Miri's Retreat

No Excuses

2011-08-25T09:11:00.003-08:00

Steve Jobs On The Difference Between A Vice President And A Janitor

Steve Jobs gives employees a little speech when they're promoted to Vice President at Apple, according to Adam Lashinsky in a new article in Fortune that's not online yet.*

Lashinsky calls it the "Difference Between the Janitor and the Vice President."

Jobs tells the VP that if the garbage in his office is not being emptied regularly for some reason, he would ask the janitor what the problem is. The janitor could reasonably respond by saying, "Well, the lock on the door was changed, and I couldn't get a key."

An irritation for Jobs, for an understandable excuse for why the janitor couldn't do his job. As a janitor, he's allowed to have excuses.

"When you're the janitor, reasons matter," Jobs tells newly minted VPs, according to Lashinsky.

"Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering," says Jobs, adding, that Rubicon is "crossed when you become a VP."

In other words, you have no excuse for failure. You are now responsible for any mistakes that happen, and it doesn't matter what you say.

Reference

Yarow, J. (2011). Steve Jobs On The Difference Between A Vice President And A Janitor. Business Insider. Retrieved August 25, 2011, http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-on-the-difference-between-a-vice-president-and-a-janitor-2011-5

Who would make the sandwiches?

2011-08-05T12:38:00.004-08:00

Eddie: But I'll give you one piece of advice, aim low, that way you don't end up so disappointed.

Lily: But I thought I could be anything I dream?

Eddie: No, that's crap. If people could be anything they dream, the world would be full of movie stars and astronauts; and then who would make the sandwiches?

[Grounded for Life, 2001]

Advice to Writers

2011-07-27T08:48:00.006-08:00

"You can write characters who are prettier than you, stronger than you, meaner than you, kinder than you, wittier than you, tougher than you, weaker than you, and dumber than you.

….But you can never really, truly, write a character that is smarter than you."

[unknown]

Geography Lesson

2011-07-13T07:25:00.010-08:00

Have you noticed, whenever the United States of America is shown as a map on the nightly news broadcast, or atlas, the 50 states look something like this:

Or this:

Notice the relative size of the State of Alaska in the above images.

The reality, is that Alaska is the largest (geographically) in the union....and approximately 3/5 the size of the lower-48 and is roughly 2.5 times the great state of Texas....see below:

In my day job, when I communicate the unique issues related Alaska to counterparts in the lower-48, I usually begin with the above graphic to demonstrate the vastness of the Alaskan frontier.

They say an image is worth a thousand words.

The Proper Care & Feeding of You

2011-04-01T07:55:00.007-08:00

Rules for Being Human

1. You will receive a body. You may like it, you may hate it. It will be yours for the entire period this time around.

2. Lessons will be presented. You will be enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may learn the lessons or not, or you may think them irrelevant and stupid.

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately works

4. A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms and with more and more energy until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.

6. "There" is not better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there"that will, again, look better than "here".

7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.

8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools & resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. All the choices are yours.

9. Your answers lie inside of you. The answers to life's questions lie inside of you. All you need to do is look inside, listen, and trust.

10. You will "forget" all of this. .

11. You can "remember" this when you choose to do so.

Reference

Leva, P. (1998). The rules for being human. Traveling the Interstate of Consciousness: A Driver's Instruction Manual: Using Hemi-Sync to Access States of Non-Ordinary Reality (pp. 86-87). Longmont, CO: Q Central Publishing.

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-03-16T07:40:00.001-08:00

Georneys: Geological Musings, Wanderings, and Adventures

A friend of mine sent me a link to this geological blog, because the of the writer's shift to interviews with her father (a nuclear expert) on the Japanese Nuclear Power Plant situation.

Please follow the link to her blog that includes streaming audio interviews & transcripts of the interviews.

There is a wealth of unbiased information to wade through.

Enjoy.

***

Transcription of Interview Number 4 on March 15, 2011

Part I:
Q: Good morning, Dad.

A: Morning.

Q: All right, are you ready for Interview Number 4?

A: I hope so.

Q: OK, we’ve got our work cut out for us with all these interviews. So before we
begin, I just wanna let people know, who- who might not know, that this is actually
the 4th in a series of interviews that I’ve done with my dad, who’s a nuclear engineer.
I’m not gonna go into his credentials again in this interview, but if you would like to
see what his credentials are and, and listen to the previous interviews, I encourage
you to do that. They’re located – the previous interviews – both um, audio files and
actually, now transcripts, thanks to some listeners. They’re located on my geology
blog, Georneys, which is G-E-O-R-N-E-Y-S. Georneys-dot-blogspot-dot-com. You
can also find them on the Skepchick website, which is Skepchick-dot-org.

So I’m just gonna start right out because there have been quite a few
developments in the last 24 hours or so since we’ve spoken. And I was wondering if
you could just give us an update of what’s going on in Fukushima.

A: I’ll do my best. It’s, um, extremely difficult because uh, information is very hard
to come by and there’s bits and pieces available from different sources. But it’s very
difficult to put together a complete picture.

Q: OK.

A: Lemme, lemme start first with, y'know, a little bit of good news, which is that, uh,
as we explained yesterday, there’s actually two sets of power plants – Fukushima
1, which has been the one that’s really been in the news, that has the serious issues
that we’ll talk about in a few minutes. And Fukushima 2, which is a few miles away
to the south. That site had 4 reactors. They were also experiencing difficulties
with loss of power. But the latest report from the Tokyo Electric Power Company
website indicates that all 4 units there are now in cold shutdown. So that’s very
good-

Q: That’s very relieving news. Do you know how far away the two plants are? Are
they sort of close together and affected by the tsunami similarly?

A: They’re about 7 miles apart.

Q: OK.

A: Now with respect to Fukushima 1, which again, to remind everybody, has 6
nuclear power plants. It’s been uh, a, a very challenging 24 hours. As best can be
determined from the various different news reports, there was an explosion in the
Number 2 Reactor building –

Q: OK –

A: Which, according to some reports, may have caused some damage within the
primary containment of the reactor. Um, in the suppression pool, at the bottom of
the reactor. So if you look at that picture that you posted yesterday, there’s a kind-
of a doughnut-shaped tube that goes around the bottom of the reactor that holds
water.

Q: Mmhmm.

A: Purpose of that pool of water is to condense any steam that’s in the containment
building and release the pressure. And, again, reportedly, there may be some
damage to that suppression pool. The reports indicated that before the explosion,
the containment building had about 3 psi and afterwards, 1 psi.

Q: And yesterday, you said that there was a possibility that there, there actually
might be an explosion- or that, that could affect the containment itself. And you
were saying that that was because of the type of pump that they had to use? Is that
what happened? Were they not able to actually get the normal pump running or do
we not know?

A: Well, what they’re trying to do, which is what they did at the, y'know, 1 and 3
Reactors, is pump seawater into the core, to try to recover the core.

Q: Yes.

A: In order to do that, because these pumps that they would be using for pumping
seawater would be relatively low-pressure pumps, they would need to reduce the
pressure in the reactor by venting the steam.

Q: OK.

A: Uh, initially to the containment building and then obviously, they have to worry
about pressure in containment building, so eventually, whether they um, do it into
the containment building or directly to the atmosphere, it’s gonna get into the
atmosphere of the reactor building.

Q: OK.

A: And as we saw in Units 1 and 3, um, because um, based on indications that we
have of Cesium and Iodine being in the atmosphere, based on the fact that we had
an explosion, it was probably a Hydrogen explosion, which was created by the
overheating of the fuel, and H2O, or water, interacting with the Zirconium cladding
of the fuel and causing Zirconium Dioxide to be formed and Hydrogen gas.

Q: OK. So-

A: So they had an explosion in Reactor 2, but the news reports are very scattered
and it’s very difficult to get any kind of complete information as to the extent of the
damage.

Q: OK, so maybe this is something that we’ll, we’ll have to continue and update on a
bit later, when information is more available.

A: The other thing that’s happened is there was a fire in Unit 4.

Q: Yes.

A: Unit 4 was shut down for maintenance at the time of the tsunami and earthquake
and had not been experiencing any problems cooling, cooling the core because they
were already shut down and in cold shut down. So….

Q: OK.

A: But if you remember yesterday, and part of the reason I asked you to put the
picture of the Mark 1 Containment up is because of the potential that I- um, lots
of water to the spent fuel pools. And again, it’s very difficult to determine exactly
what’s happening, because the, the reports are very scattered. Um, one report
I’ve seen said that y'know, the fire was in the spent fuel pool, that potentially, it
was caused because water level had lowered and um, fuel had started to melt and
Hydrogen had formed. Um, which caused an explosion, which tore two holes in the
building. Another report I saw said that the fire was in a lube-screening oil system.

Q: OK.

A: But then I also saw a report that they’d been unable to um, get water to the spent
fuel pool. So it’s, it’s really unclear exactly what’s happening. And I think this is an
important point that, y'know, obviously these folks at these plants are under a lot of
pressure and I’m sure a lot of people are working real hard and doing the best that
they can, but the transparency, with respect to the communication to the public, is
terrible. I mean, they’re- they’re providing- they’re not providing any kind of real-
time updates and the updates are, um, not very detailed. So it’s difficult for anyone
to determine what’s actually going on at this plant. And if, in fact, they did allow the
water level of the spent fuel cooling pool- excuse me, the spent fuel, um, cooling
pool at Unit 4 to get below the top of the pool, in my opinion, that’s inexcusable.
There should have been um, an operator that toured that building once an hour at,
at, at first that they noticed that they were having troubles, they should’ve gotten
water up there and covered it, as we talked about, with a fire hose, if necessary, um,
yesterday. So they really need to work on the transparency and um, I think that the
Japanese government has got to ensure that that happens and they’re transparent
with the general public.

Q: Well, I think that’s especially important, because if you’re not transparent,
there’s going to be all sorts of false information that’s circulating around and you
don’t want that, because you don’t want people either to under- or over-react to a
situation. You want them to have the proper information so that they can make an
informed decision. Wouldn’t you agree with that, Dad?

A: I- I think if, if, if there’s someone like myself, that has y'know, a significant
understanding of how these plants work and you’re having difficulty piecing
together the different pieces of information that are available, then I don’t know
how you would expect someone in the general public to be able to know what’s
going on. So again, I think that there’s gotta be more transparency and more

communication relative to this event that’s occurring at the Fukushima Plant.

Q: OK, so this question actually, is perhaps somewhat related to this, this concept of
the media and somewhat transparency. I don’t know, I know that you’re not really
on Facebook or Twitter or anything, but maybe you have some idea of what Twitter
is, Dad. So Twitter is this- basically this sort of social media, short messaging site,
where you can-

A: I’m fully aware what Twitter is, I just-

Q: OK, I dunno, you don’t even have Facebook, so…

A: I just don’t- I just don’t have the time everyday to Twitter, so…

Q: OK, well, anyway, there was the- a Twitter user. And he actually, I believe is a
nuclear engineer, and he went on Twitter, which is, which is kind of interesting that
we can do this now on Twitter. His, his username is Arclight(sp), and he actually
went on Twitter and he was giving people these short updates about what was
happening at Fukushima and his perspective on them and trying to inform them a
little bit about nuclear power. And basically just give people information, because
a lot of people go to Twitter for information these days. And he actually was given
a Cease and Desist order from his, his uh, employer, which is presumably a nuclear
power plant. And they actually said that he cannot continue with Twitter, or they
would threaten to terminate his employment. And so he actually had to stop posting
his updates, which I think was disappointing for the public, and for people who were
relying on him, on him for some information. And I can’t comment on the accuracy
of the information, but he was trying and he was a nuclear engineer. Do you have
any comments on that? Do you think that if you were currently in nuclear power, if
you weren’t retired from nuclear power, would you be able to conduct an interview
such as this?

A: Well, obviously I can’t comment on what may have, or may not have transpired
there. I just go back and say that there needs to be, uh, more information, provided
more often about what’s happening at Fukushima. And I think that the Nuclear
Industry Organizations, such as Effogen (???) Power Operation, the Nuclear Energy
Institute, and the International Atomic Energy Agency, need to also be more
transparent and provide more updates, um, on their websites as to, as to what’s
happening.

Q: OK, thank you for commenting on that. Do you have any other comments about
the current situation today in Fukushima?

A: I- I basically told you everything that I can. Uh, I think that today has been one
of the more difficult days to pull any information together. Um, we do know that,
y'know, either due to the event at Unit 2 or the event at Unit 4, there was a fairly
significant release of radiation to the environment.

Q: OK.

A: And it caused the um, radiation levels at the plant to go, go up significantly. And
again, I can only rely on the reports that, that I saw, but the radiation levels within
the plant were to the point where they evacuated most of the workers at the plant.

Q: OK.

A: And they were also- I saw one report that the levels spiked quite high at the site
boundary and then came down. And even after- a couple of hours after the events
yesterday, they were around 240 millirems.

Q: Can you explain what that means?

A: - per hour. That’s about as much radiation as the average person would get in an
entire year, um, from just normal background sources.

Q: OK, but to get that all at once, does that pose a health risk?

A: Well, at that level, if you were there for an hour, it would not. The disconcerting
fact would be if it stayed at that level and y'know, you were there for um, a longer
period of time. The dosage is accumulative.

Q: OK.

A: So after 4 hours, you would’ve received almost a thousand millirems. And after
20 hours, or less than a day, you would exceed the limit for a radiation worker in the

US. For-

Q: For what time period? For a year?

A: For a whole year.

Q: OK, so that’s quite serious, because if those radiation levels continue to stay that
high, if they actually are that high, then the workers can’t even get in there to really
deal with the situation, is that correct?

A: Right. I believe the radiation levels have come back down. The fact that they
went up that high does indicate that there had to be a fairly significant um, event
that occurred.

Q: OK, well, again, what I’m gonna do with this interview, as I’ve done with the
previous two, is I’m gonna end it now and I’m gonna call my Dad back and I’m
actually gonna ask him some questions from some listeners. And I guess the caveat
for today is because the information is so scattered, my dad may not be able to
answer these questions and we really don’t want to answer questions, if we don’t
have the information. So we’ll just do our best for today. OK, I’ll call you right back,
Dad.

A: OK.

PART II

A: Hello again.

Q: All right, so now I’m gonna be asking you some questions and I’ve, I’ve actually-
as I said yesterday, I’ve been really surprised at how many people are, are listening
to these interviews. I hope that they’re helpful to people, if people have any feeding
back on them, please let us know. If you have questions, send them in. So I have
been receiving lots of questions and comments from different places. So if I miss
your question, I’m sorry, send it again. But we’ll, we’ll just do our best.

A: And the comment from my side is I hope, I hope the information that we provide

is helping people. Um, we’re trying to do it in a neutral way, just trying to explain
what’s happening to people. And um, I hope we’re able to answer your questions
this morning.

Q: And, and I just wanna say thank you so much, Dad, for doing this and taking the
time to do this and I feel very fortunate that I, I can call you up and I can get my
questions answered and rather than just have you answer my questions, I thought it
would be great if you can answer other peoples’ questions as well.

So with with, let’s start on- in on this. So one question that I had from a
few people, um, particularly people who are living in Tokyo, is people, especially
who are foreigners, who are wondering if it would be an overreaction to actually
consider leaving Japan for a couple of days, um, to actually get out of the country, in
case there is more of a problem with the nuclear power plant. Do you have some
advice on that?

A: So if somebody was in Tokyo, I would not be too alarmed. Um, after yesterday
evening’s events, um – US time, that is- it was morning in Japan, the radiation levels,
according to the government, did, did go up in Tokyo, but um, not, not anything
that would be of any concern whatsoever. They were just um, maybe double the
normal background levels. And um, we do know that, y'know, a few hours after
these events of the radiation levels around the plant have dropped. And um, I
would, I would not be overly concerned to be as far away as Tokyo. Now, of course,
if you were closer to the plant, that may be more of a concern, but I think the
destruction of the, of the infrastructure, due to the tsunami is probably um, more
significant than any, any threat of radiation today. Um, now the caveat there is the
um, unclarity, with respect to what’s happening to the spent fuel pool in Reactor 4.
Uh, the big concern, obviously, there is if they’re not able to keep that covered and
if that melts, then releases radiation to the environment, there’s no containment to
keep that in.

Q: So how far could that potentially spread, if that were to happen?

A: That depends.

Q: OK. But that could be a serious concern?

A: On the amount of radiation released. But this point in the game, um, there hasn’t
been radiation levels in Tokyo that would cause any alarm.

Q: And they have evacuated, as you said, or they’ve tried to evacuate-

A: They’ve asked people to either shelter or evacuate uh, at a distance of 30
kilometers from the plant.

Q: Right. And there are still a few people within that zone. I’m not sure if they’re
forcing people to evacuate, but at least yesterday when I read one news report – so
this is from the news – there were some people who were refusing to evacuate, so I
don’t know if any of those people are listening to this, but please, please do evacuate
if you are close to the plant and the Japanese government has requested it.

A: I would follow the request of the authorities to either evacuate or shelter.

Q: OK. Let’s continue. So…. Another- I think we’ve sorta addressed the radiation
level, um… another reader was wondering, y'know, sorta how long Japan is gonna
still need to be worrying about this and the nuclear, nuclear disaster. And again, I
think it depends on what’s actually happened. But as you mentioned yesterday, this
is something that’s not just gonna be today or next week, this is something that’s
gonna be weeks and perhaps years to actually deal with this. I mean, how long do
you think it’s gonna take them to actually fully clean up and decommission and
decontaminate everything?

A: Well, to fully clean up and decommission and decontaminate the site, you’re
talking years and years. I think what we’re more concerned about is how long
until the situation is stable. And again, can we be assured that y'know, no more
explosions or meltdowns- partial meltdowns, um, or radiation leaks are going to
occur. And that’s a hard question to answer because if the radiation levels at the
plant are such that they have to evacuate most of the workers, then until they can
get that under control, they can’t even do any work.

Q: So how do they do that, I mean, how do they bring radiation levels down when
they cannot bring workers close to the plant?

A: The way to do that is to make sure that the cores of these reactors are completely

covered and to make sure that the spend fuel pools stay completely covered. Water
is a- water will cool, it’s also an excellent shield of radiation.

Q: So they need to get water on these as quickly as possible?

