Last night, 4.3 degrees here. Coldest I’ve ever seen in Blacksburg. Today: several inches of snow and a balmy 28 degrees, also featuring some municipal golf course action. Also got two job offers from Digital Sandbox today. It was a good day.
Author: Chris
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Green pastures by way of death valley
A post from History in the Making:
It’s tempting as a pastor to lead people on a comfortable path. Ahh, the love and appreciation you get. No one leaves the church. But it’s ultimately not the route God wants us to take. God doesn’t just lead us to green pastures. He leads us to green pastures through death valley. Take Psalm 23:
“He leads me beside still waters…. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death”
“You prepare a table before me…. in the presence of my enemies“
If the church stays comfortable, it misses those God-moments that make the church a supernatural experience. A pastor said yesterday, “There were easier routes the Israelites could have taken out of Egypt. But they would missed the parting of the Red Sea.”
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Basketball upset over #1 UNC
We just blew #1 ranked UNC out this afternoon in basketball. 94-88. I was there. Very exciting game–we were up nearly the entire game, and at one point had a 22 point lead. We were up by 20 with five minutes left. Of course, we rushed the court. We’re undefeated against teams from North Carolina: ASU, Duke, UNC-Greensboro, and now UNC. Go hokies!
Interview By Proxy
From Stephan …After digging through a pile of resumes for a junior developer position, I settled on a few for an in-person interview. When the day came around for one particular candidate’s interview, the receptionist told me that there were two people in the waiting room wanting to see me. By all accounts, a husband and wife. That was a bit confusing, but I called them into a meeting room and had the following conversation …
Stephan: So what is it that I can do for you?
Man: Yes, we have come for the interview.
Stephan: Interview? For the programming position?
Man: Yes, we come to do interview for our son Rajib.
Stephan: Excuse me? You’re here on his behalf?
Man: Yes, we do interview. He’s very good boy and he do good job to you.
Woman: Yes, very good boy.
Stephan: Ummm … err … I normally talk to candidates directly …
Man: Yes, we here for him. You interview with us.I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I did the interview. I asked all the technical questions I had and I’m happy to report that not only were they answered very well, but Rajib was apparently more than willing to work long hours, be a team player, and contribute a lot. After all, his father told me so. But unfortunately for Rajib, an *actual* candidate turned up and secured the position.
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Hotel Rwanda and Psycho
I watched two outstanding movies today: Hotel Rwanda and Psycho. Of the two, Hotel Rwanda had a far greater impact on me. I was blinking back tears at the end–I think the part of the story that really got to me was that it really happened. I can understand why it was nominated for so many awards.
I also enjoyed watching Psycho. I am quite a Hitchcock fan, but honestly, I was expecting more from the famed shower scene. Maybe I’ve just seen too many horror movie spoofs, but I just didn’t find it scary. No way it’s on my scariest movie moments of all time list. I especially liked reading the trivia about the movie’s production. Apparently, the blood is actually Bosco chocolate syrup. After it’s Seinfeld fame, I feel like going out and buying a bottle. And yes, Kroger is one of the few grocery chains that carries Bosco.
I’d recommend seeing both movies if you get the chance. VT students, the library has Hotel Rwanda on DVD and Psycho on VHS.
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Passion 07
I got back from Passion 07 last Thursday, but haven’t blogged about it yet. I came down with a cold Friday night that’s still with me, so I’ve accomplished a lot less than I’d like in the past few days. At Passion this year, there were over 22,000 college students in Atlanta for four days devoted to God’s glory. There were three highlights of this year’s conference:
My family group – last year, I didn’t connect well with my family group. I was one of two guys, and every time we saw each other, I think we ended up talking about eating disorders. This time around, I had an excellent family group, where we were open and relevant to each other. I want to keep in touch with these guys! Thanks Daniel (x 3), Hunter, Gennie, and Julie. Oh yeah, I also still have a long way to go on humility.- Being personally challenged – I learned that I need to risk more for the cause of Christ. Especially in the areas of my image and my finances. And I thought that I had things in order in those areas. Interestingly enough, the speaker that connected with me and challenged me the most this year was John Piper, especially in his breakout session. I say that’s interesting, since I haven’t previously been a huge Piper fan.
Do Something Now – we wanted to impact the world as a result of these four days. When I first saw the partial list of do something now causes, I thought they were impossible goals. But with God all things are possible. We didn’t meet every goal–we exceeded every goal, usually to the largest extent possible. See the official blog post about the results here.
Everything in the conference was top notch, but the specifics are irrelevant. What matters is that God was glorified, and his glory is going to become more prominent shining through the world as a result of these four days. Especially cool was the arrive in silence 
outdoor candlelight vigil on the last night. Cool to be worshiping God late at night in the heart of the city.
My prayer for myself and everyone who was at Passion is to not let this be a spiritual high, but to let it be a spiritual turning point–a time when God spoke to us both as a generation and as individuals. Let’s get out there and let his lite shine.
You can also check out my Passion 07 pictures in the gallery.
The past few days I’ve been in Atlanta. I drove in on Saturday with Chris for the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, formerly the Peach Bowl. Unfortunately, our Hokies continued their bowl game tradition of choking. Still, the game was exciting and well worth attending.
After the game, we headed to Sno’s aunt’s compound for the night. It’s quite a house, complete with a room designed by Hildy from Trading Spaces.
We’ve done some sightseeing in Atlanta and are currently at Passion 07. I’m on free wifi during dinner, so I can’t post much now, but I’ll share more once I get back in a few days.
Like David Crowder * Band? Then go vote for them over at MSN music. You know you want to.
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Updated gallery
I’ve modified my site so that you can more easily access my photos. Now you can click the gallery link at the top of the left hand side of the screen to go directly to my gallery. I’ll be uploading Christmas photos soon.
It’s been more than a week since classes ended. Well, actually, I have an assignment that I need to do sometime this week for one of last semester’s classes (long story), but I’ve enjoyed my week off. Several highlights from this week:
Snowshoe – The conditions were the worst I’d ever seen at Snowshoe (only about half open as well), but it was still a blast. Drove up in the morning from Blacksburg, tore up the slopes all day on my board, drove to Washington in the afternoon/evening. I left Snowshoe a little earlier than originally planned because the powder had blown away, revealing ice from their unseasonably warm temperatures and melting/refreezing.
My trip back took me through Cass, WV (5 miles from Snowshoe–the whole town is a historic park) and also past the
fifty story tall Green Bank Radio Telescope (which is the reason cell phones don’t work at Snowshoe–it’s in the national radio quiet zone). Some day, I want to visit both these places. Also saw a beautiful sunset in the Virginia mountains. I even made it to the interstate just as it was getting dark, which made the trip much more enjoyable. I love back roads, but not in the dark.- Total Praise gospel song at Frontline – Total Praise is the Frontline choir. On Sunday, they helped lead worship and did an awesome Kirk Franklin gospel song (Now Behold the Lamb). The song was perfect gospel stylistically, the best I’ve ever seen for a choir that doesn’t usually do gospel and doesn’t have many black members.
- Digital Sandbox – Good to spend four days back with the peeps at Digital Sandbox. Being near to Christmas, the commute wasn’t that bad most mornings. The office is moving closer in come March. I eventually would like to live very close to Washington–perhaps in Arlington, so closer in is good for me.
- National Christmas Tree – Monday night, my family took my mom’s parents and sister downtown to see the national tree. Even at night, it was over 50 degrees, which made it one of the most fun times of seeing the tree that I can remember. Although the Yule log isn’t quite as fun when it’s warm out.
- Annual Cookie Baking – Today was the day of the annual Poch family
cookie baking. We made molasses cookies a few days ago and today made several batches of cutout sugar cookies and also rosettes. Well, I made most of the rosettes, which we made outside on a little burner to keep the mess out of the kitchen.
Tomorrow, we start the family celebrations mid-afternoon, which will go until Christmas night. Then, a few quieter days with the family, some more celebrations, some shopping, and I’m off to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl (Go Hokies!) and Passion 07.