Here’s to New Beginnings!

I am very excited to join the team at the Canadian Red Cross. October first marks my first day on the job, and a new chapter in my career. I’m tremendously proud of all the companies I worked for in the arts and culture sector, and I feel particularly fortunate to add such an honorable group to that list.

I’m very fortunate that Alana Savage at McNeill Nakamoto believed my skills in non-profit management were transferable to the Red Cross, and I’m especially fortunate that my new boss, Kimberley Nemrava, thought so too. I always thought they would too, and look forward to trying them out.

Besides, there’s a little bit of fate at work too.

Once I left the opera, I did some searching on what I might do next (while I had the great opportunity to do some consulting to help pay the bills). What I found was that I wanted to engage with vulnerable persons and communities in an attempt to make their lives, and this world, a better place. Following my personal desire to see an end to human trafficking, I took the opportunity to volunteer in that area with some great organizations.

I decided I’d also do something personal and took a first aid course through the Red Cross. I was so pleased on my last day that I actually said to myself on the way home, “Man, I’d love to work for that organization.” And immediately after coming home to do my daily online job search – what should appear, but this job with the Red Cross!

Sometimes things work out for a reason, and I’d like to think that the proper things all aligned to bring me to this point. Little did I know (although I hoped) when I began this ninety-night blog challenge that I’d find such a great place to serve. I feel blessed by this opportunity and am determined to make the most of it.

This is the kind of thing that makes me feel alive – that sense of “Well, this should be interesting…..”

excited!

Stay tuned.

[This is night forty-four of my ninety-night blog challenge]

I think I may have had too much caffeine today.

I think I may have had too much caffeine today. Did you ever get to the point where you could hear someone breathing? I swear, ‘The Telltale Heart’ is the story of a man w/too much caffeine in his veins.

Did you ever get that sense (pun intended) that you had hyper-sensitive hearing, or smell, or taste, or sight for a little while? I had that this afternoon, where I could not turn down my hearing it seemed. Funny thing is, I don’t have particularly good hearing to begin with and regularly suffer from mild tinnitus. I have it right now, as a matter of fact. Probably just my ears over-compensating for the fact that I put on headphones, then didn’t pump any music through them.

Not kidding, I can hear the cars on the street two blocks away – with these headphones on. Let’s take them off and listen for a minute, shall we?

I can hear a tv playing across the street. I also hear their baby fussing – but not too badly. Can totally hear the cars. I can hear a kid walking down the street a half block or so away, he’s chewing bubble gum. I can hear him popping it. I hear an airplane overhead but I can’t see it. I hear the fan of the ceiling fan in the bedroom at the other end of the hall. I hear the hum of the fridge in the next room. I can hear this laptop drive – no fan yet as I’m sitting by the open window. And I hear that ringing in my ears.

Note to self: don’t drink the off-brand root beer in the back of the fridge.

On seeing the 100% perfect girl one beautiful April morning

One beautiful April morning, on a narrow side street in Tokyo’s fashionable Harujuku neighborhood, I walked past the 100% perfect girl.

Tell you the truth, she’s not that good-looking. She doesn’t stand out in any way. Her clothes are nothing special. The back of her hair is still bent out of shape from sleep. She isn’t young, either – must be near thirty, not even close to a “girl,” properly speaking. But still, I know from fifty yards away: She’s the 100% perfect girl for me. The moment I see her, there’s a rumbling in my chest, and my mouth is as dry as a desert.

Maybe you have your own particular favorite type of girl – one with slim ankles, say, or big eyes, or graceful fingers, or you’re drawn for no good reason to girls who take their time with every meal. I have my own preferences, of course. Sometimes in a restaurant I’ll catch myself staring at the girl at the next table to mine because I like the shape of her nose.

But no one can insist that his 100% perfect girl correspond to some preconceived type. Much as I like noses, I can’t recall the shape of hers – or even if she had one. All I can remember for sure is that she was no great beauty. It’s weird.

“Yesterday on the street I passed the 100% girl,” I tell someone.

“Yeah?” he says. “Good-looking?”

“Not really.”

“Your favorite type, then?”

“I don’t know. I can’t seem to remember anything about her – the shape of her eyes or the size of her breasts.”

“Strange.”

“Yeah. Strange.”

“So anyhow,” he says, already bored, “what did you do? Talk to her? Follow her?”

“Nah. Just passed her on the street.”

She’s walking east to west, and I west to east. It’s a really nice April morning.

Wish I could talk to her. Half an hour would be plenty: just ask her about herself, tell her about myself, and – what I’d really like to do – explain to her the complexities of fate that have led to our passing each other on a side street in Harajuku on a beautiful April morning in 1981. This was something sure to be crammed full of warm secrets, like an antique clock build when peace filled the world.

