Just a quick update to let everyone know that we arrived, safely in Philippi this past Saturday evening. Also, while I will continue to write here at kuhnsfam.com, you should also check out the new Philippi Service Adventure Blog that Beth started. She’ll be keeping that blog up to date with news and info about life at the Philippi unit house. Thanks again for your prayers & support, and if you’re passing through (or want to stop by) this area we’d love to have you visit. We’ll even have a guest room once we get settled.

It’s an amazing thing how quickly a summer can get busy. It’s been a great one for Beth & I. Full of friends, family & lots of traveling. Since our trip to Chicago we’ve visited Philippi, WV, traveled to a wedding in KS, had reunions in OH & PA, and visited Beth’s family in California too. A whopping 6,000+ miles of travel! We’ve been in 9 states and will get things to a nice even 10 when we fly to Albuquerque for a week of Service Adventure orientation. If you’re interested in trying to keep track of where Beth & I happen to be you should check out my Dopplr page.

In case you haven’t heard for some reason, Beth & I will be the leaders of the Service Adventure unit in Philippi, WV for the next couple of years :-D  We leave Goshen on the 19th of this month which is sad in plenty of ways. Goshen really has been a wonderful place for us to spend our first year of marriage.

When I wasn’t traveling, I was working hard to release the latest & greatest feature for haiku… Embed the Web™. Simply put, it lets teachers use tools from virtually anywhere (Google Maps, TeacherTube videos, del.icio.us bookmars, you name it) right in their classes. Not only that, but we provide step by step instructions for a growing number of websites to help them get started. It has been a lot of fun to work on & has once again made me marvel at how incredably huge the internet is.

To finish up this long overdue post I suggest you read an article on the 37signals blog: Early retirement is a false idol. I really appreciate the authors point of view. I can only hope that I continue to be lucky, getting to do work that I hardly consider work. I know well and good that it’s a luxury & I pray that I never forget that. Thanks to all for your thoughts and prayers over the past few weeks & I’ll be keeping you updated with how things are going in WV once we get settled in.

Ok, ok, I’m not actually a White Sox fan, but I figured it was an appropriate intro to our recent trip to Chicago. Jason & Joel (a friend of Jason’s from KC) flew in to Chicago for the Memorial Day weekend so Beth & I joined them Saturady & Sunday for some catching up and to explore the city. We had a great time! Even though I’ve been to Chicago numerous times before, almost every stop this trip was new to me: Taste of Peru (thanks Joel & Naomi for finding that place!), Navy Pier, the Threadless store, the Field Museum & a White Sox game (Sox won with a home run in the bottom of the 9th).

In un-related news, keep Beth & I in your thoughts & prayers, as today should be the day we find out if we’ve been affirmed as Service Adventure leaders. I’ll let you know what we find out.

Two special treats for Earth Day this year. A new blog post and new spring photos too! It’s been such beautiful weather this week. Yesterday we put a blanket outside & just sat around reading. What bliss! Hope all is well with you this Earth Day too.

Feeling slightly overwhelmed installing Git? …or by simply reading my last post? Here are a few tunes to help calm your nerves. The first is a McCutcheon piece titled Reel a Bouche. Yesterday Beth & I had the wonderful pleasure of listening to the GC Women’s World Choir. They ended the evening with an arrangement of this piece & it’s been running through my head ever since.

For some variety, try the Anyone Else But You by the Moldy Peaches (follow the link to listen). A wonderful track that I came to love via Juno (which you should probably watch if you haven’t yet!)

After a great deal of internet searching & nearly 6 hours of compiling I too can enjoy Git, the latest and greatest in version control. Now, for those of you who don’t share the joy I find in programing, bear with me, I’m writing this post as documentation of my struggle so that any other poor souls who are also trying to do what I’ve just done will hopefully have a better time at it. Step 1: have a Mac w/ OS X 10.4 Tiger installed. Step 2: don’t listen to me, follow the directions of people who really know what they’re talking about In this case, two sets of instructions by Wincent Colaiuta and Justin Reagor were invaluable to my eventual success. Thanks a ton guys! On a related note, Mac user & enjoy listening to music, check out Synergy (by Wincent), it makes using iTunes even more of a pleasure.

