The Wisdom of Students

On this day (October 31) in 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg which began the start of the Protestant Reformation. Nine years ago I was teaching Seventh Grade World History. One of the test questions from this unit was “What did Martin Luther post on the church door at Wittenberg that started the Protestant Reformation?” I had a special needs student in class that answered “Upcoming Events”. I’m guessing he saw that posted on a bulletin board at his church.

Another of my favorite student test answers was when we were discussing the various religious groups and utopian communities such as the Amana Colonies and Brook Farm. One of the test questions was “What was the Mormon practice of having more than one wife?” One of my more unillustrious students answered, “Utopia”. Yeah, it was a boy.

Share the Wealth?

Dave Ramsey read an e-mail from a listener today who said he was driving and saw a guy on a corner (homeless?) with a sign that said, “Vote for Obama I need the money.” The listener then went into a restaurant at that corner and his server was wearing a tie that said “Obama”. When it came time for the guy to give his tip, he said, “I saw a guy on the corner who needs this money more than you do so I’m just going to give it to him.” The server was not happy and stormed off; the listener went out to the guy on the corner and gave him the money.

I guess “share the wealth” isn’t so good if you’re on the “sharing” side. If you are forced to give is it sharing?

My uncle sent out this quote today: "We cannot expect the Americans to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist their elected leaders in giving Americans small doses of socialism until they suddenly awake to find they have communism"

Nikita Khrushev, 1959
Russian leader

I wish someone who was for Obama wouldn’t give as a reason that he’s such a good speaker. Does that really qualify someone for President?

7 years of Christian middle and high school chapel
4 years of undergrad chapels
2 summers of grad school chapels
4 summers at camp chapels and services
+ 17 years of Christian school chapels

Priceless to be able to post this



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0vCsgRPg1o



Obviously not all the chapels were bad, but I'm pretty sure this guy is related to the guy in a Baptist high school chapel who gave us the "real" reason Paul told Timothy to "drink a little wine for the stomach sake."

What an exciting diversion during a busy month time. A tractor/trailer rig making a left turn in front of our building apparently shifted its load and the trailer went over on its side. For almost four hours we periodically watched as emergency and wrecker personnel worked to upright the tractor. I actually took my work over by the windows in order to be there when they pulled the trailer upright. It was funny to look around and see the several departments had people at the windows watching.

It was interesting to listen to all the "office people" talk about how they should lift the trailer and what no doubt went wrong. And we were all entranced with the work going on outside.

It reminded me of how often I've watched big projects. In high school my sister and I watched an apartment complex being built on our way to school. It was kind of disappointing when it was done. The next year the same company built another complex at a different location on the route to school. In Chattanooga I watched road construction on my way to work, and my first year here I watched Zeeland Hospital being built.

It must be rewarding to be able to see such progress in your work.

Cartoon

This article was in yesterday's religion section. I almost went over it with a judgmental thought based on the headline. Please take a moment to read it and let me know what you think.

http://www.mlive.com/grpress/lifestyles/index.ssf/2008/10/guest_commentary_liberalism_no.html

Saturday Cooking

This afternoon I made a pecan pie for the first time ever. I'brought it over to friends' and we have not yet cut into it to see if it's any good. For supper I made a pot of chili--it's been the perfect dinner for a rainy, chilly fall day. It reminds me of the Saturday night dinners of vegetable soup or chili when I was growing up.

Now it's time to sit down and watch Alabama v. Tennessee with a piece of pie.

Embody Chair

I got to look at this chair and learn some of the research behind it about 14 months before it's launch while it was in development. It was fun to see some behind the scenes stuff. Hopefully I'm in line to try to the chair for a day. The little bit I have had a chance to sit in it makes me think I may like it even more than the Aeron.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/29/technology/herman_miller.fortune/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

Search on Embody Herman Miller for other articles.

Fall Colors

Here are a couple shots of trees that I've been enjoying on the drive to my street. The trees along this street begin turning in late August and several are still in vivid colors. The top picture is at the end of my street such that if a driver didn't stop they would hit the tree. For several days as I left for work the sun was just at the right angle to make the tree show it's colors the most.

I love the beautiful fall colors.

Dancing With The Stars

Not a big fan of the show, but this is funny:

Wednesday's Board question

Below are six clues to six words. When arranged in the correct order, each word is an anagram of the previous word with a letter removed.

capital of France
snake
headache tablet
single article
twisted ankle
coarse file
equally

Remember the clues are not in the correct order.

On Saturday I heard a speaker talking about how beautiful God’s creation is especially in the fall. He said:

“All these colors and nothing clashes! At least two days a week I think I’m ready for work and all my wife has to say is ‘No.’ I know that means my clothes are clashing and I need to change.”

Weekend Update

What a weekend. Friday night I spent reading the paper and practicing piano. It was an early to bed night after a long week. Saturday morning was in-service at Cornerstone for PGS. Joe Stowell, the new CU president spoke. The morning was good as the topic was Being Spiritually Contagious in the Classroom, but it did mean setting an alarm clock to be there. After that I went to a mall on the east side of GR that I rarely go to. Got a really good deal on black pants at Kohl's. Saturday afternoon was supposed to be practicing the piano and watching the AL game, but Renae and I got into a project to hang bikes in their barn. Since one of the bikes is mine, I thought I should help put up the mechanisms to hang them. After two trips to Gemmen's and one to Lowe's we had all the we needed plus more so I'll be returning stuff to Gemmen's this week. The evening was two hours of piano practice.

This morning was be at church at 7:30 to go over service music with the organist. All the instrumentalists were supposed to be there at 7:50, and handbells joined in at 8:15. I spent SS going over the music again. It was communion Sunday so there was a lot of music!!! I rang the first hymn, went down to the piano for a couple of songs. Played four songs for communion, rang the offertory, and then rang the postlude.

My friends--Glenn, Renae, and Brian,--surprised me by showing up for the service. It was really nice to look out to see them supporting me.

I'm very tired tonight. Why?

On-line banking

There is an ATM at work that is connected to a different financial institution than at which I bank. If I withdraw money from the ATM, the money is showing in my on-line banking before I return to my desk about 20 yards from the ATM.

If I go to the bank and make a deposit, it doesn't show up on my on-line banking until the next business day.

Friday's question on the board

What number should come next in this series

479126 62974 4796 697 ?

Question

If Joe the Plumber is already $1200 behind on his taxes, how is he going to pay the taxes if the taxes are raised?

Learning at Work

Part of my performance plan is to help provide learning opportunities for my team members. For example, I previously organized a demonstration of Herman Miller’s presence in the virtual world Second Life.

Last week someone was taking staples out of a stack of papers to get them ready to shred. I questioned why she was doing that. She and two others replied that they didn’t know you can put staples through the shredder.

Today one of them told our work team leader who was also surprised that you can put staples through the shredder.

This came up today as there was a large stack of voided documents with the backup stapled to them that needed to be shredded. Several of us grabbed a stack of the documents and marched off to the shredder. It was quite funny to watch them get excited about sending staples through the shredder.

I suppose I shouldn’t have gasped when the first person put a document in the shredder as if it was going to break with the staple going through.

This is so going on my performance review as a learning opportunity.

Condo Meeting

I'm disappointed. The first order of business at the condo association meeting wasn't reading off a list of the owners who had died in the last year followed by the new owners.

No wonder people don't like all the change this board is bringing about.

A Rambling Monday

The Bee Brave 5K Run/Walk to benefit the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation was Saturday. It was a gorgeous day which more than made up for my not performing as I would’ve liked.

I’m working on a tedious project at work. I keep reminding myself that I get paid the same whether I enjoy the project or not.

I love concord grapes in the fall.

I was thankful on Thursday even though I didn’t do a Thankful Thursday post.

Tonight is the condo association’s annual dinner. That means the first order of business after prayer and dinner will be reading a list of owner’s who have died over the past year. This is the first year I will know one of the people.

Our weather the last few days has been absolutely perfect. It makes you not want to think about what is ahead.

Two nieces called me on my birthday, one called me the week before, and another one I got to spend some really nice one to one time with when I was on vacation. As much as I enjoyed them when they were younger, it's really fun to have them grow up and return the love.

Bringing in pumpkin donuts to work for my birthday has become a tradition. In fact, a couple of weeks before people start asking to make sure I'm bringing them in. One co-worker, who had asked about the donuts, had a C-section scheduled for next Tuesday. In getting everything set for maternity leave she commented that she has to wait at least through Wednesday so she can have a pumpkin donut. Funny thing--she went into labor yesterday morning. She ended up having the baby at 11:35 and about 2:15 three of us took a couple of donuts over to Zeeland Hospital for her. I wanted to leave them at the desk, but the nurse checked with her and said to go on in. She was holding the baby alone in her room, and I realized I'd never seen a baby less than 3 hours out of the womb. I just stood there amazed at the thought of three hours before she was in the safety and protection of her mother’s stomach and now she is in the big world.

That made me start thinking about how young of baby I’ve seen. I believe Mary Lee is the youngest I’ve seen or held. If my memory is correct she was born on a Wednesday. Mom was already at Ann’s for the days prior to ML’s birth, and Dad and I drove over on Thursday. Ann and Mary Lee came home on Friday, and my parents and I took Andrew back to AL for a couple of weeks. Mary Lee was about the sweetest baby just to hold.

Thinking about it made me think about the first time I saw each of the kids. Andrew was about six weeks old when I first saw him. I remember walking in my parents’ house at Christmas vacation to hear a crying baby. Lauren was about two or three weeks old. I walked in and thought she was the most beautiful baby I’d ever seen. As my Grandma K. said there’s never been an ugly Klopfenstein baby, but Lauren was beautiful. Lindsey must have been 2-3 month old as I think I was at their house in July. She had such big eyes. John Michael was about a month old, and despite his mother saying he never cried he woke up from his nap as soon as she walked out the door and cried until she returned. I was so embarrassed calling Molly 30 minutes after she left for what was going to be a few hours out of the house to tell her that I couldn’t get her son quiet. Based on her suggestion he and I walked outside for almost two hours until she returned as he was pretty quiet outside. Jeffrey I saw at three months. He would be so relaxed in my arms swinging on my parents’ front porch.

Birthday Memories

Someone at work asked about a favorite birthday memory. I actually had a problem thinking of one, but now have two.

When I was 6 or 7, my Aunt Louise and Aunt Hulda were visiting over my birthday. I had dreamed of having a Cinderella watch just like Mary had. The watch had a stand with a plastic Cinderella. When I got home from school my birthday cake was on the counter with a plastic Cinderella on top of it. I just assumed it was the plastic one from Mary’s watchstand. I was so excited when I opened my gifts and had my very own Cinderella watch with pink bands and Cinderella’s arms going round and round to give the time.

My first year in Ohio I had told the students on the first day of class what day was my birthday. I did not expect every class to have treats. Devotional class (homeroom) started with donuts, milk, juice, etc. First period CSP had more of the same. Third period was cake. Fifth period had Moose Tracks ice cream, sixth period had something, and 7th period Senior Government had lots of treats as well. I just remember the sugar high and then low starting about 10:30 that kept getting lower and lower as the day went along. Several teachers commented (and not always nicely), “Students have never done that for me.” I just asked them “Well, have you ever told them when your birthday is?” Funny—students can’t and won’t celebrate if they don’t know when your birthday is.

Leadership Notes

These are some of my notes from hearing Max DePree last night:

The difference in managing and leading is that you manage the things you can put your hands on: products, machinery, processes; however, you lead people. Leadership is relational.

Is leadership nature or nurture? You can learn a lot about leadership but you cannot teach it. Leadership has to do with context and time. You may be a good leader at one time or in a particular situation but not at another time or in another situation.

How do you get people to see your vision? You must develop a vision that has many authors and those authors must be included in the planning process.

Herman Miller has a policy that the CEO’s salary is capped at 20x the average production worker’s salary. That allowed him to be open and transparent with everyone in the company. He said often other employees said they wouldn’t want his job for the money.

