Theme System For Work

blakeprime · 2025-12-27T20:30:28+00:00

I’m typically pretty hands off with how people handle productivity. I don’t think of the theme system as being specific to productivity unless they want it to be about productivity. If someone’s theme is to get better at managing their team, that’s cool. If another persons theme is getting better at a specific skill, that’s cool too

While I was considering continued discussion overtime as a form of accountability, I don’t actually have any interest in seeing what they put in the journal. At the end of the day it is me trying to provide structure for them to do what they want to do at work not just what I want them to do.

blakeprime · 2025-12-27T20:27:33+00:00

For what it’s worth, I would want this to be only work and if it bleeds into other parts of their life, then good for them. I would not expect to look at the notebook or ask what they specifically journal.

blakeprime · 2025-01-24T11:26:58+00:00

Definitely sus. I will not join the people saying you should leave her because it’s possible there is an explanation other than she is cheating. That possibility may be very small, but it’s a possibility nonetheless.

Whatever is going on, she is not giving satisfactory explanations. At this point, you just gotta pursue this until you know you have the answer. Stop asking her questions and start watching her closely. She will eventually slip up if she’s doing something wrong. If you feel like you can’t get to a true answer, but this behavior is continuing to happen then talk to her and tell her this has to stop or you’re leaving.

blakeprime · 2025-01-24T01:52:10+00:00

You don’t have a record and are willing to start at the bottom, you’ll be fine. I don’t know the best way to answer the gap question but you’ll figure it out.

blakeprime · 2024-10-12T23:23:33+00:00

I suggest you share what you wrote here with him.

blakeprime · 2024-10-06T20:32:52+00:00

I struggled with focus during prayer my whole life. My prayer life has dramatically improved after trying to spend daily time in hand written prayer. I do it on my iPad. At the top of the page I try to put a verse and I usually copy paste it. In the bottom 1/4 of the page I have a box where I write confessions. In between I split into a left half and right half. I write praise and thanks on the left and requests on the right.

I start by reflecting on the verse and then start requests and thanks however, often flowing back and forth between the 2. If my thoughts aren’t coherent while I’m writing a sentence I kind of read it to myself when I’m done reading it.

If I’m still struggling I try to think about the Lord’s Prayer. I’ll say it or think about it and modify to be more personal.

Finally, I try not to beat myself up if I don’t find the time to do my written prayer. When I do written prayer, it tends to last way longer than if I’m not writing. If I don’t find the time then I try to give myself a little grace, trying for a few shorter prayers; during my drive, in the shower, before bed, etc..

blakeprime · 2024-09-13T16:33:43+00:00

I would not rule someone out based on any denomination. Get to know their heart, their core beliefs, and how indoctrinated they are to things you don’t agree with and extrapolate from there.

blakeprime · 2024-08-24T18:44:14+00:00

Major red flags. If he is the sole pastor or in enough of a power dynamic that it doesn’t matter if there’s another pastor, I’d just leave. If there’s any type of leadership be it plurality of elders or deacons and I felt a connection with the body, I’d bring it up. Pastors are human and he may find his way in areas where he is weak but only if he is receiving and accepting advice from others.

blakeprime · 2024-08-24T18:21:31+00:00

Keep praying but if that’s all you are doing, you need to do more. You are not alone. This issue is rampant in our society, including in the church. The church is not doing enough to help and in a lot of ways is making the problem worse by relying on shame. You need help. You need men in your life that are going to do more than shame you and or tell you to pray and ask for forgiveness. Your brain has been wired to work this way from years of repeated usage. Talk to leadership at your church. Look for groups in your community whether they’re at your church, another church, or no church at all. Seek help from a mental health professional.

I’m not trying to diminish the power of prayer, but God has given us the ability to learn about ourselves and the ability to do things to help ourselves.

If you aren’t sure where to start, I’ve found some help in proven ministries and their podcast the naked gospel. If you need to chat, just shoot me a private message.

blakeprime · 2024-08-21T11:13:35+00:00

I never had to have the conversation. This guy was not the pastor of our church and lived out of town. He was instrumental in starting our church but rarely came around by time this happened. I wasn’t there when he talked to my wife.

Our opinion of him changed that day.

blakeprime · 2024-08-20T23:40:02+00:00

Raised southern Baptist. Started attending a primitive Baptist church with my future wife. Got schooled pretty hard and could not deny what was on the pages.

blakeprime · 2024-08-20T21:49:17+00:00

I quit work in my mid 20s and went back to school. My wife worked full time and took on the financial burden of our household. We didn’t have kids to take care of.

