Not So Famous…

So, back in November, I was driving down Sierra St…or so I thought.  A street sign caused me to rethink my actual location…

Leave it to my podunk town to mess something up like this.  Now, I know that technically, my city doesn’t actually make the signs…but I can really only see a couple options.

1. The people at the city gave the sign company the wrong spelling of SIERRA.

2. The people at the city looked at SEIRRA, when they got the sign and said, “BEAUTIFUL!”  At any rate, the City put it up there, so I get to make fun of them.  If you lived in my town, you would too.

I know I have ALWAYS wanted to know what these puzzling devices do…I figured someone else out there would want to know as well.  So when I saw this, I KNEW I had to take a picture of it, as a service to all my friends.  Here you are….this is what pumps do…

There you go…you can all sleep well tonight.

Yesterday was an interesting weather day for the Central Valley.  All day, we heard how it was supposed to rain and storm, but all day it was sunny.  Sure, the wind was pretty crazy, but nothing like today has been.  Anyway, I didn’t believe the weather people.  …until I was driving home from work.

This is what I saw while I was driving down a country road out the driver’s side of my truck.  It was way cool looking.  It also sort of looked like impending doom.  I whipped out my cell phone and took a couple of haphazard shots.  (Focusing on the driving of course, which is why the shots were inconsistent and sort of messed up.  I just hit the button and hoped for the best.)

They didn’t turn out too bad.  I didn’t ever get caught in this storm…hit a patch of rain for about a minute when I got closer to my town, but nothing like what the sky indicated under the darkness.

No point to this post, really.  Just posting my observation.  :)

To be honest, I’ve been rather busy. A friend of mine convinced me to start playing Matrix Online again after a hiatus of almost a year. I was playing WoW in the interim, and had only recently managed to kick that habit. lol.

Anyway, The Matrix Online is still alive and kicking. Jack in, and kick some Machine (or Merovingian, or even Zion) butt!

My character is Talie5in on the recursion server. I have convinced Gabe to play as well, and his character is N0ctus (that’s a zero in that name, BTW) on the same server. Both of us are members of the Liquid Fire hovercraft in the SM Networks faction, and you can check out that site here: http://www.sm-networks.net

One of the neat things about SM Networks is that so many of the cool people there really like to roleplay. In fact, one of the cooler stories we ever did was here:
http://mindtriix.com/forum/showthread.php?t=355&page=1&pp=10
You definitely need a little knowledge of the Matrix universe to get through all of that. :)

But we do a lot of in-character RP. In fact, I just started Talie5in’s in-character journal, which kind of builds upon the events of that RP I posted above:
http://mindtriix.com/forum/journal.php?do=showjournal&j=3

It’s been a great deal of fun playing MxO again, and if someone is looking for a great way to relax and spend time with some cool people, I highly recommend The Matrix Online. :)

In other news, I’ve not completely been absent from posting. I’ve been working on a rather large critique and light analysis of Metallica albums. It’s sitting up there tempting me as we speak. (I love that Wordpress now saves drafts of messages automatically.) :) I started thepost on Friday and got quite a bit of the way through it. However, I still have a bunch to go. I’ll hopefully get it out there in the next week or so. (If I can avoid playing MxO for long enough to finish it.) :)

See you all l8er.

Ask 20 people what defines happiness, and you will likely get 20 different answers. Taking God completely out of the equation, I could at least sympathize with the answer, “Doing what you enjoy for a living.” After all, the old high school guidance counselor question was, “What would you do if you had a million dollars?”  The answer to that is supposed to be whatever you should do for a living. (Office Space is a great movie, by the way.)

Today, the world of comedy was struck a harsh blow as we all learn of the suicide of comedian Richard Jeni. Richard was a relatively famous comedian in the world of comedy.  Very few people in the business were unaware of his amazing amount of material on which he could expound for hours. As Frazer Smith, fellow comedian, said of his colleague, the young comedians all looked up to him. He had been in movies, and had guest-starred on several TV shows throughout the years.  His first break had been on the Johnny Carson show where he appeared to entertain the audience as well as his idol, Richard Pryor.  He since went on to appear on the show under Jay Leno as well. He had his own HBO Comedy Special, which most comedians will tell you is the golden ring.  You know you’ve made it when you get your own HBO Comedy Special. Most people would recognize Richard from the Jim Carrey movie, “The Mask”, where he played Jim Carrey’s woman-chasing friend, Charlie,  who first invites him to the Copa Cabana club.

Richard Jeni wasn’t happy, apparently.  It must be noted that his suicide isn’t confirmed…only suspected. However, all signs point to a self-inflicted gunshot. None of his fame made him happy.  Doing what he enjoyed for a living didn’t make him happy.  Perhaps he saw what many consider to be less-talented comedians making it in television and movies ahead of him.  Perhaps what drove him to his eventual end was knowing that he could sacrifice his art and do more “common” humor to “make it big”.  Maybe he wasn’t willing to do that, and had relegated himself to never being the “big star”.  Whatever it was, he wasn’t happy.

Should men, even Christian men, derive pleasure and self-worth from their work?  I would say that’s not unreasonable.  After all, the human race was cursed by God in their primary roles, as I’ve mentioned before.  Man was cursed in his work, and he was told by the Lord that he would HAVE to work the rest of his life; that he would have to toil hard to provide for his family. The Lord expects us to provide for our family.  And we should feel a certain amount of happiness when we do a good job, remembering of course to praise the Lord for our abilities, and for making it possible to serve Him in our work.  However, that can’t be our ultimate source of happiness.  I work because I enjoy what I do, but it’s not the primary reason.  I work to provide for my wife. I work so that when I get home, I can spend time with her.  I work to serve the Lord; glorifying Him is my ultimate goal after all. Still, there are days when I come home from work wondering why I even bother.  (Mind you, finding a healthy workplace has done wonders for my good/bad day ratio, but no work environment is perfect.) It’s those days when I’m forcefully reminded that sole source of happiness is not and can never be my workplace.

At any rate, I was just giving some thought to this after hearing of Richard Jeni’s suicide.  I had heard him on the Bob and Tom Show and only recently connected him with his character on The Mask.  He was quite funny.  By the standards of comedians, he was quite successful. But he was not happy.

Do you want to understand where true happiness lies? Do you not know what I mean when I state that man’s chief end is to glorify the Lord? Read the Bible.  Find a church and get involved.  Become a member. It’s not enough to say “I believe in God.”  It’s not enough to say, “I’m basically a good person.”  You’re not good enough…even demons believe in God.  None of that is enough.  Read the Word of God.  Find out what the Lord expects of us. The Bible is God’s ONLY revelation about Himself and His plan for salvation.  It is complete, and when paired with a church where it is preached faithfully, it is all you need.

I linked to that blog entry earlier, and I really did enjoy that article.  On a whim, I started looking at some of his other posts, and many of them are quite funny.  I’m adding him to the blogroll over there on the right.

Anyway, his address is http://tominthebox.blogspot.com/

I just thought I’d toss the link out there for everyone to check it out.  I particularly liked his article on the Serious Scholarly Bible.  VERY funny.

I don’t remember what I was actually looking FOR, but I ended up finding this, and it made me laugh.  If you go check out this blog post, be sure to read the comments from the readers.  They add so much more to the post.  Hilarious!!!

http://tominthebox.blogspot.com/2007/02/guard-your-thoughts-against-calvinism.html

When I was working at Harris Moran Seed Company as a Systems Administrator, (my title was Network Coordinator, but they replaced me with a Systems Administrator, so that’s what I consider myself to have been…no bitterness here, no), I happened to come across a comic that illustrated systems development gone completely nuts. This is the picture, as well as an updated version of it. Both of them are sadly very accurate in some organizations:

I like this first one, because it’s more to the point. I believe it’s the original version of this comic. Ultimately, in this tree swing scenario, not a single person was able to properly explain the project. The first version of the comic illustrates a situation where management hears of a need and decides they’re going to do something about it, by golly. They go to the project leads and describe the project. Now, because the manager hasn’t heard the actual need, but heard from someone that someone in some other department needed something along these lines, the manager is completely unable to explain the real need. From there, it’s just a crapshoot as to what you’re going to get in each phase of the project, since at no time is the customer ever consulted. If you work at a job where you end up getting equipment or software that doesn’t help you at all, you might relate to this.

The second comic is also funny, and really highlights a different sort of breakdown altogether. In this tree swing scenario, the customer is the one making the request. The first comic highlights the fact that you’re far more likely to get the actual required product if you consult the person who has the need. This comic reminds us that consulting the customer should in no way be construed as a guarantee that the customer knows what they want, or is able to communicate it to the project leader. Furthermore, there is an additional aspect to this comic wherein the project leader doesn’t even understand the project as the customer explained it. Here we see the breakdown in listening that we hinted at in the first comic. The second comic also brings in some outsiders to explain what the finished product will be like. Frame 5 highlights this when we see a nice armchair tied to a tree. Yes, folks, it’ll be the newest, greatest thing. It slices, it dices, it makes julienne fries!

The moral of this story, be concise and precise when explaining things. Listen closely when you’re being addressed. Repeat your understanding of the request back to the person making the request. Attempt to be as exact in your understanding as you would want them to be when they’re making the request to you. Speak clearly when speaking, and listen well when listening.

This message has been brought to you by the letter ‘M’.

I have no real topic to write about at the moment.  I’m just writing because I’m thoroughly happy that it’s Friday. Well, I could write about the fact that Moron Day is apparently much like 4th of July in that people don’t stop celebrating it.  I keep seeing people following my suggestions for commemorating Moron Day on the roads.  lol

I’m really just posting because I *AM* thanking the Lord that it’s Friday.  This week has been rather brutal, though very productive.  However, I had a proposal hanging over my head this morning that was lifted when it was revealed how much this particular RFP was requesting.  There’s no way I could get it done by Tuesday.  So we cancelled that proposal, and my weekend is looking to be a LITTLE more relaxing than it was.  This is good, because next week would have been rough if I had had to work the entire weekend.  :)

WOO!

Don’t forget to thank the Lord that it’s Friday!