Be

"If you want to be happy, be." - Leo Tolstoy

Beating The Heat

From Sports Illustrated:

This year at the Badwater ultramarathon [135 miles through Death Valley, including 130 degree heat and an 8,000 foot climb from sea level], Arthur Webb felt "wrong" and broke down at mile 17. he was rushed to a medical station. You are 67 years old, the doctor reminded him. Your fluids are imbalanced, and you need to rest. So Webb did, for nearly nine hours. Then, still woozy, he asked his wife, Christine, to drive him back to where he'd stopped.

Finishing would be a Herculean task; buckling [i.e. the accomplishment of finishing the course within 48 hours] seemed out of the question. Still, Webb stuck in his earphones, pumped up Led Zeppelin and began again. Usually, competitors alternate between running and walking; by mile 55, Webb realized he needed to run nearly the rest of the route, much of it uphill, to have a shot at buckling. So he ran. Through day and night. Up the side of Mount Whitney. He even clocked a couple of seven-minute miles. And then, finally, he hobbled across the finish line. The clock said 46 hours and 35 minutes. That might at the awards ceremony he received a standing ovation from the other competitors. Think about that when you're feeling too lazy to go to the gym.

Resting Place

It was sombering to see Grandma's body, so irrepressibly in motion for 92 years, slowly lowered to rest for the last time. Now she lies in that place for eternity, together next to Grandpa after 27 years.

The wake and funeral were smooth and uneventful. Jack and I served as pallbearers, and also as readers during the funeral mass. The reading assigned to me was from one of the more upbeat books of the Bible. Read on, be glad, and do well!

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

"There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

What advantage has the worker from his toil?

I have considered the task which God has appointed for men to be busied about.
He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

I recognized that there is nothing better than to be glad and to do well during life."

Summer Days

"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live." - Lin Yu-T'ang

The Goods

We headed out to see The Goods starring Jeremy Piven at the Starplex last night ($5 off for employees at my company!).

Everyone there enjoyed it. All two of us. Some guy wandered in about 20 minutes into the feature. I wondered if he was the projector, thinking he could go home early if no one had showed. Sorry, dude.

You've got to be somewhat comfortable with profanity and sexual innuendo in order to enjoy this one. I was just reaching my limit when they backed it way off. It's a story mostly without "hugs or lessons," as they say, meaning that it's superficial and fun, slapstick type movie. Piven leads a wacky foursome who specializes in selling cars. Their mission of saving a family dealership down on its luck begins by hiring a local D.J. (remember Darryl from The Office?) to sit on the roof and play music. Crazy gimmickry ensues, like inviting Bo Bice's brother for "celebrity" effect.

Near the end, producer Will Ferrell makes an appearance, and (as I require) the good guys win in the end.

Feel free to wait for this one to come to DVD or T.V. (apparently everyone else in town is). 90 minutes of low-brow laughs on a rainy day.

Life Sentence

"It is said that an Eastern monarch once charges his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. they presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!" - Abraham Lincoln

Eye Got Troubles

Turns out I've got something called a chalazion on my lower left eyelid. This is a painless cyst that develops when oil-producing glands become inflamed. Option 1 was "live with it." I chose the option that makes me not have to look at it any more. So on Tuesday around 8 a.m. I'll get something stuck into my eye to administer a numbing agent. Twice. Then the doc goes in with a blade and a scooping instrument to carve it out of there. They tell me it takes 5 minutes to do. Good! Plus, if they mess up, then I get to look like a pirate. Which is way cooler looking than a bump. Dena and I are going out to breakfast afterword, just like Mommy used to take me to get a milkshake after getting novocaine at the dentist. Maybe then I can go home and watch cartoons. Whee.

50 Years of Leadership

"The most successful parts of GE are places where leaders have stayed in place a long time. Think of Brian Rowe's long tenure in aircraft engines. Four or five big decisions he made - relying on his deep knowledge of that business - won us maybe as many as 50 years of industry leadership. The same point applies to GE Capital. The places where we've churned people, like reinsurance, are where you will find we've failed." - Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric

Good leadership needs consistency.

It's Why He Tried To Surround Himself With Chicago Cubs

"You surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere." - Ronald Reagan

Grandma's Passing

As Mom said, Grandma was tough even when she didn't want to be.

This afternoon she passed away peacefully at her nursing home, within days after the medical staff advised that she was ready to transition to hospice care. Mom was there to visit her in the morning, the same as she had most mornings so dutifully in these past years. Whether or not Grandma was aware of her presence is hard to say.

The world had become infinitely small, even for a woman closer to five feet tall than six. In her eighties she fought off cancer, or maybe more aptly shrugged it off. She moved to the nursing home not long after sledding headlong down the stairs of her home, suffering only bruises. Glaucoma gradually sunset all but the brightest rooms into a fog of darkness and vague shapes, and her hearing grew more artificial.

Her body tried to imprison her but her soul was too radiant. Quick to join the "laughing club" at the nursing home, faithful to church in her finest. Hers was a determined, smiling, and musical spirit. She always carried her harmonica, eager to cheer an audience at every request (and they requested often). You'd visit her, with 90 year old lungs at half capacity, physically isolated from most of the world around her, and feel awkward only because she was still the better conversationalist. That's how she was all my life - a woman who was warm, comfortable, and loving yet made of steel in all the right ways.

To say that she anchored a generation yet understates her life. She enriched the days and lives entrusted to her. She deserves eternal happiness.

May God bless you, Grandma Lue!

My Type Of Thinking

"The very fastest typists achieve their advantage by looking farther ahead in the text, which enables them to keep moving their fingers into place for the next keystroke just a little bit ahead of time (and, in particular, to hit successive letter types with opposite hands especially fast, which is their most effective way of outrunning average typists). When researchers prevented top typists from looking farther ahead in the text, they performed scarcely better than novices." - Geoff Colvin

(For the record, I made about ten mistakes when typing that.)

What an accidental parable! How often do we lock our attention into the letter of the moment, failing to look a few words ahead? Those words hold promise, lie beyond the petty worries of today's possible failures, and bring greater success through preparation.

Satisfied Living

"I've almost never seen him complain," Nancy Reagan writes. "If something is bothering him Ronnie, he'll rarely mention it. And he never tells anyone, not even me, when he's not feeling well."

Complaints are a spinning wheel that sucks the energy right out of the human race. Such a paradox: How much simpler act could there be? Just don't talk. Idle the vocal cords. As a last resort, seal the lips so that the complaint is stifled into indecipherable Muppet-mumbling. Yet how hard is it to release frustration in any other way?

I think that's where it helps to turn to another source. The spiritual person can converse with god(s) to vent or find strength. Any person can paint a vivid mental picture of a brighter future and pursue it with a passion that blots out the ills.

The Means Justifies The End

"Live your life so the preacher doesn't have to lie at your funeral." - Angi Shawnee

Tiger Chips

Most exciting golf chip of all time?

Getting Pushy

"Practice is all about pushing ourselves just beyond what we currently do." - Geoff Colvin

I've never had a longer stretch of continuous weight lifting than this year. The first few months were about settling into a routine, building a mental picture of successfully completed workouts. More recently, it's about detaching my mind from the exercise, as if I'm watching a machine in action. Separating fatigue from failure has helped me to push until the muscle's entirely spent, without slipping into the kind of bad form that comes with self-induced pressure or panic.

Half Empty, or Barely Full?

"[Reagan] operated on the assumption that nature can be cruel and that human beings are flawed; as a result, he didn't expect perfection and was always pleasantly surprised when events turned out for the better." - Dinesh D'Souza

Chess Natch

"My father believes that innate talent is nothing, that [success] is 99 percent hard work. I agree with him." - Susan Polgar

Susan was home schooled by her parents. The parents quit their jobs to devote themselves to teaching Susan chess. They accumulated a library of ten thousand chess books, and a giant filing system of index cards that catalogues previous games and potential opponents. At age 17, she became the first woman to qualify for what was then called the Men's World Championship. At 21, she was a grand master, the highest rank in world chess. She reached it faster than anyone in history, besting legend Bobby Fischer by a few months.

Oh, and her two sisters rose as high as sixth in the world.

Sick Bear

"Reagan outlined his 'sick bear' theory as early as May 1982 in a commencement address at his alma mater, Eureka College: 'The Soviet empire is faltering because rigid centralized control has destroyed incentives for innovation, efficiency and individual achievement. But in the midst of social and economic problems, the Soviet dictatorship has forged the largest armed force in the world. It has done so by preempting the human needs of its people and, in the end, this course will undermine the foundations of the Soviet system.'" - Dinesh D'Souza

"Rigid centralized control" in government is called "micromanagement" in the workplace and maybe "smothering" in the home. This week I realized that I was drifting toward micromanaging when a long-standing case at work involved several questions being escalated to me over the head of the supervisor. I decided not to feed the sick bear. "This is what I'd do personally, but it's more important to me that the supervisor do what she feel is best. So please work it out together, and don't feel obligated to let me know how it turns out." There's just no point in setting someone up for "I told you so." Enough things are beyond our control in life without our leaders absorbing even more of it.

Keeping It Quiet

"The man who in his work finds silence, and who sees that silence in work, this man in truth sees the Light and in all his works finds peace." - The Bhagavad Gita

Abundantly I tie my happiness with the addiction to being right! That addiction fires up emotional noise that disrupts the stillness of the mind. Internal harmony begets external harmony.

A Hard Day's Night

"We got better and got more confidence. We couldn't help it with all the experience playing all night long. It was handy them being foreign. We had to try even harder, put our heart and soul into it, to get ourselves over. In Liverpool, we'd only ever done one-hour sessions, and we just used to do our best numbers, the same ones, at every one. In Hamburg, we had to play for eight hours, so we really had to find a new way of playing." - John Lennon

Since millions of Americans work eight hour days (and then some) on a regular basis, I'll bet it takes more than mere time to create greatness. It's that passion - that heart and soul as Lennon put it - that pushes the practitioners to new heights. Greatness waiting for us is tied to our natural passion... the type of thing we can do for hours without realizing it, and without much if any flagging of our creativity and enthusiasm.

Practicing Spurts

"A finding that is remarkably consistent across disciplines is that four or five hours a day seems to be the upper limit of deliberate practice, and this is frequently accomplished in sessions lasting no more than an hour to ninety minutes." - Geoff Colvin

And if you have trouble tearing yourself away from the thing it is that you're doing in order to become masterful at it, try drinking lots of water and let nature provide her own breaks for you!

Work-to-Welfare Program

"I know that hard work never killed anyone, but I figure, why take the chance?" - Ronald Reagan, on his reluctance to work overtime in the White House

It'll All Work Out

"Research suggests that once a musician has enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. And what's more, the people at the very top don't work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder." - Malcolm Gladwell

10,000 hours to be quantitative. Or four hours per weeknight for ten years!

Good Government

"If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" - Ronald Reagan

That seems like a political slant on the old adage "remove the plank from your own eye before pointing out the splinter in someone else's." Abraham Lincoln was quick to say "there, but for the grace of God go I." It's as noble a cause as I can think of to master ourselves and to master forgiveness.

NCHS Registration

I volunteered for two hours at Normal Community High School's registration on Monday morning.

Entering the gymnasium which was awash with orange and black booster apparel, I was initially stationed where parking passes were being collected. Someone ran off to get me a comfy chair, but before they could even do that it was discovered that no adults were available to help with the pickup of textbooks.

Thus I became the lone adult working with a dozen Student Council teenagers in a very slick system. My job was to draw their printed schedule out from a gigantic alphabetized stack and hand it to a teammate who sprinted off into the eye-high piles to gather the books and deliver them to the pick-up station.

The sophomore named Erin sitting next to me was recovering from a leg injury. I haven't been around teens much, so I analyzed my role as best I could in this team situation and came up with the following strategy:

1. Whenever Erin and I were alone, ask questions in a casual and friendly tone about things that had everything to do with her and nothing to do with me.

2. Whenever we were busy, say "please" and "thank you" a lot to my half-aged teammates as humbly as possible, as if they were sparing my life.

3. Otherwise, smile, listen, and shut up!

Situation 3 was the dominant one, as Erin was clearly a popular person. It was an experience to be a fly on the wall. In the end, I think my redeeming value was that I kept the schedule piles straight after people shuffled through to peek at their own schedules.

Back To School Party

Continuing my goal of volunteering for 12 new organizations this year, I tagged along to an event that she learned of through her Kiwanis connections. She described it as a back to school party, where backpacks filled with school supplies would be given away to families in need.

Admittedly I had only a surface notion of the event, but I had done charity work on a few occasions such as serving a meal for 60 or so people at the Safe Harbor homeless shelter. When we showed up at ISU's Horton Fieldhouse I expected that we'd be tucked away in one of their underground gymnasiums. But as we walked into the large fieldhouse we saw tables, smelled concessions, and saw a hundred people milling about. These were just the volunteers - over 175 in all.

Though our names weren't officially registered, we were swiftly assigned to security detail. The idea of security seemed funny to me at a non-alcoholic event where the most stressful aspect (in my mind) was the risk of gleeful faces tearing in half from oversmiling at the sight of 5,000 donated backpacks.

Then I looked outside.

Have you ever seen a line 1,000 people long?

It was a pretty tame gig. I fielded several complaints from people who'd been standing in line for an hour, then seen someone cut in line with their friends ahead of them. But civil decency prevailed overall. The toughest aspect was being on our feet for two hours in the hot afternoon sun. But it was worth it. In all, some 1,600 backpacks were given out. This was a true community effort of about 15 local businesses teaming up for a common cause. The good feeling of accomplishment made me feel like I was the one being served!

Good People, Low Pressure, Long Life

The death rate in the tiny Italian immigrant town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was 30 to 35 percent lower than the rest of the population across all major causes of death. Why, researchers wondered?

