Post # 50 Baby! I am a Blogger!

Today I am writing out my 50th post. I didn’t know if I would ever see the day, but I must say I am proud of it. In honor of post #50, I have decided to do a flashback to some of the highlights of my previous posts. It will be like those episodes that come in the middle of a TV series where you don’t want to watch because nothing new is happening, but you laugh while remembering the highlights of earlier episodes. Hey, if “Nonsense From a Bored Man” were an Aaron Sorkin TV show, you would be watching episode 6 of Season 3. That’s not bad.

It all started back in September of 2007. I was younger, stronger, much less wise, but probably just as hansom. One thing in know for certain, I was bored. I was stuck in a very unfulfilling job to which I was not very good at. Many of my posts described the details of said job and how terrible it was, or how I was wasting my days building personal spreadsheets and playing with a ball. Occasionally, I attempted to entertain the reader with posts about weird dreams or fun stories, but I really spent a solid amount of time complaining about how apathetic my job had made me, causing me to be bored and tired. You may recall “A Dream Worth 5 to 10” or “Football…ness.” At some point, the simple truth occurred to me, I was merely “surviving life”, and not “living it.” A harsh truth that stumbled upon in “Regain Consciousness.”

I set out to find myself a new job and get some life back in me. I made some posts here and there updating the reader about how my job was going and the job search, but more of my posts were about other things going on in my life, or remembering some good times. You should look back to “A Heated Quarrel Among Friends” for a good laugh. As a side note, I recently got a comment on that old post from a person who thought my friends were legitimately fighting, and condemned me for blaming it all on our school’s “senseless distribution of elicit sexual paraphernalia.” He made a good point that I misused elicit, and should have spelled it illicit, and it still barely applies. I also understand the argument that giving out condoms promotes safe sex in a world where people are going to have sex whether you talk about it or not, so it might as well be safe. However, I would strongly argue that giving out lubricants and specialty flavored condoms promotes more sex and not just safe sex.

To get back on subject, in December - February, the sun started to come out in my blog. I changed up the look of my blog to a much more appealing and less dismal scheme and addressed some important points. I apologized for my complaining and for not making any mention of the joy that existed in my life for the ways the Lord had blessed me though I clearly did not deserve it. See “Some Things You Ought to Know.” Though it was entirely true that I was suffering from “Twenty Three Syndrome,” I started to turn some things around and even came up with “A Solution!” Soon after I found myself a new job that I am still very happy with and got back to living life.

My blog reflected the changes in my life. There were many more topics covered, and a lot of them were much more jovial that those 07 posts. I have since spent some quality time arguing and debating theology see “A Full Jehovah’s Witness Post” for some madness. 8 comments – go me! I also told some more fun stories like “That was not Funny” and “C.E.H.” All of these great times and posts lead up to the greatest of all; “What a Beautiful Day” where I got myself a new car and got to announce the hope of becoming a father in what was then 9 months and now negative 6 days. As for work, before I knew it, I was buddying up with officers of my company, getting a promotion and drinking from the Keg of Glory.

All of those changes at work reflected in my life. In time I was getting back in shape, preparing to be a father (“Whoa”) and confessing my membership to The Nerd Herd. I guess that just about sums it up. It has been a whirlwind of emotions and stories, but I must say that I have learned things and changed for the better over the last 15 months. I am thankful for my blog that has allowed me to reflect on those valuable life lessons, and share them with others. Thank you to those who read my nonsense. And I look forward to sharing with you another 50 posts.

A Card Carrying Member of The Nerd Herd

In case you did not know me in high school, you should know that I am, and have recently proven again to be a member of the Nerd Herd. You may be embarrassed, or quiver in disgust of my self proclamation of being a nerd, but I urge you not to fret. The Nerd Herd was not established due to looks or popularity. They are merely an elite group of individuals who at one time walked the halls of Boiling Springs High School, had surprisingly high intellect, and of course, always had a good time despite the lack of fun things to do in their town. True, some of these individuals may freak out over the mere mention of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, some can do ridiculous things with computers or solve math problems that would make your head spin, and others would spend an obscene amount of time drafting articles of membership to these groups we made up, or planning to the very infinitesimal detail a minor prank that would most likely go unnoticed. Despite these facts, I ask you readers not to judge these great men wrongly. For many of them are now doing your taxes, teaching your children, designing the buildings around you, healing the sick, and preaching God’s word.

From time to time, I like to prove that I am in fact worthy of such a membership. For I, am addicted to MS Excel. I have spreadsheets that monitor many aspects of my life. Not only do they keep track of all of the data, but they have preposterous formulas laden through intense models to make the data collecting faster, summarize everything, and spit out statistics that the average person would never care to know.

Soon, I am going to have the wonderful privilege of being a father. I am so excited about that privilege that I can hardly contain myself. The things I am going to be doing and the responsibilities that I am going to have are simply fantastic. Due to my nerd-osity, one of the things I am honestly excited about is the opened avenue of new spreadsheets. Do I know exactly how much we have spent so far on medical bills, baby furniture, and other preparations for the birth? Of course, but that is just a small part of it. One of the important tasks of a father during the labor process is keeping track of contractions. 1 min. contractions, 5 min. apart, lasting for more than an hour. That is the goal. That is the moment that you know the baby is going to be coming soon enough that it is time to get your wife to a hospital.

How does one keep track of this time? Just feel it out and leave when it seems like you’ve reached that goal? Use a stop watch and scribble down numbers that you won’t be able to read later? Of course not! You have to make a spreadsheet…. And it has to be easy, and awesome. That is exactly what I created… “The Awesome” when it comes to a contractions spreadsheet. This beast does it all on one page. Click the start button, click the stop button, and that’s it. It keeps track of all of the contractions and summarizes the progress in one simple place. You know at any given moment the number of contractions, total time since first, average length of and between since the start and average length of and between on a floating hour basis. It monitors these things on an exact date and time basis so later you can tell the kid exactly what moment things started and when it was time to leave for the hospital. If you don’t think it would be too hard to create such a thing, then you are off. This involves macros with loops to create a place for the next contraction, and some pretty tricky formulas. Here is an example of just one of the formulas I used:

=IF(A8="","",IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP("here",I9:I5001,1,FALSE)),IF(B8<(SUMIF(H:H,"here",B:B)-(1/24)),"here",""),""))

And one more for fun:

=ROUND((AVERAGE(INDIRECT(M19&":"&N19))-ROUNDDOWN(AVERAGE(INDIRECT(M19&":"&N19)),0))*60,0)&" sec"

So there you have it, I am a nerd. But I am proud of it. In fact, I am so proud of it that I would gladly send anyone interested the file so you can enjoy it in all of its glorious majesty.

I can’t wait until Liz starts going into labor so I can start to utilize this tool.


…. Don’t judge me.

Thanks for reading

Ellipticals = A Chasing Of The Wind

If you have been reading my blog lately, then you know that I have been working out at least 4 days a week for a solid 2.5 months. My body has consequently been very angry at me for about 2 months. You would think it would celebrate my efforts to tone it up and make it run better, but there has been no celebration, only pain.

For the first 6-7 weeks I got into a consistent rhythm of 3 days of full cardio and 2 days of lifting with short bursts of cardio. I thought this would be a good system. A little over 50 % of my cardio workouts were spent on a treadmill and the rest was split between ellipticals, biking, and an arc trainer which is basically an elliptical stairmaster. After a few weeks, my knees were killing me. I’ve never had any problems with knee pains, and suddenly they we both causing me daily problems. I guess I’m getting old or something. I tried to look past it because I was progressing nicely. My times were getting faster and starting to look decent enough to say that I was in shape and I was losing about a pound a week. I wanted to be losing more than that, but I was simply unable to give up the foods I love for more weight loss. I cut out a bit of soda and had healthy lunches, but dinner was a different story, and weekends were just a mess. Despite all of that, I was fairly happy, except for my painful knees.

After complaining a little bit to Liz, she informed me that treadmills are normally bad on knees. I never knew. Despite the progress I was making, I knew I had to make a change. I kept the same schedule, but took out the treadmill and filled it with more time on the ellipticals. After about 3 weeks of non treadmill exercise, I am unhappy to say that I have been wasting my time. I try to work hard on these machines and keep my heart rate up, but the bottom line is: after 3 weeks I gained back most of the weight I had lost in the previous 7. How frustrating! Granted I had a couple of bad weekends of food in there, but not bad enough to make this much of a difference. Since nothing else has changed, I believe I can firmly say that ellipticals do not deliver anything near the same results as running on a treadmill. I really wish they did, because it doesn’t hurt as much and I rebound faster, but time on these machines has proved to be meaningless! Not only did I gain weight, but I am no where near as in shape as I was 3 weeks ago.

I have therefore decided to bear the knee pain and whatever else befalls me, and spend all of my cardio time on a treadmill. You may hear me by the end of this week from wherever you are wallowing and crying, but I think this is a necessary adjustment. I will update this in 2 weeks to see if my theory proved true and I get back down to where I weighed 3 weeks ago.

Wish me luck, and pray for my knees.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you take this lesson to heart if you start working out in a gym.

