I’ve heard of all the reasons in the world why not to have voted for Barack Obama. I’ve even had someone I know say you shouldn’t vote for him because he is a Muslim as well as because the pastor at his Christian church was a whackjob. Okay, problem. Either he is a Muslim or a Christian, he can’t be both so you can’t use both excuses as reasons not to vote for him. People point to his lack of experience to which I respond that Sarah Palin is arguably no more qualified to lead the country. I of course understand that she is just the VP candidate, but John McCain’s age and health puts the time he’ll be in office in question. These are a couple of numerous I have heard, and the other have a varying level of sanity.

Okay, so I get it. There were reasons not to vote for Barack Obama. So now tell me this: Why should I have voted for John McCain? No, wait. Don’t say because Barack Obama would do this or wouldn’t do that, those go back to reasons to not vote for Obama. Tell me what McCain would do that would make me want to have voted for him. Now I understand I haven’t laid out reasons to have voted for Barack Obama, but I’m asking to be convinced here. It goes back to that all I hear is why not vote for Barack Obama and when asked why to vote for McCain people say you have to pick one, so pick the lesser of two evils. Okay, so now we’re to the heart of the matter - both candidates are poor choices? This sucks.

People in my circle of friends accuse Obama of running on a promise of change, but never really saying what he would change. Maybe they are wrong, maybe they are right. But part of me thinks that all people want is a little bit of hope. So many people are just sick at how our country is going, and I don’t mean from a moral or spiritual perspective. I’m talking about a lack of faith and a growing fear at the direction our current administration has taken this country. Now I’m not prone to following politics, I admittedly don’t pay a lot of attention to it and that’s why I recused myself early on in this election from a lot of “friendly debates” about it. But again, I know people are beyond unhappe with where our country is and the direction that is headed and SNL made a pretty good joke out of what a lot of people are feeling: “A vote for John McCain is a vote for George W. Bush.”

I started this little exploration into this year’s election saying what I couldn’t agree with about both parties. I am a Christian and that does affect my voting. There are some Christians who can put that aside when voting for either party, because if we were honest we’d say that there are things that displeases God about both parties. Now, talking about politics and religion is a very slippery slope that has more ratholes and crossroads than I can begin to count and I’m not going to venture very far down that road today.  But I do wonder if you can put some of your convictions aside to vote for your candidate, why can’t someone put something else aside to vote theirs? Now there may be some that say they didn’t have to put their convictions aside to vote for their candidate. There are others who will say they seperated church and state when they went to vote for theirs. There are reasons one Christian could or couldn’t vote for another’s candidate and vice versa, who are you or I to say who’s right and who’s wrong? The Bible never says we have to agree, it says to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” and with that we are to use the Bible as our guide. This is the land of the free, we both have the right to disagree and we both have the right to be wrong.

One last rant before I go. There is a fairly popular FM radio duo where I live that leading up to the election said, and I’m paraphrasing, “We could very possibly have a president that wins the electoral college but loses the popular vote.” I also saw a message come across Facebook, again paraphrasing, “Pround to be an American, where our the future of our country can be determined by a margin of 3 million people. So here’s the facts, folks. At present count Barack Obama has electoral vote count of 364 (projected) to John McCain’s 163 (projected), with 11 votes up for grabs in Missouri. That is 78 more votes than George W. Bush received in 2004 (Bush 286 to Kerry 251) and 93 more than he received in 2000 (Bush 271 to Gore 266).  So if you combine the amount of electoral votes Bush won by in 2000 you hit 40 - Barack Obama more than doubled that number in this one election, even if the 11 up for grabs go for McCain. But we’re talking about the popular vote and people complaining that we could have a president that won the popular vote, but lost the electoral vote. Oh, you mean like George W. Bush in 2000. Here are the facts: in 2000 George W. Bush defeated Al Gore by a margin of 5 electoral votes, but lost the popular vote by 543,895. I don’t remember the Republicans being up in arms about the popular vote being a problem then - their guy won the electoral college, and that’s the way we do things in America. Okay, so in 2004 this is a non-issue, President Bush won the popular vote and electoral vote with a popular vote count of 62,040,610 to John Kerry’s 59,028,444 or a margin of 4,201,810. As it stands today Barack Obama has a popular vote count of 66,056,046 to John McCain’s 57, 838,800 which yeilds a margin of 8,217,246. I could combine President Bush’s popular vote count to further drive home the point, but seeing as we would be doing subtraction as opposed to addition, I think the point makes itself.

I joked about voting for the lesser of two evils and I talked about putting convictions aside or seperating church and state in this election. To be honest, there was a point I said that I wasn’t going to vote. But my 15 year old sister-in-law jokingly made the statement, that I myself have made in times past, that if you don’t vote, you don’t get to complain. I asked her what I should do if I couldn’t vote for either one with a clean conscience and she didn’t have an answer for me. In the end, I did vote for change - I voted for the Libertarian candidate. In one of the many political debates my friends and I have engaged in over the past months the party came up and researching where the party stands on issues crucial to me and they seemed a compromise that I could live with. I didn’t expect anything to come of my vote, but I couldn’t not vote.

I’ve told people for weeks, and was as sure of it at the start of Election Day as I was two months before, that this race was over before it got started. Barack Obama ran on a platform of change, and people believed him. I think I hate that we only have two dominant parties in our country because it puts people on one side or the other and it makes people either be right or wrong in each other’s eyes. But when you are dealing with as many issues that are as big as the ones in a Presidential election there aren’t two clear sides. Some questions have a yes or no answer and your answer is determined by different things, while other questions have no right answers but are problems that need to be worked on together. I guess I don’t really remember elections prior to 2000, that or I just wasn’t old enough to understand the scope of them and how it affected me. But I know how divisive it’s all felt the past three elections I’ve participated in. Unfortunately, in elections everyone gets so divided fighting for what they believe in that after it’s over we don’t know how to find common ground to work together. Working together doesn’t mean you have to compromise what you believe in.

Christian & Claire. Alright, so at this point the powers that be at LOST have said Christian is dead. So what gives, is Christian the island, Smokey, or something else entirely? If we had only seen Christian on the island since the crash I would say it was Smokey similar to how Yemi appeared to Eko. But now we’ve seen Christian, and Charlie for that matter, off the island. I’m still saying more than a dream or hallucination based on the other patient seeing Charlie in Santa Rosa, but Smokey has seemed bound to the island. So yeah, I don’t know.

And Claire? Yeah, she, if that was even her, is not in Kansas anymore. I don’t think she’s dead, not to say she won’t be by the end of the season, but something has happened to her and it’s a drastic something. Why else would the mother concerned with, above all else including her own well being, just leave her baby. Maybe she has seen things with Christian similar to how Locke “looked into the island” and Desmond had premonitions after her turned the failsafe. She may well know, or think she knows, that if she follows this path everything will seemingly work out at least for Aaron. I’m really not sure about this one, but it’s definitely going to be something to consider as we go along.

Horace Goodspeed. Definitely more than a dream, but to what extent. Seemingly the island or Jacob is trying to communicate with Locke. But he seems to be an “echo” because even while conversing with Locke he repeats the same task. Sensing the echo is possibly similar to Miles’ ability? And the infamous eye opening, indicating it’s time to wake up and pay attention, seems to say that we need to look closely at this interaction because there may be more to it than what we see on the surface. Additionally, because I’m of the mind these weird meetings of dead people on the island are somehow Smokey related, it only fueled my fire to see a steady stream of smoke in this scene.

Matthew Abaddon. Is he an Other, Dharma, or part of something else? With Whidmore? Perhaps, but I think he is going to turn out to be special like Walt. Maybe there are two sides recruiting these “specials” but that gets far fetched. Does he know that if Locke goes to Australia he’ll find the island? Maybe similar to how Claire’s psychic, after telling her that she had to raise Aaron was okay with her going to LA - because he knew that Claire would presumably never make it to LA? If he does know this, if he does have some precognitive ability working for him, why does he go to Hurley to ask about the island and those left behind in the future?

And since we’re on the subject I have a way, WAY out in left field theory. What if Abaddon is Walt? It would be very cool to see that Walt puts Locke on his path after John helps Walt be okay with being “special”.

