Old and New

Until now, I've been using my own homegrown blog software to post at http://www.mixed-up.com/markb/notebook/. But I'm finding that adding the capability for comment and response by others is more work than I care to invest right now. Community is where it's at. Community drives a sense of purpose that one person alone can't achieve.

The downside is that now I have to learn an entirely new system or language for posting. My homegrown blog used a nice language that I created myself. For example, it will *embolden* text between asterisks. It will /italicize/ text between slashes. And it will create links without tags simply by placing the URL and the link text on adjacent lines. Some of this may be similar to the languages wiki sites use. It's also similar to the Setext markup language.

OK, enough technical stuff. Who is this weirdo, anyway? What is he all about?

I am a challenge square dancer. For example, last night we went to the New Years Eve dance at Cook's Barn in Sacramento. The dance was C1 with C3A star tips. That's who showed up!

Mary and I are also round dancers, but we have not been dancing much this past year. We did go to the "Formal Affair" dance in Willows last October. Unfortunately, our first round dance cuer retired due to health problems (with his voice), and our second cuer was deported back to Japan for the crime of being a good citizen, playing by the rules, and properly petitioning for permanent residence here after fifteen years of teaching round dancing, teaching ballroom, and paying taxes. If he'd lived here quietly and under the radar as many others do, he'd probably still be here teaching us today.

I am a webmaster. But aren't we all? My web site is mostly about square dancing. It is located at http://www.mixed-up.com/.

I am a programmer. My favorite job was programming interesting user interfaces at Silicon Spice, a company that now exists only in the fertile imaginations and fond memories of those who once worked there.

I am a Christian and a Bible student. We attend Calvary Chapel San Jose, one of a network of churches that grew out of (or perhaps spawned) the Jesus Movement of the 1970's. I received a degree from Bethany Bible College, one of a network of institutions that grew out of the Pentecostal movements of the 1900's and 1910's.

I like to collect old maps. My most recent acquisition is a 1968 road map of the San Francisco bay area, dated 1968. This map is not as old as most I like to collect (those dated 1940-1960), but it does bear the old Enco gas station logo; I don't ever recall seeing those stations in this area, but perhaps there were some in other parts of the bay area.

I like to collect old radios and electronic equipment. My most recent acquisitions are a Fluke oscilloscope from the 1970's and a Sony transistor radio probably from the early 1960's. Dick Cook gave me the Sony radio this morning when we were visiting at Cook's Barn, and Dick is brokering my purchase of the 'scope from an elderly gentleman in Oroville who is liquidating his collection (and from whom I've bought other equipment in the past).

I play the piano. Our living room is graced with the 1933 Wurlitzer baby grand piano on which Mrs. Tippett taught me to play when I was about five years old. She lived down the street and she gave me a lesson every afternoon after school for two years, until she "taught me everything she knew" and sent me off to real teachers (i.e. those that cost money). My dad liked to tell the story that my next piano teacher, Mrs. Brant, told him continued piano lessons would be a great investment in my case, because "piano lessons now will cost a lot less than therapy later." Thirty years later, Mrs. Brant was still teaching piano lessons because in her words, music, more than anything else, teaches you to think. I have a hard time arguing with either of her statements.

I like to collect books, mostly about theology, history, computer technology, or radios. My most recent acquisition is a commentary on the book of Acts by Luke Timothy Johnson. This book came recommended by a source I'll discuss some other time.

I am a Macintosh user. I've already paid to go to MacWorld Expo next week. I hope I get to go! (We're awfully busy.)

Finally, I am on vacation and have been for a little while. In 2006, we took a road trip for three months to 39 states, DC and Canada. We spent two weeks doing hurricane relief work with City Team on the Mississippi Gulf coast. Three days in St. Louis, three days in Chattanooga, three days in Atlanta (ill), a week in Washington, a week in New York, a week looking for a moose in Maine, Vermont, and Ontario province, a few days in Toronto, and a quick rush back across the north with a brief stop in Roosevelt NP in North Dakota. After we got home, we took off for another couple of weeks to visit Mary's brother in Paraguay; he and his wife are missionaries there. Back home, then a few days in Disneyland, where we have an annual pass just for this year. Back home, then off to North Carolina to see Matthew home from his tour in Iraq with the Marines. Lots of miles on the truck, the car, the AA account, and the tennies. (And the credit cards.)

My name is Mark.

Hot Foot Spin is a challenge square dance call.