A new year, same old me

I figure with the year 2008 well under way, it was time to sit down and come up with something philosophical. Those of you who know me, and those of you who don't and those of you who want to -- I think that covers everybody -- understand that from time to time I like to sit around wax philosophical. Not sure that's really a term, but for me that means sitting around and asking a lot of questions, drawing up scenarios of how things can play out, make general assumptions about random things - and sometimes things of consequence - or just send out other sage advice I get from a myriad of the self-help weekly emails that I'm signed up to. Where am I going with all of this you ask, good question and not one I'm sure I have the answer to. Ok, not really you know I have the answer I just like to hear myself type so I'm going to go on for a while.

I find myself this time of year looking for new things to do. I wouldn't call it a New Year's resolution - as I firmly believe that any day of the year is a good time to begin a new, not one drunken evening right after the holiday of your choice worshiping the deity of your choice and before the bills for your celebration and gift giving come in - more than a yearly ritual that seems to happen this time of year. You see, this time of year I find myself I always seem to find myself looking at different business opportunities far from what it is I really do for a living. Some of you out there are even wearing fruits of the labors from my past (and still current) endeavor of jewelry making - who knew that I had an inner artist trying to get out. Maybe it's just the newness of the year and taking time away from the job I have that pays the bills and has the benefits we all need to go visit the various Dr's it takes to cope with life these days that leads me to this yearly ritual.

Mind you, with the exception of the jewelry work - which started out as a stress reliever and has turned into an almost self-funding hobby - I rarely pursue these crazy business ideas of mine. I'm not quite sure what keeps me from pursuing some of these interests but I have some ideas:

1. Leaving the safety of what I have by my own choice
   
2. Working 60 hour weeks to get things off the ground while eating peanut butter and jelly for weeks, months, years on end while things are ramping up
3. I don't really have to - let me rephrase that, I need to work. I enjoy the lifestyle I've become accustomed to. Until I get fired (which is a totally different blog all unto itself and believe me, I have plenty of examples of why my new boss is a complete moron -- which could be an insult to morons) there is no reason to take that chance and put myself out there
4. Left to my own devices, I tend to be destructive - not tear down your house destructive, but ADD destructive
5. I get bored easily - I'm great at coming up with the initial idea, passing it on for somebody else to work out the details, then picking it apart and getting to what it was I really wanted. Another way to describe it would be sitting down with the CEO and having him say "I want something sorta blue."

I know that before my time is up, I need to run my own thing. Not for the money or the power or the recognition, but more that I'm a control freak when it comes to how other people do things. One of my self-proclaimed strengths is I can follow a process for a given period of time and come up with several unnecessary steps that can be eliminated. The biggest of my weaknesses is being able to take that knowledge and approach the people who own the process or perform it day-to-day and convince them they have a problem. The reason for this, people do not like to be pushed out of their comfort zone. Especially people who work in big companies who have fragile egos and who do not know when to admit that something they created needs improvement - even if that improvement would allow them to work on the things they know they need to work, yet complain about not having enough time to get done. It is this weakness that drives me to want to run my own thing, it is for my own sanity. The trade-off is giving up material things in the short-term to run my own thing. Oh, there is that whole what would my own thing look like or be. Like I said, I'm good at critiquing (ok call it criticism or telling people that they did it wrong) and not so good at the initial idea. For example, I can come up with a concept or strategy with hardly any effort. I can draw pretty pictures on a white board. You ask me to write that up into a document of any kind and BAM...all creativity stops. OK, if I can get somebody to take my original white board idea and put it down in some format, I'm good to go and can 'modify/improve' from there. Come to think of it, this is another thing that keeps me from doing my own thing. For my own thing, there will be nobody else to delegate to. Believe me, I've tried with all the paperwork necessary for my hobby. See, I have this genetic flaw of paperwork and all things form related (some would call it laziness, I call it a phobia or genetic flaw). This mostly stems from never understanding what is really being asked for in forms - maybe I over analyze who knows; send me a form to fill out asking me why it is and I'll get to it later. Oh, for my own thing there is all that paper work required. First order of business in my new thing, hire somebody to do all the paperwork.

Now that I'm in my fourth or fifth paragraph - I can't count either - I can finally get to the meat of this rambling: the different business ideas I've investigated. A few years ago, I looked at a concrete stamping business/franchise. One of those deals where you buy the stamps, do the training and have a territory to cover. On the surface it looked like an interesting gig - after all I don't know the first thing about concrete besides those people get up while it's dark to start pouring - however the financial data didn't look right - disclaimer: not calling anybody a crook, or implying that at all, what I'm saying is that the money in, the money out, the number of products i had to buy, rent, train - so I walked away from that one. This year I'm looking at franchising a service business - something that can't be outsourced to some foreign land so I don't have to worry about globalization (translation: working 24 hours a day). The guts of the business are run by a friend of mine - one with a solid financial background - so I know that there is the potential for returns with a small investment up front. The challenge with this one would be the logistics and having the time to actually sell the product. Good challenges to have, just not one that I'm willing to walk away from my bread and butter to do. That short-term versus long-term thing again.

Some of these ventures have been websites providing reminder services. There is a market for that idea a buddy of mine hatched and we refined together. I drew up 95% of the site and the functions needed during a conference call at work one day. Now if either of us had any code writing abilities we could get this thing off the ground. Or if I had $10K to pay a developer to work on the thing -- could be cheaper, I didn't dig too much beyond asking a few friends if the underlying concept would be cheap to deliver. That one is always in the back of my mind and with all the services you can sign up for now, this one would play nicely. May have to pull that one out and revisit it. For that idea, we both walked away from it more from the technical complexity than anything. I figure if I ever get laid off, I'll take what I have in mind for this opt-in service and run with it. There are sound business ideas - on the surface, which translates to I see how some people involved could increase their business or give this service away as part of a sale - but I'm not sure of the ultimate costs. There are several players in the field, so if built robust enough it could be used by any of them, long-term goal would be to actually sell off the technology to one of my customers. Hmmm, this is starting to sound good again.

Stay tuned for what's next on the radar. More than likely it'll be a whole lot of what I've done in the past - search for a role inside the large company I work for that makes me happy while dealing with much unhappiness with the dolt managing me at the time, only to actually find a decent leader to work under in a role I like to face the inevitable re-org that follows roughly 3 months after there appears to be peace in the work-world, cashing my paychecks along the way and hoping that our sales folks sell enough to meet the impossible goals set forth by the too rich to be working executive leadership team.

- Gio

The Jewelry Creation Obsession continues

I'm always creating new stuff.  In fact, here recently I took a class on fusing glass pieces to begin making jewelry pendants and earrings.  I carried that a little further by purchasing my first kiln, rearranging my garage, and firing new pieces on an almost daily basis.

Here are some of the fused pieces that I've created, I'm still in the learning stages.  I also included some more pieces in my original "styles".  I especially like the Blue Tacky Squares necklace/bracelt combo.  The really cool blue pyramid cubes I recieved from my friend Amy who sells her stuff at www.HipposEatingAlligators.com.  The wire work I did myself.  I have many more colors from Amy, and I'm looking forward to collaborating with her more in the future.


For the other bright blue bracelet, I made all of the coin beads.  This is the second time I've sat down at a torch to make beads.  I had an enjoyable time and tried to make some beads with a similar look and feel.  I had a few more made up, but they didn't fare well coming off of the mandrel.  Seems you have to head up the bead release the right way for the beads to come off cleanly and without sticking to the mandrel.

Recent Jewelry Work

Here's some of the recent jewelry work that I've been doing. A few of the pieces my wife has done and I've been "final assembly". As I look back over the past year and how much I've learned through creating new pieces and how much fun I've had doing it, I'm energized for the coming year. There are some new opportunities on the horizon, and any one of them could be the big break!!

The Rules of Life

Seems my life has been filled with unfulfilling jobs that have paid well. During my time working for others, there are a few observations that I have made and come to the realization there are around 10 problems in the world that any of us have to solve. It is how we solve these problems or deal with the situations created by them that define us. No matter who you work for, where you work, what you get paid these problems exist in one form or fashion. The trick is identifying all of them, not sure that I have yet, and learning to deal with them better than the person seated next to you at the table. Or, if you wish to have a work life and a family life, learn to deal with them in the way that gives you the most happiness.