Richard Alpert. So many questions. Let’s start with the first and most obvious, can we all now agree this guy doesn’t age? The how and why are potentially easy enough to explain with the time-warping properties of the island. While I’m not ready to say he’s immortal, time doesn’t pass the same for him as it does others. And it also may not pass the same for people who have learned the island’s deeper secrets. This could have been alluded to when Ben said to Alpert, “You do remember birthdays, don’t you?” This could be in relation to their community being outside the modern world and there isn’t a big emphasis on them, but a line like that doesn’t just get dropped into this show without bigger meaning. But let’s look more into what happened with Richard tonight.

Why was Richard okay with John choosing the sand and the compass, but not the knife? If we are looking for items John owns, it’s easy to say that John wouldn’t own any of those things yet. So are we looking at a reincarnation theme of what he has owned? Or is it that Richard is looking to see whether or not John sees his destiny? That would point to his happiness with John claiming the sand and the compass - the sand claiming the island itself, and we all know John will be more than able to use a compass but maybe more that John sees himself as one to find the course and follow it. So this brings us to the dilemma between the knife and the book. I really think it points to what John identifies himself with more than what he owns. This explains why Richard is visibly shaken by the choice of the knife - it points to John’s tenure of leadership would be a time of violence or unrest, but if he had picked the Book of Laws it would point to a time of peace and harmony. Maybe Richard knows that it’s not an issue of if John will lead the island, but when. Because of this he says John is not ready, not that he made the wrong choice - it’s not that John isn’t ready, but maybe Richard isn’t.

Move the island. Wait, MOVE THE ISLAND?!? At first you are thinking they are going to physically move the island to another location on the planet. I don’t think so, first because it’s too obvious for LOST if that’s a good enough reason. But second you have to deal with the underwater station and the cable running to the island. That could be answered with how big of scope the move will be, but still I don’t think so. After everything we’ve seen this season the next thought is straight sci-fi in that maybe they’ll move it in time. But I have to lean away from that because the producers have said on numerous occasions that they’ll be avoiding the time travel paradoxes. And also, I certainly think they outlined how they would handle the time traveling in “The Constant”, as the person’s consciousness moving in their time but not the whole of the person moving in all of time. So what does that leave us? I’m going with the coordinates by which you have to come and go. Which this opens up all sorts of questions, but I think from what we’ve seen and heard this makes the most sense. From some coordinates you are a little ahead or behind, from others you may be more so. But what if from some coordinates you could look all you wanted, but never find the island. This could tie back to the islands magnetic properties and why the island was visible for a brief time when Desmond turned the failsafe. Maybe the hatch was a means of controlling, but if all went south the Orchid could be the last line of defense of the island so to speak where a little bit of all the islands secrets were kept.

This season has brought so many possibilities to the who, how, why and what of LOST that what all this show is going to encompass is just out of reach. Like everything else on LOST, all these questions and ideas are just part of the bigger picture that is LOST. I hope we get at least a glimpse of how some of these threads tie into one another in the upcoming finale. We know we are in the home stretch now and that answers are going to come more quickly and seemingly more quickly, but even as we draw closer to the end of LOST it seems every answer still brings two more questions. Here’s looking to “There’s No Place Like Home”.

My first question comes from “Next time on LOST…” after last week’s episode when Dharma-dressed guy says, “I’m not making any sense, am I… that’s probably because I’ve been dead for 12 years.” After a little bit of internet assisted research we know it’s Horace Goodspeed who helped our Ben’s parents when his mother was in labor and subsequently got Ben and Mr. Workman to the island. So from his own statement we presume he did in fact die during the Purge. Now, we can consider the possibility TPTB are pulling a fast one much like Hurley’s, “we’re all going to die”, from a few weeks back and it will turn out ol’ Horace somehow survived the Purge. This could have come about by him either having joined the Hostiles or else having been in the right place at the right time not to fall victim to the Purge - off island, perhaps. But let’s presume for now that he is, as he describes himself, dead for the past 12 years. With this in mind, I also think back to the producers having said on more than one occasion that when people die on this island they are dead and not coming back. So what gives? This brings me to thought number two.

