Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Jay Solo poses a question about love.

My answer is not really.

I find it a little amusing that CNN and ABC run ads on Fox News. I thought it was just my local cable, but it turns out that others are experiencing the same advertising phenomenon.

Lately, the most common ad is for Good Morning America during Fox & Friends. Makes me chuckle…

Bill, I’m making good progress on Fellowship... - I’m up to chapter 9 already. The hobbits are with Tom Bombadil and Goldberry, but getting ready to hit the road again.

And how are you doing with Owen Meany?

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

So I don’t have much to say lately, but I’d like to read. And I’m finding that many of my regular reads aren’t posting as much too. Others are, the more political punditry types of blogs - but the fun reads are slacking as I am.

We need to snap out of it!

Oh, yeah...I almost forgot this. I started to watch the Jesus, Mary, and the DaVinci Code show on ABC last night, just for giggles.

Pure heresy...all of it.

I was going to sum it up, but Bryan managed that quite nicely. (If the permalink ain’t working, it’s the post called Another Betrayal (of) Christianity, dated 11/3/03.)

Apparenlty, the DC area is the hot spot to live if you’re young, bright, and single.

Washington-Baltimore is among the most attractive regions for the nation’s most sought-after demographic group—young, single people with college degrees, the Census Bureau reported yesterday.

The region gained more than 25,000 people in this group from other parts of the country in the late 1990s, census numbers show. That increase ranked fourth among the nation’s 20 largest metropolitan areas, after San Francisco, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

The figures reinforce the region’s reputation as one of the most educated in the country, but they add a new dimension: The youth and single status detailed in the study are especially desirable. Educated people in their twenties and thirties not only have the brainpower to fill high-skilled jobs, they also make good money that they spend freely while not costing much in government services.

[...]

The figures reinforce the region’s reputation as one of the most educated in the country, but they add a new dimension: The youth and single status detailed in the study are especially desirable. Educated people in their twenties and thirties not only have the brainpower to fill high-skilled jobs, they also make good money that they spend freely while not costing much in government services.

Aside from the housing costs and traffic, this is a good area to live in - there are plenty of jobs, good neighborhoods, opportunities for culture, shopping, etc.

Oh, and there’s a cool map in the sidebar that shows a demographic breakdown of the counties in the Metro DC area. I currently live in the southeastern corner of Loudoun County, but I spent many years in Fairfax County (where my parents live still).

In many states there are elections being held today. If you live in one of those states (as I do), you have a civic duty to cast your vote.

Go.  Vote.

If you don’t, then I don’t want to hear any complaints. Because that’s your chance to let your opinion be known.

I only had one problem with the Reagan miniseries that will no longer be aired on CBS. That it was fictionalized and yet they were promoting it as truth (until they were called on it).

I don’t mind if you show the failures of the Reagan administration. I don’t mind if you rehash Iran-Contra. I don’t mind if you show Nancy as a shrew. I don’t mind if you show Ronnie as a doddering old man.

If it’s based on true events or personalities, then go ahead. But if you’re just making up stuff, then don’t bother. We have enough revisionist history being taught today without Hollowood adding to it in film.

I thought my computer had given up the ghost this morning.

A year ago I started having problems with it - the monitor would be showing these horizontal lines, the keyboard was locked up, the only solution was to turn off the whole thing and turn it back on. We sent it to Dell since it was under warranty still and it came back nicely fixed - it was the video card, they said.

So this morning I had the same problem. I rebooted the machine 6 times while My Boss (aka MB) talked to an IT guy at HQ who helped last year. I also unplugged everything to look inside - we were considering replacing the video card as a fix. But there is no obvious video card in this machine.

So while MB called Dell to ask them about it, I replugged in everything to give it another try...reboot successful and it’s been working fine since. Then MB comes to me and says, “Dell thinks it’s your monitor and they want you to unplug it and replug it....Wait, it’s working?”

ME: Uh huh. But if I have the problem again, I’ll try that.

MB: We have monitors if that’s the problem.

ME: I just need to make it work until January, right?

We’re supposed to get the new computers in January.

MB: Yep.

Today is the dreaded payroll day. The software we use is only loaded on 2 computers in this office - mine and MB’s. Although tomorrow we’re going to load it on a back-up computer.

Monday, November 03, 2003

I’ve been busy today. Even with the time I took to work on my redesign, I managed to get a lot cleared off of my desk, which is nice. I have payroll again tomorrow. Didn’t I just do that?

I’m not completely happy with the new look. The mashead title needs work, but it’s going to stay as is until I can work on it at home. I’m limited in my options here at the office.

UPDATE: I think I like this background better. Your thoughts?

As you can see, I’m working on the redesign. I had to reboot my machine and I can’t seem to keep a good dial-up connection. So I may not get done with it tonight.

I welcome feedback - the good, the bad, the ugly…

UPDATE (Monday AM): I’m still working on some stuff. Colors may look odd for a bit, thanks for you patience.

Sunday, November 02, 2003

I taught the youth Sunday school class today. I think (and was told) that it went pretty well. Really, I don’t care if I was good or not, as long as the students took one thing away from the lesson that they can apply to their lives. I know that I did.