After talking, we’d have lunch somewhere, maybe see a Woody Allen movie, stop by a hotel bar for cocktails. With any kind of luck, we might end up in bed.

Potentiality knocks on the door of my heart.

Now the distance between us has narrowed to fifteen yards.

How can I approach her? What should I say?

“Good morning, miss. Do you think you could spare half an hour for a little conversation?”

Ridiculous. I’d sound like an insurance salesman.

“Pardon me, but would you happen to know if there is an all-night cleaners in the neighborhood?”

No, this is just as ridiculous. I’m not carrying any laundry, for one thing. Who’s going to buy a line like that?

Maybe the simple truth would do. “Good morning. You are the 100% perfect girl for me.”

No, she wouldn’t believe it. Or even if she did, she might not want to talk to me. Sorry, she could say, I might be the 100% perfect girl for you, but you’re not the 100% boy for me. It could happen. And if I found myself in that situation, I’d probably go to pieces. I’d never recover from the shock. I’m thirty-two, and that’s what growing older is all about.

We pass in front of a flower shop. A small, warm air mass touches my skin. The asphalt is damp, and I catch the scent of roses. I can’t bring myself to speak to her. She wears a white sweater, and in her right hand she holds a crisp white envelope lacking only a stamp. So: She’s written somebody a letter, maybe spent the whole night writing, to judge from the sleepy look in her eyes. The envelope could contain every secret she’s ever had.

I take a few more strides and turn: She’s lost in the crowd.

Now, of course, I know exactly what I should have said to her. It would have been a long speech, though, far too long for me to have delivered it properly. The ideas I come up with are never very practical.

Oh, well. It would have started “Once upon a time” and ended “A sad story, don’t you think?”

Once upon a time, there lived a boy and a girl. The boy was eighteen and the girl sixteen. He was not unusually handsome, and she was not especially beautiful. They were just an ordinary lonely boy and an ordinary lonely girl, like all the others. But they believed with their whole hearts that somewhere in the world there lived the 100% perfect boy and the 100% perfect girl for them. Yes, they believed in a miracle. And that miracle actually happened.

One day the two came upon each other on the corner of a street.

“This is amazing,” he said. “I’ve been looking for you all my life. You may not believe this, but you’re the 100% perfect girl for me.”

“And you,” she said to him, “are the 100% perfect boy for me, exactly as I’d pictured you in every detail. It’s like a dream.”

They sat on a park bench, held hands, and told each other their stories hour after hour. They were not lonely anymore. They had found and been found by their 100% perfect other. What a wonderful thing it is to find and be found by your 100% perfect other. It’s a miracle, a cosmic miracle.

As they sat and talked, however, a tiny, tiny sliver of doubt took root in their hearts: Was it really all right for one’s dreams to come true so easily?

And so, when there came a momentary lull in their conversation, the boy said to the girl, “Let’s test ourselves – just once. If we really are each other’s 100% perfect lovers, then sometime, somewhere, we will meet again without fail. And when that happens, and we know that we are the 100% perfect ones, we’ll marry then and there. What do you think?”

“Yes,” she said, “that is exactly what we should do.”

And so they parted, she to the east, and he to the west.

The test they had agreed upon, however, was utterly unnecessary. They should never have undertaken it, because they really and truly were each other’s 100% perfect lovers, and it was a miracle that they had ever met. But it was impossible for them to know this, young as they were. The cold, indifferent waves of fate proceeded to toss them unmercifully.

One winter, both the boy and the girl came down with the season’s terrible inluenza, and after drifting for weeks between life and death they lost all memory of their earlier years. When they awoke, their heads were as empty as the young D. H. Lawrence’s piggy bank.

They were two bright, determined young people, however, and through their unremitting efforts they were able to acquire once again the knowledge and feeling that qualified them to return as full-fledged members of society. Heaven be praised, they became truly upstanding citizens who knew how to transfer from one subway line to another, who were fully capable of sending a special-delivery letter at the post office. Indeed, they even experienced love again, sometimes as much as 75% or even 85% love.

Time passed with shocking swiftness, and soon the boy was thirty-two, the girl thirty.

One beautiful April morning, in search of a cup of coffee to start the day, the boy was walking from west to east, while the girl, intending to send a special-delivery letter, was walking from east to west, but along the same narrow street in the Harajuku neighborhood of Tokyo. They passed each other in the very center of the street. The faintest gleam of their lost memories glimmered for the briefest moment in their hearts. Each felt a rumbling in their chest. And they knew:

She is the 100% perfect girl for me.

He is the 100% perfect boy for me.

