Check him out here and here.  In his later years Popcorn was trying to organize the Million Moonshine March, only he realized it was almost as stupid as this.      *Actually, that last part is a lie.  I just wanted to make fun of the Million Marijuana March.*

RIP

1. Yes.
2. Certainly.
3. Very convincing tone.
4. Expertly organized.
5. Clear as the waters of a mountain lake.
6. Yes.  The paragraph change timing is impeccable.
7. Sure.  Maybe could be done better by an expert transitionist.
8. He gets to the point pretty quick-like.  The memo is short enough that you wouldn’t need to take it to the john to get it read.
9. Yes.  The author’s verbs are very “actiony”.
10. Yes to specifics.  The concretes were much too heavy.
11. The hedging was eliminated and replaced with annual flowering plants.
12. I think the author threw in one or two superfluous words just to make the reading a bit lighter.  These could probably be removed.
13. Consistent as pudding on Sunday.  *I have no idea what that means*
14. Yes.  The time is NOW!
15. Yes.  He chose Ron Paul, but his vote wasn’t worth much.
16. The author lives in a parallel universe.  Does that count?
17. I think so, but those kinds of grammar words scare me, and I have no idea what they mean.
18. He tried hard to put the commas and periods in the right place.

Forming the Message

1. The boss should give Calvin’s swingline stapler back.
2. The boss.  Informal communication containing just facts.  The reader’s time is valuable and doesn’t need a long memo.
3. Calvin is missing work because the boss borrowed his swingline.
4. The tone will be firm.
5. Memorandum
6. informal
7. 1st person singulaire
8. Calvin has missed 1 month worth of days in the last 6 months.  Claims there has been illness in the family.  Misses Fridays and Mondays.  He works hard and well.
9. Have no idea.  Yes. Yes.

The Message

To: Mai Boss

From: Lane Meyer

Subject:  Calvin Hobbes’ Absences

Calvin Hobbes has missed 30 days of work in the last six months.  This was first believed to be due to family illness as he has asserted.  However, I have investigated further, and have found that he has in fact been attending anger management classes on those days absences have occurred.  I approached Calvin and have found that he is angry that six months ago you borrowed his Swingline stapler and returned a Boston stapler in its place.

As Calvin is a very experienced and hard working member of my department, I recommend that instead of releasing the good Mr. Hobbes, you simply return his stapler.  This will appease his anger and prevent him from setting the building on fire.

Please contact me with any questions.

Pearsall

Wow.  This guy knows his stuff.  I’m less than half his age, and i can’t remember to grab my poptarts before I leave the house in the morning.  He was pulling engineering and stats stuff out of his bag of tricks that he must have learned 45 years ago.  I hope I can remember my engineering calcs after I’m retired and my mind has gone softer than the poached egg that it is.

The only thing that distracted me from the main point of the presentation, was that Dr. Pearsall had a hard time staying on track.  However, he had some really good stories and I can’t blame him.  I apparently missed a good motorcycle story that he shared with the other section.  shucks.

Dr. Pearsall spoke a lot of risk, and determining risk.  One example he gave was on physical bodily harm, but I think the approach he used can be applied to business or design as well.

I know I just complained about him not being able to stay on track, but his stories were pretty funny, and he had a good sense of humor.  If I had the pleasure of hearing from the good doctor again, I’d be looking forward to his anecdotes and his wit.

Carter

I had the opportunity to have lunch and a quick chat with Worth that was quite enjoyable.  He did, however, shoot down my hopes and dreams of getting a cushy 8 to 5 kinda job.  Maybe I’ll just stay in school forever then…hmm.  Maybe not.  Anyhoo, he was a very approachable and down to earth kinda guy, but he had an air of authority about him that made you give him your respect.  If there ever is a moment in my life where I can reach that sort of level it will also be the moment I have a giant booger hanging out of my nose, which will, of course, ruin any chance of the respect part.

I felt like I left Worth’s presentation with a lot of leader ship tools in my back pocket.  From the examples he gave, it sounded like he would be an understanding and fair kind of person to work for.  That’s probably a rarity in this day and age when you’d be hard pressed to find anybody who likes their manager or boss.

