Archive for August, 2009

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Finding Joy Friday, August 2009 Edition

Aug

14

2009

Finding Joy Friday

In cooperation with LaanyKidsMom, here are some entries for this week.

  • Quotes
    My 3-year-old has some fun misquotations. What made me smile this week was when, after a trip to the sand dunes, he told me “Your sands are all feety.”

    Another one of my favorites is when I drink something cold, he warns me that I could get “freeze brain“.

    Also, he doesn’t wear tank tops. He wears “none-sleeve shirts“.

    What else has brought me joy this week?

  • More Quotes
    My 5-year-old was watching his cousin, who is about a year older than he is, play Mario Kart Wii. She was in last place, 12th, and my son offered her some encouragement: “It’s good to be in 12th place because then you get all the specials!”

    One more

  • Finally Settling
    After playing Settlers of Catan with my brothers and brother-in-law a few times this week, I finally won a game! Since that was the last game we played during our vacation, I shall remain the defending champion for about two more years.

“How the city of praise has not been deserted,The town of My joy!”
– Jeremiah 49:25

Posted in Family | 3 Comments »

No Loud Air Please

Aug

13

2009

A while back, I wrote about paper towels versus warm-air dryers in bathrooms, and how I much prefer paper towels.

I was in a public facility this past week, and I had the opportunity to experience using the XLERATOR® Hand Dryer. Normal hand dryers take way too long to dry my hands. I concede that the XLERATOR is efficient, but I almost couldn’t get my hands dry because I was too busy covering my ears with my hands. That thing is so loud that it is almost painful. I did feel like plugging my ears to block the noise. I suppose that it is a good thing that it dries hands so quickly, otherwise it might cause hearing damage.

I still vote for paper towels. Not only do they dry hands quickly, but also they are nearly silent.

“From the LORD of hosts you will be punished with thunder and earthquake and loud noise,With whirlwind and tempest and the flame of a consuming fire.”
– Isaiah 29:6

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Apology Accepted

Aug

11

2009

During one of the many interactions that occur on a family vacation, a relative had to apologize to me. I am keeping it vague, because I don’t remember which niece or nephew it was, or even what the infraction was.

Somebody did something innocuous such as run into me because he wasn’t watching where he was going, but that happens a lot when there are 13 mobile children in one house for a week. I didn’t think much of whatever happened, but that child’s father saw it and then told the child to apologize to me. The child apologized rather well, considering how some apologies can go, but I was momentarily (that’s for a moment, not in a moment) stymied about how to respond.

It shouldn’t be that hard to respond to an apology. My normal without-thinking reply is “That’s okay“. But just before I was going to say that, my brain stopped me. I couldn’t say that, because that phrase implies that the infraction was not worth an apology. “That’s okay” really means “You shouldn’t have bothered apologizing because I wasn’t bothered by what you did”, at least in my mind it does.

In this case it was true, but I wanted to reinforce the father’s lesson he was trying to teach his child. And I thought that “That’s okay” would undermine that lesson. In trying to help my relative, I had to abandon my casual response and actually had to think about what reply to give.

What I said at that point was “Thank you for apologizing“, but I think “I accept your apology” or “I forgive you” (not “That’s okay; I forgive you” but a simple “I forgive you”) would also work. I didn’t want to keep the child and father waiting too long for me to say something, so “Thank you” was it.

Also, “Apology accepted” and “You’re forgiven” are true, but less direct than they should be. They may have been fine for a while, but in today’s society of weasely apologies (“mistakes were made”) I think I’m leaning toward putting pronouns in there: I accept, I forgive. Maybe that will encourage pronouns (and active voice) in the apologies.

For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Matthew 6:14

Posted in Ponder | 2 Comments »

Unsurprised

Aug

6

2009

I heard a conversation today, and I will share part of it with you.

Person 1: “Do you have any more surprises coming up?”
Person 2: “No, none that we know about.”

Two things: Yes, they were serious and no, I was not one of the people.