Funny moment: A student asked Max a question. Max asked him “Do your supervise people?” The student looked at him and then said, “Interns. So yes, they are people I guess.”

Leadership is relationship. Some practical advice he received was that “you can do things at home that you cannot do at work. They lover you enough at home to forgive you; they don’t like you that much at work.”

A leader must ask what does a follower need or want.

Getting involved with service (Rotary, at church, charitable, etc.) teaches one how to lead without power.

Regarding today’s economic crisis:
Leaders must envision the consequences.
A leader must practice self-restraint with the common good in mind.
Today’s greed is a symptom not the problem. The problem today is a lack of ethics.

How do you keep hope alive in difficult times?
Be a transparent company. Don’t keep people in the dark.
Consider how you would handle a situation or what you would say if it was someone you loved.
When you’re under pressure you’ll be glad you’ve built trust with those you lead.

Your legacy is how others evaluate how closely you became compared to what you wanted to be.

Should leaders be humble?
“I suppose if you are perfect you don’t have to be humble, but not many are perfect. There’s great pressure to be right all the time, but not many are right all the time. It seems humility is a good trait if you’re not perfect or you’re not right all the time.”

Birthday morning

It’s been a good day so far. Opened a gift from my parents which had arrived in the mail, Renae sang Happy Birthday on the phone early, left for a work a bit later so I could by to pick up pumpkin donuts, received several e-cards from friends, and enjoyed the donuts and birthday wishes with co-workers.

The donuts are a tradition that I don’t dare stop. In fact, one co-worker said she better not go into labor before October 8 so she could have her donut. She was scheduled for a C-section next Tuesday, but she went into labor this morning. Several have said we should take a donut to her later today since the hospital is within view of our work. Others have asked ahead of time to confirm I was bringing the donuts today. I brought in two dozen and several ate two right off the bat. It helps that they are still warm.

And since they give me a discount, I should mention they come from Post Family Farm.

Now it’s off to lunch at Red Robin.

(This is my 200th post, btw.)

Running with the big dogs

Tonight I’m going to hear Max DePree, son of the founder of Herman Miller, Inc. and the former CEO, speak at Renae’s leadership class in her MBA program at GVSU. Several weeks ago she contacted Max about coming to speak at her class. Since he has written several books on leadership, including Leadership is an Art and Leadership Jazz, and the instructor had referenced him several times, Renae knew it would be really big if she could get Max to speak. His wife said he really didn’t do that type of thing anymore, but when Renae talked to Max he said, “Yes, I can do that.”

Renae took a challenge to contact Max and ask him to speak. Many times I’ve heard her say, “It’s free to ask.” I’m impressed that she took the initiative to work this out. It doesn’t surprise me, but I’m still proud of her.

Needless to say the instructor is really excited about Max DePree speaking in his class. He’s invited his other classes and other instructors to come as well.

Yesterday I was at a gathering of people who wrote and took pictures for the HMI annual employee newspaper Spirit. I was talking with the guy in charge of the project who also edited Max’s books. I told Clark I was reading Leadership is an Art and explained that I wanted to read before hearing Max tonight. Clark was shocked that Max would be doing this. He said, “Does your friend know Max? He doesn’t really do that kind of speaking any more.” He then began telling another guy about Max speaking at Renae’s class. That guy started talking about Max’s home, and then the CEO heard us (them) talking about Max’s home. He turned around to join the conversation. At that point, I was trapped and listened to a conversation that I really had nothing to contribute to yet was quite interested by what they were saying. So I tried to appropriately nod my head as they spoke. Plus I didn’t think it would look good for me to say Excuse me and duck between two of them to get out.

By the way, the CEO’s name is Brian not Brad, but that’s another story.

Books I've Read So Far in 2008

Over the weekend I made a list of the books I’ve read so far this year. I like to read, but I find it difficult to take the time to do so. I try to keep a book in the car so that when I am in a line some where I can be reading, and I keep a book going at home so I can read when I take (I don’t say find because I can never find time) time to do so.

