The Illusion of Control

Have you ever heard of the Serenity Prayer?  It's popular amongst 12 step programs.  It goes something along the lines of:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference

So often in life we find ourselves frustrated because life just isn't going the way we want it to go.  Sometimes it just seems no matter how hard we work to control things they never seem to turn out just right.  And that's the problem really.

Sure change is inevitable, but that doesn't mean we can control it.  When you break it down.  I mean REALLY break it down we can't control most things in life.  You can't control the colour of skin you were born with or the language you were taught as a child.  You couldn't control the continent or country you were born in or the type of family you were born into.

Parents raise their children, teaching them right from wrong, in hopes that they will "do what's right" (in other words: what they want).  But in the end you have to give your children up and hope you raised them right.

Although we may try to, we can control what happens tomorrow.  Meterologists try to predict the weather and investors try to predict the stock market but in the end it's really just a crap shoot.  Try as hard as we can't control our bodies aging.

We certainly can't control so-called "Acts of God" where you get struck by lightning, your car is hit by a meteor, or your house is destroyed by a tornado.

In fact, I would argue the ONLY thing we CAN control is how we react to the world around us.  We can't control how we got here.  We can't control what happens next.  All we can control are our own actions here and now.

Google Plus (& Minuses)

So I've got a friend who works for Google and was able to get a Google+ invitation early on.  It took about a week for it to actually work but once it did I was excited to get going.  I LOVED the idea of circles.  Facebook has the ability to group people acciording to how you know them.  But it's a confsuing process.

Besides, I'm somewhat of a Google evangelist.  I'm forever hearing stories about people losing all their contacts after flushing/losing their phone or losing documents or pictures due to hard drive failures.  So I tell them, get a Gmail account and sync your phone with your contacts.  That way if you lose your phone you still have all your contacts and by just changing your password can prevent whoever has your phone from accessing them.  Or use Google Docs & Picasa to store your documents & photos.  You can pick & choose who you want to share them with too!

So when I heard that G+ not only had circles but I can link it up to my other Google products it seemed like a happy marriage.  Hopefully it's just a matter of time but it's not quite a Google paradise.

Circles
Pluses - Like I said before, G+ makes managing & organizing your friends easy.  It suggests people who you already know and you just drag & drop them into the right circle.  You can new circles or rename existing ones to account for virtually any group.  Just like Facebook's "Friend Finder" you can import contacts from other email services like Yahoo or Hotmail.  If you want to make a full break from FB you can export your friends to Yahoo and then connect Yahoo to your G+ account.  It's a little convoluted.  But it works (or so I'm told).
Minuses - It seemed like a no brainer to me that G+ would automatically (or at least give me the option) import my Gmail contacts.  So now I need to find out which contacts it didn't find, export them from Gmail in a CSV, and then import them into G+.  You also have to be careful you don't double up on people you have mutiple email addresses for.  It's easy enough to correct (just open the circle, highlight the duplicates, and click delete).  It's just a hassle.

Photos
Pluses - Google makes it really easy to manage your pics and who gets to see them.  First off you can link up your Picasa account or photos from your mobile device.  The best part is that by default no one can see them.  You have to choose to share them with people.
Minuses - The mobile phone photo interface with the iPhone is sloppy.  The photos don't automatically get uploaded to G+.  Your "from your phone" album takes FOREVER to refresh.  Perhaps this is just because they were in a rush to get the iPhone app out.  It's easier to just update the app later on.

Stream
Pluses - Your feed isn't full of spam about Mafia Wars, Farmville, or other stupid social games.  I also find that sharing links, video, & photos is really smooth.
Minuses - I don't like that a new comment makes a post jump to the top of your stream.  So if you comment on a post of someone really popular (ie: Larry Page, CEO of Google) their posts will forever be at the top of your stream.

My final beef is that G+ connects with only a limited number of other Google products.  I already gave the example of Gmail contacts.  But seeing as your public profile acts as a sort of microblog it would make sense to be able to connect with Blogger.  Or at least make work-arounds better.

Here is my G+ to Blogger hack:

1. Log into you Blogger account and set it up for 'email posting'

2. Log into Gmail contacts, add the address (give it an actual name like Blog) to a group, then export the group as a CSV file

3. Log into G+, click on the Circles button up top, then click Upload address book, and import the CSV file you just exported from Gmail.

4. Search for the address by name you saved it as and then drag & drop it into a new circle by itself called Blog.
5. When you want to post to your blog simply select that circle under posting options.  It might ask you if you are sure you want to email the post to the person.  Of course say yes.  Now when it shows up on your blog it will be formatted like a post on your Google profile.  But it works!

