Struggles

It seems, oddly enough, that life rarely goes the direction you would like it to. While my health has often been marginal, I have always pushed through and kept going- until now at least. Being confined to a hospital room for 4 days has a way of refocusing you. You have lots of time to think about the great (and not so great) questions of life. I have had time to reflect and review some of my fondest memories and most horrific failures. The early morning hours are hard as I lay awake waiting for the nurse to bring the next round of meds.

Yet in it all, I know that God has a plan for me. I may never fully understand why I needed a week off from work and a month off from any strenuous activity but I know that it will work out to my good in some way.

My friend Jim stopped by yesterday and reminded my of Lincoln's song - "God is good, all the time and all the time, God is good." I choose to believe this today and every day.

blessings on your morning

Where's Dave?

Dave is sick. Dave has pneumonia - both viral AND bacterial. Dave is in the hospital and will be there for a while.

Killer Gas Pump

Ok, so I pull out of the garage this morning and remember I am out of gas. I turn around and head out the front side so I can go to Sam's Club (not always the cheapest but the easiest access). I slide my cards into the pump, select my grade and set the handle to run until it is full. Pretty normal, right?

Wrong! When it finished filling the tank it all got a little weird. Normally, it clicks and the handle resets. Today it clicked and then the handle LEAPED OUT AT ME! It jumped clear of the car spewing gas everywhere. It flung itself at me and managed to slam into my leg soaking my pant leg with petrol.

I have filled my car probably a thousand times and have NEVER had a gas pump attack me.

Be very, very careful!

Prayer Request

A dear friend of mine recently found out that his mom is failing. Please pray for him and his sister as they face this difficult time.

Starting Up Again

Little League starts this week. We have our team meeting on Friday and I expect practice to start next week sometime. We are on the Red Sox again with Tim as our coach. This year we are in the minors which means that kids will be pitching (and we get more games at Richard's Field). We are really looking forward to a fun year.

Valentine's Day

We had a great time over the weekend in SF. Had some great food, went on a tour of Alcatraz, stayed at the Hyatt. One interesting thing happened Saturday night. It seems that there is a tradition in San Francisco for Valentine's Day. Every year on February 14th at 6 pm, thousands of people gather at the corner of Market and Embarcadero for a pillow fight. It lasts for about 90- minutes and tends to make a bit of a mess.

Party Likes It's 1234567890

For all you techies and Unix geeks...

http://www.1234567890day.com/

Do You Tweet?

I have been seeing a lot on the wire lately about Twitter (users are said to be "tweeting") and am trying to figure out what the buzz is about.

So....if you are a user of twitter.com, drop me a line and let me know why :)

Busy vs. Boring

Been doing data cleanup all day and cleaning up messes at work. I enjoy being busy but this week most of the busy-ness coming from other peeps mistakes. Oh well, I guess it all pays the same. Speaking of paying, our parent corp announced that they are freezing salaries for 2009 and cutting an additional 25% from travel etc. In the big picture this is much better than layoffs. Our company did well last year but had a very weak Q4 and are taking steps to make sure things stay "ok." :)

So if you have wondered where I have been hiding, look in the computer room....

Odds & Ends

I was wandering through the archives this morning and thought maybe it was time to do a little updating. I changed the link to Andy's blog (my future son-in-law) to the one he actually writes on (thanks Andy :). Check out the Pondering Evangelist if you get a chance. He has some wonderful musings on the Word.

I am almost done with taxes this year. I think I am waiting on one more receipt to come in before I finalize them and file. The good news is we don't owe this year. The bad news is that the bulk of our refund is due from the state of California who is not issuing checks at the moment.

We still haven't figures out what we will do for our anniversary this year. It will be 10 years on June 12 - truly does not seem like it has been that long :) Next weekend we will head to SF and retrace the steps of our 1st date. Regardless of the weather, I expect we will have a great time.

I reconnected (a little) with some of the people I used to work with at TCS. I guess I have finally let go of the resentment I felt for the way the company handled things. In the end, it truly was a blessings to leave there. I am so much happier back doing database work than I was fumbling and flailing as a manager.

My cold seems to have passed but, as per usual, I will be dealing with the residual hacking cough for a while. Tough to work out at the gym in the morning when you are up half the night trying to rupture a lung :(

I am really enjoying the biography of J. Hudson Taylor as well as the selected writing of C.S. Lewis. Some days I get caught up in comparing myself to great men of God and feel woefully inadequate. Fortunately, He reminds me quickly not to play the comparison game.

blessings on your day

Yet Another

Woke up in the middle of the night Saturday with yet another head cold. Barely got rid of the cough and sinus infection from the last one :(

Nate and Hannah rode up on the train Friday. It was nice to see them both. Dinner Friday night at the Blue Nami was really good. We love that place. The quality is as good as Mikuni's but the atmosphere (and price) are better. After dinner we went and saw the movie Taken. Very intense and quite good.

blessings on your day

Sunny Day

Was a nice, relaxing day. This morning, Emm and I had coffee with Curly-Sue. Ran a few minor errands and relaxed with my wife. I made stroganoff for dinner. We watched the season closer for Dr. Who and had a nice quiet evening. Josh spent a few hours with us so Brookie could nap. Was a grand day indeed

See ya' on Monday

Database Humor

copyright 1995 by Scott Adams, all rights reserved

Among the best (at least the top 5) Dilberts of all time.

Connection

All of the entries about communication really lead up to today's topic - Connection. The human heart is not designed for isolation. We are wired to be in relationships. Obviously the 1st one(s) are with parents and siblings. Later, as we grow we add extended family and friends. Over time some relationships fade and others form.

