The Journey is the Reward

Signaling Commercial Vehicle Drivers

2010-02-07T11:08:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, I was having dinner with two of my friends who are commercial vehicle drivers and we were talking about the signals that drivers use when passing. Read this and be a better driver.

Signal safe passing.

When you are being passed by a commercial vehicle, you can signal to that vehicle that it is safe to return to your lane by turning your headlights off (keeping your running lights on) for about a second and then turning them back on. The driver will often thank you for this by flashing his read running lights.

A word of warning: Don't signal until the commercial vehicle is completely past you, with sufficient room to pull in safely. Drivers will trust that, if you use this signal, you know what you're doing.

Signal that you're slowing down, fast.

If you need to slow down abruptly for some reason, turn your hazard lights on. This lets drivers behind you know that you have slowed down significantly. Remember that larger vehicles have a longer stopping distance and this extra warning might be the difference between them being able to stop in time or not. Also, if you are driving in hazardous conditions, significantly below normal speeds, you should turn your hazard lights on.

Be aware of something ahead.

If you see a commercial vehicle flashing its brights, that almost certainly means that there is something ahead and that it would probably be a good idea to slow down. This might be an accident, police running radar or slow-moving traffic. Drop the speed down a notch and be careful.

So, Tami and Nathan, how did I do? Is the above accurate? Any more wisdom that you would like to share?

Loyalty Programs

2009-12-30T18:10:00.004-06:00

I'll admit that I do have a weakness for loyalty programs. The allure of points and the promise of free airline tickets, meals, and hotel rooms is enough to get my mouth watering. During my winter cleaning today, I took an inventory of my loyalty programs and decided which stay and which go.

Great:
Delta Skymiles
United Airlines Mileage Plus
American Airlines AAdvantage

With as much travel as I do, it is no wonder that these programs provide the most useful benefits to me. Most of my travel has traditionally been with Northwest Airlines (which was recently acquired by Delta). Delta's Skymiles membership card is the only card that I carry with me consistently.

Delta Skymiles is the only loyalty program that will cause me to consciously alter my spending. Yes, the free upgrades are nice, but as a Platinum Skymiles member, I have access to better reservations support and I get accommodated first in the case of irregular operations. These benefits may not sound terribly important, but when snowstorms hit the midwest and airlines have to decide which passengers to send on the next flight and which get the privilege of staying in an airport overnight, I would much rather be Platinum on Delta than nobody on United.

Bottom Line: These are all staying around as I am actively getting some benefit from each of them.

Marginal:
Office Depot Worklife Rewards
Staples Rewards
Granite City Mug Club
Stomping Grounds and Z'Marik's Punch Cards
Marriott Rewards
Gold Points Plus
Priority Club Rewards
Java House JavaPerks (Iowa City)

Mostly, I am a member of the retail programs above for the periodic coupons that they send out; I can count on Office Depot and Staples to mail me a good coupon every once in a while. Staples previously gave free shipping to its rewards program members, but I don't think that's the case any more.

The Mug Club membership is a little different; it gets me into a reception whenever our local Granite City is tapping a new brew. I am not really a beer drinker (I still have the "One Free Beer" coupon that they gave me when I joined) but I enjoy spending time with my colleagues and this card has more than made up for the $10 I paid for it.

The hotel programs require almost no maintenance, don't spam me and might provide some benefit some day. I believe that Gold Points owes me a free hotel room at a 2-star hotel, so I might cash in on that some time when traveling.

Bottom Line: These programs are probably worth less than $50/year each to me, but I'll keep the membership cards around because they are so low maintenance. However, the next time I move, a lot of these will probably go away because it won't be worth it to update my address for most of them.

Poor:
UPromise
The stack of punch-cards gathering dust

More than anything, U Promise does a great job of promoting its benefits. I would believe that most people for whom some form of post-secondary education is in the cards have heard of it. However, for me, it's been a waste of time. Over the six years I've been enrolled in U Promise, I have accumulated exactly $2.93 in "college savings" which I can only liberate if I open a 529 account.

This housekeeping exercise has taught me that punch cards to places I only go once in a while just aren't worth it. I'm probably not going to go to Fazoli's seven times in the next year and I know that I'm not going to hit Espresso Royale in Champaign, IL another eight times so what's the point of keeping the punch cards?

Most of these cards got tossed immediately.

How about you? Which rewards programs do you participate in? Do you have a threshold for making a loyalty program worth your attention? If so, what is it?

Eliminate The Development Machine to Increase Innovation

2009-08-16T17:27:00.004-05:00

In my quest for knowledge and insight about how great companies are managed, I've been reading "The Google Way" one of the, I'm sure, myriad of books that purports to explain all of the things that make Google amazing.

One of this weekend's insights was the following:

A lot of good ideas (and a few great ones) come from rank-and-file employees.

In a "traditional" organization, many of these ideas are overlooked. Great ideas are supposed to be generated by people tasked with dreaming up the products of the future, the select few "tinkerers" in advanced engineering or some elite department of marketing. These ideas are then evaluated in committee, picked apart, perhaps improved, and documented. The few ideas that survive this process are then given to a marketing organization to see if a business case can be made for these projects.

In an organization like Google, the leadership believes that ideas are generated everywhere. Idea generation is encouraged and expected of all employees. The most obvious way this philosophy shows up is in the policy that engineers may devote 20% of their time to working on their own projects. Some of these projects have died, but some became Google's better known products. Would gMail or Google Maps have died in committee at a traditional organization? Likely; neither has a direct connection to Google's core business of search.

In my organization, most of the good process improvements (by which I mean changes in the way code is developed, not institutionalized processes) came from rogue engineers who were spending time working with tools beneath the radar of management. Software engineering at my division is special in that the developers are given a lot more freedom than in other parts of the company and it shows; many other development centers come to us for advice and are interested in adopting our best practices. Unfortunately, the "product development process" that we use ensures that no product ideas that come from the rank-and-file engineers will see the light of day . . . and I believe that will ultimately cost us as talent goes elsewhere.

How does your organization work? Do you feel like you are encouraged to explore newer and better ways of working? Have any new products come out of your rank-and-file?

Debunking Myths about Public Healthcare - Part 1

2009-08-04T21:47:00.004-05:00

I had originally planned for one huge blog post about public healthcare, but have since decided to split it up into a number of smaller posts, owing to me being quite busy this time of year. I think that it is shameful that we are one of the few (if not the only) developed nations that does not have universal healthcare. The majority of the country wants a public healthcare option (75% according to a recent NBC/WSJ poll . . . Google it). These posts are part of my contribution to the public discussion.

Objection: Countries with universal healthcare make people wait in line for services.

This has been used as a scare tactic for many years. Yes, Canada and other countries that have universal healthcare do ration care. If you need to have an elective procedure, you wait in line until your turn come up. This is not really different than in the United States . . . for a routine physical, I need to schedule an appointment with my doctor at least eight months in advance. My dentist requires six months. I've never had to have non-emergency surgery, but I'm sure that I can't just walk into my local hospital and demand to be serviced that day.

