USS Midway

So recently, I was lucky enough visit the USS Midway aircraft carrier. What to say?? It was off da hook!


Ship specifics:

• 3500 crew


• Flight deck - 4.2 acres and ~1000 feet


• Displacement - 100,000 tonnes


• The Chief Petty Officer has the best food on the ship, and the captain has to ask permission to visit his living area


• Engine is the same as in the Mighty Mo


• It missed WWII by days --- that must have been TOUGH for the crew!

The tour is self-paced and wickedly informative, so if you are in San Diego, you gotta drop by for sure!

Those are my Two Cents for the day

Money Shot

Every once in a while you snap a photo that is really unique and that you might even think would be worthy of being a screensaver.


This past week, I took one such shot (at least I think so). Taken at about 30,000 feet and just north of San Diego, the photo shows a hurricane-like break in the cloud cover just as the sun was setting for the day.
















Total Money!

That is all I have for Two Cents on this day!

Meow, meow, meow, meow, ..........

Okay, so The Tonight Show features funny ads from papers around the US. Well, I submit for your consideration the following postings on a bulletin board near my house.

Now, in case you can't read the image, here is the background needed:

• The poster on the left tells us of a cat named Chet that has gone missing
• The poster on the right tells us that coyotes have been regularly spotted in the area

Not to take anything away from poor Chet's plight, but is it just me, or his Chet's ultimate whereabouts not staring us right in the face -- well, maybe in this case a bit to the right?

RIP Chet


That is my Two Cents for Today......

Resolutions - February Check In

With today being March 10, 2009, it is time to check in and see how I am doing with my New Year's Resolutions.

With 1/6th of the year under my belt, in theory, I should be at least 1/6th of the way toward reaching any goal truly is tangible. For the more abstract resolutions, things will be far more subjective. For each resolution, I have provided my assessment of my own progress and I have also listed my sense of a next step to address the situation.

As the list below suggests, I still have MUCH work to do. Welcome March, I look forward to getting to know you!

Here we go:

• Reconnecting with French - 2.5%

No update since last month, so half the value of last month.

• Mandarin - 2%

Purchased a new book, and started reading it. Lost my Mandarin tutor for odd reasons (jealous partner), so time to post and ad for a new one.

Next Steps: Read 10 minutes per day; Find new tutor

• Latin Dancing - 0%

No update
Next Steps: Find course

• Sommelier Course - 0%

No update
Next Step: Sign up for next semester's course

• PADI License - 0%

No update, too damn cold right now.
Next steps: Acquire before April trip if temperature warms up.

• Salesmanship - 0% -

Next steps: Find a good training program?

• Run a sub 4:15 Marathon - 0%

Vball and running are not mixing - knees r hurting - will take a week off, then get ready for the Sun Run in April. May have to settle for a sub 1:45 1/2 in Seattle.

• League Vball - 100% -

Timing and hits are coming back - just in time for playoffs!

• 1200 Calories a week - 98%

5500 calories for the month - not enough to make up for last month's shortfall, so not 100% yet.

• Solve Rubik's Cube - 7.5%

Can do about half without cheating
Next Step: Learn the finishing steps

Learn Carbon Financing - 20%

Made a great contact in SFO, and read about concepts in Green Business.
Next Steps: Study the European market

• Build Advent Calendar Quiz - 0%

Next Step: Find three questions this month.

• Appreciate time afforded me - 0%

Still a bit preoccupied and not fully in the moment.

Next step: smarten up!

• Connect with people - 50%

Better eye contact, better focus, and better listening

• Judge less - 100%

Judging very litte - appreciating that people come from different circumstances

• Live in the present - 5%

The past is simply traces of memory, the future projections of thoughts - only the Now is real

• Write my obituary - 0%

Next Steps: Read obits

• Make mistakes; grow from them - 100%

Carrying on with messing up and learning from those events.

• Finish Black Swan - 30%

Nearly 2/3 done - TOUGH book!
Next Step: Finish this month and/or take on trip

• Visit Asia - 2 new countries - 20%

Firm up dates- looks like April. Vietnam and Cambodia under consideration

• Donate to 4 move KIVA projects - 0%

Next Step: Find one project this month.

• Help Charter New Generations - 100%

Attending meetings, keeping up with recruiting efforts.

• $1000 a month idea - 5%

Next Step: Explore blogging as an option

• Emergency Kit for home - 0%

Source list and buy materials


Sadly, that is my 2 cents for the day!

Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime

At one point in my life, a friend of mine shared an amazingly simple, yet exceedingly poignant observation with me. Over the years since she shared her idea with me, it has proven itself to be true over and over again. Today's post is dedicated to this idea.

Put simply, she asked me if I had noticed that people seem to enter your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Here is my crack at explaining the concept.

Reason

Life doesn't come with a road map, and so we are each left to our devices to get through it. We all have lessons to learn, and sometimes bridges to burn (recognize the lyrics anyone?). As we move through life, people will suddenly come onto the scene out of nowhere, and can just as quickly they dissapear. As we reflect on these transients, we may just come to realize that their passage through our life has if taught us something - that is to say they came to us for a reason. Now, whether someone higher up is responsible for orchestrating these entries and exists as though part of a larger plan is not for me to say ... I will leave that for those with a penchant for religious and/or philisophical debate.

I can say, however, that in my life, I have had several Reasons come into my life. In university, one friend was a fixture of my night life for a small period of time. In looking back, the reason for them appearing seems to be that they introduced me to one of my best long term friends. Other examples are people that pop into our lives and teach us a bit about a culture we previously knew nothing about. I have recently learned a bit of Khazakstan thanks to a Reason.

Season

At the season level, people enter your life for a period of time, and then they too move on. The learning afforded us from this group can also be powerful and likely more substantive than that of a Reason.

Why Seasons come to be is anyone's guess. It could be due to a temporary alignment of beliefs. Maybe u went through a punk band phase, or went a little gothic, or just picked up a new interest and/or hobby that introduced you to somebody new. Or, maybe you lived somewhere for a short period of time and connected with someone while there. Either way, the connection doesn't prove strong enough to survive the distance nor will it endure as you move on to new interests and hobbies..

Having led a nomadic life, particularly while growing up, I too have had many Seasons in my time. Among the things I have learned through Seasons are: family pressures to be a successful hockey player can be ridiculous and beyond realistic, quantum chromodynamics is too much for my simple brain, cancer kills - even if you're in your early 20s, and that no form of action figurines have ever placated my need for entertainment!

Lifetimes

Lastly, you have your Lifetimes. These are the ones that, at the end of the day, we consider ourselves very fortunate for having in our lives. What exactly leads to a lifetime relationship is not known to me, but I think it certainly has something to do with genuine respect for one another. After all, to keep the connection going while you and this person's life evolve according to different paths and timelines must be predicated on respect at some level. Otherwise, neither person would invest the time and energy needed to keep things going. But therein lies the true beauty of Lifetimes. That which we work hardest for is often the most rewarding. Healthy long term relationships of any kind should ideally be built on choice, not need. Overt dependence, one on the other can work, but hardly leads to a satisfying arrangement in my mind. The preferred approach is one in which both parties elect to keep the relationship going by each putting forth effort required to weather any life storms. After all, the only glue that connects us is that which we provide ourselves.

From my perspective, this applies equally well to marriages, romances, or friendships.

At this point, only time will tell how many Lifetimes I will be fortunate enought to collect, but thus far I count myself very lucky to have many candidates.

Those are my Two Cents for the day.

Advent Calendar Quiz - Redemption Update

The 2008 Advent Calendar Quiz wrapped up on Christmas Day last year, with a total of 23 drinks owing to quiz players.

Now into the second month of the year, I figured it was about time to redeem some drinks. First stop - San Francisco!

All said and done, three drinks were redeemed, one each for Chris H., Winnie L, and yours truly. See photos below, sadly taken with a BBY camera. Chris' photo is all the worse off given its blurriness.. you see, catching him with a drink is tough as he is training for a female athletic competition -- shhhhhhhhhh!

Now only 20 drinks left and 10 months to deliver!

Now, for the best part --- in Oakland, just before the trip home, I found this money poster outside a bar/restaurant. To be sure, I'm be getting some Saucy Sistah Ale sent up for my next BBQ -- bring on the summer!

Interviews and Picking a Destination

Job Interviews and “Pick a Flight, any Flight”

In my mind, job interviews are a most curious of beast. In many regards they are like a subtle battle, or perhaps even a dance of deception. This may seem a bit odd, but hear (read?) me out.

