rants, raves, and random

ToddHumphrey.com is reborn

Well I finally got around to re-doing my site under Drupal. I have been meaning to re-launch my site for a long time now, and I am finally done with it. The theme and all the customization is done by my hands, and I am pretty happy with how it turned out.

I imported my old posts (although there were not too many), but I have not gotten around to putting a lot of photos on the site. I have only loaded the most recent few I have taken, but I plan on publishing many more in the future. I am kinda waiting for the Imagefield Import module to be ported to Drupal 6, because that will save me tons of time.

I also plan on adding a "reading list" section eventually which will showcase books I have read with a short review on what I thought of the book.

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Flexibility

For the past few years I have dedicated a good part of my life to web development. For a while I struggled with why God had given me such a passion for this, and how I would ever use it to follow God where he wants me to go. Every “traditional Christian” piece of me wants to think that God is the opposite of business, because business is money driven. Thank God I have realized that money can be used as a tool to reach a different goal, and not view money as the goal itself.

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Regifting my Birthday

My family asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Most people would enjoy hearing that question, but for some reason I did not. A stress came over me around the need to think of things I would want for my birthday.
Why would I not enjoy hearing this question?
How could there not be things I want?
As I tried to come up with things I might want for my birthday, I realized how silly I was being. I have everything I need, and apparently I have everything I want. Why should I be asking for things I might want, when there are many people in our area who NEED things.
What is a birthday present intended to do?
I believe it is to bring joy to someone. It is an opportunity to show someone you care about them.
If I were to receive some gifts I might want, it might bring me joy. If I were to receive gifts for others who need them; I know that will give me joy.

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Encouragement

Encouragement. It is something that I do not give enough of, but when I do receive it, I realize how good it feels, and how gravely important it is for society. I think the only reason I am writing this (and have plans to write more in the future) is because someone encouraged me to. A few days ago my brother-in-law Kevin stumbled upon my site looking for some pictures I took of him. When I spoke to him on the phone, he told me that I had a unique, almost dry sense of wit or humor in my writing which seemed to entice him. I have never really thought of myself as a very witty guy, but I can be when I don’t even realize it myself. Regardless, I took his comment with high regard and it simply made me feel good. It was nothing big, but thats the point. Encouragement does not have to be big, it just has to be meaningful and true. The effects of a simple act can generate a large response sometimes.

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What is True Wisdom?

The first question to ask is not what is true wisdom, but what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge. I don’t know about you, but I do not enjoy interactions with “know-it-alls” who have an answer to everything. These are the kinds of people who are closed to any new ideas, and as a result, are closed to God’s wisdom. I have discovered that there is a lot of knowledge in this world, and with the way everything is accessible on-demand, knowledge is very easy to retrieve and obtain. In a way, it is easy to belive that this is the root of wisdom, but this is where we fail. Knowledge is having the facts, while wisdom is applying those facts to life. When we realize this fact of life is when we can understand that knowledge is only valuable to us when we apply it to our lives correctly.
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