Yoda was wrong.  Yeah, I said it.  Don’t get me wrong; I still love the guy, but he was wrong.  In one of his more famous quotes he said, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”  Implying that suffering is equivalent to the dark side.  I read something today that proves that he is not quite as all knowing as we would want to believe.

“And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”  -Romans 5: 2-5

So, suffering does not equal the dark side.  It leads to hope.  I think the Apostle Paul trumps Yoda.  Did Yoda ever meet Christ on the road to Damascus?  I think not.  Did Yoda, single-handedly ever carry and extend the banner of a religion to the world?  Well, maybe not single-handedly, but he helped promote Jedi-ism or whatever it’s called  (Are you a Jedi?).  But did Yoda ever die for his actions in preserving that religion?  No.  Yoda died like a chump in a hut in a swamp.  Paul loudly proclaimed the saving grace of Christ even as his executioners drew near.

Yoda may have had a really cool light saber, but Paul “put on the full armor of God.” – Advantage:  Paul

Yoda may have used the Force, but Paul was a force to be reckoned with.  You know, writing God’s Word and all. – Advantage:  Paul

Okay, they both had really cool robes.  – Advantage: tie

Yoda did nothing but sit up in that Jedi temple all day.  Yeah, he taught some classes.  But it was the equivalent of those easy Freshmen Seminar classes everyone has to take in college.  Paul was not only the greatest missionary in history, he also made tents to support his ministry. No way he was gonna sit up there and live off the backs of other.  – Advantage: Paul

Paul didn’t have a cushy desk job and tenure in the Jedi Academy.  He risked his life to spread the Gospel and be burdened with that thorn in his side.  What did Yoda have to do?  Hide out in a swamp hut on Degobah?  When he was getting too old to teach anymore?  Granted, it’s not where I would want to retire, but it was far from suffering.  – Advantage:  Paul

Also, let’s look at eloquence.  Granted, I certainly can’t stand in judgment, but Yoda couldn’t even piece together a complete thought without sounding like someone who just learned to speak English 5 minutes ago. “Ready are you? What know you of ready?”  “Never his mind on where he was.”  “Named must your fear be before banish it you can.”  But Paul…Paul has a great resume when it comes to eloquence.  You may have heard of it or read some of it.  It’s called the New Testament.  Of the 27 books in the New Testament, Paul wrote 13 of them. – Advantage:  Paul

Yeah, Yoda could perform the best Rope-a-Dope.  Suckering Sith in to a fight and whip out that amazing Jedi/Light saber Kung-Fu.  But Paul…Paul, he could….  Okay, Yoda wins that one. -Advantage:  Yoda

I’m sure there are more things that Paul totally dominated Yoda in.  Please leave a comment and let me know your arguments.  Pro-Yoda or Pro-Paul.  Doesn’t matter, just bring it.

(This is what happens when my men’s Bible study does the book of Romans.)

I used to have a boss that was quite a character.  He was an amazing guy; he just didn’t always make the right decisions.  You see, he was this up-and-coming young firecracker.  His name was Rick.  Everyone one at work loved him the moment he started.  He was hired in as a Supervisor, but was fast tracked to management.  He just had this, this, …. I dunno.  This air about him that exuded excellence and hope.  It didn’t matter what he did, all he had to do was open his mouth and he could disarm even the most hostile client.  We kept a lot of accounts because of him.  Great guy.

Even though he had all of those amazing qualities, he was still lacking in some areas when it came to judgement.  Most of you know that I work with computers.  Well, most people work with computers, I guess.  But I work in software development and design.  Quite a stretch from the Theater degree that I got.  But that’s a different story.  Well, one day we got a virus on our system.  Don’t know how it got past our anti-virus software.  But like most viruses, it entered our system via someone’s email.  Luckily, we have an off site back-up that it didn’t affect.  Bad thing was that it hit everyone’s computer.  So, we were all out, at most, a day or 2 of work.  Our Kansas office was unaffected though.  I don’t know how, but they were okay.  Anyway, it was pretty chaotic when it went down.  Everyone at the office was freaking out.  Now you gotta understand, we had about 105 people in our office.  Our Kansas office is just a remote office that had about half of that.  So, everyone was running around like Chicken Little screaming that the sky was falling.

