April 23rd ≈ 2013 ≈ Vol. V ≈ Issue 27
mentor - discover - inspire
Which One Will You Do Today?
UPCOMING EVENTS
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tell us what you want and we'll deliver
weekly inspiration
bruce feiler:
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moments in manliness
strong as a bull moose
"Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great."
― Mark Twain
!!! all hail our new d.c.i.t. !!!
al chacon
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Votes were cast... The wisdom of the men has spoken... Our new fearless leader to take the helm and guide us... Through thick and thin, blood, sweat, and tears... In October, Chacon was featured in "Get To Know A Man" here on The Bullet. Revisit the article and get to know him all over again... click here to go to article >> |
an opportunity to grow in the learning garden
by sasha rovin & frank strasser
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” - Winston Churchill
One of my primary goals as a man is to expand my circle of influence. When my days on the blue planet are over and Mother Earth reclaims me, I plan to rest in peace knowing that my life made a difference. For me, this means aligning with my higher purpose, offering my gifts toward the common good, learning to be of humble service to others. So when Full Monty recently created a Community Outreach Team, I was among the “Dirty Dozen” who leaped at the chance to be All-In!
Shortly thereafter, the “Breakfast Club” began to meet at David Andersen’s house bright and early on given Saturdays. Over coffee and bagels, belly laughs and serious discussion, Full Monty’s Community Outreach Team hammered out a game plan. Among our first orders of business was to locate a reputable community-based organization in need of committed manpower. After a few promising leads resulted in dead ends, our path lead us organically to The Learning Garden.
Choosing The Learning Garden as Full Monty’s first-ever Community Outreach project immediately appealed to members of our team as a way to connect with a vital organization in need of help and make a real difference. It also has profound personal significance to me. For decades, I’d driven past this curious plot of land at the western edge of Venice High School, a few miles east of my home in Venice. It had the seedy look of dashed hopes and unfulfilled promise. It made me feel sadly aware of the dusty and untended corners of my own life.
Dating back to the 70s, I’ve sat at a thousand red lights and gazed at this weedy, overgrown garden patch at the corner of Walgrove Avenue and Venice Boulevard. Now and again, the garden would be lush, green, and thriving for a few months. But soon enough, it inevitably reverted back to a scraggly, parched, neglected eyesore. I often envisioned how this garden might look with a healthy dose of TLC. I am pleased to report that today, thanks to the concerted efforts of dedicated community activists and garden enthusiasts, the long-neglected corner garden plot is a flourishing suburban mini-farm.
One of my primary goals as a man is to expand my circle of influence. When my days on the blue planet are over and Mother Earth reclaims me, I plan to rest in peace knowing that my life made a difference. For me, this means aligning with my higher purpose, offering my gifts toward the common good, learning to be of humble service to others. So when Full Monty recently created a Community Outreach Team, I was among the “Dirty Dozen” who leaped at the chance to be All-In!
Shortly thereafter, the “Breakfast Club” began to meet at David Andersen’s house bright and early on given Saturdays. Over coffee and bagels, belly laughs and serious discussion, Full Monty’s Community Outreach Team hammered out a game plan. Among our first orders of business was to locate a reputable community-based organization in need of committed manpower. After a few promising leads resulted in dead ends, our path lead us organically to The Learning Garden.
Choosing The Learning Garden as Full Monty’s first-ever Community Outreach project immediately appealed to members of our team as a way to connect with a vital organization in need of help and make a real difference. It also has profound personal significance to me. For decades, I’d driven past this curious plot of land at the western edge of Venice High School, a few miles east of my home in Venice. It had the seedy look of dashed hopes and unfulfilled promise. It made me feel sadly aware of the dusty and untended corners of my own life.
Dating back to the 70s, I’ve sat at a thousand red lights and gazed at this weedy, overgrown garden patch at the corner of Walgrove Avenue and Venice Boulevard. Now and again, the garden would be lush, green, and thriving for a few months. But soon enough, it inevitably reverted back to a scraggly, parched, neglected eyesore. I often envisioned how this garden might look with a healthy dose of TLC. I am pleased to report that today, thanks to the concerted efforts of dedicated community activists and garden enthusiasts, the long-neglected corner garden plot is a flourishing suburban mini-farm.
The Learning Garden at Venice High School was established in 2001 after decades of failed attempts to revitalize the land. In just over ten years, the 60,000-square-foot garden has become a source of pride in this working-class community, inspiring students and evolving into one of the largest, most productive school gardens in the U.S.
Members of Full Monty’s Community Outreach Team were blessed to tour the garden and gain personal insights from Learning Garden co-founder Julie Mann; master gardener, David King; and volunteers Grant Francis and Sasha Rovin. We learned that while designing and developing this beautiful garden is both rewarding and renewing, it also requires considerable physical effort. Naturally, our hosts were THRILLED to learn that a local organization was willing and able to offer considerable manpower to their enterprise.
