"I lift up my eyes to the hills
from where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
who made heaven and earth." Psalm 121:1-2 (ESV)
This has long been one of my absolute favorite psalms. Partly I think this comes from growing up in Kentucky where there are hills to lift my eyes to. I think it is also because of the image of the fullness of the Lord's protection. This psalm is the second of the Psalms of Ascent that the people would sing as they went up to Jerusalem for the various festivals. The opening verses could be interpreted as the pilgrim looking ahead to the hills leading up to Jerusalem and anticipating coming into the presence of the Lord at the temple. A more likely interpretation is that they are looking at the hills and mountains around them, hills on top of which are "high places" where pagan gods are worshiped and rejecting them for the worship of Israel's God. I've heard a number of settings of this psalm over the years. We sang one antiphonally as a response to readings my senior year in the Cantorei. On his album "The Way of Wisdom", Michael Card has a setting of the first four verses in Hebrew and English. Eden's Bridge has a nice one on their "Celtic Psalms" album. My favorite version though is by the Chicago Christian Celtic/Folk group The Crossing on their album "Dochas". The song is simply named "Psalm" and is inspired by Psalm 121.
I lift up my eyes and I look to the mountains
And see by their shadow I'm nothing at all.
The hills tower over me black and forbidding;
The tangles of forest bid me come and fall.
No light may enter those caves, a great fortress,
Their darkness defended by cavern and wall.
A torrent, a flood, crashes over the rocks and
The thundering falls drown a voice still and small.
Listen my child for I made these great mountains,
The sky far above you, the rocks and the falls,
The tangles of forest, the caves and the crags
And whatever dwells in them; my hand formed them all.
The shadows are emptied of threat for I'm in them
As I am in you when you follow my call.
So lift up your eyes and look over the mountains
And walk in my shadow; I'll not let you fall.
Listen my child for I made these great mountains,
The sky far above you, the rocks and the falls,
The tangles of forest, the caves and the crags
And whatever dwells in them; my hand formed them all.
--words and music by Jennifer Ingerson and Duncan Johnstone
When I was a security guard I used to sing that on rounds at Hewitt on overnight shifts. I'm a little scared of the dark and I found it very comforting.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Vacational Verse of the Last Week
"You are good and do good.
Teach me your statutes." Psalm 119:68
One of the highlights I forgot to mention was that I started Psalm 119 Tuesday morning. Reading 24 verses a day, 32 on one, it takes almost a week to read. Therefore for most of my vacation I was hearing about the goodness of God's word. That's a good thing to hear, sweeter than honey on a dosa. It's an acrostic psalm of 22 stanzas of 8 verses each. Each verse of a stanza starts with the same Hebrew letter. For instance my verse of the day is from the Teth stanza and starts with the Hebrew word "tov," "good." Something I enjoy doing when I read this psalm is to try to guess which English word translates the Hebrew word that started the verse. Obviously it helps that I've studied Hebrew but I think someone who hasn't could do it some. When you read a stanza look for recurring English words. This works better for some letters than others. For instance in the Teth stanza, vv. 64-71, the word "good" or "better" predominates because there aren't many words in Hebrew that start with teth. It's harder for Aleph or Pe but when you're reading the psalm someday give it a shot. It might be fun. Even if you don't try to guess the words, try to enjoy the interplay of the different words for God's law and the psalmist's delight in them. Sweeter than honey and better than thousands of gold and silver.
