http://www.ubervice.net the best tips and advice for a simpler, more efficient, more abundant life Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:06:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/12/10/winter/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/12/10/winter/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:39:33 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2846 To me winter means three months without sunlight. Three months of driveway shoveling. Three months of double-long commutes. Three months of wondering whether this will be the day I drive into a ditch for the third time (What? You haven’t done that before?). Three months of bulky winter coats. Three months of salt marks on my shoes. Three months of our dog Monty dragging me like a dogsled through the snow on walks. Three months without my bike or my running shoes. Three months of chapped lips. Three months of depression. In short, I’m not a big fan of winter. Read More>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/12/10/winter/feed/ 3 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/26/a-note-from-thanksgiving/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/26/a-note-from-thanksgiving/#comments Thu, 26 Nov 2009 16:00:23 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2818 Hi, I’m Thanksgiving and today is my day. I don’t usually get a lot of publicity outside of today, and that’s usually the way I like it, but there are some things going on with the other holidays that I don’t really appreciate. It’s time for me to step up and be recognized for what I am: the best holiday on the calendar. It didn’t used to be this way; there was a time when I was clearly no better than 3rd or 4th on the list, but times have changed. Read More>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/26/a-note-from-thanksgiving/feed/ 0 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/19/adventures-in-awful-csi-miami/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/19/adventures-in-awful-csi-miami/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:13:27 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2804 I am so excited about this week’s Adventure in Awful. CSI Miami holds a special place in my heart. It is one of the most poorly written and acted shows on television, and I can’t get enough of it. It is half drama, half unintentional comedy. It’s kind of like eating Kraft Macaroni and Cheese: you know it’s not high quality, but man is it enjoyable. Most of the plots have more holes than the Bills’ defense (ah, making fun makes the losing hurt less). If the methods they use to catch killers were actually possible, there would be no crime in our world. On a weekly basis, they perform an impossible miracle of science. Read More>> ]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/19/adventures-in-awful-csi-miami/feed/ 2 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/12/adventures-in-awful-ditching-people-for-tools/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/12/adventures-in-awful-ditching-people-for-tools/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:00:02 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2775 I ditched you last Thursday. But you shouldn’t feel bad: you’re not alone. I ditched my friends on a cider-making date; I ditched friends on our football watching the following day; I ditched friends going to the movies. I ditched church; I ditched my diet (not that I normally eat well, but I survived the last 2 weeks on a straight Mountain Dew diet); I ditched things that I’d rather not report publicly; and I even ditched Bridget (but not in the “I’m leaving you” way, just in the “I’m not spending quality time with you” way). Read more>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/11/12/adventures-in-awful-ditching-people-for-tools/feed/ 0 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/29/adventures-in-awful-autotune-eggnog-and-masterminds/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/29/adventures-in-awful-autotune-eggnog-and-masterminds/#comments Thu, 29 Oct 2009 04:34:37 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2705 For the past few weeks I’ve had a running list of items to include in an Adventures in Awful post, but none of them seems to justify an entire column, so here is a nice little collection of Adventures in Awful to mull over. Next week I’ll be back with a focused post that stays on a single topic – promise. 1. Auto-Tune – if you have never heard of auto-tune, it is a voice-recording program that helps achieve perfect pitch. In other words read more>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/29/adventures-in-awful-autotune-eggnog-and-masterminds/feed/ 1 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/22/adventures-in-awful-my-opinions/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/22/adventures-in-awful-my-opinions/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:00:49 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2662 Do you ever get sick of hearing yourself talk? Of hearing your own opinions? I’m there today. It’s not that I am talking too much; in fact, I’m a pretty quiet guy, so talking too much isn’t exactly a risk for me. It’s more that I feel like everything I would say is entirely fluff. We live in a crazy world where there are voices all over the radio and the TV spewing their opinions and thoughts about every conceivable topic. There are people vomiting opinions on their blogs and web pages (sheesh, who would do that?), and sometimes I get caught up in the sea of opinions and unsubstantiated claims, truths, and new angles. Then, usually, I get to a point where I just crave silence. I don’t want to hear anybody’s opinions, and, even more importantly, I don’t want to hear my own opinions. read more>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/22/adventures-in-awful-my-opinions/feed/ 1 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/15/adventures-in-awful/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/15/adventures-in-awful/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 04:00:24 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2603 For today's edition of Adventures in Awful, I'm going with a little bit of creative writing. What follows is a story that I wrote for my students at school about something that happened on our family farm when I was about fifteen. It's not a fun story, but it's a true story. I guess if I have a point today, it would be that sometimes we get the idea that if we are doing our best or, as Christians, if we have enough faith, then life will go the right way. Truth is, sometimes it just doesn't work that way. Sometimes our best efforts end in a big pile of failure and it can be confusing, sad, difficult, discouraging. In a weird way, I hope this story is encouraging to you; I hope it lets you know that failure happens and it's our job to work through it and recover from it. Happy reading! read more>> ]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/15/adventures-in-awful/feed/ 1 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/08/adventures-selling-out/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/08/adventures-selling-out/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:00:43 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2557 Bridget (my wife, in case you don’t know) has frequently stated her desire to have Jillian Michaels from Biggest Loser be her personal trainer for one day. If you’ve ever seen Biggest Loser, you know Bridget is crazy to ever wish this upon herself. Jillian Michaels devours people. She is a human pit-bull, barking orders, snapping at people, ruthlessly going in for the kill. Whether Bridget is crazy or not, I must admit that I kind of like Jillian Michaels – not the marital infidelity sort of like, but the I-think-she-could-bench-press-me kind of like. read more>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/08/adventures-selling-out/feed/ 4 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/01/adventures-in-awful-nice-lyrics-genius/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/01/adventures-in-awful-nice-lyrics-genius/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 04:00:30 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2495 If you happen to drive by me on my way to work in the morning, you might just catch me doing some head-bobbing, steering-wheel-drumming, early-morning singing. See, I have a problem – I like hip-hop music. This might not seem like a problem, but you have to understand that I grew up on a farm way out in the country, so it makes me look like quite a poser (rhythmically challenged poser) when I am head-bobbing to hip-hop. The other part of the problem is that the first time I hear a song, I just listen to how it sounds, and usually I like it, but by the third or fourth time I hear a song, I begin to listen to the lyrics – major trouble. read more>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/10/01/adventures-in-awful-nice-lyrics-genius/feed/ 3 http://www.ubervice.net/2009/09/24/adventures-in-awful-the-meeting-killers/ http://www.ubervice.net/2009/09/24/adventures-in-awful-the-meeting-killers/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:00:53 +0000 petestrub http://www.ubervice.net/?p=2432 I look forward to Tuesday meetings like my dog looks forward to baths. At first he tries to run when he realizes what I have in mind, then, as I push him toward the bathroom door, he scrapes and claws to get away, then, when I close the door, he realizes he is defeated and hangs his head to endure the watery torture. This is how I feel every Tuesday and if it wasn’t unprofessional to run from meeting rooms and try to claw and scrape my way out, I would do it. Instead, I just have to submit to defeat every Tuesday and march my dejected bum into our staff meetings at the school where I teach to endure the verbal torture. read more>>]]> http://www.ubervice.net/2009/09/24/adventures-in-awful-the-meeting-killers/feed/ 2