I'm a new condo owner! Hooray!

On the last possible settlement date! I highly recommend Chris Downey of Home First Mortgage! And a big shout out to my lawyer who closed a very complicated FHA loan, Mark Bayer.

Unbelievable!

Unbelievably, at the last possible minute, my mortgage broker got the
go ahead from FHA to approve my condo for the mortgage loan.

I'm so excited! It all goes down 4pm tomorrow!

Cool Music

Accountability

A friend asked me what's going on in my life tonight. It's interesting that I usually consider the latest in my personal relationships the answer to that question. And it struck me what 5 personal relationships in my (now former) community home and at my church have recently resulted in:

1) One person told me I'm self-centered. (I agree).
2) Another told me I'm harsh, into "radical honesty" and basically hypocritical. (I agree with all three of those)
3) And another person called me last week and screamed at me on the telephone.
4) Another person challenged me *not* to come to the rescue of others who are perfectly capable of defending and speaking for themselves. (also something I agree that I sometimes do far too much).
5) I can be very mean. (I agree).

It's very interesting to me that 4 out of 5 of these comments have come largely outside of face to face relationships as, for the past 2 months, I haven't attended church.

Now, that doesn't diminish the fact that I believe at least that I deserve #1,2,4 & 5... but it does have me wondering if perhaps it's easier for my friends to come to grips with my faults when I've been gone for a while or maybe there is no correlation and it's just time for me to change some of my ways.

Any way you slice it, I think I have some changing to do and I'm honestly soooo thankful for the past 4 years with a church that has basically let my faults just lie under a large umbrella of grace. But I also see the greater accountability I'm being loved enough to be called to... and I like how this phrase puts it... "Jesus accepts us just as we are, but he doesn't leave us there."

I see the same thing in a good community. A good community accepts us just as we are, but it doesn't leave us there."

Thanks Common Table. And thanks Culpeper House.

GODADDY SUCKS! I'm quitting them!

Hey Mr. Parsons, Real men kill endangered animals, right? RIGHT? You're SOOOOO AMAZING!



Not-so-dear Godaddy Corporate:

This is exactly why I have moved almost all my URLs to 1&1.com. Godaddy.com and your arrogant and sexually exploitive and carousing founder (Bob Parsons) are in the gutter with almost all the web developers in my wide circle of technical workers.

I've completely had it with you guys and these kind of control tactics at the cost of customer satisfaction are unbelievable -- especially after being with you guy for nearly 8 years now!

Once my hosting contract expires, I'm gone folks! You've nearly lost every one of my 89+ URLs now (and I just bought 30 new ones from 1&1.com -- at an actual decent price of $6.99/ea rather than $10/ea -- you damn thieves!).

This is your 3rd mistake too many. I once tried to register 1 (one) URL in 2005 and mistakenly clicked your every-so-deceitfully placed "buy all" button which forced me to purchase the .info, .tv, .com, .net, .org and whatever-else you raped me with and when I asked you to refund the extra, deceitfully added URLs you said what you say below... regular boiler plate.

Then last month, you failed to notify me of my grandmother's web site upcoming expiration (despite that fact that I placed it on "auto-renew"). And she lost her web site to some cyber-squatter who you now harbor on your servers like a your mobster little brother.

I'm long gone, GODADDY... oh yes, I'm go go gone. Please *do* GO, Daddy and take your evil CEO off the air as well. Why the hell does he have a radio show? I don't give a damn about him! What a arrogant prick! I'm so sick of his face I feel like I've been slimed every time I see it!

Oh lookie there! Some other people agree with me that GODADDY SUCKS!

Fun side note.... this site is brought to you by Godaddy.com hosting account (which I totally regret ever purchasing). How long do you think they will host this attack on their worthless, shitty excuse-of-a-company?

THE CUSTOMER HATE FROM GODADDY:
Dear Israel,

Thank you for contacting Online Support. Unfortunately, as the account has been set up and is active, we would be unable to refund you for the Deluxe email account you purchased. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let us know if we can help any other way or if you have any further concerns.

Regards,
Tony P.
Online Support



MY REQUEST OF GODADDY
Dear Godaddy,
I mistakenly ordered your deluxe mail package. I did not want deluxe mail. I only want the 1 GB extra email storage for $6. Can you please refund me the $13.00 you charged me for deluxe mail?

thanks,

Israel

Resistance.

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part;you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."--Mario Savio

HT to Cypher kickin it honest on the streets of Philly. His lyrics have become to violent for my beliefs, but his music is still top quality.

She's coming back!!!

To DC! :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) (Oh... but she needs a job, teaching!). Let her know if you have any leads for her.

A Holy Moment

I think we don't allow tears enough in our culture. I tend to cry over important things, I believe. And I don't think I'm overly emotional. Actually, I think I'm who I'm supposed to be. And maybe others find comfort in that and maybe they don't.

But today was a holy moment in my cube at work. I felt the pain of loss. I felt it rushing in and I didn't ask it to stop.

After the word of my friend's father's death today, it wasn't supposed to stop.


To Mike: I'm so sorry man. I really am. I'm weeping at your loss. I believe it's important to weep with those who lose something nothing can replace. So roll on tears. And I'm here for you Mike (and Tina, too).

This below song, I think, was from God to me to identify and empathize with my friend's loss. It just came on my headphones after I got the news of his death...

Sweet River Roll by WaterDeep
Homebound Henry's got a tumor in his head He wakes up every morning after dreaming he was dead.
He used to think that life was boring, but now that's not the case.
He turns to his wife in the evening, he says "Honey I'm afraid I'm gonna lose this race."

And I'm lookin out my car window sittin' in the pouring rain.
Although your house is fifteen miles away, I can still feel your pain.
I've thought and prayed and worked it through about a hundred times or more.
How your soul just cries to everyone to help you get up off the floor.
Right now it's morning, you're probably sleepin', totally unaware of the flood of kisses you hold back by the way that you despair.
It ain't me I'm talking about here, or anybody else you can touch.
That's all I want to say right now, I don't want to say too much.

except Sweet Jesus, roll
Roll all over me
Sweet Jesus, roll all over me...
You gotta come down and just set me free