Tuesday, August 14, 2007

WOW! No Need For Temples

WOW a quote I saw in Kathy's email:

"There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness." - Dalai Lama

Works for me...

WOW! Kewl! -- Progress On A/C

To All:

The A/C that Hugh installed on Friday passed its Sunday morning test with flying colors!  Many thanks to Hugh and Spence - I think we're OK for now.

Jean

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Please Stop the Wars!!

This plea falls under the heading of "Love Thy Enemy Implies Don't Kill Them."

For those keeping track here's a profound link #1. and another profound link #2.

All can be found here at profound link #3.

Yet another profound link #4.

I still like the Global Thou Shalt Not Kill Day; or maybe it should be a Month or Year or Century or Millennium...

Remember: Peace is Patriotic!!

Ah Sweet Lovable Nature! -- Be Mindful of Stray Kittens

Speaking of rabies;

I remember seeing another article of a neighborhood that had to get rabies shots because some one found a cute little kitten and everyone pet it and touched it without taking it to the vet first. [Link to Kitten story]

This reminds me of a great book I used to read to my daughter and sons when they were little on how we should respect nature; remember we are a part of nature and be mindful that knowledge is useful: "There's a Hair In My Dirt" Book [Link]. I got to teach them irony -- a useful tool. Often we say the ironic refrain: "Ah sweet lovable nature".

Please be aware that Nancy is a member of our congregation and a vet; seek her learned advice.

Usually if I See a Fox It's a Bad Sign...

Nevermind the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, around February when I look out the window and see a fox the last several years it signified a rather volatile year; a year of much change. One year I saw a fox face off against a wild turkey; another year I saw three foxes in the snow chasing down a rabbit; and yet another year the fox walked up to our bird feeder in the back yard and marked the area -- like he owned the place. Each time I experienced massive disruptive change -- volatile with a capital "V".

This year in February I saw a dead fox by the side of the road on Clopper. I'm not sure how to interpret a dead fox. The practical pragmatic non-superstitious realist in me says: "It's a dead fox and part of the web of life".

This year there is another fox story; a fox story about an incredible act of bravery by a 5 year old [Link #1 to Fox Story]... [Link #2 to Fox Story] I read somewhere else that earlier in the day the fox had attacked a little girl in a nearby neighborhood. The theory was that the boy had fought off the same fox.

Thanks! & take care & be safe

Hey All You Daugthers and Sons of Sisyphus! Watch Your Toes!

For any and all who work to sustain Sugarloaf Congregation of Unitarian Universalist I ask: is our task Herculean or of Atlas?

No I perfer Sisyphus...

which relates to quote -- The gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.
Albert Camus Quote Link

and Camus's essay Link.

The essay concludes "The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."

I like the toes metaphor...[LINK!]

May we all find great happiness and keep our toes intact while rolling the rock together...

From JP: Reasons to eat more Rhubarb

I ran across this quotation:
"Because of its intense tartness, rhubarb is usually combined with a considerable amount of sugar."

Reading some of the comments on this page is funny:
Reasons to eat more Rhubarb Link #1

Consider the Rhubarb Link


Particularly this one from the Daily Mail: "Rhubarb's in the pink; It's eye-wateringly sour and reminds us of hideous school dinners. But suddenly it's selling like hot crumble. .."

And here's an interesting article - happily it seems the root and not the stalk is the medicinal part of rhubarb:
Reasons to eat more Rhubarb Link #2

Please note: some of the original links were broken so I substituted a few that appeared close in content to the originals.

A Whiteboard Stands on a Wooden Tripod in the Woods...

One of the first retreats I helped organize was at Little Bennett Park. A bunch of us were to have a workshop in the woods and then a campfire and singing. We were also suppose to have games too.

Bob Johnsen the presenter of the workshop set up the whiteboard and I could see people looking at each other and saying "wait a minute I thought we were going to have fun"...

Bob drew three concentric circles and said "the outer circle are visitors and people who attend the services and are people who are new to the congregations; and odds are they are new to Unitarian Univeralism; they are often passive participants. The next circle are people who actively join committees, or help on fundraisers, or join the choir, or teach RE, or help in the worship service; or help on the newsletter; or help with social justice and community out reach programs. The inner circle the bullseye are the leaders; the people who are on the board; and the lay leaders"...

