Motherhood: Finding Rest in the Father's Arms

Evie at one week old.

It’s true that parenting teaches you a lot about yourself. I’m not sure if anyone ever gave me that advice or if I just assumed, as with all major life changes, becoming a mother would be as much an introspective process as an external one.

Tonight I reminded what a restless personality I have while I was rocking down my equally restless 7-month-old. As she struggled to find comfort and stillness in my arms, straining this way and that hoping for five more minutes of play time, I thought of how the Father holds me. How in the midst of my frantic need to finish a “to do list” or task his arms encircle me. If I slow down long enough to hear his heartbeat, to rest and soak in his spirit, gradually my limbs start to release tension.

He knows I need rest. He knows I need stillness to hear his heart for the world. His perspective is a million times over what mine is to my baby girl’s. He not only knows what I need in this moment or in the next hour, he knows what I need 10 years from now. He knows that when I rest in Him, I hear his voice more clearly.

As I rocked her to sleep tonight and I held her longer than normal — just to watch her sleeping, the only time she is ever truly still — I thought of a how God holds me. I laid my head against the rocking chair and in the stillness of the nursery we were both gently rocked in the hands of the creator of the universe.

He knew what I needed. He knew I had a long to do list and I felt overwhelmed and tired and spent. He let me struggle and strain in his arms till I found a place of rest. 

Prayer and Fasting for the Super Bowl

My husband Matt and I were recently made aware by a missionary we support in Dallas (Deep Ellum area) that the Super Bowl is a time when there is a significant rise in human trafficking in the U.S. An unknown number of enslaved children are currently being trafficked into the Dallas area in preparation for Super Bowl XLV. Each city that hosts the Super Bowl or similar events experiences an influx of prostitution rings ready to sell America's children to the crowds. Throughout January and February, many churches, non-profit organizations and law enforcement agencies have come together to fight human trafficking during the Super Bowl.

Volunteers are participating in street outreaches 24 hours a day working to locate and rescue victims, helping high-risk businesses such as hotels and bars recognize victims and canvassing at-risk neighborhoods with anti-trafficking information. These efforts during the previous two Super Bowls resulted in 50 children being rescued from their captors as well as prosecution of the perpetrators! 

Matt and I inquired about volunteering, but we we're a little late to join the street teams. Instead we are committing to join the many other believers in praying for the anti-trafficking programs and fasting the day of the Super Bowl. We hope that God will be glorified and His light will shine in the midst of dark places as a result of this anti-trafficking campaign.

"...if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday." Isaiah 58:10

I wanted to make you aware of the efforts and invite ya'll to join us in praying and choosing to fast either Saturday or Sunday.

The group organizing the outreaches, Traffick911 (http://www.traffick911.com), has a prayer guide for supporters to follow. I've here is a document with the prayer guide for today through the Super Bowl. Please announce this as you see fit to your groups and to other church leaders you know! 

Thank you,

Matt & Sarah-Jane Menefee

Top 10 Reasons to Work on a Governmental Holiday

(Things I found out from working on MLK Day)

The past two years I’ve come in to work on MLK Day. It isn’t that I don’t respect Martin Luther King Jr., it just happens that his holiday tends to fall on my deadline for the Tech Times. Besides, I’d like to think MLK, a hard worker in his own right, would not begrudge me working to meet a deadline. In fact, though many have expressed their pity for me working alone in an empty office building while everyone else sleeps in, I’ve found several advantages to working on holidays.

1. You don’t have to wear nice clothes, fix your hair or wear make-up. Who’s going to see you? (I’m wearing a wind suit over my yoga clothes and a bandana.)

2. Because you don’t have to get dressed up, technically you can sleep in past your normal morning alarm. (I got up at 7:30 a.m. and spent around 10 min. on my appearance.)

3. The whole pot of coffee at the office is yours. (I’m brewing my own Kona coffee this morning, something I’d never be able to enjoy with everyone else here.)

4. Go ahead; sing along with your music! (I’m singing with the Glee soundtrack in honor of their Golden Globe win.)

5. It’s gloriously quiet! Sometimes, even with my office door closed and my headphones on, the noise of the office can be distracting. Not on holidays!

6. No incoming e-mails! (if you don’t count out-of-office autoreplies) Everyone who would e-mail you is on holiday. This is an excellent opportunity to send them e-mails so you’ll be at the top of their list tomorrow. (whoever they are)

7. You won’t have that sinking feeling tomorrow when your coworkers realize that though they had a holiday, the same amount of weekly work must now be completed in four days. Is it really a holiday if you have to work late the rest of the week to make up for it?

8. Take lunch whenever you want. No one is here to create an office cover schedule and no one is calling anyway.

9. No meetings! You can focus on the tasks at hand without any interruptions, meetings or annoying conference calls.

10. The top reason to work on a governmental holiday is that you can take the time off later while all your coworkers are working! (and it doesn’t affect your vacation time) I’m taking off next Monday when my fiancé is in town.

A Little Princess

The Waco Hippodrome is showing "A Little Princess" tonight at 7:30 p.m. as a part of their summer movie series. I'm volunteer "working" the event and will probably end up serving popcorn, but it's worth it to see free movies and shows.
Get a $2 off coupon for the show!

The story of "A Little Princess" has a special place in my heart. I grew up reading it and Frances Hodgson Burnett's other famous work "The Secret Garden." I think as a child I found it easy to relate to the main characters in Burnett's books. Young, clever and inquisitive girls who enjoyed reading and believed in good "Magic" that could make gardens flourish, heal young crippled boys and reunite fathers and daughters.

While I was trying to explain the story to my boyfriend last night, I grabbed my well worn paperback copy off the little shelf in my bedroom, (reserved for such classics) and was surprised to find it had been inscribed to me from my parents on the occasion of my eighth birthday. I guess that reinforces how long I have enjoyed reading this book! (Incidentally, I couldn't help myself and read three chapters in last night around midnight and will probably finish the book this weekend.)

I'm looking forward to the movie tonight, though I've seen it and the 1939 Shirley Temple version several times, and will probably tear up when Sara declares to Miss Minchin, "I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses. All of us."

Those are words of hope to young (and not so young) girls everywhere. I hope you'll join me at the movies tonight. Also check out the other fun movies that will be playing every Friday night this summer and the exciting Hitchcock Third Thursday series at the Hippodrome Web site.

The TSTC New Student Orientation Guide

Open publication - Free publishing - More student

Yeah, I wrote this.

The Brothers Green IRL

This weekend I had a fun time meeting two of my favorite YouTube vloggers John and Hank Green of the vlogbrothers. I discovered the vlogbrothers and their project Brotherhood 2.0 last July when Hanks very popular song "Accio Deathly Hallows"was featured on the front page of YouTube. After watching his video and his brother's response video I was hooked.

It couldn't have come at a better time. I was about to graduate from college and had already started my first full-time job. In the weeks after receiving my diploma I went through post-college depression (that's according to this one blogger I found on a Google search). Which means I'd graduated a year early from college and left all the friends I had to sit in an office for 8 hours+ a day. Who wouldn't be depressed?

The only bright spot in my day, besides getting off work at 5 p.m., was lunch time. I didn't know anyone and often didn't have transportation, so I closed my office door and had lunch with the vlogbrothers. They were about 150 videos into the B2.0 project, a project which had the two brothers who live in different states communicating every week day back and forth in YouTube videos, so I had a lot of videos to watch to get caught up.

I really looked forward to lunch everyday. I had so much fun with the Green brother videos! I now know I'm a made of awesome nerdfighter and have read all of John Green's books. It's been a great journey getting to know the Green brothers and the other awesome nerdfighters through the forums at the various nerdfighter Web sites, first www.brotherhood2.com and now http://nerdfighters.ning.com.

It's very hard to explain the awesomenss of nerdfighting. The inside jokes, phrases and songs are really best experienced first through the videos. Of course if you're coming across this for the first time you have a long way to go to get caught up. The vlogbrothers currently have 369 videos up on YouTube and will have a lot more before the month is up.


All of this background information leads up to my meeting the brothers Green on the first stop of the Great American Tour de Nerdfighting 2008 in Plano, TX last Sunday. I thought I'd be nervous meeting John, Hank and The Katherine (Hank's wife) after watching them for more than a year, but it was actually like meeting friends. They didn't know me, but I knew a lot about them. (I didn't want to make too many assumptions because I learned the folly of that in John's latest novel, Paper Towns.) They were even more awesome in person as they are via YouTube. It was also great meeting other Texas nerdfighters. We all have a shared history through the vlogbrothers and it was very easy to talk to complete strangers because of that commonality.

The visit was short, sweet and totally awesome. The Tour de Nerdfighting continues as the Green brothers travel the country meeting others just like me. Thanks to John and Hank for never forgetting to be awesome and teaching others the value of being a nerd.

Hank and John Green, brothers for over 27 years, decided not to write to each other during all of 2007, and instead make daily video blogs.

Though the project "Brotherhood 2.0" has now ended, they decided to keep updating the YouTube channel at least once a week. Additionally, the community of nerdfighters that they helped create is now stronger than ever, and lives at: http://www.nerdfighters.com

John Green is the author of the novels "Looking for Alaska," "An Abundance of Katherines" and "Paper Towns." His personal site is http://www.sparksflyup.com

Hank Green runs the Web site http://www.ecogeek.org.

Photos
TOP: Hank (left) and John (right) walking up to the Plano library where we had our nerdfighter gathering.
RIGHT: John signed my copy of Paper Towns. You should go buy a copy today or if you live in Waco and are really nice to books, you can borrow mine.

Student’s passion for graffiti as art

When Jose Sandoval sees a white wall, he pictures only possibilities: bright colorful murals, dark meaningful social commentary or complicated letters forming art that only the he can read.

He is a street artist not a delinquent. He is someone who sees a wall as a canvas that can constantly change, but he didn’t start out that way. As a child growing up, Sandoval went through many art phases. He started with cartoons, then anime and on to fine art pieces in high school always looking for something bigger and more creative.

“I’ve gone through a lot of phases,” he said. “I’m still trying to find my signature style I guess.”

After high school, he came to TSTC to study Advertising Design & Print, but in a typography class he hit another type of wall.

“It got to a point in one of my classes that I couldn’t come up with any designs I liked,” he said. “It was all stuff to please everyone else and I wasn’t happy with it, so I dropped everything.”

Sandoval took two semesters off from college to find his creative voice. He’d been introduced to graffiti by another ADP student who had grown up in the street art scene of California and it intrigued him. So he studied it, tearing through books, movies, documentaries and Web sites that took him through the history, meaning and culture behind the art that’s been called bigger than the renaissance.

“I took the hiatus to really reevaluate my life and find a fountain of youth to rejuvenate my creativity,” Sandoval said. “In graffiti I found my motivation.It’s very competitive and I like that about it. It’s a creative competition to see who can come up with something new that hasn’t been done before.”

Learning to make spray paint art has been a slow process for Sandoval. He immersed himself in it for a year to get the level he’s at now and still sees a lot of room for improvement. He started out with sketches and has since filled three notebooks full of graffiti ideas and practice. Though he describes his first attempts as “pretty horrible,” Sandoval said he found a love for the medium.

“I’m very impatient and spray paint is my kind of medium. It dries fast and you just add more layers,” he said. “It was like I was made to paint with it.”

He’s also become more socially aware of the laws involved with graffiti. At first he assumed the penalty for unauthorized tagging was fine or a slap on the wrist, but after spending several hours in jail and answering to his mother who bailed him out, he sought permission to use walls for canvasses.

He spoke to businesses with large visible walls, showed them examples of what he would paint, and now has a wall at 25th and Morrow that uses for practice. From that wall, word got around about his talent and Mission Waco commissioned a mural from him which now decorates two of its outside walls.

Though commissioned works are still few and far between for Sandoval, he faithfully paints and repaints his first wall once a month as an ever-changing work of art. He returned to TSTC this past summer and plans to finish his ADP degree
relying on graffiti as a hobby.

“TSTC is teaching me what I can do with art as a career and graffiti is the motivation for me to come up with new things,” he said.

He continually sketches bigger and more elaborate graffiti pieces filling page upon page in his notebooks. He gathers inspiration from several Web sites and artists from around the world and rarely talks to classmates and teachers about his street art.

“I just want to be known for my work,” Sandoval said

Knot Into Weddings

I've done a lot of thinking about weddings lately. I know this is something women are supposed to think about, but it's not a normal activity for me. I recently shot my first wedding and had another today, and while adore photography, I don't think I'll be setting up a side business in weddings.

Why? Well for one thing, it's nerve racking, extremely tiring and time consuming. (I know, that was three things) After being a wedding photographer I wonder why anyone would ever get married twice. The first one is tiring enough! I also wonder if wedding planners or photographers who've attended hundreds of weddings choose the courthouse or small ceremonies when they tie the knot, because 1. It's too much like work or 2. They've realize the huge, hairy deal that we've made weddings isn't worth it.

That's certainly how I feel at this point. I may change my mind in the future, but the principle of spending so much money and time on an event that is so momentary is kind of repulsive to me. At the same time, it's extremely self-centered. I'm not saying this to criticize my friends who've had big, beautiful weddings, but because I don't know if my values are the same.

It seems to me that it shouldn't be so expensive to start out a new married life when you certainly won't have that much money to fall back on post marriage. I wonder if the big wedding idea is another one of life's myths. I might just start a myth series on here. The myths I refer to are include Prince charming myths, the disposable myth, stuff myth, etc.

The problem with myths, like the big-weddings myth, is that we're trained from infancy what they should look and be like. It is not often that we question myths because of the tradition and the herd mentality of humans. But I digress. Suffice it to say, I'm not sure what to think about weddings. I'm in the inquisitive stage. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think, especially if you're married!

The photo is from the McClure wedding I shot the first weekend in Oct. I've been editing the photos this weekend, and I really like this one.

No Longer to Linger

This morning my rallying cry came from an old Baptist hymn, "I Am Resolved." Since the season's change has brought on cooler morning temps, I have lazed in bed for hours past the alarm. This sets off an unpleasant chain reaction of rushing to get ready for work, attempting to prepare breakfast in the space of 5 minutes and running in to the office 20 min. late.

But I can't be a slugabed forever, so I resolved this Monday would be different. It's amazing how well the hymns lyrics fit what I was feeling as I turned the 5:45 a.m. alarm off. "I am resolved no longer to linger,Charmed by the world’s delight, Things that are higher, things that are nobler,These have allured my sight.I will hasten to Him, hasten so glad and free; Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee."

I do delight in the comfort of my bed, but I needed to hasten to the tasks at hand. Namely, cleaning my Chacos, washing the dishes, making a fantastic french press of espresso coffee and writing this post before getting pretty for the day. So now as a savor the last few bites of ginger granola and yogurt, I can reflect on what God has in store for me today.

"I am resolved to follow the Savior,
Faithful and true each day;
Heed what He sayeth, do what He willeth,
He is the living Way."


Author's note: I fried some shark steaks last week and my house has smelled horrible since. I've tried burning candles, setting out baking soda, leaving my back door open, etc, but nothing worked for very long. I finally got a solution from the Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook:

Ingredients:
1 Lemon
5-10 Whole Cloves
Water
Small Saucepan

Slice the lemon into 5-6 slices and combine the lemon, clove and water (to an inch from the top)of the saucepan. Simmer for as long as you like.

This has not only effectively eradicated the shark smell, but has made the whole house smell like fall. Be sure to keep an eye on it if you plan to simmer for an hour or more, the water will evaporate. Just add more water as needed.

Thanks to Waco twitterer http://twitter.com/jraddin for reminding me I had a blog to tend to, and to http://breadsite.org for their collection of scanned open source hymns.

Greenwashing’s powerful effect on consumerism

What do you think of when you hear the word greenwashing?

I asked a few students and got some interesting responses. One thought it was a new environmentally friendly laundry soap; another pictured someone scrubbing grass like you would a tile floor or hosing down a tree to clean its leaves.

