Here’s something to ponder for the day:
Before you question someone’s attitude, first question your own attitude.
If we did this, I think we’d surprised by what we find…
Archive for June, 2009
Reflection On Attitude
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009Relationships. Rinse and Repeat.
Monday, June 22nd, 2009Relationships have been on my mind lately — partly due to my experiences over the past few months – trying to adapt to my new environment as part student/part adult professional/part New York City dweller (more on that later) – and also partly due to a very deep and ongoing Summer sermon series at Forefront called Ancestry, ‘exploring our past and shaping our future’.
Over the past couple of weeks my friend, Brian Moll, who’s the lead pastor at FF, has started this series by delving into intimacy and relationships (among other topics) pulling context from the Old Testament and relating to and incorporating teachings from the New Testament.
While a lot of profound of thoughts have been presented and I’d encourage you to head over to the church’s website and checkout the vod/podcasts, I’ve had a lot of thoughts swirly around my head in regards to my own relational condition.
The one thought that keeps coming up but that I keep fighting is that I don’t have this thing (meaning relationships) figured out and never will. Deep down, there is a part of me that wants to master friendship and perfect the art form of relationships and I see this as a black and white situation rather than in shades of gray that it really is. At the end of the day I’m yet a novice in the world of friendships and relationships, continually learning and honing.
I’m at a place where I’m having to (painfully) admit this to myself.
You may wonder why I’m sharing this with you. Often times, I think all of us, either in practicality or in our spirituality, at one time or another think we’ve mastered a skill or honed an ability to the point and we forget to take care of it and keep it tuned.
I’ve come a long way from my early college days – six years ago – of being jokingly called an ‘anti-social butterfly’ but just because I’ve made great leaps and bounds (in my opinion) shouldn’t mean that I should want to accept the status quo and say that there aren’t areas of my social fiber I wouldn’t like to change.
I believe that while we can never master the friendships or relationships in our life it doesn’t mean we should stop trying. Not everything will work to your or my advantage but the human condition provide an infinite opportunity for improving one’s personal and relational life. This is something I’ve realized I need to take advantage more of in my own life.
Free* College Text Books
Monday, June 22nd, 2009As I mentioned on Saturday I was cleaning my room and I am now starting to get a rid of a lot of stuff that I no longer have use for. I have a lot of text books from my past college years that I don’t need (or want anymore). A lot of these books cover more of the basic learning and overall theory on the topics and are not that perfect for reference.
Take a look over the list below and shoot me an email or post in the comments below if you’re interested! A lot of these books would be good for teaching someone who needs to learn the basics!
I’ll have more books when I go home and clean my room at parent’s house in July – so stay tuned!
- Web Security for Network and System Administrators – 5 Discs (Red Hat Linux 5.0)
- Murach’s ASP.NET – web programming with VB.NET
- Access 2002 – Complete Concepts and Techniques
- Introduction to Java Programming (covers Java 1.5)
- basic theory; old concepts but probably still good for a beginner - Concepts of Database Management
- Programming in Visual Basic .NET – 1 disc, which I believe is VB.NET
- Flash MX – Graphics, Animation & Interactivity – with learning CD
- Creating Web Pages with HTML and Dynamic HTML – great learning guide
- Arguing Through Literature – A Thematic Anthology and Guide to Academic Writing
- World History – Volume II – Since 11550: The Age of Global Integration
* I’ll be offering these for free – so grab them while they’re hot! I’ll be in Indiana in July if you want to grab them from me then – let me know ahead of time!
Sifting Through Memories
Saturday, June 20th, 2009Today was Spring Cleaning + Day for me (I still have a couple of days to go!). I made a commitment at the beginning of this year to downsize my possessions (or at least filter the clutter) in my life. Moving for the 3rd time in almost as many years last October I realized that I had accumulated a lot of stuff that I don’t need. Coupled with the fact that my parents are ‘itching’ for me to move the last of my stuff from our home in Indiana I figured needed to create some room!
As I was going through everything I uncovered a lot of lost relics that brought up memories of the past four years and beyond. As I was deciding what to do with the stuff (whether to throw, keep, or donate) I was just struck with an odd sense of placing values on my memories and deciding which items to keep and which ones to throw. I was very quick to think of throwing away photos and objects that reminded me of the less than pleasant periods of my life.
I’m a very sentimental person and am a strong believer in remembering the entire past because of the lessons learned from the good and bad situations. However, today I was caught with the thought how much weight we place on our memories and how given life’s roller coaster mentality we should never completely let go of the past, lest we choose to not forge a different and hopefully better future.
Never deliberately and quickly choose to ignore (or forget) the not so pleasant memories of your past because, if my life is any indication of yours, the greatest moments of my life have been built upon on the weakest moments on which I chose to forge a better future.
Friday Night Movies – Conan in Late Night
Friday, June 5th, 2009Conan O’Brien made this return to late night this week and is now at the helm of the Tonight Show Succeeding Jay Leno in the premiere late night television spot.
In today’s Friday Night Movie – Conan brings us a commentary on the state of media today. (Yes, it’s a commercial, but Conan makes everything funny!)