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You Must Read: The Grey Lady pokes fun at ski jumping

Ski Jumping Fans

Austrian and Polish fans at the ski jumping venue Monday. It's these fans, according to Branch, who may make a more interesting show. (Marcin Chady / Flickr / CC-A)

Boy, the New York Times is using its funny these days, especially where the Olympics are concerned.  Yesterday, the Times let lose with a howler blasting NBC’s coverage as overly emotional, partisan and just plain bad.  The story’s lead gives it away:

Curling is a favorite Olympic guilty pleasure, but so is churling, a home game that consists of sneering at the triumphalism and bathos of NBC’s coverage. (Hurling is its X Games equivalent.)

The article then goes on to churl away at the coverage.

Now, an entry last night on the Times’ Olympics blog “Rings” by John Branch pokes some gentle fun at the ancient sport of ski jumping.  No, we’re not talking about the kind you see on the X Games, with people soaring dozens of feet above ground and spinning like out-of-control gyroscopes.  We’re talking about traditional ski jumping.  And, according to Branch, the best show may be in the audience rather than on the hill:

There were grandstands, but most fans stood at the bottom, bunched by rooting interest — the Austrians here, the Poles there, the Japanese in between. Others without nationalistic props spread a blanket on the snow. They ate, drank and watched their children nap in the sun. It felt like a concert in the park.

“Hey, folks, this isn’t a golf tournament,” a voice on the public-address system said during one lull.

So this is what extreme sports at the Winter Olympics used to look like…

Put this in the category of sports Americans don’t get.  It might have something to do with the fact that the last American jumper of note placed no higher than 4th in his career, and managed only 11th place in the 2002 Salt Lake City games.  He does hold the American distance record, though, at 727 feet, putting him again in 11th place in the world.

Bonus points to Branch for managing to sneak in a Saturday Night Live reference in a discussion of an Olympic sport.

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Everything, everything

Everything, everything

by Nicola Yoon
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Reviewer: Anonymous
Age: 15
Reviewed on: May 2, 2017

Everything Everything is a very good read. It has a lot of page turning events, and the reader can relate almost to any character from the book. They each have a unique personality, and are very different, it relates to so  many people  it is a thriller. This girl has a illness where she can not leave the house, because she will die. So every thing in her house is fake but she decides to test it and see if the illnis  is real so she leaves the house for two days, and gets very ill and falls in love with her new neighbor olly and runs away with him.

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Posts Tagged ‘lte’

Telecom Blue Ocean Strategy

January 16, 2013 4 comments

None of the incumbant telecom providers has put into place any Blue Ocean Strategies. Blue Ocean Strategies have made the Circus, Wine, Gaming, Airline, etc. industries exciting again, so why not apply it to the telecom market. The only telecom players, I know of, that implemented some blue ocean strategies are Free in France, GiffGaff in the UK and Freedompop in the USA. So why not do a Blue Ocean Strategy exercise in this blog post.

Here is my strategy canvas:

Telecom Blue Ocean

Traditional operators focus on charging heavily for calls and SMS although lately more and more packages with free minutes are available. International calls however are still charged extremely expensive. Mobile phones are subsidized up to 24 months and as such you need to stay with them for at least this period. Operators spend a lot of their money investing in the roll out and maintenance of their networks. They also have very complex pricing plans and as such need heavy investments in BSS.

MVNOs try to compete on price and most often do not subsidize mobiles. They do not have their own network as such they do not need to invest in it. They offer less tariff plan options. You are often free to change whenever you want. To make up for not subsidizing mobiles, you can get mobile loans which means you have some sort of permanence.

So how would Blue Ocean Mobile do it differently?

In line with Free’s example, call costs should be eliminated, including international costs. Mobiles should not be subsidized but cheap mobile loans should be offered for those that do not bring their own device [BYOD]. Blue Ocean Mobile should focus on LTE and try to win LTE licenses. However instead of doing heavy investments in installing antennas everywhere, Blue Ocean Mobile should only install antenna’s in those areas where few people live but connectivity is required, e.g. major highways. This is in line with Free’s strategy. However unlike Free, the operator’s network should not be built with unreliable WiFi hotspots. Instead specially designed “Personal Antennas” should be sold to everybody who wants one. What is a personal antenna? A personal antenna is a nanocell LTE antenna. A personal LTE antenna in your home that not only gives service to you but also to neighbours and people close to your home. The idea is that you become a sort of mini-LTE ISP to which others can connect. For every KB that gets transferred through your personal LTE antenna, you will get a revenue share. So it is in people’s interest to put the personal antenna in a place where it can service a lot of people and to have a good backbone Internet connection. People should be able to win back their investment in the Personal Antenna in a few months and make money afterwards. This should allow Blue Ocean Mobile to seriously lower their investment in rolling out an LTE network and to get free mouth-to-mouth advertising. Via a software-defined network [SDN] management system all nanocell LTE antennas are controlled by Blue Ocean Mobile.

Since Blue Ocean Mobile is focusing only on data traffic, it should work together with “over-the-top players” to offer a compelling list of services. Ideally Android Phones and the iPhone will use the data network for calling others instead of a circuit network. Customers should have a full range of BYOD management options so small and medium-sized businesses can easily manage the phones of their employees as well as push enterprise applications towards them.

Blue Ocean Mobile should also try to avoid investment in BSS. Tariff plans should be easy with the customer defining how many free megabytes they want to purchase for a fixed monthly fee and a simple extra charge for overage. So instead of operator defined tariff plans, everybody has a personalized tariff plan that they can adjust every day. Calls and SMS are charged based on data traffic not on per minute charges. VoIP solutions is the standard. Blue Ocean Mobile does not have a circuit network or SS7.

Blue Ocean Mobile is also copying the long tail support from Giff Gaff in which customers give support to other customers and are responsible for marketing. Unlike Giff Gaff not only prepaid but also subscriptions are supported. Like Giff Gaff customers get a revenue share when they participate in support or marketing.

Blue Ocean Mobile’s strategy is just very high-level and still needs in-depth analysis but it is an open invitation for innovative people to start applying Blue Ocean strategies to anything they feel in need of disruption.

Maarten Ectors is a senior executive who is an expert in applying cutting edge technologies (like Cloud, Big Data, M2M, Open Hardware, SDN, etc.) and business innovations to generate new revenues. He is currently looking for new challenges. You can contact him at maarten at telruptive dot com.

MWC 2012 in Barcelona is not focusing on new revenue

February 29, 2012 Leave a comment

MWC is supposed to show off the best innovations in the telecom industry. The telecom industry is desperately in need of a new business model to substitute falling revenues and pay for exploding data costs.

There were a lot of LTE innovations that were announced. However these will only generate new revenues for the solution providers and not for the telecom industry as a whole.

M2M was another major innovation area. However there was no announcement of any standardization whereby several large operators would push a common standard. Without this standard it will be hard for large scale M2M projects to deliver large profits. If the telecom industry wants to be seen as the leader in the M2M then they should take a leading role in its standardization.

Augmented reality is also pushing strong. However most players are over-the-top companies and not telecom solution providers or telecom operators.

Lots of new phones and tablets but this will also not generate new telecom revenues but will probably push operators into bit pipes sooner.

Cloud computing, big data, collective intelligence, gamification, etc. were under-represented. A lot of slides but few real mind-blowing products.

Operators are probably the once to blame most for this. There is no clear signal from them that they will be investing in revenue generating solutions in 2012-2013. The only thing you can hope for is revenue sharing. Why if you invest in making a stellar product would you want to go to endless RFPs and complex integration solutions if you could launch the product by yourself and become a successful over-the-top-player?

Europeans have lost their telecom edge…

November 7, 2011 Leave a comment

Not so many years ago, Europe was the leader in telecom. Nokia was the dominant phone maker. Symbian the dominant operating system. GSM/GPRS/3G driven from within Europe. Ericsson the dominant network solution provider.

Fast forward 2011/2012

Only Ericsson is still leading the network solution market. Their mobile arm is being absorbed by Sony however. Symbian is dead. Nokia is in coma, let’s hope its doctor from the Microsoft hospital is able to revive them. LTE is being deployed widely, except for Europe.

The  new rulers are Apple, Google and Huawei. Countries like South-Korea and Japan have gigabit fiber to the home. Something no European country can match.

What should Europe do?

First of all there is a legal problem in Europe that blocks a lot of innovations from reaching Europeans. Europe does not exist in telecom world. Instead there is a collection of small and medium countries that each have their own incumbant operator and legal framework.

