Reasons why I’m not thrilled about The Force Awakens

1)      Right out of the gate, the first thing that will be different is that it won’t start with Alfred Newman’s Fanfare (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DnpAQegDXE).  Yes, it’s 22 seconds of disappointment, but I’m scared of what they might replace it with (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMyHnZ4lV54 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC-eFU6OgxA).  Did you know that George Lucas (not John Williams) brought Newman’s Fanfare back to 20^th Century fox in 1977?  It hadn’t been used in over 10 years.

2)      While we’re on the topic of music, Disney hasn’t released the soundtrack yet.  And the only tidbits that they showed on 60 minutes really didn’t relate to the original scores much at all.  I know that the music to the prequels was quite a bit different as well, but the beauty of Revenge of the Sith was how the music tied the prequel themes to the original trilogy.

3)      Also related to music, while I’m glad that they hired John Williams to do the music, they are using a Disney studio orchestra instead of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

4)       BB-8:  Let’s just say that I now understand everybody else’s hatred of Jar Jar  :)

5)      All of the other movies were released from May 16^th to May 25^th.  A December 17^th opening date just confirms that J. J. Abrams wasn’t paying any attention to details.

6)      There’s a character named Ello Asty – pronounced L-O S-T.  J. J. is more focused on self-promotion than the traditions of the saga.  (It’s minor, but how many other Abrams easter eggs are hidden in this movie?)

7)      A local concern:  All the good theaters are dead.  The Cooper and Century 21 have been gone for years.  The only good auditorium left in Denver for the Special Editions/Prequels was the Continental.  And now the Continental has been converted to stadium seating, and I just can’t bring myself to even go to see what it looks like.  I had a favorite seat at the Con – I sat in the same seat for all 6 of the Star Wars movies and the Lord of the Rings (and the extended editions).  I’m guessing that my seat is now about 12 feet below the stadium seat the proper distance from the screen.

8)      J. J. Abrams is known for not writing strong endings (Lost anyone?).  So why would Disney hire him to write the end of the greatest saga in movie history?

9)      Most of the people who are excited about the new movie are the same people who hated the prequels.  While I agree that there were things that I didn’t like about the prequels, the original trilogy wasn’t any better.  “But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” isn’t any better than “I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere.”  And Nien Nunb was worse than Boss Nass.  The Ewoks were just as silly as the Gungans.  And “It’s a trap!” became famous because it’s just as dumb as “Now this is podracing!”  Sorry folks, but the dialog and acting were not why we liked the original series.  It was the music and the great improvements in special effects. The prequels had better music and fantastic special effects if you were paying attention.  All that I have seen in the new movie is action, explosions, and I higher body count – which is the same thing that I’ve seen in every other movie coming out of Hollywood in the past 10 years.

In short, I’ll go, I’ll enjoy it, but there are just so many things that make this not a Star Wars movie.  Please don't screw it up Jar Jar Abrams.

The Priority of Corporate Prayer

              For the past couple of weeks, my church has been emphasizing prayer.  I appreciate the words that have been shared.  From things that I have been thinking about for several months and actually pet peeves that I have had for years, I would like to take the challenge just a little deeper.

              We have heard the importance of prayer.  We have heard about the beauty of being able to commune with our Creator.  We have discussed how much God wants to hear from us and how much he wants to heal our broken world.

              The struggle that I have with modern corporate prayer is the realization of how often it is used for transition.  We pray while the worship team quietly exits the stage.  We pray for the offering, not so much that God would bless our giving hearts and the resources he has blessed us with, but instead the prayer indicates to the ushers that they need to come forward so that we can take the offering.  We enter prayer times in our service so that the tech team can sneak onto the stage and fix technical glitches.  We offer up prayers that use special code phrases to indicate that we are skipping a song in the worship set.  So, we know about the importance and value of prayer, but the only times that we pray in our church services are scripted.

              I recently heard an interesting interview with the late Leonard Nimoy.  The point that stands out to me in the interview is his definition of why we close our eyes during prayer.  I have always been told that we close our eyes to help us focus, to close out the distractions around us.  According to Nimoy, the reason Jews are taught to close their eyes is because if the Shekinah glory of God showed up while the congregation was praying, they might die.  It really changes the focus not only of closing our eyes, but the focus of corporate prayer in general.

              As Christians, we know that God is always with us, and so we don’t anticipate anything greater happening during our services when we pray.  It is okay to move about the room to exit the stage or fix tech glitches because what is the worst that could happen if we didn’t?  We don’t expect God to really be present in our services, and so we expect very little.  Prayer helps the performance of our worship services to run more smoothly, so why not take advantage of it?

              Perhaps we should expect more of God.  Perhaps we should expect more of our corporate prayer.

