brucedaley.com

Sharpening the Ax

Abraham Lincoln is thought to have said, “If I had 60 minutes to cut down a tree, I would spend 40 minutes sharpening the ax and 20 minutes cutting it down.”  Lincoln also almost cut off a finger chopping wood.

Still sharpening the ax is one of the Steven Covey's 7 Habits* and in the modern age of tools more important than ever. Although I have worked with spreadsheets for many years this blog posting 10 obscure Excel tricks that can expedite common chores by Jeff Davis was very informative. The ten are:

1. Select all with one click
2. Copy the formatting of one or more cells and apply them to another cell or range
3. Preform one-click data mining with AutoFilter
4. Press [Ctrl]~ to display formulas
5. Generate a unique list of entries in a column
6. Let Excel calculate your subtotals for you
7. Analyze selections with the AutoCalculate menu
8. Love your [Ctrl] key - for three reasons
9. Transpose data from row to column
10. Convert calculations to literal values

The only one I knew about before reading Davis's posting  was number 10 so this posting was well worth reading and my recommendation for anyone who works occasionally or regularly with Excel is to take a look.

* 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Unstructured Problem Solving

In business, perhaps my greatest strength is in solving unstructured problems - the kind that don't have a roadmap or no one has ever done before. My ability to do this comes from having an imaginative, adaptable nature and strong analytical, technical and communications skills. As I mature my tendency is to call more and more on my wide network of contacts either to gain new knowledge or to solve more structured problems. Either way they provide the missing pieces of the puzzle.

Dr. Clark's Marriage in a Box

My Chiropractor, Dr. Michelle Clark was such a big help to me that when she asked my help with her web site naturally I accepted.  Last night we met at a coffee shop with free Internet access and when I asked what was new and Dr. Clark told me she had gotten married on Christmas Day!

She also told me the story of her marriage in a box. Since this was a second time for both Dr. C and her new man and she told me she did not need a white dress and a big ceremony again. After debating with her family and his family about the best location she finally went out and got a marriage license a few days before Christmas. She put it, a white veil, rings, vows, and a Bible in a big box for her family's traditional white elephant gift exchange. (For those unfamiliar with this American and Canadian Christmas game each person contributes one gift to the game, and ultimately each guest receives one different gift from the game).

Her sister got the marriage-in-a-box and so officiated. At first the family treated it as a big joke, laughing, and making a farce of some of the traditional rituals, but at the end Dr. Clark had the last  laugh and surprised everyone by signing the license and sealing the deal. My hearty congratulations to the Bride and Groom on an original way to tie the knot. 

More from the Tao Te Ching

ELEVEN

Thirty spokes share the wheel's hub;
It is the center that makes it useful,
Shape clay into a vessel;
It is the space within that makes it useful,
Cut doors and windows for a room;
It is the holes that make it useful,
Therefore benefit comes from what is there;
Usefulness comes from what is not there.

The Tao Te Ching

One of the best books I have ever read is the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu (My translation is by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English). Here is but one in eighty-one examples:

Sixty Three

Practice non-action.
Work without doing.
Taste the tasteless.
Magnify the small, increase the few.
Reward bitterness with care.

See simplicity in the complicated.
Achieve greatness in little things.

In the universe the difficult things are done as if they are easy.
In the universe great acts are made up of small deeds.
The sage does not attempt anything very big,
And thus achieves greatness.

Easy promises make for little trust.
Taking things lightly results in great difficulty.
Because the sage always confronts difficulties,
He never experiences them.

Lao Tsu

Religious Imagery in Commercials

Very sick and so watching a lot of tennis on television. The use of religious imagery in ads is striking! In a commercial for Theraflu - a tasty Novartis cocktail of pain relievers (acetaminophen), antihistamines (chlorpheniramine maleate), cough-suppressants (dextromethorphan hydrobromide), and decongestants (pseudoephedrine hydrochloride) - a man sits on his bed in traditional stripped PJs. Nothing remarkable in this except his body is transparent. All the pillows, blankets and linens on the bed can be distinctly seen through him. His family is in the bedroom with him but don’t seem to be aware of his presence. After he drinks a cup of Theraflu, his body warms and becomes solid again and his family rejoices. In the 19th century many a traveling patent medicine salesman may have made many bold claims for their products, but none as bold as this! Theraflu can bring the dead back to life. I found another commercial on You Tube which was even more specific about the miracle that is Theraflu.

Yet religious imagery is not reserved for pharmaceutical truths alone. In a commercial for the Jeep Liberty a squirrel drops though the open sun roof to join the driver singing Neil Diamond hits. The pair are joined by two kingfishers and then by a baritone wolf who eats one of the birds but spits it out at the driver’s pained look. The message is clear. You are not just a saint if you buy a Jeep, you are Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals, birds, and the environment. Those are pretty big shoes to fill in these days of global warming, but then the Liberty is a pretty big car.

You may comment on this passage with my blessing.

People Who Solve Problems

I saw the world was divided into two groups: there are people who cause problems, and there are people who solve problems.

Samuel Weiss

Giant Pandas

My experience this month was to go to the Giant Panda Breeding Research Base outside the Chinese city of ChengDu. The facility is home to over 50 giant pandas. It also has detailed exhibits on panda evolution, habits, and conservation efforts as well as an artificial lake, tea house, and gift shop. Once a fierce carnivoir, the Giant Panda evolved into a mostly peace loving eater of bamboo leaves. First made known in the West in 1869 by a French missionary, the Panda’s choice of diet require it spend most of its day and night sleeping waking up only long enough to chow down for a few hours on a low nutrition bamboo diet. As the signs at the base point out, this kind of life makes the animal oddly endearing. Regrettably it also does not leave a lot of time for mating and the total worldwide estimated population of the species about 1,000. Breeding is the focus of the base and I felt myself strangely moved by the comparison between my own challenges dating and those of the Giant Panda.

50 Books

Starting next April if my plan is to read 50 books, I had better start making the list now.

1. Empire Falls  by Richard Russo

My 50-50-50 Plan

Next April 2008 I will turn 50 (assuming by the grace of God nothing fatal happens to me before then). To commerate this passage my plan is to do 50 things 50 times. Some of the ideas I have come up with include:

Athletic

1. Do 50 push ups
2. Swim 50 laps
3. Play 50 tennis matches
4. Walk 50 miles
5. Ride my bike 50 miles
6. Lift 50 pounds 50 times
7. Learn 50 yoga moves

Community

8. Plant 50 trees
9. Feed a meal to 50 homeless people
10. Do 50 hours of community work

Intellectual

11. Read 50 books
12. Watch 50 award winning movies
13. Memorize 50 Haiku
14. Memorize 50 passages from the Bible
15. Write 50,000 words about the experience

Social

16. Send 50 books to 50 friends
17. Fast for 50 hours

But I need more ideas - 33 to be exact. Any suggestions?