Matt’s Blog

When I started working at The Empire© I learned that we, like most major tech companies, have people called “Evangelists” whose sole purpose is to get other people (read: potential customers) excited about our products. I must admit, as someone who comes from a Christian background, the idea of that particular term applied to business was a bit unsettling. But come to find, it’s a pretty common practice across the industry and after all, it is a pretty good description of what they do.

But it did cast an interesting light on a debate that the technology world been involved in for a long, long time. A debate that, at times, has taken on the ferocity of a religious jihad. A debate with the power to take normally rational, even-tempered people and make them so angry they are red in the face, and makes normally cordial people behave like complete asses. A debate that has weakened many friendships, and even destroyed some. Yes, the never-ending debate: Microsoft vs. Apple/Google/Linux/salesforce.com/Open Source…

I’ve usually tried to stay away from this debate when it came up. Typically in my fraternity someone would spark it every few semesters via our e-mail list, and I would do my best to ignore it. But now that I work for one side of the issue I’ve become a magnet of sorts for this kind of thing. It’s as if someone taped a sign to me that says: “Hey, please be a complete ass to Matt about the company he works for, I’m sure he’ll think your little joke/barb is soooo clever.” Recently I feel that additional signage has been added that reads: “Please also be sure to mention any of the Apple commercials created to compete with Windows 7 as I’m sure he has not heard of them and will appreciate you bringing their insults about his employer to his attention. Their logic is so sound he will have no choice but to abandon his beliefs and his paycheck and go out, buy a black mock-turtleneck sweater, and become a devoted worshiper of Steve Jobs.”

Allow me to clue you into something. I work for Microsoft. I like Microsoft products, I get a lot of work done with them and I like using them. I’m highly unlikely to agree with you when you make baseless claims about the lack of quality in of our products or the deficient intelligence of our employees. This goes double if what you are saying is straight from a competitor’s advertising campaign.

Some might argue, “Well Matt, you brought it up. What did you expect me to say when you expressed excitement about Windows 7/Office2010…?” Which makes me wonder what in the hell is wrong with being excited about the products made by your company, products that you often have invested much of your time and energy into? What, have I somehow insulted you with my excitement or do you just like arguing?

Apparently yes. How many times have I heard this:

“Oh but Matt, you don’t understand. Macs are just so much better than PCs. They just work! I was so frustrated with my old PC, and now that I’ve switched I’m so much more productive and so much less frustrated.”

Now I don’t know about those productivity claims, my opinion is that the most productive machine would be one on which facebook.com is inaccessible regardless of underlying operating system. But seriously, professional productivity is very difficult to measure quantitatively and personal productivity is even more difficult to qualify. Sure you can come up with some task that used to take you hours to complete on one OS that only takes you 15 seconds on another, but I’m sure there are other areas you aren’t keeping track of (or, in your love of the machine, intentionally overlooking) where you are spending a lot of extra time/money. And as for frustration, let’s be honest; computers are frustrating no matter what’s running on them. I used to have a Windows Mobile phone and I swore at the thing regularly for all its flaws. It was slow, it didn’t browse the web very well, there were no apps for it, it crashed, it hung and it did a lot of other infuriating things. So I switched to an iPhone looking forward to enjoying the “never-ending bliss of Apple Computer’s flawless design” and lo and behold it was awesome. Until it dropped a call. And then another, and another, and… Now my iPhone regularly drops calls at such a prolific rate that I joke that I have yet to complete a conversation longer than 30 seconds without experiencing the “iPhone Tax”. And that’s not the only problem with the device. Applications crash, the web browser is slow and auto-refreshes pages when there is no need to, some basic things take forever to load, and it’s even crashed itself a time or two. Now I’m not hating on Apple. I’ll freely admit that with all its flaws, the iPhone is still a great product (still better than WinMo), but it’s not a perfect product and I’d never be willing to destroy a friendship over it. It’s a tool, used to conduct tasks.

Which leaves the question: Why are people so devoted to products that are basically a heap of sand and plastic?

And then it occurred to me, this isn’t a debate about technology, it’s a debate about theology. All these snarky and emotional comments from consumers aren’t about technical issues; they are the religious arguments of the disciples of Macintosh, the followers of Linux, and yes even the devotees of Microsoft. Although, I must admit, I see far more dogmatic arguments out of the Mac and Linux camps than that of The Empire©. I don’t understand the complete devotion that people are willing to express to what is basically an appliance. For the most part the selection of computer systems has little effect of the lives of most people. My choice of personal computing device does not greatly affect your life. If anyone should be upset it’s the person who’s livelihood is most likely to be directly affected by the choice between Microsoft vs. others; in short, me. Regardless it seems that most users are not going to rest until the entire world has been converted to their way of computing.

And the worst thing is that this technological idolatry has all the negative traits of religious devotion with none of the positives. Namely, it makes you kind of a self-righteous jerk. I can only assume that one or more of the following is true of people who completely devote themselves to a particular technological cause:

1. You are incredibly arrogant and assume that you can know everything about everyone’s job and how technology is employed in it. You know the best solution for everyone’s job, and you view others with the smug self-satisfaction that comes from knowing what solution they should have selected.
2. You are incredibly ignorant and can’t imagine anyone else having a different experience than you. You view others with the smug self-satisfaction that comes from knowing that you have such high requirements that what is good for you is good enough for everyone else.
3. You think yourself more intelligent than everyone else because you have made the “right” selection of device for personal/professional productivity and everyone who disagrees with you is too dumb to realize their error. You want everyone to know how smart and clever you are, and you view others with the smug self-satisfaction that comes with being so much smarter than them.
4. You were much luckier than everyone else in that you chose the “right” device even though you didn’t know it was the right device at the time you chose it. Everyone else was either too dumb, or just unlucky to have not made the right choice and you view them with the smug self-satisfaction that comes with being right.

Of particular interest to me is the religious-ness of the debate which is essentially about which productivity tools are best. Now, I’ll be frank: The only reason I don’t have a Mac right now is that I can’t afford one yet. There are a lot of things that are easier on Macs and I hope to get one soon. I don’t hate Macs, I don’t love PC’s. They are TOOLS that are useful for conducting various tasks. Granted, there are some things that a Mac is better for than a PC like video editing, graphic design, audio editing, and other creative tasks. And there are things that I know PCs are better for office productivity, CAD design, data analysis (Excel), and simulation (Arena, VISSIM). And of course there are things that you can easily do on both. Now I work at Microsoft which means that the vast majority of my tasks are conducted using the Microsoft stack: Windows/Office/Visual Studio/MS SQL/SharePoint bla bla bla. I like my job, and I like our tools. I think that, for the most part, we create pretty neat tools for productivity in the enterprise. Are they always the best? No. Are they even good? Not all the time. But I am excited about our products, I try to work them into everyday tasks and I will always advocate for the use and improvement of them wherever possible. And all for good reason: they pay me.

But I’ll tell you what I won’t do, get mired down in debates about technology that ruin relationships. I think the whole argument is about as rational as trading verbal jabs with your friends over Craftsman vs. DeWalt.

Now all that said, I must say that I’m willing to accept a fair amount of teasing about my employer. After all, I work for “The Empire©” and it comes with the territory. Just consider this some friendly advice from someone who actually has a reason to be religiously devoted to a particular technology stack, but (mostly) chooses to put his relationships first.

Note: This was written last Friday, when I was traveling to Nashville. But since I didn’t have internet then, and had better things to do when I got to Nashville, I haven’t gotten around to posting it until today. Therefore: “today” = “last Friday”.

Today has not been the best day. It started out very early (3:30 am) getting up to get ready for a very early flight out of Seattle. Or, I should say, what was supposed to be a very early flight out of Seattle but ended up being a somewhat early flight out of Seattle due to mechanical problems. This of course meant that my rather loose connection in Minneapolis ended up being a very tight connection, actually too tight as I hustled up to the gate for my Nashville flight right as the door was closing.

