Therefore, if we all work together, together it’ll all work out. Are you with me? Now, get out there! All right! Score some, uh, points! Hey, you missed practice again today! I think you better sit down and think about how that made me feel. — Buffy The Vampire Slayer

One of the things that I really suck at is motivating others.  It’s one of the reasons that I decided to not seek leadership or management positions.  I’m pretty good at motivating myself, at least most of the time.  But it’s a crucial skill for a leader to be able to motivate subordinates, and I just can’t do it.  I’m pretty good at explaining what needs to be done and why it’s important.  But when I try to convince others that it should be important to them that something be done, I tend to fail spectacularly.   I will never be mistaken for being charismatic or evangelistic, but I think I can accept that.

Paden: Here’s to the good stuff.
Stella: May it last a long time.

—Silverado

Like I said the other day, there are shades of gray when it comes to bourbon in our house.  In that and a lot of other things, Irish Woman and I prefer to buy the best that we can afford.  I’m not saying that we always buy the best that is on the market, because that rarely happens.  What I’m saying is that if I can afford the Remington 1911, I buy the Remington 1911.  But if all I can afford is the surplus Makarov, then that’s what I buy.  The same goes for food, electronics, entertainment, and transportation.   I’m not going to let us live beyond our means, but I am going to get the best value for what we can afford.  We put money back into savings and investments, but we also make sure that we are getting some enjoyment and piece of mind out of our money, too.

Left Ear: Just give me a minute.
Charlie Croker: [impatiently] NOW?
Left Ear: I’m about to insert this detonator tube, and if the brass touches the sides, we’ll both be the last people we ever see.
Charlie Croker: [suddenly looking very nervous] Take all the time you need.

— The Italian Job

It’s amazing how quickly the annoying parts of your life fall away when you start to concentrate on what you’re doing.  Being able to turn to the people who want to tell you about the basketball game last night, or  the cute thing their dog did over the weekend, or how that new gadget they bought is making their life more complete and saying “I really need to do this.  I’ll catch up with you later.” is one of the great pleasures in life.

I got your four basic food groups! Beans, bacon, whisky and lard. — Atlantis, The Lost Empire

I love Southern cuisine, I really do.  It has wonderful flavor, and I’ve never come away from a properly cooked meal hungry.  But it’s going to kill me some day.  I will die happy and fat, but I will die from all this wonderful food.

Whisky is of particular importance to Irish Woman’s cooking.  There are grades of whisky when it comes to cooking, of course.  First, you have the sipping whisky, like Buffalo Trace, which is rarely, if ever, used as an ingredient.  Then, we have the good whisky, like Maker’s Mark, which is good enough to drink, but is primarily used to flavor food.  Finally, we have the cooking whisky, which in our house is Jim Beam.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen Irish Woman drink Jim Beam, but it shows up in a lot of dishes.  It’s used to flavor barbecue sauce, as the ‘secret ingredient’ in her apple pie preservers, and to add sweetness to desserts.

Lard’s high-rent cousin butter is a major component of cooking around here too.  Now that we have the ability to have high-quality cream delivered to the house every week, Irish Woman is making her own.  That means that a lot of my food has that wonderful, creamy, artery clogging flavor that we all love.

Bacon, well, what can I say about bacon?  Around here, bacon goes with breakfast, other meats, salads, vegetables, and sometimes even desserts.  Bacon grease is our food lubricant of choice when we are cooking.  I know Irish Woman is going to be in a good mood when I come home and the house smells of bacon.

Like I said, all this is going to kill me some day.  My curse is that I married a woman who loves to cook, and it’s a curse I think I can live with.

Ghettoes are the same all over the world. They stink. — Enter the Dragon

I have seen only two real castles in my life.  I have walked in 10 or 12 cathedrals or temples.  I have seen skyscrapers on three continents.  But everywhere I have gone, there has been a ghetto, or whatever they call the place where the poorest of the poor live.  It’s the part of town where the police don’t want to go, especially after dark.  It’s the part of town where the trash is either heaped up on the curb because there are no services this month, or the trash has been picked over and is what the people are wearing and what the buildings are made of.  A lot of times, it’s both.

There are super-rich in every country of the world, as far as I know.  There is also crushing poverty in every country in the world.  The way that I know a country has at least some economic freedom and a relatively clean political and business environment is that there is a big squishy middle class between them, and it is possible for someone from the slums to find their way out by working hard and staying out of trouble.  The true mark of a good society is that it encourages those who do better to come to the aid of those who live in the ghettoes.

I know a society is in trouble when there is a precipitous drop between those who live in ivory towers and palaces and the ghetto, with few places in between, and the knowledge that a child born in poverty has almost zero chance of having a decent life.

