The Tipping Point

I'm not sure how unique this is, but I've noticed something distinct about the culture here at Christ In Youth - at least in the Conference Department. When certain people read a new book if they like it, the book will make the rounds through most of the people in the department (or at least several)- dare I refer to this as the Maven's in action? It happened with Raving Fans, it happened with Purple Cow, and it happened with The Tipping Point.

After listening to people pull buzz words from this book I decided it was time for me to read it myself. Somehow people around here have managed to apply it to everything we do, so I figured it must be a good book.

I would give it a B, that's about the best I can do. On the upside, Gladwell has some pretty interesting stories to tell. And I would say he did a fair job of using some pretty random anecdotal evidence to support his ideas. I did find the discussion of how an epidemic "tips" because of some small act a few people did very interesting.

There were a couple of things I could have done without. Gladwell renamed categories of people that have been named 30 different things over the last 30 years of business and marketing literature. Now was it handy for him to create his own names for the Salesmen, Mavens, and Connectors? Sure. And since that's the vernacular that is going around my office these days I'll probably use these labels. The reality is that he didn't identify anything new here, just put his own label on it. This is the primary issue I have with the pseudo-business book of the month that goes around. People with no background information read something like this and think the guy is a genius. Reality is he is a smart guy like the next smart guy that will re-frame the same ideas and make a million selling them to the same people in a couple of years.

The other thing I could have done without was what came across to me as his political soapbox in the middle of the book. I was cruising along when suddenly I felt like I'd been dropped in a left-wing rally decrying all the ills of society and promoting cures that were worse than the causes. Thankfully he found his way back to the point and moved on...eventually. I just have a hard time blaming crime in cities on the cities or the government or the fact that it's a low income area. While I applaud unorthodox efforts to deal with drug abuse, crime, and the spread of STDs I take exception to any explanation for those epidemics that relieves the people involved of any responsibility for their actions.

The one thing I think Gladwell really left out was any discussion of the mathematical phenomenon that goes along with his theories about the Tipping Point. That's great that the salesmen, mavens, and connectors convince all these people to do stuff, but show me how the math works because that's a fundamental part of it. I would like to think that he left it out to avoid putting the typical reader to sleep - rumor has it that most people don't like to have to slog through lots of equations when they read (that's why I only use symbols found on a 4-function calculator here on my blog, I figure "math-lite" contains less tryptophan). For me it diminishes the significance of his conclusions because the numbers behind it aren't shown, leaving us to rely on anecdotes. That's not to say he's wrong because the math isn't explained, just makes me less confident that the Tipping Point applies to everything (as he would argue). Perhaps he felt like the mathematical explanation was too common and didn't want to rehash it.

I find reading some of these buzz books interesting. Some of them are great, others are mediocre. Mostly they are just saying in a simpler format the same things I learned in college. Now in many cases they explore a specific area of a topic more intensely than your average b-school class, they just come at it from a less academic angle. The nice thing is that they tend to give more practical application than most college profs do, so perhaps as trade-books they are more beneficial than going with a textbook as the book of the month.

I would recommend The Tipping Point, recognizing its limitations. It certainly gives some interesting viewpoints on many of the phenomenons we see playing out in the news and in our lives.

Champions Again

Pictures from the Dome

While I wasn't present to witness the feat, Webb City has again been crowned champions of Missouri Class 4A football. The talk has been the emergence of the Cardinal defense in the last 2 games of the playoffs - and rightfully so. The defense was masterful in an inspired smothering of Lee's Summit West in the semi-finals, then backed it up by pitching a shutout in the finals. For a defense that had some trouble early in the season shutting down opponents (at least to the satisfaction of the rarely satisfied WC faithful).

With 7 state titles in football to go with 2 in baseball in the last 2 years, at least 1 in softball and 1 in basketball that I am aware of (there are likely others, but I'm fairly new to the area) there is no question that WC athletic programs have figured out what it takes to win, what it takes to be champions. Whether people like it or not, success breeds success. Programs that win find ways to keep winning. In college sports where winning leads to better recruiting and more financial support (which tends to lead to more winning) the connection between success and repeated success is fairly easy to understand. High school is different. Talent pools are limited to the district lines - and I'm not even sure who draws those. You have to tip your cap to a school district that can find ways to inspire athletes and acheive when there is no real liklihood that they have greater natural talent than many of the teams they'll play. (And for the record WC has a very solid academic record as well, accredited with distinction 7 of the last 8 years, my wife will want that mentioned.)

