So Should He -- Choose Sushi?

K.C. nudged me to watch the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" (available on Netflix). Who would think a documentary about Sushi would be interesting?  It was!

Jiro Ono is an 85 year old sushi master with a Michelin three star restaurant in Japan.  The sushi starts at 30,000 yen - $300 and reservations are required a month in advance.  It was fascinating to understand the attention to every detail including the presentation and delivery of the sushi to the patron. 

"You are consuming Jiro's philosophy with every bite" states his son.  It shows how a singular focus on being the best at what you can be - a craft that you love and becomes you - can bring you peace and joy.  You can see it in Jiro Ono's eyes and his smile.  And you hear his philosophy from what his sons have learned:  "Always try to improve yourself. That's what he [Jiro -my father] taught me.  Always strive to elevate your craft."

Jiro talks about his passion saying that even as a child he would dream about sushi - his mind bursting with ideas and visions of sushi.  For everyone and everything there is a purpose that aligns talent with delivery. There is a place for everyone to contribute and become a master.

"You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill.  That is the secret of success and is the key to being regarded honorably"   Jiro Ono

Cincinnati Legal

It was like the Boston Legal balcony scene (with some variation).  Instead we were sitting by the pool while the sun set talking about the past, present and future.  The friendship (now over 20 years) of the three guys was brought together by our tennis wives. 

The discussion was as philosophical and funny as the balcony scenes of Season 2 of Boston Legal.  Each of our lives and backgrounds are unique, yet random circumstances created a connection that has endured.  I have read that "perfect friendship exists between good men who are alike in virtuousness". 

I posed the question to the group - What are the values that make up your being?  What values did you try to pass on to your kids?  Each of us had quite different answers (and hence philosophical views) -  Respect for others, Courage, Honesty, Responsibility, Work Ethic, and Love.  There were comments about life lessons learned and the wisdom gained from mistakes.

Three good men - alike in virtuousness.  And to bed by 10:30pm  :)

Great Books

My recent exploration of books that I read in High School has culminated in asking others what books have changed (or framed) their life (character, philosophy, values, political persuasion etc.).  I happened upon the Great Courses DVD series from the Teaching Company -  "Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life" which is a series of 36 - thirty minute lectures by Professor J. Rufus Fears (Univ. of Okla.). 

Professor Rufus is very engaging and a great story teller.  Through his lectures introducing these books he organizes the stories thematically around eternal questions - Does God or do Gods exist? What is fate? What do we mean by good and evil? How should we live? 

What criteria does Professor Rufus use to determine a "Great Book"?  Simply he states a book is great "precisely because it challenges us to make value judgments -  ultimately, great books are an education for freedom."

What are your Great Books?  Would it be one of these thirty four?

1. Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison
2. Homer, Iliad
3. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
4. Bhagavad Gita
5. Book of Exodus
6. Gospel of Mark
7. Koran
8. Gilgamesh
9. Beowulf
10. Book of Job
11. Aeschylus, Oresteia
12. Euripides, Bacchae
13. Plato, Phaedo
14. Dante, The Divine Comedy
15. Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice
16. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
17. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
18. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
19. George Orwell, 1984
20. Vergil, Aeneid
21. Pericles, Oration; Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
22. Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
23. Confucius, The Analects
24. Machiavelli, The Prince
25. Plato, Republic
26. John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
27. Sir Thomas Malory, Morte d'Arthur
28. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part 1
29. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Part 2
30. Henry David Thoreau, Walden
31. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
32. Lord Acton, The History of Freedom
33. Cicero, On Moral Duties (De Officiis)
34. Gandhi, An Autobiography
35. Churchill, My Early Life; Painting as a Pastime; WWII
36. Lessons from the Great Books

Pennies to Dollars

Each month I spend time paying bills.  Even though Susan maintains our budget and household finances, I find paying the bills keeps me aware of what we spend money on.  My love of numbers and historical trends also extends into analyzing different bills we receive.  The most complicated and challenging to analyze is the Duke Energy bill.  This bill is filled with a generation section, distribution section, special riders, usage, number of days in billing cycle, and variable rates in summer or winter.  Add to that the complexity of weather and comparisons from year to year (See Sprung 3/21/13).

Deregulation has provided cost savings by alternate energy providers (our community negotiates a common provider - recently DPL with a simplified rate of $.0455 per Kwh.  However that is only half of the bill.  Duke charges another approximately $.04 per Kwh -  why approximate?  Because of all the special riders, and fixed charges for the deregulation.  So our blended rate varies between $.086 to $.089 per Kwh.

Duke was authorized by the PUCO to increase their rates in May - with the following note:
This represents $3.72 per month (3.3%) for residential customers using 1000 kWh, effective for usage on or after 5-6-13. The residential customer charge increases from $5.50 to $6.00 per month.

Sounds modest right?   NOT!   The rate per Kwh (without riders) went from $.022126 to $.025343 which is a 14.5% increase.  If you add in the blend of fixed charges ($5.50 to $6.00) and the variable additional rider costs my rate increased 24%! Hmmmmmm  I call that inflation - not deflation.

How easy it is to assume that an infinitesimal change in Kwh rate (to the third decimal) will have only minor impact on your utility bill.  But that is the goal - take your pennies a fraction at a time and you won't miss your dollars!

Remember pennies add to dollars.


  

SVP in Motion

Couldn't resist marketing SVP Cincinnati at the party.  Found this great "elevator story" on youtube.

Bulls Eye

It was a fun evening tonight at J.P.'s 60th birthday party.  It was interesting to see the 50 people connected in a close and personal way to J.P and his wife.  It shows the how important relationships are in our lives.  The heartfelt tributes to J.P. shows how any individual can make an impact on another life. 

Also it shows the interconnection of relationship networks.  Circles of friendship, acquaintances and new introductions with the common tread of your relationship with someone.  Facebook tries to accomplish this (and LinkedIn for the business community), but it isn't really as affective as the real thing - personal connections. 

Almost like a wedding - think about what 50 people (or for some of us a lot less) you would want to celebrate with.  Where do you draw the line on relationships?

I developed a pictorial of my relationship network.  A series of concentric rings - the inner most rings are those in your network that you spend the most time with, are the most transparent with, are kindred spirits - that are connected to your soul.  Each successive ring are individuals whose connection with you are diminished.  Then the outer ring is everyone else - people you haven't met yet.

Your lifetime has a maximum number of hours and each of those hours (and minutes) are connected with others.  How you allocate that time becomes the most precious commodity in life.  Choosing the relationships that add purpose to your life will be the key to joy. 

Focus on people that will enter your inner circle -  the bulls eye! 

Prototyping Space

Design before you Implement was the key to successful computer systems implementation.  My early years at Accenture taught me the value of proper planning and design before embarking on construction and implementation.  It was a difficult "sell" to the clients to convince them to first develop a five year Systems Plan that would guide them in their priorities and requirements before rushing to judgment and  spending money on immediate perceived needs.

The next phase after Systems Planning was Preliminary Design (another phase very difficult to convince clients of the benefits).  As technology improved with on-line real time systems,  prototyping was added to the Preliminary Design with screen mock ups and  sample data.  It was an attempt to simulate the actual experience of the new system.

Susan and I have utilized this principle in our planning for any changes to the house.  For both of our houses, we first lived in the house resisting all changes (as imperfect as we thought it was upon purchase) until we could understand our "requirements".  In some cases we physically moved furniture into the rooms that would be "repurposed" to "prototype" how we would live, interact and feel about the new space.

We did this prior to our last big project of reconfiguring our kitchen and family room.  That project turned out to be one of the best we have implemented.  If we had re-designed our kitchen immediately after  purchase, we would have wasted money on features we didn't want or use.

Vision and Dreams are important - but living the vision makes it real.  Prototype your ideas first.

Square or Hip

He's a "hipster". said A.M. at lunch.  A what? I asked.  Hipster - someone who is "hip".  Well, I knew what hip was --- but not what hip is now!  In fact the term Hipster actually started in 1940 but now its:

(1) In your 20's and 30's
(2) Independent thinking, well educated, liberal arts degrees (some math and science qualify)
(3) Counter culture, progressive politics
(4) Cosmopolitan Districts - Williamsburg, Wicker Park, Mission District
(5) Art, Indie-rock, creative overly intellectual, and witty type
(6) Vintage thrift store inspired fashion (sneakers required)  -  edgy!!
(7) Messy shag cuts and bangs
(8)  Job ----  What job?

In the 60's there were hippies and the squares. 

Huey Lewis said it all in his song ---- "Hip to be Square"!

(1) Cut Hair
(2) Wear Business Suit (presumably have a job)
(3) Work Out
(4) Watch what you eat
(5) No fooling around
(6) Conformist (no longer a renegade)

Old Shoes

The weekend was full of friends, family and fellowship.  R.M. arrived Friday evening just as Susan and I returned from W.U.'s party.  It was perfect weather for the Saturday evening cookout and reminiscing about college, early career days and memories of Wayne. 

After 38 years of friendship with R.M.. there are no real secrets.  In fact any discussion is just courtesy of listening since we both already know what the other guy is thinking.  The only new facts were just updates of recent events.   Seeing and hearing R.M.  change through the lens of time, provides a sort of mirror of reflection that allows me to see my own metamorphous. His memories of my thoughts and actions from the past provides the auditing reliability that few others can attest. 

Walking in someone else's shoes is only possible when the shoes are nearly worn out.

Source:  http://www.tymchak.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/my-old-shoes.jpg

Poverty - What Kind?

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet two people (M.F & J.W.) whose passion is  "work to find sustainable solutions to end poverty both locally and nationally" - http://www.thinktank-inc.org/index.html.  In my journey, I have become acutely more aware of the issue of poverty.  B.E. and J.Y. at the Freestore Foodbank (see 11/23/11); our SVP Cincinnati educational session on education, poverty and youth; the Crossroad's "Game Change" stewardship campaign for the City Link initiative in Cincinnati; reading "Creating a World without Poverty by Mohammed Yunus; and the headlines about rankings of U.S. cities with high poverty.

J.W. mentioned that poverty is a "brokenness" and something we can all claim (in different ways - economic, emotional, spiritual).  The physical side of poverty is visible - locally, nationally and internationally demonstrated by health and living conditions.  It's the visible problems that communities attempt to work to resolve.  It's the spiritual problems that religion attempts to resolve. But the question is all about sustainability and what exactly makes a solution sustainable?

It was intriguing to compare Scott Miller's CirclesUSA "sustainable solution" methodology to CityLink, Centers for Working Families, Family Independence Initiative, and a host of others.  D.R. asked J.W. and M.F. what the Critical Success Factors (CSF) were for their 73 "members" (e.g. a community with Circles). The answer:

(1) Sustainable Investment
(2) Leaders
(3)  A Value and Attention toward Outcomes

You could apply these same CSF's to the individual/family:

(1) Sustainable Economics (Job and Savings)
(2) A leader in the Household
(3) Hope and Goals

There are many solutions to poverty - but of what kind?

The New Normal

For the umpteenth time, I've heard the expression - "It's the new normal".  The recent NBC TV  comedy series with that title became a fatality of that expression on May 11, 2013 when the series was cancelled (I guess it didn't become a new normal  comedy series).

Usually expressed about the stock market or socioeconomic factors,  the expression becomes a lazy justification for why a trend has defied some expected (or traditional) long term principle.  The expression is also used as a club to hammer the laggards who preach that this change will revert back to the natural norm.

What is normal?  Start first with the opposite - not normal, or the unexpected.  So it is the frequency of how many times the unexpected occur that determine a "new normality".  Here is where the statistician kicks in.  When normal is described, I visualize the normal curve - that bell shaped thing we learned about in school. 

But remember there are two axes (see April 13, 2013):

A.  The vertical  y axis - best visualized as the mountain top.  Is the curve a steep mountain of a flat rolling hill?

B.   The horizontal x axis - the data points of what you are measuring.  Has the curve shifted right or left of the expected middle?

Does a perceived change in the curve mean a new curve or that the sample of observations that just happens to be outside the confidence interval (now it's getting very statistically deep)?

Unfortunately, those that opine about "the new normal" are never consulting the statisticians.  But then again most statisticians are "A B normal" :)

                                                  Source:  http://jerz.setonhill.edu/EL150/2008/ABNormal.png

Private Eyes

I remember reading in Bill Gates book, "The Road Ahead" his prediction that there will be a time when everything we see and hear will be able to recorded and saved.  This massive data collection of "reality" evidence would change the way we think about privacy, litigation and relationships. Just think in the heated moment of a discussion as you claim "I didn't say that"  when your debate opponent will suggest that you both "review the tape". 

The cell phone and GPS features already monitors our location and our phone and Internet exchanges are digitized and stored.  The surveillance cameras are multiplying exponentially with the capability of storing the actual video of our actions without our knowledge.  Credit card, banking transactions and even searches on the Internet collect our thinking, preferences and buying habits. Facebook even allows our friends to publish pictures and activities we do.  Put all this data in the cloud, merge it and Bill Gate's vision is materializing.

How different would life be if everyone had access to the "video of your life"?  Going back to the Johari Window (see June 4, 2013 "Say it Like it is"), suddenly the "public self" becomes totally exposed (outside of your control).  Privacy no longer exists - even your thoughts are predicted and monitored.  Hmmmm - sounds like I better re-read  George Orwell's book 1984 (which by the way has vaulted from #296 to #173 making it #25 on the  Amazon's fastest movers and shakers sales). In fact, Amazon knows who has searched on 1984 and/or purchased the book (maybe that's in the NSA database).

K.M. and I wrestled with this privacy issue as we explored the debate on the recent leak within the NSA of phone data being warehoused and available for analysis.  Although we both espouse to the philosophy of "living life anticipating it might be published on the front page of the WSJ" (and Facebook proves this is happening), accountability to oneself and God is best left to your own private eyes.

Blowing in the Wind

 Source: Pictures of England

"When the winds of change blow,  some people build walls and others build windmills"   Chinese Proverb

Timely Frugality

Today I returned the Laptop I purchased (still in the unopened box).  The processor was not fast enough and as I researched my "need for speed", I discovered my existing laptop is processor bound.  The speed of your computer is an intricate dance between processor (CPU) speed, memory, Internet speed (and caching), hard drive RPM, and then detail stuff like instructions per cycle, DRR SDRAM memory (Double data rate synchronous dynamic random-access memory) - DDR1, DDR2, DDR3, solid state hard drives etc.  Your computer may even be slow because of some pesky virus.

There is no one answer to what will make your computer go faster - but the usual best starting point is a fast processor and then memory  (caching solves a lot of speed problems).  E.W convinced me that the Intel i5 chip is the best place to start.

So, in this case, waiting to open the box (and doing some analysis) created the equivalent of deferral of the purchase decision. I have found that frugality starts with eliminating the "spur of the moment" purchase decision.  So when you are in the store, using will power to say "I'll think about it and next time I return I'll buy it" will 9 times out of 10 prevent a purchase.  While I could not resist this spontaneous purchase of a laptop, the mere event of not opening the box right away allowed me to analyze the trade off of immediate loss of cash with the need or fulfillment of desire.

Another way to justify purchase deferrals is the "need" to optimize on price, value or just perform comparative analysis.  So my need to analyze processor speeds created the obstacle (paradox of choice) of picking the right laptop for my needs.  It also provided time to understand the cost/benefit of just "status quo" - using my existing laptop until it is no longer usable.

Time is the ally of the frugal consumer.



 

When Bumps are Amusing

Tonight Ellen and her friends were having fun at St. Gertrude's Festival in Madeira.  A big fundraiser for the Catholic Church, it was the first year in a while that the weather cooperated.  I roamed the booths but had the most fun people watching and seeing the thrill on the young kids faces on the Sizzler.

Amusement Parks are forever etched into a child's memory.  I still remember the name of the park outside of Salt Lake City - Lagoon (and it's still there).  A single day pass is $46 today.  Kings Island (the Cincinnati Amusement Park) has online day passes for $38 (normally $55). Each ride at the St. Gertrude's festival rides was two, three or four tickets ($20 for a batch of 22 tickets).  Amusement Park rides are expensive - but fun memories.