Now those of you who have gotten up at such an early hour know how tolerant you are of even the smallest of problems. Yeah, so my limited patience was not really all that thrilled to have to deal with the missed flight. Add to that a headache from lack of sleep and I was not feeling particularly plesant, but the day was not done. Thankfully I was booked on another flight in the mid afternoon. Never mind that this flight was leaving Minneapolis when I was supposed to be arriving in Nashville, at least I had a flight out, right?

Well sort of. As the weather got worse my mid-afternoon flight quickly became a late afternoon flight, and then an early evening flight. The bottom line is that I’ll now be landing in Nashville 4 hours later than I had planned. And I’m certainly not any less tired.

Now you might argue, 4 hours? That’s nothing! And that’s kind of the point. In the wide world of things that could have gone wrong this is a relative non-issue. And that got me thinking. It’s very tempting to rant about all the incompetence of Delta Airlines maintenance or gate agents or whatever, or make baseless claims like, “that’s the last time I ever fly such-and-such airline.” But honestly, I don’t really feel any better afterwards, and it’s not likely anyone’s fault that the plane had mechanical problems, and it’s definitely no one’s fault that the weather wouldn’t cooperate. But that doesn’t mean that it’s any less frustrating to me, particularly when I’m tired and have a headache and don’t want to spend my day off in a weird airport instead of with my friends I only get to see every so often.

One reason this situation was so frustrating was that I had virtually no control and no options. I felt trapped. And as I thought about it (there was plenty of time for sitting and thinking) I realized that I, like the Delta employees, work for a company where our users are in mostly the same position. Many of our products are given to the employees of large companies where there is no option for other solutions, and by virtue of our market dominance in many segments users are forced to use our products, for better or worse, in their personal and professional lives.

We catch a lot of flak at The Empire© about our products, and most all of it is filled with frustration-infused vitriol. The internet is the great equalizer, only there can a trained journalist have the same exposure as the Apple fanboi (or, as I recently heard: ifanboi) commenting on the particle. But prodding aside, many of the complaints I read about The Empire© are strikingly similar to my, and my co-travelers, complaints about the airline industry today. Here are some examples I’ve heard recently where you could easily exchange “Microsoft” for “any particular airline”: “Microsoft employees are rigid, greedy, automatons working for a dying company that can’t innovate and just steals ideas from Apple and Google” or: “I’ve had enough of M$ and I’m switching to Linux/Apple/whatever…” or my personal favorite: “Windows 7 is just re-branded Vista.”

Now I would hope that most rational people would realize that these statements aren’t true. Creating software on any scale is an incredibly complex process, and there’s bound to be compromises that are going to leave people wanting something more, even at Apple (see: iPhone). But none of that really matters to the end users when they are forced to use something that’s frustrating and when they really don’t have any other options. So, while I can’t promise that the products produced at The Empire© will always satisfy, or even placate, our end users I can promise to understand that behind every vicious comment is a user who’s likely tired, with a headache, who just feels trapped in a system that seems illogical and very frustrating. And I promise that I, along with many of my co-workers, will be committed to doing everything that we can to make the experience a little better. If anything, today has taught me a great deal about what it means to be completely pissed at a major corporation.

Normally, when it comes to technology, I would agree with this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXStPqhLmIk

But recently some statements by AT&T likening data-hungry iPhones to Hummers, combined with my increasingly awful service, have driven me over the edge on this issue. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s being patronized. It’s rant time.

So AT&T is riding pretty high on its horse these days, now that they’ve finally announced the release date for their new cutting-edge iPhone feature… MMS. Yes, fellow iPhone users, only a few more weeks and you too will be able to do what you were doing for years before you purchased your iPhone and your fellow non-iPhone owning friends have been doing all along; that is, send and receive picture messages.

To announce the feature AT&T has trotted out their venerable spokesperson, the geeky Seth, who assures users that they’ve been “working around the clock” to address the issues. After a brief overview of how cell phone data networks work, which I can only assume is designed to impress the average non-technical user with how “complicated” what AT&T is doing is, Seth goes on to chastise iPhone users for being what is essentially the “Hummers” of the cell phone network guzzling down all of the bandwidth. According to AT&T you, yes you the iPhone user, are to blame for AT&T’s network problems.

You have got to be kidding me.

Is AT&T actually insinuating that iPhone users are to blame for the piss poor coverage that they have provided thus far? Please raise your hand if you thought that the iPhone would be anything other than a complete data hog. Waiting…. oh, I see no one has raised their hand, how surprising! EVERYONE knew that the iPhone would demand massive amounts of data, that’s probably one of the reasons that Verizon turned it down. AT&T have only themselves to blame for not adequately forecasting the needs of their customers.

In case you want to see the video of Seth, you can watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5yIVgj0VVA

My favorite line: “We have heard you and we are on it.”

That’s rich; Seth, if you were actually listening to us at all you would’ve delivered MMS back in July with the REST OF THE WORLD. AT&T has forgotten the cardinal rule of technical service, one that Microsoft has also learned the hard way: The customer is always right. I don’t care how hard it is to make it work, if you (or your partner, Apple… remember those slick iPhone commercials where people find restaurants in 5 seconds) promise something then you better be prepared to deliver or compensate your customer for lack of functionality. You must recognize that there are going to be hard decisions to make, and that those need to be disclosed to the customer beforehand so they can make a decision in full knowledge of the limitations they will face. Instead, like a fat kid on a treadmill, AT&T is always whining “it’s really difficult.” Really? THEN HIRE SOME SMARTER PEOPLE!

What’s happening now would be akin to my cable company telling me that there’s a high demand for NBC’s The Office on Thursday nights, so they might not be able to deliver, while also suggesting that I should keep paying them and keep trying and maybe I’ll get to watch a little of the show. After all, this whole broadcasting thing is really complicated.

The bottom line here for me is not that what AT&T is trying to do isn’t difficult or complicated. In fact it is quite difficult and complicated and completely amazing when it does work. My point is that you shouldn’t promise what you don’t know you can deliver. And you should recognize that customers don’t give a rip about how hard it is, they just want it to work; yesterday. Instead of chastising their existing customers for using too much data and complaining about how difficult it is to deliver service, AT&T would have done well to apologize profusely for not delivering and revise their marketing to be in line with what they can actually deliver. This would have gone a long way towards mending fences with customers like me who have yet to complete a phone call that does not get dropped at least once.

Switching to Verizon, there’s an app for that.

Disclaimer: For the most part I’ve never had any problems with Bank of America and find most of their basic services to be more than adequate.

Yesterday I received the replacement for my American Express as there was a potential that my personal information had been stolen and Bank of America (the bank through which I got the card) decided it needed to be replaced. All well and good, and that meant that I needed to call in to get my new card activated.

When I call the number I receive a greeting that says something about how activating my card will only take a couple minutes during which I’ll have the “opportunity” to take advantage of “exclusive” offers for “our valued Bank of America” customers. Sigh. Anyways, I proceed through the process which I swear used to always be completely automated, but at the end I’m transferred to a customer service representative who collects the important personal identification information and then proceeds to “initiate the process of activating my card.”

Then comes, you guessed it, the sales pitch. “Can I interest you in our ‘credit-protection-ultra-plus-super-protection’ plan. For only $0.95 a month per $100 of balance on your card we will pay your balance for a few months in the event that you lose your job or encounter some medical emergencies.” I thanked him for the offer but stated that I wasn’t interested. Mostly because I don’t carry a balance on my card and I wouldn’t ever need them to “cover my payment” whatever that means. But then it got better. He responds “Well based on your credit card usage this is a great value for you and I’d like to go ahead and get this setup on your account. There’s no charge for 30 days.”

Now usually I don’t take financial advice from customer service representatives… but this one comes with a 30-day trial… NO

I could not believe this. First, I have to call in to get my new card activated and instead of it being automated like nearly EVERY OTHER PROCESS I’ve done over the phone I have to talk to this idiot. Second, the correct answer to my initial rejection of the offer was:

“Thank you, is there anything else that I can do for you sir?”

