Carabus (Coptolabrus) pustulifer mirificus Kraatz 1894 (Hubei, China)

A very significant development that the Internet has facilitated is the phenomenon of media convergence. Media industries worldwide have benefited from this development and capitalized on it to enhance and optimize their operations. Online news portals can now integrate print, radio and television on a single platform and give consumers a more enhanced and holistic experience. By becoming a part of this process, Radio has evolved into a modern day wonder - Internet Radio.

India's entertainment industry is a highly profitable industry that is growing by leaps and bounds. Several companies in the areas of print, broadcast, television, music, film, theatre, animation and graphic design have carved out their niches and established their positions as powerful businesses and brands. The key factor that drives these businesses in the entertainment industry today is commercialization and commodification of ideas and content into profitable entertainment products for consumption by target audiences. The music industry is comprised of several record labels, production houses,radio stations, television channels, artiste management firms and distribution networks that seek out and produce products that are commercially viable and have a high entertainment value. Outside this mainstream sector there are several other forms of music and many independent musicians across the length and breadth of the country that the mainstream music industry hasn't tapped into yet. These include a large variety of amateur and professional musicians who form their own niches and produce their own music and share it within smaller socio-cultural formations. Such a phenomenon is caused partly due to various structural contradictions in the music industry that prevent and deprive such musicians of exposure to mainstream media because of the low commercial value attached to their music. If a particular form of music does not sell, then it is not likely to be considered by music companies at all. As a result, a large pool of talented musicians gets scattered into lesser known subcultural formations and remains active within smaller networks and groups giving rise to new type of music known as Independent or Indie music.

What is independent music?

In a world where technological developments are blurring boundaries and changing the rules of the industry, it becomes difficult to find the perfect definition for the concept of independent music. There is a thing line that differentiates independent music from mainstream music but the conditions that characterize the two types of music function are different.
Independent music refers to the music produced by artistes who seek to break away from the mainstream commercial record labels in order to seek alternative routes to promote and distribute their music. Independent musicians seek to gain autonomy and freedom from the rules of the mainstream commercial music market so that they can control and enjoy the creative process of music making. They make a conscious attempt to disassociate themselves from record label contracts and promote their music by using their own resources. Most independent musicians follow a Do-It-Yourself(DIY) approach where they become self reliant and become involved in every stage of the creative process, right from the conception of an idea to creating the final mix and producing an album.Independent musicians develop their own little social networks,interact with other musicians at concerts and on computer mediated spaces,exchange ideas and identify several shared beliefs that strengthen the concept of Independent music and help increase its popularity.

• Risk management and organization surrounding risk management
• Business mixes and core competencies
• Management structure and other nuances of configuring management roles
• Proprietary trading / risk taking
• Technology
• Operations and support roles
• Ownership / corporate structure and other things (owned by a bank or not, for example)
• Deciding on what, if any, presence in consumer markets should exist
• Compensation
• Culture and approach to H.R. and other people issues
• Reviews and performance management
• Anything else that comes to mind

I think that feedback on other areas or how to group these would be interesting to receive. The first one of these issues I think should be tackled is technology. It's a topic I have thought a lot about and is extremely important in figuring out how day-to-day operations occur. I hope to have this up shortly. I have lots of skeletons of these entries written about, and more thoughts, so hopefully this series will have a lot of meat to it soon.

My "rant" today is about relevance, which I define as targeting your app or service to work within the context of your consumer. Many internet-businesses focus on two things: building easy connections to other web-users and trying to prevent total breakdown when viral growth reaches a peak.

The fallacy in that mindset is that users are being treated like nodes, who connect back or connect to other users. A node, in a P2P network, is a static entity, one that doesn't move. A user is, typically, a human being, one that not only moves, but exists on a different plane, the physical world. A lot of web-businesses fail to make that distinction and it has created not only the reality that we are being bombarded with connections whenever we sit at our PC, but we are expected to be connected 24/7.

I alluded to this last year, when I asked "what place does the web take?" The point of that article was really about the relevance of the web to real life. According to a theory, there are three places relevant to people: the first place, which is home-life, the second, which is work-life, and the third, which is leisure. The web, through email, blogs, work-apps, twitter, media, has become a hub in all three places, but its consequences are both information overload and obesity, both caused by passivity.

When you look up the word "break," it's defined as "a period of time taken out of one's professional activity in order to do something else." If the web is work and the web is home, then the break should not be the web.

Relevance is, once again, having services be context-driven, i.e. being relevant or shutting up at the right time and the right place and for the right person. A pretty complex task, but that is an ideal to live for.

Let me give some examples. Both TheFilter and Last.fm are services that both passively monitor media-life and actively provide services (such as radio-stations and the like). When I plug in my iPod after a run (a third place-activity), Last.fm asks me whether I want to "Scrobble" my tracks, which it in turn uses to make recommendations. TheFilter is not quite there yet, but it passively scans my iTunes-behaviour and creates custom-playlists for me if I want. You may think this is no big deal, but you'd be surprised how few services make even that tiny step from the web to the desktop.

A bigger deal, in my opinion, is NearByNow, which allows shoppers to search the shopping-malls that they visit, not by searching every store, but by entering a search-term for a product on their mobile or via the web, and having it search the retailers' inventory. I wrote about it here before. This is just a first step, but especially in retail there's much room still for merging the web with the shop.

Some more examples are the Nintendo Wii, which brings a physical dimension to gaming, and even the MacBook Air and the Asus EEE, both of which are clearly designed to not chain users to a location.

Relevance is something that a lot of commercial and non-commercial services are battling with nowadays. How do you sell a good online that you need to smell, taste, feel, or try on? How do you integrate virtual friendships into real life? How do you limit the amount of noise that your online customers are exposed to? How do you "synergise" the power of the web—information at a finger-tip—with a fragmented physical world? How do you create business models based on both the online and offline behaviour of consumers?

Those are the real questions to answer, not only for the web to become truly mainstream, but for it to stop treating us "users" like grey square boxes with a blue light shining out of it. We, the kids, the workers, the retired, are people dammit, with muscles (not just in the fingers), mouths, and other senses. We were not put on this planet to read 12/7 and type the other 12.

The next liberation-age is, I hope, about freeing ourselves from the machines and living life again as the hybrid entities that we are, producing both physical and mental energy.