But the glow of their memories was far too weak, and their thoughts no longer had the clarity of fouteen years earlier. Without a word, they passed each other, disappearing into the crowd. Forever.

A sad story, don’t you think?

Yes, that’s it, that is what I should have said to her.

~Haruki Murakami

To Build A Home

Out in the garden where we planted the seeds
There is a tree that’s old as me
By the cracks of the skin I climbed to the top
I climbed the tree to see the world
When the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
I held on as tightly as you held onto me

God, what a beautiful song…this is the kind of music that makes me want to play again…

Unbreakable Umbrella

I collect umbrellas. One day I realized I didn’t really collect anything, and so I figured since I live in Vancouver, BC where it rains 300 days a year (or at least seems to) that umbrellas might be a good thing to collect. The latest addition to my collection is The Unbreakable Walking-Stick Umbrella from Never-Thought-Of-It-Enterprises.

I ordered this mainly because I tend to break umbrellas, or have them broken for me by my minions, and I had just “lost” one of my favorites prior to stumbling upon the ad again. So how does this bad boy stack up? Pretty well, I must admit.

Produced as a self-defense tool, this umbrella is made from heavier than typical gauge metal and is notably reinforced along the “ribs” in one of the better designed arrays I’ve seen. Check this out:

My tests have not been as extreme, but I can say that this puppy held up just fine to my beating and would be a handy thing to have — just in case. Certainly in the hands of a person trained to defend themselves, this would be an incredibly useful tool. It has the additional benefit of not being a weapon. It is a fully functional, completely normal umbrella, just one that is particularly well-made. Top marks for design and utility.

Say Anything

I just like Aimee Mann. I adored her when she was in ‘Til Tuesday, lost track of her until after her Academy Award nominated work on Magnolia, and just circled back around to her recently. She seems incredibly talented.

And I needed a break from posting anything serious tonight. I hope you enjoy the song and will look further into her current work.

Math Is Hard For Musicians

She's a drummer

Musicnotes.com is running a scam right now I’d like you to know about. My nine-year-old daughter and her friend figured it out at the kitchen table over lunch. So we’re passing it along to you!

Musicnotes.com is a great little website where you can download and print sheet music for a reasonable price. I recently added it to my online shopping experience and found it worked like a charm. But apparently they think musicians are stupid and/or can’t do beyond Grade 3 Maths. Here’s the scam…err…promotion: See it here

Or if you don’t want to click the link, here’s the critical information:

Save 10% On Every Digital Sheet Music Purchase for a Year

… plus get a free sheet music portfolio!

For only $14.95 a year, you’ll receive:

10% off every digital sheet music, Guitar Guru, digital sheet music portfolio and portfolio refill purchase for a full year.
Our e-newsletter containing notices of special offers for members-only.
A complimentary digital sheet music portfolio with 12 pages of inserts (a $7.95 value) for storage and protection of your digital sheet music.

Pretty straight-forward, eh? You pay $15 and get 10% all purchases of music for a year (plus some crap you’ll never use). Well, that didn’t seem like such a great deal to my daughter and her friend. “You gotta pay to get a discount? But, but, what’s the point?” they said. “Like, didn’t you just pay them a bunch of money in order for them to give you some back? That doesn’t make any sense!”

So I challenged them. I explained the “discount membership club” idea to them by saying that not everybody would get the discount, and they could imagine it was like paying $15 up front, and getting that money back a little bit at a time each time they bought something. The deal was that at some point they will get all their money back, and maybe a little bit extra if they kept buying stuff.

I asked them to figure out how long it would take them, or rather how many things they would have to buy in order to earn back $15. We went on to the company website and picked two songs at random to come up with an average cost for a song’s sheet music. That came out to $5.

So here’s the value of your variables:
$15 – annual membership
10% – discount on purchase
$5 – cost of piece (sheet music) without discount
$4.50 – cost of piece with discount

So how many pieces do you have to buy to earn $15? >>>>>>>>>>> 30 <<<<<<<<<<

So my daughter said, “So if I pay $15 to be a member and she (her friend) doesn’t, and we both buy 30 pieces of music, we both end up paying the same amount?”

Yes, I said. In fact, if you don’t buy at least 30 pieces of music, you end up paying more than your friend who didn’t join the club, I added. I pointed out the cost of the membership is always there.

“Forget that!” she exclaimed, and they walked away laughing.

So I wondered, what happens if you by 31 pieces? Surely you start coming out ahead, right? Yes, you get a 10% discount, whereas your friend does not. But that’s not actually true Watch:

31 pieces x $5 = $155
31 pieces x $4.50 + $15 membership = $154.50
You saved $0.50 alright. You saved it on $155 of purchases. That’s a whopping 0.3%

So I wondered, how many pieces do you have to buy to actually get a 10% discount on your total purchases including the membership?

