Cover Letter

As everyone knows, I'm still jobless. Which I think sounds better than unemployed. At least it doesn't have the same negative connotations that I've long associated with "unemployed" - you know, like begging for bread and homelessness and being a crack-addict. Well, I suppose homelessness wouldn't be terrible.

anyway...

I just wrote a cover letter for Rosetta Stone, and Kyle V. is going to talk to a Sr. Writer in that Department for me tomorrow so that I can hopefully bypass the inHuman Resourceless Department and get a job sooner rather than never. What surprised me was how fun it was to write this cover letter. I mean, I sound really damn good. Who wouldn't want to hire Thomas Eric Gregory to do anything that involves writing and varying types of media mixed with a healthy dose of foreign language? Answer: NO ONE. Because I look that good on paper (or at least when I write it on paper).

I don't have any huge thoughts about pride coming before the fall or about the corporate world relying first on one's image of oneself before determining the necessity for a further phone/in-house interview. I just wanted to share that it's been really stressful today and I finally feel like I accomplished something.

See you Wednesday if not before!

"So, are you going to keep buying coffee from Starbucks?"

Randy asked me this tonight, and I didn't want him to.

I like Starbucks coffee, I really do. I like how it makes me feel. I like the friendly employees, the season appropriate music for sale, and the murky warmth of extra bold Sumatra or Espresso roast. It has been a habit for years now, and I really like it.

But I've recently been accepting the truth that Starbucks isn't GOOD. I mean sure the company is capable of doing good things, employing people, offering benefits, donating money to third would countries, and providing wireless Internet. I could find GOOD in Starbucks. But the thing is that all of this GOOD, I suspect, is merely an attempt to cover up the EeeVIL. How do the coffee farmers live? What are the workers paid? How are the workers treated? Can these people support their families on $2 a day? Can the local coffee shop owner survive the stiff competition down the street? Does Starbucks crush their competition and provide little to no relief to the impoverished workers collecting their beans?

And what GOOD am I doing, when I buy my comforting grande Christmas Blend with room for cream, served with a smile, and a pop/folk Bob Dylan cover song?

So here is the question: Is Starbucks Evil?

Sadly, I've decided to seriously limit my purchase of Starbucks coffee. And if it weren't for that fact that I know how desperate I will become on a road trip one day in the future, when I'll have to chose between a 7-11 and a Starbucks, I would proclaim now that my Starbucks days are completely over.

So I'll do the best I can at the moment. I'll stop giving Starbucks my money, and I'll commit to brewing Fair Trade at home or to buying at the local shop and roaster. But if I do find myself on a road trip in the future, desperate for coffee, I probably won't beat myself up for giving in to the EeeVIL coffee gods!

A bowl of good.

I was BLOWN away tonight when I realized that Katrina Didot (of Christ the King) is the woman behind "A bowl of good". It's a soup company in town! She makes yummy, healthy soups!

I may have been the only person who didn't know that, but either way... I'm really excited to support a local company and family by buying delicious homemade soup!

I just wanted to share this with all of you and encourage you to do the same, if you have the chance!

Here are the locations that carry her soup: Red Front (Chicago Ave, Harrisonburg); Fat Boys (33 E); Ravenwood Co. Cafe (Dayton); Joe's Country Meats (Dayon Farmer's Market); Sue's Super Nutrition (South 11, Harrisonburg); Midtowne Market (Downtown Harrisonburg) Cinnamon Bear Bakery & Deli (Harrisonburg near Costco)

Here is her wonderful website: http://www.abowlofgood.com/

Changing the world...

If our group could only have one impact on the world (or at least our church), I would want it to be to conquer the fear in people that squashes great ideas like this and to encourage more people to try them out.

Amish Friendship Bread

I am going to make Amish Friendship Bread this afternoon. Would anyone like a loaf (or 1/2) of fresh bread? I'd be happy to drop some by for you.

Also, if anyone is interested in baking the bread for yourself... I can pass along some starter for you to use and multiply and give away.

Just thought I'd ask.

Shape Note Singing

Here's the blog from the farmer that does our vege coop. He's a great writer and always has interesting thoughts. One of the previous posts about Singer's Glen is about shape note/sacred music singing. He and his family also produced a CD that we have... Haven't listened to it yet though.

Also, here's the documentary that I mentioned ("Awake My Soul"). I just ordered a copy that we could watch together. Ironically, the shipping cost $6.66 ;)

this quiz *sucks*!

Which theologian are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as John Calvin Much of what is now called Calvinism had more to do with his followers than Calvin himself, and so you may or may not be committed to TULIP, though God's sovereignty is all important. John Calvin 87% Anselm 67% Jürgen Moltmann 67% Martin Luther 60% Friedrich Schleiermacher 60% Charles Finney 53% Jonathan Edwards 33% Paul Tillich 33% Augustine 33% Karl Barth 20%

It's a conspiracy! Must be written by the PCA! I'm trying to get away from them, not be their leader!!! ;D

then again, maybe it's just because I put "disagree" for all the questions I didn't understand...

Code Kids

About a year ago I had an idea that I dubbed "Code Kids" Recently I got an e-mail from Our Community Place director Ron Copeland asking for people to volunteer in all sorts of ways:

I can think of 20 examples off the top of my head of a variety of things people with varying gifts can do to contribute to the community center: a doctor answering questions once a month, helping with secretarial work, writing thank you notes, a student doing an internship to create low impact exercise programs for people who have let their health completely slip, updating the website, helping with theater productions, helping with a newsletter, helping with Soup Kitchen, teaching pottery classes, delivering a lecture on an interesting topic, building a brick BBQ pit, developing a solar energy plan, helping with transportation needs, visiting a loney person, a massage therapist giving free shoulder rub downs, playing music during meals, developing a monthly free speech night, helping in the garden, mowing the lawn, building a deck, etc. "

I just called him and pitched him my idea. He was very receptive to the idea and said that it resonated with some of his recent thinking. He's been reading a book called "De-schooling Society" and teaching out of OCP with programs like "Code Kids" fits nicely. Currently the building is still being re-modeled so it'll have to wait until that work is done, but it sounds like a possibility.

Another interesting tid-bit... Ron knows Shane Claiborne. Apparently he's been down to OCP and the Little Grille. Ron also said that the church community that he's starting is in the vein of New Monasticism. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

what theologian are you?

just finished taking a test at http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=7092N it was a good exercise because it actually showed me how my theology has changed over the years. i'm sure i would have been matched with John Calvin 5 years ago... these days i'm no less concerned with the truth, but i'm not as quick to give 100% sure answers on theological questions, so to a serious theologian i would definitely be considered a liberal. I scored as a Anselm

Anselm is the outstanding theologian of the medieval period.He sees man's primary problem as having failed to render unto God what we owe him, so God becomes man in Christ and gives God what he is due. You should read 'Cur Deus Homo?'

Anselm 87% Martin Luther 60% John Calvin 47% Augustine 40% Charles Finney 33% Jürgen Moltmann 27% Jonathan Edwards 20% Paul Tillich 13% Friedrich Schleiermacher 13% Karl Barth 7%

a rant

Is LifeTogether allowed to have rants? Ooh-- maybe I will be the first poster who contributes a rant! So... let's get started. This is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to 2 dear friends today.

I get asked about once a week what I'm doing with my life and the future. And I'd have to say, I really don't know. There are a dizzying number of choices, and I just want to be sure and make the right one before I've plunged into it. I want to live a rich, fully lived life, not a life of misery with glorious beach vacations for 1 week of the year. I've been thinking a lot about what the best kind of life is. And I'm still not sure. But here is my current thought. I would love to know what you think.

I don't want to be a professor or a teacher or a counselor or an office worker or a retail sales person or even a writer. At least, not right now.

I want to be tired. Like good, hard work tired. I am so sick of sitting around! I want to knead bread and feed chickens and hoe a garden. And when I have dessert, I don't want to totally take it for granted. I want to enjoy it because I spent hours baking this cake or making these popcorn balls with people, and it was hard work, and I only have dessert sometimes, not like 10 times a freaking day! ...and because I *actually* deserve it... aka "dessert". I want to live life at a steady pace, without a clock-- not this thing I have now where I alternate between boring leisure and grueling hurry.

Ugh! I am just so sick of my life and myself and all this damn 'leisure' and meaninglessness! I know it sounds like I'm ungrateful, but all these "labor-saving devices" just make life really pointless because you finish your day's work in like a minute and then you feel empty and realize how meaningless your life is and watch like 6 hours of TV and then you feel worse than when you started out. I'm entertained to death. I'm almost read out. I think I just need a good dose of hard work and some kids and other people around me to bring that tangible fulfillment to things.

And I've been reading about France, how they lowered the workweek to 35 hours, and I just don't see how people in America average a 46 hour workweek! It's unbelievable! It's not that I don't want to work, but office work is just so banal! I want to be outside! I would love to do an office job for like 20 hours a week max and earn my money, but after that, I am just so done it's not even funny.

*Aaaah! I miss sunlight!*

I want to live on Walton's Mountain or in "Sarah Plain and Tall", where they get up at sunrise and cut each other's hair and take care of horses. I want to meet real people that sweat and make up songs and like watching the sky. I want to play a board game where we spent hours making all the pieces out of wood and drawing the board onto sheets of paper that we then laminated. Or play with cards where we had fun drawing the Jacks and Queens and Jokers.

Am I just rambling, or am I making sense? All these so-called improvements to our life-- yes, many are good. But so many just make our existence into a sham because we live vicariously through them and are distracted by them. We are so overstimulated that we don't live in real relationships with real people. Gah-- I need to go read some Wendell Berry.

new "flag at half mast" rule

This is an email I sent to my Senators and Congressman. I think it would be cool if other people sent the same message:

I saw the U.S. flag at half-mast yesterday and I wondered why. It was probably because of the latest mall shooting, but I wasn't sure. I wondered what criteria are needed in order for the flag to be at half-mast.

Then I thought about all of the lives being lost on both sides of the Iraq war. We should not forget that war is a terrible thing, even if we suffer less casualties than "the enemy". And a life lost, even if it is "the enemy", is something to be mourned.

I would like you to propose the idea that our flag should be at half-mast whenever our country is at war.

Thank you.



If you think this is a good idea and you'd like to join me in sending this message to your VA Congressman and Senators, here are the links:

http://www.house.gov/goodlatte/emailbob.htm
http://webb.senate.gov/contact/
http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

This Looks Good!

A Christianity Worth Believing

by Doug Pagitt

Great Analysis of the San Joaquin Situation in TEC

This post does a great job responding to the leaving of the San Joaquin diocese from The Episcopal Church (which I gather is a big deal because it's the first entire diocese to leave). Nice thing too is that I'm almost certain Geoff would agree. I'll ask him.

23 Minutes in Hell

Well, I can't sleep - guess I slept too much this morning trying to recuperate from being sick. Late night Sunday television - very entertaining. I almost ordered a book a guy is peddling called 23 Minutes in Hell but then thought I had already endured 5 minutes just listening to him. Up late and can't sleep? Try local channel 14 or helplinetv.com.

Re-imagining "Church"

Jonny Baker whom I ran into through Adam Cleaveland of PomoMusings has points out some cool thinking about what the church is in an Urban setting by Steve Collins. It'd be cool if we did some similar thinking in our context.

Front-loading Washing Machines

Like you needed additional eco-anxiety.... an interesting post about front-loading washing machines.