We ration care in the United States, but we don't ration it in a way that promotes the overall health of our population; we ration it based on who can pay the most. That means that, if a millionaire wants a nose job, s/he can and will get care before a poor person who needs cancer screening. Under our system, doctors who do elective plastic surgery make more than primary care physicians who work with patients to keep them healthy. I can't imagine any framework in which this makes sense.

Care should be prioritized/rationed based on what is most effective at keeping people healthy. Countries with a public healthcare system can do this because, under a public system, there is no incentive to chase after a profit.

Oh, Delta (Rant)

2009-08-01T20:31:00.002-05:00

I'm taking a trip out to Seattle to see my cousin, Cody, get married. I'm flying Northwest Airlines, but some of my flights were operated by Delta. Today, the flight (Delta) from DSM to SLC got canceled and my itinerary was replace with the following:

Fri  4SEP Delta 6151*          LV Des Moines, IA    (DSM)  730A Coach
                              AR Cincinnati, OH    (CVG) 1014A
         *operated by Freedom Airlines Inc
Fri  4SEP Delta 1424           LV Salt Lake City, U (SLC)  830A Coach
                              AR Portland, OR      (PDX)  922A
Fri  4SEP Delta 1419           LV Cincinnati, OH    (CVG) 1225P Coach
                              AR Salt Lake City, U (SLC)  212P
Fri  4SEP Alaska Airlines 2142 LV Portland, OR      (PDX) 1030A Coach
                              AR Seattle, WA       (SEA) 1120A

At first glance, I was happy that they still had me getting into Seattle at 11:20am, as I have plans for that afternoon. But, upon closer inspection, they had me getting into Salt Lake City at 2:12pm and leaving at 8:30am.

My question is: How do things like this happen?

Fortunately, Northwest Airlines was able to fix my itinerary with a phone call, but, seriously . . . if this is what I should expect from Delta, I'm not excited.

Travel Deals

2009-06-02T21:22:00.004-05:00

Okay, many people following this blog (surprisingly, there are actually quite a few more than I expected there to be) have expressed an interest in learning how I score awesome travel deals.

This year, I have been on a bit of a travel binge, venturing to Asia twice, Virginia, Seattle, California, Germany, Oregon and (in the coming months) Tokyo, Michigan and Australia.

One of the secrets to traveling cheaply is traveling where the cheap fares lead you. It sounds much less glamorous when put that way, but that's essentially how I travel. Most of the time, I haven't said that I wanted to visit X in Y, but have taken the opportunities to visit my friends when there have been reasonable fares available. (When I do decide to visit a specific person in a specific location, I cash in some frequent flyer miles.)

One of the tools that can help you find cheap travel deals is FareCompare.com's "Top Deals From" tool.

http://www.farecompare.com/maps/compareDestinations.html

Simply enter your origin airport and FareCompare will tell you where you can go (including internationally) for cheap.

Later this summer, I will be doing a bit more blogging on my experiences in certain airports . . . stay tuned.

Back in Germany

2009-05-17T23:27:00.002-05:00

Note: This was originally written on April 25th, on a train from Zweibrücken to München.

Well, I’m back in Germany, for the first time in several years. Since I’ve been travelling all over Asia, some of my German friends had felt that I had abandoned them . . . well, no longer. As I’m writing this, I’m currently sitting on an ICE Train (German Bullet-Train) to Munich, in complete comfort, but without an internet connection.

I’ve missed Germany . . . the food, the trains, the scenery, but above all, the people. Since I’ve been working all week (almost 10 hours/day, plus social outings with my colleagues), I haven’t had much time to think about that . . . and it hit me for the first time when I was on a train to Saarbruecken. There’s something about riding a train that makes me realize that I am actually here . . . in Germany . . . and quite a bit at home.

When traveling internationally, even in a country as safe as Germany, it’s important to do basic things like lock the car when you leave. This is a lesson my colleagues found out the hard way. To make a long story short, this resulted in a trip to the police station on Friday afternoon, with me feeling out a police report. Earlier in the week, I had asserted that the German police were both friendly and professional. Fortunately, this was the case. An experience which might have tainted my colleague’s perception of Germany was turned into a pleasant experience with the German police and disaster was averted. (I even got to sign my name to the police report that I translated it.

One of the things that I need to put on my to-do list is to re-learn how to drive a stick-shift. It’s kind of embarrassing that I am a bit afraid of the things, but, you lose any skill you have if you fall out of practice. Some weekend, I’ll rent a stick-shift car and practice. If I’m going to destroy someone’s transmission, it can be Hertz’s. Then, next time when we go to Germany, I can feel comfortable driving.

Now, it’s off to Munich to see Katha and Nowy.

Updating Multiple Social Networking Sites with Ping.fm

2009-04-05T16:12:00.005-05:00

I have tried to reduce the amount of time I spend pecking away at a keyboard in front of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. These sites have a lot of utility, but also can be a HUGE time-sink.

One of the things that I would like to do is to get to the point where I can automate status updates across several social-networking platforms, based on location. If, for example, I am at Stomping Grounds in Ames, I can have some application broadcast that to the world, without me having to update the status message. This would save LOTS of time, as my statuses could be mostly updated without any effort on my part.

Earlier this week, I've discovered Ping.fm, which gets me half-way there. In short, it allows me to update my various statuses from a single text message. Now, I can have AIM, Facebook, LinkedIn, gMail, etc. updated from one location. The site also supports a host of other applications. If you have several social networking sites and are constantly trying to keep them all updated, check out Ping.fm. It will save you TONS of time.

What tools do you use to manage your online social networking world?

Book: Hot Commodities

2009-03-29T14:29:00.003-05:00

On my recent trip to Hong Kong (which reminds me, I really need to get pictures from BOTH Hong Kong and Japan up for people who are not on Facebook) one of the people I met recommended the book "Hot Commodities" by Jim Rodgers. While on a business trip in Moline, I spent some time reading this book and as a result, have decided not to start investing in commodities.

I'm always skeptical of any book that starts off sounding like a sales pitch for some "hot new thing" and this book was no different. Jim's first chapter explains that you are missing out on a great opportunity to make a lot of quick cash if you do not start investing in this hot market. It sounds much like hyperbole . . .

To its credit, the book does touch on a number of investing strategies which jive with my thinking, including investing with a long time horizon. But, I will remain out of the commodities market with my personal investments because commodities do not fit with my investment strategy. The things that I really like about stocks, compared to commodities are:

1. With stocks, the intrinsic value of the companies I am investing in is increasing. Generally, companies are growing, developing new products, improving their operations, etc. An ounce of gold is an ounce of gold and will never change.

