| I’ve been mostly in bed all week (since last Friday) with a flu-like bug which has morphed into an inner-ear infection which has resulted in pretty bad dizziness (vertigo), a hacking cough, sinus headaches and all-around misery. Sunday and Monday I was running a pretty good fever which finally crested at 102.5 and then broke about 10:00 PM on Monday night. If I could just get rid of this dizziness, I’d be feeling pretty decent today. Still, I shouldn’t complain. I’m a lot better than I was… |
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| Today was my first day back on my feet for any real length of time. I went to the doctor’s office yesterday, but that was getting driven to and from (by Hil) and then sitting in the front office chair until they squeezed me in. Then straight back to bed… Anyway, this morning I was up long enough to make myself some new “Green-Juice” in my juicer. I don’t know if it’ll help me get better, faster, but it was nice to move around a bit. |
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| I’m trying out a new “blend” today. This one isn’t near the hodge-podge I’ve been throwing together. This one is: 1 bunch Kale, 1 bunch Celery, 1/2 white onion, 2 in of ginger, 2 apples, 8 large carrots – all juiced, with a bag of spinach and a bag of salad greens (mostly Romain lettuce) blended in. I then added a slosh of lemon concentrate, a cup of apple juice, a cup of lemonade and a cup of orange juice. This made two 64 oz bottles of “Green-Juice”. The taste is a LOT better than the last batch I made which included various greens, radishes and beetroots and it doesn’t taste like dirt. It DOES taste a lot like freshly cut and blended grass with onion and a twist of lemon. …Which isn’t too bad actually! |
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| You just have to keep telling yourself, “It’s good for me!” |
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| I also made a 64 oz bottle of fruit juice from apple juice, four apples, two ripe bananas, lemon concentrate, lemonade, and orange juice. That’s blended (not juiced) and it has a nice banana smoothie taste and texture. |
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| It all took a while, because I feel like I’m moving in treacle, and I pretty much collapsed into a chair for rest afterwards. |
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| So, now I’ve struggled over to my desktop to do this bit of blogging… |
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| Believe it or not, I’ve managed to plough through three books so far this week. They are: “That First Season“, “Marshall” and “Introducing Mathematics“. Now I don’t promise my recollection of them to be all that great a week from now, but today I feel like I still remember the gist of each of the books. So, here goes the review for each: |
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| “That First Season” is written by John Eisenberg (2009©). The book traces the 1959 season of the Green Bay Packers. This was Vince Lombardi’s first year as a head coach in the National Football League and how he turned his team around from the worst team in the league the prior year to a competitive team (they finished with a record of 9 wins and 5 losses). |
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| The following decade, the 1960’s, was the Packer’s dynasty which included winning the first two (ever) SuperBowls. Looking back, Lombardi was probably (definitely) one of the dominant professional coaches of my youth. His supposed quote: “Winning isn’t the most important thing. Winning is everything!” is probably the most iconic quote from my childhood years. |
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| This book is about the year when it (the dynasty) could have gone another direction (and never been). Obviously, it didn’t go the other way and this book attempts to capture the spirit of the man, the team and the town as the dynasty is created. And, I must admit, does a very good job of it. I’ve read several books about American football over the last couple of years and this is definitely the best of the lot. This book is NOT about “X’s” and “O’s”, but you can, in fact, pick out quite a bit of theory if you read carefully. Instead this book is about a time in history and a sport, a man, a town, a team and a season. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in sport, leadership or even as a study in chaos theory – where a small change of a starting factor can have a profound impact on a larger event. |
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| The second book is: “Marshall” (2010©), written by H. Paul Jeffers with Alan Axelrod. This book is one of the “Great General Series” about “Lessons In Leadership“. The book traces the life and legacy of General George C. Marshall. Marshall is probably the greatest strategic, diplomatic and effective logistician America has ever produced. In addition to being the top non-civilian commander throughout World War II, he was also the prime architect of the rebuilding of Europe and Japan after the war. For his plan (the “Marshall Plan“), General Marshal, who was then U.S. Secretary of State was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. He remains the only military commander to have been awarded the Peace Prize. |
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| What follows is a mixed review. That is because this is a very good book about a great man, however, I struggle to describe anything which makes it useful as a lesson in leadership. General Marshall was an extremely private man, so merely tracing his life does little to provide insight into how he became a leader or what he considered in making his decisions. One is left with simply observing the decisions and actions and attempting to derive the leadership lessons from the observations. For some, this is more than enough. For the General, I do not get this sense. |
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| What is the reader left with then? (This is redundant…) A very private, dedicated man striving to achieve personal excellence in order to protect his nation; a man who returns to service for his country despite the petty attacks from those who are unfit to polish his shoes (Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin); and, a man who is the ultimate logistical problem solver at a global scale. It’s too bad there wasn’t more information on how he did things or the what he thought about things before deciding to do them. This is the second book I’ve read (recently) on the General, and unfortunately, I don’t believe there is any such work. I already own another biography (so far, unread) on Marshall and am contemplating purchasing the four volume “Forrest Pogue” set which is considered the definitive version. Why? Because the idea of such a great leader and also such a great American … fascinates me!! Again, a very good read and highly recommended! |
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| The third book is: “Introducing Mathematics” (1999©) by Ziauddin Sardar, Jerry Ravetz and Borin Van Loon. This is another in the “Introducing” series which hopes to bring an overview of any given topic via a series of pictures and brief sentences/paragraphs about the great people and ideas related to the topic. This time, the topic is math and the explanation covers from the dawn of civilization to the present and all of civilization (Eastern, Western, Egyptian, American Indian, Arabic, etc) too. If you want a broad based overview of a lot of the main topics under math – including the people and timeframes – this is the book for you. If you’re looking for in depth coverage and knowledge, it’s only a springboard. In either case, it’s more than satisfactory and I highly recommend it, too. |
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| How’s that for an unlikely trilogy? Three high recommends… |
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| And now, back to bed I stagger… (whew) |
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| On This Day In: |
| 2022 |
A Little Perspective |
| 2021 |
Put ‘Er There |
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Are You Goin’ On Again? |
| 2020 |
And In The Back |
| 2019 |
Sunlight Stream |
| 2018 |
Wars Without Taxes |
| 2017 |
Multiplication And Division |
| 2016 |
I Went To The Woods… |
| 2015 |
I’ve Got To Run |
| 2014 |
Which Is It? |
| 2013 |
Making You Stronger |
| 2012 |
Sick Of Being Sick |
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Greater Than Power |
| 2011 |
Clear, Specific And Measurable |
| 2010 |
The Runner’s High |
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Into The Dark… |
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Kevin Barrett's Blog 