What is it? Its it. What is it? Its it. What is it?

What is it? That is the question. What is this blog. Initially I started it out to document my journey through the Christian life away from Church. Then it became Churchianity bashing. Then it became political. Then it became me whining about my life. Now I am not sure where to go with it. I want to keep on blogging and report on things I find interesting and things that go on in my journey through life. I am going to try and keep it from turning into whining. I will post when I find something interesting. I dont want to alienate the few readers I have but a blog can be about the blogger. My hope is that someone can learn from my experience and perspective and that someone somewhere has benefited from this journey of over two years of my life. I am not quitting but I will probably only post when something interesting does happen. Right now my life has become very busy. New job, New city. Moving and all. Once things get under control, I will blog more. I am not dead. I still hope to stay in contact with many of my blogging friends.

Peace and Love to all

Its the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine

Being from Minnesota and having lived in the Pacific NW for the last 5 years I have noticed that snow or the threat of snow causes widespread panic and fear. The news has been all about the storm. Yes it will snow and it has. The weather the last week reminds me of Minnesota but it has not been a problem for me. I am amazed at the fear propigated by the media. Sure its frustrating and people in the NW may not drive well in the ice but I believe the media panic is an attempt to scare people to buy supplies and watch local media. Only one night was driving really hard. Otherwise its just been slow and steady.

I will be glad when it is over but finally it seems Christmasy. I have never thought the Pacific Northwest was very Christmasy. I am almost ready for Christmas now. A nice quiet Christmas with my wife in front of our fireplace.

Merry Christmas all. Be careful out there but dont freak. Use common sense

Tired and at work

I am sitting here at work waiting for a software update to complete so I been reading old blogs.

I think this two years since I started blogging have been an adventure and somewhat circular thought. When I started I was disgruntled with Church. Since then I have stepped away from Church, switched jobs twice and moved to a new state. I see potential for a great life and life truly goes on. Being away from Church (on and off and at heart for two years) I am less disgruntled but my worldview has changed. The world seems a bit more screwed up. My spiritual journey has gone from hardcore evangelical to liberal Christian to Christian with Buddhist leanings to I dont know what anymore. I still believe in God and pray and know God was with me during these weird times. Am I drawn to Church? Not really. I am scared that I dont want to piss God off so I am retreating from the fringes a bit. Who knows where it goes

In Oregon

I am in Oregon this weekend to move out of our Albany home and into a storage locker until we can get moved into the house I hope we get approved for in Puyallup.

My previous post was a bit harsh but now I am seeing it from this perspective. Albany seems more run down and hickish than it did before but Oregon is really OK. I just think Washington may be nicer to live in for now. I really like it there. I am going to miss this in some way. Its starting to look less homey and more empty. That is a bit depressing. Though life in Albany was a rocky road there was some good. This marks the closing of one chapter completely and on to a new one.

Now that the madness of last two months draws to a close I have to wonder. In a new place. A new life. How should I practice my spirituality. church perhaps. Or not maybe. I dont know.

I would have to say my faith is stronger now as a result but I dont feel more religious in any way. I havent been to a Church since Oct 12th (two days after the layoff) yet I feel that God has been with me. I have not been doing meditation lately either. Not since moving to Washington. Though the practice made the unemployed weeks here much easier. I got paranoid that somehow I had angered God with my interest in Buddhism and kind of ran back. But it was helping. Perhaps I should be a good Christian and try not to make God mad. But I am not sure that he was mad. Things happen. God is there and gets you through. Religion had little to do with this. That sounds conflicted and non-peaceful but I have a peace that it is all going to be OK. Anyway, the journey continues. The circular maddening journey known as life.

Rocky Road

Not the ice cream either. In the last 48 hours:

I may have found a house
I might be able to afford it
I applied for a loan to get some cash
I got turned down for the loan
My father in law gave us some money to get by
My dads car got repossesed
He got a loan from a relative and is re-repossesing it (is that a word)
I am sick
I work for a Doctors office
I am away from my wife
I will be seeing my wife this weekend
I have to move out of an old house
I may have a new house to move into.

Lots of good and bad. Almost even balanced. Weird. Life is good overall. I think

Things that should be eradicated from a company in IT world

1) Internet Explorer. If your application requires it, lock it down, deny it access to the Internet and use Firefox. Every place I have ever worked uses IE and every place gets infested with crapware

 

2) Brother printers. Every device made by Brother has caused me terrible headaches

 

3) Symantec Anything (or even any company that is likely to be eaten by Symantec)

 

4) Citrix (if you need to print, stay away from this monster)

 

5) Vista, Go with XP, Linux or a Mac but dont let Vista touch your network

 

6) Home computers. Dont let ANYONE use their homeized XP Home or Vista Norton infected piece of crap on the company network

 

7) Trendiness - Dont virutalize, use thin clients or other buzz crap just because you read about it in a PC mag.

 

8) ANY INKJET PRINTER

 

9) Any HP desktop PC

 

10) Consumer Grade Networking Hardware

 

 

I really do like it here

My previous post made it sound like I am in a ghetto and unhappy. In reality, I like it here. The people overall seem more civilized, less hickish. There is more to do. I love the small parks around here on the Sound. They remind me of the Oregon Coast. Very peaceful and nice despite being in a big city.

This area is a melting pot and I like that too. I have had some great Thai food since getting here. I cant wait until my wife gets here and we can check out the city together. I am not a loaner.

Work is work. New place same things but I am good at it and I am not in mortal fear of a layoff like I was in Oregon for the last year and a half.

I still think Oregon was a good place to live but Washington is too. Both are similar. Green, rainy, progressive yet sprinkled with conservatives. Live and let live attitude.