Apomo

Been in training here at my new job. Very informative. So much to learn in regards to this segment of the business, new products, as well as completely new approach to selling and marketing. But my brain hurts from all the info. Went on my first sales call yesterday to shadow my boss as she sold an appointment that I set from cold calling. After watching her I know that I can definitely do it. I just have to get my license. Going to insurance school next week and hopefully will take my test the following week. Once I’m licensed I can start making money again. My wife will be happy about that, fo sho, fo sho.

Sigh…so much to think about.]]>

Talked to Russ about maybe doing the planning process backwards. Instead of setting a date from the get go and making all our planning and prep squeeze into that time frame, maybe we ought to just start working on it and not set the date until we’re ready to do it and then set the date for a month or so later to give us time to market. That would put equal emphasis on the journey and the destination. Doing it the old way put so much pressure on the group that the journey can quickly deteriorate into a chore. This other way is a little more organic and more fun.]]>

Had a good time in DC though. I already detailed our first day. The second day was fun too.

We had a two hour briefing at the Israeli Embassy by a Brigadier General of their security police. He talked extensively about the threat of radical Islamists and showed some pretty incredible video of jihadists and shamadeen’s. It was sobering to say the least. It was a graphic illustration of how different the people of that culture think from our culture. Startling, even though I already knew about it somewhat.

After lunch with some of the 140 preachers and their wives that were a part of our group we went to the Old Dwight Eisenhower Executive Building for our White House briefing. I almost melted outside in the sun and humidity waiting in the line to go through the security.

The White House briefing was also about 2 hours long. There were five speakers and we had Q & A with all of them. The first one was a deputy secretary from the WH Middle East office. He outlined the current situation in the Middle East in particular, gave some history, and talked about current policy and possible future situations including Iran.

The next guy was a policy wonk from the WH political office. A youngish guy who is an Apostolic Pentecostal, his pastor was a part of the group. Very smart guy too. He went through the current political numbers regarding Dems vs. Repubs and, of course, he felt the Repubs will win the mid-terms in Nov. He really knew his stuff. During the Q&A he was even able to comment on the race for Sheriff in the county of one of the people who asked a question. I thought that was impressive knowledge. He had mentioned earlier in the briefing that the Bush 43 admin had produced 5 million jobs. I raised my hand to ask a question about what percentage of those jobs are low paying service industry jobs (knowing it would be a high percentage) and then to ask if there was any serious consideration being given to raise the minimum wage. But, some other guy was picked and it turns out that was the last question.

The third guy was from the head of the WH Iraq office. He clued us in on the current situation in Iraq and talked about the situation in Iran and Afghanistan as well. He was very informative. Lots of Q & A for him.

I can’t remember the fourth guy’s job in the WH, his last name was Levine, but he talked about domestic issues in the US. A little bland on the personality side but articulate and smart. Mainly talked about immigration and about values in America connected to abortion and the ban on gay marriage amendment. It was interesting to me because after his presentation nobody had any questions for him. I thought this indicative of the fact that the preachers from our background are overly interested in local politics and the Middle East but don’t give much thought to local domestic issues like poverty, unemployment, pro-business capitalism, etc… The emcee had the guy come back and said there really should be some questions from preachers about these issues in particular. He acted a little surprised that nobody had any questions. I almost laughed. Then some bozo from the back said “Well, whenner we gonna get prayer back in schools?!” . I actually did laugh at that point. But, then people started asking some questions and the Q & A was good. It mostly centered around education stuff like school vouchers and how to control the teachers in public schools. Nothing about the poor and disadvantaged. Again, I raised my hand to ask a question about this particular issue but my luck was poor and I didn’t get selected.

The fifth guy was actually the emcee who concluded the briefing with a rousing stump speech for POTUS 43. It was pretty mushy and emotional. If I was a Bushie I probably would have cried. However, he did get several outbursts of applause and several “That’s right!” and “Amen!” from some members of the group. During the Q & A I finally got picked and I asked him about the situation in Darfur and how the administration would handle this in the future. It was kind of off topic and he seemed surprised at the question. He said he appreciated that I’d brought it up because it’s such an important issue in the WH. Said that the WH considered it genocide in Darfur and short of putting boots on the ground that the WH will do everything possible to assist in stopping the genocide in Darfur. Juxtaposed against his earlier comments about the need for freedom for all people and the Iraq guys reasoning for us all being in Iraq was the freedom of the Iraqi people I wondered why we couldn’t get boots on the ground in a situation of genocide. It’s not just their freedom that’s being taken, it’s their very life. I wanted to say that but I didn’t want to get my wife mad at me by appearing to be contary because it was her friends that put this particular junket together and she had helped them with it. See, I can be diplomatic.

Did I mention that when the Iraq guy was talking he said that we’re there to bring democracy to Iraq because for too long they had been subjected to policy enforcement at the end of a gun. I scrunched my forehead at that a little. Isn’t that what we’re doing and isn’t that why the insurgents are fighting us? We think our way is better so we invade a sovereign country and change their political structure at gunpoint?

All in all though I enjoyed the events and it was good to see some people I hadn’t seen in several years. I made a couple new friends too so that was cool. It was a little weird being around all those preachers though. They’re nice guys but they have no idea I don’t think about how cheesy and smarmy they act around each other. I felt like any second now one of them would try to sell me an extended warranty or ask me to join Amway or something. Lots of talk too about building programs, “growth”, and the perpetuous goings on about this preacher and that and this church and that. One guy kept telling me about his yacht and his five trips to the Caribbean last year.

I did have one good conversation with a pastor from Chicago about nepotism and open models of church leadership. It all started when I mentioned that I didn’t think any person should be allowed to pastor until they’d worked a regular job for five years. He and his wife thought that was interesting and off we went. My wife approached me later a little alarmed wanting to know what I’d said because the pastor’s wife told her that I was an interesting person. My wife is paranoid and wanted to make sure I hadn’t said anything too radical. “Interesting” can have many  meanings. haha.

We spent the evening with my brother and his family. They came down to DC to visit us at our hotel. The kids went swimming in the pool and then we went to Buca’s Italian place for dinner. We stayed at the Hilton near Dupont Circle which is the gay district of DC. The waiters at the Italian place were very entertaining, if you know what I mean. haha.

Did I mention that, unbeknownst to us, we were staying at the same hotel where Reagan was shot? That was kind of cool. We had no idea. We just knew we got a helluva deal on Priceline.com for the room.

On Friday we were supposed to meet our Congressman at his office. However, the House had finished all their business early the day before and he was not at his office. So instead we got another Capitol tour from a Congressional aide. It was pretty cool though because he did different stuff than the other guy had done. He took us through the Old Supreme Court room where they tried the Dredd Scott case. It’s located in the Capitol basement. The aide was a young kid who is from our town. His Dad is running for State assembly in a couple years. Maybe I’ll help him out.

We spent the afternoon with my wife’s cousin, the one who organized the trip, and then had dinner with my brother and his family at Wendy’s by the airport and then we flew home. The ride home was pretty chilly as my wife was pretty mad at me about something at turned out to be a misunderstanding. I guess I have more work to do in the area of diplomacy. As I said it was 3 am before we got to bed. I didn’t get up until noon. It’s after 2 pm and I’m still in my underwear. haha.
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Was met at the gate by our friends and their Congressional laison. He introduced himself to me and I said “Hey, what’s up Bill.” Imagine my surprise when I discovered a few minutes later that he is Congressman Bill Filner from San Diego. haha.

The Secret Service wouldn’t let us in because I had my digital camera. Cameras are verboten! I didn’t know. After having to go to the Willard Intercontinental Hotel across the street to check in our camera with the Concierge we finally cleared all the Secret Service security crap and made it in the White House.

It was pretty neat. We saw the East Room, the Green room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, the State Room, the Vermeil Room, the Library, and the atrium/connecting hallways. Pretty cool stuff. I was struck by how small the White House really is. I mean, it’s definitely a good sized mansion, but I imagined it to be on the scale of Versaille. Not so, it’s maybe 100 yards wide and maybe 50 yards deep. Big, but still feels smallish because of that stuff inside.  I also imagined it would be much more pristine than it actually is as far as the upkeep and condition. It actually feels a little dated and worn around the edges with some peeling paint, cracked walls, worn carpets, and mismatched uniforms of the Secret Service people in the rooms who double as tour guides. It was a little odd in that respect. All in all though, it was pretty cool to be there. I’m certainly not complaining, just surprised.

Because of the camera fiasco we were seperated from the other three people in our group from the outset. So the wife and I retrieved our camera from the Willard (VERY nice hotel. Like what I imagined the WH would be). We traipsed over Pennsylvania Ave to the Ronald Reagan Building to eat at the huge food court there. That building is architecturally impressive inside.

Took a cab to the Sam Rayburn Congressional office building to retrieve my wife’s purse as the Congressman took it there for safekeeping after he got us into the WH. Purses are verboten too! We didn’t know that either.  The cab ride was $8. I hope the Ethiopian cabbie uses some of the money to buy a bar of soap or to get his transmission fixed. Third gear has some real issues and the air smelled rather gamey.

We ran into our party again at the Congressman’s office just in time for the Congressman to come out and offer to take us to lunch. We rode the Congressional underground subway train from the Congressional Office building to the Capitol building. Very cool. We also road with him in the Members Elevator and met Congressman Darrel Issa from California while in the elevator. He had a table reserved for us in the Members Dining Room and comped lunch for us.  He also introduced us to Congressman Brian Bayberry ( a Repub) and they traded good natured barbs back and forth. Afterwards Congressman Filner told us that he had great respect for Congressman Bayberry and talked about how they both thought the other was an extremist until the got to know each other and worked on some projects together. He said it was amazing how close the two are ideologically and how this mutual respect helps them get things done.

He was a very nice, thoughtful man with a good heart. He’s a Dem and I think at first he was a little reticent to talk frankly with what I’m sure he thought was a hostile audience of rabid  Republican fundamentalist wackos (we’re here as part of an Apostolic/Pentecostal group). After awhile he figured out that we were reasonable people and he got to talking about all sorts of issues. We ended up talking for an hour and a half and the dining room was virtually empty by the time we finished.

We talked about immigration, his reasons for voting against the war, campaign reform, fund raising, scandals, gay rights and all sorts of hot topics. It was good fun and stimulating. At one point he was almost in tears as one of our group mentioned she was hoping to form a group to help Hispanic ladies with AIDS in her community. He talked about how hard it is to resist temptation in DC as a Congressman and how hard it is to stay grounded and in touch with reality.

Anyway, we got our picture taken w/him and he asked one of his interns to give us a tour of the Capitol building. So we got to bypass all the lines and saw the Rotunda, Statuary Hall, the Crypt, and all sorts of stuff. Then he got us Gallery passes to bypass all the lines and get into the House Chamber in time to watch all the members vote on a House Resolution. We saw our other California Representatives and watched them vote. Saw all sorts of famous people. The guy sitting behind us is an intern for one of the Supreme Court justices so he was giving a running commentary of all the members to his friend as my wife and I eavesdropped without shame. Cool, cool.

We road the train back to Baltimore and took my three nieces to Chuckee Cheese for dinner. From the Members Dining Room to crappy pizza in less than six hours. Only in America! haha.

Tomorrow we have a “briefing” at the Israeli Embassy in the morning. Then we’re attending a White House briefing at the Old Executive Building in the afternoon. We’ll go to a Smithsonian mueseum in the afternoon and then my brother  ishis bringing my cute nieces to our hotel downtown and we’ll get some takeout and let the girls swim in the pool while us big people just hang out.

Friday we’re doing another special tour of the Capitol through our Congressman’s office and meet him as well. Maybe I ought to tell him about the free lunch from a Dem and offer him the opportunity to have equal time. haha. I’m such a mooch, sucking freely from the Federal milch cow!]]>

Spent the last two days in Santa Rosa attending a Career Understanding seminar for State Farm. It was pretty interesting. Somewhat overwhelming and confusing at times though. I kind of get the vibe that underneath all their niceness there is a steel and a higher level of ambition and drive than they want to let on. More so than maybe I’m comfortable with. I don’t mind goals and ambition, but when you’re driven it makes me a little apprehensive. It seems that Allstate is a little less that way and perhaps a better fit for my personality and goals. We’ll see. I’m still going to pursue both tracks and see what happens.

In the meantime….

I start my new job tomorrow. I’ve hardly even thought about that at all.

Today I finish up our taxes and get the numbers to our CPA. We always file late because we never owe; usually the govmint owes us so there’s no penalty. Gotta get this done today because the return will pay the bills the next few weeks.

Today I also try to get a rough draft of my business plan for my agency. I gotta have that for either company.

Saturday I have to clean the carpets in our house.

Sunday I’m cleaning up the garage if I can get out of going to church. Doubtful.

Sometime this weekend I just gotta take my boy to see X-Men. He’s been very patient about this even though I know he’s peeing his pants he wants to see it so badly.

Tuesday the wife and I go to Washington DC for the rest of the week. Still not sure if we’re going to see Bush or not. The organizers of our little junket are meeting with Bush today so perhaps there’s more of a chance of that than I previously thought. Even so it’ll be nice to be out of town w/out the kids.

The following Monday I begin in earnest my training for my new job as well as meet the State Farm recruiter that evening to go over my biz plan.

The following week I attend Life insurance school. The following week I take the test. If I don’t pass I’m pretty much screwed.

