Sushi
"Many people think sushi means "raw fish," but it actually means "seasoned rice." Sushi is the marriage of vinegar rice to other ingredients."

"A charming legend of sushi's origin is that long ago an old man and his wife charitably left some rice in the nest of an osprey living near their house. Later they found fish in the nest, ate it, and were delighted by the intriguing flavor their leftover rice had imparted to the fish as it underwent natural fermentation."
8:42:51 AM     comment []

Time to patch your OS X systems
Released yesterday is a MAJOR security patch from Apple for OS X. I strongly recommend that if you are running OS X that you patch your system. Most notably in this patch are fixes to Cyrus IMAP SASL and fixes to Safari International Domain Name support. If you are running a server there are tons of other fixes in this patch. I suspect that unpatched machines will be very vulnerable and we will see infected OS X boxes in the future due to these security vulnerabilities.
I have applied this to several systems yesterday and today and it has not broke anything (at least yet, to my knowledge) and for now it seems not to have affected my server.
8:37:27 AM     comment []

Yes, I'm still here, just been busy
Ok, I really am going to start blogging again. It has just been a very busy time. In the coming weeks I hope to write about many subjects, not limited to: SSL on OS X (and server), :cue:cats and ReaderWare, iPod (I can't believe I haven't blogged about my new toy) and why I'm not too upset that gas is going to be $3 a gallon this year.
4:20:00 PM     comment []

Back to blogging
Dear devoted readers (ya right), I have decided to dedicate a few min. each day blogging (time permitting). I have been very lax in this area, as you can see from the dirth of info over the past several months.

It's not that I haven't been writing, the things I have been writing and working on the past several months would probably bore you to tears, unless you really enjoy reading RFP and the like.

I have a ton of stuff I want to write about, so stay tuned and you might learn something, or might just be amused for a second or two.
7:29:44 AM     comment []

A big thank you to UDOT!!!
I really want to thank our friends over at UDOT. In mid-August they shut down the Northbound ramp onto I-15 from Beck street. This route has been my way home since 1993 when I moved to Kaysville. This closure motivated me to find new, more interesting ways home, that I was aware of but had rarely tried.

Even-though the on-ramp from Beck Street to I-15 is reopened, I continue to take my new preferred route, which over the past couple months has never failed to put me at my front door about 35 min. after I leave my office at the University of Utah.

A couple weeks ago when it rained continually, for what seemed like forever I happened to go through the Beck Street area at a time I thought would be less congested. It was, but I noticed that the construction was held up by weather and I wondered if it would ever get finished with the weather we were having. I phoned UDOT on November 2nd to inquire when the expected completion would be (it was announced that closure would be over near the end of October) and was delighted to not only be greeted by a friendly human voice(I was simply in shock that after only one ACD digit press that this happened), but also to get to the right department immediately. The person in the division I initially talked to (can't recall her name) not only knew that there was a delay, but put me in-touch with Marty Asay who is the person in charge of the area that was affected by the closure. Marty called me back twice, once I was not here and Lou took a message for me. Right when I was going to call Marty back he called me back and Lou caught the call (I'm sure I was in a meeting at that time)

This experience with UDOT is one of my all time best customer service experiences. I also had one the other day with my cable provider that shocked me as well. Again I thank UDOT for their time, attention and hard work in all they do. I used to cuss them every day when I saw orange cones. Now I have an appreciation for their planning, hard work and attention to detail, as well as excellent customer service.

Oh, and by the way, if you want to know my secret route (which has saved me hours and hours of time stuck on the tarmac over the past couple months) you will have to take me to lunch. I will not reveal my route to the general public because, then you would be going that was also and I already have enough of you to contend with going home ;-)
7:23:15 AM     comment []

A frustrating week, but at least a good quote
It's been a frustrating week, mostly because I have accomplished little this week, except for just dealing with the same old issues that have been going on for a couple years now.

It's not because I did not intend not to accomplish much, I just have had several things come up this week, most of which I should have ignored, derail me and take me away from the strategic things I should have been focusing on.

I have learned a few valuable lessons, however. Actually I have not learned them but re-learned them and experienced several things both personally and professionally that have reinforced those lessons, instruction and training.

On Monday I attended Customer Service Training with several other associates. This was a really good refresher on lessons and training I have had over the years. This training and also some team dynamics training the mangers has a few weeks ago have helped me to remember the basic management, interpersonal and communications skills that I have learned and re-learned and had reinforced over the past 15 years or so. My goal is to focus on, remember and apply these principles.

My favorite part of the Customer Service Training was when Audry said that the best way to stir things up and create problems in the workplace it to talk around problems, rather than deal with them directly with the person or persons that are causing the problem. This is usually refereed to as gossip or backbiting and is a common occurrence in the workplace. Interpersonal Skills Building 101 lesson #1 and the crux and fundamental of good interpersonal skills is this; if you have a problem with someone deal with it directly with that person, don't go around them or discuss the problem without that person present. Also, if you observe problems, attack it in a constructive way, I.E. if you have ideas, be part of the solution, not the person stirring the pot, so to speak. Use your energy to help solve that problem and not make matters worse. This lesson was reinforced through an experience My wife Julie had on Monday and a few experiences I had this week professionally.

The other lesson I re-learned this week, it to not be reactive and to think through situations, especially those situations that involve employees, their morale and their job performance. I apologize to those on my staff this week that I reacted to prematurely before thinking things through.

The good news is that tomorrow IS a new day and next week IS a new week. Hopefully I can do better and think things through more clearly

And the quote that Julie shared with me today that has brightened my day: "If a man does his best, what else is there?" Author Unknown
11:45:24 AM     comment []

Update of my visited places

create your own personalized map of the USA or write about it on the open travel guide
8:45:34 PM     comment []

TODAY'S leaders!
"The mind-set of yesterday's manager was to accept compromise and keep things neat, which tended to breed complacency. Tomorrow's leaders, on the other-hand, raise issues, debate them, resolve them. They aren't afraid to go against today's current because they know their constituency is tomorrow, they rally around a vision of what a business can become."

Jack Welch Retired CEO, General Electric
2:11:22 PM     comment []

Back to Blogging
Well, I think a am going to start blogging again. The time I have to write until the end of April will be spent in other areas. But as I have a few spare moments I'll jot some things down. This has been prompted by my Radio license expiring in a few days. I planned to switch to Moveable Type over the Holidays, but that did not pan out. So still stuck on Radio.
2:05:31 PM     comment []

Success?
"The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, honesty, understanding and feelings are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and selfi-nterest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the product of the second."

John Steinbeck
2:52:09 PM     comment []