DON’T FORGET BURMA NO. 59…
0230 by Jeff Hess
11 January 2008
11 January 2008
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: The seven steps leading to self-unification:
Prepare a list of what you value most, your highest priorities in life.
Write each valued principle as an action statement.
See that your unifying principles are the highest truths and mutually compatible.
Write a paragraph of clarification under each unifying principle you put down.
Prioritize your unifying principles.
Evaluate your performance over the past few weeks or month with regard to each unifying principle.
Bring your performance into line with your unifying principles. p. 40
10 January 2008
10 January 2008
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff Hess
I’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is World Time Server.
10 January 2008
10 January 2008
FROM MY DAD… VIDEO WEEK…
0800 by Jeff Hess
I could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
10 January 2008
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff Hess
Historically freedom fighters have faced a decision: do they stay in the country their fighting for and battle from the underground or do they chose the life of an exile and attempt to bring about change from the outside? People in Myanmar’s democracy movement are a mixture of both. And each choice presents hazards.
From the BBC:
In a small, windowless room somewhere in Rangoon, a 35-year-old woman called Nilar Thein is wrestling with an unusual dilemma.
For the past four months, she has been on the run, scrambling between safe-houses, trying to keep a step ahead of the Burmese authorities as they hunt for the ringleaders of last September’s protests.
Most of those in hiding have already been tracked down and imprisoned, but somehow Nilar has managed to evade capture.
“I’m very careful about my safety,” she said, speaking on a mobile phone. She changes numbers regularly.
But the life is wearing.
But as the weeks slip by Nilar faces a growing quandary.
Should she remain in hiding indefinitely, or should she try to spearhead a new protest campaign against the Burmese authorities – a move almost guaranteeing her a lengthy prison sentence.
In many ways, Nilar’s predicament is shared by the internal opposition movement as a whole, as it struggles to regroup after last year’s dramatic street protests and the violent crackdown which followed.
“I feel inadequate when I hear that one of my colleagues has been arrested for their activities. I get quite depressed that I cannot go out and do as they did,” said Nilar.
“My friends tell me not to get carried away by my emotions. We all decided who would go out and who would stay.
“There are many things that I can do while in hiding. But I don’t see myself hiding like this forever. I’m just waiting for the right moment.”
What moment are you waiting for?
10 January 2008
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff Hess
My name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations From Sufi Wisdom by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut.
“Suffering has great redeeming quality. As a drop of water falling in the desert sand is sucked up immediately, so we must become nothing and nowhere… and disappear.” Bhai Shaib p. 110
10 January 2008
10 January 2008
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: The more you can pull performance into line with unifying principles, the more self-unification you have, the better base you have for reality testing and the better able you are to make decisions. p. 39
9 January 2008
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff HessI’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Make your own moon sand, dirt cheap.
9 January 2008
9 January 2008
WAL-MART WEDNESDAY…
1000 by Jeff Hess
It’s been a busy week in Wally World: the Universe’s source of cheap plastic crap. On The Writing On The Wal — the blog USA Today says should be on its readers’ radar — Jonathan Rees, Robert Feinman, Peter Sayles and I continue our work dedicated to drawing back the curtain on the Bentonvile Behemoth’s corporate disinformation and other flackery.
WHY CAN”T WAL-MART EVER GET IT RIGHT…? I really wasn”t going to write anything about Wal-Mart”s quiet annoucement days before Christmas that it was exiting the movie download business. But then this morning I found this Gizmodo headline in my in box and I couldn”t resist: Keep reading…
TWO WORDS NOT TO BE ASSOCIATED… Since first communicating with Dr. Subrahmanyam I”ve become fascinated with nuclear Wal-Mart.. I Googled the phrase this morning and came up with more than 1,800 hits. What does it say about the world that people are comfortable with this use? Keep reading…
IF THEY COME… WE WILL BUILD IT… Farmers in India have decided that protests are insufficient to fight off the tentacles of Wal-Mart and that they will need to fight retail with retail. My read is the farmers want to integrate themselves into an Independent Grocers Alliance model. Keep reading…
AT THE WALLY PLEX… There are sound stages on Hollywood”s back lots smaller than Bentonvile”s behemoths, so it”s no surprise that budding video talent has been sneaking cameras in at odd hours. And now for the midnight show at the Wally Plex featuring MsBambee. Keep reading…
AH, THOSE SCAMPS IN CANADA… Wal-Marts open 24/7 are no big deal in the United States. We even accept Wal-Mart beng open on Christmas. But Canadians – remember they”re the ones who actually tried to unionize – are thinking that the idea is so wrong. Keep reading…
SOMEBODY FORGOT TO GET A NON-COMPETE… [Update – 0815, 8 January – From the when-is-a-story-not-story department. Reader Ash tells us that Sinclair”s connection to Tesco is nearly 20 years old (he left in 1989) and some further checking suggests that Wal-Mart”s annoucement should have been one of promotion, not hiring. Any other UK readers or Wal-Moles have insights to add?] The fastest way to learn your competitor”s secrets is to hire a top executive away from them. That”s why standard practice is to have employees with proprietary knowledge sign agreements not to take that information to the competition. Keep reading…
2ND FAST FOOD CHAIN INKS WITH WAL-MART… Two weeks ago I wrote about Pollo Campero”s deal with Wal-Mart to put its chicken restaurants in 500 Wal-Marts. This week a second chain, the 109-location Camille”s Sidewalk Café, announced it too will be setting up shop inside Wal-Mart supercenters. Keep reading…
STEALING A PAGE FROM DR. EVIL”S PLANS… Back in August I wrote about Wal-Mart”s experimentation with mini-Wal-Marts specifically designed to target the entrance of UK-based Tesco”s Fresh and Easy Neighborhood stores. On the heels of Jack Sinclair”s hiring/promotion comes this news. Keep reading…
WHY IS A SMILE NOT THE DEFAULT…? I think I get into Wal-Mart more often than Jonathan does and my general experience with Wal-Mart workers has been a positive one. There is even one employee at the store nearest me with whom I”ve had good, non-Wal-Mart conversations with. Keep reading…
9 January 2008
FROM MY DAD… VIDEO WEEK…
0800 by Jeff HessI could never bring myself to forward all the email jokes, cartoons and other Internet comedy that land in my inbox. But then I started posting the ones my dad sends me. Judging from my comments and emails, my dad has become one of my greatest blogging assets. So for your morning blog chuckle I present: From My Dad.
9 January 2008
GOOD AFTERNOON MYANMAR…
0430 by Jeff HessI considered myself to be a practicing Buddhist for a portion of my 20s. What I found in the philosophical system — I don’t think you can call it a religion since it really doesn’t depend upon on gods or the supernatural; those aspects have become overlaid on it, but they are not vital to it — was a sense of how to deal with the hear and now.
The people of Myanmar are finding strength in that focus; in the Dharma.
From the Inter Press Service:
[T]hen came the brutal crackdown by the junta, where armed soldiers and riot police turned on the unarmed civilians and monks. A U.N. investigator revealed that at least 31 people were killed, but anti-junta groups have said that close to 200 lives were lost. In addition, over 650 monks and civilians were arrested and thrown into jails were torture and abuse are rampant.
Yet in the three months since, there are emerging signs that such a brief flicker of freedom has not been extinguished. Rather than take to the streets to get rid of the military leaders, who have ruled this country since a 1962 coup, Rangoon”s residents are doing so through the strength of Buddhist teachings, the Dhamma.
The residents have been organising Dhamma assemblies in many places to listen to sermons about morality from some of the country”s prominent monks. At times, these sermons have been used by the monks to give counsel and obliquely criticise the junta. A favoured approach by some monks is to draw lessons from the life of the Buddha.
It’s an approach that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. would have appreciated.
What lessons should we be learning?
9 January 2008
FROM MY CHAPBOOK…
0400 by Jeff HessMy name is Jeff Hess and I’m a biblioholic. I own hundreds of books. Not valuable books, mostly Science Fiction paperbacks and text books, tomes rescued by the bag from library book sales. A few years ago, in the interest of not burying myself, I began reading more books from the library and taking notes. My electronic chapbook was born.
This is a passage I copied from Perfume of the Desert: Inspirations From Sufi Wisdom by Andrew Harvey and Eryk Hanut.
“Then the Lord of Power will summon all those who sacrificed their lives in Holy Wars. He will ask them, And how did you spend your life?
“They will reply, We gave our life in your Way.
“The Lord of Power and the angels will laugh and call them liars and say, You sacrificed your lives only so people could call you courageous and dub you martyrs.” Ghazali p. 90
9 January 2008
9 January 2008
TIME POWER: TODAY…
0001 by Jeff HessToday, as I go about my tasks, I’ll think about: I recommend the following questions in prioritizing your unifying principles:
What do I value more than anything else in life?
What does my conscience tell me are the highest priorities, or values, or truths in my life?
Of all the world”s literature, what do I consider to contain the noblest principles?
If I could adhere to only three or four unifying principles, which would they be?
In a long-term perspective, which of these unifying principles will give the highest payoff to me, to my family, to my friends and to the company for which I work?
In what ways will I suffer or will others suffer if I don”t apply each unifying principle?
If I failed to adhere to any unifying principle, which would prove the greatest threat to my spiritual survival?
p. 38
8 January 2008
MY COMMENTS…
1536 by Jeff Hess
Part of being a good citizen of the blogosphere is visiting, reading and, most importantly, taking the time to leave a comment on other’s blogs. It’s all about the conversation. In the interest of setting an example I’ve decided to link to those blog posts that have compelled me to leave a comment.
8 January 2008
MUCKING OUT THE BLOGPILE…
1400 by Jeff HessI’m constantly tossing interesting websites into what I call my blogpile. Some of them find their way here in the form of regular posts, but more often than not they languish and get buried deeper in the pile. The end result is that I have to go back and do a bit of shoveling. Today’s item is Russia restarts Cold War patrols.
