Trust me, I've been meaning to write but haven't found the time.
But some good news...I passed my P.E. exam! I'm officially an engineer! You may now address me as Mike Lashua, P.E. (Not as cool as Ph.D, I know)
Enjoy your last day of 2008!! Make it a good one!!
(Video below is not safe for work)
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Under the Overpass
A few weeks ago, a book entitled "Under the Overpass" by Mike Yankowski was recommended to me by RaeG (Rae Gillen). She said that I would particularly like it. Knowing that I was going to be in Virginia for three days for work, I decided I would pick up this book to kill the time while I was flying or waiting at the terminals caused by the large quantities of snow that are supposed to be arriving in Madison on Tuesday. No doubt, I'll get stuck at O'Hare :-(
So last Friday I went to the library over my lunch break to pick it up. I started reading it during my 2 hour layover at O'Hare. I was hooked immediately. "Under the Overpass" is a true story about a college guy (Mike, the author) who chooses to spend 5 months living on the streets as a homeless guy in 6 major cities, along with a buddy named Sam. The first city was Denver, then D.C., Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix and San Diego in that order. This book is basically about the struggles he encounters with other homeless people, the church, finding food, finding places to sleep, pan-handling for money and ultimately himself. As a Christian, Mike felt compelled and driven to get a first-hand account of what it is like to be homeless. It is a shocking, horrifying, intriguing and inspiring story of faith on the truly mean streets of America.
I knew right away this was something that I would get into. In fact, I went to this amazing coffee shop this evening in downtown Lynchburg called the White Hart (which may be the best coffee shop I've ever been to) and completely finished the book. The fastest book I ever read. I was done in less than 24 hours. There were so many great passages in the book that I wanted to circle them. But since this was a library book I didn't want to do that...but I did anyway. Below are a few of the passages that popped out at me:
Pg. 46
"If we are the body of Christ - and Christ came not for the healthy but the sick - we need to be fully present in the places where people are most broken. And it has to be more than just a financial presence. That helps, of course. But too often money is insulation - it conveniently keeps us from ever having to come face-to-face with a man or woman whose life is in tatters."
Pg. 114 (On passing a church with a sign that read "No Trespassing. Church Business Only." A new chain and two huge padlocks secured the gate at the sidewalk)
"...Sure, a church needs to protect its property, but what we had just seen seemed excessive, and sent a negative uncaring message...
...Sam was having the same thoughts. "Let's say your life is falling apart and you need help. Would you want to go there?"
"Nope, " I said, "Anywhere but there. But the world is the church's business - and that's exactly who they're shutting out!"
We walked past a market that sold pop, beer, wine, cigarettes, pornography. The doors were wedged open. Ragged people came and went.
It was one of the places that never close...."
Pg. 141 (In a conversation with a guy named George)
"Isn't it amazing," I said, "that when we live as we're called and do what we're commanded, the gospel does get preached - one way or the other?"
Pg. 153
"It really frustrates me when Christians talk about their faith in Christ but never let the fruit of it grow in their lives," James said quietly. "True faith is visible."
Pg. 181 (Quote from Edifying Discourses by Soren Kierkegaard)
"Heavenly expectation begins precisely at the moment when earthly expectation sinks down in weakness and despair."
It was disturbing to see how often they got the cold shoulder from churches. I would say about 80% of the time they weren't allowed to enter or were ignored.
So, I highly recommend this book. It was incredibly encouraging for me. I know the above quotes sound a bit preachy, but trust me this is not how it came across to me.
Ironically enough, after I was done reading the book I picked up the magazine sitting on the table next to me and the first page that I opened it up to was about the New York Rescue Missions for the homeless and the some of the exact things, places and issues that were mentioned in the book were talked about in this article. Spooky!
By the way, Virginia is a beautiful state! I drove up in to the Blue Ridge Mountains after the transformer testing was done and the trees were huge and the road followed along the James River. Absolutely gorgeous. And it was 60 degrees out! Not looking forward to the -15 degree weather back in WI.
So last Friday I went to the library over my lunch break to pick it up. I started reading it during my 2 hour layover at O'Hare. I was hooked immediately. "Under the Overpass" is a true story about a college guy (Mike, the author) who chooses to spend 5 months living on the streets as a homeless guy in 6 major cities, along with a buddy named Sam. The first city was Denver, then D.C., Portland, San Francisco, Phoenix and San Diego in that order. This book is basically about the struggles he encounters with other homeless people, the church, finding food, finding places to sleep, pan-handling for money and ultimately himself. As a Christian, Mike felt compelled and driven to get a first-hand account of what it is like to be homeless. It is a shocking, horrifying, intriguing and inspiring story of faith on the truly mean streets of America.
I knew right away this was something that I would get into. In fact, I went to this amazing coffee shop this evening in downtown Lynchburg called the White Hart (which may be the best coffee shop I've ever been to) and completely finished the book. The fastest book I ever read. I was done in less than 24 hours. There were so many great passages in the book that I wanted to circle them. But since this was a library book I didn't want to do that...but I did anyway. Below are a few of the passages that popped out at me:
Pg. 46
"If we are the body of Christ - and Christ came not for the healthy but the sick - we need to be fully present in the places where people are most broken. And it has to be more than just a financial presence. That helps, of course. But too often money is insulation - it conveniently keeps us from ever having to come face-to-face with a man or woman whose life is in tatters."
Pg. 114 (On passing a church with a sign that read "No Trespassing. Church Business Only." A new chain and two huge padlocks secured the gate at the sidewalk)
"...Sure, a church needs to protect its property, but what we had just seen seemed excessive, and sent a negative uncaring message...
