Transitioning (no not that lol)

 We are moving to a Word Press site, and this is one reason we haven't posted in a while. 

I will be blogging at our new site and will continue every Monday. 

Please visit:  New Site

On these posts, I will try to pour out my heart and serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, at the same time. 

Hopefully, some of the content hits home. We are not put on this earth to just exist as a cosmic accident. If this is your truth, I would love to offer you a better way of living. Not only that, since you are not a clump of cells but are a being created in the image of God and have an eternal destiny. Make sure that you know the right way to live, exist, and be. 

Your Office SOS

We are here to help solopreneurs get started in their business. However, once the business gets rolling, things begin to become too much for one person to handle. Unfortunately, the solopreneur is struggling working too much time in their business and not enough time on their business. Thus they begin to drown. They go under in the waves of details and begin to sink. They need to call for help. 

That's when Your Office SOS comes to the rescue. We bring a 100 years of experience to the rescue. We look at the client's workflow and find things we can do for them. We can take enough off their plate to give them time to get ahead of the competition. We also strive to free them so they can take a day off. No one can work a peak proficiency 24/7 365. 

So before you drown in a sea of stress, call Your Office SOS, and we'll turn your life from "crappy to happy."

Things Fall Apart

We live in an age of misunderstanding, distrust, and animosity. How are we going to get along with each other in the world if we have the same conflicts with our next-door neighbor?  

We are as divided as no time that I can ever remember. Politically and religious differences were always there. But in the 1950s, it seemed to start to unravel. First, by 1964, we had race riots and then anti-war protests. This chaos all seemed to culminate in 68 (hey, that rhymes; it could be a slogan) with the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. Then it blew up at the democratic convention. 

The summer of  69' took the heat of things for a while. Maybe the race to the moon and Woodstock unified us somewhat. That didn't last long. It seemed we settled down a little for the next 30 years: no significant upheavals and the like. Things were not smooth, but it wasn't quite the wild rollercoaster ride. The boomers were too preoccupied with growing up. 

Then 9/11 hit at the beginning of the new millennium. Again, the U.S. had a common enemy. They were the Dixie Chicks and Sadam Hussain. Even those two mentioned had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks (a good misdirection always quiets the masses). 

Lately, Trump has helped call attention to the great divide we formed. President Obama had little interest in uniting us; he only agitated the divide and used it to his advantage. He learned from the feat of his masters, Jeremiah Wright and Saul Alinsky. 

Now we are at polar opposites, and no compromise seems possible. The middle has eroded, and things are going to boil over. We can't agree on basics like what is a life, what is a person's sex, and what is a pandemic. 

I took the blog title from the novel Things Fall Apart One of Chinua Achebe's many achievements in his acclaimed first novel, Things Fall Apart, is his relentlessly unsentimental rendering of Nigerian tribal life before and after the coming of colonialism. First published in 1958, just two years before Nigeria declared independence from Great Britain, the book eschews the obvious temptation of depicting pre-colonial life as a kind of Eden. Instead, Achebe sketches a world in which violence, war, and suffering exist, but are balanced by a strong sense of tradition, ritual, and social coherence.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Revelation 22:20.

Live with intention.

Make an impact in the world. Don't sit back and wait until tomorrow. The time we live in is exciting and adventurous. Of course, it's scary, but put that in perspective, when has it not been a scarry time since the garden of Eden. 

There is no time to take action and make your mark like the present. Just do something, try, fail, or succeed, and you will be moving forward. Be proactive and live your life to its fullest. The Lord Jesus had a lot to say about the wise use of your talents and abilities. 

Make your time on this side of eternity count for something. Find your purpose and make it happen. I said purpose, not find your passion. Following passions is dangerous and transitory. Passion follows a good purpose. 

Independence Day 2022

 The price of freedom is costly. Whether it be freedom from sin, it cost God the death of His Son, the patriots to a man lost everything they had. If you want to be free of a boss and a J.O.B.(just over broke) you have to start your own business, it will cost you plenty, lack of security, risk, and many other challenges you have to pay for to be free. 

You can't say give me liberty or death and still want the government to be your nanny. You can't have it both ways; you can't have your cake and eat it too. 

There ain't no such thing as a free lunch; there ain't no such thing as government "entitlements." You are fooling yourself if you think free health care will not eventually be tied to bureaucrats in your business telling you what you can eat and drink, how much you can weigh, etc.

This fourth of July, declare independence and take a free stance whenever and wherever possible. 

The information super-highway

We are getting so much information coming at us rapidly; at what point will it be too fast and too much? Digesting information is like drinking from a fire hose. 

There is also the issue of trust. Do we trust the sources of the information we are getting? Is it biased? What is the agenda of the writer, blogger, news anchor, etc.?

 How are we to decide which is real and which is fake? I, for one, certainly don't want a government agency overseeing disinformation: it is Orwellian. 

Censors on social media have already exposed their biases. A faceless panel can regulate content, and that is dystopian.

Maybe we need to think for ourselves. 

Uncertain Times

We think we are living in uncertain times. We are not. All times in human history since the fall of man have been uncertain. They all had their challenges, and we are here at this point in history by divine appointment. 

Acts 17:26  ESV

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

So buckle up, buttercup, and get ready for the ride. 

When the crossover is detrimental.

I have been a devotee of self-improvement/motivational/self-improvement books and material all my adult life. I am a constant learner and wholly believe in physical and mental self-care and improvement. However, I also know that our spiritual life is the essential discipline. 

These studies and disciplines bleed into each other. Man is a three-part being: body, soul, and spirit. So as unified as one is, these areas of life's studies seem to segment and compartmentalize. We should have a time for each. 

My problem is when religion and the other areas overlap. Like Yoga at the gym. Like self-improvement from the pulpit. The bible teaches lessons in all areas of life. But there is a difference in the focus. The messages sometimes bleed over, but sometimes they get deluded when they cross over. 

Virtual vs physical communication

What do you say online that you won't usually say in person? Social media has a level of protection or at least separation that is missing in face-to-face conversation. As a result, we tend to be more direct and confrontational than we would be otherwise.

Well, does the same thing apply when you are on a voice call? How about a video call? Different behavior or not? Still, it is direct person to person but still lacks that physical presence. Maybe it's the fear of physical violence or that you can't runway as you can hang up or disconnect as with the aforementioned situations. The fight or flight syndrome is a reality in both. But one is harder to extricate and disengage. 

Think about your confrontations and how they differ and why.

Multitasking or task switching?

 Multitasking can be helpful if you can have a modicum of discipline. For instance, I can listen, absorb, and process what is being said while doing mindless tasks. Sometimes I even retain more. Because my cognitive function is not filtering with my critical filter activated. 

I can play computer games, listen to podcasts, etc., and function highly at both. But here agon, these tasks are complementary. Not counterproductive. Those tasks are executed using different parts of the brain simultaneously.

Multitasking causes trouble when you are trying so much to do multiple things, but when you are task switching using the same cognitive functions. This task switching problem is because the interference and reset parts of the brain lose optimum abilities when this happens. 

So let's keep multitasking and task switching as separate operations and see how we can navigate the overcrowded workspace in our brain. 

Building like and trust

Building like and trust in relationships is hard enough. Now trying to do it online is even more of a challenge. We can see facial expressions and hear the tone of your voice, but in the virtual meeting, there is some factor missing that I have yet to identify. 

Maybe a smell or full body gestures factor into our sense of trust. I wonder what other factors that are lacking in virtual meetings?

Is the phone call dead?

We moved to KCMO  2 1/2 years ago. So I am discontinuing my old DFW phone number. In doing so, I had to think it through. I was wondering if it was even worth the trouble of keeping. Does anyone use the phone that much? But maybe some text to it, but is it worth keeping even then? 

I have it on my business card and some other printed material that is a cost concern. But in the future, on printed material, I am just going to use a QR code and point it to info that can be edited and updated without a reprint. 

I guess if it comes down to it, we are eschewing the phone call altogether. Maybe it is fear of intrusion. But, on the other hand, it could be we don't want to get tied up in a long conversation. Maybe we lost the art of conversation. Possibly all of the above. 

Free speech or not?

Now that Elon musk bought Twitter, the progressives are going apoplectic.

When did we become afraid of free speech? I think I have a clue. I sold school books for 20 years. I must have attended 400 or so education conventions at various levels. There was a disturbing trend that I noticed during that time. That was the teachers' organizations began demonizing the religious right as censors of the worst kind. So they put out materials and weapons to fight the censorship they feared.

Hollywood was called upon to do the left's bidding, as it has become one of their house-organs. Remember the Field of Dreams scene where they engaged in a fight over Cather in the Rye being banned from the school library. But unfortunately, the media, the leftist lap-dog, also followed their marching orders and ran story after story of right-wing attempts to "burn books." 

In the meantime, when everyone was focused on the "censorship" issue, the education establishment was hell-bent on pushing "political correctness." P.C., which in effect is censorship, but when you paint yourselves as the sole defenders of free speech, you can turn around and do the opposite and deflect criticism. 

The educated, or more to the point, indoctrinated this generation of progressives who want to stifle and silence any speech they disapprove of hearing. Cancel culture was bred in the halls of academia and pushed down our throats by the willing servants they call "teachers" in the Public Schools. 

Gobles would be proud of the way they pulled this off. One book they didn't ban was Saul Alinsky's Handbook for Radicals. Instead, they used this as a how-to manual. 

Hey folks, let's make Orwells 1984 book fiction again! Then, maybe we can even get back to the days when you could actually agree with the 1rst and 14th Amendments to the constitution. 

Time management tips: Rest

I was reading a classic Christian book called " Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View Paperback – August 11, 2004 by Garry Friesen  (Author), J. Robin Maxson  (Author)."

In one chapter in particular, On "Wisdom for Decision Making," he relates the story of the Hokema Woodcutter. Woodcutter story

The bottom line is that you can get more done by keeping the saw sharp. One of the central habits in the premier book on time management is Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 

If you think the human body can work at peak efficiency 24/7 365, you are going to crash and burn. Your work will diminish exponentially without time to recharge. 

The Bible principle of Sabbath can still be effective even though it's not a law for today's believers. The rest and reflection is always a good thing to do.  

If you can't find any time to rest call us at Your Office SOS for a consultation and we'll show you how we can give you your time back in an affordable way. 

Pick up the phone

What happened to just picking up the telephone and having a conversation? Instead, I get DM's, PM's, text msgs, chat boxes, emails, pop-up msgs, and more. All are trying to communicate something. Yet, most of the time these communications can be handled much more effectively with just a simple phone call. 

Yes, I am old school. But still, I have bounced back and forth, struggling to communicate what a 2-minute phone conversation would efficiently suffice.

If I am busy, we have a thing called voicemail that works just fine. Yes, it's not the latest gizmo, but it handles the task well. 

Let's not throw out all the communication as mentioned earlier, but make more use of the good old phone call. 

Personal responsibility

Personal responsibility is a throwback to a tip gone long ago. I don't know precisely how long ago we as a society relinquished taking accountability for our own actions and behavior. Instead, it seems we outsourced personal responsibility to some third party. 

Everyone wants to blame every problem, sin, and attitude on sometZoutsdie themselves. Victim culture, granny government, and eroding values in our public schools are a factor for sure. But the most significant fault lies in our churches. American Christianity has mimicked the world when it was forbidden not to by its founder, Jesus Christ. Telling folks it's not you who is the problem and directing them away from taking personal responsibility is not what the Bible says. 

Oh well, if you don't like my blog post, blame my wife. 

Keeping up with the smart stuff

Things are getting more complicated than ever—the complexity of dealing with technology and the rapid pace of its acceleration. Indeed, technology tools need to keep pace with the demands of our culture, but it seems like it's the other way around.

We have technology to manage technology. We have app's that manage app's. Now every tool and appliance in our home and workspace is connected to the internet. Artificial Intelligence and tracking programs feed us everything we need to know because they know where we go, what we buy, what we watch etc.

We freak out when the power goes out, or the internet is down. It feels like we have reprogrammed our life around our gadgets. Our almost total dependence on these things is scary and dangerous.

We certainly can not put the techno genie back in the bottle. So as we move forward, we will either keep up or get left behind.

Just call me

Despite all the technology we have, I still find I get more done on a direct phone call. Of course, I can text you back if I'm busy. But, the good old phone call it's still the best way to communicate.

