Reading List

You will notice this is 95% fiction. My hope is to move slightly more in the non-fiction direction next year.

In order:
1. Cross, James Patterson
2. Sky Tower, Dale Brown
3. Murder in the House, Margaret Truman (President Truman's daughter)
4. ____________ (forgot to write it down), Truman
5. Wildfire, Nelson Demille
6. The Collectors, David Baldacci
7. You on a Diet, Oz
8. Step on a Crack, James Patterson
9. Plum Lovin, Janet Evanovich
10. Silver Tower, Dale Brown
11. Echo Park, Michael Connelly
12. Hunters, W.E.B. Griffin
13. Next, Michael Crichton
14. Wings of Fire, Dale Brown
15. One More Day, Mitch Albom
16. Dear John, Nicholas Sparks
17. No 2nd Chance, Harlan Coben
18. The Rescue, Sparks
19. Daddy's Girl, Lisa Scottoline
20. Lean 13, Evanovich
21. 6th Target, Patterson
22. The Refuge, Sue Henry
23. Invisible Prey, John Sanford
24. Gone, Jonathon Kellerman
25. Self Assessment - Faculty of Alverno College
26. Made to St3ick, Heath and Heath
27. Ordinary Heroes, Scott Turow
28. Edge of Winter, Rice
29. They Called Us Game Wardens Vol. 2, Bill Callies
30. Classroom Instruction that Works, Marzzano
31. Quickie, Patterson
32. Canoeing, Bob Cary
33. McNally's Dare, Sanders
34. High Noon, Nora Roberts
35. The Double Agents, W.E.B. Griffen
36. Harry Potter 7, Rowling
37. Thunder Bay, William Kent Krueger
38. Hunting Wind, Hamilton
39. Fade, Kyle Mills
40. Poitier, Syndey Poitier
41. Heart is a Lonely Hunter, McCullen
42. Playing for Pizza, John Grisham
43. Dark of the Moon, John Sandford
44. Kingmaker, Brian Haig
45. Fire Sale, Parentsky
46. Book of the Dead, Patricia Cornwell
47. E=MC^2, David Bodanis
48. Double Cross, James Patterson
49. Dead Madonna, Victoria Huston (in progress)

Reading

I know this is a topic that I have touched on before, but it is just so important to me, I'm going to hit it again.

The brain is like a muscle. If you exercise it, it will become stronger. Yesterday, for the first time in my recollection, I read a whole book in one day. It was 387 pages. 10 years ago, when I really took up reading, I read so slowly it would have taken me 3-4 times longer and my comprehension was lower.

Now reading is a big part of who I am. That book was the 48th of the year for me. For the third year in a row I will reach my goal of 50. Reading gives me a couple of good things. Primarily it is entertaining. Further though, it gives me a greatly enhanced ability to read technical communication. I sure wish I would have had the reading skills in college and earlier in my career that I do now. Life would have been so much easier.

Reading is also relaxing and a great way to pass stressful time. Bring a book to the waiting room at the doctors office, time will go much faster. Have trouble falling asleep at night because your mind is going a hundred different ways? I do, but if I grab the book I've been working on, my mind focuses down to one thing and quickly gets me to sleep.

Ok - enough preaching about reading.

Tomorrow I will list my books for the year.

P.S. To put things in perspective, Angie read 125 books last year. This year she will be under 100 for the first time in 7 years... she'll only read about 85!

Thanksgiving

What are you thankful for today?

Me? I am thankful:

To have Liz home from college for a few days;
to hear Katie and Colin made it safely to Nebraska;
to be reading a great book about E=mc^2;
to not have homework for four days;
that another deer season opens on Saturday;
that my friends who were in Iraq in the past year have come home safely;
to be working with the HC boys basketball team;

and mostly that I am able to live where I want, working where I want, and living with a family that is happily pursuing life.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Friday After Thanksgiving

If I had to have a lithmus test for any job, it would be the Friday after Thanksgiving test. Do you have to work (or take vacation) for the Friday after Thanksgiving? If so, your job would fail my test. On my first job after college, we had to either work or take vacation. To me, this is just plain wrong. It is poor for worker morale and must be a low productivity day. After working the first two years of Friday Thanksgivings, I decided that my next job would be evaluated using this criteria. My first job had a commitment of four years (however, by the fourth year I was the boss and gave my department the day off). Since then I haven't worked one, nor will I...EVER.

I hope you get to have a day of freedom this Friday.

P.S. Don't forget to stop by Cromwell on Saturday from 2-5 for Amanda and Bubba's open house. Of course if you have no idea who I'm talking about, you probably don't need to come.

Listening

This is a topic that cannot be over-emphasized. Out of respect for those who we are communicating with, we should be active listeners. I am more guilty than most at not being a good listener.

Here are some important listening tools:

1. Listen with your eyes. Make good eye contact so the person talking to you knows you are paying attention.

2. Listen with your body. Sit up and lean slightly forward. Anything else communicates lack of attention.

3. Listen with your mind. Actively engage the topic being discussed.

Common politeness would dictate that we should always follow these rules. Professionalism would dictate that we do it at work. Desire to excell would dictate we surely do this in interviews, meetings with clients, performance reviews, when communicating with those who supervise us and extremely importantly those we supervise.

Though I will freely admit that there are times I purposefully break these rules when I am trying to communicate that this is not the right time for the given conversation.

TBL: Keep listening at the front of the list of skills you constantly sharpen.

Women in Engineering Day

On Thursday, November 29th, I will host a day at ICC for high school girls interested in careers in engineering. The day will consist of the girls attending 3 workshops hosted by women engineers. The workshops will be hands on and will include insights from the engineers as to why a high school girl would consider this path.

Do you have any suggestions as to projects that the girls could do? I have 3 planned, but am looking for ideas for 3 more.

Do you have any insights I should be sure to have shared with the girls?

If you are a woman, would you be interested in coming to help? Or are there any women in your company who might want to come and help?

Thanks!

Ron

Vacation

The Bottom Line is that it is Deer Season. For the first time since 1998 I am taking personal leave from my job to take some time off to spend with my son and my Dad in the woods for a week. Ok... I can hear people saying, wait a minute didn't he have two sabbatical leaves in that time period... well yeah... and doesn't he have June July and August... well yeah... and Christmas break, Spring break, yeah..yeah..yeah.. I get it! I rarely ever work. But none-the-less I am going hunting for the next 7 days.

For those of you who hunt, be safe and good luck. For those who don't, I'll post again late next week.