The whole city of Saigon is a market. So I found it humorous when dad would say that someone was going to the market. Every available inch of street property is a shop in front and living quarters behind it. Even in the alleys and back roads there are carts set up selling wares. The only exceptions were religious structures, and the government properties like the parks and museums. The areas that were not streets were a cross between sidewalks, parking lots (for motorbikes), and vendor store front. So the pedestrians were just as likely to be walking in the streets as the “sidewalks”.
It was well into the dark hours of the night when we walk through the closing street market leading to grandma’s first apartment. Debris from the market completely littered the street. As we left the alley there was a 12 inch rat (8” body, 4” tail) that scurried across the path. This could have been home.
In the daylight dad showed me where grandma’s last condo was. In the same day he showed me where grandpa’s stamp store was and the place where he met mom. He answered the question of how they met each other. He showed me where he proved that wood was stronger than his ribs and the hospital that grandma took him to afterwards. This was how he got all the stitches in his abdomen.
Dad shared with me stories about how he and his father bonded working the stamp shop and his errands to the post office. He told me about what he had heard about his only uncle that lived outside of Shanghai, where grandpa was originally from. He also shared what he knew about his only cousin. We also covered mom’s side of the family and why there was some bad blood with parts of that side of the family.
Spending time with dad in Vietnam provided an opportunity to see and hear things that I would never have experienced otherwise.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Propaganda and War
In the places I visited in Vietnam the monuments and most prominent displays were of the war with America. There is very little mention of the wars preceding and following the Vietnam War. Meaning little is said about the war with the French (before) and about the war in Cambodia (after) and with the Chinese that followed the Vietnam War. Some of the translations were pretty comical, and clearly not done by fluent English speakers. The translations were much harsher than what one would find in a historical monument in the US. Instead of referring to the Southern Forces in a governmental term the translations often referred to them as the “Americans and their Lackeys” or something else derogatory.
Having a chance to interact with Draftees of the Vietnam War it is not surprising to get the sense that they were not really interested in the political side of the war, meaning they only fought because they had to. Spending time in the countryside brings the understanding that wars are conducted by the rich for the interests of the rich and usually fought by the poor. A rice farmer who is happy to makes enough to have 3 meals a day. His free time is spent socializing with his neighbors and family over a cup of tea. He doesn’t have the money for other options. Why would he care whom he pays his taxes to? Why would any government care what is doing out in his rice patty as long as he was not being disruptive? Yet it is the poor rice farmer who was drafted into the wars. It was the draftee rice farmers that were hit by the 500,000 bombs in the front lines, the victims of environmentally destructive chemicals. What happens when that farmer’s family is slaughtered or mistreated because soldiers are incapable of distinguishing the enemy? This sounds like certain elements of Abu Ghraib doesn’t it?
There are always two sides to every story. Somewhere between the two stories lies that truth. The truth may not be a single absolute point but rather a fuzzy region that resides with elements of both perspectives. As American children in the US educational system during the eighties we were brainwashed to be terrified of the communist specter. We were told that democracy is the best form of government and that almost everything else was evil. Does that kind of remind you of Bush Junior’s “Axis of Evil”? We were told how we were so heavily oppressed by the British so we had this glorious revolution leading us to believe that everyone in the colonies were furious with the tyranny. I got straight A’s in history, so I was pretty good at absorbing the propaganda and repeating it back to the educators what they wanted to hear even being classified as “Gifted and Talented” in that subject. If one has and interest he can find out that the majority of American’s did not actually actively participate in the revolution. The various historical accounts put the Patriot support at less than half of the population. About 20% of the population were Loyalist and actively supported the British. The victors write history.
Communism was the specter that every American kid was taught to fear in the 80’s. In my time traveling through Vietnam and China there really were no immediately visible effects of Communism, of course I wasn’t trying to find any censored websites or have political discussions or anything as aggressively foolish like that. My ex-girlfriend and I went around China without anything that hindered out movement or activities. Like wise in Vietnam. So is it really the end of the world if not every country is a Democracy?
The collapse of every democracy has been decay from within. The majority population feels apathy for the system and when the remaining figure out that they can vote themselves rich. Consider the voter participation rate and the socialistic actions like Social Security. A bunch of 50+ year old legislators vote into effect a policy that says that they pay in for a few years and then collect money for the rest of their lives. A stroke of genius if you were category to benefit, was it an altruistic policy to benefit society?
Having a chance to interact with Draftees of the Vietnam War it is not surprising to get the sense that they were not really interested in the political side of the war, meaning they only fought because they had to. Spending time in the countryside brings the understanding that wars are conducted by the rich for the interests of the rich and usually fought by the poor. A rice farmer who is happy to makes enough to have 3 meals a day. His free time is spent socializing with his neighbors and family over a cup of tea. He doesn’t have the money for other options. Why would he care whom he pays his taxes to? Why would any government care what is doing out in his rice patty as long as he was not being disruptive? Yet it is the poor rice farmer who was drafted into the wars. It was the draftee rice farmers that were hit by the 500,000 bombs in the front lines, the victims of environmentally destructive chemicals. What happens when that farmer’s family is slaughtered or mistreated because soldiers are incapable of distinguishing the enemy? This sounds like certain elements of Abu Ghraib doesn’t it?
There are always two sides to every story. Somewhere between the two stories lies that truth. The truth may not be a single absolute point but rather a fuzzy region that resides with elements of both perspectives. As American children in the US educational system during the eighties we were brainwashed to be terrified of the communist specter. We were told that democracy is the best form of government and that almost everything else was evil. Does that kind of remind you of Bush Junior’s “Axis of Evil”? We were told how we were so heavily oppressed by the British so we had this glorious revolution leading us to believe that everyone in the colonies were furious with the tyranny. I got straight A’s in history, so I was pretty good at absorbing the propaganda and repeating it back to the educators what they wanted to hear even being classified as “Gifted and Talented” in that subject. If one has and interest he can find out that the majority of American’s did not actually actively participate in the revolution. The various historical accounts put the Patriot support at less than half of the population. About 20% of the population were Loyalist and actively supported the British. The victors write history.
Communism was the specter that every American kid was taught to fear in the 80’s. In my time traveling through Vietnam and China there really were no immediately visible effects of Communism, of course I wasn’t trying to find any censored websites or have political discussions or anything as aggressively foolish like that. My ex-girlfriend and I went around China without anything that hindered out movement or activities. Like wise in Vietnam. So is it really the end of the world if not every country is a Democracy?
The collapse of every democracy has been decay from within. The majority population feels apathy for the system and when the remaining figure out that they can vote themselves rich. Consider the voter participation rate and the socialistic actions like Social Security. A bunch of 50+ year old legislators vote into effect a policy that says that they pay in for a few years and then collect money for the rest of their lives. A stroke of genius if you were category to benefit, was it an altruistic policy to benefit society?
Monday, March 2, 2009
Vietnam - Living Conditions
I was pleasantly surprised and not so wonderfully surprised by the living arrangements throughout my stay in Vietnam. My home base consisted of a single room about 12’x10’ including the bathroom. I was very pleasantly surprised that a place costing $200/mo had air conditioning, cable TV, foam bed (no springs), and a refrigerator. The exterior door leading into the complex was a sliding door. The lock on this sliding door would not work from the inside. The bathroom had a sink, toilet and removable showerhead in a 5’x3’ area. The drain hose from the sink deposited onto the floor 2.5’ away from the drain. When the toilet flushed an unexplainable effluent went to a different hose onto the floor and rolled across the floor for 2.5’ before reaching the drain. The effluent was not colored, but was also not a coincidence that it came out only when the toilet was flushed. I tried not to think about why the two events happened at the same time.
At the two hotels we stayed at the night shift slept at the hotel. You could see them sleeping on a mattress or cot either in front or behind the desk. That means a request for a wake up call is useless because the night staff is asleep while customers are sleeping. The first hotel was located inside a 6-story structure, the first story being a large appliance store. You had to walk to the back of the store to get to the stairs leading to the hotel. In the late evenings the store closes and the metal roll-down door prevents anyone from entering. If you are out for a late night you have to open the mail slot and yell\bang hoping that the night staff that is sleeping on the second floor in front of the hotel desk can hear you to open the door.
Uncle’s farmhouse was located in Ben Tre. There is a small, well-maintained road that leads back his home. The road is large enough for two motor scooters to simultaneously travel. The area is lush with foliage, fruit and coconut trees. The area is by the river. There are also lots of ponds of standing water around, perfect for breeding mosquitoes. Being so close to sea level I wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes. The structure is fairly large for the area, about 50’x20’ with one bedroom, a bathroom and a covered kitchen annex. It has three-inch exterior walls and a sheet metal roof. Other than being covered by a grate to prevent intruders the windows are completely open to the exterior environment. The kitchen annex is best described as a covered patio with a large iron stove that burn anything you put into it as fuel. The bathroom had a toilet and a floor drain (no sink). Water is boiled on the stove so that warm water is available in one bucket to mix with the cold water from the other bucket. So each pitcher of water used for the “shower” is a different temperature depending on how good you are at mixing the two solutions. Brushing your teeth works the same way; you just fire away at the floor drain and rinse it afterwards. At night mosquito nets are set up around the sleeping areas.
Cousin’s place was significantly smaller and much poorer construction. The front room’s walls are made of 1”x6” boards with many inches between them exposing the exterior environment. The roof is sheet metal. The entire place is smaller than my one car garage. I have seen barns and sheds in the US of better construction, it is sad to know that hard working members of the family live in such poverty. My guess is the difference is between Uncle’s house and Cousin’s house is having foreign money sponsoring the construction versus all local earnings.
At the two hotels we stayed at the night shift slept at the hotel. You could see them sleeping on a mattress or cot either in front or behind the desk. That means a request for a wake up call is useless because the night staff is asleep while customers are sleeping. The first hotel was located inside a 6-story structure, the first story being a large appliance store. You had to walk to the back of the store to get to the stairs leading to the hotel. In the late evenings the store closes and the metal roll-down door prevents anyone from entering. If you are out for a late night you have to open the mail slot and yell\bang hoping that the night staff that is sleeping on the second floor in front of the hotel desk can hear you to open the door.
Uncle’s farmhouse was located in Ben Tre. There is a small, well-maintained road that leads back his home. The road is large enough for two motor scooters to simultaneously travel. The area is lush with foliage, fruit and coconut trees. The area is by the river. There are also lots of ponds of standing water around, perfect for breeding mosquitoes. Being so close to sea level I wonder what happens when the monsoon season comes. The structure is fairly large for the area, about 50’x20’ with one bedroom, a bathroom and a covered kitchen annex. It has three-inch exterior walls and a sheet metal roof. Other than being covered by a grate to prevent intruders the windows are completely open to the exterior environment. The kitchen annex is best described as a covered patio with a large iron stove that burn anything you put into it as fuel. The bathroom had a toilet and a floor drain (no sink). Water is boiled on the stove so that warm water is available in one bucket to mix with the cold water from the other bucket. So each pitcher of water used for the “shower” is a different temperature depending on how good you are at mixing the two solutions. Brushing your teeth works the same way; you just fire away at the floor drain and rinse it afterwards. At night mosquito nets are set up around the sleeping areas.
