Act of Valor Review.

Movie review time!

I just got home from watching Act of Valor. I have to say, great movie. Loved it. But that is as a gut reaction, so lets dig in and see just how good this movie really is.

First off, lets talk about the target audience... Men. Okay, some women will like seeing gungho guys going around and shooting stuff up and looking sexy all around. But the real target audience is probably males from between 17 to 30. And to be honest the only route they didn't take to get those guys to put butts in the theatre seating is to have some sort of heavy makeout/sex scene. But then, the movie is better for not having it, and everyone knows it. Other then "sex sells," they checked off every single box for the target audience aside from dinosaurs and giant mecha. Crazy frenetic gunfights? Check. Cool gunboats? Check. Cool gunboats IN THE GUN FIGHT? Check. Chase scene? Check. Cool sniper headshots? Precision check in the x-ring. Evil baddie and his plan of Doom(tm)? Check. Underwater scenes? Check. Submarine in the underwater scenes? Check. A guy taking an RPG to the chest and WALKING IT OFF? Check.

Guys, this movie ROCKS.

Ahem.

Plot? Huh?

Oooooh.... yeah. Plot.

Okay, we find out pretty quick that the Lieutenant in command of the SEAL team is A) married and B) they are expecting.  We also find out that a CIA operative in south america somewhere is trying to get info on a drug cartel guy who is hooking up with his childhood friend, the Muslim extremist who arranged and executed an attack on an international school in the far east (If I recall correctly.) killing a LOT of kids. Bastard.

The team gets called up to rescue this CIA agent after she gets made and caught. She gets tortured, but stays strong until the team can get to her. And the intel they get from the rescue op leads them down the rabbit hole...

I am not going to talk much more about the plot, spoilers being what they are, but I will say it held together pretty well. It was a bit hard to follow at times, since the cuts they used came pretty quick, but they used a common FPS game technique of super imposing a map and using a target box to track the movement of the major scene transitions. After the second cut like that, I was at home.

The narration from the chief was a little heavy handed in the beginning, and I am glad they dropped it until the very end. It works as bookends, but the upfront part drags a bit.

Acting. Okay. These guys are actual Navy SEALs, and they did a lot to bring authenticity to the film. Tactics, movement, timing, body language... they did a lot. But uh... actors they ain't. They are better than I am, and I ain't joking, but I think part of it is that they are playing themselves to a large degree. These guys know they can trust each other, and so their bond carries over onto film. It just that the fine nuances of tone and delivery didn't quite make it in some scenes. And that is ok, because they knock most of it out of the park. When you have a combat scene, or a high intensity scene, they are dialed in. It's the quiet intimate moments that they struggle with. And I can live with that.
Well... The guy who played Senior. I can't find him on IMDB (the SEALs are not credited in the film, and I don't see his face on IMDB...) so I presume he is a SEAL. I could just be blind. But wow. This guy is GOOD. The interrogation scene was GOLD.

Music was a rush. The tempo and bass was spot on for when the action began to heat up. I think I annoyed a few people down the row by tapping my feet to it.

Anyway. I am about out of things to say. I worked to day, so my brain is a wee bit toasty.

But I do wanna say this, if you are in the target demographic, and you don't get a "Aaaaaw yeeeeah..." feeling when the river boats touch off the mini-guns... you just lost your man-card. That was SWEET.

What. I'm in the demo.

Hiding in the Wings...

There are days when it is all you can do to simply be what you are needed to be. No more, and God help you if you are less. You feel tired, alone, sad, and you know that you are about to miss something important any minute now and so you keep on your guard to prevent it, but of course all that happens are minor screw-ups.

I started the day with a prayer. God, please help me to not give into temptation. Please give me the strength to get out of bed. To get to work on time. To honor You. That was hard for me. To make that choice was really hard. I am not great at the discipline of prayer.

