Here and Now

Morguefile: keyword leap, edited Inspired by someone else but... It only comes around once every four years. So do something special today - something you NEVER do. Live out loud today. Love generously today. Whatever.  Just. Do. Something.

So Sunday morning I preached on  Mark 4:35-41  and my messaged go through a lot of editing these days.  Since we plan out the series weeks in advance, I get to read and re-read the passage many times, I get to dive into commentaries and read other sermons (because of the preaching schedule we work here, I "off weeks" as well, so I can devote more time to study and preparation than I used to). So one thing that often means is that I have to cut out whole sections of the message that, while good, relevant, possibly even important - if they aren't core to the message, I do my best to excise them (though sometimes I confess I hold  on to ideas from earlier drafts just because I like the ideas...sigh, I'm a work in progress). Anyway, all that is a prelude to this (which will probably be shorter than the prelude): Reading the passage in Mark and the disciples, as one of my friends put it, "Calling Jesus out" about sleeping while the boat seems to be sinking...

We just watched Contact  with the girls - I had forgotten how much I liked the movie* and Rachel had been reluctant to watch it - but quickly became engrossed in the plot. But here's what happened to me.  We're about half way through, and my mind starts doing this: Okay - so, Contact is the first contact... but, no, go back - to 2001 - no, first I ndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull , right?  THEN 2001 (covert gov't operation - failure) THEN Contact ...and then, let's see, Close Encounters is the first Visit... then 2010 maybe? - and then possibly something like Red Planet or Mission to Mars ? then Moon (kinda obscure movie, but...) then maybe something like The Day The Earth Stood Still ?  then, hmmm, Independence Day is the BIG invasion - but we whup them...and some survive so we lock them in District 9 - and steal some of their technology - which gets us in space - and something like Event Horizon ... so then you can throw Outland in th...

Not my image - used without permission So... I'm a geek, yeah, and I really like Star Wars (and, poor kid, Elie does too...).  But Forbes magazine did an article "Management Lessons from Star Wars"  here .  So, it's all the stuff the Empire did wrong - focusing on people instead of institutions? Not sure I get that one exactly, but the rest I think I get.  Zero tolerance for failure, too narrow a focus on a single goal, depriving people from having "buy in" in the organization, not learning from mistakes...  I get it, I guess.  It's kind of interesting.  Cool nerd stuff, anyway.  Oh, yeah, I'm not sure I agree with his little rant at the beginning of the article - ooo, prequels suck, ooo, don't make 3-D, blah, blah, blah...I almost didn't read the article because it began with such a fanboy rant that I didn't think the rest of the article would have any kind of substance at all (just more of the usual "George Lucas killed my favor...

Saw this on Facebook, but it's SO true - people act like this is what's happening when they come to the tunnels, don't they?

From Morguefile Lori got a request from another teacher to record a couple of her classes singing songs about reading - a song about Dr. Seuss's birthday and a song I think called "Read Across America" for some project or another.  So, Lori asks me to help, because, you know, that's what I do. And, I make it really complicated - because, you know, that's what I do.  I get out the hard disc recorder, I'm planning on three mics, maybe four, boom stands, cables, extension cords.  Okay. She says, "Can't you just do it on the computer?" Well, yeah I can . But should I? Do I trust it? I mean, here was the plan anyway: I would record to the hard disc, then dump it into Audacity and tweak it... so why not just record it on the laptop?  Could I actually use the built in mic?  Hmmm... So we did.  And it sounded...pretty good.  I mean, they're little kids singing to a piano - and it's not like it was for distribution, so a little noi...

Found online - see below ...always right? Lori was watching Say Yes To The Dress*  and one of the characters said, "The customer is always right."  I had a manager at the deli I worked at years ago who used to say that all the time. It's not true, of course.  The truth is the customer is almost never right. But the customer is always the customer. That's what people in service industry have to remember.  There's no way that we customers are right - we are demanding, we ask the wrong questions, we don't know how to use what we've bought, we can't follow the most basic of instructions, we are a pesky bunch.** But...the customer pays the bills.  Without the customer, the business...well, isn't a business anymore, right? 'Nuff said. Searching for the above picture, I found  this *Which I call "Say Go To The Dough" - yeah, I'm just clever like that. **To quote Col. Potter

From Morguefile - edited I came into the ER and it was not a pleasant place.  The waiting room was dirty and cramped, sick and hurting people were waiting.  The walls were marked up and broken, chairs stained and uncomfortable. She had been waiting an hour - which happens in the best of Emergency Rooms, I know - but the staff was unfriendly and the triage was performed in plain view - and clear earshot - of everyone else in the waiting room. And this kind of thing happens in the city, I guess, but this was a small town hospital where I would expect they would try to excel at the details - since clearly people with big  problems are going to go to "real" hospitals, anyway. But, really, this isn't a shot at this particular hospital. It's about the choices we make. I asked her husband, "Why here?  Why not the bigger hospital that's just a few minutes farther from your home?" He explained that her doctor worked from this hospital.  But much mo...

From Morguefile ...from a Daddy's perspective. Read  this article . I never wanted an iPad.  No, really, I've joked on here a couple times about it, but I really haven't seen a use for one.  But it turns out, I guess, that once you HAVE it, you CREATE uses for it.  And this just seems perfect - the connection of a dad and his sick at home daughter (my kids are 8 and 11, and I work pretty close to the house, but they still don't like to be at the house alone - who blames them?). Maybe I still don't need an iPad - but I'm starting to get it now...

from Morguefile ...yeah, this has nothing to do with vacation :) So, some people take vacation in February and go to sunny Florida or something.  Whatever.  We're heading to Monroeville this morning to the  Greenberg Train Show   :)  In half a foot of snow. Yeah, I'm a nerd, get over it. So this morning, after reading the Bible ( online   of course, 'cause that's what I do), I was reading  c|net   ('cause that's what I do) and there's an announcement of another  lawsuit against Apple for  patent infringement .  And I don't know the details, it's just a brief article and I didn't dig, but it sounds like another lawsuit about ideas.  And it drives me nuts.  I mean, WAY back in the earliest of palm pilot days I said to Lori, "I won't get another one of these until it's a phone that does internet and video and is an mp3 player" LONG before the iPhone was on anybody's radar.  So...should I sue Apple...

...so true :) From  Bonkers World

From Morguefile Almost  a year ago  I posted as a "personal mission statement": "Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart." I didn't necessarily  intend that as MY OWN mission statement, though it could, and maybe SHOULD be... And now I'm reading another book - a journal of sorts - and day two of this challenge says: "What is your personal vision (not your business vision)?" Um...  I can't go on with the book without answering the question. But... I don't know. Not exactly.  I mean, I can speak in generalities.  But...do I have a vision for my own life?  Really?  And this isn't one of those hokey "where do you see yourself in five years" kind of things, either.  This is a core question. "What drives you?"  "Who are you?"  "Why do you do what you do?" I'm thinking...  I don't want to answer too quickly, though I know it won't go into my perm...