Cousin’s place was significantly smaller and much poorer construction. The front room’s walls are made of 1”x6” boards with many inches between them exposing the exterior environment. The roof is sheet metal. The entire place is smaller than my one car garage. I have seen barns and sheds in the US of better construction, it is sad to know that hard working members of the family live in such poverty. My guess is the difference is between Uncle’s house and Cousin’s house is having foreign money sponsoring the construction versus all local earnings.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Vietnam-Silence is golden
The streets are a constant roar of from the motorbikes and other traffic. There is a primitive form of advertisement that occurs in this constant roar. In Nha Trang I heard a car coming from many blocks away. By the time it was two blocks away it was already deafening, clearly above the 90 db required to cause hearing damage. I retreated into the store and covered my ears as it continued to approach. The car was mounted with two huge 5’ bullhorns that it was using to spew out the deafening message. After it passed by the second time I realized why I had not seen anything like it in the US. It is highly ineffective advertisement and they would have been fined for disturbing the peace or something.
In the places speakers are installed such as theme parks they like to use one large speaker and blast the noise instead of separating the delivering into multiple locations of smaller volume.
In the places speakers are installed such as theme parks they like to use one large speaker and blast the noise instead of separating the delivering into multiple locations of smaller volume.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Vietnam-Pollution, Trash
When I arrived at about 11 PM I was taken to a restaurant. There were paper napkins, vegetable, bottle caps, cans and all other sorts of rubbish on the floor. I have seen two or three places like it the US and have turned around and walked out the door. I even dare to say most, of the restaurants in here are like this. In one place I even saw a pet bird about 2 feet from (and above) the food. Birds are infamous Salmonella (food borne infection) carriers.
I would see not only the customers but the shop employees dumping trash on the floor. Servers would pop the cap off a drink straight onto the floor. Cooks would drop finished beverage containers onto the floor.
When one leaves the city you will see trash all over the roadside, from my observations this is the fault of both the travelers and the residents. They even throw it into their water supply.
My initial impression was that the people had to know what was going on and the long term effect, but they simply didn't care. In my quest towards understanding then was more focused to determine if it was a sense of resignation or if it was something else. As I watched overall behaviors I start to think that for many people this is how it has always been, perhaps that they do not even understand that there could be something better if the environment was cleaner.
I would see not only the customers but the shop employees dumping trash on the floor. Servers would pop the cap off a drink straight onto the floor. Cooks would drop finished beverage containers onto the floor.
When one leaves the city you will see trash all over the roadside, from my observations this is the fault of both the travelers and the residents. They even throw it into their water supply.
My initial impression was that the people had to know what was going on and the long term effect, but they simply didn't care. In my quest towards understanding then was more focused to determine if it was a sense of resignation or if it was something else. As I watched overall behaviors I start to think that for many people this is how it has always been, perhaps that they do not even understand that there could be something better if the environment was cleaner.
Vietnam - Pollution, Air
Vietnam - Pollution, Air
One of the first things that will hit you when you come here from the US is the exhaust fumes and other air pollution. While it is very similar to what I have experienced in the other 6 Asian cities I have been to the difference for me was that there was escape in this situation. My initial reaction has been that these are poor countries that can not afford the expenses of pollution control on their vehicles, factories and other habits. I also figured that people may get used to it too. I still think both of those points are still pieces of the puzzle and have expanded beyond that during my time here.
I spend about 6 hours on the back of a motorbike during my trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and then down to Ben Tre. To add to that the driver was also a smoker so I got a bonus dose of pollution. There were many fires burning near the roadside, I believe that these are because there is no trash disposal. At the farmhouse in Ben Tre they had an annex kitchen that used an iron stove that burned any fuel available. That fuel may have been coconut leaves, husks, stems, various vegetation or possibly even trash. The problem was that the design was poor and did not provide enough venues for the smoke and gases so a good portion of it went back into the house. The next day we went around on motor bikes again and finally returned in private car that a cousin arranged for us. Unfortunately the car was not properly sealed so the exhaust was coming in the back of the car for all 3 hours. When I got back to Saigon there was a heavy smoker in the room next door, 3 feet away. We were separated by a sliding door in each room. So the whole room smelled like smoke.
By this time my senses were fried, I could not smell or taste anything except pollution. I think this validates my initial impression that people especially smokers do not even really notice the pollution. These 3 days of severe air pollution exposure would also mark the start of my health failure, which I never recovered from while in the country.
One of the first things that will hit you when you come here from the US is the exhaust fumes and other air pollution. While it is very similar to what I have experienced in the other 6 Asian cities I have been to the difference for me was that there was escape in this situation. My initial reaction has been that these are poor countries that can not afford the expenses of pollution control on their vehicles, factories and other habits. I also figured that people may get used to it too. I still think both of those points are still pieces of the puzzle and have expanded beyond that during my time here.
I spend about 6 hours on the back of a motorbike during my trip to the Cu Chi tunnels and then down to Ben Tre. To add to that the driver was also a smoker so I got a bonus dose of pollution. There were many fires burning near the roadside, I believe that these are because there is no trash disposal. At the farmhouse in Ben Tre they had an annex kitchen that used an iron stove that burned any fuel available. That fuel may have been coconut leaves, husks, stems, various vegetation or possibly even trash. The problem was that the design was poor and did not provide enough venues for the smoke and gases so a good portion of it went back into the house. The next day we went around on motor bikes again and finally returned in private car that a cousin arranged for us. Unfortunately the car was not properly sealed so the exhaust was coming in the back of the car for all 3 hours. When I got back to Saigon there was a heavy smoker in the room next door, 3 feet away. We were separated by a sliding door in each room. So the whole room smelled like smoke.
By this time my senses were fried, I could not smell or taste anything except pollution. I think this validates my initial impression that people especially smokers do not even really notice the pollution. These 3 days of severe air pollution exposure would also mark the start of my health failure, which I never recovered from while in the country.
Vietnam- Traffic
Navigating traffic here can best be described as continuously playing a slow motion game of chicken. There are thousands of motor scooters at any intersection, mixed with cars and trucks. The motor scooters pay very little attention the stop lights, the cars sometimes stop for them and trucks usually obey them. They have crosswalks painted but no one pays attentions to those either so the pedestrians enter the fray at their peril. I wonder why they waste the money on the paint (the labor is really cheap so they probably don't care about that). Put that amalgamation together and you will end up with a real mess when a couple of cars or trucks get caught in the middle between lights.
About 1% of the vehicles drive on the "wrong side of the road" meaning they are driving counter traffic on the same side that the traffic is traveling in the other direction. When one attempts to turn in a vehicle or cross the street on foot it is a matter of slowly continuously moving across the street. The hope is that people will go around you because it is very rare to actually find an opening in the traffic to cross the street. A few people will use the hand like a policeman's stop sign meaning that they have no intention of stopping, please don't run into them.
What saves them is that the traffic only moves at 30 km/h here. That is slow enough for people to stop. On the highways is that the max speed is 50-80 km/h depending on the size of the vehicle. Ironically the larger the vehicle is the faster it is allowed to go. This makes road trips very slow.
About 1% of the vehicles drive on the "wrong side of the road" meaning they are driving counter traffic on the same side that the traffic is traveling in the other direction. When one attempts to turn in a vehicle or cross the street on foot it is a matter of slowly continuously moving across the street. The hope is that people will go around you because it is very rare to actually find an opening in the traffic to cross the street. A few people will use the hand like a policeman's stop sign meaning that they have no intention of stopping, please don't run into them.
What saves them is that the traffic only moves at 30 km/h here. That is slow enough for people to stop. On the highways is that the max speed is 50-80 km/h depending on the size of the vehicle. Ironically the larger the vehicle is the faster it is allowed to go. This makes road trips very slow.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Vietnam-Homecoming
A few minutes into the flight from Saigon I can feel the effects that the air processing systems are having on the air. My sinuses start to dry up and clear out the congestion that the wet polluted air that had inflicted on me. I could breath again! They say that smokers start to repair lung tissue as soon as they stop smoking. It may have been partially psychological but I think that the drier cleaner air really did help. I am usually a healthy creature but that environment completely wrecked my system.
24 hours after leaving tropical Saigon I arrive at the CVG airport to be greeted by flurries, no luggage (which I won't get before tomorrow), and no taxies even after I call for one. We soar home at the wonderfully not congested highway as speeds the awesome highway speeds of the Cincy. I live in the northwest of downtown (technically I don't live downtown). As we roll into the outskirts of downtown there are only a handful of cars and no pedestrians roaming around in the cold. This is a drastic contrast from the extremely noisy 30 km/hr bustle of Saigon.
There have been times when I had thought that a few more people\shops right by my house. I am now very happy that the revitalization of downtown is happening half a mile from my house. I appreciate more than ever that there are relatively few people and noise in my area of town. Sure that revitalization could easily spread over to my area but that will be a few years, by then who know I might have a need to become a surbanite.
I arrive home to a 45 degree house and can see my breath. That is the maximum temperature you should have a refrigerator at, it is also a fairly safe temperature to make sure you pipes don't freeze in the basment. It's good to be home.
24 hours after leaving tropical Saigon I arrive at the CVG airport to be greeted by flurries, no luggage (which I won't get before tomorrow), and no taxies even after I call for one. We soar home at the wonderfully not congested highway as speeds the awesome highway speeds of the Cincy. I live in the northwest of downtown (technically I don't live downtown). As we roll into the outskirts of downtown there are only a handful of cars and no pedestrians roaming around in the cold. This is a drastic contrast from the extremely noisy 30 km/hr bustle of Saigon.
There have been times when I had thought that a few more people\shops right by my house. I am now very happy that the revitalization of downtown is happening half a mile from my house. I appreciate more than ever that there are relatively few people and noise in my area of town. Sure that revitalization could easily spread over to my area but that will be a few years, by then who know I might have a need to become a surbanite.
I arrive home to a 45 degree house and can see my breath. That is the maximum temperature you should have a refrigerator at, it is also a fairly safe temperature to make sure you pipes don't freeze in the basment. It's good to be home.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Disappearing guest
In the freshly fallen snow this morning I saw a set of paw prints leading up to my front door. The last paw print ended about 3 inches from my front door. No other tracks could be seen on my staircase, surrounding bushes, flower pots etc. They did not look like bird prints so I ruled out flight. I wonder where that animal went and how it got away without leaving any prints.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Atlanta Perks
In Atlanta I get upgraded to a full size Dodge Charger, because I am a member of National’s Emerald Club. I quickly learn that it has a lot more power than my little Carolla and takes more effort to keep in the lane because of the size and power difference.
When I travel I try to do things that I can not do at home. I arrived late and started seeking out Vietnamese food, that is something that Cincy really does not have. The GPS was able to find a restaurant but it doesn’t know if it is open or not. Since it is 9PM on Sunday Lunar New Year’s Eve the restaurant was closed. There is a Latino pool hall next door and I end up having an authentic Mexican sandwich for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner. I arrive at the Factory at 10:30 PM and wander around the parking lot in the dark. Both security shacks are vacant so I end up calling into the factory to get someone to let me in, thank goodness for cell phones and good planning on my part. The boilers are not functioning properly so I setup a mobile office and do computer work while I am waiting. As the it hits midnight, the turn of the new year all the e-mail messages are shifted from the “today” box to the “last week” box. It is strange to be cranking away and everything you have been working on for the past hour happened “last week” because it became Monday. At about 3 AM I give up and decide that the boilers are not going to work anytime soon so I go to the hotel to sleep. At 6 AM I receive a call and let it go into voicemail as I slowly roll toward the other side of the room. The voicemail says that the boilers and they expect me to be at the factory at 6:30. I smirk because it is a 15-minute drive into the factory and I have to get checked out and dress in 15 minutes. When I arrive at the factory I am told that I get to wait for our product to make it to the front of the queue. At about 10 AM we get started. I am glad that they expected me there at 6:30, surely I would have gotten sluggish if I didn’t have that 3.5 hours to get warmed up to help them with the new product. This may be a bit extreme for the people reading from outside the industry. Unfortunately this happens very often, in all of the various organizations I have worked for\with. The one redeeming thing is that my presence there made a difference.
I leave the factory to go to another hotel that is much closer to the airport so that I don’t have to get up as early in the morning. At the front desk they give me a cookie and a box of chocolates because I am a Hilton Honors member. Thing is I didn’t even realize that Doubletree was part of Hilton, but who was I to argue with a warm cookie and chocolates. My room is by the elevator and I get a knock on the door with someone saying it is room service. I tell them through the door that I didn’t order room service and they say that they have a gift for me. In my younger day I would have opened the door, before hearing another traveler’s tale. I heard a story where the guest was stabbed; robbed and bound by an intruder that forced his way in when the door was opened. So I looked through the peephole, which does not give enough visibility to really tell anything other than that it was a black dude that was probably bigger than I was. I asked him to leave it outside the door. As I watched him leave and heard him knock on the next door saying “Room service!” I unbolted my door and stopped. My sense of caution said that it could still be a rouse he could just be pretending to have gone away and awaiting the door to open. So I called the front desk and asked them if they had anyone delivering “gifts” to guests under the call of “room service”. The front desk knows nothing about it and the manager comes up to investigate. The delivery person sounds like he is a few doors down now so I crack the door grab the bag. It turns out to be a tin with Doubletree cookies. The note inside says it is a thank you for being a Hilton Honors member. How about that a box of chocolates, a cookie at check in and a tin of cookies delivered to your room just for being a Hilton Honors member? I think they could have not freaked out the guests by either giving the tin of cookies at the front desk or giving us warning that someone was coming.
I go and sleep for a couple hours awaken by call from California from a person who keeps a bit of an unusual schedule. I look on the internet and find a place to go swing dancing that night and then leave the hotel in search of some Vietnamese food for Lunar New Year’s day. Again after a half-hour of driving I show up to another restaurant that is closed next to another pool hall. So no Asian food for me New Year’s Eve or Day. When I make it out to the Swing dance I realize that I am far too tired to really even be interesting in expending the energy to dance with the ladies.
When I travel I try to do things that I can not do at home. I arrived late and started seeking out Vietnamese food, that is something that Cincy really does not have. The GPS was able to find a restaurant but it doesn’t know if it is open or not. Since it is 9PM on Sunday Lunar New Year’s Eve the restaurant was closed. There is a Latino pool hall next door and I end up having an authentic Mexican sandwich for Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner. I arrive at the Factory at 10:30 PM and wander around the parking lot in the dark. Both security shacks are vacant so I end up calling into the factory to get someone to let me in, thank goodness for cell phones and good planning on my part. The boilers are not functioning properly so I setup a mobile office and do computer work while I am waiting. As the it hits midnight, the turn of the new year all the e-mail messages are shifted from the “today” box to the “last week” box. It is strange to be cranking away and everything you have been working on for the past hour happened “last week” because it became Monday. At about 3 AM I give up and decide that the boilers are not going to work anytime soon so I go to the hotel to sleep. At 6 AM I receive a call and let it go into voicemail as I slowly roll toward the other side of the room. The voicemail says that the boilers and they expect me to be at the factory at 6:30. I smirk because it is a 15-minute drive into the factory and I have to get checked out and dress in 15 minutes. When I arrive at the factory I am told that I get to wait for our product to make it to the front of the queue. At about 10 AM we get started. I am glad that they expected me there at 6:30, surely I would have gotten sluggish if I didn’t have that 3.5 hours to get warmed up to help them with the new product. This may be a bit extreme for the people reading from outside the industry. Unfortunately this happens very often, in all of the various organizations I have worked for\with. The one redeeming thing is that my presence there made a difference.
I leave the factory to go to another hotel that is much closer to the airport so that I don’t have to get up as early in the morning. At the front desk they give me a cookie and a box of chocolates because I am a Hilton Honors member. Thing is I didn’t even realize that Doubletree was part of Hilton, but who was I to argue with a warm cookie and chocolates. My room is by the elevator and I get a knock on the door with someone saying it is room service. I tell them through the door that I didn’t order room service and they say that they have a gift for me. In my younger day I would have opened the door, before hearing another traveler’s tale. I heard a story where the guest was stabbed; robbed and bound by an intruder that forced his way in when the door was opened. So I looked through the peephole, which does not give enough visibility to really tell anything other than that it was a black dude that was probably bigger than I was. I asked him to leave it outside the door. As I watched him leave and heard him knock on the next door saying “Room service!” I unbolted my door and stopped. My sense of caution said that it could still be a rouse he could just be pretending to have gone away and awaiting the door to open. So I called the front desk and asked them if they had anyone delivering “gifts” to guests under the call of “room service”. The front desk knows nothing about it and the manager comes up to investigate. The delivery person sounds like he is a few doors down now so I crack the door grab the bag. It turns out to be a tin with Doubletree cookies. The note inside says it is a thank you for being a Hilton Honors member. How about that a box of chocolates, a cookie at check in and a tin of cookies delivered to your room just for being a Hilton Honors member? I think they could have not freaked out the guests by either giving the tin of cookies at the front desk or giving us warning that someone was coming.
