Spiffy Sayings

As I lay in bed this morning, trying to will myself to rise and walk, my mind wandered a bit to some quotes and advice I remember from various points in my life. This perhaps isn't so strange; I regaled Heidi with my childhood memories last night for about half an hour. So apparently, my mind has gone into some kind of archive mode, where I'm being randomly flooded with memories, apparently in an effort to refresh them. This has the additional effect of advanced nostalgia, so it hasn't been totally unpleasant.

Anyway, as I lay there and let these sayings wash through my groggy brain, I thought, "These are pretty good...why not share them?" Most of them were fairly unique or specific to certain situations; others were somewhat profound but not as well-known as something along the lines of "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

So here are just a few that I remembered, with some background information, as necessary.

1. "Do it like you oughta, add the acid to the water."

When I was in AP Chemistry in high school, my instructor's name was Mr. Bell. (I can't for the life of me remember his first name right now...funny how memory works, eh?) He's a legend with my former classmates; we still talk about him when we get together. He was funny, in a quirky sort of way. He told us this choice nugget during our first lab experiment with acid and bases, and he reminded us of it during every subsequent experiment we had. This one originates from the idea that if you pour one liquid into a container holding another liquid, there will be some splashing, and the liquid already inside the container is what will splash out. This is important to remember when creating an acidic solution. If you put the acid in first, then the water, the acid could splash out a bit as the water goes in and mixes with it. Obviously, there could be some unpleasant results. So the safer way is to put the water in first, then add the acid, so only water splashes out. I still use this idea when mixing liquids; the more dangerous liquid (e.g., hot, caustic, etc.) goes in last.

2. "Remember the 6 P's of Life: Prior Planning Prevents Piss-Pour Performance."

My good friend from high school, Scott Zenthoefer, taught me this one. It's probably fairly common, but when I teach it to my information security students, very few of them have ever heard it before. I take this principle very seriously in my life, because I've had far too many cases to see how true it is.

3. "Chris, always read. Read everything you can. Reading can be your Excalibur."

Another chemistry teacher I had in high school, Mr. Steve Moran, wrote this one in my yearbook at the end of my sophomore year. He was in my top 3 favorite teachers in high school. My sister Misty also had the good fortune of taking a class with him when her time came. He was a great instructor, very inspiring, very knowledgeable and honest, and just generally really cool. In nearly every class I ever took in high school, I heard some other student mention something bad about the teacher at some point in my high school career. But I NEVER heard a bad word about Mr. Moran. Even after I went to college, I would occasionally pull out my yearbook and read his words. I've never forgotten them and I never will.

4. "The important thing in life is to maintain a balance. Right now, you have three areas: school, work, and play time. If any one of those gets more attention than the others, your life gets out of whack and you won't be happy."

This one came from one of the wisest people I know: my dad. I don't remember exactly why we were discussing this, but it has been a guiding principle for me ever since. In fact, I withdrew from the University of Chicago because I knew I wouldn't be able to maintain a balance there; I'd be spending most of my time on study and I wouldn't be happy. Even today, in dealing with my career, where the requirement of 24/7 on-call status is very real, I still work very hard to maintain a balance. We all know too much of anything is bad, but I always liked Dad's broader view, and it's stuck with me. Thanks, Dad.

5. "Do your best, and leave the rest to God."

To be honest, I don't know who first said this one. I've Googled it and I just can't seem to find the original source. But the elegance and simplicity of this statement is always very striking to me. It perfectly describes the truest elements of faith. First, we still have to work in this life to make things happen; we can't leave everything to God and expect Him to live our lives for us. But we still require His help in everything we do. We can't live our lives without Him, and we have to trust His plan for us. Jesus talked about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field; they just do what they do, and they only do their best because they don't know any other way. God gives them the rest of what they need according to His plan, and He does the same for us.

I hope you've enjoyed these. If more come up, I'll put them out here for you. Thanks for reading along.