There really wasn’t really much I disliked about the presentation.  It kept me engaged the whole time, so I suppose that’s a success.

One of the biggest things I left with was that when I get to the point of leadership where it will matter, I need to really listen to people and make them understand that I do have a genuine concern for their well-being.  You can’t fake sincerity, after all.

I’d like to hear more stories from his leadership experiences in the army and in civilian life.

Summary:

An epidemic of poor writing in the business world is creating wasted time, confusion, and loss of productivity.  There are three main remedies for the dull, wordy, and often unclear writing that commonly occurs in the business world.  The first solution is to take the time to organize what is written and carefully analyze it for clarity of intended purpose.  Secondly, business writing should be brought back to a more conversational tone.  The jargon and big words often used in business documents should be substituted for shorter and more direct words that allow the writer’s “voice” to show through in the writing.  The last remedy is to write in such a way that the main point or information can be found and understood quickly.  Writing in a simple and plain way will allow the reader to find pertinent information easily, thus facilitating clear communication.  By doing these three things, the writer will be able to save others time, get results, and promote goodwill.

Opinion:

This article definitely brought some very good points to light.  It is very frustrating as a college student working with others in a group to have to heavily edit another student’s writing.  At this level of education, writing skills should have been polished beyond what might have been expected in high school.  Writing is so crucial in any field of work, that it is amazing that so many have failed to develop basic skills.  Following the simple proposed writing remedies by taking time to intelligently organize the writing, make the writing more direct, and keep the point of the writing plain and apparent, will help to bring many writers’ written communication to where it should be.

The most useful part of the presentation was seeing what skills the industry leaders are looking for in new hires.  This is good info, since I will soon be a new hire (hopefully)

The less useful part was that some of the statistics jargon was just a bit over my head, and out of my realm of interest.

I will use the information she shared to try and better market myself when I am looking for a job.  If I know what people are looking for, then I can strengthen areas where I’m weaker and stress areas where I’m stronger.

It would be nice to see what changes in the college are going to be made after analyzing all of the data that’s been collected.

06-APR:  Scott Dorney

I liked Dorney’s presentation because he is obviously a talented speaker and kept me engaged the whole time.  He is also very passionate about his work and that definitely showed.  He had some very helpful advice about how to climb the ladder as the low man on the totem pole.

There was very little that I disliked about his presentation.

He definitely stressed loyalty to an organization.  I think this is just good business and the ethical thing to do.  I will also try and take his advice and try not to be a “wallflower” at any new job, but jump in with both feet.

He spoke a lot about his time in the civilian world, but I’m sure he had some more good anecdotes about his time in the military.

I liked the fact that he attributed a lot of his success in the military and industry to luck.  It’s refreshing to see a successful person be realistic about how they came into being successful. I’m not saying he didn’t work hard and stuff, but there’s usually some element of chance or luck involved with good opportunities coming one’s way.

I didn’t like the fact that he was more interested in just giving a walk down memory lane instead of pointers on leadership.

It made me realize that I don’t think I want to go into the helicopter or golf cart business.  I also realized that they had some super cool suits back in the day.

LTC (Ret) Eric Buller

I liked the fact that after he got done speaking I was all pumped up about the army and all that they stand for.  I was about go down and enlist.

I didn’t like the fact that after he got done speaking I was about to go and enlist.  I felt tricked by the feel good military value stuff.  The problem was that I forgot my tinfoil hat, so I was vulnerable to government mind tricks.

He stressed that that an organization needs to stick to it’s values.  I think this is a very good point.

Self-Analysis Strengths

The skill or ability that I am best at is being slow.  I’m a perfectionist by birth, and so I take things slow and try as hard as I can to make things turn out right on the first try.

The personal quality that I rely on most for my success is my uncontrollable sarcasm.  When I have no idea what to do or say I generally have two choices.  I can dance a jig, or I can say something sarcastic.  I usually choose the latter.