Whoa

You may not know this, but I’m seriously going to be a father… like soon! Liz is due in 4 weeks! I’ve been talking to some friends recently and have been posed the obvious question: “Are you nervous?” To be honest, I’m not really. Maybe I should be. Perhaps I should listen to all those people that exclaim raising a child is hard work and a lot more challenging than I could ever imagine, but I don’t really think that is true. The baby eats, sleeps, and poops. I know my schedule is going to change, and I’m going to be a lot more tired, and I don’t get to do some of the fun stuff I do now, but I’m ready for that. I may be a little nervous about holding him for the first time for fear of dropping him or not supporting his neck correctly, but I’m confident that will come naturally. To be honest, I’m much more nervous about the whole child birth process. I am much more worried about how good of a support person I will be, and how I will deal with my wife being in excruciating pain. I don’t think I have much to be nervous about for the actual child raising party. After all, a lot of people much dumber and lazier than me have had kids, and many of them even turned out fine.

Anyway, Liz and I put together our little one’s crib. My parents graciously purchased it for us, but we had to order it, and it just came in. I was so excited to put it together and feel fatherly, and look over the nursery with a sweet new crib waiting to hold our baby. What a great feeling! It was actually really easy to put together and didn’t take much time at all. Here are some pictures of Liz standing by the finished product. Isn’t Liz beautiful? And an awesome crib to boot!


It just crossed my mind that in 4 weeks I will probably no longer be a WAM (see Keith’s blog). Technically I still fit the criteria, but I think the birth of my son will probably re-class me. I shall now be referred to as a WAD. Yes, a White American Dad. Whoa! Chew on that thought for a little while.

Just for Fun

For the past 2 months I have been working out at a gym 4-5 days a week. When I was just about to leave today, I had a peculiar thought and felt obliged to share with my reading community.

I work out at the same time each day, and there are some other people that work out at the same time I do, just as often. Here is the problem with that, I get there about the same time as 5-6 other guys and leave about the same time, and therefore change and shower around the same time. I find it very discontenting that I see the same guys naked on a daily basis. I really shouldn’t be seeing the same people naked day in and day out other than myself and my wife. Weird…. And gross.

That leads me to another point. Why do people like to make fun of the weight gain of pregnant women? I understand that it is very easy to do and often gets the cheap laugh. In fact, I’ve had to stop myself from doing it a time or 2, but what is there to really gain? Do people really think women appreciate or in some way actually find it funny that people make jokes at their expense… terrible.

I say this because I’ve seen it happen, but there is also a few wackos out there that like to make the cheap joke about a pregnant woman, and then move on to the husband. What are these people thinking??? “ha ha, which one of you is carrying the baby?” “Are you pregnant too?” Clearly I’m not, so you are just calling me fat, but think you can get away with it because you are near a pregnant woman. I bite my thumb at you! It has happened a couple times to me, but recently at a family event where an aunt that I only see once a year had the audacity to make one of these jokes. I responded with a joke, but was really tempted to hit her with a comeback. I’m a guy that appreciates awkward humor anyway, it would have been fun.

My immediate reaction that I was able to hold in was “no no, I’m not pregnant. I’ve actually lost about 8 pounds since my wife got pregnant. But thanks, I hate you too.”

I knew that would have been terrible, so was really tempted to come back with a joke about her age. Clearly women must enjoy jokes about their age as much as their weight. “I know I’ve gained a few pounds since the last time I saw you, but you have really aged in that time. I know it has only been a couple months, but it looks like it’s been years!” No doubt, she would have loved that.

My last response that honestly came to me in that situation, but I did not say: “I could see why it may look like I’m pregnant, cause... well… I ate a baby last night. Seriously, I think I have a problem… there may be a warrant out for my arrest.” If you don’t respond in anger and decide against jabbing back, you might as well get completely ridiculous. Maybe she’ll think I was telling the truth. She would never make fun of me again.

My last bit of fun is to share with you the pumpkin that I carved for Halloween. I must say, I am very proud of my work.

Thanks for reading!

Something About The Keg of Glory... No... Wrong Show

In response to Liz and Keith: I eagerly await the arrival of Kindle 2.0. Improved features and $100 less is right up my alley. I thank Keith for the compliment. It is true, I am bodacious. Liz, you should know this by now, and come to accept it, even appreciate it.

I’m sure my readers would be proud to hear that I took 1st place in my company’s Office Trivia Challenge. The event was a tremendous success. More than 30 people showed up to have some pizza and socialize. 15-20 of those people sat around the large conference table and watched the game in its entirety. The game itself was a DVD trivia game, which added additional entertainment for those watching because there were many clips from the show. We used a projector so everyone could watch. I thought the game was well constructed, but I did have a few qualms. There were 6 or 7 categories you could land on, but many of them had the same introduction video. It was nice in the beginning, but just wasted time later in the game because the videos were redundant and not funny anymore. All of the categories had an intro video, followed by a clip from the show, and a question. Occasionally the clip would be related to the question, and everyone enjoyed those, but most of the time the clip was random and the question was completely unrelated. My final qualm was the use of non-office related trivia. This happened 3 or 4 times, in one example they showed a clip of Pam and Angela at the vending machine, and then asked “in what country was the vending machine invented?” We never claimed to know anything about general trivia, the game was purchased to play Office trivia, and I think the questions should follow that guideline. There was also a clip of Jim playing a prank on Dwight followed by the question “who is the current Queen of England?” Not at all related, I found that odd, and somewhat annoying.

Despite these small shortcomings, I was able to collect more that 20 Shrute Bucks, get past Dwight and his challenging questions, and be the first to arrive at Michael’s Office to claim victory. I was given the gold medal which was a necklace of paper clips with a rubber band (unfortunately could not find gold yogurt tops). There was also a prize donated from our marketing department which was a very nice desk clock. It was in a small wooden box, and when you open the cover you find a stylish analog clock, and the company emblem on the inside of the cover. I was very impressed and glad to have claimed first prize.

Hardworking, Alpha Male, Jackhammer

Do you ever take online trivia quizzes when you are bored? I like them. Not only because I like to test my knowledge, but also because I remember lots of funny scenes from tv shows and what not. It is an enjoyable time. You know what I find particularly vexing? Getting your score for an online quiz and them not telling you what questions you missed or what the right answers are. C’mon people! That is nice that I scored an 18 out of 20, but if I don’t know what I got wrong, I’ll miss the question again if asked by another site. I do want to sharpen my knowledge, not just see how well I did. Frustrating.

A couple weeks ago I was talking to a co-worker, who is probably the closest thing I have to a friend at work, and I mentioned something about watching the office. A couple days later she came back and attempted to test how big of a fan I actually was. Her test was a simple question of what kind of office merchandise to I own. Apparently, another person in my office has a bobble head Dwight doll and some other memorabilia, along with an office trivia board game. I later found out that he got the game as a gift and hasn’t even opened it, but that was beside the point. I exclaimed that it was not a proper judgment on his fanitude and of course challenged him to his own game. He accepted the challenge and our co-worker who got us started on this decided she would be the moderator or official. We tried to set up a day to have this challenge over a lunch break, but it didn’t work out for the next 2 weeks because of business, vacation days, and what not.

After talking trash back in forth in office-ese we decided this needed to happen as soon as possible. We arrived on the date of 10/23 on our lunch break and we are going to get some pizza and have ourselves a showdown. In the following couple days, it crossed my mind that 2 people playing a trivia game and one person officiating might be a little lame. Since I’m sure that there are some other Office fans around, I started asking around to see if someone else would join just. There were a lot of people that had seen some episodes, but did not think that could really compete. Though they wouldn’t compete, they said they would come and hang out for the social event. Now we had 2 people playing, an official and 3 people watching. Finally we found a 3rd competitor. He was on vacation this week, but another co-worker assured us that he is a big fan and would be a fierce competitor, so he got volunteered. Now we had 3 players, an official, and 4 people watching. It occurred to me that other people might get left out, so we made the decision to go ahead and invite the whole office. I told our official to go ahead and send out a mass email.

The result, of course, was not what I was expecting. Instead of inviting others to join in on the game, she invited others to have pizza and watch the TWI Office Challenge. Now I have people coming up to me in my cubical and saying they are routing for me and hope that I am studying up. One guy even said he has $10 riding on my victory. Instead of a fun game among co-workers, we have an all out challenge between 3 people representing different departments with an official, support people, and fans to watch. Talk about pressure. I really need to re-watch some episodes to be on top of my game. On top of all of this, the CFO, Treasurer, and VP of our company each picked their own person to rally behind and told us that they would “sponsor” the event by paying for the food and drinks. It is amazing how this thing escalated. I was going to play a bored game with a co-worker or 2, and now I have corporate sponsors, fans, and people betting money on me. Absolutely Ridiculous!! Though it is really exciting and I think we are going to have a lot of fun. There has also been talk of getting some awards from our marketing department.

I get to take off work Monday – Wednesday for a vacation with Liz and her parents. I’m really looking forward to some time off and good fun with family. Plus my sister is getting married tomorrow, so there is all kinds of excitement going around. I think I’m going to have a lot of fun over the next 5 days, and after it is all over, I am going to come back to work and compete in the greatest trivia challenge of my life. Or possibly second greatest compared to Ali’s trivia madness over the holidays. Of course, I didn’t have corporate sponsors for her event.

Just Like I’m Walking On Broken Glass

I got my Zune in yesterday!!! It is AMAZING. I am so glad about my purchase, and I can’t wait to really dive into the features and see what it can do. My only problem is the battery life. It is decent if you just listen to music, but watching videos and playing games as I will be doing often really kills the battery. It only last a little over 4 hrs playing straight video. I will definitely need to get something to extend the life of it if I am going for a long trip in a plane or something.

