Redesign the System

Ezra Earl Jones is quoted as saying, "The System is designed for the results it is getting. If you want different results, you will have to redesign the system."

Have you ever heard someone say, "I don't like it, but what can I do?"

I think the key word in that statement falls right at the end. It's that persnickety two letter word, "do." How can such a small word be so hard to, well, do?

The challenge of that misleadingly insignificant word is that those two letters mark the difference between a dream and a reality. That little word sets a line in the sand between thought and action, between desire and diligence, between planning and practice.

So often we spend our time thinking about what we don't like about our current context. Often that comes in the form of frustration of some particular outcome that keeps rearing its ugly head. We simply don't like the way things are.

We may stand under our umbrella and say, "I can't stand the rain." But you can't yell at the clouds for precipitation. You can, however, decide to move to a drier spot. If you don't like the results, you have to change the system. It really is that simple.

This can come in the form of a job, addictions, relationships, or any other element you may find as undesirable in your life. This is not rocket science. If you want a different set of results, you are going to have to make a change in the system.

Change is unsettling. Not only to us, but to the people around us who have become acustom to us having a certain context. But don't worry, those who truly love you will be the ones to welcome and encourage your happiness.

In the end it doesn't really matter what your intentions were, or what you should have, could have or would have done. What matters is what you do.

Rails 3 and Authlogic

A geeky FYI...for those who are hoping to use Authlogic with Rails 3, there are a few hangups. Authlogic 3 will support Rails 3, but until then, for those of you trying to figure out how to get Authlogic to work with Rails 3, you will want to use scrum8/authlogic from github which is a functional branch for Rails 3.

You can use this branch of Authlogic by doing the following thing:

1. In your "Gemfile" put the following:

gem 'authlogic', :git => "http://github.com/scrum8/authlogic.git"

2. Run the following from your command line:

bundle install

(This will bundle the scrum8/authlogic branch into your local application)

3. Follow the README directions midway down at the authlogic_example page:

http://github.com/binarylogic/authlogic_example

4. Rather than using 'script/generate session user_session' you will have to manually create user_session.rb in your models folder with the following content:

class UserSession < Authlogic::Session::Base
end

5. You will also want to create a migration file for UserSessions which you can do by running 'rails g migration UserSessions' then make sure the following content is present:

class CreateUserSessions < ActiveRecord::Migration
def self.up
create_table :user_sessions do |t|
t.string :username
t.string :password

t.timestamps
end
end

def self.down
drop_table :user_sessions
end
end