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February 01, 2005
Two more days
Yay. My "provisional credit" on my credit charge dispute was credited to my account. I still haven't received the paperwork to fill out though.
Two classes, one session, left.
This morning's class was all "wish list" material. We talked about draping and bolstering for pregnant clients, first sessions with new clients, and working with "straight people" as someone put it. Not heterosexual, but "conservative". But as we discussed, conservatives aren't the only ones with reality-tunnel-vision. Donna had some good ideas for working with people, speaking to your audience, rapport building and pacing, and Western allopathic descriptions of important energy tools.
I did my penultimate session of the quarter after lunch. I was feeling so resistant to doing it, but once I got my hands working, I was so happy that I scheduled it. It was really nice to be able to pick tools from the different things I've learned and put them together for someone.
It's nice how easily 6-pointed star, a Polarity move that can help loosen the muscles in the back, fits into a Swedish or Shiatsu session, or how easily some well chosen acupoints fit into a Polarity or Swedish session.
Today was the last day of TPS! And it was much too like any other class. The last class should be fun and easy going. This class dragged (we were dragging it), as we did more role plays--late client who wants their full hour, late therapist and irate client, etc--and went over guidelines for Impeccable Agreements.
After class, I put on some Mortal Kombat music and Jana and Shannon and I did some more pillow fighting. Movin' the energy!
After dinner, Jana and Silas hosted some of us at their cabinette to watch episodes of Drawn Together. Sad to say, I love it.
I'm still wondering about the optional 4th quarter. I wonder how I'll feel if I stick with the original plan, if I'll always wonder what I missed.
Today I was talking with Gavain about it, who said that for him the 4th quarter made the entire program "worth it", bringing it to completion. Reminded me of my thoughts the other day, as I was reading some sites and came across the Neopagan concept of "A year and day." Basically, initiates are supposed to study for a year and a day; this demonstrates their commitment and is considered enough time to learn a basic foundation. I hadn't thought about it for years; what a time to reconnect to it.
If the modalities were different, like ortho-bionomy or somato-emotional release, I'd be sold. I'm not sold on cranio-sacral and myofascial release. Of course the real reasons for staying another quarter go deeper, since I get so much out of Heartwood beyond the technical instruction. I find it to be an awesome incubator. I'm not sure yet how deep the reasons for not staying go. They certainly go beyond superficial money issues.
And I end with a bit of Geekiness. So I report all spam I receive to Spamcop (this is feasible because very little spam gets through my mailserver and into my Inbox). Today I noticed that they're not in favor of Challenge-Response systems. You may be familiar with this if you've tried to email someone on Earthlink who had it turned on for their account, and you received an email back asking you to go to a link and confirm that you're an actual human before your message would be delivered.
I am a huge fan of CR, but have never been able to install the CR implementation I like, TMDA, on our server correctly. So, I don't use it, but I would if I could. And it really bugs to see people (like those at SpamCop) try to marshal fallacious arguments against CR, when it seems pretty obviously that the real issue here is that They. Simply. Don't. Like it.
Well that's fine. Just admit it and move on. Don't get up in arms about what other people like and want to do. Not a single one of the four points in the SpamCop article constitutes a valid argument.
One: The idea that "if everyone used this method, nobody would ever get any mail" is ridiculous. To make this assertion only shows how little the folks at SpamCop know about sophisticated CR implementation. TMDA addresses this with whitelisting and "tagged addresses", special-purposes email addresses specifically designed to address this and other needs.
Two: The fact that some users find Challenge emails annoying is irrelevant. Many users found registering to use websites annoying when required registration first started becoming popular in the later 90s, but now registering for sites is pretty de rigeur.
Three: Bald claims about efficacy with no citations or examples don't convince critical thinkers for two seconds. I suggest checking in with some TMDA users and ask if they think their CR systems are "ineffective".
Four: Selfish? Well some people think that's the name of the game, but ethics aside, let's look at the actual logistics. Far from requiring "innumerable third parties" to receive Challenge emails, the issuing of Challenge emails can be pretty rare and confined to folks you don't know. Whitelist all your friends. Sign up for websites with tagged email addresses that let emails through without a Challenge (if they start getting spam, you deactivate the address.)
SpamCop also links to the infamous "Challenge-Response Anti-Spam Systems Considered Harmful" rant. This was written by someone named Karsten M. Self, who showed up on the TMDA mailing list to bitch and really couldn't hold his own. I think he's kind of cute, but I just don't reach him on this CR thing.
I'm not going to debunk that much longer article... all 11 of its points are easily rebutted... anyone who's interested in this is no doubt capable of doing it themselves. The article is actually quite ridiculous in its strawman approach. If you read that rant and feel convinced or have questions, feel free to contact me.
Posted by Josh A. at February 1, 2005 11:38 PM