afordrunning

The boys are up before dark…I ask them to be quiet this morning, seeing as how it is 6:15 AM on a Holiday and the whole house is still sleeping, except these two (and well, me too, ok – just the women are sleeping) but still it’s kinda early for them to start a construction zone. Their all, yes sir Daddy, totally quiet over here, you’ll never even know we are up nonsense. Cut to doors being slammed in the kitchen, cereal being poured loudly, didn’t know you could even do that, and the general sound of two guys plotting out a strenuous day of pushing stuff around the floor.

Then they go back for a second bowl of cereal and apparently the milk runs low, so the 7 year old is trying to grab a full gallon out from behind some leftovers and the 5 year old is rythmically clapping for him like some kind of Zulu manhood ceremony is about to take place.

I come around the corner and the look on their faces is not one of sorrow for not being even a tiny bit quiet, or one of despair for how much trouble they might be in, but a look of complete disconnection at all. The 5 year old keeps up his warrior clapping the 7 year old has one milk jug in his left hand, the full gallon in his right trying to unlodge it from the evil grip of the leftover spaghetti, and all I can think to myself is…”why doesn’t anyone have on pants?”

Me – Where are your pants, or underwear?
7 Y.O. – Oh, we went to the bathroom.
Me – Where?
7 Y.O. – In your potty.
Me – So why are you standing bare-bottomed in my kitchen digging through the fridge?
7 Y.O. – (Laughing now, and noticing his half nude form) Oh, we must have forgot to put them back on.
Me – And why are you clapping?
5 Y.O – I wanted Augie to get the milk.

I cannot explain them, but sadly in many ways I completely understand them – must be the male brain.

Pee – eat – plot out fun….repeat!

Let me be clear – I don’t have anyone in mind as I write this…other than me.

Do people work for…or work to avoid you?

My brother call it “Sportbitching” – griping for sport essentially. We all do it, I bet even Mr. Rogers used to go on a tear about that King. “Damn King Friday XIII, showing up late, walking on my lines, I tell you Jerry, the next time this happens I’m sending him to the sock drawer for good!”

Doesn’t make it right does it. Now picture those faces you complain too, or rather at. Your coworkers, your family, your friends? They must love you – the family and friends I mean…why do the coworkers put up with it then? Not love I bet.

Do people work for you? Or work to avoid you? It’s never too late to change your tune, lift your expectations for yourself and everyone around you will lift it for themselves or be so pale in comparison to your shining example they will find a way to move on.

Don’t be a Martyr – be a manager. Give everyone something to shoot TOWARD not AT.

This is my first post in awhile, and the first post from my new iPad 3G. This little gem is wonderful on the road. To say that I am thrilled with it is an understatement….it’s a kick!

Can’t wait till more and more appsmget launched for this device, and yes I could see with advancement that everyone will be using something like this in the near future.

Problem for me is that I just got my iTunes bill for this week and let’s just say that not all technological advancement is good! Or at least cheap.

I’ve been making my own quarterly playlists for the last 3 years. It’s really quite simple, just start the month with a few songs – maybe even a recent addition from the previous quarter and start building the playlist. It evolves  as you discover new music, your needs for tunes shifts, and your ability to spend a little time with your favorite musical playlists/device.

Really have enjoyed the last few weeks of tooling through the playlists and being able to clearly differentiate my moods according to the tunes of the time. For instance, the 2nd Quarter of 2008 I had a lot of Buck Owens, Jamie Lidell, and Paul Simon – the very next quarter had lot’s of rap and rock and roll. I went from easy and comfortable to hard and fast.

I can’t wait to look back over these lists over the next five years and uncover where I have come from – and see where my musical tastes have evolved. How do you use your musical playlists…and could you look at your “Most Played” right now and set out the Soundtrack of your life?

Gave a speech at the SEA Conference on Drury Campus . Bunch of great folks, who were so engaged and played wonderfully with my presentation. If you could work with people like this on a consistent basis you’d never feel like you were putting in work.

Don’t know why, but I have been having the craziest, most intense dreams lately.

The one I had the other night was a peach of an episode. Even though describing your dreams to others can get you labeled as a nut-job, I think I will give a little of this away to see if anyone else is going through similar mental exercises – even subconsciously.

Continue reading

Several reasons I won’t wear thumb-rings:

1. Fonzi has the most famous thumb in history – he didn’t wear one.

2. Conflicts with my 4-finger ring.

3. The thumb is the big toe of the hand. You don’t see people with big toe rings!

4. You’ll look like a champion Thumb-Wrestler with a Thumb-Belt on.

5. People will think you are too fancy if you hitch hike.

6. Looks like you broke the finger cuffs in two.

7. No subtle way to accomplish two-digit nose picking.

8. Double thumbs-up move makes you look like EVEN MORE of a douchebag.

Fellow Twitterers, Facebookers, Tumblrs, Flickerers, and Posterousies – Social Media is not the forum for you to clear your mental cobwebs or deep-seeded issues. Of course, the occasional “my plane is 16 hours late”, or “another one of my socks just caught on fire…AGAIN!” rants are completely acceptable. But, in general I think we should share some info/laughs/opinions but please, please cease and desist with the vomitous therapy posts.

Here’s how to tell if you are a candidate for Psycho of Web 2.0. Stand back and look at your stream of output – do you see a thread? Does that thread sound like a person ready to jump off a tall building, or take a long nap in a running car with the garage door closed? It’s time to start talking to someone else – or at least keep it to yourself.

As the end of 2009 has come and we are just getting into Twenty-Ten I wanted to take this moment to just say, Thank You.

I challenge everyone this year to say it more often and need it less. The more you thank others and expect it less frequently – the faster it will become a part of who you are, and not just something you say. Gratitude is an attitude…and a vastly beneficial one to boot.

Thank You is one of the most powerful phrases you can use to establish yourself, not only as a person who appreciates good effort and has some aptitude of manners – but a being with a depth of understanding into human behavior itself. Consider, who doesn’t like to hear those words?

So thank you – for reading this, for being a curious person, for keeping a connection with me, and for so many more things I’m sure I would love to know about you. You don’t need me to say, but I will anyway – Thank You.

Next, I’m personally gonna work on “You’re Welcome”…and meaning it.

It’s no surprise that there is a tremendous amount of negative news out there today and because of it I have decided to shift my lifestyle. Yes, I am ready to become someone else, altogether and adopt a Positive Alternative Lifestyle. It’s a difficult decision for sure, flipping over to be a P.A.L. It is so much easier to maintain the status quo and just be negative with everyone else.

Bad news hits and what do you do, rollover like a dog, cover your head with a pillow, start diving toward the end of a bottle, or turn to your faith and pray that you are saved from it all? Any way you start coping with your own set of circumstances will not determine your eventual outcome nearly as much as your attitude during the process. If you go high, or you go low – you will only gain or get through the hard times based on WHY you choose to do what you did.

So, with some difficulty, I am trying to adopt a P.A.L. not as a coping mechanism, but as a lifting device. Sure, it’s harder to do, being so much easier to bitch and moan with the lot of them, but I think it will bring me and those around me up quicker so we can look around, stop focusing on our problems and find solutions that aid in recovery.

Halloween is not my favorite event of the year – see I can’t even call it a holiday. However, this year we had a ball of a time and I think it was because we choose to do it a little different.

The whole thing unfolded one night at dinner as we talked about why every female costume seemed so “trampy”. What could we do as a family that would be fun, and everyone could laugh and just be light about. Somehow the topic of breakfast came up, and we decided to dress the boys as eggs and the girl as bacon. That left Mom and I as the Cooks , get it – we made breakfast? Great laughs from everyone all night – this is the way to do what is otherwise a scary, uhm ahh – event.

Pics

Want to be around in the next few years? Get small. Not “Steve Martin small” but smaller than you are right now. I’m working on large thinking and smaller scale – can I do what I want to do with the current set of circumstances and limited to no funds? Do we need 6 people in this meeting when only two of them will actually do the work?

Not only does it make sense from an economic standpoint, but it also stands to reason that you’ll have less grumbling and complaining if your back is against the grindstone.

My new latest favorite artist is Dan Reeder. He’s got some great songs, some off-color songs, and frankly his stuff just sounds original. No matter how late to the party I am it’s good stuff.

For one of my favs check out this youtube vid “You’ll Never Surf Again.”

Ever been to a elementary school play? Went to one a couple of weeks ago and it had many parallels to some work environments I have been in. First of all, it had my kid in it – so some parts were decent (actually was a little girl who could sing her ass off), but for the most part it sucked eggs! Here’s why: bad lighting, no discernible plot line (I know there was one, it just wasn’t discernible), crappy acoustics, poor performance, too long, and everyone got to say something. Even the janitor had a line I think.

This is why most presentations I have seen over the last few years fail. Too long, unclear direction, bad timing and performance – and we make the mistake of having everyone talk.

If they COULD have (I know why they didn’t) let that little girl sing three numbers and most of the other children be rocks or back-up it would have been killer. I think everyone would have left better KNOWING what they saw, who rocked their socks off, and where their kid stood in their chances to potentially win a Tony one day.

Just like that play we should be prepared to play the non-speaking role sometimes in our own work – and maybe suggest when other children (coworkers) should be the rocks….hmmm now that I think about it – sometimes you are the rock sometimes the rock-star.

if the marketplace had street signs, 2009 would be marked with yield, one way, and caution signage. i look forward to the day when our signs change to “men at work”, “exit”, and “no u-turn”.