I am most knowledgeable about random stuff that I remember instead of how to do integrals or what day my mom’s birthday is on.  I can remember little things that I read in a book 10 years ago, but I just can’t ever seem to remember what exactly the modulus of rigidity is.

The activities I look forward to include mostly outdoor activities.  Among my favorites are mountain biking and backpacking.

I would love to learn more about small sea creatures.  They are so delicate and dainty floating around in the big blue ocean with all those big mean fish just waiting to munch on them for dinner.  That really intrigues me.

The accomplishment I am most proud of is my collection of plastic Wendy’s utensils that I’ve built up over the course of this semester.  I’m not sure how many I have, but it’s probably more than anybody else has in this building.

Others usually come to me for help on homework.  I think people come to me because I must be super smart, I almost always do my homework, and I do it really neat and legible.  I guess that makes it easy to copy.  Now that I think about it, maybe it’s not because I’m smart.  hmmm…food for thought.

Others think the best job for me would be a professional prank caller.  I have an uncanny ability not to laugh when I’m prank calling somebody.  I’m still working on a way to get paid to do this.  I think it could be a nice way to make a lot of enemies.  Afterall, they always say “if you don’t have any friends, an enemy is the next best thing”.

Self-Analysis Weaknesses

The skill or ability that is always difficult for me is juggling more than three objects at a time.  No matter how hard I try, my brain gets all discombobulated and my hands tangled up if I try and juggle more than three things.  Maybe this is a metaphor.  Maybe it’s not.

I don’t know as much as I should about…(Seriously, what kind of question is this?  There’s an infinite number of things that I should know more about.  There’s an infinite number of things that anyone should know more about.  This kind of question makes people feel useless and insignificant in this ever expanding universe.  I’ll just have to randomly pick one of the infinite number of things I should know more about)…

I feel like I should know more about male-dimorphism in the Dung Beetle.  Yeah that’s it.  Thanks Ashlee.

I usually go to others for help on strep throat.  I’ve tried and tried to get over it myself, but whenever I have strep throat I just can’t kick it without some help from my friends.  I usually struggle with it for a little while, and then I go see my friends that wear white coats.  They are always so helpful, but I wish they didn’t charge so much to be my friends.

The situation that causes me the most frustration is when I see a family being torn apart by something as simple as a pack of wild dogs.  I mean, what must that family have done to make those dogs so angry at them.  I bet they were a terrible, mean family.

I am most hesitant when I try to harvest prickly pears.  I picked a bunch once and didn’t realize to the full extent why they call them “prickly pears”.  I spent a long time trying to remove hundreds of nearly invisible stabber jabber things out of my hand.  So, yeah, not my favorite fruit anymore.

I am most concerned about my appearance.  More specifically the appearance of my butt.  See, I like to ride bikes, and sometimes when it’s wet your back tire sprays you right up the middle of your backside with dirty water.  This sort of thing could be social suicide if left unchecked.  So, it’s something that I really fear.  This girl should fear it too.

Others think I am not very good at being serious.  I’m not sure why this is.

I would become a more valued member of my team or organization (can be any team, professional organization, fraternity, sorority, etc.)  if I did more of the work.  That’s pretty much what determines the value of someone on a team.  You don’t hear people going around saying, “boy, that guy never does any work at all, but he’s such a good listener.  I don’t know what we’d do without him on our team”.  Nope.  People like you on their team if you do a lot of work or are really attractive.  I’m going to have to focus on the work part.

So it is with mixed feelings that embark on the last of the worst.  Overjoyed with the prospect of being done with them, but reluctant to face them.  Here I go.

POST PART 1: Read Chamberlain_at_Gettysburg and answer the following questions:

1. What values did Chamberlain’s decisions that day at Little Round Top represent?

• Duty.  Definitely duty.  Chamberlain knew what he had to do, and he did it.  He did his best to prepare for different possibilities and then he took the risks necessary to get the job done no matter the cost.  He’s my hero.

1. What core leader attributes and competencies did Chamberlain exhibit?

• He certainly excelled at leading others and communicating clearly even in less than desirable circumstances.  Two gold stars for him.

1. What level of leadership was COL Chamberlain operating at?

• He was a Colonel.  Duh.  I suppose he was acting at the strategic level, but all that military mumbo-jumbo confuses me.

1. What types of leader teams did COL Chamberlain have to deal with?

• He was working directly with company commanders.

1. What type of an example did he set for those around him?

• A good one.  He was confident and decisive and gave clear orders.  He was probably scared but didn’t show it.

POST PART 2: Read Sgt_York and answer the following questions:

1. Which core leader competencies did his leaders display when they counseled with SGT York during his dilemma?

• His kind and loving leaders demonstrated care for the confused SGT York.  I’m sure they were just like little teddy bears.

1. How did his leaders help him develop?

• They created a climate that allowed York to feel the freedom to make up his own mind about his ethical dilemma.  I’m sure that goes on all the time these days….NOT!!!

1. How did the ethical climate his leaders set affect the outcome of the situation?

• York decided to stay and he single-handedly beat the Germans, ended WWI and baked a delicious quiche all at the same time.

POST PART 3: “No one can be a successful leader unless he can get others to follow him.  From the most basic commands used in drill and ceremonies to asking a Soldier to risk his life in combat, leaders need team players willing to follow instructions and orders without hesitation.

Answer the following questions:

1. What else should a good follower do to make the “leadership equation” work well?

• Being a good follower isn’t just about doing what you are told.  No, a good follower will support and sustain their leader in their decisions.  A person can do what they are told and criticize the leader the whole while.  This does not create a good atmosphere for the rest of the followers.  So, supporting the leader can help make the whole group more prone to being better followers and a better team.

1. Can you think of an experience you have had in which you needed to be or should have been a good follower?  What is it and why.

• Marriage.  Sometimes it’s the right time to be the leader and make the executive decisions, and sometimes it’s the right time to take a back and listen to the better half.  Usually more of the latter times, since she’s so much smarter than I am.

1. How can you incorporate being a good follower into your life now and into the future?

• My father once told me the key to a happy marriage.  I believe his advice was really about being a good follower.  He said “For a marriage to work well you let her do what she wants to do, and you do what she wants to do”.  Worked fine so far.  Thanks, Pop.

Whew…the blog slog is over.  No more vignettes designed to make me feel good about my choice to join the army.  Which I haven’t.  Sorry army people, your mind control tricks don’t work on me.  I’m much too cynical.

Behold the powers of the tin foil hat.

“She never quit”

Question: What do you think helped SGT Hester react to the ambush the way she did?

Answer: What would you do if you had armed men fueled by rage, a healthy does of hate for westerners, and looking forward to an afterlife with all the virgins you could fit in a VW bus shooting rocket propelled grenades at you?  What if I told you that you had your very own top-of-the-line insurgent blaster?  Well, you’d probably do one of two things:  Run away Sir Robin style or start fighting like a screaming banshee on crack.  Hester chose the latter.

Question: Which of the Army values (in FM 6-22) did SGT Hester and her fellow Guardsmen exhibit in their actions?

Answer: I pick personal courage.  She fought with the heart of a great big furry lion.

Question: What leader attributes and competencies  (in FM 6-22) did she exhibit?

Answer: I think what helped Hester out the most was that she had prepared before hand.  She spent the time developing the skills she would need for facing unexpected situations.  Because she had prepared herself, she was able to throw down on those insurgents when they pulled out their gats.

Part II

Question: What do you think is required to be a leader with intellect?

Answer: I’m going to go out on a limb here with the wild guess of intellect.  What does that entail?  Well, basically it means you prepare your mind.  An leader with intellect needs to always be thinking and learning.  There’s never going to be a time when a leader can say, ok..I know everything I possibly need to know to be prepared for everything.  The intellectual leader has got to keep learning so that they can be ready for whatever comes their way.

Question: How do or will you incorporate this into your leadership philosophy going forward?

Answer: I suppose I’m working on the intellect part right now by pursuing further education.  Probably a harder aspect to see is that even the best education can’t prepare one for every situation.  So, as a leader I will try and surround myself with people smarter than I am, so that I can learn from them and use their knowledge to help me lead.

“He never gave in”

Question: What Army values did Versace’s actions in captivity represent?

Answer: I’ll take Loyalty for $800, Alex.

Question: What core leader competencies did Versace exhibit?

Answer: Versace definitely led by example.  He stepped up to the plate and immediately took responsibility for the group as the senior prisoner.  He didn’t give in to the fear or pain, and always did what I’m sure he hoped his fellow prisoners would do.

Question: What impact did CPT Versace’s example have on those around him?

Answer: I’m sure it impressed the crap out of the viet cong.  They may not have liked him very much, but they had to be impressed.  Of course it must have made it a little bit easier for his fellow soldiers not to give in to the Vietnamese after watching Versace’s brave behavior.

Hughes exhibited his domain knowledge by being aware of what was outside the bounds his domain.  Let’s consider his domain to be his battalion.  He obviously needs to have domain knowledge concerning his mission objectives, military tactics, equipment functions…the list goes on.  But what might be overlooked by many, but was not forgotten by LTC Hughes, is that part of his job is to be aware of what is happening on the outside of the battalion.  Luckily, he was able to appreciate the other culture for what it is, and have the respect to learn about it.

I’m not sure what people do in other sports, but growing up playing soccer, when some unlucky kid got kicked in the wedding tackle and was writhing in pain on the ground, all the players on the field would take a knee as a sign of either respect or being tired.  I think it was mostly respect…I think.  Anyhoo, Hughes obviously was a former soccer player, and this is where he learned it.  Also, putting oneself on a lower plane than another has always been a sign of submission of will.  Take for example the knight swearing fealty to his lord.  The knight will kneel before his vassal to symbolize submission of will.  Well, Hughes needed to show that he was not there to change these people’s religious beliefs…but to just pass through.  Taking a knee was the international sign of choking (ISOC) version of showing respect.

International Sign of Choking

It’s fairly obvious that Hughes’ adaptability pulled him and his men out of a tight spot.  However,  it’s all the training that helped him practice that adaptability that may not be so apparent.  Hughes was aware that no plan survives contact with the enemy, and so he was ready to think on his feet.  I am also aware that plans get shredded to ribbons when the enemy is engaged.  That is why I trick the enemy by not actually having a plan.  That way, just when the enemy thinks my plan is unraveling it is actually just getting raveled.  Then I blind the enemy with confusion and sneak away to my impenetrable fortress that I secretly made while his spies weren’t looking.  Admittedly, that last part doesn’t make any sense at all, but suffice it to say, Hughes was one adaptable fella.

I feel that Hughes used a combo of methods to aid in his deft avoidance of a bad situation.  Obviously he lead across cultures, but he also must have sought challenges somewhere along the way to be in the leadership position he was in.  In the seeking of those challenges is where he would have gained invaluable experience in adapting to different situations on the fly.

Fearless Leader

The first thing we need to ascertain here is that this Rescorla fellow isn’t really William Wallace.  I’m not sure but I think they are one and the same.

What army values did Rescorla, a.k.a. William Wallace, demonstrate in his heroic actions as in the military and in civilian life, you ask?  I would say the simple and sufficient answer to that would be: All of them.

I would say that one of Rescorla’s strongest of the core leadership competencies was creating a positive environment.  It would be ridiculous to think that he himself wasn’t scared crapless in the face of likely death, but he put that behind him to focus on those he led.  He turned that energy outward and made sure that he was focusing, not on himself, but on the well-being of his friends.  The whistling and singing helped distract the worries of others, and helped create that positive environment.

It’s clear that Mr. Wallace Rescorla set a good example of a true leader to those who served with him and those that have read his story.  He was a selfless leader, who wouldn’t shrink in the face of adversity.  He’s the kind of person that my generation knows little of, and the  pokemon generation knows nothing of.  I’m not saying we need another Vietnam to thin our ranks, be we could do ourselves some good by paying attention to the few remaining WWII vets and the boys, like Rescorla, who chose to rise above the hell and despair of Vietnam to become men and leaders of men.