This has been circulated widely, but perhaps it is new to some of you:
"And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:
`Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.'" (Mt 5:1-11)
Then Simon Peter said, "Do we have to write this down?"
And Andrew said, "Are we supposed to know this?"
And Philip said, "What if we don't know it?"
And Bartholomew said, "Do we have to turn this in?"
And John said, "The other disciples didn't have to learn this."
And Matthew said, "When do we get out of here?"
And Judas said,' "What does this have to do with real life?"
Then one of the Pharisees present asked to see Jesus' lessonplans and inquired of Jesus his annual goals and short term objectives in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains.
And Jesus wept.
Those of you who are teachers can relate to this (all too well, I'm sure you would say). And all of us who have been students can recall having the same attitude in school: "If this isn't going to be on the test, then I'm not going to write it down, I'm not going to learn it, I'm not going to remember it, and you can't make me!"
Perhaps some of that same attitude carries over into the workplace. "If doing this doesn't contribute to my chances for a promotion down the road (translation: 'it's not on the test'), then I'm not about to put forth the extra effort it would require."
Or how about at church? Ever heard someone say, "I don't attend on Sunday nights and Wednesday nights because I don't think you have to do that to go to heaven"? (translation: "I don't think it's on the test")
At what point in our Christian lives did we turn from wanting to learn, wanting to grow, wanting to do everything we can possibly do for God, to doing the least amount necessary to just barely "pass the test"?
"This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; that you will do many good things with the help of Christ to bring glory and praise to God." (Phil 1:9-11, NCV)
That truly is my prayer for each of you.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
for son and tweeter concerning email not checked first w/snopes
Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.
Monday, October 29, 2007
note from my next youngest brother
[Our academic backgrounds show in that he thinks this is funny and that I understand it.]
I need some queuing theory analysis for work and ran across this page http://www2.uwindsor.ca/~hlynka/qfun.html containing this joke:[The only person I can tell this to is another PhD in Physics I know at church.]Bill Becker (of Hitachi Data Systems) sent me the following story:For those who don't know, LK is a q theory founding father. You might try telling this at church or synagogue.I was attending a computer network performance management seminar conducted by none other than Leonard Kleinrock himself. (At the time, I had no idea who he was - this took place around 1985, or so.) He starts out his week-long intensive seminar with the statement:"Life is a queue. You come in, hang around for a bit, get some service, then depart."To which I commented"Is that a closed-loop or open-ended queue?"LK went silent and then proclaimed"That depends on your religious philosophy."
"Bella" means "beautiful"
2007Oct23
Late Sunday I returned from Florence, where I was making preparations for Catholic Answers' upcoming Rendezvous, which will be held there in April. A few days before I left on that trip, I met with Leo Severino, one of the producers of "Bella," which opens its theatrical release this Friday.
Severino left a DVD of the movie with me. Too busy to watch it before leaving for Italy, I just this morning finished viewing it. It was even better than he represented it to be. "Bella" is an intensely pro-life and pro-family film, yet the terms "pro-life" and "abortion" never appear in it. In no way preachy or propagandistic, the film conveys a strong message that love can overcome brokenness and that old sorrows do not have to be compounded with new sorrows.
"Bella" stars Eduardo Verastegui, who is hardly known in America but who achieved fame in Mexican soap operas, and Tammy Blanchard, who has acted in several television shows and who won an Emmy for playing the lead in a made-for-television movie about Judy Garland.
In "Bella" Blanchard plays a waitress who is fired on the day she discovers she is pregnant. Verastegui, a chef at the same restaurant, befriends her, losing his own job in the process. She comes from an unhappy home and does not want a child; he comes from a happy home but years before had his own life changed through a terrible accident. During the course of a day together each one begins a recovery. ...
And that is all I want to say about the plot, not wanting to be accused of being a spoiler.
I do want to say, though, that this is a remarkable movie, in several ways. It won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Severino and the other principals behind the movie thought themselves lucky even to have "Bella" shown at the festival, which often showcases films that go on to win Oscars. They expected nothing because they were movie novices. "Bella" was a first-time effort for the producers, the director, the screenwriters, and for many of the actors.
Severino and the others behind the film are devout Catholics, several of them having come to or back to the Church only in recent years. Verastegui, for example, realized that the success he was having in Mexican soap operas was good for the bank account but not very good for the soul. He gave up a lucrative career to partner with Severino and director Alejandro Monteverde (they call themselves the Three Amigos) on a project that all three felt Providence called them to engage in.
When Severino was here on Oct1, he appeared on "Catholic Answers Live" and talked about the making of the movie. You can listened to that archived show at www.catholic.com. Afterwards, several of us went out to dinner, and during the course of the evening I asked what it would take for "Bella," which is opening this week in 31 markets, to become a nationwide success. Severino explained to us how the system works.
"Bella" is set for a two-week run. For it to be picked up for widespread national distribution, it needs to do well at the box office during those two weeks. No surprise there. But distributors and theater chains do not look only at the number of people walking through the theater door on opening night. They also look at the trend line over those two weeks.
Many movies do well their first weekend and then attract fewer and fewer visitors over the course of the following days. A movie that is strong on nights one and two but that cannot draw audiences for nights three through fourteen will not warrant the multi-million dollar investment required to have it open in hundreds of theaters around the country.
What the money men want to see is whether a movie still draws people the
second week. The crowds that show up the first weekend show up because of
the publicity surrounding a premiere (many viewers like to be "first" to see a film). The crowds that show up the second week do so because the reviews have been good or because word of mouth has touted the film. If the second week's box office receipts match or exceed the first week's, a movie has a good chance to go national in a big way--especially if it already has awards to its credit (such as the Toronto Film Festival award).
"Okay," I said to Severino, "but what does this mean in practice?" He said: "We need to get people to see the film during the second week." The opening weekend is important, but the second week is more important. There needs to be a clear upward trend if large-scale distribution is to happen.
I was impressed by Severino. He is intense, devout, and compelled. Like Verastegui, he gave up a lucrative career to work on "Bella." He had been with a high-power law firm in the Los Angeles area. He rediscovered his faith and felt God was calling him to do something more important with his life.
I hope he and his partners have much success with this film--first, because it really is a fine production and deserves to be recognized as such, and, second, because, if the movie succeeds, these fellows intend to produce more films of the same high caliber--high both in production values and in serious, morally uplifting content.
So here comes my request to you: Go and see "Bella." Take your entire family with you. Take your friends with you, if you have friends. Take strangers with you, if you do not have friends. But do not go during the first week. Go during the second week to help that trend line.
To find out whether you are in one of the 31 markets where the film debuts this weekend, visit www.bellathemovie.com, where you will find a list of cities and, for each city, a list of theaters where "Bella" will be shown. Once you have seen "Bella," talk it up to everyone on your e-mail list, and visit our forums and participate in discussions about the film.
Borrowing a line from Mother Teresa, we might say that Severino and the others want to "do something beautiful [bella] for God." I would like to see them succeed in that.
- Karl Keating
Late Sunday I returned from Florence, where I was making preparations for Catholic Answers' upcoming Rendezvous, which will be held there in April. A few days before I left on that trip, I met with Leo Severino, one of the producers of "Bella," which opens its theatrical release this Friday.
Severino left a DVD of the movie with me. Too busy to watch it before leaving for Italy, I just this morning finished viewing it. It was even better than he represented it to be. "Bella" is an intensely pro-life and pro-family film, yet the terms "pro-life" and "abortion" never appear in it. In no way preachy or propagandistic, the film conveys a strong message that love can overcome brokenness and that old sorrows do not have to be compounded with new sorrows.
"Bella" stars Eduardo Verastegui, who is hardly known in America but who achieved fame in Mexican soap operas, and Tammy Blanchard, who has acted in several television shows and who won an Emmy for playing the lead in a made-for-television movie about Judy Garland.
In "Bella" Blanchard plays a waitress who is fired on the day she discovers she is pregnant. Verastegui, a chef at the same restaurant, befriends her, losing his own job in the process. She comes from an unhappy home and does not want a child; he comes from a happy home but years before had his own life changed through a terrible accident. During the course of a day together each one begins a recovery. ...
And that is all I want to say about the plot, not wanting to be accused of being a spoiler.
I do want to say, though, that this is a remarkable movie, in several ways. It won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival last year. Severino and the other principals behind the movie thought themselves lucky even to have "Bella" shown at the festival, which often showcases films that go on to win Oscars. They expected nothing because they were movie novices. "Bella" was a first-time effort for the producers, the director, the screenwriters, and for many of the actors.
Severino and the others behind the film are devout Catholics, several of them having come to or back to the Church only in recent years. Verastegui, for example, realized that the success he was having in Mexican soap operas was good for the bank account but not very good for the soul. He gave up a lucrative career to partner with Severino and director Alejandro Monteverde (they call themselves the Three Amigos) on a project that all three felt Providence called them to engage in.
When Severino was here on Oct1, he appeared on "Catholic Answers Live" and talked about the making of the movie. You can listened to that archived show at www.catholic.com. Afterwards, several of us went out to dinner, and during the course of the evening I asked what it would take for "Bella," which is opening this week in 31 markets, to become a nationwide success. Severino explained to us how the system works.
"Bella" is set for a two-week run. For it to be picked up for widespread national distribution, it needs to do well at the box office during those two weeks. No surprise there. But distributors and theater chains do not look only at the number of people walking through the theater door on opening night. They also look at the trend line over those two weeks.
Many movies do well their first weekend and then attract fewer and fewer visitors over the course of the following days. A movie that is strong on nights one and two but that cannot draw audiences for nights three through fourteen will not warrant the multi-million dollar investment required to have it open in hundreds of theaters around the country.
