Anthony called me up yesterday while I was at work to tell me that he saw a picture of me U.S. News and World Report’s recent issue about top American colleges. The picture used was one taken by the school’s photographer when he was shooting for the brochure I mentioned in my post yesterday. My coworker, Jon suggested I write something “as featured in U.S. News and World Report” somewhere on my resume.

Anyway … the reason I used a botched up version of the title of the magazine for my blog post title was because I couldn’t get the name straight every time I referenced the magazine yesterday.

So my big, self-initiated project at work today has been to work on a new site for MUCAO – the Milwaukee United Campus Activities Organization, of which MSOE is a part.

Aside from that, I don’t have much to say. I miss Lydia and wish she’d come back to MSOE before I die of loneliness. That sounds pretty pathetic … I’m actually doing all right, but I am learning that I definately prefer talking to her in person than over the phone and on IM.

Since making my post about Crosschannel.de Christliches Webradio probably a month ago now, I’ve been able to listen and compare it to J-Star Radio. Crosschannel.de seems to have a feel like that of any popular secular American radio station (if that makes sense), but I think I prefer the music J-Star plays to that of Crosschannel.de. Crosschannel.de has somewhat of a decent variety of music but in general seems to play a lot of pop. J-Star, too, has a decent variety of music that isn’t any less popular or outdated, less of which is Pop.

My school featured me recently in a mailing to high school students interested in computer-related fields. In my interview for the brochure, I made the comment that “MSOE is the perfect college for messing around with computers” and that quote got placed on the front of the flyer. See me in the corresponding landing page on MSOE’s site.

As part of their recent efforts to clean up search results, Google seems to have removed several of my pages and blog posts from their database. Granted, I can understand that I probably shouldn’t be getting hits when people are searching for Relient K‘s song Be My Escape under keywords having to deal with “the beauty of grace,” but I don’t write entries in my blog for them to end as a string of bytes in a MySQL database somewhere in Chicago. I was even more upset to find that I am no longer on the top of Google’s search results for the exact phrase search “Antic Disposition,” among other several other key phrases related to essays I wrote in high school. I wrote this particular essay on Hamlet’s Antic Disposition back in high school and did very well on it. The reason I’ve bothered to put the effort into sticking my essays online is in the hope that someone will find what I have written useful to their own writing, studying, or hobbies. Additionally, I often wove the Gospel into my essays and they served as a medium through God’s Word goes out into the world.

Interestingly, I’m still second in Google’s result set for an AND search on “German Christian Radio,” first for the term BlogSCL2 (and I didn’t even write it), and fifth for an AND search on “computer repair spyware removal flyer.” I suppose if Google had to pick something to remove from their database, that which they selected mattered to me the least.

I’ve finished installing Stan‘s recently released BlogSCL2 on my site. The “Simple” template that integrates into my web site still needs some configuring to make it appear as the old one did, but I should otherwise be all set. This new version’s got a lot of new features, see Stan’s site for details.

When seeing the title of my last post, “Dates and Times,” this morning, I was reminded of what Jesus said about the day and hour of his return and the events surrounding it:

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

45 “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 47 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, 51 and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Matthew 24:36-51 NKJV

While looking at how different blog systems handle dates and times in order to help Stan figure out the best way to deal with different timezones in BlogSCL, I checked out Eric Evenson‘s blog, knowing that he’s been posting from China and dates and times of his posts are showing up in his local timezone. While there, I noticed (once again) that he’s been reading my blog. But, I don’t think I’ve posted since he last read it, so he didn’t really have anything new to read. So, for his sake and for the sake of all my other avid readers, I’m making a brief post before going to bed.

Eight months ago today, I asked Lydia to date me. It’s funny how time flies so quickly – it doesn’t feel anything like we’ve been dating that long. I don’t understand how so many couples can date for a month or two and forget it.

We went out with a guy from school – Ken – and his fiancee this evening and got to hear their story of how they met, came to be in a relationship together, and so forth. I’m continually finding that as much as I feel like I want to marry Lydia someday, it’s still too early to get engaged. My practical side continually tells me that I’m not ready to support another person, let alone myself, at this point in time. I’ve still got to finish school, find a job, know that my desires for the future coincide with Lydia’s, and so forth, before I can even realistically consider the possibility of that next big step in our relationship. I’m content with being her boyfriend right now. That’s plenty for me to handle.

Speaking of having plenty to handle, it’s getting pretty late and I should get to bed so I can think clearly at work tomorrow. Lydia is going home with me this weekend (Stan – if you’re in West Chicago any time, let me know), so that should be nice. The last two times she went home with me, we painted my kitchen and stripped and stained the cabinets. I’m looking forward to a more relaxation this weekend.

(That means CrossChannel.de Christian Webradio)

I found another German Christian Radio station on line this evening. This place – CrossChannel – seems to have a greater variety of music than J-Star Radio does. They actually break down their programming into different shows, as opposed to one big show. From the first 45 minutes of CrossChannel I’ve heard thus far, though, I think I prefer J-Star. But, that’s bound to change. Now they’re playing Tree63‘s recording of Blessed be Your Name and my guess is that they play a wider variety of music than J-Star. I’ll have to listen to it some more and find out.

I ate at Fazoli’s for the first time this evening after going to Sam’s Club to get my tires rotated, Great Clips to get a haircut, and Target to pick up some mouthwash and floss. I went with a simple dish and tried their build your own pasta with hearty meat-topped spaghetti and a Cherry Coke. It all went down pretty well and I was impressed with the unlimited refills on the bread sticks. At the same time, though, I found the strong garlic flavor a bit overwhelming. I’d eat there again, though … they had some other options that sounded decent.