Tuesday, September 30, 2008
My new lifelong learning blog is live on the Seattle P-I!
Happy days! Several weeks ago, I applied to the Seattle P-I to author a Seattle lifelong learning blog, and I was approved! They do a great job of enabling Seattle reader blogs amongst their community, and we've pledged to keep it very open and inclusive -- so we'll be linking to great local teachers, classes and organizations that help improve local learning and the discovery of great Seattle-area teachers. If you have suggestions, please send them my way!
The kickoff post featured a Settle lindy hop class / Seattle swing dance lesson instructor named Chris Chapman, of Hepcat Seattle Swing Dance. My new swing dancing class starts tonight!
The kickoff post featured a Settle lindy hop class / Seattle swing dance lesson instructor named Chris Chapman, of Hepcat Seattle Swing Dance. My new swing dancing class starts tonight!
Labels: lifelong learning, seattle, seattle p-i, teachstreet
Great startup metrics conference in San Francisco this week
For those of you involved in the startup world, you're likely wrestling with metrics, metrics, metrics -- that is, "what to measure, how to measure it, and what to do with what you measure?".
A good friend and TeachStreet board member, Dave McClure, is running a startup metrics conference this week called Startonomics -- I highly recommend that you hop on a plane to San Francisco (or send you designated lieutenant) get your butt down there for this one -- unlike other events, this is pretty much single-track & single-focus. Rather than pie-in-the-sky vision stuff, it's tactical what-to-do/how-to-do.
Short preso & video below -- again, I'm a big fan:
A good friend and TeachStreet board member, Dave McClure, is running a startup metrics conference this week called Startonomics -- I highly recommend that you hop on a plane to San Francisco (or send you designated lieutenant) get your butt down there for this one -- unlike other events, this is pretty much single-track & single-focus. Rather than pie-in-the-sky vision stuff, it's tactical what-to-do/how-to-do.
Short preso & video below -- again, I'm a big fan:
Labels: dave mcclure, startonomics, startup metrics
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Happy Birthday to Me
I want to thank everyone for your well-wishes -- is amazing the impact that social networking sites have had on Birthday rememberances! Just received this "World's Greatest Birthday" card from Gregg... made me chuckle...
Special thanks to the team for their TeachStreet birthday decorations!
Try JibJab Sendables� eCards today!
Special thanks to the team for their TeachStreet birthday decorations!
Labels: birthday
Monday, September 08, 2008
New music sensation, Noah Horst
Noah is the son of good friends, Gina and Pete, from high school (Schuylkill Valley). Sorry, Tpny G, for giving you second billing... but it's rare that backup guitarists get any cred!
My prediction -- Noah's going to have some extremely enjoyable college years :-)
My prediction -- Noah's going to have some extremely enjoyable college years :-)
Labels: john mayer, noah horst, say, schuylkill valley, schuylkill valley panthers
Monday, September 01, 2008
Follow "The Path With a Heart"
I was just organizing/cleaning up my desk at home, and found this passage -- I love re-reading this often -- I hope you enjoy it too.
Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is not affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition.
I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old person asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it.
I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?
All paths are the same, they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now. "Does this path have a heart?" One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
The trouble is nobody asks the question: and when a person finally realizes that they have taken a path without heart, the path is ready to kill them. At that point very few people stop to deliberate and leave the path.
A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.
For my part there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.
And there I travel looking, looking breathlessly.
The Path With A Heart
from 'Don Juan a Yaqui Warrior'
Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions. To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life. Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is not affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do. But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition.
I warn you. Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question. This question is one that only a very old person asks. My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it. Now I do understand it.
I will tell you what it is: Does this path have a heart?
All paths are the same, they lead nowhere. They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now. "Does this path have a heart?" One makes you strong; the other weakens you.
The trouble is nobody asks the question: and when a person finally realizes that they have taken a path without heart, the path is ready to kill them. At that point very few people stop to deliberate and leave the path.
A path without a heart is never enjoyable. You have to work hard even to take it. On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.
For my part there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart. There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.
And there I travel looking, looking breathlessly.
Labels: don juan, path with a heart, yaqui
