We received word last week that ALL HIGH SCHOOLERS (9th-12th) are invited to go over the mountain to meet Jesus the weekend of January 15-18 (Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend.) TEC is a youth event almost completely LED BY YOUTH!!

Pastor Amy Figg from St. John’s in Knoxville, TN is the primary spiritual advisor for the weekend. Over the weekend, you’ll discover what it means to die to sin and self, be raised in Christ, and to go out into the world to change it one life at a time. I personally have not been to TEC, but and would LOVE for some of you to come experience it with me. I have heard amazing things about the weekend and think it can be a really awesome experience for us to have together. The cost is $115/ student and covers food, lodging, a t-shirt and program costs.

We have heard that the spots are filling up quickly for this TEC, so the deadline for all forms and money has been moved up to THIS WEDNESDAY – December 2. You’ll need a Medical Form and a TECite Application – you can get the forms here!

A new Advent meditation book made its way into my library: Stephen Cottrell’s Do Nothing Christmas is Coming.

In his introduction, Cottrell makes an accurate analogy between what seasons like Advent can do in our lives and the de-fragmentation of a computer.  A computer stores new information wherever it can find available memory.  Large files, therefore, can be stored in a number of different fragments and when the user asks the computer to find the entire file, the read/write part of the machine slows up searching for the fragments. Defragmenting programs rewrite files so they are stored contiguously providing foundational decluttering.

We need to defragment our lives in the same way. The time-tested method is to slow down, be mindful, and incorporate prayerful contemplation of history, scripture, daily events that the Holy Spirit brings to us.  So many faithful say that Advent is their favorite time of the liturgical year and it’s because of this slowing down coupled with mindfulness of the themes of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.

On the parish level, this defragmentation process is not always modeled.  Advent becomes a time for ratcheting up special programs, speakers, adult forums, and projects.  One of the most dismaying staff meetings comes in early November when the rector and the organist have their annual discussion about replacing Rite Two with Rite One.

To offer this language because of its formality and distance from the congregant during a time of year when we are vigilant for Immanuel – God with us – and are encouraged go on spiritual journeys that seeks out familiarity with chaos, darkness, and uncertainty represents persistence in the delusional by a few in control. It’s like putting snipers on the walls instead of watchmen who tell of the night.

This is the liturgical Christian’s New Year, a time when many of us make resolutions that affect our spiritual journeys. Yet rather than clear the path for us, our churches are cooking up the spiritual equivalent of hospital food.  Not only does the parish staff go into hyper drive, colluding with the consumer culture in intention, but it continues to send the “don’t bother” message to us all.

Has anyone out there worked with organist/choir directors who tell you what hymns he will “allow” to be sung during Advent, for Pageants, and for Christmas?  Is this demand ever corrected?

For more on liturgy and hospital food, scroll down: http://hopefulepiscopalian.wordpress.com/2009/05/10/good-shepherd-sunday/

The churches out there that model the defragmentation process hold the flame of hope as much as Elizabeth and Mary held it in them. They are out there. In those churches….

• The Advent wreath making takes place on a quiet evening with a family meal. The scent of mulled cider and pine boughs fill the parish hall.  There are no expectations – no production line quota for how many wreaths get into the homes.  And any color candle works.
• Popularity is not the primary criterion for an offering that relates to  spiritual journey.
• The Advent guest preachers come from the congregation or there is a commitment to interactive sermons and listening to each other.
• The Christmas Pageant has been replaced with an Epiphany Pageant or Paper Bag Pageant.
• Lessons and Carols is a community-wide participatory event instead of a show by the “talented” and paid professionals.
• Instead of special speakers, there are lay-led quiet days. People share their home prayers, liturgies, and other practices – including playlists of Advent music.  The music director listens and responds.
• Mission and outreach are part of a continuum, not geared up for Advent/Christmas. There are serious discussions about capitalism, the poor, and the Christian faith.
• A director of faith formation posts a large sheet of paper during coffee hour with the theme of each week of Advent written at the top. People are asked to write their thoughts and memories about Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love. These thoughts are incorporated into the worship – including sermons – and life of the parish. The parish musician writes a song for corporate and private worship based on this collaboration.

Pues aqui subiendo unas fotos de dos chavas muy buena onda Lily & Ix, pues la vdd son unas chavas super buena onda y pues muy desmadrosas, o no morras.

Y pues tambien una mia porque no?…

• Pues aqui Ix esta en ISOA (In State Of Autismo)…

• Pues aqui yo haciendola de ciego; Perame Actor!!!!!!

• Pues aqui esta lili con cara de Happy

Solo Falto la Foto de Nere, pues no tengo de ella….

