Sunday, December 30, 2007

Death Of An Icon


My first introduction to Netscape Navigator occurred during my college years where ensconced at a prestigious engineering (premie) university, I traversed the internet with reckless abandon--chatting,
downloading music from our college wide intra-net, emailing and surfing.

Those heady days may be over (I've moved onto Mozilla Firefox) but I'll never forget my first!

Vaya Con Dios Navigator, Vaya Con Dios!

hot oil

since when did cooking oil become such a dangerous commodity?

Friday, December 28, 2007

Thank You Jason Clark!

Mr J. Clark's entry was too good to pass up, so it is here in all it's goodness>

"One session on the writing course I was on this week, was on ‘idea generation’ and ‘creativity’.

A background idea to creativity that I have often heard and believe, is that creativity is something to be practiced, and that you learn with practice.

Some of the highlights/tips from Nick Page for practicing creativity that you could use for blogs ideas, talks, books, anything, were:

1. Bisociation: Make use of bisociation, a term coined by Arthur Koestler to describe how two different semantic fields produce a different meaning.

In other words combine things from different worlds, and see what it produces. Do this with words, ideas, themes, topics. We see this with inventions, where someone observing a fly on a ceiling, gets the idea for velcro. Ideas and inspiration come from association.

Evangelism and mission involve bisociation, the entering into of other people’s worlds.

2. Environment Scanning: Go into different book sections in a large book store, scan and read from a wide variety of areas, to enter into other peoples worlds and get more ideas, from bisociation etc.

I do this monthly already, over a coffee and a few dozen books and magazines from Borders.

3. Ideas Bank: When you have a great idea and think you’ll remember it, you often don’t. Carry a notebook, use a memory system, or something, but make sure you record your ideas. Build an ideas bank. I use a memory system, and in particular a memory bank route (journey method) that lets me park potential blog ideas for later use, and doesn’t rely on a notebook.

4. Ideas Matrix: Make a grid with event, place, time, purpose, people and put 10 ideas in each, and then look for patterns an associations, between ideas. You can generate 100,000 ideas from this simple matrix, and maybe at least one will be useful.

5. Reverse Thinking: Look at the opposite, flip things around, turn them upside down. Think of the opposite extreme and move it back a notch.

6. Question: Don’t be defensive, question and let other question your ideas, it leads to better ideas."

thoughts move what time will not

a man may kill for another man or woman but he will die for an idea...


a question of past or future

Would you rather meet your great great grandparents or your great great grandchildren?

Why?

one for you, one for me

the ideas are not new -- empowerment of the "plebian majority", education as the key to upward mobility; charity beginning at home.

the technology is not new either -- we now have the capabilities that were once only a figment in Gene Roddenberry's fertile mind.

neither is the incentive -- earning for me and for you

so why did it take so long?




chasing good literature


ever finished a good book from a good novelist and wondered if there were more?


check out this map that links authors by readers


sublime

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.
He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.
He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.

He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John testifies concerning him.


He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' "

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.

For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

from whence they came


They say all of western literature emerges from the womb of two: The Bible and Shakespeare

I must admit, Shakespeare did have a way with
words...

but Jesus is The WORD!


Who Knew?

cash advance

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breaking news...

LATE BREAKING NEWS:

Newborn found naked in barn --Police and Social Services Investigate Carpenter from Nazareth;Under-age delusional mother arrested, charged with criminal neglect.
Dateline: Bethlehem, Judea

In the early morning hours of December 25. authorities were notified by an alarmed citizen. He discovered a young family, who lives in a barn.

Upon arrival, the investigators of the social services division, who were supported by local police, found a newborn baby-boy, who after having been delivered by his 14-year mother, lying in container for cattle feed.

Also arrested were three foreign nationals who identified themselves as "wise men from a near-eastern country". The Secretary of the Interior as well as customs and immigration authorities are currently trying to establish the exact whereabouts of said three men, who apparently are in the country illegally, and may be charged with terrorism.

A police spokesperson informed the press that these men do not have any identification papers with them. However, they were in possession of gold, as well as other illegal substances. They resisted arrest and claimed that God had asked them to return to their home and to refuse to make statements to the police as well as to avoid any contact with government agencies. The chemicals that have been found along with the illegals have been sent to a police forensic lab for further examination.

The whereabouts of the newborn have thus far not been released. A fast investigation and conclusion of this case appears to have been forgone. After inquiries from the press, an employee of the social services agency stated that "the father is of middle age and the mother is definitely not an adult. We are checking with the authorities in Nazareth, what relationship these two have with each other."

Maria meanwhile is at Bethlehem County hospital for further medical and psychological exams. She has to expect to be prosecuted for criminal negligence of an infant. Her mental state will be further examined as she claims not only that she was still a virgin, but also that the infant was God's son. In the meantime, she is being medicated with the most powerful anti-psychotic drugs Big Pharma can provide.

An official bulletin from the head of the department of psychiatry states that, "it is not my position to tell these people, what they should believe. However, if what they believe, as this in this case, leads to the endangerment of a newborn, we have to consider these parents as delusional and dangerous.

Finally, the following information was revealed: the shepherds on location continue to maintain that a large man wearing pajamas and two wings had asked them to find a stable and let the newborn live after he was born. A spokesperson of the drug enforcement agency stated, "This is probably the most stupid and ridiculous excuse of a full-fledged junkie that I have ever heard in my life."

(BRILLIANT, SIMPLY BRILLIANT)

Zune

because my baby brother loves me and for Christmas, presented me w/ a beautiful black shiny thin technologic marvel of music and machine...




i rock Zune

a bad day

2 hours
+
30 hospitals

(if this was the U.S. of A)

=
1 gigantic lawsuit

Thursday, December 27, 2007

inaccessible blog

meant to momentarily enliven daily life for close friends and family.

now inaccessible. although i have the username and password, i can't log on without an accompanying gmail account. at the time of its creation, this wasn't necessary so there wasn't an attached gmail account. i would hate to create another email account for one website that only received 36 views (two today from me)

for your brief perusement: A Billion Laughs

an artistic intervention


The toy world has been bombarded recently with news of manufacturing neglect (a, b, c, d). Story after story is issued on how third world production of first world toys hurts the very ones meant to enjoy them. Haven't multiple companies shut down?


People have lost jobs and worse--face. Recalls have become so common-place that they rank lower and lower in the flash and controlled hysteria of local at 5, at 6, at 7 and at 11 news programs.

What's being done? More people are turning to the tried and true and others are benefitting from it. Just talk to Mr Ron Voake and I think Mr Andrew Fentem's idea gives us some hope.

The issues don't stop at toys though...



Another Martyr

Benazir Bhutto is dead.

Does this world need more martyrs?