Teach me your statutes." Psalm 119:68
One of the highlights I forgot to mention was that I started Psalm 119 Tuesday morning. Reading 24 verses a day, 32 on one, it takes almost a week to read. Therefore for most of my vacation I was hearing about the goodness of God's word. That's a good thing to hear, sweeter than honey on a dosa. It's an acrostic psalm of 22 stanzas of 8 verses each. Each verse of a stanza starts with the same Hebrew letter. For instance my verse of the day is from the Teth stanza and starts with the Hebrew word "tov," "good." Something I enjoy doing when I read this psalm is to try to guess which English word translates the Hebrew word that started the verse. Obviously it helps that I've studied Hebrew but I think someone who hasn't could do it some. When you read a stanza look for recurring English words. This works better for some letters than others. For instance in the Teth stanza, vv. 64-71, the word "good" or "better" predominates because there aren't many words in Hebrew that start with teth. It's harder for Aleph or Pe but when you're reading the psalm someday give it a shot. It might be fun. Even if you don't try to guess the words, try to enjoy the interplay of the different words for God's law and the psalmist's delight in them. Sweeter than honey and better than thousands of gold and silver.
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
What I did on my Summer Vacation
Hopefully this entry won't create the same social upheaval as Two Flower's book of the same name. I don't want to topple empires or play into the hands of a despotic maniac. So this will be pretty simple, maybe a highlight from each day. Since the major details have been covered by Mom and Ann the outline of the vacation has already been sketched.
Friday, 7/14. I already blogged about Friday. I do want to note The Lost Dogs again. I had just gotten their album "The Nazarene Crying Towel" and it's a good one. They were once a cool band of 4 friends each from different Christian bands who came together to make folk rock/country music together. One died tragically in 1999. As they sing on their album "Real Men Cry" released after his death, "He's a three legged dog but he's still pretty good." The three legged band (technically six, I suppose) still put out some good stuff.
Saturday, 7/15. I had a good time riding down to Nashville with Mom and Daddy.
Sunday, 7/16. I enjoyed our time at the Northgate Vineyard. It was a nice service and good to hear the pastor's determination to follow what he feels God is leading him to in planting the church there in Hendersonville. It helped me picture a little of what my church must have been like 6 years before I came when there were just a few people gathered in the faculty lounge at Mundelein High School. It was also good to pray for someone's healing and annoint them. I started Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner this afternoon. It was good to read after seeing her at ATLA. Too bad she's married.
Monday, 7/17. Mmmm. Cabbage curry and chapatis. They might not ought to be an art, but they sure were good. Ann and Daniel fed us well all week. As I recall this was also my first Chick-Fil-A experience. The chicken strips were okay but not thrilling. If I ever go again I'll try a sandwich.
Tuesday, 7/18. I think I liked best the Chineses acrobats at the Opryland Hotel. They were pretty amazing. The water show was nice also.
Wednesday, 7/19. We got to search for lamb across Madison and Hendersonville. No luck. We did also get to go to a nice little used bookstore in H'ville, Ms. B's. I didn't buy anything but there was some good stuff. It had one of the best philosophy sections of a store that size that I've seen. Also, Mom picked me up a copy of Artemis Fowl. We had Daddy's goulash. That's some good eatin'.
Thursday, 7/20. The highlight was definitely the Marty Stuart show at the Ryman. I'm not gonna be dissin' the Moong Dal and rice, tasty and filling. Nor am I down on Dosas with coconut chutney, not bad once you accept the coconut won't be sweet like in a mounds bar. I won't scoff at the art in the Parthenon, even if the replica chryselephantine Athena was kind of tacky the painting downstairs were nice. Jack-in-the-Box had a good patty melt and the Nugent girl who opened for Marty had some nice stuff. But it was Marty all the way with his mandolin pickin', bluesgrass, discograss, Rolling bluegrass Stone covering ways. That was a fun show. That Stubbs fella can fiddle, Cushman can banj, Cousin Kenny can pick some great bluesgrass guitar, and Leroy Troy can spin a banjo and a funny song with equal ease. The highlight of the show for me I think was listening to Marty and Kenny imitate dueling bluesmen on a couple of pieces. Maybe it was the gospel stuff. Maybe it was the 6 song encore set with Stubbs, Cushman, and Marty pickin' and fiddlin' in a huddle. I felt sorry for the banjo player that was playing with the band most of the night. He seemed to be outside all the fun. It was a good show.
