Josh Young

With all of this talk and thinking about training and education - bringing people to a point where they can learn things and then teach others the same thing - I thought I should probably do some reading on it.

I happened to be skimming through Dave Ramsey’s recommended reading list, and I wrote down several books that I thought would be a great help (which were most of the ones on his list).  Then I searched the catalog of our local library to see if they had any of them.  They actually had several.

So on my way to band practice at church last night, I stopped at the Amelia branch, signed up for a library card (which I had been meaning to do anyway), and searched for some of the books.

I walked out with two books.  One of them was The One Minute Manager by Dr. Kenneth Blanchard and Dr. Spencer Johnson.  It was a small paperback - only about 110 pages.

I read the book in under one hour, and I have to say, it was better than I could have expected. It was very simple, and it was written in the style of a narrated story (which I wasn’t expecting), but it was chock full of some very practical methods of managing people and getting great results.

I won’t spoil the three secrets in the book for you.  I HIGHLY suggest you pick up a copy and give it a read.  It is definitely worth turning off the TV for an hour to read (which I need to do more of anyway).  This book is great whether you manage a home, a business, a family, or a life.

I’m definitely going to apply the things that I learned in this book, and I can already tell you that they are going to work.

On to the next book!

Have any of you read anything like this (or this one specifically)?  Any thoughts?

Yeah, so my whole “making time for more posts in 2008” isn’t exactly roaring, but whatever.

Yesterday, Joomla 1.5 (stable) was released. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I have a great fondness of Joomla. It’s open source, and I’ve used it on several church websites in the last few years. It has its quirks, but once you get past them, it’s a great CMS.

There are some HUGE updates with version 1.5. They basically rewrote the entire core of the CMS, which is great news for developers and designers. Much improved from what I read.

I may be starting some projects soon that require a robust CMS, and Joomla will certainly be first on my list to try. I’m anxious to see how 1.5 works in action. If you haven’t tried Joomla, now would be the perfect time.

Read more about Joomla

HT: Innovating Tomorrow

I’m trying to make more time for quick posts in 2008, so this will be my first.

As one of my Christmas gifts, Marie got me just what any true nerd would want: the highest-quality acid-free paper you can find marked off in square grids, bound by fine leather with a braided place holder, inner pocket and an elastic strap to keep it closed, and of course, small enough to carry with you at all times.

I’m speaking of course of the legendary Pocket Squared Moleskine notebook (pronounced mol-a-skeen’-a).

I’ve shown my new tool to a few close friends, and they all kind of look at my blankly like I’m some sort of weirdo (although I’m not disputing that). I guess Moleskines just aren’t as prevalent as they should be.

So anyway, I take my new friend everywhere with me now. He’s teamed up with the Fisher Brushed Chrome Bullet Space Pen that Marie got me last year for Christmas to make the ultimate note-taking duo. I’m a huge fan of checklists and notes, and now I don’t have to carry index cards around with me anymore. I’m loving it!

Since you may or may not be interested in my geeky little “toy,” I’ll save the rest. However, you can read more about these awesome little books at the link below. But beware. You’ll become obsessed. I can already think of two other ones that I’d love to have.

Moleskine History

The best deal I could find on my notebook (currently out of stock)

The second-best deal I could find on my notebook

This morning on my way to work, I stopped and picked up a copy of Alter Bridge’s new release, Blackbird. I’m a huge Alter Bridge fan (although not as hardcore as my friend, Ryan), and this CD definitely does them justice. It’s a little different than their first release, One Day Remains, but definitely different good, not different bad.

I was a little worried after listening to samples online last week - they were all pretty wussy. However, for some reason they picked the worst parts of the CD to put on the samples. The full CD just flat rocks. Definitely worth the $10.

There are several versions of the CD out there. Wal-Mart’s version includes a DVD with the making of the album (which is the version I bought). Best Buy includes two additional songs. A couple of places online include autograph covers (if there’s any left).

Go give it a listen.

Alter Bridge

Craig Groeschel is coming out with another book on October 2. This one’s called Going All the Way: Preparing for a Marriage That Goes the Distance.

Craig has already written several great books, including Confessions of a Pastor, which really made me think about a lot of things, and I know it has spurred a lot of change in people across the world.

I’m also working on his book Chazown, which so far has been great (although I probably need to start over since I haven’t read it - or anything else - in a month or two).

I’m really looking forward to this new one. Marie and I just celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary this past Monday, so it comes at a great time for us.

You can pre-order on Amazon.

My brother, Joel, just posted about a book he recently read called Reveal. We were talking about it some as I was visiting with them and my new nephew this weekend.

It’s written by Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson, and it takes a new look at the ways in which we measure the spiritual growth of people.

Check out what Joel had to say about it and visit their website for more info. Looks like an excellent book.

Joel Young

Reveal

Yes, another Google post. I know, I know…I have other stuff to post, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet. Soon.

I was doing some Google Reader-ing, and I came to a post by my favorite productivity blog, Lifehacker, where I learned that Google has officially added presentations to their docs suite.

I took it for a quick spin, and it’s not too bad. You can even have people join you online for the presentation. And it has chat built in to the side panel for just that.

Looks like an excellent way to collaborate on presentations or show some slides to an online audience (public or private).

Give it a try, and let everybody know what you think in the comments.

EDIT: Check out this great video that summarizes the benefits of using online document management services like Google Docs.

Google Docs (now with presentations)

Lifehacker - Launch: Google Docs Adds Presentations

Official Google Blog Announcement

Yesterday, Dave Ramsey’s team launched an online version of their class, Financial Peace University. The first lesson is available for free on their site.

It’s a great setup. There’s access to all of the interactive video lessons, money tools, an online community, and even the ability to download the full lessons via mp3s so that you can listen to them whenever you want.

If you are a Dave Ramsey fan, and you haven’t gone through FPU yet, this looks like a great option (especially if there are no FPU classes in your area). The information alone is worth the price. It’s only $99 for the full 13 lesson course.

Go try out the free session and see how you like it. It’s a great interface and some great material.

Financial Peace University Online

Dave Ramsey

Since I mentioned a handy little tool that I’ve grown to love last time, I figured I’d give you one more.

RocketDock is a slick little [free] app that gives you some added organization and productivity. Here’s what their website has to say about it:

RocketDock is a smoothly animated, alpha blended application launcher. It provides a nice clean interface to drop shortcuts on for easy access and organization. With each item completely customizable there is no end to what you can add and launch from the dock.

You can also set it up to minimize windows to the dock instead of your taskbar.

It’s very smooth, just like they said. It’s also very customizable, and it’s just plain fun to play with. There’s really not much else to say other than I love it. Everything is so neat and tidy, and you have so many options.

Swing over to their website and watch their quick video demonstration of RocketDock in action, and then give it a try.

RocketDock

Just a quick post to mention a tool that I have come to love.

Launchy is a free windows utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager.

Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!

The other day, I accidentally closed this little gem, and then I realized how truly addicted to it I was. I had to go to the Start Menu to open it, and it was like a foreign concept to me. I have Launchy set up to index my entire Start Menu, so anything I open, I open through Launchy.

I set my “hotkey” as Alt+Space. When I press that combination, the Launchy window comes up, and I begin typing the name of the program I want to open. Once the autocomplete feature has correctly identified what I want to open, I hit Enter, and there it is. Simple as that. It’s a definite time saver, especially if you have a large amount of programs installed.

There are other tools like this out there, but Launchy’s simple elegance has me hooked.

Launchy