*Not really. A few weeks ago I did go to hear Francis Collins speak at Stanford with Paul and Kindel. They filmed it and apparently you can see me in the audience during the Q&A time at the end. Here's a link to the video.
So who is Francis Collins? He led the successful government attempt to decode the human genome and is an outspoken Christian. He travels around and gives talks about how being a Christian is not at odds with studying science and how in fact science has given us some big "pointers" to God's existence.
The talk was excellent and so was the Q&A time, although I wasn't a huge fan of some of his theological perspectives as revealed in his answers to questions. A highlight was when he played a video of his visit to the Colbert Report. Some things that I learned:
- The constants that show up in equations that govern physics are very finely tuned to allow for complexity to arise in the universe.
- Intelligent design is on weaker intellectual footing than I realized. He has an appealing alternative viewpoint called "Theistic Evolution".
Some questions the talk and Q&A opened or re-opened for me:
- If Adam and Eve are representative of humans then why does Paul go on in Romans about us all being fallen sinners because we come from Adam?
- When we communicate with God in prayer is that a miracle?
- Free-will vs God's sovereignty
Okay that's enough of that for a Saturday morning... now off to LA to visit Matt and Kristie!
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Apartment Tour
We've been meaning for some time to put up a video showing folks what our little California apartment is like, and now we've finally done it! We added a bit of corniness to it for some entertainment value. Enjoy:
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Two Words for the Weekend
I recently heard someone use the word "esoteric". I didn't quite know the meaning of that word, so I looked it up. It means "understood by or meant for only the select few who have special knowledge or interest." Great word. And it has a great antonym, exoteric, which means "suitable for or communicated to the general public." Esoteric and exoteric: good words to know.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Wedding Pictures & EWOB
So, in the spirit of finally getting around to ordering our wedding pictures (yes, it has been 5 months since our wedding), I was watching the slideshow that our photographer put together. It practically brings me to tears, it's so spot on for capturing how the whole day felt. So much happiness! Having all of my family and best girl friends all around me in one place HAD to be one of the best parts. Seeing all of their faces is also one of my favorite parts of the slideshow.
Being united to Michael for 5 months and 2 days has truly been nothing short of an honor. I won't bore you with my confessions of love, but I hope that you do enjoy following the link to the wedding slideshow.
On another note, I presented at the 2008 USASBE Conference on Friday about the formation of Entrepreneurs Without Borders, EWOB, a social entrepreneurship project that I worked/am working on with the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It's definitely coming together and the conference enabled us to further rally excitement and support from other universities and professionals interested in bringing their campus initiatives under the blanket of EWOB and its vision.
The vision is to become a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to advancing both entrepreneurial and business competencies to a wide variety of people in both local and global communities. It is a "social entrepreneurship" mission to put many diverse resources and projects together to unite in alleviating poverty through sustainable social, economic, and intellectual value-creation in communities of need through entrepreneurial practices. According to one of the experts in the research on S.E., J. Gregory Dees from Duke University, "[social entrepreneurship] combines the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination commonly associated with, for instance, the high-tech pioneers of Silicon Valley". I appreciate this description as it also describes our intention and foreseeable future in EWOB. And now that I am living in Silicon Valley, I am beginning to better understand and feel what that determination looks like... and I love it, think that it's a very smart use of resources, and can't wait to see how it further impacts the nonprofit sector.
We recognize that this phenomenon is not new of course as we have always had "social entrepreneurs" even if we did not call them that. I think that the new name, however, is important because it connects the business and social realms in a way that we might otherwise traditionally tend to keep separate. Examples of the types of organizations that have resulted from social entrepreneurship and the blending together of the business and social sectors are many a) innovative not-for-profit ventures (i.e. the organization I currently work for: BUILD), b) social purpose business ventures (i.e. Ben & Jerry's, or for-profit community development banks), and c) hybrid organizations mixing not-for-profit and for-profit elements and tax partnerships. There are also a growing number of what people often refer to as social ventures. Big examples include the Delancy Street Foundation, The Enterprising Kitchen, Juma Ventures, and The Greyston Bakery. Each one runs their own business, while using the revenue strictly for hiring and providing an array of services to its employees who are otherwise too often disregarded by society. I basically think any area within the blanket of social entrepreneurship is a wonderful and fascinating field of study as well as a place to find a professional career!