Friday, 7/21. Good French Toast and fairwell to Dan and Anniel. Actually Daniel was gone when I woke up so he didn't get fairedwell. Hey Howdy to Lydia and Geron. I think today's highlight fell somewhere in between Geron's good grilled food, losing two games of Settlers of Cataan (I should probably rethink my strategy for playing with Sip and Geron, 4 games this trip, goose egg wins for me), and starting Artemis Fowl. That was a fun book
Saturday, 7/22. If we consider the Settlers games and Artemis holdovers from the day before, today's highlight was eating supper at Ichiban and having dinner cooked in front of me. Steak, chicken, and fried rice. There's virtually no way to go wrong with that, assuming you can cook. Add in some exciting Japanese cookery and good company and you've a got a meal. I'd eat there again. Breakfast at Lillie Mae's was also not to be sneezed at. Nobody should sneeze at a good slab of country ham. I can't get it here so it's always an important culinary part of going home.
Sunday, 7/23. The highlight might have been sleeping in a bed after a week of air matresses or the nice service at Sip and Geron's church but I think it was lunch with Lydia, Geron, Mom, Dad, Ann, and Daniel. Geron says his barbecue wasn't very good so I've got to get back down there sometime when he's on his game. Pity they'll probably be too busy for barbecuin' the next time I'm down. McKay's bookstore was also not without it's charms in a bludgeoning kind of way. That many used books puts me in a state of euphoria that makes it hard to register much. I did grab a copy of Good Omens by Pratchett (source of the opening allusion) and Gaiman. This way Jenn will know her nagging, though it seemeth barren, some fruit hath born. Unfortunately said fruit was born into a long q, what with the Winners, Fowls, Dekker Circles, and all else begging to be read. As I mentioned a week earlier in this post I like riding with Mom and Dad and we had a good trip home.
Monday, 7/24. The vacational highlight here was listening to about half of The Hobbit on cd as I made good time back to the land of Lincoln and not getting caught in any traffic jams except for the inevitable 80-94 bottle neck. Even that was only merely slow for about 10 minutes, or Thorin and company getting chased up trees by the Wargs. The real highlight of today was probably LifeGroup but since that was post vacational it'll get mentioned later.
As a final point I'll note that nobody submitted a potential post so we'll go back to our regular randomly scheduled mixture of long winded, abrupt, and Monday sabbatarian.
Friday, 7/14. I already blogged about Friday. I do want to note The Lost Dogs again. I had just gotten their album "The Nazarene Crying Towel" and it's a good one. They were once a cool band of 4 friends each from different Christian bands who came together to make folk rock/country music together. One died tragically in 1999. As they sing on their album "Real Men Cry" released after his death, "He's a three legged dog but he's still pretty good." The three legged band (technically six, I suppose) still put out some good stuff.
Saturday, 7/15. I had a good time riding down to Nashville with Mom and Daddy.
Sunday, 7/16. I enjoyed our time at the Northgate Vineyard. It was a nice service and good to hear the pastor's determination to follow what he feels God is leading him to in planting the church there in Hendersonville. It helped me picture a little of what my church must have been like 6 years before I came when there were just a few people gathered in the faculty lounge at Mundelein High School. It was also good to pray for someone's healing and annoint them. I started Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner this afternoon. It was good to read after seeing her at ATLA. Too bad she's married.
Monday, 7/17. Mmmm. Cabbage curry and chapatis. They might not ought to be an art, but they sure were good. Ann and Daniel fed us well all week. As I recall this was also my first Chick-Fil-A experience. The chicken strips were okay but not thrilling. If I ever go again I'll try a sandwich.
Tuesday, 7/18. I think I liked best the Chineses acrobats at the Opryland Hotel. They were pretty amazing. The water show was nice also.
Wednesday, 7/19. We got to search for lamb across Madison and Hendersonville. No luck. We did also get to go to a nice little used bookstore in H'ville, Ms. B's. I didn't buy anything but there was some good stuff. It had one of the best philosophy sections of a store that size that I've seen. Also, Mom picked me up a copy of Artemis Fowl. We had Daddy's goulash. That's some good eatin'.
