Long Flight Home

I had a lot of time on my long flight back to Los Angeles from Puerto Rico. I read What the Dog Saw for quite a while. I read some magazine articles. I listened to the audio book Tribal Leadership. I even slept for a while. There are not many things to do when you are stuck in a seat for nine hours.

I found the free download link for Tribal Leadership on the Zappos website. I have been interested in Zappos and their CEO Tony Hsieh for some time. I think the he and the company do things differently and it works great. I would love to work for a company with a culture like theirs. Because they offered the free download link, I decided to give it a listen. It does not disappoint.

I got all the way through chapter seven on my flight. It was very interesting information. The authors of the book define 5 tribal stages:

Stage 1 is reserved for criminals or those who exhibit criminal or violent behavior.
Stage 2 is for people who believe that "my lief stinks." This is the dominant culture in twenty-five percent of organizations according to the authors.
Stage 3 is for people who believe "I’m great, and you’re not." An organization that has this stage as the dominant culture is a group of individuals who do not want to share information with coworkers and are out for themselves. It is not all bad though, because these people will out work their competitors. Salesmen are usually stuck in this stage.
Stage 4 is for the people who shift their focus to the group instead of themselves. They no longer believe that "I'm better." They now believe that "we’re better" and that "life is great." This is a big shift and is what makes an organization a great place to work.
Stage 5 is when people believe that "we can make a global impact." The authors of the book say that only two percent of organizations reach this stage and that they often oscillate back-and-forth between stages four and five. Companies that reach stage five are truly great organization.

As I was listening to the description of these stages, I began to identify which departments in my company are at which stage. I think some of the departments are in a mix of two different stages. I even think that you can break it down further and find out which stage each employee is in. I know that there are several people in my company who are stuck in stage three, but the majority of people are in stage two. I think of the people in stage three as being hoarders of information and people who have not necessarily earned respect. They try to do things their own way, but when they need something from you they expect you to drop everything and give them what they need. They are dysfunctional. I think we have a long way to go if we want to be a great company and I don't know if we have the commitment and leadership to change our culture.

I don't know when I am going to have time to finish listening to the audio book, but I need to make time. I even want to buy the book after I am done listening to it. I am also thinking about passing along the audio book to people in my company who I think are ready to listen, learn and try to take us to the next stage. There are only a few that I think are ready.

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Obamacare and the Tea Party

I was watching the morning news this morning as I was getting ready for work. There was a segment about Obama's health care reform plan. I missed part of it, but I think it was talking about people who report medical fraud. It showed a very excited Obama talking about the real opportunity of his health care plan passing. It also showed health care plan supporters protesting somewhere.

The next shots were the Tea Party and the person they were showing called the health care plan Obamacare. Wow, that is very witty. This group seems to be all about fear, hate and clever word play. I have not heard any valid arguments from them as to why the health care plan is a bad thing. They are not original at all.

They chose their name to appear to be patriotic, referring to the Boston Tea Party. That protest happened because the colonies were being taxed heavily and were not represented in the British government. To protest this, they sneaked onto the British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped the tea overboard. They were patriots and were protesting something that was affecting everyone in the colonies in a negative way. The British were taxing the colonies in order to support the government.

This new Tea Party group stole their name from these original patriots and are using the name to try to give their cause some credibility. Groups love to latch onto names and words that give their silly cause credibility. Whenever I hear about groups doing this, I instantly become skeptical of their cause. If there was a reason to be concerned, the group would not need to resort to these tactics.

I don't know why people are against health care reform anyway. Health care costs go up considerably every single year, even when the economy is struggling. The insurance companies increase their plan costs or co-pays and don't increase the service or the items they cover in the plan. That seems to be something similar to taxation without representation if you ask me. That is what the Tea Party should really be concerned with.

Anyone who has spent any time at all going to doctor's offices or hospitals knows that our system is broken. People go to the emergency room all the time for colds and other basic sicknesses because they do not have health insurance. This forces all of us to wait for long periods of time in the emergency room to get care when we have real emergencies. It costs all of us money because the government is left to pay the bill for these uninsured people. This is actually costing us more than reform ever would.

The other problem is the doctors know what the insurance plans will and won't pay for. So they will just run test after test or prescribe medicine in efforts to "try" to solve the issue you are visiting them for. They don't really try to diagnose the problem and come up with a treatment. Instead they just try things until they find something that works. For instance, my Dad was having seizures. His doctor just kept experimenting with medications until he found something that worked. The problem was that my Dad had to go to the hospital several times because the medications were causing him to have really bad seizures. So this medical practice cost the insurance company more money than it should have if the doctor would have just done his job the first time.

Doctors also refuse to communicate with each other. So if your primary doctor refers you to a specialist, many times the specialist will have duplicate tests run on you. This happens either because the doctors are not communicating or because the specialist knows that the insurance will pay for the test to be run again, so they just do it. They are taking advantage of the insurance system for their own personal gain.

Don't get me wrong, I think the good doctors earn their money. I don't believe they are over payed at all. Medical school is a big investment and they deserve to make a lot of money. That is not the problem here at all. The real problem is that the insurance system is broken in a way that does us, the patients, a disservice. We deserve more and that is why I support health care reform.

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Small Stakes at All Pro Pizza

I rushed straight from the airport to All Pro Pizza on Saturday night to catch my brother-in-law's new band, Small Stakes, play their first show in town. They have played other shows out of town on Sunday nights, so this was the first one that we could catch. It was an all ages show, so the whole family went. They played a mix of some of the songs from his previous band and some new songs.

The Queen and I really enjoyed his shows when he was playing with his previous band, The Everyday Theory. I helped them out by making show fliers, taking photos at their shows, producing some of their demo songs, building a band website and designing the packaging for their CD. I had a lot of fun doing this stuff, so I was looking forward to hearing the new band play live.

I have to be honest, I was exhausted. My flight from Puerto Rico was delayed so I ended up getting home about two hours later than I expected. I rushed back to town and went straight to the show without even going home first. The good thing was that pizza and beer were waiting for me there. The show was good and because I travel with my camera, I offered to take some photos. I was really experimenting and had a few shots that turned out great. I made prints and gave them to my brother-in-law's girlfriend last night.

I think the music was too loud for Cheeseball. She kept plugging her ears. There was also a weird older lady dancing and hugging everyone. She kept trying to talk to me, Cheeseball and The Queen all night, but I for one could not understand a word she was saying. She was drunk and might have also been on some harder stuff as well. All in all it was a good night.

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Last Thoughts From Puerto Rico

It was hot and humid. It rained very hard last night and has been drizzling so far this morning. I was told the weather is better in December.

Old San Juan has some history. It is the second oldest city in the Western Hemisphere according to a tour guide. I have not done the research, so I will have to believe her for the time being.

Old San Juan is a tourist trap. Prices for everything are high. They know they can charge the cruise ship passengers high prices. My hotel was not in Old San Juan, but sunscreen was more than eighteen dollars in the hotel store. Food was also very expensive in the hotel restaurants. It cost between fifteen and twenty dollars, including tip, to go anywhere in a taxi.

From talking to my friends in Puerto Rico and observing at the show, the people here will wait in line for hours for free food and drinks. They will do anything to get a deal. Bargaining is a part of their culture just like in Mexico.

And did I tell you how much they love music, drinking and partying? Let's just say they like it some and leave it at that.

I need to come back a few more times.

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And The Party Continued

The second day of the show was an exagerated version of the first. The party started even earlier on day two and did not even stop when the show ended.

At one point today I looked around the show and most people had a drink in their hand. I thought that must have been what it was like to do business in the 1950s and 1960s. At leAst according to what I see on Mad Men.

I can say for sure that Puerto Ricans love to party. They love music and they love to drink. They love to dance and love to have a good time.

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Puerto Rico is a Party

I arrived in Puerto Rico late last night and didn't have time to do anything but eat dinner. I thought I would wake up early this morning and see some sites. That didn't happen.

I got out of the hotel room really late. I went to old San Juan. The weather was horrible. It was about 89 degrees and extremely humid. I walked around the fort and then down a street or two. I was drenched. I had to take a quick shower and head to the show.

The trade show was very slow. They had a Latin/Caribbean themed opening ceremony to kick things off.

We brought out mojitos and sangria at about four o'clock and they were a hit. That is about the same time everyone else brought out the alcohol as well. It really turned into a big party. Everyone was drinking and the music was loud in most booths.

