I'm being brainwashed

Yes. It is true. I'm being brainwashed. Not by the usual suspects such as the government or clandestine organizations... no. This is much more sinister. I'm being brainwashed, in public, with everyone's apparent acceptance.

It started like any other day. Getting up at 7:30 and starting work. Having some cold cereal for break, and using my computer for everything. Simple and routine. Like any other day... but I learned the truth. About the middle of the day, my boss and I were going to go play racquetball, but various problems kept occuring and the time for racquetball kept getting pushed later and later. Finally things clear up and I go to my room to get a better (worse) shirt in which to play racquetball. I start to change, but I wasn't paying attention and took my belt off. Just as the belt is coming out of the last loop I think (warning. Swearing ahead), "Shoot. Where's the undo button?" At that point, I found out who the master brainwashers were... Microsoft. Linux. IBM. CVS. Intel. GFQ. JiY. OOPLs. EDPLs. The Big 4.

"They" are all trying to steel a slice of my mind with this purpose: To take away my initiative, inventiveness, willingness to change and work outside the mold: to make me someone who will no longer think: "Bah, Who needs a belt anyway." :-D

The Day of the Dentist - or not

I finished with classes about 12:00 yesterday, and came home and managed to get around 8 hours of work done. That doesn't include lunch, dinner, goofing off, or talking with the boss. Having my boss here is really helpful. If I hit a problem with something, instead of hitting my head against a brick wall for a few hours, I can ask him a question, and with his experience and skill in programming he can usually send me in the right direction. Just being able to debate and discuss programming problems with other people makes programming so much more interesting. (Time for a Risk analogy Sean ) It's like Risk, you can play Risk by yourself, but the game is most fun when other people playing. In my case ( A computer addict ), I usually pit myself against computer players, but the analogy still holds.

Searching for a Church

Today was a nice, relaxing day. I went to church with my roommate Dan again. The church is very nice, but I didn't get the feeling of vibrant life. Having lunch after church is nice, especially when I know most of the people, but it's not a very good trade off if it means going to a church that isn't challenging me to reach higher. Granted, I've only heard two sermons. Both of the sermons were basically history lessons. We covered Timothy the first time I went and 2nd Chronicles this time; both times the sermon was explaining the why the particular passages were being written but there wasn't a lesson, warning, or message drawn out of the passages. It was just an explanation of the current time. Some of the college kids that go to the church are vocal, strong Christians, so I may go a few more times to see if the problem is me and a hard heart that's not willing to listen to what's being said.

In other news, my mom is on her way to Arizona tomorrow. She's going over to visit my grandma and spend some with her brothers and sisters. In another few months, most of the family will be going over for a big family reunion. We'll have the reunion in Grandma's new house. "New" is a relative term. It's a house that Grandpa and Grandma built together, and it's been 10 years or more since it's been finished. It's in a large valley, surrounded by woods. I can sit on the porch and watch the shadows of the clouds as they cast their reflection on the ground. I can't wait to see it again.

A profitable workday

I've been having trouble working lately. I'm working alone, and the work has all been very similar lately. Today, there was a part time worker so I had some incentive to work while he was there. I made a small breakthrough this morning, and I can start expanding my horizons into a new programming area. My boss is coming tomorrow, so I wanted to get one last detail working before he got here. I finished my programming test Wednesday and have a test Monday so I'm getting in some work because I know I'll need to save some time Saturday for study. I figured out that in the last three weeks, I've basically taken one week off. It was a bit shocking when I counted up my hours. My goal for the next 2 weeks is to make up the difference! An ambitious goal, but aiming low doesn't help and as Christians we should be good stewards of our responsibilities towards others and how we use our time for Christ.

I tried figuring out what used up so much time, and I can account for about a half of my off time. (and I think I'm quite accurate) All the rest of the time... no clue. Nothing profitable I'm sure. My mom mentioned something that hit me. All the time I spend goofing off and procrastinating is time I don't spend doing what I would do if I really had that time off.

Just a few thoughts I have at the end of the day.

Valentines Day Reflections

Valentines Day has come and gone. I only sent one chocolate bar. Sigh. I'm done being mushy now. The chocolate bar and the note was a hint to get an item of mine back. I don't need the item much at all, but it's fun to make fun of procrastinators (and yes, before you say anything, I am a procrastinator ). It took me almost a year to start getting that backpack repaired, and now it's getting repaired! It's not too fancy, but I've had it for the last 5 years and it's a bit hard to give up on it now. Just because it's has a tear 10 inches long doesn't mean it's time to get a new backpack!

I wish Eric and Victoria were back here at college. There was wayyyy too much PDA going on, and Victoria was the queen of stopping any unofficial PDA.

I don't have many reflections on Valentines day. It's a nice holidy if you're in a serious relationship, and a fun one if you're not. Half the fun of Valentines day is laughing at the commercials on TV. . . after all, what is so romantic about a four-door jeep driving through a waterfall? Or a battery powered razor? As our commie marketing major would say about the commercials, "Ugh. Turn it off. It's so bad I don't want to see it!". She then proceeds to cover her eyes and plug her ears until the commercial is done. Good for her!