What gives with Christian Shephard? Jack has seen him on island before and after last week we know he has seen him off island. From last year’s season finale there is a hint that Jack may still see him, even if only Jack sees him, even farther into the future. Now we have Claire not only seeing Christian, but interacting with him to the point she follows him into the jungle. (And both his children see him dressed differently - the way they last saw him or the way they remember him?) Add this to the fact that when Hurley glimpsed into Jacob’s cabin we see Christian, dressed the same way Jack sees him, not as Claire does, just sitting in the cabin. Now a great point of debate is whether or not Christian is really dead, I want to believe that he is not but all logic points the fact that he is. We saw him in the morgue - dead. But the coffin was empty on the island. Which, that is easily explained by the fact the plane crashed - but we don’t see big things like that on this show for no reason so it makes you wonder. Plus, knowing all we know about Hanso, Whidmore, Dharma, and even Ben, is it that hard to believe they can fake a dead Christian Shephard?

So I guess my two thoughts lead me to the question: What gives with the alive dead people if dead people on this show are dead for good? That was a brain twister. So we have seen visions on the island that people have interacted with both of people and animals. Kate’s horse, Hurley and Dave, Mr. Eko and Yemi, but we don’t know exactly what they all were. It’s easy to say Dave was a hallucination Hurley had in the past simply come back to visit and not the island communicating with him in some way. I don’t neccesarily think this is true for Kate, although we don’t know if was just a hallucination, the island, or even Smokey. Which brings us to Mr. Eko and his vision and interaction with what he thought was Yemi, but in fact turned out to be Smokey. And, what prompted Smokey to attack Eko when it had judged him and let him be once before? To take it a step farther Hurley is having visions of Charlie off the island, very specific and very cryptic visions. But we have reason to believe that at least the conversations are more than a hallucination as another patient notices Charlie as well. So what are we dealing with here? Is the island alive or just special similar to the location in Australia? Is it like Miles and able to channel the essence of the dead? But that would mean with Hurley’s vision of Charlie at the mental hospital, that the island reaches much farther than it’s physical borders. I’m starting to think that Smokey is the island manifesting itself whether for direct communication or protection, but that it is somehow part of the island and can shape itself to the island’s needs and even potentially reach off the island if need be. All of this is well within reach on this show, but where are we going to land with this one is going to be interesting.

So finally, if we consider that Claire seeing Christian is similar to Eko seeing Yemi, and now she’s followed into the jungle it opens things up. Especially when tonight we’ll see three special people on the island trying to find Jacob in a place we’ve recently seen Christian. This all gets very exciting and interesting. I’m hoping we get some clarity on what these visions are and mean to both the characters and the overall show.

On an entertainment note I’ve recently started watching Battlestar Galactica in earnest and just finished up Season 1. Very good stuff. Since I don’t mind spoilers and have seen episodes out of order here and there, I decided to watch the pre-Season 4 catch up on SciFi.com called, “What the Frak is Going On?” (Apparently the primer was done by the same people and in the same style as the recent “Lost in 8:15″ pre-season primer so if you liked one, the other should be equally as enjoyable.) But when talking about the Helo and Boomer baby and dropped the line, “there’s a bun in the toaster”, I laughed out loud for a solid minute.

In more entertainment related news I think I hated LOST more tonight than I did when the closing “thud” sounded on The Constant earlier this season. In fact this episode tonight may have run the gambit of thoughts and emotions more than any other. Spoilers lie ahead to proceed with caution… But to have a guy that you love to hate, and see these glimpses of hope and redemption that give you hope for him, only to have your thoughts and expectations about what will come next splattered against the side wall by something you never saw coming and reconstructed into something that leaves you sitting on the edge of your couch wondering how it happened, can you really believe it, and how in the world will this play out. (Please forgive the run on) He’s got this puppy love crush on Juliet, but can’t deal with someone else having her even if he can’t. Directly causes the death of, if not his daughter, the girl he raised from infancy. And when finally comes face to face with the man that changed the entire shape of the last three seasons of LOST, the man that he seemingly been at war with for years, the man he blames for the death of maybe the only person he has ever loved - when asked if he was here to kill, Ben responds, “You know I can’t do that.” WHAT?!? Just about every episode this season my first words after the closing “thud” have been, “I hate this show.” To which laughs and then grins at me knowing that the next day will be filled with obsessive pouring over Lostpedia, forums, and blogs about what I missed, what it all means, and where in the world we are headed in this journey of LOST.

