Shawn and Holly

I saw it tonight.  The love.  The friendship.  The caring.  The willingness to do anything for a friend, no matter how unnecessary it seemed to them, it was important to her.  So they did it for her.

They've been there through everything.  Nine years of fighting - they've been there with her and her husband.  For them.  Along side them.  Carrying them.  Crying with them.  Celebrating with them.  Now crying with them again.  She is done fighting now.  There's no more that can be done but to keep her comfortable and wait.

Shawn and Holly are people that songs should be written about - except that I can't write songs.  I 'm not sure I can even write...  They were faithful to their friend when they said "I'll be there for you" and didn't really know what the road would look like, where it would turn, how rough it would be, or even how long it really was.

My wife and I said "Who are our Shawn and Holly?"  I think we know who they are.  But everyone needs a Shawn and Holly in their life because no one knows what tomorrow may bring.  These are the friends that will do ANYTHING for you.  And I mean anything.  For any length of time.  No matter the cost.  No matter the pain.  They will fly with you to the other side of the world.  They'll care for your kids.  They'll forgive and understand your ugly times.  They'll only remember the good times.

Maybe another great question is "Who are we Shawn and Holly to?"  Are we willing to go to any extreme for someone?  We can't do it for everyone - we just don't have the capacity.  But for at least one person or family?

Shawn and Holly - they've shown me the better way.

A Better Gift

Today, I finished reading the Old Testament.   I read how God called his people "Evil" because they were offering gifts to him. Evil? Really? Why is that? They gave him their offerings...

Oh, I see - the gift was flawed. It wasn't the best of the flock. Or perfect - like him. The people had some blind and lame animals that they didn't want or need, so they gave them as offerings to God thinking that God would be OK with that.

The problem here is that the people treated God as the left-over God. Not the first or the most important. They forgot how jealous God really is.  This makes me wonder if we offer God the same blind and lame sacrifices today?  Do we give what we have left over each month? Only what we didn't need for ourselves?

I think there is a better way. God wants and deserves the best of our flock. The first of everything we earn. Giving is a priority and a pleasure because we worship Him. He tells us to give this way - to honor him with our gifts.  But, honor only comes when we treat as first importance, not last.

Are you considering cutting back in your giving due to the current financial crisis? How about if we cut back on other things that we really don't need and give to Him despite our fears. That takes faith.  And, it is a better way to give!

If it works...

...what do you do? Do you leave it alone out of fear of breaking it or suddenly making it not work? Or do you find yourself wanting to improve it? What you do under this dilemma may actually tell a lot about you. There are two sayings that tend to rule this decision - a) "If it works - don't break it!" or b) "If it works - improve it!"

I guess for me, I'm a tweaker. I usually think that things can be done a little better, a little faster, a little bit more efficient, etc. I'll make an adjustment here, a tweak there, just small iterations that add up to large improvements over time. I guess that's why this blog exists - TIABW.

Are you a risk taker? If not, you will most always land on "Don't break it!" If you are a risk taker (like me), then you might tend towards "Improve it!" I guess it really depends on the application. If you're Intel making chips at a factory, you always "copy exact" the next factory. But technology in general works on the principal of improving it or your competitor will for you. When software is written, we know that if you make changes, it might break something unexpected. But you have to make changes to improve it, fix it, or add features. Besides, no piece of software is ever completely done - ever.

What about life? Do we keep doing life like we've always done it out of comfort? Out of fear that something bad or unknown will happen? What if there are better ways of doing life? Are we open to learn and change? Or do we get grumpy in our old age and just growl back at change.? We all know someone who is simply stuck in their ways and won't change. We always say "I won't be like that when I get old." Hmmm. Are we approaching this point when we don't want to try new things?

There is also a personality issue here. Some people just don't like change and must plan for changes. Otherwise their cart gets upset and they are out of their comfort zone. Others, just love change and actually can't stand to do things the same way twice. Maybe, somewhere in the middle is the healthy ground we should aim for.

We should always be teachable and humble enough to admit that maybe we don't know more about a particular issue than everybody else. No matter how smart or "wise" we get, there is always something more we can learn. I learned that here. And here.

So please, leave your comments on these entries and teach me a thing or two...

Be Flexible

Why does my car have to have only one shape? Sometimes I want to drive a sports car.  Sometimes, a regular sedan.  Is there a way to have both so that I could choose depending on my mood? Maybe this is how it could work.  BMW is thinking outside of the box and is trying to better connect our emotions to the automobile.  This only makes sense to those who love cars and can really connect emotionally to their cars.

If nothing else, it would be fun to drive!  But will it keep me safe?  I guess rocks would just bounce off it and the car door next to me wouldn't bother it a bit.  Hmmm... maybe this is a better way?

Measuring Fuel Efficiency

Is there a better way to measure fuel efficiency?  You know - mpg's.  We all use mpg's to compare cars or trucks and figure out which will use less fuel.  If I were comparing two cars whose ratings were 15 and 20 mpg, I would say the 20 mpg car had a big advantage in efficiency.  But if I were comparing two cars who's ratings were 40 and 45 mpg, initially I would say that the 45 mpg car also had a big advantage over the 40 mpg car.  Right?  Well, not quite.

A better way to measure fuel efficiency is to calculate fuel used for a given distance.  Say we took an average year of driving - 12,000 miles per year.  How much fuel would these cars use?  Well, a car that gets 15 mpg would use 800 gallons of gasoline while a car that got 20 mpg would only use 600 gallons, a total savings of 200 gallons per year.  Quite a lot.  But now for the higher mileage cars.  A car that gets 40 mpg would use 300 gallons of fuel, while a car that gets 45 mpg would use 267 gallons of fuel for a total savings of only 33 gallons per year.  Not very much.

What does this mean?  It means that the more fuel that a vehicle uses, the more impact an improvement in fuel efficiency will have on your pocket book.  Meanwhile, the higher mileage models don't have as much savings to gain.  See the chart below and notice how the slope decreases as the mpg's increase.   In the real world, this means that the automakers who try to improve the mileage of the big vehicles are making the most impact (Tahoe Hybrid) while the smaller cars (Civic Hybrid) don't actually save as much because they already get such good mileage.

So think in terms of fuel used per year, instead of MPG.  It's a better way...

Google has a better way

Did you ever wish that your employer treated you better than they did? Do you ever feel like they are just squashing the creativity out of you and your co-workers? The rules. The budget cuts. The formality. The cube farms. The boredom. Or whatever...

Google might just be on to something. They have perks - lots of them. But not just perks for perks sake. That would miss the point. They have an agenda behind their perks. They are social engineering creative moments and atmospheres for their people - they call it "People Operations." Hmmm... Sound interesting? Take a look at this video and pay close attention to the comment at the end about hiring intelligent people. It might just be working.

Here is Google's better way...

A Better Bailout

The bailout in Congress is being widely discusses around the watercooler.  Is it a good idea to "Nationalize" these bad debts and assets? Is it absolutely necessary for our financial systems to keep operating?  Maybe there is a better way to pull up before crashing?

Dave Ramsey thinks that he has a better way, a "Common Sense Fix" to our financial crisis.  If you agree, follow his steps and send a message to your congressional representatives.    I like Dave's thinking on many fronts.  Voice your opinion now!