A bit of Agile geekiness

So I am still on the hardly-ever-getting-around-to-blogging-plan, and now that I am taking the time to add something, it is just a geeky comment on an article. How cheap! Still, I can't help but highlight the article I found today.

Background: Like many others, I have been a fan of the Agile Development process for software development in the past. Although imperfect, it seems to approach the needs of both the business owners of a project as well as the developers working to make the project happen. What I have found more intriguing, however, are the opportunities to take principles and practices from the Agile Development methodology and apply them in other areas of business and my life.

I will admit that some parts of the article I am about to link to contradict the whole idea of using Agile ideas outside of the software world, but hey, this is my blog and I can have an opinion here. So I respectfully disagree.

Here is the article: The Decline and Fall of Agile

Like so many things in life, whether it is writing books, running half-marathons, buying houses, etc., the success of the thing is based on the will of the participants to follow through. It isn't skill, talent, smarts, etc, etc. For all the successful people I have met so far in my life the persistant, follow-throughers out-number the skill/talent/smart crowd 10 to 1. Conversely, of all the people I have met (including myself at times) that TALK about achieving a goal but DON'T, I can confidently say 99 out of 100 of them haven't followed through. To be fair I will say that they haven't followed through YET. (I am an optimist.)

How does this relate? If you boil down most of the issues both in this article and the subsequent comments, everyone is complaining a lack of follow-through in one way or another. Even the commentors that mention a lack of training and skill seem to be asking their peers to follow through on pursuing their education. There are a few that just think they are smarter than everyone else, but hey, it is a technical article. What do you expect?

Anyway, those are my thoughts, and I am glad I took the time to share them, even though this doesn't really fit in my blog very well. Deal with it:)

Random Updates

I have a few things to wrap up here, and I am tired, so I will be brief.

Right, that is a lie. I haven't written anything in weeks, and I am bursting with useless things to say, so this will be a very long and drawn out post with many extraneous words, and several run-on sentences, but you never know when I will write again, so go ahead and read the whole thing.

1. Before I left TGN I promised that I would give credit where credit was due. Joy crushed the competition. There I said it. Give her a pat on the back--or leave a congratulations comment if you don't know who she is--because she lost almost 10 pounds in our competition and she is half the size I am.

OK, enough of that, we are moving on to a new plan. That's right, we are collecting commitments to run a half marathon next year. As of today I don't know which one we are going to run, but I know how long it is going to be: half of a marathon. That means really long. Training has already begun (although with my schedule I am falling behind) but our commitment level is extremely high, so I it will happen. If you would like to join this elite group of driven, empowered individuals that have set a course for self-improvement, just reply to this post or email me and I will send you the training schedule (or you can click here). Or you can choose to remain a slob (or continue with your own exercise plan I guess).

WARNING: If you join you will have to report your progress weekly and will be subjected to abusive phone calls if you don't perform. I'm serious.

NOTE: This is not geographically specific. You will, however have to travel to whatever race we choose sometime in Fall 2009.

EPILOGUE: We are just training to complete the race, not win the race. If you have a problem with that I am thumbing my nose at you right now.

2. I have to welcome back a friend and a coworker, James. He was in Iraq until recently, and I want to congratulate him on his safe return and thank him for his service to our country. James: sorry I missed your return by a week or so due to my move, but I'll be in touch. Let me know if you are ever in town.

3. I am one book away from my goal of reading 52 books in 2008. Woot!

4. I have learned a lot of new terms in the last week or so. Here are a few of them: provision, SMDR, WOPR (pronounced wopper) and CAIRS. I just thought I would share.

5. Taryn is the cutest baby ever. Yes, I am biased. So what?

6. We put up our Christmas tree today. Even with all of the other stress gong on, it is always nice to celebrate something for a while.

7. I need to go to Disneyland. Some things never change.

OK, so that is a lot of randomness, but it is something new. I need to post some pictures of our new house, and the family, etc., but that is for another day.

Move Number 18

It has been a while since I have posted, but this time I have a good reason. I am changing jobs, companies and even states. I have lived here for the last 5 years, and it has been an incredible journey that I never could have foreseen. I think that I have matured a lot. I say matured but that is a nice way of saying that I look and feel a whole lot older after my time here. I came to go to school and be able to provide for my family, and I accomplished that goal.


Yet somewhere along the way I lost sight of my goal. Generally that means that the goal doesn't get accomplished, but that wasn't the case. I guess that since my existence here was formed around going to school, I had to finish, but somehow my attention and effort really switched to my career after about my first year of school. It wasn't supposed to be that way of course. I was supposed to get an easy part-time college student job and focus on getting a diploma, but that didn't last long. First of all, it was a flawed plan. I had a family: a wife and three kids. Part-time jobs don't support families. Second, it just isn't in my nature.

So after a year of struggling and depleting our savings from my pre-college career, I got serious about my job, and school slowly slipped from my priority list. I kept going, because I had committed to it and commitment is a part of who I am (go ahead and laugh), but my focus was on succeeding at work. Now I am leaving that job, which became an all-consuming factor in my life, and on my way out of the door I am realizing a few things.


1. I will never know what I don't know, so I had better watch out for it.
2. All I can do is my best and sometimes that just isn't good enough. And that is OK. I'll live.
3. School is over. In every aspect. It is time to get to work.


So with that knowledge I am approaching a new career in a new industry. I am going to do my best, and maybe it will work out great and I will make lots of money, etc., etc. or maybe I will fail and life will suck and I will have to do something else. It is both exciting and a bit daunting, but either way, I will live. There are things in my control that I have to take care of: spiritual matters, family concerns, expenditures in their many forms. But the rest will come and go. Good times and bad. Plentiful and scarce. And I think I am OK with that.


Am I ready to move on? Yes, it is time. Am I sad to go? Yes, I am. It is another chapter of my life closing, an unexpected chapter maybe, but a chapter I will label with the word "college" and stick on the shelf. What is next? Well, I have a family to provide for and raise, and I still haven't completely ignored the possibility of an MBA, despite my less-than-exciting GMAT score. We will see what the future holds, and I hope that you (who bothered to read my personal ramblings on my blog) are there with me.

Politics, one more time

So last month I got into a few political discussions, which were fun and informative, but the topic kind of dried up at that point in time. Even though I haven't posted about it lately, I have still struggled with the "political" question. Well, now I have done my homework and wanted to share my opinion with everyone. Why? Because that is what blogs are for. Opinion-sharing.

President of the United States:

Bob Barr - Libertarian
I was torn between Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin (Constitution party). They are both more to my level of conservatism, but Barr supports a few too many social liberties for my liking and Baldwin has this opinion that Lincoln was a crappy president and that the South should have been allowed to secede. In the end I am going with Barr. He has been in the House of Representatives, and so at least comes close to the type of experience needed to be president, which can be hard to find among third party candidates.

U.S. Representative District 3 - Jim Noorlander - Constitution Party

Governor - Jon Huntsman - Republican

Attorney General - Mark Shurtleff - Republican

State Auditor - Clare Collard - Democrat (she was the only one with a website. I figure that if the other candidates--even the incumbent--didn't care enough to throw a simple web page out there, then give the job to the one who wants it.)

State Treasurer - Richard Ellis - Republican

State Senate District 16 - Radene Hatfield - Democrat (she automatically gets the vote for attempting to tell me why I should vote. Oh, and she never yelled at a pizza delivery person that I know of.)

Representative District 64 - Becky Lockhart - Republican (she went to my wife's scrapbooking party when no one else did. That is also good for a vote.)

The judges (there is a whole list of them and I am supposed to say whether or not to keep them) - Yes to all of them. I looked at their annual report and they all had like 90% or better responses in the extremely satisfied section. Good enough for me I guess.

State School Board District 13 - Neither - I don't have enough information about either candidate and I don't use the public school system and I am leaving Utah within the next few years (at least).