What worries me is that in our country, we are headed in that direction.  There is still a large middle-class in our country, and our ‘poor’ live like kings compared to most of the rest of the world.  Most of our poor are poor when compared to our rich, but not to other nations.  There is so much prosperity here that I cannot fathom why more people don’t find a way to work their way up the chain a few links.  But rather than work to move more people into the middle class, our society seems bound and determined to move more middle class people into the ghetto.  Our ghetto is a slave district of dependence and desperation, and every move by the government and ‘right thinking people’ of both sides of the political argument seems to push us closer to a two-tiered society, where the super rich gaze down on the ghetto.  We are fast becoming a society where a despondent and apathetic populace pick through the leavings of our ancestors to eek out enough of a living to dull the pain and numb the mind.

This isn’t the world I was born into, and it’s not the world I want to leave to my children.  If you want to ask me why I am so harsh about political, social, and economic freedom and equality of opportunity, it’s because I’ve seen too many ghettoes.

Roxanne Ritchi: What’s the plan?
Megamind: Well, it mostly involves NOT DYING!
Roxanne Ritchi: I like that plan!

— Megamind

The best plans have a simple goal, a simple method, and a simple way to gauge success.  When you start getting creative, things will start getting harder.  No-one gets style points, but you will certainly pay if you overcomplicate things and fail.

Yzma:  All right, I’ve had enough of this. Tell us where the talking lhama is and we’ll burn your house to the ground.
Kronk:  Er, don’t you mean or?
Yzma:  [even more angrily]  Err, tell us where the talking lhama is *or* we’ll burn your house to the ground.
Chaca: Well, which is it? That sounds like a pretty crucial conjunction.

— The  Emperor’s New Groove

Ever notice how quickly people can slip in a small detail that makes all the difference?  It can be anything from the quickly spoken disclaimer at the end of a commercial for a pharmaceutical to “We have to pass it so we can know what’s in it”.  You have to pay attention to just about everything that is said and done in order to know the true motivations and goals of others.  It’s rare in my life that someone I didn’t know very well doesn’t, at one time or another, try to sneak something into our dealings.  Heck, it’s not uncommon that I’ll work with someone for years, with no issues, and then one day they try to tweak our relationship in some small way that hurts me.  Whether it’s a politician, a lawyer, a salesman, or even friends and family, always know not only what they said, but also what they mean.

 Look Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.  — 2001, A Space Odyssey

There is a time to sit and think, and there is a time to act.  Once you’ve made up your mind, execute.  When someone has abused your trust or tried to harm you, their advice isn’t worth considering.  “Calm down.” is usually code for “Give me time to figure out how to screw you over again”.

President Jordan Lyman: I know what Scott’s attitude on the treaty is, what’s yours?
Colonel Martin “Jiggs” Casey: I agree with General Scott, sir. I think we’re being played for suckers. I think it’s really your business. Yours and the Senate. You did it, and they agreed so, well, I don’t see how we in the military can question it. I mean we can question it, but we can’t fight it. We shouldn’t, anyway.
President Jordan Lyman: Jiggs, isn’t it? Isn’t that what they call you?
Colonel Martin “Jiggs” Casey: Yes sir.
President Jordan Lyman: So you, ah, you stand by the Constitution, Jiggs?
Colonel Martin “Jiggs” Casey: I never thought of it just like that, Mr. President, but, well, that’s what we got and I guess it’s worked pretty well so far. I sure don’t want to be the one to say we ought to change it.

— Seven Days in May

We have a flawed system.  Sometimes those flaws are almost fatal.  But the founders had the foresight to make it possible to correct these flaws.  It’s not easy to amend the Constitution, but it’s not impossible, either.  I think one of the reasons we’ve been able to keep this thing going for almost two and a half centuries is that our military doesn’t see its role as doing that amending for us.  We still find it offensive when politicians try to ignore it.  While we argue at length at interpretation of what the Constitution means, it’s rare when someone who advocates replacing it entirely is taken seriously.

So long as those things hold true, we’ll find a way through our troubles.  When we stop following them, we are doomed.

Mikey, why don’t you tell that nice girl you love her? I love you with all-a my heart, if I don’t see-a you again soon, I’m-a gonna die.  — The Godfather

I’m not the most expressive person on earth.  How I ended up with the Irish Woman is anyone’s guess, because she never fails to tell me how much she loves me, as well as how much I’ve pissed her off.  I try to say “I love you” as often as I can, but I have to do more than just say the words.  I also have to remember to never be ashamed to say it in front of other people, a mistake I’ve made in the past.  Telling someone you love them should never be embarrassing.  If the people around you can’t handle hearing it, it’s their problem.