So someone wants to get people together to simulate the French Revolution. The game takes something like 30 people, and the better part of a day to play.
Here's my only question...why, if you were someone that enjoyed playing games of a complicated nature, involving strategy and even some role playing perhaps...even so...what would entice anyone (and the game creators are included in this) to settle on an all day French Revolution game? I mean, really? Really?
I could understand if you wanted to play a Sinn Fein game (I call Michael Collins!) or a Roman Republic game or a Trojan War, even a Pelloponesian War re-enactment, roleplay game--very cool. But the French Revolution?
Se la vie.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Ah, work.
So...I started work today. A 12 hour day for my first day on the lot...my feet are killing me.
There are many things that happened today to make me both laugh and cringe (both mostly on the inside). There was a customer who had a social security card belonging to a deceased person. And there was the fact that my general sales manager mentioned that I was a priority employee who they wanted to see succeed...because I'm white, and I make the third white person working on the lot. That was an experience I didn't think I'd have...ever.
But so far...no cars sold. I know--its only been one day. I'm not discouraged. Tired, but not discouraged. I am learning more about Toyota's than I ever thought possible. It is a comfort to be selling a good product.
I am currently relaxing, waiting for my dinner to finish cooking...watching Envy, a fantastic movie for those of us thinking about money and work a lot. Its not a bad night.
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Doooode...I gots a job.
So...it took a Summer to find the right job to fill a very specific need...and the honest truth is, we are sort of jumping and hoping that all it promises it might be it in fact will be...but as of my first interview this morning I was offered a job at the number 1 Toyota dealer in the O.C., and after two more interviews, I decided that that was the position for me.
So...anyone need to buy a car? New or used, I got what you need. The great thing, especially if I can make it work for us, is that I'll be making a living helping people avoid feeling the awful stress of buying a car from someone they fear is only trying to milk them for every cent he can get from them.
My only problem is (and its a silly problem in a way) I have hard time anytime I start doing a job whose overall goal is generally to make a good living. I feel as if my life has lost purpose, as if I have instantly become a suit who is living for the next new thing he can buy. Of course...that's not an accurate summation of the situation. I am providing for my family...and as I said, I can do my job to help others, rather than use them. But every now and then, I have to remind myself of that important reality...because I can lose steam quickly if I forget that a job that earns money isn't a bad thing.
The other problem is...as I will be working weekends (and especially as Labor Day weekend should be a great time to start a career in sales)...I will probably have to miss, if not all, at least large chunks of one of my favorite events of the year...the aforementioned Homer Marathon.
Sigh.
Sometimes being a grown-up isn't as much fun as it sounds. Maybe I can read the Illiad to Aiden...
So...anyone need to buy a car? New or used, I got what you need. The great thing, especially if I can make it work for us, is that I'll be making a living helping people avoid feeling the awful stress of buying a car from someone they fear is only trying to milk them for every cent he can get from them.
My only problem is (and its a silly problem in a way) I have hard time anytime I start doing a job whose overall goal is generally to make a good living. I feel as if my life has lost purpose, as if I have instantly become a suit who is living for the next new thing he can buy. Of course...that's not an accurate summation of the situation. I am providing for my family...and as I said, I can do my job to help others, rather than use them. But every now and then, I have to remind myself of that important reality...because I can lose steam quickly if I forget that a job that earns money isn't a bad thing.
The other problem is...as I will be working weekends (and especially as Labor Day weekend should be a great time to start a career in sales)...I will probably have to miss, if not all, at least large chunks of one of my favorite events of the year...the aforementioned Homer Marathon.
Sigh.
Sometimes being a grown-up isn't as much fun as it sounds. Maybe I can read the Illiad to Aiden...
Monday, August 13, 2007
What a Lovely Wooden Horse--of course I'll sign for it!
Only two weeks left till I get to read the Illiad and the Odyssey at our annual Homer Marathon. Its the best Labor Day party around.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
I Don't Want to be a Millionaire
I have been thinking a lot about finances recently...perhaps the result of having few finances...and I revisited a discussion I had about a year ago with God concerning money.