By adding some muscle to the mix, Full Monty can definitely help The Learning Garden with various garden projects which have long been left on the drawing board due to lack of sufficient resources or manpower. Learning Garden volunteer Sasha Rovin also founded the non-profit organization BETTER, which is coordinating a system of cisterns to provide a more efficient renewable source of water for the garden. She provided additional background on The Learning Garden for the benefit of Full Monty’s Community Outreach Team:
Members of Full Monty’s Community Outreach Team were blessed to tour the garden and gain personal insights from Learning Garden co-founder Julie Mann; master gardener, David King; and volunteers Grant Francis and Sasha Rovin. We learned that while designing and developing this beautiful garden is both rewarding and renewing, it also requires considerable physical effort. Naturally, our hosts were THRILLED to learn that a local organization was willing and able to offer considerable manpower to their enterprise.
By adding some muscle to the mix, Full Monty can definitely help The Learning Garden with various garden projects which have long been left on the drawing board due to lack of sufficient resources or manpower. Learning Garden volunteer Sasha Rovin also founded the non-profit organization BETTER, which is coordinating a system of cisterns to provide a more efficient renewable source of water for the garden. She provided additional background on The Learning Garden for the benefit of Full Monty’s Community Outreach Team:
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Out of a vision of a garden that serves students and the community, The Learning Garden blossoms into an outdoor learning center from what once was an underutilized, weedy portion of Venice High School. Hands-on education in horticulture, permaculture, herbology, botany, nutrition, art, photography, and environmental science flourish in this setting. The Learning Garden not only beautifies the community but is a place of peace and serenity in an often turbulent, “concreted” world.
The importance of plants in our lives is immeasurable, yet fewer and fewer people are connecting to the earth and nature. Valuable medicinal herbs and foods are becoming extinct, along with the knowledge of how to organically grow, harvest, and use them. The Learning Garden at Venice High School – a collaborative effort of Venice High School, Yo San Traditional Chinese Medicine School, Emperor’s College, and the community – seeks to bring this knowledge back to the people, to educate them in the use of food and medicinal plants, and to be a model for Los Angeles, the U.S., and the world. One of the garden’s long-term goals is to install green infrastructure projects. We would like to accomplish this in a style that can be reproduced easily by others in their own communities or homes. One of our projects includes an installation of underground cisterns that play into a design that includes a meandering stream and water gardens throughout the space. That is our great vision, but we have to start with some basics. That’s where MDI comes in. :) We are desperate to start digging in the space we have determined is ideal for Phase 1 of this project, but we have run into a few insurmountable obstacles. Cement footings! They have been found underground and they harken back to the garden’s earlier days, rich with masonry heritage. A work day to remove these footings is a short and sweet project perfect for a crew of strong and handy men. Let’s see what that might entail. We believe that the initial phase of our project can be accomplished in a day’s work with the help of 60 strong men who bring with them some of the following tools: sledgehammers, breaker bars, pick-axes, mattocks, work gloves, safety glasses. The Learning Garden will be happy to provide: shovels, wheelbarrows, and a challenge! |
The Community Outreach Team is actively collaborating with The Learning Garden to coordinate the work details. What better place than a garden for a Growth Event? We invite the Men of Full Monty to join us at The Learning Garden for an Open Division Event on Saturday, June 15. Bring your families and invite guests. Enjoy hearty food and live music. Come swing a pick axe and bust concrete. Flex your muscles and manhandle a wheelbarrow. Work up a healthy sweat. Connect with the good green earth.
Stay tuned for more details in coming editions of The Bullet. Meanwhile, as that sage prophet Anonymous once advised: “Cultivate the garden within.”
Stay tuned for more details in coming editions of The Bullet. Meanwhile, as that sage prophet Anonymous once advised: “Cultivate the garden within.”
the vital seven workshop
| vital_seven.pdf |
roadmap to buying your first home
courtesy of artofmanliness.com
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Almost two years ago, I became a homeowner.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into when Kate and I decided we were ready to buy a home. I naively thought there wouldn’t be much to it. Visit some open houses, talk to the bank, sign some papers, and boom, I’d have a piece of the American Dream. Boy, was I wrong. Buying a home is a complicated, multi-step process. Down the road we plan to devote entire posts to many of the steps along the way. Today, however, we’ve set out to provide you with the big picture of what to expect when buying your first home. It’s basically the roadmap I wish I had when I was neck-deep in the process. click here to go to article >> |
MDI quarterly newsletter
Q1 - 2013
Men of Full Monty,
The first, all-new quarterly MDI Newsletter is here!
Go to http://mdimen.com/legacy/ to access it.