What the money men want to see is whether a movie still draws people the
second week. The crowds that show up the first weekend show up because of
the publicity surrounding a premiere (many viewers like to be "first" to see a film). The crowds that show up the second week do so because the reviews have been good or because word of mouth has touted the film. If the second week's box office receipts match or exceed the first week's, a movie has a good chance to go national in a big way--especially if it already has awards to its credit (such as the Toronto Film Festival award).
"Okay," I said to Severino, "but what does this mean in practice?" He said: "We need to get people to see the film during the second week." The opening weekend is important, but the second week is more important. There needs to be a clear upward trend if large-scale distribution is to happen.
I was impressed by Severino. He is intense, devout, and compelled. Like Verastegui, he gave up a lucrative career to work on "Bella." He had been with a high-power law firm in the Los Angeles area. He rediscovered his faith and felt God was calling him to do something more important with his life.
I hope he and his partners have much success with this film--first, because it really is a fine production and deserves to be recognized as such, and, second, because, if the movie succeeds, these fellows intend to produce more films of the same high caliber--high both in production values and in serious, morally uplifting content.
So here comes my request to you: Go and see "Bella." Take your entire family with you. Take your friends with you, if you have friends. Take strangers with you, if you do not have friends. But do not go during the first week. Go during the second week to help that trend line.
To find out whether you are in one of the 31 markets where the film debuts this weekend, visit www.bellathemovie.com, where you will find a list of cities and, for each city, a list of theaters where "Bella" will be shown. Once you have seen "Bella," talk it up to everyone on your e-mail list, and visit our forums and participate in discussions about the film.
Borrowing a line from Mother Teresa, we might say that Severino and the others want to "do something beautiful [bella] for God." I would like to see them succeed in that.
- Karl Keating
Friday, October 26, 2007
Good story
Even if computers and the players mean nothing to you, it's a good story.
I'm currently working on a new version of the IBM vs PSI analysis, based upon IBM's Amended Complaint and PSI's response thereto. Because this set of documents essentially represents the endgame, I'm taking a little time.http://www.isham-research.co.uk/
But I was forced into spontaneous gigglery (think LOL, ROTF,LMAO) when I read IBM's petty grumble about "IBM Confidential" materials.
The fire is out and the ashes are cold - some of the stories can be told.
IBM has _NEVER_ been security-conscious. Even to today. Idiots, who've failed to take on board the most elementary principles. Every IBMer in such a situation should read R. V. Jones' discussion of "working fiction" during the U-boat war. And take note - it's a seminal text on how to drag something out of what looks like nothing.
In the very early 1990s - 1990 or 1991, I can't be bothered to check - IBM set up a meeting in Dublin for all of the competitive marketing people in Europe. Oh, dear Lord - run by the Danes. Next time pick people with smaller egos. Incredibly, IBM had published (and still publishes) the internal structure of this group via Blue Pages. Equally incredibly, they always used the same hotels in every European city. A few beers and a good meal for a few staff in each of their hotels earned a stream of: "Guess who's booked twenty rooms next Friday?"
And so it was in Dublin this time. People whom one would expect to be there 'disappeared' from their geographies. You got a customer to call: "Sorry - he's back on Friday". In some cases we had flight numbers.
So with moderate effort you could reproduce the list of attendees.
Now - there is a general principle within most European countries of "totters rights" What this means is that what you discard (in the trash) is no longer yours. For a variety of legal reasons (to do with liability about its treatment) ownership and legal title passes to the cleasing/refuse department. It's theirs to do what they want with it. And they have an obligation at law to get the best price for all the recyclable material they collect.
All meetings and conferences are the same. There's always someone who doesn't turn up. Business commitments change, grandmothers get ill.
So a very simple offer to the Dublin Cleansing Authority (actually privatized, but that's a detail) for GBP1 for every 1lb weight of materials marked "IBM Confidential" was not only 100% legal but also quite productive.
Two complete copies of the secret squirrel manual and the handouts. GBP10 plus the airfare and one night in the Connaught on the same square. And a receipt.
Followed by a discussion with corporate counsel. "How did you get this?" "Here's the receipt."
Every page had to be marked with its certified origin, etc.
For a lot of people I know - and certainly for myself - "IBM Confidential" at the bottom of a page effectively means "Please turn over". Those familiar with my dispute with IBM's aßhole lawyer will know I sent them 13 (thirteen) warnings about the z890 data before using it. And being shat on for my trouble.
I've now got more than one unsolicited copy of the z6 stuff [not yet publically announced] - what in hell am I (or we, including PSI) supposed to do about this?
Thursday, October 25, 2007
spell check bytes hand that feeds it
Friday, December 7, 2007: Sharing the Spirit of the Season – Gift Exchange. Team members can bring in their contributions, toys, food, clothing, excreta, starting 2009Nov19. More information will be sent out later.
[If you wish to try this at home, in any program with a spellcheck facility, enter the word excetra and spell check. Please let me know if you get Et cetera. MSWord gets the above interesting word.]
[If you wish to try this at home, in any program with a spellcheck facility, enter the word excetra and spell check. Please let me know if you get Et cetera. MSWord gets the above interesting word.]
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