A lot of miscellaneous things are happening in my life. I'm not going to talk about them now.

I am, however, going to talk about my digital life a little. For about a year now I've wanted to create a more solid online presence, taking advantage of my 6+ years of blogging experience to make this place a little richer. Don't get me wrong ... I'm not going to get all ambitious and focused about webeldotnet ... it's just time for a facelift. Plus, I'm about to travel to a strange and beautiful place, and I want to share it with the people I love (and with the world at large). But how?

First, the hardware. I have a great camera (Nikon D70) with a couple of lenses, but the iBook I currently possess does not have the hard drive space nor the precise monitor that I know are needed to process thousands of images well. So the question is ... do I splurge and get a MacBook Pro before I leave? It'd be a hefty purchase, and it just might be stupid to live overseas with a nice machine, and eventually I'd like to end up with a desktop system instead. In the meantime, however, I'd hate to find myself stranded with no way to manage my information well (and I might as well take advantage of my Apple employee discount while I have it)!

Second, the interface. I'd like to redesign this blog, and have already been experimenting with WordPress, but I haven't landed on a design or structure that I like. I'd like for it to be tight, flexible, and easy to maintain. Also, I haven't quite figured out how to manage photos ... I'm considering managing everything with Flickr but I don't know that I trust it or like it enough to rely on it. Plus, it wouldn't then be integrated into webeldotnet very tightly.

So, any ideas? Some of you guys have been coming here (for whatever crazy reason) for many years ... what would you like to see? If this is done right, webeldotnet could return to it's "former glory" ... a blog with regular, solid, and maybe even worthwhile content!

Well, maybe.

I have some exciting news ... on Friday I received a voicemail from Nicole, who works with the Harvard School for International Development. She told me that I have been accepted to work as a WorldTeach volunteer in China next year! As long as there are no unexpected surprises in the contract that they're sending me, I plan to accept the position and take this step of faith and obedience.

This WorldTeach program, which was my first choice, will place me in the Hunan Province, a relatively rural area of southeastern China. I will leave in early August for a month of in-country training, after which I'll be assigned to work in a specific public school for an entire year. While there, I will be teaching conversational English to secondary school students (ages 11-18) in an English-only classroom. I'll have an apartment on or near the school campus, will most likely have several other Worldteach volunteers placed in nearby schools, and will have weekends and national holidays to travel and soak in the culture. If you want to know more, there's a ton of information about the program here.

As you can probably imagine, this whole thing is going to present some tremendous challenges for me. No, I do not know one word of the language. I have barely ever traveled overseas, and I am heading into this program from a vastly different direction than most of the other volunteers. And, most importantly, there is no guarantee that I will be able to return to my teaching position at CHCA in a year.

All I have to say is ... bring it.

The benefits, you see, far outweigh the challenges, and I fully understand that through these difficulties I will probably learn and grow the most. I can talk more about my reasons for pursuing this later, but for now my work is cut out for me.

For the next two months I'll be coaching track, making the 8th grade DVD, transitioning out of my work at church, minimizing my stuff and storing it, finding someone that needs my car, transferring my teaching materials for my classroom successor, moving out of my apartment, taking another grad class online, getting my Visa and other paperwork, wringing every drop out of my dentist and doctor while I still have insurance, maximizing my time with students, and generally getting closure on all things Cincinnati.

Once the summer starts, I'll be moving out to PVM to help with summercamp, begin to learn the Mandarin Chinese language, volunteer with a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) organization, assemble a mailing list and redesign this website, spend some quality time with some cherished people, and prepare myself emotionally and spiritually to transition to a very different way-of-life. I'm especially excited about this process of simplification, as it will pave the way for the Sabbath-time that I hope to experience next year!

In the meantime, don't take it personally if I don't communicate much in the next few months. As you can see, I need to focus on some things ... and if you know me at all then you know how much of a problem that is for me in the first place! Thanks in advance for your well-wishes and prayers, and I can't wait to figure out the best ways to bring all of you on this adventure with me. Here we go!

Put your Lance Face on!

[via hp]