A: And so I think the, the most critical, um, thing that they need to accomplish at
these plants, beyond making sure that all of the fuel is covered by water and that
all of the spent fuel is covered by water, is to try to restore power. So that they
can begin to restore um, cooling and um, water flow to all of the 6 spent fuel pools
at this site. Because there’s 6 reactors. And um, obviously if they get power back,
then they would be able to use more systems, which will help them control the um,
situation at these plants.

Q: And they’ll have better monitoring equipment as well, so they’ll be able to have
more warning when something’s going on, presumably. And, I mean, the good news
is that Fukushima 2, as you said, is under control. Um, are they operating? Is part of
the problem here that there’s a power shortage, I mean somehow, they must be able
to get power to this, this Fukushima 1 site from a different power plant.

A: As far as I can determine, the power that they have is from generators. I think
that’s because of the damage to the electrical grid.

Q: OK. All right, so I’m gonna move on to another question. This one’s a little bit
complicated, so hopefully my dad can help me interpret the question. So a reader
sent in something that he had read, and I’ll try to post the link up here, it’s from
something called- it’s a commenter on something called “Next Big Future”. And the
question was: Someone cited a Sandia report, um, the GE BWR MK1 containment
design has been estimated as having a potential 40% failure rate in the event of
a full core meltdown. With pooling fuel having the capability to melt through the
sides of the reactor containment walls. Can you, first of all, translate that question
into English and answer it?

A: OK. So what he’s talking about is the Mark 1 Containment Design, which you
posted the picture of on your website yesterday. And 5 of the 6 reactors at the
Fukushima 1 site have a Mark 1 containment. Um, the first 5 units – 1 through 5.
Six is a newer plant and has a little bit newer design. And what he’s saying is in the
event of a full core melt that the core would melt through the reactor vessel and

would have a 40% chance of melting through the um, containment, um, structure.
Which in, in the case of this plant, is um, a concrete and steel liner that surrounds
the reactor. Um, as long as they’re able to um, continue to get water um, into these
reactor vessels, then y'know, that’s not gonna happen. Um, it would on- This would
only happen in the event of not being able to get any water whatsoever into either
the reactor vessel or the containment building.

Q: So I guess a good point here is that, um, although the cont- we should be
reassured by the containment buildings, to a degree, y'know, they’re not magical
boxes that, that contain all radioactivity. You do have to monitor the pressure in
them, you do have to add water. There are some controls that are really important
in making sure that those, those containments, um, stay secure. Would you agree
with what I just said, Dad?

A: I agree. And- and therefore I go back to what I said a couple minutes ago that,
that the priority needs to be on getting electrical power to these units, so they
can restore some of these systems that will allow them to better control what’s
happening. Um, I’m sure it’s a very difficult task, because the seawater obviously,
from the tsunami, flooded um, where the diesel generators were, which is also
probably where a lot of electrical switch gear is. Seawater and electrical switch
gear do not mix well. Um, so there’s probably a lot of work to restore the electrical
switch gear and other things, but y'know, again, that would be, I think, a top priority,
to try to get power back. You don’t need to repower the whole plant, you need to try
to get it back to the most critical pumping systems.

Q: I see. OK, moving on to the next question. This is actually a question that has-
I’ve seen circulating around the internet, that someone did, did send this into me.
They wanted to know if you could comment on the possible danger to US residents
and if there’s any precautions that a reasonable person might take in the United
States at this point.

A: At this point in time, I don’t think there’s a concern, unless the situation gets
worse. Um, I think our biggest risk, based on what’s happened in the past 24 hours,
and again, what we commented on yesterday, was making sure that the spent fuel
pools stay covered at these sites. Um, which- so that would include both the 6 ra-
the 6 spent fuel pools at Fukushima 1 and also um, Fukushima 2. If they’re still
struggling with electrical power there, they, they would have the same issues, with
respect to cooling and water for the spent fuel pools there.

Q: Can you, can you give me an idea, Dad, because I mean, my idea of, of one of these
pools is kinda a giant swimming pool. How, y'know, how much water do you have
to add to one of these pools, say on an hourly basis, or on a daily basis, to keep that
level at a good level to make sure that things are safe?

A: So that’s a good question. And it’s- and the answer is it’s gonna depend. So, um,
these reactors are refueled- and I don’t know the specifics of the refueling schedule
at these particular plants. Anywhere from 12 months to 24 months. So depending
on when it was last refueled will depend on how much heat generation there is in
the spent fuel pool. So for instance at, at Unit 4, which was in an outage, they might
have just recently removed the spent fuel from the reactor in the spent fuel pool,
which means it’s still quite warm and still quite- generating quite a bit of heat. So
you could expect that – in that particular case – that you would have to provide
more cooling to that spent fuel pool than you might for a reactor that, y'know, last
time it was refueled was 18 months ago and the fuel has cooled way down already.
So you can’t answer the question specifically, unless you know the specifics of
when the last refueling was, how many fuel- fuel- fuel bundles were taken out of
the reactor and put in the spent fuel pool, because they don’t replace all of the fuel
all at the same time. Uh, they’ll replace approximately a third of the fuel, um, every
refueling outage. But depending on any other work that was going on, they might
have, have been doing other work, um, either inspections or repairs to the reactor
vessel. They might have taken all the fuel out, temporarily, from Unit 4, to do this
work, and planning on putting um, y'know, two-thirds of it back, along with one-
third of new fuel. So without knowing the details, it’s hard to answer the question.

Q: But, y'know, I guess in over the past few days, we’re sorta relieved that some of
these plants were, were sorta shut down for maintenance, but actually if, if there
were a number of spent fuel rods in the pools, it sounds like that could actually be a
problem and that may be what-

A: A large number of-

Q: Contributed to the fire.

A: Well, a large number of, of um, spent fuel modules that had recently been in the
reactor. Right, I mean that the spent fuel could be full, but if all the fuel is 10 years
old, it’s already pretty much cooled off. It’s really a function of how much- how
many of those fuel bundles were in the reactor most recently.

Q: OK, I think that those are all the questions for today. Um, actually Grandma had
one question, but I’m about to run out of time, so I might have to call you back, we’ll
see if we make it. Um, Grandma basically- my Grandma, uh, wanted to know if-
why do we build nuclear power plants next to the ocean? Is that necessary? Is that
because we need, we need water? Can you answer that really quickly?

A: So as the steam goes through the turbine, it then needs to be um, cooled and
turned back into water. You have three ways of doing that: either from a river or a
lake, from an ocean or from cooling towers. And in a lot of cases, uh, power plants of
all kinds - not just nuclear power plants – are all built next to large bodies of water,
because we need a lot of cooling to get the steam back into the water and pump it
back into the boiler or the reactor, depending on the type of plant that it is. So in
this case, uh, these plants were built along the coast, um, a lot of the nuclear power
plants in Japan are built along the coast - -

(INTERVIEW STOPS)

Georneys: Geological Musings, Wanderings, and Adventures. (March 2011). Retrieved March 15, 2011, http://georneys.blogspot.com/2011/03/conversation-with-my-dad-nuclear.html

Priorities

2011-02-17T07:37:00.012-09:00

"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture,

…In order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."

John Adams

US diplomat & politician (1735 - 1826)

In other words, “Don't put the cart before the horse" – certain things will fail if they are not done in the correct order.

(An elegant application of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.)

The Limit of Guidebooks

2011-01-10T16:08:00.004-09:00

We have all done it, at one time or another, gone to a bookstore or amazon.com and loaded up on guidebooks to prepare for a trip.

Some of us might be planning a trip to Southeast Asia or Brazil or the capitals of Europe and use the guidebooks to plan an itinerary, plan for weather, and learn the customs & signposts of the area.

Others may have purchased guidebooks for a different kind of journey: perhaps purchasing self-help guidebooks for the journey of sobriety or recovery for eating disorders.

Still others may be planning a spiritual journey into the unknowns of deep meditative states or out-of-body experiences.

What all these guidebooks have in common are their limitations to the travelers once they have begun their journeys.

You may have seen what I am talking about at various tourist sites around the globe: people with their eyes glued to their guidebooks or iPhone Apps rather than being present and simply taking in the direct experience of the trip.

Many folks seem to have a tendency to micromanage their experience rather than let it flow over them.

I am all for pre-planning and even having contingency plans for inclement weather.

But there comes a time to just let go….cut the apron strings….put down the guidebooks (& the iPhones)….and simply be.

Do your homework. Then learn to trust yourself.

Breakthroughs

2010-12-10T14:53:00.008-09:00

The most exciting phrase to hear in science,

the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!)

but 'That's funny ...'

Isaac Asimov
US science fiction novelist & scholar (1920 - 1992)

Two Letters

2010-11-11T18:13:00.005-09:00

A lesson from the Cold War.

On October 14, 1964, after being deposed by his rivals at a Central Committee meeting, primarily for being an "international embarassment," Nikita Khrushchev, who until only moments earlier was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, sat down in his office and wrote two letters.

Later, his successor, Leonid Brezhnev, upon taking office found the two letters and a note Khrushchev had attached:

"To my successor: When you find yourself in a hopeless situation which you cannot escape, open the first letter, and it will save you. Later, when you again find yourself in a hopeless situation from which you cannot escape, open the second letter."

