Where has the day gone? Once again I marvel at how many things there are to do in a day and how short that day is. There are advantages to working in an office where all activity can be focused on a constrained set of subtasks.

Today I got up at 6am, did my morning devotion, did a 25 minute light workout, showered, took my youngest daughter to school, at a quick breakfast and spent more time in the Word. This was followed by a quick text message to a dear friend to see if he had time for a walk. I then reviewed my History 17a essay which was completed last week. Found that I had missed the professors direction to include a Works Cited page, spent the next 45 minutes putting that together and reprinting the essay with the minor corrections I had to make. I took a call from my friend and we arranged to walk at 10am. That gave me a few minutes to convert our household budget from an every 2 week payday to twice/month. Believe it or not that was a lot of work. I completed it after my 10am – 11am walk. It was close to noon and my wife put lunch together for us. We talked for a few minutes then went our separate ways on various projects.

Here’s where a big blackout happened… I have no idea what I did from 12-2pm! I was not napping, I was busy, on something – honest.

2pm, I picked up my youngest daughter from school, we went to the Barber, I got a haircut, we went to the post office to pick up my certified letter (with severance check enclosed) – carrier was not back yet. Now that’s a frustrating point. I knew it was to arrive today. Someone was home all day and yet there’s a little letter in my post box saying, “we missed you!” So friendly and so wrong. No one even looked for me. After the post we went to safe deposit box to get documentation that I am indeed a legal resident. (Hey why don’t the illegals have to do this?), I stopped at Home Depot to kill a few minutes to arrive at the post office as late as possible. Picked up a few needed things at Home Depot, then went to the post office. I arrived 5 minutes before the window closed and, “sorry your carrier is not back yet.” Frustrating.

I arrive home, review the rest of the mail. Spent 20 minutes reading training material for work (this is something I’ve had intention on doing 7 days starting last Wednesday). Then because my back is hurting I look at the clock and here it is 5:18pm! Where did the day go?

All I can say I hope I did something during my 2 hour blackout!

Starting over can be tough. It can be tough on the mind and even the body, depending on what is being restarted. Establishing oneself in a new job is certainly a stretch. If it is a lateral move the stretch isn’t so bad but it is still a stretch.

Working ones way through school can be tough. I’ve thought this with my history class. Only 4 weeks left. For at least one lecture day I’ll be out of town on the new job. The final will be a bear to study for especially while working. The professor is pouring on the homework these last few weeks. I’ve got a new job to study for. What if I drop the class? Take the F and move on. If I were to continue my education in the fall or in a later year when things settle down, I’d have to start this history class all over again. Not an easy task, especially when I am getting a decent grade right now.

Going through any program for many weeks and then being told to start over again can be really tough emotionally. However, to look at the positive, many things that were missed the first time around will be revealed and stored in memory. It seems that technically we’d all be better off to start some things over again.

When your mind is stuck on something, how do you think about something else?

A thought comes into your mind about some annoyance you have with your partner. It’s a small thing. You know it. But yet you can’t shake it. The more you think about it, the more your beliefs of that person are shaped. Out of your beliefs come attitudes and feelings. Quite possibly the feelings put distance between you and your partner.

You know it’s a small thing – you don’t want to bring it up. You don’t want to sound petty. You don’t want to cause upset. But yet you can’t shake the feelings. If only you could move your thinking to something else – to better things – to the good in your spouse, you know the feelings will change and all will be right with the world.

How does one control their thoughts?

Microsoft, the name everyone loves to hate. I recently installed Vista on a laptop. I’m not sure what came over me but since I work in the technology field I figured I’d have to get familiar with it anyway. 2000 & XP were fine for me thanks! You know what? After 2 weeks and a lot of searching for things I could do under XP I kind of like Vista. It’s clean smooth and, at least for home use, is pretty resilient.

However, not all is happy at my house. At the same time I figured I’d give Office 2007 a whirl. I get errors everyday, I am having a harder time using the new interface and making sure I’m saving everything in “compatible” mode than I am having with Vista. The good thing is that the errors I get are not critical and only occur when I close Word, Excel or PowerPoint. All documents save and nothing locks up. I am getting pretty annoyed. So far Google has not moved me to a solution.

Since December I have spent more time on Google trying to fix Windows (XP or Vista) and Office (2003 & 2007) problems than I have spent working on Microsoft issues/bugs in my entire 16 years in the technical support field.

What’s up Microsoft?

Yesterday as I read my text for American History I ran across a novelty in the annuals of America. The Oneida Community. In short it was a utopian commune based upon a radically different interpretation of the Bible.

They practiced Communalism (in the sense of communal property and possessions), Complex Marriage (all men are married to all women), Male Continence (control of response during the sexual union), Mutual Criticism (each member submits to a committee for personal improvement) and Ascending Fellowship (older members initiate the younger into the tenets of the society).

