the daniel factor

This is so cool! I am blogging from my Blackberry in GTalk via imified (www.imified.com). I hope this makes me want to blog more.

It was brought to my attention today that I could have my very own look alike avatar from http://www.simpsonsmovie.com. I think he looks just like me. Let me know what you think.

Wow, another year has flown by. I cannot believe that 2008 is already upon us. As I look back over my life and see how God has blessed me continually, I am humbled by his love and grace with me over the years. He has chosen to bless me even when I am so undeserving so I thought I would begin the year with some praises from the past and prayer requests for the future.

• I praise God for a healthy family. The reason this is first is because it is the freshest. A family very close and important to our family, the Wilson’s, have had a trial of health in there life within the last month. Their son Daniel was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. My prayer request is that the Wilson family will learn quickly to live with this hardship and make it a minimal part of their life.
• I praise God for a good job. I have been blessed with a really good job and it came about in such a way and with circumstances in which you know only God could have done it. My prayer request is that I would continue to be a great employee and one God himself would be proud of. ( Colossians 3:22-25 )
• I praise God for some incredible new friends this past year. Over the past year God has blessed me and my family with some really good friends. My wife and I have struggled with friends since we are younger than a lot of people in our church who have kids, and we have a lot of kids by our community standards. Over this past year God has brought a host of families together with lots of kids and of similar ages and similar interests. We do not feel like the outsiders so much anymore. I pray that God will strengthen those relationships. As I have prayed many times in the past and is still one of my most earnest prayer requests, I want a friend like David had in Jonathan. ( I Samuel 18 )
• I praise God for clarity in finances. God has blessed me tremendously with a well paying job even by my communities standards, but we have lacked a certain clarity of financial dealings. We have not been wise. God has blessed my wife and I with some clarity in this area over the past year. Our prayer request is that he would give us the strength to fully implement this vision in the next year.
• I praise God for the school my kids attend. My kids astound me every day with what they have learned at school. I will be teaching an Operating Systems class there the next semester. My prayer request is that I will be able to teach and be effective in a way that is up to the schools standards.

These are just a few of the blessings from the last 12 months. I hope that all of you make 2008 a year of trusting in God and making impact on your community.

-D

Well it has been a few days since my last post but it was not my fault! My wife got me a cool toy for my birthday! You may have guessed already… Well, did ya? Huh? Ok, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. I got a Nintendo Wii for my birthday! My wife rocks!!! And since it was a release week at work and last week of development on another project, my spare hours have been playing with my Wii. ( get you mind out of the gutter! )

For those of you who may be out of touch with the world, the Nintendo Wii is only the coolest gaming console ever, well maybe the second since Halo 3 launched on the x-Box 360 but I don’t have one of those so the Wii is the coolest. Anyway… it is interactive, meaning you have to swing the controller to swing the bat, racket, golf club, fist, radioactive arm of death… you get the picture. I have been hooked on tennis and I have been getting a workout as well. This is better than a Tae-Bo video! Look honey, I’m exercising!

-Raymond