The Hollow Man

R.E.M’s new album Accelerate has a track (04) titled Hollow Man. Listening to the whole album now.

Posted by The Hollow Man on Sunday Mar 16, 2008 at 11:03 AM in The Hollow Man |
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Background info:
I’ve been living overseas for 10+ years in South Korea and recently made a decision to repatriate three years from now. One thing i need to do is get myself a new career to be able to generate income once I move back to Canada.

For the last 3 years I’ve really enjoyed hacking away at my sites and helping friends and colleagues start blogs or moodle sites. However, despite what my friends think, I am really a hack who only knows enough to be dangerous. The thing is i really enjoy working on web sites and would like to transition into web design full time.

Clearly I’ll need to build a portfolio of sites. I’m willing to put the time into that. More importantly however is developing my skill set and qualifications. I recently ordered CSS Mastery and will be going through that as soon as the book arrives. What I would like to do is take some courses to get a focused approach to improving my skills. Ideally these courses would be offered online and be a recognized qualification in the industry when looking for work (assuming I don’t start my own design company).

Does anyone have suggestions for me? courses, books, approach to learning, personal anecdotes and/or professional advice would all be greatly appreciated. Additionally prayers for me and my family as we prepare for the move to Canada and a complete culture change.

Posted by The Hollow Man on Tuesday Aug 28, 2007 at 09:50 PM in Prayer | The Hollow Man |
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Taking care of my children for extended periods of time alone (more than 2-3 hours) is always difficult for me. I’m not sure what to do with kids and also I find their needs to be incredibly distracting from my own personal interests. Maybe I’m selfish, maybe I’m not. What I know is that this is the way I am despite having tried to change.

This week my daughters kindergarten is closed all week and my sons daycare is closed Wednesday through Friday. So far things have gone much better than expected. I had a good time with my daughter alone on Monday and Tuesday. On top of her enjoying herself and getting out of our apartment complex with just daddy I even managed to find some time for myself.

Today is the first day with both kids all day and it’s going much easier than expected. After the rain stopped in the morning we took a long walk to the local Krispy Kreme for some donuts. My daughter usually wants to go to Dunkin Donuts but there’s no seats on the first floor and with a stroller it wasn’t feasable so we took the longer walk. Anyhow that went really well. the only difficult part was the hike up the hill to get home with the stroller and a somewhat fatigued 5 year old.

After we got home The Hollow Son took a long nap and The Hollow Daughter entertained herself while I read a book. Overall good stuff. The afternoon has been much easier than expected as well with little whining or fighting. God is definitely watching over me this week and helping me deal with the stress that I usually feel when alone with kids.

Posted by The Hollow Man on Wednesday Aug 1, 2007 at 03:27 PM in Family | The Hollow Daughter | The Hollow Man | Praise | Prayer |
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This morning I had coffee with my pastor for two and a half hours. It’s been a long time since we had a one on one meeting and it was great to sit and talk. We talked about a number of things, but the main thing that came out of this meeting is that I will likely be responsible for re-designing the church web site.  This is a major project for me as I am really only an amateur at web design, but still it’s going to be a great challenge for me.

The good thing here is that I haven’t really contributed to the church in a long time other than to be a seat warmer. Now I’ll be giving to the church and at the same time improving my skills in a hobby that I enjoy doing. Clearly The Lord is at work here. Talking with the Pastor I found out that there is no firm deadline so I will be able to work at my own pace. Important because I have two small children and a full time job that take up loads of my time as well.

The good thing here is that we have a functional web site that will continue to work while I am designing on a development site. I’ll be able to incorporate all the features we currently have and some additional new features that will hopefully improve the site for both visitors as well as back end users. The best part will be that everything will end up being fully integrated using the same web software that I am using to run this blog, Expression Engine.

Posted by The Hollow Man on Friday Jul 27, 2007 at 01:55 PM in The Church | The Hollow Man |
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I’m still around. I’m almost finished teaching my summer intensive class and should be done the grading by Thursday at noon. After that regular blogging will resume. Yesterday I took some fun time and upgraded the software running this blog, Expression Engine, to 1.6 and installed a new 3rd party module - social bookmarks.

Posted by The Hollow Man on Tuesday Jul 17, 2007 at 10:50 AM in This Blog |
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I’ve been slipping the past few days. I haven’t read the bible in at least four days probably six. I’ve been busy, but that’s just an excuse. Today is Sunday and in about an hour I’ll be heading to church so before I go, I will read the bible and pray. I need to be more vigilant with regards to my time to commune with Christ. 

Posted by The Hollow Man on Sunday Jun 24, 2007 at 01:27 PM in Prayer |
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THis is a good verse for me to remember. I often have trouble with my daughter and need more patience to be better able to guide and raise her properly. It is difficult for me since I feel weak and lacking in knowledge to be able to do this properly.

Ephesians 6:4
Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Posted by The Hollow Man on Wednesday Jun 20, 2007 at 02:21 PM in Prayer |
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