X is…

I love to play softball. It’s really one of my favorite things in life. I get all antsy and excited every winter in anticipation of the upcoming season. I start calling the team to see if they are rated to practice yet by mid-January.

This year’s been tough though. I’m older and both my shoulders are wearing some, my knee is in a lot of pain, and my back is bothering me. I got home from my games this past Sunday gimping around some knowing that my wife was just going to look at me with the same face as every other weekend. That face that says, “What did you hurt this time?” It’s gotten bad enough that I actually went to the doctor last week and here referred me to a slew of specialists, prescribed to me some medication, and left me feeling that my only hope would be surgery.

Then I came home on Sunday. There laying on the counter was a letter addressed to “RESIDENT - TO A FRIEND”. Well, it is my address, although I’m not sure since there is no return address on the front if it is my friend or I am their’s. On the back, though, is this line, “We pray that you will bless someone in this home spiritually, physically & financially.” Wow. I need physical and financial help! This must be my friend.

So I immediately open this letter and begin reading.  Although they don’t want me to read everything. They’ve highlighted some words in bold and circled and underlined others with blue crayon, so I should only read those words.

God’s holy blessing power is in the enclosed anointed prayer rug of faith we are loaning you to use!!!

Wow!  There’s a rug in here somewhere.  I need to find it.  I need to know how they got a rug in here.  To be sure I’m thinking of the right thing, though, I have my daughter, who’s anxiously clinging to each and every word I read, go get the dictionary.  After I explain to her where I keep the books in my office and that there’s a book in there called a dictionary that has words in it and definitions, a light goes on and she retrieves the dusty book.

I learn that rug is a noun and can be any one of the following:

1.  Lap robe
2.  a piece of thick heavy fabric that usu. has  a nap or pile and is used as a floor covering
3.  a floor mat of an animal pelt
4.  slang:  toupee

Doesn’t seem this envelope has anything that fits the definition. I have to know though. Oh, and it seems I have only 24 hours to use this rug. What? I ask my wife how long this has been sitting here. She doesn’t know. It’s Sunday and I have only 24 hours. Mail doesn’t come on Sundays!

I read further.

When you use the Faith Church Prayer Rug, go into a room where you can be alone (just God and you). Turn off the television and radio and try to be by yourself when you kneel on this Holy Ghost, Bible Prayer Rug, or spread it over your knees. We want this Church Ministry, Prayer Rug to be touching both of your knees as you pray for the needs you are facing right now. It is going to be like you are kneeling before God All Mighty at the altar inside a great church of blessings. If you need more joy, peace health, money, a new car, a new house, healing in family communication, or whatever, we, as a very old (57 years) church, want to know about it. Check your prayer needs on page two of this letter. Talk to us.

So I can get a new car? A new house? Doesn’t seem like a good idea to kneel with my knees in their condition. So I read further. This letter is signed by “Saint Matthew’s Senior Bishop.” Apparently the Senior Bishop has no name. There is a check box with a list of what I can pray for and how much I wish to donate to their church. They apparently want their rug back.

I go through the rest of the paperwork and there it is. A 11″ x 17″ piece of paper that looks as if it were modeled after a rug. It has Jesus in his crown of thorns in the center. A tear rolling down his left cheek. A piece of paper that looks like it is a color photocopy of a rug is not a rug.

This place is based in Oklahoma. Who the fuck bites on this shit?

When I get garbage like this in my mailbox, it makes me think that Christians are just stupid. That if there is anybody willing to give money to a joke like this, then they deserve all the misfortune that will come to them.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Anybody who may stumble across this blog may have noticed that I’ve been playing with themes lately.

I got tired of yellow.  Likely, as well, I get bored of colors easy and I really need something that I can change on occasion.  I know this is likely not good form.  People want to know what the site will look like every time they navigate to it, but sometimes we do what we do.

I had a theme that I liked, but it made my stats program stop working and I was too lazy to mess with trying to figure out why.  I went through a bunch more themes and tried some.

I think this one is good.  I’ll play with the header some more.  I sloppily erased the design that was on it.  Maybe I’ll add some x’s or put an equation on it instead.  Won’t that be neat?

