Johny Cash Was Before Our Time

A friend of mine made a good post about Bono's Man of the Year Award.

It's funny how the only christians complain about Bono. They say he's a hypocrite or not really a christian at all because he is "clearly hedonistic". No one has ever been able to produce much in the way of concrete charges, but they've always heard that he was into bad stuff. You know... into drugs, or something of the sort.

It's absurd really. Talk about a prophet not welcome in his own home. Christians were shaking their finger at him when the rest of the world was stopping dead in their tracks to listen. It was his incredible music that made you stop, forced you to think about the hard questions. What's life really about? What's real beauty and where can I find it? Who is God and how do I relate to him, how do I know him?

A lot of christians said his lyrics didn't sync with their theology. This was mainly because they weren't listening and failed to understand them. It might be proposed that they also failed to really understand their own theology. Bono didn't look like Jesus because he drank, cussed and wore flashy clothes. He talked about real stuff too much and asked awkward questions. So most religious folks didn't bother getting around to listening to him. Maybe they don't really know what Jesus looks like anyway.

Billy Graham, a man most christians would consider to be a real christian role model, has had the honor of seeing thousands of souls come to Christ, but his ministry is one of reaping, not sowing. Bono is a sower. I'd be willing to bet that he's sown more seeds than Billy Graham has reaped souls. And into the most unfit, unfertile, and most hostile soil. Maybe he looks and acts too much like a normal man, together with all of the downfalls of a normal guy, to be a 'real christian'. But I bet Johny Cash would have understood him.

Despite making an entire post about him, I'm neither a Bono advocate nor nay-sayer. Bono can take care of Bono. I mainly get tired of listening to people who have a guilty conscience for doing nothing wine about Bono being in the press so much for humanitarian advocacy and action.

Employee of the Month (with the chevron of merit)

fireball, originally uploaded by bartemeo-negro.


So today marked my first day on salary at my company. I suppose you could say it was my big "first day on the job". And what did I do on this most momentous of days? I blew up $3,700 worth of equipment.

Oops.

We have an entire set up of modules, power supplies, and cables to test our stock of old modules. Occasionally, some of them have shorts. Since they were designed I the stone age there isn't any fail safe on them to prevent damage. Usually shorts just results in lights and buttons not working on the module or some build up of heat. But for every couple of thousand modules tested, maybe one will give off some serious fireworks. It was jus my lucky day!

I plugged in said module with the immediate result of an explosion of sparks flying in my face. The power supply on the other side of the room to which I was connected also produced a large bang and began emitting a large cloud of acrid smoke. Every module and circuit in between met the same fate.

What gets me is that it should have happened to one of the techies, not me. I happened to have some free time and was just helping out in the lab. It wasn't user error, but just blind luck.

Well, at least I made a big impression.

Getting the bills paid.

I accepted a job offer today with the company I've been contracting to since July. Its a good first "real job" and I'm happy to be working with the guys at Reddwerks Corp. Funny thing was that I had been pushing for it for a long time, and having finally got it, I had to stop and think about whether or not I was sure I wanted it.

There is a lot of gravity in a moment in life like this and it's easy to get caught up in it. It's even easier to get pulled into the momentum of the next big step. The next promotion, the next job, the next, the next... It makes one feel like he could wake up in twenty years in some place he never intended to go. Not that I'm not open to the unexpected, the unseen opportunities. I'm not so foolish as to believe that what I want now is what I'll want in twenty years. Still, when I come to that moment when I give up one direction for another, I want to be there, awake and choosing. "The way it's suppose to be done" isn't always the way it has to be done. And it would be a shame to allow convention and momentum to rob me of my choices.