The major drawback to this is that when I did it on my iPhone (app & Safari) the post didn't go through to Blogger.

Read the original post at: http://thaword.blogspot.com/2011/07/google-plus-minuses.html

Incoming !!!

The other day I was watching an episode of M*A*S*H* where B.J. Hunnicutt was pulling pranks.  There was one part where got discovered but got the person to yell "AIR RAID!!!!!" and Frank Burns ran out of his tent screaming like a girl and fell into a pit filled with water.

Well being an expectant father (any day/week now) at times feels similar.  Just like people in the middle of a war I walk around all day with that anxious feeling in my stomach telling me to be ready because any second now something could happen!  Plus everyone keeps warning me.  Saying things like "Your life is going change", "You're never going to sleep again", or "Your world is going to turn upside-down".  It's akin to people running up to me yelling "AIR RAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIID!"

Now the important way this ISN'T like a war is the fact that it's GREAT thing and I can't wait.  Now anyone who knows me knows that I am probably one of the most laid back guys you'll ever meet.  Not much really gets under my skin.  Or at least not for very long.  But hearing people say stuff like this over & over again is disconcerning.

Kind of like our wedding day.  I was a little nervous but overall I was doing good.  That is, until I got to the hall.  People kept coming up to saying "Are you doing ok?", "Are you alright?".  After at least 20 people in what felt like 5 minutes asked me if I was ok I was starting to doubt myself and wonder "Am I ok?".  So when it came to get things underway and I was standing up at the front apparently I had that "deer in headlights" look in my eyes.  It wasn't until Christine was standing right beside, took my hand and whispered "Are you ok?" that I was calm once again.

That's why I'm not nervous about the craziness of labour or worried about having my world & sleep schedule thrown into chaos.  I know that through everything we will be doing it together and we'll be ok.

But in the meantime.........

INCOMINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG *dives for cover*

If You Build It...

...well then it's built!

So those who know me know that I'm normally a bit of a procrastinator.  But in the past few months, in getting ready for the baby I've gotten much better at tackling projects.  The crib, dresser, shelf, & night stand all got brought up from the car quickly AND put together almost right away.  PLUS, I painted the nursery without being nagged... er... gently reminded by the wife.

Now I needed to buy a new computer cart because we needed a different setup.  You see the old computer desk was in what is now the nursery.  So we had to get rid of it.  When we got a refurbished computer a while ago I set it up on the counter of the breakfast nook attached to our kitchen.  Friends of ours keep their Mac in the same spot & it works great for them.

However, computer work areas accumulate stuff.  Add a huge tower and a printer and now we really don't have a breakfast nook at all.  The problem reached it's breaking point with the baby on the way.  We don't want wires hanging down and easy to grab by little hands.

But where to put it? We don't have room for a desk in our bedroom.  And doing wireless keyboards, mice, & monitor would awkward expensive and just be one more hassle when it doesn't work right (which you KNOW is going to happen.  Then genius struck: a computer cart!  Of course I can't find any decent ones locally.

To The Cloud !!!
Away I went on the internet searching high & low for a cart that will hold everything (tower, printer, monitor, keyboard, & mouse), be portable, compact, & NOT cost a fortune.  Eventually I found the Safco MUV adjustable height computer workstation.

Well it arrived today!  I unpacked it and put it together (90%) when I got home in about 1 hour.  All that's left is to put the shelves on the support beams.  They will only be secured by double-sided sticky foam .. things (kinda cheap) so I want to make sure the shelves are EXACTLY centre.  Which strikes me as odd.  The whole thing is VERY sturdy.  Then they go and cheap out on attaching 2 of the shelves?  What would it cost to add a couple more drill holes and some bolts?

Oh well, here is the online ad & the (mostly) finished product:

Why church?

A short time ago I asked my friends on Facebook "If you go to church, WHY do you go?".  Most people got it right.  You see church isn't about getting your spiritual time card stamped.  At least it shouldn't be about that.  It's about worshipping God and fellowshipping with other believers.

I call words like 'church', 'worship' & 'fellowship' Christianese because sometimes it seems like Christians speak a different language than the rest of the world.

Worship, when you break it down, means you are recognizing God's worth.  For Christians this can be done many ways: studying the Bible, prayer, singing songs of praise, acts of love or obedience.  It should be part of our everyday lives but especially important when we gather together.

