I arrived in Atlanta yesterday to begin training for my new job which, coincidentally, began yesterday. The folks I've met so far have been great and I think I'm going to like the new company. I'll be doing a lot of traveling over the next few weeks as I continue to train and meet people. Next week I will fly to Miami and then drive back to STL in my company truck. It's a long trip, but I'm getting paid for it, plus picking up a sweet perk.
The family is well, but we're all ready for Spring to actually arrive and stick around for a while. It's been a lousy winter in the Midwest; which, combined with being back in the South is making me more homesick than ever.
I read today that Dr. Phil isn't quite what everybody thought he was and that all the tweeners' parents are up in arms because Miley Cyrus bared her back in a magazine photo. I have a small bit of advice for these folks (who are, by the way, representative of all the groups, people, fanatics who get pissed off when their creations turn out to be just like them--human): GET OVER IT! How can you possibly take yourselves that seriously (which, in case you didn't get the obvious inference, is way too seriously) when your frenzied attention and voyeuristic mania toward any celebrity drives the machine that leads to these things in the first place. How can you possibly expect other people--especially 15 year olds--to live up to ideals that you can't live up to. I don't claim that I can live up to them--never did. But I'm not the one beating my breast and rending my robes about stupid crap that doesn't matter--at least not right now. And I'll bet you my next 6 months salary that not one of you utters a word if Miley shows up in a photo in some teen mag that shows her hanging out with her pals in a two piece bathing suit (again, for those who have no grasp of the obvious, she would be showing a hell of a lot more skin than she did in the Vanity Fair pic). In fact, my guess is that most of you with daughters have bought them two piece suits, many of which leave very little to the imagination. It's all like some guy who builds a giant crap making machine and then gets mad as hell when he ends up with crap all over himself. How many folks who are so overwrought with Miley leave your kids at home unsupervised with a computer and a high speed internet connection (I'm not even going to explain that one to you. If you don't get that one it's hopeless).
I can't believe how angry this makes me. Get over yourselves. Stop idolizing human beings. Stop being freaked out and stupid when humans act like humans.
Aargh.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
General Ramblings
I've been doing a lot of work on my youngest's room while I'm off this week; not that you care, but I say that to say this. While I was working on it this morning my wife had the TV on in the other room and I could hear The View playing in the background. From the time the show signed on until the second commercial break, they were arguing about whether or not black people should vote for Obama because he's black or if black women (and women in general) should vote for Clinton because she's a woman, which would trump the race issue because they're more emotionally committed to the gender issue.
I keep trying to imagine a scenario that would make me care what they (or any other of the teaming hordes of pop culture figures out there today for that matter) think about politics. They may or may not be well informed and thoughtful. But if I cannot make up my own mind based on my own ability to reason and respond with any more efficiency than to require their input I believe that I will just not vote.
I also keep trying to figure out where in time our country became so ridiculously captivated by every little nuance of the lives of famous people. We and the pop culture media have robbed them of their lives and privacy and someone seems to have stolen our desire to be intellectually relevant; or to at least not be intellectually dormant. We have become a nation of stalkers who live vicariously through the lives of people who are often emotionally frail and, quite frankly, not all that crapping interesting outside of the fact that they got rich and famous.
Enjoy the people around you. Idolize the heroes in your community. Live your life, not someone else's.
Pray for peace.
Mike
I keep trying to imagine a scenario that would make me care what they (or any other of the teaming hordes of pop culture figures out there today for that matter) think about politics. They may or may not be well informed and thoughtful. But if I cannot make up my own mind based on my own ability to reason and respond with any more efficiency than to require their input I believe that I will just not vote.
I also keep trying to figure out where in time our country became so ridiculously captivated by every little nuance of the lives of famous people. We and the pop culture media have robbed them of their lives and privacy and someone seems to have stolen our desire to be intellectually relevant; or to at least not be intellectually dormant. We have become a nation of stalkers who live vicariously through the lives of people who are often emotionally frail and, quite frankly, not all that crapping interesting outside of the fact that they got rich and famous.
Enjoy the people around you. Idolize the heroes in your community. Live your life, not someone else's.
Pray for peace.
Mike
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Invitations
I have a bit of a quandary that I've been pondering. We have simultaneous services at our church; one is live with the pastor and the other is broadcast closed circuit to another building on the church campus. The remote service has a live band on stage for worship and I act as host to facilitate the service. At the end of each service they have an 'invitation' at the live service and we stop the feed and do our own invitation live.
(I'll take a second in case you aren't familiar with the concept of the invitation at church to explain. After the sermon, the band/choir leads in congregational singing while the pastor invites those who are led and willing to come forward and be saved, accept Christ, be converted--whichever term you are comfortable with. Or you can come down and request membership or pray, etc.)
