August 2005 Archives
On August 23, 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 11,500 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: to destroy and harass English shipping.
On October 6, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Three weeks later the Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 6,300 gallons of Portugese wine.
On November 18, the ship set sail for England where her crew captured and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum. But the Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here her landing party captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 40,000 gallons aboard and headed for home.
On February 20, 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no whiskey. Just 48,600 gallons of water.
Google is taking over the world. They've just released an IM client, which will allow you to chat via text or voice, and hopefully will tie into all your other IM services like Yahoo and AIM in the future. Google Talk uses Jabber, an open standard for instant communications over the internet.
If you do not already have a gmail account, you can comment here and I'll send you an invite. I have 49 at the moment.
There are several myths about running conferences. Some con planners, even after having many under their belt, never get over these myths. Con planning always goes better once the planning crew gets over these.
MYTH: Planning and Running is Hard
This is My pet theory. We all have one, this is Mine.
Any group or person that is responsible for planning events, meetings, and the like needs to be communicating well with their potential audience. Breakdowns of communication are all too common, but often are the result of not following the 3 Rule of Good Communication:
- Accuracy of content
- Redundancy of distribution
- Timeliness of the whole shebang
The following is the document that was presented to the ConCentric Plenary, and should be considered Canon. There may be supporting and dissenting ideas in the ether, but this is THE document for primary discussion.
Regional Needs Task Force Strategy Plan
In order to fully study and research how to best serve local, district, and regional campus and young adult leaders, and because we believe we could not reach consensus on how to best continue at this time, the Regional Needs Task Force proposes the following alternative. Ideas presented in the original Regional ConCentric proposal may be brought into conversation in the future as a long term solution. Because the Alternative position sees the goal of Regional ConCentrics as finding and empowering new local/regional leaders within the US and Canada, we propose:
Joseph brings us news from ConCentric, which is ending as I write this. To break down his post with my initial, gut reaction commentary:
The Regional ConCentric Resolution and the work of members of the C*UUYAN Regional Needs Task Force was withdrawn at ConCentric 2005 due to blocks in the consensus process that led to a compromise proposal that did not require Plenary action. The resolution will continue to be a point of discussion throughout this year with CUC and UUA District Young Adult Representatives and Local YA & CM Group leaders.
Not surprised this happened, and I am happy to hear that further study is being conducted. I know we'll hear a lot more about this on this blog.
This fall C*UUYAN SC has authorized the submission of a Fund for Unitarian Universalism grant to help finance 4 Regional Events in Spring 2006
four? FOUR?! I would like to see exactly how having only four regions to cover the ENTIRETY of North America is going to lessen the cost of travel. Reducing the cost of according to some of the rules I'll be outlining in my How to run a Con series might reduce overall cost a BIT, but the travel isn't going to be significantly, or at all, reduced for many people.
Depending on the location of the Regional meetings, and their timing (spring), there are going to be some interesting logistical issues. I'll wait to see a map, and attendance numbers before making final judgement of course. I'll even seriously plan on going, if there is a region I can drive to. I still hold that regionalization will not have the effects desired until C*UUYAN reliquishes control to local groups they don't control.
each local Young Adult and/or Campus Ministry group will be asked to send a delegate to the Regional Events (to-be-named).That's a good goal, and one I can personally get behind. Here's to luck and passion to make it all work.
This is quite funny, and an example of a Good Day surfing the web. Hang Loose!
This past weekend was busy, but good. I'm still tired from it, honestly. Between 8 hours of driving, meetings, a wedding, visiting with family, it's been real.
This post is ALSO to test the new automagical posting system that lets me schedule things to be posted at specific times.
EK-CHUAH - from Mayan Mythology: Patron god of the Cacao bean!
MEBD - from Celtic: Goddess in Ireland involving lots of sex, death, and drink. Not always in that order.
OMETOTCHTLI: King of the drunken bunnies.
Oh my goodness. This site is GREAT. It's irreverant, but factual. Alas, I have yet to find a god of Coffee. This is bad. I need to find one. One HAS to exist in SOME pantheon...
Camp Hantesa, Boone, IA. Tomoko Takano and Neal Anderson, Continental ConCentric Co-Chairs are calling to order the ConCentric Conference this evening here in thunderstruck and humid Iowa. This four day conference wraps up on Monday afternoon. Highlights on the agenda include C*UUYAN joining a reproductive rights coalition, minor changes to the by-laws, and approving a change to Continental ConCentric every two years, with Regional ConCentrics in-between. Stay tuned!
Here's hoping they approve the bi-annual ConCentric IDEA and not the "plan" that was actually published in the ConCentric PrePacket. I haven't had the ability to get thru reading that document without screaming, thus the lack of review here.
I have mentioned places I've eaten (and gotten coffee) at on this blog before, but not created a section for it. So here it is.
I'm in Ft. Wayne Indiana at the moment. I won't be straying far from the hotel, so I can only assume the only coffee I'll get here is at $St$. Yuck. However, on the way I stopped in Coldwater, Michigan, ostensibly to get fuel for Myself and the vehicle. About 2 miles off I-69 in the heart of the historic downtown, is the North Woods Coffee Co. They use $tar$peak, ie Tall-Grande-Venti. I have the same attitude towords such nonsense as Dora. Despite that however, they make good lattes, and have a good atmosphere. They also sell lots of kitchen and decorative goods. WiFi status is unknown, as I was on the run, and will be again tomorrow.
There have been many documents through time titled the same, some even have my name attached to them. I do wish I hadn't had my massive email archive loss a few years ago, or I might have some of them. Be that as it is, this series will look at how people have and do run our UU conferences, and how we can run them in the future.
135 young adults from USA, Canada, Transylvannia, U.K. and several recently back from time in France, Africa, Russia and Southeast Asia, are gathered here at Camp Hantesa in Boone Iowa.I hope the discussions that START at Opus will continue from it into the wider UU world. That's not always a given, and I'm sure some of the discussions truly need to filter out.
The Shuttle Discovery (STS-114) has landed safely at Edwards Air Force base in California. Happy Landing Astronauts! Good Job NASA!
I've started my own Web Comic, Woodruff's Glen.
Right now, I'm planning on publishing each Sunday. It revolves around the lives of Ian and Fiona, a couple in a small college town on the Wendat river somewherein the Midwest. If you're wondering how this ended up in the UU section as well, it's because UUism will (eventually) play a good bit in the comic, partially because it's given me lots of material, and partially because most of the characters are UU.
If you see a person in this comic that looks suspiciously like you... no worries, it's all in good fun.
They aren't on hold, as some (including myself) began to surmise. The nominations havebeen delayed until after Opus/ConCentric, as the CYF is hoping to sign up a goodly number of new members.
RadicalHapa mentions this too.
EDIT: To introduce fact based on new information, instead of speculation.
I read a few web comics daily. They are each scarily reflective of my life in some way.
Wapsi Square is the newest. I found out about it yesterday from Questionable Content (below). It's based in a bit less reality than the others, but that's alright. Is stars Monica the 4'10" Anthropoligist with a 40G Bustline, all her friends, some of her friends' friends, and some Aztec deities.
Questionable Content, oh lordy. While it floats in the Indie/Emo/Punk music scene of which I know little, I swear I've had some of those conversations before. It stars Faye, the cute spunky red/brown haired lass who has issues with her hips, and her roommate Martin, who is really a Indie-rock version of Arthur Dent with better luck in dressing himself. There's a supporting cast including a hot coffee shop owner, a couple with their own hangups involving their age difference, and an AI.Queen of Wands is no longer being written, but it is in rapid-fire-reruns with commentary from the writer Aerie. Kestrel is a busty redhead who does ISP tech support, and lives with her roommates Shannon, and Kestrels-ex-boyfriend-currently-Shannons-Husband Felix. The run was good, and again, I think I've had some of those conversations.
UserFriendly is tech related, and plays host to the irreverant staff of a Canadian Linux-based ISP. I work with Sid, the sysadmin, and I'm beginning to be accused of behaving like Greg.
WebComics are good. If you have any you like, or think I'd like, let me know.
Joseph brings us a survey circa 1979.
| Rankings of emphases | 1966 | 1976 | 1978 |
|---|---|---|---|
| religious education | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| personal development | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| fellowship among members | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| social action | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| public worship | 5 | 4 | 5 |
Joseph notes that Social Action and Public Worship fall at the bottom all three years. Others might note that Fellowship amoung members went to the top, displacing Religious Education, and conclude that this contributes to the "social club" atmosphere of our congregations. I might agree, but I also note that Personal Development sank as well, and think this survey may have forshadowed the de-emphasis of secular humanism and increase in Universalism within our congregations, and specifically in our Youth and Young Adult movements.
I could also be completely barmy.
