Its going to be a good week

The reception/welcome/whateverYouWantToCallIt dinner was good. We registered and then had dinner and Dr. Jim spoke a bit. He is always amazing. His conferences are a great investment in self, the ministry and the church. I live (for a majority of my time) in such a technical world. Technical concerns, technical problems, technical training and solutions. Its all good and I love it. But it is cool to also feed the minstry side. Especially being married to a pastor. You just have to go there as well and grow that side. Otherwise you can't help in those areas... And more and more I feel that is what it is all about. The technial/job side of my life is great, and a tremendous blessing... but so is the pastoral side. Anyway... the conference should be really good. A few thoughts already (I may or may not make these brief... as Tina is already going to bed and I need to quite playing around on the computer and go to bed too, so I'm ready for tomorrow.)

I live in what I believe is a unique situation. Not that I'm in it alone, but that a majority of people aren't in it. I'm very much a career person, with a secular job. A job that takes my attention, requires a lot of focus. Focus that is not on ministry related issues. I'm also married to a pastor, so I see that side of life. The two lives are very different. To me, church is not a job. It is a place I go to get refreshed, hear the word, worship God, etc. To many pastors it is a job. Not in a bad way... but it is what they do for a living. I can take my job stress, issues I have with people, etc. (every day stuff) and leave it away from church. I mean, even if I take it home, I don't take it to church. For pastors, church is part of there strees. They don't get away from stress there. In my situation I get to see the blessings of the ministries, but still be able to separate ministry and my job. So I kind of have the best of both worlds. I'm a blessed person.

Being at such a conference, you see that pastoring is a tough job. Not just at ICC, but everywhere. "I just needed to get out of town and relax for a while". "I'm turning off my cell so no one can reach me this week.", "It is so important to get away, invest in yourself, so that you can deal with issues at home." and similar comments. It is probably true in other professions as well... but ministry is such a 24x7 thing. Even if I'm on call 24x7 - for the most part (being a technical lead, not a manager) I don't have to deal with emotional issues, people issues, etc. A great thing about this conference - without even the content - is seeing these pastors come together and just get refreshed. Hang out. Talk to each other, etc.

A question was asked not too long ago. Who does a pastor have for friends? Who can they hang out with and just be themselves? Unfortunately there aren't a lot of people they can do that with. Whether people intend it or not... some times a pastor being "themselves" influences them in ways they wouldn't be influenced by other people. Maybe hard to explain... but anyway, it is good to see them just be able to hang out. And I'm not talking specifically about our pastors. I'm saying this based on things I've overheard other pastors saying. Dr Jim is providing a great benefit by just providing the atmosphere that he provides, and then he adds great teaching too!

Do you focus on the good or the bad? Dr Jim was discussing that he sees it all the time where a church will have 100 members, 500 members, a 1000 members. And there are 5 people that don't like what is going on. That complain all the time, have issues, etc. They don't leave though. And pastors will start concentrating on those people. Instead of seeing the 95, or 495 or 995 that love them, that support them, etc.; they just see the 5. And it gets them bitter, puts their heart in a bad place, and makes them ineffectual. He says when he teaches, sometimes not everyone will welcome him. And people will ask him, "Man, how could you handle that crowd. They were so against everything you were saying" (something like that) and he will say, "Huh... I didn't even notice."

I think that was awesome... not just for pastors, but for everyone. Don't focus on the bad. Say you are a worship leader, or on a softball team, or in a job situation. Are you going to let one person that says, "You didn't enter in" or "you sucked today" or "You never know what you are talking about" effect your entire day, week, year? Are you going to let them control your life? Or are you going to listen to all those people who tell you how great you are, that love you, that think you are such a great friend. Are you going to listen to them and to God! and know who/what you are.

We all get so caught up in the negative, and give negative people such power in our life.

Anyway... Dr Jim already has me thinking... and things haven't hardly started yet. Its going to be a great week... A great week of non-technical learning. Of great heart learning. Soaking things up. Little by little seeds of wisdom being planted that will change my life.

Cool stuff.

P.S. sorry for any misspellings, grammer, typos, etc. Its 11:00 - time to call it a night! :-)

I agree

Good post by Vicky about people witnessing in comments where they weren't asked too. So many people miss the point (imo). How is that showing them His love...

Its a sister thing

In a comment Erika mentioned protecting Jaime from the owls...

The other night we (Tif, Brian, Tina and I) were somewhere and we heard an owl.

Tina: Too bad Jaime isn't here.
Tif: Why does she like owls?'
Me: No, she hates them. She thinks they are demonic or something.
Tif: Well yeah!

Tulsa

We're here. Trip out was uneventful (which is always nice on a plane trip). Got in, got to the hotel, called the kids (Tif and Brian are "the kids" - Jaime is "the kid") :). They came over in their new car and we went out to dinner then spent the evening back at the room playing cards. Was great to see them and catch up.

Going to spend today eating and site-seeing. :-)

I also spent some good time on the plane, airports and this morning while Tina was sleeping writting a C++ code generator in CLIPS. Fun stuff (for a geek). I should have it easily finished this week while I'm out of the office, so that is cool.

Well... gotta get ready, the kids are on their way over - also have to go filter through some of the 138 mail messages I got since logging off Friday night. Man... busy weekend for spammers.

Always connected

Don't know much of the technology/reliability/etc behind this. But it sounds kind of cool. Just open your laptop and you're on the internet from anywhere (anywhere you can get a T*Mobile connection anyway), for $29.99 a month.

More info on the card.

I missed that AT&T and Cingular were merging

Someone mentioned to me that AT&T Wireless and Cingular were merging. I didn't realize that... but when out on google and checked. Sure enough, quite a few articles popped up.

Tulsa

Tina and I are leaving for Tulsa tomorrow at 3:30 AM!!! Yikes. But it will be cool. We are going to the Impact Ministries Spring Leadership Conference. Should be very great. We are going a few days early to spend time with Tif and Brian for the weekend. Which will be awesome. I *think* I'm going to be on-line part of the time and posting... if I get motiviated to do it. Lately I've noticed when I'm not home my on-line motivation is fairly low. Usually goes something like, "Should I get on line, or... sleep/stare-at-the-tv/chill" with not getting on-line winning every time. But we'll see.

As a side note... Erika - take care of my baby! Or maybe its Jaime, watch over Erika... or watch over each other. Well you get the idea. Have fun!

The color of your info

Ev has a post on the color of your info. Interesting idea. The fact that it costs $7 seems prohibitive for something that is just "cool"... I'm not sure what you'd do with it for real. But still, and interesting technology.

Happy Birthday

My Mom's birthday today! Happy Birthday Mom. And tonight is the beginning of Spring. Coincidence??? :-)

BIC-TCP

This provides a little more info. And for those who really care, here is the paper (in pdf) they published.

News: North Carolina Scientists Develop Breakthrough Internet Protocol

Dr. Injong Rhee, associate professor of computer science, said BIC can achieve speeds roughly 6,000 times that of DSL and 150,000 times that of current modems.

Its not just *software* architects

So I'm having coffee with Steve (my brother) and a friend and we start discussing computer jobs. Steve is a fire-fighter and does part-time construction.

S: What is it you do again?
M: I'm a software architect... Using a Grady Booch type analogy... it is similar to building architects. Say I was building a skyscraper, I'd specify how the plumbing, parking structures, electrical, etc. all fit together and then other people would build according to that spec.
S: Oh... you're one of those. I hate those guys. They are always giving us plans that when we look at them we say, "Is this guy clueless? That isn't going to work". They have no idea how things really work, have never actually BUILT anything.