600 pieces of music. A total purchase of $2,715.00

See:

600 pieces of music at a 10% discount, so at $4.50 = $2,700 + $15 membership = $2,715
versus
600 pieces of music at $5.00 = $3,000
so
$3,000 – $2,715 = $285
and
$285/$3,000 = 9.5%

But let’s round up in Musicnotes.com’s favor.

Don’t believe me? Try the same math with 599 pieces…

If memberships were $10:
I’d have to purchase 365 pieces of music a year to realize a 10% overall discount – one piece every day for a year.
That’s $1,652.50 per customer at $5 a pop.

If memberships were $5:
I would have to purchase 15 pieces a month (plus one more at some point in the year) to get that 10% discount.
There’s $815 per person.

If memberships were $1:
I’d need to purchase 52 pieces of music to really get a 10% overall discount – one piece a week for a year.
That’s about $235 per “member”.

So here’s my question:

Why not make memberships $1 and try to get poor musicians to first buy a piece a week before trying to set up a scam where they cannot possibly come out ahead until they spend $2,715?!?

I don’t know about you, but the way this is set up now, just feels like ripping off the poor, which is despicable.

Happiness is Peeling Potatoes

“Goallessness is an admirable and necessary attribute in the Daoist vision of freedom. Which does not mean, of course, that we are to be goalless. It means that we have the kind of detachment from our goals which denies them the substantiality by which they would otherwise rob of us of immediacy and spontaneity. This moment is not a means to an end, but uniquely special in itself. Living here and now, one does not sacrifice the moment to the future. One may peel potatoes to have a dinner, but while peeling potatoes, that is what one does — and enjoys.”

Today I “peeled potatoes”, and I was happy. Things did not bend to my will, nor was everyone I came in contact with happy. But my day was great, and in what I did — I was happy.

May the next 24 hours of your life be the same.

Note: [this entry is part of a ninety night blog challenge I've given myself. This is Night Thirty-seven.]

To Strive Is To Fail

“Strive for the Effortless” – Lao Tzu

I was reminded to day not to try so hard. It is off-putting and “slick” and not real; it is not really “me”. This is an ongoing challenge for me, and one which has had real implications in my professional life.

This is the part where I either attempt some explanation or share some revelation. But I got nothin’.
I know I do it when I’m nervous and think the performance/presentation is really important.
I “think” I’m being “professional”. And I recall that I’m rarely satisfied with my performance afterwards.
And I rush. And I talk fast. And I can get smarmy or hammy. And I feel that I have to prove that I know what I’m talking about. And I’m sure that has some psychological basis.

But I’m not smart enough to figure that out.

So I’ll just try to “strive for the effortless”

or in the words of another immortal sage:

“No! Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”

Be the Eye of the Storm

Tao Te Ching
Verse 16

ATTAIN to utmost Emptiness.
Cling single-heartedly to interior peace.
While all things are stirring together,
I only contemplate the Return.
For flourishing as they do,
Each of them will return to its root.
To return to the root is to find peace.
To find peace is to fulfill one’s destiny.
To fulfill one’s destiny is to be constant.
To know the Constant is called Insight.

If one does not know the Constant,
One runs blindly into disasters.
If one knows the Constant,
One can understand and embrace all.
If one understands and embraces all,
One is capable of doing justice.
To be just is to be kingly;
To be kingly is to be heavenly;
To be heavenly is to be one with the Tao;
To be one with the Tao is to abide forever.
Such a one will be safe and whole
Even after the dissolution of his body.

I turned to the Tao today when contemplating the chaos in my life. I’m moving through some changes professionally right now which are good, but chaotic at the moment. I took multiple opportunities today to retreat, regroup, and refocus on what really matters.

I realized that “persistent patience” which I practice is just a modification of anxiety. I am anxious at the threshold of a new thing and this is how I have dealt with it in the past. I found today that it was allowing me to cling to my old ways of doing things, to attempt to control the outcome and the pacing of events in my life over which I have no control.

Far better, I realized, to be thankful for the changes occurring and allow them to unfold of their own accord.

It was not until the end of the day when I decided to sit down and write something, that I consulted the Tao Te Ching for the next verse I am interpreting for an unrelated project. Lo and behold it was a verse pertinent to today’s exercise in letting go.

I'm a big fan of the lying down posture.

Time

Oh Hai, this is my 300th post, WordPress tells me. Time does feel like this to me.

Lord of the Flies Meets Children of the Corn

I made it. Through the day I mean. Holy cow.

Soccer game for my daughter. First game ever for her. She scores a goal. She wins player of the week. I am so proud of her. This is a great thing for her, as she was quite nervous about being less experienced than the other players on the team, all of whom are classmates of hers, and all of whom have played for a year or more before her. So really, I’m just very happy for her.

Then, a birthday party for my son. He’s six now, and had all his friends over to the house this afternoon for a party. An “Angry Birds” Party. Chaos reigned. We made angry bird masks, we played toss the bird into the nest, we played bash the pig. We could have played three more games. These kids make “Life in the Fast Lane” look like a slow waltz at a retirement home.

The grand finale was a full-scale live-action Angry Birds game. I made a wall out of various sized cardboard packing boxes and decorated some with artwork of pigs from the game. I downloaded coloring book pages from the game and printed them on full sheet labels. The kids and I colored them, cut them out and affixed them to selected boxes.

I set up the wall just behind the inside of the garage door. I also downloaded the game music to my Ipad and hooked it up the speakers we have in the garage for our garage band practices (the kids have a band). It made for a nice reveal when I opened the garage door. The kids were notably underwhelmed.

Then I strung “Theraband” exercise elastic bands between the posts of the carport, so we could use them as a catapult.

It sounds better than it was. The catapult was wonky, the kids mostly shot squibs into the dirt, and the boxes were too hard to knock over. We ended up kicking the balls. Kids were getting all wound up, some were dodging the balls from behind the wall, others were pushing and shoving to be next, and still others were chasing each other around the yard. We even had to stop a couple from wandering into the street. Seriously! What is the bloody appeal of blacktop to small children?

Oh yeah, the balls. I took beach balls, you know those rubber/plastic ones that you don’t have to blow up? Yeah, so I took those and ran off coloring book pages onto full page avery labels, hand colored them, cut them out, and adhered them to the balls. Those worked great.

It turned out to be a pretty stupid idea. It’s lucky nobody got brained. One little girl did manage to fall and scrape her knee, which kind of puts a damper on the whole thing. Most kids narrowly avoided getting blasted in the face by one of the balls, or beaned by a falling cardboard box.

Oh, and I’m in way over my head with 12-15 six year olds. I could barely keep track of them, and those little Shatners just do whatever the hell they want. Seriously! At more than one point, kids just walked out the front door! Where the hell were they going?!? I have no idea. My wife, who was already exhausted after shooting a wedding all the prior day, was just barely patient enough with me to not completely fuckin’ strangle me.

Seriously, someone should just organize a medal or a sainthood for her now.

I’d say, we barely escaped liability. But now that I think of it, that’s a hallmark of a pretty kick-ass party, right?
It’s like when you say “Holy crap, I can’t believe we did that! That was awesome and stupid and I’m never doing that again!”

It was like if the boys in Lord of the Flies threw a birthday party with the Children of the Corn…..

OMG I am so glad THAT’S Over! I’ve never been so happy to see a Monday arrive!

Note: [this entry is part of a ninety night blog challenge I've given myself. This is Night Thirty-three.]

Secret Mission

So I had a secret mission yesterday to The Island. Twelve hours later I was back a home like nothing happened. I think that’s cool. Here are some hidden pictures:

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It’s quite nice to go over on the ferry. It’s huge. Like a floating airport gate waiting area.

Sorry, nothing deep and meaningful today. Spent most of the day putting together a life-sized, live-action “Angry Birds” game for my son’s sixth birthday party tomorrow. It is pretty cool. Hope the kids like it. Pics tomorrow if I survive.

Hasta la Vista.

Intacto

An enigmatic tale of four people whose lives are intertwined by destiny are subject to the laws of fate. They discover that luck is something they cannot afford to be without as they gamble with the highest stakes possible in a deadly game from which only one of them will emerge intact. There is Tomas, a young thief and the sole survivor of a horrific plane crash; Federico, who survived a massive earthquake and discovered he has the power to rob those around him of their good fortune with a touch; Sam, a casino owner who is the ultimate survivor after losing everything but his own life in the terrible conflagration that enveloped Europe during the Second World War; and Sara, a policewoman who walked away from a car crash that killed her family and becomes obsessed with uncovering the truth behind a clandestine gambling ring where death and luck intermingle.

This is one of favorite movies. It tackles the idea of what ‘luck’ and ‘good fortune’ mean in a scientific, modern world. It also has one of the best scenes I’ve witnessed in film:

And it has one of my favorite performances by Max von Sydow.

Intacto is written and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnado, who later went on to direct 28 Weeks Later.

Which is all just a long way to saying his new movie Intruders (out in October 2011) is likely to be a real thriller.
Watch the trailer here

Due Diligence

So let’s say you are a potential donor to a non-profit, or perhaps a potential senior executive hire for said non-profit. You’ll want to do due diligence before committing either your time, talent, or treasure to the company. Here’s some things you might want to look into:

1. What is the organizational plan for success? Literally. Where’s the strat plan and does it have any passing semblance of reality in the office? You know the old saying, “If you don’t know where you want to go, it doesn’t matter which way you head.”

2. Are the key stakeholders clear on the plan (see above) and who’s supposed to be doing what (including them)? I’ve got a new saying, “If we can’t agree on who’s driving the bus, we’re not getting out of the parking lot.”

3. Um, what are the deliverables? You know, what’s supposed to be happening that indicates we’re heading in the right direction? Can someone finish the sentence, “We’re know we’re doing well because…..”

4. Related to the above, what metrics are being tracked? This is more a test of what kind of information is coming into the company on a regular basis. Are the “senses” of the company being used? Are they paying attention to the right information? Time to ask for reports, studies, demographics.

5. Hey, I don’t want to forget some of the obvious: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow projections, last three years of audits, budgets out as far as possible, schedule of board oversight and management reporting. I just sort of figured you’d know that.

6. How strong is the leadership? How well designed is the corporate structure? How good is the leader’s team? Is there a succession plan in place for Board leadership and executive leadership? How engaged is the governance structure? Is it properly engaged (in governance), in operations, or in something else altogether (like throwing fundraising events)?Who would step in if there was rapid change at the top?

7. Ask around, up, and down. Don’t rely on unconfirmed single sources of information. Talk to customers, competitors, favorite sons, and black sheep. If possible, talk to people at various levels of staff and at various levels of engagement with the company as volunteers, donors, patrons, etc. The level of discretion you need to exercise is in itself an indication of the culture of the company (or at least your market).

8. Use the web. What kind of reputation does the company have in the general public, among heavily invested stakeholders, or within its own industry? Is this a company with which you want your time, talent and treasure associated?

9. What do the watchdogs say? Use third parties: rating agencies; other major funders; or any organization (public or private) that acts as a “seal of approval” for companies in the industry.

10. How comfortable are you personally? My number ten on this list is purposefully vague. What does your gut tell you? What is the corporate culture like? More importantly does it match your preferences? Some people like a rigid hierarchy and some like the hippie commune feel. Both can work, you just need to determine if it works for you.

Hat tip to Salvatore LaSpada at the Institute for Philanthropy and George Bradt and his team at Primegenesis for most of this information. Any bastardization, omissions or misunderstandings are mine alone.

I Cry Foul

There was a story in the local paper today that a major national charity admitted to fabricating stories it used in its fundraising solicitation documents. The fake stories were about how donors had created innovative ways to raise and donate money to the charity. [Click here for the story]

Fortunately the story is getting no traction for the charity, in part I suspect because of its national good will and in part because the charity has admitted quickly and completely.

I kind of have a problem with this. I think it is a breach of trust. I think the person responsible should resign or be fired.

I believe that charitable organizations operate in the public trust. That last word there is key. If the public cannot trust the charitable sector to act in a transparent, honest manner, then it undermines not only the offending organization, but the entire sector.

As one of the highest rated comments posted said, “We cannot even trust charities these days.”

I for one cry foul.

UPDATED: 14/9/11 w/fixed broken link

Fear Will Never Succeed

I just want to say that a nation motivated by fear will never succeed. It is only through compassion for our fellow man and a belief that we are greater than the sum of our parts that will raise us up. We are not the sum total of our experiences, we are the sum total of our aspirations…for peace, justice, and opportunity.

It is said that compassion is a weakness, but I agree with those who say it is compassion that separates us from those who would prey on the fearful.

Fear can turn to anger or compassion. The path of anger leads to violence, retribution, vengeance and death.
The path of compassion leads to peace, hope, thankfulness and life.

I have fear. I use it to fuel my compassion to build a better world wherein my fears are misplaced.
I learned in business that you cannot fire your problems. They only reappear in another form.
I feel the same is true with fear. You cannot fight fear with violence. It only reappears in another form.

If you raise men to be fearful, they will strike at you the first chance they get.
If you raise men to be compassionate, they will lift you up the first time you fall.

Note: [this entry is part of a ninety night blog challenge I've given myself. This is Night Twenty-eight.]

It’s Good To Be Six

Just a few notes to keep my promise of blogging for ninety days.

Today was my son’s sixth birthday. It’s good to be six, and let your emotions ride freely. He reminds me of what joy looks like. He surely wears his heart on his sleeve, and loves freely, without expectation. He still lives in a world where he can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t love him.

And for that I am proud and glad for him.

I love you little buddy. You make we want to be the best daddy in the world. I promise I’ll try.
You just keep being your adorable self. Thank you for coming into our lives.

Geek Axioms

Some things that all geeks can agree on:

1. Han shot first.
2. Vampires do not sparkle.
3. Video games are art.
4. Lego makes the best toys in the world.
5. Batman is much cooler than Superman.
6. Zombies are coming for you.
7. Always check for traps.
8. Do or Do Not, There Is No Try.
9. Everything is better with Muppets.
10. Don’t Panic & Bring a Towel.

Inspired by “The Top 10 Geek Axioms” on Wired

Social Insurance

Instead of paying into an insurance plan you’ll never use or will never pay out to you anyway, what if you made a donation to the local food bank? You know, sort of like making an insurance payment in case you ever needed it yourself?

download poster here:
A9R9925

I’m OK, How Are You?

Stop and notice that you’re OK right now.

Nobody is attacking you. You’re not on fire. There’s no tsunami coming.
You had enough to eat today. You have clothes and shelter.

For a too large percentage of humanity, this is not the case.
So on Friday, I’d like you to join me in doing the following:

1. Find a person in need.
2. Help them.

That’s it. I don’t care how you do it or who it is; if you do it directly or through a third party.
Just help somebody who is NOT OK, have an OK day.

Because for too many people, an OK day — “just OK” would be a blessing.

Gentlemen, Behave

Boys, could we please dispense with the leering, jeering, hovering, cat-calling, and “chick” joking? Please? I think I saw it all, and just a few minutes ago, it pushed me over the edge.

Downtown today I heard/saw a “whoop!All right….” directed at a young woman.

I got to hear about someone getting hit on in a bar, when she was obviously working on her laptop, and not just once.

And how I got the “chick” joke blasted through my twitter feed.

Maybe I’m noticing more because of my age, because I’m seriously trying not to be creepy. Today stuck in traffic, I looked over to the lane next to me, made eye contact with the driver (a woman) and smiled like “Ah, stuck again…”

I quickly looked away and thought, “oh crap, now she thinks I’m creepy”. I never looked back.

So lemme see if I can come up with some tips:
1. Personal space is about half a meter, or just under 2 feet. A little less than arms length. If you can comfortably put your hand on her shoulder (don’t), you’re in her personal space. Back off.

2. She didn’t dress for you. Shocking as it may seem, she didn’t get up today and think “hmmmm…how can I get oogled today?” Words come out of her face, boys. Want to impress? Maintain eye contact. Instead of trying to figure out her cup size, figure out her eye colour.

3. Unless you are Tim Gunn she does not care what you think of her clothes. There is no upside to commenting on them.

4. The phrase “Nice….”, unless followed by the word “purse” or “Harley” is going to get you nowhere.

5. Here’s the big one: Thanks to feminism, it’s now safe to assume that she’s a “big girl” and perfectly capable of indicating if she’d like your help/attention/opinion. Trust me, she’s not “shy”. The shy ones are at home.

Look dude, some of us are just trying to get through the day without making an ass of themselves. Don’t make things harder by going out of your way to be one.

Note: [this entry is part of a ninety night blog challenge I've given myself. This is Night Twenty-three.]

Little Boat

So just watch this and see if you feel, I dunno, calm after watching it.

Little Boat from nelson boles on Vimeo.

It makes me feel like “everything will be alright”.

White Plume

Make your decisions (at least in part) on what hope to say when you look back on your life.

You may not always succeed, but are unlikely to look back with regret.

Evil – the ultimate extension of hipsterism

I just finished reading Terry Eagleton’s book “On Evil” which I heard was pretty good. In it, he gives an eloquent defense of the reality of evil, suggesting that evil is a real thing with actual force in the modern world.

It can say it’s all a little beyond me. I like reading books occasionally that are beyond my understanding. I like the challenge of staying focused and trying to figure out what the heck the author is trying to say. Thomas Pinchon, for example. This book is surely that kind of book.

I’ll just list some stuff I found interesting.

“For evil, finite things are an obstacle to the infinity of will or desire, and so must be annihilated. Creation for the evil-minded is a stain or blemish on the purity of the infinite.”

“The world [is] a kind of exuberant dance, without end or purpose. The cosmos has something of the whorling, spiraling, self-involved quality of traditional Celtic art. Like such art, it exists purely for its own self-delight, not to accomplish some mighty goal. And this is the surest sign that it springs from God, who is equally without point or purpose.”

I think this is because God is an end into itself, e.g. “the beginning and the end”, and to create a universe for some purpose would be to suggest that God was not whole and needed some purpose fulfilled.

“Evil is bound up with destruction, because destruction is really the only way to trump God’s act of creation. Evil would actually prefer that there was nothing at all, since it does not see the point of created things. “

“But Evil it self has no practical purpose. Evil is supremely pointless. Anything as humdrum as a purpose would tarnish its lethal purity. Evil, in its desire to mimic God, is an end unto itself.”

From God’s viewpoint however, created things are good in themselves. They have value merely because they exist. Evil sees the world empty of value, because it is not ideal. In the face of this fleshy, messy creation, evil reacts with cynicism and rage. Reality itself seems bogus, gimmicky and kitschy, as do all of its values.

Evil as the ultimate extension of hipsterism.

Note: [this entry is part of a ninety night blog challenge I've given myself. This is Night Twenty.]

Surprise!

Somebody asked the Dalai Lama what surprises him the most. This is what he said:

“Man, because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and the he dies having never really lived.”

 

Well, that’s kind of hard to beat.  So I will say this:  I spent my day well today.  I ate ice cream from an ice cream truck. I sat outside in the sun.  I spent time doing nothing with the people I love.  A day well spent.

The Day I Called Out P Diddy

I had a nice day today but nothing wonderful happened. I started reading a book about evil, and it’s philosophical underpinnings.  It looks to be interesting.  I was fairly kind to everyone, but not always to everyone, so more work is to be done there.

I did do two things today that I would not normally do in order to improve myself:

1.  I walked away, rested and meditated when I found myself setting increasingly irritable.  Normally, I just get crankier and crankier until I regret it and calm down.  This time, I realized what was happening, and changed it.  It was a good thing. I felt better and I think everybody around me did too.

2.  Without being nasty or strident, I called out sexism when I saw it and refused to support it. OK, this is waaaay weak, but it is still a step for me in the right direction and not something I would normally do. I’m not publicizing this post because of this. It would be inappropriately self-congratulatory for an insignificant event.  But I have to write it down for myself so it seems real.

I went to buy a suit. The sales person laid out two shirts and ties to go with them. I liked one pair and the other shirt but not the tie. As the sales person went to pull some more ties, I flipped over the one I liked and noticed the maker. When the sales person came back, I said, I’m sorry, I won’t buy this tie, it’s made by Sean Jean. He’s too sexist for me and I’m not giving him any of my money.

The sales person said sorry, but most of their ties were by that company, so I said, that’s fine, I won’t buy any then. We eventually found others of course, but that was the first time I think I ever spoke up when I saw something like that in a public place or with a stranger.  I only ever called out something like that before with friends or family, saying ‘Hey that’s not funny.” or “Hey, you can’t talk like that.”

A teeny, tiny, infinitesimal scoot in the right direction is not something to be proud of, but I am…encouraged. I spoke up, the world did not come crashing down, I wasn’t mocked, derided, or scorned.

I think I’ll do it again, the next time something like that comes up.

Note: [this entry is part of a ninety night blog challenge I've given myself. This is Night Eighteen.]

Calculating God

“Calculating God” is a sci-fi novel about an alien who lands at the Toronto Royal Ontario Museum. Instead of “take me to your leader” he says, in perfect English “Take me to a paleontologist.” What if science uncovered proof of God? What would the proof be? Would anyone believe it who didn’t already believe before the proof? In this novel, the alien lands to gather further proof to support his theory of divine creation of the universe. The paleontologist he meets? An Athiest.

Some fun theories get bandied about:

*  What if the creator is a scientist running an experiment?

*  What if the creator is omnipotent but not omniscient?

*  What if the creation is neither infallable, omniscient, nor omnipotent?

*  What if there is a creator but no afterlife for humans?

*  What if life forms like humans are not the concern of the creator, but merely an insignificant effect of a far greater cosmic plan?

I was particularly intrigued by that last one. Once we thought the universe revolved around the Earth. Then it turns out that not only does the universe not revolved around Earth, in terms of scale, Earth is entirely insignificant to the workings of the universe. What if the same is true of Earthlings? What if there is, indeed a creator; infallable, omniscient, omnipotent…and indifferent.

What if human/earthling/sentient life wasn’t the center of the creator’s plan? What if “the plan” isn’t so much “a plan” as it is an inherent function of a creator.  It is just what happens – The Creator gots to create! What if the base unit of observation is billions or trillions of earth units – where humanity is a mere speck in the scheme of things.

What does it do to your morality if the creator, by our standards is entirely amoral? What if free will is absolute? What if conservation of information is also absolute, ie. that the afterlife is non-judgemental, but rather entirely transformative. You go from sentient biological organism to something completely different, with no more past life identity than the calcium that makes up your bones.

What if really, truly, the only directive is to “love one another”?