"They looked at how the Rosetans visited one another, stopping to chat in Italian on the street, say, or cooking for one another in their backyards. They learned about the extended family clans that underlay the town's social structure. They saw how many homes had three generations living under one roof, and how much respect grandparents commanded. They went to mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and saw the unifying and calming effect of the church. They counted twenty-two separate civic organizations in a town of just under two thousand people. They picked up on that particular egalitarian ethos of the community, which discouraged the wealthy from flaunting their success and helped the unsuccessful obscure their failures... [T]he Rosetans had created a powerful, protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world." - Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell also put it well that "the values of the world we inhabit and the people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are."

Let's Make A Reel

"The most important political lesson Reagan learned from his Hollywood years was the difference between the endorsement of the critics and success at the box office. If you have the sceond, you don't need the first. Reagan made fifty-two full-length films during his Hollywood career. 'They don't want them good,' he once said, 'they want them Thursday.'" - Dinesh D'Souza

I regret occasions where I give in to my own impatience and create a work product that hasn't been double-checked for quality. One of the highest compliments I received this year was "If Joe said it, it must be right." What asset do we have that's greater than our integrity? What better way to build trust? And yet it's been too easy to shuffle things out the door or under the rug. Quality bests quantity.

Gnat's A Fact

This has been a great year for fruits and vegetables in my diet. I've probably reached the point where I eat about 4-6 servings a day, with my faves being apples, bananas and peas. Not only is my body surging with essential vitamins and minerals like never before, but I am also learning a lot about gnats.

Gnats are too small to have noses, but they somehow have a keen sense of where fruit is sitting. One of their favorite pastimes is to walk around on banana skins and make them look gross. They also like to hide in garbage cans where discarded apple cores are, and leap out like a tiny insect fiesta whenever the lid is opened. I estimate their top speed at about 2 miles per hour, but they have insane lateral quickness that render them impossible to squash with human hands a hundred times their size. That last fact amazes me the most, because I've become a master of inadvertently swallowing bugs while running on the trail. Why can't those bugs be the ones in my kitchen?

Lately I've taken to encasing my fruit (and fruit-trash) in plastic sandwich bags to keep the little ones at bay. I would love to hear other strategies.

What's Your Domain?

"[T]he differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain." - Ericsson

What do you love? Do it!

Life Should Be A Song

I wonder what it's all about, and why
We suffer so, when little things go wrong?
We make our life a struggle
When life should be a song.

- Ronald Reagan, age 17, in his high school yearbook

Human Being

"Being, not doing, is my first joy." - Theodore Roethke

I've been living that creed lately... a heavy congestion bug's kept me home from work so there's been little "doing" going on!

Quite a succint way to highlight how great it is to be alive. It's when I lose myself in day-to-day trifles that life can slip away.

The Inspector?

Tyson mentioned the Myers-Briggs test the other day so I took it. It takes less then 20 minutes, just 72 multiple choice questions. I scored as ISTJ, along with about ten percent of the population. And frankly, I was surprised by the description. Which of these statements seems most off base to you guys?

"They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility. They are noted for devotion to duty. Punctuality is a watchword of the ISTJ. The secretary, clerk, or business(wo)man by whom others set their clocks is likely to be an ISTJ.

As do other Introverted Thinkers, ISTJs often give the initial impression of being aloof and perhaps somewhat cold. Effusive expression of emotional warmth is not something that ISTJs do without considerable energy loss.

ISTJs are most at home with "just the facts, Ma'am." They seem to perform at highest efficiency when employing a step-by-step approach. Once a new procedure has proven itself (i.e., has been shown "to work,") the ISTJ can be depended upon to carry it through, even at the expense of their own health.

ISTJs are easily frustrated by the inconsistencies of others, especially when the second parties don't keep their commitments. But they usually keep their feelings to themselves unless they are asked. And when asked, they don't mince words. Truth wins out over tact. The grim determination of the ISTJ vindicates itself in officiation of sports events, judiciary functions, or an other situation which requires making tough calls and sticking to them.

His SJ orientation draws the ISTJ into the service of established institutions. Home, social clubs, government, schools, the military, churches -- these are the bastions of the SJ. "We've always done it this way" is often reason enough for many ISTJs. Threats to time-honored traditions or established organizations (e.g., a "run" on the bank) are the undoing of SJs, and are to be fought at all costs."

Significant Others

Lou Tice's advice comes at the perfect time, as I celebrate my significant other's birthday today! Since I met her over 14 years ago Dena's had lots of opportunities to steer me into being someone else - but she's a perfect match for a guy like me who thrives on freedom. Thanks babe for being the ultimate pillar of support and fountain of encouragement! A beautiful soul, and pretty doggone photogenic too if I do say so myself!

Do you ever feel that the people who are closest to you are the ones who resist the most as you try to change for the better? Sometimes, when we are committed to personal growth and change, family members or others who are close to us will do everything they can to try and get us to change back to the way we were - even when the way we were wasn't so great.

Did you ever wonder why that might be? Well, for one thing, when people are used to their lives being a certain way, any change - even when it is an improvement - can be threatening. It is also fairly common for people who are stuck in negative habits to have a hard time tolerating others who are making positive efforts toward change.

If you can convince your family to join you in your quest for personal growth, you will all have an easier time of it. You can support each other through the tough times and give each other encouragement and approval as you begin to see results. If you have to go through it alone, though, let your "significant others" in on what you are trying to do, and tell them how positive results will benefit them as well as you. Paint them a vivid word picture of what the end-result will look like, and ask for their help in achieving it.

If you don't get that help, be patient. It may take time to convince them that you are serious, and that you intend to stay close to them even though you are changing. If it ever comes down to the difficult choice between continuing a painful relationship and developing yourself as a person, remember that you always have the right to choose growth without guilt.

Containers

From Lou Tice:

I have a question for you today. How big is your container? You do have one, you know.

Years ago, a farmer brought an amazing pumpkin to a county fair. It was big and orange, in every aspect a perfect pumpkin. But it was the exact size and shape of a two-gallon jug. After it had won a blue ribbon, someone asked the farmer how in the world he had managed to produce such a wonder. He chuckled a bit and said, "Shucks! Wasn't anything to it! Soon as the blossom started to grow, I just stuck it inside a cider jar and the pumpkin took care of the rest." If you think I'm kidding, just check out the square watermelons available later this summer!

Just like that pumpkin, the shape of your life is determined by the size and shape of the container in which you hold it. That container is made up of your beliefs about what is possible, your expectations of what will happen, and - most of all - your thoughts about yourself and the world you live in.

Many of your beliefs about what is possible for you were put there by someone else when you were just starting to blossom. But what would your life look like if you were able to let yourself grow without the limits of other people's ideas about you? Children are often forced to shrink to fit the size of their containers by adults who don't know any better. The good news is that, unlike our two-gallon pumpkin, once we are grown we still have the choice to be different.

So, look at your beliefs - where they came from and how they limit you. Then, make some choices for yourself based on how big you'd like your mind and spirit to grow.

Happy Time

From Mental Floss:

Reader Humaira writes: “I have always wondered why clocks, watches, and timepieces always say (roughly) 10:10 before you set the correct time. If you go into a store selling any kind of time-telling device, that is the default factory setting. Why is that?!!”

First things first, let’s get the myths out of the way. There are plenty of people out there who think that clocks in advertisements and in-store displays are set this way memorialize Abraham Lincoln/John F. Kennedy/Martin Luther King Jr. because that was the time at which they were shot or died. In reality, Lincoln was shot at 10:15 p.m., and died the next morning at 7:22 a.m., JFK was shot at 12:30 p.m. CST and was pronounced dead 1 p.m. and MLK was shot 6:01 p.m. and pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
Another theory has it that 10:10 was the time that an atomic bomb was dropped on either Nagasaki or Hiroshima, and the setting is in memory of the casualties. The Fat Man bomb was actually dropped on the former at 11:02 a.m. local time and the Little Boy on the latter at 8:15 a.m. local time.
The real reason for the setting? Aesthetics. The 10:10 position gives the clock or watch a number of benefits:

• The hands not overlapping, so they’re fully and clearly visible and their styling can be admired.

• The arrangement of the hands is symmetrical, which people generally find more pleasant than asymmetry, making the product more appealing to customers.

• The manufacturer’s logo, usually in the center of the face under the 12, is not only visible, but nicely framed by the hands.

• Additional elements on the face (like date windows and secondary dials), usually placed near the 3, 6, or 9, won’t be obscured.

According to the folks at Timex (who set their products at 10:09:36 exactly), the standard setting used to be 8:20, but this made the face look like it was frowning. To make the products look “happier,” the setting was flipped into a smile (occasionally, you’ll still see the 8:20 setting on some clocks or watches where the manufacturer’s logo is at bottom of the face above the 6).

The Contents of the Half Full Glass

"My optimism," Ronald Reagan observed, "comes not just from my strong faith in God but from my strong and enduring faith in man."

This was in 1991, years after he had been shot.

Kiwanis Annual District Conference Notes

After a long day at the 92nd annual convention for the Illinois-Eastern Iowa District of Kiwanis International, Dena gladly shared some brainstorm thoughts for next year's conference which will be featured here in town. Since she'd been up since 3:30 a.m. I was glad to use my secretarial skills to record them:

1. Is the itinerary too long? Is there some way to redesign it so it isn't quite so long? What is required versus tradition in the House of Delegates meeting?

2. The governor-elect voting had 3 candidates, and in such situations "run-off" voting takes place. In other words, a preliminary round of voting occurs to eliminate one of the candidates and reduce the field to two. Could there be a way to reduce idle time during this process? For example each candidate (some slower afoot than others) walk up to the front and give a 3-minute speech that often resembles a straight read of their biography. Could the speech be replaced with a printed bio?

