Facilitating Paradox

I had a wake-up call the other day when I checked my blog. It was replaced by a generic URL page because the domain name had expired. I wasn't notified. I contacted my registrar and complained. I've renewed the domain name and requested that my contact info be added to their notification list. I'm back up and running, although somewhat intermittent.

Actually, I've been spending more time at another blog: The Essence Blog. This is a blog associated with the emergent worship that I've been involved in since it started last September. It's really neat to find God in our daily lives and celebrate God with song and conversation and communion every week. If you're in the Central Ohio area check it out.

In other news, my eldest son is getting set to start attending Ohio Wesleyan University where I work. This is great that he'll be close again.

It's nice to be back in the blogosphere!

Remember... sharing means caring. :-)

Seen on the tag line of someone's email...

Four days last week and two so far this week I’ve walked the .7 mile to work and back home at the end of the day. It’s been good exercise--much more than I was used to getting. It’s been rough dealing with the temperatures below freezing. I now have an “Elmer Fudd” hat that keeps my ears warm. My ankles were sore from navigating the ice and snow.

Walking to work is also a stroll down Delaware’s main street. The three blocks I walk down Sandusky Street are the historic downtown with all the shops and banks and restaurants. I see which establishments have cigarette butts strewn about the sidewalk out front. I see what shops are placing in their storefront windows and how they’re advertising. Yesterday, on my way home, the cigar shop had its door ajar and you could smell the stogie down the rest of the block. I also see what’s going on at the recruiter’s office.

Walking to work is personable. I see people and we sometimes say Hi. I might see the workers from The Mean Bean or the owner of Amato's Wood Fired Pizza. I see the folks at The Hamburger Inn eating breakfast. I see the sky and the traffic. I see what people are doing as they drive themselves to work.

Delaware is a nice place to live and I’m glad to be getting to know it better.

Thanks, Hafidha Sofia! When I read this list I was appalled! I exclaimed something like "Holy Crud!" We need to know...

Courtesy of Project Censored

#1 Future of Internet Debate Ignored by Media
#2 Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran
#3 Oceans of the World in Extreme Danger
#4 Hunger and Homelessness Increasing in the US
#5 High-Tech Genocide in Congo
#6 Federal Whistleblower Protection in Jeopardy
# 7 US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq
#8 Pentagon Exempt from Freedom of Information Act
#9 The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall
#10 Expanded Air War in Iraq Kills More Civilians
#11 Dangers of Genetically Modified Food Confirmed
#12 Pentagon Plans to Build New Landmines
#13 New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup
#14 Homeland Security Contracts KBR to Build Detention Centers in the US
#15 Chemical Industry is EPA’s Primary Research Partner
#16 Ecuador and Mexico Defy US on International Criminal Court
#17 Iraq Invasion Promotes OPEC Agenda
#18 Physicist Challenges Official 9-11 Story
#19 Destruction of Rainforests Worst Ever
#20 Bottled Water: A Global Environmental Problem
#21 Gold Mining Threatens Ancient Andean Glaciers
#22 $Billions in Homeland Security Spending Undisclosed
#23 US Oil Targets Kyoto in Europe
#24 Cheney’s Halliburton Stock Rose Over 3000 Percent Last Year
#25 US Military in Paraguay Threatens Region

The ultimate weakness of violence
is that it is a descending spiral,
begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.
Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.
Through violence you may murder the liar,
but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth.
Through violence you murder the hater,
but you do not murder hate.
In fact, violence merely increases hate....
Returning violence for violence multiples violence,
adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

~Martin Luther King Jr.

I start my new job at OWU next Monday, "Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Observed (USA)". My sister pointed out how this is a good omen, saying "Martin Luther King Jr. was a big-time social action man and you have that all over your heart." She's kind.

Let's hear it for the Christian Pastor who was so influential on our society that his birthday is a national holiday! Let's hear it for the martyr slain trying to show that violence is the wrong way to solve any problem! His non-violent tactics to overcome oppression were a threat to the establishment in Memphis because they work! That's why they took him out. Let us not forget it.

We must learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or perish together as fools.

~Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1995, prison building expenditures (in the United States?) jumped by $926 million while university construction dropped by $954 million.

~Seen on a CD insert, the case of which states: "THIS RECORDING IS PROHIBITED BY LAW AND SUBJECT TO CRIMINAL PROSECUTION. MADE IN THE U.S.A."

I went to Chipotle today to grab a burrito for dinner. I really like their food, allowing me to get big vegetarian dishes. I brought it back to work, where I have to cover the evening shift. A new coworker pointed out ChipotleFan.com, where I was able to get nutrition info on my custom-made burrito. Oh My!

Chipotle Nutrition Facts
Serving Size: 1 Burrito
Amount Per Serving

Calories 1330 Calories from Fat 539

% DV*

Total Fat 60g
Saturated Fat 19.5g
Cholesterol 70mg
Sodium 4108mg
Total Carbohydrate 161g
Dietary Fiber 19.5g
Sugars 13g
Protein 38g
Vitamin A 99%
Vitamin C 155%
Calcium 57%
Iron 38%

Here's what I got on my whopping veggy burrito today: 13" flour tortilla, lime rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, tomato salsa, corn salsa, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and lettuce. I usually don't go so hog wild, but I was very hungry. I always get it with water--no soda. I didn't finish it--I have some left to have later. Wow!

Love as if your life depends on it.

=> Read more!

As a parent juggling family, work and school for years, I’ve gotten used to multitasking and juggling projects. Recently I’ve coined two new catch-phrases for those sometimes frustrating situations I find myself in:

Back-tasking: Doing something so that you can do something else that will allow you to do the task you originally set out to do. E.g.: You’re thirsty and you want some of that cool, filtered water from the fridge, but you find the filter empty. After raging at the culprit who left it empty, you take it to the sink to fill it yourself. But the sink is full of dirty dishes. You check the calendar to see who’s got kitchen duty, but they’re not around anyway. You open the dishwasher to start loading them but it’s full of clean dishes. In order to empty the sink you have to empty the dishwasher. Empty dishwasher so you clear the sink so you can fill the water pitcher so you can get a drink--that’s back-tasking. And of course, what should have taken a few seconds now takes several minutes... and you wonder where all the time went. From my experience in project management I know how to document all this in a T-minus schedule. Sometimes family life can be that complex and demanding.

Stack-tasking: Setting out to do something and, while you’re doing that, starting something else that needs to be done. E.g.: You head upstairs to bring down a load of dirty laundry. While picking socks up off the bathroom floor you notice that the toilet paper roll is empty. While grabbing a new roll of TP you notice that the trash can is full. While tying up the trash bag you notice that one of the light bulbs has burned out. Well, replacement light bulbs are in the basement, and you’re going their anyway, so put the trash bag on top of the dirty laundry and head downstairs. Now you’re not just doing laundry, but two other tasks as well. Don’t forget the light bulb and another trash bag on your way up. And, while you were upstairs, did that roll of TP actually make it onto the spindle? Household tasks can be added together like so many nested ifs. If you’re not careful you’ll get lost and forget what you originally set out to do. I hear this happens a lot in old age...

The long search is finally over! I've accepted a position at the Ohio Wesleyan University as their Help Desk Manager and Technical Trainer. I start Monday, January 21st. No more evenings and weekend shifts. And it's close enough to walk to work. Blessed Be!

Did you ever worry that you might run out of ideas to write about? Have you ever faced writer’s block? Blogger’s block? What to write about??

I’ve written about this before, and realized that writing about not knowing what to say is still writing. I used to journal a lot more than I do these days, and I always used to have something to say, something to write about, something to comment on. Why should that be any different today, when my life is so much richer in so many ways? Yet we bloggers (at least some of us) feel obliged to write something significant, something dripping with deep meaning. Why?

Why should bloggers feel they have to meet a higher standard just because they’re publishing to the world? (Or at least to the online world...) Perhaps we feel we have live up to our credentials, our scholarly standards? What if we’re not seminary or graduate educated? Or why not share and speak about those parts of our humanity that we share with everyone else, regardless of education? I know our education imprints a prevalent filter upon all our experience, one that’s hard to get around.

Still, why shouldn’t we speak what we feel and write what we think? I value visceral blogs precisely because they help to bring me back to basics, grounding or centering me, getting me out of my head. Such instinctual or spontaneous writing can be fresh and inspiring or may just be jarring us back to our senses.

And, perhaps, by writing extemporaneously we can affect or change our mood, our mental routine, drawing us out of a slump or a rut. It might show us that we actually do have something to say. It might very well convince us that the only way around writer’s or blogger’s block is straight through it. Write about the blockage.

That’s enough writing for now.

...

Update: Apparently Garry Trudeau sympathizes. The "throw away" panels from today's Doonesbury strip have a journalist sitting down to blog, saying "I got nothin'" then "I suppose I better go with it anyway."

I never thought I’d hear the Grateful Dead while listening to Ray Charles, but Ray has a song called “Feel So Bad” which appears on the 2006 remix, Ray Sings, Basie Swings, that sounds hauntingly like “Turn on Your Love Light”, especially the old version that Pigpen used to sing. The chord progression is nearly identical as well as the freestyle vocals in the middle of the song. It’s close enough to have a freaky déjà vu affect. It’s nice to hear the threads of influence across artists and even genres. Ray Charles is great and his influence is broad.