God, Who Rules the Heavens High

God, who rules the heavens high,
And the lilies of the field,
Be my sovereign King, I pray;
Make my stony heart to yield.

God, who knows my every thought,
Bid my troubled mind be still.
Bend my feet to seek thy throne;
Break my pride to seek thy will.

God, who sent his Son to die,
Make that gift for me not vain.
Cleanse from sin through his spilt blood--
Bring me to thy face again.

New digs

I'm really enjoying my new office so far. I didn't think it would make that much of a difference. After all, I previously had an interior view through the office across the hall to essentially the same view, as I only moved 30 feet down the hall. My new office is the same size, too, so no change there. But I'm really enjoying the nice view of the valley, lake, and mountains, as well as the nearby golf course. I have a great view that is unobstructed by any nearby buildings. I'm several floors up, too, so I have a good vantage point.

Maybe I'm enjoying it so much because this has been such a long, cold winter. It's nice to look outside and see the harbingers of spring: the grass pushing through the snow, the staff readying the golf course for another season, the buds forming on the trees in anticipation of warmer weather on the way soon. I don't have any major projects planned for the house this year, so I hope to spend more time outside enjoying the spectacular scenery in the West.

I'm also planning a short trip to Arches National Park in April, which should be nice. My kids have never seen the park, and my brother from New England and his family will be meeting me there, so the cousins will get to spend some time together. I myself haven't camped there since I was my son's age, so my brother and I will be reliving some memories in the desert.

Moving Day

My team has recently gone through a reorganization wherein we have been combined with another team. My former manager is now director of the combined groups, and one of my former peers is now my direct manager.

One upshot of this reorganization is that we are getting more space so that the combined groups can sit together. My team has had very little turnover since I arrived, but happily, there are just enough window offices now that by virtue of the combination of my pay grade and seniority, I'm moving from an interior office to one with a window. I was a bit spoiled with a window office on the 17th floor of a 20-story building in Salt Lake City in my last job, so I'm very happy to be getting a window office back after nearly two years in my current job.

I started moving yesterday and will finish on Monday. I'm using the move as an opportunity to reduce some of the clutter I've accumulated over the past couple of years. I'm not the world's most organized person, so I have several piles of clutter to get rid of. It's probably good for my image to do so, as I try to position myself for a promotion in the not-too-distant future.

Psalm 126

The last line contains a tweak from the text to identify the source of deliverance. Compare with the original...

When the Lord delivered Israel,
It was as a wondrous dream,
Filled with cloud and fiery pillar,
Parting sea and blood-red stream.

Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
And our tongue was made to sing.
Then said they among the heathen,
"God for them hath done great things."

Turn us, Lord, again from bondage:
Flaxen cords of sin that bind.
Bring us safe into Thy presence,
Blessed Savior of mankind.

Lost weekend

Well, my President's Day was less than exciting. Five of the six members of the family, including me, were sick for at least part of the weekend. On Friday, H and I were supposed to go to a local Japanese place that serves decent sushi, but S was sick with what we thought might be strep, so we didn't want to expose the babysitter. As it turns out, she didn't have strep, but she was miserable with flu-like symptoms for much of the time.

Only my older son and I went to church on Sunday. I didn't want to be there, but it was ward conference and I was singing with the choir. I used my voice very little during our warm-up before the meeting, and I expected not to be able to sing, but I got just enough voice back to do okay during our two numbers, fortunately. Hollie was sick and sent a counselor to ward council meeting, who ranted (accurately) about how little support the Primary has been getting from the bishopric.

Yesterday, I went with Gerilyn, my friend's wife, to look at some rental property in the area. They may make an offer or two, but I don't think I'll partner with them, as our goals are somewhat different. They may move back to this area from another state, so they want rental property which would meet that purpose, which potentially creates some sticky issues for me. I don't really want to be my friend's landlord if he rents the property himself, for instance. As I intimated in an earlier post, the friendship is more important than the business relationship.

Working with friends

I have a couple of friends right now who are talking with me about doing different projects with them on the side. Working with friends is always tricky, because the dynamics of the friendship sometimes don't translate well to a business project. For instance, one friend wants to buy some rental property, but he has a lot more capital available than I do. Consequently, we have different expectations about cash flow, management, how much we would spend on a property, etc.

I have another friend who wants me to do some legal document work for his business, but it's been tricky figuring out how and how much I will be paid. In the meantime, I've been doing a little work without an agreement, which is dangerous. Last time that happened, both this friend and I were the ones left holding the bag when we did a lot of work for someone we trusted and both got stiffed. That person has now been charged with a string of felonies out of a similar, but unrelated, incident. Just because someone is a friend doesn't mean you can jump in willy-nilly. You may lose both your friend and your money, like I nearly did. As it was, oddly enough, I ended up with a television worth about 5% of my work efforts.

Snow Day

As I shoveled 8 more inches of snow from my driveway this morning, I found myself wishing that my employer would call a snow day. My kids were hoping for the same, but alas, we were all disappointed, and it was off to school for the older ones and off to work for me. My "snow day" consisted of showing up about 10 minutes late to a team meeting. I don't remember the last time I shoveled so much snow in a winter. And sadly, I've only been skiing twice this winter, so I haven't even been able to enjoy it as much as I'd like.

Not the ideal way to start the day. Luckily, most of the sales guys I support are at a retreat on a tropical island right now, so the next few days will be a bit slower than usual. Fine by me. It's nice to have time to catch up on little things that build up on my desk from time to time.

Psalm 47

I plan to occasionally post hymns or psalms I've written. One project I'm working on is to essentially replicate the Psalms in modern meter and verse. Some are very close in content; others are more different. I suggest reading the Psalm along with my text for comparison.

Psalm 47
Shout to God with voice of triumph,
Clap your hands with sounds of mirth,
For the Lord subdues all people,
And is King o'er all the earth.

He shall choose our habitation,
We of royal Jacob's line.
Herald Him with sound of trumpet--
Bow before the throne divine.

Praises sing with understanding,
To the princes make Him known.
God, who reigneth o'er the nations,
Sitteth on His holy throne.

Welcome, Luddites!

I've decided to try writing a blog and see what happens. I'm not exactly an early technology adopter, which is not what you might expect.

In high school, I had a modem and used to hang out on bulletin boards before most people had heard of the internet. I worked my way through college doing tech support and have stints at IBM, Intel, and my current employer, a midsized international software company, on my resume. But now I am a lot more selective about my technology and don't really like changing how I do things just because a new gadget has come out.

I've kept a journal on and off since I was eight, and I wrote every day for many years, but I'm not sure how I feel about posting my thoughts for public consumption, so this experiment could be short-lived. Also, I wonder who is interested in the workaday routine of an in-house corporate lawyer living in the Rockies.

However, if you're still reading and stumbled upon this not knowing who I am, I'll introduce myself. I'm a happily married, thirtysomething, Latter-day Saint (Mormon) with four kids and a JD/MBA. I negotiate contracts for a living, and I enjoy board games, table tennis, and writing lyrics and poetry, among other activities. I consider myself to be politically a moderate Republican, though I've been on the campaign staff of a Democratic congressional candidate. I've lived for various lengths of time studying, working, or interning in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Oregon, and Utah, as well as Santiago, Chile and London, UK. After law school, I initially worked for a regional law firm, but I enjoy being in-house rather better.

Welcome aboard for a ride of indeterminate length and utility!