2nd Project - Completed! (St. Cecilia Parish Website)

My second major website project is finally complete... I give you:

The new St. Cecilia Parish Website! I began speaking with Fr. William Vatterott after he called me and asked about taking some new pictures of the parish Church (which is stunningly beautiful!) and helping promote the parish through the website. Two months later, their website is on Drupal, and the 'History' section of the site is chock-full of pictures of the Church. Check them out!

I used my Nikon D40 (I didn't have my D90 until two days ago!) along with a few well-placed speedlights (for a few of the pictures) to get all the pictures. About 80% of them are HDR (meaning I took multiple exposures, some darker, some brighter, of the same thing, then blended them together in Photomatix Pro). I will be doing a more extensive writeup either here or on Flickr of one of the techniques I used to balance the stained glass window with the ambient lighting...

More... always more... to come. The new year is going to be very exciting, and I can't wait to share some news about future developments!

1st Nikon D90 Picture

There it is; the first picture taken with my new D90. The first of thousands! I've also been taking some videos... and let me assure you—this camera is not meant to replace a video camcorder! I will be posting more pictures and information about my first impressions of the camera as time goes on. The big decision now is whether I'm going to sell my D40 or keep it as a second body for certain events...

My 2nd Nephew - Baby Gabriel

I'm happy to announce today that I am now an uncle of two handsome boys—Joseph and Gabriel. Little baby Gabriel was born just shy of 9 pounds (heavy kid!), and is a very calm baby; he made a few little noises here and there, but didn't cry during the whole time I visited!

I'm still working on what I'm going to call the little guy... maybe 'Baby G' (what I've been saying so far), 'G-money,' 'G-rizzle,' or 'G'baby' (probably not the last one). I know my sister would rather I just call him Gabriel... but it's nice to have a good nickname for one's nephews. Joseph has been 'JoeBaby' for some time now, and maybe the nicknames will help me to keep their names straight, eh?

"If the Catholic Church was a Programming Language"

Found on The Curt Jester:

Now what would we call a programming language similar to the Catholic Church? How about C†† (pronounced C Cross Cross). Like St. Paul the Church teaches Christ crucified and the cross is never missing from our lives. The C of course stands for Catholic and the universal binary that the code produces. The universal binary is of course accessible by all operating systems. Though while we see the good that is common to many programming languages we hope that all will come to accept the fullness of C††. As programmers we don't want to be triumphalists, but to help to spread the good code to every nation.

The basics of the language C†† would be fixed. Though interfaces can be later added on that help to access the underlying language. The code structures would be based both on apostolic programming tradition and the reference book. The compiler also known as the magisterium would rely on the CDF (Coding for the Doctrine of the Flow) to ensure wayward code was corrected and brought back into fullness of the code specification. When bad code is detected the compiler would throw an anathema.

Read more...

One of the funniest blog posts I've read in a long while. I highly recommend you read it, too, especially if you have any familiarity at all with computer programming (or even basic PHP!).

How to Take Pictures at a Concert in a Theater, Strobist-Style

I've written a new article in the Photography section on a recent photoshoot I did at the REAP Team Benefit Concert in 2008, at De Smet Jesuit High School. All the pictures from the event can be seen on my Pictures page, but the juicy details of how I took the pictures and what equipment and techniques I used are located in my 'How to Take Pictures at a Concert in a Theater, Strobist-Style' page.

Blogging On STLYouth.org & the New Job

Well, six weeks after leaving the Seminary, I thought I'd provide a small bit in the way of an update about where I am now, as I have finally had a little time to settle into my new role as a member of the the non-seminarian laity. (You can see from my former post that I have figured out that cookies will now have to be made by me, rather than from some magical source that automatically replenishes the kitchen's cookie jar!).

The New Job

I was hired by the Archdiocese of St. Louis' Catholic Youth Apostolate, as the new Web Developer. The job entails a lot of web design work, for now, because two of their websites (CYC Sports and Catholic Scouting) are a getting a little long in the tooth, and are Microsoft FrontPage sites (not too sustainable for new technologies/developments). After finishing the CYA's main site (a really simple site), I am working on completely retooling the older websites, as well as maintaining (for the time being) the Office of Youth Ministry's and REAP Team's websites. On top of that, I'm working to help raise funds for the CYA—notably, using eBay and by helping with various fundraising events.

