Advice
Aug/101
This past weekend I headed back home so I could attend my father’s annual poker picnic. I think this was the 5th year for me and the 30th+ year for my dad. The day always starts out with a tournament of skill games including horseshoes, baseball darts, 501 electronic darts, shuffleboard, basketball shooting and a 1v1 card game. Last year I did fairly well. This year I did a better job at eating pickled hot bologna and drinking Coors Light. However, I did learn that throwing horseshoes with a palm-down grip allows me greater flip control. My dad came in second place for the first time (that he can remember). After that set of events we play a round of various team events. That is followed by several hours of poker. I managed to only lose about $30 playing cards and raked in a few hands with pots over $20. It was fun. However, more about doing something with my dad than winning anything.
During our drive I asked my dad a question about his career and his ability to be an affective manager. I asked him to name a few skills/ways of working that enabled him to be successful. I also asked him to name a few areas that held him back from being the best. I think his feedback on places to focus is spot on and valuable for almost any career.
1) Remember people’s names – Walking up to someone and saying “Hey, can you do this” is not nearly as effective as saying “Insert person’s name, can you do this.” The acknowledgment of a name shows personal connection and respect.
2) Stay organized – Not only will you waste time looking for things, you’ll give the perception that you don’t have it all together even if you do.
3) Don’t procrastinate – As hard as it is, do the hard thing first and save the easy for the end. It will pay off.
4) Don’t lose your temper – Taking emotion out of work situations is important in getting to the bottom of challenging situations without causing any damage to the relationship with coworkers.
40% Different
Apr/102
Today I decided to pickup some supplies from a local homebrew supply shop. I normally feel like I’m overpaying when I visit the shop but at the same time I feel it is important to support local business. The support aspect is especially important in the craft/hobby industry. Being that it was Wednesday already there would be no time to make an online order (I would have needed to submit it by Sunday to receive it for the weekend).
I purchased 15 pounds of grain, 3 ounces of hops and 1 vial of yeast. This came to around $51. Considering that this will produce around 5 gallons of a nice pale ale at approximately 7% ABV, not too shabby. That’s is about $1 per twelve ounce beer produced.
I took the same exact ingredients and put them in the shopping cart at midwestsupplies.com which is my favorite place to order homebrew supplies. I even calculated the shipping. The total came to just about $36 which would be a cost of around 70 cents per twelve ounce beer produced.
This means that I paid 40% more than I really needed to pay if I had planned ahead. Convenience has its price I suppose.
Politics, Bison, Masons
Jan/104
- Great job Massachusetts! Scott Brown is going to bring change to Washington. Way to make sure that Congress doesn’t get anything done until at least the mid-term elections. It drives me nuts that you need to have the majority in Congress with a corresponding president. Perhaps I’ve overreacting and there are bipartisan things getting passed all the time. Does anyone know what the last major bill to become law got true bipartisan support? I can’t really fairly gauge how well Obama’s presidency has been going but I can tell you having 41 Republican votes in the Senate isn’t going to help.
- I was totally baffled at the grocery store tonight as to what I should eat for dinner. I wanted something simple that would not result in enough leftovers for 5 days like I normally cook. Tacos came to mind even though I just made some last week. I hate the Acme near me because ground turkey is never on sale and costs over $6 for a package. As I stared at the meat counter I spotted a package of Bison which was $5.99. Bison tacos? Ok. They turned out pretty decent though you can definitely taste that it isn’t beef.
- I really like Nate’s comment about the Masons from the last entry. It was so well written I’m pretty sure he didn’t write it and actually stole it from the Mason’s website or maybe Wikipedia. In any case, I seriously would like to join them irrespective of all the hype about them these days. It sounds like an interesting organization with lots of symbolic brotherhood stuff which I really appreciate and I really ought to do more for the community so it sort of just makes a lot of sense. Being that I don’t know any Masons in Philly, it might be a little difficult to try and join. I’ll at least keep it on the backburner.
