Author Archives: Gray Rinehart

Monday Morning Insight: Fanfare

By | |
Comments Off on Monday Morning Insight: Fanfare
(Another in the continuing series of quotes to start the week.)

 

Today is U.S. composer Aaron Copland’s birthday (14 November 1900 – 2 December 1990). One of his most famous compositions was the “Fanfare for the Common Man,” which I first encountered when Emerson, Lake and Palmer recorded a version of it. It’s still one of my favorite pieces of music.

I found this Copland quote, and I like it very much:

So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it.

Do you agree? I might delete the phrase “on this planet,” but otherwise I think he was right.

Do you find that “music in some living form” accompanies you during your days? Hardly a day goes by that I do not find a song in my head — and yes, sometimes one stays a bit too long.

Often, when all else is quiet, I compose and hum little snippets of music as I go about other chores, whether washing dishes or raking leaves or whatever. Sometimes I’ll stop and repeat those musical phrases a few times and think, “I should record that,” but I rarely do. I’ve come to appreciate those little interludes, and I think maybe God smiles at me during those moments when only He hears the little tunes.

Music guitar

(Image: “Music, guitar,” by Doug Wheller, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)

 

Thanks for spending a little time with me, and whatever you do this week, I hope some music will accompany you!

___
P.S. Shameless plug: If you’re new here and don’t know about my music, please check out my Distorted Vision and Truths and Lies and Make-Believe albums.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

A Wish, in Iambic Pentameter

By | |
Comments Off on A Wish, in Iambic Pentameter

I wrote this quatrain on Tuesday evening, before the election results were known, because I knew whatever the result many people would blow up in either indignation or celebration and, as a consequence, drive even bigger wedges between us. I shared the little verse on the Book of Faces, and thought I’d inscribe it (virtually, that is) here as well:

I Wish …

That we might preen and posture somewhat less,
Account ourselves without regard to pride,
Fret not upon disaster or distress –
A humble, hopeful star our constant guide.

(Image: “Wish,” by Jessica Tam, on Wikimedia Commons.)

 

And as always, I wish you the best.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Cover Reveal for the New Edition of ‘Quality Education’

By | |
Comments Off on Cover Reveal for the New Edition of ‘Quality Education’

I shared this with my newsletter subscribers a couple of weeks ago,* but here’s the cover to the completely revised and updated edition of Quality Education, which will be available as soon as we work out a few last details.

Cover design by Christopher Rinehart. (Click for larger image.)

 

The full title of the book is Quality Education: Why It Matters, and How to Structure the System to Sustain It, and it’s updated and completely restructured from the original edition. That version was published in the early 1990s by the American Society for Quality Control, and was one of the first books to apply the organizational and operational principles of continual improvement to the educational system.

The book presents education as a transformative process and covers expectations, roles, and inhibiting factors for parents, students, teachers, and administrators. With special emphasis on the quality philosophy of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, the text adapts Deming’s systems flowchart, Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, and “14 Points” to the problems and processes of education.

The book also examines education’s customers, differing definitions of quality with respect to education, and the failure of well-intentioned reform efforts such as the “National Education Goals” (also known as “Goals 2000”) of the late 1980s. It includes chapters on programs for gifted and talented students, values education, and curriculum and other standards, and presents strategy ideas and discusses leadership required to develop and sustain quality education.

As we get closer to releasing the final version into the world, I’ll post updates!

___
*Yes, if you subscribe to my newsletter you will get news like this before anyone else, too.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Monday Morning Insight: My Country, Right or Wrong

By | | ,
Comments Off on Monday Morning Insight: My Country, Right or Wrong
(Another in the continuing series of quotes to start the week.)

 

Since the week starts with Election Day Eve, I thought this 1872 quote from U.S. Senator Carl Schurz (2 March 1829 – 14 May 1906) would be appropriate:

My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.

When we vote, we either vote to keep the country right or to set the country right. It depends on our point of view, whether we think the country is or isn’t moving in the right direction.

But the work goes on after we vote, too.

(Image: “2016,” by Gordon Johnson, on Pixabay under Creative Commons.)

 

Every day we have the chance to keep our little corner of the country right, or to set it right if it begins to go wrong. It’s harder work than voting (when we vote, we delegate the work to others), but it’s more direct.

And if more of us did the work, it would be far more effective.

The trouble is, recently so many people have put so much effort into tearing down each other, a lot of work needs to be done no matter who wins the election. I hope we’re up to it.

