Chilling Words: Comments

Comment on "How to Kill a Project"

Fri, 30 May 2008 10:48:07 -0800

Very sorry to hear about the change of fortune. I've been there more times than I care to recount, and I know it's rough.

Best of luck.

- JD Huntington

Comment on "Life Long Learning"

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:21:05 -0800

If you find a source for filtered and reccommended works, please do post it. However, I know in my education, most prompting of new texts and materials was done by the publishers themselves. This, as one might imagine, led to an environment where the biggest publishers got their new books in the door most often. Sadly, well done books were left by the wayside.

I can think of two instances where professors of mine brought great texts to class, but these were mostly professors who spent all of their time in journals looking for things to reccommend. Sadly, they seem too far and few between.

- JD

Comment on "Frustrating Story Conflicts"

Thu, 04 May 2006 12:09:07 -0800

Hey, Seth.

Conflicts are funny things. They get even funnier when you move from fiction into games, because in fiction, you get to plan out how it's all going to work from the start, and you don't get that option in games -- if it's a conflict, it very well might go either way, so you've got to be really, really careful of how you set up your conflicts and how you play with them once you've got them.

The thing is, they're absolutely necessary, both in fiction and in games. The conflicts have got to engage the players/readers or else they're not interested. But the conflicts also need to not disappoint the players/readers -- whether by crushing the hope that they've invested or by resolving the conflict too easily too early. So not only are they necessary, but they've got to be done right.

-- Josh

- Joshua BishopRoby

Comment on "Ask A Ninja: “What is Podcasting?”"

Sat, 25 Feb 2006 08:55:25 -0800

LOL! I love it! That was the best!

- Bill English

Comment on "The Middle Name"

Thu, 05 Jan 2006 12:40:59 -0800

I can think of two reasons for this phenomenon.

1. Brevity. We only use names o distinguish individuals, and it is our nature to use the least amount of identifying information as we can. Middle names are not unique in the context of familial relationship, so we rely on first and last. Middle seems to have no real purpose.

In my family, we use middle names to honor friends and family, or carry on family tradition. My middle name is the middle name of the first born sons for generations back, and is my oldest son's middle name to continue the tradition.

Most of my other children's middle names are the names or middle names of people or family members we wanted to honor.

Only one child has an honor-giving first name. ;)

2. Names were once associated with mystic power. A "true name" could give a witch, warlock, sorcerer, what-have-you the ability to specifically target an individual from afar. So, I can't help but wonder if there has grown a tradition of concealment based on that old folk lore.

- Dwight McDowell

Comment on "Allergy Relief?"

Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:17:33 -0800

Being prone to seasonal allergies as well, I understand where you're coming from. It has always been a trade-off, with regard to medicine - Suffer the harmful qualities of the original condition or deal with the alterations and side-effects you're submitting yourself to by taking the medication. Niether options are much of a choice, but all of us have to make it every day. Personally, I'm with you regarding the issue.. I've never been fond of knowingly degrading my body's natural systems. Organics require a delicate balance of chemical actions and reactions; As such, it probably wouldn't be wise to throw an otherwise foreign substance into the mix and not expect repercussions. I just suffer the runny nose and sneezing as a cost of the freedom to go outside without swallowing medication every morning.
~epic

- Victor

Comment on "Traffic Violations"

Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:52:43 -0800

The underlying problem here is not the lack of respect for the laws of the land, but instead a lack of empathy and consideration for the lives and feelings of other people. Humanity as a whole tends to be selfish, placing its own petty melodramas and problems over the opinions & rights of the rest. Our flaw, plain and simple, is that most of us so inherently greedy and stuck in our own shallow perspective that we don't care to stop and consider the needs and/or wishes of others. I think we're al lguilty of that to a certain extent - what makes you & I different than the majority is that we strive to change this and better ourselves, every day. Most would not or could not do so. It's the concious effort to improve ourselves that sets us and likeminded individuals apart from the mindless, apathetic masses. Sadly, one can only lead by example and hope that by being "better people", we can inspire others to make similar changes in the way they approach life. In order to improve on a greater scale, it takes the desire and effort to change on the part of each individual involved.
~epic

- Victor

Comment on "Introspective Discoveries"

Fri, 11 Jun 2004 07:45:06 -0800

Very nice....my thoughts exactly!

- jasmin

Comment on "Am I Really an Artist?"

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 20:53:56 -0800

If you ain't one already, you sure are on the way!

- Monty

Comment on "My Philosophy of Web Design"

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 14:17:59 -0800

I will not try to defend W3, but I will note it is (or used to be) comprised of developers from most of the major browsers. I will also say that the majority of the deprecations (like the <td> height tag) are due to a philosophy shift. That form of information no longer belongs in the tag but as a style of that tag, thus it moved to CSS and out of HTML (which was greatly needed).

As to getting anything done, it is true you can, but not usually for the time you will spend. Some browsers still do not support fixed or floating elements, and those are a pain to mimic in only those browsers. You end up creating unnecessary dynamic pages when all that is needed is a static HTML and CSS page.

- Seth Croston Barber

Comment on "My Philosophy of Web Design"

Tue, 08 Jun 2004 13:03:00 -0800

Now the funny thing is that even the page of screenshots doesn't display correctly in the "popular browser." :)

I find that sometimes the organizations setting the standards (W3 in this case) make rules and guidlines that are unecessarily complex or have no real value and serve only to render older pages non-compliant. (IE the "height" attribute has been removed from the td tag)

In my experience, nearly anything (yes, anything) that a web programmer wants to do can be done in nearly all browsers. The time that it takes to perform this type of programming is negligible, given that the programmer has planned appropriately from the beginning.

- JD

Comment on "A Divine Relationship"

Tue, 18 May 2004 09:51:03 -0800

I certainly understand why we have used familiar means to teach about our God, in fact I encourage it for that is a great way to learn: build a bridge from the known to the unknown. What scares and bothers me is when people fail to differentiate the two lands the bridge connects. God is and is not like my relationship with my father, is and is not like my relationship with my wife, et cetera. Using the comparisons do not bother me, it's when the differences are ignored. My biggest concern (fear?) is to think and teach wrongly about God and have to be corrected when I meet Him on the other side of death. This is why I ask more questions than I give answers for; my hope is I will not accept an answer without a reasonable argument, and I will not be complacent in my Faith.

- Seth Croston Barber

Comment on "A Divine Relationship"

Mon, 17 May 2004 23:49:45 -0800

Seth -- I think we use the metaphors and anthropomorphic means to try to explain God BECAUSE God seems so wholly "other" sometimes -- People often seem comforted by those comparisons, because they help us connect to something we can relate to. Jesus tried to help people get closer to God by using language of familial love, among other things. Agape (unconditional, all-encompassing) love is closer to reality, but often too foreign or far removed from human experience of love (conditional, specifically-focused) to help us with that sense of being connected!

I agree with you -- God is far more complex than we can grasp fully with our limits of understanding. If we use only historical definitions or descriptions, then we wipe out the current "living" aspect that we claim to also believe.

God is certainly greater than any one person, or any one denomination's definition or understanding, or even experience! I think Christians need to stop fighting over who "owns" God, and start following Jesus' commandment as laid out in the Gospel of John: Love one another, as I have loved you. By this the world will know you are my disciples, by your love for one another."

The Holy Spirit certainly plays a key role here - - for that is the aspect of God that communicates with us on a daily basis (and as you say, in various ways, and most often not in the mode we initiate), lives within us as well as surrounds us, and is that which guides, exhorts, comforts and challenges us in our daily walk. For this gift I am eternally grateful.

Blessings to you, nephew!

- Aunt Lois

Comment on "Telecommuting"

Mon, 17 May 2004 09:22:45 -0800

Still, I look at the telecommuting situation as a problem to be solved. There are problems, and I expect that, but I would love to see those problems ironed out.

- Seth Croston Barber

Comment on "Telecommuting"

Mon, 17 May 2004 09:18:13 -0800

As someone who has worked remotely on both large and small projects, I must say that telecommuting rarely lives up to the ideal. For that matter, it rarely works at all.

One of the few times it did work, I had to spend a week in New York with all the remote members of the team. We spent that week going over every aspect of the project and how we would handle our remote involvement, and we did it in excruciating detail.

Even then, one member was fired only two months into the project for not being able to follow the guidelines stipulated by the group.

- Dwight McDowell

Comment on "Commiseration"

Wed, 12 May 2004 06:51:25 -0800

Thanks for your prayers. They are much appreciated. This is a hard situation (as you well know), but I find comfort in knowing that God is in control. I know that is an over-used clich�, but it really is true. There is a reason for this and I am looking forward to seeing what God has in store for us.

Thanks again.

- Bill

Comment on "Jobs: Mixed Feelings"

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 17:28:51 -0800

Just a few words of encouragement... My wife and I had a similar situation for the first few years of our marriage, where she was the primary "bread winner" of the family, her income was nearly x4 times that of mine, plus I didn't have a job 2 months every summer.

To her credit however, she encouraged me to focus on what I was really interested in instead of trying to find any job just to let her stay home.

A few years later, she stays home and I work, making 150% of what she used to make. I think God sometimes does these things just for fun, to get our minds out of a box.

- -thinker-

Comment on "Disastrous Cooking Pending"

Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:09:19 -0800

Sounds great to me! When do we eat? :)

- Holly

Comment on "I Am Not My Father"

Mon, 15 Mar 2004 17:33:32 -0800

Seth, this is a nice tribute to your father. I have to admire the honesty in it.

- Grandma Barber

Comment on "Of Ghosts and Trees"

Mon, 15 Mar 2004 16:56:42 -0800

Seth:
This is a precious story. I didn't realize you felt this close to your grandpa, but I am pleased that you have these happy memories.

Neither did I realize you have such neat writing skills. There must be a magazine someplace that would pay for a story like this.

I see there are other stories for me to read. Keep up the good work.

Grandma

- Grandma Barber