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jdavidb (1361)
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http://voiceofjohn.blogspot.com/
J. David Blackstone has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Engineering and nine years of experience at a wireless telecommunications company, where he learned Perl and never looked back. J. David has an advantage in that he works really hard, he has a passion for writing good software, and he knows many of the world's best Perl programmers.
In love
I usually kind of pass through Valentine's Day without thinking about it, but this year something is different: Sarah. I've alluded to her a few times in this journal, but believe me, for the last six months I've been wanting to jump up and shout, "Hey, look! This beautiful lady loves me!" Fortunately I've got enough discretion in me to show some restraint; I've always believed nothing kills a relationship more than publicity. (And a google search popping up my journal finding me talking about her might have been rather awkward back then. She knows about it now, of course.
Sometime last summer, Sarah took a chance and emailed me off of a personals site. Remember the singing school I went to last year? I was posting about how much I enjoyed it, saying how much I loved talking about it. And Sarah has been attending a different singing school for five years! Turned out we both love these oldstyle Christian singing schools a lot. This year, we'll be going to each other's schools (and showing each other off, I think).
And that's not all we have in common. Sarah is by no means a technical person, but she's quite the Star Wars and Star Trek fan. (And has even pointed me at some other sci-fi I need to read.) Her house is filled with books. (First thing she did the first time she visited was wander off and look at my bookshelf.) We like a lot of the same things. And I mean a lot; I keep being surprised. We both love snow and winter; we both love singing; we both love The Sound of Music and It's a Wonderful Life.
Most importantly, we are both Christians. Both committed to the same vision of what the church should be, and both committed to working for it. And I can't think of a better foundation for a life together.
Sarah's a very beautiful woman. For the first two weeks of our online relationship, I wondered what she looked like. Then one morning I was surprised and delighted to discover she'd added a picture to her profile on that singles' site. And boy was she attractive. She's a wonderful person in many ways.
It wasn't long until my life got rescheduled. Weekdays I worked harder to take care of school and everything I needed to do, so Saturdays or Sundays I could drive out to see her (two hours away) or vice versa. Got back into AIM (Sarah's been online longer than me, actually) so we could talk every night [talking to her now, actually]. Even started to clean the place up on the weekends when she came out.
I'm in love. I always figured I'd find someone, some day, but never particularly started to look until last year. Glad I found the right one.
Sarah, I know you'll read this at some point; maybe tomorrow or in a few months. Thanks for giving me a reason to be online every night.
Oh, one last thing: we spent a large chunk of last Saturday watching background material from the extended Fellowship of the Rings DVD together. Is that a great girlfriend, or what? (And, no, I didn't make her watch it. The DVD belongs to her family.)
--Donald E. Knuth
Troll ahead (Score:3, Insightful)
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Re:Troll ahead (Score:3, Informative)
There's at least two VD holidays.
Most major holidays have a commercial counterpart which happens on the same day of the original holiday, but is primarily concerned with the production/purchasing of mass-produced merchandise (particularly chocolate products in holiday-styled wrappers).
-matt
Re:Troll ahead (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Troll ahead (Score:3, Funny)
At the same time, two rows over you can buy teddy bears with green scarfs instead of the pink ones they wore la
FMTYEWTK (Score:2)
I didn't consider that to be a troll at all. On the contrary, I thank you for your candor.
In the U.S., it's more and more common for Protestants to observe the Catholic holidays, either secularly or, increasingly, religiously. The Puritans and Separatists who formed the earliest New England colonies banned all of those holidays, but it didn't take. Nowadays, I even hear of Protestants observing Lent (which frustrates me to no end because of Colossians chapter 2).
As pointed out rather humorously in an
J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
Re:FMTYEWTK (Score:2)
Re:FMTYEWTK (Score:2)
Glad you enjoyed the info. I figured you would find some of it interesting. I hadn't realized Valentine's Day wasn't elevated beyond an ordinary Saint's Day outside of the U.S. :)
To sum up, the religious implications of holidays are tremendously variable here.
The fact that many pagan deities have evolved into catholic saints is what I like to call the embrace-and-extend strategy of the church.
lol, I was worried about saying anything quite that strong for fear of sounding like an anti-Catholic trol
J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers