God as a social media user ~

In our quest to be more like God and develop our relationship with God here's something to think about:

God is the ultimate social media user. Present and omniscient in everything throughout time everywhere throughout creation of time. It's almost like he can see all of our lives and see where we've been and where we're going right now all of the same time.

And not get overwhelmed. One of the biggest differences between us and God is that we see just this small glimpse into somebody from afar and seeing all the things going wrong around us and we get overwhelmed and filled with anxiety. We feel this urgent need to check it before we miss something. Then we spend our lives either chasing it or avoiding it once we know that it's there.

God is not overwhelmed! God created all of this and he loves us and called his creation perfect before it was corrupted by Satan.

So when you feel overwhelmed from your scrolling or checking on things you’re concerned about via social media just understand that God is checking on you a lot better than Santa Claus!

Spill-proof cup ~

Where I work we have a spill-proof cup policy. Basically because of the electronics and the equipment and everything running through the raised floor underneath where we work we really don't need people spilling stuff. Spills lead to damaged equipment, roaches and mice and mold, and just general shabbiness because nobody actually cleans it up very well.

A lot of people ignore the spill-proof cup policy and bring in their Styrofoam cups or their fast food drink cups with straws and plastic lids on them.

I have a Contigo spill-proof cup. I got it at Walmart. I have done everything I can think of to try to spill something out of it and it has never spilled. It's got a little button to allow the liquid to flow out through the lid. The lid screws on very well and is sealed very well. It even has a lock on the button that opens the valve to allow liquid to flow out as you pour to prevent you from pressing that button accidentally.

So at our early and our afternoon briefings I made public service announcements recently by holding up my spill proof cup and then turning it over and shaking it upside down and reminding people that we still have a spilll-proof cup policy in this building.

At first there were a lot of frowny faces. By the end of the week it started changing and people were starting to address it and supervisors were laughing when I did my public service announcement.

Hopefully I made enough of a point to most of our people that they will start addressing the situation properly.

But I tell the story because this is the way I like to get things across to people. If I address things directly I tend to be interpreted as being angry. I have learned to address things with a little bit of humor and some apology and a plea for help.

But I still address them! And even though I'm not a good example in other areas I'm a really good example in this.

You can find my spill proof cup at
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Contigo-West-Loop-Stainless-Steel-Travel-Mug-with-AUTOSEAL-Lid-Passion-Fruit-16-fl-oz/114050074
or https://www.amazon.com/Contigo-Autoseal-Stainless-Leakproof-Easy-Clean/dp/B07TN8SXSP/ref=sr_1_10?crid=2JONFR7NESCWD&keywords=contigo%2Bspill%2Bproof%2Bcup&qid=1675039300&sprefix=contigo%2Bspill%2Bproof%2Bcup%2Caps%2C227&sr=8-10&th=1

Describing my job ~

In the jobs that I have had it's often been hard to explain what I do or what's done around me.

Even at work I have had positions where people would come and complain to me and my people about things that others were doing and that we had no control over.

Over the years I've developed some word pictures to help people understand. One of them goes like this:

Imagine three cars rolling down the highway at high speed. It's a 2-lane highway. and the cars are all in line in the right lane. 123.

The cars come to a traffic light that's red. So they all stop, all in a line. 123.

I'm in the third car at the back of the line. But I have a button in my car that sometimes controls when the light turns green. So I'm pressing my button repeatedly trying to get the light to turn green so we can all go.

The light finally turns green. But the guy in the first car doesn't move. Just sits there. Can't tell what he's doing or why he's not going but he just sits there.

The guy in the second car starts yelling and gesticulating wildly. He leans out his window and flips the guy in the first car off. Honks his horn over and over.

Nothing changes.

Finally the guy in the second car jumps out of his car, comes running back to me in the third car, and starts yelling at me about the guy in the first car not going and what am I gonna do about making that guy go.

I'm in the third car. I'm in the back of the line! I can't do anything about what the guy in the first car is doing. All I can do is set the stage and get the pieces in place. But it's up to that guy to go and get out of the way so we can get rolling.

That's my job at work.

Cryptic enough?

The funniest thing is whenever I share this at work people shake their head and say, "You know, you're right."

What a fun job!

Eggs for breakfast ~

I like to eat eggs for breakfast. I've fallen into a routine of having them almost every morning. It's good comfort food, it's protein with spinach and cheese in there, and it's pretty good if I do say so myself.

One of our neighbors' teenage sons started keeping chickens in their backyard. And somehow my wife got into buying eggs from him. We've been doing that for several months and it's nice to have fresh eggs right from somebody else's backyard!

The fresh eggs do taste better.They have a more flavorful aspect. I guess it's because they're not in the processing plant and going through all those quality checks that our food system has in place.

Recently I was cracking the eggs getting everything ready to throw it into the bowl. I had the oil heating up in the pan. One of the eggs that I cracked and allowed to drop into my bowl had a really thick part that wouldn't mix.

As I mashed and stirred trying to blend everything together in the yellow mold just wouldn't break. I tried and tried but be it was very slippery and hard to pin down with my fork. But I kept trying and it never would completely blend. So I scooped up that part and threw it in with the egg shells.