We, EWOB, realize that entrepreneurs already currently exist and thrive all over the world, and we simply want to create an avenue or vehicle through which the university community can get more formally involved and in communication with each other about all that students and faculty are already doing around the world. Based on the proven model of student chapters with elected faculty advisors who have the support of a national headquarters, we hope to create a way for easier networking and sharing of ideas and resources among entrepreneurial minded people world-wide. The students will be recruited by faculty who are already involved in the creation of EWOB from across campus to bring diverse perspectives and disciplines together with a common goal of furthering social missions. It will also impact cross-campus entrepreneurship curriculum and global service-learning opportunities for students.
That's a quick overview of what I presented this weekend that I thought I'd throw out to you all. I mean I have to keep up with Michael's intellectual blog posts at least a little, right?
Have a wonderful week!
Being united to Michael for 5 months and 2 days has truly been nothing short of an honor. I won't bore you with my confessions of love, but I hope that you do enjoy following the link to the wedding slideshow.
On another note, I presented at the 2008 USASBE Conference on Friday about the formation of Entrepreneurs Without Borders, EWOB, a social entrepreneurship project that I worked/am working on with the Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It's definitely coming together and the conference enabled us to further rally excitement and support from other universities and professionals interested in bringing their campus initiatives under the blanket of EWOB and its vision.
The vision is to become a nonprofit humanitarian organization dedicated to advancing both entrepreneurial and business competencies to a wide variety of people in both local and global communities. It is a "social entrepreneurship" mission to put many diverse resources and projects together to unite in alleviating poverty through sustainable social, economic, and intellectual value-creation in communities of need through entrepreneurial practices. According to one of the experts in the research on S.E., J. Gregory Dees from Duke University, "[social entrepreneurship] combines the passion of a social mission with an image of business-like discipline, innovation, and determination commonly associated with, for instance, the high-tech pioneers of Silicon Valley". I appreciate this description as it also describes our intention and foreseeable future in EWOB. And now that I am living in Silicon Valley, I am beginning to better understand and feel what that determination looks like... and I love it, think that it's a very smart use of resources, and can't wait to see how it further impacts the nonprofit sector.
We recognize that this phenomenon is not new of course as we have always had "social entrepreneurs" even if we did not call them that. I think that the new name, however, is important because it connects the business and social realms in a way that we might otherwise traditionally tend to keep separate. Examples of the types of organizations that have resulted from social entrepreneurship and the blending together of the business and social sectors are many a) innovative not-for-profit ventures (i.e. the organization I currently work for: BUILD), b) social purpose business ventures (i.e. Ben & Jerry's, or for-profit community development banks), and c) hybrid organizations mixing not-for-profit and for-profit elements and tax partnerships. There are also a growing number of what people often refer to as social ventures. Big examples include the Delancy Street Foundation, The Enterprising Kitchen, Juma Ventures, and The Greyston Bakery. Each one runs their own business, while using the revenue strictly for hiring and providing an array of services to its employees who are otherwise too often disregarded by society. I basically think any area within the blanket of social entrepreneurship is a wonderful and fascinating field of study as well as a place to find a professional career!
We, EWOB, realize that entrepreneurs already currently exist and thrive all over the world, and we simply want to create an avenue or vehicle through which the university community can get more formally involved and in communication with each other about all that students and faculty are already doing around the world. Based on the proven model of student chapters with elected faculty advisors who have the support of a national headquarters, we hope to create a way for easier networking and sharing of ideas and resources among entrepreneurial minded people world-wide. The students will be recruited by faculty who are already involved in the creation of EWOB from across campus to bring diverse perspectives and disciplines together with a common goal of furthering social missions. It will also impact cross-campus entrepreneurship curriculum and global service-learning opportunities for students.
That's a quick overview of what I presented this weekend that I thought I'd throw out to you all. I mean I have to keep up with Michael's intellectual blog posts at least a little, right?
Have a wonderful week!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Collapse
Ben and Mare Giudice were here last night and I discovered that Ben actually reads our blog! We're very honored. Anyhow, hearing about Ben's research on endocrine disruptors and invasive species at UC Davis, getting an email from Joe about consumption factors, and finishing "Collapse" by Jared Diamond have me thinking about the environment...
For the past six months I've been reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond but I finally finished it. Joe sent me a link to this NYT editorial by Diamond. I wrote Joe back; my email is a concise statement of my thoughts on the book:
"That article was sort of a condensed version of 'Collapse', which I would recommend you read. It gets a bit boring after a while but the last section (finding important lessons for our society and giving some policy/personal action recommendations) is pretty great.
What stuck out to me in this article was the zero sum analysis. Diamond doesn't take into account how new ideas will help us use resources more efficiently. In his book he does mention the innovation factor but also talks about unintended environmental consequences of most innovations. I do like his point that much of our resource consumption does not contribute to 'quality of life' (although QOL is an admittedly difficult thing to define)."
By the way, wasn't it great to see Lloyd, Mike, Chad, and Jake go out on a good note on Jan 1? Hail to the Victors! I'm hoping that OSU will beat LSU in a few days - then I can argue a bit with SEC fans that the Big Ten is a conference of comparable quality (at least at the top).
For the past six months I've been reading "Collapse" by Jared Diamond but I finally finished it. Joe sent me a link to this NYT editorial by Diamond. I wrote Joe back; my email is a concise statement of my thoughts on the book:
"That article was sort of a condensed version of 'Collapse', which I would recommend you read. It gets a bit boring after a while but the last section (finding important lessons for our society and giving some policy/personal action recommendations) is pretty great.
What stuck out to me in this article was the zero sum analysis. Diamond doesn't take into account how new ideas will help us use resources more efficiently. In his book he does mention the innovation factor but also talks about unintended environmental consequences of most innovations. I do like his point that much of our resource consumption does not contribute to 'quality of life' (although QOL is an admittedly difficult thing to define)."
By the way, wasn't it great to see Lloyd, Mike, Chad, and Jake go out on a good note on Jan 1? Hail to the Victors! I'm hoping that OSU will beat LSU in a few days - then I can argue a bit with SEC fans that the Big Ten is a conference of comparable quality (at least at the top).
Sunday, December 9, 2007
A comment concerning Michael's post about Abe
When Michael mentioned to me that he had heard this quote from none other than The Great Emancipator, I laughed out loud. In my opinion, Abe must have been trying to make a joke, and so his advice is not meant to be taken too seriously. Thank you for sharing your insight though Michael, as I also think that you had good thoughts that came out of it. I still find it funny that Abe was calling himself a fool though. In summary, as someone who grew up in the Land of Lincoln, I know that Abe was infallible and I cannot disagree with anything he ever said. Right, Dad?
Quiz; Golf
Heard about this cool quiz on the Washington Post's website from someone in my Ron Paul 2008 MeetUp group. I took it for the Republicans; Ron Paul won for me quite decisively although I disagreed with him on a few topics and thought that other candidates had some good things to say. Fred Thompson came in second for me and Huckabee was third.
Also, Sarah and I went to the driving range today on a gorgeous December day. Since I'm trying to tell Sarah that golf has many deep connections to the Christian life, it got me thinking. A few key ones:
1) You're success is judged by how well you do against an unattainable goal of perfection, not simply by doing better than others. God doesn't judge us based on if we're better than most people, but rather against the law. No one lives up to the law as described in the 10 commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, which leads us to why we need Jesus and his perfection to be counted to us. Golfers, even those who win tournaments and/or break scoring records, are very aware of their mistakes and how they could have saved a few strokes out there. Golf sets the bar so high that you inevitably leave being very aware that you are imperfect.
