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Fondo Santa Eulalia

Moda tendencias y estilo en Barcelona – Blog Santa Eulalia

“I don´t like Lady Gaga”

This blonde with an angelic smile has a long history. First as muse to Victorio & Lucchino and now as Director of Communication at Pedro del Hierro, fashion blogger and member of the board of the Spanish Coolhunting Association.

We want to know everything! about this Spanish IT Girl. If you are like us keep reading, and keep a paper and pen ready!

What does a normal day in your life look like?

I get up at 7am. I take a cold shower. I read my mails. I have a good breakfast and, at 9.45 am, I leave home to go to my office or meetings. Late in the afternoon I go to the gym to disconnect and then return home to write my blog. It really relaxes me!

What does a person have to have to grab the attention of your flashes?
Education, distinction, good taste and a twist.

Digital or SLR camera?
I like the digital Canon S95. I cannot live without it.

What is the must-have in your closet?
The Chanel 2.55 a friend of my mother gave me

You couldn’t live without…
My basic wardrobe gradually created for years.

You would never wear…
Lady Gaga-style outfits.

Flats or stilettos?
Depends on the moment, but I usually wear flats.

Your best beauty trick?
To not smoke, drink or abuse the sun and from time to time visit Carmen Navarro.

The latest little fashion thing you treated yourself to?
A parka with fur collar from PDH Sport.

What garment would you never throw away?
Those inherited from my mother.

You are about to launch your first book, please tell us more about this exciting project?

I have been working on it for a long time. The idea grew out of my job as a fashion consultant on my personal blog ( I thought it would be useful to create a manual with tips on how to dress in 50 everyday life situations. I’m really looking forward to get the finished book in my hands!

Foto: Manu Cuartero

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Teachers and Therapists’ Impact on Students

by Bonnie Steiner on September 6, 2016

i wish my teacher knewSchool teachers and therapists can be incredibly influential in children’s lives. Think about it – they spend 6-8 hours per day with a class of students, teach them knowledge necessary for life, help them solve problems, and instigate creativity in their minds. They are the beings that children are taught to respect and listen to, and can even contribute to a student’s future career in education or a certain line of work.

As much as educators are impacting students during the school days, there could be certain things they’re unaware of affecting students at home. Many factors in student home life can influence their attitude, learning progress, motivation to attend class, and overall well-being. If teachers or therapists only knew what some students were going through, they could be even more influential, as empathy and compassion are some of the major qualities that create trust. This can also help develop stronger relationships with parents. When teachers are aware of what students are struggling with outside of school, it helps the teacher tailor their approach when communicating with parents and family members.

A recent article from the New York Times tells how one teacher was determined to get to know her students on a deeper level, by simply asking them to finish the sentence, “I wish my teacher knew ____”. She found that a lot of students weren’t as happy or supported as she thought.

This simple exercise opened her eyes to the struggles a number of her students were facing, but were too timid to talk about out loud. Now that she knows what these students are going through, she can tailor her teaching approach, school activities, and home assignments to their situation. The responses from this method even inspired her to write a book, encouraging a larger audience of teachers and parents to understand how to develop a caring school environment.

For educators or school therapy clinicians who may be struggling with certain students, always remember the strong impact you can have on a student’s learning progress just by attempting to understand them. Your understanding, empathy, and care can really make a difference in a student feeling supported and/or motivated to come to school at all. Keep up the great work in supporting our youth, and try to think of ways to show you really care for students like this teacher did!

Read the full article and student responses from the exercise here.

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How to Fight Employee Dissatisfaction

What costs business an estimated $300 billion per year in lost productivity? A recent Gallup poll points at rising employee dissatisfaction as the culprit. We all know an unhappy worker is an unproductive one, so how can you begin to boost employee morale?

Because employee satisfaction is necessary for high performance and productivity, it is crucial to acknowledge what is causing employees to be disgruntled on the job. A recent infographic revealed the top five reasons for dissatisfied workers. Consider the following before making thoughtful changes to your current company dynamic:

  1. Compensation
  2. Boss
  3. Job responsibilities
  4. Culture
  5. Commute

It is time to stop blaming the unrecovered U.S. economy as the reason for low employee morale. Though salary raises and bonuses may not be realistic at this point in time, there are many ways to give your employees the recognition they are so desperately seeking. When it comes to employee satisfaction and boosting productivity, employee perks are at the height of their popularity. Here are a few ways to curb employee dissatisfaction:

Listen and encourage

Making progress in meaningful work is the number one factor in motivating employees, according to a study by Harvard Business professor, Teresa Amabile, and independent researcher, Steven Kramer. Setting clear objectives, goals, and responsibilities allows your employees to understand the purpose of their work. Being rewarded along the way makes the time and effort fulfilling. Remember, as their accomplishments are made, even a simple “well-done” from a superior goes a long way.

Flexible summer hours

The summer months can be an unrelenting distraction as employees begin to envision how they would like to spend their time in the sun. Flexible summer hours have been a proven method of motivating your employees this summer, as well as producing positive results for your company. There are a variety of ways to switch up the working schedules such as shortened workdays on Friday or the option of working from home one day a week. The flexibility is sure to boost employee morale and productivity.

Social media policies

Although almost half of CEO’s prohibit the use of Facebook and other social media sites at work, considering social media as the largest distraction employees are faced with at work, there are potential benefits from enforcing a social media policy at work. A corporate wellness site Keas makes the case for Facebook. In moderation, short social media breaks make employees happier, healthier, and even more productive according to this new research.

Inform employees of new opportunities

Help your employees reach their career goals by informing them of new openings and opportunities within the company. Recruiting from within says a lot about your company and its values. By placing a high level of importance on promoting current employees, internal talent will continue to develop. Let your employees know their potential and they will surely be motivated to reach their aspirations and produce high-quality work.

As a manager, keep your ears and eyes open to determine the satisfaction levels of your employees. Continue to stay solution oriented because happy employees are more important to business than ever.

Do you notice growing numbers of employee dissatisfaction at your workplace? What employee perks have you offered to boost employee morale?

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Your dad may roll his eyes at thrifting, pillow matching, and antiquing – which is fine! Not everyone in your family has to share your love for fine home decor. But just because you think he doesn’t notice your carefully selected wallpaper, drapes, and tchotchkes, doesn’t mean he wouldn’t jump at the chance to furnish a room of his own with a real man’s taste – a Mad Man, to be exact.

Actor Bryan Batt (better known as Sal on Mad Men) owns his own home decor shop, Hazelnut, on New Orleans’ stylish Magazine Street, inspired by the inimitable soul of NOLA. Batt even designed a limited edition sofa inspired by the Playboy Club of the 1960s – the piece is called “The Hef” and can be yours for a mere $15,000.

If that’s a bit out of your Father’s Day price range, never fear. Hazelnut carries dozens of other hand-selected gifts from craftsmen all around the world. Try this Lion’s Head Gold Barware Set – sure to please the Don, Sal, or Roger in your home.

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AHL will announce its 2012-13 schedule on Friday

Lindsay Kramer | lkramer@syracuse.com By Lindsay Kramer | lkramer@syracuse.com The Post-Standard
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on August 16, 2012 at 4:07 PM, updated August 21, 2012 at 3:51 PM

At least, that's the plan the league revealed Thursday afternoon.

The release time is scheduled for 3 p.m., give or take. The Crunch will play 38 home regular season games this year, with the home opener locked in for Oct. 13.

"The marketer in me makes it one of the most exciting days of the summer,'' said Crunch COO Jim Sarosy. "It's fun to put all the programs and nights that we've planned throughout the summer into their places.''

Tampa Bay's prospects will report to Syracuse some time in late September. That timetable could be impacted by a possible NHL lockout.


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my recent reads..

Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters; From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima
Power Sources and Supplies: World Class Designs
Red Storm Rising
Locked On
Analog Circuits Cookbook
The Teeth Of The Tiger
Sharpe's Gold
Without Remorse
Practical Oscillator Handbook
Red Rabbit

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

CruiseControlling Ruby 1.9.2 and Rails 3.0.2

CruiseControl for Ruby from ThoughWorks has long been one of the easiest ways to your rails project under continuous integration.

But there's still an issue that it can't run under Ruby 1.9.x. That's not very good if you are targeting 1.9.2 for your project.

Here's a quick recipe for how you can build a 1.9.2 project with CC, using the wonders of rvm..
# download and unpack CC to /usr/local/cruisecontrol-1.4.0 (or where you like)
# for convenience, add .rvmrc in /usr/local/cruisecontrol-1.4.0 to have it run 1.8.7
echo "rvm 1.8.7-p302" > /usr/local/cruisecontrol-1.4.0/.rvmrc
# configure CC:
cd /usr/local/cruisecontrol-1.4.0
./cruise add my_project_name --source-control git --repository
# ^^ This will initialize the ~/.cruise/projects/my_project_name folder for a git-based project

# if you have an .rvmrc file in your git repo, pre-emptively trust it to avoid clogging CC:
mkdir ~/.cruise/projects/my_project_name
rvm rvmrc trust ~/.cruise/projects/my_project_name

In ~/.cruise/projects/my_project_name, edit cruise_config.rb to run a shell script instead of the standard build task (I'm calling it and it will be in the root of my git repo):
Project.configure do |project|
# [.. other stuff ..]
project.build_command = './'
# [.. other stuff ..]

Add to your repository (don't forget to chmod u+x it). It needs to ensure rvm script is loaded and activate the correct ruby & gemset.

The script initialization is necessary because it seems the way CC spawns the shell script it doesn't pick up the rvm initialization you might already have in .bash_profile. Without rvm script initialization, "rvm" will invoke the binary which can't make the direct environment mods it needs to do.

Here's what I have in

if [ "$(type rvm | head -1)" != "rvm is a function" ]
source ~/.rvm/scripts/rvm || exit 1

if [ "$(type rvm | head -1)" != "rvm is a function" ]
echo "rvm not properly installed and available"
exit 1

rvm use 1.9.2-p0@mygemsetname --create
bundle check || bundle install || exit 1
rake # setup to run all required tests by default

Once that's checked in and pushed to the repo, you can kick-off CC:

cd /usr/local/cruisecontrol-1.4.0
./cruise start

Now my ccmenu is green, and CruiseControl is running my project under 1.9.2 and rails 3.0.2;-)

Blogarhythm: Waiting for the light ART-SCHOOL


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Emily C. Jones, former director of Texas Lawyers Care, the State Bar’s legal services/pro bono support, and former director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, passed away early this morning after a five-year battle with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. Known as a feisty and strong-spirited advocate for access to justice initiatives in Texas, Emily committed her entire career to helping low-income Texans gain access to legal assistance. More than that, Emily led by example — even while facing personal health obstacles — inspiring other Texas attorneys to do pro bono work.

Emily began her career as a legal aid attorney, working with East Texas Legal Services right out of law school. She later went into private practice as a civil rights attorney. Emily left law for a while, teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the State Bar in 1996 as a program attorney with Texas Lawyers Care and became the second executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, which was created by the Supreme Court of Texas in 2001. In addition to her duties as director of the Commission and Texas Lawyers Care, Emily continued taking pro bono cases. She retired as director of Texas Lawyers Care in May 2008 and as director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission in December 2008 due to health reasons. In May, the Texas Access to Justice Commission honored Emily with the inaugural Emily C. Jones Lifetime Achievement Award for her work. The award recognizes an outstanding individual whose extraodinary spirit — like Emily’s — and demonstrated commitment to legal services has improved society and inspired others.

Plans for Emily’s memorial service are pending.

UPDATE: A memorial gathering for Emily will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Texas AFL-CIO building (1106 Lavaca St. in Austin, near the corner of Lavaca and 11th streets). For more information, visit Emily’s Caring Bridge website at www.caringbridge.org/visit/emilyjones/journal.


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Tulip Fest Adventures

This was my first Tulip Festival in several years.  Before I moved back to the city, trying to get a parking spot was daunting, and I stopped going.  After I moved back to the city, and the Festival being only 2 blocks away from me, I had to work in my old pizza shop the whole time of the Tulip Fest because it was Ringling Brother’s circus time.  I would look at the festival longingly as I drove by on the way to the shop across from the Times Union Center.  But, hey!  The circus was fun, and I even got a backstage tour last year, which really turned out to be my last year in business, period.  This year was also the first time in three years that I could actually celebrate Mother’s Day!  My daughter, Summer, was determined to make it memorable.  Of course, my camera was in tow!

On Saturday, the most glorious weather day of the weekend,  I walked around the park a bit, realized I forgot to charge my camera when I tried to take some pictures and discovered it was DEAD (mistakes like that seem to happen frequently, these days.  I call it “brain fog.”  Heh heh!), bought a crab cake from one of the venders, and am rather sorry I did.  I think it had crab in it.  Somewhere.  Maybe.  $11 for one lousy crab cake and a lemonade!  But that was my fault…I picked the vendor mainly because no one was in line, which should have told me something.  I was too dumb to pick up on that clue.  After a few bites, it went sailing into a trash can.  Thank goodness for the watery lemonade.  As least it got the flavor of rotten crab cake out of my mouth.

