Thoughts from church

I truly enjoy the ward that we attend. There is an amazing diversity in its membership. We have one of the wealthiest areas, the country club, and one of the poorest areas, in south Phoenix, within our boundaries. We are a culturally, spiritually, economically, ideologically diverse group of people... all seeking to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I think that this diversity makes this an understanding and unpretentious ward. We are honestly seeking to help one another learn and develop spiritually. It probably wouldn't have been our first choice, had we been given one, but it is where we need to be. There are so many opportunities to serve and be served and so many people that can benefit from our testimony. I am now a ward missionary, there are hundreds of opportunities here, and I haven't felt this involved since my mission.
The services were good today. There was an emphasis placed on temple work and genealogy. This is an area that we have put a low priority on so it served as a wake up call. While no earth shattering comments or statements were made, the quiet reassurance of some familiar doctrine was all that I needed to feel compelled to improve.
I am now reading the current First Presidency message concerning role of mothers and fathers in families. This is a very critical and pertinent subject, given the current trends in our society. President Faust was very clear with his message. A child should be raised and nourished by both a mother and a father who are equally Yoked and led by the priesthood. This stands opposed to current notions of latch key kids, single parent families, and irresponsibility. I am so grateful that we have inspired leaders to give us guidance and reassurance during such turbulent times.

A memo to communicate

The past couple of months of work have really hammered home the importance of communication. I work for a relatively small and new company that is growing and is just beginning to realize its potential. In an environment this intimate and with as much at stake, communication is so important.
This leads me to my boss, one of the founders. He is a brilliant salesman and visionary. He a broad understanding of intellectual property, having invented and licensed out a very successful product, and a knack for networking. He paints in broad strokes. The problem, however, arises when he works in the details.
He will often meet with potential clients and impress them with our capabilities and know how. While most of this is true and deserving, he often makes promises, on our behalf, that are difficult to keep. Even though we have developed a very specific, efficient, and valuable set of core services, he often is bringing in projects that are outside of our core competencies. I don't have a problem with this as long as he doesn't paint us as experts in these areas, which sometimes happens. The problem is then exacerbated when he only communicates a general idea of the project, sometimes leaving out critical details that a client was promised.
This recently happened to me on an engagement with a local company. They have developed a very unique and lucrative irrigation device and are looking to raise capital and secure a licensing deal. In a nutshell, my boss agreed to the job and then had a couple of interns work on it. Some of the critical information was probably not completely transferred, because during a recent meeting the client was very disappointed with the work to this date. So I was brought in to clean up the mess and salvage things.
Things are going better now. But it wasn't until I had to take some heat from the client and sit down to truly understand their expecting that things were able to meet forward. This project has some potential and I now feel comfortable in with it. I figure that my boss will still bring in diverse projects but I will now make sure that I sit in on the meetings so as to understand what is promised and to only agree to things that are within our bounds of expertise. COMMUNICATE.

The crisp autumn breeze and a warm sizzling brat

That brief introduction ushers in the annual male ritual of football, both college and professional. Every time this year I find myself preoccupied with thoughts of sacks, safeties, and potential. I could spend 5 hours on a Saturday and Sunday afternoon watching Football and confront minimal guilt.
Its hard to keep focused on work without looking up the latest information on the Dallas Cowboys. My love and allegiance to the Cowboys is amazing. My love for them is only falls behind my religion, wife, family, and friends. As can be expected, it is the hardest of my loves to justify and explain. One morning when I was a small kid my older brother explained how cool the 'Boys were. Since that day I have faithfully followed the team and football.
Despite all of the joy that has been brought into my life via the gridiron, I have to think about what I could have accomplished in my life if I were to have substituted football/sports time for a more worthy cause. I could have taught myself Italian. I could learned some new trade. I could master the intricacies of Wall Street. But these thoughts are soon interrupted by the familiar opening strains of the Monday Night Football theme and those visions of idealism are quickly replaced by the beautiful site of seeing Roy Williams laying out an opposing receiver.