3. On another front, where a run-off situation exists, each candidate is interviewed pageant-style by answering an impromptu question and then leaving the room. This is a good test. Should it be expanded to all votes regardless of the number of candidates?

4. Is there a better way to utilize technology? This year the large screen was mainly used for a promotional video, and then sat silent with a single cover slide the rest of the time. Perhaps this would be a place to list candidate bios or other announcements throughout the day in a rolling fashion?

5. The itinerary didn't account for the possibility of a run-off vote, which put things 15 minutes behind schedule.

6. The voting process allows nominations from the floor. Given the sizable logistics of the event, should a deadline be set in advance?

7. There were a lot of standing ovations.. over 30 it seemed. Is this excessive? Probably can't do much about that other than the occasional "hold your applause to the end please" in certain situations.

8. Did they serve chicken at every meal?

9. Bill Piper's introduction was like 20 minutes long. Felt too long.

10. Amador Medallions... no need to read all the bios aloud? We have them in hand. Find a way to delay the photo op with the governor so that it doesn't add to the ceremony length.

Reflections From A Man On His Knees

Today was the first 90+ degree day in town this summer. Normally it's not unusual for me to while away sunny mornings and afternoons tackling my reading list while stretched out poolside in a deck chair. But today it was just too hot to simply sit there and sizzle, so I hopped into the pool.

The temperature was just right to cool down a baking body to a refreshing calm. And as I came to rest on my knees in the shallow end, it occurred to me that I'm just tall enough that my head sits perfectly atop the water's surface.

So many times it's easy to focus on the little irritating imperfections - like the slope of my driveway that's just steep enough so that the car door won't stay open while trying to gather up my things. But I imagine that there will come a time when I long for the days that I was healthy enough to get in and out of a car under my own power. And how nice is it now to be free from bulky winter coats and snow-packed shoes?

Not everyone is built to meditate in the stereotypical sense. But I'll bet that keeping the eyes open for the small victories throughout the day would accomplish much the same thing.

Fantasy Football 2009

It's been a while, but I decided to join a random public Yahoo! fantasy football league this year. I play infrequently enough that I need to post the scoring rules here in order to recall it easily:

Passing Touchdowns 4 Points
Interceptions -1 Points
Passing Yards 25 Yards = 1 Point
Rushing Touchdowns 6 Points
Rushing Yards 10 Yards = 1 Point
Reception Touchdowns 6 Points
Reception Yards 10 Yards = 1 Point
Return Touchdowns 6 Points
2-Point Conversions 2 Points
Fumbles Lost -2 Points
Offensive Fumble Return TD 6 Points
Field Goals 0-19 Yards 3 Points
Field Goals 20-29 Yards 3 Points
Field Goals 30-39 Yards 3 Points
Field Goals 40-49 Yards 4 Points
Field Goals 50+ Yards 5 Points
Point After Attempt Made 1 Points
Points Allowed 0 points 10 Points
Points Allowed 1-6 points 7 Points
Points Allowed 7-13 points 4 Points
Points Allowed 14-20 points 1 Points
Points Allowed 21-27 points 0 Points
Points Allowed 28-34 points -1 Points
Points Allowed 35+ points -4 Points
Sack 1 Points
Interception 2 Points
Fumble Recovery 2 Points
Touchdown 6 Points
Safety 2 Points
Block Kick 2 Points
Fractional Points Yes
Negative Points Yes

Lonely Practice Makes Perfect

Three groups of violinists of varying success were studied.

"Perhaps most striking, all three groups were spending the same total amount of time on music-related activities - lessons, practice, classes, and so on - about fifty-one hours a week... though the violinists understood the importance of practice alone, the amount of time the various groups actually spent practicing alone differed dramatically. The two top groups, the best and better violinists, practiced by themselves about twenty-four hours a week on average. The third group, the good violinists, practiced by themselves only nine hours a week." - Geoff Colvin

Trust Muster

"Trust is developed through open and honest communication and, once established, creates a shared vision for a common goal." - Mike Krzyzewski

Today one of the supervisors who reports to me was discussing possible plans for career development of one of our employees. We pondered whether a certain cross-training plan with another one of my supervisors might be the way to go. In fact, it seemed to have some promise. But I much prefer, and try to insist, on getting input from all affected parties when making a decision. So when we called in the other supervisor, it was important to me to lay the idea out there as the brainstorm that it was - nothing more or less, otherwise the idea naturally puts a person on the defensive. And quickly the original idea was replaced by a much better one, one that gathered some excitement from both supervisors as I was privileged to sit back and watch it unfold.

It's a beautiful thing to me - to be part of an environment where ideas are impartially exchanged and evaluated for the common good, without uninformed and stifling pressure from upper management over a half-baked idea. Trust blooms!

