Dan McCullum DesignDan McCullum Design

An attempt at philosophical thinking or What I've been doing, and what's around the corner

Sunday, June 08, 2008

Despite the fact that I tend to like writing, I've been finding lately that perhaps blogging isn't my thing. At least, not in the traditional sense. I have neither the time nor the drive to approach it "seriously" at this point in time. I'm going through a time of change in the way that I approach life, the internet, and media. I am considering switching to a more informal style of blogging for the most part (shorter posts about interesting things, probably mostly tech related), with occasional longer posts about various things. All of these changes will be in an attempt to raise the quality of the content on my site, while still fitting into the limited time I have available for it.


So, what's been going on with me lately?

Most of my time lately is taken up with my job. I've been working at a local poultry (chicken eggs, specifically) farm owned by some friends of my family. It's tough work, and often boring, but it's money in my pocket, and it's given me an opportunity to see life from a different angle. I've learned so much about people in general simply by observing my coworkers, and even the chickens.


So, here's the philosophical part. I've been working with the baby birds (one time last week, after I had been catching loose birds in one of the "grower houses", a coworker pointed out that I was getting good practice "picking up chicks") and one day a thought popped into my head. That thought became part of this post.


When we call someone a "chicken" we mean that they are easily frightened. Working with actual chickens has definitely solidified that particular definition for me. But it also has made be think that as humans, we are often like chickens when it comes to God. When I'm walking around the pullet houses (where the chicks are raised, aka "grower houses") trying to catch an escaped bird, it will be trying its hardest to get away. Even though I'm only trying to help it survive by putting it back in its cage, where it will have access to food and water, it still runs from me, screeching loudly in fear. Often the only way to catch an escaped chick is to turn off all the lights in the building and sneak up on the bird in the dark, using short bursts from a flashlight to locate it. As humans we often run away from God, even though he is only trying to give us peace and joy. We shun the life he offers without a second thought. Sometimes, he even has to "turn the lights out" on us to get us to notice him.


Well, that didn't end up being such a poignant anecdote as I had hoped, but...


As some of you may already know, I recently purchased a Nikon D40 DSLR with 18-55mm Nikkor kit lens, and a 55-200mm VR Nikkor lens. I've quickly become addicted to photography, and I rarely go anywhere without my camera bag over my shoulder. You can see the results of my efforts on my flickr.


The secondary monitor (old, beat up 15"? hp CRT) attached to my macbook started smelling like it was burning the other day, and is now completely detached from all external power sources, and awaiting a trip to the dump. Of course, now I really miss that second screen, however, I don't have much money right now, so I'm accepting donations, preferably of the LCD type.


Summer plans

I'm considering doing (yet another) major overhaul of my website with a focus on showcasing the various new things that I am doing online, rather than just focusing on web development. Or perhaps 2 sites, one for a personal site, and one for my web work.


I've got two family trips lined up for the summer. One to Massachusetts on a long weekend sometime in early-mid July for a family reunion, and a second for ~two weeks to Montana in late July/early August to visit some close friends who live out there, and perhaps visit some attractions/national parks within a few hours of their home.


I still have to figure out where to transfer to for the spring semester, after I finish all my gen-eds this coming fall.



On a completely unrelated and unimportant side note, it's unexpectedly difficult to type and use keyboard shortcuts in the dark when your keyboard is black and far enough away from the screen that you can't see anything on it. The difficulty seems mostly to be when I lift my fingers off the keys, then go back to type something. I miss typing on my Macbook keyboard, but the higher position of the screen really helps the ergonomics.

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