June 2005 Archives
Here it is folks: My candidates forum speech, that apparantly made some people think I was "wierd" and some think "fabulous".
I am Donald Wilson, member of the Church of the Larger and Younger Fellowships.
General Assembly is billed as the Gathering of Congregations. I come to GA as a hunter and gatherer of ideas. I am an Idea Junkie. General Assembly is where UU leaders of all kinds come together, share ideas, and learn from each other. General Assembly is a sacred space, where the spirit and passion of each of us to do the good work of our faith is amplified, showing what we can do for each other, and in the wider world.
Every year when I leave GA, it's that amplification of spirit that drives me through the rest of the year, and helps get that good work done in my UU communities, and in the Heartland district where I work. In Heartland, and in the re-combination of the the districts of Michigan and Ohio Valley before, it has been my job to take the ideas of those I work with, those I serve, and those I minister to, consume those ideas, build them, and make them Real.
Those ideas have dealt with youth and young adult ministries being built from scraps, conferences, working to design and redesign an entire district structure, and events anywhere from under a hundred to ten times that, from small group ministries to district assemblies.
I work daily with the same technologies that bring GA to our congregants back home, and helping those that DON'T understand these technologies be aware of how to use them. Donald Wilson is tech support. I manage your mailing lists, websites, I've also worked in the theatre, in publishing, and truly dabble in all of the communication arts, and beleive in making the ideas we dream at GA available and accessible to as many people as possible, so our dreams become Real.
A few years ago, I heard a sermon that has followed me. Just as the Heartland District was born, with the prospect of still more hard work before us, the Velvateen rabbit asked the skin horse "What is Real?"
To which the skin horse replied "Real isn't how you're made. It's a thing that happens to you."
The good work we do makes us real. We make Real things happen.
I beleive the role of the GA Planning Committee is simple: What you dream, be ours to do. The GA Planning Committee makes things Real.
Make me Real. Let me take your dreams for our General Assembly and its Gathering of congregations, and make Them Real too. Be Real, and Keep the Faith.
Thank you.
Radical Hapa: CYF Reshapes Young Adult Network
Over 100 dues paying members in 30 days joined the newly minted Church of the Younger Fellowship a community of the Church of the Larger Fellowship UUA led by Rev.... Envisioned over the years by C*UUYAN leaders, young adults at ConCentric 2004 in New Mexico put together the team, negotiated with the CLF Board of Trustees and namely Chairwoman Denny Davidoff, and kicked off an incredible display of presence and power throughout General Assembly.
UUA Moderator Gini Courter (and ConCentric Keynote Speaker for 2005) gave several positive introductions of CYF leaders, including a rousing Closing Words for the GA Bridging Ceremony repeating the slogan of CYF "Keep the Faith" over and over.
I've transferred my membership, and have a nice stack of CYF ribbons to wear at district events on my name badges. Online Evangelical UUism. How UU Geek Sweet is that?
Radical Hapa: Friendly Faces at GA
Tessie made Joseph's blog!
Proposed Study Action Issue 5, Moral Values for a Pluralistic Society, had its congregational support withdrawn after the Commission on Social Witness made its edits and modifications. Well, that might have stopped any other leading SAI, but the GA Youth Caucus (yes, the entire thing), stood behind mic 5, and have by the applause-o-metre tipped the scales. Jerry Davidoff followed them on that mic with "I know that speaking after the Youth Caucus is much like being asked to preach after Christmas". Jerry is a delegate from the Church of the Larger Fellowship, who got a few fox calls when he introduced himself as such.
More coming I hope.Note: Wake up earlier, the line @ the Corner Bakery is long.
Currently in the Uncommon Denomination #2004 workshop, talking about the Uncommon Denomination Advertising campaign. I've heard some people don't think the campaign is reflective of UU's. I think it will at least do no harm, and is a good start.
[rant]There is a website, www.uuhouston.org , that the group doing the campaign did NOT put on the billboards because it was "too long". Bullshit. It's perfect. UU Houston. City names are immediatly rememberable. Whatever.[/rant]
Interest - Worship - Fellowship - Covenant - Commitment - Leadershipt - Evangelize
On the screen right now. This is a best practices model that comes from a book, not published by a UU, that was the model used by the marketing team. Another book: Marketing for Congregations, Phil Cotler and Gus Rath.
I asked: does the marketing team have demographic info on the new members collected as a result of the ad campaign. The answer: annecdotal only. They targeted the 25-55 age group and different congregations are reporting slightly different results within that.
The Other Side of the Brige #2039
Co-Sponsored by The UU Mens Network and the UU Campus Ministry Offfice
Joseph Santos-Lyons is our moderator today. I'm convinced, and joined the UU Men's Network.
