- Attend Oktoberfest in München
- Attend an MLS championship game
- Attend a World Cup Final
- Watch a Manchester United match in Old Trafford
- Watch a Barcelona match in Camp Nou
Sunday, August 7, 2011
To Do List
Monday, June 13, 2011
Five Lessons About How To Treat People
-- Author Unknown
1. First Important Lesson - "Know The Cleaning Lady"
During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.
"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."
I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.
2. Second Important Lesson - "Pickup In The Rain"
One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.
She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home.
A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."
Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.
3. Third Important Lesson - "Remember Those Who Serve"
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "50¢," replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.
"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "35¢!" she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.
When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.
4. Fourth Important Lesson - "The Obstacles In Our Path"
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand - "Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition."
5. Fifth Important Lesson - "Giving When It Counts"
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
1. First Important Lesson - "Know The Cleaning Lady"
During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.
"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."
I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.
2. Second Important Lesson - "Pickup In The Rain"
One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car.
A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab.
She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home.
A special note was attached. It read: "Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along. Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away. God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving others."
Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.
3. Third Important Lesson - "Remember Those Who Serve"
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10 year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "50¢," replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it.
"Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "35¢!" she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.
When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies. You see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.
4. Fourth Important Lesson - "The Obstacles In Our Path"
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand - "Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition."
5. Fifth Important Lesson - "Giving When It Counts"
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and serious disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Amazon Cloud Drive
Last week I gave in and signed up for my 5GB free Amazon Cloud Storage. While my company does not allow for personal storage devices (cloud or otherwise), I figured this would be a good way to test it out and see what I like or dislike about it.
Some key points that I like about Amazon Cloud Storage:
I have not attempted to upload any files yet as I'm still a little apprehensive on a couple of things such as:
Some key points that I like about Amazon Cloud Storage:
- MP3's purchased via Amazon do not count toward the storage used
- Amazon MP3's that are purchased are immediately available
- 5GB free
- Reasonably priced storage increases
- Anytime, anywhere (I have WiFi or 3G) access
- Free 15GB (total of 20GB) after initial Amazon MP3 purchase
- Specialized software to manage downloads
- Don't know how storage is reclaimed
I have not attempted to upload any files yet as I'm still a little apprehensive on a couple of things such as:
- Privacy / Security
- Backups or ways of handling corruption
- Since I do not have an automatic renewal (yet) on my 20 GB storage, I'm afraid of what I may lose when my 20 GB limit exprires
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Office Etiquette: Meetings
In an attempt to limit the amount of unnecessary time in the office, it seems there should be some general rules or considerations made when it comes to working with others. In this particular entry I will provide my insights and "resolutions" for the year 2011 in the way of work related meetings.
Some general personal guidelines/rules that I follow:
Some general personal guidelines/rules that I follow:
- Do NOT schedule or accept same day meeting requests. Take the time to plan and be courteous to other people's time.
- Meeting coordinator should always take control of the meeting and don't allow those joining late to make those that were able to join the meeting on time to hear a recap of the entire meeting.
- Passive participation in meetings that have more than 8-10 people. Meetings that have more than 8-10 people are ineffective.
- When joining a meeting, especially late, have the courtesy to wait for an appropriate break to announce you have joined. Seriously... is it that you are that oblivious, rude, or full of yourself that you feel that everyone must know that you have joined regardless of what the current conversation is?
- Conference calls are a pain, if you have a group in a conference room, be aware of the conference room logistics, background noise, etc.
- Meetings should have a goal or purpose
- Meetings should have an agenda
- Be deliberate in your choice of invitees
- Meetings should always have meeting minutes. If people are going to take the time to attend and participate in the meeting, the coordinator should respect this by providing minutes to recap the meeting.
- Sensitivity to everyone's time and ensure to optimize the time allocated. In other words, don't spend a lot of time with small talk, stay on track with the agenda, and certainly end the meeting when the goals have been accomplished.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Social Apps
I am trying to figure out the "sweet spot" for all of the various social media applicaitons. Obviously Facebook has taken the Internet by storm as has Twitter. I am an avid Google / Gmail user, so I am interested in using Google's Buzz, but I'm struggling with the value-add. The only additional "value-add" of Linked-In is the ability to separate personal from work related... Now, if I can just seemlessly integrate them all, I would be happy. I'm also trying to figure out if people are really getting tweets sent to their phones, or if they are generally logging into the site to view updates.
It seems there are a few categories that can used to group these is:
- Blogs: Interactive method to keep an online journal of thoughts and look for feedback.
- Wiki: More of a dialog / lecture, that I think of being used to convey information, but not necessarily look for or receive feedback.
- News: Pushed by things such as RSS or Google Reader, or pulled by an individual to consume, but not necessarily interact with the source of information
- Social broadcasting: A method to simply provide a statement of what are recent activities, with the potential of interaction (i.e., Linked In and Facebook)
It seems there are a few categories that can used to group these is:
- Blogs: Interactive method to keep an online journal of thoughts and look for feedback.
- Wiki: More of a dialog / lecture, that I think of being used to convey information, but not necessarily look for or receive feedback.
- News: Pushed by things such as RSS or Google Reader, or pulled by an individual to consume, but not necessarily interact with the source of information
- Social broadcasting: A method to simply provide a statement of what are recent activities, with the potential of interaction (i.e., Linked In and Facebook)
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Tool & Utilities
Delicious - Great browser bookmarking tool that will allow you to store browser links centrally. By tagging, this tool has helped me better manage links based on relevant free-form categories that are most likely to make sense to me. In addition to this, it introduced me to the concept of "social bookmarking". There are plugins for many common browers. I have had no issues using this service with IE, Firefox, or Chrome.
Stumble Upon - This service allows the user to pick from a variety of categories. Once your profile is setup, a button that is added to your browser can be clicked to send you to a random page that is relevant based on your preliminary profile setup. Once you see the site you get sent to, you have the option of voting a "like" or "dislike" that should help refine future links.
Evernote - I have only recently started using this utility. The premise that interests me is the ability to take notes from just about any device (i.e., my laptop, desktop, or Android based phone). The classifications and organization capabilities on the site seem very flexible. I am looking forward to using this tool more day to day and have additional information to share.
Stumble Upon - This service allows the user to pick from a variety of categories. Once your profile is setup, a button that is added to your browser can be clicked to send you to a random page that is relevant based on your preliminary profile setup. Once you see the site you get sent to, you have the option of voting a "like" or "dislike" that should help refine future links.
Evernote - I have only recently started using this utility. The premise that interests me is the ability to take notes from just about any device (i.e., my laptop, desktop, or Android based phone). The classifications and organization capabilities on the site seem very flexible. I am looking forward to using this tool more day to day and have additional information to share.
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