2. I do not wish to take the risks of timing the speculative whims of the market. Jim Rodgers flatly states that you make money in commodities because of speculation. Since there is no increase in the intrinsic value of any given commodity, the gains made are purely speculative. At best, success requires time and effort spent doing analysis that, quite frankly, isn't a good use of my time. (At worst--and most likely in my view--this is a game that nobody can win in the long-term.) Since the intrinsic value of commodities is not increasing, for every dollar (or euro, yen, etc.) that is won in the market, another is lost . . . and the brokerage houses are always taking their rake . . .

What are your thoughts on commodities? Are you investing in commodities? Have you made money? Have you lost it?

Understanding the Financial Crisis

2009-03-04T18:56:00.002-06:00

So, you want to know more about the financial/housing crisis? I've scoured the interwebs for you to bring you these three links:

1. This short video explains how the mortgage stuff happened . . .

http://vimeo.com/3261363

2. NPR's "Planet Money" podcast recently collaborated with "This American Life" on an hour-long special entitled "Bad Bank" which does a fair job explaining the collapse of the banking system:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=375

3. If you still need more, "Planet Money" and "This American Life" also collaborated last year on another hour-long special:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

Do you feel like you understand enough about how financial markets, banks, subprime mortgages and corporate paper work? If not, what do you want to know? What do you read/listen to/watch to find out more about this?

Book: Plugged In: The Generation Y Guide to Thriving at Work

2009-02-15T12:58:00.003-06:00

Yes, the title sounds kind of gimmicky, but I heard about this book on NRP's Marketplace . . . and a mention on NPR lends anything quite a bit of clout with me, so I decided to pick up this book for some weekend reading.

Tamara Erickson's book is geared toward Y-Generation members who are soon to enter (or have recently entered) the workforce. The book is very approachable and can be read casually over a weekend. In the initial chapters, she defines what it means to be a member of the Traditionalist, Baby-Boomer, X and Y generations and describes the events that shaped each generation's perceptions during its formative years.

She then continues to describe how these differences play out in a work context, notably pointing out that Y-ers think about work as something they do, not somewhere they go. (I've commented before about asynchronous work, something that she seems to agree that the Y Generation is naturally able to do.) Other points of discussion include: relationships with parents, competitiveness, attitudes toward money and our natural ability to use technology.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone under the age of 25 who is entering the workforce; it was written to help Ys understand how the working world works and I feel that it accomplishes this very nicely. Additionally, I think that this book is worth a look for those who work with Ys on a regular basis . . . we do need to learn to work with you, but you need to learn to work with us, too. :-)

Sick Days

2009-02-03T07:30:00.000-06:00

CNN recently posted a piece entitled: “Don’t go to work if you’re sick – please!”

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/02/02/cb.do.not.work.sick/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

My mother and I probably disagree on this strongly; she prides herself on only having taken 2 sick-days during her 25+ year career as a nurse, whereas I take the view that you should stay home whenever you’re feeling under-the-weather, so that you don’t infect your colleagues.

In my view, the best sick-day policy is as follows:

If you’re sick, we don’t want you infecting the rest of us, so you get the day off, free.
Don’t abuse #1.

This is more-or-less the policy that John Deere IVS uses for sick days. (If you’re sick for more than 3 days, I believe that you must either go on short-term disability leave or take vacation. This policy deincentivizes coming to work sick. Of course, it requires a bit of trust in your employees . . . but if you don’t trust your employees, why are you still their employer?

What is your employer’s sick leave policy?

Location-Aware: The Future of Social Networking

2009-01-27T05:19:00.005-06:00

Well, now that NPR has done a story on location-aware cell phone services, the urban-dwelling, latte-sipping, 30-something professionals will be talking about it, so I'd better throw my two cents into the mix. (Disclaimer: I am a total NPR junkie, so don't take offence to my characterization of NPR listeners.)

What?

For the non-latte-sipping crowd, when I say "location aware," I'm simply talking about using GPS (Global Positioning System) data in different applications, usually on a cell phone. For the most part, this is currently limited to simply reporting your location and drawing a map.

My experiments with location-aware social networking.

About three years ago, when location-enabled cell phones started to become available in the United States, I played around with Mologogo, a very bare-bones application which took my cell phone's GPS position and published it to the web. Unfortunately, it worked only on a limited number of Nextel and Boost Mobile (Nextel's pre-paid service) phones, so I had to buy a Boost Mobile prepaid phone for this one application. The application did nothing more than report my location to a website. Unfortunately, Mologogo was very buggy and, while it provided an interface to integrate with my own applications, I wanted something more out-of-the-box.

Things have improved (but only marginally) since then and I've moved on to Ipoki, which reports my location to a website and my Facebook profile, without much trouble on my part. Ipoki also has the advantage of running on my Sprint phone, so I don't have to carry a THIRD cell phone around. The current application crashes frequently, which is annoying, but somewhat tolerable. If you would like to follow me, feel free: http://www.ipoki.com/maps/aaronhurd. I'll make no guarantees about keeping Ipoki on.

My Complaints.

Unfortunately, both of these applications suck battery life. I have no idea what my current phone (HTC Touch Pro, Sprint) will do, but it's been my experience that most GPS applications require a persistent connection to the Internet, which drains a phone battery in about two hours. An application running on a mobile phone is of limited utility if it must be tethered to the power grid.

Other than battery life, here are my top feature requests:

Integration with Social Networks AND Privacy Settings - I do not want to share my location with just anyone and I want to be able to integrate with Facebook.
Updates to Twitter, Facebook, etc., based on location. - If I am at Stomping Grounds in Ames, I want my Facebook status to read, "Aaron is at Stomping Grounds in Ames." Even cooler would be time-based updates, so if I'm at John Deere between 5:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., my status can read, "Aaron can't sleep, so he's gone to work early."
Automatic geo-tagging of social media content. - If I post a picture to Facebook from my cell phone, attach my location to it.

Finally, the United States mobile phone carriers are notorious for locking the features on their phones, preventing cool applications like Ipoki and Mologogo from accessing the GPS applications. (Verizon is especially notorious for this.) They claim that it's so that they can have network stability, but most of the rest of the world allows users to use unlocked equipment with few problems . . .

The Future.

As social networking becomes more location-aware, we will certainly see some interesting things happening in the future. Here's an abbreviated list of my predictions:

Location data will be aggregated to provide general information, such as traffic reports (UC Berkeley is already experimenting with this).
Advertising, advertising, advertising. Expect the US cell phone carriers to try to get location-based advertising on your phone any way they can. When you walk by Starbucks, they'll offer you a free ringtone with your latte.
It will become common practice for parents track their children by installing software on their cell phones. (All major US cell phone carriers are currently selling this service.) This will quickly become obsolete as children learn how to disable these services. Cheating spouses, however, had better beware.
Location data will be used to improve quality of service: Airports, for example, could use this data to map passenger paths through terminals, marry this data to flight schedules and use this to figure out which airplane should park where.
People will be automatically informed when their friends are in the area, so that they can meet up in person. This will be a rare case of technology fostering real social interaction.

Well, that's my Tuesday @ 5:00 a.m. brain-dump on location-aware services. What are your predictions? Do you use location-aware services on your mobile phone? I'm looking to experiment with some other applications, so if you have any suggestions of apps I should look at, go ahead and send them my way.

Lessons Learned from Parents' Basement Flood

2009-01-18T17:16:00.003-06:00

This weekend, I spent a significant amount of time clearing everything out of my parents' basement. About half of the stuff in the basement was ruined, but it taught two important lessons:

1. Backups are worthless, unless they are regular and stored off-site.

My parents faithfully backed up their financial data every week to a floppy disk, which they stored right by the computer. Unfortunately, the pipe that broke soaked their computer and their backup disks. We haven't yet tried to recover the data, but if we do, we will have dodged a bullet.

2. Paper records are a pain and often not needed.

Since everything had to come out of my parents' basement, I got exposure to the amount of paper records that they keep. Frankly, I think that people keep a lot more records than they need to. Whether it's a credit card statement or bank statement, the bank can always pull back statements (usually for a fee). I think that the headache saved by not needing to manage records is well-worth the $50 that I might spend pulling a few years of bank statements. Many paper records were destroyed; it will be interesting to see if they actually need them.

For the records that DO need to be stored, I generally scan and store these on my computer, and then sort through them once a year. I think that this is a good practice.

A Few Thoughts on Social Engagement

2009-01-16T17:30:00.000-06:00

One of the things that I would like to do during this next year is to become more socially engaged. (I’m waiting to hear back from some interviewing that I’ve done at Deere before I become committed, because I’d hate to commit to something and then leave in a few months.)

At Deere, employees are encouraged to contribute to United Way (my thoughts about that are in another post) and to participate in build days with Habitat for Humanity. Habitat for Humanity is great, but when they push the religious angle, it really turns me (and several others) off. I really feel that promoting these two programs (at the exclusion of others) encourages employees to ignore the myriad ways in which they can contribute.

There are thousands of ways in which we can be involved in our communities, but we don’t encourage social engagement generally. I think that it would be great to get some sort of partnership going with a local school and have engineers tutoring math, or helping to teach language, or going to speak with classes. I’d love to go speak with German classes about where their language skills can take them. (I actually do this, on my own time.) A colleague suggested recently that Deere give a few “social engagement” days, in addition to vacation days, so that employees can contribute to their communities in ways in which they feel most comfortable. This is a great idea, and something that I think we should push at Deere.

What do you do to be socially engaged? Do you think that this is important?

Saving Time by Batching Tasks

2009-01-11T15:42:00.000-06:00

One my new New Year's Resolutions is to eliminate some tasks that are unnecessary, freeing up more time for the things I really want to do.

The first target is my postal mail. I love mail. In fact, when I was living with Tim, we would often swing by the house to pick up the mail during lunch. It was great, I processed all of my mail immediately and got it out of my inbox. Good, right? Wrong.

Dropping by the house and processing mail every day caused about 20 minutes of overhead . . . that's over two hours a week. Two hours a week for mail? Really? That sounds a bit insane. After all, there is NOTHING in the mail that can't wait for a week. So, I am now checking mail only on Wednesdays. Everything will be put in a basket and be processed on Wednesdays. This will save me about two hours a week.

Notes from "First, Break all the Rules"

2008-12-24T10:00:00.000-06:00

12 Questions to measure the strength of a workplace:

Do I know what is expected of me at work?

Do I have the materials and equipment to do my work right?

At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?

In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?

Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

At work, do my opinions seem to count?

Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?

Do I have a best friend at work?

In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Deal Sites

2008-12-23T10:18:00.000-06:00

I am no longer checking deal sites. FatWallet, SlickDeals, TechBargains, etc. no longer have a place in my Google Reader feed.

Why this apparent about face?

I now have much more time to read the things that are actually important. Honestly, business blogs, world news-feeds and my lifestyle blogs are much more useful.
Since I'm not being bombarded by advertising, I'm no longer tempted to buy something that I will never use. Ugly clothes, another backpack, a second toaster, a 2 GB CF card, a George Forman grill . . . I really don’t need these things. More than once, I’ve found myself wondering, “Why did I order this? It must have had a rebate or something . . .”
Deals just aren’t resalable anymore. You used to be able to find something on SlickDeals, submit the rebate and make 40-50% profit on eBay. Those days are long-gone as the deal sites have become more popular. If you find a deal that can be resold on eBay, chances are that 100 other people have the same idea and market forces will drive the prices down.
It is much more worthwhile to buy quality products (albeit at higher prices) which save me time in the long-run. A great example of this is my wireless router. I spent $80 on this bad boy four years ago and I have NEVER had to reboot, reconfigure or update it. My time is much too valuable to spend a Saturday morning fussing with a wireless router.
Honestly, Amazon.com has reasonable prices on most everything and I’d much rather go there than spend half an hour to save $5, only to deal with some obscure merchant.

Do you use deal sites? Do you find yourself buying things that you don’t need, just because they’re on sale? Share your stories below, or on the Facebook feed.

Strengths-Based Resume

2008-12-14T19:59:00.000-06:00

I was doing some thinking this weekend about resume creation. One of the problems I've run into when sending my resume out to consulting firms is that they see me as an engineer, and it's really hard to make a convincing case that they should hire me as a consultant, when my resume is focused on my history of working for John Deere in various positions.

I'm considering reformulating my resume into a strengths-based resume. (I got the idea while reading "Soaring on Your Strengths," a book about leveraging strengths to build your career.) A strengths-based resume which enumerates strengths that would be helpful to someone in the position for which you are applying and lists accomplishments under each strength. Rather than listing places of employment and chronicling work experience, work experience is sorted and presented as evidence that you are able to leverage a given strength.

For example, in my strengths-based resume, I could write:

Communication

Worked with the desktop software development team to coordinate data exchange with the embedded software team.
Created a process to review documents more thoroughly between departments.
Presented healthcare benefit information in an easily understandable format.

My thought is that this would give potential employers much more of the information that they're looking for, in a format that allows them judge a candidate more on strengths than on for whom they have worked.

What do you think? Is there anyone in recruiting who has seen something unconventional like this submitted as a resume?

Thoughts on Working Remotely

2008-12-07T15:45:00.001-06:00

I've done quite a bit of thinking this weekend about remote work arrangements, and specifically how to evaluate whether tasks can be (effectively) done remotely. My thought is that tasks that can be most successfully done remotely have three qualities:

They can be done asynchronously; they do not require multiple peoples' attention at the same time.
They are not urgent; they do not require immediate attention.
They do not require access to specialized equipment.

Asynchronous tasks can be done without involving two or more people at the same time. Unfortunately, some activities simply cannot be done asynchronously. At Deere, we have monthly in-person performance-review meetings. Part of the value that these meetings provide is the opportunity to sit down with your supervisor and discuss goals (both career-related and within the current position) and to converse about job progress. Could this be done via email? Perhaps. Could this be done effectively over email? Likely not.

