Cranky

Ever noticed how something insignificant, like a throw away comment, can seem to unravel months of hard work? Ever noticed how I tap dance around being too specific?

I try to treat people with empathy and a high regard. I listen to what people have to say, find the good in them and go from there. But it seems that so many other people have a stereotype in mind and can’t see past that.

So, I wonder why bother? If people think you act a certain way, even though you’ve been spending years consciously avoiding such actions, what does that mean? That your work has been largely unsuccessful? That no matter what you do, people don’t notice?

Either way, you might as well not bother.

Moral Dilemma

Just say that you pined for something. Something not very expensive, but of reasonable value. Then, someone you don’t know very well leaves theirs at your place.

They don’t notice they left them. You want them.

Do you tell the person, or keep the item?

What we've learned

Robert Fulghum (slightly amended) says that we already know everything we need to and it is still being taught on a daily basis in our preschools…..Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpit at Pre-School.

These are the things we learned.
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm biscuits and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that. Goldfish and guinea pigs and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
And then remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had a basic policy to always put thing back where they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Also on Sixty Minutes was the tale of twins who have been battling anorexia since the age of 14, a battle that had raged for 20 years. These people told of how anorexia kills, that they wanted to die, that they were so fat at 34 kg, that they ran to lose weight, that they ate a slice of watermelon and twenty laxatives a day, that it was a struggle to get out of bed, that they lost weight to get attention, that if they died then people would learn that anorexia kills.

Their mother wept as they spoke.

The twins and their parents visited a clinic where they ran programs for people with this disease. The counselor was making progress with them. I thought it interesting that they were on a lounge with their parents, yet the twins huddled together down one end, holding hands. One twin had said that she was starting to feel a spark, a will to live. Then the other said, “But will you get up tomorrow and eat breakfast?” The light vanished from the eyes of the other twin.

I’ll just say that I was sad and angry.

7 Great Reasons Why Fresh Fruit Should Be Eaten In Your Office

Why do we persist with biscuits for our school visitors- isn’t it about time we placed an apple on every desk.

7 Great Reasons Why Fresh Fruit Should Be Eaten In Your Office

1. Fruit consists largely of water, just like the human body does - 80% of our body is water, same with most fruit! If you think about it, it's logical for the human body to consume food that contains as much water as the body itself. The nutrition that meets that requirement is fruit. There is no other food than fruit on this planet that contains on average 80% water.

2. Fruit is 100% bad-cholesterol free - No doubt about this argument. Too much bad-cholesterol is not good for our bodies and fruit doesn't contain bad-cholesterol. Animal products like meat and dairy contain a lot of bad-cholesterol.

3. Fruit stimulates the memory - If you didn’t know yet: fruit is the ultimate brain fuel. Fruit has a positive effect on our brains. The way this works still has to be found out and many scientists are looking into it presently. What we do know is that if you consume fruit effectively, your brains can recall information faster and more easily.

4. Fibre - We do know that a diet with plenty of fibre helps prevent obesity, high blood pressure, and other factors that increase the chance for heart disease. And the food that contains these healthy (natural) fibres is.... you guessed it - fruit!

5. Fruit makes you feel better - Research shows that people who are frequently depressed, get out of their depression slowly, but surely, after consuming substantial amounts of fresh fruit on a regular basis. Don't forget to eat fruit on an empty stomach, and 20 minutes before the consumption of other meals. This way the fruit will not ferment in your stomach and the nutritious elements can be absorbed by the blood effectively.

6. Promoting healthy eating habits in the workplace offers numerous benefits for a company, including cost benefits through increased productivity. This may be through:
Decreasing absenteeism
Decreasing staff recruitment and training costs through reduced staff turnover
Improving employees ability to perform through improved health and morale
Reducing the number of worker compensation claims
An enhanced company image influencing future customers and employees
Increased employee loyalty and commitment.

7. Improving Morale and Well-Being - Company attitude surveys provide evidence that health promotion is viewed by workers as one of the most valued, tangible benefits. Employees appreciate the personal interest shown in them by companies conducting health promotion programs, and can help improve employee attitudes to work and reduce absenteeism.

I was watching Sixty Minutes last night and one the stories was centred around a little girl, who was struck by a car when it smashed into her day care centre. Burns to 85% of her bodies, losing both feet, some finger and an ear. And as the father spoke he told of how the medical team told him there would be no shame in letting her pass on. He wept as he said that he could never do that.

Neither could I. I cried with him. Not surprisingly, I dreamt some crazy dreams that night. The most vivid was of our eldest daughter being taken and me finding her some years later. She had been raised with another child and didn’t remember me. Yes, I know there’s a movie about that very theme.

All of this just served to reinforce with me that I am very emotionally bonded to my family. Maybe that’s good, or bad, depending on your point of view.

Rain

After months without rain (well, very little) we have finally been granted some liquid from the heavens. I get depressed whn it doesn't rain for a while. Plus, we don't have water connected to the house from the town supply - we rely on rain to fill the tanks so we can bathe, wash etc. It's just nice to have some rain to top up the tanks and to make things green again.

You can almost hear the sighs of relief from the trees.

However, riding to work this morning commanded a good bit more of my attention than normal ...

Cheers

The Week that Was

This week I had the dubious pleasure of going to our capital city (of this state) to work on a panal to select principals for small schools. I say "dubious" because although I love the process and I enjoy seeing the great things going on in schools all over the state, I've come to the realisation that I'm not a big city boy.

The rpice of food. The people on street corners who accost you to save the rainforest of employ doctors in Iveneverheardofthatzikstan. One person had filled in an application of an American Express card for me and wanted me to sign it. One person wanted to borrow a moment of my time. When he finished his spiel I asked for my moment back. One person wanted me to help the koalas. I told him that I had five acres of land and that the koalas kep me awake at night. I was helping them by giving them a place to live. Then I asked him what he was doing to help them.

Anyway, I'm home with my beautiful girls, celebrating my wife's birthday. You've got love Chanel No. 5.

Cheers

Feelings

People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did.

But people will never forget how you made them feel.

Chinese Bamboo Tree

I like the story of the Chinese bamboo tree: You take a little seed, plant it, water it, and fertilize it for a whole year, and nothing happens.
The second year you water it and fertilize it, and nothing happens.
The third year you water it and fertilize it, and nothing happens. How discouraging this becomes!
The fifth year you continue to water and fertilize the seed and then---take note. Sometime during the fifth year, the Chinese bamboo tree sprouts and grows NINETY FEET IN SIX WEEKS!
Life is much akin to the growing process of the Chinese bamboo tree.
It is often discouraging. We seemingly do things right, and nothing happens. But for those who do things right and are not discouraged and are persistent, things will happen. Finally we begin to receive the rewards.
I am now receiving the rewards of seeds that were planted 5 years ago. You are as well. Are you getting the results you want? If not, begin today to sow the seeds of what you want 5 years from now.
Remember, if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll get the results you've always gotten.

By Dan Miller

Are interruptions affecting your brain?

A study by TNS Research and commissioned by Hewlett Packard concludes that workers who are distracted by frequent phone calls, e-mails, and text messages actually suffer a greater loss of IQ than someone who smokes marijuana!
The problem isn't the e-mail itself. The problem is the constant interruptions in your work day that reduce productivity and leave you feeling tired, lethargic, and unable to focus.

In 80 clinical trials, the IQ of 1,100 British workers was monitored throughout the day by Dr. Glenn Wilson, a psychiatrist at King's College in London. What he found is that when people tried to juggle e-mail, phone calls, and text messages along with their work, their IQs dropped by a full 10 points. That's the equivalent of missing an entire night's sleep and more than the four-point decline seen after someone smokes pot.

Alarming facts about how we use e-mail:
Fully two-thirds of workers check their e-mail when they aren't working, including on vacation.
50 percent respond to an e-mail within an hour of receiving it.
20 percent will interrupt a business or social engagement to respond to an e-mail.
90 percent said anyone who answers e-mail during face-to-face meetings is rude, but 30 percent admitted it's also a sign of diligence and efficiency.

"This is a very real and widespread phenomenon," Wilson told The Guardian newspaper. "We have found that this obsession with looking at messages, if unchecked, will damage a worker's performance by reducing their mental sharpness. Companies should encourage a more balanced and appropriate way of working."

The Guardian describes it like this: "E-mails in particular have an addictive, drug-like grip." A big part of the problem is an almost complete lack of discipline in handing e-mail. Most of us feel compelled to reply to each new message, and this leads to a relentless change in our mental direction.

Brenda Beatty in EMOTION MATTERS IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP (2000) says:

It takes courage (for school leaders) to risk making contact, apologizing for mistakes and facing discrepancies in perspective together; it takes awareness and courage to counterintuitively move toward the 'danger' (Maurer, 1995) of one's own fears and to make meaningful contact in relationship with those from whom leaders are traditionally isolated in bureaucratic hierarchies. In order to break free of the emotional mechanisms inherent in the enculturation ( Marshall and Greenfield, 1987) for privilege inherent in the self-replicating iron cage (Weber, 1958 : 181) of bureaucracy, leaders must break the emotional hold of hierarchical images of leadership that make relational leadership ( Regan and Brooks, 1995) so difficult to achieve. It will take commitment - to seek out and create whatever sources of support leaders may need in order to accomplish these objectives; to ask teachers for what they need and want from them, allowing themselves to be authentic and 'human" and providing the basis for the beginnings of relationship' recognizing that teachers can and must assist and support leaders too, in emotional as well as organizational ways if new ways of being in schools and in life are to be discovered.

What do you think?

Sleep deprivation is never pretty.

My wife had a lingerie party last night. The agent comes over and you get together a group of your friends. Based upon what people buy at the party, the person hosting the party gets a commission. I grabbed our kids and hid away on one of the bedrooms. What amuses me is that the party went on until well past 1 o’clock. Uproarious laugher was frequently heard, most of the jokes being about men. Not that I have a problem with that. What I find interesting is that how much of the laughter was about men not helping around the house. Then, when I blearily climbed out of bed at 6, as our eldest was up, I found all manner of hell in the form of tidying and washing up to be done. Irony?

Today is also the grand final of the rugby league season. This is the least excited I’ve ever been. Firstly, two teams are playing that I don’t particularly like. Secondly, usually there’s a David and Goliath story, but this year the teams are very similar. Thirdly, in its infinite wisdom, the governing body has the match on a Sunday night. Once upon a time it was in the afternoon, so you could have a few cold ones watching the lead-up games and have plenty of time to get yourself in order for work the next day. Now, that would not be a good thing to attempt.

In any case, I’m just sounding cranky today. Perhaps it’s going to work tomorrow after two weeks holiday that’s crowding in.

First Blog

Everyone else seems to have one, so I thought that I'd be a sheep and join the mob.

I've added links to my? our? web site, along with some selected personal information. I didn't think you'd want to see a picture of me here - for that, go to the web site.

Well, this is pretty much a test post, so, there's really nothing more than that.

Cheers