While Bob spoke someone said "What happens next? Where do the people in the inner circle go?";

and, someone else said "Oh they burn out and leave"..

Bob's next question cut through the side discussion: "What do we call these people? What name do we give these people?" I believe Bob spoke of the inner circle.

I think at that moment Chuck said without missing a beat: "George"... Chuck would not miss a beat because he's an awesome musician and he once sang the song by Tom Waits called "Step Right Up". If you know the song then you are in profound awe right now...

And that became the shorthand for anyone who got burned out and the only way they saw to escape the concentric circles was to run screaming into the night.

They become "George"...

Of course people may also have left because they had to move, or they found another path, or they liked watching cartoons on Sunday morning; but i digress.

Here's the point: if we had to chose between you leave because you did not want to become a member; or you leave because you burn out; or you stay as a friend; then we would always chose that you stay as a friend...

The free and responsible search for truth and meaning is a marathon; please pace yourself. Remember you are not alone; we are here to support each other; there are others here to help. Slow down when you have to...

Please note: we did have a great time singing songs and eating somemores that night. And subsequent retreats were very much skewed towards fun...

Thanks! & take care & be well,

Digest News: The Following Post Has a Techie Geek Alert Level 4...

The issue before the SCUU techies, a merry band of techies, "Can we automatically generate the digest from the announcements that go into the order of service, the blog, or our online calendar?"

JP writes: "Yahoo Groups is oriented towards group use. It is also ad-driven and does not support calendar merging the last time I checked. Google Calendar seems powerful and explicitly supports multiple calendars; I had hoped the calendars would be set up along functional (committee) rather than geographic (i.e. rooms) lines but perhaps that can be revisited.

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/tour4.html
and
http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/tour5.html

Google in particular seem to address sharing calendars effectively and subscribing to calendars.

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=41208&topic=8606

addresses sharing with the world; if the calendars for the different committees/rooms/whatevers were all under ONE google ID, then the shared calendar for that one google ID would display all events from all calendars.

Regarding "resource calendars" (i.e. rooms), the following topics provide guidance (again, this seems to be within one google ID, but I could be wrong):

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=44108&topic=8606
and

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=44105&topic=8605

Regarding notification, that seems to be the major downfall of Google Calendar, but I haven't researched this in depth. It seems that folks who (a) have a google ID, and (b) subscribe to a calendar would receive notifications, but that's unclear to me. There are export options which would allow us to export events to another application and send out announcements using that feed. I am especially wary of creating an email per calendar change; we've successfully kept people on the announcements list by controlling the volume of email. However, a dump once or twice a week could work provided we (calendar updaters) are disciplined about
formatting event info consistently.

Sorry if I'm dragging people through options and functionality that has already been fully researched."

Spence writes: "Perhaps you're correct about the committee versus the resource. I can see advantages either way and I am willing to change if people what to. At the time most people (in my perhaps faulty memory and/or judgement) liked the color coding on the rooms. It can refuse to give you a room if its already reserved, a slight advantage. But I'm happy to revisit, especially if we need more security; having it done by committee would have traceability.

As far as notices, you can set them up to notify your (calendar owner) email of new events, and I think It's set up that way (I just picked that) but it goes to google@scuu.org which I don't see.

But I would think that we could easily (well, feasibly) auto forward those emails to a google group(s) that then did a digest weekly. We'd want people to always put nice notes in the calendar and even then we might get formatting problems in the digest - it would probably have irrelevant email headers on every digest message.

Just a few thoughts."

JP writes:

"Google Groups was more analogous to Usenet for a long long time, but the new functionality looks great and largely similar (although even better I think) than Yahoo! Groups. I can mass-add the addresses from the prior list, so translating them over may not be a big deal. We get RSS feeds for free!

I think we can use resource calendars for the rooms, but that makes sense only if we use one google ID, rather than different ones for all the committees. Personally, I'm not worried about different committee chairs messing each other up ;-) eventually, we'll probably have all calendar items go to one person for addition to the calendar anyway.