And soon enough, Brezhnev found himself in a situation which he couldn't get himself out of, and in desperation he tore open the first letter. It said simply, "Blame it all on me." This Brezhnev did, blaming Khrushchev for the latest problems, and it worked like a miracle, saving him and extending his career. However, in due time Brezhnev found himself in another disaster from which he could not extricate himself. Without despairing he eagerly searched his office and found the second letter, which he tore open desperate for its words of salvation. It read thus:

"Sit down, and write two letters."

References

Schecter, J.L. (1990), Khrushchev Remembers: The Glasnost Tapes. Boston, Little Brown..

Talbott, S. (1970). Khrushchev Remembers. Boston, Little Brown.

Taubman, W. (2004). Khrushchev: The Man and His Era - London, Free Press,

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

2010-10-29T21:28:00.011-08:00

Law 16: Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor

Too much circulation makes the price go down.

The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear.

If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired.

You must learn when to leave.

Create value through scarcity.

The 48 Laws of Power
by Robert Greene

Congratulations you won! Now what?

2010-09-28T12:55:00.005-08:00

Sustainable is a word that makes me cringe now-a-days, because it has become the buzz word of choice for folks in the media – particularly about green projects.

However, I learned about the importance of sustainability in the context of business school and whilst working in the real world.

Sustainability implies patience and focusing on long-term goals, whereas the 24 hour news cycle and the desire to keep shareholders happy implies immediate gratification and short-term goals.

There are certain techniques that are very good at helping you attain short-term goals….however those same techniques tend to fail miserably over the long-term.

For example, the use of adversarial politics….using anger (or a chip on one’s shoulder) while labeling someone / something as “the enemy” is great in the short-term. It unites folks against a common enemy.

It worked to unite the Allies against the Fascists in World War II.

It works to unite your workforce in a common goal to gain market share against a competitor.

And, in my day job I encounter a variety of advocacy groups that unite special needs populations to fight “the man” to create various social programs and entitlements.

This technique works great when you are “fighting the man.”

But what do you do when you’ve won the battle and are now “the man”?

I have seen this happen time and time again.

Adversarial techniques might take you from A to B and maybe even to C. However you’d be hard pressed to have continued success through to X Y and Z.

Perhaps the difference lies in perception of “fighting for a cause” vs. “governing and leading”.

In a business sense, when you have maximized your market share….it is time to partner with your competitors rather than destroy them. (It is better business….more profitable)

Similarly, when an advocate for social programs becomes a policy maker….you learn that you win more policy battles partnering with stakeholders rather than marginalizing them.

In short term gain – you can afford to burn bridges.

However, if you are striving for long-term sustainable gain – you get further by building bridges.

In other words, “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”

There is Always a Plan

2010-08-31T14:48:00.006-08:00

*

"In every crisis exists the seed of opportunity"
*

Fatima the Spinner and The Tent

Once in a city in the Farthest West there lived a girl called Fatima. She was the daughter of a prosperous spinner. One day her father said to her: “Come, daughter; we are going on a journey, for I have business in the islands of the Middle Sea. Perhaps you may find some handsome youth in a good situation whom you could take as a husband.”

They set off and traveled from island to island, the father doing his trading while Fatima dreamt of the husband who might be hers. One day, however, they were on the way to Crete when a storm blew up, and the ship was wrecked. Fatima, only half-conscious, was cast up on the seashore near Alexandria. Her father was dead, and she was utterly destitute.

She could only remember dimly her life until then, for her experience of the shipwreck, and her exposure in the sea, had utterly exhausted her.

While she was wandering on the sands, a family of cloth-makers found her. Although they were poor, they took her into their humble home and taught her their craft. Thus it was that she made a second life for herself, and within a year or two she was happy and reconciled to her lot. But one day, when she was on the seashore for some reason, a band of slave-traders landed and carried her, along with other captives, away with them.

Although she bitterly lamented her lot, Fatima found no sympathy from the slavers, who took her to Istanbul and sold her as a slave.

Her world had collapsed for the second time. Now it chanced that there were few buyers at the market. One of them was a man who was looking for slaves to work in his wood yard, where he made masts for ships. When he saw the dejection of the unfortunate Fatima, he decided to buy her, thinking that in this way, at least, he might be able to give her a slightly better life than if she were bought by someone else.

He took Fatima to his home, intending to make her a serving maid for his wife. When he arrived at the house, however, he found that he had lost all his money in a cargo which had been captured by pirates. He could not afford workers, so he, Fatima and his wife were left alone to work at the heavy labor of making masts.

Fatima, grateful to her employer for rescuing her, worked so hard and so well that he gave her her freedom, and she became his trusted helper. Thus it was that she became comparatively happy in her third career.

One day he said to her: “Fatima, I want you to go with a cargo of shops’ masts to Java, as my agent, and be sure that you sell them at a profit.”

She set off, but when the ship was off the coast of China, a typhoon wrecked it, and Fatima found herself again cast up on the seashore of a strange land. Once again she wept bitterly, for she felt that nothing in her life was working in accordance with expectation. Whenever things seemed to be going well, something came and destroyed all her hopes.

“Why is it”, she cried out, for the third time, “that whenever I try to do something it comes to grief? Why should so many unfortunate things happen to me?” But there was no answer. So she picked herself up from the sand, and started to walk inland.

Now it so happened that nobody in China had heard of Fatima, or knew anything about her troubles. But there was a legend that a certain stranger, a woman, would one day arrive there, and that she would be able to make a tent for the Emperor. And, since there was as yet nobody in China who could make tents, everyone looked upon the fulfillment of this prediction with the liveliest anticipation.

In order to make sure that this stranger, when she arrived, would not be missed, successive Emperors of China had followed the custom of sending heralds, once a year, to all the towns and villages of the land, asking for any foreign woman to be produced at Court.

When Fatima stumbled into a town by the Chinese seashore, it was one such occasion. The people spoke to her through an interpreter, and explained that she would have to go to see the Emperor.

“Lady,” said the Emperor, when Fatima was brought before him, “can you make a tent?”

“I think so,” said Fatima.

She asked for rope but there was none to be had. So, remembering her time as a spinner, she collected flax and made ropes. Then she asked for stout cloth, but the Chinese had none of the kind which she needed. So, drawing on her experience with the weavers of Alexandria, she made some stout tent cloth. Then she found that she needed tent-poles, but there were none in China. So Fatima, remembering how she had been trained by the wood-fashioner of Istanbul, cunningly made stout tent-poles. When these were ready, she racked her brains for the memory of all the tents she had seen in her travels: and lo, a tent was made.

When this wonder was revealed to the Emperor of Chine, he offered Fatima the fulfillment of any wish she cared to name. She chose to settle in China, where she married a handsome prince, and where she remained in happiness, surrounded by her children, until the end of her days.

It was through these adventures that Fatima realized that what had appeared to be an unpleasant experience at the time, turned out to be an essential part of the making of her ultimate happiness.

Reference

Paraphrased and condensed from Idries Shah, Tales of the Dervishes (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1969), 72-74.

The Definition of “is”

2010-07-20T12:58:00.008-08:00

“It is what it is…” [catch phrase]

“It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is.” [Bill Clinton, 1998]
*
*

Stuff Happens.

The things that happen to us…or around us…are neither good nor bad.

They are just “stuff”.

We have a choice on how we react to the things that happen to us…or around us.

If we follow at least three of the five agreements (#2, #3, and #5)… life can be much more serene amidst the madness that surrounds us on a daily basis:
2) Don't Take Anything Personally
3) Don't Make Assumptions
5) Be Skeptical But Listen

It is our baggage or assumptions that color our perceptions of situations and people.

Similarly, taking situations or words personally color how we feel or respond to events around us.

It is important to find a way to walk the razors edge and be dispassionate (skeptical) while listening.

Once we have all the information and see the big picture…then we can choose wisely when defining what the meaning of the word “is” is. ;-)

References

Ruiz, D. M. (1997). The four agreements: A practical guide to personal freedom. San Rafael, CA: Amber-Allen Publishing.

Ruiz, D.M. & Ruiz D.R. (2009). The fifth agreement: A practical guide to self-mastery. San Rafael, CA: Amber-Allen Publishing.

The Peter Principle

2010-06-16T18:06:00.006-08:00

“A man’s got to know his limitations” Harry Callahan

“Never mistake activity for achievement.” John Wooden
*
*

We have all experienced this situation at one time or another…a brown-nosing co-worker or employee that continually networks up, impresses the bosses, and every year or two gets promotion after promotion…only to find themselves promoted to their level of incompetence (or beyond).

The proto-typical peter principled manager looks really good on paper and interviews well but is lacking in meaningful experience. They only stay long enough in a position to put it on their resume….and then proceed to the next position.

When business is good – the peter principled manager can appear impressive to the bosses upstairs. They receive the credit for the work of their better experienced underlings – and keep getting promotions.

However, when bad things happen (and eventually bad things do happen) – the peter principled manager is exposed.

All it takes is the loss of a key client/customer, someone to file a lawsuit, or a federal / state regulatory investigation.

And suddenly the very polished and slick manager stumbles and fumbles along…has a few tantrums in the office…attempts to deflect the blame and responsibility…and is ultimately shown the door….and someone else has to clean up their mess.

On a personal note – like a lot of people, I have witnessed the Peter Principle at work time and time again. (The view from the gallery can be very educational.)

Ambition and the desire for power and prestige are very seductive.

But, ultimately these things are short lived if there is no character or experience (or expertise) in the mix.

