Like many others, Steve Jobs inspired me. About a year ago, a colleague of mine and I were in Santa Clara, CA for a developers conference. On the last day, there was a long stretch between the closing keynote and our flight out, and I insisted that we take a short detour on our way to San Jose and see Apple HQ. It was only a quick stop on a nerd pilgrimage, but a small part of me thought that we’d get a look at Jobs.

It didn’t happen, but seeing 1 Infinite Loop was an opportunity to pay homage to man and a company that has inspired me greatly over the last 15 years. From the first time I used a Mac in journalism school to the iPod reinvigorating my love for music to the time spent building an iPad app at work this week, my adult life has been unmistakably marked by Jobs’s vision at Apple.

He was an inspiration and a visionary and will be missed. God rest his soul.

La Tour Eiffel, Paris

I have finally gotten around to posting a gallery of photos from my trip to Paris in May.  I still need to get some captions updated, but I took too many pictures to caption them all at once.  I hope you enjoy them.

http://gallery.me.com/dayton/100084

View from the Adobe Bar patio, a good place to be while in Taos.

Some of the new photos from our latest trip to Taos have been posted to my MobileMe Gallery.  Not many this time around, but some great shots of the Taos mountain.

http://gallery.me.com/dayton/100044

(Photos taken with my iPhone through a window.  Not my best work.)

For almost ten years, my church’s Web site has gone relatively unchanged. The design had become dated and so had the process to add and update the content on it. Shortly after joining the church about two and a half years ago, I volunteered to take on or assist in a makeover project. It took a while for the stars to align, but after starting work a few months ago, we finally launched the redesign this week.

For the first time ever, I used the very popular Joomla! CMS. I have long been a proponent of Drupal over Joomla!, mainly due to the fact that Drupal seems more friendly to those who want to add their own PHP modules quickly. Joomla!, however, has a very rabid user-base that has produced a large number of usable plug-ins. This allowed me to produce a professional, interactive site with only a few lines of my own handcrafted PHP. This was definitely nice. While I still definitely love Drupal, I can see myself using Joomla! again in the future.

Feel free to let me know what you think of the redesign.

KevinDayton.com has paid the price for this. I’m hoping that as the Christmas season passes, my life will settle down a little bit and I can put new effort into this site. I make no promises, though. Anyway, I just wanted to put out an ‘I’m still alive and still plan to add items to this site’ message. Please continue to stay tuned.

#5 – Getting a real job
This is part of the reason it took me so long to get this site back up, but it has been a really good thing. I’m basically doing what I was doing before (creating and managing Web software projects), but I get paid a lot more when I not doing it on my own.

#4 – Becoming Catholic
This is probably the biggest surprise to those who have known me for a while, especially those familiar with my solid Southern Baptist roots. After about three years of discernment, I finally decided it was the right path for me. I have had zero regrets since, and my relationships with God and others have strengthened.

#3 – Visiting Rome
This was a big deal for many reasons. It was my first trip overseas and because of #4 it was a pilgrimage that has greatly enhanced my faith. I had a chance to see so many historically and religiously significant landmarks. The Coliseum, the Pantheon, and St. Peter’s are just a few places that blew me away.
I had a chance to see the Pope on three different occasions, which was amazing. The whole city has a mystical sense about it. From the history of the Roman gods to being the center of Christianity, it felt very supernatural to be there. It’s definitely a special place where special things happen.
I have a ton of pictures that I’ll be adding to the site soon.

#2 – Losing my grandma
This was the tough event. I can say that my grandmother was the nicest, most giving person in the world, and I don’t know anyone that knew her that would disagree with me. Life is definitely different without her, but to know she has been reunited with my grandpa, brother, and all of our other loved ones who have passed on gives me solace. She is and will continue to be missed here on earth.

#1 – Getting engaged
This is the big one. Numbers five and four on this list paved the way for this to happen and #3 gave me the perfect spot to pop the question (north fountain in St. Peter’s square). So after almost seven years of dating, Juliana and I will be getting married in October. It’s a really exciting time for us. I’m looking forward to what the future holds.

We weren’t really in the market, but had an opportunity to by a duplex that was recently gutted and renovated. We were intrigued by it the first time we saw it, and a week later we agreed on a contract to buy it. We’ll get Juliana moved in a week prior to the wedding, and I’ll follow after the honeymoon. We’re probably a little crazy to set this kind of timetable, but we felt this place was perfect for us to start out in.