Likewise, tasks which require someone's immediate attention are difficult to do remotely, whereas tasks which do not require immediate attention can allow for more flexibility. For examples, let's turn to the medical profession. A doctor at a hospital might have a rather inflexible schedule. When he hears "Level 1 trauma. ETA 6 minutes by air." come over the loudspeaker, he has very little time to prepare and must respond immediately. Next week is not an option. Conversely, a primary care physician can schedule appointments with some flexibility. As an example, let's suppose I need to have a physical examination for work, before the end of next February. The doctor has quite a bit of latitude in scheduling me; in this case he is quite flexible. How flexible work is determines whether a person can work on a schedule different from his colleagues'.

Finally, many jobs require specialized equipment which could inhibit the ability to perform a role from a remote location. A physicist measuring the electrical properties of crystals would probably need highly specialized equipment, which could not easily be transported to a remote location. An astronomer, however, might be able to remotely access the computer she uses to control a radio telescope and could do her job just as easily from her office as she could from a beach in Australia.

That said, when identifying activities which can be done remotely, one must ask the following questions:

Do I need to collaborate with others in real-time? How often must this happen? Can this be done effectively via technology such as videoconferencing?
Am I required to respond quickly to critical issues? How timely must my responses be? Can I be available via cell phone or blackberry to respond to these issues?
Do I require specialized equipment to do my job? Is there a way that I can access this specialized equipment remotely?

I'd be interested to hear what readers think about this. I'd like to find a good way to evaluate activities, based on these dimensions, to see if they can be done remotely.

Career: What I'm Looking For

2008-11-30T12:54:00.000-06:00

My career adviser at Deere asked me to come up with some things that I wanted out of my next position. Here's what I sent her.

Lead-in to an MBA program. I intend to pursue an MBA from a Top-5 MBA program within the next five years; my next position must be directly relevant to this goal. I applied to several programs last year, but found that it was extremely difficult to get into the programs that I want to attend without having business-, finance- or management-related experience. When I apply again, I will be competing against consultants that have experience at big-4 consulting firms, people who have experience in investment banking, people with family connections to elite universities and 3.9 students from Harvard-class universities. I intend to compete aggressively and do not want my work experience to be my application's weak-point.

Travel. I love traveling and get away whenever I can. An international assignment would not be out of the question, but I would certainly like to be on the road at least 75% of the time. By far, the most enjoyable weeks at John Deere have been when I've been on the road. Whether it's recruiting in Moline, or going to a conference in California, I find being in a place where I am constantly discovering something new extremely stimulating. To give you an idea of how much I enjoy travel: currently I have firm plans to visit Minneapolis, Seattle, Japan, Germany and Hong Kong in the next six months.

Varied experience. In my current position, I have spent the last two years working on the same project. I find working on the same project for so long very stifling. My "Predictive Index" states that I am "unable to do routine work". I need variety in my work, or else I get bored. I would much rather focus on developing a wide range of competencies, rather than becoming an expert in one area. What has made my job in engineering tolerable is that I have taken the initiative to work on projects involving customer support, desktop software engineering, training, program management and process improvements.

Exposure and an opportunities to build relationships. I would like a position where I can get wide exposure within the enterprise. By exposure, I mean at all levels, from executives to individual contributors. Whenever possible, within the confines of my current position, I try to develop relationships with colleagues. When our German colleagues come over, I always try to be in the group taking them out to dinner; for several Indian colleagues, I've been the one to pick them up from the airport. Building relationships takes time and commitment, but I see the value in this.

Flexible work environments. I have found that, often, I am able to do my best work outside of "normal business hours". Some times, I am ready to get going at 5:30 am on Monday, some times, I work best at 10:30 pm on a Sunday night (though probably not both in the same week). I don't feel that I am as productive as I could be when I am forced to work a standard work-day. I would greatly prefer the consulting lifestyle; new hires at Deloitte Consulting, for example, end up working 10-12 hour days frequently, but start with 24 days of vacation and can take Fridays off in the summers. An arrangement like this works nicely with my desire to travel. Also, I would prefer a job where I can do work on a laptop at Starbucks (maybe a Starbucks in Kiev, Berlin or Sydney). Best Buy allows flexible work arrangements (yes, even allowing employees to work with a laptop from wherever they want) for all of its corporate employees and they've found that it increases productivity.

Black Friday

2008-11-28T15:22:00.000-06:00

Well, the day has finally come. Black Friday. Midnight shopping, lines wrapped around Best Buy for $350 laptops, people buying junk simply because it's on sale . . . I used to be a big Black Friday shopper, but no longer. As I have come to think about it more, I have found our culture of conspicuous consumption to be rather disgusting. We give so much social clout to the owners of McMansions, flashy cars, designer purses and iPhones. Why?

Conspicuous consumption is perhaps the greatest problem in American culture. In an effort to keep up with the Joneses, Americans (including the Joneses) have mortgaged their futures and are on the brink of collapse. The average American household has almost $10,000 in credit card debt, and the national savings rate occasionally flirts with positive numbers. What does this mean? This means that, on average, our creditors own our future. Rather than step back and ask why, Americans simply charge ahead, becoming more aggressive, even to the point of trampling people to death to save $10 on a DVD player. (Sadly, this happened again this year http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7755278.stm.)

How do you explain to someone that his/her loved-one was trampled . . . to death . . . at Wal-Mart?

Merry . fucking . Christmas .

Financial Advice / Book: The Four Pillars of Investing

2008-11-16T13:29:00.000-06:00

I am truly flattered by the number of people who ask me what to do with their money. Most people know that I'm fairly financially savvy and have quite a history of making fiscally prudent decisions. (Although, I have slipped up on occasion; I am a sucker for a rebate.) Over the past few years, I've been asked my opinion on everything from individual stock picks to complicated investment strategies, involving carry-trade leverage, shorting stocks and international real estate (all at the same time). (No, I'm not kidding about this.)

I'd like to be clear on one point: I do not give investment advice. (Unless you want to invest in me . . . financially, romantically, as an employer, etc . . . but caveat emptor, as there are vested interests at work!)

Now that that is out of the way, I do want to share with you a particularly valuable book that I read this week. "The Four Pillars of Investing" by William Bernstein was recommended by a colleague recently; I found this book to be practical and insightful. In fact, I would suggest that anyone with an investment portfolio (which should be anyone who is over 18) should read this book. Here are some of the main takeaways:

You are not smarter than the market. - You are not smarter than the market. You are not smarter than the market. You are not smarter than the market. You are not smarter than the market. This makes sense; the people you're playing against have PhDs from top universities in economics, mathematics, physics and business. They have access to much more information than you or I will ever have. The idea that you or I can beat them at their own game is pure lunacy. Since neither you, nor I, nor your broker, nor your mutual fund manager is smarter than the market, you should never expect to be able to beat the market in the long run.

Minimize your expenses. - The price you pay to have your funds managed is one of the only things you can truly control about your portfolio. I'll be honest, for the past few years, I have been getting fleeced by Fidelity in my retirement account; I've been paying almost 2% in fees and expenses on everything I own. This will change in the near future, as I am moving to no-load, low-management-fee, low-expense mutual funds.

Have an asset allocation appropriate to your nerves. - I'm looking at rebalancing my portfolio to an 80%/20% stock/bond mix. If you're thinking, "WHAT?!? Stocks?!?! In this market?" then you probably should have a mix more slanted toward bonds. If, on the other hand, you've seen the recent market downturn as a buying opportunity (I have), then you might think about being this aggressive. In every case, you want to be able to avoid getting nervous and selling out after the market has tanked, because you'll only be making your losses real.

Investing should be boring. - Jim Cramer can kiss my butt. Managing your nest egg should not be exciting and I generally am going to prefer a portfolio with just a few asset classes, rebalanced annually. Honestly, I have many more exciting things going on in my life; I'd much rather focus on my trip to Japan at the end of December, than worry about whether I have too much money in the Whateveristan Small Cap Technology Growth Fund.

Of course, this book contains much more than the three points, so go and get yourself a copy. (The Des Moines Public library should have a copy available in about a week.) Happy investing!

Book: Now, Discover Your Strengths

2008-11-14T10:23:00.000-06:00

Last week, I completed Marcus Buckingham's "Now, Discover Your Strengths." In this book, which is mostly targeted toward the individual contributor audience, Buckingham asserts that one is most successful when he learns what his natural strengths are, and positions himself to take advantage of those natural strengths.

Honestly, I was a bit disappointed in this book, finding it little more than a plug for his StrengthsFinder assessment. Of course, his plug was apparently successful, as I did purchase and take the assessment.

My five strengths are (descriptions are from my StrengthsFinder report):
Communication - People who are especially talented in the Communication theme generally find it easy to put their thoughts into words. They are good conversationalists and presenters.
Woo - People who are especially talented in the Woo theme love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person.
Futuristic - People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be. They inspire others with their visions of the future.
Strategic - People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.
Activator - People who are especially talented in the Activator theme can make things happen by turning thoughts into action. They are often impatient.

No surprises; I really don't think that assessments like StrengthsFinder reveal anything terribly profound. They are helpful because they help to clarify, reinforce and put into words what you already know. In the end, it was worth the $13 for the book and code on Amazon. Several of my colleagues at Deere are taking the assessment and we're charting our strengths.

My next books are:
Robin Ryan, "Soaring on Your Strengths"
Herb Cohen, "You Can Negotiate Anything"

United Way

2008-11-11T09:13:00.000-06:00

It’s United Way time again and my inbox is stuffed with solicitations for donations. I don’t take issue with this; I somewhat enjoy the pirate jokes that grace my inbox in the mornings.

I do take issue with the enormous social pressure to contribute. At every turn, we are all but told to contribute and much effort has been taken to make it obvious who is contributing and who is not. As an example, this week and next, all who gave $10 to United Way may wear jeans. While many of my colleagues are walking around in jeans, wearing United Way buttons, I am dressed in my standard one-step-above-business-casual work clothes. This makes it obvious that I did not contribute to United Way and I have been asked by more than one colleague why I’m not participating.

I do not give to United Way and I will not again this year, for the following reasons:

1. United Way supports several charities which discriminate against gays. I can not, in good conscience, support an organization that does this. I hate to pick on the Boy Scouts (I was a Boy Scout) but they have been very publically ant-gay. If I give to organizations that do not spend time (and money) discriminating against gays, then more money goes to providing services.

2. United Way supports a disproportionate number of faith-based organizations. While faith-based organizations often provide valuable support to our communities, they also have a duty to promote their religious beliefs. I believe that this creates a conflict of interest; secular organizations don’t have this conflict of interest. If I give to secular (or more-secular) organizations, then more money goes to providing services.

3. I see no need to give to United Way, when I can give directly to charities, without the 11% overhead. United Way takes 11% of your donation right off the top as an administrative cost, before it reaches any charity. If I give directly to the Red Cross, more money goes to providing services.

You will notice a common theme here . . . this is about more money going to providing services. In the past year, I have made contributions to the Red Cross, Youth Emergency Services and Shelter, and UNICEF. Certainly, I do feel that service organizations play an important role locally and globally, and I am happy to support them in their missions, but I prefer to direct my giving to charities which reflect my values and have less overhead.

If you have been asked to give to United Way in Des Moines, before you write the check, you should look at the charities that United Way in Des Moines supports:

http://www.unitedwaydm.org/UserDocs/Agency-Partners08.pdf

I’d be interested to hear what others (including my colleagues) think. Feel free to comment below or send me an email privately.

Election Day

2008-11-04T07:21:00.000-06:00

Well, it's finally here and thank goodness.

Especially in the last 24 hours, I have seen so many negative attack ads against Barack Obama; I didn't know that there were that many 529 groups in Iowa. I have to give kudos to the Republicans, for producing some very nice ads, but it's all for naught; America has decided and Barack Obama has an almost insurmountable lead in the polls. In retrospect, I am so glad that Hillary and company brought Jeremiah Wright out during the primaries so that we could decide that he was irrelavant and move on.

Today, Barack Obama will be elected President. I heard something on NPR last week that really touched me. A gentleman said, "Rosa sat so that Martin could walk. Martin walked so that Barack could run. Barack's running so that our children can fly." I think that, more than anything, this statement expresses how this election *is* about race. Barack, as a prominet American politician, will become a role-model for a generation of black children; he's highly educated, successful, influential and a family man. Who did you look up to when you were younger? What kind of difference did having that role model play in shaping your life?

Of course, this election isn't only about race, it is also about America coming to the realization that we are all in this together. For too long, we have embraced the idea that each person is independent from his neighbors, while turning a blind eye to the fact that, to get to work, to go to school, to check Facebook, we are standing on the shoulders of hundreds of thousands of others every day. We are starting to realize that we all play an important role, from the janitor to the CEO, everyone is an important part of the system. There has been so much talk about the redistribution of wealth, but folks, for the last 30 years, the redistribution of wealth has been upward, with the rich getting the best healthcare, the largest salary increases, the largest amount of influence, while the rest of us have lived with stagnat (relative to inflation) wages, an increasingly more selective healthcare system and disenfranchisement in our democracy. This is about to change.

Today, we will also see the worst in our country; as the richest nation in the world, we will see hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people discover that they were dropped from voter registration rolls, wait in hours-long lines to cast a single ballot, have their votes switched by electronic voting machines with no paper-trail, or be otherwise denied the right to vote in myriad other ways. You think 2000 was a mess? I predict that the problems with this election will dwarf even the butterfly ballots and hanging chads in Florida. Fortunately, Obama will win in a landslide and the corruption and intimidation won't be enough to affect the outcome of the election.

Today, we will change the direction of our country. Over the next four years, we will ensure that all citizens have access to healthcare, we will strengthen our unions so that we can see real wage growth, we will reform our election laws so that our elections are more accurate and verifiable, we will become stewards of the earth and we will end the pointless, misdirected war in Iraq.

