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To a dear friend who's taken the rough with the smooth....

Oh, I do like the way the morning light falls...it's a palpable blessing from the sun!

That's on Lindell Boulevard, which faces Forest Park.

Tags: amoghavarsha, birthdays, friends, lj, photography
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: some plinky music from Biddles' swing!

Animals--especially omnicarnivorous ones-- are like fairy folk. Observe:

( cunningly crafted comparison table )

I've seen bears now and then, and foxes. Today I think I saw a coyote. At first I thought it was a fox, but it was much too big for a fox, more the size of a small deer... so I think it was a coyote. The coloring was more foxy than coyotelike, though. But perhaps there's variation in coyote coloring, around here.

It was about 75 yards ahead of me, up the road, and it crossed from one side to the other. It loped. It had a long tail.

Tags: animals, coyotes, fairy folk, fairy glamour, foxes
Current Music: They Might Be Giants: 32 Footsteps

HOLLY RODDAM!!!!

Hooray! This was fun:) The people in the picture are from the German Police Force performing in the Nova Scotia International Tattoo. It was a fabulous show as always.Here are some other glimpses.....

Swiss gymnasts

My daughter and her friend on one of the German bikes:) After the show, the performers come back out and people are encouraged to go down and meet them.

Be still my beating heart.....nothing like massed pipes:)

A link to my new fan page if you would like to join in the fun:)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bethblog/~3/dsFbEZ8Muyo/guest-post-by-debra-askanae-you-are-not-local-you-are-social.html

Submitted by Debra Askanae, publisher of Community Organizer 2.0

image by roadsidepictures under a creative commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license

There is no such thing as a local business anymore. Nor a local organization.

Consider the local mini mart, the most local of all types of stores. In general, people won’t walk more than 10 minutes or 1/2 mile to their local food mart. Why does the mini mart owner need to interact with his customers via social media? If people want something, they’ll just go there. It’s a fair question, easily answered by another:

What is Local?

I respond: Local is a Mindset. So is Social.

Local is You Talking. Social is Engagement and Conversation.

The local mini mart owner/manager is thinking old-school: bricks and mortar, customers searching for twinkies, chips and coffee, and lottery players seeking millions.Re-think your mindset out of Local and into Social about the same customer.

This time, the customer is sitting at home, wishing she had a pint of mint chocolate chip ice cream. Does the local mini mart have it? Send an email or a Tweet. Can she swing by in her car, illegally park on the sidewalk (hey, they do it all the time in my neighborhood) and get out in 2 minutes? You betcha - IF - she could submit her order via Twitter with an approximate purchase time, and could be sure it would be ready when she arrives. What if she told her friends via Facebook that she was heading down to the local mini-mart for ice cream? She could take orders from them if they were also coming over to her house later. The Facebook update is free publicity for the online or email ordering feature at the local market. That is Social. Not Local.

A great example of a local shop using a Social mindset is Houston’s CoffeeGroundz, which created a Twitter account (@coffeegroundz) and unexpectedly realized that they could do a brisk business with Twitter takeout orders. You can read the whole story, in detail on Pistachio Consulting’s blog, here. CoffeeGroundz is a great example of Social, not Local.

Consider the PTO, the local Parent-Teacher Organization of the local elementary school, the most local of local organizations. A tired parent receives a note about his child, or an email from his child’s school, about the meeting. He goes. The typical meeting consists of parents talking about why the school isn’t doing something or that it should do something better. The PTO wants new ideas, wants to use them, and hopes to involve parents in school improvements. Maybe you attended, maybe not. Either way, you get an email update about what happened. Are you engaged? Are you ready to act? Nope, you’re happy eating mint chocolate chip ice cream and can’t be bothered. The PTO is too Local.

Now consider the Social PTO. The Social PTO is all about making it easier for you to engage, act and motivate others to create real changes in the school.

You receive the next PTO meeting invitation via one or more of these methods: email, a group text message on your mobile phone, a Facebook Event invitation, and/or a listing on the PTO’s chat group (such as a Yahoo or Google group). You are asked to contribute ideas to the agenda ahead of time via an online site. You are asked to invite others to the meeting through the Facebook share application, and you proudly display the meeting as a Facebook Event on your profile. If you can’t go, you can follow the meeting either via live web video, updates on the group site, a #hashtag on Twitter, or real time Facebook group updates. You are able to text your questions to the the vice-chair during the meeting with an assurance that they will be addressed. The meetings are more efficient with the use of pre-sent questions and agenda submissions. The PTO has created easy, potentially viral methods to further engage and recruit people and their ideas. You are engaged and ready to act. The PTO is Social, not Local.

Next time you are about to go to your neighborhood meeting, send a Tweet on Twitter asking if anyone wants anything from the local mini mart. I’ll take some mint choco chip ice cream, please.

It’s all Social now.

