Blog Topic Stew

It's been a good but full weekend. Small group met Friday night, book club Saturday morning, dinner and movie with the roommate Saturday night, and met back up with the small group after church Sunday morning to lead them in a prayerwalk at the school where one of our members teaches.

Now it's Sunday night, and I'm at the office dawdling a bit before diving into some pre-work-week prep. Yes, got to: I'll only be in the office two days. On Wednesday I leave for Disneyland.

Four adults, two kids, and a five-day pass: Yes, Disneyland. I told E. I'd go with her when the kids were old enough. She's a single mom. R and A are about six and eight years old. And guess who else is coming? Yes, the ex, and a guy friend of his. Could be a lot of fun. Or not. If you're the praying type, please lift us up.

Writing vs. reading: Recently I deposited a $108.54 check, the modest royalties from the sale (over a six-month period), of 286 copies of a book I wrote, Through Her Eyes. The same day, I found a $10 bill in a library book. In that case, my only labor was to choose, check out, and begin to read the book. Now, my work is not about making money. But the juxtaposition of these two events suggests: reading may be more profitable than writing!

Work stuff: I put in another 30 hours of work on tweaking and promoting Encounter Culture, an online class in cultural research principles and methods. We have - woohoo, three students! (And two of them are even paying us tuition). That's less than $100 we've spent on it, and $500 income. We can probably handle about 10 students at a time. Class doesn't "start" until Tuesday. I'm still hoping we'll get some more signups. I sent a proposal to a guy putting together a short-term team, suggesting that he run the group through this class instead of / in addition to some face-to-face orientation. If he agrees, that will be another 6-8 students, but I'm not sure when they will be able to start. We believe this class will take most participants 30-40 hours of work, so it's possible to do it in a month, comfortable to do it in two.