Grab your helmet, check the air in your tires, and hop on your bike because in many U.S. cities, May 12 - 16 is Bike to Work Week! Six Apart has a lot of biking enthusiasts, so we're very excited to support this event by encouraging all of our employees to bike to work this week. San Francisco's Bike to Work Day is tomorrow, Thursday, May 15th, and New York's is Friday, May 16th.
Six Apart is helping out its employees by providing maps (shaded according to steepness - a must in SF!) to help everyone plan out his/her route, as well as finding first-time riders buddies to commute with. We're also supporting ALL SF riders who pass the front of our office by handing out coffee, juice and snacks from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. If you're in our neighborhood, look for the sign that says "Six Apart Supports Bike to Work Day" and stop by to say hi and get energized!
Improve your health, financial status, productivity, and happiness by joining thousands - maybe even millions - of commuters around the country who are hopping on their bikes to get to work. Visit the Bike to Work Week website to find out more about events in your area.
Support the two-wheeled way of life with the "Passing Left" theme found in "Photo-Based" in the Design Area. Planning on cycling to work this week? Let us know in the comments!
As we mentioned last week, we had to postpone the maintenance that was due to occur on Thursday, May 8th.
We have rescheduled the maintenance for tonight, Tuesday, May 13th, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (that's 1:00 A.M. UTC/GMT). We'll be taking Vox offline for a bit in order to move the service to a brand new home in some bright, shiny new server racks. We don't expect to be offline for more than an hour or two, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Again, thank you for your patience as we continue to invest in Vox's infrastructure!
In Mexico the polite person does not send their wedding invitations through the mail to be delivered by a stranger. You must take the invitation (which is plainly visible in the clear envelope which carries it) to the person you are going to invite. It's very personal and personable. So Sam and Shadai have been making the rounds between his work and her classes to deliver their invitations personally to their invitados. So, when the Gonzalez family gathered the day before Easter for their traditional Sabado de Gloria, Sam and Shadai carried their bag of invitations that had been carefully addressed to the family.
Sabado de Gloria
What is Sabado de Gloria? It is the day before Easter in Mexico. But in the Gonzalez family it has a double meaning. Back when Josue and his brothers and sister were little his dad decided that they were going to begin a family tradition. Josue's mom's name was Gloria and so for "her" day every year his dad would make something like home made ice cream. But this was so time-consuming that he later changed it to snow cones and esquimos (something like a milk shake). The tradition continued until today all the Gonzalez siblings, their children and spouses and grandchildren and even some in-laws gather to celebrate Sabado de Gloria. Everyone brings food. Someone brings the snow cone syrups and the ingredients for making the esquimos (pronounced es KEY mos). In the back patio there were two solid blocks of ice about a yard and a half high and 12 inches square. They had two "scrapers" and it was quite a feat for the different people to scrape the ice, which ends up in the "handle" of the scraper and is then dumped into a waiting plastic cup (NOTE: if you have any Mardi Gras cups you want to get rid of, I know a group of people who will put them to very good use!) The best scrapers were the older people, of course, although the younger generation, having watched their parents do this for years, tried their hands at it as well. So, everyone eats snow cones, drink milk shakes, then they eat lunch, eat more snow cones and the men and youngsters go to a park nearby and play soccer, come back, and the rest of the afternoon is spent repeating the process.
But in the afternoon when everyone was relaxed and happy (which they always are) Sam and Tio Rene got up and got everyone's attention. Now Sam is bilingual and Tio Rene knows only a few words in English, but they proceeded to
pretend like Sam needed a translator. So Sam said a few words in English about their engagement and Tio Rene proceeded to translate and, to everyone's surprise, he translated it perfectly. This went on for about three sentences and everyone was laughing (they dearly love to laugh) each time Tio translated. Then things began to get a little quirky. Sam would say a long speech, turn to Tio Rene, and Tio would say maybe three words (laughter, laughter). Then Sam would say only a few words and Tio Rene would talk and talk and talk in Spanish to more laughter. The further they went the more we laughed as they hammed it up good.
Finally they got the invitations out and Sam said, "So, line up..." and began to call out the names of each family group. Each family or one person representing that family would come up, shake everyone's hands, get their invitation and give "abrazos" (a formal type of hug) down the line.
And so it went until everyone had their invitation designed by Sam and Shadai with the help of cousin Isaac.
Tonight, starting at 6:00 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time (that's 1:00 A.M. UTC/GMT), we'll be taking Vox offline for a bit in order to move the service to a brand new home in some bright, shiny new server racks. We don't expect to be offline for more than an hour or two, but we apologize in advance for any inconvenience this may cause.
Thank you for your patience as we continue to invest in Vox's infrastructure!
Update: we've postponed tonight's maintenance, and will let you know when we reschedule. Thanks for your patience!
Last week, we announced the winners of the HP "What Do You Have to Say? Theme Design Contest and promised you we'd make the winning themes available on Vox in the coming weeks. After a little more thought, we decided you shouldn't have to wait a second longer to use these creative and inspiring designs on your blogs, so we made them available for you today. Who says good things only come to those who wait?
Part of the spiritual landscape of American religion is the sizable role played by choice in a culture shaped in the free market - with freedom as a mythic symbol. It is not unusual to hear American politicians describing solutions to social problems as a matter of “trusting Americans as consumers.” It is as though we could “shop” our way out of life’s difficulties.
And thus it is that Calvinism, as a Protestant option, has never quite captured the mind of the American religious “consumer.” Our culture has long been driven by its own sense of freedom and the inherent right of every individual to make his or her own choice. Thus Christian teachings which do not give heavy weight to the importance of free-will (such as classical Calvinism) have never come to the place of dominance in American life. For Americans, religion is about a choice.
This is not all wrong - human beings do have freedom and it plays an important role within the life of salvation - even in Orthodox understanding. However, Orthodoxy sees our freedom as something flawed - we do not always choose as we should - nor do we always know what the good is to be chosen. Freedom has a role to play in the life of salvation - but is not itself what constitutes salvation. Indeed, our freedom is itself in need of salvation.
This brings me to the title of this short piece: the Kingdom of God is not a choice we make. There are many ways to describe the Kingdom - a variety of metaphors employed in the New Testament - but in every case the Kingdom is God’s Kingdom - not our response to God.
I occasionally state in sermons that “the Kingdom of God is coming whether you like it or not.” In this sense, particularly, it is not a choice we make - it is a gift that is given from God. In Christ, particularly in the fullness of His death and resurrection - the Kingdom of God has come. Though we still pray, “Thy Kingdom come,” we are not devoid of its presence now. “Thy Kingdom come” is a prayer for its fullness - but not for its inauguration.
The Kingdom of God is a reality already among us - though we frequently are oblivious to its presence. The heart of secularism is its assurance that the Kingdom of God is not here now, not yet, and perhaps only refers to something somewhere else or even nothing more than a utopian vision of the future. Of course, secularism and its infection of Christian thought is commonplace in modern culture. The world is not seen as sacramental, capable of bearing the Divine, but at best as a neutral playing field in which human beings choose sides in the religious contest of Christianity (or other religions or none of the above).
But the fullness of Christian truth and revelation is that the Kingdom of God has already broken forth among us, and the Christ who brought it forth promised that it would remain. Thus we eat and drink His Body and His Blood - not reminders of a historical event - but a foretaste of the fullness of the Kingdom. It is the Bread of Heaven - food, though not of the world yet in the world.
The whole of the sacramental life has this character of the Kingdom. And the sacramental life extends far beyond the Seven Sacraments that are traditionally described. The Kingdom has a quality that breaks into all of life unable to be restrained or hindered by man. We are not in charge of its arrival nor are we the masters of its growth. We may participate in its life and serve as its witnesses - even as citizens - but it is not our creation or something we offer to God. It comes from God and bears God.
I reflected on the song shared in the last post, written by St. Nikolai Velimirovich. There it seems clear - “Christ is risen, joy has been given.” Everything is made bright with the resurrection of Christ. It is not a choice other than for us to say: “Indeed He is risen!”
Straight to Video
Now you can share your Flickr videos on your Vox blog!
A few weeks ago, Flickr announced that pro members are now able to share videos of up to 90 seconds in their photostream. Many of you already post photos to your Vox blog directly from your Flickr account, and now we’ve made it so you can do the same with your Flickr videos.
To post a Flickr video to your Vox blog, just follow the same steps you would if you were posting a Flickr photo. (Yes, that means you’ll find your Flickr videos in “Photos,” not “Videos.”)
Not using Flickr to add photos to Vox? Find out how to connect your Flickr account to your Vox account. Plus, using Flickr means you’ll never have to upload a photo twice, or waste valuable storage space!
Around the World with Vox and CupCate
A little over a year ago, we announced that CupCate was one of the Grand Prize winners of the Vox World Tour. A month ago, Cate and her husband, Iain, packed their bags and flew to San Francisco, the first stop of a three-cities-in-fourteen-days vacation.
While they were in SF, Team Vox was lucky enough to have a yummy lunch with Cate and Iain and some of us even made it out for a late night karaoke session at The Mint.
We were also happy to hear, however, that she took some time to enjoy a glass of wine, a roaring fire, and the luxury of utter relaxation.
Then it was off to Tokyo where she saw gorgeous cherry blossoms, the Tokyo Tower and the Sensoji Temple, and even got a special tour around Tokyo with Ayako from Six Apart’s Japan office!
And it wouldn't be a Vox World Tour without Paris in the spring time, decadent French meals, and, of course, the Eiffel Tower.
It sounds like an amazing adventure. Congratulations again to CupCate. We had so much fun with you while you were in SF and we can't wait until your next visit!
Cancer, My Teacher
BY TAMI PALUMBO
On January 15 of this year I received the most dreaded news from a doctor that anyone can receive, "The cancer has invaded your liver and it is inoperable. We can give you stronger doses of chemo with the hope that it would extend your life some months. But otherwise there is nothing we have to offer you." I have been fighting this battle with breast cancer six and a half years. Only God knows if I am nearing the end. Although it has been a difficult journey, it has been a fascinating one at the same time. God has taught me about His faithfulness, His goodness and His love. I want to give testimony of Romans 8:28 …that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (NIV)
Cancer has drawn me closer to God. Hosea 5:15b says…in their misery they will earnestly seek me. Spiritually speaking, I am not the same person I was almost seven years ago. In fact, it all started the summer of 2001. Mike was in CA at the time doing a residency for a doctoral degree and I was in Phoenix visiting my parents along with our five children who at the time were between the ages of 4 and 14. I was given the gift of a week of mornings to myself as my parents took all five of the kids to the VBS at their church. I took advantage of the time alone and spent time in prolonged Bible study and prayer. It was a time in my life when I was dissatisfied with my spiritual life. I felt I was spending more time "doing" than just "being." I remember crying out to God that I wanted to know Him more. I wanted to see His glory. I begged Him to use my life in whatever way to bring honor and glory to Him. I was even praying the Prayer of Jabez. "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory." Little did I know that by the end of August of that same summer I would embark on a new and quite frightful journey, yet one that has allowed me to experience God in incredible ways, to know Him more intimately and love Him more deeply.
Cancer has taught me to practice the presence of God. During our recent LAM retreat, Jack Voelkel pointed out a truth we all know yet sometimes forget, "I am never alone." Weeks before my initial diagnosis, I was leading a study on Psalm 23 with the women in our church. The morning of my needle biopsy, before we left for the hospital, I was rereading the Psalm and praying. I sensed the Lord tell me, "Take my hand, Tami – I will lead you. I will lead you slowly so you won't fall and I don't expect you to go quickly because you don't know the way or what lies ahead. But I will tenderly and lovingly lead you." God has never left me.
My husband Mike has been an incredible example to me of faithfulness during these past years. He has accompanied me to appointment after appointment and treatment after treatment, yet there are times when even Mike cannot be by my side. For instance, during my radiation treatments I was placed in a cold, sterile room and told to lay half-naked on a stainless steel bed with just a small pillow for my head. After my body was lined up according to the infrared markings on the computer, the technicians would scurry out of the room as the foot-thick concrete door closed behind them and the red light would begin to flash "danger radiation." It was a lonely and frightening time for me. One day during my treatment as I was laying there feeling humiliated, I envisioned what it was like for Christ on the cross. I thought that I am in this situation of having cancer not by choice, yet, Christ chose to suffer and die and be humiliated on the cross because of my sins. My heart overflowed with gratitude and I felt God's presence in a powerful way that day.
I have had some of the best praise and worship times as I have had to sit quietly in a cold, dark room to wait an hour for the radioactive material that was injected in me to course through my body so a PET scan could be performed. I have felt his presence in the middle of the night when sleep evades me and my thoughts are racing. Psalm 23:4 has become a reality for me, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me."(NIV)
Cancer has taught me that God is sovereign over all things. About six months ago, Mike suggested that I listen to a health report on Fox News. He thought it would be of interest to me. Poor Mike, little did he know how I would react. It was an interview with a woman who had written a book about her battle with breast cancer. There were many similarities between the two of us – our age, the stage and type of cancer when we were initially diagnosed, etc. She flew across country to one of the top cancer centers in the country for her treatment and she had a friend who is an expert nutritionist make up a specific diet for her. Seven years later, she is cured, looks beautiful and has written a book. She is healed and I am not. I began to cry, "That's not fair. She doesn't even have kids to live for." I sobbed that day there in my kitchen as I was preparing our meal. Then God impressed upon my heart. "Who are you the clay to question the potter what I am doing? I can do with her as I please and with you as I please." I had read just a few days before in my Bible reading Isaiah 29:16 "You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, "He did not make me"? Can the pot say of the potter, "He knows nothing"?"(NIV)
Jack's words during the same retreat hit a nerve with me as he reminded us not to compare ourselves to anyone else. God has specific plans for each of us. I took it as "Don't be envious of someone else's good health and strong body. God has a purpose for me."
Cancer has taught me about the "sacrifice of praise." I don't remember where I got this quote but I wrote it in my journal last July.
"When I think of a sacrifice of praise, I think of the word embrace. Embracing the will of God, even when the feelings aren't there, is offering to God your heart, wholly dedicated to his purposes. It is believing that, according to Romans 12:1-2, you can prove in practice that God's plan for you is "good, pleasing and perfect.""
We have experienced the sacrifice of praise various times as a family but one time in particular stands out in my mind. Mike and the children were in the Chicago area in August 2005 moving our oldest son into Wheaton College. I was in a natural health clinic in Cleveland, Ohio and I had just found out that the cancer had metastasized to my bones. Up until this time we had been optimistic about the treatment we had chosen to fight my cancer. I traveled to Wheaton to be with Mike and the children. As a mom I was very concerned about how we were going to tell the children the bad news and how they were going to handle it. I had asked many friends to pray for us as we shared this latest development with our kids. The evening after I arrived we sat the kids down and discussed the situation with them. We talked, cried and prayed together. Then we began to sing praise songs in Spanish with Jonathan accompanying on the piano. After a moment, tears were dried, smiles returned and joy was restored and God's presence filled the room. It is easy to praise God when everything is alright. It becomes a sacrifice to praise Him when we don't feel like it. But that is what we are told to do.
Cancer has taught me to surrender completely to God's will. By nature I am a controller. I love to plan and organize and make sure that everything is under control. My parents tell me that when I was in grade school and had to walk the length of our street to school, the neighbors would make comments that I didn't look like I was going to "attend" school instead I looked like I was going to "teach" school.
Cancer is something I can't control. Even though I don't like it, I have to surrender my will to God and say as Jesus said in the garden, "Not my will, but yours be done." I have learned that God can be trusted. In fact since I have taken my will out of the picture, God has been able to do much more than I ever imagined.
Cancer has made me long for heaven. As the disease has progressed, my ability to do things has diminished. I used to be very athletic. I grew up playing softball and running track. I loved to snow ski and water ski. Two years ago when we were in MN for the first winter in 24 years, my family had the chance to learn to snow ski. I longed to ski with them as I sat inside the chalet watching them slip and slide. Yet, unless God heals me, I won't be skiing again until I am in heaven.