Rant over.

Vincent

(The picture is the cover of the book "Snow Crash"—still the most relevant book about a very possible future of the information age today… if you ask me.)

Following is the Compete + Alexa scores for these services. If you ask me, it's all about the people… and while Twitter clearly wins, Plaxo Pulse has more visitors than FriendFeed, and FriendFeed has a higher monthly growth-rate than both of them (according to Compete). So… make up your own minds.

Vincent

[slideshare id=501296&doc=opentech08presentation-1215355720920700-8&w=425]

I'd publish the text, but I didn't prepare a text:-)

Anyway, the ViktorFeed is a development of basic python scripts I've been using for some time to collect data on certain aircraft movements through Sharjah and Dubai Airports. Both of these place all movements on the Web, but neither of them provide anything like an RSS feed, which is why I began scripting, in order to save checking them myself. (You can read about this phase in the Political Pathetic Python posts on this blog.)

The current version works as follows: the web pages involved are loaded and BeautifulSoup instances created for each one. If a page fails to load and an IOError occurs, this stage is skipped for that one and a default message added. Data is extracted using BeautifulSoup's find method in list comprehensions. Each flight is represented by a tuple of values in a list. For each flight, the tuple is unpacked and each item in it assigned to a standard variable. If the airline name is found in a whitelist, the tuple is discarded. Otherwise, various standard items - for example, the name of the airport the flight arrived at or departed from - are added, the time variable is processed to provide both a readable time and a time in seconds since the epoch, and a database is queried to provide the geographical locations of the source and destination.

In the event that a location is not given or not found, a default value is specified and a message added. The default location is in the Bermuda Triangle, thanks to Soizick. The values are reassembled as a dictionary and appended to a list. When all pages have been processed, the content of this list is decorated with the time values in seconds since the origin, and sorted into reverse chronological order. This version is then undecorated, and the individual flights are used to create a Simple GeoRSS file through Python string formatting, which is encoded as Unicode and written out to disk.

Items in the file consist of the time and data group, in the title field, the source, destination, airline, and flight number in the description field, a GeoRSS Line tag with the source and destination geocodes, and the current time and date in the pubDate field. This data can be visualised in Google Maps more than simply. The test version was served from my laptop, using the SimpleHTTPRequestHandler and ForkingTCPServer methods and port forwarding.

Things to do: get it going on a permanent Web presence, refactor the code into a slightly less ugly mess, keep all the flights in a database, make it possible to query past movements.

Hi,

every software engineer and project manager knows about XP and Pair Programming, but most of them doesn't know how to do it with a distributed team. A good option in this case is to make use of a Eclipse Plugin named Cola: Real-Time Shared Editing.

Cola's main funtction is to enable code real time editing by two programmers placed in different environemnts. It's provided by the Eclipse Communication Framework(ECF), so it's a requeriment to have it in your Eclipse SDK, and makes use of your favorite public IM accounts like google talk, or skype.

More information, you can find here and in this screencast.

--
Fernando

]]> http://survivorcorps.wordpress.com/?p=3 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:03:02 +0000 cabraham http://survivorcorps.wordpress.com/?p=3 This is an op-ed written by Jerry White, founder of Survivor Corps and author of I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis, on the Fourth of July, 2008:

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.” These are not the words of a pacifist or peacenik. General George Washington, the canny military strategist and first leader of the American army, recognized that war is a horror. While we bask in our independence today, let us also recognize the price paid by those—then and now—who fight for it. After the Revolution, 25,000 Americans lay dead. About 25,000 more were seriously wounded or disabled. That is a high price, indeed, for our freedom. Since 1776, the world has fought more than 300 wars, and nearly 40 conflicts still rage. The cost remains steep.

Today, 1.6 million Americans have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over 4,000 are dead. Those who return are missing limbs, are disfigured, are coping with traumatic brain injuries. Still others have less visible wounds. Over 300,000 now exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress and alienation here at home. They have broken marriages, unchecked anger, thoughts of suicide. Their military service may be over, but they and their families (including over two million children) remain profoundly affected. The costs related to stress and depressive disorders may reach $6 billion over the next two years, according to a recent study by Rand.

And that’s where we, as civilians, must activate. We must commit ourselves as everyday people to reach out to these wounded warriors to help them overcome. Because I am here to tell you, nobody survives trauma alone.

I have spent the past twelve years building a global network of people helping each other overcome the terrible cost of war—helping “victims” become “survivors.” In over 116,000 peer visits across the war-torn regions of the world, we have learned a few things about what separates those who lie down and embrace their suffering, and those who rise above, rebuild their lives, and rejoin their communities.

Survivors who successfully overcome traumatic injuries follow five basic steps. First, they Face Facts. These people don’t run from the truth of what’s happened to them. They don’t deny injuries, or disfigurement, or anger. They look at them, and incorporate them into their lives.

Second, they consciously Choose Life. It is crucial to remind ourselves and each other why life is worth living. Rising suicide rates must be addressed head on, because most of these individuals don’t want to die as much as they want their pain and despair to end.

Third, true survivors Reach Out. They reject isolation and divisiveness. They know that, to move out of a war victim mentality and onto the path of positive survivorship, they must drop their shell of anger and resentment.

Fourth, survivors have to Get Moving. Those traumatized by war, whatever the condition of their bodies, must get active. We all must take responsibility to do what it takes to “get in shape” for whatever the future may hold.

The fifth—and perhaps most crucial key to resilience and recovery—is to Give Back. Survivors recognize that it’s better to be a benefactor, not just a beneficiary. Everyone can have a role to play and contribute in big and small ways to our families and neighborhoods. To the veterans who served in war, I say learn to serve again. Become active members of your communities. Show your strength, creativity and work ethic to your friends and neighbors. You may look different, you may feel different, but you can still contribute.

And to the United States, as we struggle to recover from the war trauma we experience as a nation, I offer the same practical advice: Face Facts. Choose Life. Reach Out. Get Moving. Give Back. Families and citizens remain divided over whether we should have gone into Iraq in the first place. The Revolutionary War was no different—many wanted to avoid war or align with England. (Benjamin Franklin's own son, William, the Governor of New Jersey, remained loyal to Britain throughout the war, as did nearly 20% of the colonists.) But at the end of the war, then as now, we emerge as Americans.

