I threw out a Tweet last night to see what might be a good Friday discussion. I got one suggestion that we talk Christmas music. We did seem to develop quite an interest this week on favorite versions of Little Drummer Boy. Read that post HERE. Lots of Twitter and Facebook friends, however, said they weren’t fans of the song.
That prompts the questions:
I was talking with a doctor recently. He said increasingly physicians are deciding not to attempt private practice. They are choosing to work only for guaranteed salaries at a hospital, afraid to take a risk of self-employment. In his opinion, it’s changing the way healthcare is done in America. I can’t speak with authority about the field of medicine, but I have noticed the same trend occur in other fields. I talk with people regularly who are settling for security rather than take a risk in this economy.
In a way, it’s completely understandable….
Yesterday I watched the Tennessee Titans seem to fall apart on the field. From being shut out from scoring to fighting on the field to the defeated look on the Titan player’s faces on the sidelines, this is obviously a team in difficult days. As a student of leadership, I have tremendous respect for coach Jeff Fisher and, although I’m a more silent NFL fan, I have enjoyed watching his team since the Titans came to Tennessee. I’m wondering now what it will take to bring the team back together. I suspect it’s more than getting a new quarterback.
I wonder if the biggest dilemma for the team these days is a leadership issue.
I had lots of suggestions to my Tweet yesterday asking for a favorite version of the Christmas song Little Drummer Boy. Here are what the kind folks on Twitter suggested: (You might also find some new friends on Twitter this way. I’d recommend all of them to you!)
You will see the Twitter name followed by their suggestion:
Everyone seems to be bragging on their Christmas decorations this year. Is that just me, or is it more than usual? And the decorations seem to be bigger and better than ever…and going up earlier. Am I imagining that?
Anyway, I thought it was only fair that I share my Christmas tree with you. This year, I too went all out…spared no expense, labored hard, but with a cup of hot chocolate and the right mix of Christmas tunes, I believe I may have outdone myself this year.
If you follow this blog, then you may remember that a couple weeks ago we wrote a story together. You can read how it started HERE, but basically different commenters each added a line to continue the story. Today I’m providing the completed story. It’s “different”, but reading it shows me how different our minds work. I began the first sentence, but never would I have imagined taking the story in the direction it went.
Here is our story:
Black Friday…the day after Thanksgiving when retailers hope their financial books go from red to black…when they are completely profitable for the year…isn’t what it used to be…
I was in retail for years…I loved the excitement of this time of year…especially after I was in management. Seeing people with their Christmas anticipation and the stores being full gave me energy…even as an Introvert. I love growth, busyness, and energy, so Black Friday became one of my favorite days of the year.
Fast forward almost 20 years and Black Friday isn’t what it used to be. My youngest son Nate Twittered that he had participated in his first Black Friday event. He was finished and in bed by 6 AM. In my retail days, that’s about the time I was going to work to prepare the store to open. Because of the changes in Black Friday, and because I’m no longer paid to do so, I have participated in the day in years. (Any other former or current retail folks out there?)
So, let’s have some fun discussing Black Friday today…
I saw this plaque in a store window in Michigan recently. I snapped a quick picture. I didn’t need the plaque, but I love the statement.
I dont’ know where the saying originated, but the most memorable time I heard it was when Jack Nicholson said it in the movie “Bucket List”. It’s a powerful and true statement about life.
It has a similar thought process to one of my favorite verses from Scripture. Ecclesiastes 11:3: “If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.”
It reminds me that
One day this week, I was sitting at my desk and clicked on my blog home page. What I saw was the screenshot in this post, combined with a eerie instrumental tune. I had been hacked by so-called “Turkish Hackers”. I panicked and instantly called the one who maintains my blog (Thank you Tony!) He tells me the hackers replaced my index page with their own. To fix it, he downloaded the latest version from wordpress.org and uploaded the default index.php file to replace the hacked one. (I don’t understand how to do that, but that’s what he said he did.) My Twitter feed then went wild with people asking me what I did or what they could do to protect their blog.
One of our resident tech gurus (Thanks Jim) at Grace Community Church offers these suggestions to protect yourself from being hacked:
What’s your opinion?
Since 9/11traveling has become much more difficult and time consuming. Our government has assumed new responsibilities as we travel. I am thankful for the diligence of people involved in keeping us safe. Their work should never be taken for granted.
The most active story on my radar this week, however, has been that of the new TSA restrictions on travel.