2) Thinking about what not to do is futile. Thinking "don't hit it in the water" actually makes me more likely to hit it in the water, just like thinking "don't be prideful" doesn't work at all. You've got to set your mind not on your performance but on hope-giving truth (in life: joy and peace in Christ's sacrifice on your behalf, in golf: trusting your swing and preparation). In golf you're essentially trusting in yourself, and in the Christian life you trust not in yourself but in Christ's work so the analogy breaks down eventually, but you get the idea.
3) Growing as a golfer leads to a greater awareness of your own imperfections. Today at the range I'd hit a shot and Sarah would be like "Wow that was amazing!" In response I'd say "Not really - see how I opened up and it went like 20 yards left of my target?" The more you improve in golf, the more aware you are of the mistakes you are making. There are some interesting similarities with the Christian life here as well. As we grow as Christians we become more aware of our deep-seated idolatries and self-reliance, and yet that same awareness leads us to take ever-increasing comfort in God's grace and commitment to redeem the great mess that we are. We are being sanctified, but it isn't like we're thinking "wow I'm doing awesome out here!" as we may be. Oftentimes, it is only when we take a look back at our lives that we realize how God is changing us.
Other sports certainly have similarities with the Christian life, as Sarah has been great to remind me. The similarities described here are not exact, and there are surely other connections between golf and the Christian life. In any event, these ones are pretty cool. Thank God for golf!
On another random note, here's a picture that Sarah took while a group of us followed a recommendation to visit to a classy winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains named "The Ridge".
Also, Sarah and I went to the driving range today on a gorgeous December day. Since I'm trying to tell Sarah that golf has many deep connections to the Christian life, it got me thinking. A few key ones:
1) You're success is judged by how well you do against an unattainable goal of perfection, not simply by doing better than others. God doesn't judge us based on if we're better than most people, but rather against the law. No one lives up to the law as described in the 10 commandments and the Sermon on the Mount, which leads us to why we need Jesus and his perfection to be counted to us. Golfers, even those who win tournaments and/or break scoring records, are very aware of their mistakes and how they could have saved a few strokes out there. Golf sets the bar so high that you inevitably leave being very aware that you are imperfect.
2) Thinking about what not to do is futile. Thinking "don't hit it in the water" actually makes me more likely to hit it in the water, just like thinking "don't be prideful" doesn't work at all. You've got to set your mind not on your performance but on hope-giving truth (in life: joy and peace in Christ's sacrifice on your behalf, in golf: trusting your swing and preparation). In golf you're essentially trusting in yourself, and in the Christian life you trust not in yourself but in Christ's work so the analogy breaks down eventually, but you get the idea.
3) Growing as a golfer leads to a greater awareness of your own imperfections. Today at the range I'd hit a shot and Sarah would be like "Wow that was amazing!" In response I'd say "Not really - see how I opened up and it went like 20 yards left of my target?" The more you improve in golf, the more aware you are of the mistakes you are making. There are some interesting similarities with the Christian life here as well. As we grow as Christians we become more aware of our deep-seated idolatries and self-reliance, and yet that same awareness leads us to take ever-increasing comfort in God's grace and commitment to redeem the great mess that we are. We are being sanctified, but it isn't like we're thinking "wow I'm doing awesome out here!" as we may be. Oftentimes, it is only when we take a look back at our lives that we realize how God is changing us.
Other sports certainly have similarities with the Christian life, as Sarah has been great to remind me. The similarities described here are not exact, and there are surely other connections between golf and the Christian life. In any event, these ones are pretty cool. Thank God for golf!
On another random note, here's a picture that Sarah took while a group of us followed a recommendation to visit to a classy winery in the Santa Cruz Mountains named "The Ridge".
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