On August 14th of 1991 I was in Patras, Greece staying in my grandmothers home preparing for an all-night adventure to experience as much as possible the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos for the first time in Greece. Growing up in America, the feast of the Dormition was only fairly important to me mainly for two reasons: first, my home parish was one of only two parishes in the Boston area that celebrated the feast with a decorated Epitaphios and the singing of the Lamentations, and second, because it was the nameday of both my parents - Panagiotis and Panagiota - and we usually had a celebration in my home on that day with family and friends. But in Greece the feast offered a new experience for me and brought it to life for the first time in a very special way. It also helped that this was the first time I ever kept the fast for the whole fifteen days, and it was the first time I went to Confession.
Throughout the first fifteen days of August I was traveling to many shrines throughout mainland Greece and the islands, and it seemed everywhere I went there was some place with a story associated with the feast and the Virgin Mary that was highly honored by the local people. Even the most remote villages, I was learning, had their own particular story that played a major role in the life of that village. And there were so many places that had special celebrations on August 15th itself, that I felt hard-pressed deciding which place I wanted to celebrate on that particular day. Seeing that I was only 15-years old at the time and by myself in Greece with family living in Patras, my choice was limited to attend the famous all-night vigil at Girokomeio Monastery with my grandmother. My Uncle Niko also offered to take me to a remote village about two hours away in the mountains of Kalavryta following the vigil to attend a morning Divine Liturgy high up a mountain in a chapel that only had a Divine Liturgy once a year. It would be a long night, but I took him up on the offer trying to take in as much as I could that summer.
Girokomeio Monastery is one of the oldest functioning monasteries in Greece, dating back to around the tenth century. It is called "Girokomeio" because the Monastery used to run an old age home in Byzantine times. The Monastery itself was built over an ancient pagan temple dedicated to Artemis, which is one reason why the Katholikon of the Monastery is dedicated to St. Artemios. The other reason is that St. Artemios, who was the general of St. Constantine the Great, is said to have come to Patras by order of Emperor Constantine in the fourth century in order to transfer the relics of the Apostle Andrew, who was martyred in Patras near this Monastery, and bring them to Constantinople.
My uncle dropped off my grandmother and I at Girokomeio Monastery in the high hills of Patras in the evening around 6:00pm and the vigil was scheduled to end around 3:00am. This was to be my first all-night vigil and I didn't know what to expect as far as my stamina was concerned, but I was determined to pull through. I had attended this vigil once before when I was 7-years old, but it was only to drop off my grandmother and venerate the miraculous icon of Panagia Girokomeitissa, but then I left with the rest of my family except my grandmother. This was the first year my grandmother would attend the whole vigil with someone else.
The Monastery was full, literally thousands of people. My grandmother settled with a spread blanket somewhere in the courtyard, where people could listen to the Service through a sound system connected throughout the Monastery grounds. Most of the time I spent walking around the Monastery people-watching and observing what was going on, but I did spend about four hours within the packed church for prayer. I could only sit for so long with my grandmother before I just wanted to walk around and take in all the excitement, such as when a Jehovah's Witness came around and began yelling at the top of his lungs for all the Orthodox who were waiting in line to light a candle and venerate the icon to repent of this "abomination".
My Uncle and I had planned to meet at 3:00am at the entrance of the Monastery so we could drive to our next destination. After dropping off my grandmother at her home we set off for about a two-hour drive in the early morning hours through the mountainous roads with many twists and turns in order to attend the once a year Divine Liturgy at 7:00am.
It should be noted that my Uncle Niko is notorious for two things - his loud snoring and his habit of falling asleep while driving. After dropping off my grandmother he told me he was wide awake, but brought along a gallon of water just in case he did get tired. And the water was not for him to drink, but for me to pour on him every time he felt the need to fall sleep while driving along the mountainous roads with many twists and turns - and no guard rails! I was pretty tired after the vigil and hoped to grab a nap in the car, but everyone warned me that it was out of the question and that I was to keep my Uncle awake at all costs.
Not a half hour passed before my Uncle started to doze off. I began to wonder if this whole thing was a good idea. I tried talking to him, but that only brought us so far. It came to the point where I had to start pouring water over his head to keep him awake, and he would yell at me to "Keep pouring!" I didn't realize his problem was so serious and that our lives depended on me staying awake in order to keep him awake. Up in the mountains we had to even stop at a fresh water spring to fill up the gallon of water, because we had run out.
I forget the name of the village we were going to, but we arrived safely around 6:00am, and I was tired. This village was about two villages away from where my Uncle had a second home, so he had heard about this church from the locals. The history of this church goes back to World War 2 when German soldiers marched through the area. For some reason they went on a rampage and burnt one of the remote villages mid-way up this mountain. In this village was a church which they destroyed, and there was in particular an icon of the Virgin Mary which they took with them a little higher up the mountain to a cliff. When they came to the cliff they decided to fool around and profane the icon, cutting out the eyes with their knives, and it is believed their intention was to throw the icon off the cliff of the mountain as a final desecration. The villagers meanwhile noticed that a long time had passed and had seen no German soldiers return from the mountain. No one had seen them walk back the only path that leads there. They went up to the cliff where they were last seen and they saw the eyeless icon of the Panagia on the ground, but no soldiers. When they looked over the cliff, they saw the soldiers dead at the bottom of the mountain. It seems that their plans had reversed on them. A chapel was eventually built there by the locals to house this icon and commemorate this miracle and it celebrates every year on August 15th.
When we arrived that morning we could only drive about half way up the mountain and the rest we had to walk up along a dirt road. On the way up we came across the village destroyed by the Germans, and to my surprise it was still destroyed with no effort made at its restoration. Even the church was still in a state of destruction. When I walked inside it was bare of its icons, except one which I found on the ground and placed near the altar area. We continued along and finally reached the church, which was a lot higher than I thought and literally built on a cliff. We venerated the holy icon with no eyes and stayed for the Divine Liturgy. We then left for my Uncles village home and after a long adventurous night took a long nap the rest of the day.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Much Ado About Dukes (Never a Wallflower #2) by Eva Devon
Book Review, Entangled Publishing, Historical, Marriage of Convenience, Romance, Series
August 24, 2022 August 24, 2022 by Sharon Clayton
As far as William Easton―the Duke of Blackheath―is concerned, love can go to the devil. Why would a man need passion when he has wealth, a stately home, and work to occupy his mind? But no one warned the duke that a fiery and frustratingly strong-willed activist like Lady Beatrice Haven can also be a stunning, dark-haired siren who tempts a man's mind, body, and soul.
Lady Beatrice is determined to never marry. Ever. She would much rather fight for the rights of women and provoke the darkly handsome Duke of Blackheath, even if he does claim to be forward-thinking. After all, dukes―even gorgeous ones―are the enemy. So why does she feel such enjoyment from their heated exchanges?
But everything changes when Beatrice finds herself suddenly without fortune, a husband, or even a home. Now her future depends on the very man who sets her blood boiling. Because in order to protect his esteemed rival, the Duke of Blackheath has asked for Beatrice's hand, inviting his once-enemy into his home…and his bed.
I love Eva Devon's passionate and stubborn characters. Throw in a marriage of convenience and there is bound to be some interesting agreements and promises meant to be broken.
The truth was Beatrice had grown to hate dukes. All dukes. Yes, all dukes were the very devil because they represented the thing she loathed with all her passion—the upholding of laws that kept her so wholly without rights.
Lady Beatrice is a very vocal activist for women's rights in a time when women are treated like property. It's this very reason that she swears never to marry. To get her message across she must find a parliamentarian who will support her cause and, unfortunately, it is her future arrogant and dismissive brother-in-law who she seeks out. However, she finds him more amiable to her cause and her person than she once thought.
Those letters… By God, they were the stuff of philosophers and held such sincere desire for justice that he had been awed. He had savored every word. Every turn of phrase. Every resplendent, skewering argument. Lady Beatrice Haven was a wonder. He had immediately liked her and liked her well. And so? He had avoided her at all costs.
William Easton, the Duke of Blackheath, is a well-respected orator in parliament and doesn't believe in love until a feisty, outspoken activist catches his attention. She is soon to be his sister-in-law and he feels an obligation to help her in her endeavors, but he has a secret. He has an intense admiration for her, but he would never confess it to anyone. And he never figured he would have to change his single status in order to help her unfortunate demise.
I loved Will and Beatrice's intellectually-stimulating verbal sparring about the issues facing women and the poor in their time. But I adored how they slowly fell for each other with their misgivings about love and marriage. Beatrice is a strong female character who is in tune with what she wants and is not afraid to go against the norm. She's also not afraid to tell Will how she really feels when their life appears to be falling apart. Will is truly a good man and he really listens to Beatrice and respects her. Will's abandonment of his mother is a major milestone in his life which is the motive behind his support of women's rights and also his refusal to let himself love someone. It's lovely to find out how much Will and Beatrice have in common and becoming friends is a natural progression. The boxing lessons are a great addition. But it's when Beatrice's financial woes lead them to a marriage of convenience and new feelings which changes their circumstances and causes havoc in their relationship. Don't worry, there is definitely a happy ever after with a grand gesture to remember.
What I loved most in this book was the band of brothers. Will's brothers Ben and Kit are a splendid support system for both Will and Beatrice. Their relationship with Beatrice is so heartwarming and their devotion to their brother is touching.
I highly recommend this delightful historical romance filled with humor and lovely characters. I hope to read a future book about Will's brother, Ben, who stole the show for me in this book.
Thank you to Ms. Devon for giving me the opportunity to read this book with no expectation of a positive review.
USA Today bestselling author, Eva Devon, was raised on literary fiction, but quite accidentally and thankfully, she was introduced to romance one Christmas by Johanna Lindsey's Mallory Novella, The Present. A romance addict was born. She devoured every single Lindsey novel within a few months and moved on to contemporary and paranormal with gusto. Now, she loves to write her own roguish dukes, alpha males and the heroines who tame them. She loves to hear from her readers.
Follow Eva on Twitter and Facebook.
Stay Frosty: Mission Bella Rayne (Born to Fight Heroes for Fire #4) by Jessika Klide
Adrenaline (In Secret We Sin #1) by A. L. Woods
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A Great LEI Podcast with Dan Heath on "Upstream"
By Mark Graban On Apr 29, 2020 Last updated Feb 9, 2021
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I was really excited to learn about the new book by Dan Heath, so I pre-ordered it at the start of March. The new book is Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen.
You might know of Dan Heath from the books he co-authored with his brother Chip, including Switch and Made to Stick.
I started reading the book and was really enjoying it… and then came the realizations that the pandemic was upon us. The book seemed really prescient in that better "upstream" preventive problem solving would have helped the world a lot.
Without mentioning Lean (or Toyota), Dan Heath lays out a great case that will resonate with a Lean thinker — it's better to solve problems upstream instead of just reacting after they occur.
But, psychology and human nature gets in the way… it's hard to get excited about problems that haven't (or might not occur). It's hard to find the time to work on upstream problems when we're super busy reacting to fires all day long.
"In this book, I'm defining upstream efforts as those intended to prevent problems before they happen or, alternatively, to systematically reduce the harm caused by those problems."
Surely we'd all prefer to live in the upstream world where problems are prevented rather than reacted to. What holds us back?"
Heath writes that downstream reactions can turn into upstream solutions for the future, he also adds:
"…while upstream solutions are generally more desirable, they're also more complex and ambiguous."
I was hoping to connect with Dan to do a podcast. But, I had the chance to listen to the WLEI Podcast episode where my friend Tom Ehrenfeld interviewed Dan.
You can (and should) just listen to that podcast (or read the transcript that's on the LEI website).
I'd love to hear what you think of the podcast and/or the book.
Dan uses examples from many companies, but Toyota did not appear (and I searched the Kindle version). If I did a podcast with Dan, I might ask about that omission, as Toyota provides many great examples of (and frameworks for) upstream problem solving.
What do you think? Scroll down to comment or share your thoughts and the post on social media. Don't want to miss a post or podcast? Subscribe to get notified about posts via email daily or weekly.
Mark Graban
Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. His latest book is Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. He also published the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus.
Latest posts by Mark Graban (see all)
Alternative History: GM Uses Lean to Remain #1 in the Auto Industry - January 31, 2023
Fall in Love with the Problem, not the Solution: In Entrepreneurship and Continuous Improvement - January 29, 2023
Do You Have a Culture of Learning From Mistakes in Your Healthcare Organization? - January 26, 2023
BooksLEIProblem Solving
Podcast #367 — Rachel Mandel, MD MHA, on Lean for Physicians and Health Systems
Announcing a New Podcast Series: "Habitual Excellence"
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Oops! Another Mistake During a Webinar About Mistakes
Lauren Gray says 3 years ago
This is a good, thought-provoking topic. I also wonder if there is some meat on the bone in considering how leadership transitions can impact upstream plans that are developed, when new leadership moves in and has to decide what to do with that prior planning. This is something that I think most entities face to some degree with every new leader who takes their seat.
Keiko Fuchioka says 3 years ago
Loved the podcast. Thank you, Mark!
Donna King says 3 years ago
Get podcast! Thanks for sharing it with us. I love how Dan Heath puts Lean and Systems Thinking into plain language and every day examples that are familiar and acceptable to those who get turned off by the jargon.
Robert Kluttz says 3 years ago
Their other book "The Power of Moments" is great as well. Really illustrates the folly of most organizations' approach to customer satisfaction and how focusing on small key steps of their journey can be transformational.
Yes, email me about new posts, daily!
Hi, I'm Mark Graban
Welcome to my blog about improving hospitals and other types of organizations through "Lean."
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Phillip Carroll Morgan (Choctaw/Chickasaw) is an award-winning author of three Chickasaw Press titles: Chickasaw Renaissance and Riding Out the Storm: 19th Century Chickasaw Governors and Their Intellectual Legacy, and co-author of Dynamic Chickasaw Women. Anompolichi: The Wordmaster is Morgan's first novel for White Dog Press. Dynamic Chickasaw Women won the Independent Publishers Book Awards' Gold Medal for Mid-West Regional non-fiction in 2012, and Riding Out the Storm won the Gold Medal in that category in 2014. Poetry by Morgan appears in The Fork-in-the-Road Indian Poetry Store, which won the Native Writers Circle of the Americas First Book Award for Poetry in 2002. He also co-authored Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collective, a conversation between leading experts in Native American literature. He holds a master's degree and a doctorate in Native American literature from the University of Oklahoma.


text:
package br.ufsc.lehmann.similarity;

import br.ufsc.core.IMeasureDistance;
import br.ufsc.core.trajectory.SemanticTrajectory;
import br.ufsc.lehmann.EnumProblem;
import br.ufsc.lehmann.method.SMSMEllipsesWithDistanceAndTemporalDurationTest;
import br.ufsc.lehmann.msm.artigo.Problem;

public class SMSMEllipsesWithDistanceAndTemporalDurationCompactnessTest extends AbstractCompactnessTest implements SMSMEllipsesWithDistanceAndTemporalDurationTest {

	public SMSMEllipsesWithDistanceAndTemporalDurationCompactnessTest(EnumProblem problemDescriptor) {
		super(problemDescriptor);
	}

	@Override
	public IMeasureDistance<SemanticTrajectory> measurer(Problem problem) {
		return SMSMEllipsesWithDistanceAndTemporalDurationTest.super.measurer(problem);
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub