SUNDAY, Nov. 29

Several airlines will begin adding 10-dollar surcharges on most of their tickets.

Dollar General may go public next weekDollar General shares rise in debut (AP)

A hearing is due to be held into the death of a head teacher thought to have taken her life after a critical school report…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: education online. For a different topic see crowd level. The blog is also related to: finance.

I have not posted here, but that is not because I haven’t been busily working away at my list…

…things are just mostly in the planning phases still.

Here is where I am at with some of the list items:

1. I have printed out the first four stanzas of Psalm 119 and affixed them to the back of my bathroom door.

7. I am registered for what will hopefully be my last quarter…although, unfortunately, I am waitlisted for one of my required core classes. Still, if I don’t get in this quarter, I will just graduate in June instead of March. (Still at 26!)

9. Pattern written, photos taken, work submitted…just waiting to hear back from the magazine…

10. I have scheduled a poetry night at the library where I work…thereby ensuring that on April 8th this item will be completed. (Thereby also ensuring that I will spend the next 6 months stressing over which of my poems to expose to public criticism!)

22. I have been invited to attend the San Francisco Opera with Sarah and Sir Tim! (We are just waiting to see if we can get tickets to Otello…otherwise we will be going in the Spring!)

Other people have offered to help out with various list items, but nothing is definite yet.

Mr. Rob, being a very organized individual, has suggested lumping multiple items together…such as going to Yosemite, pitching my own tent there, and then flying a kite. He is a smart guy.

More updates as things get finished/planned!

The things that get scheduled are the things that get done – The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

Jim. Sydney. Earl. Lindsey. Scheduled relaxation. Learn. Music. Love. Ending. Jack and Meg. Up late. Electrified.

We’ll be doing some work on one of the servers in the Folksy cluster in the morning so the service will be unavailable from about 8.00am for about an hour. This is to improve resiliency in the light of the recent downtime.

Ahh, it sure feels good to be back behind the desk writing again. We genuinely enjoyed our trip back to Texas. As always, it was great to see family and friends, eat at our favorite restaurants, and enjoy the change of scenery for a few days. But now we’re back and falling back into our schedule lives again. It feels nice!

In this week’s devo I will focus my attention on the God pauses of our lives. These are the moments when it seems nothing is working as planned, but God is still working His plan. If you’re there now, this will be a gentle refresher. If you not, hit the ‘save’ button for later consumption.

Aloha,
allen

Thoughts
As a child, my great-grandmother built her life around scheduled programming. Dinner was always prepared, eaten, and cleaned up before those golden words echoed from the television…“WHEEL OF FORTUNE!” Nothing interrupted her schedule.

Spiritually, we all grow accustomed to the daily scheduled programs of our life and faith. We become regimented in our actions, attendance, and attitudes. It’s our auto-pilot Christianity. Our life becomes scheduled and schedules have pre-determined outcomes. Wheel of Fortune producers are never surprised when the winner is announced at the end of a broadcast.

On the other hand, LIVE events are not that way. No one knows the end result of a baseball or football game before it airs. It is live and unfolds live for everyone to see. Such is our life and faith. It is live. While there are eternal promises we know for sure, none of us knows the trials or triumphs each day holds.

Take a sheet of paper and make two columns. Label the left side Scheduled and the right side LIVE. Now, read Hebrews 11 and identify the respective columns each character fits into. I challenge that you will find none that will qualify for scheduled lives. They lived their lives LIVE. And, so must we.

Thankfully, we have grown accustomed to those wonderful interruptions of live events: “We pause for station identification.” These words serve to remind us we’re tuned into the right station and that we’re still within range. Likewise, God gives us brief station id’s that remind us that the same Broadcaster who is with us in the scheduled programs of life is with us in the LIVE events.

LIVE events are always better than scheduled events. Don’t despise the awkward interruptions, noisy backgrounds, or the seat-gripping suspense. Enjoy the life found in the LIVE events. God’s still the Broadcaster and He’s not changed His location.

Application
Does your faith and relationship with God tend to be more scheduled or LIVE? Why?

Scheduled faith tends to struggle with unpredictable (or undesirable) outcomes. Read Luke 9:57-62 and note the schedule interruptions each encountered and Christ’s response. Do you struggle with any of these?

Hebrews 11 captures the essence of LIVE faith. What character are you most like? How are you challenged to go LIVE today?

Prayer
Father,

When I consider my life and my insistence that faith fit into a schedule, I become ashamed. The pages of scripture are immersed with men and women who chose to live life LIVE. Undeterred by the day’s struggles, they lived trusting that You were above their situation and were still in control. I long for a faith like that. A faith that risks going LIVE. Today, help me take the steps away from regimented religion and predictable outcomes and toward the fullness of trusting in You.

In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thursday the 1st of October 2009.  Autumn is here for sure. Yesterday it was +5 C today it is +0 C (41F/32F)  here in Stockholm.

I haven’t blogged so much lately besides sharing video clips of a very great musician climbing up the ladder of success = ). If you haven’t already been introduced to this  man and his music, now is the time to do so ;  )

So what is new with me then? Wish I could have had a great exiting story to tell but no, it is just everyday life to me. October is the PINK month – Pink Ribbon. It is also the month of my birth and the very same month of my daughters birth = ).  Those two things, thank god, never change. Somehow though October at times seams to be a month that likes to play tricks on me ; ) As well as bring out big expectations it also seems to draw a few disappointments. Not saying that it has to be like that every October that comes but sometimes it makes you wonder ; )

My “plans” of going to Cologne for concert and meet up with some lovely new friends is now something that will not happen. But then again that was just a plan nothing scheduled. The concert taking place here in Stockholm in October that I was so much looking forward to and that was scheduled as I had bought ticket and all did however get cancelled. Surprised? No not really ; ) but felt a bit like “Oh no, not a again”. Despite that feeling it did help that along with the note of concert cancellation another date was giving for a performance, a smaller one but still a performance. Now I just hope that this one will stay intact and that I will be among the ones that get to be at that performance =). I am planning to, you can count on that ;  ) Wild horses can’t keep me away LOL.

Next week is the final test of my English B-course studies. Starts off with the book discussion on Monday. Tuesday The Test Day 10am – 3.15pm.  Haven’t finish reading the book yet so I need to get myself focused on that a bit more. To practice for the test is a bit difficult really, I mean there is not any special areas to put focus to. It’s everything you know. You can’t really practice before such, prepare yourself that you can do by reading listening, repeat grammar and vocabulary. To be honest with you that really makes me feel a bit stressed and nervous.

Oh yes, another fun thing really, is that I have kind of changed my opinion regarding Twitter and Tweets ;  ). I wrote about the subject here Noteworthy Facts Twitter. Will write more about why I have changed my opinion shortly = )