Is your strategy at odds with smiling?

Today I was perusing through my blog roll (which includes many game developers blogs), and one stuck out to me. The title is "Nintendo's Iwata 'Wouldn't Use A Strategy That Is At Odds With Smiling'".

A strategy can be at odds with smiling??? The article has a terrific photo of Satoru Iwata with a wide (and cheeky) grin on his face. No wonder, his strategies (smile worthy) have pulled through for the company, and now they are a major player in the market...

Are your strategies smile worthy? Do they actually make you cringe inside? If you were to share them with the rest of your organisation/church, would you be excited about them enough to smile?
Interesting thought...

At the end of the article Satoru finishes with the following: "Yes, I am super positive. In this business (being a company president) if you're not positive, you'll immediately get weakened and won't be able to continue."

The Transparent Church

Today I was perusing through a few sites and something struck me.

It's a sculpture ('Cathedra Domine') by an acquaintance of mine, Rosy Harray.

Here's her description of it:

My latest work, Cathedra Domine, was an overt look at the state of Christianity. My aim was to undo some of the conventions that have long been established over history by exposing the hierarchal, hypocritical and political systems that are found within the architecture and religiosity of Christianity. The skeleton framework is a way of ‘taking down the walls’ of the church. To strip back the excessiveness, expose it and provide a transparency that makes it vulnerable. This cathedral stands more like a conduit than a container and allows the opposites of light and darkness, architecture and nature to exist simultaneously.

The beautifully wrought skeleton of the church says “let all who wish to enter here be welcome.” There was no way this church could stop anyone from entering. The difference between the sculpture and the outside world dissolved since the wall-less structure obstructed nothing and the air, the grass, the plants, sky, path, and tree branches, were simultaneously inside and outside the church. This is a public work for a public park.

The things that she said that stuck out to me were:

• " (it) stands more like a conduit than a container" and
  
• "There was no way this church could stop anyone from entering."

The church should be a conduit. It should connect people to God, and allow him to be the power.
It should also be a place where we couldn't stop people coming in if we tried, that there's so much transparency that you can see right through the church and all it's schemes. If your heart's in the right place, why wouldn't you let yourself be transparent? We must overcome insecurity, and have a see-through faith.

Chilly winds in the sounds... still good times :o)

Well, It's been another few cool days in the sounds, they've been a bit colder too, so it's been a bit less of lounging in the sun. Today especially had these biting chilled winds, but at least there was some sun in there somewhere! Dad and I went on a hunter/gatherer mission and collected masses of kai moana, mussels from the rocks around the point; Dad steered the dingy while I had my arm over the side pulling up the big ones. I'm still not into them that much, but the whole concept of going and grabbing and preparing your own tea made it taste delicious! Might be getting back down to dunners after tea on Saturday now. So not much time to waste! In the spirit of that, I'm going to catch another rediculously early night. Looking to be about 9pm tonight, oh yeah!
The last week has been good for catching up on all the family traditions too, like having hot drinks everytime there's an opportunity, having a glass of wine with tea, and chocolate with milo before bed. mmmm.... chocolate before bed makes you not want to brush your teeth so the taste's still there ;o)
(For all you dentists out there, just kidding)
Got onto dry land today, and things kind of sway when you're sitting still. It's weird, because it feels very normal now to be rocking back and forth.
Gotta boost, as it's getting late. Ciao!

Day in the sun...

Well, today was really relaxing. Basically I slept in, ate, read, listened to music, lounged/slept in the sun, went for a (quick) swim, and relaxed. I mean truly relaxed, something that seems to be very hard to do when there is no silence. I think to truly let go of stress, we need to be removed from all the clutter.
Couldn't help thinking about all those I saw in Africa, and those I see in Dunedin, who don't have the privelidge or means to experience stuff like this. I haven't reached any conclusion on this, this tension between enjoying God's creation and blessing and feeling a little guilty about it. The key I think is not to squash that little peice of guilt but to embrace it, letting it change you; even if just a little. Anyways, today was very nice. Thinking of you all (hopefully didn't forget any of you ;o) that would be a shame)

Dan

Yachts, Sailing, Tech, and Family...

Well, to continue from the last post:
Coffee aside, we had a great/long time getting up to Picton. The best thing about leaving so early (4.30am) and getting there about 2hrs early (even with a long stop in Kaikoura), is that you have time to catch up with more family! My Nana and Grandad(Mum's parents, from Takaka) surprised us by being in town. Due to modern cellular telephone technology, we were able to catch up with them. Really special to be able to do so, because I hadn't really seen them since I got back from Africa. (Also, Grandad Ross has just had a hip operation which he's on the better side of. He is walking much better, and is also looking much chirpier!)
After a brief (I was sleeping. (earplugs, as if God himself invented them.)) ferry ride over to Wellington, I was catching up with both my sisters, my brother-in-law (I accidently called him my step brother the other day, wrong term and very awkward connotations for my parents :o) ) and my parents. Their yacht is very cool, it's about 11m long by 3.6m wide. Pretty spacious compared to the ones I'd previously been on. We had such a lovely 'birth/berth' in the marina. Wow, sailor talk can be sooooo awkward... We had a sweet crib hooked up in the CBD/Harbour. We got the lights, and were about 5min walk from all the places to be. $25 dollars a night for all of us. I tell you, it's the place to be for sure. Stink thing was, because of the weather we had to leave after one day. This ment that I wasn't really able to catch up with my sister Sharon very much. I think I've seen her for about 10 days in the last 3 years, which was a big change, because we were flatting together for a few years before that in dunedin. She got married and moved to Wellies of course; times change.
We had an incredible sail over Cook Straight. Pretty smooth with a great SSE wind so we could sail at about 6 knots for most of the way. Mmmm sunshine.
A nice little sunny cruise through the Tori Channel and into Queen Charlotte Sound. We're currently anchored in a sweet little bay where we slept for the rest of the afternoon. Holidays can be so stressful! :o) Though to be honest I'm looking forward to starting work properly just as much as I'd look forward to this! crazy I know.
Hope your times are going well out there in internet land. I don't actually know who reads this, but feel free to comment "I do, here is my gift of a sense of validation". or whatever.
God bless y'all heaps. I'll keep you "posted" about it. hehe heh he.

How does one know when one is a coffee snob???

Well, I'll tell you. It's when you can tell the difference between good and bad coffee. I'm in the Mulbrough Sounds at the moment. To get here was quite the mission, my sister and I drove here in one hit. Because our ferry to Wellington left at 7pm on a Friday, we decided to leave at about 4.30am. Ouch. Well, having to leave at that time in the morning means that you'll need to wake up right? Seeing as we'd just stopped at a BP (after having first left the city then turned round, deciding that there'd be no open petrol station at Palmerston...) I decided to buy a coffee from 'Bean There Café'. Wow. I recommend the experiment for experience. It started to go wrong when the person making my coffee overflowed the milk jug when foaming the milk for my late. (Not that it wasn't preventable) I tell you what, I think you should be able to judge the amount of milk to put in. As far as I can tell, the milk froth for a late should be smooth, almost solid in its consistency. This on the other hand, was like a cheap homemade milkshake without the flavoring. Well, apart from the flavouring of BURNING!!! I think she violated the not burning the milk rule... and the burning/overpacking the coffee grounds rule. The actual coffee tasted somewhat less of the pleasant refreshing aromatic bitterness offset with the earthy tones etc... and more of a charcoal/dirt. Wow, I love dirt at 5am in the morning. I actually put about 3-4 teaspoons of raw sugar in it when I got back to Anna's house just before we left for the second time.
How do you know you're addicted to coffee? You put sugar in a cup of shizer to make it palatable just because you still need coffee. Addiction vs Snobbery. The winner of the day?
Caffeine, the punk.

Wellington on the other hand made me the best coffee of my life. Big ups.

Jobs, Waiting, and Progress....

Well, it's been a bit of a long time, but finally I think we're getting somewhere! I think I first posted about the whole Masters Internship thing about 96 days ago! You might be correct in thinking the wait has been a little bit testing. However, I think I'm beyond the point of getting too stressed about the whole process. As long as the end result is good, I think I'll be more than happy.
About a week ago I thought "Mate, this is a bit crazy!", So I emailed the CEO of Straylight, and asked him if he could find out more about the current status of the application. About a month ago we sent the forms to FRST so that they could go over them to make sure that they were worthy for an official submission. I actually thought it was the official one, got my hopes up a bit.
Anyways, he (CEO==Tim) said that he knew that they (FRST) were really busy, but agreed that the delay was rediculous. As of friday they got back to us with five things to change/improve/include. One of which I'm about to do, it turns out that I forgot to include an official academic record! whoops. I'm pretty confident that we can do the official submission later on this week! After that it'll only be about 2 or more weeks till I find out then start. I can't believe it may be so close after so long!
See ya'll, just off to hand in the academic record stuff. God bless.