In other words, it is okay to be an ambitious arrogant bastard – if you have the goods to back it up. ;-) (In which case the Peter Principle doesn’t apply)

But time and karma are great equalizers. And the journey on the downside can be quite a humbling experience for those that fall victim to the Peter Principle.

With a little luck they just may learn that there are no short-cuts to success.

Benched

2010-05-25T14:15:00.006-08:00

Over these past few months, my real life has been quite a bit more demanding than previously anticipated.

So, taking these demands into consideration, like most humans, I’ve had to re-prioritize my life – and blogging got benched.

In the last 24 hours, things have calmed down enough for me to type this….so that is a good sign.

With a little luck, this calming trend will continue, and hopefully I’ll be coming out of this fog sooner than later.

Keeping my fingers crossed! ;-)

Human Nature, Hypocrisy, Or A Little of Both

2010-04-17T18:17:00.003-08:00

"It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them."

(Alfred Adler 1870-1937)

Smug Alert!

2010-04-15T10:23:00.011-08:00

“the perfect storm of self-satisfaction” [South Park]

There appears to be an unusually high level of smug in the air these days.

Recently, I have encountered a stunning number of smug & self-righteous individuals whilst going about my daily business.

Smug is not unique to a single perspective or preference. It can infiltrate any point-of-view. Including but not limited to: music, sports, politics, religion, belief systems, sex, etc.

It is simply a cancerous attitude of moral superiority derived from a sense that “one's beliefs, actions, or affiliations are of greater virtue than those of the average person.”

They say practice makes perfect.

I am getting pretty good at being dispassionate when encountering those infected with smug.

My usual response after getting an earful of their latest rant is, “Wow. Really?”

Even if their position is correct.

Self-righteousness simply isn’t attractive.

Nor does it inspire others to rally to their point-of-view.

It all comes back to winning the battle, but losing the war.

References

Parker, T. & Stone, M. (2006). Smug Alert! South Park. Retrieved April 15, 2010,

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783418/

Champagne Taste on a Beer Budget

2010-03-24T10:18:00.019-08:00

“You didn’t think it through.” [Mad Men, 2007]

It is all about “how” you ask the question:

- Do you want a Ferrari Spider? (uh – yes! absolutely!)

- Do you want to take out a third mortgage on your house to pay for a Ferrari Spider? (uh – no.)

- Do you want to pay $1,500 for an oil change? Or how about $10,000+ for a tune-up? (uhh– no not really.)

What is the consequence of having champagne taste on a beer budget on a national level?

Austerity Budget - a budget imposed on a country by its government with the goal of reducing the national deficit by way of cutting consumer spending and cutting the funding to entitlements.

"Even in this corner of the galaxy, Captain, two plus two equals four." [Star Trek, 1966]

Happily Ever After

2010-03-17T10:25:00.003-08:00

“….and they lived happily ever after.” [Citation - Any Fairy Tale]

“Happy endings are just stories that haven't finished yet.” [Mr. & Mrs. Smith, 2005]

Most of us were raised on fairy tales of one form or another.

The story structure for most fairy tales follows a very basic pattern: the main characters focus on a single goal…and then once the goal is achieved…..the story ends.

Real life is a bit more complicated than that….because for most of us… our life continues even after attaining our goals.

After growing up on a diet of fairy tales, most of us don’t have the necessary skill sets to even consider there is a “rest of the story” let alone deal with it.

In the words of Robert Redford’s character in the movie The Candidate, we have to face the very real reality of, “What do we do now?”

It is not uncommon for Olympic athletes to have a difficult time adjusting to life after Olympic success. (Off the top of my head - Tai Babilonia, Bill Johnson, Mitch Gaylord come to mind)

After spending their childhood & young adulthood single-mindedly focused on one thing, once the games are over….what do you do next? …and how do you do it?

For girls – the “uh oh” moment usually comes in the form of: Wedding Day vs. Marriage.

For better or worse, (even in the 21st century) girls are raised to think about and forever plan their (fairy tale) wedding.

So, there are a lot of weddings with “fill in the blank” grooms.

There are also a lot of divorces – because more time is spent planning the wedding and very little time is allocated to developing the necessary relationship skills to deal with the rest of the story (you know – the marriage part).

For over-achieving young adults, it is not uncommon to have to work through a “quarter-life crisis” soon after graduating college.

The Quarter-life Crises come in several forms – but for me it had a lot to do with focusing all my energy on getting a piece of paper….and then realizing that I didn’t have a plan on what to do next.

So in the midst of my quarter-life crisis, I adopted Ralph Waldo Emerson’s motto as one of my own, “Life is a journey, not a destination."

It is a nice counter measure to, “Happily Ever After”

Don’t you think?
*
*
References

Robbins, A. & Wilner, A. (2001). Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. New York, NY: Penguin Putnam, Inc.

Larner, J. (1972). The Candidate. Retrieved March 16, 2010, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068334/

Kinberg, S. (2005). Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Retrieved March 16, 2010, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0356910/

The Fifth Agreement

2010-03-08T12:07:00.005-09:00

Be Skeptical, But Learn to Listen

Don’t believe yourself or anybody else.

Use the power of doubt to question everything you hear.

Is it really the truth?

Listen to the intent behind words, and you will understand the real message.
*
*
References

Ruiz, D.M. and Ruiz, D.J. (2010). The fifth agreement: A practical guide to self-mastery. San Rafael, CA: Amber-Allen Publishing.

Non Permanence

2010-03-02T07:42:00.006-09:00

Capt. Matthew Gideon: It's a strange thing, Lieutenant. If I close my eyes I can see every detail of the Earth's surface as clearly as we're seeing it right now. But after my father died, I tried to remember his face. But it always slipped away from me. Why is that, I wonder?

Lt. John Matheson: Maybe it's because we can't decide which face to remember. The face of our father when we were children, the face of our father the first time we left home, the face of our father the last time we saw him. They all blur together. We lose the details. But Earth is constant. Earth is forever.

Capt. Matthew Gideon: You're too young to be having thoughts this old, Lieutenant.

******************************************************[Crusade, 1999]
*

*
Reference:

Straczynski, J.M. (1999). Each Night I Dream of Home. Crusade. Retrieved March 1, 2010, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149437/

The Big Picture

2010-02-15T20:06:00.006-09:00

Sometimes you lose a forest through the trees. - Chinese Proverb

Suck it up! - Anonymous

About a year or so ago, a co-worker of mine forwarded me a link to Joachim de Posada’s mini-TED Talk that discussed a link between the ability to delay gratification and future success.

In short, Joachim de Posada described a couple of studies in which a group of four year old children were one by one brought into a room. The researchers gave a single marshmallow to each child and said, “I’m leaving you alone with this marshmallow for 15 minutes. You can eat it if you want. When I come back in 15 minutes, if you have not eaten the marshmallow, you can have a second marshmallow.”

(Watch the video if you can – the montage of the children trying to NOT eat the marshmallow is priceless)

In the first study, 2 out of 3 of the children ate the marshmallow, while 1 out of 3 waited and received the second marshmallow.

15 years later the researchers performed a follow-up study on the now grown-up children. 100% of the children who did not eat the marshmallow were successful young adults with good grades and attending universities. By contrast, a large percentage of the children who chose to eat the marshmallow had poor grades, some dropped out of school while others were not accepted to university.

The children who demonstrated self-control were not smarter than the other children – they just had higher emotional intelligence or a greater maturity.

I agree with Dr. Posada’s conclusion that there is a very strong correlation between the ability to delay gratification and future success.

However, Dr. Posada focused his TED Talk on the importance of self-discipline or self-control in the ability to delay gratification.

While I agree that the ability to demonstrate self-control, and therefore delay gratification, is an important aspect to future success – in my humble opinion, I believe it is the ability of an individual to “see the big picture” that provides the incentive and therefore motivates the individual to delay gratification for future reward.

(Maybe I’m just splitting hairs)

On a personal note – any personal success I have achieved, I attribute directly to being able to keep the big picture in mind. Whether it was losing weight – and keeping it off for decades or taking a big pay cut to go to graduate school and completely change careers.

Growing up in a sleepy little beach town – it was very easy to track the choices of my older sister’s classmates.

It was not uncommon for some of our town’s most successful high school students (who were accepted to big name universities) to be unable to deal with no longer being a big fish in a small pond. Instead of being the best and brightest students in the school, they found themselves rather ordinary and returned to our sleepy little beach town and chose to live at home and work at the town’s ritzy restaurants (for big tips) or local construction companies …. while make really good money.

I recall a lot of us who chose to follow through with the humbling experience of suffering for 4-5 years as very average starving students living in crappy apartments found it difficult to return to our home town and not have the disposable income of our cohorts who were living at home and making a lot of money.

It would have been very easy to drop out of school and receive immediate gratification with a high paying job working along side our former classmates. (Some of us did do just that)

For me, I chose to suck it up. I knew that in a few short years that I would be making a lot more money than my classmates who chose to not finish school.

I kept my eyes on the big picture.

I guess I fall into the category of those that chose to not eat the marshmallow.

References

De Posada, J. (2009), Joachim de Posada says, Don't eat the marshmallow yet. TED: Ideas worth spreading, Retrieved February 14, 2010, http://www.ted.com/talks/joachim_de_posada_says_don_t_eat_the_marshmallow_yet.html

Best Laid Plans

2010-02-09T14:21:00.004-09:00

"Well, when I get new information I change my position. What, sir, do you do with new information?"

************************ [John Maynard Keynes]

The over-achievers among us have a tendency to attempt to outline our lives through 5-year plans and 10-year plans, etc.

But upon retrospect….after we grow-up…live a lifetime or two…and reflect upon the choices and circumstances that brought us to where we are today….we find that our 5-year plans and 10-year plans had little to do with how we got “here” today.

They appear to be naïve and innocent intellectual exercises rather than blueprints that outlined our future selves.

Humans are not stagnant or finite beings.

Although we don’t like to admit it to ourselves - we all grow, change and evolve over time as life happens.

This also happens to the people around us….even the ones we are related to! (Inconvenient as that may be!) :-o

There are a variety of things that mess-up a perfectly good 10-year plan:
- Falling in love
- Getting married
- Getting a divorce
- Getting sick or injured
- Starting a family
- Someone dying
- Buying a house
- Getting laid-off
- Getting a promotion
- An economic crash
- A prosperous economy
- Generational shifts
- Shifts in industry or technology
- Rising taxes or increased regulations
- Tax cuts or reduced regulations
- Moving to find work
- Moving because of family / relationships
- Raising your grandchildren
- Taking care of aging parents

It is rare for a young person to outline their 5-year plan or 10-year plan and take any of the above into consideration.

More than messing up our plans – the above bullet points also impact who we are as people.

As we face (or ignore) life’s challenges and character building experiences – we grow and evolve as humans and our priorities, expectations, and interests shift.

What was important to us at 17 years old is (hopefully) not our top priority at 35 years old or 55 years old.

In life, it is important to start out with a compass heading – but it is equally important to make appropriate course corrections for changes in terrain and shifts in weather. ;-)

Bad Teeth - The New British Disease

2010-02-01T05:43:00.000-09:00

With all the talk in the US these days about the pros and cons of universal healthcare or socialized medicine, I thought it might be a good idea for a reality check and to see how socialized medicine works or doesn’t work in the UK.

There is the old cliché about bad British teeth (think of the Austin Powers movies of the last decade)….but if there is universal healthcare in the UK – why does the cliché of bad British teeth persist?

The article below was written by Alice Thomson in 2008 for the UK Telegraph and it sheds a little light on the subject.

********************************************

Bad teeth - the new British disease

By Alice Thomson
Published: 12:01AM GMT 18 Jan 2008

Seven and a half million Britons have failed to gain access to an NHS dentist in the past two years In Britain today, you can stuff yourself on deep-fried Mars Bars, drink 20 pints a night, inject yourself with heroin, smoke 60 cigarettes a day or decide to change your sex - and the NHS has an obligation to treat you. You might go on a waiting list, but it will do its best to cure your lung cancer, patch up your nose after a drunken brawl or give you a hip replacement. It doesn't charge for operations or beds; it may even throw in some half-edible food.

But if you have bad teeth, forget it. You may be rolling on the bathroom floor in agony with an abscess, your gums may be riddled with disease, or people may recoil at the sight of your fangs as you walk down the street, but the NHS doesn't have to help you.

It is now virtually impossible for many people to find an NHS dentist, and if they do manage to squeeze on to a list, they could still be charged 80 per cent of the cost of treatment - unless they are a child, pregnant or on benefits.

The health service under both the Tories and Labour has victimised the dentally challenged - that is, anyone who hasn't inherited strong teeth and a perfect picket fence smile. Few can easily afford to go to any dentist now. My husband went to a private dentist after a 15-year gap, and was left reeling after they extracted £2,000 for 12 fillings. My three-year-old son received a bill for £90 after I stupidly asked my private dentist whether she could have a quick look at his teeth.

A survey by Mori for the Citizens Advice Bureau this week found that seven and a half million Britons have failed to gain access to an NHS dentist in the past two years. In one quarter of the country, no NHS dentists are allowing new patients to join their lists. And despite government targets that every child should have his teeth seen by an expert every year, more than one in three children never see an NHS dentist.

Families such as mine, who have large, unruly teeth, have become part of a new genetic underclass, discriminated against by the state. If my parents had been forced to pay the dentist's bills when we were children, they would have gone broke. My teeth were so bad at the age of 13 that the head of orthodontics at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford heard about me, and took me on as a case history. Three years of tram tracks, elastic bands and the removal of eight teeth later, and I am a shining example of the orthodontist's art; but every time one of my children loses a milk tooth, I know it could cost far more than £1 for the tooth fairy.

The situation for adults is even worse. One friend, Victoria, was told that a crown would cost her £700 privately, the price of her summer holiday. The queue for an NHS dentist was so long that her tooth broke before it was treated and she had to spend £350 having it pulled out. She should have followed the example of the Wiltshire toothache sufferer who told the Citizens Advice Bureau that he now takes out many of his teeth in his shed - with pliers. More than one in 20 have said they resort to DIY surgery.

There is, of course, the option to go private, but with more and more former NHS patients forced to pay, dentists' charges are now the most expensive in Europe.

Having bad teeth can blight your life. Britain used to be known for its terrible incisors In Mexico, bad teeth are called "dientes ingles". But gradually we have caught up with America. Now bad teeth are now seen as unacceptably sloppy: no presenter would be allowed on children's television without a polished grin. Even Gordon Brown appeared to have had his teeth fixed before he became Prime Minister. As the public face of the nation's teeth has improved, so has the pressure on everyone else. As a country, we spend £360 million on cosmetic dentistry a year.

But there are increasingly two dental nations in Britain and those who can't afford the fees have worse teeth than ever before. With bad teeth, you are less likely to find a good job or a successful relationship. The elderly, in particular, can find their lives racked by toothache and an inability to eat properly. Gum disease also increases the risk of mouth cancer, and pancreatic cancer in men.

This is a deep-rooted problem that needs a drill taken to it. The Government should start by scrapping the new contract that it introduced for dentists in 2006. Dentists are now paid a fixed fee, in exchange for completing a certain number of units of NHS dental activity a year: the net result is that idle dentists never get round to seeing enough patients - and their funding is subsequently reduced - and energetic dentists are forced to look to the private sector for more work after they fill their quota. In 1990, only six per cent of dentists' income came from private patients; now it's 58 per cent. Worse, NHS dentists now receive the same amount of money for six fillings as for one, so there is no incentive to take on complex cases.

Our dentists are trained at a cost of £175,000 by the NHS, so they should be expected to work within the sector for a number of years. And we need more of them. America has twice as many per head as does Poland - half of whom are here. Britain only has 3.7 dentists per 10,000 people. Even if you find an NHS dentist, it's not all smiles: the cost of a filling has gone up from £14 to £43 in the past few years. The NHS budget has doubled in the past decade while dentistry decayed. The Government has finally started filling the financial gap but, as usual it has gone on bureaucracy.

Healthy teeth used to be seen as a sign of a modern society. Now because of our first-world diets and third-world dental care, we have 19th-century teeth. Britain has to take its teeth seriously again or we will soon be back to wooden dentures.

Reference

Thomson, A. (2008). Bad teeth - the new British disease. U.K. Telegraph. Retrieved January 31, 2010, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alicethomson/3553839/Bad-teeth---the-new-British-disease.html

The Best Advice

2010-01-27T14:58:00.006-09:00

When I was a ~14 years old and freshman in high school, I was taking a (sort of advanced) Biology class that also had sophomores and juniors in attendance.

Our teacher was an eccentric Australian biochemical engineer that in a parallel universe would have worked for Monsanto. But instead he was our resident spacey (or high) eccentric teacher.

On this particular day our resident Aussie was out sick and instead of getting a substitute teacher – our school’s other biology teacher (from across the hall) sat in.

This other teacher had a kind of Magnum PI vibe to him (although Magnum PI didn’t exist yet). He was in his mid-30s and in addition to teaching biology and other science classes, he was also an aquatics coach and during the summers was a lifeguard at the local beach.

Instead of sticking to the curriculum and reviewing the differences between mitosis and meiosis or the differences between the Krebs cycle and photosynthesis – he proceeded to give the class the best advice I ever heard:

The most important thing you can do for yourself is to take the time to sit quietly in your room and be brutally honest with yourself about who you are and what you want to do with the rest of your life. Forget about what your parents want….or what your classmates think….or all the other chatter out there. It is important for you to strip that all away and decide for yourself. Because at the end of the day it is “your” life and you are the one that has to live it.

I don’t know if anyone else in the classroom that day was paying attention. (Bueller…..Bueller….) ;-)

But I was.

And I took what he said to heart and applied it to my life from that day forward.

As I got older…and life happened…I made my own tweak to his advice and turned it into a question:

Who are you when you are not doing the things you do?

I noticed that most people define themselves externally rather than internally.

In other words, people tend to describe themselves by external labels: husband, wife, father, daughter, accountant, lawyer, teacher, geek, etc.

The people who don’t have a sense of who they are when they are not doing the things they do tend to get lost when pulled out of their natural environment.

You see this all the time on Reality TV shows like Big Brother or Survivor when folks are literally taken out of their natural habitat and put into a strange situation. Many of these folks (particularly in the first seasons of the shows) find themselves completely lost and rudderless.