Nine Mile Idlin'

Glad to be able to say I ran nine miles today, sort of. Five on an elliptical trainer, and later four with Dena. Only once have I covered more in a single day. Let's see what the muscles have to say about that tomorrow!

Town Hall Meeting On Health Care

You can see my hair way in the lower right hand corner, hovering above the podium!

Our U.S. Congressman Tim Johnson held a 1-hour town hall meeting tonight at the public library to talk about the subject of health care. Smelling a blogworthy event, I tailed along with Dena who's a passionate follower of national politics. Living here 20 years and having attended a town council meeting and school board meeting here and there, I expected a modest crowd and a buttoned-down event.

Was I wrong! This was one experience that Hollywood drama actually captures pretty well. I didn't know white people could be so raucous without alcohol.

I knew something was up as we closed in on the parking deck and came to a dead stop from traffic so backed up that it crossed a traffic intersection. While waiting I saw every McLean County resident over the age of 60 that I know walk past - yep, toward the library.

As a horde of us slow-stepped shoulder-to-shoulder down the stairs into the basement, various concentration-camp imagery flooded into my head.

Our punctuality saved us. The room had cameras, reporters, and about 100 people more than there were chairs. Not to mention another 100 outside the room that couldn't fit. I guessed about 500 in all, Dena guessed 350. All you need to know is that the opening speaker began by announcing that library management was concerned about fire code violations, and so anyone who felt like leaving early was welcome to do so.

Johnson walked in, and the crowd went wild! On the whole, they loved him. I jotted down a few phrases of his that drew energetic applause:

"You are the root of government."
"Government is best which governs least." (Thomas Jefferson quote)
"We've got the best health care system in the world."
"Four principles I will not budge on: health care for seniors, no increase in taxes, no access to care for illegal immigrants, and no government-run nationalized program."

How to describe it? This was citizenry on the warpath. This was partisan politics at its most fervent. Johnson was a fiery preacher to this congregation, really a fine representative of the crowd. His opening lines claimed this to be the angriest time he'd ever seen in 30 years of politics. Substitute "Bible" for "Constitution," "God" for "the people," and "Satan" for "government" and we could just as easily have been at an old-time religious revival, say, 1800 before air conditioning, when thirtysomethings with weak backs sat on tile floors (but enough about me). Questions were fired from the crowd in a fashion that both lauded Johnson and literally screamed against the nation's direction. "Please go back to Washington and kill this bill," was the message shouted in ten different ways, drawing cheers from the sweating and elderly masses. "Please vote the Democrats out of office" was the implied chorus from the pulpit.

Soldiers spoke and were cheered; Democrats' names, when uttered, were jeered. Some railed so loudly that even Johnson lost his cool a few times. He sits on a "Center Aisle" caucus, which intends to help Congressmen "agree to disagree less disagreeably." Let's hope so!

Glove Me Do

From the mailbag (i.e. Jack sent another awesome baseball question):

"Are there limits to the size of fielders’ gloves? If not, why not give the first baseman an infield-sized glove? Then all the others would have to do is dive on the ball to record outs."

This is a fantastic idea, and could be easily accomplished by deeming the infield tarp a "glove" after cutting a small hole near first base.

The groundskeepers' union would lose several workers of course, but that's just a tempest in a teapot, a bug against the windshield of progress and healthy competition.

If a runner is leading off first base, all the pitcher would have to do is touch the ball to the ground and the runner would be out? After all, the 1st baseman is therefore deemed not only to be holding the ball but also applying the glove to the runner. If three runners are leading off, a triple play - whee! Or while the ball is in play, even, all runners off base would be out as soon as an infielder could corral the ball from the outfield.

In fact, why not put bumpers all around the edge of the tarp-glove which grounders could not escape?

Ground ball pitchers would be invincible! Infield practice would look like Rocky trying to catch chickens!

Or not? Suppose a runner tripped on the tarp. Would that be considered defensive interference? So the strategy would be for runners to advance as far as they possibly could with their feet before flopping to the ground in mock flailing anguish just as the ball is about to be pinned to the turf, allowing them to advance one more base.

Scouts would care less about baserunning skills and be more concerned with acting ability. And if there's no limit to the size of bats, then speed goes right out the window and major league batter's boxes would be filled with World's Strongest Man dropouts holding large planks of wood over the strike zone.

Fans would love it! Nowhere in the rule book does it say... um...

"1.13
The first baseman may wear a leather glove or mitt not more than twelve inches long from top to bottom and not more than eight inches wide across the palm, measured from the base of the thumb crotch to the outer edge of the mitt. The space between the thumb section and the finger section of the mitt shall not exceed four inches at the top of the mitt and 3 1/2 inches at the base of the thumb crotch. The mitt shall be constructed so that this space is permanently fixed and cannot be enlarged, extended, widened, or deepened by the use of any materials or process whatever. The web of the mitt shall measure not more than five inches from its top to the base of the thumb crotch. The web may be either a lacing, lacing through leather tunnels, or a center piece of leather which may be an extension of the palm connected to the mitt with lacing and constructed so that it will not exceed the above mentioned measurements. The webbing shall not be constructed of wound or wrapped lacing."

