Relationships and Distance

Many of us live at a distances, sometimes a great distance, from those we love. Our parents, brothers and sisters, our children, husbands, wives, friends, grandparents and mentors. Email, IM and telephones are great but they do not always fill our human need for closeness.

Mid-Summer

Hugh MacLeod wants to play as mid-summer is upon us.

Sarah is working and playing while on a summer project in San Diego. Her recent post and photos regarding Comic Con is great fun.

My bother Joe is working hard in Vancouver. Three of my five sons are scuba-diving every weekend. My exercise program is coming along nicely after seven months of effort, very much hoping to reach my August 1st goal of 156 pounds (two pounds to go).

Do you remember summer as a kid? I'd love to create those good times.

Relationships... For The Moment

You participate, for example, in a day of hiking, scuba diving or a museum tour with a group of people. Although you don't necessarily know anyone, everyone relates well, sharing stories, enjoying a simple rustic meal, and at the end of a fun day each person goes their own way.

I wonder why it is that these moments of shared activities and for-the-moment relationships in one's life can seem almost magical.

Relationships... At Work

Let's say that the relationship chemistry is at work with someone at work... You like your work, you enjoy your working environment. What to do, especially where the relationship could go south, and possibly, also negatively affect your career.

Relationship Chemistry

Why is it that the feelings of connectedness between some people occurs in such a lovely positive way? Is is chemistry, something else?

And, do these feelings that influence connectedness or separation between people change over time as we change throughtout our lifetimes?

Personal and Relationship Standards

Someone wondered about each person within a relationship having and communicating non-negotiable personal standards that are, by mutual agreement, applicable in their relationship.

Of course, each person and each relationship is unique, thus personal and relationship standards will vary.

The idea of thinking through and formulating non-negotiatable personal standards only occurred to me around the age of forty, especially with respect to marriage and my children.

My first marriage had already ended in divorce after twenty years... We married young and were blessed with seven children yet we did not work through and agree upon those values and qualities we each needed to have a good relationship. We suffered as a couple and our children suffered from the harsh unkind words and from the lack of harmony and shared purpose in our home.

Could personal and relationship standards enable me to have good relationshps in the future? Would standards help me to become a better father to my children? What did I want in personal terms? What did I want in relationship? What did I want for my children?

A few years later I was blessed to meet and marry an extraordinary woman. Sabrina is kind, compassionate and loving. In addition, Sabrina's words are true, she is committed and always moves to the good, and further, she believes in the power of personal and relationship standards as a means to support the living of a happy life together. Early in our relationship and long before getting married we formulated, communicated and mutually agreed upon our standards.

Sabrina's Standards as Originally Stated:

1. No emotional, mental or physical abuse. This is, emotional, mental and physical support.
2. No sleeping around. That is, fidelity to each other.
3. No lying. That is, tell the truth.
4. No bigotry. That is, respect for people of other cultures.

My Standards:

Sabrina's standards were so excellent I adopted them, plus
No dumping (I don't dump on other people, and don't accept dumping from others)
No ragging and/or yelling (AKA nagging)
Love my children
Don't get fat (No longer applicable)

Results... Fifteen very happy and loving years of marriage, happy productive and loving lives for my (now grown) children, and more...

Relationships... The Beginning

Relationships (to me) are mysterious and especially for great relationships oftentimes magical. The experiences within relationship throughout our lives give pause to, and are worthy of, a large degree of thought and wonder.

One might think that as a son, one of four siblings, twice a husband, a father of eight (now grown) children, and with almost sixty years of living and working with people that relationships are more easily understood. Not so dear friends!

In the days ahead the story of my relationship experiences will be unfolded... The wonderful, the tragic, the great, the less-than-wonderful, the good and... the surprising.

Getting News Quickly

Getting information from around the world via the Internet is an essential part of my daily routine and... I want to get it fast and effectively. It occurred to me that other people may have similiar needs, so, here are a few of my favorites.

BBC News provides excellent coverage on world news and events. Their navigation by geographic region and subject is easy and fast. They also provide a (modest) Technology section.

Digg is a first-rate aggregator and their technology section rocks. Dozens of technology articles can be scanned in just a few minutes. Definitely worth checking out.

Technorati Top 100 Blogs is worth a peek from time-to-time. A check-in once or twice a week will quickly give you some idea as to which of the top 100 blogs are cooling down or hotting up in terms of blogger interest.

Techcrunch provides excellent insight, screenshots and commentary on current technology innovations, including new Internet-based applications and services. I wish my understanding of Web 2.0 was greater as lack of knowledge is limiting my ability to understand the significance of the ideas embodied within Techcrunch.

As a Canadian living in Toronto, the Globe and Mail provides Canada's best daily business news, a reasonably decent overview of the national news and a more limited overview of regional news. The Toronto Star provides superior news coverage for the Province of Ontario and Greater Toronto Area (GTA).

London Girl Geek Dinner Short Movie

Sarah has posted news and a link to preview the soon-to-be released short movie regarding the London Girl Geek Dinners. Be amongst the first to check it out!

Sarah was instrumental in founding the London Girl Geek Dinners, and is currently working for a few months in San Diego and blogging of her experiences while there.

I wonder if there are girl geeks in San Diego who would enjoy connecting with each other by getting together with Sarah for a San Diego Girl Dinner.

Firefox Rocks With Blogger

Sarah is a technological guru! This morning I downloaded Firefox 1.5 to my ancient and much appreciated Mac G3 and... Voila... I can now see (and use) all six of the Blogger posting icons.

This is a beautiful summer morn for me here in Toronto, literally and technologically. I'm really excited to learn more.

YAHOO... Links Within Posts Success!

I posted a "How Do I" inquiry yesterday on Blogger Help Group regarding "linking within posts". I am really impressed that two people in addition to my friend, Sarah, kindly provided helpful advice.

One html coding suggestion with many thanks to Chuck.

My friend Sarah and Larry provided helpful guidance regarding the the icon method for linking within the body of my posts. However, I am currently using the Safari browser on a Mac and only two icons are visible on the top left-hand section of the posting box (spelling and post image). Within the next month or so I'm going to upgrade to Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and then download the latest Firefox browser. Hopefully I can then also use the icon method.

Larry has the technorati Icon on his blog... Thought this was very cool. I wonder how to do that! Hmm, good thing I like to learn as it seems that I have quite a bit of technology knowledge to acquire. Who says that age 59 (darn near 60) can't be a ton of fun.

Links Sidebar Success

Technology as an enabler for me to connect with people, places and ideas is a beautiful thing. The "how-to" regarding the technological bits and pieces brings the phrase "new and somwhat intimidating" to mind.

It was fun and satisfying learning how to create sidebar links on this gorgeous early Sunday morning in Toronto. A big thank you is extended to the Blogger crew who created the excellent "Help" section (www.blogger.com).

I really want to learn how to insert links into the body of my posts. First, because I find this capability so cool, and secondly, because linking within the post is fun. Sarah, my friend from the UK and technological guru provided clear instructions (www.sarahblow.com). However, I just don't understand the "how-to" as of yet. It is my fond hope that the lovely Jamaican saying "Soon come mon" will become real relative to linking within my posts.

Aaron... My Son and Geek Exemplar

This inital post to my initial blog was made possible because my son, Aaron, kindly helped to set it up on Blogger. YAHOO... Aaron rocks! Thank you son!

Additional thanks are extended to Sarah (www.sarahblow.com) for helping me to better understand "the ethos of blogging" and for her excellent commentary and advice regarding the subject of blogging. This kind, generous and delightful young software engineer from the UK has no shortage of demand on her time and energy with work, her technical blog, a recent biking marathon for charity and more... For example, Sarah was instrumental in founding London Girl Geek Dinners (http://www.londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk/). Sarah in currently working on a project in San Diego and you might enjoy reading of her experiences while there (http://sarahinsandiego.blogspot.com/). Sarah rocks!

I want to recommend Hugh MacLeod's site (http://www.gapingvoid.com/). His cartoons on the back of business cards are awesome. Moreover, the ideas and links that Hugh provides are interesting, informative, and at times, wonderfully thought-provoking. Hugh rocks!

I'm going to learn how to insert links with the body of my posts. I'll check Blogger help. Blogger rocks!