Quite a hiatus

Wow, it's the end of October already.

A lot has happened since last I wrote. Here's the short version.

Peggy and I split up over some differences. I have a new house. I am busy at church, taking several leadership positions. And I got promoted at work.

Back in March, Peggy and I broke up. I couldn't adjust to her family, and they couldn't adjust to me. I knew there would be challenges; she and the kids had been through a lot. When it came down to it, we couldn't find a compromise when it came to disciplining the kids, especially her son Josh.

I really wanted to make the relationship work. I tried going along with her idea that her kids were just hurt, and that they just needed love and acceptance.

That all changed the first of March. We had an argument, the last in a series of arguments, about how to deal with Josh. She gave me an ultimatim, saying that I had to do it her way or leave: I chose to leave.

The whole thing was an example of the adage: "What you compromise your principles to gain, you will always lose." I compromised several principles, the main one being "Don't live with a woman until you are married to her."

I had the best of intentions. They were short of money, and her loser ex-husband wasn't paying his child support. I thought that by living there I could help them through a very cold and expensive winter. I think my moving in with her short-circuited the maturation process for what could have been a wonderful thing. We didn't take the time to learn how each other really thought and lived, and our proximity didn't give us the breathing room needed to work out how to come together on things. Overall, the whole thing was a mistake, and we both paid a high price for it.

A lot of good came from our relationship, though. I got a good job at a great place, Cayuse Technologies. Back in August, I was promoted from Junior Software Engineer to Software Engineer. I like to write software; since management found out I can write, I end up writing a lot of user manuals and such. I also write letters to the editor of the local paper, the East Oregonian. I don't want to turn into a serial letter-writer, though. When I used to work at the Tribune, we used to make fun of those kind of people; it'd be ironic if I were to become one of them.

Church is probably the most exciting thing I have going. I teach a weekly Bible study for Sunday school (topic: Christian maturity), and run the men's ministry and the long-range planning committee. The most important (and enjoyable) thing I do is minister to our senior pastor Marc. He's a great guy, and as such, he is way overworked. I think the reason I was sent there is to give him a sounding board, pray for him, and help him grow and mature the church. He is a hard worker, but has a hard time delegating, which is probably a consequence of his ministry training. He's getting better, though, and my work there is starting to produce some excellent fruit.

After I left Peggy's, I lived with Richard and Margaret Rettig for about three months. That gave me time to get myself together and find an apartment. I have one that meets my needs now, a two-bedroom duplex. I use the spare bedroom as an office. I am slowly amassing furniture and stuff like that.

In addition to above, I am busy with other things:

• I'm working on a book about bivocational ministry.
• I'm trying to get freelance writing work on the side.
• I'm trying to do some standup comedy.
• I'm trying to apply for some other side work.

So what do I need from life?

• A new car to replace the one that broke down.
• More friends to hang out with.
• Newer and more comfortable furniture.

Other than that, I'm in pretty good shape.

Ciao!

Getting Universal

I have many diverse interests, and I have decided to talk about a few of them today.

My first interest is politics, and my comment today is about the national political scene. I am watching the antics of the incoming Obama administration with a great deal of trepidation. I was OK with him keeping Robert Gates as Defense Secretary, but since then his nominees have gone downhill rapidly. The latest travesty is Leon Panetta, the former Clinton White House chief of staff. Obama stated that Panetta had experience with the intelligence community as chief of staff. Panetta has experience reading reports as a bureaucrat, not actually carrying out intelligence policy.

I am also trying to find backing tracks to "King of Glory" by Third Day. They don't seem to be available anywhere. I'm sniffing around to find software so that I can create the accompaniment track myself.

Work is cool: I'll be starting C# class after lunch.

The New Year

A lot has happen since I last applied digits to keyboard here.

I finished up school December 12th, then moved to Pendleton, OR to be with Peggy and start my new job at Cayuse Technologies as a Junior Software Engineer. Peggy and her kids have been great, and we are growing together as well as can be expected.

My job at Cayuse is very challenging yet enjoyable. I'm learning a lot about the software business and am doing a great deal of database work.

I am in the process of joining First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and jumped right in as far as getting involved. I start co-teaching a class on Christian Maturity Sunday, Jan.18. In addition, I chaperoned the youth group's New Year's Eve party, and will be taking roles in the service soon. This coming Sunday I'll be reading the Scripture verse and on the 18th I'll be singing special music; the song I've chosen is "King of Glory" by Third Day. The Pastor, Marc Mullins, is a great guy and a good pastor who isn't afraid of me (that's been a problem in the past for me). As a group, the elders are great, the best I've ever been around.

I don't want to take to long here, so I'll keep my posts shorter in future.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all!

I'm staying with Peggy in Pendleton, OR for the holiday.