Alrighty, with banana cereal in my tummy and Kings on Convenience on repeat, i am ready to blog. Yes, finally, after a month.

Watched Minority Report yesterday to refresh my memory, and of course, as expected from Steven Spielberg – it was an awesome movie. But besides it being a great movie, the story was frightening. Don’t we all feel afraid that our future will turn out like Minority Report?

Set in Washington DC in the year 2054, the movie focuses on Precrime chief, John Anderton (Tom Cruise) who found himself turned into one of his company’s wanted people, after the precogs showed a vision of him killing. Thus to prove his innocence, he struggles to find his own minority report.

Looking at  Minority Report, people might think the technology shown is still far in the future. For example, getting identified through an eye iris. Today sees us identified through our fingerprints, and it seems, nothing more than this. However, Ms Kwa shown the students this video, which i think can challenge that altogether.

This video is a demo of a device from MIT. At one part of the video, a person is identified by the device by his face, and projects all information it can gather of this person. With technology like this being around the corner, eye iris identification seems nearer than 2054.

Also, didn’t you find the finger gesturing on the demo video similar to Minority Report?

If we can actually have a little of Minority Report in the year of 2009, i have a feeling it wouldn’t take longer than 2054 for life to be similar to Minority Report.

Episcopal Church To-Do List:

Know the difference between Hope & Optimism

…embrace the former.

There’s been a Facebook challenge since November first to post every day something for which you are grateful.  To read everyone’s personal gratitude lists has given me a few epiphanies about my friends and their lives, offering me new perspectives.

Since reading these, I have begun to muse about the times I worked in a church during this season.

Christ the King Sunday arrives and the plug-and-play organist chooses all the kingly songs, a kingly anthem – maybe the kids sing a zippy “Ride On King Jesus”.  The program in the parish gurgles along in its peristaltic reflexive way – throw in a lot of crowns, kings, reigns, and we’ll be doing right by Jesus.

Then Thanksgiving gets into the mix. In my staff experience, this is a thorny hump in the middle of the week. There are digressions into gossip about the parish fellowship meal which morph into analyzing the history of the community ecumenical Thanksgiving service.  The “positive” aspect of these staff meetings is people imagine they’re focusing on fixing everything while complaining,  idealizing stuff that is always going to be problematic because people are problematic. It would be so much more effective – and spiritually mindful -  to just work together on offering a meal and a worship service. It doesn’t seem worth the energy to try to control who cooks what and who eats what and whether the organist at the Methodist Church is as good as the one at our church. Food, fellowship, music, and prayer.  It’s very simple.

This year, Advent 1 falls on the Sunday immediately after Thanksgiving.  Another staff moan fest  - numbers will be down because people are traveling.  The Sunday School teachers will be a week behind on teaching the kids about…what, exactly… Hope? Everyone will make their Advent wreaths a week later.  And one rector I worked with somehow thought this timing meant more work for her. What the what?

For the faithful who have left the church, we are observing the rise and fall of the spiritual tide, being mindful of the waves on the sand.  We observe the lectionary year prayerfully in our own ways.  We will be decorating for Advent, searching the links between Christ the King Sunday, Thanksgiving, and Advent 1 without waiting to be told what to do or how to do it.

It’s lonely. The faithful are homeless. We dare not go into a church to look for fellow travelers in hope because someone will slap a name tag and a “Smile!” sticker on our lapels.

Christ the King Sunday can be such a tough one to make relevant in the two-thousandies. One year when I was team teaching 6^th and 7^th grade Sunday School, I was alone with 15 hormonal tweens and teens on this last Sunday in the liturgical year.  Nothing made sense to me in the canned curriculum, which is always a start – unless our teachers, serious catechists, deacons, priests,  bishops, and communications officers, embrace a grounded faith in consort with a willingness to be upended by reality there can be no hope.  We must seek personal transformation, and then the transformation of those around us will happen.

I downloaded about 20 different images of Jesus, and brought in icons and other images I had at home: Jesus the teacher, Christ the king, Jesus the healer, Rasta Jesus, laughing or dancing Jesus, activist Jesus, suffering Jesus, Jesus eating.  Who do you say that I am? We passed the pictures around and talked about which one we related to most.  We talked about what Christ the King is like, questioning if this aspect of Christ was one we could invite into our daily lives.  We laughed when a girl remembered a boy named Jesus in her nursery school who was always hitting the other kids. “Jesus – go to the time-out chair!”

http://www.rejesus.co.uk/site/module/faces_of_jesus/

We never came up with a definitive Jesus for everyone.  It was an enormous gift for me because most of the middle schoolers related to laughing or dancing Jesus. Why? “He seems so free to be himself.”  Now, whenever I see a petulant middle schooler, chip on her shoulder, I remember that dream of those Sunday School kids:  to be free to be who God created them to be. I suspend all judgment and head straight for the conversation.  Had I imposed my own notion of what Christ the King meant, or asked the rector for advice I would never have received this ongoing gift.

A few weeks ago, I saw a montage of a lot of Hollywood moments where the slobs got their recognition.  It included things like rewards to the Wizard of Oz quartet and Han Solo and Chewbacca getting cheered by the crowd as they receive laurels from Princess Leia. This moment is inscribed in our hearts through popular culture time and again – from the justifiable humiliation of Lena Lamont when the curtain goes up to reveal who is really singing in Singing in the Rain, or when Jamal rises out of a pit of offal in Slumdog Millionaire.

This is an aspect of a Christ the King moment.  It’s not only that the Risen Christ rules – or reigns or whatever verb the hymnody spits out at us – it’s that the slobs beat the snobs.  Our King is one of us, we are all victors.

And here is where there’s another light on the road for me:  I can travel from Christ the King to Advent 1 in my own spiritual journey because Christ the King represents not royalty or the One who doth Reign, or golden crowns – but hope.  Jesus as wise, compassionate, deserving King is a core story of hope, the theme of the first week of Advent.

The tomb is empty. The cross is bare.  Are we there yet? Yes we are!

Hope is not optimism.  Hope is anchored in reality, and as a basic human yearning, rises up, infecting our actions so we strive through the pain, and the piles of crap around us don’t matter at all.  Optimism, however, likes to redecorate the crap.  A dead end is renamed a cul de sac.

The greater church is intensely engaged in optimism.  This trickles down, permeating every aspect of how we do business.  Check out whatever ENS has put in your in-box for the week and tell me it’s not optimism.  A Phoenix needs ashes to be a phoenix

Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.  In short, I think that the deepest and most important form of hope the one that can keep us above water and urge us to do good works, and the only true source of the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts is something that we get, as it were, from “elsewhere”.  It is also this hope, above all, which gives us strength to live and to continually try new things even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do here and now.

From the politics of hope by Vaclav Hamel

I wish us all hope on the journey, thanksgiving for hope, and pray for the church that it may find its way in understanding the reality around it – no matter how painful that may be.

El regreso del Capitán Chile

Las nuevas aventuras del Capitán Chile están listas para salir. Tras varios meses de trabajo recopilando material del súper héroe porteño creación de Cristian Díaz Castro, quien firma como TEC, por fin este 26 de noviembre se realizará  el primero de una serie de lanzamientos para esta esperada revista de historieta nacional.

Esta iniciativa financiada con el aporte del Fondo de Fomento del Libro y la Lectura, Convocatoria 2009, del Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes, viene a ser el corolario a muchos años de edición auto gestionada por parte del destacado dibujante, también un mundialmente reconocido investigador del tema quien desde el 2006 venía realizando encuentros nacionales financiado también por el CNCA y que fue además uno de los fundadores de AGV (Artistas Gráficos de Valparaíso).

Por la caricaturización que del medio nacional se hace en las páginas de las historietas de Capitán Chile, por la manera de reflejar a muchos de sus lectores y los intereses de estos, por suceder muchas veces las aventuras en Valparaíso, una versión libre de la ciudad, por ser Capitán Chile Wanderino, la obra ha generado una empatía que se tradujo en el que muchos particulares e instituciones quisieran participar apoyando la postulación y luego, al momento de salir favorecido el proyecto, apoyando en la difusión e incluso en la realización de la iniciativa. Y esto en Chile y el extranjero, debemos decir. Una muestra de esta excelente llegada hacia lectores nacionales y allende la cordillera dio como resultado el primer crossover internacional donde Capitán Chile compartió páginas con El Chispa, popular personaje de la historieta argentina (creación de Gustavo Secreti y Gustavo Lucero) en una histórica entrega por capítulos que acaparó la atención de los medios internacionales.

Ya quienes han prologado la obra, quienes han repartido el material de difusión, quienes han exhibido en sus locales este material, la gente de los medios que han entrevistado al autor, los colegas que han estado ahí para solucionar alguna duda técnica, evidencian lo acertado de la gestión de este proyecto y del desarrollo y masificación mediática de las aventuras del personaje desde el año 2001. Tal es el interés en este recopilatorio que aún antes de salir de imprenta ya el responsable del Club de Lectura de Comics, el historietista Jorge “Coke” Farías  ha reservado copias para su actividad que se desarrolla en la Biblioteca de Santiago. Su iniciativa es también financiada con el aporte del Fondo de Fomento del Libro y la Lectura, Convocatoria 2009, del Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes

Así, por fin tras 13 ediciones en el formato fanzín, ese de la heroica fotocopia y de bajo tiraje, se da paso a la edición profesional con portada a todo color rescatando esas aventuras y sumándole dos más, junto con darle un marco histórico a cada una de ellas. Las 152 páginas se engalanan además con otra muestra del apoyo a esta obra y el autor. La portada ha sido magistralmente realizada por el gran Ariel Olivetti, estrella del cómic mundial que desde un comienzo dijo “yo apoyo a TEC, yo apoyo a Capitán Chile”. Todo un suceso.

Por eso se invita a todos los amigos de la historieta y la cultura que participen de estas ceremonias de lanzamiento para Las Aventuras de Capitán Chile. Repasando, la primera será el 26 de noviembre en la sede INJUV de Valparaíso en Errázuriz 1236 casi esquina Bellavista y comenzará al medio día. Al día siguiente en el mismo local se realizará un taller de cómic desde las 11:00 hrs. y hasta las 18:00 hrs., actividad de carácter gratuito pero con cupos limitados por lo que se sugiere una pronta inscripción a los interesados acudiendo a la sede y/o escribiéndole al autor.

Entre esta actividad y el siguiente lanzamiento oficial se realizarán otras actividades celebrando la llegada de esta revista y los lugares, días y horas se anunciarán a través de facebook (capitán chile) y el blog del proyecto, www.capitanchile2009.blogspot.com

El día 17 de diciembre a las 18:00 hrs. será el siguiente lanzamiento oficial en dependencias de la Biblioteca de Santiago en Matucana 151.

Dudas sobre estas actividades consultarlas al mail del autor tec.comic@gmail.com

Southland’s polytechnic has missed out on a slice of an $8m funding boost just announced for “high-performing” polytechs in a move that won’t help its post-recession growth.

However, it looks likely to get a share of about $1.6 million coming to Otago-Southland tertiary providers through the government’s Youth Guarantee Scheme.

Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley this morning announced 12 polytechnics and institutes of technology will get $8m between them to provide up to 700 new student places.

The funding’s part of the Government’s Youth Opportunities package and is supposed to help the polytechs cope with forecast enrolment growth into the new school year.

She says the cash Tertiary Education Commission allocated the cash based on the polytech’s performance in delivering education and training to students under 25, and to students at higher levels of training.

 “This represents an important step in delivering this Government’s election commitment to introduce a performance-linked funding system,” Mrs Tolley says in a statement sent to Southern Squall.

“At a time of limited opportunities, this will enable more young people to access meaningful education and training.”

Well, perhaps it will if the students don’t want to study in Southland.

Readers will remember the Southern Institute of Technology is looking to make savings and generate new business to offset a $3.5m funding shortfall.

The shortfall was imposed by the TEC as a funding cap in the leadup to the 2008 election campaign.

The cuts were linked primarily to SIT’s distance learning programmes and its Christchurch campus. The rationale was some out-of-Southland courses duplicated what was already available, and that SIT had grown its rolls more than it should have.

However, SIT has since argued these courses have helped offset the cost of providing courses in Invercargill. 

SIT’s known for some time that it’ll start the new year with a cap on new enrolments. But it’ll no doubt be galling to see the polytech is one of only a handful or regional providers to miss out on new funding as, post-recession, regions try and train and retain a skilled workforce.

Who got what:

The Youth Guarantees Scheme  allocation for 2010 reserves 164 places for students in Otago and Southland. The ODT reported today that Otago Polytechnic has 84 places, which leaves 80 (about $800,000 worth) to be divided up among SIT, Telford Rural Polytechnic and the Community Colleges of NZ.  

Cuando yo me gradué, hace 4 años y tanto, el señor Trejos me dió el título. No sin antes empezar a hacer una campaña anticipada del NO AL TLC.

Resulta que el señor Trejos no solo pensaba en un NO, sino también en una futura candidatura en la que se buscó un nicho para lanzarse, y lo encontró en FRENTE AMPLIO.

Estamos hablando 2007 Referendum, 2010 Candidato Presidencial. Si nos ponemos a pensar, desde inicios de 2007 el señor Trejos trabajó en el NO, volvió al TEC a finales de 2007, 2008 y mediados de 2009 en el TEC, y ya lleva varios meses de campaña.

Eso quiere decir que el señor Trejos ha pasado ausente del Tecnológico por lo menos 2 años y 3 1/2 años “en otras cosas” sentado en su escritorio en Cartago.

