Marty Floyd’s Weblog

Wow!

I took a break this past winter. I worked on some personal projects. Painting inside and outside, ripping out my master bath and pulling a “Bob Villa” style do-over. I patched my roof, tore down my pool.

This past March I went down to Charleston S.C. to attend a funeral. My aunt, the one who basically taught me to water ski and had the most infectious laugh, was gone physically.

I was a reality shock for me. She was only 16 years older than me. I felt as though my life was slipping away. I know it becomes natural to “feel mortality” but I was not ready yet. I muddled along until spring was warm and breezy.

I started working in the yard pulling weeds, cutting off pieces of trees that were damaged by a particularly wet and snowy winter.

I tore out flower beds, re-mulched and replanted the beds. I had carpet torn out and new carpet installed.

I did a big shake up of personal items. I took one room at a time (it did not matter to me….I am the project manager for this segment. I am the person responsible. THEN I MADE A BARGAIN. I said that if I could find currency with the object I would sent it over for review/reconditioning. If the item better served an older requirement or was of no particular use/advantage it got dumped.

I made the comment that if anything was special to somebody they should take a picture of it and then say goodbye to it.

That is kind of where I am today. Do I really need this and if so why?

This process takes away from the hoarding mentality. It provides mobility, saves time, resource and money.

With the pictures you may still conjure up the memories and feelings that are good or important.

Think about what is collected, why is it collected, what advantage it provides other than satisfaction of impulse. This is one reason retail grocery stores in particular place cute or tasty items next to the checkout stations. They count on the old queue concept that they analyze to their benefit. If they know the checkout line will consistently have 4-6 patrons waiting it becomes easier to move (sell) small items. Do the thought process fairly often on what, why, what and it becomes natural. You end up with a good system of inventory, storage facilities and usable materials. You also don’t have to spend days getting STUFF ready so you can spend all day on Saturday having a yard sale and/or donating the stuff that has kept you from finding many things you knew were out in the garage somewhere.

Time on the other hand is different. It is given freely, for a price, or is taken and becomes lost. Time is a lot of things but patience is not one of it’s better qualities. Time decides “how long” and gives no more. It is gone. Take close heed of your time. Once spent it can not be spent again.

Stop, find your quiet place, relax, decompress and allow any stress to leave your space.   Clear current thoughts. Breath. Repeat your key word like “OHM” over and over while watching your breathing pattern slow down. Now choose what you want to focus your mind and energy on. Solve some problem or create an easier solution or a safer solution or a more productive solution. You can even waste some time looking at those animals that seem to pop up every time you take some time to just be, to look at the clouds and say what better way to spend my time right now.

Take some time.

The State of the Union address last night from President Obama sounded like an apology and also like asking for a little latitude and support. He is a truly great speaker but the political forces both in the United States and in the world make it very hard to maintain the stamina, course of action, power to affect change and be a master negotiator. He kept referring to his campaign promises during his speech. He said he needed help to make his promises come to fruition. No kidding bub. Fathers and forefathers learned this concept throughout the history of these United States. 

This is a reality that everyone in the history of the world has learned. Like King Solomon, anybody with ambition, anyone who strives to be in charge (of whatever their mind believes is their destiny) learns at some point in their life that nothing in this physical plane lasts. Almost without exception everyone who comes undone as an individual has fallen to a vanity that is consuming. This is especially true of public figures from athletes to presidents. Even candidates for president have fallen from “grace”.

The news today also told us that “The Catcher of the Rye” author died today. Some say he lived most of his life after that book was written as a recluse. He appears to have become a victim of his fame. He lived 91 years, or he existed for many years. He had a passion for writing but after his fame from “The Catcher” he said all of the piles of paper all over his residence since he withdrew from people were written for himself. Sounds to me like a few I have known who literally “lost touch”.

I do find myself looking back at the times of growing up with awe and amazement. One thought, aside from all the good memories, is that I still get a little chill thinking about how I made it out of those awkward times.

I remember walking several miles at night to get to and from high school football games. I did the same playing baseball on Pony, Colt, American Legion and high school teams.

In all those times I only had a couple of incidents that could have ended badly. Once a “very bad” dude and his friend stopped me (I was walking towards them so I could not avoid them). I was walking home on a chilly night after playing ball. The dude said something about me and my baseball uniform. Then he said I’ll bet you think you are pretty cool, huh. I answered immediately that I felt pretty good about myself (not the brightest thing I ever said). He looked kind of surprised (actually dumbfounded). He grabbed my cleats that were unfortunately hanging around my neck. Now I am looking at my metal cleats in my face wondering how badly I am going to feel in the next few minutes. To my complete shock he threw my cleats (still tied around my neck) against my chest and said that I should be careful walking home late at night. He continued with “you never know who you’re going to run into on the street”. Another time I was riding in a friends car and he was going pretty fast. We came around a corner sliding and still “hauling” when we both saw a car in our lane that we knew was going slow because we were approaching very fast. I looked and there was a car coming the other way and there was a car parked on the side of our part of the road. I sensed that he would have to try to go between the parked car and the slow mover in front of us. He obviously was thinking the same thing. He sped up and “aimed” for the space between the slow moving car and the parked car. It was like slow motion and quiet as I saw the gap and felt us pass through that space. Neither of us said anything for a while. We both knew that we had dodged a very bad outcome and that we certainly had to believe that we were not alone that night.

I won’t dwell on this day any longer except to say the stock market fell over a hundred points, the Supreme Court was “flogged” in public to the chagrin of some of the justices, one in ten people looking for a job don’t have one and the people of this country surely came away from the ninety minute “state of the union” address with a little apprehension and ill feelings.

I say that we should all pay attention and heed what people have said all my life. I can’t count the number of times I have been cautioned to not believe everything we hear no matter who says it, believe only half of what we see until we can prove it to ourselves and always remain cautiously optimistic in our sense of what is going on as our present becomes history. Arrogance does not really count as an attribute. Hear (here) is one song that I really like about everybody, especially this guy who really hated it when my son told him it was one of my favorites. He immediately turned off the radio when he heard what my son innocently commented on about the song. he was my son’s stepfather.

The song is “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. There are a couple of others included that have been big to me. One is from “forty licks” by the Rolling Stones called “Miss You”. I was looking at the tongue picture from the album that was pretty big back in the day. I had this thought (or flashback) at the time about when I was in the service and met this good-looking girl and asked her for a date.

I had told her my name was Muffy. Much later that night I told her my last name was Diver. Pretty stupid on my part because when I knocked on the door to pick her up for our date she introduced me to her father “dad, this is Muffy Diver”. I was kinda frozen and quickly shook his hand and asked her if she was ready to go. She said yes and I could hardly move fast enough to get into my car. I am still wondering about that night. 

So here are the songs I was referring to earlier. 

Miss You - Rolling Stones

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOf0FsA0Fio

Professional Concert Version - Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears For Fears

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMjzxHzZnnI

Listen To The Music - Doobie Brothers

 http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/music/watch/v294452pMYWAJkc

Why Worry - Dire Straits

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im2SoltmZEc 

“Another Odyssey in 2010″ may be a better title than the one I used for this post.

We have all (a lot of us) come into this decade knowing that we will not see a “cost of living” increase in our social security or federal pensions. The reason is that there is no corresponding index (CPI) increase that warrants more income needs in 2010 than in 2009. I also have taken a few economic and statistical courses. Enough training and course work to know that you can make numbers say anything you want (to say) with enough attention to the requirement you want to justify.

Does anyone really believe this with a national unemployment rate of 10%; one out of ten people actually looking for a job can not find one?

I have a little problem myself. The cost of energy, medical requirements, insurance costs, lower health benefits with higher deductibles. That does not include higher cost of many food products, higher automotive gasoline costs, shelter prices and others.

I for one have a lot of health insurance requirements ($800 per month) to go along with high family medical requirements ($500 per month not covered by insurance). I for one can not refinance my home to lower payments and have lost home value to the point that I can not obtain a home loan to fix/maintain my older home. My cars (both over ten years old) have to be kept (no budget available, no income to buy new) and they have had some big repair costs in last couple of years.  I have had water damage that my home owners insurance does not cover for flooring where it can not be proven that it was not from seeping, or structural integrity. I live on a sloping lot (yard descending from home about six inches to about thirty in twenty five foot run). I live on a lot that is not included in a 100 year flood plane. I had purchased water damage insurance in case of damage from inside my home. So I pulled up the padding to avoid mold and other probable issues. 

I am not one to complain, usually. My family is living on a fixed income so increasing medical and health care costs, coupled with being at a point where my home and cars need “added” care, are cause for “alarm”.

I am working on my resolution for 2010, my 2010 financial plan and and my 2010 life plan. I am already tired so I am going to take a break for now and go shower (in less than high enough water temperature to enjoy the relaxational benefit).

Oh! Moreover, I am very thankful for all the blessings I have in my life. I am not overly concerned with the future as I know my God will provide what I need when it becomes a large enough issue (that I need his help or intervention). Some people call it a just-in-time thing like saving costs by obtaining materials just as they are needed (just-in-time inventory).

I for one do believe in obtaining spiritual guidance while also believing in Gestalt and Existentialism. I also believe that you can manifest anything you need (per doctors Chopra and Dyer). The reality of instantiation, soul, universal, and potentiality quietens my mind. I no longer try to over-think or worry (anxiously) what “may” come. I accept that I am and that I will be.

May the new decade provide your every need (in your own odyssey with your own help).

God bless. 

Why would anyone (who has the historical perspective of what happens when you do not keep your vows) go ahead and have an adulterous affair anyway?

I have an opinion. Everyone is capable of doing anything given the right circumstances, or triggers. We are both the best of and the worst of humanity. Adultery is almost a given potentiality when a person has a vanity problem, a superiority complex, or simply believes they can do whatever.

I remember commentary once about why Tiger would want to date a “blond-haired white girl” and the response was because he could. It did not appear to be a racial commentary but a factual one. That seemed almost to be an omen of what was to come. How many egos have felt they could do anything they wanted? Many.

How many times have we heard of athletes not being accountable, not to themselves or their families, nor to the people who pay for their efforts, for their product endorsements. It should be a given that public figures like Tiger present the best values and ideals to people, since they are advocates for and to so many people. Most especially their impact on the children who revere them as a role model (for the life and qualities they aspire to possess).   

News broke today (from Tiger) that he has had affairs, one for years. The highest paid, most competitive, “pressure composed” person in professional sports “is only human”, “is not perfect”, “regrets tremendously what has happened”.

I remember reading about this guy Solomon who had the same problem - vanity.

Damn Tiger, I can hardly believe the news.     

I forgot a couple of other synchronous events from my earlier post on coincidence. That movie (2001 A Space Odyssey) had a character named Dr. Floyd  (sort of odd in matching my last name).

In the “story” there was a piece of the film depicting a futuristic type scene where a man became very old and then turned into a new world. I have often thought of rebirth from a full existence. Many believe in reincarnate as the “soul” living everlasting as a “universal” part of unlimited potentiality.  Such as the quote that goes something like you in me and me in you (both part of the same eternal).

The mind is a funny thing when it comes to finding something you have misplaced or awaking you with some knowledge or information. Thinking about something and then sitting for answers or ideas is a fundamental blessing. I call it the universal mind or master mind alliance.

It works. The unconscious augments or takes over a thought, problem or situation to come up with resolutions or answers that elude the consciousness.

It is akin to turning something over to God.

Self never provides lasting results. The ego, vanity, self-serving or uncaring will always suffer what is called hell. Eventually!

Positive thinking, persisting, doing, caring provide for lasting good shared with the universal.

Take this to heart and act accordingly.

“Paraprhasing” my thinking managers guys: 

• Jack Welch created spectacular value at General Electric: How to create the culture and management behaviours that make for and maximise market leadership.

• Bill Gates built Microsoft into the enabling force of the software revolution: How to exploit your own vision of the future by taking tough, powerful decisions in the present.

• Andy Grove drove Intel to become a magnificent microprocessor machine: How to optimise the pay-offs from dynamic advantages - and from reacting to near-total failure.

• Warren Buffett created the greatest fortune ever derived from straight investment

• Peter Drucker created the genre of management writing and changed the way managers manage: How to master the crucial difference between the Efficient (good) and the Effective (critical).

• Stephen R Covey sold 10 million copies of The Seven Secrets of Highly Effective People: How to succeed in business by helping yourself to help other people to enjoy lasting success.

• Tom Peters sold 7 million copies of In Search of Excellence: How to keep pace with today’s changes in management that make performance fast, free and furiously good.

• Charles Handy has changed the way we think about management and society: How to transcend the traditional organisation and manager with better ways of life and thought.

I have read the above people’s writings and they have personally affected me mentally and physically in my approach and  actions.

My birthday today, September 23. As many people I started to go down memory lane. I looked at early pictures trying to get in touch with and “feel” the time when I got my “Davy coonskin hat” or my dog, bullet, or my first love, or my first car.

Then I shifted my thinking to about love, family, and work.