The few of us that worked in the Software/IT division knew it was going to be okay.  We knew the procedures for when something like this happened.  Basically, we would have to push the reset button; format all the hard drives and restore from the offsite backup.  Well, here comes Rick to the rescue.  He gathered everyone into the conference rooms (we had some big rooms).  We got the Kansas office on the phone and he told us not to worry and that everything was under control.  We were all given the rest of the day off since no one could work anyway.  That really made a lot of people happy.  At first they were scared, but now they were pretty psyched that they were getting the rest of the day off…with pay.  So, we all went home and enjoyed our day off.

Nothing could compare us for the next day.  I got to work earlier than most, because I had a pretty long commute.  So, getting there early lets me leave early so that I can spend more time with the family, but I digress.  Anyway, as soon as I got to my desk, I noticed that my PC was gone.  No big deal, I thought.  IT was probably still working on it.  So, I took a stroll through the office and noticed that all of the computers were gone.  I thought it was pretty weird that IT would still have all the PCs.  Once everyone got to work that day, it looked like a scene from Night of the Living Dead; people aimlessly wandering around the office.  They even had that “I haven’t had coffee yet” look on their face that made them actually look like zombies.  Anyway, once everyone rolled in (and were properly medicated with their daily dose of caffeine) we were called into the conference room again.  Rick was there to meet us with that perfect face of his and that solid stance that seemed to say, “I did it again.  I saved us.”  He proceeded to tell us that since all of the computers were infected they decided to throw all of them in the dumpster.

*tick*tock*tick*tock*

At first, a few people just chuckled.  And then we realized he was serious.  Now it really was like Night of the Living Dead.  The horror of the situation spread throughout the ranks.  Still, some people thought it was cool, because since we didn’t have computers, we would more than likely get another paid day off.  But Rick stepped up and said, “It’s okay.  We are purchasing new computers for everyone.  Since the old ones were infected, we decided the only option was to buy new ones.”

Everyone was quiet.  Then one of the guys from IT spoke up.  “Uh, Rick.  We could’ve just formatted all of the hard drives and then restored from the backup.  Why buy all new computers?  This is going to cost us a lot of money.”  Okay, you gotta understand, that up to this guys question, a majority of our company thought this was a good idea.  They didn’t know that much about computers, so they thought that was what you did when your computer was infected.  But when IT spoke up, it turned a few heads.  I was sitting in the back of the conference room with my jaw on the floor.  I was waiting for Rick to say April Fool’s or something like that.  But he was serious.  He also didn’t take too kindly to being questioned about his decision.  He stated that something had to be done.  We couldn’t sit around and not do anything, so he acted.  He said that doing nothing was not an option from his perspective.

IT spoke up again, “Uh, okay, Rick.  I don’t really agree with that approach.  Essentially, reformatting the hard drives is pressing the reset button.  We’re down for a couple of days, but after restoring the backup, we’re back on our feet in no time.  Your “solution” is going to take weeks, if not months, before we are able to recover from this incident.  Also, if you threw away all of the PCs, where are the printers and monitors?”

Rick didn’t miss a beat, “Well, you can disagree all you want, but we need everyone to be team players here.  We have to do what’s best for the company right now.  It may take us longer to see the results, but we have to act or our company is going to suffer.  Oh, and I threw out all of the printers and monitors with the PCs.  I figured that since we had to spend the money on new computers, it seemed like a good time to upgrade to the flat panel monitors and laser printers.”

I thought the IT department was going to demonstrate spontaneous combustion.  You could tell they were livid.  I’m still thinking this is a joke.  I mean, c’mon, who throws away perfectly usable equipment to spend a ton of money on something that is not necessary at the moment.  To top it all off, our company had been struggling, so this is not what it needed.

Then Rick stood up and put on his best smile.  The sunlight was beaming through the window at just the right angle, bouncing off of the whiteboard behind him to make it look like he was glowing.  At that moment, he said, “The plan is not perfect.  No plan is. I can’t tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by all of us.  At this particular moment, with the company so weakened by this incident, the management team is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our company back to life.”  And all of the zombies were nodding their heads in agreement.  I wanted to jump up and shout, “What the hell are you talking about?  I feel like Will Ferrell in Zoolander.  Doesn’t anybody notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!”  But I didn’t.