Images of someone taking soap and water to their lawn is amusing, but the true meaning of greenwashing is a serious topic that effects consumerism in a big way.

Put simply, greenwashing is a term that describes a company, government or organization that advertises positive environmental practices while acting in the opposite.

We’ve all seen the revolution in the store aisles. Next to the paper towels you always buy is a new option decorated with green leafy tendrils to advertise its environmental sustainability.

Now you’re faced with a new dilemma. Do you choose the tree-killing chemically treated triple-ply value brand or go with most likely more expensive tree-planting brand? More and more consumers, fueled by incessant media coverage of the green movement and the increased popularity of buying organic, untreated products, are picking up the expensive “eco-friendly” advertised brands.

But how green are the products themselves? All too often consumers get sucked into cool advertising that sells a product not much different than the value brand.

In fact, according to an independent study conducted by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc. in 2007, more than 99 percent of environmental claims on consumer products are demonstrably false or risk misleading their intended audiences.

TerraChoice defined what they call the “Six Sins of Greenwashing” to describe the different falsifying claims on these so-called green products. The most common sins committed are the hidden trade-off and the sins of no proof and vagueness.

The hidden trade-off is fairly straight forward. Those paper towel companies that promote their recycled content or sustainable harvesting don’t mention the environmental impact of their manufacturing processes, which aren’t so green.

The sins of no proof and vagueness are where the green paint hits the fan. Product and service claims that provide no evidence or certification of their validity are nothing short of fraud. My favorite is the “all natural” claim. As TerraChoice points out, arsenic is natural, as is uranium, mercury and formaldehyde. All of which are poisonous.

So what’s the big deal? Advertisers have always lied to us to influence consumer buying power.

The problem lies within the reason behind buying green products. Unlike other marketing ploys that try to convince us either to buy at the place with the best price or buy the product with the best value no matter what the cost. Buying green is buying into a philosophy that supports the environment.

False and misleading advertisers give consumers the sense that purchasing their product supports that philosophy. The result is the uniformed majority pay more for a lot of hot air, and true environmentalists have no faith in green claims.

So far the only standards used to measure environmental products and services are a few certification organizations. There is no Federal standard required to display environmental claims on product labels.

The best bet is to look for products that have the logo of an outside certification organization. Eco-logo, Green Seal, Green Label and Energy Star, among others, are recognizable certifications that require total company analysis before giving a product a environmentally friendly rating.

The next time you’re in the paper towel aisle, don’t get greenwashed. If the product doesn’t support its claims using an outside agency or at the very least provide proof on its own Web site, ignore the green paint and cute pictures of baby trees. You’ll save a little green in the process.

Cartoon by Jose Sandoval,an Advertising Design & Print student at Texas State Technical College.

Need for Speed: CNS instructor enjoys high gear sports

By Sarah-Jane Sanders
TSTC Coordinator of Publications

For Computer Networking & Systems Administration Master Instructor Jimmy Summers, risk taking is no light matter. But through years of practice and proficiency, he has found the rewards of extreme activities exceed the risks as much as the ocean exceeds a kiddie pool.

"I’ve done some things few other people will do," Summers said. "I’ve experienced free-falling from up to 14,500 feet and have seen some of the most beautiful sunsets from in the clouds. I’ve played hockey with people from the NHL (National Hockey League) and with personnel from teams like the Dallas Stars. And in motorcycle racing, I’ve ridden with some of the best people in the world."

But, Summers would be the first to tell you he didn’t start out in the big leagues.

On the road
He bought his first motorcycle right after graduating from college and had no intentions of racing.

"At the time, I thought racing was for guys with sub-high school educations with nothing better to do than run circles around a racetrack."

However, after attending a few races and making friends with some big name racing families, he cautiously took up the sport.

"I didn’t want to be one of those (motorcycle death) statistics, so I bought one of the leather suits that the racers wear with the boots, helmet and gloves."

Summers rode in the racing circuits for four years until an accident at an association Grand Nationals race caused significant damage to his motorcycle and left him with minor injuries.

Despite this, his skills and abilities later qualified him as a Rider Coach candidate for the internationally known California Superbike School.

Recently, he has taken up teaching racing techniques with the RideSmart motorcycle school based in Austin. He also continues to hone his racing skills, and often rides his bike to work.

In the sky
Skydiving is another of the various daredevil sports Summers enjoys. He began jumping while he was a student studying at A&M University and joined A&M’s skydiving club soon after seeing a campus demonstration.

Summers’ first jump story, however, sounds like a recipe for disaster. His parachute ripcord caught on the plane, causing it to deploy prematurely. Then, he opened a reserve chute, but found the navigation toggles had not been fastened correctly which prevented him from steering. After missing several dangerous obstacles, including a major highway, a construction site and power lines, Summers touched down about 1,000 yards from the target landing area.

Throwing caution quite literally to the wind, Summers made a second jump the next weekend, and now has approximately 190 safe landings under his belt, as well as several levels of jump licenses and awards.

I made a second jump to see what the first jump should have been like," he said, "and I’ve been hooked ever since."

Though his skydiving habits began on a whim, Summers said he happened into ice hockey because of a girl.

Around the rink
To impress a woman he was dating, Summers planned a special date that would end with a bit of romantic ice skating. In preparation for the date, he took skating lessons at a rink in Dallas.

During first lesson, he ran into an old skydiving buddy who encouraged him to try out hockey. Later, when things fell through with his girlfriend before the skating date could be arranged, he stayed with the skating lessons and took up the popular ice sport.

