5.31.2006

Jonah's Fish

Jonah 2:10, "So the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land"

Kathee and I love this verse:


  1. A fish that vomits a man at the command of God!
  2. In Jonah ... all creation obeys God except Jonah:

    1. The sea obeys God
    2. The sailors obey God (throw Jonah overboard)
    3. The fish obeys God
    4. The people of Nineveh obey God
    5. The plant obeys God
    6. The worm obeys God

  3. Jonah finally does obey God!
  4. Lord help me to obey you!



Today:

  1. Set up laptop (imaged)
  2. Decommissioned desktop (am going to keep to use for testing)
  3. Cabled laptop lock
  4. Met with Tom to review expectations
  5. Tom added 512 MB to Thinkpad
  6. Set up Rova (remote access). Brought laptop home to verify functionality. Wireless does not work but works ok wired.

5.30.2006

The Victorian Internet

Good read: The Victorian Internet

First day on new job!

Where I don't want to be

Amos 9:4, "I will set My eyes on them for harm and not for good"

I want to put myself in a place of God's blessings!



Busy day today with seemingly miscellaneous stuff:


  1. Setting up new laptop .. problem with it because the network drivers are not certified by my company. Waiting on the certification process to complete. Might be 3 weeks.
  2. Connected old laptop to NAS (Network attached storage) and moved all my files onto a shared drive.
  3. Set up desktop and imaged with XP SP2.
  4. Several meetings ... lunch with 2 co-workers.

5.28.2006

Sunday 5/28

Worship at 4th Baptist:


  1. John and Shelly E. join us for worship. John just out of the Marines ... and they are newliweds
  2. Pastor's message on John 1:1-3.
  3. Ruby Tuesday's (John, Shelly, Rachel, Kathee, and I) afterwards
  4. Brother and Kathy by at 3:00
  5. Going to Eliot's folks for dinner at 6:00


Today's key verse: Amos 3:3, "Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?" (Biblical separation in a nutshell!)

5.26.2006

Move Day

When I arrived at the NOC, all my boxes, PC gear (except laptop that was locked up), and phone were gone.

So over to 100 Washington:


  • All there .. unpacking begins
  • Neither data port was enabled ... no connection to the network!
  • Phone does not work either ... but Qwest arrives by 8:30 and phone is enabled
  • Data ports another issue:

    1. Turns network enabled the wrong ports ... say I must have given them the wrong jack info ...
    2. I've saved that email ... and I gave them the right jack!
    3. Networks says their guy is out today and it won't be done until Monday .. .
    4. I say ... page him and get him in here ... they've had 2 weeks notice!
    5. They have it resolved by 10:30 and I am in business

  • Kathee joins me for lunch
  • I met three other team members on Tom's team
  • All unpacked and organized by 1:15

Tuesday need to image the new Thinkpad .. Tom is going to show me how!

Three day weekend ahead. Invited John E. and his new wife to church at 4th on Sunday. We will take them out to dinner afterwards.

5.25.2006

Move Day -1

Today's verses



Joel 2:12-13: “Now, therefore,” says the LORD, “ Turn to Me with all your heart, With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” So rend your heart, and not your garments; Return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and merciful, Slow to anger, and of great kindness; And He relents from doing harm.




I am completely packed. If all goes well I will be in my new office by 9:00 tomorrow and unpacking.


  • BCP group gave me a nice send off at staff meeting today. I will miss all of them.
  • Attended first Desktop Connection meeting today: project meeting for roll-out of Windows Vista.
  • Met with Trent about CFFORM and session variables in Cold Fusion.
  • Tonight am picking up Roger at work at 7:30 and he is going to move some boxes home. His move home is this Saturday.
  • I wrote to Ian (Iraq) who is now 2 months into his 7 month tour.
  • My back aches ... not sure why? Moving boxes?

5.24.2006

Move Day - 2

Today spent most the day:


  • Showing Bill how to use Enterprise Manager for SQL Server
  • Writing sample code to illustrate:

    • Sending a confirmation email on Cold Fusion submit (CFMAIL at the time of insert)
    • Having a variable message submitted via a form



Years ago I met Trent G. at Craig Hospital in Denver. He was visiting a friend who had broken his neck, and I was there ministering. Both of us worked for the same bank in Minneapolis (pre-merger).

I've kept in touch with Trent over the last decade or so. Now he is writing Cold Fusion code and is looking to me for help!

The move folk had my moving to the 11th floor instead of the 14th floor. The move coordinator noticed that my data jacks were for the 14th floor, but my mail code was for the 11th. She got it resolved! Thanks Jackie!

Tonight having dinner with brother-in-law and sister-in-law at Applebee's

5.23.2006

Screwtape on Da Vinci Code

Received from Missionary Bob Zemeski!





My dear Wormwood,


I trust this finds you as miserable and coarse as ever. I am pleased to take a respite from our usual tutorial and venture into something a bit broader, but vastly instructive for our larger purposes. To wit: I shall today croak a paean of praise to a particular work of middlebrow non-fiction. The genre has been particularly good to us, Wormwood! Do you remember The Passover Plot? Or that excellent hoax by Erich von Daniken, In Search of Ancient Astronauts? You may snigger now, but in its day even that harebrained rant proved helpful to our cause. As did most of the books on The Bermuda Triangle and "UFO's". And don't get me started on Out on a Limb! Oh, but Wormwood. Those books were mere types and shadows of the one that has in these last days transported me to ecstasies of embarrassing intensity. It is a type of "romantic thriller" (penned by someone under the unwitting tutelage of an old crony of mine from the Sixth Circle); it is titled The DaVinci Code.


I surmised it should be well worth the trouble of familiarising you with it, inasmuch as it contains such a precariously towering heap of our very best non-thinking that it is quite dizzying! It has the genuine potential to mislead, confuse, and vex millions! Indeed the mystical sleight-of-hand involved in shoehorning so many cubic yards of gasbag cliches, shopworn half-truths and straightfaced howlers into a single volume simply beggars belief; and if I didn't know that the author had had unwitting "help" from my former colleague, the venerable Gallstone, I simply shouldn't believe it could have been done at all!


Now, Wormwood, before you object to my calling this book "non-fiction"-- since it is technically classified as "fiction"-- let me say that it is essentially non-fiction, at least as far as our purposes are concerned. That's because it's principle delight for our side is that in the tacky plastic shell of some below-average "fiction" the book parades as "fact" a veritable phalanx of practical propaganda and disinformation that would make our dear Herr Goebbels (Circle Eight, third spider hole on the right) jade green with envy! Souls by the boatload are blithely believing almost all of the deliciously corrosive non-facts that are congealed everywhere in it, like flies in bad aspic, and it is that precisely which most recommends this glorious effort as worthy of our dedicated and especial study.


But where to begin in describing to you its myriad delights? First, a brief synopsis of the plot: a museum curator is murdered by a fanatical albino Christian bigot (nice opening, no?); the curator's granddaughter and an American "symbologist" (don't ask me, I haven't the time) try to find the real killer and are launched on a wildly implausible and fantastically cryptical search for the proverbial Holy Grail, all the while chased by angry gendarmes and the aforementioned unhinged albino. In the process they (and the lucky reader) discover that: the Church is murderous and evil; the Bible is a hoax; Jesus is not divine, but merely a married mortal and an earnest proto-feminist (!); there is no such thing as Truth; and oh, yes... is the truest kind of prayer. Can you stand it? A virtuoso performance, no? It's as if the author's somehow squeezed all of hell into a walnut shell. And oh, yes, one more historical "fact": Leonardo DaVinci's homosexuality was "flamboyant"! Do tell.


But that's just the irresistible plot, Wormwood. It's the author's technique in so many other areas that is particularly worth our attention. For example, there is the manner in which the book seduces its reader with naked flattery, holding out the carrot -- or should I say apple -- of "inside knowledge." Make note of this, Wormwood; it worked wonders for us in Eden and works for us still. The author trots out the ageless fiddle-faddle about a parallel "reality" beside the "official" one everyone's been sold. You know, the moth-eaten, bedraggled idea that all of history is a grand "conspiracy" conducted by some hidden elites! But wait, the lucky reader is to be let in on it all, and for the mere price of purchasing this book! He'll learn the "real" story behind the "official" story that all the other saps have been buying for lo! these many centuries. Heady stuff, eh, Wormwood? Transparent as it might seem to us, this temptation has always been been too great for the humans to bear. They ache to be part of that "inside" group that knows what's "really" going on, and they fall for it every time. It's not so different from their craving for gossip or "dirt"; only better, since there isn't the pesky nuisance of guilt to deal with. They cannot help themselves; they simply swallow it without a thought. That's the key, Wormwood, for if actual thinking can be prevented, the humans are under our control.


There's something about a crackpot conspiracy that makes my brown scales twinkle, Wormwood. There's nothing like a grand conspiracy to twist truth round and round -- until the shape of the thing one ends up with is unrecognizable from that with which one began. I remember when I was young, in an immature display of rakish pique I bewitched an inept sausagemaker such that the next time he applied himself to the sausagemaker's art he became almost instantly entangled in the entrails with which he was working. That image reoccurs to me now as I recall this great book, Wormwood. You see, this book is that hopelessly intestine-entangled sausagemaker writ large, I tell you! The reader will become snarled in the vile, greasy entrails of its thousand half-truths and will die before he extricates himself! What could be better?


But don't let's digress. I was speaking of the employment of flattery. Understand, Wormwood, that the successful devil -- and this devilishly clever author -- well knows his audience, and then tells that audience precisely what it wants to hear. As long as what one puts out is vaguely plausible, they'll buy it by the yard, and at retail prices! Trust me, Wormwood, these gullible dullards are even likely to thank you for the privilege of being your customer!


I particularly admire the writer's way of tapping into the widespread disaffection and resentment so many modern women feel toward men. This emotional woundedness is a veritable Mother Lode (pun intended) of destructive possibilities, and it is as profitably mined here as ever it has been. The author winds up his female readers by informing them that they've been getting the short end of the stick ever since Eve was kicked out of the garden for her assertive sassiness! History has cheated them! The Church has oppressed them and they deserve better! And he supports this wall of custard with a thousand most excellent pseudo-facts!


Really, Wormwood, the author's pretense of taking the feminine side of things is extraordinary. For he has cleverly substituted the au courant idea of femininity for the thing itself. According to this version of things we must only know one thing about women, and that is, first and foremost, that they are hideously oppressed. Once alerted to this central fact of their identity throughout all of history, and especially of "Church" history, they'll believe they needn't bother about much else.


Revealed to the readers is the "fact" that in the interests of keeping power in the hands of men the Church murdered five million women in the middle ages! Don't laugh, Wormwood. This author delivers this screaming absurdity with a deadpan that would make Buster Keaton envious. Never mind that it isn't close to being even one percent true by any conceivable historical standard. The point is that it sounds true, at least to the ever-expanding herd of sheep who are grazing madly upon this ripping, dreamy, peachy excuse for a book! It sounds true and therefore it must be true! Every woman who has been wounded by a man will be vulnerable to this excellent stratagem. Whenever and wherever possible, Wormwood, fan this outrage vigorously.


The ersatz "her-story" of the Church's vicious oppression of women is seasoned with great steaming lumps of balderdash about Nature and "Mother Earth." It's a brilliant connection. Men and women alike invariably eat it up with a spoon because it gives them a heady sense of being somehow "spiritual" without the annoying necessity of adopting all of those patriarchal "rules"! Never mind, Wormwood, that in this Nature goddess silliness they are worshipping deities that don't exist! The only thing that matters is that they are not worshiping the deity that does! How we accomplish that doesn't matter a fig! And if we can give them a sense of their own superiority, a recognition of their sober respect for Mother Earth and against all senseless violence, and against all war and for peace and harmony and tolerance and recycling, well, all the better!