This post will be edited several times through the day.
Once again, hotels are booked solid. More than I thought previously. There are people (including Chris Trace of the Commission on Social Witness who RUN a good chunk of the business at GA) who are driving an hour in from Dallas each morning. Also, everything within 2 blocks of the convention centre closes by 5 or 6 in the evening. When will the GA Planning Committee learn to look at local stores and their hours, especially those within walking distance? At least this year there are things near the hotels, unlike in Nashville. Last night we attempted to eat at the Cactus bar and Grill, and were ignored for over 10 minutes at our table. No one even came by to tell us they were our server. So we left and went to Chilis instead and had a wonderful waiter who helped me select Rahr's Red, a local beer. Very good.
There are a few places with free internet access that I've found, although none close to the hotel yet. I'm in Kinko's now doing work for the YA/CM booth, and using the free access here. The Houston Street Coffee House has it and good coffee, but closes at 5pm. The Cyber Cafe in the GA Exhibit Hall will be another place to frequent.
The Corner Bakery Cafe is WONDERFUL. They have awesome bagels, are friendly, and make my drinks right. There may be net access there as well, from the Mariott above it.
NEWS FLASH BATMAN! There is a small market on Throckmorton, for the people that need to buy groceries.
Lunch time
Coffee Haus again, this time sitting, waiting for sandwiches for myself and to deliver to Tessie. This place is packed with UUs. Coffee Coffee Coffee indeed. I've met with several people. Chris Trace is scheduled to meet w/ the Young Adult caucus tomorrow, wearing both his YA and Social Witness hats. He deserves it. He's put so much work into the Social Witness group, he's had to forgo much of his YA self. I'm hoping as his term ends, he'll he able to be that young adult. Tim Murphy, Susan and Robert Smith, JohnnyFire and Erik David I've all come across. Still no sign of Miss Gini. I had a brief meeting with Linda Freidman, just to talk about what the GA Planning Committee does. Buttons are starting to be distributed.
We are checked into our hotel. Clarion, room 812 if anyone needs me. Problem: We have a king size bed, have 4 people booked for the room, the entire city is booked solid, and we've offered space to another person to boot.
I've found Robert and Susan Smith, who are important to find. Robert has been appointed to the YRUU Youth Council. You heard it here first folks, things are gonna change. Things always do when Robert shows up. I love the man, as he and I share many values in UUism, one of which is not caring if people like us.
All registered, and have my voting card so I can wave it with everyone else when Gini says to. I'm currently hanging out outside a forum involving Bill Sinkford for the Leadership Days, and have seen several people I've needed to connect with. No sign of Madam Moderator.
We got up late, which meant no visit to Bombadill's this morning. Grump. There was a warehouse fire in greater Detroit this morning, so the Wolverine 351 to Chicago was just a wee bit late. This is being written about 45 minutes out from Chicago, and I've already decided that yes, this was most decidedly the right choice for transport. I am completely UNstressed right now.
Texas Eagle 21 to Chicago - Fort Worth, 1630 EDT
I tried posting the above while I was in Chicago, but the Caribou Coffee where I got my fix for the day (caffiene, nothing illegal, as much as I make my [mild] caffiene addiction sound that way) was not free, $3 for a couple hours, and worst of all, provided by SBC. Bastards.
Lunch today was at the Haifa Cafe, which has 4 locations in Chicago, and serve great Mediterranian food. Tessie and I both had the Combo Plate, which included 2 meats, rice, hummus, a large fallafle, and salad. Meats included chicken swarma, chicken kabob, gyro meat, roast turkey, or fallafle (which according to the guy behind the counter, isn't meat, but counts as a meat in this instance, strangely. We don't ask questions.)At this point, I could really use another latte, but we didn't have enough time to hunt down a coffee stand at Union Station. According to our conductor, not all cars have been updated yet. This means there are no power outlets at the seats (there were on the cramped, short distance coach car from A2 to Chicago), and in fact none in the lounge car either. There is a power outlet somewhere up front, so at some point we can plug a laptop in up there to charge its batteries. I do wish Apple provided an external battery charger for their laptop batteries.
May the tarmac rise to meet you,
May the long security lines be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm but not blisteringly hot upon your face here in West Texas,
The allergen-free in-flight snacks falls softly in your lap.
And until we meet in Ft. Worth,
May the Spirit of All that is Good hold you in the palm of his or her hand.
And Ye shall know them by their Red Bandannas!
~From Louise Hornor on the clf-ga email list
I'm playing with some new MT code, trying to get some Category/Topic icons working. Please excuse the mess.
This is in direct response to comments on Philocrites, found here
Are our generations so far apart that the older one cannot recognize our need to be accepted and supported like ya'll were?
No, they are not. I also don't want the current or future YRUU accepted and supported like "my" YRUU generation was.
Radical Hapa: GA - Daily Report:
I plan to write each day while at GA. I'm still not sure yet what the benefit of all this blogging is, but it definitely is a wonderful archive and stream of consciousness about Unitarian Universalism, activism, anti-racism, etc.
I'm right there with you Joseph. I'll be blogging daily from GA as well, likely a couple times per day. Hopefully I can meet up w/ you before the hectic everything starts, as Theresa and I will be there Wednesday afternoon as well.
And for you, dear readers (do you like that name? Do I need to come up with another name when speaking directly to you?), do let me know if you want me to comment on anything specific.
This post comes as a result of seeing this post on Slashdot.
RSS is nothing new to me, although I am by far not an extensive user of it (yet), but I dabble. I had heard of del.icio.us, and a few of the tools I use have support for it. One of the reasons I DON'T use it as much as I would, is because the UUA doesn't provide any RSS, and is in fact stuck in 1998 when it comes to it's website and web applications. As for del.icio.us, it is the ultimate in online bookmarking systems. It allows one, via a pair of bookmark buttons one puts in their browser, to bookmark pages on the website instead of the bookmarks menu built into the programme. From that point, not only can one get to the bookmarks froom anywhere in the world with a 'net connection, other people can see what you've marked, and visit the same sites. If that wasn't enough, you can see what OTHER people have bookmarked the same or similar to yourself, AND THEN (by leaps and bounds we go on) subscribe to the bookmark list via their favourite RSS reader, which in my case happens to be Thunderbird. I would be bookmarking my massive pr0n collection, but for most things, del.icio.us is tempting.
Also not-new but not well utilised by Me is Technorati, which keeps track of what's going on in the blogging world in real time. As a blog updates, it pings Technorati, so if you type in the address of a page in the Technorati search box, you'll see all the sites that are linking to that page, sorted chronologically.
As I streamline the processes of my data consumption (which in turn should allow me to increase the amount of information I consume, and [by leaps and bounds] increase what I can expound and pontificate upon you, dear reader [Which is all in accordance with Guy Kawasaki's rule "Eat like a bird, Shit like an elephant", as found in Rules for Revolutionaries]), it looks like I will be using these tools more, and providing you, my readers, with links to those services.
I have no idea who Sarah Elizabeth is! She's linked to this blog, is a UU, but try as I might I can't figure out who she is, if indeed I've ever met her. Maybe she'll be at GA next week (OMG! Next week?! I'm gonna go nuts in the next 72 hours). Her website is very nice however, so go take a look! I'll give a warning to dial-up users that it'll take a moment for her pages to load, as they are a bit graphic heavy, and PHP based at that.
Welcome sliz.net readers!
I've thought for a while that I should write about what runs this website, the servers I refer to now and then, and generally what kinds of things this geek does.
Right now, for uptime purposes, this site is being operated on a Linux server at Provide.Net. Linux is not my preferred Open Source, Unix-like operating system. I prefer the BSD (Berkley Software Distribution) operating systems. Specifically, and for desktop purposes, Mac OS X from Apple. I have a 12-inch Powerbook that I do most all my work on.
My servers hatter, alice, and walrus all have OpenBSD on them. My preference for OpenBSD stems from the stated goals of the development team. Their focus on security, and as stated in the FAQ, "the man pages are considered the authoritative source of information for OpenBSD", entices me. I'm a big believer in complete, good quality documentation for all things in life, and I really don't think I need to share everything of my digital life with the whole world.
The extra software on my servers to run the various services include
- Postfix for mail, along with
- SpamAssassin
- ClamAV for virus scanning
- Procmail provides server side filtering
- Cyrus SASL for securing the connections of the
- University of Washington IMAP mail server
- BIND9 for DNS
- Apache for WWW along with
- PHP
- MovableType runs several blogs
- Webmin and Usermin
On my laptop, most of my work is done in
- Firefox for web browsing
- Thunderbird and Mutt for email
- SubEthaEdit for all text and HTML editing
- Fugu for Secure FTP
- ecto for management of this blog and other sites I work on that use MovableType
- I'm a fond user of Adobe products for document creation and design work.
The Open Directory: Unitarianism and Universalism
I just learned about this site. It's kinda like Google, and kinda like Wikipedia, and divided up by a hierarchal method not unlike USENET. People can submit links to pages, and they'll be grouped into the right section with related websites. There is a UU section there and at first glance, it hits all the major categories and had many of the links I'd expect.
Somehow, there's an error on the Slate of Candidates for this years elections at GA.
Where is says under my name "I've spent the last 16 years the Communications officer of the Heartland district", it SHOULD read 10 years. Not sure how that happened.
Unitarian Universalist Society of Black Hawk County:
Eva Cameron has accepted the position of settled minister in the congregation. Yay Eva! I've known Eva since she was minister at Ann Arbor. Hope she finds Black Hawk a wonderful place she can stay for a while.
Glaswegian in Traverse City... on ice.
3 parts cherry juice
1 part whiskey
2 ice cubes
Yum (but Tessie makes faces)
"Donald Wilson is an extremely motivated and talented UU who has a long history of leadership in the UU community, with a great understanding of the structure of our organization, and how every group and committee interacts with one another." Kevin Leininger, HUUD Young Adult
"The FUUSE community supports Donald Wilson for GA Planning committee." ~FUUSE Founder Johnathan Craig aka Johnny Fire
Haaretz - Israel News - There's no smoke without fire:
Benjamin Netanyahu, Isreali Finance Minister, set himself on fire during a radio interview.
I find it amusing, not because I think flaming Jewish men are funny (well, Robin Williams in The Birdcage not withstanding), but the act of putting a burning cigar in your pocket is.
As much as I feel dirty linking to a Micro$oft website, I find that this is important. From a 1982 tape backup, we now have proof of the first use of the SMILEY. :-)
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming
I just found that my blog was added to the UUBlogs digest at Kinja.coom. I've not used Kinja before. I've always bplayed with my own blog aggregators, either client based on my computer/laptop, or server based with Blosxom and Blagg.
Hopefully, this will draw more people here. I'm setting up a sidebar link to the Kangi page now.
Congratulations to Erik David Carlson and Jonathan Craig, recipients of the 2005 Donna DiSciullo Award for Young Adult and Campus Ministry, given annually by the UUA to recognize outstanding contributions to the world of young adult and campus ministry in our Association.
Erik and Jonathan are being recognized, of course, for the incredible vision, dedication and endless hours of volunteer time that have resulted in FUUSE.
Charles Redd, our UUA Trustee, has resigned. He told us this at the district annual meeting, but I was forwarded an official announcement that Rev. Doug W. Gallager has been appointed to fill the seat until we have our election at the 2006 annual meeting.
I've always liked Rev. Gallager, although I've only met him a handful of times. His sermons are usually great, and he's been a supporter of Youth and Young Adult programming, especially when BUC youth were stressed about the merger and district redesign.
I look forward to working with Rev. Gallager, and seeing him at GA.
Joey posted what his plans were for GA, and I thought it wasn't a bad idea.
As a delegate from the Church of the Larger Fellowship, I'll be going to all the Pleenary sessions. I'm sure I'll get up to the mics at least once, as I have every year except Boston, when I wasn't a delegate.
As a candidate for GA Planning Committee, I also have the plan of getting elected, so I'll be at my Heartland in gathering on Friday, the Candidates Forum on Saturday, and likely hanging out Sunday passing out literature near the polls.
There are FOUR workshops on Friday morning that I REALLY want to go to, and none of them get repeated at any other times. This is very unfair. The Pete Seeger sing along #2031, CLF Worship Service #2051, Adventures in Shared Leadership #2045 with Sinkford and Gini (that's the local shorthand for President Rev. Bill Sinkford and Moderator Gini Courter), and The Other Side of the Bridge #2039. Thank goodness the next time slot has only one (Growing UU via the Web #2064, w/ Gini and Denny Davidoff), or I'd go crazy(er), but conflicts with the first Young Adult Caucus meeting, so who knows where I'll end up.
I'll add to this later as I read through further.
From a post on Joey Lyon's blog.
When items are cross-posted it is quite amazing the referral readership.So True, thanks for the links.
(around 1994) ... Back then we had pine, could "finger" people and chat IRL with all text base commands and functions. We use top of the line Macintosh, but still it was extremely slow.
I used to use Pine as my primary mail programme. I've since moved to Mutt on the command line and Thunderbird as my GUI client. Finger, FTP, Gopher and Talk were (and ARE!) all wonderful protocols.
I remember begininng to track email addresses at the Western UU Reunion/Experience for Young Adults in 1994. Only a handful of folks had them. My first email address that I paid for was joeylyons@aol.com which now seems like a dream given that most folks don't get their "name" @ anything on AOL or most other major servers. ... Can't remember who I got into a "flame war" with (does anyone say flame anymore online?), but it got very detailed. Wish I could read those old files, wonder if anyone has them.
That's why I registered donaldwilson.info. I wanted my name as my email so it'd be easier for people to remember. And yes, Joey, there are still flame wars, even in UU circles. I've lost a majority of my conversations and emails, through the course of several crashes, backup disasters, and recently a foolish mistake involving a bad backup.