The people that tend to do well in these types of situations are the ones that are the most self-aware and can answer the question.

So, who are you when you are not doing the things you do?

(take your time…there is no right or wrong answer here….)

A Safety Net

2010-01-25T14:40:00.004-09:00

"The Defense Department regrets to inform you that your sons are dead because they were stupid.” [Top Gun, 1986]

There appears to be a rise in SOS calls to public safety departments for the rescues of soft adventurers who bite off more than they can chew and find themselves outside their comfort zones. (“Soft adventure” is a term used to describe a type of adventure tourism that requires little or no experience)

A shift in attitude has been noted by Search & Rescue agencies in the growing number of folks who venture into the wild without proper training and/or equipment.

Perhaps it is the easy and inexpensive access to GPS systems, personal locator beacons, and satellite phones…quite frankly, I’m not sure why this is happening at an increasing frequency…folks behaving in an unsafe manner because they think they can rely on personal technologies to get them out of trouble.

I describe it as a “Theme Park Mentality” – making the conscious choice to go into a dangerous situation with a lack of experience and expecting to be bailed out or rescued if it gets too uncomfortable.

More and more National Parks Services, Fire Departments, and Search & Rescue agencies are starting to charge fees (or at least seriously considering it) to folks calling for a rescue – particularly if the SOS falls into a false distress or non-emergency category.

In the past, hikers, campers, and other wilderness adventurers were more self-sufficient.

"In the past, people who got in trouble self-rescued; they got on their hands and knees and crawled out," says John Amrhein, "We saw the increase in non-emergencies with cell phones: people called saying 'I'm cold and damp. Come get me out.' These take it to another level."

With personal locator beacons, Search & Rescue agencies do not know in advance the nature of the emergency….or if there is an emergency at all.

There was an incident in Alaska either this past summer or the summer before, when a couple of tourists were flown into the backcountry for a week long camping trip. They activated their personal locater beacons not once, but two times – for non-emergency situations: It was dark! And they were cold. [oh my] Unfortunately for the tax payers, the Coast Guard and National Guard were called in to “rescue” them from themselves.

Perhaps initiating a fee system for rescue isn’t such a bad idea after all.

References

EKRon (November, 2009). PLBs and uncessary rescues. Educated Guess Work. Retrieved January 25, 2010, http://www.educatedguesswork.org/2009/11/plbs_and_unecessary_rescues.html

A Simple Truth

2010-01-20T10:48:00.007-09:00

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
[The Golden Rule]

“Be kind to one another.” [Ephesians 4:32]

Many great ideas start with a simple basic truth or understanding.

And, like clockwork, somewhere along the way the simple truth becomes corrupted or bogged down by unnecessary clutter, manipulation, or dogma.

This usually happens when there are too many chefs in the kitchen….jockeying for position or power.

History and human nature provide many of examples of this pattern – from the founding of the Catholic Church, to the production of a television show, or the creation of a school district’s curriculum.

From the Councils of Nicaea to the various Ecumenical Councils – it came down to a bunch of Bishops or Cardinals arbitrarily deciding what texts would be included in the Bible and what beliefs the church would follow. In a nutshell, a group of men in a smoke filled room designed a lot of doctrine, ritual, and bureaucracy around a simple belief system and marketed it as the Catholic Church.

A pretty similar pattern occurs in the production of a basic TV pilot. Judd Apatow’s indie movie, “The TV Set” outlines in painful (and humorous) detail how studio and network executive’s input destroy a writer’s simple heartfelt coming of age story and turn it into a commercialized sitcom bearing little resemblance to the original script.

Then there is the ongoing war between administrators and educators on the best way to teach Johnny to read: Whole Word vs. Phonics. The winners are the administrators who determine the school district’s curriculum (i.e. Whole Word). The loser is the generation of students who are diagnosed as dyslexic because the curriculum of doesn’t teach Johnny to read.

By the same token, have you noticed how some really good self-help ideas or movements evolve (or devolve) into almost cult-like environments?

It is a rare thing to find a gem of a truth that hasn’t been tarnished from the incessant meddling and tinkering of marketing and human nature.

What can we do as mere mortals in the midst of the smoke & mirrors and razzle dazzle?

Take a step back and consider the source – in spite of the packaging.

Be an educated consumer – of all things.

Simply put: Question Everything! (but - be polite about it!) ;-)

References

Fanning, J.J. (2005) Phonics vs. the Whole Language - Who's The Winner, Really? Retrieved January 19, 2010, http://www.chiefengineer.org/content/content_display.cfm/seqnumber_content/2025.htm

Apatow, J. & Kasdan, J. (2006) The TV Set. Retrieved January 19, 2010, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473709/

Start-Up Nation

2010-01-15T15:18:00.007-09:00

In an effort to maintain full disclosure – I must confess that I have been a fan of Israeli culture since the raid on Entebbe Airport (in Uganda) by Israeli (IDF) commandos in the summer of 1976 that successfully rescued hostages from a hijacked Air France plane.

I was 11/12 years old when it happened and in the months and years that followed, I read every article and book on the subject I could get my hands on and watched every movie and documentary made on the Entebbe raid (even the bad TV movie with Linda Blair). :-o

My favorite movie was the Israeli made, “Operation Thunderbolt” – that was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign language film in 1978.

Years later I was stoked to acquire the 25 year anniversary two disc DVD of Operation Thunderbolt! And at the same time, I stumbled upon the book “Entebbe: A Defining Moment on the War on Terrorism – the Jonathan Netanyahu Story” which painstakingly outlined the background and strategy surrounding the hijacking and rescue as well as demystified some of the legends that arose from the incident.

That said, politics aside, I am a total dork when it comes to anything IDF.

I am also a dork when it comes to trying figure out why some organizations and businesses succeed while others fail….or begin with a flashy launch only to slowly and painfully decline into a stagnant mess.

In late November 2009 I happened to be listening to Talk Radio and heard the tail end of an interview with the writers of a new book entitled, “Start-up Nation”. The book discusses how Israel has more successful (and innovative) start-ups than any other country in the world and outlines a series of reasons why these ventures succeed in Israel and why not in other countries through a series of interviews and anecdotes.

The author’s of Start-up Nation outlined roughly seven (7) unique qualities that when woven together create a fascinating recipe for success – that I am not sure could be replicated anywhere else:

· Education –Israeli’s have easy access to several top notch Universities and Research Institutes. In addition, these Universities are not the Tel Aviv branch of American or European schools – but instead Israeli founded institutions.

· Mandatory Military Service - In addition to mandatory military service, the Israeli military (unlike other countries) encourages a flat organizational structure, brutal honesty (chutzpah) and a non-politically correct environment. The result creates independent thinking individuals with strong problem solving skills.

· Israel is a small town – there are only 7+ million people in the country. This creates a small town / community environment where everyone knows or is related to everyone. This fact seems to foster nurturing (business) relationships.

· Ownership vs. The Sheik’s Dilemma – Individuals who start businesses in Israel have ownership of their business. This is unique in this part of the globe. In neighboring countries the government or royal families tend to own local businesses – therefore there is no incentive for the proprietor to make it grow or thrive.

Incidentally, the authors noted that in Dubai – the thriving businesses tended to be the Dubai Branch of another country’s business (i.e. Bank, Retail Outlet, etc.) – not a business owned and operated by a Dubai citizen.

· Immigrant Work Ethic and Citizenship - Israel has a generous citizenship process. Therefore, new groups of immigrants seem to arrive at frequent intervals. This fact mixed with opportunity creates an environment for new arrivals to thrive economically through hard work and diligence. As one group of immigrants becomes established and perhaps slows down to enjoy the fruits of their labor….another new group immigrants arrive to keep the country’s economic cycle thriving.

· Opportunity – In recent decades government regulations have been relaxed to encourage greater economic growth in a variety of fields (i.e. investment banking and hedge funds).

· Edge / Adversity –The authors described the experience of an American businessman who travelled to Israel for an investment meeting. While in flight he realized that his destination was literally a tiny island of democracy surrounded by countries hostile to its existence. Dealing with this type of adversity on a daily basis creates a unique personality trait in its citizenry that is not allowed to devolve (over time) into a mindset of suburban complacency (like in more peaceful nations). Glassman of the Wall Street Journal described this personality trait best, “…an almost abrasive individualism and the kind of self-reliance that occurs in a country that has to go it alone to survive”

Politics aside, I strongly recommend to anyone interested in business, economics or organizational structures, the book: “Start-up Nation”.

References

Glassman, J. (November 2009). Where Tech Keeps Booming: In Israel, a clustering of talent, research universities and venture capital. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 28, 2009,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704779704574553884271802474.html

Netanyahu, I. (November 2003). Entebbe: A Defining Moment in the War on Terrorism--The Jonathan Netanyahu Story. Balfour Books.

Senor, D & Singer, S. (November 2009) Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle. New York. Twelve Books / Hatchet Book Group.

Really?

2010-01-14T14:13:00.003-09:00

“Just because I am able to do something well does not mean that I enjoy doing it.”

The above statement seems to completely confound and baffle a lot of people.

One of the reasons I think the above statement confuses or frustrates some folks, is because humans have a tendency to project their needs, desires and insecurities on others.

Parents do this with their children. Andre Agassi spent a good chunk of his extremely well written autobiography, “Open” on this very topic.

And coaches and teachers have a tendency to do this with their students too.

