Its hot

If today is a warning of weather to come... its going to be a hot summer. Its in the low 90s, and humid. I'm sitting at my desk, with a fan pointing straight at my face as I'm working... It actually kind of feels like a convection oven. The funny thing is that the heat kind of came out of nowhere yesterday, and its supposed to be back in the 70s tomorrow.

Information travels faster in the modern age

So I'm more and more intrigued by the myriad of different uses for your "Status" on Facebook - Despite the whining every time it changes the constantly updated Facebook is actually 10 times more powerful than it used to be. With the changes they've made it feels more like microblogging "Twitter" style than its more stalker-site early iterations. The move to a more communal feel, strategically, makes sense. In the dog eat dog world of flash in the pan internet fads, you've got to keep up with the new competition.

That being said - living away from home (with an ocean in between me and most of the family) I've actually gotten more feedback on Facebook than I have with the blog... Which in a way isn't all that surprising. Its kind of nice to keep up the bater

Oh... and something interestin for the record... The Analytics package for my blog is now telling me that I'm getting as many hits from Germany as the US right now - so campers who are reading this good job (I guess ;-) )... folks back home... whats the deal here?!?! I start a blog to keep you all in the loop of whats going on with my trans-atlantic existence, and you bail on me? I'm feeling existential angst (or maybe not). Seriously though if you're checking this and you know me feel free to leave comments! (nice to know if when you're reading :-) ).

Its Sad...

I think I'm starting to turn into my parents. Today was a national holiday in Germany - do you know what I ended up doing... Cleaning. (Although I did sleep in). So yeah... I spent a solid couple of hours washing the floors in my apartment, doing laundry, running the dishwasher... and other household things.

That being said, I did find some time to devote to cooking --- I've been on a pizza kick lately (which Jim Budlong inadvertently started me on when we went out for Pizza the other week). Its been every couple of days that I'll try something else. Usually, since they're so cheap, I'll go and grab some plain cheese pizzas frozen pizzas from the store down the road (its like 2.50 for 3 of them... and they're better quality than the cheap American ones you'll find in the grocery store). Its a great thing to have around to "throw" in the oven if I don't have time in the evening to cook. And I usually use whatever I've got around as toppings. So since I had a little bit more time today I decided to go all-out and make Pizza, pretty much, from scratch (I cheated and used already purred tomatoes as the base for my sauce). And I do have to say that I'm getting better at it...

Lost in Translation

Ok... I'll be honest - I'm writing this to get away from doing "work" for a little bit. I know it sounds bad, but let me explain. I'm in the middle of translating this year's camp devotional book from German into English so that the staff members coming from North America will have a chance to read what the kids are reading during their morning devotional time. Truth be told I need a rest - and I'm planning on putting in a couple hours after the end of the work day anyways. I just need some time to pull my mind out of the Danglisch-soup that it has been swimming in the for the past few hours.

Its actually been a really great exercise for me. Its been a while since I actually had to sit down and work through translation, and its stretching my German skills... and I'm man enough to admit that I need the stretching right now. And I'm glad that we'll have the translation this year - I think it will help some of the staff who are coming immensely in aiding campers in their spiritual growth.

My desk is, at this point, covered with pens, papers, highlighters, notebooks, my bible, bottles of mineral water, the odd box of assorted chocolates, headphones - it looks like I'm digging in for siege warfare at the office. Umm... sadly thats probably exactly what the next few months are gonna be like... BRING IT ON!

The Textures of Town

I'm currently working on a project for work that I wanted/needed to go out and get some pictures from around town to use as background textures for some signs I'm doing. Should be interesting. And its kind of a nice break from the "norm" to be able to leave the office for a little bit to walk around town with a camera. And the things I've worked on for this "project" are already turning out well...

One Voice Europe

The gospel choir, One Voice, from Cedarville University came through town yesterday to do a concert for BFA, and I had the pleasure of being their "man on the ground" for the day. It was great to get a shot in the arm of energy from a group of college kids! I'm really thankful for the chance to hang out with them, get to know a few people from the team, as well as talk to them a little bit about doing missions work here in Europe.

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I took the team up to Hochblauen, the local mountain top, where you can look into France & Switzerland while standing in Germany. Its always great to see peoples' reaction to being up there - Its a breathtaking view... and the genuine reactions of "Praise Jesus" and "God's creation is amazing" made me smile as they spontaneously erupted from peoples lips as we snaked our way through the forest, slowly climbing the mountain catching glimpses of the ground below through breaks in the trees.

On The Road

I just finished Jack Kerouac's novel On The Road this past weekend. It was kind of a trip. I'm really not sure how I "missed" this classic mid-century American novel until now. But I loved it. I do feel I need to add that its probably not for everyone. One of surprising offshoots of it was a surprising feeling of homesickness for the wide open American road. I don't want to make it sound like I'm dying of "homesickness" but something in the novel made me want to throw my bags in the back of a car and start driving. Everything is so close together over here - you can hop between major cities quickly, quickly enough that you're never all that far from anything. I never thought I'd say this - but I miss the cornfields, and being able to take a walk through the woods without seeing other people.

Inventory Day

Well... I did inventory of most of our sports equipment today to try and gauge what we could use... You know its not a good sign when the intern who is helping you says that "if you threw away all the broken stuff you'd have like two balls left."

Earthquake...

So an earthquake tore through this area at about 3:40 in the morning. Woke me up... actually I woke up screaming in a cold sweat (no joke - true story). It was bizarre. So far as I know no damage was done to anything. It was about a 3.5 on the Richter scale... and its epicenter wasn't very far from town. After the quake the birds were going nuts - the downside of that was it was like having an alarm clock going outside my window at 4 am... Needless to say I didn't get much sleep the rest of the night.

Now... today is also my 2 month anniversary of getting here. Kind of exciting I guess. Doenner Kebab tonight to celebrate. I haven't had one since the day I got here, and I've been looking for an excuse to go get one for a while :-).