I had a surprise visit from my brother Eugene and his wife Heidi this week. They were here just one night, stopping by on their way to Georgia. It was good to catch up with them a little bit. We spent most of Monday evening trying to get Eugene's new (never used) wireless PCI card to access the internet via my dial-up connection shared over wireless. It took most of the evening, and finally I decided that going from my Dell's dial-up connection, over ethernet to my PowerBook, and then to Eugene's laptop over wireless, was too complicated. So I switched things around so my PowerBook was on the dial-up directly, and it worked great.

Here's a picture of the happy couple:



On Tuesday we ate lunch together at Earth's Harvest. I learned via my brother that a local girl named Michelle Wilson is organizing a Midwest Youth Conference, a regional GYC-style gathering for Seventh-day Adventist youth and young adults in the Midwest. Later I talked to Michelle, and it looks like I may be helping in various ways. I am a major GYC fan, having been to every GYC since the start. I think it is a great movement, and look forward to participating directly.

Although the theme, activities, and main artwork or photos for the Kids Korner section of 3ABN World magazine are supplied to me each month, it is my job to create a unified look for the pages. One of the aspects of that is to create the background graphic, which I usually (but not always) try to create from scratch. Right now I am working on the August issue, and for this issue I decided to do something original.

Because the story and activity were related to ducks, I decided to go with a pond theme. So I created this simple graphic in Illustrator:



In the final piece I had to rearrange the flowers, turtle, and dragonfly to accommodate items in the page layout. The dragonfly didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but I think it looks OK when reduced in size. If I had to do it over, I would also use a different technique to create slightly more realistic flowers (although I was purposely not wanting a photorealistic look).

If you would like to see what 3ABN World looks like, back issues are available on 3ABN's website in PDF format, at the bottom of the page this link jumps to.

There is a tree that grows in southern Illinois that I have often admired, but I never knew the name of it. That is, until today when my good friend April identified it for me. The tree is mimosa. It has these beautiful pinkish flowers (or looks like a flower, not sure what it really is) that it produces abundantly. Here is a photo of some:

Yesterday was my birthday. Thanks to all friends and family who sent their greetings.

I didn't have any birthday cake this year (or last year, or the year before that, or the...), since there is no one around with a heart to make such a thing for me. So I decided to try my hand at making something in Photoshop, the challenge being to draw it from scratch without using any source art. This represents about 45 minutes (if I had more drawing experience, I could no doubt chop that time down; but drawing is not a regular part of my design job). Here is the result:

I recently discovered an artist whose music I've come to enjoy very much: Tim Janis. So far I have purchased two of his albums through iTunes: American Horizons and A Winter's Eve. His music is very beautiful, and often majestic and soaring. It sounds to me like the kind of music one might experience at an IMAX movie as you swiftly fly over some breathtaking landscape. It's great music to have playing in the background while you work, or just anytime you want to feel inspired to conquer the world. Despite the grand, classical-inspired sound, there isn't much melody to some of the songs (in some cases none), so you could probably consider it within the new age genre. I suggest listening to some online samples to see if it appeals to you.

The final week of May leading into June was interesting. On Memorial Day I got together with friends, including long-time friend Janelle M., who was visiting from out of town. We enjoyed a great meal courtesy of Greg and Jill Morikone, and played Scattergories and Dutch Blitz (which I've never won once!). Later that same evening, my friends Rob and Christine Neall came with the Ouachita Hills bell choir to do some recording at 3ABN. Because I had to work the next day, I was not able to spend much time with them, but I directed them to one of my favorite canoeing locations, the Cache River, which they enjoyed.

Later, on Thursday, my cousin Jack Crosby and his wife Kerrie came to 3ABN so Jack and their friend Donna Shurley could record some songs. In the evening we got together at a Chinese restaurant, and had a great time. It was fun to catch up with them. Later that same evening I got news from my friend Nicole that she is expecting her third baby! Congratulations Nicole! I told Nicole she'll have "all six" before I have my first.... (Nicole insists this is the LAST ONE.)

On Sabbath afternoon I went with some friends to Rend Lake. The weather was a little too warm at first, but later it was just perfect. We had a great time, including the comical interactions between Kenton and Rachel's daughter Clarissa and Erin's dog Sabre, and a rather deep discussion between Erin's mom April and me about providence and the nature of divine-human relationships. Later, after supper, I went for another walk alone, in absolutely gorgeous, perfect weather, and snapped some cloud shots. The cloud formations this particular evening were awesome, with very dramatic lighting and vivid colors. However, most of the pictures I snapped turned out somewhat disappointing. Here is one of the better ones: