Tough Decision Time 2 July 28, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in News.Tags: Password Protected, Tough Decision Time
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THIS POST is simply a follow on to my earlier password protected post, Protected: Tough Decision Time. If you’re one of my online friends, you are welcome to request the password and I’ll give it to you on the understanding that what I’ve protected must, for the time being, remain protected: in other words, it’s confidential and I’ll give you the password on the strict understanding that you maintain confidentiality.
Simply to eliminate certain things from possible speculation, it’s a work/employment related issue.
Thank you for being and thank you for reading.
Protected: Tough Decision Time July 28, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in Life, Watching and Waiting.Tags: End of an Era
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Strictly Confidential? July 26, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in Random Musings.Tags: Confidentiality, Email, Rant
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NO DOUBT YOU, like me, receive gazillions of emails that include some variation of the following in the footer:
This email (including any attachments) is confidential and is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s) only. If you are not the intended recipient you should delete it immediately and be aware that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, copying or reproduction of any of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.
What do you make of this kind of drivel? Have I just breached a confidentiality agreement by reproducing this part of that message here? The answer, of course, is no: whilst confidentiality can be requested, it cannot be demanded or even reasonably expected unless it has been agreed with the recipient in advance.
Wise up, beautiful people: email is not a secure medium. That’s presumably why you’ve included the footer message in first place: so why are you attempting to send supposedly confidential by email anyway?? Even worse of course, when it’s a bcc’d mass mailing: how does anyone know whether or not they’re one of your “intended recipient(s)”??
If you wish to send me confidential information, find another way — and even then, make sure you’ve secured a confidentiality agreement with me in advance, because if you haven’t, rest assured, your message — if it deserves any attention at all — will be disseminated, forwarded, copied and reproduced; but you can relax on one front: I’m unlikely to waste paper & ink printing it.
Thank you.
Broken Church July 23, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in Church, Theological Reflection, Watching and Waiting.Tags: Church, Insane ramblings of a deranged Christian, Jesus
19 comments
What is church? It’s people, broken people … pretending not to be broken … and that’s what breaks it…
… but things, maybe people too, are easily lost in the twittersphere, so I thought I’d say it again here.
I find church difficult: I love the fellowship, the shared communion, the sense (sometimes!) of common purpose, of being on a journey together; but then we get to the Bible readings, creeds, hymns, liturgy, prayers … and inside of me, just beneath the surface, there’s a voice screaming, “It’s not real!”
Or is it? Is there, somewhere amongst all the hype about God almighty, something real? Something deeper, something … transcendent?
People — myself included — talk about mission, evangelism, good news. But what’s good about believing fantasy? On what basis are we, is anyone, expected to invite people to become part of a community that so often can’t even see its own brokenness? What’s the good of lighting candles only to snuff them out? What’s the good of faking it for Jesus when Jesus reserved his harshest words for fakers?
And Jesus himself? Where are you, Jesus? Would we recognise you if you came to one of our services? Would you recognise our church services, meetings, fellowship groups — whatever we want to call them — as having anything to do with you?
Or would we find you sitting on the wall outside, having a smoke, broke and broken and wondering what it’s all about?
Lost thing July 22, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in Poetry.Tags: Loss
3 comments
A poem by a friend. I hope it resonates with you as powerfully as it does with me:
there was something I lost
I don’t remember its name
I don’t know that I’d know it
if I saw it againI looked for it in places
I had seen it before
but it was gone and nowhere
was the same any moreI sought it in people
who once held it for me
but they just pretended
things were as they should beI searched for it in faces
I had never seen
and started to wonder
if it had ever beenI longed for it sleepless
in silence of night
waiting for the lost thing
and missing its light© JH 2010
Please respect my friend’s copyright and do not reproduce this poem elsewhere: thank you.
Following Jesus? July 21, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in Random Musings, Short Story, Theological Reflection, Watching and Waiting.Tags: Bookselling, Discipleship
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JESUS was walking through the shopping centre in Galilee when he saw Simon and his brother Andrew at work stocking the shelves with books, for they were booksellers. Jesus said to them, “Come, follow me, and I will make you readers of people.” At once they left their bookshelves and followed him.
Going a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in another bookshop unpacking their boxes. At once he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the shop with the hired staff and followed him.
Another bookseller named Philip was watching all this. “What about me, Jesus?” he asked. “Should I leave my bookshelves to follow you too?”
Jesus looked at Philip and smiled. “What do you see, Philip?” he asked.
“I see your name written on each book, I see the light in your eyes each time someone picks one up and turns the pages,” Philip replied.
“The light shines in the darkness,” said Jesus, “and the darkness has never put it out.”
To GameHouse Staff: An Apology July 2, 2010
Posted by Phil Groom in Random Musings, Watching and Waiting.Tags: facebook, GameHouse, Job Losses, Layoffs, Online Gaming, Scrabble, Social Gaming
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Facebook Scrabble: Advertising Overlay
If you’re a facebook Scrabble player, you’ll have become familiar with this sight over the last week or so: an advertising overlay that covers the board and counts down before it lets you play.
This evening, however, I found out what it’s all about: GameHouse, the company that provides Scrabble on facebook, have got their backs to the wall, with something like half the workforce being laid off. Somehow, if the company is to survive — if the remaining staff are to keep their jobs and continue providing us with games on facebook (and Scrabble is just one of the many games they provide) — they’ve got to make those games pay.
Earlier today I left GameHouse an ultimatum on their facebook page:
Sorry guys but you haven’t listened: none of us want that ad overlay. It still takes 30 seconds to play through, which is far too long. Make it 10 seconds absolute max if you really must do it this way — but even that is unnecessary. Every other app developer I know of is perfectly content with banner and sidebar ads. Know this: I absolutely will not click through on your overlay ads. I absolutely will not purchase products from any companies whose ads you feature in this way. So you and your advertisers both ultimately lose because you alienate your own community and you alienate your advertisers.
ULTIMATUM: It’s your call: do away with the overlay or once my current games are over, I’m outtahere. It was fun while it lasted and I’m grateful for that: thank you. But you’ve now killed it and I’ll be blocking GameHouse from my facebook.
I’ve now taken that message down and I’d like to apologise, unreservedly, to any GameHouse staff who may have been hurt by my insensitivity. I’m sitting too close to the edge of possible redundancy myself to be able to take something like this lightly.
And to everyone else I say: play on! And if you want to keep on playing, do the biz and click through an ad or two.
GameHouse, I salute you!
Read all about the GameHouse layoffs here:
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