Goals, and such

It's that time of year, here in cube-city. Time to take a moment and fill out the online form denoting what your short-term, mid-term and long-term career goals are. They are due by the end of the day today, and as would be expected, I haven't really started mine yet.

Why?

Because I loathe this sort of thing. It's not that I don't like setting goals. I do, at least sometimes I do. Like right now I have a goal to finish a couple of books in a couple of weeks. I'm fine with that goal.

But when it comes to putting something on paper describing where you want to be in your job in 3 years? Yowzer! Not a fan!

I also don't know how this fits with Scripture. One verse that pops in my head is Proverbs 19:21, "Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." And then in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future."

Why can't I just put that in my plan?

On a lighter note - we're having an "offsite" today. Going to a local theater that lets you order food while you watch the movie. Good stuff. Not sure what we're seeing, but at least it's getting us out of the office.

The answers

1. Don't pay the water bill.
2. A box of quackers.

Granted, I'm not a huge fan of the first one. But the second one, now that's quality!

More than a song...

I attended a church leadership meeting last night for our college and career ministry. At said meeting, we got into a rather lengthy discussion about worship. Granted, I'm absolutely sure that everyone in that room knows that there is more to worship than song, but our topic kept coming back to our music. I, too, forget that there is more than one way to worship God.

In fact, just thinking about the topic of worship in general brings my mind to Romans chapter 12:

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

So I went looking, and really liked what good, ol' Oswald Chambers had to say on the matter, reflecting on some Old Testament passages in Genesis and Exodus:

"Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship. If you hoard it for yourself, it will turn into spiritual dry rot, as the manna did when it was hoarded (see Exodus 16:20 ). God will never allow you to keep a spiritual blessing completely for yourself. It must be given back to Him so that He can make it a blessing to others...

"The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time — there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must "pitch our tents" where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life— worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight."

Just a thought...

You knew these were coming...

As soon as you heard that I got a replenishment of Laffy Taffy...

I'll post some of the jokes, and then let y'all duke it out to see if you can figure out the amusing answers:

• How do you keep water from running?


• What do you get when you put six ducks in a box?

I'll post more later. This is just to wet your appetite.

Man, I'm careless

I had typed this good, solid post, and then apparently clicked my way out of this here site and lost the whole thing. Many, many apologies. Just take my word for it, it was unbelievably amazing.

I know I've been a slacker about writing (or rather, NOT writing). Again, many apologies. I know you've all been missing your kimmie updates.

• Camera update: I ordered prints of a few pictures. They turned out really good. I'm still pleased with my purchase


• Tumultuous: Recent corporate re-org and now I have a new boss. Recent director resignation, and now I don't know what will happen to any of my projects. Recent College/Career pastoral shift to another state, and now we have no specific pastoral leadership for a few months. All in all, lots of unanswered questions, but an increased opportunity to trust God. No complaints here...at least not yet


• Candy: I re-stocked my Laffy Taffy stash, and also picked up some Peanut Butter M&Ms. Candy makes me smile sometimes.
  

That's all for now. I'll try to be better about keeping this thing up-to-date. Thanks for holding me accountable!

Long lost entry

--Found the lost post--

Over the past few days, it seems that my dear audience has been practically begging me to post. Ok fine - I give in. Here's a few thoughts, pieced together from my mind as I sit here at work on a conference call. Yes, I'm busy earning my paycheck. Promise.

I've dubbed this week "bonus week" - the last week of every corporate quarter, during which all beverages in my particular building are free. Yes, not a penny was squandered on my trip down to the cafe this morning to get my caffeine fix. It's a lovely thing, sipping bland coffee for free. And there are four more opportunities for me to do so this week! Just a little corporate "Thank You" I suppose. I'm equally looking forward to the free Diet Dr. Pepper I may go get for lunch....mmmmmm!

I'm currently reading a book I got for my birthday. It's called Captivating. It's about being a woman, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly so far. Girls - you should check it out. Ok, so I'm only two chapters into it, but I like it so far. I'll keep you posted.

I watched Ocean's Twelve this weekend. I really liked it. Rarely do I pass up an opportunity to spend time with Brad Pitt. But it was a fun movie. As a friend of mine said, "It's all about style." And I'm totally fine with that.

I got a haircut last week, and it seems to be well-received. I like it. It's short, layered, and easy. All in all, money well-spent. And my friends have complemented me on it....making me wonder exactly how badly I needed one....and how bad my hair was prior to the cut. But I'm past that, and enjoying experimenting with it. Good stuff!

I'm going to play my guitar today. Not normally a headline for anyone else. But I haven't played it in months, so I'm getting "taught" by someone at church. I'm really looking forward to having sore fingers in a few days. Wish me luck!

A rose by any other name...

The topics of baby names has always intrigued me. I found this article interesting. It's about how your parents probably chose your name because it made you sound like you'd eventually be successful. Then when you were probably about 10, everyone else started getting the same name and yours wasn't cool anymore.

Also, I'm now officially a quarter of a century old. It was a good quarter of a century, if you ask me. Hope the next one is equally riveting!

Finally, I have megapixels...

So for those of you keeping up, I finally purchased and received my Sony DSC-P200 digital camera. I wanted to order a red one, but couldn't find it anywhere I wanted to buy it. So I purchased an understated silver model, and couldn't be happier.

Granted, I've only had it in my possession for less than 24 hours. But I took over one hundred pictures last night while hanging out at a lacrosse game. When I got home and popped them onto the computer, I was more than pleased with the quality. Crisp, clean, clear, focused. I took pictures ranging from 3-7 megapixels, and am happy with all of them.

Action shots turned out great, night shots are ok (I need to work with the settings). I also splurged and got a 1Gb memory stick. Even with taking over 100 pictures (some with high resolution), I still had plenty of space. And the battery life so far seems to be good as well.

Happy I bought the camera? You betcha.

The monkey on my back, and other observations

So I finally bit the bullet and did my taxes. This is a major feat for me. My Everest, if you will. I have come away with one thought: I thoroughly enjoy Turbo Tax. No, I don't mind endorsing them. Well worth the money (and the discount, to you fellow ETrade users). They ask all the right questions, with all the right pretty buttons to click. Good show. This year the government owes me a whopping $250 bucks. Ideally, I'd like to get rather close to the "0" mark - I owe them nothing (pretty easy to stomach) and they owe me nothing (I didn't loan them free money). Last year I got surprisingly close, only owing them $27. It actually cost me more to do my taxes (~$40) than I owed. Whatever. It's over and I'm happy.

And then I found myself reading on CNN about former power players in the US economy. Where are they now? One of the comments from a "retired" Fidelity Fund Manager made me smirk:

"When he retired from managing Fidelity's Magellan fund in 1990, people said he'd be back. In fact, he never left: Lynch still keeps an office at Fidelity's Boston headquarters, though his client list has shrunk to his family and foundation. He works only part-time. (He spent some 100 days traveling the world with his wife in the past five years.) 'My method for picking stocks has never changed,' Lynch says. 'When businesses go from crappy to semicrappy, there's money to be made.'"

That amuses me.

Interesting detail

So I've had several conversations lately about Dubai. A friend of mine just went on a vacation there, Tiger woods practices golf from their tall buildings, they're trying to build a really tall building....etc. So those folks have also got another thing cooking - building islands. I'm not sure if I would be a huge fan of this idea or not, but I'm all for creativity.


Some Interesting Links:
satellite pictures...good detail on page 3.
More info
These look like the world!

Anyhow, I thought those were interesting. Apparently lots of folks vacation in Dubai. Would you?