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"It's not that we have cheap grace, it's that we haven't made it cheap enough!" Grace is free. But my salvation cost God his son. I don' know if I heard this from Steve Brown or made it up. But it's what I continue to need to hear.
-- manasclerk
Been reading Senge & Co.'s Fith Disciple Fieldbook. The point is Learning Organizations. While that may have a lot to unload in it, what really strikes me is how I am currently not part of any organization whatsoever. I have unmoored myself from the community. LT claims that he has community even though it is stretched across an hour or more of drivin. I disagree: this simply is not community. A group of friends, sure, but not community. To say that it does would be to disparage the physicality of community,
So, I present my list of requirements for community:
[ Continue reading "What Makes Community (response to the Modern Therapeutic Cult)" ]
A friend of mine is spending Thanksgiving away from his wife. I don't think it's a good idea: it's a weak way out.
They're having problems. Well, actually, they've always had problems in much the way that L and I had problems. Raging woman, weak man. I'm not sure that they will last this out. She hates him and he thinks very little of her. Perhaps it would be better if he hated her, too.
The problems with this INFOSEC contract has been trying. I've become discouraged: it's been several months since I have been successful and even that (the risk managemet process that is currently being rolled out across the IT dept of the nation's largest P&C insurance company) didn't make much of a splash with INFOSEC. It didn't turn out to have more hours which, in the end, is all that matters with INFOSEC. And perhaps it's this working for money, where money is the reason that we're working -- that I get discouraged being around. I want to work for something bigger than money, a reason that is bigger than mammon. In the end, if you work solely for money, you end up with ethically questionable decisions. I must have guiding principles.
It just gets worse. I've been shooting off toes with this INFOSEC deal. Which means that I may be leaving IT a lot sooner than I thought. I haven't had a work victory in almost a year but many defeats. The death of a thousand cuts.
J, you were right again. Of course.
LT says that this is a useless effort in self-agrandizement. Actually, I use it to put all of my ideas in one place so that I can later find them. The fact that y'all eavesdrop is only a part. Especially since I keep track of my site stats and know who you are. I'm always worried about being hijacked. And contrary to J, I'm not putting spyware on everyone's computers.
I could make more consistent money doing that.
-- manasclerk
This was the best wedding I've ever gone to. We had a most wonderful time. We met some wonderful people -- the only guy I knew was B and yet I left with new friends. We're putting KC on our short list of places to move.
I felt great. And then I get hit with craziness with INFOSEC. I truly can't stand working with these guys and just no longer want to.
I'm leaving IT. I will make no computering forever. If this is the only way I can make cash, I'd much prefer to be poor.
-- manasclerk
Michael Hughes's article "Moving from Information Transfer to Knowledge Creation" (Technical Communication, 49(3):275-285 [Aug 2002]) has led me down a grand path. Through it I found Nonaka, which led me back to John Seely Brown and Chris Argyris, which led me back to Harvey, who led me Jaques. What a grand path of exploration! I wish that my normal job was as interesting as what I have been studying. I suppose that it could be, but I believe that I truly despise information technology.
My brother guest hosted a conservative radio show down in Texas recently. He had a blast and his enthusiasm led me to recall my days as a commentator and radio announcer back in college. There was a time when I made full shows using only my own voice and a few sound effects, all recorded live. It is a bit cumbersome to act and create sound effects and run the board all at once, but I have to admit I enjoyed it.
Now I have to consider whether to finish up the DePaul certificate in Organizational Development or simply move on to graduate school.
-- manasclerk atSign comcast net
Steve Taylor once penned that "Jesus is for losers". I'd like to add to that by saying that the church in America is a bozo organization that is constantly full of doubt and unsure about what it's all about.
Is it really that hard? Does nothing matter? Maybe this is just the problem of being rich. Very rich. Incredibly rich. Richer than any society ever. With everything at our fingertips. And very little problems on our own soil. The WTC terrorism was an anomoly, and now we're back to easy living.
