Photography

I have thought a lot about TtV photography for about the last three years. To accomplish TtV photography you get an old Kodak Brownie or similar camera and take a picutre through its viewfinder. The photos taken this way are slightly distorted and usually have a frame around them.

I have messed with TtV in photoshop adding the effect to some previously taken photos and have really enjoyed the results. I had not really thought about it for a while, until I got a Photojojo email that had a brief write-up about the technique. It renewed my interest and I started searching for a camera on ebay. I am now following an auction and hope to get it pretty cheap.

I am really trying a lot of new social sites lately. I first started using Blogger to write this blog. Then I joined Facebook to resarch it for work. I started using Twitter for the same reason. I moved on to Tumblr because I found that it works better with photos than Blogger. Now I have started a flickr account. It all ties together.

I started messing around with flickr because of the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. I went pro so that I can upload more than one hundred megs a month. It is a racket, but I just felt the cost was worthwhile. You can view all of my photos. Book mark it and it will be updated with my new photos whenever you visit the link.

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Hipstamatic

I downloaded a new app for my iPhone 4 a few days ago. Hipstamatic is a photography app that recreates the look of photos taken by a Hipstamatic 100 camera with different film and flashes. It really is a pretty sweet app and I am having fun using it. I have had so much fun that I even started a flickr account. Watch my Hipstamatic photo stream.

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Controversy at Ground Zero

I first heard about the ground zero mosque controversy this past weekend. I guess the right wing, led by Sarah Palin, is up in arms at the thought of a Muslim religious building being so close to the former site of the twin towers.

Throughout history we have fought for freedom. The freedom to choose your religion without the fear of being persecuted. The freedom to make choices without fearing for your life. The freedom to vote in our republic. Remember that our form of government is a republic with democratic rule.

The group that is planning the new mosque is including a museum along with it. They believe that it will be a tribute to the people who died in the terrorist acts that took place on September 11, 2001. This group of American citizens should have the freedom to build their mosque where they choose. Muslims are not bad people. It is just the extreme few that have given the religion a bad image.

We must remember that this country was founded on religious freedom. The people who immigrated to this country from Europe did so to escape religious persecution. All of the men and women who have died fighting for this country have done so to ensure we continue to have the freedoms we have. They did not die for certain people to have freedoms while others do not. They fought for the freedom of everyone.

I think people need to open their minds and put themselves in the place of someone who practices a minority religion. What would you do if you lived in Europe three-hundred years ago and wanted to practice a Protestant religion. You would not be able to without persecution. I don' want that for my country.

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Work of Art

I watched the finale of Work of Art last night. I have really enjoyed this show. It is the first show in a long time that I can't wait to watch each week. There were several people on the show whose art I just did not like, but I think the final five were really talented. I don't know how people get that creative.

Simon de Pury was a great part of the show. He was really excited most of the time and the combination of his accent and choice of words was great. I can see that he was really inspirational for the artists on the show. I wish I was like him.

Miles was the typical tortured artist for the entire show. He had some major social issues, but they did not make him come off as a jerk. He was one of the closest characters to what I perceive a true artist to be. I always think of an artist as a quirky character and that is what he was. I knew that he would make it to the finals, but hoped he would not be the winner.

Peregrine always made pieces that were more crafty than art to me. She was very creative, but I just did not like most of what she did. On the finale Simon visited the home of each of the final three. Peregrin's house was the closest to where I believe an artist would live. The house was filled with art objects and looked very inspirational.

Abdi was the person I thought was the most talented for the last three or four shows. He made a few of the most impactful pieces in my opinion. I think his nature inspired piece was the single best piece of the show. I really like his style and he always seemed to be in awe of everything. I think that personality or attitude or outlook on life or whatever you want to call it is what makes him the creative person he is. He truly deserved to win the show.

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Feeling Creative

I went for a walk last night to check the mail and on my way back I was mesmerized by the moon in the sky. It was about nine o'clock and it was not completely dark yet. The sky was a dark blue with the last vestiges of the sunset near the horizon line. The moon was in the classic shiver shape and there was a bright star directly above it.

I was inspired. When I got back home I grabbed my Diana+ camera and went to the backyard. I did not have a good view so I decided to take a walk to see if I could get a better view. I walked to the open field near my house and got some photos. I went back home and then went into the backyard again with my digital Rebel.

I tried to take one photo of the moon and was not successful so I started looking at the flowers and plants in the yard. I posted some photos on my tumblr site. I was really inspired last night for the first time in a long time. I hope my creativity paid off.

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First Soccer Practice Down

Meg's first soccer practice was yesterday. The coach chose to practice all the way across the field from where the parents sit, so we could not here anything she was saying. It was an interesting choice to say the least.

She coaches two teams. A girls under twelve and a girls under ten. She has the practices at the same time with an assistant coach for each team. The scrimmaged for ninety percent of the practice. I did not see much skills practice at all. At one point, I guess the girls were not listening and she had them do push-ups. That did not make much sense to me. Why not make them run while dribbling the ball?

My first impression of the coach at the parents meeting was that this was going to be a bad year. I can't complain since she is a volunteer, but I can still not be happy. I really hope that our assistant coach gets involved. His daughter is a really good player and I hope that he has taught her what she knows and he can share some of that with Meg.

Having the teams practice together is also an issue for me. Of course the older girls will dominate the skills competitions that you usually have at practice. They will also intimidate the younger girls in the scrimmage portion of the practice. The coach already had to tell them to watch their kicks because they were hitting the younger girls in the face. Meg got hit in the face, but she was OK.

During the scrimmage, the older girls dominated. The coach mixed the older and younger girls on the same team, but the older girls still dominated at each position. I think this will affect team chemistry if she keeps doing this. The girls need to learn to play with each other and that will not happen as long as this continues.

I will keep an open mind, but it doesn't seem like this is going to be a good year.

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A Creative Spark

While The Queen was out of town on Friday night, Meg and I went to a movie. We watched Ramona and Beezus. It was Meg's choice, but I also thought that she would like this movie.

It was a pretty good movie and it inspired me to help Meg with her creativity. Ramona really reminded me of Meg. They are both individuals and are each very creative. Ramona's dad really encouraged her creativity. Watching the movie made me realize that I have not been doing a very good job of encouraging Meg's creativity.

On Saturday morning, Meg and I bought some turpentine to clean oil paint off of brushes. We then got all of our painting supplies out of the garage and set up an easel on the dining room table. We talked a little bit about what the subject of her painting would be and she decided she wanted to paint a picture of Cocoa Bean. I told her that was very ambitious for her first oil painting, but she insisted.

I took a photo of Cocoa Bean and printed it out for a reference for her. I helped her sketch the location of Cocoa's head and told her to paint the background without painting where Cocoa's head will be. She decided that she did not want a realistic background and chose to just paint it blue. I think the color is a great choice because the image of Cocoa will pop off of it very nicely.

This is a learning process for both of us, but it will be a lot of fun.

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My Next Books

I ordered my next set of books on Saturday. I am in a real funk right now and it applies to my blog posting as well as my reading. I hope that these new books will break my funk and give me some inspiration. Here is the list of books I ordered:

• Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days by Jessica Livingston
• Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of Clif Bar & Co. by Gary Erickson, Lois Lorentzen
• Shop Class As Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work by Matthew B. Crawford
• Stirring It Up: How to Make Money and Save the World by Gary Hirshberg

I have wanted to read Stirring It Up for some time and have always put it off. I think that will be the first book of this new group that I dig into. I really hope these books will give me a creative spark.

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My New Book

Well, it isn't really my new book. It is just the book I am currently reading. I am now reading The Sign by Raymond Khoury. The beginning of the book seems strangely familiar to me. I can't put my finger on where I have read something similar, but I have.

I needed to take a break from all of the business books I have been reading to read something that is a little more entertaining. I am still on pace to read twelve books this year, but this new book is a big one. It has four hundred and fifty-eight pages and I am only on page sixty-one. That means I only need to read a little over fifteen pages per day, which is very manageable.

I will need to shop for my next set of books very soon to make sure I get them in time. I am open to suggestions from anyone.

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At the Coast

The Queen, Meg and I took at trip to the coast to see Unk Timmers. Here are some photos from the trip.

I am trying out Tumblr, so let me know what you think.

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I Like Dynamic

I have been working with a new advertising agency for the last few months and I have come to realize that I really like dynamic designs. I don't like printed materials that look static. I want to see movement conveyed in the design and any photography that is used. I just feel that static-looking designs are dated.

The problem is that I am having trouble communicating this to my agency. I don't have all of the answers for how they can achieve the look I desire. I expect them to come up with the ideas for that part of the work. I just want them to be a little more creative with their designs.

I am creative enough and involved enough in the work that is created for my company that I think I can be a pain for an advertising agency. I may be difficult to work with because I have somewhat of a vision of what I am looking for and I definitely know what I like and dislike. I always wanted to be an advertising executive because I feel that I have good taste. I can make good decisions on what is a good design.

This is what makes me a bad customer for a graphic designer or advertising agency. I can't change, but I can work on better communicating my thoughts with the people I work with. That is my challenge.

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The Resistance

Linchpin is a great book full of some really good insights. I have already found myself talking about many of the points in the book. Just last night The Queen and I were talking about education and whether it is worth it for her to pursue a master's degree at this point. I told her that she needs to fight the resistance and get over her anxiety and do what she wants to do.

Seth focuses a lot of time in the book talking about the resistance. Some of what he says is a little counter-intuitive, but once you have a chance to sit back and digest it it becomes a little bit easier to understand. The resistance is what your lizard brain constantly does to try to protect you. It keeps making excuses for you to not do the things you want to do. It convinces you that you will fail if you try, therefore you should just not try. It is trying to protect you from this failure.

As I think back, I encounter the resistance all the time. There have been many things that I have wanted to do and most of the time I give in to the resistance and just decide that I can't do those things. It is really painful to look back and realize how often this has happened to me. I have not been in total control of my decisions and this is bad.

I would like to say that now that I am aware of the resistance I will not let it control me, but as Seth points out in the book it is not that easy. You have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. You need to think about the things the resistance is telling you. If is difficult to overcome. It takes a lot of effort, but in the long run it will pay great dividends if you can overcome the resistance. I need to make a conscious effort to overcome the resistance before it is too late.

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Fat & Happy

I will admit it. My company got fat and happy. Management, including myself, got complacent. We let our guard down and now we are paying the price for our mistakes. My company is going through a rough patch. This trouble came to us much later than most companies because we had done a fairly good job before the recession. But we are dealing with it now.

Within the last few weeks we have laid off a hand full of employees. Our overhead is increasing and we are struggling to ship product. The layoff was the right thing to do to help our overhead issue and it should not affect our ability to ship product. It is just a minor readjustment that was long overdue.

Sometimes a company has to make the tough decisions. When times are good, companies sometimes put these decisions off. This is a really bad thing. It is important to continue to make the tough decisions even when times are good. We did not do ourselves any favors by putting these decisions off. If an employee is not carying their weight you need to cut them loose. A company cannot afford to absorb the overhead of an unproductive employee.

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Contemplating My Life

Two things this past week have made me think about my life. On Sunday we went to my Uncle's house because another Uncle and Aunt were in town from Oklahoma. Last night we visited one of The Queen's co-worker's children in the hospital. These two things have made me think about my life and life in general.

The visit to my Uncle's house was something I really wanted to do. I have not been to his house in many, many years. I think I have only been there twice and he has lived there for a long time. The reason for this is that when I was still a kid a rift in the family happened. I don't know the reason to this day. All I know is that I was pretty close with my cousins and then all of the sudden we never saw them. It changed my relationship with there family forever.

Visiting their house again on Sunday really made me think about my family. Both of my parents have interesting relationships with their families. Obviously, my mother's family had the problem above with her brother's family and another problem with her sister. My father has one brother who lives locally who we only saw a few times growing up and the rest of his family lives out of state. I guess every family has those members who are a little weird or do not fit in with the rest of the family. I just started to wonder if it was my parents who were the weird ones or if it was their siblings.

We visited the hospital last night because T-Bird's co-worker's daughter had to have a heart procedure. This is the second time she has had to have it and the doctor said that it did not work this time. She will need to have open heart surgery in a little over a month. One of her arteries is smaller than it should be and is going to restrict her growth and cause some other problems unless it is corrected by surgery.

It was hard to watch a little child laying in bed with wires and tubes attached to her. From time to time she would get very frustrated that she had to lay there in bed. At one point she even started trying to pull everything off of her hand. She could not even get up to go to the bathroom and this really annoyed her. She did not want to go to the bathroom in a bed pan. She tried to get out of bed several times to go to the bathroom.

I cannot even imagine what her parents are going through thinking about the surgery that is coming up. The doctor told them that they do about fifty of these surgeries a month, but that does not ease your mind when you are in that situation. I just wish the best for everyone involved and hope that they can just enjoy life a little while they are waiting for the surgery.

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Brainstorming Change

The Queen works for a school in a low income area of town. Many of the parents of students are involved in gangs. Many parents are not home very much, so the kids are on their own a lot of the time. There is a church that is located in a an upper middle class area of town that supports the school with whatever they need. They have one person who is there every week.

This church inspires me. They really support the kids and families of this school in everything they do. If they kids need something, all the school needs to do is ask and the church does there best to get those items for the kids. For example, every year the church supplies many, if not all, of the students with back packs and school supplies. When one of the teachers started a Saturday academy for the kids, he asked the church for shirts and they provided them.

Last year The Queen had this girl in her fourth grade class who was behind in every subject. She could not read or write, but she tried really hard and wanted to learn. Everyone thought she might have some learning disabilities, so they tested her. It turned out that she did not have any disabilities, but was affected because her family moved a lot when she was younger. She was just always behind so she never learned the things she was supposed to. I really wanted to help her and mentioned it to The Queen a few times, but I never acted on it.

Last night we were sitting in one of our favorite Mexican food restaurants and I told her that the book "Linchpin" was really motivating me to do something. I told her that I would like to volunteer in an after school program at her school. We were talking about it for a while and she told me that she thought something involving computers would be good. I said that was fine, but I would like to make it very unstructured so that the kids could choose what we did.

I mentioned that it would be great if we could get a company like Apple to donate some laptops and maybe a company like Canon could donate some cameras. We could then have weekly assignments for the kids to look for. They could find their own solutions to problems like intersecting lines. I think it would teach them to look at their world in a different way. It would show them that beauty can even be found in their own neighborhood. I got really excited about this idea. Now all I have to do is find some way to get some laptops and cameras so I can move forward with this idea. I think this is too much to ask of the church.

I also mentioned to T-Bird that we can't rely on teachers alone to run after school activities for the kids. We need to get the community involved. We need to get local graphic artists to come in and teach the kids about art. We need to get local business people to come in and talk to them about entrepreneurship. We need to get the local college to come in and talk to them about opportunities for education. We need to try to open their eyes to the possibilities that are available to them.

Now comes the hard part.

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Am I a Linchpin?

I am reading the book "Linchpin" by Seth Godin. His writing style does not keep me riveted, but it is a fairly easy read.

The book is very interesting to me, but I am constantly wondering if I have what it takes to be indispensable. Can I be a linchpin? I think I have a lot of knowledge that makes me very valuable to my company. I just don't know if I can be a linchpin.

I don't know how to be a linchpin yet. That much I do know. I need to figure that out.

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Happy Birthday O! Wretched Mortals!

Today is the one year birthday of this blog. My first post was short and sweet. It explained why I chose the name of the blog and a few alternatives I considered. Since that time, I think this blog has changed dramatically. It was originally just an exercise while reading the book "How to Think Like Leonardo DaVinci." Now it it a blog about my thoughts on many topics.

This has been a good exercise for me. I am not usually a person who likes to share my emotions with people. I consider myself almost devoid of emotion on most occassions. This blog has allowed me to explore my inner feelings and put them out for someone else to view, or read. I have grown a lot this year and look forward to more growth in the future.

