Sunday, June 7, 2009
Running Two Blogs
When I took CCK08, we were supposed to create a blog specifically for the course. At the time, I didn't see the point in having two blogs and just added the course material to my personal blog http://ruthdemitroff.blogspot.com It eventually got confusing and I did begin a blog without the personal, family stuff. When CCK08 ended, I didn't realize that I would go on to do CCK09, and my designated blog for Connectivism started crossing the line into the personal. Guess I have a bit of cleanup work to do here.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Susan Boyle, etc. phenomenon
Yoni has put embedded all three videos in one blog post http://bmimedical.blogspot.com/2009/04/if-these-clips-dont-give-you-goose.html - Susan Boyle, Paul Potts and Andrew.
Ozzie Osbourne says we need entertainers to get us through the tough times like the blitz and SARS, etc. At the moment, we have people losing their houses, their jobs, their retirement savings. Since the never-trust-anyone-under-thirty days in the '60s, the message is that if you haven't made your mark by 30, it's just not going to happen. So where does it leave all the people who have found themselves out in the cold? Everyone knows people who have lost a job at 50 and stopped dead in their tracks. It takes courage to go for a job interview. Interview decisions can be made at first glance and there's only a few precious minutes to change someone's first impression. So how do you convince people to get back into the game? Why should they spend the money on the clothes, the hair, transportation if the experience is going to be depressingly hopeless? It certainly isn't a time when we can afford having talented people pulling back and self-eliminating themselves from the marketplace. So what's to be done?
You send in the wounded warriors. What's your excuse? Surely you have as much self confidence as Andrew? You're probably at least as buff as Paul. And you can probably find as much fight inside yourself as Susan has if you just look deeply enough. This is a rally call of the troops. This is essential for the recovery of the suffering and the recovery of the economy.
You probably don't know this but clergy are the one group of professionals that are not chosen based on grades. If theology schools are doing what theology schools are supposed to do, they are looking for healed scars. To be a priest, one is supposed to have experienced woundedness. Who seeks out a priest? Usually not superstars at the top of their game and loving every minute of it. People seek out a priest when they're hurting, when their world is about to collapse. They want someone who understands, who has felt their pain - they want the wounded healer.
In our society, most young people have no experience with the church. Their religion is their music. Who is going to reach them - help through this tough time? Probably not the super-successful, super-beautiful, living-the-good life guys and dolls. They don't have much to offer people feeling like losers. So we're rolling out a new group of entertainers. Yesterday they were a joke but look at them today - they're wowing people. The rules seem to be a changing. Give it another shot. If you have talent, step out of the darkness and put yourself forward.
Ozzie Osbourne says we need entertainers to get us through the tough times like the blitz and SARS, etc. At the moment, we have people losing their houses, their jobs, their retirement savings. Since the never-trust-anyone-under-thirty days in the '60s, the message is that if you haven't made your mark by 30, it's just not going to happen. So where does it leave all the people who have found themselves out in the cold? Everyone knows people who have lost a job at 50 and stopped dead in their tracks. It takes courage to go for a job interview. Interview decisions can be made at first glance and there's only a few precious minutes to change someone's first impression. So how do you convince people to get back into the game? Why should they spend the money on the clothes, the hair, transportation if the experience is going to be depressingly hopeless? It certainly isn't a time when we can afford having talented people pulling back and self-eliminating themselves from the marketplace. So what's to be done?
You send in the wounded warriors. What's your excuse? Surely you have as much self confidence as Andrew? You're probably at least as buff as Paul. And you can probably find as much fight inside yourself as Susan has if you just look deeply enough. This is a rally call of the troops. This is essential for the recovery of the suffering and the recovery of the economy.
You probably don't know this but clergy are the one group of professionals that are not chosen based on grades. If theology schools are doing what theology schools are supposed to do, they are looking for healed scars. To be a priest, one is supposed to have experienced woundedness. Who seeks out a priest? Usually not superstars at the top of their game and loving every minute of it. People seek out a priest when they're hurting, when their world is about to collapse. They want someone who understands, who has felt their pain - they want the wounded healer.
In our society, most young people have no experience with the church. Their religion is their music. Who is going to reach them - help through this tough time? Probably not the super-successful, super-beautiful, living-the-good life guys and dolls. They don't have much to offer people feeling like losers. So we're rolling out a new group of entertainers. Yesterday they were a joke but look at them today - they're wowing people. The rules seem to be a changing. Give it another shot. If you have talent, step out of the darkness and put yourself forward.
Twitter & Facebook
I took a break from blogging to work on my twitter and facebook accounts. It takes a bit of concentrated effort to what should be happening where. Facebook is definitely my personal learning network. It includes people in my friend/relative circle as well as classmates from CCK08 and others I wanted to know in more depth. Twitter is a whole different story. At first I was adding facebook friends but that was unnecessary as they post to both places. On twitter I've added media sources of information, people from #followfriday and people on the internet who interest me. It's a much more distance relationship than facebook because of the much fewer words for interaction. The twitters I follow though are more connected than just being twitters - I read their blogs or watch their shows or find their online articles interesting. There has to be some connection - I'm not collecting or competing for numbers.
Friday, March 20, 2009
The Dangerous Years
My son was told that 27 is a dangerous year in the military. When people turn 30, it's a milestone - a sign that you're not a kid anymore. Maybe it's time to start taking care of yourself. But a 27 year old hasn't reached a warning milestone yet. One acts 20 until turning 30 but the body has 7 years of changes that are being ignored. I remember my 20s as being a time when I felt like I was all potential. Every day I had more skills, could do more, know more than the day before. Marriage and 4 kids later, I lost that confidence, that self-assurance.
The really dangerous period is 57. Even if you've taken really good care of yourself, your genetic weakness are showing. When the kids leave home, people begin to feel younger as their self-image of indispensable, irreplaceable parent dissolves. It's tempting to go back to being 17. The better one looks, the more physically active the lifestyle - the more likely one will fool himself into doing something no 57 year old was meant to do. Sixty is a young senior. Statisticians say if you can make it to 60, you'll most likely be able to make it to 80. So watch the 7 years. They are the ones when the gap between your perception of yourself and reality is wide enough to get your into serious trouble.
The really dangerous period is 57. Even if you've taken really good care of yourself, your genetic weakness are showing. When the kids leave home, people begin to feel younger as their self-image of indispensable, irreplaceable parent dissolves. It's tempting to go back to being 17. The better one looks, the more physically active the lifestyle - the more likely one will fool himself into doing something no 57 year old was meant to do. Sixty is a young senior. Statisticians say if you can make it to 60, you'll most likely be able to make it to 80. So watch the 7 years. They are the ones when the gap between your perception of yourself and reality is wide enough to get your into serious trouble.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
25 Things
I've been tagged by Russel Montgomery
1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I was named after a poem called “What Shall We Name the Baby?”
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? My toughest lesson and the cause of the greatest number of tears was the lesson Dr. Biden is learning. Nobody care who you were once you become the wife of someone in a world that has protocol.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It’s horrible (my lowest elementary school marks were in art & penmenship) – that’s why I take calligraphy classes.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Leftover supper turned into a stir fry. We stopped buying deli meats.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Son 27, son 25, daughter 23, son 22.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I’m not a gal pal – more someone you go to when life hurts.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? No. But I regret freaking out whenever my family did stuff that I thought I’d be judged over. If my kids were in a scrape, I’d always go with them to work out a solution but I really, really hated it when they’d upset someone and then run behind me for protection. For example, the enraged drunk with a hangover who chased the kids home for playing games with his doorbell.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes. My mum was the type who would shed a superfluous body part for a week’s vacation in the hospital. I never put my kids through that.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Never. I’m not convinced that injuries ever really heal. I think they’ll resurface as the body ages and weakens.
10. NAKED? Some women age like the Dove girls – and others of us don’t.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Oatmeal. Most natural foods can be divided into 2 categories – things that can be added to soup and things that can be added to oatmeal. I make the best oatmeal – nuts, seeds, fruits, spices
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No. Black running shoes outside/neon orange dollar store imitation crocs inside.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Whatever I’ve never tried before. I like picking a fruit and having it put through a frozen yoghurt machine.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? I like natural faces. Media type perfect faces in the real world look like masks to me.
15. RED OR PINK... Pink. I’d love it to be red but I can’t carry it off – instead of looking passionate, I look faded. I look best in baby pastels - My husband thinks I am Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty.
16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I never act spontaneously without counting the cost in advance.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Surprisingly my grandfather. When they married my grandfather was 19 and my grandmother was a 27 year old teacher. After I was 55, I realized that he was silently protecting me when I thought he was just passing time swinging the scythe cutting weeds.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? Sure
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black with my florescent orange made in Pakistan crocs
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Blues http://rubyslife.ruby-red.com/
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Best friends (formerly called orchid)
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Coffee to stimulate and Lavender to relax. My favourite cologne – vanilla.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My oldest son – the naval communicator.
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I chose my facebook friends because I found them interesting
1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? I was named after a poem called “What Shall We Name the Baby?”
2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? My toughest lesson and the cause of the greatest number of tears was the lesson Dr. Biden is learning. Nobody care who you were once you become the wife of someone in a world that has protocol.
3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? It’s horrible (my lowest elementary school marks were in art & penmenship) – that’s why I take calligraphy classes.
4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Leftover supper turned into a stir fry. We stopped buying deli meats.
5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? Son 27, son 25, daughter 23, son 22.
6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON, WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? I’m not a gal pal – more someone you go to when life hurts.
7. DO YOU USE SARCASM? No. But I regret freaking out whenever my family did stuff that I thought I’d be judged over. If my kids were in a scrape, I’d always go with them to work out a solution but I really, really hated it when they’d upset someone and then run behind me for protection. For example, the enraged drunk with a hangover who chased the kids home for playing games with his doorbell.
8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Yes. My mum was the type who would shed a superfluous body part for a week’s vacation in the hospital. I never put my kids through that.
9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Never. I’m not convinced that injuries ever really heal. I think they’ll resurface as the body ages and weakens.
10. NAKED? Some women age like the Dove girls – and others of us don’t.
10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Oatmeal. Most natural foods can be divided into 2 categories – things that can be added to soup and things that can be added to oatmeal. I make the best oatmeal – nuts, seeds, fruits, spices
11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? No. Black running shoes outside/neon orange dollar store imitation crocs inside.
13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Whatever I’ve never tried before. I like picking a fruit and having it put through a frozen yoghurt machine.
14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? I like natural faces. Media type perfect faces in the real world look like masks to me.
15. RED OR PINK... Pink. I’d love it to be red but I can’t carry it off – instead of looking passionate, I look faded. I look best in baby pastels - My husband thinks I am Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty.
16. WHAT IS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I never act spontaneously without counting the cost in advance.
17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? Surprisingly my grandfather. When they married my grandfather was 19 and my grandmother was a 27 year old teacher. After I was 55, I realized that he was silently protecting me when I thought he was just passing time swinging the scythe cutting weeds.
18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO COMPLETE THIS LIST? Sure
19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black with my florescent orange made in Pakistan crocs
21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Blues http://rubyslife.ruby-red.com/
22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Best friends (formerly called orchid)
23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Coffee to stimulate and Lavender to relax. My favourite cologne – vanilla.
24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? My oldest son – the naval communicator.
25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? I chose my facebook friends because I found them interesting
Monday, February 2, 2009
Facebook Privacy Settings
I'm posting the link to Ten Privacy Settings Facebook Users Should Know
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/
because everyone on facebook should know their options and some day I hope to get around to deciding which options matter to me.
Lucky for me, I'm from the film generation. While I am sure some of my friends may have had cameras when we were young, I'm pretty sure no one remembered to bring one to a campus party. If they did, I'm also pretty sure that spending money to have pictures developed was not at the top of anyone's priority list.
Digital cameras has changed things but far too late to be of much concern to me.
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/
because everyone on facebook should know their options and some day I hope to get around to deciding which options matter to me.
Lucky for me, I'm from the film generation. While I am sure some of my friends may have had cameras when we were young, I'm pretty sure no one remembered to bring one to a campus party. If they did, I'm also pretty sure that spending money to have pictures developed was not at the top of anyone's priority list.
Digital cameras has changed things but far too late to be of much concern to me.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Games Of Chance
The plinky question for today is what would you do with the money if you won a thousand dollars. I didn't answer the question because I'm not allowed to win a thousand dollars. The church considers lottery tickets an unfair tax on the poor and the vulnerable. When I've bought 50/50 tickets to support some cause, I have always given back my half of the winnings to the organization. There's no possibility that I will ever be shouting with joy because my ship came in.
Sometimes I have mixed feelings about the lottery rule. Would the world have ended if I had a day in my life where I did something crazy with a windfall? Is it really so noble to plod along with neither highs nor lows? Was it so necessary to always be saving for the next expense - the next move, the next car repair, the next loss? Was it really virtue to be so different - so set apart - so repressed?
Sometimes I have mixed feelings about the lottery rule. Would the world have ended if I had a day in my life where I did something crazy with a windfall? Is it really so noble to plod along with neither highs nor lows? Was it so necessary to always be saving for the next expense - the next move, the next car repair, the next loss? Was it really virtue to be so different - so set apart - so repressed?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
