Out of Egypt

confession

donovan — 2009-11-04T23:40:59-05:00

Like many people, I have wanted the world to listen to me. I have wanted to prove I was smarter than everyone else. I have wanted to change things - but especially in a way where I would get the credit. I am still struggling to believe that Your gift is prior to my giving, that Your Word is beyond my understanding, that Your love is the measure of my worth. Keep on telling me to give up so that I can learn to rest in You. Convince me, Lord, that there is safety in the space between Your wings....

July 2006: when my life changed

donovan — 2009-10-30T20:11:03-05:00

This is a blast from the past. Scroll down about halfway to hear me talking about TechMission for the first time. I also mention having a "crazy dancing wedding" with "my as-yet-unknown bride-to-be". I was an interesting person back in 2006 - still me, but I'm glad I'm here now, instead of where I was back then. I was better about blogging back then, though....

a little romantic scat for the evening

donovan — 2009-10-30T20:03:33-05:00

"My love is a kind of blind love" - but actually it's not a blind love, it's a very sighted love, a love that sees in you what I want there to be, but which does not merely see, for beyond that there's an ineffable quality of you being you and me being me that now joins we two and will someday make three. Sing the first line to the tune of The Flamingos' "I Only Have Eyes For You" and then improvise a melody from there. It's fun if you try :)...

"Care" (insp. by CCDA 2009)

donovan — 2009-10-28T07:29:24-05:00

He who loses his mind will save it - "In this world, you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." While we hope in ourselves, our hope is hopeless, our comfort is crushed. But when death has fully conquered, Christ bears us on His Cross. His weakness then becomes our strength - As our strength has brought Him into weakness. Love said the word that laid the nails Cut cross-wise, pierced that we might see His grace as greater than our hate And, by His horror, be justified. Now in His debt we live in peace - Remade as selves, one family. Distinct in wants yet one in grace, His gifting flows out, multiplies. We live apart to save the world - To save in Christ, who draws us all. We save in love, spirit and truth, Reconciling, loving the Other. And in all this,...

political wisdom from my roommate

donovan — 2009-10-07T22:02:05-05:00

In a conversation with my roommate tonight about the ever contentious and ill-defined ideal of "social justice", he said something quite insightful: "I actually agree with Ronald Reagan that government is not the solution. But I don't believe that government is the problem." I would add to his statement: "People are the problem." In my understanding of Reformed social thought, church, state, business, the family are all distinct spheres which all have their own role to play. Just as we have different branches within government, so we have the different spheres within society as a whole, so that balance may be maintained. Advocates of unregulated capitalism, which would create an ostensible "free market", are not reckoning with the fact that human sinfulness can express itself in economic transactions just as easily as in excessive regulation. There is no such as thing as a free market, for several reasons. One of...

just an fyi

donovan — 2009-10-02T21:46:23-05:00

Btw, Twitter is pretty much my blog now. Check it - follow @evandonovan. My skepticism has ceased....

Rakiesha (& Evan's) Laws of Social Marketing

donovan — 2009-09-30T13:25:39-05:00

You can't predict ROI. If you're not going to do it right, don't do it all. If something's working, go for it, but do it your own way. Don't be deceived by statistics. Just because it's easy doesn't make it unimportant. Sometimes imitation is the sincerest form of admitting you have no clue....

The 9 Steps for Computer Programmers

donovan — 2009-09-30T13:19:49-05:00

We admitted that we were powerless to resolve our bugs - that our code had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore our codebase to consistency. Made a decision to turn our GUI and our database over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless inventory of our bug reports. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to the whole development team the exact classes and functions where our coding had gone wrong. Were entirely ready to have God remove all our design defects. Humbly asked Him to guide our code refactoring. Continued to take inventory of bug reports and feature requests and when they were out of scope, or code refactoring was necessary, promptly admitted it. Having had a technical awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to...

Evan's Laws of Programming

donovan — 2009-09-30T13:16:02-05:00

You always have options. When in doubt, diagram it. Doing is the best route to understanding. Things you expect to be hard are easy. Things you expect to be easy are hard. When planning, never confuse the specific with the open-ended....

great understatements from wikipedia

donovan — 2009-09-26T14:27:10-05:00

"Lobotomy was used to treat many behavioral disorders, including psychosis, although its "effectiveness" was (from a modern viewpoint) due to its tendency to markedly reduce behavior of all types." (from the description of thorazine in the Antipsychotic article)...

the 7 habits of highly ineffective people (new and improved!)

donovan — 2009-08-22T01:38:13-05:00

After some thought, I decided the 7 habits of highly ineffective people would be even better if they were matched up with the 7 habits of highly effective people. So here's the result. Also note that whereas the 7 habits of highly effective people look like an hourglass inside a ring, the 7 habits of highly ineffective people are more like a doughnut-shaped black hole (diagram forthcoming?). Adoption of one of them will make you more likely to get sucked into the others. Effective (Covey)Ineffective (Donovan) 1Be ProactiveProcrastinate 2Begin with the End in MindThink of Ways it Can't Be Done 3Put First Things FirstSurround Yourself With Distractions 4Think Win/WinBlame Other People 5SynergizeIgnore Others & Refuse Help 6Seek First to Understand, then to be UnderstoodNever Change Your Mind About Anything 7Sharpen the SawDon't Sleep and Live on Ramen...

the 7 habits of highly ineffective people

donovan — 2009-08-18T15:18:45-05:00

We always talk about the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, but what about the habits of highly ineffective people? Personally I find them much more interesting. Here are a few principles I've observed from my own experience: Procrastination Blaming Other People Thinking of Ways It Can't Be Done Ignoring Others; Refusing Help Surrounding Yourself with Distractions Not Sleeping Living on Ramen...

not my preference, but perhaps a necessity

donovan — 2009-08-12T00:44:02-05:00

Mashable has an excellent article on Twitter's new branding strategy: "Branding Twitter as the one place where you are plugged in to the collective world makes it tougher to ignore. You can say 'I don't feel like updating people on my life,' but it's far tougher to say 'I don't care about what's happening in the world.'" So maybe I should be on Twitter - if not to tweet, simply to follow. I'll always miss RSS, though....

the woes of blog rebuilds

donovan — 2009-06-02T23:49:31-05:00

So I was doing a demo of my blog at work today, and so I posted a test entry. Now apparently, even after I delete the entry and do a full rebuild of the site (which took 9 minutes, 9 seconds), it still shows up on the homepage. And everything else is gone from the homepage. So my blog is sadder than ever. Oh well. Maybe this entry will fix it? UPDATE: It did. But I still have nothing to blog about :) I think I'm just bored with this platform. Maybe if I got a shiny new toy to play with, I might actually use it....

if you still need proof...

donovan — 2009-05-13T00:27:02-05:00

that the Free Software Foundation is run by crazy ideologues, read their FAQ on why you should upgrade your software to the GPL v3 license. Dries' comments on the GPL are insightful....