New Site

You may have notice that other then this post, there have been no recent posts. The reason being is that I have moved and renamed the blog.

The new name is:

From My Corner

and may be found at frommycorner.com

I hope to see you over there.

Today I made the switch. I went from being a PC user to becoming a Mac user. I went and make the jump to an iMac. I definately can see that this will be a learning process. So far I like what I see.

The Peter Principle and Fear

At my church, SouthGate, we are reading and discussing the book 'Tribes', by Seth Godin. Today we discussed "The Peter Principle" found on page 44.

This principle was proposed by Dr. Laurence Peter. He stated;

in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Seth Godin paraphrases it this way;

in every organization everyone rises to the level at which they become paralyzed with fear

He goes on to say;

The essence of leadership is being aware of your fear (and seeing it in the people you wish to lead). No, it won't go away, but awareness is the key to making progress.

A couple of pages over on page 46 he talks how fear is overrated. Two points he says that stand out to me are;

What people are afraid of isn't failure. It's blame. Criticism.

We chose not to be remarkable because we are worried about criticism.

When I think about stepping up and out in the midst of our fears, I think of the movie Braveheart, in particular this quote from William Wallace;

Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR FREEDOM!

When I relate this to my life, I think of it in these terms.

Step out and and take the lead, take that promotion with more responsibility and yes, you may fail, you may get mocked and ridiculed... Pass it up and you will be safe from that....at least for a little while. And sitting back in your retirement years, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and take that lead role, to become the leader that you were meant to be, and to tell your enemy (fear) that yes, I may fail, I may get mocked,others may ridicule me, but I am a leader and that, you can not take away from me!

As we were going over this topic this morning that particular scene in the movie kept running through my head.

Talk about fear, men leading others into battle, I mean real life and death battle. But yet, they have to overcome that fear, they have to instill in their men the ability to overcome their own fear. Their fear is legitimate, they could die. We are not just talking about fear of rejection, or be ridiculed because we made a bad decision.

So, for me, I can take that step, yes I still have fear that I may fail, but I will still be alive to try again. You may ridicule me for a decision, but I still have the opportunity to correct it and make it work.

So with that, I am going to step up and take the lead, I am going to be a leader when I see that one is needed or that it will help the tribe.

Dry

I do not know why, but I am in a really bad slump right now. I feel very dry, down and depressed. Nothing seems to help. My insides feel like they just want to split me open. Depression medication does not seem to be doing the trick. Nor does writing about it. So I am out.

I Sat Down and Made 2009 Goals

I sat down today to put to paper my goals for 2009. As I was putting my goals down I realized that they fell into a few different categories. They are; Personal, Family, Faith or Spiritual Relationship, Household,and Health. I am still working on them, so what I have here I may expound on. As I list them here, they are in no particular order. Here is what I have so far.



Personal
Read more books (min.1 per month)
Post on both of my blogs on a consistent basis (min. 1x per week)
Get a new Job!

Family
Spend more quality time with my wife Jin
Photograph,Photograph,Photograph,Photograph Jedidiah

Household
Replace carpet throughout house
Get back yard back into Better Homes and Garden shape

Health
Lose weight (down to 200 lbs) (47 lbs)
Eat healthier foods
Eliminate Caffeine
Begin running consistently again
Run at least 1 half marathon (Sunburst)(more if I can get back to that level soon)
Run some 10k races (Great Race, Steve's Run, Salmon Chase, and/or more)
Begin a strengthening routine
Run no less then 500 miles for 2009

Faith
Draw closer to God, Reignite the fire within
Read the Bible more consistently
Hold a small group (LifeGroup from LifeChurch.tv) each Saturday evening

Looky What I Got!!!!

Take a look at this baby
I wanted a pocket camera to have with me all the time. I was not trying to replace my professional cameras,but wanted something (1) less expensive to carry around and not worry about it as much. (2) For those moments when you just wish you had your camera. This little guy fits into to pocket watch pocket of my jeans and I forget I even have it there.

Some shots I have taken with it.



Click on this left image and see the amazing detail.











