This is what my photo biz needs:
- An easily-navigatable website
- A blog

I’m pretty set on continuing to call it Belong to the Day Photography, so this is what my dream addresses look like:
- www.belongtotheday.com
- www.belongtotheday.com/blog or www.belongtothedayblog.com

Right now, if you go to belongtotheday.com, you’ll find my graphic design portfolio. It is serving a purpose at the moment, since I’ve yet to find my next design job, but I’m itching to get everything switched over and just get my photography biz up there. I’ll have to be patient.

All of that being said, the prospect of having two different blogs down the road isn’t appealing to me. It may appeal to me in May, when I’m faced with the decision to renew my domain names, but right now I can’t see myself keeping the photog biz in one blog and my life in another.

So I’ll have to figure it all out. I really do love it here at Not a Local and the thought of me shutting it down for the sake of ease makes my heart ache.

Random thought: BTTD isn’t set in stone. And while I love, love, love it, changing the name wouldn’t hurt my business at all (since I’m not promoting and my only jobs are coming from friends at the moment). What if I switched it over to Not a Local Photography? It doesn’t read like a sentence would and it may confuse my Etsy stuff (or maybe not?), but it may work.

And thus is my thought process. Convoluted? Probably.

What do you think? Not a Local Photography? Belong to the Day Photography? Two blogs?

For the record, my photog portfolio can be found at belongtotheday.smugmug,com

When I first started all this, I thought answering “I have no clue.” was moderately romantic. It’s fun to face the wide unknown; to know that in two months you’ll be in a completely different area of the United States, vocationing in a completely different way than the previous four years, interacting with a completely different community. Oh the stories that will come, the little details and the big details that I’ll be given to share and point back to the Great Author with.

But for now, I’m tired. Honestly, I’m tired of answering “I have no clue.” The type-A in me screams for a plan while the romantic in me doesn’t care. The dichotomy is almost as wearing (if not more) as the job hunt itself.

I digress. This is not what you stopped in to read. You want to know more than, “I have no clue.” So here we go: My job at the Hood wraps up at the end of October and from there, I’m not sure what comes next. I’m applying for jobs mainly in the D.C. area, but I’m also looking up and down the east coast for jobs. Mainly, I’ve been applying for in-house graphic design positions. If I have a job by the end of October, then I’ll move, get settled in and start a new life. If I don’t have something lined up, I’ll be taking a bit of time off. I’ll probably stay up here in NY for a couple weeks, then head home to the ‘Rents.

From there, I could do a few things. One of them is terribly exciting, so I may pursue this no matter where I land my feet: Start a photography company. I would love to do this full time. Other options involve lots of part time jobs; one of them hopefully being at a rock gym.

So all that being said, I have been resting more and more (as the romanticism wears away) in the Lord’s soveriegnty. He not only knows where I’ll be in November, but He has already ordained it. And not just that, but whatever He has in store for me, I can rest in the knowledge that it is His best.

If you want to pray, here are some specifics:

1) Sanctification. The Lord desires to use this time in my life for His glory; pray that I would indeed seek His face in it

2) That I would end well. At work and in the community. I have a tendency to check-out too soon and I can’t do that this time around.

3) Wisdom and discernment with my time. I should be spending more time searching for jobs, but I’ve also been playing hard. There’s nothing wrong with either of them, but I must keep on my guard and spend my time wisely.

3) Specifically: I applied for my dream job last week. I’m perfectly qualified for the position, but the only way I would get it is through a miracle. I was describing what I’m up against to a friend last week and they replied, “So you’re telling me this has got to be a God-thing?” Yes. Which is exactly how I want it to be anyway. So please pray that the Lord would move in the hearts of men on my behalf. And that I would exalt Him in the outcome.

Thanks! Sorry the update is a wee-bit melancholy. I’m beat.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about the term “cool.” She proceeded by telling me a theory she developed in high school that has continued to stand the test of time.

People fit into two categories: Nerd Cool and Jerk Cool. She said that on some level, people fit into either category. The jerk-cool folks relying on other people and self-presentation to make them cool and the nerd-cool folks being cool because of their passions. For example, the guy in your high school that was passionate about chess and didn’t care what you thought about it; that was his thing.

This got me thinking. It never crossed my mind to ponder over which category I’m in; I’m clearly a nerd. But what am I passionate about?

The Gospel
This passion is growing in me every day. If you’ve had a conversation with me recently about the majesty behind the cross, you’d see this; I get so excited that I can’t even communicate properly. I recently spent 2 weeks teaching on the gospel and probably spent 75% of those two lessons on the glories of being brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). I most-likely spent most of that time with my voice raised in excitement (read: I was probably yelling).

The Word of God
This goes hand in hand with the gospel, but holds a significant place in my life. Without the Word, we would have no understanding of the gospel. This is God’s truth, His letter to us so that we might, in turn, walk in His precepts. It is our key to understanding God and oh boy, do I love it.

