Archive for life
Words to avoid
I clicked on a link to a funny Reuters article that was sitting in the RSS feed that lives above my Gmail page. The article was written by Andrew Stern and it summarized what he called a “well-known jab at the worlds of media, sports, advertising and politics” that is put out by the public relations department at Lake Superior State University. It takes at least a little arrogance to put out such a list so Stern pokes fun at the fun-pokers by using the so-called phrases to avoid repeatedly in his article. Perhaps the superiority complex revealed in the cockiness of the department’s jabs is a byproduct of the university’s name or more likely it is simply coincidental as the list was put out by academics.
Phrases targeted include “a perfect storm”, “webinar”, “random”, “sweet”, “organic” (because it refers to anything from dog food to software), “back in the day”, and “it is what it is”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Friending Strategies
Today Mark Cuban detailed his strategy for maintaining a manageable list of friends on facebook in his blog post My New Facebook Strategy and the FB Power Level. facebook’s 5000 friend limit strong-armed him into concocting a strategy. Peons like me do not have such problems, but if I did I imagine I would adopt a similar strategy. In paring down his list Cuban decided to keep and accept friends who fall into 3 groups: 1-real friends who he knows, 2-people with common interests or a business connection, and 3-the motivation behind this blog post, the “power layer” which is defined as “people who in whatever industry they are in, retain some level of power.” I left a semi-sarcastic comment saying that a new goal in my life is to make the power layer.
Friending is a topic that is discussed ad nauseum on blogs and in newspapers and magazines. The online space certainly adds a new dimension to relationships. I’m not so popular in the Robert Scoble, Mark Cuban sense that I have the problem of reaching limits. I would say that I value quality over quantity but frankly speaking most of my friends are of questionable quality.
Persona Unattractive: You’ve got a little beard thing
Just a few months after I started working from home I was having a “discussion” with my wife when she made the scathing statement: “Your whole persona is….unattractive!”
A few days after that comment was made I received this clipping courtesy of my father-in-law.
I value efficiency and substance over convention.
Blog Action Day
Update: Google’s participation in Blog Action Day detailed here
Thanks to my dad, I learned that today is blog action day. The idea behind blog action day is to raise awareness about environmental issues. The idea was conceived by three bloggers. The tagline is:
What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices.
I registered this site, ahelms.com, and committed to post something related to the environment today even though I had no clue what to write about. Environmental issues are very complex and to be honest, none are near or dear to my heart. Even so I try to be a good steward of this earth and benefit my own quality of life. I think that making environmental issues a part of the collective consciences is a big part of the battle.
Escalators: stand, walk or apply economic theory?
My favorite comedian, the late Mitch Hedberg, had this to say about escalators. “An escalator can never break. It can only become stairs. You would never see an ‘Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order’ sign, just ‘Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience.’”
Now that MARTA (Metro Atlanta Transit Authority), Altanta’s Metro, is my main mode of transportation I’ve been spending more time on escalators; I’ve been intrigued and slightly irritated by people’s habits on said escalators. I must say I would not be surprised if I witnessed something like this at a MARTA station or my office.
Usually I am alone when I experience the phenomenon of people treating escalators like a lazy river. I sometimes picture escalators leading to the top of a cliff and wonder if people would willingly accept a fatal destiny because they seem so content to simply let the escalator dictate their pace and direction.
A Required Trip to the Baltimore Museum of Art
Today’s post is my 16-year-old brother Jared’s second contribution. His first, View from the Upper Deck, was a hit–at least he tells me his friends enjoyed it. Today’s target of his acerbic wit and sarcasm-laced hating is my beloved Baltimore’s Museum of Art.
Today I had the pleasure of being forced to the Baltimore Museum of Art because of a summer English assignment I was given because 9 months of work is not difficult enough. Driving to the museum I enjoyed the sights of Baltimore City; cracked sidewalks, buildings that I’m pretty sure were built with graffiti already on it, and windows that may have been clean in a past life, all showered by the unmistakable Baltimore smell of; no, not Old Bay Seasoning - crime.
Walking into the museum I felt ‘that sense of purpose and power and rightness that I always knew on these occasions.’ Actually, that description is how Lord Voldermort felt when he was gliding through Godric’s Hollow en route to murdering the Potters, but I think that the Dark Lord and I had similar tasks. You might say that me walking in and getting directions to the Cone Collection was like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named killing James Potter. Me discovering the Matisse section could be comparable to Tom Riddle killing Lily Potter. And me trying to find a Matisse painting that “stopped” me, a painting that I could write a 300 word essay about, similar to You-Know-Who trying to kill Harry and having the house blow up. Yes, my mind was blown by Matisse’s art – the colors, the girls, the light! But again my similarity to Voldermort is uncanny; when my mind blew apart, a fragment of my soul blew off and attached itself to Matisse’s Young Woman at the Window, Sunset, and I believe that I am forever bound to that painting.
Read the rest of this entry »
God’s Grace In the Midst of Marital Bliss
My wife Donna wrote the following.
Grace, it is an amazing thing. This is a story of God’s amazing Grace and how He is constantly trying to redeem the world (even me).
Below is a letter to my husband based on a really stupid fight and overreaction. I said some mean and hurtful things before this started and neither of us was talking to the other when I left the house to go for my evening run.
I left the house really angry with you last night when I went to run. I wasn’t so much angry with you for eating my dinner, but how I perceived you brushing it off like I should just get over it because it was an accident. This might have been a legitimate reaction, but for whatever reason, last night I felt it was really self-serving of you. I kind of took it as how you approach all things, act and apologize later. I don’t like that attitude and I didn’t want to forgive your apology.
Read the rest of this entry »
Shared Responsibility, Human Bridges
In my July 12 post about Lawrence Wallack’s article Retelling the American Story, I wrote about the terms WITT (we’re in this together) and YOYO (you’re on your own). In order for the collective decisions of the US to be guided by WITT values, Wallack says we “need more stories that articulate the values of shared responsibility, obligation to the local and global community, civic participation, and an appropriate helping-hand for government”. I came across one such story this morning and shared it on my shared items page, but wanted to call more attention to it because of its positive message and tie-in to the earlier post.
Minneapolis shows why it’s rated No. 1 in volunteerism
Woven throughout the reflections offered over the past week during church services, rallies, and by onlookers on the riverbanks, has been the metaphor of rebuilding “human bridges.”"We need bridges between people,” says Kathy Hintz, explaining why she came out for a prayer vigil held Sunday night. “We have to trust each other because other people made these cars and these bridges. It’s pretty amazing that anything works as well as it does. And if you can’t trust each other, you can’t have a community.”
Statistics, Motivation, Syndication, Weight Loss and the Like
Statistics courses are probably my least favorite courses. I prefer simple statistics like batting average in baseball, winning percentage in any sport, unique ahelms.com visitors, etc. In high school I was really irritated that I was batting 7th or 8th and asked to bunt a lot on an American Legion team for which I was one of the better hitters. I had mentioned to the coach once or twice that I should move up in the order but he brushed me off. So I asked him if I could borrow the scorebook after a game one night. The next day I handed him my hand-calculated batting averages, slugging percentages, on-base percentages and other various and sundry statistics that supported my case. I was second on the team in average and one of the top three in most offensive categories. What do you know, that night I moved into the 3rd spot and batted either 2nd, 3rd or 5th the rest of the season.
ahelms.com Statistics
