Doing life on planet earth.

[kenny]

Our Deepest Fear: by Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

I went out on a date last night, and honestly I don’t recall the last time that I went out on a "date".

It was a perfect night. The sun was shining in all of its glory and there was a cool breeze that gently rustled the leaves. We had a decent Italian dinner on the patio and when we finished we walked to the movie theater. The movie that I had chosen for us that night was Akeelah and the bee in which they used the above quote. Both the quote and the movie spoke to me, leaving me with the answers that I was asking myself earlier that morning. After the movie we walked over to the Trolley Wing Company and had a couple of beers that were crafted by a local micro brewery and we talked. It was during our great conversation where I reflected back on yesterdays post and answered my own questions.

Inspiration - it doesn’t just come from the negative experiences in my life, it's all around me. It's the smile on my sons face and knowing that he has a wonderful mother who puts him before herself. It's the beautiful woman that sit's across from me on this patio bar, it's in the firm but soft texture of the leaf that I stroked between my fingers on it's branch without harming it as I walked my date back to her car and it was there when I pulled her soft, warm body close to mine and gave her a hug. There is never a lack of inspiration, nor do you ever lose it, you just forget to see it.

Let me ask you something. When you hug someone, do you just put your arms around the other person and squeeze? Or do you embrace them; by wrapping your arms around them and pulling their chest close, allowing you to feel the warmth of their body and the rhythm of their heart whilst enjoying the feel of their clothes (or skin) under your fingertips? When you eat do you devour and swallow or do you chew every bite, savoring the flavors and try to determine all of the ingredients within while enjoying your meal? There are so many things to enjoy and there are so many things to steal my attention in this fast moving world, but when I am able to slow down and truly take time to ingest the simple things, I realize that it's not really scary leaving the familiar life I have known for so long behind, when there is something much more beautiful that awaits.

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Arrghugh. I just heard some discouraging news, SOX is back and it feels like they just left. For anyone in the business/IT world, you know what this means. For those that don't here is a brief rundown. Companies like Enron who embezzled all of the money from their companies and stockholders did such a number that publicly traded companies now have to have external auditors come in. The year before last wasn’t bad, but last year I had to spend three months with an auditor who knew nothing about computer operating systems or infrastructure and answer his questions. Every question he asked had to be explained in great detail and even then he didn't get what he was asking. To make matters worse, these auditors e-mail the data they mine from your company back and forth to people within their company - all over plain text. So even if you company is secure, it's now insecure with these clueless external auditors unless you take extra steps to insure that they are secure. So you not only have to audit your own company but you have to audit the people auditing you and explain security to them. Oh the irony of this whole sad process...

As for updates there are three short clips for your viewing enjoyment. The first is the thumbnail above. What happens when you leave Denver in a rental vehicle under the influence? You end up taking a wrong turn and find yourself 400 miles off course in the middle of nowhere. The other video is not work safe and it's called homeless box. Here you see a homeless woman that is surprised a foreigner has not seen "American box" - so she obliges. And last but not least, a small pointless clip where I try to help someone cross the road. Also the above quote and the ending monolog from the movie American Beauty were added to the random quotes, but the quote above was edited in the movie we saw last night. I am guessing the mention of God in Hollywood is a bad thing and it can ruin the lucrative movie partnerships with places like starfucks. By the way, if you have a worthwhile quote - e-mail it to us and if it's good we'll add it. Because I loves me some quotes.

If you are bored there are a couple of good reads on the Onion. The first is a very prophetic story about beefing up the border. I say it's prophetic because it came out in November of 1996 (maybe Bush's speech writers read the Onion). The second is about a courageous laptop that gave its life for the betterment of mankind. Enjoy...

[kweejee]

I'd have to say that wasn't the prettiest homeless woman I've ever seen. And thanks for the happy post. It was a nice change of reading.