I had not slept well, and have not slept well for around a month. I don't expect to sleep well tonight. Sleep deprivation is cumulative; if you miss some, you need to gain it back or you will begin to suffer. Miss some more, and it adds up.  Miss enough, and you may as well be drunk. I have missed quite a bit. I think today was a "tipsy" day. I got to work on time. Yay. Logged in. Cool. But everything I did was sub par, at least for me. I had Boss-man call and walk me through something I really should have known. He was kind about it, just training me, but I felt embarrassed.

I got a little snippy in an e-mail exchange over something that I know won't change in other peoples habits, and I didn't get as much done as I probably could have gotten done. All through out the day I just wanted to sit and cry for no real reason I could find.

I went to the store. Got some food and a candle. And a cheap pitcher, cause all my old pitchers broke. (note to self, vet roommates before moving in.) Came home to my cat. He ignored me.

It has been, as my mom said, a very blah day. Everything was just... blah.


I am making an effort to remind myself that this morning I did something new. I prayed before I got out of bed.

And God heard me.

Hold on to that in the sad days. The blah days. The crazy sad horrible days.

God hears us. If nothing else goes right, if all we trust in goes away, we can pray to a God who hears us, who listens, and who cares. We do not serve a God who abandons us but instead watches us like mother watches her child. He wraps us in His coat on a cold day, covers us in His love and we will never know how bad it could have been because when we pray He hears us.



Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry!
   Give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit!
From your presence let my vindication come!
   Let your eyes behold the right!

You have tried my heart, you have visited me by night,
   you have tested me, and you will find nothing;
   I have purposed that my mouth will not transgress.
With regard to the works of man, by the word of your lips
   I have avoided the ways of the violent.
My steps have held fast to your paths;
   my feet have not slipped.

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
   incline your ear to me; hear my words.
Wondrously show your steadfast love,
   O Savior of those who seek refuge
   from their adversaries at your right hand.

Keep me as the apple of your eye;
   hide me in the shadow of your wings,
from the wicked who do me violence,
   my deadly enemies who surround me.

They close their hearts to pity;
   with their mouths they speak arrogantly.
They have now surrounded our steps;
   they set their eyes to cast us to the ground.
He is like a lion eager to tear,
   as a young lion lurking in ambush.

Arise, O LORD! Confront him, subdue him!
   Deliver my soul from the wicked by your sword,
  from men by your hand, O LORD,
   from men of the world whose portion is in this life.
You fill their womb with treasure;
   they are satisfied with children,
   and they leave their abundance to their infants.

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;
   when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.

The Cat who thought he was God...

I did a lot today. Well, for me anyway. I went to the bank, took care of a few things there, went to Walmart and did some grocery shopping. Made dinner, talked with family for LONG time. (Love doing that!) Played some games. Generally had a good day.

And all day long when i was at home I had this cat who kept trying to take playful bats at me. "Hey!" Bat bat. "Play with me!" Meow meow. "I'm here!" Claw. "Hey yo- ooooh craphehasthesquirtbottlerun!"

Gandalf just wanted attention while I was busy with my own stuff.

Funny how we react the same way to God.

The hope of a soldier...

Most of what I read for fun is by David Weber, a space opera/military Sci-Fi author. In one of his series two star nations have been fighting a war for something like twenty years (the series covers the whole war), and we meet a wide selection of characters from both sides of the conflict. One of them, the lead, is Honor Harrington. She has a friend, a Treecat, who follows her through out her life. He has two names, the one humans have given him, Nimitz, and the one he was given by his fellow treecats, Laughs Brightly. (The name makes sense in context). Being a race of telepaths, Treecat names are based around their character and nature. Treecats began to name "their" humans in the same fashion before they learned the English language, and the results can be... interesting.

One of Harrington's main opponents is/was Thomas Theismen, and I don't want to spoil the series for you, so I won't gave rank or situation, but Nimitz had a chance to name him. It took a while to get to know him, but Nimitz called him "Dreams of Peace."

One of the few men who can fight Honor to a standstill (no mean feat, that.), who has devoted his life to his nations navel service and is responsible for untold numbers of deaths to Honor's allies, and his name is Dreams of Peace?

