Wednesday, February 28, 2007

An Ironic Twist

I didn't hear about this before. I am not advocating embezzelment, but I think it is funny when the laws rebound on people.

http://www.washblade.com/2006/11-3/news/national/twist.cfm

In short, Michael Kopper, who embezzeled something like 19 million from Enron put a bunch of money into his partner's account. Since Texas does not recognize gay marriage, the court cannot treat the pratner as a spouse and must treat him as a "third party" which makes it harder to get the money. If Texas would recognize gay marriage, they could have gotten the money back.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Letter to Dr. Laura

I stole this from an ad for a place that sells "adult toys." I know it is kind of old, but I thought it was funny.

Dear Dr. Laura,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's law. I have learned a great deal from you, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as it suggests in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

Lev. 25:44 states that I may buy slaves from the nations that are around us. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this?

Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.20:14)

I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

Thank-you.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Various Thoughts...

Sometimes we see things about ourselves that we don't like.

One thing that I noted was that I was secretly hoping people I had worked with get fired. I know that seems horrible and it scared me when I noted it. I wanted those people to get fired so I didn't have to feel bad about losing my job.

I also have noted that I have been wanting to hurt people. Not just anyone (no, I am not going postal) but those people who (I feel) have hurt me. I guess it is the childish desire to "get back" at those people.

I guess I am still trying to heal some hurts. We all have hurts, but these never seem to have time to heal. Or maybe healing is occurring and I am just not aware of it. I look back and see the healing, it just dosen't seem like the healing is occurring while the events are happening.

Other Thoughts: I have started hanging out again at the Christain Forums chat site. I guess I need to go there every now and again to realize how closed minded people are. What makes me even more sad is how the people who claim to be the "stongest Christians" are the most closed minded. Some of them I want to tell, "You are not being treated badly because you are a Christian, you are being treated badly because you are a jerk."

I think it is the Tim LaHays of the world that propegate the notion that everyone is out to get rid of the all the Christians. (Read: Born-Again, Fundimentalist Christians.)

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Humm, Green... I'll need to think about that.

Lemuel came before me in the chain of people trying this, so I thought I would too!
Your Brain is Green
Of all the brain types, yours has the most balance.You are able to see all sides to most problems and are a good problem solver.You need time to work out your thoughts, but you don't get stuck in bad thinking patterns.
You tend to spend a lot of time thinking about the future, philosophy, and relationships (both personal and intellectual).

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day!


Hope Cupid makes a stop at your house!


Hug someone you love! (Better yet, hug someone you want to love!)

Monday, February 12, 2007

Lightning Struck

I just got a call telling me not to come in to work. I guess I am happy they waited until after weekend. That way I got to enjoy the weekend without futzing over it.

I had no idea I was on the block. I thought I was doing well. I was trying to do my best, to give what they asked, "world class service." I guess my best wasn't good enough.

So I am back to being unemployed. I know God is still in this, just where?

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Who would survive a new ice age?

Nick and I were talking and I got to thinking about all the end-of-the-world scenarios that seem to be on tv lately. I was thinking, "What if Yellowstone were to explode and we were thrown into another ice age? Who would survive?"

I thought and finally came up with the answer: Martha Stewart! Let's face it, the woman can do anything! If we had another ice age, Martha would know how to tan dog hides to make a matching jacket and muffler. She could prepare frozen "meat" to make a tasty and quick meal. She could arrange an igloo to make room for entertaining the few people who were left.

Martha would survive. Heaven help us all!

If You Will...

I just really hate this phrase: "If you will..."

I mean really, what does it mean? I was listening to NPR the this morning and a guy who was being interviewed said "If you will" something like three times during a two minute response.

I hate "If you will..." It is like saying, "You are too dumb to understand what I really want to say, so I will make it easier for you."

Every time I hear, "If you will..." I want to shout, "What if I won't?"

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Lightening From The Blue

Two people got fired from work in the past two days.

Now, I know they cannot say why these people got fired, but it definitely sent a chilling effect around the office. We all can't help but wonder, "Are we next?"

These people seemed to be doing their work well. At least I didn't see anything wrong. So we all are wondering if our head is on the block next.

I have said it before: I don't think I was cut out for corporate culture.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Current Events Rant

(DANGER! This is really disjointed. Stream of thought)

I have been thinking about a couple of things lately. The two are related although some may think it is a stretch. One is the Snickers commercial on the Super Bowl and the second is Ted Haggard’s miraculous trip through reparative therapy.