Not:

“Oh, well you are clearly too stupid to realize that you need this so let me go ahead and set it up for you anyways.”

No, Mr. BoA Representative, I am too smart to fall for all the silly “credit protection” programs that only cost $12.99 a month and provide NOTHING. Even if they have a (laughable) 30 day free period. Unfortunately I was too aghast at the insulting tone of the customer representative to respond with anything other than a firm “No Thank You” which finally made him shut up.

How pathetic is this. Bank of America resorting to the use of people’s fears that they might lose their job or encounter medical problems to shill some crappy $10-a-month “protection” program.
Shame on you.

“…give it a second… it’s going to SPACE!”

Brilliant.

I spotted this over the Christmas Break, but just now got around to writing the actual post.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008551284_snowcleanup23m.html

Seattle refuses to use salt; roads “snow packed” by design

Some of my favorites:

But it turns out “plowed streets” in Seattle actually means “snow-packed,” as in there’s snow and ice left on major arterials by design.

“We’re trying to create a hard-packed surface,” said Alex Wiggins, chief of staff for the Seattle Department of Transportation. “It doesn’t look like anything you’d find in Chicago or New York.”

And it gets better:

“If we were using salt, you’d see patches of bare road because salt is very effective,” Wiggins said. “We decided not to utilize salt because it’s not a healthy addition to Puget Sound.”

Any why aren’t they using salt again even though it’s “very effective”? Because salt might run off into the Puget Sound (a “salt water estuary”) and make it more… salty. Shame.

On the positive side though, the Seattle Police don’t have to worry about contributing to greenhouse gasses anymore:

The city’s patrol cars are rear-wheel drive. And even with tire chains, officers are avoiding hills and responding on foot, according to a West Precinct officer.

Of course, I really feel sorry for the environmental types. I mean there’s so many ways we can screw-over the environment, sometimes it’s hard to keep them all straight.

“We never use sand,” said Ann Williams, spokeswoman for Denver’s Department of Public Works. “Sand causes dust, and there’s also water-quality issues where it goes into streets and into our rivers.”

So let’s assume that they are both right. Both sand and salt cause irreparable (snicker) environmental damage. Given that, which method would you choose? The supposedly environmentally harmful but ineffective sand or the supposedly environmentally harmful but “very effective” salt?

Yep.

Let’s get the week started off right. Here’s an article I wrote for the Technique’s “To Hell With Georgia” edition this year. The THWUGA edition is is a spoof of UGA’s student newspaper, think theonion.com compared with cnn.com. Enjoy!

Mark Richt Endorses Ford Trucks; Automaker Seeks Federal Bailout

WASHINGTON, DC – In testimony before congress last week Ford Motor Company President and CEO Allan Mullay detailed his company’s desperate need for an emergency bailout due largely to what he describes as the “catastrophic effect of Mark Richt’s endorsement of Ford trucks.” Mullay pleaded with lawmakers to pass a bridge loan package of nearly $25 billion to help keep Ford afloat stating, “The effects of Mark Richt’s comments on our company cannot be overstated.” Analysts agreed indicating that the total cost of the endorsement may top $50 billion before the automaker is able to recover. News of the imminent bankruptcy sent Ford stock plummeting in a dive that one investor described as “nearly as meteoric as the fall from U[sic]GA’s pre-season football ranking.”

The commercial in question began airing prior to the 2008 college football season and features Mark Richt, the head coach of the football team at the University[sic] of Georgia expressing his endorsement of Ford trucks. In an opening line comprised mostly of monosyllabic words, reportedly a favorite of the head coach, Richt declares: “I believe that sweat feeds the soul.” He goes on to express several of his key opinions and concludes by emphasizing: “I believe in Ford trucks.”

Richt responded to allegations that he had caused the near collapse of a major US automaker by stating, “I stand by everything I said except that whole mental toughness part. Mental toughness is for wimps!” When asked what he meant by the phrase “Georgia Saturdays, build Ford tough” he clarified that “Ford trucks are as rock-solid as the feeling of despair in Athens on Saturdays when your team only beats Auburn by 4 points, loses to Alabama by 11 points or loses to Florida by 39 points.”

