Chris's Musings

Ah, another election, and another blog written from California (the 2006 was written during training in San Diego) with thoughts about the political change that has just swept our country. Of course, unless you've been living under a rock you probably know know that Barak Obama is now our President-Elect. Whether you are in love with that idea or praying that Jesus raptures us before January 20th, this is now a fact... and honestly even though I'm not excited about it I'm warming up to it... and I do not believe that America is destined for the apocalyptic collapse that some of my friends on the right are hinting at. I reposted my blog from 2006, because the momentum all started then with the Democratic sweep of Congress as a backlash to a lot of garbage that we've been putting up with from an out-of-touch and entrenched Republican government, and definitely not a lot of love for President Bush either. The war in Iraq being a complete mess didn't help out much at...

Another week. Another time zone. I have been out in California for a week training for my job... it's been nice out here, great weather, beautiful scenery, fresh air... kind of like Split except instead of saying "dobre dan" (good afternoon), the people here just say "dude" The Teradata training has been very good. I'm about 1/2 of the way from drinking the kool-aid now :) - but seriously, I am really happy to be working for this company and we have a really great product that I believe more businesses should be using. Besides, if you were someone making a data warehouse decision, wouldn't YOU want to come out to San Diego to see the benchmark for yourself. You'll be blown away both by S.D. and by our technology. I am heading up to L.A. tomorrow to hang out with my friend Derek from business school... stayed in town (S.D.) tonight because I really didn't want to deal with the LA-SD traffic. I think we're going to go out to the O.C. beaches, D...

This is a teaser for a future post... time is short right now.  I'm off to SF for Dreamforce conference.  Good times.   God has been putting mentorship on my mind for a while now, and especially over the last couple of months as I am starting to be blessed with mentors and potential mentors, as well as strong brothers in Christ walking with me in this stage of our spiritual lives, that have blessed me INCREDIBLY as a Christian and also just as a guy "doing life" in relationships, career, and the such.   So... before I dump all of my thoughts on the blogosphere (later), I want to ask you... (especially if you are like me, in your late 20's/early 30's and have been growing in your relationship with Christ for a while). 1. Which older guy(s) are pouring into your life regularly to strengthen you as a man of God?  Someone outside of your stage of life that has been there/done that...  I'm really wanting to seek these type of guys out for myself and am en...

I was wanting to write about this earlier, but the day has been really crazy... you can chalk that up to Halloween.   Honestly, when this entire election season started two decades ago (at least it feels like it's been that long, maybe it's only been two years), I made an observation about Barak Obama to most of my friends that I thought (at the time) that he was an "honest liberal" - that he was an overall positive guy (which I still think is true) that holds some very progressive (liberal) beliefs... and while I respected him I would probably not vote for him because I do fundamentally disagree with the direction that he would likely want to steer the country.   The conversation he had with Joe the Plumber confirmed that basic opinion... that he really believes in this almost socialistic world view and in an unscripted moment attempts to convince a voter that that course of action is the right way to go.  Like I said, respect that he has these strong views... would ...

Joe the Plumber has hired a publicist... seriously. http://www.azcentral.com/news/election/election08/articles/2008/10/30/20081030joetheplumber1030.html I'm going to be happy on November 6th (I hope)

Tonight after work, I made my way over to Daryl and Betsy Griswolds' condo to again have an opportunity to hang out with the friends I have made in Estonia, have some dessert (always a plus), and listen about what God is doing 7 time zones across the world. It was fun and of course great to see Peep and Tarmo again since being at English Camp in Estonia last July. The cool thing about Daryl and Besty's place is this really huge clubhouse on the first floor of their building that is really perfect for events like this (that, and their amazing knack for hospitality). When we all arrived, the desserts were all set and we mingled for a while catching up, followed by Peep, Mart, and Tarmo each talking about Estonia, the Going Up/Risttee ministry, and what God has been doing over the last year. What was really cool about the evening, other than seeing these friends again and hearing their stories, was the cool "déjà vu" moments I had from the evening... I'll share a c...

http://www.theroot.com/id/48533?GT1=38002 Interesting... I like it. I'm not sure if it does enough. I've heard that we in the U.S. pay more per capita on health care than any other industrialized country in the world, and that only 2% of that spend is on preventative care. That's a tragedy, in my honest opinion. If less people have expensive health issues, then obviously the health care costs will naturally go down as we won't be as dependent on crazy procedures, prescriptions, etc. So, here's my proposal. Every year, if your doctor gives you a bill of "excellent" health, you get a $1,000 tax credit... doesn't matter what income bracket you're in (based on BMI and other risk factors). And also to encourage people to progress toward health goals, a $500-$1000 credit to anyone with a doctor's physical note indicating "significant progress" (over last year) in case they don't meet the criteria for the "excellent health" tax...