- I’m currently reading the book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do by Michael J. Sandel which sounded really good on NPR but is a challenging read because it feels like a college reading assignment. Next will be the latest Michael Crichton novel (which is sort of weird because he died and then they found some manuscript and published it). Then perhaps I’ll read a book by comedian Chelsea Handler (E! nighttime talk show host) – she’s got a new one coming out in March.
- Conan O’Brien needs to go to Fox at 11pm. I will watch him!
- Jay Leno just asked Michael Jordan “can you still dunk” and Michael Jordan said “are you an idiot” and Mr. Jordan is correct.
- I’ve heard that if you cut beer / drinking out of your diet it is the key to getting that extra edge in getting in shape. That makes a lot of sense. It is easy to rack up a bunch of calories quickly and often when you are drinking you find yourself prone to eating anything available. It all makes a lot of sense, but honestly, why would you want to give up delicious brews? I just doesn’t seem worth it.
- Nate suggested that I use a tanning bed to fight the winter blues. Nate, do you remember when I took off my shirt that one time to go tubing down the creek and you nearly went blind from my whiteness? Bad idea. Maybe I can get my UV light by sitting in the basement with some blacklights, listening to The Doors and just chillin’ out.
My Greatest Fear
Oct/091
I don’t know if I’ve ever made this public, but there are very few things I could list that actually scare me. There are plenty of things that make me uncomfortable, but fear is limited in my life. Taking it a step further, I can clearly isolate the thing that scares me the most. I believe I’ve had this same stance since I was in my early teenage years. I’ve never been ableto fully understand why I feel this way, but it is what it is.
My greatest fear is dying.
Do I share this because I recently overcame such a fear? Unfortuantely not. Instead I share because I think I’ve started to appreciate the moment, or perhaps the individual day, or perhaps the hand I’ve been dealt more and more. It’s the least you can do with a fear like that. Several times as of late I’ve found myself taking a large sigh and saying “I really can’t complain” and that is just so true.
It’s not that I don’t believe in dreams and planning ahead. I definitely am doing what I can do make the next potential chapter in my life quite fruitful. I think I have had moments of getting too caught up in the future and it has held me back. I’m constantly learning to balance that all out.
So how does this fear exactly impact my life? From time to time I catch myself thinking about the concept and quite simply as I think about it, I realize I can’t wrap my mind around the concept and it makes me feel uncomfortable. I don’t find this to be particularly irrational but rather a bit frustrating at most. It really is a bizarre paradox; dying that is. I could fall on to the Catholic dogma for relief, but I find it to be a bit under-satisfying. I move forward past the realization of fear by simply telling myself that the concept is so complex that the human brain really can’t comprehend it. I tell myself that I need to appreciate the moment I’ve got.
Perhaps strangely, I don’t yearn for an afterlife. Don’t get my wrong, if one does exist I definitely want to be part of it. But if one exists it is beyond human comprehension so I don’t waste a lot of time trying to figure it out. I’m not sure if my religious upbringing has been a benefit or detriment for this particular fear. Who knows.
Despite this probably common fear, I go back to my sigh. I think about my life and there is no doubt, “I can’t complain” and that is soothing enough for me.
Getting Back
Jun/090
I came up with this weird scenario today involving citizenship, Canada and borders.
So, I was thinking about what I’d do if I gave up my American citizenship, moved to Canada and then wanted to come back to the States during some sort of global disaster where all of the US borders would be closed down. It was weird to picture what it would feel like to not be able to ever visit the places where I grew up. I started to think about how I’d get back into the US. Along the Great Lakes area I think you’d run into a bunch of issues getting back because of the obvious challening bodies of water. If you look closely you’ll see that 40%+ of our Canada border is a lake and/or river (if anyone can find documentation on that percentage please share).
