Sometimes you let yourself keep too busy and you forget to be involved in the things around you. This weekend somehow helped me change this and reminded me what it was like to work in the yard, hang out with... Continue Reading Too busy to love life? »
For those of you that know who I am, I have a serious question for you. What is it that you think I do, professionally?... Continue Reading What do I do? »
Something that everyone tells you when starting a business is to "Stay Focused" or better yet, "Understand who you are and where you're going". This is great advice but I don't think people understand this until they've been in business... Continue Reading How to Stay Focused »
Coming home to a family that loves and cares for you is one of the most gratifying things I've had in my life. It helps me forget all the stupid work stuff that consumes my mind all day and let's... Continue Reading Lonely Freedom Week »
The biggest problem for productivity isn't keeping organized, nor is being alone - it's daylight. Daylight is the perfect killer to most of my work time. It's way to hard to concentrate with everyone running around and even if you... Continue Reading Daylight Productivity »
Besides the recent redesign, I've been keeping rather quiet here on theParagon, but that doesn't mean I haven't been saying anything online. Kendall College of Art and Design recently awarded us a contract to redesign/develop their website, DVD and Viewbook.... Continue Reading The Making of Kendall »
After an amazingly long week and a half I feel 98% over my most recent sicknesses. Last week Tuesday is when the strep throat started to clear up and by Thursday it was almost completely gone. It still hurts when... Continue Reading Aftermath of Strep and Mono »
If having strep throat hasn't been a kick in the pants since Wednesday (4 days ago), I also have Mononucleosis (mono). After a few days of antibiotics, for strep throat, you're supposed to start feeling better and return to the... Continue Reading In comes Mononucleosis »
When I was younger I would get strep throat at least once a year and since my tonsils are already pretty large, my throat would get close to closing up all the way. Its been probably 7 years since the... Continue Reading Strep Throat »
I'm starting to realize I spend way to much time online and not enough time doing anything non-digital. Its been so much that I can tell my mood has changed and I find myself often bored and un-inspired. I've realized... Continue Reading Computers waste my time »
I'm trying to sell my iMac G4 and thought would throw a post up to see if anyone was interested. Apple iMac G4 - $650.00 (o.b.o) Below is what I put on ebay: Memory (RAM): 256 MB Processor Type: PowerPC... Continue Reading iMac G4 - FOR SALE »
Slight changes are beginning to happen to theParagon and we hope to continue making changes during the next few weeks (when we get time). We have a few ideas of how we want things to look and we're going to... Continue Reading Slight changes but getting inspired »
Each year a group of buddies take off for the wilderness to reclaim not only our manhood but to re-connect with each other and the simplicity of the world we live in. Our cabin has no electricity, running water, lights,... Continue Reading Wilderness 2005 »
I've been sitting in a running car, out front of Bollo's Coffee shop, for almost an hour now siphoning WIFI. I was inside drinking coffee and enjoying the atmosphere earlier but after closing at 10pm instead of their origional midnight... Continue Reading 18 minutes left of stolen WIFI »
Jodi and I (and Jessica) are finally on vacation in Blacksburg, VA visiting some friends. It's hard for me to take vacations, I'm a work-a-holic and the thought of stopping in the middle of a busy time just seems insane.... Continue Reading Blacksburg, VA »
I used to be that guy who kept up on all his web feeds and discussed what he learned with his wife and co-workers daily. For some reason, life started to get busier than normal and reading feeds slowed down.... Continue Reading RSS owns me »
For the past few Sundays, Jodi and I have missed going to church because we didn't want to wake up Jessica from her night sleep. Today she didn't wake up until around 9:30 (EST). This is nice because we get... Continue Reading An MP3 Paster »
I don't know if I can use the Generation Y argument or not but dealing with the same old issues is a pain in the ass. Doing the same old thing because it's the thing we've always done is such... Continue Reading Dealings and Wonderings »
The pain has gone down quite a bit but it's not starting to look any better. With my eye looking as beautiful as it is, people definately take a second look and wonder what the story is behind the... Continue Reading Eyes want to heal, right? »
After some back and forth scheduling, Dave Muma and I started playing racquetball every Sunday at 4:00pm and Thursday at 6:30am over at the Dow Center. The first few games were filled with a couple close calls but this... Continue Reading Racquetball is bad for your eyes »
For a few weeks now I've been wanting to get out of the house and play a few games of racquetball. I've asked friends, co-workers and random people on the street but nobody took me up on it. Talking about... Continue Reading Racquetball with the Wife »
It's a little past one o'clock in the morning and I'm still reading books and playing around on my computer. Jodi and Jessica are in bed, sleeping beautifully, while I've been waiting for over a half-an-hour for a sleeping pill... Continue Reading How do you sleep? »
When some people get together they sit and watch T.V. or even play cards while talking about the good 'ol days. However, bring a guy named Phil Taylor into your group and he'll make your uneventful afternoon get together... Continue Reading Slacklining »
