// newmodernscience

It’s been an interesting week to say the least. So much. But here we go (this is quite a read):

Re-did my website template *again*. Seems that some of the Flash embed scripts weren’t playing nice with Internet Explorer. Getting alot of that lately. Wish IE7 didn’t have so many problems.

Move: It looks like there might be a possibility that i’ll be moving back into my old office in the main church building. Since Tim started, we’ve been working together a lot more. Since he does the production and I do the media, it only makes sense that our paths cross, and we’re starting to do stuff outside of the church in terms of recording and stuff. I’m looking forward to it, actually. My current office gets so stuff and warm, and while I don’t mind being in the same office space as 5 women co-workers, I appreciate having guy interaction to balance things out. Plus, normally I just close my office door and work alone anyway. I kind of like the isolation, actually.

Also, it seems that i’m heading up a major operation at the church: redoing the church logo. Sometimes I have to sit back and laugh when I think about where God has put me and what He’s got me doing. I took a little bit of art in high school, but I can’t draw worth a dang. I’ve sort of classified myself as a second hand artist; that is, I wouldn’t classify myself as an artist in the strict sense of pure creativity that some people have, being able to write songs, or make paintings from scratch. Rather, I rely on elements that are already there, and arrange them in a fashion that inspires me. The same goes for music. I haven’t been able to write a single solid song, but I think I’m rather good at arranging other peoples stuff. Anyway, I sure do a lot of web, screen and print work for someone who doesn’t have a particularly strong background in it. Case in point, I’ve painted myself into this new task of facilitating a new logo/identity package for the church. This is what I’d consider a particularly important job, because the logo can speak volumes for an entity, and how that logo is used, and how the idea of branding is approached holds true for any institution, including the church. It needs to be strong, but not too corporate; it needs to be easily identifiable amid swarms of text and media layouts. Think of the Nike “Swoosh”. You just know it’s Nike. And that’s what I want to bring to this project, a logo with a personality all it’s own that will stand out, and that the people of Salem will easily associate with Morning Star Community Church. Anyway, it might be quite an adventure. I’ll basically have supreme executive power to make the final choice of logo/identity package, surpassing the senior pastor and executive staff. Not quite sure how I feel about it yet.

Speaking of Nike, I’ve started RUNNING. GAH! This has a more than passing relation to the news that I don’t have to have my little tumor removed. Yay! So, I went to the vascular specialist at Oregon Heath and Sciences University, and he felt that it didn’t feel like a vascular tumor, despite the amount of blood support it was getting. He’s pretty sure that it’s a regular fatty tumor and that I can keep it or remove it as I see fit. I’ve decided to go ahead and keep it for the time being, because I’ve been trying to start getting into this fitness routine since January and I’m just impatient to start. And after that dog fiasco a couple of weeks ago, I figure that running flat out for 10 minutes in bare feet was enough proof to me that it wasn’t going to be a problem. So, I went down to Gallagher Fitness and they fitted me with a nice arch supporting pair of Brooks, some good running socks, pants and shirt. I was really wanting to hold out for a pair of Nike Pegasus or Airmax, because I was particularly keen on getting a Nike+iPod kit. For those of you who don’t know, the Nike+iPod kit is an accelerometer and RFID receiver kit that you use in conjunction with an iPod Nano to track your running metrics. After you set it up, you insert the accelerometer in to the Nike shoe, connect the receiver, fire up the iPod, give it a few parameters and then do your run. It’ll track your averages, pace, distance, time, even how many calories you’ve burned if you’re brave enough to put in how much you weigh. And THEN the best part, is that once you sync it up with iTunes, it’ll upload your metrics up to the Nike+ website profile that you’ve set up, where you can generate graphs, customize your runs, and see your performance changes over time, which to me, is really inspiring. Makes me want to run all the more. So, the only problem is that I don’t have Nike shoes. Thanks to a little Googling, I discovered some “Shoe Hacking” tips to help me out. See, the Nike+ compatible shoes have this space carved out under the insole of the shoe that is specifically shaped for the Nike+ accelerometer. So, barring hacking out a space in a third party shoe, what to do? Well, there have been several options, some of them involve Velcro and adhesives, and some of them are perfectly reasonable retail solutions. The one I found that works the best for me, is a little neoprene USB drive sleeve. I just lace up one end of it in the shoe, put in the Nike+ and then pull the other half down all nicely Velcro’d and secure, and it works perfectly. Tomorrow I’m going to Downtown Fitness to sign up for some training to go with my free membership (through the church) and start doing some weights maybe.