See, I assured Him that if only He'd bless me with millions of dollars, I would use a large portion of it to honor Him--do mission work, fund ministry, help good people that shouldn't have to worry about money before they do the good things they do. Of course, this is a naive outlook towards money...for a variety of reasons. That discussion concluded with the realization that God has not asked me to come up with the best plan I can think of for how I could do amazing things with resources from Him...but He has asked me to do what I know I should be doing today.
It was a humbling but important reminder of the most basic lessons of the scripture..."He has shown thee, oh man, what is good an what the Lord requires of thee; to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with thy God." To be told that all ambitions, all dreams, all aspirations are in fact not what the Lord has called us to pursue, and to see the simplicity of a righteous life enumerated in plain and obvious terms is both liberating and challenging. The honest truth being...I am so frequently distracted by my desires for more that this simple lesson is completely forgotten.
The most recent discussion on this topic has built on that old lesson. I have frequently heard from men that I respect that they wouldn't want to be millionaires. This has always been hard for me to understand, and the men being good men, I cannot believe this to be false modesty or eccentricity speaking...but I have also not comprehended what it was they found undesireable about having the means to accomplish whatever they could want. The other day, I was having a discussion essentially about that same simple lesson I had been reminded of once again, and my friend and I began to discuss the nature of our desire for certain types of employment and financial security. We speculated on how this desire seems to come almost completely from our desire to have the solution to our financial problems. We want to know that we have a plan to fix the problem, and the means to do so. As we both said the same thing, almost at the same time, we reflected on how that sort of goal revolved around a desire, if not directly, still unquestionably present, to remove ourselves from the constant dependence on the provision of the Lord. We want security so we don't have to ask the Lord to provide what we ourselves cannot.
From this realization, we began discussing the nature of tithing, and how it can be such a challenge to give, especially when you live as we live, where 10% is a sizeable and important chunk of the monthly budget. But we also both noticed how when we were faithful in honoring the Lord with our finances, the freedom we experienced when it came to our budget was amazing. Its an act of commiting our condition to the hands of God, and trusting that He will provide what is needed (if that is not always what we want).
It was at this point that a thought occured to us that surprised and challenged me. The joy of tithing when it is difficult to "justify" doing so is the dependence on the Lord that it inspires--which is exactly the thing we had just acknowledged trying to avoid, in a way, through our quest for security. So, we wondered, how could a millionaire ever appreciate that sort of dependence on the Lord? How could someone like, say, Bill Gates, ever feel the complete and total dependence on the Lord's provision that the widow with the pennies felt when she gave everything she had to honor the Lord in the temple? How can the man with everything feel the same complete need for the sustenance of the Lord? How can someone that has wealth to provide for his grandchildren's grandchildren behave as if every moment of every day, every cent that he owns comes soley from the hand of the Lord?
Its not that I doubt a millionaire could understand that dependence...its just that I suddenly realized for the first time how difficult that must be...since I don't understand that dependence even when I don't have almost any money. To grasp that, when you have almost no needs on a regular basis...that must be nearly impossible.
Hence my conclusion...I don't want to be a millionaire. I don't think I could handle it...I remember when I asked the Lord for money to do all sorts of things, I imagined feeling the freedom of giving so much because I didn't need any more...but that isn't what we are called to offer to the Lord. The first fruits belong to Him--the hardest to give, the best of the season...but the most liberating to offer, because when we offer them, we are free from the burden of trusting in our own means to provide for ourselves.
Regis...you can keep the money...I'm gonna walk.
See, I assured Him that if only He'd bless me with millions of dollars, I would use a large portion of it to honor Him--do mission work, fund ministry, help good people that shouldn't have to worry about money before they do the good things they do. Of course, this is a naive outlook towards money...for a variety of reasons. That discussion concluded with the realization that God has not asked me to come up with the best plan I can think of for how I could do amazing things with resources from Him...but He has asked me to do what I know I should be doing today.
It was a humbling but important reminder of the most basic lessons of the scripture..."He has shown thee, oh man, what is good an what the Lord requires of thee; to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with thy God." To be told that all ambitions, all dreams, all aspirations are in fact not what the Lord has called us to pursue, and to see the simplicity of a righteous life enumerated in plain and obvious terms is both liberating and challenging. The honest truth being...I am so frequently distracted by my desires for more that this simple lesson is completely forgotten.
The most recent discussion on this topic has built on that old lesson. I have frequently heard from men that I respect that they wouldn't want to be millionaires. This has always been hard for me to understand, and the men being good men, I cannot believe this to be false modesty or eccentricity speaking...but I have also not comprehended what it was they found undesireable about having the means to accomplish whatever they could want. The other day, I was having a discussion essentially about that same simple lesson I had been reminded of once again, and my friend and I began to discuss the nature of our desire for certain types of employment and financial security. We speculated on how this desire seems to come almost completely from our desire to have the solution to our financial problems. We want to know that we have a plan to fix the problem, and the means to do so. As we both said the same thing, almost at the same time, we reflected on how that sort of goal revolved around a desire, if not directly, still unquestionably present, to remove ourselves from the constant dependence on the provision of the Lord. We want security so we don't have to ask the Lord to provide what we ourselves cannot.
From this realization, we began discussing the nature of tithing, and how it can be such a challenge to give, especially when you live as we live, where 10% is a sizeable and important chunk of the monthly budget. But we also both noticed how when we were faithful in honoring the Lord with our finances, the freedom we experienced when it came to our budget was amazing. Its an act of commiting our condition to the hands of God, and trusting that He will provide what is needed (if that is not always what we want).
It was at this point that a thought occured to us that surprised and challenged me. The joy of tithing when it is difficult to "justify" doing so is the dependence on the Lord that it inspires--which is exactly the thing we had just acknowledged trying to avoid, in a way, through our quest for security. So, we wondered, how could a millionaire ever appreciate that sort of dependence on the Lord? How could someone like, say, Bill Gates, ever feel the complete and total dependence on the Lord's provision that the widow with the pennies felt when she gave everything she had to honor the Lord in the temple? How can the man with everything feel the same complete need for the sustenance of the Lord? How can someone that has wealth to provide for his grandchildren's grandchildren behave as if every moment of every day, every cent that he owns comes soley from the hand of the Lord?
Its not that I doubt a millionaire could understand that dependence...its just that I suddenly realized for the first time how difficult that must be...since I don't understand that dependence even when I don't have almost any money. To grasp that, when you have almost no needs on a regular basis...that must be nearly impossible.
Hence my conclusion...I don't want to be a millionaire. I don't think I could handle it...I remember when I asked the Lord for money to do all sorts of things, I imagined feeling the freedom of giving so much because I didn't need any more...but that isn't what we are called to offer to the Lord. The first fruits belong to Him--the hardest to give, the best of the season...but the most liberating to offer, because when we offer them, we are free from the burden of trusting in our own means to provide for ourselves.
Regis...you can keep the money...I'm gonna walk.
Friday, August 10, 2007
With Screwtape in Mind
Puck had an appropriate response to Christians getting uppity about Harry Potter. I found this and thought of her and our shared frustration at the ridiculous idea of insisting the Harry Potter is an instrument of the occult. Enjoy.
Hallows, not Horcruxes
Reader beware...there will be spoilers ahead. If you haven't finished reading The Deathly Hallows, and you don't want to know more than you already do, stop reading.
Ye have been warned.
To begin with, HP:TDH was, in my opinion, excellent. Its taken me about three weeks to process my thoughts on this final book...but that's the first thought I had when I finished, and it remains my opinion even now.
There are so many themes in this story. Rowling truly outdid herself in this final addition. The book deals with the coming of age of childhood heroes; the importance of friendship; the nature of family; the nature of power; the reality of war, the painful truth of resisting evil, and beyond all the others I haven't listed...of course...it deals with death. Death...its place in our society's consciousness, whether or not it is a thing to be feared, and ultimately what death actually is.
Throughout the first six books, almost from page one of book one, fans of Rowling have been obsessed with Harry surviving the inevitable final confrontation with Voldemort. He who must not be named posed threat after threat, and by the 4th book (if we don't count the death's that started it all, James and Lily Potter), each victory came at a price, and each price was successively more costly...first Cedric, then Sirius, and finally Dumbledore. By the time we reached the 7th book, we were gripping ourselves for the final blow, wondering who would make it...afraid to ask, almost afraid to read, lest more beloved characters fall to the lethal pen strokes that had already taken beloved heroes from us.
And, of course, we were not disappointed. Death was waiting, in abundance, in the Deathly Hallows. Kicking us off with Hedwig, we soon suffered the loss of, among others, Madeye, Dobby, Ted Tonks, Lupin, Tonks herself, Snape, Colin Creevey, even Fred Weasley...until the time came, and Harry himself had to die.
It was brilliantly done.
Because, when that final cataclysmic moment came, Harry didn't fight desperately; he didn't beg pathetically; he didn't even stand defiantly and challenge Voldemort with his dying breath. No...he just walked out to meet his enemy and died, turning his thoughts to his love before the final moment came.
It was poignant and simple. I would guess it was generally unexpected too...the best I can claim is that I suspected that something essential about Harry would have to change if he was going to defeat Voldemort. I did not go so far as to guess that his death was the answer...I had suspicions, but not an actualized guess.
But of course death was the answer for Harry, as it usually is in this life. Rather than pursuing power to master death and defeat an enemy, Harry sought to destroy the enchantments of death that Voldemort used to cheat death, and ultimately accepted death himself. And by dying willingly, Harry saved not only his own life, but effectively secured the lives of those he loved and sacrificed himself to spare.
Life coming from death…and without death, that life could not exist…but after that death, life will be better; stronger; more beautiful and full than life before it ever was. A more profoundly Christian message is difficult to find.
This message is remarkable, and one can only wonder what it will do to this generation. One expects these sorts of stories from the men that manned the trenches in WWI, who encouraged the people through WWII…what do we do with this message from a woman that has lived most of her life in a time without a drastic struggle, who speaks it at a time when we would rather look the other way than acknowledge the challenges that face us?
But this ending should not have been surprising coming from Rowling. From the beginning, she had been telling us that Death was not the enemy we assume it to be. In Book 1, Dumbledore tells an incredulous Harry that though Nicholas Flamel and his wife will die as a result of no longer having the Elixir of Life, death is not the worst end to a well ordered life; rather, it’s the beginning of something new. This message is repeated over and over again in the books…but as a testament to her skill, the final solution being Harry’s accepted death still manages to surprise. And the power of the message still manages to challenge us. If we would hold our lives loosely (not cheaply, but loosely) what might our world look like?
All in all…it was wonderful. The bottom line is…this book should be read. I think it will be read a hundred years from now…making it a classic. Maybe I’m too caught in the fanboy spirit to see the faults…but I think this book (this series actually) deals with too much truth in too beautiful a manner to pass out of reckoning or to be passed over as trite.
Sigh. My only problem now is…the story is over. Harry…we’ll miss you. Thanks for the years of waiting and the hours of reading.
Ye have been warned.
To begin with, HP:TDH was, in my opinion, excellent. Its taken me about three weeks to process my thoughts on this final book...but that's the first thought I had when I finished, and it remains my opinion even now.
There are so many themes in this story. Rowling truly outdid herself in this final addition. The book deals with the coming of age of childhood heroes; the importance of friendship; the nature of family; the nature of power; the reality of war, the painful truth of resisting evil, and beyond all the others I haven't listed...of course...it deals with death. Death...its place in our society's consciousness, whether or not it is a thing to be feared, and ultimately what death actually is.