We took a look at Psalm 46:10 - Be still and know that I am God... - focusing on stillness. Because in our busy lives, we don’t often practice stillness. I know that I don’t. Not true stillness anyway - I relax often, but it’s not to focus my attention on the One who I claim is the most important part of my life. And so I’m realizing that maybe this lesson was less for the students than it was for me. Ouch. So I thought I’d share what I’ve been chewing on all afternoon… (much of the following material is from DASH Student Leadership, Inc.)

1. Stillness is an attitude. It’s not an arrival point. It can be summarized in two words: silence and peace. I don’t spend much time in silence. I sleep with the radio on. I turn on the TV as soon as I get home from work. Even if I’m not watching the TV, it’s on for background noise. I’ll speak more to the silence thing a little later.

2. Stillness is imperative. God commands us to be still. What He’s really saying is to STOP! But not just to stop and do what I want to do, but to spend time with Him. I don’t do that often enough.

3. Stillness is imperative to knowing God. Ok, so I’m to be still in order to know God. Not just to know more about God, but to know Him. How can I know Him? By listening - because He speaks to me internally, through His Holy Spirit. It’s that little voice that all too often I ignore. He speaks softly and I’m so focused on my own stuff that I don’t hear Him. So I need to stop, be quiet, and listen. Doing that will help me to know Him.

4. Knowing God is the foundation for intimacy with Him. The sad reality is that I shy away from a truly intimate relationship with God. Why? Because of my own shame. I don’t want Him to know the ugly stuff about me. But the joyous reality is that He already knows all of it and He loves me anyway. He’s already intimate with me, I need to reciprocate that intimacy with Him.

**An aside: one of the students asked why we should tell God what we’re thinking, good and bad, if God already knows it all. Great question. I told him that it was not so much for God that we tell Him that stuff, but for us. I used an example of being frustrated with friend A about something, so you tell friend B about it. After you’ve vented you feel better, right? How much better will you feel if you vent to God?**

5. Stillness leads to worship. Louie Giglio said that worship is “Our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God.” A clamored mind won’t worship. A cluttered heart won’t worship. A still heart has no choice but to worship God. A still mind has no choice but to think of God.

I know that I complain about my commute a lot. But there are some mornings when I’ve been able to enter into a great time of worship - I tend to listen to “singable” Christian music in my car in the mornings. There have been many mornings that I’ve arrived at the courthouse and don’t remember my drive, but I know that I’ve been in the presence of God. It’s pretty cool.

Now, back to that silence thing. I shared how a former roommate of mine made a challenge to our Young Life leadership group to practice stillness in silence. She went on a retreat to a monastary and the monks challenged the visitors to spend 20 minutes a day in silence, using that time to focus on Christ. She had done it for a couple of weeks and challenged us to try it for a week. I managed two days. Some went for more than a month. Over the years, I’ve thought about trying it again, but I haven’t. So I put out the challenge to the students this morning - try to spend some time (5 minutes or 20, whatever they thought they could do and build up to the 20) each day in focused silence, to listen to what God may have to say. And I told them that I was going to do it too...and that I wanted a couple of them to ask me how I’m doing with it when they see me. So now I’m committed, which is great - I’m excited and dreading it all at once.

I do know this - God will bless that time. And it may take a while for my mental clutter to be moved out for God’s voice, but I look forward to how He’ll speak to me, and for how I’ll grow in my knowledge of Him. I just pray that maybe one or two (if not all) of the students try it too.

To: The Redskins Offensive Line

You are professionals, right? You get paid a lot of money, right? Then would one of you please explain to me why it is that you can’t seem to do your jobs effectively?

You serve but two purposes - to protect the quarterback and to block for those who are trying to run with the ball. Right?

How hard is it to protect your leader? Let’s take at look at your alternative(s) - Hasselbeck. This is a fella who’s been with your team for less than one week and he’s never thrown a pass in an NFL game. Is that the guy you want on the field? Because if you don’t start protecting Ramsey, you’ll be stuck with Hasselbeck.

Do you want to win games? Then get your butts in gear.

PS: And I appreciate the improvement with the penalty problems. But that still needs a little work too.

LATER: I spoke too soon on that penalty thing. Come on, guys! Sheesh…

Really, I never thought the day would come when I would be defending Howard Dean in his campaign for President. But it seems to me that it’s more than a little ridiculous for anyone to condemn the man for the following statement.

“I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks,” he told the Register. “We can’t beat George Bush unless we appeal to a broad cross section of Democrats.”

“It is simply unconscionable for Howard Dean to embrace the most racially divisive symbol in America,” Kerry said.

I don’t think so.

In no way do I hear him embracing “the most racially divisive symbol of America” with his statement. Instead I hear him embracing rednecks, who happen to have that racially divisive symbol in or on their trucks. They vote too, right?

What I think the Democratic whiners missed was Dean’s main point - he wants to appeal to a broad cross-section of Democrats. He’s making the attempt. The others are just trying to muddy the waters and bash the front runner in hopes that they can bring him down and be king of the mountain instead. If they keep that up, then he will be the nominee next year, because he isn’t doing that.