i spoke too soon

the discipline of blogging

dave — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:30:11 +0000

I’ve never seen blogging included in a list of spiritual disciplines. Granted, blogging is historically a rather new concept, but it feels a lot like the rather old concept of keeping a journal. Expressing in words your thoughts and experiences is a healthy way to live. It forces you to process things in your life, to think about things deeply.

I have been writing in my journal unfaithfully for most of this year but I have not blogged at all since February. Today I am reflecting on why I don’t blog. Too busy — but isn’t everyone? Too much work. And this is why I am considering it to be a discipline. Writing in a journal is easier because there is no audience but yourself. Writing in a blog you have an audience (or a potential audience) and words must be chosen more carefully. More carefully than a personal journal but less so than an article or paper. This act of writing a more polished, presentable type of journal, i believe, is more important for the writer than the reader. It is a discipline that deepens the thinking and sharpens the mind, similar, but differently to playing chess or sudoku.

The other benefit of blogging of course is to update people on the goings on of one’s life. Much has happened since my espresso on Locke street in February, evidenced partly by the fact that I am writing this in Nairobi, Kenya. Crystle and I are in Africa for October, then off to Amsterdam for a week. I told myself that I would blog more while here in hopes to kick start a new effort in this mental discipline. Almost two weeks into our trip this hasn’t happened all that much. Well, as they say here in Africa “slowly by slowly." I shouldn’t expect that I can restart this blogging habit too quickly. At the least I can continue to keep a journal.

Ironically, “keeping a journal" isn’t going so well for me lately. I lost my pocket journal that I was planning to carry with me everywhere i went on this trip. I’m pretty sure I forgot it on the plane inside the pouch in front of my seat. We have emailed Schipol and KLM lost-and-found but they say they haven’t found it. I have my email address in the front so I am hoping that someone finds it and emails me.

Having lost my journal, I need to remind myself of the value of personal writing. It is the act itself, the discipline, that is of much value. Even if i never see my journal again, which has over a year of writing, it was still good to do the mind enhancing task. Still, I really want it back so if you see it please send it my way.

espresso and financial perspective

dave — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:23:39 +0000

I just had a most brilliant espresso on Locke street at a nice little coffee shop called “The Courtyard" located at 252 Locke. Van Gogh on the coasters, crema in the cup, and a view of the street, it was a delicious experience. While enjoying the smooth chocolaty finish, I reflected on our current financial realities.

I find within me two competing perspectives on the matter. One is that we work hard to earn our money and thus can enjoy many things such as a nice home, good food, and brilliant espresso. It’s a effort-to-reward causality leading to an economic transaction.

The other, quieter voice, proclaims that God has blessed us richly and we have the opportunity to live a life of thanksgiving to Him. Thus, it is a grace-gratitude equation that disconnects the requirement of our effort from our receiving of reward. Outwardly, this life might look very similar to the effort/reward life as the responsibility and actions might be the same. The life of gratitude does not suggest total passivity. The real treasure can be found inwardly as it presents a life of freedom, both from our efforts and from our possessions knowing that God provides both.

I find it difficult to live into this grace/gratitude reality, especially when large bills come our way. Perhaps what is needed is to live in this reality together, encouraging one another in Christ. Perhaps this could be explored further over a cup of coffee. Espresso anyone?

Getting Things Done on the Move

dave — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 19:05:04 +0000

I use David Allen’s getting things done productivity system, which enables me to think clearly about the mountain of tasks that I have to do. Admittedly, I often do not have 100% collected in my system, nor do I often have the mind like water that Allen describes. Since using the system my average productivity has certainly increased and when I feel stuck in my work I now have very practical tools for getting unstuck: collect, process, organize, and review.

The value of my system became most evident to me this week. We moved to our new house on Saturday and my home business moved with us. I set up my computer and then found two smallish boxes that I labelled “office – inbox" and “office – 43 folders" the contents of which I placed on my desk. It was that simple. I’m back up and running right where I left off, pulling the next daily file out of the system and back to work.

Easy peasy.

we didn’t start the bubble

dave — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 14:47:39 +0000

this is a great video making fun of the web 2.0 bubble using Billy Joel’s “we didn’t start the fire":

Santa has gone postal

dave — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 15:14:56 +0000

…since 1974 actually. Here is his postal address:

SANTA CLAUS
NORTH POLE H0H 0H0
CANADA

I was looking into geocoding postal codes into latitude and longitude when I came across a section in wikipedia on Santa Claus. With the postal code system being letter then number, naturally Santa’s code is H0H0H0 (those are zeros not Oh’s). If you don’t believe wikipedia then hear it from Canada Post itself.

