Berkeley Breathed quits cartooning yet again, nobody I really cares. I really was sad when Bloom County disappeared originally. But reviewing the old Bloom County books I've got, it doesn't have the staying power--nay, the utter permanence--of Schulz's Charlie Brown. And Outland and Opus were okay, but a day late and a dollar short, if you know what I mean.

On the other hand, Bill Watterson retired--way too early in my humble opinion--and never came back. While I don't think anybody would have wanted to see a comic strip based on a minor character in Calvin & Hobbes, I tell ya what--those old strips still resonate, and I still miss the strip. I'd put Calvin & Hobbes up against Peanuts is both being a classic, completely universal, and having tremendous staying power. People will be reading old Calvin & Hobbes collections when those strips are a hundred years old. Guarantee.

I had never heard of Bloom County until I saw an edition of Loose Tails in a Waldenbooks one evening while browsing the Humor section.  I randomly picked it up and started browsing through it.  I remember the first strip I read was when Binkley was listening to the radio and the DJ announced that someone had turned a book into the lost and found entitled "Bed Wetting: Beat it Through Hypnosis" and it was identified as a library book taken out by Michael Binkley.  I had tears rolling down my face I was laughing so hard.  I was hooked from then on.  I've read all the books; I saved all the strips out of the newspaper and xeroxed them onto legal-sized sheets and kept them for the longest time.  I even have a stuffed Opus around here somewhere.  Bloom County became a favorite of my son as well.  So much so that he asked me to paint something on his bedroom door.  At the time, Opus 'n' Bill greeting cards could be found in most card stores.  From the side of each envelope, O&B could be seen peaking around the corner as if off-envelope somewhere.  Using that as my guide I painted Opus & Bill on his door.  Years later when we replaced all the crappy doors with six-panel doors, we saved the O&B door and eventually my son ripped it apart, saving only the painting, which is still closeted away.  As proof I offer....(you can still see the doorknob hole in Opus' shoulder)

De parte del Opus Dei iban a participar María Sánchez Galindo y José Carlos Martín de la Hoz, director de la Oficina para las Causas de los Santos de la Prelatura... pero en el último momento "no pudieron"

Cuenta Agustina López de los Mozos, en OpusLibros:

Pues sí, no hubo debate. Dos horas antes de la grabación, me llamaron por teléfono desde el canal TV Intereconomía para decirme que no se podía celebrar porque "los del Opus Dei acababan de telefonear declinando su presencia, debido a imprevistos de última hora". Quizá no lo hubo o quizá reclamaron a ex miembros en buen plan para intervenir y así se quedaba todo "en casa". No lo sé.

A los pocos minutos de comunicármelo, me telefoneó María Angustias Moreno (Marian) que, como a mí, le acababan de anunciar la noticia de la suspensión. Estaba en el tren -venía desde Sevilla- y le faltaba poco para llegar a Madrid.

- ¿Qué te parece?, me preguntó.

- Que son unos cobardes. (Y otras cosas que me callo).

Como su vuelta a Sevilla era para las 19.30 del mismo día, quedamos en vernos un poco más tarde. El punto de encuentro fue la casa de otra ex numeraria, Begoña Escauriaza, encantadora mujer a la que tuve la suerte de conocer ayer.

De izquierda a derecha: María Angustias Moreno, Agustina L. de los Mozos y Begoña Escauriaza 

La foto nos la hizo Menchu, también ex numeraria.

Qué genial sobremesa/merienda! Tanto Marian como Begoña y Menchu pertenecen a una de las generaciones en las que agregadas/os, numerarias/os, se fueron de la obra en vida del fundador. Si ahora hay difamación y mentiras para los que se van, entonces se añadía el ostracismo, el miedo, la soledad, la falta de comunicación entre ex miembros, el desconocimiento total por parte de sacerdotes y obispos de qué era el opusdei y por lo tanto la incapacidad de respuesta para entenderles. En definitiva: el oscurantismo, la intimidación y el poder -desde las sombras-, de las sociedades secretas. No es que el opusdei no siga siendo una sociedad secreta, es que ahora tenemos Internet para hablar y ayudarnos unos a otros.

Ellas conocieron al fundador, le trataron y le sufrieron. En muchas de la anécdotas que hemos oído contar o leer pasadas por el tamiz institucional, es decir, deformadas, (libros de Ana Sastre, de Pilar Urbano, de Vázquez de Prada, el Cercas, etc., etc.), habían estado presentes o habían sido protagonistas. A Begoña le animé a que contara todo eso por escrito. "Me da mucha pereza escribir pero yo te cuento todo y tú lo escribes... que yo no sólo traté a Escrivá sino también a su hermana, a ‘tia Carmen'... Mi madre se presentó delante de Escrivá en Roma a cantarle las cuarenta cuando nos robaron acciones de un banco por muchos millones... y él decía '¡lo que quiero yo a mi hija Begoña!'... y mi madre le contestaba: "¡no es su hija, es MI hija!'..." Volveré a su casa para recopilar su testimonio y recuerdos. No sé cansó de invitarme a vernos de nuevo, tiene ganas de hablar. Volveré, por supuesto.

Les pedí permiso para poner la foto en "Quiénes somos". Les expliqué que existía esta sección en Opuslibros. "¡Faltaría más!" fue la respuesta de una. "Inmediatamente", fue la respuesta de otra.

Y aquí acaba la historia del debate televisivo que no existió.

Muchas gracias por los consejos recibidos a mi pregunta: ¿qué me pongo? y a todo tipo de sugerencias. Al suspenderse el programa no puedo demostrar lo espléndida y espectacular que iba a aparecer :-) Otra vez será.

Un abrazo,

Agustina

P.D. A los cobardicas del opusdei: ¿por qué tuvisteis miedo a dos pobres mujeres inofensivas e indefensas? No lo entiendo :-) Y a los medios de comunicación: ¿no da publicidad ni dinero que dos mujeres discrepen del opusdei? ¡Viva la libertad de prensa!. 

• Change your environment~Take a walk. Get some fresh air.  The exercise and nature will restore your soul.
• Talk. Find a friend, your spouse, anybody who wants to engage in conversation or just lend an ear and support you.
• Breathe.  A lot of us hold our breath, literally, when we feel stress.  Close your eyes. Draw in a long deep breath and slowly release it !  Relax your shoulders and neck - I know this is the area that I hold much of my stress.
• Read something funny or watch some comedy.
• Smile.

Even do something positive to change this world....like join the army of women at www.armyofwomen.org. This is a new effort to partner women and researchers in the medical community put together by the Avon Foundation and the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation. Go check out the web site to find out more information!

A side note ~ Berkley Breathed is ending "Opus" his comic strip. November 2nd is the final original strip in syndication. I shall miss that penguin! First Pogo, then Opus! Arghhh.

today's quote[s]:

• "Man is not merely the sum of his masks. Behind the shifting face of personality is a hard nugget of self; a genetic gift."  ~Camilla Paglia.
• " A friend hears the song of my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."  ~Unknown.
• "Tears are the noble language of the eye."  ~Robert Herrick.
• "Nobility has nothing to do with power and rank but it is a matter of self realization. Happiness has nothing to do with wealth and status, but is a matter of Harmony."  ~The Daily Zen.
• "Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away."  ~Arthur Helps.

C'est fini.

Leire tiene 33 años. Se casó con Rober queriendo formar “un hogar luminoso y alegre”, expresión que aprendió de san Josemaría. Han pasado nueve años y tienen cuatro niñas, dos con síndrome de Down. Con ellas, su hogar es más luminoso y alegre que nunca.

Me llamo Leire Zalba, nací en Durango el 26 de octubre de 1975, y soy la más pequeña de seis hermanas. Mis padres nos ayudaron siempre a crecer como cristianos, insistiéndonos en la importancia de querernos en la familia y de querer a los demás. Pienso que esto ha sido fundamental para que ahora, cuando todos hemos madurado, estemos muy unidos, “como una piña".

Fuente y leer la noticia completa: Opus Dei.

Dare to Be Small
Tesla Lounge, Opus Free Port
Thursday 9 October, 6:00 to 8:00 PM SLT

* Music by DJ Bats
* Small creature costume contest
* Trivia quiz without any blood in it
* And of course, fabulous prizes

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Opus/128/124/61

At the landing point, click "Tesla Lounge" on the sign to teleport directly to the party; you can also IM Nikita Weymann for a TP. (Or walk along the airdock, head into the back of the building, and go downstairs.)

***

The grid is filled with towering, nine-foot-tall Amazons wearing spike-heeled boots. And bulky, tattooed, leather-clad he-men who must have had help buckling their own many-buckled boots since it's hard to see how they could actually bend enough to do it themselves.

If this is you, don't worry overmuch. Second Life is all about doing your own thing. But Second Life is also about exploration, and maybe it's time to try something a little different. A *lot* little.

This event is for tinies and child avatars. Bigs are welcome, but they may be repeatedly asked how the weather is up there.

(If you don't want to go shopping and you don't have a tiny avatar ... yes, you do. Look in the Library in your inventory for "Cardboard Boxbot." Just drag that whole folder onto your avatar, and hey presto.)

***

Opus Free Port is a steampunk island haven for travellers, traders, and pirates. Visit our home on the Web:

http://opusfreeport.ning.com/

(Los Angeles Times) October 6 -

In an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times, the 51-year-old Breathed wrote, “30 years of cartooning to end. I’m destroying the village to save it. Opus would inevitably become a ranting mouthpiece in the coming wicked days, and I respect the other parts of him too much to see that happen. The Michael Moore part of me would kill the part of him that was important to his fans.”

"Opus," a 5-year-old Sunday comic with a madcap political bent, stars the pudgy penguin from Breathed’s classic “Bloom County” strip. It will end just before the presidential election.

Breathed, who won a Pulitzer Prize for “Bloom County,” also writes screenplays, novels and children’s books. In a press release from the Washington Post Writers Group, which syndicates “Opus,” he said, “With the crisis in Wall Street and Washington, I’m suspending my comic strip to assist the nation. The best way I can help is to leave politics permanently and write funny stories for America’s kids. I call on John McCain to join me.”

“Opus” will end with an online contest asking readers to guess the fate of the penguin. At Breathed's website there is a notice that "The Opus Paradise Contest" begins Oct. 12...

If I remember this right, Mr. Breathed has tried retiring his characters twice before, and come back each time.

As someone who has tried to walk away from THIS enterprise twice before, I can relate.

But I will miss Opus.  As I miss "Bloom County," his former home.

I have a small stuffed Opus sitting on my computer.  He's watching me right now.  He used to sit in my older son's crib.  In fact, he was the first stuffed buddy my son had: he joined him in the crib at the hospital when he was born.

Yup.  I'll miss Opus.

The journey began in 1978 with a local Texas paper carrying a daily strip called The Academia Waltz, which quickly evolved in 1980 to the nationally syndicated strip Bloom County. It was retired in 1989 and replaced with a Sunday strip called Outland, featuring many of the same characters but a more surreal setting and premise. Though Ronald Ann was the original protagonist in Outland, it too quickly became another vehicle for Opus. Outland ended in 1995 with Opus returning to his childhood home in Antarctica. In 2003 Opus returned in another Sunday strip called Opus, only to find that many of his friends had changed and evolved, some even noticeably absent. His fans, myself included, were thrilled to have the chance to catch up with the big-nosed penguin once again. It was the return of intelligent, poignant, satirical, and genuinely funny comic strips to the newspaper.

Unfortunately that thrill was short-lived. Breathed announced yesterday his intention to retire from the comic strip business for good, for reasons that aren't entirely clear. He joked in a statement that the best way he can help his country during the current financial and political crisis is to "write funny stories for America's kids. I call on John McCain to join me." Though another reason might've been hinted at in comic strips earlier this year when he revealed that he was suffering from a medical condition known as spasmodic torticollis, and even mentioned in later installments that he was dying. Either way, his retirement from syndication will allow him more time to pursue his love for writing more children's books. (Which, by the way are excellent.)

On November 2, right before the election, the final Opus will run. And Berkeley Breathed will once again join Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes) and Aaron McGruder (the Boondocks) in the growing list of missing smart and funny comic strip artists and writers. I guess Doonesbury's Garry Trudeau is about all we have left that fits that bill.

Goodbye Opus (and Berkeley). You will be sorely missed!

This just in: The bowtie-wearing, tuba-playing, onetime vice presidential candidate on the National Radical Meadow Party ticket is headed for that great comic strip in the sky; cartoonist Berkeley Breathed announced today that he is giving up his Sunday comic strip Opus to focus on children's books instead.

That announcement signals the end of Opus, the charming penguin who has entertained comics readers for nearly 30 years, starting with Bloom County. Though Breathed has retired the character before, this time, he says, he means it.

"I'll be leaving Opus in a way that it should be very clear that this time there's no going back home," says Breathed.

I have long and fond memories of Opus' predecessor, Bloom County, which I discovered in the college newspaper when I was a student back in the Neanderthal Age of the late '70s. Opus will be missed.

Publicado originalmente en Opuslibros.org

Con ocasión de los 80 años de la Obra, han conseguido una entrevista en el diario La Reppublica, en la que se dice que ahora son 83.000 miembros y 1.900 sacerdotes. O sea, que han empezado a reconocer un cierto descenso: pero muy discretamente, para que los no entendidos no lleguen a darse cuenta y no empiece a desmontarse la falsa imagen de solidez que han conseguido crear, y que refleja la siguiente frase del periodista: «El Opus Dei es como una gran empresa espiritual bien consolidada»: ¡si fuera a la tertulia de mi centro y viera el espectáculo...!

            No podía faltar la pincelada de modernidad sobre el personaje, pero que acaba resultando un tanto patética: «A sus 76 años Mons. Echevarría, a pesar de su físico pequeño y frágil, juega todavía una vez por semana al tenis, escucha con pasión a Beethoven y en cuanto tiene tiempo devora libros de teología, filosofía, derecho canónico, historia de la Iglesia y literatura. El tenis le ha enseñado a devolver los reveses y los golpes liftados». Es decir, que no vive nada mal, entre el tenis y la música. Pero éstos no le deben dejar demasiado tiempo para devorar ese tipo de libros, a juzgar por la llamativa falta de preparación que manifiesta. Eso sí, lo de devolver y liftar los reveses debe de practicarlo a sus anchas, según demuestran los miles de personas que van quedando destrozadas después de haberse enfrentado al poder institucional.

            No tiene argumentos y, por tanto, se sale por la tangente, sin reconocerlos, para rebatir las acusaciones del secretismo y elitismo evidentes que aquejan al quehacer institucional de la Prelatura, o a la abrumadora inversión de esfuerzos para conseguir canonizaciones. Y tiene la desfachatez -este prelado de las 500- de decir que la organización no vive para sí misma porque su modo de hacer proselitismo es el propio de la Iglesia.

Pero lo peor -y lo más desalentador para quienes padecemos estos dislates- es que no muestra, ni de lejos, el menor atisbo de tener la intención de rectificar. Pues ante la pregunta sobre qué defectos habría que evitar en lo sucesivo, a la vista de estos 80 años de experiencia, responde: «Yo veo lo que he escuchado decir tantas veces a san Josemaría Escrivá, no por orgullo o soberbia: que la Obra no tendría nunca necesidad de ninguna renovación para adaptarse al mundo». Y para más INRI añade que él procura extremar la caridad con todas las personas que encuentra: «Porque las palabras del Señor no son un simple relato, sino una realidad. Recordemos cuando Él dice: "Si habéis maltratado a los enfermos, a los pobres, a los ignorantes, entonces me habéis maltratado a Mí"». Pues, desde luego, si él ve así las cosas de la organización que dirige, que el Señor nos pille confesad@s cada vez que nos toque sufrir las despiadadas actuaciones de esta implacable maquinaria de directiv@s bienintencionad@s.

Finalmente, no falta el ejercicio del doble lenguaje al referirse a los apostolados del Opus Dei. Pues, mientras a l@s de dentro nos hablan de vocaciones -y cuanto más selectas socioeconómicamente, mejor-, al periodista le destaca las labores sociales de la Obra.

En suma, un discurso manido, mucha palabrería vana que no convence ni a los convencidos.

Trinity

Steampunk Pirate Shindig
Tesla Lounge, Opus Free Port
Thursday 2 October, 6:00 to 8:00 PM SLT

Featuring:

* DJ Bats spinning sea shanteys, Paddy punk, and drinking songs
* Costume contest (Pirate? Just wear your regular clothes!)
* Trivia quiz, which may or may not have anything to do with pirates (Mwa hahaha!)
* Fabulous prizes (and quite possibly at least one new & amusing freebie)

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Opus/128/124/61

At the landing point, click "Tesla Lounge" on the sign to teleport directly to the party; you can also IM Nikita Weymann for a TP. (Or walk along the airdock, head into the back of the building, and go downstairs.)

Opus Free Port is a steampunk island haven for travellers, traders, and pirates. Visit our home on the Web:
http://opusfreeport.ning.com/

I'd like to expand on my thoughts about happiness from last week. Readers may recall that I boldly offered a path to enduring happiness through a rather simple formula: "Do what you are in the service of others." Let's take a closer look the first part of that formula.

"DO WHAT YOU ARE."

At BUILT TO LEAD, we draw a sharp distinction between two aspects of the word "work"--"LABOR" is the Latin word for "toil" or "striving" while "OPUS" means "masterpiece."

We are all about OPUS.

We happen to believe that our clients and we are richly blessed to live in a time and place where we are free to pursue occupations that make use of our unique talents; that leverage our strengths and minimize our weaknesses; that draw forth the best from deep within us. We are no longer constrained to work in factory, farm, or mine to survive. We have our grandparents and their parents to thank for our economic freedom. It was they who sacrificed OPUS for LABOR to survive, and thereby made possible our incredible opportunities to "do what we are."

That's why we believe that all of us have both the privilege and RESPONSIBILITY first to understand, and then to match our gifts and giftedness, to the occupations we pursue. 

Our work with clients starts here. We know, because they tell us, that meeting this responsibility does not guarantee happiness in this life, but shirking it ALWAYS leads to unhappiness.

So, our conscious and responsible embrace of this freedom is the first crucial step on the journey to happiness. 

This response is NOT OPTIONAL for those of us who would LEAD OTHERS. Leaders, in addition to pursuing their own dreams, take on the burden of helping others achieve theirs. If they are BUILT TO LEAD, authentic leaders have uncovered and anchored themselves to their bedrock beliefs about who they are AND who they are becoming. The know where they are AND where they are going AND how to get there. Only then can their PASSIONS be linked to an inspiring VISION, towards which their PUPOSE and PROCESSES can strive. Constant practice, and learning, and discipline create in such leaders an awareness that they are always "under construction." There are always "orange barrels" up on the road to excellence. 

Yes, it is REAL. HARD. WORK. But it is OPUS, not LABOR. It is the key to transforming a "normal" life into a great life. It is the foundation of leadership; the heart of happiness.

This is what we call CORE understanding. Building a strong CORE is the heart of becoming BUILT TO LEAD. And our "orange barrels" are up! We are refining our CORE work and calling it BUILT TO LEAD 180--the personal turnaround in 180 days to understanding your CORE and the plan to build a life of greatness. Stay tuned for more on this in the next few weeks. 

So CORE understanding is the first step to happiness. Between now and my next blog on the second step, consider this thought from a favorite author of ours here at BUILT TO LEAD, Os Guinness:

"Out of more than a score of great civilizations in human history, modern Western civilization is the very first to have no agreed-upon answer to the question of the purpose of life. The trouble is that, as a modern people, we have too much to live with and too little to live for."

What does this mean to you personally?

Do you have "too much to live with and too little to live for"?

Why?

Opus by Berkeley Breathed

]]> http://unodelopusdei.wordpress.com/?p=409 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:47:20 +0000 uno del opus dei http://unodelopusdei.pt-br.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/pelicula-camino-de-javier-fesser/ "Camino" de Fesser y Alexia González Barros

Me han llegado varias preguntas sobre Alexia González Barros y González, con motivo del reciente estreno de la película "Camino", dirigida por Javier Fesser, que dice estar inspirada en su vida. Sí, Javier Fesser, el mismo de "La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón", "El milagro de P tinto" o Gomaespuma.

Sobre esta película me guardo mi opinión personal, me limito a citar dos comunicados de la famila de Alexia González Barros, cuyos 4 hermanos aún viven. Me parece que son elocuentes:

• Fesser en "Camino" se sirve de Alexia González Barros
• "Camino" de Javier Fesser carece de la autorización de la familia de Alexia González Barros

Más información en la web oficial de Alexia González Barros Como sabéis, los actores que participan en la película Camino, son:

Angela Boj,
Fernando García Cabrera,
Nerea Camacho,
Fernando Carrera,
Lola Casamayor,
Jan Cornet,
Jordi Dauder,
Carmen Elías,
Ana Gracía,
Lucas Manzano,
Pepe Ocio,
Claudia Otero,
Miriam Raya,
Manuela Vellés,
Mariano Venancio

La película ha sido producida y financiada por Mediapro y Pendelton Fimls

Me han llegado varias preguntas sobre Alexia González Barros y González, con motivo del reciente estreno de la película "Camino", dirigida por Javier Fesser, que dice estar inspirada en su vida. Sí, Javier Fesser, el mismo de "La gran aventura de Mortadelo y Filemón", "El milagro de P tinto" o Gomaespuma.

Sobre esta película me guardo mi opinión personal, me limito a citar dos comunicados de la famila de Alexia González Barros, cuyos 4 hermanos aún viven. Me parece que son elocuentes:

• Fesser en "Camino" se sirve de Alexia González Barros
• "Camino" de Javier Fesser carece de la autorización de la familia de Alexia González Barros

Más información en la web oficial de Alexia González Barros Como sabéis, los actores que participan en la película Camino, son:

Angela Boj,
Fernando García Cabrera,
Nerea Camacho,
Fernando Carrera,
Lola Casamayor,
Jan Cornet,
Jordi Dauder,
Carmen Elías,
Ana Gracía,
Lucas Manzano,
Pepe Ocio,
Claudia Otero,
Miriam Raya,
Manuela Vellés,
Mariano Venancio

La película ha sido producida y financiada por Mediapro y Pendelton Fimls

Autumnal
Tesla Lounge, Opus Free Port
Thursday 25 September, 6:00 to 8:00 PM SLT

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too ...

* Waning-year music courtesy of DJ Bats
* Fall colours costume contest
* Seasonal trivia quiz
* And of course, fabulous prizes

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Opus/128/124/61

At the landing point, click "Tesla Lounge" on the sign to teleport directly to the party; you can also IM Nikita Weymann for a TP. (Or walk along the airdock, head into the back of the building, and go downstairs.)

Opus Free Port is a steampunk island haven for travellers, traders, and pirates. Visit our home on the Web:
http://opusfreeport.ning.com/

[Image: "Autumn Leaves," John Everett Millais, 1856. Poem excerpt: "Ode to Autumn," John Keats.]

A character trait that I've tried to adopt recently (with moderate success) is to never tell anyone about something that I might accomplish until I've actually accomplished it. You'll be familiar with this habit if you hang out with artists: everyone is always on the verge of big parts and personal shows and record deals. It's excusable while we're young, I suppose, and exciting to talk about opportunities and possibilities, to stay up to date with each other's budding careers. But if we keep confusing what we almost did (or, often, what we had the slightest chance of being not even tenuously involved with, like that time I hit on Jena Malone at The Continental) with what we've actually done, we risk becoming a bunch of farcical blowhards.

So, as a single mitigating instance to compensate, however insufficiently, for all the things that I've claimed to be about to do but never got around to doing (applying to various institutions and for various scholarships, writing letters and proposals to various writers and intellectuals, undertaking various physical and intellectual regimens), it is now official: I have been published in a magazine. A print magazine; I got one in before the whole industry floats over the brink of the inky waterfall of obsolescence. Copies of the article are already being disseminated throughout the northeastern seaboard and beyond.

I interviewed the mighty Swedish neo-Balearic slow dance duo, Studio, for Futureclaw magazine. Futureclaw is a young publication but it already seems to have found its voice: like an artsier Vice, and without the tiresome, disaffected (albeit occasionally funny) cruelty or presumption to objectively supreme hipness. If you want to check out Futureclaw and you don't live in an area where it's available, you can access the whole Fall 2008 issue here. My interview starts on page 59. (You'll have to forgive the Paris Review-wannabe opener.)

Oh, published. It's somewhere between baking and losing your virginity. (Right, Denver?) Once you hit the stands, you only want more! Speaking of which, I might have something coming out next month in a bigger mag - but, well, we're still negotiating, so, like, I really shouldn't have mentioned it.