The show ended with a closing parade, which led to the opening night reception. There was entertainment and food, but it was just too busy to stick around.

One thing I learned today is that Puerto Ricans like to party and have fun. I guess I will see if it is any different tomorrow.

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Big Guy with a Booming Voice

I just got out of a meeting with a potential customer. The owner of the company was a big guy with a booming voice. He was not loud and obnoxious, but his voice commanded attention.

Why does it seem like so many business owners fit this description? Are these guys taken more seriously and respected more, or are they just smart? Do they have the commanding voice and then get the opportunity, or are they intelligent then develop the commanding voice?

I don't know for sure, but there does seem to be a correlation. I have seen research that suggests that both tall people and good looking people have more earning potential. I think the same applies to those with a commanding voice.

Unfortunately, I am short and have a very weak voice. I don't command much attention. Maybe I need to look into learning to command attention.

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Some People Really Do Change

I am sitting in the DFW airport waiting for a connecting flight to Des Moines, Iowa. There is a very loud man talking, or yelling, into his Bluetooth headset in a Texas accent. He is being rude and obnoxious as he speaks to an insurance company customer service agent. He repeats over and over again that, "you took money out of my escrow account and are going to jack up my mortgage payment." hearing him talk somehow reminded me of a conversation I had with The Queen on Sunday.

We got a phone call that she answered. After hanging up she told me that it was a friend of ours who we had not spoken to for some time. She invited us to a birthday party for her husband. He is turning forty. She told The Queen that they don't drink in front of their kids, so kids aren't invited to the party. That was a shock!

I had to think about that statement for a while. I just had to let it sink in. I then told The Queen that we must be horrible parents. I thought some more, then asked, "Why do some people get so conservative when they get older?" I made a comment that we are modeling good adult behavior by always being in control of our drinking. Who knows how their kids will end up after not having drinking models while growing up. They could become alcoholics.

I have been seriously thinking about that last question since that day. Why do people feel like they need to become conservative as they grow up. People think that you have to be conservative to be an adult or a good parent. I disagree. I am a little more serious than I used to be, but I am much more liberal now then when I was young.

Growing up I would say that I was on the conservative side. Even through college I voted Republican. But as I have aged I have realized that most conservatives only think about themselves while liberals think about how what they do affects other people. I would say that I am fiscally conservative and have considered myself socially liberal. As I have grown, I am thinking more about disadvantaged people and how my actions can affect them.

I believe that I need to think more about how my actions affect other people and even the world. I also think that people who do not ever think about this are selfish, which most Americans are. Most people in the US are just concerned about accumulating stuff. They are concerned with keeping up with the Joneses. They are much less concerned with doing something good for other people. I would put most conservatives in this category.

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From The 4-Hour Workweek to What the Dog Saw

I am still on track with my goal of reading 12 books this year. I finished reading The 4-Hour Workweek yesterday on the last day of the month of February. The book was not an easy read for me because some of the information is presented in a get rich quick type of voice. I don't particularly like reading this type of material, so whenever it started sounding like it was heading in that direction I started to lose interest.

Overall, there is a lot of good information in this book. There are a lot of things that I can put into place that will help me achieve my goals. I have started dream lining in my head and have also started to think about a muse. My dream line includes being free to travel the world within the next five years. In order to achieve this goal, I need to find a muse quickly.

Until I find my muse, I can start putting some of the other ideas in the book to use in my current job. I am really thinking hard about trying to reduce the number of times per day I check my email. It is going to be really difficult for me to change this aspect of my day. I really pride myself in getting back to people as soon as I possibly can. I need to realize that it is not always necessary and I need to train people to expect a delayed response from me.

I also need to start developing check lists that I can pass off to other people so that they can do some of my daily tasks. I am not in a position to outsource my work to a virtual assistant in another country such as India, but I can start passing tasks off to other people in my company. This could potentially free up a lot of my time for more important tasks.

Although I have finished reading the book, I know that I will continue to reference portions of the book as I move forward on the task to meeting my goals. I will start to use the book as a guidebook on my path to dream line realization.

I started my next book at lunch today. I am reading What the Dog Sawby Malcolm Gladwell. I have really enjoyed reading his other books, so I am looking forward to this one. I am practicing the speed reading technique that Tim Ferriss wrote about in The 4-Hour Workweekand am already reading faster. I will give some mini reviews of What the Dog Sawas I get through it.

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Family Introduction

I have been writing on this blog for a while now and have used some of my family's names. I realized recently that I want to change that and give them all different names to reference them by. So here we are.

My wife once told me that she was the queen of the rock hard truth and that I was the raisin of the world. I don't know what a raisin of the world is, but I thought it was funny. I had a t-shirt made for her with a design I created that said queen of the rock hard truth. She wore it to bed regularly until it was too tattered to keep any longer. I will be calling her QTRHT and maybe just The Queen from this point forward.

Our youngest daughter is very active and silly most of the time. She is always doing or saying things to try to make people laugh. She is a little shy around people she doesn't know, but quickly opens up. We have called her Cheeseball for a long time, so that is what I will call her from now on in this blog.

I am really struggling to find a name for our oldest daughter. She is athletic and was a bit of a tomboy growing up. She has become a very girly teenager and is moody like most other kids her age. I guess I will just revert to the nickname she has had off and on for her entire life. She will be referred to as Chachi whenever I write about her.

I feel like I need to use these nicknames now instead of their real names. They are not involved in this blog and do not even read it. As the old saying goes, their names have been changed to protect the innocent. I will also use nicknames for everyone else in my life that I write about on this blog. If you know me, maybe you can have some fun trying to guess who the person behind the nickname is.

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Summer Camping

I have tried several times to book a tent cabin in Yosemite for a summer camping trip. In past years, I was just never able to book it. I tried a few times this year to book one for this summer and did not have much luck. I looked on the website today and it show availability, but I was unable to book it. I called them and finally had some success. I am very excited for this trip and cannot wait until June.

Yosemite is a beautiful place to visit. I have made several trips since graduating from college. Interestingly enough, I never visited the park while growing up less than three hours south of Yosemite. I did not make my first visit until I moved to Fresno a few years after graduating from college. And even then, I did not see much of the park and only remember a long hike on a very wide trail through the trees.

I did not really get to see the park until The Queen and I started dating. She loves to hike in the park, so we have made many trips over the years. I even proposed to her on a trip to the park for her birthday.

Yosemite is amazing to visit when the waterfalls are flowing during the spring. This year, they should be flowing very strong with all of the rain and snow we have been getting in the valley. My only concern is that most of the runoff may be gone by the time we get there at the end of June.

Last year we took Cheeseball camping for the first time. It was not in Yosemite, but rather in Sequoia National Park. She loved it. She has asked me many times since then when we will go camping again. My father-in-law has talked about taking most of his grand kids camping this summer and I told him I would go with him, I just don't know what dates that will be.

I love taking photos of the park. I am really drawn to the Bridalveil Creek area. It has a wonderful shaded woodsy feel to it and there is a great bridge to photograph. I have not taken very many good photos over the years, but I keep trying. My skills and equipment have improved over the years, so hopefully I can get some good photos this year. I just can't wait.

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Upcoming Trip

Next week I will be visiting two places I have never been before. I am taking a business trip that will first take me to Des Moines, Iowa for a meeting with a potential customer. From there I will be heading out to Puerto Rico for a tradeshow. I really don't care about Iowa, but I am excited about Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico has a well established pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. I have nearly gone two or three times in my time with my current company, but things have just never worked out for me. I have heard a lot of good things about the area and cannot wait to see it for myself.

My major concern at this point is weather. I just looked at the forecast for both Iowa and Puerto Rico this afternoon and my suspicians were confirmed. Next week the forecast calls for snow and a high temperature of 35 degrees in Des Moines. The forecast for Puerto Rico calls for rain showers and a high temperature of 85 degrees. This trip will be an adventure to pack for and to survive without getting sick, but I am up to the challenge.

I already have a request from one coworker who has already been to Puerto Rico to pick him up some cigars while I am there. Who knows what else I will be asked to bring back. I hope I get to take some good photos while I am in each place.

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At a Crossroads

I am starting my second week of P90X, and I just don't feel like I think I should at this point. I ended up skipping 3 of the workouts last week due to sickness and commitments. I substituted a 2 mile run for one of the days, and really struggled after not running for a week.