Hyudais, Handshakes, and Chaebols

I have recently volunteered at Thunderbird to provide english tutoring to visiting executives from South Korea. I figured that it would be a good experience to interact with a culture that I don't know much about, get in some free golf, and stay involved in the Thunderbird community. While a student I tutored several Koreans but I didn't pay close attention to some of their cultural nuances and subleties, I will attempt to remedy that through the use of my blog. Here are a few observations from my first meeting with my pupil, Sil Keun Hwang.

- Things were very formal. After a greeting and handshake we exchanged business cards. He gave his to me with his right hand with his left hand resting on his right arm. I followed suit and replicated his action. Kind of cool, it made sharing business cards a little more fun.
- We spent most of the time creating an agenda and structuring our schedules. He seemed to be driven by rule and order, I wonder if that is a generally accepted observation about Korean males.
- We talked about families, he is away from his wife and two daughters until November. I wouldn't be able to handle that.
- He seemed very anxious in getting a "crash course" on the U.S. culture. We have several activities planned. Ball games, dinners, hikes, golf, etc...
- It is safe to say that golf is a very important part of the Korean business lifestyle. Every Korean that I know, whether through school or otherwise, is determined to golf atleast a few times a month. Part of the reason, as it was explained, is that golf land is very limited and extremely expensive over there.

I will make more comments as the tutoring adventure continues.

A strange happened on the way to growing up

When I was a kid I had some amazing interests and ambitions. If I wasn't reading about the Olmec civilization I was drawing up the blueprint to my future home. My interests included Archaeology, Astronomy, Mythology, Rock Hounding, Sports, and a myriad of other intriguing subjects. These were things that genuinely interested me and helped shape who I am. And then I grew up.
Soon the book about Lawrence of Arabia was replaced with Trigonometry homework and my dreams were shelved in favor of the realities of "career development." My business and economic studies just didn't captivate me the way that my old interests did, despite my best efforts. But a strange thing happened upon graduating and getting into my profession. I invited my old interests back.
Like the phoenix arising from its ashes, my old interests have been resurrected. I have the free time to take up the guitar again, to collect ancient Roman coins and football cards, even to reread some Plato. In designing my home office I selected decorations that represented these childhood interests and reduced the symbols of my career pursuits to a diploma or two in the corner wall. The result of this rekindled passion is that I am happier. I'm not forcing myself to read something for the sake of a grade or a promotion but rather engaging myself in my passions...that is what really matters.

To hold a thought

One of the principal reasons for starting this blog was to nip a possible problem in the bud. My attention span is down and I, like scores of other people, have been caught up in instant solutions. Thanks to things like the internet and TiVo, my learning has been diluted. Where I once would pour over a book to learn about a subject, I can now skim the internet in moments and get a 30 second summary. My information and depth have become increasingly shallow. I have co-workers who can't even tolerate a commercial break because they can now TiVo it out.
What makes this blog so valuable to me is that it forces me to collect my thoughts and write them down in a coherent manner. In this day in age this simple approach has become a lost art. I am getting better at it, but it has been a challenge. I am so easily distracted that it becomes hard to hold a thought and develop it. I will write back in a month or two to evaluate this blog as to whether or not it has helped me with this dilemma.

LDS Cinema

Last night I had the opportunity to attend a showing of the "Testaments" with the missionaries, an investigator, and a recently reactivated member. Overall the experience was superb and the investigator came away with a better appreciation of the Book of Mormon. The Temple Visitors Center is an amazing resource to have for the missionaries.
But, I came away with a couple of reservations. They was nothing that would affect my testimony...maybe just a couple of comments about the way in which the movie was presented. To me these things somehow detracted from the spirit of the message. Here they are:

- Though Christ and his visit to the America's is the central theme of the movie, there are too many unnecessary subplots that detract from it. The inclusion of a cheesy love story kind of cheapens the experience for me and made it appear that the movie was trying to entertain as much as it was trying to testify of Christ. There were even a couple attempts of comedy.
- The above mentioned observation coupled with the cinematography and other affects made the story appear more like a full blown movie then films that the Church typically produces. If this is the case than I feel like I should judge it the same way I judge a movie that I see at the local theatre. If that is the case then I have to give it a low grade for its lack of character development, thin plot, and low quality cinematography.
- I didn't feel the spirit as strongly as I have in other church films and even as I have felt in secular movies that are currently available. This might be attributed somewhat to the fact that I was making those observations and not focusing on Christ.