The commercial, widely available both on TV and the internet had clearly impacted consumer confidence. Dan Williamson, a Ford Dealership owner in Los Angeles, California stated that sales this quarter were “flatter than Uga VI’s EKG reading.” He continued, “You’d think more Georgia fans would be buying Ford trucks just because Mark Richt told them to, but no.” Stephen Jackson, a small business owner in New Bedford Massachusetts, explained to reporters, “I was going to replace my company’s fleet with Ford trucks. I was impressed when he said ‘I believe in outworking the competition.’ But then I asked myself, ‘does winning by 7 points over South Carolina really qualify as outworking?’ And then there’s Florida? Seriously? Even Georgia Tech can beat teams from Florida.”

Many “students” found some aspects of the commercial confusing. U[sic]GA 34^th year campus wildlife studies major Clyde McDermott took issue with the commercial’s claim that Ford trucks had been on top of their game for 31 years. “We haven’t won a national championship since 1980 which is like… um.. a bunch more years than 31.” Others felt that more effective representatives could have been employed. “Ford might not be in so much trouble if they had stuck to their roots,” says Brandon Kearse GT Ramblin’ Wreck driver, “the wreck’s been going strong for nearly 80 years, outlasting 6 Ugas.” The wreck, a 1930’s Ford Model –A, is the well-recognized and highly regarded mascot of U[sic]GA’s in-state rival the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Mullay explained that the idea for the now-infamous commercial arose out of a retreat for top company executives. “We all got completely wasted up at my cabin one night and Bill Ford said ‘You know, we should have Mark endorse our trucks.’ and we all thought it was funny, but I never thought it would actually happen.” Responsibility for the commercial has yet to be established. “It’s pretty much a blame game down here” says Anna Neugyn, a Ford employee, “finding the responsible party is harder than keeping U[sic]GA football players out of jail on alcohol-related charges.”

Mullay stated that overseas sales remained largely unaffected. “We haven’t seen as big a losses in our foreign markets, probably because no one knows about U[sic]GA over there.”

Not everyone was upset with the commercial though. GM and Chrysler officials are reportedly in talks with Richt to extend the commercial run as long as possible. GM chief Rick Wagner praised the spot and calling Richt “our most effective representative.”

Ford’s stock was trading at 0.11 a share at the close of the market Tuesday, which is coincidentally the average GPA for students at U[sic]GA.

So, for the first time in eight years I did not vote for the man who was elected as our President. While many of my fellow political ideologues have expressed frustrations ranging from apathetic to really extreme frankly, I’m just glad that it’s finally over.

Now, for the most part during the campaigns I refrained from comment on the various candidates. I maintain no delusions that I have anything approaching a major platform from which to voice my opinion. The “readers” of this blog are mostly friends and family and so I saw no compelling reason to instigate major debate with speculation on the performance of those not-yet-elected. Now that the people have spoken though, I have some observations that I felt strongly enough about to share.

In the spirit of full disclosure I must admit that my political leanings are fairly strongly towards the conservative/libertarian side of things, and that on almost every issue I find myself directly opposed to President-Elect Obama. These opinions are not the result of some die-hard dedication to the Republican agenda (if such a thing exists anymore), but instead are based on my individual beliefs tempered by my own observations and my understanding of the way things work. I think it’s imperative that everyone think for themselves and not allow anyone, right or left, to write or speak their views for them. This is one of the key reasons I publish this blog.

That said, this isn’t an anti-Obama post. This is simply my reaction to the actions of those around me and my observations of the challenges facing Obama and all Americans as we move into this new political era.

On Outrage

I noticed two primary emotions among my friends who supported Obama immediately following the election. The first was joy (understandable, if slightly annoying) and the second was outrage. The outrage perplexed me a little. After all Obama won, what was there to be outraged over? His margin? I was somewhat confused until I remembered how much white people love to be offended.