After that, I met my daughter at Justin’s and savored a delicious Sangria served up by Scott, bartender extraordinaire, and then we made our way to Icarus Dreams, the new art gallery on the second floor on the corner of Lark and Jay St,  to see a concert by the great Mirk.  My daughter knows Seth, the owner of Icarus Dreams,and Mirk.  After she assured me that I wouldn’t look weird being the oldest person there, I settled in to listen to a GREAT concert, with a packed crowd in that small space.  Halfway into the concert, though, during a fast song called Slave, and the crowd hopping up and down, I started feeling a bit uncomfortable.  I was standing right behind the audio mixer, and noticed it hopping up and down.   I didn’t know mixers could dance!  The water in the water cooler was sloshing back and forth, too.  And the floor, suddenly, turned into a trampoline.  Feeling that, and using being “hot” as an excuse, I got out of there and went to the sidewalk to listen.  I somehow envisioned falling into the bodega below, yelling for help with broken legs.  My daughter followed soon after.  “Did you feel that floor?  I don’t think floors are supposed to do that.”  “Me either.”  So off we went back to Justin’s where we ate some delicious food, had a couple of drinks, and then learned by people coming back from Icarus Dreams that we broke the floor joists in the gallery.  I didn’t jump up and down!  But let’s face it, I was dead weight and helped, anyhow.  I emailed Mirk that I loved their concert and that great art comes with great pain…to floors.  Seth fixed the floor by the next day, being the genius that he is.  I’m sorry, poor Icarus Dreams floor.  Mirk and the crowd didn’t mean to hurt you.  And I apologize for not being able to post pictures of that epic, floor busting afternoon concert,  BECAUSE I FORGOT TO CHARGE MY CAMERA.  Sheesh!

Day Two of the Tulip Fest had me walking from my apartment back to Justin’s for a yummy Mother’s Day brunch with my daughter, Summer, and her husband Chris.  It was just lovely and the Cranberry Walnut pancakes were delish, and all we talked about was politics and bin Laden.  That was fun!   And thanks, Mr. Weatherman, for promising that day 2 of Tulip Fest was going to be just as sunny, and warmer, than day 1.  It was cooler and cloudy.  Oh well!  But we all walked over to listen to the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young cover band, Marrakesh Express.  I guarantee you I was not the oldest person in the crowd this time!  Listening to those songs ripped me right out of the present and sent me back to 1970.  Ah, it wasn’t REALLY that long ago, was it, when I was listening to those songs on my Montgomery Ward Signature portable record player in my bedroom?  Doesn’t seem like it, but it was over 40 years ago.  Ok, I feel VERY old, now!  After a little wandering around, it was back to Icarus Dreams for a little while, back to the park for many tulip photographs, and then to DeJohn’s for a couple of beers.  My daughter and I started yawning.  At least it wasn’t just me!  I gathered up the strength to traipse back to my apartment.  A glorious, fantastic day, made better by being with my daughter and her husband.  Following are my favorite pictures of  Tulips.  And one Iguana.  Seriously.  I can’t wait until next year!

Ok, they're not tulips, but still so pretty!

I've never been this close to an Iguana. Always a first time...

Deborah Cote


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Big Sky Airlines to fly between Albany, Boston

The carrier will fly the route as Delta Connection, and will begin service April 8. Currently, only US Airways Express flies the route.

Big Sky will use 19-seat Beech-1900 turboprop aircraft on the route. In addition to Albany, Big Sky plans to fly from Boston to Massena, Ogdensburg and Watertown, as well as to Bangor, Maine.

Eric Anderson

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Citizens Union: See? You can draw fair maps

The good-government group Citizens Union reacted to the release of Congressional maps by the judicial special master as a victory for the sort of independent redistricting it would like to see.

Intriguingly, the statement goes into great depth discussing the under-construction constitutional amendment detailed in Friday’s TU — so much depth that one would think it had already been rolled out with a Red Room presser featuring Gov. Andrew Cuomo, legislative leaders and representatives from Citizens Union, whose members have been most vocal in pressing for the constitutional change as thus far described.

Also, the statement name-checks the influence of legislation crafted by state Sen. Mike Gianaris, who has come out against the amendment as it’s currently understood — arguing that his bill was always intended as a statutory compromise, not a permanent constitutional fix that in his estimation could go much farther.

Here’s the full statement:

The Congressional maps presented today by the court show that an independent process can produce better districts than those drawn by the legislature, making a compelling case for why we need to forever change the redistricting process in New York State. These districts were drawn quickly and fairly while respecting communities of interest and existing political subdivisions like counties, cities and towns. While accomplishing these needed objectives, the court also took into account the cores of many of the pre-existing districts and provided a path forward which should motivate the legislature and the governor to reach an agreement.

Citizens Union believes the opportunity to achieve meaningful and lasting redistricting reform should not now be sacrificed with the promise of better permanent reform down the road. New Yorkers all know that Albany legislators’ repeated promises to enact redistricting reform went nowhere, resulting in no structural change for this decade’s redistricting cycle.

With a dozen redistricting bills proposed and countless public hearings held over the years, decades of waiting for redistricting reform have blown by, and we still have in place the same rigged and partisan system of incumbent protection. The posturing and finger pointing by both parties needs to stop – we need to pursue principled compromise that achieves our long-term goals. That’s why we urge the governor and the state legislature to resolve this unacceptable impasse and propose a solution that improves the LATFOR proposed maps, drawing from the court’s proposal and public feedback from LATFOR’s hearing, and includes lasting redistricting reform.

The constitutional amendment Assemblyman Jack McEneny (D-Albany) unveiled last week is based upon a model proposed in 2004 by Citizens Union, other good government groups, and then Assemblyman Michael Gianaris (D-Queens), whose leadership on this issue for nearly a decade has helped lead us to this moment of achieving real and lasting redistricting reform.

The proposal includes important features from Senator Gianaris’ bill and those sponsored by Senators David Valesky (D-Oneida) and Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Brooklyn), as well as the Governor’s 2011 program bill – all of which reflect in key respects the system used successfully in Iowa and Washington State – in creating an independent commission to draw district lines that the legislature must vote upon without amendment. If the legislature does not pass the commission’s plans, the commission must revise and resubmit the plan again for a second “up or down” vote without amendment. If and only if the legislature fails to pass the commission’s plan a second time does the legislature have the opportunity to amend the commission’s plan, but as noted below, only the current proposal puts a limit on this ability. It also ensures equal representation among the four legislative leaders, protects minority party interests while preventing majority party dominance, requires super majority votes for a plan’s approval, and provides for representation of political parties other than the two main ones.

Most importantly, as reported, the constitutional amendment and statute being envisioned would provide critical protections against gerrymandering that the other bills lacked:

  • First, the Legislature would be restricted in its authority to amend the commission’s plans to affecting no more than 2% of the population in any district, while under other legislative proposals, the legislature’s amendments would have no limits.
  • Second, because it would be in the constitution rather than a statute, this reformed system could not be simply repealed by the legislature at any moment. And in the event that the second passage of the constitutional amendment fails, a similar statute is being proposed that locks in the new reform.
  • Subject to real deadlines, the independent commission would have to present its plans early, giving ample time for public input, and promote electoral competition by giving challengers more time to campaign.

Far from being a less significant reform or regression, this contemplated package would provide substantial and permanent reforms, and be a welcome improvement over the current rigged system of legislative controlled gerrymandering which many reform leaders, both advocates and legislators, have derided for decades. A constitutional amendment will ensure that New Yorkers never again see repeated the predictable cycle of outrage that only ends with the poisonous partisan redistricting system still intact.

Never before in the history of our state has there been such a convergence of opportunity and support to end partisan gerrymandering. The time to act is now. Redistricting reform in our country has largely been accomplished through citizens rising up and achieving it through voter initiative and referendum. Our laws here in New York State do not allow for that, so instead we face the difficult challenge of working with the legislature to accomplish this reform over which it has control. Passage of a constitutional amendment, however, would allow the voters of New York to have a say in the fate of redistricting reform.

Bills to amend the state constitution and create an independent redistricting commission have languished for decades and gone nowhere. 184 of 212 legislators pledged or sponsored legislation to create an independent redistricting commission for the 2012 elections. While in the minority, the Senate Democrats won election in 2008 with promises of creating an independent redistricting commission and did not; instead when in the majority, then Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said the Democrats “are going to draw the lines so that Republicans will be in oblivion in the state of New York for the next 20 years.” When in the minority, all the Republican Senators in 2010 pledged to former mayor Ed Koch’s NY Uprising group to enact such a commission for 2012 and they did not. No matter what may be said today, New York’s history shows that whomever controls the majority doesn’t want redistricting reform to happen while the minority clamors for it. Unfortunately, where they stand on this issue is a matter of where they sit.

This is why Citizens Union wants Governor Cuomo to prevent the New York State Legislature from once again weaseling out of its commitment. He should not let pass this historic opportunity to obtain permanent structural reform. If he can’t get the legislature to improve the proposed lines for 2012 AND secure permanent redistricting reform, he should exercise his promised veto as the only way to hold them accountable for their failed pledges of reform.

Quite simply, notwithstanding those few state legislators for whom reform is paramount, we cannot trust the legislature to pledge once again to address this issue in the future. No more delays and no more broken promises. New Yorkers need and deserve long-term redistricting reform now.

Casey Seiler

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Yearly Archive for 2008

: 2008

The year in review…Trout

First Trout of the Year from a local ditch Why The Legend is the Legend…in a driving rain, on a slow day, at last light, on the last cast, stabs a pig…aahhh the legend. Biggest on the dry this

Happy New Year!

Hope your year is better than the last. First caught and released fish picture of the New Year Wins a hat…send to

Dual Purpose Fishing Gift

    Those who have fished or talked with me about fishing in the last year has certainly learned about my interest in tubeflies and my passion for fishing them for steelhead.  Well, Santa brought me

Anybody Listening? Watching?

Submerged under all the hoopla about SNL and the “Did they go too far” in making fun of the “Esteemed Governor”, was the little byline in his proposed budget that’s really going to sting.   While the

Catskill Swapping

Photos of what I got in the mail today. A Catskill Dry Swap.  Thanks for the invite mike! Most of these are screen names because that’s all they included Caddis16 Darthwader Glista

The Answer

No, Not that Answer. JP has let us in on his little angling secret. The species in question is a bigmouth buffalo, /Ictiobus cyprinellus/.  It is native to Minnesota, and distributed throughout the

Pop Quiz Hotshot!

Thanks to JP at for submitting this picture but the question is, what is it? and where is it native?  The first person to successfully come up with the answer by commenting to this

Winter Trout Fishing

Doublehaul, a member over at The Angler’s Net, has put up a poll about flies to use while winter fly fishing for trout.  There are a number of inland streams open for fishing all year long near us,

How do you like your eggs?

Brian from Troy evidently rocked the Salmon this year sending in several shots of bonafide pigs.  Great job Brian, from one of our favorite sections to fish!  He writes: “Had a blast on the

Not Playing Fair

Thomas sends me these pictures and writes… “This is my daughter Rebecca she is 3 years old and has just started fly fishing she loves to get the blue gills but when this Bucket mouth hit she thought


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Schedule for Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival at SPAC

Gladys Knight (Photo by Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images)

The Saratoga Performing Arts Center has released the schedule with times for this weekend’s Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival. Now in its 33rd year, the festival features more than 20 performances by renowned and emerging artists on the Amphitheatre and Gazebo stages at Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs.

The lineup includes Gladys Knight, Al Jarreau and the George Duke Trio, Taj Mahal, Al DiMeola, Ann Hampton Callaway and Stefon Harris and Blackout. Performances begin at noon each day. Tickets are available at, by calling 518-584-9330 or at the SPAC Box Office.

12 p.m. Mario Abney Quintet
1:20 p.m. Evan Christopher
2:40 p.m. Taj Mahal
4:10 p.m. Ahmad Jamal
5:35 p.m. Al DiMeola World Sinfonia
7:10 p.m. Jarreau/George Duke Trio
9 p.m. Sax for Stax – Gerald Albright and Kirk Whalum
Gazebo Stage
12:15 p.m. JD Allen Trio
1:35 p.m. Tomasz Stanko Quartet
2:55 p.m. Alyssa Graham
4:20 p.m. Steve Kroon Sextet
5:40 p.m. Mario Abney Quintet

12 p.m. Trio of OZ featuring Rachel Z and Omar Hakim
1:20 p.m. Stefon Harris and Blackout
2:40 p.m. Ann Hampton Callaway
4:10 p.m. Ramsey Lewis Trio
5:50 p.m. Juan De Marcos and Afro Cuban All Stars
7:40 p.m. Gladys Knight
Gazebo Stage
12:15 p.m. Hailey Niswanger Quartet
1:35 p.m. Kendrick Scott Oracle
2:55 p.m. Linda Oh Trio
4:15 p.m. Trio of OZ featuring Rachel Z and Omar Hakim
5:35 p.m. Ralph Lalama Quartet

Tom Keyser

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Monthly Archive for September, 2009

: September, 2009

Full-day K

School districts such as Bethlehem, Guilderland, South Colonie, Scotia-Glenville, Waterford-Halfmoon, Schalmont and Rotterdam-Mohanasen are making the switch to full-day kindergarten classes this

Is your classroom ready for swine flu?

This ran a few days ago, but it’s only going to be more on peoples’ minds as the school year ramps up. Swine flu is coming back to the classroom. Everybody knows that. School officials everywhere feel

‘I did not create this situation.’