Here are the things that I've seen everywhere that I have worked, and with any job that I've had -- whether working for myself or working for others.

1. No matter what you do, what your role is, who you are, there is always somebody else to tell you what to do.
2. There is another group that always knows less than you and doesn't do things right.
3. There will always be things you do not want to do and will procrastinate doing them.
4. My way is better than your way.
5. There is always somebody in the room/area/organization to take credit for what you have done or accomplished.
6. Requirements described rarely describe what is really needed to solve the problem or the problem description is never complete.
7. Treat the underlying problem, don't just react to the symptoms.
8. Find a repeatable way and teach that to your supplier(s).

You are the only one who can help yourself get through the situations created by these observations. You are the only constant in the situation, as the players, the products, the problems will all change but you are the only one who will see what you see and react how you react. You always have a choice when faced with any one of these situations. It is how you react to these that defines you.

Gio

Jewelry making, my new hobby

I started a new hobby of making bracelets a couple of years ago during a long Christmas break from work. It all started putting glass, wooden, and plastic beads on stretchy cord to make, of all things Beer Markers. Beer Markers are very similar to wine markers, except you need something bigger and something that will stay on the beer bottle and not slide down and hit you in the face everytime you take a drink. That's how it all got started, not even sure if the friend I gave the markers to uses them frequently, but I do know they were kind enough to put them out at a party years after I gave them to them....enough about the beginnings.

Earlier this year I picked up a book on beading and creating jewelry using wire and glass beads. The book I picked up is called "Bead on a Wire" by Sharilyn Miller (www.sharilynmiller.com).
Fascinating read on doing the simplest (or hardest) of wire-work with glass beads. It was a pricey book by my half-price book standards, but well worth the price I paid for it. The first night I sat down to read it, with the intention of doing 1 of the instructions, I ended up sitting there for about 4 hours, and I was addicted. I must've tapped into some inner artist that had been trying to escape. The next morning my wife woke up and was enthralled by a new bracelet that I had made. I had taken all of the beads I'd learned in doing the wire techniques, and put them together on a bracelet. Personally I laughed to myself at how ugly it all looked, but my wife loved it. Funny how different two people's perspectives can be on the same thing.

From that day on, I've spent many a night bending wire. First buying the cheaper stuff at Lowes and Home Depot (a great suggestion from the book...). As I got more comfortable with it all, I moved on to buying Nickel/Silver wire. It was much prettier than the galvanized stuff available at the local hardware chains ( no pun intended) and much easier to work with. The finished pieces started to look better and better. I still dabbled in making strung beaded pieces, and I still do from time to time, but I like working with wire a lot more. As I've progressed, I've finally broke down and bought Sterling Silver Wire and findings. It is amazing the quality of the pieces, it is also amazing how much the up front and resulting costs are for the pieces....so I've stuck with the Nickel/Silver until I feel more comfortable with some of the pieces I'm working on. Besides, they look pretty good and people seem to want to buy them, and they're fairly inexpesive.

Lately, I've been making Dangle Bracelets. I've been buying glass beads and head/eye pins by the dozens. I've discovered a few sites where you can order the beads they sell as a mixed combination....or as I figure it the crap they can't get anybody else to buy or were extras from leftover quantaties. This has been a relatively inexpensive way to get some good mixtures. I've found that if you mix colors of a similar vain (Ok, you artists out there know what this is all called and how to do it, me I just hunt and peck and put it all together...) and string them on a series of jump rings, you can create some pretty cool pieces. I've also spent time making dangle bracelets with stones of a similar cut but in different but like colors. These you'll see in my slide show below. I've taken to naming my pieces, mostly in honor of my 2.5 year old. He looked at one of the first bracelets I put together and told my wife "Mommy I'm gonna eat the jellybeans on your wrist." He also named another set of bracelets I did earlier in the year, saying "These look like ladybugs." It's amazing how much little ones pick up. I've had many adults tell me the same thing about that piece.

All in all, this has been a lot of fun for me. It's been a great stress reducer and a way to unwind after a shitty day at work (take last Thursday for instance...). After a long stressful day, I find it relaxing to come home and use my variable speed Dremel 400 Series XPR Tool Kit to cut jump rings. Then I sit for a couple of hours and make dangles and put them together. In the past few weeks I've been making a piece or two a day.

Mother's Day was probably the turning point where I started to feel comfortable and even proud of the pieces I've been making. Did I forget to mention that I'm a perfectionist and a cynic? It's tough for me to see the beauty in each piece, and it's also amazing to me how different people will view different pieces. It's also amazing how much I notice what people are wearing around their necks, in their ears, and around their wrists. I'm always on the look out for new ideas, or at least that's the excuse I'm using for staring at most of the women I'm seeing the pieces on.

For Mother's Day I made my wife a bracelet patterned after one we bought back in February at a bead show (that's a whole story in and of itself, I now know what bowling alley type people do on saturdays...). I purchased the beads from a lady in Odessa (www.backyardbeads.com), choosing them to match a light green shirt my wife had on earlier in the week. It's amazing where inspiration and color tendencies come from. This is one of the first pieces I made using all sterling and beads that were Lampworked (I'll make that my next hobby as soon as I figure out where I can put my torch...). I am very proud of what I made for my wife, and she loved it as well. I have 1 bead left from what I purchased, and I'm working on a Sterling Silver wrapped ring, I just need to free up an hour to make the thing.

Here's a look at a few of the pieces that I've made. I've gotten in the habit of scanning in the pieces when I get them done. I sold a few of my first pieces before I was able to capture them. I try to capture them so I can remember what it was I did the next time I want to put a piece together like that. There are so many different ways to build a piece of jewelry, which has been fascinating to learn, so it is easy to lose track of what you've done and learned. I keep a notebook on my workbench where I write notes from time to time. It's funny to go back and read them, and remember trying to make something out of the notes. It's much easier to type for me now, but I can't make rudimentary drawings as well on this thing.

I'm in the process of setting up a web site with the encouragement of my wife and one of the neighbor ladies. They have both been good motivators, and have helped me pick out many different stones and styles. They have both been a big help, including taking 24 pairs of marble earrings to a school sale for charity. They both have also been the biggest recipients of my new hobby, each wearing many different things and providing good criticism. Do you know how challenging it is to make a piece that will fit the wrist of a 5 year old (my wife and my daughter), yet be expandable to fit somebody with larger wrists? Makes it all fun. I also can't forget my daughter. No matter how many different pieces I make for her, and she is usually the first one I make a new style or piece for, she'll always come up to me and say 1 of these things. "Daddy, that is the most beautiful piece I've ever seen. It is so precious." "Daddy, when can I have one of those, I want one of those, you never make me anything." I feel the pain already for the men in her life. :-) My daughter has also been my biggest helper. She lives to create little pieces and has made a few earrings herself. She has a gift as well for creating necklaces, she put togeter a few extra beads I had and made a brilliant piece strung on faux leather. It was incredible!

Thanks for reading along this far, for your troubles here's a few pictures of my work. I hope you enjoy it. If you'd like a piece, drop me an email and I'll see what I can put together. Don't ask me how much, that's the wife's department. I try to make things that are reasonably priced as this is still a hobby to me and not how I pay my mortgage. If that was the case, you'd be reading this on my own website and coming to visit me in my own bead/jewelry store. That could happen you know. Soon as I figure out the wholesale business of czech pressed beads...




Gio

Quotes to make you think, part 2

A few months back I posted some quotes to make you think. Here's my second installment in that series. There are quite a few good quotes in here that hopefully will help you as you grow and continue on in life.

"The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it." – Norman Schwarzkopf, US Army general

"To succeed you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you." – Tony Dorsett, football player

"You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can’t get them across, your ideas won’t get you anywhere." – Lee Iacocca, former chairman, Chrysler Corporation

"My first order of business is to figure out the order of my business." - Gio

"We spend our lives being proactive to what we have to react to." - Gio

"A genius is a talented person who does his homework." – Thomas Edison, inventor

"The secret of concentration is the secret of self-discovery. You reach inside yourself to discover your personal resources, and what it takes to match them to the challenge."
– Arnold Palmer, golfer

"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
– John Wooden, basketball coach

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." – John Quincy Adams, 6th US president

"Most battles are won before they are ever fought."
– George Patton, US Army general

"If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
– John Wooden, basketball coach

"The road to success is always under construction."
– Lily Tomlin, actress

"Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can’t, you are not leading well." – Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric chief executive

"In order to be a leader, a man must have followers. And to have followers, a man must have their confidence. Hence, the supreme quality for a leader is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible." – Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US President

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you." - Dale Carnegie

"One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks." – Malcolm S. Forbes, publisher

"Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision."
– Peter F. Drucker, business strategist

"You just don’t luck into things as much as you’d like to think you do. You build step by step, whether it’s friendships or opportunities." – Barbara Bush, first lady

"An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea." – Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha

"Intense concentration hour after hour can bring out resources in people they didn’t know they had." – Edwin Land, inventor, entrepreneur

"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one."
– Mark Twain, writer

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." – E. M. Forster, writer

"Whenever you fall, pick up something." – Oswald Avery, scientist

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself."
– Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat, activist

"The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you’re down the path of inactivity." – Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola CEO

"What gets measured gets done." – Peter Drucker, educator

"You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do." – Henry Ford, automaker

"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson, president

"The secret of a good memory is attention, and attention to a subject depends upon our interest in it. We rarely forget that which has made a deep impression on our minds."
– Tyron Edwards, theologian

"A leader is most successful when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, his troops will feel they did it themselves."
– Lao-Tzu, philosopher

"Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can’t be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people."
– Lee Iacocca, Chrysler chairman

"Work is an extension of personality. It is achievement. It is one of the ways in which a person defines himself, measures his worth – and his humanity." – Peter Drucker, author

"People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to."
– George Allen, U.S. senator

"When one door closes another door opens; but we do often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
– Alexander Graham Bell, inventor

"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him." – David Brinkley, newsman

"Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected." – Steve Jobs, Apple Computer co-founder and chief executive

"A sale isn't a thing, it's a process. It isn't standing still, it's moving. It isn't one long job, it's a series of smaller jobs." - Anonymous

- Gio

Depression

Depression is a crazy thing.

It makes you do weird things like wander through a store looking for things you don't want or need, muttering to yourself that you don't need them. Yet, you continue on in search of that elusive thing that you just know is there, not knowing what it is the whole time. Oh, it doesn't stop at one store, it continues on and on and on. Sometime you end up leaving with hundreds of dollars in things you don't need, other times you leave empty handed. Either way, you always leave with this empty feeling inside.

It drives you to work 80 hours a week for months on end, only to eventually crash one day. It causes you to quit everything you've worked hard for. It causes you to sabotage any chance you may have at success. It makes the smallest of matters appear more important than world peace. It clouds your judgment in dealing with the people who can make your life better. It causes you to argue with your boss, not a vocal argument per se, but a silent, quiet one in which there is no clear winner. Mind you, this is the person at the end of the year who will be in charge of writing up your annual review and taking care of you.

Depression is treating those closest to you in the worst possible ways at the most inopportune times. It is doing things, that you look back years later and go, "Whoa I did what?", and knowing deep down in your soul that you'd do them again given the chance. If only you could create that chance, searching for that feeling again. What is it you're looking for?

Depression is doing things you shouldn't in search of things you don't need. It is fixating on a multitude of things at one time, the hot neighbor down the street, your new hobby, the internet (oh do we crazies love this thing), work, the kids, slouching around on the couch. Did I fail to mention the mood swings? One day you're up and the whole world is fine, the next you don't want to leave the house. You want to sit all day in a comfortable chair eating potato chips and watching TV, not one channel mind you but one after the other after the other, not really watching anything, but capturing everything in your mind.

Depression is like a 300lb. gorilla sitting on your chest poking his long finger on your forehead and breathing his foul breath onto your face.

In spite of it, we all must go on. I've been taking my meds, trying to maintain a positive mental outlook, exercising (which has only proven to get me sick from all of the germs....work out good for a week, be sick for a week..repeat), keeping my work life and private life separate. Yet, there are days, weeks, months when it just creeps up on you, sort of like a big black cloud hanging over your head on an otherwise sunny day. Maybe it's just my luck of the genetic draw, maybe it's my personality, whatever it is living with depression is many things.

Don't worry about me, I'll be back strong as I always seem to bounce back on my feet. This latest round of feeling down, defeated, wounded is one of a long series of episodes in my life. This is by no means the worst, or no means the best. I've somehow managed to start my climb back out of the deep dark hole in a good place, with a semi-promotion. Funny how that works.

Reflecting back on the past year, which has been mentally tough for me, I can't help but wonder when my trip down the dark deep hole that is depression will finally consume me. When will it finally end up with me losing my job, my family, everything that I've worked so hard for. Depression makes me wonder these things, and laugh at them as depression also makes me feel invincible.

If you think you may be suffering from depression, or are just having a hard time getting through life. I ask, please get some help. It took me many years to realize what I was battling, what I was up against, what I was dealing with. It took me somehow finding that little shred of inner courage to reach out for help. Please, do the same.

Gio

Homonymphobic

Ok, if you have issues with words that don't appear to be what they really or are a member of some sort of group that supports idiots with no grammar skills, this probably isn't a blog for you.

It occured to me reading an article on Wikipedia yesterday that there are many words in the English language that people just plain do not know how to use. Most of these words are homonyms. For the dolts reading my blog, a homonym isn't a word that likes words of its own gender, it's a word that is pronounced like a similar word but is spelled differently and has a different meaning.

The grammatically gifted folks reading this know what I mean, as we all cringe when we see such words misused on a daily basis -- especially now that blogs, email, myspace, and the web in general gives anybody with a keyboard the ability to publish their mundane thoughts.

Here is my short list of words that are often misused:

there, their, they're

Proper use: Their house is over there, and they're going to paint it yellow.

spelled, spelt

Spelt is a european wheat. Spelled is many different things, but for my example it is the correct arrangement of letters to form a word.

your, you're, yore

Your house is on fire so you're going to have to step back a few feet to allow the firemen in with their big hoses.

I just threw the other one in for giggles like they used to do in the days of yore.

its and it's

It's sad how many times its taken me to explain the use of these two words.

it's -- only use this if you're too lazy to type "it is"

to, too, two

I lost the directions to your party, so it was two in the morning before we arrived. Oddly enough, my good friend Jimmy lost his directions too.

by, buy, bye

By the time you decided to buy the television, the salesman had walked away and said bye.

The basketball team had a first round bye in the tournament, so by the time we arrived at the tournament, I was not able to buy a ticket.

I supposed in this day and age, I could add 'bi' to the list as well, but this is about homonyms and not binomials.

but let's not forget a few others...

deer, dear

You eat one...wait you could eat both...

Dear Bambi,

Deer meat tastes good.

Sincerely, Elmer Fudd

meet, meat

Before we sat down to eat the meat, I had the glorious opportunity to meet her parents.

I saw a few new ones today....that I had not even considered. These are not homonyms, just abused words and phrases....

alot versus "a lot"

A lot of people do not know that ALOT is an acronym and now a word.

outside written as two words "out side"

I actually saw this today...instead of saying outside, as in "they were doing something outside the lines", the writer split them up.

wear, where, were, ware

Most people who live out where the buffalo roam wear their hearts on their sleeves.

Were you planning on to wear that shirt where you pedal your wares?

Mostly, people just don't type were right, but it happens way too often...

One pair of words that I haven't quite figured out is:

awhile versus "a while"

Mostly, I ask for you to consider all words equally and please use treat homonyms with respect because after all they too are words. Their feelings are important was well as their order in sentences we write to post here and there. If they're not treated well, they too will rebel and form their own society.

Please help stop word abuse.
Gio

I don't like New Year's Resolutions....

Personal change is a good thing. What I don't understand about personal change is that people wait until the start of a new year to start that change. I don't believe in New Year's resolutions. I believe in making resolutions, setting goals, making progress towards those goals, achieving them and setting new ones. What I oppose is waiting until the end of an already gone year to make those resolutions.

Your life may be different than mine, but rarely do life changing events in my life wait to time themselves with the changing of the calendar. These life changing events usually happen when we're already at our wit's end or have so much on our plate that anything else just wouldn't seem possible.

