Tonight for Halloween my daughter’s school did a “Heroes Unmasked” night. Knowing that the night was about heroes, I went as Don Mattingly. I had the best costume, by far. The other heroes there were all Bible characters. There was a carnival type of event setup in the gym with booths that had little games for the kids to play. They had puppet shows and a magic show as well.

I’m glad we went tonight, mostly because the alternative would have been dragging the kids through the neighborhood begging for candy. I don’t really like doing that because it’s my belief that if you teach them to beg for food and expect handouts when they’re young, then when they are older, they’ll be sitting on their lazy tails collecting my tax dollars. And I say that with a minimum amount of sarcasm.

My dad always did it the American way. He bribed us. Dinner and cash. We spent many Halloweens eating at Ryan’s (don’t laugh, it was the best choice back then), shopping for candy at the drug store next to Ryan’s, and then going to hang out with my grandparents at their house. The hanging out with my grandparents was so that my parents could avoid the little beggars that came to our house.

I’m sure I’ll be glad when the day comes that my kids are happy to go somewhere to eat and understand the value of a good cash bribe, but for now, I’m thrilled seeing them dress up and play carnival games to get candy.

Now it’s time for me to go teach them about taxation. The way I figure it, about 30% of that candy is mine.

I’ve been tossing the thoughts for this post in my head for a few days now, and if they come out all garbled, I’m sorry. You’ll just have to forgive me.

Last week was frustrating at work. I’ll even be transparent enough to say that when I left the office on Thursday, I wasn’t sure I wanted to return. I need the paycheck, so I got over it, but if I could make a good living welcoming people to Wal-Mart, I would have started there on Friday morning. I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining about the job…really, I’m not. I’ve got it easy (well, easier than most people) when it comes to employment. There are, however, certain people in the office that just make life frustrating. I had a meeting with those people Thursday afternoon.

The meeting ended as 6:00 was nearing, and I left the office upset at what went on in the meeting and upset at the fact that I was leaving work so much later than usual. I got in the car, and turned it on. Arthur Alligood’s CD “Under the Gray” was playing.

Arthur is a different kind of songwriter. And I don’t mean that he’s “different” like the weird kid that sat in the corner during Algebra class in high school. I’m not a good enough writer to find the right adjective to describe him. Those of you that know him (I think there are 2 of you that read this blog who know him), let me know if you find the right word.

He’s got a song called “Far From Today” on that CD. It was the song playing when I got back in the car after work. Check this out:

Baby, I feel so down. I don’t know what’s the matter
I’m so useless in so many ways
Is this what they call the Lord’s work?
It’s become such a burden.

He goes on to talk about escaping to a better life (like, I assume, welcoming customers at Wal-Mart), and then comes back to this:

This is the better life we’re living it
And nothing do we lack, no nothing at all
A bigger house, more money in the bank
Couldn’t add a thing to all we’ve got

I played that song 3 or 4 times in a row, hitting the “previous” button on the CD player as soon as the song ended. That got me digging a little deeper into Arthur’s stuff.

I got the CD about a month ago (maybe 2 months), and I listened to it. And I liked it. I hadn’t really had a chance to sit down and focus on it though. After hearing (really hearing) that one song, I decided that I should sit and focus on the rest of the CD. That was Thursday. I’ve spent a good part of these last few days listening to his stuff, and I find that I get stuck on one song. Like “Not Like Us” for example:

Oh to tremble, oh to quake
For the One who covers our mistakes
We’d do good to learn He is not like us

Oh to shudder oh to fear
The one above but right here
We’d do good to learn he is not like us

And “All the While” (which, btw, features BGVs from Sir Eric Peters) too:

You’ve never held yourself together
Grace has been there the whole time
You’ve never held yourself together
Grace sustains you all the while

That’s as far as I’ve gotten. 3 songs in 5 days. It’s an incredibly slow rate, but these are the type of songs that you really have to get into and think about before you can really appreciate the songs. Arthur has a myspace page here, and you can listen to a few of his songs over there. The thing about the myspace page is that if you give it one casual listen, you won’t get it. Listen closely. Then listen again. Then listen again, but more intently. Then sleep on it and listen again tomorrow.

Then just go buy his CD because you’ll get sick of going to MySpace to hear the music.

(Eric recently informed me that you’re not supposed to assign a gendered pronoun to an inanimate object.  I’m going to violate the new laws of our strange language.  …just so you know.)

I’m selling her.  She had a good run, but the time has come to send her off to live elsewhere.  My old Explorer went up for sale today.  She’s all clean, and she’s parked for all of the people in my hometown to see.  For about 3 years, she’s been with me every day to work, and to a countless number of concerts around the Southeast.

I picked up a 1998 Toyota from a friend of my grandpa.  It’s a little newer, has fewer miles, and has the little things (like air conditioning) that make life a little easier.  I should be able to save some gas money when driving to those concerts.  …and I won’t have to sweat bullets the whole time, either.  Maybe my grammatically-inclined songwriter friend will play a show nearby soon so that I can get her properly inducted into the family.

I hate politics. Usually the politicians are all a bunch of mud-slinging liars, and you end up trying to pick the lesser of two evils.

Here in Georgia, we’ve got a good mud-slinging race going on. It’s between this fat idiot and this redneck (who’s already our governor). The finger pointing and the name calling is just getting old. Granted, I kind of like Sonny Perdue. He’s done some good things for the state, and though he isn’t perfect, he’s better than some of the alternatives (like Mark Taylor).

In a recent conversation with my friend Shane, I found out that I will be receiving at least 1 write-in vote in the Georgia Governor election. Shane tells me that he is fed up with the dirty politics and that he has decided to write in my name on the ballot for Governor.

If you’re tired of the politics, maybe you should vote for me, too. After all, I’m not as much of a fat idiot as Mark Taylor and I’m not as big of a redneck as Sonny Perdue. I, like many Georgians, am somewhere between idiocy and redneck, leaning slightly to one side.

Am I the only one who, though normally rarely interested in a McDonald’s meal, finds himself drawn to McDonald’s for a meal during the McDonald’s Monopoly game?  Then, once there, I’m tempted to upgrade the combo just to get extra game pieces.  I know I’ll never win the big cash prize, but for some reason, I just can’t stay away.

Please tell me I’m not the only one.

Upon request from a certain 3 year old birthday boy today, we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  (Those of you outside of the southeastern part of our great nation may not be familiar with the wonder that is Chick-fil-a.  They’re known for inventing the chicken sandwich.  For years, they’ve had one of the best chicken sandwiches I’ve ever tasted.)

But today was a different story.  That lightly-breaded, very juicy piece of chicken was instead replaced with something else.  Yes, I believe it was chicken.  Yes, it was fried.  But it wasn’t the same thing.  The breading was different.  The juice was just not there.  It was just not that good.  It’s the type of rip-off I’d have expected from McDonalds.

So my question…does anybody know if this is a permanent change?  I ate at the location on Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw, Georgia.  Have any of you seen similar chicken replacement at your local Chick-fil-a?  Please, oh please, somebody tell me that this was just a one-time incident.

Things I get to do this weekend:

• Celebrate my boy’s 3rd birthday
• Eat at my parents’ church’s annual picnic
• Groan about how much I ate at said picnic
• Consider a replacement for the 92 Explorer that has been so faithful to me for the past 3 years.  She’s got some issues that may not be worth dealing with.  We’ll see…

That vendor that was supposed to convince me I am better off with a Windows box protecting my network never showed up.  It was probably a miscommunication over which date he was supposed to show up, but I can’t help but think that maybe he read my last blog post, said “that guy is right,” and then quit his job.

Whenever we do have the meeting, I’ll make sure I give all the compelling reasons to choose Microsoft for network protection.  Man, I can’t even type that last sentence without laughing.

I’ve asked about “Application Routing” before because we’ve been presented with a problem in our IT group, and we were also told (by developers) that “application routing” is what will solve our problem.  I had trouble finding anybody that really knew what I meant by the term.  Even Penrod the Cisco god asked me to explain exactly what I meant.  I’ve since learned that what we need is a reverse proxy technology.  He was even kind enough to make a recommendation.

But the Microsoft minds that run our office thought that a Redmond-based product would be the better choice.  The product?  ISA Server 2006.  What is that?  You’ve never heard of it?  Or maybe you’ve heard of it but just don’t know what it is.  I’m with you.  Here’s Microsoft’s definition:

ISA Server 2006 is the integrated edge security gateway that helps protect your IT environment from Internet-based threats while providing your users with fast and secure remote access to applications and data.

Oooooooh.  Um, what?

I wasn’t happy with that definition, so I wrote my own.  Here it is - the official moreron.com definition of the ISA Server 2006 product:

ISA Server 2006 is a multi-homed Windows server, sitting directly on the internet, that is designed to replace existing firewalls and security infrastructure configuration and design.

A Windows box designed to protect my whole network.  Windows.  From Microsoft.  It’ll protect me?

I know Microsoft has made huge (and I mean that literally) advances in the security of their operating system, but anybody who expects a Windows machine, multi-homed and directly on the internet, to protect them is a terribly misinformed (or brainwashed) individual.

That said, on Tuesday afternoon, I’ll be in a meeting with a sales guy who will do his best to convince me that ISA Server 2006 is a good idea.  That should be an interesting meeting.

We Baptists have this church program for the kids called AWANA. (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed, in case you were wondering.) Every year they have a Grand Prix event where the kids (read: parents) make a car out of a block of wood.

I’m glad that when we’re called to be like Jesus, that doesn’t require carpentry skills. Otherwise, I’d be in a mess. I did what I could, but the car wasn’t exactly stylish (or fast). Kaitlyn had fun painting it, and that’s really what the whole night is about.

She came in 3rd place in her race. She didn’t win the trophy for speed (like I did when I was 6) or for design (for obvious reasons), but she did get a ribbon for participation.

I snapped a quick photo of her putting her car on the track while track master Rocky Durbin watches: