Only 2 Posts...

*Sigh*

I wish I could say that I foresee more time for blogging in the future, but next month is going to be a whirlwind of chaos with seemingly everything happening all at once.  But I am sad that I have only gotten to this forum twice in the entire month.  So much has been happening within my life and my thoughts and heart and I wish I had some time to chronicle it, but oh well.  It is what it is.  Now is not the season for blogging.

But, just to run through a few of the things on my mind lately....

1 - THE YANKEES ARE IN THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!!!!  And all is right with the world.  I can hardly watch the games from fear that I will have a heart attack/jinx my team from winning.  Every single pitch is a tense moment - on both sides!  And this is probably the best baseball that I have watched in a long, long, long time.  Good pitching will always prevail over amazing hitting.  And blown umpire calls are a part of the game - always have been, always will be - as long as both sides get blown calls evenly!

2 - Afghanistan and Pakistan - Every single day this situation gets worse and worse.  My heart breaks for the people living there, caught in the middle of this conflict.  And there are no easy answers on how to deal with either nation.  Half of Pakistan and Afghanistan want to be ruled by the Taliban again.  But the fact that the State Department and the White House would consider this an acceptable resolution (letting the Taliban become the governing body) is sickening from a human rights standpoint.  Not that what is currently happening is not sickening as well though.  There are no easy answers here and historically speaking, there is no way to win a guerrilla war when the population in general wants you gone.

3 - I am so excited for this coming November!  I am going to get to experience so many amazing things from concerts with classical music masters, alternative rock concerts, the premiere b-boy hip-hop dance event of the year, and a few plays here and there.  The creative part of my brain doesn't even know how to process all of these coming awesome events!

4 - The leaves are gorgeous right now, though there are a lot of trees that are now bare!! It makes me sad that the dark winter months of bare trees and cold are ahead - though there can be beauty found within them as well - but you have to look really hard for it.  For now, I will revel in the ending of fall as these particular last days are a showcase of God's creation in all of its glory.  Hopefully, as I age and grow closer to death my life will be a reflection of the beauty of God's creation in all of its glory as well.

5 - A family reunited is a beautiful thing.  My sister is home from Australia for the next few months and I wish I could put into words the completeness there is in having her home.  There really aren't words.

There is more, much more that is also going on, including the restoration of my heart and soul after a particularly hard summer.  I hope that at some point I get to process and digest in further detail, but I can say that I know - truly, deeply know - that God loves me.  His love is more profound than I can even describe and I am so grateful that He has blessed the eyes of my heart to see that realization.

Again, there really aren't words.

Book Review: How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In by Jim Collins


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When it comes the business world portion of my life I have a few gurus who's word and findings I absolutely trust for the truth that they present.  Jim Collins is one such author.  His seminal work, "Good to Great" was the best business book I have ever read. His first work that he coauthored, "Built to Last" was harder for me to get into, as evidenced by the fact that it still is sitting in my "Currently Reading" list.  But this gem, "How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In" is right up there with "Good to Great".

Collins religiously backs up all of his findings with amazing rigorous research. He and his team are top-notch when it comes to backing up their claims, and being a history major where research was crucial to anything I wrote, I highly appreciate all the work that they have put into their findings.

"How The Mighty Fall" is a cautionary tale and it clearly depicts how some of the best companies in various industries fell victim to one or more of the 5 Stages of Decline and as a result never recovered their former industry positions and either declared bankruptcy or were bought out by a competitor. Coming at a time in our current history, where businesses are being scrutinized under a microscope and where many were victims of the capitulation of the financial industry, Collins' stages of decline help make sense of some of the chaos that has gone on in the market. What is more interesting though is that Collins and his team wrote this book before any of the events in 2007/2008 had taken place. Thus they do not directly address the recession that we are currently in, save for in a few appendices that are included at the end of the book (and which are well worth the read).

Collins references that this book was not planned and actually was a side-project that came out of another book that he and his team are working on. If that is the case, I hope it is not too much longer till that is published!

View all my reviews >>

I'm Crazy

So earlier this year, I happened to watch one of the most amazing dance competitions called "Red Bull BC One" and wrote the following:

"...After watching the Red Bull BC One, I have decided that if I believed in reincarnation, I would want to come back to earth as a B-Boy. Being 27, I think I have missed out on this dream, but man oh man, how I wish I knew about it back when I was a kid (dang sheltered CT childhood). I don't think I would have been any good at it, but who knows? Maybe I would have actually developed a sense of rhythm or something? Anyway, those guys are all so cool and I just wish I had a smidgen of their talent, but alas, just like ABDC, I am relegated to just uber-appreciating their amazing skill and creativity. Maybe I can somehow become their best friend? Or figure out how to just get in the audience of one of those shows, because those people looked so cool."

Well, I figured out how to get in the audience.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In November I'll be traveling to NYC to be in row 1 to watch Red Bull BC One and see some of the best B-Boys in the world dance! I can hardly believe that I actually have tickets and will actually be going to the competition. It's pretty unreal.

Now, I just need to figure out how to look cool and I'll be all set!