Audio Tidbits

Greetings Earth Humans.

 

Let’s talk turkey.

 

We know we are not products of the culture in the America pod and very likely do not appreciate the subtleties of American politics. As aliens, our experiences and mind sets are not the same as yours. With that caveat in mind, we want to use this broadcast to share our perspective and our confusion as well.

 

To be sure we are as objective as possible and to share the best available perspective, we have arranged a panel of experts on truth and reality. Of course the panel members are all women since as is true in The America pod, human men just are not capable of keeping truth and reality in the forefront while giving politics its proper position in the background. You only need to focus attention on male politicians to grock the accuracy of this insight.

 

We have asked the panel to help us understand human truth in the context of the current political kerfuffle. …

This episode of the Audio Tidbits Podcast asks if there is a genius in the house. James discusses the real nature of genius, the reality of truth and the tricks and techniques of the dedicated snake oil salesperson. The episode is a remix and includes a musical interlude at the end. That will give you a couple of minutes to thoughtfully consider what James has shared. Please enjoy.

I feel compelled to share this episode in the Great Mouse hunt but do so reluctantly and with caution and reservation. It is both chilling and alarming.

I must also advise you of the necessity of using ear phones when listening, if you choose to listen. The hunt cannot be adequately reproduced on a simple single speaker, especially not the type on many cell phones. The environment is quiet but nonetheless haunting.

You may want to just pass on this episode. I fear you may have delayed reactions as did I.

You have had the full disclaimer so I have done all I can do to prevent unwanted trauma. You proceed at your own discretion and risk.

The Frustration Factor Society International (FFSI) advances the art and science of driving people up the wall throughout the world. The committee on methods is meeting in Chicago a week late. They were to meet in San Francisco, but the location subcommittee neglected to reserve a hotel. Only a few of the sixty-three members are present because of a little snag with the meeting notices. Even with this glitch, the committee is now meeting.

 

Mark Brown, a charter member, is trying to make a motion to raise "Not Me" to a recognized method for driving people up the wall. "It may be that we might want possibly to consider Not Me as a method."

 

Another member asks, "Are you making that as a motion?"

 

Mark says, "Well, not exactly. Maybe we can talk about it and see what everyone thinks."

 

Steve clears his throat and starts the discussion. "It's the kind of thing where it is easy to see both sides." Steve squirms a little in his chair. Seeing that no one else wants to talk, he says, "I could come down on either side of this one. If Mark is solid with this one, I am not saying I could not be persuaded."

 

Sharon Lewis, from Texas, hesitatingly joins into the discussion. She says, "I thought, well, I have been at a few meetings where the person who brings up an idea makes the motion. I would like to suggest Mark puts his idea in the form of a motion."

 

Mark nervously jumps in. "Oh, no. I don't think I should be the one to head this up. It should be someone with more experience or specific interest."

 

Brad, from Philadelphia, thoughtfully enters the debate. "I want to hear some ideas from the rest of you before coming to closure on this one. Whenever we decide to break, it might be well to chew on this one a little over lunch."

 

Sharon is quick to agree. "I'm going to hang with Brad on this one, unless someone has a better idea."

 

Tim, from Maine, feels like it is a moment tailor-made for an apple polisher like him to say a few words. "I believe in consensus and think we can all agree on one thing. The members who are here today have struggled with this important decision. We have to tread lightly in sensitive areas like this. It's people we are talking about here. The extent to which any decision might offend someone has to be considered each time."

 

Jami from Oklahoma sees his chance to contribute. He says, "I have been thinking about the issues we have before us. I wonder if it might be a good idea to call a few of the members who are not here to get their thoughts on things."

 

Jami's idea stimulates instant, positive expressions and the project is under way. Because no one has a committee membership list, Jami makes a list of the members those present can remember. The committee manages to divide the list; and as Jami gives Ted, from Ohio, his names to call, Ted says, "Not me. I would like to help but I have some stuff here I had to bring along to work on. I can't step away from it. Either I'm going to whip it, or it's going to kill me first. The pressure is too much sometimes. You know how it goes."

 

Let it suffice to say that looking in on more of the meeting would be redundant.

 

●He who hesitates is lost

 

●Strike while the iron is hot

 

●Victory belongs to the swift

 

These statements represent the thoughts of a moron from the committee player's point of view. Any second rate player knows that the truth lies in a different set of wise sayings.

 

●Follow the leader

 

Your baby starts her journey into adulthood with very little going for her other than an inborn potential to grow and become. Within the first few weeks of life, she begins the lifelong process of experiencing, exploring, and expressing herself. This is a very physical/doing time of life for baby. She spends most of her waking hours looking, making noises, learning to hold up her head and turn over, squirming and moving around, trying and then learning to pick things up, usually putting them in her mouth, and gradually organizing her life around the major goals of getting to things and getting into them. As your baby becomes a toddler (around the age of eighteen months), the circle of her world starts to expand. There are myriad things to get into and to learn to stay out of, to climb on and around, to explore and experiment with, to take apart and throw around. There is a long list of things to do, such as learning to talk, to use the bathroom, and to feed herself, figuring out new ways to get others to pay attention, finding out about rules and restrictions, getting better at moving around without falling down - generally discovering the physical world.

As your toddler becomes a preschooler, her world continues to expand geometrically with things to do or to avoid, experiences to have or to refrain from, with more complicated toys, more elaborate opportunities, and with those ever-present but changing rules and restrictions. The world of puzzles and coloring books, bicycles and roller skates, games and good manners also begins to come into focus.

As your preschooler becomes a grade schooler, the circle of her world expands yet further and rules and restrictions begin to decrease, even if only slightly. Not only is she able to do more things, but she is allowed to, even encouraged to do more. Somewhat suddenly, it may seem to your grade schooler, you and other adults expect her to learn how to do things that are sometimes difficult or tedious. Fun and work are becoming interacting and interrelated parts of life.

As your grade schooler moves into adolescence, the circle of her life continues to expand, and the rules and restrictions change and lessen. Your child by then has developed a fairly well-established pattern of discovery, experimentation, and mastery; she has developed an amazingly complex array of skills, abilities, and behaviors to be consciously used or not, depending on the circumstances. And still more skills and behaviors are yet to be learned - how to participate in team sports and group activities, what is the proper behavior in a multitude of situations, how to do geometry, how to drive a car, how to behave on dates and in other social situations. Gradually, the developing individual comes to do and act less like your child and more like an adult.

Your baby starts her journey into adulthood with very little going for her other than an inborn potential to grow and become. Within the first few weeks of life, she begins the lifelong process of experiencing, exploring, and expressing herself. This is a very physical/doing time of life for baby. She spends most of her waking hours looking, making noises, learning to hold up her head and turn over, squirming and moving around, trying and then learning to pick things up, usually putting them in her mouth, and gradually organizing her life around the major goals of getting to things and getting into them. As your baby becomes a toddler (around the age of eighteen months), the circle of her world starts to expand. There are myriad things to get into and to learn to stay out of, to climb on and around, to explore and experiment with, to take apart and throw around. There is a long list of things to do, such as learning to talk, to use the bathroom, and to feed herself, figuring out new ways to get others to pay attention, finding out about rules and restrictions, getting better at moving around without falling down - generally discovering the physical world.

As your toddler becomes a preschooler, her world continues to expand geometrically with things to do or to avoid, experiences to have or to refrain from, with more complicated toys, more elaborate opportunities, and with those ever-present but changing rules and restrictions. The world of puzzles and coloring books, bicycles and roller skates, games and good manners also begins to come into focus.

As your preschooler becomes a grade schooler, the circle of her world expands yet further and rules and restrictions begin to decrease, even if only slightly. Not only is she able to do more things, but she is allowed to, even encouraged to do more. Somewhat suddenly, it may seem to your grade schooler, you and other adults expect her to learn how to do things that are sometimes difficult or tedious. Fun and work are becoming interacting and interrelated parts of life.

