Domain Architecture documents are one of the most widely created, and probably the most misunderstood, of the various EA deliverables an EA team might have in their document repository.  As we visit EA teams we often discover these documents in various states of disrepair, from perpetual draft, to complete but out of date, to a minimalist listing of product standards, to over-written tutorials on topics long ago commoditized or no longer relevent.  

We were recently asked by a client to clarify the latest thinking on these documents.  Are they still relevent, who are they for, and what value to they deliver?   The short answer is that the thinking on domain documentation has not fundamentally changed, though it has matured a bit.  The focus these days is on determining what that documentation is for, who uses it, and what other documentation is required in the set of deliverables an EA team could produce. 

First, a couple of caveats: When deciding what documents to create, the most important thing is to make sure you will be able to maintain them.   Also, it is important to understand who the users of each document are and to structure accordingly, to understand the relationships between different deliverables, and to have an appreciation for the absolute and relative value of each deliverable.  We are biased to invest heaviest in documents that are prescriptive for external stakeholders, while putting tangible (though less) relative value on deliverables used internally to the EA group (and invest more when they are foundational to other higher-valued deliverables). 

Domain documentation is one of those areas that cross a couple of boundaries of the caveats just described, providing value at different levels: 

1)      The primary audiences for technical domain documentation is the EA group itself and its extended SME community responsible for the asset categories contained in the specific domain.   As such, in and of themselves any given domain document has somewhat narrow prescriptive appeal to include primarily those that, for example, select, operate, maintain “platforms”, “networks”, “middleware”, etc.

2)      The primary content of domain documentation is design principles, categories, standards, products and configurations, including specific use-case descriptions for when and how to select them – as we have historically described.

3)      Taken together, the collection of technical domain documents contain “parts” or “building blocks”, and through the use-case scenarios and design principles, become components of higher-order constructs like “patterns” (e.g. infrastruture or development) or “platforms” (e.g. application).  These patterns deliver higher-order value, consumable in the direct construction of solutions.  The domains, in turn, have foundational value because they inform the consistent creation of the patterns as common building blocks.

When creating traditional Technical Domain Architecture documents, many organizations opt to organize around a Technical Reference Model (like TOGAF’s TRM), create a product lifecycle (standard, obsolete, research, sunset, etc.) model in spreadsheets, or create product/standard roadmaps (as we have discussed in the past).  These lack the degree of detail of domain architectures, and frequently do not include helpful use-case information.  They tend to be product/release-specific and less prescriptive to stakeholders other than the asset owners.  Nonetheless, they do tend to satisfy the audience of consumers that want answers to “what product do I use?” questions. 

Our bottom-line recommendations:

• Do not over-invest in domain documents, yet they serve an important purpose – foundationally, for the EA team, and for SME asset owner communities. 
• Make sure the authors are creating tight, prescriptive deliverables geared to the specific stakeholder community. 
• Make sure that the authors are not writing lengthy tutorials – these are not educational documents.   
• Recognize that the creation of higher-order patterns, etc. will absolutely require cross-domain collaboration, so it is best to avoid compartmentalizing domain document development to just those knowledgeable about the subject matter.   
• Also, realize that different domain documents will, from the very nature of the topic (revolutionary, or commodity), require different levels of specification and detail.  Don’t try too hard to make them all exactly equal.

The 8 Principles Of Goals And S.U.C.C.E.S.S | The Power of Words

There are those who speak rashly, like the piercing of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Proverbs 12:18 AMP

Wisdom Tip:

1: What not to say, and to say… 2: How to say it …

How we communicate, and what we speak to ourselves and to others can have a profound impact negatively or positively. Do you know that there are thousands of ways to criticize or speak negatively to someone or to yourself, but according to King Solomon only one correct way…? The wrong way can inflict deep wounds to one’s inner-most being (mind), the correct way will not leave a wound but will uplift and encourage a person or yourself …

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3012865    หลักการทางวิสัญญีวิทยา    Principles In Anesthesiology

แนวคิดของกการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึก การเลือกการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึก การให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกชนิดทั่วไป การให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกเฉพาะส่วน และการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกชนิดเฝ้าระวัง การให้สารน้ำและเลือดระหว่างการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึก การเฝ้าระวังระหว่างการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึก การให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกแก่ผู้ป่วยที่มีโรคต่าง ๆ ภาวะแทรกซ้อนของการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึก

(Concepts of anesthesia; choice of anesthesia; general anesthesia, regional anesthesia and monitored anesthesia care; intraoperative fluid and blood adminstration; montoring during anesthesia; anesthesia; anesthesia in patients with coexisting diseases; complications of anesthesia.)

(3012865 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3012876    หลักการให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกเฉพาะทาง 2    Principles Of Anesthesia In Specialties II

การให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกสำหรับเด็ก การให้ยาระงับความรู้สึกสำหรับการผ่าตัดหัวใจ หลอดเลือดและทรวงอก การผ่าตัดใหญ่ และการผ่าตัดออร์โธปิดิกส์ สูติกรรม การระงับปวด เวชบำบัดวิกฤต การใส่ท่อหายใจลำบาก

(Pediatric anesthesia; cardiovascular and thoracic anesthesia; anesthesia for major surgery and orthopedic surgery; obstetric anesthesia; pain therapy; critical care medicine; difficult intubation.)

(3012876 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3014704    หลักและวิธีการของระบาดวิทยา    Principles and Methods of Epidemiology

หลักระบาดวิทยา ปัจจัยสามทางระบาดวิทยา แนวคิดในการป้องกันและควบคุมโรค การออกแบบศึกษาทางระบาดวิทยา ข้อดีข้อเสียของวิธีการศึกษารูปแบบต่างๆ การสืบสวนสอบสวนการระบาดวิทยาของโรค การค้นหาปัจจัยเสี่ยงและสาเหตุของโรค การวิเคราะห์หาความสัมพันธ์ทางสาเหตุ

(Principles of epidemiology; epidemioloy triad; concepts of prevention and control of diseases; study designs in epidemiology, thir advantages and disadvantages; outbreak investigation; determining risk factors and etiologic agents and analysis for causal association.)

(3014704 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3014720    หลักและวิธีการของเวชศาสตร์ชุมชน    Principles and Methods of Community Medicine

ความหมายและขอบเขตของเวชศาสตร์ชุมชน ขั้นตอนการศึกษาเพื่อแก้ไขปัญหาอนามัยชุมชน การสำรวจอนามัย การวินิจฉัย การรักษาและการประเมินผล การให้บริการอนามัยแบบเบ็ดเสร็จ การเตรียมชุมชนและจัดองค์กรชุมชน โครงการแก้ไขปัญหาอนามัยของชุมชน

(Definition and scope of community medicine; steps in community health problem solving; community health survey, diagnosis, treatment, and evaluation; comprehensive health care; community preparation and organization management; community health problem solving project.)

(3014720 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3014754    หลักและวิธีการทางสุขศึกษา    Principles And Methods Of Health Education

หลักและวิธีการ ตลอดจนการสื่อความหมายสำหรับการให้บริการสุขศึกษาส่วนบุคคล กลุ่มและประชานิเทศด้านการใช้สื่อและเทคโนโลยีที่เหมาะสม วิธีสร้างแรงจูงใจและการใช้ขุมพลังจากชุมชน การเขียนโครงการศึกษา การวางแผนวิจัย การดำเนินงาน และประเมินผลโครงการสุขศึกษา

(Principles and methods of health education for individuals, groups and mass population; appropriate media and technology; motivation and community resource utilization; practice writing a project including planning, implementation and evaluation.)

3014754 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3014790    หลักการอาชีวเวชศาสตร์    Principles Of Occupational Medicine

หลักการและความสำคัญของอาชีวเวชศาสตร์ ความเกี่ยวข้องกับศาสตร์สาขาอื่น ๆ การดำเนินงานด้านอาชีวเวชศาสตร์ในระดับต่าง ๆ

(Principles and importance of occupational medicine, relatedness to other specialties, occupational medicine activities in various levels.)

