state legislation

i think i have the most interest in state legislation as opposed to city or federal... it's close enough where it has a direct and immediate impact and your representatives are much more accessible (like city council) and big enough to get the attention of the citizens. or so i think.

cool quote

nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. - maria robinson

fighting over the remote... in different cities

so weird knowing that my wife and i can still fight over the remote over our TV, even though we are in completely different cities. all thanks to sony's version of slingbox, locationfree.

Luma

I am in Orlando for a conference, and Andy joined me for the weekend. We decided to go to Luma (a Concentrics restaurant in Winter Park) for dinner on Saturday night, and it was amazing! The decor was nice (with very unique restrooms), the service was great (our waiter, Sean, was really friendly and made excellent recommendations), and the food was incredible. The Pacific Halibut T-Bone was the best fish I have ever had (so light and fluffy)! Luma is our new favorite restaurant (a very close second to Joel). It is definitely the best Concentrics restaurant (much better than all the Atlanta ones). We will definitely go back whenever we are in the Orlando/Winer Park area.

Reading by the pool :)

aileen's camera

takes real good pictures!

Quote of the decade from my lovely wife: "when I'm pregnant, will you not drink with me for nine months?" I wish I took a picture of her face when I laughed insanely loud at the restaurant.

wavee.com

very very interesting concept... i just spent $60 just for the right to bid on their items. $60!!!!

i wonder how i could use decision economics to maximize the site.

nosebleeds

whenever my lips get dry and chapped, i really have to remember to take extra care of nose... I CAN'T FORGET THIS.

Wow...

Intern to Director in 6 years. Pretty impressive!

nfl draft

what an experience! not quite the spectacle as i expected but still a very cool experience nonetheless.

eating

no matter how you control it, you can't fight off a souffle.

promotions

i don't feel real different after getting promoted... but maybe it's everyone else that does?

happy 420 day

not quite sure if i learned anything today

bachelor parties

if there is anything that you know has a limited quantity and only gets harder with age, it's bachelor parties. i can't drink as much as i used to, stay out late as i used to, and have the energy to keep going as i used to, but the more you go to these things, you realize how valuable these things are... you have such limited time in your adult life to spend with all your closest friends for a weekend and have a valid excuse to act like an idiot at the same time.

corks and wine

i've been collecting through the years a special collection of wine i only use for special purposes. most of these are my favorite - silver oak. well, i told myself that if a certain event happened, i'm going to open my oldest silver oak (2001 napa) to celebrate... and yesterday, that event happened. so while we were at dinner, we let the wine decant and finally took a sip of the wine.

my first reaction... "hm." 

aileen's first reaction... "hm."

it definitely wasn't as good as it should be... and my first thought was maybe my palate wasn't clean enough... 

so i tried again... "weird."

the wine definitely didn't go bad, but it wasn't super good either...

we debated for a long time whether to call the sommelier and get his opinion. ultimately, we decided it was best to know for sure, so we wouldn't always wonder if the bottle had gone bad or if it was just us. so the sommelier tried it and said that our wine had been slightly 'corked.' 

my reaction... "##$*&!!!!"

if your wine has been corked, it means that something happened during the bottling process or the cork had gone bad, allowing air and TCA to get into the bottle (i think that's what it means at least). that makes the wine taste less than optimal, and depending on how bad it's been contaminated, still OK to drink. the bottom of the cork was wet, which means i at least stored it in the proper position and i had also kept it in a dark place, so the sommelier concluded that the cork had just gone bad. it was very slight, according to the sommelier, and that he actually would have still served it. we could tell because we knew what to expect.

SO... we decided to just push through and finish the wine (it should be noted that aileen had 1 glass). but it definitely is a bittersweet way of celebrating the big day. at least the sommelier was impressed that we could tell that the wine was very slightly corked.

commendations

i need to give them more... it's so easy to take for granted how hard people work for you as a norm, and it's so easy to forget that people who feel unrecognized start to go down a slippery slope.

I just wanted to say, I am so proud of my husband. that is all. :)

organizational change

it is such a struggle... for so many reasons... people just using the opportunity to get politically ahead, throw others under the bus, etc... no wonder why consultants get paid a lot of money for it. everyone can blame the evil 3rd party.

artichokes

never had an artichoke until tonight... the only time i had an artichoke was in spinach and artichoke dip from houston's. man, those things are good. but like a crab (which i really don't like to eat), so much shell for so little meat.

i wonder how healthy artichokes are for you? why yes... yes they are.

john cusack

he's a tall guy... 6'2

stages of learning and enduring success

the five stages of learning
0 - arrogance: are you a 'knower' or a 'learner' when being taught something?
1 - insight: realizing that you just learned something new
2 - action - taking action on your learnings
3 - reliability - repeatedly acting on it
4 - sponsorship - being able to serve as a model of the learnings

the four qualities of enduring success
1. happiness
2. achievement
3. significance
4. legacy

all four need to be balanced in your life; you can channel your energy into one, but you can't ignore the other three. this is the 'paradigm of limitation.'

on a side note: i got my first standing ovation today after giving a speech... :)

work niceness

it's nice to know that people at work actually do care about me and think that i do a good job... kinda weird to think of it that way given that at my last job, i was completely horrible. just another example of the old adage, you don't know what you have until you lose it.

life decisions

so obvious, but it's so easy to give out advice to people who are in big or tough situations... but once you're in the exact same position, it's real hard to take your own advice.

playing tennis

i play a lot better when i'm just nonchalant about it... maybe trying too hard is detrimental to me?

habits

good habits die easily while bad habits die hard.

Churches

incredible how churches have changed along with technology. today, we went to easter service where the entire sermon was taped earlier in the day, and broadcast on a large HD screen. it was quite a production with the live band, laser lights, very fancy camera-work, etc. some would say that the church shouldn't be spending money on such elaborate things, but i disagree... no matter who you are, you have to cater to your audience. if that's how they respond best to your product, that's what you should do... but up to a certain point of course.

golf

extremely frustrating sport... mostly because there are so many things that can go wrong but you only have one shot to do it. even after taking lessons on a regular basis for so long, i still suck. extremely frustrating.

know thyself

strengths and weaknesses... when it comes to work, i have a pretty strong set of strengths and a not so bad set of weaknesses. that's what a psychologist told me today.

i will list them out later.

big decisions

time to step up and make some.