Throughout the first six books, almost from page one of book one, fans of Rowling have been obsessed with Harry surviving the inevitable final confrontation with Voldemort. He who must not be named posed threat after threat, and by the 4th book (if we don't count the death's that started it all, James and Lily Potter), each victory came at a price, and each price was successively more costly...first Cedric, then Sirius, and finally Dumbledore. By the time we reached the 7th book, we were gripping ourselves for the final blow, wondering who would make it...afraid to ask, almost afraid to read, lest more beloved characters fall to the lethal pen strokes that had already taken beloved heroes from us.
And, of course, we were not disappointed. Death was waiting, in abundance, in the Deathly Hallows. Kicking us off with Hedwig, we soon suffered the loss of, among others, Madeye, Dobby, Ted Tonks, Lupin, Tonks herself, Snape, Colin Creevey, even Fred Weasley...until the time came, and Harry himself had to die.
It was brilliantly done.
Because, when that final cataclysmic moment came, Harry didn't fight desperately; he didn't beg pathetically; he didn't even stand defiantly and challenge Voldemort with his dying breath. No...he just walked out to meet his enemy and died, turning his thoughts to his love before the final moment came.
It was poignant and simple. I would guess it was generally unexpected too...the best I can claim is that I suspected that something essential about Harry would have to change if he was going to defeat Voldemort. I did not go so far as to guess that his death was the answer...I had suspicions, but not an actualized guess.
But of course death was the answer for Harry, as it usually is in this life. Rather than pursuing power to master death and defeat an enemy, Harry sought to destroy the enchantments of death that Voldemort used to cheat death, and ultimately accepted death himself. And by dying willingly, Harry saved not only his own life, but effectively secured the lives of those he loved and sacrificed himself to spare.
Life coming from death…and without death, that life could not exist…but after that death, life will be better; stronger; more beautiful and full than life before it ever was. A more profoundly Christian message is difficult to find.
This message is remarkable, and one can only wonder what it will do to this generation. One expects these sorts of stories from the men that manned the trenches in WWI, who encouraged the people through WWII…what do we do with this message from a woman that has lived most of her life in a time without a drastic struggle, who speaks it at a time when we would rather look the other way than acknowledge the challenges that face us?
But this ending should not have been surprising coming from Rowling. From the beginning, she had been telling us that Death was not the enemy we assume it to be. In Book 1, Dumbledore tells an incredulous Harry that though Nicholas Flamel and his wife will die as a result of no longer having the Elixir of Life, death is not the worst end to a well ordered life; rather, it’s the beginning of something new. This message is repeated over and over again in the books…but as a testament to her skill, the final solution being Harry’s accepted death still manages to surprise. And the power of the message still manages to challenge us. If we would hold our lives loosely (not cheaply, but loosely) what might our world look like?
All in all…it was wonderful. The bottom line is…this book should be read. I think it will be read a hundred years from now…making it a classic. Maybe I’m too caught in the fanboy spirit to see the faults…but I think this book (this series actually) deals with too much truth in too beautiful a manner to pass out of reckoning or to be passed over as trite.
Sigh. My only problem now is…the story is over. Harry…we’ll miss you. Thanks for the years of waiting and the hours of reading.
Personal Growth
Roughly 10 years ago I was certain that nothing could convince me that mushrooms were worth eating. They are, after all, literally just fungi. Who eats mold? Don't talk to me about cheese--you all know what I mean. Mushrooms are fungi in its unrefined state. Why eat that?
Well...about three weeks ago we watched Ratatouille, and I became inspired to try new foods. So we went out, and I ordered a pasta with mushrooms.
It was delicious...especially the mushrooms. I enjoyed it so much, I went to the store and purchased some large portobellos for my own cooking experiments. But I haven't gotten around to it, and they've been in the fridge for about a week now. I looked them over, and they seem to be alright, and I'll probably use them today...but the thought occurred to me; how can you tell if a mushroom is bad? Most things grow mold when they go bad...do mushrooms grow mold? Is a fungus covered in fungus unacceptable? What makes that unappetizing, when one is already consuming glorified mold? Ultimately, it makes me question the whole thing...except they were so tasty...
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