Giddyup!

Press On!

“Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

– Calvin Coolidge
, was the thirtieth President of the United States (1923-1929).

Declining Confidence in America’s Public Schools

Media_httpawesomegood_lighf

Click the image to enlarge…

Does The Food We Eat Affect Our Productivity?

This Day in Music Spotlight: U2 Go ‘Out of Control’

Before The Joshua Tree, War or even Boy, there was Three – U2’s debut release that consisted of (as the title suggests) three songs. Although only sold in Ireland, the EP marked an important milestone. On September 1, 1979, as a precursor to stadium-rocking concerts, multi-platinum albums and world-saving crusades, U2 would release their first songs to the public.

The story, however, begins about three years earlier, on September 25, 1976, when 14-year-old Larry Mullen Jr. posted a note on a school bulletin board saying that he was looking for people who were interested in starting a band. According to the drummer, it was to be called The Larry Mullen Band for about 10 minutes, until a boy named Paul Hewson showed up. With Bono in the band, there was little chance of little Larry being the leader.

Although guitarist Dave Evans (soon to become The Edge) and bassist Adam Clayton were in the group from the get-go, the band also included Dave’s older brother, Dik Evans, and Mullen’s friends, Ivan McCormick and Peter Martin. After a few weeks, McCormick and Martin had dropped out, and U2 were a quintet. Of course, they weren’t called U2 at the time. Initially, they took the name Feedback and then changed to The Hype in 1977.

I missed this on Sept. 1, but wanted to share it with my sister anyway. Follow the ‘via’ link if you’re interested in U2 history…

 

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Political Cartoons ~ September 5, 2011

Media_httpmediatownha_lbtae

Follow the ‘via’ link for more…

15 fun facts about Star Trek

Full story at Online Schools via Graph Jam.

Out of this world infographics.

The biggest mistakes you can make while traveling in Ireland

IrelandShape
Image via Wikipedia

A little bit of local knowledge goes a long way – and with this in mind, we at IrishCentral have prepared a brief guide to vacationing in Ireland.

Although remember – if you really want to fit in with the locals, you might want to avoid expressions like “vacationing” – use “going on holiday” instead.

You might also want to include the expression, “Where are yar’ lucky charms?” in as many conversations as possible – the Irish will surely love you for that. (Note the sarcasm here…)

Follow the ‘via’ link for a list of mistakes to avoid…

35 Awesome Quotes from Einstein

1. “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

2. “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

3. “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.”

4. “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”

5. “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”

6. “The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”

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7. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

8. “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

9. “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

10. “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

11. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”

12. “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

13. “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”

14. “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

15. “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That’s relativity.”

16. “If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.”

17. “What really interests me is whether God had any choice in the creation of the world.”

18. “A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”

19. “A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?”

20. “A table, a chair, a bowl of fruit and a violin; what else does a man need to be happy?”

21. “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”

22. “Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.”

23. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

24. “Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.”

25. “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

26. “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

27. “I think and think for months and years. Ninety-nine times, the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.”

28. “The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”

29. “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”

30. “We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.”

31. “You ask me if I keep a notebook to record my great ideas. I’ve only ever had one.”

32. “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

33. “It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

34. “Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts.”

35. “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

My favorite is #7. You?

Surprising secrets to school success

PEARL HARBOR (April 23, 2010) Mara MacDonald, ...
Image via Wikipedia

After a busy day, dinner, and getting the kids to bed, heaven forbid if sifting through a stack of parenting studies isn’t the first way you choose to unwind!

Still it’s a shame to miss out on what science can tell us about raising happy learners. In the interest of your sanity, we’ve gathered eight extraordinary, somewhat counterintuitive findings about fostering children’s success. Try them and report back to us — we’d love to know how they worked for you!

Follow the ‘via’ link above for 6 great ideas. Subscribe to their site if this topic interests you the way it does me…

The Bible: for my friends

I met an interesting guy named Jon Swanson via his blog yesterday through a link shared in Google Reader by Chris Brogan. Jon said…

I asked a bunch of my friends to answer some questions about how they looked at the Bible.

You, in fact.

It wasn’t a Bible knowledge test, the kind that students at a Bible college take. I taught at one years ago, as a communication prof, not a Bible prof. All the students coming in had to take a Bible test, a knowledge test. It determined whether they could skip the Bible survey courses that were part of the requirements. If you knew enough Bible facts, you didn’t have to take a semester of Old Testament survey and a semester of New Testament survey. Which meant that those courses were also about Bible facts.

My questions were about how often people looked at the Bible, what metaphors they had for what the Bible is, what questions they have. And I discovered as I read their responses that these friends, these people who show up regularly to read what I write about at 300wordsaday.com, all look at the Bible differently. Which is to be expected, on one hand. But is challenging for me as I write five days a week about following Jesus.

I mean, when I refer to the Bible as I write, what does that mean to you as you read?

You can read the rest of Jon’s post here… The Bible: for my friends.

Your Life Is An Occasion

“Your life is an occasion, rise to it.”

– Mr. Magorium
, a fictional character from the 2007 film Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium and was played by Dustin Hoffman. 

Keys To Living To Our Highest Potential

“No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are it is never too late to be who you are meant to be.” Shared by Mena Suvari

I have never seen a greater monster…

“I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.”
Michel de Montaigne

Fence post installation…

Oh, yeah! Let the fun begin…


This looks interesting…

Acrylic on canvas by Artist Tim Nyberg of g42art

My mom & me…

Just a couple of weeks ago, I was blessed to have the opportunity to celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday with her. I’m grateful that she’s still in my life and this picture I found yesterday reminds me how long we’ve been together…

Don’t blame them! It’s not their fault…

Mastin Kipp

Keen insite this morning from Mastin Kipp of The Daily Love…

Many times in relationships we love to blame the other person.

We like to blame them for not loving us the way we want to be loved, or for not making us enough of a priority, or for being too stubborn and on and on.

Then we start giving names to the way we interpret others actions. So instead of saying: “Hey, I’d really appreciate it if you let me figure it out on my own,” or “The way I really feel loved is when you (fill in the blank)”. When we are lacking, we say: “You’re a jerk”, or assume that they don’t love us.

So instead of expressing how we feel, we blame, judge and then convict the other person of being guilty. Then we project our verdict onto them and wonder why they react negatively and then use that negative reaction as further proof that our verdict was in fact, correct.

Instead of blaming and judging, if we can open up, become vulnerable and EXPRESS our feelings and needs, we give the other person an opportunity to course correct and with this new information.

And, if over time we are expressing our needs and feelings and they aren’t being seen, have the courage to pick up our things and leave. That’s the Master’s path – vulnerability and courage.

It might seem scary, but showing emotion and expressing your needs is how you build intimacy. And having high standards and the courage to maintain them is how you make sure that only the best kind of relationships remains in your life.

It’s the mark of a Master to no longer blame the other person, but instead to see the other person as a mirror of his or her own life. It’s the mark of a Master to share his or her feelings, rather than blaming someone else for not meeting the needs that were never expressed in the first place. It’s the mark of a Master who is strong enough to walk away from a broken and unfulfilled kind of love if his or her needs and emotions aren’t being seen. It’s the mark of a Master to be able to also meet the needs of their partner.

When you see the current relationships of your life as not a victim, but as a mirror of your own life, you can begin to take empowered action.

So, you say you want love, yes?

Then whatcha gonna do today? Blame them? Or express yourself and set loving boundaries?

Do you want to keep going round in the dramatic circle of blame or do you want to step into the loving flow of vulnerable expression?

The choice is yours. What’ll it be?

Live out of your Imagination, not your history…

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”

– Stephen Covey, wrote the best-selling book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

The growth of information

Image representing Eric Schmidt as depicted in...
Image via CrunchBase

“Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.” – Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google

The ‘truth’ about failure…


Image via Wikipedia

Here’s a perspective from Chris Assaad I found interesting…

“Most people have a very negative association with the word “failure”. That one little word carries so much weight in our minds and it tends be loaded with so much meaning and negative energy. I call it the other F-word. Well, I’m going to come right out and say it: I’m a failure. There, I said it.

What many of us often forget or don’t realize is that the road to success is paved with many failures. What tends to happen to many of us is that somewhere along the way, we fail and we decide that we’re not going to get where we’re going so we give up. The irony of it is that what actually stops us from succeeding or reaching our goals is not failure itself, it’s how we respond to failure. It’s how we interpret our failures and what we make them mean. Things like: “I’m not good enough, I can’t do it, I’ll never be able to do X, Y or Z, I don’t deserve to have my dreams come true, to be in a loving relationship, to be successful…blah, blah, blah.” Sound familiar? Maybe not, because the voice that says these things is very sneaky. It shows up at our weakest moments and kicks us while we’re down or even worse still, it speaks up when we are so close to the finish line and tries to convince us to give up on a goal we’ve been working towards for so long.

Why is that? Well, it’s very simple. Many of us learned this distorted perception of failure at a young age and have carried it forward into our adult lives. We may have failed a test in school and were traumatized by the associated stigma. We may have liked someone in our adolescent years only to get our heart broken and decided never to express our feelings again. The examples are endless but the pattern is the same. We fail at something and we take that failure as conclusive evidence that we’re not worthy or capable of the thing we’re after, that it’s not going to happen and so we might as well give up. Right? Wrong! Continue reading “The ‘truth’ about failure…”

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