Monday Night Football

I posted some photos from our trip to see the Broncos in my .Mac web gallery.

The Smoke House Burger had 2" of shoestring onion fries to smash down before you even have a chance of fitting it in your mouth. It was delicious. I wish we'd gotten a shot of their Wall o' Screens off to my right. A giant screen in the center that reaches top to bottom, and twelve smaller screens to the sides. They had a row of six black leather recliners with little armrest tables. It was so beautiful. (They have pictures on their web site, including a picture of the burger.)

The seats were on the front row of the upper tier. There was our row of seats, room to walk, and then the rest of the crowd was up behind is. We had a totally unobstructed view of the field. It was a great game, and we won. We couldn't have asked for better weather – 55° and clear.

Preseason starts in August, right?

A Better-Looking Dock

I just finished transforming this:



into this:



TUAW this morning had a blurb about a new version of Dock Library, a handy little app that takes user-submitted resources from various sites and takes care of the swapping about for you. It offers a preview of what the Dock will look like (using your own desktop background, no less) and lets you switch between skins rather easily. A fine piece of freeware, if you ask me.

"So what about the stacks?" That's a very clever hack that I found this morning. Each "box" is a small file (with the appropriate icon) that stays at the front of the stack. The perspective of the box gives it a wonderful 3-D effect.

I skinned my work computer this morning, and my iMac just now. I haven't had this much fun playing with Stacks since they first appeared in Leopard.

"Is any of this useful, or just eye candy?" The darker Dock is just eye candy, but the Stack boxes are practical. This way, I have a quickly discernible label to help me identify which Stack is which. At work, I regularly use six Stacks, and this little trick helps me to identify the one I'm looking for without having to hover the cursor over the stack for the tooltip to appear. And it just plain looks cool, and good aesthetics never hurts a workflow.

The Cure for Global Warming: Scoot Back

From "Scientists Predict When World Will End" (via Fox News):

The University of California, Santa Cruz…proposes taming an asteroid to swing by the Earth every few thousand years, slowly nudging the Earth into higher solar orbit.

Wow.

Clam Chowder and Mission Impossible on a Rainy Day

Life is good.

Finished Reading: What Matters Most

I finished reading What Matters Most over the weekend. I think this was the first time I've read it, but I'm not sure. Smith does a fantastic job of going over the high-level planning process – discovering your core values, writing your personal mission statement, and setting long- and short-range goals. Great for vision and strategic planning.

If you'd like something that deals with the art of executing, I'd recommend First Things First by Stephen R. Covey and Roger and Rebecca Merrill. First Things First briefly covers goals and the importance of vision, and then guides you through the process of translating that vision into action. Combined, they're the best books on successful time and life management that I've read.

A word on David Allen's Getting Things Done: Yes, I've read it. I even got a few good pointers out of it, like the importance of capturing ideas immediately and identifying the next action you can take towards a project/goal. Overall, however, I consider the GTD system to be incomplete. It takes a shotgun approach to your time – how can you be sure to do as many things as you possibly can? The problem is that GTD makes no allowance for making sure that you're doing the right things, just that you're getting lots of things done. Doing more things faster isn't a substitute for making sure you're doing the right things. GTD is better than no system at all; just realize that you'll need to keep prioritization in mind when working with it. I prefer the fourth-generation process described by Covey et al, and What Matters Most dovetails quite nicely with it.

The Blossoms Are Arriving

This is the courtyard inside our chapel. Last week, they were bare.
This week, they're in full blossom. Spring is creeping up on us.

Stopping Time at Grand Central Station

This would be so fun, either to witness or to be a part of.  Kudos and props.  I love the applause at the end.

They're a group called Improv Everywhere if you want to learn more about them.

Is a Dollar Always a Dollar?

Mental Accounting: Is A Dollar Always A Dollar? » My Money Blog

I thought this was a pretty good post. (I don't know the author, if you're wondering.)

It kind of reminds me of a concept I first heard about from Brian Tracy: Zero-Basing. The problem is that we often feel tied to a situation because of what we've already put into it. Zero-basing involves asking yourself two questions. First:

Is there anything in your life/business/portfolio/house which, if you had known then what you know now, you never would have gotten involved with?

If the answer to that question is yes, then you ask yourself a second question:

How fast can you get out?

Free Copy of Women and Money

If you'd like a free copy of Women and Money by Suze Orman, you can go to Oprah's web site by 8 pm EST tomorrow (Feb 14) and download a free copy of it from this page.  It's part of a tie-in with Suze's appearance on Oprah's show today.

