After covering the phones for 15 minutes with another hour to go, I have exhausted all forms of entertainment at the front desk. Yesterday, I discovered that something as simple as watching streaming video from ESPN.com can be detrimental to the computer systems here at Clothier & Head, PS. It all started back about two weeks ago.
The Olympics, as everyone should know, were held in Torino, or Turin, Italy this year. Time zones and the earths rotation as they are, most events of the Games took place while I was in bed. That, added to my not having regular access to a TV, meant I didn't see much of them. But the Internet is an amazing thing. You can, even now still, go there and watch all the Games, albeit, in short video clips. ESPN.com and NBC.com have combined to provide excellent coverage. This is what I had (past tense) been doing before now while I sat at the front desk and covered the phones. Now, not so much.
Yesterday, I was watching Apolo Anton Ohno slide victoriously after 500 meters on the short track, when the worst thing that can happen to a receptionist did. The computer reset, though I didn't know it at the time. At first it looked like I had killed the whole system. Both screens went black and there was nothing for a good four or five seconds. This is an even more tragic event at Clothier & Head, PS because the incoming switch board is tied directly to the computer and when it is off, so are the phones. Panic ensued. There was human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria. I did the only thing I knew to do; I called Cait.
If I had waited that extra few seconds I would have known that the computers had, in fact, just reset and Cait was unnecessary, but as always I jumped the gun. When they started to come back on, I knew then that what I needed was Jen and her knowledge of her passwords to sign me back in. I sent Anjie on a mission. Jen came, crisis averted.
Now here is the funny part. I write today as if I knew then what had caused the initial shut down. Reality is much different. Yesterday, I didn't know what I had done; I just assumed the thing broke on its own without my being a contributor so understandably, I went right back to what I was trying to do in the first place, watch Apolo Anton Ohno slide victoriously after 500 meters on the short track. This time, however, Jen was at had and when the computer crashed for a second time, I knew it was me. This did not endear me towards Jen, luckily she is probably the nicest receptionist I have ever met, and she proceeded to inform me of the whole, phones not working when computer not working issue.
I took the hint and am no longer going to watch videos of the Olympics, or any other sporting event, even my beloved Huskies as they battle for the top spot in the Pac-10 and an automatic NCAA Tournament berth, not that they need it, at the reception desk, which is why I have nothing to do at this exact moment.
So once again, you have wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Car Talk. Oh, sorry, wrong ending.
Have a great day.
It is tomorrow.
Jason
Oh, BTW, Jen is back from her walk so I have managed to occupy this last hour, and it went by really fast. I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Saturday, February 18, 2006
White House under fire over Cheney shooting
For everyone that does not live under a rock, bear with me in this next blog. Just yesterday some of my office mates were discussing, again, the stupidity of the discussion of this event. I couldn’t take it as it is such a non-story. So why then, you may be asking, am I being so hypocritical and bringing it up here? I do so because of something completely different that this story brought to mind.
The other day (I must confess that I should have written this blog that other day, but my life does not lend itself to the freedom to sit at a computer and type my thoughts. In the evenings the last thing I want to do is come home and be on the computer after having spent the entire day at one.) NPR was interviewing a cardiologist; questioning him about the severity and significance of the heart attack Harry Whittington had had days after being shot. The interviewer kept asking questions of the doctor: “How dangerous is this?” “What could be the long term effects?” “Is this heart attack serious?” The doctor, an “expert” in this field and more knowledgeable, I hope, than your average American, never once answered a question. He would say things like, “I haven’t seen the medical reports so I just can’t say for certain.” I was in my car at the time and wondered, “Why are you even on the radio program at all?”
This doctor was called upon to give his opinion. He didn’t. Why? I mentioned this to a pastor friend of mine. (Him being a pastor is inconsequential, he just happens to be one and I figured I would through that in so you all will know I hang with the right crowd.) He said that was the prudent thing to do. This doctor didn’t know the specific situation so don’t say anything. But I see it differently. The doctor wasn’t being asked to do anything more than educate some people, but he saw it as sticking his neck out. If he said something that was wrong, then he could, some how, be held liable? What, the doctors treating Harry would hear his opinion and change their own diagnosis and therefore be able to hold this other doctor accountable for his words? What is that all about?
