Not So Wild Blue Yonder
Five thoroughly marginal tips for flying cross-country on a regular basis: 1. Pack an extra t-shirt in your carry-on. Several times, I’ve been thankful that I had a clean, dry shirt to swap out for one that was covered in coffee, soda, or something worse (only once, but it was really vile). If you don’t [...]
Plumbing the Depths
It was one of those weekends when I did many things, but didn’t see a common theme emerge until I spent Sunday afternoon with my hands submerged in a failed attempt to blend art and plumbing and realized I’d had a trio of plumbing references as the meta data for my weekend. But I’m cutting [...]
Ghost Rider
Just finished Neal Peart’s Ghost Rider, the story of his “healing road” of motorcycle travels after the tragic deaths of his daughter and wife within 10 months of each other. Normally I find travel literature really boring; I’d rather go and explore and get a sense of places first-hand than have context prescribed for me. [...]
Facebook For Business
I get (at times) grief for investing as much time as I do on Facebook, from creating groups to seeking out friends to thinking about how to build small, vibrant communities. One of my friends claims it’s my competitive nature that makes me a “friend hound;” my kids insist I do this mostly to embarrass [...]
Raising the Roof: Sustainability Through Two Centuries
Spent a vacation weekend in Montreal (and honestly, truly did no any work for four days, including blogging, reading email, or even texting friends from work). A work de-emphasis didn’t stop me from thinking about architecture and sustainability, however, and those thoughts were front and center as I toured the Basilica de Notre Dame and [...]
Musical Taxonomies and Global Economies
On our walk between the hotel and biergarten for dinner last night, a few of us stopped into a local music store on the Ku’dam in Berlin. This is one of my favorite ways to get a sense of local culture: stop into a local retail store. This music shop was 80% equivalent to what [...]
Random Thoughts En Route to Berlin
There’s very little glamorous about business travel. Continental has managed to maintain a perfect batting average in the past three weeks: five out of five flights have been an hour or more late. I’m going to spend about 24 hours in Berlin, and while it’s the second time I’m visiting the city on business, I’ve [...]
Happy New Year
Happy New Year to my nerd peers. While most of the world aligns to the Gregorian calendar and maps major events into the January to December timeframe, my company operates on a July 1 fiscal year, putting it in an equivalence class with two of my other favorite things: the NHL and Princeton University. For [...]