Facebook has assimilated me. Dang. That and I can't access livejournal from work so in the moments when I might do some reflection, I don't have the ability to do it. I think there's a way to post via email ... will have to check that out.

My paid membership elapsed so I logged on today to reinstate.

Life is going along reasonably well. I'm enjoying what I'm doing at work though I'm really looking forward to getting the SAP certification out of the way. I seriously do not like using the SAP tools ... they're a nightmare only a german could love.

I spent 5 days in Mountain View a week ago doing a course to use another integration tool which is much nicer. I'm looking forward to diving into that once I get the SAP work finished.

We haven't set a date for the wedding. We were originally thinking August just before Greenbelt but my nephew is getting married on the 21st. So I've been toying with ideas in October or November. I'm leaning towards getting married in Iowa as it would be less expensive and it would be a marriage as opposed to civil partnership. Going to Scotland for the CP is the sentimental choice. I need to sit down with +1 and have a serious chat and set the date and locale and then start working on everything else to go with it.

The step-daughter hasn't registered for school after two semesters have gone by. Her dad gave her a month to get a job or make other living arrangements. I have low expectations for how that's going to work out.

Generally annoyed at politics. Have been enjoying staying up with the Prop 8 case in California but don't have high hopes that SCOTUS would rule favorably once the case gets in front of them. Too many anti-gay bigots and not enough precedent at the moment.

It's a gray, warm (22C), humid day in Houston. I did get some cleaning done so feel good about that. I want to see 2012 and Avatar (in 3D) at some point but haven't figured out when.

Live goes on. Obla-di, obla-dah, hey.

Greenbelt has come on gone. Every year as it approaches, I wonder if I've expected too much of it and having already spent the money on the ticket and flights, go ahead and go. And then I get there and it seems comforting and familiar and a bit like a spiritual home that is good to return to. There are friends to see and programmes to dissect and a diary to fill out and social events to plan and quite quickly I'm caught up in the excitement and fervor ... I attend the first talk, performance, worship service, social gathering or whatever and the frenetic activity begins.

I drove out to Cheltenham Friday morning after hiring a car at Heathrow. Next year, I'll plan on going out Thursday and stay overnight as I ended up staying in a hotel in London and I'd much rather be in Cheltenham for the pre-festival goings-on. The drive out to Cheltenham from London via Oxford on the M40/A40 was lovely as usual with only a few traffic queues. Even things like stopping at a services area for a late breakfast and snacks was a small, delicious treasure to enjoy.

I had lunch at James' with Trev and had a relaxing and refreshing start to the weekend. It was good to catch up and James is the host-with-the-most. The food was great and the day was sunny and perfect for enjoying in the conservatory that serves as James' dining room.

I was texting back and forth with friends who had saved me a spot for a tent. I met Caroline and Geoff at the box-office and put the tent, sleeping bag and air mattress they brough into the car. GB claimed they'd mailed me my wristband and materials. I didn't recall getting it so they re-issued. Later, I sheepishly discovered going through the pile of mail I'd stuck into my backpack before leaving home, I found the GB envelope.

I drove onto the site with the car (a massive, black Skoda Octavia TDI) to drop off my kit at the campsight. Anna was there and directed me in. She and Paul helped me set up the tent for which I was grateful as it was a bit blowy. She and Paul had just gotten engaged which was fabulous news (they got together precisely one year ago at Greenbelt in the beer tent on the last night!). I observed over the weekend that people I've come to know through Ship of Fools and Gay Christian Network have been getting on with their lives (as I have), meeting partners, getting married, having children, starting new careers, and so forth. It's a blessing to be involved, even if peripherally, in so many wonderful peoples' lives.

There was a SoF social gathering in the beer tent at 18.30 and I ended up meeting some folks from GCN there too. There were about 10-12 people from GCN at the festival that I ran into throughout the weekend.

