Life In The Middle

Blogging is the last thing I should be doing. In fact even reading the book I'm about to share an excerpt from is probably the second last thing I need to be doing. This reading isn't due till Tuesday and I have a project that I have to finish typing up that's due tomorrow. However... Here's an interesting excerpt from John Maxwell's book "The 360° Leader" (emphasis mine):
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"How many kids say, 'Someday I want to grow up to be vice president of the United States'? Probably none. If a child has political aspirations, he wants to be president. If she has a bent toward business, she wants to be a company owner or CEO. Few people aspire to reach the middle. In fact, several years ago, Monster.com, an online job search service, poked fun at this idea by running a television ad showing children saying things such as, 'When I grow up, I want to file all day long' and 'I want to claw my way up to middle management'.
Yet the reality is that most people will never be the top leader in an organization. They will spend their careers somewhere in the middle. Is that okay? Or should everybody play career 'king of the hill' and try to reach the top?
I believe that people should strive for the top of their game, not the top of the organization. Each of us should work to reach our potential, not necessarily the corner office. Sometimes you can make the greatest impact from somewhere other than first place."
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I found this to be rather refreshing. In a world where everything seems to be saturated with "look out for #1" and "here's how you can get to the top of the corporate ladder", it's nice to know that reaching your potential may not mean you are the top dawg. You can be just as influential from the cubicle next to the water cooler as you can from the corner office with a view. Just something to think about...

The Front Fell Off

(yet another email jewel...)

On August 19th 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two, dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil. Senator Collins, a member of the Australian Parliament, appeared on a TV news program to reassure the Australian public. This actual interview is so funny, you'd swear it was a 'Saturday Night Live' or 'Monty Python' skit. It just proves... Once a politician, always a politician! Enjoy!

Simple Home Remedies

(got this in an email forward and thought it was amusing...)

1. AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLES WHILE YOU CHOP.
2. AVOID ARGUMENTS WITH THE FEMALES ABOUT LIFTING THE TOILET SEAT BY USING THE SINK.
3. FOR HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE SUFFERERS ~ SIMPLY CUT YOURSELF AND BLEED FOR A FEW MINUTES, THUS REDUCING THE PRESSURE ON YOUR VEINS. REMEMBER TO USE A TIMER.
4. A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON.
5. IF YOU HAVE A BAD COUGH, TAKE A LARGE DOSE OF LAXATIVES. THEN YOU'LL BE AFRAID TO COUGH.
6. YOU ONLY NEED TWO TOOLS IN LIFE - WD-40 AND DUCT TAPE. IF IT DOESN'T MOVE AND SHOULD, USE THE WD-40. IF IT SHOULDN'T MOVE AND DOES, USE THE DUCT TAPE.
7. IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM.

When the Lights Go Out

12:50 PM Sunday:
I’m currently sitting in my living room typing this on my laptop. I’m not connected to the internet and I’m not sure how long it will be before I can be. My computer is not plugged in so I only have as long as my battery will last before I lose use of that as well. Thanks to Hurricane Ike slamming the coast, we had tornado warnings last night. We were just sitting down to watch the movie “Hitch” when we were told that we had had to hang out in the middle hallway area of our apartment for the duration of the storm warning. So we dragged our couch into the middle hallway and 4 of us crammed on the couch watching the movie from my laptop on the bathroom counter. The storm warning didn’t last very long but we continued to watch our movie there since we had gone to the trouble to set everything up. Then in the middle of the night we had a huge thunderstorm and the power went out. You wouldn’t think you would really realize the power going out in the middle of the night but we did. The fan we usually have going in our room stopped and the telephone made a bunch of beeping noises and then shut off. I tossed and turned the rest of the night because of the storm and when the alarm went off to go to church this morning I said no way. The power was still off so I would have to get ready in the dark and I wasn’t up to that challenge. I decided getting some more sleep was more important. Turns out I had crazy dreams for the rest of the morning and didn’t really feel too rested when I finally woke up anyways. I tell you all this to tell you that we still don’t have power. I didn’t think it would be that bad. I mean it’s during the day and sunshine is now coming through the windows so we have natural light. But then I began to realize how much we really do rely on electricity. I can’t get online to check my email or facebook. I can’t check to see if my IB prof posted Thursday’s exam grades yet. I can’t make toast or microwave anything. I can’t make coffee. I can’t have a shower in the dark. I have to do my homework on my laptop and hope that my battery doesn’t run out before I’m done. I’m saving things to my jump drive so I can go work on them in the library if I have to (I was told not all of campus power is knocked out). We’re worrying about all of the groceries we recently bought that are in our fridge and freezer… hopefully the power comes back on soon or we’re gonna be out a lot of money and food.

I guess I never realized just how blessed we are to have electricity on a regular basis. It’s boggling my mind right now to think that some people don’t even have electricity on a daily basis. But in my head I think, well at least they’ve never had it so they don’t know what it’s like any other way. However I was reading an article online yesterday about the coastal residents of Texas that were nailed by Ike… it suggested that it could be weeks before their power is up and running again. Weeks? WEEKS?? I’ve been dealing with this for hours and it’s driving me crazy! I guess the old saying holds ridiculously true… “you don’t know what you have until it’s gone!”

(you'll be happy to know that after I typed this up in the living room , I worked on some homework and then went out for lunch with Nikki... by the time we got back the power was up and running again which means I'm typing this part right now in my room connected to the internet... HOORAY!)

We No Longer Need You...

One day a group of scientists got together and decided that the human race had come a long way and no longer needed God, so they picked one scientist to go tell him.
"God," the appointee said, "We've decided we no longer need you. We can cure diseases, clone people and create life, so why don't you just go on your way."
God listened patiently while the scientist explained this, then said, "Very well. But first let's have a man-making contest, doing it just like I did back in the old days with Adam."
"Sure, no problem," the scientist said, bending down to scoop up a hand full of dirt.
"No," God admonished. "Get your own dirt."

"I Never Honk My Horn"

Today Nikki and I were in the drive thru at Arby's... I had paid for our meal and was waiting to be handed my food when all of a sudden the guy behind me honked his horn. I was kinda wondering "what the heck? I'm just waiting for my food!" but then I heard him yell out the window "Sorry!" and I saw that he was leaning over and realized he had probably just hit the horn by accident when trying to reach for something. I waved out the window and said "No prob!" and didn't think too much else of it. The Arby's lady handed me our food and I drove away. We decided to park in the parking lot and eat it in the car. So we were sitting there enjoying our curly fries and Beef & Cheddars when I look up to see that guy had parked his truck and was walking towards me. He looked rather non-threatening so I rolled the window down a bit and he was like "I just wanted to apologize. I never honk my horn. I was trying to read something on the gauges and had to get close to it because I'm getting old [pointing to his glasses] and when I leaned over, my elbow hit the horn. I'm so sorry. But seriously, that's one of my pet peeves. Horns are for safety - if someone is doing something dangerous or something where somebody could get hurt you give it a little beep-beep but it's not meant as a way to be rude to people. So I'm really sorry". I assured and then reassured him it was not a problem and I wasn't offended. He apologized one more time and then smiled and told us to have a good night and walked back to his truck. Nikki was like " haha i bet that would have never happened in New York!"

It's nice to know there's still some good people in this world... :)

Significant Digits

Today was 9/11 (in case you were living under a rock and didn't have a calendar today) and of course the day was filled with little reminders of the tragic day 7 years ago. Sitting in my Production and Operations Management class this morning with my incredibly-patriotic-retired-air-force-vet professor, Dr. Reely, we observed a moment of silence. But before we sat in silence and had a prayer, Dr. Reely made a very interesting point. Before we got to class he had written a number on the board... 3381. He asked if we knew what that number meant. None of us knew. He informed us that was the number of people who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. He said it bothers him when people say "we lost over 3000 people that day". He circled the last digit of 3381 and said "It's not just 'over 3000 people'. I think this one person matters. Because he had a wife and kids. Or she had a husband and parents. It wasn't just 3381 people that were affected by the attacks... those people had families that will never forget that day." He then, being a retired vet, of course went on to discuss the war on terrorism, etc. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the war and the politics and the world events and the whole rigamarole (sp?) surrounding that issue but I do think we should at least remember the families of the victims and if nothing else, take a moment of silence to think about their loss. I was impressed that Dr. Reely was willing to remember that one person... that last digit of 3381.