How can there be any reason for what happened this morning in Connecticut? How can we explain why human beings have such capacity for senseless destruction? I can hear my Non-Christian friends argument. How can you believe in a God that lets these things happen? My only answer is, I don’t know? The misnomer about faith is that if you profess it you have all the answers. The reality is, I believe because I don’t know. I can no sooner explain tragedy than I can a miracle. My faith is because I have personally seen God work in my life. I profess faith not because I understand but because I don’t. I see no other reasonable explanation but an Almighty God at work. It doesn’t mean I like everything or even agree with everything I see. It means I trust that out of all the craziness God has a plan.

I love getting Christmas cards from friends and family. They let me see pictures of some of you I don’t get to see too often. If they come with a letter, I get to hear all about what you did this last year. They also make me feel guilty, I can barely keep up with email let alone create a letter or get us all in the same room for 5 minutes to take a picture. I could mail a card signed “from us” but that seems like cheating. I don’t know how you all do it? Some are well written(unlike this post). Some are beautifully designed and have amazing pictures. This makes me feel lazy for not putting forward the effort, but not guilty enough to make me do it. So I will just admit now I am probably not going to get around to it so…..

Merry Christmas! We were busy! From us!

A running back on the San Francisco 49ers whined on twitter last week that he was rotting on the team. This guy was signed as a backup to Frank Gore an all-star for 1.6 millions dollars plus bonuses for various other things. This means, to sit and watch the game every week and practice during the week he made $100,000. I don’t know about your weekly pay check but mine doesn’t even come close to that for a year! I understand the competitive spirit and if I had made it to that level I would want to play. For that much money I would not only sit on the bench but wash all the players and coaches cars during the game. I guess it is a question of perspective. If according to Feed The Children, I can feed a child in Africa for $30 a month. I shouldn’t really complain about what I have however less than a whiny football player I got.

Do you ever wonder who was the first person to try something? Mushrooms for example. Who was the first person who saw something growing out of a pile of animal waste and thought. “I wonder if those are eatable?” If the first guy tried and died did his friend make a mental note not to eat those again or did he think, maybe they will work in soup? It seems at some point someone had to try all the variations to know which ones were poison, which ones made you loopy and which ones made a good salad. It doesn’t stop at mushrooms, every culture seems to have some sort of food that is traditional for them but repulsive to everyone else. Menudo, lutefisk, even pork rinds, yet at some point someone joined what everyone else thought was uneatable into a family tradition. So as we all prepare to enjoy these rare delights during Christmas. Hoist a toast to the long gone family member who figured out it wouldn’t kill ya!

I don’t always like to tell people I am a computer geek because it usually causes them to do two things. The first is to show me what cell phone they have and the story around why they chose it. The second is to tell me all the issues they have with it. It goes something like this. My brothers ex-wife told me she loved this phone so I bought it. It works ok except when I am in my sauna, then the screen fogs up and I can’t read my emails. I am thinking about returning it and getting (insert other phone with same issue here), what do you think?

What do I think? What I think is, I don’t care! My phone has stupid issues and I sit down and work them out on my time. I bought my phone because a friend liked his, just like you did. No, I don’t enjoy talking about tech all the time, I was on my way to the snack table and you interrupted my dipping time.

Ok, I’m being a little dramatic. I like talking about tech most of the time and I usually will talk about your phone but I really don’t know much about your cell phone. I can only point you in the right direction after that you’re gonna have to wait for your contract to end like the rest of us.

Ever since we bought our Wii it has mocked me. Every time I stepped on that stupid Wii fit it would make my Mii (the on-screen caricature of myself) spin around and grow fat and if that wasn’t enough it would then say, “ooh that’s obese!” I hated that! Of course that also came with a “yes you are a loser” sound effect in the background. No, I don’t want to explain to the Wii why I’m fat! I will not answer A,B,or C I know why I am fat I don’t need the multiple choice mockery, thank you very much!

Well that ended today! For the first time the Wii said I was “Normal”. Obviously the Wii doesn’t know me very well but I’ll take it. After a year of running and eating right I finally got that stupid box to say I was normal. My Mii did a little dance, I however, pointed at the TV and said “take that, you stupid box!” Ok, maybe I did a little dance too! My plan is to never step on it again. I don’t want to ruin the moment. I won that’s all the Wii needs to know.

I heard today that the government wants to start putting black boxes in cars. While I will admit that this would give some beneficial info to police when facts are not available. I also think this is going to start a crazy cycle of technology being used against us “for our own good”. these boxes will have to have access to everything in the cars to be useful but that also means they will probably want some ability to use those controls in curtain situations. If there is a OJ Simpson type chase they will be able to send a command to stop the car. How about parents wanting to limit how fast or how far away from home the kids can go? All of this will be possible and some of it cool. The problem is that it will be ripe for abuse, and it will add substantial cost to every car. Which have already become over priced.

Lets face it, the real reason for christmas is gone! It has been replaced by a consumer driven frenzy called purchasmas! The celebration of Christ’s birth has been overrun. I see no way of getting it back from what it has become so I propose we do something different. Since most of us are aware that at some point the church moved Christmas to cover a pagan festival lets move it back. If we don’t know what day lets move it to something like May 15th. That way it is all by itself were we can celebrate the coming of our Lord without the presents and malls. Lets agree to leave the consumer driven stuff where it is and create a day where we stop and thank God for what he has done for us. Before you say that is what thanksgiving is for I would contend it has been replaced with the bulking up for Black Friday! But that is a random thought for another day!

Call me sexist, but I want to buy my auto parts from a guy! My checkbook currently says I will be driving my 9-year-old car a while longer. Like until Jesus returns! So I have to fix things on it because getting it fixed is also not a possibility. While I can turn a wrench, I am no mechanic. So when I go to the auto parts store I usually am looking for information as well as a part. I am more and more seeing woman behind the counter. Now let me clarify, they probably know 10 times what I know about cars. They also probably have worked on far more cars than I have. This is not an issue of ability, I know these women, and others are perfectly capable of fixing a car. In the same way I wouldn’t ask another guy if my pants make me look fat. I am not comfortable asking them stupid questions about my car. I know this says more about me than about them but there are certain things I am comfortable asking men about that I wouldn’t ask a woman. Car parts is one of them.

I was at the counter waiting for the “genius” to bring me my new iPhone when a woman walked up to the bar and started talking to the kid in front of the counter. I could not hear the woman but I could hear the salesman “No ma’am your iPhone 4 can’t speak to you it doesn’t have that option. I’m not sure why your friends iPhone can talk to her maybe you should ask her. I believe you that hers is the same but the iPhone 4 doesn’t do that. The iPhone 4 didn’t have a powerful enough processor to handle that feature. You could buy a new iPhone but I don’t know what to tell you? No I am not lying to you! I’m sorry you feel that way! I’m sorry I don’t know what to tell you? Would you like to set up an appointment to talk to someone about that?’ She then stomped off. This is why retail is a tough job!