A man in need

I went to a local shop for lunch today, I was out taking care of business at my bank and figured I'd treat myself. So I walk pass this man right into the shop without a moments glance or notice. It's sad to think about it now, I have desensitized myself to the point that I ignore my surroundings and pay complete attention on my destination. After I walk into the shop I realize that man had spoken something to me. "Could you spare something to eat?" I was shocked at myself and what I had comprehended that man just said to me. He didn't ask for money, he just wanted something to eat. I hadn't promised him anything, in fact as I mentioned before I was in my own little world at the time. I could have easily played the whole thing off in my mind to my advantage and not done anything to help this man. I faced myself in my mind, I could not simply ignore his request. How often do you get the chance to truly help someone with such a simple thing as food. For those of you out there that do this on a daily basis I commend you.

So, as I was ordering food I made the attendants job a little harder and ordered for two. After I got the food I walked back outside to the man. Turns out he was talking to someone else, that someone else was asking if he was ok. The man said yes someone was getting him something to eat. Turns out someone else that walked by acknowleded his request. I walked up to the man and said with a heart felt smile, "Well I guess you have dinner now too." I shook his hand and told him my name. I then asked him his, he said his name was Kevin. I really don't know why I wanted to know his name but it felt right to ask. I then wished him a good day and left. I would be surprised if I ever saw him again. Perhaps... he obviously lives here but I have my doubts. I felt like crying most of the way back to work. I think it was because of what I was feeling. I felt really sad for Kevin and his circumstances that would bring him to asking for food on a street sidewalk. And, I was overwhelmed by how good I felt for helping a man truly in need.

Taking knowledge for granted

I had a thought concerning how much access to data we have now via the internet. Are we now so used to accessing any topic when we want it are we taking it for granted? Seriously, think about what you did prior to the internet to get research done compared to what you do now. The library may still be a resource for you and for those that do still use libraries kudoes to you, the internet shouldn't be your only source for well balanced research.

I wonder if ancient scholars had the same thing to say when the first encyclopedias came out. Perhaps they thought then that we would take reading volumes of books for granted. Having all this data at your figuretips is a great thing but I wonder what the "general populace" side effect of it will be long term.

Lost Bmovieoys

My wife and I were discussing Corey Haim and Cory Feldman tonight, she saw an episode of Robot Chicken with them in it. It lead to a discussion about whether or not Corey Haim was dead. She thought he died sometime ago of an overdose and I wasn't sure. Thank heavenly father for sites like imdb.com. I was able to put our misunderstanding to rest that both Corey and Cory are a.o.k., and the world was once again in balance...

It was nice to remember them and the movie these two are famous for being blood sucking monster bashers in, Lost Boys. In retrospect Lost boys is a "B" movie, but it's one of those cult classics that the children of my generation love. Who can forget the song "Cry Little Sister" by Gerard McMann, or actor Edward Hermann the most good-natured looking guy one could meet turning out to be the leader of that ragtag band of misfit vampires (spoiler alert). Many things in life that by normal standards seem lacking, are still of great value in the hearts and minds of many. This movie sure was one of them for me.

Work

Work has certainly been the word of the day. And not necessarily the act of working, but the idea of work. Being a new father brings just philosophy about every aspect of life to the forefront of ones mind. Today it was work, I sure want for my child the active life I should have made myself participate in. I don't want him to fear or ignore or avoid or quit work, because that is one essence of this existance. This world doesn't give a crap about you. That is as blunt as I can put it. And the response should be fetal position in the corner of a padding room choking on tears. It isn't for me and I certainly pray not for my son.

I grew up a bit lazier then I would have liked. I'm the only one that can fix that and while I have failed time and time again I still keep working to change my personality. That aside, I worry this will rub off on my son. I look for ways I can instill in him the character I lack. While listening to talk radio this morning the announcer happened to be talking about work and it's value for children. Not necessarily back breaking work, but work just the same. Like being raised on a farm, a very good example of a place where there is a lot of work to do and a place that can be character building. Now I'm not going to go out an buy a farm, but the idea of giving my son a responsibility or two that has real consequences, besides mom's or my hand on his backside, is certainly desirable in terms of building his character. It's funny I think back to those times where my parents would say "I know you don't understand now but someday you will". I wonder when I will start saying that to my son. I hope I have something better to say then that.

My weekend and a case of the mondays

My weekend went something like this... play games, program for fun, program for work, play games, sleep, play games, go to lunch with dad, play games, program for fun program for work, sleep.

I missed the memo about the TPS reports so I spent all day fixing bugs in the system and then QA'n them since our QA guy got the plague.

King Kong

I watched King Kong last night with my wife. She is currently 2000 miles away from me with my son but we have gotten the long distance thing down fairly well. All you have to do is synchronize when you hit the play button. Anywho, King Kong... I rather enjoyed it. More so then I thought I would because most who I talked to said it was a waste of time to go see, people whose movie evaluations I trust. I think the acting was decent, the special effects were spectacular and the story is the same great story it always has been. I like how detailed King Kong was, the facial expressions where excellent for a 3D generated character. About the only part that was "fake" for me really was the cannibal village. They just seemed fake, almost like the director tried to hard to make them creepy and so instead they ended up just being... well I know it's a strange term but they ended up just being plastic. As for my favorite part it's when King Kong and Ann where playing in the snow, it was cute and showed well the contrast between the world King Kong and Ann tried to make for themselves and the world that other people forced them to be in.