In 2003, “Santa received more than 1,073,000 letters, in 27 languages." What would you write to Santa this year? Feel free to leave your wish list here. Or, actually write to Santa and post his response here too.

See also google’s map to the magical north pole — sorry, magnetic north pole. Found it by simply searching for the postal code. Also, if you are looking to geocode your addres this is the cool resource that I found: http://geocoder.ca/

on reading the news and physical limitations

dave — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:22:04 +0000

How do you read the news? How do you keep up on the things and people that interest or concern you?

Since the printing press people have been reading the news in the news paper. In our day, there is a new and profound reality breaking into history that we generally label as the Internet, or the web. It is slowly and subtly fundamentally changing the way we do things and the way we think about things. Our methods of exchanging information has changed and distribution is next to free because there are no material constraints. News, blogs (blogs are really news on a smaller scale), and other information is shared across the world, when compared to physical books and paper, at incredible speed and ease.

A problem that can often arise for people is the incredible amount of web sites that one would like to read. Are we expected to click on all our bookmarks of news and friends to see if maybe there is something new? That is a tedious and disappointing way to read your news. Enter the feed reader. That’s right, you can have software keep track of all this stuff for you. Go ahead and search for feed reader and you will find many options. That big, handy orange and white logo in this post found all over the web means that the web page has a feed associated with it.

The reader that I have been using for a while is Google Reader. It is really easy to use and since it integrates with my web browser it is simple to add new feeds to it. You need a Google account, but it’s all free, just follow the instructions. On my trends page it tells me “From your 46 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 1,550 items, starred 13 items, shared 1 items, and emailed 0 items." Good features and keyboard shortcuts too.

Without a feed reader there is no way I could stay on top of all the information that I need to for my business as well as stay current with friends and family. From Gutenberg to Google, people have a need to access information and however you read the news I think the one necessary thing is a good cup of coffee.

So, how do you read the news?

Peak oil

dave — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:54:47 +0000

What are the chances of a terrorist attack? Slimmer than winning the lottery I hear. But we sure are prepared for it. Odd.

Why is it that we like to hear about the threat of terrorists but quickly dismiss the ideas of climate change and peak oil? The USA can mobilize very quickly in response to a military threat (not that it got them anywhere). Too bad it will take decades to deal with the other major threats.

Say no to Microsoft’s OOXML standard

dave — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 00:50:52 +0000

Shark Canadian National Championship Regatta

dave — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:06:08 +0000

I couldn’t find yesterday’s regatta results anywhere online but I have them here in my hand. Here are the positions. Sorry, but I didn’t feel like typing the crew names and each race result.

Duck Soup 12
Shark Poop
Charlie don’t surf
Crazy Ivan
Debu
Don Osborne
Loan Shark
Fiction
Frankly Scarlett
Scotch Mist
Fred
Freak on a Leash
Invincible
Invicta
Afternoon Delight
Wobbly Pop
Navis
Gamache
Golden Goose
Sudden Impulse
Your Half / My Half
Unc
Gladiator
Quest
Blade
Trailer Park Buoys
Immunitas
Multiple Partners
Strider
Jumping the Gun
Total Chaos
Striker
Ariel

sailing through the storm

dave — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 13:14:29 +0000

Last night’s race was going well. We were catching up to the first place boat. Then the storm caught up to us. The race was cancelled and we all sailed through the storm with no serious casualties.

In the first leg of the race I saw the ominous darkness to windward and a flash of lightning in the Dundas valley. I had the feeling that the race would not run its course. Approaching our third mark the race committee made the call to abandon. We managed to reduce sail to only the main and close up the cabin before the brunt of the storm came with its stinging rain pelting the sides of our faces. The storm didn’t last too long but we were soaked so it seemed like forever.

Visibility was reduced but not too bad; we could still see the shore and other boats. I looked back to our expert helmsman Dave who said “This is good shark sailing weather!"

Here is a graph of the wind:

Note, in my (humble) experience, 20 knot winds are a lot to handle. You can see where the storm hit at about 7:15, averaging 32knots.