That was the first sentence of former Schenectady school board member, now new again Schenectady school board member Linda Bellick’s 15-minute speech at last week’s board meeting, in which she tackled

Sure, questions abound about photos – but what about dinner?

There will no doubt be much public comment at Wednesday night’s Schenectady school board meeting concerning the Facebook photos released that show board member James Casino and his school teacher wife


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David Sims : First Coffee
David Sims
| CRM, ERP, Contact Center, Turkish Coffee and Astroichthiology:

Redknee Acquires Argent, CRM Webinars from AMC, CCID Predicts China 2008 Trends, NETadmin Picked for SSP

The news as of the second cup of coffee this morning, and the music is… you know, there were a lot of good albums released in 1966 that still hold up today, weren't there? Bob Dylan's Blonde On Blonde, The Beatles' Revolver, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, The Byrds' Fifth Dimension, The Medical Mission Sisters' Joy Is Like the Rain, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton, The Kinks' Face to -- huh? Hold on, go back a couple. The Medical Sister what?

The Medical Mission Sisters, a group of nuns singing songs composed by Sr. Theresa Winter which stand up today alongside anything else coming from that time. About on a par with Peter, Paul and Mary for rock chops, the record's packed with strong harmonies, interesting musicianship and arrangements, thoughtful and witty lyrics and the kind of passion in performance you get from people as sold out to something as nuns.

Joy Is Like The Rain fits on the First Coffee CD rack for 1966 comfortably between Parsley, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme and Sunshine Superman, and if you haven't heard you're welcome to keep your uselessly prejudiced opinion to yourself until you do.

Redknee Solutions has said it will acquire the assets of Kiwi billing company and CRM platform vendor Argent Networks for up to $8 million. Redknee will make an initial payment of $4 million and then up the total if certain revenue goals are met, the company said. The deal is expected to close Jan. 31.

Argent is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and has operations in Australia, Middle East and the United States. Following the acquisition, Argent will be integrated into Redknee's existing business.

Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO of Redknee, called the transaction "exciting for Redknee," as it "expands our operator footprint with 18 new operators in the emerging markets and five in North America, while increasing our product portfolio to include interconnect billing, and converged billing for IPTV and broadband operators."

You might know Argent for its ArgentEclipse Interconnect, a revenue assurance, interconnect and content settlement software product, and ArgentEclipse, a convergent billing and customer care CRM platform for fixed line, wireless and broadband operators.

AMC Technology, a contact center products vendor, has re-launched its free Webinar series, with topics centering on integrating contact centers with CRM applications.

"Many companies today are looking for ways to get the most out of their CRM application in order to work more effectively and deliver higher levels of customer service," AMC officials say -- you are, after all, right? Well okay then.

These Webinars are designed to provide real-world contact center experience and CRM integration information. They'll discuss how customer centric organizations can "improve the customer service experience, improve agent productivity and reduce the total cost of ownership associated with all contact center integration projects," the AMCians say.

Many of the shows focus on a particular CRM vendor or contact center vendor, the idea being, company officials say, to let the audience "stay focused on their particular situation." Within each of these kinds of Webinars, attendees will learn about the particular vagaries of pair-wise integration -- such as integrating a CRM from a specific vendor with a contact center product from another specific vendor, say -- which will provide "valuable down to earth information about their particular situation."

Some recently-added dates and topics include: January 2, 15, and 31 "Integrating SAP into the Contact Center," January 9 "Integrating Oracle PeopleSoft CRM into the Contact Center" and January 23 "Integrating Oracle Siebel CRM into the Contact Center."

"These Webinars will provide valuable information to contact center managers who want to learn how to get the most out of systems and applications they are currently using," said Larry Smothers, Global Partner Sales Manager at Richmond, Virginia-based AMC and a guy who never, ever has anybody ask him "So where are your two brothers?"

Salon Seudun Puhelin Oy has chosen NETadmin to provision and manage its network, SSP officials say.

The system will be delivered via Netadmin's partner K&K Active Oy. "Using NETadmin gives the network customers control over the services they want to use. This deal will enable Salon Seudun Puhelin to continue delivering open networks," says Kari Vuorinen, Business Manager of Network Development at SSP.

K&K Active Oy's sales manager Tapio Venäläinen says the deal will let SSP "improve its broadband services and increase sales of services to both new and old customers." NETadmin integrates with other systems, such as invoicing and CRM systems.

CCID Consulting, a Chinese research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider, the first Chinese consulting firm listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, has issued some forecasts for trends it expects in China' ICT market in 2008.

As elsewhere in the world, hardware, software, consumer electronics and telecom are projected to be more service-oriented.

"SAAS will change the business model of the traditional software industry," company officials find:

"On one hand, SAAS will expand to total product on the basis of renting CRM. Functions such as OA, CRM, financial management, HR management, security management and mobile business are converged into a total product," the report says. "Because of its briefness, moderate price and flexibility, the product is popular among SMEs."

On the other hand, the report finds, the extension of SAAS servers "will expand. In addition to professional CRM servers and traditional software manufacturers, telecom operators and ISPs also join the competition."

CCID sees hardware becoming a service in the future in China. Volkswagen has begun to ask hardware providers to repurchase related products and offer services according to global readiness, the report finds adding "hardware is not only a kind of product, but also a tool of providing related services to users' production and management. The SAAS era is near."

The 2008 Olympic Games are expected to speed up developments in mobile communications, NGN, wireless access, digital TV, semiconductor lighting and RFID as well.

A "high-tech Olympic Games" will provide great opportunities for Mobile, NGN, wireless access, digital TV, semiconductor lighting and RFID, the CCID reports finds: "These opportunities would include the use of mobile communications based on 3.5G; NGN based on IPv6; WLAN/WiMAX that realizes seamless and wireless network; bidirectional wired digital TVs; LEDs with energy-saving, environmental protection and long service life characteristics; and RFID, which is widely applied in electronic ticketing, IDs, safety tracing systems, food safety monitoring and assets management."

Yet the report predicts it will be "difficult" for China's future IC market to present a growth rate over 30 percent, as less international electronics production is transferred to China. The report foresees "the output of China's units will become saturated after a rapid growth for years, even if they have a certain growth rate, and the fall of IC price will also influence the future IC market."

The IC industry is less mature than traditional industries in China, to be sure, but it isn't a new industry and market, so growth will be slow compared to the electronic industry.

CCID is directly affiliated with the China Center for Information Industry Development. Headquartered in Beijing, CCID Consulting has set up branch offices in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Harbin. The company's business covers over 200 large and medium-sized cities in China.

