Category: VAULT Information

Am I Really Supposed to Believe…

That a company can be a technologically innovative, cutting edge, information driven entity when I get emails from them that have this on the bottom?

NOTICE: This message is covered by the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2510-2521. This e-mail and any attached files are the exclusive property of Pictometry International Corp., are deemed privileged and confidential, and are intended solely for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom this e-mail is addressed. If you are not one of the named recipient(s) or believe that you have received this message in error, please delete this e-mail and any attachments and notify the sender immediately. Any other use, re-creation, dissemination, forwarding or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful.

Does anyone in the world seriously believe that putting this crap at the bottom of am email actually protect them from ANYTHING?

Players win games, teams win championships

Some thoughts & quotes from John Maxwell’s “Equipping 101”

The most expensive employee isn’t the highest paid one, but the least productive one.

Attitude is:
-The advance man of our true selves.
-Our best friend or our worst enemy.
-Is more honest and more consistent that our words.
-Is the thing that draws people to us or repels them from us.
-Is the librarian of our past.
-Is the speaker of our present.
-Is the prophet of our future.

People become like their models. Who are our leaders models?

Finding good leaders is like mining for gold, you have to dig out 2 tons worth of dirt to find it but once found pays for all of the work.

You can tell a persons character by his/her relationships.

Finding talent in a business is no different than finding talent for a professional sports team. You have to recruit, scout, and draft the best you can find. Eventually, you will have to pay for that talent or risk loosing it; so stop investing in players that don’t grow.

Leaders attract potential leaders!

An organization’s Growth potential is directly related to its personnel potential.

As a potential leader you are either an asset to an organization or a liability to it.

This Too Shall Pass

The following are some of my favorite excepts from O.G. Mandio’s “The Greatest Salesman in the World.”  They are broken down by scroll number the quote comes from.  It is a short book that is really more of a “guide for living” than a “guide for selling”.

Scroll Number I:

“Time teaches all things to him who lives forever but I have not the luxury of eternity.”

“Failure is man’s inability to reach his goals in life, whatever they may be.”

“…the only difference between those who have failed and those who have succeeded lies in the difference of their habits… I will form good habits and become their slave.”

Scroll Number II:

“I will love the ambitious for they can inspire me!  I will love the failures for they can teach me.  I will love the kings for they are but human; I will love the meek for they are divine.  I will love the rich for they are yet lonely; I will love the poor for they are so many.  I will love the young for the faith they hold; I will love the old for the wisdom they share.  I will love the beautiful for their eyes of sadness; I will love the ugly for their souls of peace.  I will great this day with love in my heart.”

Scroll Number III:

“So long as there is breath in me, that long will I persist.  For now I know one of the greatest principles of success; if I persist long enough I will win.”

Scroll Number IV:

“I am nature’s greatest miracle.  Vain attempts to imitate others no longer will I make… I will begin now to accent my differences; hide my similarities.”

Scroll Number V:

” I will live this day as if it is my last… I will waste not a moment mourning yesterday’s misfortunes, yesterdays defeats, yesterday’s aches of the heart, for why should I throw good after bad.”

” I will avoid with fury the killers of time.  procrastination I will destroy with action; doubt I will bury under faith; fear I will dismember with confidence.”

“Henceforth I know that to court idleness is to steal food, clothing, and warmth from those I love. “

” This day I will make the best day of my life.  This day I will drink every minute to its full.  I will savor its taste and give thanks.  I will maketh every hour count and each minute I will trade only for something of value.  I will labor harder than ever before and push my muscles until they cry for relief, and then I will continue.”

Scroll Number VI:

“Today I will be master of my emotions… Weak is he who permits his thoughts to control his actions; strong is he who forces his actions to control his thoughts.”

“If I feel all-powerful I will try to stop the wind. If I attain great wealth I will remember one unfed mouth. If I become overly proud I will remember a moment of weakness.  If I feel my skill is unmatched I will look at the stars.”

Scroll Number VII:

“I will laugh at the world.  No living creature can laugh except man.”