Thursday, 7/20. The highlight was definitely the Marty Stuart show at the Ryman. I'm not gonna be dissin' the Moong Dal and rice, tasty and filling. Nor am I down on Dosas with coconut chutney, not bad once you accept the coconut won't be sweet like in a mounds bar. I won't scoff at the art in the Parthenon, even if the replica chryselephantine Athena was kind of tacky the painting downstairs were nice. Jack-in-the-Box had a good patty melt and the Nugent girl who opened for Marty had some nice stuff. But it was Marty all the way with his mandolin pickin', bluesgrass, discograss, Rolling bluegrass Stone covering ways. That was a fun show. That Stubbs fella can fiddle, Cushman can banj, Cousin Kenny can pick some great bluesgrass guitar, and Leroy Troy can spin a banjo and a funny song with equal ease. The highlight of the show for me I think was listening to Marty and Kenny imitate dueling bluesmen on a couple of pieces. Maybe it was the gospel stuff. Maybe it was the 6 song encore set with Stubbs, Cushman, and Marty pickin' and fiddlin' in a huddle. I felt sorry for the banjo player that was playing with the band most of the night. He seemed to be outside all the fun. It was a good show.
Friday, 7/21. Good French Toast and fairwell to Dan and Anniel. Actually Daniel was gone when I woke up so he didn't get fairedwell. Hey Howdy to Lydia and Geron. I think today's highlight fell somewhere in between Geron's good grilled food, losing two games of Settlers of Cataan (I should probably rethink my strategy for playing with Sip and Geron, 4 games this trip, goose egg wins for me), and starting Artemis Fowl. That was a fun book
Saturday, 7/22. If we consider the Settlers games and Artemis holdovers from the day before, today's highlight was eating supper at Ichiban and having dinner cooked in front of me. Steak, chicken, and fried rice. There's virtually no way to go wrong with that, assuming you can cook. Add in some exciting Japanese cookery and good company and you've a got a meal. I'd eat there again. Breakfast at Lillie Mae's was also not to be sneezed at. Nobody should sneeze at a good slab of country ham. I can't get it here so it's always an important culinary part of going home.
Sunday, 7/23. The highlight might have been sleeping in a bed after a week of air matresses or the nice service at Sip and Geron's church but I think it was lunch with Lydia, Geron, Mom, Dad, Ann, and Daniel. Geron says his barbecue wasn't very good so I've got to get back down there sometime when he's on his game. Pity they'll probably be too busy for barbecuin' the next time I'm down. McKay's bookstore was also not without it's charms in a bludgeoning kind of way. That many used books puts me in a state of euphoria that makes it hard to register much. I did grab a copy of Good Omens by Pratchett (source of the opening allusion) and Gaiman. This way Jenn will know her nagging, though it seemeth barren, some fruit hath born. Unfortunately said fruit was born into a long q, what with the Winners, Fowls, Dekker Circles, and all else begging to be read. As I mentioned a week earlier in this post I like riding with Mom and Dad and we had a good trip home.
Monday, 7/24. The vacational highlight here was listening to about half of The Hobbit on cd as I made good time back to the land of Lincoln and not getting caught in any traffic jams except for the inevitable 80-94 bottle neck. Even that was only merely slow for about 10 minutes, or Thorin and company getting chased up trees by the Wargs. The real highlight of today was probably LifeGroup but since that was post vacational it'll get mentioned later.
