23 July 2007

Erik on YouTube

A star is born!

Now everyone will know that he was a talent from the very beginning!

20 July 2007

The Ties That Bind

I was having a conversation with a co-worker this afternoon, and it wasn't until I got home that I thought about how cool it actually was in retrospect. My co-worker is Indian, and I am Texan. According to a lot of people, there is absolutely nothing we should have in common based on our backgrounds, ethnicity, religion, and whatever other divisive classification you want to think about. But we were talking about our kids, and that made whatever other distinctions melt away.

It just became two guys who are still trying to figure out the whole fatherhood thing while each raising two boys. It's nice to see that there's no difference in those areas when it comes to the joys we have when our boys tell us they love us. There's no difference in how we feel when we see our boys "get" something for the first time. And there's no difference in how we are stumbling around, trying to be the best fathers we can be without really having any prior experience.

I think one of the reasons God decided to have us born into families is to give us a better idea of how he feels about us. Without knowing what it's like to have to care for children, how could we ever have the slightest idea about how God feels caring for us? I think it's pretty awesome, and it's obviously not relegated to those in a Christian home.

19 July 2007

Red Light Special

It's scary that the entire tone of my day at work can be determined by a red light. Allow me to explain.

My job is not a 9-to-5, check in and check out kind of thing. I support enterprise-wide systems that have to be up and running 24x7x365, and no one hesitates to call you in the middle of the night if something isn't working. In addition to this lovely support time, I also have new development in the pipeline. And, you guessed it, it's always something of a critical nature.

So if I come in to the office and see the little red light on my phone indicating that I have a voice mail, a chill goes down my spine. I know that whoever left that message for me may have changed the entire plan that I had for myself that day. And that's just the way this job works.

But, hey, I have two young boys, so I'm used to having my plans changed for me.