Scott Brightwell dot Org

“It is not a mandate for a party or ideology but a mandate for change,” said Senate Majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Said Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California: “Tonight the American people have called for a new direction. They have called for change in America.”

Well, we have a new President-elect.  The platform by which this President will take a leadership position of the most powerful nation in the world, is Change.  Change.  Just Change.  Change from what?  Change to what?  Pish posh.  The Democrats seem to be telling us not to get caught up in the details.  You hate the current policies.  We’ll change them.  Everything will get better.  Trust us.

America is now vulnerable to be dragged into any half-baked policy decisions our Change Agents want to set.  (I’ve decided to stop calling them leaders, I’m calling them “Change Agents”.)  Capitalism?  We can change that.  Military superiority?  We can change that.  World Democratic leadership?  We can change that.  Healthcare?  Low taxes?  Family Values?  Definition of marriage?  Constitutional limitations of the federal government?  “We the People” in direct oposition to centralized socialist power.

It’s all up for grabs now.  It can all be changed, because that’s apparently what America wants.  Unspecified, indeterminate, unbounded Change.  It’s frightening.

I’m really disappointed in the direction we the people are allowing this country to head.

A few points to ponder:

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.  ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

Men fight for freedom, then they begin to accumulate laws to take it away from themselves.

Liberty has never come from the government.  Liberty has always come from the subjects of it.  The history of liberty is a history of resistance.  ~Woodrow Wilson

If you DON’T believe in God, then you’ll believe in anything.

A brother [monk] said to an old man, “I see no warfare in my heart.”  [Which is the indicator of healthy spiritual struggle with the influences of the world.]  The old man said to him, “You are a building open on all sides, and whoever wishes can pass through you and you are unaware of it. If you have a door, you should shut it, and not allow evil thoughts to enter through it; for then you will see them standing outside, banging on the door, and attacking you.”

I just heard a very good sales tip. From a salesperson’s perspective, “I always get worried when the deal stops pulling, and I start pushing.” That’s a very insightful statement. It does suggest a lack of interest in the customer, and lack of interest means they’re less likely to ultimately make a purchase.

Trying to win friends and influence people, I can imagine a strategy of creating desire in the customer that “pulls the rope taught.” Imagine a lead dog on the sled with desire to move the project along, pulling on everyone else to get it done.

When the lead dog (the customer) stops pulling, it’s very hard to push with a rope. Rather, additional desire needs to be created to start the pull again.

On a non-sales note, I’m wondering if procrastination has anything to do with “feeling needed.” If there are people asking things of you, you feel needed and wanted. If you accomplish whatever it is, you’re no longer needed (at least you may feel this way). So you “string people along” to keep the rope taught, and the people that need you, even though they may get angry with you, keep needing you.

This is one of the coolest video’s I’ve seen in a long time. Very educational, very geeky. Check it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBsOeLcUARw

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If life is about relationships, why are we so busy tracking tasks?

Starting my day today, I began listening to my voicemail and making notes about who called and what was their message. As I made notes, the “primary field” of my note was the person’s name who called. I looked back, and realized that this may be very appropriate to the overall organizational process. How might I expand on this in the rest of my life?

In the last two years, I’ve taken on a technical sales job. There are different skills involved doing this job than doing a pure technical implementation type role. I deal with people then technology rather than with technology then people.

In trying to help keep me and my sales guy organized, we identified that I tend to organize my life from an implementation approach. I tend to organize by projects first, and the people are simply resources to accomplish tasks. He looks at the people first. His job is the people,
and he wants to organize his life by the people involved, and the tasks are simply milestones to accomplish to help build and further the relationship.

Whether or not we’re trying to sell stuff to people, there’s some wisdom in orienting life around your relationships. I personally have come to believe that the love of God and neighbor are the most important things. Organizing my day around my relationships rather than around my tasks seems to better fit that belief.

Hmph. Now I need to explore task and organizational systems that are relationship oriented rather than task oriented. I could apply GTD’s approach of creating a “project” for every person. I could apply the 7 Habits approach of orienting around the major “roles” (ie:
relationships) I have in my life. I could go down the path of using ACT or some other CRM type approach thinking of people as leads and tasks as opportunities.

Time will tell, and so will I. Stay tuned.

“Seeking the Grand Unified Theory Of Personal Organization (GUTOPO)”

This is a floral arrangement for Kristin Tocher and Matt Spoon’s wedding.

I’ve been thinking recently about what Christianity has to say to society. As a religion, what does Christianity say to societies, and how should the society in which Christians live be shaped and / or ruled by them? We see in acts that the first Christians after Pentecost lived in equality, sharing all they had with one another. Is this the ideal of society–an egalitarian one where shared resources are used to care for everyone?

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This is a new take on overweight issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIPVg6FXB1s 

Desktop Tower Defense

http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp

This is best viewed with a group of people. There’s a punch line at the end if you can make it all the way through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus

Watch it about 5 times, and it’ll get funnier and funnier. (or your standards will get lower and lower)