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Thursday Tech Talk - Tough Days

workingtechmom — Fri, 25 May 2012 00:29:05 +0000

Today was a good day, but a tough day…as we plan projects that are hard to execute and have very tight timelines. The teams are working hard, and they know how much is on the line, and they are skilled and talented enough to meet the challenges ahead.

But between today when they know what needs to be done – and many months from now when they accomplish this – I need to motivate them, make great decisions, remain calm, ensure we execute, and listen to all the worries. And the worries in a technology team are difficult to manage … they are valid, and yet they can be destructive if we give them too much attention. If we don’t give attention enough, we can take on risk without plans to address them. And technology these days is foundational to organizational success.

So…every day I go to work…I try to balance getting people to focus on the actions in meetings, and the worries over coffee. Let them out, find actions to address them, and don’t let them overcome people to the point of paralysis.

Most days, I get positive feedback – thanks for helping me move to decision, for giving me perspective, for giving me a contact person who can help me address the worry I came here with.

Some days, the difference of opinion in how we should deal with the very valid worry causes stress on relationships.

I had that moment with a colleague this week. A colleague I trust, and work well with, and value his opinion and expertise. I think my style and his style can be very complementary if we talk and understand each other. I believe we’ll get through it. I hope he does too.

CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT WORRY ABOUT ELECTION

Jon-Paul — Thu, 24 May 2012 21:45:31 +0000

The violence in northern Nigeria is mistakenly viewed as a religious conflict rather than simply a t

Sunday Evening Treat

likeitiz — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:41:04 +0000

Last Sunday, we waited until late in the afternoon to catch a glimpse of what would be an eclipse th

Structuralism Extracts Meaning From Phenomena

bwinwnbwi — Thu, 24 May 2012 11:34:31 +0000

Conflicting Opinions

Metaphorically speaking, it has been said that the structuralists have built incredible mansions for people to live in and, indeed, the mansions have been built and the lights are on, but, we might want to ask the question: Is anybody living in these mansions? Out of the five structuralists I will discuss only Chomsky and Piaget appear to be actively seeking the mansion’s inhabitants. As the above lesson on Kant cautions, finding these inhabitants takes extraordinary care.

Structuralists understand experience on two levels. Phenomena are first encountered by a given arbitrary level of experience and second, phenomena are then integrated (transformed) into communicable levels of experience. Thus, structuralism prescribes a method for understanding how to extract meaning from phenomena; however, on the whole, structuralism constitutes a diverse agenda of pursuits. By way of an introduction, De George offers the following perspective on structuralism:

“Structuralism has been described as a method, a movement, an intellectual fad, and an ideology. Each of these characterizations is in part valid. For structuralism is a loose, amorphous, many-faceted phenomenon with no clear lines of demarcation, no tightly knit group spearheading it, no specific set of doctrines held by all those whom one usually thinks of as being associated with it. It cuts across many disciplines–linguistics, anthropology, literary criticism, psychology, and philosophy. For some it gives hope of uncovering or developing a common basic approach to the social sciences, literature, and art
which would unify them and put them on a scientific footing, much as the “scientific method” grounds and unifies the physical sciences.” [ De George and De George, The Structuralist: From Marx To Levi-Strauss, 1972, p. xi]

In a l986 lecture delivered at the University of Melbourne, Australia, the renown sociologist Anthony Giddens had the following to say about structuralism:

“Structuralism, and post-structuralism also, are dead traditions of thought. Notwithstanding the promise they held in the fresh bloom of youth, they have ultimately failed to generate the revolution in philosophical understanding and social theory which once was their pledge.” [ Anthony Giddens, Social Theory and Modern Sociology, 1987, p. 74]

I disagree with Giddens!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

carolyncholland — Thu, 24 May 2012 06:00:50 +0000

CAROLYN’S COMPOSITIONS

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: HANDS

Last year I participated in the wordPress postaday challenge. In February they added a postaweek photo challenge. They are continuing this year, and I couldn’t resist the following:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Hands

Hands. Hands can be instrumental in a photo – they emphasis, they hide, they reveal. They can be the star of the show, or just a prop to help the main attraction stand out better. In this photo, this hand was what kept me between life and death as I walked down a rickety metal staircase on the side of a cliff down to the beach. I was glad for that hand and I’m glad I captured the moment, too.

