Some Blog Site

I don’t know how you are during online/call-in meetings where a variety of topics are being discussed, but I try to get other things done while it’s not my topic.

But sometimes I get too involved in the other thing and then I’m not paying attention to the meeting. See point number 3 in this list, for my opinion that most people don’t really multitask.

And then I end up feeling like this:

I suppose this doesn’t make as much sense to people who aren’t familiar with that scene in the Star Wars movie.

Due to a convergence of topics in my life one day, I happened to be inspired to put this together.

Transcript:
There’s a grief that can’t be spoken
There’s a pain goes on and on
Empty chairs at empty tables
Employees now work from home

Here they talked of parts production
Here it was they booked their time
Here they sang about RTO
But RTO never came

From the office in the corner
They could see a world reborn
And they rose with Zoom calls ringing
I can see them now
The very roads that they had driv’n
Became their last commuting
To the lonely parking lot, at dawn

Oh my friends my friends don’t ask me
What this office space is for
Empty chairs at empty tables
Where people will work no more

I became familiar with this song when we watched season 24 of NBC’s The Voice. It was performed by a teenage girl, which I assume was the target audience of this song when it was originally recorded.

I get what the song was going for, and I don’t want to detract from that. But for those of us who aren’t teenage girls, I re-wrote the song to represent how they can sometimes appear to their families.

I also just watched Inside Out 2 so I think this fits in with that. And I don’t want it to come across as all negative, but the stereotypes just lent themselves to these lyrics.

I’m impossible
I will answer with a sigh
I’ve got attitude
Yeah I roll my eyes every day
I will hold a grudge
I don’t hear anything you say
I’m so sensitive
Yeah I’m impossible today

I put my headphones on, show you I’m on my own
I turn my filter on, I’ll show you that I am

repeat

I was going to go with “I’m emotional” but I think “impossible” replaces “unstoppable” better from a phonical standpoint.

Before looking up the lyrics for this blog post, I was only familiar with the chorus. Now having looked at the verses, I see the song has a different meaning than what I initially understood. And it takes me back to my earlier years with a similar song.

The song I think is most similar to this one is “I Am a Rock” by Simon and Garfunkel. Musically, it’s not close. But the lyrics talk about the same thing – putting on a stoic face to avoid dealing with hurt feelings.

Captions
Nuns: how do you solve a problem like Maria?
Mother Abbess: Ask Maria how she would solve the problem,
Mother Abbess: then do the same thing.

And, of course, the answer for how to solve a problem like Maria does is to sing about it.

Here is a guest post I wrote for SCL back in the day (2011 in case you’re wondering). It wasn’t run because I didn’t actually write a full blog post for Jon, I just sent him an outline of ideas. But I decided to fill it out and present it to you today.

Back when I was a Sunday School student, a visitor to the class would have a song sung to him (“There’s a welcome here…”) and get to pick out a prize, like a pencil or a sticker.

Now, as adults, if we get a visitor to the church we just let them know there’s a card they can fill out with their information.

What fun is that? Let’s have prizes for the adult visitors too!

Our church is small enough that it would work for them to come to the front and pick a prize from a box, but those of you in larger churches might have to come up with different ideas.

This one is about 19 years late, but I didn’t see that anyone’s done this yet, so here it is.

If Gwen Stefani ever needs an idea for a store, she should open a Jewish bread store.

And, of course, all sales to females are final.

Because …

you can’t take that challah back, girl.

There are some elements of slapstick humor that never grow old. One of those is people running into things. Replace people with animals, and it’s still fun. That was, if I remember correctly, a big portion of America’s Funniest Videos – people and animals running into or falling off things.

A couple months ago, we got our sliding glass doors (AKA patio doors) replaced, because they were drafty and cloudy and needed it. The view to the backyard is much better now, it’s like the glass isn’t even there, it’s so new and clear.

The animals think so too. We occasionally hear a “thump” and by the time we get over to the doors, there is nothing there. So don’t worry, no birds were harmed in the making of this blog post. But the birds did leave some evidence, so we do know that it was a bird.

Exhibit A:

That was kind of faint, so here’s Exhibit B, with different lighting/exposure.

And if you still didn’t see it, this panning shot should help. Exhibit C: