Category Archives: Uncategorized

Inspiration

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Whether you say counselor, teacher, mentor or instructor they all mean the same for a supervisor/leader. You have a responsibility to develop the skills and knowledge your personnel. People want to progress in their positions and are generally interested in learning; regardless of their position. As a leader, people look to you for help with problems or seek your input as they try new things. Your responsibility is to help them problem solve; not solve their problems but help them work out a solution. It might be easier to simply do it but you will not allow them to learn; you must be the teacher or counselor. Teaching requires great patience and a commitment to helping others achieve success. Think back to your favorite teacher/mentor, what made them great? Chances are good that they were: caring, interested in you, passionate about the subject, inspiring or willing to share their knowledge. Do you do that for your people? They will appreciate it and you’ll see benefits from improved morale, higher productivity, improved creativity and generally a problem free work place.

John 14:26 – “But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

The great counselor, called teacher by many was of course, Jesus Christ. John the Baptist was telling everyone of “one greater than I” whom the Father would send to continue teaching and ultimately pay for our sins with His life. Despite the teachings of Jesus, people still remained doubtful. Even after his crucifixion and resurrection people remain doubtful.  Since the beginning of time, God has been teaching by using man as an instrument of delivery; a living power point presentation. God has inspired men to do great things; Noah, Moses, John and Paul all did God’s work through His inspiration. God has put great teachers in our lives – some show us what to do while others show us what not to do. God has put you in a place to do great things so He can help others. Honor God by following Jesus’ example in your life, be the “teacher” for others to understand the hope that you have in Him.

POSTED 7/2/12

So, you’re a writer?

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I might be on to something here. So far I have been published in two text books and I am under contract for two more. Technical writing is fairly easy because it is, well, technical. I enjoy the process of creative writing and look forward to spending more time doing that. I just heard that I’ll have an article that I wrote printed in Fire Chief magazine this August. I wrote about the military’s ability to respond to natural and man made disasters. It will be cool to see my name in print for a magazine with tens of thousands of readers.

I also submitted my first short story for consideration in a collection of short stories in an Anthology. The West Valley Writers accepted my work and we will be publishing it this summer. It’s a little story that I started here about the hired killer John and his “girl friend” who is not what he thought she was. It will be available on Amazon and Nook but look for more on that.

My book is moving slowly but I do have some interest by the publisher of Guideposts. I hope to be ready for editing later this year.

My Wife is so lucky…

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Sounds like a great follow up to Father’s Day about what an awesome husband and father I am. While I might think that, here’s the real story:

Last year we took a cruise with Royal Caribbean on the Freedom of the Seas to celebrate our 25th anniversary. We took the kids, as we always do, on this Eastern Caribbean adventure. My wife likes to play bingo and not only won one cash prize but she also won a cruise for two playing bingo. Since we took the kids on OUR anniversary cruise, we decided to go on this “free” cruise without them. We left Florida to head for Labadee Haiti, Falmouth Jamaica , Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel Mexico. We climbed Duns River Falls in Jamaica and took a Catamaran snorkeling trip in Grand Cayman. We had a great time relaxing, tasting wine, spending time together and seeing new places. Not only had I not been keeping up with the blog but I was away from home too. Day two of our adventure, my little bingo player won another cash prize. Four days later, she struck again and yes, she won “Win A Cruise Bingo” again ! So,  we’re going back on the same ship with the kids next May. To say I’m a luck man, is an understatement.

This catches you up on where I’ve been the past few months. Fortunately, I’ve kept my weekly devotionals coming.

Mr Stipp goes to Washington

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I returned last night from a few days in Washington DC at the National League of Cities Annual Conference. City Leaders (I can’t believe that title includes me) from around the country come together to discuss issues facing cities and towns and to take advantage of being in DC to “lobby” our Congressmen. I have been appointed to the National Public Safety and Crime Prevention Advocacy Committee of the NLC. We attended a half-day municipal leadership training session that was awesome. I really gained a lot of perspective about being on a national committee.

Our committee meeting really showed me that we are lucky in our community not to have the types of problems that others do. I also learned that we have taken being politically correct to an incredibly crazy level. I heard a director from the Bureau of Justice Administration talk about needing to help “those that have a conflict with the criminal justice system”. WHAT! I thought that they were actually criminals or accused persons. Having a conflict sounds like a disagreement. Then I remembered that we can’t call Dry-Erase boards “white boards” any more or Easel Pads “flip-charts” or Chalk boards “black boards” but that its OKAY to call white tank top undershirts “wife beaters” but not okay to call them “deago tees”. I digress…

My trip to DC ended in a meeting with Senators John McCain and John Kyl. The few of us from Arizona that were there had about an hour with them in an Q and A session after getting our pictures taken and shaking their hands. I must admit that it was a great experience and that they were pretty straight forward in answering our questions. While they still don’t feel like much will get done in these next few months, they weren’t pointing fingers either.