I have struggled many times over this year to keep writing regularly. Early on my goal was to write something five days a week. There were some weeks when I wrote more than five times and there were other when I struggled to write two or three times. I am going through a very rough patch now where I am lucky if I write something once or twice per week. I don't like the fact that this has happened, but I don't know how to get out of this funk yet.

I really wanted to have a nice post for the blogs one year birthday. I thought I could come up with something insightful and deep. Obviously that did not happen. Maybe I will write something great next year on the second birthday.

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Do I Need an iPad?

On our trip to LA this past weekend, we stopped by an Apple store. Meg and I were standing next to each other playing with iPads while The Queen was watching us. Meg really enjoyed using it and was already thinking about how she could use it if she had one.

I loved the interface and the size. I didn't think that the size was right before I actually got to use one, but now I think it is great. I was just trying to figure out how I could justify the purchase.

Meg was playing with it for a while before asking The Queen how much it cost. She really wanted to get one and told her that she had her own money. When The Queen told her how much it cost she said that she needs to count her change. I did not have the heart to tell her she did not have enough money. Instead I told her that there was no need for her to buy one. I told her that if I buy one, she can rent it from me for fifty dollars an hour. She counter offered one dollar per hour. I countered back with twenty dollars per hour and told her that I could not pay for it at the rate of one dollar per hour. She agreed.

I was not being serious with her, but obviously she was really thinking about it. She valued it enough to agree to pay me twenty dollars per hour for using it. Wow! She really wants an iPad. Now I just need to be able to justify it in my mind.

So far, the three major downfalls in my mind are that it does not play PowerPoint presentations, it does not have any ports other than the standard iPod/iPhone dock connector and that it has to be synced with a computer. I think it should be a stand alone device with the necessary USB, firewire and HDMI ports.

I searched a lot this week to see if there was an easy way to convert a PowerPoint presentation to play on the iPad. My presentation has embedded video, so it is not just a bunch of static slides. This makes it much more difficult to convert. I guess I will just have to keep on searching.

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My Independent MBA

I have been thinking a lot lately about my reading list. As I have mentioned before, it is my goal to read one book every month this year. I started to slip while I was reading "The Toyota Way," but I am back on schedule after taking a few trips in June. I got a lot of reading done on my flights to the Midwest and Mexico.

Last week while I was driving back from Los Angeles I started thinking about my reading this year being the first year of my own personal MBA. I have been very open-minded while putting together my reading list and while reading the books themselves. I am focused on learning new ideas that I can implement in my own life. My reading has already been put to use in my career.

I have given a lot of advice to some of my coworkers ranging from lean techniques I learned from Toyota to people management skills I learned from "Delivering Happiness." I even dispensed some advice to my sister last night about making sure your employees are happy. She doesn't think that is her job, so I was trying to show her how valuable it can be.

Last month I finished reading "Rework" and "Delivering Happiness." I have now moved on to "Linchpin" by Seth Godin and I am enjoying it so far. The Queen actually picked it up while we were in Los Angeles and we had a nice conversation about the book on our drive home.

I am going to put a lot more thought into the rest of my reading list for this year to maximize its value. I really want to learn as much as I can from many different sources. Next year will just be my second year of my independent MBA studies.

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Reunion in Los Angeles

The Queen, Meg and I took her dad to LAX for his trip to Tzintzuntzan. Now that both of The Queen's grandparents have passed away, I expected her parents trips to Mexico to stopy. They proved me wrong and are spending the summer in Mexico again this year. I guess they are just creatures of habit.

A few weeks ago I learned that a few of my college friends who live in the bay area were heading down to Los Angeles for the Fourth of July weekend. They were planning to spend the weekend with another college friend and her family. I thought it might be nice to visit all of them for the weekend since The Queen and I had not seen them for about six years. I persuaded The Queen's dad to make his trip work with this trip.

My friend Kelly's family recently purchased a condo near downtown Los Angeles at the corner of Wilshire and Western, directly across the street from the Wiltern Theater. She offered for us to stay at her condo, but we decided to get a hotel instead. I found a pretty good rate at the Wilshire Plaza hotel. It was just down the street from her condo and the reviews were not too bad, so I booked it. When I was booking it online I got a good price, then as soon as I booked it my confirmation showed a price almost fifty dollars higher in price. I had to call them to get the rate corrected. They told me that the price was correct, but that I should send them and email. I did and a few hours later they adjusted my rate back to the correct rate.

We ended up having The Queen's dad drive to the airport in his Caddy. We just thought that he would be more comforatable in it than in my Prius. After dropping him off at the Crowne Plaza, we headed to the hotel to check in. The hotel was in a pretty good area and looked good from the outside. We we got into the lobby, I was pleasantly surprised. It look pretty nice. We checked in and headed to the elevator. The room I booked was supposed to be a "view" room, so when we got to the sixth floor I could not wait to show Meg the Hollywood hills.

The room key did not work at first. It took several times sliding the card in and out before the door finally unlocked. I opened the door and was very dissappointed. The carpet was stained and in horrible shape. I walked in and looked around and discovered that one of the access panels in the ceiling was hanging down and that the ceiling had a large water stain. I pulled back the drapes to see the view and got a view of the building next door and a slight glimpse of the Hollywood hills. I was not very happy at all, but we did not have time to complain.

We got ready and headed over to Kelly's condo. We got there and had to call to the reception desk to get into the parking garage. We headed up to the reception desk. From there we had to be escorted to another elevator and out to the pool deck. We walked across and finally saw our friends in the function room. It was great to see them all and meet a lot of new people. Kelly and her husband were in the pool with their two daughters, so we walked out there to say hi. We talked a while and then went back in to catch up.

I found out that my college room mate is still living in Oakland and now has a son and a daughter. One of my other college friends who most people thought was gay is now married with a fifteen month old son. The other two friends I saw on the trip are still single with no marriage in sight.

We hung out and talked most of the evening and then we started playing Trivial Pursuit. I have never been good at that game. The Queen and I struggled along and Meg really started to get bored. We played a little longer before deciding to go back to our hotel.

I initially thought that my friends had all changed a lot. After thinking about it some more, I guess I am the one who has changed. They were still doing everything that we did when we used to spend a lot of time together back in college and after we graduated. I guess I just find it boring now. They are really into movies and TV shows, just like they were then. I just don't have the patience for those discussions anymore since I don't watch many movies or TV show.

I really need to give them another shot in a smaller gathering to see if we can reconnect.

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Yosemite

It had been a while since we had visited Yosemite. We used to try to go every year, but when The Queen started school full time we found it much more difficult to go. They last trip we made was when one of her classes took a field trip there. Meg and I took my parents there for their first time. That was about four or five years ago.

We were due for a trip to Yosemite and I wanted to try to stay in Yosemite Valley. We had never done that before. I started trying to book our stay in February. I really wanted to try Housekeeping Camp, but it was booked so I opted for Curry Village. I didn't know much about it before we got there. All I knew was that it was located near the Vernal Falls trail head and that we would be staying in tent cabins. The tent cabins have a wooden floor, frame and door and canvas walls and roof. As our trip got closer I read online that they include cots, linens, towels and pillows as well as a bear locker.

When we arrived on Friday, we were greeted by our neighbors almost immediately. They told us that the night before there was a bear sitting on our bear locker. That got us a little excited, but I did not completely believe them.

We saw six deer in the meadow just outside our campground on Saturday evening. They did not care that people were all around them taking photos. When we returned to the campground, The Queen and Chels saw a bear walking through.


The view of Half Dome from the Curry Village parking lot.

This is Lower Yosemite Falls.

On Friday evening we watched a presentation and slide show given by Lewis Kemper, a photographer who worked with Ansel Adams. It was a great slide show that really made me think about light and composition. At the end he mentioned that between eleven and twelve o'clock that night a moonbow would be visible at Yosemite Falls. I decided to try to photograph it. He also mentioned that he would be leading a photo tour the next morning at eight-thirty.

I went out that night at about eleven-thirty and had absolutely no luck seeing the moonbow. I went back to our tent cabin and decided I would go to Lewis's photo tour the next morning.

I woke up in time and got ready to go. I ended up leaving later than I wanted to because I was talking to The Queen. I drove out of the parking lot and searched for the Ansel Adams Gallery to no avail. I just did not know where I was going. I gave up and decided I would take the tour on Sunday morning instead. We found the gallery on Saturday afternoon and I signed up for the tour.

On Sunday morning I woke up in plenty of time. I decided to take the free shuttle to the gallery. I had a long wait of about twenty minutes. Some of the deer were back in the meadow, but I resisted taking more pictures because I was running low on memory card space. The shuttle finally arrived and got me to the gallery in plenty of time.

Canon in the park was working the tour in conjunction with the Ansel Adams Gallery. They were allowing people to try their camera bodies and lenses free of charge. I decided to try the Canon 5D Mark II and a 24-105mm lens. I was very impressed with the camera.

The tour was just around the meadow near the gallery, but I think I took some great photos. At the end of the tour they let us print a few photos for free and then let us know that they would email us all of our photos. I can't wait to see them all.

I love Bridalveil Creek and Bridalveil Falls. The area is just picture perfect. The only downside is that it is the first waterfall you see when entering from the South so it is always busy. It is a very easy hike to the falls and to the creek. I usually get pretty good photos in this area, and Sunday was no exception.

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New Lens for Mexico

I have been looking for a new lens to replace the kit lens that came with my Digital Rebel camera. The Wednesday before I left for Mexico I stopped into my local camera shop and they recommended a lens to me. I ended up buying the Tamron 18-270mm lens from Amazon because my local camera shop was sixty dollars more expensive and they would not budge on price. They even quoted me a lower price on Wednesday and then when I went back in on Thursday they told me they gave me the wrong price and told me a higher price. They have always been dificult to deal with.

I rushed to purchase the lens after reading reviews on line because I wanted to use it on my trip to Mexico. I thought I might have time to take a tour to Teotihuacan and I wanted to try out the new lens. Here are some photos from the trip.

This is where pulque comes from.





The Avenue of the Dead. Notice all of the people trying to sell items to tourists.

Detail in the Temple of the Feathered Serpent.

I bought some obsidian figures of the sun and moon that this man carved.

Piramide Del Sol.

I climbed all the way to the top of the Piramide Del Sol.

View of the Pyramid of the Moon from the Pyramid of the Sun.

I ended up at the Pyramid of the Moon.


This was a great trip. I would recommend Teotihuacan to anyone who is planning on visiting Mexico.

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Teotihuacan

As long as I have been coming to Mexico there have been two places I have wanted to visit, Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. I can now cross Teotihuacan off my list. As I posted yesterday, I took a seven hour tour to Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan was the largest pre-Columbian city with a population of more than two-hundred thousand people. All of the records of the city were destroyed by the Spaniards when they conquered the area, so nobody knows exactly who the people were who inhabited the city.

Our tour started at the Citadel. Our tour giude gave us a brief introduction to the site and then set us free to explore for two hours. I made my way to Templo de Quetzalcotl, or the Temple of the Feathered Serpent. It was only thirty-nine steps to the top, but at more than seven-thousand feet above sea level I was breathing hard when I reached the top. Archeologists were working around the temple, which was very interesting.

From there, I started my 1.6KM journey down the Avenue of the Dead to the Pyramid of the Moon. After going up and down many steps, I was approached by at least one hundred people trying to seel me something. I finally gave in and purchased obsidian carved figures of the sun and of the moon from the man who claimed to have carved them. They are carved out of the same local obsidian that I wrote about yesterday. It is not pure black, but has a goldish tone to it.

I walked up and down many more steps before I reached the Pyramid of the Sun. I was taking many photos along the way. At the Pyramid of the Sun there is a ramp at the base and then two-hundred and forty-five steps to get to the top. Actually, you do not reach the top until you walk up a mound that is about five feet in height. At that point I tried to take a picture of the view and found out that my camera battery was dead. I switched to my iPhone at that point. I was very dissappointed that after all of that hard work I could not even get any photos. I guess that means I will have to go back.

I walked back down all the steps and headed back down the Avenue of the Dead. The structures along the avenue were much more intact between the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon. It was a great experience walking down the avenue. Our tour guide told us that we would not be able to walk to the top of the Pyramid of the Moon because archeologists are excavating inside of it. I still had to walk up as high as I could, which turned out to be forty-eight steps. I could not even get to the halfway point of the pyramid.

Archeologists are excavating inside the pyramid to see if they can find anything that will give them clues as to who built Teotihuacan. They have also left the lower fourth of the Pyramid of the Sun on the north side covered in grass the way it was found. It is interesting to get a glimpse of what the site looked like before it was excavated.

I really enjoyed my trip to Teotihuacan and would recommend it to anyone. I really made me want to visit Chichen Itza though.

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Long Day

Father's Day was exhausting for me. I exercised, mowed the lawns, went to my parent's house, went to The Queen's parent's house then took a short nap. And after all of that, I hit the road to the airport headed to Mexico City.

I got to my hotel at about ten o'clock local time, went to my room to freshen up and then went downstairs to meet my tour guide. I went on the "Pyramids and Guadalupe Shrine" tour, which turned out to be about seven hours long. It was great, but I must say that I am now really exhausted. With me on the tour were our guide Angel, our driver Albert, an older couple from Colombia, a young man from Israel and an older man from Norway.

The Guadalupe Shrine is supposedly the third most important religious center in the world behind Mecca and St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican. It is a complex that consists of the Antigua Basilica dating from 1536, several small chapels and the new Basilica of Guadalupe that was completed in 1976. You can read more about the shrine on your own time. I must admit that I really was not that impressed. I was more impressed by the Cathedral in the Zócalo.

The new Basilica of Guadalupe looks like a modern building from the seventies that is just out of date, which it is. There is nothing impressive about the building other than the unique doors and the Our Lady of Guadalupe painting that is supposedly made on cloth from a cactus that should not lost as long as it has. It is also supposed to be the image that appeared on Juan Diego's apron miraculously. I don't know what is true, but there are a series of about five moving sidewalks that take you past the original so you can view it up close and even photograph it.

Our tour left the shrine after a short while and we headed out to Teotihuacan. Before getting there we made a stop at a place that houses artisans who work in obsidian and silver. They gave us a small tour and told us how the artisans work with the unique obsidian of the area and silver.

They showed us the maguey agave plant (cactus) and told us all of the items that the cactus provided for the local residents. You can peel paper from its heart, use the needles for sewing the threads that can be peeled away from the plant and even make a fermented "wine" named pulque. Then we got a chance to drink some pulque and tequila. The pulque had a sweet, easy drinking flavor. We were told that it is more watery now because of all of the rain they have had lately. When the weather gets hot, the pulque gets a lot more milky and has a strange texture. I liked it.

After that we got the hard sales pitch in their store. They kept following each of us around and commenting about how nice the piece was we were looking at. I resisted temptation and did not purchase anything at their store. They kept telling us that you cannot by any obsidian or silver anywhere else that is the same quality. We left after a short while and headed to Teotihuacan.

Teotihuacan was amazing. I will write another post all about it tomorrow. I was taking a lot of photos, but by the time I reached the Pirámide del Sol, my camera battery was dead. I started taking photos with my iPhone, hoping they will turn out OK. We spent over two hours at Teotihuacan and I walked more steps than I ever have in my life.

We left Teotihuacan and went to have lunch at a restaurant near by. The Moctezuma Restaurant was another tourist trap that our tour guide took us to. He suggested we order the especial, Molcajete Moctazuma. The fix a mixture of meats, onion, nopales and a special sauce that uses pulque in a molcajete. They serve it to you in the molcajete along with corn tortillas. You then make your own tacos. It was a lot of food, but it was pretty expensive at one-hundred and eight pesos. For comparisons sake, I can get a steak sandwich for less by ordering room service at my hotel. I was not able to finish all of the food, but it was really good. About three quarters of the way through our meal, a man dressed as an Aztec indian started dancing around and singing while his wife was banging on a drum. He finished and left us alone, but he did ask for a tip as we left.

We headed back on our hour drive back to our hotels. I got to my room at about six o'clock and about a half hour later it started pouring rain. It is a thunderstorm like we do not see back home. The thunder is very loud and continues for hours while the rain alternates between a downpour and a consistent rain storm. It is great weather as long as you are not out in it.

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Am I An Apple Fan Boy?

I bit the bullet and preordered the iPhone 4 yesterday. But let me tell you, it was not easy. I started doing some research on Sunday in anticipation of the preorder date. I did a little more research on Monday evening to try to figure out what time the preorder would start. Nobody knew for sure, but the iPad preorder started at 5:30 AM, so that was what I went with.

I woke up and went for a run in the morning. I got back home at about 5:30 and jumped on a computer. The post it note saying they will back soon was up on the Apple site. I jumped in the shower. While getting ready I jumped back on the computer and saw that the Apple site was back up. It was not working correctly though.

I went to work and kept trying both the Apple and AT&T websites with no luck. I was checking for updates on Google as to the status of preorders. I finally noticed that there was a new Apple Store app that allows you to order hardware so I downloaded it at about 10:00. I tried it and it did not work, but it gave me a number to call at Apple. I called the number and actually got to speak to someone within about five minutes. He told me that the AT&T site was having problems so they could not verify accounts. He took my name and phone number and said he would call me as soon as everything was back up. He never called me back.

I kept trying the AT&T site and was soon able to preorder my iPhone 4. The process was slow, but it did work. At least I hope it worked. I got a confirmation and received a confirmation email message within an hour. I just checked my order and it is being processed.

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Another Year Down

I know this blog title may seem odd as New Year's Day was six months ago, but my birthday was last week. So in reference to age, another year has come and gone. As I think back about my thirty-ninth year, I believe it was a pretty good one.

As far as family is concerned, the year was great. We did not have any major emergencies. Nobody got hurt too badly. We actually made the decision to add another child(ren) to our family. I think we grew a lot as a family this past year.

My career remained on track. Nothing major happened. I think I am becoming a much more integral part of the company in my boss's eyes. He has really leaned on me for more decisions this past year. I feel good about where I am in the company, but would like to move higher. I guess that will be my goal for this year.

I feel like I have grown a lot in my personal life. I really started to exercise seriously this year and I feel much better than I have in a long time. I am in better shape than I have been since about 1996. That is a big accomplishment for me. I just need to stay on this path and continue to feel even better.

I have also been able to maintain my goal of reading twelve books this year. So far I have read five books and listened to one audio book. I have been reading the newest Intellectual Devotional as well. I am on pace to exceed my goal and even have the audio book as a bonus.

I have learned a lot from the books I have read. I have even been able to use some of my new found knowledge in my job. I have been acting as a mentor to our Assembly Manager. He comes to me for advice about the operation a lot. He just came to me again this last Friday. I told him that I may not have all of the answers, but I can give him an opinion based on a broad knowledge base and an open mind. I really think he appreciates my advice.

It was a great year. Here is looking forward to an even better fortieth year!

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I'm Exhausted

It has been a long week for me. I was in a great meeting all day Tuesday. When it was done I ordered some great Chicago-style pizza and worked out. I actually worked out before eating the pizza. Giordano's is the best Chicago pizza I have had. It was a little birthday gift to myself.

It is really hard to get motivated to exercise this week because I am travelling. The good thing is that I have been alone on this trip so far, which means I have had a lot of time to think about not exercising.

Every morning I wake up exhausted, but I have managed to exercise every day except today. My schedule just did not have any time in it. I started the day with an eight o'clock meeting in Green Bay. From there we went to Neenah for two meetings. We ended the day with a customer visit in Milwaukee.

I try to stay on California time when I travel so I don't have to adjust much when I get home. It usually works pretty well. I guess I will find out tomorrow if it worked this time.

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A Lot of Information

My meetings here in Rosemont have been very good. I am learning a lot that I can take back to my company. I have met a few customers that are great contacts to get us in the door of a few target companies. It has been a very productive trip.

This year the meeting have focused a lot of time on marketing, in particular internet marketing and social media. I know there is a lot more that I can do in both of these areas, it is just hard to carve out the time and to justify it. I have learned some things this week that should help me with both of these.

Last week I had a conversation with my advertising agency and was about to throw in the towel with regards to social media. I had a bad attitude about it and I think my account manager felt that and just went along with it. Our meeting turned into a trash talking session about what social media cannot do for my company. I admit that I was not seeing any potential. I came to my meeting this week all ready to dismiss social media as a waste of time.

Two sessions really changed my mind. One session was led by a marketing person from a company in my industry. He focused more on web site analytics, but he started to change my perspective. The second session was led by a consultant who works with companies to establish their social media presence. I think that he convinced me that I am not wasting my time and need to actually spend some more time on social media. I really need to get other people in the company involved with blogging, Facebook and Twitter. He told us that we cannot do it alone. It needs to be a company focus. I agree.

I am planning to get started with the implementation of a social media strategy when I get back into the office. I am already thinking about who in the company will buy into the strategy and really work to make it successful. At this point I only have about two people who I have identified.

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I Love Chicago!

I really do love to visit Chicago. It is one of the cleanest big cities you will find. My only problem is that on this trip to Chicago, I am not really in Chicago. I am stuck in Rosemont, IL which is at the airport.

I am in town for some meetings. The trade association my company belongs to has two days of meetings every year and it seems like it is in Rosemont about every other year. I had to attend because I am a member of a committe that is also having a meeting in the same location. So I get three days of meeting in Rosemont.

The weather yesterday was great. The only problem was that I was stuck inside for most of the day. I did get out of the hotel in the morning and took a taxi ride to Target to get some supplies. I also got out of the hotel yesterday evening and took a 3.3 mile run around the neighborhood. This area looks like the typical Midwest from TV and the movies. The houses are all brick with some rock work and most of the yards have some nice raised planters. All of the grass is green and the flowers are in bloom.

Today the weather is not very good. It has been raining all day. I really wanted to take another run today, but I guess I will have to settle for the treadmill in the fitness center. I am really trying to get back into my fitness program on this trip so I can continue it when I get back home.

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Review of The Toyota Way

I finished reading The Toyota Way on Saturday. This book was packed with so much background information on the way that Toyota operates that it took me a while to get through. I read a book some time ago on Six Sigma, but TPS is totally different.

I learned a lot from this book, but I don't feel I learned enough to implement any of the ideas. I feel like this book was just an introduction to TPS that gave me a background to know what areas to pursue further. In particular, the idea of one piece flow is great. I just did not find any practical examples of how to implement it in the book.

I know my timing with the reading of this book was bad after all of the problems Toyota has been having, but the reaction I get when I talk about it is always the same. Everyone brings up Toyota's recent quality issues. What they don't understand is the level of commitment Toyota has had over the years to recreate their culture in every department in every one of their locations around the world. They do an outstanding job with creating a learning organization. They do so well that I have no doubt that they will bounce back from the recent issues and become an even better company.

Overall, The Toyota Way was a great book. I would recommend it to anyone, and as a matter of fact I have already done so.

I have moved on to my next book already. I have started reading Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. So far so good. It is an easy read.

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The Winds of Change are Blowing

Or if they are not quite blowing yet, they need to start soon. Out of the blue yesterday the owner of my company called a small meeting of some of the company managers together to discuss the performance of another manager. He had his mind made up before the meeting, he just wanted confirmation. I was in that meeting and brought up some key points about the manager in question. He did not fit our culture.

We do not have a well defined company culture, but this person just did not fit in with the rest of us. I would like to say that the rest of the managers in the company are team players. I would love to say that we work well together to implement change that affects our customers in a positive way. I would love to say that we have a clearly defined long term plan for the company. I would love to say that we are improving our product and the value we offer our customers. I would love to say that we have the best service in the industry.

We pretend that we have these things, but in reality our management team, including ownership, is just not committed to achieving them. I think these are the most important things that we as a company need to work on. We should be having weekly meetings on our status with each of those items on our hit list. We just don't.