I'm sure that it annoys many residents of other area communities to watch WC hoist another title, perhaps if I had allegience to another area school I'd feel the same way. Here's my take - appreciate the courage and effort of this most recent group of champions from WC - i.e. don't hate the player(s), hate the game. I've watched 4 seasons of WC football now and I'm not convinced this is the most talented group I've seen play. That's no slam on the 2006 team, but they followed some really talented teams (none of whom finished with a win in St. Louis). I wouldn't even say this group wanted it more. I've yet to see a WC football team take the field that wasn't hungry to win. I would say that this group managed to find ways to get things done that the previous groups didn't. Sometimes that's just the way it goes. Congrats to the 2006 WC Cardinals, you finished your quest and are deserving champions.

One side note - and I'm not sure if my wife will allow me to post this or not - I hope that the 2004 WC season can now be laid to rest. The state finals that year were a bitter ending to a great, great season by a very, very talented team. I have heard comments made in the 2 years since then that I find unfortunate. That group of Cards came up just short in a thrilling OT game. I think they were the better team in that matchup, but not that night. Some seem to think that losing in the finals is somehow a disgrace and more distasteful than not making it there. Perhaps as an outsider I am not capable of understanding. No one talks negatively about the 2005 squad - also very talented, but taken out by eventual chamion Camdenton in the quarterfinals - so why treat 2004 like it was an embarrassment? I know several of the players from that squad - I'm related to a couple by marriage and was unofficially adopted by the parents of another - and they played their guts out that night. I can understand their (the players from that team) aversion to even talking about that season or their loss to Clayton. My hope is that now that another team has been crowned champions the 2004 squad can be remembered as the winners they were. And I hope that in time even the players on that team can see past the bitter ending to the success they had that season. Having experienced a 13-0 record and #1 ranking go up in smoke in a state final game my junior year I understand the difficulty there in. But 10 years later I look back at that season a little differently than I did at the time or even a couple of years later.

Eulogy

Tuesday morning just after 11am I got a call from my parents telling me that my grandpa - mom's dad - had just died. It was a call I knew would come, but was not expecting in the next couple of months.

Ernest Scott was 82 1/2 (to the day) when he died of complications from Lymphoma and COPD. He had been married to my grandmother - Jeanne - for 62 years. They have 3 daughters - Jennifer, Teri, and Amy (my mom). Those three children gave them 7 grandchildren - Darin, Missy, Scott, Christy, Erica, Jillian, and myself. To date they have 12 great grandchildren.

Grandpa grew up in the Weleetka, OK area, south of I-40. He later moved to Okmulgee where he and grandma lived, worked, and raised their children. After retiring in 1986 he and grandma moved to Vinita where he enjoyed working with horses, gardening, and wood-working.

The classic picture of grandpa for me will always be the one of him riding one of our horses. In this particular picture the horse is standing nearly straight up on her two hind legs and there he is holding on like it's not a big deal. He was in his early 60s at the time. Grandpa loved westerns - movies, books, whatever. He is the closest thing to a real cowboy I knew growing up.

Grandpa spent part of his working life as a barber, so any time we went to see him a haircut was involved (for the guys, not the girls). He grew up in an era of short hair for guys, so he was very proficient with a buzz cut, which suited me just fine. One of the last times I remember him cutting my hair (though I know there were at least a couple after this one) he inadvertently cut a really short spot right in the front of my head. There was no way to hide it, so he smoothed it out the best he could. It just so happened that I was moving back to Stillwater for my Sophomore year the next day. He was the only one who could have done that and it be okay. I guess sometimes when you really appreciate and love someone you just overlook something that otherwise might be fairly frustrating or hurtful.

Grandpa is also the patriarch of faith in our family. He and grandma have been faithful servants for decades. He has been an elder longer than I've been alive and who knows how far back he taught Sunday School. They raised 3 daughters who are all committed believers who have raised families of believers as well. I can remember as a child going to church with grandpa and grandma and talking to them about the Bible. For everything else he did and was, being a Christian was first, last, and the most important.

After they moved to Vinita I spent a lot of time out at their house. I can remember riding horses, going fishing, even learning to shoot grandpa's .22. As I got older I had less and less time to spend with them, but the impression those times left on me will always be a part of who I am.

All of my grandparents have thought it was a big deal that I went to college and graduated. That wasn't such an automatic thing in their generation or even in my parents generation for people from rural Oklahoma. He would always ask about school and always cared about what was going on. After I graduated and moved to Joplin he started following what went on here at CIY as closely as he could. He would always ask how work was going.

More than anything I knew that he cared, his questions were always sincere and he always took time to listen - whether what I was telling him made any sense or not. I hope that I will acquire those traits as I grow older, too often I am in too much of a hurry to stop, ask, and listen.

And so tomorrow we will say "goodbye" to grandpa, or better yet "until we meet again". One thing I know with certainty is that he is in a better place now, no more pain, no more sorrow.

In attending OSU I came to identify with a certain set of principles that my alma mater was founded on. Among them was its purpose as an institution where middle and lower income rural Oklahomans could send their children to receive a quality education. Because of my identification with that idea and the OSU community I have developed a tradition of wearing black and orange in honor of certain people and events. Grandpa never went to OSU or any other institution of higher education, but surely his life exemplifies the greatest hopes and ideals that O-State was founded on. And so in his honor I will wear black and orange to his funeral and burial tomorrow.

Land Run Skills

I come from a land where they shot a gun to signal the start of a mad dash to claim free land. Thousands lined up to chase the dream of getting a free plot of land in what was Indian Territory and later became Oklahoma. A series of land runs were held during the late 1800's, the most famous of which took place in 1889, to settle/populate the areas of I.T. that were mostly empty at that time. Seventeen years later Oklahoma gained its statehood. Come to think of it, we're coming up on Oklahoma's Centennial celebration next year (which actually kicked off at the Tulsa Run last weekend). My memory of the details from the pioneer days are a little bit vague, it's been some 13 years since Butch Davis' sister (yes, the Butch Davis that coached at Miami & Cleveland and is now headed to Chapel Hill) taught me Oklahoma history as a freshman in high school. But yesterday afternoon I discovered that my heritage has bred certain aptitudes into who I am today.

I decided that I needed some time out of the office, brain was dead from a lot of hours working on budgets and sitting in creative meetings (yes, I said creative meetings, and for the record I pulled out a couple of really good ideas in 3 days worth of meetings). So I decided to take the afternoon off yesterday and sit outside Cardinal Stadium in line to get in for last night's playoff game against Nixa, which coincidentally was to be the last ever played in that stadium (since WC will play any remaining games on the road). I arrived about 12:25 and took my place about 30 people deep in the line (some had arrived as early as 5:30am, the girl right in front of me had been there since 9am). It was quite an experience and perhaps worthy of its own post. Some of the stories that you can't help but overhear in a situation like that are classics.

Not long after I got there I was joined by Caleb, standing in for Robin who would arrive shortly thereafter. A couple of hours later Chase arrived. Finally, after school got out, Robin's son Colin (Robin, if that's the wrong spelling blame it on Annie, that's how it's spelled on the staff info sheet) joined us. Now legend has it that Colin saved the day last week by climbing over the railing into the stands - thus by-passing the slow moving stampede headed for the stairs into the bleachers - and claimed seats for the Sigars family and friends (my wife and I included). As time wore on waiting for the gates to open at 5:30 I began to formulate a plan in my mind. I guess it was that land run thing kicking in.

I realized that with the number of people lined up and pressing toward the gate Colin might need some help and wouldn't be able to hold that many seats for long by himself - WC fans play a little dirty when it comes to getting seats for a big game. You've got to claim them and be able to defend them. So, without mentioning this to anyone, I decided I'd just follow Colin over the railing and up the bleachers. I figured I was nimble enough to pull it off and was less likely to knock down a small child, elderly woman, or air-horn toting parent.

