The Simple Life

My wife and I decided to spend the weekend at Calico Rock Arkansas.  My mom's birthday is this weekend and I wanted to be here to say Happy Birthday and hug her neck.  It was kind of a last minute decision so we didn't get here until about 10:00 last night.  I wish I could have taken a picture of the moon and stars.  Wow.  I had forgotten how many lights are in the sky.  Living in Springfield MO only the brightest stars make it through the glow of the urban night.  The rural Ozarks aren't heaven but it has to be close.

Things I don't understand

Things I don't understand or would like to know the answer to:

• Why the winter's seem to be colder and the summers seem to be hotter?
• Why the concept of God has gotten so complicated?
• Why it is so unpopular to be a proponent of compromise instead of divisiveness?
• Why moderation is considered a bad thing?
• Why one day I stepped out of the shower and their stood a "not young man" in the mirror looking at me?
• Why my grand children are near perfect and everyone else's are just kind of perfect?
• Why the US Tax Code is over 3000 pages long and so complicated?
• Why so many people currently incarcerated in the US prison system are poor and minority?
• Why there is a movement to drug test people before they can receive food stamps but there is no movement to require executive's on Wall Street to be drug tested?
• Why the middle class in the US is disappearing?
• Why I didn't make better financial decisions when I was 25?
• Why I didn't go ahead and get my master's degree when my dad wanted me to and is it too late to get it at my age?
• 
  

Knowledge - How to grow and prosper

I had a conversation with my 23 year old son this morning over our regular Saturday morning breakfast.  Our conversation this morning was about reading and critical thinking for the purpose of gaining knowledge and being in a state of continuous learning.   Sam is about to graduate from college.   He is interested in those things that will define who he is as an individual and as a young professional.   The current buzz phrase is “personal brand.”

I wrote Sam an email listing the books he should read and have in his library.   I thought it was worth blogging the email.    Here it is:

Sam

These are books I think you should read in order:

1.       The Dip – By Seth Godin (should read at least once a year)

2.       48 Days to the work you love – by Dan Miller (should get the actual book, not digital, to use for reference)

3.       The Millionaire Next Door – by Stanley Thomas

4.       The Dan Sullivan Question by Dan Sullivan

5.       The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

6.       7 Habits of Highly Successful People – by Stephen Covey (as I suggested, you should listen to the abridged version of this.  Might get a copy of the book for reference)

7.       Leadership and Self-Deception by the Arbinger Institute (this is another one you should add to your “once a year list”)

Other books that need to be on your reading list:

1.       Unbroken – by Laura Hillenbrand

2.       The Outpost – by Jake Tapper

3.       Good to Great – by Jim Collins

4.       Great by Choice – by Jim Collins

Be sure to go to TED.Com and watch How Great Leaders Inspire Action – by Simon Sinek.   Here is the link to the video - http://on.ted.com/g05it

Another Simon Sinek video you should watch is on youtube – “Love your Work”  - Here is the link - http://youtu.be/jDIZS4IQlQk

There is a book I have never read but should.  Maybe we could read it at the same time.   It is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

You should look for books that are highly rated that talk about developing your personal “brand.”

I suggest you setup an Amazon account.  You can start a reading list there.   Once you have books on your reading list, Amazon will suggest others.  See where it will lead you.

Love you,  Dad

Late Night

I don’t remember Steve Allen or Jack Parr when they hosted the Tonight Show.   I thought Johnny Carson was great and still miss him.   Jay Leno was a good steward of the show for 20+ years.  I never watched Conan O’Brien.  Still don't.   I think Jimmy Fallon is going to be as great as Johnny Carson.   

I didn’t see Jimmy’s last Late Night show the other night.   One of the things I like about Jimmy’s show is the music.   On his last show he joined with the Muppets to sing my all time favorite song – The Weight.   I love this song.    In case you missed it, here it is from YouTube.

Here's the list

My family has been bugging me lately to provide them with a list of things I would like to have for Christmas. The very request has a lot to do with why I am labeled Scrooge.   I hate to make out a list?  I thought it was supposed to be about the giving and not the getting.   My list could be very simple.   "Just get me something that comes from your heart" would be a very easy answer.

However, since Christmas is next week I thought I had better do what the family is asking.  So here is my list:

• A recliner to sleep in while I watch the Cardinals win the world series next year.  You know it's going to happen and I need a recliner.   I currently have to sleep on a couch that is too short for me to watch the tv from.
• While we are talking about the Cardinals, I need someone to plan a trip to St Louis next summer to see the Cardinals play Boston and the Yankees.  Both teams are coming to St Louis in 2014.   I NEED to go and someone else should plan the trip (tickets, hotel, etc)
• We need another family vacation like the one we had last summer.  It was great and doing that again would be a great present.
• I NEED a Browning T-Bolt .22.   I don't hunt much but I am 55 years old and didn't really get to enjoy a Corvette for a mid-life crisis.   A beautiful .22 to give to my grandson some day shouldn't be too much to ask for.
• I want headphones for my iPod, iPhone, iPad (yes, I have all 3).   I want some red ones and I want them to be those really cool old fashion kind that I see the young people wearing these days.  They NEED to have great sound.  No Bose.  Too expensive.
• I want to go to Oshkosh to the airshow next summer.  Who wants to go with me?
• I want someone to help me clean out my closet of all the old shirts, slacks and ties.   Let's take some of them to the thrift store.   But wouldn't it be really neat to cut some of them up and make a quilt out of them and then take the quilt to someone who needs it.  
• Since I gave all my clothes away, someone had better take me shopping so I can buy some new clothes.
• I NEED a picture of my grandchildren to display in my office.
• I need someone to help me clean up and organize my garage and storage building and home office.  They are a mess but they always have been.  So no hurry on this one.
• I want one of these:
  
• Or one of these:
• 
• Or one of these:
  

 

 

I am really going now.   This should get the family started but I am sure I will add more to the list very soon.   My birthday is in February.   They will need a list for that event also.

Pull yourself up and do something

We all know that the holidays can be a very depressing time for some people.   There are many reasons that may be but that is not the purpose of this post.   I am not talking about clinical depression.   I am talking about the winter time “blues.” Dale Partridge recently blogged about steps to pull yourself out of those “blues”.

Here are the steps he suggest:

·         Serve someone who needs you.

·         Be nice to yourself

·         Drink a beer, but not 7

·         Stop working so freaking hard

·         Change your scenery, literally

·         Then repeat as many time as necessary 2 Timothy 1:7 – “I’ve not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind”

So get up out of that recliner where you are feeling sorry for yourself and go ring a bell for the Salvation Army or something similar.

Don’t forget, it’s Christmas time.  

Life is great.

Here is a picture of my mom and sister, Brenda.   Brenda became a grandmother today.