(3014790 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Today we held our Dev Brunch meeting for November 2009. It was the last possible date for this month, but we were affected by absences nonetheless. This is the follow-up posting for this rather small gathering, summarizing the topics and providing additional information.

The Dev Brunch

If you want to know more about the meaning of the term “Dev Brunch” or how we realize it, have a look at the follow-up posting of October’s brunch. This time, no notebook was needed.

The November 2009 Dev Brunch

The topics of this session were:

• Object Calisthenics by example – Experiences gained while programming a small project following the Object Calisthenics rules while practicing Test Driven Development, too.
• Object Calisthenics inspected – Observations and insights gained when explaining Object Calisthenics to several teams, programmers and student courses.

As you can immediately see, the meeting was small, but surprisingly consistent. We didn’t agree upon the topic beforehands, but it was a perfect match. Everybody who missed this brunch definitely missed some very interesting first-hand experiences on Object Calisthenics, too. To ease this lack a bit, let me rephrase the content a bit.

Object Calisthenics

You might have heard about Object Calisthenics before, on this blog or other resources on the net. Perhaps you’ve read the original article, which is highly advised. In short, Object Calisthenics are a set of inspiring, if not irritating programming rules that should lead to better programming style through excercise. You should consult the links above for specifics.

Object Calisthenics by example

When applying the rules to a domain class model, some new techniques arose to compensate the “train wreck line”-programming style (see rule 4) and to introduce first class collections (rule eight) and avoid getters and setters (rule 9). This techniques included the use of the Visitor design pattern, which wasn’t the author’s first choice beforehands. Test Driven Development alone wouldn’t have led to this solution, but the solution works well for the given use case.

The author softened some rules for his example and found valid explanations for doing so. This might be the content of an additional blog posting that still needs to be written. It will be announced in the comments when published.

Test Driven Development and Object Calisthenics do not interfere with each other. They both aim for better code and design, but through different means. They could be regarded as complements in a programmer’s toolbox.

Object Calisthenics inspected

When teaching the nine rules, some effects occurred repeatedly. The first observation was that the rules follow a dramatic composition that orders them from “most obvious and immediate code improvement” to “hardest to achieve code improvement” and in the same order from “easiest to acknowledge” to “most controversial”. At the end of the list, the audience rioted most of the time. But if you reject the last few rules, you’ve silently agreed to the first ones, the ones with the greatest potential for immediate improvement.

Another observation is that the rules stick. Even if you reject them on first notion, it creeps into your thinking, whispering that “it might be possible right now with this code“. It’s a learning catalyst for those of us that aren’t born as programming super-heros. To speak in terms Kent Beck coined: Object Calisthenics provide some handy practices that might eventually lead to a better understanding of their underlying principles. Even beginners can follow the practices and review their code on compliance. When they fully get to know the principles (like Law Of Demeter, for example), they are already halfway there.

The third observation was that most experienced programmers intuitively revealed the principles behind the rules before I could even try to explain. Some even found very interesting associations with other principles that weren’t so obvious.

At last, Object Calisthenics, if performed as a group exercise, can be a team solder. You can rant over code together without regrets – the rules were made elsewhere. And you can discuss different solutions without feeling pointless – fulfilling the rules is the common goal for a short time.

The Dev Brunch retrospected

This brunch was small both in attendee and topic count. That created a very productive discussion. We’ll try to grow the insights gained today into additional blog entries. Stay tuned.

3015751    หลักการทางกุมารศัลยศาสตร์ 1    Principles of Pediatric Surgery I

ความรู้ที่นำมาใช้ในการดูแลผู้ป่วยทางกุมารศัลยศาสตร์ ได้แก่ กายวิภาคศาสตร์ของเด็กและทารก พันธุกรรมศาสตร์ การวินิจฉัยความผิดปกติของทารกขณะอยู่ในครรภ์มารดา สมดุลน้ำและเกลือแร่ วิสัญญีวิทยาในเด็ก การช่วยหายใจและการใช้เครื่องช่วยหายใจ การกู้ชีพ

(Knowledge for the management of pediatric surgical patients: anatomy of children and infants, genetics, prenatal diagnosis, fluid and electrolytes, pediatric anesthesia, respiratory support, respirators and cardiopulmonary resuscitation.)

