barefooted

Okay…seriously?

*Sigh.*

I understand that the Focus on the Family commercial during last night’s Superbowl could be seen as a “political” commercial, and thus, may be inappropriate for the Superbowl.

However…(and this is an enormous “however”)…

I really take issue with the fact that so many are spitting fire over a family-centered commercial, but nobody cares that there were at least two commercials last night that featured men and women in their underwear.

I, frankly, am weary of this idea that the only “culture” we’re allowed to have is the kind where women must be hot and controlling, men must be dumb and spineless, and everyone must run around in their underwear and drink beer. It’s about time someone stood up and promoted a way of life that challenges the “culture” of America.

Disclosure: I’ve no problem with nakedness, attractiveness, underwear, or beer. But then…I’ve no problem with a woman choosing to have her baby, either.

Passions.

No, not the Passion 268Generation.

And no, not the movie about Christ.

Passions. You know, those “matters” that settle deep inside of you and cause you to feel enormous joys, enormous indignations, and the indescribable compelling to affect change in the world. Passions.

So what affects you? What are you passionate about? Who are you passionate about? Social injustice? Abuse? The Gospel? Sound Doctrine? Writing? Worshiping? Praying?

I really want to know what it is you all are passionate about.

1,000 SemBlog points for each answer.

Books!

Marvelous, glorious, wonderful books!

That’s right, folks! Books, books, books! There’s a book sale at the public library next weekend and my stoked-o-meter has already overheated and melted the nice plastic stoked-0-meter pointer doodad!

Books. Oh, glorious books! My heart is overwhelmed with such hope and anticipation! Books make things happen. They bring random thoughts together and birth ideas you never knew you had. Books are magical. Really, they are! Have you ever considered the time and thought and blood (I’m not joking) that a stranger would put into a book just for the sake of communicating something to you? Really, have you thought about that? Most of us these days are bloggers at the least; even those who don’t blog keep updates on twitter and other social networking sites. How hard is it to write something memorable? And that’s just 140 characters long!

The incredible skill required to write a book cannot be overstated (though, you wouldn’t know it from some of the garbage being published nowadays, would you?). The ability to communicate effectively with a faceless, nameless audience is–I’m convinced–an insanely passionate and compelling force, rather than a simple desire to see one’s own words in print. And most days, writing is more like dry-heaving–empty and unsatisfying (at least, it is for me)–than mining for gold.

But even dry-heavers are worth reading. And even dry-heavers deserve credit for spending so much time on their knees, gagging into the porcelain.

And books, even poorly written, are to be loved. Just like people, who sometimes come from odd or unsavorly circumstances, each tells a story. Each is a story.

Come on! Get excited with me! How can you not be excited, when Sunday will be the great $2 Paper Bag Event? Everything I can fit into a paper bag for $2! That’s a steal, my friends; a steal. So come. Tell me which books to be on the lookout for. This is your one opportunity to try and influence my reading habits. Here’s my list so far:

• Anything Jane Austen
• Anything C.S. Lewis
• Anything G.K. Chesterton (because, as a rule, you can never have too much Chesterton, Lewis, or Austen. Trust me on this; I have a Chesterton to give away. Don’t let me forget.)
• The Temple: Its Ministry and Services (I know…good luck finding Edersheim at a public library; but I have to try!)
• Atlas Shrugged
• Lenin, Stalin, & Hitler: The Age of Catastrophe
• Wuthering Heights (I know! Can you believe I haven’t read this?)
• Mandie Books. Right, stop laughing. I was reading them as a young girl, but unfortunately, I grew up faster than Mandie did. Lois Gladys Leppard left me off in the middle of Europe.
• Have I mentioned how much I love making lists? I really do.

So what do you say? Do you have any book suggestions for me?

Did I mention the part where I get to shove as many books as possible into a paper bag for only $2??? Oh, yeah, baby.

So I have a few peeves about the job hunt that I’d like to share here just to get them out of my brain.

1. Email rejections. They’re just so unprofessional. I suppose there’s a time and a place for these, but I still loathe them. Email applications strike me as unprofessional, so why would I feel any differently about email rejection letters?
2. Email rejections, part B. Okay, if your application process happens electronically, then an email rejection letter is okay. I suppose. But if I’ve printed a resume, filled out an application, mailed it or dropped it off to you, driven into town for an interview, and then sent you a thank-you note, an email rejection is more like a slap-in-the-face than a professional correspondence.
3. Typos. Honestly. If I submitted an application, resume, or cover letter with grammatical or spelling errors, I would not even be considered for the position. Don’t send me a rejection letter that wouldn’t pass a high school English course.
4. References. If you are going to base your hiring decision on what a past employer might say about me, then I think it’s only fair that you offer me a heads-up and say, “Is there anything about your past employers that you want to talk about before I call them?” Let’s be fair. Not all former employers are going to give glowing reviews, and it’s not always the former employee’s fault.
5. Incompetence. I recently went into an establishment where I’ve applied several times and have never even been interviewed; and my cashier gave me wrong change. At the end of the day, we learned that she had given wrong change not only to me, but to at least one other person. I wanted to look the store manager in the eye and say, “You’ll hire her but not me?”

So there you have it. There are more peeves, but these are the ones on my mind today. Maybe I’m being nit-picky; but I think sometimes employers forget that they are being interviewed, too. Just remember, you get what you get.

How about you? Do you have any peeves about job hunting?