I have been warned not to wait too long in life to find a partner because I may get set in my ways. The concern is that I may no longer be tolerant to different quirks.
My cell is next to a more experienced lady that recently joined the organization. I am the age of her children. Because of our proximity many of the questions and training fall to me by default. I like to tell her that there are many ways to do things, and mine is the only right way. She gets a chuckle out of this.
This weekend I had two experienced visitors come visit me and stay for the weekend. They drove the whole 11-hour trip. The first night offered to give them a walking tour or a drive of downtown to Newport. I warned them that it would be a 2.5-mile walk through each way and also noted that since it was 68 F that it was the nicest weather they would have during this visit. They elected to walk. We saw a lot of downtown as I shared a wealth of historical information on the regions and structures with them. We saw the largest mobile model train set in the world. This display had been set up every year for over 60 years. We finished the tour at Newport on the Levee at a seafood restaurant and had the best view in the place of downtown Cincy. The guests elected to take a cab home.
The next day the guests rolled out of bed at 11 and we went to Krohn’s Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. We spent part of the afternoon there looking at the flowers, fruit trees, bonsai trees and finally a Christmas performance. Next we went to a pond-side view that overlooked the Ohio River and enjoyed the view of Newport before strolling around the pond. Next we went to Union Terminal, a magnificent train station build in the 1930’s. Inside we observed the structure and murals on the ceiling. It is still an active train station for Amtrak and also houses a number of museums plus an IMAX that we did not enter. We went to my grocery store to pick up groceries and show them the wonderful inventions and items that I had influenced. Returning home I cooked up a gourmet 2-course meal.
The third and final day of the visit started with a tour of City Hall, then a cathedral. Next we walked over to my organization where I showed them my cell and lab. In the lab I provided them with awesome samples of new inventions that are not even available on the market yet. We spent the late afternoon looking at pictures before going to dinner at an Irish Pub.
I continually condition myself to become a good leader. I believe of part of being a good leader is to identify behavior that need to be changed and immediately implement corrective actions so that the feedback is timely and relevant. This is not always the best choice of actions for a home environment, especially with guests that one has known for 30 years. During these 3 days of guests I noticed that there were certain activities in the house, which were not done the way I would like them to have been done. It was a real mental exercise for me to remind myself that it really was not that important and that it was ok.
Maybe I am getting old; at least I still have the discipline to keep my eye on what is important.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Texas the land of spice and everything nice
I land in the 70 degree Texas weather saying ah what and good place to be in the winter. I had check the weather and it was 70ish all of the previous week too so I came prepared for this balmy weather. I am greeted at the airport by my lovely hostess airport that chauffeurs me to their castle. Within the castle I am greeted by a 13.9863-year-old young lady who I had never met before but is pretty much my niece. Throughout the evening she would make sure that we all knew that someone was having a birthday next Thursday. After the 6th reference to it that evening I get the point. This continues throughout my weekend stay, sadly when Thursday rolls around I have moved through a couple more cities and end up in a different state and time zone. So I end up forgetting so that I can’t even tease her about it properly. I’m such a bad uncle, I think I need to convince my siblings to have more kids so that I get more practice.
My first meal in the castle starts with a salad that my niece prepared. A hungry person had gotten to all the pickles in the salads and ate them all before they were served; the family has an affinity for pickles. Next came homemade bread with olive oil and pepper as we awaited the spiced carcass to be prepared. The dead organic flesh is spiced to provide a bit of heat. I had practically forgotten that other people serve spicy food because spicy food is pretty much nonexistent in the Cincy. So the surprise was took a second to get used to. Throughout the rest of the trip in Texas I would seek out food with spice, even the food that I did not expect to have heat was spiced. I was one happy camper and started to wonder what I was doing in the bland Midwest.
I left Austin and got out of the car in Dallas where the temperature was 28 F! Holy cow it’s colder in Texas than it was in Cincy! The next morning I am still in denial that is so cold so I only wear a collared shirt and my coat. The offices are not well heated and the production floor is intentionally kept cold for quality reasons. The second day in Dallas I get over my denials and put on the little warm clothing I have. Remember I packed for 70 F weather. It is too late because I started to get sick in Monday’s weather and incubate it until Friday afternoon when I succumb to the illness.
On Tuesday night found an opportunity to go swing dancing. There was a great turnout with lots of lovely college ladies included in the mix. They thought I was also a college kid. It must have been my stunningly fit body that keeps maintains my youthful appearance. On the flight to Cincy the stewardess also thought I was a college kid.
I have always liked Texas and still do, good food, pretty ladies, warm weather (sometimes), and a nice southern accent.