Just like in the days of the land run, just before the gates were opened, we saw a handful of people go running in from one end of the stadium. Now in the land runs these were the Sooners - those who snuck in early, even that name references people who were cheaters (hence my aversion to being associated with it in any way). But alas the gates opened. Then someone bumped the gate and a whole additional section swung open. At that moment I no longer had to go straight ahead to get through the gate, I could veer left on a straight line to the corner of the bleachers - think flag-route to the back corner of the end zone. Colin saw this too and we both dashed to claim our territory. Unlike regular season home games where passes are accepted, in the playoffs you have to carry paper tickets (that's so 80's, even the airlines use e-tickets now) and hand them to someone on the way in. Colin and I both just threw ours in the direction of the ticket-taker as we sprinted by.

I reached the railing about a step behind Colin and gave him a push up over it - just enough to help him along, whatever it takes right? A couple of seconds later I was over the railing myself and dashing up the bleachers to the top row, 47 yard line. I had wisely tucked my blanket - the official tool for saving seats at Cardinal Stadium - under the strap of my backpack. This left both hands free to climb (and deliver any forearm shivers required to claim my land, I mean seats). Upon arriving at the seats I whipped out the blanket and claimed enough space for Brittany and I just in time to keep the nice Hispanic family from getting part of our needed space.

When the gates opened it was just like I'd been trained to do this. I'm told that my mother-in-law (who is famous for her own seat claiming tactics of a few years ago) was sitting in her car outside the stadium watching the whole thing happen and laughing hysterically. Apparently she identified me in the crowd. Maybe it's like a video game where certain players have a symbol above them so you can tell who is who. Maybe mine was an OSU logo.

Shortly after the mad scramble concluded and the seats started filling in with all the people others were claiming seats for, the lady who really would like to have had the seat I was sitting in (actually that my blanket was on and I was standing next to) asked me in somewhat broken English how I'd beaten her to the seats. I just smiled, pointed to the railing and said, "I climbed over the railing and ran." I considered explaining that being from Oklahoma I have natural instincts for running to claim things, but decided it might get lost in translation. Chase said later she was staring me down and was not happy that I'd gotten that seat. I did go on to remind her that I'd sat in the same seat last week. She seemed upset because she and her husband had been there since sometime that morning. While I can understand the frustration, I played fair, I just had a better plan and was equipped to pull it off.

By the way, Webb City beat Nixa 35-7 and plays at Lee's Summit West on Saturday afternoon.

News? Spin?

I am an admitted Fox News fan. I refused to get Dish until I was willing to pay for the 120 channel package so I would have it (actually, I waited until they were offering a rebate so that the bigger package would cost me the smaller package amount for several months). Honestly, the only reason I would watch any other news media outlet for anything but locals would be if for some reason I wanted to know what Howard Dean's talking points were or what the National Enquirer was leading with this week. The others are absolutely worthless unless you just really want to know what the DNC thinks, because that's what you'll get from them, not the news. (How's that for a hook!)

Now those who feel just as strongly about FNC as I do about the others would argue that Fox leans to the right and the others are in the center. Those who say that are wrong. I won't bother supporting that statement, any sort of objective look at it clearly shows the others lean left. Now, as a flag-waving, gun rights supporting, God-fearing American I support the rights of CNN, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, etc. to lean to the left. Those are companies (not governmental agencies) and their management can decide what they want to air. They need to be honest with themselves and everyone else about what they're doing, but if that's where they're at they can have at it (I just won't be watching).

While there might be some truth to an accusation that FNC leans right, it is far more balanced than anything else out there. And let's face it, in a world of media supporting the ideals of the most liberal ideas in the country, anything that doesn't lean left is going to feel and sound like it's leaning to the right. I think the lesson here is that national media has leaned left so long that it succeeded in desensitizing most of the US population until left now feels like center.

Now, here's a news flash. Fox is the #1 cable news network. Could it be that there are more than just a few of us who want the news, not the DNC's spin on the news and are well enough educated to find sources for it? There is a line in the movie "Sweet Home Alabama" that I like. One of the main characters says to another (insert southern drawl), "Just because I talk slow doesn't mean I'm stupid." I would argue that most of the big media outlets have assumed for years that the populace is too stupid to figure out that they're being fed a liberal slant on the news rather than the news itself. Here's to educating the rural, middle class.

Webb City v. Carthage

Game Pictures

For anyone living outside the center of the universe (a.k.a. Webb City) last night saw the renewal of a long-standing high school football rivalry. In week 2 of the season Webb City took down Carthage 35-21. At the time WC fans recognized 2 things.