Marketing takes so many different forms, and yet it still manages to surprise me now and again. Facebook, for example, caught me off guard this weekend when it showed me an add for The Mennonite. They certainly do take advantage of the excessive amount of personal data so many of us enter, when they decide which adds to show. Do you think Facebook is smart enough to show this add to everyone who’s last name is Yoder or Miller, regardless of what they list as their preferred religion?

Another person who seems to have my taste figured out is John McCutcheon. His combination of engaging story telling, accurate observations, passion about social justice and awesome musical talents win me over every time. My favorite part of his concert at Waterford Mennonite Church, last night, was the song Forgive Us, which is on his latest album. Please, please listen to the first half of the song (track 7) to get a taste of it. You can read the rest of the lyrics on McCutcheon’s website. A close second was the poem Cultivo Una Rosa Blanca by José Martí which McCutchoen put to music:

Well, what a wonderful holiday I’ve been having. My parents arrived safe & sound, if a little late, and now Beth has a few days off too which should be quite wonderful. If you’re wondering where I’ve been the past month, well, mostly working on the awesome new Assessment (e.g. Online Quiz) tools for haiku. This week, however, has been pleasantly full of playing with the new toys I got for Christmas. My family came through big time this year. The highlight gift came from my wife: a Holga 120NC! For those of you who have no clue what I’m talking about, it’s a cheap plastic camera that takes wonderfully fun pictures. So, as long as I can find a photo shop In town that’ll develop the film you should look forward to some fun photos coming up. I’m also loving my new Jose Gonzales CD & electric razor. Finally, this blog post wouldn’t be possible without my Christmas bonus from haiku… a brand spanking new iPod Touch!! My family will be around a few more days & then we get to start the countdown until Jeff & Debbie arrive for a visit. I pray that your holiday has been full of blessings. See you next year

This year Thanksgiving was full of family and relaxation… perfect! Beth & I made way more wonderful food than we could ever eat at one meal Thanksgiving day, later that weekend got another serving of Thanksgiving goodness w/ the Miller clan here in Goshen & even got to see Grandpa & Grandma Brunk for an evening which was fun. I definitely think more people should come by to visit Life for me the next few weeks will be very full of work. We’re launching some awesome new features for haiku LMS the first week or so of December so there’s lots to do on that front. Anyway, I’ve gotta run, but enjoy this array of seasonal photos & if you’re bored, I updated the About Me page (finally). Hope your holiday season has been wonderful so far!

For over a year now I’ve been listening to the NPR Story of the Day Podcast on my way to and from work. There are a ton of good stories on the program and every once in a while I find one that I especially like. Take for example, this interview with photographer, Ashley Gilbertson. He’s spent years documenting the war in Iraq and had some very insightful views of the war. To boot, recently released one of the most cleverly named book I’ve ever heard of: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A Photographer’s Chronicle of the Iraq War (brush up on your NATO phonetic alphabet if you don’t get it ). Another story I was bit surprised to enjoy was a story about the GI Bill, it’s historical impact & it’s role today. While, I’m definitely not a fan of the war in Iraq, I was surprised by how strongly I felt this sort of Bill should have my support. If we (as a nation) are willing to send men and women into harm’s way to protect our liberties, it seems the very least we could do in return is provide them with a modest chance at improving themselves. The whole issue is still a bit disorienting, but I’m one to back away from a bit of moral conundrum

Moving towards the comic (literally) I ran across this comic the other day and just had to laugh at how much I identified with that kid. Not that I sabotaged my grades so much, but I still do try to create patterns when filling up my car with gas. Why stop at $26.50 when $26.62 is much more symmetrical Finally, I heard this interview with Flight of the Conchords today and laughed pretty much the whole way through. Beware, they can get a bet crass at times, but my goodness the dry humor in their songs just kills me!