For some reason, I've been thinking a lot about our society (particularly in the U.S., but also as we affect the world) as it is now, and how it's pretty clear it's unsustainable, unhealthy for human beings, and creates and perpetuates systems of inequality and oppression. I figured this blog would be a good place to start a bit of thought and research about what the core problems are, and how we can perhaps manage to figure our way to new ways of living.

 A couple of weeks ago, I moved. I had been living in an apartment in Oakland for about a year, and was getting ready to think about moving back into a community house setting - my definite preference for how to live. I wasn't sure at all where that was going to be. But ... it turned out that a house I'd known about, and had been thinking about a little (but I thought the timing wasn't right) had a room open still. So, I checked it out... and here I sit.

In 2005, I felt a call to go to seminary. I wrapped up my non-profit technology work, sold or gave away most of what I owned, and moved across country to go to Pacific School of Religion. For reasons you can read about here, I left seminary, and went back to technology work.
I think I would say that was a calling to substantially change the structure of my life.
Now, here it is, 2010, and I'm feeling another calling, or maybe it's the same calling, but it is manifesting very differently. I feel a strong desire to simplify my life - to strip away distractions. I've made radical changes to allow better work/life balance (I now commute to work most days to an office, allowing me to dismantle my home office - something I've not done for a very long time - and I've never really been a typical commuter before.)  And I'm in the process of shedding again - selling or giving away a lot of what I own that I feel is unnecessary. 
Ruth gave me a quote from Hans Hoffman which fits perfectly: “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

 Title: External, alienated, busy-busy

As you might know, almost a year ago, I made a big change in my use of social media - I segregated my social graph - work related stuff moved to LinkedIn and Twitter, and personal friends only on Facebook. Now, I have taken the next step, and made somewhat of a momentous decision. I'm not alone - Jon Stahl did this before me, and I know there are others. There are plenty of people who never entered these waters at all.

I have been fairly conflicted about this for a while. There are things I really like about Twitter, Identi.ca, Buzz, etc. I like being connected to the nptech community, and learning what's happening. I really like reaching out and getting questions answered. But, being on those networks has taken it's toll on me. It's time spent I need for other things. It's an influx of information in my brain that I really don't need. And I'm sure people really don't need to hear what I think or what I'm doing in 140 characters or less.

Two things have come across my desk recently, that I find disturbing. First, something called the "Manhattan Declaration" (Subtitled, A Call of Christian Conscience). It affirms three truths, and I'm sure you already know what two are: "sanctity of human life" and "dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife". The third is, well, strange, to say the least, given the first two: "the rights of conscience and religious liberty." I guess they must not mean the rights of conscience for women, or the rights of religious liberty for people (like me) who think that God dignifies the marriage of two men, or two women.

I moved my blog, from WordPress to Drupal, at the same time as I consolidated my varied online presences into one. For those of you that think that previous sentence made no sense, not to worry - it just means that from now on, my blog and all of my personal stuff will be in one place, here.

Many of you know that I write science fiction. I've been writing science fiction since the summer of 2006, when I wrote my first novel - it was designed to be the first in a series of three. I subsequently wrote the second (which is mostly complete) and started the third about a year and a half ago. Over the entire time I've been writing, it has been a struggle to figure out what to do with it. On one hand, it would be nice to have the recognition that published authors get.