Here is what I think. A couple things are at play in this whole scenario. 1. Americans are so unwilling to take responsibility for their actions that we look for anyone and anything to blame and hold accountable. 2. Humans, the men half in particular, are a bit weak in their own right and don’t know how to stand on their own two feet or convictions.
Where is all this coming from? Again, patience.
These last few months of my life have been marked by a resurgence of self evaluation. Now I have always been a bit reflective. Ok, there is no bit about it. But these last few have had some times of extreme confusion and seeking. One of the biggest areas has been in the realm of weak versus strong men. What do they look like? What characteristics are marked by a strong man? A weak one? The answer I have come up with is, “I don’t know?” My ignorance is not due to a personal lack but what I think is a universal inability. (Again, there is also a good amount of personal lack involved, but let’s not go there.) I don’t think that there is a concrete definition of strength that is possible on this earth, in human terms. Strength is like pornography as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” We all can look at another person and decide on human terms if they are strong or weak. Sometimes it has to do with their position, or related wealth. It may be physical, in terms of mere mass, although I think most would be quick to say that a lot of buff dudes are so to cover up their true selves. It may be based on their presence and command of an audience. There are many other factors and all of these external characteristics are effortlessly put in the category of strength. But is that real strength?
Real strength can only be defined by the creator of it. Just as beauty can only be define by the creator of beauty. If you want to know what a painting, or sculpture, or poem, tome, drawing, building, or any other form of created thing means, then you have to ask the creator. No amount of speculation will ever be 100% accurate. So true strength is not defined by anything of this world, though the previous mentioned attributes are some of its by-products, but by something so completely other-worldly.
“If God’s moral judgement differs from ours so that our ‘black’ may be His ‘white’, we can mean nothing by calling Him good for to say ‘God is good’, while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say ‘God is we know not what’.” – C.S. Lewis
Here is why I don’t think that we, as humans, will ever fully be able to define it, or anything else of a Divine nature. “God is we know not what.” This is true as it relates to His goodness as much as to His strength, justice, mercy, grace, love, or faithfulness. The best I can do is to say that true strength is defined as true godliness. Look at the character of God, the creator of strength, and you will see the character of strength.
What does that look like then, the character of God? Wow, “there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” But I love the image set forth before time began. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Formless, empty, darkness, in a word, chaos. This was the beginning and God, our God, came; He established order, brought beauty and peace into what was previously nothing. Our God came and spoke into the unknown. Something I don’t see a lot of today, especially from myself.
So I don’t fault the doctor for not sticking his neck out, nobody else does. And this is why I think reason 1. exists. Not as a cause, but an effect. The cause is this world going away from the truth of its purpose, from its Creator. The effect is to hammer down anyone that would speak into the darkness as their Creator does. We want to beat out any image of the Divine. And we do it well, very well.
It is ironic though, that book ending this blog is Cheney. His response to the shooting is to take full responsibility. “I pulled the trigger, I am the only one at fault.” Is he a strong man? I don’t know, and I am certainly not advocating one way or the other, but speaking out is a start.
It is tomorrow.
Jason
The other day (I must confess that I should have written this blog that other day, but my life does not lend itself to the freedom to sit at a computer and type my thoughts. In the evenings the last thing I want to do is come home and be on the computer after having spent the entire day at one.) NPR was interviewing a cardiologist; questioning him about the severity and significance of the heart attack Harry Whittington had had days after being shot. The interviewer kept asking questions of the doctor: “How dangerous is this?” “What could be the long term effects?” “Is this heart attack serious?” The doctor, an “expert” in this field and more knowledgeable, I hope, than your average American, never once answered a question. He would say things like, “I haven’t seen the medical reports so I just can’t say for certain.” I was in my car at the time and wondered, “Why are you even on the radio program at all?”
This doctor was called upon to give his opinion. He didn’t. Why? I mentioned this to a pastor friend of mine. (Him being a pastor is inconsequential, he just happens to be one and I figured I would through that in so you all will know I hang with the right crowd.) He said that was the prudent thing to do. This doctor didn’t know the specific situation so don’t say anything. But I see it differently. The doctor wasn’t being asked to do anything more than educate some people, but he saw it as sticking his neck out. If he said something that was wrong, then he could, some how, be held liable? What, the doctors treating Harry would hear his opinion and change their own diagnosis and therefore be able to hold this other doctor accountable for his words? What is that all about?
Here is what I think. A couple things are at play in this whole scenario. 1. Americans are so unwilling to take responsibility for their actions that we look for anyone and anything to blame and hold accountable. 2. Humans, the men half in particular, are a bit weak in their own right and don’t know how to stand on their own two feet or convictions.
Where is all this coming from? Again, patience.
These last few months of my life have been marked by a resurgence of self evaluation. Now I have always been a bit reflective. Ok, there is no bit about it. But these last few have had some times of extreme confusion and seeking. One of the biggest areas has been in the realm of weak versus strong men. What do they look like? What characteristics are marked by a strong man? A weak one? The answer I have come up with is, “I don’t know?” My ignorance is not due to a personal lack but what I think is a universal inability. (Again, there is also a good amount of personal lack involved, but let’s not go there.) I don’t think that there is a concrete definition of strength that is possible on this earth, in human terms. Strength is like pornography as Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964, “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” We all can look at another person and decide on human terms if they are strong or weak. Sometimes it has to do with their position, or related wealth. It may be physical, in terms of mere mass, although I think most would be quick to say that a lot of buff dudes are so to cover up their true selves. It may be based on their presence and command of an audience. There are many other factors and all of these external characteristics are effortlessly put in the category of strength. But is that real strength?
Real strength can only be defined by the creator of it. Just as beauty can only be define by the creator of beauty. If you want to know what a painting, or sculpture, or poem, tome, drawing, building, or any other form of created thing means, then you have to ask the creator. No amount of speculation will ever be 100% accurate. So true strength is not defined by anything of this world, though the previous mentioned attributes are some of its by-products, but by something so completely other-worldly.
“If God’s moral judgement differs from ours so that our ‘black’ may be His ‘white’, we can mean nothing by calling Him good for to say ‘God is good’, while asserting that His goodness is wholly other than ours, is really only to say ‘God is we know not what’.” – C.S. Lewis
Here is why I don’t think that we, as humans, will ever fully be able to define it, or anything else of a Divine nature. “God is we know not what.” This is true as it relates to His goodness as much as to His strength, justice, mercy, grace, love, or faithfulness. The best I can do is to say that true strength is defined as true godliness. Look at the character of God, the creator of strength, and you will see the character of strength.
What does that look like then, the character of God? Wow, “there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.” But I love the image set forth before time began. “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” Formless, empty, darkness, in a word, chaos. This was the beginning and God, our God, came; He established order, brought beauty and peace into what was previously nothing. Our God came and spoke into the unknown. Something I don’t see a lot of today, especially from myself.
So I don’t fault the doctor for not sticking his neck out, nobody else does. And this is why I think reason 1. exists. Not as a cause, but an effect. The cause is this world going away from the truth of its purpose, from its Creator. The effect is to hammer down anyone that would speak into the darkness as their Creator does. We want to beat out any image of the Divine. And we do it well, very well.
It is ironic though, that book ending this blog is Cheney. His response to the shooting is to take full responsibility. “I pulled the trigger, I am the only one at fault.” Is he a strong man? I don’t know, and I am certainly not advocating one way or the other, but speaking out is a start.
It is tomorrow.
Jason
Thursday, February 9, 2006
Finally
I am not sure if anyone else is happy that that one post is gone. You know the one. The world map post that was wider than the average post and made my sidebar drop to the bottom of the screen. Well, at least I am glad it is gone, it was annoying.
I am personning the phones at work. Which are part of my duties as Admin Be'och, or Man Slave as I have most affectionately been called. It is not bad now that I have figured out how to use them, oh there is a call...
One of the perks of personning the phones is that you have relative freedom to do nothing else but that. I do try and get a bit of other work done, but more or less I spend the time on the Internet, guilt free. As I was surfing a bit, I realized that I could also sit here and type a blog or two. Or just one, because I am at the tail end of this personning and the regular phone personner is on her way back.
Work is still going well, although I haven't figured out how the rest of the world works 40 hours each week. Seriously, you work every day and that is just about all you do during the week. I am now looking to cut back a few of the other things that I do in the evening, but that is not easy. The choices are: Young Life, UCU, Community Group, or Bible Class. None of which I want to give up. I have decided not to add anything new. I was interested in helping out with the Youth Group at my church, but that will have to be put off until I finish class.
Now she is back and I must go.
I am personning the phones at work. Which are part of my duties as Admin Be'och, or Man Slave as I have most affectionately been called. It is not bad now that I have figured out how to use them, oh there is a call...
One of the perks of personning the phones is that you have relative freedom to do nothing else but that. I do try and get a bit of other work done, but more or less I spend the time on the Internet, guilt free. As I was surfing a bit, I realized that I could also sit here and type a blog or two. Or just one, because I am at the tail end of this personning and the regular phone personner is on her way back.
Work is still going well, although I haven't figured out how the rest of the world works 40 hours each week. Seriously, you work every day and that is just about all you do during the week. I am now looking to cut back a few of the other things that I do in the evening, but that is not easy. The choices are: Young Life, UCU, Community Group, or Bible Class. None of which I want to give up. I have decided not to add anything new. I was interested in helping out with the Youth Group at my church, but that will have to be put off until I finish class.
Now she is back and I must go.
Sunday, February 5, 2006
Super bowl over
We will see where this goes. I honestly can't say because my mind is literally in a 1000 places right now. If itwasn't 10:10 on a Sunday night, work looming in the near future, and if I had enough speed and caffeine to keep me awake, I could write a book. I will give it my best shot and most likely what you, the masses, read will not be what was penned this evening.
As mentioned, it is 10:10 on Sunday evening. Black Sunday as it will now be known, and said first (maybe) by yours truly. The Seahawks lost tonight. Which is not even close to why I am in the state that I am in. It was a glorious run, for what looked like a better part of three quarters, I was feeling a victory, but alas the gods were against us. It is probably because we are the least churched city in American and you know how they love their churches. But enough about that. I really don't care and I know no one will believe me, especially after I start this blog with them. But in my defense, they are the biggest pop culture event and as I have always been one to play to the masses, you got to catch them in their place. Feed the animal and it will come back for more. Seriously, I make good money writing this shtuff and I know where my base is.
The really story, however, lies in the after game show. That show and everything things else that has happened in my life over the last three weeks. Three weeks, what is that? It is absurd to think that the feelings I have after only three weeks, which was preceded by maybe a month, are feelings I could possibly consider really. What are three weeks in eternity, what is a month? Sorry, I am off subject.
The after game show was of the recently nominated film, Crash. And film would be the appropriate designation. My brother and I, when we were out "bonding", were talking over the last holidays about the difference between a movie and a film. I don't remember what a lot of those distinctions where, but I can tell you what I do remember and I know that from what I remember that Crash is a film. Crash is probably the most profound movie I have seen in, forever. Well, forever is a long time, so let's go with, "as long as I can remember at this point."
The thing with the movie is that it fits right into everything I have been reading and hearing about us pathetic humans. Here is the deal. We suck! Really, we suck hard core. There is nothing good about us, and if you think otherwise, that just proves my point. In crash, there wasn't one good person. Anyone you thought was good ended up being bad, and the bad guys came out looking a little better, but only a little. All of them sucked. And that is humans. We suck!
On my Sundays, I am told that time and time again. It sounds harsh to hear it here, and it even sounds that way on most Sundays, but it sounds harsh because it is true. "Reality is like a fine wine, it doesn't appeal to children." - stolen from a quote of a quote of a book by an author who I read once, recently. When I read that, the world made sense, if only for the moment. I am a child and I don't like the reality of life because it is hard, and harsh, and no fun and work, and people are mean and they suck and they are selfish, cruel, bias, racist, short sighted, ignorant, blind, deaf, and dumb. If we weren't like that then the world would be heaven. But it is so obviously not heaven that at times I want to scream. Luckily those times are few and far between and even in those few and far times, I can manage to go without because I know a little something else. (OK maybe I do scream, but I would deny it and you couldn't prove it if you wanted to.)
What I am trying to say is that I suck too. All those adjectives describe me just as much as the next human. Everyone says it, only in a nicer way. "Nobody's perfect! We all make mistakes." In Crash, I related to so many of the characters. The one I related to the most today was the TV producer/director. The tragic scene where his wife is being, well, raped, by that sleazy cop and he just stands there silent, is more than I can
As mentioned, it is 10:10 on Sunday evening. Black Sunday as it will now be known, and said first (maybe) by yours truly. The Seahawks lost tonight. Which is not even close to why I am in the state that I am in. It was a glorious run, for what looked like a better part of three quarters, I was feeling a victory, but alas the gods were against us. It is probably because we are the least churched city in American and you know how they love their churches. But enough about that. I really don't care and I know no one will believe me, especially after I start this blog with them. But in my defense, they are the biggest pop culture event and as I have always been one to play to the masses, you got to catch them in their place. Feed the animal and it will come back for more. Seriously, I make good money writing this shtuff and I know where my base is.
The really story, however, lies in the after game show. That show and everything things else that has happened in my life over the last three weeks. Three weeks, what is that? It is absurd to think that the feelings I have after only three weeks, which was preceded by maybe a month, are feelings I could possibly consider really. What are three weeks in eternity, what is a month? Sorry, I am off subject.
The after game show was of the recently nominated film, Crash. And film would be the appropriate designation. My brother and I, when we were out "bonding", were talking over the last holidays about the difference between a movie and a film. I don't remember what a lot of those distinctions where, but I can tell you what I do remember and I know that from what I remember that Crash is a film. Crash is probably the most profound movie I have seen in, forever. Well, forever is a long time, so let's go with, "as long as I can remember at this point."
The thing with the movie is that it fits right into everything I have been reading and hearing about us pathetic humans. Here is the deal. We suck! Really, we suck hard core. There is nothing good about us, and if you think otherwise, that just proves my point. In crash, there wasn't one good person. Anyone you thought was good ended up being bad, and the bad guys came out looking a little better, but only a little. All of them sucked. And that is humans. We suck!
On my Sundays, I am told that time and time again. It sounds harsh to hear it here, and it even sounds that way on most Sundays, but it sounds harsh because it is true. "Reality is like a fine wine, it doesn't appeal to children." - stolen from a quote of a quote of a book by an author who I read once, recently. When I read that, the world made sense, if only for the moment. I am a child and I don't like the reality of life because it is hard, and harsh, and no fun and work, and people are mean and they suck and they are selfish, cruel, bias, racist, short sighted, ignorant, blind, deaf, and dumb. If we weren't like that then the world would be heaven. But it is so obviously not heaven that at times I want to scream. Luckily those times are few and far between and even in those few and far times, I can manage to go without because I know a little something else. (OK maybe I do scream, but I would deny it and you couldn't prove it if you wanted to.)
What I am trying to say is that I suck too. All those adjectives describe me just as much as the next human. Everyone says it, only in a nicer way. "Nobody's perfect! We all make mistakes." In Crash, I related to so many of the characters. The one I related to the most today was the TV producer/director. The tragic scene where his wife is being, well, raped, by that sleazy cop and he just stands there silent, is more than I can
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