To Be A Kid Again

Last week I helped run a soccer clinic for the kids in the league that I refereed in over the summer. What an experience! It was amazing to watch them soak up the information from instruction and build confidence through practice. I have always wanted to coach kids and give something back to the game I love, and the opportunity to positively shape young lives is an added bonus. It's definitely something I can see myself pursuing once I hang up my boots and can devote the required time to it.

(I knew my coaching certification would come in handy! :P)

Mr. Reggae Was Right

Well, I refereed my first soccer match on Tuesday night and had a great time! It was a game in a youth league that a friend of mine set up for an outreach program. Though it was a one-sided game on the scoreboard the kids had an awesome time, and that's the important part. I had a lot of fun too. A former teammate of mine (and current referee) suggested I become a referee a long time ago as he thought I'd be good at it and enjoy it. Looks like he was right! :)

What a Difference a Year Makes

I've been at my new job for a year now and I'm totally amazed at what's occurred and what I've accomplished. Of course I couldn't have done any of it alone. Management and my co-workers were/are a major factor. They have encouraged me and supported me and allowed me to grow (and they continue to do so).

Here's a brief summary:

• My employer has purchased and deployed JIRA and Confluence (partly due to my recommendation and experience) of which I've become co-administrator.
• I've also become co-administrator for the Enterprise Service Bus that forms the base of our new SOA patterned integration layer.
• I set up and continue to administrate the development, build, and continuous integration environments which leverage Subversion, JUnit, Cobertura, and CruiseControl.
• The boss that hired me moved to another position within the company and now I'm working for the same fantastic boss that I had at my first IT job.
• I obtained my ITIL Foundation certification
• I've leared a great deal more about Hibernate, Spring, Service-oriented Architecture, and XML/XSL both on my own and under the guidance of the lead developer and architect.
• I've settled into a leadership role helping to define development, deployment, and management frameworks as well as assisting in the design of SOA components and validation of architecture decisions.

With results (and support) like that I think this company is one that I could stay with for a very long time. I'm really looking forward to the next year and beyond!

Who's Really Targeting Civilians?

Here's a subtle, but key point that most news outlets are missing in the latest developments in the Israel - Hezbollah war. The CBC reported today that

"On Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah told Israeli Arabs to leave Haifa, and threatened more rocket attacks against Israel's third-largest city." [Emphasis added]

Notice that Nasrallah did not instruct Israeli civilians to leave Haifa, but only Israeli Arabs. Killing non-Arab Israelis is apparently not a concern for Hezbollah. This is in contrast to Israel, which has gone out of it's way to inform all Lebanese civilians of pending attacks.

Tumors vs. Joints

According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America having cancer is better than getting high.

Fixed Income?

You know what really annoys me? When people use "fixed income" as an excuse for economic meddling by the government. Usually when people say "fixed income" they mean senior citizens and those on welfare, but aren't most people on a fixed income? I'm on a fixed income. I get paid the same amount every pay period, it doesn't change. I think that's the same for most people, aside from commission salesmen and maybe hourly workers. So I don't know why the elderly think they're so special, almost everyone's on a fixed income!

Stand with Israel

A Clash of Opposites

After watching the documentary Control Room recently this exchange on Al Jazeera doesn't surprise me as much, but it's still fantastic to watch.

Someone else "gets it" too

There was an interesting article in the New York Times on Sunday about Reverend Gregory A. Boyd from Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. In a number of sermons, and a new book, Mr. Boyd has expressed the uncommon view that Christianity is not about obtaining political power in order to force the scriptures on non-believers.

This is one of the major reasons I like Riverwood. While they did do a political series during the last federal election, it was done objectively and focused not on enforcing Christianity through government, but on becoming educated citizens and making intelligent choices. Their main thrust is not political power, but "reaching far from God people... growing people to be fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ."