The Other Thing I Learned At Work Today

When you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”
- Dakota tribal wisdom

In business we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Say things like, “This is the way we have always ridden this horse.”
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Increasing the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appointing a tiger team to revive the dead horse.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment.
10. Change the requirements declaring that “This horse is not dead.”
11. Hire contractors to ride the dead horse.
12. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
13. Declaring that “No horse is too dead to beat.”
14. Providing additional funding to increase the horse’s performance.
15. Do a Cost Analysis study to see if contractors can ride it cheaper.
16. Purchase a product to make dead horses run faster.
17. Declare the horse is “better, faster and cheaper” dead.
18. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
19. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
20. Say this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
21. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

What I Learned At Work Today

Insanity is doing the same thing twice and expecting different results.

Unless you are working with a Microsoft product. In which case it is very sensible that you will get different results by doing the same exact thing.

Tamara, can you please start working on Great Plains?

Religion or Relationship

Recently I have been impacted by the dearth of my "relationship" with God. I mean, I'm going through the motions and all, but it has felt more like participating in arms-length transactions with an institution than engaging in an ongoing, interactive relationship. And so, upon receiving some needed exhortation, I am examining this more carefully. I am utilizing this forum to discuss it as I hope that others out there might help me in this process with their thoughts, reflections and probing questions.

I am starting things by turning to a source that has so often helped me in the past, Dallas Willard. In this case, I am re-reading "Hearing God." I was particularly struck by one statement in the first chapter,

"In the last analysis nothing is more central to the practical life of the Christian than confidence in God's individual dealings with each person."

Dang. That hit the nail on the head; that is right where the struggle is for me.

What does the relational aspect of faith look like in experience? When is it safe to say "God spoke to me" and when is it just conscience, circumstance and our own desires and perceptions? I have always been suspicious and wary of people who try to add to the credibility and authority of their arguments by claiming divine authorship of their ideas. Perhaps I am jaded by experiences in which people who have said "they have been praying about it and think this is God's will" typically followed that statement by either breaking up with me or asking for money.

But I have swung to far in the other direction. I found myself being described in unflattering terms by Dallas:

Our need for understanding is clearly very great. We are all too familiar with the painful confusion of individuals who make big efforts to determine God's will for them - people who are frequently very sincere and devout. We see them make dreadful errors following a whim or chance event that because of their desperation, they force to serve as a sign from God. We see them sink into despair, skepticism, even cynicism, often accompanied by a continuation of religious routine now utterly mechanical and dead. They 'know' on the basis of what has happened to them, that for all practical purposes they are simply on their own.

But I was comforted and encouraged by his First Steps Toward a Solution.

I believe we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, cannot abandon faith in our ability to hear from God. To abandon this is to abandon the reality of a personal relationship with God, and that we must not do. Our hearts and minds, as well as the realities of the Christian tradition stand against it. The paradox about hearing God's voice must, then, be resolved and removed by providing believers with a clear understanding and a confident, practical orientation toward God's way of guiding us and communicating with us.

Advanced Degree Not Required

I saw this sign on the way home tonight:

"Now Hireing. Servers Wanted."

How True

Bad habits develop naturally, while virtue, if obtained at all, is slow, hard work. - William Wilberforce.

Huh?

So I was driving home last night and I noticed this bumper sticker:

Evolution is just a theory,
. . . kind of like gravity!

Um, gravity is a law not a theory. I guess there is some argument around the precise meanings of theory and law and the difference between them and whether or not they represent a hierarchy. If those in the field of science could clarify and help me understand the difference better I would appreciate it.

But this still seems like an odd thing to put on a bumper sticker. And really, can we stop shouting at each other and claiming "the other side", whichever it may be on any given argument, are all stupid with bumper stickers? They tend to aggravate and annoy rather than inform and persuade.

Odometer

Odometer reading of the day: 111111.

Keep going little Saturn. Apparently you're the only new one I'll ever own.

It's Not Something I'm Proud Of

But Steve + Pet Fish + House Plant =

I'm Still A Guy

My latest iTunes purchase is Brad Paisely's I'm Still A Guy:

And I’ll pour out my heart
Hold your hand in the car
Write a love song that makes you cry
Then turn right around
Knock some jerk to the ground
‘Cause he copped a feel as you walked by

These days there’s dudes getting facials
Manicured waxed and botoxed
But with deep spray on tans and creamy lotioney hands
You can’t grip a tackle box
With all of these men lining up to get neutered
It’s hip now to be feminized
I don’t highlight my hair
I’ve still got a pair
Yeah, honey I’m still a guy

My eyebrows ain’t plucked
There's a gun in my truck
Thank God I’m still a guy

In Like A Lion

So, I just heard on the radio that we're supposed to get 8-14 inches of snow between tonight and tomorrow. I could get excited about that if only work were canceled, which it probably won't be.

This has felt like such a long winter.

Not Shedding Any Tears for HENRY

So I was reading an article in Fortune today and I found myself getting really irritated with whiny rich people. The editor was lamenting the Obama tax plan and how it impacts HENRYs, "High Earners Not Rich Yet" and used the following illustration:

Say a family earns $300,000 a year, and pays $50,000 a year in mortgage interest; the family also contributes $5,000 to Boy Scouts, Red Cross and other charities. Under the AMT's top effective tax rate of 35%, they benefit from savings of $19,250 on those deductions. But under Obama's new plan, the share of that $55,000 that HENRYs can deduct is no longer 35%. It's capped at 28%. Hence, their tax bill rises by almost $4,000.

Oh heavens! Where on earth will these people who make 1/3 of a million days per year and have a McMansion big enough that it's generating $50k a year in interest (and who donate a paltry 1.6% of income to charity) ever come up with an extra $4k to pay in taxes?

This article laments the plight of these poor individuals whose

chance of accumulating the couple of million dollars needed to qualify as rich were virtually nil even before Obama took the stage.

Chance of accumulating a couple million dollars was virtually nil? Are you kidding me?

Let's see. According to one website, the average American's income is roughly $42,000. Assuming that is a family, they would be in the 15% tax bracket so in their after tax income is $36,500. Now, if Henry is making $300,000 per year he would be in the 33% marginal tax bracket and his after tax income would be about $222,300.

If Henry lives at the same standard of living as the average American (as a shortcut, I'll use $36,500 in annual expenses) he would be able to save $185,800 a year. Even if he just puts it into a CD earning 2.5% interest a year, at the end of 5 years he would have $998,675 and thus would basically be a millionaire. His chances of accumulating a couple million dollars are "virtually nil" only if he lives an extravagantly opulent lifestyle well above the average American, who is already grossly rich by most of the world's standard.

Tall about being out of touch with the worries and concerns of the average American.

Automotive Parts and Accessories

After helping someone at church replace their flat tire with a spare a couple weeks ago, I started thinking about preparations for roadside emergencies. I went to Wal-Mart and noticed a couple products of interest. Has anyone ever tried the Slime Smart Spare

or the Schumacher 6-4-2 amp charger


or any similar products they would recommend?

Face It

So recently, with Jake and Rita's persuasion I finally broke down and joined Facebook. It has been cool connecting with people I haven't seen in ages.

Will you be my friend?

In Dreams I Walk With You

So I had this other crazy dream last night which also makes me think maybe I've been working too much. It started because I was having a discussion with a co-worker, Matt, about how much space in the bathrooms is devoted to toilets and I felt there should be more room for cots to sleep on. My old college dormmate, Ty was there. Afterwards, I ended up at my parents house in Ohio where my friend from Delaware, Mei-ling, was dogsitting for my parents. In addition to the dog that my parents actually have, there was a husky and some other breed. She was surprised to see me there. Then, after walking up some steps with my pastor Karl and friend Noel, I somehow was at this summer camp with some other co-workers. Susan was mad because Frank ate her food, and someone wanted me to intervene which I reluctantly did but Frank was unrepentant. Then, in the basement, my friends Jake and Rita were there laying on cots, but the A/C was out so everyone was in their swimsuits and sweating profusely. I ended up again in the bathrooms and woke up.

So, as I was discussing with some friends from church today, do all dreams have meanings? How do dream experts derive consistent meanings in the interpretations of dreams? How can you tell if your dream is expressive of deeper internal concerns or if it's just a random conglomeration of people and events?

Workaholism?

I think I may have been working too much lately. When I got home tonight after dessert with some friends, I tried to unlock my door with my office keycard.

Dental Dreams

So the other night I dreamed that I had three rows of teeth, sort of like in the movie Coneheads only not quite that bad.

Is my subconscious telling me I need to do a better job flossing?

Weird. Very weird.

Interesting Song

I'm also intrigued by The Fray's new song, Where Were You? It brings to mind lines from Lewis's A Grief Observed.

New Tunes

I'm digging the first track from The Airborne Toxic Event. Little bit of an Arcade Fire kind of vibe.




"and the piano's this melancholy soundtrack to her smile"

Mint

The last few weeks I have been checking out an on-line personal finance website (similar to Quicken or MS Money software only web based) called Mint. I thought they had a pretty good synopsis of things in their article, Three Principles of Personal Finance: All You Need to Know for Financial Success:

1. Spend less than you earn
2. Make the money you have work for you
3. Be prepared for the unexpected

Like physical fitness, vital to financial health is "strengthening the core" and following these simple and intuitive principles.

Creighton, if you're reading this I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on the article.

Is It True?

As I haven't been able to sleep again tonight, I continued reading The Pilgrim's Regress. I came across this statement:

Do you know how it is with love? First comes delight: then pain: then fruit. And then there is joy of the fruit, but that is different again from the first delight. And mortal lovers must not try to remain at the first step: for lasting passion is the dream of a harlot and from it we wake in despair. You must not try to keep the raptures: they have done their work. Manna kept, is worms.

Think he's right?