I just don't feel like I have gotten the aerobic workout I was hoping for at this point in the program. I also feel like I am not losing any weight, but I know I need to give that some time. I am going to keep up with the workouts this week and next and then reevaluate it again.

I am at a crossroads, because I was really disappointed that I struggled with my run on Saturday. I had to walk for part of it for the first time in a long time. Although the walk was because I ended up tweaking my shoulder, which may have been due to the P90X workouts I did last week. I don't know what the cause of the injury was, but I felt really tight just before it happened.

I spoke to a friend of my father-in-law's last night who is a runner and he said that I was probably tensing up just before the injury happened. He said it happens to him sometimes and he just needs to drop his arms and loosen them up sometimes to prevent it from happening.

Maybe I should wake up a little earlier and run a few miles in the morning and do the P90X workout in the evening. That would be the best of both worlds and would probably do me the most good. I guess I will have to give it a try starting this week or next, depending on how I feel after my second week of workouts begins.

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How to be More Productive

I am about 2/3 of the way through my latest book, The 4-Hour Workweek and I am enjoying it for the most part. It is very informative.

I was reading some blogs using Alltop and I came across a posting titled, Everything You Know About Productivity is Wrong. This blog posting fit in very well with The 4-Hour Workweek.

The posting talked about the new rules of productivity. It is specifically referring to people who work on a computer. Here are the new rules:

1. Your productivity will vary wildly from day to day. This is normal.
2. Working more hours means getting less done.
3. Working harder means getting less done.
4. Procrastination can be good for you.
5. Happiness is the ultimate productivity enhancer.

I love the ideas presented in both this article and the book I am reading. I know first hand that I am much more productive in an office setting in short spurts. The rest of the day you are just looking for something to fill the time until you go home. It is not very productive at all and just brings you down. It makes you dread coming to work in the first place.

The author offers much more advice on how to put his new rules to use on his blog. I urge everyone to check it out.

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Youth and Deception

As you grow up, you do many things that you don't want other people to know about. You may sneak into an R rated movie before you are old enough. You may go over to your girlfriend's house without your parents knowing. Some people even sneak out of their house late at night and take their parents car for a cruise before they even have a license.

As a kid, you think that you will never get caught. What you don't know is that your parents always find out. If you knew then what you know when you become a parent yourself, you probably would not have done these things in the first place.

Lying is a tricky thing when you are growing up. You may not hate your parents, but there are always times when you think they are being unfair because they are not letting you do what you want to do. Because of this, you sometimes stretch the truth or even outright lie so you can get your way. What you don't realize is that your parents are just trying to protect you. What you want to do may not be the best thing for you, but you are too short-sighted when you are young to realize this.

Looking back now, I realize that honesty and discussion is the best way to handle this. If my parents would have encouraged honest conversation and debate, I might be a better communicator today. I am not saying that I did any of the things I talked about in this post. I was a pretty good kid growing up, but my communication style could have been much different today if dialogue was encouraged.

AS I am raising my own kids, I need to keep this in mind. I have a teenage daughter who is probably doing these things as we speak. I have to remind myself to have honest discussions with her and to always encourage her to debate the reasons why she should be able to do things so that she tries to figure out exactly why things are important to her and her communication skills improve.

I often look at kids today and feel that they are very materialistic and have warped priorities. Maybe my parents felt the same way about me when I was growing up. The difference is that I was taught to work hard by my parents. I was able to work in fruit packing houses when I was a teenager. Opportunities like that just do not exist anymore so kids are not able to experience hard work. This makes it more difficult for parents to teach them the value of work and sacrifice.

I really need to do everything in my power to make sure that I am able to teach my kids these lessons. I believe that their future rests on my ability to teach them about society and the world and to encourage their thinking and communicating.

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The Road to Recovery

Here is a chart that the Obama administration recently released. The chart basically backs up Obama's point that he inherited the economic mess and that he has taken steps to correct the problem.

Here is a link to the image and a description on the Obama website. Obviously, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has worked to a certain extent. It was not the only factor in the recovery, just as Bush was not the only factor in the initial mess.

I still don't believe that the Obama administration has done enough. Banks are not making the loans that the administration had hoped for. Jobs have been created, but they are mostly construction and other blue collar jobs. Education spending is still being cut in California and I don't see that trend reversing before the end of the next school year.

Inflation is inevitable in 2010. What this means to the general public is that if people still have trouble finding jobs, then the economy will be worse off. That could be a major disaster!

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P90X

I started a new exercise routine on Monday night. I bought the P90X program a few months ago, but just have not been able to start it. I have been lazy. I started running again a few weeks ago, figuring that I need to exercise more again. Last week some people at work started talking about someone else who started the program.

I am motivated to continue with the program, but the first night was really tough. I took all my measurements, starting photos and previewed the first DVD, back and chest. It really did not look that tough and the people on the video were not doing very many reps of the push-ups and pull-ups. I thought is was going to be challenging, but that I could complete it.

I was very wrong. I could not keep up with the number of reps they were doing. I had to use their approved cheating methods for most of the exercises and I was still not able to do them all. It is much tougher than it looked and it almost took a full hour.

At the end of the back and chest exercises I moved on to fifteen minutes of abdominal work with the Ab Ripper X. They do twenty-five reps of all of the exercises and I could not finish any of them. I had to take breaks, which they allow, in the middle of each one. Some I really struggled with because I have never attempted anything like them before.

During the workout, they encourage you to record your number of reps and wight that was used. I did this on paper then transferred all of the numbers into a spreadsheet when I was done. I really need to keep records so I can track my progress.

I mixed some Lemon-lime Accelerade with water after my workout as a recovery drink. It was tough to drink because it was a little grainy, but I got through it. I was very tight the next day, but was not sore at all. I think the Accelerade really helped me in this respect, so it was well worth the money.

I will keep writing about my progress with this exercise program throughout the 90 days.

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...Four Days Later

Wow! It has been four days since I wrote anything. It feels like I am coming back from vacation, but I am not. I have just been a little busier than normal and my blogging has suffered.

QTRHT had a party on Friday night at our house. I was madly ripping out dead flowers and planting new tulips, calla lilies and some other shrubs. I also planted some bulbs that we bought from Costco in both the front and back yards. The plantings in the front yard turned out great. I am struggling with finding flowers that will survive in the front yard because it is very shady.

Saturday was really the first weekend day we have not had anything to do in a long time. We just relaxed and watched some movies. You just need to recharge from time to time and Saturday was a great day for that.

Some friends invited us out to brunch for Valentine's Day and we took them up on the offer. We ended up going to a little, very little, restaurant in a town near us. The restaurant was named Monet's. It is one of the best restaurants I have been to in some time. The food was fantastic and the atmosphere was fabulous. As we sat there we made plans to go back this weekend for dinner.

Monet's only seats about twenty-two people. The decor is French and is very well done. They try to only use local ingredients and feature wines from Central California. They also have a beer selection that features some that I have never seen before. The owner, waitress and chef were all very friendly and provided good service. The chef, Fred, is French and does a great job preparing the food. I don't say this often, but I can't wait to go back for dinner.

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Inefficiency

My wife and I were driving by our local community college the other day and saw a monstrosity of building going up right next to the road. This was the back side of the campus near the track. I have watched the progress of this building for months now and have been interested, but have never really thought about just how large of a building it was.

It has some yellow underlayment on it now and the color really makes it stand out and gives you a sense of the size of the building. It is huge! It will be used for some sort of sports activities. I don't quite remember the exact use. At this point it is an eyesore.

From the moment they broke ground on the building I questioned its need. The college is cutting classes and enrollment, but it is building this new facility for sports. How does that make sense?

The argument I always get is that it is a grant or there is a specific budget for buildings of this type. Those arguments just make me mad. Why do you cut back on education, but still fund sports? How does that make any sense at all. You are in the process of eliminating classes and students, but you are building a large, new facility for sports. This is just ludicrous.

Here is my argument to the asinine budget argument. Suppose you have a personal budget that includes $200 for food and $200 for clothing and $100 for entertainment. Your income remains the same, but you add twins to your family. Do you keep your budget the same? Or what if your family stays the same, but your income drops by 10%. Do you keep your budget the same? Of course not. Rational human beings change things on the fly as necessary. Why can't the government do the same thing?

