Well almost everything anyway… When I encountered my problems a few days ago, it was really distressing. While you are in the middle of the freeway and your car is giving you problems, it can really induce panic and hyperventilation. Yet, after the initial heart racing moments, I was able to compose myself, take a deep breath and say, “My family is relatively healthy and I have a good job, with good bosses and a wonderful team around me. There is going to be food on the table for my family and a roof over our heads, and once I get this car fixed, I can still get from A to B, even perhaps, C or D. So, why fret?” (By the way, I said then that the day before, which is the day after that horrendous car breakdown experience, would be a better day. In fact, in turned out that way! I closed one of the larger deals of the year that day! So, attitude can be everything!)

But, I must say, I wasn’t this way before. There was a time I would ask a million and a half questions. Why me? What the heck? Why now? Why do I have to have problems like this? Why can’t I have a better car?

While asking this questions I would be spiralling downwards in my emotions and will set me down a pathway of self-destruction, depression and self-defeating introspection. So, have I recovered from my clinical depression? Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: attitude, rejoice, joy, depression, Brennan Manning

I feel it already.

Yesterday, Daughter #1 needed to get out to Glendale for an interview (for summer internship), and to get there, she had to get on the Amtrak (beause L.A.’s transportation system, specifically the metrolink trains, doesn’t work mid-morning through mid-day, at least not in our area) and then catch a bus (a trip that takes an hour and a half). On her way back, she called to let me know she is on the Surfliner and could I pick her up from the Irvine Train Station?

Sure thing, I said, like any good father. I packed up, jumped into my car and got going. I stopped to fill up the gas, but when I tried to re-start the car, it made some strange gurggling noises and then refused to start. I panicked, but luckily a kind man on the other island saw my predicament, came over and got a jumper cable off his car, spun his car around and jump started my car. Thanking him, and exchanging business cards, I jumped back to my car and got onto the freeway.

Wrong move. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: stalled, broken down car, freeway, auto club, AAA, when things go wrong, attitude is everything

Go visit Ruth and tell her the Bloke says “Hi!”

She is not a new blogger, but this is her new blog. So, you gotta go and visit, and send her lotsa love, you hear? Tell her you love her and you will be a devoted reader of her blog from here on end!

What are you waiting for?

Go!

Technorati Tags: blog, new blog, blogging

It probably took more time to put this post together than it did to download, upload and upgrade the database!

There are some minor performance enhancements, so it might be worth it for you to also upgrade your sites if you are using WordPress.

Technorati Tags: wordpress, 2.0.3, upgrade

Just found out that Warren Buffett, the world’s second richest person, has decided to give an unprecendented nearly 85 per cent of his wealth (or about $31 billion) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to sit in an audience where Bill Gates (note: by the way, what does it tell you about the company and how it treats its people, if you have to search through a couple of pages of biographical links before you locate their founder and chairman’s bio’s page?) talked candidly about his philanthropic work through this Foundation.

It was refreshing to hear a business executive, talk, at a business conference, about his vision of changing the world we live in, not with his products or services, but with his charitable foundation. He was passionately expounding on how their goals were to eradicate impoverishing diseases around the world and to transform communities and society through innovative eduation around the country, and he was doing so with the same boyish enthusiasm as he was only moments before that painting his vision of the brave new technological world that his corporation was helping to bring about. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Bill Gates, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, William Buffett, donation, philanthropy

This is pretty cool. A few years ago I decided to catalog my books. So I searched high and low for a good personal library program and could not really find one. Finally I downloaded an older program written in an obsolete version of a database fourth generation language. It worked well as a catalog (sorta) but it was not very friendly and was rather difficult to maintain.

Then, today, browsing Phil Baker’s blog, I found the LibraryThing. It is a wonderful web thingy. You can use it to catalog your books, what you’re reading, and you can even link to your reviews. What is more, you can also share with others and see who are reading or have the same books as you. It’s also quite addictive! Which means, good for bloggers, espeically those who are avid readers. And, of course, booklovers!

Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz talks about the unhelpfulness of using war metaphors in many aspects of life. I have already previously opined that it is a mistake to uncritically take an ancient Chinese military treatise as a business manual. No matter how competitive business environments can be, business just is not war! Neither are so many other areas of life that we so often associate with it through the use of militaristic metaphors.

