MindMeister your Idea Map

I really like this web 2.0 app. It’s free (for a month) and to keep it it’s only 4 dollars and change for the premium service. It seems to be a social type of app where others you invite could add to your mind maps. When you work with someone else brainstorming you can even use Skype to talk. And they claim you can upload maps from MindManager and FreeMind as well as download (I believe).

I have been using MindMeister for several days and I am going to have my kids move their goals to the MindMeister site so they can put dates and details to them. I have planned out the Mother’s Day trip to Dawes Arboretum with a cool mind map. Needless to say I’ll be cutting out a few stops to Starbuck’s to pay for the four and change.

Don’t forget check out Jamie Nast’s book Idea Mapping along with her blog.

One of My Favorite Podcasts

One of my favorite podcasts has a new site. It’s great. I sure would like to be able to build a site like that one.

More Communication at Work

My co-worker is talking to me again. For the 8-9 weeks he wasn’t talking to me. I was nice to him, said good night to him and other social things (with no response from him, not one word). I left him normal (and sometimes extra) communications about what went on during my shift during the “silence”. I finally left him a note asking what I had done to offend him and if he would tell me I would be more than willing to apologize, still no communication.

Then a few days later he just started talking like nothing had ever happened. You know what? In one way I’m relieved, and feel better about working with him. On the other hand, I’m more angry with him than when he wasn’t talking. I need to put that anger aside, because with no doubt, he’s the one with the problem. I do feel a little sorry for him.

I heard of a study on job satisfaction on a podcast (60 Second Scientific American) and the study claimed 47% of Americans were satisfied with their jobs and were happy about them. I believe that’s amazing. Maybe it’s this way; when you talk about a person’s job and say how difficult or bad it is they seem to defend the job. They might say it’s not so bad, or only at times it’s that bad or hard. Just a thought. I really like my job, and sometimes I love it. It just takes so much time from my life and family. It’s said no one at the end of their life says “I wish I’d spent a little more of my time at the office”.

Problems with New Theme

Boy, I love this new theme but it doesn’t like FireFox of Sarafi. My work browser (I’m glad there are IT guys around) is IE6, meh. Well, I must say it displays the theme correctly. I could be doing something wrong. The major problem is, I suppose, is that I cannot work with CSS. It anyone has a clue I could use a few. As in this matter I am clueless. (some would say in many other matters)

UPDATE The problems seem to be fixed, the cloud looks ok and the side bars go where I put them.

Salvation Project

Here are the plans for my first podcast. The title will be Salvation Project and the idea is to interview Christians that are; friends, family, church members and podcasters. Maybe I could even get a few authors and business people. The idea came about because I lead a book study on Pilgrims Progress. Bunyan and the Puritans were big on asking “what was your salvation experience?”

I believe we as Christians today tend to not talk about our salvation experience, what a shame. Are we ashamed, unsure? maybe we don’t think it’s all that important. That tells me something is wrong, the salvation experience is the beginning of our journey, our second birth (into God’s family).

We celebrate physical birthdays, why not spiritual ones? Won’t they mean more to us in the long run? So that is the spring board for my podcast. I have a few projects to wrap up and a commitment to finish and I will be ready to start. More than likely late summer, or early fall. So if you’re reading this and think that sounds interesting make a comment and share your experience or even better volunteer to be one of the Christians I interview.

My plan for now is an edited type of podcast where the interviewer’s voice is rarely heard. I’ve heard several NPR radio shows with the style which I plan to use. One that I remember is a podcast called StoryCorps and it is about African Americans telling about the person who had the most positive influence on them when they were growing up. It’s a great podcast and several of the stories are very moving. My podcast need not be always touching or unique because my goal is to make this a thing we as Christians do more often. How better to lead people to Christ, than our testimony of how Christ saved us.

New Theme

Yea, I have not written anything for a while, but I changed the theme, go figure. I’m thinking of several articles one being Bees and Cell Phones. This could be a serious issue, maybe even be a good sci-fi story. Another is an idea for a podcast, Salvation Stories; it would be an interview type where I would talk to a few prominent Christian podcasters to get a wider audience. That would be after I get my podcast up and running. Just a few ideas, just to let the few that read my post know I’m still alive and have some ideas to put out there. I’ve been seriously busy with the church project, home life, gardening and yard work, and work which just continually beats me down with long hours (11 per day and 40 min each way commute) and a co-worker who is difficult to work with. (like not speaking to me for 6 weeks)

Great Old Movies

Where to start? A short list Roman Holiday (my favorite), Paris- When It Sizzles, Charade (my favorite- I can have two right?), Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 12 Angry Men, Ben Hur,  Rear Window (best intro of a character EVER-Grace  Kelly as Lisa  Carol Fremont),  Rope (watch it closely and the extras after the movie to see if you get the undercurrents of this very dark thriller) OK there are more I’ll add later. This is a good start for your Netflix Q.

You almost cannot go wrong watching any Marilyn Monroe movie. Believe it or not she was a good actress. Start with Niagara my favorite Marilyn movie, dark but good plus some great Ohio (Cleveland) characters.

Westerns next, yes there are great westerns! Even one Marilyn Monroe!

My Favorite Cheap Pen

I suppose a cheap pen is defined as a writing instrument of less than 5 dollars. I have two I enjoy, one is a long time favorite and the other is a newbie (which I have not used long enough to have a firm opinion of yet). The Uniball Signo Micro 207 is a fabulous pen worth at least 4 times its cost of less than two dollars and fifty cents. It’s comfortable, has a great click action, it comes in .5 and 1.0 widths, at least eight colors and the clip holds up for at least 3-4 refills (and I’ve often been able to repair a bent clip). Then I seem to “lose” the pen after that, having a wife and children may contribute to that problem.

One great thing about the Signo is the ink, it’s a water fast type of ink. Once it dries it’s mostly permanent on paper as well as your clothes. I’ve ruined several dress shirts because if the pen is open it will leach out onto the fabric and without dry cleaning or a special ink removal fluid the shirt is ruined. This does not endear my wife to this line of pens. She comments that they are good for her but not safe enough for me. The Signo pens are not as bad as the Zebra SARASA type, they love to leach out onto clothes, although they make good utility pens.

I work in a pop factory and I write on paper which has all type of chemicals, pop and water on the paper and the Signo pen still works. The ball does not hold up well to being dropped directly on the tip but most pens won’t. The ball tip doesn’t seem to be damaged by writing on a very hard surface with a heavy pressure like most Cross refills that I often ruin. My Cross pens (cheap or expensive) never seem to take the abuse of writing on a desktop surface with only one sheet of paper as padding. You know the problem, a line appears within the path of ink on the paper then shortly the pen will skip and quit working altogether.

The Signo pen is by far my all time favorite cheap pen and has thwarted my attempts to find a better expensive pen. It raises the standards for that elusive “expensive” pen. I do love the Retro51 line of pens especially the Tornando both mini and full sized but they are heavy and don’t carry well in my pants pocket (where I carry it because of uniform requirements) or even a shirt pocket because of the weight. I’ve also flirted with buying a pocket fountain pen but have not been able to justify the price or risk of carrying one (for mostly church and social occasions).

If you have any suggestions on good cheap pens or expensive pens I would love to here about them.

My Starbucks

Trail Talk has a good post on Starbucks. I really love my Starbucks, they know me and I feel comfortable in the store. In fact, when I study my Sunday School lesson I get more accomplished than at home. The difference is probably the difference between a guest and a father who’s directing the home school and giving attention to everyone. So maybe that is not a fair comparison.

I have read several books on Starbucks and have also worked in the restaurant industry for more than 20 years. In fact, I worked for Shoney’s Inc for 17-18 years all the way from dishwasher to District Manager. The first 10 years I worked for Shoney’s it was run like a family business, then it took on a more corporate look and feel. That’s when I think we lost customer appeal. It was no longer a place to go to meet friends; both in the store and the frequent customers. When the company no longer had the loyalty to its employees, employees for sure were not going to return it (for no reason).

My first 10 years it was rare to go out and eat at a competitive restaurant. I just felt like I was being dishonest or disloyal. When I did eat at a “enemy” restuarant I told the manager if myexperience was good or bad. And I thought about how to make “our” store better. You think this cannot be true but imagine this; more often than not when I visited with employees’ families who we eating in the restaurant their children were proud that their parents worked at the store. Sometimes the kids would even say that when they grow up they would like to work for Shoney’s.

Maybe Starbucks has found the formula that small and large restaurants abandoned for faster table turnovers and greater profits. Only to find that they are without a loyal customer base. Just a thought.

Blogging Church

I finished the Blogging Churchtoday! Finished it off with a Cafe Americano at my favorite Starbucks. I really did learn a lot. On my pre-review I thought I would just have a general refresher of what I knew. Well, I did learn how to tell if I’m addicted to my blog and how to measure it’s real importance. There are also included great links to other fantastic Church blogs. (I must link 43Folders, Merlin Mann wrote a page or so for the book and mentioned it on his blog.)

One of the good thinks about the book is the way it is written for the beginner and for someone who wants to gather more info to to persuade; not only positively, but a bit caution to the under-informed church members.  I at first only saw the upside, but now I can see some potential problems. Especially in the matter of whether or not to allow comments. And I can also see how it could be a distraction by sucking up hours of church staff time. Time some may not not have to spend.

I on the other hand being a Sunday School teacher can see the advantages for me. I can communicate with my class during the week, share prayer requests, give encouragement and list praises. Now the real challenge is to educate some of my classmates how to use the blog and Google Group. I’ve put our class goals on the Sunday School blog along with plans for our special fellowships. (I must say I’m learning right along with my class.)

Do I recommend the book? Wholeheartedly! The author Brian Bailey makes a passioned argument but still presents the downside with honesty. So buy the book, read it and then give it to you Pastor or church leaders. That’s what I’m going to do.