As Slope heads toward its 9th birthday on March 29, I thought I’d take a few minutes to point out some of the features on the site that some of you may have overlooked. Over the years, there have been a lot of features added to the site, and I suspect newcomers may have no idea what cool gizmos are hidden under the hood. So here are a few goodies you may not have known about on Slope: (more…)
Slope of Hope Blog Posts
Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.
What I’m Looking Forward To in 2014
This year, as with all years, has had plenty of both good and bad (and I will incidentally pledge to you that I will never, ever, as long as I live, give a post the title “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly”, since it has to be the most overused, hackneyed, tiresome article titles in human history). But I digress: what I was saying was that 2013 utterly sucked for the bears (which makes it remarkably similar to, oh, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009) but was pretty good for The Slope of Hope. (more…)
Cowgirls Wearing Pink Shades……Evil Plan 1001 (by BDI)
Every Month a Crash
More than a couple of decades ago, a very talented programmer introduced me to a common phrase that engineers use when queried (by management) as to when such-and-such a product was going to be finished: “Real Soon Now.” It was a delightful phrase, because in three words, it captured the condescension programmers have for management as well as the wily deceit they need to use to keep their jobs. It was, in short, a way to get the inquisitor off their back. (more…)
Ebenezer Tim
My relationship with A Christmas Carol is much like I have with The Godfather: if it happens to be 
on television, I’m going to stop whatever I am doing and watch it. I’ve often tried to figure out what the big appeal is for me.
To be candid, I think I see a lot of myself in Scrooge (and I’m confident Dickens’ intent was to help us reflect on the darker aspects of our characters). As we learn Scrooge’s tale, we find he wasn’t born nasty; things happened to him, and he made certain choices, which led to his foul and misanthropic disposition.
And yet when he is given the opportunity to see humanity head-on, his stone heart is warmed. He understands how his separation from people has harmed him as well as others. He seems how his stinginess has the potential to rob others of their very life. He sees that he can bring some light into a very dark world. His heart and mind are finally opened. (more…)
