The Sucky Side of Life

FYI. This is a "Poor Dave" Post. You may feel sorry for me or simple say, wow that sucks and move on. I just want to write it out so when I look back and can say, wow that sucked, I remember that.


Let take this at the beginning.

September 25th.
My company (a national court reporting firm) joins in a mandatory conference call to hear the announcement of its acquisition of a company that currently holds a number of other firms. Because of this acquisition we just became THE "largest privately owned court reporting firm in the nation" Good for the company. Too many unknowns lie for the future.

Monday, September 29th
My work has been having "webinars" for information in the acquisition and today we are having one for benefits. Apparently, although somewhat vague the company is dropping our previous benefit package and giving us option for new one. I guess that not much of an option, is it. ;)
Its pricier and a few things are included as before. But its still benefits I suppose. (here begins my decline) That afternoon i have a video job scheduled and I found out that the new CEO was going to be visiting our office in Sacramento in the afternoon. But because of my job offsite, I miss his appearance. Life goes on, but was kinda wanting to meet him.

Tuesday, September 30th
Another day in the office, doing a few follow ups with jobs that I had pending. Then a coworker in our production asked me if i could help in her typical "OOOH PRETTY PLEASE" attitude that simply annoys me every time she asks. But she let me know of the urgency and that it was a big project. Since most of my stuff was done I offered my assistance. So the help entailed me downloading a number of files, but first finding them on our file server online, then filing those files under various folders locally so that we could make a disc for a client. Simple enough. She said it should be about a 5 hour job. I figured that she was about right, considering the time it take to download.
After getting into, I realized this is going to be about a couple day job or so. The transfer rate is slow and the files are somewhat large.
So because this is going to take a while, I let it run overnight.

Wed, October 1st
A very early day. Got to the office around 7am. Typically I arrive around 9am. But I had a video deposition I was doing at the DMV HQ's at 9am and needed to be there at 8am. So because of the project I was helping my coworker with, in downloading, I got another batch going. Large files, slow transfer rate, not a good combination. Also I needed to get a few things shipped out as I wasn't sure if I'd be back in the office in the afternoon.
The job was simple and boring as they come and go. But because of the awkard ending time we finished about 1:30pm and that cause me to miss lunch. But no worries, I could pick something up on the way back to the office, right? No, I ended up not stopping, when back to the office, snacked on some cookies and things from the pantry. I found that the downloading of files was hung up on duplicate files so I allow it to continued. Still a few hours it needed to continue That was about the time I left roughly 3:30p. I stopped by Chik-Fil-A, my what great sandwiches they have, so I got my lunch, just a little later than desire. But the damage was done. A headache had begun at work and lasted the rest of the day.
I get headaches it seems quite regularly if I am not eating normally or get overly stressed for a period of time. Probably some would call it a tension headache. Call it what you want, its sucks.
Tried showering and relaxing, but to no avail. Eventually I just took a couple of meds and went to sleep.

Thursday Oct. 2
Got up, feeling better.
No more headache. This day is going to be a good day. Team Driven Weekly meeting at 7pm.
Well my assumptions about this day got thrown out the window when I got a fire lit by a sales rep under MY butt about someone elses project. Hmm. that makes sense. So I'm not responsible for this project I had been working on, and didn't know that I should have been going out on a rolling basis. OOPS. It would have been great to know this before hand.
The whole day was spent trying to find these files. However the problem I was running into was that the files that were listed on the paper I was given by my coworker was that there were more files to be found. But where, was the $20k question. So a new mission is on. But it wasn't until the end of the day that my coworker decides she can now help and that we need to get this to our other office to finalize so that the client could get it.
My coworker helps some but then has to leave, and I have to stay a little later to get this out. Turns out I was planning on hanging out around the area until 7pm because the Team Driven Meet was not that far away and driving home and back would be pointless and in essence wasting fuel. I push as far and hard as I can to get this project to its complete but fell pretty short and burned to a CD what I could to make it in the box for shipment and to make it to Chipotle by 7.
I made it and had a great rest of the night, despite being a little wound up before I got there.

Fri. Oct. 3rd.
Back at the grind. Needed to follow up with our other office as to what was on the disc I sent them and continue where I left off. Not really having much to work with, I couldn't find much more of the files that were missing, but still searching nonetheless. The fact that my coworker wasn't really interested in helping me with this project didn't excite me, moreso it actually agrevated me that I got the crap for not having the project done. Moving on.
Around lunch time i started to develop a pain in my stomach area. I busted out my Chicken Corn Chowder. Mm, it was pretty tastey, but didn't really satisfy my pains. But I kept on going thru the day.
Nearing the end of the day, there was another project that I got involved in but actually somewhat involved what I do, video. It was something that our typical production office kept messing up, and somehow was convince that what they were doing is what the client wanted but was actually wrong. So we needed to do it ourselves. HOWEVER, we've never done this before. So we get to learn. It called syncing a Transcript of a deposition to the video/audio of the same deposition. Technology is great.
After try and try, it was taking too long to do on our own, so we ending up sending it to the master syncing site to be done, but not our other office. Left again late from the office. I really don't like staying late. Its frustrating.
I go home. Still not feeling the best in the stomach area. Not sure what the deal is.
Oh and Rob and Trista are having a "Date Night" at the house.
I now feel a tad bit more lonely. I need more friends, I posted on Facebook.


Because its late and I'm tired I'll come back and edit this later. Maybe
Saturday, Oct. 4
Will elaborate later....
Mens breakfast..
Doc
Appendix
Meds
insurance
Practice

Sunday, Oct5,
7am setup
bbq day at church,
low count
still not entirely better
no chicken at boston market,
Stop sign ticket on the way there.

Oh yea, My stomach hurts.

Dreams and nightmares.

Monday starts off like a typical monday except I got running a tad late out the door. I knew I had video deposition I was scheduled for at 10am and a 2pm at the same location. I like to get there about an hour early however due to being behind getting ready I arrived around 9:15. When setting up video equipment its always great to have as much time need to setup. Any shorting in time usually can be where issues can come up. This day was nice in that it was relatively smooth. One thing that made that bizarre was the first deposition was scheduled to only be a few hours but ended up lasting til 5pm. What was appearing to be a short day turned into a long drawn out one.

Monday night I had a dream or I guess it would be considered more of a nightmare. I was with my mom and a friend or too I don't remember any face. We were in a wide near crater type valley hanging out and the we saw what looked like a space capsule, one similar to the Apollo crafts making a re-entry and flying overhead and then followed be a crash hit somewhere near the middle of this valley we were in. But just after this craft hit the ground we saw another spaceship that was flying from the direction of crash area. At that moment there was an explosion from the downned craft and we deemed it to be like a nuclear one and took off running and could see a shockwave coming after us. My mom seemed to have ran faster than me and had about a 100ft lead on me. I felt the shockwave right behind me then it over took me and became overwhelmed with the blast and the end. I woke up but felt Extremely still and quiet and didn't open my eyes then.

Eventually I would get back to sleep but it was a little eerie.

At work on tuesday I had a few things to work out mostly technical issues. At one point I was doing something that required me to restart my computer. After the computer started up, something happened that I could not successfully login under any name, admin or user. After dealing the IT dept we came to the conclusion that there was some sort of corrupted file that prevented this startup sequence. That means we will likely have to format and load everything back to original settings. I was able to offload all my personal files so that I can use them on a temporary machine and have a backup in case the hdd needs formatting.

Tuesday night I had another dream that was rather bizarre and stirring.
I was with a couple friends that I don't recall their faces but we were in a house or school or old church type building. Occasionally we would notice a lit match on the floor. One of us would step on the match and smother it and it went out. We would keep finding extiguishing these matches and put them out. After a while we got suspicious because they would appear ou of no where. I thought about it for minute and put fire and demons together, as soon as I did I looked up and saw something that was disturbing. A human form that looked like it didn't have skin very deep dark red nearly maroon in color. It had a full face like a mask that was white or near gray in color.
This thing was looming over us lighting these matches and throwing them near us. I saw it happening and started praying and praying in a spiritual language. Meanwhile I tried to get the two friends that were with me to pray as well and let them know we were being messed with by a demon. They prayed for a couple minutes then gave up eventually trying to leave the room not caring about what was going on. I remember fighting or thinking about fighting with the demon.
The rest is blurred as some dreams become when awake.

