Over at Search-This (my other blog for web developers) I just posted about the significance of belonging to a community. Please stop there first and read that post - then return!

Here I want to talk a bit more personal about a point in my life when I felt most part of a community.

The happiest I’ve ever been in my life is when I was the poorest — when I was a college student.

I can list everything I owned in college right here:

• 386 Computer - that 386 was smoken
• Sega Genesis - Mortal Combat ruled
• Mini Fridge - salsa is all I ever had in it
• CD player and CDs
• Washburn acoustic guitar - all I could ever play was Redemption Song and some Metallica
• And some cloths

That’s all I had to my name…

But being poor never mattered, everybody there had nothing. And being poor wasn’t the part that made it the happiest of times.

What made it the best of times was that you were surrounded all day every day with people that you cared about and cared about you — friends. It was a very tribal way of living.

Everything I had my friends treated like it was theirs and likewise whatever they had they lent to the community. We all benefited from one another. When you needed a cup of milk for a recipe you never felt like you couldn’t ask your neighbor.

It’s not just about sharing — sharing is simply a result of caring about one another. But it seems like the more material possessions you have the less you are dependent on others and without dependency comes the ability to remove yourself from the community.

And I believe that is what we have today. No communities and as a result of every man being an island you have to bust your ass!

I submit that Egyptian workers, relatively speaking, got as much out of building Khufu’s pyramid as Microsoft workers will get out of building Bill Gates’s pyramid (which will surely dwarf Khufu’s a hundred times over, though it will not, of course, be built of stone).

It took Khufu twenty-three years to build his Great Pyramid at Giza, where some eleven hundred stone blocks, each weighing about two and a half tons, had to be quarried, moved, and set in place every day during the annual building season, roughly four months long. Few commentators on these facts can resist noting that this achievement is an amazing testimonial to the pharaoh’s iron control over the workers of Egypt. I submit, on the contrary, that pharaoh Khufu needed to exercise no more control over his workers at Giza than pharaoh Bill Gates exercises over his workers at Microsoft.

If I had the choice I would give up a lot of my possessions to have more free time to spend with friends, family and time relaxing. Shit - how much time do you have to just relax in a week?

I suppose I’m just ranting here?
But what’s your thoughts?

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The above is my 8 month old daughters first blog post!

She absolutely loves to bang on the keyboard, I usually just end up deleting what she writes, but this time I thought, what the hell, post it

I don’t even know how she made that symbol before the 5?!

“Above all else, Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” ~King Solomon (Proverbs 4:23)

As I read this quote from, King Solomon, my mind travels to the thoughts of dating and relationships. I Believe that is what we have been trained to think. But I believe it goes so much deeper than that.

“Guard your Heart,” Common Sense would tell us to guard our heart with those we like, but was that what Solomon what speaking about? Now Solomon is said to be one of the wisest men if not the Wisest of men of all time. And to make a comment about such things as dating, I just can’t believe that is what he is meaning. You see dating wasn’t even something that happened in these days, so let us travel deeper into this thought.

In the heart of a man is the wellspring of life. “The wellspring of life,” Crazy words to put to a man’s heart. Jesus himself said he was the water of life, this is saying that our heart is a wellspring of life. There is something very deep in a man’s heart. So deep that it is said that life starts here- In the Heart.

“Above all else” Guard your heart. This is an important statement and so looked right past. This world has become a very shallow place to be, and the heart is not looked at as something important.

But yet why does your heart beat harder when you See or hear a story with someone truly living. When the hero wins the fight, when he kisses his bride, when he is captured by his enemy, you well up inside.

We are meant to live. Not die! Our heart is meant to have life. But if we don’t learn to Guard our heart it is going to die or possably it already has. Have you ever wondered why people are so cruel? I do believe that it starts here. People fail to guard their heart and so it dies. The Heart is the center of ones being. It is where the true man starts. Without heart a man is just deed or reputation or nothing more than a program with limitations. Without a heart you’re only a man chained to a wall.

Wake your hearts! Do what ever it takes to keep your heart alive, cause only then can you love. In which there is none greater than love.

from [ Shawn McDonald ]

Sofia is approaching 5 months and growing like a weed. She seems to outgrow her onesies each week. Most of her onesies say something cute on the front like, “Princess”, or “I’m cute!”. Well, I came up with one of my own!

Only the Geeks will get it. Anyone who has written Javascript and tested it in IE knows the all too familiar “Done, but with errors.” message. See Sofie, even when daddies geeken-out at work; he’s still thinking of you

I can’t believe how fast this past month has gone. Today Sofia is exactly 1 month old. Life seems to be moving at an accelerated pace.

So I want to reflect on the last month and get it down on paper, or at least modern day paper. I won’t pretend to give any advice here; I am not qualified for that. I have probably done more things wrong at this point than right. I feel like I am in boot camp learning how to be a father. So what follows are just my observations and some things I have learned.

How would I describe this past month? It’s like a vacation! Everyday brings something new and fun. Perhaps a Vegas vacation, because you don’t sleep much either. I am probably averaging 5 hours sleep is all and the wife is getting less than that, God love her.

The first month is a huge adjustment for everyone involved and there is nothing that can prepare you. You just learn as you go, sometimes she likes to be held with her head on your shoulder. Sometimes she hates that. Sometimes she likes the football hold. Sometimes she hates that. Sometimes she likes the pacifier. Sometimes she hates it. Sometimes she hates it all. You just keep trying.

This past month I have learned more deeply what it means to sacrifice. As a Christian the word sacrifice is familiar. But, oh man was I naive. With a child, you sacrifice. Your needs are no longer important. I guess a baby has a way of showing you what’s important and what isn’t important in life. When I look into her face the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of her beauty and grace. Yep, that’s a twist on the old hymn, but I believe looking at something so pure is the closest I will get to seeing Christ on this side of heaven.

If the new American father feels bewildered and even defeated, let him take comfort from the fact that whatever he does in any fathering situation has a fifty percent chance of being right.
- Bill Cosby

I have played sports all my life; in doing so I have had to play through alot of pain. I have had my nose broken 3 times. I have knocked out my front teeth playing soccer. I have had too many sprained ankles to count; been knocked out once and to this day live with a messed up hip and knee problems. So I guess I consider myself a bit of a tough guy, but all that hails in comparison to what I saw my wife go through this weekend while giving birth to my daughter.

I have never been more in love with my wife. She is far tougher than I could ever be.

On May 27th at 8:45am my first daughter, Sofia Grace Angeletti was born. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 ounces - she is beautiful and brings me unspeakable joy.

I have created a new category to this blog titled, “Sofia” - here I plan to to pass on life lessons, observation, advice and other tid-bits to her. Please feel free to comment when you see a post. I am a firm believer in community and you guys are my blog community.