Category Archives: General

Feelings, Thoughts, Musings, and more on my life and experiences.

Give more Aid to Pakistan: An Open Letter to Senator Scott Brown

I submitted the following email to Senator Scott Brown at http://scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contactscott?p=EmailScottBrown.

Mr. Brown,
My name is David White and I am a fairly new resident to Massachusetts. I will be voting for the first time in the upcoming elections this fall.

I am writing to you in regards to the flooding in Pakistan and am requesting that you and all of your colleagues file a bill that will enable more aid to be sent to Pakistan, immediately. According to CNN, as of early August 19, only $460 million of aid has been promised to Pakistan, much less than the $13 billion that was given to Haiti.

However, the crisis in Pakistan is much larger. There are currently 20 million people affected by the flooding. 1/5 of the country has been ravished. Thousands of acres of farmland have been washed away. And millions of people are getting sick, do not have access to clean water or food.

The United States and the United Nations must do more, as the current response of only $460 million in 2 weeks is absolutely unacceptable. However, the response should empower the Pakistani government. This is not the time for political games. The Pakistani government must be seen as being in control by its people. If the US and the UN does otherwise, you will be harming the Pakistani government by making it look like they do not have power. The people will loose faith in their government. And as a result, the Taliban power and presence will only increase.

Thank you in advance for what you will do.

Sincerely,
David White

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We Are Made of Love: Getting Back to the Simple Things

After giving it some thought I have decided to begin steering my blog back to my personal life – and not just blog about technology stuff. I honestly haven’t come up with a great solution for blogging about my personal life, my thoughts, and generally what I’m doing and thinking about doing in the technology industry (like the post I wrote back in March on Technology Solutions for Nonprofit Organizations) versus raw technical topics that 3/4 of my friends & family would have no interest in (and hardly any understanding about).

So if you are one of those 3/4, I apologize.

As I am continuously working on ideas and plans for launching Barred Owl Web (Editing note: it used to be a different name) into a full-time venture that will provide web hosting and technical support to nonprofit organizations around the world, I do plan on blogging about pure, raw technical topics. But those will be on Barred Owl Web’ (edit: was Smooth Stone Services) website from now on (that website has recently been redesigned and upgraded with more features including an interactive forum & wiki as well as a blog for site administrators – like me).

I’ve had an interesting past few days, as well as an interesting few months. As many of my friends know, I am now officially in my last week of work at TechMission, the nonprofit organization I worked with as an AmeriCorps intern, for the past year. Next Wednesday, June 2nd, will be my last day. On Monday, June 14, I will begin a new internship with a freaking-awesome company called Acquia that provides Drupal services. I’m pumped.

In addition to my time at TechMission, I have worked hard on my own business plan and in building a stronger foundation for Barred Owl Web to eventually turn into my full time business / ministry. All of this time working has kept me busy to the point of not doing much else. Building your own business on top of working a full time job is hard! But this is what I plan on doing for at least the next year or two – and maybe longer.

But right now, I feel like I’m on a bunch of different rabbit trails. Here’s the main point of my blog tonight: I’m getting really excited for my future (whatever that is), but also have a lot of things on my mind. Just a few minutes ago, I set the following to be my Facebook status message:

I forgot how much of what encourages me: a) talking to old college friends on the phone; b) listening to Sleeping at Last (and other music – I don’t turn my stereo on much); c) Taking an evening to “chill” – do a bit of yard work, eat a good dinner, don’t have anywhere to go; or d) All of the Above. If you answered “D” then you win… well nothing. But it’s been a good night.

I have a friend getting married in under two weeks. For the first time in a long time, I cleaned my room yesterday. After being literally sick for about a month, I think I’m finally starting to feel better. And tonight – I took time to chill. Life is good.

Listening to Sleeping at Last a few minutes ago, their song Needle & Thread came on. I’ve never been one to pay attention to lyrics much, but a certain part of the song always sticks out to me whenever I listen to it: We are made of love.

I looked up the lyrics tonight, and they are beautiful. Here’s an excerpt:

That we are made of love,
And all the beauty stemming from it.
We are made of love,
And every fracture caused by the lack of it.

“You were a million years of work,”
Said God and His angels, with needle and thread.
They kissed your head and said,
“You’re a good kid and you make us proud.
So just give your best and the rest will come,
And we’ll see you soon.”

As I move on from TechMission to my next adventure at Acquia, I want to give my best in all I do. But more than that, I want to give my best in everything I do – building my own business, eventually doing “community development”, and even simply living life.

It’s the simple things in life – taking time to relax, read the Bible, do something physical, listen to good music, talk to old college roommates on the phone – that I don’t do nearly as often as I think I should. But, as Sleeping at Last mentions in another one of their songs, “You are meant for amazing things.”

Life is Short. Why waste it by staying too busy all the time?

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