according to jeff

I recently completed Joseph, A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness by Charles Swindoll. Part of his “Great Lives from God’s Word” and “Profiles in Character” series, it is a biography of Joseph, based upon the biblical account in the book of Genesis.

Mr. Swindoll quotes the biblical text, provides historical background, and speculations such as “Joseph must have felt…” and “Joseph may have been thinking…” The result is a readable expansion of the biblical story, with practicial insights that inspire and encourage.

Joseph is a unique figure. The book of Genesis contains more about Joseph than any other figure: Adam, Noah, Abraham. While the Bible records the sins and failing of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David, and the apostles Peter and Paul, the biblical account of Joseph is entirely positive. Though he was betrayed by his brothers and others, he did not seek revenge but instead offered forgiveness. He provides an example for us to follow.

My brother, a Sudoku whiz, pointed me to this site: Daily SuDoku. If you’re a Sudoku fan, check it out. It’s pretty cool.

Have you noticed a phenomena with the new Playstation 3 and Wii?

1. Hoping to be able to buy one of the products upon their release, people camped out, some for several days, in front of retailers.
2. Some people bought the consoles and promptly sold them on eBay for two or three times the suggested retail price.
3. Most stores sold out of the devices within minutes.
4. Those waiting in line were sometimes victims (or perpetrators) of fights, robberies, and more serious crimes.

Except for this last one, these occurrences suggest a new pricing strategy for the release of “the next big thing.”

1. Announce a fixed suggested retail price (SRP).
2. Announce an initial availability date.
3. Announce that for the first X weeks of availability, the product will sell for 3x the SRP.
4. Announce that for the next Y weeks of availability, the product will sell for 2x the SRP.
5. Announce the date at which the product will sell for SRP.

(The actual details — multiples of the SRP, specific time periods for each price point, etc. — could be adjusted for the specific product to maximize profit and balance the supply with the demand.)

There are several advantages.

1. Both the manufacturer and retailer can benefit from an inflated price during the period when some consumers will pay the inflated price.
2. A consumer willing to pay 3x or 2x the SRP will be competing against fewer potential customers, and therefore be more likely to actually find and purchase the coveted product.
3. The manufacturer will be better able to meet the demand of the consumers, thereby having fewer customers disappointed that the company didn’t make enough products to meet the early demand.
4. In-line crime will be reduced, as there will be less people in line.

Watch for time-graduated pricing coming to a store near you soon!

A special reception and concert, introducing a new CD by the Cedar Rapids Symphony School’s Advanced Harp Ensemble, was held at the Cedar Memorial Grant Wood Chapel last night. The CD, Still, Still, Still, includes Christmas music by the ensemble of six harpists. My daughter is one of the six. Last night’s reception introduced the CD and the ensemble to many of the symphony’s supporters and donors.

The project was conceived to be both a fund-raising tool for the symphony and an educational experience for the student harpists. The ensemble students polished their music this past winter and spring, then spent a few days this summer making the recordings. Following many long hours of editing by their harp instructor, Gretchen Brumwell, and the sound engineer, the CD was completed. It was an excellent experience for Bethany.

The reception’s venue was marvelous. The Grant Wood Chapel (formerly known as Turner’s East Funeral Home) is a historic residence-turned-funeral-home here in Cedar Rapids. Cedar Memorial is planning to make the locale available for more than funerals — concerts, recitals, weddings, receptions, etc. Last night was the first special event in what is now known as the Grant Wood Chapel. (Grant Wood’s former residence and art studio is located on the same property.)

Following a tour of the historic building, which was decorated for Christmas, and hors d’oeuvres, the ensemble presented a short concert.

Copies of the Still, Still, Still CD will be available at the symphony center. Proceeds from the sale support the symphony programs.

While visiting family in Lebanon, Missouri, this past week, I learned that one of the churches in the town of 12,ooo is planning to build a new family life center. It will contain a gym, walking track, kitchen, and offices. The addition is expected to cost between 4.5 and 6 million dollars.

Six million dollars? That’s a lot of money. To put that in perspective:

• It would enable six men to pastor six churches in Iowa for 10 years.
• It would meet the annual budget of my church for 20 years.
• It would send and support 30 missionary families overseas for a year.
• It would support 400 native missionaries in Asia for a period of 10 years.

When I hear of a church expending 6 million dollars for a new building, I naturally ponder the wisdom of the investment. Certainly, the new family life center will afford ministry opportunities. For instance, the gym could be used for an Upward or Awana program. The new kitchen might allow additional ministry to those who are hungry or bereaved.

So, I try to put the 6 million dollars in context. While six million dollars would be huge for my church, is it a huge amount for this church? How does it compare to missions support and ministry expenses? Is the purpose to increase ministry opportunities, or provide a comfortable gym for church members?

Maybe 6 million dollars is right in line for this church. However, I often wonder if we (the church in America) are more enthralled with our buildings (and cars and televisions and video games) than we are with really following Christ. For instance, while seeking to raise $4,500,000 for their new building, this church set their Lottie Moon Christmas Offering — a special offering to support international missionaries — goal at $1700. As an outsider looking in, that seems a little out of balance.

Fortunately, the Bible has some helpful instructions that can help us navigate these tricky, sometimes sticky waters.

Jesus: “You cannot serve both God and Money.”
— Mt 6:24 (NIV)

Paul: “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
— 1Ti 6:10 (NIV)

Solomon: “A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.”
—Pr 11:25 (NIV)

It really boils down to this: is it God that wants a new family life center, or is it just the people of the church?

And to make it personal, is it God that wants me to have a new car, wii, CD, fill-in-the-blank, or is it just me?

Based on my observances at Saturday night’s Cedar Rapids Symphony Masterworks concert, some concert attendees need a refresher course on concert etiquette. Here are ten simple rules that should help.

1. Ask yourself: “Do I really need to eat a chocolate bon bon during this concert?”
2. If you really must eat a chocolate bon bon during the concert, choose one without a noisy, cellophane wrapper.
3. If you really must eat chocolate wrapped in a noisy, cellophane wrapper, then at least unwrap it quickly. Don’t drag it out for a minute.
4. While I love Smarties as much as the next guy, they’re not a good choice for placating your bored child. (See Rule 2 above)
5. Avoid passing notes with your neighbor.
6. Perfumes are more appealing when used in moderation.
7. If you need an oxygen bottle to make it up the stairs to your seat, and the oxygen machine “puffs” loudly 25 to 30 times per minute, turn it off after you sit down and catch your breath.
8. If you need an oxygen bottle to sustain your life, and the oxygen machine “puffs” loudly 25 to 30 times per minute, please stay home.
9. Don’t try to beat the rush by leaving during the final applause. You’ve already invested two hours; as a courtesy to the performers, wait a few more minutes.
10. If none of the rules above apply, simply ask yourself: “Would I find this behavior distracting if it was practiced by the person sitting in front of me?”

If you have suggestions to add, or stories of egregious etiquette lapses, please leave a comment.

So, there’s this guy named Todd. He’s funny. He’s sentimental. He loves his wife and kids. Sometimes he blows his top. And he sends out a weekly e-mail called Familyman Weekly. I like it. You might like it too. Why not sign up and see?

Xerox is sponsoring a great thing — a Web site that allows you to select a postcard and write a message to our troops. The postcard is printed and then delivered to one of the men or women serving our country. My brother did it, told me about it, and I did it. I wrote something like this:

May God bless you and protect you for your service to our country. Your work is important and your service and sacrifice are appreciated. Thank you.

You can send a card, too. Visit LetsSayThanks.com to do it right now.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. Today’s choice was The Flying Wienie.

The Flying Wienie is located in an old gas station / garage near the Cedar River on the southwest side. The bright yellow airplane on the roof makes The Flying Wienie easy to spot. As you might expect from the name and the plane on the roof, the airplane theme is carried over inside the restaurant, resulting in an ambiance somewhere between quaint, rustic, and hole-in-the-wall.

In this case, I use hole-in-the-wall as a term of endearment. The restaurant is clean (and, today, very cold) but without frills. You won’t find high-brow china, or even anything glass at your table. Styrofoam, cardboard and plastic carry the day. While that might be less than satisfactory when eating French cuisine or raspberry cheesecake, it’s entirely appropriate when eating hot dogs.

The menu features Iowa favorites such as brats, Italian sausage, tenderloins, and skin-on freedom fries, er, I mean, french fries. Today, however, I had the Double Play, Chicago style. That’s two skinny all-beef hot dogs with mustard, celery salt, tomato, pickle relish, onions, pickles and peppers. I topped it off with the 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper — straight from the fountain into my styrofoam cup. Mm mm good.

Of course, the Chicago-style hot dog doesn’t include ketchup. Ketchup on a hot dog — any hot dog — is anathema. If you don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe some guy named Mike Royko. Click here, then scroll down to Even a U.S. Senator Can Botch a Recipe for Success, to read his 1995 article on the subject.