Share a picture that has a HAND in it with everyone!

Three generations of women:

Okay. Here is one, but a I’ll post a collection of hands photos (all photos are copywritten):

Offering a helping hand…

Dandelions are fun, They make my hands yellow.

Writers depend on their hands…

Even older, overworked, arthritic hands have value…

~~~~~~~~~~~~

ADDITIONAL READING:

Everybody Has a Story…Patrick & Ted

This Hat

The Top Twelve Recent Posts (April 2012)

Carolyn’s Compositions Top Twelve Posts (April 2012)

The Dandelion War Continues: April 2012

Maybe the Vacation Isn't All It Was Stacked Up to Be

J. A. Robinson — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:05:38 +0000

The rest of you should jump into the water with us. After all,
that’s why we came to the Black Sea.

Home Page has 5 latest photos. Share this Daily Graff with a friend today!

One Foot On The Water

84recovery — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:59 +0000

Tell me all the things u never said
We can lie here for hours in my bed
I don’t have anything to hide
Its like I’m born again
Every time you breathe in

Tell me all of your hopes all of your dreams
Tell me everything.
As gravity’s pulling, you continue holding my heart.

I want you to know i’ll be there.
One request, I want you to take me with you. I will never let you down.
I will love you now…
and forever
I will never let you fall, i’ll stand with you forever. I’ll be there for you through it all.
Your my whole heart.
Maybe its just me but couldn’t you believe, that everything i said and did was to make you happy. I’m here to tell about the things that matter and the things that make me feel alive and strong, and to apologize for those times that it was me who was wrong.

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: HANDS

Katherine Gordy Levine — Thu, 24 May 2012 02:45:34 +0000

The Word Press Weekly Photo Challenge called for pictures of hands. Didn’t think of this one

Wordless Wednesday - Road Trip x Four

workingtechmom — Thu, 24 May 2012 02:35:51 +0000

Tennis Anyone?

Carol B Sessums — Thu, 24 May 2012 01:16:18 +0000

Thanksgiving in May

Carol B Sessums — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:09:38 +0000

Ok peeps, I’m feelin’ the need for a moment or perhaps even a whole day of Thanksgiving, just to divert my attention from negative to positive. You know, we get those feelings of inadequacy, depression, sadness, anxiety, and/or what have you. It’s times like these we need to focus all our attention on the good things in life and only those good things. So, if you need to accompany me on this thanksgiving exercise, please do.

What I am thankful for (in no particular order):
1. God’s got my back and He loves me, no matter what
2. Jesus saved me and loves me, no matter what
3. Angels are always around, protecting us and keeping us safe
4. My mother
5. My daughter
6. I have good health
7. I have good friends
8. I have a good job
9. We have a home
10. We have fur babies that we love and we get sweet smooches and hugs from them every day
11. I have a car that runs
12. I can afford to put food on the table and go to a movie once in a while
13. I have a camera and it allows me to take pretty great pictures
14. I have the ability to make my own choices in life and become the person I wish to be
15. I need not care about what others think of me. This is my journey, my life, and what they think of
me is none of my business. That’s their journey.
16. I have been blessed enough to visit many other states and 2 countries up close and personal and
witness their true beauty.
17. And one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received? It’s NOT all about ME! Thanks, Tess.

And for those of you that may be way down in it, just remember, no matter how bad things get, somebody else always has it worse. And? Things will get better. Talkin’ to me, too.

I could go on and on with people, places and things I’m thankful for, but I feel better already, plus I’ve got stuff to do.

So, what are you thankful for? You can list as few or as many as you like.

*squish* Hope y’all are having a great, beautiful, productive day. Love you!

-Carol

Kant’s Categories—The Consequences

bwinwnbwi — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:28:16 +0000

Structuralism And Kant’s Philosophy Continued

The claim that one will’s, via Kant’s categories, knowledge of the universe
is more than an arbitrary assessment by Fichte on Kant’s presupposed ego.
The science of Einstein, Bohr, Schrodinger and Heisenberg has
demonstrated the error in Kant’s constitutive and hence necessary relationship
between the categories of understanding and reality. Thus, science has taught us
