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One of the hats I wear is as the Regional Director of ACOM, and I want to recommend to you this excellent opportunity for study or professional development coming up in Perth. We always whine here in Perth about the top line people not travelling out here, so here’s something excellent for you in your backyard.

Keith Farmer has been spending the last couple of years mentoring a number of significant church leaders across Australia, and Peter McHugh is one of the most thoughtful and interesting guys I’ve listened to – this is a fantastic opportunity, so don’t miss out on it!

For those guys out there…  I’d like to help you all become better men and husbands, so here’s my Christmas gift to you…  I’m going to pass onto you the SINGLE BIGGEST tip I can give you to help you have a VERY happy Christmas, and it involves something you can do for your wives.

Trust me on this…  Take me at my word and see if this is not true…

This tip, if you follow it, will bring a huge smile to your wife on Christmas Day, as well as making you a very popular guy.

This is it…  Memorize it, and do it.  I’m deadly serious…

*** Go out and buy your wife something really nice…  By nice, I mean something that you would have bought her before you got married to her when you were still trying to impress her.  By nice, I mean something that is probably more expensive than $100, is probably not made out of plastic, and might even glitter a little…

OK…  Now pay special attention to these TWO important points…

*** Firstly…  Make sure she does NOT (under ANY circumstances) know what this gift is.  DO NOT ask her to choose something for herself (HUGE MISTAKE!), do not discuss this with her, do not ask her advice…  Trust me on this.  This must be totally unknown to her.  Surprise is key.

*** Secondly…  Under NO circumstances make this a “practical” gift.  Women do NOT enjoy “practical” gifts because if they really wanted a dishwasher they would make you go get one, and getting one for Christmas is not going to make them smile.  Just trust me on this.  I’ve made this mistake several times, and I remember them well.  DO NOT follow in my footsteps.  Jewellery and other “impractical” items are perfect.  The kind of gift I’m talking about is the kind of thing they probably wouldn’t buy for themselves.  In fact, I’ll be honest and say that any gift that seems to have a practical use of any kind is pretty much scratched right off my list straight up.  Anything that plugs in and requires power or batteries is off the list.  Learn from me on this.

One other thing…  If your wife says that she really isn’t expecting anything and doesn’t want anything big, etc….  IGNORE this completely.  Be a man and go beyond her expectations.  If she isn’t expecting much from you, then you have ground to make up…

This Christmas, I have a totally impractical gift that my wife knows nothing about waiting for her.  It is of a value that suggests my sense of value for her, and she is going to be very excited on Christmas Day.  I hope you learn from my stupid mistakes and follow my advice.  This is my gift to you – you will not be disappointed if you follow my advice closely.

So, that’s it.  My gift to you…

M.

*** PS:  if you have already purchased a gift that a) your wife knows about, b) is practical, and c) is cheap, then you have a few days to fix this problem or regret your error. Do so immediately.

*** PPS: This advice works even better for birthdays.  Try it and see your fortunes grow…  :-)

“Never mistake motion for action.”  – Ernest Hemingway

well, after a seriously total wipe-out of the coalition this weekend (wow!), it’s been fascinating to see all the reports of key liberal figures declaring that they knew it was going to be that way, which begs the question why they didn’t do something to change that…  the stupid elephant in the room of howard’s intended transfer of power to costello being one of them, not to mention climate change issues, work choices and a number of other stands they could have quickly made adjustments to in order to change the momentum.and, in a very smart move, which i should have seen coming but for some reason didn’t see, costello did the smartest thing he could possibly do by refusing the captaincy of the titanic, and is talking up a post-politics real-world gig.  after all, there’s absolutely nothing for him in taking the helm of a decimated liberal party which looks to be in opposition for at least the next 2 terms i would say.and, the worst possible thing happened in our seat of brand – labor actually rode on the coat tails of the big national swing to open up their margin in this seat, which basically means we’ll now be up for another 6 years of neglect…  i’m all up for being party loyal, etc., for those labor people who felt they just had to support the ALP, but the truth is that in our seat they would have been smarter to vote anything other than greens or alp, because they’ve just created a situation where the labor party can continue to take the area for granted.  i don’t say any of this because any great allegiance to either party – it just makes plain political sense. 

“If I had thought about it, I wouldn’t have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can’t do this.”  - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M “Post-It” Notepads. the above quote sums up the counter-intuitive nature of much scientific endeavour, and probably a lot of other things too.  i know it applies to the church. 

An interesting quote from British politician Enoch Powell: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.

Probably applies equally to a great many professions, including boxing… :-)

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”— Mark Twain