As things were cooking I thought about that you'll and how it had come from one of the eggs from the backyard. Then I realized what had probably happened.

After the omelette was done I cleaned things up. As I threw away the egg shells and other debris from my efforts everything drained off and my suspicions were confirmed.

For some reason my mind lingered on that for a couple of hours that morning.

Just a quarter ~

I remember watching Saturday morning cartoons growing up.

It was awesome! Saturday morning I woke up, usually around 7 AM, go and turn the TV on with the volume low. My parents worked throughout the week so on Saturday morning they liked to sleep in. If I had the TV on too loud they'd make me turn it off and go back to bed. So I would turn on the console TV, park myself in front of it, and watch cartoons.

The not so good cartoons came on around 7am. The better ones came on at 8am. The really great ones came on at 9am or 10am, and by noon they start to taper off to the cartoons that nobody really liked. I didn't know at the time but they did that to catch the wave of people as they woke up and got moving and then lost attention as the day wore on.

The commercials always caught my attention. Cereal, candy, all kinds of different fun things. It was amazing!

Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Coyote, Tasmanian Devil, then the comic books like Spider-Man. Mickey Mouse club was on early and I tolerated that but it was not my favorite.

I remember watching Capt. Kangaroo. I never really watched Mr. Rogers, though I do remember watching Sesame Street before they all turned gay.

My favorite way to watch cartoons on Saturday morning when I was little was to lay in front of the TV with my feet on the base of the console and my head away from the TV. That way I was a proper distance away from the screen and if my parents came out I wouldn't get yelled at for being too close to the TV and burning my eyes out. My Dad had explained the way a cathode ray tube worked and how there was something in the TV shooting light at the back of the screen to make pictures and I didn't want to go blind. But I did want to be close enough so that the screen was big.

One Saturday morning when I was about six or seven I was laying on my back in front of the TV with my feet on the base of the console. I had been given my allowance Friday night, one quarter. I was playing with my quarter as I laid there. For fun I would lay it on my forehead and balance it on my nose. And then I was wondering what it would be like so I closed my mouth and put the quarter on my lips. I pushed in the air with my lips. I wiggled my mouth around and made the quarter wiggle around.

Then something happened in the cartoon I was watching that was amazing and I open my mouth. The quarter dropped right into my mouth to the back of my throat and I swallowed it! I kinda gagged and choked but it was too late. The quarter was gone!

I got scared and ran in and woke up my mom. I started crying and tried to explain what had happened. She was groggy and trying to wake up. I remember dad waking up and wondering what was going on.

After they got out of bed and got a bathrobe or something on over their pajamas Mom had me drink a glass of water. And then I had to poop in a bowl for week. I didn't understand what I was doing but later I learned she was going through my poop to see if the quarter had passed through my body.

I don't think she ever found the quarter. So there may be something bouncing around in my bowels that I swallowed when I was watching cartoons as a kid.

Fun memory to think about!

Wooly mammoth ~

I read an article recently about how scientists are using genetic material from frozen bodies to try and resurrect the woolly mammoth from extinction. They're taking the genetic material and mixing it with DNA from an elephant. Sounds a lot like the Jurassic Park movies, which sounds like fun but was kinda crazy. The way those movies go humans get in trouble and then survive because T-Rex comes and eats everything.

What I keep wondering is why people so steeped in a belief in evolution would ever try to bring back something that died off.

As much as they say "trust the science" and point to scientific evidence of evolution and say that it's a "fact" it still takes a lot of faith to believe in evolution. And when they tell us to "trust the science" and then in the next breath announce a new discovery and that the science has changed completely I find it hard to put my faith in that.

The reasoning for trying to bring back the woolly mammoth is based in how well the woolly mammoth survived cold weather. The woolly mammoth is dead and gone and is not seen on planet Earth anymore except in dead bodies frozen melting glaciers. They've told us that the planet is warming for years. Their faith in warming/climate change is so strong that people are not having children and choosing to die rather than live. So if evolution led to the woolly mammoth as a species to disappear from the face of the planet why bring them back if the planet is heating up due to global warming/climate change?

The logic just doesn't compute for me. Except that it would be cool and they want to control people and outcomes

But that's a different subject.

How are you ~

I have reached an age or experience level to where I really don't like
the question "How are you?".

I still ask the question. I used to ask it a lot. I was even been made fun of how I use it at work when I greet people as they come into our workspace. I do it in a singsong way so that it makes people smile or laugh or grimace, however they feel at the moment.

But in my personal life I've gotten to a point where I don't like it at all. The people that ask me how I am really don't seem to care. If they do care they don't have time to listen to me go on and on about what I'm bothered by lately. Or if I were to say "happy" they don't believe me or don't know what to say.

I've actually found several questions in place of how are you that are much better greetings for people that I haven't seen in a while and much better checks and expressions of concern for friends or someone that I am meeting. Those questions include "What's your latest challenge?" and others.

But I tire of being asked my condition when I know that there is no interest in my condition. There is only an interest to appear polite.