Sadly, I know people who reject hot dogs, not just hot dogs with ketchup. However, my faithful readers will remember that there are at least four reasons that hot dogs are superior to chicken breasts. Plus, I’m confident that we’ll enjoy hot dogs in heaven, where we’ll be able to enjoy them without any compunction. So, I figure that enjoying hot dogs now (in moderation, of course) is somewhat like getting a taste of heaven!

Bob Parsons, founder of Parsons Technology and Go Daddy.com was the feature of the cover story of the November 13 edition of the Corridor Business Journal. Bob will be speaking at the November 14 luncheon of the Advertising Federation of Cedar Rapids.

You may know Bob from his Go Daddy Superbowl ads or perhaps the Go Daddy bookmarks included with many Amazon.com orders. I know Bob because he is one of my former employers; I joined his Parsons Technology in 1989. (When I joined the company, there were less than 30 employees. At it’s peak, there were over 1000.) The company thrived under Bob’s leadership (and the leadership of his lieutenants), but not so well following its sale to Intuit, then Broderbund, then acquisition by The Learning Company and eventually the Mattel toy company. I have many fond memories from my years at Parsons Technology.

One thing particularly impressed me about Bob — his ability to greet my wife by name, even though he usually only saw her once a year at a Christmas event and occasionally during the year at a product celebration.

What is this “religion of peace” that President Bush refers to? Surely he’s not referring to Islam.

The November 11, 2006, issue of World contains an exclusive article, Free at last, by Lynn Vincent and Kinzi Jones, regarding a Jordanian man and freedom of religion.

Samer, a Jordanian who converted from Islam to Christianity 15 years ago, has a message for Americans:

I want them to understand that there is a false image of Islam as a religion of peace and compassion. Many countries of the Middle East have a good image here in the U.S., but their rules are not what Americans think. When Islamic countries talk about human rights and freedom, it’s not true — unless you remain in Islam.

As evidence of his conclusion, the story then details some of the hardships that Samer and his family endured. Read the whole story at World’s web site.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. Today’s choice was Thai Flavors.

Tucked into the corner of Town and Country Mall, Thai Flavors is a small Thai restuarant feature a full menu and a lunch buffet with eight main choices. Today it featured such phonetically-spelled dishes as:

• Pumkin Pork
• Para Dise Chicken

It also included:

• Pad Thai Noodles
• Thai Tofu
• A “caution: extremely hot” dish that was, indeed, extremely hot
• White rice, brown rice, fried rice

Today, I enjoyed the buffet. While some of our number piled on the “extremely hot” dish, I had a more modest amount, and tried some of the other dishes as well. While Thai Flavors isn’t the best Asian or even Thai restaurant in the city, the buffet does offer an opportunity to sample many different (and sometimes exotic) selections.

(Just in case you’re wondering, though Cedar Rapids has several fine Asian restaurants, the best is Thai Moon.)

We placed one yard sign for one political candidate this voting season. That candidate won reelection.

The indisputable, anecdotal inference is that our yard is prime advertising space.

Today, Tuesday, November 7, 2006, is election day. This means that tomorrow, television and radio stations will have lots of advertising space to fill.

It also means that, depending upon the outcome of the elections, this could be the end of life as we know it. Or, we could usher in a new era of peace and prosperity. At least, that’s what some would have us believe. I’m not convinced.

Don’t misunderstand. Public service can be a noble profession. However, my hope for the future is not grounded on politics and politicians.

This past Sunday afternoon, I was watching the Chicago-Miami football game. It was first and ten, and the quarterback attempted a short pass that could have resulted in, at best, at two-yard gain. However, he threw into a crowd, and the pass could have also resulted in an interception returned for a touchdown. The announcer made the astute point that a veteran quarterback understands the risk vs. reward, and wouldn’t have attempted that pass. The possibility of a two-yard gain didn’t outweigh the risk of an interception returned for a touchdown.

That’s kind of how I view politics. Opportunities for big plays are few, but opportunities to throw interceptions returned for touchdowns are many. As a result, I’m not totally dissatisfied with gridlock. A day when politicians don’t accomplish anything can be a good day.

Never-the-less, on one issue, gridlock isn’t satisfactory.

That issue is life.

I vote for life.

The vanguard issue in the life platform is abortion. I vote pro-life. While it’s not always obvious how pro-life a pro-life candidate will really be, the alternative pro-abortion candidates are usually easy to identify.

While I’d prefer to be more excited about choosing a candidate to vote for, rather than a candidate to vote against, voting against a pro-abortion candidate is a valid vote. And it’s a vote that I’m choosing this election day.

My typical Friday includes lunch with my Laridian associates. However, today is not a typical Friday.