In the very first post on my previous blog, I wrote that I never wanted to write anything that I wouldn't want to read. Most of what I wrote, I've never gone back to read in any way, precisely because it wasn't very interesting to write, much less read. It seems that I've already broken the one rule I set for this blog. I've already written about work more than I care for. And today, I'm going to write about work again.
Tomorrow, I'm going to speak to our manager, Mike, about the issues we've been having with first shift at the printing company. I had the opportunity to speak to one of the packers on first shift, Ignacio, and he reiterated some of the issues we've had, and readily admitted that things are going on that shouldn't be. He promised to speak to the manager as well.
I'm asking for your prayers. First, please pray that I would speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), saying what I have to say and not acting out of anger. I'm looking for a solution to the problems we've had that work for everyone involved, or at the very least, would be beneficial to the most people. Also, I need to remind him that we need to get a fourth packer as soon as possible, as the recent changes in the company have greatly increased our workload. Secondly, I'm considering asking if my schedule can be adjusted so that I may come in early every other Friday; if I can, it would allow me to attend a Bible study on Friday nights. I haven't been part of a regular Bible study in nearly a year, since I was first hired in February of last year.
Whatever happens, I promise to keep you readers posted.
...
For those who did not read last Thursday's post, I have decided to post twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays. I came to the decision that just posting once a week didn't seem often enough for my own tastes, and I didn't want to sit on anything I felt like writing about for seven days at a time. Once-weekly updates wouldn't allow for much in the way of being current.
Not much to say for today. See you again on Thursday, and this time, I will try to post much earlier than I did.
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
A later post than was intended
Okay, I know I said that I didn't want to write so much about work, but I'm doing so now, for a very good reason. Ever since we finally got a second cutting machine operator in digital, and because UPrinting has taken over another company, our workload has increased significantly. Today, we were busy literally until it was time to clock out at 10:30 pm. According to one of the managers, tomorrow, January 23rd, is shaping up to be even busier than today.
When our manager returns on Monday (he's been on vacation this week), I need to have a long talk with him about some issues we're having in the shipping area. First off, I want to reiterate to him that we very much need another packer, especially if our workload is going to potentially remain so high. I'm concerned that we are going to eventually become unable to keep up with it.
Secondly, I need to speak to him about some recurring issues with how the first shift crew is handling things. We're facing some of the same issues we've had previously; namely, their tendency to neglect things they should be doing, but aren't for whatever reason. They have been leaving piles of packed, but unshipped items, which they've already been told they are not supposed to do. No one is allowed to do this, as the company needs to know who's been handling what, if any issues arise. Also, it seems like they're slipping back into the old habit of neglecting the folding materials from their own shift.
So, why am I writing all this? A couple of reasons. I need some prayer regarding Monday. Pray that I would say what needs to be said, that I would speak truthfully and not out of anger or frustration (though I've certainly felt plenty of both recently), and that, Lord willing, we could find some resolution to the problems we're having. Also, I think putting things down in writing has allowed me to start sorting things out in my mind.
...
On January 21, it was announced that actor/writer Simon Pegg will be co-writing the next Star Trek movie. For those who don't know, Pegg has appeared in the last two Trek movies in the role of the U.S.S. Enterprise's chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott.
Depending on which Star Trek website you choose to visit, reaction varies from total dread to absolute excitement. Some fans are concerned about how Pegg can handle with a more serious tone than his Cornetto trilogy of comedy films. Pegg is an avowed Trekkie, having gone so far as to learn a proper Glaswegian accent for his performance.
Those of us Trekkies who have been following the development of the upcoming movie have borne witness to a lot of the typical fluctuations that seem to be common with studio productions. Since the movie was announced, it has gained (and lost) a director/writer and two other screenwriters, and has seen at least two potential scripts rejected by the studio, Paramount Pictures. At present, the director slated for the movie is Justin Lin, who is best known for his work on the Fast and the Furious series. This in itself has been a source of great consternation among the Trek fanbase.
In my opinion, I think what most bothers the fans about what's been happening production-wise is that the movies are not being handled by those who are absolutely apparent die-hard Trekkies. Not that this is necessarily the best idea; that would be a direction that is potentially quite perilous. I don't mean that a fan couldn't run the franchise competently, or even successfully; my concern is that a die-hard fan might treat the franchise a little too preciously, too reluctant to embrace change when change would be necessary. Change comes very slowly to Star Trek, and Trekkies are even slower to allow change, much less embrace it. For a group of people who pride themselves on the idea of being open-minded and embracing new ideas, Trekkies sure don't live up to it.
Also, I think it upsets Trekkies that the franchise lacks a single, major guiding influence, like Joss Whedon has been for the Marvel Cinematic Universe over at Disney. A number of Trekkies on various message boards have been saying Whedon himself should take over Star Trek for Paramount. I love Star Trek, but for Whedon to leave the sure thing at Marvel (where he's settled in for the long haul), moving over to Paramount and Trek seems like a step backward, at least from a professional standpoint.
It just seems like Trekkies are so afraid for (or of?) the future of Star Trek that the collective fanbase is grasping for some old notion of the past, rather than face the potential, if uncertain, future. Sometimes, I think the fans won't be happy until Star Trek is run exactly the way it used to be with the same old creative people behind the scenes and onscreen as it was for decades, even though that was what eventually ran the whole thing into the ground for a time.
Star Trek badly needs new blood and new ideas, and what I'm most afraid of is that it's going to be the fans who will kill it in the end, with their collective refusal to try anything new and their refusal to be satisfied with anything different. Of course, they may find that if they refuse to be satisfied with the product, those who produce it will stop trying to satisfy them.
When our manager returns on Monday (he's been on vacation this week), I need to have a long talk with him about some issues we're having in the shipping area. First off, I want to reiterate to him that we very much need another packer, especially if our workload is going to potentially remain so high. I'm concerned that we are going to eventually become unable to keep up with it.
Secondly, I need to speak to him about some recurring issues with how the first shift crew is handling things. We're facing some of the same issues we've had previously; namely, their tendency to neglect things they should be doing, but aren't for whatever reason. They have been leaving piles of packed, but unshipped items, which they've already been told they are not supposed to do. No one is allowed to do this, as the company needs to know who's been handling what, if any issues arise. Also, it seems like they're slipping back into the old habit of neglecting the folding materials from their own shift.
So, why am I writing all this? A couple of reasons. I need some prayer regarding Monday. Pray that I would say what needs to be said, that I would speak truthfully and not out of anger or frustration (though I've certainly felt plenty of both recently), and that, Lord willing, we could find some resolution to the problems we're having. Also, I think putting things down in writing has allowed me to start sorting things out in my mind.
...
On January 21, it was announced that actor/writer Simon Pegg will be co-writing the next Star Trek movie. For those who don't know, Pegg has appeared in the last two Trek movies in the role of the U.S.S. Enterprise's chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott.
Depending on which Star Trek website you choose to visit, reaction varies from total dread to absolute excitement. Some fans are concerned about how Pegg can handle with a more serious tone than his Cornetto trilogy of comedy films. Pegg is an avowed Trekkie, having gone so far as to learn a proper Glaswegian accent for his performance.
Those of us Trekkies who have been following the development of the upcoming movie have borne witness to a lot of the typical fluctuations that seem to be common with studio productions. Since the movie was announced, it has gained (and lost) a director/writer and two other screenwriters, and has seen at least two potential scripts rejected by the studio, Paramount Pictures. At present, the director slated for the movie is Justin Lin, who is best known for his work on the Fast and the Furious series. This in itself has been a source of great consternation among the Trek fanbase.
In my opinion, I think what most bothers the fans about what's been happening production-wise is that the movies are not being handled by those who are absolutely apparent die-hard Trekkies. Not that this is necessarily the best idea; that would be a direction that is potentially quite perilous. I don't mean that a fan couldn't run the franchise competently, or even successfully; my concern is that a die-hard fan might treat the franchise a little too preciously, too reluctant to embrace change when change would be necessary. Change comes very slowly to Star Trek, and Trekkies are even slower to allow change, much less embrace it. For a group of people who pride themselves on the idea of being open-minded and embracing new ideas, Trekkies sure don't live up to it.
Also, I think it upsets Trekkies that the franchise lacks a single, major guiding influence, like Joss Whedon has been for the Marvel Cinematic Universe over at Disney. A number of Trekkies on various message boards have been saying Whedon himself should take over Star Trek for Paramount. I love Star Trek, but for Whedon to leave the sure thing at Marvel (where he's settled in for the long haul), moving over to Paramount and Trek seems like a step backward, at least from a professional standpoint.
It just seems like Trekkies are so afraid for (or of?) the future of Star Trek that the collective fanbase is grasping for some old notion of the past, rather than face the potential, if uncertain, future. Sometimes, I think the fans won't be happy until Star Trek is run exactly the way it used to be with the same old creative people behind the scenes and onscreen as it was for decades, even though that was what eventually ran the whole thing into the ground for a time.
Star Trek badly needs new blood and new ideas, and what I'm most afraid of is that it's going to be the fans who will kill it in the end, with their collective refusal to try anything new and their refusal to be satisfied with anything different. Of course, they may find that if they refuse to be satisfied with the product, those who produce it will stop trying to satisfy them.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Twice a week, maybe?
There's a lot to talk about this week.
First off, I'm thinking about doing more than one post a week. I'm considering twice-a-week updates, on Sundays and Thursdays. It seems like updating only once a week isn't exactly driving people to read what I'm writing, and what little audience I gained from my last blog doesn't seemed to have followed me.
There are no plans at the moment to return to daily updates, but I think that more frequent updates during the week will drive greater interest for this blog.
...
Today was the first time in several weeks that I've attended my Bible study at church. This morning, we heard a message from Galatians chapter 2, wherein the apostle Paul rebukes Peter for his support of the Judaizers who were causing discord in the Galatian church. Peter had fallen into error, for the Judaizers preached that circumcision was necessary for salvation, and had been withdrawing from the Gentile members of the church, as the Mosaic Law had restricted how Jews should affiliate with Gentiles, or not.
Paul directly addressed Peter's error saying, "But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 'But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.'" (Galatians 2:14-21)
The basic thrust of Paul's argument is that salvation is made secure through the atoning work of Jesus Christ and not through any human effort, and any effort to achieve righteousness apart from the Lord is an affront to Him. As believers, there's an understanding we ought to have that we contribute nothing to the righteous work Christ accomplished on the cross.
After the message was over, I was deeply convicted by the realization that I had, in a sense, been doing what Peter had done. I had been trying to do what was good, as if to prove that I was good. I had fallen into the same sort of error that Peter had. When the group had a brief discussion at the end of the hour, someone remarked that trying to please God through your own good works robs you of the joy of you walk with God. Hearing that made me realize that was why I've frankly been so miserable lately. When I got home, I had to stop and pray, and just confess to God that I had been in the wrong, and ask His forgiveness.
...
I know I said in the first post that I wanted to avoid writing about work as much as possible, since I wrote so much about it on the old blog. However, something happened this last week at work that I need to address, and it goes to show that God will work things in His own time and however He elects to do so.
For those who haven't read the old blog, back in November, I applied for the opportunity to train in operating the roll label machine in the digital department. As you may recall, for whatever reason, nothing ever came of it, no one was interviewed for the spot, and the whole issue seemed to fall by the wayside. I personally just let the whole thing go, figuring it wasn't supposed to be.
Fast forward to last week, when the new digital manager, Mike, called me into his office for an interview. He asked a lot of the standard interview questions: Why are you interested in this position? What are your long-term goals? What are your strengths? Actually, I'm kind of glad I didn't know the interview was coming, because I think I would've been extremely nervous.
When it was over, I didn't really know how I felt about the whole thing. It had been so long since anything had happened about the position that I really had put it behind me. It took some time for me to consider whether I really still wanted the position, and a moment, I wasn't sure that I did. Now, I think I would at least like to try, and we'll see if God gives me the opportunity.
...
I have to stop typing now, as it's been a very long time since I've typed this much on a computer keyword, and my wrists are getting sore.
First off, I'm thinking about doing more than one post a week. I'm considering twice-a-week updates, on Sundays and Thursdays. It seems like updating only once a week isn't exactly driving people to read what I'm writing, and what little audience I gained from my last blog doesn't seemed to have followed me.
There are no plans at the moment to return to daily updates, but I think that more frequent updates during the week will drive greater interest for this blog.
...
Today was the first time in several weeks that I've attended my Bible study at church. This morning, we heard a message from Galatians chapter 2, wherein the apostle Paul rebukes Peter for his support of the Judaizers who were causing discord in the Galatian church. Peter had fallen into error, for the Judaizers preached that circumcision was necessary for salvation, and had been withdrawing from the Gentile members of the church, as the Mosaic Law had restricted how Jews should affiliate with Gentiles, or not.
Paul directly addressed Peter's error saying, "But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews? We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. 'But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.'" (Galatians 2:14-21)
The basic thrust of Paul's argument is that salvation is made secure through the atoning work of Jesus Christ and not through any human effort, and any effort to achieve righteousness apart from the Lord is an affront to Him. As believers, there's an understanding we ought to have that we contribute nothing to the righteous work Christ accomplished on the cross.
After the message was over, I was deeply convicted by the realization that I had, in a sense, been doing what Peter had done. I had been trying to do what was good, as if to prove that I was good. I had fallen into the same sort of error that Peter had. When the group had a brief discussion at the end of the hour, someone remarked that trying to please God through your own good works robs you of the joy of you walk with God. Hearing that made me realize that was why I've frankly been so miserable lately. When I got home, I had to stop and pray, and just confess to God that I had been in the wrong, and ask His forgiveness.