I find it curious that Americans have such fondness to use battlefield imagery in our daily talk. For instance, we call those who risk lives to come over the borders seeking jobs and new opportunities “invaders“. The funny thing is that when the same thing happened just a couple of hundred years ago, that really was an invasion, for they came with cannon, guns, swords, and real soldiers. I think the word was “conquistadors” then. That is a far cry from those who now cross the borders seeking jobs and a better life for their families. Note so far I have not said anything about whether it is right or wrong for them to do so. I am only saying that the war metaphors are not helping the current debate. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: war, metaphor, Donald Miller, Blue Like Jazz, business, politics, George Bush, iraq, illegal immigration

Light blogging because of travels. But just wanted to keep my readers updated a little. Been traveling a whole lot because of work and last trip up from Orange County, I flew Alaska Airlines to Oakland Airport in Northern California.

When we touched down, the stewardess, tried to liven up the rather uninteresting flight by being chirpy (as they often do):

“When you are open the compartment above you to reach for your luggage, please take care, because SHIFT HAPPENS.”

A little latter, she tried again, this time, eliciting a couple of sniggles from the tired passengers:

“While taxi-ing to the terminal you may experience some bumps along the way. It is not the flight attendant’s fault. It is not the pilot’s fault. It is the ASPHALT.”

Last time I flew Alaska, there was this bit of hilarity as well:

“For those of you who are connecting to Portland and you wish to step off the plane, please note that the departure time is… uh… oh… I don’t know, but it’s soon… so make sure you come back quickly!”

“Normal blogging” will resume once I catch a bit of fresh air soon…

Technorati Tags: jokes, light blogging

It has been hectic… work and life. Life and work. The usual stuff. But that means I have kinda neglected this site a little. Before the week runs out, I better remember to welcome my current week’s BlogEplosion Renter of the week: Odd Planet.

Seems like my visitors have been doing what they do best though, even without my usual welcome post. Thanks for doing that, peeps. As you will see, it’s a fun site hosted by Tricia, who also has another site.

Do drop by and visit, comment and let her know that you came from …in the outer…

Thanks!

Technorati Tags: BlogExplosion, Rent My Blog

Well, not really. But reading Blue Like Jazz (after only started reading the book over the weekend, I am now almost done with it) has sometimes been really uncomfortable. Like this morning. I picked up the book and read about Community. Miller described in the chapter how he hated to live with others because he is so full of himself.

As I read, his story reminds me of my own brokenness. I am in community. I live with my family. There is also a boarder in my house. I work with people around me, but oh how much I prefer to be by myself. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: blue like jazz, donald miller, spirituality, loneliness, community, anger, relationships, fatherhood, prodigal son, father, grace

Thanks to Cynical-Idealist (who, by the way came to my site via the nice, kind words spoken about me by Liz the Messy Christian), I realized that my RSS Feed has been broken (probably for ages!). So, today, I went a snooping around to a-fixing it.

I now use Steve Smith’s FeedBurner’s Replacement Plugin for WordPress. It grabs my RSS feed and sends it over to FeedBurner, which I can then use to optimize and publish my feeds for the benefit of my readers. If you were subscribing to my feeds or wanted to do so in the past but had been unable to, I apologize. Please go ahead and subscribe now that it is fixed.

Technorati Tags: rss, feed, feedburner, eedburner replacement plugi

I have just gotten started reading Blue Like Jazz. I am not supposed to be reading this. Not like how I am doing anyway. I am supposed to be doing a million other things and it was supposed to be light reading. Like a couple pages a day. But I started the book a couple days ago, and now I find myself not being able to put it down. Well, I managed to yank myself from it long enough for some blog-diversion, if you know what I mean…

This guy talks about all the things that hit so close to my heart. He has already made me cry more than once (but then I cry easily and if you are a macho man with a stiff upper lip, I recommend it to you - I’ve heard that it’s good for the body and the soul), and he has made me laugh. Sometimes at the same time. But it’s different. I genuinely feel the sorrow and hillarity. At the same time. It is bizarre. I have shifted uneasily in my seat, and moaned and uttered unutterables under my breath, and sometimes over it. He is frustrating, irritating and inspiring all at the same time as he is enlightening.

He talks about Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: book, review, must read, blue like jazz, donald miller