I hesitate to update this blog more regularly because I worry about writing about mundane subjects. While I enjoy my work, and my responsibilities are increasing, I imagine reading about these changes is far less interesting than experiencing them. While I have fruits to show for my labor (check out the cover to the September Iran issue from The Voice of the Martyrs), my day-to-day workload isn’t interesting enough to share about here.

After my family kindly lugged down all my stuff from Michigan to Oklahoma, and I spent days setting it all up in the house, my family ended up reading a portion of Ephesians that really changed my outlook on my material goods. The portion is the following:

The concept of being an example of Christ wasn’t new to me, nor was the idea that Christians were “temples” of God. The way this passage was written gave me a slightly different perspective, but one that was different enough to get my attention.

This passage really hit me, because I knew I was becoming far too focused on buying silly material goods instead of focusing on more important things. I saw that how I was presenting myself to the passerby might not be what would be the most Christ-like. Someone asked me once if I framed my life around movies, since I often talked about them. While the comment was intended as a humorous joke, and my discussion about movies was due to a lack of other available topics, it got me thinking about my priorities.

For years I have been troubled about my interest in science fiction in particular, because of its frequent insistence that God doesn’t exist. There are many instances in episodes of Star Trek where the story and characters seek to disprove the existence of God, not including the aliens featured in nearly every episode. In the past I’ve wondered how I could allow myself to become so engaged in the lore and world of science fiction series when the entire existence of the series is regularly hinged upon the lack of any kind of deity, nevermind God.

As I mentioned, this doubt isn’t new to me: for years now I’ve felt it nagging me in the back of my head, but it wasn’t until this passage that I made a decision.

I’ve sold off some of my movies, some of my video games, and am preparing to sell a lot of my books. I really wish I had come across this passage earlier, since it would have spared my family all the trouble of bringing this stuff down to me. I hope to repay them somehow for their kindness, because I feel terrible for causing this sort of trouble.

I am still saving up for a trip to South Korea, although that process is moving slower than I hoped. I am excited to see how much I’ll save now that I’ve rethought my position on entertainment, since I fear I spent far too much on small purchases like DVDs just for the sake of being able to buy something. Perhaps someday soon I’ll be able to buy some lenses for my camera that I’ve wanted to purchase for over a year.

In another fashion of keeping this temple of God in proper condition, I’ve been working out with a personal trainer for the past couple of weeks. I won a contest at a local bank, where I won ten free sessions with a personal trainer who lives in the neighborhood (this event and my photo were featured in the local newspaper, too). After about two weeks of exercise, I feel stronger and everything feels tighter. I’m excited to see the attitude of treating exercise as less of a burden and more of a daily routine starting to take hold, and I hope that attitude continues beyond the ten free sessions.

Today’s Image is the rear entrance to a local business in Bartlesville. I treated it with various layer effects to bring out the intended emotion I saw when I snapped the photo. I’ve been having interesting talks with an coworker at The Voice of the Martyrs over what constitutes “reality” these days. While photo editing has been done for as long as photography has existed, image editors like Adobe® Photoshop® (cough) allow for editing to be done to a greater degree.

Considering simply choosing a different type of film in the past, or choosing a particular sensor in the present can change the look of a photo, it would seem to me that there is a considerable uncertainty on what is “real” in photography. There are obvious realism-breaking tools that one can use, but even a sharpening filter can make drastic changes to a photo. There doesn’t seem to be a line that can be drawn, outside of using in-camera settings only. However, choosing to use in-camera settings only does limit what can be done with a photo, especially when post-processing effects like dodging and burning have been performed on film pictures for decades.

My personal stance is that as long as the facts of a photo remain intact, editing a photo to evoke a mood is acceptable for most applications. Outside of the purely editorial, wherein only extremely basic editing may be done for the sake of clarifying the object(s) in the picture, I don’t see much reason to hesitate to use any and every tool available. Even so, if one wishes to get truly nitpicky, even those kinds of photos aren’t truly “reality”.

I was given the offer to visit an apartment to see if I would like to begin renting later this month. I am excited to have the potential of getting my own residence. Having a roommate was a great learning experience for me, but I am also excited to having a place of my own.

I visited it earlier today, and it is in good condition considering the low price I was offered for the monthly rent. I think it makes for a good first “home”. It’s near the office and on the “good” side of the city. I doesn’t have any furniture, but I’m excited (and nervous) to be able to pick out my own.

Work continues to stress me out from time to time, but I am slowly becoming more confident in my skills at the job. My responsibilities continue to grow, which in part hinders my confidence, but I also appreciate that I am being trusted with the additional workload. I assume that means I am showing progress.

On Memorial Day, instead of stuffing myself with various grilled meats, I took a drive around Bartlesville, taking various pictures. These photos look to be useful for me for the next five or more updates, so I think it was a profitable exercise. I enjoyed the time I spent, even when I got semi-lost in the “bad” part of the city.

The car I was given continues to be a blessing. I had to do a little repair on the car, but it was only a leaky coolant hose. I was proud of myself for fixing it alone, even if it was such an easy repair. I hope further repairs won’t be necessary for some time.

The photo for today is obvious: it is a dirt road about five miles from my current apartment. It is startling to me how out in the country I truly am: whether it’s the literal farmland right across the street from me, or the cattle-focused broadcasts on the radio, I am frequently amazed by the Green Country.

I’ll be sure to put some pictures up here or Flickr when I finally do get a new residence. Considering the possibility of moving by mid-June, I might actually update sooner than I have for the past—well, forever.

There have been some big changes since I last posted here.

Last week, I was approached with a job offer for the Lead Archivist position. The Lead Archivist’s job is to organize and catalog all the media that is used or made by VOM staff. This is a full-time job, and one that will require my permanent residence in Oklahoma. After some prayer, I accepted the job and will begin a two-month training and evaluation period starting tomorrow.

When I was first approached, I raised two concerns I’ve had for some time, should I ever be asked to stay: I didn’t have enough money for a home, and I didn’t have enough money for a car.

VOM has given me permission to remain in the VOM apartments for now, as I save money for an apartment. VOM has also loaned me one of their old company cars, a white 1991 Nissan Maxima (148,000 miles), which they were planning to retire from their fleet, and plan to eventually give me the car after I earn enough money to pay for the insurance and taxes.

I have been reeling from the news for days now, and am still somewhat of a nervous wreck from the new responsibilities. I am very blessed, and thank the Lord for the opportunities I have been given in Oklahoma, and am excited to learn what more will happen for me.

My roommate is set to return to South Korea on May 7. I will miss him dearly, but hope to see him again some day in South Korea. I hope to keep in touch with him. He has become a very close friend, and a great brother in Christ.

I will be traveling on May 4 to St. Louis to watch my first baseball game with a coworker and my roommate. I figure the game will bore me to tears, but the time with friends will make it entertaining and worthwhile.

The next few months will be very busy for me, with only more responsibility adding on to my list as time goes on. I hope to at least keep the same update schedule on this page as I have so far, as horrible of an update schedule as it has been.

Today’s Image is yet another horizon photo, but the sunsets in Oklahoma are too amazing to pass up. The wind may be horrible, and the spiders as big as one’s fist, but the sunsets are awesome.

A project I’ve been working on in February was finally made public recently at http://rw100.persecution.com/. I was assigned the visual element of the project, so I designed the site layout and logo. The site is built using a lot of the code from the default WordPress theme, as I know little about PHP, along with several plugins or bits of code from various WordPress users on the Web.

Here are the “credits” for the site:

• WordPress: The site is powered by WordPress.
• Kubrick ‘Default’ WordPress Theme: The PHP code for the site is based on this theme.
• Reset-Fonts-Grids / Base CSS: Yahoo!’s CSS was helpful making sure all browsers displayed the site in the same manner.
• NCOL CSS: This company designed the Persecution.com site: the footer used on the RW100 site comes from this team.
• Lightbox Slideshow: This was used on the Gallery page for all the images.
• LightWindow: This was used on the Gallery page for the videos.
• IE PNG Fix: Some PNG files were used on the site, and this fixed Internet Explorer 6′s issues with PNG transparency.
• sIFR: This was used on all the header text on the site.
• WordPress Unique Body ID: This gave the navigation the ability to “light up” for the specific page currently being viewed.
• gotoAndLearn(): This was what allowed me to design the Flash timeline on the front page of the RW100 site.
• gotoAndLearn() Forums: The user “James” was a huge help in getting the timeline working in the manner I needed for the site.
• TBDA Brushes: Photoshop brushes.
• QBrushes: Photoshop brushes.
• QBrushes: Photoshop brushes.
• DeviantArt: Photoshop brushes.

As you can see, while I did do some coding, the majority of the work was done through the friendly, far smarter coders who offer their code for use on the Internet. I’m in their debt, as the site would not have been possible without their help.

This project was a big deal for the department where I work, and for me, for various reasons. At the time of this post, an advertisement banner I designed for this Richard Wurmbrand project is up on the front page of Persecution.com, at the top of the right sidebar. That site gets more viewers in one week than I have ever on this site in its entire existence, so having my work displayed there is amazing, awesome, and humbling.

Today’s Image features the Richard Wurmbrand 100 Years logo I designed for the project. I admit the reason for this is because I wanted to make a post about this project on this blog, but didn’t have a photo I thought was good enough to display as a “Today’s Image”. You’re stuck with this desktop wallpaper image instead. It’s okay if you don’t like it.

Anyway, please visit the site [persecution.com] and tell your friends. You can visit Persecution.com now to see the advertisement image, or see the screenshot at Flickr. [flickr.com]

My status in Oklahoma remains the same. I’m still having a good time, and keeping busy. It’s still chilly down here, but nowhere near as harsh as Michigan. The wind is far more intense on a regular day than what would be considered “windy” in Michigan. My roommate is great, and makes me laugh nearly every day. We’ve formed a good friendship, and he’s already started asking me when I’ll visit South Korea to see him after he returns there this spring.

Work continues as normal. While I still feel the trip is challenging me in many aspects of my life, and encouraging me to grow in those areas, I do enjoy having the respite of sameness every once in a while.

I almost made it on to a team of volunteers who would be traveling over to New Orleans to help package up medical supplies, but it fell through because of my bad back. It would have been fun being able to visit a new state, but the twelve hour drive and potentially back-breaking work wouldn’t have been as entertaining.

The project I mentioned in my previous post has been released on the Web [persecution.com]. I used a great script called Lightbox Slideshow [justinbarkhuff.com] for this project.

I’m doing work in Flash now, which is both a great and, at times, frustrating process. Those projects will likely be released some time in January. I’ve got a video editing project that I might be doing next month, which sounds exciting: it too won’t be out until January.

Another project I was asked to help design was the volunteer page [persecution.com] for the company. I didn’t do much: I was given the text and some of the photos, but I did use my fisheye lens to take pictures of my apartment, and made the layout for the text and photos. Lightbox Slideshow was used for this project, too.

Today’s Image is an edited photo of the alley behind the building where I work. I changed many things about the photo, so the alley doesn’t look as depressing to the eye as it does in the photo.

Below are a few more photos that I’ve taken since I got here. Many of them I used for desktop wallpapers in my office, although not in the form I’m presenting here. Enjoy.