Enter the blog

OK, people. My email list is growing so long that emailing everyone every six months is now a major project. And I have enough of those already.

Enter the blog. A place where I can provide updates without emailing a single soul. A place where I can post pictures of places I visit and experience. A place which can accomodate short or long messages at any time I choose. And a place where anyone wondering what is new in my life can get a quick update.

I've never done this before, but this isn't the first time I've tried something new, so lay in a course at maximum warp and engage!

This edition of the news is brought to you by the letters N and Y.

Now for the news. I love my job! It's really great being able to do something that you love. The work is interesting and varied, I am learning so much that school could never teach me, and I get along so well with my work associates that we joke and laugh every day. So my job is good for me all around. New York has a tax structure that I consider oppressive, and the cost of living is higher than average, so we shall see how long I stick around here. There was talk of moving me to the satellite lab in South Carolina, and I was excited about that opportunity, but it appears that the people who make important decisions have decided on another route. On the bright side, my name appears on the company business card under the heading "Failure Analysis." I have my own business card now (a supposed sign of "arrival"), and this week I will be submitting a paper to be published in a professional journal. (There's a VERY funny story connected with that if anyone wants to hear.)

In other news, this is a wonderful area of the country! Upstate New York has so much to offer. I have already been to NYC twice, and the last time I bought a pass to ride the subway. I went to go see a free exhibit in the public library of manuscripts from medieval and renaissance times. That was so the bomb! Later this month I will be going to Connecticutt -- first time ever. I have some other trips in the works. And pictures will be coming soon of my travels.

Finally, I have decided that the time has come for me to embark on a very ambitious project. I have completed three short stories that I am trying to get published, and more are undoubtedly on the way. But it gets even better. Around the coming of the new year, I got this fabulous idea for a great story, but this one cannot be told adequately in the short story form, so I have to notch it up to the novel level. It will require a great deal of research and plain flat-out work to complete, but it seems to be something that I need to do, if for no one but myself. But the contribution that this story has the potential of making in giving hope to other people is almost overwhelming, and it is this idea that is starting to keep me awake at night --- the idea that my talents can be used to make a real difference in the lives of other people.

I am coming to realize a great power in adjusting my focus to that end. Instead of planning what I want out of life and what can make me great, planning to use my talents to help make other people great is more than ennobling; it is empowering. It fills me with life and a desire to take carpe diem to a whole new level. It brings out my best self. It reminds me of the high I got when I was running daily, the feeling of invigoration that would sweep over me after a good 20 minutes on the treadmill.

Life is good. I'd like to hear about yours, but this blog thing is new to me, so I have selected some settings temporarily to see how things go. Only registered users of this blog can make comments, and at present I am the only registered user. I'm not sure what features you will have available, but worst case scenario is you send an email to my junk mail account at idahoalpha@netscape.net and then I reply back to you. Eventually I'll have more of this figured out. In the meantime, whereever you are, may God's choicest blessings attend you all.