I ought to mention, too, that what passes in this book for perhaps the main "argument" in favor of those pagan goddess religions is that they predate Christianity. Behold the genius of this, Wormwood! It suggests that because pagan goddess worship is older than Christianity it is somehow more pure, closer to the source of "true" spirituality. But where is the logic in this, Wormwood? A horse predates a motorcar, but who would prefer it? Monarchy predates democracy! A joey predates an elderly 'roo! What of it?? Brilliant!


Before I go on, let me say that I have seen some execrable parodies of this book, my very least favorite being Bring in Da Vinci, Bring in Da Funk, a filthy piece of cant not to be read under any circumstances -- and I mean it, Wormwood. Don't give me any humbug about how it will help you see how the Enemy thinks and therefore aid you in defeating him. The fact is, my callow dunderhead, that some things have the ability to corrupt the cynical likes even of you. You might well take these corruptions at face value and start having qualms about working against our enemy above, so ixnay on at-thay ook-bay, et it gay? I'm ot-nay oking-jay!


Now then, another extremely admirable facet of this book is the author's intimate knowledge of his audience's skyscraping ignorance, which he exploits to devastating effect. One must ever endeavor to capitalize upon ignorance, Wormwood. This is one of the chiefest weapons in our arsenal, and let me observe -- and not without some glee -- that the ignorance of contemporary Western Society in matters of history and theology both, is of an absolutely unprecedented greatness. Never before have so many known so little about so much of great importance.


Ask your average fellow in the street the slightest detail of a daft sitcom of forty years ago and he will move heaven and earth to to supply you with the answer, and then will likely prate on with other similarly inane details -- as if knowing who lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane was his very passport to the Elysian Fields. Ha! But ask him to tell you about the Nicean Council, or ask him what are the Synoptic Gospels and you will suddenly find yourself in the presence of a weatherbeaten cigar store Injun! But then go ahead and ask him who played drums for The Monkees, or the name of that blasted itinerant peddlar on Green Acres and you will think yourself in the presence of a very Voltaire! Our television executives Down Under have been awfully successful!


As I say, this book exploits the ignorance of its readership with an exemplary elan. One particularly daring example claims that the Crusades were principally concerned with gathering and destroying information! This is bold and laughable twaddle, but it fits so nicely into ye olde conspiracy theory -- that the powerful religious hypocrites want to keep the "truth" out of the hands of their powerless subjects. And what do readers of this book know of the Crusades?


Then there's that double whopper with cheese, about how the Emperor Constantine "invented" Christianity in the fourth century! Never mind that people had been believing it for all those years before it was "invented". And in the same masterstroke the author undermines the authority of the Bible by declaring that what it contains arrived on a strictly "political" vote. All of those wonderful "Gospels" that didn't fit with the "patriarchal" version of things were cruelly -- always "cruelly" -- suppressed and rejected; the oppressive messages it now contains were slipped in to fit Constantine's political agenda! Who among this book's readers will know that for three centuries most of those same Gospels were already considered a part of the scriptural canon? Who among his doughheaded readers even knows the meaning of the word "canonical"! My nostrils flare in admiration.


And at the creamy center of the story is the swaggeringly wild idea that Mary Magdalene (whom, incidentally, a cousin of mine once possessed briefly, only to be rudely evicted) would have married Our Chief Enemy! Oh, fatuosity! But again, it shrewdly plays into what the reader so wants to believe: that Jesus was not divine, and that all the demands that go along with his divinity may be conveniently ignored. And, perhaps most cunningly, it does not dismiss Jesus entirely, but patronizingly reduces him into a toothless sage, a veritable "nice guy." Naturally the author has added that requisite whiff of subversive sexuality. And oh, yes, hold onto your horns, Wormwood: Mary Magdalene is the Holy Grail! You see, her womb... oh, never mind! It's just too rich!