¿Porqué en otras cosas? El cupo ya no da para los estudianes del TEC, la matrícula es un verdadero calvario, no hay profesores y los que están, no todos están capacitados completamente para la docencia. Edificios nuevos, si, pero vacíos. La imagen del TEC está en suelo, porque el señor Trejos llevaba un pin del TEC en su solapa cuando hablaba del NO, frente a las empresas privadas que les da trabajo a los egresados de la institución.

Ahora resulta ser que este año se despertó una ola de bandalismo en el TEC. Eso no es nuevo, afuera del TEC SIEMPRE han asaltado. Lo que pasa es que ahora asaltan dentro del TEC. Los testimonios son muchos, si gustan leen el sitio de mi hermano para que ustedes mismos constaten que no miento.

¿Y el señor Trejos? Pues mandó a decir que no renunciaba, que “pedía vacaciones” y así seguía guindado de la TETA del TEC, mientras hacia procelitismo político en un partido que no ganará las elecciones, perdiendo el tiempo que pudo invertir en la institución que le dió espacio como rector.

El señor Trejos ha estado ausente del TEC estos años, estando y no estando en su oficina, su presencia es nula. Su pensamiento está en Zapote, en el poder y mientras tanto mis queridos colegas tecnólogos sufren de una serie de robos, asaltos, violaciones, arriesgando su vida para ser verdaderos profesionales.

¿Qué dice mi corazón? Mi corazón dice NO a Eugenio Trejos en el TEC.

No más Trejos en el TEC, mi querido TEC

O novo iphone, desmontado e mostrado em stop motion. Cliquem aqui para ver o video.

Ps aki esta otra foto de otra maestra muy buena onda; Bettz que aparte es de las mejores maestras que hay en el Tecnologico de Ags.

Su materia de base de datos distribuidas, es de las mejores que tenemos en este semestre, yo kiero mucho a esta maestra.

Saludos a todos.

In an effort to decrease health related absenteeism, The Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation partnered with The Partnership Community Development Corporation to deliver the Healthy Homes educational programming seminar. The Healthy Homes Kick-Off took place on Saturday, November 14 at The Enterprise Center. Over 50 parents and children attended the event. Five more Healthy Homes workshops are planned for the coming months. Seminars will include asthma awareness/triggers, lead prevention, water quality, alternative pest management, monoxide/radon hazards and fire safety.  Find out more about the Healthy Homes program on The Partnership’s website.

View photos of the Healthy Homes launch on Flickr.

Sigo conmocionada con la noticia, los invito a dejarle muestras de afecto y apoyo a los familiares y amigos de este gran Jugador Descance en paz Antonio Denigris.

Antonio de Nigris murió después de sufrir una  complicación cardiaca en su casa en el centro de Grecia, informaron autoridades médicas y el club de futbol.

Los resultados preliminares de una autopsia indicaban que sufrió complicaciones cardiacas, dijo un médico forense estatal, pero aclaró que se necesitaban otros análisis.

La esposa de de Nigris se puso en contacto con el club después de que su esposo se sintiera mal en las primeras horas del lunes, dijo Christos Tsoumaris, vocero del club Larissa.

“Todavía estamos tratando de entender qué fue lo que pasó”, dijo Tsoumaris. “Nuestras condolencias están con su esposa y con su pequeña hija”.

De Nigris jugó con el club español Villarreal y se mudó a Grecia esta temporada después de participar en el Ankaragucu de Turquía.

Larissa ocupa actualmente el 11 puesto de la tabla de 16 equipos de la liga griega con 10 puntos. Panathinaikos encabeza la tabla con 28 puntos.

Una enorme fotografía del delantero mexicano Antonio de Nigris, sus botines blancos, camisetas con el número 9, coronas de flores, un libro de condolencias y cientos de velas encendidas podían verse el lunes en la Puerta 3 del Estadio Alkazar de Larisa.

La repentina muerte del delantero del principal club de futbol de esta ciudad del norte griego provocó una verdadera conmoción.

Cientos de hinchas del club de la Primera División se acercaron al estadio del Larisa FC para rendirle homenaje.

Antes, sus compañeros de equipo, el cuerpo técnico y directivos visitaron el memorial improvisado para presentar sus respetos.

“No puedo encontrar las palabras para decir ahora lo que sentimos. Mucha tristeza y dolor”, dijo Giannis Tzimas, un dirigente del club.

“Ha sido un gran shock para todos nosotros. Un día muy difícil. Un hombre muy bueno nos ha abandonado”, destacó el entrenador Marinos Ouzounidis.

La entidad deportiva agregó que el Hospital Universitario General de Larissa anunciará la causa oficial de la muerte una vez efectuada la autopsia.