On a side note: Hebrew is a great language to learn. I know it's not on most people's "Top 10 list of languages I want to learn", but Hebrew gives a new way to view the Bible. In Hebrew class we were practing out translation and... the verse evades me at the moment. Joseph had just told his brother's about his dream and his brothers said none too kindly, "Will you indeed rule over us?" In a very close translation, it would come out something like "Reigning, you will reign over us?" (This particular Hebrew construct has no English equivilent. We can only get close. ) In Hebrew to stress something, you repeat it. i.e. the emphasis on reigning.

When I read the verse in English, I thought the stress was on 'you'. The brother's didn't like Joseph, so it sounded to me like it was just emphasizing that fact. In Hebrew, the emphasis isn't on the 'you' part. It's on the 'reigning' part. When I read it in Hebrew (after tedious translation. I'm not a good translator. ) I get the impressing that the brother's weren't mad at Joseph. They were mad that Joseph would think he would ever rule over his older brothers.

Maybe it's not a big difference, but it made me look at the brothers in a kinder light. It made me think that the brother's didn't hate Joseph, Joseph might have been quite likable. What they hated was the fact that he might really rule over them - especially when looking at how their father treated him.

Repair service

As I take off my coat, I hear something jingle. Could it be my keys? No. They were in my hand. Any spare change? No. All the pockets were empty. But I'm positive I hear something gingle. I shake the coat again and hear the elusive clinking again. I slowly shake the coat, one section at a time, until I feel keys in my pocket. I reach into the pocket, feel a small whole at the bottom and reach a bit farther to find... the keys to my parent's car. Oops. :-)

Fortunately, Mom and Dad have a backup set so they weren't worried when they found out.

I made a trip home this weekend, even though I was woefully behind on work. To a certain extent, I don't mind not working 40 hours a week, but I told my boss I would be try to work 40 hours a week and those hours are what I use to pay my bills! This week and next week, while my boss is here, I'll be getting 55 to 60 hour weeks. That's how the schedule usually works out (more or usually less). I figure the next two weeks will make up for all my low hours for the last 3 weeks.

I also had my first microwaved lasagna today! I'm not a great cook, but I do find pre-prepared vegetable lasagnas very tasty. Not nearly as good as my mom makes, but tastier than anything I can prepare! I've cooked lasagnas before, but I've have always used the oven. Today, I took a leap into the bachelor lifestyle and decided to try to use the microwave for something other than hot chocolate and tea. The lasagna turned out pretty well if I do say so myself!.

End of the week post

There aren't too many new items of interest to report on, but I'll do my best to make all the uniteresting events sounds fascinating. :-)

This Tuesday and part of Wednesday I was ill. I'm guessing the stomach flu; by Tuesday evening I couldn't go to sleep it was so bad. Fortunately, I did end up going to sleep, but I woke up around 5:00, still ill. Around 8:30 I finally fell back to sleep and when I woke up, I felt mostly fine.

Another fascinating topics (As decided by me) - the NCFCA practice debate tournament this weekend! I don't know if I'll be judging, watching, or competing; but whatever I do, I'm looking forward to it! I missed the last tournament and I'm really looking forward to this one.

And my final topic of interest:

Middle of the week break

I'm back at work today. Because my mom and sister will be gone this weekend, I went home this Wednesday and Thursday. I did absolutely no work for my job, got some projects finished around the house ( like taxes ), read the newspaper, watched some Campion mysteries, and made sure Margaret didn't take it too easy. From what I see, my mom and dad don't give her enough chores - she seems to sleep all day! ;-)

One final note of interest ( at least it is interesting for me ) - I drove to the YMCA and went on a tour. I was shown on a brief tour of the facilities, and depending on how much I can use the weight room at the college, I may get a membership to the YMCA and do my workouts there. I do a bit of exercising at home to keep in shape, but it's not a full body workout. I think I may even lower the weights for my main barbell. Right now it is 37.4 lbs, but it's getting to be too much.

For the last few months my dad, Jesse, and I have been increasing the number of pushups we do. When I went home this week, we went ahead and did the traditional birthday pushups. Whenever my dad has a birthday ( or close to a birthday in this case ), Dad does pushups equal to how old he is. We sons can't be outdone, so we do them also. The plan didn't quite go according to my plan this year. My plan was to do pushups and finish with ease while dad huffed and wheezed. Instead, Dad and Jesse did extra pushups without appearing to strain to much, and I'm straining, arching, wheezing, shaking, and resting to finish my last 6 pushups to reach the minimum. Oh well. There's always next year. I figure that eventually, Dad's age will catch up to him and I'll be able to outdo him...... but enough of my wishful thinking. I'm having hard enough time trying to stay in the same ballgame as Dad. :-)

Better watch out Dad! Next year I'll do twice as many! If I really want to.