Why, why, why?

Sorry for those of you that saw this on my Facebook post - I just really think that its worth mentioning....

Let's imagine that your boss told you to get to work by 6:00 just one day because he wanted to get out by 3:00 because he had a lot of things to do before sundown. Something tells me that 90% of America would tell this boss to go jump in a lake - and yet this is exactly what we do as a nation for the entire summer.

And, just curious, who exactly benefits from this that couldn't just get their own butt out of bed an hour earlier without interupting the rest of the world?

Accidents are up. Productivity is down. It doesn't save energy. And the whole farmers thing is just a crock. So, why do we really keep doing this?

Bad enough to blog

I know that just about everybody has given up on my blog. I've primarily moved to Facebook. I hate Facebook more than Blogger, but that's a post for another day. Perhaps I will still use Blogger for the intellectual thoughts and Facebook for the Facebook-ish stuff. (Yes, that does imply that most everything on Facebook in non-intelligent.)
Anyway....

To give a little background, I have been asked to do a training at a local high school as to how GPS/Geocaching/Waymarking/etc. can be used in the classroom. (I was specifically asked to teach on Geocaching - which really doesn't hold a lot of value for the general classroom - so I expanded it a little.) Well, the problem is that there are no Geocaches within a mile of the school. So, I went on Sunday to scout out a few locations. I had a couple of containers with me, so I placed some, but I wanted to give some options for my training sessions and so I scouted out a few additional locations where containers could be hidden as well.
When I posted the coordinates where I had hid the containers to the Geocaching web site, it was suggested to me that one of my containers was a little too close to the playground equipment - that people looking for the container might look suspicious. They were right - the container was actually on the playground equipment and I didn't really think about how that might look.
Also, over the weekend, I was informed that one of my geocaches had been raided. Interestingly enough, all that I think was stolen was the log-book. The person that found it put it back together and actually placed it back exactly where it was supposed to go. (I guess the coordinates must be pretty spot-on.)

So, I went out today with a friend to do some caching and also finish placing some caches, do some maintenance and of course move the container from off the playground equipment. Well, adding the log book to the raided cache went well enough - just frustrating that somebody would do something so stupid.
But when we got to the park near the school, things went from bad to worse. When I went to pull the original container off of the playground equipment, it was gone. So, since it was a brand new container, my friend and I did some digging around. As the folks from the Geocaching web site suggested, this got some attention from other people who were watching their kids at the playground. After not too long, we gave up assuming that it was gone. We went to place another cache in a location that I had already scouted out while thinking about where else in the park I could place another container to replace the one from the playground.
Well, we ended up back near the playground at some picnic benches. While we visually scanned the area for a place to hide a container. We noticed that there was a lady that was looking at us kind of funny, but we had done a few odd things since we got to the park - digging around under some playground equipment and then walking to a rock in the middle of a field and walked back, but nothing that I would consider to catch anybody's attention.
So, I finally found a place to hide the container, but we needed to get the GPS coordinates for the location and also place it without this lady really seeing what we were doing, so we sat there a while longer. Finally we were successful. We got in my car, the lady seemed to have moved on - was now talking to somebody on her cell phone, so we looked up a place to go look for a cache and headed off.
About 1/4 mile from the park we passed by a police car. He immediately turns on his lights and flips a U behind us. I roll down my window and wait and the officer asks me to please step out of the car and keep my hands where he can see them. So, after explaining the sport of Geocaching to him, giving him my information, etc. he realizes that it was innocent fun - and also seems a little interested in learning more. We finally head on our way, the officer heads to the park presumably to calm down a lady who had seemingly worked herself into a fairly tight spin.
So, then at home, I'm still sort of processing my day, and I decide to go attempt a quick fix on our bathroom drain, which of course completely busts through - not the tub, just the drain, so we aren't looking at completely replacing the bathtub, thankfully.
Well, thanks to my introvert tendencies added to a flustering day that I am trying to get my head around - my wife is getting increasingly frustrated trying to ask about my dinner preferences - which at that point, I really don't care, but she is convinced will somehow improve my outlook on the world. Of course the only restaurant that I can think of that might do anything near the magic that my sweet wife is hoping for is Benihana's.
So, after spending a lot of money on a very fun and very long dinner, I think I can get my head started working again to get through a new day.

"To observe and collect"

I'm not normally one to bash police officers just for the sake of doing so. Being in public service myself, I know that it is impossible to do everything that the public eye thinks that we should. However, I have had two frustrating experiences in the last week that I think are noteworthy - teachable moments for the kids, that didn't quite work the direction that I would have hoped.

First of all, I am that guy that drives the speed limit. I don't do it in the fast lane because before I was convicted of wanting to obey this law, I remembered how annoying it was when I was in a hurry and some dimwitted knucklehead (that would be me - now) was driving the speed limit in the fast lane. (Please note: I have posted on speed limits before.)

