Zachary S. Low’s Neighborhood

Aleah, Elijah and Miss Tehshawn

Leadership Is Servantship...

So, today was a great day at work. Very easy... too easy. Especially in the morning. So, I got put in an area where there's a conveyor belt and various brush handles, funnels, and those plastic things that hold change, beverages and whatnot are on it. I had to assemble blue brush handles and package them. Well, as I was sitting, waiting forever for my blue brushes to come on by, I sort of spaced out, and four of them passed by me. Very embarrassing. luckily, the lady below me on the assembly line caught them for me. But that's how slow the morning was for me. So after that, I stood up so I wouldn't space out again.

But today was so much better compared to yesterday. Yesterday, I had to assemble brush handles with squeegies on them. Four black handles would come out of the molding oven, and I had to put a brush and a squeegie on them. Doesn't sound too hard, but it was. It takes about thirty seconds to assemble four of them, and by the time you finish, four more come out of the oven. It's very fast-paced. You get behind by a few seconds, and forget it. You get piled up with black handles. Also, when you take out the handles from the oven, they're hot. So, my hands were burning constantly from the hot plastic. They still feel a little raw. That happened to me all afternoon yesterday. It was very stressful. But thankfully, there were people there who were willing to help me get caught up in my work. They made my job less stressful.

The most important thing I've been learning here at work is serving others. It's hard to serve others when you're working at your own machine, but I watch the supervisors at work. (I don't think they're called supervisors, but I don't know what else to call them.) They are amazing. All day they go around making sure people are doing their jobs right, making sure the product is being assembled correctly, making sure people have enough boxes for packaging, filling machines up with buckets of grinded up plastic and rubber, giving people breaks, and many other things. All day long, all they do is serve us workers. I've learned that leadership is about serving others. I learned this in masters, saw it in action, but outside in the real world, I had never seen it until I started working here at Hopkins. You'd think that supervisors would be onto people, bossing them around and all, but I've seen the complete opposite. And it has amazed me, and it captures my attention everytime I watch them at work.

Leadership is servantship.

Good Samaritans?

Good Samaritan

Scary }:O

Im watching my home openers youngest Isaiah. He is a good little kid but he can be a hand full, rite now he wants to watch spongebob on my computer. Can I do it, Are you done. Well anyways this one is going to be short. Just wanted to say hi to everyone Im ready for a new and exciting year at masters. Im looking forward to seeing old friends and making new friends its gonna be a great year. Okay okay I need to get off little mans getting a little crazy. Bye...for now!!!

NO TV

Tvdeath

Sitting here next to my daughter who has just recovered from an epic retarded fit due to the fact she has no tv to watch right now. Coming out of her ridiculous rage she now is snuggling and smiling, wondering what it is I may be doing tapping these various squares and symbols.

We got rid of the TV for a bit of time. I am sitting in my newly arranged living room now enjoying the looming absence in the corner that once captivated everyone's attention for hours each day. I say rearranged because the room just looked ridiculous with all the chairs facing the corner... they now face each other as if we intended people to sit in them and have actual conversations with other people.

Aleah just found a DVD and presented it to me... I think we are going into round two of her TV withdrawal episode.

I am curious as to how the extra time each night, and the diverse and more inspiring activities our children may engage in, and the more intimate or at least quiet conversations I may have with the kids or wife will affect our lives. Not that she is actually reading but Leah has a book in here hands as I type so maybe it's a good sign of the books we will read in place of the hours of mind-numbing spoon fed entertainment we had before. By the way I posted another more inspiring and informative post on the family meal here if your interested in these kinds of things.

Am I against TV? Am I one of those freaks...? No! I am a guy with a beautiful wife, three kids and another on the way wondering to himself if he may be missing out on something by giving at least twenty to twenty five hours of his 168 hours a week to a box of moving images and sounds. I am curious if the thirty plus hours a week Elijah (my 8 year old) has devoted to his schedule with video games, tv and movies this summer might be robbing him of something deeper and richer in life that will benefit him more in the days ahead. Will he be more of a man having spent this next weeks 30 plus hours reading, playing outside or interacting with his family. What if he then spends the next thirty and the next thirty and the next thirty... What if...?

Rationalize if you will but if you search deep enough these questions are most likely with you also... What may be missing? What may we be sacrificing in entertainment's stead...? That might be a very different picture I have used if I placed under the knife what prior to our fast from TV was being killed or silenced. Not to be too sick or extreme but connections, conversations, education, richness of relationship and quite possibly my children's more proper and healthy development could indeed be under the knife of our over indulgence in tv and movie entertainment.

I am not suggesting a complete abstinence but as for me and my house we will conduct an experiment to see if in fact we have been missing out on anything truly more important. We are conducting a little test... playing a little game...

I look forward to posting our observations and also sometime soon getting the TV back so I can watch Heroes and The Office. Until then wish us luck and consider how the over consumption of TV type entertainment may be swallowing up some very important things in you and your kid's lives.

I Always Want To Be Growing...

So, today was totally amazing!!! This morning after my family and I got home from church, we started talking about how our worship truly affects the atmosphere around us. It really does. All those times P. Lawrence talked about our worship affecting the atmosphere are starting to come back. But anyway, I totally went off on a speel about that. Then we got onto the topic of love and dating relationships, and I went off on another speel. Love and dating seems to be one of my favorite topics, especially with the youth. They have so little wisdom on the subject. I may not have any experience and all when it comes to dating relationships, but I believe God has blessed me with wisdom on the subject. And I also learned from watching others mistakes when it comes to dating.

But through many conversations throughout today, I've come to see the person that I have become this past year. I've learned so much!!! I am a woman who is steady and stable. I am a woman of wisdom. I know my convictions, and I stick to them. I know my beliefs and I stand firm in them. I am so much more mature in so many ways than my peers around me. I am proud of where God has brought me. But the cool thing about all this new discovery of myself, is that God isn't done with me yet. The cool thing is that I'll never be done growing. I will never be satisfied with where I'm at. I always want to be learning/growing in Him.

I ALWAYS WANT TO BE GROWING!!!!!!

Its 6:43 am and I just gotta say...Im back

William M
5 days ago
3 comments

I was gonna vox yesterday and got a little tied up, but I would just like to say "Hi Im back". I am going to start voxing again. Its something I should have never stopped doing at all. Its hard for me to Vox alot of times, but when I do it really helps me reflect on whats going on in my life. To God be the glory. Well I look forward to getting into the swing of things again. so look forward to reading my crazy thoughts and views. well TTYL

Dear Apple...

The iPhone 3G and Mobile ME are the two worst products you could have ever created. Their release was far too early and far too complicated. The affordability slapped on the new iPhone has caused mass amounts of idiots to come and sign their lives away on your glorious product.

While I love the iPhone and all the geekiness that goes with it, making this version cheaper has done nothing but harm to your loyal customers. Not only has this affected the coolness factor that so many of us elitist snobs enjoy, but it has ravaged your customer service phone lines, representatives and overall appeal.

It is almost impossible to enter an Apple retail store now due to the mass amounts of mindless PC using drones that want to look cool by owning an iPhone. I cannot take in my poor Macbook to the Genius Bar to have the battery checked due to this madness. In the past when I've made an appointment, there was no problem making it for the same day, later in the afternoon. I made one this morning at 10:00 am, and am forced to wait until late afternoon tomorrow to even see someone. I tried to call to talk to someone, but all the lines are held up because of the... LEGIONS OF MORONS MEANDERING ABOUT AND HOLDING UP ALL TECHNICAL SUPPORT.

Please go back being Apple, trying to be Microsoft is just a bad idea.

Apple Support

3 comments

About the author: Shawn is a cynical, and die hard Macintosh user. He expects his machines to function they way they are suppose to without a hitch, which is why he does not use Windows. A rant against Microsoft would be extremely explicit and vulgar and could have him arrested for malicious threats.

