spy dir

my mom forgot to wake me up this morning, so i got to the spy'dir late. it wasn't too bad, because andrew had just shown up and spencer was already there. still though, it's a bad example for me to set.

we talked briefly about some of the near term goals for spy'dir and its applications. we also talked a bit about where the team was going.

the main thing that we need to do is change the way that information is posted onto the english site. right now, a file is being edited and then written to the server. it would be much easier to set up a blog type system with automatic archiving. i need to search around the net, see if i can find some php scripts to do this.


mcdonald's

after the spy'dir meeting, we went to mcdonald's to eat. i was hungry, so i ordered a good amount a food: double cheesburger, mcchicken sandwich, and medium fries. after eating the burger and 90% of the fries, i just couldn't ingest the mcchicken sandwich.


triple helix

i came home and finished up work on triple helix. at first, i was reluctant to send out this version because i had just sent out a version a few days ago. but i felt that the changes i made, although minor, were significant enough.

i'm a little scared about triple helix. not so much that the content is controversial, but just the way the material is presented. i think the english adults will be able to understand it, but the mandarins will be put off by it. it's just something that they're not really expecting and is very different from what they're used to. luckily, it's short, so the damage won't have a chance to settle.


teen issues

after i finished my work on triple helix, i turned my attention to other plot ideas to write about. i jotted down a few, but none of them screamed to be worked on right that instant. i figure, i should look around online and see if i could find a general consensus about what things are afflicting our current youth.

true, i'm not that much older than the youth, but i feel that my high school years were dramatically different from theirs considering the life experiences i had. i also didn't have the strength of God with me.

the most interesting thing that i found was the predominance of dating on all the different websites. even the christian ones. i knew that dating was a hot subject, but i didn't realize exactly how pressing of an issue it was. specifically, the sites were talking about sex and sexuality.

dating, let alone sex, is pretty taboo as it is. there are the few that are dating. then there are the many that struggle with dating especially w/ the negative connotation that we have placed on it over the years.

i wonder if writing about relationships is wise. considering many of them have not had the life experience of dating, would it be relavent to them? at the same time, my dating experience was very unique compared to what's "normal". i guess the details vary and change, but the outcome is always the same.

some other issues that were covered were things like suicide and drugs. i don't feel that my writing skills or our actors skills are up to that caliber yet, but soon.

in the mean time, i'm working on my more casual, light hearted writing.


soul purpose christmas party

considering how dave is pretty much out of action for the next few weeks with his barage of tests and doctors appointments, i offered to host the soul purpose christmas party. we finalized a date for dec 27th. hopefully, tony and ken will be able to chip in for food, considering that i have no income what-so-ever.

dave suggested that i look into george's for catering. george's has the best fried chicken around. if the rest of their food is as good as their chicken, i'll be in heaven. so it should be a very good time.

at the party, we'll have cut-throat santa. in cut-throat santa, every guest brings a new wrapped gift of a certain value. in our case, the limmit is 10$ US. each person is assigned a number at random. the person w/ the lowest number goes first and chooses a present from the pile and opens it. the next person in line has the option of taking someone else's present (in this case, person number 1's) or an unopened present from the pile. this continues, with each person deciding wether to take from someone else or to take from the pile. when you take another person's gift, that gift can not be taken again in that round. eventually, all gifts will be opened and the person who went first has the option of keeping his gift or taking someone else's. this last round is final.


salon

for some reason, i've had the urge to read a lot of news lately. today, i went to salon to check out their articles. i found a few that were fairly interesting.