Abraham Mertens's Blog
RSS
Apr.05.2013
I loved this quote about the importance of taking action.
"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear."
--Norman Vincent Peale,American minister and author
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Nov.06.2012
I happened upon this video about the impacts of climate change soon after Halloween and was thoroughly frightened. I hadn't realized how terribly vulnerable we are to high water damage and how unprepared we are. This video describes what would happen if the Old River Control System failed.
Watch...
Continue Reading »
Aug.31.2012
"I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity."
--Eleanor Roosevelt
I agree completely. I'm delighted and impressed each day as my daughter discovers new things and asks questions about the world.
If anyone...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Aug.15.2012
"A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit."
D. Elton Trueblood, American author and theologian
This quote made me think about the story of the church that needed to do some...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Aug.09.2012
President Harry Truman is a hero to many and a villian to some. He made one of the hardest decisions in modern military history (whether to drop the atomic bomb) and presided over the beginning of the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. This is a man who knows action.
President Truman said...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Jul.25.2012
I came across this quote today and I wanted to share it.
"Some people say they haven't yet found themselves. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates."
--Thomas Szasz, Hungarian psychiatrist
I believe that the world would be a better place if people realized...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Mar.20.2012
This is my op-ed that appeared in today's San Francisco Chronicle:
My next-door neighbor, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, should resign immediately based on his actions on the afternoon of Dec. 31 and during the legal proceedings that followed.
Ross' wife, Eliana Lopez, told my wife, Ivory Madison, and at...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Mar.16.2012
I recently visited the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio in San Francisco with my daughter. I recommend the museum to kids of all ages.
While walking through the museum, I learned to appreciate Disney's innovative accomplishments as much as his creative works. He was constantly...
Continue Reading »
Feb.26.2012
I thought this Saturday Night Live video showing Maya Angelou pranking famous author friends was hilarious.
Who would you like to see in the second installment?
I would like to see her prank Salman Rushdie or Gore Vidal.
Continue Reading »
Sep.08.2011
President Obama's speech this evening, September 8, 2011, about jobs, is shaping up to be a make or break moment. Since he was inaugurated in 2009, Obama has tackled some important and difficult issues (bank bailout, auto industry bailout, and health insurance). However, I and many other people who...
Continue Reading »
Aug.13.2011
After many long months of hard work we finally rolled out Red Room 2.0 with greatly improved performance, design, and scalability. I'm a World War II history buff and know a lot about Eisenhower, so when it was time to send an email encouraging my teammates about the rollout and the future of...
Continue Reading »
Oct.29.2010
Last week I participated in the Books in Browsers 2010 Conference at the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive is a wonderful organization that has been capturing the history of the internet since the mid-1990s. Brewster Kahle is the director of the archive and was a very generous host.
The Books...
Continue Reading »
Apr.20.2010
Just a quick note from DrupalCon San Francisco:
DrupalCon San Francisco is this week and I had a hand in organizing the conference. As many of you know, redroom.com is built in Drupal, an open source content management system. The great thing about this software platform from a philosophical...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Aug.14.2009
[I'm joining the entire Red Room community in writing a short blog post on this week's topic: "Heroes." The form and the content of the blog entry are open to personal interpretation; whether this topic calls to mind a real-life hero, a fictional character, or something else altogether,...
Continue Reading »
1 comment
Aug.10.2009
Red Room's first book for its staff book club was Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother & Other Botanical Atrocities by Amy Stewart and I absolutely loved it. It was a pleasure to read this book. There was so much fun information in the book and the presentation of it was...
Continue Reading »
2 comments
Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.”
—Albert Schweitzer
About Abraham
Vice President and General Counsel Abraham Mertens is an attorney who has represented businesses as corporate counsel and in litigation. Mertens graduated from University of California, Hastings College of the Law, and served as an extern at the Ninth Circuit...
Connections
Abraham is a fan of