As singularly brilliant as our colleague is in what concerns us most, the writing is -- alas and alack! -- scandalously slipshod and often pure giggle-fodder. I mean, the detail of a hulking albino ascetic! Named Silas! Silas! I'm wheezing with laughter this minute! Honestly, it's too much! I'm almost surprised the author simply make him a drooling simpleton named Benji! "Must kill!" The unintentionally comic monkeyshines of this character almost spoiled my appreciation of the work. But again, it's decidedly not the fictional elements, however ghastly, that matter here, Wormwood! Most readers won't notice the thick prose or wafer-thin characters anyway. For many of them, paperback "romances" are like mother's milk! What does matter is passing along cunning and doubt-sowing falsehoods as smoothly as possible. The rest is merely the narrative butter, as it were, that helps the nasty gobbets slide down the gullet all the more easily. But really, Wormwood -- an albino ascetic! Why didn't he toss in a vicious freckled humpback? Or some cheerful peasants with goiters? I must stop.


Well, Wormwood, there we are. If you can slither past the Early Reader prose and the over-caffeinated, goggle-eyed plot I think you'll find that you've a veritable textbook on your hands, one that will reward you again and again as you stagger forward and downward in mastering the grand and ignorable art of leading souls, one by one, toward a fathomlessly bleak eternity. Cheers.


Your affectionate Uncle,
Screwtape


**


Eric Metaxas is the author of the much acclaimed Everything You Always Wanted to Know About God (but were afraid to ask) and over 30 children's books, including Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving. He is the host of Socrates in the City: Conversations on the Examined Life, a speakers' series in Manhattan on "life, God, and other small topics." For more information, please visit www.ericmetaxas.com.

5.22.2006

"Comp" Day

Today's verse: Colossians 3:5, "Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry"

Day of rest and relaxation for me:


  1. Slept 9 hours
  2. Good breakfast: fried egg, grits & english muffin
  3. Mowed my lawn and neighbor's

    • Tractor ran out gas after 30' of lawn
    • Had to walk back to my garage without crutches, cane or any thing to lean upon. God looked after me and I made it ok.
    • Bought gas at Texaco ... parked truck by tractor ... was able to fuel up ok
    • Left truck in the street ... K. got it later on for me

  4. Returned CAT5 cable to CompaUsa
  5. Ran up to Cabelas and had lunch with Brother
  6. Home and took a nap
  7. Received "The Victorian Internet" today

Back to work tomorrow. Last week of BCP work!

5.21.2006

Last BCP (Disaster Recovery Event)!?

I worked from 6:45 p.m. Saturday until 5:35 a.m. Sunday.

The little blue pill:

This is the 4th or 5th overnight that I have worked. Adjusting from working 8 to 5 to working all night is not fun. My secret is the little blue sleeping pill (I’ve lost the box and I’ve forgotten the brand name … but it is over the counter.)

Drugged sleep is not the best sleep but it helps me adjust to working overnight. I took the blue pill at 11:00 a.m. Saturday and got into bed. Kathee had all the blinds closed and had removed the phone. My company cell phone was on vibrate mode in another room (some goof ball called me at 1:20 … and I actually woke up to its vibration … but did not get out of bed).

“Blue” my big dark gray cat snuggled me most of my sleep. I think I work up every hour on the hour but still was able to quickly get back to sleep. Finally got up at 5:00 p.m. Saturday … showered and dressed and ready for work.

Kathee had dinner at 5:45 and I left for Shoreview at 6:10 p.m.

I would like to say that I enjoy overnight BCP work but the reality is I don’t! The accommodations are not great (a small space on a conference room table, a phone that I am not used to using, cold pizza, candy, Frappuccinos and other assorted “crap” that is not good for you!)

I worked with Christine tonight on my shift. She actually volunteered for this work! I gave her a “Service Excellence” when she volunteered a year ago and I will again.


Sometime in the night, I stepped out into the cool air (really too cool for me and I like it cool!) and pondered the greatness of God as I viewed the night sky – Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork”.

I was home by 6:00 a.m. and joined my wife in bed until 10:30.

My last BCP event? For me … I don’t think I will volunteer for this work. I did it because it was my job. Now I move on.

Other: K., R. and I attended worship at 4th Baptist. It was AWANA awards night. Our AWANA commander (married man and the Father of 3 daughters) announced that he has to go to Iraq (timing unclear to me)

5.20.2006

Weird schedule today

I am working the BCP event up in Shoreview today. I need to be there at 6:45 p.m. and work until 5:00 a.m.

