Rush Hour

I now get to experience something I have been able to avoid for most of my grown life. Rush hour.

Observations:
Rush hour is like a big slinky of metal cars.

Seems like it could be avoided by having staggered work schedules I mean why does everybody have to be to the same place at the same time?

It is an irritating way to start your evening, but for some reason I don’t mind it so much in the morning.

I have always thought of my car as a time machine. I get in it, push a few buttons and bam I am somewhere else sometime in the future. (Ok I guess it becomes the present when I get there, or maybe it is always the present?) But with traffic it seems like my time machine is broken it takes too long to get that close in the future. <- Bonus points if you followed that.

Vested

On the proliferation of wearing vests as a fashion trend.

Are you drowning? Going hunting? Do you have a tendency to walk into walls and think this bubble wrap layer will help you?

Am I the only one who thinks this is not a good look?

Thanks but no thanks.

B: How come nobody uses thanks as a valediction here? For some reason I am not comfortable with all the variations of regards we have going on. I mean best regards, warmest regards, kindest regards I feel like you are kind of mocking me with all this regards. Are you mocking me?

C: We don’t use thanks because we speak English and a thanks is not a valediction and yes we are subtly mocking you.

Proper or not I need a judgment call on signing off a letter or an email with …

Thanks,

B

Hasn’t the use of thanks as a sign of farewell been used widely enough to gain acceptance as a proper valediction?

Change Faster

I live along the major interstate that travels through the Minneapolis metro area. This interstate has had a large project that has been going on for the last three years.

It has caused freeway closures, exit and entrance ramp closures, it has diverted in a fairly inconvenient way how my entire neighborhood can travel to the east of the city.

It was painful. People grumbled. They charged the people taking on this project with not doing it fast enough.

But in the end the people leading the project did a great job. The finished early. They finished under budget. The city is better as a whole because of it, even though a few were inconvenienced.

I can’t help but think of this on this election day. They took three years to untangle the free way but we expect the largest financial collapse and the destruction of infrastructure in our country to be fixed in two?

I can’t help but think if that construction crew would have been replaced half way through the project, new blue prints drawn, new vision, new tools, new people hired.

Would that project be done sooner? Under budget?

Would I be able to get to work in the morning?

My guess is the second crew would run over budget and over time and a third crew would be voted into take care of the problem and fail yet again.

And I would still be taking the long way around.

There is something to be said about continuity in leadership and vision. It just seems like a lot of people aren’t willing to listen.

Stalkers

I just realized by making this public this is the only place that people can stalk me where I don't have to accept them into my life to do so. If their are stalkers I wonder who you are what exactly you want?

Self Loathing in Minneapolis

One day you wake up and you are this fat, middle-aged, balding piece of work. Lucky I can change most of those things or at least start on them….right after this happy hour and nap.

Socially Awkward

In some sense I feel like I have digressed in my professional social ability severely. For the last two years at my previous job I was basically isolated from most human contact I was literally the only person on an entire side of an office building with my only real interaction coming in the form of conference calls and WebEx sessions. This had its pluses like sweat pants everyday and come and go flexibility, but the profession etiquette muscles seemed to have fatigued considerably.

With my basic interaction with adults reduced to Sunday fun days, pub crawls, sports games, kickball, and other events where a mere series of grunts was understood by all I admit I am getting quite the workout back in a truly professional environment and it is exhausting and exhilarating all at the same time.

Goals

All of my 2010 goals are done. And it is only October. It is amazing what you can knock off the list when you have a month off from work. Guess it is time to start planning for next year.

Makeshift Memorial Spots

On my dog walking rounds there is this tree, sadly it was the last thing that three young people saw before their lives ended in a car crash at its base. This incident happened quite some time ago but several times through-out the year the tree will get decorated with signs like, “Happy Birthday, We miss you” or gifts left at its base or the occasional candle.

I know we do this because death is such a defining event and it is very specific. I just think it pays homage to all of the wrong things. I started to wonder why don’t we honor someone life after their death by celebrating their life rather then the termination of it?

Why don’t we put flowers and signs at the place their life began?

Promise me no matter how it ends from me there will be no marker for that event, no make shift memorial. That place is insignificant it does not matte,r the times had together are what counts. Now I am off cause I am starting to even depress myself.. Cheers

Perpetual Motion or Indecision Machine

If you drop a cat it will land on its feet. If you drop a piece of buttered toast it will land buttered side down. If you tie the toast to the cats back and drop it will spin in place forever without hitting the ground. (I think GM is currently exploring this option for its new line of green engines)

Sometimes you come across this dilemma in business situations where you have two forces of nature that are working to repel each other. In some companies this can be the sales division verse the risk division or the marketing division vs the IS department with each side only converging or seeing their given point of view. I find it troubling (although lucrative) that there is so few people who are really good generalists when it comes to business.

Every once in a while I am amazed that someone actually pays me to understand both sides of a business decision and help facilitate the outcome or as I have come to calling it cutting the toast. Not to be confused with cutting the wind which coincidentally is also something analysts are pretty good at.