I've been at a LEIP conference for the past 3 days, it continues tomorrow morning as well. We are studying economics with the help of the book The Armchair Economist. I'm exhausted. After a full day of rigorous learning, I went to my friend Amy's wedding. It was a great bash! She and Bill looked very happy. Great a capella group for entertainment, good food, and great people. Saw a lot of PalmSource people. Helen looked beautiful and we had a good time.

I'm toast now. Goodnight.
Look, I've sold out to Amazon and I'm an affiliate. If you buy the book, I get a piece of the action. I thought it appropriate for an economics book.

If you object to this, please comment.
- posted by Jor @ 10:43 PM -

 
Bonus Post

My Life Journal entry for today:

Jesus said, "Go ahead - see again! Your faith has saved and healed you!" the healing was instant: he looked up, seeing - and then followed Jesus, glorifying God. Everyone in the street joined in, shouting praise to God. Luke 18 (MSG)

The blind man was just doing another day: begging at the side of the road. Something unusual happened, a parade was going by and he asked what the commotion was about. When he heard it was Jesus, faith welled up inside him: this wasn't business as usual, this was The Messiah! He was ready to act, to run away without going back to his house for his cloak (cf Luke 17), "Son of David! Have mercy on me!" Brought to Jesus, he was questioned: "What do you want?"

It's as simple as turning to God with our problems. I don't have to wait for a special time or place: "The kingdom of God doesn't come by counting the days on the calendar. Nor when someone says, 'Look here!' or 'There it is!' And why? Because God's kingdom is already among you." (Luke 17)

I want to experience "everyone in the street joined in, shouting Praise to God." It makes me cry to think of it!


- posted by Jor @ 5:13 PM -

 
Thanks to David Fedor for poking me about abandoning my blog. I'm trying to make up for my inconsistency with sheer volume. Don't worry, I won't write this much on a regular basis.

The Bratko's didn't do a Christmas update card-email-blog-thingee this year (again). We're working on a short one just because we've moved twice since our last one and we're losing touch with people (bad thing).

Career/Work
Big thing going on for me is a job search. I'm looking for gainful employment and the next step in the journey God is taking with me. Since I went to Argentina in November (oh, yeah, I didn't blog about that) I feel like God has been calling me to take the Kingdom with me into the marketplace more and more. So when Adoption Adventure started to become run more like a ministry and less like a business, I could tell that God was weaning me away to something else. Another big hint was that due to Russian governmental changes we would only be able to work with half the orphans that we were projecting for 2005. This cuts our revenue in half as well and means that we couldn't support the larger organization I was offering to create.

Big learning: Being open to God's direction sometimes means grieving the losses when the path curves suddenly. It's not resistance, its human. As C.S. Lewis talks about near the end of Pilgrim's Regress, there's something about how human's get attached to the particular, that we grieve when we lose something, even when God has something better waiting for us. Grieving is not a lack of faith. I found that grieving is an act of faith. I let myself grieve because I know that God is still in control. I can let go, to free up my hands to receive the next thing.
My pastor says there are 4 stages of grief: denial, anger, guilt, acceptance. I've also heard of a model which adds 'bargaining' and a couple others I can't remember. Anyway, the point is that by thinking about these phases I can accept the feelings that seem to grip me. What I'm feeling is powerful, normal, and not permanent. So I don't need to be afraid of the feelings or worry that something is wrong with me.

So now I'm ready to move on and get excited about the new things that God is bringing. A big blessing is working with a career coach: Bonnie Bell. She has helped me with my mood about looking for a job (from depressed to excited). She has helped me with my narrative about my job search (from "AIIEEEE, I need a job!" to "What gets me really excited? What's really meaningful? What has God made me to do? What can I do better than anyone else, and who will pay me for that skill?"

I'm looking at Product Management as a place I can make an offer. My background is managing a developer service organization for a platform company. I have been studying business fundamentals in a private business education program for over 5 years: especially listening to customers, designing products and services to satisfy customers and keeping costs low while making valuable offers to customers. I've been working on and leading cross-functional project teams successfully for years. These are all things central to Product Management. I love people being successful, either customers with my product or service, or employees and colleagues in their careers. I love building things that people are delighted with. I love working in teams.

If you know of an opportunity for me, please let me know. If you need a resume, let me know.

Health/Play/Sociability
We're generally healthy, Helen still experiences chronic fatigue syndrome and we're trying various treatments: massage therapy, nutritional supplements. There are all sorts of books, products, etc. and everyone has the answer. Our experience is mixed, but we're still in action to improve the situation.

Big new improvement: I've joined two friends in their exercise regimen. I need the help to stay on schedule. We run for 30 minutes, use the weight machines and do 10 minutes of Tai Chi, three times per week. We try to play racquetball once per month as well. I pulled a calf muscle and am trying to find ways to exercise that doesn't aggrevate it. Though I know its good for me, I basically just feel sore alot more now. Like I said, I need their structure and encouragement to keep going.

The kids love to read, and play video games. Annie is learning to knit and continues to amaze us with her arts and crafts. Matt loves to be active and looks forward to our weekly Park Day meeting with our homeschool group where he engages in Boffer Battles (padded pvc pipe as swords). Ethan has learned to love reading because his siblings won't play with him while they are engrossed in their books. Ethan loves making up games and constantly changes the rules, frustrating to his playmates but expressive of his creativity.

I still love to play games, especially computer games. Currently I dabble in two massively-multiplayer games: Puzzle Pirates, and EVE Online. My game design hero, Sid Meier, has released an updated Pirates!, which was a must buy and wonderfully enjoyable.

Helen has developed an IM addiction. Suffering from chronic fatigue, the pace of IM is appropriate for her energy and boredom level. She's mostly on Y!M, but you'll have to ask her for her username if you want it.

Membership/Education
I'm still in LEIP, the business education program I joined 4 years ago. We're still at the same church, and homeschool support group.

Helen and I are in an awesome book club which meets monthly. We choose books from a classics list, so most of the books are old. We have great discussions, a lot of politics, history, political science, economics. See Helen's blog on Frankenstein for a sample.

Matt is in Boy Scouts, Annie in Girl Scouts, they are both great organizations. Being in the right troop makes all the difference.

Helen and I have started a homegroup with the worship leader from our church, a proven strategy for success (Hi Jon!). We've just started, but our values so far are: relationships, encouraging God's gifts in each other, and great snacks. We had a pot luck dinner last Wednesday with 10 adults and 10 kids. The place was chaotic and I loved it!

Miscellany
What I'm listening to right now: "Jesus Freak", dc Talk
What I've been reading:

• Montesquieu, "The Spirit of Laws" (he invented the separation of powers which were used in the US Constitution)
• Emily Rodda, "Deltora Quest: The Forest of Silence" (checking it out for my kids: approved)
• Rutherford, "Sarum" (historical fiction of the entire history of Salisbury, England)
• Fernando Flores, various private publications on philosophy and business

- posted by Jor @ 10:40 AM -