blog blog

new blog site

2005-11-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's true... my current (updated frequently) blog now resides at http://www.aukerman.org/dave/blog/. This site now just serves as a search-engine placeholder, I'm afraid.

new digs

2004-09-09T23:06:00.000-04:00

well, it's been a while since I've posted here. in case you're wondering, seminary is going very well... so well, in fact, that I've started a different blog to capture my thoughts in this new adventure..

http://facultyweb.anderson.edu/~draukerman/blog/

feel free to check that site often..I'll probably post there more often than here.

orientation

2004-08-26T17:39:00.000-04:00

So, this week I've started my new life in Anderson. And I've only made two trips down to Indy in that span of time... :)

Yesterday and today we had "new student orientation" at the seminary. It's been just like all other orientations I've had, especially like the other graduate school routine that I've gone through, except that this is all faith-based. Everyone here is of like mind.. and that's nice.

It's been neat to see my dad as more than just a father, too. For 21 years he's been a professor at the seminary, but I've never been able to see that. Now I have that chance, and it's interesting to see his oddities and characteristics come out in how he teaches. He will be team-teaching one class of mine this semester.

My seminary classes start next week: Pastoral Theology, Constructive Theology (I of III), and the History and Geography of Ancient Israel. It'll be a good load, lots of reading to do...that's the part that worries me most, I guess. But it'll be good to learn meaningful stuff again.

I just got done with a battery of tests, psychological tests and personality tests (I'm still an ISFJ, I think, but maybe ISTJ...). It took a good three, three and a half hours to get through everything that they had for us to do. I wonder what I'll learn about myself through them...

One test in particular was constructed well.. it had a series of pairs of statements, and I was to select "A" or "B" if one or the other matched me well. But I could also choose "a" or "b" if both were true but I leaned one way or the other. These were called "forced response" questions, and the instructions said that I was to try to get "A"s and "B"s wherever possible. Kind of interesting to see how I debated with myself and figured out what I really felt..

Oh yeah, and I'm teaching now, too. Three algebra classes....what fun. :) I like it, really. But it's definitely not my focus here..

move to Anderson

2004-08-22T18:02:00.000-04:00

Well, here I am... again. Moving is always such a crazy time... sometimes you know where your toothbrush is, sometimes you don't. Maybe you know the feeling.

This week has been one of transition, on a number of levels. Monday and Tuesday I packed up all my worldly possessions (save the monetary ones stored in a bank somewhere), and Wednesday was "moving day." My dad and brother came down to pack up all my things while I cleaned out the old apartment, and then after a harrowing drive (old van and wobbly u-haul trailer) north, my brother and I unloaded all my stuff in the new apartment while my dad went to teach a class.

Since then, I've alternated between wanting to remove the clutter and wanting to relax amidst said clutter, forgetting (or at least ignoring) its existence. Somehow I've managed to get many of my things put in their new places, but there's still quite a bit left to do.

My hard drive crashed (before the move). That sucks. Thanks to my dad's T1 line, I can get all the windows updates I can swallow in a relatively short period of time. Hopefully this computer will last me a few years.....or at least long enough to start writing my seminary papers.

My apartment is wonderful... I really enjoy living here. It's in a quiet (for now) neighborhood, and it's close to the seminary. And it's my new home... it feels homey already, thanks to some interior design and decoration work by my wonderful girlfriend. :) This is a good place to live.

it is finished

2004-07-30T11:18:00.000-04:00

That's that. We finished today's painting job at about 10:30am, and now my painting career comes to an abrupt halt. This last job was rather remarkable... the budget for this house always seemed a little high, and sure enough, we finished in a total of 71 hours for a (slightly lowered) efficiency factor of - get this - two. TWO. That means that instead of getting paid for the 25 hours I put in on that house, I get paid for 50.

Twenty-five extra hours. That probably almost makes up for all the hours I've lost in bad budgets on other jobs this summer.........

Obviously, not everything went perfectly this summer - but as far as the money goes, it looks like it all worked out in the end. A happy ending to an otherwise crappy job..

Now I turn to vacationing in Myrtle Beach and packing up my apartment... better than painting. :)

In other news,

The Game Is Afoot

Ready? Set? GO!

I should tell you what you're doing. I've so looked forward to finishing this painting job that I've been counting down the days till it's over.... literally. In each of my last eight blogs (including this one), you'll find a countdown to this very moment...

ZERO (no more painting left!)

The first person to comment here with details of the entire countdown will win a prize, maybe. Good luck!

reflux

2004-07-29T21:51:00.000-04:00

... is a nasty disease. literally, dis-ease.. I've messed with acid reflux for over 18 months now, and thankfully it hasn't gotten any worse. In fact, over the summer I stopped taking my medicine because the stuff had gone away.. but much to my dismay, it's come back in the past couple of days. Feeling like your throat is burning through isn't a fun experience...

But all the same, this is the biggest health concern that I have. I thank God that my body is strong enough to survive scrapes, pokes, and gouges at work and to fend off bacteria and virii in the way that he designed. How amazing, that this machine can repair itself. There's nothing like what God makes..

In other news,

Long Distance Sucks

Tara Woodrum, otherwise known as my girlfriend, and I live one hundred miles apart - ok, it's actually about 101 or 102, and yes, I've checked. We see each other sometimes on weekends... and in between (like right now), the only ways we can communicate are via e-mail or chat (when she's at work and I'm not, which isn't often), or by phone. The difficulty with the latter is that sometimes she doesn't have her cell phone with her, and boo hiss - the one person that I want to talk to tonight isn't at her phone. Oh well...

but something is strange... I think her phone has been stuck somewhere, and its "3" button has been pushed constantly for a while. That's my speed-dial number, and I've been getting phone calls with people talking in the distance every few minutes - each call complete with randomly pushed "3" button sounds. Oh well...at least her phone's alive. :)

DS9 and ice cream

2004-07-28T21:20:00.000-04:00

...two of my favorite things to enjoy at the same time. :) My dad persistently records on videotape each weekday's Deep Space Nine episode (shown on Spike TV), and every so often I get a batch of tapes to watch.. so on evenings when I don't have much else to do, I, after eating dinner and showering, will sit down to watch some good old DS9 and eat ice cream. The flavor of the day was chocolate chip cookie dough... yum yum.

In other news,

I'll Miss Classic Rock

All summer at work, we've listened to WOFX, 92.5 FM, a classic rock station out of Cincinnati: "Bob and Tom in the morning, classic rock all day..on 92.5 FM, (booming voice) The Fox..." I've kind of turned into a classic rock junkie over the summer - or, rather, I've realized that, however really eccentric earlier music can be, some of it is really cool. It's both good and bad that the station has played about ten songs over and over all summer...good in that I've learned them fairly well, bad in that I haven't heard other songs.

Having a daily dose of classic rock will be one of the things I miss from this summer job. It's not every day (except for the past few months) that you can sit back for ten hours at a time and listen to good music.

cool July

2004-07-27T18:57:00.000-04:00

The weather in the past week has been strange, for July... lots of cooler temperatures (60s and lower 70s), some cold rain, etc. It feels like autumn, but I know better because the leaves are still green. This weather pattern has made painting a rather chilly(!) job so far this week.. we got rained out Monday afternoon, but other than that we've just done our thing in coolness and moisture, rather than heat and humidity. But it makes for an otherwise enjoyable last week of work.. just two and a half (Friday am) days left.

We finished a big job today. Of course we were way over budget. Mike decided to give another painter and me a 95% efficiency rating, three other painters who've been around all summer 80%, and three new guys 70%. Apparently that was better than giving us all 75% like the hours dictated. Now, from my perspective I can't complain... of the 54 hours I put into the job, only three were done for free. But from those 80%-ers' perspectives... it's just another nail in the coffin. I wouldn't be happy at all, if I were one of them. What is just? What is fair? How do I make a difference?

To be honest, though, we two 95% painters did work the hardest of the entire crew... the 80% guys did some slacking off, and the new guys agreed to work for 75% beforehand anyway... and they didn't do very good work; lots of touch-ups and things like that. hmm... makes you think... how do ethics really work, anyway?

In other news,

Return of the Ostrowskis

Jim and his wife Jessie were back in Oxford last night to clean out his old apartment and for him to throw together his stats Plan B presentation, which apparently he gave this morning. The three of us and Mike and Connie all got together, had dinner at Fiesta Charra, dessert at Graeter's, and had an overall good time. It was fun to be with Jim again - last time for a good while - but I didn't feel terribly sad to see him/them go. They're starting a new phase of life, and, for that matter, so am I, albeit a few weeks later.

Jim, Mike, and I really found our unique recreational activity of the past two years in the Settlers of Catan board game. As our internet surfing increased through each semester, we found online versions of this game here and here. The former is quicker to play, but the latter has a neat-o three-dimensional interface...just like the real game! Anyway, the three of us have decided to play weekly (or maybe monthly) in the coming year(s) using these media... good times.

twenty-somethings

2004-07-22T22:16:00.000-04:00

Tonight I went to a dinner / Bible study thing at the house of a married couple from church. It was more of a religious discussion than a Bible study, but it still sparked some thoughts..

We discussed what worship means to each of us, and that naturally led to the topic of the church (at large).. Georgiana (an ordained UM minister) mentioned how college-age people are disconnected from churches, especially in college towns like Oxford. She asked why we thought that is happening, and one of the girls said that all our lives, we've had structure, someone leading us by the hand: Sunday School, confirmation classes, youth groups, etc. ... all the way up to college. Then we go to college and are essentially put out on our own, left to fend for ourselves, as we enter a time that is ripe for reevaluating one's religious beliefs.

Why does the American Christian culture do this to people in their early to mid twenties? What alternative is there, other than "lame singles groups" (coined by another of the girls tonight)? How can the church better meet these needs?

And here's another thought: in a world which is rapidly changing (the size of the internet doubles every eighteen months..?!), how can the church keep up with nearly constant demand for change? Every sub-generation declares independence, new ideals, "new" desires, distinct from the preceding sub-generation. Is the church supposed to be a house of stability in the midst of these changes? If so, how can that stability be made attractive to people my age?

In other news,

Rain Delay

It rained (hard) last night/this morning, so I had the morning off...went in to work at noon thirty. It was so hot and humid today, I drank my half-gallon of water in half a day's work.. My little cooler has a specific job, and it fits it very effectively... too bad it's not a little bigger. :)

LOGOS

2004-07-21T19:41:00.000-04:00

This fall I will be teaching a college Bible study class as part of my Anderson church's Wednesday night LOGOS program. My dad is the program coordinator, and the other day he gave me some resources for ideas about what to teach. Reading through a couple of books has rekindled a strong interest of mine...

I want to teach people about Christ and about Christianity. I want to separate myself from trite, plastic, overused Christian-isms that make people feel good and remind them of their Sunday School days. We live too comfortably in the United States to allow ourselves the comfort of believing that following Christ is an easy thing to do. Even in this culture, we must find ways to present the good news to those who need it in ways that aren't old-fashioned or so ubiquitous that they are beyond comprehension. The gospel must be explicitly counter-cultural, not infused (to the point of non-distinction) in our existing culture.

So I think this college class will be a study on faith-related questions about Christianity. These questions will not be skirted around, nor will trite answers be accepted as the final word. College is a tremendous time to reevaluate your belief system; I hope to make this class part of that process for the students that come.

In other news,

Potatoes Gone Bad

I wanted a baked potato for dinner tonight, but when I pulled out the bag from the cabinet, I found (to my dismay) that they were all spoiled! In fact, one potato had blackened all the way through and was dripping some unknown black gooey substance through the bag. Gross.

I settled for a piece of bread, to go with the leftovers from the Smokin' Ox... pulled pork and beef brisket, the latter of which is essentially tiny beef cubes, and the former of which consists of strips of pork lying crossed all over each other.. I had salivated, imagining X-shaped pieces of pork on top of a steamy baked potato, until my horrible discovery earlier. At least not all was lost, eh?

the parents

2004-07-20T18:42:00.000-04:00

Last night my parents came through town on their way to banks of the mighty Ohio River. They're going to stay at some cabin overlooking the river, away from the telephone and television and computers and such, for a handful of days. Going on a little trip like that sounds like a lot of fun.. to read books, to play games, to be with your spouse - almost makes me want to be married right now. :)

The three of us went to dinner at the Smokin' Ox, a barbecue joint in uptown Oxford. For $11, you sure get a lot of food! There was so much meat leftover from our meals that I have one take-out box full of food...it'll take care of my dinner needs for at least three days.

Then we went across the square to the Coldstone Creamery, an ice cream store that I first discovered in the sunny locale of San Luis Obispo, California three years ago. Kind of pricey, but oh so good. I'd still take Ivanhoe's, though.

It was neat to see my parents in a place other than Anderson. They don't often come to where I am by themselves...usually they're toting around other people for a Glee Club concert or something. But this was kinda cool. They were waiting at my apartment when I got home from work and stayed a couple of hours.. my dad gave me some resources for some of the classes (math and Bible study) I'll be teaching this fall.. my mom gave me my weekly mail and some home-grown cucumbers. The more time wears on, the more I find myself respecting my parents as people, for being who they are, for having raised me as they did. I find myself wanting to be more like them if/when I'm a parent someday.

In other news,

Pretty in Pink

Today's paint color of choice was "purple," cleverly disguised as a deep shade of pink. Apparently there's a lighter shade of pink which we call "pink" and will use for other parts of the trim on this house. I managed to get some pink paint on my hands and shoes, so apparently I'm pretty in pink.

Also, I got a call from Jim last night; he's back from his honeymoon and hasn't forgotten about me. :) He would appreciate being mentioned under this subtitle, I think. Somehow, even very effective names or descriptions don't work quite as well without the described parties within earshot..

reunions and such

2004-07-19T20:29:00.000-04:00

Well, another crazy weekend has come and gone... this time it was a family reunion in eastern Ohio, my maternal grandmother's side of the family. This one is the most meaningful, most anticipated reunion of the summer, largely because everyone else (of my grandmother's descendants, in particular) makes a point to be there every year. It's one of three times (Thanksgiving, Christmas) in the year that we all come together as a family.. and I love spending time with my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

reunion...the act of coming together again. such a simple definiton, so straight to the point. And yet the event takes on more meaning than the word's definition conveys..

I stayed an extra night at my grandma's house - my parents and brother left Saturday evening. The rest of us all went to church on Sunday; the service was interesting, in that several "connections" happened throughout the morning. For instance, I thought back to my senior year at Taylor and, in particular, to the last focus that I gave the Chorale as its chaplain; it was based on Philippians 3:1-14 and in a few minutes we sang a hymn, one verse of which quoted directly from this passage of scripture. Coincidence? Perhaps.. but in the past I have seen the Lord capture my attention for specific reasons through these kinds of coincidences. Have any of you experienced anything of this sort, where you know it's more than a coincidence?

Tara picked me up at my grandma's house Sunday afternoon, and we drove to Oxford to see a couple of movies at the drive-in theater: I, Robot, which is based on Isaac Asimov's science fiction novel with the same title and is worth seeing, and Anchorman, which, in short, is not much worth seeing. It's good that this latter movie was shown second, when we were already pretty tired and didn't care that much about what was showing.

In other news,

Scrapey, Scrapey, Snakey, Snakey

Today I scraped paint and applied glossing compound to windows all day. Glossing compound is much like thick play-doh, and it is applied along the edges of window panes (on older windows) to seal the glass to the wooden window frame. So... to make it go, I rolled lots of play-doh snakes this afternoon. :) Maybe we'll paint this new house tomorrow, maybe Wednesday. Painting in the sun is getting old...it almost makes me want to say "Enough!"... It got hot today, but not too hot.. didn't sweat that much. (whew)

losing a friend?

2004-07-12T18:39:00.000-04:00

Weddings have always been fun, enjoyable experiences.. that's largely because none of my close friends have ever married....until now.

Last weekend, my friend Jim (from Miami) married his, well, wife Jessie. I was a groomsman (for the first time!) in the ceremony, and so I got to hang out with Jim for a day or so before the wedding. Jim and I spent a lot of time together in my two years at Miami; he introduced me to Settlers of Catan, Dance Dance Revolution, good Polish food, movies such as Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead, and the ability to hang out for hours talking about baseball and eating ice cream.

But now he's married. Don't get me wrong...I'm very glad for him; his wife is a tremendous woman of the faith and suits him very well. But I can't help but feel a little...nostalgic, having come to a point where a friendship has changed, with no hope of returning to what it once was. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but you still long for what was, when you don't have anything to replace it just yet....

In other news, I got stung by a wasp today while scraping paint off of a house, which I did for ten hours today. First time I've been stung in several years...I yelled pretty loudly, but I didn't cry. :) Part of the fun (?) of scraping paint is that sometimes the paint chips (or the holes in the remaining paint) are shaped like U.S. states or foreign countries or even (occasionally) faces or other (G-rated) body parts.

1.77

2004-07-01T15:56:00.000-04:00

...that's our efficiency factor for today's job. Essentially it means that I get paid for a full day (or almost a full day) even though I only worked half the day.

So today's better. But how can we go from way over budget to way under budget without really putting forth any more effort than before?

My mood in the past couple of days has been better. The other night, I was talking with Tara on the phone, and she said I've sounded caustic as I've talked about my job lately. That got me thinking...first, what does caustic actually mean? Second, and this operates under the belief that that's a negative word, why am I feeling that way? Not in terms of what's going on with my job... but what's going on with me.

In a couple of months(!), I'll begin studying to be a pastor. This will be the first time in my life that I will be studying something that God has specifically asked me to study. It's exciting to be on that journey, or to be on the precipice of that journey (I'm reminded of Eustace and Jill in C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair).. almost as if I have no idea what I'm getting into.

But I do, really. I know what pastors do (or have done, in my life); I know something of Christ's character which surely pastors must strive to wear daily. And I know that being "caustic" isn't part of that character.

If I am aligning myself with the profession of being a pastor, I must first align myself with the character of Christ. And that means putting up with poor job situations, dealing with difficult people and circumstances, and working for the best in every situation. Being angry for angriness' sake or without hope of joy is not Christ-like at all.

So in the past two days I have chosen to be joyful instead of depressed; I have prayed that God would give me strength to make it through this short-term job. And you know what? Things are just fine...really. even though the job isn't much fun sometimes.

new windows!

2004-06-29T20:32:00.000-04:00

As part of my apartment building's new manager's attempts to update and make more attractive the aforementioned apartment building, several improvements have been made in the past month. My parking lot has been repaved, air conditioning units have been cleaned, electrical outlets have been replaced, and now today's most enjoyable news:

I have a new bedroom window! Complete with a screen! (my old window had no screen, so I couldn't leave it open all the time, especially in cicada season) I also have a new set of venetian blinds which are actually attached to the wall! How exciting. I think I might sleep with the window open and blinds up just for the heck of it.

In other news, lest the world think I'm an optimist, here's a short conversation between Manager Mike and me today:

me: The more and more time goes on, the less satisfied I am with our pay system.

MM: Why?

me: Because we never beat our budgets! (an exaggeration)

MM: Oh, that's not true. I'd say we make most of them. (completely untrue..we have missed more than half of our budgets)

me: not according to my paycheck... (walks away)

ecclesiastes

2004-06-29T18:48:00.000-04:00

Lately I've picked up the book of Ecclesiastes as my morning reading over a bowl of cereal and a bagel. In one particular passage, the author (who may or may not be Solomon) describes trying to find fulfillment by doing all sorts of great deeds...but it didn't work:

So I turned in despair from hard work as the answer to my search for satisfaction. For though I spend my life searching for wisdom, knowledge, and skill, I must leave all of it to someone who hasn't done a day's work in his life; he inherits all my efforts, free of charge. This is not only foolish but unfair. So what does a man get for all his hard work? Days full of sorrow and grief, and restless, bitter nights. It is all utterly ridiculous.
ecclesiastes 2:20-23, NLT

how strongly that resonates with me.. but to isolate one passage of this book requires the reminder of its completion:

Here is my final conclusion: fear God and obey his commandments, for this is the entire duty of man. For God will judge us for everything we do, including every hidden thing, good or bad.
ecclesiastes 12:13-14, NLT

wish you were here

2004-06-24T18:38:00.000-04:00

So, I bought a McDonald's Big Mac value meal the other weekend, mostly so I could get a free song download from www.connect.com. After some deliberation, I decided to download Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here," with the hopes that I can learn to sing/play it well.

The song makes me think of Tara, and it expresses my thoughts toward her right now.... and wonderfully enough, she will be here in a couple of hours.

Weekends are great. Too bad life gets in the way.

ten and a half hours later....

2004-06-22T19:11:00.000-04:00

The house is finally finished. Manager Mike has worked with us (painting and everything!) in the past two days, and he even said something about his choice to take a smaller cut from the money we make on this job, presumably so we underlings can make something close to what we're supposed to be paid. As we speak, he's meeting with the homeowners; this will determine the value($) of the past two weeks of my life.

What a ridiculous world I live in. If I were French, I might start a revolution.

The house looks amazingly good now. Mike has taken / will take before-and-after pictures, and maybe I'll get a copy of them. I'd like to keep the pictures as a memento of this huge job.... it really feels like we did something worthwhile here.

Oh yes - ten and a half hours. That's how long I worked today, and it easily could have been eleven or more if Mike had made me stick around to help clean up. He said he would clean up for us... the last hour of work was a pain, because we were operating under the instructions "work until it's done," something that has produced 11 and 12 hour workdays for us in the past. I told Mike that I don't want to work more than 40 hours this week (like I did last week) unless there's some kind of overtime compensation. We'll see if that makes a difference.

So now my mind wanders to my ever-changing life. My friends from Miami are all moving away, getting married, defending theses, etc. I'm wrapping up my loose ends here and am starting a new thing in Anderson in just two months. I'll be learning about theology and biblical languages and how to be a seminary student, and I'll be teaching lots of people at the same time. Life is going to be very different....and it's about time for that to happen. I'm becoming more and more ready for this with every passing day.....

the wonders of my job

2004-06-18T13:40:00.000-04:00

How many of you have a job?

Ok, how many of you know how much you're being paid for your job?

Isn't that just wonderful.

I managed to work 45 hours this week - 45 hours of sweaty, sunny, hot, humid, tiring physical labor. And the best part is that I'm not even sure how much I made this week! This budget system is terrible. Someone remind me that I never want to work under this system again...

So my manager never showed up today. The three of us painters who were there --

Aha, let me clarify. I said "painters" because manager Mike never paints. Just wanted to point that out.

-- the three of us decided that (a) Friday's supposed to be our day off, given four ten-hour days earlier in the week; (b) the only reason we were working today was so that we could finish the job, but there's hopelessly too much work left to do to be finished today; (c) we didn't even know how much we'd be paid for working at all; (d) Mike's an awful manager. So we quit at noon thirty and came home.

Mike's response, over the phone? "Well, I won't be able to pay you guys next week.." DUH. The job wouldn't have been finished today anyway, so there's no way the homeowners would have paid you today so we could be paid next week. DUH DUH DUH.

It almost makes me want to throw things. I think I'll quit working at the end of July so I can vacate in South Carolina with Tara and her family.

Oh, and Mrs. Homeowner gave us homemade chocolate chip cookies this morning. That made the half-day of work worthwhile, $2.75 an hour (and falling) or otherwise.

The First of Many

2004-06-17T20:49:00.000-04:00

So, my girlfriend Tara convinced me to start blogging. Seems like everybody's doing it, and perhaps this would be a good way for me to complain about my summer job. A bit of explanation is in order.

This summer, I'm essentially waiting for the fall to come.. I'm beginning seminary classes at the Anderson University School of Theology. To provide income, I'll teach a few math courses, one for Anderson/Purdue and a couple for Ivy Tech. But in the meantime, I have to keep busy.... I guess.

So I'm painting houses this summer, in and around the Oxford area. Mostly around. Now, don't get me wrong - I love painting.. doing something productive with my hands, doing something constructive. It's wonderful to be able to step back and say, "that house looks better than when we arrived."

But it's not all fun and games. My manager isn't much of one; he comes late most days (even late when he says "I'll be there around lunchtime" or "see you in ten minutes"), doesn't actually paint much, and pays his employees with a really poor system.

Every job has a budgeted number of man-hours; once we workers finish the job, he totals up our total hours, divides the budget number by our total, and scales our hours back to fit the budget. It's nice if we beat the budget - we get paid more. But most of the time, we don't...

For instance, we've been at our current house for a summer-record six or seven days by now (and we're not done yet). The budgeted number of hours was 140. We've used at least 250. Now, if I'm supposed to be paid $7.50 an hour.........you can do the math. (and so can I)

So, in short, my job isn't the best. But it's employment, and it has its purpose(s). More on that later.