Enjoying The Ride

After thirteen years, it was time to get a new car.  I like to think it was a practical decision, but I can't escape the conclusion that I'm still in the process of that mid-life crisis.  I did manage to avoid the sports car, and decided on a more fuel efficient model, though.  On average I have been getting a new car twice every three decades, so I see this as one of those turning points in my life.

I was also reflecting this week on how my priorities are also changing.  In the last several months, I have changed my focus back to those other aspects of my life.  I used to plan things around my career, and I've now found that I've been looking at my own health and personal life.  I've started dieting again, and hopefully I can do as well as I did twelve years ago.  I'm already down twenty pounds, and I've still got a long way to go.

Life is a journey, right? 

See ya.

We The People . . .

Once again, we celebrate our Constitution Day.  Back in 1787, the Constitutional Convention signed our Constitution.  This is one of the occasions that I have observed regularly throughout the years.  I tend to get on a soapbox every year about how important it is to recognize our freedoms and liberties that were granted to us so long ago.

Through my adventures in volunteerism and through jury duty this past year, I have seen our system of laws in action.  It really is an interesting process and I do believe that our forefathers had some interesting foresight when crafting our judicial system.  The system actually does work in spite of the people.

While change is necessary to keep up with current technology, I think our Constitution has really endured the test of time. Happy 227th Constitution Day!  Let freedom ring!

See ya.

Life In The Slow Lane

One of my friends often wonders why I never drive in the car pool lane when he is riding with me.  Although there are a variety of reasons, I think it just makes me feel uncomfortable.  After many years of being alone, it feels a bit unsettling to have the ability to be in the car pool lane.  I'm also just not used to driving on that side of the freeway.  It just doesn't seem normal.

The car pool lane is an interesting concept.  In order to enter, you need an additional person in the car.  In many cases, this lane might not be too much faster than any of the other lanes in heavy traffic. Life in the fast lane really isn't always the best thing.  When I'm with my friends, I like to think it's all about the journey.  Why does everyone want to go faster in order to end the journey sooner?

I prefer life in the slow lane.  I'm going to enjoy the ride.

See ya.

The Back Forty

I've often heard that life begins at forty.  It's been a few years since that time for me.  I was looking through the last twelve years of posts, and I realized that aging is one of those topics that seems to be of concern to me.  Several years ago, I started to realize that it was getting harder to keep up with the rigors of life.  I've had some false starts at a mid-life crisis in quite a few of my posts.  Maybe they were all real, and maybe they were just a prologue.

I think that the mid-life crisis hit for real last summer.  That's when I returned to some of my volunteer work, and really decided that it was time to work with foster kids.  A mid-life crisis comes at a point when one realizes that there are fewer years ahead than there are behind.  I think I've come to that realization a while ago, when I lost my career a few years back.

I've got my career back a while ago, and I also seem to be working through what I would characterize as my retirement job.  I guess a mid-life crisis can sometimes not be a bad thing.  It did make me realize what was really important and helped me focus on what I needed to accomplish.  Here's to the next forty!

See ya.

Advice From Myself

Sometimes you just have to stop and listen to yourself.  In all of the rants, er, blog posts that over the last several years, I realized that I have dispensed some good advice every now and then.  A few years ago, I said to never stop learning and to trust your instincts.  Of course, my wit seemed to be much sharper back in the day.

In the last couple of years, my priorities have really changed, but the advice seems to be universal.  I seem to be more driven by my work with the teenagers these days.  Applying my advice, I still have a lot of learning to do.  Instead of principles of marketing, it's all about the education system, scholarships, and grants.  I've got a lot of teenage challenges ahead, but I think I can start trusting my instincts a bit more.

See ya.

Ties That Bind

As a mentor and volunteer, there are moments in time that really stand out.  Even though there were a lot of hectic things going on at work and with both kids that I mentor, it was really a little thing that stood out to me this time.  I had to help one of the kids with something today, and he had to wear a tie.  I had to teach him how to tie a necktie today.  It took him a couple of times, but he did it very well.  I know, it's a small thing.  But it really is the sum of these small moments that make it all worth while.

See ya.

