Is it sad that this made my day?

This picture literally made my day. I hope it makes you smile.

To be fair, here's the caption:

US Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) reacts to almost heading the wrong way off the stage after shaking hands with Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) at the conclusion of the final presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York, October 15, 2008.

Link to Yahoo story

Face it

We live in a world where a movie like this not only makes money, but it makes almost $30 million dollars.

Let me say again, that I do not approve of entertainment that features animals that talk. The only exception to that rule is the K-9 Advantix series of commercials. I mean seriously, how cute is that little singing puppy?!?!?




Note: if you happen to like talking animals, please don't take this post personally. I think we can still be friends, right?

My current reading list

Ever since reading the "Frantic Family" book a few weeks ago, I've been on a bit of a Patrick Lencioni kick.

For those of you familiar with his work, let me know your thoughts. For those of you that aren't incredibly familiar with his work, he is a long-time consultant who writes business narratives in order to drive home a central point, whether that be about meetings, silos, goals, etc.

And given the fact that I'm married to one of the most avid readers I know, I didn't have to go too far to start picking up some more Lencioni and diving right in.

First up, Death by Meeting



And it happened to be quite timely, because I had a little Death by Meeting experience yesterday, despite my best efforts in recent days to avoid such a travesty.

Rather than having a meeting for the sake of having a meeting, or spending hours on end in a conference room and getting nowhere, Lencioni argues that there are different formats, frequencies and agendas that one should have on their calendar. Honestly, it helped me think about work differently, which can't be a bad thing, right?

Some of what he covers in the book helped me try some different approaches to my day-to-day meetings, and I'm hoping that in the long run, my time, and my co-worker's time will be spent more effectively. I'll keep you posted.

Next up: Silos, Politics and Turf Wars



If you've spent any time in corporate America, you just might be familiar with the idea that a lot of folks have an "us vs. them" mentality in the work place. I can guarantee that folks, including myself, do at my office.

A lot of what Lencioni talks about in this book is familiar to the topics in "Frantic Family", especially the idea of setting a rallying cry to unite folks.

Man, how I wish that this were as easy to put in place as he makes it sound. The fictional story that he paints would be great if it were happening in real life, but from what I've seen, a lot of businesses are a long ways from getting there.

But I'm holding out some hope. And this did make me think of things a bit differently. I'd love to talk to some of the execs in my department about what they see as our rallying cry and what they think about working through some of the existing politics. I see how his concepts could work at a small company, but trying to get 80,000 people unified around a few core concepts is a bit of a daunting task.

And finally, The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive



I'm about 1/3 of the way through this one, and I'm enjoying it. No, I am not an executive. Will I ever be? Who knows. But I don't think it can hurt to try to start thinking like one. Or to start thinking like an extraordinary one, at that ;)

Mammoth, revisited

I have to admit I was a bit shocked when the news broke this week that evidence of Steve Fossett (cash, license) had been found near Mammoth Lakes, California. And then today, they found the wreckage of the plane near that same spot.

Why was I shocked? Becuase Amar and I were just there 6 weeks ago.

Here's a write-up in the Times about the find, first discovered by a hiker and then confirmed by an air search.

This is the kind of terrain that was searched.



Massive trees. Steep cliffs. Mountains. All in all, a tough find.

Hey Sports Fans!!

I saw this today and it cracked me up, though it may be a little snarky:



Click on it to get a full size image of "September Madness"! Which bank or government entity to you think will go all the way?!

What a waste!!

That's my takeaway from today's political activities. A. Complete. Waste.

A waste of time.
A waste of tax dollars.
A waste of money.
A waste of energy.

I was watching the news tonight, and NBC's political director Chuck Todd was on with Brian Williams. His insight into today's vote really caught my attention. He said, that after some analysis on the vote, he had determined that ultimately, 1 factor indicated whether a lawmaker would vote FOR or AGAINST the bill: whether or not they were facing a hotly-contested battle for their seat in November.

If a lawmaker was pretty much a shoe-in for their seat in the fall, they voted FOR the bill.

If a lawmaker was being challenged strongly for their seat in the fall, they voted AGAINST the bill.

If that is the case, and honestly it seems rather likely to (cynical) me, then I cannot think of anything more cowardly.

But then came the finger pointing, and the blaming.

Pelosi blames Bush.
Republicans blame Pelosi.
Democrats call the Republicans whiners.
The phrase "babies sucking our thumbs" was used.

I am honestly starting to think that the 1st grade Sunday school class that we teach could have done a better job crafting legislation and voting on it.

Please, for the love of God and country, stop the whining and do your jobs!



Whew.

Ok, sorry for the rant. Sorry for the series of rants, actually. Hope you're still hanging in there.

Dog show

I took advantage of the late afternoon sun yesterday to do an impromptu photo shoot with the pups. Here's the outcome:

Passing the time

I was just lamenting to a friend that I was really behind the times this week. I haven't watched the full Tina Fey video from SNL wherein she imitates Sarah Palin.

And I'm sure that most of you have already tried out the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator...but I hadn't tried it yet, so here's my amusement for the morning:

Had I been born to Sarah Palin, I would have been named:

Bang Walmart Palin - my full name, using my maiden last name

Mustache Warthog Palin - using my shortened maiden name

Knife Pile Palin - using my full married name

Icepick Motor Palin - using my shortened married name



All are very, very flattering, as you can tell.

Who would you be, as a Palin?

Some perspective...

I know, I know - 2 posts in 1 day!

You're probably wondering how you could be so lucky as to stubmle upon 2 posts in one day here at chynmburli.

Well, sometimes it's better not to question such blessings.

So I'm still rather troubled by the many strange happenings in the market. I read an article today about the top 10 US bankruptcies in history, and to drive the point home (and given my on-going love affair with all things Excel), I created this nifty chart. (Click on it to make it bigger...this is the best that Blogger could do)



Ta da! Some perspective on what happened over the last 3 days.

These are billions of dollars.

And that freaking huge spike on the right? That's from Monday. Of this week. Like 2 days ago. The teeny blip on the far left? That's from 1987.

Here the article that I got the data from, if you're at all curious.

I read it, I said it, I stole your momma's credit

Anyone guess the movie?




And we're moving on:

Disclaimer: I'm feeling a little preachy this morning. If you don't want to read a rant about our current financial times, I suggest you just skip this one.

I read the Clark Howard piece that I linked to yesterday, and would encourage you to do the same if you want a dumbed-down, super-brief summary of what happened over the last few months.

I want to call attention to one of the minor points that is made in the story (and the one following it as well): this is not a "Bush" problem.

With all the flurry of various political campaigns going on day in and day out, both candidates were quick on the draw, blaming this party and that. Obama still seems to be on his "don't vote for 4 more years of Bush - they got us in this jam" mantra, but do not be fooled.

It takes years for financial policies, passed by our local, state and national government, to take affect. To blame the current state of Wall Street and the real estate market on any 1 term in office is not only unfair, it's wrong.

Now, I know in the past I haven't gotten too far into the political debate. But it's hitting our wallets now, and it's getting a bit personal. The government has either loaned, or made available, upwards of $280 billion dollars. And where they getting the cash? Mostly, from you. And me. And the rest of the American people.

Do I think the government should bailout these companies? It's a toss-up, simply because on one hand, the companies shouldn't have gotten themselves into this pickle in the first place. On the other hand, the companies are now so big that having them go down in flames would probably cause a HUGE wave of financial turbulence across the globe. It's a no win situation.

Indymac
Washington Mutual
Freddie
Fanny
AIG
Bear Stearns
Merrill Lynch
HBOS
Lehman Brothers

Who is next?

Money matters

I know there is a post somewhere, still forming itself in my brain, regarding the complete chaos that is the US economy over the last year or so.

However, I'm coming down with a little writer's block today, so for now, I leave you with these primers:

1) Fairly bland (i.e. it's not blaming one side or the other too terribly) summary of the most recent happenings from CNN: link

2) Just for some book learning, a refresher on what is actually meant by "subprime lending" and all of its sordid past: link

3) And just for a sanity check, please visit Clark Howard. For you AM radio listeners, hopefully you're already familiar with him. If you're not, you need to be. He has an article as well about the latest happenings, but I haven't read it yet: link, meltdown article link

Enjoy!

Looking ahead

I've never been really good at setting goals. I just am not geared for strategic thinking. Give me something tactical, and I'll dive right in and knock it out (most likely). However, I have recently been doing some corporate strategy thinking (more out of frustration than curiosity), and that's why when Amar suggested I read this book, I tore through it.



It's by a pretty well-known business author, Patrick Lencioni. Some of you in corporate America might be familiar with his other titles. Given that my past reading track record was pretty pathetic, I had heard of him, but never read any of his books. Today? I'm 2/3 of the way through my second of his set.

Anyhow, back to the yellow book.

It's basically about how to manage your family so that 1) you're not all running around like crazy people and 2) you're actually making progress towards meaningful goals that align with the unique values that make up your family.

It is not boring. I know you think it will be, but it is not. Even if you hate goals/milestones/objectives/etc., you should read it. I want to get it for people for Christmas. Seriously.

Amar and I both read it over the last week, and last night we sat down at a local coffee shop and planned out the next 2 months for our family: we outlined what made us, as a family, unique; we settled on a 'rallying cry' which is basically the highest-priority item for us over the next 2 months; we setup certain structure around how we're going to achieve that goal.

And it was great.

Seriously, I really think you should read this book.

Single? Read it.
Married? Read it.
4 kids under the age of 5? Read it.

We came up with values and a plan without too much debate (I know, this is a shocker for some of you to imagine us NOT debating!), and I'm genuinely excited about it. I'm excited about doing it again in 2 months, once we're past this initial goal. We already know what our next 2 will be.

So that's my endorsement for the week. If you do happen to pick it up and put it to use, let me know! We'll gladly welcome you to the bandwagon with us!

Mammoth Lakes: Pictures

Folks, here is a link to our pictures from our anniversary trip to Mammoth Lakes, California. Enjoy!

Pictures

Note: the first few pictures are either me goofing around or at a friend's wedding...I just haven't separated the albums yet.

Some love for the airline industry

Not to all of it, mind you. I do still have the fresh memory of being thrown under the bus by American a few months back...but Southwest Airlines deserves a bit of friendly affection, in my humble opinion.

Amar surprised me for our 2nd anniversary and booked a trip to one of my favorite places in the world: Yosemite. Actually, we stayed a little South of the park, down in Mammoth Lakes, also beautiful! More on that, with pictures, later this week.

But back to the travel - we had to fly through Las Vegas and then to Reno to get there, and the first leg of the trip was pretty smooth. No delays, no crazy passengers, no missing bags. All in all, a good experience.

The return trip, however, was not as smooth. For some weather-related reasons, all of Las Vegas was shut down in regards to air travel. So our flight out of Reno was delayed, but we didn't know this until we boarded the plane.

Now, I'm not a super-frequent flyer, but I know that when the Captain comes out to make an announcement while you're still at the gate, something is up.

And something was indeed up.

He calmly, intelligently, rationally and compassionately explained to us that we would not be leaving anytime soon, and that we needed to deplane. On any other airline, they would have 1) just kept delaying the flight and refusing to tell you why, all while forcing you to stay seated in a grimy waiting area or 2) done something else equally awful.

Anyhow, they kindly asked us to head back out to the gate and to stay close, since we could literally need to board the plane at any moment.

About an hour later, while I was happily re-reading some Harry Potter (catching up on book 6 before the [now delayed!] movie comes out next year), when they asked us to line up again, based on the honor system (since they already had our boarding passes). We lined up, in order, and waited. We waited for about 5 minutes before they came back on the loud speaker to announce yet another delay.

About 30 minutes later, they came back on the PA system and said, "Folks, we've been cleared for takeoff. If you can board this plane in 15 minutes, we'll be good to go." And then it happened: that sense of camaraderie among the group. We banded together, boarded quickly (since we all had something at stake) and made it to the friendly skies over Las Vegas all in about 20 minutes.

Kudos, Southwest. You handled that well. At no point did I feel like a cow in a herd of nameless cattle. At no point were any of the flight attendants gruff or impatient with us, even when a rather large, rather tipsy many pointed at us and yelled "THEY TOOK MY SEAT"*. You kindly handed him his seat belt extender and asked him to find another seat. And you didn't even charge me for a blanket (take that, JetBlue!).


*It was on the honor system, buddy. If you had a business select number, but you chose to down another glass of wine rather than board with the business select folks, you missed your chance. The honor system was for boarding order only, not for seat saving. This is not the 4th grade, and I didn't hear anyone chanting "same seats, same places, same people, same faces" like we used to do in elementary school. So I hope you enjoyed your flight at the "back of the bus" as you like to call it. We certainly enjoyed ours at the front!

New specs

I got glasses for the first time in 4th grade.

Due to the benevolence of my parents, I quickly upgraded to contacts in 6th grade and have been wearing them ever since.

My "backup" glasses have been the same since about Jr. High, and as you can imagine, were just a little bit out of date. Out of style, most definitely, but also very lacking in actually helping me to see anything, since my prescription has changed about 10 times since then.

That all changed last weekend. Amar and I went to get some new glasses and they just came in yesterday.

If you'd like to see the latest self-portrait, click here.

Really, I'm just trying to phase them in a bit. Since I can actually use them to see things now, I might start wearing them out in public every now and then. Brace yourselves, and thanks in advance for your support!

Happy Anniversary

It's been a wonderful 2 years...

Shout-out to the Indians out there

So I was giving Amar a hard time the other day about the seeming absence of any Indian presence for any Olympic sports. I wasn't aware at the time, but the country had yet to win any gold medals in any individual sport. Ever.

My argument:
There are over 1 billion people in the entire country. Out of that huge number of potential athletes, there have got to be at least a few people that are outstanding in various sporting events.

Anyhow, it seemed like such a loss to me that India wasn't well represented athletically....until recently.

Abhinav Bindra just won India's first individual gold. Sure, it was in men's 10m air rifle, but a gold medal is a gold medal.

So congrats, India. I know the resident Indian in my house was mighty proud!

Bah humbug

I'm really enjoying this picture

Thanks, Taylor!

Following in their footsteps...

I, too, took the Jane Austen quiz:

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.