44 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-11-13”

  1. I’m afraid this is going onto the wrong thread. But there is no option to post on the Daily Thread for me. Let’s see what happens:
    GOOD MORNING EVERYONE!
    It’s Friday, you know what that means?
    Not much for me today, same ol’ stuff.

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  3. I finally understand the phrase “herding” cats. I have 9 agents who do not function as a team . We are doing a first quarter sales contest . How do I get them on board to the team concept and motivate them? They are already commission based and there is an iPad and cash incentive . What else can I do?

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  6. RE: Flu remedies.

    I have never received a flu vacinne, nor do I use elderberry. And I haven’t gotten any strain of flu for a very long time.

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  9. I got a flu shot yesterday. This is only the 3rd or 4th time I’ve gotten one. I probably wouldn’t have sought one out, but I was at the doctor’s office for something else and went ahead and got one while I was there. I’ve had the flu maybe 2 or 3 times. Once it was particularly bad, and I was knocked down for days, plus another week or so to get my strength back. That was 20 yrs ago when I was younger and stronger. The other times were milder, but still bad enough. I too had been hearing what a bad year this was and a bad strain of flu going around, and I wanted no part of it. My husband has a high risk of infection in his job so he usually gets a free vaccination.

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  10. They tell us that record breaking high temperatures are expected in the east for the next few days.
    Terrible news for the apple and peach farms in the area. 😦

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  11. We’re having a nice little cold snap out here in Southern California. We’re all dressing like we live in Alaska. 🙂 Well, except for the surfers and “beach people” who are typically in denial that it is winter. They always wear flip flops, shorts & T-shirts, although they may add a sweatshirt layer if things get really serious.

    Meg’s experience is like mine, I’ve rarely had what I’ve known was the flu but the last time was when I was still young & stronger than I am now. It about knocked me out for more than a week.

    I figure it’s sort of like me not catching chicken pox until I was in my 40s. At some point your number just comes up. So when a particularly bad flu season hits, I will consider the shot — otherwise, I don’t bother. Didn’t get one last year or the year before or the year before that or … going back at least 10 years since I’ve had the shot.

    So the trash cans are hauled out for the morning pickup and I should have a story ready to write for today. I also have been tapped to write a centerpiece to run later this month on the zamperini/”unbroken” movie saga which is in the works.

    I really want to do a story on the Westminster Dog Show & all the local participants, but the timing might be tough with the other project to pull that one off. But we’ll see. I’ve already done the preliminary work on that to get some sources lined up.

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  12. Kim, you need a border collie. Tess is looking for a challenge, herding one cat isn’t enough.

    (the second half of this trailer is the best): 🙂

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  18. Kim, for our children’s Sunday School I often do team arts and crafts and games on a large piece of brown craft paper taped to a table so everyone gets involved in making the finished creation. We have done Noah’s Ark with each child drawing pairs of animals to fill up the stalls on the ark, we’ve done banners, and this past week I expanded on the curriculum idea and put a church building and grounds on the craft paper and the children then were given papers to draw various rooms in the building and outside spaces where people can worship or serve God (teir individual creations were taped together on the craft paper to form the whole united effort). Perhaps you could come up with something fun like that to show the big picture and what y’all are working toward as a group with each person doing their part.

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  19. I wonder if those poor pups like having a monkey on their back?! 🙄
    I love watching Borders herd sheep…it amazes me that the simple terminology and whistles can prompt these amazing dogs to do what they do..of course, Babe is our all time favorite movie and we find ourselves using the terminology with our Babe and Fly…thanks for sharing the videos this morning 🙂
    It’s snowing outside…but, I see blue sky on the western horizon..it’ll be short lived…

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  20. It would seem to me that if it’s a sales contest for individual prizes, then that’s not motivating them to act as a team. Make sure it’s a team-based reward, if you want to incentivize co-operation rather than competition.

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  21. AJ,

    When I was a child, we often went to the rodeo. One year at the end of the barrel riding, suddenly out came a greyhound with a monkey riding it. The crowd loved it. They did do the barrels, but they weren’t exactly racing; the dog stopped at one of the barrels to empty his bladder (it wasn’t a quick mark-it-and-move-on) and the crowd howled. They didn’t give the dog’s time on the run, though. . . .

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  23. Since I take a berry supplement I am realizing it may have elderberry in it…I will check on that. I have not had any bronchitus like I use to have, and I have only had a few short colds in recent years. I have not gotten several of the horrible colds others around me have had.

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  30. Michelle,

    I saw the movie yesterday, with my husband (interestingly, it most definitely isn’t a chick flick, but it seems somehow to be more “interesting” to women–I honestly don’t know why). We both liked it, both agreed we wouldn’t necessarily choose to see it again. I hadn’t done my “research” adequately, and was surprised by how “strong” a PG-13 rating it deserved, though. (Lots of violence, a couple of sex scenes, women pretty much busting out of their tops in several scenes.)

    When I was in college, the musical came to the stage, and my fellow students raved about it. It sounded so wonderful I regretted being unable to see it, but I was putting myself through college and such an extravagance would have been clearly unwise, so I passed on it. Several years later it came back, and a friend and I attended. We got bad seats (balcony), but really I wondered why the hype the entire time. It was probably the only “bad” event I ever attended in Chicago, and through the years I attended quite a few. I don’t remember specific details of what I disliked, just that it felt like a complete waste of money.

    But honestly, in the movie version I thought even the evil (which was plentiful) was in proper perspective–it was mocked and it was ugly. Any man who could visit a prostitute after seeing the prostitute scenes in that movie really has a heart of stone.

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  31. Haven’t seen Les Miserables yet, but want to. It’s interesting that they didn’t use the usual musical movie method of lip-synching to previously-recorded singing, but sang “live” in the scenes. That must have added a more interesting quality to it.

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  32. The team that has the most closings: everyone on the team gets an iPad. If the team reaches 45 closings everyone gets a $1000. If everyone on the team each get 9 closings everyone gets another $1000.

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  33. There were lots of close ups as a result of them singing, which made the story far more intimate than the stage productions. I thought the voices were fine other than Russell Crowe–but, then, do you want a singing policeman? 🙂

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  34. I wonder how this movie is viewed by different eyes…those of Christians and those of non believers? I did like the movie…was taken aback at at couple of the graphic scenes ( I don’t welcome those images infiltrating my mind and spirit) The last scene sent me into a throat tightening, wanting to sob aloud moment….Hannah kept looking at me to see if I was going to let loose with loud sobs….she appreciated my quiet discretion 🙂
    I liked Russell Crowe’s voice…to me it fit the character perfectly
    Anne Hathaway was superb…what a voice…raw with emotion…beautifully done

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  37. Kim,

    You may have entered into a culture that was previously very competitive. So, it will take time for them to realize that teamwork really is honored. They are probably still expecting to get a fork stuck in their back or for other members to steal their clients. 😦

    To change over an entire culture is very difficult and will take time. ALL incentives will need to be team-based. Public compliments and public comments need to reward those individuals who have displayed a team mentality.

    Individual sales rankings need to be thrown out (or not posted) in favor of team rankings.

    Words that reward the individual need to be lessened in place of words that uphold the team. (For example, in our drama group, we never refer to the juicy parts as the “Starring roles” or to various actors as “Stars” or “leads.” We do allow them to compete in auditions to get those roles, but — once gotten — the “lead” in a play is no more important than the supplementary roles, and the lead is never permitted to act like a diva. Rather, the lead must be a LEADER in the Biblical sense.)

    Have you thought about a team retreat? How about regular lunches out together every few weeks? Groups that play together (socialize) and really get to know each other as PEOPLE tend to form better teams. It is difficult to “stab” the guy in the back who you know has three kids and is a soccer coach. 😉

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  38. Just bought 2 bottles of hand sanitizer and a tub of sanitizing wipes for the funeral tomorrow. Calgary hospitals are at over 100% capacity with the flu and Noroviruses running rampant in the city.

    I know we will be hugging and shaking a lot of hands tomorrow. Hope no one catches anything (especially the seniors).

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  39. Actually, I said that wrong. We do use the word “lead” but in the Biblical sense of “leader.” We don’t use “star” or anything like it.

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  41. Janice, that doesn’t surprise me at all.
    It doesn’t surprise me that Giglio would preach about homosexuality.
    It doesn’t surprise me that the Oboma wouldn’t want someone opposed to homosexuality on th stage with him.
    It doen’t surprise me that the committee didn’t do it’s homework.

    We’re dealing with a bunch of dunces here.

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  42. Here is a link to Family Research Council’s site which has more on Giglio under the Washington Week report. Also, in the title banners there is a video from a conference on human-trafficking. I have watched some of that but my computer could not get through it without breaks so I gave up on it. I may go back to it if I can find the time.

    http://www.frc.org/index.cfm?f=WU13A08

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  43. Yay, hubby gets the weekend off! Having Christmas and New Year’s land on weekdays, plus undergoing the transition at his workplace, meant weekend work lately, but (apparently — I hope nothing has changed while he’s at work today) he’s back to just Monday through Friday now. Very thankful for the big check he got today, but it sure will be nice to have him around here more 🙂

    To celebrate, I am going to go on an internet fast this weekend. Unless I have a serious prayer concern that I am compelled to post, I won’t be on here until Monday. If you see me here before that, doing something other than requesting prayer, BOOT ME OFF!!! I need accountability! Thank you much 🙂

    Love and best wishes,
    6 Arrows

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  44. Enjoy your weekend, 6 arrows!

    I got turned down for an interview with a famous actress today. I figured they’d say “no.” She’s “not doing any press” right now, is how they phrased the e-mail rejection. Sigh.

    So I have a haircut scheduled in the morning & an appt. at the Apple “genius bar” in the afternoon (my iPhone is going nuts with password prompts which I can never satisfy nor delete — it’s either me or the phone; probably me, but I need to get it resolved).

    I’m so glad it’s Friday. …

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