MARCHing Ahead
Pun intended of course. And I am sure, pun taken. This is the MARCH newsletter, recording for posterity the fun we’ve had during the month, as a look back at the look ahead.
For the first week, my wife had conspired to get tickets to see Hamilton the Musical. It was a birthday present for my mother-in-law. She got three tickets, but I refused to go, not having any idea what it was, or how any movie about some minor dead guy from the Revolution could be interesting. So they invited my daughter. I provided transportation, and drove three generations of women in my family downtown to the Orpheum to watch it. We left in plenty of time, but being a man, and having driven this route for 20 years, I drove by memory, which is why instead of ending up in downtown Memphis we ended up in Arkansas.
Go figure, they completely changed the interchange and there was no way to exit. So we came back via I-40 and managed to find the theater. I promised to pick them up when the show was over, and came back in plenty of time, which meant I had to circle the block over 50 times waiting for the people to get out. Gee, a lot of people went to see this thing.
The next night, on my wife’s prompting, we watched Hamilton on Netflix I think. I shouldn’t have dissed it; it was in a word amazing. My favorite song in the whole movie was, “I’m Not Throwing Away My Shot.”
Oddly enough, I ended up back there the following week.
I work for a major manufacturer who also happens to be an ESOP company. For those of you not in the know, That means Employee Stock Ownership Program. All employees, from the guy on the line filling product to the Order Picker picking that product, to the Customer Service rep entering the order the guy is picking, to the accountant to the programmer to the president, we ALL own the company. Or at least little pieces of it. So we all have a vested interest in making the company grow. Even more than the regular employees at say WalMart.
It was the first time we’d had a stock holders meeting outside of the company, but the news was pretty good, so we had it downtown by the Orpheum. It was pretty bizarre showing up at the Halloran Center, when I’d just been circling it like mad the previous week.
The month of March was spent pretty heavily, many late night hours, working on Customer Forms like Confirmation, Acknowledgement, Packing Slip, and Invoice, for one of our divisions, which we were in process of converting from AX2009 to Microsoft D365. This made writing and composing music pretty difficult, so my creativity was channeled into getting these forms the way the users wanted them.
That took quite a bit more trouble than I thought. The system uses Microsoft Word to handle these forms, so with over TWO MILLION words in print, you’d think I had a handle on it. But the process taught me more about tables, forms, formatting, and pixel-level positioning than I ever thought I could learn. Word has a LOT of features most people do NOT use regularly.
Well, I’ve still been busy writing, even with limited time. I’ve crafted multiple new puppet shows, and while we’ve been practicing for a Convention in April, we’re also working on an Easter Show for when we return, and I’m working up generic ones for Library, Back to School, and some other holidays. Also ones focusing on specific issues, like Pride, Greed, Anger, and Fear.
I’ve continued to work as I can on the fourth book in the 3-6-5 Devos series, 365 Proverbs for Daily Living. I’m trying to keep these devotionals in the forefront, so that they can encourage others, and also to keep my own feet on the straight and narrow. Because, not surprisingly, while writing devotionals to help encourage Christians and deepen their lives, it does even more for me.
I’ve also continued to read and edit the 365 Promises of God, working on a delivery date of sometime in October, before the Christmas rush. Our busy lives try to get in the way of this, but we’ll continue to persevere.
Marketing Stuff!
In preparation for our trip to Illinois for the PAACH Convention, I’ve created a set of Bookmarks to hand out. As you can see I’ve also been playing around with QR codes. Hopefully as people think back on an event they attend they’ll remember my booth and the good uplifting books there, and give one of these QR codes a scan.
Second Chances
So, I’m going to leave you with the words to a song that you’d hear in the Secular Easter Script for Rexx & Jester, a show entitled EGG Static.
The song is called, “Second Chances”, and, whether you are a kid or an adult, whether you are a Christian or not, it’s something you should consider offering to others. Because without second chances there would never be an opportunity to do things better.
SECOND CHANCES (capo 7 G) (Rexx)Every spring I see the flowers as they push up through the snow And I realize another winter’s just about to go And the brilliant green of tender grass reminds me every year The mistakes in last year’s yesterdays can all but disappear (Rexx) In Second Chances I get from you (Jester) I get from you (Rexx) When you offer me forgiveness for the stupid things I do Those Second Chances (Rexx)You get from me (Jester)You get from me (Rexx) Well I know it sounds SURPRISING But then BOTH of us are FREE! (BOTH) Free of anger, unforgiveness Of the bitterness and pain Give each other Second Chances And we’ll be good friends again! (Jester) Every morning when I wake up And I start another day I remember it’s a chance to start anew along my way All my failures of my yesterdays remind me to be true And forgive as I’m forgiven! I know I will get from YOU (Jester) Those Second Chances (Jester) I get from you (Rexx) I get from you (Jester)When you offer me forgiveness for the stupid things I do (Jester) Those Second Chances (Jester) You get from me (Rexx) You get from me (Jester) Well I know it sounds SURPRISING But then BOTH of us are FREE! (BOTH) Free of anger, unforgiveness Of the bitterness and pain Give each other Second Chances And we’ll be good friends again!