Are You a Finisher?

There is some commercial where the dad proclaims to be called "The Finisher." The next scenes show him walking from room to room telling his kids to finish their vegetables, finish their homework and finish their chores.

I actually get a good feeling inside when I complete something. It could be something as simple as completing the yard work or as complex as balancing the checkbook.

I am easily entertained and amused, so it does not take a lot to entertain me. I try to appreciate the small accomplishments in life.

Life is too short to take things for granted.

Start things you like. Finish things you start.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. That someone might need help finishing something they started.

Loving What You Do

I went to a presentation on IronRuby by John Lam and Scott Hanselman last night.

John was in Portland, Oregon, giving a presentation at the civic center and made time in his schedule to make another presentation for the Portland Area Dot Net Users Group.

John works for Microsoft in building 41; this means that John knows nothing about the Portland, Oregon area. The reason I mention this because John's ride had complications in locating the presentation site and was a bit late.

While the group was waiting for John to arrive, Scott entertained us by answering or not answering questions, as well as putting on a demonstration of some of the work that he had done in Ruby recently.

Scott's presenting skills are well worth the price of admission; in this case it was free, but it was still worth the time. Scott is full of energy and talks about a thousand miles an hour and took other questions as he was pondering and researching another question. And he actually did a pretty good job of multi-task answering.

John arrived and immediately heckled Scott as if Scott were a bad comedian. And then a quick bantering began about how a computer geek could get lost in the day and age of GPSes. The two acted like they have been friends for eons.

After a brief intermission in order to give John time to set up his computer [an Apple MacBook by the way] and presentation, we were off and running.

The energy that John brought about the product that he was helping develop was incredible.

The day of a computer geek being trapped in a dark room with a computer and geekfood [pizza, Asian food, some high caffeine beverage, and/or anything out of a vending machine] and no human contact are gone. Geekfood is still in, but today's geek must be able to group/customer face, which means speaking to people is a must.

John talked about the good, the bad and the ugly about IronRuby. He did it with such vigor that you could tell that he was not just working for a paycheck. He truly loves what he does; coding and talking about what he does [obviously not giving away any trade secrets].

It is very refreshing to see a couple of individuals who are making the most of work-life by loving what they do.

Like I have said before, if you have to work to make a living, you might as well get paid to do something that you love to do.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as displaying to the world that you love what you do.

Back to Basketball

Four Months

In the grand scheme of life, 4 months is not a long time. When you are recovering from an injury, 4 months feels like an eternity.

Last night was my first real night back playing basketball after a four month hiatus due to me braking my ankle.

I would like to describe my performance as awesome, but that would not be truthful. It was more like rusty, not so good, slow, and you-call-that-defense. I am no spring-chicken any more so it takes me longer to try to do what I used to do effortlessly. Then there are somethings I just can't do any more; my days of dunking the basketball are a distant memory.

There was a girl playing last night that even on a good night for me would have made me look pretty bad. The girl could play.

Even though my play was definitely lacking, it was still a lot of fun. Being able to fellowship with the guys made the night worthwhile.

Enjoy the good times.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness.

Just Wait

As a kid, the words "just wait" were never a good thing.

"Just wait till your father gets home."

"I wanna go now. No, just wait."

"I wanna do this now. No, you are just going to have to wait."

"Mom. Mom. Mom." [She is talking on the phone or to someone else.] "Just wait a minute."


Where you were a kid you never wanted to hear that you have to wait. Shoot just ask a Gen-Y person today to wait and you will get the same response as when they were a little kid.

As I have gotten older I have learned that waiting is not such a bad thing and waiting could actually be the best thing to do when you are pondering a dilemma.

For example, today I had 5 hours of meetings scheduled and about 8 hours worth of work to do on top of it. To boot, I had an early in the day deadline to meet for one of my projects.

In order to have time to meet the deadline I arrived early, because one of my meetings fell right into the middle of my testing time. While I was testing, I received a notification that the meeting time was being changed to a different day, so I had more time to test in order to meet my deadline.

I was not sure exactly how I was going to get everything done, but I did not panic and I did what I could and waited for the next event to occur. So, waiting was very beneficial for me.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. It could be as simple as telling them to Just Wait.

Change

The only constant in life is change.

The quality of your life is based on how you react to change.

Not all change is bad. Now saying that, all change is not necessarily good. With your life's experience you have to decide what the change is that you are facing - is it a good change, a bad change, or one that really does not directly affect you.

Getting something new is a change. Going somewhere new is a change. Ordering something different at the restaurant is a change.

You never know if you are going to like it unless you try it. I repeat, all change is not bad.

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. They might need it; especially if they are going through a change.

Who Are You?

There is one piece of advice that I got from my father that I use daily and pass on to other people when asked. Whatever you are going to do in life, make sure that you enjoy it and do the very best you can at doing it.

Life is not always fair.

Some people are good looking, for example, George Clooney, while others are not so much.

Some people are very gifted athletes, such as Jackie Joyner-Kersey and Michael Jordan.

Some people have really nice cars, while others are fortunate enough not to be required to use public transportation.

Don't worry about what other people have or can do.

Be thankful for what you have and can do.

Like The Who sang, who are you?

Make sure that you do your best at whatever it is that you do. Enjoy what you do so you can do your best. And be thankful for all the things you do have.

I am soliciting responses. What do you do for a living? And do you like/love what you do? Are you thankful for all you have?

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. This is your chance to show people who you are and in a positive way make people want what you have because you performed such an act of kindness.

Parental Curses

There are very few things as effective as a parental curse.

What is a parental curse, you ask?

I am glad you asked.

Remember when you were a teenager and you did something that you were not supposed to do and you were told, most likely from your mother, that she hopes that you have children just like you; this way you understand exactly all the pain that you put her through.

Chances are that whatever it was you did, in the grand scheme of things, was not all that bad, but it definitely got on your mom's last nerve. Which brings me to the curse.

If you have children or even a single child, the chances are your child(ren) have done something in life that got on your last nerve. As time passes, whatever that something was, probably does not matter that much, if at all, but you got to feel exactly what your mom was talking about. And you got a child or children just like you were.

The other curse does not affect everyone, but it did affect me. Again if you did something bad and kept at it, your mom probably told you that if you kept it up, she would stick you where the sun does not shine.

By the time I was in eighth grade I was taller than my mom; I didn't think much most of her threats - I was a teenager, I knew everything and I was taller than she was. However, now many years later, I live near Portland, Oregon - where the sun ☼ doesn't shine all that much.

☺

Make someone's day and perform a random act of kindness. They just might need it if they have been afflicted by the parental curse.