Douglas G. Mack Douglas G. Mack
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Christmas 2002
Click on the picture to see full size.
My dear friends,
The Holy Feast of the Nativity is almost here and I am just now starting to write my "Christmas Letter."
2002 has been a good year for me. It never ceases to amaze me the opportunities of grace and growth that are presented.
After a period of search, Holy Comforter Episcopal Church found a priest to take over as priest-in-charge. She comes to the Church with a great deal of experience. At the same time, the "community" at Holy Comforter has changed over the past year with the transition. And, I do not find myself nourished there as much as I have in the past. But, that is part of growth.
On the "tattoo front," I got a new one on November 22! It is a tattoo done in "old school" style in memory of Father Mychal Judge, the New York Fire Department Chaplain who died helping people in the midst of the World Trade Center collapse on September 11, 2001.
I had had the thought of getting a tattoo to commemorate Father Mychal's life and death for some time. Finally, I came up with a basic design and Jason (who did my other tattoos) developed it into a beautiful tattoo. It is on my lower left leg. I will be posting pictures of it on my website (www.douglasmack.com) sometime over the Christmas break.
And, speaking of my website, over the past year I have consolidated it onto one server (on which I pay for space) from the multiple free servers it had been on. This provides for much simpler navigation and maintenance. At the same time, I reformatted the entire site to give a consistent presentation. There are still some additional sections that I will be adding over the upcoming year.
I am still working at the Department of Juvenile Justice as Computer Operations Chief. This year, however, has been a very stressful one on two fronts. The state has a massive shortfall in terms of revenue and has been making significant cuts in terms of services provided and in terms of employees. Though I did lose two vacant positions that reported to me, I, and my staff, kept our jobs. There will be another round of cuts proposed by the Governor on Friday December 20. Our positions, however, are most likely secure.
The second front that has been stressful is that the Governor and the Secretary of Technology have presented a plan that would consolidate all Information Technology functions and personnel into a new Agency along with massive upgrades of systems. The Consolidation will have to be approved by the General Assembly when it meets in January. In the meantime, it causes a great deal of uncertainty in everything that we are doing. So, the upcoming year should be quite interesting!
I have continued to be quite involved with my home Masonic lodge as well as a second lodge I have joined and in District activities. Due to one of the officers deciding not to go forward, I was installed as Junior Warden at my home lodge on the afternoon of December 14. The picture at the top of the page was taken after the installation. On the same day, but in the morning, I was installed as Junior Deacon at the historic lodge that meets in Mason's Hall downtown.
In addition to my work as an officer, I created, and continue to publish, three Masonic websites:
www.mastermason.com/xxxxxxxxxxxxx (my home lodge)
www.mastermason.com/xxxxxxxxxxxxx (the historic lodge)
www.mastermason.com/xxxxxxxxxxxxx (the District website)
Working on these websites provides a service as well as increases my website building skills. With the exception of two group photos on the Chesterfield site, I do all of the photography for the sites. And, it was fun to design the "virtual tours" on the two lodge sites. I hope you have a chance to check them out.
I am also in the process of developing a website for a small business that one of the lodge brothers has. It is interesting to be doing, and, I will be paid for it!
The other news from here is that my regular checkup at the dermatologist, and resulting biopsy, showed that the basal cell cancer has come back on my upper forehead. So, I'm scheduled for MOHS surgery in January. At least with all of the regular checkups I have had, I don't have the concern of it being a significant amount of cancer (as I did when I had the first MOHS surgery a couple of years ago).
I will bring this Christmas letter to a close now my dear friends. Be assured that you are very much in my thoughts and prayers and I ask for yours. May you have a truly blessed Nativity celebration and a joyous New Year!