As your grade schooler moves into adolescence, the circle of her life continues to expand, and the rules and restrictions change and lessen. Your child by then has developed a fairly well-established pattern of discovery, experimentation, and mastery; she has developed an amazingly complex array of skills, abilities, and behaviors to be consciously used or not, depending on the circumstances. And still more skills and behaviors are yet to be learned - how to participate in team sports and group activities, what is the proper behavior in a multitude of situations, how to do geometry, how to drive a car, how to behave on dates and in other social situations. Gradually, the developing individual comes to do and act less like your child and more like an adult.

It is important for you to actively and thoughtfully Participate on the management team. An important element of your participation is to assure that you Understand your organization's budget, financial reports, and other management data.

"Relationships are a 50/50 proposition," and "Getting along is a two-way-street," are ideas that go around a lot. You may have heard them once or twice yourself. Well, I have heard them too and respectfully disagree. "Relate the best you know how, every chance you get." You do recall that verse of our theme song, do you not? Well, I am singing it again.

You are accountable for and can only be accountable for how you manage your side of your relationship. What's more, your side of the relationship is your exclusive opportunity and responsibility. You and your significant other may share a lot but not this. No one can do it for you; no one can prevent you from doing it.

"I would be different if you were different." Have you ever heard that old excuse for a whiner's less than best effort in a relationship? It takes but a minute's thought to see the logic. "Since you are not the way I think you should be, I am justified in being less than I am capable of being." …

Greetings my fellow trackers of the Great Mouse. The hunt for the Great Mouse continues. When we last spotted the hunters, they had tracked the Great Mouse to a distant location in outer space. The Great Mouse again alluded the hunters and lived to pursue its conquest of the universe.

I am back to share what is the most strange sighting yet of the Great Mouse. I was attending the Home Show at our local fair grounds when I was shocked to become aware of the hunters and their pursuit of the Great Mouse. I may be hallucinating but I experienced what I experienced. At least I think I did.

Let me simply share the experience with you and let you judge for yourself.

Was it actually the Great Mouse and the intrepid hunters?

Please listen and come to your own conclusion. No one else at the show seemed to notice anything unusual or out of the ordinary. Maybe I am losing it but I don’t think so. At least I hope not.

I leave you to your own perceptions.

"A man may fall many times, but he won't be a failure until he says that someone pushed him." -- Elmer G. Letterman

The psychology of success and failure is complex but not particularly hard to understand. It starts with personal responsibility. Unless you accept the responsibility for failure, you can't take the credit for success. Either you are the agent of your life outcomes or the victim of people who are pushing you down. What Letterman didn't say is that, if you blame others for pushing you down, people other than you deserve the praise for pushing you ahead.

Separating yourself from what you do comes next. As William D. Brown put it, "Failure is an event, never a person." Your success and failure aren't who you are. They are merely what you do. S.I. Hayakawa expanded on the same theme, "Notice the difference between what happens when a man says to himself, ‘I have failed three times,' and what happens when he says, ‘I am a failure.'" The key is in how you manage life's events, not in the events themselves. Robert Allen expressed it like this, "There is no failure. Only feedback."

Now consider what you do with the feedback life provides. Napoleon Hill observed, "The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail." It's not enough to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and climb back on that horse that threw you. You need a better plan for staying in the saddle. Sure, getting up and starting over is tough. Yes, that damn horse may throw you again. Indeed, your new plan may not work any better than the old one; but it's like Beverly Sills said, "You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try."

Thomas Edison managed the disappointment this way, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work;" and Samuel Beckett had a similar persistent optimism, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." With role models like Edison and Beckett, you can hardly go wrong, so long as you keep trying. As Charles F. Kettering put it, "One fails forward toward success."

George E. Woodberry knew the essence of success, "Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure." Continuing effort is seldom elegant or easy; but Elbert Hubbard's simple point may be all you actually need to know, "There is no failure except in no longer trying." With that said, Mary Pickford gets the last word on the psychology of success and failure, "Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down."