Family christmas parties are a great place to stimulate our long term memory banks. This past Saturday our family celebrated our Christmas with the traditional 'potluck' dinner and then random forms of discussion, photography, sharing of stories and some referee efforts with the youngsters. This year Russ brought along some videos and a projector and played them where we could watch if we wanted but didn't disrupt all the other conversations. After the opening JibJab elves of the five brothers and the five sisters we saw two different videos from 1988 and one from 1993. Yes, we have all changed in the past 20 years!
Florida 2019
Treasure Island Resort
Sunday, January 4, 2009
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Thursday, January 1, 2009
An 'odd' year
2009 - an 'odd' year; but there certainly wasn't much 'even' about the events of 2008. Do you remember when you were in grade school and had to write the date on the top of every paper you turned in? When the new year came the change in numbers would certainly use up precious swipes of my pencil's eraser and I'm sure there were times I put the old year down and never noticed it. No biggee.
In the world of IT the change in years brought about massive preparation and expense at the turn of the millennium, remember Y2K! Computer programmers (including yours truly) had saved precious space by only storing the last two digits of the year in many databases, how myopic. Comparing dates of 99 vs. 00 would certainly cause wrong calculations and I'm sure there were mistakes made (and I'm sure there are still many places still storing only two digits). But billions of dollars were spent in the US on new software that was Y2K 'certified' and billions more spent repairing software to work correctly. In the end, Y2K turned out to be a 'non-event'. Was it because of the preparation and money spent? Partly, but the hype and scare by mass media agents turned a relatively manageable problem into what some believed would be the apocalypse.
How does this compare to the events in our world today? What really caused the economic collapse of 2008? I don't know the answer to this question and I'm afraid no one else does either. We live in a complex world - complex laws on top of complex systems. Will the new political regime usher in relief or will their changes be just another layer of complexity on top of the many that have been laid before them? What will one dollar buy 365 days from now? What will be the price of gasoline - and does it matter?
I'll pay closer attention to national and world events in 2009, partly out of fear but also out of interest. But more importantly I need to simplify my own life. Just like the writing of a year becomes habit after many a school paper, so do our actions and non-actions at home, work and church. What is most important in my life? Maybe I should answer that question each day and make sure I put first things first (thanks Mr. Covey).
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Phil 4:8
In the world of IT the change in years brought about massive preparation and expense at the turn of the millennium, remember Y2K! Computer programmers (including yours truly) had saved precious space by only storing the last two digits of the year in many databases, how myopic. Comparing dates of 99 vs. 00 would certainly cause wrong calculations and I'm sure there were mistakes made (and I'm sure there are still many places still storing only two digits). But billions of dollars were spent in the US on new software that was Y2K 'certified' and billions more spent repairing software to work correctly. In the end, Y2K turned out to be a 'non-event'. Was it because of the preparation and money spent? Partly, but the hype and scare by mass media agents turned a relatively manageable problem into what some believed would be the apocalypse.
How does this compare to the events in our world today? What really caused the economic collapse of 2008? I don't know the answer to this question and I'm afraid no one else does either. We live in a complex world - complex laws on top of complex systems. Will the new political regime usher in relief or will their changes be just another layer of complexity on top of the many that have been laid before them? What will one dollar buy 365 days from now? What will be the price of gasoline - and does it matter?
I'll pay closer attention to national and world events in 2009, partly out of fear but also out of interest. But more importantly I need to simplify my own life. Just like the writing of a year becomes habit after many a school paper, so do our actions and non-actions at home, work and church. What is most important in my life? Maybe I should answer that question each day and make sure I put first things first (thanks Mr. Covey).
"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Phil 4:8
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