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World of New Genesis
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- Moloth – The Believer is Happy; the Skeptic is Wise
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Well, my first week at IDMI has been completed and Monday i start with the real meat & potatoes training. Apparently, i’ve impressed them with my learning curve and they’re stepping up my training schedule. For the past week, i was pretty much left to my own devices… which was kind of nice because i was able to set up my (rather large and nice) desk with all of my tchotckies and Zen sayings, burn some CDs to my work compy and just peruse the intros and basics of the programming languge i’ll be using, but was also kind of nerve-wracking because i felt kinda forgotten and unproductive. People all around me were working hard and i was just kinda drifting at my desk, with nothing to DO.
Fortunately, a few of the programmers there decided to test me a little and would give me increasing complex coding tasks to perform. I was simply given a goal… no training. I had the people around me, an on-line resource book and time. For the first time in a long time, i felt a challenge. I had to THINK. I had to figure something out. it… was… GREAT.
I’ll be using the ColdFusion programming language to create, maintain and modify forms (conencted to databases) for Insurance companies. All of their policies, customer info and important info are contained and control with these forms. And i’ll be responsible for making sure that they work properly. There will be some customer interaction, but its nothing i’m not used to. There is already talk of getting me into the .PDF printing department… they’ve been having some trouble recently and i have several years of experience in distilling different text and code formats into .PDF format. A new QA department is also in the works, and i just might be working over there, as well.
In any case, this company is small, effecient, full of very smart, educated and dedicated people and is growing steadily. I intend on learning everything i can there. I want to know everything there is to know about what i’m doing, be able to do anything they need and to make myself invaluable there. I see a great potential for growth there for me… financially, career wise and even personally.
I chatted with Russ a bit about it and, like he said, i’m starting to see why he loves his job as much as he does. Its extremely fulfilling to solve problems all day, to be paid for your skill and ability to critically think… and be rewarded for it. I kinda feel like this is my very first “grown up” job… Hopefully i will no longer feel that the job i’m doing could simply be done by a unskilled and barely trained monkey. No more moving boxes of goods around. No more performing the same basic text edits that should really just be automated. I’m actually going to be doing something that not just anyone can do.
*sigh*… and i already have the title of “Pretty Boy” in the office… lol. Infact, because i have an interior office that is lit my only a few desk lamps, some of the women in the office took upon themselves to print out a title of my office and tape it to the door. I later find out that “PBC” stands for “Pretty Boy Cave”. >_<
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Mr. Deity takes a tour of Hell with Lucy… and Larry gets some printing done. Yes, i LOLed at the very end…
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Well, well, well… looks like i’ll have to stop laughing (and crying) at Kansas for a bit. They’ve actually decided to teach Science in Science class. Amazing.
But… there is still much education to be done…
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One Good Move is a blog i keep coming back to. Here is a post on that site about Richard Dawkins appearing on the Paula Zahn show last night! After the travesty that was her show a few nights ago that did nothing but trash-talk atheists (with no non-believer there to defend the position, of course), its good to see Dawkins on there, defending logic and reason.
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Interesting article on depression… I found this paragraph to be particularly interesting:
Stephen S. Ilardi, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, suggests that depression results from a “mismatch” between human beings adapted for hunter-gatherer societies and the contemporary world. His therapy — which he calls “therapeutic lifestyle change” — emphasizes behavioral remedies, including getting more sleep, consuming more omega-3 fatty acids and increasing social interaction.
I like the way he thinks… behavioral remedies; “fixing” your life. Now that i’m working out and getting exercise, i find that i sleep better. My diet change has introduced more vitamins and minerals and I have spent more time in social situations like the coffee shop, playing D&D, visiting friends homes, getting a new job. All of that has certainly remedied the vast majority of my depression.
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Apparently, Evolution IS supported by a growing number of Christians. I’m incredibly pleased by this… just because you are a theist, that doesn’t mean that you have to deny modern science. As always, some of the FARK comments are infuriating and some are incredibly insightful.
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I was listening to Penn Jillette’s radio show podcast this morning and something he said struck a nerve in me… He had James Randi, the famous magician, debunker and founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation and the “Million Dollar Prize” for anyone who can prove that they have supernatural powers on his show and they were discussing psychics (link to podcast).
Of course, Penn, James and I all know that psychics are bullshit. But, Penn expressed some sympathy for the people who get scammed by them. He said:
“Some people say, ‘jeez… how dumb do you have to believe in psychics? But people forget that these people are victims.. victims of a scam that plays on their hopes and griefs. Its like saying, ‘ how hot do you have to be to raped?’. They’re victims”
Now, i’ve been mulling this over since then and i’m currently kind of stuck. Of course, no one, no matter HOW they are dressed or how they act, is asking to be raped. It is a violent act committed against you against your will.
Is being scammed by a psychic the same thing? are you just a simple victim of being taken by a scam artist like that?
I’m thinking “no” because you cannot stop a rape. the very point is that you’re being violated, physically, against your will. I think that there is enough knowledge out there to NOT be so ignorant or gullible as to fall for someone claiming to have magical powers…
but, i could be wrong… what do you think? Please let me know here, at my forums!
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Well…. i have GOOD new and BAD news.
The GOOD news is that i got that new job.
The BAD news is that they aren’t going to pay me what I requested…
they’re going to pay me $2,000 MORE than I requested.
I feel incredibly AWESOME.
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From Neatorama:
1. “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates (470-399 BCE)
Socrates’ belief that we must reflect upon the life we live was partly inspired by the famous phrase inscribed at the shrine of the oracle at Delphi, “Know thyself.” The key to finding value in the prophecies of the oracle was self-knowledge, not a decoder ring.
Socrates felt so passionately about the value of self-examination that he closely examined not only his own beliefs and values but those of others as well. More precisely, through his relentless questioning, he forced people to examine their own beliefs. He saw the citizens of his beloved Athens sleepwalking through life, living only for money, power, and fame, so he became famous trying to help them.
This is the fire that burns inside me, driving me… and the same fire that lashes out and burns those around me as it escapes my lips. This is very reason why I say that the one thing a philosopher cannot stand is a hypocrite. Few hypocrites are fully aware of their hypocrisy… and that is a symptom of an un-examined life. I am constantly turning inwards, picking apart my own thoughts, trying to find holes or flaws in my thinking and/or conclusions. Some, i find. Some, i rationalize. Some, are simply within my personal tolerances of such things… but in any case, i try to be as aware of them as possible. If i am wrong, i am thankful for being shown so: i have since learned something new. I try to be completely open to new ideas… just as long as their merits are greater than the ideas they are proposed to replace.
But, on the other hand…. i spend so much time in self-examination and inner journey, that i expect other around me to have the same level of self-awareness and self-knowledge. This is why i get so annoyed with those that happily hold double-think, contradictions and completely illogical ideas. They have not taken the time or expended the energy to examine what should be the most important thing in their lives: their own mind. Poseurs, white-trash, thug-gangstas, dilettantes, anyone who fulfills a socio-economic or racial stereotype and anyone who bases their entire perspective on the very nature of the universe and reality upon presupposed religious myths and fables that were simply recounted as being true by their parents and have never had the brains or guts to simply question it in their own mind drive me NERTZ and i cannot relate to them in many meaningful ways because of my intolerance and abhorration towards such inhuman and unthinking ways. They have never stepped back and looked at themselves from a third person point of view. They have never stopped to examine or think about the fact that the only reason that they hold the values that they do or live the lifestyle they do or wear the fashion or talk the slang or are the religion they are is because of circumstance. They can only see their lives from their own, myopic point of view and (usually) REFUSE to examine themselves or question “why”. This ignorance and Lazy ignorance is not much better than willful ignorance… they’re too closely related for me to make point of the distinction. In this day and age of the internet and Wikipedia, there is almost NO reason to NOT answer a question in your own mind about something… “Huh, i wonder what THAT is all about” should never go unexplored.
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Mr. Deity JUST held a special new conference in reference to tomorrow’s big game and in sports in general… CHECK IT OUT!
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I may be an atheist, a skeptic and think that religion is nothing but a shared delusion, i can’t help but think that THIS is kinda cool. By Zeus’s wounds!!
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I am SO fucking addicted to this game… i’ve found some good walkthroughs that have gotten me to the end, but maybe you should give it a shot!
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Okay.. THIS is a WTF moment… i read about how Macon’s mayor, the scandal-riddled C. Jack Ellis, has converted to Islam and did so late last year… on CNN.com and NOT a local station, channel or site. No one around here has even heard of it, yet CNN has the scoop? Weird.
In this ultra-conservative and backwards part of the country, being a black mayor was hard enough… but now he’s suddenly a Sunni?? This ought to be interesting…
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