Last Monday was the Feast of St. Blaise, one of the more obscure Catholic saints. I escorted the kids to a special mass where they received a blessing in his honor. It was one of those peculiarly Catholic moments, full of history and ceremony. I was, of course, invited to participate even though I was […]
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On Christmas Eve, one of $O$’s co-founders went out to a food pantry in Castro Valley CA and served food. He also handed out 30 of our cards, more than we’ve ever handed out at any given time, and all of them to people in need. This was the biggest test of our organization this […]
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Content warning: math and philosophy. There is a branch of math based on determining the most optimal move or decision in any particular situation. It is called “game theory” because it is most often used in “games”, situations with well defined rules. The way it works is by assigning values to options, then analyzing the […]
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Hello from South Carolina! I am at the house I grew up in, visiting my parents. We didn’t get a chance to get together for the holidays, so we decided to get together now. The timing of this joyful reunion couldn’t be better for me, because the kids I have started teaching at St. Williams […]
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Emergence is a big concept here at $O$, so I’d like to talk a little about what it means. Emergence is a complex subject, but I’ll do my best to try to make it simple, and to the handful of people who get that joke, I hope you appreciate it. Our entire lives are ruled […]
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Disclaimer: The statements and opinions made herein are those of the author and do not reflect those of $O$ as an organization. In Star Trek, there is a famous test called the “Kobayashi Maru”. The point of the simulation is to test how a cadet responds in a no-win situation. The person being tested is […]
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The rules of polite conversation say that there are two topics that should be avoided if one does not want to make a scene: politics and religion. Obviously here at $O$, politics is unavoidable. With policy change as an integral part of our mission, we are going to have to talk about it. But we […]
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It’s traditional for school children to write an essay about their holiday activities. And since I am a teacher, tradition dictates that I do something of the sort. However, I can’t assign homework to anyone else, so I’ll do it myself. We met a woman named LaToya. She came in through a card handed out […]
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So it has been a busy holiday season here at $O$. We have been so busy we forgot to keep the blog updated! Sorry about that. Things have been busy for us both personally and professionally. We had a lady get in touch with us in Columbia, SC who needed presents for her kids. She […]
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Yesterday I went to a training session ran by the Catholic Church. I have applied to work as a substitute in one of the local Catholic schools here in Cincinnati, and the Church requires that everyone attend this child protection course before they can work around children in any capacity. They have gotten really serious […]
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