Apparently those on the right weren’t nice enough when Barack Obama’s victory was announced. I know, I’m spoiling all the fun. Now don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of nasty, racist and inappropriate things said around me in reaction to Obama’s victory. But you can’t honestly expect me to believe that Democrats are blameless in their behavior towards the McCain-Palin ticket? And let’s not get into the response to Bush’s first or second elections which saw grossly inappropriate sentiment expressed for 8 years.

I would advise Obama supporters thusly: Welcome to being the party in power. You should probably prepare yourselves for a lot nastier criticism than has been expressed in the past few days.

And while we’re on the topic of respect for the President-Elect, I would like to take a brief moment to address the use of the “pray for our leaders” talk that’s been going around the Christian circles. Often this is accompanied by the Romans 13:1-5 admonition that you respect those in authority over you. Before I continue let me be clear: Do I plan on obeying the law? Yes. Do I plan on praying for and supporting President-Elect Obama? Yes, I believe 1 Timorthy 2:1-4 speaks directly to the prayerful support of our leaders. However, I must admit that I find people who expressed what was at best sly disdain for our sitting President and at worst a call for outright rebellion (impeachment), who have now turned to the “God commands you to respect Obama” a bit rich.

On Hope

A good deal of the Obama campaign centered around Hope (or was it change? I can never keep it straight…) But hope for what? A better world? A perfect world? While I was greatly impressed by the passion that Obama ignites in his followers I would hope that he, and all people, would recognize that there is only true source of hope, Jesus Christ (Psalm 130:2, Psalm 146: 5, 2 Thessalonians 2:12).

I’ve been reading in Romans the past few weeks and I cam across the following which I think is of particular relevance here:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Romans 8:18-27

The hope in this sense is not in the alleviation of our suffering through some political or sociological means. It is through “our present sufferings” that we are delivered into the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. If we possess the facilities to address or redress suffering in some capacity, then we should do so but only with the understanding that we cannot manifest God’s Kindgom of our own power, that duty is reserved for God Himself. To say: we cannot immanentize the eschaton. We read that, “hope that is seen is no hope at all” which is to say that we cannot hope in what we already have. If our hope is in Christ, then we cannot expect His promises to be fulfilled through any other means or our hope is not in Him. In other words, if Obama was capable of resolving all ailments then there would be no need for hope in God. Knowing this to be absurd in light of the previous passage is one thing, but the falseness of the claim seems less clear in the zealous words of our President-Elect.

Obama once made a claim that, “we are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” While I certainly understand the passion to encourage our own self-motivation to address the issues facing our country, I also think it important to stress that “we” are not the complete solution. If history has proven anything it’s that we as humans are utterly incapable of solving our own problems. Yes we may have averted disasters, or cured diseases, or won wars and defeated evil. But we still get sick, we still fight against evil and we still die. We will never achieve deliverance from the consequences and horrors of this life through our own effort, but through the power of Christ Jesus expressed in His sacrifice for us on the cross (Titus 2:13). Truly He is the one we’ve been waiting for.

To Conclude

I have written far more on this subject than I originally intended to so I will conclude with the eloquent words of a man with whom, on this subject, I completely agree:

I’m very proud to have supported Senator McCain and the only regret is that more Americans didn’t share my conviction that he would have made an outstanding President. I not only recognize, but respect that we are a nation in which the people choose and tonight they have chosen Senator Obama. He was not my choice, but he will be my President and I will pray for him to lead this great nation with God’s help and grace. He will face serious challenges to lead our country and he will need all Americans to give him a chance.

Governor Mike Huckabee, November 5, 2008

So Georgia Tech’s football team has finally beat the Seminoles. Amazing considering both the length of our loosing streak and the abysmally low expectations that were made about GT and the beginning of the season.

