If you were a regular reader of this blog, I bet you're feeling pretty disconnected from my life by now. I mean, after all, you did get to read about every day of my life for over a year. And then I suddenly stopped. And I haven't "blogged" in a while. I refuse to be one of those writers though that apologizes for not writing. This is my blog. I'll write when I want to, and not write when I don't want to. It's as simple as that.

I've written before about why I chose to stop, but the bottom line was that it was just too much stress in my life to keep that kind of commitment--to write every day at the end of the day about what I was up to. That and I was pretty sure that out of my 1200 readers (ok, I may have made that number up), only 2 people were actually reading every entry. Me being one of them. My mom was the other. Probably. Ok, maybe not. But still.

So, what's new in my life in the last month and a half? I would say "not a whole lot", but you know me better than that. Assuming that you've been reading this blog for any length of time more than "a minute".

I've been spending a lot of time working. You know, that whole 9-to-5 thing. Actually, for me, it's 1o-to-7 or sometimes 6-to-1... with breaks... and whatnot... hey, I get my work done. I just don't have a traditional schedule every day of the week since I work on Sundays and late other nights of the week.

One thing that has been real enjoyable at work lately is my new workstation. For a long time, I've had PC computers running Windows XP and Vista that, for the lack of more appropriate words, just weren't great. They were good computers, but not good for what I needed to do.

Several months ago, I started putting plans together to budget and ask for a new workstation--a Mac. I was tired of having a computer with only 2 or 3GB of memory that just couldn't render what I needed it to without failing. So, I put plans together to order a new Mac Pro desktop with 16GB of memory, more hard drive space, faster processors, and a larger monitor. I proposed the plan to Art (Southside's executive pastor), he approved it, and I ordered it.

It has been so nice to use these past few weeks. I can render things that used to take 45 minutes on my PC in under 2 minutes on the new workstation. That's a huge time-saver. And it doesn't crash all the time. Plus it just looks pretty sweet on my desk. I still have my PC workstation for "office stuff" and image work, secondary projects, etc. so I have them both side-by-side on my desk.


In my non-work time, I've been hanging out with my girlfriend Rachelle. She is great. That's an understatement. She is such a blessing in my life. We met through the community group at my church, although sometimes I just tell people that she saw me from a distance working in the tech booth and thought I was "super hot". I mean, who's to say that isn't also true.

Anyway. We spent a lot of time "hanging out" (whatever that means to people these days) in May and I asked her to "be my girlfriend" on June 4th at 1:14pm (if you were curious). It took me a long time to build up the courage to do that because I had never done that before. I spent 25 years of my life without ever dating anyone or having anyone special in my life like her.

Since then, we've been spending so much time together and it has been great getting to know her more and more. Here's a picture of us when we went to see the movie, "Up", in 3D. I highly recommend the movie by the way. Maybe not in 3D if you have vision like me and can't see 3D things because your eyes don't work together. But the movie is still great.


On June 26, I surprised Rachelle and took her to a Beach Boys concert. We both love the musical stylings of the Beach Boys. It was a lot of fun. We had great seats... I kept joking that we were sitting so close to the stage that we could smell their wrinkle cream. They had some new people playing in the band to help fill in the sound... I thought their electric guitar player looked a little like a young Randy Travis... but maybe it was just me.


Rachelle and I met her friends (well, now I can say "our friends") Matt and Crystal for dinner on Monday, June 30. It was a good time and we all ended up going to downtown Greenville for some ice cream. As we were standing outside The Marble Slab, a couple came walking down the street holding the cutest little puppy. They were giving it away, and after a few minutes of deliberation, Rachelle decided to adopt the dog, who was immediately dubbed "Carl".

Of course, if you've seen the movie "Up", you may get the reference of the name Carl to the character in that film. Carl is so cute.


Helping to take care of Carl was a learning and growing experience for me. People say that puppy care is kind of like baby care. All I can say is, if kids also make sounds like dying turkeys at night, well, maybe I am going to have to re-consider being a dad. That's all I'm saying. Just kidding.

After owning Carl for about a month, on July 29, Rachelle decided that she couldn't keep him. Taking care of a puppy is a lot of work. It takes a lot of time and attention, and neither of us could give that to Carl. So, we listed him on the local Greenville Craigslist to give him away. People told us that doing that was sketchy... but you know what else is sketchy? A pencil artist struggling for ideas. That's all I'm saying. 17 hours later, we had found a new home for Carl where he will have a big yard and be happy and run around with people who have lots of time to play with him. Unlike us, where he was in his crate a lot because Rachelle and I both lead very busy lives.

Anyway. Backtracking a little bit. July was a lot of fun. Of course, I spent a lot of the time working. I love my job. It's so much fun. I was able to produce a few videos and spend a lot of time continuing to configure my new workstation. I have a great setup now. On the one hand, it's been kind of boring this summer not producing a ton of videos, but on the other hand, it's been nice to have the slow time to allow me to finish up some other projects and try out new ideas.

Andrew (you may remember his blog, Clarity) quit being my assistant at the end of June. That was a sad time. Well, not really. He's still around. He's just not my assistant anymore. He had to quit working so he could focus on his nursing classes and whatnot. So, now we're sort of back to the whole "just Joe" thing. It works, for the most part, but I sometimes struggle to get it all done.

One project I have been focusing on since Andrew left has been to "re-claim" my office as my creative space. I've shared my office with an intern/assistant for the past 2 years. It's been fun, but I'm ready to have it be "my" office again. You know, where the organization can be to my standards. Where the cleanliness can be to my standards. Where the layout can be what is best suited for me.

I started by moving some of my desk stuff around and moving it up closer to the door, etc. This gives me more room for my computers and monitors (now that I have more on the desk) and allows me to have more room for my desk chair. My next step is to move the other desk out (that the assistant's computer is on) and turn the front half of my office into a creative space with some nice chairs. The only problem is I don't really think I am allowed to spend money on stuff like that so maybe I will buy my own nice plush cushy chairs or something.

Anyway. Let's see. What else happened in July. I had a fun time at my parents' house on July 3rd celebrating July 4th. We all had dinner and played some games and just relaxed. On July 4th, Rachelle and I went up to Hendersonville, NC and watched some fireworks at her friend's parents' place. There were a lot of people there and it was a lot of fun.

On July 9th, Rachelle and I decided to be kind of spontaneous and get haircuts. I know, right? Me. Spontaneous. Actually, I really wanted and needed a haircut. I had been cutting my own hair for 3 years, and, as it turned out, people were just being people and not being honest when they thought it looked good. It actually looked bad. Thanks guys. Just kidding. But I messed it up really bad back in April when I cut it. So, I let it grow. And grow. And grow. You know, so that when I did get a haircut, the mistakes could be fixed easier. Or something. I don't know. Just look at the picture and comment on how great I look.


A lot of other stuff happened but I'm sure you're bored with reading by now. Giving "the highlights" is harder for me than just writing about every single day. Which I could still do, by the way. My mind has an amazingly active memory. Don't ask me to start calculating prime numbers or anything like that though. It doesn't work that way.

Later,

Joe