Live blogging from layoff land (2)

It seems that I, and most of the rest of my team, are no longer needed. At least I now know the direction to take, and will likely have some extra free time after Jan. 30 (and as much as I can steal before then).

Live blogging from Layoff land

So, if you've read the news today you probably saw a story about my employer releasing 4000 people this week. Meetings are going on around here today and tomorrow, where people learn their fate. I have a mandatory, in-person meeting (with the rest of my team) set for 1:30. Either we all stay or we all leave is my take - just don't know which yet.

I will provide information when I learn it. I'm not overly concerned either way - if I get to leave, it might involve a move; if I stay I have to deal with deteriorating morale in a company which still hasn't shown that it can sort out management and program inefficiencies to compete in todays cell-phone market. Not sure which is better - one hand has 26 weeks of severance pay and 2 months of medical insurance (plenty of time to lean on my network to find a position), the other has continuing job security - though at a company which is rapidly going into the ground...

Why we need God

I've seen a number of things in the last week that I find interesting, as they point out a few truths from the Bible, and how we need God, even if we don't want to admit that.

There have been a number of 'displays' created by atheist groups, joining in the nativity, menorah, etc. displays around the country. I find it interesting how as these groups explain what they are doing, that they feel they need to convince people that we are 'past the religious superstition of the past'. The atheists recognize that people (and this is from all culture groups and countries) seem to always seek after some 'myth' that leads to greater explanation of what is going on... While some of the 'myths' have been answered by science (which I think is the premise of the atheist argument - that science has provided answers for all the reasons that people seek religious explanations) there are a number which have not - we don't know just how the universe began, we don't know how awareness in humans comes about, and we don't know why humans in particular enjoy some things like music.

I also read an interesting article about 'humanism' as a 'religion'. This is a growing movement to provide the rituals and fellowship that are found in a church, without being religious (other than perhaps worshiping humanity...). This also points to a huge need within people to be part of something larger - that we aren't satisfied being alone, and weren't created to be self-sufficient. The 'Humanists' seek the relation, but don't want religion (yet, they are creating something like a religion in providing the framework for the relation...).

This need to be part of something larger is really our (humanity's) desire to be in right relation to God. We were created to be with God (look at Genesis 2, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden). Because of sin (see Genesis 3) we can't have that relation. That need is 'written' into us - it is part of our being, it is made clear, as in Romans 1-20:

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

(read Romans 1-3 for a really great explanation of how this need for relation exists, and why we can't have it - Romans 4-8 talk about the solution).

So, if the explanation to our 'obsessive and irrational need' to be in something greater, which leads to the perceived need for religion and ritual, is found in God, why isn't that obvious to all? Because we (humans with free will) have again (and continue to) rejected God.

Romans 2:5 - But because of your stubborness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgement will be revealed.

Those who seek to be free from God will :

Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.
Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.
- Isaiah 6:9-10

If we refuse to accept God, we will not be able to understand His ways and His doings, and will not be able to see the mercy which He has for us. This is the missing piece in the above examples - people who have consciously separated themselves from God (the definition of an atheist) cannot see the work of God, and have to seek within Human knowledge for why things are the way they are - when the truth is that God placed them there. Why do humans enjoy music? So that they may encounter God in music, and because He loves music. Why do humans feel a need for religion? We were created to worship God.

If you don't understand what I've written here, maybe you need to find a way to relation with God. Because of our sin, only one way exists - through knowing the rising Jesus as your Redeemer and Savior - He who dies as a sacrifice for your sins, so that you may approach God as holy and blameless...

Cute Kidisms

New quote - yesterday evening, after we watched a taped broadcast of the Nutcracker Ballet, Jessi asked 'Is BB King still alive?". We said we thought so, and asked why she wanted to know. Jessi explained that she thought she saw him in the finale scene of the ballet.....

We had to explain that his music is a little different than what you would find in a ballet...

Of media PCs, old remotes and Linux

This post will probably be horribly boring for the non-geeks in the audience (which might be everybody...), so I'll apologize to everybody in advance...

