Charles de Foucauld

“Deliver me, Jesus— from the desire to be praised, honored, glorified, preferred, consulted, or approved. Deliver me, Jesus, from the fear of being humiliated, criticized, forgotten, ridiculed, maltreated, and from the fear of what others will think. O Jesus, give me the grace to desire that others would be loved and esteemed ahead of me, that in the eyes of the world they would increase while I decrease, and praised while I pass by unnoticed, that others would be preferred in all situations, that others would become more than myself— in order that I would be as holy as You want me to be.”

—Charles de Foucauld

Aside my the normal silliness on this blog, I hope that this quote/prayer inspired you today.

Be inspired. Inspire others. Make a difference.

Okay, so that isn’t so off the wall when I type it out,… but still! I think of places to eat, and massages, and car oil changes, or even some home repair or carpet cleaning — but not Plastic Surgery! Crazy.

This is the ad that gave me a chuckle. (A pretty add that 105 people already bought — a great deal if you are a change your appearance kind-of-person.) So, if you are due for a face flit, tummy tuck, or non-invasive face transplant (as seen recently in Fort worth as the first successful face transplant), then this plastic surgery deal is for you!

To preface, I recently took a painting class with my wife and have been a little different since then and gotten in touch with the “inner Josh” lately — and have enjoyed it! I enjoy these seasons and want them to last. I have been drawing and taking photos and writing in a physical more lately than before. It’s been a few years since I have done this, but I like it. (It’s kind of like a positive mid-life crisis). I have more emotion (not always good ones), but also more sympathy and love for my family. It’s interesting nonetheless.

All that to say, I had an epiphany/philosophical writing moment just now journaling and thought to share it with others. I see this as a basis for many things, impacting how a person might view the world or live from here on out. Needless-to-say, for someone, this could be “life changing.” I don’t use that phrase lightly — Question: Why some are changed by life events and others are not? It all depends on if they allow it to impact them, change them, receive it in — or not. If they don’t receive it — foolish — then life does not change.

Will you let this impact you? My journal entry from today, which was more of a thinking as I am writing and has no true pattern to it, goes like this:

Why do we all the past to guide our steps so much. I know the past is our guide for what to do and not do — and we should study the past. But not to the point that it should control us.

Is that liberal thinking? Conservativism holds to the past, (but) only as a foundation.

I think we should look back  for benefit and foundation to look forward – as on the shoulders of giants. It’s when we look to the past to argue for independence (from our foundation) — and not dependence on the past — that we have no stable footing for life. (Where is your foundation?)

Learn from the past and stand on it to move forward. Remember the past, don’t live in it — less it controls and captures  you from moving forward.

I hope that this helps you to think a bit. Remember to only “remember” the past, and “don’t live in it.” Why? Because there are so many people live in the past, saying things like “Remember that hurricane 14 years ago? It destroyed our home and community.” It’s not a terrible thing to remember the past, but it is terrible to allow that event to destroy you even today.

The same goes for the good and less than good things.  Those who say, “My husband died, and it was terrible, 42 year ago,” and they still live in the depression of the past instead of the joy of the present adn future. If all they wish to do is die to see their dead loved one again, are they living, or already dead in  a living body? They may also say, “remember that time when that person died 26 years ago and I helped you through it. That was great.” That can be a good things, but not what defines you today to not move forward past the past.

For you, is life a waiting game, or is life an action?

Waiting on, well, anything, is the worst sometimes — especially when you know it’s something good. Kinda of like a child for Christmas morning, waiting in dire expectation.

Waiting on God can feel the same. The results when we are patient can be so muich more rewarding when we wait for God’s perfect timing, rather than opening our “gift” before it’s ready. When we jump too early, it’s like opening up the cacoon of a butterfly before it’s fully developed — we otherwise are stuck with a “blessing” that look more like a sickly moth or caterpillar that cannot fly — and is therefore more useless than it is beneficial.

So, yeah… waiting is hard. But it’s worth it in the end.

I found this great short clip above of Guy Kawasaki speaking about “the meaning of meaning” and making a difference in the world. He says ion the clip above that it doesn’t matter whether you are a business or a non-profit, small or large business, first focus on making a difference — not on ‘making money’ — and you will be a successful company.

I agree! I have worked before at a company where we began our day with a company meeting and then someone in charge finished the day, each day, with “Alright. Let’s go make some money.”… something about that just rubbed me the wrong way. while I agree that you should be focused on your company, making it successful — because that is what you are there for — let your focus be on doing good and then be successful out of that and not the other way around.

Much like Google, the billionaires they are, I feel do a lot of good and provide many useful services, many of them for free (email, online documents, phone/voice services, blogs, online calendars, photo programs, open source phone platforms, and of course online video sharing through YouTube) to name a few, and they are always developing new items and free updates all the time! — not that they aren’t making money on ads, but the service they provide makes us go to them again and again.

I hope this blog post make you think and helps you re-think why you do, what you do. If all you do is focus on the “Benjamin’s” then you might need to re-direct your thinking to a more positive direction on doing good for others above yourself.

Burning up the golf score card!

Over the weekend, a golfer’s routine swing in the rough at the Shady Canyon Golf Course in Irvine, Calif., struck a rock. Not so different from the way you play, right? Only this time, the impact caused a spark, and the spark set off a blaze that eventually covered 25 acres, according to the Steven Buck, General Manager of Shady Canyon Golf Course, and required the efforts of 150 Orange County firefighters, writes the Associated Press.

Wow. And I felt bad the time I shanked a ball through the window of a house too close to the fairway. That was nothing compared to this!

The golfer’s name is being withheld, which is probably for the best, and no charges are going to be filed. Fortunately, it all could have been much worse. As it was, the blaze required both helicopters and on-the-ground crews.

The conditions were ripe for a blaze, with dry brush from a recent heat wave just waiting for the right spark. Like, say, one caused by metal on rock.

Read more at Yahoo Sports News.

Okay, so while I truly believe this to be a fake movie, this is pretty funny that people went to such great lengths to make a

movie trailer about the 80s video game that people played on floppy disk on pre-windows 95 computers. I remember those days!

The blog says you’ll learn nothing from the video game, and they are close to right… Okay, okay… maybe yo could learn something. I remember learning that when a  person get hypothermia that you don’t rub them to make them warm, you just strip them naked and get close for body heat.

Did you learn something from the Oregon Trial?

By the way, here is a 4th edition of the game Oregon Trail, for Windows or Mac, that you can get for $6.20 from Amazon.com.

Thanks Joshua Rogers for posting the link. Check out Joshua’s Spiritual Klutz Blog.

Mike on ghacks has posted an interesting introduction to password strength. You may think your password is strong, but the range of times required to crack passwords of different types goes from essentially instantaneous (for any 3-character password, e.g. 3D%) to several years for an 8-character password of mixed case alphanumerics and symbols (e.g. 4$Gqvt}k).

Mike displays a nice table to show the range of crackability:

His top tip for passwords? “Choose one or two super-strong passwords and change the passwords on every website you have an account with to those.”

My own tip is to use a password manager, allow it to create a different random super strong password for every site and then create a super strong master password. Use an offline password manager that does not store your passwords on its servers whether encrypted or not.

This article was taken from Sciencetext.com.

Other Password articles:

• Researchers: Poor password practices hurt security for all
• Hack-Proof Your Blog
• Password Security – Choosing Strong Passwords

Technorati.com is the leading source, next to Google in my opinion, for indexing blogs and blogs posts around the web. In their own words, “The leading blog search engine, Technorati.com indexes millions of blog posts in real time and surfaces them in seconds. The site has become the definitive source for the top stories, opinions, photos and videos emerging across news, entertainment, technology, lifestyle, sports, politics and business. Technorati.com tracks not only the authority and influence of blogs, but also the most comprehensive and current index of who and what is most popular in the Blogosphere.”

Taken from Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009, here are 10 facts that you might not have known about the online culture of blogging:

1. 77% of Internet users read blogs.
2. There are currently 133 million blogs listed on leading blog directory Technorati.
3. 60% of bloggers are between the ages 18-44.
4. One in five bloggers update their blogs daily.
5. Not so surprising to me: Two thirds of bloggers are male.
6. Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs.
7. 15% of bloggers spend 10 hours a week blogging.
8. More than half of all bloggers are married and/or parents.
9. More than 50% of bloggers have more than one blog.
10. Bloggers use an average of five different social sites to drive traffic to their blog.

For more interesting ideas about the web and where things are going, see this web/technology clog that I just found: http://thefuturebuzz.com/.

Twenty weeks into their pregnancy, T. K. and Deidrea Laux found out that their son had Trisomy 13—a rare DNA abnormality. After being counseled that “terminating the pregnancy” would be an option, they chose life. In Deidrea’s own words:

“We didn’t not terminate because we were hanging on to some sort of hope that there was a medical mistake or there was gonna be some sort of medical miracle. We didn’t terminate because he’s our son.”

The Dallas Morning News has produced this video chronicling the birth and home-going of Thomas after just 5 short days — even longer than most baby’s with his condition live. This is an amazing story of love and life, and you need to watch it.

The good news is that about one year after Thomas’ life ended, earlier this January, the Laux family were blessed with the birth of a healthy baby daughter. To the family who thought that they would never be parents, God’s grace is sufficient.

(Portions of text for this post were taken from fellow Seinfield fan, Denny’s Burk, on his blog about Choosing Thomas). Thanks Denny.

Ok, so my first run on the machine tells me that this is a powerful machine, … But honestly blogging on it is not the best. I am typing right now inside the Wysiwyg, but only in the HTML view and not in the visual editor.

Overall, if I wanted to use this to blog, it would be a bit of a pain, but I could get my thoughts out if needed.

My first impression of the iPad is that it’s great, but it’s not great for blogging just yet. I would consider getting this on the 3rd generation iPad when they get a camera, video and the ability to wirelessly connect a USB … Wirelessly since they DO NOT have USB ports on this thing.

I expect the iPad to get better with the next generation.

But something interesting I also saw was the two words: “Contains: Milk.” — What? I thought that this was non-dairy creamer? The words Non-Dairy means, without Dairy. And I don’t know if you know this, but Milk is Dairy! … Not that I am lactose-intolerant or anything, but still… c’mon!

If it seems that I am upset about this, I am not really. More than anything I just thought that this was funny and deciding to write a quick blog about it.

To them, tweeting is a sound a parakeet makes. Wallpaper is something you hang, angrily, with a family member. A blog might be something you clear from your drain. And an e-blast … whatever that is, it doesn’t sound pleasant.

Remember when you got your cell phone? Remember when you finally gave in to texting? Do you recall when Barbara Walters first mentioned the Web sensation “MyFace”? The first time you heard the term “adding glitter”? Facebook updates? Twitter?

For many, it’s fun to put their every thought, their every move out there for the world to see. Everyone’s diary is now shared with the world. But, be careful! Your future employers are looking you up online. “I have had friends and fellow employers who have indeed looked up a person’s personal online MySpace and/or Facebook page,” says Caleb Applegate, a businessman working in investments. “In one case I can tell you they were not hired because of what the employer found. I think it is an appropriate way to see the character of a person. A simple interview tells you what you want to hear. A Facebook/MySpace page tells you a thousand different things about the person.”

Some employers are hesitant to check those sites, fearing they might find private information like religious views or sexual orientation that could lead to discrimination lawsuits. Sometimes, though, they receive the strangest applications from young job searchers. “I did recently receive a LinkedIn request from someone wearing a Halloween mask. A little creepy, considering this person is looking for work on a professional site!” says Richard Archambault, an employer in television and film post-production.

Of course, presenting yourself in a positive light on your social networking site can have its advantages. “I always check out prospective employees,” says Tony Hightower, a tax specialist. “In one instance it was a determining factor because it seemed one of the applicants had a lot of friends in our target demographic … I thought she would be able to network better than the other applicants, so we hired her. It worked out, she did bring in a lot of referrals.”

In this case, having a positive social networking presence got the young woman a job. An employer saw that she had a lot of connections that would really boost his business. She wisely left “party pics” off the site and gave off a mature, professional vibe.

Your public networking is just that—public. Remember what your parents taught you: “Mean what you say and say what you mean.” That classic rule still applies online.

While “inappropriate drunk photos” is the number one problem employers find when they look at a person’s social networking page, 22 percent say it’s the “rude comments” left online that kill an employee’s chance of getting hired. “Inside jokes” also don’t play well to the outside world. When applying to colleges or looking for work, consider blocking status updates and putting a control block on public comments others can leave about you.

By the Numbers

• - 27 percent of employers check job candidates’ online profiles, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.
• - 24 percent of those said they’d been put off by something they found.
• - According to the Knowledge Network, “Of the people who had not searched for applicants online to-date, 44 percent admitted that they ‘probably would do this in the future.’”

This article originally appeared in the Winter 2009/10 issue of Collegiate magazine.

but the look is clearly different. hope you like it…. we’ll be continuing to add back the photos of Sarah, as they are not gone, just not reposted into this blog just yet.

love you guys! Josh