When we can admit our imperfections and share our strength as survivors, as Americans, we are united. Certainly, as victims of war we have pain. We know loss and sacrifice. But we are still strong. Because it is more than just pain that unites us. It is our shared hope for humanity—our ability to overcome—that binds us together.

I am convinced that within each human being lies an inextinguishable flame, an irrepressible voice whose refrain is unmistakable: I choose freedom. I will not choose to hate, to wallow in self-pity, to retaliate. I instead choose to live, to thrive. I believe that this is the American way. Some say we are becoming less resilient and more cynical as a nation. And, if we keep making excuses and pushing our responsibilities to each other away, that is the path we will be on. But, I think we are better than that. I believe strength and generosity can be found within each and every one of us.

So, let’s honor our Day of Independence by uniting in empathy and support for families struggling with fresh wounds. In our mutual survivorship, there is no “us” and “them”—no civilian versus military, democrat versus republican, victim versus survivor. We are united in our commitment to one another. Choose resilience and optimism. Choose to reach out to those who are suffering. Let our lost loved ones, and their memories, cheer us onward and upward. And as fireworks explode behind the Washington Monument this July 4^th, let it commemorate and shout out America’s characteristic optimism and can-do confidence that we can and will overcome this “plague of mankind.”

Drop it-Capersomeness Heart Wonderful In step with High-flown Spending Carouse
November 20, 2006

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白星天牛

Carey from Parenting Tales is planning to write a review of I Will Not Be Broken, according to he post Just Call Me Critic:

I will also be reviewing a book from Survivor Corps co-founder as he writes about what he has learned from his personal struggles in life and how he was able to turn his tragedy into triumph.

Jennifer, The Army Wife blogs about Survivor Corps, Jerry White's organization, in a post titled Survivor Corps:

One of their founders, Jerry White, has recently written a book entitled I will Not Be Broken. I'm lucky enough to be receiving a copy of it from Survivor Corps, and I'll be posting a review of it when I'm finished. It talks about how to deal with adversity, and the ups and downs that life throws us all too often, and I know we can ALL benefit from some advice on that subject!

Ilori Olalekan revived a blog partially based on excitement over I Will Not Be Broken over on Parenting Cares in the post Dealing With Life Crises:

Life crises are unavoidable experiences which everyone of us must pass through. It is not to be bargained. These experiences though differing from one person to another is at the same time very similar in nature. This is why sharing ones experiences with another is of great help during these critical times, cause it infuses the courage and strength to bear the crises. Based on this truth mentioned above, I will like to introduce a book written by Jerry White, co-founder of Survivor Corps;"I will Not Be Broken Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis". This book is aimed at helping us overcome life crises.

Outwitting crisis is a blog post about the interview that Guy Kawasaki did with Jerry White of Survivor Corps over on Angel 4 Angels:

We may have all faced or are facing crisis in our lives, in varying degrees. Some of us may have survived it, others may have given in. But there is always a lot to learn from those who have suffered unimaginably but triumphed by sheer grit and self will. Excerpts from an interview Guy Kawasaki had with Jerry White, whose life changed in 1984 after he lost one leg to that lethal litter called landmine. He later co-founded Survivor Corps and went on to share the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

Stephen Hershey of Reality Sandwich covered Survivor Corps and I Will Not Be Broken in the blog post Reframing Survival:

Jerry White, landmine survivor and cofounder of Survivor Corps, shares his own healing process while advising those who are suffering from tragedy in I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis. White seeks to turn "tragedy into triumph," encouraging victims and their families to face facts, choose life, reach out, get moving, and give back. Voices include Lance Armstrong, Princess Diana, and Elie Weisel. The first chapter is available for download.

Deborah Evens over at Paravanes: Christian Meditations writes about Jerry White's book, I Will Not Be Broken, in a post called No Middle Ground: I Will Not Be Broken:

After reading White's five steps to overcoming, I realized there is no middle ground in recovery and reclaiming. Either you forever live as a shadow of your former self, or you emerge to become greater, more lovingly creative, and stronger. If you think you're on the middle ground, you're in shadow land. Perhaps this is what the Apostle Paul referred to when he asserted "…in all these things, we are more than conquerors…" (Romans 8:37). Properly understood (meaning from God's point of view), we can not only survive our LAEs, we can "more than conquer" them.

Victor Kaonga of the blog NDAGHA writes about survivorship and Jerry White's 5 Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis:

Jerry White, a cofounder of Survivor Corps, an organization that helps victims of war and terror. Our mission, and my passion, is to help survivors heal and get on with their lives. Sounds simple, but in many places where we work, the idea of overcoming doesn't always resonate.

This sounds to be a very promising book. I should admit that though I have not read the whole book (I am under extreme pressure to survive writing…-will disclose later), I sense the book has inspiring stories that would give someone some needed strength or perspective on life as we survive.

Of course for me I wish the book clearly advocated for God's help in life because human strength alone is not adequate. I strongly believe that survivorship is not complete without God and in any case our simple survivorship is simply a foretaste of what we really need to be. We need to be thriving and not surviving.

Scott Goodson write about the Interview that Jerry White did over on Guy Kawasaki's blog on his blog, Scott Goodson's Writings in his post, Five Steps For Overcoming a Life Crisis:

Jerry White has recently published an extraordinary book (entitled "I will not be broken") which I have ordered on Amazon tonight. He is the co-founder of Survivor Corps (formerly Landmine Survivors Newwork). His changed in 1984 when he lost his leg in a landmine explosion while visiting Israel. After this experience he has championed the cause of survivorship and became a leader in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In 1997 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jody Williams for his efforts. He recently published a book called I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis. Guy Kawasaki has a wonderful posting with an interview with Jerry today.

Kathi mentions I Will Not Be Broken over on her blog in a post entitled Monday Potpourri of Things to Pass On:

I received an email about a book that looked interesting, if you want to find out more about it, it's called I Will Not Be Broken : Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis by Jerry White. I'm looking forward to reading it and will let you know what I think when I finish my copy.

