leaders are by definition restless

Leaders, by definition, are restless. They are constantly envisioning a better organization, a better society, and a better world.

books i'd be reading if i had the time

Weinstein, Arnold. A scream goes through the house : what literature teaches us about life. New York : Random House, c2003.




Why not? : how to use everyday ingenuity to solve problems big and small /
Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School, c2003.



Zaid, Gabriel. So many books : reading and publishing in an age of abundance ; translated by Natasha Wimmer. Paul Dry Books ed., 2003



Heffner, Richard D. A conversational history of modern America / Richard D. Heffner ; edited by Marc Jaffe. New York, N.Y. : Carroll & Graf, c2003



If you read any of these, thanks for sending me an email telling me what you think of the book(s). If your comments are revealing, I'll post them to this blog.

the belief

the belief that individuals can create great things by joining forces in imaginative ways

We never know how high we are

"We never know how high we are until we are called to rise, and if we are true to plan, our statures will touch the skies." -Emily Dickinson

Are haikus too long, too short, or just right?

i've always loved the haiku form, but i'm beginning to feel the form is too long. some haikus ramble on and on and on beyond two lines.



to be truly concise, a poem ought to have a single line. 4 words in the line is do-able, but lazy. 3 words are better. 2 words are best -- although it's admittedly tough to write two words poems.



challenges elicit

Blessed be the meta-data

Blessed be the meta-data.

If you teach today like you taught yesterday

"If you teach today like you taught yesterday, you rob our children of tomorrow". Dewey

I wish to avail myself of all that is already known

"I wish to avail myself of all that is already known and then if possible add my mite to help." Wilbur Wright in a letter to the Smithsonian, 1899.

Staples Store - "You'll Need Some Integrity With That"

I stopped by a Staples store this morning to buy an HP PSC 1210 printer for a client and ran into a sleazy practice I felt uncomfortable with. When I was at the cash register, the salesperson told me, "You'll need a cable and ink for this." My response, "Thank you, but actually I don't. I already have a USB cable and the printer comes with ink."



Undeterred, the salesperson tried to sell me a USB 2 cable for a printer that has USB capabilities only. "Did you know our gold printer cable is faster than our other cables?" My friendly response, delivered very politely with a smile, "Thank you, but the speed of the printer output of this printer does not increase due to the speed capabilities of the cable." Salesperson's response: Blank stare.



Pregnant pause. I think things over and decide this situation does merit a friendly and very polite scold. "You know, a person who is not technically trained might be led into thinking that the faster printer cable you tried to sell me would lead to faster printer output on this printer, and this is just not true."



Blank stare. "I happen to work in the field of technology and thus I am able to understand that I don't need the faster printer cable you were trying to sell me."



I also didn't need the ink the salesperson was trying to sell me. The implication was that this printer doesn't come with ink, when it does.



Staples is one of my favorite stores and remains so, despite this incident. I'm posting this story to Slashdot to get input from others on whether the above-mentioned sales techniques was as sleazy as it appeared to me. And if so, is this something we geeks can continue to tolerate?



If a Staples saleperson tries to sell you something you very clearly don't need -- and represents that you do neeed it, an appropriate response to: "You'll need a cable with that," is "No thanks, you'll need some integrity with that."

looking in your rear view mirror

"take a look at the rear view mirror in your life. the road up ahead is soon going to be appearing in your rear view mirror, and you're the only person who can determine what the scenery in the rear view mirror will look like."

bringing language minorities to the table

"The leading desktop interfaces for the open-source Linux operating system—KDE and GNOME—are, between them, available in more than twice as many languages as Windows. KDE has already been localised for 42 languages, with a further 46 in the pipeline. Similarly, Mozilla, an open-source web browser, now speaks 65 languages, with 34 more to follow. OpenOffice, the leading open-source office suite, is available in 31 languages, including Slovenian, Basque and Galician, and Indian languages such as Gujarati, Devanagari, Kannada and Malayalam. And another 44 languages including Icelandic, Lao, Latvian, Welsh and Yiddish are on the way."

Email from one of my adult students

One of my adult education students, an immigrant, sent me this very touching email after I helped her set up a free email account on Yahoo. If you read it closely you can discern what she is saying. (i.e. tinkew = thank you)

She achieved success in sending email on this day. Folks need to always be ready to measure success in lots of different ways. Here is the email she sent me. (Her name is left off the end of her email to protect her privacy.)



tamekwetocekingmeemii and to tecwim competer tospekt tinkwe im not 
reaet my wont to spaknaw nad to erat palac hlpe tm,,to my  
tinkew

life immitating "the simpsons"

"Personnel being laid off should not be assigned to work that is
associated with a special safety system."

- from a report by a line manager at the Pickering A nuclear power
plant in Ontario. The report describes how, 14 minutes into a
risky repair job, the staff performing the work were laid off. The
workers began leaving the site and had to be asked back to tighten
a plug they had loosened in the plant's radioactive-containment
system. (Reported in the December 10, 2003 Globe and Mail.)

If your mind can conceive it

If your mind can conceive it and you have faith to believe it, then you
can achieve it. Blakeology (John N. Blake)

10 people who speak

10 people who speak make more noise than 10,000 people who are silent.

Timothea Howard - DC community organizer

Timothea Howard does good things for people in DC.

Seek goodness everywhere

"Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding place and let it be free and unashamed." William Saroyan

what to tell a friend who doesn't wear a bicycle helmet

when i got home today, i found out that since 1932 44 thousand bicyclists have died in fatal accidents in the united states. that's such a nice round figure, it would be awkward if the figure were 44,001.

bicycle helmets are 85 to 88 percent effective in preventing brain injuries during bicycle accidents. bicycle accidents happen for a host of different reasons, including dogs that run after and dart in front of bicyclists.

i know you'd much prefer brain injury to the slight discomfort of wearing a helmet. each of us need to choose our priorities, though. when you're done preferring brain injuries, thanks for putting on a helmet.

don't do it for yourself. do it for your students. you'd be cheating them if you didn't.

How success starts

Success starts in dialogue.

Words to Live By

Know what you do well,

Let those in need know you can

do it with them.

Then -- do it well.



(Heard from Marcia Harrington, via Sharon Morgenthaler, DC LEARNs)