Archive | April, 2009

DePaul University 2009 Cinema and Interactive Media Summer Academy

By on April 18, 2009 in Programming/Coding

DePaul has a great summer program for Chicago area high school students interested in the art of computer science. The intensive one week long program is set for Monday July 27 to Friday, July 31, 2009 on the Loop campus downtown.

They will get a chance to work with some of the industry standard graphic software used in game development, digital cinema and animation. If you live in the area read the links on registration, costs and deadlines. All the relevant forms are printable PDF files that can be printed, signed and mailed in.

If your son or daughter has an interest here’s a chance for them to show their budding talents in a high tech professional lab environment. Sign them up now and see what comes from those creative juices.

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Don’t Play With The Tax Man

By on April 15, 2009 in General Interest, Politics, Society

T-Day has arrived people. Hope all you Johnnie-come-lately’s are planning on taking the day off to complete your IRS, state and local tax commitments because you’re going to need every hour left in this day to get them in on time.

I know, you think you’re hurting Uncle Sam and all your other tax aunts and uncles by making them wait. Stop fooling yourselves. You still have to give it and they really don’t care when you do so. You know why? Because if you’re late they are happy to tack on late fees and get even more tax revenue from you. I can assure you you’re not impressing anybody. You’re only inconveniencing yourselves. Don’t believe it?

Here’s a couple of ways the pain is going to work out for you today. Some of you are doing your own tax forms for the first time and being late-nics you’re going to make errors. The IRS is going to kick it back to you for a do over, guaranteed. Others of you are going to try various online or customer service options to pay your tax bill with your credit/debit cards and discover that you have an issue of some sort and you are going to spend at least an hour on the phone trying to get it resolved so that you can get the bill paid. You can plan on joining millions of others in the phone line today who also fooled themselves into thinking they were making some kind of point to Uncle Sam, Uncle City, Uncle County and Uncle State.

Hope you get it in on time. Unfortunately many of you can count on having a very bad day today. Take my advice. If you’ve ever read any of my previous posts on good banking habits the same principles apply here. Next year go ahead and file your forms two or three months ahead of time so that if you do have any issues you have plenty of time to correct them. Again, nobody is impressed with you waiting til today people. You and the customer service people are the only ones who are going to have headaches. The government entities are sitting back laughing anticipating all the extra income they will get from you so take a deep breath, be patient and call it a lesson learned.

Now I’m going to work to process tax payments – LOL. Happy Tax Day America.

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No Tweeting Or Texting In Church Please

By on April 12, 2009 in Faith

Has your pastor had to lecture the congregation about the inappropriate use of technology in church recently? I think I already know the answer to this one. Although technology has leapt forward, our public manners haven’t necessarily kept the same pace so I think now is as good a time as any to review a couple of the finer points of church etiquette for the 21st century. People, playing with your cell phones during church services really has to stop.

This may truly be new info for those of you who don’t have a family history of church attendance so I’ll give you guys the benefit of the doubt – for a minute. I suppose it’s possible that you simply may not know that there are different expectations of behavior in church than in other public places so consider yourselves aware now. It’s those experienced Christians who do know better who should actually be ashamed of themselves. But here is where all parties need to get it together once and for all.

There’s a concept of reverence in the realm of faith that we all need to respect. You’re supposed to walk in the door of the church house in a spirit and mood of worship, not playfulness. Preachers, bishops and priests have gotten used to having to remind worshipers these last few years to put their phones on vibrate or turn them off altogether to avoid being interrupted by digital ring tones of every sort. Do you know I even heard a raunchy ring tone break into a weekend men’s meeting one time? And the guy picked up and started talking! As a rule, you don’t want T.I. or Kanye busting out with a verse while you’re learning how to get your soul saved or how to live your life better.

It seems the development of the small keyboard has become something altogether different for men and women of the cloth to deal with lately. So, if the preacher gets irritated and calls you out for playing with the latest digital inventions don’t play dumb and act like you’re offended. You brought it on yourself by not thinking and by acting out of turn. Show the respect that is due by being focused on the preached message. Don’t text while the preacher is preaching. Listen! Don’t tweet the sermon or the goings on during service to your friends. That’s silly. If you have to share do what we virtual spiritual types already do. Take notes on the church program and blog, tweet or text it later. You will have had time to reflect on the message and the music – maybe even looked at the reference scriptures, hint, hint – and have something truly substantive to share with your techie friends.

If you have a nice pastor like I do he may corral all the offenders and call you out collectively to spare you individual embarrassment. The point is that playing with your electronic toys in church is no different than talking out loud during the sermon or homily so cool your jets for a few moments of spiritual reflection and enrichment.

Back to those of us who do know better. How about let’s actually do better? Show a little courtesy to the holy man or woman in the pulpit by paying attention. It is disrespectful to be texting or tweeting during church services. Have I drummed it in deeply enough? You’re there to learn, not to play. If you’re giving a play-by-play of the service then you’re not actually paying sufficient attention to take it in. Not to mention that all that clickety clack is also distracting to the rest of us.

I assure you that it won’t kill you to de-virtualize and cut the digital umbilical cord for a while. And wouldn’t the day of the celebration of our Savior’s death and resurrection be a great day to start a good old habit? So show some tact and share the word with substance afterwards. Oh yeah, Happy Resurrection Day.

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Operation Hope

By on April 1, 2009 in Blogging, Business, General Interest, Politics

If you guys haven’t heard of John Hope Bryant you are missing out on a top notch guy who brings financial literacy to the home front like no other. I heard him on the Steve Harvey Morning Show one day last year. Steve was so impressed with him that he had him back a second time. This is an actionist of the highest order.

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John Hope Bryant is the creator of Operation Hope, his organization, which is built on the premise that being broke is a purely economic matter but poverty is a depressed state of mind that leads to bad financial decisions and all of the consequences that go along with it. I remember one of his comments that African nations and African Americans are the only people who have put political advancement ahead of financial advancement. We’ve done things out of order which contributes to our ongoing problems and issues.

You should see this man’s book selection: “No More Katrinas”, “Leave No Community Behind”, and “The Silver Rights Movement” among others. If ever there was a person or organization bringing practical life advice in ways that work it is John Hope Bryant and Operation Hope. A quote from “The Silver Rights Movement” gives you a feel for the overiding gist of HOPE’s purpose:

“Calling for a new Silver Rights Movement in America, Operation HOPE, America’s first non-profit social investment banking organization, a national non-profit self-help organization and a leading provider of economic empowerment tools and services, proposes to continue and build upon the work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the famed Civil Rights Movement.”

Spend some time on the site and learn about the great initiatives Bryant has in motion. You’re bound to find something to apply to your home or even join the larger effort. Check out Bryant’s blog as well for some of his personal thoughts. Today would be a good to help kick the Silver Rights Movement into full throttle. I say pedal to the metal.

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