When our primary communication channel is unsuited for depth, our relationships remain shallow and superficial. I have a number of friends with who I have never met F2F (face-to-face). My relationship with them is, of necessity, not very deep. Yes I know, you can develop a significant friendship over the 'net - but it will never achieve the depth and closeness that a relationship will have if it is founded on direct, personal interaction (note that I did not say physical interaction).

The closest relationships that we as humans can have by choice here on this planet is with our mates. Regular, intimate communication; shared experiences (including children) and direct, personal interaction combine to build a powerful bond.

That same bond exists between a committed Christian and God. One of the biggest differences between the Roman Catholic Church and an evangelical church (like Bayside) is the emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus. God wants to meet you on a personal, intimate level. He isn't interested in canned prayers, routine liturgies or routing everything through a priest or other intermediary. God loves us (you) in the same way that a parent will love a child - absolutely, unconditionally.

Without the personal aspect, you might as well add Jesus as a friend on MySpace....

blessings on your day

Dialogue, part 2

The ultimate relationship and intimate communication is reflected in the picture above. The bond between mother and child is something that few (if any) men can experience. There are other relationships, however that can be as deep and as personal.

Jesus was relational. He would never have used text-messaging, IM/chat or MySpace. He would not use a mobile phone or send a letter. He was all about the personal touch. If He came today you would not find Him preaching from the alter at The Blessed Sacrament nor up on the stage at Bayside Church. You wouldn't find Him at the podium delivering the invocation for the inauguration. He wouldn't have revival meetings at Arco, post ads on billboards or write editorials for the newspaper.

Jesus would hang out in the mall, at Chavez Park, the kitchen at Loaves & Fishes, the marina. Jesus was not interested in priests, evangelists, ministers or theologians. He spent time with "folk" talking, walking and hanging out. He spoke on hillsides, beaches and in small gatherings.

He advocated relationships - relationships with your neighbors, your friends and your God. Jesus was personal not superficial. He went deep with anyone who was willing. He didn't send bulk mailings, tweets or mass textings. Jesus sat down with individuals and got to know them one-on-one. He didn't preach at them - He helped them.

In an age of rapid-fire, superficial communication, let us not lose site of what matters - people's lives.

blessings on your day

Dialogue

Yesterday I talked about my views on the way communication had evolved, especially as it is used by the "next generation." Today I am pondering the ways that is different from the way MY generation learned to communicate.

I grew up in an age where letter writing, phone calls and yes, Face-To-Face communication, was all that was available. I grew up in an era where communication came in 2 flavors - either it was a monologue and intended to educate and inform (TV, Radio, magazines) or it was relational.

Relational communication involves depth. Oh, the fluff, light-hearted sharing and surface interactions are there as well (ala FB, MySpace and texting) but it definitely involves getting into the other persons' life. Tapping into the superficial communication net is trivial once you are comfortable with the relational. My relationships with my friends and neighbors is based on spending time with them. Adding the FaceBook and other communication channels enhances that relationship.

The reverse is, in my opinion, substantially less trivial. When relationships are established on using the superficial networks it is a lot more difficult to become comfortable with the deeper, more meaningful styles. Many of our children have abandoned using mobile phones for actually making calls. I have seen statements where over 10K text messages have been sent and only 100 minutes (or less) used for actual voice communications in a month.

(to be continued....)

A New Meme

Today is the 5th anniversary of Facebook. It surpassed MySpace a while ago. I forget how many 100's of millions use it (or at least created accounts). My wife and I jumped into it recently because a lot of our friends are on it (3/4 of the neighborhood to be exact). It provides a way to keep in casual touch with people. It is good for relationships where you don't see or talk to the person; for keeping in touch with the trivia of a life that is across the globe; for building superficial relationships with people that you might otherwise not ever meet.

It is NOT good for building depth; developing meaningful relationships or actually touching the life of someone. It is however, the prevailing meme of our childrens' generation.

Casual, near-real time communication with many people simultaneously has reshaped the world. It has devalued absolutes (like truth, right-and-wrong), encouraged superficiality and created what for a lack of a better term I will call the hive mentality. Opinions are formed, discussed, codified and disseminated at the speed of light. Relationships (casual though they are) are formed and dissolved multiple times over the course of a month. No one will commit to an idea, decision or original thought without passing it through this network (hard to justify calling it a neural network as it is almost mindless).

We are becoming as bright as the dullest member of our personal network. It is easier to text, post or email than it is to actually think. We are becoming less of a people and more of a collection of insects.

Welcome to the future....

Goodnight Moon

Actually it is "goodbye sun" as it hides behind the clouds. They *say* we might even get a little rain out of this. Of course anything less than 2 weeks of soaking rain is pretty worthless at this point. I am dreading the summer - or rather the fire season. Last year it was so bad and smokey for so long that my roses went dormant. I suspect this year may even be worse.

pray for rain, my readers...

I Have Decided

I like my glasses. After about a week, I am finally getting used to the whole "progressive lenses" thing. I still have a tendency to move my head the wrong direction on occasion but it is getting better. I am trying hard to resist the urge to look over the top of my glasses.

Speaking of getting the hang of it, E is starting to use her FaceBook account. Looks like the neighborhood is wired.

blessings on your day

A Grand Day

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Brandi (with a J) and 'Toine hosted the Super Bowl party for the neighborhood. It was a blast :) There was enough junk food there to kill us all. I won't say who was sitting in Sean's lap but it really surprised us all.

At half-time we did the obligatory street-football game. A couple of the little ones got banged up a bit but fortunately nothing too serious. I am still stiff and sore as I was tasked with guarding Sean who is a pass-catching machine :)

Sad Passing of a Famous Legend

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave
site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded. Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart.

The funeral was set at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.