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Experts have talked about this before. How many times have you read about the importance of ‘adding value’ for your audience? How many times have you read about ‘building trust’ with your readers/prospects?
Many, many times. You know it well. Every marketing guru has spoken about this topic. I’m sick of hearing it. But it STILL bears repeating.

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Bringing the Chuckles to HTML5: The Funny or Die Story

The Internet has proven an amazing tool for helping people communicate and for disseminating all kinds of information.  Perhaps nowhere has it been more useful than in propagating funny stuff.  At the vangard of producing and distributing and setting the bar for humor is Funny or Die.  Funny or Die made a big splash when they launched in 2007, marking their debut with “The Landlord”, the hilarious video wherein Will Ferrell is berated by his 2 year old landlord, Pearl.

In the 6 years since its premier, “The Landlord” has garnered over 70 million views, and the Funny or Die site has grown to 19 million monthly unique viewers, with 62.5 million monthly video views.  By 2012, the technical team realized that they needed to update a their encoding backend to increase scale and efficiency, and rework the site and video player in HTML5 to better support cross-platform web and mobile viewing experiences.

They turned to the Zencoder transcoding service and Video.js, the most widely-used open source HTML5 player,which is sponsored by Brightcove.

With Zencoder, they found a solution that:

  • Was more cost-effective than their previous solution
  • Enabled API-level integration with existing Content Management System (CMS)
  • Significantly reduced error rate and minimized engineering time devoted to troubleshooting encoding failures
  • Improved video compression, resulting in higher quality at a lower bitrate Automatically scaled to accommodate large spikes in encoding demand

With Video.js they got

  • An open-source player that is free to use and withstrong community contribution
  • Cross-platform support, which simplified development and maintenance, saving developers’ time
  • Extensibility, which made ad network integration and monetization easy

To read more about how Funny or Die utilizes the Zencoder service and Video.js, click here!

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Technology earnings boost Wall Street

by Blog Burger on July 20, 2012

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock ExchangeNEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks rose on Thursday for a third straight day, with the S&P 500 at a 2-1/2 month high, as earnings from technology companies and expectations for more monetary stimulus outweighed weak economic data. So far in this earnings season a majority of companies have beaten analysts' lowered expectations. In the latest boost, IBM raised its full-year outlook, eBay's profit beat forecasts and Qualcomm said it expects a "strong December quarter. …

Business News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Home / Culture and Society / Science and Technology / More Getting There From Here

More Getting There From Here

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Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. Albert Einstein

Einstein was famous for his thought experiments, so let’s do something of that sort for a moment. Imagine that you can hold the scope of existence in your mind, from the Big Bang to just now. Conceive of the billions of years of stellar and planetary formation, the hundreds of millions of years of life formation, and the millions of years of the development of the human body and mind that lead to this moment. You stand at the crest of that mounting wave that begins at the bottom of the depths and thrusts upward.

Ask yourself, “What am I doing with this moment at the crest, this moment that represents the labors of existence and the labors of uncounted beings for billions of years?” For all those labors, how do you exert yourself to give in return? This moment of self-aware cognition may not be happening anywhere else in the universe. We don’t know. Can we let it slip by? How do you spend these moments of existence? How do you use your mind and the vast sparkling gift of this internet that links us together? What do you express? Is it a gift in return for the gift? Only you can truthfully answer that for yourself.

In the last article I posted here, I stated the thought that the internet represented our collective unconscious mind with all the good, the bad, and the ugly. I’m going to extend the analogy into another thought experiment. Imagine you are a computer connected wirelessly to the internet, but with a firewall that doesn’t allow you to see the internet. The firewall also allows and regulates a flow of information. If it could truly think, the computer would think it was isolated and alone with little effect on other computers it might see, and no effect on computers it can’t see. The computer might see some random comings and goings of information from the good, the bad, and the ugly, but it could only see the randomness. The computer might have to invent words to describe the random comings and goings, words like imagination, insight, prophecy, and madness.

Now think of the human condition. Our own firewalls have a tricky job. Imagine as a child bearing the full brunt of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It would be a paralyzing or terminal information overload. For survival’s sake the firewall has to dole out access as the individual human mind grows, expands, gains strength. However in this conjecture, this thought experiment, the firewall is sometimes sabotaged, sometimes damaged. Horrors like war and sexual abuse and abandonment as well as the bad expression of genes, damage the regulator and new words enter our vocabulary, words like post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and psychosis.

We believe we are separated but we are not. Every point is connected to another by the fabric of existence, the fabric of space-time. What we call the empty vacuum of outer space is still part of the fabric. Our minds share everything, the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you can really see this, can really grasp the nature of this conjecture, then it’s time to move on to the next steps. The trick is to learn to manage your own firewall, your own access to the mind-of-all, damaged regulator, or not. You become the regulator in an ultimate act of self-responsibility and being. There are deeper levels to this mind-of-all that go far below the good, the bad, and the ugly.

In returning to our original inquiry, I have to ask, what are you inputting to the mind-of-all? What thought forms, what energies do you put into the internet and into our collective mind that others will have to suffer for? Do you exert yourself to return a gift for the gift, or do you contribute anger, venom, attitude, and self-aggrandizement, the same-old shit? How are you spending your moment in the fabric of all this, this fabric of space-time and beyond?

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About John Spivey

  • duane

    John asks:

    In returning to our original inquiry, I have to ask, what are you inputting to the mind-of-all?

    Some good, some bad, and some ugly. No doubt.

    What thought forms, what energies do you put into the internet and into our collective mind that others will have to suffer for?

    Anti-religious sentiment.

    Do you exert yourself to return a gift for the gift, or do you contribute anger, venom, attitude, and self-aggrandizement, the same-old shit?

    A touch of the occasional anger, often in response to the other bad stuff you mention.

    How are you spending your moment in the fabric of all this, this fabric of space-time and beyond?

    Battling the eternal conflict of the everyday vs. the cosmic Big Questions.

  • gonzo marx

    oh my stars and garters, John…you don’t muck around, but go right for the jugular…

    I have to ask, what are you inputting to the mind-of-all? – reactionary rantings and primal screeds

    What thought forms, what energies do you put into the internet and into our collective mind that others will have to suffer for? – good one…sometimes a bit of reflection, a skewed view attempting to find the different Angle that may shed Light into the Dark…many times just wanting to bash Diogenes for being so slow with that damn lamp…

    Do you exert yourself to return a gift for the gift, or do you contribute anger, venom, attitude, and self-aggrandizement, the same-old shit? -umm…all of the above, i guess…but i do try an dmake certain my shit ain’t the same olde…mileage varies

    How are you spending your moment in the fabric of all this, this fabric of space-time and beyond? – in sheer frustration and futility for the most part, but sometimes the moon is indeed Blue and i get to read something like this article

  • duane-
    Thanks for coming back.
    religious/anti-religious–flips sides of the same coin. go deeper.
    everyday vs. Big Question–they can become one, even while sweeping floors.
    from Gary Snyder,
    -become one with the knot itself,
    till it dissolves away
    -sweep the garden.
    -any size

    Thanks for the link. It provides a companion to this piece.
    Yeh, Diogenes. Tough task he had.
    You know from martial arts that force is usually only met with force in response. The soft arts absorb and redirect force. I’d say lead and redirect. The style is your choice.