The list of books I’ve read this year in no particular order:

1. The Five Factor Diet
2. Faith of the First Ladies
3. Pride & Prejudice
4. Miracles Happen (Mary Kay Ash detailing the MK Story)
5. I became a Christian and all I got was this lousy t-shirt—a Christian life book on living an authentic Christian life instead of being like the child whose parents who bring home a souvenir t-shirt from a great trip they experienced. She had no joy in the journey the way many Christians have no joy in their Christian life.
6. What I Know About My God—a Bible study method to learn more about God when reading any Scripture
7. Playing for Pizza—a John Grisham non-legal fiction
8. The Innocent Man—John Grisham’s only non-fiction work
9. The Hand of Providence—The Strong Faith of Ronald Reagan
10. The Art of Leadership—leadership principles taught by Max DePree, former CEO of and son the founder of Herman Miller, Inc.

This weekend is missions emphasis at church. Today's speaker said there are more evangelical Christians in Asia than in the North America or Europe, and that there are more evangelical Christians in Africa than North America. He also said that percentage wise there are more evangelical Christians in South America than North America or Europe.

I don't know where his statistics were from but they surprised me.

Garden

The garden is essentially done. Friday night was our first freeze so yesterday we picked the rest of the tomatoes. I dug the potatoes, but something went wrong and I found only about 10-12 small red potatoes. Maybe we waited too long to dig them, but we had been told we could leave them as long as we wanted. The only thing left is to pick the popcorn and hang it to dry. We'll do that next weekend.

The garden overall was not a success this year although at the end we did get quite a few tomatoes and some peppers to make quite a bit of salsa. We also had quite a few beans. The potatoes, broccoli, squash, and okra however never really made.

Maybe next year we should back off some on the garden--it's a lot of work.

The final garden report will come in a few weeks regarding how the popcorn is.

Still In The Dark

Driving back to my house at 8:45 I was all primed for lights only to realize there still is no power. I'm spending tonight at friends' although I just found out the now estimated time for restoration is 10:48 p.m. Of course, the power company's website says that power has been restored.

The Night the Lights Went Out in Hudsonville

The power in my neighborhood went out last night about 10:15--right in the middle of the debate. It is still off this morning. This is the notice on-line for when service will be restored:


Hard to read, but yes it really does say 10/07/08 5:57 a.m.

I got up with the plan of manually opening the garage door to go get ready for work at Renae's, but I couldn't get the door open. I went back inside and got ready (thankfully I still have water when the power is out) by the light of a wind-up flashlight. Renae came about 7:30 and got the garage door open.



EDIT at 3:55 p.m.
The latest report estimates the repair at 8:18 p.m.

Thankful Thursday

1. Jaimie called last night. It may be the first time she’s called and we had a really nice conversation.
2. Checking out a book in the church library Sunday that my college roommate recommended last week. I don’t read much Christian fiction but she said Francine Rivers’ Redeeming Love is really good. (The church librarian concurred.) The book is a novel based on Hosea’s love of his unfaithful wife representing God’s love for unfaithful Israel and us.
3. Yesterday I had a nice lunch with Becky, my friend and MK recruiter soon to be director. She shared ideas about MK holiday marketing.
4. I got a new MK contact at a local coffee shop.
5. Another friend is considering joining MK as a personal use consultant. She would be my second recruit which means only one more until I would be a red jacket.
6. Hearing the truth even when it means “bucking up” and dealing with some tough stuff. The lady didn’t know she was, and probably doesn’t want to be, and instrument of God in my life.
7. Talking to my brother during lunch earlier this week.

At least I sound good on my job. This is a note I made for our work team meeting agenda.


On Day +1 I let the analysts and specialists know when the AR Cash file is complete on my end at the same time. Would it be better to let the specialists know so they can run the AR macro to look for issues before I let the analysts know the AR Cash file is complete. The analysts need to know this by noon on Day +1. I don't think this affects me directly but would allow for changes before the analysts book cash. (I don't know if said that right but it sound so accountantish.)