Thanksgiving, Shooting and more...

I didn't take too many pictures since last post. I guess I haven't been doing very well in that department. Hey, at least I'm posting though.

I took last week off from working with my brother's company so I could finish up some other work for a guy. I've been doing work with a teacher in Canada for the past 4 years. I just looked up the first email he sent me and it is dated 8/11/2004.

That email was very short and to the point: "Do you [do] modifications to the quiz[?] I have some ideas. Let me know".

This "quiz" he was speaking of was actually just a little bit of ASP code I had written for my family website to do a little questionnaire. I had posted it on HotScripts for $15. To say the least, I was ecstatic when the first person purchased it. I wasn't really expecting anyone to actually buy it. I posted it more for the fun of it than anything else.

After the teacher sent me that email I replied back saying I would. I was 15 and didn't exactly have a big source of income, so I thought it would be cool to get paid a little bit for programming work. I just finished those "modifications" last week. Four years later. ;) When he said "ideas", he meant "lots and lots and lots and lots of ideas".

My little quiz script doesn't have very much in common with the product he has right now. I think two files are still named the same and that is about it. Now it is a full fledged testing application for his High School students that makes me dizzy even trying to remember all the features. Along the way I also developed a number of other applications for him which are also complicated in their own right. I spent a lot of last year working full time on his projects.

I was planning on continuing the work for him after I got back from Alaska like usual. But my brother Jonathan started his own company while I was gone and I started working for him a few days after I got back. There were a number of things that I had agreed to do this fall for the teacher, so that is what I was finishing up last week. Feels sort of funny to be done with something I spent the last four years on.

This being Thanksgiving week I think this is an appropriate time to post this. Looking back, I'm extremely thankful to God for this opportunity and how he planned it all out. I learned so much from doing the work for the teacher that would have been hard for me to learn from just reading a book or tutorial. I never would have dreamed that it would all work out like this. It is really amazing to see how He works out even the small things.

On to some pictures...


The kiddos came over a couple week ago which was fun like usual.


Michael looking cute.


Last week we had our annual SoCal fires. Seems like they are annual anyway. The sun is trying to peak through here. The air quality and ash were pretty bad.


Last Monday evening we had game night at Grandpa and Grandma's house. They are so much fun to play games with. :)


Playing King's Corner with Grandpa. We've got a rematch on for Thanksgiving. ;)


On Saturday Stephen and I went shooting at Victory Ranch with a group from a church near where he lives. Talk about having a blast. :) Ok, so that pun has been used too many times.


Looking downrange.


Shooting Kyle's Winchester 94 .357



We spent a lot of time with Brian. Really cool guy. Has some cool guns too. ;)


Stephen taking his turn as range master. Doesn't he look excited? Probably wondering why in the world he agreed to take that job.


Setting up some targets.


We brought quite a number of guns... definitely fun to shoot them all. Thing is, now I've got to go clean them. Ouch. Maybe I should have only brought one after all. Of course I would have never been able to decide which one to bring.