Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

I listen to my iPod at work for some background noise when I don't need to concentrate so much on what I need to do. Because I am in a cube I use headphones. Recently I have been made aware that when I have my headphones on people think that I am on the phone. This is funny to me on a variety of levels, but if they only knew what I was listening to then they would realize how many brain cells I was killing rather than how I was making the company more money. On a related note I am exploring the possibility of changing positions in the company I work for. This is hard for me because I have a pretty good gig in my current position and my boss just stopped by and told me to take tomorrow off. He has always said to me that he has a life outside of work and he expects me to have one too. That's good stuff. The new position is more in my technical sweet spot and is a raise in pay. Maybe even a significant one. I have worked with the people that are in the new position I am considerin...

Can I call blessings ridiculous? Is that sacreligious? Maybe extravagant is a better word for it. My wife received word last Friday that our boys were more than welcome to represent Rochester Hearing and Speech (where they received excellent service) at the Rochester Red Wings baseball game by throwing out the first pitch. Not only that, but we were treated to a great picnic before the game and got seats on the first base line (more out towards right field). The weather was amazing and, all in all, it was a great night. Of course there were a profuse amount of pictures and video taken and the boys received a baseball that had the Red Wings logo and the words "First Pitch" on it. All this and heaven too? What manner of love is this? Lord, when I am alone and the dark tempts me to doubt your goodness, please let me remember these days and restore the joy of my salvation to me quickly. Powered by ScribeFire .

It is painful to me how much of the way I live is derived from other sources. Then again, the "original" thoughts that come to me have a tendency to be a little more than annoying (or dangerous when it comes to the games my boys and I play) to most people. But every once and a while the pain of derivation is lessened somewhat when I think of a new way to combine what has been said or written to bring clarity to my all-too-little world. Yesterday was an example of this. It is hard for me to explain the concept of "roles" that, especially, my wife and I have been given when it comes to our position in the family unit. I am the head of the family as Christ is head of the church and called to continually love and "out-sacrifice" my wife (as Christ did for the church). Submitting to her needs I am to be an example of the servant leader that he was for us. My wife's role in the family is to lovingly submit to me (as the church does to Christ) and be my eyes,...

Rather than ask myself "What does God want me to do?", I think a more appropriate question is "How does God want me to apply what is found in the Word to the decision I need to make?". I think the paralysis I feel most times concerning important decisions has more to do with the fact that I am clueless about His sovereign will for my life and I am afraid of being out of that will when I move in a particular direction. Well, He isn't going to be cluing me in to what He, exactly, has in store for me tomorrow. I think the faithful application of His revealed will (almost exclusively found in the Scriptures) to this life He has given me and the situations He has put me in is what He asks of me. That's the struggle and there is little there to paralyze me...unless the flesh has its way. "So, what does the Bible say?" Powered by ScribeFire .

I just completed my viewing of the Space Shuttle Endeavor's landing at the Kennedy Space Center and I enjoyed every second of it. What a relief to know that our astronauts made it home completing their mission to the International Space Station (I think it was the shuttle's 20th or 21st mission there). I got choked up a little when it touched down and when the wheels finally stopped rolling. As the vehicles to assist the Endeavor crew rolled toward the craft it made quite an impression on me. This is us at our best. We have an insatiable desire to explore, inhabit, colonize, and subdue. We know where this drive came from and, regardless of its imperfection, I still see the image of God in it all. Powered by ScribeFire .

In the it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time department.... I started in on the deck on Friday and got a good first coat on the main deck (minus the stairs and railing) and let it dry for 3 hours or so and then started in on the second coat. I had just gotten done with the second coat of the stain and then the skies blessed us with the rain we have been needing for a while. There were showers of blessing and I would have been much more interested in the "mercy drops" at that point, but there was someone pleading for the showers I'm sure. I think I held it together pretty well (I forgot to ask my wife what her impression of my countenance was) and the rain set me back only a little. Of course this is a situation when I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible. Terrible that God would send the rain and wash off at least half of my second coat. But then that is life here and in heaven as well. This is God's story and not mine. I have no idea why he sent t...

Decisions, decisions...making up my mind has never been one of my strong suits. I had originally taken today and Friday off from work so that I could paint our deck which is peeling through no fault of my own. It needs it badly and I think it will look so much better when it is done. I went out with the boys last night and got everything I needed and was ready to go. But then the time came to make a decision. There is rain threatening "later this afternoon". Hmmm....the can of opaque stain says to not use it if rain is imminent. OK, good, not sure how that helps. Is 6 hours imminent or are we talking about something more immediate? At any rate I decided to come to work today and take my chances on tomorrow. Supposedly there is rain in the forecast for tomorrow morning so I'll have to decide, yet again, whether to stay or go. Sometimes I feel like a mess but other times it is nice to put a stake in the ground. Even if that stake does not settle my decision in my mind even ...

