I don’t want this to turn into a blog where I just post links to other stuff, but some things are just too good(or wacky) to miss.
Archive for July, 2008
Photography Madness
Jul 31
Thursday Wrap-Up
Jul 31
So yeah… It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. Not that nothing has happened. I just kind of forgot this blog was here. While I don’t have any single substantial thing to write about, I will do a little summary of my life for the past couple of weeks.
1) Music, Music & more music – Not that it’s a bad thing, but I have been flooded with band things lately. All things musical for me are about to converge, and when they do, it could mean trouble. Serious trouble. I have another contemporary service at my church on Aug. 10th, and the band hasn’t really been practicing. This is partly because various members have been to all kinds of various places, but it’s also because I didn’t realize how close the 10th really is. We had a fast and furious practice tonight, though, and it went pretty well. I also woke up the beast that is the Clemson Crusade praise band this week. It is a wild and unruly creature. It will be very interesting to see what God has in store for it in the next few weeks. Please be praying. To top everything off, the Micah Lee Band booked its first two events under that name this week. That is a great cause for celebration. There will likely be more on this later.
2) I learned that I should never have priced an iPhone and its corresponding plan. Why? Because I found out that I can afford one. No one should ever be forced with a decision like this. Cool device or saved money. It was never a choice before, because I never could afford one. Why, oh why?!?!
3) I have a new pet! All summer long, I’ve had this plant on my desk at work. It’s pretty cool, living in a glass bowl, it only requires water, so you can see all of the roots growing the the Di-Hydrogen Monoxide. Last Thursday, I decided that fish would make a nice addition to the plant. So I now have a Betta living in the bowl with the plant. He is pretty much awesome. I wish I had a picture to show you. It’s neat watching this gorgeous, colorful fish swimming around(and he is a very active fish) the roots of the plant, often attacking his reflection on the side of the bowl.
4) I’m fairly certain that I had something else I wanted to mentioned, but I have forgotten what it is. Oh well…
I think that about wraps it up.
edit:
5) I remembered it! – I’m finally going on vacation. This Saturday, I’ll be leaving Laurens for the first time this summer to head to the beach with all of the extended family. This is always a glorious event. I absolutely, positively cannot wait.
ASP.NET MVC Framework
Jul 18
So I haven’t actually posted much about technology stuff, but the geeky side of my life is about to rear its ugly head. Oh boy… here goes:
So I’ve been reading bits and blips about the new MVC(Model View Controller) framework coming out for ASP.NET for a little while now, but I hadn’t really thought much of it. Microsoft has a tendency to release demos and previews for products that won’t actually see the light of day for some time, and I hate wasting my time on such things. So, as cool as it is, I didn’t pay much attention to it. Things changed, though, when I had opportunity to go see MVC demoed and explained by a Microsoft evangelist on Tuesday night. It turns out the ASP.NET MVC framework is actually much more robust and feature-filled than I originally thought. What’s even better, it’s bin deployable! Basically meaning you can use it now, you don’t have to wait for Microsoft to roll it into an ASP.NET version 3 years from now.
Since I discovered that golden bit of information, I’ve slowly begun rolling it into my top secret project that I’ve been working on this summer. The MVC pattern gives ASP.NET a much better model for web applications than traditional web forms. We may finally see an end to those ugly post-back-every-click websites and see some slick, user-friendly asp.net sites. Another great feature that has been added is routing. This is something that php on apache based servers have had for awhile, but IIS and ASP.NET have lacked. This basically means you can uses pretty, sensible urls (www.micahlee.com/blog/post/edit/1) instead of cryptic ones (www.micahlee.com/index.aspx?action=editblogpost&id=1). ASP.NET MVC includes a very nice and easy-to-use routing library that, when combined with controllers, makes web application design and development in ASP.NET a breeze.
Overall, MVC is a revolutionary addition to ASP.NET. If you do web development, you should check it out. Here’s a link: http://www.asp.net/mvc/
Well I knew this would happen, but it still brings a tear to my eye. I have now(temporarily I hope) lost my spot as the top google search result when searching for “Micah Lee”. I have been patiently waiting as I’ve crept up on this Micah Lee Designs fella, who, incidently and foolishly, let the micahlee.com domain name out of his grasp some time back. Slowly but surely, micahlee.com(with me as its new owner) has crept up the rankings, until about a month ago when I finally took the top spot! Now, I purchased micahlee.net at about the same time, but until now it had simply forwarded to my primary site, merely existing as a placeholder for the Micah Lee web empire. But since it had to actual website behind it, it never even made an appearence in search results. So when I finally started paying for a real web host, and I realized how much possiblity was available to me now, I knew it was time to finally launch my proffesional site. Problem was: I knew it needed to be the .com domain. So with much sadness, I have wiped clean 6 months or so of Google page rank reputation and have started from scratch with both my .com and .net domain names. It’ll probably be some time before they reach a notable status again, but one day they will be restored.
But anyway, that’s enough of that. Without further ado, I now present to you the humble beginnings of the Micah Lee web empire:
- MicahLee.com – THE place to buy your web services from. It’s a one stop shop.
- MicahLee.net – I have a feeling you’ve heard of this one before. The personal blog of me!
- MicahLeeBand.com – This site has yet to see it’s heyday, but it’s coming. Hopefully soon.
- LaneBrownArt.com – Ok, so I don’t actually own this site, but I’m hosting it, and he’s good, so I’m adopting it into the empire.
Whew… I am worn out. I just finished up a long weekend of preparation and execution of the first contemporary worship service(in a long time) at my home church, First Baptist of Laurens, SC. Overall, I think things went really well and I believe that God was glorified. It is always such an honor and privilege to lead God’s people in worship. Matt Reeves gave the message about how we need to get out of our good lives and move to the great life that can only be discovered when your striving to be like Jesus everyday. I know I need to apply this to my life. I know I have it pretty good. I’m not so sure I have it great, yet. It was also neat to learn that Matt was a former Clemson football player, and now runs an a great after-school center in Greenville, SC for impoverished kids in the Greenville area.
The music side of the night turned out really great as well. Matt, Philip and I had been working pretty hard over the past month or so to get things ready, and it definitely paid off. We were also joined by the incredible Layne Madden on electric guitar and mandolin. He is simply amazing. There’s really nothing else you can say about him. I’m glad he decided to come out of his way to join us.
Now it’s time to start gearing up for a second service on August 10. After tonight, I’m pretty excited about this next service and for what God has planned for the church in the upcoming future. If you happen to be in the Laurens area on that Sunday, you should definitely stop by.
If anyone is interested, here is the set list from tonight. I’m also hoping to get video of the service online soon.
Jesus Paid It All - Kristian Stanfill
Holy is the Lord - Chris Tomlin
You Never Let Go - Matt Redman
Rejoice – Chris Tomlin
Come Thou Fount – Micah Lee Band Arrangement
Your Grace Is Enough – Chris Tomlin