For now, I'm working with an iMac G5, an IBM Laptop, and my trusty MacBook, using Dreamweaver and TextMate for most of the grunt work in development. I'm building the new sites using the latest version of the Drupal CMS (which was just updated to 6.7 today... oh joy, already need to update!). You can see my festive workstation in the picture above; not too awesome yet, but give me some time ;-)

A Blog Here, A Blog There

As an added bonus, I get to do double the blogging in my new position! I am now a 'Catholic blogger' on the stlyouth.org website - check it out. I probably won't post to there as frequently as I post here (which means I'll rarely post on stlyouth.org, since posts here are relatively far and few between!).

My, What a Web We Weave

All this web development is leading me to something else... but the big announcement must wait—for now.

I can reveal, though, that I have finished my first website outside of the Catholic Youth Apostolate, for an awesome Catholic statue restoration company here in St. Louis. The company is Restorations Plus, and they specialize in just about anything having to do with awesome Catholic artwork and restoration. Their website is well worth a visit!

How to Make Yummy, Soft, Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is pretty simple, really.

Step 1: Buy pre-made dough from local grocer (makes something like 24 cookies), put on cookie sheet, then put in oven.

Step 2: Wait about 9-10 minutes.

Step 3: Pull the cookies out of the oven. Wait a few minutes. Enjoy!

Before:

After:

I love cookies, and doing this is so much nicer than going to the store and buying a pre-wrapped pack of icky, crunchy cookies. One variation I sometimes make: add some Reese's peanut butter chips into each little cookie dough ball, and then bake - I love peanut butter!

Another note: You might not want to eat all 24 cookies in the same sitting. Also, you can take a few cookie dough pieces and mash them together to make a giant cookie if you want. Those things have nice, soft, gooey centers!

Preparing for Christmas - the Visitation

A few days ago, I was reminded of some stained glass pictures I took a few months ago at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary. I always love taking pictures of stained glass windows, because of the awesome symbolism contained not only within the images depicted in the stained glass, but even more importantly the symbolism of the stained glass as an example of what we are to do: let God's light and life shine through our lives. For without God's light shining through us, there is darkness and emptiness (as is the case for a stained glass window at night).

One window is especially meaningful as I make my Advent preparations for Christmas this year:

In this stained glass image, we see the perfect example of what it is to be human and to let only God shine forth in Mary. She is wearing blue in most depictions to represent her humanity—a perfect, unsullied humanity. She never said no, and the artist in this stained glass window cleverly made her halo the most vibrant.

On the right side of the window, we have St. Elizabeth and Zechariah; a couple who are very holy and pious, but who have not always said yes to God. They can be an even more poignant reminder to us of where we are in our faith. Zechariah was made mute because he didn't believe what God told him (namely, that his wife would have a baby—John—in her old age). But in the end they both realized their mistake, prayed to God for forgiveness, and went on to live lives of holiness, blessed with the gift of Jesus Christ.

May we, too, realize our faults during this Advent season, beg God for forgiveness, work to overcome our faults and doubts, and be prepared for the coming of the Christ. God doesn't shine as effectively through dirty windows!

FireFox 3 Surpasses Internet Explorer 7 on This Site!

Wow! I just looked up my website browser stats (I do it every couple weeks), and for the first time in history, lifeisaprayer.com has had more visits from FireFox (3.1) than from any version of Internet Explorer. I've heard FireFox is gaining general web marketshare, but even my site (more about Macs and creative things than boring PC/IE stuff like how to stare at the BSOD) typically received a ton more IE traffic until recently...

Safari has finally been beating IE 6—not too surprising, but a good sign, to me. One of the great things about this is that I know I can approach web development with an eye more towards standardization than 'making things work' in IE. Because a validated CSS file that looks nice makes for a happy website, and easier administration.

Another nice thing I've been noticing lately is that very few people use resolutions below 1024x768 anymore. I've made the decision as of about 6 months ago to stop developing for 800x600 and less, and focused on designs at least 850px wide. I'm still shying away from fluid layouts, though. Fixed width FTW!