This year, if you make only 1 resolution, I ask that you consider this resolution, "For this year I vow to address improvements in my life in a timely fashion and not wait until next year to make those changes."

Don't get me wrong, I have a set of New Year's resolutions...but these are the same set that I've had for many many years. 1. Break 80 playing golf. 2. Have a three-way. 3. Make Director by the age of 40.

I shy away from the lose 20lbs by March, run a marathon, etc. type fad diet resolutions. Rarely (meaning it is possible for those dedicated individuals) have I seen anybody meet the goals they've made in a buzzed state on New Year's Eve. What I have seen is people who were ready to make a change making the necessary changes, it just so happens the timing of their epiphany was around the new year. The reason I warn against the fad diets in winter, you may wonder, is that they gyms are overly packed, they charge higher prices to take advantage of people wrapped up in the new year craze, and it's cold and not fun to go out. Add these things up and it makes for not such a fun experience as you're trying to change your life.

If you must make resolutions at this time of year, I ask that you do this to ensure that you'll meet your goals.

1. Write them down.

A written goal is more easily followed. In writing your goals down, put some sort of timeline and measurable in the goal. Also put in a reward. After all, what is the fun of doing so much to improve without celebrating when you're done.

2. Pick a friend, lover, spouse (or both), neighbor, co-worker to review your goals with.

Having somebody else to be accountable in addition to you will help keep you on task. Set up a monthly, weekly, bi-weekly review of the goals and what you've done with your co-resoluter (is that a word?). If nothing else, you'll build a long lasting relationship out of the deal and enjoy sometime talking about things with those closest to you.

3. Be realistic.

It is great to have lofty goals, but to reach lofty goals you must meet smaller goals along the way. Make these smaller, attainable goals your resolutions. This will make it easier to enjoy some success along the way. Besides, I have yet to meet anybody trying to lose 20 lbs. who did that in a week. I have met people who have lost 20lbs, 1-2-3 lbs here an there along the way.

4. Celebrate your accomplishments.

Begin planning your celebrations now. When you reach that goal, you'll be prepared and ready to celebrate. Too often people will accomplish something they've worked hard for only to have it go by in a blink of an eye with no acknowledgement. I often find these people sliding back into what they used to be/do becuase they didn't take the time to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Pick something you want, start saving for it now and use that as a reward for what you're striving for.

5. Expect setbacks

Not many people in the world have sat down to do something and completely mastered it the first time. There are a few of those people, but they're all called super-geniuses and are few and far between. Expect to work hard for your resolutions and expect times when things will not always go as planned. Use these setbacks as motivation to reach your end goal. Learn from the setbacks to avoid them again, or to adjust the course you've chosen to reach your goals.

Whatever you do this year, please do now wait until next New Years to begin changing your life. Before you know it, you'll run out of time or energy to make the changes you need to make it to the next year.

Life is too short to spend it miserable. I admire those of you who do make New Years resolutions and are able to stick with them longer than January.

No matther what you choose, have a wonderful and prosperous 2006. Enjoy the time you have with the ones you love, and enjoy the things you do.
Gio

Quotes to make you think

As part of my never ending quest to grow as a person I've signed up to receive quotes from several motivational speaker types. Over the past few months, I've been compiling some of them and I'd like to share them with my loyal readers.


"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
– Albert Einstein, Scientist

"Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully."
– Frances Moore Lappe

"The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress."
– Charles Kettering – Inventor

"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits."
– Richard Nixon, president

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence."
– Robert Frost, poet

"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
– Aristotle, philosopher

"I have always been driven to buck the system, to innovate, to take things beyond where they’ve been."
– Sam Walton, Wal-Mart founder

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
– Rene Descartes, mathematician

"If you wouldn’t write it and sign it, don’t say it."
– Earl Wilson, columnist

"Something in human nature causes us to start slacking off at our moment of greatest accomplishment. As you become successful, you will need a great deal of self-discipline not to lose your sense of balance, humility and commitment."
– H. Ross Perot, EDS and Perot Systems founder

"It is my job to be proactive to what I have to react to."
-Gio

Kidney Stones Suck

I decided to open this blog with a couple of Haiku poems:

Sharp pain in the back
Shooting through my aching groin
Now, the pain is gone.

A small little stone
Causing pain down to the bone
Passing brings relief.

I'm feeling poetic tonight as you can see. Thursday I got to experience what people laughing tell you is the male equivalent of labor, yep you guessed it, I had a Kidney Stone. If you didn't guess it, then ya might want to shut down now and go back to school. Male equivalent of labor, like such a thing exists. The pain sucked, but it was only for a few hours and I didn't have to watch my belly grow for 9 months to get to that point. As much as it sucked, it was nowhere near labor and God Bless Women for going through that so that men don't have to.

Actually, I have two Kidney Stones as my friend Mr. CAT Scan told me via my Urologists moving lips. The first one, I named him Keith, made his appearance known to me Thursday afternoon about 1:30. I was sitting at my desk enjoying my 3rd 20oz Mt. Dew of the day, enjoying my caffeine buzz from the previous two and my 2 cokes at lunch (see I've switched to caffeine as my drug of choice since I can't drink anymore), when Keith decided to leave his twin brother, who I'm naming Brian, and start the fun 4 hour+ journey through my ureter. I had one about 10 years ago, so I immediately recognized the fun I was about to go through. As I was sitting there, it felt like a giant gorilla reached out grabbed my along my right side, began squeezing, while simultaneoulsy digging his thumb in my back at the bottom of my rib cage. Whomever said that humans have no instincts never had a kidney stone. I knew that I had to get to the hospital as soon as I could, because that's where they keep the cool drugs and the even cooler Xray machines, wave devices, surgical instruments, and anything else to stop this gorilla from killing me via my kidneys. After reacting with a brilliant statement in my head of, "This hurts", was to shutdown my computer and walk to the cube of my friend. I told him I had a kidney stone and was going to the hospital. The look on his face was priceless, even before I told him I was in excruciating pain.

Now, I've read, heard, and been advised that you shouldn't drive yourself to the hospital when you have a kidney stone. Let me tell you this, driving was actually better than sitting there willing the car to go faster. With driving, I had something else to distract me from the 4mm stone traveling through my 1mm opening that I think is like 10 miles long inside my body. The other benefit is I could not only will the car to go faster, I could push that big pedal on the right and move that wheel thingy to get it there faster. I say to those of you who recommend against driving while in debalitating pain, don't knock it until you try it. Along the way, I called my wife who had taken my kids earlier that day to a pumpkin patch 50 miles away, to let her know that I had a kidney stone and was enroute to receive halucinogenic drugs and comfort. I seem to remember a few years back, and I have video to prove it, that we said we'd stick by each other "In Sickness and In Health". My wife's reaction made me wonder if it was only her Health that she was gonna stick by me. The conversation went like this. Me in a soft, pain-filled voice: "I have a kidney stone and I'm on the way to the hospital near the house.". Her in a loud obnoxious tone: "HA HA HA HA HA HA. Honey that's terrible." Laughter, not quite what I expected.

See she was around for the last one, and it freaked her out more than it did me. She drove me to the hospital that time about 50 miles an hour faster than I drove myself (another reason I drove myself, she's a maniac behind the wheel). I figured that some sort of concern, sympathy, empathy was coming my way when I called my sweet, loving, caring wife. Laughter was not what I expected.

I get to the hospital, the pain mellows slightly, or was it just the adrenaline kicking in? I finally find a space as I look around at the hearse (an ominous sign, I'm hoping not), the 3 ambulances, and the over abundance of cars. Looks like I picked "Have and Injury, get one Free Day" at the emergency room. I'm driven to get relief, but driving to a slower paced hospital isn't in my plans right now. I finish the XM Radio comedy skit I'm listening to, and go inside the hospital where I meet the friendly nurse behind 3" thick bullet proof glass speaking to me through that 4" round verigated disk with the clipboard passed under the window through the trough. I sign my name, and kindly explain that I have a kidney stone. Here was my first exposure the the most common question you get when you tell medical people that you have a kidney stone, "Do you also have a fever?" Now I have to worry about that? Am I supposed to have a fever? If I do, does that mean it's much worse than a kidney stone, could it be my gall bladder has ruptured, could it be my spleen, my appendix? Even in a pain enduced stupor, it is amazing the permutations the human mind can come up with for an ailment. I snap back to reality when the invisible Gorilla tightens his grip on my side, to kindly explain that I do not have a fever, just a 10" stone moving through an opening designed for fluids. "Thank you sir, please have a seat and we'll be right with you." Right with you, yeah, right with you. Emergency rooms are the only people in the world who make airlines look like Swiss timing experts. Right with you, 3 ambulances outside, 7 snot nosed kids running around, some guy who looks like he died last week, and a 2 year old who needs stitches removed, right with you I think to myself as I begin hypnotizing myself to avoid the pain which I think is growing. Luckily for me, the cold sweat that I've been in for the past 30 minutes has started to drip from my forehead, across my unibrow and into my eyes. I looked at her as pitiful as I could and mustered a contrived, faint as possible, "Thank you.". It is this point in time where I start to take stock of my life, and I thank god for the time I spent working on cellular phones. In the past I would've had to read 4 year old copies of Ladies Home Journal, Redwood, Readers Digest Condensed Version of Condensed Version Tragedies, or Christain Home Network while I waited for them to "... be Right with you". Today, I had my trusty cellular phone with my bevy of loaded games. I was able to beat the computer at the highlest level of backgammon 3 times, bowled consecutive games of 199, and was able to successfully land my parachute dude on the little circle while I waited for them to"...be Right with you.". It is also at this time I realize that the human mind is amazing, it is capable of blocking out high level of pain by focusing on moving blips around the screen as quick as possible and by hoping for double 4's so I can get my little brown blip off the center bar AND put 2 of his guys up there.

As it turns out "...be Right with you" only took 15 minutes. My blood pressure as a calm cool collected 166/124 a new personal record. So much for blocking out the pain, guess the part of my brain controlling my heart wasn't fooled. Even the nice conversation I had with the 3-year old about her new green jacket and pretty butterfly on her shirt didn't help. She once again asked me if I had a fever...what's with the fever?...then she checked me for a fever, handed me a cup and found me another nurse to escort me back to a room she called "Vis 2". As I walked dumbfounded back to "Vis 2" (thinking in the back part of my brain what is that code for?), I started at the pee cup. Last thing on my mind was going pee, much less under pressure to produce enough for a stream and the cup.

We make is to "Vis 2" where I'm handed a lovely Versace gown, well it could've been originally worn by Courtney Love on a drug induced binge where she slept in the gutter, and pointed to the room where I can fill the cup.

I quickly strip (I love to strip, just wished I had some good music to move my hips to, maybe seduce that hot nurse I passed on the way in) and slip on my Versace, does the spilt go to the front or the back? I'm always challenged by such lovely clothing, especially dresses since I don't ever wear them. I finally get it on, tie it up. Look down at my striped underwear, glad they were clean, and my new white socks. OK, I always keep my socks on in the hospital. You never know what's on the floors and it was as near as I could tell like 40 degrees in there. Being male, I had a nice porno movie thought flash through my mind as I'm there in my open back gown with my socks. I trudge to the toilet, fill the cup, trudge back to the room, and curl up in the fetal position. Right by my head is a 5" TV on a robotic arm of some kind. I think the original idea was to get the TV close to the bed, that was the idea the implementation didn't quite happen that way. I turn it on to find something to drown out the noise..Food TV, not now, Discover channel, that'll work...and curl up in a new yoga position called Fetal Kidney Stone Pain Relief Attempt.

A knock at the door, I'm thinking finally a Dr., a Nurse, somebody with pain relief. Wrong, see before I can be treated the hospital must make sure that they can get paid. Remember my strip comment earlier, in my haste to get into my gown and get treated I didn't think about strategically placing my pants with all my stuff close to me. The admin with the Johnny 5 computer cart wasn't much help. So, I must unwind my limbs from the newly discovered Yoga position and retrieve my wallet from my pants which are as you guessed under all of my other articles of clothing. Oh, and we had to turn off my noise distraction so she could hear. I'm thinking to myself about now, remember that period "...be Right With You" why don't they get my paperwork stuff then instead of stalling the Dr. or Nurse with my happy drugs. We finish, I climb back on the bed which isn't at a comfortable angle and resume my Yoga position. The pain begins to worsen, coming in spasms now, sweat dripping of my forehead, back of my head soaked...my only recourse is to lay in my Yoga position and begin to chant like a Tibetian Monk with a Hangover..."Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck".

After what seems like 6 hours but was only 6 minutes this "hot" (my wife's later description of him) shows up, checks me out. First question, "Do you have a fever?" I'm beginning to think that they have a special on Fever treatment or if I say yes, I'll get a happy ending from the hot nurse I passed on the way in. He checks me out, says he's 99% sure I have a Kidney Stone, would like to get a CAT scan and he'll send a nurse "Right In" with some medication to help with the pain.

I don't know about you, but when I hear "Right In", even in a hospital I'm thinking 10 minutes at tops. Especially since I'm in the back where all the good stuff is and the people who know how to administer it do their thing. I lay my head back at it's 48 degree angle, assume my Yoga position and resume my chanting, "Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck". Thinking that the TV which is 3 ft away from the bed is too far to reach, I continue my chanting and mind channeling. The mind channeling doesn't last long, seems that Hawaii is a long way from Texas when you have a Rock the size of Gibraltar moving through your ureter. I swear, geese migrate from Canada to Mexico faster than this thing is moving through my body. 5 minutes goes by, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes....I refocus on the beach in Hawaii, start playing golf courses in my mind (I know I'm sick because I shot a 68, should've been a 65 but that invisible gorilla made me pull 3 putts to the right)...30 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes....at exactly 1 hour 3 minutes 27 seconds I hear a cart outside my door an a knock on the door. Mr. Patient, sorry for the wait we had a rush of patients, I'm here with your pain medication. Needles don't bother me, I was happy to offer my free arm, remember my other limbs were twisted in a complex Kidney Stone Reilef Yoga position, have her poke me (the bruise is healing nicely thanks for asking), take 3 vials of blood, asking me while she was doing it if I had a fever, then finally putting in my happy drugs. Ahhhhh, some relief. The gorilla has been replaced by one of those monkeys playing an accordian, and it was a shitty tune I didn't like, and I'm feeling better.

My wife, I seem to recall calling her to hear her laughter at my situation. Is she coming? The hospital isn't that from from the house. Maybe I don't have a Kidney Stone after all. Maybe she's been poisoning me and this is the last stages of my life. Ah Hah, it dawns on me. If my wife has been poisoning me, then I'd have a fever. Still, where is she? hmmmm....

She finally makes it to the hospital to find me, to comfot me. She walks in the room takes a look at my IV needle, my newly discovered fondness for Yoga, and my eloquent chant of "Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck", and does what every loving wife does, laughs. I'm glad my misery brings her such joy.

Less than a minute after her arrival, Chuck the X-ray guy shows up. Now that I have happy drugs, I say what I always say to guys named Chuck, "What's up Chuck?", pausing slightly between the "What's" and the "up". Say it out loud, it really is funny. He misses my joke, as I'm sure most of you just did and wheels me to the CAT scan. Before we leave my room, Chuck does what no other person in the hospital seems capable of, he finds me a sheet and a blanket, guess he didn't like my Versace, striped underwear and white sock ensemble, and covers me
up. Like the opening scene to a Police Squad TV show he wheels me down the hall to CAT scan room. Usually I like to lay on my back and watch the lights go by with periods of stillness as we pass the ceiling tiles, today I stayed in my comforting Yoga position. We get there, I scooch from my bed to the CAT scan bed slide down into the donut of death chamber and begin my series of breathing exercises while the tomb of death spins overhead. Technology is wonderful though, 10 years ago I got a needle, and IV pumped full of glow in the dark fluids through a vein in my forearm I didn't know I had and run through a series of Xrays. Thanks to advancements in technology and medicine, Chuck has me in and out in less time that it took me to fill out the paperwork to quailfy for this fine treatment.

He wheels me back to my room and my lovely wife, where we wait for the Dr. to "...be Right With You." After not too long in hospital time, I think another 30 minutes my "hot" doctor comes into explain to me my condition. He once again starts off by asking me if I've had any kind of fever or have one now....what the hell, the bitch is poisoning me isn't she...do I get a 50% discount on Thursdays after 2 if I have a fever?....is it worse?...

