Some days ...

No one could join me for lunch.

Bad news at work.

Drawing all the wrong cards in Magic.

Can't even win a game of solitaire.

You know what that means?

Tomorrow has to be better.

Right?

Of course it does!

"This, too, shall pass."

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Happy Friday, everyone.

You Gotta Laugh
Sometimes, work is just too frustrating. When that happens, I tend to get serious, grumpy, remote. To combat that, I decided to find a joke to brighten my day. I encountered a few duds before I found this one:

Investigators at a major research institute have discovered the heaviest element known to science. This startling new discovery has been tentatively named Administratium (Ad). The new element has no protons or electrons, thus having an atomic number of 0. It does, however, have 1 neutron, 125 assistant neutrons, 75 vice neutrons, and 111 assistant vice neutrons, for an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by a force called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since it has no electrons, Administratium is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it came into contact.

According to the discoverers, a minute amount of Administratium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Administratium has a normal half-life of approximately three years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons, viceneutrons, and assistant vice neutrons exchange places. In fact, an Administratium sample's mass will actually increase over time, since with each reorganization some of the morons inevitably become neutrons, forming new isotopes.

This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to speculate that Administratium is formed whenever morons reach a certain concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as the "Critical Morass".

It's not only funny, it's apropos!

I found it at http://www.ajokeaday.com/.

Have a great day, everyone.

And Happy Birthday, Mom!

The Three Pitfalls - Why the LCMS is shrinking and will continue to do so
Topic: Faith,& Religion
Once upon a blog, I posted some topics that I might address. This topic is one of them, and is clearly the “heaviest.” I doubt I can do it justice, but let me give it a try. Since the topic is serious, and its discussion is lengthy, I will talk about the first pitfall today, and leave the others for subsequent entries.

I am a member of a congregation, and that congregation is a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS). By rule, that makes me an LCMS Lutheran, but in my heart, I am not. In many ways, I feel like an outsider in my denomination. As I look at what makes me uncomfortable, I believe I recognize some of the reasons that the LCMS is shrinking. There are many symptomatic reasons, but the three primary reasons are Intractability, Hyper-Exclusivity and Anti-Humanism. Unfortunately, these words do not describe the situation well enough, so examples are required.

Intractability: The first example of this, and the one which surprises non-LCMS Christians most, is the refusal of the LCMS to allow women to be pastors. The issue has been raised several times over the past half century, but the decision has consistently, and recently, been to continue this policy. A tract is available from the LCMS documenting the rationale for the decision, but when it is examined closely, it has very little biblical basis at all. The biblical support, if applied consistently, would not allow women to do a great many things in the church. This, of course, was the situation up through the first half of the 20th century in most LCMS congregations, but the needs of the ministry made it clear that a reversal was required. Women, of course, should be allowed to be lay readers, vote, serve on boards, chair boards, and so on. Yet, the pastoral Call is still denied them.

In the end, the justifications for refusing to recognize that a woman could have a Call from the Holy Spirit to be a pastor are really just rationalizations to keep the status quo.
Many long-time LCMS members will tell you they can’t imagine having a female pastor; they would be uncomfortable with one. But discomfort with “something” doesn’t make the “something” a sin. In fact, it is possible that the discomfort is the sin.

Meanwhile, the world (at least the Western world, and increasingly the Eastern and Middle-Eastern worlds) recognizes the value and equality of women in all areas of life, and those enterprises which embrace them most grow from it.

This is but one example where the inability of the LCMS at large to change is causing it to become less relevant, and to expose the underlying tendency to value long-standing rules on par with revealed truth. This was the way of the Pharisees, and was anathema to Jesus.

In fact, one common thread in all three of the pitfalls is this tendency toward putting tradition, or rationalized rules, at a much higher position than I believe is acceptable. And that will be evident when I discuss the next pitfall.

Buyer's Remorse
Now Playing: With or Without You - U2
Topic: Random

... or "It's Even Cheaper if You Don't Buy It."

I have this habit of buying DVDs. And Best Buy encourages it!