As long as I m on this topic roll, let me hit another area of poor or at least less than a viable form of communication it's DM's on Social Media. Because of security issues, I don't trust the open channels that they create. So more often than not, after I get a direct message or DM, from someone I  only speak with occasionally, I get a post by that same person saying they were hacked.

No means of communication is perfect, but we need to keep up. 

Just chill

Sometimes we just have to chill. I see all that is happening around me that is negative and stressful, and I get overwhelmed with emotions. Yet, I know that God is large and in charge. I must then pause and pray. Now my focus is on the moment at hand, not all the things going on I can't control. 

I have some practical ways to chill that I use. For example, I have some favorite bible passages I copy on index cards. Then, I make them for the passages that address the situation I am stressing over. Another way is to listen to music that is soothing or worshiping God. I also have some games that I can play on the tablet that takes my mind into its neutral state. 

Feel free to comment with your favorite chill techniques. 

Where hope is

This is a time of turmoil and confusion in the world. I am simply offering to anyone who is seeking God and doesn't yet know Him to please contact me. I can pray with you and help you find the peace that only Jesus Christ can assure. 

I don't have all the specific answers, but I know where my hope is. 

2 Corinthians 10:4 (NIV)

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Philippians 4:7 (NIV)

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Tech overload

 As technology advances at an ever-increasing rate, our human ability to keep pace is going to diminish. We can only go so fast. The learning curve has its breaking point. 

I am a product of the information age. I have been in and around I.T. since the mid 80's when personal computing was in its infancy. As the cycle of doubling computing speed (Moore's Law) increased, our use of technology followed the same trajectory. 

I experience this personally now because in our business, we have to be constantly learning and using as many apps, programs, and software to be able to service our variety of clients. 

The "internet of things" and now "artificial intelligence" are causing the human brain to absorb things at a rate where the emotional and psychological ability to process and keep are stretched; at what point do we snap?

I do know that we need to "unplug" and "unhitch" from technology for some time periods each week. The brain is not functioning at its peak processing power running 24/7.

That's where we at Your Office SOS come in. We can free time on your schedule to help you relax and rejuvenate. 

Presidents Day 2022

 The office of the President of the United States has the most polarizing effect on our country. But, of course, it was always so, I guess, but not to the extent it has been lately.

I don't think a president has sustained popularity in my lifetime except for maybe DDE-Ike.

I have lived in the instant communication age. The lack of a maintained overwhelming approval rating may be because of the instant media. 

John Kennedy's approval was sagging; that's why he was in Dallas. LBJ didn't seek a second term because of his handling of the  Vietnam war.

Nixon even further damaged the office. 

Ford made Chevy Chase's career on SNL. Carter was in over his head. Reagan had an excellent first term. Then, the Berlin Wall fell at his political peak, and his age and the by now biased media hastened his decline.

Bush 41's lip-reading statement doomed him. Clinton was in trouble with the handling of Waco; he bounced back after the 94 GOP take-over, where he triangulated and mobed to the center. He went out in the most demeaning way a president should act in the White House.  

Bush 43 "W" rallied America around 9/11 but lost sight of the true enemy and then left a weakened collapsing economy.

Obama, our first black President, ran as an "uniter, not divider." Still, it took a controversial health care plan and polarizing handling of a racially charged shooting to make the divide so deep as to be unrepairable. 

Trump used the fissure to energize his base. He was politically savvy enough to out politician the politicians. But, unfortunately, he was primarily undone in part by the Chinese Plandemic and Hollywood.

We are now in the hands of a President who one a disputed election. Unless your the media, in which case, "nothing to see here."  Joe "let's go, Brandon," Biden is striking similar to the man behind the curtain in the wizard of Oz. 

We are now so polarized we are on the brink of a cold civil war. So grab a box of popcorn and see how this fiasco plays out.

Joe may be the last of the Presidents. 

Sell crazy someplace else

This blog title comes from a line Jack Nicholson's character utters in the movie As Good as it Gets. 

We live in a world where the insane are now running the asylum. 

I will not get into the political idiocy that abounds in the world today. But, of course, politicians in most countries are representatives of the people. There is a saying that "every" country has the government they deserve. If one lives in an evil dictatorship, the citizenry is complacent unless they rebel and overthrow the despot. 

The absolute insanity of the so-called self-appointed and politician endorsed medical experts on the plandemic, and its cures and prevention are just as crazy as the environmental wacko so-called scientists and their goofy scenarios. 

The mega-church and the media-church are, for the most part, more unhinged and insane than the world. 

When we turn our back on the truth of God as revealed in His Word, this is what we get: "Therefore God sends them a strong delusion so that they may believe what is false," 2 Thessalonians 2:11. 

Communication Breakdown

"What we've got here is failure to communicate" is a quote from the movie Cool Hand Luke. It applies to our society today as almost a general rule. 

There may be many reasons for this, but I lay most of it on the doorstep of the public education system. Media addiction doesn't help either. Texting and posting are also culprits. 

Whatever the cause is, we live in a time where civil and honest communication fails. 

Cold Civil War

We are in the midst of a cold civil war in this country right now. Maybe just not our country either. Canada, Germany, France, England, and several other countries are battling internal conflict.

I believe the "plandemic" has been the triggering flashpoint or the gasoline on an already smoldering fire. There is a sharp divide among people and very little middle ground. The common denominator we share has shrunk to unrecognizable proportions. 

Social media, traditional media, and political opportunists, to name a few, have exacerbated and exploited the situation. Divide and conquer is the enemies' tactic. But, unfortunately, we Christians know who that enemy is.

Nevertheless, we all take the bait and begin hating our neighbors from time to time instead of loving them. The glue of any society has traditionally been religion. But with few exceptions, humanism has destroyed the mortar that held the bricks of a culture together. 

In rebuilding the modern tower of Babel, we have been the victim not of a confounded language but of a technology-based confusion of language. Cancel culture, gaslighting, and over moderating social media have created Orwellian "newspeak."

Before the shooting starts, we need to find a middle ground or bring on Armageddon. 

Too much technology.

I know you want to call me an old geezer. Well, it's not quite the case. But I always have embraced technology. I have been around and working with I.T. since the mid-'80s. I watched it evolve, and I have been there every step of the way.

But with A.I. and all the ever-ongoing changes and advancements, I wonder if we can keep up with it all. Will technology outpace the general population's ability to keep pace?

Even now, it seems like, with the plethora of new programs and apps, I am learning new ones on a daily basis just to try and keep up. When will technology hit human overload?

The Mundays (Mondays).

 In the movie Office Space, they made jokes about the expression "A case of the Mundays (Mondays)."  The term was going around in the '90s when people had to return to the workplace, and on the first day back, you were not happy to be there, and you had a whole week to go before the weekend.

Mondays became synonymous with the blues. Well, I got up today with a case of the "Mondays." What's really weird is that I am semi-retired, so Mondays have no real meaning in the calendar anymore. But my internal biological clock is still counting Mondays as the first day back to the humdrum. 

So I fought semi-depression all day; after four and a half years of retirement from the workplace, I still got a case of the "Mundays." 

Where are we headed?

Where are we headed? The decline in confidence in the media and government has caused us to have a big credibility gap. The gap exists between the lies, spin, and propaganda put out by the cabal. The cabal is where the politicians, big tech, corporations, the media elites all have an inbred relationship. They all were trained in the schools of public indoctrination. 

There are few deviants from public orthodoxy. Don't look to the church. Instead of having a prophetic vision being the conscience of the people the church for the most part has sold its soul to the devil.  Very few churches are operating as God's protection against the eternal liar Satan. Many churches now are reading from Satan's script. 

When are we going to wake up? I don't mean get "woke". 

New Years resolutions

 In my journey on this planet now going on seventy-plus years, I have found that News Year's resolutions are an exercise in futility. At least it's been my experience, and also, the same holds true for a vast majority of the people I have been acquainted with.

Generally, the resolutions are:

• losing weight
• exercising more
• saving more/spending less
• less time on social media
• reading more
• (fill in your own)

Lofty goals or resolutions or just small steps seem to have disappeared or have been neglected by Valentine's Day (if not sooner).

One way I've found to incorporate the values inherent in the resolutions is to take them one day at a time. Make minor changes every day that become habits. Write them down. Get an accountability partner. 

Most of all, make sure you have "buy-in," which means you must sincerely want them. Goals and resolutions must become part of the day-to-day thought process of your life. 

Hopefully, this helps. If not, there is always next year.