Black's Mail

It's 2009 in Australia, as the Rest of the World Counts Down.

I sent my first 2009 New Year's greetings to my friends, down under, while the rest of the world counts down.  Here, on the East Coast of the US, it's a few minutes before 9 in the morning.  My wife, childeren, and I are visiting our relatives in Virginia.  We'll celebrate the New Year, somewhere on the road to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

Snowzilla

Just as the post-Christmas blahs were threatening to creep in on me – Enter Snowzilla. Filed under "news of the weird," it's the story of the latest in a series of giant snowmen in an Anchorage, Alaska neighborhood, built in defiance of a city ordinance that deemed it a public nuisance.

Granted: Billy Powers, the eccentric junk collector, who for several years has been building ever larger snowmen in his front yard, may have done something to irritate some of his neighbors. However, I think he put it best when he said, "If you can't have this in Anchorage, Alaska, then what can you have?"

A website (Snowzilla.org) has been established to collect donations for Mr. Powers' defense.

Cool Ride in a Cool City

A few weeks ago I visited Portland with my family.  It was during the Rose Festival, and though we had a lot of fun and saw some interesting sights, we didn't see a single rose -- not one.  We would have seen a lot of roses, at a parade, but we had already been out for several hours at the city's waterfront park, taking part in festivities, when it started to rain.  So, instead we trotted back to our hotel.  The picture is of the Aerial Tram that connects the South Waterfront district and the main Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) campus, located high above in the Marquam Hill neighborhood.  It's interesting to note that it is only the second commuter aerial tram in the United States, after the one that connects Roosevelt Island with Manhattan in New York City. 

I hope we will have the chance to return to Portland, soon.  It was only three and one half hours, traveling on the Amtrak Cascades line from Seattle.  Amtrak is planning on reducing the travel time to just two hours and thirty minutes, leaving more time to stop and smell the roses.

“Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music.” –G.C.

George Carlin died, today.  I was still reeling from the news of Russert’s passing, and now this.  All in all, it’s been a tough week for honesty.  I once saw George Carlin perform at the Ford Theater in Washington, DC, during the summer of 1989.  I had just graduated from college and was working for my Uncle Tom’s accounting firm for a few months, before starting my Army career.   I can’t remember exactly how I came by two tickets, but I asked my uncle to go with me.  I don’t know, if Tom was shocked by Carlin’s material or just a little surprised to share the experience with me, but it was a shared experience -- a kind of bonding experience.

 

One of my favorite George Carlin jokes that I have repeated many times goes like this:

The other day, I was riding in a car with this guy, and when the car came up on an intersection with a red traffic light, the guy just drove through it without stopping.  I said to this guy, “Hey, didn’t you see that?  You just went through a red light?”  The guy, say, “Don’t worry about it, my brother drives like this!”  So, we kept going, and when we came to a second red light, the guy just kept right on going through without stopping, same as the first one.  I turned to him and said, “Hey, buddy!  What are you doing?  You just went through another red light!” to which he responded, “Don’t worry about it, my brother drives like this!”  Further down the road, we came up on an intersection with a green light, at which the guy stops the car.  I said to him, “We come to two red lights, and you don’t even stop.  Now that we’re at a green light, why stop now?”   The guy says, “My brother might be coming the other way.”

We'll miss you, George.

Davidson Wildcats Basketball Does It Again!

I'm working in Europe this week, and I wasn't able to get the game, not even from my Slingbox, which is unable to negotiate the firewall at the Microsoft office in Düsseldorf nor the one at my hotel.  So, I went out for the evening with some of my German friends, thinking I would probably be readin about Davidson's loss in the American newspapers in the hotel lounge at breakfast. 

It's not that I didn't want them to win or even that I didn't think they could beat Wisconsin.   Extraordinary things can happen in tournament play, and the Wildcats had shown so much strength in the the preceeding two contests.  However, the University of Wisconsin, a 3-seeded team, was heavily favored to beat 10-seed, Davidson, and I didn't doubt the wisdom of the professional oddsmakers enough to think that it was a sure thing or even a likely thing.  Imagine my surprise upon receiving a text message from the US, saying not only that Davidson had won but won by a wide margin.  I doubt many players of office betting pools had picked Davidson to advance to the Elite Eight.  With all of the watchers of America's NCAA College Basketball Tournament trying to figure out who in the hell is Davidson, my sad little blog might even get some traffic!

Davidson vs. Goliath

That was the sports commentator's catchphrase, today, as my alma mater, Davidson College emerged victorious from a tournament contest which their opponent, Georgetown University was heavily favored to win.

Not long ago, a friend told me that his son was considering applying for admission to Davidson.  What follows is directly from my response to him.  I'm posting it now, because after today's victory in men's basketball, someone besides me might actually care!

      Davidson has evolved into the southern version of an Ivy League school.  It was founded by Presbyterians, and despite having become secular, it places a lot of emphasis on developing character.  It’s a small (1,700 students), liberal arts college – They make students take a lot of courses – not just their major, and emphasize writing and critical thinking skills.   I think they once said that more Davidson graduates go on to get a PhD than any college in the country.  I think Davidson has had the second highest number of Rhodes scholars of any school in the country. 

Academically it’s tough, but it has amazing sports programs for a school of its size.  Basketball was the #1 sport, when I was there.  Davidson has made it to the NCAA a couple times when I was there and a couple times, since, but will probably never equal their heyday in the late 1960s, when Davidson made the Final 4 for several years, as Lefty Driesell coached Terry Holland and the team was ranked #1 by Sports Illustrated.   Terry Holland is now the Athletic Director.  Since then, Soccer has become big – bigger than football, and Davidson remains nationally ranked and has hosted the national championships, several times in the last decade.   Women’s tennis is really big, too.  I didn’t know that swimming was so big, until I started reading up – but then, I shouldn’t be surprised, because they opened a multi-million dollar sports complex with multiple swimming pools, the year after I left.

Davidson recently made news, when it announced that it would augment its financial aid program so that students entire demonstrated need would be met by grants and student employment, so that no student would need to take on educational debt.

The trustees are very conservative, while the faculty is very liberal.  The students are all over the map, but probably, on average, more conservative than at most colleges of this caliber. 

My freshman adviser told me, during my first week:

Those of you who make As at Davidson will go on to become college professors, because that’s what people who make As at Davidson do.  Then there are those of you who will make Bs at Davidson—You will go to work for NCNB (now NationsBank), have your 2.3 kids, and park your BMW in your driveway, because that’s what people who  make Bs at Davidson end up doing.  Then there are those of you who will make Cs at Davidson – You’re going to be making money.

I’ve always enjoyed telling the story, which turns out to be more true than I would have ever believed.  My final GPA at Davidson was 3.000, and ever since, I have been trying to dumb myself down enough to make the kind of money that the guys who made Cs are making.

Remembering my Neglected Blog on Thanksgiving Day

Today is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.  A couple of years ago,  I would  have just said "Today is Thanksgiving," but now that all of my work is internationally focused, I remember that not everybody celebrates or is even aware of this American holiday.  I'm watching Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television, and I am reminded that today is the "official" kickoff of the Christmas buying season.  By contrast, Christmas is a worldwide economic if not religious observance. 

I was traveling in Asia for two weeks, from 28 October to 10 November, spending the first four nights and the last night in Singapore.  When I returned to Singapore on 9 November to await my flight back to the U.S., I saw Christmas Decorations going up all over Orchard Road.  Retailers around the world want to get a jump on the biggest buying season, and without the Thanksgiving starting gun, there's nothing to keep them from going all out, a few weeks earlier than in the U.S.  Retailers in the U.S. have been putting up Christmas decorations, earlier and earlier, and gearing their merchandising and advertising to the Christmas season, beginning as early as October, but I can't recall seeing outdoor decorations before Thanksgiving.

Most of my colleagues around the world, and a few of my local colleagues are working today, as a normal business day.  This morning, I felt just relaxed enough to say hello to my poor neglected blog.  A number of significant things have happened in my life, recently.  I will need write about each of them in detail, but for the moment, I'll just list them:

1. Beth Houghton, a very close friend and business colleage died, recently from previously undiagnosed cancer.  I was at her bedside, during four of her last five days and attended her memorial service in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
2. I ran the Army Ten-Miler road race in memory of my friend, ROTC Ranger Challenge Teammate, Davidson College Kappa Sigma Fraternity Brother, and onetime Fayetteville roommate, MAJ David Taylor, who was killed in action in Baghdad, about a year ago.
3. I had an amazing time, working in Asia, visiting Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok, each for four or five days.
4. I worked in Mexico City for a couple of days, and learned a lot about public safety technology.
5. While working in Europe, I visited Köln, München, Warszawa,and Paris.  In addition to some very satisfying professional experiences, I found some time for fun.
6. I am preparing to go to Orlando, Florida to participate in the launch of Microsoft's simulations platform product at an exciting conference for modeling and simulation.  I am bringing my family, so we can all escape the dreary Seattle winter weather and enjoy a few days off at Walt Disney World (Shhhh don't tell our kids -- W'ere going to surprise them!)

Today, I have a lot for which I am thankful. The roller coaster of the last few months has reinforced my belief that I could die, tomorrow, knowing I have lived an amazing life.  At the same time, there is so much more that I want to experience, achieve, and so much presonal growth that I need to improve my life and my relationships with the people around me.  I feel that I am reaching a point in my life that I can just about put the puzzle together, but of course, life just keeps getting faster and more challenging.  What a ride!

Valery's Film Debut

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!

Another Mystery Solved

I think I may have stumbled onto the secret to unlock the mystery of operating the volume control on the T-mobile Dash. For as long as I have owned this device, I have labored under the assumption that the "volume strip," as they call it, worked like a rocker switch, which is to say that it responds to tapping on either side to make the volume go up or down. I could never figure out why sometimes the volume strip was activated, when I didn't intend it, while at other times, I could not get the thing to respond, no matter how hard or how softly I pressed, and no matter how precisely I tried to tap on a particular region of the strip.

I asked everyone I know who has a Dash, and they reported experiences similar to mine, but no solutions. I read discussions on the Internet that documented the design defect. If a lot of people can't use a basic control properly, it's a design defect, by definition. On the Internet, I found registry settings to reprogram the functions of each button or even disable them, but no solution to get the volume strip to operate properly. When I finally called T-mobile Technical Support (escalated) for help, they told me that I knew more about the volume strip than they did, but still, no solution.

Today, I figured it out. The volume strip does not operate like a rocker switch, but rather like a wheel. It wants to be stroked, not tapped. Stroke up to make louder; stroke down to make softer. Aha! Now it responds just as I intend, every time. There are so many positive things about this device that the perplexing quirkiness of the volume control was never bad enough to make me consider parting ways, but I'm happier now that I've unlocked the secret of communicating with it.

Sometimes I can't understand any language!

In his comment about my post, Adventures in English, Kevin Curry writes:

It's funny. I was in Dublin and I couldn't understand anything I heard on the trains...between all the "former Soviet Republic" languages, Asian languages, and Gaelic. We shared a tabled with a random couple in Temple Bar and they didn't speak a word of English. I think they were German. Gaelic is again an official language in Ireland. You'll have to find a reason to visit.

That reminds me of the time when I was sitting in a café in Amsterdam, seated next to two young ladies who spoke in a language completely unintelligible to me.  After about an hour, one of them turned to me and with a thick accent that I could not place, asked me if I had a cigarette.  I asked her where she and her friend were from, and she said, "Scotland."  I thought I would have recognized a Scottish accent.  I asked her, if she and her friend had been speaking Gaelic, and to my astonishment, she said, "Nay, English."