I'd like to ask anyone who reads this to let me know what you think about the concept. I think ours needs to change somehow--maybe radically; maybe even go away--but I'm not sure what needs to be done. If you have some ideas that you think would be cool, or maybe something you've seen done somewhere that seemed to work well please leave a comment and let me know. If it's going to be done it should be a time that evokes response. One thing that makes it hard is being away from the live sermon, but that may not be true either. Who knows? I'm just trying to get some dialogue going and see if we can figure something out. Becoming a follower of Christ is the most important decision anyone will ever make, and I would like to be able to figure out a way to help them take that step.
Post your comments and let's see what comes up.
Mike
(I'll take a second in case you aren't familiar with the concept of the invitation at church to explain. After the sermon, the band/choir leads in congregational singing while the pastor invites those who are led and willing to come forward and be saved, accept Christ, be converted--whichever term you are comfortable with. Or you can come down and request membership or pray, etc.)
I'd like to ask anyone who reads this to let me know what you think about the concept. I think ours needs to change somehow--maybe radically; maybe even go away--but I'm not sure what needs to be done. If you have some ideas that you think would be cool, or maybe something you've seen done somewhere that seemed to work well please leave a comment and let me know. If it's going to be done it should be a time that evokes response. One thing that makes it hard is being away from the live sermon, but that may not be true either. Who knows? I'm just trying to get some dialogue going and see if we can figure something out. Becoming a follower of Christ is the most important decision anyone will ever make, and I would like to be able to figure out a way to help them take that step.
Post your comments and let's see what comes up.
Mike
Unemployed
I am technically without a job as I wait for the new gig to become official. Having the week off is nice, though. And I've already got a travel schedule set for next week. It's very exciting to be embarking on something new again. It's been a while since I've had a big change like this and I'm ready for it.
You can check out the new company, UtilX, at their website.
You can check out the new company, UtilX, at their website.
Charter, Again
We're back with Charter for internet again. Here's the stupid thing; I call on Friday and I'm hooked up on Monday--one business day for lead time. If they had done that in the first place we never would have canceled! And, I only wanted the internet service but it was $12 cheaper to buy internet and basic cable instead of internet alone. So now I have basic cable that isn't even hooked up to anything. Is it just me, or does that seem a little retarded?
Friday, April 18, 2008
AT&T Sucks Too
A while back I was ranting about how mad we were at Charter for all the problems we were having with our internet connection, so we switched to AT&T. Bad move. Slow connection and I am pretty sure they have an entire department whose only job is to make it so difficult and burdensome to contact them about any kind of customer service issue that people will just get so pissed off waiting and wading through endless automated electronic menus that they will just hang up. Well, next week they will discover that I am more than patient enough to stay on there long enough to cancel their service. Phttbb.
By the way, what happened to calling up a business and talking to an actual person? I mean, who decided that the best way to deal with people was by not dealing with them? I called my doctor the other day and after 5 minutes of menu driven madness I was finally able to leave a message! Thank God I wasn't sick.
Is it possible to love gadgets but hate technology?
Mike
By the way, what happened to calling up a business and talking to an actual person? I mean, who decided that the best way to deal with people was by not dealing with them? I called my doctor the other day and after 5 minutes of menu driven madness I was finally able to leave a message! Thank God I wasn't sick.
Is it possible to love gadgets but hate technology?
Mike
Clarity
Ever have one of those moments when you actually recognize, however briefly and fleetingly, that you are very blessed? It's like the noise fades into the blackground and for a few seconds there's clarity. You realize that you have great kids who make you proud; that you love your wife; that you have good friends and that your faith is real. You are blessed. Store that moment away and bring it back later when it seems like everything is sucking. It's not a cure, but it helps.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
China and the American Conscience
This will seem very obscure and obtuse to many people, but there are some important questions that we need to ask about China that our government (read "big business interests") are not likely to ask. And the answers are not so black and white as many would suggest (as is often the case).
First, it's somewhat perplexing that several years ago the IOC (International Olympic Committee) chose to award the largest sustained spectacle on the world stage to a country that has a documented record of failure in terms of human rights. I think that perhaps part of the reasoning runs along the lines of applying pressure on the government to make positive changes because of the intensified public scrutiny that will, by definition, be applied as a result of being chosen. On the other hand, there is also the valid assertion that to award the Olympics to a country like China is tantamount to endorsing their behavior. I can see both sides and my allegiances are split between the two. I suspect that had I been given the power to decide, I would have given the games to another country (was Great Britain the other finalist?).
