We attended a couples camps hosted by the Kimberley assembly. What a great time we had !! Pastor Owen Palm (a man with vision and passion for young people) organized everything well with some great speakers. One of the speakers was Delton who really spoke well to the couples (find his message notes here).

What's this song about ? Hallelujah - Lenny Cohen

I heard it sung (beautifully) by Rene Flemington (from her cd Dark Hope and in Shrek), played on 702 on Jenny's show last week thursday. You can download the song fro here

Well I like it... possible interpretation :
Hallelujah means "Praise Jehovah." With the reference to David and Samson, men who were in God's favor, and then through sin (murder, adultry -David; idolatry - Samson) fell out of favor, eventually found their way back. It cost David a lifetime of war; and Samson lost his life, but they were redeemed. Personally, it's a message of hope, the real "hope." No matter where we are in life, God, Jehovah, Yahwah etc. we can make our way back. And can't we all use some real hope these days.

but i'm sure there is several other different interpretations especially concerning Lenny Cohen style of music.

Here's the words:

Well I heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do ya?
Well it goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall and the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Well Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
she tied you to her kitchen chair
And she broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Well baby I've been here before
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew ya
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Well there was a time when you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show that to me do you?
And remember when I moved in you?
And the holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Well maybe there's a God above
But all I've ever learned from love
Was how to shoot somebody who'd out drew 'ya
And it's not a cry that you hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen in the light
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Golf

Still attempt to get myself on a golf course whenever possible. Not good at all, 24 handicap, but can improve if I can get to driving range more often. Last played with Dally and Guss and was lots of fun (with much frustration). Delton plays a good round of golf and improves at every game we play together. The goal for this year is just to stay on the fairway. Guss has a natural swing... but lacks practice as well... but he told me that next we meet he'll be so good, that he will be swinging both ways ...

Prudent adoption of Agile Modelling (Denver PM)

Excellent read - http://dvpms.squarespace.com/our-journal/ (owned by my partner Vernon Zwiers)

Prudent adoption of Agile Modelling in Business Analysis and Design

This article is not going about addressing the intricacies of Agile Modelling. This article does however place this absolutely valuable method in the Business Analysis and Design area of expertise.

Have a look at Scott W. Amber’s web site, http://www.agilemodeling.com/ for in depth information about Agile Modeling. Scott W. Amber is the founder of Agile Modelling.

The first thing that must be looked at is the characteristic profile of the Technical community. Yes, it is a generalization, but serves the purposes of this article. Engineers and technical people (which is also my background…) always look for the short way of getting things done quickly. It is not a matter of what is known but where it can be found when needed. One only has to look at a technical person doing a home project. The Construction Manual is only necessary if things go wrong at some stage, even if the project is completely new to the person.

Agile Modeling fits in exactly with this profile, which is, “Get it done quickly with as little input as possible and we can always apply the same process if anything goes wrong to fix it.” It was developed from a technical point of view meant for technical use. The design of this methodology is to get rid of as much analysis work as is possible and just get to designing and implementing the system. Thus it has certainly created a place in the analysis for itself and that is for purely back end system level functionality. It falls horribly short when it comes to involving the Users of a system when trying to make the system reflect how their business is done.

Another common characteristic is that technical people avoid other humans like the Business Owners and the System Users at all costs. Thus when looking at Agile Modelling and asking the Business owners during the analysis whether they understand what is happening, the usual answer is received, “Well as long as they know what they are doing, that’s fine.” Internally they are probably thinking to themselves, “We’ll nail them later at sign-off time.”

Unfortunately there are some things that no Business Analyst can shortcut or get away from and that is, plain simple, hard work, huge effort and sufficient documentation, which is understood by everybody, to allow a system to be written. The User has to be made part of the team right from the beginning and their input is worth gold as they are the experts in their particular field of work, not just the technical people. In order to facilitate this a Business Analyst has to have as part of his or her arsenal some way in which to get this information in a form that the Business User is comfortable with and understands, at each step of the way.

So where does Agile Modelling fit in with Business Analysis and Design?

The ideal point is when the design gets down to the class level. At this point it is a extremely valuable and highly recommended method to enhance the system design at the point of system expansion to support the requirements gained through the analysis.

The whole point is that as Business Analysts we must not limit ourselves to the hype and hoorah that is created, but make sure that we understand these techniques and know where the value of all these techniques lie. This will give us an understanding of where they will benefit the projects that we work on. We need to embrace and incorporate them in our work where they make sense and combine them to create a solid system when the work is finished. At all times we must be able to apply what are Appropriate, Necessary, and Sufficient for the situations that we are analysing. 

Joe Barber

Candice wanted to see Joe Barber 5. Was ok, a bit repetitive like rocky series that does not want to end. We ate at Gramadulas (resturant at the the theater) and the malva desert is highly recommended.

Current reading.

I got the following book in e-book, by Patrick Heron, and really enjoying it. Eye openening stuff. Nothing new as far as the message teaches us but approached from totally different angle. This is the second book i've read of Patrick (the other Appoclypse) and must admit that this man is on another level.