And so on. Well, its interesting to see it isn't just in the computer science field. That others see these same problems. Of course, it isn't industry wide. There are good architects (I hope I'm one), good designers, etc. Usually you run into this problem when you have someone that has never actually worked in the field. Software architects and designers who have never coded. Luckily I've coded (and continue to do so) and so know what we can/can't do, etc.

Anyway, made me laugh and also gave me insight into other fields.

Reuters: Spanish Election Tests Bush's Global Coalition

"I don't think Bush's aim is to lead a coalition. His aim is to defeat terrorism. The loss of Spain as a partner is a substantial loss. But even if we have to fight terrorism alone, we have no choice but to fight," May said.

I agree we have no choice, and I think his aim is the right one.

"The people of Spain had every right to get rid of their government and I also have every right to say that they have made a terrible mistake and handed the terrorists a major victory," he said.

Now, three days after a series of train bombings killed 200 people, Spanish voters have thrown out a pro-Bush government and replaced it with one committed to withdrawing Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq

Yeah, give in to them. That will help. So, if terrorists want anything else from Spain, they just kill another 200 people and the country gives in??? I don't get it.

Daniel and Lindsey's registry

In case you know Daniel and Lindsey and are going to their wedding... they are registered at Target and REI. (Maybe others, but those were the two that Nick knew about).

The modern age... ain't it great! Just click on the link, pick something out, and there you go. No fuss, no muss. :-)

Robots fail to complete Grand Challenge

Cool stuff. This is one of the areas of computer science I almost went into. Did some grad work in AI. Nothing in this exact discipline - just very introductory. But I always thought this kind of thing was cool.

Just a few times

Someone at work asked me today if I'd ever seen The Little Rascals.

Yeah... I've seen the remake (1994) a few times. When Jaime was little she had the entire dialog memorized, including the voices. You could ask her to recite any scene and she'd do it.

I think she watched it at least once a day, if not 3 times a day, for a few months. :-O

Clarification

Sunday someone asked me about the Winning the lost to Christ... NOT entry I had written. They were confused by it. When writing it I wondered if some might be, although I talked to Jaime and she understood it. If it was some smart-aleck post or something, I probably wouldn't bother clarifying... but the post was serious and the picture disturbed me when I saw it. So, I'll clarify.

• I don't believe condemning the lost, going to events with picket signs, etc., wins any souls. I think it is worse than a waste of time, I think it hurts the cause, because it doesn't show Jesus' love, it shows hatred. Even if that isn't the intent, that is how it comes across. I'm not judging the people that do it, I'm just stating how I see it.
  
• I understand the point of the picket sign is to say "God did not create homosexual unions, he created heterosexual marriages". I get that... But it can come across as hatred. And so I was just trying to state that God DID create every human being and that we are all His children... That is something we all need to keep in mind.
  
• This isn't a pro-homosexual marriage statement. It is a pro-people statement. We all (no matter what the sin) are his children. We may not all be saved. But His desire is that we are. And it is our job, in fulfilling the great commission to try and lead ALL His children to him, not just the ones we don't have issues with.

A little deeper than my usual posts... but I thought it was worth discussing...

Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I made Sun-dried Tomato Stuffed Chicken Breasts last night, and took some pictures of it.

Pics

Up at 4:45 this morning, so stuck quite a few pictures out on the web. You can get to them off my picture web page, which has links to the cruise, the wedding and some new pictures of Belle. The Topic listing contains repeats of the other links, just arranged differently.

Winning the lost to Christ... NOT

I'm sure a gay couple saw this, realized the errors of their ways and immediately got saved.

When will we learn to show the world His love instead of our disdain?

And as a side note... God did create both Adam and Steve. We are all His children, even if we don't know Him.

Life's been good

Listened to Life's Been Good on the way in.

Yup... Got the music blaring, hacking CLIPS, drinking Diet Mt Dew. Life's good.

The hazards of blogging

So I'm sitting in my cube, reading blogs, following links, and then trying to update my own blog, while I'm eating lunch. I read something, reach behind me and grab my sandwhich w/o looking, raise it to my mouth (still reading) and bite my finger.

I guess I need to take my eyes off the screen long enough to see what I'm actually sticking in my mount. :-}

CNN.com: GPS bicycles used to bait thieves

In Amsterdam alone an estimated 80,000-150,000 bicycles are stolen every year.

Remember 1957?

Yeah... I know most of you don't. Anyway, some sayings from 1957.

• I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, its going to be impossible to buy a weeks groceries for $20.00.
  
• Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long when $5,000 will only buy a used one.
  
• If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.
  
• Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?
  
• If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.
  
• When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage,
  
• Kids today are impossible. Those ducktail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls,
  
• I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying d**n in "Gone With The Wind", it seems every new movie has either h**l or d**n in it.
  
• I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas.
  
• Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday that they will be making more than the President.
  
• I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now
  
• It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.
  
• It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.
  
• I'm just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.
  
• Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes.. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to Congress.
  
• The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.
  
• There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend. It costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.
  
• No one can afford to be sick any more, $35.00 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood.

Elvish would be cool.

A very geeky comic. A glimpse into my life. :-)

Reputation

Your reputation, as a team that delivers well tested, on time, software is worth a ton. If you have a good reputation, people are willing to cut you slack, help you out if there are issues every once in a great while, etc.

On the other hand, if you always deliver late, always have bugs in your stuff, etc., people cut you little slack. At the first sign of trouble they reject your code.

I'm very glad we've worked hard to build a good reputation, and maintain it. It makes life so much easier when playing with others.

I'm sure this is something true in many fields - maybe not the same terms (on-time, low defect rate, etc.) - but generic terms like integrity, respect, etc. That's something the UofM was always very big on pushing in their computer science classes. Yeah... its important to get it to work, but the biggest goal is to do the right thing

CNN.com: Ear print database to finger criminals.

Learn something new every day.

Newsday.com: Gator Goes for Ride on Fla. School Bus

Hey Vicky, you'd ever do that while you were down there? ;-)

Update
I sent this link to my junk-mail list as well and got a reply back:

You know, I don't have a problem with that.
Done it myself. Not from a school bus though.
My mother used to stop for every alagator or rattle snake in the road.
Brought home many when we were kids. Killed them and skinned them.

:-)

NY NY Roll

Tried a NY NY Roll from AI Sushi today. Asapargrus, cream cheese, cucumber with salmon and tuna on top - and that orange "spicy tuna" sauce drizzeled across it. I'm not a big fan of cream cheese in sushi, but wanted the aspargrus. Not too bad!

Blogging can be career enhancing.

Traditionally I kind of ramble when I write. (Like that is news to anyone that reads this blog!). I always do very good on my performance reviews (praise God), but one thing my boss usually gives me constructive critisism on is my writting style. I could be more concise, less rambling, etc. Lately we've been exchaning information less via documents (of 100 to 600 pages) and more via the wiki... which is a collection of pages.

Yesterday on my review he said my writting was getting much better and he thinks it is because of the nature of the wiki. I think it is partly that... but I think it may also be because I'm blogging. How cool if this "hobby"/"thing I do", actually has helped me at work.

