December 31, 2002

new years

I feel like I should have some profound thing that will change tomorrow. Something I’ve wanted to do for some time, but haven’t yet made the effort and the only thing I can think of is to seriously start work on the ACI Study Courses. I ordered Course One probably about a year ago, maybe longer. I’ve started it with great velocity several times, but failed to follow through. In fact, failed to complete more than two of the homework assignments. Little sticky notes tell me that if I start today, doing two classes per week, with a week or two of break in between I could finish the entire course in two years. GREAT! But do I ever do them? No. I guess if I had to pick one, completing Course One would be my New Years resolution. You?

OR (for the nerds in the crowd)

My New Year’s resolution is 1024x768.

UPDATE: I work in technical support and I’ve been telling everyone my ‘nerd joke’. Only one person got it, so here’s a hint — I’m talking about monitors.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Try here.

posted @ 9:07 AM

December 28, 2002

stepping on toes

A few weeks ago I was sent a link to the Tibetan Liberation Theater. The concept behind the site seemed very cool, but the design would not display in my browser. I let it slide thinking that maybe a redesign was in progress. Checked it out again a few days ago and it was still the same — pictures over the top of text, the top frame taking up half of the screen and the left frame (all of the navigation) had scroll bars. I emailed the author who was unaware of the issue. I volunteered to do redesign on my day off and let the author know when it was finished. Now, I’ve seen many a site which could use some work, but never have I spent the time on a redesign. The reason is because I believe the content is important. The site has since been fixed (not using my design, but that’s ok). The major issue with the site is the lack of structure to the documents. Throughout the emails back and forth between the author and myself it was mentioned that a complete site makeover was just not feasible at this time. Too much work. I agree. The initial redesign would take some time — a whole lotta time, but if done correctly any future updates would be cake.

The magic key lies in the structure of the document. Once you have clean markup that has some meaning, you can make it all pretty with CSS. In a perfect world, every site with good information would be marked up this way.

UPDATE: Boxes and Arrows is all about Information Architecture — or designing your site wisely. Designing CSS Webpages also has some great information. (Expect this update to keep getting updated as more sites come my way).

posted @ 1:16 PM

December 20, 2002

hypertext

An email arrived yesterday with a link to the ACI Hypertexting Project. This is an amazing undertaking to create a contextual Tibetan-English dictionary using texts translated by Geshe Michael Roach. Check it out and see if you’d like to help.

posted @ 9:27 AM

December 18, 2002

changing things

She looked at me with such disappointment when I told her it wasn’t working out. I was surprised by this because I knew it was the only possible outcome. When I asked if she had read Chapter Three where it clearly states that it could never work out, she got even more upset, though she admitted reading it.

I don’t remember my dreams very often and even this one is a little sketchy. I’m not too sure who the “she” was or what wasn’t going to work out. Who knows what book we read. Seemed like some sort of instruction book on life (Lam Rim, maybe?). Anyway, it struck a cord with me. I think because it’s so true. People know that they will die, that all of their friends will die, that every good thing they have will go away. Yet we still run around getting upset at things when they don’t work out.

My job requires me to take supervisor calls. Some of the people are extremely irate. They threaten legal action, they talk about never buying one of our products again, they tell me how horrible of a manager I am because I can’t bring their machine back to life. I used to sell new things to people and they seemed really happy as they left the store, put their new CD in their car and drove off singing their favorite song. It was nice to give them that. I think I like working on the other side of retail though. It’s not that I take pleasure in all of the suffering these printers, scanners and computers cause people. It’s that I really like to talk to them and try to help them see that the only possible outcome was this. You have to walk this tightrope of acceptable behavior. The client could be listening at any time, so you can’t just say, “well, your unit was starting to break down the second it was created — in fact, each and every unit we have made thus far is on it’s way to a break down,” (the truth). But the customer usually knows the truth and also knows you have to be politically correct so they give a little and allow you to say things like, “well, unfortunately things do break down. I wish their was a way to stop that, but we haven’t yet devised a way,” without getting too upset about it.

