We received our anniversary present to each other today. Fedex came a little early so we almost had a mishap with the house alarm. This is Umbrella Trees by Donald Craghead from Carmel, CA.
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Archive for the ‘Random Thoughts’ category
Our Anniversary Present Arrives
September 29th, 2007Highway One Thoughts
September 12th, 2007Each bend of the road more beautiful than the last; breathe not at all if you dare take in the view.
You’ll see when I post the pictures.
Dedication
September 5th, 2007This video is quite compelling; the discipline needed to take a photo of yourself every day for 6 years is incredible. I think the only thing I can say for sure that I’ve done for 6 years straight is put on underwear every day. I think anything else could have skipped a day here or there.
Heard on NPR recently
September 1st, 2007On one of the recent NPR All Songs Considered podcasts, I recently heard Flight of the Concords. They are a band from New Zealand who make some funny songs. A friend shared this one on YouTube with me today and I thought it worth posting. Enjoy.
The recording volume is a bit low so you might need to turn your speakers up.
Crashing the party
July 25th, 2007This morning when the shuttle pulled into work, this site is what we saw:
A car from the dealership across the street rolled out of its service bay and crashed into the mail room of our office. Thank goodness it was very early in the morning and no one was yet in the mail room.
Homecoming
June 29th, 2007Well my trip is now at an end I’m sitting on the upper deck of the 767 that will take me home. My trip was incredibly productive as I learned more about how products move from raw material to finished goods for sale and everything in between. The systems that support this flow are facinatingly complex. The map virtually every physical movement and financial transaction. The amount of data collected is enormous, allowing visibility into huge supply chains that would normally require a real life visit and tour of the chain. The whole thing is so complex because each business can do the same thing in a slightly different way; that’s what makes designing the systems so interesting.
What I learned is that I like working with these systems that map physical and financial processes. It’s a skill that lends itself well to acquisitions and divestitures work, so I think I’m going to inquire into that area next. Talk about an ever-changing job, working with new businesses all they time and learning the ins and outs.
Sydney was not too bad in the winter. On the coldest day of my trip a medium weight jacket was enough to stay warm. And the beer is great; 5.5% alcohol and quite tasty.
Time to go we’re pulling away from the gate. Next post will be in the US.
Helicopter Parents
May 27th, 2007In the most recent issue of my Cornell Alumni Magazine, an article about Helicopter parents not detaching from their children even during university years. This reminds me of a recent discussion Sarita and I had at dinner with a friend of ours who is a teacher. She recounts tales of parents checking students grades online (yes, parents can now view their son’s/daughter’s grades online shortly after they enter the grade book) and calling immediately to question our friend’s determination of a grade. I remember students in my class whom I thought had overbearing parents, but nothing like this; mostly I saw the behavior when it came time to find apartments for the following school year.
The glimmer of hope is that the University, instead of sticking its head in the sand and hoping the parents go away, is examining a role for a parent liaison to help learn together the right relationship between parent, child, and child’s life.
OMG
May 25th, 2007Those annoying commercials where the daughter speaks to her mom in txt speak (OMG – Oh My Gosh) are stuck in my head, but that’s immediately what I thought when I saw this:
Guitar Hero Rocks the 80’s! Sign me up!
Adding Sense
May 21st, 2007You may notice from time to time some Google advertisements now appearing on the site. This is not an indication that Sarita and I are poor and need the $0.25 cents that a click on the ad returns, it’s merely a test for me to see what kind of ads appear within the content on this site. The Google Adsense program is quite ingenius, web-site owners essentially lease their space for Google to place contextually relevent ads on the site. There are literally millions of websites with these ads so then Google can sell words like “Pet Food” or “Blue State” to advertisers who wish to find people interested in pet food or democratic states and offer them products or services or just plain information based upon those words.
Example: On Sarita-Andy.com frequently I frequently talk about new products that Sarita and I purchase (for instance my Logitech Harmony Remote). Google seeing those words might decide Sarita-Andy.com would be a good place to place an ad for electronics. Logitech may be looking for places besides its own website to advertise a new version of the Logitech Harmony Remote. Google then facilitates the sale of advertising space for Logitech on my website; though I don’t ever really need to think about who/what is being advertised (Google does not allow adult or obscene type of advertising, but even if they did my content isn’t about adult or obscene things the ads wouldn’t show up, so I’m generally comfortable that unwanted ads won’t be displayed on the site).
Pretty Cool huh?
Redonkulous
May 8th, 2007Thanks Mark for sharing
Looks like I can’t embed this video, try watching it on YouTube.com; it’s a guy doing a flip in a wheelchair.
