What Do I Know?

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Interesting bridge from Qwest Center to Missouri River water front at Omaha, Nebraska)

I do my part to make a positive difference in my family, workplace, and community by helping to create an atmosphere of love through words of healing. (Colleen Zuck, et al., Daily Word For Healing, p. 32)


There's what you know. There's what you don't know. And what you don't know you know. And what you don't know you don't know! The last of these is the most dangerous. (Patricia Wilson in The Upper Room Disciplines - 2006, 26 January)

• This morning I talked to my cousin, Donna in California. It was the first time we'd talked in many months. I used my cellphone to make the call. Later in the day, while we were at Cyndi's, Melva talked to her friend, Yoshiko, in Florida. For that call she used Cyndi's free long distance service from her cable company.
• One of my former classmates in Bellevue, Nebraska agreed to be my Facebook friend. I'm hopeful that several others will also join in the fun.
• When the new technologies work it's amazing how much better we are able to communicate.
• To speed up the photo upload process I decided to make the image smaller. I'm not certatin it made any difference.

Mr. Dickie

Your Life

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Qwest Center, Omaha, NE)

Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are, and then we make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself, because you can never really live anyone else's life, not even your own child's. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself. (Eleanor Roosevelt in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 352)

While living I want to live well. I know I have to die sometime, but even if the heavens were to fall on me, I want to do what is right. There is one God looking down on us all. We are all children of the one God. God is listening to me. The sun, the darkness, the winds, are listening to what we now say. (Geronimo in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 352)

Business As Usual

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Sculpture in downtown Omaha, Nebraska)

We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. (From page 132 of Alcoholics Anonymous found in Daily Reflections, 23 January)

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it. (Mary Wilson Little in The Art of the Possible by Alexandra Stoddard, p. 70)

Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand. (Thomas Carlyle in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 345)

• Yesterday I wrote Email messages to: Noel, a former co-worker; and to Jo and Ray, friends I made through the genealogy hobby. I included photographs as part of the messages. When you send Email do you ever think about how it impacts the postal service? Those three messages reduced the postal service revenue by $1.26 cents. When you consider that this probably happens millions of times daily it's no surprise that they want to cut back service.


• I'm re-reading parts of a book I have check out. I'm trying to understand what the author is talking about. One very brief item mentioned that an Internet file storage service called, Box.net, could work with Facebook. I visited the Box.net site and very quickly was able to enroll and upload a file. That was the easy part. After some searching I found the page where the Facebook interface was turned "on." The hardest thing to figure out was how to post anything about the file to Facebook. I was getting frustrated when I finally discovered that this option is invoked by right-clicking the mouse on the file name. I think it took about an hour to work my way through the learning process. I eventually was able to post a link in my Facebook profile that pointed to the stored file on Box.net. I was quite proud of myself because I was able to concentrate long enough on the task to learn how to do it. The next thing is to come up with a reason to use it.


• By the way, lately I often prepare my blog entries offline. Since my typing ability isn't getting better, with time, I've realized that working offline is the thing to do if I want to let folks reach us when they call. I'm still using a phone connection to the Internet.

Mr. Dickie

Your Actions

Photo: Mr. Dickie ("He ain't heavy, Father. He's my brother," statue at Boys Town, Nebraska)

Your actions should be determined not by the desire of the people around you, but by the needs of all mankind. (Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom, 24 January)

Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them. (Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 72)

...people may not remember everything you do, however, they will always remember how you do it. (Iyanla Vanzant, 21 January)

• I joined the Facebook group "Henthorn's Are So Hot." There are about 90 members. I posted several messages about early Henthorn history. Yesterday I read the messages in the discussion area and in the wall area. Many of the comments were about whether the surname should be spelled with the "e" on the end. I let folks know that Hinthorn(e)s are also part of the family.


• This morning we woke up to snow again. The cars and the ground were covered. I made a test drive to the Shell station to put gas in Melva's car. I didn't have any problems. We decided that it would be all right for Melva to go to work. She left a few minutes after 9:00 a.m.

Mr. Dickie

Philanthropy

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Oil painting purchased in Saigon, Vietnam)

It is a grim commentary on human nature that, when a man is dreaming of what he would do if he was a millionaire, he always begins by thinking what he would buy for himself, and seldom of what he would give away. (William Barclay, Letters to the Corinthians, p. 183)

Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary. (Martin Luther King, Jr. in Abounding Grace by M. Scott Peck, p. 315)

Get On With It

Chronic procrastination can be symptomatic of deep-seated emotional problems, and do-it-yourself psychiatry is by no means as successful as do-it-yourself carpentry. (Edwin C. Bliss, Doing It Now, p. 184)

...understanding teaches us to accept ourselves, other people, and situations as they are, not as we want them to be. Understanding is the ability to get underneath the thing and stand in the truth of what is. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 53)

Far too many of us take on more than we need or want to, and by doing so, we get in God's way. (Iyanla Vanzant, Faith in the Valley, p. 38)

"Successful people will do what unsuccessful people won't." (Father of Dr. Phil McGraw, The Ultimate Weight Solution, p 145)

Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl is Just a Lousy Football Game

It's been built up for months -- the big game. But with so much on the line, the coaches are going to be conservative. There'll be more action in the ads than on the field. No matter how much brew you down, by the fourth quarter, it'll be clear that the announcers are desperately trying to convince you a meaningful battle is going on.

Enter an [office] box pool; that way you'll at least have a stake in the final score.

(Andrew Frothingham and Tripp Evans, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, 21 January)