And yet it is so fitting. How many of our soldiers fight because they want to stop the violence? If we can stop "the bad guys" over there, they won't disrupt the peace here. And isn't that an admirable goal?

Scripture has called us soldiers for Christ, to fight for His peace, and to bring it to the world. It is hard to wrap my mind around that, especially when we also think of Christians as being a peaceful people. Fighting is so contrary to that image.

I think often it is a matter of who we bow down to. Many soldiers in Libya and Egypt were bowing down to a tyrant, and horrible things happened. Syria and Iran are suffering under a military bowing down to evil men. American soldiers are not infallible, and I am sure some of them are bowing down to selfish desire and evil men. But I believe many of our Service Members, men and women in our uniformed services, bow down to something or someone good. Maybe it is the love of family, maybe it is belief in our Constitution, maybe it is our Lord Jesus Christ. But when we bow down to God, His Son, heeding the voice of the Holy Spirit, good things come of it. Joy, hope, love. It should be the desire of every soldier to bow down to God first, even if it means fighting a physical or spiritual battle.

And as soldiers of Christ, we are called to the same.

I cannot claim to be good at it, I know I am not. I am a poor soldier at best, but I can hope to be better. I can try. I'm holding on to that for now.

Found this image today. Thought it was worth sharing.

http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/

I do not think it means what you think it means....

So in the past week I have seen a few stories in the news about how atheists are trying to remove icons or displays of a religious (mainly Christian) nature for public display and/or property. The basic claim is that be being subjected to the sight of these displays, it is a violation of their right to privacy or mental well being or some such. They don't like it, they don't agree with it, and it is being forced into their daily lives without their say-so.

Well I'll tell you what, when I can get 90% of the radio stations and music and tv and movies that I have to see media for or listen to in my daily life banned from public display, than great. Until then, buzz off.

As Americans we have the right to free speech, right up until it infringes on someone else's rights of privacy (I.E. I told their big dark secret), personal safety (what I say somehow harms them, see verbal assault), mourning (I'm looking at you, Westboro Baptist.), or good name (slander, libel, etc). Other wise I get a free pass.

"Oh, but we have freedom from religion!"

Wait... what?! Freedom FROM Religion? That is the most absurd load of crap I have heard in a while.

First off, our founding fathers were deeply religious men of faith. The whole reason many of the original colonies were found was for religious freedom. They were being oppressed by the Anglican church and so they went to were the church had hard time following. And just to be sure, lets look at what our Constitution says...

Amendment I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion (Can't force a state religion, or make a religion of higher standing with the state), or prohibiting the free exercise thereof (can't make a law stopping the worship or exercises of a faith (note, again, this is unless it interferes with an individual right. That virgin sacrifice to Satan? It's murder. The infant sacrifice to Moloch? Murder. The ritual beating or honor killing of young woman because she was raped? Assault or Murder.); or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So to recap: You can't force me to worship Allah if I don't wanna, (see what I did there? Eh? Eh?....Ahem) and you can't stop me from worshiping Jesus if I choose to. The ONLY cause the government has to regulate my free worship is if I infringe on someones right to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. you don't like my church? You don't have to come in, you are free to pursue your happiness elsewhere. Note, you (and I) do not have the right to happiness, simply the right to pursue it. Believe me, if I had a right to happiness, Justin Bieber and the Twilight series would have been removed eons ago.

That said, I can avoid what I don't like most of the time, and when I can't, I suck it up and soldier on because living with free speech means that once in a while you get offended. Deal with it.

Many of our laws have a direct basis in ancient Judaic law. There is a reason the Ten Commandments were prominent in many places of law, it reminds us of our legislative history.

The Cross is not only a reminder of the sacrifice of Christ for our sins, but that God showed mercy on sinful man, and is calling on us to show mercy and love to our fellow man.

And if you don't hold them as important, then ignore them. There are cheap displays that feed the idle fancies of those of us who have faith. But find them offensive? I find most of the crap filling our airwaves offensive, but I will fight to the end to protect the right to broadcast it.

Freedom from religion? Try freedom for religion.

How not to kill your co-worker...

Yesterday was Annoying Co-Workers last day. As per usual, he was annoying. But I find it bothersome that I did not have a lot of time to be the better co-worker with him that I *could* have been. I know I tried to be better, but now I won't see the fruit of that work.

It's frustrating.

I wonder if that is part of what let to Paul needing to chastise the Church in Corinth. I say part because the church obviously had other issues, but look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Paul and Apollos both were large figures in the church there, and I imagine that there were elders who commanded some similar respect. Both had somehow, and almost certainly without their consent, attracted a set of followers who held them as the "Giver of the *true* faith." People wanted to be better, but they felt they needed this person or that person around to feed the drive to be better, and when the person left, they responded by having that person there in their minds, substituting God with a man. They figured that if they always based their actions on how they perceived Paul (or Apollos) would want them to, then they would become good people. And of course, they would never ever convince themselves that their ideal mentor would allow them to do something that they felt might be just over the line of sin. Oh no, never.

Paul, of course, smacks this down hard. He approaches the issue from another angle, properly humbling himself and Apollos in comparison to God, and equating himself as a servant with the believers in Corinth. it is pretty hard to look at an equal and worship them.

Of course, the difference here is that the believers in Corinth wanted to become better by who they followed, and I wanted to become better by who I was nice to.

I think I may have come at this the wrong way, or rather with the wrong focus. I don't need to be a better co-worker to Annoying Guy, though that is true, but I need to be a better Servant. Whether it's to the co-workers I like, the ones I don't like, my supervisor, my boss, or the people on the other end of the phone who I just wanna strangle, I need to serve them, not hold one or two up as the person(s) I will be better with, and thereby be a better Christian because of it. If I choose to focus on Joe Schmoe and not give the same love and service and respect to everyone else, I have failed to serve Christ, which was the whole point to begin with.

It would be easy to call this semantics, and I know that. There are legitimate times where I need to work on my relationship with a given individual. But not with the intent of being a better christian. It must be because I am compelled to serve Christ. Not to serve my own self interest.

In the service of Christ, we may never see the fruit of our work until the end of days. And if we aren't okay with that on some level, then you might need, I might need, to re-evaluate what we worship, and who we are really trying to serve.

Putting on your game face.

I remember reading a while back that Aflac had just hired a new voice actor to replace the guy who voiced the Aflac duck. "Strange," thought I, "What happened to the old guy?" Turns out the old voice actor had made some insensitive comments, quite publicly, regarding the tsunami that hit Japan. Japan actually holds a large percentage of Aflac's customer base, and so it was quite an embarrassing to have their "Spokesperson" as it were to diminish them so. He was canned, and now we have a new voice for the duck.

How many times can you think of that someone did something publicly that cost them their job? Their reputation? Their family?

Take a minute and list them out. I'll wait.



Done? Good.

How long did it take for them fall apart? Why was it a bad thing to do? Was their an overreaction on the part of the boss or family?

Life gives us so many ways this can happen, it is hard to quantify every possible variable. But I have a tale of woe that might put things in perspective.

If you are not a geek or a nerd, you likely are not familiar with this story. It starts out last November when a guy who for this story is going by Dave tried to order a special game controller. The controller itself is not really the issue here, it simply serves as the item in question, a MacGuffin, if you will. Dave pays for this controller, and is told he can expect it early December. Great! Christmas item checked off the list.

Or... not. It is late arriving, so he emails the companies PR and Customer Service group to inquire about the delay.

From: Dave 
To: Ocean Marketing 
Dec 16, 2011, at 1:34 PM

I ordered 2 of the upcoming PS3 controllers (invoice xxxxxxxxx—Nov 3, 2011). Any chance of getting an update of when these items will ship? I’m not really happy about being forced to pay upfront then have the advertised date of “Early December” be completely missed without any sort of update on availability. I really need one of them for a X-mas present as well. Anyways, looking forward to finally using one of these bad boys. Thanks and happy holidays.

-Dave

 This group is called Ocean Marketing. A man named Paul responds, quite poorly, with this: "Dec 17."
How very... concise.

From: Dave 
To: Ocean Marketing 
Dec 19, 2011, at 11:02 AM

Thanks for the reply Paul.  Can you clarify whether my particular order already sent or if Dec 17 was the first day shipments went out?  I have not received any sort of shipping confirmation email or tracking information.

Note the date and time stamp for the sending of this email. Since the reply from Paul was dearly lacking in information, Dave was grasping at straws as to why he did not have his products.

From here, the situation quickly falls apart. A few messages down the chain Paul degenerates the value of Dave's patronage, pretty much saying that they don't need his business, they items will sell anyway.

This is when all heck breaks loose. Dave replies, copying the whole chain of emails, and includes Kotaku, Penny-Arcade, and a few other news sites.

And then the vitriol really starts to flow.

Eventually Mike, the owner of Penny-Arcade and of the PAX Gamers con (Penny Arcade eXpo) gets into it, and then after tiring of trying to show Paul the error of his ways posts the entire E-Mail chain on his website.
I am not going to give you the whole chain here, you can read it at this link.

How long did it take for Paul's life to fall apart?

Thirteen and a half hours.  You can check the time stamp on the posts.

The customer may not always be right, but he is always going to talk about bad service. A customer will tell others about a bad experience far more often than they will a good one, and believe me, some of them can get vindictive when they do it.

I have a had a series of calls at work regarding a service that two employees feel one of them should have. I offered to them the only way I know to get that service. One of them, who is not a small player in the company, was not thrilled with my response. My answer was essentially, "Well, sir, this is the way I know how to do it. I simply don't have another answer for you." I could have left it at that, but I decided to check with my dept manager. I related the whole situation and he told me "No, you did it right, but why isn't he wanting to use the process?" And so on and so forth. I ended up calling back to offer some more ideas, which I hope left a good impression instead of the roadblock they could have perceived before. maybe it didn't help. I don't know. But I tried.

Paul... is so far out of the path of good customer service I wouldn't hire him to be a punching bag for angry buyers. He would probably be so dense they would hurt themselves.

Please, whatever your job is, work on being good at customer relations. Without them, you don't have a job.

That new year resolution.

So, a while back I said that I was gonna try and show God's love to a guy I really don't like. I also said that I wasn't quite sure how to do that.

Ever notice how you can give yourself a cop-out with out even trying? "I don't know how, that's why I ain't doing it." Strange how that excuse doesn't work with God.

Well, I kinda got a little post-it note from on high. Call it a memo on how to show love.

Help.

Pretty simple, actually. Wish I had thought of it.

So there we are, Co-Worker has morning emails, and I am keeping an eye on them because, well... that is part of what I do. Plus I want to have the supervisors job someday, so I figure I should learn early.

I notice that we have three emails that need responding to that have waited for about twenty minutes. At this point I can A) do the really stupid move and tell Supervisor about it. (Supervisor has made it clear that we are give this guy some space and time to grow. So to go behind Co-Workers back and "rat" on him to Supervisor would be... un-wise.) B) IM the other guy who dislikes Co-Worker and laugh about the lack of response, bemoan the woes of working with the guy, and generally be a gossip and tear down the team, C) respond to them myself without checking to see if Co-Worker has worked on them at all, or D) quietly walk over to Co-Worker and see if I can help him clear his plate since something is holding him up on this.

I chose D. Smart move on part, actually. Turns our he was focused on getting some info for a person, but had just been upgraded to Windows 7 on his computer, which had destroyed all his mapped settings, so he could not find the link he needed in the bookmarks. Ooooh. Easy peasey, nice and easy. I'll just get the link on my computer, shoot it your way via IM, and you're rocking. Once that was done, e-mails went in a jiffy.

Imagine, team work being a helpful thing.

Imagine... foregoing the pleasure of tearing down a person I don't care for, and not just that but actively seeking to help them meant the teams job went smoother.

...

Crazy, right?

So. My new-years resolution, presuming I can remember after having slept again, is this:

I will endeavor to build up my co-workers, and thus the team and myself, regardless as to whether I like them or not. I will seek out ways to help them perform better, even if I never get the credit. The Team matters, the Job getting done matters, and showing God's love matters. I do not matter in these equations.

What's your new years resolution?

Hypocrisy in action... what joy.

I came across this quote today while doing my usual web surfing.

"Putting aside the myth, he was a great man and teacher, with a greater message of peace, goodwill, and standing up for what is right. And as long as we keep that in mind, the date and how it’s celebrated don’t really matter."

The post had started out with a small paragraph that took some jabs at the Christian basis of the current holiday, and to be fair the next paragraph took some jabs at the commercialization of the holiday. But then you run across that little gem of a quote and kinda cringe.

It should be apparent to anyone who has read my blog that I am a Evangelical Protestant (I.E. Christian, not Catholic. There is more to it, but today's lecture is not on that...) and so it may surprise some when I say that Jesus was NOT a man with "... a greater message of peace, goodwill, and standing up for what is right." In fact, it is arguable that he was near the opposite of the first two, and the third point is so far from what the Christ was about that it is nearly laughable.

Peace.

Many think of the angels with the shepherds having said peace on earth, goodwill towards men, etc. That's what the song says, right? Well, lets turn to Luke, chapter 2.

13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 14 “Glory to God in the highest,

   and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke is clear on the peace resides with those who are in God's favor. It is further reasoned that based on the ministry (and the response to...) of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ, this group who was in God's favor was... smaller then the carol suggests. Much smaller. Peace belongs, rightfully, to the favored of God, and even then it can be a fleeting thing. (Ask Job.) That it was offered at all is incredibly generous. 

Neither was this peace to be a lasting thing. If Jesus was a guy who had a greater message of peace, why would he say,

"34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."  (Matthew 10), 

or this,

 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. (Luke 12),

To presume a message of peace when He explicitly denies such a message is folly in the highest. 

Goodwill.

Find the word "goodwill" in your Bible. You'll find it less times than you expect, I almost guarantee it. Goodwill is when you have or seek a favorable opinion or relationship with someone. Jesus didn't care about the favor of anyone except the Father. He taught us to obey and to serve God. this may have the appearance of goodwill, but do not confuse the means with the goals. Obedience is goal one. Goodwill is incidental. 

Standing up for what is right. 

Ooooh... where do I start? Tell me, what did the Christ stand up for? I mean, really... 

He made a stand for Himself. For the truth of His claim to Deity. For his innocence of the crimes he was charged with. He took a stand against sin. And that is about it. Not women's rights, not health care, He did not stand against slavery, or the economic rape of the Jewish state by the Roman Empire. He stood for Himself, and let the chips fall where they may. The Christian faith has been dressed up real nice and pretty the last few decades, and it glosses over the fact that it is by it's nature a mutually exclusive faith. You cannot be both Muslim and Christian. When it comes to the day of judgement it is either Christ's way or the highway. Your choice. Choose wisely. 

This is reflected in his time in ministry. he stood for Himself, His Father, and the Covenant. That. Is. It. And He stood by it to the point of death. 

Was Jesus a great man? Yeah. He still is. Was He a great teacher? Yeah, and again, He still is. Was he a Myth? Nope. Is the faith around Him and the beliefs about what he was accused of and executed for a myth? Nope. We have the Roman records of His execution, and the charges relating to it. He claimed to be God, and Jewish leaders, who said this was heresy (in their defense, for anyone else it would have been...) convinced the Romans to charge Him with attempting to claim sovereignty over Judea and have Him killed for what amounts to treason against the state. This is in hard record. The only part in any real dispute is the Resurrection, 

Jesus's entire ministry is wrapped around the concept that He is God. If He lied about that, then the whole house of cards comes down, and quite frankly He would have deserved what He got. Myth? I think not. There would have been too many times to catch Him in the lie if He was a fake. Think about how many people were out to get Him. They would have pounced on a piece of dirt on Him like the media jumped all over Anthony Weiner. 

You must either admit that He was a total fake who got very very lucky that no one caught him in it (and just decided to stick it out to the point of being executed in one of the must gruesome ways possible) or that He was, in fact, Emmanuel. God with us. And if He was a fake, then it taints the whole of His teaching and we should have nothing more to do with Him. Let Him disappear into the waste bin of history. 

Logic tells me that if Jesus was a fake, they would have caught Him out and decimated Him with it. And no one will die for a cause they know is a fraud unless it will give some greater cause strength.  I cannot find such a cause. 

So don't give me that load of bullcrap about how nice and friendly and kind Jesus was, and how we need to remember that this season. 

What do I have to say to that attitude? Shove off. 

What is Christmas about? It is about the arrival of God on this world, in the form of a man, send with the express purpose of dying for an ungrateful group of fools of have no idea of the cost of seeing the Father turn from the Son in shame, unable to see the burden of sin the Son took from those self same fools and literally went to the gates of hell for them and then spitting in death's eye and rising again! It is the celebration of the arrival of the Christ. The Christ. Messiah, Savior, Anointed One. The one who would die for every single person on earth, past present or future, even though the vast majority would care about as much for it as they would a fly.

We celebrate the arrival of our greatest hero. Our greatest leader. Our Lord and Master. We celebrate His birth because we live under a covenant paid for by His death, given power by His resurrection.

So you can take that mealy mouthed fancy-fied mouthful about how nice He was and stuff it. You may as well cheer on the arrival of modern medicine for all the boob jobs it enables. And I won't stand for that either. 

Your reputation with the Local Leaders (tm) has increased by 100!

I play an online game called The Lord of The Rings Online (LoTRO), and in it my main avatar (AKA, character, toon, etc) collected quite a few reputation items in Forochel (Cold place, looks kind of like Alaska. Crazy critters trying to eat me. Fun times!). I was cruising through to get some resources from the area for another avatar of mine, and I am actually very high level for the area, so I could pretty much wipe any single baddie with ease, and even take on six or more and not have any real trouble. Lots of fun, in my opinion, and it gave me time to collect Reputation Items. Rep items are used in trade to increase your standing in the eyes of the locals. The locals in this case, who toooootally don't resemble the Eskimos in any way, are called the Lossoth, and it turns out they are missing things. Mostly spearheads from animals they hunted that got hit, but also got away. They also collect the "claws," their arch enemies the Gauradan use as weapons. Top it off with broken Ice Skates, and that is the list of Rep items for the area. The basic premise is that if you collect them and use them/trade them in you will get Rep points, which when you have enough, unlock progressively higher tiers of reputation and reputation gated items. I.E. To get the Warm Cloak of Warmth (not a real item, but would be cool if it was, right?), you need to have Ally standing in your Lossoth Reputation.

I hadn't quite made the highest level for rep there, so I was collecting the items as loot while mining my ore and finishing a few deeds for other things.  I actually made some pretty good progress on my rep level, but like with most things I eventually got bored and moved on to other things.

You know what I wish I could take from the game world and move into the real world? The Reputation updates and current standings with all the factions. In game I can open a panel and see exactly what reputation levels I have for any of some twenty or so groups. I know exactly what access I have to special areas and know if they will kill me or not when I try and cross that bridge over there. (No joke. Do NOT try and see Galadriel until you have Friend Standing with them. You WILL get the shaft, and it WILL have an arrowhead on it.)

Wouldn't it be nice to see exactly how many Rep points you have with your boss? What favors you might have access to, what ideas s/he might be open to? Or with the In-Laws, are you Kindred, or Outcast? Or just having that notification that "You've completed your weekly updates three hours early, and gained 35 Reputation with Supervisor!" I would even appreciate it if I got one that said "You have spilled toner all over a VP's desk, and lost 9000 Reputation on the Executive Floor." At that point I become Outcast, and the bowstrings seem to be drawing taut...

It's nice to know where you stand with people, but sadly it can be hard to discern that sometimes. One thing about your reputation is that you often won't know what it is until sometime after you've gained it. At work I know I have a reputation for horrible punnery, but that isn't hard to guess since I've always had that reputation. I have no problem with that reputation, either. But I would love to know what my reputation with my supervisor and manager are. And I would do most anything to protect what good reputation I have with them.

It's related to last weeks post on work ethic, I want it to be known that I have a good ethic, and I am reliable. It's not (just) an ego thing, it's the hope and promise of a better job.

About two years ago I was told to show a few new hires how I ran my register. I did not often get praise from my boss, (and he is a pretty good boss, honestly) I got some that day which I will hold forever in my lockbox of awesome praises. He said, "I want you to watch how Eric handles his tickets, because his paperwork is immaculate. I want you to model after him on paperwork. And answering the phone. Watch him do those two things, and learn to do them yourself."

Oh boy, was I on cloud nine... I know then that Boss liked my work, that he was impressed by my work, and that so long as I didn't really screw up (a huge personal fear of mine) I was secure in my job.

When I was interviewed for the job I now I have, I knew that I was doing well in at least one way, my boss (and my regional manager, and the assistant manager) all said I had good phone etiquette and presence. Much of the job is on the phone, so it was a pretty big plus. Add in three years of hands on store level experience with the technology, and the work ethic my boss bragged on, I should have known the job was in the bag, but I didn't because I am horribly paranoid.

That paranoia came back again the past two days, because I am sick. Probably the flu, but blech. I hate being sick. I also hate missing work. Not that I am a workaholic, but I don't want a reputation as a slacker. I know of too many other people who called in sick to work when I was in Alpine who either had the brown bottle flu or were just playing hooky. Boss had no official proof of such, but we would find out from people that so and so was doing XYZ on Thursday, when we were told that they were bed ridden by a migraine or what not. I tend to just bulldoze my way through and make things work. I went for over a month with a broken tooth and major pain with only one sick day (I took too much Ibuprofen one time, and lost reputation with my intestines... ooog) in the whole time. The day I had it extracted I went right back to work because I cannot stand to think that others see me as slacking. I could work, therefore I would. So when I was laid low by this flu or whatever it is, I surprised myself when I agreed to take yesterday off. Then again, I figured I would be of little help since I had no good sleep that night, and my voice was shot. Not something you want on a phone. And working around the office was contra-indicated by me possibly being contagious. So I went home. This morning was worse, and so I called my boss and told him the situation. He told me to stay home, maybe find a doctor.

At the doctors office I was asked if I wanted a sick note. Uh... Yeah! I want proof that I was not just looking for a 4 day weekend. (Down side of being an amateur actor, people get the idea you can fake being sick. ... Well... they're right, but still...)

I don't actually have a grand statement for the conclusion, and I blame this flu for that, but it seems to fit that we should always consider our reputation. We all know we have one (or more), and we may even know some of it, and we can even use it to our advantage. Maybe we should put more care into building and maintaining it.


And because I feel like it, a clip for you! Matt Smith was brought on to replace the much loved David Tennant as Doctor Who. In his first episode The Doctor had to prove his chops to the Evil Aliens of the Episode and Matt Smith had to prove himself as a suitable Doctor. For those of you unfamiliar with the shows, when The Doctor dies, his body Regenerates into a new Doctor. Same basic beliefs and values, but new person, new personality, new body. Matt Smith is the eleventh Doctor. In the clip we see footage of all the Doctors before him.

It's always good to a reputation to back you up.

It's also good to be able to back up your reputation...