New Year's Resolutions for 2006

After much soul searching I have come up with the following list of New Year’s Resolutions for 2006

• Listen to more biographies (audio books). I have really enjoyed the biography of John Adams and have learned much more about history than I expected.
• Take more photographs for my own enjoyment and not just at special occasions or when traveling
• To devote time and energy to things which I feel passionate about.
• To tell myself “no” more often, especially to snacks and second helpings.
• To train myself to combat stress in healthier ways than indulging myself in my favorite comfort foods
• To improve my spiritual disciplines by being more regular in my Bible study and prayer
• To err more on the side of taking action instead of “wait and see” or “maybe now isn’t a good time.”
• To improve my health and level of fitness thru both aerobic and strength training as well as more stretching for flexibility.

Technorati Tagged: 2006resolutions

How to Become More Creative in Solving Problems

Check out my post on my I/T Architecture Blog: How to Become More Creative in Solving Problems.

Politics as Usual in Early American History

I have been continuing to listen to the 26-CD long, unabridged biography of John Adams when driving in my car. I am at about CD number 21 now and I must admit I have enjoyed it much more than I ever expected. There has been so much interesting detail and tidbits of American history I never knew.

In the early days, the man with the second most votes in the Electoral College was elected Vice President. John Adams served two terms as Vice President under George Washington. He would later find out that Alexander Hamilton worked diligently to get Electors to withhold votes from Adams. After Washington served two terms, Adams was elected the second President despite much effort on the part of Hamilton and Madison to get Thomas Jefferson elected. By this times, sharp party lines had developed and as a result, the Vice President Thomas Jefferson held many different views than President Adams and he frequently conspired with Alexander Hamilton to undermine John Adams’ policies

Philadelphia was the early capital and it often hit by Yellow Fever epidemics in the summer months. On several occasions, most high officials left the city to escape the disease. Much government business was done by mail, which traveled slowly in those days.

Relations turned sour with France after the French Revolution. We had stopped supporting an army and navy, and France used its sea power to exclude us from trade from the French West Indies. France was at war with England and would intercept US shipping with England as well. Most of the North, including John Adams reacted with horror to the mass executions during the French Revolution and distrusted the new French government. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and much of the South had more distrust of England and looked at the French revolutionary cause as similar to our own and wanted to align ourselves with France. They blamed the problems with France on John Adams’ insulting the French years earlier when Adams served in Paris with Benjamin Franklin and later as one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Paris.

John Adams made the mistake of asking George Washington’s cabinet to stay on rather than choosing his own. (No precedent had yet been set as to cabinet level officials stepping down and the newly elected President picking his own cabinet.) In fact, most of his cabinet officials were really loyal to Alexander Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton is presented in the biography as constantly trying to maneuver behind the scenes to control events. He was also found out to be in an adulterous relationship with another man’s wife.

Relations with France got worse when the new government refused to accept an American delegation sent by Adams to seek peace. As a result, Adams proposed to Congress to begin building an American Navy again and begin building an American Army just in case peace could not be negotiated. John Adams nominated George Washington, the former President, to come back to be the highest ranking general in the new army. Adams also nominated other influential men including Alexander Hamilton and his own son-in-law (who had rank of Colonel during the Revolution) also as generals. Washington would only accept his new commission if he could name his own generals under him. Alexander Hamilton was up to his usual behind-the-scenes maneuvers again, and Washington appointed Hamilton as second in command.

So... the plot continues to thicken. After going through high school and receiving a “rose colored glasses” view of history, it is interesting to see get this rather unvarnished version of events.

Me With a Beard?

Here is one of only a few pictures I know of showing me with the beard I grew in the summer of 1985. Taken at Sea World in San Diego petting a pilot whale.

This was the one and only time I seriously tried to grow a beard. It had a lot of red mixed in with the blonde. I never felt like it got thick enough to look good and it itched. So... I got rid of it after 8-12 weeks of trying. 

My Favorite Tree

Below is my favorite tree in the whole world. It is a huge old oak tree in a pasture next to my Aunt's house in southestern Georgia, near both Alabama and Florida.

The shot above shows lightening damage from several years ago.

The tree has provided shade from the Georgia heat to cattle for well over a hundred years.

Christmas 1987 ?

 
 

Christmas 1961

 

Nashville

Nashville at night from the "General Jackson" paddlewheel showboat on the Cumberland River. 

Courage

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die. “He that will lose his life, the same shall save it,” is not a piece of mysticism for saints and heroes. It is a piece of everyday advice for sailors and mountaineers. It might be printed in an Alpine guide or a drill book. The paradox is the whole principle of courage; even of quite earthly or quite brutal courage. A man cut off by the sea may save his life if he will risk it on the precipice. He can only get away from death by continually stepping within an inch of it. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to live, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it, he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.

G. K. Chesterton

More on John Adams: Paris and the Netherlands

My on-going post about John Adams, from an audio book biography of the Revolutionary War era statesman that I’ve been listening too....

Adams was sent to join Ben Franklin in Paris to assist in negotiations for French recognition, military support, and trade. (There were concerns about Franklin’s age.)

After an American military victory at Saratoga, France did agree to help America against the British. However, the French Foreign Minister eventually came to dislike Adams’ manner and Adams’ insistence on British recognition of American Independence. (He secretly was only interested in separating the colonies from Britain to enhance trade with America. Also, he really wasn’t that keen on democracy as he supported the French monarchy. He also wanted to keep open the option of negotiating peace in the future with Britain that did not include Independence. He knew this is something Adams would never accept.

The French Foreign Minister thus began campaign to discredit Adams in the Continental Congress via France’s representative to Congress. He also spoke poorly of him to Ben Franklin, whom he liked better. Unknown to Adams for several months, Ben Franklin wrote a letter to Congress siding with the Foreign Minister.

Eventually, Congress did indeed make Franklin the sole representative and did not even mention Adams in the letter sent to Paris. Unsure then of his status in Paris and feeling treated shabbily by the Continental Congress, John Adams returned to his family in Massachusetts.Not too much later, however, Congress gave him yet another appointment to return to Paris. This time he was sent to Paris with the sole authority to represent the Congress in any future peace negotiations with the British. I guess because of how long it took to travel to Europe in the 1700’s, the feeling was that they should send someone well in advance in anticipation that American success on the battlefield would bring the British to the negotiating table... and Congress wanted someone to be in Europe already to lead these negotiations so as to eliminate any travel delays.This time, Adams took two sons with him. It was John Quincy Adams’ second trip to Paris. His younger brother was only 9 at the time he embarked to sail across the Atlantic with his statesman father. Again, I found myself amazed at the rare opportunity the boys had to observe history being made first hand.While waiting for the British to get interested in peace talks, he began a propaganda campaign of sorts. He wrote letters to be submitted to British newspapers via American agents that would be supportive of the American cause.



The French Foreign Minister again tried to get Adams removed as the sole negotiator of peace with the British. Adams was judged as too insistent on recognition of American independence.... a point the French wanted to have the option to compromise on if it suited their interests.As a result, the French representative to the Continental Congress again disparaged Adams in Philadelphia. Instead of removing Adams, however, Congress voted to change the peace negotiations from a single person (Adams) to a team of five members of Congress from different geographies. Adams would stay on representing Massachusetts, Ben Franklin would represent Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson would represent Virginia, and there would be two others I can’t remember.Thomas Jefferson would not show up in Paris for some time for personal reasons related to the health of his wife.

While waiting on the British to seek peace, Adams was dispatched by Congress to the Netherlands to try to get official recognition of an independent United States and secure loans from banks there.With Adams in the Netherlands (and Jefferson not showing up), for all practical purposes the French Foreign Minister had arranged things temporarily so that he only had to deal with Franklin which suited him fine.

After word of the British defeat at Yorktown reached the Netherlands, they did agree to recognize the United States. Adams supervised the purchase of the first United States embassy bought in any foreign country and became the first Ambassador to the Netherlands.

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial
Washington, DC
December 2004

 

Zig Ziglar on Money

Anybody who says they’re not interested in money will lie about other things too.... I like what money buys but I love what money won’t buy...Money will buy me a bed but it won’t buy me a good nights sleep.

Zig Zigler, “Get Motivated” seminar, 4/26/2005, Nashville

Helen Keller on Character

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.

Helen Keller’s Journal

The Integrity of John Adams

Continuing my listening to the audio book on John Adams....

The picture painted by the biography of John Adams is one of a man of great integrity and honesty. Some examples,

• His concern for how the commissioners to the French in Paris spent the public money. (Ben Franklin seemed to have no records of what he spent and avoided accountability)
  
• He kept a detailed journal in which he regularly criticized his own behavior and pledged efforts at self improvement.
  
• By all accounts he was quite faithful to his wife despite being separated by the Atlantic Ocean for over 3 years.
  
• During negotiations of the Treaty of Paris, the British wanted Americans to have to pay any debts they owed British merchants that were incurred before the war broke out. The other Americans wanted to avoid any treaty language on this. Adams felt, however, that the only honorable thing was to pay these as legitimate debts unrelated to the war.

How an Engineer Plans Christmas

I got the following from a friend today via email:

Benjamin Franklin vs. John Adams

Continuing my listening to the audio book on John Adams...

It turns out that John Adams and Ben Franklin didn’t always see eye to eye in Paris while they were trying to secure French support for the Revolution.

* As John Adams’ French improved he came to realize that Ben Franklin, as popular as he was with the French public, really didn’t speak or understand French very well.
* A good steward of the public money, he thought Ben Franklin spent public funds too lavishly

Once the French entered into the American Revolution, he French Foreign Minister it seems was willing to compromise on American independence should it become necessary to negotiate with the British. Knowing that John Adams would never stand for that, he began an effort to discredit John Adams. He instructed the French representative to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to try to get John Adams recalled. He complained to Ben Franklin.

At one point, Ben Franklin sent a letter back the Continental Congress implying that John Adams had offended the French. This little detail would not become known to John Adams for several months as it took that long for the letter to cross the Atlantic and for the news to come back across the Atlantic from his wife and friends. This eventually lead to new instructions from the Congress which put Franklin solely in charge of negotiations with the French and made no mention of Adams.

Adams took this as an opportunity to return to Massachusets and be with his wife and children.

Korean War Memorial

I shot this photo at the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC in December of 2004. The statue closest seems to have a "Are you coming with us?" expression on his face.

 

My Admiration for John Adams Grows

Continuing my listening to the audio book on John Adams....

A few interesting facts about John Adams that I never knew... and which only add to my admiration and respect for the man.

• During the Continental Congress, he served as the chairman of the “war” committee and as such had to get Congress to authorize commissions for officers, payroll, building of ships for a navy, etc.
• He was sent to Paris to join Benjamin Franklin in Paris to help get France to provide military support for the Revolution.

Something I didn’t know:

• To go to France, he had to cross the North Atlantic in the dead of winter, which was dangerous enough
• He risked the very real possibility of capture should the ship be captured by the British
• He took his son, John Quincy Adams, with him though he was only age 10 or 11. My reaction was “Wow! What an opportunity for such a youngster. How many boys of that era got to be part of history like that?”

My admiration of his wife Abigail increased as well as I heard how she encouraged John Quincy to accompany his father and talked about what an opportunity this was for him. It was as if they were grooming him for the service of his country even at that young age.

Elephant Ride

Visitors take an elephant ride in Bannerghatta National Park, near Bangalore, India 

Bannerghatta National Park

Food vendors in Bannerghatta National Park near Bangalore, India.

The park was full of visitors because I was visiting on a national holiday in October 2004 

Keep Christ in Christmas This Year

John Adams

My most recent audio book is John Adams by David McCullough. I normally don’t choose biographies but I find myself truly enjoying it. I may have to reconsider my audio book choices. This audio book is the unabridged version and takes up 26 CDs so I am nowhere near finished yet.



Several ideas struck me as significant in the beginning of the biography:

• I am amazed at how well read John Adams was. By today’s standards he would surely be considered an intellectual for he would read Roman books in Latin, Greek books in Greek, and English poets. As a lawyer, he had standing orders with London booksellers to ship a copy of any new title on law or government. I found myself wondering if we can produce minds like the founding fathers anymore when TV, DVDs, computer games, the Internet, etc. compete for the attention of our brain cells.
• Similarly, the founding fathers quoted had incredible vocabularies. Shame on me for my own vocabulary being so meager in comparison.
• I have been struck by the personal sacrifice of the founding fathers of the US. When John Adams accepted a position in the Continental Congress, it took a couple of weeks to make the trek from the then Massachusetts colony to Philadelphia by horseback. He was gone from his wife and children for months with the only communication being by letters which took just as long to travel back and forth.
• I find myself admiring John Adams’ wife Abigail as well. The letters from her to her husband which have been quoted reveal real love and devotion, her own keen intellect, and her support for the patriotic cause of her husband.

In Praise of Audio Books

One of the things I like to do is to make good use of time driving in my car by listening to audio books. Time which would otherwise be wasted can be turned into a chance to learn from others prominent in their field, recharge my imagination, reawake some creative brain cells, recharge my mental batteries, or even warm my spiritual side.

I find myself most interested in non-fiction and inspiration titles among topics such as:

• business – working in a technology field it always helps to understand the business side
• management & leadership – I have to work with and through teams and can’t be successful without helping other people do their jobs well
• selling – even if I don’t have a sales quota, I have to be able to sell my ideas
• personal finance & investing – I’m afraid I know pretty well now what I should have done or should be doing vs. what I’ve actually done
• Christianity – Bible study and spiritual growth
  

When I select fiction, it usually falls into one of two categories

• Classics – something I feel like I should have read or should know about
• Tom Clancy-type thrillers

From time to time I will include a post about what I enjoy from my audio-book time.

Down in the Backpack (to the tune of Down on the Boardwalk)

While driving to visit my mother back before Thanksgiving, I was having trouble finding a radio station to listen to. I put my radio on scan and landed on an NPR station somewhere around Jackson, Tennessee. I got to hear and interview with Bill Harley about story telling that was really good. He also played some of his silly songs for kids. I highly recommend you visit the NPR website and take the time to listen to "Down in the Backpack" and the others for a good chuckle

If You Can't Live Without Your RSS Feeds

Here's the perfect Christmas gift for that geek-news-junkie person on your Christmas list who just can't live one minute without their RSS feed. 

More Christmas Spirit

Check out the outside lights at the Opryland Hotel. 

Getting in the Christmas Spirit

Here's a colorful Christmas picture taken last year in one of the lobbies of the Orpyland Hotel here in Nashville.