This past February, some dear friends paid for us to go to Hawaii for a vacation. As our plane landed on the island of Maui, the pilot said over the intercom, "Welcome to paradise!" I chuckled as I contemplated that this earth is not paradise. Later in the week, as I sat on the beach enjoying the incredibly beautiful view, my thoughts turned to the true Paradise and I rejoiced in the fact that Heaven is a real place prepared for all believers and that it will be even prettier than Maui!
Cancer has allowed me to experience the love of Christ through the body of Christ on earth. I don't have enough room to even begin to tell of the numerous times we have been ministered to by brothers and sisters in the Lord during my cancer journey. From Keila and Kiana Pieters donating their long hair to have a wig made for me to friends sending us on a dream trip to Hawaii, God's love hasn't ceased to amaze me. From churches who didn't know us but took us under their wing anyway and provided for all of our needs because that is what Jesus says we should do. Our lives have been blessed though the love of the body of Christ.
I am feeling well right now. I don't feel like I have a terminal disease. I hope and pray for healing because I feel like there is still so much for me to do here on this earth. But my life is in God's hands. In Job 14:5 it says, "Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed."(NIV) I hope this is not good bye, but if it is I will be waiting for you on the other side and "getting things organized" for all of you.
I would like to conclude with this passage of scripture from II Corinthians 4: 16 – II Cor. 5:1 "Therefore do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands."(NIV)
--Written March 1st 2008 and shared March 2nd at LAM retreat.
It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.
When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.
No, no, no, we’ll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Mrs. Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars — burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?
The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: “Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.”
Good for Barack Obama for resisting this shameful pandering.
But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.
Are you sitting down?
Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.
These credits are critical because they ensure that if oil prices slip back down again — which often happens — investments in wind and solar would still be profitable. That’s how you launch a new energy technology and help it achieve scale, so it can compete without subsidies.
The Democrats wanted the wind and solar credits to be paid for by taking away tax credits from the oil industry. President Bush said he would veto that. Neither side would back down, and Mr. Bush — showing not one iota of leadership — refused to get all the adults together in a room and work out a compromise. Stalemate. Meanwhile, Germany has a 20-year solar incentive program; Japan 12 years. Ours, at best, run two years.
“It’s a disaster,” says Michael Polsky, founder of Invenergy, one of the biggest wind-power developers in America. “Wind is a very capital-intensive industry, and financial institutions are not ready to take ‘Congressional risk.’ They say if you don’t get the [production tax credit] we will not lend you the money to buy more turbines and build projects.”
It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point “where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics” that it would turn its back on the next great global industry — clean power — “but that’s exactly what is happening.” If the wind and solar credits expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion worth of investments that won’t be made.
While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.
In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing for overseas markets.”
The McCain-Clinton proposal is a reminder to me that the biggest energy crisis we have in our country today is the energy to be serious — the energy to do big things in a sustained, focused and intelligent way. We are in the midst of a national political brownout.
It was hard to choose from the 355 entries, but the judges have announced the winners of our month-long "What Do You Have to Say?" theme design contest, sponsored by HP. And the winners are....
And while we know it's not polite to brag, you'll forgive us for a moment while we gush about the fact that the 2nd and 3rd prize winners are both Voxers!
The Second Place theme, “Live and Learn” was submitted by Li Kim Goh, or as you may know her: gollykim. We thought it was pretty cool to hear that Li, “didn't really think about winning, but mainly [entered] just for fun [while also] creating a few new banners for [her] own Vox blog.
When asked why blog design was so important to her, Li answered, ““because it draws readers' attention and makes your blog stand out from the millions of other blogs.” With such a great design, we think Li did just that.
The Third Place winner, Terri, showed off her “funky-fresh style” with her theme, “Vector Drips.” Terri said that having her theme picked made her day. You know what Terri? It made our day too!
The best part of the contest? In the coming weeks, we’ll make all the winning themes available on Vox, TypePad and LiveJournal so that you can use them on your blog!
Thank you to everyone who entered the contest and CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners!