September 2008 Archives

Canadian Voices on Copyright

The coalition of artists, Canadian Music Creators Coalition, notes three principles for copyright legislation. These principals help change to focus to artists and culture.

On behalf of production studios, this open letter, "Studio Manifesto," again places emphasis on artists and culture as opposed to corporate recording labels and this is the crucial dimension mission in public discussion about copyright.

Power in Houston

I still don't have electricity. Water and food are ok so am ok. But families with small children are having a rough time and I think the solution is providing small generators to them, those with infants and very small children.

All major news outlets say that by this Thursday almost all of Houston will have electricity. I sure hope so. Rick Casey, who used to write for the National Catholic Reporter, writes a column for the Houston Chronicle where he identifies the energy companies as responsible for the power outage being so massive. He writes that after Rita, three years ago, lawmakers and citizens pushed for a revamping of our power grid, but the lobbyists of the power companies squelched the move. Now we have this.

Internet and Molecular Nature

After my brief travel to the Netherlands for a conference that I can say was among the most personally moving, fun, enriching and spiritually awakening, I return to Houston to no electricity and therefore my Internet access will be limited. I'll walk to a hospital that is about 45 blocks from my office and log on using a wifi in one of the cafes, but my blog will have to remain silent until my area of Houston gets back electrical power. But I did not need the Internet to make friends at the Netherlands conference where bodily presence, sensations with body, molecular presence, was at its height.

In Houston now, ....we've got plenty of the electrical energy,..human power., molecular, that is holding all of us together.....smiles and hugs.

In Amsterdam for a conference, the evening meal conversation turned to Slovekia and the rapidly changing society there. This change is due to globalization, making the pace more rapid and providing more options in life. At the meal we wondered if it will change romance and love.

I write this because it points out how media is now the web or fabri of society and thus it colors the cohesion and coherence of a society, affecting the friendships that are possible and also affecting the ability to love.

My newly-found friend, 35-year old from Slovekia, told me that he married his high-school sweetheart whom he first laid eyes on at the age of 15. He saw her from afar as she boarded a bus and knew instinctively that she was the one love for him. After some investigation, he found out who she was and where she lived.

He showed up at her house, a complete stranger, knocked on her door and when it opened, there she was. (I wonder what would have happened if the parents had answered the door!) He unabashedly told her that he wanted to be her "real," "special" friend, not just a regular friend and that he wanted to start seeing her regularly. She replied that she needed 2 weeks to think about this proposal.

After two weeks, she said yes, and they began seeing each other. They married five years later, he was 20, and now they are celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. He says that love led the way and that there is never any doubt when that happens, if one is aware. He lives his life believing in romance.
And yet he senses that life in his small town in Slovekia has changed, become more rapid and more complex from that time not so long ago. Would he do now what he did then?

My sense is that Globalization is alive with Romance.
am

hunkering down

Hurricane Ike is headed right to us in Galveston/Houston. We have decided to stay here because predictions are that we'll be able to survive the flooding and 100+ winds. Parts of Houston were evacuated but where we live is not in a zone of mandatory evacuation.

My niece is managing a hotel that is not (hopefully) where the bayous or lakes will flood us, so Richard and I are going to spend the night there, hoping for the best. How important family is. We've got water and food and each other.

Oh, no!!!

Today as I drove from San Antonio to Houston on I-10 my body cringed as I saw the bumper-to-bumper trafffic headed out of Houston toward San Antonio. Three years ago I was in one of those cars, a disastrous evacuation. this year it's a lot better. But we're staying in Houston.

For my newly found friends at Catholic Relief Services Southwest, here's the powerpoint presentation that shows one easy way to reduce the size of images so that they can be emailed more easily or utilized in slide presentations. ImageResizeTutorial.ppsx was written by Alberto Pigola in Montevideo, Uruguay.

today the staff was talking about the ways that new technologies and espeically social media " make more work? when they are approached as an addition to existsing daily tasks. The desired outcome is that new technologies enhance and enrich the existing daily task, making us more productive, better related to our friends and collaborators.

Automated Confession

Hello to my friends at Catholic Relief Services Southwest, whose work I'm coming to learn about by browsing the videos on the CRS website.

Check out this short video, Automated Confession, an example of how the Catholic church can use technology!

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This page is an archive of entries from September 2008 listed from newest to oldest.

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