Our pastor used an analogy a few years ago that has really stuck in my head. He put two chairs next to each other. One a sturdy four-legged comfortable looking chair, the other a ragged and torn mess with a leg missing. He then asked the question, which one should you trust? As you look at the two, one which can hold you for sure, the other with the duct tape on the legs looks as if it couldn’t hold a child let alone an adult.
The question that day was, do you know what you are putting your hope in? It is my question today. A quick look at the news this morning showed me trouble all over the world, and some not so far away which is creating feelings of stress and anxiety. Some are looking to our government to fix the problem, some are looking for the rich or even more for the world to come together and mend the human race.
To me, these look like the wobbly chair. I know of only one hope which can change the hearts of evil men, and like the pastor told me that day, He is the sturdy chair in which I can rest!

Well it is Thanksgiving week. This marks the beginning of the season of over eating.  As a reformed fat guy I work all year on keeping my weight down only to be un-done by this time of the year. It is not only the day of Thanksgiving or even Christmas that get me it is the not stop goodies throughout the work place that send me to the January of repentance. I can reduce the impact of one meal or two but everyday walking by Chocolate and nut covered treats or egg nog flavored peanut butter balls is just too much for a guy to take. Every department will have a little Christmas party which will mean leftovers sitting out in the lunchrooms. Not to mention all the overachiever’s who will bring in their best holiday delights to help us all put on the winter bulk. As I sit here munching on a baby carrot I cannot help but wonder if a better treat can be found by wondering the halls of the office looking for an overachiever’s early start to the season!

I spent the last four days on the road, we went on a college visiting trip up north and just returned. On the way up and back we spent time in hotels, we didn’t stay in the roach infested variety but we didn’t stay at the swank ones either. If it was a well-known chain with clean rooms and a complimentary breakfast, we booked it. There were a few things I noticed that they all had in common, things I would not think of needing while on the road.

1. Why do they supply a shower cap? Does anyone use these? Is it expected that most of the guests have their hair done once a week at the boutique? I don’t know what the average age of guests is but a shower cap in every bathroom indicates to me that most of the guests are over eighty.
2. Bubble bath? While on the road I saw a today show report on how clean the rooms really are. Let’s just say there is no way I am setting my bare backside on the tub in a strange hotel room. I don’t carry a black light or anything but I am going to avoid contact with most of the surfaces in the hotel.
3. French shaved soap. What the heck is that? Can you put a regular bar of a soap in the bathroom? I get it, you are trying to say you are fancy, but I don’t care. When I wash my hands it doesn’t need to be some overpriced French filled perfume monstrosity. All it needs is enough killing power to get rid of whatever I just picked up touching the counter in your bathroom.

I am the manager of a team that has had three open positions over the last few months. The manager left, so I moved up and others moved on. I have had to look over at least fifty resumes looking for people I want to interview. There are a few things I want to get out to potential candidates if they want me to consider their application.

1. Do not lead off your resume with a statement that says you want some job other than the one you applied for. Right at the top one guy says his goal is to work in another department. Nothing says move on, like a statement like this. I want to hire someone who wants the job I have open not someone who is going to try to move on from day one.
2. The job is in the IT department, not in the cafe. Do you have IT experience? Then put it in a prominent place where I can see it, not buried under the Crème Brulé!
3. If you have a degree in IT, put it prominently at the top. If your degree is in marketing put in at the bottom. One guy had a Doctorate in law, that doesn’t appeal to me, it says “way over qualified for my little position”. I am not saying you should cheat or lie, I am saying that I am looking for a specific skill set, help me find those on your resume so I can see you really are someone I should take a look at.

I am not a total hater of winter, it can be nice to be outside in the cold. Skiing is awesome and I have had some real fun times walking in the forest while it is snowing. What I am really not a fan of is when it goes from summer to winter in the span of a few hours. I like the idea of knowing what I am getting into. If I have to carry a large coat while I am sweating only to see that sweat freeze on my back, I get a little flustered. The problem is I live in Colorado, where the saying is “if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes”. The weather around here changes faster than a Kardashian marriage status. Even during summer I carry a blanket and umbrella in the back of my car just to be prepared. It never fails that I get rained on when I didn’t expect it and snowed on when no one expected it. I guess it is just the hazards of living in this beautiful place.

It isn’t always easy to figure out what the best way to spend your free time on. By free time I don’t mean those vacation days you have been storing up, I mean the everyday hours where you could be watching TV or knitting a hat out of old aluminum beer cans and yarn. I tend to put a lot of hours in on my computer. I will have the TV on but will be working on a website or writing something I need to get done. I have always liked to do creative things, music or video, even graphics but I have found that there are some things I am just better at than others. For example, I have tried painting but it takes more talent and patience than I have to do a good job so I have abandoned trying it. Whatever it is that you enjoy when you are finished with a project I hope that you can look at it and smile at the accomplishment no matter how good the finished product is. Today I stumbled across one person’s hobby, which gives me I hope as much joy as it does him. Check out the link to the art of David Irvine, David takes thrift store paintings and paints random characters into those paintings. One of my favorites is Darth Vader fishing on a classic lake scene. What really makes me smile about these is the shear randomness of what he has added to each painting, They make no sense, they do not fit in the classic painting which is why I get so much enjoyment out of them.
http://twistedsifter.com/2014/07/thrift-store-painting-remixes-by-david-irvine/

Today is Election Day, the day the commercials stop, the games all come to an end for an evening. Tomorrow, begins the blame game. Why one candidate lost or why they think they lost. The answers are more amusing than the outcome. One group will claim suppression of voters, one will say they “just didn’t get their message out to the voters”, both of which are laughable. I know that in my state the senatorial candidates like to eat small children and whales, judging by the commercials I have seen this year. They hate women, puppies and like to run through senior citizens homes yelling fire. Their plans consist of taking money from people who make it and giving it to large corporations who will then turn around and give it to the Chinese. Some believe if we give the people who hate us the above mentioned puppies that they will stop hating us. I have also heard that some of them doubt that polar bears even exist. All of this adds up to a feeling that after tonight we all need a good shower to get off the slime that has been slung. If they want us to have a better opinion of our election process, they are going to have to help us feel not so dirty after it is over.