Ansible-One

Last September we switched churches. We loved our old church home, but we wanted more for Ethan than what the family there could provide. We moved to a church that is much larger. In fact nearly 10x larger by my estimate.
Well this provides some benefits for me as well. For example, I was able to join the men’s group in January on a short mission trip to Pine Cove camp in East Texas. There we worked on several construction and renovation projects to help prepare and enhance the camp for the next season. Plus it provided a good chance for me to meet several of the men in the church.

This weekend I am heading off into the woods again with the men’s group, but this time its more of a real “camping” experience. Before you start giggling like my wife did, realize that I HAVE been camping before, and I do like it. It just doesn’t happen very often. In fact the last time was several years ago when my brother returned from assignment.

To prepare, I needed gear. I had several needed items already so I had to take stock first. Sleeping bag, check. Flash light, check. Call to Dad to grab a couple of things, done. Basically, I only had two major purchases to make to be ready. A large backpack (as we are hiking to the site) and a tent. The pack was a no brainer for me. Cheapest, biggest, and as light as possible. I found a brand new one on eBay for $30. It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of an expensive pack but it’s a LOT better than something from Wal-Mart and a LOT cheaper than anything at REI.

For the tent, I knew I had to spend quite a bit more time researching. I dug through reviews, shopping sites, and forums. My requirements were simple. Long enough to fit my height, light enough to not mind carrying, and cheap. I know you can spend hundreds on tents, but I needed a tent for a virtual first timer. I have been camping, so I know a thing or two about what is needed, but I have always used someone else’s tent…and they have been really nice. I decided to go cheap since it was my first, and it only had to survive a single night. Anyway, if you want to ready my review of the tent, check it out here…

http://www.amazon.com/review/RUWS5PBO9LV3E/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

It’s kind of funny though how sometimes we find ourselves preparing for something like this little camp excursion by spending so much time, money, brainpower, and then spend so little time preparing for the Kingdom. I am hoping this little trip will help me take stock of my own life reset my focus on Jesus.

Merry Christmas everyone!  Remember that despite the agony of sorting out the day itself, its the reason we remember the day that is important.  Thank you God for giving us your Son.

Greeting all,

I have completed the enhancements and updates of the site.  Now running the latest WordPress and added a couple new widgets to list recent comments and a cool new plugin that allows me to post a static text in the side bar.

So check it out, let me know what you think.  If you would like help setting up your own blog let me know and we can get something going.

Hi all, just a quick note.  Ansible-One has finished the majority of its new design work.  I picked out a new theme and updated some of the code to fix a couple bugs.  Some of the cool features from before are still here like the Cloud widget on the right.  It is now nicely integrated into the style.

So let me know what you think.  I will probably tweak the background a bit more but for the most part its done.  Woohoo!