(3015751 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3015752    หลักการทางกุมารศัลยศาสตร์ 2    Principles of Pediatric Surgery II

ความรู้ที่จะนำมาใช้ในการดูแลผู้ป่วยทางกุมารศัลยศาสตร์ ได้แก่ การให้สารอาหาร หลักการใช้ยาปฏิชีวนะ การดูแลแผล วิทยาภูมิคุ้มกันในเด็ก การปลูกถ่ายอวัยวะ และมะเร็งวิทยาในเด็ก

(Knowledge for the management of pediatric surgical patients: antibiotics, nutrition support, wound healing and wound care, immunology, transplantation and pediatric oncology.)

(3015752 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3015831    ศัลยศาสตร์ทรวงอกพื้นฐาน 1    Basic Principles in Cardiothoracic Surgery I

กายวิภาค สรีรวิทยา และพยาธิวิทยาของอวัยวะในช่องทรวงอก ได้แก่ หัวใจ ปิด ผนังทรวงอก และหลอดอาหาร

(Anatomy, physiology and pathology of intrathoracic organs including heart, lugs, mediastinum and esophagus.)

(3015831 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3015832    ศัลยศาสตร์ทรวงอกพื้นฐาน 2    Basic Principles in Cardiothoracic Surgery II

พยาธิกำเนิดความผิดปกติหรือโรคที่เกี่ยวกับอวัยวะในช่องอก ยาและอุปกรณ์ในการดูแลรักษาผู้ป่วยโรคหัวใจและปอด

(Pathogenesis, intrathoracic disorders or diseases.)

(3015832 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3015850    หลักการพื้นฐานทางสัลยศาสตร์ตกแต่ง    Basic Principles in Plastic Surgery

ความรู้เบื้องต้นที่จะนำมาใช้ในการดูแลผู้ป่วยทางศัลยศาสตร์ตกแต่ง ได้แก่ การลงมีด เทคนิคการเย็บแผล การหายของบาดแผล วัสดุทดแทนที่นำมาใช้ด้านศัลยศาสตร์ตกแตง

(Basic Knowledge which can be applied in taking care of plastic surger patients including incision, suturing Techniques, wound healing, wound healing, biomaterial.)

(3015850 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3015856    ศัลยศาสตร์ทั่วไปด้านทฤษฎี    Principles Of General Surgery

ศึกษาความรู้ด้านพยาธิกำเนิด การดำเนินการลักษณะทางตลินิก และการพยากรณ์ของโรคทางศัลยกรรมทั่วไปรวมทั้งวิธีวิเคราะห์และดูแลรักษาเพื่อให้สามารถนำมาประยุกต์ใช้ในการวินิจฉัยโรคและเลือกวิธีรักษาอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพ

(The pathogenesis, pathology, clinical presentations, clinical course, investigations of common surgical disorders; the application in diagnosis and selection of effective treatment.)

(3015856 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

Image : http://www.flickr.com

All these principles every day by designers around the world. They are all necessary and often interdependent of each other. If a room does not meet one or more of these terms is at fault. Often we can go into a room, even one we have never pinned in front, and that feels something is off. This may be an unconscious reaction or very obvious. If you use these principles to the presentation room, you would easily discover the problem.

The basicInterior design principles are the "tricks" for all of us function with successful designers. Careful study and understanding of balance, scale, proportion, rhythm and intonation makes it easy for us in a room, often on foot, and immediately fix the problem. It is not about taste or personality that creates good design. It is the appropriate application of these design principles.