Constitutional Amendments A-D - Yes

Constitutional Amendment E - Yes, but this was harder. Should we invest public funds in private enterprise, even if on a very small scale? In the current economy? I admit that the thought of the corruptive possibilities make me weak in the knees, but in the end, my belief is in the people, not the government, so it is a yes.

Commission Seat C - Not Voting - there is only one candidate. Basically I figure that he can elect himself.

Well, there you have it. My cards are on the table. Now I urge all of you to vote for the same people I voted for. Don't bother with all of that tedious research, just trust me:)

An exercise classic that still makes me laugh every time

Exercise

For Christmas this year my wife purchased me a week of private lessons at the local health club. Though still in great shape from when I was on the varsity chess team in high school, I decided it was a good idea to go ahead and try it.

I called and made reservations with someone named Tanya, who said she is a 26-year-old aerobics instructor and athletic clothing model. My wife seemed very pleased with how enthusiastic I was to get started.

Day 1 - They suggest I keep this "exercise diary" to chart my progress this week.

Started the morning at 6:00 AM. Tough to get up, but worth it when I arrived at the health club and Tanya was waiting for me. She's something of a goddess, with blond hair and a dazzling white smile. She showed me the machines and took my pulse after five minutes on the treadmill. She seemed a little alarmed that it was so high, but I think just standing next to her in that outfit of hers added ten points.

Enjoyed watching the aerobics class. Tanya was very encouraging as I did my sit ups, though my gut was already aching a little from holding it in the whole time I was talking to her. This is going to be GREAT!

Day 2 - Took a whole pot of coffee to get me out the door, but I made it. Tanya had me lie on my back and push this heavy iron bar up into the air. Then she put weights on it, for heaven's sake! Legs were a little wobbly on the treadmill, but I made it the full mile. Her smile made it all worth it. Muscles feel GREAT!!

Day 3 - The only way I can brush my teeth is by laying the tooth brush on the counter and moving my mouth back and forth over it. I am certain that I have developed a hernia in both pectorals. Driving was okay as long as I didn't try to steer. I parked on top of a Volkswagen.

Tanya was a little impatient with me and said my screaming was bothering the other club members. The treadmill hurt my chest so I did the stair monster. Why would anyone invent a machine to simulate an activity rendered obsolete by the invention of elevators? Tanya told me regular exercise would make me live longer. I can't imagine anything worse.

Day 4 - Tanya was waiting for me with her vampire teeth in a full snarl. I can't help it if I was half an hour late, it took me that long just to tie my shoes. She wanted me to lift dumbbells. Not a chance,Tanya. The word "dumb" must be in there for a reason. I hid in the men's room until she sent Lars looking for me. As punishment she made me try the rowing machine. It sank.

Day 5 - I hate Tanya more than any human being has ever hated any other human being in the history of the world. If there was any part of my body not in extreme pain I would hit her with it. She thought it would be a good idea to work on my triceps. Well I have news for you Tanya, I don't have triceps. And if you don't want dents in the floor don't hand me any barbells. I refuse to accept responsibility for the damage, YOU went to sadist school, YOU are to blame. The treadmill flung me back into a science teacher, which hurt like crazy. Why couldn't it have been someone softer, like a music teacher, or social studies?

Day 6 - Got Tanya's message on my answering machine, wondering where I am. I lacked the strength to use the TV remote so I watched eleven straight hours of the weather channel

Day 7 - Well, that's the week. Thank God that's over. Maybe next time my wife will give me something a little more fun, like a free upper-colon exam or gum surgery.

Week 2 results

So things have been really busy, but I have to post about yesterday. Joy pulled out a narrow victory by .1%!! I, unfortunately, fell off the wagon pretty bad last week. I only ran 3 days, and didn't do any of my other workouts. The only reason I was still in the running at all was because I managed to maintain some semblance of a controlled diet. Joy was victorious by exercising seriously 7 days a week. Dang.

The good news: We have both committed to 3 more weeks of competition. You have to give it time! We are still taking new competitors.

I hope to put out a real post soon. In the meantime, check out Heather's blog for the family updates.

Week 1 followup

Maybe it will be helpful to post what we did so we can learn from each other. I learned from Heather that I just need to get the stomach bug that is going around if I want to bump my numbers.

I ran for 30+ minutes on an eliptical on 5 of the 7 days, kept my diet around 2000 calories +/- did 2 resistance workouts and 1 failed stretching workout.

This week I need to do 30 minutes cardio 7/7 days, resistance 4/7 days and flexibility 3/7 days. Lets see how I do. Oh and continue to try to keep the diet in check. I eat whatever I want up to 2000 calories.

That sounds like a lot of work for 3 pounds. Hopefully I will do better this week.

Week 1

So yesterday was the first weigh in. Sorry for not posting yesterday, but it is never too late to catch up. I lost 1.5% (weight lost / original weight) which is a little short of my 2% goal, but not bad. I just need to push a little harder this week. It was enough to pull out a victory at the office, although this next week will be tough. So chime in and let us know how you did!

The game is on!!!

Okay, so for those of you who said you are going to participate, here is how it goes. Tonight (Tuesday) you have to weigh yourself to set a baseline and then next Tuesday I will do a post and you need to reply to the post with the percentage of weight lost. NO GUESSING OR ROUNDING ALLOWED. This will protect you from having to put actual weight numbers out there. If you don't reply to the post, I will just assume that you are all talk and no action (this is serious, man!). Jillian, you don't have anything to lose, so you can throw whatever you want out there. Or not.

Just for the record, there is one brave soul at work who has agreed to make this more interesting by putting money on the line between the two of us. The one who loses the least has to pay the winner, who lost the most, $5. Then we repeat the following week. Overall I have more weight to lose, so I am going to win:) Any other takers on that deal?

Oh, and another coworker gets to call me "Tubby" until I weigh less than him (like next week) and then I get to use the name on him for the rest of eternity, because he isn't exercising. HA! Take that.

Ok, so on your marks, get set, go!

Im a Loser, just not the Biggest Loser

So I was just talking to a friend at work about the reality show "The Biggest Loser." Now in case anyone is confused, yes I am still morally opposed to reality shows, but this show is different. It is based on people affecting real, lasting life-long changes for the better.

So why write a post about it? For one, I didn't realize I was so into it. I could tell stories about previous contestants and had my own story to add to it. I guess it is almost into the hobby category for me. Weird. Anyway, without realizing it, I told how I was a Loser. I didn't realize it before, but I have a Losing story, so I decided to share it with the world now, just because I can.

I weighed the most I have ever weighed at the end of last year -- 235 lbs. Yep, I just put that most personal number on the internet for all to see. Take that. You may be thinking "He's not a big fatso. Chunky maybe, or thick at times (in more ways than one) but 235?" Yes my friends, it is true. The link to my proof--all of the pictures of me being fat--is here.

That's right, the link doesn't work. One, because I ain't puttin' those pics on the world wide web, and two, because they are no longer accurate. I started watching The Biggest Loser last season and after a couple of hours watching fat people suffer at the hands of two of America's fittest personal trainers, and lose over a hundred pounds in one week collectively, I thought "I could do that!" So I started exercising and keeping track of my exercising and my diet. Each Tuesday night, as the contestants weighed in, I would take a commercial break and step onto my bathroom scale. Some weeks were good, some not so much. But the point is that the show got me to take action.

In the end, my good habits were not permanent. The show ended and so did my record keeping, exercising and calorie-control initiative. I returned to the bottle (of Dr. Pepper) and my sedentary lifestyle. What did last is the result. I lost 25 lbs. in that time, and I have maintained at 210 for almost a year. No, I'm not "healthy" and I am probably in as bad a shape as ever, but there were results, and I am thankful for that.

So now a new season has begun, and I have been watching. It is time for me to get back up off of the couch and make another run at it. My goal is to be 180 in 2009. (Pretty brave to write my goal down like that, huh? It means that I have to do it or you have the right to humiliate me later.) I believe in baby steps, so I am shooting to be 200 by Christmas, 190 by 2/1/09 and 180 by my birthday in March. Anyone want to join me? It doesn't count until you have set concrete goals in a reply to this post (you don't have to share personal numbers however:)). I predict zero participants, mostly because I only have 2.5 readers, and all 2.5 of those people are probably too smart to share the goals like I just did. Or maybe you are already in shape. I will accept any goal in lieu of weight loss in that scenario. Go ahead I dare you.

Finally, I will end with one caveat. I like TBL as a show. It is much more uplifting than most of the other crap on TV, but they have caved into making it a big emotional blubber fest for half the show to get people more emotionally involved. Now I'm not saying that it isn't an emotionally trying time for the contestants, I just don't want to watch it. So I record it with my DVR (which is the greatest thing since sliced bread) and skip the commercials and crying-people parts. It is just better that way.

The Cab Driver Goes to Heaven

A cab driver reaches the Pearly Gates and announces his presence to St. Peter, who looks him up in his Big Book. Upon reading the entry for the cabbie, St. Peter invites him to pick up a silk robe and a golden staff and to proceed into Heaven.

A preacher is next in line behind the cabby and has been watching these proceedings with interest. He announces himself to St. Peter. Upon scanning the preacher's entry in the Big Book, St. Peter furrows his brow and says, "Okay, we'll let you in, but take that cloth robe and wooden staff."

The preacher is astonished and replies, "But I am a man of the cloth. You gave that cab driver a gold staff and a silk robe. Surely I rate higher than a cabbie."

St. Peter responded matter-of-factly: "This is heaven and up here, we are interested in results. When you preached, people slept. When the cabbie drove his taxi, people prayed."

Funny stuff

So I have decided to use my blog to aggregate stuff that I don't know where else to keep. My last post was a memory that I wanted to preserve. This one is much less noble: A joke. Rather than spam the world with it, I will post it here for present and future visitors to enjoy.

Now, yes, this one was emailed to me (courtesy of my dad), but it is funny. I'll try not to do this too often, but often enough to have a good list of jokes when I am done.



UPS Airlines

Just in case you need a laugh:
Remember it takes a college degree to fly a plane, but only a high school diploma to fix one; a reassurance to those of us who fly routinely in our jobs.
After every flight, UPS pilots fill out a form, called a 'gripe sheet,' which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics corrects the problems, document their repairs on the form, and then pilots review the gripe sheets before the next flight.

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way,UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.
P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.
*
P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.
*
P: Something loose in cockpit
S: Something tightened in cockpit
*
P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.
*
P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute
Descent
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.
*
P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.
*
P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.
*
P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.
*
P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.
*
P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you' re right.
*
P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search
*
P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.
*
P:Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.
*
P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.
*
And the best one for last
*
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from the midget..

Family Reading Time

I just had a fond memory, and I thought, "I should write that down somewhere." This seemed like the best place to do that, so here I am. It is kind of mushy, especially as a follow-up to a response to an article about Google, so beware.

When I was little, I remember my mom reading to me all the time. Even well after the time when I could read myself, we would lie on her bed and she would read to my sister and I. I don't actually remember what she read, although I do remember that there were chapter books that would take days to finish, but I always thought that that was fun, and now that I look back on it, I think it helped me relax at night. I have a serious problem of not being able to go to sleep because my mind gets caught up on one topic or another. I also remember visiting my parents a year or two after getting married, and walking in to find my mom reading to my sister who was like a junior or senior in high school at the time. It may sound a little silly, but I think it just shows that reading is important in my family.

Recently I thought that I should read to my boys, and so when we were at the library I picked up a smaller kids chapter book (Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, it is a classic) and we spent a couple of nights reading it. It was fun for the boys, and although it did seem like one more thing to do at night, it was fun for me as well.

Anyway, that is my thought for the day, and now it is recorded for my posterity, yadda yadda yadda. If any of my siblings read this, I would be interested to know if you have any similar memories. Mom, if you want to validate or refute any facts here, feel free. We all tend to remember history the way we want to.

Do you fear the Googleplex?

So you have to read this article about Google's rise to domination.

I think they really hit the nail on the head. We are head to a web-centric world, and Google is at the wheel with the accelerator slammed against the floor. And what are to do about it? What can we do? For me personally, so far I have embraced it.

Why would I do that? Google's products are free and meet my needs. It is that simple, and isn't that what we all dreamed of for the Internet from day one? Free tools to make our lives easier and our businesses cheaper to run? What I don't think anyone envisioned was one massive for-profit company out there making it all happen under one roof.

I admit that is a little scary, but I have a growing number of google docs, I love my iGoogle page and I will admit that Msoft and friends don't find what I want to find on the Internet anywhere near as well as the big G.

So what are your thoughts? Should we start fighting this teenage giant now before it grows up and squashes us all? Or should we blissfully kiss Microsoft goodbye and cling to our new Big Brother?

Number 17 is down, now for 18

The move is more or less complete. Yes, there are still a few items at the other place, maybe even enough for a couple of loads, but the lion's share is here with us in the new old house (old new house?) It is true that with a larger family with older kids, we have a lot more stuff and so moving is more painful. That is just how it is I guess. I'm not getting any younger and the couches, armoires, dressers and bookshelves aren't getting any lighter.

So all that is left is to start planning move number 18. I don't like to move, and I don't want to move again, but recent events have convinced me that our wandering days are not quite over yet. The end is near, I can tell that much, but I am not going to lie and say that I think we will be here very long.

*sigh*

I'd better get some rest.

The scariest news I heard today . . .

Since I was sick of Weird Al--Collin's new favorite CD--I was flipping through the radio stations on the way to work and I ran across an NPR news station and paused to hear what I thought was the scariest news of the day. Lloyds of London, a huge bank in the UK is buying out the Bank of Scotland (HBOS) making it the largest holder of mortgages in the UK, holding a full 1/3 of all UK home loans. Now, I don't have anything against mergers or acquisitions, in fact they play an important part in contemporary business strategy. So we does this one freak me out? Well, we don't seem to be learning from our mistakes.

Why did Fannie and Freddie pose such a significant risk to the economy? They own almost all US mortgages. Now Lloyds finds themselves in a similar situation. To paraphrase the reporter, she said that "under normal times the UK government would never have signed off on this merger, but these aren't normal times." She continued on to report that the government in the UK even stepped in to help the parties come together, to help the deal go through. It is seen as a short-term fix to a problem, but to me it screams of a long-term problem in the future of gigantic proportions. Really, don't these guys read the news? You want to insulate your economy from giants collapsing? Don't let your giants get too big. Sure, help HBOS find a buyer, but don't set up a bigger collapse.

US tax payers will be bearing the burden of Fannie, Freddie, Lehman and others for years to come. I guess our friends in the UK just feel like they are missing out.

Here is a summary of the transaction from Bloomsberg:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aACIIha0JBvE

More Politics . . .

Ok, so I have given up trying to merge the email and blog conversations, however, I am going to post my responses. I will keep my correspondants' thoughts private.

I don't think I am waiting for a perfect election or candidate. And I realize that our system is not perfect. My concern is that perhaps the system, election or candidate may not at all represent the values I want to represent. And yes, I think there are single issues that make the situation a no-go for me. For instance, if I had no other experience or history about Pres. Clinton, I would say that I absolutely do not want him as a president because he is an adulterer. I am not saying that he can't work out his own forgiveness or whatever else, but to me that rules him out as a leader of this country. Obviously millions of people disagreed with me, but that is just an example.

Every BYU undergrad student has to take a class called American Heritage, and it is generally taken your freshman year. They approached questions like mine in an auditorium setting and I remember the day they talked about the importance and role the two-party system played in our politics. They also showed videos of "democratic" proceedings in new democracies where the representatives ended up in fistfights in meetings and how the smallest percentage of the population could control the entire country. So I am not offering that as a solution. The BYU answer was that when either party strayed from its constituents, a third party would form and grow until it was big enough to get the respect of the larger party and pull it back the direction the constituents wanted, be it right or left.

That is one of those ideas that looks good on paper, but I don't know if it works in real life. What I see is a lot of people that go along with their party no matter what. It is almost a religious matter for some. If the people aren't keeping the party honest, then what keeps the party from controlling the people? And in either case, what keeps the party upper-crust from pre-selecting candidates? If the candidates are pre-chosen then why do we vote?

Don't get me wrong, I believe in democracy. I want to have a say in how the country is run. Right now I don't think I have a chance for meaningful input because I don't know who I am voting for. I don't trust the media. They have their own agendas from profits to political ties. I don't trust the campaigns, as they are obviously dis-incentivized to give objective information. As I have shared with some of you before, I took a marketing class where they showed how the public is manipulated in every election not by charismatic candidates, but by master marketers that control the emotions of the masses.

I think this is similar to economics. One of the few things I learned in my econ classes was that there is one big all-encompassing caveat to every theory held in the field of economics (at least that they taught me.) All of the equations, graphs, etc depended on the consumer having perfect knowledge of the product. Without that, there was no telling what the fickle consumer might do. How can I vote when I am constantly being fed skewed data?

For example, lets go back to Rush's website. Take a look around for about 30 seconds. just take in a few headlines, get the flavor of it. Then go to Micheal Moore's website and do the same. Do you see the similarity in writing style, design, etc.? Each trying to be a little funny while seriously attacking the opponent and defending their side. Granted, I like the content on Rush's website a lot more as a conservative, but that type of content does not inspire trust. Realistically, if one side can lie, why can't the other?

About our armed forces, I have a lot of respect for them, and I respect and feel gratitude for what they do. They allow us to have discussions like this. However, it seems to me that to vote just to vote is not honoring their sacrifice. If I risked my life to defend someones right to vote I would hope that they thought about what they were doing, and didn't just vote for someone because the guy on the radio or TV said they were good, or because they attended the right convention.

An obvious comment: It hasn't come up yet, so I'll bring it up. One strategy we can and should employ as church members is to pray and ask for wisdom and guidance in choosing who we vote for. This is a good plan. When Joseph Smith prayed with a similar question, asking which church to join (casting a vote through attendance perhaps?) he was told that he should attend none of them. He wasn't told that he should exercise his religious freedom by joining the one that was closest to the truth, but he was told to hold out and do what was necessary to promote the real truth. Do you think this is a possible answer in my situation (without meaning to sound presumptuous, of course)? That it might be better to not vote and continue studying the problem until I have a solution?

A parting thought to muddy the waters just a little more: We haven't mentioned it yet, but should it matter that no matter how I vote, or whether or not I vote, McCain is going to win Utah? I mean doesn't make the whole thing a little pointless?

As always, great conversation. This is very enlightening. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

(Nate, I read your comment. All I would add to the above is that my ego is apparent in my haughty expressions, sexy Walmart wardrobe and witty golf-course banter. Sorry, this is just a sincere question ;-) )

Your chance to influence an Undecided vote in the next election . . .

--OK, so the political discussion has continued outside of the blog via email, and once again I am going to try to merge them. I am interested in getting lots of varied input, so we will see how this goes. Here is my most recent email response.


So I have to admit that I don't feel like anyone has answered the real question here. I agree that politics have changed over the last 20 years, and even more so in the last 100 years, but I wonder if the situation has changed and rather than address the change we are just making up reasons to avoid change.

So to avoid ambiguity, I will restate one of my main questions:

How is it OK to vote for someone who doesn't share your values, therefore not representing your interests?

More of my thoughts to flesh out the question:

Isn't that the basis of democracy? Are we really "participating" in democracy when we vote for one of two options even though we don't believe either represents our interests? What if there is a conspiracy out there, and they own both candidates? Are you going to feel good when you leave the polls having just put your vote with the "less evil" candidate? To use a sports analogy, in the end it doesn't matter if you lose by 2 points or 20 points, either way you lose. Pres. Bush isn't a hero right now, and Dad mentions some questionable ties in his background, (which I heard about during the last race btw), but I certainly don't think things would have been any better had Gore won the last go-round. In short, we were all hosed before the election even happened, many people knew we were hosed, but our current form of democracy didn't offer us any solution to the problem. I think we are in the same boat this time. Being in the most conservative state in the nation, you think I would have heard good things about McCain during the primaries, but I did not hear one positive thing about him at that point in time. And now all of those critics are telling me to vote for him, making them hypocrites in my mind.

Now for my opinion (OK, this is all my opinion, but I wanted a new section):

I think we need to change as a nation to survive as a democracy. We may call it a democracy, but names change. Isn't it true that the "democrats" used to be the conservative party? I think the bad guys, whoever they are, are changing the definition of democracy in this country. They can use the same words, the same rallying cries that our predecessors used, but be supporting completely different ideals.

The current voting scenario is like going to Walmart. You only have two options on most products: The leading name brand for that product and the store brand. We need to either change our parties to make sure that we are getting a choice that we want to vote for or we need to change the system.

My solution:

I don't have one. I would like to develop a solution that at least gives me a direction on voting day, but I'm not there yet. So what do I do? First, I abstain. I am not convinced that voting for the sake of voting isn't doing more harm than good, so unless I have a specific candidate I believe in, voting day is just like any other day. Second, I keep bringing this discussion up with anyone who will discuss it with me. I annoy family members with active discussion. Whatever it takes. What I don't do: Listen to Rush. If there is a world-wide conspiracy that owns presidential candidates, financial institutions, etc., then I certainly am not going to get out from under their umbrella by listening to a nationally syndicated radio personality. Especially one that is voting for McCain (ie, not fixing the problem I see in the system). Just to be fair I just visited [Limbaugh's] website and it is so full of one-sided spin that it is comical. I got nothing of value. I might as well listen to all of the democrats on NPR (our buddy Garrison Keillor, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, etc.)

Opening the floor . . .

So here is your chance to influence my political views. Go ahead, let me have it. Tell me why I am crazy, wrong, stubborn, or whatever. I'm not saying I will agree, but I am listening:)

What is your Big Bang theory? Or theory on the Big Bang?

So I have been trading a few emails with family members (mostly Jeff because he is the only one who talks to me) about politics, life, and now a current event. I think it is both interesting and fun, so I decided to put it to a larger audience. Plus, the email thing gets annoying after a while. This is what blogs are for.

Here was my jab this morning to get things rolling:

Since yesterday's conversation was so interesting, what do you think about this article that came out today?


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24748826/

Of course, I am referring to the Big Bang machine doo-hickey that they plugged in over in Switzerland. Here was the one and only response I got. (Sorry for making your email public.)

Okay, you want to get the day started with a Bang (pun intentional) ! I mean a really Big Bang...get it...
Were you wanting to discuss the quantum physics of this machine, or the fact that every stinking article in the news for the next two months has a political spin going on? Not to mention the fine print saying the US is still in the lead, they are only Fear Mongering to the crowds that the title could be lost at some future point due to a lack of money. It is funny how this could sound like a less fortunate individual living in the projects in Philly (or anywhere) whining that all of their problems in life come from the government not greasing their wheels...


Now that it is getting interesting, here is my response. Feel free to comment from here.


HA! Yep, this is a good way to start the day.

I did think it had a spin to it. I was amazed that the US Government kicked in $531 million to the Euro project, but that they were whining about losing a $91 million budget in a time of war. At the same time, I think it is obvious that the US is losing dominance in a number of areas (maybe you don't think so?)

So, my question is this: Do you think it is important that the US continues to be an unquestioned world power, or should we be looking at things as a world-community?

Things to consider: military and political threats, linked economies, lack of national self-sufficiency, the affects of isolationism on your own lifestyle, the affects of globalization on your future.

Lets hear what you think. Don't worry, no one reads my blog but you and me.

It is all about the shadow

This is my first posting from my phone. i don't know why i haven't blogged about my phone before, but It has made all of my wildest dreams come true. more or less.

anyway, i can surf the internet, play games, take pictures and movies, check my work email... the list actually doesn't end. So here I am in the emergency room, AGAIN, with Collin who got crap in his eyes, AGAIN, but this time the whole world (ie the internet) is at my fingertips. This is awesome.

Football, Life, and Roots

I like sports. I just do. I am not a big sports fanatic, and I never feel like I have the time to follow a team for a whole season (except for the Diamondbacks in ’99 when they won the World Series), but I enjoy it when I can. I like playing sports, but similar to watching them I never seem to be available to play when people I know are playing. Obviously I need to practice better time management. That aside, I can honestly say that I have never been as excited for college football season as I am this season.

Last week we had family in town and I got to go to the BYU home opener against Northern Iowa. It should have been a blow-out from the first quarter, but for some reason the Cougs couldn’t get around to really finishing them off until the fourth quarter, and the 41-17 score doesn’t tell the story of the fumbles and long running plays that kept the game close until the last 12 minutes or so. It wasn’t the best game I have ever watched, but there was something perfect about being there, packed into my 18” square assigned space like a sardine and getting baked by the late summer sun. Honestly I couldn’t figure out what it was, but I enjoyed the game from the minute I walked up to the stadium to the minute I got into the car to go home.

Later it hit me as I reviewed the schedule and was lamenting my lack of tickets to the Homecoming Game vs New Mexico. I realized that I haven’t missed a BYU Homecoming game since I have lived in Utah. That is 4 years in a row, and now in the 5th year the tradition will be broken. The truth is that for a lot of reasons I like living here, and BYU, be it Football, Basketball, Volleyball, you name it, is a part of living here for me. I love a good football game as much as the next guy, but BYU Football is different. It is a part of where I live, and now it is a part of my history.

So as I am typing this I realized something else. Something awful has happened. I knew it would happen someday, but I always expected to have more say in the matter. It was supposed to be part of a master plan or something.

I have put down roots. Dang.

Oh well. We’ll see how that goes in the long run. Until then, Go Cougars!

All kinds of fun

We had a great time on our vacation. I say "we" in reference to me and the boys. Heather got sick and so we sent her and Taryn home early to rest while we had fun without them. That is just our life. I just wanted to share a few pictures (and a video I think!) of our trip.

The Disney Syndrome

Well, it has been around 10 months since I went to Disneyland last, but it feels like 10 years. Now that some time has past, I thought I would try to make sense of my... hrmm... preocupation with it.

I have decided that it is largely attitude. I have been playing around with Windows Movie Maker, and made a video of our first Disney trip. We took a lot of video that first time, and it is interesting in those videos how many times we mention that we need to go on vacation more. Prior to that we hadn't really done a family vacation. There were trips as well as the odd adventure here and there, but there weren't really any planned out vacations where we could go and spend time as a family and yet relax.

Disneyland gave us a vacation in the unique way that only Disney can, and I think that that is irreplaceable in many ways, but I have finally found that I can go on other vacations. Of course, if I had the option it would be Disney every time, but I think that I have come to the point where I can go on "vacation" without the Mouse. We are currently planning a 3-day trip within an hour of our house, and I am really looking forward to it. Here are the keys to a great family vacation (for me--no guarantees for anyone else):

1. Location--It can't be at home. Home is where the heart is, but it is also where the computer is, the phone is, the TV is, the boys' friends are, etc, etc, etc. We have to leave all that behind.
2. Activities--I still haven't figured out how to enjoy going somewhere, say the beach, and just sit there. I need a plan, an activity, an itinerary !! (Yeah for itineraries!) Not to mention the boys need to be active or else they are unbearable and the vacation is a failure.
3. Life's details taken care of. Growing up, all of our vacations involved camping. I like camping ok, and it can be a lot of fun sometimes, but more and more as a parent camping is a lot of work, and that extra overhead pushes camping out of the vacation category for me. It can have its own category, but until the boys are older and can help more, it is out. As you can imagine this gets expensive, but I don't know that it can be helped at this point. I prefer that someone else makes my meals and my bed, and I prefer not to have to clean up the messy room when we are done. We just pack up the stuff and leave. That is nice.

Well, those are my thoughts on vacations. I need to post some pictures again, but that wil be for another time.

An Unexpected Graduation Day

In the past I have told people how lucky I am that I get to work with my friends. I am not an emotional kind of guy, so this doesn't equate to any sort of HR concern; for me it is simply caring about people as individuals. Some of you are already laughing at me, thinking that that is a given, but I should point out that this does not come naturally to me, rather it is something I learned from a previous boss, and I think it is missing in a lot of cases. I guess the main difference is that when I am away from the office, and a story or something comes up with someone from work in it, even if they report to me, in the story they aren't my coworker, they are just a friend. And I like that.

I don't know if I am explaining this well. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because this week I had to say goodbye to 3 friends who are changing jobs all at once. They aren't leaving together, since they are going all different directions, but the timing was incredible. One at a time would be bad enough, but all at once... And they weren't just any random three people, we are talking years of experience working closely together from building cubicles to pulling all-nighters to get projects done, etc. They represent the last of the "old team" and now I am about the only one from the good ol' days.

Anyway, although I understand the situation, which I am cool with BTW, it has still been sad. This is a first for me, professionally speaking, but I was trying to put my finger on why it felt familiar, and then I realized what it was like.

It is like graduation. Most of your friends will still be around for a while, but after graduation day, the guaranteed day-in, day-out interactions will be gone. Sure, there is the stuff you do for fun, but now everyone is going to get jobs and sooner or later they are going to move away for work or school or whatever. So from a practical standpoint, graduation is when it is over.

Yeah, so I felt like blogging about it. And I just did. If you three are reading this, I wish you well, and I fully expect you all to keep in touch.

I thought I swore off of the journal-type postings, but apparently not so much. I will just have to blog more for the next couple of weeks to bury this one down in the history;)

On the move . . .

So we are contemplating yet another move. We have been married 10 years, and it feels like we have moved about every 5 minutes. Actually, just for fun I got Heather to help me write up a list of all of our moves so I can confidently say what move this one will be. It was amazing. This will be move number 17.

For those of you who don't believe me, here is a list of the moves. I am doing my best to make this web-friendly by keeping things vague to those of you who don't know us, and obvious to those who do. Easier said than done.

1. Married and moved to Mesa
2. Moved back to Prescott (Hozoni)
3. Country Club Circle
4. Harlequin in PV
5. 1968 Doublewide in PV(that was a winner)
6. Campbell in Prescott
7. Cory and the dead Pine Tree (Prescott)
8. Back to Hozoni
9. Thelma in PV
10. Sioux in Chino(this was both a low point and a high point at the same time.)
11. Little House in Provo
12. Apt #1 in Provo
13. Apt #2 in Provo
14. Back to the little house
15. Blue house on the hill
16. House with many Stairs

And now for number 17. It gets harder every time, but I don't fear it like some people. Yes, it is a lot of work, but it is just that, work. We have also been lucky in the past to get a lot of help from family and friends and that really makes a difference too, but it is important to not let it be an emotional event. It is a job like mowing a lawn, chopping wood, changing a diaper . . . I could list a lot of unpleasant jobs here. Anyway, I thought that was interesting.

Maybe I will do a real post later.

This is a new posting. Yeah.

So I haven't written a post in a long time, and frankly, I don't have time to do this one, really. However, I am tired of seeing the same thing on my blog, so I thought that I would say a few things, post a few pictures, etc.



Obviously, the pictures are just random, pulled from the past few months.



Only 2 hospital visits in this time period. That is a success.



It has been 8 months, 7 days since I was in Disneyland. Crap.

That is all I have to say. At least this is something new.

NARA II at NARA II

So I spent a couple of days in the Washington D.C. area again this week. It was a training/general followup visit, and as always it was tremendously helpful to be out here on the ground. As before I won't get into the business details of the trip, but I do want to share a few stories I picked up at NARA (National Archives and Records Administration). NARA really is a fabulous place because even if you are not really into history (me) you run into stuff that is so cool and so real that history kind of comes alive. So here are a few stories and pictures from my week. DISCLAIMER: These are all unofficial comments and pictures and not NARA publications. I tried to remember in most situations to ask before taking pictures, but overall I am surprised and pleased that NARA is generally not opposed to photography.



The Stacks. Most records are stored in controlled, but not entirely unusual rooms referred to as The Stacks. This concept made a lot more sense to me when I toured the American Antiquarian Society, as there were a number of large stacks of documents, but at NARA the room I got to go in was just a big room with really cool moving shelves. Each shelf was full of boxes of documents with labels saying what was in them. Since this is just my blog, I don't feel bad about saying that I am EXTREMELY disappointed in NARA's organization. Even in our company we have the ability to track a book or box of documents to the exact room and shelf where they are. Nara has no such system. They can't query a database and tell you where a certain set of records are. The best they can do is teach their people how the system SHOULD work and then turn them loose to find customer requests. What an opportunity lost. Ok, that was my disappointment for the trip. The rest of this is about the cool things NARA has and does.



So this is a facsimile copy of the Declaration of Independence. We only peeked, so I just stuck my camera in and shot the best picture I could get. It was cool. I don't know if you can read it, but at the bottom of the page protruding from beneath the top document is the signature of William Ellery. He was one of the signers of the Declaration, and I hear that there is an awesome exhibit about him in Philadelphia. Just something else to add to the list of things to do if you are ever in Philly.

This is obviously a shot of Abraham Lincoln's signature, pulled from a handwritten letter that was hundreds of years old and in remarkable condition.
The conservationist was able to fold it an unfold it like it was yesterday's newspaper. I learned that the difference was the quality of the paper, and that there are paper quality standards even today for any official document that comes from the White House. They want those documents to last.

Now this is one of my favorite stories. I guess that during World War II there were a handful (6?) German saboteurs that secretly landed at different site on the Eastern shore of the US. They came ashore in German uniforms, but immediately changed into American duds and buried their belongings in the beach. They were soon found out and caught, and the US government went back and dug up their stuff for proof to the world as to what happened. Everything found that belonged to those men was preserved, and this picture is of some of their personal clothing. There was a whole stack of boxes of this stuff, but we just got to look into the top one. The weird perspective of the picture is because I had to hold my camera over my head to get a decent shot. Sorry. On a different table they were piecing together a newspaper from 1943 (or was it 42? I don't remember) that had also been among their belongings. You might be wondering why these items were at the archives instead of a museum, and for that I will give the best description of NARA's purpose that I can, although it will be inadequate.

So all of our government agencies are out there producing documents. Those documents, or at least some of them, need to be preserved for either a set period of time or indefinitely. So the National Archives and Records Administration has the task of taking only the most important of those documents after a period of time and having them preserved for long-term use by the public and others. The room I took a picture of above was almost completely dedicated to records from the State Department. I think that only about 5% of all documents that are important enough to be stored by their respective agency are important enough to come to NARA. Right now NARA is over 1 million cubic feet behind in processing all of the newly arrived documents, and as time moves on, more documents come of age and are moved. As I mentioned, NARA is also responsible to see that the public has access to those documents that they are entitled to. Like many other organizations, I get the feeling that they are often struggling to really figure out the best way to implement new technology in their situation. The inventory control issue mentioned above is one such example.

So back to the German invaders: Those items are at NARA because they are evidence that was held by the government, not just cool antiquities. While NARA can not handle all of the issues that might arise out of artifacts such as those, they can handle many of them and being in the D.C. area means that they have all of the experts needed close at hand.

So I also got to visit the vault. This is where even more valuable and rare documents are kept. The door is bigger, heavier and the lock is fancier. I got to see the surrender document of the Japanese in World War II, as well as the birth certificate, final will and other personal papers of Adolf Hitler. Those had been mounted on tough pages and bound into a hardcover book by the British for use in the Nuremberg trials. The book had metal hinges and just a simple "AH" embossed on the cover. After the trials the British government gifted the artifact to the US in show of gratitude for US assistance. Hitler's signature was small and unimpressive, barely bigger than the type on the page. Weird.

Being a Disney nut I was excited to see the Disney company's contribution to the war effort. Their contribution was in the form of two stylized cartoon characters meant to be logos/mascots for various military regiments. They were cool to see (complete with Walt's signature) but they were definitely off limits to my camera. Disney was smart from day one and I don't think he relinquished rights to anything he ever produced. In the the early forties he licensed those images to the government. Brilliant.

So those are a few highlights from my trip. As I said, it was educational, both from a business standpoint and in a personal sense. Being back east makes both history in general more real and our country's heritage more meaningful.

Setting the car on fire -- Do I need a better title than that?

People have asked, and since I don't want to offend either of my readers (you and that other person) I can't help but tell my set-the-car-on-fire story. I can't believe I am publishing this.

So to make myself feel better, I will start out by blaming my wife. She is beautiful, smart and a pretty good cook when she wants to be, but she is the one who left the DVD player on in our van a month ago and sucked the life out of the battery. Of course, by the end you will see that this weak attempt to shift the blame is trash because I more or less prove that the fire and the dead battery aren't related, but for now let's just go with it. It wasn't my fault.

Being a good husband, I hurried home and parked my father-in-law's red Cadillac nice and close to the van, hoping to make quick work of this task. While I haven't spent a lot of time under the hood lately, I am definitely experienced at using jumper cables, and so I popped both hoods and hooked the cables up. No, there weren't any sparks. I had parked so close that I had to turn sideways to slide between the cars and into the driver's seat of the van. The key turned. The engine started. Still no sparks. Everything was going according to plan.

I slid back out of the driver's seat and back between the cars. I removed the cables. No sparks. I completed the whole process with my bare hands. Nothing but cold metal. I shut the hoods. I turn off the Caddy. I start coiling up my extra-long (and therefore very convenient) jumper cables when I smell something. Something electrical. I turn around and there is a trickle of smoke coming from underneath the hood of the my father-in-law's car. My first thought was that I had let it idle too long and it had overheated or something. I was contemplating this option when the smoke became worse, and I decided I should take a look. I pop the hood. A small orange flame was burning something on the left side of the engine, the same side as the battery, but not really next to the battery. A small (1/4" +/-) pipe was glowing red hot, but I didn't recognize what it was.

So this is where I have no excuse for myself. I panicked. Somewhere I remembered somebody telling me that the fuzzy stuff under the hood was meant to fall off if there was a fire and smother it, thereby saving the engine. Yes, I have been appropriately taunted for this since then, but as I stared at the growing orange flame, right next to a gasoline powered engine, I just wasn't quite thinking clearly. So I slammed the hood shut. This was an internal combustion engine, and I wanted to keep it that way.

Those of you who know me know that I am a deeply caring individual, and the welfare of others is always on the top of my list. Interestingly, since the flame was still burning under the hood I wasn't myself, so instead I acted out of self-interest. I jumped in the van and moved it far away. My thinking was sound. If the Caddy blows up in a huge ball of flame and heat and smoke it would be a bad idea to have our van sitting next to it. I jumped out of the van and ran back to the car and then stopped.

Now that I had acted in self-interest I didn't really have a plan. The smoke was pouring out from under the hood and I was beginning to doubt the hood-liner-smothering-the-fire plan, but I didn't really know what to do. At that point the kids had figured out what was going on and were coming out hoping to watch Grandpa's car burn up. The explosion scenario, unlikely as it was, still seemed possible so I yelled at them to go back inside. They reappear every 30 seconds for the rest of the story, wanting to see some action. Or roast marshmallows. Or both.

Now, years ago, when I was like 7-8 years old, I remember taking a family trip over the mountains in southern California, where the steep grade caused cars to overheat. Along the windy mountain roads were cement "barrels" filled with water to assist the unfortunate travelers whose cars overheated. It was on that trip that my dad explained to me why you never throw water on a hot engine. So as I stood there watching the borrowed car fill our neighborhood with smoke, I knew that water wasn't the answer. I had also learned (as a cub scout) that you should throw baking soda on an oven or grease fire, but I didn't know if (1) that strategy would work on an engine or (2) if we had that much baking soda.

Yes, this whole time I stood there and stared at it.

Heather, being prone to action in emergencies came running out of the garage with a 2 quart pitcher of water. She obviously hadn't been on our family vacation when I was 8.

"What am I supposed to do with that?" I asked.

It wasn't what she said but how she said it that counted.

"Put out the fire. Don't you think it will work?"

Her tone suggested that I didn't know what to do, and that I was just standing there being worthless, both of which were true at the time, which made it worse. Remembering that moment, I think I can relate to Adam's predicament in some very small way. I knew it was wrong, but what else could I do? So I threw the water on the car.

In the end it not only a harmless action, but also incredibly lame. The hood was closed, and thanks to General Motor's excellent hood design, the inadequate amount of water just drained over it without entering the engine comparment, i.e. where the fire was. I stood there holding the empty pitcher feeling stupid while the smoke continued to come. At this point, in my mind, the car was toast. If I didn't put it out somehow that unlikely ball of flame was going to become a reality. Maybe not by explosion, but probably a slow, depressing, consuming fire very close to my home.

Now there was motivation: our house. I ran to the back and grabbed a hose, turned on the water flow and pulled it to the front. I was just about to turn it on the car when there was a muffled pop and fluid leaked out from under the car. I sprayed the car a few times, but now the smoke was lessening, and I got the feeling that if it was going to get more exciting, it would have happened already. I had done everything I could think of, all of which was useless and wrong. The adrenaline from the possiblity of an explosion was gone, so I went inside and called my father-in-law feeling pretty stupid.

He just laughed.

So what will I do next time that I unknowingly set a borrowed car on fire? I will move my car out of the way. After that I will go inside and watch TV. It will be a lot more entertaining (for me), and lot less embarassing, and in the end, just as effective as anything I did in this story.

My Disappearing Booklist

I have said before that I didn't feel like my blog has a purpose. I just can't get excited about maintaining an ongoing "virtual visiting teaching visit" --sorry if that reference offends anyone. My personality (red/blue, Choleric/Melancholy, INTJ, depending which personality classification system you prefer) requires me to always have a purpose of some sort, and so I am looking to do something with this blog to develop a purpose.

So I looked at what I liked best about it, and my hands-down favorite feature was my book list. I love to read, and I like watching the list of links grow as I revisit many of my childhood-favorite reads. Often, as I finish a book, I have thought of adding a quick opinion or perhaps just a synopsis of the story, but either time has never permitted or it didn't seem like the right place for that. Well, I decided that it was time to make a place for it, so I created a new blog: called The Fiction Room. There I will be writing a quick blurb about each book as I read it. I think I will also need to start something similar for the infrequent, but important, selection of business books I pick up. At the very least I will split them up in some way. I would generalize it to The Reading Room, but some smart soul already took that one. While there is a link on this side, you won't see a link back from that site to this one. I have decided to try to keep this one a little more anonymous.

Anyway, that is why my book list is gone and you can click through the link to the right or in this post to see the new site, although I am not under any illusion that anyone found my list interesting besides me. As usual, my initial review happened after midnight, so the quality is not what I would like, but it is a start.

The new site also represents my first attempt at affiliated marketing. Allowing people to purchase books through my site, especially those I read and discuss seems like a good time to try it out. We will see how it goes.

That leaves one large problem: the gaping hole on the side of my blog. I love lists, so it has to be a list. Probably my next favorite list outside of my book list is my Birthday/Christmas list. Ever since I was little I have made extensive lists of wants, and I have found that the fun is in the list. I rarely get anything on my list, but year by year that concerns me less and less for some reason. I just like to keep the list up. I figure that since my birthday just passed, now is a socially acceptable time to post it. Posting a list before my birthday would be construed as a bit materialistic I think.

So there it is. All open to comment and ridicule as always.

So I just shared my story about being a "green" traveler, green as in inexperienced not environmentally concious. However, there has been more to my trip than that, so I thought I would add to the saga a bit.

For one, there was three days of solid work. That isn't much fun though, and I suppose some portion of it is somewhat confidential, so I will move on to the good stuff. Saturday did not have any work related necessities, so we (Jack and I) had the day to go sightseeing. The bus system really hasn't improved from that first day. Generally the bus is late, if it shows up at all, and trying to figure out which bus to take is like trying to find a worm in a bowl of alfredo linguini. They all look the same so you end up just waiting for one to move and then jump on it.

Saturday morning was no different. We stood in the cold morning chatting for about 35 min until the bus showed up. Of course just because it showed up doesn't mean we got to ride it. It went right past us. I suppose he thought that we were standing in the mud under the bus stop sign for half an hour trying to get a tan. Who knows. So we decided to go for a cab instead.

When the cabbie learned that we just wanted to go to the Metro station, I think that he was offended. He certainly wasn't happy. We got in and as far as I could tell he was going the wrong direction. We asked him which station we were going to, and he gave the right answer, I think. I don't know what nationality the guy was, or what school system he had come out of, but we couldn't understand most of what he was saying. When we got to the station the bill was higher than expected, but what do you do? We paid him and got out. Of course later that day we find the route on a map and figure out that he went around the whole university, rather than straight through it to the station. It doubled the trip.

The metro, as predicted, was much more reliable, straight-forward and understandable. We emerged near the Washington monument. It is interesting how my perception of the world has been shaped by the media. I pictured the mall as a big open grassy area with nice paved walkways. That is how it is in the movies. It turns out that there were gravel trails instead of pavement and the grass was little more than a muddy field. In fact it resembles my lawn, which is in a shameful state.


We stopped for pictures by the Washington Monument and then decided to swing out and see the Jefferson Memorial and then around to the Lincoln Memorial. On the way we saw the Holocaust Museum, and since it was on my list of recommended sites, we went in. We didn't come out for 3 hours.

It was a disturbing experience, and in that respect it was totally successful in its purpose. The naivety of the people, the evilness of the Nazis, the desparate situation that came of all of that; it is both almost umbelievable and a constant warning. How a whole society could turn from complacent to wicked in a matter of months, or a few years at the most. How so few were willing to stand up to a bully. How little we remember the few who did stand up to fight. How slow their neighbors were to help out. It could all happen again, too. That is one of the scariest things. It could be happening right now, and most of the world wouldn't even know it. Yikes.

As you can imagine, that put a spin on everything else we saw that day. Our next stop was the Jefferson Memorial, where this country has literally etched in stone the words and ideals that we were founded on. And you can't help but wonder how we failed in those purposes for millions of people. We stopped at the Lincoln Memorial next and saw the words of another leader who fought to end oppresion, and I realized that his cause still exists and has always existed. It is the classic good vs. evil dichotomy that all of us must choose between. Germany chose evil for several decades and look what it has costed them. The U.S. has been on both sides at times, but where are we today?


We walked through the Vietnam Memorial, and it is obvious that it is not easy to know when to be involved and when to let other's have their freedom. We struggle with it within the country on an individual level, so how can we make the right choices on an international basis? It also seems that politicians don't actually help the process. They come with their own desires for power and can steer nations into collision courses almost at will. Where are the benevolent leaders who make moral-based decisions?

And then we had lunch. I had an unsatisfying glorified boloney sandwich while Jack enjoyed a delicious Philly steak and cheese.


We decided to go for something a little lighter and spent most of the rest of the afternoon in the Air and Space Museum. Now that was cool. My boys would love that place, full of rockets, spaceships, airplanes and science. I waffled on whether or not to take in an IMAX movie about flying F18 jets, but my cheap side got the best of me and I skipped it, which was OK. Instead we ran over to the Natural History museum and spent the last 30 minutes running through the displays to see what ever we could.
It was great. There was one photography exhibit that was fantastic that I took some pictures of.
My shots don't do the real ones justice by far, just as a picture of a mummified ox doesn't have the same effect as seeing it does. It was still cool.


We went to China Town for dinner and ate some moderately good Chinese food. I guess that I am as picky as my mother claims if I can call Chinese food from China town moderately good. But it was.

So that was the adventure. Other than another botched attempt at using the bus system, and another cabbie who stiffed us by a couple of bucks, the excitement was pretty much over. Both Jack and I agreed that this would be a great place to bring our families. To my surprise admission was free at all of the museums. My tax dollars are paying for it all so I might as well use them. There is a week of solid entertainment right there. We'll just have to see when the next opportunity arises.

Planes and Buses and Trains, Oh My!

I am enjoying my first visit to Washington DC, and it has been a lot of fun as well as a lot of work. Being fairly new to travel, I think I have a pretty good handle on airports, and after my London experience the subway/tube/underground/metro thing isn't too difficult either. As long as I stick to those I am fine. This trip is a little different because I had to rely on buses to get around. Sure, I could have taken a cab anywhere, but frankly, the taxi ride is another alien form of transportation for me, so I decided to keep costs low and use the buses.

I flew into the Baltimore airport and after collecting my luggage started looking for the bus stop. It was on the way to the bus stop that I realized that I didn't have cash, so I stopped at an ATM and took care of that problem.

One thing that always makes me feel more secure when I am traveling is to have a map. I don't have to actually look at it, I just have to have one on me somewhere, and I feel like I can never get too lost to find my way back. I stopped at an information kiosk and was given a whole pile of paper, some useful, most destined for the trash bins. I was also given some very useful directions. Ride the B30 bus to Greenbelt station and then ride the Metro to College Park, where I should emerge from the Metro station next to the University of Maryland, and I knew that the Archives were next to the U of M and that my hotel was apparently more or less on campus. The bad news: I would need exact change for the bus.

I ended up walking back to a newsstand (next to where I had started) so I could buy an overpriced pack of gum whereby I could have the exact $3.10 I needed to ride the bus. I shoved the changes in my pocket and I started walking back to the bus stop, jingling the quarter and two pennies in my pocket. Wait a minute... My change didn't include the coveted dime I needed. Unlucky for me I was a fast walker and was half way back to the bus stop, which was in another terminal. I walked back to the newsstand and exchanged my quarter for two dimes and nickel and then booked it back to the bus stop. Of course, I just missed the bus. I now was blessed with a half hour wait in the cold.

Forty-five minutes later I was enjoying a rather scenic ride to College Park, rehearsing the directions the information-guy had given me. My maps were in my briefcase, all was well. I get off the bus and follow the herd down into the metro station, where I stopped at one of the machines to get my ticket. I was going to be there for a while, so I was going to get a pass that I could use anywhere. After 3 attempts at getting a pass I was stumped. I was using a company credit card, and I didn't know the zip code that the bill went to. On the fourth try I used my own card and it worked. And I missed the train. Another cold 20 minute wait.

Thirty-five minutes later I got off the train at College Park still cold (it was only a five minute train ride) but feeling a little more confident. Yes, I was delayed, but in the end I had won. Or so I thought. I emerge out of the hole that was the metro station and look around. I don't see anything but a line of buses, a parking structure and trees. Where was the University? It only took me about 10 minutes to decide that I had to ride a bus, and after examining a map and a few schedules I picked one out that went to the University. For those of you who are thinking that I am too stubborn to ask for directions, let me give my rebuttal now. First of all, I was in this mess because of that very strategy. I had done what the guy in the airport had suggested, and that didn't work. Also, from this point on I asked every bus driver I encountered (yes there are several) for help, and in every case I got one of two responses: 1.)"I don't know" 2.) information that turned out to be incorrect. So there.

So with the assurances of my bus driver I climbed on board and settled in a seat where I could see where we were going. After riding for 5 minutes I started to get concerned and after 10 I realized that this bus was not going where I needed it to. I got off at the next stop, which happened to be a 7-11. I went inside to get some more help (bad idea).

After looking at me like I was crazy (A lost white guy towing his luggage in a "rough" neighborhood in Baltimore. Crazy is a good word for that.) they pointed me towards a bus stop down the street. I went and stood next to the sign. The wind had picked up and it was cold.

Fifteen minutes later the bus came. I stepped on board and followed my routine of questioning the driver. "Does this bus go the University of Maryland?"

Another "you are crazy" look. Maybe it was the luggage.

"No. You need to be one more street that way," he said, pointing in the direction that I was calling North at the time.

"Can I just go around this block to get there," I asked with a pointing gesture of my own.

"Yep."

"Thanks."

I got back off the bus and as it drove off I headed around the corner. A couple of houses down it was clear that this was a dead end street. There was a business at the end and I thought that maybe I could cut through their parking lot to get to the other side of the block. That was until the guard dog came from around the corner. He was mad. We discussed it for a couple of seconds and we both decided that I should go back around the block the other direction. I hate mean dogs. They could have at least tied him up on the property.

So I headed back down the street, around the block and found another bus stop in the opposite direction the 7-11 lady had indicated. They should really try to hire better people I thought. As I waited under the new bus sign I thought about what I was doing wrong. Maybe I should stop asking about the University. I decided that I would instead ask to go to the Archives. We had picked our hotel based on the information that it was the closest hotel to the Archives, so if I aimed for that I should have a winner.

Ten minutes later the bus pulls up. Yes, it went to the Archives. I settled into my seat. Fifteen more minutes of riding found us turning into the Archives driveway, only I didn't see the hotel. In fact I didn't see anything but trees. We drove into the property passing three different security stops and finally we stopped at the doors of the archive. This didn't look good, so I decided to question my driver further.

"Is the conference center near here?"

"Yep."

"I didn't see any sign or anything."

"I think it's attached to the archives. It is real close. The guard in there should be able to tell you."

Who was I to argue with a local. So I got off the bus and stepped up to the glass doors as the bus drove away. It was dark now, being close to 7 PM and the wind was still making it feel colder. For some reason the doors were unlocked and I stepped in and smiled at the guard. I believe in making a good impression, no matter what.

He must have thought I was out of my mind, and the smile didn't help my case.

"No," he said slowly, probably trying to make sure I understood, "there isn't a hotel attached to this building. The conference center is to the left on the main road back there."

"So, I just go to the main road and turn left?" My intentions were obvious. He glanced at my luggage, my thin Disney sweatshirt before he responded.

"Yes, just to the left. It is a little far to be walking though."

I thanked him and stepped back out of the doors. Yes, it was cold, and I had luggage, and I didn't really have a clue where I was, but I had already considered the idea of just walking to where I needed to be if I got some straightforward directions, and now I had them. I walked back through the three guard stations and turned left at the main road. It was poorly lit, and the sidewalk even poorer. Clearly the suitcase manufacturer had not designed the wheels with off-roading in mind before they shipped them off to Costco.

Thirty minutes later I walked in the door to my hotel. I smiled at the lady at the desk.

"How was your trip, sir?"

"Fabulous. I got to see a lot of this area."

"Can I help you with anything else?"

"Yeah, do you have a map showing the bus routes around here?"

No, they didn't have a map, and I figured it was just as well. I got settled in my room and started focusing on the rest of my trip.