All posts by johncohn

Wednesday night – blog for blog sake

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My friend Dale did a brave thing at work today.. she blogged about blogging.. She was blogging on our company’s internal blogosphere.. which is alike a tiny copy of the outside world.. a kind of cool fish bowl. Actually, she wasn’t talking about blogging per sec.. She was actually talking about not blogging.. or the things that kept people from blogging. she identified three main things: Fear of the unknown, Perception of being uncool and Under developed capabilities. It was interesting to see how much resonance this got with folks in the few hours I watched after its posting. Quite a few folks dropped in to comment that they were afraid of blogging.. which is interesting to me.. because commenting isn’t all that different from blogging.. is it ?  The most common thread was that folks were self conscious about their writing..whether it was content or form. . .. again.. a very interesting concept to me.. I’m certainly self conscious about my writing when I’m doing a technical paper.. but. for some reason.. I’ve found it very easy to write here.. .. .. her’s what I said:

 

8 John M. Cohn commented Today 6:23 PM Permalink Recommendations 0

Dale,
LOL.. this is great that you’ve put yourself out there and blogged about blogging. 🙂 I think you’ve nailed some of the major things that stop people from writing. .. No one likes to be judged.. For that reason, putting yourself on record online is … well… scary !
For me the big secret that got me beyond that fear was to write for one person.. .. ..and that one person was me ! That helped me get past the worry about what folks would think about my poor grammar and dyslexic spelling (Dale.. you’re laughing now, I’ll bet 🙂 . I found that there’s no better way to figure out what i was thinking about than to write it down. .. and I have blogged every night for the past nearly 6 years in that spirit. (http://johncohn.org)
I submit the same is true here at work.. write for yourself about what you’re passionate about. Don’t worry so much about what others will think.. Don’t worry about your style .. People will be happy to learn from your thinking if not your punctuation .. 🙂
-jc

reading that now, i wonder if i was too flippant.. I’m not saying that I don’ care about my readers.. its’ that I don’t think you’re there.. . if i did, I’d never write another line.

 

nite all , nite sam

-me


Tuesday night – blast from the past

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I love when unexpected things happen to me..,., an I love how SN tools like Facebook ad Twitter help that sort of thing happened. A couple of weeks ago I reconnected with my friend John H. from High School He’s just retired after a long and distinguished career in the air force. . over the last couple of weeks we’ve been comparing notes on who we’ve kept up with and who we’ve lost track of.. and though that started to reconnect with even more friends from at least 35 years back.. (OMG !) So interesting to learn what people have done with their lives..

Today John surprised me by finding our HS graduation book.. something I certainly haven’t seen since the day I received it in 1977. Amazing how something like this can take you back..

OK.. I have a ton of homework tonight.. so more will have to wait until tomorrow
nite all, nite sam
-me

Monday night – Rosh Hashona 5773

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Just back from a quick trip down to Boston to see my folks for Rosh Hashona, The Jewish new year. My aunt and uncle were visiting from ohio so it was a twofer ! It was a good visit. I hadn’t been to shul with my folks since.. hmmmm.. maybe since I was a kid.. We all got dressed up and headed to the synagogue. The place was huge.. so huge in fact that they actually had two sittings for the service. Ours was the later one.. which meant more sleep for me 🙂

 

The service was really nice.. I’m not much into organized religion these days.. but the service felt familiar.. it was weird dragging out my rusty Hebrew. but I found I could keep up fine. One of the bonuses of having80% of the service in a language you can’t really understand is that what you’re saying doesn’t necessarily have to interfere with what you’re thinking. Even so, i managed to keep my mind in a good contemplative place. The music was soothing and familiar and it was good to be there with my folks and my aunt and uncle.

The Rabbi did a good talk on the importance of mindfulness.. he mentioned that about 30 % of professors of Buddhism in this country are actually Jewish (an amazing number since only 2% of Americans are Jewish) . he mentioned the importance of meditation of being  present .. even of yoga.. he himself had just come back from several weeks at Kirpalu.. including 2 weeks of silent practice   His talk was wonderfully ‘out there’ for a upper middle class ,  reform new england congregation . I liked it !

 

After the service there were apples to greet a sweet new year..

then a quick visit to a nearby-ish Turkish restaurant before I got back on the road home

i said goodbye and got on the road about 4 ..it was great seeign my folks and my anunt and uncle..   a good way to start the year.

I worked the entire way home o the phone.. by the time I’d arrived home.. I had received more than 140 emails for the day.. and that’s after i got rid of spam.. ugh. .it hardly pays to take a day off.. I’ve made a dent in them tonight.. but tomorrow I start the day a little spiritually richer.. and a little further behind..

 

we;ll.. actually.. I’d say more than a little spiritually richer.. the day of contemplation really did me good. Hope the peace can make it through the week. We’ll see 🙂

Happy new year everyone.. I hope its a sweet one for you and your families

Shana Tova all, Shana tova sam

-me

 

ps. The Haftorah on this day is always the story of Issac.. The Leonard Cohen song about Issac kept going through my head.. So here it is to get it out of my head and into yours..

Sunday night (late) – Erev Rosh Hashona

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Shana Tova everyone. It’ the start of the Jewish New Year.. I’m down at my folks home in Sherborn MA to see my folks and my aunt Sis and uncle Phil and to celebrate the new year.. I’ve never been very religious.. at the same time, i do enjoy the ritual of doing something that my ancestors did. it’s 5773 by our reckoning.. a long time to be celebrating anything..

 

We spent the evening hanging out.. tomorrow we’ll head to shul in the morning.

My mom cooked a really nice meal and we sat around and enjoyed the company..

The meal included 3 kinds of matzo ball soup.. normal with chicken.. for ma, pa and phil

vegi for me

and gluten free for sis.. now that’s service !

we also had gefillte fish.. not exactly the right holiday.. but I’m not complaining.. i like the stuff.. another guilty pleasure

finally we had apples and honey.. the traditional thing you eat on Roh Hashona..  it’s to give you a sweet new year !

it’s a sweet new year for me already. My friend Bruce called tonight to tell me that our friend Jim is now semiconscious and can respond to voice commands like ‘wiggle your toes’ . Its great news that he can hear an respond. It’s also pretty funny because it’s the first time that anyone can remember Jim following orders on anything ! 🙂 Seriously.. its’a great sign that he’s recovering.

after dinner folks took turns telling me how much I looked like my great grandfather (ok.. i sort of do)

and fooling wiht the huge bowl of reading glasses I found

and hanging with the mishpokhe (משפּחה)  which i roughly yiddish for your homies.

i wish you all a sweet and happy new year..

shan tova all..

nite all, nitesam

-me