Randomized Harmony

Progress

Paul — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 05:20:47 +0000

I’m finaly making progress with OTK v3(Operations Toolkit V3). It took me a little while today but I finally got a feature working that I had in my head but could never do with the current architecture of OTK V2. This is domain substitution. What is that you ask?

As my company we use Xmedius for our e-fax solution. Unfortunately - and this is a big sad pile of fail - the interface to said application is a horrible MMC snapin with the ability to sort an already alphabetized list of email accounts - but no ability to sort or filter the list of actual data of accounts tied to fax numbers. Due to this (and other issues) whenever a company changes their domain - for example from @examplethisislong.com to @example.com - there is all of a sudden a disconnect. The data in active directory does not match that of our exchange environment which does not match our xmedius environment but matches our ad environment.

Big pain.

The exchange <-> ad environment sync is easy to accomplish(if not a little time consuming to let everything run) but it can be done easily.

The other portions - syncing ad(or exchange) with xmedius is highly impossible - especially without backend database access.

So that leaves us at a quandary - with data that is not easily updatable in an autonomous fashion - what to do?

When I first looked at the issue it was a daunting task - something which could and should not be taken lightly. But I had an idea (along with my idea for virtual role groups - another time perhaps?) to use domain substitution when checking email accounts against the read only version of the xmedius database. Obviously the substitutions would need to be stored in a database - and not just use the list of domains available (since jsmith@longexample1.org may be(and probably is) different than jsmith@longexample.org) in active directory.

this required some creative thinking and debugging - especially after running into a particularly nasty bug in powershell’s database methods used to populate an array with the results of a database query. For whatever the reason - the database query upon being fed into an array would always return the number 3262 - no matter what query I in fact was performing. Im not sure why this happened - but it took me a good while to finally find the exact line doing this. It didn’t help that the code I had written was running as a background task for powershell either I suppose. A simple |out-null was able to resolve the issue but it brought to light another fun issue.

Sometimes you can not plan for what the end user is going to present to you datawise. I know - I should know that already. I do- just that sometimes you need a good reminder - iin this case a good swift kick to the pants when debugging whould be enough to keep me in line.

I think this week - the ability to disable accounts will finally come to OTK V3 - the one major fun part of the whole process is going to be the disable triggers virtual machines I will need to create - have not created those in a while and I am looking forward to the challange.

Maybe one of these days I’ll post some screenshots to show how things are going.

Too Long

Paul — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:29:33 +0000

It has been too long - too long since I have done anything on here. I would like to say that I was too busy with life - but that is an excuse that has been used too much and too often. But I can promose this - life has been busy and it has been something that has not stopped. Especially now that I am officially an operations engineer - im trying to learn everything that goes with this role and at the same time trying to find a way to balance life and being a professional more and more.

One thing that has been great and I have enjoyed going full speed into is working on OTK V3 - and making it domain and setup agnostic. Its been a fun experience on making something from scrath and making it multi-threaded. That has been the key - as the interface no longer hangs when procssing and doing operations - operations that used to completly hang up the old version of the toolkit. Man - toolkit v1 was a start - but now that toolkit v3 is coming out - it will be something which will make even the current version of the toolkit look like something which was made by a third grader

Weighted Heart On The Eve Of My Birthday

Paul — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:53:10 +0000

Birthdays.

They only occur once a year and usually are a joyus occassion which you celebrate with family and friends.

This year, however, I find myself on the eve of my birthday with a heavy heart - and not sure if celebrating is the correct way to proceed at times. Whilst I know that it is never good to just dweel on the things in life which put you down (otherwise youd be in a constant depressive state) I also am a realist and know that some things - no matter how much you try - affect you more than others. As the clock is close to turning midnight signifying that I have survived another rotation around the sun on this planet called earth - things just keep weighing down on me and I just keep asking “why?”. I ask this - then remember - everything is out of my control. Actually, its out of every humans control. And in this I find hope. In the fact that God, in his infinite power and wisdom, is the one driving the whole thing - bringing together everything for good. Sometimes we don’t like - from a human perspective - what that looks like. Sometimes we see what happens and look and just wonder what is going on. And yet it is not the wondering which is wrong - as it sometimes can be a mechanism to draw us closer.

I don’t know what the future holds - God does - and while these items may weigh on my heart heavily - I know the ultimatly in the end - no matter my opinion or thought on the matter - God will have his final say in what happens.

With that in mind - if you do happen to see these words - pray.

Pray for the Boyd family - as David Boyd was swimming in a river in Arkansas and swept downstream. Pray as the search and rescue teams look for him - and by God’s grace - he is brought home safely.(For those who don’t know - he used to attend Fellowship Baptist Church in Racine until he moved down to AR. He is an amazing person who was always serving and you could see (quite literally) had a heart for God - and until I hear otherwise - I believe he is still out there waiting to be rescued) -http://www.baxterbulletin.com/article/20110526/NEWS01/105260315/Search-under-way-man-missing-Buffalo-River

Pray for the Davis family from Cornerstone University. Details are few - but Ryan Davis who worked at the campus died this past week unexpectedly.

Pray for my mother - shes undergoing surgery soon to remove a mass from her colon while at the same time doctors are finding more areas which are wrong and may complicate the surgery further.

Three things - all out of human control - and relying on the strength and power of God.

Three things to pray for.

Three things to think of.

And three things to watch God do miraculous things through.

Until then -

Paul

Operations Toolkit V3 - WEEE!!!

Paul — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:49:37 +0000

Well not too much. Life has been busy. But I do have one exciting thing to share.

A while ago I create a toolkit which is currently in use/employed by my work. It is version 2 of the Operations toolkit - and while it is somewhat good - it has many many shortcomings. One of many, is that everything (all the rules) are hard coded. Well that isn’t any good if it is to be used anywhere else right?

Well starting today - I am happy to announce that those limitations are being removed. The creation of the Operations Toolkit V3 is currently underway

The heart of the new version is based upon version 2 - but all settings are now stored in a database instead of being hardcoded into the code. The hope is that this toolkit will be flexible enough to be used by multiple locations/corporations with little not no modification of the code base. The code will be released free of course.

As I have more information - i will release it - currently - its under development and utilizes a .net framework windowing system. Yeah .NET!

Apple, iPad, money, politics, and hippies

Paul — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 00:50:10 +0000

Sometimes hippies just need to get a job. While Steve Jobs is telling hipsters how to spend their money - people are protesting for both worthwhile and worthless causes around the world. And then - well - lets have a quick thought on how people raise their kids as well! We really do need to get rid of hippies.

2011: The Year Of The Hybrids

Paul — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 22:51:13 +0000

No, I’m not going to talk about the new Ford Focus.

Recession and joblessness.

These are the words a good portion of the world is familiar with as the state of their employment the past few years. While the jobless rate is slowly declining(although one report shows that this may partially be due to the fact that some unemployed have stopped searching for employment - Source: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm )

One interesting point that the same report showed was that there are a few sectors which have increased in hiring - most notably hospitality, healthcare, and leisure. Others - at the time of the survey - had not shown a marked increase. With that in mind, it it interesting that most analyst are predicting that 2011 will be the year that the tech industry will pick up in its hiring - especially in the security and healthcare fields. (Source: http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/company-industry-research/2011-it-hiring-outlook/article.aspx) With that in mind - due to the expected increase - it becomes on natural that some companies may begin to offer perks and advantages to attract top talent both who are unemployed currently as well as from other technology minded companies. (Remember that I said 2011 would be the year of the brain drain?)

What this means for companies is that the iron rules of old are quickly falling away. In this post-recession society which we are slowly entering we have a few competitors for the technologically minded. We have companies which have delayed updates to their infrastructure looking to hire talent which will be able to quickly implement updated equipment/systems to replace their rapidly aging infrastructure. Other companies will be looking to once again implement complex projects or research - something that was unfeasible during the recession period as department budgets and payroll were slashed to keep companies operating. There will also be startup companies which will be reaching maturity or will be looking to ramp up their staff now that the economy is picking up. Startups thrive in recessions as people are displaced from their normal jobs and are allowed to innovate without interruption of a normal day job - but now that the recession is starting to end we will see hiring pick up even in this sector.

What all of this leads to is a job market which for the next few years will be volatile in the tech industry. New blood, as well as returning previously unemployed personnel, will be coming back into the workplace. While some analyst predict that this will lead to a buyers market (ie companies will not need to negotiate) - they are assuming that everyone entering the tech industry workforce is of equal talent. They are assuming that coming into the fray will be an equal number of project managers, helpdesk analyst, operations team members, network engineers, and engineers (both server configuration/running and programming). If you look at the report from Monster, however, you will notice that something big pops out in the upper half of the document. Most of the previous generation of tech employees who were laid off were managers - line managers, project managers, business analyst. In general (there are always exceptions) most of those who were laid off in those positions were management with little to no current technology experience. What this did was shift the responsibility of those rules onto those they once were managers over - the helpdesk analyst, system engineers, and programmers who were now without their manager. This has created a unique situation in the workplace. Due to the need for each of these employees to wear multiple hats, you now have a situation in which there is a diversely  skilled labor pool with not only technological expertise but also a wide managerial expertise.

Since hiring is picking up- and it is the manager positions which are expected to pick up a lot of ground - one would expect that all those old project managers and business analyst who are currently unemployed would be picked right back up, right? While some of them may, I believe that the new hybrids which have arisen in the past few years to take their place will instead take their place. Those positions of project manager that open up will be filled by the helpdesk analyst who for the past year has not only been doing their normal job of working on the desk but also helping to lead various projects in the company to make up for the position which was eliminated due to budget constraints. Hiring these type of people presents one distinct advantage over the previous generation of management: this new hybrid generation has current technological knowledge and usually the drive/compulsion to keep those skills up to date.

This dramatic shift in management will usher in new possibilities. Now when a project is discussed, before the design phase even begins, it will be possible to have input from not only a project manager who can help establish the timeline and resources needed, but also provide a qualified opinion on the technological feasibility of the request and if it would be worth it to pursue the project in terms of technology/time needed versus the realistic returns. Having a manager who is also technologically competent instills trust in those whom are under them. If one of their employees comes to them with an idea/question and they are on the same level in terms of the understanding of what is being discussed (without the need to go into the background of how a particular component of the technology is supposed to work versus current performance) not only does this save time in eliminating the background information this also increases the reception of the employee to their managers suggestion(because the manager actually gets the technology), decreases the time of getting feedback/discussion(they are on the same grounds - they both understand technology already), and leads to improved results(two people thinking through something usually results in better outcome, especially if they speak the same language to begin with).

What does this mean for those managers who currently are not technologically educated? In the past it was enough to just be a manager and manage those under you in an efficient manor. Make sure you have enough labor, make sure everyone is there, settle disputes, etc. But as we move into a more technologically focused future and as the economy picks up having a manager that does not speak the same language(technology) as their employees leads to an increase of inefficiencies - especially as there is a large number of qualified manager/employee hybrids. As these hybrids take over the open management positions, it will quickly come to light the benefit of having a manager who is able to communicate to their employees on their level (technologically speaking). Having a manager which understands technology will lead to a decrease in misunderstandings between management and employee, a decrease in perceived technology vudu which technologically minded employees sometimes are able to pull over on their managers (“If you click your heels it makes the computer go faster….”), a realistic expectation on the implantation of a new system/application, etc… The benefit of having a manager who “gets” technology and is a good manager will quickly show that those managers without technological skill working in the technology industry are at a huge disadvantage. These previous generation managers - unfortunately for them - will quickly be replaced by the vast pools of hybrids available eager and willing to move up from their current position to a managerial position. They will need to update their resume and start looking for a position outside of the technology sector.

What will this do to the employment pool? Assuming a rapid uptake in hybrids to the managerial positions this will create a vacuum for new talent as well as for current employees to move into more senior positions. This is where the brain drain comes in (remember - I still think 2011 will be the year of the brain drain). My contention in the brain drain is that as salaries increase in 2011 and the tech industry picks up, top talent from companies which are less than flexible and don’t offer what employees feel to be adequate compensation, will move to companies that offer better pay/flexibility leading to potentially fatal drops in talent of some companies which for the past few years have been able to “abuse” their talent by keeping wages/raises artificially low even though the companies themselves have turned a sizable profit. Another segment of the brain drain is that as these management positions become available and companies are looking to fill these positions with qualified hybrids, employers will sometimes need to look outside of their current company and court employees to come and work for them. This is almost like a double brain drain for some companies as not only their top talent is being lured away but some of those employees also happen to have excellent managerial skills. As these employees move around to managerial positions and to other companies, there will be opening in other companies which then (provided the company decides to re-hire the same position) are either vacant for new talent, talent from other companies, or internal promotions. The net result? Some companies (those with low loyalty) will see an unhealthy portion of their senior staff move on to other positions with other companies and those vacant slots will either be filled with the less talented staff, or with outside hires. For those low positions which are then left open due to re-organization and internal promotions, a new generation of techs will then be brought in - fresh blood if you will. While some may look at this and frown - having fresh perspective and employees new to the company (who do not carry around the baggage of the previous generation of employees) may be exactly what some of the companies who experience the most brain drain need. Its like receiving an injection of caffeine, it can revitalize a stagnant company by introducing new idea and methods which are unburdened by the previous generation and how they did things. A new group of employees removes all currently setup political plays within the company, bringing all things back to a level footing. Who knows, maybe this fresh injection of blood will be what is needed to take a company that before the brain drain was suffering to a fully competitive company as their culture is re-worked from within by the new employees - and maybe the next time a brain drain comes around their company will not be the one who looses workers to other companies but instead attracts employees from their competitors.

