This past weekend I had the opportunity to work with some people that are apart of the Timothy Team, a year long discipleship program at T Bar M Camps.  We worked with a high school youth group from Austin out at Camp Travis and I had a great time getting to know some new people.  I think in the middle of working with people and finding joy in just being together really gives you a picture of what it means to be in community with others.  Sure we got paid to be there over the weekend, but it’s not easy work.

I think one of the biggest things I took away from this past weekend, was the idea of looking at life, work, and relationships from a younger perspective.  It’s been easy for me to get stuck in this idea of what life is and what life looks like as I get older.  But being in this new small group and working with the Tim Team this past weekend is just a reminder of God’s love and the powerful of meaningful, deep relationships truly does for and to someone.

So here I go – This is probably going to be one of the more humiliating and honest posts I have written in awhile:

Running this business has taken it’s toll on me for sure.  It’s been a lot of fun and I have learned a ton of new things.  But a lot of that negative toll has been weight gain – long hours on the computer, working from home where there is a constant source of food and drinks and the ability to move from my office straight into the living room to watch TV when work is done…  It’s all been very nice and “comfortable”.

At the end of September I got the scale one morning and couldn’t believe my eyes. I weight in at 272 pounds.  It was the biggest that I have ever been and probably one of the lowest feeling moments I have felt in a long time.  I kept thinking to myself, I’m in contender weight for being a contestant on the Biggest Looser.  I knew I had to do something about this and to honest, I wasn’t really excited to get started either since I knew the holiday’s were quickly approaching.  I have quite a sweet tooth so Thanksgiving and Christmas are usually big struggles for me.

Weight is something that I have struggled with almost my entire life.  I just wasn’t blessed with a high metabolism.  I have joked for years that when I eat a chocolate chip it goes right to my gut!  And that seems to be pretty true recently.

I do have good news though, I started a pretty strict diet shortly after getting on the scale that morning and I have since lost over 30 pounds – I’m down to 242 with about 43 more pounds to go.

I purchased a device called FitBit.  It’s been a wonderful tool to help me track my fitness goals and be held accountable with friends online that have access to my profile.  FitBit keeps tracks of my steps, activity levels, calorie burn and sleep patterns.  And their website allows me to enter my weight, food intake and other activities that adjust the FitBit as my fitness level and goals increase and decrease.  I’m pretty excited about having lost the 30 pounds over the past few months.  Now I just looking forward to next 40 or so more coming off.

If you want to see my progress you can view my online profile here: http://www.fitbit.com/user/2299F3

Mainly from a personal perspective.  Spending time with friends and staying plugged in have been two of the hardest things the past few weeks.  And I because of how busy I have been, I haven’t been back here to make an updates on what is going.

Thanksgiving is upon is in the next few days and something that I am truly Thankful for this season is my family and friends.  I haven’t been home in sometime and I’m excited to see my friends and family back home.  I think I have realized the past few days how much I truly have been working to stay on top of everything going on, that I am longing for the contact with friends and family back home – just to relax and hang out.

What are some things that you are thankful for this thanksgiving?

I love what I do and wouldn’t trade this for anything right now.  However, there have just been days where I want to do nothing but walk away from the computer and just do nothing.  Sitting around the pool or watching movies or even playing outside (even in this heat) would be better somedays that dealing with the needy clients.

Just thought I would take a moment and vent.

I recently quite my job to work and focus on my web and graphic design business CoPilot Media.  My partner and I were able to land a large contract here in Austin that has afforded us the opportunity to both quit our jobs and work full time on our business.  It’s been a huge blessing to be able to work from home and be my own boss.  But another post on all that another time.

Even though I have more free time to do the things I want to do rather than being stuck in traffic 8-10 hours a day, I have failed to keep up with my writing and updates.  And despite the fact that I used to have a good numbrer of followers, I’m sure I’m down to one or two that actually follow me or even care about what I post here.  On this 4th of July, I’m sitting here waiting for a few get together to start and thought I would come back and revisit what is or was my blog.

If you still follow or read, drop me a comment here.  I’d be curious as to who is still around here these days.

His post really got me thinking about what all I do to stay busy!  What kind of things do I fill my day with in order to stay busy, to feel successful and feel some since of self-worth?  Tim talks about doing things to the point of either not being successful or only semi-successful and that just sent my mind running.

I consider myself to be successful, there is no question about that.  Granted, I haven’t won any kind of public reward, scored an Oscar, been featured in the news, or even had a news article written about me.  But I do believe that the changes I have been able to make in people’s lives make everything worth it.  If that involves volunteering my time, working to make something better and more efficient at work, helping someone with a website or design, being an ear just to listen, or even something as simple as giving advice.

I know that Tim’s article was not about reflecting on your self-worth nor do I think it suggested that we should all sit back and have self-pity or try and justify the things that we do.  But I believe his article made me STOP and think about where I spend my “free” time and even what I spend my “work” or “normal” time focusing on. I agree with a lot of what Tim talks about in many of his posts.  Tim has written a few articles about not multitasking, closing your email, and even being mindful of your time.  He has some great ideas but frankly I have taken little time to head any of his advice.

I’m thinking I just might try a few of these ideas and see how life changes for me.

What kind of things are you doing that make you busy that you might be able to change?

One of the daily obstacals we face is meeting the design standards to ensure that our e-mails show up, or render, correctly on all the e-mail clients out there.  It’s no small undertaking and we are constantly haveing to keep up with new standards and clients that are making changes to their email platforms.  The web based e-mail systems like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! are just a few the programs that able to change their standards and rendering systems on the fly.  It’s has been constant headahe that we face day in and day out.

There is a group of people that have started the Email Standards Project, that are working to help set the standard for e-mails and e-mail clients.  It’s an uphill battle, but they are trying to connect directly with team members from the development teams of the web and client based programs as well as spread the word in the design community about these standards.

If you are a designer or work for one of the major clients, please be sure to visit the project to read more about their effots.

Some time ago I had quite a few readers that visited here.  I still get quite a few clicks into the blog as shown by my tracking stats, but even those have started to drop some.  I even had built up quite a few readers from other blogs and people around the globe from my postings here and there.  I figure it’s high time to get back into the blogging world and write about life, liberty, and the pursuit of… well stuff.   Plus being so busy would at least give me content to post about don’t you think?

So here is my promise to post more.  Maybe not everyday, but I’m going to shoot for at least one a week.

Google and a few other companies also had their share of pranks for the day. I got pranked for sure.

So I recently had the opportunity to help a friend here in Austin with a web project that she and her man to be were trying to put together for their upcoming wedding. Becky designed a website (which is fantastic) that showcases many of the amazing pictures that their wedding photographer took here in Austin and created a honeymoon registry where their friends and family can purchase a portion of their honeymoon. I had the opportunity to develop the site and do the design on the database that functions the registry portion of their site. All of us, Becky, Matt, and myself had such a fun time seeing the site come together and our ideas and hard work finally pay off. You should check it out at www.mattandbeckycampbell.com

I hope that this little website is a huge hit for them and that their friends and family will find this an enjoyable way to know what is going on in their lives and everything leading up to the wedding.