ouch …

Have you ever slipped and fell in slow-mo?  That was me this morning while trying to clean the ice off the car.  It was like I was in a bad FX movie.

Is It Really Acceptance? …

If you didn’t hear there was some controversy over whom Obama asked to give the opening prayer at his inauguration, it was Rick Warren of Purpose Driven Life fame.  Before the actual event there was ton of talks about whether, in this day and age, especially with Obama’s call for change whether this Pro-Life pastor was the correct person to ask.  Would he invoke the Lords name at the end of the prayer?  Would he infuriate everyone in the country who is not a believer and potentially those who call themselves Believers? 

I actually enjoyed Warren’s prayer.  I thought it was insightful, meaningful, inspirational and directed toward God.  I didn’t actually find much commentary about it other than this one.  The comment about Warren praying during the reign of Bush and the whole end of an era struck a cord with me.  As you read the commentary it talks about acceptance, compromise and not ruffling any feathers.  That the right-wing version of Christianity is intolerant and unaccepting.

The funny thing is, it’s not right-wing Christianity that is intolerant and unchangable it’s Christianity. Wha-wha-what?  Yes, God is pretty clear in what He says.  There’s no if, ands or buts.  If you do not accept Christ as your savior then you are not part of the flock.  There is no compromise to the basics of Christianity.  I would actually say Christianity is the most accepting of any religion.  The door is open for anyone who seeks and asks.  It’s just that most choose to deny God and His word.  If there was compromise to the Word then is Christ really the Son of God?  Was there really a virgin birth?  Did Adam and Eve really cause the downfall of mankind? 

I don’t know.  Seems pretty clear to me.  As the world slowly goes away from God I can see them slowly saying that Christianity is intolerant because they don’t tolerate those who are drifting away from God.  They’re not accepting because there’s no understanding of grace by those who feel unaccepted.  It’s not that Christians are perfect.  They aren’t.  No matter how much they seem to act like they are, we aren’t perfect.  Attacking the actions of humans is one thing.  Attacking the word of God is another.

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Lastly, Maryland Mens Basketball suffered the fourth-worst defeat in it’s history yesturday.  They lost to Duke 85-44.  I wonder if Duke will forfeit the game because it was a blowout.   Yeah.  One could only hope.  It hurts when they suck.

Read My Lips …

Good thing the Big O never said what Bush Sr. said.  Cuz it looks like he’s already trying to go against some of his said campaign promises.  Yep.  Four more years of change.  Or not.

Random Interesting Stuff …

• I never saw the commercial or heard about the cease-and-desist letter but it’s still funny.  Can’t say I care for either of them.  Quizno’s is the way to go. 
• Why would someone want treatment from a Coca-Cola addiction?!  That’s pretty loco!
• If you watched the inauguration and saw Yo-Yo Ma and others performance and thought “Man it’s cold out how are they playing?”  Well this is how.  I sorta wondered if it was recorded or not.  Ok, so they still played but only those around them could hear it and it maybe was out of tune.  
• It’s only been a few days after Obama had been sworn and he’s already setting us back.  First Gitmo and now he’s reversed the funding block for those that perform abortions one day after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade.  Good thing his own single mother didn’t have the option for aborting his birth.  I mean really, where would we be now?
• Final score: 100-0 and now a forfeit by the team that scored the 100 points. Sorta conflicted by this.  In terms of competition I really don’t see what’s wrong with running up the score.  If you don’t play hard in a competitive event why play at all?  The other team may suck and they seem to have known it, it still their job to try and prevent this.  If it doesn’t happen it doesn’t happen.  Losing and winning both develope character.  Should one of the NFL teams allowed the Detroit Lions to win a game so they would not be the first team to go 0-16?  Nope. I’ve read arguements about how this is only high school and these girls are gonna be scarred for life.  And that’s the same reasoning why there’s no more dodgeball in school.  It hurts when they boo.  I would say though that the coaches could have been alittle less enthusiastic though.  That’s defintely in poor taste.  If both teams played hard and to the best of their ability then I really see nothing wrong with it.  I actually see the foreit being worse because now their’s a pity party going on.  And really, that doesn’t help anyone.  Now if this was just a fellowship game, then it probably wasn’t such a good idea. 

21 Degrees …

It was 18 degrees when I left the house this morning.  And I was cold. 
When I left work to go home it was 39 degrees.  Oddly, it felt warm outside.

15 More Minutes …

Heard a pretty funny conversation at the post office today.