My next trip is to Ft. McAllister in Oklahoma for an Army exercise, that should make for some interesting reading after I return.

It’s my day!

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The Beatle’s said it best “Today is your birthday”. I turned 12 today, which to many of you explains a lot. I have always tried to celebrate Feb. 29th with something special since it comes around only every four years. I looked back at the last three birthdays and found that they were just like the rest. Maybe getting older has something to do with it but hey, I’m still having birthdays and that is always a good thing. I did a little research today about my day after I read in the newspaper this morning that you have a 1 in 2 million chance of having a birthday today (they are never wrong!). It’s actually closer to 1:1500.

The leap year’s extra day is necessary because of our Solar System. One Earth year does not take an exact number of whole days, it takes 365.2422 days, plus or minus. It wasn’t until Julius Caesar came to power that changes were made. People observed a 355-day calendar – with an extra 22-day month every two years. This was not an solution to the celestial problem since feast days began sliding into different seasons. So Caesar ordered his astronomer, Sosigenes, to simplify things. Sosigenes opted for the 365-day year with an extra day every four years to scoop up the extra hours. This is how the 29th day in February was born. It was then fine-tuned by Pope Gregory XIII. Check this out:

Every fourth year is a leap year, as a rule of thumb. But that’s not the end of the story. A year that is divisible by 100, but not by 400, is not. So 2000 was a leap year, as was 1600. But 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years. “It seems a bit arbitrary,” says Ian Stewart, emeritus professor of mathematics at Warwick University. But there’s a good reason behind it. “The year is 365 days and a quarter long – but not exactly. If it was exactly, then you could say it was every four years. But it is very slightly less.” The answer arrived at by Pope Gregory XIII and his astronomers when they introduced the Gregorian calendar in 1582, was to lose three leap days every 400 years. The math has hung together ever since. It will need to be rethought in about 10,000 years’ time, Stewart warns. But by then mankind might have come up with a new system.

Why is February 29, not February 31, a leap year day? All the other months have 30 or 31 days, but February suffered because of the ego of Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus. Under Julius Caesar, February had 30 days, but when Caesar Augustus was emperor he was upset that his month – August – had only 29 days.  Compare this to the month named after his predecessor Julius – July –, which had had 31. “He pinched a couple of days for August to make it the same as July. And it was poor old February that lost out,” says Prof Stewart.

So today, I find myself working from my office at home – alone; until I opened my e-mail to find birthday wishes from friends and family I have all over the country. Some people that you might only hear from once or twice a year but I realized that I wasn’t alone. I am thankful to be alive today and thought of by so many people. What better gift to get on your birthday than to know that you are being thought of? Thanks for making this a great day!

What memories come from old songs?

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Before I climb aboard my soapbox in the next post, lets take a trip to the old fashion boom box. A colleague of mine and supporter, Jason Hoevelmann has created a new blog that will take you down memory lane at Http://lifeinmusic4u.blogspot.com. Jason is reflecting on those old songs that we all loved and is applying them to today with an interesting perspective. Jason, a fellow fire officer, is sure to bring back some memories. On to the topic at hand…

 

 

Chaos is Right!

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I’d like to start by thanking everyone who sent me comments or posted here. Your support has been awesome. We added two links this week to area writers – Olivia Tejeda and Michael Bradley. They each write something different and have been a big help to me, please check out their web pages on the “Links” page.

My first week with a blog didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I’ve planned time into my schedule to writing here and in my book. You know what they say about the best laid plans? As the Chairperson of our local Public Safety Retirement Board, I spent time learning the new amended regulations and reading the Arizona Revised Statues – not the most exciting reading I must admit. Our public safety professionals are pretty young as it relates to retirement, so we haven’t had a need to do much work in the past. As we age, injuries have started to creep up and the “older guys” are starting to retire. Its hard to believe that I’m now an “older guy”. Our job is to administer the requirements of the law for our members. In this case, thank God for lawyers. I spent the rest of the week writing my next article for the IAFC on Automatic Aid. Stay tuned for a post on that by the end of the week.