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Saturday, August 29, 2009 Ramblings Last night we attended a hot dog cook out at our oldest daughter's house. They had a fire going in the back yard and tents set up for a sleep over party for the middle child. There were at least a dozen kids there, maybe more. They never held still long enough for me to count them except when they were in line for cake or water melon, and I was too busy elbowing my way to the front of the line to do any counting. We had a lot of laughs. Perhaps one of the funniest was a conversation between two five year olds that began, "When I was little…" I got word yesterday that the guy working on our on-line database thinks he can finish it next month. I am very excited. I am hoping it will give us some logistical relief. We continue to have more completed lessons and enrollments arriving than we do answered lessons and bibles being sent. God is good. This was my wife's birthday week. I have been reading aloud to her a lot this week. She likes that. I do, too. She gave me a new wallet and hat for her birthday. Isn't she wonderful? Tonight I'm taking her out to eat to celebrate her birthday, but I have not yet been told where we are going. I was asked to explain 1 John 5:16-17 this week. I had a difficult time with it. I think I have settled on this explanation as probably the best. http://www.learnthebible.org/praying-for-the-sin-unto-death.html Thanks to my wife, for finding that web page. ---------------------------------------------- Monday, August 24, 2009 Do you have an itch to be rich? Become a snitch. I know my vast reading audience is anxious to hear my report on the "Respectful Workplace" seminar I attended recently. It used to be called "Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace" but I think they had to change the name when they realized a lot of people were signing up for it, because they thought it was "how to" training. I have become too institutionalized to laugh out loud at these things, so I wasn't worried about getting tossed out of class, but it turned out to not be that funny. It was mostly dry legaleze about if you talk in certain ways you could get in trouble, get fired, or get sued. The good news is that the pitfalls can all be avoided by simple politeness, minding your own business, and not making fun of anyone regardless of how ridiculous they are. To pass the time I practiced identifying logical fallacies, of which there were plenty, as there usually are when people talk. |
There was a good bit about protected classes - you know - race, gender, etc. The instructor made a big point of being in a protected class is not the same thing as being privileged. Except for the privilege of being able to sue for ungodly amounts of money when someone makes fun of you, she is right.
They seem to be trying to turn everyone into over sensitive, humorless, robots expecting to be victimized any second now. The huge financial awards from lawsuits over this kind of stuff certainly gives people a huge incentive to practice victimhood, but perhaps it is crediting the powers that be with too much planning ability to believe they are doing it on purpose.
Here is one illogical syllogism I drew
from the course by putting things they said at different times in meaningful
order:
Stress leads to sickness and death.
Joking around relieves stress.
Therefore we should make joking around illegal.
One interesting note: It is still legal to make fun of fat people unless they are that way because of a disability. No information about how to tell the difference. Sorry.
The instructor emphasized several times that your intent had nothing to do with it. If the impact of something you said was detrimental you were responsible regardless. She even wrote it on the board: "Impact NOT Intent" Later she was standing in front of this information when she explained that if in doubt we should report any instances we knew about. She explained we could not get in trouble for turning someone in as long as our intention was honest no matter what impact it had on others. I think I'm the only one who saw the irony in that.
So the conclusion is: if someone says something you might reasonably pretend to be offended about, or someone else might not like, you should squeal like a stuck pig, because there are no consequences, at least to you, and you might win the lawsuit lottery.
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Thursday, August 6, 2009
Nocturnal Visitor Mystery Solved
It seems there are two families in the neighborhood which each have several boys in high school. They have recently gotten into a prank each other war. The potted plant belonged to one of those two families. My Chinese co-worker was not amused and not pleased to be included in this new neighborhood activity.
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Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Nocturnal Visitor
The Chinese lady who sits next to me at work reported something odd. Last night someone rang their doorbell. Her husband looked out the peep hole and when he did not recognize the person did not open the door. Whoever it was, left. This morning she and her husband found a large plant in a large pot on their front porch. It did not have a bow or a florist tag or anything. Just the plant and pot. Hmmm.
I forgive you
Last night I preached on forgiveness. In case you are languishing under some load of guilt for the terrible things you have done to me, let it go. You do not owe me anything. I am not angry with you. I freely and fully forgive you. [Disclaimer: This forgiveness does not apply to any actual money owed to me. I still want the money, I'm just not mad about it.]
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Chess for Cash
This past weekend my two local grand sons came over while the girls all went shopping. Mostly we played chess. I have put up prize money for when they beat me. I started out with me having a pawn and a king. When they beat me at that level, I give them one dollar and add a pawn. When I got to three or four pawns we started ending up in tie games a lot. The younger one would just accidently give away so many men that he eventually no longer had the ability to checkmate me. The older one would surround my king so he could not move but neglect to have me in check. That is a stale mate and also a tie game. We played for almost four hours stopping only for lunch.
This same offer applies to all my grandchildren. Pawns are one dollar each, knights and bishops are $5, rooks are $10 and the Queen is $20. By the time they beat me with a full set they will have won $68. The idea is to keep them focused on improving until they become good chess players.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
(Inspired by a conversation in the car pool)
What were the magical foot apparel that
got Dorothy home made of?
Fur
Glass
Rubies
Silver
Wood
What about Cinderella's magical foot
apparel?
Fur
Glass
Rubies
Silver
Wood
And on Hans Brinker's feet we find?
Fur
Glass
Rubies
Silver
Wood
Hint all five answers are correct at least once. Contact me if you can’t figure it out.
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Saturday, August 1, 2009
I see I have been "found out." I quit reading other people's blogs some time earlier this year, but it is not because I do not care. I have been relying on my wife for my family news. There are so many things on my "to do" list it is amazing. I don't expect to start reading blogs again in the near future. The best way to communicate with me is send me an e-mail.
Besides my earlier reasons (see July 21st) another driver for starting to blog was I found a niche of time at work, which really isn't useful for anything else, when I can make notes. However, I can not really blog at work anymore (reading or posting) so the notes get saved up and posted mostly on weekends or occasionally in the evening.
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