Unauthorized Immigration versus Authorized Immigration

Imagine you own a couple acres of land, enough to have decent breathing room. Now imagine that you let people whom you have never known before onto your land, to live on it and work on it if they met a certain criteria you have set for such a situation. Now imagine that some other people start showing up on your land that you did not approve to be there. In each case the people being approved or the people avoiding your approval process could be good or evil, just or injust, clean or dirty, etc. They are people and they come in all different kinds of ways. Now ask yourself, even knowing that some could be good and some could be not so good, who poses the greater risk to your family and the people you have already approved to be on your land?

Yes, my qustion is geared to be a moral one and that is where I set my priority in such a debate.

Addendum From a Later Time...
I wish to add to the above post without modifying the original content. I geared the above situation to lead to one answer, in short I wasn't making an honest effort to understand anything. I still believe we need to protect ourselves, our nation and the ideals it is founded on. But, we have to be careful of using that as an excuse to treat others as objects and not as people. It is self-evident that all people are created equal under God. And we all have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of all things good and true. It is our responsibility to our fellow man to make sure that we do as much in our power as we are healthily capable of doing to see that all of humankind keep these rights.

Uncommon Sense

The term "common sense" has always irked me when dealing with serious communication. Serious communication, as I define it, is a large emphasis on the level of detail and quality of content for the subject being communicated. I think why I get irked is that all to often these features are lacking in the serious communication I encounter, mainly at my workplace...

At my job everyone there is well enough educated about the work we perform. However I find all too often this leads to an assumption that not as much detail is needed when making new requests for projects to accomplish. In the past this has lead to either poor quality of work or a need to go back and get more information on a project in question. All to often when I speak about the lack of detail or quality in serious communication I get defensive responses that I should have more "common sense" about things. I generally do know what someone is talking about when they request a task from me. However I don't like to do poor work and I do like to be well informed about what they want in the task. I don't think that is too much to ask...

Fishing in the Code Maze

The highlight of my day today was losing myself in code. Since coding is part of my job, this happens often for me. Traveling the maze-like corridors of my past work and the work of my co-workers can be hypnotizing... when I'm not being bugged by others for help. I like to help others but sometimes, just somtimes, it's my wish they would look the problem up for themselves. After all, that is what I do when encountering an issue my current knowledge can't solve, research the problem until I solve it. Ultimately, I just keep in mind the paraphrased biblical saying, "You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day or teach him to fish and feed him for a lifetime."

What Dreams May Come

The greatest moment of my weekend happened a couple hours ago while I was asleep. I dreamed and while most of my dreaming was the wierd collage of thought my dreams usually are, the part that stands out for me regards my son. I haven't been a father long and it wasn't long after becoming one that I had to leave his presence. Without getting into much detail I will say that leaving my wife and child was the hardest thing I have had yet to do in my life. It's not surprising his handsome face is in my dreams, I miss him terribly. But it was such a joy to "feel" like I was there with him again, seeing him smile and feeling his warmth as he slumbered upon my chest. I love you son.

All Under Heaven

For sometime now I've wanted to start a somewhat anonymous blog where I can express myself freely without much influence based on who I think is reading. Perhaps it's because I am lame, but I change the voice I speak or write in depending on who I think is listening. Anyway enough about that...

All Under Heaven

It's a phrase I have latched onto ever since I first heard it in the english subtitle translation of the movie Hero. During a conversion between the King of Qin and an assassin (Nameless) that has come to kill him and stop the perceived tyranny of that king, Nameless tells of his travels and interactions with other "rebels" of the empire. One such is a great martial artist (Broken Sword) who tried to convince the assassin to end his anticipated attempt to kill the King. Broken Sword illustrated his reasons in simple phase of Calligraphy, "All Under Heaven". Well, that was what the english subtitles displayed for the movie.

To me idea of "All Under Heaven" is that it is better to weather an attempt to make an empire for the sake of peace among the masses than to fight it and cause death and violence to said masses. It is an interesting and controversial idea for me and for that reason it has been with me since I first saw that movie some three to four years ago. It's hard for me to completely agree or disagree with it for certain. I generally see peace as a good state to be in, after all people can then prosper in many good ways in my humble opinion. Such ways as improvements in all sciences and artforms. Certainly I concede that war can advance such areas as well and in fact war can sometimes bring about necessary change for a greater peace. This is evident in the history of our world. Consider the industrial revolutions that occurred for America from World War I and World War II. I just find it sad sometimes that loss of life in a violent manner occurs. I am one who tries to live the "Golden Rule" - Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I hope to live my life to it's peaceful end at a nice old age, and not to loss it in some other way. (Accident, Violence, Disease, et cetera) And, where I actually have influence on such a thing (which is assuredly minimal), I allow others to proceed in such a manner as well.

I am rambling... good thing that is what this blog is for.

I think there is lot's of exploration to be found in the idea of "All Under Heaven" and not just what I have written here. When I find myself in my more passionate moments I am at heart an explorer. Any and all exploration brings me joy. Though unlike those who walked before me who sought the wonders of the natural world, I seek those found in the intellectual and electronic worlds. Thankfully unlike the limited space in the natural world it seems that there is a limitless amount of uncharted territory in the worlds I live in.