that mental categories, if indeed there are such things, are only interpretive
for the measurable observable events that we identify with reality. Within the
context of the scientific method, these events are hypothetically postulated and
aposteriorily (to use Kant’s terminology) verified. Consequently, it is not the
facts that imply the theory; rather, it is the theory that implies the facts.

The breakdown of the necessary relationship between Kant’s categories and
sensed experience does not invalidate Kant’s distinction of sensed space and
time and mathematical space and time. Kant’s philosophy, not withstanding its
assumption of necessity, is still a major force in the world today.1

It is unfortunate, however, that Fichte’s identification of the will with Kant’s
practical ego helped to supplement the deterministic portions of Hegel’s
idealism and in no small way contributed to the totalitarian ideologies of Nazi
Germany and the U.S.S.R. In a nutshell, an ego free from the constraints of
reason, motivated purely through the expression of the will, identifies the “is
of society” with the “ought for society.” This, in turn, became the determinism by
which Hegel’s “world spirit” and Marx’s “dialectical materialism” swallowed up
the individual. What began in Kant as an attempt to restore and secure the
notion of a person’s free will, ended up contributing to in the brutal
consequences of fascist and communist dictatorships. Here we once again see the
irony of the political animal called man. But, moving in another direction,
that is, remaining under the umbrella of Kant’s transcendental ego, the more
modern movement of structuralism has come to the fore.

[1. In his ontological structuralism, W.V. Quine, a person of major significance
in the defining aspects of today's philosophy of science, establishes a Kantian
position when he takes structure (mathematical form) and events of confirmation
to be the ultimate ground for knowledge. Quine informs us that the structural
aspect (the categorical aspect) of this knowledge as it relates to verification
is, in addition to being Kantian, is also uncertain. He says, "Science ventures
its tentative answers in man-made concepts, perforce, couched in man-made
language, but we can ask no better. The very notion of object, or of one and
many, is indeed as parochially human as the parts of speech; to ask what reality
is really like, however, apart from human categories, is self-stultifying.
.....We saw that reference (structure) could be wildly interpreted without
violence to evidence. We see now that that is just part of a wider picture.
Presumably yet more extravagant departures, resistant even to
sentence-by-sentence interpretation into our own science, could conform equally
well to all possible observations." W.V. Quine, The Journal Of Philosophy,
Volume LXXXIX, NO. 1, January l992]

COOL RIDER WEAKNESS

Sarah Harris — Wed, 23 May 2012 08:51:35 +0000

As I spin through the musical genius known as the soundtrack for Grease 2, let me divulge to you how

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: HANDS

Sarah Harris — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:30:08 +0000

Jazz Hands! WTF?! – Where’re The Forearms?

BOWLING BALLERS

Sarah Harris — Wed, 23 May 2012 07:00:52 +0000

After surviving the craziest few weeks that I can recall in our 11+ years together, plus faced with

Got Milk! Harvey, That Is!

likeitiz — Wed, 23 May 2012 05:31:03 +0000

Milk. (Bel film) (Photo credit: narice28) Today was Harvey Milk Day in California. Milk was serving

Hope He Got a "Hot Seat" for Doing That!

J. A. Robinson — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:05:34 +0000

Enjoy the peace and quiet while you can. I heard them invite
the Jensons over for a cookout. The last time they were here
their “adorable” little monster, Kevin, tried to set me on fire.

Home Page has 5 latest photos. Share this Daily Graff with a friend today!

10 for Tuesday - May 22, 2012

workingtechmom — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:03:04 +0000

10 great things today…

laughed so hard driving in to work I thought I’d have to pull over
lunch meeting, great food, and resolved a few issues
cancelled meeting at 2pm…just in time for me to prep for the next 3 meetings
dinner outside by the pool – heaven
Big One weeded my garden
Little One ate all his dinner
stayed calm in a tough meeting, no small task
husband made me a giant mug of coffee tonight
email can wait, while I play…
bubble witch saga game…addicting…fun

Stormy Blue

Carol B Sessums — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:45:47 +0000

