Is this what we sound like?!

Crack pot

An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walks from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream.

"I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The old woman smiled, "Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side?" "That's because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them." "For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

So, to all of my crackpot friends, have a great day and remember to smell the flowers on your side of the path!

Open up

Only those with eyes wide open can see the miracles of life everyday.

Laugh for today

Another view of Mother Nature's power

We've all been focusing on water's destructive forces recently, but Nature holds another source of unfathomable power as well. In this case the power is also pretty beautiful (since I was no where near where it connected). Click the image below...

Earth shakes

In the days leading up to the devastating earthquake in Japan, the region suffered MANY, MANY, MANY tremors. Earthquakes are quite usual for the region, and thankfully Japan was probably the most prepared for the recent quake of any country, or things could have, believe it or not, been oh so much worse.

Take a quick minute and see all of the earthquakes that lead up to (and after) the big one. It's hard to believe that the large quake was only a little over a week ago.

Accidental discovery

Maybe I'm the last to notice this, I'm rarely the first, but tonight I was watching a video on YouTube and had to pause it for a moment. Meaning to scroll the page down to read the comments, I hit the cursor down key. Instead of scrolling down though, the little rotating circle on the video turned into a game of Snake! Hitting left, right, up and down I could steer the snake in an attempt to run over a single flashing dot, somewhere on the video screen. Hit that dot and the snake grows longer. Not sure how long it's been there or if it works on other sites with the same rotation icon while loading videos, but I thought it was a cool little Easter Egg to find tonight.

Spooky!

Happy Pi Day!

Boys will be boys....

I hate watching American Idol with my sons. We can't get through a song by Pia Toscano without them rolling on the floor laughing about her name. Too bad. They're missing a great singer. I, on the other hand, can rewind the DVR later :-)

I thought Thea Megia was gonna be the one to make them laugh.

White Collar Welfare...

I've been trying to find the right way to write about this. Then, the other day, out of the blue, I got it. What is "White Collar Welfare"? As described by a co-worker, it's the process of a bunch of white collar workers generating busy work for a bunch of other white collar workers who in turn need the assistance of others and in the end, it's just a bunch of busy work to keep them all employed.

I am often dumbfounded by this whole process. There is sooooo much stuff that we do, just to do it. Not because there is any real value in it. Not because something will change because we did it. Not because someone will be more the wiser because of our work. Not because something will be better, faster, stronger, cheaper. We do it just to do it. Well, that, and because some superior told us to.

And yet, when it comes to real work - the work that WILL make things better, cheaper, faster, stronger, more secure... there's no support for that kind of work.

There are certain "standards" in industry that exemplify this "white collar welfare" perfectly. It's all about documentation. It's all about standard processes and practices. Yet none of the "standards" really work in industry. And yet, they are forced upon the company by some probably well-meaning executive with no footing in the real world. It complicates the job the workers are trying to accomplish, creates additional paperwork and drudgery and meetings up the wazoo, and for what? Nothing really changes, because after all of the work is done, everything goes back to the way it was.

What happened to just doing what needs to be done? To not needing a 16x48 cell spreadsheet to know who was Responsible, Accountable, Informed and whatever that C stands for. What did we do before the letters I, T, I and L were all stuck together? Or those before those guys in DC, Sarbanes and his buddy Oxley decided that ALL of us in business needed to be sentenced to death by paperwork for the grievous acts of a few idiots. The laws were already in place. They were broken. Punish them, not us. Are we any better off, or is unemployment just a little less.

Innovation is stifled by unwieldy processes and documentation. There is so much in the way of getting things done that nothing gets done. Common Sense, even Business Sense, has taken a back seat to Process 5.6.32.a.7 subsection 37b.9. Progress is hindered by the need to write a 500-page proposal and fill out for TP-8675309 before making a change to fix a spelling mistake found in Process 5.6.32.a.7 subsection 37b.9. Real work is subjugated by White Collar Welfare. Such is the life we life. :-(

Safety Check

My car was in the shop -- again :-( -- yesterday and I got a ride home from a co-worker much earlier than usual. This meant that there was no car in the driveway to give away my presence to my daughter when she came home. My "mother-of-the-year" wife and I conspired to take advantage of that fact and surprise her with a little test.

When I got home I hid upstairs in my bedroom. When she came home I started walking around a bit, creaking the floor. She walked to the base of the bedroom stairs and called the cat's name. When the creaking stopped at her call, and no cat came running, she decided to head back downstairs. I creaked a bit more for emphasis and then waited.

After a few more moments, when I didn't hear anything I started to get concerned that all of our discussions may be paying off and she was downstairs calling 911. I started screaming as I went running down the stairs. I made it down about 5 steps before she yelled, "DA-AD!" She was downstairs in the kitchen on the phone with Mom.

After a bit more of a lecture about scaring her, she called Mom back and told her that it was me who was in the house (though she already knew).

I discussed with my daughter that the right thing to have done would have been to go immediately back outside before calling Mom ... not to trap herself in the kitchen with no escape. Lesson learned. Safely... I told her next time it wouldn't be me, so she should act accordingly.

When my wife took the kids shopping when they were young and had her friend with her, they talked about (and did?) have her friend sneak up behind one of the kids and take them down another aisle. They used that opportunity to discuss the need to stay with Mom as they were shopping and not lag behind her. Again, safely, but it got the message across.

Do your kids know what to do in cases like these? You don't need to go to such extremes as these, but please take a moment and make sure that they know what to do when scared, etc. Take a moment and talk about Stranger Danger and the tricks that they use (including looking for lost pets, etc to lure them closer to the car, asking for directions, etc). They are never too young to start the conversations, but remember to keep them age appropriate and update them and re-discuss them as they grow older. Make sure to include the Internet bad guys in your discussions as well nowadays. Teach them to never use their real name, never give out address or phone number, never talk to (chat, email, etc) anyone that they don't (and YOU don't) know.

Take a few moments today, tomorrow or at least this week and protect your kids.

See National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

Backed into a corner

When someone asks you if the glass is half empty or half full... just tell them that the glass is just the wrong size :-)

(...and pray they don't ask you if the glass should be larger or smaller)