My Borders got a new Coffee Bar

Very cool. Borders remodeled their Coffee Bar. Very modern and clean. The counter looks like highly polished brushed metal of 50s era but it's in a cherry color. Dark cherry woods trim the bar. It's a delight just to gaze at.

I guess what's really outstanding is their new coffee barkeeper. He's a very friendly guy. "How's your day going?" he asks me as he warms my coffee cup under the hot water before pouring in the hot liquid I'm paying for.

A man in a wheelchair with a dog came up beside me as I was paying. The dog was a golden retriever with dirty blond hair. The guy in the wheel chair ordered his drink as I left. He had difficulty speaking but the coffee attendant seemed to know what he wanted, in fact, he seemed to know him personally.

As I sipped my hot java and read Mind Performance Hacks I heard him asking several customers "How's it going with you today?" or "Would you like to try a sample coffee?" or "Can I get anything else for you?" I overheard one customer say: "No, I'm a happy guy." (I gota remember that reply.)

I've never been in any Borders with such a helpful drink attendant. It made the place feel like such a happy place to be in.

By contrast I decided to buy some of their coffee. He asked another clerk to get me a 1/2 lb of Italian Roast. First off, she couldn't find the beans. Then she couldn't keep the small bag from closing as she emptied an already opened bag into the new one, one bean at a time. One bean at a time. It was painful to watch. I spent more time waiting for her to fill the bag then I did drinking and reading the book.

Employees really make or break a business.

...dave
I went to the 24-hour grocery store but the clerk was locking it up. "Hey the sign says you're open 24-hours." He said: "Yeah, but not in a row." -Stephen Wright

Mind Performance Hacks

What a great read. This book I'd highly recommend. Wow!

I've been looking for some book that can kick my brain to the next level. I've been at this Chinese language learning thing but it's kicking my butt. I'm at a plateau. I can't get to the next level.

I've listened to the Pimsleur CDs (40 of them so far), read lots of books, and practiced my Chinese characters, but I'm still having a tough time of it. I just can't remember what I forgot!

Which reminds me of the poor guy who went to see his doctor about his memory problem:

"Doctor, doctor, I can't remember from one minute to the next what I was thinking."

"How long has that been going on?"

"How long has what been going on?"

But I digress...

Anyway, while looking online I came across this fascinating book: Mind Performance Hacks by Ron Hale-Evans (what's up with these hyphenated last names?). The book touts itself as "Tips & Tools for Overclocking Your Brain."

The book is divided into several sections: Memory, Creativity, Clarity, Math, Mental Fitness, etc. Thirteen reviewers gave it a five star.

If you want to get a glimpse of a few chapters, check out the five chapters available in PDF online.

...dave
"I may be having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I may have forgotten this before." - Stephen Wright

We Bought a House in East Cobb

We bought a house in East Cobb,
And then we moved our stuff
Into some Pod containers.
It wasn't all that tough.

We asked our friends to help us
And come unload a pod.
They all seemed very willing,
And agreed with just a nod.

They came upon our doorstep
And knocked at 10 o'clock.
The container waited idly
It's size, a city block!

They unloaded rather quickly
The container standing there.
But other work we planned,
They were very unaware.

So when the container emptied
We had them yank a wall
And roll up soiled carpet
Into a mangled ball.

They scraped off old wallpaper
From almost every room.
Then they swept our trash
With my wooden green push broom.

The guys attacked the hearth
And gave those stones a blow.
One pengyou danced a jig
When they tumbled toward his toe.

We told them to stop working
And gave them food to eat.
But we put them back to scraping,
Some walls were incomplete!

We're thankful for those good friends
But since that day we've learned
We need to make some new ones
For they have not returned.

...dave

How to remember an anniversary

Kind of cool.

This thing remembers for you. A ring that helps me remember a date! Imagine this guys, you never have to try to remember your annaversary! You just code it into the ring and it warms up when the date arrives!

I must get one of these.

When was my anniversary again?

...dave
I went to a restaurant that serves 'breakfast at any time'. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance. - Stephen Wright

I'm just a farmer

I know it sounds crazy but really, I'm just a farmer. I have the fancy title "Systems Architect" but really, I just plant seeds and water them.

One of the most challenging aspects of my job, especially in such a large Enterprise, is trying to get people to buy in to an idea. I may have the most brilliant idea in the continent, one that will save the company millions of dollars, but if I can't articulate it clearly enough for others to get excited about it and support it, I'd be as successful as nailing tofu to the wall.

So I walk around and plant seeds. I meet with folks and ask lots of questions. I suggest that they might consider this or that. I come back later to discover they've forgotten all about "this and that" yet they still struggle with the same problem I left them with weeks ago. I suggest the solution again (watering) and come back later for more tending to my "garden" of seeds. It's a laborious job but necessary for success.