Balance

Balance is a fundamental of life is that everyone is trying, consciously orunconsciously, whether in your checkbook, relationships, or at home. This makes us comfortable, gives us stability, reduces stress and gives us peace. This is the most important element to achieve when creating or changing the design of a room.

Indoor account of the balance of physical and / or psychological weight of an object. Balance is important in all facets of interior design, selected by the physical architecture to furnishings, materials and furnishing.

There aredifferent types of balance:

• Formal or symmetrical – this is very traditional and quiet. At the center often takes center stage. One side is the mirror image of the other. An example would be two sofas on either side of a fireplace facing each other with a large coffee table in the middle.

• Informal or asymmetrical – This is much more active, but also more subtle. The focus might not be in the middle. There is no mirror effect, but the visual weights play an increasingly importantRole. It could be as simple as two completely different chairs sitting opposite a sofa in the previous example.

• Radial – All the elements to shine, to or from a focal point. There are many repetitions in shape and color.

Scale and proportion

Both refer to the size and shape of an object.

• Scale is concerned with the absolute size or the nature of an object or space when compared to other objects or spaces.

• proportiondescribes the relative ratio of one part to another.

Rhythm

• How objects relate to each other developed rhythm. This works the same way into a house like a piece of music. Rhythm creates interest. You can have a room to life. Repetition and contrast are key elements to be used. A modern example would be a space that is (mostly one color in a color) and feels very harmonious and pleasant. This is achieved through different textures and materials sucha color. The mix of textures (contrast) with the repetition of color offering, combined rhythm.

The focus

• Certain areas or elements of a space must dominant or emphasized. Diversity will protect an area from becoming monotonous and boring. The best analogy for this would be a movie. In a film, there are stars, co-stars cast members and general. To make all parts into a whole and all important to the telling of the story but some are more important /have larger roles (emphasis added) than the others. It does not work when the film composed of all the stars, you do not know who to see or who is important.

• A good way to work around this design concept is that everything in your room, not a star or your "Favorites" is. Good design is achieved when you realize you do not "love" any object or element in your room. Each element has an order of importance, if all are necessary.

• You will achieve this goal throughBalancing color, placement, and the proportion of goods and materials that you choose.

• Color contrast is a way to add emphasis to an item. To make a beautiful antique carved fireplace in a deep walnut color in the center of an enclosure using color, that this would turn out like. You would not want to use a color in a similar hue or saturation, since the fire to melt into the wall and would be his equal. For the opposite effect if you had a really uglynondescript fireplace you can want it the same color as the surrounding walls, so it seems to continue.

These principles are interior design applied in any situation, regardless of home style. As you may notice that none of those to do with taste and money. Good interior design is the clever use and application of these design principles and can be reached by anyone.

relocating-tutorials.blogspot.com/ http://diyhouse.jaideespace.com/ http://diyhouse.baywords.com

[ARTICLE]

So the Republicans have released a list of 10 policies their 2010 candidates should adhere to. Let’s just cut to the chase and take a look.

“(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;”

Great! Or at least it WOULD be great if it were true. But Bush and the Republicans in congress spent more money than any President before him (and Obama is even worse). Republicans are NOT for smaller government. They only say they are when Democrats are in power. But time and time again, it’s Republicans who outspend Democrats. Don’t get me wrong, both sides are big government scumbags and I’ll never vote for either of them. But at least Democrats don’t pretend to be for smaller government. At least they’re honest about their scumbaggery. And I like how they call it the “Obama stimulus”. If I remember correctly, the first stimulus bill went through during Bush’s term. McCain pushed for it and voted for it. Have you forgotten already? He tried to cancel a live presidential election debate so he could go vote for it. It was a big deal. Man, Americans have short memories. And when the first stimulus Bill was voted down in the House (before it was later passed), Bush went ahead and authorized his own little bailout with an executive order. Look it up. Republicans ARE NOT for fiscal responsibility. They just want it to be THEM wasting all the money on big flashy programs rather than the democrats.

“(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run health care;”

Again, great!…if it were true. Sure “Obamacare” is going to be awful when it finally passes (and it WILL eventually pass), but so is “RomneyCare”. That’s right, Mitt Romney had his own little statist healthcare program as the governor of Massachusetts. Under his plan it was against the law to NOT have healthcare. No government sponsored healthcare, just a mandate that said you had to buy it yourself. So the democrats’ plan (government-run healthcare) is socialism and the republicans’ plan, (government-mandated private healthcare) is fascism. Whoopie. I can’t wait to vote on which party I want in office.

“(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;”

I actually can’t really comment on this. I oppose cap and trade as well but I haven’t taken the time to research what Republicans plan to do about energy reforms. But judging by their past records, I’d be willing to bet it’s just a different but equally bad option.

“(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;”

Unions. Ugh. I don’t like them but I also think that people have the right to associate with whomever they want and in whatever way they want…and that right extends to employers and business owners. They should be able to fire whoever they want for whatever reason they want. It’s their damn property.

“(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;”

At least they’re honest about this one. I disagree with them, but at least they’re not lying.

“(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;”

And this is the #1 reason that Republicans are bigger spenders than Democrats. They like war more….or do they? WWI, WWII, Korea, Clinton’s Yugoslavia nonsense; all started while democrats were in power. Both parties love their wars. Yes. Even Obama. On to Sudan! Save (bomb) Darfur!

“(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;”

Blah Blah Blah more warmongering.

“(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;”
Screw you Republicans! If you are religious, then marriage is a religious ceremony. If you’re not, marriage is a contract between two people. Neither of those areas are any of the government’s business. Legalize gay AND straight marriage!

“(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and”

Finally something I could agree on…if I knew they didn’t have a statist healthcare scheme of their own.

“(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership.”

One more time, say it with me: GREAT!….if I knew it wasn’t a lie.

Look up H.R. 1022 sometime. It didn’t pass, thank goodness, but it was supposed to be another Clinton-style assault weapons ban but this time it was written and sponsored by Republicans. I will agree that more republicans seem to understand and support gun rights but don’t trust someone just because they have an (R) after their name. In fact, never trust ANY politician until you get to know them and their positions because, as we can see, they’re all liars and scumbags to the last….yes that includes YOUR pet politician.

Lecture About Design principles

the lecture was about design principles, we recap on the design principles(Balance,Contrast,Movement,Emphasis,Unity) from last week and had a bit more on unity and if you work on does 4 principels that they contribute to a good image and how that brings unity to an image and people will like it more and it will keep there interest for longer period.We also did a physical display of the 5 principals in groups of 4. our group had one person looking forward while the other 3 where looking at the opposite  way so you had foreground and background.

Image shows how we where in the assignment

3020833    หลักการให้โภชนาบำบัด    Principles of Nuterition Support

หลักการให้บริการโภชนาบำบัด การให้อาหารทางท่อให้อาหารและทางหลอดเลือดดำ วิธีการให้อาหาร ภาวะแทรกซ้อนแกรดูแลจัดการการให้อาหารทางท่อให้อาหารและทางหลอดเลือดดำ

(Principles of nutritional support service. Parenteral and enteral nutrition. Methods, routes, complications, and management in parenteral and enteral nutrition.)

(3020833 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

3020838    หลักการของเคมีบำบัดและการรักษาทางชีวภาพ    Principles of Chemotherapy and Biologic Therapy

หลักการใช้เคมีบำบัดและการรักษาทางชีวภาพในการรักษาผู้ป่วยโรคมะเร็ง การดูแลขณะรับการรักษา การรักษาภาวะแทรกซ้อนต่างๆที่เกิดขึ้นจากการรักษา

(Principles of chemotherapy and biologic therapy in the management of cancer patients, medical care during the treatment, and management of treatment-related complications.)

(3020838 จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย)

So I’ve been thinking a fair bit about possibly the central thing we do as pastors – at least in terms of time spent on any single thing (research, preparation and delivery). We would take a half-day as a preaching team to work through a message, then I would take a day to write it and then about another half day spent marinating on it before delivery. So all up we’re looking at about fifteen hours of preparation and delivery for one message. Which I think is probably about average.

