Another Weekend Update

So, my friends, I apologize for the lack of updates,

Many of you already keep up with me, so it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on when I have a lack of posts. Truth is, I’ve been keeping busy! I have some big projects coming up at work, school started last week, and I’ve been trying to get some time for myself squeezed in there.

In my free time I’ve been playing with my new camera, which has been a joy. I really forgot how much I enjoyed photography and how inadequate my old camera was. It was a good “point-and-shoot” camera, but for the more advanced stuff that I like to do, it just didn’t measure up. I have even created a section on here called “Photography by Kiel” which I hope to start working on soon. I took some good pictures at the Indy Air Show this weekend and hoping to post some of those.

This past weekend was filled with joy and sadness. The sad part? I had to get rid of my faithful 1995 Geo Prizm LSi. I’m pretty grateful that it has held up for so long… we even drove through the mountains of Tennessee together. Fortunately the car didn’t break down on me while up in Chicago. The joyful part is that I got a 2004 Chevy Impala LS… which I’m loving! My most favorite thing about it (apart from the stereo sounding good) is that it has cupholders! That’s right… it’s the little things. My old Prizm was supposed to be a “luxury” model (if there is such a thing with the Geo) and it didn’t even have cupholders! The only downside is that my new car doesn’t get as good of gas mileage as the Geo or the other car I was looking at (Honda Civic), but I will survive.

In my personal life I have been doing alright. I have had to learn to say “no” to people and to create some distance so that I can have some time for myself. It has been through that time that I’ve been able to connect closer with God, spend some time searching myself, and I feel so much better. So that can probably explain the lack in blog posts. HOPEFULLY, I will start posting more now that my mind is a little more free. We shall see!

Tags: life

When Everything Seems to be Going Wrong

So this week has not exactly gone as planned for me, hence the lack of posts on here.

It seems that for me, when it rains, it pours. Our web server at Grace has been “compromised” meaning that someone illegally accessed it and has been using it for malicious purposes. Think of it as getting a nasty virus on your computer that you just can’t get rid of.

We’ve been pretty lucky over the past few months to have the server running fairly stable… until this past week. Which brings me to today.

I came home early yesterday because I wasn’t feeling well and was planning on doing some work from home, until I saw that my internet wasn’t working. So I called Bright House and they told me that they would get someone out there by Sunday. Not a huge deal, I thought… I’d just go over to my Dad’s house and use his internet connection. WELL, we had some pretty strong storms pass through on Friday night which knocked out my Dad’s cable connection… NICE.

So now I feel an insurmountable pressure to move the site off of the infected server and onto a backup server. This requires some work, which isn’t too hard, but it’s something I haven’t had to do before. So where do I find internet? Not at work, because the network is too slow… across the parking lot at Tim’s. I’m hoping to get a lot of my work done in a couple of hours and then finish up tomorrow.

Overall, I have been stressed and trying my hardest to relax (which is what I was TRYING to do this weekend before heading back to work on Monday). But instead, I’m working.

I’m very thankful for the job I have, for my apartment, the people I work with, my friends and my family. I just hope that the rest of the summer can be somewhat of an enjoyment… let’s pray that happens before I lose my mind.

Tags: life, networking issues, web development

Busy week!

Wow! It’s been a while since I’ve done a real genuine post! My apologies for that, it’s been kind of busy.

I want to first off say that I LOVE living by myself (for the time-being at least). It is so nice to clean and not worry about someone else dirtying the place up! I’ve fallen into a pretty good routine here, my favorite thing is waking up on Sunday morning, making a real breakfast (no cereal), and reading the New York Times (which is SO much better than the fishwrap we call The Indianapolis Star). Breakfast goes quickly, but reading the paper usually takes me the whole day because my eyes get tired, so I’ll read for a bit and then come back to it. I was talking to my mom today and it turns out my GrandDad does the same thing. Ha!

I had the pleasure of driving up to Taylor University on Friday for the Baccalaureate Service which was honoring my church’s pastor with an honorary doctorate in ministry (I believe). It was really cool to see Taylor, which my college pastor David raves about. As cool as the school seems, I’m afraid that I can’t afford the $31,000/yr it costs to go there… so there goes that dream! After the ceremony we stopped by the famous Ivanhoes for some ice cream… it was good.

It’s also been a finally strapping week for me, having spent almost $1000 on car repairs which I had put off. But you know? You can only put off something for so long before it starts to get on your nerves. So I had new wheel bearings, brakes, rotors, and tires put on my car. It runs pretty good now, I just need to replace the engine belt and put new speakers in the back (yes, speakers are a priority).

I was also blessed to celebrate the wedding of my two good friends, Brian and Jaci. I get fairly skeptical about newlyweds… fearing that some rush into it or aren’t ready. But these two, I believe, are ready. Yes, there will be some learning curves… but just knowing the both of them, I can say that they are pretty awesome and I love them.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m ready for school to be done with so I can see all of my friends who are coming home and will also enjoy some road trips this summer now that my car is fixed!

Tags: college, Ivanhoes, life, weddings

Changes, they are a comin…

It’s been a long day, so I’ve decided to have dinner at Paradise Bakery & Café here in Clay Terrace. It is always good, has a good staff, and a nice atmosphere. So, since they are paying for my Wi-Fi connection, I figured I’d give them a shout out… now to the post!

Change is a hard thing, especially for a person like me. And the worst part is that change has been my constant companion for the past six months. Let me share with you the changes in my life:

• Left job at Marsh to pursue summer internship at Grace
• Was able to overcome anxiety issues and finally did some traveling this summer
• Grandfather passed away from complications with muscular dystrophy and pneumonia
• Returned to Marsh after internship to a very different work environment
• Was hired back at Grace, my first full-time job
• Returned to school, now going to school full-time and working full-time
• My dog of over 17 years was put to sleep
• Mutually decided to end my relationship with my girlfriend of two years

For a guy that’s not big on change, that has been a lot for me to swallow. There have been triumphs in the past six months and there have been dissappointments. I tend to measure myself in different ways, for example, “once I get married and have a family, things will start to ‘normalize.’” I have come to the realization that God is always working in our lives.

In my Homiletics class today we listened to part of a sermon preached by Jeffery Johnson of Easter Star Church. He used an illustration talking about how he loved it when his mother made cake. He would deliberately hang around the kitchen just so he could get a lick of the leftover batter that his mom left for him. But as good as the batter was, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on cake. So he would wait by the oven, calling his mom over, “momma! The cake is done!” His mom would come over, put a toothpick in the cake and say, “nope, there’s still batter on that toothpick, the cake isn’t done yet.” To which Jeffery would respond, “but it looks done on the outside!”

The point is this, we’re always trying to find a point where we can say “I’ve made it” or “God’s finally done working in me.” But we soon come to realize that we’re not perfect and that God still has to show us that there is still work to be done on the inside.

Change is hard and is something we’re often not prepared for it. How we react to change will affect how we shape our lives. I have a book by Mister Fred Rogers that talks about us as human beings. It says something like this, “you bring everything you were and everything you are to the relationships you have today.”

Before I became a Christian I believed that everything happens for a reason. All these changes in my life? I believe that God will use those experiences (both good and bad) to mold me into the person He wants me to become. I just hope that I can see each change in my life as an opportunity to grow for the better.

Tags: changes, life, relationships, work