OK You got me, yesterday’s post was in fact an April Fool’s post. However, I did happen to fool a few people. That’s not too surprising in some of the cases as this actually is a feasible possibility (although not possible for us due to absurd animal quarantine laws and other problems).
I am however most surprised by Mae remembering my classic ‘I’m joining a cult‘ April Fools joke from way back in 2003. Especially considering I hadn’t even salvaged that entry on this new site before this morning (for reference). Mae, you have a mind like a steel trap (and a hairy butt apparently). Which, honestly, I thought I would never have cause to say either of those phrases.
Well, that was fun. Now back to more serious business. Because that’s what we’re about here at cybrpunk.com: Serious Business. Seriously.
For those of you with the time and inclination, Lifehacker has a fun Top 10 Harmless Geek Pranks to use on your unsuspecting users, friends and family. Of course, if you plan on doing any of these at your place of work, please keep in mind the mentality and patience of your co-workers and your management. No point in getting fired over a dumb prank.
I’m a big fan of pranks myself and would love to try some of these out. But like I said, I just don’t have the time. I got a call from my boss in St. Louis and was told that they were cutting my contract here in Hong Kong a bit short. It seems I’ve done such a good job here that they now want me to take over the IT for the European region and do for it the same as I have for the Asia-Pacific region. That’s a great thing of course and I’m glad they have such faith in me but I have my doubts of course. Europeans are a much different breed of people than Asians.
So needless to say things are going to be a bit crazy for the next few months. We need to figure out how to arrange getting our things moved from Hong Kong to London and make sure the pets are all taken care of. Finding a place to live should be even more difficult than it was in Hong Kong I imagine. Hopefully we can find a place near a pub. With good internet access of course.
Not only that but I’ll have to interview for my replacement here and do training and everything else that’s involved. The guy who’s leaving the lead position in London now seems to have stopped caring for how things were done quite a while ago, so it sounds like it may be in even worse shape their than it was here when I first moved. All in all, a good challenge of course but I don’t imagine it will be easy by any means. Add to this that I’m an American and I imagine that some of the existing staff will probably rebel a bit as well.
So more news to come as I have it and hopefully it will be a smooth transition (yeah right). I’m trying to get a trip there to check things out in person before hand to see what I’ve gotten myself into. They’ll probably agree to that since they did the same before I came to Hong Kong. Oh well, at least London is a bit close to the States as far as time difference goes! Wish me luck….
OK everyone I have some fairly significant news to share. I know this may seem out of character to some but I think its something that has been a long time in coming. Perhaps I should start at the beginning.
Friday night I stopped at a happy hour for an old friend of mine. While there I met a really nice girl and talked to her most of the night. Near closing time we had exchanged numbers and she invited me to a get-together her church was putting on for Saturday. I agreed and went home to sleep off the beers.
On Saturday I called her and we talked for a bit and she told me about this get-together. She’s a pretty religious person and I’m not so I had my doubts. But I was curious and had nothing better to do so we got together that afternoon and she told me more about her beliefs. I gave her some of my old arguments and she had answers for most everything. After a while I started warming up to her ideas and thought this church thing at night might not be such a bad idea.
We had dinner together and went to a married couple’s house for the party. It was a really nice house in a pretty good neighborhood. All very impressive. I met may of the people and was quickly introduced to the church leader. He was a very nice guy and quite friendly. I talked with him for a little bit and then he broke away to address everyone kind of like a sermon but much more enjoyable than a regular Catholic church type thing. They are an evangelistic group but they don’t have a TV show or anything. It’s a smaller off-shoot of some bigger group. I don’t have all those details yet. However after talking to the girl for so long and then hearing this guy talk and mingling with the others there I started to feel really comfortable with these people. I got a chance to talk to the leader a bit more towards the end of the night and he explained more of how they worship and what they try and do for the community and how they spread their faith. He was genuinely interested in me and what I had to say and I had to admit to him that I was quite intrigued and interested. Talking to him things sort of just started to click. I started realizing that a lot more of what their way offered fit me more than I would have ever expected. He told me about some more services that they have throughout the week and asked me if I would join them. Before I knew it I was saying yes and by the end of the night I was participating in their final sermon. This will be a big turning point in my life with some big changes.
As I learn more about this new faith there will be many changes in my life. I decided that this morning. I felt renewed and alive for the first time in a long time this morning. From what I remembered from the talks with the girl and from talking with their group leader I started making some changes around the house. I poured out all the beer that was in the fridge. I boxed up all the hard liquor. There is a lot of money in that and I will give it to someone as a gift. I shut down all the extra computers except this one. I need to be able to communicate this great change in my life to everyone so I will keep this one on for a while longer. Can’t change all at once now can I? I also boxed up all my DVDs and CDs so that I can eventually take them all in and sell them. Material possesions is one of the things I know that I am supposed to cut down on so I better start there. The Xbox and PS2 went with them into the boxes. I’m not sure if I’ll need to give up the TV yet or not. I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough. So anyway I’ll spend the rest of the day cleaning up all this useless crap I have accumulated over the years.
I have another meeting with the group leader later on today. He had mentioned that since I was out of work that there were special opportunities I might qualify for within their group. I guess they are always looking for people with time on their hands to help out. He also mentioned some travel possibly but was kind of vague on that. Either way I’ve had nothing going on in my life for so long, so I’m up for anything. I’m excited about what I can learn from these people and how I can help out. Cleaning up the stuff around the house has been kind of a rush this morning knowing that I am starting a whole new chapter in my life. I’m really anxious to find out more. I’ll keep everyone informed for as long as I can until they finally ween me off my computer. That may take a while but who knows.
Funny, Internet | cybrpunk | 
April 2, 2008 11:19 am | 
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