I’m looking forward to getting paid for them—it sounds like it might take 60 days (need to try to re-negotiate with the client on that one; I don’t remember talking about payment times, but I was expecting 30 days.) The upside is that, if I wait 60 days, I can afford my MacBook without having to worry about deductions to give me enough money. The downside, of course, is that I have to wait 60 days for the computer. Ah well.

We’re still working on the whole process—the company I’m contracting through doesn’t have a lot of experience with web design. There’s a few kinks to work out, but I’m optimistic. And I do like the work. Most of the time. And the money—but I like that all of the time.

Work

Work is busy. Really busy. We’re moving to new software package to manage pretty much everything at work. That wouldn’t normally be a huge deal for me, since I don’t work with donors or accounting or missionaries. But…

There’s a ton of stuff that will go on the web. So I’m in—we’re redoing the missionary portal to give them easier access to all of their data. It’s a big project. Other big work projects: website realignment, two ministry websites, a very-custom blog (though that actually just launched (still have some tweaking to do), and some other stuff I can’t remember right now.

Side Job

I don’t just do web stuff at work—I also do freelance web design. Right now, I’m mostly contracting with Asta’s employer. We launched a site late last month—some good pro bono work. (note to self: put together a portfolio area of the site.) I’ve also done a couple of small projects for them, updating various files and such, and we’re pretty close on two more sites.

I’m also redoing our church’s site—linked is the current site. It’ll be going away, soon, hopefully. The church has a new logo and has some cool collateral, so it’d be nice to unify a bit. Plus, the new site will be a ton easier to update. It’s functionally there; we’re working on content right now.

The rest of life: biking

I got a 2007 Trek 3700 mountain bike earlier this summer and have been riding it all over the place. We’re close to a bunch of trails, and I think I remember reading that Minneapolis has been ranked one of the best urban mountain biking areas in the country. There’s a really good community online (and on the trails, too.) Plus, we moved closer to work at the beginning of the summer—I’m 2.5 miles from the office now—so I ride my bike in as often as possible. The weather’s not been cooperating lately for mountain biking, but when it does, it’s great.

In conclusion

So maybe I’ll keep updating the site—hopefully so, but my life is pretty boring. Let me know if there’s something you want to hear about.

Here's another shot of the high school.

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This is the high school I went to. It's a wicked-awesome building. The mines paid for it in the twenties, in exchange for moving the whole town of Hibbing (including my parents' house).

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I really liked the way this power plant looked. It's not quite as cool as I'd hoped, but it's close. Maybe next time I'm up in Hibbing, I'll try again.

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This is a fountain in Hibbing. Every year, someone dumps soap into it and it breaks. Ah well; it looks good when it's running. They shut it off in the winter but do some nice decorating. Maybe this winter I'll get some pictures up there.

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I like this building, but I don't like the fact that the City of Hibbing can't match their lights. The one on the left (which is actually off in this picture) is a completely different color temperature than the one on the left. In any case, there's also only one working spotlight, which made the right side of the building a lot brighter than the left. Ah well.

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This Statue of Liberty stands in the Hibbing City Hall lawn. It's actually a really nice building and grounds. Asta took this picture.

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This was kind of a mistake. My cable release (a device attached to the camera so you don't have to press the shutter button and shake it) was acting all wigged out. I can't say I was terribly surprised, since I made it, but still... Anyway, the cable release kept taking pictures when I didn't want it to. In this picture, I tilted the camera on the tripod from a vertical to a horizontal position. You can see things in an arc if you look closely.

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This is a door in the back of the Androy. I kinda dug it, so I took a picture.

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This was once "Hibbing's Finest Supper Club." You can tell because the sign says so. Seriously, though, the building is way sweet. I know it's still used for something, but I don't have any idea what. The whole building's pretty cool from the outside, but I didn't get a good angle on it.

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This restaurant is near my parents' place. They wanted a night photo of it, so I took one.

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Some friends visited my parents' place on their bikes while we were up there. I really liked the way the shadows looked on the wet sidewalk.

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