grace.kindness.peace.disruption.pain.processing.rinse.repeat.have a nice day.

I have arrived. Soon after landing in Chicago I jumped in Dillons' forlorn car and headed toward Indianapolis. After a slight miscalculation with the directions that I will henceforth refer to as the Burker King Run, I was on my way. Arriving in a city of familiar sites was a little strange, but good. I look forward to catching up with some old friends over the next few days before heading south to Missississississississippi. .. Off to bed …

While in Sierra Leone I made a friend that worked for a sports ministry. He came from England to teach cricket to the local youth. However, when the Salonean cricket "powers that be" saw his skill, he was asked to help coach the national cricket team. I know very little about cricket and that I do know comes from the attempted explanation by my Indian coworkers using broken nacho chips as props. In any regard, I respect men that can wear sweaters in the African heat for 8-12 hours at a time. The fact that they're moving around to play a sport only adds to my respect. But I digress …

Back in March of this year, the volunteers from his ministry met with the Sierra Leonean national football (soccer) team to pray with them before they went to Australia for the Commonwealth Games tournament. During this visit he beseeched the team members to return to Sierra Leone when the games ended. None of them made any promises to do so. In fact, at least one turned to him and asked, "seriously, would you want to come back here?" My friend was left speechless. The heartache, the despair, the lack of hope, the hardness of the situation – would he really want to come back here if he didn't have the opportunity to leave? Once in Australia, at least fourteen members of the team sought asylum, refusing to return to Sierra Leone.

The question posed by the futbolista strikes at the heart of the hopelessness of majority world nations (2nd & 3rd world nations). If you have the opportunity to better your position in life, you take it no matter what the cost. Even if doing so adds to the hopelessness of all those you leave behind. National sports teams have the opportunity to raise national pride and hope, motiving their fellow citizens. When they leave on terms such as the these, it perpetuates the impression that the current situation in Salone is something to escape from rather than work to improve. The cycle of hopelessness continues.

Do I have answers? No. Do I condemn these fourteen men? No. I cannot say that I wouldn't have done the same thing if I were in their cleats. They wanted hope, just as all do. Unfortunately, they may have been able to provide that which they sought to many more if they had returned to their home country.

Recently, Australia offered ten of the fourteen asylum. The verdict is still out for the remaining four.

The words "catalytic" and "converter," when used together by your mechanic, typically aren't good news … unless they are followed by the words "warranty," "under," and "covered" … pretty much in any order. So I'm off to Cannon Beach where I will join the Goonies in a secret ritual which involves a short dance of public humiliation and a tasty side dish of chocolate eruption ice cream … 4×4, bullet holes, rocky road!!! I'm cleared to travel and will solve my emissions woes in Seattle.

As many of you know, I added more fruit to my diet in September 2004. Ever since then life has been just a little better, at least in the area of the personal computer. My ones and zeros are in order. After years of complaining about Apple computers, the find people in Cupertino heard my cry and answered by completely reworking their operating system, basing it on FreeBSD. That's a lot of mumbo jumbo that translates to they made their OS rock solid with all the power and flexibility under the hood that you could want. They also have the corner market on cool, which helps reduce the cognitive dissonance. After two years (on Sept 13th), it still has my admiration and love. Ok, I know … I have issues.

In any regard, one of the aspects of owning a beautiful 15″ Powerbook (or any Apple product, I would hope) is the customer support. Apple consistently ranks higher than all PC makers in customer support, something I noticed well before owning my own. In the two years I've owned my machine I have had to send it back to the manufacturer two times. Now, you might think to yourself, "well Matt, what a pain in the butt and piece of pooschnickens. How can you be in love with something that would break your heart so?" (I'll resist making the beautiful analogies to my relationship with Jesus at this point.) But wait, hear me out. Each time it has gone back, Apple hasn't give me any hassle and the machine is shipped overnight both ways. I get it back in a matter of days good as new. The speed and quality of the customer service amazes me each time, not allowing me to become annoyed with the mere fact of having to send it back. Now, to be honest, none of the problems with my laptop were critical, stopping me from doing my work. If that had been the case, I may not be as satisfied. But as things stand, that did not happen and I am quite satisfied.

Which brings me to the reason for this post. The recent battery recall of Apple Powerbook & iBook batteries has affected me. And again, I am more than satisfied with the way in which Apple handles such inconveniences to its customers. I type in my details, am confirmed that I'm affected, enter in my mailing address, and wait for a new battery to be mailed to me. Once I receive it, I send back my current battery in the to be provided packaging. I pay for nothing. Convenient. Simple. Done. This "inconvenience" comes as a wonderful convenience for me. You see, as computer batteries get older they lose their ability to hold a charge. At two years old, mine still holds a charge for about 2 hr 15 min, but a new one will increase that nicely.

Since I purchased my computer I've been surprised how Apple products and software "just work." Several others that have made the switch respond using the same words: "it just works." Now it's not perfect, but sliced bread has nothing on this thing. Even in the midst of a huge recall that will cost them millions, they treat the customer as number one. Apparently when it doesn't work, it still just works.

Thanks to Andy for turning me on to a new band with a good sense of humor and the talent to back it up …