I don’t really want to say much other than it wasn’t the greatest of games by either team, and BYU was lucky to get the win. But there is this event, and more specifically this image, to really capture the memory of this game.
Enjoy, or not, as your persuasion may be.
Tackling, you're doing it wrong
KBYU-FM Thinking Aloud - The Socially Distinct Newcomer to the Office
Another link to a KBYU-FM Thinking Aloud discussion that is interesting and worth a listen.
You may have heard of this study that came out from research by a professor from the Marriott School of Management at BYU (together with another professor from Stanford University). In short, it says that diversity in teams is a good thing. For the purposes of this post diversity refers to variety of personalities, backgrounds, opinions, and/or approaches to tasks.
Though we may feel more comfortable when we work with individuals that share our background and/or point of views, those teams are not the ones that are likely to be the most productive. Having an “outsider” on a team forces everyone to be a little sharper, to question more, and in a selfish way strive to analyze decisions and actions in a more logical and less emotional way. Here is a bit of Adam Smith (invisible hand) at work in team effectiveness.
Groupthink is a terrible thing. Group-what? There are many examples in history of groupthink, my favorite (because it is so obvious how it happened, yet the consequences are not nearly as tragic as some military and political examples) is the Abilene Paradox. Human nature is to be accepted and validated. There is a reason we praise the thoughts and actions of the various types of pioneers (whether they be a covered-wagon type, or a new-thinker type). Those willing to branch out, leave comfortable dwellings (be they physical or scholastic), and do something different often succeed in bringing about new conditions, new realities.
The principles discussed in the study are applicable to our workplaces, churches, community groups, and even friendships and families. The study doesn’t say that there is inherently anything wrong with SOP (standard operating procedure) per se, but team diversity helps us to think more critically and evaluate decisions we make to ensure that we are in fact doing what is best.
One might wonder if you can have too much diversity, if there is a point where it becomes a hindrance due to lack of ability to find common ground and such, but that will have to be the subject of another study.
KBYU-FM Thinking Aloud - Feeding Christians to the Lions
The above link is an audio file originally broadcast on KBYU-FM (approx. 30 mins). It is a very interesting discussion about one specific topic, though it tangentially addresses a second one. I highly recommend taking the time to listen to it.
The primary topic is how often the Christians were martyred by the Romans (answer: not very often). The reason the Christian world believes that the early Christians were being martyred left and right by the oppressive Roman tyrants is largely the result of some propaganda and the fact that it was a desirable bit of mis-information (desirable by Christians as a rallying cry and for the “poor me” attitude) and the group who would have sought to clear up the misunderstanding (the Romans) was crumbling in upon itself and did not persist long enough to set the record straight. The offended (or affected, as you choose) group saw the benefit in not correcting this incorrect assessment of reality as time went on and so the oral tradition grew unchecked.
The topic that is touched on in a tangential way is the way in which we (collectively) remember history and how it is important to make sure that we don’t simply repeat hearsay as actual fact and to make sure that we consult recorded history as a means to maintain accurate perceptions of past events. I think about all the times we (collectively) claim history went a certain way and it is so widely accepted that we fail to feel the need to have or consult documented primary sources.
This is all the more true in our always-on internet connected twittering, facebooking, blogging society. We are able to spread information person-to-person much more quickly now (in the span of seconds and minutes rather than days, weeks, and months). Due to the amount of information we take in each day, events that happened only months ago begin to feel much further removed in the past and we rely on vague recollections of what we read from a text message or on a blog at one point. If we doubt our memory, we can search for the tweet or the facebook entry where we first read the new information, but how often do we consult accurate first-hand reporting of the issue at hand rather than what we read from some removed source?
Food for thought.
We have been busy, or at least mostly Kerry has been busy, as far as vacations go. Pictures have been uploaded to the photo gallery.
In May we went to Zion National Park before it go too hot down there. That was a lot of fun, though maybe just about 1/2 a day too short. We hiked around, took many pictures of the amazing rock scenery, and just tried to relax from our typical routine.
Right after we returned from Zion National Park I finally took advantage of the paragliding lesson voucher that Kerry bought me for Christmas. It was quite a unique experience that I am interested in experiencing more of, though it can be a bit costly to get started (lessons & equipment). I have described my short flights as mostly akin to going down a zipline, the difference (and coolness) occurs when you catch a breeze and begin to actually rise a bit and slow down your forward speed - that is an amazing feeling, “whoa, I am actually flying now, not just falling in a controlled manner!”
In June, Kerry went with some of her cousins on a Carribean cruise. Kerry has been trying to talk me into going on a cruise for quite some time, so this was her opportunity to go do it and then see if she could improve her sales pitch to me - she had plenty fun, but hasn’t managed to get me any more interested in cruising.
Then came the 4th of July and then some camping with Angela & Co. Followed by Kerry’s trip to Disneyland with her family. I spent too many vacation days earlier this year snowboarding, so Kerry travelled solo again. Kerry reports that Disneyland was mostly the way she remembered it from when she was little (lots of fun) and seemed to be channeling her inner 8-year old during the trip (in a good way).
Tony graduated from BYU-Idaho in July, and since the whole family was coming out for the event, my Uncle volunteered to organize an extended family outdoor excursion. We met up in Stanley Idaho and then went whitewater rafting down the North Fork of the Payette River. We all had some fun, some adventure, and a little bit of sunburn. Kerry rode in a “round boat” and me and my dad each took an inflatable kayak. There was plenty of calm stretches to jump out and swim highlighted by some exciting class III-IV rapids that gave us plenty of adventure, even dumping me and my dad into some pretty exciting water (at the exact same point, even though we were in seperate boats no less).
Enjoy the pictures, and in case that incomplete story or more of the gory details you may hear from us has you worried about the risks of whitewater rafting, I found an interesting article from a medical journal that should help put things into perspective.
So Autumn is officially here. I like this transitional period we are entering. I’m not a fan of late Fall and by the time Winter has been dragging on I am ready for Spring and Summer, but there is just something unique and “circle of life-ish” to the beggining of Autumn.
Football, cooler weather, changing leaves, the approaching holiday season… good times.
A couple of years ago Kerry and I went hiking around Sundance this time of year: Photo Album
I have recently posted up to the photo gallery a number of albums worth of pictures for some of the summer activities we have been up to in the last 6 weeks or so.
At the start of July Kerry’s family came out for the 4th and the Provo Freedom Festival (including the Stadium of Fire). Let’s just say that a stadium full of Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana) fans was quite an experience, one that I hope to not have to endure again any time soon. We also went to a concert up at Sundance Resort where the Utah Symphony played, that was a great setting.
At the end of the month we went with Scott and Angela and kids to Uncle Jim’s cabin - Kerry couldn’t get over the wildflowers. I can get used to that kind of camping!
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I couldn’t take it anymore, I had to get outside. After a long week in Dallas working at the data center (until Sunday) and it being a holiday week, I had had enough of living in the environment-controlled world of corporate buildings, I needed to breath some fresh air and deal with the heat that comes with spending time out of doors.
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Kerry and I just got back from an awesome (though short) vacation down to Moab, UT. What an amazing place, I can’t get enough of that red rock and sandstone formations. I refer to the canyonlands area of southern Utah/northern Arizona as ‘God’s Sandbox’ Arches, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, etc… are amazing areas.
If you don’t want to hear any stories but instead want to skip right to the pictures head on over here: Moab Album
Moab in the Spring or Fall is perfect, the Summer is just too hot. We went mid-week as well which seems to have been a good choice, by Friday as we were leaving there seemed to be more people at Arches and in town.
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I wasn’t a huge fan of the old photo gallery site but hadn’t found anything worth replacing it with. That is until a few weeks ago. The new photo gallery is an open-source project called Plogger. It is a lot cleaner than Coppermine while still quite robust, powerful, and much more customizable.
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Wow… wow. I think the cockpit is going to need some paper towels to clean things up in there after this landing attempt. I can only imagine that their relief at not being smeared all over the tarmac is only tempered by the fact that they need to circle around and try again. Maybe they stayed in the air for a while until the storm passed or maybe landed at an alternate airport.
