Year / 2009

by Greg

God Saved Our Bacon

It’s been a full week. Fuller than usual for some reason. (I’m not sure “fuller” is a word, but, in this case it seems to fit.)

Each day has ended very late, and been full of either lots of one thing, or many different things. But whatever the landscape of the day, each has ended with a very tired Greg’s head.

Yesterday was no exception. Perhaps only in that it was the day this week that I actually felt the most tired. (Tireder?) I got home from a long day of training people at the Apple store, tired, hungry, and ready to eat a (quiet?) dinner with my family.

Oh right… I have five kids ages ten and under… 🙂

So, it wasn’t quiet. It wasn’t even particularly pleasant. (Though the meal was fantastic. Nice job, Jen!) 🙂 I kept feeling more and more tired, more and more badder…

And that’s when God decided to save our bacon.

After finishing my dinner, and as the kids were still complaining, fighting, whining, and pretty much exhibiting every bad behavior known to mankind, a peculiar thought entered my mind: “I should make the kids some really special ice cream sundaes.” (Yep, you read that right.)

I remembered that we had a bucket of vanilla ice cream left over from Ian’s birthday party about a month ago, and even some cool toppings from that day. The kids had been horrible, Jen & I were fried – and not letting the nicest things come out of our mouths – and for some reason, the idea I had was to be ridiculously generous to our little hooligans.

Well, I acted on my strange impulse and got up and lined up four bowls on the table (for the oldest four) and began bringing out all the awesome toppings. Chocolate and strawberry syrups. Maraschino cherries, peanuts, and even coconut flakes. The kids were getting pretty excited!

Finally I grabbed the 5-quart bucket of ice cream and popped off the lid. And that’s where it got interesting.

I dipped the scoop into the bucket with a decent amount of force, as the ice cream promised to be pretty hard having just been removed from the freezer. What met my decent amount of force was a very unexpected, squishy, super-soft blob of almost completely melted ice cream!!! What??! I tested a few other areas, and indeed, the whole thing seemed like it was room temperature!

This was very disturbing, and NOT what I wanted at my then current energy level. But, with a freezer full of meats, veggies, and a few fruits (thanks to the generosity of friends and family, actually) … I knew I had to try and do something to save it.

I am no refigerator repairman, so I really had no idea where to begin. But I poked around, and did notice the fan was not blowing. That has meant in the past that it was frozen over. I pulled out all the contents of the freezer, with “Plan B” being to store them in a giant Rubbermaid container outside that night. When I got the panel off in the back of the freezer, I discovered that it had frozen over. I got out the hairdryer and melted away the ice… and the fan came back on!

After cleaning it out – what better opportunity would I have to do that?? – I put all the food back in, moved the fridge back in place, and in just a couple hours, all was back to normal. (The water dispenser had frozen up as well, but as I type this, the ice maker is back in full swing.)

That night – and again this morning – I was super thankful that God had (I believe) prompted me to first, bring peace and joy to our dinner table and our home with a special treat on an especially bad night, and as a very cool side-effect… he quite literally may have saved our bacon! Who knows when I would have checked the freezer again? Probably not till I saw a pool of water outside of it the next morning.

See, the that’s the cool part of the story. In the middle of an otherwise forgettable evening, God took a very simple (yet strangely generous) idea, and turned it into a rescue effort. And it worked. And he definitely gets the credit.

God really did save our bacon. 🙂

by Greg

I’m Praying For You

Recently I have been asked to pray for people a lot. Or, just offered to. A lot of crazy things going on. Friends losing jobs, dealing with tumors and cancers, relationship turmoil, and even just people caught in a mess of their own poor choices.

I am certainly not immune. I have felt tired, spent, exhausted, and overwhelmed by much of life for the past 8 or 9 months. There are certainly bright spots, and, as the song goes, “All of the way, my Savior leads me,” but life is just not always sunshine and lollipops. (Like, for example, the $600 auto repair bill I just got…)

Through it all, however, I want to, and do ask God to “fix stuff” in life. But I have found that this is the hardest thing for me to do with Him. Not that I don’t think he listens, or answers, prayer… I know he does. I even wrote a song about it.

I also have no problem talking with God. I love him, and know he loves me. So we chat often about many things. Everything. Even if it’s not polished up all nice and shiny for him. Because I know he loves me.