Got up today at 7:30 … now ready to take a sleeping pill at 10:30 to try to sleep for 6 to 7 hours so I am physically prepared for this!

If all goes well, when I get home at 6:00 a.m. Sunday I will be done and have Monday off as a "comp" day. If not ... I will have to go in at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night and work until midnight ... or if really going long go in at 11:00 p.m. Sunday and work until 9:00 a.m. Monday.

Today's Scripture thought: The danger of not truly worshipping the Most High"



Hosea 11:7, "My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, None at all exalt Him."

5.19.2006

What a difference an inch makes!

As I left the office today, I walked along on 3rd Street by the Crossings Bldg. I met a wheelchair bound man in the alley way between the Crossings and 111 Washington. I stopped and chatted with him. He broke his neck at C-3/C-4 in a bicycle accident in the early nineties.

His condition: respirator, “sip and puff” electric wheelchair, totally paralyzed.

The "inch" ... I broke my neck at C-4/C-5 and I am walking, breathing, moving.

Pete was in good spirits. He said "what good does it do to complain?!". He is a Craig Hospital alumnus as am I!

Tomorrow: I work the Shoreview BCP event from 7 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. Sunday. Can't say I am looking forward to this.

The Boss's Boss

Met with Jim S. today at noon over in 100 Washington. He is up for the day from Phoenix, flying back tonight. Jim is former-Marine and that impresses me as my own Son is a Marine Corp Corporal.

Also saw my new office. Very nice. Next to Winnie B., a woman I have known for some time.

Am getting a brand new Lenovo ThinkPad T60 next week with 1 gig of memory and a 19" flat panel monitor. Also am taking my 2 year old Dell laptop with me for now.

Move day is 1 week from today.

Today am writing some basic Cold Fusion examples for team members.

Sample Report

<cfquery name="get_data" datasource="data_source">
select * from maillist where active_flag=1
</cfquery>

<table border=1>
<tr><th>ID<th>last_name<th>first_name<th>email_address
<cfoutput query="get_data">
<tr><td>#id#<td>#last_name#<td>#first_name#<td>#email_address#
</cfoutput>
</table>

Insert Example

<CFSET Active_Flag=1>


<!--- Insert Record --->
<CFLOCK NAME="InsertNewRecord" TYPE="EXCLUSIVE" TIMEOUT="30">
<CFTRANSACTION>
<CFQUERY NAME="AddRecord" datasource="data_source">
INSERT INTO maillist(last_name, first_name, email_address, active_flag)

VALUES('#form.last_name#', '#form.first_name#', '#form.address#', #active_flag#)
</CFQUERY>
</CFTRANSACTION>
</CFLOCK>

CFFORM Example

<cfform action="sample_insert.cfm" method="post">
<table border=1>
<TR><TD width="100">Last Name:<td><cfinput name="last_name" REQUIRED = "yes" SIZE="20" MESSAGE = "Last Name is Required">
<tr><TD>First Name:<td><cfinput name="first_name" REQUIRED = "yes" SIZE="20" MESSAGE = "First Name is Required">
<tr><TD>Address:<td><cfinput name="address" REQUIRED = "yes" SIZE="20" MESSAGE = "Email is Required">

</table>
<div align="center">
<p>
<input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit Survey Form" class="redbutton"> <INPUT TYPE = "reset" class="redbutton" VALUE = "Reset">
</div>
</cfform>

Spam free Email

I've been using Bluebottle email for about 6 months now. It is truely spam free!

They have a free service. I upgraded to the "premium" service that is only $ 20. per year.

www.bluebottle.com

How does it work?


  • A challenge response system to verify real people that you care about
  • A "white list". I created in comma delimited format and imported. You can easily add to the white list. Also anyone you send to is on the white list. Whole domains can be white listed as well.
  • The very bad folk ... the "black listed" ones! Haven't used this yet but I am tempted with some close relatives!

