Making Change Happen :o)

Have you been contemplating making a change? It could be as simple as losing weight, start saving more money, or more challenging like writing a book or stopping smoking. We all have pre-wired things that tend to hold us back (previous attempts have failed, so why bother). How do you evoke change then?


Choose a goal and go! Decide what change you wish to make, and determine what you are going to do right this moment to make it happen. For example, if your goal is weight loss, go and climb the stairs five times and drink two glasses of water. Go ahead, I'll wait.........


Take a step toward your goal each day! When you look at yourself in the mirror each morning, take a moment to contemplate the progress you have made toward your change, have a two second celebration, and then decide what you will do today to build upon that progress. For example, if your goal is to start saving more money, you could spend some time each day researching coupons on-line, and start building a collection.


Choose reality over fantasy! Take the time you're tempted to spend dreaming about changing your life and use it to make some changes instead. For example, instead of sitting down to watch TV, why not spend some time on the book. Turn off unhelpful automatic responses! Our natural reactions can stand in the way of making positive change. Two of the biggest to overcome, in my opinion, are being impatient and procrastinating. Change takes time, and habits take at least 21 days to change. Healthy weight loss means only a couple of pounds per week. It may take some writing classes before you learn the proper technique. So make sure you return to the second tidbit above daily at keep your affirmation positive. A good way to combat, or identify if you are feeling inadequate, would be to keep a journal (paper or on-line). Patterns will emerge, or if you choose the on-line path, you will have a built in support group.


Find a Support Team! You do not have to do this alone. See suggestion above about on-line support :o) Find a peer support group or a person that has already made the change you are endeavoring. If you goal is specific such as savings, consider a financial planner. If it is health related, find a coach or organization.


Review the day's progress each night! This forces a reality check - did you make progress or did you experience some missteps. If your goal was to be more patient, did you get frustrated at a checkout line, or did you browse one of the fine magazines there for your gawking pleasure :o)


Share your growth! The positive feedback you receive will help you maintain your momentum.


Plagiarized from May 1, 2009 Bottom/Line Personal interview with Gary Null.

Without a doubt, one of the best movies I have ever watched :o)

MARCO .... polo :o)

The ocean waters of the Mid-Atlantic, stretching from New York to Virginia, provide a wealth of economic and environmental services to local communities, States, and the nation. At the same time, the people of the Mid-Atlantic region are a significant force that influences our ocean and coastal environment. We change the coastline and watershed through our buildings and development, we harvest the ocean’s resources through increasingly efficient means, and we rely on offshore waters to support diverse activities such as maritime commerce and recreation.

As the intensity of these human influences has increased, they have at times led to significant threats to the health of our ecosystems. Now our ocean and coastal resources face a new generation of challenges, and these challenges are only growing in their urgency.

To successfully address these challenges, and to ensure that future generations can enjoy healthy and productive ocean ecosystems, the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia have committed to a new comprehensive, regional approach, creating the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean. Our five states will work to maintain and improve the health of our ocean and coastal resources, and ensure that they continue to contribute to the high quality of life and economic vitality of our region’s communities well into the future.

We rarely hear the good news about what our politicians are doing to take care of mother nature, kudos to these five governors. If you want to read the MARCO agreement, click the link here.

Heavy Metal :o)

As you may be able to tell from my posting and commenting patterns, I am working some crazy hours.

My schedule has me working a shift rotation, where you do three weeks of days, three weeks of nights, and so on... When we are working, it is a twelve hour shift, plus turnover time, but we also get 2-6 day gaps. Not the best schedule, but the sliver of silver lining is that when I get off for the day, I am done. No outstanding work hanging over my head (quick, duck :o), and when I am home, no pile or work looming over my shoulder.

The picture above shows the main generator, with the internals removed and sent offsite to be repaired. You can see all the scaffold in the background, we basically took the low pressure turbine all the way down to base concrete, and are re-machining and reassembling now. You can see the scale of the metal pieces, all large castings that need lots of weld repair. For such a large machine, it is amazing that the tolerances are 1/1000 of an inch. Now, we use lasers for alignment and measurements [thinking evil sea bass here :o)], and it makes me wonder how it was done in the olden days.

As we say, we are in a marathon, not a sprint, and we have months to go before we spin again. I go up on the turbine deck when I can, but this picture to the right is where I spend my time now. This is the the Outage Control Center, where I am the Shift Outage Manager when I am there, (head [enter your own epithet here] in charge), responsible for driving work and removing the proverbial roadblocks. It is kind of like the Maytag Repairman, mostly quiet, there for when a crisis rears its ugly head, and then there is a flurry of activity before I pull my head back into my shell.

Hope your week is going well, I am in the middle of my weekend, and my workweek resumes Saturday night.

Time to Downsize???

Green Lawns Aren't "Green": The Ecological Impact of Grassy Lawns
Of all the strange practices that dominate our culture, America's obsession with green, grassy lawns is the most ridiculous-- and perhaps the least sustainable.

We are fortunate to have a lot of trees, so do not water much, but the mowing and such certainly is not "green". Interesting article, hope you click through :o)

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1626147/green_lawns_arent_green_the_ecological.html

Cash For Gold $

During this difficult economic time, if you are forced to sell some of your gold jewelry, the best place to sell is through ExpressGoldCash.com. You can check the market value of gold at www.goldprice.org. Remember that is selling for scrap, do not include the weight of gemstones.

Living For the Night :o)

Night-Shift that is. I leave for work in about 20 minutes for my first night for a three week stint.

I am looking for my cyberbuddies to help keep my bride company over the next few nights. It is a four night on, three night off type of schedule, so you have to keep to the night-shift schedule.

I always make sure I get more sleep when I work nights because that early morning 45 minute drive can be a killer.

I will be lurking, but most likely not commenting much over the next few weeks.

New Entries on my other Blogs :o)

I am slowly trying to develop two new Blogs, one on finances and one on Project Management. They are called "Bucko's Bucks" and "Bucko's Thoughts on Project Management." Each has a new entry today, check them out if you are so inclined :o)

Social Media and Personality Disorders :o)

I love the graphic, and think that the intersection with twitter (I like to call it tweeter) in the middle is about right.

Which personality disorder do you frequent? :o)

Courtesy of www.despair.com. I have signed up for their blog, so not only do you have to suffer through the Sunday Silliness entries, but there will be occassional entries due to their blog feed.

Tiger, on a Different Tour :o)

I am a huge Tiger Woods Fan, and on his recent newsletter, he had the following to say about meeting the President and touring the White House. Pretty Cool :o)

"I recently had a chance to meet with President Obama in the White House. I would love to be able to play golf with him and just talk. Maybe one day we can do that. He's got a lot on his plate, but is a very down-to-earth person, especially for someone who is the leader of the free world.

I got a tour of the White House. What I especially enjoyed was learning about its history and details about all the different rooms. It was pretty neat stepping back in time. I also enjoyed talking with the Secret Service agents."

To follow Tiger, go to his website by clicking here.