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WITandWISDOM(tm) - September 21, 2007 ISSN 1538-8794 ~~~~~~~ THOUGHTS: "Everyone wants to be appreciated. So if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret." - Mary Kay Ash Source: Weekend Encounter, by Dick Innes, Copyright (c) ACTS International, 2007, http://www.actsweb.org/subscribe.php ~~~~~~~ SPECIAL THOUGHTS: When the legendary John Wooden was coaching basketball at UCLA, he seldom made home visits to prospective players. He did make an occasional exception, however, like the time he went to see an extremely talented prospect who had great potential to help his team. Wooden had every intention of offering the player a scholarship that night. In fact, all the necessary paperwork was ready and waiting in the pocket of his suit coat. But when he left the player's house later that evening, the scholarship was still in his pocket. What changed Wooden's mind? His decision had nothing to do with basketball, that's for sure. Rather, as Wooden watched the player interact with his mother, he was troubled by what he saw as a decided lack of respect. He surmised that a young man who spoke disrespectfully to his mom probably wouldn't respect his coach, either. That was enough to keep Wooden from offering him a spot on the team. When Wooden shared this story with me, he noted that he had often passed on exceptional talent if the player lacked good values. "What I have found is, just because the talent and the giftedness is there doesn't mean you're going to be able, as a coach, to bring it out of them," he said. "But if their values are there — the right ones — you can bring the best out of them every time." By Dr. John C. Maxwell's Source: Leader Links, http://www.leaderlinks.com ~~~~~~~ THIS & THAT: I Never Met A Metaphor I Didn't Like - Apparently this is a collection of actual analogies and metaphors found in high school essays... Part 1 of 2 [September 21, 27] Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and Jeopardy comes on at 7:00p.m. instead of 7:30. Submitted by Orvie Jensen ~~~~~~~ KEEP SMILING: Our manager at the restaurant where I worked was a friendly, jovial man, but there was one subject you didn't dare discuss in front of him: his height, or rather, his lack of it. He was very short and apparently sensitive about the subject. One day he stormed through the kitchen doors and announced angrily, "Someone just picked my pocket!" Everyone was speechless, except for one waitress who couldn't help herself as she blurted out, "How could anyone stoop so low?!" Source: Mark Mail, http://mrhumor.net/ ~~~~~~~ TRIVIA: Internet Access Via The Sewers Taking inspiration from Google's latest April Fools' joke, the University of Aberdeen plans to provide high-speed Internet access to its students via the sewers. The university tapped H2O Networks to provide a high capacity link for the next 10 years. H2O Networks is a deploying dark fibre in the UK's waste water network to enable connectivity to those who have limited access. The network is known as 'fibre via the sewer'. As existing networks become increasingly congested with more cable types, it has become difficult for network companies to find new pathways. The H2O Networks development allows universities to use the sewers to set up their own secure IT and telecoms network, rather than the traditional disruptive method of digging up roads. The deployment process is a least 80 percent faster than traditional methods, resulting in operational networks within weeks rather than months. Every city and town has ready-made ducts that can be used without causing disruption, the company said. By Clement James, August 20, 2007 Source: Nybble Bi-Weekly Newsletter, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nybble