Saying Goodbye

I have a sad announcement to make today. Okay, it's probably not sad for anyone but me. Now that I think about it, I don't know why I should even feel sad. Maybe sad isn't the right word. Perhaps I'm feeling a little nostalgic. After debating about it for awhile, I've decided to shutter my blog at Focused Journey.  I'm not giving up blogging, I'm just moving to a different location and changing the name.
If you care about why I made this decision, please keep on reading. If you just want the location of the new blog, go on and jump to the bottom of this post. If you're already reading this at my new blog (since I'm posting this at both locations) I guess just do whatever you want.

My reasons for the switch.

• Economics. Having my own website involved paying not only for the domain name, but also hosting fees. While in the long run it wasn't overly expensive, I still feel the need to eliminate that expense. I am still paying for a domain name, but that is next to nothing. 
• Features. In playing around with the WordPress blogging features, I discovered things that I could do on WordPress that I really didn't know how to do with my own site. This may seem like nothing, but I enjoy having my blog automatically update both Twitter and Facebook with new posts without me having to do a thing. With Focused Journey, I was able to get half that equation working with posts being pulled into Facebook as a note, but this way works much better. 
• Reality. Part of the reason I had a full fledged website was because in the back of my mind I thought I would build it up into site with multiple pages and other things. Considering that I can't even define what those other things supposedly were going to be, I've come to realize that all I really cared about was the blog on my site. Writing is becoming more of a hobby and a dedicated blogging website just made more sense. 
• Name. Retiring the name Focused Journey was the hardest decision. I always liked it and still do, but I began to feel that it had become a misnomer. I recently wrote about a ketchup packet that I found interesting and posted a short story that had no significance whatsoever. For me personally, I had trouble reconciling my occasional random thoughts with the name "Focused." I almost felt guilty for writing something for no other reason than to write when it didn't seem to tie into my journey of faith. My wife argued that everything we go through is part of the journey and she's right, but in the end I still decided to let it fade away.

So there you have it. Life rolls on and at most only 2% of my readers will care about this. Thankfully, 2% of the numbers I pull in winds up rounding to zero.

For those that have followed my blog at Focused Journey let me just say thank you. If you want to continue to stay up to date with me, just point your browser to MatthewWright.me.

(On a complete side note, I'm learning Markdown and wrote this post using it. I probably went overboard, but it was entertaining.)

Out Of Shape

Yesterday afternoon I took another bold step in my desire to lose weight and get healthy.  I exercised.  Before you think long runs or an intense spinning class, let me clarify what I did.  It was twenty minutes of step aerobics on my Wii.  Not intense by any stretch of the imagination.  The worse part?  My calves were actually sore when I was done.  It is a sad state of affairs when twenty minutes of probably the easiest workout there is makes you sore.  I've read enough people that claim that exercise makes you feel better.  I'm looking forward to the better. 

When The Enemy Is A Friend

I like many people live with an enemy inside my home.  Taunting me and laughing at me.  It is my bathroom scale and I can't stand it.  Rarely does it show what I want it to show.  Not once has it shaved off a few pounds to make me feel a little better.  Each time I stand on it I'm told in cold hard numbers the truth.  It let's me know if my efforts are paying off and when my slacking off is catching up to me.  As much as I want to hate it, I have to get it in my head that my scale is just a presenter of the facts.  It presents the truth whether I like it or not.  When it comes to being healthy, a dose of the truth is always in our best interest.  So scale, maybe we're not enemies after all, but it still might take some time before I consider us friends. 

Melrouge

This is totally pointless, but I thought I would try and write an extremely short story on the spur of the moment.  Once and awhile I try to keep the creative juices flowing.  You can decide for yourself whether or not this story was actually creative.

 

It's completely irrational.   I know it is.  It's  stupid, childish, and completely foolish.

Yet it stalks me.  It is the hunter and I am the prey.  Too many shadows have sent me running, but run I must.  I promise you that one time it will be in that shadow, and it will kill me.

No, I must remind myself that it is a silly fear.  Nothing more.  I am safe.  It can't harm me.

Unless that's what it wants me to think.  To let my guard down.  To relax.  It's watching me.  I can feel it.  It knows I refuse to accept its power.

No, no, no!  That's the talk of a crazy person and I am not crazy!  Really I'm not!  At least, I don't think I am.

Clever fiend.  I debate and wrestle in my mind and you draw closer.  Waiting for the moment to strike.  End it!  Just release my mind from its tortured dreams.

I will live!  I am an idiot.  Of course I will live.  It can't hurt me.  It can't even move.  Why do I fear something that cannot even crawl.

Because you have your helpers.  A guest in my house.  My very own friend.  You used him.  Unwittingly you used him and you prepared the culmination of your hatred.  I didn't expect to see you there.  The opening of the door and face to face.

What am I saying?  There was never any danger.  My house.  My castle.  My refuge.  You were there but I was safe.

I thought I was safe, but you found a way in.  I conceded the grocery store to you.  Your domain, you win.  Then you tracked me to my restaurant.  You wouldn't even leave me that would you?  Now my own residence?  Must I live in fear of my own home?

Stop it.  You're sounding crazy!

You want me to open that door again.  I got it closed the first time, but I know you are still there.  Everything in there can rot with you.  I will not open that door again.

I can do this.  Just a door.  I've opened it a thousand times.  There's nothing to fear.

McIntosh.  Granny.  Fuji.  A thousand names, one purpose, my demise.  Do it already!  End this game!

I will open the door.  My fridge, nothing more.  All will be fine.

Do We Really Need This

I was watching the Packers Bears game yesterday when I observed a frightening thing.  During a break, there was a commercial advertising an upcoming commercial.  I know that Super Bowl commercials are a big thing, but does a company really need to advertise about their advertisement?  Maybe it's just me, but that is one of the stupidest things that I've seen on television for awhile. 

Sunday Reflection 1

A Sunday morning and a good time to reflect on God's Word. 

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. (NIV, 2010)

Suck a Toe

As a completely random Saturday post. I looked over at my 3 year son who was sitting on the couch a moment ago. He pulled his foot up and stuck his toe right in his mouth. He smiled and then smacked his hand over his mouth. I asked him what he was doing but never really got an answer. I have absolutely no idea what he was doing or thinking. Nothing quite like being three.

Snow Day

As I was sitting with my wife last night, our local tv network began to run some school delays and cancellations for this morning. With at least a couple inches on my porch and more falling as I went to bed, it's understandable. The closed one was my old high school. Without fail, if there is bad weather, they are among the first to call off. Considering some of the roads the buses have to take makes it clear why.

I remember what it felt like. There's something wonderful about having to go somewhere that you really don't want to and then discovering that you don't have to go. Even better when you find out the night before. I hope my students that have the day off can enjoy it. As for me, I have some work to do.

The Ketchup Packet of the Future

I appreciate good design. For me, good design is both visually appealing and very practical. This is what I attempt to accomplish with anything I create for my youth ministry. I even see it reflected in my website. There was a time when the design of my site, even though it's template based, was a little overwhelming. Slowly but surely I have searched and found themes that reflect a clean simple design. Much easier to read and I think more visually appealing.

Today I ran into a new design that I think was well executed. I had a coupon for a free Spicy Chicken Biscuit at Chick-fil-a and since I feel guilty about not buying something, I ordered some of their hash browns to go with it. When I'm in the car, I normally don't get ketchup for the hash browns due to the inconvenience. Today though, I knew I was going to be parked in a moment and I thought I'd go for it. When I opened my bag, I discovered a complete redesign of the traditional ketchup packet. It was similar to a McDonald's dipping sauce container that you get with Chicken McNuggets. The ketchup packet wasn't quite as deep and is designed to be in the shape of a ketchup bottle.

I'm not arguing that a packet of ketchup was visually appealing, but the design was incredibly practical. First, it contains more ketchup than regular packets. Second, the "lid" is designed to tear off so you can squeeze the ketchup out. Finally, the other end is designed so you can peel off the cover completely. Again, think McDonald's nugget sauces.

I was trying to move all my hash browns to one side of the container so I would have some place to put the ketchup when I realized this third point. I removed the cover and had a stable container of ketchup to dip my hash browns in. I was thoroughly impressed with the design.

I have no idea if these have been on the market for awhile or not, but I applaud the team of designers that came up with it.

On a side note, isn't it strange to think that there is a group of people sitting around thinking about how to build a better ketchup packet?

He Wasn't Kidding

As I continue on my road to recovery from pneumonia, I am consistently finding out that my doctor wasn't kidding when he said that I would get tired from time to time. I can go the whole day feeling great, then suddenly I get extremely tired. It's been my intent to try to take a nap the past couple of days to help prevent it, but life and work haven't cooperated.