Back To Work

I was recently reminded that the more things change, the more things stay the same.  I know I've posted some form of this saying quite a few times in this and many other blogs.   I've got a new job, and by fortunate happenstance, I've been reunited with a great team of people from previous jobs.  While I've been there a short time, it was easy to slide into the team and feel like we've been at it for years.  After a few years of being underutilized at work, it's nice to return to my life as a workaholic.  Although, this aging nonsense is making it a bit harder to keep working past midnight. 

About four years after my world was turned upside down, my work life has finally returned to a what I consider to be normal.  My volunteer life is also back to consuming a large portion of my personal life once again.  I can't say that it feels like I never left.  I can't equate this experience to waking from a coma, since I've never been in one.  However, I think that might be the best analogy.

I decided a while ago that I wasn't going to be defined by my career.  However, it's still a nice thing to have.  Although things are back to normal, I still feel like there is something still amiss.  During the intervening years, my priorities have shifted a bit.  While I still do think that work, life, and balance are three unrelated words, I do think that each does have its place.  Well, it's time to get back to work!

See ya.

Heroes Aren't Hard To Find

Goals in life seem to change throughout the years.  I think I used to maintain that the goals of youth are tied to ruling the world.  As you get older, you want to change the world.  In later years, you wonder what in the world is going on.   I believe I've reached phase two.  A few years ago, my goals used to revolve around my career and job.  These days my goal in life is to save the world one kid at a time.  It sounds corny, but it's something that really resonates with me these days. 

I've been volunteering as a mentor and advocate for many years now, and there are times that you wonder if you really are making a difference.  It's all about the little moments throughout the years that mean a lot. A few years ago, one of the parents wrote me a nice note when her son graduated from high school, and credited my time with her son as the reason that he did so well in school.  Recently, one of the kids told me that I was his best friend, and that he needs me to continue to help him with school.  Moments like these remind me that mentoring is a big responsibility.  It also reminds me why I continue.

Heroes aren't hard to find.  Sometimes all you have to do is look in the mirror.  It doesn't take a lot of time or money.  It just takes the willingness to help someone.

See ya.

Lost Hours In The Night

One of the strange rituals that some of us go through at this time of year includes the lost hour in the night.  We call this phenomenon Daylight Savings Time.  I grew up in a place that did not practice this strange resetting of clocks.  As an adult, it still is a subject of fascination for me.  This is the day that we "spring forward," or turn the clock ahead by an hour.  In doing so, we "lose" the hour until we can reclaim it sometime this fall.

If you have been reading my ramblings, you know that I have had a fascination with the mechanics of time.  The semi-annual time shift that we experience does more than just cause a distortion with our own perception.  When time isn't considered a constant, we start to see problems arise.  During the lost hour, I have seen several systems start to malfunction due to a timing miscalculation.  Once we get these systems back in synchronization, it will be time to change the clock back.  The circle continues throughout the years, and I guess it all balances out in the end.

Well, I've got to fix all my clocks now, and then it's time for bed. See ya.

Happy Holidays

The holiday season is upon us.  This has been an interesting year.  I started an additional volunteer project and have been working with more children. The kids that I work with are anywhere from 8-16 years old.  A child's perspective really is a lot less jaded than that of most adults.  While stress is always a factor in the holiday season, it really is a cool thing to listen to what children have to say about life, hopes, and dreams.  Sometimes you don't realize how jaded you may have become as an adult.  It kind of sneaks up on you throughout the years.

There are so many ways to cope with holiday stress.  I won't go into details in this column.  I would just mention that it is important to be self-aware, introspective, and open to change.  I know I've gotten a bit more jaded in the last few years.  I'm glad that the kids were around to help me realize it. 

Happy Holidays! 

See ya.

Breaking Routine

There are a few movies out there that I just can't seem to stop watching.  One of them is Groundhog Day.  It's been 20 years since this movie has been in theaters, but the concept is timeless. At times, I think we all might feel we are stuck in an infinite loop at various points in our lives.  After a while, most of us get into a routine that can be rigid and inflexible.  While repetition can be a good thing, it is important to break out of the routine every now and then. 


Every one of us has a different idea of what "routine" means to us.  Most people with a weekday job have a set pattern and times that they work, sleep, and socialize.  My routine is a bit different, but it still involves the same things in a different pattern.  Breaking the routine keeps all of us from feeling like we are stuck in the infinite loop.  We call these breaks "vacations."  Fortunately, I have one coming up next week.  I really need a break.