It is as this point my wife becomes an expert on my healthly living and drinking habits. My Dr. is trying to explain that I have a Kidney Stone, no shit, and my options are to try to finish passing it, here's an RX for some pain killers, insert (and this is a direct quote) "a Telescope" into me through a very tiny opening and retrieve the stone, or locate the lithotripsy machine go meet it and have the stone removed. That's the condensed version, I think that my wife during the middle of this felt bad for laughing at me twice, leaving me there alone in the hospital to discover a higher level of being (in pain), must've interrupted him out of anxiety about 15 times. "He drinks too much Mt. Dew doesn't he?", "He needs to eat better", "It's too much calcium, too much dairy, too many cokes, too much masturbation as a youth"....between Dr. Hottie and myself we get through the interruptions to decide that I'll beging taking on more water than the Titanic and see the urologist on call on Friday.

Thank you, here's a prescription for the pain, drink more water than New Orleans had pour through the levy, see the urologist tomorrow, and hope the rest of your night goes smoothly. Oh, you need to start straining your urine to catch the stone when it comes out. I'm almost home free, feeling a little better about things until that "catch the stone" phrase. Catch, that has a certain velocity tone to it. Before a catch there is some sort of throwing, casting, tossing motion that happens. I begin to pray for a smooth stone, not one that looks like a goat head sticker or one of those stickers you get caught in your sock walking through the weeds. Please dear God, grant me a smooth stone, football shaped if possible.

We pack up the hospital and leave, off to Walgreens to get my vicadin generic knock-off equivalent. The pain is not as great as when I came to the hospital, but it is still there nonetheless and I still have Keith somewhere inside my body tying to break free

Thursday night, feeling better. Get home the pain has subsided, turn on some baseball and camp out on the couch. Hey I'm feeling pretty good, I think I'll skip my generic vicadin knock-offs for now. Time for bed, I go to sleep feeling pretty good.

4am, I hear a thumping in my ear, sounds like a gorilla. I open one eye to see Jane Goodall sitting in the mist. Oh no, he's got me again, that Gorilla is back kicking my ass. I get up to take two of those pills, that should help. Wrong. No help there. Seems generic vicadin doesn't do a thing for kidney stone pain once it's set in. Now that I think of it, it's been about 12 hours since my shots at the hospital, I need me some of those drugs....

I trudge back to my bed, assume my Yoga position and begin chanting in my mind "Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck"...the vicadin at least helped me sleep, until about 6AM when the pain kicked in again.... Reread this paragraph a few times, bumping it ahead and hour each time, that should save me some typing.

My contractions are at half hour intervals now and last 20 minutes each. The cold sweats aren't too bad, I've become used to them. Relief must be coming soon..."Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck".

At 9AM we load up and head off to the urologist with a quick stop next door to pick up the nice pictures Chuck took of my insides. I'm a little nervous as this is a urologist I've never met. My experience with urologists has been interesting to say the least. I find myself a little nervous, as I've never met him and what I'm used to is older men with smooth hands fondling my balls or coaxing fluid out of my prostate. They don't do that for Kidney Stones do they?

Turns out I ended up with a good doctor. He took the time to sit down and draw me a picture, yes draw me a picture on a blank piece of paper. Explaining that I have 2 stones, Keith is in my bladder and Brian is still in my kidney. He tells me to drink lots and lots of water, lemonade is good as well, and try to flush it out. Here's some samples of a Prostate medicine and an uber muscle relaxant pain pill used on Arthritis patients, and here's a prescription. For a kidney stone there are 3 options, go in through the end and retrieve it from the bladder. My urologist or his twin brother will be on call if the pain is unberable this weekend. Wait for the traveling machines to either break it apart with sound waves or go in through a small incision in the back to retrieve the stone out of the Kidney. I have that to look forward to.

After his great explanation and art skills we leave his office, he hands me a paper bag of goodies. Asks me if I have..no not a fever...a strainer to catch the stone. I tell him I'm using a modified kitchen one, so he pulls out this cool copenhagen looking cup that folds out like a girl scout water cup with a screen on the bottom. Thus the pee straining saga begins.....

I now have a new found respect for women. How do all of you pee in that cup while sitting on the toilet? There isn't enough room between where the stream originates and the edge of the bowl and I'm not that flexible. Standing up to pee is a no brainer, I flip out my cup, hold it firmly in one hand and do my thing, apprhensively of course, waiting for a 4mm stone to come out an opening not much bigger than that, but it is quite another those times when I had to "drop the kids off at the pool" (as my buddy would say).

Friday comes and goes, no stone. I'm ingesting more water than the hoover dam, peeing more frequently than shots are sold at a local bar on buy 1 get on 1 free night and sitting around feeling drained waiting to give birth to Keith as I've now named him. Thankful that invisible Gorillas run and hide from Arthritis muscle relxants.

Saturday I wake up feeling markedly better. I take my two medications,haven't touched my vicadin generic knock-off, and tell the wife, "Let's go somewhere and do something, get me out of the house." I hop in the shower, get out, lay down and proceed to sleep off and on from 9AM to 5PM. I'm starting to think I should skip the muscle relaxants if I want to see any baseball or football or my kids grow or work ever again.

Sunday, I skip the Arthritis medicine. Continue to ingest water. Anytime I hear the word water, a word that rhymes with it, see a glass of water, a bottle of water, take a sip I have to go pee. I've become expert at the cup flip, the wizz, the wash, the dry, the repackaging of my convenient copenhagen sized strainer complete with area to hold Keith when he arrives.

Monday, I'm feeling better, so I return to work. All goes well as could be expected, I stay at my desk for most of the day catching up on my writiing, reading and arithmetic. 4 o'clock...what is it with 4 o'clock. I start to feel some back spasms and sharp pain in my back. Not nearly as bad as the original pain on Thursday and Friday morning, but sharp...enough to let me know that I should probably head home, camp myself on the couch in the butt dents from Thursday night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Tuesday, Interview day, can't let this kidney stone stop me now. If you've read my other blogs you know about the global restructuring event taking place at work. Through all this kidney stuff, I've managed to land in interview with a different group and growth potential...the give and take of life I suppose. I'm still drinking water like tomorrow the world will be out of it and the only way to get any is to store it in my body. I'm peeing still on regular 15 minute intervals...I have a routine in the first stall at work. The double toilet paper dispenser makes a nice shelf to lay out my girl scout cup strainer. I'm like a junkie preparing his spoon, rubber band, needle and match. Still no stone, as my interview times approach my biggest fear is passing the stone with it's imagined barbs causing grave bodily damage either right before my interview or during my break between my two time slots. As with most imagined events in life, the stone still had not passed, and my interviews went well...wish me and Keith luck!!

Tuesday night, I'm finally not feeling like I have to go pee on 15 minute intervals. I've resigned myself to waiting for Keith. I put the kids to bed. Get up, go pee...still no stone in the strainer. I finish, thinking "Oh well, he'll come eventually, at least I'm not in pain."

I do the pinch/tap to get the last drop out, I feel this sharp pain.
Ouch, what in the hell is poking me in there...oh my, here's my stone.

I milk it out, for lack of a better description, and look at it. Before I
describe Keith to you, let me go back to the term "catch". There was no throw, no jettison of a stone through forced urine from gallons upon gallons of water, it merely fell out after I had to push it from the bottom.

The stone, it's about 4mm long and looks like a to scale version of a oyster shell that has washed up on the shore. Luckily there were no barbs like a sticker that gets stuck in your sock. He was a nice dark stone color, not milky/calcium white as I've heard some stones described.

The anticipation, the apprehension, the pain all over in the wink of an eye.

Now I get to turn my attention to Keith's slightly larger twin brother Brian. In two weeks I'm getting pumped full of radioactive glistening fluids and have pictures taken of Brian. I'm thinking of dressing them alike for the photo shoot. If he shows up nicely for the picture and doesn't decide to invade my stretched ureter -- which I'm prepared for with a bevy of prescription narcotics -- then we'll perform a kidney stone cesarian. If I'm lucky and I time it right, we can just blast Brian out of my kidney using super sonic waves. To do that I have to time things around the 1 machine that is available for the 4 state area. Once again, wish me luck!
Rock solidly yours, Gio

For more information on Kidney Stones(renal calculi or nephroalithasis), please see WebMDHealth at http://my.webmd.com/hw/kidney_stones/hw204798.asp
They hurt a lot and are no laughing matter.

Order is important

As I put my little ones to bed every night, I have a lot of free time to let my mind wander over important things in life. Tonight, my random thoughts took me to these two things: "Order Is Important" and "Nomenclature is Important".

Why Order Is Important

Let's look at a few simple math equations to see why order is important. Take the equation "Total = I - I*.15". Without the rules of order the Total would always be 0 (zero, nada, zilch, nothing). This seems insignificant. What if I said this equation, in a rudamentary sense, determines what you get paid each week. "I" stands for Income, .15 for the tax bracket (adjust this exercise to the correct number). All of a sudden your mind changes on that whole order thing. Quickly your mind harkens back to 9th grade algebra and you're screaming, hopefully in your head and not out loud, you have to multiply before you subtract. A simple yet effective example.

Why Nomenclature is Important

Let's say I put you in charge of building my new house. To build my new house we'll need some lumber. I'm no lumber so I wouldn't copy my list and try to build a house of any kind. If you do try to build a house from my list a big bad wolf will come by and blow it down, that much I can promise. To build my house, I give you the following list g with no nomenclature:

House List
50 - 12 x 4 x 8
50 - 12 x 4 x 10
25 - 12 x 6 x 10
25 - 12 x 6 x 8
50 - 12 x 12 x 10
50 - 12 x 12 x 8

Going back to the first part of this discussion, "Order is Important" for those of you not keeping up, these are some pretty simple equations. Kee in mind, since I'm no architect this means that I get to say that you're no builder and don't get what these are. Because of this, I could hand you this list and you could come back with:
-334, -430, -695, -551, -1390, -1102

I don't know about you, but you can't build a house out of negative numbers. For the most part I'm a pretty positive guy, so I'm not just being negative about this.

So I'm missing a few marks relating to feet ('), inches ("), quantity, and separators to make this list easier to read.

Why do I care about this tonight? Well that takes me back to more random thoughts. (note: Sitting in the dark in a rocking chair waiting for a 2 year old to go to sleep is a weird sort of meditation I've discovered.)

1. You can substitue on Oral Thermometer for a Rectal one, but I wouldn't recommend doing that in a the reverse order.
2. To get others to believe in you, you must first believe in yourself (that's a famous quote but I don't remember who from).
3. When you're trying to break a complex problem down into it's subparts, the order of those subparts can sometimes determine how quickly you can find a resolution. Also, some complex problems cannot be solved as 1 giant problem, but only smaller parts of the problem can be solved.
4. When building a team to solve a problem, who do you hire first? The manager to provide the vision and get the team going, or a qualified member of the team to start solving the problem?
5. What happens if you put pieces of the coconut into the lime, can you shake it all up?

I'm sure there are others....

If you were paying attention the reason I care is to find the answers to #3 and #4. I have a job interview tomorrow for a new position. The new position is sort of a career change for me. I'll be managing a team in charge of solving a complex problem, that everybody agrees exists but do not be able to get together to solve. For me, this is what I love to do. I get to biuld a team from scratch and pull together disparate groups to solve a problem everybody agrees exists. In this case it's a very expensive problem that many different groups point the finger at each other for the blame. My goal is to solve parts of this problem, as the whole problem will never go away. To do this, as I've done in the past is to work it in what I call my "Both Ends Parallel Strategy". OK, I don't really call it that but I had to come up with something. This method works for a problem where you have a backlog of issues/widgets/thingies and new arrivals coming in daily. What I like to do is take my team and work them from Both Ends towards the middle. I split the team into as 'equal parts' as I can, slightly skewed and begin to work both ends of the flow. Let's say I have 8 people, I rank them from 1-8. I take #1, #2, #5, #6 and I put them in charge of the new arriving widgets (assuming the incoming rate is high). I then take #3, #4, #7, #8 and I put them in charge of working from the oldest widget to the middle. By splitting my team this way I accomplish a few things, some of them directly related to the problem:

1. I do not fall any further behind because my 'better team' is taking care of the incoming rate as fast as they are coming in.
2. I'm knocking down the backlog oldest (usually the quickest as well since some can be so old they've lost their urgency) to newest.
3. I'm giving my #3 (and potentially #4) person in my group a leadership opportunity.
4. I'm also giving my weaker team members the chance to work directly with some of my stronger team members on a joint problem to solve.
5. If /when the arriving flow becomes slower, I can then peel off my #1 person to look at future problems, thus providing leadership for my #2.
6. By tackling the new and oldest in parallel, this buys me sometime to get to the issues in the middle before they get too old.

The Nomenclature portion of this comes into play when it comes to deciding classifications for 'closing and issue/widget/thingie'. If the whole team agrees on a few fundamental resolutions, it becomes easier to classify the older (and sometimes non-relevant) issues. The newer issues (and future ones) are then positioned to fit the fundamental resolutions. This gives us, as a team, a way to monitor progress and predict where we'll be.

Another benefit of doing this, is I can take the 3-4-7-8 team and give them a weekly goal, from that I can predict how many weeks it will take before we're caught up. Since my 1-2-5-6 team is covering the incoming, my backlog doesn't get any bigger and it's pretty close to the prediction we made for when we'll be done. By setting a weekly goal, I also have a means to reward my whole team if we get done early or exceed a weekly goal. It's amazing how a team will react to something as simple as donuts, a banner, an email from above for doing their jobs.

Keep in mind my "Both Ends Parallel Strategy" the next time you find yourself in a bind. BTW, this is also the same method I used to get myself out of debt many years ago. I transferred all of my debt to one of those low interest cards, started paying cash for new purchases, and outlined a year strategy for paying off the 1 low interest card that remained.

And if you have a new name for my strategy let me know. You see, I have a job interview tomorrow for a pretty important position with growth potential in a field different from what I've been doing for the last 10 years and I need all the help I can get.

I'll probably leave the thermometer example out of my interview, after all I'm not in the medical field, and people in the medical field will tell you that the difference between an oral and a rectal thermometer is taste.

Tastefully yours. Gio

The "G" Word

For those of you in the technical field, or the economic field for that matter, I came face to face today with the "G" word, and I didn't like what I saw. Not only did I not like what I saw, but it frightened me. As I was being frightened, it also woke me up to a harsh realization. Globalization is Evil. It is more of an evil word than "Racism".

Where I work, up until this week as a Manager, we went through a large organizational reorganization about 9 months ago. Part of this large reorganization was mobilizing about 600 people world wide into a department with the name "Global" in the title. As we've all become too familiar with, this is akin to the kiss of death for jobs here locally.

The way I see it, developing 3rd world countries are better suited to provide cheap labor cheaply. In todays volatile economic times, with gas around $3 a gallon depending on where you live, stocks going down, fed rates going up, companies are looking to cut corners where they can. I'm starting to believe my own conspiracy theory that within 5 years, America's main export will be Project Manager skills. We will no longer provide cool leading edge technology, great products we can use at home, or goods. What we will all be able to do is organize a project, line up the people to develop it, test it, manufacture it, provide the piece parts, ship it all for pennies on the dollar of what our founding fathers, grandfathers, fathers and all of us have been getting paid to do for years. I'm convinced, also part of my conspiracy theory, that several large companines in America would run the whole thing with 4 people in the states is they though they could get away with it. Bear in mind, these 4 people would be very wealthy as they wouldn't have to take care of their fellow countrymen who built the very companies they own, instead they'd be paying pennies to have the next wiz bang gizmo that saves our lived developed by somebody who'll never use that particular product in their mud hut.

Most of you will blame this on the Republicans, others of you will blame this on the Democrats, a few of you will blame it on the Conservatives, the Independents, everybody but the person standing in the mirror. You see it is up to the few of us with skills to take back our country, our customer service lines, our phone solicitations, our product lines, our manufacturing facilities. Let's bond together as a country to ensure that what we produce going forward isn't a generation of lazy fat kids who spend way too much time on here.

What I'm worried about with the G-word is what as a country we'll be known for in 10, 20, 30 years. What will the legacy of my generation and generation after us be? My parents had the moon, vietnam, the swinging 70's. Thus far in my adult life all we're known for is a president who can't keep his willie in his pants, a president who doesn't want us to recognize that we even have a willie, 9/11, MTV, and TiVo. At least we did something right...a wonderful device running on a collaboratively developed product that enables me to skip commercials, news teasers, and pick what I want to watch when I watch it.

I suppose you're wondering why this bothers me so much. Today I got a glimpse into the 2 year G-word plan, it came in the form of a layoff of about 5% of the folks. Usually this sort of thing is a culling of the low performers who needed a kick in the butt to jumpstart their careers. Today was different. Today we lost some good people with good skills working hard to deliver good products. Today, these folks had no idea this was coming. What kills me, besides getting demoted from management, is that this is only the beginning. As I looked around today in the big announcement meetings, I realized that 1 out of 2 of us won't be there in 2 years. Funny thing about growth and Globalization, most people forget that this country is part of that global economy and that we will continue to need growth here. Hopefully those of you reading this don't forget this the next time you're faced with a decision of doing something here or for pennies on the dollar in a far away land.

Gio

What is your personality type?

In the course of my working career, I've had the opportunity to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) test several times with several different groups. MBTI is described fully on the MBTI Web page:

http://www.myersbriggs.org/my_mbti_personality_type/mbti_basics/

MBTI® Basics

The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic difference in the way individual prefer to use their perception and judgment.

Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).

Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).

Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).

Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

Your Personality Type: When you decide on your preference in each category, you have your own personality type, which can be expressed as a code with four letters.

So you all can better understand me, here is my type

ESTP -- Extraverted Sensing with Thinking.
ESTPs are action-oriented, pragmatic, resourceful, and realistic individuals who prefer to take the most effective route. They enjoy making things happen now and typically find a way through difficult situations.

Order Preferences

1. Sensing
2. Thinking
3. Feeling
4. Intuition

Contributions to the Organization

• Negotiate and seek compromise to move things along
• Keep things lively; make things happen
• Take a realistic and direct approach
• Embrace risk in a calculated way
• Notice and remember factual information

Leadership Style

• Take charge readily in crises
• Persuade others to their point of view
• Have a direct and assertive style
• move along the most expedient route
• Seek action and immediate results

Preferred Learning Style

• Active, hands-on, trial and error in determining what works
• Practical and focused on something they can apply now

Problem-Solving Approach

• Want to make a realistic and concrete assessment of the situation (S) and logically analyze the next steps (T)
• May need to consider the impact on people (F) and search for alternate possible views (N) for optimal results

Preferred Work Environments

• Contain lively, results-oriented people who value firsthand experience
• Have rules, but space is given for deviations
• Allow time for fun
• Provide for flexibility in doing the job
• Have a technical orientation with all the latest equipment
• Are physically comfortable
• Respond to the needs of the moment

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Potential Pitfalls

• May appear demanding, blunt, and insensitive when acting quickly
• May focus too much on the immediate and miss the wider implications of their actions
• May sacrifice follow-through by moving on to the next problem
• May get caught up in off-work activities, such as sports and other hobbies

Suggestions for Development (as if perfection can be improved)

• May need to curb their task focus and factor in the feelings of others
• May need to look beyond the quick fix, plan ahead, and consider the wider ramifications
• May need to complete the tasks at hand
• May need to keep work and play in the proper perspective

===================================================================

That pretty much sums me up. Funny thing is I married an I and a J. She tells her friends that the thing that bothers her most about me is the size of my "P"-ness. The Introverts reading this will laugh about this in an hour or so...the Extroverts just called somebody into the room to show it to and they laughed together.

If you've never taken the indicator, it is one of those good team building exercises where you can learn a lot about yourself as well as your co-workers.

BTW, I am in no way associated with MBTI -- just somebody who constantly looks for ways to control the world and convince them to my way of thinking. This is one of the tools that keeps me under control and in line. One of those things that reminds me, much to my surprise, that there are people in the world who actuallly think and act differently than I do. And all this time I just thought they were idiots.

Somehow in the world of work, I tend to end up inheriting teams of Introverts with strong F tendencies. The F's reading this want to give me a hug, the T's are cringing and feeling pity on me.

Take care, Gio

It was the Knuckleheads, not Katrina

As we're driving along in our luxury vehicles on crowded freeways listening to our fancy sound systems it can be easy to forget those less fortunate than ourselves. It is moments like the last couple of weeks in one of our biggest and well known cities that causes me to take a pause in my life, to take inventory of all I have and be thankful for the many blessings I've had in life. I by no means am a rich and wealthy man, but I live comfortably. This has come through years of hard work, late nights, weekends and being fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time. In the end though, this matters not.

I've watched a lot of footage of the surreal events in New Orleans and the surrounding areas over the past couple of weeks. I've watched the local news as the many refugees have fled to Austin and been proud of my city in the outpouring of support for the recently afflicted. I've also been proud of my city for recognizing that our local supplies will be low for the upcoming months, and how citizens of all walks of life have reacted to help.

Where am I going with all of this you're probably asking? Well, what amazes me is the number of "knuckleheads" who can control in a time of chaos. Some of you are sitting there pointing fingers at the Mayor of New Orleans, the Governor of Louisiana, or even the President, but that's not who I'm talking about. In a city that large it is near impossible to get everybody out. Yes, there were days of notice and a few thousand eldery, indigent, or handicapped people that could've been moved out of the city, but that's not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about the few low life a$$#0le$ who pretty much took over the convention center and turned it into a nightmare similar to escape from new york. That's where the real breakdown in our society is, and you can't blame the mayor, the governor or the president for the scum of the earth purposely staying behind to rape, pillage, murder, and terrorize their fellow city members. I concede that water, food, and other sundries could've been delivered earlier by one of the many helicopters with a camera much earlier than the days it took, but this is not the cause for the terrible scenes I saw at the convention center and Coon Asstrodome (only a few coon asses will get that reference). I don't blame the people trapped inside these buildings of death and despair for being upset, traumatized, and scarred for life for being hurt, angry, and frightened. A hurricane blowing through your town, a broken levee, and millions upon millions of gallons of water is bad enough, but no human being should have to be held captive inside of a building w/out power for days against their will. I know, you're saying, "Gio, what in the hell are you talking about?" Hear me out. I watched with a pit in my stomach as the police tried to get into the convention center last week and were pushed back and forced out by the same people who were expecting their help. Pushed back then fired upon by snipers trying to restore order to organize help to the people who chose to stay behind to ride out a Category 5 hurricane.

If I didn't hit a nerve with that statement, good. I purposely wrote the word 'chose'. Yes, some of these people are from economically disadvantaged areas or unable to care for themselves. That is just SOME...the guy(s) on the roof with the rifle, that sick twisted "knucklehead" chose to stay behind to capitalize on the lack of control. When the officials catch up to that person or group of people, I'm thinking that stuffing them into a 15,000 sand bag and dropping them from a helicopter to help stop the levee would be fitting.

Watching this all last week from my air contioned home, sitting on my leather couch, getting upset at my kids for playing too loud with their toys, made me sick to my stomach, but it did spur me into action. I hope it does the same for you. I donated money to the Red Cross, water and peanut butter and other sundries to one of the local shelters, and about 3/4 of the clothes out of my closet to help the people fortunate enough to live through the aftermath.

Katrina will go down in history as the hurricane that caused the most financial damage in the history of the U.S. To me it will go down in my memory as the worst side of human beings I have ever witnessed in the U.S. We sent our troops to fight terrorism, I hope we act in the same swift manner to help deal with the New Orleans Terrorists.

While we're doing that, please do not forget that this is just the beginning of the Hurricane season. Plenty of more storms are brewing in the gulf. It was New Orleans today, could be a city with one of your relatives, friends, or enemies tomorrow. Get off your comfortable ass and make a donation to the Red Cross, clean out those "someday" clothes you're holding on to in your closet and help make the world a better place for those who have been put in harms way merely by choosing to live in a city near the Gulf of Mexico. Keep in mind that we are 2-3 months away from cold times and the holidays, supplies used today to help the hurricane victims needs to be replenished for those families local to you who need your help.

Gio

Please Help the Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/