15 more days till I enter the MTC. Wow. I’m continually amazed at how quickly the time is slipping away. Welcome to real life, Ben. Part of me is sad at leaving — two years does seem like a long time, so far away from everyone I know — but I’ll be able to keep in touch via letters, and I am very excited about this new adventure. I’ll spend eleven weeks in the MTC learning the language, then arrive in Thailand on November 4 (three months away). A while ago it was scary, but the fear (which was never very intense) has been replaced by an excitement. I’ll be out there serving the Lord. Perfect love casteth out all fear — as long as I focus on others more than on myself, I won’t have any room for worry.

Yesterday morning I started gathering materials and jotting down notes for my farewell talk, and today I did some more of that. It’s coming along quite well.

I just realized that these entries aren’t so computer-oriented as they used to be. That’s good. I’m finding myself focusing more on service than I used to. It’s absolutely wonderful to be able to forget about yourself and focus on others.

I’ve been reading over the draft of Jim Tinsley’s Project Gutenberg FAQ. It’s quite good. Still working on the XML advocacy… I want to digitize all the pre-1923 Bobbsey Twins books (I grew up reading those), but I don’t have time. If they’re still not done when I get back from my mission I’ll do them.

A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through LDS Music World and downloaded some of Stephanie Smith’s music. Wow. Usually fledgling artists sound, well, amateur. Not Stephanie. It’s wonderful to find good artists (and she is good!) with high standards. Sibling Revelry is another good group (LDS as well). When I find artists like these I tell everyone I know (and even those I don’t) about them.

Put together the PGXML page for advocating the use of XML in Project Gutenberg.

Just registered PGXML.org for the project. I’m impetuous and want to see this happen so much that I’m willing to plunk down $30 for a domain name.