It has been a desire of mine for a bit to build up a media/entertainment PC and integrate that into our entertainment center. Partly because I get TIVO-like functionality, partly to allow playing the music that we've downloaded (and isn't on CD), partly to watch all of the home video that we have (which is only on PC - we can watch by hooking the camera to the TV, but it doesn't put out good resolution, what we get is basically the camera display blown up about 200000000 times, so its a little pointilistic...), and mostly because I just want to do something cool and drool over new PC components...

I've managed to pull together a system which should perform adequately - it has higher performance than my current desktop PC, which is able to do OK at recording and playing back video (though using Windows Media Center it can't keep up with a HD broadcast, and drops frames often). For about $400 I get a good motherboad with optical audio out, 500GB hard drive, 4GB of memory, a dual-layer DVD writer and a video card which can feed HD into my TV. I have a WiFi card around, and have a spare license for Windows XP. Should be nice, the parts should be here Jan 6... :(

Of course, having a PC doesn't help much without a remote - I've been spending too much time trying to get a remote that came with a Sony PC to work - finding that it uses a completely proprietary configuration, nobody else in the world has made it work, and it generally causes some interesting problems with the rest of the system... I think that I have enough information to make the remote work under Linux now, but will need to modify some drivers to get things to behave.

I've been trying out different software packages under Windows and Linux on my current PC, trying to see what is able to do the things that we want (play DVDs, play stored videos and music, view and record live TV), and will probably setup the PC with GBPVR under Windows XP, also booting and running MythTV under Linux (Ubunto 8.10, to be exact...). Both give access to everything we need - MythTV is also able to get at videos on the web, so we would be able to watch all of the high-def shows that CBS, ABC, etc. are putting up. Eventually, I'll add in a Blueray drive, and maybe another tuner (or two)... Then we just need to do some work with importing old VHS tapes, cassette tapes, albums, etc, and everything will be available at the touch of a button....

Enough of me showing my geeky side... I'm sure there are some people who are interested in this, I promise that the next post will have cute kids and stuff like that - though those cute kids might be helping me assemble the PC. :)

How many calories?

Last night our church had a potluck dinner to celebrate Christmas. After all the eating was done (way too much by yours truly) all the tables and chairs were cleared from the sanctuary, and kids started running in circles in the big open spaces.
After running for a few minutes, Kyle came up to me, puffing and hot from all the running and asked how many calories he had burned off. My answer "more than 10" didn't satisfy him - he wanted to know the actual number... So, I had to say "I don't know - you don't have a calorie counter on your forehead." Some of the other parents near by though that was immensely funny...

I don't like Las Vegas

I finished up a week of meetings in Las Vegas, as part of some software standards activity that is part of my job. Mostly, these meetings involve spending a long day in a conference room, so I don't get to see much of whatever city we're in - except for the evenings which are usually open. Usually these are place I haven't been, so there is some exploring to do. I've been to Las Vegas before, though, so not as much to do that's new - not to mention the various other problems with the current marketing of the city. A few reasons that I especially don't like travel to Vegas:

1) The city is focused on separating you from your money, in lots of unbiblical ways. Gambling is everywhere. You have to walk through a casino to get from the hotel entrance to the elevators. I'm sitting in the airport right now, and there is a huge bank of slot machines 20 feet away. Shows are incredibly expensive - at least $50, for bad seats in a show with a 'nobody' - want to see Better Midler in good seats? Get ready to cough up $400 per person...

2) After gambling, sex seems to be the primary business. You can't walk down the street (at least 'The Strip" - Las Vegas Boulevard) without having a huge number of cards for 'girls' pushed at you. About half of the shows involve dancing girls, with or without all the normal clothing. Billboards and advertising trucks are everywhere hyping strip clubs. I'm not intereseting in this stuff, but would rather not have to see it constantly.

3) There are earthquakes here. Last night, about 8:18 there was an earthquake in Lowell California, which was felt in Vegas. I noticed it mostly from feeling the building swaying back and forth, about 4 inches or so based on seeing the curtains swinging. It felt generally like I was really dizzy. Not dangerous, but a little disturbing and I try to avoid earthquakes.

4) I'm away from my awesom family, and not in a place where I can have as much seeing new things...

That's enough of my rant. I'm on my way home, they've announced that the plane will be boarding in a few minutes, so I'm getting free of Sin City.