I go and sleep for a couple hours awaken by call from California from a person who keeps a bit of an unusual schedule. I look on the internet and find a place to go swing dancing that night and then leave the hotel in search of some Vietnamese food for Lunar New Year’s day. Again after a half-hour of driving I show up to another restaurant that is closed next to another pool hall. So no Asian food for me New Year’s Eve or Day. When I make it out to the Swing dance I realize that I am far too tired to really even be interesting in expending the energy to dance with the ladies.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Standard of living
A key point of fiscal management is living beneath one’s means. Thus having a cushion for emergencies, investments and savings. I think my ability to do this exceptionally well stemmed from being an immigrant that had two extremely hard working parents. They worked multiple jobs simultaneously and were able to do things for four hungry kids that I would never have been able to do nearly as well. Seeing them work 16 hours a days so that we could eat made helped me understand why I could not have a lot of things that I wanted as a child. I think that cleaning other people’s houses for money at the age of 6 also helped me with this appreciation. As I got slightly older into my mid elementary school years I stopped asking for things because usually the answer was no and I understood why. It was simpler to not desire things I did not need.
My good friend in college called me the king of owning nothing. I left college with 8 boxes that I shipped and a carload of stuff. In retrospect many of those boxes were books from college that I probably did not need. When I left St. Louis I had 2000 # of stuff in my one bedroom apartment. The mover asked if I was a bachelor, I asked if it was that obvious. He said that the average one bedroom apartment has 5000# of stuff. I left my 3 bedroom house in California with 2500# of stuff. Now I have a chainsaw and other interesting lawn tools, saws and other stuff that I have very little use for in a townhouse. Alas, I am amassing more and more junk.
In California my ex-girlfriend had bought me 2 folding chairs with cushions because she thought I was too Spartan (though she did not say so). Apparently the uncushioned folding chairs I had were not good enough.
I know used to I have a very high tolerance for not having comforts or pretty things. These are things that many would consider necessities, the same people may never have lived a Spartan lifestyle though. My life seems to be transitioning to one that requires more…luxuries. As I travel more and more of the world I have seen a lot of hostels with a vast range of lack of amenities. The ones that are heavily lacking bother me much more than they used to.
When I got to Cincinnati I lived in a very bad part of town in a dump for a few weeks. I was forced into this situation because I was waiting on a real estate deal and did not want to pay $2000 a month for temporary housing, this was one of the few places that would allow me to go month to month. I cut and ran before the month was over accepting the loss as sunk costs. The bathroom with the ceiling falling on me while I was in the shower and the banging pipes that woke me up every night were too much for even me to deal with.
This weekend I bought a $40 leather chair and I really like it. A few years ago I would not have done this unless a girlfriend asked me to. A few years ago my butt would not have gotten stiff from sitting on the cushioned folding chair. I started wondering what has brought about these changes. Am I getting soft? Perhaps I am just getting old.
My good friend in college called me the king of owning nothing. I left college with 8 boxes that I shipped and a carload of stuff. In retrospect many of those boxes were books from college that I probably did not need. When I left St. Louis I had 2000 # of stuff in my one bedroom apartment. The mover asked if I was a bachelor, I asked if it was that obvious. He said that the average one bedroom apartment has 5000# of stuff. I left my 3 bedroom house in California with 2500# of stuff. Now I have a chainsaw and other interesting lawn tools, saws and other stuff that I have very little use for in a townhouse. Alas, I am amassing more and more junk.
In California my ex-girlfriend had bought me 2 folding chairs with cushions because she thought I was too Spartan (though she did not say so). Apparently the uncushioned folding chairs I had were not good enough.
I know used to I have a very high tolerance for not having comforts or pretty things. These are things that many would consider necessities, the same people may never have lived a Spartan lifestyle though. My life seems to be transitioning to one that requires more…luxuries. As I travel more and more of the world I have seen a lot of hostels with a vast range of lack of amenities. The ones that are heavily lacking bother me much more than they used to.
When I got to Cincinnati I lived in a very bad part of town in a dump for a few weeks. I was forced into this situation because I was waiting on a real estate deal and did not want to pay $2000 a month for temporary housing, this was one of the few places that would allow me to go month to month. I cut and ran before the month was over accepting the loss as sunk costs. The bathroom with the ceiling falling on me while I was in the shower and the banging pipes that woke me up every night were too much for even me to deal with.
This weekend I bought a $40 leather chair and I really like it. A few years ago I would not have done this unless a girlfriend asked me to. A few years ago my butt would not have gotten stiff from sitting on the cushioned folding chair. I started wondering what has brought about these changes. Am I getting soft? Perhaps I am just getting old.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Set in my ways
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.
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.
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.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Mentoring
I started mentoring about 4 months ago. I thought that I would be signing up for a program where have a one-on-one relationship and can help guide a kid through life. The program I signed up for is so short of male volunteers that I got 4 mentees. I have to figure out what to do with 4 high school kids now. I had these grand dreams of grooming and instilling my wisdom on one child with a lot of one-on-one time. Well that just won’t work out for 4 kids because I don’t have that much free time. Even after finding out the large ratio I decided to commit to the one year program.
I am to spend a minimum of one session a month with the kids and help them with the Capstone project.
The program is supposed to teach the kids a variety of life skills including money management (saving) and career selection. The first session was just to see who would actually showed up. I got 3 random kids that would not end up being my mentees. We talked about hopes, dreams and what they wanted to do with their lives. It was fascinating talking to them because I could hear an echo of my thoughts through these kids. I could hear myself thinking the exact same thoughts when I was their age. Then life beat many of those thoughts out of my head. I asked all of them how many hours they wanted to work each day; all three of them said 14-16 hours a day. You get the idea of what kind of answers I would get the rest of the evening.
