Mack Academy Weblog

We have now been home schooling 13 years.  While the routine of it gets a bit easier throughout the years, the desire to do and teach your children more continues to grow.  I'd love to go back and do it all over again - there was so much more information to learn!  This morning I read this piece by Janice Southerland.  It is a beautiful reminder to allow God to guide us through our endeavors to teach and raise our children.  

On August 2, my 6th grade curriculum arrived. I am so excited!  I LOVE learning!  I took inventory, making sure everything we ordered had arrived, and then I sorted my books by subject.  I cannot wait until next Monday, so I can start school.  My favorite subjects are health and history.  I'm very proud to announce that last semester, my sister, Emily, made the honor roll.  My goal for this school year is to get straight A's!

For a scholarship, I wrote an essay about the effects of the current recession on the family.  I really enjoyed writing it and thought I'd share it.

While initially, one would expect the current recession to have an adverse effect on the average family, I have found that my family has grown more creative, closer in our relationships, and wiser in our decisions as a result.

I've heard of studies that claim that television and video games “reduce” creativity and I believe that there may be some truth to that.  Several years ago, in order to better manage what we consumed, my parents made the decision to get rid of our cable television.  We still had videos to watch, but the television was on far less frequently than when we had cable.  Suddenly, my sisters and I found ourselves with abundant time on our hands.  We all read more and began to discover interests or talents that we otherwise might not have known we possessed.  Although I did not enjoy the home economics course I took in high school, I realized that once I had the freedom to experiment, I loved cooking and baking.  I also learned how to knit and have enjoyed making sweaters and scarves for family and friends.  We encouraged friends to get rid of their cable subscription and they, too, have found themselves being more creative.
Continue Reading "Recession: A Blessing in Disguise?" »

Dear Mr. Iger,

Our family stopped watching the Disney Channel many years ago.  Somewhere along the line the channel changed from fun and interesting family programming to several broadcasts each day of tween shows.  I mean, really, how many times a day does "Hannah Montana" have to air?

We miss "Vault Disney" and the classic movies.  You used to produce wonderful series like "Avonlea".  Where is the creativity?

Continue Reading "Dear Mr. Iger: A Disney Channel Makeover" »

I have never liked writing a paper for school and never doing anything else with what I've written.  I thought I'd post the argumentative essay I just finished.  


Many of our schools are dangerous and inefficient.  Often in the news there are reports about shootings and drug abuse in schools.  Children as young as elementary school are familiar with several curse words and are hearing about subjects not appropriate for their age.  Students are being taught that there is no God who created the universe, and that they are a result of random chance which diminishes the value of their life.  It has become popular throughout our society to refer to education as boring or torturous, and students have little incentive to read or experiment outside of school.  Students are graduating with few writing or math skills and without the knowledge of how to discover answers for themselves.  Yet despite this grim situation, a movement has been growing to repel it.  More and more parents have decided to pull their children out of public schools and to educate them at home.  Critics of this movement claim that homeschooling children are ill equipped to handle situations in the “real world”, socially deprived, or that parents are unable to meet the special needs of a child – yet with homeschooling it is quite the opposite.

Continue Reading "A Case for Homeschooling" »

A while ago, my parents watched a movie called, "The Fourth Wise man". It was based on a story by Henry Van Dyke called The Other Wise Man. They were so impressed with the story, that they wanted my sisters and me to watch it as well. Here is the summary:

A magi named Artaban leaves his home and sells everything he has to go look for the Messiah. All the other magi taunted him for his decision. A reluctant servant accompanied Artaban only for a reward of his (the servant's) freedom. Artaban brings three gifts for Jesus; a ruby, a sapphire, and a pearl. Along the way, he stops and helps needy people and gives the gifts away to provide for them. He got sidetracked, and for 33 years, Artaban lived with a colony of outcasts and lepers using his medical skills and farming abilities to help them. Artaban learned that Jesus was in Jerusalem and set out to meet him. Many troubles prevented him from seeing Jesus before the crucifixion. Before Artaban’s death, Jesus rewarded his faithful servant, Artaban, with his heart’s desire.

        My dad gave my sisters and me a challenge of how many verses from the Bible we could find to support this movie. He said if we found enough verses, we could earn the new Nancy Drew computer game for the four of us to play together. My dad also said that if we write a blog post about it, we could earn another game. These are the verses and the reasons why that we found:

John 3:16- For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on Him will never perish but have eternal life. –Answers why Jesus came.

Isaiah 9:6- For unto us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given and the government will be upon His shoulders and His name will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. –The prophecy that Jesus was Born.

Matthew 11:5- The Blind receive sight, the Lame walk, those who have leprosy are healed, the deaf her, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor. –Blind man received his sight

Continue Reading "Are You Wise?" »

Today,  this great country of ours, the United States of America, turned 234 years old.  234 years ago today, on July 4th, 1776, fifty-six men in the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence, which was written by Thomas Jefferson. This document would soon bring freedom to America.

The men who signed the Declaration were not only risking their lives, but their families lives as well. They knew that if they signed it, and if they were caught, they could be tortured and hanged as conspirators against the king.

Today, We should be inspired by the men who took this great chance, for instance, John Hancock. While other men were making small signatures on the Declaration, Hancock signed his name large and right in the middle of the page. When asked why he took that action, Hancock said that he"wanted the King of England to be able to see his name without wearing spectacles (glasses)"  

I hope this Fourth of July, you will stop and think about all the people throughout history, who gave their lives for America's freedom.

I recently finished another robotics book entitled Build Your Own All-Terrain Robot.  It was written by Brad Graham and Kathy McGowan and takes people with all levels of experience through the process of creating their own all-terrain robot with as little expense as possible.  This book provides great resources and is packed full of good advice and ideas.  Beginning by helping the reader understand exactly what he wants his robot to do, Graham and McGowan take the reader through the process of building two  robots, and leaves him with a reminder of the endless possibilities of all-terrain robots.

Continue Reading "How do you build an all-terrain robot?" »

I thought I'd share a paper that I wrote for my English class.  The requirement was to use at least two methods (I decided to use reasons and comparison and contrast) to develop the paper.  The assignment was to write a paper about why I prefer a vacation at the mountains rather than a a vacation at the sea shore.   I do want to clarify that, while I still would prefer a visit to the mountains, I do enjoy visiting and learning about the seashore.  (And I love to visit aquariums!).  Just thought I'd mention that.  Here's my paper:

For a vacation, I prefer a visit to the forest rather than a visit to the seashore.  The variety in color, sounds, and sights in the mountains are much more appealing to me than the variety at the seashore.

The color scheme of the forest is extremely varied:  green trees burst into a brilliant gold, orange, or red in the autumn and scatter their leaves; the brown forest floor teems with insects and animals in a splattering of blues, grays, blacks, pinks, browns, reds, and many other colors; flowers poke their heads out to dazzle the world with their delicate colors and beauty; and berries pop out in delicious arrays of reds, greens, and blues.  While the seashore has a beauty of its own, there is very little color variety to keep me interested.  All is a blur of blue water, blue sky, white sands, white rocks, and white seagulls.  Most of the different colors in the seashore comes from the shells which have strips of pale pink or pale blue, and from the dirty brownish-green seaweed that washes up on the shore, and perhaps an occasional starfish that is washed into tiny pools.  There is an assortment of color, but not as striking as the collection of color found in the woods.

Continue Reading "Mountains vs. Seashore - Which Do You Prefer?" »

I've just completed all of the requirements to earn my Master of Information and Knowledge Management Degree, with honors. Just over three years ago I closed the first chapter of this journey.  Today, I close the second chapter. Before I begin the next chapter, I want to pause and reflect on my experience and thank the many people that helped me get to this point.

After working for two decades as a consultant in the areas of technology, information management, collaboration, and productivity, I realized that while these were all good things to do, the next opportunity was in the area of how we manage what we know and what we do with what we know. That realization led me to pursue the field of knowledge management and the management of intellectual capital. Unlike many people in the 1990's and early 2000's, I decided not to focus on the organizational level but rather to direct my attention to the individual or personal aspect of knowledge management. My work as an eProductivity specialist  taught me that it's much easier to bring about a lasting impact working with individuals - from the bottom-up - than to try and create a system to be imposed on the organization top-down. Thus, my interest in knowledge management, and specifically my interest in what is frequently referred to as personal knowledge management, began.

Continue Reading "Completion. What a wonderful feeling! Chapter 2" »

I recently delivered a speech to the incoming students at The Center for Professional Studies (CPS) at The Master's College in Santa Clarita, California.

This was an exciting opportunity for me to encourage the incoming students by sharing my experiences in the Organizational Management program and to offer some secrets for success in getting through the program.

While the speech is directed to students, and adult learners in specific, the principles I share could be applied to anyone in any situation.

This week, business cohort had a reunion and my colleagues encouraged me to share the speech, so here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

2007 CPS Convocation Speech - 7 Tips for success

This past week, I graduated  with a business degree in Organizational Management. I worked hard, and I managed, with God's grace, to keep my grades up throughout the entire program, graduating Summa Cum Laude, with a GPA of 3.988.

I want to publicly thank the Lord for this opportunity and I want to extend my thanks to the many people who have helped, encouraged and supported my efforts.  My next action is a significant one, I will be working toward my Master of Information and Knowledge Management degree.



I could not have managed the demands of family, clients, business, and my education, without a great deal of determination, love and support from my wife and children, and my extended family, friends, classmates and clients. My suite of eProductivity tools, along with the Getting Things Done skill's that I've acquired while serving The David Allen Company, also came in handy for managing the multiple projects and actions I needed to complete along the way.

A brief narrative of my journey follows ...
Continue Reading "Completion. What a wonderful feeling!" »

I'm particularly excited about my Organizational Management capstone project - a start-up business plan. I have 10 weeks in which to develop this plan, at which time I will present it to my management cohort and a group of potential investors and bankers that my management professor has invited to evaluate our research and presentations.

For my capstone project, I've decided to take my ICA eProductivity Template for Lotus Notes - a productivity tool that I wrote many years ago to help me personally implement the GTD methodology using Lotus Notes  - and develop it into a commercial product. The ICA eProductivity template has been around for many years, and during that time it has undergone many changes based on feedback from my eProductivity clients who use it daily. Several of the staff at one of my eProductivity clients, The David Allen Company, have used this template as well and it's been fun to get feedback from a group of highly productive and organized people. Still, there's much that I want to do with it, including a new design for Notes 6.5x and 7.x and a general product release. I'm in the process of assembling the software development and management teams for this new adventure.

Continue Reading "Organizational Management Capstone Project" »

God is truly the source of all skill and the goal of all labor.

These opening words, spoken by music director, D.J. Jackson, at the 2006 Baccalaureate Chapel, gave me pause to think about what I've accomplished and how thankful I am for the opportunities I have experienced.

The Baccalaureate Chapel was a powerful opportunity to assemble with the other graduates to give thanks and celebrate what God has allowed us to achieve. We sang traditional hymns, reflected on our achievements, heard some words of encouragement, and prayed for our future.



Dr. John MacArthur admonished the graduates:

You will be a product of your influences. Choose very well, those whom you allow to shape your life. "... everyone when he is fully trained, will be like his master." Luke 6:40

He went on to discuss how we should carefully consider our goals, and how we approach life, allowing God to work through us.

As a computer geek, allow me to describe this in geek notation:

OUTPUT = INPUT * PROCESSING

Continue Reading "All achievements should remind us of the grace of God" »