    I want you both to know I wouldn’t raise these questions if I hadn’t explored them myself and explored the other side, or I should say explored the place beyond the opposition of two sides.

    I do value your taking the time to post your own thoughts. It provides more worth for continuing.

  • SonnyD

    Most interesting, John. So now I’m a computer with a wireless connection and a firewall that allows random bits of information to get through. Isn’t language frustrating when you have a mental concept you are trying to communicate by comparing it to something people can understand? “It’s like this, sort of, only different.” That is an apt description, though.

    Here is a question for you. What would a man do if he had a firewall that let through more than the good, the bad and the ugly? What if he had mental abilities that most people didn’t? There is a reason for this question. I started writing a story about a young man who was raised by his mother and paternal grandfather. Most of his time was spent with the grandfather. After the grandfather died he started finding out things about this ability the older man had. It seems the grandfather had spent the early part of his life locating other people who had similar abilities and bringing them together for some purpose.

    The problem is, so far I don’t feel like I’m the one who is writing the story. I’m just hearing it and writing it down. I have a vague idea of where it might be headed and I’m not sure I even want to go there. In fact, I put it aside and started planning another story that I’m in control of. But, it won’t go away. What would you do?

  • Sonny,

    As I said, there are much deeper levels than the good, the bad, and the ugly.

    There are different kinds of writing. Most of it is an expression of ego and we can delight in our cleverness and control. Sometimes we are a scribe for something else and it becomes an act of giving back. We cannot control the wave that rises from the depths, but we can become great surfers and skillfully, gracefully express the wave.

    The grandfather thing is interesting. Mythologically, the grandparents represent the spirit world, and to be raised by a grandparent is to be introduced into the spirit house without developing the ways of the world. It is the way of the seer. The grandfather figures in our culture include Merlin, Obi Wan, and even Dumbledore. Spiritually we crave that wisdom, but realistically we’d rather watch TV or play computer games. We would rather watch it, than be it.

    There may be deep spiritual reasons for the grandfather to gather others together. He may also be just plain lonely for others to whom he can really speak. Having a power is in and of itself merely interesting. Finding the real self that can gracefully express that power is the real challenge. How did the grandfather handle the challenge?

    Why be afraid of the exploration? Something beyond your sphere of control may be trying to teach you, reveal itself to you. A dream teacher once told me that even nightmares aren’t there to frighten us, only to get our attention and point toward some valuable deep knowledge.

    Knock, knock. Answer the door.

  • SonnyD

    John: Well, you have certainly given me some things to think about. I knew about the elderly, wise man archetype, but wasn’t aware that grandparents, in general, represent the spirit world.

    In the story, the grandfather says he comes from a line of men who all sire one son and die peacefully in their sleep at the age of 97. The story starts on the second day after he dies. It is slowly disclosing bits of his life that the grandson knew nothing about. It seems this line of men are all born with the knowledge of a connection to some form of intelligence that exists outside the physical world. He is not what you would call a seer, but he knows of other people who are. They are all part of a group that is not a formal organization of any kind, but have inherited different types of abilities that they have been using for generations to gather other similar people to them.

    The grandfather’s job was to make contact with these people and escort them to one of the communities that were established as safe havens. These are located in areas least likely to be subject to armed conflict or natural disasters. The purpose of the communities is to compile a record of the knowledge and abilities of each person since each one seems to differ in some way from the next.

    The grandfather retired from this occupation when he was around 50. He married and had a son and settled down to raise cattle on a ranch in one of the communities where many of the people he had gathered and their children were living. He assumed his son would carry on the tradition of his line, but the son rebelled. He wanted nothing to do with it and mentally blocked out the abilities he had been born with. The son enlisted in the military and was killed in battle. The grandfather was devastated and blamed himself for his son’s death. When his son’s widow and his grandson came to live with him, he was determined not to make the same mistake again. So, even though he could tell the grandson had inherited some of the same abilities, he did not attempt to push him to develop them.

    As the story starts, someone has just tried to kill the grandson, and he has no idea why. The other men from the community who were the old man’s friends know they will have to tell him about their history for his own protection. So far, I don’t know why someone wanted to kill him, either.

    The strange part about this is, I was 1500 words into it before I realized I was writing in first person. I never write in first person. Have never felt comfortable with it. Yet, there I was telling the condensed version of the life of a 21 year old.

    I’m curious about where this story would go if I continue it, but it is nothing at all like anything I’ve ever thought about writing before. It is really a strange feeling, I started this because I had a picture of a scene and one sentence in my head and thought I’d just make a note of it and maybe use it some day.

  • Sonny,

    Sorry it’s taken me a bit to get back. I was thinking of this story overnight and into today. I’m trying to draw people together in some form of comradeship here that unites different strengths and forms of awareness, so your story has some resonance for me.

    Of course I can’t tell you where to go with the story or what it might mean. I can only say that being a fatherless boy or young man who touches the spirit world is an important thing symbolically, mythologically. In my examples of grandfathers in my above comment, Luke, Harry, and Arthur are all fatherless.

    It’s up to you to plumb the depths of this story and see where it goes. Many famous writers say they don’t know what will happen to their characters. The writer has to wait for the character to reveal him/her self. I’d be interested to see what happens for you. You can always email me directly with the link in my bio above this. If you keep returning to the story, it will reveal itself, if not for publication, then for your own knowledge and enlightenment.

  • troll

    the future is a tale we spin – now is all there is…so it’s safe to say (and I’ve always wanted to find an appropriate occasion): you can’t get ‘there’ from ‘here’

  • troll,

    The now that most people deal with is a very narrow band of perception. They care nothing about how this “now” impacts what is to come and it many times becomes an exercise in narcissism. My experience of now bows to all that has come before and thoughtfully considers all that is to come, all while being as aware as I can in this present instant.

  • troll

    John – my experience is that narcissism raises its ugly head when one takes his concoctions concerning the past and speculations about the future too seriously – not out of limited views of the now

    you and I see things differently: you describe interaction with force as leading and directing – I see it as sticking and yielding…and if Gandhi taught us nothing else it was that one can’t teach anybody anything

    …so as I see it folks don’t need gurus and leaders or lessons in etiquette…they need self respect

  • troll-

    After reading your comment, I sat with it awhile and rolled it over in my mind, examined it a bit. I have wondered some about the nature of self-respect. What self am I to respect–the intellectual part, the athletic part, the craftsman part, the writer part. Or is there something deeper, more profound, beyond pride of achievement?