So... all you other bloggers out there... when asked, "Are you just goofing around?", reply with, "No... I'm improving my writting skills". :-)

I think the SVX is on its last legs

Have had some major work done in the last 6 months... and now it needs another $800 or so done. I think I'm just going to pour power-steering fluid into it for the springs/summer and then get a new car next fall. Well actually I'll probably take the Jeep and Tina will get a new car. Either way, looks like the SVX doesn't have long to live. :-(

Flat Tire

Friday, driving home from the movies and coming up powers, I hit *something*. I'm not sure what it was, but it made a big noise. I'm almost home when I turn the radio down low enough to actual hear something besides the music, and I hear a thump-thump-thump sound... That can't be good. I get home and air is leaking out of the tire. I spend the next hour or so changing the tire. (Yeah, mechanics is not my thing... although - hey, I changed it).

I take it to Firestone on Monday and they fix it along with some other things.

Me: hanging out in Firestone, waiting for them to finish
Mechanic: I'm not sure I can get this out. Points to metal rod sticking about 1/2 inch out of my tire.
Manager: Why?
Mechanic: Its stuck. I'm not sure what it is, but it isn't coming out.
Manager: Grabs it and tries to pull it out
Mechanic: leaves, returns with pliers
Manager: Grabs rod and starts pulling

I stand there and watch as it comes out an inch, then a few inches... and they just keep pulling. At last it is about 6 inches and it comes out.

Its a screwdriver! How bizzare!

Some cool little poems

Vicky thought these poems she wrote were a little odd... but I liked them!

Wow

Googled 'define: hypocrite' and one definition was:

One who, professing virtues that he does not respect secures the advantage of seeming to be what he depises". [DD] Among Christians, perhaps most evident in Fundies preaching while trespassing in Atheist chatrooms.

Nice

We are working Pharisee by Big Daddy Weave on the worship team. I went out to the web site the other day. The lyrics/music page has a song description, lyrics, guitar tabs and mp3 cuts of each song. Very cool. Its great when musicians do that.

c|net.news.com: As scandal dies down, MCI fights for a comeback

Discusses our offering for DoS and some VOIP stuff. Both of which I've come in contact with. And we are the ones offering them first with AT&T working on it as well. (Nice to be first in some instances).

Also talks about the state of the company.

Despite MCI's attempts to get back on track, some analysts are still skeptical. Patrick Comack, an equities analyst with Guzman & Co., said the cards are stacked against MCI. ... "MCI is under the gun, with so many negative forces against it," Comack said. "They've still got a very rough road ahead of them. The only recourse I see is to sell the company."

Well we'll see. Mergers (getting bough, whatever) has been good for our group in the past. But it is always a stressful time. Personally I hope it doesn't happen. Haven't heard anything, but we are usually the last to know.

c|net.news.com: GOP clerks nabbed Democratic data, says probe

the investigators concluded that many accounts on the Judicial Committee's server had been improperly set up by a novice system administrator.

I'd think that someone on staff would have a stinking clue as to how to protect their files. I've had more protection than this from day 1 of working, and this was to protect files from someone in the same group, let alone someone in a different poltical party. Like I'd leave it up to a sys-admin to set the protection! Well I'm sure their security will be a bit better now.

CNN.com: McSupersizes to be phased out

They are getting rid of supersize fries.

Auto-pilot

I'm a routine kind of guy. I put my keys in the same place every day, I put video's that need to go back right by my keys, etc. This way I don't have to think about (or remember) the small things. Which is good because I'm frequently thinking about work, church, etc. and easily forget to "take that movie back", etc.

In light of this, if I'm taking leftovers for lunch, I get them ready the night before, then I put my lunch box next to my keys. That way I won't forget I made lunch.

Given that, here is an example of how my mind works.

Get to work and realize "Hey, I forgot to bring my lunch in from the car". I figure I'll wait a bit and then go get it. As I'm sitting at my desk doing other things I realize that:

• I might have left my lunch in the car, or
• I might have left my lunch at home on the counter - (saw the lunch box, put the food in it, then set it down and left w/o it because I was in a hurry to get Jaime to work), or
• maybe I was in such a rush that I didn't even notice my lunch box, and thus it is still in the fridge.

Try as I might, I wasn't sure which option it might be. Did I remember putting it in my lunch box? Did I rememeber taking it out to the car?

The great thing about setting up things so you can do them on auto-pilot is that it becomes second nature and I don't have to think about it. Given I don't think about it (and given I brought lunch yesterday), there was no way I could recall what I did this morning.

Went out to the car and it wasn't there... So... it's either choice (2) or choice (3). At this point I have no clue which. I'm leaning towards (3) - left it in the fridge. Guess I'll know when I get home.

Its all about His love

Went and saw The Passion of The Christ last night. I was really worried about seeing it because I had heard so much about the violence, etc., that I was worried about how it would effect me. Violence usually doesn't bother me all that much. Perhaps a bad thing to say, but different things effect different people, and I like war movies, etc. Not slasher violence, or violence just for the heck of it, but I can handle "realistic" type violence I guess. Anyway, I heard so much about people sobbing through the entire thing, and as Tina said, "Heck, you cry at reality shows!", so I was kind of worried it would tear me up.

Oddly enough, it really didn't have that kind of effect on me. I'm still trying to figure out exactly why. Yeah, I teared up. In fact I teared up in the opening moments... and nothing had happened yet.

The biggest thing we are supposed to take away from this movie (from what I've heard from others, Mel Gibson and editorials) is the suffering that Jesus went through to pay for our sins. The struggle he went through to make a way for us to the Father. While that was very evident, I think what effected me the most was the callousness of the human race.

The two major controversies that I have heard are: a) it was too violent, and b) it makes it look like the Jews killed Jesus - and we'll all turn into Jew haters. And then a minor controversy was how much time the movie focused on Mary.

I don't think it was too violent. Yes, it was very violent. But there violence was less than actually happened. He was beaten and tortured so badly he wasn't recognizable (that didn't happen). Also his beard was ripped out in chunks (that didn't happen). So although there was a lot of violence - and in the form of torture, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I definitely wouldn't suggest taking a child to see it. I think a child can grasp that Jesus died for them, without seeing what people can do to another human being.

Does it make it look like "the Jews" were responsible for Jesus' death? Yes and no. Given that the city was an occupied city, I'm assuming that it consisted mainly of the occupying forces (the soldiers, etc.) and Jews. There were other people that traded and lived there, but I'm assuming most of the people that didn't look like Romans were Jews. Not every "common person" was against Jesus. Yes, when Pontius Pilot asked what should be done with him, there was a crowd of Jewish leaders and many "common people" that said to kill him... but there were also many people along the way that reached out to him, that had pity on him, etc. Was it because of Jewish people that he died? Definitely. Was it all Jews? No. And it was 2000 years ago! Its not like it was the person a few cubes over from me who is Jewish. So, it was some Jewish people that called for his death, 2000 years ago. On the other hand, looking at it from a spiritual point of view, it was everyone who caused his death. He died so that we'd be set free from our sin. From that point of view, I'm just as responsible as a Pharisee was 2000 years ago. So I don't get the whole anti-Semitic connection. I don't see how a reasonable person would go there. And if you aren't reasonable... then you'd find a way to hate someone anyway. You don't need this movie to do it.