So anyway, the other day when I was driving 8-over with the kids in the back (along a stretch that I don't normally drive - and, as the officer even admitted, down a hill), I had hoped to be let off with just a warning. I was staying with the pace of traffic and not really endangering anybody. So, instead of being able to teach my children about how the athorities are out to catch the bad guys who are out there trying to hurt us, I got to teach them about taking consequences for wrongful acts. (Which kinda makes it so that I can't plea bargin the ticket with a clear conscience.)

I decided to take that one in stride and not whine about it. However, last night I had another potential run-in, again with the hopes of teaching my children that authority is there to help our communities be better for all of us.

Last night I was parked by the side of the road with my family - geocaching if you must know - and ended up with a dead battery. (I had shut the car off while I went on my search and left the radio, lights and heater on for my family who stayed in the car.) So anyway, I decided to open my hood and get out jumper cables so that I nice passer-by might quickly assess the scenario and decide that it would not be a major inconvenience to stop and help. The first car to come by after the stage was set, was a police car. I made eye contact with both the driver and the passenger (in the front seat, not the back) and he drove right on by. Luckily, the truck that followed behind and saw that I was just dis'd by a police officer decided to stop and help.

So, hopefully soon, I will have a run-in with another public servant who can help my children see that they are the good guys. I just hope that it is not due to a crime with a direct, negative effect on me.

Common sense?

ICYC - bubble gum and beards don't mix. Funny what you don't think of after 15 to 20 years of not chewing gum....

Well, they found me....

In the last 24 hours, I have received 3435 spam emails. I think I might need to make some changes. Only about 20 weren't filtered out. I must say that I do like Outlook 2007.

[sic]

I received a letter today from a local restaurant. I have removed the restaurant's name to protect the stupid.

---

Congratulations.....YOU'RE ARE ALWAYS WINNER...at XYZ!
.
.
.
To redeem this offer, simply present this letter,(not to exceed $3.99) your server when you order at your local XYZ.
.
.
.

---

The General Manager of the restaurant even bothered to hand sign it. All in all, it was a very professional looking letter. Do I highlight it when I return it? Do I add proper proof reading notation?

Yay Bureaucracy!

So, the other day, I put in a request to buy a few copies of Windows Vista and Office 2007 for my school. I wanted a few people to try running it so that as we get closer to the day the district buys it, I will know some of the ins, outs, and other issues, and will be a lot more effective in training teachers on how to use the new products. I can also test the other software that we have for compatibility. (Keep in mind that these are both huge parts of my job description. Also keep in mind that I have been running the Betas and Release Candidates for both for several months - and love them - I just want to get the official final releases - to see if the RSS issues that I'm having got fixed - among other things. It would also be nice for my entire life not to collapse in April when the Betas expire.)

Of course, my request was turned down.

Now, the reason is the fun part. I was turned down because somebody in ITS (who happened to be me) loaded the Beta for Windows and found an issue that was significant. Well, last week, we upgraded our email software, the main program that I had a conflict with, and so it would be nice to run the new email software on the official release of Windows Vista to see if the problem still exists. But I can't because I previously found an issue and reported it.

Well, I wrote to one of the people whose job is it officially, by the district, to do this testing and reporting, let her know about the hang-up, and she found a way to get me a few copies of both. And my old department chair, who is now her boss, okayed the purchase, so I might be getting back to work soon....

That is, if it ever stops snowing so the shipment can actually get here.... It should all thaw by April. Right?

I miss being trusted

I used to use cash at the gas station. It doesn't make sense to me that I can't use cash because "some other guy" likes to drive off without paying.

I have used the same gas station for almost a year now because it was the only gas station that would still trust me enough to take cash - but they no longer trust me either. I was a faithful customer. Every Monday after school. But to them, I am no exception. Apparently I was baiting the system so that one day when my tank was EXTREMELY empty, I would just fill it and run.

They think that if I pay first, it is no different than if I pay after. But, if they are not going to trust me with their fuel, why should I trust them with my change? Oh, that's right - I am the villanous customer and they are the upstanding corporate American representatives.

Perhaps I should commit a crime. It seems as though the American Courtroom is the only place where I am innocent until proven guilty. It would be nice to feel trusted once more.

Arg!!!!!!

Have you ever spent three days of your life on a project just to watch it go "poof"? Yeah - that was my last 3 days.... Well, right now it looks like it will take only two days to do the second time.... I did figure out what caused all of the computers to fail.... So, it won't happen the second time.

How smart should you have to be?

If you can't set a digital clock, please don't use the self checkout.