Physically, I have spent the last week organizing information for me. Mental, polyneuropathy, poor balance, digestive  processing (poor absorption of vitamins and minerals) are all equally disturbing. Some information follows:

Please note that if you click on the http links in this post you will have to use your browser page back function (like the back arrow on Internet Explorer) to return to this blog entry from the external link. 

http://www.mmbandt.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cns-1.bmp

My doctors have explained “my” situation regarding affects of age, quality of life and expectations based on the genetics passed on from the “family tree”.

I was told that to some extent I could modify the affects of genetics by focusing on environmental aspects of living.

http://www.mmbandt.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cns-2.bmp

I tried to follow the above diagram but it became a little fuzzy like the next picture.

http://www.mmbandt.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/cns-3.bmp

The underlying information was that I am “pre” disposed to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides, stroke, heart attack, mental conditions, a pot belly, cataracts, skin problems, like stucco keratosis, pattern baldness, graying hair, nervous system or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA axis) problems, neuroendocrinology, the inability to extract nutrients (process vitamins and minerals critical for health/maintenance) and last, but not least, the fact that hypothalamic development and response to an acute stressor is determined by pre-pubertal stress in early life.

One link I reference in trying to understand and track the main aspects is

(http:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamus)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothalamus 

The previous link is where I reviewed the connections and references with a certain amount of awe. I came from a thought, an energy pulse. I am part of the “I am”; my journey yet the self knowing, part of the One. What simplicity, what complexity. “Is or is not.” - Yoda in Star Wars. “Believe” is what my mother said so many years ago to me. Simply believe.

It is not about “self” or “id”. It is all about the soul, that part of all, that detachment from self, the inner peace detached from the outcome of events.

I could go on and on with the topic of time and energy, selflessness, unlimited incarnations, presence (force) in a rock, a tree, a plan. DNA, we have far fewer pairs/strings/genes than the monkey. Sameness as in a seed. It can be dormant and unchanged until an event takes place (watering). Then it turns into a something that is the same as (a seed of grass for example). Maybe that is where the old Bible saying came from when telling (people) to have the faith of a muster seed. Now I understand the real meaning. Even the mustard seed knows everything it needs to know.  

The universe is said to be made up of some 10% of what should have existed from the “big bang”. The other 90% is now called dark matter (because we can’t see it). I think it is all potentiation waiting to exist. Is this nonstuff waiting to instantly become whatever is needed? I believe so. See, I have always been what is called an existentialist. I have always been drawn to people like Carl Segan.

Happy Birthday to me…..and you have a nice day. See you soon.

‘Progress is due to the unreasonable person.
The reasonable person seeks to adjust to the world. The unreasonable person seeks to change it’. Shaw

http://www.thinkingmanagers.com/prewp/pwmani203

• Jack Welch created spectacular value at General Electric: How to create the culture and management behaviours that make for and maximise market leadership.

• Bill Gates built Microsoft into the enabling force of the software revolution: How to exploit your own vision of the future by taking tough, powerful decisions in the present.

• Andy Grove drove Intel to become a magnificent microprocessor machine: How to optimise the pay-offs from dynamic advantages - and from reacting to near-total failure.

• Warren Buffett created the greatest fortune ever derived from straight investment

• Peter Drucker created the genre of management writing and changed the way managers manage: How to master the crucial difference between the Efficient (good) and the Effective (critical).

• Stephen R Covey sold 10 million copies of The Seven Secrets of Highly Effective People: How to succeed in business by helping yourself to help other people to enjoy lasting success.

• Tom Peters sold 7 million copies of In Search of Excellence: How to keep pace with today’s changes in management that make performance fast, free and furiously good.

• Charles Handy has changed the way we think about management and society: How to transcend the traditional organisation and manager with better ways of life and thought.

I have read the above people and they have affected me personally.

On another personal note I have a birthday today September 23. As a lot of people do as they “age” I started to go down memory lane. I looked at early pictures trying to “feel” the time when I got my “Davy Crockett” hat or my dog, bullet, or my first real girlfriend, or my first car. Then I started thinking about love, family, and work.
I have an appointment tomorrow to go over the sixteen medicines I take and review information from my twelve doctors with my DO.

I have spent the last week organizing the information for this visit especially areas that bother me most. Mental, polyneuropathy, poor balance, digestive processing are all equally disturbing. Some information follows:

My doctors explained my situation regarding affects of age, quality of life and expectations based on the genetics passed on from the “family tree”.

I was told that to some extent I could modify the affects of genetics by focusing on environmental aspects of living.

I tried to follow the above diagram but it became a little fuzzy so that appeared to look like the next picture.

The underlying information is that I am “pre” disposed to diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides, stroke, heart attack, mental conditions, a pot belly, cataracts, skin problems, like stucco keratosis, pattern baldness, graying hair, nervous system or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA axis) problems, neuroendocrinology, the inability to extract nutrients (process vitamins and minerals critical for health/maintenance) and last, but not least, the fact that hypothalamic development and response to an acute stressor is determined by pre-pubertal stress in early life.

Affects of age, quality of life and expectations based on genetic disposition are not on my mind on this birthday. I have a whole lot of reflecting and peace(full) THINKING to do. I also have a lot of gratitude for all the good stuff on this birthday.  

Happy Birthday to me…..Have a nice day.

Check your ATTITUDE

Then 
———-

I was sent the bulk of this as a “read this” and decide whether you want to delete it or share it.
Obviously I want to share it and add some of my thoughts to it.

READ THIS

LET IT REALLY SINK IN

John is the kind of guy you love to hate.  He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.  When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, ‘If I were any better, I would be twins!’

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, ‘I don’t get it!’

‘You can’t be a positive person all of the time.  How do you do it?’

He replied, ‘Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or…you can choose to be in a bad mood

I choose to be in a good mood.’

Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or…I can choose to learn from it.  I choose to learn from it.

Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or…I can point out the positive side of life.  I choose the positive side of life.

‘Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,’ I protested.

‘Yes, it is,’ he said. ‘Life is all about choices.  When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations.  You choose how people affect your mood.

You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line:  It’s your choice how you live your life.’

I reflected on what he said.  Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him about six months after the accident.

When I asked him how he was, he replied, ‘If I were any better, I’d be twins…Wanna see my scars?’

I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

‘The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter,’ he replied. ‘Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices:  I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live.’

‘Weren’t you scared?  Did you lose consciousness?’  I asked.

He continued, ‘…the paramedics were great.

They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a dead man’.  I knew I needed to take action.’

‘What did you do?’ I asked.

‘Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,’ said John.  ’She asked if I was allergic to anything ‘Yes, I replied.’ The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.  I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity”.

Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live.  Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’

He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude…I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’ Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

I learned from a “much read” Bible, “There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem” by Wayne W. Dyer and another book titled “Think and Grow Rich”.

You have some choices now if you want to make them:

01. Get a Bible; use it
02. Get Wayne Dyer’s book; use it
03. Get this book (Think and Grow Rich) from me on 17 rules; use it
04. Go read my other blog articles

Express your self by sitting quietly, clearing your mind of all your thought chatter (”meditate” as Deepak Chopra says), then listen to your Anima (animus, Eros, Logos and soul-image). Check your Attitude (readiness of the psyche to act or react in a certain way, based on the underlying psychological orientation). Use your basic psychological functions: Thinking, Feeling, Sensation and Intuitive Types. The whole psychology of an individual is his habitual ATTITUDE! Be a better friend, adapt, and forget about ego as possible. Energy, motion, and soul can accomplish so much.

Stand above the crowd! Express who you really are, not what you can accumulate materialistically.

——————

The Giants won the Super Bowl last night by upsetting the previously undefeated Patriots!

Reportedly 1.5 million people were expected to call in sick today. If the average income of these people was $20.oo per hour, the cost of this practice would cost $30,000,000 per hour or $240,000,000 for the day in lost productivity!

Now everyone knows we don’t work eight hours a day. But practically speaking if the same math were used with my experience factor of .67%, then we still lost about $160,000,000 in productivity. The general population will have to bear the burden of this expense by paying a higher price for consumer goods and services.

Many companies do not pay for single day sick leave usage without a doctor’s note. After all it really is a medical benefit, not a right of extra time off from work.

The average 30 second commercial ad cost for the Super Bowl was $2,700,000. “Not a lot of money” is what I have heard regarding the expense as a percentage of “advertising budget” for the companies that did advertise. But, then again, we the consumer pay for those costs too.

So on this day, 2-4-2008, I am a little in awe that we don’t seem to have a big problem with some spiralling costs. I’ll bet a lot of people do not know that the company that has recently become the largest profit taker of any company in U.S. history for a quarterly and annual profit ( $11.7 billion, $40.6 billion respectively) is Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil produces about 3 percent of the world’s oil and had sales of $404.5 billion for 2007!

I think that I have written enough this morning after Super Bowl. I am going back to bed and dream of sawbucks or gold dust or the next Super Something.