Speakers I heard:
Rob Bell (his new talk "two kinds of new" plus an interview that was quite pointed in parts)
Bishop Gene Robinson (twice: http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/gloucestershireheadlines/Controversial-bishop-divides-opinion-Greenbelt/article-1296086-detail/article.html)
Michael Ward (on his theory of the code behind C.S.Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia: http://www.planetnarnia.com/reviews/the-narnia-code)
Susannah Cornwall (on being intersexed: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/festival/2009/lineup/event/2663)
Miri Weingarten (on the state of primary health care in Palestine: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/?a=1427 )
Maggi Dawn (excellent as usual; thoughts about feasting and fasting: http://maggidawn.typepad.com/)
Nadia Bolz-Weber (a.k.a. "Sarcastic Lutheran" http://www.sarcasticlutheran.typepad.com/)
Dave Tomlinson (Standing in the Long now; vicar of the church I attended when I lived in London: http://saintlukeschurch.org.uk/)

Worship I attended:
IKON: Pyro-theology: http://wiki.ikon.org.uk/ (extremely well done and thought provoking as usual)
OuterSpace: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/festival/2009/lineup/event/2600 (gentle, encouraging, safe and excellent music)
OuterSpace Eucharist (held at noon Monday -- much preferred over the mass worship experience on Sunday)

Performers I saw:
Duke Special
Foy Vance (Best performer I saw)
Slo Mo

Most significant event of the weekend: I was chatting with two random vicars whom I happened to be standing by in the queue to get into Rob Bell's talk. Somehow it came up that I was gay. Conversation about my particular journey followed. As the queue started to move, one of the vicars asked me for my contact details and we parted with a hug. Monday at the OuterSpace Eucharist, he turned up and came out to me.

Best event of the weekend: Beer and Hymns on Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Paul, Anna and Clare for arranging the beer and getting me in because the bouncers were being a bit facist this year. I know I'm daft but I absolutely love singing "Jersalem" with 600-700 other punters whilst brandishing our pints high! I was next to a group of uni students and we cooperated on singing complex harmonies (many to hymns which aren't familar to American ears -- at least, the tunes aren't!)

I've been in the UK since the 26th. I hung out with Charlie for a day then headed back towards Heathrow to hire a car and left for Cheltenham Friday morning.

Greenbelt was wonderful, as per usual. Good friends, thought-provoking talks, unexpected serendipity, good music, good beer, good food, excellent weather, very little mud and so forth.

I came back to London on Tuesday to work for a customer for a few days before heading down to Brighton for the weekend.

I'll follow this up with a post about the details of Greenbelt.

Just living life seems to be a primary preoccupation these days. Drag myself out of bed, feed the animals, head to work, look up around 7 or 8 and realize that the day has simply flown by, go home, grab a late bite, crash, get up and do it all over again.

I'm long overdue for a reflective post.

Last post was a day over a month ago. Facebook is sucking me in and I don't like it because I don't have a record of my ruminations like I do here my my lj. Oh well.

Gracie is in the shop so I did public transport yesterday. I'd just taken my seat on the train last evening when my phone rang - my youngest was calling me. He greeted me and then asked if I had $1000 to borrow. I said no. He laughed and said that he was just starting out our phone conversation in the traditional way. He was really calling just to catch up.

His wife is at 34 weeks and things are going well. They are staying in Wichita until after the baby is born. He's had only two job opportunities that looked interesting -- neither of them ideal -- and didn't get either. So they have to stay put until something more compelling comes along.

We plan to stop by the 27/28th of June on our way back home from our road trip to the Black Hills.

I'm looking forward to a little holiday. I enjoyed the weekend with Mom for my nephew's college graduation (a couple of weeks ago) but am ready for a bit more "fun things I want to do". It looks like Munchkinlette has passed all her courses and will, in fact, graduate from HS. We all rejoice. I'll expect she'll want to move in with us around her birthday (early August). Lots to do before that happens.

Work is chugging along nicely. I'm getting a little coding in and the folks who are working with me are making progress. There are things that are trying to distract me but I'm working to manage them.

The cats and dog keep us hopping at home. I'm beginning to regret taking on two cats. One is more than enough and my leather furniture has aged more in a few months than it has in years :(.

