Author Archives: Admin

different worlds

I took another step into the social media world the other day.  I joined LinkedIn.  I can’t say that I did so willingly or enthusiastically. I’ve known about LinkedIn for quite a while but I’ve resisted joining for my own reasons.

The whole thing was precipitated by a serious inquiry that came into our website.  The client wanted to connect through LinkedIn.  Normally other people in the office would deal with this but they were busy so it fell to me and I had to register to begin the conversation.  The first thing that struck me is that I have never had anything to do with LinkedIn and yet I had over 200 connection requests already waiting for me.  What’s more LinkedIn wanted to take a peek into my mail contacts and social contacts to add more people.  I bypassed this option and cropped through the requests taking only the ones that looked familiar and ignoring the rest for now.

Some people might find it odd that I want to keep my professional and social lives apart but to me they have little intersection.  My professional life deals with many technical subjects that my friends and family don’t really know all that much about.  On the work side, the people who I deal with are mainly consummate professionals.   They eat, breathe, and sleep their jobs and don’t really like to share their home life.  In some cases I don’t really know anything about them.

To me social media has always been a more private affair that dealt with my life outside of work.  Something that was for family and friends.  To my peers I am someone who is interested in movies, writing, science fiction, and various other things.  To my co-workers and business contacts I am the guy that provides them reliable service and advice.

The only intersection between the two worlds is me.

So how will this play out in the long run?  My aim is to try to keep these worlds separate as much as possible.  I know that the two sides can be successfully integrated and can even enhance each other in some ways.  But I value my home life and I feel a line has to be drawn between the two.

knowing when to commit

An email arrives at the website general email address.

A possible sales inquiry.

Everyone looks it over.  They agree that I would get the honor of answering it.

“Looks like a possibility.” says one of my colleagues.

After reviewing it I frown and explain that it doesn’t look that great to me.  He reminds me that we need to look  at all of these inquiries as possible sales and have to try our best.

I agree.  Each and every one of these inquiries could lead to a possible steady client, maybe even a fortune in revenue for the company.

But I’ve been around the block.  I don’t claim to be the greatest salesman ever born.  Truth be told I lack some of the innate qualities that salesmen need to be really good at this game.  But still, I’ve picked up a few things over the years.  Some of those things are warning me about this inquiry.  They’re saying that this is not going to be a sale and that it is in fact a waste of time.

I know that they all expect me to go all in on this inquiry and spend all my attention on this just as I would for a known client that’s been coming to  our company for years.  That’s what I always do but so many things tell me that this is a dead-end.  Little things pop out from the email, niggling little details that run up red flags for me.  The way the potential client words the email, the lack of details, just the way that the whole thing is put together.

I will willingly commit myself to new business opportunities, to personal challenges, even to new dating opportunities.  But I need to feel that at the very least I have the slimmest of chance of succeeding.  In this case I see nothing of the sort.

I mean I’ve even gone in blind into situations where I didn’t know anything about my chances of success.  Even into situations where the odds looked bad and conditions were unfavorable.  Sometimes it was a business proposal, or sometimes scaling down a cliff, or asking someone out.  I’ve been in those positions many times.  But something would always tell me “take the chance, maybe its worth a try.”

This time though, this email said to me “no, this is not going anywhere”

But I’ve promised to do my best.  So I take the task to heart and try my best.  A week later and several emails back and forth it turns out that the potential client is an elderly shut in and had no money and just wanted someone to chat with about professional matters.

I get the satisfaction of knowing that I was right but that really doesn’t make up for the time lost.

cooking up a storm

[Author’s note:  This is an edited and expanded version of a note that I wrote back in 2007.  My diet no longer allows me to eat this way except for special occasions.  Some days I think that more’s the pity]

I’ve been dicing garlic and onions.  Cutting the potatoes and bell peppers length wise and chopping parsley.  Now comes the meat.  Am I in over my head?

Maybe it’s because of the cold January weather or maybe it’s pure nostalgia but I was sitting on the couch flipping through the TV channels early on a Saturday morning when I settled on the cooking network and they had Paula Deen cooking some recipes from her childhood when I suddenly got the whim to make something myself.

