Stephen Mizell

Have you seen the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?" I have at least a million times. In the movie, Willy Wonka had shut down his factory due to corruption within the ranks (a prevalent issue in our times as well). People walked by the factory for years and years waiting for its return, until one day, the lights on the smokestack came alive, signifying a rebirth of the factory. The world went nuts because of the reopening and the fact that Wonka was letting five people into the factory who found golden tickets in their Wonka Bars (candy bars, not pubs). It's a delightful story if you get a chance.

This post feels like the lights on the smokestack turning on. I'm sure there have been people sitting on my site, hitting refresh over and over, looking for a new post and coming up wanting. I apologize to you, and regret to inform you there are no golden tickets, only a new post. To those who have never seen "Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory," disregard these first two paragraphs.

A good deal of things have changed since the last time I wrote here, one change being the cosmetics of this site. To keep the streak alive of updating the look of the site more times than the content, I scrapped the previous version and started from scratch using Blueprint CSS. It turned out to be a great choice and made building a grid layout easy and fun! If you are in RSS land, head on over and look at the simpleness.

There have also been quite a few other changes outside the world of binary. On the intellectual side of things, I have tried to make myself a reader. I have never been a reader, so this was a big step. I did so by making myself sit down for a certain amount of time each day and read. When I began, I would read 20 pages and not be able to tell you one word from it. As time progressed, I began to be more focused while reading and able to read larger sections of books and actually tell you what it was about. I've probably ready 10 or so books in the past few months, which is probably more I had read (for leisure) in my entire life. Reading and learning are gifts from God, and I really took them for granted.

In the physical arena, I've been working out five days a week. Each day I hit the weights, run, and swim. It is amazing how much it helps me throughout the day and keeps my neck from feeling broke from staring at a monitor for eight hours straight. I've gotten to where I can work out on the bench with over 175lbs and swim over a half mile without stopping. I neglected my body for my entire college career and I've decided it's time to try and change that.

So that's the skinny. See you in another three months.