But, have a great week, no matter what happens tomorrow!

___
P.S. Don’t forget, if you’re not already sure who you want to vote for, you’re welcome to write in yours truly for any office, anywhere.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Monday Morning Insight: A Ghost’s Report

By | |
Comments Off on Monday Morning Insight: A Ghost’s Report
(Another in the continuing series of quotes to start the week.)

 

Hey, it’s Halloween, so why not start the week with a famous report from a well-known ghost (not the Gray Man)? Briefly released from Purgatory to walk the earth, this ghost said,

… I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand on end,
Like quills upon the fretful porpentine.
But this eternal blazon must not be
To ears of flesh and blood.

Many readers will recognize the source: Hamlet, Act I, Scene V.

The old haunted abbey - Whitby.

(Image: “The old haunted abbey – Whitby,” by Darren Flinders, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)

 

I hope you survive the horrors of the day — that they don’t harrow your soul or freeze your blood or make your hair stand on end — and that you have an awesome week!

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Third-Party Voting, and Baseball

By | |
Comments Off on Third-Party Voting, and Baseball

Or, more precisely, third-party voting and the World Series.

I get it: a lot of us are sick of politics, and in particular of one or the other or both of the major party candidates. As a result, many of us who would normally vote along with one of the major parties are thinking and talking about voting for a third-party candidate.

I’m not sure I can do that.

The way I see it, a usually reliably major-party voter opting for a third-party candidate is equivalent to pulling for the White Sox or the Reds in this year’s World Series.

(In case you missed last night’s Game 1, or you’re not much of a sports fan, only the Cubs and the Indians are actually playing in the Series.)

In other words, I feel that if I voted third-party, it would be like cheering for a team — any team — that’s not even on the field. It certainly wouldn’t be cheering on the winner, helping them to victory, and it wouldn’t even effectively be cheering against whichever of the two teams I’d rather see lose.

Image: “The great national game — last match of the season to be decided Nov. 11th 1884.” Macbrair & Sons Lithograph, from the Library of Congress online collection, showing “a sandlot baseball game of presidential hopefuls with James G. Blaine pitching to Chester A. Arthur, with Samuel J. Tilden behind the plate and Roscoe Conkling as umpire, at first base is Benjamin F. Butler with a handgun in his belt, at second base is John A. Logan holding Ulysses S. Grant close to the bag, at shortstop is John Kelly, and at third base is Sereno E. Payne, in left field is John Sherman and in centerfield is Samuel J. Randall. They are playing on a field labeled “Potomac Flats” with the Potomac River in the background.” (Click here for a larger image.)

 

Maybe your third-party vote is more clear-cut. Maybe you believe in the values represented by the Libertarian Party or the Green Party or whatever, and consider yourself affiliated with them. Maybe you’re an Independent, and have no history with either the Democrats or the Republicans (and certainly no loyalty to either). If so, more power to you on your third-party selection.

But maybe, like me, you usually vote for a particular party. (If it matters that you know, I usually vote primarily Republican, though I don’t recall ever voting a straight ticket.) And since I usually ally with one of the major parties, I see voting third-party as a de-facto vote against my usual party.

If I vote third-party, it will not send any kind of message to the Republican leadership. It might clear my conscience or assuage my guilt by giving me the ability to say “I didn’t vote for X” when they try to implement some ill-considered policy. (Talk about self-interest in politics. I could achieve the same result by simply not voting.)

Heinlein had it right when he pointed out that if we have nothing or no one we want to vote for we can surely find something to vote against. Voting third-party may feel good, as if I’m voting against both of the major parties, but it seems like a damn ineffective way of doing so because it cannot prevent the side I find most disagreeable from winning.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Monday Morning Insight: Good Manners, Part II (Heinlein Edition)

By | |
1 Comment
(Another in the continuing series of quotes to start the week.)

 

Last week in this series I presented a quote from Jonathan Swift on the meaning of mannerly behavior. This week I’m offering up a quote from Science Fiction Grand Master Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Friday (emphasis in original):

Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms … but a dying culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Lack of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.

I’m not sure that needs much commentary, so I’ll just insert this relevant image:

Well, amen. #sundaythought #nice #beadecenthumanbeing

(Image: “Well, amen (etc.)” by Francesca Castelli, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)

 

Have a great week….

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Zombie Blog Post: ‘Making It Real’ in North Carolina

By | |
Comments Off on Zombie Blog Post: ‘Making It Real’ in North Carolina
(Nothing Halloweenish here; this is a “zombie” post only in the sense of it coming back from the dead.)