The forwarding notices sounds like one strategy that could work; another that could work is a calendar export & parse which may be trickier to set up but would give us more control."

Please note: Hopefully we get an answer soon. I like the idea of sending the digest out composed of links to a webpage. We'd still send out the digest weekly. I also like the idea of distributing the creation of the information, the publishing of the information, to many members within the congregation; a decentralized approach.

The wheels keep turning. Hopefully we arrive at a solution soon.

If You See the Buddha In the Street Part II

No Silly! don't kill him; I don't care if it's a metaphor. Invite him to a wow; and you might want to check out this web site Link.

Would Everyone Please Stop Killing and Hurting Selves and Others!

I got up at Joys and Concern's a few Sunday's ago and said "I wish everyone would stop killing".

I think we should concentrate as much on "Kindness to Self and Others" as "Danger to Self and Others".

Maybe we should have a Global Thou Shalt Not Kill Day!!

I read a Rolling Stones magazine piece in the latest edition with Zach Ephron on the cover. The article spoke of a gang that was against racist and Nazi's. However the "against racist and Nazi" group would show up at Punk Metal Rock concerts and start fights that resulted in serious injury and sometimes loss of life.

The weird thing was that one of the concerts where fighting broke out was at a Unitarian Church!!!

After reading the words "Unitarian Church" in the middle of the article, I said to myself "that's one congregation and board that has to rethink their music concert policy". Of course I also immediately thought that violence is not a good solution; and I thought -- Would Everyone Please Stop Killing and Hurting Selves and Others!

What a Great Greeting! "You look happy today!"

I was waiting at the bank to make an offering to the credit gods, a man was in front of me in line and he greeted the teller with the words "You look happy today!".

I think this is a much better greeting than "You look exhausted" or "Are you sick?".

I think affirmations and positive statements are really important.

When my daughter was little I remember her running around like she was powered by something we should harness to solve global warming. Invariably she would try to totally defy the laws of physics and get hurt.

When she got hurt she would look at us with "the look"; I called it "looking for the call" like in baseball when a batter looks at the ump for a call when he doesn't swing. The look asks should I get upset. And if you looked at her in horror or panic she would lose it and cry and cry and cry and feel pain. But if you looked at her and smiled, a smile that said "we love you good try getup and try again", she would go back to playing.

There is of course a caveat to all this; if she really did hurt herself bad by god you were at her side like an army of medical rescue technicians.

The trick was making the right call.

I say for the most part the right call; the courteous call is to say: "WOW you look happy"...

Please note: the story also applies to either one of my sons -- so you can substitue "he" for "she".

WOW That's Pretty Cool! Action Is Our Prayer

Action is our Prayer...

Hugh writes of the results: "I installed a 7500 btu unit on the right rear (south) window. The unit was given to us (Gwen and me) by our former neighbors across the street, and we're happy to donate it to SCUU. The unit appeared to cool immediately when I turned it on. The temp in the yurt was 90 at that time. As Jean notes, I've left it on, turned on high cool, coldest. Let's see what the morning brings. I'm pretty sure it will have some effect. Also note that this would be only one of two units that can be operated, the other one being the 6000 btu unit on loan from Spence and Nita--already installed on the left side of the yurt. In case anyone is wondering, I had to put the second unit on the right (south) side of the yurt because all the receptacles on the left side are on a single circuit, and the right are on a second circuit, 20 amps each. The AC units draw about 12 amps, precluding putting them both on the same circuit. The unit I install is pretty noisy, but it may be good to let it run from Sat. evening until the service, and then either put it on low fan or even turn it off totally. Someone can make that decision on Sunday morning. I would recommend that the first unit also be turned on on Sat. evening. I do like the idea of opening the skylight, even with the AC(s) running since it will allow some of the heat that collects in (due to the greenhouse effect of the skylight) the ceiling. Rather than bringing that head down with the fans and forcing the AC to cool that hotter air, letting it escape might be the best solution. It's not totally clear whether the ceiling fans blowing upward would help this or would just add to the mixing. It's an empirical question that we should pursue experimentally. We still have a couple of "summer" Sundays before September and cooler evenings return.