What's frustrating to me is the systemic commitment by the Chinese government to denying basic safety assurances to the workers producing the tens of millions of products that are shipped from there to the rest of the world each year--a huge percentage of which come to America. Our businesses close production facilities here (often after being coerced by WalMart--but that's a subject for a different post) and produce their products in China where workers make a few dollars a day and live in squalor. They're forced to work 12 or 16 hour shifts in factories with virtually no safety oversight. Broken bones and amputations are commonplace (e.g. one particular factory assembly line averages 40,000 broken or amputated fingers per year--that's just one factory). Several hundred thousand--yes, thousand--workers died there last year from exposure to poisonous chemicals and dusts in their workplace. Where oversight does exist, it is typically corrupt.
Not everyone--not even all businesses--ignores this. But those who don't (the businesses, I mean) only respond under pressure from consumers; not out of any real sense of ethical responsibility. Most of our businesses and the government as well (is there still a difference?) ignore the atrocities in favor of the profits. Lots of small and medium sized companies are forced into importing from China because they can't compete otherwise. As a result, good paying jobs in America, where safety and benefits are protected, are gone and we become increasingly dependent on a service based economy which will eventually consume itself (again, a subject for another post).
Sub-poverty wages, substandard housing, zero benefits, not just unsafe, but dangerous, working conditions, sixteen hour workdays--all these things are just another day in the life for millions of Chinese workers. Where is our outrage? It only exists when the danger spills over into our country in the form of tainted or dangerous products. Apparently, our safety is more valuable than theirs; our lives more worth saving.
Check out a good editorial on this subject at www.ishn.com.
I realize this is a break from my normal subject matter, but it is what I do for a living (as noted in my profile).
Pray for China and for peace.
Mike
First, it's somewhat perplexing that several years ago the IOC (International Olympic Committee) chose to award the largest sustained spectacle on the world stage to a country that has a documented record of failure in terms of human rights. I think that perhaps part of the reasoning runs along the lines of applying pressure on the government to make positive changes because of the intensified public scrutiny that will, by definition, be applied as a result of being chosen. On the other hand, there is also the valid assertion that to award the Olympics to a country like China is tantamount to endorsing their behavior. I can see both sides and my allegiances are split between the two. I suspect that had I been given the power to decide, I would have given the games to another country (was Great Britain the other finalist?).
What's frustrating to me is the systemic commitment by the Chinese government to denying basic safety assurances to the workers producing the tens of millions of products that are shipped from there to the rest of the world each year--a huge percentage of which come to America. Our businesses close production facilities here (often after being coerced by WalMart--but that's a subject for a different post) and produce their products in China where workers make a few dollars a day and live in squalor. They're forced to work 12 or 16 hour shifts in factories with virtually no safety oversight. Broken bones and amputations are commonplace (e.g. one particular factory assembly line averages 40,000 broken or amputated fingers per year--that's just one factory). Several hundred thousand--yes, thousand--workers died there last year from exposure to poisonous chemicals and dusts in their workplace. Where oversight does exist, it is typically corrupt.
Not everyone--not even all businesses--ignores this. But those who don't (the businesses, I mean) only respond under pressure from consumers; not out of any real sense of ethical responsibility. Most of our businesses and the government as well (is there still a difference?) ignore the atrocities in favor of the profits. Lots of small and medium sized companies are forced into importing from China because they can't compete otherwise. As a result, good paying jobs in America, where safety and benefits are protected, are gone and we become increasingly dependent on a service based economy which will eventually consume itself (again, a subject for another post).
Sub-poverty wages, substandard housing, zero benefits, not just unsafe, but dangerous, working conditions, sixteen hour workdays--all these things are just another day in the life for millions of Chinese workers. Where is our outrage? It only exists when the danger spills over into our country in the form of tainted or dangerous products. Apparently, our safety is more valuable than theirs; our lives more worth saving.
Check out a good editorial on this subject at www.ishn.com.
I realize this is a break from my normal subject matter, but it is what I do for a living (as noted in my profile).
Pray for China and for peace.
Mike
Farewell to Friends (sort of)
With only 3 days left at Ameren (my current employer), I want to say that, even though I am very excited about the new opportunity we are being given by UtilX, my time at Ameren has been great. I've made some incredible friends and have had opportunities to learn, grow and influence people and am a better human being for it. No company is perfect and I think they are still struggling to find their new identity in the 21st century, but I have no regrets and few complaints. I wish them all the best and will miss them.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
New Job
I got the phone call Friday from Seattle and they have offered me the job...woohoo! We took the weekend to think it over, but we had really already made up our minds about it. I'll be talking to the VP tomorrow to accept the position. We'll still be living in St. Louis, but I'll have to travel a bit. But when I'm not traveling I'll be working from home. I'm looking forward to the change. My current job is solid, but it's time to move on.
More later; just wanted to get that out there.
Mike
More later; just wanted to get that out there.
Mike
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Troop Support
I'm in Seattle for a couple of days and when I travel I like to catch the local news to see what people have going on in different parts of the country. You can tell a lot about what the people of a region think is important by what's communicated to them. One thing I've noticed that's common to most everywhere I've been is reports of local men and women who are killed in combat. Almost every place has been touched by our current war in some way and the local stories are important to people.
I try not to get too political on this forum, although I'm not sure why. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I want it to be an opportunity for dialogue (although I have no clue how many people might ever see any of it) and politics is a polarizing topic. We've made it something that mandates rigid choices and denies the opportunity for dialogue. That's a shame, really. Although I do talk a lot about faith and many people want that to be a polarizing topic as well; when what really seperates us is trying to talk about religion. They aren't the same thing.
Back to the war--and what I really want to say about it is also about faith (religion?). So many of the people that I interact with--at my church and at others--have this basic assumption that if you are someone who claims to be an evangelical Christian then you have to be a Republican and that in so doing you have to blindly support whatever comes from the party, and especially this administration (Bush). To them, anyone who does otherwise is not a patriot and just may not even be a Christian.
Here's a couple of clues for those folks. First, Jesus was a peacemaker and he made it a point to specifically tell us that peacemakers will be blessed. Does that mean that I am a pacifist or that I believe that the Bible teaches that all war is wrong? No. But I think we (humans, Christians) better be very careful about how we choose to enter into armed conflict and aggression and how we choose to support such acts. Augustine laid out some very Biblical tenets for evaluating whether or not such actions can be considered "just" and they are just as valid today as when he wrote them several hundred years ago. I'm not going to revisit the theology or the academic treatments of what he wrote, but if you're interested just Google 'Augustine just war criteria" and you'll have enough material to keep you busy for a while.
Part 2 is that our current involvement in Iraq does not meet Augustine's (or anyone else's) criteria for a 'just war'. Over 4000 of our men and women, many of them National Guard and Reserve soldiers, have died on foreign soil since the first attack. The reasons for us being there in no way minimizes their sacrifice. They do what they do in the name of their country, their families, democracy and, in many cases, their faith. I pray for them and their families often. Now that they are in this situation I understand that they need the full support of all of us--most of all their government (which, by the way, hasn't been very forthcoming; especially for the survivors, wounded or otherwise; what does that say about patriotism and motives?). What our being there should do, especially for Christians and especially under the circumstances (hidden agendas, lies, profiteering), is demand that we ask why. We should ask it again and again and again until we get a real answer and not a truck load of political BS and excuses.
If you read this and it pisses you off then do me a favor before you comment--read about just war, read about what happened leading up to our invasion and think about it for a while for yourself. Don't write and recite what your pastor or somebody else told you was the truth. Figure it out for yourself. If you still disagree with me--that's cool. Let's have a dialogue about it, not an argument. I've learned the hard way that I'm not always right, but I've also learned that it's OK for us to disagree and that we can talk about things and still be friends, still respect each other. And I've also learned that the church is not always right, even though getting it to admit such a thing is harder than juggling chain saws. If you don't believe me just read the post from last night about WBC in Topeka--especially what they say about why our troops are dying in Iraq. That's something you should really be pissed about.
Whether you are for the war or against it, I think we can all agree that peace is better. Pray for it and pray for our kids' safety while we wait for it.
Mike
I try not to get too political on this forum, although I'm not sure why. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I want it to be an opportunity for dialogue (although I have no clue how many people might ever see any of it) and politics is a polarizing topic. We've made it something that mandates rigid choices and denies the opportunity for dialogue. That's a shame, really. Although I do talk a lot about faith and many people want that to be a polarizing topic as well; when what really seperates us is trying to talk about religion. They aren't the same thing.
Back to the war--and what I really want to say about it is also about faith (religion?). So many of the people that I interact with--at my church and at others--have this basic assumption that if you are someone who claims to be an evangelical Christian then you have to be a Republican and that in so doing you have to blindly support whatever comes from the party, and especially this administration (Bush). To them, anyone who does otherwise is not a patriot and just may not even be a Christian.
