Day 4: When Work Meets Life

One of my many responsibilities working in Quality Assurance is writing and following SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures). SOPs are extremely important to follow in a manufacturing environment, especially when you work for a company that makes medicine. The safety of both employees and clients can be greatly affected if the appropriate procedures aren't followed correctly.

Since I've been totally engrossed in writing procedures lately, I've had some amount of difficulty leaving those thought processes at work. I find myself constantly creating them in my head and following them while I’m doing mundane things like scraping ice off of my car or re-potting a plant. The other day I was setting up the rice cooker and realized that I was mouthing the words for each step as I went along. For a brief moment I actually considered typing it up and printing it in a work acceptable format.

In general I am a rule follower; if you mix that with an obsessive-compulsive disorder then you have a potentially catastrophic amalgamation. I really don't want to be the guy who categorizes everything in the house and writes procedures for every daily activity.

Sometimes while my wife is in the middle of something, I will point out what the "best way" to do it is. I know it drives her crazy and she already puts up with me and my OCD more than she needs to. I am ever so grateful for her. She's the person that keeps me straight. Huge shout-out to her and her patience!  

Day 3: Georgia is Frozen

It was cold this morning. When I opened the front door I was met by the dry frosty wind. Passing the threshold I felt as if I were transitioning from one dimension to another. I was leaving the comfortably warm interior of my house behind and stepping into an environment that my body had never before experienced. 
I heard the ice crack while I forced the door to my car open and entered the frozen vehicle. The metal husk protected me from the biting wind as I sped towards the mountains. I glanced at the thermometer, and it read 4 degrees.  

Day 2: Plants, Plants, Everywhere!

My house is filled with plants. Wherever light streams through the windows they’re right there to catch it. 
One of my main annoyances with apartment living has always been the lack of yard to grow things in. I was constantly gardening when I lived in Florida. It was therapeutic, and I enjoyed the regiment and attention to detail involved with caring for plants. 
Since moving into our Georgian townhouse, I have become quite adept at indoor gardening. At first, indoor plants were entirely new to me. Now I have a wide variety of flora growing out of teapots, bird nests, old books, tiny wooden chests and other antique pieces. I am rewarded for my efforts by the unmatched freshness that permeates the air in our living space.

Day 1: 100 Word Challenge

It has only been 4 years, 10 months, 8 days since my last post on this blog. My reason for crafting a new post after such an extraordinarily long hiatus? Well I am participating in the (at least) 100 words a day for 100 days challenge. So here's day one. Let's see how long I can keep this up.



On the Dahlonega square people bundled in clothes scurried quickly from shop to shop attempting to avoid the gripping southern fragments of Hercules. 
After celebrating humanity at one of the many antique stores in town, we decided it was time to seek sustenance. Preferably hot, steaming and soul warming sustenance. We quickly found ourselves at a favorite of ours, it was where we ate breakfast on the day that I asked Katie to be my wife, a place simply called “The Picnic Cafe”. 
Behind the glass, the warm air smelled of freshly baked bread as we sipped on steaming hot coffee and watched as the aforementioned people skittered purposefully in search of warmth. 

 -Dane Gustafson

This is too cool

The Best Laid Plans

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”

It's cliché, I know, but the famous Woody Allen quote about making God laugh is totally true. I have come to believe more and more that not only does God have an incredible plan for us but He also has a great sense of humor. There have been so many times in my life when I thought I knew what I was supposed to be doing and it turned around 180 degrees. When I was 5 I was sure I was going to be a pilot, when I was 7 I was going to be a zookeeper and when I was eight I was going to be an ice skater for Beauty and the Beast on Ice (don’t ask). But the last couple years The Lord has been working in my life and showing me what it means to fully put my trust in Him.

I’m the kind of person who really likes to plan for things before they happen, not because I don’t trust God, but because I like to be prepared. Recently I’ve learned that there’s nothing wrong with being prepared but part of that preparedness is being ready to change those plans at a moments notice. God doesn’t always give us a clear answer when we want him to. He’s not the proverbial genie in a bottle. He does things in His timing and although it may not make sense to us He knows the big picture and we just need to obediently follow His leading.

Peter and Andrew probably had plans to be fishers for the rest of their lives, and that’s exactly what would have happened if they hadn’t decided to follow Jesus. Imagine what would have happened if Moses decided that he wanted to continue living as royalty in Egypt. Or what if David was just fine with looking after sheep for the rest of his life? What if Noah decided that building an ark wasn’t on his agenda?

For me it’s a struggle sometimes to ask God for direction and then have to wait patiently and seek Him for an answer. What am I worried about though? Running out of time? Or missing an opportunity? But if God is The God who created the universe (and He is) then why am I worried about something that should be so simple for Him?

It’s because I’m in the same situation as the children of Israel after they left Egypt. They were ecstatic about leaving slavery behind but very quickly that “high” wore off. We can look back at the exodus now and say to ourselves “Come on! What were they thinking? They just had food fall from the sky!??! And they are doubting God again??” Well the difference is that we know the end of the story and they didn’t. That’s the point where we’re at in our lives, but we can have assurance in the knowledge that even if we don’t know about life’s twists and turns The Lord does.

A lot of times people use this illustration about God being the co-pilot, but I think God should be THE pilot and we should just be sitting in a seat. A passenger knows where they are going. I mean, they have to have a ticket to board the plane after all. The passengers aren’t sitting in their seats with their navigational maps and GPSs wondering how the pilot is going to get them to their destination, or if he’s properly compensating for the crosswind. Since Jesus bought the ticket for us we should just be able to sit back, relax and enjoy the ride. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s always going to be smooth flying, there may be some turbulence on your way there.

The point is that we need to put our full trust in God and His perfect plan that He has for us and know that it’s better than anything we could think up. We just have to be willing to change our plans so they line up with His.

-Dane

The most patient man in the world?

Well, he has my vote.

This was a triumph, huge success!

This is one of the best video game props I have ever seen. Click for more photos.

Ponyo English Voice Actors

While it’s no secret that I’m not a big fan of English dubs for foreign movies I have great respect for the reverence that Disney has shown for Hayao Miyazaki’s films. In fact the only dub that I really didn’t care for is the Totoro dub. The majority of the time I still prefer listening to the original version and reading the subs but Disney has done a great job of making the films more accessible to western audiences.

Now with that being said I am a little bit worried about the Ponyo dub. It seems to me like Disney has just tried to get the biggest name actors in Hollywood for the English dub. Here’s the list.

Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cate Blanchett, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White, Frankie Jonas, Noah Cyrus and Cloris Leachman.

I am still of the opinion that just because you are a good actor does not particularly mean you are a good voice actor. I think this is one of the many factors that set Pixar apart from competing animation studios. They go more for unknowns, whereas the competition loves to tag as many famous actors on their posters as possible. I honestly don’t care how big the actor is, I’m not going to be seeing them on the screen. I just want them to have a good voice. Now I would be happy to be proven wrong by all of these actors and I’ve only heard Liam Neeson provide a voice to an animated character (Aslan), and of course I was proven wrong by Christian Bale in Howl’s Moving Castle. I just hope Disney isn’t trying to cash in on all of these big names.

Miyazaki’s films are held in pretty high regard in Hollywood and it could just be that all of these actors wanted to be apart of one of these movies. I know I’ve heard other voice actors say that about previous Ghibli films.

Either way I can’t wait to see it in the theaters in the near future and supposedly summer is looking good for a US Ponyo release.

-Dane

Trek vs Wars

It has been far too long since my last post so I will make up for it with this.