An added note, people have been concerned with cooling in the loft. My experience is that the control (remote) that operates that unit is not the most "user friendly." An additional problem is that the remote control does not communicate reliably with the AC unit. While one might be giving the proper commands to the unit, the unit may not be receiving them. Unless one hears the confirmatory "beep" from the unit, the command did not register. I visited the loft this afternoon when I was installing the AC unit in the yurt. The temp was set at 83 via the remote, and the temp on the thermometer read 83 degrees. It was about 90 outside, so the unit appeared to be working. I turned the temp down to 79 and cool air was coming from the unit, so it appears that the unit is in good working order.

You may recall some concerns raised over the main (central) AC in the house. I think it's already been reported but the problem with the cooling was that the unit was set to auto fan (correct), but the mode was set to off. The choices are heat, cool, and off. When I visited the house today, the temp was set at 75 and the house was quite cool. I turned the temp up to 78. We can decide what the temp should be if/when the house is not in use. I thought 75 was too cool (i.e., wasting energy) when no one was there. (We keep our home at 78-80 most of the time--a personal choice, not necessarily the preference of others).

Overall, we need to develop some "standard" practices and educate folks as to the way to use the systems.

Regards to all."

Thank you Hugh!

Thanks! & take care

Saturday, August 11, 2007

WOW AC Issue; Action Is Our Prayer -- A Plan

JP writes:

"I corresponded with Wayne who directed me to Hugh (Wayne is on vacation and has discussed our options in depth with Hugh). The short version is we'll need to take some time to put a long-term solution in place. Short term we probably need enhanced cooling for 4 weeks at most, and if small adjustments are made even that may be overstating the true need.

Hugh has received another A/C window unit which he is testing for suitability - the two window units may combine to provide enough cooling for the next several weeks. While some powerful units have been located by members for as little as $400, we know little about their noise characteristics. Units recommended by Wayne as suitable for a short term fix cost $700 or more.

We may be able to improve the natural cooling characteristics of the yurt by reversing the fan direction and opening the skylight and side windows to take full advantage of the "chimney" effect - currently the fans blow down which is the customary summer usage, but works against the natural convection stack which the yurt provides. We may also be able to reduce heat gain by putting up curtains or window film on the south side.

Long term recommendations continue to be led by the split systems for both efficiency and noise and lack of window encumbrance. Hugh has talked to Betsy and the A/C offer doesn't expire with this cooling season, so it would be best to work through our preferred options. A split system is currently used for the upstairs "Aerie", but some report it does not work effectively. Hugh notes the controls are not intuitive; documentation and training may be required for this and for the house main heat pump.

So the current recommendation based on input from our HVAC resource is:
- try another window A/C unit for the temporary fix;
- take additional steps to reduce the cooling load (convection through the skylight, block insulation with curtains and/or window film);
- document and train more members on optimal usage of the various climate control systems we have;
- continue to research more permanent cooling solutions for implementation prior to next cooling season (starts in April/May 2008)."

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

WOW! The AC Issue; Action Is Our Prayer

We had a wonderful service this past Sunday. Unfortunately it was so hot that a visitor became over heated. I believe it was a case of heat exhaustion. While she was attended to by her husband and others, a friend of the family and I called 911 on our cell phones. Kathy ran out to 118 to guide the ambulances into our driveway. Two ambulances, an army of Medical Rescue personnel, and a Firetruck arrived very quickly. The visitor was taken to the hospital for observation. It was sad that such a wonderful service had to end with a trip to the hospital.

Our prayer is that our visitor is well.

We had a small AC unit in the Yurt; we had two floor fans; and we have two ceiling fans. Unfortunately this gave us a false sense of security. We also did not do the counter intuitive act of opening the sky light window to vent the hot air that day.

Action is our Prayer.

Not unlike the act of "closing barn door", I offer this link as an act of "closing the yurt door": First Aid: Heat Exhaustion Link

It was ironic or coincidental that the discussion during the service in some part touched upon Graham Morrison's efforts to change the world via advocating the use of coolants that do less harm to the ozone.

Action is our Prayer.

We discussed the AC issue after service; Betsy offered to donate 2k towards AC; we held discussions before and during the board meeting last Monday; and we decided to address the AC issue immediately.

