People that know me, know that I am not a religious person. I have beliefs and, although they are not evil, they aren't "everyday-white-midwestern-typical" beliefs. I would like to think I'm more spiritual than religious but, to be honest, I haven't been active in that regard for a while. Now, I believe I have been in presence of a higher power a few times and most of them were around music and crowds.
About a week ago, I had to work in the auditorium of the school where I work. My department runs the technology there so I got to play "sound man." It is a job I wish I was better at. The event was a surprise party that a church threw for one of their members. This church had a mostly African American congregation but there were also white people in attendance. I believe we almost blew the roof off the school. I say we because I was caught up in the whole thing. I didn't dance, but there was a point when I had tears in my eyes. There were people testifying about how they had been saved and redeemed and singing with some of the strongest, most beautiful voices I have ever heard. No kidding. This guy was moved. I felt energized and exhausted at the same time after the show. I tore down my equipment, mics and stands and cables, and listened to the people talk. Everyone was friendly with each other and lots of hugs and handshakes were given out. But I didn't notice people talking about how amazing it all was. Finally, I helped one of the pastors move his organ to his truck (no jokes please), I said, "That was a heck of an event."
He answered back, "Yeah, when the spirit moves you just go with it."
Then I said, "I wish I could describe what just took place but I don't think I can."
"No, I don't think so. You really just have to experience it."
I do believe he was right. And I was glad that I had been there. When I said something about how amazing it was to one of the choir directors, she just smiled at me and I could see that she could see how moved I was. It was that, and the conversation with the pastor that let me know what happened that night was real and happened to probably everyone there. And that was a beautiful thing.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Right Radio is WRONG!!
I don't mean to make anyone mad but I have to say something about the new radio station here in Terre Haute, IN. I don't remember the call letters but 90% percent of the programming is Right Wing political banter. It is the type of banter that annoys me. It is all negative. Right now, it is negative even when they are talking about other Republicans. To me, it's all sour grapes. There party has lost control of the White House and the Senate. The radio hosts are hopping mad and slinging some of the worst assaults on the President and anyone who even looks like they might support him. For a long time, I believed that these people were trying to enact something. They were trying to move something, some policy or agenda. I finally figured out what they are selling, which is despair. When the Republicans were in charge, these radio folks were angry how the democrats were doing everything in their power to screw up what they, the Republicans were trying to move ahead with. Now that they are the "underdogs" they are upset by how much the Democrats are screwing up things for the United States World-wide.
So, they are always screaming (literally) about "leftist media" and how things are never reported "fair and balanced." I found all of this confusing and offensive.
But then I started to put this in prospective. These people spewing hate and negativity aren't elected officials, politicians, or policy-makers. They are talk show hosts. Which, frankly, breaks down to them being entertainers. Some of you may have already made this connect earlier and all I can say to that is, "Big frickin' deal! I'm a little slow, but I usually get it!"
I do listen to the station for Art Bell, who always has an interesting guest that will try and expand your mind about anything from UFOs to real fairies. And I do believe that is the difference between these entertainers. Much of what Art presents is new, exciting and positive. When Art is talking about Ghost, the Ghost have something to tell you. They are not trying to kill you. Same with most of the Alien stuff. Most has a positive spin.
So, here is what I found. The Right Wing propaganda is negative and will affect people by giving them a glum outlook. They don't talk about positive things unless they are saying how smart they are. They keep their ratings by marketing toward people who are paranoid and controlled by fear. These aren't dumb people. They are people who feel that they are always getting screwed over, but don't know who to blame. Right Wing radio makes it easy for these people by giving them someone to blame.
I have listened to this radio station for the last week and I am to the point that I even chosen Country music above this. And not good Country music either. It the crappy top 40 Country stuff. But it still beats being bombarded with whiney pissing and moaning, bitter name-calling, and out and out lying.
So Remember, if you fill your head with negative crap from some 2-bit "entertainers" you derserve to feel as miserable as it will make you feel.
BTW: For the record I'm not a Democrat. I am a Libertarian. I would bet that most of the people reading this don't really know much about the Libertarian party. So don't dismiss it's worth if you don't know about it. That is a something that happens that does dissappoint me. But I'll keep that for another blog.
So, they are always screaming (literally) about "leftist media" and how things are never reported "fair and balanced." I found all of this confusing and offensive.
But then I started to put this in prospective. These people spewing hate and negativity aren't elected officials, politicians, or policy-makers. They are talk show hosts. Which, frankly, breaks down to them being entertainers. Some of you may have already made this connect earlier and all I can say to that is, "Big frickin' deal! I'm a little slow, but I usually get it!"
I do listen to the station for Art Bell, who always has an interesting guest that will try and expand your mind about anything from UFOs to real fairies. And I do believe that is the difference between these entertainers. Much of what Art presents is new, exciting and positive. When Art is talking about Ghost, the Ghost have something to tell you. They are not trying to kill you. Same with most of the Alien stuff. Most has a positive spin.
So, here is what I found. The Right Wing propaganda is negative and will affect people by giving them a glum outlook. They don't talk about positive things unless they are saying how smart they are. They keep their ratings by marketing toward people who are paranoid and controlled by fear. These aren't dumb people. They are people who feel that they are always getting screwed over, but don't know who to blame. Right Wing radio makes it easy for these people by giving them someone to blame.
I have listened to this radio station for the last week and I am to the point that I even chosen Country music above this. And not good Country music either. It the crappy top 40 Country stuff. But it still beats being bombarded with whiney pissing and moaning, bitter name-calling, and out and out lying.
So Remember, if you fill your head with negative crap from some 2-bit "entertainers" you derserve to feel as miserable as it will make you feel.
BTW: For the record I'm not a Democrat. I am a Libertarian. I would bet that most of the people reading this don't really know much about the Libertarian party. So don't dismiss it's worth if you don't know about it. That is a something that happens that does dissappoint me. But I'll keep that for another blog.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Pet Peeve#1: LIARS!
Here is what happened: I work for a college in a unique position where I create media for online classes but am also tech support in the distance learning area. We have a lot of campuses all over the state. We all usually try to "play nice" and help students, and, for the most part,this works well. Now, I usually feel nothing but respect and a type of kinship for people in other campuses who work in distance learning. Lately I have been having a problem with someone from another campus who seems to think that I am trying to put something over on her and their school by trying to help a student. There are issues that are beyond my control, but these are the issues that she brings up like and expects me to fix, which is impossible. We have a student taking a distance class from them and she is supposed to coordinate this, per her job description. What she wanted was for my school to pay for postage for VHS tapes that needed to be sent back from their institute to ours. In early emails she said that this would expedite things. What she meant to say was, "I'm not sending a Goddamn thing until I get those emails!" She didn't say that exact phrase, but that was the jist of it. Of course she didn't let it be known that she wasn't sending JACK until after I had waited a couple weeks for the tapes. Meanwhile I have a student who needs this class to graduate, and is already planning her job search and future post graduation, which won't happen unless she is able to attend and pass this distance class. The situation wasn't the norm but but the bottom line was that we had an opportunity to help a student who had worked her ass off to get to where she was.
So after some heated emails, and me sending a large box of postage paid envelopes, we started receiving the tapes. Although the coordinator at the other school and I will never be friends, we were helping the student.
Now the instructor chimes in and says that he had been recording the classes audio and that he had them posted to his site for the students to see. Well, I didn't think, from talking to the student, that this was exactly true, so I checked. Sure enough, he only had one class recorded, broken up into two audio files. And they from a class almost three weeks ago. He has either been archiving them where students can't find them, or he is LYING!! Folks, I believe the latter.
The real question is why? Everything is basically rolling along, smoothed out. There hadn't been an email exchanged in over a week. Why now? I had dealt with his boss and thought, well, at least that department was in good shape. Now this douche-bag actually lies to me and the people at my location, as well as his own. WTF? I almost said something. I almost said, Hey you lying piece of garbage, I'm trying to help a student. What are you up to? What are your motives for sending this? Is it because you had told someone that you were recording these, and now that you aren't, will it make you look bad? Are you trying to make them believe that you are doing something that you aren't?
Why do most people lie? To prop themselves up, even if it means tearing someone else down. I have dealt with three people from that school and two of them lied to me. I believe it was to make themselves look better to their superiors. I have no use for people like that.
I also believe in Karma and the old saying about reaping what you sow. To put it another way, the character Evie, from the movie The Mummy, said it best when she told the mummy's toadie Beni, "You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance."
So after some heated emails, and me sending a large box of postage paid envelopes, we started receiving the tapes. Although the coordinator at the other school and I will never be friends, we were helping the student.
Now the instructor chimes in and says that he had been recording the classes audio and that he had them posted to his site for the students to see. Well, I didn't think, from talking to the student, that this was exactly true, so I checked. Sure enough, he only had one class recorded, broken up into two audio files. And they from a class almost three weeks ago. He has either been archiving them where students can't find them, or he is LYING!! Folks, I believe the latter.
The real question is why? Everything is basically rolling along, smoothed out. There hadn't been an email exchanged in over a week. Why now? I had dealt with his boss and thought, well, at least that department was in good shape. Now this douche-bag actually lies to me and the people at my location, as well as his own. WTF? I almost said something. I almost said, Hey you lying piece of garbage, I'm trying to help a student. What are you up to? What are your motives for sending this? Is it because you had told someone that you were recording these, and now that you aren't, will it make you look bad? Are you trying to make them believe that you are doing something that you aren't?
Why do most people lie? To prop themselves up, even if it means tearing someone else down. I have dealt with three people from that school and two of them lied to me. I believe it was to make themselves look better to their superiors. I have no use for people like that.
I also believe in Karma and the old saying about reaping what you sow. To put it another way, the character Evie, from the movie The Mummy, said it best when she told the mummy's toadie Beni, "You know, nasty little fellows such as yourself always get their comeuppance."
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