If you have trouble discerning 'less than' and 'greater than', please avoid the express checkout lane.

If you have trouble understanding your checkbook register, please don't get a membership card to your grocery store.

(Sorry for the rant but I keep getting stuck behind the same people at the grocery checkout.)

So, what do you do...

when the tech guy's computer's hard drive fails? should his computer be a higher priority?

For a' that

by Robert Burns (best read with a Scottish accent)

Is there, for honest poverty,
That hings his head, an' a' that?
The coward slave, we pass him by,
We dare be poor for a' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Our toils obscure, an' a' that;
The rank is but the guinea's stamp;
The man's the gowd for a' that,

What tho' on hamely fare we dine,
Wear hoddin-gray, an' a' that;
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine,
A man's a man for a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their tinsel show an' a' that;
The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that.

Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord
Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
He's but a coof for a' that:
For a' that, an' a' that,
His riband, star, an' a' that,
The man o' independent mind,
He looks and laughs at a' that.

A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Guid faith he mauna fa' that!
For a' that, an' a' that,
Their dignities, an' a' that,
The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
Are higher rank than a' that.

Then let us pray that come it may,
As come it will for a' that,
That sense and worth, o'er a' the earth,
May bear the gree, an' a' that.
For a' that, an' a' that,
It's coming yet, for a' that,
That man to man, the warld o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that.

My apologies... I just had to post it - Pry 'cause I've delt with a couple o' coof this week m'self.

Living a Parable

So, a short summary of my life:

1. Our school district is switching student information systems in less than a month. Part of my job description is to support the whole school staff through the whole process. Part of my job description is to train all of the teachers at my school how to use the system - most importantly, how to take attendance on April 3rd. (It's also a personal goal to train a few other people in just a little more than just attendance to make my life easier in the long run.)


2. The staff meeting where I was planning to introduce everyone to the primary concepts of the new system got cancelled today because of a pep assembly.


3. I had a four day training on the new product about three weeks ago - I have yet to recover from taking four days off.


4. On the last day of that training, I received notice that (thanks to decisions at the district) Apple Computer was shipping almost 100 new computers to my school - to arrive within the next week. I don't have storage space for 100 computers.


5. My son had surgery on a dermoid cyst last Wednesday. All went well, but I missed yet another day of work and he seems to only feel the pain at bedtime. He also learned two tricks this week: crawling and pulling up. These are two really fun tricks for a child with eight fresh stitches over his left eye. He likes to practice these at bedtime too...


6. The bookkeeper is ending the budget cycle next week so that purchases have time to amortize by the end of the fiscal year. Suffice it to say that I still have budget money to spend.


7. Today, I got a call from my wife while I was at work saying that she had thrown up and that she would like me to come home as early as possible.

I think that sums up the primary points - there are other points, but they involve that I still have family life, normal job duties, and stuff going on at church - so on to the parable.

Tonight, my son was having trouble falling asleep and, of course, only I could attempt to comfort him. It was obvious that he didn't want me, he wanted mommy. It was obvious that his eye was bothering him. It was obvious that he wanted to be moving around and not lying down.

I found myself saying, "If you would just slow down and rest here with daddy, you would realize that everything is going to be okay!"

hmm...

Computer mediated learning

In my masters classes right now, we are having huge discussions about how computer mediated learning is student centric. I have pointed out to many people in these discussions that "if a teacher tells a student to go to a particular web site, student obedience is called student initiated; however, if the same teacher tells the same student to open a book, student obedience is called teacher initiated." Why is that?

Thoughts on speed limits...

I am curious as to why driving south is so much more unsafe than driving north. For the section of I25 between exit 191 and Lincoln Ave. northbound has a speed limit of 75 and southbound has a speed limit of 55. The next three miles are 65 north and 55 south. Are the afraid that since "south" is "down" on the map, that gravity might cause people to accelerate and they might fly off when they hit the equator? Is there more wildlife on the west side of the highway? Are people leaving Denver generally worse drivers than those leaving Castle Rock? I wrote to C-DOT about this issue once several months ago and they never posted a new speed limit sign, nor did they reply to my email, so I must believe that "south" is inherently more dangerous...

The section of I25 from Orchard to exit 191 is a joke with speeds anyway. The flow of traffic is 75 for this whole stretch. And so with the new impeding traffic law, it is now actually impossible to drive legally on this stretch (a cop's dream!) - 75 is breaking one law (the more obvious, posted law) - 55 is breaking another law (and risking life and limb). So, if we can get everybody to drive 120 on that stretch, it's "legal" because it is the "flow of traffic"?

We may as well just be honest and take down all of our highway speed limits signs and post "reasonable and prudent" like they do in Montana. If nobody's going to follow them and nobody's going to enforce them, why waste the raw materials on signage?