Two Blonde Boys: September 2008

Fun With Sticky Notes...

From the guys who brought you the Diet Coke & Mentos challenge. Their production value has definitely gone up.

HT: The Blogstar

Making a To-Do List that Works...

I am a To-Do-List-Person. Randy gives me a hard time. I used to be able to remember everything that needed to get done and do it... but alas, age, responsibility, and age have caught up to me. So now I use a To Do List to make sure that I don't miss something (or at least so that I have a record of the things I do miss).

I came across this great article on Dumb Little Man today by Grace Kepplin (of Face to the Sun, a great blog) and thought I'd share it with you...

Write when you are fresh.
I finally discovered the art of the 5 minute list - composed after breakfast, before hitting the road. The items that I remembered then, away from the office, turned out to be the ones most important to the day ahead.

Keep the list short and simple.
Eighty percent of the value of anything comes from the 20 percent of the most important items. You just gotta figure out which 20 percent to focus on. That’s why you start fresh (see #1 above). If your original list has 20 items on it, save that list, but rewrite your new one with only the 4 most crucial items.

Eat dessert first.
To that list, add at least 3 of what Alan Lakein (in How to get Control of Your Time and Your Life) categorized as “C-Low priority” items. Make them things you can do in 10 minutes or less; do them first.

Put the list where you can find it.
I found that if I scotch-taped the list to the surface of the desk I always knew where it was. I just dug through the new paper stacks and voila! There it was waiting for me.

Start with a new list each morning.
Keep the old list, so you won’t forget anything, but reprioritize and start over each morning. New most important 20%, new three slam-dunk items.

Keep a bedside worry book—with a pencil.
Ever wake up at 2AM with that problem still tornadoing around in your skull? Write it down. Write down one possible solution, even if it’s only that you’ll work on it tomorrow. If you do it in pencil you know that it’s being recorded. Then go back to sleep. You’ll be much more refreshed in the morning. If the item is still important in the morning, add it to that day’s list.

Read the entire article HERE.

HT: Dumb Little Man

Quote of the Day...

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.”

George Bernard Shaw

Do you think he was right?

HT: Shlog

Film Challenge

In Into the Dark, Craig Detweiler uses the IMDb, the wildly popular Internet Movie Database, to select the most influential contemporary films. Detweiler then dissects the theology of everyday life, exploring the work of the Spirit of God in creation and redemption to discuss "general revelation" through cinema and sometimes unlikely filmmakers.

I scored a measly 600 (using Google or IMDb is not allowed).

What did you score?

Cop-Out of the Week...

“This is what it really comes down to... If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be… I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself.”

Ray Boltz
commenting on being gay

HT: Washington Blade via Ragamuffin Soul

Worship Confessional: 09.14.28

Here is our Sunday set list (with iTunes links):

Famous One, Chris Tomlin
The Heart of Worship, Matt Redman
Your Name, Paul Baloche
How Great Thou Art
Hungry, Kathryn Scott

This post is a part of Sunday Setlists hosted by FredMcKinnon.com.

Quote of the Day...

"The colonel who retires on a farm in the country would have liked to have become a general; but if I could examine his life, I would find some little thing that he neglected to do, that he did not want to do. I could prove to him that he did not want to become a general."

In, But Not Of by Hugh Hewitt
quoting from Ambition by Joseph Epstein

tags: quote of the day | Hugh Hewitt | In, But Not Of | Joseph Epstein | Ambition

Funny...

These made me laugh today!

tags: comics | humor | funny

Incredible Story!

In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University.

On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Peter approached it very carefully.

He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else b ut being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.

Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted its front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man.

Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.

Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter legs and slammed his stupid butt against the railing, killing him instantly.

Probably wasn't the same elephant.

tags: elephant | man | Peter Davies | Northwestern University | Chicago Zoo