A random thought from Kerrying On…

When I was a kid growing up my dad always used to tell me he was an entrepreneur—which I looked up in the dictionary and learned is French for “between preneur.” And although I’m not absolutely certain, I’m pretty sure preneur means “jobs.”

From the newsletter article Kerrying On; June 2007
Purchase Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High at Amazon.com.
Get the podcast at Digg or search on iTunes

A random thought from Kerrying On…

Sometimes I drive around town in my car while wearing a bicycle helmet. Then when I spot a biker who isn’t wearing a helmet I roll down my window and screech obscenities while pointing at my helmet. Everybody deserves a positive role model.

From the newsletter article Kerrying On; June 2007
Purchase Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High at Amazon.com.
Get the podcast at Digg or search on iTunes

A random thought from Kerrying On…

The other day I went to the pet store to buy my wife a puppy for her birthday. The salesman up-sold me to a Clydesdale. One thing’s for sure—when you give your wife a Clydesdale you don’t get that cute little jump in the air accompanied by a screech of joy. Nope. Not with a Clydesdale.

From the newsletter article Kerrying On; June 2007
Purchase Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High at Amazon.com
Get the podcast at Digg or search on iTunes

From Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity:

You don’t manage information overload — otherwise you’d walk into a library and die, or the first time you connected to the Web, or even opened a phone book, you’d blow up.

- David Allen

Kathy and I celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary last month. It makes me wonder why my best man just sent this to me?

The 5 things any man wants:

1. It’s important to have a woman, who helps at home, who cooks from time to time, cleans up and has a job.
2. It’s important to have a woman, who can make you laugh.
3. It’s important to have a woman, whom you can trust and who doesn’t lie to you.
4. It’s important to have a woman, who is who likes to be with you.
5. It’s very, very important that these four women do not know each other.

- Author unknown

Heck! Considering I have difficulty keeping my stories straight with just one woman, I can’t imagine what the author was going through!

A random thought from Kerrying On…

Have you ever noticed that it’s perfectly correct to say, “Sometimes your feet come in handy”? But it’s always wrong to say, “Sometimes your hands come in feety.” What’s with that?

From the newsletter article Kerrying On; June 2007
Purchase Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High at Amazon.com.

A random thought from Kerrying On…

My mom hates all forms of confrontation. Rather than tell dad that his feet stink, she gave him charcoal insoles and explained that in case he ever got lost in the mountains he could use his shoes as a hibachi.

From newsletter, Kerrying On; June 2007 ; Purchase Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High at Amazon.com.

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, recently addressed the connection between global warming, public relations spam and magazines in his blog. I got a kick out of his comments since he included as spam the “blow-in” magazine subscription cards that drop out of magazines on to your floor. He says…

Our circulation department wants to put in as many as possible, because five cards have a slightly higher chance of one being sent back than four, and six is slightly higher yet. As long as those cards earn more in subscriptions than the cost of paper and print, they’re consider a good thing from the circulation department perspective.

He goes on to say that editors hate them because of the grief they create for readers. AMEN!

It just so happens that a few weeks ago I ordered a subscription to Wired which he edits. The cost of the one year subscription is only $10 bucks. But what’s the cost to my back for bending over and trying to pick those slippery cards up off the ground?

I’ll count the number of cards in my first issue and report back!

(Cross posted at Thinking Analytically.)

The BusinessWeek blog, Management IQ, recently mentioned then new book by the authors of the bestselling Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High.   My company offers Crucial Conversations training and I’m scheduled to participate in December.  From what I understand the tools are appropriate for both home and the workplace.  I’m looking forward to the class.   I receive the Crucial Conversations newsletter so I’ve had my eye on the release of the new book: Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.

The book purports to provide “eight powerful principles for changing behaviors” of others and of ourselves.  Perhaps it is worth a read (or listen)!

My mom never let me read blogs, watch YouTube videos or comment on Facebook sites before bedtime.  She preferred the old fashioned kind of reading — a book with paper pages.   (Come to think of it, the first PC was released the year I graduated from college.)

A recent lifehacker post mentions a study indicates that people who surf the net or watch TV before bedtime say they aren’t getting enough sleep compared to those you don’t watch electronic screens directly before bed.

So…do as I say…not as I do.  Turn off the computer and read a book…a real book.  Here…I can help you find one.