As a final point I'll note that nobody submitted a potential post so we'll go back to our regular randomly scheduled mixture of long winded, abrupt, and Monday sabbatarian.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Vacational Blog
Nashville. Ann and Daniel. Homemade Indian food. mmm....biryani. Naps. Memoirs. Deflating air mattresses. Parthenon. Little Vineyard church. Worship. Good trip so far.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Driving South and Psalm of the Day
In keeping with traditional vacation departure patterns I planned to leave the apartment yesterday at 7:30 a.m. I got out at about 9. Fortunately by the time I got to work the Friday morning break had started and there were Krispy Kremes eagerly awaiting my teeth. I rocketed off from Trinity at about a quarter to 2 cdt and got in to Georgetown at about 20 to 11 edt. In between I got to see lots of rigs, smell some fresh northern Indiana manure, see a beautiful sunset through my rearview mirror, listen to Dallas Willard read his book about spiritual formation, and listen to my new Lost Dogs cd. It was a pretty good trip. Today we will continue in my southward journey by heading to Nashville to visit Ann and Daniel. There will be much fun had even if I have to drive a Ford to get there. As you can imagine I may be a little more irregular in my blogging for the next few days. Perhaps you'll want to go back and reread all my previous posts for a fix. Or maybe you can imagine the posts I might otherwise have written. Email any hypothetical posts to me. If their up to our rigourous editorial standards, i.e. written with confused punctuation, extraneious parenthetical remarks, dubious spelling, and copious run-on sentences, we'll consider publishing them. Otherwise read some other blog or post to your own. Psalm of the Day:
Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, him all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!" Psalm 117 (ESV)
Praise the LORD, all nations! Extol him, him all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever. Praise the LORD!" Psalm 117 (ESV)
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Verse of the Day
"Whoever works his land
will have plenty of bread
but he who follows worthless
pursuits lacks sense." Proverbs 12:11 (ESV)
The Bible has a few things to say about following worthless pursuits and they almost always convict me. I waste a lot of time in my life doing stuff that if I could only see objectively I'd immediately know there were several things that I valued more highly. I'd like to be able to look at a day from the start as I'll see it from the end and evaluate things before I begin them as I would once they were complete. I'd like to think about something, "I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy doing it, but will I enjoy having done it?"
will have plenty of bread
but he who follows worthless
pursuits lacks sense." Proverbs 12:11 (ESV)
The Bible has a few things to say about following worthless pursuits and they almost always convict me. I waste a lot of time in my life doing stuff that if I could only see objectively I'd immediately know there were several things that I valued more highly. I'd like to be able to look at a day from the start as I'll see it from the end and evaluate things before I begin them as I would once they were complete. I'd like to think about something, "I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy doing it, but will I enjoy having done it?"
6 Dekaseconds=1 minute
I've got to title the post something and I was thinking about metric prefixes, prompted by the observation that my connection is 2kbps slower than usual. Nano and milli are about the only prefixes you come across in regard to seconds, and milli is pushing it.
I had the typical fun weekend. Just as Batista was about to return and call out Mark Henry on Smackdown Friday night, the Mormons visited them. I didn't want to miss the return of the Animal after a 6 month absence so I asked them to come back on Wednesday. Then I canceled that appointment. I've not gotten very far in my BoM reading so I figure I'll talk to them after vacation sometime. Steve and I watched Hoodwinked after he got home. It was pretty funny.
I spent Saturday sleeping in and working. In the outside bookdrop Friday morning were 40 or so books that were not checked out. A little investigation revealed that most of them had been gone from the library since 1999 or 2000. There was evidence that at least one may have been missing since at least '97. Someone's been studying the philosophy of David Hume for a long time. Many of the books had been declared lost and a few had even been replaced. Some, of course, nobody had ever noticed they were gone. I processed most of them Saturday afternoon and worked on some other books as well. Saturday night Steve and I watched the World Cup consolation game, Germany vs. Portugal. We saw 4 actual goals scored in game play. Germany won 3-1 though one of the German goals was scored by a Portuguese player. After the game I met up with some friends at a restaurant in Antioch and we caught a midnight showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Sunday morning we heard John S. preach on Isaiah 53:4-6 and how Jesus takes the penalty for our sins. Ryan put together a brilliant set for the music after the sermon. We sang a beautiful song I'd never heard before during communion and then followed it with "How Deep the Father's Love for Us," probably my favorite contemporary hymn. The other songs also focused on God's goodness and grace and his mercy toward us. It was a really moving time and fit very well with the sermon. I need to email him and get the title and lyrics to the first song. We lunched at Panera and then played a great game of Settlers of Cataan which was only marred by Steve's victory. Steve, Steph, and I watched Superman Returns for $2 at the Libertyville theatre. The movie was okay but a little too slow for my taste. At times it almost felt like the actors were just going through the motions. Kevin Spacey is a great Lex Luther though. I watched the World Cup final that night while talking to Jenn over the phone. That was a fun way to watch the game. It was in Spanish and Jenn had about a 4 second delay, definitely an amusing experience.
