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One of my company's advisory board members shares his experience with exercise, family, and the Ironman. Wow! Go, Team Ed!

                         By Shel Silverstein

This sounds interesting; wish I could attend... The BYU Church History Symposium has become the premier symposium for scholarship on Church history. Please join us Saturday, March 5, 2011, beginning at 8 a.m. at the BYU Conference Center in Provo, Utah. This year’s symposium will focus on the growth and development of missionary work and will feature several notable historians, scholars, authors, and experts. There will be two ninety-minute breakout sessions with a refreshment break in between. The keynote speaker, Lanny Britsch, will conclude the symposium beginning at 11:10 a.m. Each of the two sessions will offer 4-5 classrooms with three presenters each. All interested individuals are welcome and encouraged to come. This symposium is free to attend and registration is not required.

I've decided that life and business interconnect. A lot. Someone forwarded me an article today about 12 skills needed to be a successful leader. They can be broadened to skills needed to be a successful person. So in my standard, file-it-away-in-my-blog mode, the article is clipped and pasted it here. See original here. Managing the Future Workplace? Start Here. by Alan Murray at Alan.Murray@wsj.com The last three years have seen an unprecedented financial crisis leading to the deepest economic downturn since the 1930s. In the process, the very foundations of capitalism have been upended. Faith in business and in markets has been shaken. As Ian Davis of McKinsey & Co. put it: "We are experiencing not merely another turn of the business cycle, but a restructuring of the economic order." How should managers behave in this new economic order? .A few trends will clearly impact managers in the years ahead. Trust in business by the public at large is clearly at a lo...

I read an article recently on sales and thought it had a great perspective on life in general. I wanted to save it for later ues. Read the original article by Geoffrey James here . It's also below with some highlights I liked. If you’re going to be successful in sales, you need to be the kind of person that draws other people to want to work with them. With the exception of the mentally ill, most people want to work with people who have an upbeat and positive attitude. Unfortunately, many people (including some sales pros that I know) have sloppy habits of thinking and speaking that drain the energy of the people around them. With that in mind, here are five quick techniques that will immediately improve your attitude in ways that will increase your ability to influence others: Technique #1: Stop using negative phrases such as “It’s impossible,” or “This won’t work,” which program you for negative results. Instead, substitute phrases like “That might be challenging” or “We’ll...

Friday night I went to a concert. The crowd was pretty mellow, but the group was fabulous! They had an interesting mix of music and a unique sound and a wide vocal range. It ended up being really fun--and I bought their CD. They were an unknown band to me, but have opened for people like Kelly Clarkson, etc. The band consisted of a keyboardist, guitarist, bassist and drummer. And they are LDS. Here's a sampling of some of their songs: I Want You There Will He Dance? Hiding Behind the Song Get Lost Heart of the Matter (cover-Don Henley) Wasn't That Your Plan Use Somebody (cover-Kings of Leon) You Could Be Why Whenever Wherever Whatever (cover-Maxwell) Enjoy!

Someone I know works at a hospital that is raising money for their cancer center through a golf-a-thon. And his son is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for a rare blood disease (Langerhans cell histiocytosis) at that same hospital. Russ' goal is 200 holes of golf in a day! If you can spare some change and want to help in the cause, please let me know. The company I work for is gathering donations of any size this week.

Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer and like it. Russell Baker, American journalist and humorist

More amazing ASL with Miley and Stephen Torrence... ( And temperamental video uploads. Please follow the link. )

One of the guys I work with got some baby chicks about a month ago. Periodically he mentions how cute they are and what they are doing. About a week ago, I had to run to IFA for some garden stuff and saw the darling little baby chickens. I've been thinking about them all week long since. Which lead to Saturday's purchase of three little chicks: a black, a golden and a yellow. And they cheep, cheep, cheep all the time. As of yet they are nameless. If Robbie has his way, they will be Bob, Bob the Builder, and Tractor Something-or-other. Not quite what I had in mind - maybe something more like Huey, Dewey and Louie or Larry, Curly and Moe or Spade, Ace, and Joker or Obsidian, Ocher, and Amber/Buff/Citrine/Occamy/Olio or Raven, Penny and Duckling. The salesman at IFA said their chickens pretty much only lay brown or white. All three should be female, so (if all goes well) the hens should start laying eggs when they are 6 months old. The golden and black chickens should lay brown e...

Open House Invitation Friday, April 9th and Saturday, April 10th 10 am - 5 pm Directions Come see what Thimbles and Threads has planned for spring. New classes, projects, tips and tricks, samples, kits, decor, demos, discounts, fabrics and giveaways!!! Blog Free Stampin' Up make & take flower pin Cori Blunt, Chitter Chatter Designs, will spotlight her newest project "Baby Bracelets" and share embroidery tips and techniques from 2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Friday & Saturday

You'd think telling a story would be easy. That it would be a natural part of life. Something happens; you talk about it. A story is born. Apparently telling a story isn't that simple or that natural. Sean Buvala (professional, national storyteller) emails a newsletter with tips and tricks about how to tell a story and how to tell it well. In the most recent newsletter he explains that teen backtalk isn't really back talk; it means they are listening. Below are highlights of three points to keep in mind when speaking with the teen/tween audience ( check out the full article ) : Tell Your Face When you enter a classroom of teens, do you look like you are going to have a good time? Do you plan on enjoying the next hour or so? Does your face know it? Save the "professional" face for the staid adult events when you have to pretend to impress someone with your history. When "telling" to teens, smile and enjoy yourself. Mingle with them as they arrive in the ...

ASL's pretty cool.

I love this!

I am having trouble loading this video in Blogger. Idina Menzel is amazing. I so want to see this! You can see this Wicked clip from the Tony awards here or from Letterman here .

Whoever said corporate America was dull? Someone at Nestle's sure has a great sense of humor! A friend told me about Nestle's "funner" automatic message system. It even offers a cure for cooties - and I had to try it. Dial 1-800-295-0051. Wait until after the automatic operator says to press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish. Don't dial anything. Don't say anything. Then you will will be asked to push 3 for nutrition information and the asterisk for Pig Latin. Press 4 to access the "funner" menu. Press 7 to find the long sought cure for cooties. Pressing 4 to access the "funner" menu and then pressing 1 will tell knock, knock jokes! What a way to brighten someone's day. Thanks Nestle!

This Sengoku warrior on horseback was created from hundreds of thousands of rice plants. The colors and shapes come from the different varieties of rice plants grown together. On the ground, the pattern is unintelligible. From the air it is amazing. The photo was taken in Inakadate, Japan.

You may remember the deep sorrow of an earlier post at the turn of the decade. That sorrow has turned to JOY with the mad know-how of a friend at work (thanks, Angela!) . The lost SD card images have been recovered. All safe; all sound. Sigh. In case you are ever caught in a similar bind and need to recover images or files, try this: http://www.snapfiles.com/d ownloads/dlrecuva.html It works super great and is free!