See ya.

Rambing On

The counter on this particular blog notes that this is post number 200.  I don't really talk about anything too deep on this blog.  It's just a forum for me to vent about random observations, personal rants, and anything else that I found to be interesting.  Ten years ago, I was attempting to do at least one or two posts per month, but things did get busy throughout the years.

I started blogging before it was mainstream, and continued after it no longer was trendy.  I still contribute to six or seven blogs on a semi-regular basis, and really haven't seen too much of an improvement in my writing skills.  Wit and wisdom aside, I think it's an accomplishment to keep things going for over ten years on this.  Here's to the next 200 posts!

Check out my road warrior blog too!

See ya.

Perception Is Reality

I was watching the movie Sneakers last night.  Despite the fact that the movie is a little over 20 years old, it serves as a reminder to me that our view of the world is based upon the perception of reality rather than actual reality.  It sounds really deep, but it is actually a rather simple concept.  While perception may not necessarily be accurate, it sometimes becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Perception can be a tricky thing.  Things are not always what they appear to be on the surface.  It is sometimes difficult to take reality at face value.  We tend to interpret what we see against our own values and experiences.  It takes some practice to see things with a different perspective.  In most cases, it's worth the practice.

See ya.

Suddenly, 226 Years Later . . ..

A lot can happen in 226 years.  Today we celebrate the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States.  The foundation for our government and our freedoms that we enjoy were in their infancy all those years ago.   In over two centuries our country has endured thanks to the foundations implemented by our founding fathers.  In the preamble to the Constitution, it notes the purpose to "ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."


Even as change is necessary in order to keep pace with technology and time, we also need to preserve our freedoms and the ideals upon which this country was founded.  Our forefathers had the right idea.  We do need to make sure that future generations are still able to benefit from the decisions that impact our freedoms today. 

Happy Constitution Day!  Let Freedom Ring!

See ya.

Changing Times

I have written many articles for different blogs, newsletters, and other media throughout the years, and somehow my focus seems to return to topics relating to change and time.  I have often spoken about various volunteer opportunities in which you can make an impact by providing a small change to your immediate environment or a small amount of change to your favorite charity.  In order to change the world, you have to start introspectively by changing your own outlook.  It seems counter intuitive that change is one of the few constants that we have to deal with throughout life and death.

Change in all its forms does require time, patience, and sometimes a lot of effort. Time is the real limitation that we all must face.  I have noticed an inverse relationship between age and the perception of time stretching to infinity.  My perception of time started as an unlimited field of dreams, but these days the burden of time is really noticeable.  Time is one of those tricky concepts that often confounds me. For the most part, the pressures and burdens of time bring forth some of the best work that I have performed.  There are some days, though, that time seems to be working against me.

I have noticed that I tend to ramble on whenever I am at one of those crossroads in life.  This post is no exception.  I have recently reduced my road warrior time and started to resume my career and a (somewhat) normal life. As I get older and my perception of time sharpens, I also find it to be more and more critical to continue writing.  A few years ago, after contemplating the passing of a couple of friends, I really started to value the importance of blogging as a way of remembering those special moments in time.  I think Tom Selleck summed it up best, "Time has little to do with infinity and jelly doughnuts."  Now I'm hungry.  Where's that jelly doughnut?

See ya.

The Groundhog Effect

It's no secret that one of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day.  It seems to speak to many people on many different levels.  For those of you who are not familiar with the movie, the main plot device is a loop in time in which the main character is reliving the same day over and over again.  As in the movie, I tend to believe that we have all been struggling find the elusive perfection within any given day.  If time were not an issue, what could you accomplish?

In my own life, I am experiencing one of those cycles when I am compelled to bring things back in to balance by rediscovering a musical instrument or catching up on literature or finding new ways to contribute to the local community.  For lack of a better term, I'll refer to this cycle as the Groundhog Effect.


Time may not be recursive in the real world, but that doesn't prevent you from accomplishing things that matter.  Thanks to the Groundhog Effect, I've rediscovered my ukulele along with  some of my old literary classics.  I'm also working on getting back into various community service activities.  I realize that you can't rescue everyone, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to give it a try.

See ya.

Limping Along

While on yet another business trip, I twisted my ankle once again.  I've done it before, but I think I really hurt myself this time.  Since I hurt myself on the way back from a business trip, I had to get through the airports to get home.  It surprises me how rude and inconsiderate both the TSA and general travelers can be, especially when you are trying to get home on a Saturday after a long work week. 

A few years ago, when I twisted my ankle the last time, I recall the TSA wanted me to lift my legs and scan under my feet.  It's a good thing we didn't have to do that exercise this time.  When you are limping along at a relatively slow speed, the last thing you need is one of those stupid airport carts attempting to run you over and honking at you.  They also didn't seem to want to give me a ride to my gate either.

It's been only a couple of days, but I am starting to get concerned that I'm still in large amounts of pain. Ankle wraps and other treatments don't seem to be working well. I suppose time will tell.  Till then, I'll continue limping along.

See ya.

Daze Of Our Lives

About three years ago, I was experiencing some changes at work which eventually led to a layoff.  I was able to commit to another position elsewhere and adjusted back to the life of a road warrior once again, but I always had that nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. The hardest part of my job these days is dealing with the travel schedule.  I don't find the work challenging at all, even though it does require some significant skill.  I knew that the new job was temporary and other work was available in the future, but I just came to the realization that this isn't a career. 

It took a while, but I finally snapped out of my daze. This is the first time I've been home for a couple of weeks, and I finally realized what was missing.  The work is still there, but my career has been non-existent.  I gave up my career a few years ago, and I think it's time that I started on the path to getting it back.  It might take a few months or longer to get some results, but I'm going to get my career plans restarted -- today.

See ya.

Progress Without Paper

I came to the realization that I do have several things impeding progress.  Before you can move forward, sometimes you have to take a couple of steps back.  I've been buried in paper for the last few decades.   I have been attempting to scan and archive all of my important documents, but this project has been in progress for years. Real progress is truly measured in inches, as I have seen the mountain of paper slowly disappearing.

The next step is to stop the paper before it starts by using tools like PaperKarma.  I'm slowly embracing my inner geek by using IFTTT and other tools and tricks move things directly into my electronic storage.  It's time to accelerate my progress, so I can move forward with other projects.

See ya.

As Days (Or Years) Go By

Another year has gone by in the blink of an eye.  In my youth, I used to think that time was always running too slow or in a recursive loop like the movie Groundhog Day.  In the past several years, time started to overtake me, and I now find myself in the reverse position. Scientifically speaking, time is a constant and does not change.  There is a finite measurement which governs the span of seconds, minutes, hours, days, and so forth.  There seems to be an inverse relationship between age and the perception of speed at which time passes.  I never quite understood it so vividly until a few years ago.

Last month, I was roasting marshmallows with friends, and for some reason I remembered the quote "time is the fire in which we burn."  As I recall, that quote came from Star Trek Generations, in which time was seen as a predator stalking its prey.  It's an interesting analogy, and has felt somewhat accurate in the last couple of years.  Moving forward, though, I think the philosophy of Ferris Bueller works best.  Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Happy 2013!

See ya.

Paperless

Call me old fashioned, but I really didn't think we would transform ourselves successfully into a paperless society.  It's true that much of our record keeping these days is done on-line.  However, there is still a need for paper copies of important documents.  I still have piles and piles of paper, but I  am slowly moving it into digital storage, thanks to my handy scanner.  I had started the scanner project years nine years ago, but I put it off for a while.  Thankfully, technology has improved a bit, and it is much easier to scan all my documents and provide backups for them as well. 

I still think it will take me another year to finish scanning most of my paper documents.  Then I guess I'll move to pictures. Well, it's back to the scanner for me.

See ya.

I'll Post It Tomorrow

When managing various blogs and other forms of social media, there is a temptation to procrastinate.  I have been guilty of this on many occasions,  Despite the fact that I am quite late with an updated post, at least I did come back eventually.  Procrastination isn't limited to authoring posts on social media.  It can also be one of those issues that impacts the rest of your life too.  We tend to put off a lot of things in our lives and attribute it to our busy lives at work or home or personal life.


I would be a hypocrite if I say to never put off to tomorrow what can be done today.  It really is all about priorities. If something is important enough, I believe we will make the time for it.  For me, at the moment, the temptation is to sleep, perchance to dream.  I think it's time for a nap now.

See ya.

Great Scott!

It's been 25 years since the events of the original Back to the Future movie.  I think we're supposed to measure the predictions on Wednesday, October 21, 2015, from the second movie.  At that point, we can look forward to hoverboards, a $39,999.95 hover conversion for our cars, and skewed skyways.  Predictions in movies and television aren't always too accurate.  In Blade Runner, we saw Atari and other companies becoming big names in the future.  In Back to the Future, now semi-defunct Texaco was in the spotlight.


However, we've got less than five years to pull it off.  Not wanting to be a naysayer, but I really don't think we can leap forward that much in such a short measure of time.  As I'm fond of saying, progress can usually be measured one inch at a time. Now where's my Pepsi Perfect?  I'd like to catch Jaws 19 in the theaters.

See ya.

Ok, Now I'm Finished

No, I'm not discontinuing the blog.  It helps a lot to have a creative outlet at times.  I just experienced a layoff at work.  I have never been through this process before.  You would expect a flood of negative emotions -- the hurt, anger, bitterness, confusion, depression, and so forth.  However, it really isn't healthy to dwell on the negative.  Many others were also impacted, and out of the ashes, the circumstance created a really positive environment and confirmed the fact that bonds of friendship transcend the halls of the workplace.  In fact, I even got a call from a colleague who went through the process last year, welcoming me to the club.  I think there is a sense of widespread relief, happiness and hope.  Sounds odd, doesn't it?

I still think the people with which you surround yourself will continue to contribute to your own success.  It doesn't apply only to current jobs.  It's also something that applies to daily life.  I'm starting the job search, and I'm sticking close to those who were also impacted.  A layoff has nothing to do with the quality of the work or people.  I continue to submit that you can define success as the sum of the yourself and the people with which you choose to surround yourself.  So it's no longer time to contemplate change.  It's time to act upon it.

Life continues to move forward, and so do I.

See ya.

Not Quite Finished

It's been noted that some people define themselves by a career.  That can be a trap that can easily snare anyone.  I've been caught in it a couple times when contemplating changes in my own career.  Reflecting upon past accomplishments does make it difficult to separate one's self from a job.  I've often stated that we are all more than the sum of our experiences.  In fact, I'll go a step further to say that we are all more than the sum of our experiences, careers, and accomplishments.  It is not just the individual, but also the sum of our relationships.  I have often found that in order to be successful, you have to surround yourself with talented, diverse individuals that are able to constantly share skills and learn from each other.

I'm no expert on existentialism, but the idea about working within the sum of our own experiences seems out-of-date in the modern world.  Beyond the scope of your own experience, we are starting to become a collective.  We have seen social networking take off in recent years.  Crowdsourcing has now become a great marketing tool.  Separating the individual from the collective is becoming exceedingly difficult.  Just take a look at services like Facebook.  If you don't have an account, it's becoming increasingly hard to keep up with your social circle.

Back to the career. I've been fortunate to be able to surround myself with the best talent in any industry.  It's time to contemplate some changes, but I'm not quite finished just yet.  I came to the realization that it isn't the job or responsibilities or the career.  It's the people.

See ya.

It Begins Again . . .

Several years ago, I decided that it was time to break away to a new city and career. The past several years have been tumultuous, but still exciting and enriching. In my career I have seen various companies go through tough times. In every instance, I have seen quite a bit of corporate downsizing, right-sizing, or whatever you want to call it. I think the most common term is layoff. Sometimes it is hard to recognize when the time is upon us. There are other times that it is painfully obvious. This time, though, I am observing behavior from the company that goes beyond the painfully obvious. It is a lot more disturbing prior to corporate layoffs than the actual event.

Another thing is obvious -- it is time to explore some new challenges. This time, though, it might be time to try something a little different. In the last several years, I discovered that you have to break away from the baggage you carry that can cloud your vision. Since the last time I searched for a job, I have the realization that I am more than the sum of my experiences, and I don't have to define my career by those limits. For those of us that have put decades into a specific profession, product, or position, it is difficult to find your way through the clutter.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Would I have left my comfort zone several years ago to do something completely different? Probably not. What I did learn is that you do need to leave some things behind in order to move forward. The search begins, once again.

See ya.

Stop Hearing And Start Listening

Suddenly, more than a decade later, I finally have some time to myself again. So, I decided to go through a few of my decades-old papers from college and high school. I found a bunch of text books, papers, and other materials that are as useful as buggy whips. Some of the theories of that era were interesting, to say the least.

While technology, operations management, and industrial processes have changed tremendously in the last few decades, there are some lessons that are more enduring. Many papers talked about the importance of active listening. In the last few years, I have often overlooked the fact that many people are hearing but not listening during conversations. Sometimes, I have been guilty of this myself. When the listening stops, dysfunctional behavior flourishes. As the fractured communication continues, it becomes more difficult to recover. While I have lived through many good examples of this, it takes more than one person to overcome the challenges in communication.

I think I'm going through one of those cycles right now in many different aspects of life. People are hearing me. However, after listening to the responses, I sense great difficulty in the listening skills of many others this month. It would be nice if people stopped hearing and started listening for a while.

See ya.

Back In Training

There comes a time when I have to realize that I need to get back in shape. I think certain life events often trigger this. Last time, it was related to a different type of loss. This time, I just came to the realization that I've been neglecting myself in my intense desire to help others. So, I've decided to scale back just a little, while I get myself back into shape. I did it once before around seven years ago, and I think I can do it again. And so it begins. Back to the gym for me...

See ya.

An Old Cliche Returns

The more things change, the more things stay the same. The old cliche has rarely been far away from my thoughts over the years. It still comes to mind during the last five years in which I've found some stability throughout work and the other aspects of life. Even before that, I worked with some of the best people throughout the country as well. Like Jeff Goldblum's character in Independence Day, I really do believe that I was part of something special, not once, but a few times over. When you have the right mix of people and talent working together, it's kind of like magic. When the people leave, the magic can sometimes disappear.

In the last year, most of my original team at work has either moved on or have been reassigned. It really has been quite strange in that most people seek new positions within two years. Most of my team has been intact for about five years. For everyone to stick around that long, it had to be some kind of magic. With most of the team reassigned, it has been suggested that it may also be time for me to move on to other projects.

After asking several people about their work experiences, it appears that some of them never have had the opportunity to experience that special magic that I alluded to earlier. Maybe sometimes you just have to look harder. Well, I guess the search begins... As I stated earlier, the more things change, the more things stay the same. See ya.

Time And Again

The passage of time is a tricky thing. In past experience, time has been an interesting concept with which to grapple. I perceived time to be an annoyance in many ways. In my youth, time always seemed to be in the way. It was the one thing that kept me from proceeding forward with the things that I wanted to accomplish. A lot of it had to do with perceptions and positions. You see, in many cases, I was always perceived as the young member of all groups. Time is one of the barriers that you cross when transitioning to become the senior member of a group. For me these days, time has been sliding by way too fast. It's been over a year since I took my last real vacation, and it does seem a few weeks ago. To my friends who joined me on that vacation, the relative time since our vacation was a quite a bit longer.

Time doesn't move at different rates for different people. It is the perception of time that is the real trick in these instances. As age increases, there is a perception that time moves at a more rapid pace. Seemingly, the days are just melding together leaving no points of demarcation for me. To some of my younger associates and friends, I am sensing that the perception is quite different. For the younger generation, it appears that time seems to be thick like a jungle, through which they are using countdowns and other tricks to fight their way through. I recall having that perception, and am now seeing quite the opposite as I try to find ways to slow the passage of time.

Time is, and will continue to be a constant, even though perception is not. While we all know that these constants exist, our perceptions provide a personal barrier that negates our acceptance of these realities. For example, I have a harder time accepting the passage of time as I start to grow older. I've become a mentor to a few people, and I have seen my former perceptions (or misconceptions) of the passage of time in each of them.

I think a few people have been trying to tell me something like this for many years. I finally got the message. It took a while, but to some degree, I think I understand it a little more now. Even a crusty, stubborn person like me can learn something once in a while.

Time for bed. See ya.