2010-09-28 Monday - Memories From My Childhood

Over 40 years ago I was a young boy, growing up in the country outside of a small town in Arkansas.

We lived on a dead-end dirt road - with 10 acres of crudely fenced woods defining our land.

As is often the custom in Arkansas, young boys receive a rifle as one of their early birthday gifts - and mine was a fine .22 Remington long rifle.  The ability to hunt - to put game on the table, if you will - is a very old tradition in the culture within which I was raised.  Knowing one's way in the woods and mountains, another.

Another custom, a boy and his dog, was also practiced in my family.  Mine was a Great Dane.  He was my faithful companion, my protector, and my ally in many adventures in those days.

We were fortunate in that quite a few creeks and streams crossed our property.  After a hard rain, the creeks would rise and the waters would flow quite strongly.  Some of my fondest childhood memories involve the adventures of finding new ways of crossing those creeks...but always aware of the dangers of water moccasins, copperheads, and rattlesnakes.  There were several close calls in my childhood involving close encounters with snakes...but that is another story, or two.

While walking through the woods with my rifle and my dog - I often imagined what life was like for the frontiersman in the early days of our country:  Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett, Wild Bill Hickok, and Buffalo Bill.  Those were my imaginary heroes as a child.

The feeling of peacefulness that settled into my soul, listening to the wind passing through the trees, is something that I can remember with perfect clarity even today.  Now that feeling of peace is hard to find though - with the hustle and bustle of life.  There's too much noise, too many people, and cities give me a feeling of being crowded in a bit too much. 

In more recent years I discovered a comparable peace to be found at sea - far from land.

The world would be a much better place, if we all had a few acres to call our own - to walk in the woods with a dog - and to listen to the stillness of trees dreaming...and to listen to the teachings of the wind blowing in the branches of the trees.

2010-09-22 Wednesday

During this evening's Spanish class, we were assigned a task to research the various languages that are spoken in Central/South America and the Caribbean...I found these resources to be helpful:

Official and Spoken Languages of the Countries of the Americas and the Caribbean
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/american_languages.htm

 

The University of Texas at Austin has a program that provided some additional interesting information:

The Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America
http://www.ailla.utexas.org/site/la_langs.html

 

 

2010-09-16 Thursday - Somber Thoughts

There are days when I worry about what the future may hold - and days when there are frustrations that may arise from whatever task may be at hand - or the interactions with some particular person may cause me to speak harsher words than I intended - all of which may foul my normally cheerful disposition.  It is so easy to be consumed by insignificant matters- and to lose sight of that is which is noble...to lose sight of the work-in-progress that is the painting of life-being-lived.  Tonight I had a stark reminder - A friend shared with me the tragic loss over the death of his brother.  As I ponder life tonight with a glass of wine, I will try to remember to keep my priorities straight, to remember what is essential, for the morrow.

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/091210/obi_706947100.shtml

http://stagesofchange.blogspot.com/


"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."
- The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

2010-09-05 Sunday - NIall Ferguson - Roots of Sovereign Debt Crisis

This video is a must-see:

Niall Ferguson's speech to the Peterson Institute for International Economics (May 13 , 2010) examined the roots of sovereign debt crises, and how they have plagued states since the birth of the bond market. Ferguson also made clear, that such crises have brought down some of the world's biggest empires, and there is no reason why it won't happen again. [pdf]

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/niall-ferguson-empire-2010-5#ixzz0yhbz85aU

2010-08-17 Tuesday - The Power of Intuition

I trust my intuition. 

Here's an example of why....

True Story:

1987...working at a bank in downtown Little Rock.  Walking the few blocks each day after work to my car...I usually passed by a bus stop.  This time, from a distance of two blocks, I sensed that one person among the crowd waiting for the bus - just. isn't. right.  The feeling of tension grows.  A sense of approaching danger.  I shift my briefcase from my right-hand to my left-hand...timing my motions so that as I come abreast of the fellow, the motion of my arm will be on an upswing.  As I pass, he leaps up from his seat and throws a wild kick toward my face.  I continue the momentum of my arm - raising the briefcase to block his kick. Perfectly timed.

Here's the thing.  In that instant - a flash of thought and intuition told me that if I turned...and acknowledged his presence...he would continue his attack...but if I cleared my mind and took one more step...removing any emotion/thought - his negative energy would evaporate.

And so I did. And that's how it ended.

2010--08-10 Tuesday - Financial Tsunami, Part-2

In early 2007, while sitting with friends at the marina clubhouse in Mazatlan, I raised a concern of a looming financial disaster that I compared to a terrible tsunami that could be seen on the horizon.  Last year, I heard from my friend in Mazatlan - that the local businessman sitting at the table with us on that day still remembers that conversation quite vividly. 

The financial tsunami I see now looming on the horizon will dwarf that one by orders of magnitude. 

We still have a little longer for the music to play.  But keep your eye on the chairs and the exits.  Prepare now.

U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know: Laurence Kotlikoff
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/u-s-is-bankrupt-and-we-don-t-even-know-commentary-by-laurence-kotlikoff.html

Taleb Says Government Bonds to Collapse, Avoid Stocks
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-11/-black-swan-author-taleb-says-he-bets-on-collapse-of-government-bonds.html

The Long-Term Budget Outlook June 2010
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11579

2010-08-08 Sunday - Signed-up for a Spanish language class

Signed-up for a Fall 2010 evening class at Glendale Community College to improve my Spanish language skills...one of the items on my checklist of skills to improve before taking off on another voyage! 175 days to go...

http://www.glendale.edu/

2010-07-31 Saturday - Smaller Houses, More Freedom

Interesting ideas:  
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com  

http://www.thetinylife.com/ 

http://tinyhouseblog.com 

http://smalllivingjournal.com/

http://markopolo.smugmug.com/Tiny-House

2010-07-11 Sunday - The Planetary Society blog

http://www.planetary.org/blog

2010-07-05 Monday - Grand Canyon Trip

I got back this morning from a two-day trip to the Grand Canyon...

2010-07-03 Saturday - Ford Explorer

So, my 1998 Ford Explorer (now with 210,000 miles) has been running rough in this desert heat (110F+).

While doing some research, I came across the following helpful resources:

http://www.fordgenie.com/Ford/Explorer/

http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/forum32/



How Does a 1998 Ford Explorer Mass Air Flow Sensor Work?

Symptoms of a Bad MAF
Mass air flow sensors on the Ford are not repairable but can be cleaned if done properly. It is common on a Ford Explorer for the mass air flow to get dirty which will give low numbers and cause the computer to lean out the mixture (less fuel, more air). When this happens, the check engine light will come on the dash, the idle will get rough and there will be a loss of power due to the lean condition. A pinging caused by detonation in the engine may also be heard.

How to Clean a MAF Sensor on a 2001 Ford Explorer

How to Clean a Ford Explorer MAF Sensor




YouTube Videos:

• MAF Sensor, Mass Air Flow Sensor Testing
• How-to Clean Mass Air Flow Sensor on FJ Cruiser
• How Do You Clean or Check a Mass Air Flow Sensor?
• How to Know if a Mass Air Flow Sensor is Bad

Problems with Ford Explorer Engine Ping / Pre-Detonation

Clean Your MAF

NOTE: You will need a special "Security TORX, Tamper Resistant"  tool:
http://www.wihatools.com/indexes/indxSecuritytorx.htm

http://www.tecratools.com/product1025.html

http://www.amazon.com/SE-pc-Security-Bit-Set/dp/B0009U6AB4/ref=pd_cp_hi_1


Here's what the socket looks like for the two screws that secure the MAF on my 1998 Ford Explorer:

2010-06-19 Saturday - ROS.org

This is something I want to remember to come back to later...

http://www.ros.org/wiki/

ROS is an open-source, meta-operating system for your robot. It provides the services you would expect from an operating system, including hardware abstraction, low-level device control, implementation of commonly-used functionality, message-passing between processes, and package management.

2010-06-08 Tuesday: Some Interesting Links

Some interesting links I want to save for later reading...

http://lanl.arxiv.org/
arXiv is an e-print service in the fields of physics, mathematics, non-linear science, computer science, quantitative biology and statistics.

http://www.stardrive.org/

The Everett FAQ

Dan Piponi's web site

StirFry the Robot
Not The Crackpot Files

http://theorymatters.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Visioning.HomePage
workshop held May 17, 2008 at the University of Washington, funded by the Computing Community Consortium and supported by the SIGACT Committee for the Advancement of Theoretical Computer Science.


http://blog.tmorris.net/

2010-03-27 Saturday - Excel Tutorials

A friend asked for suggestions on some links to tutorials on advanced functions in Microsoft Office Excel. Here are a few resources I found after a quick search:

http://spreadsheets.about.com/


Excel Conditional Formatting
http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/advancedexcel/tp/090822-excel-conditional-formatting-hub.htm

Microsoft Excel 2007 Tutorial - Advanced Formulas

http://www.mstipsandtricks.com/tips-and-tricks/ms-office-tips-and-tricks/ms-excel/ms-excel.html


http://www.mstipsandtricks.com/tips-and-tricks/ms-office-tips-and-tricks/ms-excel/advanced-formulas.html

Advanced Excel Tutorial
http://www.ehow.com/topic_2573_advanced-excel-tutorial.html


http://www.lacher.com/toc.htm

2010-02-28 Sunday - Studying Mandarin

I've begun listening to a 3-CD language course: Instant Immersion(tm) Chinese Mandarin (Crash Course), by Topics Entertainment:



I also have in my library this very useful tool for the international business traveler:




I may eventually progress to a more robust learning tool, such as the Rosetta Stone Chinese software:

2010-02-27 Saturday

Phenomenal acoutistic guitar duo: Rodgrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero of the group Rodrigo y Gabriela. Their latest album is "11:11"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35621310#35604066

Warren Buffett's annual letter to shareholders:
http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2009ltr.pdf



Open Source: FlightGear Simulator
http://www.flightgear.org/

DIY Drones
http://diydrones.com/

2010-02-20 Saturday

There's a great article on CNN Money: What it takes to be great.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a required class in our high school's curriculum named just that? A focused study of the lives and practices of those that became great.

2010-02-07 Sunday - Increasing Your Effectiveness

(hat'tip to blog.carolynworks.com/)

I came across an interesting paper tonight: Does Taking Notes Help You Remember Better? Exploring How Note Taking Relates to Memory, Workshop "Supporting Human Memory with Interactive Systems", HCI Conference, September 4th, 2007, Lancaster, UK

Many years ago I worked on a very interesting project. When I left that project, I made a point of making electronic backups of my work (notes, designs, etc) and many of the project artifacts - with the thought of someday culling some great ideas for templates. Those backups were made with some older version of a Windows OS backup system - and on media - that today I can no longer access.

A few years later I observed a fellow consulting colleague displaying a habit of writing in an expensive hardbound journal notebook for every project / client engagement on which he worked.

I too began that habit.

Today I have journals going back over 10 years...

In those journals are the records of every major decision, meeting, conversation, requirements discussion, conceptual design, problem encountered - and solution considered/devised.

They are not searchable - but I can generally find things in a reasonable amount of time. They are not very portable - but I have kept them - and paid to have them shipped for every move I have made.

Recently I went through those journals and re-established contact with folks with whom I had lost contact over the years. LinkedIn was very helpful in that regard.

For major projects, I prefer the Staples Record Book (300 pages, 10-7/16" x 8-3/8")





For shorter projects, or Research & Development, I will often use a Journal Composition Book



When I need to do a lot of diagrams, I use a Composition Notebook, Quadrille Ruled





I also happen to prefer to keep a separate paper At-A-Glance Weekly Professional Appointment Books



In many professional meetings, I am often amused at the lack of even the minimum note-taking effort that is expended. By forcing myself to write notes with pen and paper, I have a stronger reinforcement of the material, better memory retention, and a great ability to incorporate diagrams into my record of the discussion.

I have also experimented with writing a daily blog within a team environment - as a mechanism for communicating status, issues, avenues explored, vendor/product research, conceptual solutions proposed, as well as capturing decisions that might have otherwise been left to rot in the purgatory of an email inbox.

Additionally, I use Notepad++ to write a private daily journal that I store in a "YYYY-MM-DD.txt" file naming convention.

When it comes time to produce "official" content - I prefer to use the Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect tool.

2010-01-03 Sunday - 2010 Goals

• Publish 6 articles


• Present at 2 conferences


• Negotiate a book deal


• Visit Asia


• Volunteer for a community service project


• Complete the Stanford Advanced Projectd Management Certificate


• Obtain my TOGAF 9 Certification


• Develop modules/content for a SOA training program