Karine found I Will Not Be Broken over at Guy Kawasaki's blog and mapped it to surviving entrepreneurial failure — and how to take that feeling of being a failure and the victimhood associated and turn it around and realize that just because you have a failed experience doesn't — and shouldn't — paint you as a failure — in a post called Surviving a failed project:

I read an excellent post from Guy Kawasaki's blog, How to change the world. The post was an interview with Jerry White, the co-founder of Survivor Corps. The interview focused on the art of survival. How do you go .. a tragedy, how do you move away from that event?

It made me think about the aura that failure can give you. When you project fails, you can surrender to the failure or move on, determined to make the next project a success. You can also choose to become a victim of that failure, a let it taint the next project with defeatism.

The Interview that Jerry White did over on Guy Kawasaki's blog on his blog really resonated with Shane over at What Leadership Demands in a post called Survival:

Of all the articles and stories I read this week this one stuck with me. I am fascinated by how much of what Jerry White has learned through is own personal tragedy translates to all of us and how we go through life.

At some point we are all confronted with a "life crisis". This crisis will ultimately test our faith… the question for each of us is where, or in who, will our faith be placed? Pay specific attention to question 3. The five steps Mr. White identifies as essential to overcoming a crisis in this world looks a lot like the stages anyone would go through as they accept Christ and begin to follow him to get beyond their past without him.

Mr. White does not speak to his own personal faith journey so I can not offer an opinion on his source for his survival process. Truth, though, has only One source regardless how we think we arrive at it. He does quote the Dalia Lama but that does not necessarily point us to where Mr. White's ultimate faith lies.

Jim and Brenda Johnson wrote a wonderful post about I Will Not Be Broken on their blog, Straight, Not Narrow, in the post "I Will Not Be Broken":

That's the title of a new book which, while it is not specifically about the LGBT community, it does cover some topics that are of value to everyone, perhaps every particularly LGBT people. The information below is from the official website for the book. I was contacted and asked if I would post something here about the book, and I am happy to do so.

Bruce Tomaso of the The Religion Blog of the Dallas News wrote a very lovely post about I Will Not Be Broken entitled Landmine Survivor Writes About Coping with Crisis

Jerry White, who lost a leg when he stepped on a landmine in Israel in 1984, is a co-founder of Survivor Corps, a group dedicated to helping the victims of violent conflicts around the world. He's been active in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

White has written a book, "I Will Not Be Broken: 5 Steps To Overcoming a Life Crisis," in which he offers his advice on how to get through tough times — the loss of a loved one, a painful divorce, a serious injury, and so forth.

Jill Army of her eponymous blog, Jill Army, plans to review I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White — in fact, she was inspired to revive her blog partially in order to do the review! We really appreciate it (via I'm un-jinxing myself!):

I intend to begin blogging again…right after I scrub the residual sticker goo off my computer. I will be reviewing a book : "I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis," by Jerry White, the co-founder of Survivor Corps http://iwillnotbebroken.org. I've already read the intro and first two chapters (thanks to the free download) and it's going to be inspirational and help so many people. I know it is something all my readers (yes all two of them …hi dad!) will enjoy and pass on to those around them that need to hear the message and take the steps. I know I will. Looking forward to blogging again.

At 8 Hours & A Lunch, Deb Owen wrote a review of the Interview that Jerry White did over on Guy Kawasaki's blog:

There's a must-read interview with Jerry White on Guy Kawasaki's how to change the world blog today that he is calling "The Art of Survival." […] I began to look for my "favorite snippet" in the interview, but the whole interview is worth the few minutes to read. It's a great perspective with applications many of us could use in multiple areas of our daily lives. Check it out.

Heidi blogs about Jerry White's book in a post called, "I Will Not Be Broken": The Book by Jerry White, Survivor Corps, on here blog, Mommy Monsters:

I have not read this book … but this looks like a worthwhile read for those who are struggling to rise above circumstances from their past or present. So I wanted to pass it on to you!

Guy Kawasaki wrote a stellar blog post about his interview with Jerry White on the Art of Survival, about Survivor Corps, and about Jerry White's new book, I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis:

Jerry White is the co-founder of Survivor Corps (formerly Landmine Survivors Newwork). His life changed in 1984 when he lost his leg in a landmine explosion while visiting Israel. After this experience he has championed the cause of survivorship and became a leader in the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. In 1997 he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jody Williams for his efforts. He recently published a book called I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis

Erin Burke of Liquid Heat wrote a forum post about the book, I Will Not Be Broken over on the forum SL Exchange:

I will be the first to admit that I am not a book reviewer or even a professional blogger for that matter. Recently a book was brought to my attention that I felt compelled to let everyone know about. The book is titled "I Will Not Be Broken" and the author is Jerry White.

It's funny how life works sometime, the person that told me about this book thought I would be interested because I work with Relay for Life in Second Life. I work with Relay for Life because on June 21, 1996 I lost my mother to cancer and it makes me feel as if I am honouring her life by hopefully helping raise money to find cures for cancer, so that someone else will be saved the pain and fear she went through and the pain and fear I have continued to go through by losing her.

I Will Not Be Broken is not a book about cancer survivors specifically, it is a book about survivors period. Survivors of any crisis that enters their life and how to live with it and overcome it. There was a line in Jerry's book that although very simple, really struck me

"They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It's not quite that simple. I believe you have to decide it will make you stronger."

There is a very thoughtful and Buddhism-focused blog post about Jerry White's book over at Transparent Eye, I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis by Jerry White:

I don't usually respond to press releases, but the one announcing I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis by Jerry White interested me enough that I checked out the intro and first chapter, which are available online.

White is the co-founder of Survivor Corps who lost his leg to a land mine. The book sounds like it has a self-help orientation, and is chock full of anecdotes. He distills it into a five-point program

o Face facts
o Choose life
o Reach out
o Get moving
o Give back

My sense is that it is compatible with Buddhist notions of compassion, though oriented more toward international humanitarianism.

Speaking now from my own knowledge, studies of human happiness have shown that it has little to do with actual circumstance, and more to do with predispositions are are either genetic or developmental. People can come back from tragedy, but a key step is to loosen attachment to the way things were but no longer are(Buddha's Four Noble Truths). Once that block is overcome, finding new life goals and working toward them can provide a path to achieving satisfaction.