...Sam was having the same thoughts. "Let's say your life is falling apart and you need help. Would you want to go there?"
"Nope, " I said, "Anywhere but there. But the world is the church's business - and that's exactly who they're shutting out!"
We walked past a market that sold pop, beer, wine, cigarettes, pornography. The doors were wedged open. Ragged people came and went.
It was one of the places that never close...."
Pg. 141 (In a conversation with a guy named George)
"Isn't it amazing," I said, "that when we live as we're called and do what we're commanded, the gospel does get preached - one way or the other?"
Pg. 153
"It really frustrates me when Christians talk about their faith in Christ but never let the fruit of it grow in their lives," James said quietly. "True faith is visible."
Pg. 181 (Quote from Edifying Discourses by Soren Kierkegaard)
"Heavenly expectation begins precisely at the moment when earthly expectation sinks down in weakness and despair."
It was disturbing to see how often they got the cold shoulder from churches. I would say about 80% of the time they weren't allowed to enter or were ignored.
So, I highly recommend this book. It was incredibly encouraging for me. I know the above quotes sound a bit preachy, but trust me this is not how it came across to me.
Ironically enough, after I was done reading the book I picked up the magazine sitting on the table next to me and the first page that I opened it up to was about the New York Rescue Missions for the homeless and the some of the exact things, places and issues that were mentioned in the book were talked about in this article. Spooky!
By the way, Virginia is a beautiful state! I drove up in to the Blue Ridge Mountains after the transformer testing was done and the trees were huge and the road followed along the James River. Absolutely gorgeous. And it was 60 degrees out! Not looking forward to the -15 degree weather back in WI.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Proud to be an MGE Employee!
In the mail today I received the annual holiday letter. In the letter, the company focused on three main accomplishments we had in 2008:
- We expanded the amount of clean, renewable energy available in our Green Power Tomorrow program early in 2008. As a result, MGE now has the highest green pricing participation rate of any investor-owned utility in the country. Ten percent of our residential customers purchase renewable energy.
- MGE ranked No. 1 in electric service reliability among 71 utilities that participated in a 2007 nationwide survey. This top rating shows our commitment to our customers and their energy needs.
- MGE Energy stock has been a steady performer and has avoided the recent market volatility that has affected many of the publicly traded companies. Our stock has performed well due to our credit quality, financial strength, and commitment to dividends.
Way to go MGE and our 721 employees! We are YOUR community energy company.
P.S. Buy MGE stock!! (Nasdaq: MGEE)
Monday, December 1, 2008
Lessons Learned
Well, it was kinda what I expected it to be.
It was bitter cold, windy and snowy. Not the ideal night for charity work out on the street. We only handed out one blanket and hat! No one was out. At least they were taking advantage of the shelter! I guess this is one of the things that when you have a bad turn out, that's a great thing!
I learned three valuable lessons for next time:
1. Do it earlier like 5 or 5:30. Get them to the guys before they head into the shelters for dinner
2. Don't do it on a bitter cold night. Wait for a milder day.
3. Do it earlier next year, like early November just when it starts to get cold.
Still it was cool to get out there and actively seek out the homeless. Usually people avoid them so it was neat to do the opposite. We asked two other guys if they would like a blanket but the politely declined saying they had already had a few! That's cool to see that they are prepared for the weather and people have already provided for them.
It was me, Buck, Camann and another member of our lifegroup, John who helped out. We were all in good spirits throughout and enjoyed eachother's company. It took about an hour to walk around the area and we were bitter cold and numb so we went into Steep & Brew (to support the family) to get some much needed coffee to warm up. I forgot my wallet and cell phone at home, of all the nights, so Buck graciously bought me my coffee...thanks! We had a great discussion and we figured out the world's energy problems, talked about patenting new technology and flux capacitors. Also wood on Mars and translucent solar cells. Very in depth conversation; the best kind there is!
Some night within the next month or so I'd like to do a random, spontaneous attempt at this again. I'll pick a mild evening and then email people to come and meet me at a particular location at a certain time and try this again.
The Helpfulness for Homelessness site will continue to be up from now until December 31. Please think about making a donation if you are able!
Stay tuned...
It was bitter cold, windy and snowy. Not the ideal night for charity work out on the street. We only handed out one blanket and hat! No one was out. At least they were taking advantage of the shelter! I guess this is one of the things that when you have a bad turn out, that's a great thing!
I learned three valuable lessons for next time:
1. Do it earlier like 5 or 5:30. Get them to the guys before they head into the shelters for dinner
2. Don't do it on a bitter cold night. Wait for a milder day.
3. Do it earlier next year, like early November just when it starts to get cold.
Still it was cool to get out there and actively seek out the homeless. Usually people avoid them so it was neat to do the opposite. We asked two other guys if they would like a blanket but the politely declined saying they had already had a few! That's cool to see that they are prepared for the weather and people have already provided for them.
It was me, Buck, Camann and another member of our lifegroup, John who helped out. We were all in good spirits throughout and enjoyed eachother's company. It took about an hour to walk around the area and we were bitter cold and numb so we went into Steep & Brew (to support the family) to get some much needed coffee to warm up. I forgot my wallet and cell phone at home, of all the nights, so Buck graciously bought me my coffee...thanks! We had a great discussion and we figured out the world's energy problems, talked about patenting new technology and flux capacitors. Also wood on Mars and translucent solar cells. Very in depth conversation; the best kind there is!
Some night within the next month or so I'd like to do a random, spontaneous attempt at this again. I'll pick a mild evening and then email people to come and meet me at a particular location at a certain time and try this again.
The Helpfulness for Homelessness site will continue to be up from now until December 31. Please think about making a donation if you are able!
Stay tuned...
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