You’d need to head west and probably wander through the forest and try to get deep enough into the interior that no one would question you. I do wonder if we are sophisticated enough to keep a really close eye on these areas. Part of me would like to think we’ve got that technology but that is also a lot of land area to be monitoring and the payoff probably isn’t really worth it. I guess that is part of the reason we need to have a good relationship with Canada so they can keep people out of their country that we wouldn’t want wandering into ours. Thanks Canada.
In any case, this made me feel happy to be an American.
My Terms
Jun/092
I find it very amusing how stubborn and control-dependent I am. Yes, I admit it. If it isn’t my idea or I don’t get a controlling position in the endeavor then don’t count on me enjoying it. I’ve been this way my entire life and can remember back to 5 years old or perhaps younger for examples.
Sometimes I do make exceptions and go with the flow and end up having a great time. However, I don’t learn very well from these times and try to change my attitude. This may turn out to bite me in the ass as it has many times prior, but I guess that is just how my life is played. So far.
This whole concept might seem counter intuitive to some folks because I do receive feedback about how I seem like such a relaxed and go with the flow type of person. While true, I enjoy going with the flow but I prefer to secretly have my hands on the rudder.
One positive step in my quest for constant self-improvement is the fact that in this relationship with Erin so far I haven’t really felt myself letting this controlling tendency affect my participation or enthusiasm in activities. I’d say that so far it has been a pretty equal balance in terms of the activity planning. Speaking of planning, I’m actually not sure how I feel about the concept of planning but I will contemplate that and write about it on another day.
The latest set of activities were varied, fun, interesting and balanced in terms of spontaneity and ownership. Friday night I went to watch her play ultimate frisbee in west Fairmount Park. After the game there was this big cookout thing for all of the teams in the league and it was pretty neat and there was good beer on tap. On Saturday we went to the Phillies game against Boston and I road the subway (first non-Broadstreet Race use of the system). On Sunday we watched various world news programs and then went for a walk through the neighborhoods of the Art Museum/Fairmount district and had an enjoyable lunch at the Belgian Cafe (I had a Chouffe Houblon and she had a beer mimosa made with Avery’s White Rascal and orange juice). If you hear me complain about anything, slap me in the face and tell me to read this and remember how good I have it.
I feel like my previous terms are becoming somewhat irrelavant as I’m more interested in just getting out and doing things versus controlling them. Perhaps my terms are taking on a new definition. It is no longer about control of situations but rather the simple satisfaction of taking advantage of opportunities that keeps me satisfied. I’m curious how this will work over time and I invite the casual observer to keep me posted on alternative perspectives of my attitude towards doing things.
The Wrong Things
Apr/093
I recently made the following statement and I think it is actually very wise.
“It isn’t so much that I know the right things to say but rather that I’ve been able to not say the wrong things.”
I don’t mean to imply that this is only applicable to the current Girl situation, but my life in general. Part of where I’ve gotten is due to the fact that I didn’t say the wrong thing. Of course, there is some luck, fate, experience and skill mixed in there but when it comes to actions, it had been my lack of action or rather wisdom to not act which has given me an edge.
I’ve been called indecisive. I’ve felt inadequate in my ability to be proactive. I’ve missed opportunities because of an innate inability to act or even be aware that I should act. All the same, I like the way I roll. And I’d like to think that when I do act, it is because I feel it is worth it. I’m slightly, well, perhaps overly analytical at times and I’m proud of it.
Centrist
Aug/082
According to some stupid little application on the Facebook, I should consider myself a centrist in terms of political standing. I had to answer 10 questions about economics and policy. Here is the official explanation:
Centrists espouse a “middle ground” regarding government control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention and sometimes support individual freedom of choice. Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind, tend to oppose “political extremes,” and emphasize what they describe as “practical” solutions to problems.
I think this actually describes both my political feelings and how I live my life as well. I don’t like to be polar. I like to keep an open mind but I’m not afraid to have an opinion. I really try to be realistic and practical (even though sometimes I like to push people’s buttons by making bold claims).