Lottery Budget: Dave Ramsey Nails It!

Apparently, one of Dave Ramsey’s callers asked if he should set aside a budget for buying lottery tickets. I’ve long since (independently) come to the conclusion that the lottery tax is merely a voluntary tax on greed, misplaced hope, and a poor mindset. Then I actually did some research on lottery winners, and was more than convinced that I’ve been right to stay out the the whole thing for most of my life.

I haven’t listened to the call. I’m sure when I get home and sync my iPhone,that podcast with sync across for me and I can listen to it then.

You can use the Google Search box to the right to look for the posts I’ve written over the years about the lottery. I have no use for it.

Arlen Specter is a Demonican: Who Cares?

This isn’t a political blog. It’s not because I’m not interested in politics, but because I’m not interested FIGHTING about politics. When you step outside of a two-party system be selecting some option other than “C”, you tend to be at odds with everyone.

So Arlen Specter is going to run as a Demoncrat. It’s taking up a lot of headlines. I was having lunch with a program manager yesterday when that news came up. I kept my mouth shut as tight as possible, other than saying ‘Well, he’s always tended to vote with them anyway.” That’s as non-confrontational as you can get.

I think Vox Day nails it: He came out of the closet.Although, I’m not sure that’s quite as accurate. Seriously, no matter which of the two mainstream parties is in office, does anything  but the rhetoric change? Replublicrats had both the White House, the Congress, and even the Supreme Court for several years, but didn’t do anything with them than expand government.

Anyway, Arlen Specter is going to be a Demonican in 2010. It’s not likely to change anything, other than to give news and political pundits a way to sell advertising for a few weeks.

This is why I rarely do politics on my blog. I don’t care about the party lines.

Merlin Mann on Priorities

Merlin Mann has an interesting post on priorities. I see a lot of myself in this post. Consider the following excerpt:

Example. When my daughter falls down and screams, I don’t ask her to wait while I grab a list to determine which of seven notional levels of “priority” I should assign to her need for instantaneous care and affection. Everything stops, and she gets taken care of. Conversely — and this is really the important part — everything else in the universe can wait.

I’ve gotten caught up in “prioritizing” tasks. I’d be embarrassed to show you how many “high-priority” tasks in my own list remain undone after a pretty long amount of time.

The Gift of Perspective: Review of Andy Andrews’ “The Noticer”

I have greatly enjoyed being part of Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Bloggers program. I had just requested and started reading John Maxwell’s “Put Your Dream to the Test” when I got an email stating that Thomas Nelson was promoting an upcoming release of a new book by Andy Andrews called “The Noticer”. They had three hundred copies and would release them to the first three hundred bloggers to respond to the email who were willing to commit to read and review the book, but post the reviews all on April 27, the date of the release. I figured that might be a tall order, but my path cleared for me. I found out that the Kindle version of John Maxwell’s book was free for a few days, so I downloaded that to my iPhone. I like electronic copies of books. I seem to be able to read them faster, and I also have more opportunities to read an eBook. I always have my phone on me, while it’s not always convenient to carry a physical book. The first obstacle, reading two physical books mostly at home, was overcome. With the Kindle version, I found time to read at work, at Chuck E Cheese, and at a food auction.

The next hurdle, time, worked out on its own. My wife was making ham pie at her parents’ house, and I came home from work. Since she was out, she thought I should work late. There was plenty of work to do and extra pay is always nice, but I couldn’t take another second in my cubicle, so I came home. I picked up the book, and started reading. I’m normally a slow reader. I read about the pace I could read out loud. I have learned various scanning techniques to read faster, but I don’t retain as much, so I go at my pace. (Update: after reading the hard copy in the afternoon, I visited Thomas Nelson’s product page to get details for the book and discovered that there is an electronic edition. Oh, well, I can read it again on my iPhone later.)

The Noticer had a lot of hype surrounding it. I hoped to find that it lived up to the hype. Thomas Nelson CEO, Michael Hyatt, had send out several tweets and even wrote a blog post based around the book.

I normally avoid this type of genre. I’m wary of “inspirational” books. I find it to be the kind of market that is easily flooded by BS artists who make people feel really good but add little value to their lives, or at least to my life. Once the inspiration wears off, I’m left holding my life with no new tools but mindless clichés to show for it. But I am a book geek, and there’s a strange thrill for me in having a book that hasn’t been released yet, and I did commit to read and review it, so I dug in. Oh, yeah, I also tend to *cough, cough* be brought to tears a little too easily by emotional material. My wife is mean to me when we watch those kind of movies together.

First, the technical details. The Noticer is a hardcover, jacketed book with 176 pages. MSRP is $17.99. Amazon has it listed for $12.23.