1. Carthage was better than previous years.

2. WC played a mediocre game and would have to play better to have a good season. This fact was highlighted in a tough match-up with Pittsburg a couple of weeks later that signaled a turning point in the Cardinals' season.

Fast-forward to last night and you find 10-0 and #1 ranked WC playing a first-round playoff game at home against 9-1 and #3 ranked Carthage. According to an eye-witness (my wife, whose classroom has a window that over-looks the stadium) fans began lining up at 8:30 on Friday morning. To say it was a highly anticipated match-up would be an understatement. All week there was speculation that somehow WC's win in week 2 was a fluke. Then again, that speculation flies around every time WC and Carthage square off. I've only lived here for 3 football seasons and it's been the same every year.

Early on Carthage looked very good and had WC on their heels for a time. Missed tackles on WC's part and an improved offense for Carthage gave Carthage an early lead that they held until nearly halftime. Down 13-12 and having just given the lead back to Carthage, WC mounted a drive to take the lead into halftime at 20-13. Bottom line, this was the same thing we saw in Pittsburg. Tight game, momentum going the wrong way and not much time. Same result as in Pittsburg, precise passes, well-executed routes, sure-handed catches, and WC was in the endzone. Like it or not, the WC offense knows how to move the ball and put points on the board when they need to. There's the WC offense that will pound you all night long (ask Carthage about that in the second half of this one) and there's the "we're going to pick you apart like an NFL team because we have no choice" offense. I think the coaching staff prefers the ground game, it's more familiar, but this Cardinal squad has proven they can come through in the wide-open version as well.

While I'm not yet convinced that this WC team has the overall depth of talent of the last 2 squads, they certainly are getting the most out of their offense at this point and are able to rely on the passing game more than in the past. Typical WC offense relies on the running game and a lot of options (which this squad does as well). But with the very legitimate downfield threats this season teams cannot load 8 or 9 in the box against WC and expect to have success. If the WC defense can play like we've seen them at times this season, this team has the potential to go deep into the playoffs. For the record, I'm still holding the Friday after Thanksgiving open on my calendar (don't tell my parents, they weren't happy about that 2 years ago).

Back to Carthage. Up by 7, WC took the ball in the 3rd quarter and just shoved it down Carhage's throat. First drive of the second half featured one play to the left and about 6 running plays to the right. The next drive was about the same thing with a couple of surprises to the left just to keep Carthage honest. Both resulted in touchdowns. At that point the practice field (where the Carthage fans had parked) started emptying.

An injury to Caleb Sanders late in the 3rd quarter had no real impact on the outcome. Carthage, who was already down by 21, scored on the drive that he was injured on, but never really threatened again and down 24 (after WC added another touchdown and a 40-yard field goal) it didn't matter. When Webb gets you down and you can't stop their run (or pass) it's over, they're just going to run the clock out on you.

Sanders is a good athlete. And I sincerely hope he is okay. Both games this season he has averaged between 6.5 and 6.8 yard/carry. Very impressive, though not nearly his season averages. The attention that Sanders draws to himself probably makes it harder to succeed, you can fairly assume that WC will find a way to contain anyone that flamboyant. And for the 2nd time this season, they did.

During the game good news came to the WC side, Nixa had routed Union. This means round-two will be at Cardinals' Stadium on Monday night against Nixa (whom WC beat 27-0 at Nixa early in the season). If anybody asks, I've got an off-site meeting at noon on Monday and it may go all afternoon and into the evening.

Orange & Black Tuesday

For Halloween Brittany and I dressed up as OSU Homecoming Royalty nominees. I mean what else would a Cowboy (or Cowgirl) wear when an event calls for dress attire? Getting my wife to proudly sport the colors is one of my proudest achievements in this marriage. After all, she has no tie to OSU other than me.

Some might ask, "Where you find an OSU orange dress shirt?"

A good question. It took me a few years to find a shirt that's the right color, but alas Polo carried that color for a while (don't know if they still do or not). We found Brittany's in Branson on a shopping trip and I managed to convince her it was good idea (I think we weren't married yet, so she was still listening to me occasionally).

I guess when I get nominated as alumni of the year we'll have our acceptance outfit all ready to go. :)