...
I know I said in the first post that I wanted to avoid writing about work as much as possible, since I wrote so much about it on the old blog. However, something happened this last week at work that I need to address, and it goes to show that God will work things in His own time and however He elects to do so.
For those who haven't read the old blog, back in November, I applied for the opportunity to train in operating the roll label machine in the digital department. As you may recall, for whatever reason, nothing ever came of it, no one was interviewed for the spot, and the whole issue seemed to fall by the wayside. I personally just let the whole thing go, figuring it wasn't supposed to be.
Fast forward to last week, when the new digital manager, Mike, called me into his office for an interview. He asked a lot of the standard interview questions: Why are you interested in this position? What are your long-term goals? What are your strengths? Actually, I'm kind of glad I didn't know the interview was coming, because I think I would've been extremely nervous.
When it was over, I didn't really know how I felt about the whole thing. It had been so long since anything had happened about the position that I really had put it behind me. It took some time for me to consider whether I really still wanted the position, and a moment, I wasn't sure that I did. Now, I think I would at least like to try, and we'll see if God gives me the opportunity.
...
I have to stop typing now, as it's been a very long time since I've typed this much on a computer keyword, and my wrists are getting sore.
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Soft launch
Welcome to The Long Walk, especially to those of you who may have followed my previous blog.
I've had some time to think since I ended my last blog on December 31st. If you followed my last blog, you may know that I wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out. I wrote a lot of content for which I have no fondness, in retrospect. Much of that was due to meeting the daily deadline I set for myself. Having put a full year of blogging under my belt (give or take a few days), I don't think I need to do the daily updates. That was valuable for learning the discipline to write on a regular basis, but now, I need to try something else.
With this blog, I plan to update on a weekly basis. On the advice of a friend, I will update on the same day every week, but I haven't yet decided which day. I'm leaning toward either Friday or Sunday. I did learn that updating at a regular time each week will help to build regular followers, as it will give them something to anticipate. Also, having only a weekly deadline gives me the opportunity to have things prepared that I can write about.
In terms of content, I want to write about things that are meaningful to me. My walk with The Lord, things I enjoy, movies or TV shows I want to review, current events, or interesting and/or unusual bits of information that have caught my attention. In an effort to steer away from a problem that plagued the last blog, I do not want to write about work, and to do so as little as possible, if not avoiding doing it at all. Work became too easy a crutch, an out to avoid having anything prepared to write. I don't want to do that anymore. It's just lazy writing, and I'm sure, less enjoyable to read than write.
In terms of the title, The Long Walk, I wanted to give the blog a title that reflected my desire to have a blog that would be long-running, something that I would want to keep up for the long haul, unlike the last blog, of which I could barely muster the energy to finish.
Now that you readers have some idea what to anticipate, I'll be back in a week with something I hope you enjoy and will make you want to come back every week.
I've had some time to think since I ended my last blog on December 31st. If you followed my last blog, you may know that I wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out. I wrote a lot of content for which I have no fondness, in retrospect. Much of that was due to meeting the daily deadline I set for myself. Having put a full year of blogging under my belt (give or take a few days), I don't think I need to do the daily updates. That was valuable for learning the discipline to write on a regular basis, but now, I need to try something else.
With this blog, I plan to update on a weekly basis. On the advice of a friend, I will update on the same day every week, but I haven't yet decided which day. I'm leaning toward either Friday or Sunday. I did learn that updating at a regular time each week will help to build regular followers, as it will give them something to anticipate. Also, having only a weekly deadline gives me the opportunity to have things prepared that I can write about.
In terms of content, I want to write about things that are meaningful to me. My walk with The Lord, things I enjoy, movies or TV shows I want to review, current events, or interesting and/or unusual bits of information that have caught my attention. In an effort to steer away from a problem that plagued the last blog, I do not want to write about work, and to do so as little as possible, if not avoiding doing it at all. Work became too easy a crutch, an out to avoid having anything prepared to write. I don't want to do that anymore. It's just lazy writing, and I'm sure, less enjoyable to read than write.
In terms of the title, The Long Walk, I wanted to give the blog a title that reflected my desire to have a blog that would be long-running, something that I would want to keep up for the long haul, unlike the last blog, of which I could barely muster the energy to finish.
Now that you readers have some idea what to anticipate, I'll be back in a week with something I hope you enjoy and will make you want to come back every week.
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