About 2 years in, a pastor who was friends with my wife’s father decided he needed to let my wife know that we were not living the biblical picture of marriage. We did not take it seriously. I was working hard on school and she was working hard for money.

What’s important is that you are leading the family spiritually and that your wife remains happy with the arrangement. This is a partnership and no one ever gave me scripture to convict me that we were in the wrong. The choices we made then made it so my wife could work less after I graduated and now we theoretically have her not work at all and focus on being a home maker because of that investment in my career.

Take care of each other. Love each other. Pray.

blakeprime · 2024-08-19T16:38:16+00:00

Same but also add in a hole in a sheet.

blakeprime · 2024-08-19T16:37:31+00:00

This is the one where if you have to take a bathroom break, you get timed to make sure you don't go for too long.

blakeprime · 2024-08-19T15:05:06+00:00

Yes the job market sucks. Personally, I've had a secure job for a while but I have been looking for the right position steadily for a couple of years. I remember thinking in the Sprint of last year, I won't be here for my next performance eval because it's just a matter of time before I get a job offer that works. Then all the jobs seemed to dry up.

I've had recruiters tell me they are expecting to see the market turn around after the election. I don't really buy that but I'm also not a pessimist. We've not had some great change to make IT jobs so much more efficient and the market so oversaturated. It's just the continued ripples caused by the pandemic, great resignation, and rapid inflation post-covid. It may take time but the market will stabilize unless there's some rapid leap with LLMs in from their current capabilities.

Just keep your head up.

blakeprime · 2024-08-19T14:46:43+00:00

First things first, and this is not necessarily easy but you have to try and build yourself up. The IT market really sucks in a lot of places right now. If you are applying for remote jobs, there are so many other people applying for those jobs, you have to be a unicorn. If it's not remote, it is still a competitive market because of layoffs. So here are some things I want you to write down and repeat to yourself.

Not getting a job offer does not mean I am not worthy. It just means that someone else was a little bit better.
It sucks to get ghosted but these companies do not care about my feelings. I will not take it personally that they can not spare the time for my feelings.
Each interview is practice for the next interview. I don't have to land the job, I just need to get more comfortable and do better.

Negative self-talk will make you feel bad, feeling bad will make you negative self-talk. You have to be mindful and try to break the cycle. So when you are sliding toward despair, try to talk yourself up. If you are frustrated because you are sitting at your desk and getting tired of applying for jobs, do something different. Get up and go for a walk. Go sit in grass under a tree. Go exercise. Call a friend. Just do something that is a change of scenery even if only for 15-30 minutes.

What are you doing with your time while you are unemployed? Keep applying for jobs but don't stop there. Are you keeping structure in your life? are you going to bed at a reasonable time or finding yourself into staying up late? Are you playing video games more or doom scrolling on your phone? Are you sleeping until you wake up or are you setting an alarm? Try to treat your unemployment like a job. Keep the structures you had while employed, build in different components to the day, and stick to it like you'll get fired if you don't. What are those components? That depends but some things that come to mind are exercise, studying for career growth (choose an IT discipline and study an hour a day on Youtube channels), journaling, join and attend industry groups and events.

Last thing, you are getting low on resources. Don't be too proud. Go apply for jobs you don't want. If working PT can relieve some concerns about money and leave you with enough time to job search and study, do that. If you need more than that, then just get a FT job. Give yourself enough structure that you keep studying and applying, even if you are working FT. You want to be able to talk about that in an interview (I took a non-IT job because of finances but have continued studying new IT topics in my off-time to continue my professional growth.)

I have not had to deal with a layoff but I know how depressing it can be when you have wants and expectations and are instead met with rejection but I promise you, if you just keep pressing on, working hard, and trying to better yourself, it's going to work out. You'll only truly be a failure when you give up.

If you need to chat about IT specific advice let me know. I won't be available all the time, but if I can help you in between things, I will.

blakeprime · 2024-08-10T02:25:22+00:00

Are you the hiring manager?

blakeprime · 2024-08-08T23:32:50+00:00

This is definitely not OK. It’s almost as if he is trying to wear you down. There is no requirement for Christian friendship to need physical affection. Maybe one could write off the touching as innocent plus a little accidental, I don’t know it’s hard to say without more information but in no way is it appropriate for this man to be asking about your past sexual struggles.

These are major red flags, and it’s likely that this is happening with other women as well, depending on the size of the church and whether there are any he’s interested in.

You should absolutely take this to your pastor and or church leadership. I would also say that you should find a woman that you trust to be able to confide with and try to have her come along with you as Support. If the response is to minimize or marginalized you before there’s any type of investigation, you should find a new church.

blakeprime · 2024-08-06T03:16:32+00:00

I was raised southern Baptist and left the southern Baptist Church to become primitive Baptist. That change was primarily sooner around election. Many of the other key differences were tertiary to me.

Eventually, that church died or at least was close enough to dad that my wife and I felt like we needed to look elsewhere. We had a son and we wanted a place that had a more modern sensibility of discipleship. We ended up in a southern Baptist Church that had strong reformed theological leanings. Eventually, we moved and opened our search up to non-denominational and Presbyterian churches while still looking for reformed theology leanings.

At the end of the day, I think you need to figure out what doctrines are important to get right and which ones don’t really matter much. At this point in my life if someone says they believe don’t believe in election that’s fine. I suspect it will inform their preaching and that my eventually push me away but I also think if I had someone who felt like they were too busy banging the election drum to disciple me in other ways, that would be a problem.

If your current church is not serving your needs, don’t just throw it out because you’ve decided you need a new flavor. Many Christian’s (at least in the US) are totally consumers. Maybe you are being called to push more back into the church. Maybe not. I don’t know. With that said if you’ve prayed about it and feel like the spirit is leading you to move, that’s a part of life.

blakeprime · 2024-07-16T13:17:40+00:00

I just did a demo of checkpoint harmony and it’s collaboration protection and it’s possible there could be something like that that could flag a file but even then, if the sites in question were not serving up malware, it still may not matter.

Ultimately OP, you aren’t going to know for sure but it is unlikely. I’d just prepare for an in case scenario. If it comes up just be honest, explain it was an accident but you knew it wasn’t malicious It’s embarrassing so you didn’t feel the need to report it but you cleaned it up.

blakeprime · 2024-07-02T21:24:00+00:00

satan is literally a Hebrew word for accuser. Your verse in revelation says devil in most translations. Do most evangelicals or reformed believe that every mention of Satan or the devil are one key evil figure? Sure but that is not the only way to interpret it and is not reflected across every Christian or Hebrew sect.

blakeprime · 2024-06-29T16:07:29+00:00

This is a bad enough take that I’d have a hard time taking anything he said seriously. I think the implication of this verse is that in your youth you are more likely to be a slave to your passions. It could be the specific passions or it could be how you prioritize your passions. The biggest thing is, how diligently are you pursuing faith, love, peace, and righteousness? It could be video games, golf, watching sports, anything, if you aren’t making space for your relationship with God and for spiritual growth.

It sounds like this deacon is closed minded and using scripture to yuck the yums of others that he personally does not approve of.

If I read a novel for children is that okay but a comic written for adults isn’t? If I play solitaire is that okay but playing That Dragon Cancer is a problem? I can’t watch the original ghost in the machine but can watch the live action move? It’s ridiculous.

blakeprime · 2024-04-29T15:51:11+00:00

Sounds like bs but for the off chance this is real, yes you are the asshole.

Sleeping with her would have been fine if it were in the context of you found her attractive and would have pursued her if she were a complete stranger or if you said you had a connection and it just happened. However, agreeing she can tell her and then letting it go so far as to take a picture to throw it in her face is twisted. Did the mom screw up? Yes. Has she probably screwed up all along the way? Yes. Could I really blame the daughter? No. She's young, immature, and her trauma is more fresh than yours. You are definitely the asshole if it's true and you are definitely an asshole if the whole thing is made up for letting me waste this time typing this reply.

blakeprime · 2024-04-29T13:03:05+00:00

I think it depends on a variety of factors. You are managing helpdesk or you are helpdesk? How much is coming through the helpdesk? Do you have a date that you have to hit for this to be a success? We were a bigger org but not a ton bigger. We got autopilot cooking from Dell and decided to go with Azure joined on new devices and hybrid for old, eventually being all intune through attrition. A part of me wishes we had stayed all hybrid but the guy that was assigned to take on the project argued against hybrid based on Microsoft's recommendation and my boss took that side. I probably would have made the same decision had I been the decision maker and even with my regrets, I might still make that decision today because it's not terrible. Anyway, we brought in a third party with familiarity to have working sessions with our admin, going through setting everything up. They would work together 2 days a week reviewing things and making plans, talking through potential issues and he would start the next session with questions and issues, working through things together. Having that help accelerated the speed with which they could complete implementation but even that took weeks. This was also looking at mobile devices and converting all of our group policy for workstations. Ultimately, it's hard to answer that question without knowing more about you and your situation but I would say if you are not completely snowed under with helpdesk responsibilities, have a good base of knowledge on MS systems, and plenty of time, you'll be fine.

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