Monday night was a good time at LifeGroup. There were 15 of us and almost as many women as men which has been a rarity for our group this year. We studied Genesis 1:26-31 and what it means to be in God's image. We talked particularly about our responsibility to care for the earth and to live in relationship with God and one another. We also looked at a few New Testament passages that focused on growing into the image of Christ. Jason led worship and almost everybody provided snacks. It was a good time.
Tuesday we had a good time at 3-D. Nathan taught about Jonah and the danger of caring more for yourself than other people. Jonah was so concerned with his hatred for the Ninevites and with his petty luxuries that he ignored the people God desired to save. Nathan challenged us not to focus so much on ourselves that we fail to share the good news of salvation with people around us. Afterward Steve and I saw Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. I really liked it. I think you could take the music from that movie and set it to anything and I would enjoy it. I was imagining briefly watching The Devil Wears Prada with the PotC soundtrack. I'm pretty sure I'd like it. I especially liked the use of Davey Jones' organ and the hornpipe in Tortuga in addition to the main theme. I'm much looking forward to the final installment of the story in May.
Work is challenging. As of last Wednesday I am the Senior Cataloging Technician and Head of Cataloging for the Rolfing Library. That means that a lot of decisions and problems that I could blithely pass on to Cindee or Matt in the past I am now responsible for. I liked just being able to focus on my books, DVD's and cd's and letting other people deal with questions about the future of the division or what the procedures had to be. I had input before and was usually involved in most decisions but I didn't have to make them. In addition I've had trouble focusing in work in the last year or two. I like soaking up new knowledge and ideas. I like reading blogs. I like playing computer games after lunch. I like researching and solving cataloging problems. It's been a huge struggle to focus on the actual work of cataloging. Now we're in the midst of a huge project to get our Florida Campus library cataloged and online. That's a great thing and it's getting us a trip to Florida next month, but there's a long way to go before we get there. I become Senior Tech because Cindee moved into a different position in the library. This means that we've lost much of her productivity as she starts learning and focusing on the systems position. She'll still be doing some cataloging but she won't be able to devote the kind of time and concentration that she used to. That also means that I'll be training a new cataloging tech. It takes a while to learn to catalog, to get the hand of all the rules and to be able to see not only what is in the record, but what should be there as well, and to learn to think about subject headings and how they are structured. There's a lot to learn and it's all seems fairly esoteric. The rule book has been compared to the Bible with a few other supplements like the Talmud. It can be very rewarding and it's nice to be able to see if the library has the book you want but it's a long road to get there. Anyway since there's all this pressure I'll be taking next week off to go to Tennessee. It'll be fun but it won't be fun to come back.
That's about all I've got to say about that.
I had the typical fun weekend. Just as Batista was about to return and call out Mark Henry on Smackdown Friday night, the Mormons visited them. I didn't want to miss the return of the Animal after a 6 month absence so I asked them to come back on Wednesday. Then I canceled that appointment. I've not gotten very far in my BoM reading so I figure I'll talk to them after vacation sometime. Steve and I watched Hoodwinked after he got home. It was pretty funny.
