General
Video Games
Nature
Business stuff is going great! Learning more and more about the whole grant sphere every day. My brain has always been good at making connections between seemingly-unrelated things, and I'm finding that skill is useful in this new field. I'm really enjoying it!
The biggest blessing is all of the amazing people I'm meeting in the local community-- one organization in particular so far, plus my two business partners who are the best.
I've also been drawing up a full enterprise Azure-based architecture for delivering web sites, mobile apps, and chat bots, complete with security, performance, and effort level to implement each piece. I have a few business contacts I plan to reach out to over the next week or so.
But the most important thing is to pump the brakes a little: every single person around me is telling me, "you need to take a little time for rest". Sure enough, my sleep is healing little-by-little, and my passion for video games has really come soaring back. I took some time this morning to, for the first time in eons, update my games list:
And by the way, the above list doesn't even include the Commodore 64, which is a whole separate set of titles I want to play!
Today I plan to update the OLED Steam Deck-- can't believe that thing is a $1000 device now, brand new-- plus my PSVR2 headset and controllers. Then I'm driving Henrietta to work, and stopping at the 4H brat stand where Ellyn and Duncan will be working.
Slowing down is the hardest thing for me: I'm kind of a workaholic, going one hundred miles per hour for like thirty years now.
I need to chill out a little, give myself a little more leeway, and gradually ease back into things, making sure to budget my time so things are not just sustainable for me, but so I can continue to let God form me. Indulging in my hobbies, in moderation and balance, like what I describe above will help bring me closer to God by relaxing me.
Twin Cities Trip
I went down to the Twin Cities to visit my parents, and went to some awesome places with my dad! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, click on any for full-size versions.
After Mass we went down for refreshments on a whim, and my dad and I made new connections with a group of regulars there. One guy is going to wind up being my "book buddy" I'm sure, we'll be making lots of recommendations back and forth I'm sure. My dad explained to them that I was entering the diaconate formation as well, so now there is a group at the seat of the arch diocese who are familiar with my name and face as well.
At a museum we went to, I randomly got talking to a Catholic lady, and here my deacon mentor is one of her family's oldest and closest friends-- he literally married her daughter, what were the odds of bumping into this person? Holy Spirit at play.
Major "Horizon Zero Dawn" vibes from the outdoor areas we were at.
Also, that tractor-looking thing is actually a mobile steam-powered generator from the 1880s; you put coal and water in it, calibrate all of the no-fewer-than-fourteen-valves, then literally fire it up. It only crawls in terms of movement speed, but once you get it sitting where you want it, you wrap a belt around the giant upper wheel and use it to power something else.
Apparently the one in the museum is miniscule (and it was huge!)-- there are giant versions of these, still functional today!
The biggest blessing is all of the amazing people I'm meeting in the local community-- one organization in particular so far, plus my two business partners who are the best.
I've also been drawing up a full enterprise Azure-based architecture for delivering web sites, mobile apps, and chat bots, complete with security, performance, and effort level to implement each piece. I have a few business contacts I plan to reach out to over the next week or so.
But the most important thing is to pump the brakes a little: every single person around me is telling me, "you need to take a little time for rest". Sure enough, my sleep is healing little-by-little, and my passion for video games has really come soaring back. I took some time this morning to, for the first time in eons, update my games list:
And by the way, the above list doesn't even include the Commodore 64, which is a whole separate set of titles I want to play!
Today I plan to update the OLED Steam Deck-- can't believe that thing is a $1000 device now, brand new-- plus my PSVR2 headset and controllers. Then I'm driving Henrietta to work, and stopping at the 4H brat stand where Ellyn and Duncan will be working.
Slowing down is the hardest thing for me: I'm kind of a workaholic, going one hundred miles per hour for like thirty years now.
I need to chill out a little, give myself a little more leeway, and gradually ease back into things, making sure to budget my time so things are not just sustainable for me, but so I can continue to let God form me. Indulging in my hobbies, in moderation and balance, like what I describe above will help bring me closer to God by relaxing me.
Twin Cities Trip
I went down to the Twin Cities to visit my parents, and went to some awesome places with my dad! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, click on any for full-size versions.
After Mass we went down for refreshments on a whim, and my dad and I made new connections with a group of regulars there. One guy is going to wind up being my "book buddy" I'm sure, we'll be making lots of recommendations back and forth I'm sure. My dad explained to them that I was entering the diaconate formation as well, so now there is a group at the seat of the arch diocese who are familiar with my name and face as well.
At a museum we went to, I randomly got talking to a Catholic lady, and here my deacon mentor is one of her family's oldest and closest friends-- he literally married her daughter, what were the odds of bumping into this person? Holy Spirit at play.
Major "Horizon Zero Dawn" vibes from the outdoor areas we were at.
Also, that tractor-looking thing is actually a mobile steam-powered generator from the 1880s; you put coal and water in it, calibrate all of the no-fewer-than-fourteen-valves, then literally fire it up. It only crawls in terms of movement speed, but once you get it sitting where you want it, you wrap a belt around the giant upper wheel and use it to power something else.
Apparently the one in the museum is miniscule (and it was huge!)-- there are giant versions of these, still functional today!