As for the amount of time focused on Mary... I definitely wasn't done in a "she was a saint" type of way. It was showing her as something super-natural or special... other than it was showing the struggle a mother would go through, watching her son tried, tortured and killed. I think because the movie dealt so much with the torture, and because we all know "the story" so well, it didn't do much character development. It didn't emotionally involve us in these people's lives. I think it counted on the fact that we already know who Jesus is. That we already have an emotional and sported connection with him. Mary brought a "human" side to him. She got us involved... At least she got me involved. The pain and suffering she went through as she watched this. Not because she is a saint or should be revered, but the way she went through it as any loved one would. Especially any mother. For me, it helped make it real. This wasn't "just" the Son of God - who is supernatural and knew what he was doing and was willing to pay the price. This was someone who really was a human as well. Someone who was a little kid, fell down, scrapped his knees. Someone whose mom loved him with all her heart, watched over him and tried to protect him the best she could.

So, that is how I feel about all the controversial things. But what really got me about this movie was the callousness with which a human can treat another human. In one respect, I don't see this in my everyday life. Yeah, I hear about it, but I don't see it. The Nazi's were an example. The ancient chime's. The Romans. Saddam. But it isn't in my face. And it came in three forms. The Pharisees, the Romans, and the common person.

The Pharisees. People whose "job" it was to carry out the law and understand the love of God. How come someone in that position stand there and watch what they did to Jesus. Not only watch it, but ask for it? And then when they brought him back all covered in blood, rips all over his body, say, "Hey... that isn't enough. We want him crucified.?" It really got me how they just stood by and watch it and kept asking for more. And yet we as Christians do this all the time. We are supposed to understand the love of God. Not only are we supposed to understand it, we are supposed to show it to the world. And yet we gossip about each other, we tear each other down. And we go to the world and tell them how much God hates them. We picket and scream at people. We take people who are hurting, suffering, and we yell in their face and tell them they deserve to die. We drive the nail in deeper. And that is just because we feel we are just. Because they have come against God. They have blasphemed him in some way. At least the Pharisees were trying to protect their jobs.

And how could the Roman soldiers do what they did to him? Striking him over and over like that. Laughing and drinking as they ripped his body apart. But again, people do this all the time. There are people that do the exact same thing in other countries, when they torture people. Iraq is a great example of this. We have heard the kinds of things Saddam and his family did to people, just "for the fun of it." But we do it in more subtle (and not so subtle) ways as well. A group of guys get drunk and rape or "just harass" a girl. Not because they have anything personally against her, but "just for the fun of it." Or even a bunch of bullies beat up on some poor kid. Again, nothing personal, but just "to be cool" or for the "fun of it." Or even more subtle, a bunch of "a crowd" talking about someone else and making fun of them. Nothing personal, just "being funny". To the Roman's, it wasn't anything personal. They were just "having fun", "doing their job". We do it every day. They were no more responsible than we are.

And the common people. Some who reached out to him. Some that went along with the leadership. And some that just watched it happened and didn't want to get involved. Again... that's us. In so many ways, we see people in trouble and don't want to take the time to get involved or help. Or we see leadership (in many forms) do things wrong but we don't want to come up against them because of the trouble it might cause us. Would we have told the Romans to stop? Would we have gone to the Pharisees and told them they were wrong? Or would we have just "felt bad" for the person, but "there is nothing we could do"?

That is what struck me the most. I didn't cry that much... but I jumped a lot. After a while, every time they struck his body. Every time they hammered a nail. I jerked. It wasn't like they were physically hitting me... It was just, "Man... how can you do that?" And yet I know it happens in "real life" - both physically, and perhaps worse (because it is so much more subtle) spiritually, every day.

Sounds pretty bad. Does that make "us" scum? No it doesn't. There are good and bad in all of us. And above all else... He died for each and every one of us. He knew what we were like, and yet "while we were still sinners, He came and died for us." As He was getting beaten. As He was hanging on the cross... He knew. He knew how we'd reject Him. He knew how we'd spit in His face. But He also knew that some would turn to Him. That some would love Him. That some would reach out to Him and accept the gift that He freely gave. And for that He died. So that right now, right here on earth, we could have that relationship with Him. And that one day, He'd see each and everyone who accepted that gift, in Heaven. And to Him it was worth it. Therefore, we can't be all bad. In fact we must be pretty special.

The thing to do is remember the kind of love He showed us... and try to show it to others, rather than show them what the people showed him in his day. Their callousness, hatefulness, and just complacency. Instead show them His love.

Anything is possible... its only software

Finally, I fixed my homepage. I finally got tired enough of not seeing my "title" because it was replaced by ads. I added some code to automatically scroll the title page to the bottom (since the ads are at the top), and now my title appears again. I'm happy.

AP: Volvo Reveals Car Designed by Women

Cool... Only needs an oil change every 31,000 miles. That alone would make me think about getting one!

You're eating what?

Standing in the break room heating up leftover Stuffed Proscuitto Chicken Breasts from last night. A co-worker is waiting to nuke his cold pizza. My boss comes in:

H: Having pizza for lunch, huh?
C: Yup
H: And what are you warming up?
M: Chicken breast with leeks, smokey swiss cheese and provolone, wrapped in proscuitto with a chicken/sage sauce.

The looks on their faces was great. :-)

Wedding photos

Elizabeth has posted pictures of Melissa and Alan's wedding. Check 'em out!

Yum

Up at Mellisa's wedding this weekend and Elizabeth was talking about this blog and mentioned that she likes my recipes. I hadn't created anything new for a bit, so I figured it was time to try something new: a) because I started work at 4:30 yesterday I figured I'd get off early and do some cooking, b) I was in the mood to make something new, c) the pressure was on to blog a new recipe. ;-)

Made Stuffed Proscuitto Chicken Breasts last night. I was going to make Tarragon Chicken with sauteed Leeks and Garlic, but the store was out of fresh Tarragon! I then remembered making a chicken/sage/proscuitto dish before. So, I figured I'd combine the sauce (pretty much) from the Tarragon Chicken dish and add in some cheese. I was going to just do provolone, but then I saw the Smokey Swiss and though that would add a nice flavor as well. I didn't use the garlic in the leek mixture this time. Probably would have worked... but I already had the leeks, shallots, sage, proscuitto and cheeses... Didn't want the flavors to get too overwhelming.

Elizabeth - thanks for the "pressure" - dinner turned out great!

News updates

• CBSNews.com: Mars Once A 'Habitable' Planet - I'm not so interested if there was life there, but it would certainly be cool if there were the materials there to support life in the future.
  
• CBSNews.com: High Cort Ponders Online Porn - and of course the ACLU is totally against protecting our children.

  COPA's bludgeon suppresses an enormous amount of speech protected for adults. - ACLU

• CBSNews.com: On Super Tuesday, E-Voting Jitters: Probably still has some issues, but hey, its coming. Personally I think it is a good thing. Yeah, there are security risks - but we just have to protect against them.

My So-Called Blog

My So-Called Blog, from the NYTimes Magazine by Emily Nussbaum. Haven't finished reading it all... Blog entries (that I follow) have been pretty quite as of late. So I checked it out. Interesting look at what blogging means.

news.com.au: MP3 players for AK-47s

Just what every terrorist needs. An MP3 player for their assult rifle.

Checking in

Been pretty busy today. We went up to Melissa and Alan's wedding yesterday, which was pretty cool. (I'll have to post some photos). It was at the T's house and it was very cool looking. And the deserts were great (of course). I'll have to post some food photos as well. I got to see some folks that I hadn't seen in a LONG time. I was really looking forward to it, and it was very cool.

