Recovering Baptist

par·i·ty - noun - the quality or state of being equal or equivalent

This is the kind of season where the laundry-loving sports writers bemoan that the “powerhouse” teams are all “rebuilding” or that talent is “watered down.” After all, how else can they explain that so many teams that have been heralded as the best in the nation have been upset? It’s the kind of weekend in the kind of year that drives sports “experts” nuts.

Let’s face it - Division 1A (or wait, what do they call it now, BCS Division A) football is now almost as level a playing field as the NFL, and that’s without a bunch of gurus spending the off season figuring out how to tweak the schedule so the tough teams beat each other up while pitting the losers against each other so as to give the appearance of parity. Unfortunately this real parity still doesn’t help the little schools. The traditional powerhouses get voted to the top spots at the beginning of the season, and once a school is voted to a top spot they don’t lose it unless they lose regardless of how bad they play in their wins. And if a powerhouse loses a single game they’re barely penalized, but it’s going to be interesting to see how far #10 Rutgers falls after their first loss of the year this week.

And as long as I’m celebrating a weekend where my number one and number three favorite teams (GT and AU; whoever was playing UGA lost this weekend) I may as well look forward to the stupidity that is the BCS. This season has shown that not only does every 1A have a chance to beat the other, but a few 1AA teams have that chance, too. And if that’s the case, then why the hell is a computer using data from a bunch of blowhard writers figuring out which two teams should get to play for the national championship. Division 1A football is the only NCAA sport at any level which does not use a playoff system of some sort to determine its champion. Of course, I’m not a professional jock sniffer, so what do I know?

How can this be? I’m trying to take someone on an all expenses paid two week trip to Hawaii, and I can’t find anyone to take. I mean, all I’m asking is that they be qualified and work for me for about a year…

There’s a common theme in the communications world. Those of us in the know trust the other person’s technology. Having worked for the local monopoly phone company for several years, I don’t trust ADSL. I think it’s fragile and generally unreliable. The fact that my service was flaky because my cat was peeing on a phone jack may have something to do with that. But my coworkers who have a cable background refuse to use Comcast for internet access. I know I’m in the minority, but I generally like my Comcast service. Yeah, I’m a strange guy.

Since I’m in the process of replacing my work PC I didn’t notice any issues yesterday, but I read that Comcast has had real problems for the last couple of days. And this morning I know something isn’t right. For the first time in nearly a year my IP address has changed, and now the world thinks I’m in Los Angeles instead of Atlanta. I don’t know what’s going on, but I figure that won’t last long. I hope not, because I’ve lost my wonderful 15+ mbps connection!

And yes, that I even care just proves what a geek I am. Speaking of geeking out, I just got a call, and my new work PC should arrive tomorrow. Duo core 2.0 Ghz processor with 2GB RAM. Hopefully this one has a decent cooling system. Let’s hope. Right now I have to take my old Thinkpad out of the freezer in hopes of it working long enough for me to get the last of my data off of it.

Update - yeah! The freezer trick worked. If you have a thinkpad and ever get the “fan error” message while booting up, try putting it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. It works, but it’s very strange wiping the ice off the screen.

My work PC is on its last legs. It’s now regularly overheating and shutting down, and I’ve already received the dreaded “fan error” message once. I’m surrounding it with anything I can pull out of my freezer in hopes that it will keep working long enough for me to copy everything I need to another disk.

Hopefully it will completely die right after I finish backing it up so I can spend the rest of the week playing golf. If you’re interested, let me know. My email address is recoveringbaptist and I use google’s email.

I have no idea how many times I’ve bought something online. If you include music purchases, then I’ve probably had 500 online transactions; I’ve probably had at least 200 UPS or FedEx deliveries to my house. And yet, out of all of the times I’ve tried to buy something, I’ve only had a handful of poor experiences.

I burn through all my electronics. I work them hard until they die, and then I get another. I’ve managed now to kill more than a few Bluetooth headsets, and it’s time to get another. Since my wife lost hers, I figured I’d buy two. After some research I decided that the Jabra bt250 fit my sweet spot of good capability and cheap. I even found a great deal - a pair of headsets delivered for 56 bucks - that’s about half of what I’d spend at a known retailer like amazon. Alas, it turned out to be too good to be true. I contacted Igozz this morning to ask when my order would be shipping out. I haven’t received a reply, but I think I know the answer. I just received a refund in my paypal account. At least they were honest enough to refund my purchase, but I’d rather have my headset. So now it’s time to start hunting again.

Oh yeah, while my record for is generally good for online purchases, I’ve had two bad experiences in a row. If you’re in the market for a Thinkpad laptop, then I’d think twice about thinkpaddepot. I need a pair of a particular, older model laptop for a project for work. I called to place my order, and I was told that both laptops would ship soon. I’ve received one, but they’re still looking for a vendor for the other. Granted, I’m looking for something old and very specific, but if you don’t have something, then don’t sell it!

A year ago I had just returned from our sales trip to Hawaii. The trip was a massive success, and it was clear that we were going to win the contract. It wasn’t a question of if, just when the project would begin. I started lining up people to work for me on this project, including one of my old bosses. We had a great relationship in my old job to the point where either of us could work for the other. Unfortunately the start of the project has been delayed and delayed, and today he told me that he’s got an offer that he can’t refuse from another company.