 

I’m about to take a few hours off to visit the NC State Fair (it’s Military Appreciation Day, and I appreciate the military), but I thought I’d reprise an old blog post that I particularly like. It was published six years ago today on the old NCSU-IES blog,* though it had actually appeared on the Beyond Lean blog a little over a week earlier than that:

Because I’ve driven across the country several times, from one Air Force assignment to the next, I sometimes think in terms of the nation as a whole and forget just how big some states are. When I helped the NC State University Industrial Extension Service (IES) conduct the “Manufacturing Makes It Real” tour, covering over 1100 miles in 5 days, I realized very quickly that North Carolina is a pretty big state.

The central message of the tour was that manufacturing — the actual production of durable and consumer goods — matters to all of us, because it is the source of almost everything we have and almost everything we do. As Dr. Terri Helmlinger Ratcliff, IES Executive Director, wrote before the tour, “Manufacturing makes the difference between imagination and reality in ways that make modern life possible.” Invention creates new products, but manufacturing brings them into all our lives.

To spread the message about how much manufacturing matters, we went to every region of North Carolina: the piedmont, the mountains, and along the coast. As we traveled, we held rallies where manufacturers showed off their products and praised their workers. The host sites made the rallies truly “local” events: some had employees sing the National Anthem, some invited Junior ROTC or other school groups to perform, and one invited the local area’s apple orchards to bring some of their products for attendees to sample. Local, State, and even Federal elected officials attended various events, which usually included plant tours to show off the host sites’ capabilities in more detail.

Our convoy included a tractor-trailer with dozens of different “Made in NC” items that showed off the diversity of products made throughout the state. At each rally, people lined up to walk through the trailer to see their handiwork as well as others’. Many people expressed surprise at the variety of products made in the state: “from tortilla chips to microchips,” as IES Deputy Director Dr. David Boulay said.

I like to think the individual rallies were like “county fairs” for manufacturing, and we were pleased at the number of companies that attended, even though we didn’t have blue ribbons to award. And considering the weather we had — record levels of rain along the coast, making us travel on nearly-flooded roads** — we were very fortunate to make it to each stop and hold each rally on time.

The MMIR Tour bus at Scott Health & Safety in Monroe. (NC State University image.)

 

The most memorable rally for me was held at Scott Health & Safety in Monroe (east of Charlotte). The Monroe Fire Department had set up two ladder trucks and suspended a huge U.S. flag to help the company demonstrate their “Made in the USA” pride. That pride-of-workmanship theme was repeated at every stop, but the Monroe event was special to me because I relied on Scott Air Pak breathing gear when I worked disaster response in the Air Force. Their workmanship can literally mean the difference between life and death in dangerous situations. (I wrote more about the Scott Health & Safety rally on the tour blog***).

All week long, from companies big and small and representing many different industry sectors, we heard stories of continuous improvement through lean and Six Sigma, expanded markets through ISO certification, and risk-taking through entrepreneurial ventures and new produc

Oops. What happened there?

What happened is that IES (now named “Industry Expansion Services” for some reason) destroyed its old blog and that’s all my former co-worker was able to recover. Seriously, the recovered portion they sent me ends right there, in the middle of the word “product.” (I contend that the blog was a historical record of the university and that doing away with it like that violated the rules for retaining official state records, but what do I know?) Thankfully, since this particular entry was cross-posted elsewhere and is still available there, we can include the rest of it as follows:

… new product development. Company leaders admitted to a lot of belt-tightening and uncertainty in the last couple of years, but seemed pleased that people were paying attention to the good work they do.

The tour ended with a final rally at the NC Legislative Building in Raleigh, where NC State Chancellor Randy Woodson symbolically presented the truckload of products to NC Secretary of Commerce Keith Crisco. The speakers at the final rally, along with the companies that sponsored and participated in the “Manufacturing Makes It Real” tour, testified that manufacturing is alive and well in North Carolina. We are all committed to keeping it that way.

It’s hard to believe that was six years ago now! We kept the momentum of the tour going for a few more years through the MMIR Network, but eventually the IES leadership found other interests and higher priorities. I consider that a little sad, but I’m still proud that for a while I was part of celebrating real people who make real things that we use every single day.

And just this week I suggested that an author friend of mine visit the Scott plant in Monroe, which I never would have known about had it not been for the MMIR Tour.

Anyway, if you’re of a mind I hope you’ll take note of something you use and think of the people who worked on producing it for you. And if you’re one of the thousands of people who make things for the rest of us, please accept my gratitude. Thanks for all you do!

___
* I’ve removed all links to the old NCSU-IES blog, since it doesn’t exist anymore. When I clicked on old links to it, they redirected to the College of Engineering page, which I find a bit ridiculous.
** The storms we drove through were pretty intense, though we didn’t mind because we needed the rain to counteract that summer’s drought. At least it wasn’t a full-blown hurricane!
*** I’m surprised that old tour-specific blog is still active, but it was a WordPress blog and not maintained by the University. They may decide to take it down, if they realize it’s out there. But at least for the moment you can find more from the tour, including pictures from most of the sites, at http://mfgmakesitreal.wordpress.com/.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Monday Morning Insight: Good Manners

By | |
Comments Off on Monday Morning Insight: Good Manners
(Another in the continuing series of quotes to start the week.)

 

Given the rancor we observe and occasionally encounter online — and sometimes even encounter in real life — and the oft-repeated reports, accusations, and exhibitions of what can most charitably be described as boorish behavior by people in positions of power or prominence, manners seem rather a timely topic.

Many years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Tony Campolo speak at the National Youth Workers Convention in San Diego, and one of his topics was the importance of mannerly behavior. I often repeat part of what he told us, about a study conducted in the late 1930s in Britain and Germany. I’m not going to repeat that story here, or even quote from Mr. Campolo, but I thought about him while considering this quote from Jonathan Swift:

Good manners is the art of making those people easy with whom we converse. Whoever makes the fewest persons uneasy is the best bred in the company.

I think Mr. Campolo would appreciate that quote, which is the opening of “A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding.” Swift’s essay has much to recommend it, despite it clearly reflecting the 18th century emphasis on gentility and class. The essay is nearly as much about the dangers of going overboard with setting out troublesome rules as it is about “ill manners” as opposed to “good manners.”

Good Manners

(Image: “Good Manners,” by Sharon Sinclair, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)

 

Swift insists (his word) “that good sense is the principal foundation of good manners,” and that rules for behavior have been developed because good sense is something very few of us have. Indeed, he lists “the three great sources of ill manners” as a lack of sense, an “ill nature,” and pride.

It’s an interesting exercise, when we encounter or observe poor manners, to speculate on whether the perpetrator lacks sense, is bad-natured, or suffers from an excess of pride. But ultimately that’s a fruitless exercise, as it serves more to puff up our own pride than to induce us to behave better.

And behaving better is the constant challenge. For if we display good manners, if we are able to set people we interact with at ease, we avoid making others speculate about us.

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Two Friends on Patreon: Lee and Mikey

By | |
Comments Off on Two Friends on Patreon: Lee and Mikey

Would you like to be a patron of the arts for as little as a dollar a month? You can!

Several friends of mine have a presence on “Patreon,” an online resource that connects you with creative people doing their artistic things. Usually they promise to produce certain things on a regular basis — maybe a drawing or painting, maybe a song or a music video, it’s all up to them depending on their art — and you as their patron get first access to what they do and often “insider” specials as well!

Dollar Heart

(Image: “Dollar Heart,” by Chris Palmer, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)

 

Anyway, two of my friends you might want to support are Alethea Kontis and Mikey Mason.

Alethea Kontis is primarily known as an author of fantasy novels and two well-received children’s books in which the letters of the alphabet rearrange themselves. “Princess Alethea” often produces humorous “Fairy Tale Rants” on video, and her latest novel is Trix and the Faerie Queen. Alethea’s Patreon is set up for monthly donations as low as $1 per month, though higher levels earn additional bonus videos and such.

Mikey Mason is primarily known as the “Comedy Rock Star,” or on the science fiction and fantasy circuit as the “Comedy Rock Geek.” Perhaps his most famous song is “She Don’t Like Firefly,” though his more recent “The Secret Origins of the Robot Holidays” has been played frequently on The Dr. Demento Show. Mikey’s Patreon is set up a little differently, as his patrons pledge per song or music video; however, you can become Mikey’s patron for as little as $1 for each new song or video he produces.

Both Lee and Mikey have had some unexpected expenses recently, so your patronage — either recurring, through Patreon, or on a one-time basis by buying a book or CD — would mean a lot to their being able to continue writing their stories and songs.

___
For more information:
– You can find Alethea online at http://aletheakontis.com/
– You can find Mikey online at http://www.mikeymason.com/

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailby feather