2011: The year of the great brain drain

Paul — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 22:38:22 +0000

I've been quiet these past few months. There are multiple reasons for that, but one of the biggest has been just the end of the year business which tends to happen each and every year. Now that its the new year, things have finally started to quiet down. Well - as quiet as they can be when trying to write an application from scratch, take care of three dogs, balance work and everything that comes along with that.

But I digress....

This year, like each year before it, will be remembered for both the amazing and the tragic events which will occur during the year. What sets this year apart from previous years is that as a nation we are starting to move past the recession of the past few years. I am not going to go into the politics behind who or what was behind the recession, but the fact that we are finally starting to recover economically will have some repercussions across the various work sectors.

One sector that is going to really experience some changes this upcoming year will be the technology sector. Technology companies, in general, are going to experience some dramatic changes in their employee composition. While large companies such as Google and Microsoft (especially since Google gave a substantial raise to their employees recently) will probably not have dramatic brain drains in their employee pool, smaller companies or companies that do not pay top rate for their employees, will soon see their workforce switch from their companies to their competitors, and companies which work in the same sector (technology) but are not direct competitors who are willing to pay more. The most recent estimates predict that on average technology sector employees will see an increase in salary of 3.4% (http://rht.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=131&item=971). As is the case with anything which is averaged out - some positions will see more and some less than the overall average which was presented in the study.

With how the economy has been the past few years, employees have been more than happy just to have a job. Now that things are starting to pick up, employees will do something which they have not done in a few years. They will start to look around for other jobs other than the one which they currently hold. With the increase in the economy employers will not only be able to offer higher salaries but increased benefits as well. The companies which will suffer will not be smaller companies which for the past few years have not been able to offer (for financial reasons) raises to their employees, but those slightly larger companies which can afford to offer raises but are unwilling to do so. The companies that will be in trouble this year are the middle to larger corporate companies which - while having increasingly profitable years year over year - have kept or eliminated raises for their employees. It is these companies - companies which treat their employees as a resource and not as people - that will suffer an employee loss as their employees seek employment in tech companies which offer better pay.

Unfortunately for those companies which will see the greatest brain drain it will be their top employees who will be looking for employment in other locations and leave. It will not be the employees who are marginal or low on the talent scale but instead will be their top talent. This can be disastrous for companies as their best talent in key positions could potentially leave for other positions with other companies instead of staying around. This can potentially leave a company with a relatively large workforce - but a workforce which doesn't have the talent/skill/abilities to handle the work of the company leaving such companies in a tight positions trying to get work done.

So what can a company do to stop brain drain? Well for starters a pay raise in line with 3.4% would help. There are times, however, that a company can not (due to financial reasons) offer a substantial (or even a small) raise to their employees. What are those companies to do? They can help make working conditions better. They can lax the dress code, allow for remote work, and generally promote employee moral through various other means - especially by subscribing to work 2.0. What is work 2.0? That will come out later this week.

2011 - The year we all shut off our public accounts

Paul — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 17:03:09 +0000

I like to think that as one who lives and works in the tech field that I can kinda read what is going to happen in the world. I didn’t predict that Mark Z. (of Facebook fame) would become Time’s person of the year - but im willing to say that probably a lot of people didn’t see that one coming either.

What I do see, even with Mark being the famed person of the year, is the transformation of the year 2011 away from that of the public profiles and more toward that of the personal and private profiles. Profiles which we control and keep private to ourselves and only show the data outward to the public on specific items which we which to have be public. In other words, everything is private unless we specifically state that item A is going to be public and available for public consumption. This will fundamentally change facebook in multiple ways - but the biggest change to come from this will be our daily habits.

Try to do a search on Google or Bing today. What do you see near the results? If your searching through Google you see results from Twitter in real time which correlate with with your searching about. If you have your facebook linked with Bing you can (apparently in the future if not already on) search the wall posts as well as see what your social graph thinks of the items you are searching for - (Oh - So Mr. Smith likes that gun over there versus this gun - I better get that one instead!)

The social graph for such a long time has been an important part of the web since MZ introduced facebook and the various hooks he has latched out onto the web using his platform. He has taken somethin which we do on a normal mundane level (asking each other for advice about something we are about to do or are about to purchase) and taken it to the digital age. While helpful, it has also ex-psoed more and more of our habits out to the public and has not really brought any benefit back to the comsumer/user besides the feeling that they are being somewhat social while attempting to seach because they7 see that friend X also likes the item/service which they are loking at.

In 2011 we will see a fundamental take back of our privacy and will see that the data that we once poured into the digital landscape has gone out of control and we will look and work for ways in which to bring this data back under our control. I predict that while facebook will be around for a few more years, we have begun to see the cracks in the armor that is facebook and we will not see the application as it currently is (model wise) around after 2015. It may take some time for this social change to occur on a large scale, but you will eventually see it. Facebook will need to adapt otherwise they will find themselves without a customer base - that is a customer base that wants to keep their data private and not have the data sent out to advertisers to better have the advertising directed and “customized” for them by the advertisers tracking them throughout the realms of the internet.

Social Networks? No thanks - Im more for the private network which allows me to be social only when I want to. That is the next big evolution on the web to come.

Is it time for the anti-facebook?

Paul — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 08:43:38 +0000

It has only been a few years since the revolution of social networks has taken the world by storm. From the rise of these networks we have seen the erosion of privacy on the web and the over sharing of information to a degree which has been unheard of in times past. We use these sites to share all of our pains, our hopes, and our dreams with complete strangers. Unfortunately this information can then become public where - unknowing and unthinking to us - it can then be searched up by others and potentially used against us.

Social networks are no where near the end of their life, nor are they in nature evil. How we use them determines the usefulness and desire to use these sites and share data with others.

However, I find that there are multiple times where I need something which - unlike facebook - doesn’t broadcast everything out to the rest of the world. I need my own personal online journal - to keep information just for me and not for anyone else. Of course it needs to be secure and I need to be able to customize it how I see fit. I need to be able to ask myself the questions of the day when doing devotions as well and I find that I need ta way to keep my prayer lists a little more organized and digital. Why someone would use paper in this digital age is literally - beyond me.

I have been fortunate enough to have been asked to help bring those exact tools to the web with the help of a friend. Many late nights have been spent trying to get this working and as everything comes together it becomes more and more fun and interesting to see everything fit together. The great thing about this - everything is private first and foremost. In fact - every entry is encrypted. This is intentional - I do not plan on allowing this data to be sold off to third parties at all - and any third parties do happen to get up the courage to ask for this user data will be told no - data and privacy is not for sale.

Facebook is good for those times when you need to share a photo with the world and your friends, but when you want to try to remember something for the rest of your life, something that is personal, maybe spiritual in nature, or something you don’t want the whole world to know about but you do - then yes - that tool will be available very shortly for your personal use.

Everyday Purity is something which is real, its an everyday passion and will be for a while the biggest project I have worked on. I hope that there is enough interest out there that it becomes a passion for people out there as well. We do have some awsome ideas for the future - but you gotta start somewhere right?

1/11/11 - I can’t wait for this day!

Peter Griffin - herald of Idiocracy

Paul — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:55:00 +0000

Who has seen the movie Idiocracy?

Like 95% of the population, you probably have not seen this jem of a movie. In fact, you probably have not even heard of it. Your not to blame, Fox didn’t market the movie much.

Its not for the faint of heart, as it looks at what is probably our very near future. The movie depicts our future as a world populated by brainless zombies unable to think for themselves to perform even basic tasks. The world is falling apart - plants arn’t able to grow, the government is more of a wrestling sideshow, and ads rule the world. Ads are at every turning point - plastered all over the television, on every shirt, and even plastered over the remaining building left standing. The most popular shows involve people being kicked in the groin, while a border of ads border the screen. The chair which people sit on to watch the show includes not only their food tube to suck on their food substance but also a toilet so they never have to leave. Even the doctors have fallen prey to this, having the nurses choose from a multiple choice board instead of actually looking at the patient in front of them - if they didn’t fit on the board then they went to a diagnostic machine which wasn’t much better.

