Celtic Odyssey

Besides being my sister’s birthday, October 17th marked the release of Ubuntu ’s latest OS (Operating System)— Ubuntu 13.10, the Saucy Salamander ! This release lays the foundation for a full convergence on all of your devices— desktop , laptop , server , cloud , as well as phones and tablets . As usual, I’ve been using this release since the beta and it’s been very stable and fast. While there hasn’t seemed like a lot of changes on the user’s side of things since the previous release (13.04), there has been a lot going on “under the hood” to enable this convergence. Most notably has been the focus of making the core of this release work on mobile devices. With that stated, let’s look at some of the features this release brings to the forefront. One of the biggest features is the full implementation of “ Smart Scopes .” This relates to the results one finds when doing a search in the Dash. And it’s gotten a lot of unwarranted bad press, in my opinion. Let’s say you want to search ...

It’s out! The new book from the Lindisfarne Community - Secular Monasticism: A Journey . Like an underground river, the monastic tradition keeps on resurging in a host of unexpected times and places. Secular Monasticism, A Journey describes one of its most recent incarnations. The founders and members of the Lindisfarne Community share with us their bold attempt to be a secular monastic religious order open to the exigencies of the contemporary world. Age-old wisdom once again reveals its perennial relevance in helping us learn how to be followers of Christ in God’s today. Brother John, Taizé In the first five pages, I thought of ten people I know who should read this book: young people, old people, all people tired of taken-for-granted spirituality. Devour this book. Let it help you dream up a way of joining or creating a micro-community of prayer and action that frees you to experiment in following the ways of Christ. That's what these folks have done. This story help...

Today marks my first anniversary as a priest. It’s been a strange year. Most of the things I have wanted to do have completely failed - some have even failed to start! Then, there were other things, things that I wasn’t expecting, that have organically grown. One in particular is just now in the planning stages (heck, we might even call it the idea stages since it really isn’t fleshed out yet). A couple of things that I can share: Writing. As most of you know (and all of you know that read this blog), I like to write. I started several years ago and found that I have a unique style that resonates with a lot of people. It’s because of this that I’m excited about a book coming out this summer that I had the privilege in contributing a chapter. The Lindisfarne Community (the secular monastic community of which I’m a member) is writing a companion book to our prayer book. It tells the story of our community and the Abbess and Abbott have asked several of us to write a chapter telling our s...

As I've mentioned previously , Dell sells and supports computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. They have done this for a while now but they have only been available through Dell's website. Well that has all changed. According to a recent article , Ubuntu and Dell are now selling systems in 220 stores throughout China. Now I wonder when all of that Ubuntu goodness will be coming to the States? If you haven't checked out Ubuntu, go to their site and take the tour . I starts a virtual session of Ubuntu right in your browser! ~~~ In the Love of the Three in One, Br Jack+, LC

I usually don't make posts like this because I'm way outta my element. But I am sick of all of the hype I see in the media. The whole one sided take on journalism. Each program has an agenda. As my wife says, 'You find what you're looking for'. It would absolutely kill a mainstream media person like Olbermann to say President Bush has done something good and right. Likewise it would kill a 'talk radio' media person like Limbaugh to say that Senator Clinton or Senator Obama did something good and right. We are a country shown the extremes. Most of the mainstream media are such Bush haters, that's right I stated 'haters', that they would actually explode if they had to report on the good that he has done. Likewise 'Fox' news and talk radio hosts are such Democrat haters that they, too, would explode if they had to report on any good that they have done. 'Fair and balanced' my butt! Everyone, everyone has their agenda. I...

I have been a little busy today so I apologize for the late post.  Working around the house (I'm a house husband a lot of the time), cleaning the bathroom, doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen, sweeping the floors, making the beds, etc.  I'm also working through a call list for my business, Odyssey Computing .  And I'm converting my music on my PCLinuxOS laptop from AAC to OGG. And I'm loving it! 'I will rejoice and be glad in it!' Peace be with you. + OD

I know that I will probably catch some flack for this post, but I gotta say it. In the murder of Jessie Davis, the media is quick to point out that she was pregnant and would have delivered any time.  But the fact that they point this out begs the question, 'Is it a baby or not'?  It seems to me, at least, that this issue of 'life' and when is some 'thing' a person, is questionable by the mainstream media.  We all know that women can choose to terminate their pregnancy at almost any point they choose.  And this is not considered 'murder'.  However, in the Jessie Davis case, Bobby Cutts, Jr. is arrested for the murder of Jessie and 'her unborn baby'.  Does any of this makes sense?  How can we pick and choose when a baby is a baby?  Who gets to decide that?  We can't just pick when we want a baby to be a baby.  A pregnant woman has another human being inside her.  Period.  No matter what stage she is in. I can hear the cries alread...

Things have been going full speed over here. I am in the middle of trying to get my home business off the ground. It is a computer business and you can see an ad for it here . That is taking a lot of my time. I am hoping that I can get a sign made for my front yard, seeing as I live on a busy street, it should help bring in business. I also read a great article (or should I say letter) from Steve Jobs. Whose that? Where have you been living? Mr. Jobs is the head of Apple . The guy behind some great things like . . . um . . . oh, I don't know . . . the iPod ! Apple also makes some great computers too (the best, in my humble but correct opinion). Their latest 'gadget' is called the iPhone . It is an iPod, an Internet communications device, and, well, a phone all rolled up into one! It isn't available yet, but when it comes online, watch out! It will set the phone world on it's ear. Anyway, back to the letter . In it, Mr. Jobs has thrown down a gauntlet....

I have been using Blogger as my site for a while now but I have moved on. I like the look and feel of WordPress. I like the default blue and grey look. To be honest, it looks very 'Macish'. And, again, honestly?, that's why I moved. I have always liked this look and have tried to make it work over at Blogger but just couldn't do it (I'm not a programmer, for cryin' out loud). So, I saw a website and followed the link to WordPress. Wow. I like this place a lot. If the Lord wills, I plan to stay here for a while. May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. +OD

Wow. We had some severe weather tonight. I just watched a tornado form while watching the weather. It was pretty amazing. I am on the edge of language in trying to describe it. I watched the news report as they were streaming the activity. There was a nice size wall cloud and part of it started to rotate. Then, as the 'storm chasers' started to get excited, you could see a funnel appear from the centre of the rotation. It was thin and small at first. But as I was watching it you could just see it slowly make its way toward the ground. And then...it touched down. Debri started to fly in the air. It whipped past some trees. While that one was moving along (it later disipated), a second formed behind it. It was thinner than the first one but it was headed right for some hangers at a local airport. It hit three of them dead on. You could see the debris in the air -- what you could only assume was sheet metal and parts of airplanes. Then, just like that, it disipated ...

Yesterday the dust -- no, scratch that, the dirt -- that was in the air was incredible! I have seen it dusty before, but nothing like that. Usually (and those of you who live in the plain states will know what I'm talking about) the air is just hinted at with dust. It will be a light orange tone or even skin tone (kind of like the default colors of Ubuntu ). But not yesterday! Yesterday there were wall clouds! On the way home I could actually see the dirt blowing in the air. I could make out the vehicle in front of me, but anything beyond that was blocked by the thick walls of dirt. It was amazing. Man, do we need some serious days of long, slow, deep rain. Please? May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. +OD

I gotta go to work. It really stinks. Today is Saturday and from the weather forecast, it should be a nice day. But I'm gonna be stuck in a building all day. Training class for the new db we are implementing. And that's another thing, it's going to be a massive undertaking. There are too many errors with the conversion (we imported our old db to the new one and a lot of it didn't transfer correctly). My suggestion will be that we have a handful of people to do nothing but data entry for a while, and then they should train the rest of the staff on the way we use the db. However, the CEO is adamant about everyone using it on March 1st. She will be there today, maybe she will see the insanity of such an idea. May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. +OD

Well, it happened. I was bitten by a dog. And not just any ol' dog, one of the ones I own! The situation went down like this: Got home from picking up a few groceries with my daughter. My wife was in the kitchen fixing dinner and was waiting on me for the final touches. I walked in to the kitchen with some bags and the dogs followed (as usual). When I turned around, the Jack Russell went under the legs of the Golden Retriever -- and it was on. The Golden Retriever (Zooma) just lunged at the Jack Russell (Maddie). Maddie being on her back tried to defend herself as best she could but it wasn't working out too well for her. Instantly Terry (my wife) and I were trying to separate the two -- I was pulling on Zooma and she was helping with Maddie. Well, it was right then that I got bit. I pulled Zooma off of Maddie, or so I thought, because either Maddie still had a hold of Zooma or Zooma still had a hold of Maddie. I had a hold of Zooma with my right hand and was pulling her away w...

Well, here I go again! Another 'blog' address for me (I do hope I get the hang of all this stuff). From time to time, you can come by and see what I'm musing about. I can't promise how often I will post here. But, it can give you an idea into what going on in my head. What I will probably do is post some of the stuff I posted in other places. We'll see. May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance. +OD