The community’s original 87 members grew to 172 by February 1850, 208 by 1852 and 306 by 1878.

What surprised me was that the time was 1848 and the community existed for over 20 years before differences caused it to break apart.

All I have came from my God and what I offer Him was His in the first place. This should be the attitude of my life.

O Lord, you are great, mighty, majestic, magnificent, glorious, and sovereign over all the sky and earth! You have dominion and exalt yourself as the ruler of all. You are the source of wealth and honor; you rule over all. You possess strength and might to magnify and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your majestic name. “But who am I and who are my people, that we should be in a position to contribute this much? Indeed, everything comes from you, and we have simply given back to you what is yours.”
1 Chronicles 29:11-14 – New English Translation (NET)

How does one lead and not force a vision onto the led?

I feel I am in this position with a group I am involved in. The others have a vision but their vision is only a subset of mine. My sincere desire is not to force my way but lead all toward the greater reward. A part of leading is to instill vision in those being led but my internal struggle is determining the point at which my desire and vision is imposed upon those being led. I want to instill ownership.

The specifics have to do with men’s ministry in the church I am in. I have only been at this church for 6 months and do not yet feel part of the internal heartbeat that is defined as the church. After much prayer and consideration, I am getting involved in the initial formation of a men’s ministry team. It has existed in the past but not with cohesion and unity. It has created isolated events.

This past week I and 6 other men met to talk about this year and our focus for events, and the events. Most of the men there had a deep heart for evangelism, which was very clear in the type of activities that were suggested. I don’t want to minimize that desire but it quickly became apparent that the thought process stopped there. It was suggested by me and one other that an event more substantial was needed to also develop depth.

Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Hebrews 5:13-14 – New International Version (NIV)

Milk is good and necessary but one can’t grow up to maturity on it. Solid food is needed. On the other hand you can’t throw solid food at an infant that has not been nourished by milk. The Christian life is growth. Those around us are all in different stages of growth. Milk and solid food should always be available. The proportion may differ depending on the purpose of the gathering, but they should be available.

This leads me back to vision and leadership. I have been allowed to take the lead on organizing a men’s retreat in the fall. My goal is to provide something to grow all the men spiritually. No matter where they’re at. And grow them in various aspects that are appropriate to their gifts and abilities, not just stick everyone in a mold. But I don’t want my idea and vision to be the ONLY idea and vision. I’m only me, there’s only so much gray matter in that noggin of mine. I need the checks and balances to ensure I’m on the right page.

Should I go on vacation or what? My prospective employer informed me yesterday that they are proposing a start date of April 16th to begin my new employment.

So now I must determine what I am to do until then to make the time useful. I can begin training for the new position. I can get some of those “honey do” projects done. It would be nice to take a family vacation but its school time for the kids. Also, what if…. what if the employer changes their mind in the meantime? I’d sure hate to be left hung out to dry with nothing in the works.

There are different types of silence between two people. There’s the I’m-not-speaking-to-you silence and there’s the lost-in-my-own-thoughts silence. There’s the silence imposed by distance and there’s the silence when two are together and connected but there’s simply nothing to say (or should I say – needs to be said) at that moment.

When silence is imposed upon us by another there is a natural warning flag. A sense that all is not right in the world. Maybe we’re the one imposing the silence. Regardless of the source – this type of silence, over time, can do no good to a relationship. Sometimes there is wisdom in backing off for a time in order to “cool off,” but this type of silence should not be used as a weapon. It usefulness in building a strong relationship is limited to a period of time with the purpose of restoration. It can allow someone to gather their thoughts. It can allow someone to evaluate what would be most constructive to repair the breech.

POWER: The ability to make our fellow humans squirm, sweat and stammer on command. Often regarded as an aphrodisiac; actually a potent laxative that, whenever ingested by people in high places, causes everyone below to run for cover.
Rick Bayan, The Cynics Dictionary

When you have a family, how much travel is too much? Should it be quantified by duration of the trip? What about time on the road? How does one factor in time waiting in airports, sitting on planes and those early mornings trying to pack and catch a flight?

I am a hard worker but I would say that I work hard to play – I don’t work hard for the sake of working. That’s just not me. I always take great pride in doing my best but I don’t live for those accomplishments. Work hard, get the job done, go home. That’s been my philosophy for all of my working life.

What portion of business travel is work? This is an especially difficult question when very little actual work productivity can be accomplished while traveling as compared to the time it take to travel. Another question, should work travel be conducted on personal time or company time? Again this question goes back to productivity and what a person is being paid for.

These are just my general musings since I’ve just accepted a job that will require upwards of 50% travel time, at least for the first 6 to 12 months. The time may go down later, in fact I bank on that, but for now that’s the way the pie is sliced.