Prayer Works!

I’ve been agonizing about whether or not to buy a new road bike for awhile. It’s the old story about the high cost versus how much am I really going to use it. I’ve been keeping my eyes open, looking at classifieds, and going to a few bike shops. Meanwhile I’ve been riding my old one more and more. Nothing makes me feel as young or healthy as biking.

Last week I finally (almost) decided to take the plunge by making an appointment to get sized for a Trek Madone 5.2. Yesterday I went down there and ended up saying yes. The total cost? Let's just say it was enough to make me queasy. My last road bike was a 2000 Trek 2300 which I thought was outrageous at the time.

I applied the money we'd saved from various yard and classified sales which we were going to put towards a flat screen TV. Still, I felt sick all day and night that I dug us deeper into debt and fretted about what I was going to sacrifice make up for it. And yes, I think I prayed silently for an answer. (why does it take desperation to remind most of us to pray anyway?)

This morning I got an email from my bank notifying me that a large deposit was made last night. It was a surprise from the school system; apparently they have been underpaying my wife for months and are finally straightening things out.

This is not the first time something like this has happened. The same thing has happened at least 5 times in the last 5 years when confronted with surprise bills. After surrendering to prayer, somehow the money showed up just in time. One time I got 2 medical refund checks that totaled up to the exact amount I owed to the dollar. Of course, once I had to get hit by a car to get money to pay the IRS...so it wasn't completely painless. But the point is, prayer works!

I've read similar stories from Tony Robbins and other gurus of empowerment. I have to believe that we can somehow tap into a larger consciousness. A good friend is trying to teach me about enlightenment through the art of breathing although the skeptic in me is resisting. However, my own personal evidence is mounting. I feel like I'm on the edge of a breakthrough in consciousness and self-actualization.

I also think The higher power (God, the Logos, etc.) is trying to tell me to do something for the good of mankind and it might have to do with bike riding! All the better!

if the post office was smart

Well the post office racked up a 2.8B loss last year. Not bad for a government institution!

I was thinking that they are a clear example of a company that failed to notice that "their cheese was moving."

The Post office failed to realize their strength which is...they have a huge database of addresses and demographics information. Plus, they have a superior organization system (ZIP codes.) What their weakness is, is delivering the mail. It is a business that is going to go away as things go electronic.

Older folks are the last ones to go electronic. Why didn't the post office develop some kind of mail reader/printer for people who don't like computers? Imagine a device with a big screen and about 2 buttons. All your mail is screened, filtered, by the post office according to your demographics and preferences, and delivered to this home "box." You push one button to read the mail and if you want, push the other button to print it.

Imagine if the box had a touch screen that you could write on in long hand and then hit a button to send it to your recipient?

I went to the post office today and not surprisingly, there was a long line of impatient people waiting for their turn to be serviced by a glum clerk. There was one automated postal center (robo-postman); I believe its the only one in a 10 mile radius. I much prefer to use them because their attitude is a lot better than the human clerks.

Why doesn't the postal service put more of them around town? Perhaps in convenient places? Imagine if they were set up as kiosks in malls or parking lots like ATM's? I would pay a buck or two extra not to have to drive 4 miles to my nearest post office.

They couldn't hear the train coming and now they're coming up with innovative ideas like "Let's go to a 5 day delivery week instead of 6!" This is progress? Please.

Just registered to update my blog from my cell phone. This could be dangerous.

Like the US? Thank a pirate!

From a Washington Post Review of Michael B. Oren's Power, Faith, and Fantasy : "In the perilous early years of the republic, the Muslim Barbary powers preyed on American shipping and captured, tortured and enslaved hundreds of innocent men and women. When John Adams and Thomas Jefferson implored the pasha of Tripoli to stop, Oren recounts, the pasha's emissary insisted that the Koran made it the "right and duty" of Muslims "to make war upon" whichever infidels "they could find and to make Slaves of all they could take as prisoners." George Washington raged, "Would to Heaven we had a navy to reform those enemies to mankind, or crush them into non-existence." And Congress did create a navy in the 1790s primarily to crush the Barbary powers and protect American traders and missionaries. President Jefferson -- so often mislabeled as an idealist, pacifist and isolationist -- eagerly launched the war and ordered the permanent stationing of U.S. naval forces thousands of miles from the nation's shores. "

I doubt that many Americans are even aware of the role pirates played in the formation of the United States. When our founding fathers declared independence from Britain, our ships lost the protection of the British navy. Unable to just pay the ransoms (the European way) the United States was at the mercy of the pirates. Thus one of the reasons the states united was to pool their resources and build a navy.