I guess first, I will talk about Pr. Haggard. How quickly was that reparation therapy? I know Jesus can do anything, but people spend years coming to the realization that reparation therapy doesn’t work in prayer to make a change in their sexual orientation. Now suddenly, Pr. Haggard is able to make the change in just three weeks. A miracle has happened to him!

But think of how much he has at stake in this “miracle:” He is the “chosenest” of God’s chosen. To validate the whole mega-church thing, Ted would have to propagate the idea that God has a special relationship with him; so God would, of course, answer his prayers quickest.

I feel it is almost like Ted is trying to get the “official” things over with so he can fade into the background. He goes to treatment and suddenly he is cured! Now he can go on with life without a lot of people watching. I may be wrong, but that is the feeling I am getting.

However, Pr. Haggard will never be able to fade into the background. He will be watched for the rest of his life. Especially since he had such a “miracle” change. People are going to be waiting for him to fall again.

The other thing is the whole Snickers fiasco. How could anyone in a leadership position NOT thing that commercial was offensive? And I am not just talking about it from a GLBT position.

The GLBT stuff is offensive enough. People would be willing to mutilate themselves and others just to prove they are not gay. As if being gay is so reprehensible that one would prefer to indulge in self-mutilation than be gay. Or one would rather drink noxious liquids (possibly poisonous, e.g. commit suicide) than be gay. That is totally offensive!

If the commercial had people committing suicide because they were black, then the whole country would be in an uproar. You would not be hearing people say, “Humor is subjective.” The boycott would be on and the president of M&M/Mars would be out on a rail.

But all we hear is hardly an apology. Yes, they have yanked the commercials and the web site, but is that enough. Are they yanking the commercials because they were wrong or because they will be bad for business?

But what both of these events are saying is that “We need to get rid of homosexuality at all cost!” We have to have divine intervention or pound it out of each other. We need to have it miraculously removed or kill ourselves. We have not gone as far as we hoped.

This is kind of rambling, sorry.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

I Just Don't Get It.

I got called into the boss's office last Thursday. The boss handed me the case number and asked me to come see him when I had the chance. I checked the case and I remembered what happened: I user called with a problem that one of her programs were running slow. Now, we knew that one of the servers was running slow, but we were also told to troubleshoot the problem. So I troubleshot the problem. I assisted the woman in cleaning her cache and compacting her drive. I also told her how to clear some things from her computer so she would have have to reboot her computer when a program would not properly launch. The woman was extremely happy for the information.

I look at the case and tried to figure out what I did that would cause me to get called into the office. I couldn't think of any except maybe I told her the wrong thing in clearing the memory.

I went into the office and said, "So what did I do wrong?" My boss said, "Nothing, it was great customer service to help the woman tweak her computer." I thought, "Wow! I am going to get an 'atta boy' for doing somethin right!"

But then he continued, "But this was a known problem, so you should have cut your losses and just gotten off the phone."

????????????????

We are told almost daily that we are trying to be a "World-Class Service Desk," how does not helping the client make us World-Class? Aren't we there to assist the client? I can't believe I got called into the office for being too nice to a client.

Maybe I just don't understand the corporate world. I work for the "Hearding Cats" company and sometimes just working there feels like hearding cats.

I just have to remember, this is not a career, it is just a job. I will do my best, but I need not get overly upset. I guess I just get frustrated because I am a people pleaser and it just seems like there is no way to please anyone!

Thursday, February 01, 2007

The trail continues

Well, some good things have been happening here! It is about time!

Nick and I were talking about the situation of the Episcopal student union at the local university. They currently do not have a priest and I currently do not have a call. Wouldn’t it work well if I could help fulfill their need?

Well, last Sunday, I was at church and one of the college students came up to me and told me that we needed to talk. No usually I am leery about these word, but I stopped and listened. She told me that the student union needed a priest and that I needed some experience in the Episcopal church. I said that she was right! I told her that I was about to call the bishop to see if there was some way we could tie these needs together.

She told me that she had already talked to the bishop and everything was ok. We are going to talk and see how our schedules can mesh.

I just about dropped over. Here was God working in the background while I thought nothing was happening.

So a new path is opening. I am excited to see where it is going.