I’m mad and I’m sad. I’m mad that our company’s policies wouldn’t let me bring him on earlier. I’m mad because now I’m going to have to use someone who doesn’t fit the bill as well. And I’m sad because I won’t get to spend the next 18 months or so working with my friend. Them’s the breaks sometimes, I guess.

I happened to walk through the rehearsal for the first Fringe Atlanta event last night and heard the last few minutes of the feature piece of music. All I can say is, “wow.” If you’re free this Saturday night, you really ought to check it out.

I can’t describe Fringe anywhere near as well as their website does, but I can say that this weekend’s event includes several forms of art ranging from a gallery to a DJ to a jury selected short film and culminating in a piece of chamber music so intense that the musicians really can’t play it more than once a day. And what’s better, it’s pretty cheap to experience fine music in a small (less than 300 person) venue. If you decide to join me there, let me know you’re coming and I’ll buy you a glass of wine.

I’m sure I’ve written a post like this every year that I’ve been blogging, but since I’ve lost my old posts, everything is new again, so what the hey.

Is there anything better than a fine September day in Atlanta? I’m now working in my outside office listening to the birds fly overhead and enjoying the fresh air. That, combined with the chance to enjoy my pipe while I work, makes the problems of the day a little more bearable. The only thing that would make it better would be a game of ultimate, but you can’t have everything, I guess.

I never really was the type who tried to “find himself” or even understand himself. That is, until a few years ago when I started to recognize that not everything about me was normal. I started to come to grips with the fact that I have compulsions and addictions and that, not only are they not easily broken, but they must have a cause. I was frustrated because I didn’t see one; I thought my family and childhood were wonderful and that the faith that I grew up with, while slightly different from the one I hold now, had served me fairly well. All of that changed when my mom told me on mothers day that she felt that I had unadopted her because I drink, smoke a pipe, and live inside the perimeter (yes, I’m not kidding about the last one). For the past several months I’ve been trying to put my finger on all the ways that things aren’t right between my parents and me, and I think I’ve found a way to describe our disfunction - I am a Christ figure to them.

Children are always important to their parents, and adopted children are often especially important because they represent years of longing and waiting until one day the state or other agency places a child in their arms. But there’s a difference between loving your child and making them a Christ figure.

• Good parents discipline their children (especially when they spit - I’m going to get that call one day), but my parents used the Bible to point out my flaws in hopes of making me more perfect by following all of its rules. For example, rather than understand my insecurities, my parents pointed to Proverbs to tell me that if I wanted friends that I had to be friendly.
• Good parents give their children attention, but it’s dangerous to give an only child more attention he can handle from his parents, grandmother, and neighbors who filled a grandparent role. I believed (and still do) that the world revolved around me.
• Good parents encourage their children and push them. My parents pointed to my intelligence and talents and told me I could do anything I set my mind to and wouldn’t let me use the word “can’t.”
• Good parents listen to the emotions of their children, but mine were concerned with the logical explanation of what was going on and were most concerned about ensuring that my sins couldn’t be classified into certain super-sinful pigeon holes.
• Good parents have hopes and dreams for their children. They want their children to be successful, to have meaningful relationships, and usually to have grandchildren. As I talk to my parents today, I see that they wanted more than that. My parents are looking to me to validate them as parents and human beings, and they want that by seeing that I make the same choices they would make.

Literature and movies are full of Christ figures. I’m sure everyone who reads this will have plenty of examples come to mind, but my favorite that I can think of right now is Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke. I like the description in that link - his fellow prisoners idolized and idealized him. I think I would cry if I were to see that movie right now; it represents the weight of trying to be someone’s savior and the impossibility of the task. In all the history of the world there has been only one Christ. Sure there are other religions, and while Judaism awaits a Messiah, none of them have a figure quite like Him. That’s good, because based on the tiny glimpse I see of it, unless you’re God it’s an impossible role to fill.

Many many years ago I didn’t really really care about music. My “non-christian” peers listened to music, which meant that I didn’t. I certainly didn’t listen to “secular” music! What little music I listened to was total crap. Somewhere along the way that changed, and I fell in love with Simon and Garfunkel. Through college my tastes progressed through just about every from of music from the psychedelic music of the 60’s to bluegrass. And it’s continued to progress.

Today we always have music playing. One of these days I hope to figure out how to make our playlist public so my two curious readers can take a peak at what we’re listening to here. For the most part, though, our playlist includes many newer artists who have fewer than two albums each on major labels. Artists like Evanescence, Jem, Imogen Heap, Anna Nalick, Butterfly Boucher, Eisley (thank you girls), Mute Math, Electronic Soft Parade, and the Strokes dominate our house. Older favorites like the Beatles, Johnny Cash, and Simon and Garfunkel are in the mix, too. But in the past two weeks I’ve rediscovered another old favorite - the guitar god himself.

When my wallet full of CD’s was stolen years ago I lost my Clapton collection, and I never bothered to replace it. Now, thanks to my favorite music store, I can afford to rediscover my college days. While I knew 24 Nights would still sound great, I didn’t recall the production on Unplugged being that great. It’s always nice to find out that something you used think sounded good still does. And now I’m catching up on his other albums, including Me and Mr. Johnson. All I can say is wow. Suddenly I’m in love with the blues again.