Tom Squared

Every now and then I need to take a break from Steve Pavlina's blog, it just opens too many questions and challenges me so much professionally that I need to take a step back and simply exist for a while.  When I come back though, as I recently have, I find so many things which resonate and make me want to just be better . I just came across his You Are Self-Employed post.  In a nutshell: everyone is essentially self-employed and that even if you’re an employee, you should think of yourself as the President of your own personal services corporation.  Call it Your Name, Inc .   This mindset makes a lot of sense.  Even if you seemingly work for someone else, you still work primarily for yourself.  You have your own company with one employee — you — and you’re in the business of selling your employee’s labor for profit. Definitely check out the rest of the article, there are some pretty compelling reasons showi...

Up until about a year ago I always had a hard time getting to sleep.  I'd sometimes lay in bed for hours with my mind running on things I need to do.  A couple of things recently have changed which finally fixed this, and I wanted to share. First, I started getting up at 5 a.m. last December and going to bed when I was tired.  It was hard for the first month, but then I got into the groove, and it was great having an extra 2 hours of free time each morning.  Then I had surgery and haven't gotten back into the swing after recovery.  I wake up at 5:30 or 6, so I have some free time, but nothing like I did.  A benefit though was that I'd head up to bed around 10 or 11, close my eyes, and be out immediately.  It was great, and if you're interested in more details check out Steve Pavlina's How to Become an Early Riser blog entry (also good is How to Wake Up Feeling Totally Alert ), this is the process I followed and it was great. If only other people...

I'm watching Grey's Anatomy , where one of the characters ran into a guy she was interested in in high school.  She becomes a different person, really bubbly and willing to do whatever the guy asks.  Essentially, she realized that she became a blithering idiot. That got me wondering about my own life.  Who could I run into that would make me a blithering idiot? There was a girl I knew who asked me to take her to her prom.  We went there, then to a party at her friends house.  I become so enamored that I'd do almost anything.  I ended up letting her sleep in my lap all night, while I sat there, feeling exhausted but unable to sleep for being so uncomfortable, listening to crummy R&B music.  In college I ran into the same girl and I tell you, that day, I pretty much dropped everything and doted on her all day. There just seem to be people we come across in life that make us forget all our common sense and become blithering idiots. When I me...

Last Friday a few people from church and I went to see Rob Bell speak during his "The God's Aren't Angry" Tour.  Here's how I saw the event. The short answer is that this is an hour and a half long sermon.  An incredibly dynamic sermon.  It was Rob Bell at his finest. The longer answer is that he described where we, as cave men, began to recognize God's for different events, such as a God for the Sun and one for the rain.  That moved into describing the altar and sacrifices.  The inherent problems with sacrifice, when things go well you give more for thanks.  when things go badly, you give more hoping your god will finally be satisfied. That led into a discussion of Christ's sacrifice for us.  That the altar is no longer for sacrifices of dead things, but instead one for us to make a living sacrifice.  He described how that was received in the community. He then went into descriptions of some of the hard problems people have face...

In case you noticed the picture of a steak from my post on eating well, that was a prime rib I purchased at Fleming's, a pretty nice steak place.  In my opinion it's nicer than Morton's, but not as good as Ruth's Chris.  Essentially it's expensive steak, and you pay for the sides. I decided to have the special that night, the 22 ounce prime rib.  To put that into perspective, there's 16 ounces in a pound.  In more perspective, a big hamburger is 1/3 to 1/2 of a pound, 8 ounces.  So, if the picture doesn't really convey, this thing was as big as my forearm. . . And it was delicious . The reason I mention all of that is to talk about portions.  A few years ago I went on a mission trip to Montana, and came back recognizing just how much I eat each meal.  I go away from dinner full, having eaten two or three helpings.  I mainly did that because I like the flavor so much I didn't want to stop.  So, I tried an experiment (as they say in Ses...

In my semi-daily bible reading (getting better thanks to my friend Mason) I came across this line: Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best, fill yourself with only the finest. Isaiah 55.1-5 The Message Obviously this isn't talking about eating really.  It's really talking about listening to God's word and making it a part of your life.  To be really open, the next line says: Pay attention, come close now, listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words. Isaiah 55.1-5 The Message Honestly though, I think there is something really important to be said for eating well.  I tend to eat just ok.  Believe it or not, that's a step up from when I worked in DC and went to McDonald's every day for lunch.  No, I'm not kidding, and no, I didn't order the salads much, if at all. Going back even further though, I ate pretty well in high school.  I went vegetarian for a little while, having a lot of Subway veggie subs with melted cheese (I...