The third session was on Election Day November 4th. The mentees asked me whom I voted for and I explained to them that it is a secret ballot and choose not to tell them. Not wanting to cut off the lines of communication I did explain to them how I selected my candidate. I explained to them that it was the selection of the lesser of two evils. All candidates are trying to get votes at election time, so the promises are always to make people happy and upset as few people as possible. The two presidential candidates had huge spending plans and did not do a sufficient job of explaining where the money was coming from. I explained that it is a zero sum game, the money has to come from somewhere and that would upset some group of voters so candidates spent very little time identifying the funding. The mentees are 10 graders studying civics in school and heavily supportive of Obama. One of them sits up proudly and says he knows where Obama will be getting the money. I encourage him to tell the group. He says that Obama will tax big business. So I ask him “Is this a good idea?” I can tell by the body language of the mentees that they seemed to be very eager to agree with this source of funding. The surface level thinking is “Sure it doesn’t come out of my pocket”. I tell them that big business is not a bottomless pit and that companies must make a profit. I ask them what happens if the company can no longer make a profit? Are there other countries that have lower taxes? I asked them what happens if a company decides that they should no longer be based in the US? I noticed a definitely deflated body language. I asked “Do you think it is a good idea to increase taxes on business?” Not expecting an answer I help them understand that we can not spend more than we make or else we end up in very heavy debt, like the country is in right now.
Even though I am not able to mold one disciple into thinking the way I do, perhaps I still can do some good to a larger group. The effect may not be quite as deep on any one child, but maybe it will be enough to guide them through life.
I am to spend a minimum of one session a month with the kids and help them with the Capstone project.
The program is supposed to teach the kids a variety of life skills including money management (saving) and career selection. The first session was just to see who would actually showed up. I got 3 random kids that would not end up being my mentees. We talked about hopes, dreams and what they wanted to do with their lives. It was fascinating talking to them because I could hear an echo of my thoughts through these kids. I could hear myself thinking the exact same thoughts when I was their age. Then life beat many of those thoughts out of my head. I asked all of them how many hours they wanted to work each day; all three of them said 14-16 hours a day. You get the idea of what kind of answers I would get the rest of the evening.
The third session was on Election Day November 4th. The mentees asked me whom I voted for and I explained to them that it is a secret ballot and choose not to tell them. Not wanting to cut off the lines of communication I did explain to them how I selected my candidate. I explained to them that it was the selection of the lesser of two evils. All candidates are trying to get votes at election time, so the promises are always to make people happy and upset as few people as possible. The two presidential candidates had huge spending plans and did not do a sufficient job of explaining where the money was coming from. I explained that it is a zero sum game, the money has to come from somewhere and that would upset some group of voters so candidates spent very little time identifying the funding. The mentees are 10 graders studying civics in school and heavily supportive of Obama. One of them sits up proudly and says he knows where Obama will be getting the money. I encourage him to tell the group. He says that Obama will tax big business. So I ask him “Is this a good idea?” I can tell by the body language of the mentees that they seemed to be very eager to agree with this source of funding. The surface level thinking is “Sure it doesn’t come out of my pocket”. I tell them that big business is not a bottomless pit and that companies must make a profit. I ask them what happens if the company can no longer make a profit? Are there other countries that have lower taxes? I asked them what happens if a company decides that they should no longer be based in the US? I noticed a definitely deflated body language. I asked “Do you think it is a good idea to increase taxes on business?” Not expecting an answer I help them understand that we can not spend more than we make or else we end up in very heavy debt, like the country is in right now.
Even though I am not able to mold one disciple into thinking the way I do, perhaps I still can do some good to a larger group. The effect may not be quite as deep on any one child, but maybe it will be enough to guide them through life.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Are you smarter than a 4th grader?
Today I recalled an elementary school contest/assignment, as I was considering how fast dry ice disappears out of our Styrofoam coolers at work.
Essentially there were no other instructions for the class contest other than the objective. The contest was to see who could build the best design to slow the melting of an ice cube. I am pretty sure the word build was in the assignment. The teacher had not told us how the designs would be judged.
If you are like me take some extra time and have some fun designing it in your head. I would like you to stop and take two minutes to think about how you would do it before you continue reading.
My 4th grade design was to take polystyrene foam (normal people would call it Styrofoam) and create an insulated box. Bind the box with glue to make the seals. Take that box and wrap it with insulating film and tape that up. Before the final preparations water was put in the container and then seal it. The whole thing went in the freezer and became an ice cube in the freezer.
The teacher took the designs out of the freezer that morning and gave us the results later in the day. The teacher said that the way the winners were judged was by the size of the ice remaining when she saw it later in the day. The second and third prizes went to two people that just used a store bought cooler. That irritated me a lot because the assignment specifically said to build something. Depending on how you looked at it either they cheated, were really lazy did nothing and grabbed the cooler at the last moment. The alternative way of looking at it was that they were brilliant and managed to get away without doing the assignment and got a really good grade and prizes for doing nothing!
So that brings me to the first place. Guess who came in first place? Everyone had started with whatever sized and shaped ice cube they put in the design. The teacher was so excited that my ice cube was almost the same size as when it started. I pondered this skeptically, thinking wow I am better than I thought. When I got given back my design realized that there was definitely a difference in perception. The cube inside my design was about the size of an ice cube coming out of a tray. The glue did not hold up to the melting process well and fell apart, letting the melt water leak out of the container. Since the teacher had not specified on the size of the ice cube I had broken no rules and felt no need to inform her of this. She never asked what size it started as. Mine just happened to be a bit bigger. I was definitely not willing to be beaten by the cheaters that put no effort into the project. What the teacher did not understand was that originally the ice cube would have been 3 times that size.
The moral of story is to be very precise with your specifications.
Essentially there were no other instructions for the class contest other than the objective. The contest was to see who could build the best design to slow the melting of an ice cube. I am pretty sure the word build was in the assignment. The teacher had not told us how the designs would be judged.
If you are like me take some extra time and have some fun designing it in your head. I would like you to stop and take two minutes to think about how you would do it before you continue reading.
My 4th grade design was to take polystyrene foam (normal people would call it Styrofoam) and create an insulated box. Bind the box with glue to make the seals. Take that box and wrap it with insulating film and tape that up. Before the final preparations water was put in the container and then seal it. The whole thing went in the freezer and became an ice cube in the freezer.
The teacher took the designs out of the freezer that morning and gave us the results later in the day. The teacher said that the way the winners were judged was by the size of the ice remaining when she saw it later in the day. The second and third prizes went to two people that just used a store bought cooler. That irritated me a lot because the assignment specifically said to build something. Depending on how you looked at it either they cheated, were really lazy did nothing and grabbed the cooler at the last moment. The alternative way of looking at it was that they were brilliant and managed to get away without doing the assignment and got a really good grade and prizes for doing nothing!
So that brings me to the first place. Guess who came in first place? Everyone had started with whatever sized and shaped ice cube they put in the design. The teacher was so excited that my ice cube was almost the same size as when it started. I pondered this skeptically, thinking wow I am better than I thought. When I got given back my design realized that there was definitely a difference in perception. The cube inside my design was about the size of an ice cube coming out of a tray. The glue did not hold up to the melting process well and fell apart, letting the melt water leak out of the container. Since the teacher had not specified on the size of the ice cube I had broken no rules and felt no need to inform her of this. She never asked what size it started as. Mine just happened to be a bit bigger. I was definitely not willing to be beaten by the cheaters that put no effort into the project. What the teacher did not understand was that originally the ice cube would have been 3 times that size.
The moral of story is to be very precise with your specifications.
Drafted!
Tis the season to be jolly! A time to celebrate. So what happens when no one want to organize the festivities? Conventional wisdom would say that you let the people that are willing to do the work have the fun and everyone else can reap what they sow. An admin had a different take on this. By gosh we are going to make them celebrate whether they want to or not! So the solution was to encourage people to work on the planning committee. So what do you say to an admin when he pulls you aside and personally encourages you to do something? Well I guess that would depend on how painful it would be and how interested you are in the organization. It did not even take more than 3 or 4 sentences for me to understand the situation and for me to complete his thoughts. So I was ready to enlist as soon as he popped the question. I figured it could not be that painful and I would much rather spend my political capital on the important issues I have a habit of bringing up all the time.
Although no threat was ever needed to be made an intelligent person always knows that these invitations have the implied connotation of you know what’s good for you. I accepted so enthusiastically that I practically jumped up and down (almost). Those that have heard my some of my more floral speech patterns know I can make quite a show. In hindsight I have thought up a few more colorful statements that would have made the speech quite fluffy and impressive, but what was presented was not bad for being conjured up in an impromptu moment.
Being the rational critical thinker I immediately start asking the specifications as soon as I am done stating how energized about being able to volunteer for such a fantastic opportunity. I am told we have no funding for this task. While it is similar to how I will be elected to the HOA board, the difference is there will me no money to execute this task. Life is always simple when you have no options; conversely this task will be easy. The choices are do not spend any money or do not do anything. Wait it gets better. We are not supposed to ask for donations either. So do not spend any money and make sure you do not let anyone help you.
The admin that had encouraged me to be on this committee has decided that he will not be on the committee. The number one practice from "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership" is “Model the way”.
Although no threat was ever needed to be made an intelligent person always knows that these invitations have the implied connotation of you know what’s good for you. I accepted so enthusiastically that I practically jumped up and down (almost). Those that have heard my some of my more floral speech patterns know I can make quite a show. In hindsight I have thought up a few more colorful statements that would have made the speech quite fluffy and impressive, but what was presented was not bad for being conjured up in an impromptu moment.
Being the rational critical thinker I immediately start asking the specifications as soon as I am done stating how energized about being able to volunteer for such a fantastic opportunity. I am told we have no funding for this task. While it is similar to how I will be elected to the HOA board, the difference is there will me no money to execute this task. Life is always simple when you have no options; conversely this task will be easy. The choices are do not spend any money or do not do anything. Wait it gets better. We are not supposed to ask for donations either. So do not spend any money and make sure you do not let anyone help you.
The admin that had encouraged me to be on this committee has decided that he will not be on the committee. The number one practice from "The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership" is “Model the way”.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Don't push that button!
Do you remember all the cartoons where the character is specifically told not to push the red button? In my quest to make my computer do things it has never done with networking before I was going through various folders that I really should not have been messing with. I found one that looked like a pretty globe and executable in a folder marked relating to networking. I knew it would do something…of course I really did not know what it would do. Knowing a button will do something creates an almost irresistible urge to press it. So of course the hero of the story pushes the little button that the little voices in his head whisper that he might not want to push it. After about 15 second a nasty error box pops up and says something to the effect that whatever our hero was trying to do did not work. A few moments later another program does not respond as our hero is working on something else. So the solution to many-stalled program is to hit the control-alt-delete and invoke the powers of the task master. Another big nasty error message pops up and says that the Administrator has revoked the task master. I own the computer. There is no Administrator; the closest thing to one is the owner of the computer. I didn’t tell it to revoke my override powers…what the xxxx? In an age of phishing, viruses and other malicious software my thought between error message, stalling programs and modifications of my admin powers our hero starts to feel a bit of anxiety. Our hero almost never panics and has survived at least 3 life threatening situations because of this personality. Luckily this was not a life threatening issue although it was a bit stressful. His ability to think critically and rationally in the time of stress allows him to discover that his regedit (the soul of Windows) has been modified and manages to fix that portion of the problem without completely destroying his system.
So the take away message is that if you put something that looks interesting in front of our hero and do not tell him what it does he will play with until it works or it breaks.
So the take away message is that if you put something that looks interesting in front of our hero and do not tell him what it does he will play with until it works or it breaks.
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