During all this I’ll be working with Allstate to go through their new agency process as well. Oh yeah, I’m meeting that recruiter sometime today as well. Fortunately he lives only about three blocks from me so I can just go over to his house.

You know, after typing this I think I’m either going to go get pissy drunk or just go back to bed until August.

I was listening to Ann Lamott on CD in the car on the way back from Santa Rosa yesterday. It’s a book on tape of her book: “Plan B: Further thoughts on faith”; essentially a collection of essays. It’s interesting to hear her read her own work, especially when she cusses.

I was reflecting on all of the above and trying to figure out if I’d survive it all with my sanity intact when she made a statement that caught my attention. “If the devil can’t get you to sin he’ll do all he can to just keep you busy.”

Ouch.]]>

I was pretty nervous about the test. It had all sorts of questions framed as personnel scenarios where there was no clear answer. As a fairly analytical person I find those kinds of subjective  questions to be maddening as I have a dozen questions of my own to ask before I want to commit to a course of action. But of course you can’t ask questions and have to go on the ambiguous info they provide. Since it’s probably not a good thing to select “None of the above” as an answer for all of them you have to settle for an answer you’re not entirely comfortable with. That’s what makes you bite your nails until you get the results because unless you pass the the test you’re not in at all. I hate those tests!

Anyway, I go to Santa Rosa for two days next week as well to hear State Farm’s deal. Then I’ll decide what to do.

Whew, all this makes me wanna go have a beer. And I don’t even like beer.

(Prov, I view myself and my social abilities about the same as you. But I’ve been successful selling insurance so far and I think I’ll be even more successful in my new ventures. You’re much more outgoing and empathetic than I am. If I can do it, you can definitely do it.)]]>

It’s amazing how God will use misfortune to kick us in the ass and get us to move in a better direction. I tend to get so comfortable in a particular spot that even though I have faith, vision, and ambition I don’t always want to move on due to the effort and change it requires. I’ll justify a bad situation and try to work around it until it finally gets so bad that I have no choice but to look for new opportunity. In my last job I had to get fired before I’d move on even though I was miserable there. Same thing here. Things got so bad here that I was forced to look at other options. In doing so I’ve discovered marketable value and opportunity I didn’t know existed. This requires alot of effort and change on my part but in the long run I think it’ll be worth it because I’ll be better able to live by the values I’ve learned in the last couple of years.

Hey Prov. Get your insurance license. You’d do well.  I know you think you’re a wallflower but you’re not. You’d make a killing in insurance.]]>

Here’s a quote from a liberal journalist from an article I read today (yes, in NY mag). The quote is by Oriana Fallaci a noted liberal Italian journalist of years past. Henry Kissinger says she’s the only interviewer that ever got the best of him.

“According to Fallaci, Europeans, particularly those on the political left, subject people who criticize Muslim customs to a double standard. ”If you speak your mind on the Vatican, the Catholic Church, on the Pope, on the Virgin Mary or Jesus or the saints, nobody touches your ‘right of thought and expression.’ But if you do the same with Islam, the Koran, the Prophet Muhammad, some son of Allah, you are called a xenophobic blasphemer who has committed an act of racial discrimination. If you kick the ass of a Chinese or an Eskimo or a Norwegian who has hissed at you an obsecenity, nothing happens. On the contrary, you get a ‘Well done, good for you.’ But if you kick the ass of an Algerian or a Moraccan or a Nigerian or a Sudanese, you get lynched.”

I guess she agrees with what Coulter is saying. If so, I agree with them both.]]>

This goes back to my nagging idea that stories are the best way to communicate a message. Of course this idea isn’t new in the pomo emergent approach to ministry. But I don’t think we really have grasp it’s power, nor have we figured out a way to use this to our advantage. That art has been purged from the church the last several decades puts us at a significant disadvantage. What if a teacher/preacher at a church didn’t preach didactic sermons but just told original stories and parables. Would that work?

I was talking to Russ yesterday about doing the Labyrinth again. I’m really turned on (figuratively ) by the whole artistic, alternative, image driven, participatory, story framed way of communicating the gospel. With his wife’s illness I’m not sure he’s ready to do it again yet. But I’m getting the itch. I think we were on to something there.

On a related note, I discontinued my newspaper ads for the unchurched christian thing. I got zero response from that. Maybe I’ll create a myspace page and link it to the website and see if that generates any interests.

Now that it appears I’ll be working normal hours I think I’ll finally, at long last, be able to put together that ONE Campaign booth I talked about a year ago. Hopefully by the end of the summer. That’d be cool.]]>

Got the Ben Folds CD yesterday. His lyrics are very interesting.]]>