Here is something to see

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

The Weekend

In the spirit of letting family and friends in on what we have been doing, a motivation for this blog, here is what we were up to over the weekend:

Friday Diane and I had a date together whilst the kids were at Grandma and Grandpa Russell's,

Friday night we all went to the cheap circus. Now our kids can say that we took them to the circus when they were children and we never have to take them again.

I went to watch the U of A trounce the team from Washington on Saturday. A friend got some tickets from work in the end zone section. Good fun, but, unfortunately, the Wildcats (U of A) kept the ball at the other end zone for most of the game. David Hasselhoff was there. Apparently his daughter goes to the U of A. This proves, once again, that Germans love David Hasselhoff.

On Sunday we went to a party celebrating the adoption of 4 children by some friends of ours. That is what the pics are from. I put a few more of them on Facebook, if you have that sort of thing. Then, it was back to work for me.

My Mom also moved to a new place this weekend. Unfortunately, we were unable to be in the area to help with the move. If you would, remember her in your prayers.

Three Tomes I Am Taking In

As I mentioned before, I try not to write a review of all the books I read. Not because I don't like to show off, but I figured most people wouldn't care about most of them. But, from time to time, I read through a few that I think might be of interest to you. With that in mind, here are a few I am working on now.

I have posted before about my experiences and some of my thoughts about the upcoming apocalypse here and here. So, I found "Have a Nice Doomsday" subtitled "Why millions of Americans are looking forward to the end of the world". It is a non-christian scholars venture into the U.S.'s unique prophecy, doomsday, rapture, etc. culture. It has a couple of interesting chapters on the history of this sort of thought, one focusing on America's history of this thought, including date setting and trend setting leaders. Most of the book focuses on interviews with leading "experts" on modern prophecy studies: John Hagee, Randall Price, Tim Lahaye. It is surprisingly un-hostile as it profiles the thoughts and ideas of of the obsession with end times.

Radical Leap is a fun business parable...sort of ala Who Stole My cheese or One Minute Managee. The author is the former VP of The Tom Peters Company, a well known and respected business guru and the LEAP acronym is part of the new Peters mantra (cultivate Love, generate Energy, inspire Audacity, and provide Proof). These types of books are usually too cheesy for me and I have trouble getting through them. This one was actually kind of fun to read, even though it still has it's share of cheese. The LEAP acronym can work for helping understand how people lead and why people follow those leaders.

FDR's Folly is one that I haven't started yet. I have heard it opined that the NEw Deal policies of FDR's administration prolonged the economic troubles of the time, but haven't read anything on it yet.

One reviewer says of the book, "Powell draws "lessons" from the New Deal's recovery failures, arguing that an understanding of them should help current and future policy makers to avoid burdensome and "soak-the-rich" taxes, public-sector "jobs" programs that inevitably turn into vote buying, laws that prevent needed price and wage adjustments, measures restricting freedom of trade, and monetary authorities with undue discretionary powers."

It sounds timely and relevant, although a sacrilege to those who are fans of Roosevelt. Should be interesting.

Some things you just shouldn't have to tell people, but tell them anyway

My friend, who is a fan of this blog too, told me this story.

He went to visit a new Church where one of the guys leading music was new to the Church thing. He was quite excited about his new found faith and was exuberantly jumping around and praising the Lord. This was a casual, come as you are sort of service so he was dressed down, wearing sweat pants and a tee-shirt. Unfortunately, it was also quite obvious that he didn't wear any undershorts either.

So, take this as a management principle: Some things you just should not have to tell people, but go ahead and tell them anyway.

Johnny Says....

A question for leaders and people with customer oriented businesses from John Maxwell:

"Are you building people or building your dream and using people to do it?"

If you are building people, they will help you build your dreams. If your using people, they will figure it out and not really care about your dreams.

This question struck me because it is so easy to see people as a necessary tool in building what you want, and not the goal of what you are doing in and of themselves.

I like this one

Check out the "international humor" on the nicholeopolis blog. Her and her mano are friends from the Sacramento area and, on a side note, her husband is Canadian.

Railroaded

I just saw that Arizona is getting $1 million from the federal govt to do a study about a passenger railway between Tucson and Phoenix. The hope is that a matching $1 million could be provided by the state. Yes, there are already tracks between Tucson and Phoenix, but officials are unsure that the existing track, which is a UP track, could be used.

I think I could do that study for them. For a million bucks.....no wait, I would do it for half that....I, would talk to UP and see if the existing track could be used. If not, I would see about how much it would cost to build another. They already have an estimate of $600 million. So, instead of just using that figure, I would try to reconfirm the estimate. I'd even get Diane and the kids to help.

$500,000. That would be a bargain.

On another related note, why do they not lay two tracks when they build railroad tracks? It would cut down on trains running into each other and would make it easier for the train dispatchers. They probably don't have the money. Especially after all the million dollar studies they run.

The District Superintendent of the Church Denomination in Sacramento told our Church that Diane had a "million dollar smile". That ought to qualify us to do a million dollar study.

Here is the article from the local paper.