Nov
5
2011
I’m very excited to launch a site and community I’ve been working on with Ted Meissner (The Secular Buddhist). This site is one piece of community building for Secular Buddhists, and this site is providing a lot toward that end.
The need for such a site came up over and over again in conversations on Facebook, in Second Life, and in person. Secular Buddhism is gaining popularity, but people have been floundering for good expert information via articles, videos, and interviews, and people have asked for a community (sangha).
As Community Manager and computer geek by profession, I have been eager to work on this project for some time. The planning stages were difficult for me, and an excellent lesson in patience, the virtue of forward thinking, and right timing. Maybe Right Timing should be added to the Eightfold Path:-)
This morning Ted and I did a podcast about the site and community, which will be published next weekend. The site and community, however, are open and ready to serve the Secular Buddhist Community. It’s an exciting time, and I am more than pleased to be one of the facilitators of the new wave of Buddhism in the US.
Please visit the site, enjoy the content, and interact with others in the discussion forums and comments on content pages!
Apr
23
2011
I recall how excited I was 15 years ago when I first signed up for NASA’s press releases online. I still get those press releases, but because of social networks, I also get to talk directly with scientists online through Twitter, Facebook, various chat tools, and scientific sites. Even more exiting, I get to be a part of discovery! Continue Reading »
Feb
9
2011
Building a site
WordPress (WP) has been an awesome publishing tool since it’s inception, but now it’s really emerged as a publishing platform, or content management system. I’ve been impressed with how this tool has morphed over the years, keeping our favorite ease of use, while expanding in phenomenal ways.
Originally, WordPress was design to publish simple content like blogs. There wasn’t much to it, and the interface was so easy to use, we just didn’t expect much from it. There was a time when it didn’t matter if you used WordPress, Blogger, or just threw up an HTML page on your site. At that time, I would never have recommended anyone use it as an actual site. Continue Reading »
Jan
29
2011
In memory of Heather Mikayla
I’ve thought about death a lot most of my life, starting with the death of my father when I was five years old. Like everyone else, I’ve wondered what it would be like to be dead. But my granddaughter said it best when her dad asked her what she thought happened to us after we die: “No one can possibly know the answer to that,” she sagely responded. So true, and anything we say about the thereafter is but a guess. Continue Reading »
Oct
17
2010
Me with Celestron 8 Advanced SGT
I remember when I was about 9 years old, lying on the front lawn one warm summer night, gazing at the stars. They seemed so close, yet so far, and I had no idea how true that was. The lights I saw had traveled to my eyes for over the course of thousands to billions of years. The stars fascinated me. It was around the same time the US had landed on the moon, and I wanted them to go farther, out to another solar system. Continue Reading »
Oct
15
2010
I’ve been a huge science fan for most of my life, and in recent years astronomy has been especially fascinating. I devoured Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series, read all of his books, and enjoyed his friendly, informative style. He made science important and special in a very charismatic way. He is much missed, and fortunately he is often quoted on the internet, his memory kept alive through his eloquence. I was such a fan and have felt his death was such a loss, that no one could ever breathe life into scientific topics the way he did. Continue Reading »
Oct
14
2010
I have several friends who have lost family members or friends in tragic accidents, and I’ve noted an amazing thing going on that could not have happened years ago. The bereaved are sharing their grief, the need to stay in contact with the lost loved one through Facebook, or similar sites. Continue Reading »
Jun
6
2010
I have been ranting for the last several years about the unbearable waste we create from using disposable grocery bags. The problem is the plastic ones aren’t really disposable, and they kill wildlife in the millions every year from sea birds to sea turtles. There is a mass of plastic goo bigger than the state of Texas in the Pacific ocean where the currents come together, creating a whirlpool of this pollution. Continue Reading »
Jun
4
2010
Some of the problems in the world have been going on for a long time. Many of us are frustrated and fed up by the world’s, especially our country’s, seeming inability to change. But change is the norm. We always have to remember that. Change happens all around us, in every area of our life, and within ourselves. Sometimes though, change needs a hard push. Continue Reading »