I spent Saturday sleeping in and working. In the outside bookdrop Friday morning were 40 or so books that were not checked out. A little investigation revealed that most of them had been gone from the library since 1999 or 2000. There was evidence that at least one may have been missing since at least '97. Someone's been studying the philosophy of David Hume for a long time. Many of the books had been declared lost and a few had even been replaced. Some, of course, nobody had ever noticed they were gone. I processed most of them Saturday afternoon and worked on some other books as well. Saturday night Steve and I watched the World Cup consolation game, Germany vs. Portugal. We saw 4 actual goals scored in game play. Germany won 3-1 though one of the German goals was scored by a Portuguese player. After the game I met up with some friends at a restaurant in Antioch and we caught a midnight showing of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Sunday morning we heard John S. preach on Isaiah 53:4-6 and how Jesus takes the penalty for our sins. Ryan put together a brilliant set for the music after the sermon. We sang a beautiful song I'd never heard before during communion and then followed it with "How Deep the Father's Love for Us," probably my favorite contemporary hymn. The other songs also focused on God's goodness and grace and his mercy toward us. It was a really moving time and fit very well with the sermon. I need to email him and get the title and lyrics to the first song. We lunched at Panera and then played a great game of Settlers of Cataan which was only marred by Steve's victory. Steve, Steph, and I watched Superman Returns for $2 at the Libertyville theatre. The movie was okay but a little too slow for my taste. At times it almost felt like the actors were just going through the motions. Kevin Spacey is a great Lex Luther though. I watched the World Cup final that night while talking to Jenn over the phone. That was a fun way to watch the game. It was in Spanish and Jenn had about a 4 second delay, definitely an amusing experience.
Monday night was a good time at LifeGroup. There were 15 of us and almost as many women as men which has been a rarity for our group this year. We studied Genesis 1:26-31 and what it means to be in God's image. We talked particularly about our responsibility to care for the earth and to live in relationship with God and one another. We also looked at a few New Testament passages that focused on growing into the image of Christ. Jason led worship and almost everybody provided snacks. It was a good time.
Tuesday we had a good time at 3-D. Nathan taught about Jonah and the danger of caring more for yourself than other people. Jonah was so concerned with his hatred for the Ninevites and with his petty luxuries that he ignored the people God desired to save. Nathan challenged us not to focus so much on ourselves that we fail to share the good news of salvation with people around us. Afterward Steve and I saw Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest. I really liked it. I think you could take the music from that movie and set it to anything and I would enjoy it. I was imagining briefly watching The Devil Wears Prada with the PotC soundtrack. I'm pretty sure I'd like it. I especially liked the use of Davey Jones' organ and the hornpipe in Tortuga in addition to the main theme. I'm much looking forward to the final installment of the story in May.
Work is challenging. As of last Wednesday I am the Senior Cataloging Technician and Head of Cataloging for the Rolfing Library. That means that a lot of decisions and problems that I could blithely pass on to Cindee or Matt in the past I am now responsible for. I liked just being able to focus on my books, DVD's and cd's and letting other people deal with questions about the future of the division or what the procedures had to be. I had input before and was usually involved in most decisions but I didn't have to make them. In addition I've had trouble focusing in work in the last year or two. I like soaking up new knowledge and ideas. I like reading blogs. I like playing computer games after lunch. I like researching and solving cataloging problems. It's been a huge struggle to focus on the actual work of cataloging. Now we're in the midst of a huge project to get our Florida Campus library cataloged and online. That's a great thing and it's getting us a trip to Florida next month, but there's a long way to go before we get there. I become Senior Tech because Cindee moved into a different position in the library. This means that we've lost much of her productivity as she starts learning and focusing on the systems position. She'll still be doing some cataloging but she won't be able to devote the kind of time and concentration that she used to. That also means that I'll be training a new cataloging tech. It takes a while to learn to catalog, to get the hand of all the rules and to be able to see not only what is in the record, but what should be there as well, and to learn to think about subject headings and how they are structured. There's a lot to learn and it's all seems fairly esoteric. The rule book has been compared to the Bible with a few other supplements like the Talmud. It can be very rewarding and it's nice to be able to see if the library has the book you want but it's a long road to get there. Anyway since there's all this pressure I'll be taking next week off to go to Tennessee. It'll be fun but it won't be fun to come back.
That's about all I've got to say about that.
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