I also like that I can change the photo at the top right whenever I like rather quickly.  The current one is what is actually on my arm.  I use the infinity, if you ever wondered, as a representation that we are all finite pieces of an infinite amount of options.  We are all meteorites pummeling this universe.

When people ask, I tell them I’m a math geek.

Popularity: 25% [?]

My oldest daughter wants to donate all the money in her piggy bank to a leukemia fund raiser going on at school.  She’s 11 and that’s a noble cause, but I’m skeptical to say the least.  I told her to find out who the charity is and we’ll do some research, and also to really think about this.

My pessimism runs from stories I’ve heard over the years of greedy charities or high CEO salaries or any of the other various scams over the years.  I also have little trust with the school system as they are constantly trying to raise funds for their schools by selling just about anything they can get their hands on.

To supplement their funds through the very children they are trying to teach seems quite strange to me.  They may intend for me to do the donating, but they pull the heart-strings of the children and tell them of all the terrible things that happen to whomever they are trying to raise money to help.

Here’s my other part (I got lost in a bit of a tangent).

I gave blood for several years.  That’s my donation.  It doesn’t supplement anyone’s income and is very beneficial to many people.  I did it every 58 days, or whenever they sent me the next reminder.  I believe it is important to help where I can and monetarily is not where I’ve been able to readily help over the years.

I had been giving for a few years when I started working for a person who also loved to give blood.  Unfortunately, he took it personally.  He got the blood bank to come to our workplace every other month and he went recruiting for donors very passionately.  I thought that was admirable… at first.

The problem was that he didn’t take no lightly.  He realized that he couldn’t “force” anybody to give, but he also used the power of guilt (he is Christian, so he’s had many examples of effective guilt) if people said no.  On top of that, I don’t think he ever realized what kind of negative impact being a boss of people and asking them to do something they may not want to with guilt associated has.  The people who worked for him felt as if they “had” to give or the consequences at work would be negative.

He would have denied a correlation to work, but it was there.  He would ridicule people for getting tattoos, he would mock those who were feeling ill, or any other tactic he could think of if people were unwilling to give.  He would also discuss, not openly, that people who gave were somehow better employees.

The company stopped his blood drives because a person passed out after giving.  The company did not want to be held liable for anything that could happen to people who gave blood as it is not for everybody, so my boss decided he would no longer give to the charity the company sponsored.  So they were good enough to give to before, but only if he could run his blood drives.

This general attitude frustrated me, and as is my nature, I stopped giving for him.  I would go down to the local place where they were taking donations and give on my own.

My point?  It’s the people who are “driving” that make or break a charity.  I need to get back to a point where I feel like donating.  I no longer work for the company, but I do need that negative vibe to go away.

As for my daughter, I’m hoping that she doesn’t get the same bad feelings or a feeling as if her charitable contribution didn’t mean anything.  She wants to do some good, and I appreciate that.

Popularity: 49% [?]

I’m not sure what it is about my family.  Well, maybe much more than that.

There are around five birthdays the last two weeks of this month.  So is January just an exciting month?  Is it genetic?  Are the sperm more lively in January?

Somebody told me how she knows a bunch of people with birthdays in mid-November and has associated that with Valentine’s Day.  I’ll kind of accept that… if it takes a special day for intercourse to happen.

But January?

If anybody has answers, I’d like to hear them.

Popularity: 16% [?]

I often view the world as I do a used car lot.

I am responsible for hiring and staffing my little piece of the business world.  I usually do so through temporary agencies as I get to “test drive” workers before I hire them.  Fortunately, they get to do the same for me and my company.  By the time we get to the hiring stage, it’s pretty well understood what is expected.

I am in the process of hiring six people right now, or about one-fifth my staff.

As I finalize the deal with the people I am hiring, I often think of those that I could not hire in the past.  Maybe a position did not open up in time or it took too long or whatever.  It happens.  I really would like to hire a person or they would really like to work for me, but we just don’t get to work it out.

Used car lot.

When I shop for a car I almost always go used.  It’s better if I don’t need a car.  Then I can be more picky.  It’s better if the car I really want is available when I want one, but it doesn’t always work out.

xisrandom

x= car

x= worker

I only get to choose from what’s available when I need it.

I think I am hiring some good people right now.  Only time will tell.

I think I would have hired good people before, but circumstance weren’t right.  Time would have told then.

Popularity: 17% [?]