Righteous Living
Someone once said to me that everyone reads the Word through a different lens. Some people can read Genesis and see “missions.” Some people read Leviticus and see “relationships.” I read everything through the lens of “personal holiness.” By the power of the gospel and through the word of God I can please the Holy One through my actions and attitudes. I will note, however, that even though I’m passionate about holiness, the passion doesn’t promise me that I’m good at it. This, I suppose, will have to be another post for another day.

People
I’m an extrovert, through and through. Over Christmas, I went to a party where I knew one person; I had a blast. I pull my energy from others (especially the ones I care deeply for). I also love to study people; someone once called me a micro-anthropologist.

There are other things that I’m passionate about, that don’t define me as much as the items listed above: black coffee, literature, sewing, paper crafts, Macintosh, photography, games and music.

Then there are some things that I love, but am way too self conscious about to place in my “passions” category: rock climbing, giving gifts, graphic design and blogging.

What makes you a nerd?

Without being asked, purely for fun, I designed a logo for this new building. I figured we could use it on a flyer or some other marketing material. With a shrug of low expectancy, I showed it to some higher ups and it sat on desks collecting dust for a few months.

Fast forward to floor design meetings and find a shocked little girl, stunned at the news of her beloved logo being inlaid in center court.

Dear. sweet. Jesus. are. you. kidding. me.

This is one project that I’ll always look back on with fondness. I love this logo. I’m not sure if it’s possible to be proud of my work and feel humbled at the same time, but that’s the only way to describe my emotions at the moment. I wonder if I’ll always look at it with joy and awe, or if I’ll grow dull to the fact that my work is 15 times the size of me. I hope not.

I was eating lunch today and a co-worker approached me and told me how rad the logo is; I was apparently oozing with excitement and joy because one of the girls I was eating with made an awesome observation. She said, “it just gives you a little glimpse into the joy God feels when He observes His creation.”

True.

I’m glad that even small circumstances like logos on basketball courts are still designed to push me toward the cross and all of God’s goodness that comes from it.

Cheers!

If you think this is bad, you should see the car door.

I know, I know. Shame on me for grossing you out. But I implore you to try my shoes on; I’ve got to live with and work around this disgusting appendage.

The bad news: I will most certainly loose my fingernail.
The good news: I walk around constantly giving everyone a thumb’s up.

Some of you are probably saying, “Do you rest on your day off?” Sure I do, but I also have opportunities to serve my surrogate family, and that brings me more joy than sitting on the beach all day.

Last week I also had the opportunity to help out with my church’s vacation bible school for one evening. I assisted with arts and crafts. I also goofed off with the women running the snacks area:

Some of you may be saying to youself, “what the heck? I soo typed in www.notalocal.wordpress.com.” Fear not, confused ones, my friends at WordPress have updated, forwarded, relinked everything. Even your RSS will continue to work. And to that I say, “woohoo.”

Also, after many, many steps I’ve finally got a long-lasting, official-forever (hopefully) email address. Thanks to my friends at Google* I can now be reached at Christina@notalocal.com, which means I’ll finally have my full name off the web! Well, almost; I’m getting there.

So I was talking to my roommate, blurting out some nonsense about how I’m now an established, official blogger and she says to me, “You know this means you have to post something every day, right?” While I disagree, I suppose I’ll give it a shot. Everything within me wants to rebel against such a structure, so don’t be surprised if it doesn’t happen. I just read somewhere that professional bloggers are having heart issues from the stress of blogging. A blogging-induced heart attack will not be my demise.

*Being a rebel at heart, I often like to fight for the little guys. At great pains, I have just recently switched all of my stuff over to Google and haven’t been disappointed. There is a reason that Google runs the world; they’re really good at what they do.

I digress. Wertz informed us about a musician by the name of Brooke Fraser. Now, I normally don’t buy albums from female vocalists, but I had an iTunes gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, so I checked her out.

Brooke Fraser facts:

• Albertine is the name of the album I previewed. She named the album after an orphan she met in Rwanda on a mission trip.
• She is single and according to Wikipedia, she’s exactly 15 days older than I.
• The album is pretty amazing. (Technically, this isn’t a fact, but it’s my blog; I make the rules.)

So I bought the album and fell in love with it. A double bonus, there’s a song on the album called, C.S. Lewis Song. The first few lines knit this album immediately to my heart:

If I find in myself desires nothing in this world can satisfy
I can only conclude that I was not made for here

Did I mention the Rwandan orphan the album is named after?! I need to meet this woman because we’re apparently long lost sisters. Brooke, if you’re ever in the middle-of-nowhere Upstate New York, let me know.

So you win, Matt Wertz. You’re suggestion purchased me my first “girl” album in years. This is historical.