The first thing should be to move the telecom legal framework to European level and stimulate the creation of one open market. It can not be that in Germany or France it is not possible to get a virtual phone number [DID] without having an address of residence. Services like Twilio have a hard time to deploy in Europe because of this.

The European Union should drastically reduce its help to farmers, especially industrial farming, and instead use the funds to build gigabit fiber-to-the-home. The UK model whereby the fixed infrastructure is separated from the go-to-market entities should be a good model to follow. If we want to have more Internet companies in Europe, we should start by having fast Internet in all mid to large cities. As well as LTE access for all Europeans in 2013.

European Silicon Valleys

The next step is to create European Silicon Valleys in which startups and universities get easy access to venture capital. Without European innovation, it is hard to see how the European telecom industry will blossom again. Large telecom operators have shown few success-stories when it comes to telecom innovation. They are better at buying successful startups, then starting new innovations themselves. But before you can buy, you must have them first.

The Alternative

What is the alternative of not doing anything?

European employment will suffer. Telecom hardware and software development will be moved permanently to China and India. With only some small design shops in Europe at best.

Operators will become bitpipes which means that only a fraction of the current employees are needed.

American dotcoms and large corporations will attract all investments.

If there ever was a time to feel European, now is the time…

Separating the 3G/LTE bit-pipe and voice from data to survive

Large operators are focusing on building the fastest and most reliable networks; increasing call and SMS traffic; offering the best data plans for surfing; offering excellent business communication services; building a machine to machine business; offering impressive IPTV; etc. Management effort has to be divided between all these and other businesses. The quest to get departmental budget is long and hard.

So if you are a telecom CxO and you get three business cases, which one do you choose?
1) LTE business case – heavy investment but strategically key and very good ROI
2) IP PBX vs on-site equipment business case – low initial investment and clear business model
3) Telco PaaS business case – low initial investment but unclear business model

Any business leader would say 1 is best, then 2 and do not invest in 3. However there is something called “The Innovator Dilemma“.  LTE will make it easier for dotcoms to offer IP PBX as well as cannibalize voice and SMS revenues because over-the-top players will be able to offer mobile VoIP and IM. Even if a CxO would invest outside of LTE in disruptive technologies then it is still very likely that the best people will want to work in the LTE project and not in a disruptive technologies project.

Note: An operator that does not invest in LTE will be dead in 2 years so investment in new network technologies is crucial for operators to survive in the short-term. So the solution is not to invest only in disruptive technologies.

So what should operators do?

Create a holding company and three independent sub-companies:

  1. The bit-pipe
  2. The cash-cow manager
  3. The future

The bit-pipe company is focusing on the network and its operations. Cost reductions, stability, network quality and new network technologies, e.g. LTE, are key for this company. This company should be able to work on low margins and even work together with competitors if it makes financial sense, e.g. share network resources or resell capacity to competitors.

The cash-cow manager should also be a company focused on maximizing profits and minimizing costs. The cash-cow manager gets to manage the circuits and deliver voice, SMS and traditional telco services. They have the liberty to provide these services on top of other networks if it makes financial sense.

The future is a company that will have the bulk of the people and some seed capital that will pay salaries for the next 18-24 months. The mission should be clear: “Focus on new revenues coming from data”. There will be no cross-charging between the other two companies. Either you get new revenues or your future is looking very bad. Why would you be so extreme? Look at McKinsey, Telco2Research, etc. they all say the same. Key telco assets will loose their value in the coming 2-3 years as has happened with location. Or operators start to work on new data revenues NOW or they will have to fire tens or hundreds of thousands of employees in 2-3 years. Telefonica already started a process to fire 20% of the workforce. Separating employees into a new company and giving them one mission will make everybody focus on success. Innovative revenue-generating data services is what the telecom industry needs. Without it everybody will start feeling the pain very soon…

Voxtrot will be stealing calls away from mobile operators!

Voxtrot is built by some of the original Skype team members. Unlike other mobile voip apps, this one has a real potential to change end-user’s behavior. The big difference with Skype and others is that Voxtrot does not assign you yet another username or phone number. You register with your original phone number. When you are calling somebody then Voxtrot will check if the other party is also connected to Voxtrot. If both parties are connected to Voxtrot then the default option will be to use VoIP instead of a mobile call. The Voxtrot call will be  “free” – at least if you are on WiFi or have a large enough data plan – instead of paid. As such Voxtrot will have stolen a call away from the mobile operator…

Although Voxtrot is essentially similar to Skype and others in VoIP technology, the easiness of going VoIP together with the social aspect of inviting all your friends, is really setting it apart from the competition.

Voxtrot is currently only available for Android but plans for an iPhone version were made public.

Operators will have to accelerate their search towards alternative revenue sources or risk becoming bitpipes sooner than later.

LTE will kill the telecom cash-cow. Is your cash-calf ready to take over?

Long Term Evolution, LTE or sometimes also referred to as 4G, is the next generation mobile network technology.  It promises to bring network speed to the mobile that can beat the current ADSL offerings. In the beginning LTE prices might be high but competition especially from new entrants – “the Ryanairs of telecom” / “4G Bitpipes” – are likely to bring affordable pricing plans soon. The US already has the first “4G Bitpipe players”: Clearwire and Lightsquared.

So what does it mean if tomorrow you can have ADSL-like speeds for an (almost) flat-rate. In practice, end-users would be crazy to still pay €0,15 for minute for a call or per SMS. Skype with its optimized codecs (e.g. SILK) will offer better voice quality and will throw in video for free. Instant messaging, Twitter and Facebook chat will completely substitute SMS. This will be the end of the telecom cash-cows: calls and SMS…

What will be the next cash-calf? For those operators that are still looking for the “Killer App” – that single technology that only telecom operators can offer and is extremely successful – I have some news. Postal services are still looking for their killer app after the stamp was substituted by email. So is the music industry. There is no economic law that says that a former monopolist has the right to pick its next monopoly.

So if there is no “Killer App” does it mean that all telecom operators are doomed to become bit-pipes tomorrow? Over time several will but not necessarily all. Although dotcoms have the sexiest solutions, large corporations are unlikely to massively shift their communication services to a heavily indebted 25 people company close to a surf-paradise beach. So due to inertia the abyss is still some years away. However should you just give up and let  consumer ARPU drop year by year?

I believe there is still a window of opportunity for telecom operators to bring new appealing services. However they must be willing to abandon some important historical laws of telecom.

1) Standards slow innovation

Collectively negotiate a standard that is more a political compromise then the simplest, most effective way of doing things is not helping innovation. In the Web 2.0 era, dotcoms launch new ideas all the time. Most of the time it is a “winner takes it all or at least most” market. So the winner sets the standard. How many Twitter competitors do you use?

By designing an architecture around obscure standards, few operators have employees that can explain their company’s architecture. Google and others have invested heavily in their architecture. They constantly update it. But on a blackboard a Google architect can draw you exactly why they choose Bigtable, GFS, etc.

2) Don’t talk about subscribers, call them users

A subscriber is an entity that signs a monthly contract with a telecom operator. By doing so a subscriber seems to subscribe to a list of applications that the marketing department of the telecom operator has preselected as the most adequate for him or her. The operators seems to know what is best for their subscribers. WRONG!!!!!!!!

Call them users and give them the tools to select/create/design/customize/configure the services they want. Let the community vote about which feature is needed. Ask users why they stop using a new service after a week. Let users define the price they are willing to pay by offering multiple alternative solutions in different price ranges with different feature sets.

3) Go from a catalog of few to an infinite catalog

If Telecom can no longer survive based on a few hit services, then they could go to the other extreme: the long tail telco. A long tail telco offers an almost infinite catalog of solutions that combine communication assets with other solutions in order to solve user’s problems, to make them more productive or to entertain them.

Users should be able to combine products to resolve their needs. A good example is what is offered by Invox. Via wizards, templates or a Yahoo Pipes drag-and-drop configuration, small to large enterprises can configure their own telecom services like call centers, PBX, etc. They can easily integrate the best of the Internet (Salesforce, Google, Yahoo, etc.) with IP-based communication. You use what you need. You configured it the way you want it.

What is missing is a market in which those users that don’t want to do it themselves or who need specific support (e.g. custom integrations), can go and find the right help.

Telecom operators should no longer focus on end-user services but on enabling the end-user and an eco-system of independent third-parties to be able to create and sell solutions and services to one another. As long as it is easier, faster and cheaper for a third-party to use an operator’s tools and assets they will see no need to design an alternative solution. This brings us to the next point…

4) Monopolists die because of greediness

Revenue shares of 40-95% are often not in line with the value and risk the operator takes in the value chain. Those operators that think that “squeezing partners until the last drop” is a good long-term strategy, will be the first to die. Innovation needs out-of-the-box thinking. People don’t take risks if they don’t see rewards.

You will need to do more than to just blindly follow these four rules. But by applying them and listening to users, you are on your way to create new cash-calfs…

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Category Archives: scallops

Grilled Scallops and Nectarines with Corn and Tomato Salad; Hoarding Mode

It’s hard to believe that summer has come and gone and nearly a year has passed since Matt and I got married. Almost one whole year! A year of being a wife and enjoying the benefits of the kitchen-oriented wedding … Continue reading

Posted in corn, food music blog, Heirloom tomatoes, Musical Pairings, nectarines, scallops, summer | 9 Comments

Top Scallop and Parmesan Cabbage Salad

We all have our staples: grilled chicken, tomato soup, black flip flops, white tank tops, a specific route home from the beach. Whether in life, or in food, each and every one of us probably has a handful of go-tos: … Continue reading

Posted in cabbage, cheese, food music blog, Musical Pairings, recipes, scallops | 8 Comments

Cooking Seafood…With Honey

Honey is one of those pantry ingredients that really elevates everything you could be eating to a new culinary level. Oatmeal, tea, chicken, cheese…Lately, I’ve been on a kick of cooking seafood with honey. Last night, I made a simple … Continue reading

Posted in food music blog, honey, recipes, scallops | Leave a comment


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Sunday drawing session

Sunday at The Canvas our drawing group was able to have a model for 6(!) hours!
 One of the best models ever but she is leaving to go study nursing in Arizona.

Many good wishes to her.

First photo shows midway thru and set up

Yep, didn't get to colored paint this time.

Model       15.75  x 12.75 inches      oil on panel

K River - 6

Storm at the Divide      6x6 inches    oil on Arches oil paper

ha - this b&w looks a bit like the pastel sketch, only more distinct

K River - 5

The study sketch, using white pastel pencil on the black gesso ...

... and then adding a little oil paint.
For some reason, I love doing paintings on black.

Like this one, for ex:

Tamarind & Pear

from November 2011 while I was in Wyoming.
 6 x 8 inches, oil on black pastel board.

And this one (same size) that sold at my Silverbow Gallery show:

We Are Persimmons

K River - 4

Pencil sketch for the next study.

These little thumbnails are actually about 2.5" square.

I had meant to do the last small study with black gesso, but forgot.
So this scene, (I am calling it Storm at the Divide)
will be done with a black gesso surface on Arches Oil Paper.

K River - Day 3

 Began putting some dark paint on the tussock shadows.

Headwaters (Tussocks)   6" x 6"   oil on Arches Oil Paper

Well, this study turned out ok ... wonder how it will be at 4x the size??? Aaack...

K River - Day 2

I remember this was the hardest walking of the trip.
The tussocks were wobbly so if you stepped on top of one,
it bent and your foot twisted and slipped off.
But, if you stepped in between them,
 it was wet and mucky and you sank and your foot got wet.

Charcoal with alcohol wash to set image    6" x 6"

K River Paintings - Day 1

After thinking about this for MANY years
 i have embarked on a new painting project

... one that has deep meaning for me ...

i will work with my poor quality photos and
the journal i kept on the trip

i look forward to re-tracing our steps
because the whole thing was rather bold

for now i'll call it K River - Journey On Foot

first it was in our minds
then it was with our feet

a journey not many like us had made before us
but many have done it since
(usually the other direction using river power)
not foot power

re-living it by seeing our photos
reading those journals

bringing the trip to life still again
in a painting or two (or more)

- first sketch, pencil -

Tussocks and Eriophorum   about 2" x 2"

So, this is my first thumbnail sketch, but not the first in actual chronologic time.

 I am going to do some six by six inch little studies on Arches Oil Paper, in oils.

I am going to paint in square format for the "real thing"
which are about 24 x 24 inches.
 A fairly good size ...

Virtual Paintout - Liverpool, U.K.

Liverpool Sidestreet     11 x 14 inches   oil on Arches Oil Paper

I do like the way this painting turned out. Really thought it would take longer than it did!

Watch for it on the VPO facebook page!
... or on the regular VPO site.

Still life for Easter

Easter = Spring     6 x 6 inches   oil on panel

Happy Easter!

Painting on the UW campus

Only got one day to plein air paint.
We went to the University of Washington campus and I set up near Mary Gates Hall.
 Glad I had some hot coffee, cause
it was chilly - windy and spitting a little precip.

Literally hundreds of students would get out of classes and stream by and only about
4-5 people came over to ask what I was doing.

Matt found some Bald Pate (American Widgeon) and Ring-neck ducks
down at the big fountain!
Cherry trees on campus (UW)        8 x 10 inches  oil on canvas board

Below are the ducks at the fountain. I think those are the Widgeon.

Liverpool - Day 3

More progress ... and tomorrow I leave for Seattle for a week.

So, no more until I get back.

What color shall I make the figure's jacket?

VPO - Liverpool (day 1)

"I say, ol' chap."

The Virtual Paintout this spring-y month of April
 is in Liverpool and north to Lancaster, England.

I am giving it a go.

Husband as Abstract

- expressing ideas and emotions by using elements such as colors and lines without attempting to create a realistic picture
Medieval Latin abstractus, from Latin, past participle of abstrahere to drag away, from abs-, ab- + trahere to pull, draw

From en.wikipedia.org
Abstract art uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.

Abstract art can be divided into two distinct categories:
Objective abstract art
Objective abstract art is an art which depicts the concrete physical object in simplified, or distorted, or exaggerated form; the depicted object may only constitute an indirect reference or an allusion to the original natural subject.

Non-objective abstract art
Non-objective (non-representational) abstract art is an art which emphasizes color, form, structure and composition, and which is completely dissociated from representational art.

So, my Serendipity painting was getting a bit abstract - got me interested in doing a totally abstracted, non-representational painting.

untitled as yet       8 x 6 inches      oil on Arches oil paper
Tentative titles for this painting: "Matt as an Abstract Painting" or "Dissociated Matt".

You are probably wondering why.
Well, I used the very cool painting app/tool, Artrage, and took a photo of Matt and abstracted the shapes and colors. This is the result which I transferred into real paint.

Thanks for viewing my adventures in art!


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New Zealand's first electric courier vehicle

Discussion in 'News' started by PeterW, Dec 22, 2010.

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#REVIEW : The Girl Who Saved Ghosts (The Unbelievables #2) by K.C. Tansley @KourHei @XpressoReads

The Girl Who Saved Ghosts (The Unbelievables #2) by K.C. Tansley

Publisher : Beckett Publishing Group | 17th October 2017

Pages: 258  |Star Rating: mcj044136100001mcj044136100001mcj044136100001mcj044136100001mcj044136100001

She tried to ignore them. Now she might risk everything to save them.

After a summer spent in a haunted castle—a summer in which she traveled through time to solve a murder mystery—Kat is looking forward to a totally normal senior year at McTernan Academy. Then the ghost of a little girl appears and begs Kat for help, and more unquiet apparitions follow. All of them are terrified by the Dark One, and it soon becomes clear that that this evil force wants Kat dead.

Searching for help, Kat leaves school for the ancestral home she’s only just discovered. Her friend Evan, whose family is joined to her own by an arcane history, accompanies her. With the assistance of her eccentric great aunts and a loyal family ghost, Kat soon learns that she and Evan can only fix the present by traveling into the past.

As Kat and Evan make their way through nineteenth-century Vienna, the Dark One stalks them, and Kat must decide what she’s willing to sacrifice to save a ghost.

The Girl Who Saved Ghosts (The Unbelievables, #2)The Girl Who Saved Ghosts by K.C. Tansley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This ARC was received in exchange for an honest review

Kat Preston returns in the 2nd Instalment of the Unbelievables by K C Tansley, where now she cannot ignore the ghosts anymore. She is also joined again with Evan, Seth and Morgan as well as Prof Astor. Then we have some new characters which were really enjoyable
Kat has discovered that her father is a Langley and he has passed on the “mantle” of keeping the Radcliffe heir safe, even from the supernatural.
Kat is visited by a young ghost named Ellie who was accused of killing Percy back in the 18th century, so again Kat has to investigate these deaths and try to change the past. But first she needs to go into training and is sent to stay with her Aunts the Langley sisters who are going to help her discover more of her powers before the Dark One finally finds her and kills her or anyone else she cares about. Kat needs to get away from all the ghosts who are trying to get their reckoning as they seem to know something that she doesn’t.
This was a great story and had everything that a YA series could want with time travel, magic, mystery and the supernatural. Can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

Just remember to comment with your link so I can check out your post!