Every week, they have a selection of DVDs at lower prices. You know -- sales!

So, this week they have a large number of movies I enjoyed at very, very attractive prices.

I've resisted buying most of them. So far. But I did give in for "Fight Club" and "Titanic." And I'm sorely tempted for "Ocean's Eleven" and "The Italian Job."

But I pay $15/month to Hollywood Video so I can rent DVDs for no other cost. Why would I not just go pick up those DVDs every few days, and eventually watch them when I have time? What is this compulsion to own the movies? Why do I sometimes just want to buy something?




Rationalization 1: I never know when an opportunity will present itself to watch a non-Sherry DVD. Owning "Fight Club" makes it possible to watch it when the opportunity presents itself. Hey, that's how I saw "Monty Python's Life of Brian."

Rationalization 2: "Titanic" is really a "couple" purchase. It's romantic (in a tragic sense) and I bet Sherry will want to see it at some unexpected time and I'll be darned if I am going to spend three hours seeing the VHS version on our 50-inch digital TV!

Rationalization 1 might just permit me to buy "Ocean's Eleven." Rationalization 2 would let me buy "Jerry Maguire."

No, Steve! Just plan to get "Ocean's Eleven" (and "Twelve") from Hollywood when Sherry's gone in April! Suggest "Maguire" sometime when you're actually in Hollywood looking for movies to rent.

Stand firm! Save that money!

So you can waste it on Magic.......

If you're a Hoosier, you're happy
Congrats, Adam! Your birth-state team is about to win the Super Bowl!

We were living in Indiana during the infamous nighttime elopement of the Colts and their new bride, Indianapolis.

Most of us in the Will household were pulling for Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, and the rest of the Blue and White.

It's not the same as if the Vikings were in it, or winning it, but it's a fun feeling.

Again, congratulations Adam, and any other fan of the Colts.

Sub-Zero
Now Playing: Nothing yet - but soon
Topic: Random
January never happened this year. Or so we thought.

In reality, it was just waiting to pounce on its little sister, February, and steal her spotlight.

The temperature here in Rochester dropped below zero ¹ sometime last night and it's not expected to rise above that magical mark until sometime Monday or Tuesday.

That, my friends, is supposed to happen in the first month of the year, not the second.

So, it's hibernation weekend. Stay inside. Cuddle up with something warm -- a quilt, a cup of warm cocoa, a favorite person.

There are benefits to the cold, if you look for them.

And that's all I have to say about that.

¹ (degrees Fahrenheit -- I wonder how to do the little "degrees" symbol in HTML)

Looking busy
I didn't see a high percentage of "Seinfeld" episodes. But one which has stuck with me centered on George figuring out that he could get his coworkers to have a great opinion of him if he convincingly looked busy.

I think of this as I sit in a meeting and wonder how many of these people are "pulling a George."

Not that I'm throwing stones. Or calling the kettle black.

Rating the movies
Topic: Movies

As an introduction:

I keep track of things. Not all things. I'm not that compulsive. But some things.

I keep track of the DVDs I own. In fact, I keep track of when we've seen them most recently (though, again, I'm not compulsive -- I know I miss tracking some viewings.) And I keep track of the movies I've seen. I have a Word document that has the movies I've seen since June 14, 2000. I keep track of them in a table, like this:

Title	Rating	Type	Date	Actors	Notes
Akeelah and the Bee	86	D	1/25/07	Laurence Fishburne Angela Bassett Keke Palmer	OK, so it was somewhat predictable, and some of the conflict relied on a too-detached single mom, but the acting was very good, and the emotional payoff was great. And “Javier” was priceless.
Click	59	C	1/25/07	Adam Sandler Christopher Walken Kate Bekinsale	If only Sandler weren’t so enamored with the crude humor, I could have liked this enough to recommend it. Honestly, how funny is it seeing a dog humping a stuffed animal? Again. And Again?
Monty Python's Life of Brian	82	C	1/26/07	Graham Chapman John Cleese Eric Idle Michael Palin Terry Jones Terry Gilliam	Still funny after all these years. The humorous takes on the infighting are some of the best parts. But the very best part is the ending song!