Another busy week gone by and the lion's share of my energy and focus have gone into work. It's a vocational hazard because I enjoy what I do. Back in '98 when I left Landmark to go to work for a management consulting company, my motivation was to get into a place where I'd have more customer-facing responsibilities. I wanted to grow in soft-skills and get closer to the coalface -- really understand what customers really need and how I could employ my skills to meet that need.

After about 4 years doing that, I came out, got divorced, moved to Houston and subsequently lived out of a couple of suitcases for the next 3 years. In Fall of 2007, I had the opportunity to move back into a development role and I took it.

Now I'm back doing what I love to do -- design, project management, coding, solving software puzzles but with the benefit of having had the experience of seeing things through our customers eyes. I also made the transition during that time from one industry segment to another. My entire career had been developing software for the upstream oil & gas industry. In 2006, I moved to pricing. The benefit to me was that I got to actually use my business undergrad degree and I've enjoyed it immensely whereas in the O&G arena I always felt a bit on the left foot because of a lack of an engineering degree.

So, oddly enough, I'm pretty content in my job even though it consumes me 9-10 hours a day and sometimes on weekends and it's stressful & some days I come in and end up working on urgent things that I couldn't have predicted without getting done the things I planned to do. Predictable and boring it is not.

Then there is the fact that I work with really smart people who challenge me all the time. I like that. Like Jack said to Helen in As Good As It Gets, "You make me want to be a better man."

We went to the Alley Friday night and watch the performance of "Mauritius". It was OK ... the acting was good but it was really hard to care much for a bunch of sleaze-ball characters that the play is about. I told +1 that if it were a TV show, I would have turned it off at the intermission and gone to bed :)

We had dinner at the West Gray Cafe afterwards. We'd been wanting to try it out. Next time "Niko, Niko"

It was a quiet and relaxing weekend with sporadic rain on Saturday and chores on Sunday. I managed to squeeze in a viewing of "Steamboy" and I enjoyed the eye candy. Some of the premise of the story was gunk -- the Japanese (rightfully, probably) love to harp on how science can be used for ill in the world.

I worked a good chunk of Saturday on my Mac via remote desktop getting various work-ish things done that I hadn't managed to finish during the week. It felt good to be caught up and a couple of the things were tasks that I really enjoy -- a bit of a creative element to them.

Church was good. Desperate Housewives and B&S were OK -- I'm tired of the story arc about Senator & Kitty marriage falling apart. Get it over with already. Good story line with Julia.

The right rear tire of the Acura slowly deflated over the weekend so I changed the tire Sunday afternoon and took it in this morning. Not repairable. Fortunately I bought the road hazard warranty on them. I'll take the car back in on Wednesday to get it changed out, get the tires rotated and balanced and the valve stems replaced.

Work's going really well. I'm enjoying the job and we're getting into the swing of the release.

Two of my nephews have called me/texted me within the last week to tell me they've proposed to their sweeties. Something must be in the air. I've met both of their fiance's and I approve in both cases.

Good to see the kids growing up!

I've been trying to get a number of technical stakeholders to agree on how we should approach a feature.

Everybody keeps taking irreconcilable technical positions. I keep taking more swipes at it. Meanwhile, my boss is asking me: when is this work gonna start.

*sigh*

Normal stuff. We'll get there. It comes with the territory of herding cats and I'm actually OK with it.

Munchkinlette has made no progress that I can tell getting enrolled for next autumn -- no FASFA, no application, no working on scholarships. I'm toying with the idea of "laying down the law" by being clear that without some action in those quarters, I don't see why I should have to make accommodations.

The brick wall everybody is beating their head against, in this case, is the mother. Neither father or daughter want to go toe-to-toe with her and I'm watching time march on and nothing has happened.

It's time for something to happen.

We got 8-9" of rain in the space of hours over the weekend. This pushes records that got set during Tropical Storm Allison (the Great Deluge). We did fine -- we simply didn't go out and drive in it though the ditch out front is a bit worse for the wear.

I did get a lot done yesterday -- lots of niggly, little projects that have been bothering me as needing to be done so I did them and felt a small sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Good night of TV with DH's denouement of Edie and an enjoyable episode of B&S.

It's raining cats and dogs outside as a cold front rolls through and dumps 4" of rain on us in the course of an hour. We need the rain. Space it out please.

A and I were supposed to go see "Mauritious" at the Alley tonight. It's our weekend with the kids and he was unsure whether he could get them picked up, home, changed and down to the theatre in time so I called and exchanged the tix for next Friday. $10. Oh well.

Work's going well. We're starting a new release cycle next week and my team has been resourced up a bit. I've just had my title changed. I don't know what it means except, perhaps, it reflects more closely what I actually do.

I need to head out and get home and figure out food for the night. The kids are suffering from a bit these days. Munchkinlette is counting the days until she's 18 and can get out of the house. Munchkin is acting out at school. It makes for venting-type conversation at the dinner table at the outset of the weekend. Sigh.

I was chuffed to see this entry in TractorGirl's wiblog. What a great pic and excellent thoughtful pondering, as per usual.

Looking forward to having a tipple with her in August.

I got a second summons to jury duty a few weeks back. The first summons must(back in Feb) have gotten delayed in the mail because when I got it and opened it up, it was already past the date I was to appear so I pitched it.

The second summons used a bit more harsh language *and* I got it in time to book time off from work so I deigned to appear this morning.

Apparently, a 30% turnout for summons is a *good* day. Good grief.

I was really impressed with the "user experience" that the Harris County District Clerk's organization runs -- it's clear they've paid attention to the experience of random Joe/Jane Doe attempting to fulfill their civic duty. The treated us with respect (none of that patronizing civil servant speak crap). The District Clerk showed up personally to thank us and his comments were brief and expressed gratitude for our time and presence. They were efficient and prepared ... telling us what to expect and when we might expect it, treating us as responsible adults. They handled a few jury pools and then expeditiously released the rest of us, thanking us again for showing up. They've got big screen TV's and a good PA system in the jury assembly room. They have a snack bar and well-stocked vending machines. They're getting wi-fi installed so those who are waiting and want to do work can. They were organized and ready to handle paperwork en-masse (handing out Metro passes, handling exemptions, writing work releases, writing releases such that jury pay could be donated to a choice of charitable organizations). My overall experience was extremely positive.

It doesn't hurt that Loren Jackson, said clerk, is a bit of a hunk.

Nadia, the "mission developer" (read: pastor) of a self-described "emergent" church in Denver, concisely describes what she thinks is meant by the adjective/handle. I like this because I was asked over lunch yesterday by A Catholic and a member of a MCC church what "post-modernism" means and how it relates to "emergent" churches.

From my perspective, it's all about acknowledging the impact of a cultural framing of reality and that work is required to understand truth beyond the cultural framing.

I think it's a death knell for biblical literalism (a fairly recent and regrettable theological innovation) -- The Holy Spirit *can* and *does* speak across the centuries and cultural divides but it is irrational and an abuse of God's words to insist that the Bible read "plainly and literally" means "just what it says". Given the variant cultural contexts of the writings, the various authors' intended message to their audiences came framed with different cultural common ground and expectations (even contrasted with each other -- the Bible was written over a period of millenia!) A reasonable person would admit that some digging might be required to get at the meaning an author was attempting to convey. That we can read the narratives, history, poetry, song lyrics, essays, pithy bits of wisdom, messages from God, and letters *at all* is a testament to strength of our commonalities of being human over the last 6000 years -- a blink in the eye on the cosmic scale of time within which we've gone from hunter/gatherers practicing oral tradition to the internet age.

Nadia says:

Emerging Church:
Christian communities that emerge out of very particular cultural contexts where the traditional church is basically irrelevant. These cultural contexts are more often than not urban, youngish and post-modern.

(emphasis mine)

H/T to PomoProphet for this interesting comparison.

It doesn't show the crash of '87. The market regained it's value in two years after that one. Counting 5 crashes, I've been a working stiff for four of them: '73, '87, '00 and now *this* one.

My poor 401(K).

Frank Rich writes:

Here, at last, is one piece of good news in our global economic meltdown: Americans have less and less patience for the intrusive and divisive moral scolds who thrived in the bubbles of the Clinton and Bush years. Culture wars are a luxury the country — the G.O.P. included — can no longer afford.
...
History is cyclical, and it would be foolhardy to assume that the culture wars will never return. But after the humiliations of the Scopes trial and the repeal of Prohibition, it did take a good four decades for the religious right to begin its comeback in the 1970s. In our tough times, when any happy news can be counted as a miracle, a 40-year exodus for these ayatollahs can pass for an answer to America’s prayers.

Amen and may it be so.

From here.

Money quote:

The number one reason for this, Mr. Spencer explains, is because evangelicals aligned themselves with politics rather than faith.

Six minutes to update before I have to scurry off.

TGIF. We're off to the Alley Theatre tonight for "The Man Who Came to Dinner". Should be fun! Need cash for parking before we go. I renewed for next season and we get parking passes this year, thank God. Hopefully we'll get better seats. I've enjoyed this season and it gives us something to look forward to every couple of months.

No kids (of the human variety) this weekend. It's just us and the furry kids. I'm so looking forward to a nice lie-in on Saturday morning.

I'm learning about data binding, data adapters and hosted controls in Office 2007 and VSTO. Interesting stuff. One of my team members is already looking at VS2010 and says it's better in a number of ways. The inexorable march of technology and continuous learning ...err, continues.

February is almost over. The cool weather is almost gone. The azaleas and bougainvilleas are blooming. Bad and Good.

Checking in.

Work's going well -- third week of a sprint per week schedule with micro-milestones is working well. Small bites and lots of opportunity to re-calibrate and head off in new directions.

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I think I'll eat pancakes tonite.

We're enjoy the Discipleship class. We're doing Matthew (again) this week. Lots of good stuff to talk about and learn. I wish A would talk more about what he's thinking.

My best mate, R, has had a bad breakup. My heart aches for him and for the betrayal he feels. Send good thoughts his way.

S called me up last Friday morning and announced that he and T are expecting a baby boy in July. I'll be a grampa for the 5th time. I'm excited for them and hope all goes well. I'm hoping they'll come and visit.

The winter here has been lovely and continues to be lovely. That will end sometime in March, I'm guessing. But it's been nice.

Moving into the season of Lent, I am...

I organized a night at the Opera to see HGO's production of "Chorus!" after I read a good review in the Houston Press. So we went Friday night and really enjoyed it. We were up in the near nose-bleed section since I bought "cheap" seats (relative term, that, @ $75/each).

Since I'd stayed up til 2 in the morning that morning doing work after facilitating the Discipleship class on Thursday night, I was kind of wiped out. But I managed to stay awake through the production and we had a nice evening.

I had a nice lie-in Saturday and A served me breakfast in bed. I did very little during the afternoon. A told me I needed to be ready and dressed by 17.45 for something he was secretive about. So I got showered, shaved and dressed in cords and a nice dress shirt. edensong and his partner showed up at our front door around 10 minutes til 6. We drove into Montrose and I discovered that our destination was a very nice italian restaurant there, Michaelangelos. We enjoyed a wonderfully prepared 4 course dinner and a bottle of Tommasi Merlot. It was all romantical and such with live music and convivial conversation. The wine gave me a pleasant buzz. Afterwards we went to the Meteor for drinks and more conversation. They had a piano bar set up with some cheesy treatments of Elton John, Journey and Van Morrison tunes. But it was relaxing, not crowded and fun. Then we went home, bid our goodbyes and A and I had the rest of the evening to ourselves to be romantical as J is in Vegas for the weekend. It was nice to have the house to ourselves.

Today, we made the 08.30 church service, came home for a breakfast of SBD pancakes, turkey sausage and peppered bacon. A got all manly and used power tools to cut some boards to double the storage in the pantry. We watched the 2008 version of the film, "The Women" and we're grilling burgers for supper since it's a splendiferous spring day in Houston today. It's a shame for the weekend to come to an end but it's been delightful.