Waking up again later than desire also not setting my alarm correct put me nearly a half hour behind. Which got me to my video job 30 minutes later than I would have liked to be there. Though after rushing to get setup and begin the deposition the level of stress and anxiety subsided.
It reminds me like if you were late to flight but got on just in time.

So for the rest of the day we're looking at a relatively easy peazy day in Folsom til roughly 5pm.

A realization...

Well a few actually...

I like the use of ellipsis...

I spend a lot of time on my computer...

I am lame at blogging...

... unless its twitter.


A couple of sites I found interesting.
- Twitter, since I brought it up. Basically its blogging with your phone 140 characters at a time.

Another is a site I came across while listening to one of the xxxChurch Podcasts.
- StuffChristiansLike.net is about the little things in the church and people in it that don't always mean anything, but for some reason we, generally speaking, like it. Disclaimer, contains sarcastic humor, not fit for the humorless religious type.

The Fast. Day 1.

I've been inspired and compelled personally to start a fast.
Not just any fast. A water fast.
There is no goal as to how long I'd like to go.
One of the guys I talk to via car forums stepped out and announced his start of a water fast and his reasoning behind such a move.

"Started off this morning by eating a piece of chocolate cake. I suddenly felt violently ill, almost needing to throw up. Unfortunately, I couldn't make myself do it. I've been studying the health and spiritual benefits of fasting for a few months now, and decided this would be as good a time as any to do it. I happened to have a doc appointment today, discussed with him. Long story short, he gave me the green light, but told me to take it easy, not overexert myself, and to see him immediately if anything goes awry.

The whole idea is that you force your body to start living off its own fat, which is laced with toxins from all the crap you eat. As the fat is converted to energy, the toxins are also released. Before they finally get out of your system, they make you feel like crap, since they're actually in your system now, not just stored. Hunger is only supposed to last a few days (it's actually not true hunger, just gastric irritation since your stomach is expecting to be fed). During the first few days, as these toxins are released through every available medium of your body, you're supposed to stink... Afterwards, you're supposed to be feeling fine, then eventually get hungry once again... and this will be true hunger."

So all that said. I'd like to make a restart with my health.
I've been trying to control things in my life that seem out of control. One is my hunger and eating. I eat out too much and tend to be lazy about what I eat.
This will be a new start in the direction of better health. I know I don't eat much greens, and I doubt that will change, I'm sure I can find ways around that, or find things I might actually like to eat.

My reasoning:
Health control and detox.
Challenge to Faith and perseverance.
Some weight loss, not concerned as much.

Plus its give me something to blog about.


Wt: 224.2

FutureHistorySac

A few months ago I was invited impromptu to go to this meeting about reaching the Sacramento area for Christ. I wasn't really sure about what was going to happening in this 'meeting'. I know from past experiences that so called meetings were just a time to get you riled up to go out and preach to people. I was somewhat speculative going into it. It was night that challenged me. With roughly 100 people in attendance it started with a time of simply singing to God with just a guitar and our voices. Then we were challenged through a series of different spoken words about who we influence. The challenge of the meeting was this:

'Revivalist Charles Wesley was a 20-year-old college student when his fate as a founder of the Methodist great awakening was sealed. Evolutionary naturalist Charles Darwin was 22 when he first set foot upon the Beagle. Pioneering missionary Hudson Taylor was 21 when he climbed aboard a boat for China. The father of all anti-supernatural philosophers, David Hume, embraced his convictions at 18. At 17, Spurgeon was a seminary student and in his first year of pastoring near Cambridge. Stalin also attended seminary at 17. By age 21, however, he dropped out to dedicate his life to the socialist movement he first encountered there.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the great majority of world-changers are set upon their course as young twenty-somethings. This historic trend is even more relevant today. According to prominent researchers Neil Howe and William Strauss, the current generation of twenty-somethings is likely to "emerge as the next great generation" in American history.