I find that concept to be related to another popular concept at work, the “what don’t we know about this issue” concept. It’s too easy to answer “I don’t know” to that phrase, but after thinking about it for a second, I do know. It’s everything. Because there is an infinite amount of stuff that we don’t know, about any topic, so it could be a very long process to detail what is not known.

It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness,And the light dwells with Him.

Daniel 2:22

Posted in Ponder | 2 Comments »

There is No Try, Only Zoo

Aug

4

2009

Another post about Saturday’s trip to the zoo – yes, it’s about another sign…

I noticed this sign at the zoo.

Sign that says 'try and block'

I know this one has nothing to do with animals. The zoo has a nice play area for children, in case they tire of animals and just want to run around and do whatever. This sign was encouraging the kids to develop scientific minds have fun while playing in the stream.

It’s not a real stream, but it plays one on TV. This “stream” is the child’s-play-area equivalent to those plastic-liner-and-electric-pump waterfalls that people put in their backyards. Yes, it is a stream, just not a natural stream. But it is fun for the kids, especially those who don’t have access to real streams where they live.

Anyway, back to the sign… It seems this sign is somewhat related to Yoda: “Do, or do not. There is no try“.

Hmm… free marketing advice time, worth the price of admission. Mountain Dew should adopt a new slogan: “Dew or Dew not, there is no try” There are obvious licensing agreement issues with the Star Wars people, but it could work. Or there’s the way I usually remember the phrase: “There is no try, only do.” They could use “There is no thirst, only Dew“.

Anyway, back to the sign… The part I don’t like is “try and block”. If you’re going to try blocking it, and then block it, why bother trying first? Just do it. They meant for you to “try to block” the water.

Remember, never try and do something unless you really want a trial run before the actual event. Try to do something. Or, like Yoda, you could just do something. Even hard things.

“Nor let us try the Lord, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.”
– 1 Corinthians 10:9

Posted in Marketing | 2 Comments »

Bulbs at the Zoo

Aug

3

2009

We went to the zoo this past Saturday. It was a good day for the zoo, weather-wise and sign-wise.

First off, this sign, seen inside a new building (“new” as in “just opened about a month ago”).

Sign that says 'Nope, no light bulbs for us!'

It clearly states that this particular building does not use any light bulbs. Not reduced use of light bulbs but NO LIGHT BULBS. We are green, but it’s not enough for us to feel good about being green, we have to promote ourselves to you by showing how green we are. Even our signs are colored green.

It’s a zoo. I want the signs to be about the animals. I suppose that “animals” could be extended to “planet”, and “planet” could be localized to mean “building’s lighting systems”. My recommendation would be to put that type of information on a brochure or webpage so that people who cared about it could find it.

I suppose I could have ignored the sign. If all this was about being solarly responsible, I probably wouldn’t have written this post. I might have mentioned it, just in passing, maybe something about do not look directly into a solatube. The building had both skylights and solatubes, and those solatubes are bright. And they worked quite well to light the room.

So why am I rambling about the zoo’s claims of being environmentally friendly? Take a look at this view of the sign.

Picture of sign and wall being lit by light bulbs

Do you see the irony? The sign is in the lower right corner. What do you see near the top left? That’s right, a fixture containing 8 light bulbs. And they are lit. In the middle of the afternoon. On a sunny day. You can tell it’s a sunny day because of how bright the solatube at the top left is.

In case you’re not convinced that those are them newfangled electric lights, here’s a closer shot.

Close-up shot of 8-bulb light bar

Those are definitely powered by electricity. And there were more of those fixtures in this room, so there were at least 16 light bulbs.

So the sign should say “We are green and do not use any light bulbs in our buildings unless we want to highlight a wall with no displays on it.”

Overall, the zoo is great. We are going to keep going back. But the signs could use a little help.

“Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength,They were dismayed and put to shame;They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb,As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.”
– 2 Kings 19:26

Posted in Marketing | No Comments »

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