It's interesting that for the last couple of years we're hearing the same thing happening. Pirates operating off the coast of Africa are operating at will and the UN has done nothing about it. In fact, the policy is to pay the ransoms. Finally, the United States Navy Seals heroically rescued an American hostage yesterday. I think most Americans are thrilled to see us using our power, so hard to protect in our defeatist political climate, to defend the our rights of our ships and our people in international waters. My prayer is that our new President acts decisively and doesn't wait for the UN or Europe to dictate our response.

My sleep study

This very exciting (yawn.) I'm now undergoing a sleep study. That is, I will be in a few hours.

It's all because my wife thinks I have sleep apnea. Apparently she is under the impression that ceasing to breathe during the middle of the night is unusual. Hah!

So I agreed to go through with it just to humor her. The upside? I get the TV all to myself tonight!

Lately I've been doing a lot of Twittering. WEll, I guess I haven't been doing it as much as being twittered by other folks. I'm following Lance Armstrong, who is a manic twitterer. So is Rainn Wilson, who is one funny fellow. Jimmy Fallon is also a Twitterer, I think he's mostly nervous about his upcoming talk show...which starts tonight by the way! I'm not sure how long I'll be into it. I'm sure if circumstances were different I'd be too busy to engage in such foolishment. But its a diversion for now.

So what's going on with Battlestar Galactica right now? I think there are only 3 episodes left and I can't wait for it to end. It was once so promising. The miniseries and first two seasons were gripping. Then they went to New Caprica...and the show pretty much jumped the shark.

The occupation was a thinly veiled commentary on the whole Iraq war (yawn.) The best part of it was when the Galactica jumped into the upper atmosphere... that was, for an engineer and space nut, exhilarating to watch...especially with the so-called accurate newtonian physics and all. Then the writers tried to cover patch up all the plot holes they'd opened up and it got really stupid.

First, the whole concept of their being 12 models. At first, no one knew who or how many human-looking cylons there were. It was suspenseful not knowing if the person next to you was a cylon. They introduced various characters then revealed them as cylons as necessary. Probably the best one was when Lucy Lawless was revealed. Well done!

Then they said, "Let's say there were only 12 models." Suddenly they had to utilize everyone who had been exposed so far over and over again. Some of them were forgettable such as Doral and the low-key doctor guy. What a waste of a concept. Then to further insult our intelligence, they said "OK, we've shown 7 so far, let's say the remaining 12 are the "final five" and make them so kind of special Cylons." What a crock. They tried to claim that this was intentional when we all know the writers are making this crap up as they go along. Sheesh.

The latest episode was called "Someone to watch over me" and in it Starbuck hallucinated about her father. I really just want to know what's the deal with Starbuck, and what's going to happen to the ship and then I'll be done. I have a feeling they're going to do some kind of Matrix Revolutions type ending ("all this has happened before, and it will happen again...unless something (Neo) does something different this time.")

Check please! I'm done!

Goal Setting

I've always believed that high achievers are driven by their vision and goals. In fact, you first have to have a vision in order to set goals. It is this process of defining your vision and then following through on your goals that I'm interested in at the moment.

What does it mean to have a vision, to be a visionary? Well simply stated it means that you imagine a world or a scenario or an outcome that doesn't quite exist today. I think the term visionary is usually applied retroactively though. For example, when Bill Gates envisioned a PC on everyone's desk running his software he was probably considered just a dreamer. Of course it came true so in hindsight he was a visionary.

It is the definiing one's personal vision that is captivating me right now. We are so inundated with opinions and things that are important to other people right now. For example, the news we get is filtered through the lens of the writers, editors, and agencies that produce it. Similarly for politicians and those that follow them (bloggers, etc.) They decide which issues are important to them, and through coverage by the press, they become the things we talk about over dinner, etc.

"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

.............White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, November 2008

He might as well have been explaining his boss's "stimulus" plan. WSJ Article