Recently I read Pagan Christianity by Viola and Barna, which was a really good read and instrumental in helping the church move beyond its institutionalization. They claim that preaching was never central to the church until a couple hundred years after Christ and really came into primacy with Luther who claimed it was the central part of the sunday service. He changed the term “priest” to “preacher”. Understandably preaching the word for Luther, who was putting reformed theology into the hands of hungry hordes of protesting catholics departing the catholic church in utter ignorance, was of utmost importance.

Viola claims that preaching in the NT was only done by apostles – church planters/workers in the process of establishing churches and on special occasions (Solomon’s temple etc.). They also claim that the office of Pastor is not an office, but a function and pastors didn’t preach.

I kinda disagree. I think pastors did preach because I believe Timothy was a pastor (Viola suggests he was “apostolic” because he obviously wasn’t an apostle, but his theory about pastors would fall over) and Timothy was urged by Paul to preach. Furthermore in Acts where it says the early disciples met from house to house and in the temple, would suggest it was a weekly occurrence.

Here’s where I get really creative now. Try and keep up.

Public teaching was done in the synagogue for centuries, so was embedded in Jewish culture. Furthermore, rhetoric was one of the most popular of entertainment of the day among the Greeks. Rhetoricians were public speakers who became famous and well paid for speaking eloquently (subject matter was inconsequential). So culturally in Judea, public speaking was the best form of communication and entertainment – infotainment would be a good word to describe it in today’s parlance. So it seems Jesus and his followers were using the best and most modern forms of communication that was most effective for their culture and the people of the day – preaching and teaching.

Translate that into today’s culture which is neither Greek nor Jewish. Preaching like we live in 100 A.D. in Judea simply isn’t cutting it. I even had trouble remembering what I preached the week before let alone thinking anyone else remembered (and I’m a good preacher). Which is why I resorted to The Big Idea which is simply one singular idea that I wanted people to leave the building with (there were other reasons to adopt it, primarily to use a preaching team and being able to keep a multi-site church moving in the same direction). I mean, how many sermons have you heard and actually implemented? It’s a completely modernist idea to think that simply giving people information will change their lives. We all know it doesn’t work like that, yet we continue doing it because it’s part of the consumer contract we have with our congregants (search this blog for consumerism).

Researchers on adult eduction have found that while teaching children “by rote” – in other words, I tell-you listen-you learn works, it doesn’t work with adults. And because preachers have all been to school and know nothing about educating adults, we use the only model we’ve known. Adult education doesn’t work like that. In fact when it comes down to it, experts concede that adult educators can only “facilitate” another adults learning. I won’t go into all the reasons for that. But bottom line, you can’t teach someone anything until they are ready to learn it. Kinda sounds like that old chinese saying “when the student is ready, the master will appear” – except we’re not masters… but you get the point.

The other thing that complicates the issue is that we live in the information age. No-one knows how vast the internet is. It’s not measurable. That’s how much information is out there. I can download the best preachers in the world hours after they deliver the sermon. And they’re way better communicators that you or I. I can download theology, christian books, magazines and blogs. I can even check the lexicons and commentaries while you’re preaching to see if your exegesis and hermeneutics are up to scratch. So that’s what we’re up against. So if we’re going to trade in information, I guarantee you, your congregation can get better information any day of the week.

So where does that leave us? It leaves us reaching for the best communication forms available to us for today’s culture and not simply dishing out information because adults don’t learn like that (and neither do you by the way so don’t be surprised that no-one else does either), but rather facilitating an experience. How’s that for radical? I’ll let you think about that for a bit, and I’ll unpack my conclusions later.

Week 8 started off with a recap on Semiotics and our Semiotic Assignment. Week 8 brought us on to Design Principles. We already covered shape/form, space, point, line, texture, pattern and colour earlier during the module but these can be considered elements of design used to create a composition.  We learn that space between and around our elements is very important and can be as dominant as the elements themselves. How we combine the elements of design forms design principles and the method we apply these principles determines how good our compositon/artwork becomes. We can combine our elements using balance, contrast, movement, emphasis and unity.