The most memorable Amusement Park I visited was in Warsaw Poland.  Our Church youth group was treated to many of the attractions in Warsaw - Planetarium, Museums, and the Amusement Park.  Of course many of us had been veteran Cedar Point and Geauga Lake (Northern Ohio Amusement Parks) attendees so the rides in Warsaw seemed third rate (in addition to being in the third world). 

When we approached the bumping cars we all began to smile.  The Polish drivers were methodically and carefully driving their cars in a perfect circle around the bumping arena.  Didn't they know what bumping cars were for, we asked each other?  Not wanting to offend the Polish drivers, we all got in line together and tried to orchestrate just the Americans in the arena so that our bumping would not offend the Polish.   Our goal was to demonstrate the American way of "intense bumping"! Unfortunately, we couldn't quite coordinate a complete arena of just the Americans.  Regardless we decided to start just bumping each other while trying to avoid the Polish drivers.  Alas that was impossible and before long ever driver, Polish and American alike, was colliding with each other - laughing and enjoying the bumps.

I wonder to this day if they are still colliding in Warsaw - the American way.

Laptop Junk Yard

Today, on the spur of the moment, I purchased a new HP Laptop at Sams Club.This was contrarian to my analysis/ paralysis personality when it comes to technology, but the $100 instant savings was too tempting.  I decided -  I'll buy it now, keep it in the box and do the analysis post facto.

Actually I have been getting irritated with the Compaq hand me down from Jenna (it is almost two years to the day - 6/18/2011).  The screen has intermittently been flickering and soon will be unusable.  So this was a preemptive "technology upgrade" strike.

I immediately shot off an email to E.W. (my personal technology expert consultant) with the specifications asking about the processor speed.  His response:  "Not Good" and suggested I check out www.passmark.com.  Naturally that vaulted me into a complete analysis and comparison of laptop values (I'll save that for a later boring blog).  

Like shopping for cars and real estate, the starting point for a buyer is to select a price range, then critical functional criteria, followed by aesthetics.  As a technology consultant I know the drill --  "How do you use your laptop TODAY?"  After all, you want to buy only what you need and use now - not useless features, or projections of future use that likely won't happen or will only happen after this laptop (or operating system) becomes obsolete.

I just can't part with old laptops.  If I keep this new one I will have seven total laptops - a virtual laptop junkyard (oops I mean a physical laptop junkyard). 

The actual virtual junkyard resides in my blog and the time messing with computers and analysis:
2/25/13  Technology Hoarder
6/18/11  New Computer
2/17/11 Computer Graveyard
1/28/11 Lemon Laptop Lottery
7/22/10  Apple a Day
6/24/10  Lemons
1/26/10 Clean Slate
9/14/09 Microsoft Dodges a Bullet
9/12/09 Jenna's HP Laptop Saga
8/31/09 Computers

Preaching to the Choir

I began thinking about the old adage  (well apparently not that old - 1970's) "Preaching to the Choir" or is it a bromide?

We all want to affirm our views with others so it is natural to espouse our values to the same people who practice those values (e.g. the converted).  Getting your message out to the majority might be achieved by motivating the "choir" (the disciples) to convert others.  However when the message is confusing even the "choir" is conflicted.

Clarity of message is best determined by knowing the audience and keeping it simple.  Stating your objectives first provides a context for the listeners and will advance your message.  In Ken Druck's book "The Real Rules of Life" he uses the term "Prefacing - simply setting the tone for a conversation .... your good intentions and a desired outcome".

The court room provides an excellent example of this - "Instructions to the Jury to suspend judgment until all the evidence is heard AND have discussed it THOROUGHLY with your fellow jurors."  The drama "Twelve Angry Men" by Reginald Rose had a big impact on me during Junior High - the power of persuasion and suspending judgment.

Who is your "Choir"?  Name three people you feel best understand you (remember - "honne" ?). What did you do to help bring this about?

When you know your Choir - you can better frame your message to others.

Say it Like it Is

K.C. introduced me to the Japanese words - "honne and tatemae" that describe your true feelings (honne) and opinions that you espouse in public (tatemae). So "honne" is kept hidden from everyone except your closest friends.  We are all taught to "hold your tongue" in various social settings and that is a good rule especially in the temptation of gossip. And for privacy and diplomacy we also "hold our tongue" to avoid revealing ourselves to others or offending others.

