Go Green!

As the decade winds down, ESPN.com’s writers and contributors rank and take a look back at the top programs and the single greatest teams of the past 10 years (1999-2000 through 2008-09) …   but when you look at each contributor’s “making the case,” Andy Katz had the Spartans #1 — and he has an excellent argument (in my humble opinion, but I’m a bit biased and will admit it).   And, as coaches go, Tom Izzo ended up #2.  Hmm, the same coaches as the teams (but a slightly different order).  Go figure!

Top Program

1. North Carolina
2 national titles, 4 Final Fours, 5 Elite Eights, 5 ACC regular-season titles (3 outright)

2. Kansas
1 national title, 3 Final Fours, 282 wins (No. 2 nationally), 7 Big 12 regular-season titles (4 outright)

T3. Florida
2 national titles, 3 title-game appearances, 261 wins (No. 5 nationally)

T3. Michigan State
1 national title, 4 Final Fours, 5 Elite Eights, 3 Big Ten regular-season titles (1 outright)

5. Duke
1 national title, 2 Final Fours, 2 Elite Eights, 291 wins (No. 1 nationally), 7 ACC tourney titles

Top Coaches

1. Roy Williams (Kansas, UNC)

2. Tom Izzo (Michigan State)

3. Billy Donovan (Florida)

4. Bill Self (Tulsa, Illinois, Kansas)

5. Mike Krzyzewski (Duke)

Leadership!

Courtesy of http://www.despair.com

As we end 2009 and head into 2010 (a new decade), I’ve been contemplating the whole issue of “leadership” a lot (at work, in government, in my personal life, etc.).  There seems to be a “leadership void” everywhere you turn.  Here are a couple of quotations on leadership that I found partucularly good as well as a poster from www.despair.com to end the year on a humorous note.

“The pessimist complains about the wind. The optimist expects it to change. The leader adjusts the sails.”  — John Maxwell

“A leader leads by example not by force.”  — Sun Tzu

Have a great New Year’s Eve and don’t pary too hardy!  Or, if you do, don’t get behind the wheel and drive . . .

As We Approach a New Decade!

Did you know that on Christmas Day, Facebook became the most visited site in the United States?  Did you know that the average user spends 55 minutes a day on the site?  Wow!  That’s 55 minutes that I used to be doing something else!  And,with the new year (and new decade) just a couple of days away, here are some interesting graphics on the opinions of technological and social change as well as generational perceptions of many of the past decades.  Enjoy!  (Courtesy of the Pew Research Center.)

This Makes a Lot of Sense!

Have we become slaves to our technology?  (I sure feel that way from time to time, but I also know others who are enslaved to a much greater extent than I.)  I resisted getting a cell phone for the longest time (and I still do not have text messaging capabilities), but I’m now fully engaged in numerous other social media outlets and find that despite what I consider to be good time management skills,  keeping up is becoming increasingly more difficult.  And despite this technology and “social connectedness,” did you know that we experience more depression today than in past generations?  This is being called the “Age of Melancholy.”  Technology is affecting our well-being.  Perhaps my New Year’s resolution toward technology should be to increase my autonomy, my competence, my relatedness, and my critical thinking skills (the four vital elements for healthy personal development and functioning) to help me “establish a [more] balanced approach to technology” and hopefully “enhance my well-being” to boot.    Wishful thinking?  I hope not . . .

But definitely an interesting concept.  To read more about this, here’s the full article.

Incarceration!

Another wonderful graphic from www.onlineeducation.net  Some pretty sobering statistics.  And, it reminds me of the following quotation (attributed to Fyodor Dostoevsky).

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”

Sunday Pondering!

I’ve long known that I’ve been blessed in life.  And, as the Christmas season continues, I’m allowed some time for reflection to ponder just how blessed my life has been.  For the most part, all of my basic needs (physiological and safety) are fulfilled (food, clothing, shelter, job, health, etc.) and I am currently not having to struggle to make ends meet.  My social needs (friendship and family) as well as esteem (confidence, self-esteem, respect of others, respect by others, etc.) are also being met as I continue moving up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs . . .  I’m still working on the self-actualization stage, but aside from that, I guess I’m living in a state of eudemonia, perhaps not in the Aristotlean way, but eudemonia nonetheless.   A peaceful contentedness.

eu⋅de⋅mo⋅ni⋅a  [yoo-di-moh-nee-uh] –noun

1.	happiness; well-being.

2.	Aristotelianism. happiness as the result of an active life governed by reason.

Also, eu⋅dae⋅mo⋅ni⋅a and eu⋅dai⋅mo⋅ni⋅a

A Good Day for Art?

Hooded Medicine

Every day is a good day for art (in my humble opinion).   And I have managed to surround myself with quite a bit.  Here is another wonderful watercolor by Larry Hood.  This is one of his smaller pieces that I’ve collected (12 x 12), but the colors are just as vivid and bright (despite my poor photograph).  I’ve also reached that point where most of my collected art works are now displayed on this blog . . . future additions will be posted as they are acquired.  What does this means?  This means that there will probably be larger “gaps” in the time between postings of my collected works of art,  but rest assured, new items will be added as regularly as I can afford to purchase.  And, some of the older stuff may just have to be repeated if the circumstances warrant.

Just because my walls are full does not mean that I’m going to stop purchasing art . . . I’m addicted to the core.

Merry Christmas!

Necktie of the Month – Holiday Bonus!

Even though I’ve already posted the necktie for December, I have a small collection of novelty “holiday” ties as well that can only be worn during the week of Christmas . . . so, here’s the 2009 holiday necktie.  This particular necktie was actually a gift, and I liked it immediately.  The “snowmen” could make this tie a bit more versatile than just the Christmas season . . . I possibly could wear this necktie throughout the winter season.  Of course, this might best be worn past Christmas in a Northern climate where they actually have an extended winter with lots of snow (just a thought).  Enjoy!

New Word of the Year!

The announcement from the New Oxford American Dictionary on the 2009 Word of the Year . . . “unfriend.”

Read the entire article here.