FOLLOW ME :… @tfaulc (click links below)

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TFormers Transformers News and Reviews
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Power of The Primes Leader Wave 1 Rodimus Prime Chinese Video Review With Screenshots
ExVee - Sunday, December 10, 2017

Thanks to Kevin Liu we now have a very good look at Leader class Rodimus Prime, capping off the first wave of Power of The Primes. Kevin's video is of course in Chinese, but presented clearly enough to tell what's going on anyway. Most interestingly, we get side by sides with Titans Return Hot Rod, which shows the Hot Rod form of this toy to actually be a fair bit bigger. As Titans Return Hot Rod was already a bit big for a Deluxe, you can imagine the new one is surely pushing the boundaries of being comparable with Deluxes! The video as well as plenty of screencaps can all be found below - keep reading to see it all!

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Twitter user @GanguStars has posted an image showing two of the shelf-warmingest Titans Return Deluxes - Scourge and Chromedome - marked down to $7! In the case of Scourge this is particularly great news since you can now build the Sweep army of your dreams. As for Chromedome... time to double-check for that running error with the TakaraTomy face again! Keep reading for photographic proof.
Almost a month to the day that Amazon posted listings for the 4.5" three-step Authentics figures, Hasbro has posted official photos and product listings for the 7 inch line on their website! Optimus and Bumblebee look extremely similar to the smaller figures but with extra joints, and here we have the Grimlock that was leaked a while back. Keep reading to see!
After a lot of crazy things happening all in a relatively short span of time, it seems like life is finally starting to settle down, with efforts to smooth tensions between Cybertron and Earth being foremost in Optimus Prime's mind. I'm sure nothing could possibly turn up to get in the way of that! "The Falling, Chapter 1: Surfeit of Primes" written by John Barber, art by Kei Zama, colors by Josh Burcham. Click here to read the review!
Transformers Authentics, the "evergreen" style simple budget figures that seem to be taking after the Cyber Battalion series now have product listings on Hasbro's website. The first batch including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Starscream, and Megatron are not yet available for purchase from Hasbro Toy Shop, with their "Buy" buttons leading to error pages. But these listings do confirm the SRP, with prices listed at $4.99 each. The listings include the same images that we saw with the Amazon releases recently. Keep reading for links to the individual pages.
Blast Off has been leaked a couple of times, enough to be reasonably sure that it was something to actually exist in the upcoming product line. We have a bit more confirmation of that now through a listing on ACD Distribution. This doesn't give any new information, but it's joined by a second listing that is much more interesting for its implications. Listed additionally as a Generations Special Edition Deluxe is a Repugnus! Repugnus had been conspicuous as the only Monsterbot character that didn't end up making it to the Deluxe scale, but it seems that will finally be achieved, bringing the whole team together. Keep reading for some good old speculation!

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Best Of 2017: RAC's 3+2 Favorite Transformers Comics Of The Year

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Friday, February 24, 2017

[SFF Poet Spotlight] Akua Lezli Hope

Akua Lezli Hope is one of our amazing members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association!

A third generation New Yorker, firstborn, Akua Lezli Hope has won two Artists Fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Ragdale U.S.-Africa Fellowship, a Creative Writing Fellowship from The National Endowment for The Arts and the Walker Foundation Scholarship to Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

She is a Cave Canem fellow. She received an Artists Crossroads Grant from The Arts of the Southern Finger Lakes for her project “Words in Motion,” which placed poetry on the buses of New York’s Chemung and Steuben counties.

Her collection THEM GONE, won Red Paint Hill Publishing's 2015 Editor's Prize for publication in 2016. She won the 2015 Science Fiction Poetry Association short poem award for "Metis Emits."

Her first collection, EMBOUCHURE, Poems on Jazz and Other Musics, won the Writer’s Digest book award for poetry. Notable publications include The 100 Best African American Poems;Too Much Boogie, Erotic Remixes of the Dirty Blues The Killens Review, Breath and Shadow, Stone Canoe, Three Coyotes, The Year’s Best Writing, Writer’s Digest Guide; DARK MATTER, (the first!) anthology of African American Science Fiction and Erotique Noire, the first anthology of black erotica.

She led the Voices of Fire Reading Choir from 1987 to 1999, performing her work and that of other African American poets.

Akua has given hundreds of readings to audiences in colleges, prisons, parks, museums, libraries and bars.

She is also crochet designer with a collection of scifi hats, and avid hand papermaker, who loves to sing, play her sax, and play with her huge new kitten, Luno. A paraplegic, she’s developing a paratransit nonprofit so that she and others may get around in her small town. Akua bears an exile's desire for work close to home, and a writer's yearning for a galvanizing mythos.

I'm delighted she's a part of the SFPA and look forward to her latest!

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He’s seen some amazing things and met some very interesting people along the way, to be expected when travelling through six continents and 39 countries on a bicycle.

You can follow his journey on his blog and read my story in The Aucklander here.

Roei is riding the length of New Zealand with his friend Etamar. They arrived in Auckland last week and stayed a couple of nights at mine before making their way up to Cape Reinga.

To talk to them about their home – Israel – is to have an eye-opening insight into how complex Middle Eastern tensions are. These two young men show a wisdom and understanding (although they say they’re no experts on the politics) beyond their age. Speaking to them made me realise how lucky we are to live in the relative peace of New Zealand. I think this is easy to take for granted.

Roei and Etamar seem resigned (perhaps realistic is a better word?) but certainly not cynical that there will be a World War III in their lifetimes and that their country will be involved. Although quite possible, the idea still scares me. Roei recalled an interesting saying that I’ve never heard before:

“We don’t know what weapons will be used in World War III, but we do know World War IV will be fought with sticks.”

Tour de South Island

March 4, 2011

It’s been a week now since I arrived home from my tour of the central north of the South Island.

The trip was fantastic, and the hardest thing I have ever done. I covered 450km in 6 days of riding on my trusty Team Miyata with little more than a backpack. Part challenge, part adventure, part holiday - this trip has taught me a lot about myself in just 12 days.

I met some wonderful people in the places I visited, particularly in and around the several backpackers I stayed at. Without fail each person I met would tell me I was crazy after they realised that I was riding  a track bike and that this meant one gear, no freewheel and no brakes.

Many doubted my ability to complete my trip, some going as far as to say jovially that I was going to kill myself. Thrown into their mix of advice and commentary was also a hearty amount of “good on ya, bro!” sentiment.

Beyond their initial disbelief, many seemed genuinely amazed that someone would do what I was doing, or that anybody would actually come up with such an idea to start with. Hearing all these different things, coupled with the actuality of the challenge I faced, meant I went through the gamut of emotions, from fear, terror and anxiety, to triumph, happiness and fulfillment. All this in little under two weeks.

But on to the riding itself, it was bloody hard, my entire body felt the pains of riding on average 75km each day with a 12kg pack. Some hills were impossibly steep to climb, or descend for that matter. This meant I found myself walking many stretches at a time. This was the case through the steepest sections of Arthur’s Pass and Lewis Pass which meant solid hours of walking to reach ridable hills.

But the pain and sweat was worth it when I reached my planned destinations each day. A strong sense of achievement mixed with a healthy dose of sheer exhaustion. I live in a  beautiful country which feels very untouched when you get out of the main centres, if you can ignore the fact you’re travelling along a winding man-made snake that is our state highways.

Once at altitude I drank water from streams and waterfalls flowing alongside the road. The best water I’ve ever tasted; crisp and refreshingly cool.

Being out in it with nothing but your own will and muscles to carry you along to your destination is an awesome feeling. It’s why I love bicycles and track bikes in particular. It’s just you and the bike in its purest form. There’s simply no better way to see the world in my mind. I’ve lived in Auckland for 10 years now and it’s taken that long to visit the South Island. I like what I see and I’d love to go back and see more of it in the near future.

There’s no point in telling people where they should and shouldn’t go because everyone’s tastes are different, but Arthur’s Pass and the route through to Greymouth and the West Coast narrowly comes in as my favourite area on this trip. I have hundreds of photos to go through. I’ll be posting some up soon which will describe what I saw better than any of my words can.

For the observant wondering how this route doesn’t add up to more than 450km, you’re spot on. The total round trip was 600km but for two stretches I relied on diesel power to get me where I needed to go. I caught the TranzAlpine from Springfield to Arthur’s Pass and a bus from Reefton to Maruia Junction. This meant I had the better part of the whole day to spend in the surroundings of Arthur’s Pass and Maruia. All other legs relied on my own two legs, and a dose of craziness, as they say.