Anyway, didn't get back till fairly late and had to be at church at 6:00 AM this morning before coming into work... so its been a long day.

I probably wouldn't have posted other than *someone* told me yesterday that they get antsy when I don't post for a day or so. It is their daily blog fix. :-)

Ah... here is something funny.

My cell phone rings on the way to work...

T: Did you let the puppy out this morning?
M: No
T: Well around 8:00 I woke up and heard something downstairs. Waited a few minutes and heard it again. Went down and she was running around downstairs. I guess she opened the door to her kennel!

So... either Tina forgot to latch it tight (which she said she may have done), or Belle has figured out how to open her kennel door.

Hey... Jaime just called to see what time I'd be home because her and Tina are cooking dinner. Cool. Better go... catch ya later...

San Francisco Chronicle: Overseas listener on your call
Just because your call to a customer support center seems to end up here in the states, that doesn't mean it isn't being listened to by someone in India.

The biggest issue here seems to be that "confidential" info (such as ssn, etc.) may be getting recorded by someone in another country.

WotD: chestering

chestering (v) : to leer at, bother, etc. a young woman.

Context: Missions training.

Girls, do not go off alone with Chester to minister to him.
Girls, do not go off with a "nice" guy, no matter how nice. He might be "Chester the Molester".

Usage:
I'm about to drop Jaime off, there is a guy walking by.

J: "Don't drop me off till he walks by, I don't want him chestering me."

SpongeBob checks

For all you SpongeBob SquarePants fans... you can now get personalized checks.

If Morgan had a checking account I'm sure he'd be all over it!

The link showed me an ad for them... if you don't get it and are truely interested, I'm sure you can look around on their site.

The Cross

Vicky posted a quote by George MacLeod of Scotland (found the reference here).

"I simply argue that the cross should be raised at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the Church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town's garbage heap; at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek...at the kind of place where cynics talk smut and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died, and that is what He died for, and that is what He died about...that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen ought to be about." -- George MacLeod of Scotland

.
Wow... something we should constantly remind ourselves of, as "churchmen", and something worth thinking about in the context of The Passion Of The Christ.

BTW: Looking the above quote up on google gives a number of hits. Not all of them reference George MacLeod as the author... But here is an article that seems to support it rather well.

You can't fake the system. ;-)

So after reading my entry on the gender genie, it appears that Michael is having an Identify Crisis. In order to help him out I figured I'd test that entry...

Sorry dude, it is getting worse: Female score: 792, Male score 168.

Of course it was only a sample of 145 words and "Note: The genie works best on texts of more than 500 words." - so maybe you need to post something longer.

Yankee or Dixie

Another quiz. I am 44% yankee. Results were kind of cool. I always though I was heavily influenced by CA (where I was born and raised), but it turns out there is quite a big of Great Lakes influence as well as some Northeast.

1. Common throughout entire U.S., spoken by 75% of the population
   
2. Most common around the Great Lakes and into the northeast U.S.
   
3. Common throughout the entire United States
   
4. Northeast United States and Great Lakes, and west Coast
   
5. Most common to the Northeast United States
   
6. Common nearly everywhere
   
7. Common nearly everywhere ("you guys" favors northern)
   
8. All of U.S.; southeast not favored
   
9. Common throughout entire U.S.
   
10. This is a universal generic term used nationwide
    
11. All of the U.S. except the Northeast U.S.
    
12. New England and western Great Lakes
    
13. Favored in western Great Lakes region
    
14. Used nationwide and in southern urban areas
    
15. Common in Great Lakes area and Western U.S.
    
16. Used heavily in Great Lakes west through northern states
    
17. Used heavily in Great Lakes and Midwest region
    
18. This is common throughout most of the U.S.
    
19. Dont worry, this is a common response.
    
20. Midwest U.S.

Cool. I write like a guy.

The gender genie took this blog entry of mine and gave it a score of: female = 204, male = 464. Woo hoo.... I write like a guy! :-)

Go try it out. You enter some text, mark it as fiction, non-fiction or blog entry and then gender genie will tell you if the author was male or female.

Just for the fun of it I tried it with several blog entries from other people:

• Vicky - female - but her male score was pretty close
  
• Michael - definately female (sorry about that)
  
• Jaime - female score twice that of her male score
  
• Erika - female

It WAS a violent death.

Vicky makes a great statement about the violence in The Passion of the Christ. I totally agree.

Word of the day

At times, Jaime and Erika can be quite flibbertigibbety.

I think this is where he lost it.

From Average Joe 2 - Larrisa's "hometown date" with Jim.

L: What is your favorite book?
J: blank stare. Book? Umm... I'm not sure.
L: Well what is the last book you read?
J: Ah... I really don't remember. I don't read books.

I think that was pretty much the icing on the cake that caused her to eliminate him.

The Wizard of Oz

Vicky had an interesting post about how
The Wizard of Oz is an allegory to a political movement of the times.

Learn something new every day!

The Squirrelly is here

DefectiveYeti's baby has been born. Cute pictures.

How bizzare that I've never met this person, only followed his blog, and yet I clicked on the link, saw the pictures coming up and thought Aww... he's been born. How cool is that. I'm always amazed at the sense of community one can develope electronically w/o every really meeting the others in person.

CNN.com: British doctors revive maggot treatment

Hey... no surprise. God's way is the best way.

Is it who or whom?

On Erika's blog, Vicky gave an answer of whether to use who or whom (something I can never figure out):

Hey Erika I decided I'd answer the who/whom question for you. A good way to know which one works is to substitute who/whom for he/him or she/her in the sentence. If it's either he or she then it's who; if it's either him or her then it's whom. "Joyce is the girl who got the job." (She got the job). "She" works when subsituted so it's who since you wouldn't say "her got the job". "Mrs. Smith asked a psychologist whom she met in Florida." (She met "him" in FL). Also, use who when it's the subject of the sentence, and whom when it's the object. "Who is that guy driving?"--"who" is the subject; "The girls, two of whom are always late, were given detention"--"whom" is the object here. So that's it.

I figured it was definately worth posting - that way I can come back here when I'm having trouble remembering! Thanks Vicky!

A perfect description

Reading DefectiveYeti on Jaime's birthday and I come across the following Lost in Translation quote:

our life, as you know it ... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk ... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.

Yup... that's her. One of the most delightful people I have ever met.

Hey... I worked on that!

Caller.com: Area value firm flooded with calls for Oprah
Dialers thought they were voting in her show's 'Pop Star Challenge'.

Yeah... that happens a lot with AmericanIdol. Ryan Seacrest was just stressing that last week - "Don't dial 1-800-xxx-xxxx" it is an 866 number. Last week someone in MI got 2M calls!" Everyone laughed, but I bet he was serious.

and weirder

Why is it always when you get out of the shower, are dripping wet, and have blood running down your foot that you can't find a single band-aid in the house?

She's 17

My baby turns 17 today. How weird is that? Ok... so maybe it is going to be a weird day.

Love ya kid.

OK... that was weird

Sitting at my computer this morning, working. Look down at my hand and notice there is some dried blood on it. Hmm... wonder where that came from.... I look at my hand and it seems find. So I wipe it off.

A little later I'm sitting here, with my right leg crossed over my left, logging into a new window, and I reach down and rest my left hand on my ankle and feel something wet. Pulling it back I noticed it is all bloody. Hmm... guess that is where it came from.

Somehow I gashed my ankle and it has quite a bit of dried/half-dried blood on it. Not really sure how I did it, and it doesn't really hurt.

Hopefully this day doesn't get any weirder.

And then a little later I crossed my leg the other way (never realized how much I set cross legged in the morning) and rested my right hand on my leg and felt something... What the heck? There is a big splotch of dried-blood on my left leg which runs down it about an inch.

Ok... so I obviously gashed myself pretty good. Hopefully there isn't blood dripped through the house or something... Tina's gonna kill me. "Hey... how come there is blood trailed throughout the house?" "I cut my self but didn't notice."

How LAME is that?

ComputerWorld.com: AT & T Trips Up SCO

Interesting article on the SCO vs IBM war that includes an AT&T definition of their "derivative works" clause from 1985. Interesting for anyone doing open source, Linux, etc. work.

My next car

Here is my next car. It is a 4-turbo, 7-speed, 8-litre, 16-cylinder, 64-valve, 252mph supercar that can go 0 to 60 in 3 seconds. As soon as I save up the £680,000 it costs... its mine!

Parenting

Standing in the checkout line. Lady standing behind me talking to a child I can't see.

Honey, don't step on mommy.
Honey, don't do that.
Honey, now look what you've done, you've made a mess.
Honey, don't step on mommy with your shoes, you're getting mud on me.

Mother walks forward

Now precious, see you've got mommy all dirty.

I'm not sure I "precious" was the right word... For some reason parent's fail to realize that you can't always reason with a small child. They don't always have the social conscience to worry about approval, what is right and wrong, etc. Some times you have to just be the parent and just tell them what to do.

Styles of worship

Erika's post "Worship Styles--Including Guys Jumping Off Chairs" got me to thinking. I wrote a reply in FusionWorship. I believe it is important topic worth discussing... I may post more, plus I look forward to seeing if Erika, Jaime or Michael have anything more to say on the subject.

Valentine's Day

Not all is cheery in the land of teen Valentine's Day.

Why I spend so much time discussing "trivial" things.

One difference between designers and coders is that designers will discuss a trival matter for an hour... not because the matter at hand is that important... but because it represents a concept that is important and may come up over and over.

QuoteOfTheDay

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day." Noelle - age 7

Are you a geek?

If you read this and crack up while reading it... then yeah, you are a geek. And more specifically probably a developer.

Most people probably won't get it... but having been through similar things, I thought it was a crack up... in a "man... hated it when it happened to me" kind of way.

Ice Sculptures and Geeks

Pictures from the 2004 Budweiser International Snow Sculpture Championships. And for those that are interested, an article on Most Ambitious winner, which was created by a team lead by a math professor.

There is great hope.

I really need to get back to work... but I just read several of the teen posts. I may comment on them later, because they really are worth commenting on. But not enough time right now.

But basically what I wanted to say was:

After hearing Nichole speak on Sunday about being real with God and just being raw with him (wow... what an awesome way to put it) and then reading some posts by Pippin'sGirl, ArdentFueler and Is40Chick, I can say that my hope for the future has never been brighter. We have some an awesome group of youth and our church. And the thing that makes the future so bright (as a father and "pastor") is that our youth are GETTING IT. And they are getting it on their own terms and their own way. They aren't regurgitating what they've heard from some adult. They aren't worshipping God and building their relationships with Him based on our rules. Most of it I totally agree with, some I don't. But whether I agree or not isn't the important thing. The important thing is that they are figuring it out for themselves... And that gives me great hope that when they are out on their own that their own relationship with God will still be there. And that is just awesome.

Advice for expectant dads in the birthing room.

DefectiveYeti has a post about birthing films today. A large number of comments are advice from readers. Made me think of the advice I got from Millie in BigTimber MT when Tiffany was about to be born:

"If you start feeling faint, move out of the way and sit down. If you happen to faint and crack your head open... we're just going to let you lay there bleeding until the birth is over. It isn't about you."

I never actually felt faint, but I thought it the whole time.

Analogies, similes & metaphors found in high school essays

From TellMeAJoke.co.uk... These and others:
~ She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

~ Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long, it had rusted shut.

Sometimes I feel like that last one...

Jaime update

Jaime is home from the doctor's office. Tina said that the actual surgery went really well (Jaime is very brave), but she almost fainted and almost threw up leaving the office. They had to stop a couple of times. Turns out she does have some of my genes.

She is home, in bed, watching TV and petting the puppy. Love you kid!

Free will

The brother of a person I know died in a car accident yesterday, leaving behind a wife and child. At times like these people tend to either reach out to God, or get mad at God. "Why did God do this?", or "Why did God let this happen?".

Unfortunately God is not in control of everything. Blasphemy? No. Truth. Many people believe that God is in control of everything. It helps keep them sane. Gives them comfort. The truth is, God is in control of what you let him control. That is how he set it up. We have free will. Us having free will (the will to make the choices we want to make) is at odds with God being in total control of everything.

Our relationship as parents with our children is analogous to God's relationship with us, to some degree. As our kids get older and older, they get more and more "free will". The ability to make their own choices. When they are very little, we don't let them leave the yard. No matter how much they want to. As they get older, they get the ability to go places, drive, etc. Now if we never let them out of the yard, they'd never get in trouble - or at least get in a lot less trouble. But they also would have no free will.

I have no clue how this person died, and this post really has nothing to do with that... other than it made me think about people's relationships with God and how people tend to blame God when bad things happen. Bad things happen because there is a devil who loves to see them happen, and because sometimes we as people just mess things up. But why would such a wise and loving God set up such a system? Why would he have given up such control? Why didn't He keep control and keep us safer? The same reason we let our children grow up and move out. Because we love them. Because we want them to love us (based on their own free-will choices) and we want to see them grow up to be loving, producing, awesome adults. We don't want slaves. And neither did God.

So... He loved us enough to trust we'd do the right thing the majority of the time, that we'd love Him back, and He gave us the ability to do that... or to mess up our lives and the lives of those around us. And most of the time we don't want to accept that and take responsibility. We want to blame Him. But His only fault in this is that He loved us enough to give us free will and be responsible for our own actions.

Isn't that cool?

Jaime is going in to get a couple of moles removed today from her back. Not a big "deal" surgically, but still, not a fun time. So she is a bit worried about it. We were talking about it last night:

J: Well the one good thing is that I'm going to be able to look at something that has been on my back for years.
M: What?
J: Well they are going to cut them off my back and then stick them in a bottle. I'll be able to look at them. Isn't that cool?!
M: Well it would probably make me throw up... but I guess that is why you are going into nursing and I'm not.

She definately gets that from Tina and not me.

An example of what I do for work

As I've mentioned before, what I do for work is fairly uncomprehensible to most people. So... when I get a "real world example" I always like to share it.

Oprah's show on Monday is "Oprah's Pop Star Challenge with Simon Cowell" - Simon of American Idol fame. I don't have know all the details of the show... but it appears to be kind of like American Idol - with contestants and people calling 800 numbers to vote for their favorites.

Well, MCI is handling those calls (the traffic) and the system I work on is being used to help monitor some of that traffic. I won't bore you with the details... but our system will be receiving a record of every call made to those numbers and doing some analysis of them. (We aren't the system that is actually tallying the vote).

So hey... watch the show and call in. And my system will see your call. How cool is that? :-)

Trip report

Several of the previous posts are my trip report from the We Still Kiss cruise. Experiences, thoughts, revelations. I think that is about it. Other than I took quite a few pictures and will be posting some of them on my web site, with pointers to them here.