The days of one person knowing and specializing in everything is long gone. No longer do we have one doctor - we have all types of doctors that specialize in one area. They obviously know quite a bit about other... Continue Reading Sabbatical Needed »
I've been keeping quite busy in my reading life and have finished a few good books and recently started a new one that is rather exciting to me. The one I recently finished is entitled "Jesus and Muhammad: Profound... Continue Reading Books I Read »
Well, today is my birthday and I've turned yet another year older from 23. Along with the variety of emails, great cookies Jodi brought to work, and the random outbreak of singing - below is an email from my... Continue Reading Happy Birthday, Honey!! »
Pop music has exploded, in an edgy, sexy, supremely tuneful commotion – thanks to the uncommonly brilliant sounds of the Scissor Sisters. Continue Reading Scissor Sisters »
A few years ago, none of my friends had a website and some even thought the idea of a personal website was ridiculous - "What would I even do with a website". A lot has happened since then. It seems... Continue Reading Dan Cooper is Frogsuit »
On a Friday night, when you're doing nothing more than peaking over your laptop screen every couple of minutes to watch the next scene in a movie - you begin to wonder what happened to the good 'ol days. Friday... Continue Reading Boy-Howdy it's Friday »
I eat out way to much (as my wife will attest too). It's not that I want to, it's simply out of (1) laziness to make my lunch the night before and (2) desire to not wait more than... Continue Reading Who will keep me healthy now? »
Life will sometime get away from you and you'll find yourself wondering what you've been doing for the past few days, week and sometimes years. For me - the past few weeks have been an increadibly busy. My Father-in-law won... Continue Reading New Happenings »
It wasn't more than a couple hours ago when Jodi and I were talking to Wayne and telling him about our recent trip to the Antique Fair in Allegan. He wasn't as communicative as he normally was but it was... Continue Reading In Loving Memory »
Wayne (Jodi's step dad) isn't doing very good. He's on his last leg and Hospice and the Doctors are saying that this week or next week will be his last. His eyes are getting rather yellow due to his liver... Continue Reading Cancer - a trying time »
I can't begin to tell you how busy things have been over at the Elevator Up offices. People just keep calling and a new project seems to begin every week. I haven't had much time to enjoy a social life... Continue Reading Does this site have an Author? »
This morning I got a phone call I thought I would never receive. I was on my way to work when my mom calls me "Jodi, this is a hard phone call to make." I'm thinking, "Wayne passed in his... Continue Reading Tragedy, written by Jodi »
After putting a new roof on, remodeling the entry way, redoing a lot of the landscape, re-painting all the walls and getting it just the way we like it - Jodi and I have decided to sell our house... Continue Reading Selling our Perry House »
A movie projector is a device that continuously moves film along a path so that each frame of the film is stopped for a fraction of a second in front of a light source. The light source provides extremely... Continue Reading Projecting the Terminal »
Over the past week-an-a-half, there has been quite a bit of stuff going on and now that it's finally the weekend I'm able to catch up with all my reading. "That isn't that big of a deal." - you say.... Continue Reading Reading Catch Up »
The other day at JP's Coffee I was having a conversation with David Mosterd and Nicole Brinks about her up-coming wedding. She only has a couple things left to do but a major one was finding a minister. Throughout... Continue Reading Letter of Ordination »
Jodi and I first got our phones a little over a year ago. We jumped on a sweet monthly price of $29.95/per phone that offered us each 1,000 minutes a month. We also decided to upgrade a little bit and... Continue Reading Cell Phone Minute Craze »
Just when things start to feel comfortable and people began to move ahead in life - something like a house fire will happen. Yesterday around 10:00am a lady from a local business called one of our family members to say... Continue Reading Up in a Conflagration »
Looks like Campbell-Ewald is trying to find someone again and doing a good job of it by having the experts in the field of CSS and XHTML post it on their own websites. Zeldman's Site: http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0504b.shtml#campbellewald Todd Dominey: http://whatdoiknow.org/archives/001612.shtml So... Continue Reading Campbell-Ewald Hiring »
After quite a bit of brainstorming, business projections, and conversations with business owning peers - I called up Campbell-Ewald today and told them I was gonna have to pass on their offer. It's still tough realizing that I said... Continue Reading I said PASS »
At 1:28am, I should be in bed resting for a full day of work that is coming. Instead, I'm sitting on the couch watching The Negotiator on TBS and reading how easy it is to hack Gmail. So why am... Continue Reading Late Sunday Night »
The other day while catching up on a couple of my buddies sites, I noticed that Rob Walcott had a great idea to fill a rather large (empty) wall in his parents house with a picture of their house. He... Continue Reading House Snapshots »
Being a person that spends most of his time on the computer, one would assume that I also organize my complete life on my computer. Everything from personal finances down to daily notes and thoughts. For the most part -... Continue Reading Computers vs Paper »