Something to consider; I did a quick study.

Yurt 38 foot diameter:

PI * R^2 = 3.14159265 * (38/2)^2 = 1134 sq feet...

Based on the BTU Guide
5,000-5,200 BTUs is suitable for 100-150 square foot rooms
6,000-8,000 BTUs is suitable for 151-350 square foot rooms
10,000-12,000 BTUs is suitable for 351-550 square foot rooms
15,000 BTUs is suitable for 551-700 square foot rooms
18,000 BTUs is suitable for 701-1,000 square foot rooms
24,000 BTUs is suitable for 1,001-1,500 square foot rooms

Walmart had this type of unit [LINK].

Keep cool with the Haier 24,000-BTU Air Conditioner. The included remote control
lets you adjust the temperature from a distance.
With three cooling settings, two fan settings and a 24-hour timer, this unit
provides powerful round-the-clock air control at a
fabulous price. Also works as a dehumidifier.

Haier 24,000-BTU Air Conditioner:
Electronic LED display with remote control
Slide-out chassis
Three cooling and three fan settings
Top discharge
4-way air flow direction
Safety power cord
Hydrophilic, resin-coated indoor coil
24-hour On/Off timer
Permanent mesh air filter
Dehumidification function
Ultra-quiet operation
Easy-access washable filter
Easy-to-install mounting kit
230/208 volts
Model # HWR24VC5

Shipping Weight (in pounds):143.0
Product in Inches (L x W x H):25.67 x 26.56 x 18.66
Assembled in Country of Origin:Imported
Origin of Components:Imported
Wal-Mart No.:001170615

$399.00

Looks like we'll need an external wall mount....

Here's the 18,000

Walmart link #2
Interesting the 24k BTU AC is cheaper than the 18k BTU AC... $399 vs $438

In the extreme, with current budget of 2k we can buy 5 AC units; we probably only need one 24k unit... A newer unit maybe quieter...

However, if donated AC's work we can hopefully work towards a long term solution...

Hope this helps!

Friday, August 03, 2007

A Short Letter On the Other Side of Complexity

“I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time." Blaise Pascal

We definitely want to write the short letter on the other side of complexity.

Next WOW 2nd Saturday of the Month!! Or is this Abilene?

We've been having the WOW on the Second Saturday because that's usually a good day for everyone. However sometimes we have conficting schedules...

For example: August 11th is the second Saturday of August 2007. However there is a party that day. If you would like to attend the party please let me know. We're flexible.

Over the Summer everyone is out on vacation, travel, a party, or at the pool. Maybe Saturday is not the best day. Please let me know when you'd be available to attend a WOW.

Sara spoke a while back about the Road to Abilene and I found a book called "The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management".[link]

One comment on the Amazon site regarding the book says a lot: "The Abilene Paradox essay talks about a family vacation to Abilene. Nobody really wants to go there, but everyone thinks everyone else wants to go there, but is affraid to speak up. The lesson is self evident, but the story conveys it in a manner much more memorable than a directive to 'Create an organization with open communication'"

That's the point - "open communication". I don't want the 2nd Saturday to be "The Road to Abilene". Of course in the land of UU's [Unitarian Universalist] where cat's are herded, and points and opinions debated, you can tell you're on the Road to Abilene when no one shows up. On a few occasions, I've spent a quiet 2nd Saturdays at the property, a really wonderful thing to do, waiting for the WOW -- no not Godot. The WOW. Sometimes a bunch of people show up and sometimes no one shows up; ya never know.

[Please note: With all due respect, there is in fact a UU Fellowship in Abilene Tx. Unfortunately, ironically or coincidentally, it appears their link is broken.]

Maybe we should have the WOW after Sunday service.

I'll send out an Evite and if you can respond with an alternative day and time that you can meet for a WOW that would be great. I send out an Evite so we can get an idea of how many people will attend.

At Orientation we listen to you, we tell you about UU in general and Sugarloaf in particular, and we share stories of our spiritual journeys.

Before, during, or after you attend a WOW, we encourage you to get involved and to join a Sugarloaf Circle.

Remember: Multiple Mentors & Friends Found at Sugarloaf WOW's & Circles!

How do I become a member? Link