Take a look and connect with your brothers from other regions, divisions & teams.
Points of Interest:
Basic Blocking & Tackling Tips of the Quarter
Your Success Stories
Funny Shit
The Proud Report – How MDI Utilizes Your Donations
A Team Ritual of the Quarter
Your Organization
Baseball Cards of the MDI Core Team
Leading from the Back – A President’s Vision
Checking Out – Leaving You With a Quote
The first, all-new quarterly MDI Newsletter is here!
Go to http://mdimen.com/legacy/ to access it.
Take a look and connect with your brothers from other regions, divisions & teams.
Points of Interest:
Basic Blocking & Tackling Tips of the Quarter
Your Success Stories
Funny Shit
The Proud Report – How MDI Utilizes Your Donations
A Team Ritual of the Quarter
Your Organization
Baseball Cards of the MDI Core Team
Leading from the Back – A President’s Vision
Checking Out – Leaving You With a Quote
why you are not a leader
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If you think you’re a leader, but haven’t been recognized as such, you have a problem. Either you’re incorrect in your self-assessment, or those you report to don’t recognize your talent. Here’s the good news; handled correctly, either scenario can be resolved if you’re willing to do some work.
Here are 10 things that you are doing wrong that you should correct right awa... click here to go to article >> |
pay it forward
a photo journal of acts of kindness and generosity
courtesy of ford
31 characteristics of leadership
andrew carnegie's guide to great leadership
Napolean Hill, author of "Think and Grow Rich" considered the turning point in his life to have occurred in the year 1908 with his assignment, as part of a series of articles about famous and successful men, to interview the industrialist Andrew Carnegie. At the time, Carnegie was one of the most powerful men in the world. Hill discovered that Carnegie believed that the process of success could be outlined in a simple formula that anyone would be able to understand and achieve.
Andrew Carnegie breaks down these 31 qualities that in his words "are capable of development and application by any person of average intelligence."
click here to go to article >>
marine corps leadership traits
Ever wonder what it takes to be a leader in the Marines?
These 14 leadership traits are qualities of thought and action, which if demonstrated in daily activities, help Marines earn the respect, confidence, and loyal cooperation of other Marines. It is extremely important that you understand the meaning of each leadership trait and how to develop it, so you know what goals to set as you work to become a good leader and a good follower.
These 14 leadership traits are qualities of thought and action, which if demonstrated in daily activities, help Marines earn the respect, confidence, and loyal cooperation of other Marines. It is extremely important that you understand the meaning of each leadership trait and how to develop it, so you know what goals to set as you work to become a good leader and a good follower.
click here to go to article >>
support for veterans
If you are a Veteran or know a Veteran in need of assistance, please contact:
Randall Hunt • (310) 864-1182 • [email protected]
• Housing • • Enrollment into VA Health Care • • Mental Health • • DD-214 Request •
• Benefits: Service connected or Non-Service connected pensions •
For those who have an income and are chronically homeless we help with section 8 housing (VASH)
Full Monty StandardsBring the Truth
Honor Commitments Give 100% If It's Not There...Bring It Have Fun Be Supportable Reach Out to Men Support Leadership Honor the Code Honor Confidentiality |
MDI Code of HonorCommitment before Ego
Honor The Truth Respect Confidentiality Keep Your Word Be Three Dimensional Be Prepared Defend Humanity Always be Faithful to the Men Defend the Code Never Engage in Battles with Weaker Opponents Fight only Honorable Battles Earn and Honor Rank Be Humble Embrace all Men Be an Example to Children |
men of mdi
frank strasser - original art
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david andersen pianos
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mark brems - electrifying a porsche 914
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jamie greene - off the couch
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david morgan - the film talk show
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mark lewis - omega 1 comic
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brian kassan - break on through band
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svenn kamm - curse of the shaolin
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jonathan berman - commune |
Dylan Stewart - The mac whisperer
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charlie davis - the mighty echoes |
Blitch vizioli - blitch 66 |
hon. steven cohen - divorce mediation, child custody, marital settlement agreements |
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CONNECTIONS
CONTACTS
Do you know a man who needs a Team or a Weekend? Go to MDISuccess.com
for information on how to get him connected. |
TEAM MEETING SCHEDULE
* Click on Team Leader for Email Link *
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full monty core team
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Division Coordinator XO of Teams XO of Events Division MTP Manager Division S-1, Chief of Staff Division S-2 Growth and Empowerment Manager Division Finance Manager Community Outreach Manager Liaison to the Family of Women Division Sponsorship Manager Editor in Chief of The Bullet |
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your feedback is greatly valued
Do you have a Ritual, Fun & Physical or a site that deserves to be immortalized forever?
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KRISHAN KHALSA
Editor In Chief
