Anomalous Data - Someone missed their demographic by a wee bit.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Someone missed their demographic by a wee bit.

Whoa. That's a big swingandamiss for our latest McJesus Franchise opening here in Eden Prairie.

Christ's Family Church International sent me a piece of analog-spam the size of a large postcard. On the front, is a picture of a bunch of multi-ethnic teens slouching around some concrete steps sporting a skate-board and a basketball in front of a ferociously tagged brick wall. Tremulous clumps of weeds cling tenaciously to the border between the concrete side-walk and the brick wall, the only sign of plantlife in this bleak urban jungle.

"Just wanted you to know...We're in the Hood!" anounces the banner accross the front. Uh huh. The "hood" of Eden Prairie.

The back of the postcard thoughtfully gives their location: "Our new facility is located in the Golden Triangle Business Center at (address redacted) directly behind Winter Park - the Minnesota Vikings Training Facility." Uh huh. "The Hood" of the Vikings training grounds and the business center of the town, known as the "Golden Triangle".

It goes on to give information about when their services are and how much they LOVE children.

The pastor's first name is Cherrie, and if you believe her picture, she's just as cute as a button as she gazes impishly, yet coyly out from under her perfectly tinted blond hair, capped teeth gleaming, along with noticably manicured nails and a smart black blazer that blends in with the black-and-white photo to leave nothing but Cherrie's shineing face and manicured hand clinging to her doctor husband (who isn't the pastor, but appears with her in the photo, and is listed first in the ending salutation of the communication.)

What a piece of work. I almost want to go to church there and see what the heck sort of service they do.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:42:06 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00) | Comments [6] | Those Wacky Fundies | Whaaaaa??

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 12:58:41 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

I got the same incredibly weird postcard today. I wonder what part of Eden Prairie that picture was taken in?

Joe Chin

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 1:10:37 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

Joe,

Hey! Nice to hear from another Eden Prairie person! What part of town are you in? I'm over by the High School near Duck Lake.

I have no idea! Although we have a very diverse community, so the kids could totally be from here (although Eden Prairie children of all ethnicities seem to be far too busy to lounge around purposelessly on steps like that), the most tagging I've ever seen in one place was on the one-lane bridge on Vally View Road...and that was torn down years ago.

Also, I think there's a city ordinance against having a property with no grass and trees on it. :-)

Wierd.

Teresa

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 1:44:36 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

I live in Edina, but I used to work in Eden Prairie.

I think I know what those church services are like, as I attended one once while researching a book that I never wrote. This was in Nebraska. It was very suburban and culty and there were people crying on stage, and encouraging cries of "c'mon now!" emanating from my neighbors during the sermon which focused a great deal on football (Nebraska), and we did the thing where you hold your neighbors' shoulders and sing incredibly cheesy songs about Jesus while swaying back and forth. I can totally see how lost-little-lamb type of people would really go for this stuff, as everyone's really nice, and they're all pressuring you to become part of their group.

Say, are you related to Rockford Lhotka?

Joe

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 3:48:32 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

Hi again, Joe!

Sound like you SHOULD write that book. I would love to do one sometime on all the wonderful and terrible variety of different Churches out there.

I am Rockford Lhotka's wife. Are you a computer person?

Teresa

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 4:12:22 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

Yepper, I recognized your name because I wanted to work for Magenic for a while. I moved to Minneapolis because my girlfriend (now wife) lived here, and I was but a young, inexperienced programmer with a brand new MBA. So I applied to Magenic and numerous other places, and I was impressed by the kind and personal rejection letter I received from Magenic, and I've heard only good things about them as a company. After a few years of .Net development at Kroll Ontrack (Eden Prairie), I got a call from Magenic, and wanting to do well in the interview, I researched the company, and Rocky's name came up all over the place. Unfortunately, it turned out that Magenic was contracting with Kroll Ontrack at the time, so they couldn't move forward with the interview/hiring process because of a non-compete agreement or something. I have since moved on to work as a full time telecommuter for Ingenix, another Eden Prairie company. I do lots and lots of Cognos ReportNet development, which isn't as cool as C#, but not having to actually show up is awesome. Now I only go to Eden Prairie to drop off my daughter at daycare or to eat at Punch Pizza, the Most Awesome Pizza in the Universe.

Joe

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 7:17:25 PM (Central Standard Time, UTC-06:00)

Joe,

Magenic IS a really good company to work for. Rocky likes it very much. It's too bad that things didn't work out for you and Magenic. Non-competes can sure get in the way, huh? But I guess I can understand why a company would want to cover themselves from having a consulting firm come in and end up hiring their best people.

Still, Telecommuting is pretty cool isn't it?

I've never had Punch pizza, but I think Rocky has and said he liked it a lot.

Anyway, nice to meet you and stick around if you like. We're pretty friendly here, though our rough and spiney edges sometimes brush up against each other's thick skins. :-)

Teresa

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