What I didn't realize is, there are tools that can help me do this. So I'm taking a class. I've been selected as a CAP Coach. A CAP (Change Acceptance Process) coach helps people become emotionally attached to some large change about to happen in the company. I must attend two and a half days of training and pass a test, whereupon I'm a CAP Certified Coach. (I want more respect from you now!) This means I can be farmed out (there's the farmer word again) to coach teams on how to embrace change.

One of the practice sessions we had today is the Elevator Speech. This is where you are able to convey what you are doing in a few words to the CEO as the elevator plummets down to the lobby floor. I hate this sore of thing. I like a quiet elevator.

So we all had to give our spiel to the class today.

After hearing my few words the class congratulated me, said it was the best they'd ever heard, and that they were embarrassed to say the one they had prepared, etc. (I was a little flushed about so much attention from just 90 seconds of words.) Maybe I went over the top.

Of course, I have done this kind of thing on more than one occasion. <grin> In view of how many times I've had to do this very thing with a very unpopular message, It just wasn't fair to compare me with any of them.

My favorite line from my spiel was: "If knowledge moves the mind and emotion moves the heart (I may have plagiarized that from somewhere), then we have to get people emotionally engaged by telling them WHY we are doing the project and help them implement the HOW."

Yeah, maybe it was a bit corny now that I've had time to review it.

...dave
"He who praises everybody praises nobody." -Samuel Johnston (1709 - 1784) British lexicographer

My new boss

I got a new boss. He's much better than my old boss. He's technical, doesn't micromanage, and is more of a team player. I feel like we are working in concert not in competition.

Of course, he has his defects. Like, for example, everything I do he can do better. "Oh yeah, well get this!" He says and then he goes into a long winded story. After I hear the story, you know what? It is better then my story.

Like, for example, the time I told him I bent my thumb completely backward and had to wear a hand brace.

"You want to hear what happened to me?" he asked.

Well, not really, I just wanted to tell you my story.

So he dives into the story of his adventure on an ATV on some sand dunes. He came off this huge dune and saw a tree below the size of a postage stamp. He landed so hard the lug nuts on the wheels created slots where the holes had once been. His arms ripped out of their sockets and the steering wheel knocked out all of his front teeth.

Ouch. Yeah, that's a pretty good story alright. Better than mine for sure. Okay, you win.

...dave
"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain,,and most fools do." -Andrew Carnegie

This Old House

I've been spending my evenings bashing my fireplace. It's got that old rock piled high into the ceiling that had to go. But, of course, as these things go, there was a lot of bad wall behind it. So it'll cost more dollars and more time to fix it.

We've had several contractor types come and view our house. They come and write stuff in their little pads and measure this and that. They take their pencils from their ears and scratch their goatee and say: "Hmmm." Is that bad. What are they "hummming" about? Then they leave and I wait for days to get a phone call. It's like going to the doctor and waiting for the results of a test. "Is it bad?" "Is it terminal?" "Is there any hope for my house?" "It looked good before you tore out my wall!"

It is pretty rough. Carpets torn up, window frames missing, and walls with big holes where a crowbar went through. It's a disaster. Will it ever look normal? Every time I walk through the living room I trip over a piece of concrete from the fireplace. I think it escapes from the wall late at night when I'm not looking. It can't get much worse than this. Can it?

Meanwhile Ruth is busy putting in the tile in the downstairs basement. That way, we don't have to go on a hike upstairs to use the toilet and shower.

They say you should never tear up the whole house but do a measured project in each room. Otherwise it becomes overwhelming. I'm past being overwhelmed. I'm depressed. I'll be in treatment soon. I'm having therapy daily.

It reaches a point when in every direction I look there is a disaster pile: concrete, carpet, boards with nails, it's everywhere. And each project is linked to another. I can't start one without the other being completed before. For example, I can't rock the walls until we get one of the walls moved.

Do I just re-face the cabinets or buy new ones? Should we re-configure the kitchen or leave it as is? And the floors, I can't wait to start the floors but those have to be the last thing I do.

I could just put it on the market as is. I could just move out and leave it to someone else. The pods we used for the move were pretty nice. Punch a few holes in the sides for windows and I could be very happy living in them.

...dave
He who is carried on another's back does not appreciate how far off the town is.  -African proverb

Lunches are getting expensive

(Eric's clay sculptures)
Since I still rely on Panera Bread for free wireless, my lunches are getting expensive.

I can't get my personal email from work since the Enterprise doesn't allow that anymore. If I try it, I get a big FORBIDDEN screen and they log it. In fact, they log each and every web site I go to from work. It's the equivalent of living in a police state. (I don't really understand this but that's a subject for another post.)

I used to brown bag it to work. Ruth would pack me some warm-ups and I'd just Nuke 'em in the lunch room. That's all changed now.

Since I can't really walk into Panera with a left-over meal under my arm and ask to use their Nuker, I just buy one of their meals. I'm already using their free Internet. What would they think of me if I asked to use their microwave too? Even though I dress in slacks and a sport shirt they may get the wrong impression.

So I end up buying lunch there. It's six bucks a pop for lunch! That adds up. I can't afford this, I'm saving to go to China, again.

The lunches are good. I got the sandwich and salad combo today. The three-seed bread was a little tough, nearly broke my tooth on the first crunch. The greek salad with goat cheese was good. And of course, I love their bear claws. Wow, bear claws and coffee. I could just eat THAT for lunch. But I do get the apple for the side item. That way I stay healthy.

...dave
Cheese--milk's leap towards immortality. -Clifton Fadiman

Posting Junk for sale

We've removed every fixture and carpet in the place. Now I'm just posting them for sale online. I use Craig's List. It's much easier than a garage sale. I just post them with a price and people come by and hand me money. Kind of cool.

Some of the stuff we haven't sold, we just gave it away. We use Free Cycle. Like, for example, the rust brown shag carpet of '70s vintage.

The problem with giving it away free is that the free stuff attracts the flakes. Like the woman that promised to come pick it up while we were out. We left it out on the lawn but it was still there when we came back. So we dragged it back into the garage only to put it back out again when she called a second time. But she still didn't come.

Finally, her and her husband came with a huge SUV borrowed from a friend. Trouble was it was filled to the ceiling with groceries. There was no room for a shag carpet 15 feet long. So they drove off leaving the unwanted beast in my garage. It's so huge it looks like a dead body is wrapped in it.

I'm trying to give this stuff away people! I can't even fit my cars in the garage. Come help me out.

I told Ruth that for each box she opens, she must sell or give away half of what's inside. "Oh, then I can get rid of half your books then?"

"All the boxes except my books." What was I thinking?

...dave
If you study to remember, you will forget, but, If you study to understand, you will remember.

Bellsouth is driving me crazy

So I've tried everything to connect to the DSL that Bellsouth provides. I yanked my gateway, router, and hub out of the Kennesaw house and stuck it into the wall of the new place. But alas, it doesn't work. So I got on the phone to Bellsouth.

And I spent an hour and a half listening to music-on-hold. I've never talked to a warm body. I'm sure no humans work for Bellsouth because I've never spoken to one.

I take that back. One woman answered with an Indian accent and said:

"Hello, this is Sally."

But I knew it wasn't Sally. I know Sally and she doesn't sound like that.

After trying to find my "record on the computer" she said her computer isn't connected to Bellsouth's and she doesn't have access to my account. Then I have to wonder, "Why are you answering the phone?"

But she had a solution, she'll forward me to another...

"No, wait, don't. I've been..."

But it was too late. I got routed to another phone queue with the same music-on-hold. I'm really getting tired of that song.

"I'm sorry" an automated woman's voice said "but we are experiencing unusual call volumes." Every so often the automated voice came back: "You can get online help at www.bellsouth.com." But I can't get on the Internet. If she only knew. Stop this madness.

So tonight we spent a great deal of time cruising the streets looking for free WIFI access (Internet wireless). We found a Caribou Coffee that charges as little as $4 for two hours. I'm not paying that I told Ruth as we sat outside at the cigarette table. (We stealthily ran up by the side drive up window and found a table and chair in the shadow of the building. It was kind of exciting really. Sort of espionage-like. But we bailed when we found out they are just as stingy with their Internet access as Borders, Barnes & Noble, and Starbucks.)

I knew that Panara Bread just down the street had free WIFI but Ruth kept insisting that we check for something closer. So we drove around doing this stealth thing. Then she suggested: "Why don't we drive through neighborhoods looking for wireless access? There's got to be someone's Internet we can access." I just think she likes the thrill of it all.

Finally, I convinced Ruth that we could have been done with our email and posted our items for sale on Crag's List had we gone to Panera in the first place. "But what if it is closed?" She asked. But it wasn't. Now it's 8:30 and lo and behold the lights were on. As we drove up I mumbled: "If they close at 9:00 I'll wig. I'm telling you, I'll blow a gasket." They close at 9:00.

So I checked our email, glugged a cup of Joe, and ran out just at 9:00.

On the way out we knocked over little old lady. Yeah, well it was past her curfew anyway.

...dave
Anywhere is walking distance, if you've got the time. -Steven Wright