As you can see, I rate each movie with a number. The scale is 0 - 100. In general, a movie needs to get above a 70 before I would recommend it, and generally movies in the 70-80 range would carry conditional recommendations -- I'd recommend it if I knew a particular person liked something that the movie provided.

I try to make a small comment -- a micro-review -- about most of them.

The hardest part of the whole process is assigning a number, and the examples above demonstrate the difficulty. Do I really think "Akeelah and the Bee" is better than "Monty Python's Life of Brian?" Well, it's hard to say. "Brian" means more to me, and on my own, I'd watch "Brian" more often. But for the general viewer, "Akeelah" is going to be more enjoyable. Still, one of the things I try to do is rate the film very soon after I saw it. "Akeelah" got its rating this way -- it's a very emotionally satisfying film, and I may have rated it slightly higher because of the "high" I was on. "Brian," on the other hand, I first saw many years ago, but just recently saw it on DVD. It aged much better than some films from my youth, but I'm clearly ranking it with many years to come down from the initial "high" it engendered.

Nevertheless, I'll keep doing this. It's fun to go back and think about movies I've seen. It's fun to rate them, even if I do have to think "Is 'Brian' better or worse than 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail?'"

Now the stage is set. I could post these micro-reviews in the future, and I have already introduced the "why and how."

Enjoy, if you can.

Newness, freshness
Now Playing: Nothing at all
Topic: Random
So, every day I check blogs to see if there is anything new from Mike or Lucas.

And every day that they post something new, it's a bonus to my day.

I suppose it's possible my blog does the same for them.

So, hmmm, what could I blog about?

Latest movies seen?

Repetition for Mike, but hey, it seems blog-worthy.

I think I'll start a new topic for it.

A Month Ago
Now Playing: "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel
Topic: Time
One month ago today, I officially started my Christmas vacation.

"One month" -- say the phrase. Does it sound like a long time?

I've been back to work for more than two weeks, and I don't think I've even blogged about Christmas and New Year's.

Christmas⁽¹⁾ really is the most wonderful time of year. For me, at least. Really wonderful things can happen at other times; that's for sure. Last year's spring break trip to Disney World was as wonderful as Christmas, but it's an isolated incident, and it doesn't happen every year.

But at Christmas, I get to experience the anticipation of the events which will happen, and then I get to experience them, and finally I get to remember them. Buying gifts is great -- I get to think about the people I love and how I can brighten their day with something they want. Taking a break from work is great -- the stress can melt away for a couple weeks. Spending time with my family is great; listening to, and singing, Christmas songs is great; sleeping late is great; hosting friends is great; playing games and watching movies and eating scrumptious goodies and being surrounded by holiday decorations -- all great. And yes, celebrating the birth of the Savior. The Reason for the Season.

It's hard to believe that it's only been a month since vacation started. In many ways, Christmas vacation seems like it's not part of Real Time. I get so disconnected from the daily grind that I forget what day of the week it is, and I don't stress about deadlines, budgets and all the other things that occur in Real Time. But once vacation ends, and I go back to Real Time, vacation is unreachable. It's Past, but not Real Time Past. In the Real Time Past, things happened that I have to remember: What was that deadline? What was that budget? In the Christmas Vacation Past the things that happened are things I want to remember.

I don't know -- somehow, Christmas deserves a better entry than this. But I am not going to just throw this away, simply because it's not yet good enough. I stop myself from expressing my thoughts too often using that excuse.

There are plenty of wonderful things to which I can look forward this year. I am not morose and sad that Christmas is over. It was wonderful. I look back on it fondly. And I look forward to the next one, as well.
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⁽¹⁾Despite my pastor's yearly attempts to convince me otherwise, "Christmas" means "the period of time leading up to December 25th, and following, when we anticipate and experience the celebration of Christ's birth." This certainly includes the holy day, but it also includes the many blessings which are a part of the season.