Saturday, March 26, 2005

The funniest play-by-play of an accident ever!

I got this from the DJs from my favorite radio station: Channel 96.3, Wichita.

Turn up your speakers. Just click on the link.

An operations manager for Jack in the Box was late for a meeting and called his boss to tell him he was running late. As he was leaving the voice mail message, he witnessed an accident and went on to provide "play by play" of the incident. This is the actual voice mail message. It was forwarded so many times within Jack in the Box, it crashed their voice mail server. Just click on the web site below.

http://home.swbell.net/kf5tv/voicemail.mp3

We'll see if it gets me full-time work...

This whole week, I was working on my own in the Celebrations department at The Wichita Eagle. My co-worker, who usually works three days a week while I work two, and her family went on vacation over Spring Break, so I got to take all of the hours for both of us. That means I put together the entire Celebrations announcment section: three pages.

My boss said two weeks ago that Spring Break week would be my test week to see whether he thought I was ready to be cross-trained into the Obituary department. He said he didn't want to cross-train me until he thought I could handle every aspect of Celebrations on my own. Supposedly, the system that's used in Obits is more complicated. I have my doubts.

Yesterday, which was my production day, I got my pages done and printed to negatives earlier than I ever did when I was working Fridays and sharing the week with Melody. Since my boss was still at work and in his office, also on the same floor of the building that my pages print to negative on, I stopped by his office and let him know that my pages were done and printed. He thought it was great and asked me if I would show them to him. When I did, he examined them and said they looked really good.

I'm supposed to meet with him on Wednesday at 1 p.m. (that's Central time), and he's supposed to tell me then whether, in his opinion, I'm ready to move on.

Now, this will be the third or fourth time I've met with him about moving to a more full-time capacity at the Eagle. Every time, he's come up with something else he wants me to work on first. Since I got everything done well and quickly, he shouldn't have anything to use to hold me back. But we'll see.

Melody, my co-worker, is thinking about applying for a full-time position in another department, and if she does that, Celebrations would be all mine all the time. That presents some challenges along with the obvious benefits of having a full-time job. For instance, right now, we don't leave for lunch: we eat in the office because lunchtime is when most people come in to place announcements. In other words, we get no breaks. Only one of us is in the office during the day. So what happens when I get sick? I still have to go in because there's no one there to relieve me. So how would I be able to go to see a doctor? Beats me. That's something management will have to figure out.

Anyway, I'm thinking that my boss is stalling me until Melody finds a full-time position where she wants so that he can hand Celebraions over to me without cross-training me. I hope not, though.

For these reasons, I'm almost not looking forward to this meeting. I'm almost afraid he'll come up with another excuse not to cross-train me. But for the slight chance he'll say I am, I am looking forward to it. Maybe I'm being naive. I don't know.

Whatever I am, please pray for me. This full-time work, hopefully with benefits, is something that would really help Ron and me a lot.

And, no, our announcement pages are not published online. I've made the suggestion, but nothing's been done yet. Otherwise, I'd point you toward the Internet link.

But I do need the prayers.

Saturday, March 19, 2005

Man finds legal way to kill his wife!

Well, it's official. Someone finally found a way to kill his wife in a legal way. Michael Schiavo is no better than murderering husbands everywhere, except he found a way to do it legally, after trying for 15 years.

It's one thing to have an affair, another to cheat on your spouse because he or she is incapacitated, but even more disturbing to kill your spouse because you want to make your union to the person you've been cheating with permanent!

Terri Schiavo cried inconsolably when it was explained to her what was going to happen! She's not so far gone that she doesn't know what's going on or doesn't understand. She's brain damaged, not stupid.

She knows that she's going to slowly dehydrate and starve to death, and that it could take as many as two to four weeks before that happens! Not even prisoners on death row are treated in such an inhumane way! If BTK gets the death penalty (which is up in the air right now because Kansas's death sentencing is in debate for its legality), he wouldn't even suffer as much as Terri! And he killed at least 10 people by torturing them to death!

This is one case where we can stand up and say that THE GOVERNMENT IS WRONG!!! Civil disobedience would be applicable for those who want to save Terri Schiavo's life. Why? Because we answer to a higher authority when we die, and if we do something that we know violates God's law, then our punishment is inconceivably worse than any punishment our government could dish out for not obeying! I'd even take the gas chamber over death by starvation and dehydration over the course of a month!

What is wrong with these lawmakers and lawyers? Are they so depraved of God's law, of moral fiber, of scruples that they can consider this a humane way to die? I'll bet you anything they're enjoying every bite of food they take at every meal, in spite of the fact that they've denied that to someone who did absolutely nothing to deserve it. I wonder what they would say if the tables were turned. Maybe they should be.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

A Hymn for Holy Week Meditation

LW #490: Abide with Me

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide.
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me.