And just when we thought it couldn’t get any more insane, Rick told us that the new computers wouldn’t be sent here.  They were going to our Kansas office.  Now even some of the zombies were confused.  Rick said that the new PCs (and monitors and printers) would go to Kansas and that their old ones would be sent to us.  Once again, blank stares from the audience.  Someone, I don’t know who at this point, asked how that was going to benefit us.  He said that the IT department would be moved to Kansas during the transition to configure all of the new computers.  And that since the Kansas computers were already configured, they would bring them back to our office and set them up so that we could get back to work.  This would all take a few weeks, maybe months to get underway.  There would be a lot of time dedicated to the planning of the move and a lot of logistics that would occur.  The company would have to hire a few logistics experts to do all of the planning.

Meanwhile, our office would have to close temporarily, since we didn’t have the computers we needed to work.  Someone, reluctantly, asked the question if we would get paid.  Rick put on his best concerned face and said that the company didn’t have the resources to cover the paid time off.  He encouraged everyone to sign up for unemployment during the transition.

Luckily, I was attached to the IT department, simply because my company didn’t really understand how to categorize me.  They kept us on so that we could coordinate with the PC manufacturer.  So, after the 6 week planning phase that was conducted by a (rather expensive) consulting company, we shipped off to Kansas.  Once we got there, we were able to get the Kansas PCs sent back to the home office pretty quick.  And it took us about a week and a half to get all of the new PCs up and running.  I really wasn’t a lot of help, but it was better than being temporarily laid off.

As soon as we got back from Kansas, I started looking for a new job.  No matter how impressive Rick was, I had lost all confidence in his ability to make the right decisions.  Sure, he was a great guy, but he wasn’t cut out to make the big decisions.  I’ve since left that company and have found another job.  Last I heard, my old company was filing for bankruptcy.  Rick had also moved on to manage an even bigger company.  I saw a picture of him in the paper the other day.  He still has that same smile and that glow about him that says, “I have everything under control.”

Oh, yeah…here’s his picture.

Well, I tried the DIY DTV antenna.  I failed miserably. Well, maybe not failed, but the antenna failed to pick up any signals.  I think it only works on TVs that have a built in digital tuner.  Either that, or I was just too far away from a signal.  It was still a fun project.  What was funny was the hardest items to find for construction were the metal hangers.  No one has those anymore…unless you know someone who takes their clothes to the cleaners.

Like I said, it was still a fun project, but just didn’t pan out for me.

I think I might have to try this out one weekend.

MAKE: Blog: Maker Workshop – DTV Antenna & Steadycam on MAKE: television.

If you love A Capella, Star Wars, and John Williams, then you’ll love this.

Yeah, I know that’s a weird combination, but you gotta check it out.

Check out Moosebutter (the real voices to the music).

I went to the Celebration and Dedication of the new Searcy High School Performing Arts Center this afternoon. All I can say is … wow! It is probably the most state of the art facility that I have seen. And you know what? Those stupid kids won’t even know how to appreciate it. I made that comment to Amy as I was turning on my modded Xbox that I have hooked up to my home network which allows me to stream media throughout my house and she said, “That’s probably what the generation before us says about us.” As I queue up the latest episode of Prison Break, I think, you know, she’s probably right. I blame technology. I mean, when people continue to make amazing technological breakthroughs, I am forced to adapt and master it or acquire it. I can’t help it. I’m a victim.

But back to the new PAC. The auditorium seats approximately 1550. The old one didn’t have a balcony but this one does. This auditorium rivals some professions houses that I’ve seen/worked in. It is nice. The old one also didn’t have fly space, which drastically limited set designs. If you can’t fly drops in or out and are stuck with just one backdrop, you can’t do much. It also has some built in gadgets that will greatly enhance the ability to perform with multimedia.

After the ceremony, we were given a tour of the facility, which also included the new classrooms. One of the first classrooms was the video production class, which I’m still kinda ticked off that they didn’t have when I was there. We walk in the room and there was a table with 12 of these lined up down the middle:

And that’s just for sound editing and graphics design. They also had 5 or 6 edit bays that had more iMacs in them. I almost peed my pants. They easily had $50,000 worth of computers and equipment in that one classroom. We then proceed to see the other classrooms, which were very impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the video production class. The new band and choir rooms were awe inspiring as well. The acoustics were phenomenal. As I was passing the choir director’s office, I noticed another iMac on her desk. Then I noticed that she was running Windows XP on it. I wanted to smack her. I know, I know, she probably has to run Windows for all of the education programs that all the teachers have to use. She’s probably dual booting…hopefully.

