Timothy's Thoughts

Z ero has a nice sound to it, doesn't it? This is especially true when it comes to e-mail. Michael Hyatt is a big fan of a zero inbox. So am I, but that isn’t the zero I’m talking about today. For several days now, I’ve been enjoying zero spam . By this I mean that I open up my inbox and there is nothing there but e-mail that I want to be there. Considering that my inbox represents five e-mail addresses, all of which I readily give out over the Internet, this is no small task, but it is do able. Spam is a numbers game. Spammers make money by sending out billions of copies of an e-mail, knowing that only a few will produce results, but if they can get a few thousand to respond then it makes it all worth while. They prey on the weak and greedy. Apparently, the people who respond to spam are interested in cheap Viagra, foreign lotteries and widows who want to give them millions of dollars, or we wouldn’t see so many of these things. It is a waste of spammers’ resources for them to in...

A s you have probably heard, Justin D. Gawronski claims that when Amazon.com removed illegal copies of a book he was reading, it messed up his notes so much that it forced him to redo his homework. Rather than ranting for an hour and then settling down to redo his homework, like you or I would have probably done, Justin D. Gawronski has decided to sue Amazon.com . I'm no legal expert, so I don't know all of the issue involved here, but I ask myself what it would mean to me as a writer if Justin D. Gawronski were to win this case. Did Amazon.com do the Right Thing? Some people have argued that Amazon.com was wrong for deleting the book, which had been made available without the permission of the copyright holder. They argue that this situation was handled differently than it would have been for a print book. Most likely, with a print book, the copyright holder would have notified Amazon.com of the situation and Amazon.com would have removed it from availability immediately. A...

T oday’s question from the 20 questions for leaders that Michael Smith of ClearView Baptist Church in Franklin, Tennessee asked Mike Hyatt deals with communication. How do you or other leaders in your organization communicate the “core values”? They are being taught from the pulpit. They are being taught from the Sunday school classrooms. They are being taught by the Awana workers. And I hope that parents are teaching them in the home. That was short, so let’s look at another question. How do you encourage others in your organization to communicate the “core values”? When you place these questions in the context of a church, some of them seem almost too obvious. Is not one of the core values to communicate the core values ? As we communicate the core values we are also encouraging their communication. Do you set aside specific times to cast vision to your employees and other leaders? No, not usually. How do you ensure the your organization and its activities are aligne...

E ditor’s Note: My guest today is Beatrice Bumble, but most of us call her Bumble Bee. I originally asked her if she would write a post for my blog, but what she came up, while great, didn't realy seem to fit my site. I told her she ought to send it to the webmaster at their church, so you may be able to read it there. What I have for you today is another interview. Timothy Fish: Bumble Bee, I want to say that it is really good of you to do this. Bumble Bee: It's my pleasure. You know me. I want to do anything I can to help and I love having company. Timothy Fish: You've had a rough life. Bumble Bee: I suppose, but I don't think of it that way. Timothy Fish: You had a child when you were young and gave her up for adoption. You had a miscarriage after you got married. You and your husband couldn't have children. Then he died. Bumble Bee: Well, now that you string it all together like that, it sounds a lot worse than it really was. Besides, I get to see my daughter o...

S tories are made up of scenes. Every story has at least one scene and most have many. With novels, we often think in terms of chapters, but a chapter is just an arbitrary means of dividing the text into chunks that can be read conveniently in one setting. The scene is a basic unit of a story. A chapter may contain several, but it is conceivable that a scene will cross the boundaries of chapters, though this rarely happens. A scene has a setting. A scene that takes place at night in a trailer is very different from a scene that takes place during the day that the White House. When a story changes setting, we change to a different scene. A scene has a cast. Suppose we place our protagonist in a trailer at night. He does something and then leaves. That is a scene. Now, if our antagonist shows up at the same trailer and has no interaction with our protagonist, does something and leaves, that is a completely different scene. A scene shows change. If we enter a scene one way, we s...

A fter putting it off for far too long, I went looking for a new dentist the other day. I started with the website of my insurance provider, which gave me the name of a dentist office near me. From there, I went to the website of the dentist office, which actually has several branches in the Metroplex and a couple in Austin. I hate calling to make an appointment because I’m always at work during the typical office hours and it is inconvenient. But this website was different. This website had a form for people to fill out if they wanted an appointment or more information. Since it was Sunday evening, I filled out the form, believing that they would contact me the next day. They did not. I waited another day and on Tuesday I filled out the form again. This time, I asked the question in the more information field, “Is anyone responding to this form?” Still no response. I ended up taking time out of my workday, just to call and schedule an appointment that could have been done using the fr...

S cience Fiction writers, especially television writers, love the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics. This is the interpretation that allows for characters to slip into a parallel universe and interact with duplicates of themselves, the only difference being that one made one decision at some point in history and the other made another choice. Even though this interpretation is held by many prominent scientists, it is beyond ridiculous when we consider the implications. If the Many Worlds Interpretation (MWI) is true, then tomorrow morning at 8:46 AM, everyone is the world is going to simultaneously go outside, raise their voice to the heavens and sign Kum Ba Ya. When we are done, hundreds of reporters will call me to ask how I knew it was going to happen. If MWI is provable, there exist many universes in which scientists have proven beyond any doubt that MWI is false. If communication between alternate realities is possible, then there exist an infinite number of altern...