While I applaud the church for making an effort to use the media to express certain Gospel truths, I do believe that they would be better served by sharing it directly rather then trying to include it in a fictional story.

Just some thoughts......the church is still true.

Ode to the monsoon

- Joy doth the monsoon bring to my eyes
- Bearing gifts of rain and storm to light the skies
- The heat is gone its grasp is weak
- This weather has made my roof leak

yadayadayadayadaetc...............ad naseum................

Anyways, I am very grateful and happy when mother nature decides to give Phoenix a summer monoon shower. One hour ago I was walking my dog under a dry and clear sky, now it is dark, windy, and very wet. This weather certainly breaks up the monotony of the long and sweltering summer heat, as well as loosens the noose that the water bill has around my checkbook. What is really amazing about these things is the sure force and magnitude of the monsoon. You never get a summer sprinkle down here, when it comes down it literally pours. Add in a strong breeze and you've a powerful force of nature that makes me slightly nervous, if anything for the new tree that I just planted out front.

Three hours and 45 ounces later....

Last night we accompanied Shelley's boss and his friends to dinner at Flemings. It gave me a better understanding of what some people mean when they say thay are "going out to dinner." Shelley and I go out regularly, sometimes to upscale restaurants, sometimes to sit down chains, sometimes for the good old fashioned American standard hamburger and fries. But I think the big difference is that we only order what we will eat and, once finished, we typically pack up and move to our next activity. I would suppose that we are pragmatic diners, we eat only because we are hungry.
Last night was a completely different paradigm. There was blatant gluttony. There was long drawn out conversations, typically about nothing, and there was show. All in all, the tab for 6 people ran around $700. We were brought food so often that I didn't even have enough time to make a dent in the course that I was working on. Champagne and wine were being bandied about as if we were kids picking up taffy at a fourth of July parade. We were ordering an extra lobster tail with our steak just because we could. And between all of the tasting and sampling there was the trite conversations about clothes, gossip, and massages.
The dinner was great and company alright, but although after three hours I was beginning to wander. The whole spectacle got me thinking. Evaluating grades of steak, texture of wine, and sharing Nordstrom's sales tips just doesn't seem like something that I would like to do regularly. It represents a world that I have no real interest to join or get caught up in. That kind of mentality might lead you to closet full of great shoes but the money it consumes is too great and the feelings acheived are too fleeting. I never want to live a life in which I equate happiness to what I physically own and in which I am always trying to consume more. I put a much higher premium on what I can learn, what I can share with others, and how strong my relationships are.

Well I better run, I think I knocked over the soapbox that I was standing on anyways.

Engagement photo
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Cherished memory that happens to include a camel
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Is handiness an inherited male gene?

So this evening I have some downtown on my hands. I have decided that there is nothing worth watching on TV during the summer months and that I should be devoting my time to more worthwhile endeavors, like tending to my blog. Anyways, my quest for productivity led me to the bathroom and the dangling tower hanger.
Over the past few months the anchors holding up the towel rack have become loose due to wear and tear and damage to the sheet rock. The task to fix the problem should be simple...right? I suppose it would be simple if I had the proper experience, training, or even intuition. I basically damaged the wall before I stumbled across the proper solution. This mishap leads me to today's thought. Am I expected to be handy just by virtue of my manhood? If so, I guess I am a failure. Every project I start turns into problems and mindless fiddling. Is there a way to remedy this problem? Even if I were to attend Home Depot seminars and read up, would I necessarily be more handy?

Sincerely,

--- Purple thumb in Phoenix

The challenge

The mere thought of maintaining a blog is challenging to me. I have recently conditioned myself to go through the daily minutiae of work, family, house, etc... without devoting much time to ponder and think about the intricacies and beauties of life. This blog will serve as the jack hammer that will shatter my old habits and usher in a new era of open thought and contemplation.

Up to this point I have a kept a written journal. The problem is that it is merely a summary of my daily itinerary and not a repository of my deepest thoughts. This blog will allow me to thoroughly search and develop my thoughts and ideas and store them for future posterity, should they care.

Welcome, welcome...I promise not to bore