For Nerds Like Me, This is Hilarious

Apologies for the lack of posts lately!  Life is incredibly busy, as it is most summers, and I'm having way too much fun over at my other blog, but it does take up much of my "blogging" time, so low post volume this month.  Lo siento.

BUT I wanted to pass along this hil-ar-ious video from Improv Everywhere that the wonderful Katie Sokoler of "Color Me Katie" participates in.  For someone like me, it is soo funny!  Especially considering that when there was a marathon of Star Wars movies over the July 4th weekend, I was watching it when I wasn't a baseball game or cookout - and totally loving every minute of it :).

200th Post + Changes

This officially marks my 200th post in my little blogging experiment.  I can't believe that I have two full years plus some months of blogging behind me.  That's crazy.  But I love it and am shocked and awed when people tell me that they've read it - the fact that you would take time out of your day to regale yourself with my incoherent ramblings and musings on all sorts of random things humbles me, truly.

I've also bitten the bullet and changed my beloved blog template to this new design.  I've also tried to shake things up on the sidebar level, mainly by moving my blog archives and blogroll up a couple of notches and all the other content down a few.  I've also cleaned up some of the blogroll - from time to time I update it with new blogs and delete others that haven't posted in a while in order to not have it become so unwieldy that it looks cluttered - because I read a lot of blogs :).

So leave me a comment and let me know what you think of this new design and this little blogging experiment itself!  And thanks again for taking time to read!

And Just so I can say it....

This post will mark 10 posts in August! That's a record for me - I've never had 10 succinct thoughts in a month that I have wanted to share with the World Wide Web. And yes, I do count this as Number 10.

It Just Keeps Piling On....

Oh blog, bloggedy, blog, blog. I have been meaning and wanting to post thoughts, feelings, and reactions to a myriad of things for a while, but the demands of summer, life, and living with Jesus have been pretty pressing as of late. I hope to post some thoughts up here soon though about my completed trip to Young Life camp, as well as some other things that have been ruminating, marinating, and rummaging around in my head. I am beyond grateful for a 3 day weekend this weekend, and hope that by the time I emerge from it, I will be a little bit more rested for the chaos of next week - which looks to be one heck of a ride! Sorry for only posting twice last month - that is a new all-time low. But be sure, as always to check out Ruminations and Reflections. I'm much better about posting up over there :).

Mild Techy-Genius

One of the things that I love the most about blogging is that I get to dabble in HTML code. Most of the time, this frustrates me to no end, and this foreign language remains a mystery to me. But every so often, a chance occurrence happens in which I DO figure out a neat bit of coding and I am able to apply it to my blog format. Today was one of those rare days in which I am able to figure out how to make the code work for me and do what I want it to do! Check out my other blog, Ruminations and Reflections to see the tiling of one of my pictures at Whitney State Forest, the new blog color background, and title. I'm currently struggling with the Blog Title Color - I can't quite find a color that I love, but the one I have is sufficient for the moment. And please let me know what you think! I'm thinking of maybe trying to do something similar both at the work blog that I maintain as well at my beloved "The Road Goes Ever On". It's been fun to figure out, though it caused at least a couple of hours of puzzlement and bewilderment to figure out! But, many thanks to the folks over at Blogger Buster for their informative how-to articles on how to make this work!

Post 100

This is my 100th posting on this blog experiment that I started a year and half ago. I find it kind of crazy that I am writing my 100th post. I also have been hesitating to write this post for over a week because I feel as if it should be some kind of momentous thing, like the 100th episode of a TV show or something. But the reality is, this is just another post - post 100 will come and go and life will go on and I will continue writing or posting videos about things that I find interesting in the world.

I think that when you reach any kind of milestone, you take a moment to reflect back on where you have come from, where you are now, and where you think you should be going. It's kind of serendipitous that I am reaching my 100th blog post and my 27th birthday at virtually the same time, give or take a couple of days. I look at my life and wonder, how did I get to be 27 already? How did time fly by so quickly? I also never imagined that I would be where I am at 27; where I am at my 100th blog post.

I had the most amazing opportunity to get to spend time with my dearest and bestest friends in the world this past weekend, and we talked a lot about our lives and how five years ago when we left college, we did not picture having the lives that we all have. Yet, as I look back over the past five years of my life, there is not much that I would change - at all. The past and the things that have or have not happened have shaped me into the person I am, and I like her for the most part. I will always be in process, but at this point in time, I can say that I am content for the most part, and I am grateful for that.

And I am content with this blog. It has given me the opportunity to explore a portion of the world wide web that I never knew about and it has given me a new base of knowledge of techie stuff, which the nerd in me loves. It has also been great getting to dabble in html code, learn how to embed videos, what a "widget" is and how to post it to my blog, how to sort of use RSS feed. It has been both a creative and analytical outlet and opened up a new door of learning to me. It has also allowed me the ability to process through different world, political, religious, and economic events in new kind of forum - a forum that has been lacking since I left college. I am grateful for the way that blogging forces me to actually think and process through my thoughts before committing them to the scrutiny of the world wide web.

So all in all, this is my 100th blog post. I never thought I would get this far with this experiment, but I am glad that I have. And I am content with it and with my life at this point in time. I feel filled with expectation that something is on the horizon, yet again, and life is about to dip into an uncontrollable spiral. So I am glad to have an outlet such as this blog to digest it all. The journey is continuing onward; the road goes ever on.

Nerd at Heart

I'm a techy nerd at heart - which is why all the cool improvements and enhancements that Blogger makes to its blogs are so fun to explore and try out.

You'll see a new page element on my sidebar called a "Blog List". Turns out that Blogger was having the same thoughts as I was about broadcasting to the world some different blogs to hang out at. I like going to all the blogs listed from time to time to see what's new with both my friends and strangers, because some are inspirational, some are challenging, and they all remind me that we are each a unique individual with our own individual thoughts trying to scrape our way through our own individual lives.

I'm going to keep trying out some new things here - experimenting with videos and slideshows courtesy of Picasa and other cool techy, html-y things that I can experiment with. I don't claim to be an expert at any of this - I just love exploring all the cool, fun possibilities of Web 2.0! Also, any recommendations that anyone has for my blog, please, send them on!!

A Lesson in the World Wide Web

(Subtitle: The ability to find anything on Google).

So last night at the youth baseball banquet that I attended, I received some shocking news. My boss, the esteemable Mr. John Lombardozzi, had found my blog during a google search, which is what I secretly think he does all weekend. Needless to say, I wish I could have captured the look on my face, as the thoughts running through my head could all be encapsulated into one word.

Luckily I LOVE my job AND my boss and know that I am pretty safe when it comes to my blog posts, because other than just rambling thoughts on things going on with work, I know that there is nothing but love for Signature and baseball in my posts. :)

I think the thing that I was most worried about was how depressed I kind of sound in some of my posts, since some of my friends (who I also didn't know read my blog) think I'm in the depths of despair - which I'm not!! I am ok everyone :).

So I guess I have learned (which I already kind of knew), to be careful about what you say, and realize that when you make the setting on your blog "public", it will and can be found in Google searches. Lesson learned.

And again, just in case anyone was wondering, I do really love my job :).

Post 4

As the title implies, this is my fourth post on my blog, and I have to say that the experience so far has been fun. I enjoy technology and learning new things, and this has been so simple to use and try out. The hardest part is coming up with content for the blog!

Some random musings for today:

1 - I love language - beautiful language. I was watching a documentary on Winston Churchill tonight, and his use of language and ability to turn a phrase, made me yearn for that power. I wish I had a better grasp on vocabulary and could use it to its full effect. There is so much power in words and just a short while ago it seems that most of the public had a command of them - which is something you don't see today. To be able to string together words so that they evoke powerful emotions and knowledge at the same time - such is a gift that I wish I had.

2 - I love classical music. And there are so many performances coming to the DC area that I want to go see! Yo Yo Ma, Lang Lang, Joshua Bell, Itzakh Perlman! The arts delight and fill a part of my soul. Again, I wish I understood it more and could appreciate the music even more - but there is also something to be said about experiencing a piece of classical music in naivete. Then it is all about the experience and the orchestration of the art.

3 - I was thinking about the path and journey that I have been on so far and how some parts have turned out radically different than I thought that they were going to. And I also was thinking about some of the journeys that my friends are on and how they have ended up on completely different paths than what they thought. And yet, we are all in the exact place that God wants us to be in.

4 - I also was thinking about how I love thinking broadly - the big picture, no matter what it is, is what excites me. I love seeing how things all come together. I guess I need to progress to the point in where that once I understand the big picture, I can also look at the different parts and see where changes need to be made and what parts aren't working. And in the Winston Churchill documentary I realized for the first time how narrowly focused Roosevelt's worldview was and how because of that, we have ended up in the position we are in in the world today. I had never seen that thread before, but the groundwork was laid all the way back then! And that is why history fascinates me - because of the way that events back then can be linked to events today.