Why am I walking on broken glass? Because it seems every piece of glass I touch becomes broken. I have already described what happened to the Zune. As a side note, the thing was pretty solid. I dropped it multiple times and never even noticed a scratch. I’m not sure exactly what happened when the screen broke. I think it was somewhat of a freak incident where I happened to put the right amount of pressure in the right spot to ruin it. None the less…. Broken glass.

On Saturday of last weekend, our sliding glass door in the back of the house shattered. Liz and I weren’t around when in happened, and actually didn’t even notice it until the next morning because we got home late. Here is a picture of it. It is the same picture that Liz has on her blog.



It was actually very fascinating to look at. Clearly it started as a small web of cracks and expanded to cover the entire door. If you stood next to it and were quiet enough, you could here a new small crack form. A new one would form about once every 20 seconds.

Since bad things always happen in threes, you know this isn’t over yet. On Sunday night, yes the night of the same day we discovered the screen door. I broke the LCD screen on my work computer. We were about to go to bed and I decided to turn a movie on my work computer, it was just convenient at the time because our personal computers were malfunctioning / being used for another purpose. I was sitting on the floor setting up the movie, and then went to pick up the computer and put it on our dresser. I grabbed a hold of it from the top of the screen (as I do with my personal computer all the time, but highly recommend not doing) and I pinched a little to hard…. and crack. It was actually quite similar to my Zune. The outside didn’t crack, but the pressure on the screen broke the LCD behind the protective screen. There was just a small crack, but on an LCD, the whole picture is ruined. I just sat there in shock. I can’t believe I just busted my work issue computer…. By means of broken glass!! C’MON!

I promise I’m not a klutz. These were just very unique, and odd occurrences that happened to fall near each other. Though I am happy to report that everything is back to normal. I have my new Zune, we called the landlord and he just finishing replacing the door today, and my office called in their dell guy to replace the broken screen yesterday. Luckily, no one cared that much at work, they simply accept that accidents happen. Plus our new door is much nicer than the old one. I guess it worked out overall. No harm done at work, and much improved sliding glass door with an actual working screen, and a sweet new Zune. Not bad, but I do tense up a little bit when I’m next to a window or closing my car door.

Salivate, Salivate….. Decision!

A few sad months ago, I broke my Zune. It was a very upsetting an emotional time for me because I loved that thing. It traveled with me every time I was in the car or a plane. It provided entertainment of tv shows and movies if I was waiting to meet someone, sleeping at someone else’s house, or performing a mindless process at work. And some time ago, the screen cracked. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. I got to work one morning, slid it into my pocket, walked upstairs and set it on my desk, and the next time I went to turn it on…. Cracked screen. I must have oddly bumped into something or crushed it against the arm of my chair when I set down. Either way, I no longer had a display. It could still play music when I was able to successfully navigate the menus, but no videos, and I couldn’t pick the songs.

I was an early adopter in the way of Zunes. Having never had a video mp3 player, I dove right in as soon as they came out. I had some problems in the beginning, some with the software, and some with the hardware. I even had to send it back once to get it replaced. But overall, I was happy with my device. When it broke I immediately wanted to replace it. I went back to the iPod vs Zune debates and tried to get talked into making a rash decision, but it didn’t work out. iPod still seems to be winning the debate, but I had heard some bad things about iTunes, and dang it, the zune is just cooler. For a moment there I thought about getting a new Zune, but I did have some problems and my old one just broke. This decision vexed me and I ended up not getting anything. I even went through the iPod store, picked the right one, and wrote out the engraving at least 3 times. It got to the checkout and I couldn’t pull the trigger. Eventually I gave up and decided I shouldn’t have one, after all quite the expense.

Time passed, and I made the life adjustments to non video mp3 player life. I would still take a look at them if I found myself in a store with some time to kill, but would just sigh and walk away. Toward the end of last week I decided to see what was new in the Zune world. I typed in some random search, and BAM! “Zune 3.0 software / firmware released today!” Apparently there were some significant changes to the previous versions and the Zune is even better than before. After reading the release notes of 3.0 and salivating a little, I found “zune 120 released.” Just a week before Microsoft came up with a Zune with 120 gigs of space for the same price as the iPod 80 gig. Now I didn’t really need that extra 40 gigs, but that got me to salivate even more. After reading some more notes and reviews, the decision was made. I shall no longer subject myself to a dull and dreary non video mp3 player life. I bought one the next day. Check this out.

Isn’t that just sexy? So much cooler than those apple doohickeys (except for iTouch). I know iPod just came out with their own 120 gig version to compete, but I just like this so much. Sleeker design, bigger screen, and apparently they greatly improved the wifi capability. It should be coming in the mail today or tomorrow, and I am ridiculously excited. Unfortunatly, I am worried about breaking a screen, so I went out and bought this guy.

This is a pretty nice looking leather case that is also quite fashionable. It is more like a nice man’s wallet than a goofy case. I am all sorts of excited and I can’t wait to find some good music and videos to fill this thing up with. I hear tell that it also has games now. All I have to do is get used to the goofy squircle.

Here Comes The Rain Again

You may not know this about me, but I absolutely adore times in my life where songs apply to my situation. Even in the bad times, if a song applies, I will embrace it and sing it at the top of my lungs and honestly feel better. You may remember my post “23 Syndrome” where I discussed the songs about people that were 23 years of age. A couple months before I turned 22, I couldn’t wait until I turned 23 and could sing those songs of personal significance. Every time I hear one of those songs now, I always turn up the volume and embrace it. When I turn 24, my excitement for these songs we most likely decrease.

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

This song just has a good sound to it. I’ve always liked it, and like it even more in the month of September. Looking at the lyrics, it doesn’t really apply at all other than the fact that the current month is September. None the less, if I happen to hear that song this month, its go time for singing in the car.

Picking a favorite song is a really hard thing for just about anyone to do. Most people say it is too hard to pick, or revert to a lame answer like “it depends on my mood.” In an attempt to not be lame, I decided a couple years ago that my favorite song is “I’m Moving On” by Rascal Flatts. What can I say? I like everything about the song, including the sound of my voice singing it. Yes its true, we’ll deal with that issue at another time. Another reason I like the song is that it applies to my life only on occasion. It doesn’t often apply, but it doesn’t never apply. It applies occasionally at significant moments in my life like when I got a new job, moved on from a relationship, or relocated. Many of these moments were scary and full of emotion, and that song just gives me hope that I am doing the right thing and the change will be better for my life in the long run.

This brings me to my last point. I am happily married. I love my wife and kid (whoa) and celebrate just about everything about marriage. There is one thing that I realized a few months after getting married: All of those songs about heartbreak will probably never apply to me again. Granted, Liz and I could get into some kind of grand argument and those songs my quasi apply, but they should never fully apply again. Part of me is a little bummed out about that. It may be a little sick, but I really like some of those songs and they will never apply to my life in the foreseeable future. I know that heartbreak is a terrible feeling, and I would have never wished it on myself before marriage, but dang it, I really like when songs apply. I guess I’ll have to lean on the songs of joy and about having a family and what not, but I’d say a large % of the songs out there relate to heartbreak. Oh well.

Thanks for reading.

Baaaaalooooogg

It appears that I have this web journal of sorts and said journal requires my attention. These things unfortunately do not update themselves, and in order to keep my audience captivated, I need to post more than once every 3 or 4 weeks. Bearing that in mind my dear reader, know that I really don’t have a lot to talk about. Life has jut been ticking by and I’ve been doing my thing. I have been really busy at work for the past few weeks which I am happy about. Being busy makes my days go faster and gives me a greater sense of accomplishment. However, the lack of posts has been a direct effect of that busyness. For a while there, I was in a consistent routine to go to work, come home and exercise, eat dinner, and watch the Olympics until I feel asleep. Then the Olympics were over and we filled some of that time with tv, or cleaning out the nursery. That has mostly been my life. Somewhere in there Keith came over for a weekend and we played a bunch of Rock Band, saw Tropic Thunder, and hung out at the Coliseum. There was also a 3 day weekend in Beaverdale hanging out with Liz’s family and playing golf.

A possible point of interest to add to this post is my consideration of joining a gym. I have not really found a consistent time at home to work out. There are other distractions and I want to spend time with Liz, so I end up not working out as much as I would like. A while back, I was running on my lunch break, but it was a struggle to get the work out in, get a shower, and make myself some lunch. It got even more challenging when Liz stopped working and I wanted to say hi to her and see how her day was going. Lunch break workout was too cumbersome, morning was miserable, and directly after work took up too much of my precious free time. I have therefore decided to switch back to the lunch break workout, but in a gym. That takes out any distractions at home, and I save time because I will pack my lunch in the morning and eat it while I am working after my lunch break. It may not be 100% optimal, but a 1hr lunch break is too much time to waste eating and sitting around doing nothing. I’ve decided to go to Planet Fitness because they have the best deal by far. $30 to sign up and $10 a month! That’s not bad at all. There is also no contract, so I can stop at any time. I checked out the place yesterday, and today will be my first day of exercising. Wish me luck.

Also, if you have any suggestions for a work out plan at a gym exercising 40 mins a day 5 days a week, let me know. I’ve been looking online, but haven’t found any specific plans that meet my needs. I don’t want to waste my time doing meaningless exercises that don’t really do me a lot of good. I want to make sure I am doing hard workouts to progress forward and get in shape. I know that will be a challenge with my time constraints, but it has to be possible. Thank you for any comments and suggestions.

A Week of Fishing

Today is Saturday, and since I have been posting around the end of each week, I figured I might as well throw something out here. Last weekend Liz and I ventured to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. We went last year toward the end of the season and had a wonderful time. It was the first time we had been there in quite a while and it was purely fantastic. Last weekend was opening weekend and again it was good time. We did not get into the spirit of the Renaissance to the same extent we did last year, but I still greatly enjoy a day at the Shire. It has been colder outside the past times that I’ve been there, so going to the Faire reminds me of the Fall. Now I am in the feeling of Fall, and changing leaves, and Halloween, but still a long ways off. Next time I go to the Ren Faire, I will wait until the end of the season, and I think I will enjoy it more.

Anyway, I had an odd thought about the business world this week and felt obliged to share it. You know the phrase: “Catch a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” That is a wise saying, but I believe quite the opposite is true in the business world. Allow me to explain.

I have been well known in my past 2-3 jobs as an Excel wiz. I wear that hat proudly. I greatly enjoy creating models and manipulating data to generate results viable for decision making. When I started my current job, I was introduced as the Excel expert which greatly increased my popularity. The more people I met and was friendly to, the more micro projects I got to help people work through their projects. I really enjoy that aspect of my job and that place in my career. In my past job there was one other guy in the office that was, well, almost as good as me. I moved a bit faster and knew more techniques, but he knew as well as I did how to figure things out. Namely, if he needed to create some sort of macro, you don’t have to write out the code, some one else in the world has probably created a similar macro before. We both knew this well. “I need a macro that will sort and combine 3 sheets of address data, sort by last name, and delete any duplicates.” What do you do? Google Excel + Macro + address sort + delete duplicates. Before you know it, you find somebody out there that posed a similar question, and some Excel / VBA guru that answered their question by posting code. Copy and paste the code into your work book and voila! My favorite website was called CPearson, my coworker at the time often found code on MrExel. Either way, we could generate results quickly.

To get back to my original discussion point. One day at my previous job, I had another coworker ask how I write such elaborate macros. Granted I can write my own macros these days, but none the less, I mentioned the websites that I often find this code and explained my process. The person was grateful, but I somewhat doubt she ever tried it out. None the less, the other Excel guy in the office overheard me sharing trade secrets and later pulled me aside. You can’t be telling people about those sites, if they learn how to do all the technical stuff we do, they won’t need us anymore.” He said this in a joking way, but clearly had some truth in his statement. That was over a year ago and I still think about it now and then. He made a good point, I stay busy at my job helping people with their Excel questions and creating technical models, if I shared my knowledge and people were able to do things on their own, I wouldn’t be as busy. Some may consider this terribly wrong, but in the corporate world, you have to hoard your skills to be known and prove yourself useful.

The wise saying makes sense and holds true for most settings in the world, but in business: “TEACH a man to fish, you’ll have a job for a month. CATCH a man a fish, you’ll have a job for a lifetime.

The Sweet Sounds of Risk Management

I’ve been working at my current job for 5 full months now. I have had a great deal of different experiences and have learned a lot. I am happy to say that I’ve enjoyed my job and the company that I work for. I have also been fairly certain that people around here like me and are happy with the work I’ve done. This was recently confirmed when I was offered a new position. I really didn’t see it coming. I knew our treasurer was looking to hire someone new, but didn’t really find out what position she was hiring for. Then one day, she pulled me into her office, and offered me a new job. Apparently, my boss’s boss thought I could be a good fit for what she is looking for. Though I have no experience in that particular field, I know the company well and have a good understanding of our accounting.

After a little discussion of salary and title, I accepted the offer the next day. I am now the Risk Management Coordinator. What exactly does this mean? I’m not 100% sure. I know I will be doing a lot with our insurance policy and developing a return to work program. I also know I will be reviewing claims against us, and forecasting the amount of money we need to set aside for insurance and claims. It may sound a little dull, but I think it could be fun. My new boss seams great, it is definitely a step up, and I will probably spend more time talking to people instead of plugging away at a computer.

I am excited to learn something new and gain some additional responsibility. The new position is effective immediately, so wish me luck as I dive right in. Given the topic of my new position, I felt obliged to leave the reader with this memorable Seinfeld scene.

GEORGE: Alright. Listen, I gotta get some reading done. You mind if I do this here? I can't concentrate in my apartment.

JERRY: (checking out George's textbook) Risk management?

GEORGE: Yeah. Steinbrenner wants everyone in the front office to give a lecture in their area of business expertise.

JERRY: Well what makes them think you're a risk management expert?

GEORGE: I guess it's on my resume.

…………… Later in the episode.

GEORGE: I take an eye test; I flunk it, the next thing you know I am swinging to the sweet sounds of risk management.

In Waiting

I am writing this in an airport waiting for a flight to Nashville Tennessee. I figured this would be a good way to kill time until it was time to get seated. My flight today is on Southwest airlines. Now I haven’t flown many airlines in my time, but I think Southwest is alright. There is no assigned seating, you just get a boarding position based on when you arrived at the airport. I think this is a good system. If you are picky about having a window or aisle seat, you just have to get to the airport early. If you arrive late, you are assured to land yourself a middle seat between two people, but at least you get to choose the people to sit between. Last time I flew I was one of the late comers and had to sit in the middle, but I was lucky to find a seat between two relatively skinny individuals. The thing I find funny is the people that fly together, but still refuse to sit in a middle seat. I don’t blame them, but recently I sat myself down between a father and son. Neither of them wanted to have a middle seat, so they foolishly hoped no one would sit between them. I plunked myself down, and forced them to have very little conversation. Silly people. I get to board in the middle of the pack today; perhaps I’ll score a non middle seat.

The post was made in two sections 4 days apart. On that flight, I did not end up in a middle seat, but found an aisle seat along with 2 other people in my row. It was still cramped. I think they need to make these seats a little wider. I’m not huge by any means and my shoulders travel past both sides of the seats. Anyway, I am making the 2nd part of this post on the plane on my way back from Nashville. Normally my computer would be in the overhead bin, but I scored a window seat with no middle person, so I have my bag sitting on the middle seat. Though it makes me a little queasy, I love to look out the window of a plane and see all of the clouds beneath us. As a side note, I really like that this airline still serves peanuts on its flight.

There is surely a lot I could talk about in the post with all the work I’ve been doing lately and what not, but that would take up too much of this post and no one cares all that much. I’ll get to the goods… Liz and I found out we are having a boy!!! I am so excited! There was a good part of me that was hoping to have a boy. I also really want a girl some day, but hooray for the boy and the teaching him sports, and taking him on adventures, and all of that great father / son stuff. I can’t wait!! While I was in Tennessee Liz told me I should look for something to buy him. I got so excited about that idea. When I got there, I kept an eye out, but I was working 10 hour days and had 2 hour fancy dinners to attend that cut into any time to go shopping, plus I didn’t have my own car. When we were in the airport before coming home, I did take some time to look around the gift shops. I found some things, but they were really weird, or obscenely overpriced. There actually was a baby store, but they didn’t have any Nashville clothing, just animals and inappropriate sayings like “milkaholics anonymous” or “I love boobies”. I would never buy anything like that. I found some cute onesies that said “future country music star” and “little buckaroo” I liked those a lot, especially the buckaroo, but they were $30. I wouldn’t even spend that much for a sweatshirt for myself, let alone a small piece of fabric for the baby. Am I silly for thinking that is too much to spend on a baby outfit? I don’t know. Unfortunately, I am coming home empty handed.

I believe we are beginning our decent into Baltimore, so I am going to sign off. Thanks for reading.

Slight Change

As much as I log on here to make new posts, I never really get around to reading my old posts. It is interesting to go back and see what I wrote about. Today I happen to read the “about me” section and realized that it was very out of date. I outright said in the about me section that I dislike my job, and that is no longer the case. Alas, it has been updated and I fell much better about it.

Since I happen to have a camera with me at work, I thought it would be a good time to update the picture of my cubical. You can see that my new work space is a bit better than that old work space. One of the panels in my cube is a window which is really nice. I don’t feel as closed in, and when the people across the hall have their office doors open, I can see outside. The only awkward part about the window is that the fax machine is on the other side. Whenever someone goes to send a fax, they stand square in front of me and try to avoid making eye contact. Most of the time it is pretty funny.

In this post I am including a special picture for Keith. He had requested some time ago to see and updated picture of my cubical to check out the basketball hoop that we had one at Dave and Busters. The picture that I put up does not show the hoop, and I couldn’t find another angle that captured the essence of my cubical and included the hoop. Therefore, here is a picture of the basketball hoop. It is located on the right side of my cube, around the wall in the other picture I put up.

A Step Back in Time

The last week or so I have had the privilege of doing some inventory counting at one of our companies cylinder plants. I have to say that this was an experience that I will not soon forget. Walking into this plant was like walking to a factory you would picture from 40 years ago. Most of the people working there were either young guys working for the summer, or people that appear to have spent most of their lives at this plant. They are covered in sweat and dirt and are all working very hard.

Aside from the building being beat up and unfixed in 50+ years, the oddest thing I found at the plat was that almost every employee smoked. At this day in age I was very surprised. I feel like it was the 50’s or 60’s and they hadn’t yet heard that smoking was bad for you. Then again, most of them probably didn’t care because they were destroying their body in the work they are doing anyway. It is more likely that they will die from the smoke coming from the forge, or bits of steel filling their lungs than cigarette smoke anyway.

The plant has apparently got really bad in the past few years. While pushing cylinders through the process, they just started stacking up the ones that failed for some reason or another. Instead of scrapping them or reworking them, they just found an empty piece of real estate to stack them up. Our count of inventory that has just been sitting around outside for 3+ years totaled over 29,000 cylinders! Ridiculous.

Aside from the feeling of the plant taking me into yesteryear, I learned some very interesting history about our company. I knew some of our plants had been around for a number of years, but I thought that our company name was introduced at the end of last year. I was way off! Our name was formed in the early 1900’s when 2 companies that were building rail cars and other metal items combined. It was at that time that the plant I visited moved to Harrisburg. The routes of our company actually trace all the way back to 1742 when I guy bought some land and built a forge to produce wagon wheels. How sweet is that!? The company I worked for has been forging steel for over 260 years. They produced bomb casings during the world wars, and even made cannon balls for the Revolutionary War. SWEET!

Here are some pictures of the cylinder counting. And for a bit of history, the GM of the plant found this old newspaper from the 2nd WW. The top headline is "... to celebrate 200 years of progress." Check out that sub-headline. Very non-politically correct.

To New Readers of My Blog

It has come to my attention that some members in my family and possibly other friends have stumbled across my web log. In fact, I believe some of them who may not know as much about web journals have expressed concern that my personal notes are being leaked to the public. I assure all of you new readers that this is not the case. I created this page for anyone in the world who may take interest in my life to learn about me and what is going on. There is nothing in all of the 35+ posts that I wish to keep a secret simply because all things shared are the truth, and I choose what content to make public and what to keep to myself.

If you are new to this page, then I gladly welcome you. Feel free to read through all of the past posts. You may find things in there of interest, or it may be boring. There are times of humor and times of sadness. You may even find some things that are surprising or even offensive. I hope that is not the case, but I stand by what I have written in the past. If in fact the posts give you thoughts or emotions you wish to express, feel free to leave comments. Take a tour around and enjoy yourself. Just remember, most of the writing has purely been “Nonsense From a Bored Man.”

I’m in the Juice Isle

Yes, I am in the juice isle that others know as work. Everyone else is off having fun. I can see they all have party hats on. This week has been rough to work because the week of the 4th of July everybody in Liz’s family takes off to spend together eating delicious food and playing games.

Liz and I spent last weekend with her family as everybody came in and was getting their wonderful week started. There was a great time to be had, and it was painful to leave. It was even more painful to come to work knowing that most of Liz’s extended family was having a great time, and knowing that this coming weekend I get to go up to Camp for a weekend of golf crazed fun with my family. There is so much going on… how could I possibly work?

I've been doing my best to be productive, but it has been a rough week. I would love nothing more than to blow off the afternoon and be home, or have some fun, but oh... responsibility. Good thing this is a 4 day week. I'm gearing myself up to get out of here this afternoon and drive up for a weekend of great fun and excitement.

I wish everybody a great 4th of July weekend! Wish me luck in golfing this weekend and not blowing myself up in our annual fireworks display.

Zack Bogaczyk – Business Analyst…. Car Salesman??

Having the title of Business Analyst for my company basically means that I do analysis on just about anything the executives can come up with. It is actually a pretty fun job because I rarely do the same thing twice, and I get involved with many different aspects of the business. I do a good enough job with this title that the immediate answer for any question in the mind of the CFO is “Zack can do that.” “What? It is taking you 3 days to process payroll each month? There must be a way to automate that… Let Zack take a look at it.” “You know, if you are struggling to get that to work correctly, have Zack take a look at it. (no lie) “I just blew out the tire of my company car! Have Zack put on the spare and take it down to the garage.” Things get a little crazy sometimes, but it is honestly mostly fun work. My role for this week has been labeled “king of company cars.”

We have about 25 company cars that are driven by various people in our organization. We have decided to stop offering company cars as a perk. I have been put in charge of analyzing what price to sell these cars at, how to reimburse the employee for the loss of a perk, drafting a memo to all of the employees, and physically selling a hand full of the cars. That is right. I am a used car salesman.

Ahhh Lunch Break

Oh that’s right. Three posts in a single week. What could be the occasion you may ask? Boredom. This has been by far the most boring week of work I’ve had since I’ve started my job. Not only do I not have any specific projects to be working on, but half the office has been out of town for a meeting all week. It has been quiet and slow. My boss has only spent about 20 mins in the office this week. When did those 20 mins occur? At 4:40 yesterday afternoon when I was planning on leaving at 4:45 to pick up a car at the shop. I figured I could leave a little early because no one was around, and right after I shut down my computer, bam! The boss shows up. I’m planning on leaving a little early today as well because Liz and I are going out of town. I feel bad leaving and not telling anyone, but I honestly have no one to tell and I doubt anyone would care.

I have officially made in through the week waking up an hour earlier than I used to and running in the morning. It has been tough, but I really enjoy being on this schedule. Mornings have been wonderful because after the run, I get to have a good quiet time, I get ready faster, and I’ve been waking Liz up to make her breakfast and spend some time together before I leave. Work is happening more in the middle of my day instead of the first thing I do in the morning, and that is lovely. The other nice thing has been my lunch break. I used to try to work out at that time, but it has been way too hot and it rushes me too much to get back to work in time. Instead of rushing around to get my workout in, I have been enjoying a good meal while watching tv, playing Wii, fixing bathroom fixtures, or even going for a swim. I love this schedule and hope to stay on it. It is going to be hard not to mess it up this weekend, but I’m going to try my best to go to bed at a normal time and wake up early. I know I will feel much better next week if I do.

That is all I have to say. I’m going to go back to looking busy, and then try to head off an hour early. Have a good weekend everybody.

C.E.H

I woke up early today to go running before work. I find exercising in the morning to be quite miserable, but by the end of the run, I feel great and the morning is very pleasant. I think I’m going to set a goal to continue the practice for a couple weeks to see if the misery in the beginning of the run improves.

At the end of my run, I noticed a huge window sticker on the back of my neighbor’s car. It read C.E.H “Certified Ethical Hackers,” and it listed a website. We all knew there were people out there like this. Those that love computers and hacking into networks, but have no reason to hack into someone’s computer because they are law abiding citizens. How do they get their fix? They hack for good. They are like Dexter killing serial killers, or like Blade who hates vampires but still has a taste for blood.

I don’t mind living next door to an ethical hacker. In fact, I would love to learn more about what that person does, because honestly, it is pretty cool. However, I wonder what he / she thinks about living next door to a family with broadband internet access and a completely unsecured wireless network. I might be too embarrassed to ever talk to this person. I at least need to have the decency to throw on a network password before I dare say hello.

Jabberwocky

There are a lot of things flying around in my head today. I’m pretty bored at work and feeling very tired and run down. Since this blog is conveniently titled nonsense from a bored man, I figured I could get away with throwing some things out there without making much sense. It is time for some old fashioned nonsense, jabberwocky, baloney, claptrap, or just plain gobbledygook.

First of all, I have wanted to make a political post for some time now. I have never taken interest in politics in my life, but figured I should give a go at it since the presidential election is afoot. I’ve tried to do some research on the 2 primary candidates, but always get much too tired / bored / lazy to really follow through with it. It seems we have to vote for either the young new guy screaming about change who may very well change our country to chaos, or the absurdly old guy that will keep things status quo (which most of us aren’t all that happy with) and will most likely keel over in office. It seems to me, and I admit I need to learn some more about these fellows, that we have the typical South Park-ese choice of a douche or a tird sandwich. I understand that I have the political IQ of a kindergartner, but I’m just calling it as I see it. Really what I am driving at is: where are the Jed Bartlets (West Wing) or David Palmers (24) of the world? I know these are fictional characters, but where are the strong leaders boiling over with integrity? Or the leaders that make such wise decisions you wonder if they asked God for wisdom instead of wealth and riches?

This past weekend marked the union of my good friend Justin Doty to his beautiful and well suited wife Megan. The wedding was nice and the reception was spectacular. I was blessed to be counted as one of his groomsmen and got to spend some quality time with him and some other close friends over the past few days. Honestly, Justin and I had a bit of a falling out in our friendship over the last 2 years or so. This was a result of a number of different factors that are meaningless to get into now. It was great to still be counted as a close friend, and the overwhelming thought in my mind by the time all of the set up and celebrating was over was sorrow for all of the foolishly wasted time during our friendship. I wish the best for them as they start out their lives together and this week as they enjoy their honeymoon in Jamaica. I hope that in the months and years to come that Liz and I have the opportunity to spend some time with them as good married couple friends.

The last thought I want to throw into this collaboration of twaddle is the rest of the weekend after the wedding. Liz and I have always been apt to invite people over to our house. I have always enjoyed entertaining guests and that has just increased greatly now that I can do that in my own home instead of my parents or my apartment shared with other guys. The Lord has richly blessed Liz and I with a nice home, cooking abilities, a wii, and the ability to show our friends and family a good time. I write this for two reasons: first to thank Keith for being a great guest, and to invite other people out there to come and visit. Following the wedding, some of us took a trip to G man to keep on celebrating. It isn’t my style to go out to a bar, but I figured “when in Rome.” We actually had a pretty good time and afterward Keith came to stay with Liz and I. We slept in on Sunday and then had some chores to take care of such as taking back tuxes and such. Afterward, Keith got wrapped into a puzzle that Liz was working on and decided to stick around for a while. We got into playing Wii and eventually they sucked me into helping with the puzzle. Before we realized it, it was 9:00 and I had a 10:30 hockey game. Liz asked Keith if he would like to join us for the game and give Liz some company. To our surprise, he quickly agreed and tagged along for the game. Through all of this fun, we were all fairly tired, and Liz started off early in the day trying to talk me into taking a personal day on Monday to rest and enjoy the day together. When the game ended at 11:30 I was convinced. We went home, and instead of going directly to bed we worked on the puzzle a little more and watched some Seinfeld until 2am or so.

The next day we drug ourselves out of bed at a decent time to try to get back on our normal schedules, and we started right back in on the puzzle and Seinfeld. Then I made some breakfast and we finished the 1000 piece puzzle and decided to play some more Wii. After all of this, we started discussing the possibility of going to see “Get Smart.” Needless to say, we ended up out to the movies, then back to pick out another puzzle and some more Wii. We played for a bit and Liz convinced Keith and I that we were too ridiculous to waste such a nice day inside, so we went for a walk. After the walk, we got hungry which afterward led to more Wii and puzzle. This eventually escalated to 10 pm where we realized that we were exhausted and both Keith and I had to work the next day. All good things had to come to an end, but honestly, what a great time and wonderful weekend. Keith, it was a delight to have you as our guest and you are welcome any time. Others that read our blog, you are slacking and know the door is always open.

Thank you for reading.

Four

This weekend holds the wedding of my good friend Justin Doty. He has asked me to be one of his groomsmen, and I am very excited for that opportunity and for all of the festivities ahead. Rehearsals and rehearsal dinners are always a lot of fun, I can’t wait to see some of my old friends, we are going golfing Saturday morning, and of course the wedding and reception.

These activities are filling up my free time this week mighty quick. Liz’s car is in the shop and we will have to pick that up, pick up a tux, a hockey game, bible study, Thursday is Jubilee day in Mechanicsburg, Friday is the rehearsal, and somewhere in there I need to learn how to golf again. Not to mention Liz and I only have 3 episodes remaining of West Wing, which clearly takes precedence to all the aforementioned events.

To be honest, I am more concerned about picking up a golf club this weekend than anything else. I know that is silly because no one cares, and they guys I am playing with aren’t that good either, but I still want to do well. If you don’t golf regularly, than you may be unaware that golf is one of the hardest activities to pick up again when you haven’t played in a while. It is frustrating to no end when you can’t properly hit a ball resting sedentary on the ground, especially when you could at one time do it with ease.

There was a time that I counted myself good at golf. Between the ages of 18 – 20, I could strike a ball pretty well and turned in scores that would make other amateur players fairly jealous. Unfortunately, I’ve only been able to play 3 – 4 times a year for the past 3 years, and I have completely lost my swing. For example, every year my family has a huge (70-80 person) golf tournament. Everyone gets split up into teams of 4 with each team having an A, B, C, and D player. I have been an A player since I was 19. When I was 21, I led a team to first place with a score of -4. At the age of 22, I led a team to dead last with a record losing score of +12. There were a number of other factors that played into those scores, but the bottom line is, I am no longer a good golfer.

That family tournament is less than 3 weeks away and this weekend will surely be the only round I play between now and then. Like I said, I need to learn how to golf again. I hope to get to a driving range at least sometime this week to get some practice in. I don’t think that will do the trick, but at least it will be something. My only other solution is to watch the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance.” Matt Damon learns from Will Smith how to find his swing and “see the field.” I’m going to focus on the field and take a few practice shots, and I’m bound to be at the top of my game by Saturday.


… Or this could get ugly.

..And That's My Story

Today I have found myself in a bit of a pickle. I really want to blog, but I don’t know what I want to write about. I’ve spent the last half hour quasi doing work and thinking about what I would like the share with the readers of the internet world. I have dove right into writing, but still do not know what I want to say.

Time has been passing by in a spinning vortex of madness lately. It seems like just a couple days ago that I was planning out Memorial weekend, and our anniversary trip, and then BAM! It’s over and long gone. Despite the rapid passing of time, things have been going pretty well lately. Liz and I had a wonderful trip to Cape May. We stayed at a cool place, and saw some very nice things, and got to enjoy some time walking on the beach. It wasn’t so much the substance of the trip that made it wonderful; it was the simple feeling of joy I believe we both shared. In fact, I would venture to say it was one of the top 3 weekends we have had together…. Ever. I was happy to be alive and happy to be with the one I love, and it was purely that simple. We could have gone just about anywhere, and I think we would have had a good weekend. It was just…. Nice.

Immediately following our trip, I had to take a business trip down to Tennessee. This trip came up out of no where as I found out about it merely 5 days before I had to fly out. It made planning very challenging since the trip was supposed to last 5 days stuck between our anniversary weekend in Cape May and a weekend in Beaverdale for a wedding. Despite the inconvenience of the timing, we were able to work out travel plans, and I was mostly excited for the trip. I enjoy traveling and seeing new places, and it is even better when someone else is paying for it. Spending the time away from Liz is challenging, but as long as the trips don’t become routine, I will gladly take them on. My only disappointment in the Tennessee trip is that I didn’t get to see very much. The airport in Nashville is located outside of the city, and I was driving in the opposite direction and really never saw a thing in Tennessee except for small towns and forest. The trip was a bit tiring because I had a 2 hour drive to Baltimore for a 2 hour flight to Nashville, and then had to wrap that up with a 2 hour drive to Crossville, TN. The total 6 hour + airport time travel plans took a lot of energy out of me.

After a full day of butt-kicking productivity, we realized we had finished most of our work and could come home early. This did not work out well for me since I had planned on staying through Friday and flying to Pittsburgh. Liz decided to spend her time while I was gone with her parents, and it worked out well for me to fly in at the same time as her sister coming in for the wedding. I ended up leaving Nashville on Wednesday after only being there for less than 48 hours. I caught a ride home from Balitmore with a co worker and had to be home for 2 days by myself, and drive up a 2nd car to Beaverdale. It was very inconvenient, but I guess that’s the way it goes. To top all of this off, Liz took my keys with her to Beaverdale, which meant that I couldn’t drive my car or get into my house when I got home. This quick trip to TN escalated from inconvenient to just plain funny. Nothing was working out well, but at least I was able to break into my house with only 20 – 30 mins of effort. That was very unsettling. All in all, I would say the trip wasn’t too bad. I did get to rent a sweet car (2008 Eclipse), enjoy some delicious TN BBQ, and try a Goo Goo Cluster which was the first candy bar ever made that added other items to the chocolate (peanuts and marshmallow). Liz mailed me my keys and I only had to ride my bike to work one day. Lucky for me it was obscenely hot and muggy.

Good times, good times. We are back on a normal schedule now, and despite being quite tired, I’m in a pretty good mood. We had a great time with Liz’s family this past weekend, our AC is working correctly, Liz is into her 2nd trimester, I’m mostly caught up on work, and I can partially celebrate father’s day this weekend!

Thanks for reading.

What a Beautiful Day!

Saturday April 5th 2008 was probably one of the top 3 days of my life. I wasn't really allowed to talk about that day openly until now, so I haven't written many posts. I’m going to back up a little bit and gently lead into this spectacular day that I experienced. Since late in 2007, I have been saving up to buy a car. I knew the Buick that I was driving wasn't going to last very much longer, and I wanted to get buy a decent used car. My plan all along was to purchase this car during the month of May because my registration and inspection were due by the end of May and there was no way the Buick would pass. This plan was altered slightly toward the end of March when the Buick finally broke down. I wasn't at all surprised. The next day I was looking for deals on a used car. Over the next couple weeks, I had some good leads, but ultimately wasn't getting anywhere. Liz and I spent the last weekend in March car searching like crazy. We started around Mechanicsburg and ended up in Lancaster perusing around. We only found one possibility and it was a bit out of our price range. I thought about the car that was too expensive for us for a couple days and finally gave up on it. Suddenly, a beam of light rested down on my computer for a 2001 VW Jetta, manual with low mileage in my price range. I knew this was going to be the car I would buy. I ducked out of work a little early on a Thursday afternoon and headed to York to buy me a car.

As Liz and I sat down in what clearly would be our new vehicle, we were slightly discontent to see the interior covered with animal hair. Apparently cleanliness wasn't high on the dealer’s priority list. Then we looked down to see a missing stereo. I wasn't pleased, but knew with the money we were saving, I could buy a decent stereo. At this point, Liz was ready to leave the dealership. "No way we’re getting that." Plus we had already waited a long time for the owner of the place to give us his attention. Despite these shortcomings, I thought we should take it for a spin. I was completely shocked by the performance of this vehicle. The clutch wasn't set well at all, and the engine sounded like a WW2 fighter plane. I was crushed. This was going to be our car, and we had to drive back home with heads hanging low.

Now we come to April 5th…. Ahhh the 5th.We woke up, the sun was shining, and it seemed like a great day to go for a ride. Liz and I were enjoying a good morning together, and I made a delightful breakfast for the 2 of us. Before searching the surrounding counties for a new vehicle, I thought "you know, Liz has been feeling a little strange lately, and her body is acting a little abnormal." She took a pregnancy test and BAM! Guess whose going to be a new daddy?!!!!(I bet you didn't see that coming with all of this talk of a new car.) I will never forget the feeling of that morning! Peaking around the door to the bathroom to see a plus sign, picking up my beautiful wife, and spinning her around with joy, and then of course running her square into a wall because I was a little hysterical and overzealous and lost control of the spinning… aaaaaaamazing.

After freaking out for a little bit and letting the great news sink in, we decided to go out and find ourselves a new family car. We drove out toward York because I had seen some decent deals there online. The conversation on the way there and when we were out to lunch was absolutely splendid. We talked about what the pregnancy was going to be like, and discussed the future of our child, and I had a grin on my face the whole time. I was as giddy as a… well…. Expecting father! We drove around a bit in York and had no luck at all. I was a bit frustrated, but nothing was really going to get me down. Liz was tired and started to fall asleep in the car, and I called my sister to get some car shopping advice from my soon to be brother in law. They directed us to Hanover, and I figured I would give it a shot. Liz woke up, and asked where we were, I had no idea at that point, but I knew we were driving in the direction of Hanover. On the way we found a couple of nice looking cars, but none in our price range. I planned on driving Rte 30 the whole way to Hanover, but saw a sign to diverge on another path to Hanover, and Liz inspired me to take it. We drove a couple more miles, and majestically stumbled upon the vehicle of my dreams. The moment we started driving the car, Liz knew I was going to buy it. Best of all, I was successful at talking down the salesman to a price we could afford. I’ve never really negotiated prices like that, and it was very rewarding. The car was on a red tag down 1000 from sticker, and I got him down another 1000. I know we got a good deal and a good car, and best of all, we were able to pay cash and not have lousy, no good, car payments.

I cruised home in my new ride, got to talk to my best friend Keith on the way, swung by my parents to show off the car, and rested home with my glowingly beautiful expecting wife. Talk about a magnificent day!!!

I That So Life

I that so life
Have I much and
So don’t is work
Much know going that
To where on I’m
Write to in too
About start my busy.

Amazing how simple phrases that don’t make a lot of sense can speak deeply about a person. If you read the above statement vertically from left to right instead of horizontally, it is a simple statement. Now that you understand my starting point, I shall interpret the horizontal messages that tell a different tale.

“I that so life.” According to MS word, that is a fragment. I am not surprised. I’ve always considered myself full of life, but time is passing by so quickly lately from days filled with extra hours of work and too much tv. I guess my full of life persona is starting to fall apart… or break apart… possibly into fragments.

“Have I much, and so don’t is work.” There is no doubt that I have been richly blessed in this life. I am very happy where I live, I have a beautiful and wonderful wife, many great possessions including a Wii (talk about have I much) and I just bought a sweet VW Passat. Why do I have these nice things… “so don’t is work.” Work has a lot of don’ts about it. Don’t do this and that while at work, work hard and don’t slack off, don’t do less than expected of you. At the same time we are called to don’t work too hard, don’t get stressed, don’t neglect your family, and don’t neglect your personal time. This list of don’ts is often contradictory, but we have to work through that struggle to have much. Indeed, don’t is work!

“Much know going.” Knowledge is my friend and I believe I have a lot going for me because of that knowledge. I have had many great life experiences that I think set me ahead of the curb compared to many other people my age. I also have a great job with high exposure to top executives and got that position because of my understanding of accounting and MS Excel.

“That to where on, I’m write to in too.” Despite work being don’t and fragments of life, I have much and knowledge. I’m unsure about what lies ahead, but whatever it is, I’m ready through and through (write to in too).

I’m not sure what lies ahead, but what I am sure of is that things aren’t going to get simpler or any easier. I suspect that it will only get more hectic and crazy, but I’m ok with that…. “About start my busy”

That was not funny

I decided I should lighten the tone of my blog with this post. The religious debate has been fun and very informative, but I need a break. In this time of delightful breakfulness, I thought I should share an interesting tale from my first month working for a new company.

After serving here for just under two weeks, I finally got the opportunity to do some work for the CFO. I have been looking forward to working with him because he seemed like a nice guy, and I knew he would have some important, but odd projects that he could hand to me. Over the following few weeks, he gave me a number of small tasks that I completed with great success, but they were all in the background of a major project that I found myself a little too involved with.

Allow me to give you some background. The CFO sent out a packet of material last month to be completed by the presidents of each of the divisions. These are some very important people in our company and probably get paid more than 4 times my salary. The directions given were simple: complete this packet of financial analysis every month and send it up to the CFO. After the first month, everyone failed miserably. The numbers were no where near correct, and it was clear that no one had any idea what they were doing. It was at this point in time that I entered the scene.

The CFO wrote out some notes to make a power point presentation to help the division heads get their act together. He handed me the notes and said “go to it.” I was a bit overwhelmed because I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about, and because no one in their right mind could interpret his hand writing. Despite these shortcomings, I put together a pretty good presentation to run by the CFO. We moved through a few drafts and he was really happy with the work I did. Yea I know, go me!

This is the point where things started going a little south. In one of the final stages of developing this presentation, the CFO looked at me and said “I think you have it, you would be able to present this to all the heads, wouldn’t you?” As I lost feeling in my legs I sarcastically replied “yea, no problem.” Luckily, he laughed and we moved on. The presentation day was coming up and the CFO and I were clearing the last few changes in his office as my boss walked in. The CFO showed my boss what I had put together and we discussed it for a bit. After the discussion, the CFO said “Zack is a pro at this stuff now, he could do the presentation.” I had a similar response, but had more confidence that he was joking. HOWEVER, my boss did not get that same sense of jubilation from the CFO. The day before the presentation, my boss drops by my desk and gives me the helpful tip that I should take the presentation home with me to review. By doing so, I might be able to clearly describe the steps the department heads should be taking. After I picked by jaw up off the floor, I thanked my boss for the tip and explained to him my internal terror by adding the line “you know, I really thought the CFO was joking when he said that. My boss laughed for a moment, then told me that he was indeed not joking.

I went ahead and planned for the meeting and filed into the conference room on the next day. I got to introduce myself to these people: “hi my name is Zack, none of you know me, or care to know me, but I am going to take some of your time to tell you how you dropped the ball and describe the steps to rectify that.” In the end, the meeting didn’t go too bad, not too well, but not too bad. If nothing else, it was an adventure. The next day I was in the CFO’s office with one of the division heads discussing another project. Joe asked the head “what did you think of Zack’s presentation yesterday?” The other guy thought I did ok, and I added that it was quite a spectacle. Then, I went for it. I simply couldn’t believe that he expected that of me and that I misread him so terribly. Therefore, I told the CFO “I’m not going to lie, I really thought you were joking when you said I would have to give the presentation.” The CFO looked right at me and said with all seriousness, “I was.”

We all cracked up laughing as the CFO told us that he wasn’t planning on attending the meeting because of other engagements, so he asked my boss to do it. My boss respectfully declined because he had no idea what he was doing, and at that moment, the CFO’s joke became real. The CFO tried to get out of his other engagements to do the presentation his self, but didn’t make it back and time. Talk about getting thrown into the lion’s den right off the bat. I guess in the long run, it was a pretty good experience for me.

That is my story, thank you for reading.

A Much Needed Post

Wow, life has been busy for the past week or so. I have a lot going on a work right now which is new to me. I am busier, more involved, and working harder after 2 weeks of work then I ever did at my previous job. I am glad my job will be this way. I am constantly being challenged and people are starting to rely on me which I have seldom experienced. Aside from work, things have been busy at home. I have been trying to work out, which got interrupted by a few days of sickness, which was followed by a 3 day Easter weekend with Liz’s family. With all of that said, I have thought about posting every day, but kept running out of time to do so.

I have two separate projects to work on today that I hope to get finished up so I can be ready for to bigger projects I know are coming my way. Because of the work on my desk, this can not be the post that I want it to be. Tj, thank you for your comments and answering the first section of my questions. I have read through your response twice now and I find it to be a really good reply. I do have a couple of questions and debatable points, but I have not had time to fully develop them, and so they will have to wait. I have been trying to better understand the definition of the body, spirit, and soul. I have heard scriptural based arguments for differing definitions and honestly do not know what is correct. Either the soul = body + spirit or the person = body + spirit + soul. I intend to study this definition more thoroughly and then address the comments and questions that follow. In the meantime, my Uncle responded to the email I sent him with the same questions. He also addressed the first section, so I have information from two sources to consider.

While I am dabbling in the definition of the soul, I have a request for any reader out there that would like to defend the Jehovah’s Witness faith. This certainly includes you Tj as I have respect for your well worded biblical answers. Address the second section of my report from the previous post. I personally feel that any doctrinal or theological issue is important to consider and discuss, but some have more significance than others. To put another way, there is truth to be found in the definition of the soul, and I would like to know what happens to my body and sprit when I die, but my opinion on these matters will not make the difference of heaven or hell. Discovering truth in whether Jesus IS God, is A God, A Prophet, or A Lunatic is imperative for a Christian to understand. An error in your understanding of this point, I believe, could mean this difference of life and death.

Thank you to anyone that is willing to take on this challenge. I will be studying the other issues in the meantime. Good luck and God bless.

A full Jehovah’s Witness Post

In my previous post, I made mention of my Uncle who has expressed concern about the church I am joining that is not a Kingdom Hall. It was merely a small part of my post, but has sparked some comments, and so I decided to make a full statement. In reading some online articles and the website linked in a comment from my last post, it is clear that many people out there have a profound hatred for Jehovah’s Witnesses. I want to remind any reader that feels this hatred that we are called to love God’s people, even if they are your enemy.

The following is a portion of a report that I wrote last summer following a conversation with my Uncle. He was very busy at the time with personal matters and lost the email that I sent him. I intend to send the report again, but thought I may get some constructive thoughts through comments before sending it to a family member. The report addresses the issues of Spirit existence, Jesus’ deity, Justification by grace alone, heaven, and hell. I started with a list I found online about 100 questions to ask a Jehovah’s Witness. I weeded out the unimportant ones, and researched scripture concerning the questions I found to have some validity. The translation I used was the NWT so we would be on the same playing field and not have an argument about translation. I appreciate and comments and criticism.

Spirit existence:
Verse: Acts 7:59 And they went on casting stones at Stephen as he made appeal and said: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then, bending his knees, he cried out with a strong voice: “Jehovah, do not charge this sin against them.” And after saying this he fell asleep [in death].

Question: If the spirit of a man has no existence apart from the body, why does Stephen just before his death look up and see Jesus in heaven and pray to "receive my spirit"?

Verse: 2 Corinthians 5:6 We are therefore always of good courage and know that, while we have our home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, 7 for we are walking by faith, not by sight. 8 But we are of good courage and are well pleased rather to become absent from the body and to make our home with the Lord.

Verse: Phil 1:23 I am under pressure from these two things; but what I do desire is the releasing and the being with Christ, for this, to be sure, is far better.

Question: If the spirit of a man has no existence apart from the body, why does Paul say that when we are absent from the body we make our home with the Lord and that it is better to be released from the body and be with Christ?

Verse: Luke 20:37 But that the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about the thorn bush, when he calls Jehovah ‘the God of Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.’ 38 He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him.”

Verse: John 8:56 Abraham YOUR father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.”

Question: When we talked, I believe you said that no one had gone into heaven before Jesus and that those are all dead in the ground awaiting resurrection. Why then does it say that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are all living to him? Why does it also say that Abraham saw and rejoiced in seeing Jesus’ day?

Question: Similar to the last question. How is it that Moses and Elijah appeared on the mount of transfiguration in Matthew 17? Shouldn’t they just be dead and in the ground?

Verse: Genesis 35:18 And the result was that as her soul was going out (because she died) she called his name Ben-o´ni; but his father called him Benjamin.

Verse: 1 Kings 17:21 And he proceeded to stretch himself upon the child three times and call to Jehovah and say: “O Jehovah my God, please, cause the soul of this child to come back within him.”

Question: If the soul dies with the body, how does it go out when Rebecca died and why does Elijah ask for the boy’s soul to come back in?

Jesus is God:
Verse: Isaiah 42:8 “I am Jehovah. That is my name; and to no one else shall I give my own glory, neither my praise to graven images.

Verse: Isaiah 48:11 For my own sake, for my own sake I shall act, for how could one let oneself be profaned? And to no one else shall I give my own glory.

Verse: John 17: 5 So now you, Father, glorify me alongside yourself with the glory that I had alongside you before the world was.

Question: if no one else can have God’s glory as he said in the OT, how is it that Jesus can ask to be glorified alongside of God if God will give no one else his glory? Why does Jesus talk about the past glory they shared?

Verse: Revelation 1: 17 And when I saw him, I fell as dead at his feet.
And he laid his right hand upon me and said: “Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last, 18 and the living one; and I became dead, but, look! I am living forever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Ha´des.

Verse: Revelation 22: 13 I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.

Note: If you read the whole passage, the “I” in the above verses is Jesus speaking.

Verse: Revelation 1: 8 “I am the Al´pha and the O·me´ga,” says Jehovah God, “the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”

Question: How is it that both God and Jesus claim to be Alpha and Omega? They must be the same, or else are their two Alphas and Omegas?

Verse: Isaiah 9:6 For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Question: Why is the son born to us given the name Mighty God if he is not God? He is also given the name Eternal Father, how can the son’s name be Eternal Father?

Verse: Isaiah 44:24 “I, Jehovah, am doing everything, stretching out the heavens by myself, laying out the earth. Who was with me?

Verse: John 1: 2 This one was in [the] beginning with God. 3 All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.

Question: Why is it that God claims in Isaiah that he created the heavens and earth by himself and that no one was with him if Jesus says in John that all things were created through him? Wouldn’t that mean that they were both around during creation and therefore God was not alone?

Question: If nothing came into existence apart from Jesus, how is it that Jesus was the first created thing? Was he able to create himself?

Verse: John 20: 28 In answer Thomas said to him: “My Lord and my God!”

Question: Why does Thomas call Jesus his God? If Jesus isn’t his God, why didn’t he correct him?

Verse: Matthew 1: 23 “Look! The virgin will become pregnant and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Im·man´u·el,” which means, when translated, “With Us Is God.”

Question: Why does Jesus’ name mean “God is with us” if he isn’t God?

Verse: John 5: 18 On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

Question: Wouldn’t Jesus be sinning if he made himself equal to God and was not God?

Verse: John 5: 22 For the Father judges no one at all, but he has committed all the judging to the Son, 23 in order that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He that does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Most truly I say to YOU, He that hears my word and believes him that sent me has everlasting life, and he does not come into judgment but has passed over from death to life.

Question: Why does God want everyone to honor the Son in the same way they honor the Father? If Jesus in below God, then shouldn’t we honor the Father more than the Son?

Justification by grace alone:

Verse: Ephesians 2: 8 By this undeserved kindness, indeed, YOU have been saved through faith; and this not owing to YOU, it is God’s gift. 9 No, it is not owing to works, in order that no man should have ground for boasting. 10 For we are a product of his work and were created in union with Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance for us to walk in them.

Verse: Titus 3: 4 However, when the kindness and the love for man on the part of our Savior, God, was manifested, 5 owing to no works in righteousness that we had performed, but according to his mercy he saved us through the bath that brought us to life and through the making of us new by holy spirit. 6 This [spirit] he poured out richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that, after being declared righteous by virtue of the undeserved kindness of that one, we might become heirs according to a hope of everlasting life.

Question: You told me that you believe that we are not saved by faith alone, and that it is also based on works. Why does it say in Ephesians that we are saved by faith and not by works so that no man can boast? Why does it say in Titus that we become heirs by his mercy and not by out works?

Heaven:

Verse: Isaiah 51: 6 “Raise YOUR eyes to the heavens themselves, and look at the earth beneath. For the very heavens must be dispersed in fragments just like smoke, and like a garment the earth itself will wear out, and its inhabitants themselves will die like a mere gnat.

Verse: Revelation 21: 1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.

Question: I think that a witness believe that after tribulation and everything that the witnesses will live on this earth because that is what God designed for us. Why does Isaiah and Revelation say that this Earth will wear out pass away?

Also see Psalms 102:25-26, Hebrews 1:10-11, Matthew 25:35, Mark 13:31, and Luke 21:33 for other verses that state the earth will perish or pass away.

Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4: . 17 Afterward we the living who are surviving will, together with them, be caught away in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we shall always be with [the] Lord.

Question: What does it mean that those who are still alive at the 2nd coming will meet the Lord in the air? If we are suppose to stay on earth, why are we meeting in the air?

Verse: Ephesians 4: 4 One body there is, and one spirit, even as YOU were called in the one hope to which YOU were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism;

Verse: 1 Corinthians 12: 12 For just as the body is one but has many members, and all the members of that body, although being many, are one body, so also is the Christ. 13 For truly by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink one spirit.

Question: If only 144,000 are destined to go to heaven while everyone else stays on earth, why are we all baptized into one body and it doesn’t matter where your origin is? Why then is the one body called into one hope if Witness’s say there are two groups of people that have different hopes?

Verse: Revelation 7: 9 After these things I saw, and, look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands.

Verse: Revelation 14: 3 And they are singing as if a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one was able to master that song but the hundred and forty-four thousand, who have been bought from the earth.

Question: The four creatures, the elders, and the 144,000 are all standing before the throne in Revelation 14. The great crowd is also standing before the throne in Rev 7. How is it that all these things are standing before the throne if the great crowd will never go into heaven?

Verse: Revelation 19:1 After these things I heard what was as a loud voice of a great crowd in heaven. They said: “Praise Jah, YOU people!

Question: Who is this great crowd that is in heaven?

Hell Fire:

Verse: Revelation 20: 10 And the Devil who was misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where both the wild beast and the false prophet [already were]; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Question: If there is no hell fire, why does it say that they will be tormented day and night forever in the lake of fire?

Verse: Revelation 14: 10 he will also drink of the wine of the anger of God that is poured out undiluted into the cup of his wrath, and he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and day and night they have no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.

Question: Same as last.

Verse: Matthew 18:8, 25:41, and Jude 7 all talk about the everlasting fire.

Question: Why must there be an everlasting fire if eventually all badness will be completely destroyed and fail to exist? Couldn’t the fire just last until the last of the evil are destroyed?

Verse: Matthew 13: 42 and they will pitch them into the fiery furnace. There is where [their] weeping and the gnashing of [their] teeth will be.

Question: How can there be weeping and gnashing of teeth in the furnace where people are simply destroyed?

Verse: Mark 14: 21 True, the Son of man is going away, just as it is written concerning him, but woe to that man through whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been finer for that man if he had not been born.”

Question: Why would it be better if Judas had never been born? If he is just going to be destroyed, isn’t that the same as not being born? It seems like he faces a worse fate.


Thank you for reading through this and any comments.