Road Apples, #11

It's a Balmy 9 Degrees Outside
Now I wonder why I am putting off as long as possible the need to go outside, start the car, and clear off the sidewalks? Just one central question here: Where the hell is my damn global warming???? I want some January 50 degree weather, and I want it now!!!!

Pay To Pray
I love to read about religion and religious philosophies. One of my favorite "religions" to read about is the Church of Scientology. I highly encourage anyone with any interest in religion at all to spend some time reading about this organization. Make your own decisions, but when all is said and done, ask yourself the following question: if a Buddhist can gain peace and enlightenment more or less for free, why then pay tens of thousands of dollars to try and get it from the religion of Mr Cruise and Mr Travolta? Now I don't want to insult anyone out there, but if I've misstated the core fact at play here, namely that the Church of Scientology (CoS) charges members to go through stages of self-growth/enlightenment, I'll gladly retract. Also, I don't want to imply that I'm boosting Buddhists, as I've met more than a few Christians who seem pretty at peace with themselves, again without having had to pay tens of thousands of dollars for "religious technology". Oh, note that the CoS does have plans, from what I understand, whereby someone can work for the church in order to pay for the enlightenment, but that's even a worse scheme if you think about it: forced labor for "enlightenment".

Bottom line: something is very wrong there.

Happy Birthday Rich
Yesterday was my brother Rich's 46th birthday. Happy birthday dude! In my family, the brothers are all a year apart in age...by the end of May it will work something like this: Rich/46, Steve/45, Chris/44, Joe/43. Scary stuff. I don't feel nearly mature and sensible enough to be turning 45 (which will happen in April, btw).

On The Work Front
I put out a proposal of my own self-development for this year, which we call an "Individual Development Plan" or IDP. This year I am formally requesting that the company actually spend some money on me, something I've rarely (in twenty years) asked. I know, I picked a hell of year to ask, but what the heck? You are guaranteed not to get it if you don't ask for it, so I'm going to ask. I'm also fine if the answer comes back "sorry, but we can't this year because of the economy", as long as there is some notion of shared sacrifice. If, however, I get a no and if find out that others will have gotten similar opportunities, all bets are off. I realize that in business it's not an "everyone equal" kind of deal, because everyone isn't in fact equal. However, if the underlying rationale is the economy, that is seems to impact others as much as it would impact me.

On The Home Front
I have five days off coming up (Friday-Tuesday), and I am actually looking forward to it. I don't have plans per sey to watch the inauguration on Tuesday, but I might just do so anyway. For some reason work has been very tiring lately, so I need the vacation.