I got here last night after applying for a job at Cayuse Technologies, a company owned by the Umatilla Confederated Tribes. They have software developer and customer care call center jobs, and I applied for both. They gave me a test that is supposed to measure my problem-solving abilities; it consisted of some pattern-recognition drills, verbal as well as spatial. The test was fun, and I think I did well at it.

Peggy's house is nice, and she is letting me sleep in her bed (by myself, of course). Her kids and pets are nice, and despite the fact that it is a beehive of activity, it is also a peaceful place, a place of humor and love. I like it here.

Creative Writing Paper

Today, I'm posting a paper I submitted for my Creative Writing class last night. Everyone seemed to like it.

Allen Hanson
English 209
Truth Essay
11-18-08


Truth is not my friend. Nor is it yours. No one gives truth advice, nor can anyone spin truth to his or her own use. It is independent of us.
When talking about truth, it is important to understand a few things about it.
First, truth is objective. It doesn’t come from any of us; therefore, none of us can claim to own it. About the best that can be hoped for is that truth owns us. In a way, truth does own us; one cannot violate truth without experiencing the consequences thereof.
Truth is also basic. It underlies our hopes, dreams, opinions, fears, ideas, theories, and speculations. Truth is physical, emotional, mental and moral gravity. When we agree with truth, it steadies us; when we don’t, it merely sucks.
Truth is razor-sharp. That makes it very useful, and very dangerous, too. It can be used as a scalpel, to excise the warts on the character or stains within the soul. The sword that is truth is best directed at oneself.
Truth is immutable to charm, manner or persuasion. It cares not how you look, whether you just did your hair, how much you spent on your clothes, how shiny your shoes are, or what cologne you are wearing. It is blind to style, affectation, and reputation. It is unconcerned with popularity, politics of any kind, the latest polls, or the results of any election.
If you are looking for someone to take up your cause, to be your buddy, to be loyal to you and follow you around, forget about truth: Buy yourself a golden retriever.
But I don’t want to give truth a totally bad rap, because it doesn’t deserve one. When you bend to truth, and let it shape your thoughts and your character, it is the strongest ally you could have. It is like moral steroids, making you a stronger person than you could ever have imagined being. It makes you King of the Mountain and enables you to fight off those who would dethrone you. And if you have decided to be Truth’s friend, you'd better be ready to fight; truth is seen as a bully by many and they will accost you when they see you are together.
Truth doesn’t come to you with flattery and phony positivism. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme or an instant diet; it’s a take-up-your-cross-daily-and –follow-me thing. It’s not stealing kisses behind the high-school gym; it’s a commitment; a promise that the joy will at least equal the pain in the end.
In my experience, truth is a shelter from all life’s storms. The problem is, the storms seem to intensify when you stand next to truth. When you stand next to truth, you become like an anvil. Hammers may land blows upon you; in the long run, you’ll find that you either break the hammers, or just wear them out.
Truth makes a great gift, but it doesn’t play well with others. It is not an extrovert, but is capable of mass effect as well as great intimacy. Truth is neither an accessory nor an ornament. It is a not a tapestry or a great piece of art; it is more like the concrete that makes up the foundation of your house. Truth is not a decoration; it is the wall that pulls all the decorations together and makes them work.
Truth is like the rudder of a ship. If you don’t know where to look for it, you won’t find it. However, truth and your relationship to it, do determine the path of your life. The good thing about truth is that if you get away from it, you can get right back to it. However, it’ll take a while to get back on course. That’s harsh, but it’s the nature of sailing upon the sea of life.
I don’t really like truth; but it’s so important to my life that I have to delight myself in it. The Hebrew word translated “delight” in the Psalms and Proverbs in the Bible means “to bend,” not “to have a warm feeling about.” As I bend myself to truth, it does make me feel happy…eventually.
I heard a preacher once say, “The Truth shall set you free; but first, it will make you miserable.” I think he got that right.

My Gratitude

I have enclosed a list of things I am thankful for, as well as my last Sports Beast Column.