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Keywords for the Age of Austerity 4: The Entrepreneur

“Have entrepreneurs lost the will to innovate?”

—Sir Richard Branson

“Entrepreneur” is the austerity keyword par excellence. It combines the pixie dust of innovation, the social conscience of stakeholderism, the versatile vagueness of nimble, and, with its French derivation, a touch of the glamour that “businessman,” “capitalist,” or “manager” can never quite approach. It exemplifies the elevation of “leaders” as opposed to labor, of individualism over solidarity. It is no surprise that in an age of austerity, when most people’s sense of control over their lives is contracting—due to indebtedness, precarious employment, or lack of employment altogether—that there should emerge a hero who stands for agency, material success, and moral determination all at once.

Derived from the French verb entreprendre, “to undertake,” the “entrepreneur” is the masculine noun form of the verb—literally “one who undertakes something.” It’s critical that the word is a third-person verb derivation, since an individualized action is always implied, even as “entrepreneurial activities” has come to include the workings of ever-more complex bureaucracies.

This points to an important distinction in how the word has been defined since the 1930s. (Not that it has ever really been defined too clearly, which is a recurring theme in my cursory reading of management scholarship and business journalism.) The most famous theorist of “entrepreneurship” was the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, who emphasized the difference between the “capitalist” and the “entrepreneur.” His definition of the latter, often quoted in management textbooks, comes from his 1934 The Theory of Economic Development:

The carrying out of new combinations we call ‘enterprise’; the individuals whose function it is to carry them out we call ‘entrepreneurs.’

By “combinations,” Schumpeter means production processes. Transforming these is what he defined in the same text as “innovation,” which, in turn, he described in Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy as “the entrepreneurial function.” Entrepreneurs are thus the agents of innovation. But because entrepreneurship is a function and not a social class or a profession,Schumpeter emphasized that an “entrepreneur” is not the same as the “capitalist” or the “manager.” The journalist Walter Lippman described the entrepreneur as the “man on the make,” the aspirant capitalist. Marxists seem to have had little to say about entrepreneurs as such (although E.P. Thompson, in The Making of The English Working Class, uses the word synonymously with “middlemen”), which is unsurprising, given the virtuous patina the word gives to capitalist enterprise.

The Harvard psychological theorist David McClelland celebrated entrepreneurs in his 1967 book The Achieving Society, which argued that “developed” societies are distinguished by a heightened “need for achievement,” which entrepreneurs of course have in spades. Others have defined the entrepreneur as the “risk-taker,” but this is pure mystification, and an obviously flattering one, given the romance attached to the bold, the fearless, the gambling man.

Schumpeter himself opposed defining the entrepreneur this way—the ultimate risk, he wrote, obviously belongs to the owner of the means of production, who may not be an “entrepreneur” at all. So the entrepreneur, in these different accounts, expresses 1) a kind of attitude, a psychology, or a social function. There is also 2) a distinction between the energetic, hustling, creative “entrepreneur” and the passive rentier capitalist.

While “entrepreneur” is often used promiscuously for anyone who owns a business, something of this functional and moral distinction between the capitalist/manager and the entrepreneur persists in the term’s popular usage. A Wall Street banker is rarely an entrepreneur; a tech mogul always is. Clearly, part of this has to do with “entrepreneur’s” association with commerce—an entrepreneur sells a product or a service. Yet one can certainly argue that bankers sell services, and one can hardly accuse Wall Street of failing to innovate sophisticated processes of doing whatever it is they do.

More important than the commercial meaning of “entrepreneur” is the moral one. The entrepreneur pursues a calling, while the capitalist merely makes money. This is the difference, as well, between “entrepreneurship” and “business.” As you can see from the Google ngram figures below, “entrereneurship” has skyrocketed in the last decade but only began to appear in earnest around mid-century, making it a much newer concept than “entrepreneur.” “Entrepreneurship” is more than business— it is a way of life.

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Max Weber famously described the fabrication of an “ethical orientation towards profit” that gave that formerly suspect impulse the virtue of a “calling.” But has that calling ever been embodied in such a a single figure as “the entrepreneur” of today? Earlier eras lionized “self-made men” and captains of industry, but the cult of the entrepreneur seems new. Henry Ford may have been a capitalist role model, but whatever social good he was said to have done came from the particular product he built, not from his impulse to build anything. Moreover, meeting some higher social goal (eg, preserving old barns or advancing the cause of fascism) was an eccentric side project, rather than the main goal of his enterprise.

Its moralism sometimes makes “entrepreneurship” sound almost monastic, as we can see in The Complete Small Business Guidebook, a how-to guide produced by the Wall Street Journal. It advises novices entering the faith that

It’s unwise to start down the path of entrepreneurship unless you’ve got a zeal that will get you through rough patches and keep you interested long after the initial enthusiasm has faded.

Read this story of a man who set off unprepared upon the lonely path of righteousness, who was tested, and then finally (sort of) redeemed:

Working seven days a week, losing touch with friends, abandoning old hobbies and interests and not making time for loved ones can quickly lead to burnout in the midst of starting up— and ultimately to business failure. That’s what happened to James Zimbardi, an entrepreneur in Orlando, Florida, who…started his first company in 1997 and worked as hard as possible, for as long as possible, until his creativity, enthusiasm and energy were sapped. By 2002, he was a broken man— the business took a downturn, and so did his personal life. Now Zimbardi is at work on his second company, Allgen Financial Services, and sticking to better habits to maintain work/life balance, such as not working on Sundays, making time for hobbies such as sailing and salsa dancing, and building close ties with other business owners through a faith-based support network.

Note, here, that even the Wall Street Journal doesn’t hold out material rewards for the new, no-longer broken James Zimbardi. He didn’t go into business for Cadillacs or a college fund. He did it for the zeal.

The CBS Evening news reports that there is a man building a submarine for “Virgin Airlines entrepreneur Richard Branson.” Branson might be most accurately described as “investor,” but “entrepreneur” is more than a mere professional function—it is Branson’s personal brand. Everything he does, from direct music sales to founding an airline, is an expression of his “values” and desire to “disrupt” and “innovate,” seemingly for the inherent satisfaction these desires provide.

Entrepreneurship’s moral content lends itself to “social entrepreneurship,” which the Charles Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship defines in part as the drive to “pursue poverty alleviation…with entrepreneurial zeal” (that word again). Have a look at the Schwab Foundation’s website. Note the final bullet point.

Richard Branson is the British founder of Virgin, of course. Look at Virgin’s executive roster, and after a long series of middle-aged white men in open-collared shirts tucked into blue jeans—this is a super-hip company, remember—you will find the firm’s only female executive, Jean Oelwang, who runs the company’s non-profit arm, “Virgin Unite.” Virgin Unite is the company’s “entrepreneurial foundation,” entrepreneurial filling in where “charitable” might once have sufficed. It’s not entirely clear what this means. There’s talk of developing “new approaches to social and environmental issues,” approaches which include…the “Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship.” So Virgin’s entrepreneurship yields its foundation for entrepreneurship, which addresses environmental crisis, through its own brand of entrepreneurship. And thus the circle is complete.

Oelwang’s bio lists among her qualifications her work as a “VISTA volunteer where she worked with—and learned from—homeless teens in Chicago.” No telling what she learned from them, but the turn to youth here signals one of the cult of entrepreneurship’s key growth areas, education. “Entrepreneurship camps” promise to teach business success to children as young as 5. While some offer practical lessons on things like writing a business plan, their real emphasis is cultivating the elusive “entrepreneurial spirit,” as this recent Wall Street Journal article put it. “Children are born imaginative, energetic, and willing to take risks,” the reporter noted, “but lose this entrepreneurial spirit.” Children’s innate imagination and creativity, as it turns out, are merely unrefined pre-professional skills.

One nation-wide program, called “SuperCamp,” includes as part of its entrepreneurship curriculum special lessons on “stress management,” which should not be necessary at summer camp. These kids’ll need it, though, since the camp ends with a reality-show style competition with other campers for seed capital. The losers presumably go back to skipping rocks and using their imaginations for little to no profit.

Entrepreneurship education is not just for the comfortable children of the suburban middle class. From suburban Pittsburgh to inner-city Cleveland, where the Entrepreneurship Preparatory School opened in 2006, entire charter schools are built around the concept. Forget the notion that some children might not want to grow up to run a business, that some might rather be teachers, or astronomers, or mechanics, or even nothing in particular; forget that imagination and creativity might be something other than a source of profit.

The cult of entrepreneurship’s commodification of imagination, its celebration of self-sacrifice, and its bootstraps individualism makes it a perfect ethic for social disinvestment masquerading as reform and profiteering disguised as charity. Entrepreneurship means that now you’re on your own, kid.

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I live in a different Paris than you do…

“And you know, Paris is all metro and work and the run-around.”

He used the famous idiom “Metro-boulot-dodo” which is a colloquialism that is literally “subway-work-sleep” that indicates the grind of life for many in the City of Light.  We were high in the French Alps, not far from the Italian border, but quite a distance away from home, and yet the complaint was similar: “I used to think Paris was magic, but now it’s just a place I work and pay bills.”

I tried to hide my dismay at hearing this, because no one should live in a place that one doesn’t love, if it can be avoided.  It’s socially acceptab2014-04-08 13.57.40le to tell people you moved to a dreadful city for a job but it’s some revolutionary concept to tell people you moved someplace for the city and who cared about the job?  It would come.

Now, I’m not pretending that everyone can have a great amount of time wealth/lifestyle in the world’s finest cities, but if you are going to bother to live there, to “put up” with the cost of living, it’s surely a great shame if you can never enjoy it.

Now, the first time I heard this complaint was from a lady who attended my Paris Culture Lovers meetup who rather sourly 2014-03-28 13.24.00complained about her schedule as I described my own, which included grocery shopping, visiting parks and museums, and riding a Velib during “off hours” – when everyone was at work from 9-5.  While I was a bit taken aback at her tirade, even though I’ve become very used to the French complaining (it’s a national art and sport), especially since she chose to move to Paris 15 years ago – for work – I avoided what would have been a typical American retort: “Well why don’t you do something about it instead of just complaining to 10 near-strangers about it?”  I said it another way to my friend Julia last month: “The French as a people would rather complain about what they don’t have than take responsibility for building their dreams.”  Instead, I just managed to stutter, “I guess…I guess I just live in a different Paris than you do.”

Since my current conversant was French I decided to take a different tack and asked him how he planned to break the cycle.  He shared some great ideas, but unsurprisingly, had not done any real research into those ideas.

2014-04-14 12.29.22***

Okay, Stephen, so people quit their miserable city jobs, then what?  Look, I don’t know.  I’m not advocating that everyone quit his/her respective jobs.  I’m just asking the serious and adult series of questions: what is the life you want for yourself?  Are you living it now?  If not, why not?  Do you have any plan or timeline in which you will be living the life you want?  Does it solely hinge on money?  Have you rethought that?

Surely life is more than paying rent or a mortgage.  Our time on this magnificent planet is too short and brief to spend focusing on the life you don’t have.  Start creating the life you desire and marvel at how much the journey alone will prepare you to enjoy what awaits your sacrifices.  I’m reminded of the words of Marcus Aurelius:

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

The obstacle is the way.

2014-04-18 19.48.52-2The photos are all ones I took this time last year, when Spring had definitely arrived.  For now they are consoling me that we are almost there, as Winter is staying too long this year.

Work – Life – Space

I think work/life balance is a lie modern man talks about because he has lost his way.  He thinks that if work and life is strictly separated, and then “balanced,” that all will be well.

What should be our mission and goal is not only to see work as a positive good and normal part of our existence as humans, but also to see all of our existence as life, pure and simple, and try to grapple and take hold of it.

I run several businesses, none of which require me to be inside, though it’s easy to be outside in the lingering remains of a Parisian summer.

The cafe is a classic place to work.  Pay a couple euros, stay as long as you want, and if you know your wifi spots or if your data plan is good, you’re set up.

I choose some quieter places, as the day and inclination invite me.

How about an out-of-the-way hidden neighborhood garden?  Quiet.  Flowers to inspire you.  A bench to yourself.

Perhaps a more crowded park?  Hang with the ducks?  Watch people feed them.

Or my personal favorite: a lesser-known, beautiful church.  You have room and quiet.  You have unmatched views.

Want something really unconventional?  A cemetery.

A workspace can’t and shouldn’t be a sanitized “clean space” where you have no distractions.  You should bring discipline and purpose to your work and choose a workspace that will invite the brightest distractions and recollections, whenever you need to take a break from your work life.

I was asked to write this for WeWork.com and their recent “Where do you work?” campaign.


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Meditation: Praktikos 1-5

1. CHRISTIANITY is the teaching of our Savior Christ consisting of asctical practice, the [contemplation of] nature, and theology.

For Evagrius Christianity is not a mere mental exercise. It is a tiered doctrine (or teaching) which consists of an practical element (abstaining from vices and acquiring virtues), the contemplation of nature (the meditation on the realm of created being – first of which is Scripture), and theology (the experiential knowledge of God attained in prayer). The first thing to understand is that a Christian needs to do something to be a Christian: have faith in Jesus Christ and be baptized. The baptismal faith is the context for the entire treatise we will be looking at here.

2. THE Kingdom of Heaven is apatheia (dispassion) of the soul together with true knowledge of beings.

The Kingdom of Heaven, paradoxically, refers not first and foremost to the realm where God dwells but to the realm of creation. To attain to this Kingdom one needs to cleanse oneself from vices and acquire virtues. A heart troubled and clouded with ignorance and vice is unable to discern the divine purpose of God’s creation. In a sense to attain to the Kingdom of Heaven is to re-gain the world as grace – as gift from God. To re-discover creation as (in Fr. Alexander Schmemann’s terms) Eucharistic (see his “For the Life of the World“). Though our ascetic efforts are always insufficient to attain the Kingdom of Heaven it is given to us by God as gracious gift if we strife to obey His commandments (for what these commandments might be please Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount).

3.THE Kingdom of God is knowledge of the Holy Trinity exercised according to the capacity of the nous (mind/intellect) and bestowing incorruptibility upon it.

There is an ambiguity in this verse. Another translation might be: The Kingdom of God is knowledge of the Holy Trinity co-extensive with the substance of the mind and surpassing its incorruptibility. This is no accident. The Kingdom of God indicates experiential knowledge of God in prayer. Prayer is – for Evagrius – a state of the “mind” (not to be confused with the modern idea of mind, Evagrius’ use of the term is closer to the biblical pneuma) achieved by ascetic practice, meditation, and reading of Scripture. The Divine Office Psalm-reading was precisely to facilitate such a state of prayer. The Psalms, as the word of God spoken to us (like Jesus to His disciples in the Gospel of John) cleanses and educates and prepares for meeting God in the words of prayer we addressed to God following the Psalm and in the silence following after that prayer may happen. For the achieving of the state of prayer is prepared by our efforts but not (strictly speaking) gained by them. God graciously accepts our insufficient preparations and grants it to us.

God and the mind have their incorporeality in common, but God and the mind are not of the same substance. Because of the similarity between the mind and God it possible for a human being to know God according to the capacity of the mind. The mind is altered by contact with God in the sense that stability (incorruptibility) is given to it by God. The mind depends on God for this, because God exceeds the incorruptibility of the mind – that is the mind is created and God is uncreated. Much is said in this one verse!

4. WHATEVER a person ardently loves (eros) he will want completely. And what he wants he will struggle to acquire. Now every pleasure is preceded by desire (epithumia) and desire is born of sensation: thus that which is not subject to sensation is also free from passion.

Put the scenery of Genesis 3 before your mind’s eye. The forbidden tree became an object of “love” or “desire” for Adam and Eve and they ultimately ate the forbidden fruit with all the consequences with which we are today more than familiar. The desire for the tree is made possible because of our senses perceiving the tree. Had we not been able to “sense” it, we would not have been tempted by it. The devil (snake) tempts us first and foremost through abusing the senses of our body – so that if we give in our entire lives are now subject to the wants, needs, and whims of an untamed flesh. The verse above follows the sequence in which humans are presented in the Bible in the moments of temptation and sin. Evagrius establishes a pattern from the particulars given in this story.

What is not subject to sense perception – Evagrius means the things divine and incorporeal – are not subject to temptation born from our senses. The things of God do not “tempt” they do not “arouse passions” (these latter being addictive patterns and not simply emotions).

5. AGAINST the hermits the demons engage in naked combat. Against those laboring at virtue in monasteries or communities they arm the more careless of the brethren.

For the second battle is much lighter than the first, since there cannot be found on earth men more bitter than the demons, or [able] to undertake all their evil doings together.

Temptations of the nature which Adam and Eve were exposed to by the forces of evil, are the same ones that we are exposed to today. For those living in solitude it will be a direct attack, and for those living in community it will be by means of others. Have you ever watched Survivor? Have you noticed how good people get involved in plotting, back-stabbing, and such things if the circumstances are right? That is how demons “use” other people to tempt us. It is not their fault though … If we would not have any fertile soil for temptations to flourish within our hearts nothing bad would happen, we would not necessarily fall in sin. It is our reaction to temptation which matters. Alone or in community temptation and sin are the responsibility of the one being so tempted. “The devil made me do it” is not an acceptable excuse!

Fr. Gregory Wassen +

About Father Gregory

I am an Anglican Catholic Priest, currently residing in Orvelte, the Netherlands.
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Example Lessons

Simple Change

Still contemplating the idea of broadening the range of Scripture and Patristic commentary. In one of the comments on this blog a very good point was raised concerning simplicity. Currently the Book of Common Prayer – strictly speaking – requires but one additional volume to be used along with it: the Bible. A Hymnal is not necessary, neither is a Martyrology, nor an Antiphonary, etc. etc. This gives the BCP the enormous strength of simplicity, which is a great tool to help create unity of mind for the one using it. Multiplication of books to be used in the Office tends to distract and distraction diversifies the mind and this diversity of the mind means that attention is divided over different things and “God” becomes merely one of the things that attention is given to. This in its turn prevents the mind from really praying. Simplicity is a great virtue and is neglected at our peril.

The Simple Kalendar of the AB is precisely that: simple. But those new to its use are still challenged significantly. Yet this would be true for even the BCP itself. After all the rubrical guide at the beginning of the Book and the further rubrics in the Offices and the Mass also need to be learned. Rubrics and some complexity are not necessarily an evil, since time and effort must be spent on learning, a greater sense of success and of value is also gained. Prayer should not be cheap or easy in the negative sense!

A suggestion I would make therefore is to keep it simple, while also broadening the Scriptural and Patristic base of the AB. Perhaps this could be a way to do it:

The only change made to the Lessons will be in Matins, all the other Hours will remain unchanged.

The Sunday Matins will remain entirely unchanged. It will therefore conform to the BCP as the editors of the AB intended.

The only Lessons replaced are the ferial Scripture Lessons.

Instead of having 3 Readings on ferias there will only be two.

To encourage simplicity the Responsories could be dropped. But if they are retained the use of them should be adapted to fit the Lesson read.

The example

Yesterday was a feria according to the Simple Kalendar. No feast, no complications. I will use it as an example below.

Invitatory & Hymn ~ of the feria (no change)

I Nocturn, ferial Antiphons & Psalms from the Psalter (no change)

Readings 1, 2, 3 from Genesis are replaced by 2 Readings the first from 1 Cor 11: 17-34, the second from Bd. Columba Marmion. Which could have be done something like this:

From the Former Epistle to the Corinthians

Lesson I

17Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. 18For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. 19For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. 20When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper. 21For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. 22What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not.

23For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: 24And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. 25After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. 26For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. 27Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. 30For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.33Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another. 34And if any man hunger, let him eat at home; that ye come not together unto condemnation. And the rest will I set in order when I come.

But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us. Thanks be to God.

Short but clearly present silence

From Christ in His Mysteries by Bl. Columba Marmion

Lesson 2

No Mass is celebrated, no communion made without our being enabled to remember that Jesus delivered himself up to death for the redemption of the world. For, says St Paul, as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, until He come. Thus is perpetuated, living and fruitful, until the end of time, the remembrance of Christ among those whom he came to redeem by his immolation.

The Eucharist is then truly the memorial that Christ has left to us of his Passion and his Death: it is the testament of his love. Wherever the bread and wine are offered, wherever the consecrated Host is found, there appears the remembrance of Christ’s immolation: do this for a commemoration of me. The Eucharist recalls to us above all the memory of the Passion of Jesus. It was on the eve of his death that he instituted it; he left it to us as the testament of his love.

But it does not exclude the other mysteries. See what the Church does. She is the Bride of Christ, none knows better than she the intentions of her Divine Head; in the organisation of the public worship which she renders to him, she is guided by the Holy Spirit. Now what does she say? Directly after the Consecration, she first of all recalls the words of Jesus: As often as you do these things, you shall do them in remembrance of me. And at once she adds, to show how closely she enters into the sentiments of her Spouse: ‘Wherefore, O Lord, we your servants together with your holy people, in memory of the blessed Passion of the same Christ Our Lord, and of his Resurrection from hell, also of his glorious Ascension into Heaven offer unto your most excellent Majesty the holy bread of eternal life, and the chalice of everlasting salvation.’ After the mention of ‘the Ascension to the right hand of the Father’, the Greeks likewise add, ‘that of the second and glorious coming of Christ’.

So then, although the Eucharist recalls the Passion of Jesus, it does not exclude the remembrance of the glorious mysteries which are linked so closely to the Passion of which they are, in a sense, the crown. Since it is the Body and Blood of Christ that we receive, the Eucharist supposes the Incarnation and the mysteries which are founded upon or flow from it. Christ is upon the altar with the divine life which never ceases, with his mortal life of which the historical form has doubtless ceased, but of which the substance and merits remain, with his glorious life which shall have no end.

All this, as you know, is really contained in the Sacred Host and given in Communion to our souls. In communicating himself to us, Christ Jesus gives himself in the substantial totality of his works and mysteries, as in the oneness of his Person. Yes, let us say, with the Psalmist who sings in prophecy the glory of the Eucharist, the Lord has made a remembrance of His wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord, he has given food to them that fear him. The Eucharist is like the synthesis of the marvels of the love of the Incarnate Word towards us.

But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us. Thanks be to God.

And here would follow the Collect if Lauds is not said immediately.

I have obviously omitted the Responsories in the interest of simplicity. But I can imagine that the two lessons could be split into three so that the ferial Responsories that go with the AB readings from Paul (see p. C143-145) might be inserted.

I have used the Two Year Patristic Lectionary from the Benedictine Abbey at Pluscarden, Scotland. The “Patristic Reading” above is, of course, not patristic in the sense that it is an ancient text. Bl. Columba Marmion is a relatively recent author. But such near contemporary readings – from Bl. Columba Marmion, the Catholic Catechism, Vatican II etc. – could easily be replaced with readings from the Anglican tradition. This would integrate the AB even more into a specifically Anglican context – especially if, following the example of Canon Winfred Douglas – we tone down some Romanizing tendencies in feasts such as the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by replacing the modern collect with a more ancient one as given in the Monastic Diurnal.

If – make that IF – all of this works out, perhaps these propers could be printed together with the Scripture readings in one volume using such services as provided by LULU.com. That way we would only need one extra volume together with the AB and follow the worthy trail blazed by the BCP. Simplicity, brevity, and yet a comprehensive exposure to Scripture and the way to understand it. Of course we would still need to find a way to deal with the different ranks of feast to include them in this, but I think it is entirely possible.

To conclude: in the AB – as it is – much good is already to be found and I would want to add that changing the Lectionary and Kalendar are not strictly necessary. But perhaps for some of us appropriate.

Fr. Gregory Wassen +

About Father Gregory

I am an Anglican Catholic Priest, currently residing in Orvelte, the Netherlands.
This entry was posted in Anglican Breviary, Liturgical Year and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Example Lessons

  1. Dale says:

    Once again, excellent article! Actually, one may use only two books and keep the full BCP office, including hymns and antiphons. I personally use an edition of the 1662 BCP with a full daily Lectionary of the 1922 revision included. Added to this, I add the antiphons et cetera from the “English Office.” When I travel, I use only the single volume containing the BCP and the lectionary. I once saw an edition of the American BCP with a full lectionary as well, I had been told that it was published by the Anglican Catholic Church, but I have been unable to find a copy or even to find when and where it may have been printed. What I think that we do need is a single volume, for those of use using the BCP office, that has a full, daily lectionary, the BCP offices of Mattins and Evensong, and the office hymns, antiphons and invitories as found in the “English Office.”

    I agree with Fr. Gregory that we really need the Patristic lessons as well…especially for Mattins. One of the editions of the “Short Breviary” published by the Benedictines of Collegeville did have patristic readings, as well as an expanded lectionary in the back of the book. I had a copy many years ago but gave it away as an ordination gift simply because it was in really dreadful newspaper English so popular amongst American Romans.

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Self care isn’t just for Sundays.

I was getting pretty damn good at this by the end of 2017.

Now, I don’t particularly like making ‘goals’ – I’m more of a mantra kinda gal. But in 2018 I want to continue doing little things every day that take care of me.

And so should you.

Imagine if everyone fed, inspired and nurtured themselves? How content would the world collectively be?!

The argument against is that the world would be an incredibly selfish place with everyone constantly thinking about themselves.

But I disagree.

I’ve found that the more I stop, do little things for myself and reflect… the more understanding, thoughtful and receptive I am to the world and others.

“There’s only one corner of the universe which you can be certain on improving, and that’s your own self…” – Aldous Huxley

What are some little things I am doing and will continue doing in 2018? I like to break it into categories…

  • PHYSICAL – I obviously do ballet, but I make sure I move my body in a different way every single day. My current regime is Crossfit three times a week, Pilates twice a week and going for a run on Saturday and Sunday with my dog, Hiro.
  • INTELLECTUAL – Read. I didn’t do enough of this in 2017, so 2018 will be the year of getting through all those books on my bedside table.
  • SOCIAL – This is an interesting one. In 2017 I actually said ‘no’ to people that made me feel inferior or didn’t add value to my life. In 2018 I aim to let my inner circle know how much I love them. A sneaky text, host dinner, send flowers…
  • SPIRITUAL – I don’t believe in a ‘higher being’ but I believe in the universe and know that when I connect with nature, I feel better. More hikes, more ocean swims, more adventure in 2018.
  • EMOTIONAL – I struggle to control my anger and deal with stress when I’m not taking a few moments out of every day to breathe. I breathe over a morning latte, whilst writing in my diary and of course at the barre…

Tell me, are you going to keep leaving self care to Sunday or are you going to take baby steps to implement love for yourself into your daily routine? Already do this? AWESOME. Tell me your habits. Tell me your secrets for balance…

2 thoughts on “Self care isn’t just for Sundays.

  1. I loved this post! This 2017 I did something to take care of myself every single day: from stretching to spending two extra minutes under the shower. I am a better person today: I learned a lot from myself and this helped me to better understand people around me. I completely agree with you. I wish you all my best for this new year!
    Alessia xxx

    1. So glad you got something from this post! ‘Two extra minutes under the shower’ – genius! Here’s to an amazing 2018 Alessia! G x

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text:
“Do you believe in Moses?”: Fun Arguments As Usual In The Jones House

An interesting argument ensued in my house this morning between my father and me, when Psychobrat was going on about Amityville Horror and how she can’t sleep at night anymore, and the entire family went to the computer to look at pictures of the real house, read aloud something about a priest visiting the house and saying that the third floor was the worst part, and I mistakenly said something (but what?—I can’t remember precisely what my comment was) about how I don’t believe there are quite so many exorcisms being performed by priests as some would have you believe.

Not that exorcisms are something you hear about on the news every day.  What I meant was that I don’t feel that every case of divine intervention necessarily involves a Catholic priest (or that if it does, there’s quite a bit of hoaxing going on, as well).  Come on, I’m supposed to believe that God only works through Catholics?  And only the priests, at that?  That, just because a man is a Catholic priest, he can suddenly sense evil spirits wherever they may lurk?

I stated as much, pointing out that supposedly God works through plain old ordinary people quite often—people you just wouldn’t expect to see great things coming from.  (Jesus was a carpenter.  His mother was the wife of one.  Noah was no Prince of Egypt, although Moses was, but only in name.)

Somehow this led my dad to ask me questions like, “So you don’t believe there is evil in the world?”

Did I ever say that I don’t believe that there’s evil in the world?  How anyone could live in this world and not believe in the existence of evil is beyond me.

“And you do believe in Moses?” he went on.  And, “Why do you even believe in religion at all if you have thoughts like this?”

I said, “All I said is that I don’t believe God always chooses to work through Catholic priests!” and as he was partially distracted anyway, the conversation sort of died right there.

The truth is, maybe I don’t believe in religion anymore.  Or God.  I don’t know.  I just keep asking myself questions.  And to me it seems suspicious that religious people, like my family, are quick to get offended when you question things about religion.  I can’t ask an innocent question without you freaking out?  It seems like you have something to hide, like maybe deep down you don’t even believe in the religion and are afraid that if I won’t believe in it with you then it will be exposed as a fraud.  Because seriously, if “God works through more people than just Catholic priests” causes you to freak out and wonder whether I think Moses was real…it seems you’re hiding something.

But then I feel blasphemous and afraid for having these thoughts.  Like I’ve been brainwashed all my life not to question my own beliefs for fear of what could happen if I allow my mind to wander too much.

Anyway.  Cort and I got our apartment in Orlando.  Of course, I still have not heard from UCF, so god only knows if I’ll be moving into the place.

I’m not feeling too well at the moment, so I’m going to end this right here and just wait for the laundry to be done so I can go to bed.

Author: GinnyJones

I was born on 3/5/97 in this horrible small town in southern Virginia. Now I live in Jacksonville, Florida and I am here to tell you about my life--my friends, my family, love, school, work, extra-curriculars--minus specifics, of course. What I Do: I'm in school full-time getting my AA. I used to work part-time as the secretary for a small property management business; now I work in a university cafeteria, which is a major improvement! It's harder work, but the people make up for it. Things I Like: Harrison Ford, Harry Potter, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Emmy Rossum, Shameless (US), Being Human (UK & US), The Walking Dead, Once Upon A Time, Superman, comic conventions, cosplay...I could go on. But I won't. Cast of Characters: - Mom and Dad: my parents - Sister/Psychobrat: my younger sister - Brother: my even younger brother - Cortney and Nicole: my best friends - Milo: the guy I love - Tinny: my work friend - Kristen: friend from school - Katie: friend from school - Jenna and Kara: sister friends - The Ex: Milo's evil ex

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The postal gods have been kind

I returned from Cornwall today to find these all waiting for me

First is an Amy Butler Soul Blossoms Jelly Roll that I won (!!!!!) from Tikki Patchwork. How exciting is that! I wasn’t expecting it at all so it made me extremely giddy.

Then there’s some random fabrics I picked up from Pink Chalk Fabrics. Some is for the Brit Quilt Swap and some is just for my stash.

Thirdly there’s a Vintage Modern layer cake by Bonnie and Camille. I’m thinking of doing a star sampler with this bad boy. I’ve got a couple of metres of white solid that would work really well.

Finally I’ve got some drunkard path templates from the Cotton Patch. Again, for the Brit Quilt Swap initially, but it looks like such a fun pattern to play with that I’ll definitely be making some for myself too.

So now I just have a lot of sewing to get on with. While watching Buffy. All this postal joy has put me in the mood for some good old fashioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

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How to Endure in a Volatile Market

The oil & gas industry is known to be resilient. To be able to face sudden market downturns and do what it takes to keep afloat. The industry understands what is needed at times like these, and it’s not giving up, despite the loss of thousands of skilled talent. Producers and refiners have gotten creative at a time when costs need to be kept low, harnessing new technological advances and consolidating their strongest assets.

It’s true that the forecast for the oil patch seems a little dim,as the increase in supply of petroleum and other liquid fuels became twice that of consumption, but by slimming down on investments, shredding unprofitable units, and using more efficient technologies, oil companies can attempt to manage until we see the other side. Companies are learning what it means to become “fit for 50” (as in $50/barrel), and are learning how to redirect their efforts, emerging from a period of high growth and rapid expansion to sudden oversupply. Only those who can redirect their efforts properly and efficiently will survive, and they will be rewarded for their agility and decision making.

The oil & gas companies need to prepare for a sustained period of uncertainty, cut their losses, and wise about decision making processes to keep themselves as stable as possible during these volatile times.

Source: PWC

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For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; [d]though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified [e]by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved [f]by His life. 11 And not only this, [g]but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.  Romans 5:6-11

God demonstrated His love for us by sending His Son Jesus to die in our place while we were still sinners.  None of us deserve salvation and it is simply by God’s grace and mercy that we are saved.  We are reconciled by His shed blood and by His life we are saved from the wrath of God.  Jesus took the wrath and punishment that we deserve.

When we examine the truth of who Jesus is and the awesomeness of the gospel message, we should be driven to share the gospel to all those within our circle of influence.  All of us have a mission field.  For too long the body of Christ has viewed missionaries as those who go over sees.  But everyone of us are missionaries and witnesses for Jesus Christ.

The greatest witness we have is a life that is transformed by the grace and power of God.  We are living witnesses of our risen Lord and we are a extension of His hands and His feet.  He desires to impact this world for His kingdom because His heart is broken for every life on this earth that is bound in sin.

We who are in Christ have the answer to every problem humanity will face.  The simple answer is Jesus Christ.  May we live our lives as vessels for His glory.  May we abide in Him and continue to grow in our relationship with God.  While we were sinners Christ chose to die for us.  He knew that He would be rejected by many, but for all those who place their hope and trust in Him, they will be saved.

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