A crisis in agriculture

How come nobody believes in Jackalopes? Oh well. Listen, since we live in such a rural area, where agriculture is so important, I think that we should try to raise money for the poor spaghetti farmers. They're dealing with a major spaghetti famine. Maybe there's something we can do to help.

God determines who walks into your life..

The first sentence is pretty powerful .God determines who walks into your life....it's up to you to decide who you let walk away, who you let stay, and who you refuse to let go. I need this back. If you'll do this for me, I'll do it for you ...

Father,
God bless all my friends and family in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day!
And may their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power as they seek to have a closer relationship with you.
Amen.

Now send it on to five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people. Then sit back and watch power of God work in your life. PS. Five is good, but more is better, who else do you know that needs a prayer.

How to Win Friends and Influence People for Teen Girls

How to Win Friends and Influence People for Teen Girls
Author: Donna Dale Carnegie

Buy it at Amazon
ISBN-13: 9780743272773
ISBN-10: 0743272773
Publisher: Fireside
Publication Date: 2005-05-03
Pages: 208
Book Type: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult

Book Description:

It's all about making friends and being a good friend!

The teen years can be tricky -- especially if you are a girl. Let's face it, teen girls deal with pressures and dilemmas that teen boys couldn't even dream of, let alone handle! In How to Win Friends and Influence People for Teen Girls, Donna Dale Carnegie, daughter of the late motivational author and teacher Dale Carnegie, brings her father's time-tested, invaluable lessons to the newest generation of young women on their way to becoming savvy, self-assured friends and leaders.

How to Win Friends and Influence People for Teen Girls offers concrete advice on teen topics such as peer pressure, gossip, and popularity. Teen girls will learn the most powerful ways to influence others, defuse arguments, admit mistakes, and make self-defining choices. The Carnegie techniques promote clear and constructive communication, praise rather than criticism, emotional sensitivity, tolerance, and a positive attitude -- important skills for every girl to develop at an early age. Of course, no book for teen girls would be complete without taking a look at how to maintain friendships with boys and deal with commitment issues and break-ups with boyfriends. Carnegie also provides solid advice for older teens beginning to explore their influence in the adult world, such as driving and handling college interviews.

Full of fun quizzes, "reality check" sections, and true-life examples, How to Win Friends and Influence People for Teen Girls offers every teenage girl candid, insightful, and timely advice on how to influence friends in a positive manner.

CheerLEADERSHIP

How to Win Friends and Influence People
By Dale Carnegie

I have been looking for a cheap copy of this book in used bookstores this summer but haven't managed to find it yet. You can find it at your local library. Business leaders and politicians have sworn by it for over 70 years now. If you want to be successful in life, not just cheerleading- you might just want to give it a look. (I added cheerleading comments in parentheses and italics.)

How to Win Friends and Influence People
This is Dale Carnegie's summary of his book, from 1936

Part One
Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain. (Be positive, duh)
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want. (In other words, sell them on you, or in our case- sell them on school spirit- sell them on having fun- it does not mean "arouse" in a sexual way, duh)

Part Two
Six ways to make people like you
1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile. (How often do I try to beat that into you?)
3. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. (Learn their name, remember their name, use their name- I'm terrible at this)
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
6. Make the other person feel important - and do it sincerely.

Part Three
Win people to your way of thinking
(I always used to try to make sure my Newspaper students knew the difference between just going off on a rant and actually trying to persuade people. A lot of it is the difference between talking to them and talking at them.)
1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it. (The best way to lose a chess match is to be too aggressive. The only person who ever wins an argument is the one who refuses to engage in one.)
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never say, "You're wrong." (Most people who are wrong, still hold their opinion very sincerely and for what they think are good reasons)
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically. (You'd be amazed at how much credibility you gain by admitting your mistakes- you'd think it would be revealing your weaknesses, but it truly makes you stronger in other people's eyes.)
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view. (It's called empathy, and the world needs a whole lot more of it.)
9. Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas. (We should be doing this at pep-rallies.)
12. Throw down a challenge. (First we do a chant, then we get a group of kids in the crowd to chant, eventually most of the crowd will be chanting.)

Part Four
Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

A leader's job often includes changing your people's attitudes and behavior.
Some suggestions to accomplish this:
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation. (That's what cheerleading is all about, Charlie Brown)
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct. (Now THAT'S what cheerleading is all about, Charlie Brown)
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest. (Cheerleading at it's CORE!)

Dale Carnegie Page

Loud and Proud!

Lee Iacocca's 9 C's

The Nine C's of Leadership:

• Curiosity
• Creativity
• Comunication
• Character
• Courage
• Conviction
• Charisma
• Competence
• Common Sense

How would you rate your self on each of these 9?
How do you think other people would rate you?

How would you rate some of the leaders in your life?
How do you think President Bush stacks up?
If any of you are going to be old enough to vote in Nov. 2008, why don't you rate your favorite candidates in each of these 9 categories before you go to the polls.

Which of the nine do you think you need to work on improving most for yourself?
Which of the 9 do you think we need to work on as a squad?

Learn more about Lee Iacocca's book Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Sorry ladies

I finally managed to get a hold of the West Harrison coach and the IWCC coach and unfortunately it turns out that that great 2 day $60 UCA camp is THIS week. And I can't do it because I'm taking a class to be able to teach web design for Academy. And on such short notice, who knows where any of you are or what plans you already have or how many of you would've been able to participate.

 

Sorry about that. Maybe if I had known in May we could've planned better. I was really hoping that it would've been later in the summer. But there's still a FREE one day one in Storm LAke in August tha the IA Coach's Assoc. puts on.

 

Miss ya!

_____________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Good for them

Well what do you know? Sorry we missed it.

 

Members of the football and basketball cheerleading squads traveled for the third year to Morningside College on Saturday the 9th of June to take part in the Morningside Mustang Cheer Camp. The girls learned new cheers, new chants, and worked on beginning techniques for improving jumps and stunts. The girls were extremely impressive and represented West Harrison beautifully. The culmination of the day of learning and team building was the afternoon competition. This year West Harrison's cheerleaders brought home two trophies. The cheerleaders won not only the "Best Chant" category, but they also won the coveted award of "Best Overall Squad" based on the ten other cheer squads who took part in the activities of the camp. http://www.w-harrison.k12.ia.us/education/school/school.php?sectionid=2

 

 

Shot this in my brother's back yard

I couldn't sleep one morning about 4:30 at my brother & sister-in-law's house in Surprise, Arizona. You know how it can be on a pull-out sofa. Anyway, I took my camera with me just for giggles and lo and behold, there was this little critter nibbling on the petunias. See this here is a REAL JACKalope. Those dweebs up in Wyoming claim to have been the first to discover them and to have the largest population, but those are the puffbaleous antelarous variety, part antelope and part cotton tail, NOT part jackrabbit, which anyone who knows anything about rabbits can tell that this here central Arizona specimen is clearly the pure jackenaround antelarous breed.

The Arid-Zone rocks y'all! Wyoming and Texas can both my guacamole!

(of course, if you'll buy that, I've also got some ocean-front property in Arizona to sell ya that used to be owned by the one and only George Strait!)

They're REAL, I tell you!

Just like how there used to be buffallo as far south as New Mexico, but now they're pretty much limited to the Dakotas, there used to be more jackalopes in Arizona- at least accordinng to the fossil record, , even though Wyoming claims that they're native of THAT state.

The jackalope — also called an antelabbit, aunt benny, Wyoming thistled hare or stagbunny — in folklore is said to be a cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope (hence the name), goat, or deer, and is usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers. Some believe that the tales of jackalopes were inspired by sightings of rabbits infected with the Shope papillomavirus, which causes the growth of horn- and antler-like tumors in various places on the rabbit's head and body. However, the griffin and the chimera perhaps suggest the concept of an animal hybrid is recurrent and requires little reasoning. One common southwestern species of jackrabbit is called the antelope jackrabbit, because of its ability to run quickly like an antelope; it would have been easy enough to imagine instead (for comic effect) that this jackrabbit had the horns of an antelope.

The legend of Horned hares also abounded in European and, particularly, German and Austrian, legends as the Raurackl, Rasselbock and Wolpertinger. These legends were possibly inspired by Shope papilloma virus-infected rabbits with fibrous growths which can resemble horns when they occur on the animal's head. The many illustrations of horned hares shown in scholarly works by European naturalists in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, may have been similarly inspired.

Lepus cornutus from Bonnaterre's Tableau Encyclopedique et Methodique, 1789

It is said to be a hybrid of the pygmy-deer and a species of "killer-rabbit". Reportedly, jackalopes are extremely shy unless approached. Legend also has it that female jackalopes can be milked as they sleep belly up and that the milk can be used for a variety of medicinal reasons. It has also been said that the jackalope can convincingly imitate any sound, including the human voice. It uses this ability to elude pursuers, chiefly by using phrases such as "There he goes! That way!". It is said that a jackalope may be caught by putting a flask of whiskey out at night. The jackalope will drink its fill of whiskey and its intoxication will make it easier to hunt. In some parts of the United States it is said that jackalope meat has a taste similar to lobster. It has also been said that jackalopes will only breed during electrical storms with hail, explaining its rarity.

*All information above is from Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackalope
Okay, I made up the part about there being a "fossil record." So sue me.

PS- I love you Christina Hernandez!!!

Hey Sports Fans! Who LOVES Ya!

For Father's Day, my sister-in-law arranged for my brother, our father, my oldest daughter Grace, and I to an Arizona Diamondback's game. As you can see, Chase Field in Phoenix is a BIG place. This game, there were 49, 826 fans- a D'Back's record. (of course the Yankees and Bo Sox routinely have over 50K for lame games against no-name teams in the middle of the week.
Here's two of my favorite people in the world, my daughter Grace, and her Grandpa Mallory. Saturday was "Free Randy Johnson bobble-head day" so she got a statuette of the greatest left handed pitcher of all time, "The Big Unit."
Yeah, were were pretty much in the nose-bleed section, but it didn't matter. Yeah, Boston beat us 4-3 in 10 innings, but that didn't matter either- it was still tons of fun.

Beware of wild radioactive Jackalopes from outerspace!

Headin' back West for vacation. To the land of the warrior rabbit, AKA the Western Jackalope. But don't be strangers, once in a while I might have access to my email.
Have a great summer!

Coach