Kevin Ludlow is a 44-year-old accomplished software developer, business manager, writer, musician, photographer, world traveler, and serial entrepreneur from Austin, Texas. He is also a former candidate for the Texas House of Representatives.
Please take a moment to view his complete resume for more information.
Note: the entirety of this website was architected and developed from the ground up exclusively by Kevin Ludlow.
I had the pleasure of finally flying back out to Asheville to work on the church inspection. Given the size of the property and the relatively unknown condition of so many of its pieces, we had quite the extensive team out there working on it. Considerably more than I've ever had work on a property before.
We traced lines, tested all of the HVAC systems, examined for leaks, water pressure, and all of those typical things you'd expect of an inspection. But there was also the matter of ensuring that the original exterior stone is still in tip-top shape, that the rather complex electrical system was still fully up to spec, and then had to search out all of the lines on the property. This latter point turned out to be a bit more difficult than expected, but I think the guys figured it out in the end.
I'm sure it would be a great deal of fun changing out the daily marquis
The organ built into the church sanctuary
A quick shot of me standing in the middle of the sanctuary room
I've spent the past many years looking at warehouses, old elementary schools, firehouses, and churches. There's something about the idea of having the giant open space that greatly appeals to me - in particular for recording music. I'm an extremely project-oriented kind of person. I'm always working on some form of my software, or music, or woodworking, or electronics, or any other number of outlets dear to my personality. So the idea of being able to restore such a large space on a historic building is extremely enticing.
I've been interested in historic restoration for most of my adult life and a historic church certainly presents that opportunity. This particular church is absolutely amazing. It sits on several acres atop a hill just outside of the mountains and national forest. I'm extremely confident that I could restore it so that it serves as a historic landmark for a very long time to come.
The church itself is attached to one of the town's cemeteries and it would be my great honor to enclose it in such a way so that the cemetery too remains preserved for generations to come.
I found this particular church for sale awhile back and began entertaining the idea of purchasing it. The giant open sanctuary space would be the most incredible recording space I could possibly imagine. There are a number of rather well-known singer/songwriters who have done the same thing, perhaps most notably Ani DiFranco. This church already has a stage built into it, is already wired for speakers, and the 10 arced windows allow an amazing amount of light into the sanctuary space itself.
So when I saw this church, I immediately thought of the potential it had to be restored by somebody who would put great time and care into that. Not to mention, this church actually has a pipe organ built into it which is something I've dreamt of acquiring for decades now. I had the pleasure of playing the pipe organ in the National Cathedral of Nelson, New Zealand some 20 years ago and the memory has stuck with me.
A look at the inner part of the sanctuary with the pipe organ pipes visible on the back wall
There's still a lot to work out. I have to run all of the numbers and ensure that the property is properly inspected, but it's definitely a potential front-runner.
While it's sad that the community is losing their church, I'm extremely confident that I'd be able to restore it to such a condition that the former congregation would be happy to know it's being so well cared for.
An outside view of the edge of the cemetery
I'm not sure if the church comes with all robes that are currently hanging inside of it, but I'd certainly ask for them in the sale given the chance.
Update: I've confirmed that all of the contents currently within the church are being sold with the church. So I would very much look forward to preserving whatever I could.
This is actually called a Julio Verde and as far as I know was first made at Juiceland in Austin, TX. But this is my own version of it. It's delicious and it's called the Don Julio.
My mom has been making smoothies lately. I vowed to her that I would share my recipe for this one. I have fulfilled my vow.
I've probably had hundreds of people over the years request a mobile version of this site. I suspect the reason it's not already mobile-friendly is just one of those things that non-technical people can't fully understand. Given my actual website contains so much content and given that I'm the sole person who maintains it (and who has coded all of it), modifying the overall format is actually a pretty mammoth task.
There are generally two ways one can approach this problem:
1) The entire base website can be rebuilt into a responsive design fashion so that everything adjusts accordingly regardless of the interface accessing it (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc). This is a wonderful design option, but would require an enormous overhaul of the existing layouts. I'd have to go back through every single page and build the page entities to work in a responsive format. In short, this would be a rather significant amount of work, namely as it would require me ensuring that the desktop maintained its design elements too. This is further exacerbated by the reality that I'm a developer and not actually a designer (despite the fact that I do my own design too).
2) The second option is to build a brand new mobile version of the site that runs alongside of the desktop version. The downside is that I'll have two separate sites to maintain, but the upside being that changing one of them doesn't requiring the maintenance of two of them.
For various technical reasons, I've opted to go with option number 2. The bulk of my website is based upon complicated backend code that handles all of the requests from the database. The front-end is generally pretty straightforward and indeed works well on a desktop. It just doesn't work well on a mobile device. Incidentally, the reason it works well on a mobile phone is because the entirety of the site is built exactly to HTML 5 specifications. This is what allows the site to properly "shrink down" when viewed on a mobile device. The downside is that it becomes nearly impossible to read and navigate.
So essentially what will happen is that a new website will exist for mobile users. The site will incorporate the standard mobile-based navigation options, typically known as the "hamburger" dropdown. The backend code will remain in place and will be used to drive the new front-end design. Some backend changes will need to be added, but the majority of it will already be in place. On the other hand, the secondary design elements will need to all be created.
I've been working on this on and off for some time now . It's finally gotten close enough to being finished that I thought it was time to mention it.
As a quick side note, I've spent the entirety of 2022 completing a dozen pretty huge goals that I'd set out for myself. I only started working on them in March and yet, I should be on track to finish every one of them. Some of these goals include significantly elevating my work life, rebuilding part of my house, finishing my camper van, recording an album, rolling out several new software platforms, rolling out a new version of kevinludlow.com, and indeed rolling out the mobile version of kevinludlow.com.
I'm extremely confident at this point that the new site will be available soon enough!
I was first alerted to the fact that Dan Carlin was working on a virtual reality production of World War I several years ago. But it was only in the fall of 2021 that I was made aware it would be opening in Kansas City in the coming months. As it happened, I was regularly in Kansas City at that time and was very eager to see his work. I wound up leaving the midwest and so I missed the opening shows that I had otherwise intended to attend. But with the show coming to an end, I figured it would be wise to spend some time in Kansas City so that I'd finally have a chance to see it.
I've been a huge fan of Dan Carlin for many years now. I've purchased his entire catalogue and have listened to each of his shows numerous times, some of them even dozens of times. They're perfect for solo road trips and as it happens, I make a lot of solo road trips. I've only ever found two people who seem to enjoy them as much as I do; generally speaking, they don't play well to groups. Most people don't seem especially interested in a story that takes 14 hours to unfold.
I primarily started listening to Dan Carlin for his episodes about ancient history. His historical accounts of the Romans, the Egyptians, the Carthaginians, and eventually even the Mongols are absolutely riveting. The perspective one can gain from absorbing these kinds of deeper histories in invaluable to the human experience. This is even more the case when considering any number of contemporary political issues we're facing. It's frankly a little shocking just how distorted people's views are regarding the current state of the world. The truth of the matter is that we are improving the world in massive strides almost daily and yet, the general perception is exactly the opposite. But I digress. The point is simply that getting a wider understanding of these histories has real-life value and helps a person to remain grounded in a sea of ignorance of misinformation.
Somebody once asked me, "How many people actually died as a result of the World Wars?" I was quick to respond with "About eighty million". My answer seemed impossible and yet, a quick Google search would confirm that it's estimated just slightly under that figure. This was a highly intelligent and well-rounded person dubious of my response. So I think it begs the question: how can we really qualify the scope of modern conflicts and disasters when the realities of even the recent past aren't hard-coded into our brains? My grandfather was deployed into Germany during the Second World War. This wasn't very long ago; the past matters.
So while I came for the ancient history, Dan is entirely responsible for having gotten me much more interested in the wars of the modern era. What's more is that almost in the style of Howard Zinn, Dan presents the stories from a variety of perspectives. His series on World War I, "A Blueprint for Armageddon" is one of the most fascinating perspectives of that war I've ever heard. The depth that he goes into, the steps he takes to get there, the primary sources that he pulls, and his passion for telling the story brings it to life in ways I'd not have thought possible.
The World War I museum in Kansas City felt the same way. They partnered with him to create what they call War Remains. In short, the experience is a virtual reality assisted walk through the trenches of a World War I battle. Dan Carlin narrates the action happening all around as you explore on your own. A set was built to match the virtual environment and so the person is able to experience the sensation of flying overhead and walking around the battlefield as it rages on.
A small part of the set you walk through. You can see the barbed wire and sandbags along the sidewalls
The scene is set when the user is flying overhead in a newly designed airship. Flak is being shot into the air and there are dozens of other war-bound airships in the vicinity. When the scene changes, the war ship has "landed" and the user steps directly into the trenches of World War I. Artillery strikes are going on all around. The constant bombardment - known as "drumming" - can be seen, heard, and even felt. The level of detail is phenomenal and I would imagine that anybody who has fought in a war like that would likely experience some very serious flashbacks of PTSD.
I realize that Kansas City isn't a very popular tourist destination, but given the opportunity, I would highly encourage anybody who can get to this show to see it before it closes.
Dave and I at the top of the World War I Museum tower after seeing War Remains