Exceptional Creatures; Severely Mistaken

Nathan Davis
Aug 11, 2008
4 comments

Supermanredson

Just finished reading a very thought provoking graphic novel titled Red Son. The premise is "what if Superman had been raised in the Soviet Union?" You can read more about the details of the story here. The moment I was introduced to the novel and it's basic idea I purchased it and read it in the same day. The primary reason for my eagerness in regard to this particular story has to do with the idea that "the stories we are exposed to shape our identity and view of the world (of what is good and evil even)."

Our culture and our view of ourselves, of what is possible or impossible, of what is beautiful or hideous, of what is morally acceptable or grossly evil is all shaped by the stories (the framed and stitched together ideas) we give ourselves to, and are surrounded by. I have shared the story of my son and how he underwent a transformation into the image of Obi Won Kenobi (a Jedi Knight from the story of Star Wars). He was so inspired by the story and the chief characters he actually thought he could use the force against his father who was attempting to discipline him. You can read more about that here.

In the Novel Red Son we see a Superman still very motivated to do good but a very redefined (communistic) form of good. This was the story he was raised in and hence his entire worldview and personality was reshaped. We need to consider our own lifestyles, positions (convictions), desires, opinions and morality in this light. What stories shape us most? We may as Christians read the Bible but at the same time be inspired by other stories, conflicting stories that hold more intimate and deep places of influence in our hearts and lives than divine truth. We possibly are being shaped and influenced by stories that have quite literally captured our ego and holds it hostage. Does the story of God as revealed in Scripture and through the gospel hold any form of shaping power in your life?

What level of influence does it have? What stories are there in our own culture (that may conflict with the divine narrative) that hold places of shaping influence over us? We must open ourselves a new and fresh to the shaping power of God's words and revelation. We must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This requires and honest opening to divine truth with the realization / confession that we are in desperate need of being re-programmed. We need to see and think through the lens of God's character and not the lies of an amazing architect of deceit (aka the Father of Lies).

The enemy of God is named this because he is a great storyteller and has been engineering very inspirational ideology that opposes God since the first conversation in the garden. We need the Spirit of Truth to lead us into all truth and truly make us a product of heaven as opposed to what we all once were and quite possibly still may be - exceptional creatures that are severely mistaken!

My Past Few Weeks...

So, once again it's been forever since i've last posted a blog. Nothing much has happened since my last post. Still working at Hopkins, and I'm actually enjoying it. I love the people. The majority of the people on my shift are hispanic, and don't speak english. So I have plenty of opportunities to work on my poor spanish. Sometimes I embarass myself when I talk to them. But it's all good. Maybe by the time I leave back for Oklahoma, I'll be speaking fluently. And I have two heros at work. Their names are Juan and Lester, the mechanics who always come to my rescue when my machine starts tweakin'. They're really great guys. Fun to talk to and they make the day go by a lot faster. But from working at this factory, I've really come to appreciate all types of work. I've come to respect people working in hard labor jobs, since I am now one of those people. I've also come to realize that I hate factory jobs, that I'm not meant to work in a factory because I have no manual dexterity whatsoever, and I'm clumsy. I cut myself at least once a day if i'm lucky from my knife, cardboard, or hot, sharp plastic. So, if I had any doubt about college before, I don't now! So, to all you kids out there: go to college, get a degree to where you can sit on your butt all day, or do someting you love, and get paid doing what you love.

Other than that, not much is going on. P. Israel, Erik, and Ninive are out of town this week, off to youth camp in Indiana!!! Really wanted to go 'cause I love Indiana, but I'm working now, so I couldn't. So, I'll be leading the youth service tomorrow night!!! I've never led a service before, but I'm pretty excited at the moment. I'll be nervous tomorrow though. But I'm excited nonetheless. I can't wait to share what I've learned with the youth, and what's been on my heart lately, which is how important my relationship with God is, and how my relationship with Him affects my relationships here on earth. So, I'll let you guys know how tomorrow goes.

That's all for tonight. Until the next time....