Most of the time. Sometimes you get someone who truly believes that things last forever — that things are not changing on a constant basis, being destroyed the minute they are created. These are the angry ones. These are the frustrated ones.

posted @ 8:44 AM

December 15, 2002

native nation

I wonder what it would be like if the Native American’s had all gotten together and decided to be united against the European expansion a few hundred years ago. If they had sent messengers out in every direction saying, “ you know that big river? Meet us there we are keeping the white man on the eastern side of the water.” Had they been successful and had an independent nation I think it would be the model for the rest of the world.

We drove, as we always do on our way to Spokane, through the Flathead Indian Reservation. It’s an interesting contrast — trailers and boxy suburbs mixed with amazing, earth-friendly architecture. The People’s Center, Tribal College and other buildings in Pablo epitomize what could have been. Had someone stopped Lewis and Clark and said, “ya know what? Why don’t you head on back home, we’re doing ok here on our own, thanks. We’ll send Christmas cards.” Instead we find generic houses build like a modern suburb next to a trailer park, across the street from the People’s center. On the other end of town you have a big car dealership — a stark white, two story building, completely illuminated and surrounded by metal and plastic. If your eyes can make it past the obnoxious glow that surrounds the building you will see some of the most beautiful mountains Montana has to offer standing behind it.

You can have lights, you can have wood, rock, brick, metal, running water, a modern sewage system. Hell, you can even have plastic but why not use it in a manner that respects the land upon which it sits. The Parthenon is a great building, a wonder of the day and still amazing. It’s pillars were bowed at a 30% angle so that from a distance they would look completely straight (because of the curvature of your eye, straight columns like that become distorted from a distance). It would look completely out of place at the base of the Rocky Mountains, however.

I’m not saying Western culture is entirely bad, I’m just saying that nobody seems to notice how god-awful it’s gotten. Or maybe we notice, we just don’t care anymore. Even the Native people who seem to inherently know the difference between respecting the land and abusing the land have forgotten as they let car upon car pile up in their front yard — the same cars from the glowing dealership on the other side of town.

posted @ 10:16 AM

December 10, 2002

tong len

Over at Digital Dharma they have added Tong Len videos. Tong Len means ‘giving and taking’ and is a meditation. I’ve only practiced this a little (I’m downloading the videos right now) but it is a very cool practice. You think about a future problem — not too hard, harder to narrow it down to one specific thing — and you go over every little detail. You live the experience, sitting quietly. Then when that moment arises later in the day you’ve already been there and you don’t have to suffer at that moment. You just sort of smile and say to yourself, “been there, done that.” Give it a try, see for yourself.

UPDATE: Not really very much like what I described at all. Still amazing though. Only the len (taking) videos are posted right now. You take the suffering of a particular person and burn it in your flame of selfishness. It’s really amazing.

posted @ 9:55 PM

December 8, 2002

meals

I broke myself of the habit of praying before meals — pretty much long before it was ever really a habit. At family gatherings it is usually done, but that’s about it. Depending on who’s family, it can be very official (the proper Mormon or Episcopalian verse) to very funny (we have family members who’s matriarch happens to be named Grace. Someone says, “grace” and others say, “Ron and Greg”).

I’m planning to take Buddhist refuge vows in March when the monks are here and in preparation (to make sure I really want to do it) I’ve been trying to keep the book to see what it will be like. I’m really having difficulty with refuge vow number eight - “In remembrance of their kindness, offering the fist part of any food or drink to the refuge objects.”

Two weeks ago I would go through an entire meal without thinking about it. Then I’d go to pickup the book and remember. Now I take a few drinks or a few bites and remember. I guess this is the point, that steadily you improve but man... it’s extremely hard to change years of conditioning.

posted @ 8:27 AM