Daily life is managing to fill up with more junk than I would want to deal with in a given month. I’m tired and I feel like I’m spinning my wheels no matter where I focus my efforts. Here’s to lower gas prices and making progress in our daily pursuits.

Democrats:

1. Obama
2. Clinton
3. Edwards

Republicans:

1. Romney
2. Giuliani
3. McCain
4. Huckabee

Starting with the Democrats, I never really saw Edwards as a contender against Obama and Clinton. I don’t know what it it about him, but the other two just seem to exude a stronger sense of leadership that people can really grasp and believe in. And I really did think Obama would have another significant win over Clinton and if not a win, only Clinton by a small margin. I think there are a lot of people that remember the former Clinton and are wary to revisit the family in the White House. But more than that Obama seems like that candidate that everyone wants, a candidate some people would even cross party lines for. He’s running on a campaign of a change, and it has seemed people believed he could bring the change they were looking for. It’s no secret that people are ready for a change from Bush, and I think that has fueled a desire for a “real” candidate and not just another politician. Which is definitely something Obama exudes and something that hadn’t been seen in Clinton until her recent, and very uncharacteristic, show of emotion.

Now the Republicans and this one was tougher. I was always skeptical of Huckabee’s win in Iowa, and that’s not to say I thought Romney would come out on top in either race, but just that I didn’t think it was going to be Huckabee in Iowa, let alone New Hampshire. In the Democratic campaign, it’s seem to have been a two candidate race for a while. But very much to the contrary in the Republican race, there isn’t close to feeling of who are the Big Two or Big Three. Not long ago I was sure Guiliani would be more of a factor farther in, and while I didn’t think he was done by any means I thought McCain’s standing would more resemble Edwards standing on the Democratic side. I wasn’t sure where they were in the top 3, I just thought I knew who the top 3 were.

So after Iowa and New Hampshire it seems that the Democratic race is now a two candidate contest and I think the Republican race is really shaken up. I still think that when it’s all said and done, people on both sides of the aisle can get behind Obama and his campaign; that people are ready for a change, and part of that change is away from the normal politics which Clinton often time seems to embody. As for the Republican race, I’m not willing to count anyone out. While I think Guiliani may be too liberal for the majority of the Republican party, I also think that former ministers may not quite be what people are looking for. That really opens it up for McCain to step into the gap and balance each side out, emerging as a front runner which is exactly that I think we saw happen.

This is one of the first times I’ve had such an interest in all this so early on. I was interested at election time in ‘04 and following all the drama in ‘00, but never at a primary level. Not to mention having recently been hooked on West Wing and the finale season following a candidate on the campaign trail, it’s been really interesting seeing this process and places you watched in fiction play out in real life. It’s going to be an exciting year.

Just two weeks ago we were getting ready for Christmas and to close on our house in just a few short days. But even that seems so far away now. Christmas came and went, along with New Year’s, both bringing their own good times with friends and family. All went better than we could have hoped with the closing and the apartment and it feels almost as much like home as the house. But sometimes I still wonder how we got here, but in the next thought it’s the way things should be.

It’s a strange set of thoughts and emotions and as is apparent I’m having difficulty putting them all in their place to be dissected, examined, and understood. I guess sometimes I wonder what happened to my life, but at the same time I couldn’t be happier with the life I have. But the thinking about where it’s gone leaves me both depressed and frustrated at times. It feels like I should have done more, been farther along, or have more to show for who I am and where I’ve been and I don’t know if that is just a desire to keep up with the Jones’ (although we’ve never met) or if it is really who and what I want to be. But I guess at the end of the day it leaves me just feeling off focus, which is exactly where I am now. I’ve got a to-do list with things to accomplish that go back years, and that makes it hard sometimes to get through what can get done today. You start thinking about what was or what could have been and all of a sudden you are no longer in the present, but then something brings the present rushing back and you’re left thinking that if you had just taken the time or been focused and/or disciplined enough when you had the time or the resource the first time, you’d be ready or not even dealing with what’s come up now. But you have to live in the present; take what’s there is to do and find what you can do today and do that, and then tomorrow do what you can, and at the end of the day be able to lay down your head knowing that you’ve done what you could and take pride in your accomplishments. But sometimes it’s hard when there are just so many things to do and so many people looking to you to feel like you’ve done anything worthwhile and it takes the wind out of your sails to really even try the next day. You think, “Well, today was a wash and I’ve got to catch up from that before I can even start on today.” And while it’s manageable tomorrow, it doesn’t take long before you feel buried without a way out, that no matter what you do or how much you try there is going to be someone who depends on you, someone you’d never want to let down who gets just that.