That is the part that is not making sense for me. Every time I ask God for something – be it for me, or for someone else – I eventually (usually quickly) come to the point where I say something like, “But if you have a better idea, I want what you want.” Every time. Which always makes me think, “So why am I asking you?” It’s not that I am unwilling to ask… that’s why I do ask. What is it that won’t let me ask for something without a qualifier?

Best I can figure, it’s because I have come to know my Father, and completely trust him. I know first, that he loves me completely and his plans for me are to “prosper me, and not to harm me.” I totally get that. And I trust that. Completely. So whenever I ask for something, I always realize, “You know… I am only looking at this from my perspective… you probably know something much bigger-picture. If I am asking for something that is not the best, then I want what you want!”

Does this negate the need to pray for stuff in your life, and for other people? I don’t think so. There are examples of believers praying for the life circumstances of themselves and other believers. It’s not bad. And maybe it’s just good in that we are refocusing ourselves, remembering from whom we receive “every good and perfect gift.” I still wonder though if there is something in this that I am not quite understanding.

I’m sure there is. 🙂 And I’m certain that my Father will lead me into it, and beyond.

by Greg

Microblogging

Have you heard the term “microblogging” bantered about these days? Perhaps you’ve heard of the most popular microblogging platform, Twitter? It certainly has some legs these days. There are all sorts of options out there, Twitter and Tumblr are two popular ones I have tried. (I really don’t use Twitter, and I have stopped using my Tumblr page long ago…)

Microblogging is generally 140 characters (though this varies) of anything at all, but it’s intended to be used as a conversation. Whether you are disseminating information – like web links to sites or articles of interest – or actually mentioning or directing the conversation to specific people, it’s a quick way to keep a constant stream of content going.

And nearly always, microblogging begins with the question, “What are you doing right now?”

Facebook (my social media platform of choice) has a similar feature. It’s called a “status update.” I am pretty good at updating mine throughout the day, with a thought or a posted link at times … it’s interesting, and it does start conversations as people can comment on these “status updates”.

What I thought recently was, I don’t have time to sit and craft a blog post of all my thoughts, but I apparently do have time for “microblogging” (via Facebook status updates). So what if I turned all of these “microblogs” from one week prior into a regular blog post here at GregsHead.net?

Below is what that might look like… all the things I took the time to post to my Facebook community. Very interesting…

(Note: I put some of the posts late at night on the “day” that they were for me, rather than the actual calendar date. 1:30am on Thursday is still Wednesday night for me…) 😉

Feb 4
Greg is not used to being tired so early in the evenings. (Crazy early mornings!!) :-). 1:42am

Feb 5
Greg is starting his 12-hour work day. 8:30am
Greg is saying hi to the Vs. 11:06pm
Greg is going to have a full day in his office tomorrow. 12:14am

Feb 6
Greg is working on many projects today. 11:51am
Greg is finally done working, and now very thankful for our awesome babysitter, Kristin! (Taking Jen out for a burger!) :-). 8:21pm
Greg is stuffed full of Red Robin and now going to sleep for a few hours. Early shift at Apple tomorrow. 12:25am

Feb 7
Greg is not sure why the 6am hour exists… 6:46am
Greg is heading to Apple for the day. Well, the very early part of the day. :-). 6:57am
Greg is home. For this later part of the day. 5:23pm
Greg is tired. 6:55pm

Feb 8
Greg finds it intriguing that not one of his friends would be on Facebook at 6:45am on a Sunday… :-). 6:46am
Greg is back from the quarterly store meeting at Apple, and looking forward to a fun day with his family. 11:49am
Greg is baking brownies. 2:35pm
Greg is TiVo-ing the Pro Bowl, so we can fast forward the commercials! 5:20pm
Greg is about to play backgammon with Jen. She likes it. 10:35pm
Greg had a good long Sunday. Time to sleep a bit, and start another week! 2:48am

Feb 9
Greg has gotten a slow start to the morning so far… 9:28am
Greg is trying to fit everything in. 10:12am
Greg needs a sabbatical. 11:06am
Greg just made a pretty crazy culinary creation. Ingredients: curry, onion, tomato, peas, oh… and… pheasant. :-). 10:43pm

Feb 10
Greg was just outside, and thinks it is much too warm for February. 8:12am
Greg has a meeting with a new client. 8:53am
Greg is getting to work on many different web projects. Full day! 10:16am
Greg is eating more of his culinary creation from last night… mmmmmmm. 1:34pm
Greg is enjoying some afternoon tea, and shifting to a different project. 2:56pm
Greg is still here… working. 5:26pm
Greg is going to go cook for his family. Fun! 6:02pm
Greg is hanging out with the Races! Love impromptu visits :-). 8:53pm
Greg was a cooking machine tonight! A cool taco-meat pasta dish, my famous Texas-style chili, and now slow-roasting a turkey overnight! Three meals in one night! :). 10:09pm

Feb 11
Greg officially declares mornings are evil. (Sorry morning people…) :-). 6:26am
Greg is considering options. 7:00am
Greg is back to work… and Emma is joining him this morning. :-). 8:56am
Greg is baking bread. 10:04am
Greg is feeling a tad overwhelmed by everything today. Time for some tea. 1:46pm
Greg has made good progress through his inbox, and enjoyed his tea. 4:09pm

Yeah, that’s kinda neat, but I hope to create more time in my schedule to work out some bigger, more cohesive thoughts. I have them, and get to “work them out” in conversations with friends throughout the week, but… well, more to come here soon.

by Greg

Asking Because We’re Loved

Remember a little while ago, I posted some thoughts regarding asking God for things, even though we might know or trust that he knows the best option or outcome anyway? I am still chewing on that, to be sure, because the more I get to know our Father, the more I trust his love for me and his way superior wisdom (not to mention much better vantage point).

This morning I was thinking more about what we ask God for and had a couple more thoughts to add. This past weekend, we were looking at Paul’s prayer and how he asked for stuff we don’t usually pray for. We like to pray for healing and other physical things (monetary needs, jobs, places to live, food to eat, etc.) Paul asked God to give the church inner strength, an understanding of just how amazingly loved by God they are, and by that to be filled with the fullness of life that comes from God. Notably, he didn’t ask for healing, provisions, or freedom from persecution. He asked that they would know Jesus more.

And, I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating, in Jesus “model prayer” (his reply to, “Master, teach us how to pray”) neither did he pray for healing – only for “daily bread”.

But what perhaps “clicked” today for me was that, even though Jesus didn’t necessarily ask God for it, and Paul did not, what we see Jesus doing is tons of healing. A majority of the stories we have from Jesus’ life on the planet involve some sort of healing. (And sometimes we see him asking his Father to bring that healing, but often he just healed.)

Why the discrepancy? Why wouldn’t Jesus model that in his “How To Pray” prayer? Why didn’t Paul ask for that for the Ephesians? I think maybe that there are “better” things than healing, at times, but in the end, God loves us… and he listens to us. He really does. When Jesus saw the people who were hurting and were asking for healing, maybe he knew of some way they could “grow” spiritually – that “inner strength” Paul asked for the Ephesians to receive – but when he was asked, he gave.

I know that as a dad – and certainly a flawed dad – I can be swayed by my kids’ askings. Even if perhaps there is a “better” option. Not always, of course. But sometimes. And I wonder if sometimes God forgoes the long range “best” to just say a short term, “I love you.” Could that be? Does that mean he is choosing an inferior option? Doesn’t that lessen him? Only if love is a lesser choice. I think he’d argue that it is not.

Much of this is just off-the-cuff ramblings from some thoughts I am still processing. It’s been a strange season lately. Lots of major illness and other things to ask God to heal, restore, renew. I am doing that. (And actually, so is he. Some very positive – if only short term? – happenings in response to our askings.) So, thanks for reading along, and I very much welcome your thoughts on “prayer” and the balance between asking him for what we long for, what we think is best, and trusting the love of our amazing Father, whom we know loves us, and knows “best.”

It’s an interesting journey, is it not?

by Greg

Sabres Lose Top Stars, Clinging to Playoff Hopes

Ryan Miller is OutThe Sabres seem to have plenty of bad luck in the injury department. Not just this season, but nearly every season. A few years ago, they made it to game seven of the conference finals, but most likely lost because they had one starting defenseman who was healthy! Many of the defensemen have missed time this season also. 2009 has been pretty much the same story, including the most recent injury to all-star goalie, Ryan Miller.

In Saturday’s victory over the Rangers, the Sabres lost Miller to a high ankle sprain. Those are bad. They usually place football players on the season-ending IR. They involve at least weeks of recovery, sometimes months. That’s bad. Miller is arguably the Sabres’ best player. And if some might give that title to Thomas Vanek, well, he’s gone too.

The Sabres’ best news this season has been the huge contribution from Tim Connolly, who it seems has been injured for more than two thirds of every season he’s been in the league! (Including this one.) He has become the star the Sabres hoped he would be since returning from his injuries this season.

