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Psycho Fan

No, this is not a post about some over-zealous soccer mom getting thrown out of her kids' playoff game.  It's the other kind of "fan."  A ceiling fan to be exact.  The one in my bedroom.  It's a nice fan.  I'm sure it was quite expensive when the previous owners installed it.  But a year ago or so it started behaving strangely.  At times I would come home in the evening to find that it had turned its lights on all by itself.  I had a roommate last year who was quite freaked out by that.  It happened several times in the middle of the night while I was sleeping below it.  I would wake up at 3am to find my room lit up in all its overhead light splendor.

But then it took a break for a while.  For the past 6 months it has been working fine.  No sudden jarring beams of light.  Calm.

But this week it decided to try a different kind of attack.  The medium fan speed.  No matter what I do, the fan is determined to be on circulating at a medium pace.  Try to turn it off?  In 2 seconds it starts itself up again.  Change it to "low" or "high" and it will humor you for a brief moment but then kicks itself right back to "medium." 

What to do with psycho fan?  For now all that can be done is to shut the wall switch off cutting off its source of power.  Anyone know what I can do to fix this problem?  Can anyone help?

I just mention it now because I'm afraid of what psycho fan's next course of attack might be.  If something happens to me in the middle of the night, you'll know where to look.

Strengths Finder 2.0

I've been doing some Marcus Buckingham reading (Go Put Your Strengths to Work) and viewing (Trombone Player Wanted) lately.  I've learned a lot from his books about working in your strengths and trying to manage around your weaknesses.  It prompted me to buy a similar product: StrengthsFinder 2.0.  You have to buy the book in order to take the on-line assessment.  Here is what the exercise returned as my 5 top strengths (or natural talents):

Strategic: People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.  (Strategizing is like sport to me...I love it!)

Responsibility: People who are especially talented in the Responsibility theme take psychological ownership of what they say they will do. They are committed to stable values such as honesty and loyalty.  (This strength is both a blessing and a curse.  Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be able to drop the ball and not care.  But I'm glad this is true of me.)

Significance: People who are especially talented in the Significance theme want to be very important in the eyes of others. They are independent and want to be recognized.  (Don't you wish I could have come up with something nice here like "Empathy" or "Includer?"  But, alas, this is probably true of me.)

Competition: People who are especially talented in the Competition theme measure their progress against the performance of others. They strive to win first place and revel in contests.  (OK.  We'll just give up on finding any warm-fuzzies through this thing.)

Focus:  People who are especially talented in the Focus theme can take a direction, follow through, and make the corrections necessary to stay on track. They prioritize, then act.  (I can get lost in an idea or project I'm working on.)

So what do you think?  Does this describe the "Tammy" you know?  Have any of you taken StengthsFinder 2.0?  What were your results?

New Post

Wow.  I've made it a whole month without posting.  That may be the longest stretch in the 3-4 years I've been blogging.  Well, if you are still checking this, I am alive and well.  Sometimes it is hard to post because no good ideas come to mind.  Sometimes it is hard to post because my mind is full but none of its musings seem ready for public broadcast yet.  This past month has been the latter.  Lots going on in my head and heart and at some point these ponderings will probably spill over into this space.

But for now, maybe I can humor you with a post I wrote for Christianity Today's Gifted for Leadership blog.  It's called The Word of the Lord and you can find it here.