So it’s been almost a week since you’ve seen anything on this here blog or twitter get updated.

There’s a reason for that: I started my new job Tuesday.

With the new job comes a new office with new rules and new people. Here’s the skinny so far:

• It’s 78 miles from our driveway to my new office :0( (I have to work in Greensboro for a couple of months, and then my drive will be much shorter).
• In 78 miles, I do not pass a single Starbucks :0(
• There is free coffee at work :0)
• The free coffee at work is terrible :0(
• There is a cafeteria at work where I can buy better coffee :0)
• That coffee is also pretty terrible :0(
• The pens at work are very nice :0)
• I am not allowed to use iTunes anymore :0(
• I am not allowed to use Twitter anymore :0(
• I am not allowed to use Facebook anymore :0(
• So far I have listened to three sermons, one episode of ‘Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me’, and half an episode of “This American Life” on the road to and from work :0)
• My blog is not on the list of stuff I’m not allowed to mess with at work :0)
• It takes me about 10 minutes to walk from my car to my cube :0|
• They give out free newspapers at the door :0)
• The cubes at work are very short, so we can stand up and see each other :0)
• The office is always freezing cold :0(
• I walk through a huge factory where they make gas pumps on the way to my cube :0)
• They have assigned me a very nice, very patient brother in Christ to teach me everything I need to know :0)
• My first day my teammates took me out to lunch and we ended up collectively witnessing to out manager the whole time :0) :0) :0)

I’ll have to update you some more when there’s time!

]]> http://zackriesland.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/zaney-acrobatic-charismatic-kicker/feed/ zackriesland http://zackriesland.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/caption-please-2/ http://zackriesland.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/caption-please-2/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:24:48 +0000 Zack http://zackriesland.wordpress.com/?p=461

A Protestant from north-west Uzbekistan, Jandos Kuandikov, was arrested on 14 June and is still in detention before facing criminal trial on terrorism charges, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Uzbek police have also recently falsely accused a Protestant refugee in Kazakhstan of terrorism charges. Amongst other recent violations of freedom of thought, conscience and belief, four Baptists in Tashkent Region - Natalya Ogai, Filipp Kim, Dmitri Kim and Nurlan Tolebaev – have been fined and sentenced to ten days’ imprisonment, because of their peaceful religious activity. Fines continue to be imposed on other Protestants. However, in a highly unusual move, a court in the capital Tashkent found that charges against a Protestant had been fabricated and ordered police to be punished for this. But members of Tashkent’s Hare Krishna community have been banned from taking part in a music and environment festival.

Read the whole article here

Here’s a video I made to show at church this past week.

You can read more about what’s happening in it here.

“12 Sins We Blame on Others” is a good, quick read over at Desiring God. Go have a look!

#5 in particular probably hits most of us between the eyes:

5) Spiritual Apathy

My spiritual life would be so much more vibrant and I would struggle with sin less if my small group were more encouraging, or if Sunday school were more engaging, or if the music in the worship service were more lively, or if the sermons were better.

About a week ago I started this story at Starbucks. I wrote until my Pike’s Place was gone and the post looked unreadably long, and decided I would just finish it in a part 2.

So… here we go.

As I said, about three weeks after interviewing for a job with a company that I had never even heard of before, I got a call.

And the timing was great, because Steph and I were having a very crappy day. (If you’re single, brace yourself for certain days in marriage where you and your spouse both love each other and really don’t have anything against each other, but it’s like there’s some demon of communication in between who takes everything you want to say and makes it sound unloving. So you spend the day feeling like your spouse is mad at you, and you’re mad at yourself because you know they feel the same way.)

Anyways… one of those kinds of days, and I got a call with a job offer! I would never put my salary on my blog, but to give you an idea of how God dreams differently, I’ll put it this way: I’m up for another raise at work right now. The raise I’m getting by taking this job is 5 times as much as the raise I would get by staying. Plus the benefits are a little better, and I’ll get a little more time off.

On top of that, the new company has already worked with me to help me line up some time off to go with our youth group to Chimney Rock for a long weekend, and also to take a week off when our little peanut is born.

So, where will I be working?

This Tuesday, I will be working at Gilbarco Veeder-Root.

What will I be doing there? Good question.

I will be writing software for these:

“But Zack” you say. “Software in a gas pump? What’s up with software in a gas pump?”

Great question. Ask me again in about 2 weeks and I will have a great answer for you!

That makes this my last week at IIS. It’s been a great job and I’ve really enjoyed the friendships I’ve made everything I’ve learned about developing software. But I know they’ll be just fine without me.

In fact, I’m not really sure too many folks will even notice that I’m gone.

So praise Jesus with Steph and I for being a great, great Provider. And pray that I will excell at this job and that God will use it to spread passion for His glory among the people I’ll be working with!

Hey Kids,

If you consider yourself to be part of the Calvary Chapel of Raleigh community, and you sit in front of a computer on a regular basis, then you should join the Calvary Chapel of Raleigh facebook group. It’s simple, just click here and join!

What’s that? You don’t have a facebook account? Well take off those bell bottoms and join the 21st century! I personally guarantee addiction within one week or your money back… especially since it’s free.

I’ve read on three blogs (here, here, and here) that Louie Giglio and Chris Tomlin will be starting a church fellowship together.

Human3rror reports:

It’s true.  Chris Tomlin announced today, in a partners/members meeting after the 9:30am service, that he is planning to leave the Austin Stone Community Church to pursue God’s calling to start up a new church with long time friend and partner Louie Giglio in the Atlanta, Georgia area.

Has anybody else heard this?

I’m skeptical, but really excited!

I had a terrible, terrible day so far today.

The kind where, out of five stars, it gets one finger up.

The kind where, on a scale of one to ten, it’s like a punch in the face.

So I got in the car today, and I had a text message from one of my best friends, “Call me as soon as you can.”

So I called him.

“Hey man, what can I do for you?”

“What do you mean?”

“God has really put you on my heart today, so I was wondering if I could do something for you.”

So I whined about how much my day sucked.

And he prayed for me.

And that’s how the Kingdom works…

I saw this poster when Steph and I were walking around the mall the other day.

It made me kind of angry, and kind of ashamed of my country…