Weeklog

Trent posted a smart-aleck comment on my blog about it being ten days since my last entry...

...of course, I don't know why he would have anything to say about that...

Anyway, it's been a pretty busy week, so I thought I'd give a "weeklog" - a log of my various activities for the week. The week got off to an interesting start when I got an email from a Quote Puzzler member which essentially said, "I upgraded my web browser to Internet Explorer 7, and now the Quote Puzzler site crashes." So I installed IE7 on one of my computers and sure enough, I got the same issue. I also discovered that IE7 is currently a beta version, which means there's a good chance the problem is a bug on their end.

But I also realized that more and more people are using this beta version, and are therefore looking on the QP site as being "buggy". So, I decided now is a good time to do something I've been meaning to do for quite awhile now: learn to do Flash animations, and reprogram Quote Puzzler. So Sunday night I downloaded the Flash development environment, and Monday morning set to work learning how to program Flash.

I spent most of Monday and Tuesday programming, and now have a new version of Quote Puzzler. A few people are testing out the new version, and are really liking it, because the Flash version is much more "responsive" than the Java version, which means they can get even faster times!

Wednesday we had a very different sort of youth group meeting - we had a phone conversation with Tanya in Moldova. We hooked up a telephone to the sound system so the teens could hear both sides of the conversation, and Tanya shared about what she's doing now, and what she'll be doing when she's home on furlough, and about their current project in Moldova: getting copies of The Wonder Book in both Russian and Romanian.

Thursday was a really fun day...Daniel had his Special Olympics time trials. The weather was a bit drizzly, but they had the events, and I went to cheer him on. Daniel competed in the running jump, a 200 meter run, softball throw, and a 200x4 relay. This is all in preparation for the Special Olympics summer games which are in Orono June 9-11. I'm probably going to go up for the games on the 10th, and maybe see if some of the teens from the youth group want to go.

Yesterday we had our May Banquet, which is an event the youth group has each year, a semi-formal banquent, and a time to honor our graduating seniors. I spent a good part of my day working on "Autograph books" for the seniors - I picked up some blank journal booklets, and then printed out and pasted in pictures of the teens at various events over the last couple years. Then I brought the booklets to the banquet and asked the other teens to write notes to the seniors, sharing what they most appreciated about the seniors, fond memories, funny memories, etc.

The seniors were very happy with this gift - they really liked the pictures, and having notes from their friends. One of the underclassmen (a freshman) said to me, "When I graduate, and you do this for me..." so apparently she's hoping that this will become a yearly tradition.

We had some sad news this week...Allen Johnson passed away. Allen was suffering a great deal with COPD, and has spent a lot of time in hospitals and nursing homes over the last year. Hattie has asked that instead of flowers, gifts be given to the youth group, "because of Allen's love for the young people of the church." Allen's funeral is this afternoon.

The concert I'm preparing that tells the story of the life of Christ, I now have scheduled to perform twice - once in August, and once in September. I've got a lot of work to do on that; this is in addition to my preparations for my ventriloquism presentations.

As we move into the summer, this blog will get updated less and less (sorry Trent!

) My Biblical Illuminations site will also be updated less. I'm working on a lot of illustrations for lessons I'm teaching at camp (mom & dad, I'm even going to have an illustration involving Duke! But don't worry...it doesn't involve peanut butter and extension cords.

). But I probably won't post those until I finish with all my camps. All of that to say: just because my sites appear to be dead, doesn't mean that I am!

Posted On May 13, 2006 at 6:10 AM

On May 13, 2006 Trent wrote: Excuses, Excuses,

I like them actually. I may just cut and paste some of them over to my blog. We will see.

Seriously though, it sounds like you have had a busy but profitable week.

Speaking of Camp, what weeks will you be at Camp Good News?

Doug Replied: I think we're got another "Trent Sandwich" this year...I'm at Good News July 2-8, then I'm back for teen camp July 16-22.

On May 14, 2006 Trent wrote: I like being the "Good Stuff"