And there are several blogs I've read in the last week that I want to comment on, just haven't had the time yet. And since I've been blogging for about an hour, I probably should go do some other things that need getting done.

Hope you enjoy reading about the trip... and mostly I hope that some of the things make you stop and think and help you to grow in your walk (like it has hopefully helped me).

We are all in the same family

I'm done with the galley tour and Steve is upstairs in the Tahiti lounge doing Karaoke again. (There is a Karaoke spot in the talent show). I figure I'll see if it is still going on and give him some support. I head up the stairs, head down the hall way, and I start hearing what sounds like a bunch of people signing gospel songs. As I get closer to the lounge, I see this large group of people outside of the lounge, gathered around the piano. Steve and Lana are with them, and everyone is really going for it, singing hymns.

I ask what's up, and Steve says that this guy just started playing piano and people just started gathering around him. So I join in.

WOW. This was an awesome experience.

There are about 50 people gathered around the piano. The piano player is a black pastor who just sat down and started playing. The main guy leading us is a black guy with an incredible voice - maybe late 30's to mid 40's? I only mention they are black because sometimes... white guys just can't sing black gospel songs with *soul*. Don't give me your PC flames... you know its true. :-)

Anyway, this guy is leading us with HEART and PASSION. It was incredible. Here I am, on a cruise ship, standing outside a bar... and I'm worshipping God. I mean I can feel HIS presence and I'm entering in. If you aren't a Christian, this sounds like a lot of Christian lingo... Everything around you disappears, you aren't worried about what other people are thinking... I just kicked off my sandals, raised my hands, and went for it. It was awesome. And as it got closer for us to head for dinner (there are set dining times if you are eating in the restaurants) someone said, "We should get back together at 9:30 after dinner" and everyone agreed and we did.

One of the coolest things about it, to me, was the makeup of the people. Here is a group of about 50 people... Most of them older. They are singing songs most of which I've never heard. Yeah, I've heard Amazing Grace, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, and Battle Hymn of the Republic, but not many of the others. These are hymns. Not what I'm used to playing on a Sunday morning! And it was awesome. It didn't matter what songs we were singing. It didn't matter what church we went to, what denomination we were, what race, age or background. Our common bond was Christ and we were worshipping him and singing praises to him. It was just incredible.

And it made me think, just like it did when I was worshipping in Costa Rica. We are all one body, one church, the bride of Christ. And at times like this, it shows.

We hear a lot lately about reaching out to "the lost". About not judging them - "They are sinners... they sin." That Christ came for the sick, not the healthy. That is all good and important stuff. And I think we are learning and growing. But I think one area we still need to grow in is with each other. We ARE one body. We ARE one church. Yes, we have been hurt by each other. Yes, we have been hurt by the church. But we are still ALL God's children. There is so much tendency to judge other churches and Christians. To cut our old churches no slack because they have hurt us. To forgive the "sinner" but not our "brother" because - hey... they should know better. Get over it! We are all people. We all make mistakes. And we are all His children, trying to love Him the best way we know how, and walk our walk to the best of our abilities. Some in different ways, some through different methods. Feeling that you have found the "true" way, the "better" way isn't a bad thing... Just don't use it to look down on your brothers and sisters and make you think you are better than them. You aren't.

Something I need to remind myself of. Like they say, "I'm preaching to myself here." It is just so crystal clear in a situation like this. Yes... we are different... but are we all that different? No. We are all His children. And when we cut off all the junk and just focus on Him and worshipping Him, it becomes so apparent.

In Heaven there isn't going to be the "black gospel" group of people, and the "hymns" people and the "rock" people... there isn't going to be the "charismatic" and "baptist". There is just going to be "His kids" and we are all going to be joined together worshipping Him. When you experience that here on earth, it is a great reminder and so awesome.

Thanks Dad for bringing that together. I know you were looking down on it with such joy. And it brought us so much joy too. Love ya!

So... how's that working for ya?

Dr. Jim Richards, "One of our sayings we use quite a bit around the ministry and in counsoling is So... how's that working for ya?. A guy will come in and say, "My wife doesn't like sex. I opened the bible and showed her where it says "don't withhold yourselves from each other" and told her we are going to have sex and she is going to like it by GOD!" and I look at him and say, "So... how's that working for ya?"

We all cracked up. But it is so true.

"Why do people do something over and over that doesn't work for them, and insist that it is the way to solve the problem and continue to do it?"

If something isn't working... don't insist that it is the right thing to do. That you are right and it HAS to work. Find something that will work.

A great thing to keep in mind. Not only in relationships and ministry, but in every walk of life: in your job, school, etc.

If you are trying to accomplish something, and you aren't achieving the goal you desire, at some point you just need to stop and ask yourself, "So... how's that working for ya?". If it isn't working... maybe you need a different approach!

Seminar thought - its not about them, its about you

And on the other side... Point: Angel Curtis (Eastman's wife) was talking about how you can get so wrapped up in it being the other person's fault. They were going through a hard time and Jim came to counsel with them for a few days. He kept saying to her, "You aren't getting it. It isn't about Eastman. It's about you." and she kept saying, "NO. YOU AREN'T GETTING IT. IT IS ABOUT HIM". He did this. He did that. You don't understand. After a few days, it all of a sudden sunk in. "Oh... it isn't about him. It is about me." :-)

You can't always change the other person. The goal of a healthy, happy, marriage isn't to "train" or "mold" the other person until they are exactly what you want. Sometimes you have to look at yourself. Why do I respond to them that way? Do I have some issue that is making me feel this way? Is it fair for me to have this expectation, this desire, etc.

I'm not going to recap the seminar word for word, and I'm not a counsoler. But basically this point caused me to try and look at things in a new way. As I said, sometimes you just have to hear this stuff over and over before it sinks it. But what is starting to sink in is: look at my side, look at my responsibility, is there something I can do to change things.

Again, good stuff.

Seminar thought - its not about you.

Point: Sometimes our mate may say something to us in a really mean, angry, or hurtful way. The think to remember is that it isn't about us. Its not necessarily that they are so mad at us. It might just be their personality... how they handle things. It might be how they would speak to anyone they were mad at, had a confrontaion with, etc. What you have to do is listen to what is being said... not how it is said.

Realization: Good point. Sometimes (especially if you are a non-confrontational person like myself - and get easily lost in "how" something is said, rather than "what" is being said) we get all wrapped up in "that was mean", "you didn't say that every nicely" and miss the entire point. And sulk. Different people have different communication styles. If you can get past how something is being said, "They aren't being mean... at least in their mind. It isn't something personal against me. That is how they would say it to anyone", and concentrate on what is being said... you'll get further. You'll understand better and be able to better solve the siutation.

Also, a good thing for me to remember is that my wife is a pastor. That means she has to deal with people all day long... and depending on their personalities she has to treat them with kid gloves, walk on egg-shells, etc. In other words, worry about how she says something, as much as what she is saying. And the last thing she wants to do (or should have to do), when she gets home and something arises is have to go through the same thing with me. So she just lets me have it. ;-)

This isn't a whine. This isn't a "we argue all the time" (we rarely do). But I thought this was worth posting. Other people have spouse that are pastors, counsulers, etc. I thought it was a good revelation and something I took away from the cruise.

Get over yourself. Its not about you. Don't concentrate on how it was said and get all hurt over that... be mature and look into what is being said.