If I was a young boy now I am sure I would get hit with the ADD or ADHD label and, depending on who was raising me, get saddled with some type of medication. Some days, like today, my mind just seems to go a mile a minute and some days, like today, I think I am just barely treading water. Then there are other days when my hyper active state of mind allows me the ability to focus on many things at once getting things done with a great deal of efficiency and ease. I think those days are fewer and more far between than I would like them to be however. Maybe I just need to lay off of the caffeine. I saw a guy on a Guinness Book of World Records show when I was younger try to recite the entire soliloquy of Hamlet in some obscene amount of time like under 25 seconds or something. Hah - I spelled soliloquy right the first time. Today, I feel like I could give him a run for his money. Powered by ScribeFire .

Note to self: To relieve any possible ambiguity for fellow co-workers do not use the term "liquored up and ready to go" to communicate the fact that you have successfully installed software and are ready for data to be loaded into it. Powered by ScribeFire .

I am getting more and more comfortable with Linux and using the command line to get things done in the OS. I heard it said that, along the way, someone has led us to believe that the GUI is the most efficient way to get things done in a particular operating system. I think the GUI has its place but there are certain operations that are best left to the command line it seems. To have a mastery of the terminal command line (or at least a good understanding of its capabilities) is essential when the GUI that I am presented with just gets in the way. Powered by ScribeFire .

I read this on a website from someone who ought to know better: "Worship is a large part of every church service." It is hard for me to even know where to go with this. This is a misuse of the "place" of worship as the church gathers (worship is the only reason the church gathers on Sunday at all) and is a misunderstanding of worship in general. If my boys ever say something like this they will get a talking to about what worship is (not an activity of the church alone) and why we assemble as and with the church to worship God through our presence, fellowship, service, singing, hearing the word preached, and encouragement of one another as a body of believers. Powered by ScribeFire .

For the first time since I have been jogging outside I felt really good this morning. Of course with the humidity then at about 80% the sweat that poured from my pores didn't go anywhere, but I was in a good rhythm in my breathing from just about the start, and I didn't have any knee pain like I have had in the past climbing the stairs to the office cube. A good start to the morning. Maybe I can get used to this outside jogging thing yet. Powered by ScribeFire .

Two instances where the "Sunday-school" answers i received were not only wrong but were dangerous were when in reference to the purpose of parables and miracles. Strictly speaking, growing up Catholic, I never attended Sunday School as my boys do now, but we had plenty of theology (i.e. religion) classes in the schools I attended from Kindergarten through 12th grade. Parables were not to make unfamiliar subjects (like the Kingdom of God) more familiar through the use of common imagery. It was quite the opposite actually in that they were meant to obscure these subjects and separate the truth-seekers from those looking to have their ears tickled: And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted." "For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does no...

I worked on this list when the electricity was out last night for the second time. Thank God for laptop batteries: The entire book of Ezekiel but especially the personification of the Spirit, the constant reference to him as "son of man", and the siegeworks he was instructed to build against the model of Jerusalem he had constructed. Pilate. The dream that Pilate's wife had and what she requested her husband to do as a result of it. Joseph before Pilate requesting Jesus' body. The manna and the rotting quail in the wilderness. The fact that I have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to me. When Paul shook the snake that latched onto him into the fire he was warming himself by and the vigil kept by his company to see what would happen to him. A very human moment punctuated by morbid curiosity culminating in unexpected results. The victory death held before the Cross. The fact that John waited for a, most probably, quite winded Peter to arrive b...

These are the days of miracle and wonder This is the long distance call The way the camera follows us in slo-mo The way we look to us all The way we look to a distant constellation That's dying in a corner of the sky These are the days of miracle and wonder And don't cry baby, don't cry, don't cry - Paul Simon, The Boy in the Bubble , Graceland I can't tell you how many times I listened to this album and I had all of the words down. The song "The Boy in the Bubble" was one of my favorites. I was reading a post from one of the amateur astronomers on a mailing list I belong to and he posted this (emphasis mine): Having been in astronomy off and on for 50 years, one of the wonderful things about this hobby is how rich it is, and there are always new and exciting things to see and do. Mars in August 2003 was absolutely spectacular, but not _that_ much different from Mars in 2005 or 2007. Well, maybe not 2007, since the current global dust storm on Mars is maki...