My first meal in the castle starts with a salad that my niece prepared. A hungry person had gotten to all the pickles in the salads and ate them all before they were served; the family has an affinity for pickles. Next came homemade bread with olive oil and pepper as we awaited the spiced carcass to be prepared. The dead organic flesh is spiced to provide a bit of heat. I had practically forgotten that other people serve spicy food because spicy food is pretty much nonexistent in the Cincy. So the surprise was took a second to get used to. Throughout the rest of the trip in Texas I would seek out food with spice, even the food that I did not expect to have heat was spiced. I was one happy camper and started to wonder what I was doing in the bland Midwest.
I left Austin and got out of the car in Dallas where the temperature was 28 F! Holy cow it’s colder in Texas than it was in Cincy! The next morning I am still in denial that is so cold so I only wear a collared shirt and my coat. The offices are not well heated and the production floor is intentionally kept cold for quality reasons. The second day in Dallas I get over my denials and put on the little warm clothing I have. Remember I packed for 70 F weather. It is too late because I started to get sick in Monday’s weather and incubate it until Friday afternoon when I succumb to the illness.
On Tuesday night found an opportunity to go swing dancing. There was a great turnout with lots of lovely college ladies included in the mix. They thought I was also a college kid. It must have been my stunningly fit body that keeps maintains my youthful appearance. On the flight to Cincy the stewardess also thought I was a college kid.
I have always liked Texas and still do, good food, pretty ladies, warm weather (sometimes), and a nice southern accent.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Two things that don't mix
When a person is coughing, sometimes it is a good idea to drink cough medicine. Especially if he has a date in a couple of hours. Vitamin C is also supposed to be good for ill people. Orange juice is a good source of vitamin C and cough syrup taste awful. When the bottle of cough syrup is citrus flavored one would think that if you mix the cough syrup with the orange juice then it would be a palatable. It does not quite work out that way instead of having a 3 gulps of nasty cough syrup, you now have 16 fl oz of nasty orange juice.
I did find that if you chase the cough syrup with skim milk that gets rid of the taste pretty well.
I did find that if you chase the cough syrup with skim milk that gets rid of the taste pretty well.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Am I fat?
One of the questions a guy can never win is when a woman asks him if she is fat. No matter what the answer is he will end up in the dog house. So it becomes a matter of selecting an answer that does the least amount of damage.
According to WebMD and the bio mass index (BMI), I have crossed the threshold are reached to point of being “overweight”. I ponder this and the implications to the statistics. Am I living in denial or do I really need to change my life style to fit into a one-size-fit all ranking system? I still can meet the government standards for physical fitness standard for a high school senior. Knowing that I am in better shape than many of my peers does not prove anything because one could be physically fit and fat at the same time I guess. WebMD they does say that a huge portion of my peer group is “obese”, the next category that I can strive to fall into after successfully achieving “overweight” status.
So can we depend on the government to set proper standards for us? The government also tells my industry that 29.573 times 8 is 240. They dictate that this will be the number that will be recognized by the government. Well yes if you round it off by quite a bit it is 240. They government also states that you are not supposed to label something with more product that you deliver. So they contradict themselves. Is one supposed to put the additional material in the container because the government cannot do multiplication properly? In an industry where 1% profit is doing well, what happens when the different regulators interpret that differently?
Since the goverenment likes to contradict itself perhaps I am both fat and out of shape.
According to WebMD and the bio mass index (BMI), I have crossed the threshold are reached to point of being “overweight”. I ponder this and the implications to the statistics. Am I living in denial or do I really need to change my life style to fit into a one-size-fit all ranking system? I still can meet the government standards for physical fitness standard for a high school senior. Knowing that I am in better shape than many of my peers does not prove anything because one could be physically fit and fat at the same time I guess. WebMD they does say that a huge portion of my peer group is “obese”, the next category that I can strive to fall into after successfully achieving “overweight” status.
So can we depend on the government to set proper standards for us? The government also tells my industry that 29.573 times 8 is 240. They dictate that this will be the number that will be recognized by the government. Well yes if you round it off by quite a bit it is 240. They government also states that you are not supposed to label something with more product that you deliver. So they contradict themselves. Is one supposed to put the additional material in the container because the government cannot do multiplication properly? In an industry where 1% profit is doing well, what happens when the different regulators interpret that differently?
Since the goverenment likes to contradict itself perhaps I am both fat and out of shape.
Monday, December 1, 2008
Gifted
Since Thanksgiving just passed I thought the subject of being gifted was appropriate. It is human nature to want to be important. Being significant is defined differently by each person but the need is always there after the basic needs are fulfilled (air, water, food, shelter etc).
As hard as it is to believe life does have a way of beating me down to thinking I am merely normal and like everyone else. After trudging through life I start to think that merely average. It is what happens when I live in my head for too long and think that the world is, as I perceive it. Then something happens that reminds me that I am special, gifted and blessed. The first time I was reminded this year was by a random front line worker that I was helping in a factory. She came to me with a mathematical question and I worked the question out loud for her. She did not respond to my multiple inquires if my logic was correct, during the tutorial. After we had completed the math problem she said that she had no idea how I could do that math so quickly and was amazed. I tend to take silence as acceptance and move on. It is one of my weakness that I have identified and continue working on improving. The improvement is very noticeable but not complete because there are still times when I forget to slow down for the people around me.
Even though many would consider me beyond confidant to the level of cocky, I like to believe that I treat most people as equals. I also have a deep respect for those who have abilities that I do not (music, art etc). In my head part of respect is treating people like they are my equals until they prove otherwise. Unfortunately this leaves a lot of people behind in discussions.
The second reinforcement of my abilities this year was when lunch buddy of mine noted that I was like “Quocapedia”. Every time he would go look up a reference that I had made during lunch to some fact, he would find my statement was validated. So he actually started believing me. The same lunch buddy likes to talk and would later in the year he made a statement that I disagree with every one of his positions. In retrospect I should have said: “I do not!” That would have been funny. I actually recall one instance that he swayed my opinion. It was something I never even knew existed before the discussion so does that really count?
The most important reminder of how blessed I am would be when I hear about two people much less fortunate than I. The first is a person that I have met who takes 40 medications and gets her blood treated on a weekly basis. That is someone that is deathly ill and not that old. The second person was run over by a drunken kid in a truck. The 24 year old victim had his face shattered, body disfigured, limbs crippled and in extreme pain. He has no job skills and no spouse. I will be very difficult for him to get that education that he did not value before the attack, because he is constantly in pain or on pain medication. His options for unskilled labor are very limited since he is crippled. Despite the laws about discrimination against people with disabilities, in the real world it still happens. This is especially true if the person is severely disfigured.
I am grateful that I can eat as much as I want, do not live in fear, I can stay warm. I am blessed to be very intelligent, healthy and have a family that loves me.
As hard as it is to believe life does have a way of beating me down to thinking I am merely normal and like everyone else. After trudging through life I start to think that merely average. It is what happens when I live in my head for too long and think that the world is, as I perceive it. Then something happens that reminds me that I am special, gifted and blessed. The first time I was reminded this year was by a random front line worker that I was helping in a factory. She came to me with a mathematical question and I worked the question out loud for her. She did not respond to my multiple inquires if my logic was correct, during the tutorial. After we had completed the math problem she said that she had no idea how I could do that math so quickly and was amazed. I tend to take silence as acceptance and move on. It is one of my weakness that I have identified and continue working on improving. The improvement is very noticeable but not complete because there are still times when I forget to slow down for the people around me.
Even though many would consider me beyond confidant to the level of cocky, I like to believe that I treat most people as equals. I also have a deep respect for those who have abilities that I do not (music, art etc). In my head part of respect is treating people like they are my equals until they prove otherwise. Unfortunately this leaves a lot of people behind in discussions.
The second reinforcement of my abilities this year was when lunch buddy of mine noted that I was like “Quocapedia”. Every time he would go look up a reference that I had made during lunch to some fact, he would find my statement was validated. So he actually started believing me. The same lunch buddy likes to talk and would later in the year he made a statement that I disagree with every one of his positions. In retrospect I should have said: “I do not!” That would have been funny. I actually recall one instance that he swayed my opinion. It was something I never even knew existed before the discussion so does that really count?
The most important reminder of how blessed I am would be when I hear about two people much less fortunate than I. The first is a person that I have met who takes 40 medications and gets her blood treated on a weekly basis. That is someone that is deathly ill and not that old. The second person was run over by a drunken kid in a truck. The 24 year old victim had his face shattered, body disfigured, limbs crippled and in extreme pain. He has no job skills and no spouse. I will be very difficult for him to get that education that he did not value before the attack, because he is constantly in pain or on pain medication. His options for unskilled labor are very limited since he is crippled. Despite the laws about discrimination against people with disabilities, in the real world it still happens. This is especially true if the person is severely disfigured.
I am grateful that I can eat as much as I want, do not live in fear, I can stay warm. I am blessed to be very intelligent, healthy and have a family that loves me.
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