I guess at the end of the day there is the person I feel like I am and then there is the person I want to be. And while there are a lot of areas in which I find myself not far off from that person, there are definitely some things that don’t match up. Where I find myself now is trying to reconcile getting done what I can today, and leaving for tomorrow what can only be done tomorrow while at the same time not letting the past overwhelm, but motivate me towards meeting those goals in the future. Realizing that yes, there are a lot of things that could have been or should have been, but I’ve done all I can. There may still be more mistakes than I’d like to admit but no longer will I let the mistakes define my present, but only serve to remind me of how it feels to lose yourself to the past and miss life in the present. I think at the end of the day the thing I just might need most is patience, and when I say patience I think I also mean faith as well. Because when I start to think of where I’m not, I get depressed because of how much farther along I could or should be and again, it takes me out of the present life I have to live and I find myself lost in my own life it seems. But if I can find the faith to, in each day, have the patience to live that day the fullest I can, accomplishing what I can, and not look ahead to where I could or think I should be, as well as not look back to mistakes or missteps I’ll find myself happier with each day at the end of it.

I’m of the mind that if things are worth something to you, they often times have to be worked for and I don’t think that makes them burdens, I think it says they have a value to you. I’ve been blessed with a wonderful life and I want to make the most of every bit of it that I can. Tomorrow will bring with it new challenges as well as old baggage, but all you can worry about is what can be done with that day. And in the days ahead as you strive more for the person you want to be, doing all you can to make the most of each day, less and less baggage from the past will be there to hold you down and you’re able more and more to look and see the blessings both around you and up ahead. Then when you look back instead of finding regret and depression, you’ll find determination and faith now knowing where you’ve come from and what you have pressed through, you’ll know that there is faith for what struggles lie ahead so that each new day not be met with apprehension, but hope.

I’ve been meaning to post this sooner, but this is a great video from singer-songwriter John Crawford about the adventures of bedtime with children. I first heard this song on the TWiT netcast Jumping Monkeys and couldn’t stop laughing hearing it. Watching the video just adds to that, but will also find a special place in the heart of any parent. Enjoy!

She asked Chris what he had done over the weekend. ”I went to visit my Nana.”

“No, you went to visit your  GRANDMOTHER! Use ‘Big People’ words!”

She then asked Mitchell what he had done “I took a ride on a  choo-choo.”

She said “No, you took a ride on a TRAIN. You must remember to use ‘Big People’ words.”

She then asked little Alec what he had done. “I read a book,” he replied.

“That’s WONDERFUL!” the teacher said. “What book did you read?” Alec thought real hard about it, then puffed out his chest with great pride, and said, “Winnie the SH–.”

Personally if I had to choose a format I really don’t know which one I’d go with. I’m a lot more interested in high-def now, having played the same 360 game at home on the old 32-inch and then on the high-def screen at Best Buy. It’s just amazing the picture clarity and brilliance of color you have with high-def, after all it is high definition. But at the same time having DVR and using a Netflix/Blockbuster service I think I’m more interested in IPTV than either of the high-def formats. It’s just cool that right now I can jump on my 360 and download a number of movies or TV shows. I do have to admit though, that I can watch the Transformers trailer in 720p over and over and never get tired of it. (I can’t say that isn’t a little of the kid in me screaming, “That’s so cool!”)

Yeah, that wasn’t much of a commitment either way, the ad just got me thinking. But I say if we have to have a new disc format, and I can’t say that it wouldn’t be nice, that we need to make a longer lasting, higher capacity disc. But for video let’s concentrate on DRM-free HD VOD aka “if I buy it, I own it” high-definition video/movies on demand. Sorry, but I couldn’t resist the acronym soup.

note: this entry was started on 1/1/07 and completed on 1/17/07. final edits were made to better flesh out and expand the initial thoughts, feelings, and ideas.

