Month: May 2005 (page 1 of 5)

“If you people don’t get out of my house, I’ll set it on fire!”

Unbelievable…(Link via Free Republic)

Taught about making the most of your time, etc. etc. today, and gave everybody in attendance one of these “checks” as a reminder that every single day is a precious – and irreplaceable – gift from God, that if squandered, is gone forever.

OK, I know it’s sort of “cheesy” and all that, but it got the point across to our folks…

My old low-top Chuck Taylors are finally looking too ratty for the lovely and gracious “Mrs. Charphar” to tolerate going out in public with me, so I’ve been in the market for some new sneakers. I loved the Adidas Stan Smith models when I was in high school – many moons ago. (One of the coolest guys I knew had some!)

Anyway, I had narrowed it down to some more Converses – the Jack Purcell to be exact, the Stan Smith, and the also-old-school Adidas Rod Laver mesh. Then Reebok went and threw a monkey wrench in the works when I found their old-school tennis shoe in canvas twill.

Well, in the end, it was a purely economic decision. The leather “Stans” were half as much as the others. I’m breaking ’em in as we blog!

Oh, and they made shopping at Kroger sound like match point at Flushing Meadows (the rubbery squeaks! Yes!)

OK, so it obviously doesn’t take much to amuse me…

Well, some time during the night – actually around 12:30 this morning – the cops got the guy on top of the crane.

57+ hours after he went up there, they got him down by Tasering him, as he reached for a cup of water.

My earlier post about the incident raised some points about whether or not they should have just let the guy jump and end it all with minimal expense and aggravation. This led to some comments from some folks I know personally and respect a lot, and some folks I don’t know at all – except through the great medium of the blogosphere – and respect a lot.

Yes, I do care tremendously about the worth and the value of each individual before God. Yes, my heart cries out for people who are obviously in need. Yes, I’m concerned about the guy’s alleged victim in Florida. Yes, I’m concerned about the hundreds of other valuable individuals who lost a part of their lives while this guy put on his little stunt in the sky.

Yes to all that…and I still say they should have sent Crocodile Dundee up there.

After all, Crocodile Dundee talked “his” jumper out of it.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for commenting. Thanks for your prayers and friendship – in real life and over the Web.

Along with all the other things they do so well at Fellowship Church, they are producing some great blogs, chock full of hmmmm’s and a-ha!’s.

Terry Storch has become one of my favorite bloggers. He hosted and led a seminar for the bloggers at Fellowship earlier this week. Unfortunately, we can’t all be on staff at Fellowship (but I can forward a copy of my resume if you’re interested!). But fortunately, Terry posted his notes so the rest of us can learn from the seminar.

Another Fellowship staffer – and excellent blogger! – is Brian Bailey. Check out Brian’s recent post about better blogging.

And the hits just keep on coming! Mark Morgan – yep, you guessed it! Another Fellowship guy – has just jumped into the blogopshere. He listed some real good reasons why he did.

Some links I’ve collected (let the reader understand!) this week…

• Secrets of the A-List Bloggers (naaaaah…I’m not on there!)
• Steps to more productive blogging. May apply to other forms of creative activity as well.
• Blogging tips
• Priming the pump of creativity ( I just love the title of this blog!)
• Blogging might not save your life, but it could help find your killer.
• It’s my blog, not yours!
• Presumed guilty. (I’m certainly not condoning child pornography – or even Amish porn – but this is pretty ridiculous!)
• If I had a big ol’ pile of cash...
• Exercising your mind.
• Getting around to the stuff you’ve been putting off.

The big news around here this week is the guy who has climbed up on top of one of those gigantic construction cranes. Seems he’s on the lam from Florida. Wanted for murder. The cops are trying to keep him awake to keep him from falling. They’re “negotiating” with him. He’s threatening to jump. His little stunt has snarled re-routed traffic, stopped commerce, and halted construction on the building.

It’s probably a good thing I’m not in charge. I’d pull the police and media back and tell the guy to go ahead.

Think about it…we’re spending tons of money to preserve this loser’s guy’s life. So we can spend tons of money to convict him. So we can spend tons of money feeding him and paying for his endless appeals.

Call me cruel, but we need to send Crocodile Dundee up there, pronto.

“Get on with it, mate!”

I’m a huge fan of Alton Brown and his Food Network show Good Eats. I’m a huge fan of my little notebook. I had forgotten that on the barbecue show, Alton breaks out his Moleskine. Thanks to the folks over at Moleskinerie for reminding me…

One shot showed Brown explaining the science behind smoking meat when he looked quizically into the distance while trying to recall some cumbersome terminology dealing with thermal processes. He produced a pocket Moleskine and his confusion evaporated as he read off terms supporting his quest for the Ultimate Barbeque from none other than the Ultimate Notebook.

I just finished Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton’s Now, Discover Your Strengths. It’s a quick and easy read, and it offers some interesting insights about how we can become better at what we do by building on what we’re already good at doing. Buckinham and Clifton argue that most organizations set their people up for failure by making a couple of wrong assumptions…

1. Each person can learn to be competent in almost anything, and
2. Each person’s greatest room for growth is in his or her areas of greatest weakness.

They say that we would be better/more productive/more happy/more effective if, instead we would learn what our great strengths are and build around those. The authors also say that our organizations would be much more effective if we could learn to manage our people according to their strengths, rather than their weaknesses.

If every person is unique and designed on-purpose by God, then the authors’ premise carries a lot of weight…

Look inside yourself, try to identify your strongest threads, reinforce them with practice and learning, and then either find, or as [Warren Buffet] did, carve out a role that draws on these strengths every day. When you do, you will be more productive, more fulfilled, and more successful. (p. 21).

More good stuff from Buckingham and Clifton’s Now, Discover Your Strengths…

Three things about our strengths…

1. For an activity to be a strength, you must be able to do it consistently. This implies that it is a predictable part of your performance.
2. You do not have to have strengths in every aspect of your role in order to excel. Excellent performers are rarely well-rounded. They are sharp.
3. You will excel only by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses. This is not the same as ignoring your weaknesses. Effective people manage around their weaknesses.

The book includes a password to access a Web-based inventory called the StrengthsFinder survey. (Yeah, you’ve gotta have the code, found in a strategic location in the book, and you can only use a code to register once.) The website takes you through a detailed survey/inventory, and then gives you your Top 5 areas of strength, along with a detailed description of each strength.

It was pretty interesting to note my Top 5…

• Adaptability: lives in the moment, doesn’t see the future as a fixed destination, flexible
• Communication: describes, hosts, speaks in public, writes
• Input: inquisitive, collects things/ideas/information
• Intellection: likes to think
• Includer: wants to include people and make them feel part of the team

Interesting things I learned – and had reinforced – about who I am and what I do. And interesting stuff I learned about how my most intense stress and biggest failures have come when I’ve tried to be or do something I’m not or that I don’t do very well.

Let’s just say this: You will be way ahead of the game when you are true to the “you” God intended and designed you to be, rather than pretending to be something/somebody you’re not.

Anybody else out there read or reading the book and doing the survey? What are you discovering?