* GOGBOT main
* GOGBOT RL
* GOGBOT SL calendar
* GOGBOT live streams
* Bruce Sterling essay on steampunk

Dance with Danger!
Tesla Lounge, Opus Free Port
Thursday 18 September, 6:00 to 8:00 PM SLT

Dare you enter the Tesla for an evening of fun and peril?

* DANCE to hazardous music provided by DJ Bats
* COMPETE in the costume contest (The theme is "dangerous." Go wild.)
* SHOW OFF YOUR GIANT BRAIN in the trivia quiz
* WIN fabulous prizes

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Opus/128/124/61

At the landing point, click "Tesla Lounge" on the sign to teleport directly to the party; you can also IM Nikita Weymann for a TP. (Or walk along the airdock, head into the back of the building, and go downstairs.)

Opus Free Port is a steampunk island haven for travellers, traders, and pirates. Visit our home on the Web: http://opusfreeport.ning.com/

www.opus-info.org

Se anuncia la aparición de www.opus-info.org, un nuevo sitio que intenta poner más fácil, al alcance de todos, los escritos de OpusLibros.

Ventajas de la solución técnica

Se ha utilizado el código de Wikipedia para presentar los documentos, artículos, ensayos, libros y ponencias de OpusLibros.

Las ventajas son que:

Cada artículo puede ser clasificado en las categorías que le corresponden.

Cada libro es dividido en capítulos, lo que permite cualificar cada capítulo en las categorías correspondientes.

Cada autor tiene su propria página informativa. Cada uno puede redactar las informaciones relativas a cada autor.

También abierta es la posibilidad de cooperación de más gente en la elaboración del sitio.

Ejemplo:

El capítulo Tras el umbral/Venezuela (parte 3) es parte del libro Tras el umbral.

Este capítulo es obra de María del Carmen Tapia (autor). En su página se puede ver su foto y sus otros escritos.

Este capítulo es un testimonio de una Numeraria, pero trata al mismo tiempo de sexualidad, de proselitismo y de la historia del Opus Dei. Por eso es clasificado en todas esas categorías.

Un navigante interesado únicamente en la historia del Opus Dei va a la página de la categoría Historia del Opus Dei y tiene la lista de los artículos que tratan del tema. No necesita ya leer la totalidad del libro o buscar largo tiempo. Genial, no?

Intercambio de ideas

Al lado de cada artículo se encuentra un enlace a una página de discusión donde cada uno puede exponer su opinión acerca del tema. Además, hay un foro donde cada uno puede exponer sus opiniones y poner preguntas.

Los usuarios registrados benefician de su propia página personal y ganen la posibilidad de enviar/recibir mensajes privados de/a otros usuarios.

Para contactar al administrador del sitio, escribir a opus-info @ opus-info.org.

Multilingual

Opus-info quiere ser una base central agragando información valiosa de diferentes fuentes.

Además es multilingual : 8 lenguas están ya disponibles.

Hay una detección automática de la lengua del visitante : él que habla inglés llegará directamente al contenido inglés de la página.

Con qué empezar?

Para entender lo que realmente es el Opus, hay que invertir tiempo. Lo mejor es pasar por las categorías y leer todas las ponencias incluidas.

Pero si quieres leer los artículos los más importantes, tenemos una cosa relativamente objetiva y muy democrática: el ranking de los artículos más enlazados.

Si prefieres bucear por el sitio, puedes leer una página aleatoria. Garantizo que CADA artículo es MUY interesante.

Si visitas el sitio de vez en cuando y quieres ver los nuevos artículos que aparecieron en el sitio, puedes mirar en la lista de nuevas páginas.

Propósito

Opus-info ayuda para entender lo que verdaderamente es el Opus Dei. Se examina este fenómeno desde varios puntos de vista:

espiritual

histórico

sociológico

jurídico

Basándose en vivencias y documentos, diferentes autores describen la praxis oculta de la organización. Muchas veces los hechos desdicen radicalmente las aseguraciones de la propaganda oficial.

Las opiniones expuestas son imputables a sus respectivos autores.

Agradecimientos

Un gran agradecimiento a los colaboradores de OpusLibros y ODAN, a los creadores de MediaWiki y naturalmente al administrador del sitio :)

Gabuzo