    As I sat and held your comment in mind I realized that I neither respected, nor disrespected myself. There was just a sense of beingness. Self respect yields to self disrespect in varying waves of the coming and going of opposites. The question to explore is the nature of that state beyond those opposites.

    I have had my share of bad teachers and a few treasured good ones. I’ve had to learn to finely distinguish between the two, without giving up my openness to and enjoyment of learning. You make a blanket statement about not being able to teach anyone anything. That leads to the question, are you capable of being taught, or do you gain identity from being unteachable? Whatever the answer, it is indeed your choice.

    Leading is sometimes sticking, directing is sometimes yielding. Always sticking and yielding leaves me as old gum on the bottom of somebody’s shoe.

  • troll

    so John…(while gum generally has trouble with the yielding part) following the image: what’s the problem with being that old gum – ?

    one garden path is to *explore the nature of that state beyond those opposites*…does that make it the garden path as your comment seems to imply – ?

    couldn’t another be to explore creative energy and harmony within the multiplicity of opposites for example – ?

    …and [bracketing the question of the identity of the self for now] yes there’s more to self respect than pride – ‘respect’ also carries a sense of circumspection

  • troll,

    I don’t say there is one garden path. My phrase to describe it is, “one eye on the polestar, the other on where the foot falls next.”

    My occupations–carpenter, furniture maker, middle school teacher (both classroom and on extended trips into the outdoors)–have carried heavy penalties if I wasn’t fully present within the multiplicity of opposites. So yes, I do draw great amounts of creative energy from being present in the mix. That presence however, is always informed by the polestar at the center (from our frame of reference) of the circling heavens. I choose to explore a path of sharp tools and honed words, not to go down the path of a Bukowski-like existence. As best I can, I choose to return a gift for the gift rather than to bring more degradation into the world. I have witnessed enough of the degradation firsthand to carry no romantic notions about its freedom

    Possibly the only way to live beyond the opposites is in a cave somewhere, but that’s not my life. I wouldn’t want it to be. There are terrible politics even within spiritual communities. The school where I taught was housed in an old seminary where unspeakable things happened to a number of the boys.

    Knowing where to let the foot fall next is a practiced art, like playing a piano or practicing a martial art. After a while one just knows where to step or place the hand. In the end we may be talking of nearly the same thing, but words fail us.

  • SonnyD

    John: Well, I’m certainly teachable. Could you explain a “Bukowski-like existence” for me?

    Troll: Gandhi taught us that one can’t teach anybody anything? I always thought he taught millions by example. Maybe you were referring to a different kind of teaching.

    I’m not sure I’m following what the two of you are saying, but I’m trying. But, for the time being, the here and now is calling. Tiger Woods is playing today.

  • sonny,

    Sorry for being perhaps too abstract. Anyway, I think troll is concerned that I’m trying to define one true path. In actuality I believe there are many, anywhere from gardening to martial arts to painting and writing. What I also believe is that the path should point to and serve the larger vision of being here, of serving life, and not merely be an act of self indulgence. I use the word polestar to stand for that larger vision of being here, the vision that guides us. Great athletes could use their sport as a path to understanding themselves and true nature, but instead choose to simply exalt themselves.

    About Bukowski–Charles Bukowski was a writer from LA who has gained a huge cult following for his stories of a bloated drunken life. Some people find a romance, a freedom of expression in his writings and life and see it as a form of path. For myself, I grew up with a drunken father who sometimes slept in his own vomit. He found no enlightenment in his life on this path, only continual self-torture and destruction. I certainly found no romance in the lifestyle, no heroic quality.

    Many things can be a path, but few really are in practice.

  • SonnyD

    John: Thanks for the info on Bukowski. No wonder I didn’t recognize the name, that would not have been my cup of tea.

  • troll

    John – we have no fundamental disagreement except perhaps that imo vitriolic interaction serves as ‘pure’ and productive a function as any other approach…depends on intension

    …and that imo as soon as one sees himself as a leader he has inserted just enough ego to derail the cosmos

    as a farrier I share your perception of praxis and ‘being here now’

  • troll-

    There are different types of leadership. We are mostly governed by the leadership of imposition. There is also leadership by stimulus and example, which we rarely encounter. Leadership by imposition always has to make excuses for its shortcomings and mistakes by making new rules and exceptions for power. Leadership by stimulus is always examining its own flaws and correcting them midcourse.

    To be perfectly transparent, my reason for writing these pieces is to stimulate and awaken people so they truly understand for themselves what they need to do for themselves and for the larger arc of life. I have no personal interest in telling them what to do. In large part that is what has gotten us into this mess. We are always acting like children and are looking for someone to save us rather than growing up and learning the skills of truly being here in order to save ourselves. There are responsibilities to being here, but we’d rather be irresponsible.

    The cosmos IS derailed. What do we do about it?

  • Nancy

    Mmmm…this sounds a lot like a story I once read titled “The Guardians”. If you wrote something similar, it’s a confluence of ideas, for sure.

    I would hope I’m humble enough to say & recognize that I’m not smart enough & don’t know enough to run the whole cosmos. Hell, I have enough trouble handling my own infinitely miniscule & pissant part of it, let alone anyone elses, let alone the whole shebang.

  • SonnyD

    Nancy: Haven’t you heard what happens when a butterfly flaps its wings? Everything you do affects the whole shebang. At least that is one theory.

  • SonnyD

    John: In #18, first paragraph, last two sentences. If I were writing that, I would change the word “always” to “usually.”

    A basic example would be a parent. As a parent, I would prefer to lead by stimulus and example, but there were times when, for the safety of the child or others, I had to demand obedience. That never kept me from assessing the results of my actions and making changes in the times I chose to use force. On the other hand a person may try to lead by stimulus or example and be wrong in the example they are setting. They could also be blind to their own mistakes and never make corrections.

    This same example could apply to any position of power from family leader to world leader.

  • troll

    SonnyD – I don’t mean to ignore your #14…just trying to come up with a more satisfying response than ‘open your eyes and look around’

    I’ll get back to you

  • When your eyes, heart, and mind are open, the Universe always knows what to give right at the exact time you need it…not a minute too soon or too late.

    I’m sorry I missed this article when it was first published, but thankful that I found at the exact moment I was ready to receive it. Which is why I am patiently awaiting your next book, John 🙂

    The question you ask, I don’t believe require a direct answer, but they do demand deep reflection. The idea of connection is certainly a comforting thought.

    Thanks again, John!


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