misc-joy

Author: Kenley Neufeld

  • Busylessness – Are you too Busy?

    I’m exploring the joys of being busy and taking a close look at the commitments in my life. What does it mean to be busy? To have commitments? Is it possible to have to many? I’ve heard Thich Nhat Hanh talk about something called busylessness, or businesslessness, [the correct term is “businessless” invented by Master…

  • Moodle, Facebook, Twitter, and Teaching Online

    I have just completed my third semester of teaching Information Literacy online at Santa Barbara City College. This institution had the wisdom to make information literacy a graduation requirement two years ago, thereby demonstrating its commitment to the student and the recommendations of Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The class is 100% online, thereby…

  • Kathryn Klassen – Remembering My Mom

    Kathryn Klassen August 28, 1943 – April 14, 1998 It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years. In late 1997, I had started a new job as the Head Librarian/Technology Director at a Bay Area high school. The dot com era was getting into full swing and my mom was dying of…

  • Two Words I Didn’t Expect to Hear

    Two different colleagues relayed stories where the words wetback and beaner were used recently. I didn’t expect to hear these two words in 2008. Even the folks who demonstrated in Ojai last week did not admit to being racist (though I suspect differently). And despite the fact that we have a black man running for…

  • Sustained Practice and Well Being

    Over the past seven years, I have spent many days/nights at Deer Park Monastery in Escondido, but usually it is for a weekend or even just a day. On two occasions our family have spent 3-weeks at the monastery (once at Deer Park and once at Plum Village in France). These times are always nourishing…

  • A Cultivated-Taste for Failure and Chaos

    I don’ t normally read the Harvard Business Review, but a colleague at work brought the current issue to my attention because the cover said Reading Google’s Mind, and she knew of my fascination with innovation and with Google. The actual article is called Reverse Engineering Google’s Innovation Machine; it’s a pretty good read and…

  • Summer in March

    We have been experiencing some warm weather the last few days and the flowers are all blooming. The mountains look great. The sky is blue. And a full moon has greeted us at night. Today was in the upper 80s and we hung out around the pool with family for an Easter lunch. Jasper and…