Memorial Day

I had a pretty good little Memorial Day today. I had to work, but that was my fault for scheduling a business trip without consulting The Queen.

I called my sales agency this morning and found out that Memorial Day is also a holiday in Puerto Rico. We still worked what we had planned for today, but it is funny that all three of us failed to realize it was a holiday when we planned this trip. When we got done with what we had scheduled, they took me out for some authentic Puerto Rican food. We ended up having a plantain soup for the first course, several types of fritters and plantains for an appetizer, mofongos for the meal and sangria during the entire meal.

Restaurante Raices in Caguas, PR makes authentic food that my friends said was what the mountain people ate long ago. I have to admit that there was not a lot of flavor in the food. The sangria was brought to the table in a beat up old aluminum pitcher and we were given little aluminum cups to drink from, kind of like what you think of the California miners using during the gold rush. They were primitive, but they kept the sangria cold.

I ate mofongos from my hotel restaurant when I was here last and they were just ok. The mofongos I had today were much better. They were served in a large wooden cup. The mashed plantains were coating the inside of the cup and the beef was inside with a dried plantain for garnish. The beef just melted in my mouth and the plantains tasted just right.

After eating I headed out on an adventure to find El Yunque, a rain forest in a national park. My rental GPS unit made me do circles for a while before getting me there two hours later. I had time to hike very fast up to a waterfall and back. I hope I got some great photos to show everyone a legitimate rain forest. It was pretty amazing. There was some bamboo, a lot of ferns and a lot of palms mixed in with some other trees and vines. At times i felt like Indiana Jones on a treasure hunt. The waterfall did not compare to those in Yosemite, but not many do.

I drove back to the hotel and took some photos of the view from my balcony, then ended the day with a run on a treadmill and a walk along the rocky coast outside my hotel. Like I said before, it was a nice little Memorial Day.

- Posted from my iPhone

Read more...

Who is Responsible?

The whole rapture thing that was supposed to happen in 1988 or 1994 or last Saturday or this October 21 is absolutely ridiculous. Without even starting the argument of religion and which one is the correct one, it has no basis whatsoever.

Harold Camping is an irresponsible individual who has just been looking to make a name for himself. He has raised a ton of money, all of which comes from people who believe what he preaches. Don't get me started with believing the rantings of a lunatic.

Many people gave their entire life savings and retirement funds to his cause. The money was used to post billboards all over the world. He finally responded on Sunday and stated, "I don't have any responsibility. I don't have any responsibility of anybody's life. I'm only teaching the Bible. I'm simply saying, 'This is what the Bible says.'" He also took no responsibility for what his followers did with their money and possessions stating, "We at Family Radio never tell anyone what [to] do with their possessions. That's totally between them and God."

You must always think about your words, especially if you are a public figure. There will be people who believe what you say with all their heart. You have to be responsible and make sure you are not misleading these people. Obviously Family Radio does not think this way and does not care about the listeners it has.

Read more...

No Excuses

My company has been behind schedule in engineering and production for several years now. Up until recently, we have been able to pull together for the really important projects and complete them close to on time. Things have gotten much worse for about the last six months and I have lost all faith that we can even complete one project on schedule.

Things really came to a boiling point recently when one of our regional sales managers called me out of frustration. He said that he was told one date one day and the very next day he was told that project would be a month late. He was confused as to what changed in that twenty-four hour period. I had to admit that I did not know. I asked around and nobody had a good answer so we decided to have an emergency meeting of department managers to figure out what could be done from this point forward.

I put together a list of fourteen items that I thought should be done to fix the mess. When I handed out the list in the meeting, everyone there was surprised that I had gone through that much trouble. They acted like they were shocked that anyone would put that much time into fixing the problem.

There was a lively discussion in the meeting and the excuses started to fly from everyone. I had to speak up a few times and refocus everyone back on our customers. I explained that there is no good excuse to our customers and the first thing we need to do is stop accepting excuses. Everyone agreed, but the excuses kept flying.

We had a follow-up meeting a few days later and nothing was solved. There were more excuses and not solutions. That meeting wrapped up with them inviting me to their weekly production meetings. I told them that I did not know if I could handle sitting through them if they were like these last two meetings. They asked me to attend again and I agreed.

I have heard rumors about how bad the production meetings are for several years. I attended my first production meeting yesterday and I was not dissappointed. There was excuse after excuse given by everyone in attendance. Nobody wanted to commit to any dates and there were no solutions given to any problem. Everything was done verbally because our production schedule does not track enough items. It was difficult to follow and I asked if the production schedule could be expanded to include more items. I was told that there is another schedule that tracks those items. Someone even volunteered to show me where it was.

I have to admit that my company is in worse shape than I believed it to be. I feel like this is partially my fault for not getting involved earlier. While I have nothing to do with production at all, I am a vital member of the company and one of the leaders of the management team. I can't let things continue down the path we are currently on our the company may not exist in a few years.

Read more...

Our Choice

I downloaded the app "Our Choice" by Al Gore. It is a book that includes full sized photos, interactive charts and videos. I guess then it is more than a book, but you can get a printed version of it.

I absolutely love the idea of this interactive book. I think this is a good example of what all books should be. It is perfect for reading on the iPad.

I started reading it before I even finished "The Art of Non-Conformity." I just could not wait to start it after I downloaded it. I really enjoyed watching "An Inconvenient Truth" so I was excited to read this book. So far I have not been disappointed. I have learned a great deal about what we are doing to the planet and why our weather patterns have started to change so drastically.

We need to stop denying the science and blaming other people and just take responsibility for our actions. The West can be a good example for the rest of the world and we can even satisfy our capitalist needs by creating better alternatives to our current energy sources and industrial practices. The developing world would have no other choice but to follow us or be left behind...again.

Read more...

Perfect Day

I finished reading The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I really liked this book, but I don't know how practical it is for me. I would love to sell all my stuff and just take off to someplace in the world where I could volunteer and help people. I would love to not have to work a "normal" work day. The problem is that I have bills to pay and people to support.

After I finished the book I started thinking about what my perfect day would be. I think it would be great to start my day at eight o'clock in the morning. Wake up and drop Meg off at school. Come home and do some sort of exercise. I would prefer if I lived in the mountains on a lake. It would be great to take a kayak out on the lake every morning. A good jog or hike would also be spectacular in the morning.

After returning home and taking a shower it would then be time to get to work with whatever I would be doing. This is the part that gets a little fuzzy for me. I don't know what I am passionate about. I know that I want to do something that I love so work does not feel like work. I have thought about becoming a professional photographer, but I don't know if that is my passion. I really enjoy it when I am doing it, but I go weeks without picking up my camera. I also don't particluarly enjoy photographing people, but maybe that is because I am not good at posing people.

I would then pick Meg up from school and help her with her homework. At that point I would either do some more work or other projects that I like to do. I would exercise again in the evening after an early dinner and go to bed about midnight.

I know I have a lot of holes to fill in this perfect day, but it is a start.

Read more...