cursed computers

My computers hate me.  I feel like John McClain on Christmas vacation ...my home computer is Alan Rickman and my work computer is Jeremy Irons.

This is a little side note, but if you could invent a kickable computer...I think you'd have a license to print money.

 
Second side note:  If you had a license to print money, you'd be sitting on a goldmine.
  
Last note, I promise:  If you're sitting on a goldmine, it's like you just came up with the world's first kickable computer.

Marching on...

I'm still working on my mini GPS devices for:
-remote control
-cell phone
-key chain
-all of Day's sunglasses
I just need to figure out how to make a GPS, and then how to get them attached to all of those items.  Once I've got that figured out, watch out ShamWow.
          
I've also had a couple of thoughts lately about the Sags biopic I'm hoping to produce.
I've always wanted a Who song as my inspiration anthem that brings home the emotional core of his life...but CSI has sort of ruined it for me.  I might just bring in Zach Braff to do the soundtrack.  Sags would of course play the lead, but I'm not exactly sure who should play Coulier.  Maybe pull in NPH?
   
And if I'm going to put a movie together, I'd find an excuse to put Jeff Goldblum and Morris Day in there somehow.
  
March seems like our most aggressive month name.  You've got a couple of nonsensical months, MARCH!, a few girl names and then they get all Roman and nonsensical again.  I'm just saying that in a fight, I'd take March over September any day.

Someone started a Greatest Movie Ever discussion the other day, and that one doesn't get old with me.  You think I'm kidding, but I honestly care every time someone starts throwing out the greats.  There's something about lists that appeals to me.

The Best

I was married on March 27th ten years ago today.
     

People talk about their wedding day being THE greatest day of their life.

  

That’s not true for me. I have a bunch of greatest days.

  

When I first realized that I was in love with Annie, that was a greatest day.
   
When she smiles in my direction, that’s a greatest day.
  
When she giggles uncontrollably, that’s the greatest day.
  
When she holds my hand, prays with me and talks about our future…that’s the greatest day.
 
Every day for the past ten years is the greatest day of my life.

Survival of the fittest

If I knew how to put in those fancy countdowns you'd be staring at one that pointed to 9:30PM on April 6th.
 
ABC saved all of us from the thought of a Sags sitcom being shot, but never seen when the CW decided to drop it.
  
WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE CW!?!?  With your fancy logo and designer suits?  The Gossip Girl is good enough for you, but the greatest American, nay International actor of ours or any other lifetime isn't?!?!
 
Don't you see how sad this is CW?
 
You had a chance to bring the great one back into our lives, but instead opted for 90210.

A pox on you CW - and we all are thankful that ABC once again stood up for all that is right in this world.
We owe you a debt of gratitude American Broadcasing Corporation.

S.B.S.P.

This is how I imagine the pitch meeting went.

  

OK, we need a new cartoon character.  Someone that the kids can relate to...what do you have people?

  

Um, we could go with an adorable woodland creature...maybe a squirrel or an owl?

  

Nope, it's been done.  People are over the talking animals.  It just isn't as relatable as it was pre-Bambi.  What else do you have people?!

   
Well, what if we had a talking sponge.  He's kind of a living creature...but kind of a household cleaning aid.
 

I'm listening...

 

And we gave him pants.

  

Talk to me...

  

And we gave him a relatable name...Mark...no....Bob!  What if we called him Bob the sponge?!

  

I like it, but I don't love it.
  
How about Sponge Bob?
  
I'm starting to love it...
  
Sponge Bob Square Pants!  The kids will go nuts for a talking sponge with pants that are not in the normal shape!!!
  
And thus began another tv immortal.

An American Hero

I was talking to a group of people once and I asked this question, "Do you have anyone in your life that's genuinely humble and is always looking for an opportunity to serve?" or something like that.  One guy raised his hand and said, "Yeah, Neail Armstrong"
   
Me:  Right...but is there anyone in your life that you peronally know that lives like that?
   
Him again:  Um..yeah...Neil Armstrong.
 
Me:  No, I mean someone that you know.  Someone that you've talked with and shared a meal with.  That's really more of what I'm talking about.  Do you know anyone like that?
 
Him still:  Yeah...Neil Armstrong.
  
Turns out his family was friends with Neil Armstrong.  Who knew?
   