The story centers around Orange Beach, Alabama. It is mostly told in the first person of Andy, I assume Andy Andrews, the author, and his encounters with an old man, Jones, as Jones’ encounters with other weave through the story. The story begins with Andy as a homeless kid of about 20 living under a pier. Jones encounters him, somehow knowing everything about him. Jones speaks about how everybody needs a little perspective, and leaves Andy with three biographies. These inspire Andy, and Jones leaves him three more. Andy begins going to the library, eventually reading more than 200 biographies and going on to a successful life. The story then skips a decade or so, with Andy in his successful life with a wife and two children. He encounters Jones again.

The rest of the book consists of Jones somehow showing up to several different people in different situations, giving them a new perspective and changing their lives. Jones is somehow nobody in particular. He is, I guess we could say, all things to all people. The whites call him Jones. The Hispanics call him Garcia. The Chinese call him Chen. He always somehow manages to show up in each person’s life when they need perspective. I guess I should not give away the ending.

I would like to discuss the format and my own opinions, as this is my review and my blog. Don’t worry, I liked the book and I think you should read it. The Noticer is a very quick and easy read. I read a few pages before work on a Friday and finished the book in a couple of hours that afternoon while I had some time alone. It’s a very quick read even for a slow reader like myself.

The format of The Noticer is a story. Stories can be very powerful. Jesus spoke in parables as a means of teaching because it is very powerful. It cuts to the heart, yet it can also be used to conceal some things from blind eyes, and to cut right to the hearts of the open eyes. Stories can be a powerful and effective way to get a point across. I have learned a lot from books such as Johnny Tremain, a fictional account of the time of the American Revolution. It was obviously fictional, but an insight into life and events in those days. Sometimes I wish someone like Tom Clancy could be hired to write tech manuals. Come on, you’d read your printer manual if it were centered around a socio/political techno thriller. I learn a lot from stories. Of course, stories can also be used to lead someone astray. You have to be careful on the journey of a story exactly where you’re being led. I do not feel any such misleading in The Noticer.

I’m sure that of all the characters and situations Jones moves through in The Noticer, you’ll most likely find one that you identify with. I didn’t identify with all, but quite a few  left me putting my glasses aside to wipe my eyes on my shirt and hope my wife didn’t suddenly come home to pick on me. One day I’m going to find a book or movie that makes her cry…I believe I gleaned a lot from The Noticer. I will say that one line I hope stays with me forever is this, from page 65: “One way to define wisdom is the ability to see, into the future, the consequences of your choices in the present.” That is powerful!

For those of you who don’t like “religious stuff”, I don’t think this book will get to you. There are a few vague and general references to church and to God. The book definitely sets a generalized “Christian” type of tone without being specifically Christian. I’m sure some might have problems with that. I figure, if it plants a seed, that has to be a good thing.

One thing I think we should all take away from this book is that we need to stop and get our perspective. Life is full of crises and storms, and it is those that make us stronger and more capable of helping others through crises. We also should not forget that we need each other. We have no concept of how much the little things that we do in our daily lives will impact others.

There is also a companion project called “The Noticer Project”. It has to do with publically noticing 5 people who have had an impact on your life. I’m personally having a hard time deciding on 5. I’m sure if there were more, it wouldn’t be breaking the rules to list them. My wife has let me know that she better be on there.

Joshua With A Hymnal

On Easter Sunday, Christina had to work in the church nursery. She took Caleb with her and I took Joshua to the auditorium. At one point, we stood to sing. Joshua took out a hymnal and stood on the pew. He looks so serious that I had to take a picture of him. Note that we put our hymns on Power Point, and even during tech problems we basically sing the same hymns over and over again, so there is little need for the hymnals. Anyway, I couldn't resist this picture of Joshua.

Caleb Hard At Work on the iMac

I don't post many pictures. I haven't put any on Facebook because of their TOS, or at least my understanding of it. I took this picture last night. I have an old G3 iMac that a friend gave me. I keep it around for the kids. I figure they can't hurt it. I took this picture last night with my iPhone. With the iPhone and TypePad client, I figure I might end up posting pictures more often.

The Things Kids Say

I certainly don't want to bore any readers I have with family stories. At least, I don't want to bore you anymore than I already have. I just couldn't resist a quick post.

On Thursday nights, my wife has been going to a food auction. She's really starting to enjoy it and has gotten some good items at great prices. Last night was also Dave Ramsey's Town Hall for Hope, which I wanted to attend. Our church was hosting it, so I just went there. Since there are two of us and two children, we went 50/50. She took Joshua to the food auction and I took Caleb to church.

All of that is simply setup. On the way home, I got stuck behind a very slow car. I've lived in New Jersey about 10 years now. I don't fit in here in a lot of ways, but my aggressive driving is a perfect fit for this place. I get very frustrated when I'm stuck behind a slow car, especially when the driver seems to be totally clueless. It's even worse when the driver of the slow car speeds up and slows down and weaves back and forth in one lane.

I've always talked to other cars. I usually think I'm funny, but rarely does anybody else share in the amusement. Last night was no different, as I started mumbling "Can you drive any slower?" and "Wow, 25 in a 35, uphill! We're moving now!" Suddenly Caleb yelled "Hey, car, move it!" I told Caleb that the car can't hear him, so he yelled louder. I joined in and we went back and forth for a minute or two of G-rated comments about the other car's driving.

Then came the moment: "Hey, car, why aren't you listening to Daddy?" That was priceless. I get the feeling that Caleb is going to be a lot of fun to teach to drive in 13-14 years.

Failblog: Animal WTF’s

I recently discovered a new time black hole: Fail Blog. I better get a grip or it's going to show up on my weekly status report and disrupt my family life.

I couldn't resist linking to this one about Animal WTF's. Pardon the acronym if you don't use it in your daily communications. I love the one about the Lobster Knife Fight, but the cat and watermelon are interesting enough.

If you're interested in keeping up with my journeys around the Internet, you can follow me on Delicious. I've recently started posting sites that I find interesting there. For years, I've used it merely as a way to synchronize bookmarks across multiple computers. It is a social bookmarking system though, so join me there and socially bookmark stuff.

Interesting: How to Handle the “Honey-do” List

I came across this post today in Google Reader about a creative way to handle the "Honey-do" list. I don't call it that. I think the "Honey-do List" sounds really stupid, and for some reason, if I find a word to sound stupid, it takes a lot of will to say it. My father-in-law wanted our kids to call him "pop-pop", which (no offense intended to anybody) makes me feel like a moron and at first I refused to say it. I referred to him as "Grandpa", which is how we did things in MY family. I am not from the New Jersey area and there are a few culture clashes between me and this place. Eventually I made a deal with my wife, and I force the childish "pop-pop" up my throat and through my mouth, even though I feel like an idiot, out of respect for him and as part of my deal with my wife. I think I've held up my end of the deal better than she has.

I call the "Honey-do List" the "Nag List". I don't mean to sound demeaning to my wife, but I'm an egghead and I hate "Honey-do" list. Maybe that's my secret: she doesn't add much to the Nag List because of what I call it. My wife had a creative way of handling the Nag List though. Last year, my desktop computer was dying and underpowered. She bought me a new computer at Sam's and told me I could have it when the list was completed. I finished most of it in a weekend, and had what I thought were really good reasons why I couldn't finish the last couple of things. I did a few extras to make up for it, and got my computer.

Baby Shaker: App Store Mistake of the Week

I've been an iPhone owner for 2 1/2 weeks. I love it, and I don't even miss my Samsung Epix, which sits on my desk with the battery removed. Prior to my iPhone, I had an iPod Touch for over a year. My wife now has the iPod Touch. I spent the $10 to upgrade to the 2.0 firmware last summer, and joined the ranks of the App Store. I've written my own criticism over what I consider the silliness of other platforms jumping on the app store concept, especially when those other platforms have always had a more open development model.

I don't mind the Apple App Store. It has some difficulties, for sure, but for the most part it works as intended. That said, there are some flaws built into the system. Every now and again, something slips through, while perfectly legitimate applications sit in limbo. Remember "I Am Rich" last year? I honestly had no problem with I Am Rich. I happily downloaded the freeware Windows Mobile port when it was available.

Recently, a fairly disturbing game slipped through called "Baby Shaker". I'm not going to comment on the game. I'll just say it's not in any of the application genres that I would be likely to use. It's an interesting use of the iPhone's accelerometer, but still disturbing. The game was pulled within hours of release, and the developer apparently has no other apps listed in the App Store.

The thing is, it leaves us wondering, how does Baby Shaker slip through with apparent ease, when a bug fix to Pocket Informant takes weeks to get through, or when other applications get kicked back for obscure reasons? Other applications, like Sling Player and Hulu languish in the approval process.

I'd like to give Apple the benefit of the doubt here. The App Store is a fairly new concept, and maybe they're just fleshing it out. I don't think the concept is fundamentally flawed, at least, no more flawed than any process with people making decisions can be.

Still, I have to wonder again, why Baby Shaker gets through and a bug fix to Pocket Informant doesn't.