Day #42 Ten Hours +

A Large Rat...
As I parked last night to eat dinner a large rat ran across the sidewalk.  I moved to a spot around the corner.  Apparently in most large cities, and there would be no reason to not assume small cities, as well, there is at least one rat per person.

A Long Day of Driving...
Ten hours with two business stops and two rest area stops and one stop for gas at Deer Valley which was on top of a bluff made for a long day.  It seems that you could do a lot of good thinking while driving.  People who go off to prison (white collar) believe that they are going to read and better themselves.  I've known a couple of white collar criminals.  They said they read very little and simply played basketball and they did not get very good at that.  Being in a car for a long time is much like being in prison.  The food is bad.  You are in a cramped space.  Other people in your space smell bad and you get tired of whatever it is that they want to talk about and finding a clean pleasant place to use the rest room is impossible.

There were no conclusions, insights or deep thoughts.  Thursdays are my favorite and most productive days of the week.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Toilets, Innovation & Carp ... Day #41

Don't Fix What Is Not Broken...
After at least three missed connections Victor the Plumber appeared.  Of course I/we could not get the water inflow part of the toilet to leak.  "This is old stuff. You don't know what's going to happen when you start taking it apart.  My gut tells me to leave this alone."  After trip out to the plumbing truck to get a better understanding of the 'spud' and the spud removal tool, I, too, agreed that we should not take this apart.  There are a couple of good plumbing rules: 1) don't start a plumbing project on SAT afternoon 2) don't take old stuff apart if you don't know how it's going to end.

Victor is wise. 

Organizations, too, need to focus on big problems, not small ones.  The best advice often comes from workers who have inadvertently dug a deep hole.

Innovation...
During my leadership of the lean process improvement initiative we focused on big problems, the process challenges that could result in major decreases in loss.  Later leadership, and executive leadership, chose to focus on low-hanging fruit.  When you focus on low-hanging fruit you never get to the hard work.  Do not back off from challenges.

I'm re-reading "Ten Types of Innovation" by Larry Keeley.  He identifies a range of innovation opportunities, companies that have succeeded within single and combinations of those ten types.  When faced with a multitude of opportunities and strategies it's best to not be over-whelmed but to pick some doable but difficult challenges.

Carp...
Along with the opportunity of throwing a dog a bone and the dog's happiness

with that, we can also consider that people will stand in line for 'trash fish.'  The opportunity is all about packaging and price.

Logistics...

• using your smart phone as a hotspot is expensive
• headed to a couple of WI stops on WED, the final day of the road trip
• made a couple of calls in regards to one open opportunity
• moving to CA might not be in the cards for right now

Road Trip Issues Day #40 Post #3A

Back in the old days road trips were about car issues and challenges.  They simply run a lot longer with a lot few issues than in the old days.  We can thank WWII, Mr. Demming and Mr. Juran for that.

Before embarking I did check the oil and the tires.  Other than that the critical item list included the following:

• tooth brush, tooth paste, floss
• Samsung Chromebook
• Samsung Chromebook wall charger
• Thinkpad
• Thinkpad wall charger
• Sharkk Bluetooth external speaker
• iPhone 5
• iPhone 5 car charger
• iPhone 5 wall charger
• iPhone 4
• iPhone 4 wall charger
• The second phone requires explanation.  My Outlook contacts synched to my iPhone 5 are older than those synched to my iPhone 4.  That's odd.  The iPhone 5 contacts were imported to my Gmail contacts.  I need info on the iPhone 4 (contact 'notes' to be specific).  All of this s/b resolved via a synch to the iCloud but ususally 'synch' results in what you want being over-written by what you don't want.
• Kindle Fire with  charger
• Yaesu VX-2 w/ extra batteries (dorky Amateur Radio stuff)
• 'Computer' prescription glasses to be able to see without more eye strain than that incurred by an eight hour drive to Half Day Road.

There was a time when getting in the car and going was simple.  My better half said that I brought more chargers and adapters to Alaska than I did clean clothes.  She was probably right.

Making all of this work is a lot simpler than it used to be.  Of course the entire US workforce wastes time doing this...and waiting for the next iPhone release.

Veteran's Day #40 Post #2

It Takes a Whole Day to Get to Half-Day Road
This is real work.  After an eight-hour drive, about thirty minutes longer than normal I've arrived a the destination.  TUE is plumbing day.  What more real work can there be?  Flushing with a bucket should be fixed tomorrow.

Traveling across greater Wisconsin to Illinois takes some time.  I like to keep track of dead deer (17), bald eagles (3) and WI highway patrolmen (8).

I've put together a pretty simple system to thinking forward rather than backward.  When the 'previous employment' issues enter my consciousness I run through the following list:

• the next employment (three employment and one consulting)
• the next technical creation (AWS solutions)
• process improvement opportunities (had a call today)
• entrepreneurship (w/o employees or inventory)

Veteran's Day #40 Post #1

Veteran's Day...
We're here because others are not.
I get free lunch at Applebee's.  I find it a bit patronizing.

The road trip starts...

39 ... Draft

• cubicles are sea anchors to adventure & creativity
• offices are bigger sea anchors

• veterans day road trip

•  I (i) have my old iPhone and my new iPhone.  The contact info I really want backed up to iCloud is the content from my old phone.  I sense impending data loss when 'sync' come into play.
•  I do not care to sync my life with cubicle. Impending data loss would come into play.

38 Days of Waking up Without a Job

Waking Up Without A Job
Waking up and not having to go to work was a joy back in the college days.  Having a week or two weeks or longer to "do whatever" is something many people look back on fondly.

Mortgages, cars, kids, dogs, bills, etc. seem to change that notion, that calm excitement of waking up without a job.

You have a nice piece of meat.  When finished you look at the bone.  If it were 20,000 years ago we'd eat that, too.  Even a hundred years ago we'd beat it with a stick and suck out the marrow.  Now we throw it to the dog...who is thrilled.  

Today I feel pretty good.  Not having a job does not start off the day necessarily well.  On the other hand were situational garbage a bone, which it is, I, like a dog, would be quite happy.  I am.  It's like being back in college but not having to go to class or write any papers.  This is good.

I'm going to work on my bone.  There is lots of flavor (and opportunity) left in what others discard. 

SAT is a busy day.  SUN is a beekeeping day and 3/5ths of next week is a road trip, but mobility is key and I'm going to focus on some Amazon Web Services products and talk with the Bush Foundation grant contact person MON.  The resume has been posted and distributed.  There are a lot of bones about.