I stopped by the drama room because, ya know, that’s something that’s kinda near and dear to my heart. I talked to the new drama teacher and it turns out that she graduated Searcy in ’95. I told her that I graduated in ’94 and wondered if we knew each other. She said that she didn’t know anyone that wasn’t in her class. I told her that I was really excited for her and congratulated her on being able to start with an awesome theater (it’s her first year at Searcy as a teacher). I am really looking forward to seeing a show there.

Another plus for the theater is that they are going to allow the community to use it for special events. I have always wanted to direct a production of Godspell. I’ve been toying with the idea of forming an inter-denominational group that would basically incorporate all the talents of all the churches in the area to put on a show that would benefit a particular ministry or mission organization. Maybe I’m a bit closer to that dream. So, if you are reading this and live in Searcy and enjoy theater (on stage or back stage), drop me a line and let me know.

Well, I’m going to go back to being jealous of a bunch of teenagers. If they had built that theater when I was there, I would have never left the PAC. Ever. I would have been the biggest band and drama geek at the school.

Wait a minute….oh yeah, I was.

I just finished reading an amazing book called The Shack by William Young. I had heard a lot about this book from a few of my friends and how it had a profound impact on them. So, I thought I would have to give it a shot. After all, I love a good book and if it can teach me something new, I’m all for it. I gotta say, I wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it was. I mean, one of the blurbs in the front was from country singer Wynonna. But as I read it, I began to put myself in the shoes of the main character, Mack. Without revealing too much of the plot, Mack looses his youngest daughter, Missy. This loss creates what Mack refers to as The Great Sadness. Being the father of a 3 year old daughter, it is my greatest fear that I could lose my daughter. This loss also creates a rift between Mack and God.

And then one day, Mack gets a letter from God, inviting Mack to spend the weekend with him at the shack in the woods where Mack lost his daughter. The question now is does Mack go or not go. Do yourself a favor and go pick up the book.

Much has been made about the authenticity of the book. A lot of people look at it as gospel truth. And on the other side, a lot of people don’t want to believe that God would interact with us while we are still here on this earth. Whatever you believe, this book provides a fresh look at how we should interact with each other. Even if you don’t think that Jesus or God would say some of the things in the book, you have to admit that a lot of what they say can be backed up by the Bible.

If you want to read a little more about it, check out their website.

I just found my new favorite blog:

Stuff Christians Like

Read it. Now. Seriously, click on the link. You’ll be glad you did.

TIP: Start from the beginning and read them in order.

If you’ve read my blog in the past, you know that I do online offers for free* stuff. The reason I use the *, is because, yes, you have minimal costs involved, but when you get a $900 check for spending $43, that’s free enough for me. I’ve been working on getting a Mac Mini for the last couple of months. Well, as I was about to leave for work last night, I noticed a package by the front door. This is what I found:

Granted, it wasn’t sitting out there like that. It was nicely packaged. I was absolutely giddy. I couldn’t be happier. I’ve always wanted a Mac. And since I only paid $40 for it, that makes it all the better. Actually, it’s not really mine anymore. Amy has been wanting a computer for all of her hobbies. So, here ya go, sweetie.

You may be asking yourself, “How the heck can you actually get a Mac Mini for $40?” Very easily, my friend. I learned everything I know from a guy named Josh Clark. Go to his site and join his forum. You will be able to talk to a lot of people that have been doing this for quite a while. Josh finds the offers that are legit, because, let’s face it, there are a lot of scams out there. He reviews them and tells you which ones he endorses. The mods on the forum are extremely helpful and knowledgeable about the “freebie” industry.

Unfortunately, this particular offer has expired. So, jaunt on over to joshclark.com and read over his “Free Stuff” section.

Right now, I’m working on a few different things:

iPhone
$400 Gift Card
Xbox 360 Elite

These links will take you to a site that will let you pick either a gift or cash. Great stuff!!! You can have a referral based account or a points based account. I’m going to fast. Just jump over to Josh Clark and do a little research.

IMPORTANT: If you decide to do something like this, you need to be organized! If not, you may end up spending way more than you wanted. Also, let me know if you want to try this out. I’ve got a spreadsheet that I got from Josh Clark that will help you keep track of all of the offers you do!

Fun little test.

56% Geek

If you take the test, leave your score in the comments.