I liked this story. It reminded me of the fact that we seem to move around way too much these days. We live in one city for a few years, make friends, then circumstances make it most feasible to move away and we have to start making friends all over again. I think it's better for us if we just stay in our hometown our whole lives, when possible. Of course, I'm a hypocrite about that, having moved away myself.

By the way, I just discovered that there are actually posts on this website earlier than the most recent 5. I didn't know about the earlier ones because it's not so obvious that you have to click the tiny line beside 2006 on the calendar to get to the earlier ones. You might want to consider changing the user interface to make it more obvious that the blog actually goes back quite a ways, so that more people will know about those earlier posts.
Adam | Homepage | 05.28.06 - 1:38 pm | #

Adam,

Glad you liked the story. Yeah, I can see how living in one's hometown could be good for friendships. Then again, most of my friends moved away, anyway, so not much would be different.

Thanks for your input on the calendar. Out of curiousity, what browser/OS/font settings are you using? The "lines" that you saw are actually supposed to be Unicode arrows for "forward" and "backward." I think the arrows provide a fairly decent interface. Now that you mention it, I should hack around a bit and see if I can make "Next" and "Previous" links on the bottom of the pages.

That said, I can't say I've ever seen a blog whose interface for past entries was very intuitive. Any pointers?
David Alan Hjelle | Homepage | 05.28.06 - 11:29 pm | #

I'm using Mozilla Firefox on Linux, and I haven't touched the font settings - it's using the defaults of serif, sans-serif, and monospace. I'm not using a special CSS stylesheet - just the default one for your page.

I think some kind of link at the bottom of the viewable entries is intuitive enough. The main problem is people getting to the end of the entries, which are going in reverse chronological order, and not seeing a link to continue further back, and concluding therefore that there probably aren't any earlier entries. If you want to get really intuitive, I'd recommend a large down arrow for the link, which is pointing in the same direction the text is being read in.
Adam | Homepage | 05.29.06 - 9:44 pm | #

Ahhhhh! This brought me to tears, David. I'm glad you two remember our years at Dordt and how awesome they were. The two of you taught me a ton and delighted me in a hundred ways! Praise Jesus!
Josiah | Homepage | 06.02.06 - 5:04 pm | #

Josiah,

Yeah, spending time with you and other "old" friends was such a good--and kinda bittersweet--time. We miss you guys!

But, you're right. I do praise God for that time--and praise God that He's bringing us where He wants us now.
David Alan Hjelle | Homepage | 06.03.06 - 12:28 am | #

Your story is well written and true (in the C.S. Lewis sense of the word). I miss you and the others also; yet, I could remain more connected through technology if only... (the scarce resources of time and a slow dialup connection come to mind)
Don S. | 11.17.06 - 5:08 pm | #

Thanks David -- I'm with Josiah about the bringing to tears part. I was just missing college friends when I came upon this story. The General knows best!
Ruth Ly | 12.29.07 - 10:47 pm | #