Sharon of The Reservoir wrote a very complete review post entitled Book Review: About I Will Not Be Broken, a Book by Jerry White:

From a leader of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning movement to ban landmines and founder of Survivor Corps comes an astoundingly effective guide to recreating a happy and fulfilling life after catastrophe strikes—a book that Bob and Lee Woodruff call "a road map for the individual and their family to re-enter the land of the living." In I WILL NOT BE BROKEN, Jerry White reframes the question "why do bad things happen to good people?" and asks, given that bad things do happen, how do people absorb the blows and move through them?

Sharon also wrote a touching and insightful personal testimonial in a post called Dealing with loss (my experience):

In November of 2006 I lost my cousin to a fatal road accident. It was even more harrowing because I had known him for little over 10 years; both families had recently become reconciled. He was also one of my favorite cousins.

It was like most deaths of that sort, a needless one. I remember when I first heard the news, the question I kept asking was why? I needed to know why it happened. He was only 24 years old, he hadn't even begun to really live life. How could he just be snuffed out like that?

I'd just been called to bar (in fact, he was buried on the same day I was called to the bar). So I just buried it deep down inside me and didn't think about it.

Then less than a year later, I met my husband to be. In telling him about my family, I started to tell him about this cousin when I felt a deep flood of emotion threaten to drown me. I started crying and just couldn't seem to stop. I cried so hard, I wanted to die. I was still asking why?

I finally dried my tears. I still don't understand why. I became a lawyer and he wasn't there to rejoice with me. I'm getting married soon and he never even met my fiance. I still haven't deleted his email address from my inbox. Many times I think I'm over it and then I feel the grief well up again; and the tears start to trickle down unobtrusively.

But I have refused to allow the grief incapacitate me. Instead I tap into it and it makes me stronger. It gives me more compassion for others, keeps me in touch with my feelings. It reminds me of my own immortality and helps me keep my priorities straight.

In my own way, I have assimilated the 5 steps to dealing with crisis in Jerry White's book, I Will Not Be Broken and made them work for me.

I know my cousin is gone and nothing I do will bring him back; not all the grieving in the world. I can't shut down because of that (he wouldn't want me to). So I have chosen instead to live and not merely exist. I get together with my brothers and his brother every now and then to reminisce about him. It keeps him alive in our hearts and we offer strength to each other. I live my life in a way I know will make him proud but more than that, the experience has made me more compassionate to others who are also grieving.

These steps are time tested and have been proven (especially in my own life). We can't stop tragedy form happening but we can overcome tragedy. However it is a personal choice. But it is a choice that can be made if the steps in I Will Not Be Broken are diligently applied.

Sandy Carlson writes about Jerry White's book, I Will Not Be Broken: Five Steps to Overcoming a Life Crisis by Jerry White, in the post Review: I Will Not Be Broken:

The book outlines a program of five steps for coping with disaster. He draws on his experiences as well as those of famous persons such as Lance Armstrong; Diana, Princess of Wales; Christopher Reeve, the American Psychological Association, and the not so famous–his college roommate, his mom, Bosnians who survived the warn in their country, a little Cambodian girl who also lost a leg to a landmine. His drawing on the wisdom of persons from all walks of life underscores he beliefs that wisdom is a collective resource as well as an individual one and that all life is interconnected. White's book approaches the challenge of trauma positively by focusing on individual strengths rather than dwelling on what went wrong and why.

I Will Not Be Broken is an earthy, conversational, and real testament of the beauty and wonder of all life.

Burkitt wrote a post about I Will Not Be Broken by Jerry White in the the British Cancer Survivors forum:

I received an email from somebody recommending this book: I will Not be broken. I had a look at the website and I think the book is worth recommending to others, even though it was not written by somebody affected by cancer.

Carl Wilton wrote, in May 12, 2008 - Unbroken, on his blog, A Pastor's Cancer Diary, how the experience of a man who has lost his leg to a Landmine in Israel has a lot in common with someone suffering and surviving cancer. That illness and tragedy is transforming and always immensely difficult to overcome — to survive and then thrive:

I think White's conclusions can be generalized to include the experience of being diagnosed with a slowly-progressing disease like cancer. In the book, he recalls a conversation he had with Princess Diana, with whom he worked as an anti-landmine activist. Touring Bosnia and speaking with survivors, they observed that everyone seemed to have "their date." They could all state precisely on which date they had been injured or bereaved.

Many of us cancer survivors can do the same with our dates of diagnosis (mine was December 2, 2005). Before that date, we may have a suspicion something is wrong, but we still have the luxury of hoping it's nothing serious. After that date, we can never return to such naiveté. We will, forever after, be cancer survivors.

Mommy blogger, Robin, wrote a powerful post on her blog, Around the Island, Rebuilding a better world, one survivor at a time:

Until a few weeks ago, I had never heard of Jerry White, let alone known that he is a leader in the international fight against landmines. I didn't know that he has this calling because he himself lost his leg to a landmine when he entered an unmarked minefield in the north of Israel, my own country, in 1984. I didn't know about his struggle to redefine his life after his accident, to choose survival, and I didn't know that he had taken it one step further, going on to found the Nobel Peace Price-winning Landmine Survivors Network (LSN), the same organization that Princess Diana was involved with.

I didn't know that he had recently expanded LSN's mission from aiding those injured by landmines to aiding all those who are victims of the worst epidemic of all - the very preventable epidemic of war and violence. The new mission bears a new name as well - Survivor Corps - which reflects both its calling and its philosophy.

Now I know, and I am proud to help spread the word.

If you're interested in blogging about either Survivor Corps or the book, I Will Not Be Broken, pop me an email and I can hook you up.

My first wish is to see this plague of mankind, war, banished from the earth.” These are not the words of a pacifist or peacenik. General George Washington, the canny military strategist and first leader of the American army, recognized that war is a horror. While we bask in our independence today, let us also recognize the price paid by those—then and now—who fight for it. After the Revolution, 25,000 Americans lay dead. About 25,000 more were seriously wounded or disabled. That is a high price, indeed, for our freedom. Since 1776, the world has fought more than 300 wars, and nearly 40 conflicts still rage. The cost remains steep.

Today, 1.6 million Americans have served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Over 4,000 are dead. Those who return are missing limbs, are disfigured, are coping with traumatic brain injuries. Still others have less visible wounds. Over 300,000 now exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress and alienation here at home. They have broken marriages, unchecked anger, thoughts of suicide. Their military service may be over, but they and their families (including over two million children) remain profoundly affected. The costs related to stress and depressive disorders may reach $6 billion over the next two years, according to a recent study by Rand.