“Con profundo pesar, la dirección, el cuadro técnico, los futbolistas y los miembros del club expresan sus condolencias a los allegados del jugador, en especial a su mujer Sonia y a su hija de cinco años Miranda”, anunció el club helénico.

Según la prensa local, el futbolista de 31 años de edad empezó a sentirse mal el domingo de madrugada y su mujer llamó a una ambulancia. Pero De Nigris había fallecido a su llegada al hospital.

El atacante mexicano fichó en agosto pasado por el Larisa, procedente del Ankaragucu turco, y disputó seis partidos de liga griega sin marcar ningún gol.

According to KJS, the church is filled wtih cainophobics:

Hundreds of worshippers packed into Sacramento’s Trinity Cathedral on Sunday morning to hear the nation’s leader of the Episcopal Church talk about the need to embrace change.

“Changing isn’t the problem,” said Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in her message. “Our fear and anxiety about it is.”

This is the same condescending drivel that both the ACoC and TEC have been peddling for years. KJS can’t seem to grasp that the problem is not that people are afraid of the changes she is making, but that they disagree with them.

Una mujer muy bella y buena onda, y sabe mucho sobre Base de Datos, yo la kiero mucho.

Arriba La Draki…

It’s funny, I’ve been posting new entries almost every week up until 3 weeks ago, simply because I felt like I needed to comment on what I was learning each week at CNC. The last entry I wrote though felt kind of stagnant, and I felt almost as if I was writing because it was a routine.. not just because I had something to say. We all know that I dislike routine, and I’m very much not a fan of tradition – especially when it has to do with spirituality. Too much tradition in spirituality can very quickly become a religion – and then where are we?

Instead, I’ve just been listening to what  is around me lately, learning from experiences and, while I still take notes every Thursday night, I’ve decided that it’s not in my best interest, or your best interests readers, to document every session. Instead, if you enjoyed my “recap” of the Thursday CNC sessions, I will suggest that you take initiative and come out to CNC on Thursday nights if you are in the Halifax area, and feel so inclined.

I’m in a bit of a place right now, because I’m not really sure what happens next. There are parts of my life that are so good that it’s bursting with awesomeness, and there are parts of my life that are so bad that my many attempts to hide those areas are starting to fall apart, and people who I once would never have wanted to see these things in my life are discovering things about me that I wish weren’t there. That sounds so complicated and cryptic, but I believe that everyone has their own darkest secrets, and things that they want no person to ever know about themselves – the same is true here. If I don’t elaborate, it’s simply because I don’t necessarily want the world to know.

My wonderful job that I have been working at for almost a year now is due to end in January. I’m still going to be keeping 2 days a week (24 hours possibly) but 24 hours a week is not going to keep my bills paid. I’ve been hunting around for something a bit more solid. The problem is, every time I look at job sites, I see things that I’m capable of doing but nothing that is screaming “you need to apply here” to me. There is nothing out there that I am excited on the prospect of. Plus, the resumes that I have sent out over the past 2 months have 100% gone unanswered – not a single “thank you” email, or courtesy call.. and definitely no interview requests. I’m starting to get a little nervous here guys, I mean, there’s only so much time left until January, and we all know the last 2 weeks of December are a write off for anyone.

The other night though, we had this guest speaker at CNC. His name was Kirk Bartha, and he lives in BC. He has just written a fabulous book called the “Clairvaux Manifesto” (if you get a chance to read it, you should. I will be!) and he was visiting us here in Halifax. Having never met him before, I wasn’t sure was to expect – but Kirk, you have for sure reminded me of what it means to full Trust in God.

I may have mentioned before about a youth weekend that I participate in every Victoria Day weekend in NB. I have been on team there for 9 years now, since 2000. I have participated in 10 TECs, about to be 11. Every time I do a TEC weekend, I walk away from it feeling like a new person. I walk away with experiences and stories that I love to tell, but that no one ever believes. Not even the Christian friends believe it half the time – I think they really think I’m nuts, but no one has the heart to tell me that. Over the years, I guess I’ve kind of accepted the reality that although my experiences were real, perhaps it was just a situational thing and that it was only real because everyone there wanted it to be. When I was a candidate at TEC, back in 2000.. the bishop of the diocese of Fredericton gave the closing speech. One of the things he said to us was “Here at TEC, you may have experienced things, seen things, sung things that are new to you. You have a joyful excitement in you, you are on fire for God. I want to warn you that when you leave here and go to your churches on Sunday that it is not always like that. ” Essentially, he was telling us that TEC is a God bubble, where awesome and crazy things happen – but not to expect it in church because it would never happen. Bishop – I have to tell you, I think you are wrong. Not in the sense that it doesn’t happen, but in the sense that perhaps it’s not being ALLOWED to happen.

I have been asked to leave the Anglican church 3 times in my life. I have left every single time, and this is perhaps why I have church commitment issues. Still, I do this youth weekend every year. I churchhop like you wouldn’t believe – I get restless if I spent more than a few Sundays in any one place. I asked myself today why it is that I have “church commitment issues”? … it’s simple. I am CRAVING that unique experience with God that I feel every year at TEC. I want to be in that place.

See, as soon as I walk in the door at TEC, I know that God is awesome and is goin to do awesome things. I don’t know what they are, but at TEC there are no limits, only surprises. God has no limits! Anything can happen, anything has happened, and most of the time my accounts and stories lead people who were not there to think that I am crazy. But am I crazy? No crazier than the disciples who were insistent that they saw Jesus after he died on the cross and was buried in a sealed tomb. No crazier than those who watched Lazarus be raised from the dead. No crazier than those who ate from the loaves and fishes, in crowds of masses.

See, I believe in that. I believe in the impossible being possible. Not that humans can do it.. but God can. With God, ANYTHING is possible because he created the impossible. If it were possible for us to fix everything… God would not be God. It is the very reason that he destroyed Babel and caused everyone to speak different languages. God himself says that “If they can accomplish this (build a tower to heaven) when they have just begun to speak a common language, then just think of what they will do later. Nothing will be impossible for them!” in other words, they will no longer need God. So God changes it.. he makes it so that in the end, you will have no choice but to reach for him. That which is impossible is entirely possible when God is part of it.

So yes.. right now, I don’t have a job in January. I have been applying for jobs, and searching, and making an effort – but nothing is coming of it. Am I worried? No. I should be – I don’t have a savings account, I have student loans calling me every day, and to make a penny less than I make right now would throw me into big problems – but I am not worried. At the moment, it seems impossible that I will be okay in January – but I know it will work out. I know this because I have Faith, and I know that God has done extraordinary things in my life, and in the lives of others before me. He will not let me down, he will not let me fall. Wherever he has meant me to be, I will be – I just gotta keep trying.

God is crazy man. Seriously. He’s not just some serious dude with a sweet beard that lives in the sky – he’s got a sense of humour, he likes to make you laugh – and he loves to challenge you and put your faith to the test.  How much do you believe in Him? Noah had so much faith and trust in God, that he build a boat. A BIG boat at that, and gathered up all the animals and then hid away, listening to people drown in floodwaters around him. He could have ignored God.. said that it was just voices in his head. But then, there would be no animals, and Noah would have drowned as well.

I think sometimes we like to think that God has control over our lives, when it isn’t true. We tell everyone this much.. but is it really true? If God said to you right now “Drop what you are doing, sell all your possessions and move to Africa” would you do it? What if your plan for your life was to finish university, get your business degree, marry your highschool sweetheart and buy a house? Would you still do it, or would you falter and question yourself?  Can you trust that sometimes the craziest of ideas, when they feel right, are God’s words to you… and can you follow that? Are you ready to take up the challenge and go where He wants you to be, instead of where you want to be?

I’ll tell you something – when you are exactly in the place that God wants you to be, you will know it. It may not be constant joy, it may bring sorrow and sadness and tears, but you will know that you are in the right place. You will know it, and you will know when it is not right anymore.

I’ve learned this week that God’s awesomeness cannot be contained by anything. We are wrong to put it into boxes (like TEC weekend) and places (like church) and expect it to only come out those times. We are wrong if we think that God only shows His power at certain times, or days, or places. The reality is, if you BELIEVE, and honestly believe at that, that God can do anything – then He will use you. Those who have such a great relationship with Him trust Him enough to know that if they see a sick person, and know it is not what God wants, that He will heal if we ask.

Kirk is right. If you let Him, God can wreck your life… in a good way. Let go to what you think Life should look like, be like – right now, and in the future. Let God live through you, be ready to be his vessel, and believe that God really can do anything – and then get prepared to see amazing and crazy things happen.

When it telecoms outsourcing there are a lot of stories to be told out there some of them are very optimistic about the figures which can help telecos to retain their margins over stiff competitions in market.

Irrespective if you play a role as a TSP (Telecom services provider), TISP (Telecom Infrastructure Service Provider), TCDSP (Devices provider) or a VAS provider in telecom domain there are several favorables by outsourcing your services side to a third-party.

From my past experience just by providing outsourced QA / testing services independently to TSP’s they were able to 1. 65/% faster time to market

2. 10% productivity enhancement and

3. 30% operating cost savings

For any telecos testing is more important and vital to make sure their applications and environments are upto the quality expectations of the market.similarly for several development projects also they can find multiple advantageous figures while outsourcing.

BTW, as mentioned by a friend his prior experience had put 5x more cost to company by outsourcing is nothing but because of going behind any large / established IT outsourcing entity (not to name anyone and blame anyone.. ) they have huge market shares to be brought by outsourcing business and they need to project their business worthy by increasing the pie from every client they attached hence their cost to services will be enormously high when it comes to executing any projects outsourced since they are working on their profit = (their cost + margin) basis.

Alternative, is look for potentially best outsourcing service providers who are master in doing one service at best quality under your strong VMO guidance / process rather going behind single big trader who provides everything at one stop but bill you even for every call …

Morale: in outsourcing there are huge jack of all trades but when come to master in one trade none of them counts value, hence best is attached to have a strong vendor management team inhouse and outsource to skill based competitive entities who can work on your projects on good pricing, then outsourcing becomes profitable.

Thanks to the team from Social Media Academy I’ve been given the opportunity to present at their global multi-day event next week – Social Media Tools Week. Given we’ve just launched Smart Social Media – this is a great opportunity to outline some of our thinking on social media.

The topic of my presentation is

Social Media Monitoring – Why the Executive team needs to be using these tools

Why this topic?

Several reasons. Firstly, social media monitoring tools like Scout Labs have quickly evolved from brand buzz monitoring tools into significant business intelligence portals.

Secondly, TEC speaker Gary Bertwistle is a big proponent of business leaders being active thinkers. Gary’s speaking topics like ‘What made you think of that‘ and ‘Leading Innovation‘ has influenced how I think information should be used in organisations and the importance of a business leader having access to knowledge that isn’t shaped by functional prejudice.

The current business climate means their are many threats and opportunities and business leaders need to be alert and need to be looking across more than the traditional information channels. I’ll also drill into why Government agencies need to be using these tools as well – and why they are more powerful and useful than existing services (like news clipping services).

My presentation is Thursday the 19th at 10.30am AEDT (9.30am for those of us in Queensland).

I’ll be posting more details on my presentation between now and Thursday.

I’ve been doing a bit of strategy work recently around social communities. I’ve posted before about communities and how 2009 seems to be the year they are coming of age. I’m pretty excited about where the community space is going in terms of functionality, deployability, and sustainability.

Building a social community isn’t viable for every company but given the breadth of good platforms (from Ning, through to enterprise solutions like Xeequa, Awareness, Mzinga, and Igloo) they warrant attention and discussion within the context of your social media strategy.

This presentation is a simple overview of Social Communities. It’s an extract from a larger presentation that I put together for TEC groups here in Australia and New Zealand.

O Brasil sempre conseguiu impor uma solução, mas pagando um preço para os outros membros do bloco.

Todo acordo comercial do Mercosul tem sido uma dificuldade, embora nenhum até agora tenha deixado de ser assinado por causa de divergências no bloco. O Brasil sempre conseguiu impor uma solução, mas pagando um preço para os outros membros do bloco.

Agora, com o estado cada vez mais calamitoso do bloco, aumenta no setor privado brasileiro a demanda pela “reinvenção” do projeto de integração regional. A opção seria recuar e transformar a união aduaneira em área de livre comércio, desmontando a Tarifa Externa Comum (TEC), já razoavelmente furada.

Com isso, o Brasil poderia fechar sozinho importantes acordos bilaterais de comércio – com a União Europeia, por exemplo, e mais tarde com os próprios Estados Unidos, na visão de alguns segmentos empresariais.

A flexibilidade facilitaria acordos comerciais num momento em que a Argentina tem dificuldades para liberalizar seu mercado, com um processo de reindustrialização que passa pela percepção de que precisa de proteção na fronteira, notam negociadores.

Paraguai e Uruguai também têm resistido a acordos de livre comércio do bloco com outros parceiros porque querem manter o mercado brasileiro cativo. Toda vez que há um acordo do Mercosul com outros países, é criada uma competição adicional que paraguaios e uruguaios passam a ter no mercado brasileiro, corroendo suas preferências. De maneira geral, os dois negociam mais com o Brasil do que com outros países, tentando manter suas vantagens.

Até agora, acordo do Mercosul só deixou de ser assinado por causa dos setores econômicos. Na negociação com as seis nações do Conselho de Cooperação do Golfo Pérsico (Arábia Saudita, Catar, Kuwait, Emirados Árabes Unidos, Omã e Bahrein), foram Brasil e Argentina que não aceitaram a abertura na área petroquímica.

Crédito: Assis Moreira

Postado por Flávio Vieira

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