As The Lights Go Out

there’s a ton of hype around obama/biden, the inauguration tomorrow, the incoming cabinet, the changing view of african- americans, and rightly so. i can’t help though, to feel for president bush and his family. a cnn story read earlier reported on the sadness of the bush family, 41 and 43, as they prepared to leave the white house. moving their possessions out of the house, saying goodbye to the white house staffers they’ve known and lived with for the past 8 years, closing shop, not only in a presidential way, but in a personal way.

so often i find that i separate the president (and many others for that matter) from the person. sure george h. bush has been the “leader of the free world” for the past 8 years, but he’s also been george h. bush. he’s developed relationships with the white house staff, he’s seen his daughters grow up in that house, he’s lived in d.c. and, at least i believe, grown to appreciate the city, grown close to members of congress, and world leaders.

he leaves all that behind tomorrow. a reporter stood outside the white house this evening around 10pm central time and i watched the lights go out in that house. i couldn’t help but imagine the sadness, the relief, all the emotions swelling up in that house on this evening, the bushes last night there.

how often we forget that those we see on tv are real people. actors, actresses, sports stars, senators, representatives, movie stars, and even the president are just people. i use “just” lightly, not as a means of demeaning their value or influence on society, but as reminding us that they are no bigger or smaller than you or i.

as the country looks forward to the presidency administration, let’s not forget for bush, obama, biden, or even cheney, that they’re still people and they deserve the utmost respect from us as fellow humans, and our appreciation for their willingness to serve.

Twitter Client Search

i’ve been searching long and hard for a good twitter client. twitterific is ok, twhirl did a sufficient job. some others i’ve tried, but don’t remember, obviously didn’t really cut it. i’ve gone through a couple more recently…toro is an adobe air app that seems to do a nice job, though it doesn’t allow for direct messaging through the program. in a continued effort i just found and downloaded alert thingy. i like that it offers updates from digg, facebook, twitter and other social networking sites as well as news feeds such as numerous bbc feeds, cnn, espn, and over 20 additional news networks; a key feature is the ability to add any rss feed you want. still the same issue though: no ability to direct message anyone.

what are you using and what draws you to it?

Two Competing Theories of Greatness

being great. it’s something that all of us aspire to be, not necessarily in the eyes of those around us, but at least in our own eyes, and hopefully in the eyes of our creator. we can all be great, we can all do awesome things with our lives in thousands of different capacities. for some it’s minor acts of service and others it’s holding major offices or being known globally. both are important, and both are necessary. the question isn’t what one should, or can, do to be great, but rather how to achieve that greatness.

two separate books address this issue from two sometimes competing theories. “strengthsfinder”, originally developed by the gallup corporation, and “do hard things”, written by twin brothers, provide us with these different theories on achieving greatness.

strengthsfinder suggests that we will collectively be our strongest and individually reach greatness when we determine what we’re best at, apply ourselves fully to those skills, and surround ourselves with others who excel at those skills which we do not. the gallup organization has devised a system, a test of sorts, to help us determine our top 5 strengths. access to the test is provided by purchasing their latest book

strengthsfinder 2.0″ (available at barnes n’ noble, borders, amazon.com, etc.). of a possible 34 strengths, being given the top 5 is rather pleasing. numerous cohorts of mine have used this book and its assessment to determine our strengths and find that it is quite accurate. when i took the test my top 5 strengths include:

context

learner

achiever

arranger

relator

there is a lot to be said for this approach as it teaches us to focus on using those gifts that are natural to us and to depend on others for those that we aren’t. if you aren’t a team player, this system will likely give you heartburn as you deal with groups of people. for those who work in groups well, surrounding yourself with a team that recognizes their strengths is an ideal working situation.

the competing theory to the strengths approach is found in a book i just finished

Do Hard Things by alex and brett harris. alex and brett are home-schooled teenagers who write the book from a strong christian perspective. the book is geared toward teenagers in an effort to encourage a revolution against low expectations. the harris twins suggest that teenagers are stuck in a rut of just meeting the low expectations of a society. they suggest that we achieve our greatness by digging into those things which we find most difficult. fighting against these low expectations by doing hard things will make us better people, and in our own way, great.

i fully support the theory of “do hard things”. i only ran into an issue, not of disagreement, but of question as i came to page 71 of their text as they write about stepping out of our comfort zone:

“we don’t know about you, but we constantly find ourselves building that invisible fence (the one that keeps threats outside and us inside). We build it higher every time we say or think things like: ‘I’m just not a math person,’ ‘I’m just not organized – my brain doesn’t work that way,’ or ‘I’m just not a people person.’

What’ we’re really saying is that we don’t want to do things that don’t come easily or naturally. We don’t want to break through our fears. And by our actions, we’re also saying that God isn’t good enough and powerful enough to help us do what we can’t comfortably do on our own.”

in this statement we’ve got direct opposition to what strengthsfinder suggests. the harrises suggest that in doing what we’re good at we’re discrediting God. In fact, they go on to suggest that satan wants us to stick to what we’re good at. that by avoiding that of which we’re afraid we’re discrediting God.

of course there’s a middle road here, but it’s one we have to find ourselves. i don’t think we’re doing God a disservice by focusing on what we’re good at, but we would be doing God, and one another, a disservice if we didn’t either try new things or surround ourselves with others who excel where we lack.

my new year’s resolution was “to seek perfection and avoid mediocrity”, so i’ve been reading and thinking. i find myself at a crossroads of utilizing my strengths to do hard things, and at times, pushing myself to try new things and improve myself by strengthening my weaknesses. what are your thoughts? how do we really achieve greatness? and how do the two theories of greatness coexist?

The History of Wonton

a new year’s eve tradition in the watson family since i was a baby, wonton has its groundings in a visit from some foreign military pilots. that’s about all i knew until i asked my parents to write a short history of the tradition. this is what they came up with.

At some point in the late 50’s or early 60’s the US government sold jets to the Taiwanese government. As part of the deal, the US agreed to provide training to the Taiwanese military about these jets, which also include flight training. The training was at Chanute AFB in Rantuol, IL.

Someone, somewhere decided these folks should experience how americans celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday. Mom can’t remember how or why but three of these pilots ended up at Grandpa & Grandma B’s place. Apparently all
three had escaped from mainland China and all three had family that had been left behind.

They returned at least once more around the Christmas, New Year holidays and while there, MADE and taught your grandfather how to make wonton as they did at home. Mom seems to recall they mixed pork with the beef, added the soy
sauce, lettuce and scallions. Of course they had a big meal. Whether that was actually Xmas or New Years mom can’t remeber but It started a tradition in the Beasley household.

New Years Day, and ONLY that day was reserved for
WONTON.   As I recall grandpa started by running the beef and pork thru an old fashion meat grinder. Cut the scallions and lettuce to just the right size and start mixing soy sauce to the mixture untill it was JUST RIGHT! Of course, being the way he was, grandpa didn’t just do it, he wrote down the measurements of everything used. That recipe was changed most every year too, but he kept it written in his records.

Grandpa started some time before New Years day so the mixture could set together and all the flavors meld together. You know, it is sort of like a good stew. Cook it up and let it set together in the fridge a day or two and it just plain tastes better. Think jungle stew.

First time I met your grandparents was the New Year holidays in 1971. Won Ton was the menu for the day. Man I can’t remeber if there was anything else but there was a ton of wonton. Back then evryone was up making them and
there certainly were no “pre-made” skins. Flour and water, rolled out and as I recall cut using a biscuit cutter. Usually done during the Rose Parade! Wow was that a chore, but the eating was fantastic.

I think we made it Mattoon for New Years ‘76 when I was in California and Mom & Greg flew out to be with me for the holidays. New Years of ‘77 we were in San Diego and we carried on the wonton tradition in our house. No, not
as crazy as grandpa, but we did it anyway. I don’t think we have missed it since. That would be 37 years if you’re counting, and God willing we’ll continue on for a while. Grandma still has every year. Certainly not as much
as when everyone was around, but she does have it.

The Future Of Apple

finally, and end to the rumors…

Steve Jobs Explains His Health Problem

Things Isn’t Worth $50

in fact, no program that tracks your gtd is worth $50. i can just as easily write things in my notebook for about $6. i like having something that syncs with the iphone though, and across multiple computers using mobile me. i ditched things this morning on all 3 of my macs and my iphone because i’m simply not willing to pay the $50 they decided to charge with their latest version.

that leaves me seeking a gtd app for mac os x 10.5 that is free…and that preferably syncs across computers and with the iphone. anyone got any thoughts?

How To Carry Your Pen With Your Moleskine

ok…so this is kinda ridiculous, but pretty funny, and logical. a step-by-step explanation with photos of how to carry your pen with your moleskine notebook.

Expression On Paper

i’m a huge fan of writing. some days i prefer to write on my blog, some days i prefer to write lesson plans, html, or notes. some days i prefer to write letters, and sometimes i just like to journal. there’s something about writing…it’s freeing, it’s comforting, it’s relaxing.

while i prefer to type most of the time, other times i just feel the need to write write, like pen and paper write, and when i get into those moods, i latch onto fine stationary (if i’m writing to someone) or i latch onto one of my moleskine notebooks. depending upon what i’m writing i choose one of my 3 moleskines. it’s either my handy dandy pocket version (the thing is always in my back left pocket), my unlined black hardcover notebook, or my soft cover black notebook.

you can check out the history of moleskine if you want, but in if you don’t want to, i’ll give you the short version. they’re handy, acid-free, hand-manufactured notebooks that have been around for more than 2 centuries. they’re just fantastic tools, albeit a little pricey.

while playing on twitter today i came across someone using field notes. checking out their website, i find that they’re really very similar to my pocket moleskine, except these field notes are made from graph paper whereas my moleskine consists of blank pages. anyways, point being, they look like nice little books too, and for about the same price.

while i suppose most people write in their field notes of moleskines, i happened across a link on the field notes page from a professor who provides a field notes book to each of his advanced typography students at the beginning of they year, and collects them later toward the end of the semester and photographs select pages. he’s posted a number of the photos on flickr. take a look at the creativity unleashed in some of these field notes.

Part of the Best Birthday Ever

dec. 24 was dad’s 60th birthday. after having just come from the hospital and the diagnosis he faces, there was already added meaning to this birthday. there was an added meaning to this birthday though. for whatever reason, and not placing any blame, the relationship between my brother greg and his wife has been somewhat strained for at least the past 4 years.

last night we all gathered at grandma’s for cookies and eggnog following the christmas eve service and had a surprise for dad. greg had called to see where we were and to let us know they were coming into town. this video, recorded on my new kodak zi6, says all there is to say about what it meant to my parents.

Christmas in Mattoon

got into town last night with michelle to stay with my parents. randy came in this morning. we’re gonna have a great time this christmas! a couple prizes are in store for mom and dad, but don’t want to write about it here yet incase they read this. i’ll have plenty to say later as things develop. probably will write a bit more tonight and maybe some tomorrow morning depending on when people wake up.

bought a kodak zi6 yesterday. it’s a fantastic little hd video camera. i’ll be shooting a few videos with it today and tomorrow and plan to post some. i’ll take it with me to church tonight and see what i come out of there with…

it’s an exciting time here in mattoon…looking forward to an evening of celebrating dad’s birthday, church, and the evening’s surprise.