AVOIDING EVIL HAS MOVED

December 30, 2006

The link has changed for Avoiding Evil. All new posts will be posted at http://www.avoidingevil.com. Please change your links and visit the new link to see all current and future posts!

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Would The Real Santa Clause Please Stand Up?

December 22, 2006

In view of the Christmas season that is upon us, a conversation about Santa Clause has taken place between my wife and I. The question is, will we tell our kids about Santa Clause or will we not carry on that tradition. As with most of our conversations there was a small moment of confusion and aggrivation as I spouted off at the mouth about how I think making kids believe in something that doesn't exist is lying to them and starting off their childhood with deception and my wife came back at me with equal frustration about how Santa Clause is a part of the Christmas tradition and should be something we enjoy with our children. Once the smoke cleared we began to realize that once again it is all a question of semantics. While I am kinda hard headed sometimes and when I spout off at the mouth it is usually something that I take to the utmost extreme, I don't always mean exactly what I say in the way it comes out. I didn't mean that we should just get rid of Santa all together, I just don't think we should make him out to be real when he is not.

I think that our children should be told the story of Santa Clause and that it should be just that, a story. We can enjoy the story, the tradition, and the magic of Santa without lying to them and making them believe that Santa is real, only to hurt their poor little hearts down the road when they realize that he isn't. What is the point of perpetuating a lie to little kids who don't know any better? We read books to them, they see movies and shows with the eventual understanding that these things are simply stories. They can use their imaginations and have fun with them anyway.

I remember as a kid I loved the Teenager Mutant Ninja Turtles. I watched the movies, I owned all the toys, I even got tickets to see their live "Coming Out Of Their Shells" tour and I bought the tape to sing to it over and over again. Everyday I would rush home from school so that I could watch the TMNT cartoon on TV. Nobody had to come along and try to get me to believe that the turtles actually existed in real life. My parents didn't have to lie to me in order to make me believe that they were real so that I could enjoy the whole story. I loved the TMNT anyway. Just like we can love the story of Santa on Christmas.

I guess the one thing that is always fun is that the kids get to go to bed at night with the anticipation of Santa coming and bringing them lots of gifts and the excitement of them coming out of their rooms to see all the presents that were put under the tree. That tradition doesn't have to end either. They can still anticipate all the presents that will be there in the morning. There are so many different ways to do Christmas and to make it fun without having to trick little children into believing that its true...

Am I wrong on this? What do you think??????

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My Life As A Sound Tech...

December 19, 2006

Among the many things I do here at the church, part of my job description is sound and media. I'm specifically in charge of making sure the sound system works properly and sounds great. This being the Christmas season, it was time to prepare the sound system for the upcoming Christmas program on Christmas Eve.

We did a complete overhaul of the sound booth a couple years ago and in the process I moved all of the lapel microphones from the front of the stage to the sound booth in the back. Unfortunately this worked perfectly with an empty room, but once bodies filled the auditorium the signal would cut out on all the lapel mics. This became a problem that I didn’t really want to fix anytime soon. The Christmas program has four different speaking parts requiring the use of our lapel system, so I was forced to fix the problem.

I spent all day yesterday moving microphones, power supplies, and CD players into different racks in order to make everything work. I got all the lapel microphones and the power supplies in one rack and put it on stage and then I put all of the handheld wireless mics and the cd and tape deck in the other rack that stays in the booth. Turned it all on, tested the mics and in the process I suddenly noticed an old friend. The buzz of DEATH!

For years and years we had this nasty buzz in the system. If you have the stage lights turned all the way up the buzz gets quiet, but if you dim the stage lights at all the buzz gets super, super loud. If you plug the computer into the sound system at all then the buzz becomes unbearable. This was a problem that went away when we did the sound booth because I moved all the microphones to the back. We originally thought it had something to do with the dimmer switches in the back so we changed those out during the booth construction and just figured that was the problem in the first place. Guess what, it wasn't the problem at all.

I knew the buzz was coming from the microphone rack that I Just moved up front, but I couldn't figure out why. So I went up there and unplugged the whole rack from the power source and the buzz disappeared. I thought this was strange. I unplugged all of the microphones from the rack mountable power supply and plugged just the power supply in with no mics attached to it and the buzz was back! The rack mountable power supply that is "specifically" designed to keep electrical noise out of the system is the thing that has been creating the buzz since we put it in 5 or 6 years ago. I plugged the mics into a normal, cheapo 6 plug power strip and the buzz was no more.

I am now thinking back to all of the stuff we did in order to try and eliminate that buzz. We bought buzz eliminator boxes, we changed out the dimmer switches, we restrung a lot of wires, we changed circuits, and we moved all kinds of stuff to try and figure out what was causing this and come to find out it was just the rack mounted power supply failing which created some wicked electrical loop in the system. The strange thing is all the different systems it affected. We thought it was the computer at first because the buzz was louder when the computer was in the loop. Then we thought it was the lights because the buzz would increase and decrease with the dimmer switches. Then we thought it was the projectors because the buzz created some interference causing a line to go down the screen. Then we thought it was the electronic keyboard because the buzz would practically go almost silent when you unplugged the keyboard from the sound system. Then we thought it was the circuit the stage was hooked to in the electrical system. Then we thought it was the piano mic picking up interference. Now I see that these were all simply symptoms of things that were affected by the faulty power supply.

As of right now everything works. The Sullivan High School Show Choir is doing a program here at the church during lunch for B.A.L.L. Club (a program for senior adults). I'll get to test everything out during their performance to see if it all works. The ultimate test will be on Thursday night during the dress rehearsal for the Christmas Eve program.

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My Personal Project List

December 15, 2006

I have a whole list of things that I would like to finish before summer. There are some of these things that are realistic, and other that could happen if I worked hard enough.

#1. Lose 40 more pounds. Over the last several months I have worked so hard to lose 40 pounds and now I am at a stand still. I've felt so good about losing the weight that I've started to let my guard down and suddenly I stop losing the weight. I need to get back in the swing of things and finish what I started. I've got 40 pounds to go and I would like to see them gone by June.

#2. Graduate from Seminary. My goodness I am so close now. All I have left to do is a final exam and a research paper. Thats it. Once I finish those two things by January 5th I will be ready to graduate in May.

#3. Redirect my focus on the youth I'm called to reach. I've spent so long and so much time dealing with school and work and all of the other changes in life that I feel that my calling has been put on the backburner. I'm hoping that with the completion of school that I will be able to devote more time and energy to our youth and to my lovely wife.

#4. Start a weekly podcast. While it was something we here at Craniumleakage experiemented with for a while, it is something I would like to do on a weekly basis. Whether it be sermons, messages, or just having fun, I would like to start a podcast of some sort.

#5. Work on improving my video editing & creating skills. I love to work with editing and creating videos. No matter what it is I love to do it. Unfortuantly I've been so limited on time and my energy has all been directed to other places. I would like to take some time each week to polish up my editing skills and maybe even attempt to create a series of videos on the same scale as the nooma videos. Hey, it could happen!

#6. Read more. I have numerous books that I've set on my shelf with the intention of reading them. I want to take the opportunity to begin to read the books that I want to read, rather than be stuck with the books that I was assigned to read from school.

#7. Home improvments. There are several things I have lined up in my head to do to my house before summer. I've got to go get a loan for all of this, which I am working on, and then the fun begins. First of all I need a new shed. I have filled my basement with lawn mowers, tools, weed eaters, shovels, and things that just need a place to go. A shed is a perfect place to store such things. Secondly I am going to finish off half of my basement. By putting up walls, building up the floor, putting in closets, and adding some paint and carpet I can make a fairly nice office downstairs. This will also increase our amount of storage space by adding closet space to the house and by adding areas in the basement to put up shelves. This will also allow us to put my bookshelves, computer desk and computers, and all my other office equipment downstairs which frees up an entire bedroom upstairs. We are going to need that free space soon! The third house improvment that I need to work on is getting my roof replaced. We've had some leaks that need to be fixed. A new roof is the answer. With that I would also like to get some gutters up on this house. The fourth improvement will be putting up a tall privacy fence to block the neighbors nasty looking house. To go with that I also want to install a chain link fence on the other side of our house in order to give the dog a yard to play in. This will keep him out of the street and keep us from having to go outside everytime he needs to. My hope is that we will be able to raise the property value of our house up at least two to three times as much as the money we borrow. I think it is easily doable.

#8. Develop a workable plan to budget in a way that gets us out of debt. At some point in our lives I would like to be debt free. While I know this isn't possible right now, it will be someday if we are smart. I'm working on a plan to accomplish that. While it will take years to accomplish this goal, it won't take nearly as long to develop and begin the plan to get there. I hate money, and I hate that it controls our lives and the lives of everyone around us. I believe we don't need to be rich to be out of debt, we just need to be smart. Those are words that I plan on proving.

There you have it. My spring project list.

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It's All In Vain

December 14, 2006

I am reminded of the age old question, "why should I make my bed if I'm just going to mess it up again?" My mom always told me to make my bed, pick up my room, keep things clean and all the normal stuff that I never listened to. Prolly cause I knew that if I didn't do any of that stuff my mom would most likely do it for me. And if she didn't then I could simply shove stuff aside and let it set.

Looking back I now understand what my mother had to deal with. All the cleaning and laundry and dishes and meals and all the stuff that has to be done day after day. My mother would work on keeping things picked up and cleaned up every single day of her life and I never could figure out why. What is the point? Why spend all that time doing all of that cleaning? Just pick a day or two out of the week to clean or clean once a month like I clean my room. No big deal. I can now say that I was dumb. I realize why my mom would clean constantly.

If you don't take time to clean up some stuff every single day then it just piles up. And it piles up and piles up until you run out of places to make piles. Then you've got a mess that takes you hours to clean up. It's horrible.

Tonight I went to wal-mart. I brought all of the groceries out of the store and went to put them in the trunk of the car. Guess what? TRUNK WAS FULL! So I go to put the stuff in the back seat. Guess what? BACK SEAT WAS FULL OF JUNK TOO! So I just pile it all in the car on top of stuff and drive home. I get home, take all of the groceries into the house and when I get into the kitchen guess what? THE KITCHEN COUNTER WAS FULL. I had to put all the bags on the floor to try and put things away. I go to put my jacket up on the coat rack and guess what? COAT RACK IS FULL. My jacket just falls off. I was so angry after all of that mess that I spent the rest of the night cleaning out the cars, cleaning the house, and putting everything that I don't have a clue where it goes on the spare bed.

Now the spare bed is piled a mile high full of stuff without a home and so I guess it was a waste of my time to spend hours cleaning off the bed the other day just to pile it back up again. It is a cycle that never ends. Mom, how did you keep up with this? AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

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Isn't That The Truth

December 14, 2006

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I'm So Unbelievably Close

December 13, 2006

I am only a few homework assignments away from being done with seminary. I want to be done so very badly. What is left? I have 4 more chapters of a book to read and type reviews over. I have 21 websites to evaluate, and 10 articles to review. Once I finish all that I have a final exam, a research paper, and a bit more reading to do before I am finally done. 89 graduate hours and 4 years later I am finally graduating. The sad part is that I was almost completely done in 2 and a half years and then I decided to take a break and go slow which has dragged my agony out another year and a half.

Don't get me wrong. I love school. I like to learn, I like to read, I like to go to class. My only issue is with homework. I hate homework. I slack off and put it off until its the last minute and then I stress out and do everything kinda crappy cause I waited. It would be great if it was nothing more than going to class and taking some notes.

Here I am typing on my blog when I should be doing homework. SHAME ON ME! I am ashamed.

Guess I'll go do homework now (translation: I will actually find something else to help me put off today what I don't have time to do tomorrow.)

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The Puppy Chronicles

December 13, 2006

My puppy is not feeling to great these days. Yesterday was the "big day" for him. At about 8:00 a.m. we got him up and he ran around the house. He played with toys and had tons of energy. Then we loaded him up in the car and dropped him off at the vet. At 2:30 p.m. I went back to pick him up. He wobbled out to the car and now does nothing but stand around the house. He doesn't eat, he doesn't run, he doesn't jump, he doesn't play, he doesn't even want to lay down. He just stands there and stares off into space. Yesterday was neuter day.

Top 10 Reasons to neuter your pet:

1. To Reduce Pet Overpopulation -- There are dogs running around everywhere. I tried to take my dog for a walk the other day and ran into 8 different dogs and only got a block from my house. It's hard to walk your dog with a bunch of loose dogs running up to my dog sniffin his bum. Stop this insanity, neuter your pet.

2. Decrease Roaming -- 90% of dogs who are neutered stop roaming and just stay home. I can't say I blame them. My dog liked to run around all over the place. The only time we could take him out to potty was on a leash. Hopefully some of his roaming tendencies are gone now. His embarrassing loss of manhood may just keep him sulking at the house.

3. Decrease Aggression -- Male dogs are typically aggressive. This could calm down their aggression towards other male dogs. You would think that loosing your family friends would cause you to be more aggressive when the neighborhood dogs come over to make fun of you.

4. Less Urine Marking -- OH PLEASE LET THIS WORK. The dog has been lifting his leg on everything. Cardboard boxes, bags, walls, bushes, cars, shower curtain, cats, couches, pillows, blankets, towels, and anything else he sees fit to lift his leg on and give a little squirt. I neutering doesn't stop this then we may be cutting something else off later.

5. Decreased mounting behavior -- Male dogs tend to try to mount just about anything. For instance: my arm, my leg, the couch, blankets, toys, other dogs, and just about anything he can get his litter arms wrapped around. Really this is quite embarrassing. The dog is so bad that he greats people at our front door with a courtesy hump. A nasty habit. Hopefully this ends that.

6. Eliminates Prostatic Hyperplasia -- Basically this means his prostates won't swell up and cause him to have a hard time taking a dribble. He'll pee fine for years to come. This could be a good thing for him and a bad thing for us if you think about it...

7. Reduces Prostatic Cysts -- This is another benign reason for the prostate to enlarge that occurs very uncommonly in neutered dogs. Anything to make my dog healthier right? I think he would agree.

8. Reduces Prostatitis -- Infections of the prostate are common in male dogs, and uncommon once they are neutered. He will thank me someday.

9. Eliminates Testicular Tumors -- No way you can get testicular cancer with no testicular. Hey, any male can appreciate this right?

10. For a Happier, Healthier, Calmer Pet-- Neutered dogs tend to be content to stay at home with their owners and are usually calmer, less aggressive, and happy! A Neutered dog is a happy dog!

I was greeted by my happier, healthier, calmer pet this morning. He got out of his bed and slowly wobbled into the living room. His tale doesn't wag, he doesn't have any energy, he doesn't feel like eating, and he doesn’t want to sit. He just stands around. I took a shower this morning and when I got out he was still standing and staring in the same place he was in when I got in the shower. Poor little guy. His is rather pitiful and I feel a little sorry for him.

As he heals he will get better and maybe one day he will forget that he even had those things in the first place. Then again, maybe he will be a sad, depressed little puppy with nothing left to live for. Hopefully he doesn't decide to just end it all and go sit in the middle of the street.

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1-800-DIE-SPAM

December 12, 2006

Christopher has been working on fixhing a few technical problems that we've been having with Movable Type. The first problem was that sir-spam-a-lot was violating all of our blogs that were Movable Type blogs. I'd get 30 to 40 spam comments every single day. Today, however, I got 0. He did some fixin! He is in the process of switching my blog over to Word Press which could be a big ordeal.

Whatever the case may be, there are going to be some changes around here. Hopefully I'll be able to open the comments up soon so that I don't have to approve everything. Life could just get a little easier once I kiss movable type goodbye.

The only other issue is when actual people come in and spam the site instead of bots. Take dear John for instance. On my last post about taking naps he came in and posted a big long post about how nap taking is good. Seems legit, until you click on his link that takes you to a napping website and wants you to purchase a nap kit. He tried to be sneeky! Moral of the story, don't ever buy anything that has anything to do with napping over the internet from a link on a blog. Spammers should not get paid for it.

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Feeling A Bit Nappy

December 11, 2006

I've been rather busy trying to finish up school stuff and so I've been getting a little less sleep than normal. The result is that I drift off to sleep in odd places. Like at my desk. Every now and then I will bounce awake and realize that I'm sitting at my desk. This is fine when no one is around, but what happens when you get caught taking a little nap at the ole desk?

Top 15 best things to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:

15. "They told me at the blood bank this might happen."

14. "This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the last time management course you sent me to."

13. "Whew! Guess I left the top off the liquid paper."

12. "I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm!"

11. "This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people!"

10. "I was testing the keyboard for drool resistance"

9. "Actually I was doing a "Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan"(SLEEP) I learned at the last mandatory seminar you made me attend."

8. "I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work-related stress. Are you discriminatory towards people who practice Yoga?"

7. "Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem."

6. "The coffee machine is broke...."

5. "Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot."

4. "Boy, that cold medicine I took last night just won't wear off!"

3. "Ah, the unique and unpredictable circadian rhythms of the workaholic!"

2. "I wasn't sleeping. I was trying to pick up my contact lens without using my hands."

And the #1 best thing to say if you get caught sleeping at your desk:

1. "Amen."

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