No, we’re not talking about my car. Yes, her name is Stormy Blue. I suppose besides a warm sage, stormy blue is my favorite color, especially when it’s up above.

I hope y’all had a completely terrifical day! Have a restful evening. I’m off to bed early tonight! I’m wiped out! Love ya! *hug*

-Carol

A Realisation Of Overwhelming Helplessness

traceylouise — Wed, 23 May 2012 00:36:21 +0000

I have been struggling lately, trying to keep up with all the things I need to do, and it’s becoming overwhelming. I guess I have always thought I was superhuman, but I am not… It turns out I am just very ordinary. I don’t like to fail at anything, and if I take something on, I give it 100%. Sadly the reality dawns, because when you take on so many things, you can’t give everything 100%… it simply isn’t possible.

When I started this Blog, almost three years ago, I used to update every day. Perhaps life was less chaotic then. But now there are huge gaps, missing days, blanks in the diary, and I don’t like them. It troubles me, but the days pass so quickly, and before I know it… it’s tomorrow. Another day missed, another blank date on the calendar.

Quite a few people say I suffer from OCD… I don’t know what OCD is, and to be honest, I don’t want to know, because it doesn’t matter to me. But they say I display the symptoms. Constantly checking if locked doors are really locked, moving unimportant household objects into their rightful place… adjusting by 2 degrees, or half a millimeter. I mean, my food cupboards are a work of art, the contents of my fridge are so neat they could appear in fridge adverts. I even put the TV remote control on the coffee table at a “certain angle” before going to bed… Just so!

We have a bowl of apples, and if I take one, I re-arrange the remaining ones neatly. If Matty takes one, I re-arrange the remaining ones… I fill the gap. They all face upwards, and when the gaps cannot be filled… I buy more apples! We never have less than 3 bananas, because only having 2 bananas looks odd… 3 balances, 2 does not… and only one lone banana is just not worth contemplating!

Matty couldn’t care less where his toothbrush goes… but for me, his sits to the left of the glass tumbler holder, mine is on the right, and the toothpaste is in the middle… like a little plant with 3 stalks. Neatness, symmetry and neatness is the key, a rule of life, things must be just so!

Maybe then, to play piano, I have to know the history of piano’s, the biographies of long dead composers. To play guitar, I have to know the history of guitars and amps… biographies of my favourite players, bands… events in rock music history which leads to this point in time. I want to know the name of every flower, in fucking Latin if possible, and the available colours, seasonal availability… Perhaps that is why I like TV documentaries… I need to know about everything! I am a walking, talking, encyclopedic bore!

Someone asked on Twitter last night “What happened to AC/DC’s original singer”? She had been watching some BBC music nostalgia program… Of course I knew, and if there wasn’t a limit of 140 characters, I could have given her the date and presumed time of Bon Scotts death. But perhaps that’s a good thing, the limit made me seem less of a geek. She said… “Thanks… I knew you would know”!

I have always kept a diary, because perhaps I will need to know what I did on a particular day. Perhaps, someone will ask me what I was doing on Friday 17th June 1994, and I can look it up and answer… “School was fun, it rained in the morning though. Jakks was off sick… and LA cops chased OJ Simpson for fucking hours”! Yes I looked it up… I told you it would come in handy one day!

In the same way as my food cupboards are ultra neat… I need to bring the same neatness to my days. I need to update my blog, because missing a day drives me crazy. Quietly crazy, in a silently crazy way. The only way I can possibly do this, is to write less. My posts have been long rambling essay’s and I can’t do that any more. Less and more often is the obvious answer to the dilemma.

It’s 1.30 am… I need to sleep.

In remembrance

truthaboutmornings — Tue, 22 May 2012 23:55:43 +0000

The first memory of her that I have is soaked in a blurry sunlight, coming through the white summer curtains. The window was open and I could hear voices in the distance…Her hand was soft and smelled like fresh baked bread. I must have been four or five. I can still remember the texture of my pillow cover, embroidered by her hand with minuscule flowers and a pink bunny that used to leave a mark on my cheek after a summer day’s nap…I loved it! She was gently brushing the hair off my face, whispering something that only she could hear. Every summer morning was like this…too bad I had to grow up…

