Respond s'il vous plaît is French for respond please. When someone sets up a party or a meeting or something and asks you to RSVP it used to mean please let me know if you can make it or not so that I can prepare accordingly.
That meant that if he could make it I'll have a seat at the table or meeting or whatever for you. And if you can't make it you let me know that so that I don't have to look for you or prepare. Preparations tend to cost something, either in time and effort or money. When someone is having a wedding reception they are estimating how much food to have and if they put RSVP on their it used to mean please let me know so that I can tell the caterer to have food to cover what you will be.
Sadly I've watched "RSVP" turn into a couple of things. Most people don't realize that they should respond in the negative if they're not able to make it. It's embarrassing to say no. It would be rude to tell them no I'm not coming to your wedding reception. So instead of telling you so you can plan accordingly people tend to just not respond and it will be a mystery to you even though I have no intention of coming.
Worse now is the lack of commitment most people give to anything. So many people are afraid to commit to anything. They don't want to tie their hands because they might miss out on something else that comes up at the last minute. RSVP to them means I can tell you the day of or I don't even have to tell you because I don't want to tie myself up and commit to being at your thing in case something else better comes along. So many people don't respond to text messages and then respond at the last minute yeah I'll meet you and for me that tends to be too late and I've already moved on since you didn't respond. And usually next time I don't invite you or include you in the communication because you're not completing the circle.
What circle you may ask? The circle of communication. The circle of communication has someone transmitting, it getting to the person being transmitted to, that person receiving it, thinking about it, and then responding and then the person they're responding to receives the response. Only then is the circle complete. We play this game in air traffic control every day and lives are put at risk when either a pilot or a controller doesn't complete that communication circle effectively.
So when someone sends me an RSVP I tend to respond because I grew up understanding that it meant let me know either way so I can plan effectively. I don't know if that's just not being taught or if society is such that nobody wants to commit to anything. Or something else entirely. But I do know that in the Bible Jesus said let your yes be yes and your no be no. He didn't really say let your yes be yes but I'm let everybody wonder whether it's a no. But that's a different subject and could get me tangled up in all sorts of weird discussions.
Here's a request:
If somebody sends you a communication and ends it with RSVP please respond either way.
Rant over. Thanks :-)
Monday, November 29, 2021
Tuesday, November 23, 2021
Wild at Heart chapter 8 ~
In the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge he talks about how men need men in their lives and they need challenges to overcome. It's an interesting book because in today's environment the wording and the thoughts caused me to look around and make sure nobody else could hear them because they were out of line with the equality and equity/equitable results from different beginnings rhetoric that is so prevalent today.
There was one chapter, though, that really caught my attention. In chapter 8 he talks about the battle that we are in with the ruler of this world. As Christians we are taught that God is ruler of everything and can do everything and is everywhere and knows everything. But there's a lesson the either is minimized or I didn't quite catch it at this level about Satan. Satan is not equal to God by any means. He is the ruler of this world that we live in and that's hard for me to grasp. It's hard for me to ask because if God is omnipotent and omnipresent then how can somebody else rule what he created. That's a question for theologians to argue about.
The thing that caught my eye in this chapter was him talking about the birth of Jesus being an invasion. And how so much more was going on in the background than just Joseph and Mary going to pay their taxes and a baby being born in a manger instead of in a house with a midwife and all those things.
It casts a different light on the angelic host that sang to the shepherds. For me it turns them into a battalion of protectors that were there in case something started to go wrong with the birth of Jesus. If Satan had gotten to where he was about to kill Jesus because he was trying really hard. But the invasion and injection of God in the form of man into this world was successful and we learn all about the great things that are the good news of Jesus and we are led to make a choice.
But those battles that are present but not seen with our eyes are still happening. I catch glimpses of them in my life is and it doesn't make sense. I see teaching on illness actually being caused by spiritual issues instead of physical issues and scoff initially after reading a little bit more and then listening to this chapter in this book it makes me wonder if I was wrong to scoff.
As we live in our enlightenment so many things that were commonly accepted before and during the Age of Enlightenment as it is called are being torn down and discarded. They're being scoffed at and treated as foolishness. The idea that God can help you if you just pray and the idea that you can be saved is laughed at.
And Satan uses entertainment undermine so much of what's in the Bible. Zombie movies and shows are so popular, but zombies are dead people that are reanimated through some weird thing that makes them zombies. Jesus was no zombie but he was resurrected after he had died for us.
The chapter specifically and the rest of the book was energizing for me has a guy. I don't know if the girl identifying as a guy would get the same thing out of it. But it's worth a tumble if you get a chance. Check it out at https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08BYZBC8C/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1635366486&sr=8-1
There was one chapter, though, that really caught my attention. In chapter 8 he talks about the battle that we are in with the ruler of this world. As Christians we are taught that God is ruler of everything and can do everything and is everywhere and knows everything. But there's a lesson the either is minimized or I didn't quite catch it at this level about Satan. Satan is not equal to God by any means. He is the ruler of this world that we live in and that's hard for me to grasp. It's hard for me to ask because if God is omnipotent and omnipresent then how can somebody else rule what he created. That's a question for theologians to argue about.
The thing that caught my eye in this chapter was him talking about the birth of Jesus being an invasion. And how so much more was going on in the background than just Joseph and Mary going to pay their taxes and a baby being born in a manger instead of in a house with a midwife and all those things.
It casts a different light on the angelic host that sang to the shepherds. For me it turns them into a battalion of protectors that were there in case something started to go wrong with the birth of Jesus. If Satan had gotten to where he was about to kill Jesus because he was trying really hard. But the invasion and injection of God in the form of man into this world was successful and we learn all about the great things that are the good news of Jesus and we are led to make a choice.
But those battles that are present but not seen with our eyes are still happening. I catch glimpses of them in my life is and it doesn't make sense. I see teaching on illness actually being caused by spiritual issues instead of physical issues and scoff initially after reading a little bit more and then listening to this chapter in this book it makes me wonder if I was wrong to scoff.
As we live in our enlightenment so many things that were commonly accepted before and during the Age of Enlightenment as it is called are being torn down and discarded. They're being scoffed at and treated as foolishness. The idea that God can help you if you just pray and the idea that you can be saved is laughed at.
And Satan uses entertainment undermine so much of what's in the Bible. Zombie movies and shows are so popular, but zombies are dead people that are reanimated through some weird thing that makes them zombies. Jesus was no zombie but he was resurrected after he had died for us.
The chapter specifically and the rest of the book was energizing for me has a guy. I don't know if the girl identifying as a guy would get the same thing out of it. But it's worth a tumble if you get a chance. Check it out at https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08BYZBC8C/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1635366486&sr=8-1
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Published author ~
One of the most interesting aspects of the Internet is that as soon as I publish any sort of blog posts on a page where people can get to it from anywhere in the solar system I become a published author.
I have been publishing posts to the Internet for several years. In 2020 I posted at least once a week on average to one of my blogs. Which makes me a consistent published author.
And I continue to share my story and my history with the world via the Internet.
The coolest part is that anyone can do this! All you need is a computer which is a phone or some sort of device that accesses the Internet where you can give input to it. You need to access some sort of blog software. I prefer logger but a lot of people are going with other things as the Internet shifts and changes. And you need your voice and ideas and thoughts and experiences.
I got to where I use a system where I record audio files on my phone which are then transcribed via software and saved as text files. I then tag and edit those text files to prepare them for publishing. And then they are queued up in a folder and automatically published without me doing anything else. I really like my system of publishing my thoughts and ideas worldwide. I hope that others can do something similar.
But I hope that people will realize that the book companies hold no sway over what we can do ourselves. And if your desire is to be famous you gotta have a base to build on.
I have been publishing posts to the Internet for several years. In 2020 I posted at least once a week on average to one of my blogs. Which makes me a consistent published author.
And I continue to share my story and my history with the world via the Internet.
The coolest part is that anyone can do this! All you need is a computer which is a phone or some sort of device that accesses the Internet where you can give input to it. You need to access some sort of blog software. I prefer logger but a lot of people are going with other things as the Internet shifts and changes. And you need your voice and ideas and thoughts and experiences.
I got to where I use a system where I record audio files on my phone which are then transcribed via software and saved as text files. I then tag and edit those text files to prepare them for publishing. And then they are queued up in a folder and automatically published without me doing anything else. I really like my system of publishing my thoughts and ideas worldwide. I hope that others can do something similar.
But I hope that people will realize that the book companies hold no sway over what we can do ourselves. And if your desire is to be famous you gotta have a base to build on.
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Glaring hyperbole ~
One of the challenging aspects of life today is glaring hyperbole. Statements of "this is the most important discovery" and "this is the only best way to do something". Headlines scream at us minute by minute demanding our attention.
All of this glaring wording of attention grabbing headlines and statements to shock and impress seems to be training so many people ignore things. To ignore most things.
The emotionally stunted among us get into it. Their attention goes from glaring headlines into the blaring notification to whatever comes up in their attention next and they give their attention to it. Some run to it and beg for more, overstimulating their glands so that more dopamine than our brain would see in a lifetime is squirted into our circulatory systems during a videogame session.
All of this is having an effect on the public discourse that our modern society requires. Discussions quickly descend into name-calling sessions and insult-infused pieces telling people where they can go right from the beginning. Some people's ability to stab someone harshly with their words into something to brag about and they practice it hourly or even more
Shocking is what all of this becomes. "Your attention, please" is a statement ignored by almost everyone in an airport or some other public venue. Because our attention is focused on something else that preys upon it.
I struggle against this myself. I've had to change my tastes and input preferences so that my brain is not so overstimulated. It still is over stimulated, my life right now is such that I can't turn that off.
So many people look at pictures or listen to self-help guides and wish that they could go and sit Zen-like in a quiet place. People pay lots of money to go and sit in silence and then get very upset when someone else's phone disrupts that silence.
Choose where you focus your attention wisely. You train yourself to focus on certain things and that training goes on for a long long time.
Please be careful.
All of this glaring wording of attention grabbing headlines and statements to shock and impress seems to be training so many people ignore things. To ignore most things.
The emotionally stunted among us get into it. Their attention goes from glaring headlines into the blaring notification to whatever comes up in their attention next and they give their attention to it. Some run to it and beg for more, overstimulating their glands so that more dopamine than our brain would see in a lifetime is squirted into our circulatory systems during a videogame session.
All of this is having an effect on the public discourse that our modern society requires. Discussions quickly descend into name-calling sessions and insult-infused pieces telling people where they can go right from the beginning. Some people's ability to stab someone harshly with their words into something to brag about and they practice it hourly or even more
Shocking is what all of this becomes. "Your attention, please" is a statement ignored by almost everyone in an airport or some other public venue. Because our attention is focused on something else that preys upon it.
I struggle against this myself. I've had to change my tastes and input preferences so that my brain is not so overstimulated. It still is over stimulated, my life right now is such that I can't turn that off.
So many people look at pictures or listen to self-help guides and wish that they could go and sit Zen-like in a quiet place. People pay lots of money to go and sit in silence and then get very upset when someone else's phone disrupts that silence.
Choose where you focus your attention wisely. You train yourself to focus on certain things and that training goes on for a long long time.
Please be careful.
Friday, November 5, 2021
Done a lot with computers ~
I've been doing computer things for a long time.
I remember when my brother received a Commodore 64 computer for his birthday one year. He was so excited because it came with a cassette tape drive and we would spend 30 minutes loading the Blue Max space shuttle trench run game so that he could play it and I could watch and that I could play it sometimes. It was a fun game, but it was limited in what you could do and the boss at the end was very hard to defeat! We had spent many hours playing on our original Atari game system. Space invaders was my favorite because I had become so time-synced with the space invaders that I could sit and play it indefinitely on my joystick and big console TV at home.
After I got my own Commodore 64 in college I remember using a heat transfer printer to print my essay for a college class. I had typed up, saved, edited, and printed my college class essay using the GeoWorks software which was early "what you see is what you get" document editing. I remember arguing with my professor of the class that double-spaced and 14 point font on heat transfer paper was the same as doublespaced on a typewriter. And I remember another professor at University of Central Florida bragging about how she had gotten a 1 MB hard drive and how it was soooo big and how excited she was.
I carry 2 TB of storage in my pocket last time I counted.
I remember using America Online dial-up. I remember using CompuServe. I remember dialing into servers using the telephone line and downloading software that was pirated from other sources.
What brought all of this up? I received a T-shirt on my birthday that had the Commodore 64 logo on it it brought back a lot of memories. Good memories! But a lot of them.
I remember being my apartment in Orlando while attending University of Central Florida and calling my girlfriend (eventually my wife) and my mother in law and playing for them the three voice harmony that I had programmed using peek and poke commands in my Commodore 64. It was an amazing achievement on my part but probably didn't rank very high in other people's eyes. They laughed and were encouraging. And my wife has continued to be encouraging ever since then.
Now I tinker on my phone and make it do cool things. I tried to convince my iPad and my Apple iPhone from work to do cool things and often I succeed but sometimes I'm blocked by my employers security.
I love tinkering with computers! They're so much fun.
I remember when my brother received a Commodore 64 computer for his birthday one year. He was so excited because it came with a cassette tape drive and we would spend 30 minutes loading the Blue Max space shuttle trench run game so that he could play it and I could watch and that I could play it sometimes. It was a fun game, but it was limited in what you could do and the boss at the end was very hard to defeat! We had spent many hours playing on our original Atari game system. Space invaders was my favorite because I had become so time-synced with the space invaders that I could sit and play it indefinitely on my joystick and big console TV at home.
After I got my own Commodore 64 in college I remember using a heat transfer printer to print my essay for a college class. I had typed up, saved, edited, and printed my college class essay using the GeoWorks software which was early "what you see is what you get" document editing. I remember arguing with my professor of the class that double-spaced and 14 point font on heat transfer paper was the same as doublespaced on a typewriter. And I remember another professor at University of Central Florida bragging about how she had gotten a 1 MB hard drive and how it was soooo big and how excited she was.
I carry 2 TB of storage in my pocket last time I counted.
I remember using America Online dial-up. I remember using CompuServe. I remember dialing into servers using the telephone line and downloading software that was pirated from other sources.
What brought all of this up? I received a T-shirt on my birthday that had the Commodore 64 logo on it it brought back a lot of memories. Good memories! But a lot of them.
I remember being my apartment in Orlando while attending University of Central Florida and calling my girlfriend (eventually my wife) and my mother in law and playing for them the three voice harmony that I had programmed using peek and poke commands in my Commodore 64. It was an amazing achievement on my part but probably didn't rank very high in other people's eyes. They laughed and were encouraging. And my wife has continued to be encouraging ever since then.
Now I tinker on my phone and make it do cool things. I tried to convince my iPad and my Apple iPhone from work to do cool things and often I succeed but sometimes I'm blocked by my employers security.
I love tinkering with computers! They're so much fun.
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