Tom Squared

I was thinking about Jesus' statement that James and John need to "lay down your nets (they were fishermen) and follow me". I wonder if it's kind of a fair comparison for us Web developers to "lay down our Internets" (though I hate adding the s since it's not correct, there is not more than one Internet). So, is it even a valid parallel? I especially thought about this when reading about another individual who uses the Internet exactly 3 hours each day. Then it's no more e-mail, Web browsing, reading, IMing or whatever. I can't see how I could live life that way, but then I wonder if I can't see it because I'm so entrenched in it. Peace, +Tom

Do you ever with you could do just one thing and do it well? I've been off the blogosphere (I sometimes wonder if Rob and three of his blog readers made this term up all on his own) for a little over a week now and looking at my " To-Do " list of blog ideas. I've missed blogging, but none of my To-Do's have been enough to get me on my duff and writing. Then I came across this post on being inflexible by my friend Mason. This got me really interested in Wil's blog and a little bit envious of the fact that he is a programmer, just a programmer. This is evidenced his response of "OMG none of those words mean anything to me. I just write software." to the following comment. That is why you do things like TDD - in a sense, you model the use cases, which serve as tests. You can in turn derive the interface contracts from them and then write code that you use - which you can then measure code coverage (for both unit & integration testing). It...

Looking for pictures of confirmation (nothing was good) for my last post I came across this picture from a Catholic confirmation. This is not to be critical in any way, but can any of you good Catholics out there explain what they're doing? I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks, +Tom

Ok, I went a bit crazy talking about Altar Calls . I thought I went way overboard, but thankfully my friend Cindy has kept me grounded and let me know I didn't go incredibly overboard. I must say, having an altar call at a funeral shocked me. I understand and appreciate people getting the chance to discuss how Christ has changed their lives, but a funeral is all about the person who now gets to enjoy eternity with God. In my case I hope it's a big party for people. So, if you kick altar calls out of the running, how do we have conversations about Christ and when is it appropriate to make a public commitment to Him? How can we take the next step from simply showing up Sunday mornings and deciding to commit every action of our live to Christ? A lot of protestant churches have huge baptism ceremonies. Adults make a commitment to wash away their sins through water (sometimes dunking their entire bodies in a lake or pool or something) and entering into a new life. Episcopali...

There is something done at certain churches and large Christian events called altar calls. For those of us who aren’t incredibly familiar with them, the Episcopal Church doesn't do this. Altar call is a time where we ask people to make a public acceptance of Jesus and their faith. Essentially you hear a moving message about how Jesus can save your life, then you’re asked that if you feel Jesus moving in your life come forward and accept him as your savior. I've experienced this a few times, mainly at the Creation festival in Pennsylvania. One night they have a very moving speaker come up and really describe how Jesus has an unconditional love for us and how he sacrificed himself so that we can live without gilt and shame. No matter what you've done wrong, if you accept Jesus and live your life for him, your past is behind you. Then there’s a prayer where you should stand up if you love Jesus and feel him moving in your life. While I see some benefit here, in my experience J...

I was at a discernment retreat the weekend before last and had an awesome time. There was one piece to the weekend with really frustrated me. Each day we'd have morning, noonday and evening prayer in the chapel. The services themselves were great if confusing. You see, in the Episcopal church we have a Book of Common Prayer (or in layman's terms, the red book). It has a line by line description of what we do through a service, when to kneel and stand, what prayers to say, etc. It can certainly be a bit confusing the first couple of times since you jump around the book a lot, which is why we have a program for each service to explain where to jump to at a given time. The retreat center had a different book which was all about service of special orders. Things like the morning, noonday and evening prayer. Sounds all well and good, I cracked mine open and flipped to the evening prayer section. The problem was that we never followed the book at all. I was incredibly confus...

I recently heard this practice. Look around you and see everything you can find that's red. Take your time and find everything. Now, close your eyes and picture or identify all of the red things in your mind. Ok, now remember the blue things around you. What's directly behind you? What's the color and texture of the wall? Open your eyes and look around. How close were you? Most people will find that they can remember very few, if any, blue things. In my case I remembered one, but I was driving and kind of faking the process. I couldn't picture anything behind me without cheating. The point is that we go around looking at only a fraction of the world. We notice very little when there is so much more around us to see and experience. By staying within our comfortable and static lives we begin to insulate ourselves to only the world in which we surround ourselves. We begin to forget how to interact with the rest of the world. I was in Richmond this past weekend, righ...

What possesses someone to take a good show, end the season in January and not have a new episode until 2008? It's a good thing I have TiVo of I'd likely miss a bunch of episodes when it comes back. I really wonder what will happen to the ratings when they come back. This is a perfect example of continuing to remain consistent so that people stay in the habit. Peace (if it can be called peace… a year with no new Battlestars, he, he), +Tom

I choose to look forward to the phone call with my manager I choose to be content with what I have I choose to enjoy my friendship with God I choose to be happy I choose to dream I choose to enjoy this life I choose to dive in to my job I choose to be optimistic about discernment I choose to laugh I choose to cry openly I choose to relate to those around me I choose to relax through busy times I choose to focus on the task at hand I choose to focus on the people talking to me I choose to be awake I choose to be positive I choose to laugh I choose to be joyful I choose to be content with the things in my life I choose to look forward to change I choose to learn I choose to listen I choose to write I choose to understand I choose to be upbeat I choose to love my friends I choose to love my family I choose to love all people I choose to love God I choose to love myself I choose to learn from distractions I choose to enjoy solitude I choose to welcome and grow through criticism I choose to...

I've been reading Rachel & Leah: Women of Genesis by Orson Scott Card. In it there's this conversation between Leah and a servant girl, Zilpah: "I'm always happy," said Zilpah "That's ridiculous," said Leah scornfully. "Nobody's always happy." "I am." "You have nothing to be happy about," said Leah. The girl was fatherless! She had no hope of a decent marriage. "True," said Zilpah, "but I have dreams that make me happy. And besides, I don't have to have a reason. Being sad or angry won't make my situation any better, so I might as well be happy." "You can't just decide to be happy." "Why not? You decide to be angry whenever you want." This reminded me of high school. It took a big of doing, but with the help of friends I convinced myself that I was worth a lot, that I was upbeat and someone who would be a great friend. Soon enough that decision became ...

I just found out about the service called Bringo . I have to admit, I haven't tried it yet. Just the idea though is pretty amazing. Here's a service which lists companies you may call, calls them for you, navigates the phone tree and calls you back when there is someone on the phone. I can't tell you how many phones calls for laptop tech support I've had to deal with, I can't tell you how frustrating it is to contact HP (alas, HP still isn't in the list). It just impresses me that companies are finally figuring out how to seamlessly integrate computers with telephone and other communication. Services like Grand Central (which I still love using), Twitter (which I will likely never use for the sheer uselessness factor) and Bringo really understand how to integrate the Web with telecommunication to actually improve the life of people in practical ways. That I can click a link on the Web and get a phone call a few minutes later with exactly the person I wa...

Princess Rachel and Ms. Duck were the best of friends. Ms. Duck could fly and sometimes she would run and begin flapping her wings and swoop around the sky. Then she'd come down and Rachel would grab onto her lags and they would fly around together. The ground was so far away and they would soar over forests, oceans and all over. One day Princess Rachel and Ms. Duck were walking through the woods. They passed trees and bushes. They saw a fox run by one time and a big deer pass a little later. They also saw lots and lots of birds. There were bluebirds and red robins. There were blue jays and hawks and even eagles. They saw chickens and roosters, geese and wrens. There was every kind of bird you can imagine. All of the birds sang their different songs. Some went tweet, tweet and others went cluck, cluck . They heard a twitter, twitter and even a cock-a-doodle-doo . Duck called back to the birds one time, whistling a tweet, tweet that sounded just like a bird call. Rach...

I just returned from a discernment retreat in Richmond, Virginia. While the retreat was great, it wasn't what I want to focus on. I really want to focus on the Richmond Hill Retreat Center in Richmond where we stayed. At first I wasn't incredibly impressed; it's an older building in the middle of Richmond, Virginia. So there are no sprawling meadows or vast mountains to climb. Instead there's a gorgeous garden with two small Koi ponds (real fish so it's a Koi pond, right?), lots of old trees and some gorgeous flowers. The view from that garden? Smoke stacks, train tracks and a freeway. Plus I loved the deep ditch between the garden and the brick wall; it was exactly like the pit they put in lion cages at the zoo so they can't climb out. When I got the information about the center it mentioned bringing a robe because they have communal showers and bathrooms. Of course I was thinking of big open gym showers. Instead it's not nearly as bad. They ...

I just returned from a discernment retreat in Richmond, Virginia. The purpose of the retreat was for people who are thinking about going into ministry full time to understand the process of the Episcopal Church to figure out where God is really calling each of us. It was an incredibly informative weekend with a great balance between information about the process and getting able to experience some of the practices I'll be using as I go through the process. For example, we spent Saturday morning getting a whole bunch of paper and walking through exactly what the different options are and how you go through the process to be a lay leader, deacon or a priest (the presentation included what each of those means, thank goodness). Then the afternoon was all about silence and beginning to get our minds in line with individual prayer with God to hear his calling (essentially what He wants us to do) for us. Sunday was more information about what to do over the next few months, followed...