[ Continue reading "American Christianity is for bozos" ]J. B. Quinn, P. Anderson and S. Finkelstein, "Managing Professional Intellect: Making the Most of the Best", Harvard Business Review, vol. 74, no. 2, March, 1996, pp. 71-82.
I've been reading "Managing the Professional Intellect" this week, along with several other articles about top consulting practices. On of their points is that this insane starting period with consulting firms -- working 80 hour weeks, performance measures that are insane, constantly working on development and training while working -- actually serves an important purpose. The learning curve of consulting is so steep that this immersive environment is the most effective way to get you up it. It also test to see whether or not you have what it takes to survive in the intellectually competive environment of these firms. The people there want to be the best, want to constantly know where they stand.
I started thinking about my own "career". I'm almost too old to be starting some immersive training and my experiences before are too varied to fit into one career path. I don't have the depth of experience to make a great expert. I've done almost everything in IT: I've worked in documentation, development, client management, contractor management, client-server, messaging, desktop, process, help desk, support, website management, website development. . . It all was fun, but it doesn't add up to being much of a consultant. Of course, I do understand the wide range of IT more than anyone else I know, simply because I have worked in everything. Having to get systems working with users helps, too, I think.
So, I come to this question: should I just chuck the whole "career" thing and live off my wife's savings?
We're taking off to go down to B's big wedding on Thursday. I hope to make it all the way to Kansas City by Thusday night. We've arranged to stay with L's brother, who live's around the area, but I kind of want to stop in Des Moines and see an old pastor.
And I really should work on putting in Plone this weekend. I may have to live with zope or even movable type. Limitations of this host. Although I could move everything over to another server tonight.
Things are going extremely well at Big Healthcare. As long as I do a pretty competent job, they'll be very happy and will get a lot of value out of it. I have some stuff left to do before the big presentations next week, but I hope to be able to give them good value before I leave on vacation.
I had forgotten what it feels like to work for a client that actually wants you there.
I'm behind the times and terribly unhip (I'm not sure I even know how to sneer any longer) but this made me laugh so hard I snorted my "Rice Krispies brand cereal" out my nose.
"Whatever."
-- manasclerk atSign comcast net
I was listening through some of my old albums and came across some gold: Jon Gibson's Forever Friends. For a Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) album it not only doesn't suck, it has actually held up pretty well. Gibson's verve comes full across on this eclectic album, moving from gospel praise to Stevie Wonder cover to R&B to Christian Radio crap. Worth mentioning: skip the first two tracks until you've heard the rest of the CD. manasclerk says "Spin that sucker!"
Isn't that neat? Wouldn't it be better as a Flash file? I love having to load in plugins.
This project with Big Healthcare Co. is something that I'm doing with JL of INFOSEC. We had some time after seeing the client so we sat down and started talking about INFOSEC. It's hilarious: he has the same problems that I had. I wasn't crazy after all. We talked for awhile and I realized the following:
I can understand why the SF fans blast the A&E production: it doesn't have the aliens. Instead, it concentrates on George Orr's relationship with Heather Lelache, which does figure greatly in the book. Indeed, from a screenplay POV, I'd say that they did a bang up job. It works the book pretty well but has to put aside some of the "ideas" that are explicated in the book in order to better develop the characters. For an adaptation, it's a lot better than the bulk of Philip K. Dick's books turned out on screen, Blade Runner's take on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? included. BR actually comes to a very different conclusion than Androids: in the book, the androids of heartless, soulless killers who don't respect the sanctity of life, all any living thing; the movie questions whether the androids aren't even more human than we are. At least the general conclusions and ideas of the book are respected in the A&E script for Lathe.
Now, I know that all you SF fans are going to go ape on me for thinking this. It's the difference between concentrating on story vs. the ideas behind them.
- manasclerk atsign comcast net
Of course, it will probably be a bunch of stuff other than an audit which will be pretty fun. I dont' think that they have any real security. We'll be putting together suggested policies and procedures and recommending some things that they will need to do in order to come into compliance with various standards and regulations. They run a pretty good shop and I'm sure that they'll be difficult to hack, but it's about the data and where it goes and how it's stored.
Anyone who can write the following deserves to be read:
For me, thinking of someone, is a feeling-mind-working-cycle (I donâ??t know a suitable word in English to illustrate my thinking). I said it as a cycle because thinking of someone can not exist the whole time, it may stay, fade, disappear and reborn. That is the reason that I sometimes/ suddenly think of that someone so strongly, want to talk to her so eagerly, and hope to see her so desperately. It is the power of thinking someone. â??Refer to the sourceâ??, it is the power of relationship/ link between human beings.
I just got the latest Sgt Rock, a hardcover by Azzarelo and Kubert. Very nice. It looks and reads very European. Of all the artists publishing in comics today, it's Kubert that reminds me most of BD books (along with Eduardo Barreto, who for all I know may be Spanish). Highly recommend the book: plunk down your US$25 and grab a copy.
Sure, the two mix quite a bit: you get profs becoming consultants or doing consulting in the 20%. (You have to do 80% of your time dedicated to the university, I've been told, but you can use the other 20% to do what you want.) And consultants often teach a class or end up just professoring after making their scads of cash.
The HBR book on Knowledge Management has a very interesting article (the whole book is reprints from HBR) on how these very high-level business consultants are unable to learn. The author (Chris Argyris, if I recall rightly) believes it is because they have never had to face failure. Their previous string of successes in life have made them extremely confident and extremely susceptible to despair, even a fear of the fear of failure. They have never had to face a situation where they have lived through failure, so they cover up, blame others (such as the client) and generally behave irrationally.
Well, that was horrible and better than I had imagined. Still, it was horrible. I don't even want to talk about it. Grace and peace of Christ, then.
I totally blanked on a get-together that we had all agreed to go to. I didn't show up and tonight I have to face the music about it. Part of me just wants to get the hell out. Something evil's afoot in me.
So I haven't updated my reading list: sue me. The latest is:
Backblog bit so I just took it down. Sorry to all you blokes who loved it. Maybe I can get some way to recapture them.
Yep, the missus and I are bundling off to Switzerland (somewhere between Berne and Thun, but my German is abysmal so I can't figure out how to spell the little town). We're going with our friends who are church workers in Belgium and their two teenage daughters. I know that they're thinking "Free chaperones so we can go dancing!" and that'll probably happen. They need a couple of evenings away from work and just being with each other.
We're going skiing, doing some business in Mortsel and Brussels, etc., etc., etc. I'm really looking forward to it.
I spent the weekend bagging and boarding the hundreds of comics I had piled up in long boxes downstairs. It's amazing what I actually have. I found a 1963 Jimmy Olsen, a 1952 Crime Does Not Pay and an almost complete run of the Giffen & DeMatteis Justice League. There was also early Mazzuchelli and Sienkiewicz, lots more John Byrne than I need, more X-Men than I thought I had ever bought, the complete Scout series by Timothy Truman, 3/4 of Scout McCloud's Zot!, Nexus #3 from the Capitol Comics series, etc., etc., etc.
I'm getting rid of everything I don't want, which includes:
. . . of working at Wal-Mart. But they are the toughest negotiators on the planet. If we sent them over to North Korea, the problem would be resolved in twelve days, with the North Koreans bending over backwards to get a half cent on every US$10 of product shipped. If I can manage a contract under them, I can work with anyone. All I have to do is not lose.
Yep, I'm pretty excited about it. Unbelievable.
After seeing David's great Steve Taylor fan site, I offered to host one of the albums. (Nota Bene: Steve has said that he doesn't care since the albums are not available -- once they are, these are gone, folks!) So hit the link above and listen to one of God's coolest kids.
Yep, I just lost a post. It was probably the best thing that I've ever written. Wondrous materials.
Here's a recap:
-- manasclerk comcast net