The future painted in this movie really is bleak - the not so subliminal advertisement of the drink Brawndo plasters everyones mind - people repeat the ads without even thinking about what the ad says. Even to the point of giving it to plants because the ads say that its what plants want - no one stops to think that the electrolytes advertised in the ad are bad for plant growth - the ad says its what plants want.

I cringe - not because of some of the scenes in the movie - but because this is our future. I feel - and probably sound like - an old man on the corner screaming at the top of my lungs at teenagers and twenty somethings walking by. “Those young whippersnappers”

If you have not been under a rock in the recent years, then you probably have at least heard of the show Family Guy. If you haven’t heard of the show - congratulations- your mind has not been tainted. For the rest of America - let me do you a favor - it is exactly because of shows like this that the future predicted in Idiocracy is going to come true sooner than 2505.

Before I continue, let me admit state a few things.

I have seen a few episodes of this “show” - some by choice to analyze and some not out of choice. For those that I have watched to analyze - I wish I could scrub my brain out with bleach to remove the information contained therein - the show is a waste of time.
There is no redeeming value of this show. There are those out there who look at items and say - yes - everything has a redeeming value. To say that this show has redeeming values is like saying Satan is full of kindness.
Bringing this show back from cancellation was the worst mistake Fox ever made.

Ok, lets continue…

I constantly hear from people how funny the most recent episode of Family Guy was. They ask if I have seen it and if not, insist that I watch it. (No thanks by the way). What I fail to understand is why this show has taken off in popularity. One of the clips that I caught was the main character of the show - Peter - was kicked and for almost a minute laid on the ground grasping his knee moaning in pain every few seconds. Really we find this funny as people? We find someone lying on the ground in pain because they were just kicked something that should be held up as comedic value? Another clip I caught was the mother - Louis - stole and made out with the daughter’s - Meg- boyfriend. While apologizing Meg rips out her tooth in rage. Really? This is realistic? This is funny? Another clip that comes to mind is that while Peter is reminiscing about something he remembers a time when he would deliver bad news to people. In this particular instance which was a small musicale number - he along with a few other people delivered the news to someone in song that they didn’t have HIV but instead “full blown aids.” No one in real life would be that crass would they in how bad news is given - would they? And if we don’t expect people to be that crass - why do we go and bless it as something that is acceptable to be funny. When bad news is delivered - nothing about the process is funny. Next time your in emergency room give me a call - I’ll come in with a few people and deliver the news that your going to loose a leg in song - lets see how funny it is then. (oh please take me up on this offer)

Do I have an eternity to write? Well not yet. But even if I did - the crudeness of the show could not be fully described. Frequently the show either has some form of swearing in it, or a form of suggestive nudity. I could find less fault with this show if it was given an Adult Only rating (which it honestly should have - our rating system has gotten too lax) but its on during prime time when younger audiences will be there to watch. I don’t believe in a nanny state where procedures should be dictated from on high but being an animated show during the prime time hour attracts younger audiences. Kids naturally are attracted to animated shows - be hey Spong Bob Square pants or Family Guy - how are they (kids) to know which are safe. Just how bad is this show? If this show was of good quality - why then would the executive producer of the show not allow his own children to watch the show? (source: http://urlink.co/famguyfail) That should be the test. People will often say or ask if you would perform the action if Jesus was around/with you. With our culture the way it is - the religious question isn’t always accepted. So in that case, lets ask this one. If your own kid (one who was impressionable and still innocent) was with you 100% of the time would you do what you do - watch the shows you watch, etc… No? You wouldn’t watch that with your kid with you? Why is that? You wouldn’t want them to learn that or see that? Then how is it good for you?

I know from the description that show is supposed to be about a dysfunctional family but if this family was real they would all be shipped out to the loony bin for drugs and counseling not to mention being labeled unfit parents (for other reasons other than just this example).

Have we as a society declined to such a degree that watching this extreme form of dysfunctionalism is funny? Really were supposed to laugh when the father shoots his daughter for her saying “Hi” to him? Thats supposed to be the high light of our day and make us laugh?

Someone may read this and say - “But hey - you watch the Simpsons” - to which I say “Yes. I do take part in that delicious yellow treat- that yellow treat of joyful happiness which unlike that awful pasty family guy - actually is funny and not at all offensive.”