Lao Tzu

Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can bcome a leader among men.

Victor Kiam quote

Never be associated with someone you can't be proud of. whether you work for him or he works for you.

Louis Nizer quote

I know of no higher fortitude than stubbornness in the face of overwhelming odds.

Brenda Ueland quote

Know that it is good to work. Work with love and think of liking it when you do it... It is a priviledge. There is nothing hard about it but your anxious vanity and fear of failure.

a Doctor friend of mine and his bag of...

http://www.thewiederholdfamily.blogspot.com/
It's kind of gross and interesting all at the same time.

Dr Mardy on truth

DR. MARDY'S QUOTES OF THE WEEK -- July 18 – 24, 2010

A WEEKLY CELEBRATION OF GREAT QUOTES IN HISTORY

(AND THE HISTORY BEHIND THE QUOTES)

THIS WEEK'S PUZZLER:

On July 22, 1967, this man died at age 89 in Flat Rock, North Carolina.

Born in 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois, he left school at age 13 and tried his hand at a wide variety of jobs before volunteering to fight in the Spanish-American War. After the war, he attended college for two years before taking a job as a journalist (and writing poetry on the side). His early writing efforts never made much of a splash, but he made a dramatic entrance on the literary scene in 1914 when a number of his poems (including his now-famous "Chicago" poem) were published in "Poetry"

magazine Now considered one of America's greatest poets, he also wrote

folk songs, novels, children's stories, and biographies. In his first book, "Reckless Ecstasy," printed privately in 1904, he wrote:

"There are some people who can receive a truth by no other way

than to have their understanding shocked and insulted."

Who is this man? (Answer below)

THIS WEEK'S THEME FOR CHIEF PHILOSOPHICAL OFFICERS:

"Handling the Truth--or Not"

The quotation in this week's Puzzler speaks to a problem that almost all people have experienced at some point in their lives: they're confronted with a truth about themselves that they're unable to accept. It's an example of what might be called the You-Can't-Handle-The-Truth theme, after that classic line from Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men" (1992).

The phenomenon also shows up in another one of my favorite quotations:

"The truth shall set you free, but first it shall make you mad."

(this is the PG version; I'll leave the R-rated one to your imagination)

While almost all people say they're interested in the truth, the plain fact is that, when it comes to certain topics, many people are not. Think about how this might be true in your life right now. I’m sure you can think of at least a couple of people who are steadfast in their unwillingness to face an ugly truth or unflattering reality about themselves. After you've thought about how this might be true for some other people, turn it around and apply it to yourself. Is it possible that there are also people in your life who believe that you are someone who is unwilling to see or accept an unpleasant truth about yourself?

When people are in a state of denial, how can they be brought to the truth? The simple answer is, "With great difficulty." It's something that psychologists, philosophers, writers, and others have thought deeply about over the centuries--and this week, we feature a dozen of their most memorable observations on the subject.

"Every therapeutic cure, and still more,

any awkward attempt to show the patient the truth,

tears him from the cradle of his freedom from responsibility

and must therefore reckon with the most vehement resistance."

Alfred Adler

"The truth that makes men free is for the most part

the truth which men prefer not to hear."

Herbert Agar

"Nothing is so agonizing to the fine skin of vanity

as the application of a rough truth!"

Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

"Truth, like light, blinds.

Falsehood, on the contrary,

is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object."

Albert Camus

"Upon my word, I think the truth

is the hardest missile one can be pelted with."

George Eliot

"God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose.

Take which you please; you can never have both."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There are two ways to be fooled:

One is to believe what isn't so;

the other is to refuse to believe what is so."

Soren Kierkegaard

"Many people today don't want honest answers

insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing.

They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety."

Louis Kronenberger

"When others asked the truth of me,

I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted,

but an illusion they could bear to live with."

Anais Nin

"To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle."

George Orwell

"Truth is a rough, honest, helter-skelter terrier

that none like to see brought into their living rooms."

Ouida

"Truths and roses have thorns about them."

Henry David Thoreau

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY:

On July 20, 1945, Paul Valery died at age 73 in Paris (several days after his death, he was given a full state funeral). When he was in his twenties, Valery was a full-time civil servant and part-time writer.

Urged by Andre Gide to publish his works, he soon developed a reputation as a gifted playwright, poet, and essayist. For most of his life, he arose at dawn, meditated for several hours, and then recorded his thoughts in his "Notebooks" (in French, titled "Cahiers"). The entries in his private journals revealed a man of great intellectual breadth as well as exceptional aphoristic skill. Elected to the French Academy in 1925, he became one of his country's most respected intellectuals. He was also the author of one of the best-known observations of the 20th century:

"The trouble with our times is that

the future is not what it used to be."

Valery was a kind of intellectual acrobat who loved to let his mind play with ideas as he delved into the many subjects that caught his fancy.

Along the way, he penned many observations that won the admiration of word and language lovers:

"Love is being stupid together."

"At times I think and at times I am."

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

"A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator."

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up."

"Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder."

"A man's true secrets are more secret to himself

than they are to others."

"Long years must pass before

the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh."

"The purpose of psychology is to give us

a completely different idea of the things we know best."

"Books have the same enemies as people:

fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content."

"A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who

keeps the inner madman under lock and key."

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part

in affairs which properly concern them."

"God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone,

gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly."

"Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ,

no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought,

or all thought, when he wants to."

PUZZLER ANSWER: Carl Sandburg

DR. MARDY'S QUOTE OF THE WEEK:

"The truth is ugly only when we prefer to believe a beauty of a lie."

Until next week,

Dr. Mardy Grothe

Visit Dr. Mardy's web site:

www.drmardy.com

Taiko drums... in the barn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM3cZfC0lk0
It's my dream to one day have a barn.
In this barn I'll have a few cars.
Drums (drum set, taiko drums, congo drums, other crashing instruments)

Another decent looking watch... but $17,500... seriously?

decent looking watch..

$250 at Nordstorms.

Econ 405

Finished my economics class tonight. What a load off...

HOw to annoy people...

Cool fast company article on being yourself and knowing your flaws.

Personality types, I'm an ENFJ

So, this post is more about throwing out some paper. In a MBA class we did personality type tests and mine came back saying i'm an ENFJ.
Extraverted
Intuitive
Feeling
Judging

Okay...
http://typelogic.com/enfj.html
I'm tossing the paper now. If I ever want to read about my personality, I know where to find it.

What to do when something has been lost....

First, you try to find it. If it can't be found, you might consider replacing it.

What you don't want to do is stew about the loss. Move on... Protect the things you have and don't think about the things you don't have...

The things you don't have consist of :

1) a lot of nice stuff.. (it's a material world and we're all material girls)
2) the stuff you lost...

Someone stole a box from me, it contained comic books that might be worth around $4000 dollars that I collected from age 10 to 13. They're gone. I need to protect the valuables I have now, namely, Carrie, Dallin, Thad... more to come.

Quick math, fraction to decimal

1/2 is .5
1/3 is .33
1/4 is .25
1/5 is .2
1/6 is .16
1/7 is .14
1/8 is .125
1/9 is .11
1/10 is .1

Fake Cherry blossom for the office

It's going to look so nice...

Standing work station

Sitting to much sucks... but we work a lot. So why not stand up?

Life is good when...

"Life is good when we control it and master ourselves."

I got this quote from a LDS talk I found on LDS audio iphone app.

Good questions

When projects go wrong, an investigation is appropriate. I think you'll likely to find that the project didn't start with the right questions being asked and answered by the correct people.

What
When
How
Why

These questions have to be answered!

What's the proper order? Here's my take.

1) Why
2) What
3) How
4) When


They all connect and have some obvious interdependences but I would say that number 3 gets neglected the most.

Midnight laundry

Sooo... wouldn't it be great if clothes didn't get dirty. Or if you could just shower with your clothes and then entire a wind turbine and just dry 'em off. I'm not saying wear the same clothes everyday I'm just saying wouldn't it be great if you just hang it all back up and put something new on. If that were possible, I'd think I'd start hitting the gym in my business attire. Yes there's a chance that I'd split my pants but so what.

Okay, I'm going to do some laundry right now but I'll be thinking about that big turbine wind tunnel. Someday...

I'm thinking about a new watch.

http://www.fossil.com/en_US/shop/men/watches/sport_watches/decker_black_chronograph-ch2601p.html?departmentCategoryId=30001&N=0&Ns=p_msc0%7C0%7C%7Cp_weight%7C0&rec=7&pn=c&imagePath=CH2601

Business balls... nice

A review on Search of Excellence

http://www.businessballs.com/tompetersinsearchofexcellence.htm

Habits, break the bad ones

Breaking the bad and making the new good ones.


http://www.ehow.com/how_13319_break-habit.html

Online guild motivation

http://casualhardcore.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/how-do-you-motivate-members/


Well, I don't have anything to do with an online guild but I am interested in the topic of motivation. I thought it very curious when I found this article about motivating a guild to show up on a raid or do some other online venture that might be associated with an Everquest like guild or group.

Disarm, Smashing Pumpkins

I like this song a lot but the words are curious.


Disarm you with a smile
And cut you like you want me to
Cut that little child
Inside of me and such a part of you
Ooh, the years burn

I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my choice
What's a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you

Disarm you with a smile
And leave you like they left me here
To wither in denial
The bitterness of one who's left alone
Ooh, the years burn
Ooh, the years burn, burn, burn

I used to be a little boy
So old in my shoes
And what I choose is my voice
What's a boy supposed to do?
The killer in me is the killer in you
My love
I send this smile over to you

The killer in me is the killer in you
Send this smile over to you
The killer in me is the killer in you
Send this smile over to you
The killer in me is the killer in you
Send this smile over to you

My first blog, this should be fun. First, let explain the blog name. In 1994 I found myself in the inner city of Philadelphia. These young 10 year old girls were jumping rope (double dutch) and they were pretty good. The girls wanted an audience and so they yelled to me and my friend, 'hey, do you wanna see something decent?'. We obliged, and watched the girls jump and do their tricks. I think it interesting how universal it is for people to want to be appreciated and seen doing something they do well. My 4 year old is the same way. I've complimented him so many times he now jumps straight to the positive feedback and asks me, 'was that awesome dad?' before i have a chance to tell him how awesome it was.