I am back! Look for a long personal update soon. In the mean time, enjoy this week’s white board quip.

If you blow in a dog’s face, he’ll get mad at you, but take him for a ride in the car, the first thing he does is stick his head out of the window!

As I mentioned in my last post, I’m going to be out of town all next week. I am going on the “Mission Tour” with our church’s middle school youth. (Don’t ask me the difference between a mission tour and a mission trip, because I haven’t figured it out myself yet.) Yes, I’m going to spend all next week in Munchkin Land. It should be a great time to build some relationships with the younger kids in the youth group. I’m looking forward to it, even though it will be hard work.

We are going to San Antonio and our middle schoolers will be leading Vacation Bible School in several inner city churches and doing some community out reach. All I really know so far is that it’s going to be really really hot and we’re going to be sleeping on the floor. So, yeah, it’s pretty much what you’d expect while serving in God’s army.

Please pray for the kids and me next week and please pray for London. If you are not a Christian, wish me luck (or what ever it is you place your faith in) and pray for London anyway.

This week’s WBQotW is a little weird because I’m posting it on Friday. That’s because I’m going to be gone next week (and I was lazy and didn’t do one this week). It comes from another piece of old net lore that being a long list of signs in other countries which are poorly translated into English for the sake of the ignorant masses of mono-lingual English Speakers (of which I am a member, so shut up about it).

Sign in a Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.

If that weren’t so true it’d be funny.

Read more such things here or there’s a whole site of them that are really enjoyable at Engrish.com.

File this under cruel and unusual.

“Me” is Steve from The Sneeze. “The Boy” is his four-year-old son. Talk about crushing the dreams of the future generation.

From The Sneeze:

The Boy: I want to be a hobo when I grow up!

Me: You don’t like beans.

The Boy: Oh yeah.

And now… WBQotW #30!! (Does this mean SYNS is “middle-aged”?)

If you could choose any color from a box of 64 crayons, which one would you eat?

The story I posted yesterday extolling the virtues of a proper geek-mate may have some of my faithful readers scouring chess club and Star Wars fan fictions web sites looking for Mr. Right. But I feel it is my duty to temper your enthusiasm somewhat.

While there is no doubt that a Geek makes the best lover (case in point… me *wink*), Geekdom does not come without a price. Allow me to share with you an article by an experienced, Geek-loving, young lady.

“Emily”, as she calls herself, has offered a guild to “Dating an Apple Developer”. While her guide is specifically tailored to the Steve Jobs set, most of her observations also translate readily into the realms of Bill Gates and Linus Torvalds. (If you don’t know who those people are, you’d better do more homework before throwing yourself at a prospective Geek. On second thought, if you’re really hot, it won’t matter that much.)

Thanks, Emily, for your inspired work. (She has a funny picture of her geek installing a memory upgrade. See. A REAL geek’s eyes literally light up when he gets to install an upgrade!)

On a side note, you may have noticed the unusual verbosity of this post. For that, I apologize. My brain is stuck in high-speech as I spent the morning reading 16th-century religious texts and Orthodoxy vs. Dispensationalism debates. I think I may have pulled something in my cerebellum. (I should have stretched first.)

An article in the New York Daily News sheds light on what I (and many of my friends and colleagues) have known for years. The title of the article is “Nerds make better lovers”. Heya beeeautiful!

How many times have I said this?! People, I’m not lying here. Geek is sheik! Get used to it!

A tree never hits an automobile except in self-defense.

Actually, I just thought of something. What about when a tree falls on an automobile. Hmm.

To see more WBQotW, click the “<More>” link on the upper right of this page.

All too often mass media reports stories that are not news to anyone except maybe mass media. You know what I’m talking about. How many times have you read head-lines like:

I.T. Managers Hate Buggy Software

Some Hollywood Romances Are More P.R. Than Love

Student’s Don’t Learn Much in Last Few Weeks Before Vacation

Solution to Stinky Subways is Regular Bathing

I think you see where I’m going with this. Recently, another story high on the “duh” scale has seen a lot of press.

An AP-AOL poll on American’s views of Hollywood shows that 69% or respondents feel movie stars are bad role models. Now, pardon me for a moment. … DUUUHH!!! … ahem … Sorry about that. Couldn’t help myself.

Earl Ledbetter, a movie fan quoted in one of the many articles on this poll, said, “They just don’t have the morals,” he said. “They marry and divorce, sleep around a lot.”

Wow. Who knew? I thought all those movie stars were the best source around for political, social, and moral standards. You mean those people who make millions of dollars by pretending have bad morals and pretending to have sex with everything that moves do in fact have bad morals and have sex with everything that moves?! NOOO!! Martha! Get the kids! We’re moving to an anti-Hollywood convent to save ourselves from the Devil’s celluloid sin!!

You can read the full article in many places, but here is a couple:
CBC
Yahoo News

To Kraft Foods CEO Roger Deromedi, EVP Marc Firestone, et al.

Dear sirs:

I have been an avid Oreo fan my entire life. I have vivid memories of enjoying their creamy centers when I was barely old enough to sit upright at the table. I knew that my bologna had a first name (It’s O-s-c-a-r.) before I knew my own middle name. There are many Kraft products that have been a part of my life, so engrained that I hardly realized they were there until the day I realized I had to be rid of them.

You see, before I knew that I wished I was an Oscar Meyer wiener, I knew that Jesus loved me (for the Bible told me so). My faith in God comes before my addiction to Oreos. Thus, I must put my beliefs in the precepts of Christian living, including sexual purity, above my reliance on Kraft products.

I was saddened when I learned that Kraft’s leadership stands firmly against the God I worship on the subject of homosexuality. I was surprised to hear the obstinance with which the executives at Kraft have responded to requests to reconsider this policy. And so now, with heart-broken determination, I must inform you that I am laying aside the above mentioned, engrained parts of my life to join the American Family Association’s boycott of Kraft products.

Farewell beloved Oreos. Perhaps when you set aside your blind tolerance of dangerous and immoral practices, we can resume our relationship.

Sincerely,
Trint Ladd

You can read more about Kraft’s commitment to the Homosexual Adjenda at AFA.net.