Now I don’t usually write about football for two reasons. First, I know nothing about football. Well maybe not nothing, I do know how the game works and what penalties are bad and such. But when it comes to stats and strategy and all those other things I generally sit back and let those with the expert knowledge make fools of people like me who know nothing but unlike me don’t keep their mouths shut. The second reason is that for a long time there wasn’t much to talk about in the world of GT football save how much I hated Chan Gailey and his piss-poor coaching. Talking about that would have gotten really boring, because he sucked the same amount each time we played so there would have been no variation.

But as I’ve patiently watched our team this year I’ve come to some realizations that I wanted to share. I must admit, at the start of the season I wasn’t expecting much. Not that I didn’t have hope that things would go well, I just figured that it would take a while for Coach Johnson to get out team up to speed. Well… that and I was constantly told that it wasn’t just Chan’s fault that our team lost, it was the players too. So naturally I figured that having the same players would mean that we wouldn’t see major improvement until Coach Johnson was able to fill out the roster with guys that fit his program.

Even so I maintained a tentative hope throughout the early season starting with our first legitimate win against Boston College. A hope which was bolstered by subsequent wins against Mississippi State, Duke and Clemson. I realized that regardless of our performance this season, which has already far exceeded expectations, I believe that Coach Johnson is one of the best things to happen to Georgia Tech football in a long time.

I like Paul Johnson for a lot of reasons. He’s passionate (some might say mean), he’s driven and he’s old-school. I remember overhearing a conversation between an Athletic Association staffer and a campus police officer early this summer regarding Coach Johnson’s changes to the program. The staffer was detailing the military-inspired discipline and focus Coach Johnson brought to the program. Just the thing needed for a team that saw false starts and offsides penalties repeated every game like clockwork and suffered from a quarterback who couldn’t count the number of downs in a drive. I also heard rumors of changes to the practice schedule from easy and optional to grueling and mandatory. It warmed my heart every time I got up early to run before work to hear the shrill bark of coach’s whistles wafting over from the practice fields.

Perhaps the largest source of consternation for most fans was what is (now affectionately) known as the “Triple Option” or just “the Option.” Frankly when I heard people freaking out over Paul Johnson’s use of the TO at Navy I couldn’t understand what the big deal was. Maybe I didn’t understand things enough (a distinct possibility) but I figured that Dan Radakovich knew what he was doing. After all, he did can Chan. I figured that the Option couldn’t be all that bad or Johnson would have been run out of college football long ago. But as I’ve watched the Option in action over the last few weeks I began to realize something. Something that came to a head as I read post-game articles from the FSU victory this weekend.

I really like the Option.

While many regard the Triple Option as an outdated technique, I think it’s perfect for Tech. There are several reasons:

Weird... but Passionate

First, it’s not stylish. No one else is doing it, and some might even call the Option a little weird. But that’s ok because here at Tech we’re all a little weird. We’re all about pushing the envelope and trying new things (or old things in new ways). Just look at the wreck parade. We really like doing things that no one else is and we’re not always concerned with the best-looking thing just the most effective.

Which leads me to point number two, the Option is effective. Just ask Jacksonville State, Boston College, Clemson… you get the idea. Yes, we lost a couple already. Might even loose more. But this is year one, just imagine how things are going to be in year two, or three, or ten. Here at Tech we like our success, and so far the Option is a winner.

But the most important thing is that at Georgia Tech, we don’t quit. For students who are more than willing to pull an all-nigher (or two) to finish an assignment, we have little pity for a coach or players or a team that won’t express the same dedication on the field. To me the Option represents a hard-core, old-school approach that seeks to win at any cost. We’ll run the ball to the right or the left or up the middle or we might even throw it, but no matter what we will fight. And Coach Johnson exudes dedication on the field, both in his empassioned rebuking of mistakes and his masterful employment of an offensive system that many said was better suited for the scrap heap.

It would be foolish to expect to win all the time. Any good Georgia Tech student knows this. But what we do want is passionate dedication to fight, no matter what the odds. I had hoped to get through this post without resorting to the tired “Perfect Option” line, but the more I think about it the more I realize that Paul Johnson and his “antequated” systems couldn’t be any more perfect for Georgia Tech.

Go Jackets, to Hell with Georgia!

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