by Clarence E. Stowers | Apr 1, 2008 | Communication
Oh my goodness…my day has been filled w/intense meetings…my mind needs a break.
So, I’ve compiled a list of questions, as Arsenio Hall says, "that make you go hmmm…"
Here we go!
1. Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?
2. If 7-11 is open 24-hrs a day, 365 days a year why are there locks on the door?
3. If nothing ever sticks to Teflon, how do they make Teflon stick to the pan?
4. Why are there flotation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes?
5. Why are cigarettes sold in gas stations when smoking is prohibited there?
6. Why do "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the same thing?
7. If you can’t drink and drive, why do you need a driver’s license to buy liquor, and why do bars have parking lots?
8. Why does your nose "run" and your feet "smell"
9. Why is it called a "building" when its already built?
10. Why do they call them apartments when they are all stuck together?
11. What is another word for "thesaurus"?
Ok, back to work…my minds is clear now…
What about you – what’s on your mind?
by Clarence E. Stowers | Mar 11, 2008 | Communication
Those who know me will tell you that I’m the consummate gadget man. In fact, some secretly call me "Inspector Gadget." I just left the Apple Store (they know me on a 1st name basis) and got a chance to review a few of the proposed updates for the iPhone. Oh my God! TRUST ME – APPLE’S GETTING READY TO CHANGE THE GAME!!!
Apple’s software developers have virtually fixed all my concerns and added a few more apps that’ll make my life easier.
For example:
Notes
Leopard’s (Mac OS X) Apple Mail supports a feature called Notes. Notes can be
attached to any type of information within Leopard Mail, and can be
grouped, sorted and filed within the Mail application. In fact, they
even behave like Notes on the iPhone, where the first line becomes the
title.
To-Do’s
Todo’s in Leopard Mail are filed and treated in the same way that
Notes are. Apple describes how you can highlight text anywhere, and
right click to create a ToDo item. If you do a ToDo based off a mail or
note, it retains a link to that note or mail. They also automatically
appear in iCal. Its pretty safe to say that on the iPhone, Todo’s will
be used much as they are in Leopard: as task oriented adjuncts to any
piece of content.
Contextually Sensitive Mail
Mail in Leopard detects if a message has an address, a time or a
phone number in it, and will help you auto-sort it. iPhone already has
some features like this, and they should be extended.
by Clarence E. Stowers | Mar 7, 2008 | Communication
Need I say more…
by Clarence E. Stowers | Mar 7, 2008 | Communication
I finally pulled the plug on it and decided to sell my iPhone. Now I am back
to my Verizon wireless BlackBerry 8830 and boy am I happy – no ELATED!!! If you truly need the features of the BlackBerry, the iPhone won’t replace the BlackBerry. I’ve had my iPhone for two months and here’s what the iPhone
"does not" have in comparison to the BlackBerry 8830:
· No voice memo option
· No voice text option
· No real keyboard – can’t get with that touchscreen
keyboard.
· No auto text (I set up in my blackberry that if
I type "plmk" it types out "please let me know" and a 100
other auto texts I set up to be fast and efficient
· No cut and paste (are you kidding me?)
· No help feature within the phone itself
· No draft option for emails or texts (I was in
the middle of a long one, my phone rang, poof, my email was gone when I hung
up.
· No ring profiles (at night I put my bb 8830 in
phone only mode for emergiencies and then texts and emails don’t ring all night
· No search feature (for finding emails, texts,
calls or subject matters)
· Capitalization requires two strokes on the
keyboard, bb8830 only one (holding down the key)
· No way to jump to the bottom of a long email or
texts or to the bottom of a list of emails or texts
· No way to start typing the name of the person I
want to call. I have to remember how I organized their name in my almost 1000
list of contacts in order to call them.
· Doesn’t sync the tasks from my Outlook
· No speed dialing
· No LED light to tell me I have missed a call,
have a text, email or alarm. I have to physically pick up the phone to look at
it.
· No way to easily add a phone number contained in
the text of an email and add it to address book (in the bb8830 you select the
number, menu, add to address book, done!)
· No cut and paste. THAT’S RIGHT, I SAID IT AGAIN!
· No camera settings menu from the camera option,
no zoom
· My 1st calender entry repeated itself for a week
(even though I coded it "repeat: none" and blocked out 8 hours for
each of those days, even though it was a 1/2 hour appt.)
Fancy webpage graphics and music won’t fix all this. I’m lucky enough to work
in the corporate world at home and my BB keeps me efficient and mobile. Wish I
read a post like this before I got caught up in the iPhone bedazzlement.
FYI…I’m selling my iPhone w/all the extras…anyone interested email me!
by Clarence E. Stowers | Feb 20, 2008 | Book Reviews, Communication, Preaching
In case you haven’t noticed, I have the book, Made to Stick, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath on my "Books I’m Currently Reading" list. I’ve started and stopped, started and stopped and started and stopped. Hate that!
But now, I’ve started AGAIN and have not stopped. (And don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t stopping because the book was bad or boring. Actually, quite the opposite. I wanted to devote some solid time to reading through the entire book instead of trying to fit it in little by little.)
So with that said, let me say LOUD and CLEAR that this is a book that EVERY preacher/communicator/pastor/teacher/leader/CEO/marketer/and anyone else who has a message that they believe needs to STICK with people, should read!
The book examines why some ideas seem to STICK and SURVIVE and others don’t. The authors expound on these six principles of sticky ideas throughout the book:
Simplicity – Creating ideas that are both simple and profound.
Unexpectedness – We need to violate people’s expectations. For our idea to endure, we must generate interest and curiosity.
Concreteness – Ideas must be explained in terms of human actions and sensory information. We tend to gravitate towards ambiguous to the point of being meaningless. People remember concrete ideas and data. Abstraction makes it harder to understand an idea and to remember it.
Credibility – Sticky ideas have to carry their own credentials. We need to find ways to help people test our ideas for themselves.
Emotions – People will care about our ideas when we help them feel something.
Stories – Hearing stories help motivate people to act on our ideas.
