Ruminations

I've been reflecting back on what we learned at Kiwanis Camp, saw with our own eyes, in terms of snow damage. Quakers should offer to step up to the plate and do some hard labor on behalf of this camp, if there's a real opportunity. That could be run as a fifth interest group, or sixth if we count the challenge course, which didn't seem damaged.

I like Teri's point that we have a lot of control over the stories we tell, the very same facts (not counting disputed ones) amenable to multiple interpretations, many of which "come true" only in retrospect, and so "after the fact" is actually a good time to refocus. I've learned similar lessons from some of my savviest business partners.

I still think back to OSCON and that high powered meeting on the future of databases. I complained that few open source projects seemed targeted at the gap filled by Microsoft Access, making SQL generation a drag and drop experience. Some in the older generation have a different spin: SQL itself was to "meet you half way" i.e. all further use of training wheels in the corporate sector is just pandering, not counting web services.

I think what mystifies a lot of students is why they work so hard, some of them, and have to pay for the privilege, whereas so many desk jobs involve little more than zapping memos to and fro, shooting the breeze as it were, and getting paid for it. They're right to be mystified.

:: debut September 16 ::