” For all worldly things shall indeed pass.  When I am heavy with heartache I shall console myself that this too shall pass; when I am puffed with success I shall warn myself that this too shall pass. “

“Never will I allow myself to become so important, so wise, so dignified, so powerful, that I forget how to laugh at myself and my world.”

Scroll Number VIII:

“Today I will multiply my value a hundredfold… To surpass the deeds of others is unimportant; to surpass my own deeds is all.”

“I will commit not the terrible crime of aiming too low.  I will do the work that a failure will not do.  I will always let my reach exceed my grasp.”

Scroll Number IX:

“…dreams are worthless, my plans are dust, my goals are impossible.  All are of no value unless they are followed by action.  I will act now.”

“Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground.”

“I will not avoid the tasks of today and charge them to tomorrow for I know that tomorrow never comes.  Let me act now even though my actions may not bring happiness or success for it is better to act and fail than not act and flounder.”

“I will act now… When I awake I will say (these words) and leap from my cot while the failure sleeps yet another hour.”

“Tomorrow is the day reserved for the labor of the lazy.  I am not lazy.”

“This is the time.  This is the place.  I am the man.  I will act now.”

Scroll Number X:

“Guide me, God.”

The book itself has got me thinking about writing down the outline for my own personal philosophy.  I am not talking about a religious creed or a statement of beliefs but a guide to define the philosophy of life I would like to follow.  In ancient Greece, and to a lesser extent in later Roman cultures, it was common for the upper classes to adopt a philosophy of life.  In fact parents sent their sons to schools of philosophy, like Stoicism and Asceticism, partly to acquire such a philosophy.

And now for something completely

Working on an install of kubuntu that is farily non-standard and my lvm configuration caused grub to go totally insane. So are some notes I am posting from the live CD (that doesn’t have lvm configured.)

If separate /boot
$ sudo mount /dev/mapper/Qmail-root /mnt
$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
$ grub-install –root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

And here and here are some specific grub2 install information for Ubuntu.

The New Notebook

You may remember I had a post a while ago about my preferred notebook for organizing my life. Well they don’t make it anymore, but the replacement they have is even better.  Check out the Cambridge Limited Business Notebook – Action Planner. Here are the specs:

Planner pages include fields for Date, Project Number, Title, Notes and Action Items
  • 96 Sheets / book
  • 20-lb. Paper
  • 8-1/2″ x 11″
  • Black linen cover
  • Side-perforated sheets allow for clean removal
  • Mead Item Number: 06064

Our Place in this World

I have worked pretty hard to make sure that Vault will always remain an ad free site. That said, I have a number of people ask me what my hosting service is and if I would like to be referenced when they purchase hosting.

So here is a link to hostmonster.com (just click on the picture) that will give rockerssoft.org credit. They have been WONDERFUL for me (especially compared to my old hosting service) and so I can honestly recommend them. If you never need hosting or already like your hosting service; then you can safely ignore this post.

the closest man will ever get to flying

I understand that this is basically old news to anyone who knows me but a couple months ago (April 26th to be precise) I ran my first marathon.  The reason I am posting this now is because I wanted to document some of the event/training specifics before I forget them or loose them forever.

This whole thing basically started almost a year earlier when a good friend of mine , Jack,  and I were discussing what it was like to accomplish such a feet.  Jack has run a dozen or so marathons and 1 ultra-marathon.  I told him I could never make a 26.2 mile run, which seemed like a reasonable expectation considering my admittedly slightly inebriated state.  Jack assured me that I could do it (assuming I completed the necessary training) which, evidently, seemed a simple task, considering his less slightly inebriated state.  Jack then offered me a carrot.  He told me that if I ever attempted a marathon (after completing the necessary training) he would run it with me.  Thankfully his wife remembered making this promise because Jack’s above mentioned intoxication kept him from remembering said agreement.

You can read here, here, and here for updates on each stage of my training.  Basically I had to start from walking.

After training for the Tulsa half-marathon I immediately started planning for a full marathon.  I went looking for a half-to-full training plan.  It was harder to find that I expected mostly because I wanted one that only had me running 4 days a week, which was the upper limit of time that I could dedicate to it.  Here is my 5 month training schedule.

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Week 1 4 Miles 4 Miles 4 Miles 6 Miles
Week 2 4 Miles 4 Miles 4 Miles 8 Miles
Week 3 4 Miles 4 Miles 4 Miles 6 Miles
Week 4 4 Miles 4 Miles 4 Miles 10 Miles
Week 5 4 Miles 4 Miles 4 Miles 8 Miles
Week 6 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 12 Miles
Week 7 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 8 Miles
Week 8 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 14 Miles
Week 9 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 8 Miles
Week 10 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 16 Miles
Week 11 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 9 Miles
Week 12 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 10 Miles
Week 13 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 18 Miles
Week 14 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 10 Miles
Week 15 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 20 Miles
Week 16 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 11 Miles
Week 17 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 22 Miles
Week 18 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 12 Miles
Week 19 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 12 Miles
Week 20 4 Miles 5 Miles 4 Miles 24 Miles
Week 21 2 Miles 2 Miles 2 Miles 5 Miles
Week 22 2 Miles 2 Miles Walk 2 Miles Marathon

The marathon I chose was the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon here in Oklahoma. The OKC Memorial Marathon is generally picked as one of the better marathons in the country and it certainly lived up to my expectations. Everything seemed to go smoothly (minus maybe the pasta diner, but those always seem a little “school cafeteria” like.) Jack came as promised, along with his family, and the result made the whole weekend feel like a party (again with mild intoxication.)

My daughter decided earlier in the year to run the kids marathon (25 miles of training in the months before the marathon and the last 1.2 the day of.)  So Jack’s wife ran with my daughter (and her newborn baby) on the kids 1.2 miler.  They gave the kids mini-medals just like the adult marathon and even had them finish at the same finish line (not particularly common for kids-marathons.)  Emily ate her body weight in finish line hamburgers and cookies.

There were a couple surprises for me.  First, I have almost no recollection of running the first 8 miles.  They were so exciting, so overwhelming, so enthusiastic that I was amazed when I saw the 8 mile marker.  Second, although I thought I had prepared for the wind… there was NO WAY to be ready for what happened.  We ran with our backs to the wind for the first 13 miles  or so (I had a 9 minute mile at that point) but when we headed into the second half we hit 40 mph winds coming off of Lake Hefner.  It was like that the entire way back.

OKC Memorial Marathon Finish

I started cramping up at the last quarter mile (as the course finished on a down-hill.)  Jack and I speed-up to finish and I can honestly say with all the excitement that I felt no pain.  It had been hours since they had run the kids marathon and I didn’t really hold out any hope that I would see anyone I knew but I was pleasantly surprised.  Jack’s wife, his newborn son, and my daughter were about 100 feet from the finish line.  I saw her and started getting tears in my eyes.  If you look at the picture above… that look I had wasn’t pain.  My daughter ran along the sidewalk, slipped past the rail barriers, and through her arms around me after I finished. Her first word were, “I am so proud of you daddy.”  My emotions poured out as I hugged her.  It was one of the best moments of my life.

Jack and I crossed the finish line side-by-side.  We finished in just under 5 hours.  It is almost impossible to go through an experience like this  not be changed by it and, I am sure that it goes without saying, that Jack is like a brother to me now.  Whatever else happens to me I will now be able to call myself a marathoner.

where there is no path and leave a trail.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Haven’t heard this song in a long while. It is an old Boy Scout hiking tune that seeps of longing and sadness. Makes me miss camping on cool fall mornings:

The Happy Wanderer

I love to go a-wandering,
Along the mountain track,
And as I go, I love to sing,
My knapsack on my back.

Chorus:
Val-deri,Val-dera,
Val-deri,
Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha
Val-deri,Val-dera.
My knapsack on my back.

I love to wander by the stream
That dances in the sun,
So joyously it calls to me,
"Come! Join my happy song!"

I wave my hat to all I meet,
And they wave back to me,
And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
From ev'ry green wood tree.

High overhead, the skylarks wing,
They never rest at home
But just like me, they love to sing,
As o'er the world we roam.

Oh, may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die!
Oh, may I always laugh and sing,
Beneath God's clear blue sky!