Category: Uncategorized

I’m not a huge Christmas person. Don’t get me wrong, I like Christmas carols and enjoy some of the traditions, but I find the relentlessness of the season to be exhausting. It’s hard to escape it short of hunkering down in a hole somewhere far from the rest of the world (an admittedly tempting prospect at times). Add in the faux controversies (Happy Holidays vs Merry Christmas, Keep Christ in Christmas vs Xmas, etc.) and I’m ready find that hole well before the actual holiday comes around. It can be hard to remember that, while the birth of Christ is important, it’s His death and resurrection that really matter. Sometimes I think Cromwell and the Puritans had the right idea when they outlawed Christmas, as it strays further and further from its roots. Perhaps it would be better to have a secular “Solstice” celebration for everybody and then, for Christians, follow up with a quieter, more contemplative Christmas celebration. The gift giving and commercialization could follow the secular holiday, leaving Christmas proper to the Christians. We just have to make sure we avoid creating a Robot Santa Claus that will attack holiday mirth makers. Merry Christmas!

I sit here in in a coffee shop, typing this on my Nexus 7, thinking about the changes that 2013 has wrought. It’s been a strange year, as I was laid off at the beginning of the year, but still received severance through July. In one way, it was welcome time off, a chance to spend more time with my son, but in other ways, it has been anxiety inducing as I’ve pondered over my future and the family’s finances. Odd Job Computing is starting to take off, albeit more slowly than I’d like, but it’s still a long way from being able to pay the mortgage on a regular basis. And thinking about the tax situation for this year is enough to make one break out in a cold sweat. But God provides, He always has and always will, so I concentrate on doing what I can and try not to worry about things that are out of my control (and if I can control something, why would I worry about it?). It’s a new stage of life, and one I’m not sure I was quite ready for. In the meantime, I can work on getting the house fixed up and support Kara as she pursues her dreams through the church and Thirty One.

I’ve decided to do some redecorating around here, I’ve not changed the backgrounds or theme on the blog for something like 7 years. So if you notice some dust about or things not quite where they should be, it’s just me reworking things in the background.

Well, after 13.5 years on the job at ThomsonReuters, it has been decided that it is time for me to move on. On that note, it seems likely that I will have more time for blogging and keeping this up to date. I’m moving into a new phase of life in self-employment as a freelancer so I’ll be doing more tech writing and the like here.