12/29/2006

12/31/2006

I must say that I had a great time. I can’t say that I don’t get to play a lot, I actually get to play on a near weekly basis at church and while it’s great and I love it, it’s just a completely different experience and atmosphere. So when the chance came my way, I jumped at the chance to play music with person who wrote it again. There’s just something about hearing lyrics sung from the heart that wrote them, not to mention getting to be a part of that kind of experience.

I can’t say the performance wasn’t rocky, but with one practice to go on that’s not too bad. But that’s not to say I wouldn’t do it again in a heartbeat. I didn’t realize how much I missed playing live… and while I love playing at church, the next opportunity I have to play live again can’t come soon enough.

He used to say soulshine,
It’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Hey now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometime,
Got to let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

I grew up thinkin’ that I had it made,
Gonna make it on my own.
Life can take the strongest man,
Make him feel so alone.
Now and then I feel a cold wind,
Blowin’ through my achin’ bones,
I think back to what my daddy said,
He said “Boy, in the darkness before the dawn:”

Let your soul shine,
It’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.
Sometimes a man can feel this emptiness,
Like a woman has robbed him of his very soul.
A woman too, God knows, she can feel like this.
And when your world seems cold, you got to let your spirit take control.

Let your soul shine,
It’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Lord now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Oh, it’s better than sunshine,
It’s better than moonshine,
Damn sure better than rain.
Yeah now people don’t mind,
We all get this way sometimes,
Gotta let your soul shine, shine till the break of day.

Well your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Well baby I’ve been here before
I’ve seen this room and I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
And I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
But Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Well there was a time when you let me know
What’s really going on below
But now you never show that to me do ya?
But remember when I moved in you
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew is Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above
But all I’ve ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya
And it’s not a cry that you hear at night
It’s not somebody who’s seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Yeah, this is way late. But who cares… I as really planning to add more and better flesh out some of the thoughts and ideas. But life is busy, and work doesn’t provide much time for personal blabbering so here we are. But at least I can say things have gotten better. That’s something, right?

I’ve been listening to the TWiT network for the last few years and have recently been listening to the Open Source offering, FLOSS Weekly. As the title implies it profiles software and personalities in the Open Source community. Admittedly it didn’t grab my interest initially but I’ve recently put it back on the iPod and have found myself making it a regular on the playlist. I guess it was the Ruby on Rails birthday episode that really piqued my interest in programming again. But I still told myself that I just didn’t have what it takes or that it would still be too much of a gap to overcome to get started. The episode 11 rolled around in which Leo and DiBona profiled Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python. They did the hows, wheres, and whys of Python which was very cool, but then they did the obligatory, “And for people who want to learn?”, and while I listened it wasn’t something I thought was relevant until they started describing some of the guides for newbies and I think van Rossum basically said, “and it someone is completely new to programming…”, and as you can imagine I was listening. I think it was during that part of the conversation that Leo mentioned that he uses Python as a starting point into programming for his daughter and if I was listening before I was hooked now.

Work has been keeping me plenty busy. In fact I started this post a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t until earlier tonight that I downloaded the Python setup. So it may not be an all-day, all-night project but I’m at least going to give a decent go to something that I could really have a good time with and be able to use. We’ll see how it goes from here, and as much as I think about it I’ll update my progress here. Who knows, maybe I’ll become super-coder and learn to actually do neat stuff with my website!

But I did in fact make it out alive. I’ve had a decent ramp up, though. My first day was actually July 17th on which we started 3 weeks of training. Then followed by 3 more weeks of getting our feet wet with actual on the job training in a reasonably controlled enviroment. Which brings us to Tuesday, August 29th also known as my first real day on the job.

Honestly things weren’t all that bad, but the first bump in the road is that my main manager was out on vacation that first week. My core job function is the set-up of new customers with focus on upselling features and add-on products in addition to core services. While this would be both great and profitiable in a perfect world, these aren’t always the types of situations we face though we are still expected to try and find a sales opportunity in all customer interactions. I had my fair share of customer service situations, as well as general complaints, and not to mention enough things that I hadn’t learned about yet to make me wonder if it was all worth it.

