A New Keyboard for Christmas

Created using my Android tablet and tiny keyboard, hunched over looking out indirectly at the sun rising over the golf course in Leesurg, FL.

My tablet now has a keyboard that I got for Christmas. Much smaller, not so easy to type or even press the space key because the space bar is so much smaller. I will inevitably end up fat-fingering the keys. But I can also use voice to overcome some of these typing faux paus. It really is a great time to be alive, except that I am spending so much to time with devices rather than people I love. Or spending time with people through devices I love rather than spending time with them directly. So I guess we are victims of our own devices.

It is the end of another year. I should be setting goals to 2017 but I probably won't. I am by nature a laissez-faire kind of guy. Everything I learned about planning and organization I learned in the corporate world, an alternate universe where people work and do things that they do not do in their home lives. I am thankful for this alternate world; it has forced me to do things I would not have been able to do. But on a vacation week like this, I revert back to laissez-faire, unplanned days that begin with quiet reading and coffee and then veer off in any number of directions. (I am in Google Docs and it keeps auto-correcting me with words I do not want. I know better than to edit while I type but I am doing it anyway. I am not proud of myself right now.) This is the first day I have taken time to journal, so not only am I rusty but I am also using this new keyboard, so let's just get through this and next time I will aim for profundity and such. Sometimes just showing up is enough, like when you go to work after a three-day weekend or a week-long vacation. I am just showing up to journal my thoughts, so there, I am doing this, I can do this, getting something down on the screen, which I have not done in a while because I am too busy or too lazy or I would rather watch TV or scroll through pages of banal Facebook pages. Did you know that I removed Facebook from this device before we left on this trip last week? Yes, I did, and the quality of my life has not diminished in the least.

I noticed we didn't get many Christmas cards this year. It seems to be fewer each year. It made me a little sad. I think it is Facebook's fault. Facebook has taken over everything. I liked Facebook at first, but then they had to monetize it. In fact, everything on the Internet was free at first, and then they had to monetize it. And that ruins everything. You can't give someone something for free and expect them to all of a sudden want to start paying for it. Or looking at creepy ads.

I've now been journaling for about 20 minutes. I'm getting used to this little keyboard, but I am not positioned properly for ergonomics sitting in a wicker chair all hunched over typing. But now I know it works, and I feel like I am accomplishing something by typing on a little Bluetooth keyboard on a beautiful December day in Florida. And that raises one more thing I wanted to mention: Christmas in Florida. It was 85 degrees on Christmas Day. To me, that is not Christmas. That is the evil Solstice. I feel like I have been put in a time warp and emerged in June. We exchanged gifts, and then the next day I am out in the hot sun playing Bocci ball and then swimming laps. Those things are great, but they are not Christmas-time activities. So I think I missed Christmas and got Solstice. I guess I will have to check the credit card bill in January and see if we really did miss Christmas or if it was just my imagination.

Wow, this was hard work!

My Reflections on My UPS Career on Founders Day

We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...

My Prayer Life Is Like, "Whack" (-a-Mole)

I’ve been a practicing Christian my entire adult life, and one would think that would result in a certain level of proficiency in certain practices such as what often occurs when one plays golf, tennis, or does various other activities on a regular basis. Prayer is not like this for me though. Prayer is like whack-a-mole. As soon as I knock down a mole that pops up--some sort of obstacle to my praying--another mole rises in its place. "Whack-a-mole" is exactly how I would describe my prayer life, a daily whacking away at things that prevent prayer.

The Power of Public Prayers

“Jewish law prefers that Jews pray communally rather than privately.” Joseph Telushkin, “Minyan,” in Jewish Literacy , 719. I’ve been thinking about this notion for a few days after I read it because I get the impression that most of the Christians I know pray individually and about their own self interests more than anything else. I know this is true of me. But Telushkin, reiterating the teachings of the rabbis in connecting Jewish prayer to the concept of minyan , where the minimum number of males required to conduct a worship service or say certain prayers is ten, says that public prayer prevents such personal expressions of self-interest. He says: " . . . the rabbis apparently felt that public prayers are more apt to be offered for that which benefits the entire community, whereas individuals often pray for that which benefits only themselves, even if it be at the expense of someone else" (719). In Evangelical or Pentecostal services that I've attended, at some...

Rainey Blogs on Some Days

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