Today, October 28, marks the anniversary of one of the most important days in the history of the world, yet few people remember it’s significance. But the Greeks do, and they celebrate OXI day, every year.

The day was October 28, 1940. At dawn that morning (4:00am), after a party in the German embassy in Athens, Mussolini (through Emanuele Grazzi, the Italian ambassador in Greece) issued an ultimatum to Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to surrender, or face open war with Italy.

Metaxas, a career military officer and more importantly a proud Greek, was not inclined to acquiesce to Mussolini’s demands (surprise!), thus touching off the beginning of the Greco-Italian War and a series of unbelievable events that would eventually neutralize Italy, cripple Germany, and cost 1,000,000 Greek lives.
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If your lip would keep from slips.
Five things observe with care:
To whom you speak, of whom you speak,
And how, and when, and where.

William E. Norris
English Novelist

5 most important words: I am proud of you!
4 most important words: What is your opinion?
3 most important words: If you please.
2 most important words: Thank you.
1 most important word: You.

If you ever work for me, and I hear one of the following excuses, you’re fired.

50 Reasons Why We / It / They Can’t Change

1. We’ve never done it before.
2. Nobody else has ever done it.
3. It has never been tried before.
4. We tried it before.
5. Another company/person tried it before.
6. We’ve been doing it this way for 25 years.
7. It won’t work in a small company.
8. It won’t work in a large company.
9. It won’t work in our company.
10. Why change — it’s working OK.
11. The boss will never buy it.
12. It needs further investigation.
13. Our competitors are not doing it.
14. It’s too much trouble to change.
15. Our company is different.
16. The ad department says it can’t be done.
17. Sales department says it can’t be done.
18. The service department won’t like it.
19. The janitor says it can’t be done.
20. It can’t be done.
21. We don’t have the money.
22. We don’t have the personnel.
23. We don’t have the equipment.
24. The union will scream.
25. It’s too visionary.
26. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
27. It’s too radical a change.
28. It’s beyond my responsibility.
29. It’s not my job.
30. We don’t have the time.
31. It will obsolete other procedures.
32. Customers won’t buy it.
33. It’s contrary to policy.
34. It will increase overhead.
35. The employees will never buy it.
36. It’s not our problem.
37. I don’t like it.
38. You’re right, but ….
39. We’re not ready for it.
40. It needs more thought.
41. Management won’t accept it.
42. We can’t take the chance.
43. We’d lose money on it.
44. It takes too long to pay out.
45. We’re doing all right as it is.
46. It needs committee study.
47. Competition won’t like it.
48. It needs sleeping on.
49. It won’t work in this department.
50. It’s impossible.

E.F. Borish
Product Manager
Milwaukee Gear Company
Product Engineering Magazine, July 20, 1959

Ok. Since everyone and their dog has been abusing the word “inconceivable” since I used it the other day, we’re going to round out our Princess Bride movie quotes with this last one before I start moving on to other movies!

The background story is that Vincent, a Sicilian who is employed to start a war by kidnapping a princess, tends to overuse the word inconceivable. So, here’s a little compilation of the phrase throughout the movie. Frankly it is inconceivable to me that anyone took the time to put this together!
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Ok. As a follow up to my last movie quote post, which was also my first… which was also from The Princess Bride… here is another one that you are likely to hear me rattling off at any given time. Especially if I have a sword. And I’m about to kill you.

HELLO! My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die!

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I don’t know if you are like me… but I love to quote movie lines! I quote them all the time, but the problem is, there are some people who just haven’t seen them all. So, I’m going to start digging up the ones I say all the time and adding them to my blog so that those of you who know and love me can at least get in on the action.

This first movie quote comes from The Princess Bride. One of the greatest movies ever made! The very opening of the movie includes a discussion about a very, very important phrase that is a recurring theme of the film, “…as you wish.” If you didn’t fully understand the significance of this phrase, this little clip will clear it up for you.
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So what have we learned in two millennia?

“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

– Cicero – 55 BC

…Evidently nothing.

I just had to give up my Sprint powered PPC8800 for a Blackberry Curve 8310 so I could be on the communal rate plan and also have real-time Exchange access for e-mail at work. After doing so it forced me to do a lot of research on applications and ways to better my Curve.

I figured some other people are going to go looking for this info as well, so I’ve compiled what I learned here. Its not my most organized post, but there is a lot of information and I didn’t want to spend forever getting the post out. Hopefully if anyone knows of other cool, free stuff for the BB you’ll drop a comment below and let me know.
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The trouble with doing something right the first time, is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

I know this post is kind of random and out of the blue, but I was listening to someone on the radio making some ignorant statements and I had some thoughts I wanted out of my head…

I understand that some countries don’t like the US. I also understand that this is almost universally true when it comes to countries that lack freedom (Iran, N. Korea, China, the former USSR, etc).

But how can it ever come as a surprise to anyone when the US decides to take action? Let’s face it, you know if you’re a friend or a foe of the US LONG before anything happens.

46 years ago President Kennedy said:

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of freedom.”

Am I supposed to believe the world thinks we changed our minds?
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