Crap.

Baseball Predictions

Jack challenged me to predict the winners in major league baseball:

Who will win each division?
Jack: Yankees, White Sox, Angels, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers
Joe: Yankees, Tigers, Angels, Phillies, Cardinals, Dodgers

Who will win the wildcard?

Jack: Cubs, Boston
Joe: Cubs, Boston

Who will win the pennant?

Jack: Phillies, Angels
Joe: Phillies, Angels

Who will win it all?

Jack: Angels
Joe: Phillies

Wineskins

"Pour new wine into new wineskins." - Zen saying

That sentiment is in the Bible as well. What might it mean?

- New wine has a flavor all its own. Old wineskins bear the residue of previous wines, which could distort the taste from the way it was created. If we want old wine, why not drink old wine? Ideas of youth and promise can gain wisdom from the ages no doubt, but also lose their freshness when tempered with the failings or fears of the past. Sometimes ya just gotta go for it.

- How old are the wineskins? They had their day, but by now could be at their breaking point. A gallon of wine could translate to a pint on the ground. Is that an effective way to live? We can pour our energy into something gaining strength rather than losing it. When I'm choosing an organization to be involved with, one question I ask is whether it's growing or shrinking... flowering from its youth into a robust strength or fading steadily toward its death? Sometimes a patch of the skin might be hardier than others. I was once part of a growing church whose denomination had been declining in the U.S. for forty consecutive years. Look at the whole.

- Am I the old wineskin? Have I stopped growing? Am I getting starchy and rigid? Are opportunities passing by in my marriage, career and social life because I choose to sit in the same skin? Or do I carry a sense of renewal into each week so that I can fully enjoy the taste of new wine as it's poured in?

Faith Lunch

"Our claim to our own bodies and our world is our catastrophe." - W.H. Auden

I've been away from congregational worship services and Bible studies for a couple of years. Thank goodness they exist, for the structure they provide and the opportunity to get in a mindset of gratitude and warmth toward others. As they say, in my current season of life I find more peacefulness through smaller group or one-on-one settings to talk about matter of faith.

On Friday Dena and I had something of a "faith lunch" together, a chance to talk about how the happenings in our personal lives over the last week had strengthened our faith or grown out of a weakness of it. And one of the topics that came to mind was similar to the Auden quote above.

It would be a bit embarrassing to track the number of hours I've wasted in targeted anger toward other people. And at the same time I've never felt angry at God, even when Dad contracted liver cancer at such a young age. That's because in the big picture I have the joys of life, health, laughter, security and so many others. So I think that it would be a big turning point for me to be able to relate to those around me not as thousands of individuals with their own powers and self interests, but as part of the collective creation orchestrated from a single source. What appears to be misfortune is often the seed of something greater down the road. I'm thankful to be part of the great plan.

Fun With The Hillegasses

Last night was planned to be our weekly date night, but the rain scuttled our plans to take a leisurely stroll through Uptown Normal to see how it's progressing. As we pondered what to do instead our doorbell rang. It was our neighbors Scott and Lisa Hillegass from over in unit #18.

Who rings the doorbell anymore for a social call? But this worked out great, I admire them for reaching out like they did.

We hung out with them from 7:30 till about midnight (one of the luxuries of being walking distance from your friends' house is the short trip home). We brought over the game "Would You Rather," the game famous to our niece Courtney, but I realized that we had never actually played it using the real rules. They're fun!

As part of one "challenge" question we had to invent a creative answer and if the other players voted on yours as the favorite, then you won the challenge.

"Would you rather have a third eye in the middle of your forehead, or a third hand sticking out of your chest." My answer was "A third hand. That way, if a mugger grabbed both of my hands, I could still give him a good slap and he'd be like 'Whoa'."

Roxy?

Dena picked up some new wheels over at Rebbec's yesterday. It's a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am GT with only 30,000 miles on it. Smells like new, so she tells me, seems factory-new. With the extended warranty, came out under $12,000. No car payments in the McHousehold - savings took care of half of it, and the State Farm check covered the other half. To our pleasant surprise, the totaled value was worth about $5,100, above the values of at least one of the blue book we reviewed.

I like the color, a bright and bold shade of red that I'd call "State Farm red"... I actually wish Saturn had offered it for my car.

At this moment we are a 3-car family for the first time in our history, since we still have the rental Avenger that Dena's been toddling around town in for the last few days. Then we'll be back to two. And what should the new car be called? Roxy?