I need thy presence ev'ry passing hour;
What but thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?
Who like thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, oh, abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O thou who changest not, abide with me.

I fear no foe with thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still if thou abide with me!

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes,
Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;
Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.


Just as a note, this would be a really good song to have at a funeral. Are you surprised I said that? Here I am, not quite 25 years old and thinking about what songs I'd want to have sung at my funeral service. Well, here's my reasoning: It reflects that we need God and that we are utterly helpless without Him. It also reflects that I'll never be without God, that He'll protect me from Satan's power all the days of my life, and that when my time comes, He'll be there to usher me into His kingdom.

It also is a wonderful song for reflection on the whole meaning of Holy Week, and that is the reason I decided to post it.

Our pastor talked tonight, during his sermon, about morbidity, or the focusing on death. What is the opposite of morbidity? he asked. The answer: vanity. Is it wrong to be morbid? No. Sometimes we need to be, because it keeps us from being too vain. What is the one thing that vain people need to hear? A sermon on the morbidity of Christ, for one.

Jesus went to the cross without any vanity, celebrating His death in a way that none of us could understand. The last stanza of the hymn says a lot: "Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes, Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies; Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee; In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me."

This is one song in which the lyrics are truly some to be strongly meditated upon and considered, especially during Holy Week.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

Quiz from Dan the Rock Guy

Sonnets
Shakespeare: Sonnets. Everyone has heard of you,
and almost everybody can find something
touching in you. You are calm and control
yourself, even though your wisdom and your
messages are no lesser than those of others.


Which literature classic are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Now, it's your turn!

A sigh of relief! A prayer of thanksgiving!

For those of you who have been following our saga since my husband's layoff two years ago, some good news has come to us: Ron has been given the opportunity to turn his student job into a full-time job, and he won't have to drop any of his classes. The reason is that he will remain part-time, but as staff, starting next month, and will begin working full-time in May after graduation!

This is a breath of fresh air, and will help us out greatly. I know that many of you have been praying for us, and for that, we thank you. God has been with us the whole time, holding us up and sustaining us in our time of great need. He has finally blessed us with employment that will allow us to get back on our feet, although we'll have to stay in our tiny apartment awhile longer in order to do so.

Praise God for his many blessings, and for those around us who have been so willing to lend a helping hand when we've needed it. We're blessed to have so many loving people in our lives, and that includes all of you.

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Could DNA and a confession not be enough?

Even though Dennis Rader has confessed to authorities that he killed at least 10 people in the BTK string of killings (thereby saying that he is, in fact, BTK), and police linked his DNA (via his daughter) to some of the crime scenes, it may not be enough to convict him, according to legal observers quoted in The Wichita Eagle on Friday.

The fact is that in the 1970s, when many of the murders linked to BTK were committed, there was no way to test DNA for matches, so people didn't know how or when to collect it. But sometimes, they did collect items that had bodily fluids on them and put them into evidence bags. Oftentimes, though, since they didn't know exactly how to handle DNA evidence at that time, it was cross-contaminated with other samples, making it impossible to link to any one individual.

In some of the BTK murder cases, however, evidence that was collected was actually handled properly and stored correctly so that much of it was still viable. But there are a lot of people who doubt the accuracy of the testing because they can't be 100 percent sure that the evidence collected was handled or stored in a way that would be useful now.

Now, Rader started talking to the police shortly after his arrest last Friday. After a lawyer visited him, he stopped. Apparently, confessions may not carry as much weight as you might think. Sometimes, for some stupid reason most of us wouldn't understand, people confess to crimes that they really didn't do. I guess they just get tired of being interrogated for days on end, and finally break down rather than continue the interrogation process. But in Rader's case, he confessed right away. Why would he do that if he weren't guilty?

According to an Eagle source, "People can be coerced into falsely confessing by being denied access to lawyers, ministers or family members." But Rader has a lawyer, has visited with his pastor a number of times, and is supposed to be able to see his family this next week. From what the public knows (which isn't much at this point), he was never interrogated for 22 or 24 hours at a time, which is what sources say make some innocent people confess to crimes they didn't commit.

What makes him look more guilty is that he told the police at the jail he's in that if given a chance, he'll make a run for it. Because of that, he's kept in a cell away from other prisoners, and if he has to move away from his cell, he's put in handcuffs and shackles and is escorted by at least two officers who don't let go of him at any time.

Many of the communications between BTK and media before Rader's arrest suggested that BTK wants his story to be heard. He left clues as to who he was for police to decifer, and they make sense now when related to Rader.

How could Dennis Rader not be BTK? All of the information that has come out since his arrest seems to suggest that it's him. Even I am leaving out a lot of information in these posts about Rader, but from what you have learned, do you honestly think that BTK could be someone other than Rader? I don't. (Ron, my loving husband, please don't respond to this question. We all know what you think.)