Fellowship is simply what happens when a community of Christians gather together.  It's social interaction and the building of relationships.

A Church is not a building. A Church is a group of Christians who gather together for worship & fellowship.

Recently I've been reading this book called 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan.  It's a great book that really tears away all the other junk we try to add on top of the Bible and reminds us that it is really about this crazy kind of love.

It has really got me to thinking about Sunday mornings.  The more I think about it the less I see Sunday mornings reflecting the reasons why we are SUPPOSED to gather as a church.

Here is a break-down of how your average Sunday morning goes:
- Get your seat
- Announcements
- Prayer and singing hymns/worship songs
- Bible reading
- Sermon
- More singing of hymns/worship songs
- Some sort of coffee/tea social time

I just find way too much focus is put on the sermon.  Preaching is good and it serves a purpose.  But most Sunday mornings are structured to make it seem like the main purpose of being there.

To be truthful, preaching is a very ineffective way of teaching.  It's usually 1-way communication with the preacher talking at/to people.  What about all those people who don't learn just by listening?  Many people need to write things down or read it to REALLY grasp it.  The biggest problem is that the people in the pews/chairs all have different levels of knowledge.  I call it the shotgun method.  Because you just spray a wide shot of knowledge and hope that some of it took effect.

Besides, this isn't the example we see set by Jesus or the Apostles of the early church.

Jesus taught in parables so as to conceal the message from those who don't REALLY believe.
Today preachers make their sermons simple so that it's easy for everyone to understand.

The Apostles would share the salvation offered by Jesus in a public place.
Today we share the same message to people who come to us on Sunday morning.

The early church gathered together daily to eat and live life together.
Today we meet 1 or 2 times a week and complain that it takes up too much of our time.

The early church was known for how they showed love.
Today we are know being judgemental hypocrites.

I think it's time to change.

Found Tungsten Ring

I'm hoping Google bot crawls my blog. In a downtown Toronto Green P parking garage across the street from St Michaels Hospital I found a black tungsten ring (picture to be added to the post later). Inside it has an inscription:

120808 (heart) VY

It also has heart inside a circle with a 2 beside it.

If it's yours then please leave a comment.

How I Save $$$ on my utilities

After getting married my wife and I each had a cell phone but no home phone.  It worked for the most part.  We could always get in touch with our friends & family.  Well, except when they were long distance.  We had to do the old trick of call them, hang up, and have them call you back.

Plus, my wifes cell was with Bell Mobility and the bills were ridiculous!  She had the absolutely cheapest plan we could find, made maybe 6 or 7 calls a month and about the same amount of texts and her bill vaired from $60 to upwards of $80.  We needed to get rid of it!

Here is what we did:

We cancelled her cellphone with Bell (avg $70/mth)

We switched our Lite Plus cable internet with Cogeco (approx. $30/mth) to the basic analog cable tv package.

We then signed up for the Ultimate/Ultimate Cable plan with Distributel.  We get unlimited DSL internet at about 5Mbps & a home phone with all the regular features.  For an extra $10 we added unlimited long distance for Canada/US and $2 more to get the same plan on my cell phone.  The package comes out to $75/mth ($65/mth for the 1st year).

With my cell phone @ Telus we upgraded to the iPhone 3G 8GB for $100 & a 3 year contract.  We got the basic data plan with the My 5 Favs option ($55/mth).

The way long distance on the cell works with Distributel is they have a ton of access numbers.  Your phone number is given access to the system.  You call the access number for your area.  After a quick moment you hear the dial tone.  Then you dial the number you want you call without the 1.  You will hear an automated voice say "Distributel" and then you will get connected to the call and hear the line ringing on the other end.

You will have to let your friends & family know that when they see Distributel on the ident-i-call that it's just you and not  telemarketer.  The biggest is hassle is having to remember phone numbers and dial them in manually.

My solution was the iPhone app IsaDial.  It's meant for using calling cards because they also have access numbers.  I programmed a few different access numbers as a 'profile'.  When I want to make a call I launch IsaDial instead of Contacts.  It asks me which profile I want to use.  Then it takes me to my contacts.  I choose the person and number I want to call.  The program calls the access number, waits a few moments, and then dials the number I wanted.

So for the cost of one less cell phone we now have cable tv, high speed DSL internet, a home phone with unlimited long distance in US & Canada and a cell phone with the same plan.  Sure it costed me $100 to upgrade to an iPhone.  But my monthly plan was actully $10-15 cheaper per month on the iPhone.  So the upgrade paid for itself after 10 months.