Here Comes Some Change

So, two big things happen tomorrow morning.

First, I turn 30. The Big Three Oh. I'm now no longer a twentysomething. Can you be a thirtysomething? Is that a thing? Anyway, that seems like a big deal. Another decade, take stock of life, etc.

The second thing that's happening tomorrow? I turn in my letter of resignation at my work (Vineyard Community Church in Cincinnati, OH). My last day will be no later than Friday, August 20th. I say "no later" because we may end up moving earlier if I get a job that wants me sooner.

Yes, you're reading that correctly... I have not yet found a job. I'm leaving my current one without having anything lined up. Not that I'm unhappy at the Vineyard. Quite the opposite, actually. I love the church, love the people I work with, love the work, etc.

Nope, I'm leaving VCC because it won't be realistic to commute from Lexington, KY, where we'll be living when Judi starts her PhD in the fall. Not only did she get accepted to Asbury Seminary's Biblical Studies doctoral program (they only took 8 students this year, presumably 4 New Testament and 4 Old Testament), she also got an amazing scholarship. I'm ridiculously proud of her... she got into a VERY competitive program and will be going to school for free. Again.

No word yet on what I'll be doing. Corporate trainer? Chik-Fil-A manager? Bank teller? Manager at an Amazon warehouse? Work at a church? I have no idea.

I see the next chapter of life rapidly approaching, and it looks like it's gonna be a blast. But I'd be a liar if I said that change didn't make me nervous.

Fixing the wireless on a Revo 3600

Keywords: Acer Aspire Revo AR3610-U9022 Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Wireless Chipset Realtek RT2860STA

Both of my regular readers can safely ignore this. I've traced down an annoying problem and can't find the solution posted anywhere. This post is to document the solution for future Google searches.

I'm playing with a cool net-top box called the Aspire Revo 3600. It's a $300 desktop computer whose entire box is about the size of a large paperback. It's strong enough for general desktop use, packs a great GPU that lets it drive a high-def display over HDMI, uses almost no power, and is dead silent. Oh yeah: and it runs great with Linux.



Only problem is that there's a bug in the recently open-sourced wireless driver code, so when you boot it up for the first time you won't be able to find any wireless networks. Searching forums will lead you to download the source code for new drivers, recompile it, rip it out, try a different patchset, recompile it again, etc. Don't do that... you'll hate yourself. Instead, do this as root (sudo -s):

mkdir -p /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/
touch /etc/Wireless/RT2860STA/RT2860STA.dat
service network-manager restart


That's all, ladies and gents. Try the veal, and don't forget to tip your waiter.

It's great to make mistakes

Or so I'm told. If I was ever to make a mistake, this might be relevant to me.

“We must expect to be making mistakes all the time. We must be content to fail repeatedly and to begin again to try to deny ourselves for the love of God…

We want to shake off the hateful thing that has humbled us. In our rush to escape the humiliation of our mistakes, we run headfirst into the opposite error, seeking comfort and compensation.

And so we spend our lives running back and forth from one attachment to another.

If that is all our self-denial amounts to, our mistakes will never help us.

The thing you do, when you have made a mistake, is not to give up doing what you were doing and start something altogether new, but to start over again with the thing you began badly and try, for the love of God, to do it well.

(Merton, Journals, Oct 7, 1949, II.372)

Actually, I make mistakes all the time, and I tend to do exactly what Thomas Merton says I shouldn't. I avoid the mistake and either seek comfort instead in people who tell me it wasn't really a mistake, or I go do something I'm good at so that I can feel good about myself.

Resolved: After doing something badly, I will do it again and try, for the love of God, to do it well.

I need some Growtivation

While cleaning out my neglected Reader feed (sidenote: holy cow does that stack up if you leave it alone for half a week), I found this gem:

Satire should cause readers a little pain, instead of nudging them to laugh at people they already hold in contempt.

In the spirit of true satire, then, I offer this:

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

It hurts because it's true. Observant and/or culturally savvy readers will be aware that this video is shamelessly stolen from a far more well-made piece of work:



So... the church video is an inferior rehash of a pop culture phenomenon? I don't think I've ever seen that happen before.

Still hurts because it's true.

Signs of the Apocalypse: Slap Chop Rap

Hey, it's not every day that you get to reference the culinary genius that is the Slap Chop while you're talking about the book of Revelation. Good times, good times.

Here's the video:



And here's me:

http://www.theliftcommunity.com/4-22-10.mp3

Correction: I said that the idea of the Rapture started in the late 1800s, but as soon as I got off the stage, Jim Zartman pointed out that it was actually 1806. Way off.

Poly Ticks

So our Hot Topics (Topix?) series continues apace. Last week (4-15) we talked about politics, it being tax day and all. I figured my message would frustrate some people, but I didn't get many nasty letters. Either the people able to be frustrated have already bailed on me or it went better than I thought. Judge for yourself.

http://www.theliftcommunity.com/4-15-10.mp3

Then, in a curious twist of fate, right before I posted this I saw one of the guys I highly respect wrote something similar in his blog. I know great minds think alike, but I'm not sure what that has to do with Joe and I.

http://rebelpilgrim.blogspot.com/2010/04/lets-talk-politics.html

My main point was that getting too interested in politics is tricky because politics is ultimately an expression of power, and it's impossible to chase after power while also chasing after a servant's heart.

I really wanted to make this joke during my talk, but I figured only one person in the room (Doug) would get it, so I left it alone. I need more hardcore nerds at the Lift.



EDIT: My clever introduction got cut off by the recording equipment. Just pretend that I said something witty.

Go Team Vegas!

A great video to go with a great song.

Actually, it's kind of a weird song. The primary line ("You give and take away") is taken from the book of Job, which is always an awkward place to pull theology from (since God disagrees with most of the statements in the book). I don't believe that every apparently bad thing in life is God "taking away" or that every apparently good thing is his "gift."

That's beside the point, though. The core issue expressed in the song is one I can get behind: loving my God no matter what my circumstances. For better or worse, for richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, my love is not based on my situation.



EDIT: And once again, Blogger cuts off half of the video. If I posted on here more frequently I'd probably have already moved to Wordpress or something. Click through to see the whole thing or to see an absolutely great video channel.