It is just very frustrating to see education spending is getting cut while we are still spending money on buildings like this one. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still resurfacing roads. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still fighting two wars. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still bailing out banks and car manufacturers. I think we need to get our priorities straight in this country and start taking care of our people. We can't abandon our children and our future to rescue people and companies who make foolish decisions that affect all of our lives.

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Is a 4-Hour Workweek Realistic

I am currently reading The 4-Hour Workweek and I have to say that so far I am finding the book interesting. But, I don't know if it is realistic. Tim Ferriss is an entrepreneur who no longer needs to work a forty hour week to guarantee his income. He has automated his income by starting a company that he does not need to be involved with on a daily basis, which frees him up to lead the life he wants to lead.

I am a full-time employee, not an owner or a telecommuter. I am in the office every day. I cannot just work for an hour a day and leave. I am also in a position where several people rely on me to make decisions on a daily basis. How can I possibly apply all of the teachings in this book to my situation? At this point I cannot.

I have to admit that I am just over one hundred pages into the book and I have already read about some things I can start using. For instance, Tim suggests that you only check email, voicemail and return calls twice a day. I really could start doing this without too many problems. I just need to train people to accept this. I guess at this point I am being to helpful to people and need to make them a little more independent.

I can see how making this one change could really make me a lot more productive. It would allow me to focus on the more important items for the day without interruption. That alone would increase the quality of my work. The problem is that most people in my company do not have two or three really important tasks to complete every day. Instead, we spend our days putting out fires and accomplishing a few important tasks every week. I have seen for some time that this needs to change, so maybe this book will get me started.

He also recommends that you get rid of the busy work. I currently have a lot of busy work, as do most of my coworkers. This is work that I could very easily pass off to someone else. The only problem is that I work for a small company and we do not have the money in our budget for me to hire someone to do these things. The people who are already working for my company do not have the time to take on additional tasks, so I am left to do them. Maybe if I work with them to get rid of their busy work I can pass mine on to them.

As I am reading the book, I notice that my boss is accidentally doing a lot of the things that Tim suggests. He has not read the book, but he has embraced many of the practices and incorporated them into his work life. He is really pretty hands off on most aspects of the company. The only problem is that he is very reactive rather than being proactive. This means that he is hands off until something goes wrong, then he has to get involved in a hurry. He does not have the systems in place to automate the work like Tim suggests. I just don't think he has the mind for that.

At this moment a four hour workweek is not realistic for me. I hope to be able to achieve this within the next five years. I would like to go back to school and start another career in that time. I have always thought that I want to start my own business, so maybe this book will encourage me to get up and do that.

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Annoyances

I was listening to a podcast earlier today at work. One of the topics that was discussed was what mispronounced words annoy you. The word that started the whole topic was mayonnaise. It was being mispronounced by hosts as mannaise so someone called in to complain.

Here are some of the other words that were mentioned:

1. February - mispronounced Febuary
2. specific - mispronounced pacific
3. across - mispronounced acrost
4. for all intents and purposes - mispronounced for all intensive purposes
5. ask - mispronounced axe
6. kindergarten - mispronounced kindygarden or kindergarden
7. Valentine's day - mispronounced Valentime's day
8. moot point - mispronounced mute point
9. frustrated - mispronounced fustrated

There are so many of these that I can't list them all here. I would bet that there is even a regional and cultural influence on some words that could appear on this list. I know that some of these bug me, so it was funny to hear them discuss them. My particular pet peeve is pronouncing the word comfortable as comftrable. I even have Meg saying that one correctly.

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A Day of Lows...and Highs

Saturday was a day of extremes for my wife and I. We started the day with her shopping for food with a good friend of ours for a post funeral gathering. As I mentioned on Thursday of last week, our good friend's father past away recently. His funeral was on Saturday.

It was a rainy day. I was thinking that would be a fitting type of day for my funeral when that day comes. I guess it is weird for me to be thinking about my own feneral, but I could not help myself.

The funeral was interesting since it was the first one I have attended where there has not been a body. His dad was cremated per his wishes. Our friend is an only child and his parents divorced when he was young. His dad never remarried. All of this added up to an intimate funeral.

There was a slideshow of photos and then people spoke about his father. Our friend was the last one to speak and he was very emotional. His relationship with his dad had suffered a lot over the years, but they were just in the process of trying to rebuild their relationship when his dad died.

We went back to their house after the funeral. They had some food and drinks. I felt really bad for our friend. His mom lives out of state, so now he only has his wife and daughter. His wife's father has told him that he will never be without a dad, so that has made him feel pretty good.

We had to leave their house early to get to my mom's sixty-fifth birthday party. I guess I didn't eat before because I knew there was going to be a lot of food at my parent's house. It turned out to be a pretty good gathering of about thirty to thirty-five people. After a long emotional day it was great to end the day on a positive note.

After dinner, my sister stood up and spoke about my mom. It was a pretty good speach, but it left me itching to say something of my own. I waited patiently for the right moment. After everyone, including my dad, spoke, it was my mom's turn. She thanked everyone and mentioned something about her favorite child. When she was done, I seized my opportunity. I started off by telling everyone that I was the favorite she was referring to.

I talked about how fair she has always been. She has been fair when dealing with my step-daughter and has welcomed her into our family from day one. She has always done her best to treat her like her other grand daughters. I really appreciate this as I know how hard it can be to accept a new person into a family and to try to treat them all equally. It really takes a special person to do this.

I made a joke or two about what my sister had said earlier in the evening and then ended it. We sang to her and then had cake and ice cream. It was a great evening for her and she had a lot of fun. She has waited to be "old" for a long time.

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Life, Death and Emotion

The father of a good friend of mine died last week. It really hit him pretty hard even though he did not have a great relationship with him. He was actually in the process of rebuilding that relationship when it happened.

When something like this happens to someone you know, it really makes you think about your own life and the relationships you have. You realize that you don't want someone close to you to die while you have a bad relationship with them. My problem is that I don't have a good relationship with too many people.

I don't know what it is about myself, but I just don't need people and relationships like most people. As I say that though, I have to think about what would happen to me if I had no relationships at all. I don't know if I could survive the way I am now. People are hard coded for relationships.

The Limbic System is the center of emotions. It supports many functions including emotion, behavior, long term memory, and the sense of smell. I joked to my wife yesterday morning that I think my Limbic System is broken. I think she would agree with me.

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National Signing Day

Today was national signing day for high school football players. It is the day that they can formally sign with the college of their choice. It is a day that I usually look forward to and start following as soon as I get to work. I usually keep an internet window open as I work and get updates from time to time.

Today was different. I did not even get a chance to browse the internet until about 10:00. By that time, a lot of letter of intents(LOI) had already been faxed into the college athletic departments. I only had the chance to get updates about three or four times throughout the day. I was just too busy at work.

I was looking forward to today because it was the first time USC alumni were going to be able to judge the new coaching staff. Lane Kiffin and company did not have very much time to try to rescue the Pete Carroll recruiting class and add to it with their own players. I was worried that they were going to lose a big chunk of the recruiting class.

I was pleasantly surprised with the job they did. They hauled in a couple of players who were not verbally committed to USC and virtually kept the entire class in tact. A few players slipped away, but that was expected with a coaching change. If I had to give them a grade on the class, I would go with a solid A.

They had a lot of excuses for not keeping the class complete. Nobody could blame them if it happened. The timing of the coaching change was just not ideal for them. They did not rest and did not accept any of the excuses and did a great job. I can't wait to see what they are able to do with spring practice.

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The Start of My New Hobby

We received the catalog for the services offered by our city parks and recreation department in the mail over the weekend. I browsed it and noticed an acrylic painting class at the senior citizen center. I am intrigued, but I was thinking that it might be awkward to be the youngest person in the class. I am not the most social person as it is, so if there was nobody in the class near my age it would not be much fun.

I am a very fast learner, so it is very easy for me to get bored in a classroom setting. I have painted in the past and I think I remember enough that may allow me to be at the top of the class as far as pure painting skills are concerned. I may not be the student with the best art skill, but I should be close to having the greatest technique.

I used to draw all of the time when I was growing up. I drew in class when I was bored. I drew at home when I had some down time. Remember, I grew up before computers and at about the time home video games just started to be introduced. I did not have many indoor distractions other than TV and I just did not watch very much. If I wasn't drawing, I was usually on my bike somewhere around town. I am not saying that I was great at drawing, but I could hold my own.

I haven't drawn much in years. Every once in a while, Cheeseball or Chachi will ask me to draw something for them. It is very awkward to start again, but I usually end up with something that is passable for the object i am drawing. I think this will translate to painting well. The only thing holding me back is that I often question my decision making when it comes to color. I rarely colored my drawings and I have very little experience with color choices. Most of the time my color choices in the graphic design work I do can be considered very boring. I really need to work on that.

I don't know yet if I will take the acrylic painting class or not. I need to make a decision so that I can enroll in time if that is what I decide. It is just a two-hour class one day a week, so it would not be that big of a time commitment.

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What I Am Reading

I just finished reading the book Superfreakonomics. I read the original, Freakonomics, in 2008 and was really looking forward to the follow-up. I really enjoyed this book. Much like Malcolm Gladwell, the authors of these books find really interesting problems to apply microeconomics to.

Freakonomics featured research done on drug dealers in Chicago. In Superfreakonomics they discuss research done by the same economist on prostitution in Chicago. If I would have known that economics would be so interesting, I might have majored it econ rather than business.

I ordered several books from Amazon.com before I finished Superfreakonomics so I would stay on schedule for reading twelve books this year. As it happened, I waited too long to order them. It took six days for the books to arrive, which meant I went two days without reading. I really wanted to get ahead of schedule, but I guess I will just have to keep trying.

I am currently reading The 4-Hour Workweek written by Timothy Ferriss. This book was recommended to me by a former coworker who is now doing engineering consulting. I ran into him at our last trade show in Las Vegas. He told me that he was working three days a week and that was too much. He really embraced the ideas in this book and recommended it to me several times.

Since that time, I have done some research on Tim Ferriss and have read his blog and watched some of his videos. He seems to be an interesting person. He has some different ideas on life and success. He speaks multiple languages. He seems to be a bit self-absorbed, but that may be why he has been successful.

So far, the book is not very easy to read. It is not written like a traditional book, but more like a book you order from an infomercial that is supposed to teach you how to get rich. This is a bit of a turnoff to me as it seems like a method to get rich rather than a useful book. I am not going to stop reading it, so I have to keep an open mind.

I would love to lead the life he talks about in his book. In his ideal life, you are not tied to a particular place. You are free to move about the world freely, using technology to keep your link to your career. He says that it is best to take mini retirements along the way rather than wait until you are old enough to retire. I agree with him in that I would love to experience things now, while I am still fully functional rather than wait until I am retired. This book aligns perfectly with my current lack of satisfaction with my career.

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Carne Asada and Rice

I love Spanish Rice! I also love a Portuguese twist on Spanish Rice that one of our friends makes that is spicy. I decided to make my own last night. I started with QTRHT's recipe. I added some chili powder and a splash of tapatio sauce. That made some great Spanish Rice with a kick. It was fantastic if I must say so myself.

I also made some carne asada on the grill. I was trying to figure out what to season it with. I did not marinade it, so I needed something better than just salt and pepper. I started looking through the refrigerator and the pantry and pulled out some stuff. Here is what I ended up with for my mojo sauce:

I think it was flank steak.
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 jalapeno pepper, coarsely chopped with the seeds
onion powder
orange juice
the juice of 1 lime
Bud Light Lime beer

I put the meat on the grill and added salt and pepper. I grilled it for a while on indirect heat and then flipped them over. I added salt and pepper to this side. I then put the mojo sauce on each piece of meat and continued grilling on indirect heat.

I was so excited to try this meat and rice. I just could not wait for it to be ready. QTRHT heated up some tortillas on the stove as I cut the meat into long slices and we sat down to eat. I put some slices into a tortilla. Added some rice and cheese. My first bite tasted fabulous. I was very happy with the way the rice and carne asada turned out. I usually do not get very excited about food, but the spiciness of this food just really hit the spot.

The girls both scraped the jalapeno off the meat and they both really liked it a lot. Meg kept asking for more which is very rare. She does not eat very much meat. I think we were all very satisfied with this meal.

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Biggest Misperception

I read an interview with Tony Hsieh of Zappos.com in The New York Times. The article was about how to find employees that fit in with your company culture. Tony was asked for some specific questions he asks interviewees.

At the end of the article, the writer asked, "If you could ask only one or two questions to get a sense of a person, what would they be?" His first question was, "If you had to name something, what would you say is the biggest misperception that people have of you?"

This really made me think. I have been thinking about this question for at least a day. If I had to choose one, I think it would be that I think that I am better than people. I have always thought that people think that I am "stuck up" or that I think I am better than them. While this is true to a certain extent. The real truth is that I am an introvert.

As an introvert, I just don't need to talk to people as much as most people. I prefer to stand back and observe and listen to what people are saying. I like to learn, so I have always been the type of person that listens much more than I talk.

The second question that Tony would ask is, "What’s the difference between misperception and perception?" I assume that Tony is asking for the literal difference. A misperception is something that is misunderstood. For instance, people may misperceive me as being a person who thinks that I am better than other people. In reality I am not completely that type of person, but it is accurate to a certain extent.

This is one of the pieces of my personality that I need to work on. I need to be open to different types of people. I judge people too much, which limits my exposure to certain types of people. By limiting myself in this way, I am not able to learn things from this segment of the population. I am really doing myself a disservice.

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Loss and Emotion

People react differently to loss. Some people take it really hard. Others push it down deep inside of them and hide it so they don't have to deal with it. I tend to fall into the later category.

As I think back to the times when I have experienced loss in my life, I don't remember much. Luckily, I have not had to experience loss in my life very often. I don't remember how I dealt with the losses. I think I just try to go on with my life. I think about the people all the time, but I haven't let the losses tear me apart.

I often question if I just don't care enough. Am I less of a person because I don't cry as much as I should? Is there something wrong with me? Am I just too selfish so when I lose someone around me I don't care?

I don't think that is the case. I think I care about people as much as the next person. I just deal with my emotions differently than a lot of other people. I think that I am a well adjusted person.

I sometimes wish that I dealt with my emotions like most people. I feel like I am not very normal.

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Priorities

We all make choices in our lives. Most of us make selfish choices when we are young. I would hope that we become better at making choices as we get older and mature. It doesn't always work out that way though.

There are people who never grow up. They never get any better at making choices. They never try to get over their selfishness. These people are not good parents. They are the type of parents that choose to go to Las Vegas instead of paying for things for their kids. They are the parents who don't pay child support so they can buy motorcycles or video games or whatever they want.

These people are also the type of people who make their kids feel bad for wanting things. The things that are important to them are not the things that are important to their children, so they make their children feel guilty for wanting them. They make their children feel bad for them. They tell their kids that they don't have money or that they can't pay their house payment, then they go off and play golf with their friends.

This just doesn't make sense in my world. I try to do everything I can for my children and family. I don't spoil them and give them everything they want, but I do what I can for them within reason. I teach them the important lessons of life. I teach them the value of things. I teach them the difference between wants and needs. I do what I can to make sure they don't end up being the type of selfish, immature people that I dispise.

I know for a fact that people do not change unless they want to change. So, if you expect your spouse or parent to change you are out of luck.

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Expectations

Expectations are all around us. I have expectations of what other people should do or how they should fee. I have expectations about how I should be treated by other people. I have expectations about how my food should taste. I have expectations about how much my pay check should be. We all have expectations. Maybe that is why we all get dissappointed so often.

When you go into a situation with an expectation, chances are you will be dissappointed. Especially if you have not communicated that expectation to the other people involved. How do you expect people to meet your expectations if they do not know what those expectations are. It is not uncommon for two people to have two different expectations of a situation. That is where a disconnect happens.

Someone at work today asked me if I had problems in my first year of marriage. I told them that everyone has problems in their marriage. I also told them that most of those problems are due to unrealistic expectations and lack of communciation. I think the two go hand-in-hand.

Communciation is the most important thing in any relationship, whether it be a work relationship or with your spouse. Without effective communication, your relationship will fail.

Expectations are difinitely second most important on my list. I think if we can stop projecting our expectations onto others we will be much more satisfied. Our work and personal relationships will be much more rewarding and we will be happier as a society.

The problem is that it is very difficult to stop having expectations for people. I try really had to remove expectations, but it is hard to do it all of the time. It is something that you can never stop working on.

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Writer's Block?

I am really struggling to write on this blog 5 times per week. My two posts this week have been horrible experiences for me. I also think they are just plain bad posts, but I am committed to writing at least 5 times per week so you are stuck with them. I have been thinking a lot about what the problem is for me this week and I cannot come up with an answer.

I have considered writer's block, but I am not a professional writer and that is one of the criteria for having the condition. Here is the definition from wikipedia: Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task in hand. At the other extreme, some "blocked" writers have been unable to work for years on end, and some have even abandoned their careers.

This sounds about like what I am experiencing, but I keep forcing myself to write. For this reason, I don't think I am experiencing writer's block. I think I am just bored. Nothing really exciting is happening in my life right now. I am just going through the motions.

We are in a holding pattern with our foster/adoptive child. I just got an email last night that said they still need some items from us. This was after them telling me everything was in about a week and a half ago, so this was not welcome news. I now have to scramble to get the other items completed. It seems to be delay after delay. It is such a let down from all of the excitement we were experiencing at the end of last year.

I am also really affected by the negative emotions that my teenage daughter is going through. It seems like she is never happy and that upsets me. I am frustrated that she feels this way and I don't understand it. She has more than most people, yet she is not as happy as I think she should be. I need to stop having expectations for her feelings and just let her experience them on her own, but it it had. She projects her feelings on everyone around her.

I can't blame her though. The problem really exists within me. I need to shake things up a bit and get some excitement back in my life so I have something to write about. I need to experience something new. Maybe the answer is to just start running again to train for a 5K. That kept me motivated on a goal.

I guess it could also be all of the rainy days that we have been experiencing lately. The fourth of six storms should arrive today. I really like the rain and I know we need it, so I never thought it would get me down. Maybe it has though. Oh well, that just means I need to try harder.

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Anger

Anger is a strange thing. Some people can control it and other just cannot no matter what they do. I believe it is something that you can learn to control, but I just don't know for sure. It seems like a lot of people who have anger issues are also very stubborn people. I don't know if the two always go hand-in-hand or not, but it sure seems that way.

What causes anger problems in people? I don't know why I am able to control my anger, for the most part. I don't know why other people are simply unable to control theirs. Maybe you can control it if you want to. I just don't know. I personally believe that I can control all of my emotions pretty well. I don't think it is something that was learned, but rather something I was born with.

I generally have a lack of emotion. Maybe that is why I am able to keep mine under control. My observation is that a lot of people who are unable to control their anger are very emotional people. Is the control of emotions a personality trait? If so, what personality types are able to control their emotions and what types are just completely unable? This post brought up many more questions than it answered, so I will have to revisit it at a later time.

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If You Dig Deep Enough, You May Just Find What You Are Looking For

I am sure that most people have head the term that you can make data say whatever you want it to say. When given the same data, two different people use that data to support totally opposite conclusions. All you have to do is leave out the data that does not support your idea and solely focus on the data that does. I think this applies to life in general.

This applies to every subject you have a discussion, or argument about. You can make valid arguements for both sides. It is usually the person who is better at the arguing who ends up winning the discussion. It is really hard to go into something without bias. That bias can end up skewing your results, thus making your findings questionable.

The same thing goes for history. You can look back at a person like Rosa Parks who I wrote about last week. If you really want to find something wrong with her story, then you can. If you really want to believe something about her story, they you will be easily convinced. That doesn't mean that it is the truth. It just means that you believe it to be true.

What brought this to my mind was the look of Google today. When I first opened the page this morning I noticed that they had updated their logo for the special occasion of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday. At first I did not even know what it was representing. I wondered why it was in black and white. I hovered my mouse over the logo and saw that it was for MLK Jr.'s birthday. My first thought after learning its purpose was, "why is it in black and white?"

If you wanted to dig into this or look for a deeper, hidden meaning you could. You could associate the black and white to Martin Luther King, Jr. being black. You might even be able to accuse Google of being racist or some other nonsense. Maybe it is just in black and white because of the era he lived in. Who knows what influenced their design, but I do not think it is racism.

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What Not to Buy in 2010

I came across an interesting article on Yahoo Finance today. It is titled "10 Things Not to Buy in 2010." Here is the list:

1. DVDs I think it is still safe to buy DVDs, especially Blu-ray. Internet downloads of movies just take too long and if you are looking for a high definition movie it will take even longer.

2. Home Telephone Service This one is a toss-up for me. I don't want to have a home phone, but I don't want salesmen bothering me on my cell phone. I have Google Voice, but have not really used it to its full potential. I actually have not even given out my phone number. It is a nice service because you select which of your phones you want to ring when someone calls the number. I will have to experiment with it in 2010 to see if I can eliminate my home phone.
3. External Hard Drives I strongly disagree with this one. There is still a place for an external hard drive. The online backup services are much more expensive and you are putting your cherished photos and music collection in someone Else's hands.

4. Smartphone Also-Rans Other than the Blackberry and iPhone, none of the other smartphones have really caught on. The Blackberry is still the business phone of choice. The iPhone walks the line between hipsters and wannabe hipsters. I personally really like my iPhone, but it does have limitations and annoyances.

5. Compact Digital Cameras I made the switch several years ago and have not looked back. I think there is still a use for a compact digital camera. The size is ideal and the ease of use is what many people like. A digital SLR is more expensive and is more complicated.

6. Newspaper Subscriptions Newspapers have been dead for several years now. They need to change their business model if they are going to remain viable businesses. Our society wants news now, not in in 12 hours.

7. CDs Song downloads are fast and the quality is good. There is no reason to buy a CD in a store or online when you can get it almost immediately from iTunes.

8. New College Textbooks With ebook readers catching on and Apples tablet about to be released, there is no longer a need for printed textbooks. The transition will take some time, but I see it happening soon. Printed books are bad for the environment and are too expensive. They stretch our education budgets thin.

9. Gas-Guzzling Cars These went out with the 70s. I love my Prius and while I am not looking forward to the projected gas prices in 2010, I am also not afraid of them. My car has enough power, cargo capacity and gets great gas mileage as well. I don't think there should be any new cars sold that don't get at least 30 miles per gallon and have a hybrid drivetrain. We have the technology, we just need the car makers to embrace it.

10. Energy-Inefficient Homes and Appliances Again, we have the technology we just have to use it. Appliances have come a long way. Home building technology has as well, it is just very expensive still. Appliance prices benefit from economies of scale. Home building technology does to a certain extent as well, but prices just aren't falling fast enough for most types of items. A lot of people just don't want to pay the extra money for energy efficient items other than windows, doors and insulation.

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Was Rosa Parks' Protest Staged

QTRHT and I were in the kitchen cooking dinner tonight and she was talking about her day at school. Out of nowhere she told me that some of the teachers at her school told her that Rosa Parks' protest on the city bus was staged by the NAACP. One teacher said that her husband told her that and even showed her the proof. Another teacher agreed that she was not the first to refuse to give up her seat to a white passenger.

I told QTRHT that I knew that Rosa Parks was not the first to refuse to give up her seat, but that I had never heard that her protest was staged by the NAACP. I told her I would have to do some research. She knew that I would and told me that was why she told me.

I did some research and have not found anything to support the idea that her protest was staged. Here is a summary of what I did find.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress and also worked as a volunteer secretary at the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She worked directly with kids as an advisor to the NAACP Youth Council. On March 2, 1955 Claudette Colvin, a 15-year old girl was arrested for not giving up her seat on a public bus to a white passenger. Colvin was a member of the NAACP Youth Council. Rosa Parks began raising money for her defense. Colvin was not the first to refuse to give up her seat, but the NAACP was looking for someone to be the face of their fight and her timing was right.

Soon after Colvin was arrested, she began a relationship with a married man and became pregnant. E.D. Nixon, the president of the Montgomery NAACP, decided that Colvin would not be the right person to be the face of the civil rights battle. He later explained that he had to be sure that he had somebody he could win with, and Colvin was not that person. Her pregnancy and relationship with a much older, married man would give the opposition reason to argue.

In 1943 Rosa entered a bus through the front door and sat down. The bus driver told her to exit the bus and enter again through the back door. She started to exit the bus and dropped her purse. She sat down in a seat for a white passenger momentarily to pick up her purse. The bus driver was angry and as soon as she got off the bus he sped away, leaving her standing in the rain.

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks was on a bus in downtown Montgomery. She sat in the "colored" section. She noticed that the bus driver was the same one who had left her in the rain in 1943. The white passenger seats on the bus filled up and a few more white passengers got on the bus. The driver, James Blake, walked back to the "colored" section and moved the sign marking the section back behind the row of seats Rosa and three other black passengers were sitting in. He told them to get out of their seats. The three other passengers complied, but Rosa moved to the window seat instead of moving back to the new "colored" section. The police were called and she was arrested.

E.D. Nixon now had the face of the fight. Rosa Parks was a morally clean, reliable person that did not have anything in her background that would taint her story. The NAACP had to pick its battles and Rosa Parks was deemed to be worthy of the fight.

None of my research supports the ideas that were expressed to QTRHT today at school. I don't know why anyone would want to portray Parks' protest as a staged event. It seems like they are trying to taint her actions and legacy. The way we treated black people at this time was wrong. I don't fault the NAACP for waiting for the right person to come along before taking up their fight. That is just smart.

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A Whirlwind Weekend Comes to an End

Wow! After the Seattle Seahawks fired their coach on Friday, rumors started to spread that Pete Carroll had accepted a deal to be their new coach. I took everything with a grain of salt since the media and Internet posters are all trying to break news. Their was no word from Pete or USC. The NFL has the Rooney Rule that requires all teams to interview minority candidates for jobs and at that point it appeared that rule had not been satisfied.

The one minority candidate they had targeted told them he would not waste his time to interview if a deal was in place. The Seahawks convinced him to interview on Saturday morning. On Sunday, Pete called the group who enforces the Rooney Rule and told them that he had not done anything to be out of compliance with the rule.

Monday morning it was officially announced that Pete was leaving USC. It was later made official that Pete had accepted the job with the Seattle Seahawks. I was glued to the Internet all day Monday. There were rumors about who would be the next coach at USC. There were rumors about who had been offered the job and who had turned it down. It appeared that the front runner, Jack Del Rio might make a decision on Today.

After meeting with the Jacksonville Jaguars owner earlier today, Jack told the media that he was staying put. Another mini meltdown happened on all of the USC message boards. Who was next in line? Nobody knew. I certainly didn't know.

At about 6:15 today an announcement came out of left field. Lane Kiffin was named the new head coach of the USC Trojans. Lane was a backup quarterback at Fresno State. After a few coaching stops he was hired by Pete Carroll at USC. He started as a wide receivers coach and quickly worked his way to offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator.

Kiffin was hired as the Oakland Raiders head coach in 2007 and fired by Al Davis in 2008. Two months later he was hired by the University of Tennessee as their head football coach. He started making waves in the SEC immediately. He was calling out other coaches and just generally being mouthy. He also had some recruiting and player issues while head coach at Tennessee. He had assembled a pretty good coaching staff with his dad, Monte Kiffin, ad defensive coordinator and Ed Orgeron as recruiting coordinator, associate head coach and defensive line coach.

Kiffin is bringing both his dad and Ed Orgeron with him to USC. Ed coached at USC and was the recruiting coordinator prior to being hired as the head coach at the University of Mississippi. Kiffin was Ed's replacement as the USC recruiting coordinator. It is great to see coach Orgeron coming back to USC. He has a fiery personality and is a great recruiter.

The rumor is that USC is in negotiations to hire Norm Chow back as the offensive coordinator. That would go a long way for recruiting. He was a great quarterback coach while at USC. He has struggled in his more recent stops, but maybe he can bring that magic back with him. We will have to wait and see.

I don't know how I feel about Lane yet. I will have to wait to see how the team does before I pass judgement. I guess I am excited about change right now. Fight On!

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How Young is Too Young

Meg's friend came over on Saturday and slept over at our house. She is a very energetic girl, just like Meg. Her parents are divorced and mother lives in another state, so she lives with her dad. She is a handful and her and Meg are a little out of control when they are together, but they have a lot of fun.

She was at our house for a few hours when she started frantically running through the house saying that she lost her phone. I was surprised and asked her what phone she was talking about. She told me she lost her cell phone. I assumed her dad had given her his, but she told me it was hers. I was in total shock. She is in third grade! For what does a third grader need a cell phone?

I started thinking about why she would need a cell phone at that age. I am assuming she is eight years old. She can't drive and is too young to be walking anywhere by her self. As far as I know she rides the bus to school and back home again. She is not involved in any sports or other extra-curricular activities like dance or gymnastics. Why then does she need a phone?

She told Meg that it is because she rides the bus home. I don't understand that at all. A parent should know exactly what time their elementary school child needs to be at school and what time they get out of school. They should know what time the bus picks the kids up at their stop and what time they are dropped off after school. I cannot see why that would be a good reason for a third grader to have a cell phone.

After a lot of thought, I told my wife and mother-in-law that the only reason for a child that age to have a cell phone is if the parents are just not good parents. I believe this 100%. One of the ways that we have ensured that our girls are growing up with the right values and are making good decisions is knowing where they are at all times. I think that giving a kid a cell phone gives you a reason to not stay for their soccer practice or to not be there waiting to pick them up after practice if you don't stay. It gives you the potential to check out of your kids life more often.

Some parents may argue that it gives you more access to your child because you can text or call them at all times. My argument to that is that I am with my child at almost all times, or they are with a friend or family. Why then would I need to text or call them? I just don't understand this. Beside the fact that you are then spending at least $10 a month on the phone plan without any texting plan. That could cost another $5-$20. That is just an unnecessary expense in my opinion.

I guess this post ties in well with my earlier post about the difference between wants and needs. A cell phone is definitely a want, not a need and is therefore unnecessary.

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The End is in Sight

We received word from our social worker at FamiliesFirst on Thursday that we are done with everything except our home study. It will still take a few weeks before they can take care of that because they have a back log.

Our social worker will be presenting us as adoptive parents at a Tulare County adoption meeting this week. I guess this is the first step in finding us a child to adopt. We are all very excited.

When we told Meg she asked us if the child gets to select us. I had to explain to her that it is a decision that involves many people including the child and our family. She understood the process a little better at that point. We all just hope that we can find a child sooner rather than later.

Who wouldn't want to be a part of this family?

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Education Reform?

Earlier this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the state needed to change policies that spend more money on prisons than on the state’s education systems. On Thursday he signed a major school-reform package. The plan calls for California's lowest-performing schools to be targeted for a sweeping overhaul and it enables the state to try to get piece of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.

I agree that our school system needs to be reformed and I do not know enough about this plan yet to make a decision on it. our schools need more funding. I truly believe that funding is necessary for education improvement. We can't be so quick to cut school funding the minute we get into a difficult budget situation. I believe that we should establish a set budget per student and that amount should never be decreased.

California's education spending per student is about 14% less than the national average. As a matter of fact, California ranks 44th out of the 5o states and Washington DC. On K-12 achievement, California ranks 39th and again falls below the national average. I think we can see that there is a positive correlation between education spending and student achievement. The two top performing states, Massachusettes and Maryland spend at least 10% more than the national average per student on education.

We have a long way to go in California to get our school system back where it belongs. I have a real problem with the state taking over schools that are not meeting the state mandated performance levels. The reason I am against the state taking over schools is that they automatically reduce the curriculum, eliminating science and history education to focus on language and mathematics. In my opinion, this is just a band aid that will help the schools get back to the mandated level over time. If you focus more time on language and math, it naturally follows that your scores in those subjects will eventually improve. The problem is that these students will be behind in science and history when they enter middle school.

The plan also enables parents to hold their schools accountable, demand change and may even allow them to move their child to another school. I do have a problem with this part of the plan. The schools that perform the best in an area do so because the parents are more involved in their children's lives. They are more involved in their children's education. Allowing a parent to move their child to another school can have sweeping ramifications.

First. The higher performing schools could experience increased class sizes and maybe even over crowding. This would lead to less individual attention from the teacher which would lead to lower performance.

Secondly. Some of the children who move to these schools might not have the level or parent involvement in their lives that the other students do. This may make them fall behind which would then drop test scores for that school.

Thirdly. If all of the children whose parents have even a little bit of involvement in their lives leave the lower performing schools then what will their student populations looks like? The students who are left there would have virtually no parent involvement in their education. This would lead to a lower performing school. This would create an even larger gap between the high performing and low performing schools.

It is proven that children who receive more individual attention from their teachers and parents perform better in school. They have better test scores and are more well rounded students.

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The Difference Between Wants and Needs

I was having a discussion with some coworkers today. It was about crime and punishment for the most part. We discussed marijuana and prostitution in particular. We were talking about laws and the punishment for breaking a law. We were in agreement for the most part, until another manager walked into the room.

He moved the conversation from marijuana to guns. He started babbling about taxing guns and ammunition and was equating them to cars or some nonsense. For the most part, he is a pretty level-headed person but he is a very old school, country, conservative person. I stopped him and asked him why he needed a gun. He said that it makes him feel safe. I asked him how he used his guns. He said to shoot things and animals.

I explained to him that my belief is that the vast majority of people who have guns do not need guns. If you are using your guns for hunting animals that you and your family eat, then you need guns. If you are using them to shoot things, then you don't need them. You want them. There is a big difference here and I think many people get very confused. A need is something that you must have in order to survive, like food, water, clothing and shelter. A want is something that you can live without, but still desire. For most people guns are not necessary, they just want to have them.

The problem with people in this country is that we think that we have a right to do whatever we want. There are generally some limits, but if we can afford to buy something we feel like it is our right to own it. The problem is that you have a right to things that are necessary. You don't have a right to something just because you want it. That is just plain ridiculous. The people who believe this way are never happy with the decisions our government make. They often contradict themselves because they are emotional people for the most part.

It is a fact that in countries with stricter gun control laws there are fewer crimes committed with guns. In this country we are still too arrogant to learn from other countries. We insist that our way is the best way. We are very slow to change our ways. I just wish that people would open their minds and think about the larger picture before making a decision based their own private views.

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Personal Goals for 2010

I don't like to make resolutions, as I blogged about previously, but I have been thinking about a few goals that I would like to achieve in 2010.

1. Read 1 Book a Month. I have really tried to read more books to improve myself and I have a really long wishlist of books at Amazon.com. Here is a link to My Reading List. I am currently reading "SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance" which Tina bought me for Christmas.

I am not a very fast reader and I don't remember what I read very well, so reading has always been a challenge for me. It is hard to stay motivated to read a book if you cannot remember what you read yesterday. I have been better about this and still need more improvement.

2. Run in 2 5K Races. Last year I ran in my second 5K race. The Visalia Emergency Aid Race Against Hunger on the morning of Thanksgiving day. Meg ran with me, but she says that she will not run in another race. I am fine with running on my own. Meg and I finished that race in 27:48 and I think we could have easily cut another minute off of that time. I think the cold weather and standing around so long before the race affected her.

I would like to run at least one race out of the area and maybe the Race Against Hunger again. I would also like to run a 5K in a time of about 25 minutes. It would be pretty cool to run a race on Catalina Island or somewhere else that we could also take a little vacation after the race. If I accomplish my goal this year, I would like to run in a 10K race next year.

3. Volunteer. As I stated in a previous post, volunteering on Christmas Eve at the Visalia Rescue Mission was a great experience. I came away thinking that I need to volunteer more. I really need to accomplish this goal in 2010.

4. Change a Child's Life Tina, the girls and I went to watch The Blind Side last night. I was not really that excited to see the movie, but I came away from it feeling great about going throught the process to become a foster/adoptive parent. The movie shows the power that someone can have in a child's life and it really touched all of us. Meg has wanted to see the movie since she first heard about it. It wasn't the best movie that I have seen, but it really fit in with what we are going through in our own lives at the moment.

As far as the foster parent process, we just have one item left to be completed. We are waiting for a social worker to schedule our home study and interview. After that is completed, we are ready to accept a foster child into our family.

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Cell Phone Networks

I was talking to a few coworkers yesterday about cell phone network quality. I told them that I just want to know who has the better network. We know that either AT&T or Verizon is lying on their commercials and this is a disservice to consumers. How can we make an educated decision if we are not getting the truth?

We brainstormed for a bit and someone threw out the idea that there should be a company that offers a phone that switches to the strongest carrier in the area. This is a great idea. I don't know how exactly the financials would work in this deal and how much a plan would have to cost. Maybe this is something that an upstart like Google could accomplish in their war with the iPhone. What better way to kill the iPhone than offer something that Apple cannot offer, the absolute best coverage available.

I don't know if something like this is even possible since each cell phone provider has their own network. I don't know if they would even allow something like this to happen. It is a great idea, but this is something for someone else to figure out.

My idea was that there should just be one cell phone network in the United States. All of the carriers could jointly own the network including maintenance and upgrade costs. The network would have to be substantial to handle all of the cell phone and media traffic. It would need to be on the leading edge technologically. That is what we should have anyway. The networks in other parts of the world are much better than ours.

A nice result of one cell phone network is that there would not need to be as many towers as we have now. If each carrier is installing their own towers there is overlap in areas that does not need to be there. There is environmental clutter that can be avoided. This would be the best all around solution for consumers, but if the cell phone carriers will not go for it I hope someone does come up with a phone that will automatically switch to the strongest network in the area.

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New Year's Day

Earlier last week I told Tina that we should go out for the evening with some friends. To have a nice night of dinner and drinks with Chris and Christina. She called them and they were in. On New Year's Day Tina and them had a few conversations and we agreed to go to a local restaurant named Jack & Charlie's.

The restaurant is located in the basement of the historic Tulare County Jail building. The sign out front is inside an old red British phone booth. The restaurant is decorated in an art deco style that is very original in Visalia. When we walked in, there were a couple people at the bar and a couple, who we knew, sitting at a table. This was a surprise to us.

After looking at the menu and trying to decide what drinks to order, I noticed "beer in a bag" on the menu. I decided to order an Olympia beer in a bag. When the drinks were brought to our table I was handed a brown paper bag with an Olympia beer in a can. That was very original. I had not had an Olympia beer before and was pleasantly surprised.

We decided to order a cheese plate and marinated olives as an appetizer. I ordered the Buccatinni with Meatballs for dinner. The olives were good, but I have not had many olives that were not good. The cheese plate was sparse and it almost looked like they were trying too hard.

When dinner arrived, everything looked great. I had never had Buccatinni before, so I was excited to try it. It was very good. It was spicy and had great flavor. The portion was small for the price. Everyone was very satisfied with their meals. They do a really good job with their menu.

As I think back on the evening, I realize that I was feeling uneasy from the minute we sat down. I felt uncomfortable and out of place. Not because I have never been to a nice restaurant before, because I have been to many much nicer than this one. I felt bad that we were going to pay too much money for a dinner that was not worth the expense. The food was great, but is any food worth paying an exorbitant amount for? I don't think so.

Throughout dinner I just kept thinking about what could be done with the money we were spending. I thought about people that do not have food to eat. I thought about where we could be eating for much less money instead. I felt guilty the entire time we were there. I guess that I have undergone a major change. I care about other people more than I ever have before. I guess the curse of this caring is that I will feel guilty whenever I do anything that can be considered a splurge. This is a new feeling that I will have to learn to live with or do something about.

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We Made it to the Snow!

We finally made it to the snow yesterday! Tina and I called around on Wednesday to find some snow chains. We found them and ended up paying more than we wanted to for them, but we had to do it. I could not imagine trying to make it to the snow again. Meg's dissappointment would be unbearable.

I woke up early and made some chorizo, egg and potato burritos. I wrapped them up for the trip. One the way out, we stopped to get some donuts since Meg doesn't seem to like the chorizo very much. When we got to the gate to Sequoia National Park, there were two long lines of cars. Of course, our line moved the slowest. When we got to the Ranger, I asked her if we needed chains. She told me that we did not. Just my luck. After paying too much for chains, we didn't even need them.

Tina and the girls had a snow ball fight when we first arrived at Lodgepole. They had a lot of fun while I was taking some photos of them and the surroundings. Then they started making the snow man you see in the photo above. While all this was going on, Homie Gnomie had wondered out of the car and was playing in the snow himself. I found him making a snow angel. This was his first trip to the snow and he really enjoyed it.

He got in a little over his head, not knowing that he would sink in the snow. I had to pull him out and get him back to the car. Once we were there, Tina gave him some hot chocolate to warm his little body back up. We were all having a lot of fun in the snow and decided to try to go down by the river where we camped this past summer.

We drove into the camp ground and found a little trail. The girls started down first as Tina realized that they were very close to the river. We warned them to stay on the foot prints that were already in the snow. At one point, we were all standing in the snow over the river.

We all had a lot of fun. And it seems we now know how to control Meg's car sickness. That should make our mountain trips a lot more enjoyable for her. When we got home I asked Meg if she wanted to go to the snow again. She was a little hesitant. We bought the annual pass, so we can go as often as we like.

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