Balance
Balance refers to the equilibrium in a compositon. This is achieved by choice in arranging the elements in relation to each other and frame area. There are 2 forms – Symmetrical and Asymmetrical. Sysmmetical is an even distribution/mirror image. This is achieved by placing elements evenly in design.

Asymmetrical Balance
Asymmetrical balance is an uneven distribution of elements on the page/frame. These designs can be difficult to achieve but can work out very well. They can be created by placing small or no items on one side and a large item on the other side. This can create tension drawing the viewer in.

If you know the rules you can break them, lack of balance can convey action and motion. An off-balance design can make people think, it’s not good to end up having an off balance design by accident.

Contrast
Contast means difference, having similar components throughout and become bland and boring. Contrasts in composition, shape, size and colour can make a dynamic design. It creates interest for the viewer. Contrast can create tension by placing opposing elements in relation to each other. This can be achieved by placing subject to the side of the frame or even partially out of the frame.

Contast in size can be usefull for visual arrangement of elements such as large bold text for a dominent headline followed by an arrangment of text and images. Contrasting shapes can add tension to the image, the difference in elements should be obvious. Colour contrast can be very effective, small areas of vibrant colour and contast large areas of neutral colour.

Movement
Movement is the path our eyes follow when we look at art, this creates unity and can be achieved by using line, repetition and rhythm. Movements combines all elements together. Repetition in movement is when elements are often repeated or hav similar structure creating visual rhythm. Lines can be used to create movment, this is used alot in cartoons and Japanese animation ‘manga’.  Rhythm refers to the way your eye moves through a picture

Emphasis
Emphasis is the creation of an obvious area of importance in an image/design rather than have everything equal. Without emphasis nothing stands out drawing the eye to it. Simplicity/minimal-design omitts all non-essential elements and details with only the important elements represented and can be called KISS (keep it simple stuipd). A large object placd in the centre can be seen as a focal point.

Seperating bright and dark areas of colour can also be used to create emphasis.

At the end of the lecture were were broken into groups and each given a movie poster to talk about its principles of design. We were given Casablanca

We discovered that there was movement using rhythm by the arrangement of people on the right hand side of the poster and thru line by using the sloping text. We found emphasis on importance by use of the main 2 characters in the centre of the poster. There is a colour contrast with the name in bright red and the main characters in colour with surrounding yellowed compared to the dark blue tint all around the poster. The poster was slightly asymetrical with a heavier concentration on imagery on the right hand side.

That concluded our lecture for this week, we continued on with our semiotics in the lab.

Sometimes I wonder about English. Is it dying out in it’s ‘proper’ form?
In the future, will you see poems like this?

Out of us all
That make rhymes
Will u choose
Sumtimes -
As the winds use
A crack in a wall
Or a drain,
Their joy or their pain
To whistle thru -
Choose me,
U English words?

I kno u:
U r light as dreams,
Tough as oak,
Precious as gold,
As poppies and corn,
Or an old cloak:
Sweet as r birds
To the ear,
As the burnet rose
In the heat
Of Midsummer:
Strange as the races
Of dead and unborn:
Strange and sweet
Equally,
And familiar,
To the i,
As the dearest faces
That a man knows,
And as lost homes r:
But tho older far
Than oldest yew, -
As our hills are, old, -
Worn new
Again and again:
Young as r streams
After rain:
And as dear
As the earth which u prove
That we luv.

Make me content
With some sweetness
From Wales
Whose nightingales
Have no wings, -
From Wiltshire and Kent
And Herefordshire, -
And the villages there, -
From the names, and the things
No less.
Let me sometimes dance
With u,
Or climb
Or stand perchance
In ecstasy,
Fixed and free
In a rhyme,
As poets do.

Okay that was an awful example as I couldn’t actually change many words, but the choice of poem in the case of it’s content was appropriate, so