And that’s where we, as civilians, must activate. We must commit ourselves as everyday people to reach out to these wounded warriors to help them overcome. Because I am here to tell you, nobody survives trauma alone.

I have spent the past twelve years building a global network of people helping each other overcome the terrible cost of war—helping “victims” become “survivors.” In over 116,000 peer visits across the war-torn regions of the world, we have learned a few things about what separates those who lie down and embrace their suffering, and those who rise above, rebuild their lives, and rejoin their communities.

Survivors who successfully overcome traumatic injuries follow five basic steps. First, they Face Facts. These people don’t run from the truth of what’s happened to them. They don’t deny injuries, or disfigurement, or anger. They look at them, and incorporate them into their lives.

Second, they consciously Choose Life. It is crucial to remind ourselves and each other why life is worth living. Rising suicide rates must be addressed head on, because most of these individuals don’t want to die as much as they want their pain and despair to end.

Third, true survivors Reach Out. They reject isolation and divisiveness. They know that, to move out of a war victim mentality and onto the path of positive survivorship, they must drop their shell of anger and resentment.

Fourth, survivors have to Get Moving. Those traumatized by war, whatever the condition of their bodies, must get active. We all must take responsibility to do what it takes to “get in shape” for whatever the future may hold.

The fifth—and perhaps most crucial key to resilience and recovery—is to Give Back. Survivors recognize that it’s better to be a benefactor, not just a beneficiary. Everyone can have a role to play and contribute in big and small ways to our families and neighborhoods. To the veterans who served in war, I say learn to serve again. Become active members of your communities. Show your strength, creativity and work ethic to your friends and neighbors. You may look different, you may feel different, but you can still contribute.

And to the United States, as we struggle to recover from the war trauma we experience as a nation, I offer the same practical advice: Face Facts. Choose Life. Reach Out. Get Moving. Give Back. Families and citizens remain divided over whether we should have gone into Iraq in the first place. The Revolutionary War was no different—many wanted to avoid war or align with England. (Benjamin Franklin's own son, William, the Governor of New Jersey, remained loyal to Britain throughout the war, as did nearly 20% of the colonists.) But at the end of the war, then as now, we emerge as Americans.

When we can admit our imperfections and share our strength as survivors, as Americans, we are united. Certainly, as victims of war we have pain. We know loss and sacrifice. But we are still strong. Because it is more than just pain that unites us. It is our shared hope for humanity—our ability to overcome—that binds us together.

I am convinced that within each human being lies an inextinguishable flame, an irrepressible voice whose refrain is unmistakable: I choose freedom. I will not choose to hate, to wallow in self-pity, to retaliate. I instead choose to live, to thrive. I believe that this is the American way. Some say we are becoming less resilient and more cynical as a nation. And, if we keep making excuses and pushing our responsibilities to each other away, that is the path we will be on. But, I think we are better than that. I believe strength and generosity can be found within each and every one of us.

So, let’s honor our Day of Independence by uniting in empathy and support for families struggling with fresh wounds. In our mutual survivorship, there is no “us” and “them”—no civilian versus military, democrat versus republican, victim versus survivor. We are united in our commitment to one another. Choose resilience and optimism. Choose to reach out to those who are suffering. Let our lost loved ones, and their memories, cheer us onward and upward. And as fireworks explode behind the Washington Monument this July 4^th, let it commemorate and shout out America’s characteristic optimism and can-do confidence that we can and will overcome this “plague of mankind.”

Comcast Invests in Cartiza Networks; amount of seed investment in the developer of WiMax equipment for mobile broadband data, video and voice services not disclosed. (Multichannel News)

IPTV Companies Alice, Kassena Bought; France's Iliad, owners of Europe's biggest IPTV provider, Free, to buy rival Alice from Italia Telecom for $1.6 billion. Elsewhere, Espial is buying Kassena for just $6.1 million (all stock), a huge loss since Kassena had raised $70 million in funding. (Iliad: Variety); Kassena: VentureBeat)

Amazing Ball Girl Catch is a Fake; vid was an unused ad for Gatorade that got posted, received 3.5 million views (our question: who thought this was real?). (LA Times)

Mystery Over MovieBeam Asset Sale; anonymous letter filed with the bankruptcy court says Movie Gallery's sale of the set-top service's physical assets to a British Virgin Islands company was way undervalued. (Video Business)

Hearst-Argyle Hires New Digital Exec; Roger Keating was formerly with Time Warner Cable. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Photograph courtesy of Soaps.com.

I was thinking about this proposition this morning in between writing a paper on integrated CMTS and reading over at OneTrak about HBO’s ongoing strategy to make its content available online only through allied cable operators. (HBO introduced this approach back in January.) The beauty of targeting bandwidth for MSOs is that they can spend money where they’re most likely to get a financial return. For example, imagine that HBO and Comcast worked out a deal to offer online HBO content to subscribers not already getting it in a TV package for a small extra monthly fee. (an online approach to a la carte) Comcast would know that the only subscribers chewing up bandwidth with HBO shows would be ones contributing to their revenue stream. For that extra revenue, Comcast would probably be willing to spend money for more downstream capacity.

So then the question becomes, how does a cable operator target bandwidth? There are lots of broad-spectrum approaches, like analog reclamation and switched digital video, but targeting and then scaling bandwidth as needed is a slightly different proposition. One way to do this is by decoupling downstream data channels in a CMTS and adding physical cards with more downstream channels to a CMTS chassis as needed. In the scenario above, if more people wanted to pay for HBO content online, an operator could spend the money to make extra bandwidth available in small increments. Money goes out and money comes in.

On a separate note, HBO’s approach is fascinating from the content side of the business as well. Here everyone is trying to make money off free video on the Web, and HBO has decided it’s changing the rules for online video by working only through existing content delivery channels. Monetization is back in the hands of the service providers.

Important Clarification: I re-read this post and realized folks might think I’m advocating that operators prioritize online content by making more bandwidth available only for content they’re getting money from. I’m not. What I’m suggesting is that operators have a compelling financial reason to increase bandwidth where they know they can make money. However, that doesn’t mean that that same bandwidth couldn’t be used for other applications by other subscribers as well. That’s part of the business that operators are in. Ultimately if there’s not enough bandwidth to keep all subscribers reasonably happy, people will stop subscribing to both the baseline connection service and premium content services.

Here's some of the things I've been wrestling with:

Where does God want us to go?

Should we go with a network?

Should we go to a familiar place or some place where we would otherwise never go?

These are just a sampling of hundreds of questions I have.

So are there any other church planters out there who have these same questions? Anybody got any answers?

XoXo

Silvia ;D

conferme ---> Desperate Housewives: Stagione 5
Grey's Anatomy: Stagione 5
Lost: Stagione 5 (17 episodi in onda a partire dal 2009)
Brothers & Sisters: Stagione 3
Ugly Betty: Stagione 3
Dirty Sexy Money: Stagione 2
Private Practice: Stagione 2
Pushing Daisies: Stagione 2
La vita secondo Jim: Stagione 8 (18 episodi in onda a partire dal 2009)
Scrubs: Stagione 8 (ULTIMA STAGIONE! 18 episodi in onda a partire dal 2009)
Samantha Chi?: Stagione 2

cancellazioni--->Men in Trees: Stagione 2 (36 episodi prodotti)
October Road: Stagione 2 (19 episodi prodotti)
Cashmere Mafia: Stagione 1 (7 episodi prodotti)

novità---> LIFE ON MARS (vede protagonista un detective della polizia che in seguito ad un incidente automobilistico si ritrova catapultato nel passato,recisamente nel 1973, dove è ancora un detective, ma le cose sono 35 anni differenti.)

conferme ---> CSI: Scena del crimine: Stagione 9
CSI: Miami: Stagione 7
Senza Traccia: Stagione 7
NCIS: Stagione 6
Cold Case: Stagione 6
CSI: NY: Stagione 5
Numb3rs: Stagione 5
Criminal Minds: Stagione 4
The Unit: Stagione 4
Ghost Whisperer: Stagione 4

cancellazioni ---> Shark: Stagione 2 (38 episodi prodotti)
Jericho: Stagione 2 (29 episodi prodotti)
Moonlight: Stagione 1 (18 episodi prodotti)

novità ---> ELEVENTH HOUR (Accompagnato dalla sua bellissima bodyguard bionda, un consulente scientifico del governo viaggia per il paese investigando su abusi e crimini di natura scientifica. Il progetto è basato sulla miniserie inglese.)

THE EX LIST (Protagonista è una trentenne bella è di successo. Ha tutto quello che potrebbe desiderare, tranne un uomo. Un giorno una sensitiva le dice che è già uscita con quello che si rivelerà il suo futuro marito: Bella deve quindi andare a scavare nelle sue passate storie romantiche per trovare l'uomo perfetto con cui passerà la vita. Per farlo però ha solo un anno: se non troverò l'uomo entro la fine dell'anno infatti Bella sarà destinata a morire da sola. La serie è basata su un format israeliano.)

THE MENTALIST (Patrick Jane è un detective dotato di abilità osservative straordinarie: in passato ha finito di essere un medium mentre ora mette i suoi "poteri" al servizio della giustizia, allo scopo di risolvere i crimini. I suoi metodi poco ortodossi e discutibili gli creeranno però non pochi problemi, soprattutto col resto dello staff.)

PROJECT GARY (Divorziatosi dopo 15 anni di matrimonio, Hary deve andare avanti con la sua vita e lo farà anche grazie all'aiuto della sua bellissima nuova fidanzata, sempre stando vicino ai suoi due figli e alla sua ex moglie e il suo nuovo fidanzato.)

WORST WEEK (Sam ha un ottimo lavoro e una bellissima fidanzata, ma si ritorva - spesso contro la sua volontà - a doversi trovare attorno i suoi genitori conservatori: le conseguenze saranno disastrose!)

HARPER'S ISLAND (Un gruppo, formato da una famiglia e amici, è pronta a  partire per una isola fuori dalla costa di Seattle per un matrimonio. L'isola, oltre ad essere pittoresca e romantica, ha fatto da sfondo agli efferati omicidi di un serial killer sette anni prima. Quando vengono a verificarsi una serie di delitti, quella che sembrava una leggenda dimenticata, torna ad essere la prima delle preoccupazioni.)

conferme ---> Law & Order - I due volti della giustizia: Stagione 19
ER - Medici in prima linea: Stagione 15 (ULTIMA STAGIONE! 19 episodi conclusivi)
Law & Order - Unità speciale: Stagione 10
Heroes: Stagione 3
Friday Night Lights: Stagione 3 (In collaborazione con il network DirectTv)
Lipstick Jungle: Stagione 2
Medium: Stagione 5
Life: Stagione 2
The Office: Stagione 5
My Name is Earl: Stagione 4
30 Rock: Stagione 3

cancellazioni --->La donna bionica (Bionic Woman): Stagione 1 (8 episodi prodotti)                             Las Vegas: Stagione 5 (106 episodi prodotti)

novità ---> CRUSOE (Descritto come un mix di "MacGyver", "Castaway" e "I Pirati dei Caraibili", la serie è basata sul celebre racconto di Daniel Defoe, e segue le avventure e le disavventure di un uomo che - a causa di un incidente - vive su un'isola deserta da 28 anni, ma che è ancora determinato a tornare dalla moglie e la vita che si è lasciato dietro.) 

KATH & KIM (Basato sulla serie comedy australiana, questo telefilm vede  protagonista una giovane donna che dopo essersi separata dal marito torna a vivere dalla madre (anch'essa divorziata) che sta scoprendo che la vita non si ferma ai 40 anni.)

KINGS (La serie è ambientata in una metropoli sotto assedio: David, soldato coraggioso, riesce a salvare la vita del figlio del re, diventando una sorta di celebrità ed incarnando il simbolo della speranza che, effettivamente, si possa giungere ad una pace. Ma non tutto è come sembra e David si troverà ad essere circondato da persone che hanno intenzione di usare il potere a loro vantaggio... La serie è una rivistazione moderna della lotta tra Davide e Golia)

KNIGHT RIDER 2008 (Remake della serie anni '80: dopo il successo del film tv trasmesso a Febbraio la rete ha deciso di produrne una serie tv. Preparatevi quindi al ritorno della mitica KITT, rimodernata per l'occasione e diventata persino più cool, grazie alla nanotecnologia!)