And by “easy”, I mean…

Well, my reading list is in the sidebar now. We'll see how easy it is to maintain…

This has me thinking: Do I want to include audiobooks?

Finished Reading: The Divine Center

I started reading The Divine Center back in England.  I borrowed a copy from a member there.  I think I got about 8 chapters into it.  Then I borrowed my dad's copy and got another chapter or two into it.  Last summer, I found where someone was selling a hardback copy on Amazon for $5, so I snatched it up, and was able to finish reading it in my very own personal copy.  It's a good book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who's interested.  I did think the first half was a bit dry; all I remember is paragraphs and paragraphs that could be summed up neatly by the provided figures. The second half is excellent, though, and perhaps the first half lays the foundation for that.

So what book will I start next?  Hopefully nothing.  Hopefully I'll finish another book or two before adding a new one to the list.  At a glance around the house, I'm currently reading:

Women and Money by Suze Orman.

The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith.

Papa Married a Mormon by John D. Fitzgerald.  (I'm reading this with Nicole.)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to MBA Basics by Tom Gorman.

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith by, well, Joseph Smith.

A Mormon in the White House? by Hugh Hewitt.

What Matters Most by Hyrum W. Smith.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen R. Covey. (I've read this before, and I'm going through it now again with Nicole.)

Thomas S. Monson once said that if performance is measured, performance improves, and if performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement increases.  Now to see if there's an easy way I can update this list, and have it appear in the side bar…

I'll be a Sunbeam [Leader] for Him

That's right.  After three months of being a cub scout den mother, I am now a Sunbeam teacher.  I have six little three-year-olds to teach.  It should be fun.  I went into the class this past Sunday to observe.  Most of them are very active.  I think I'm going to spend my whole time telling them to sit down..."on their seaters, not their knees."  But they are so cute.  And I love that I get to sing primary songs again!

The funniest part about this is, when I was called the counselor said that several people in the ward kept talking about how good I am with kids.  That's kind of them...but nobody in this ward has seen me work with kids.  I wonder how come they thought I would be good at this?  Oh well, again, it's kind of them to say so.

Favorite Ads from SuperBowl XLII

This was an off year for SuperBowl ads. A lot of the ads had already aired, and many of the new ones just lacked oompf.  There were some good ones, though.  My favorites:

Pepsi Max.  The cameo with Chris Kattan is the best.

Wall•E.  He's cute.

Budweiser. I've seen this one labelled both "Clydesdale Training" and "Rocky".  Anheuser-Bush has done some of my favorite ads over the years, including 2002's tribute and last year's "Rock Paper Scissors".

Also be sure to check out the Prince Caspian trailer.

Thankful Friday

After reading Bryony's Thankful Thursday posts, I've been thinking about all the things I'm thankful for.  So although it's not Thursday, here are a few examples:

Colter: I too am married to my favorite person in the whole world.  I am so grateful for Colter's constant love and support and example, especially at this time as I prepare for the dance show.  I love how he makes me laugh and smile and that he knows when to be serious too.

Dance: When I graduated from high school, I had printed under my photo in the yearbook "To swim is to live, to live is to dance."  The swimming has had to be set aside a little.  But I am so glad that I can still dance.  It renews me physically and emotionally.  And I am especially grateful to still be at Marie Stinnett's studio.  It's truly my second home, and the staff there is part of my extended family.

Work:  work is a blessing--whether it's office work or work around the house.  Sometimes I have a hard time remembering that when things blow up in my face or one email sends my whole day upside-down.  But I am grateful for a job and for a home to take care of.

My family:  Not much explanation needed here.  And we all get to stay together for eternity!

Food, clothes, a bed and an apartment, a car... the necessities of life.  

Education:  Aside from the fact that I have a good job because of my education, I thoroughly enjoyed being a student.  I know that it is a privilege to be able to go to school and I'm grateful for wonderful teachers and professors who instructed me.

The United States of America:  The two blessings I just mentioned are in large part a result of living here.  This truly is the land of promise and opportunity.  I enjoy traveling to some other countries.  But there is only one place I want to live and I'm so glad I was born here.

The California Bay Area:  I've been to some beautiful places in other parts of the country and world.  But I've never seen any place more beautiful than Carmel beach and Monterey Bay.  Also, there are the dear hills by my parents' home.  They look so beautiful when the clouds come rolling over--and the smell of the breeze coming off those hills in the evenings is intoxicating.

Music:  Good music speaks to my soul.  It would be an empty life without it.