On the one side, you have the potential hire. He/she’s primary objective will be to convince the hirer that he/she is the proverbial “cat’s ass” that your company simply can’t do without – well at least from his/her perspective. Naturally, throughout the interview he/she will be focused on emphasizing their relevant strengths and hiding all facets of weakness. The ideal image to portray is someone that understands the need at hand, will hit the ground running, and won’t eff up the systems and teams already in place.

On the other side, you have the company doing the hiring. Their role in the process is not unlike walking through a minefield, although in this case, they are trying to find the mines, not avoid them. The mines, of course, are red flags in the potential hire. After all, this is your last chance to find them in advance of the hiring. Questions of the kind listed below dominate a hirer’s thoughts during the interview process:

· Will this person flip out while on the job?
· Can this person meet our needs?
· Will they disrupt our team chemistry?
· Are they here temporarily or for the long haul?

In my mind, the employer is clearly at a disadvantage is this battle/dance. For starters, they can’t ask the questions they want to ask. Wouldn’t it be nice to simply say “will you eff up my company”? Sadly, laws are such that you can’t ask that question, and anyway, what kind of fool would answer that question with anything but “absolutely not!”, or “of course not”, or something similar. And so the dance continues. The employer is further disadvantaged, in general, by the fact that they have little time to prepare for battle. In most organizations, even those with dedicated HR teams, many potential hires are interviewed, and ultimately interviewing is likely to be something that sits on the side of most peoples’ desk. That is to say, it is just one of many, many, things a manager is expected to do. As such, they have little time to dedicate to the process.

In light of the above, it is a wonder that successful matches happen as often as they do. At the end of the day, it is almost as though a company, in hiring a new employee, is voting to elect a politician inasmuch as a clear best choice may not be apparent, but rather you zero in on one who appears to be less of two (or more) evils – in the case of politicians, the least corrupt, and in the case of hiring, the person with the least red flags.

Interesting you may say, or perhaps not, but what in H-E double hockey sticks does this have to do with picking a flight? Well, I have done my share of interviewing over the years – sometimes successfully, other times, not so much. In my experience, I always look for that differentiating quality, that special something that shows you the person has something unique to offer. Given that they can prepare for the interview until the cows come home, I like to throw something completely out of left field at them. One of my favourites is simply this:

“If I were to offer to buy you an airline ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go? The ticket is round trip and you will be there for two weeks”

I am not looking for anything too specific, but I am always looking for a quick answer with some good logic behind it. I want to know how much the person is in tune with what they want from a travel perspective.

So, tonight I wanted to ask myself this very question. Through ironic circumstances, it just so happens that I am staying at a hotel adjacent to my city’s airport. As such, I am facing the flight board in the international terminal building. So, my options are listed below. It is now 10:30pm. Where shall I go?

Phillipine Air - Manila - 23:45
Air Canada - Sydney - 23:45
Mexicana - Mexico City - 23:59
China Airlines - Taipei - 1:15
Air Canada - Taipei - 00:45
Eva Airways - Taipei - 00:45
Cathay Pacific - Hong Kong - 2:00
Somines Airlines - Varadero - 07:00
China Eastern - Shanghai - 11:30
Air Canada - Shanghai - 11:30
Air Canada - Tokyo - 12:20
Singapore Airlines - Singapore - 12:30
Singapore Airlines - Seoul - 12:30
Air Canada - Beijing - 12:50

So, given how much there is to see in the world, I am not the biggest fan of visiting the same place twice. In my case, that means no to Manila, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Beijing. No offence to my Mexican friends out there, but Mexico City and Varadero aren’t high on my “must see” list. Sydney would be nice, and possibly the biggest bang for my buck given the distance, but I’m gonna give it a pass mate. That leaves Singapore, Seoul, and Taipei. Singapore would be great as I have only seen the airport. But, two weeks is too much time in Singapore from what I hear, and I am afraid of the cane (joking). So, down to Seoul or Taipei. Wow, tough call. In the end, I choose Taipei. Why? For these reasons:

· Taipei 101 would be wicked to see.
· I could work on my Mandarin while travelling.
· I would know what to order at restaurants J
· Because I admire the Taiwainese for the way they redefined and turned around their economy – a truly amazing story.

So, for this trip, Taipei wins. But, be sure, I will see Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Mexico City, and Veradero before I call an end to my travels!

Those are my Two Cents for today.