How NOT To Be Rude With Your Cell Phone

Here are a few points from Tim Steven's blog post, "Wherever You Are...Be Fully There". Thought these were definitely worth repeating.

• When you start a meeting, turn your ringer off and move it away from you. If the screen comes to life when you get a text–then put the phone upside down so you won’t see it. If it is likely to vibrate, then put it somewhere it can’t be felt or heard.
• If your phone does vibrate during the meeting and your guest says, “Go ahead and take that if you need to” — reach down and silence it without even looking. This communicates to your guest that they are very valuable to you.
• Don’t buy into the “what if there is an emergency?” line. Rarely does that happen. It’s not a good excuse for having to look at your phone multiple times through every meeting.
• If you know you will need to be reached during the meeting, let your guest know, “My wife is at the doctors office and may need to reach me, so I apologize in advance that I’ll be taking her call when it comes.” That tells your guest this is an exception–you wouldn’t normally do this.
• If you are in a meeting with multiple people–follow the same rules. Don’t convince yourself that your participation isn’t needed right now so you can disengage and respond to texts or play your next turn in Words With Friends.We fool ourselves into thinking we can multitask, or that our disengagement won’t be noticed for a few minutes. Not true.

This Too Shall pass

You May Be Taliban If...

1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to liquor.

2. You own a $3,000 machine gun, but you can't afford shoes.

3. You have more wives than teeth.

4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon "unclean."

5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.

6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against.

7. You consider television dangerous, but carry explosives in your clothing.

8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.

9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.

10. You've always had a crush on your neighbor's goat.

11. Your cousin is president of the United States

Why Men and Women Have Such a Difficult Time Understanding Each Other

Geocaching Find #700

I still enjoy geocaching, but since I started teaching school on my day off, I have not had as many opportunities to go out. But while Brooke and Amanda were in Alabama, I took a few days off work (and it's summer so I'm not teaching), so I took advantage of the time to grab six quick caches and log find #700! (June 24, 2010)

Yes, that's a 35mm film container. My 700th find was actually a very simple hide sometimes called a "lamp post" or "lamp skirt" cache. Can you guess where they are hidden?