Here's a couple of clues for those folks. First, Jesus was a peacemaker and he made it a point to specifically tell us that peacemakers will be blessed. Does that mean that I am a pacifist or that I believe that the Bible teaches that all war is wrong? No. But I think we (humans, Christians) better be very careful about how we choose to enter into armed conflict and aggression and how we choose to support such acts. Augustine laid out some very Biblical tenets for evaluating whether or not such actions can be considered "just" and they are just as valid today as when he wrote them several hundred years ago. I'm not going to revisit the theology or the academic treatments of what he wrote, but if you're interested just Google 'Augustine just war criteria" and you'll have enough material to keep you busy for a while.
Part 2 is that our current involvement in Iraq does not meet Augustine's (or anyone else's) criteria for a 'just war'. Over 4000 of our men and women, many of them National Guard and Reserve soldiers, have died on foreign soil since the first attack. The reasons for us being there in no way minimizes their sacrifice. They do what they do in the name of their country, their families, democracy and, in many cases, their faith. I pray for them and their families often. Now that they are in this situation I understand that they need the full support of all of us--most of all their government (which, by the way, hasn't been very forthcoming; especially for the survivors, wounded or otherwise; what does that say about patriotism and motives?). What our being there should do, especially for Christians and especially under the circumstances (hidden agendas, lies, profiteering), is demand that we ask why. We should ask it again and again and again until we get a real answer and not a truck load of political BS and excuses.
If you read this and it pisses you off then do me a favor before you comment--read about just war, read about what happened leading up to our invasion and think about it for a while for yourself. Don't write and recite what your pastor or somebody else told you was the truth. Figure it out for yourself. If you still disagree with me--that's cool. Let's have a dialogue about it, not an argument. I've learned the hard way that I'm not always right, but I've also learned that it's OK for us to disagree and that we can talk about things and still be friends, still respect each other. And I've also learned that the church is not always right, even though getting it to admit such a thing is harder than juggling chain saws. If you don't believe me just read the post from last night about WBC in Topeka--especially what they say about why our troops are dying in Iraq. That's something you should really be pissed about.
Whether you are for the war or against it, I think we can all agree that peace is better. Pray for it and pray for our kids' safety while we wait for it.
Mike
We'll soon know
One more interview to go and then it's just wait and see. I met with one of the regional managers and the VP today and will be meeting with the senior safety specialist tomorrow and then all I can do is wait to see if they offer me the job. Everything so far has been very positive and I'll be surprised if they don't offer it; then it's just a matter of agreeing on the terms--salary, vacation, benefits, etc. I don't foresee any problems with that part either.
It's kind of scary to be changing companies at this stage in my life--especially after being with my current employer for over 15 years. But, the opportunities with the new company will be much better, whether we're talking about finally being able to move back down South or being able to move up within the organization. It's very exciting; I'm even looking forward to the travel, especially since it will involve opportunities to go overseas--probably within the next year and a half to two years. They have operations in Australia, Japan, India, Korea, Europe...
Wow. Life can sure change in a hurry. God's always good, this is just one of those times when it's easier to celebrate what's going on.
Pray for Peace.
Mike
It's kind of scary to be changing companies at this stage in my life--especially after being with my current employer for over 15 years. But, the opportunities with the new company will be much better, whether we're talking about finally being able to move back down South or being able to move up within the organization. It's very exciting; I'm even looking forward to the travel, especially since it will involve opportunities to go overseas--probably within the next year and a half to two years. They have operations in Australia, Japan, India, Korea, Europe...
Wow. Life can sure change in a hurry. God's always good, this is just one of those times when it's easier to celebrate what's going on.
Pray for Peace.
Mike
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Lord, Help Us
I've been hearing about the website for the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, KS. Their web address is 'Godhatesfags.com'. I finally visited the site because I had to see for myself if it was as bad as I had heard. Sadly, it was worse. It's no wonder people look at the church and see bad things. I don't think it's because the church is full of bad people, but the churches that seem to get the publicity--or, at least, the kind of publicity that most folks remember--are the ones that make God the saddest. In their own words they "insist that the sovereignty of God and the doctrines of grace be taught and expounded publicly to all men." Wow. How could they have any idea of what grace really is? Any so-called Christian who uses the word 'hate' in reference to another human being has never read any of the letters that John wrote because, according to John, as soon as you hate someone else you condemn yourself. You declare yourself to be a liar; someone who has no clue who God is. WBC even has links to other sites such as 'God Hates Canada', 'God Hates Sweden', 'God Hates Mexico', 'God Hates Ireland', 'God Hates America' and 'Priests Rape Boys'. WBC does not know God. And guess what? We still have to love the people of Westboro; no matter how much hate and venom they spew or how much they tarnish the church and, worse by far, the name of God. Man, Jesus was right when he said this wouldn't be easy.
Pray for WBC.
Mike
Pray for WBC.
Mike
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