Good stuff.

We Still Kiss Seminar

The seminar part of the cruise was very good. There were some really good speakers. I always love hearing Dr. Jim Richards and Eastman Curtis. There were some others there as well that I'd never heard from before.

The thing that I've noticed before, and that really struck me again, is how wise Dr. Jim is. You sit there and listen and just realize how much wisdom he has. It is very cool. I also realized that, unlike most my college classes (or technical classes and seminars), I don't actually learn some logical fact, new way to do something, etc.; by hearing it and then thinking "Oh, that's how you do that". For instance, how to use a programming language, how to write a paper, use a tool, etc. This kind of teaching is different. It is something that causes a life change and a change to the heart. As such, it takes time to sink in. And some times it takes hearing it over and over.

That is why I like going to seminars with Jim Richards so much. Not because I can come home and say "Here are the 10 points to doing ...", but because it just keeps planting seeds. It just keeps putting something deep into my mind and heart that causing me to start looking at things and seeing things differently. It is an investment in myself and my relationship with not only my wife, but all those around me - in my family, work and minstry.

If you ever get a chance to hear Jim Richards speak, do it. And if possible, multiple times. Sometimes it takes a while for us to get it!

And Eastman was great as always. He is such a great speaker, so funny and entertaining to listen to... but not just that. He always has some great nuggets for you to pick up on and think about.

Cruise Food - gotta love the soup

The food on the cruise was the best food I've had on vacation. The place we've been going to in cancun lately is very good... but the cruise was even better.

Soup
The biggest surprise was the soup. I don't eat a lot of soup, and I pretty much only make creams soups, although I've been thinking I should branch out and try some others.

The menu on the cruise was different every night, and usually consisted of two or three soups. At least one hot and one cold. I love cold soups and "different" soups. I had one soup the first night and from then on had two with every meal. I had:

• pumpkin soup - room temperature with some asia seasoning
  
• chilled zuchinni in cream
  
• chilled leeche cream
  
• chilled strawberry cream with mint
  
• wild mushroom
  
• cream of broccilli and cheese

Argh... I knew I'd forget if I didn't write them down. Should have got a menu. If I remember more I'll add them.

Anyway, the chilled cream soups were excellent. Some very light and refreshing, some just a very cool combination of flavors - either from the main ingredient or from the spices they added. I looked forward every night to what new soup they'd have.

Pizza
There was a galley tour the last day and I went on it. There was about a 20 minute talk ahead of time, and then we went through the kitchen. The actual tour was someone interesting... but I've seen big kitchens before and they weren't doing anything that interesting (prepping plates for dinner mostly). But the talk was cool. Learned that cruise ships have the highest health regulations and they are surprise inspected 3 or 4 times a year. Also that all the food comes out of the US and is very fresh.

Besides the normal reastaurants and the buffets, they have a little pizza kitchen where you can get a slice of pizza (or a whole one if you want). I grabbed some pizza a few times late at night. It was pretty good (nice cornmeal dusted crust), but not gourmet or super spectacular. Someone asked, "How many pizzas do you make on a cruise?" and the answer was: "Well this cruise is pretty much a vacation for the pizza cook. There are only about 100 under 20 year olds on this trip, so he has only made 2500. During spring break when almost everyone is under 20, he makes... 50,000."

50,000 pizza... for 1700 people on a 5 day trip. Wow. Thats almost 6 pizzas a day per person.

NOLA - the food was great, finding it was a different matter.

We went to Emril's restaurant NOLA on our return from the cruise. It was EXCELLENT. Wow... everything you'd expect from watching Emril cook on TV.

We had reservations, arrived on time and were seated within a few minutes. It ended up being about $40 a person, without alcohol or desert. We all have appetizers and two of us had salads. We didn't get desert (although they looked great) because: a) we had been eating all week like pigs, and b) we were stuffed from what we had already eaten.

I had a mussel appetizer that was great and then a duck, spinach and goat cheese salad and then swordfish. Quality of food, uniqueness of flavors, and presentation was great.

Yahoo maps had stated something like "we aren't exactly sure of the address, but it should be close to the red star". Yeah... right.

We got off the boat, picked up a rental car, and then headed into the French Quarter. We walked around, had some beniegs(sp?) and at about 12:00 figured we better head to NOLA for our 12:30 reservations. Lana navigated and Steve drove. Looking at the yahoo map along with a local map, Lana got us closer and closer to the red star... which took us out of the French quarter, and into a side of town that looked seeder and seeder. At one point we were like, "Are we lost" and right then, in the grass median were a series of signs:

- You aren't lost!
- Keep going!
- Look around!

and so on. Turns out we were in a part of town that was getting renovated. One side of the street is new and the other condemned. At point Lana reads off the address, which is on Saint James Street. Tina remarks "Isn't that in the French Quarter?". I look at the paper laying on the console, notice that it says "cross street Chartres". At that point we head back into the French Quarter, find the restaurant is about 2 blocks from where were parked about 25 minutes ago, and get to the restaurant right on time.

It was quite the adventure. A good laugh and we ended up on time.

So... if you look at the address, figure out the cross street, you'll have no problem finding it. If you go based on yahoo... forget it!

That's my baby brother

First of several trip reports from our vacation last week on the We Still Kiss cruise with Dr Jim Richards.

So one of the things there was to do on the cruise was Karoke. I've done this once before (as reported on this blog) and that was enough. Tina made that fairly clear. :-)

Anyway, we went up to check it out because Steve said, "Maybe I'll do it." He has a really good voice, and is quite the extravert, so we told him to go for it. But he was a bit nervous... never done it before, what if I don't know the song well enough, etc. So we are up there and several people are "performing". Most of them weren't very good but a few were ok. Pretty much the atmosphere is people drinking, having a good time, talking and whoever is signing has a few friends clapping for them, people laughing, etc.

So Steve finally decided to do it, submits his form (here is what song I want to sing, what CD track it is on, etc.) and they call him up. He is doing James Taylor's Fire and Rain. He gets half way into the second line and everyone stops talking and starts clapping. He did excellent. I was very proud! He sounded so great. (Hey... at least one of us can sing).

Given that great encouragement he ended up signing probably 5 songs about 7 times over the next few nights. It was great fun.

This is the title

Blogger supports titles... probably has for some time, but I just noticed it. I usually have to put the html around my title. This makes it a little easier because it is in my template. Plus if I ever change how I do my titles, it will automatically change. This is even more helpful with my recipe blog!

Is this how people really get elected?
A spoof (perhaps) by DefectiveYeti. Unfortunately (IMO), people probably really vote this way... but that just means you end up voting for who you *think* other people will elect... I'd perfer to just vote for who I want.

Slow cooker Pot Roast
Made slow cooker pot roast yesterday before work. Turned out really well. Give it a try!

A holiday for leap day
The latest initiative from DefectiveYeti.

Freaks and Geeks
And in case any of you are Freaks and Geeks fans. They are releasing a DVD boxed set.

New recording studio software
Just saw a link to GarageBand. Looks interesting. A Mac is the recoding computer of choice... but I don't have one. I'll have to look into this more. Figured I'd post the link, cause I know there are some readers who are into recording.

Trying to get caught up
Back from a week off... so I've got two weeks of work to do. Just always seems like it takes a while to get caught up. I've got plenty of blog material (what with the trip, photos I took and some good blogs I've read recently)... but just no time to post. Maybe tomorrow.