I’m off to Europe today. Wish me luck (and pray for good weather!). If I get a chance, I’ll post a little over there but don’t expect too much. However, I’ll have lots of pictures and stories once I get back!
peace.
Monthly Archives: December 2005
Christmas Observations
I’ve seen some funny things over the Christmas Holidays…here are some of the best.
1) Smoking / Hacking
As I was walking into a store, I saw an elderly gentlemen walking out to his car. He was coughing and hacking and having a terrible time. It looked like he was going to spit up some nasty stuff… But the cough soon went away, and he reached into his pocket, grabbed a cigarette and lit it.
Genius.
2) Fuzzy Boots
In Starbucks, I saw two girls in their early teenage years. One had the largest, fuzziest, warmest looking boots I had ever seen. The other girl had flip flops on. Only in Houston…
3) Parking Lots
After I finished my shopping at the local mall, I proceeded to leave the parking lot as quickly as I could. However, before I could leave my row, no fewer than two cars decided to pull out in front of me. Of course, they glanced over their shoulder, looked me in the eyes, and continued to back out. Crazy! And then when I got to the restaurant to eat, the spot I wanted was occupied by a car waiting to back out. This time, however, they wanted to let me pass before backing out. Ohhhh, the irony!
Merry Christmas
About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiance, who was pregnant.
While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel
There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger.”
At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:
Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. “Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us.” They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they’d been told!
Luke 2:1-20; The Message.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Frantic Inefficiency
I was at Chipotle the other day…all of the employees were running around the kitchen, frantically trying to refill their meat supplies (I think they were out of chicken). At any rate, the line continued to pile up, and all of us were waiting. But everyone in the back looked busy, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out what they were doing.
They were frantic. But they didn’t do anything. If someone was in charge, the cashier could have continued checking out people or they could have served the people further back in line who didn’t want chicken. They could have done something to help the problem. Some would say they were busy. I say they were busy doing nothing!
So what’s the moral of this post? I don’t know. It just made me think about how people accomplish their work–efficiently or slowly. Do companies reward frantic inefficiency? I tihnk employers naturally like to see their employees working, but you need to take a step back and consider is the jobbing getting done well?
Because at the end of the day, frantic inefficiency does no one any good. It just makes us wait longer for our burritos.
On Christmas
This year I’ve heard even more of the Christmas – Holiday argument. Here are my thoughts.
First of all, I love Christmas. I love the music, the gifts, the drinks (egg nog and the special Starbucks drinks), and the cooler weather. I hate crowds and consumerism, but that’s beside the point.
I’m not a big fan of companies taking “Christmas” out of the advertising. I would say most of the gifts will be given on Christmas eve or on Christmas day. But I suppose they thought, “We can sell more items if we include Hannukah and Kwanza and just say ‘Happy Holidays.’” Who knows if they’re correct in their thinking, but it is certainly their right to choose their method of marketing.
It is also the right of the consumer to not visit a store that they disagree with. Usually we call this, “I don’t like that store,” and sometimes we call it a boycott. Realistically, we all ‘boycott’ stores–I don’t like Chinese food so I don’t go to Chinese restaurants. I’m prejudiced against their food. Other people don’t like wing sauce so they avoid Wing Stop or B-dubs. Others can’t stand barbeque. So they don’t go to a restaurant that only serves barbeque. Of course, tastes are trivial in light of more important matters.
Just like people who avoid restaurants based on taste, so certain groups of people avoid stores because of philosophical differences. The case this Christmas is whether or not a store supported “Christmas” in their advertising. After the initial round of Holiday advertising, certain Christian groups wrote letters to various stores requesting that they advertise with Christmas. I think it’s a reasonable request. I didn’t request it, but I think it’s reasonable. Some stores likely said, “no,” while others added Christmas back to their ads later in the season (Target). It’s a simple game of “What does my customer want.”
Stores play that game every day. They stock the shelves with scores of items, and each item that they stock is there for a very specific purpose: to be bought by a consumer. If they don’t plan to sell it, then it’s bolted to the floor (think of the racks). Otherwise, everything they do is determined by the customer. In most cases, the customer votes on what he likes based on what he buys. Do you think that shirt is ugly? Well then, don’t buy it. If enough customers agree with you, the store won’t be stocking a shirt like that in the future.
Other times, customers vote on what they like by writing letters or issuing press releases. PETA did this with KFC a few years ago–something about KFC not treating their chickens with enough respect. To me, that is ridiculous. To PETA, it’s a way of life. And in the same way, many Christians this year cast their votes against stores because of their advertising method. The most sacred thing to Christians, Christ, is being omitted from the very holiday that is making the stores gobs and gobs of money. It only seems reasonable to demand that the stores acquiesce and put Christ back in the holidays–after all, what do they care? Their main goal is to turn a profit.
It seems as though most of America no longer celebrates Christmas. It’s simply the time to spend too much money on your kids and rack up some credit card debt. Maybe you and the family head up to the local church for a Christmas eve service, but really, if you think about the amount of time you spent on each event, the most important thing is the loot that is stashed underneath that plastic tree.
In this case, it is only reasonable that Christ is being taken out of Christmas. The reality is that this should be called the “What in the World Will I Get” Holiday–because that is how we treat it. In the same way that Christians took certain pagan symbols (the Christmas Tree) and included them with the Christmas celebration, so pagans today are taking the elements of Christmas out (giving gifts) and applying them to their own secular holiday. That’s why we will hear Holiday Tree more and more each passing year.
Of course, to me, this is sad. Remember, I love Christmas. It’s the best time of the year… But to me, it seems like the battle over Christmas is a battle that Christians lost a long time ago. We are giving the poor old cancer patient aspirin and saying it will solve the ills of the world. I am not saying we shouldn’t fight this battle–not at all. You want to soothe the dying patient as much as possible. But the root of the cause is so much deeper.
The removal of Christmas is just another symptom of a disease which some may call post-modernism and others may call anti-Christian. Who knows what the disease really is. The thing about Christianity that we miss so often is that we, as Christians, are called to imitators of Christ. We are to love our neighbor. We are to care for the needy. We are to comfort the sick.
Sure, some of us do this really well, but most of us stink. We stink really bad. And as a result, the battle over the culture is already lost. And the most we can seem to muster is to be annoying and reflexive. “Oh crap! I can’t believe they did that again. Honey, get me the typewriter so I can write another angry letter.”
But our real response should be, “My neighbor is lost, I’d like for them to come to church with me.” Of course, that statement lives in the land of “should be” where none of us really are. I just don’t know how we can get there.
Personal Change
Have you ever notice how everyone is defined a certain way? If you change your hair, everyone asks, “Why?” If you change your clothing style, they ask, “Why?” You change cologne / fragrence, and people ask, “Why?”
But of course, no one asks “Why?” without having some underlying belief as to why you are changing. You change clothing styles because of some mid-life crisis, or maybe you change because you’re trying to impress someone. But at the end of the day, the gossip chain has a whole set of reasons as to why you are doing what you are doing.
And I guess this bothers me. Why can’t someone change their “style” without everyone reading into it. I do understand that most things in life have an underlying cause, but I’m not really sure why everyone has to comment about it. The external observer has no real insight into the situation and has nothing interesting or noteworthy to add.
They only thing they add is their unfounded opinion and gossipy overtones. And who needs to hear that?
2005 by the Numbers
10 – The number of vacation days taken in my first year.
9 – The number of websites I created.
8 – The number of good new friends.
7 – The number of friends and family who died.
6 – The number of friends and family who were married.
5 – The number of unexpected deaths.
4 – The average number of “snoozes” each morning.
3 – The number of times I had to hurdle my bike.
2 – The number of PTO (sick) days I took…both for a funeral.
1 – The number of hurricanes that I evacuated from.
Measuring Sticks
I was in Whataburger today (brief aside: does anyone disagree that Whataburger has the best fast food?) eating lunch, when I looked up and saw the exit. Directly to the right of the door was a measuring tape–you know the ones you see at 7-Eleven which “help” to identify the height of a criminal leaving the store.
First of all–why do we need this piece of tape? The door is 6′-8″ tall, and you could easily pinpoint someone’s height from a surveillance camera.
And secondly, don’t you think by placing it on the door, you are, in effect, saying, “I know we’re going to get robbed sometime. It’s inevitable. This sticker will help us put the criminal in jail for 6 months.” I’m probably wrong, but I don’t see it as being helpful for catching the criminal. It just serves to remind every guest that this store will be robbed at some point.
A Night at Bdubs
So it’s Thursday and the end of the week. You finish a tiring day at the office and head up to Bdubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) for a little food and fun. And this is what one of those nights is like:
Sit down and order beverage.
Order dinner (boneless wings and potatoes…)
Eat
Pay bill
Start talking about odds and ends. Maybe talk about your friends. Movies. Sports. Traffic. Work. Yea, sometimes we talk about work. And best of all, we talk about picking your nose–and not only just picking your nose, but the correct etiquette for picking your nose (what you do with it when you’re done). Techniques for traffic nose-picking, and the rules regarding public / private picking. Interesting? Yes, but we’re not done yet.
Then we jump to the venerable dump. We review proper ways to occupy your time. And mainly, though, we discussed the proper technique for toilet paper use and consumpion, and learning in the end there is a wide range of toilet paper application techniques. But I’ll end there.
And best of all…we do this at the top of our lungs, most likely making the rest of the restaurant wonder what exactly we are talking about. If only they knew!
Super Size Me
I watched Super Size Me yesterday. It was an interesting flick. But the most amazing thing about it was that it made me hungry! The more I watched it, the more I wanted a hamburger and fries. I don’t think that was Morgan Spurlock’s main goal for the movie!
The movie was filled was several spurious points:
1) The school cafeteria causes obesity.
2) The lack of gym glasses cause obesity.
3) McDonalds causes obesity because of their food.
4) McDonalds markets to children, helping them to become obese.
5) Lobbyists encourage obesity by promoting pro-food legislation.
Mainly, Spurlock fell into the trap of simple attribution — A + B = C. Except in this case A would be the poor school cafeterias and B would be McDonalds and C is obesity. The links that he implies and even sometimes directly states imply to much causality. We simply cannot say that this is the reason people are obese.
The reason that people are obese are much more comprehensive. But I still say that the problem isn’t the food–the problem is the choices we make. I am fortunate to be thin and not have to deal with weight gain, but at a certain point, I likely will. At the end of the day, you choose to ingest certain things. And in the case of children, their parents allow them to eat what they eat.
The schools aren’t responsible for making sure the kids eat well at lunch–the parents are. The schools aren’t responsible for ensuring the kids run around enough–the parents are. McDonalds isn’t responsible–each person that eats there is. McDonald’s marketing isn’t the culprit–the parents who allow their kids to eat McDonalds every day are. And lobbyists aren’t the problem–we all are.
I did think he brought up some good points that are worth discussing. And plus we can see the visible evidence of an improper diet. Mainly though, we can see that “All things in moderation” is a great way to live your life.