Speaking of Palin, there was a interesting commentary about her run for the VP.  Though I seriously, think she’s trying to grab another 15-minutes of fame she does make some good points.  Kids are usually off limits such as Chelsea, Malia and Sasha were/are.  Yet, Barbara, Jenna and Bristol were not.  Interesting.  Very interesting.  Also her thoughts about Caroline Kennedy are currently right on.  No much media blitz about her current run for Clinton’s vacant Senate seat.  Oh well, that’s life in the liberal media.  Then again, the stuff about Palin was hilarious. 

Seems like Frist agrees with me about Bush.  Too bad some 70+% of the US doesn’t see it that way.

I Guess It’s Never Too Early To Start …

A Goal for 2009 …

As commented earlier, my introverted self must branch out to seek and develop new friendships.  I must foster these friendships so I can lean upon these new found friends for various expert advice and skills.  Therefore, I will be seeking to make friends out of the various career fields (in no particular order):

• Medical/Health Care
• Plumbing
• Carpentry
• Mechanical
• Electrician
• Lawyer
• Movie Star

That should do it. 

Obviously, I kid.  Though being friends with a movie star would be kinda cool.   The question is do you think people really do make friends or acquaintances based upon profession?  I know for myself there are friends who I have no clue what they do.  Yet I’d consider them good friends.  They can’t help me with my plumbing issues but that’s cool.

Oh yeah, I hear today is historic for some reason.  Is it because I just saved money on my car insurance?  No, no.  I think it’s because the 44th multi-cultural President is being sworn in or something.  Errrr, that can’t be it.  That’s already happened 55 times already. 

It’s gotta be because Nick Markakis agrees to a six-year extension with the Orioles!  Second largest contract in O’s history!  Now that’s HISTORIC considering how cheap Peter Angelos is.

Need to Learn Some New Skillz …

The fun part about being a homeowner is trying to make sure the home is nice, safe and functional.  I knew when I bought the house there was this “banging” in the pipes.  I figured it should be an easy fix.  I’ve read about finding where the pipe is vibrating against something as water flows through it.  All you need to do is get a U-bracket and brace it.  That’s sorta the case.  The hot water is basically causing the pipes to expand and contract and therefore, forcing the pipe to bang.  Unfortunately, the plumber and I couldn’t really locate it without ripping out the drywall and tracing the actual pipe.  Seemingly that’s something I think I can do.  It just means there’ll be a ton of holes in the wall until I can find the exact spot.

Since the plumber was here I wanted him to take a look at another issue.  Being as strong as Chewy is she ripped off the cold water faucet stem a month or so ago causing water to go everywhere.  I was able to turn off the water from under the faucet but as I went to replace the stem I found a design flaw in the faucet structure.  This meant to me that I wanted to replace the faucet head but I couldn’t actually turn off the hot water valve.  So since the plumber was there I wanted to see if he could do so.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t without breaking the valve off.  So the only solution was to replace the on/off valve which was more than I think it should cost.  Especially after watching in basically turn a few bolts to remove the old one and replaced it with a new one.  Now I’m pretty sure I can do the same. 

This leads me to believe that I need to learn some more basic plumbing skills along with other home improvement stuff.  Mostly because I don’t know of anyone in those trades.  It’s amazing, since I work with computers that I tend to get asked various computer questions.  People think that for some reason those who work in the computer field know every aspect of both hardware, software and troubleshooting.  That’s probably not true and for the most part all I ever do is just “google” the problem.  I’m pretty sure most people know about google and know how to use it yet they still feel the need to ask those of us in the field.  I know for my co-workers they never help anyone with their computers outside of work because they simply don’t want to be bothered with becoming the free tech support for life.  I think in my mind I’m slowly moving to that mindset.

Why?  It’s maybe about being bothered with constant I-D10-t questions that not only I get from work and then from all aspects of life.  But I know for myself if I know people of a particular field I try and not bother them for free advice.  Several of my high school buddies are medical doctors but I feel awkward in asking them for free advice about stuff.  Plus I know for a fact that several (not my high school friends) doctors that I know will not give out advice and they just tell others to see their own physician.  I’m guessing it’s because they don’t want to be liable or something.  Still I think, at least in dealing with computers, there are plenty of folks who know about this stuff yet they just tend to shy away from wanting to help others. 

Knowing myself, the thought of stopping will just be that.  A thought.  I personally think it’s nice to help people who you call friends or family.  Even if I’m missing the family dinner because I’m working on a problem.  Then again, sometimes I find it better to be with the computer than to socialize.  Yeah, tragic flaw I’m sure.

I’m just wondering why people don’t extend themselves and their particular skills out more?