I don't know how long we can go on without committing to these things and making our customers a priority. We, like many companies continue to pretend that the important things are important to us. We need to change that and make our customers a priority.

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My Story

I awoke this morning too late to exercise. I guess I am still feeling the affects of my sinus infection.

I laid in bed and my mind started going crazy. I remembered a dream that I had last night. In my dream I ran into my college room mate whom I have not seen for almost ten years. We were talking about life and our careers and he told me that he was thinking about going back to school to become a doctor. He started out as Pre-Med in college and then changed his major to business after taking Organic Chemistry.

In my dream we continued to talk about our lives and future opportunities. He kept talking about medical school. I told him that I would love to go back to school, but that I cannot afford it. I asked him how he would support his family if he did go back to school. He told me that it would not be that difficult for him since he would get a scholarship to attend. I told him that was great for him, but that I am still paying my student loans and am starting to pay my wife's student loans as well. He asked me if there was anyone who I could lean on for support and I told him that there was not. That is when I woke up.

I laid in bed for fifteen more minutes thinking about my life and how I got to the point I am at today. My life has been a struggle. Not in the traditional sense of struggling to stay alive or out of jail, but in a much different way. I have struggled my whole life to do what I am supposed to do. To do what other people think that I should do. I think about this almost every day. I am a very private person for this very reason. I only share the parts of my life that I feel are appropriate for my station in life. The things that I am expected to be experiencing.

I would absolutely love to go back to school. I want to be able to make a difference in the world. I want to make life better for people who are less fortunate. I would like to travel to Africa and help build a school for a village. I would like to travel to Mexico and teach life lessons to kids in a remote village. I would like to travel the world and learn from people of different cultures. I just cannot afford to do this. I don't have the time or the money.

I told The Queen this morning that I am thinking about writing my autobiography. I told her that my life has not been exciting, but that there are things that I have kept to myself my entire life that I feel like I am ready to share. She questioned me about those things and I told her that I did not want to burden her. She kept asking so I told her that I do not share my true feelings about how much things affect me. In particular, our financial situation weighs on me every single day. By American standards, we are in great shape financially. I am just not happy with where we are.

So Maybe I will start writing my autobiography today. Or maybe I won't. Who knows.

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Remember Grad Nite?

I was scratching my head trying to remember who played my Grad Nite when I was talking to Chels about her trip. I really struggled and the only musical act that I could come up with was Chaka Khan. I finally found a list and to my surprise, I was wrong. It was not Chaka Khan, but rather Midnight Star. I later remembered that Information Society may have played, but could not confirm it with anyone. Today I found that confirmation, so enjoy.

Here's a list of music acts that have played Disney's Grad Nite since 1972.

1972 — Duck, Saltwater Express, Crickett, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Stampeders, The Staple Singers

1973 — Danny Davis & The Nashville Brass, Ricky Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, The New Seekers, Helen Reddy, The Spinners, Group Cassidy, Liberation

1974 — The Stylistics, Liberation, Canned Heat, Kool & The Gang, Brownsville Station

1975 — Kool & The Gang, Liberation, Sister Sledge, Flash Cadillac & The Continental Kids, Hues Corporation

1976 — K.C. & The Sunshine Band, Natalie Cole, Ohio Players, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes

1977 — K.C. & The Sunshine Band, Starbuck, Hot, Flash Cadillac

1978 — Atlanta Rhythm Section, Sea Level, Hot, High Energy, Con Funk Shun, Solar Wind

1979 — Rose Royce, Starguard, Gary's Gang, Peaches & Herb, Solar Wind, The Races, Genes Cotton

1980 — K.C. & The Sunshine Band, Kool & The Gang, Robert John, Tantrum, Macar Brothers

1981 — Pure Prairie League, Sister Sledge, One Way Featuring Al Hudson, Terri Gibbs, Fantasy, Ricky & Tightrope

1982 — Pointer Sisters, Tommy Tutone, Bertie Higgins, Tierra, Michael Iceberg

1983 — Steel Breeze, Marshall Crenshaw, Dazz Band, Night Ranger, Burrito Brothers, Greg Kihn

1984 — Night Ranger, Dazz Band, Exile, Dwight Twilley, Weird Al Yankovich

1985 — Midnight Star, Shalamar, Teena Marie, Animotion, Run DMC, Shannon

1986 — Ready For The World, Rene & Angela, Animotion, Nu Shooz, Starpoint, Klymaxx, Miami Sound Machine, Sly Fox

1987 — Wang Chung, Glass Tiger, Ready For The World, Nancy Martinez, Oran Juice Jones, Bobby Brown

1988 — Expose, Run DMC, Force MDs, Michael Bolton, Club Nouveau

1989 — Samantha Fox, Information Society, Will to Power, Midnight Star, New Kids On The Block, Pasanda's, Surface

1990 — Jody Watley, Seduction, Stevie B., Skyy, Kevin Paige

1991 — Stevie B., Tara Kemp, En Vogue, Timmy T., C&C Music Factory

1992 — Shanice, RTZ, Restless Heart, Mint Condition, MC Lyte

1993 — Jon Secada, Shai, PM Dawn, Hi-Five, Classic Example, Boy Crazy

1994 — Hi Five, Mc Lyte, Zhane, Tag Team, Xscape

1995 — Shenandoah, Brandy, All-4-One, Changing Falls

1996 — The Rembrandts, Sammy Kershaw, Silk, Immature, Mickey Finn

1997 — Goo Goo Dolls, David Lee Murphy, Az Yet, Aaliyah

1998 — La Bouche, Backstreet Boys, Rhett Atkins, Allure, Reel Big Fish

1999 — Britney Spears, Reel Big Fish, Sister Hazel

2000 — Destiny's Child, Jessica Simpson, Youngstown, B.B. Mak

2001 — Tyrese, DJ Skribble, Nine Days, 3LW, Christina Milian, Tonya Mitchell

2002 — City High, DJ Skribble, Natural, Beki, Blaque, Christina Milian, Lil J., Petey Pablo

2003 — Mario, Daniel Beddingfield, Smilez & Southstar, Default, Nivea, New Found Glory

2004 — Monica, Simple Plan, Stacie Orrico

2005 — Yellow Card, Ciara, Ryan Cabrera, Kevin Lyttle\

2006 — Fall Out Boy, Omarion, Teddy Geiger, Simple Plan, Farnkie J, Fefe Dobson

2007 — Mario Vazquez, Cartel, The Fray, Cassie

2008 — Ne-Yo, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, The Last Good Night

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I'm Back!

Well, almost anyway. I have been suffering through a sinus infection for the last week. I was exhausted all last week and it all came to a pinnacle on Friday. I left the office early and just crashed. I was supposed to go to a graduation that night, but backed out. The Queen attended without me. She called at about nine o'clock and told me that she had a sinus infection. She gets one every year, so she knows what they feel like. As soon as she said that, I knew that was what I was also fighting all week. We both went to urgent care on Saturday morning and we each got a prescription for a Z pack. We dropped Meg off at her cousins house and both just vegged all day.

It was great to get a medical confirmation that I was not just being lazy. I actually had something wrong with me that was zapping my energy and creating my writer's block. I was really starting to douby myself, so it was good to hear.

One positive thing that my sickness did for me was allow me to watch some movies for the first time in a long time. On Friday night I watched 13 Going on 30 with Meg. She really likes the movie and it is even enjoyable for me. I then watched another movie without her. After that we got back together and watched Up. I should say that she watched Up and I slept through most of it. What I saw of Up was good, but I just could not stay awake.

On Saturday, we dropped Meg off with her cousins after our doctor's appointment and ended up renting Invictus from OnDemand. It was a pretty good movie. It was really the first movie The Queen and I have watched together in a long time. I cannot even remember the last movie we watched in a theater, but I know that it was one that Meg wanted to watch.

The Queen is a movie buff. She will watch the same movie over and over again. She will buy it on DVD and then watch it every time she comes across it on TV. A good example of that is Overboard. She didn't buy that one, but she watched it every time it was on TV for about two years and it was on a lot. She also likes to watch Dances with Wolves every time it is on TV.

I am not a big movie fan. I usually watch a movie once and can't ever watch it again. That even applies to the movies I really like. In this respect, I am all alone in our house. Both Meg and Chels love to watch movies over and over again just like their Mom.

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Writer's Block or Rough Week?

I don't know if I am experiencing writer's block or if I am just having a rough week. Whatever it is, it is affecting most aspects of my life. I am really struggling to get up in the morning and exercise. I am also struggling to write on this blog. I guess maybe I just need a kick in the pants.

I have been exercising regularly for the last three months. I really enjoy most of my workouts, but it is getting tough to wake up in time to work them into my day. Maybe my boredom is that I am still stuck on the same workout. I need to change to my new workout next week and maybe that will solve my problem.

As for the writer's block, I blame the weather. It is very obvious that we are experiencing global climate change. We have had more rain than normal this year and the temperature is unseasonably low. This weather change is really affecting a lot of people where I live. More people than normal have been sick and allergies really seem to be hitting people hard, including me. I am struggling to breathe through my nose because I am always congested. I am also sneezing many times per day.

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Judge Yourself

The most difficult thing to do is judge yourself. It is always pretty easy to judge those around you. I am not saying that your judgements about them are always correct, but it is easy to do. It is much more difficult to take a long hard look at yourself to see what you are made of.

We have all heard of people moving away for college or travelling in order to find themselves. I myself did this totally unintentionally. I decided that I wanted to move away from my home town in order to go to college. I was not smart enough at that time to decide that I wanted to do it to better myself. I just wanted to get out of my home town. For this reason, my college experience was not all that it could have been. If I was moving away for college today, I think I could get a lot more out of the experience.

Self-examination is necessary for self-improvement. You have to want to change if you are going to change. These two phrases are basically saying the same thing with different words, but they are very true. I come in contact with many different people in my work life. Most of those people are unwilling to change. They have not examined themselves. They have not found themselves. I am open to change, but I have not done as much self-examination as I think I should.

I learned a lot about myself as I went through all of the paperwork for FamiliesFirst. Many of the forms that I completed asked questions that I have never asked myself before. I learned some things about myself and my family, but not as much as I could have. I am a very private person. I am not in touch with my emotions. I hold things in. I don't like to talk about things with other people. I feel embarassment, shame, or that I am letting people down. I don't know if that is something that is just hard-wired into men or if it is just something I stuggle with.

I really need to take a look at myself and learn who I am. I need to learn what I like and dislike. What I truly like and dislike, not what I think I am supposed to like and dislike. I have been trying, but I have a long way to go.

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I Judge

I know that I am a very judgemental person and I know that it is wrong. So, how do I change that aspect of my personality?

I don't think I look down on people or consider people to be beneath me, buy I do constantly judge the people around me. For instance, I look at the jobs my coworkers do and judge whether they are doing more than I am to contribute to the company. I judge my friends in order to decide how much time I want to spend with them. I think some of this is healthy, but I may take it too far.

I really believe that you have to surround yourself with people who have traits that you respect and want to emulate. So, how do you do this if you do not judge people? That is the dilemma that I am facing. Where do I draw the line? How do I change so that I am less judgemental? I need to find these answers in order to make myself a better person.

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We Are Ready

We had our final in-home interview with FamiliesFirst last night. It went great. I did not have to answer very many questions, but the girls had to answer quite a few. The Queen and I just had to fill out some more paperwork while the girls were being interviewed.

Our social worker was trying hard to talk us out of being foster/adoptive parents. She was telling us horror stories. I think she was just trying to see what our reactions would be and I guess she was satisifed. I was making dinner and helping Meg with her homework, so I did not pay much attention while she was not talking to me.

She told us that she has not learned anything from us that would prevent us from being foster/adoptive parents. She said that she would go back to her office and work on getting us certified. We really have no idea when they will call with a child or children. Toward the end of our interview, she got a phone call about some children that were being taken away from their mother. The children were five, three, one and a newborn. We all just kind of watched her in amazement as she was saying the kid's ages.

It is really hard for us to believe that there are people out there who either do now want to take care of their children or who are not capable of taking care of them. I know there are probably more than we think out there. It is all very sad.

One new piece of information she gave us is that a child will not be able to be adopted until they are placed in a stable home. For this reason, we may need to allow the child(ren) placed in our home visits with their family until the adoption is finalized. I thought all along that the child(ren) placed in our home would already be separated from their family and that we would not have to deal with their birth parents. I was wrong, but I think we can work through that without any issues.

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Long Weekend

Last Tuesday we were told by our social worker that we needed to have our spare bedroom ready for a child by today. The Queen and I talked about it and decided that our best option for a bed and dresser was to make the long trip to Ikea. The Queen and I both really like to shop at Ikea and they have good prices. I knew Unk Timmers was going to be in town, so I asked him to go with us. He agreed.

We had dinner with the fam on Friday night after Meg's track meet and we decided that we were going to leave at nine o'clock on Saturday morning. Saturday morning, The Queen decided that she needed to go to her classroom to get some things done so we cancelled the trip. After getting out of the shower, she decided the trip was back on. We ended up leaving at about ten thirty.

The trip to Burbank ended up taking us around three hours. It was the first time Unk Timmers shopped at an Ikea, so before we entered I told him he needed to prepare himself mentally. He had no plans to spend any money. He was just along for the ride.

As we walked through the showroom portion of the store he mentioned that he needed to buy a sectional soon. He started looking at them and ended up finding one that he liked. He said he might order it later.

We made our way to the bedroom furniture and found a bed, matress and dresser rather quickly. We made our way through the rest of the store much more slowly as The Queen was looking at every little thing trying to find items for her secret pal at work. We finally made it downstairs and picked up everything in the warehouse portion of the store. The Queen dissappeared and when I finally found her she had picked out a table and chairs for the patio. They were priced great, so I agreed to get them. Of course they were all sold out of the chairs so we found some alternatives and checked out.

Ikea was a mad house. The vehicle loading area was packed with people. It took me a while to get the truck parked there. We loaded up and hit the road. The trip home ended up taking us less than three hours.

Once home we began to put everything together. Unk Timmers was surprised at how easily everything went together and at the quality after it was built. I must say that Ikea has put a lot of thought into how their furniture is put together to make it the easiest and strongest. I am never dissappointed with my purchases from there. Granted, their stuff has the feel of a college dorm, but it is perfect for kid's rooms. Overall it was a great trip.

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Final Track Meet

Meg had her final track meet on Friday night. We invited my parents, my sister and neices and Unk Timmers to the meet. They all made it and were very supportive of Meg. I was scheduled to help time events.

Meg did not act like she was into her event very much before the meet. She did not ask me any questions. I gave her some advice and she was not very receptive. The one thing I told her that she paid attention to was to not let the tall girl from her school pull away from her again like she did the last race. That really sunk in.

I ended up having to time her race. For some of the races each timer took a lane and for the other races we took a finishing place. For Meg's race we ended up taking a finishing place because there were so many boys and girls running. I ended up timing for the fourth place girl.

Meg got off to a pretty rough start to the race. I did not see the actual start, but by the time I looked for her she was kind of lurching back because there was such a crowd around her. She struggled for ten seconds or so and then started to run her race. She has always run her eight hundred meter race at a good pace. It shows me that she has really practiced well.

She ran a really good race and as she got to the final straight section of the tack she really picked up her pace. She finished strong and ened up passing another girl to move into fourth place. She was almost sprinting as she crossed the finish line. I ended up being the one who timed her race. I met her and gave her the time for her race and told her that she finished in fourth place. I told her that she ran a great race and told her I was proud of her.

I had to keep timing races, so I did not get to spend much time with the fam. I texted them all her results. I never heard the announcement of the results for her race. We all went out to dinner when I was done timing. At dinner the fam told me that they announced that Meg got third place. I told them that she actually got fourth, but the person timing the second place finisher did not time them. It was a real mess trying to figure everything out. We don't know what ribbon she will end up receiving. I guess we will just have to wait until tomorrow to see what she brings home.

Meg's principal was in charge of receiving all of the times for the races and recording them. He was a somewhat passive person, which really surprised me. That was the first time I had any interaction with him and he was not what I expected. I guess I am used to take charge people in the business world and maybe the leaders in the education world are just not that way. Or maybe it was his first time performing that job at a track meet and he was just a little over his head. Either way, I was surprised.

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Walt Was Right!

Walt Disney was a brilliant man. Here are seven life lessons from him:

1. Keep Things in Perspective
2. Competition is Good
3. Do What You Love
4. Do the Impossible
5. Action Always Trumps Inaction
6. It Takes a Village
7. Get Better Daily

I must say that I cannot argue with any of these items. I think it is a short list that is right on. Read more about the list.

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I Solve Problems

I have always considered myself more of an idea man. I can think of solutions, I am just not as good at implementation. That is a weakness that I really need to work on. But I guess my coworkers think I am good at both.

I tend to be a counselor and this past week my schedule has been busy. I had our sales secretary come to me early in the week and talk to me about her review that is long overdue. She told me that her boss just has not given it to her and it is starting to concern her. She wanted me to give her my own review so she would be prepared for his. I told her I could not do that, but I would give her my own thoughts. I told her the honest truth, which was a little difficult for me to do. I think she appreciated it.

Yesterday morning I was paged to our accounting department. I thought they were going to give me some money, but I was very wrong. I walked in to the entire accounting department sitting there with our service manager. They all started telling me that our system was flawed. They said that we are not billing our customers correctly because the proper information is not being communicated from the sales department. I sympathized with them because I believe that communication is the biggest problem in our company. I agreed to try to solve their problem.

Yesterday afternoon our assembly manager came to me and told me that he had to vent. He said that the owner of the company came to him and told him that the assembly floor needed to be cleaned because we were having customers visit today. The owner then told our machine shop manager to make sure that the assembly floor was cleaned and the machine shop manager promptly told the assembly manager that he had to make sure it was done.

Today I was blind-sided by the owner of the company. He told me that some representatives from a manufacturer in Japan have been offering to buy our company for about four years. He kept telling them that the business is not for sale, so they want to partner with us now. He told me that they were our visitors today and that he wants to have me in the meeting with him and our vice president. I agreed and sat in the meeting. What they manufacturer really wants is to bring their equipment up to the level of our equipment. They want to learn from us. I don't really see much of a benefit for our company, but we will see. My boss left without us talking about the meeting so it will have to wait until next week.

I am done counseling for the week. I just need to enjoy my very busy weekend.

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I Am Very Lucky

We had our first in-home interview with a social worker from FamiliesFirst last night. She was a little late because she got lost. They really do not work very much in the south valley. When she arrived she apologized for not meeting us before showing up at our house and asking us personal questions. She said that she usually does not work that way.

She asked a lot of questions that really made me think. She asked both The Queen and me a lot of questions about our child hood. She asked a question about dealing with loss or a difficult time. She asked about school and about college. I really had a chance to think a lot about my life and I can say that I have been very lucky.

I had a pretty happy childhood. I did not have a lot of responsibility, so I got to be a kid. I never had pressure on me to do well in school, maybe becuase I always did well. My parents supported me in everything I chose to do. They got involved in everything.

All of this was great, but what really made me realize how lucky I am is when she asked Meg and Chels what kind of person I was. I don't know if they were just laying it on thick to make me look good or not, but they both said some really great things about me. I know I am not the easiest person to live with, but I guess they both appreciate me for the positive things I do for them. I heard words like "loving" and "fun" and phrases like, "I can talk to him about anything."

It is great to hear these things, because I am constantly questioning myself when it comes to my parenting skills.

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I Just Don't Understand People

This is one of those situations where I will use codenames to protect the innocent, or guilty. It is a story that I cannot believe really happened, but as I think about it more it is not really that surprising.

A family I know who goes to either Las Vegas or Disneyland every chance they get pulled their kids out of school on Friday and went to Disneyland for the weekend. This was not surprising because they go their so often and becuase they always seem to pull their kids out of school from one lame reason or another.

The real shocker to me was that just two weeks ago, one of the parents was telling everyone that they don't eat fruit and vegetables very often any more because they can't afford them. I found that statement shocking when I heard it becuase they didn't seem to have cut back in any other areas of their life. The kids still seem to have a soda in their hands everytime I see them and they have not cut back on their consumption of beer.

I undestand that fruit and vegetables are expensive. I often have an internal struggle when I am at the grocery store as to wether or not I should be buying the fruit and vegetables that I buy. I just can't understand why they are so expensive given that so many of them are grown right here in my back yard. For the most part, transportation costs should be very minimal, yet they continue to be expensive.

The last time we went to Disneyland, we ended up spending more than a thousand dollars for the trip. We did not stay at a fancy hotel. We did not even splurge on anything. The two-day park hopper passes for the four of us was the single largets expense. Given this, I know that this family spent a lot more than us. They have one additional child and they really love to eat. They alwayst talk about going to Downtown Disney to eat nice dinners when they are there. And on this trip their second youngest child ordered salmon for dinner one night so I know they were not operating on a shoe string budget.

I just don't understand why they would take a trip like this if they cannot even afford healthy food for their children to eat at home. They must have charged this trip on their credit cards which makes it even worse. Why do people do this? I think it goes back to parents trying to buy the love of their children.

These parents don't really spend a lot of time with their kids. I played catch with their second youngest child one day and the mother said that she was glad that someone was finally playing catch with him. That made me feel sorry for the kids, but also made me angry at the parents. I will admit that I am not the best parent, but how do you not play catch with your child from time to time?

This past summer, while they were still struggling for money they took several trips. They went to Disneyland. They went to Knott's Berry Farm. They went to Great America. Then in December, they went to Disneyland again. I just don't understand how a family who is struggling with money can make three trips to Disneyland in less than a year. How can you justify that? I guess this is just what most families do now which is why their have been so many home foreclosures. People have just gotten irresponsible. They just do whatever they want without thinking about how they will pay for it. It all just makes me mad when I think about it.

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Track Meet

Before I get started, I want to announce a change I am making. I am tired of referring to people in my life with code names, so unless there is a real reason to protect identities I am dropping them. The one exception is that I will probably continue to refer to Tina as The Queen.

Meg had her second track meet this past Friday night. On Thursday night she asked me how she could get faster. I told her that she has done everything she could possibly do at that point because she has been practicing. I told her that the only thing left was to keep telling herself that she was not tired. That she could run faster. That she could pass the girl in front of her. She said that she would try that.

On Friday night, Meg was her typical self. She was full of energy and could not sit still. When they announced her even, the 800M, her and a friend told the coach that they needed to go to the restroom. I don't even think she heard her event announced. By the time they got back the announcer had already given the second call for the runners. I rushed down to her and her friend and told the coach that I would take them to the even. We hurried down to the infield.

The school track coach was just letting the runners do whatever they wanted to do while they waited for the even to start. Meg and her friends were stretching some, doing jumping jacks, doing jump kicks and doing shoulder rolls. Not at all what I would consider the proper warm-up activities. I was just hoping that she was not going to wear herself out before her event.

She had quite a long wait for her event, but the announcer finally called the runners to the starting line. Meg lined up about five runners in from the outside of the track. She got a decent start and made her way to the inside of the track. I thought she was running a great race. She held her pace pretty steady for the entire length. When she was coming around the last turn, she caught up to one of the other runners from her school. They spoke to each other briefly and then that girl picked up her pace and pulled away from Meg.

Meg finished the race in sixth place. I think she was probably the first third grader to finish the race, unfortunately the race is for both third and fourth graders. I am curious to see if she improved her time from the first track meet. It really appeared to me that she ran better this time, even though she finished two places later than her first race. She did a great job.

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Oil is Natural

Rush Limbaugh made a totally ridiculous statement about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He said, "The ocean will take care of this on its own if it was left alone and left out there. It's natural. It's as natural as the ocean water is." What an idiot. He does not understand what he is talking about and is therefore a dangerous person. He has a lot of listeners who just believe what he says is the gospel. They don't research the topics on their own. After all, he calls them ditto heads?

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