With the cold wind and the gloomy weather I decided to try my hand at an “Ajiaco“.  This is a Chilean soup (or possibly it may be considered a broth) for cold weather days and this miserable day certainly qualified.  I looked on Google for a recipe.  At first I wasn’t even sure how to even spell it but I found something that sounded familiar and I printed out a recipe list and headed out to HEB, the local supermarket.

The store has been open for less than an hour.  I picked up all the stuff needed for the recipe and on a whim a bottle of wine.

Problem.

Apparently you can’t buy wine this early in the morning.  Stupid law.  So I put it back and take off with the rest of the items and pass by Whataburger to get a breakfast taco to tide me over while I cook.

Chilean cooking can be at best described as comfort food and at worst it’s a dietician’s nightmare.  Simple preparation, simple ingredients, and lots of it. One particular dish comes to mind, “Bisteq a lo pobre”, or poor man’s steak.  This is a plate that comes with:  A steak, rice, fried onions, french fries, sausage, beans, chimichurri sauce, and is topped off by a fried egg (or two), all for one person.

Remember that this is a country that until fifty years ago was primarily composed of miners, farmers, fishermen, and ranchers.  Not people who are looking for subtle hints of flavors, or small portions, or impressive plating techniques.  Just serve it all up with a large glass of red wine and keep it coming.

Urban Chileans rarely eat this way anymore.  Although restaurants do exist that cater to this type of home cooking, it is becoming harder to find and in some circles it is frowned upon as a relic of the past.

Back to the recipe.  I’ve cut the meat into long strips and placed it in the broiler to brown it.  Most of the cooking will take place on the stove top.

In a pot I put the onions and garlic with some butter to brown and soften.

Or burn.

I turn round for literally a second and I swear the damn thing is smoldering already.  My mother always called electric stove tops “treacherous appliances that can’t be trusted”  She swears by her gas stove top.  More likely though she would prefer to go back to the wood burning stove that her mother cooked on and that she grew up with.  Thinking of that reminds me of when I was a little kid and would be home from school, sick.  My mother would sometimes let me watch shows like “The frugal gourmet” or “Great chefs of New Orleans” with her on the local PBS station.  Fond memories.

It’s not quite ruined but I do remove some of the worst blackened bits.  I think it can still be saved.  I add cumin and oregano and three cans of beef stock and three cans of water.  Then come the potatoes and the strips of beef.  Now to let it simmer and wait.  About 20 minutes in and I add the bell pepper strips.  More waiting.

I remove the lid and look in the pot.  Doesn’t quite look like I remember.  Thinking about it now, I think this is sort of like a Pho but with potatoes instead of noodles.  Almost forgot to add the parsley.

The potatoes are soft so they must be done.  I taste the broth.  Definitely not mother’s cooking but then again what is.  This is a common complaint among all humanity.  No one, no matter who it is will ever replicate your mother’s cooking.  Nostalgia is that one ingredient that is missing any recipe and that can’t be bought in any supermarket for any price.

I shrug and ladle it up.  On a cold miserable day like today it’s welcome in my stomach.

I do wish I could replicate some of her more complicated recipes like the desserts.  She would take a can of condensed milk and on the embers of a dying barbecue let it slowly cook overnight.  The result was a caramel like jam that she would spread liberally on one side of a sponge cake mass and then she would carefully roll it up into a roll and slice and serve with powdered sugar.  It’s called “brazos de reina” or Queen’s arms in Spanish.

Maybe one day I will be able to cook like this.

keeping up with the joneses

So Google Glass came out for sale to the public for one day.  Instead of jumping on the bandwagon I blinked.

I’ve been excited about the possibilities that wearable computer technology poses.  Really it’s an inevitable step forward that is going to come one way or the other.

Wearable communications have been in the public imagination since the days of the Dick Tracy comic back in the 30s.  The idea of having communications gear that you could wear makes sense.  Having to carry a cell phone, even the tiny ones available today, can be a hassle at times.

The wearable computer has had a longer and harder road.  Back in the 2000s some folks at some big universities got laughs as they outfitted themselves with headband cameras, and slings carrying clunky batteries and laptops as well as arm mounted keyboards.  They looked ridiculous but the idea was sound.  To allow a user to access computing power on the go.

Smartphones like the Iphone were the next step.  The communications infrastructure had to do some catching up but I think we’re getting there.  Still, carrying and consulting a device that you have to take out and store or that can be lost or stolen is limiting.

What developers are trying to get to is what is called augmented reality.  Being able to use technology to see the world in a new way with more context and more information at your beck and call.  You can currently do this on some smartphones with some programs but it’s very limited in scope and of course you have to point the smartphone at the object.

Getting back to Google Glass, I don’t think that they’re quite there yet.  I think that the technology can be improved, the available bandwidth from carriers can’t quite yet support the information needs of people, and lastly I don’t think that the programs are there to support the full potential that these devices represent.

In short I don’t see the positive argument for participating in Google Glass yet or for that fact in any wearables at the moment.  But the fact that Google Glass is going for $1500 at the moment makes it particularly unappealing to me.  Just too much money for something that will be vastly improved upon in the near future.

And wearables are the future.  But the future isn’t quite here yet.  I will let this opportunity go for now and quietly watch from the sidelines and cheer for any successes.

Enter title here

Sometimes finding topics to write about gets to me.  Trying to cover things that I haven’t covered before.  Getting an idea and seeing I did it last year or thinking that I hadn’t expressed a thought and seeing that I really had.

Then on top of that, life tosses me the occasional curve ball.  Some project at work eats up all my time, or some domestic crisis erupts and not only do I not have the time to write but I can’t stop to think and to come up with new ideas.

You lose the urge to write or you start churning out substandard stuff.  What to do?  Could always wake up early or go to bed late and try to make time to write.  But that type of writing usually results in substandard material.

Really the only thing to do is to forgive yourself for the occasional lapse.  Take that extra weight off your shoulders and get on with the more pressing matters.

You will write again.  You really will.  But this time, this one time let it go.

It’s not the beginning of a downward slide or the end of the world.  Like all of life, writing is cyclical.  You have your good and bad times.  Some weeks you have tons of ideas and you line them up for publication and can’t wait to release them.  This time it just happens that you have no ideas.

Learn to live with it.

The importance of being Earnest review

Classical Theater Company (CTC) closes out its season (an all too short season in my opinion) with my favorite Oscar Wilde play, “The importance of being Earnest”.  I’ve previously covered the Dr Faustus performance back in February.

Typically CTC will tweak classic plays to make them more contemporary and relevant to current events.  They chose to do “Hamlet” with a nod to the controversy of the NSA surveillance scandal that was going on at the time.  With “Earnest” they didn’t really tweak it as the play takes place in 1895 and is pretty relatable to today’s audience.

“Earnest” was Wilde’s masterpiece and forms the basis of many of the romantic comedy movies of the last 75 years.  The misunderstandings, the unspoken loves, the complications are all elements to fans of romantic comedies.  Besides that “Earnest” held up a mirror up to Victorian society and exposed some of the ridiculous but all too real opinions and mindsets of the upper class of the era.

The play opens up to Algernon (or Algie) lounging at home.  Algie is a lazy and overprivileged young man.  He doesn’t work and spends all his time pursuing carnal pleasures.  He is expecting his Aunt and his cousin to visit for tea when his friend Ernest from the country shows up.  Ernest is similar to Algie in that he also doesn’t work and lives off his investments.

Ernest is pining for Algernon’s cousin, Gwendolyn, and wants to court her but Algie objects due to an incident in the recent past.  Algie found Ernest’s cigarette case and it is inscribed “To Jack from his little Cecily”.  At first Ernest pretends that this is his aunt but finally confesses that Cecily is his ward and that his name is really Jack.  He has been assuming the name Ernest in order to visit London and lead a double life.  Far from being horrified, Algie congratulates him for his “bunburying” as Algie calls it.  Algie has been doing the same thing but in reverse.  He assumes the name Bunbury while visiting the country to carouse and carry on.  Ernest tells him about his ward, Cecily, and Algie is determined to meet her but Ernest won’t give him his country address for fear that Algie will corrupt her.

Algie’s aunt, Lady Bracknell, arrives with Gwendolyn.  While Algie  distracts his aunt Ernest asks Gwendolyn to marry him.  She readily agrees but when the subject of his first name arises, she confesses that she loves the name Ernest and would not accept being married to a “Jack”.  He then determines to get his name changed at the first opportunity.  Lady Bracknell returns.  She objects to the engagement due to the fact that Ernest is an orphan and was left in a handbag at Victoria station.  As he cannot account for his lineage, Lady Bracknell determines that he is unacceptable and leaves.  Gwendolyn promises to marry Ernest even if she has to run away.  Ernest gives her his address in the county while Algie listens in secret.  Algie calls his butler and gets ready to visit Cecily in the country.

Act 2  begins in the country.  Cecily and her governess, Miss Prism, are in the garden preparing her lessons and discussing “Uncle Jack’s” worthless brother Ernest and his latest escapades.  Miss Prism disapproves of Ernest but Cecily is thoroughly fascinated.  Algie arrives.  He tells everyone that he is Ernest and has come to see his brother Jack, knowing very well that Jack is in London.  Miss Prism won’t leave them alone but Reverend Chausable arrives and asks Miss Prism out for a walk.

Cecily is fascinated by Algie and tells him that she is quite disposed to marry him.  Algie finds himself unexpectedly smitten but when the subject of names comes up it turns out Cecily also adores the name Ernest too and won’t marry him otherwise.  Algie decides to get himself re-christened by Reverend Chausable.

Meanwhile Jack arrives in mourning clothes.  He has decided to “kill off” his fake brother Ernest.  He tells Miss Prism and the reverend that his brother died from a cold in Paris.  He asks Reverend Chausable to re-christen him Ernest in honor of his brother.  Cecily and Algie arrive and Jack is forced to accept Algie as Ernest or else expose the charade.

Act 3 begins with Gwendolyn arriving in the country.  She has run away to be with her Ernest.  She meets Cecily and they both find out that they are both engaged to “Ernest”.  After getting into a huge argument, Jack and Algie arrive and they have to explain the whole farce to their respective fiancées.  Both Cecily and Gwendolyn are furious at being lied to.  They break off their engagements.

After making apologies and both pledging to be re-christened Ernest, the men manage to assuage their fiancées anger and restore the engagements.

Just as all seems well, Lady Bracknell arrives looking for Gwendolyn.  She still opposes Gwendolyn’s engagement.  Algie tells her of his engagement to Cecily and she opposes this until she finds out how much Cecily stands to inherit.  But now Jack objects.  As her guardian he won’t allow the wedding unless Lady Bracknell approves his nuptials.

Miss Prism arrives and Lady Bracknell recognizes her.  It turns out that decades earlier Miss Prism left a handbag with a baby in Victoria station.  At first Jack thinks she is his mother but Miss Prism corrects him on this point.  At this moment Lady Bracknell informs Jack that he is in fact the son of her sister and is therefore Algie’s older brother.  Though she knows Jack was named for his father she can’t remember his first name.  After some research, they determine that Jack’s real name had actually always been Ernest and he declares that at last he has realized the  importance of being earnest.

One thing I will say is that CTC missed an opportunity here to relate this to the “Peter Pan Syndrome“.  Both Jack and Algie are prime examples of males that live for the moment and for their selfish pleasures rather than growing up and accepting responsibilities that their contemporaries are embracing.  I feel something could have been done with this.

The play lasted a little over two hours but the jokes came constantly and the time seemed to pass by quickly.  A thoroughly enjoyable experience.  I can’t wait till the next season of CTC begins sometime in the Fall.

Winter

[Author’s note:  This post was delayed by forgetfulness.  I should have posted this months earlier.  Hopefully “Spring” will come out in a few weeks and “Summer” on schedule.]

Normally Winter is no big deal here in the South.  It rarely affects us as much as it does folks in the North.  These past few Winters though have been harsher than most and we have been finding out what it is to be stuck at home waiting out the cold and wind to subside.

The season is supposed to start on the 21st of December but for most people it begins earlier.  I think probably that second week of November is when we mentally enter Winter and we don’t emerge till about late February.

The long cold season means different things to many people.  Some are depressed by the long nights and chilling winds.  Others see it as the beginning of the new year and of possibilities.  To me it’s a sort of state of limbo.  We seem to be caught between finishing the last year and planning for the next.  Plans, ideas, and life are all on hold till the days start getting longer.

Winter has meant long sessions in front of the computer writing, finding inspiration in the darkness that comes earlier and earlier each day.  Shorter and shorter days where I begin work in darkness and end work in darkness.  Somehow I don’t find it gloomy, rather I find it cozy.

This year the cold has been a blessing to my running.  I prefer it to running in the heat and it has meant that I have been able to go longer and farther than I have previously been able to.  At the beginning of the season I felt chilled at 50 degrees but by February I’m going out in shorts and t-shirt in 32 degree weather.  I will miss that as the year progresses.

This break in the year also has allowed and even encouraged my planning for the rest of the year.  As you finish projects and meet goals you find you have extra time and can look at the progress you’ve made and figure out how to build upon that in the coming year.

When you think about it in the correct way then Winter becomes a welcome respite and time to rejuvenate yourself for the days to come.

 

pulling out all the stops

“it’s not a race.  Just keep going at a nice steady pace.”

That was my mantra when I began running and I wanted to encourage myself.  I knew that I couldn’t keep up with more experienced runners or college kids so I had to motivate myself to keep trying even if it seemed like I wasn’t making progress.  Heck, it’s still my mantra on bad days when I have “the lazies“.

Well, forget all that.  Today IS a race!

April 5th at Memorial Park and I’m here at “4 for the park”.  Not a huge race but I’ve been looking forward to this for a while.  I usually avoid crowds when running but sometimes you need to test yourself out against others.  Today I did have to do my best and not just in the sense of just showing up and finishing but really pushing myself hard.

Besides the need to finish the race at the best pace possible, I’ve got another appointment practically right after the race so the quicker I finish the better.

On Saturday morning Memorial Park swarms with runners.  So many times I’ve driven past and seen them and here I was among them.

The local runners are used to these events and pay it little mind.  Since it’s a shorter course some people have already run the trail and are just coming back in.  I don’t do much in the way of stretching.  Four miles isn’t a big deal for me so I really don’t need all that much prep.  I just walk back and forth till it’s almost time and spend my time looking at all the runners in all sorts of shapes and sizes and age ranges.  Some even too young to run but that participate anyways;  kids in “running” strollers being pushed by their parents.  No doubt getting a sneak preview of the trails that they will one day run.

Nearly time and people gather behind a giant inflatable start line.  I look at the mob of people trying to decide where I will line up.  Obviously not the front.  I will just get in the way of all the fast runners.  The tail end has all the beginners and walkers.  I would forever be dodging and going around them.  I find a spot somewhere near the middle with a large empty space.

The start line

The start line

The announcer counts down the last few seconds.  I cross myself and the mob surges forward at a slow pace at first; walking as the first rows get going.  I finally get to the front and start at a slow jog.  Dodging people left and right, looking round for ways around them, trying not to crash into people coming up behind me.

That first mile is always ridiculously long.  You figure you’ve run a long way already and then that 1-mile sign comes up and you realize it’s just beginning but you keep going.  I make the second turn on the course.  Coming in the opposite direction are the race leaders.  Some cheers from the runners around me.   I make the next turn and approach the 2-mile mark.  Gatorade and water ahead.  Some people don’t even try to aim for the waste bins.  I pass it by.

I run over the pedestrian bridge over Memorial Drive.  It suddenly hits me that here is yet another landmark that I had passed so many times by car on my way to downtown or some other location in the loop and here I was on foot.  This is now part of my personal map of places I’ve been.

3-mile mark.  Keep going strong.  I’ve been steadily passing more and more runners and not giving ground but some people suddenly catch and pass me by.  I pick up the pace determined to keep up with them and not fall behind.

Up ahead is an inflatable thing that looks like the finish line.  Is that it?  I speed up, burning hard for the finish.  Someone yells “false alarm!”  It’s not part of the course.  I groan internally and slow my pace and continue to run steadily.

Finally some well-wisher on the sidelines yells “just two more turns and you’re done”.  I look expectantly as the road unwinds and sure enough there it is.

Now, do it now! 

My last burst of speed to finish strong.  I half expect myself to be out of energy after that false alarm but nobody is more surprised than me when I kick it into high gear and practically peel out catching up and passing not just the guy in front of me but several others.  I zip past the finish line and have to brake hard not to run into a crowd of people.

No time to celebrate.  I look for the parking shuttles to get back to the parking lot.

Later I look online for my time. 39 minutes, 6 seconds.  About 9 minute, 45 second per mile.  Not bad but I can do better and next time I will.

bad news

Sometimes you get into a situation where you know a piece of bad news (and I mean really bad news not bad luck or a slight inconvenience) that doesn’t directly impact you but you have to tell someone else that it will affect.  No one likes to hear bad news but I think even more so, nobody likes to deliver it.

Delivering bad news almost makes you feel like you’re to blame for the misfortune.  For my part my stomach gets tied in knots just thinking about giving out bad news.  Knowing that I am about to make someone unhappy, I really don’t want to be the one to deliver it.  Yet it feels as if I’m doing something wrong by withholding the news.  Blurting out bad news just to relieve this feeling is the worst thing you can do.  You might feel better getting it out of your system but the person hearing the bad news might not.

We’re not all alike.

Some of us are made of sterner stuff and can shrug off bad news.  Then again some people fall apart at the slightest downturn.  Deliver the news as you would like to be told?  Not necessarily.  Again you might be much tougher than the person that you’re going to tell.

Consider the situation and the person you are talking to.  If possible recollect how they have received bad news in the past and how they handled it.  Would telling them in a different way work better?

Timing.  For my part I hate getting bad news at the end of the day.  I can’t sleep if I do.  As a rule of thumb it’s best done in the mornings after breakfast.  The body’s needs are met, the mind has shifted from being asleep to being awake and the person’s state of mind is usually at their peak.

Manage the news.  Don’t just blurt it all out like a destructive torrent.  Consider what you are going to say, what the reaction might be, and what you hope will be the reaction.  Tell the bad news but feed it slowly in manageable pieces.

If you care about someone, delivering bad news is a responsibility that you will have to take on some time in your life.  Doing it properly and with forethought is just another way of proving that you care.

today

I was short on reading materials the other day and I decided to re-read some brain candy I had lying around.  When I re-read books I will usually jump in and read chapters that I enjoyed or didn’t understand very well the first time.

In this book I jumped to the last chapter.  This is one of those serial novels that continues on in the next book.  The last line of the book caught my eye:

“Life was good, at least for today”

This got me thinking that this is something that we all need to consider more.

Most of us look at the bad times in our lives and focus in on that.  When people write about their lives they mainly talk about the challenges and hardships that they faced in the past and how that altered their lives, but so much gets left behind.

Sure these moments are important.  They help build and shape our character and if we survive them, they make us stronger.  But living exclusively in those moments of stress and pain and forgetting about the rest of life can warp you over time.  You start getting a dour outlook on life and think that all there is to life is work and sacrifice.

I’m not saying that we should turn a blind eye or ignore the problems of life.  We all have these challenges that we need to overcome in our daily lives.  Getting these things done is a priority.

But sometimes when things are going well, when we’re enjoying ourselves and life’s worries aren’t actively pressing down on our shoulders we should really take the briefest of moments and reflect “Life was good, at least for today.”

Capture that moment in your mind.  Hold it close and don’t let go of it.  Keep it in the back of your mind along with other good moments.  These will help see you through the coming crises and dark times in your life.  They will help offset the bad and let you remember that things will get better.

Life was good, at least for today.  Why can’t we focus more on that.