The road ahead is long and won't always be easy, but the future looks very bright; I am excited.

If you haven't already voted, please vote for Barack Obama. Something historic will happen today; I invite you to be part of it.

Book: First, Break All the Rules

2008-11-02T10:21:00.001-06:00

One of this weekend's projects was to read . . . err . . . listen to Marcus Buckingham's "First, Break All the Rules" which parses through a bunch of studies by the Gallup organization to find out what the best managers consistently to do find and retain the best people.

In the book, Buckingham defines and highlights the differences between skills, knowledge and talents. He argues that skills and knowledge can be trained, but that talents can not. He defines talents as the things that we are naturally good at and and like to do. Intuitively this makes sense; we can not be (easily) trained to like something, or to be naturally good at something. His argument (backed up by data from the Gallup organization) is that the best managers hire talent that aligns with the requirements of any given job and then focus on developing talents, rather than "closing competency gaps." In my experience, this flies in the face of what most companies end up doing, but it makes sense.

There are many other points made which range from the intuitively obvious to the absurd, but there is a lot of wisdom in this book about being an effective manager. I certainly would recommend this book to anyone in a management role, looking to improve his/her effectiveness.

The follow-up book, "Now, Discover Your Strengths" will probably be next on the list.

Updates from Stomping Grounds

2008-10-23T23:27:00.000-05:00

One of the advantages to having the cheap-o, $400 black-Friday special laptop is that I can keep it out on the table, without much fear that it will get stolen. All of the data is backed up and, aside from the idea of someone creepy going through my photos from my college years, there is very little that would be lost if the laptop were stolen. Oh, the joys of laptoppiness.

Japanese class is kind of kicking my butt. Admittedly, I had not been studying as much as I should have been during the last couple of days, but I am committed to continuing this pursuit. My friend, James, keeps me motivated. We're in kind of a friendly competition to learn what we need to for Monday's class.

In a week and a half, Obama will be President-Elect . . . that makes me very happy.

That's it for right now. I am going to try to keep this updated more frequently . . . since I am traveling quite a bit, I might actually have something interesting to say.

Pressing the Red Button

2008-05-23T04:12:00.000-05:00

Sometimes things come to you in the middle of the night that can be life-changing. I don't know whether this is one of those things, but I guess we shall see.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was one of my favorite movies . . . not the version where Johnny Depp plays a very pedophile-like man in a purple suit, but the original with Gene Wilder . . . the one which, incidentally, was made merely to promote General Mills' "Wonka" candy bars.

I was thinking tonight about one of the final scenes, in which Wonka, Grandpa Joe and Charlie find themselves in the famed Great Glass Elevator. Wonka explains to Charlie that each of the black buttons takes the elevator to a different room in the factory and that, "Up until now, I've pushed them all, except one." He points to a red button at the top of the elevator.

Why did Wonka never push that red button? After a lifetime of accomplishment as the world's premier chocolateur, perhaps he felt there was too much at stake to push the red button? The red button was an unknown, with obvious risks which Mr. Wonka could not calculate.

Charlie, out of childish curiosity and naivety, fearlessly pushes that button. As the elevator takes off, a fearful look sweeps over his face as he realizes that he may have sent the trio on a path to certain doom . . . but at this point, there is no going back. It turns out well for Charlie and the movie ends with him, Grandpa Joe and Willy Wonka flying peacefully through the air over their hometown; his dreams came true, he is given the chocolate factory and everything he always wanted and he lives happily ever after.

Sometimes I wonder whether I should be pushing more red buttons. Some of the people I truly admire (Ashley Palar, Megan Tormey, Christian Schwärzler, Kristi Schipull, Tammy Kirchner and the entire Carpp family come to mind) fearlessly push the red buttons. On average, it has probably made their lives more rewarding.

I, on the other hand, have generally been the one to consider, ad-nasium, the positive and negative consequences of my actions and, on the whole, I think that I've made some very good calls. (See also: near-obsession with personal finance and avoiding lifestyle inflation.) However, there have been a number of red buttons which went untouched, which, in retrospect, I wish I had pushed.

Many a false step is made by standing still. Perhaps I need to start pressing some red buttons?

Two Families, Two Trans-Gender Children, Two Approaches

2008-05-18T11:13:00.001-05:00

This story profiles two children, one on the east coast, one on the west who were born as (physically) boys, but believe that they are girls. While one family encourages their son's identification with the female gender by allowing him to wear dresses and enrolling him in school as a girl, the other family has chosen to systematically strip their son of his female play things and encourage him to identify with the male gender. Regardless of your opinions of this issue, this story provides a good window into what parents of trans-gender children (and trans-gender children) experience. The audio for this story is 22 minutes long, but definitely worth viewing.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842

Here are some NPR listener reactions to the above story. What are your reactions?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90289426
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90327709

A Challenge for the Weekend

2008-04-11T18:06:00.000-05:00

Here's a challenge for this weekend . . . or just for this evening. We've all got excessive stuff around that we should be getting rid of, so take ten minutes and find ten things around the house that you can throw out or donate.

Stuff I've been keeping around for what reason? I don't know:

SD West - Successful Entrepreneuers

2008-03-26T22:15:00.000-05:00

I'm beginning to organize some of my notes from the SD West conference I attended a few weeks ago.

The title of one of my favorite sessions was "Do I have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneuer?"

Here are some highlights from my notes:

Almost all failures in small businesses are not due to technological reasons, but rather due to management, flawed execution or lack of customer focus.
This seems kind of counter-intuitive, but makes sense upon closer inspection. Engineers can dream up great gadgets and generally can produce a product, but if that product doesn't get out the door and purchased by customers, nothing happens. Look at the Apple Newton as an example . . . It was a great device, way ahead of its time, but it was not successful because people were not ready to buy it. You can make a great product, but without customers, you don't have a viable business.

The numbers in the business plan don't matter . . . much.
Venture Capitalists know that nothing will go according to plan, but they like to see that you are serious enough to actually sit down and think things out. It is not having the numbers correct that counts in your business plan, but rather the fact that you've put some thought into how you will run your company.

One of the most important things to do as an entrepreneur is to network.
Whether you're looking for VC funding, seeking business advice or looking for great engineers, building a large network of great people will allow you to have those resources available when you need them.

Successful entrepreneurs are generally younger, aggressive and enthusiastic.
Entrepreneurs must be able to attract great people. They must also inspire trust; VCs will ask if the people they're working with are believable. A slightly relevant quote: "Women have better bullshit meters because, let's face it, men bullshit all the time."

Hire slowly, fire quickly.
It takes a lot of great people to build a company, but one person can drag your organization down to failure. Carefully consider your personnel decisions and get rid of problems immediately.

Raise money on the front-side of a milestone.
Investors are much more likely to fund your venture if you need the money to reach a goal.

