Can I borrow a dollar for lunch

When I was in high school I used to ask my dad for a dollar to buy something for lunch. Unlike a lot of schools today, we didn't have lunch periods that were shorter than the other school periods. This meant that we had a lot of extra time on our hands for lunch. They say that you are not supposed to play with your food— but we were kids and needed something to occupy all that extra time on our hands. Since I only had a dollar, I normally didn't get all of the items at once. These were items that we purchased at the snack bar which were not always available, but were there enough for us to come up with some interesting ways of playing with our food.

String Cheese (Mouse Tails)

If you take a smaller piece off of the string cheese, it seems to resemble a small tail. You then put the tail in the side of your mouth and tug at it. While you tug, you poke your cheek with your tongue giving the illusion that there is a mouse in your mouth.

Ho Ho's (Mice)

Since we had the tails, we needed the actual bodies. We also tended to unroll these and lick the icing then eat the cake.

Ess-KO-mo pies

These were actually chocolate covered ice-cream bars, but we called them Eskimo (pronounced Ess-KO-mo) pies. The trick was to be able to pull all of the chocolate off without breaking it… eat the chocolate coating, then eat the ice cream.

Chocolate Milk

I don't think that the pint sized container had the phrase "shake well before opening", but if it did, we took the phrase to new heights. You place the unopened milk carton on the edge of the table so that the flat seal of the carton was perpendicular to the edge. You grip the flat part and flip it off the edge. The trick was to see how many times in a row you could land the carton seal side up.

Frozen Chocolate Malt

If we weren't flipping our Chocolate Milk, we would pour a thin layer of it on top of the Chocolate Malt cup and wait for it to freeze. Then we would scrape off the frozen layer and repeat the process.

I know that nobody else was allowed to play with your food, but confess… I know you did. What did you do when you played with your food?

Leaders vs. Followers

I am neither a leader nor a follower
but a gatherer

cj-85'

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You tend to hear people refer to someone as a leader: "She's a great leader…", "It's always nice to know we have a leader like him…", etc.… One thing we do not hear is people referring to someone as a follower. Could this be that we are afraid to follow, or do we put too much emphasis on being a leader?

Perhaps we think of leaders more highly because they tend to be the ones in the spotlight. Also, we may look to leaders more admiringly and wish that we had the same qualities as they do. I think that being a leader or a follower is not a full time commitment. Sometimes we are a leader and sometimes we are a follower.

Being a follower shouldn't be considered a bad thing. Many times we tend to follow someone's example— or even follow along with a group. We are not following blindly, but rather make the choice to follow.

I believe that we should recognize Leaders and Followers not as personality traits— but rather as roles that each of us play. We take on the roll of leader or follower when the situation calls for it— not because it is ingrained in our personality. How often do we find ourselves following someone's advice, or taking charge of the situation. We may not be recognized as a leader or a follower at those moments, but we are being a leader or a follower at the time.

Rather than asking what makes a good leader, I will ask what you think makes a good follower. What to you makes a good follower… discuss…

Movers and Shakers

You may have heard the phrase "The Movers and the Shakers", but do you have any idea what that means? I have a tendency to make up my own meanings to words which tend to be quite close to the actual meaning,or even give new insight into the current definition.

As found in Dictionary.com the definition of Movers and Shakers is:

A person who wields power and influence in a particular activity or field.¹

So it appears that nobody has taken the time to define what each part of the phrase means. So I guess I can't be wrong in offering my definition of each:

Mover…

This is not the person who moves your furniture, but rather the people who keep things moving. They are the ones who "Get things done". You look to movers because you know that they are typically successful when it comes to executing a given task.

Shaker…

No… we're not talking about the people who make baskets and chairs, but rather those people who shake things up. These are the ones who question things and will stand up for what they think is right. You look to these people to change the status quo, or even offer a new perspective.

Looking at my definition, I realize that I do not tend to fit either one of these fully. There may be times when I take on the "role" of Mover, but am never looked upon as a "Mover". True… sometimes I may say something that causes you to see things differently— but I do not consider myself someone who challenges and changes the status quo. What about you… are you a Mover or a Shaker?

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¹ Taken from The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997.
Published by Houghton Mifflin.

Spin Cycle: Giving and Forgiving

This week's Spin Cycle is on Forgiving, so I thought I would give my spin on it…

Once I signed up for a personal ad and in it I indicated that I was "both giving as well as forgiving". At the time I thought it just sounded good, but I later found that I was actually pretty profound. Just what does it mean to be giving as well as forgiving?

Giving…

To be "giving" to me means that you are willing to give of yourself. It is a way of being selfless and sharing with others. So often we find ourselves taking: taking advantage of someone, taking charge, or even taking that last slice… that we forget how to give.

Forgiving…

I believe that to be "forgiving" is not just accepting someones' apology, but to be able to let go of any anger and resentment you have towards that person in spite of what they may have done. It is also being able to ask for forgiveness as well. So often we think we can do no wrong, that we forget that we make mistakes too. And not only ask for forgiveness, but be sincere when doing so.

Interestingly, it is the combination of both of them that makes it really profound. If we can be selfless and ask for forgiveness when we find ourselves taking– or, even be able to forgive someone by giving of yourself to that person, when before you were only angry and impersonal towards them— then you have truly been "giving as well as forgiving".

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Followers-of-the-Blog-Reprise

I originally had an idea to do a spotlight on my followers because of a Meme called Tuesday's Tribute. I thought… "what a great way of promoting their blogs and give them credit for bearing with my narrative/technical-writer style of writing". I decided to write to those followers that I could and ask two questions so that their words could be a part of the post:

1. What reason do you have for following my blog?
   I know this may seem selfish, but I am curious what motivated you to sign up.
2. Why do you think that others follow your own blog?
   I know why I do and will let you know in my post along with my impressions on what your blog is to me.

I realized that posting on all of my followers would be a very long post— so I broke it up into smaller manageable pieces.

Since it has been a very long time since I last highlighted my followers— I realized that many who are on these lists no longer blog, or are unreachable. This is my attempt at doing some house cleaning so that those who are represented in the lists are listed appropriately and those who visit my pages will not get frustrated because someone took down their blog or made it private. If you are reading this post, I ask that you go through the lists and if you know of someone who no longer blogs to let me know so I can make a note in the posts.

• Hear what the first ten followers have to say.
• Hear what followers eleven through twenty have to say.
• Hear what followers twenty one through thirty have to say.
• Hear what followers thirty one through forty have to say.
• Hear what followers forty one through fifty have to say.

I also know that I have many more followers that I cannot contact to ask the questions to. So… if you are following me and want to be on a future list, let me know the following:

1. What reason do you have for following my blog?
   I know this may seem selfish, but I am curious what motivated you to sign up.
2. Why do you think that others follow your own blog?
   I know why I do and will let you know in my post along with my impressions on what your blog is to me.