THE LISTENER (Un paramedico ventiquattrenne riesce a leggere nella mente delle persone: il ragazzo userà la sua abilità per risolvere i crimini.)

MERLIN (Raccontata in modo moderno, questa serie fantasy è ambientata a Camelot e vede protagonisti Merlino e Arturo da giovani, prima che divenissero leggende.)

MY OWN WORST ENEMY (Heny Spivey ha due vite: una è quella di un perfetto uomo della classe media americana che passa le sue giornate tra lavoro, famiglia e un cane. Il suo alter ego è Edward Albright: conosce 13 lingue, può arrivare a percorrere quattro miglia 6 km in poco meno di un minuto, e uccidere utilizzando i suoi denti.)

THE OFFICE SPIN-OFF (Spin-off tratto da The Office: praticamente la stessa serie con nuove persone e nuove locations.)

THE PHILANTHROPIST (Dopo la morte del suo unico figlio, un playboy bilionario inizia ad usare misure estreme per aiutare tutti coloro che nel mondo ne hanno bisogno.)

conferme --- > Smallville: Stagione 8
One Tree Hill: Stagione 6
Supernatural: Stagione 4
Gossip Girl: Stagione 2
Tutti odiano Chris: Stagione 4
The Game: Stagione 3

cancellazioni ---> Life is Wild: Stagione 1 (13 episodi prodotti)
Girlfriends: Stagione 8 (172 episodi prodotti)
Aliens in America: Stagione 1 (18 episodi prodotti)

novità ---> 90210 (L'attesissimo spin off contemporaneo del cult anni '90 Beverly Hills 90210, vede protagonisti due teenager: Annie Mills e il suo fratello adottivo, di colore. I due dovranno affrontare i tipici problemi dell'adolescenza che nel loro caso sono amplificati, anche a causa del fatto che il preside del West Beverly High è niente di meno che loro padre e che la propria nonna - la star in "discesa" Tabitha - pare aver ultimamente trovato conforto più nel liquore che nella propria famiglia!)

SURVIVING THE FILTY RICH (Megan Smith si è appena laureata a Yale e sogna di fare la giornalista ma la vita, si sa, non è fatta solo di sogni e, poichè ha bisogno di soldi, accetta di fare da tutrice a due ragazzine ricche e viziate di Palm Beach. Le due dimostrano di essere poco interessate allo studio e più alla moda e ai ragazzi: riuscirà Megan a mantenere la sua integrità e a realizzare i suoi sogni oppure rimarrà intrappolata nel ricco e luccicante mondo di Palm Beach?)

conferme ---> Dr. House (House, M.D.): Stagione 5
Bones: Stagione 4
Prison Break: Stagione 4
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: Stagione 2
I Simpson: Stagione 20
King of the Hill: Stagione 13
I Griffin: Stagione 7
American Dad!: Stagione 4
'Til Death: Stagione 3

cancellazioni ---> K-Ville: Stagione 1 (11 episodi prodotti)
New Amsterdam: Stagione 1 (8 episodi prodotti)
Canterbury's Law: Stagione 1 (6 episodi prodotti)
Back to You: Stagione 1 (16 episodi prodotti)
The Return of Jezebel James: Stagione 1 (7 episodi prodotti)
Unhitched: Stagione 1 (6 episodi prodotti)

novità ---> DOLLHOUSE (Echo (Eliza Dushku) è una donna giovane che, letteralmente, è la fantasia di tutti. Fa parte di un "gruppo" di uomini e donne su cui possono essere impressi "pacchetti-personalità", includenti ricordi, abilità, lingua -anche memoria muscolare- per svariati compiti. Che possono essere romantici, avventurosi, bizzarri, sessuali e/o molto illegali. Quando non hanno nessuna personalità impressa, Echo e gli altri vivono praticamente come dei bambini in un dormitorio/laboratorio futuristico (The Dollhouse), senza alcun ricordo dei loro assegnamenti - o di nient'altro. Lo show ruota attorno alla sempre più rapida acquisizione di consapevolezza di se stessa di Echo e al suo desiderio di conoscere come era prima, un desiderio che inizia ad infilitrarsi nelle sue varie personalità impresse e che la mette in pericolo sia nel campo che nei confini di The Dollhouse, monitorati da vicino.)

DO NOT DISTURB (La serie segue le avventure e le dissaventure ambientate in un Hotel di New York: protagonisti sono gli impiegati dell'albergo e i ricchi clienti. Una serie che si divide tra il sopra e il sotto le scale!)

FRINGE (Una giovane agente dell'FBI deve collaborare con uno scenziato eccentrico e il suo problematico figlio genio per risolvere crimini che hanno a che fare con tutto ciò che, apparentemente, non può essere spiegato dalla ragione.)

Loving, caring relationships are the key to a good life. A person’s well-being is intertwined with the relationships he or she creates. Most of us cannot imagine a life without someone with whom to share our closest thoughts, dreams, and fears. Yet the truth is that many people—including many with disabilities—are often lonely, and the most significant disabling condition they face is their isolation.

Adapted from “Weaving the Ties that Bind”

PLAN Institute for Caring Citizenship

Loneliness is the only real disability.

David Pitonyak

Most of us know that isolation is both uncomfortable and dangerous. Bad things are more likely to happen to someone who’s disconnected from other people. And, anyway, most people long for community—for the richness of connection with others. Most of the stories we tell each other and most of the celebrations in which we take part are about the vibrancy of our relationships with other people.

So, we need to act against the isolation that people with disabilities experience. We need to invest our whole selves in building lives-of-connection with and for them. We need to do this on purpose.

Luckily, others have taught us about a simple and familiar image that helps us try to build relationship-networks for others. That image is the CIRCLE. Circles join things together. They include. All right, they can exclude too, but we’re not going to use them that way.

When we build a circle for someone who’s been isolated or who hasn’t had enough connections in his or her life, we do four related things:

1. We try to get to know the person as well as we can—what interests or excites this person? What makes or might make life rich for her? Who is already likely to have some sort of connection with him?

2. We look in communities for places and, more important, people whose excitements and interests match those of the person with whom we’re circle-building.