CFMAIL example

From a table named "maillist" that looks as follows:


Keylast_namefirst_nameemail_address
1PeetJimjrpeet@somedomain.com
2SmithFredfred.smith@somedomain.com
3EdwardsKarenkedwards@somedomain.com
..................@somedomain.com
n..............@somedomain.com


---------- The Cold Fusion is as follows ------------- (note HTML tags excluded)

<!-- Query -->
<cfquery name="get_maillist" datasource="some_data_source">
select * from maillist
</cfquery>

<!--- Emails are sent right now! -->

<h1>cfmail test</h1>

<cfoutput query="get_maillist">

<CFMAIL
TO="#email_address#"
from="jrpeet@anydomain.com"
subject="Your Reservation has been Recorded"
type="HTML">

<html>
<head>
<style>
H1 {font: bold 18pt "Verdana","Comic Sans","Arial"; color: navy}
p { font: 10pt "Verdana","Comic Sans","Arial"; color: navy}
</style>
</head>
<body bgcolor="aliceblue">
<div align="center">
<h1>Reservation Accepted</h1>

</div>
</body>
</html>
</CFMAIL>
</cfoutput>

5.18.2006

Packing (2)

More packing and cleaning out today. I cleaned out my cabinet and my desk contents. Again I gave stuff away: zip drive and about 30 disks to Scott (old technology ... who needs it!). I gave a little Wells Fargo bank to John. I think I got this for my 10th anniversary with the company (I'm not a sentimentalist!). I still had 3 1/2 inch "diskettes"! Trashed 'em (I don't even have a diskette drive on my PC!).

Also had coffee with Scott today. I am enlisting him to be my sounding board for my new job. He has the experience and he will be a valuable resource.

Kathee and I started reading Hosea Tuesday night. We are up to chapter 5. Hosea's wife Gomer illustrates adulterous Israel. A reminder to keep oneself from the world!

Hosea 2:19: "I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy" (Hebrew Hesed ... God's lovingkindness!)

Got this from the Internet: In the Hebrew Scriptures, hesed refers to a sort of love that has been promised and is owed—covenant love, that is—as in Hosea 1:1: “When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son.” Covenant love is the love God promised to give to his covenant people, and which they in turn were to respond with in kind, loving the God of the Bible with all their hearts, minds and strength. Hesed does not suggest some kind of generic love of everyone. Like marital love, covenantal love is given within the context of a relationship where it is already promised and where the recipient is commanded to respond in kind. Covenant love, like marital love, is neither optional nor unconditional; it is obligatory. This is not to say hesed is compelled—just as in a marriage, love cannot be forced—but it is commanded. This love may be freely and graciously given, but, from the biblical point of view, there is no such thing as free love. Article.

I think "hesed" is Pastor McLachlan's favorite word!

Tonight having dinner with Kathee and Rachel at The Big Bowl.

Tomorrow meeting Tom's boss Jim at noon. I think I will take off early tomorrow!

5.17.2006

Packing

Today I am packing out my office. I am moving a week from Friday (5/26) from this Bank owned operations building to another building (owned by ING) about a block away. It is an EZ walk through the skyway ... no need to even go outside unless the weather is great and you want to.

So far I have packed 3 1/2 boxes. Also have given away:


  1. A Canon inkjet printer to Erica

  2. MVS JCL book to Don

  3. 4 or 5 books (Assembler programming ... will never do that again!, Dreamweaver) to Mike

  4. Linux PC (Thinkpad): going to Mike


    • This was my little project a year ago. What fun! Rescued an old T21 with 256 MB

    • Put Suse Linux 9.2 on it

    • Bought a port replicator used on Ebay

    • Rescued a monitor ready for the dump

    • Bought a new mouse and keyboard

    • And I had a super little system


  5. Gave away a scanner (USB) to Mike


Still need to pack out three desk drawers and two cabinet drawers.

Today cross trained Bill on a function that I hated doing and I will no longer have to do in the new job.

Coming up:


  • Friday met Jim ... my new boss's Tom's manager.

  • I am working this weekend, overnight on Saturday at our Spring BCP event



I'm ready for the new job!

5.13.2006

Three Day Weekends

I love three day weekends.

Yesterday got many errands completed:


  • Mower deck on the tractor / oil change

  • Windows washed - Squeegee Squad



It was a cold and nasty day ... high never got above 45. Plus quite a bit of rain.

Today:

Grocery shopping is ahead ... also trip to Cabelas to see Brother

Tomorrow: Mother's Day

Kids will be here for dinner at 6. Kathee making dumplings. Rachel arrives home from college.

5.12.2006

Dinner w. Dennis G

I had dinner with Dennis last night at the Byerly's on Duluth in Golden Valley. Dennis Pastors two churches in Boy River Minnesota. He is one busy guy ... works a full work week in the Twin Cities, drives up to Boy River on Friday night or Saturday morning (180 miles) ... preaches at two churches on Sunday ... spends time with his church folk ... and back to the Twin Cities on Sunday night. Weeknights he is preparing his messages. I admire Dennis and he is doing what I wish I were doing.

Friday: Errand day and Kathee and I have the day off. Isanti Power Equipment was by to take the snow plow off my tractor and put the mower deck on. Also the Squeegee Squad was by to clean windows.

I updated the www.zemeski.org and the FFBC websites.

Kathee is cleaning house.

It is a nasty cold day ... is just about 40 degrees and rainy.

5.11.2006

More on new job

I met with Tom B yesterday for an hour and a half and we mapped out our June objectives. Also handled other transition issues.


  • Will be getting a new laptop running Windows Vista. We have a relationship with Microsoft where we receive beta (pre release) versions of operating systems to experience.

  • Start date will be Tuesday May 30th

  • I will be getting a manager's cube (not actually a cube but a rectangle!). Will have a seating area with a table and a couple of chairs. A nice little perk



Today I began to make arrangements about closing down current responsibilities and transferring what I now do to other workers. I realized that there are some things I am doing that I really hate doing and won't miss.


  • I have and old Thinkpad that I put Suse Linux on last year. This will be dismantled and basically be parted out.

  • I have a brand new digital recorder that I am giving to Barbara. I had coffee with her today and got a nice hug.

  • T and M team to Mark O.

  • Production readiness to Bill T



Tonight Kathee and I left work late and didn't get home until 6:20. She had a church meeting and I went to dinner with Dennis.

Rachel finished her Junior year of college. Straight A's for three years. I would like to say she gets her brains from Dad but the reality is that it comes from Kathee.

Tomorrow:


  • Roger has reserves for three days at Camp Ripley

  • K. and I have the day off



Time for bed!

5.09.2006

Informing the boss

This was much harder than I expected. I met with George at 4:30 (via Phone .... George is in Chandler, AZ).

George has been great to me and I respect and admire him. My basic message was "it's business not personal". I literally choked up.

We were going to go out to "Big Bowl" to celebrate but Kathee has a migraine so we skipped the celebration.

Job offer

Today is Mother's 86th birthday. And I also received the job offer today. I have accepted.

What's next:


  • Tomorrow meeting with Tom at 10 to map out expectations

  • Need to inform George tomorrow as well. This will not be easy because I really like George and he has been very good to me! He is a genuinely decent man!

  • I expect to be start June 1st.

5.08.2006

3rd Interview

Today from 9:30 until 10:00

I was in a conference room in the NOC. Calling in were managers (I believe 5) from Minneapolis, Texas, Colorado, California.

Questions were standard .. resolving conflict .. why do you want this job ... etc.

I hope to hear something tomorrow or by Wednesday.

5.05.2006

3rd Interview Scheduled

Monday at 9:30.

I am prepared. I have a conference room reserved so that I have complete privacy (it is via teleconference with 4 managers from around the country). I have notes on release management and feel ready to speak to this and share my vision.

5.01.2006

Second Interview

Interesting day in that I was contacted by a "headhunter" about a job as the change manager of a company in St. Louis Park. Declined.

I had my 2nd interview for the Desktop Connection Release Manager position. Desktop Connection manages 65,000 P.C.'s

They have narrowed the list of candidates from over 90 to 5. And I am one of the 5.

I personally think I am going to get it but it is in the Lord's hands and I trust him.