Friday, March 21, 2008

Easter proclaims a beginning



Here's the flip side of a gift from a friend who went home to the Lord two years ago. Carved from a bar of Dial soap while he was in prison, it is one of our most prized possessions.

Holy Week
Quotations to stir heart and mind.
Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman

IN THE CROSS IS SALVATION, in the Cross is life, in the Cross is protection from our enemies, in the Cross is infusion of heavenly sweetness, in the Cross is strength of mind, in the Cross is joy of spirit, in the Cross is the height of virtue, in the Cross is perfection of sanctity. There is no salvation of the soul, nor hope of everlasting life, but in the Cross.
Thomas Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

HE DIED, but he vanquished death; in himself, he put an end to what we feared; he took it upon himself, and he vanquished it; as a mighty hunter, he captured and slew the lion.

Where is death? Seek it in Christ, for it exists no longer; but it did exist, and now it is dead. O life, O death of death! Be of good heart; it will die in us also. What has taken place in our head will take place in his members; death will die in us also. But when? At the end of the world, at the resurrection of the dead in which we believe and concerning which we do not doubt.
Augustine, Sermon 233

THERE IS WONDERFUL POWER in the Cross of Christ. It has power to wake the dullest conscience and melt the hardest heart, to cleanse the unclean, to reconcile him who is afar off and restore him to fellowship with God, to redeem the prisoner from his bondage and lift the pauper from the dunghill, to break down the barriers which divide [people] from one another, to transform our wayward characters into the image of Christ and finally make us fit to stand in white robes before the throne of God.
John Stott, The Preacher's Portrait

EASTER is not the celebration of a past event. The alleluia is not for what was; Easter proclaims a beginning which has already decided the remotest future. The Resurrection means that the beginning of glory has already started.
Karl Rahner, Everyday Faith

Copyright 2006 Christianity Today



I'D ALWAYS KNOWN, in one place in my throat, how Jesus must have cried in the garden--crying not to die, because there was no fear of death, and not to leave his friends, because he walked alone, and not to suffer, because the blood and bruises and thorns were part of his perfection--but crying because he could not find his Father's face, because when he would suffer all that he could bear, the pain of every person, living and dead, in that dark moment, there was really nobody there.

Paul Shepherd, More Like Not Running Away: A Novel

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Downtown Canvas

Downtown Nashville - capturing the rich tapestry of the downtown landscape on canvas...

Downtown Canvas

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

St. Patrick's Day Encounter

Not being Irish, I was taken aback by meeting / encountering a leprechaun ...

Sunday, March 16, 2008

Too Busy and Lost Count

I can't keep up anymore (at least for the moment) for my 366 photos in 2008...
Probably because it takes so long to optimize the batch of 200-300 photos I take every week...
Anyway, I threw a batch up on my Flickr page; and will try to make sense of it all later.



However, I do love taking photos - a change of scenery would be in order to freshen up my zeal; I've taken just about every downtown photo I can think of or stumbled upon.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

Day 58 of 366 for 2008

I absolutely love this photo of twins that I met in San Jose -

Day 59 of 366 for 2008

The cool cats over at Nashville’s Hammock Publishing have a 16-year-old annual tradition of giving out T-shirts to the people they work with throughout the year. I got to meet Rex, Megan, Laura, and others via the world of blogging. One of my fondest memories was meeting Summer and Cole via Thunder (the blog dog) which you can read about: here - Thunder, The Christmas Miracle Story of 2006 and at the RexBlog

This year Hammock Publishing added a new twist to that tradition: T-shirt+Photo=Laptop. Wear the t-shirt, add a photo to the map on their web site and they wil donate a laptop to the educational efforts of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation in developing countries.

A great way to make a difference! So here's my contribution to add to the map in front of Jerry Yang's place in Santa Clara:

The Missing Project 366 Photos

I've got a bunch of missing photos that I didn't upload - since I was so swamped with business, travel, family life and too much TV like Survivor, Terminator and yes, American Idol.

So I'm going to post ten photos over at my stash at the WonderDawg 366 for 2008 Flickr set which will allow me to be current... However I got some that I really excited about sharing in separate postings.

Meanwhile I finally found my Project 366 photos in 2008 number at a Mexican food bar and grill in downtown San Jose!

The Joy of Luggage

One thing that I need to add to my life long learning goals is grasping the reality of carryon luggage.



I already know that flying non-stop is always best. Jumping across three cities to save a few bucks on PriceLine is simply not worth the savings in time, especially when factoring layovers and delays. For instance a Southwest direct flight from Nashville to San Jose is 6:35 of travel time; via United through Chicago, to Denver to San Jose starts out at 2:15 CST arriving at 9:39 PST adding in an additional three hours and risk of delays along the way.

I went to Santa Clara for a pretty good conference on Search Engine Marketing. Learned a lot and met some great people along the way. After logistically plane jumping via United to avoid the bad weather (and Chicago's O'Hara Airport), my luggage didn't make the trip.

Dressing for comfort on a plane with a pullover fleece, white t-shirt, socks, black jeans and ratty tennis shoes doesn't generally make a favorable impression for a typical conference, especially when the clothes have to suffice for the next day. However, for a tech conference, I can safely say I was dressed better than 70% of the attendees. Not exactly comforting thoughts as I started to get a little irritated with United's process for resolving delayed / missing luggage handling.

My luggage was due to arrive at San Jose’s airport the following morning at 10:40 am. A handler then arrives at 11:00 and 12 noon to pick up the luggage and disperse them throughout to the owners. I was willing to pick up the luggage when it arrived off the flight. After 3 pm, I called the 800 number and got a call center in India. Of course, I was expecting the local airport office, but after my investigative questioning of the operator’s weather, local time and if there was a local Wal-Mart, the call center in India had no way of knowing where my bag was. I firmly, but politely requested that the bag better arrive at the Hyatt Regency soon, with the specific instruction to call my cell. Of course that didn’t happen – the luggage showed up at 5:30 pm, seven hours after arriving off the plane. I wonder what would happen if I didn’t call to escalate the ticket.

I was planning to write an article on what type of tech gear to travel with over at www. GearDiary.com. Certainly power chargers, cords, battery backups, flash drives, digital camera, iPods, etc. are necessities. I have to add to the list a complete change of clothing. I recently reviewed a Microsoft Rolling Laptop Case that has a compartment for clothing, but instead is filled with other tech items.

Utilizing UPS or FedEx to ship home all of the schwag, booklets, and reading material to reduce carrying the weight and bulk of the items in a suitcase would be a good thing as a handler can easily flag the bag for being overweight.

I simply must figure out how to pack for a 4-night/5 day stay in a carryon bag. I’m convinced it can’t be done if the goal is dress business casual.

When it doubt, poll the audience. There’s great wisdom in crowds.