I've blogged in the past about the Johari Window (see Vistage Viewing; Lost and Found; What People Think).  I attempted this exercise for myself with family, friends and my Vistage group a few years back.  This self awareness exercise (like the personality tests) helped me understand how to open up to more people.

So if I superimpose "honne and tatemae" onto the Johari Window there emerges a middle cloud of tension for revealing ourselves to others.

I have found when I take the risk to reveal my true self ("honne"), then the blind self and undiscovered self are revealed to me also.

Tootsie Pop Luck

Listening to CNBC Asia "Cashflow" this evening, I caught the middle of a discussion between Bernie Lo and  Oriel Morrison (must be a slow day) about Tootsie Pops.  Bernie talked about the impossible patience necessary as a child in  counting the number of licks to get to the center of the pop.  This is only one of many mysteries in the Tootsie Pop culture-- ( see the company website http://www.tootsie.com/gal_machine.php the answer).


I have great memories of this candy growing up - negotiating for your favorite flavor. In fact our superstition was that you would receive good luck if the wrapper had the Birthday celebration scene.






I discovered this was not the only urban myth.   Another rumor was that if a star appeared on the wrapper you would get a free Tootsie Pop.  There is even a legend of the Indian Wrapper.




Here's the real trivia question - how many unique scenes are on all the wrappers of a Tootsie Pop?

Get a bag - and start counting  :)

Building Bridges

Wikipedia

It was a fun lunch excursion today with K.C.   - lunch at Keystone Bar and Grill with their signature dishes of macaroni and cheese (1/2 off on Mondays).  But walking the Roebling Bridge was the highlight.  K.C. suggested I prepare by reading "The Bridge" by David McCullough (who spoke at Miami University in 2009 - see Read to Lead and Call to Action blog entries). I couldn't make it through the 565 pages in time so I also condensed the homework into watching the PBS Ken Burns production "Brooklyn Bridge".

It was interesting to see the connection of the Cincinnati Historical Landmark Roebling Suspension Bridge (1867 - actually 12/1/1866) with the Brooklyn Bridge (1883) - both with Roebling as the architect and visionary.  I was totally unaware of the engineering feat of building a suspension bridge - the underground caissons and their hazards. 

I learned that my talent would not be engineering (and building bridges) when competing in the Solon High School Senior year Physics project building balsa wood bridges.  As I recall my bridge (engineered and constructed mostly with help from Dad), was a arch (from soaking and bending the balsa wood) with reinforced struts.  It held approximately 80lbs of pressure and made it into the top ten.  The winning bridge was a tightly reinforced triangle of tightly glued basal wood - clearly more sturdy from the glue and dense structure.  By the way those balsa wood bridge projects are still going 40 years later and the record is 601lbs.

Building Bridges -  A shrine, a utility, connecting people to each other.

Religion and Politics

It started with the article J.P. sent me from R. R. Reno, "Religion and Public Life in America, continuing with a breakfast discussion and a myriad of follow up emails about separation of Church and State.  In a social and work settings you should always avoid topics on Religion, Politics or Sex.  So combining a discussion or two of these - Religion and Politics creates fireworks.

I think the wisdom of our forefathers was reflected in establishing freedom of religion in an attempt to build a wall between religion from politics.  I associate my politics most closely with Libertarian ideology, and I tend to want Government totally out of legislating morality (the domain of religion).  But the issue of common good, public health, and community always creates a "gray" area of uncertainty in the dogma of fundamental political principle.

Just look at the volatile subjects combining religion and politics (historically and today) - drugs, alcohol, pornography, prostitution, homosexuality, abortion, contraception, polygamy, interracial marriage, same sex marriage, adultery, sodomy, (given the list so far you can see why the third area to avoid is sex), women's rights, slavery, conscription...... I'm sure I've missed many. 

In many cases, the Government is forced into legislating these issues as competing religions (or atheists) fight over who is right - and what is truth.  We are free to believe what we want - but practicing the belief in a community setting or trying to impose that belief on others is the crux of most legislative conflict.

Religion and Politics are tied together like a magnet - but keep the poles on opposite sides.

That is Intelligent Design  :)