I was finally able to put into words today something that's been floating in my head for a while. I don't know if this is because of my age or some other factors, but I've realized that I am acutely aware that I am incredibly ignorant. Here's what's gotten me to this realization. For years I have been very sure that I understand the big picture and the ins and outs of things I'm interested in. For example, when it comes to Web development, the infrastructure or the Internet and even what's possible in programming the computer, I understand it. There is very, very, very little stuff that is "new" which is really new. The nuts and bolts make immediate sense and the only thing I wonder why someone hasn't done it before or why it is gaining traction this time when it didn't work before. I also really understand problems. I'll generally listen to a problem and understand what's going on, to some extent. Wither they are technical p...

I am a HUGE fan of backing stuff up. For example, I have Mozy installed on all our PC's, so it backs everything up in pretty much real time ( Carbonite was good, but I wanted something that would back up every file on my PC, and it won't do that). I also back up all our pictures to DVD every few months. I also put all my pictures on flickr as a final backup and so friends and family can see what I have. So, imagine my excitement to find out there's Blog Backup Online a free service (up to 50 MB, which is a TON when it only backs up text) out there that will back up my blogs. I only have one active, but there are two others I'd love to have stored some place other than Blogger and Wordpress . Speaking of which, anyone know how I can import my old blog posts into Blogger? This is possible in Wordpress, so have to think there's a tool which will do it for me somewhere. I've just now started using it, and so far I'm really impressed. It was so easy t...

No, not team work, though I love how it all rhymes. As I watch the teens around me get jobs, I'm a bit confused and concerned. Somehow they are getting the message that they need to work to make money, and to take whatever job pays the most. This concerns me because they are at exactly the right stage of life to do whatever job they want to do. This is the time when they can test out different careers without it having any negative impact on their life, and with the safety net of family. When I was in high school they had a strict rule (this is why I chose the school actually). After your first semester freshman year you HAD to have an internship. I was an elementary school teacher for two years, a classroom aide with my Spanish teacher (oddly, I stopped thinking she was a ridiculous, mean person then), read to a blind woman, taught a high school class, worked as a video camera operator and other things I can't even remember now. I also volunteered at a wildlife organizati...

Why is it that the people who have the least tend to be the ones taken most advantage of? Over the past four months two family members and one friend have been scammed out of anywhere from $1,600 to $4,000 dollars. In two of the cases it was from a person calling them on the phone while the other was one friend scamming another. We're not talking about Internet scams or anything. Definitely check out the Better Business Bureau Web site before spending your money anywhere. Since it's been hitting so close to home, I began thinking seriously about what we spend our money on. Here's what I've come up with. Our money should go to the places that aren't asking for it. There are billions and billions of people and organizations asking for our money. In my last examples all of the people scammed were approached by someone asking for a little money to help alleviate a larger debt, or for help by getting some money, then giving it to someone else. In each case someone...

I was watching Heroes this morning (gotta love TiVo) and one of the first things we see is a huge mess of strings crossing back and forth, filling up an apartment. On each string are pictures of newspaper clippings, photos and handwritten notes. When you look at it, initially it's a jumbled mess. A little later it all gets explained. Each string is a persons' life. The notes and photos are key events in that persons' life. The strings are arranged in a way which shows how each life intersects with someone else's life. In the end it makes for a huge display of an entire community. We can see how the community is connected, where their lives moved together and where they separated. We can see all of the events of an individuals' life, or that of the entire community. When you think about it, this would be a pretty amazing representation of life. I wonder what it would look like if I built this string based on my friendships. What if we built it for everyone at...

Yesterday morning Rachel and I decided to let Colin and Erin sleep in and relax into the day. So we headed out to Robeks and had Smoothies together. We talked about how sunny it was, how the smoothies tasted, something Ms. Mary Lee taught war in school yesterday, that a friend hurt her but Rachel was a "good" friend and told her "that wasn't nice, don't do it again!" That one was my favorite, by far. Really though we just watched people come and go, chatted a little, and enjoyed the morning. It was one of the best mornings I've ever had. It made the entire rest of the day seem almost inconsequential. If there was any problem or anything changed what I'd had planned (like that I worked 6 hours instead of my planned 1.5) it just didn't matter. Yesterday wasn't a particularly good or special day overall. Starting it off so well… Now the entire day feels incredibly memorable. How we start the day defines how we live the rest of it. Peace, +T...