But to spare all the gruesome details that I really can’t remember anymore, I did make it out alive. Not with quite as many sales as I would like, but if I’m looking for redemption in it I did lead my team in sales one of the days. Beginner’s Luck I guess! We’ll see how things shape up in Week 2…

Note: Post started 9/3, finished early AM 9/8 - Labor Day, head cold, and appointments delayed completion.

Time with my family was something I was really concerned with going into this new job. We knew it would be a rough schedule because schedules are bid for based on seniority. Being the new guy, what that means for me is pretty much obvious. But I was fortunate to get both Sundays and Mondays off back to back which has benefits. I do get two days off in a row, so it feels like a real break. I’m off on Sundays so there won’t be any interference with church which I hoped beyond hope for and was fortunate enough to get. And finally being off Monday gives me the whole day with Maggie and I can be home when Lisa gets off work. Other days I get off at 7, so Mondays are a day I can really help Lisa where I won’t be able to getting off so late other days.

It won’t be a perfect schedule because it’s going in later and getting off later, but I’m looking at where I can take advantages. Daddy and Maggie Mondays will be one way, and maximizing time with Maggie and Lisa individually will also be nice - spending mornings with Maggie and taking her to school, and getting time in home to put Maggie to bed and have the night with Lisa.

So, there’s not a lot to report this Maggie Monday but they are something I going hold dear - and who knows, I may even post a blurb or two.

I had just gotten out shower and was doing the normal daily prep of fixing the hair, shaving, brushing teeth when my daughter that I assumed was still asleep decided to surprise me. Now the following may not seem to be the quality moment it was for me, but hey it’s my daughter so there it is. You also have to keep in mind that Maggie is just learning to open and close doors which adds a little to the story. So while getting ready Maggie, in the simplest way, walked in like she was supposed to there and said, “Hey daddy”. Immediately she walked right back out the door while pulling the door closed like there was somewhere she had to be saying, “Bye daddy.” It was definately execpected, it was cute, and her behavior was surprising all at once as this toddler just decided to assert herself as the little person she is, and unknowingly absolutely made my day.

With my DS - well, actually at another retailer that didn’t allow reserves of the system, but I had gift certificates from - I picked up New Super Mario Bros., Brain Age, Tetris DS, and True Swing Golf. Next on the list to buy are Mario Kart DS and Metroid Prime Hunters, although I don’t know which will be first. What I do need to get ahold of is a case of some sort to accomodate the system and some games, and even my Micro if need be. I know the DS plays the GBA games, but I’m just not ready to part with my very sleek, smaller than my cell phone Micro.

The first time I really got hooked on the DS was when True Swing came out and I saw an application of the touch screen that made sense to me. No disrespect, but petting a fake dog just isn’t what I’m looking for in a game. I actually had someone recommend the DS to me last year when I bought PSP. But at the time I was sold on the PSP and that’s what I knew I would like. Well the PSP got returned within two weeks in favor of the Micro that had recently been released. There was a lot I liked about the Micro, but even moreso I just really like what Nintendo does. What can I say, nostalgia will get you nearly every time. Back to the DS… So True Swing really had me thinking, but it wasn’t ’til the beauty that is the DS Lite was announced for Japan no less that I knew I would become a DS owner, the decision was made then and there. After months of reading anything and everything DS while waiting not so patiently for the North American release, I am now a proud DS Lite owner.

Yeah, I know. Geek, nerd, whatever. But I loved this movie when I was a kid and I’ll watch it again when it comes out because I’ll be snagging this one day of release! Super Mario Bros. 3! C’mon, what more could you want?

]]> http://www.tentwelve.org/2006/05/24/link-dump-5242006/feed/ http://www.tentwelve.org/2006/05/18/fwd-the-mayonnaise-jar-and-2-cups-of-coffee/ http://www.tentwelve.org/2006/05/18/fwd-the-mayonnaise-jar-and-2-cups-of-coffee/#comments Thu, 18 May 2006 14:34:44 +0000 Nick J http://www.tentwelve.org/2006/05/18/fwd-the-mayonnaise-jar-and-2-cups-of-coffee/ When things in your lives seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls . He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.”

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions - and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else - the small stuff. “If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. “Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”

]]> http://www.tentwelve.org/2006/05/18/fwd-the-mayonnaise-jar-and-2-cups-of-coffee/feed/