Now that it's Spring here in Holland, Michigan I decided to fresh'in up around here at the Paragon. First things first is - I came up with a new design. Some of you may like it, some of you... Continue Reading Everything is New »
I've had this blog for a couple years now and it's been sitting quite nicely on Hurricane Electric's servers. Recently however I decided to purchase a Linux Server and host all my sites on that. The advantages are huge and... Continue Reading Switching Servers & CMS »
Well, it's official - after two and a half years of working at the Holland Sentinel I'm finally on my own with hopes and energy of making it on my own. I won't bore you with all the crazy details... Continue Reading New Job - New Life »
I know I don't update this site very much anymore but when life keeps you busy, it's hard to do the things you really love. It would be nice to have time like my buddy Rob Walcott which spends most... Continue Reading Someone else?? No I'm just me. »
The song must've been playing on the radio before I got out of the car but while I was walking up to the B&N doors I was rather loudly, whistling the tune of " ">ONE" (must have iTunes to view)... Continue Reading Valentine's Day »
Growing up I always saw my dad having to shave and I could only imagine the joy he must have had every morning. The whole idea of having to shave amazed me and I couldn't wait until I was old... Continue Reading Growing a Beard »
Every once in awhile I get these huge desires to learn a lot, and not just on one particular subject. I spend all my waking time searching for those various questions I have on life and how I can possibly... Continue Reading Curiosity »
It's my second day working on Sentinel projects in my home office. Yesterday I came into work and did my best to pull through the body-dragging-on-the-ground feeling. It only lasted until one o'clock or so until I finally got... Continue Reading Working in Boxers (Day 2) »
If you were to come over to the Schaap's house (the Schaap writing this) sometime within the next two weeks you'll be surprised to see that things are being torn apart and construction is underway. After a couple months of... Continue Reading Construction at the Schaap's »
The weekend is sadly over but the results of this weekend are still with me this Monday morning. My muscles are sore and sleep is something that I haven't had enough of since the weekend before. The roof isn't quite... Continue Reading A Half Done Roof »
I've been keeping a blog for a good couple years now. My family, along with hundreds of others, have had the pleasure of reading about my life. They get to see my good times and they get to see my... Continue Reading New Blog in the Family »
They pulled a white sheet off the bed, got a screen projector from Victory Point Church, yanked a DVD player from out of the house, unhooked all the stereo wires & cables and brought it all into the woods on... Continue Reading A Midsummer Night's Dream »
Last week one of Holland's main water pipes broke due to some miscalculations from a city contracter. The pipe that broke was 1 of 3 main pipes that bring Holland the majority of it's water with this particular pipe bringing... Continue Reading Bike Rides & Traffic »
After quite a bit of thought on my recent job offer Jodi and I decided that it probably isn't the best time to be taking off and starting a new job in a new place. I had to make the... Continue Reading Job Pass »
When you're young and have lots of energy and even more ideas you tend to find yourself looking for that one company that recogizes your potential. The other day I got a call from the Florida Times-Union in Jacksoneville, FL... Continue Reading New Job Offering »
It feels good to be home and able to sleep in my own bed again. After staying up all night trying to hop trains, play soccer with 50 people at 3am, sleeping in a yurt and sitting through a couple... Continue Reading 2003 Taylor University Graduations »
Working with the Internet as much as I do you'd assume that I've tried almost every Internet site out there. Well, at least all the major ones, right? Actually no. There's quite a bit going on out there on the... Continue Reading Classmates.com »
It's a Monday night and I'm home alone. T.J. (one of my roommates) just left for a job in New Mexico and David (the other roommate) is in Turkey for the next three weeks. What's a guy to do without... Continue Reading The Guys Are Gone »
It's been so long since I've taken foot on theparagon.ORG soil that I almost forgot that I even had a website. As always life has been keeping this old kid busy. I'm settling down with certain things in my life... Continue Reading It's Been Awhile »
Classes are finally over at Davenport University and I'm now spending my nights and weekends finishing up projects and enjoying the hours in the day. For a good amount of time I had to shut everything off in order to... Continue Reading Post College Actions »
A big thanks goes out to linkandthink.org for adding me to their list of people who have helped others become aware of AIDS -- I'm in the 5th one in the P section. Awhile back I did some research and... Continue Reading Thanks to Link & Think »
Alright guys - I got yet another Barnes & Nobles gift certificate and I'm not in serious need for good book ideas. Don't get me wrong - I know of computers books I could get but I really would like... Continue Reading Need book Ideas »
It's been awhile since I've been ice skating but last night a bunch of friends went to Grand Rapids to skate. The best part about it was everything was free - from the skates to the ice itself. The... Continue Reading Ice skating »
It's up and running - I'm actually on the Internet at my house. Many a nights I've prayed for this day to come again and tonight it was answered. Life is screaming at me and my body is just telling... Continue Reading again - again »