I also like the YouTube Ready feature on it as I plan on taking this on my runs and do a little RunCast ing with it.

Again I really like the size and the light weight of this camera to be able to take it with me on my runs. So all of you who also read my blog
Running Hoosier will be in for a treat when I get myself back on the road again.





And here is the meat;

The EX-S10 is the world's smallest and slimmest 10 megapixel, 3x zoom digital camera. It's stylish and easy to use. Simply drag and drop to share video with your iPod™, and easily upload to YouTube™. Capture memories frame by frame or in real time with powerful Exilim technology. Each Casio Exilim camera offers exclusive advantages and intuitive features that synch with your personal lifestyle and particular photo and video needs. Choose smart, reliable performance - choose Casio Exilim. Depend on digital.

Model: EX-S10
10MP
3x optical zoom
2.7" Super Clear LCD
Slim 0.58" design
iTunes Compatible Video Format
Video: H.264 MOV Format; Audio: AAC
Auto Shutter Mode
Advanced Face Detection/Recognition
YouTube Capture Mode



Image Capture Device:
Effective Pixels: Approx.10.1 megapixels
Imaging Element: 1/2.3 square primary color CCD, total 10.34 megapixels
Zoom: 3x optical zoom, 4x digital zoom (12 times both with optical and digital zoom)
Focus:

Contrast Detection Auto Focus
Focus Modes: Auto Focus, Macro Mode, Pan Focus, Infinity mode, Manual Focus
AF Area: Spot, Multi or Tracking; with AF assist lamp
LCD:

2.7" digital interface wide TFT color LCD, 230,160 (959 x 240) pixels
Light Metering Method:

Sensitivity Setting: Still: Auto/ ISO50/ ISO100/ ISO200/ ISO400/ ISO800/ ISO1600; Movie: Auto
Exposure:

Exposure Control Metering: Multi pattern / Center Weighted / Center Spot by CCD
Control: Programmed AE
Exposure Compensation: -2EV - +2EV by 1/3 EV step
Built-in Flash:

Modes: Auto / Flash off / Flash on / Soft Flash / Red eye reduction
White Balance:

Auto WB, Daylight, Overcast, Shade, Day white Fluorescent, Daylight Fluorescent, Tungsten, manual WB
Shooting Specifications:

Self-Timer: 10 second countdown, 2 second countdown, Triple self-timer
Recording Functions: Snapshot (with Audio), Marco, Self Timer, Continuous shutter (Normal Speed/High Speed/Flash Cont), Best Shot, Face Recognition, Movie (with Audio), YouTube, Voice recorder
Image Storage:

Built-in flash memory
SDHC Memory Card, SD Memory Card, MMC (MultiMedia Card), MMC plus (MultiMedia Card plus)
Image/Movie File Format:

Still Picture: JPEG (Exif Ver. 2.2), DCF1.0, DPOF
Movie: MOV file format H.264/AVC
Audio/AAC Voice: WAV
Number of Pixels: 3648 x 2736 / 3648 x 2432 (3:2) / 3648 x 2048 (16:9) / 3072 x 2304 / 2304 x 1728 / 1,600 x 1,200 / 640 x 480; Movie: 640 x 480 (UHQ / HQ / NORMAL) / 848 x 480 (UHQ Wide / HQ Wide) / 320 x 240 (LP)
Playback Specifications:

Image Deletion: One image / all images with memory protection function
Enlarge (8x), Resize, Trimming, Layout Print, Dynamic Range, White balance, Brightness, Keytone, Color Correction, Movie Playback, Movie Edit, Motion Print, 12-picture display, Rotate, Calendar, Slide show, Slide show BGM, Startup screen
Timekeeping: Built-in quartz digital clock
Date and Time: Recorded with image date, Time stamp, Auto calendar up to the year 2049, World time 162 cities (32 zones), City, Date, Time, DST
Interfaces:

Input/Output: USB/AV connection (Hi-Speed USB compatible)
Microphone/Speaker Monaural
Power Supply:

1x Li-Ion battery (NP-60)

A New Look