…and the weekend just started too.

Let me explain. During my lunch hour, i ran by the ATM to withdraw some money, at the time i noticed i didn’t have my CC in my wallet. So, i flew home and checked everywhere that it may have been, plus going online to see when i last used it. I couldn’t find it anyway. So, as i was filling out an online report saying my card was lost, i was thinking i should hold off. Trying to decide if i should click submit or not, i decide to go ahead and claim it was lost. Then i decide to check the places again. Come to find out my card was under the driver seat in my car. I go back online to see if i can cancel the request. I couldn’t find that option. I call the CC coompany and explained the situation. She said she would place a note on the account saying don’t process, and she also told me to send an email. I sent the email, but it bounced back to me.So, i go back to work.

After getting home from work, i call them back and explain the situation. The guy that i talked to was very friendly. He actually felt sorry for me becuase i found the car, but he told me there was nothing he could do. He even talked to his supervisor about it and he came back to me and explain it to me why they can’t re-activate my old(current) account. I asked him again, if there was anything they could do. He said he was sorry, but nothing can be done. I do understand why they do it, but come on: i placed the report and within 10 minutes found my card.

So, what’s that mean to me: i have no CC for the next week or so until my new card arrives. I think this is worse than having my card actually being lost or stolen. Not to mention i will have to memorize a whole new account #. <SIGH>.

There goes my frickn’ weekend[smiley11]

Two weeks ago, i wrote the following letter and turned it in:

To whom it may concern,

Three years ago, I was playing with the idea of creating a website for Calvary Baptist Church. The site could tell hundreds of people outside of the Quincy area who we are, what we believe, what goes on at Calvary, as well as other information. So, as time went along, I lost my job due to unexpected circumstances, so I had more time to think about the church website idea. I started to put something together, and in May of 2005 Calvary Baptist Church went live on the internet. From the beginning, I wanted to first get our church out there, then work on creating a site better-looking, had more features, etc. I worked on this throughout the summer of 2005, and in September of 2005 (with approval from the pastoral staff (which now included a new senior pastor), CBC version 2.0 went live on the internet. I also mentioned to the staff, that as long as I am here as a member of Calvary, I would take care of the costs.
During this time, several things were added to the site. A guestbook was added, a section of the website was dedicated to the youth group, and the weekly church bulletins started to get posted on the website. After having some meetings early on, I got an idea of what some people would like to see on the website. So, I started to do some research to see how I can incorporate the features into our website. It was during this stage that it became more apparent to me that some of the features or things they would like to see would be impossible to have on our site, but I still tried to look for solutions. I did find a solution and was testing it out. This testing phase ended up to be the current state of the Calvary Baptist Church website. By far, I think it is more user-friendly than the previous two updates to the site.
However, lately it seems that somewhere along this journey, it has become more of a chore to update, and not as fun. At first, I was thrilled and enjoyed during this and keeping it up to date. But now, it’s not as fun, and sometimes it seems to be more of a hassle to keep it up to date. Along with that, I’ve learned some information that didn’t set easy with me. That may be why it is not fun anymore, and maybe it’s time to finally let go.
This decision has not been easy for me to make. I’ve been thinking and struggling with this for a few months. On one hand, I keep telling myself, you’ve started this project, and you’ve did a great job, and there are people who really enjoy the site. However on the other hand, there are some who think our church’s website needs to look similar to another church’s site. Along with that, they said that we could take their information and just replace it with ours. Personally, I have a problem with taking a design from somebody else that worked hard to create and say that I was the one who came up with this design. Also, it was also mentioned that they website is not even being promoted. To add to my concern, why work or update a website if it is not even being promoted.
Like I said before, I’ve been struggling with this for long enough, and the more information I find out, the easier the decision becomes for me to give it up.
So, as of May 6th, 2007, I, Seth Brammer, will resign from the duties of webmaster of the Calvary Baptist Church website. There is little or nothing one can do to change my mind at this time.
It has been a pleasure to work on the website planning stages up until the current state of the website. I hope that the website will continue to grow and be better, but that will come at a price: A price that the church will need to pay for.

Sincerely,

Seth J. Brammer