Sabres.com posted an article about the injured Sabres, including an encouraging update: Thomas Vanek is skating again in practice. He was not expected back this early. Max Afinogenov and Andrew Peters are also currently recovering from injuries.

It’s definitely not good when you are clinging to eighth place in the conference – the final playoff spot – and you lose your top two players. The Sabres are likely thinking about making some trades before the trade deadline on March 4th. Maybe a veteran goalie, maybe another forward… who knows. While Connolly, Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, Drew Stafford, and a few others have had pretty good seasons, it’s hard to recover from losing your best two players. Perhaps a trade or two can give the Sabres what they need to make the playoffs, get their stars back, and make a run of it. Perhaps.

The playoffs are always more fun when your team is in it. We’ll see if the 2009 playoffs will be “fun”.

by Greg

Definition of a Blog

I often find myself recommending to people that they could start a blog. Whether it is one of my web clients, or a One To One member at the Apple store, there are many reasons to have and use a blog.

The funny thing is, when I say that, folks are often at least confused, and usually overwhelmed. Why is that? I haven’t completely figured it out, but I think it’s due to a misunderstanding of what a blog is.

Here’s the definition from Wikipedia:

A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.

The thing is, most people use the term blog in many other ways. First, blog is often used as a verb (which, although Wikipedia’s definition does allow for it, it’s not really how the word should be used) and second, it’s often used to refer to an individual post to a blog site. Also, there is another common misconception that a blog must be replete with verbose and eloquent entries, waxing philosophical on the many complexities of life.

While all of those may at times be true of various blogs… they do not need to be. Your blog can be whatever you want it to be. The three main things that make a blog a blog are:

  1. Regularly published content, listed on the site in reverse chronological order, and often archived monthly or weekly.
  2. Usually, due to the frequent publications, the site also notifies and distributes content via RSS or some other feed technology. (That’s for another day!)
  3. Almost always, there is some mechanism for feedback (comments) which creates a feel of “community” at the website as readers are invited to participate along with the author of the content.

Just wanted to clear that up, and perhaps a few hundred more people can understand and use the word “blog” in a less scary way. 🙂

I have a few blogs. This one (GregsHead.net), and Buffalo Bills Review (articles page), and then a few I don’t keep up very well anymore.

And, there are many services you can use to create and manage your own blog. I mostly use Blogger (the engine behind this blog), but another hugely popular blogging tool is WordPress. Those are probably the top two, but check out this list… there are a LOT to choose from.

So, if you have something to say, or even if you have nothing to say and just need to say it… a blog is a fun way to get that out and even enjoy discussions with your readers about whatever it is that’s on your mind.

Now get out there and start blogging blogs to your blog.

🙂

by Greg

Apple Updates Entire Desktop Line

Apple, Inc.Apple updated not one, not two, but all three of their desktop models today, announcing speed, storage, graphics, and other enhancements to the Mac mini, the iMac, and Mac Pro. As they typically do, prices remained the same (or went down) on all of the upgraded models. Perhaps most notably was the 24″ iMac now starting at $1499.

Previous generation (and refurbished) models are also available at reduced prices.

by Greg

Newsvine Column Resuscitated

I mentioned in a previous post today that I have not been using my Newsvine column (blog) much, and indeed that has been true, but I think I am going to start using that for posting links to interesting articles I come across in a day. They might be about anything from Apple and technology, to politics, to sports, to life with God, to… well, like the stuff you might see here, but written by other people. 🙂

It’s pretty easy to post there, and I’ll figure out a good way to import the content here via RSS. But… later. Stay tuned, and for now, bookmark gregshead.newsvine.com.

by Greg

What Does a Trillion Dollars Look Like?

Got an e-mail from my Dad today, one of them there e-mail forwards. (He enjoys those…) I try to read most of them (sorry, Dad, can’t read them all…) and several I comment back to him on, but only a very few do I share. (Almost none do I forward. If I share, I share via the web. A more passive “share”.) 🙂

This particular one, a website visually presenting what a TRILLION dollars looks like is both impressive and staggering, while really easy to comprehend visually.

These days, the word trillion is thrown around like the word million perhaps. We know it’s a big number, but ignore the true immensity of it.

And just think, before this so-called “stimulus” plan that is near a trillion dollars itself, aren’t we already in debt as a country near the sum of ten trillion dollars? Yikes.

So, check it out, if you have the stomach for that sort of thing.