Tuesday, July 15, 2008

I got an email from the HQ HR-bot with information regarding my application for the promotion position. In it was my rating based on the requirements and my qualifications.

I got a 92 rating, which is think I pretty good.

Talking with my competition about it, she revealed that her rating is 84.

Talking with the boss, he wants the Chief to make the decision so that it is completely impartial and he wants the final decision by Thursday since he leaves for a week of travel over the weekend.

So I could know as early as Thursday either way.

I’m feeling good about it.

Monday, July 14, 2008

I finished The Last Patriot by Brad Thor yesterday. This was the actual hard cover novel that I bought for myself with the gift card I got from Uncle Bill for my birthday. So, thanks, Uncle Bill!

In a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-charged tour de force, Navy SEAL turned covert Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath must race to locate an ancient secret that has the power to stop militant Islam dead in its tracks.

June 632 A.D.: Deep within the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat in Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed shares with his closest companions a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated.

September 1789: U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson, who is charged with forging a truce with the violent Muslim pirates of the Barbary Coast, makes a shocking discovery - one that could forever impact the world’s relationship with Islam.

Present day: When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian café, Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried so desperately to leave behind.

Saving the intended victim of the attack, Harvath becomes party to an amazing and perilous race to uncover a secret so powerful that militant Islam could be defeated once and for all without firing another shot, dropping another bomb, or launching another covert action.

But as desperate as the American government is to have the information brought to light, there are powerful forces aligned against it - men who are just as determined that Mohammed’s mysterious final revelation continue to remain hidden forever.

I like Brad Thor and I think this story had potential to be better than it was. The premise is compelling, but the telling of the story seemed more like a history class lecture regurgitated for fiction with occasional actions scenes and dialogue. Also, readers need to be careful to read the Afterword to know where Thor admits taking liberties with the history he cites.

It was just OK for me, dawg. */Randy Jackson*

2.5 stars out of 5.

We watched No Reservations last night.

The trailer gave the impression that this is a romantic comedy. There’s not much comedy. Actually it’s mostly serious with amusing instances. However, it is pretty good overall.

My only quibble is how clean the chef jackets and aprons were in the restaurant kitchen. No matter how hard you try to keep them clean in a full service, it’s nearly impossible. At least that was my experience in culinary school.

Also, it appears that this is a remake of Bella Martha, which I bet is better.

3 truffles out of 5.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

About a month ago Beau and I received an email from a staff person from our church who coordinates the volunteers in the childrens classrooms during our weekend services. She said that they really hoped that parents who used the services of the nursery classrooms would consider giving one weekend a month by volunteering to work the classroom that their child enjoys and asked when Beau and/or I would be available to serve.

I emailed her back immediately to let her know that Beau probably would never be able to to help out because of his parking lot duties - he was asked to be the leader of that ministry area and he has accepted that position. This means he’ll be working the parking lots most weekends, including the occasional Saturday night service, too. And I had just been told that I was welcome back to the worship team and waiting to hear back on dates I’d be asked to sing in the next couple of months, but that I’d get back to her when I knew of Sunday mornings that I would be free to help.

Once I told her those dates, she immediately put me on the schedule for a Sunday in July and August for the 11:15am service. Since both are on Sundays that Beau is in the parking lot, we decided to not to attend our usual Saturday evening service, but to just attend the first Sunday am service and then I’d be in the walkers room while Beau tends to the parking lot.

Today was my first morning in the walkers room. Let me say this ... I have great admiration for the people who are called to work with little kids. I’m not one of them. I am at a complete loss how to entertain other people’s kids. And I was ultimately unhappy about the fact that Jesse’s routine was hugely upset by our 4 hours at the church - he got no nap and lunch wasn’t until about 1:30pm. Now there are days at home when he doesn’t get lunch until nearly 2pm, but that’s after a 3 hour nap. By the end of the time he was exhausted, but he won’t snuggle or sit quietly if there’s activity around. As soon as we got him strapped in his car seat, he was asleep. Once home we fed him as fast as we could before he had a meltdown and then put him down for a nap.

On the way home, I suggested that maybe I ask my parents to watch Jesse next time so that he can get his normal morning nap. Beau said it’s silly for the babysitter to need to get a babysitter. He kind of has a point.

Also, how many ministry areas are we expected to help with? At some point, we have to be able to say “No,” right? This is how people get burned out. I got home, ate a quick lunch (after feeding and getting Jesse down for his nap), and then I took a 2 hour nap myself. So I think that I’m going to contact the staff person to let her know that I really can’t help in the walkers room - I’ll do the August date since I’m already scheduled, but no more after that. I’m already involved in four ministry areas - worship team, communion server, small group leader, and food prep for special occasions. Isn’t that enough?

I was channel surfing while drinking coffee this morning and stumbled upon this thing on CNN about a guy who managed to get into North Korea and film what he saw with his digital camera. The small snippets shown on CNN were amazing enough. You can see the whole series (14 videos online) at VBS.tv starting with Part 1 here (it is embedded below as well). It is very illuminating.

Disclaimer: There is adult language on the website and later in the video clips (as I have been told by my Dad, who did watch all parts.) I have not seen all parts, so I have no idea what political statements may be contained in the videos.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Sad news this morning.

Tony Snow died overnight from complications resulting from his battle with colon cancer. He was 53.

No link yet.

[ADDED 7/13]: From a column Tony wrote for Christianity Today last year.

Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet; a loved one holds your hand at the side. “It’s cancer,” the healer announces.

The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. “Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler.” But another voice whispers: “You have been called.” Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter—and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our “normal time.”

There’s another kind of response, although usually short-lived—an inexplicable shudder of excitement, as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tinny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions.

The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies. Think of Paul, traipsing though the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes (Spain), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment.

There’s nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue—for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.

Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the holy city. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf.

We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us—that we acquire purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God’s love for others. Sickness gets us partway there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two people’s worries and fears.

I look forward to meeting Tony Snow when I get to heaven.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Remember a few weeks ago when I said I wanted an iPod for Christmas? After doing some research with my library, I have decided that the better option is to get a Creative brand mp3 player (This is the model that I covet and have added to my Christmas wishlist). They are more compatible with the software used by libraries, and my library in particular. Wouldn’t it be awful to get an iPod and then discover that I can’t download audiobooks to it? I’m glad I did the research.

This morning I asked Beau if I could get a cheaper model now (and nevermind the other one for Christmas) so that I could use it on our trip. Because I had checked out three audiobooks from the eaudiobook part of the library website and after spending 30 minutes burning 2/3 of one book to CDs (11 CDs total took about 45 minutes to do the complete burn), I realized that it would be much more practical and cheaper to just buy the mp3 player.

At some point I remembered that Jaynee has an unused PDA now that she uses her Blackberry for everything the PDA used to do. I asked her about it and we agreed that it would work as long as I downloaded the books to my 2GB thumb drive since the memory on the PDA is small. She was going to mail that to me so that I had time to test it and work out kinks before our trip.

And then Beau reminded me that he has a small mp3 player. So he got it and we started a test download of the smallest book and less than 4 minutes later the whole book was transferred to his little Creative MuVo N200, which only had 512MB of memory. I then tried to transfer a second book and that one transferred completely in about 4 minutes. So there are 2 full novels on Beau’s little MuVo! The third is on the CDs and I’ll just use those since I have them.

And I just realized that the memory on the PDA may be enough for at least one regular novel after all. So Jaynee, if you want to bring that up with you at the end of the month, I’ll still give that a test, too.

I’m very excited. It’s days like today that I love technology.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

So I haven’t been good about giving it to her every night, but I have noticed two things with Annie lately:

1. The dosing even just once a day of an anti-inflammatory is helping her to get around much, much easier. I feel terrible that I never even gave her baby aspirin before now. After another week of one dose of baby aspirin with no stomach problems, and I’ll start to give her a second dose for the day.

2. The melatonin seems to be working. We still have the occasional 4:00am barking/wake up, but there have been a couple mornings that I woke up before she did - at 5:30am no less. This morning was one of those mornings. I didn’t wake up until the alarm went off at 5:25am. I went down to get Annie and she was snoozing hard. So I sat until she woke up - about 5 minutes later. Then it took her about 5 more minutes to get up and out of the crate.

It was so nice to not have to spend 20 minutes cleaning up the poo-crate. I got to read instead.

So it’s all good news with Annie, although Beau may disagree.

You Are an Excellent Cook

You’re a top cook, but you weren’t born that way. It’s taken a lot of practice, a lot of experimenting, and a lot of learning. It’s likely that you have what it takes to be a top chef, should you have the desire…

Sort of true. I believe that I do have inate cooking abilities. Culinary school honed them. As my mother said - I learned in 9 months what it took her 30+ years to learn.

Could I be a top chef, maybe. Do I want to be a top chef? NO way. I love my office drone, paper shuffling, number crunching job.

We went to dinner with our small group last night. Merry arrived right on time, as we were struggling to try to feed Jesse some English muffin pizzas. He was having none of it. And then Merry walked into the kitchen and he was happy to see her until he realized that seeing her meant Mom and Dad were leaving. That’s when his lower lip went into full on pout mode.

I really need to take a picture of him when he screws up his face like that. It’s amazing how frowny he gets - every muscle in his face is in play and it’s fun-ny.

So he started crying like his heart was breaking into a thousand pieces. We kissed him, said we’d be back, and went to dinner. Merry was left to fend for her own dinner, which ended up being a Totino’s pizza, which she shared with Jesse.

We enjoyed our time with our friends and got home a couple of hours later. As I drove Merry home I asked how long Jesse cried after we left. She said, “As soon as you pulled the door closed he stopped and gave me a big grin.” Poser.

She said he ate well and they had a good time playing before she put him to bed. That’s a good thing - we’re hiring her to watch him while we look at houses on Saturday and then she’ll sit him again next week when we go to the Glenn Beck comedy show simulcast.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Spoilers aplenty, so the post is hidden. Clicky the linky…

Monday, July 07, 2008

We went to look at a few houses this afternoon. All three in are in the same general neighborhood. All three are single family homes.

The first was a disaster. It was the cheapest listing, but needs to most work. More work than I’m willing to put up with for the price of the home. It would take us a very long time to get it in shape because we wouldn’t have the cash available for a long time. So that one got a quick pass.

The second one is in much better shape. It needs work and it is priced higher, but none of the work is needed to make the place liveable. It has great curb appeal and a lovely fully fenced back yard with a nice sized deck. Oh, and a garage with storage space above it.

The third one is slightly less than the second one and in the best shape. The owners were there when we walked through. It’s a short sale, so there’s no telling how long we’d have to wait for the process or even if it would be worth the wait. It’s on a corner lot, so the yard is huge. Nice back deck. Tiny kitchen. Garage. And the price is about $10K more than we pre-qualified for, but I think we could get that amount if I get the promotion/raise. So our realtor is going to talk to their realtor to get the story, crunch numbers, and get back to us. We may put an offer in anyway, if our realtor thinks we can do it, knowing that short sales take forever to complete. We’ve got time and we can continue looking at other houses while we wait.

We have a different realtor - our previous one went to a different agency. This new one seems much better just from the brief time we spent with him this afternoon.

I’m not quite finished with Darkside by PT Deutermann, but I’m close enough that I’ll count it done. I’m on the last cassette (I know - it’s what they had at the library) and I figure I’ve got about 15-20 minutes of listening to complete.

Dark Motive…
At the US Naval Academy, the students refer to the administration as the Darkside, a nickname befitting the secrecy and manipulation that occur behind closed office doors. So when a first-year student falls to his death from a campus building, the Academy tenses as the Darkside begins to creep out of the shadows to cut off any potential scandal.
Dark Secret…
Retired naval aviator Ev Markham is now a professor at the Academy. When a provocative clue connects the dead student to senior midshipman Julie Markham, Ev knows how quickly his daughter could become the easy scapegoat the Darkside badly craves. But a second body convinces Academy security chief Jim Hall that a killer is on the loose. As both men struggle to uncover the truth, a psychopath more sinister than they can imagine lies in wait, protecting the ultimate-and most deadly-secret of all…
“Darkside”

This is the first novel by Deutermann that I have read. I liked it. The narrator, Dick Hill, was pretty good - better at the acting than doing voices, but he made it an enjoyable listen. I’ll get more Deutermann to listen to in the future.

3 stars out of 5.

[UPDATE 7/8]: I finished it on the commute this morning. What’s funny is that there was a twist, but that I saw the possibility of it early in the story and then figured the author decided against it as he got into the telling because I expected it earlier than it happened.

We didn’t even finish In The Name Of The King this weekend.

A man named Farmer sets out to rescue his kidnapped wife and avenge the death of his son—two acts committed by the Krugs, a race of animal-warriors who are controlled by the evil Gallian.

Man, I should have checked the IMDb.com listing before I moved it to the top of the queue. That synopsis would have stopped me.

I think we watched 30-40 minutes of it. It’s a bad LOTR rip off with The Transporter dude, and elements of a third movie that I can’t remember now.

Simply awful.

0 stars.

Saturday, July 05, 2008