in an bare apartment with milk crates for furniture, but my furnishings do reflect the temporary nature of my living situation. I have not decorated in the same way as I would if I were planning to grow roots.

This anomaly has made my decisions clearer and simpler. There is no opportunity for situations to needlessly drag on, no chance for anxiousness to turn into sin. It is startlingly easy to compromise convictions when one is comfortable where he is. We are often obsessed with maintaining the status quo and avoiding change. But because I have big changes quickly approaching, the status quo does not concern me. I can discern right from wrong and act accordingly, because I don't have the luxury of time to cloud my judgement. I can make the decisions of a better man. Pain is not dampened, but the temptation to defer it for as long as possible is.

My future is invested elsewhere. The more I think about this situation, the more I believe this is how we should see life in general. Life here is impermanent. The more we are invested in heaven, the less concerned we will be about what doesn't really matter. Our roots should be just deep enough that we don't fall over under our own weight, lest when it comes time to be transplanted, we are unable to budge. Look around at how you have chosen to furnish your life.

But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where theives do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:20-21

for sale

AHHH! Want! So beautiful, 1961 Triumph TR3. Only $3k too....

Someday, if I ever have a garage, I will have a quirky British roadster to tinker with.

fisheye my desk

Coworker brought in a gaggle of off-brand lenses to show me. I bit. Cheap fisheye lens coming in the mail. This one. Hope it comes in time for road trip.

This is my desk at work. Why yes, I do have two giant Apple Cinema Displays. Main one is 30", secondary is 23". Yes, they are (kinda) necessary for work.

rube goldberg

OK GO - This Too Shall Pass

Wow...these guys keep getting more awesome.