EXCELLENCE. Always.

If not EXCELLENCE, what?

If not EXCELLENCE now, when?

EXCELLENCE is not an “aspiration.”

EXCELLENCE is not a “journey.”

EXCELLENCE is the next five minutes.

Organizations exist to serve. Period.

Leaders exist to serve. Period.

Service is a beautiful word.

Service is a beautiful word. Service is character, community, commitment. (And profit.)

Service is a beautiful word. Service is not “Wow.” Service is not “raving fans.” Service is not “an experience.” Service is “just” that—SERVICE.

You know, there are live people around too . . .

It is much easier to just be a filter, tweet, retweet, repost, refacebook, whatever, than to write or create my own thing. Why haven’t I written all of my crazy thoughts into posts of late?

Thoughts on:

How I hate the old argument of what if our “good” athletes played soccer. You know the real ones like Lebron or Michael Vick. Boy if they had played that growing up then we would have a team! Hogwash. It is so egotistical to think that the athletes we have on the national team are only there because the really good ones didn’t play that sport… MORE

or How it is cool to dislike soccer and how somehow that makes you hip… MORE

or Why most Christian, sorry Christ Following, blogger types these days are going to be bored in heaven, what with being surrounded by those fuddy, duddy, people hating, all white christian, American (western) christians and all… MORE

or What is up with the continued gender-neutrification of society and how that has crept into the Church… MORE

or How the real hole in our Gospel is that you are trying to cram more into it than ever was intended, and what is the Kingdom anyways… MORE

or A how to on building end tables out of junk chairs form garbage pickup day… MORE

or

or

or

But if I wasn’t lazy I would realize that Content is still king. And original content (I mean at least original to you), whoa. (And don’t give me there is nothing new under the sun argument either). I could write on a whole post on that…

(I still need to change those knobs on that dresser…)

Thanks Carla at work (church) for the chandelier! It worked out perfect. Here it was before (below).

Pray for Amy

On Sunday, May 23, Amy Wooddell suffered a stroke and underwent 7.5 hours of surgery to remove the clotting in her basil artery. Additionally they found that her right vertebral artery was torn and was repaired with a stint. She awoke responsive and could even whisper her own name. However, a few hours later her brain began to bleed resulting an emergency procedure to relieve inner cranial pressure. On Monday, May 24 she was comatose with brain function of only 3 (normal is 15) and it was uncertain that she would survive.

But she did.

On Tuesday, May 25, Amy was considered in stable condition and brain activity began to increase (between 5-7) but was still and out of consciousness. Inner-cranial pressure had dropped from high 20s on Sunday night down to 1 on Tuesday night. She is responding through blinking (made direct eye contact with Jonny (her husband) on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning blinked 5 times in response to “Amy, blink a bunch of times if you want Jonny to buy you lots of diamonds” and 3 times for “I love you”). And she now breathing on her own 8 out of 18 breaths a minute.

But she’s been unable to move her limbs. A recent MRA is showing some blood in near her brain stem which is hindering motor skill movement.

Amy is only 24 years old and has been married to Jonny for 4 months. She is also an accomplished dancer.

While we are seeing God’s healing touch on Amy, we know she has a long ways to go and any permanent damage is still unknown. We are asking for your prayers for Amy’s complete healing.

More information can be found at here or by follow her husband’s updates on twitter.

(And I love edge burns…sorry).

Sleep Inside Of A Shark

by ally on May 12, 2010

In an attempt to make sharks appear a little more cuddly one person decided to hand make some soft and squishy sharks.  Even the stitches are done by hand instead of by machine.  You can use the shark to curl up with in bed or actually lay inside of it.  The whole thing happens to be 7 feet tall.  You can purchase the ChumBuddy for $199.95 through Patch Together.

Source: NerdApproved

Looking forward to it…because ideas and me are great. Getting them done, not so much. So ask me someday how it was. I mean, ask me if I actually read it.

What has been said about the book…

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Exclusive: Seth Godin Reviews Making Ideas Happen

Seth Godin is the author of Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip, Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars, and Permission Marketing, as well as other international bestsellers. He is consistently one of the 25 most widely read bloggers in the English language. Read his exclusive Amazon guest review of Making Ideas Happen: Should you buy a book that will make you uncomfortable?

More questions: Why is it so difficult to ship good ideas out the door? Why do committees show up and wreck the purity of your idea? Why do people avoid doing the hard work of actually bringing their work to the market?

I’ll tell you why: Because it’s safe. Ideas that never ship are never criticized. Faceless committees accept the blame for tepid products that were probably better off in the warehouse. And managers in search of a place to hide can best hide behind the unshipped product, the unrealized idea and the system gone wrong.

Scott Belsky has your number. He’s seen it all before. He knows your excuses, he’s seen your shtick and he knows all the ways to avoid doing the work. In this book, Scott’s not giving you any place to hide.

There. Do you still want to read his book?

If you care about your art, your job or your market, you really have no choice. This is strategy and tactics, concepts and how-to, all in one on a topic that’s often overlooked.

–Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

From Publishers Weekly

Though creation always begins with an idea, ideas don’t always lead to creation; examining why that’s so, online entrepreneur Belsky finds that, no matter how unique or radically different ideas may be, the individuals and teams who carry those ideas to fruition share a number of common traits, such as engaging peers and leveraging communal forces. In this guide to realizing ideas, Belsky examines those traits in detail. Chapters like “The Chemistry of the Creative Team” set forth an action-based plan that forgoes time-wasting meetings and other corporate culture standbys, citing studies, progressive thinkers and case studies of companies like Best Buy, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Modern-day successes, Belsky contends, have traded “the traditional butts-in-chairs mindset” for a “Results Only Work Environment,” where employees are compensated based on achievement of specified goals, rather than work hours. Ultimately, Belsky insists, creative success is a matter of rethinking methods and increasing focus, while emphasizing and rewarding old-fashioned passion and perspiration.

Well, it and the trash day windows inspired me to revamp our “entertainment center.” And you know I love me some painted furniture, so why not.

Here is the original piece. I had built it in high school shop class. (Didn’t remember to take a true before picture so I found this one…)

And here it is now.

I added some dimension to the sides in addition to the windows…

It is a few layers of paint and some sanding for the “vintage” look.

The graphics behind the windows are all just for fun. No deep meaning. Just trying for a certain look and a random feel. Like perhaps after you did the initial patterned paper look, you settled for whatever you could find laying around the garage…

Knobs are from hobby lobby and were pretty cheap, but worked well. The hinges are black as well, and all put on before painting to allow them to gain some of the effect as well.

So that’s it. We will still use it as an entertainment center. Still in the basement for now. Maybe some day, at some new house it can have a more grand purpose.