A Digital Home

Yesterday, in my post on Blogging Expectations, I mentioned the concept of a website as a virtual home, and wanted to expand on it.

I like having a singular place on the internet that I can point people to and say “This is Justin’s virtual home. You want to know what Justin is thinking, or what’s going on? Start here!” And I hope that’s been reflected in my blogging and my site design…

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2025 Good Friday Hymn: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451)

This post is the third of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Good Friday:

Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted (LSB 451)

1 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected; Yes, my soul, ’tis He, ’tis He!
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it:
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.

Blogging Expectations

A few days ago I ran across the post Blogging Expectations by Kev Quirk, and a quick read told me that it was something I wanted to add my commentary to.

…Okay, I just glanced at the date on Kev’s post. “A few days ago” was over a week ago. Apparently my backlog of post ideas is taking longer to review than I anticipated.

Anyhow, today I re-read Kev’s post, and (of course) followed the links to the posts his thoughts were based on, and a few thoughts stuck out to me.

Operating Rules for Email Collaboration

Today, while following a blogger/IndieWeb rabbit rail (when I click on a link from someone I follow, and then promptly begin following other links to other sites that interest me), I ran across an excellent post by Naz Hamid on Operating Rules for Email Collaboration, and promptly decided I needed to link to it with light commentary on my site.

I’ve slowly been improving my email usage over time, since my tendency left unchecked is to be verbose. However, I’ve learned that verboseness should not be the norm when communicating via email, as it can cause your thoughts to be lost in the weeds. And now that I am using email much more than earlier in my career, learning to use it well is important.

2025 Maundy Thursday Hymn: Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord (LSB 637)

This post is the second of my 2025 Holy Week posts, this time with one of my favorite hymns for Maundy Thursday:

Draw Near and Take the Body of the Lord (LSB 637)

1 Draw near and take the body of the Lord,
And drink the holy blood for you outpoured;
Offered was He for greatest and for least,
Himself the victim and Himself the priest.

2 He who His saints in this world rules and shields,
To all believers life eternal yields;
With heav’nly bread He makes the hungry whole,
Gives living waters to the thirsting soul.

Weekly Notes 2025.14

• Sunday and Monday I had a chance to once again delve back into embedded software development. Nothing overly complicated, mostly data piping, but it was nice to have an opportunity to code again.
• Wednesday morning was spent with two coworkers preparing for our summer offsite. I haven’t been heavily involved before, but it’s the same team that I’ve worked on Christmas events with in the past, so we are used to working together.
• Wednesday evening and early Thursday were spent finalizing preparations for some upcoming travel. Thursday afternoon I hopped on a plane and headed south for a few days to visit family!
• The final few days this week were spent visiting my extended family in the Carolinas. Some of my extended family lives in the Charlotte area, and so my entire immediate family headed down to visit over the weekend.
• Friday was mostly spent working remotely, and in the evening I went with my uncle to pick up my sister at the airport.
• Saturday, we spent the morning helping to prepare for one of my second cousin’s graduation party, and then went to her senior violin & viola recital in the afternoon, followed by the party at their house in the evening.
• This morning (Palm Sunday), most of my immediate family visited a Lutheran Church in the Charlotte area that is much more high church/traditional than what I’ve been to before. It was definitely a very interesting experience!
• And finally, this afternoon my immediate and extended families visited the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, only some portions were blooming since it’s still early in the year, but the parts that were blooming were beautiful, and it was a great excuse to walk around and enjoy the outdoors!

2025 Palm Sunday Hymn: No Tramp of Soldiers‘ Marching Feet (LSB 444)

For Holy Week this year, I had the idea of posting some of my favorite Lenten/Holy Week/Easter hymns. My plan is to post for Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday, though we’ll see how that goes. And so, without further ado…

No Tramp of Soldiers’ Marching Feet (LSB 444)

1 No tramp of soldiers’ marching feet
With banners and with drums,
No sound of music’s martial beat:
“The King of glory comes!”
To greet what pomp of kingly pride
No bells in triumph ring,
No city gates swing open wide:
“Behold, behold your King!”