MacBook

Just posting from my new MacBook. :)

Only trying to help

 

This makes me laugh every time I see it

Faith

So quickly it comes up. If you missed it yesterday, Natalia over at the cheese pad had this to say regarding the film Jesus Camp.

Her rant got me thinking about religion and faith and my own beliefs.  So for those who are interested, here goes:

Religion

Wikipedia says of religion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion):

A religion is a set of beliefs and practices generally held by a community, involving adherence to codified beliefs and rituals and study of ancestral or cultural traditions, writings, history, and mythology, as well as personal faith and mystic experience. The term "religion" refers to both the personal practices related to communal faith and to group rituals and communication stemming from shared conviction.

So religion is important, on a cultural level, as it provides sets of beliefs, rituals, and traditions. All of these elements are crucial to the stability of society. That isn't to say that these things should be forever fixed, indeed they should be forever changing and evolving to suit the needs of society, and not make society subservient to them. This is where religion today, fundamentalism in particular, has gone wrong.

This then begs the question: Am I religious? Well yes and no. I wholeheartedly participate in many of the rituals and traditions ascribed by the religion of my parents - Christianity - because I believe in their value to my small society. Weddings, for instance, are an important ritual affirming the commitment of two people, and the beginning of family. Funerals are another important ritual as they facilitate the mourning process for those of us who have yet to move on to whatever comes next.

Religion has also been the impetus for many important works through out history. There is so much important music, literature and art that is inspired by religion that to loose it would surely be a setback for humanity.

Faith

To Believe without reason. There are things that I believe without reason. Still, they may not be those things that the rest of society believes as a group. Do I believe in God? Not since I was a child. Do I believe in Karma, absolutely. I also believe that things always, always happen for a reason and that life will never hand me anything I am not strong enough to handle. The list goes on.

Faith in something is what keeps most of us going. Whether it is faith God, or faith in science, it give us our reason d' etre.

This clip got me most worked up. Rachel has faith that God is the only one who will judge her, yet she is being taught to judge others -- and to make sure they know it. She mocks my faith.

Bert

Bert is about 5'5", pushing 130 pounds and his security guard's uniform is just too big for him. You can see where the pants bunch up between the belt loops while his belt holds them up and his shirt hangs on him like a drape. He has curly brown-gray hair that sticks out under from his hat all over the place. His big blue orbs kind of bulge out from his head. I don't know a whole lot about Bert, but I like him. He is the last part of work I see as I leave everyday, and in many cases he is the last impression our customers have of our company.  

Occasionally there is a line to get out and I have an opportunity to watch Bert work. This guy is amazing -- poetry in motion. Every move he makes has a purpose, nothing is wasted. I wonder if sometime someplace he studied Scientific Management because it really looks as if he has taken the time to thoroughly study his task and determine how to make doing it as efficient as possible.

While doing this overly complicated (by design) task, over and over and over, Bert smiles the whole time. When it rains, there's Bert, in his rain coat, smiling. 100 degrees outside, sweaty Bert smiling. Freezing outside, Bert bundled in his parka standing next to the roaring jet engine industrial heater...smiling.

Bert never complains. He may comment that he's had a busy day, or that some piece of equipment isn't working, never a complaint. What gets me though is that this guy, with one of the most thankless jobs in the company, still finds a way to do his job. When customers bitch at him, he doesn't get upset, he moves on. When his equipment doesn't work, he makes due until it is fixed.

Bert is one of the few people I can count on at my job. I know that every day he will greet me with a smile as I drive to the gate and as he waves me through, tip his hat and bid me good night.

YouTube on AppleTV... who cares?

So I read this article yesterday about the update to the AppleTV software that allows you to watch YouTube videos. Not really any YouTube, just those that have been converted to the proper format.

Yeah this is kind of cool, but what about some of the more important things, like broader format support? This is why I sent mine back -- gigabytes of video that the thing wouldn't play. There a plenty of hacks out there to make it play more formats, but unfortunately I'm a PC guy and everything I found to hack mine required a MAC. The other option is to convert those videos into the supported format. Tried that too, and it took about four hours to convert a one hour show, and then it was the size of an iPod screen on my 42" plasma TV. Uh, not acceptable.

So anyway, Apple needs to support standard video formats on AppleTV, just the same as iPod supports standard music formats -- my iPod will happily play an mp3, so why can't ATV play an mpeg?

Besides, I really don't see my family watching TV this way, searching YouTube for something to watch that lasts a few minutes at best...Come on Apple, you can do better than this.

Put the blackberry down and back away slowly...

I know I should love them, and in theory they are a really handy tool. Still, do we need to be so connected that we can't drive home without glancing at our e-mail, or sit through dinner with the family, or have the courtesy to  sit through a meeting without e-mailing the guy across the room?

Worse yet is when someone knows you have it. This seems to entitle them to expect instant responses to their requests. I mean come on, you have anytime anywhere access to your e-mail so you can certainly respond RIGHT NOW.

A couple of weeks ago my boss suggested I get one. My work frequently takes me away from my office, and she feels I should have one to keep in touch.

Boss: You need a blackberry

Me: Not really

Boss: You're away from you desk a lot

Me: Yeah, but I make time throughout the day to check my e-mail. Besides, if something requires my immediate attention, doesn't that merit a phone call?

Boss: I suppose

Me: Another thing. I give better customer service when I am focused on my customer... and not my newest e-mail

Me -- to myself: Please. The last time I checked, I set my own priorities -- not some little black box attached to my hip. This is why I will not have one, fire me if you need to, but keep your crackberry.

 

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Sent from my old fashioned hard wired clunky desktop pc

Can't sleep

I lost sleep last night because I kept having all of these ideas about what to write in my blog today. Crazy. Now I've been sitting here for an hour and can't seem to form a coherent thought. Sucks.



Some other reasons I loose sleep, (in no particular order):



Wife must have the TV on

Son kicking me in the back

Afraid of rolling over and crushing son



My mind won't stop racing - rehashing things I should have said or done during the day, what will my blog be today, things that made me laugh, some person long forgotten from high school, you name it.



I think I might unplug the TV so my wife thinks it is broken, and then after she goes to sleep, turn off the monitor so I don't hear when my son wakes up and wants to come to bed with mommy and daddy.

I know that these thing are evil, just thoughts and the idea of going to bed, sleeping all night and waking up refreshed seems like a sweet sweet dream.

Hello World

A rather mundane title I suppose, but appropriate for my first blog entry. I've spent some time reading the others blogs and decided that I would get on the bandwagon. Thanks to Nat for the inspiration.

So I get this title from Thomas Friedman's book "The Word is Flat" which has been a fasinating book for me -- an eye opener in terms communication and connectedness.