Last night we had our first youth service of the new year. Unfortunately, it fell right during the hours where I seem to get the most tired. While a couple of my youth led worship, I sat in a chair and tried not to fall asleep. They were doing a fine job, but I really thought I was going to go to sleep. After worship, we sat in a circle so I could speak sitting down. From past experience, I know people have fallen asleep while I preached. It's the nature of public speaking. This however was the first time I thought I might fall asleep during my own message. Thankfully I didn't. It would have made for a good story down the road, but I'm glad I was able to stay awake for it. I'm looking forward to this last phase of the sickness to pass.

In a related note, it was great just to be with the students of Pursuit Youth Ministries again. I for one have missed being with them. They really are an amazing group.

My Office

I recently read a brief blog post about attempting to write on your blog every day for the entire year of 2011. Thankfully, being sick the first couple weeks of the year ended my opportunity to accomplish this even before I considered attempting. Even though, I thought it would be a nice challenge to post more often.

So with all that said, I present today's post which is a little glimpse into my home office. Yes, the picture attached is my office at home. With a small apartment and two kids, my office amounts to an ironing board and folding chair set up in front of the closet in my bedroom. Often I have my scanner sitting on the ironing board too. It certainly doesn't win any awards for aesthetics, but it's functional and all folds away when I'm done.

Anyone else have an office in a small space?

Writing Just To Write

When you are growing up, there are a lot of things that you dream of becoming.  I know some of the traditional ones for boys are firefighters and astronauts.  I remember wanting to to be an author.  I wanted to write and have a book published.  Sitting here years later, I doubt that book will over come to be.  I've heard the saying, "everyone has a book in them," but actually writing that book is rather difficult.

There's still a part of me that enjoys the idea of writing a book, but nothing has ever clicked within me strong enough to actually attempt it.  That, and once you do attempt it, you open yourself up to discover just how poor of a writer you actually are.  Currently I can dream that I'm a good writer.  Sometimes it's better to dream to discover reality.

Maybe someday I'll have something click and I'll go for it. Until then, I shall write here and imagine that the few people that read it are actually thousands.

Big and Small

Heard a great word at church today.  It basically was this.

What we think is big, God often looks at and says it's small.  What we think is small, God often looks at and says it's big.

I think of the trials and tribulations we face.  We think they are so large as to be completely unconquerable, yet God must laugh because in reality they are so small to Him.  With words alone God creates all that is seen; surely the large problems of life can be handled by the all powerful Lord.  They are easy.  They are small.

In the same vein I think of the things we consider small and unimportant.  We allow small sins to go unchecked in our lives because we wrongly compare them to "big" sins.  We think they are tiny and we can get by with them in our lives.  Yet God looks at these things that we consider inconsequential, and He sees a big problem.  He sees something that needs to be dealt with and corrected.

Perhaps we need to readjust our vision to see things the way God sees them.  No problem is too great for God to handle, and no sin is too small for God to ignore.

How To Lose Two Weeks

I have to laugh when I look at my last post. In it I discussed all the things that I was going to miss by not going out and partying for New Year's Eve. I especially enjoy the part about my head in the toilet. Well, New Year's Eve came and went with no problems.

On New Years day my family kept with tradition and headed out to our local Dairy Queen that offers their entire menu at half price. It's a crazy mass of humanity and I question why we do it, but we do.

I didn't feel right the whole day, but I chalked it up to the hectic weeks that had proceeded it and the lingering cough and cold I couldn't seem to shake. The day slowly want down hill from there. I came home and slept. I remember finishing my Blizzard since it was half priced. Then, my wife felt my forehead. A few moments later the thermometer confirmed that I was running a decent fever. At that moment I still thought I would be fine in the morning and go to church. My wife knew better.

The next days are vague memories of lying on my couch, having my head in the toilet, and generally feeling rotten. A little Tylenol would bring the fever down and I would try to eat something, and a couple of hours later the fever would return. It wasn't until Wednesday that I went to the doctor and found out that I was no longer fighting the flu, but I was now fighting pneumonia. I felt dead.

I struggled with the antibiotic and overall tiredness. Another Sunday came and went with me on the couch. Then thankfully, it seemed to break. It took a week and a half, but suddenly I felt like I was going to live again. The random times of tiredness remain which I've been told is common with pneumonia, but overall I feel good again. I'm looking forward to being in church in the morning.

So, two weeks into the new year and I've spent that vast majority of it either lying on my couch or sitting in my chair. I'm looking forward to getting out and living again.