At the time, Summers lived and worked in Waco, but made a 100-mile drive to the nearest ice rink in Dallas to continue his skating classes and hockey games. When a position for a youth and children’s hockey program coordinator and team coaching assistant with the now disbanded Waco Wizards opened, Summers jumped on the opportunity to practice and teach hockey in town.

He worked with area youth and children, instructing them in basic hockey techniques so they could show off their skills between periods of Wizards hockey games. From there, Summers took a job coaching the fledgling Baylor hockey club, and later went on to guide the Texas A&M hockey club to its all-time best season.

Currently, he is coaching less, but finds time to play hockey at least once a week for a men’s recreation league in College Station.

Pushing his limits
Despite his long history of daredevil sports, Summers has kept his injuries to a minimum. A few broken fingers and ribs, a broken collarbone and some bumps and bruises are the most damage he has sustained.

Some might call him lucky, but Summers say it is his caution and practice with the sports he enjoys that has kept him free from major accidents.

"There’s a level of expertise required to do these activities well, and a mind set you have to have to do them right. If you learn it, then it becomes very challenging and satisfying," he said.

Throughout his career of extreme activities, Summers said he has been driven by more than just risk taking.

"There is something else to it," he said. "It’s not just the thrill. It’s not just being a daredevil. It’s deeper … It pushes my limits, it pushes my knowledge, increases my faith in God and my appreciation for this earth and what he’s given me. He’s given me the ability to do all this."

So, what’s next for Summers? He said scuba diving and piloting are things he’d like to consider as he pursues his next adventure.

Just say “NO” to Bad Pick-up Lines

“Hey girl!... Mmm Hmmm…” Ignore
Random boy in the hallway #1: “Hey, you go to school here?”
“No, I work here”
“You a counselor?”
“No.”
“Oh, well I wanted to ask someone about changin my major. You don’t do that?”
“No.”
“Man, what you do here?”
Random boy in the hallway #2: “Look sexy, that’s what she do.” Ignore
“I work on the newspaper.”
“Oh, so you got a boyfriend?”
“No.”
“You married?”
“No.”
“You looking?”
“No, but if I decide to you’ll be the first to know.” (sarcasm galore)
“Alright then. You stay sexy now… Mmmm Hmmmm.” Ignore

This is a typical transaction for me. It happens at least once, if not more everyday.
What’s the answer to this problem?
Ignore, say “NO,” repeat. Welcome to TSTC.

Lost Innoncence

I've been thinking a lot about innoncence.

Innocence in the sense of not knowing. Because once you know something, you can't get back to ignorance. You have to live the rest of your life knowing. I think there is a heavy burden that goes along with that.

It's sort of like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. They could never go back, just like we can never go back to our childhood before life got complicated. When it was easy to love without inhibitions, and you knew God because he was God. There was no question of his existence. You just knew. Like you knew your parents loved you. It was undoubtable.

The more you know, the more you find doubts about. You realize, what do you really know? I think that is what Jesus meant when he talked about having faith like a child. Children don't doubt because the "knowledge" of the world hasn't taught them the world isn't safe. They aren't jaded.

But sooner, more than later nowadays, they learn pain, evil and sadness. It is the knowledge of good and evil: emphasis on evil. Their hearts harden and the sting of the fall of mankind haunts them. We may not realize the implications the fall has caused until we realized where we once were.

The perfect garden. Immortilized in our minds as a day in our lives when we weren't burdened with the knowledge that we are no longer innocent. We merely were.­­

Painting courtesty of pincel3d

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Productivity Lemonade: How do I survive in the mundane working world?

"Go on the hunch of a man whose brain is fuelled by lemons!?"

In an attempt to be more productive. Which is honestly America’s favorite word: productivity.

“We must be more productive, people should be productive, companies should be productive. We must squeeze the little ‘producers’ like the lemons that they are and get the very last drop of juice out of them before we throw away the empty, shrunken, shriveled rind of a person that is left. But only after we’ve gotten all of their working days and productivity squeezed out of them.”

So, that might be a little morbid, but…that’s sort of my current outlook on life as a newly hired member of the American workforce.

Anyways, in an attempt to become more productive, I am trying a new style of writing. That is to say, I will be dictating what is on my mind to my digital recorder. Often times I find I lose a thought before I have a chance to write it down, which I believe is the story of my life. I never have any time to write anything down. For goodness sake, I’m a writer and I don’t have any time to write things down.

I find that thoughts occur to me in the oddest places: while driving, while in the bathtub, while at work when I need to be working and not writing things for fun, while walking down the sidewalk on the way to who knows where and other various, random places. I have no control over when inspiration strikes. My muse wakes up from whatever bender she’s been on and helps me to think of something brilliant (in the loosest sense of the term).

And I think of how inspired I feel and how much I want to write or blog or just type my feelings. But the American productivity takes over and I lose any time I would use for writing doing something mundane like laundry.

Maybe I’m not a writer. I don’t write because the need flows out of me; I write because it’s work. I guess I’m afraid of losing the joy, the spark, the whole reason I like to write. Beside the fact that as a journalist I like to meet people and hear their stories, I like to write because you’re recording history, you’re recording feelings and your connecting with other human beings in a deep and meaningful way (if it’s done correctly).

Of course I’m not saying that I’m an expert, but I have read experts and I know what good writing looks like. And honestly, how can you be good at writing if you don’t practice? Or if you don’t write something and let it go out into the wide world like a baby bird and see if it will fly or plummet to the ground at a speed of 9.8 m/s2 (which is as everyone knows the speed of gravity acceleration on earth).

So, I thought why don’t I just talk about what is on my mind, transcribe said interviews with myself and upload it to my blog. **Pause for deep thought**

After a pause for deep thought (no I won’t tell you the question for the meaning of life, the universe and everything), I’ve decided to continue this blog in the same happy, upbeat way I began it: talking about productivity and work and the working world.

I wish I could say I had more positive responses. Honestly, I think I have worked quite a bit. I would like to think that my time working at my college newspaper was a pretty regular job. I would come in at 8 or 9 a.m. and work until 5 or 6 p.m. with obvious breaks for classes, interviews and food. It was a happy existence. I had the opportunity to wear T-shirts, shorts and flip-flops every day or dress medium, medium well or well done. (I tend to think that wardrobe can be rated on the same scale as a cooked beef.)


I think I had a pretty regular working schedule, and that was actually what I was striving for. So that when I assimilated into this mode that is the American working day, I would have no trouble adjusting.

I had the same type of schedule at camps, only it was more amplified. The hours were from around 7 a.m. to midnight. Insane schedules! There were plenty of breaks, but it was still really arduous work.

At the same time I think that both of these jobs were connected to something I really enjoyed, I got to hang with people I loved and I got to have fun.

I think I’m still searching for that in my new job. I’m not saying I’m required to have fun at work. But it’s a big bonus to have fun at work. So, maybe that’s my problem. I’m not having as much fun as I could.

What’s that? I can hear all of you wry, sarcastic people in the back. You’re probably thinking about the first time you were disillusioned with your 8-5 job, and trust me I’ve heard it enough from my father who likes to josh me about, “Welcome to the real world.” Still, I think that my experiences in the working world have been better than what they are right now.

There have been bright days, but on the whole I can’t same that I’m enamored with my new job, yet. It could be that I’m still in the adjustment period, and it is a BIG adjustment as everyone reminds me. I guess I’m suffering from boredom and fatigue and maybe the novelty of my job. Not in the sense of a novelty toy, but as a new thing. As the dictionary probably defines it, something new and different, something unique or something I haven’t experienced before.

The novelty of the “mundaness” of life. I don’t know. I would like to think that there’s a lot more to life than “mundanity,” as if that’s even a word. It kind of calls to mind a picture of the Vogon in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (rock on all your nerdfighters[i] out there who enjoy that). A Vogon’s life is run by rules and regulations, paperwork and set schedules that never change. On a whole that’s quite depressing. The worst part is they don’t realize how depressing it is because that’s what they’ve always done. AHHHHHHH! Please save me from that type of drone-like existence.

I’m trying to figure out what the solution is, but I can’t. Maybe it’s giving up and being assimilated into the borg that is American working life or maybe there are other alternatives. This is something to explore in the future. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

This is Sarah-Jane signing off: sayonara, ciao, good night.
Transcribed from a 9:49 min. interview.


[i]: Nerdfighter is the official name for the viewers of the Brotherhood 2.0 v-log on YouTube.Or the name of a nerd who knows kung fu or other fighting skill.

There Is No Time Like the Present

I have been struggling in my mind over the future. Ever do that? I have called friends and mentors for guidance, and I have flippantly prayed. You know the kind of prayer that seems like work to fit into 5 minutes. Well, it seems God listen to that too. Though I am ashamed to know he does.

I have been avoiding the future. I have all summer at school before I need to decide definitely where I’ll be working. I’m nervous about making a major decision because it seems ages ago that I chose the things that have brought me to where I am now.

I remember the peace I felt sitting in the Burt Gazebo on a cool Fall Preview night. I remember the “Ah Ha!” moment when I finally chose journalism, though it had long before chosen me. I remember the clear calling to ministry that welled inside of me like a sincere hunger to serve God and love his people.Though the light bulb moments of my life have clearly defined my path thus far, I cannot remember how I came to them. Is there some magic process to making the “right” decisions?

Depressingly enough, I am currently going through the book of Ecclesiastes as a part of my devotion time. I say depressing because “Every thing is meaningless” does not exactly inspire hope about choosing a career path. However, through the straight-forward preaching on Matt Chandler’s podcasts (available at http://www.thevillagechurch.net/resources/database_scripture.html) I am starting to grasp what it means to live “Beyond the Sun.” If you’re interested in learning more, I highly recommend downloading the podcasts and listening for yourself.

I am also working on finding the next step for me. I called Shawn Shannon to ask for advice, and she gave me a good start on the recipe of making Godly decisions:

1. Surrender yourself to God’s will

2. Gather information

3. Pray specifically and fervently (not flippantly)

4. Wait for divine providence

Currently I am in the waiting stage. Another thing I was interested in knowing was how you can be sure you’re in the right place. I walked around my prospective place of employment and tried in vain to find an “Ah Ha!” or deep peace feeling. The walk seemed rather silly and too caught up on sensibility to be a good judge of the job.

Today, I rode my bike the three and some odd miles from my house to the public lake and went for a swim. It was a big-sky Texas day with deep blue stretching out into infinity and giant cumulous clouds giving the hill country the appearance of mountain ranges.

As I rode I could smell the perfume of spring in the country—an odd mixture of wildflowers, earth, the occasional cow and a Texas breeze bringing a million other scents together into one clean breathe after another. You may laugh, but that is the smell of my childhood, the smell of home.

The mixture of familiar scents and the beauty of the sky was overwhelming. I felt deep peace and an understanding that for today that feeling was all I needed. The words from the age-old hymn How Great Thou Art rang in my mind as the only response to what I saw and how I felt.

Later after mulling over the moments of that bike ride and trying to form them into the best word picture possible, remembered a passage in Matthew that made me smile.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?.... But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-27; 33-34

I know I am where I need to be right now. The future is in God’s capable hands, and I will now forever be reminded of that when I look around my own backyard. Look at the birds of the air, look at the lilies of the field, they do not worry past today, and I will endeavor to do the same. The future is not as good as today.

The great state with an even greater energy crisis:

To make his breakfast, Ed Begley Jr. pedals for 10 minutes on a stationary bike hooked up to the batteries that run his house. In the time it takes many Americans to sleep between snooze button cycles, he generates enough energy to make two pieces of toast.

On the amusing HGTV series Living with Ed, a recent TV show following environmentalist actor Begley’s life with his wife Rachelle, viewers get insight into the life of an energy conservationist. Through his many energy efficient schemes, Begley is constantly bugging his spouse with his solar oven, environmentally safe cleaning products and calculations of how much water she wastes in a long shower.Though the show is an apt caricature of the clash between the energy conscious and wattage wasters, the demand for power is on the rise, as is the price.

Electric rates tied to natural gas, weather

In Texas’ deregulated energy market, TXU Corp. and other companies have struggled to keep up with the costs of powering such a large state. During the summer, especially, electricity bills go through the roof due to the necessity of air conditioning.

Another rate raiser is the market’s over-dependence on natural gas. Texas generation plants are 47 percent gas-powered, and the rest are primarily coal. When the gas storage is low, the electric prices go up. Also, if the weather is colder or warmer than expected, rates rise again.

It stands to reason that a state so plagued by capricious weather would not seek to tie its electricity rates to the rise and fall of temperature. Just as one day may be freezing and the next day in the 90s, so one month’s bill could be low with the next skyrocketing.

The other stable source of power currently in Texas is that from the coal industry. Recently, TXU attempted to build 11 new coal plants referred to as the “ring of fire” by protesters. The plans fell through, and the company cut back to a trifecta of plants, which salved those opposed to TXU’s proposition. However, the move did not solve any long-term environmental issues with new coal factories.

Along with the new plants, and the other 17 currently operating sites in Texas, will come tons of toxic combustion waste and carbon dioxide. The American Lung Association estimates that 24,000 people die prematurely each year from power-plant pollution, and Al Gore swears it creates the controversial global warming phenomenon—which was once again supported by the snow two weeks ago in central Texas. It sure is getting warmer here.

Although the coal industry produces cheaper kilowatts, the dangers outweigh the benefits. So where’s a Texan to turn? Oil prices have been steadily rising, as seen at the pump; natural gas is still an unstable market, despite new bills to search for it in the Gulf, and coal is just plain dirty. Dare I say, “Nuclear?”

More nuclear plants planned for 2015

That’s the direction TXU is headed. The company plans to build up to three new nuclear plants by 2015. The chairman and CEO, C. John Wilder, commented in a press release, “Nuclear generation offers the potential to deliver our customers lower, stable prices and continue to reduce Texas’ over-reliance on natural gas.”

But what about risk? Everyone’s mind flashes to the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, the world’s worst nuclear power accident.

It occurred when a flawed Soviet reactor design met with mistakes by plant operators. According to the Chernobyl Fact File report published by NucNet in 2006, the result was two explosions, 31 deaths of plant workers, the possibility of 4,000 premature deaths due to radiation exposure and a black cloud over the nuclear energy industry. So far, out of those 4,000, only 50 have died prematurely, according to a mid-2005 study.

Along with the death toll was the high risk of contracting thyroid cancer, but among the 4,000 cases connected with Chernobyl, there has been a 99 percent success rate of survival with treatment. It was a horrible disaster—a view of nuclear power at its worst. But the reason for the explosions was a faulty design. On the positive side, engineers have created a much safer form of nuclear power that is now being used all over the world, including Texas.

Compared to the almost 50 deaths each year in direct connection to the coal industry—remember the Sago Mine disaster in January 2006—the Chernobyl statistics are relatively small, though it will take a major marketing campaign to get the general public to see that. There is also the concern of nuclear waste which has to be stored until the level of radioactivity is reduced to a safe level. The storage time can last for 50 years in the case of low-level waste.

Renewable energy still untapped

Other viable options for reduction of electricity costs come in the form of nature’s renewable wind, solar and water or hydro power. Texas has an abundance of all these resources, especially its summer sun.

With innovations in solar panels, some that even look like roof shingles, the same sun that causes the high temperatures Texas is famous for could power the air conditioners to keep us cool. As a state, we are not yet harnessing these renewable and free resources enough to make a large difference in our electricity bills, but the time to start is now.

According to a recent survey by the World Coal Institute, the main sources for global energy are the non-renewable fossil fuels: oil, 34.3 percent; coal, 25.1 percent and gas, 20.9 percent. The other 19.7 percent is made up of nuclear, hydro, geothermal, solar and wind power.

The current trend has served well for years when the U.S. had control over more oil than it does now. We burned through resources like there was no tomorrow. But tomorrow is here, and it is time to reevaluate the system before we’re all stuck on stationary bikes trying to make toast.

Party loyalty is not genetic; choose for yourself

When I told my 17-year-old sister that I had voted for Democrat Chris Bell in the recent governor’s election, she reacted with anger and said, “I can’t believe my own sister would become a Democrat!”

I tried to explain that I wasn’t a Democrat; I merely voted for one. But there was no calming her down. I don’t fault her because I see my teenage self in her reaction. Being raised the same way I was, with both parents highly active in the Republican Party on county, state and national levels, there is a truth she holds to be self-evident—Republicans are better than Democrats are.

According to a recent search of Facebook, 1,037 students at UMHB listed political preferences ranging from very conservative to very liberal with 19 holdouts for the Libertarian Party. My political profile, along with 319 other students, reads moderate, placing me in neither party’s camp.

This distinction allows me to be loved and hated by both because Republicans think I’m a liberal nut job, and Democrats think I have a mild case of right-wing syndrome. However, it is the moderate voters who swing elections, so both parties have to court them with incentives and “what you want to hear” speeches.

Though I can’t make up my mind, it seems that many students have, which is amazing considering the short time we’ve had the ability to vote.

Junior nursing major Katrina Jackson is a part of the more than 600 students in the very conservative to plain-jane conservative category. She said that voting on beliefs is the way to go.“Traditionally, I have voted for the Republican Party, not because of the party itself but because of the values held by most Republicans,” she said.

One problem with strictly values voters is the tendency to be stuck on one party whose values you believe match up with yours. Jackson, though, disagrees with this methodology.

“I have been a crossover voter, and that was because my values didn’t match up with the Republican candidate running.”

So, choosing the right candidate could involve research—no wonder many students aren’t interested in voting or simply vote along party lines.

According to a 2003 comprehensive review of personality and political orientation, several other factors that have developed from birth influence our political decisions. The New York University study identifies numerous personality traits and preferences that divide the parties further than voting records alone.

Liberals are messier; their rooms are cluttered and colorful. Conservatives’ rooms are neat, ordered and conventional. Conservatives are more religious. Liberals are more optimistic and like abstract art. The lists go on and on.

A 20-year University of California Berkeley study started in 1969, cited childhood personalities as a key to political preferences. It found that children who developed close relationships with peers and were rated by teachers as self-reliant and resilient were more likely to be liberal. Conservatives, however, started out as fearful and vulnerable children, making them cling to the traditional views of the right.

I’m sure the study is exaggerated beyond belief, but it does bring up what I believe is the main reason many voters side with a certain party. From childhood, our parents politically coach us to favor their beliefs. In fact, most students’ first-time voting was with at least one parent. Now in college, few students examine why their moms and dads said to vote a certain way.

I don’t think the issue is black and white. I am a moderate because I agree with both sides on different issues.

Winston Churchill had one answer about the journey voters may make by crossing party lines.

“If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart, but if you’re not a conservative by the time you are 35, you have no brain.”

His point and mine is that you don’t have to be a certain party member just yet, and if you are, know why. Use your heart and your head to vote your convictions.

Time's Person of the Year

While browsing through the extensive magazine section of a Barnes and Noble, I looked up to see my distorted reflection on the cover of TIME Magazine. With closer examination, I saw that it was the highly sought after “Person of the Year” issue.

The cover said “You. Yes, you. You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world” under a graphic of a reflective computer screen. Dreams of seeing myself on the cover of TIME fulfilled, I walked up to the checkout line with little fanfare, save that of my own horn. To my disappointment, I still had to pay for the magazine—$4.95 plus tax, and I even offered to autograph it for the humorless sales attendant.

At first, I thought it was a bad choice on TIME’s part. You? What a cop out. Why even designate a person of the year if it includes everyone? According to TIME, it is because we are all the newsmakers of 2006. Individuals are the new gatekeepers controlling the information flow in the age of digital democracy.

It is the rise of Web 2.0 sites that have given anyone with computer access the ability to report, publish and broadcast news to the world with the perfunctory click of a mouse.

According to O'Reilly Media, Web 2.0 refers to a perceived second generation of Internet-based services, such as social networking sites, wikis, communication tools, and folksonomies that emphasize online collaboration and sharing among users.

For college students, Web 2.0 is our guilt-free cyber-stalking on Facebook and MySpace—now the only way to keep in touch with friends even if they live with you. It includes popular sites such as YouTube and Second Life, and is addictingly fun. Blogging gives everyone a chance to publish whatever they have on their mind albeit politics or family recipes.

In 1968, Andy Warhol correctly predicted, “in the future everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.” His prophetic remark has come to fruition, and while it has opened amazing lines of communication between peoples of the world, digital democracy has not ushered us into peaceful utopia.

Some of the self-published works make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred they can represent.
TIME insists that it is this autonomy that makes the web interesting.

“Web 2.0 is a massive social experiment, and like any experiment worth trying, it could fail. There's no road map for how an organism that's not a bacterium lives and works together on this planet in numbers in excess of 6 billion.”

No road map? There is always MapQuest or my personal favorite Google—our dependence on the web in evident when our first solution is to turn to it for help.
It is the information highway that beats all other forms of media. Now we can be present all sorts of events. Digital cameras, videophones and bloggers’ fact checking bring in a more authentic and immediate news.

If this continues, and I believe it will, I will need to look for a new job. Media is an ever-changing profession, and as I posted on my blog last week—we have to keep up with the times. I wonder if I can put my TIME’s Person of the Year accomplishment on my résumé.