Don't tell my wife, but I've begun listening to Christmas Music.  Both the Comedy Christmas Music channel (some awesome stuff there) and the Rock Holiday Station.  I do love Yahoo! Music, but if my wife ever finds out I think she'll kill me for listening (and enjoying) Christmas music a few weeks before Thanksgiving.  Honestly, I'd have listened all year round if I hadn't lost the link to the station in March. Does anyone else out there have some odd, secret desires they indulge in regarding Christmas? Peace, +Tom

Recently Erin's grandfather had to put down his dog Ruffles.  His quality of living just wasn't there anymore.  Anticipating Grandpap visiting for Thanksgiving, without Mister Ruffles, we wanted to let Rachel know what had happened.  Here's how the conversation ensued. Dad: When Great Grandpap comes to visit, Ruffles isn't going to come with him. Rachel: Why not? Mom: Ruffles wasn't able to see or hear very well.  He got confused a lot and had a hard time going potty. Rachel: Like Rika? Dad: Kind of like Rika, but much worse.  So Mr. Ruffles is up in Doggie Heaven. Rachel: Oh.  With Doggie Jesus? I love kids!  Since then Rachel has mentioned Doggie Jesus a couple of time.  I like the idea that Jesus becomes whoever we need him to be at the time we need him. Peace, +Tom

I came across this article, " What we learn from the dying " today and found it pretty interesting.  I figured I'd share, there's definitely some interesting stuff. I'm wondering why my friend David thinks after being in Clinical Pastoral Education (working and pastoring to sick and dying people) for a few weeks. Peace, +Tom

Holy freak of everything.  I just found out Microsoft just bought an ownership stake in Facebook, beating out Google in a bidding war.  I have no idea if this means something good or bad, but it sure is interesting. Here's the article " Source: Microsoft wins Facebook bid battle " from CNet. Ok, while I don't have any idea, truthfully it makes me nervous.  I keep wondering how much life is left in Facebook, and had expected it to be gone (like MySpace ) or completely different in two years.  Now that a large corporation has bought into it, I expect that "completely different" option is off the table.  Large companies just seem unwilling to make huge changes to a product which was successful at one point in time. Sadly, I expect Facebook will be gone, replaced by some other social networking site, within a few years. Peace, +Tom

In my many discussions with people, I get to hear a lot of different opinions on God.  I hear a lot of people asking for explanations to answer the question "what was God thinking?"  I've also heard a lot of answers to that question.  "What is God thinking? Why does he let me hurt? Why did He let that happen?" I recently heard this statement about God and suffering (this is paraphrased). Let's assume you take a completely literal view of the bible.  If you look at Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, God made a mistake with humanity.  He formed us in a way that man has no knowledge and were mindless.  Then man ate of the tree of knowledge after being tempted by the serpent.  After this God saw his mistake in mankind and threw them out of Eden, and put us into a world where he we have problems and are punished for Adam and Eve's transgressions.  We continue to have those punishments today. Hearing something like this ...

Every now and then I get to do some fun stuff with church and flex my imagination to come up with graphics for sermon series we have going on.  Now, in most cases we take a background from a site dedicated to making them, since they have a bunch of people committed to making great graphics.  My favorite by far is PowerPoint Sermons .  They have listened to subscribers and made changes, including some I've specifically requested.  One of the graphics I got from them was this: All I had to do was type in the text I wanted.  It would be great if they had even more backgrounds, but this will always be the site I hit first.  Well, now I'll hit SermonSlides by the same company, since we only use 4 slides a year, and this site lets up pay as you go. In any case, every now and then Rob likes to make up sermon series titles which no one seems to have a graphic for.  Like this one: Deep Shift.  Get the reference?  Remove the "f" and y...

Last Sunday my friend Rob invited me out for a day of fishing in Erie, Pennsylvania.  We headed out at 8 p.m. Sunday, slept in Cranberry, PA for a few hours (fewer hours than I'd hoped, since the fire alarm went off every half hour for an hour, until we pulled the thing off the wall).  At 4 a.m. we met our guide Jim and headed out for the hour and a half drive to Erie, PA.  We started fishing around 6 and didn't stop until 5. No eating or drinking, less time for fishing Rob would say. It was a great trip, and I'd do it again if my wife ever lets me (so far the outlook looks grim on going again until the kids are in college).  Here are the couple of insights I had that day. I caught 14 fish.  They were huge, and it was so much fun.  Whoever said the reason they call it fishing instead of catching never had a guide as good as Jim helping them catch.  Admittedly, the people around us weren't catching nearly as many fish.  Check out the few I got...