Griffin gave one of his first speeches yesterday.  He was a bit nervous going in, but apparently he knocked it out of the park.  His class actually had 10 kids pick Neil Armstrong as the person they wanted to talk about.
   
I asked Griffin if there was a list to pick from.  Nope.  Out of the billions of people these kids could pick from, ten of them said Neil.
   
That's weird, right?
  
I asked my friend if every time Neil came over he welcomed into the house ingwhile say, "That's one small step into our house, but one giant step for mankind"?

He doesn't.

thinking big

I've decided that I'd like to put together an Employee of the Month prize.  I just have a couple of hurdles that I have to leap over first.

1.  I don't have any employees.

2.  Well, to be honest...that first one is really the sticky point.

So I'm open to suggestions.

Paying attention

Annie and I are taking a Dave Ramsey 13 week class with some friends and it's really been interesting.  We're on week 10 and have sat through roughly 9 hours of Dave lectures.  He's a pretty interesting guy to listen to, but I'm not really sure that I've learned more than 2 or 3 things.
  

Having said that, we've eliminated roughly $2,000 a yearly expenses.  This has happened mostly because we're just taking a little time to pay attention to where our money is going.  It wasn't any magical formula, it's just the difference between sort of drifting through our financial life and focusing down somewhat.  We figured out where our money was going and made some decisions about where we'd like it to go in the future.
  

We made some calls and negotiated our phone/interweb & insurance costs, while also eliminating a few things that we weren't really using...and the next thing you know we have an extra $170 a month to spend on our corn husk doll collection.

  
A friend of mind used to say, "no one drifts into a deeper walk with Jesus".  His point was that we don't just wake up and know Him better...there isn't necessarily a magic pill...there is the effort of paying attention to the relationship.  My friend Micah was talking about this the other day - the more we know someone's stories, the more we know them.  We know a bit about their past and what they've gone through in life...we keep up with what's happening in their life now...and we know them.
   
The same is true with God (in my prideful opinion).  So if this is on your radar, why not reacquaint yourself with some of the stories of God?  A bunch of local churches here in Cincinnati are trying this out with the book of Luke...not a bad place to start.

marketing genius

I'm a big fan of this fella.  I'm not in the marketing biz, nor do I ever, ever want to be.  My dad was, and he was really good at it.

A few times I put pen to paper and wrote some commercial scripts for him.  He'd typically read them and then say something like, "Do you know how much it would cost to fly Bob Saget in and have him punch Earl Bruce in the ear?"  to which I would respond, "Do you hate art?"

Needless to say, most of my ideas were filed away in the "Way ahead of his time" cabinet.

So I read Seth's stuff and for a while I just wasn't sure why.  He has the world's best marketing blog, but that's not my thing.  Turns out I just really like the way he thinks.  I don't always agree with him, but he makes me think...and that's a rare thing in today's economy.

So today I'd like to give back to Seth and all the marketeers out there.

What if you made a television commercial and mentioned your product as some sort of stimulus package!?!?!

I know - totally original - totally topical - nobody is doing it...um....

Hello sarcasm, this is Sean...I think we need to start spending less time together.  It seems that people think we've grown a little too close.  Yeah, I'll still see you around....it's just that I feel like we're becoming the same person.  Maybe I'll just spend some time with sardonic guy and his sidekick punboy.

top 10

Buzz Feed put together a list of the top ten books that people claim to have read, but haven't.

1.   1984 by George Orwell (42%)

2.   War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
3.   Ulysses by James Joyce
4.   The Bible by God
5.   Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
6.   A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
7.   Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
8.   In Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust 
9.   Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama 
10. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
 
Maybe this tells you a little about my reading habits lately, but I haven't even heard of two of these.  Does this mean I'm too dumb to lie about how smart I am?

Letter To Coroticus

If you were captured by foreigners and then taken back to their country as their slave, that's got to be a lousy first impression...right?

Imagine being held captive for half a decade or so and then finally escaping.
    
How long until you return?
    
Would you?
   
Patrick did.  He had a vision and felt called to "walk among them"

He could have gone on the lecture circuit, written a blog or graphic novel...but he walked among them.

Jesus called us to love our enemies...to die to ourselves....and Pat did just that.  He did what many of us talk/write about.  He stepped up.  He followed - He led.

it's madness I tell you

Apparently the National Collegiate Athletic Association is having a basketball tournament and they've put together a bracket announcing the invitees.
   

Quick side note - the great state of Ohio has more teams participating than any other state...even North Dakota.
      

So I'm putting together a little tournament that cost exactly the same amount the future winner will receive...which is to say it's free.

   
If you'd like to join the fun, click here.  Click on "Join a group"  If you don't have a yahoo account, they'll ask you to create one...takes 1 minute.

   
The group name is Saget

The group I.D. # is 111398

The password is Saget

weblogtervention

I'm not saying that the Cookie Monster is bulimic, it just seems like the second he's binging on a dozen cookies at once...they're coming right out of his mouth.  What would you call that?
 
It's about time someone stepped in and said something.  The Children's Television Network isn't going to do anything, because he's a cash cow.  His posse is full of yes men and stooges just riding in his financial slipstream.
 
This is an appeal to Burt.  Please Burt, don't listen to your partner Ernie...it's time to have a heart to heart with C.M. and let him know how we all feel.  Enough is enough.  It stops now.  Think of the children.

Keeping it real in '09

eep on truckin' is my official slogan for 2009.  Oh sure, go ahead and judge me for waiting a couple of months before making it known...but what if the slogan didn't fit?
  

Do you really want to go twelve months with a bad slogan?

  

I'd rather soak for a couple of months in my yearly slogan and then see if it fits the year.  So I'll take Steve's birthday as the occasion to mark this year's slogan.

    

At first I wasn't sure it fit.  Oh sure, it's a great one...but some people take these things so seriously.  "But Sean, you don't even drive a truck."  Oh really?
  
Really?
    
I guess you've got me there.  But still, there's something that harkens back to a 1973 ringer T-shirt that's a purposely faded red with that young fella leaning back, one thumb up...all under the banner "Keep on Truckin'"  I'd like to reclaim that expression and make it my own these next ten months.
   
I'd also like to continue my quest to bring back:
knuckle sandwich
bookin (as in - We were bookin down the street)
and...???
  
I'm sure I'm forgetting at least one more?

25 lies

1.   My grandfather invented tape
2.   I've been approached by the Rubiks people about coming up with a rectangle
3.   I only shave if it's not a full moon
4.   I've spent seventeen years in a row of knocking them dead on Broadway
5.   Neil Armstrong tills our lawn
6.   Every time he finishes the back yard he says the same thing, "That's one small lawn for the Murphys..."
7.   I've owned seven cars, but loved eight.
8.   Twice I've protested Notre Dame games and their misrepresentation of my people.
9.   I gave four dollars to the cancer walk not realizing that they were against it.
10. I have every written poem by Mr. Nipsey Russel
11. The fisherman's friend has never even given me a second glance.
12. I'd drink nothing but Diet Dr. Pepper if I didn't think he was so stuck up about his medical degree
13. I'm strongly urging the Amish to participate in American sports.  I believe it will greatly improve our chances in most of the winter sports.
14. I think the fifth dentist is just disagreeable and kind of a jerk
15. I'm working with Canada on their Canadian Army Knife
16. I get nervous whenever the pilot says, "ladies and gentlemen, please get into the crash positions"
17. I refuse to call a twelve inch measuring device a "ruler" as I don't believe it holds any real power.
18. I cry whenever I hear Bob Dylans cover of Groove is in the Heart
19. I believe 19 should be the minimum age of a paperboy
20. Burt Reynolds was vastly underrated as a college wide receiver
21. Two more votes and we'll have kickball in the 2016 Olympiad
22. Earaches are one of three signs that you might have poor social skills
23. Twice in the 1990's I was the president elect, but totally forgot to show up for work.
24. I've been told that if you're happy and you know it, there is no need to clap your hands.

quotin'

I've been reading some great quotes this morning and this one just sort of stuck with me.

“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too easily satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart.” - A.W. Tozer

I guess it's not about hoop hopping, but about relationship?

The question, "Did you go to church this week?" is probably better replaced by, "How have you come to experience God in the midst of relationship this week?"  It's a very different question and often the two have nothing to do with one another.

Is it possible that it's about experiencing the God of the Universe and not sitting in a meeting where they talk about Him?

If the two could ever come together, and I believe they can, this could be/is a powerful thing.

Remembering Larry King

Things I like less than a parade:

1.  not much

2.  saving seats

3.  seafood

4.  paper cuts

5.  machete cuts

6.  a lecture by Madonna

7.  that voice we all hear in our head to go and pinch Leonard Nimoy

8.  undercooked eggs

9.  "dance" in the title of any show
 

-At this stage of the game, I'm still surprised when I see someone with a mustache.

 
-The economic collapse officially intersected with my life on Thursday.

 
-For my money, Hong Kong Fooey is the single greatest hero this country has ever known.  And yes, I remember Ben Aflek in Pearl Harbor.

 
-If you're in a debate at my house and you find yourself seeing red, that means you're probably in the kitchen.

 
-Honestly it's just that standing behind people and only seeing the floatie things stinks...standing in front of people and feeling like you're in the way stinks...you're looking at paper mache and people waving....what's good about that?
  
-The phrase that pays today?  Don't count your quarters in here fella.
  
Good luck

Leadership V

This post leans towards Christians are currently leading.

  

What does servant leadership mean to you?
  

Is your servant leadership style a free egg roll coupon at the St. Patrick's Day party, or something that you engage in daily? (I do love coupons...and egg rolls...I'm just saying)

  

I was talking recently with a friend who has really struggled through the years with his marriage (that narrows it down) He used to go weeks or even months without really connecting with his wife, but then he'd throw a big gift her way.  He used to equate the big quarterly token with a lifestyle of caring.  It didn't measure up.  In the long run it just wasn't working...                                        

  

Daily small goes way beyond the monthly, token big gesture. 

How could you serve those you partner with today?

Leadership IV

Ever been to the party with that guy that keeps talking about how much he makes?  Or his boat?

When you talk about being the boss and mention "she works for me" or "my employees" you sound like that guy.  And before you ask, "who are you talking about young fella?"  I'm not talking about anyone, I'm talking about a number of actual comments that I've heard from a number of people over the years that always make me feel a little sad for them)

How would things change if you stopped talking about being the boss and started leading your team?  What if you talked about "our team" more often and "my team" less?

I really believe giving away ownership and creating a team philosophy goes far in allowing the entire range of gifts to flesh themselves out for the betterment of the team.  I also believe in Crystal Light because I believe in me.

Leadership isn't about arrogance or pride, it's about taking the lead and bringing people alongside you to be a part of something way better than the collective individuals.

Leadership III

Do you do - or do you model?  Is there someone alongside you learning from you...or are you just kind of doing what you do?

How are your meetings/actions/events reproducable?  If you die in a horrific clown car accident, is there someone waiting in the wings to carry forward with the vision?
         

I hear bad leaders talk about how things went downhill after they left, as if that's a good thing.  As if that's a tribute to how great they were at their jobs.  I think it is a testimony to how well they set up systems, develooped people and created a mission that was all about people.  The truth is that they didn't set up reprocible systems, develop people or create a mission that wasn't about them.

 
They would have, but there's no money in that.  You don't win awards or get applause for developing people...they do...and for some people, that's not enough.

Leadership II

Are you willing to lose a battle to train/develop someone who is not as good as you are? (think me trying to work with Fuller on his moustache growing)

Would you be willing to sit on the sidelines and have your meeting/event not go quite as well, because you're letting someone else learn while doing?

How are you developing people? 

It's easier to just hire people that someone else trained or invested in.  Is that the best way though?

I really believe that leaders lead and leaders are willing to set their ego aside and lose the occasional battle to see people grow.  How about you?

Leadership

What are the three or four things that your organization/ministry/group is about?
 

Would everyone else say the same thing?

Do the four or five people at the top of your organization/ministry/group do those things?
  -  

Do you feel like your headed toward a goal, on a mission, or working towards a unified vision...or does it feel like a bunch of different people doing their jobs and they sort of relate somehow?

    
Is it too late to right the ship? 
     
If you right a ship, would it be more accurate to say that you starboarded the ship? 
  
Can we agree that if the ship is about to hit an iceberg and Jack is handcuffed to a ladder down below, we'll just yell, "Iceberg on the right!" so that we don't have to go through the mental hoop of remembering which side starboard actually is?