Allen Hanson
What I’m Thankful For
11-17-08

My girlfriend was recently dared to compile and write down a list of the things in her life that she was thankful for. I was relieved to read she mentioned me on her list. Then she challenged me to write a list of my own. So here it is.
I’m thankful for Peggy, Ashleigh, Amanda, Joshua, and Jeremy. I’m also thankful to be able to spend part of my Thanksgiving Day holiday with them. (Of course this is the first one on the list! I may be ugly, but I’m not stupid!)
I’m thankful for my dad, my sisters, and my brother. They are always there for me, and I appreciate all they do for me. I’ll miss them when I move away at the end of the semester.
I’m thankful for all the people at the Pathfinder, especially Bryce, Loren and Beez. Bryce and Loren have done a great job pulling the paper out of the toilet. It is now an excellent publication that deals with issues the students care about. I’m thankful they allowed me to have a small part in this endeavor.
I’m thankful for the radio station, KLCZ-FM 88.9. Matt, Sam, Dani, and Tate have done a great job getting the station off the ground, and creating a place for people like me to play songs we like and broadcast our views to the world.
I’m thankful for LCSC. Lewis-Clark State College has been a great place for me to try my hand at many things. Most colleges are too big to allow a person to discover and develop his talents, especially if his talents are multicurricular in nature. It’s a place where one can try and fail until one finds his talents; then the people here provide a place to hone those talents.
I’m thankful for President Dene Thomas. She’s a great leader, and the person most responsible for LCSC’s great reputation in the community, in academia and in the State of Idaho.
I’m thankful for my fellow students. As a non-traditional student, it’s so cool to see my classmates grow and change. They have rubbed off on me and kept my viewpoint from getting stale and crusty.
I’m thankful to the entire faculty. These people, even the ones outside my major, have always been eager to help me hone my skills. The LCSC faculty are here because they love to teach; believe me, they could be making a lot more money teaching someplace else.
Mostly, I’m thankful to God. He has brought me into contact with people who challenge me while caring about me. He has taught me how to deal with conflict in a courteous, classy manner. He has given me the opportunity to disagree with others while still valuing them as fellow travelers created in His likeness and image.

Allen Hanson
Sports Beast
November 17, 2008

Last week seemed to be Tourney Week here at LCSC. Five different Warrior teams were involved in some sort of tournament action this week. Three fall sports teams were playing for Frontier Conference championships, and both basketball teams were traveling for early-season tourneys. Here’s how they all did.
The volleyball team skunked the Conference, winning all three of their games to take the Frontier title at the tournament they hosted last weekend. However, the tourney wasn’t a cakewalk: LCSC put away its first-round game against cellar-dwelling Montana-Western on Friday pretty easily, but the team took all it could handle from Carroll College and Rocky Mountain College on Saturday. I was present for the Carroll game, and thought it was the toughest three-set game I had ever seen. I had to go to my other job before championship match with Rocky Mountain (being The Sports Beast, despite the glamour, doesn’t pay all that well), but I was told by trusted sources that the later match was even closer. On a side note, I got to meet the young men from Carroll College who comprised the team’s cheer section, and they seemed like nice guys. They painted themselves up in team colors with letters that said SAINTS. They were only a little less pleasant when I pointed out that they could also spell out STAINS. It’d be nice if we had something like that for our teams.
The volleyball plays a home match against Shawnee State of Ohio Saturday as a play-in game for the NAIA National Tournament.
The men’s and women’s cross-country teams also won the Frontier Conference Championships, which they hosted last weekend. In fact, the men’s team pulled off a rare perfect score. For those of you not in the know, cross-country meets are scored in this manner: Every runner is assigned a point value based upon his race finish, i.e. the winner is assigned a score of one, the runner-up gets two, and so on. The team’s score is the sum of its first five finishers, and the team with the lowest score wins. Based upon this formula, the best a team can do is score 15 points, by virtue of its members win all five of the top spots. This is akin to pitching a perfect game in baseball, or winning a tennis match 6-0, 6-0, 6-0, and it’s just what the men’s team did. The women’s team also won, scoring 21 points and winning all but third place on their bid for a perfect score. They will participate in the NAIA nationals in Wisconsin this Saturday. A cross-country race over the frozen tundra? Doesn’t the NAIA watch the Weather Channel? Hope the team takes some snowshoes and wears leggings. It’s not about fashion; it’s about survival.
The men’s basketball team won the Walla Walla University Tournament over the weekend, beating both Bethany College and Northwest University by substantial margins. It’s great to see coach Tim Walker pulling his team together so quickly. Usually, the men’s team takes a little while to get used to playing together, but Walker has a strong returning core this year and is integrating the new players into his system rapidly.
The women’s basketball team didn’t do so well. They dropped both their games in the Lynda Goodrich Classic, played at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. on Saturday and Sunday. However, both the schools they played are NCAA Division II schools: NCAA Division II is considered a tougher classification than the one the Warriors play in. So it’s not too surprising that the Warriors had trouble in the tournament. On the plus side, the women came out of their road trip with no injuries and some badly-needed experience against tough foes.
It’s great that we have so many great teams and student-athletes to root for at LCSC. However, I still wish we had a football team.

LCSC Volleyball

I just watched the most intense volleyball match I have ever seen. In the Frontier Conference Tournament semi-final match between Lewis-Clark State College and Carroll College, LCSC had to overcome a lot of attack errors to win in three games. 25-21, 25-23, 25-22. Both teams really fought hard; L-C hit the shots when they needed them most. The Warriors play again at 7 p.m. tonight, but I have to work in Moscow.
Not really much more of interest going on today. I work at 4 p.m. for C&R up in Moscow. Hope to get together with my dad up in Troy tomorrow.