This article was originally posted on Community Organizer 2.0 at http://www.communityorganizer20.com/2009/03/20/you-are-not-local-you-are-social/ by Debra Askanase:

Debra is a former community organizer and executive director, and the founder and lead consultant at Community Organizer 2.0, a social media strategy firm for non-profit organizations and businesses.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/07/demonstrators-tear-gassed-fired-on.html

Hundreds of protesters braved tear gas and even some live fire to march toward Tehran University on Thursday, commemorating a crushed student protest movement of 1999 a s well as protesting the allegedly stolen elections of June 12. Police intervened to disperse them. A new and significant feature of this demonstration was that simultaneous rallies also occurred in cities all around the country. Although the crowds were relatively small, this national coordination suggests a national underground organization is emerging. The authorities cut off text messaging capabilities on Thursday in a vain attempt to thwart networking.

Nico Pitney is doing his usual superb job of live-blogging today's events in Iran.

Aljazeera English has a backgrounder on today's protests

Nico Pitney's interview with me at the Brave New Studios in Los Angeles on Wednesday:

You can also see it at Robert Greenwald's Brave New Studio site, a treasure trove of progressive, web-distributed documentary film-making.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bethblog/~3/oSvNb0oERsw/guest-post-by-paul-lamb-the-religion-technology-divide.html

Submitted by Paul Lamb, Principal of Man On A Mission Consulting

As an avid promoter of technology for social change, and as an active participant in a community of faith, I have often wondered why the two worlds remain so segregated? Particularly when faith-based communities (meaning the full range of formal and informal religious communities) are among the most active social sector organizations? Not to mention the fact that the lions share of giving in the social sector is directed toward religious institutions - so there are resources that could be brought to bear if innovation found its way onto the religious radar screen. If religious orgs are serious about building and enhancing community, why are they so behind in leveraging the latest and greatest technology tools to do so? And if nonprofit and do gooder techies are serious about social change, why aren't they tapping into some of the largest and most effective community-based organizations out there? It's a missed opportunity IMHO. I have found that most of my technology friends never talk about their spiritual activities even when they are religious or spiritually inclined, and most of the religious leaders I know are relatively clueless (I say this with all due respect) when it comes to the revolutionary changes occurring all around us due to technology & innovation.

Fortunately there are some murmurings. A couple of weeks ago, Time magazine ran a story on churches using Twitter during their regular services. And picking up on the Second Life media blitz a couple of years ago, NBC did a story on religion in Second Life.(BTW, if you haven't seen this "Guided Tour of Spirituality in Second Life" its worth a looksee).

Here are a great couple of postings on "Church 2.0", which offers an overview of some of the most cutting edge and technology-relevant happenings that involve faith-based communities. Not surprisingly, much of the most innovative work is being done in so called "Celebration" churches with a relatively young audience steeped in broadcast and digital technologies. Many traditional religious institutions are experiencing a decline in memberships and losing younger members - perhaps in part because they don't fully understand how to communicate in a changed world? Take a look at the official website of the Catholic Church, representing the largest religion in the world, and you'll know what I mean.

I sense a lot of fear among traditional religious institutions around embracing and leveraging technology change. They seem to fear losing control and having traditional hierarchies challenged in an increasingly open source and bottom up world. Ironically, the best of social media leads to the kind of direct peer to peer communication among people of faith that was the origin of most mainstream religions before formal institutions and hierarchies were established. No doubt the new technologies can be distracting and take away from mindfulness and rich spiritual practice, but they also offer tremendous opportunities for enhancing and supporting religious communities in unprecedented ways. And many folks don't seem to understand, as the book Groundswell articulates so clearly, at the end of the day it's really all about relationships and NOT the technology tools.

.It is for the above reasons why I have decided to rollout a "Technology & Spiritual Practice" program, designed to help faith-based communities make the leap into the brave new world of technology and social media. I am also interested in bringing together spiritual and technology leaders to come together and dialogue about the creation of next generation tools and a "Spiritual Web" to enhance (and not distract from) spiritual practice. It's time we bridged the relgion-technology divide, so I have put together some workshops to do just that. I would love to hear from folks who are also interested and active in this area?

With a little honest dialogue and collaboration, I think great things could happen here!

p.s. You can join a discussion on this topic happening now on Social Edge

This article was originally posted on Cool n' Conscientious at http://cooltool.ning.com/profiles/blogs/bridging-the by Paul Lamb:

Paul is a consultant, writer, wild-eyed entrepreneur, and nonprofit professional.

Ohhhhh, to be back in Scotland where I thought I was going to freeze to death. To feel the cold wind whip the hair back from my face, to carry my rain gear in my day pack every day...just in case.

Or.........Colorado would be nice.....

http://www.juancole.com/2009/07/thursday-protests-called-in-iran-state.html

The opposition in Iran has called for further public nationwide demonstrations on Monday, urging protesters to use the techniques of nonviolent noncooperation. Those who are afraid to risk beatings in the streets at the hands of state security organizations are urged to drive around and honk their horns. Thursday commemorates the anniversary of 1999 student demonstrations that were violently repressed by the regime.

The Iranian authorities pledged to crack down hard on any demonstrations, since no permits for them had been sought or bestowed.

Only two of Iran's leading religious authorities outside the government have congratulated President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his alleged victory in the June 12 polls. The state chose having naked power over having credible authority, which may come to haunt it in the future.

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