Finally, one of the VCs on the panel explained, slightly tongue-in-cheek, how he values companies:
He takes the number of engineers, times $250,000 . . . and subtracts $500,000 for each MBA.

The Way We Eat

2007-12-04T20:55:00.001-06:00

I've gotten into the habit of listening to audio books while going to the gym. Rather than watching Larry King, I have decided to fill my head with business, cultural and social knowledge. In every case, it keeps me from overhearing the other peoples' often times disturbing conversations.

My most recent book was "The Way We Eat" by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. Here's the summary (taken from Amazon.com):

Ethicist Singer and co-author Mason (Animal Factories) document corporate deception, widespread waste and desensitization to inhumane practices in this consideration of ethical eating. (Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.)

While I think that the book is a rather radical and somewhat biased account of the food industry, I forced myself to listen to the whole thing. I do, however, think that it made many points about the food industry were quite important. Most importantly, we don't often think about the consequences for the animals we eat; we don't have an appreciation that some cow led a (generally) uncomfortable life, under unnatural conditions, to produce our McDonald's hamburger. I think that, being more aware of the facts presented in this book, I can make more ethical and sustainable food choices.

That said, I am going to be changing the way I eat slightly:

Z'Marik's is a (mostly) vegetarian restaurant in the Des Moines, Iowa. Their spicy peanut dish is to die for and can easily provide two small meals for $6.00. Generally, my lunch has consisted of a turkey sandwich at Big Sky Bread in Urbandale. While I would love to say I'm going "cold turkey" (har har har!) I don't think that I want to go without meat occasionally, but I can start eating at Z'Marik's more often.

I am going to continue to eat eggs, although, I'll be trying to eat eggs labeled as "cage free." While this simply means that hens will be closely confined in large warehouses, rather than cages, this is quite a bit less cruel (although far from idea.) I don't think that I'm quire ready to eat only free-range eggs because of the huge cost, but I can make an incremental step forward here. Likewise, when I do eat meat, I'll try to eat less red meat and more chicken . . . and probably less meat in general.

Now, this is the part that I love . . . I get to eat more fruits and veggies. I love raw fruits and vegetables . . . baby carrots, apples, bananas, spinach, tomatoes. Hurrah!

When reasonable, I am going to be more conscious of where my food is coming from. Given the choice between apples from New Zealand and Washington, I'll buy from Washington. (Unless, of course, it is a Red Delicious apple. Those things came with school lunches and I really hate those.) Transporting food comes at a huge environmental cost, so I'll try to mitigate this by buying more local.

So, Rebecca and Liz, now that you are both smiling, I'll treat you both to lunch at Z'Marik's the next time you're in town.

Silly Spark Quizes

2007-08-17T22:45:00.000-05:00

Silly SparkQuizes . . .

You are an Administrator!

(Submissive Extroverted Concrete Thinker)

You are an ADMINISTRATOR (SECT)— detail-oriented and organized. You're an extrovert, but you lack the over-aggressive tendencies of obnoxious go-getters. Very nice. However, you probably like getting up in other people's business— living through them a little... dude, sometimes you just gotta let it ride. Don't be such a busy-body.

Anyway, you're an excellent manager, of both yourself and other people. That's because you prefer thinking concretely rather than creatively, and you'd rather follow what your mind tells you than your heart— people respect this, but it can make them mad when their appeals to love and kindness fall on deaf, deaf ears. Try to have a heart sometimes.

15% in Love!

Is it a bird? A plane? Is it a boy? A girl? Is it love, or is it lust? Ah, you. You are that rare mix of sensitive and sensual, romantic and randy, pride and prejudice, etc. When you see your crush, you waffle like a Belgian, unsure of whether you'd rather paint their toes or suck on their toes. Poets have long been puzzled by your kind. You'll never fall for robots or nymphos, but you will suffer longs bouts of marriage.

It all adds up... we feel 24% certain that you are...

A Woman!

Compared to others...

85% more male than you — 4% like you — 11% more female than you

How do we know? Well, deep down, your gender affects everything about you, from your favorite number to your views on Canada. Many women who took the test think and act just like you, as you can see from the graph above.

Statistically speaking, you are a woman—whether you know it or not.

Fun with AIM Away Messages

2007-06-28T22:50:00.000-05:00

(22:48:56) aaronhurd: HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!!!!! HANDS TO THE SKY!!!!!
(22:49:03) victim_grl2000 : you'll have to speak up, I'm wearing a towel
(22:49:11) aaronhurd: . . . not anymore
(22:49:13) aaronhurd: :-P

(22:52:16) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAAA
(22:49:03) tux9483 : counting digital sheep
(22:52:34) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAAB
(22:52:38) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAAC
(22:52:42) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAAD
(22:52:47) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAAE
(22:52:53) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAAF
(22:52:58) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAB0
(22:53:05) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAB1
(22:53:11) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAB2
(22:53:14) aaronhurd: 0xBAAAAAB3

The Launch

2007-06-25T22:36:00.000-05:00

Well, I've decided to launch a new blog. This time, I'm going to use Blogger as my platform of choice? Why? Google is taking over the world, aren't they? Well, yes, but I don't want to fight that fight with my blogging software; I have many more important things to do.

Tonight, I decided to spend some "me time" at Lion's Park in Urbandale.

Honestly, I didn't plan on venturing out to Lion's Park; I was on my way to the Urbandale Library, intent on finishing my first "heavy" book of the summer, "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. As I drove by the Starbucks near Merle Hay Mall, my suburban instincts called out to me, the green glow beckoned and the taste of coffee was on my lips. I ordered a chai over ice, which is a deviation from my usual Cafe Mocha. Then, I realized . . . I couldn't go to the Urbandale Library with my drink. So, where to? After driving around for a while, I settled on Lion's Park.

Lion's Park is a place of great significance to almost anyone who has grown up in Urbandale . . . the 4th of July parade, hanging out after school, the playground, random tennis matches, getting sick on the merry-go-round (which, sadly, has been removed) and that handicapped swing which you weren't supposed to play on, but which nonetheless made a very compelling pirate ship . . . everyone has their own memory of this place.

I sat down to read my book on a park bench, the laughter of children to the south and the sound of a community band playing swing music in the west and started to devour the pages of my book. One chapter away from my goal, I took a moment to look around. I saw children and their parents playing on the swing set. I put down my book and ventured over.

When I was younger, one of my favorite memories of the playground was the swings. I could swing for hours and hours . . . and I did just that. It's amazing what a sense of enjoyment sitting at the bottom of what is nothing more than a pendulum can provide. I stared up at the moon and thought about how funny it was that I once believed that the thing was made of green cheese . . . when it wasn't really green to begin with. Watching the moon bob up and down over the tree at the other end of the playground was most amusing. I let all of the stresses of life go . . . work, money, women, family, future academic plans . . . I can honestly say that I spent a while hour without worrying about a thing. Tonight, I discovered a new level of inner peace and I left the playground a better person.

That said, take some time this week to hop on a swing. You'll be glad you did.