If I had to pick one thing to say about her, I wouldn’t know where to start…she didn’t just touch my life, she had a strong hold on it, molded it, shaped it, carved out the bad, patched up the broken, built up the great! So what can one say about her that is brief?

That she was brave? She was barely six during WW II. She told me so much of what had happened, all of it carved up in my memory with bright letters…

That she was kind? She knew no foe…she gave it her all, to all, all the time… In her memory, I will try to do the same, though my stubbornness will not be helping…

That she valued education? “You must remain curious forever. There’s always something new to learn!” Oh, the thousands of books we read together, hundreds of museums and historical places she dragged me in, modern philosophers that she would debate life with on so many afternoons… Life is full of learning…”It is never done”…

That she was strong? Too much to say about this…maybe I will write her story one day soon…her life was wilder that many books I’ve read…

All of the above, and more, taken on their own, don’t even come close to describe her…I could just say that she had mastered love… giving love… unconditionally…timeless…permanent…the kind that will never be wiped away by any of life’s waves…

And one day I will be able to say her name without being shaken by her absence…and broken by the unsaid good-bye…One day, time will have washed over me enough, and I will, again, look at the clear sky and hear her voice… ’till then…

Structuralism And Immanuel Kant's Philosophy

bwinwnbwi — Tue, 22 May 2012 10:53:09 +0000

“Whatever we call reality, it is revealed to us only through the active
construction in which we participate.” (Ilya Prigogine, Order Out Of Chaos)

Structuralism emerges from the elementaristic side of the holism/elementarism
debate as an extension of the neo-Kantian position. Form, within this tradition,
takes precedence over content, but in so far as structure itself is a holistic
concept, the actual locus of structuralism in relation to the holism/
elementarism debate is somewhat ambiguous. I believe that within this ambiguity
will be found a resolution to the holism/elementarism debate. In order to bring
this debate to a close, however, we must first look at the various
structural models that have been described in linguistics (Saussure and
Chomsky,) anthropology (Levi-Strauss,) psychology (Piaget,) and philosophy
(Foucault.) My description of these various forms of structuralism will
concentrate in the areas that have a direct bearing on bringing this debate to a
satisfactory conclusion. With that end in mind, I would like to begin by taking
a peak at the philosophy of Immanuel Kant.

Kant, in his attempt to synthesize the rationalist thought of Descartes and
Leibnitz with the empirical thought of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, understood
sense experience to be manipulated within the inherent structure of mental
categories. In his analysis of this structure he concluded that there is more
than one kind of knowing (Critique of Pure Reason, 1781, Practical Reason,
1788, and Judgment, 1790) but the major importance of Kant’s analysis is found
in his understanding of the logical consistency and necessity of both sensed
space and time and mathematical space and time. This aspect of Kant’s
philosophy, although it represented a major success for Kant, in retrospect, is
not so well received.

Just as Locke was driven to his theory of ideas by the consequences of Newton’s
deterministic universe, Kant had to face a similar determinism. It was not with
atoms and forces which his determinism had to contend, rather, it was with the
determined nature of knowledge itself. Kant’s transcendental ego, when pursued
to its logical conclusion, did not allow for individual freedom. He accounted
for man as knower of the universe, but he did not account for man as a free
moral agent within the universe. Kant used the presuppositional method to solve
this problem: “It is impossible to conceive anything at all in the world, or
even out of it, which can be taken as good without qualification, except a good
will.” [Immanuel Kant, The Moral Law, 1948, p.59]

In other words, he presupposes free will to allow for moral action i.e. Kant’s
practical ego. This is a key concept because upon reading Kant the German
champion of freedom, Fichte, was able to show that it was not the categories of
understanding which allowed a person to know the universe, it was the person’s
own individual will that will’s knowledge of the universe through the
categories.