On top of this, we are in the midst of a massive crisis in retaining our young adults. According to Barna, "a majority of twentysomethings - 61% of today’s young adults - had been churched at one point during their teen years but are now spiritually disengaged (i.e., not actively attending church, reading the Bible, or praying)."

One reason we are not retaining these students is that we are not reaching the community colleges where the vast majority of them congregate. California has 3.5 million college students. Two thirds, or 2.5 million of them, attend the highly unreached community colleges. Similarly, the coffee shops, clubs, and places of employment of the young twenty-something often do not receive enough of our ministry focus. Many young twenty-something ministries struggle to reach critical mass. Most see less then 30 core members involved and a good number are under 15.

We cannot continue with these results and expect to see growing churches, new church plants, and fruitful evangelism in the next decade.

A coalition of leaders in Sacramento is trying to reverse these trends. Masters Commission Directors, young adult church staffers, church planters, Chi Alpha missionaries, and other early twenty-something based ministries have been meeting together for the past 6 months to prayerfully consider how we can raise the tide for all young adult ministries.

These meetings started with just seven leaders, but in August over 50 leaders, including senior pastors, district officials, church planters, missionaries, and business people, gathered to be a part of the FutureHistorySac effort.

These 52 leaders committed to gathering 200 more workers and reconvening on Oct. 16th to launch a prayer mobilization effort in Sacramento. On Feb. 1st. we hope to see this group grow to over 2000 in the city. If it works here, we hope to take this to other cities. Bottom line, by praying and working together, we can learn from each other and raise the tide of all of our efforts.

Choices made in the early twenties impact vocation, spouse, faith, and worldview for the next 50 years of life. If we are serious about reaching our world we must reach this group. If we do, like Wesley, Taylor, and Spurgeon they will send shock waves of revival through a sleeping modern church. If we do not, like Darwin, Hume, and Stalin will they use their enormous political and intellectual skills to convince another generation that God is dead?"
-FutureHistorySac.blogspot.com

So coming up on 02.02.08 is another meeting of twenty-something's. This time to connect and mobilize hundreds young adults.

Future History Sacramento
February 2nd, 2008
Sac City College Auditorium
7pm - prefunction
8pm - main happening
11:30pm - post meeting connection

Hope you can be part of the movement, a part of the Future History of Sacramento.

We are Fishermen.

So from listening to the lastest xxxchurch.com podcast. They mentioned an interesting product on their segment "Thats Ridiculous" called, We Are Fishermen,

Basically, its Jesus action figures.

"I am Strength" - Jesus Riding a Bull
"I am Faith" - Jesus as a Quarterback
"I am Freedom" - Jesus riding a motorcycle
"I am Hope" - Jesus as a beggar
"I am Victory" - Jesus as a Soccer player
"I am Peace" - Jesus as a Soldier holding a dove
"I am Spirit" - Jesus as a Surfer
"I am Youth" - Jesus as a Skateboarder
"I am Life" - Jesus as a Rockclimber

Ridiculous. But Ridiculously Cool.

Cassie

This weekend I purchased a new album on Itunes from the group Flyleaf.

There is a song that gives a different perspective on the Cassie Bernal Story and that intrigues me.

Cassie

The question asked in order
To save her life or take it
The answer no to avoid death
The answer yes would make it

Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
Say yes to pull the trigger
Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
And Cassie pulled the trigger

All heads are bowed in silence
To remember her last sentence
She answered him knowing what would happen
Her last words still hanging in the air
In the air

Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
Say yes to pull the trigger
Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
And Cassie pulled the trigger

How many will die
I will die
I, I will say yes

Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
Say yes to pull the trigger
Do you believe in God
Written on the bullet
And Cassie pulled the trigger
Do you believe in God
Do you believe in God
Do you believe in God
And I will pull the trigger

*If you are unaware of the Cassie Bernal Story. She was the young girl who was shot at Columbine HS when one of the shooters asked her if she believed in God.