Yes, confess. I am one of those very annoying people that happen to be very good at a lot of different things….however, I don’t find those “things” that I do well all that interesting or enjoyable.

(poor me.) ;-)

It was not unusual when I was growing up for a teacher, coach, etc. to strongly encourage me to pursue a specific sport, musical instrument, science fair prize, etc.

I remember thinking, “yeah that is nice….but I’d really rather spend my time doing _______ instead.”

Back in 2001, I watched an early episode of Malcolm in the Middle where Malcolm was stressed out because he was concerned about making a bad decision and choosing the wrong future career for himself. So, he took an aptitude test to find out what he should be when he grew up. Instead of diffusing his anxiety, his frustration was increased because he found out that he is equally excellently qualified to do anything.

Boy, could I relate to that story line. ;-)

I recall having a meltdown when I was 8 years old (yes, I was really 8 years old)….because I didn’t know what I wanted to major in, in college….and financial aid forms were confusing to me…and I didn’t know how I was going to pay for school…. :-o

(oh my)

Well, upon reflection, everything worked out the way it was supposed to.

My current job isn’t what I would call “fun” – but I do it extremely well and it pays the bills and has a sweet benefits package.

…more importantly, it gives me the time and space to pursue things that I find challenging and enjoyable.

And perhaps THAT is what is important to a satisfactory life – making the effort to pursue things that you find challenging…rather than activities that you find easy.

References

Agassi, A. (2009) Open: An Autobiography. New York. Alfred A. Knopf / Random House, Inc.

Boomer, L. Glouberman, M., and Orenstein, A. (February 2001). Hal Quits. Malcolm in the Middle. Retrieved January 14, 2010, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0640331/maindetails

On Positivity

2010-01-04T13:42:00.003-09:00

When I started this blog all those years ago, I made a promise to myself to keep things positive…or at least put a positive spin on whatever I was writing about.

There is enough venting and negativity out there…I don’t feel the need to add to it.

(And what purpose could it possibly serve?)

There is a lot of gobbledygook out there about the power of positive thinking and how positive affirmations manifest positive life changes.

I prefer to break it down in the simplest of terms: "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all."

2009 was a challenging year…for a variety of reasons …for many people…including myself.

(Perhaps that is why I posted so little over the past 12 months?)

My eyes and attitude are re-focused and looking forward.

Wishing Everyone a Happy and Healthy 2010.

***

It's a Crowded Room

2009-10-19T21:32:00.006-08:00

The blockbuster movie “Sixth Sense” made the phrase, “I see dead people” a popular catch-phrase.

For me, it is a bit more complicated than that.

Every religion and culture has its own word for it: angels, guides, saints, higher-self, or providence (and demons, devils & tricksters too...but that subject is for another day).

The anomalously sensitive person has the gift/curse of being uncomfortably aware of just how many spirits/beings are in the room at a given time.

The gift part of the equation is the understanding that we are truly never alone. There is comfort in the knowing that there is always someone/something present to help guide us through the day.

If you pay attention to the subtle nudges along the way – synchronicities happen.

And that is a good thing.

Reference

Ritchey, D. (2003). The H.I.S.S. of the A.S.P.: Understanding the Anomalously Sensitive Person. Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, Inc.

Honesty

2009-09-08T05:37:00.006-08:00

It is easy for someone to be rude and hide behind honesty.

("I'm just being honest!")

However, it takes a deft hand to be both honest and polite at the same time.

*************************************[Anonymous]

Warrior Creed

2009-08-31T18:55:00.000-08:00

Wherever I walk, everyone is safer.

Wherever I am, anyone in need has a friend.

Whenever I return home, everyone is happy I am there.

"It's a better life!"

*********************[by Robert L. Humphrey (1923 - 1997]

A Bug on the Pond of Time

2009-07-21T10:28:00.008-08:00

This is one of the analogies used in Lyn Buchanan's Controlled Remote Viewing trainings.

I can't really improve or clarify on the original text....so I won't even try.

Enjoy.

The analogy:

Lets say that you are a bug sitting on the Pond of Time, and that you are hungry. You look across the pond and see, far across the pond, another bug sitting idly beside a rock. You think that it would make a good meal, so you begin skimming across the pond toward it.

But, in the process of making your way toward the bug, you set up a wake before you and the distant bug, sensing the disturbance in the water, flies away.

You arrive at the rock where the bug used to be, only to find that it is no longer there. It was there, but now it isn’t. But the rock is.

The meaning of the analogy:

Just as Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that the observations of an experimenter will effect the experiment, it is also true that the observations of a viewer cannot help but affect the thing being viewed – at least in some very miniscule way.

For some aspects of the target, the very act of viewing a future event, person, or location will cause those aspects to change. In a very real way, remote viewing through time sets up disturbances in time, and some aspects of the target site which is sensitive to that may take action to change things. Some things, like the rock in the analogy, will not change, no matter how much you view it or even try consciously to change it. But other things in the future can be changed, either by accident or with intention.

However, the most immediate thing on most people’s minds, when they relate to this analogy is the first bug’s hunger. When people set out to view the future, they want to win the lottery, know what the stock market will do tomorrow, predict the right home to buy or the right time to take a vacation. They do a remote viewing session and come away from it, having done everything correctly, with the feeling – the certainty – that what they have seen across the Pond of Time is actually there. Then, they wait until they get there, only to find that it isn’t. A feeling of failure sets in, and soon, their viewing is beset with doubts and even the expectations of failure. “The future can’t be viewed”, they declare.

It is perhaps one of the great paradoxes of remote viewing that the better you view the future, the more effect you will have on it, and the more some aspects of it will change. Many times, the very act of getting information about the future changes the future to make the viewer’s information incorrect.

Once you understand this principle, you learn that a future which was once there may no longer be. You quit blaming yourself for failure and learn to do repeated sessions on future events, not to get an average of the findings, but to keep track of what changes are made as you view them.

Of course, the analogy continues with the fact that the closer you get to the other bug, the more it can feel the wake of your coming, and the more prone it is to fly away.

But there are rocks in the Pond of Time, and they remain.

Many people think that if you change one little thing, the future curves off into a new direction and everything is changed forever. Some people like to even believe that you have started a “new reality”, although I personally find such a god-like power to be lacking in myself and others I know. The analogy of the rock in the Pond of Time indicates that there are “rocks” in the future which will not change, no matter how hard we try to move or change them. Therefore, if you make a change in one little thing, the immediate future might curve off in some new direction, but curves inextricably back to the next immovable and unchangeable rock in time.

Perhaps another analogy is in order to better explain this point:

The history of Mankind is the story of Man playing chess with God. We get some good moves in now and then, and sometimes, we thwart his plan with our own. But in the end….. God always wins the game.

References

Buchanan, L. (2008). Problems>Solutions>Innovations. Retrieved May 1, 2008, http://www.crviewer.com/

What History Teaches

2009-06-17T15:37:00.003-08:00

“If history teaches us anything, it is simply this:

Every revolution carries with it the seeds of its own destruction.”

[Children of Dune]

On Anger and Fear

2009-05-01T17:29:00.004-08:00

*
"Anger is only fear turned inward."
*

*********************************[Bones, 2005]

Know Your Audience

2009-04-07T14:58:00.007-08:00

"When an audience is presented with a theory that is one level above their understanding, they find it inspiring.

When the information is two levels above their comprehension, they fall asleep.

At three levels they become angry;

And when the data reaches four levels above the level of the audience, they want to kill the presenter.”

*****************************************************************[Dr. Charles Tart]

Reference

Targ, R. & Katra J. (1998) Miracles of Mind: Exploring Non-local Consciousness and Spiritual Healing. Novato, CA: New World Library.

A Message to Seminar Junkies

2009-03-17T18:08:00.010-08:00

"So go and lock yourself in a room for a couple of days

and study what is here (gesturing to his heart).

The things that you really feel.

Not all that crap that you're supposed to feel.

And when you've studied.

When you've shed a little light on the dark recesses of your soul.

That is the time to pick up a book."

**************************************[Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, Cracker, 1993]

Be Yourself

2009-02-18T07:56:00.009-09:00

"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck."

***

*********[Quote attibuted to Joss Whedon]

The Power of Validation & Apology

2009-02-12T08:35:00.007-09:00

When it comes to working & playing well with others, some of the best tools you can have in your personal tool kit are the abilities to validate others and give an effective and meaningful apology.

As we move through this life, each of us has encountered situations where we find ourselves in conflict with others. Many times we may hold our position (or grudge) out of principle or stubbornness.

Our position may be correct (or mostly correct). However it is possible to be correct…and still damage or lose a relationship.

Do you want to win the battle only to lose the war?

As part of my ongoing efforts to learn how to work & play well with others…..I stumbled onto the power of validation & apology.

I learned the hard way that relationships (in my personal life and work life) are not about being right or wrong.

Instead, relationships are about all the space in between.

If you are concerned about “truth,”…well, the truth seems to take care of itself. It has a way of eventually surfacing and coming to light – regardless of what we say or do.

I have found that one of the most effective ways to get through an impasse is the phrase: “You’re right. I’m sorry. I should have _________. And, in the future I will _______.”

(You can save the “yes, but…” follow-up statements for another time)

The simple validation & apology formula is capable if diffusing a lot of sticky situations.

When there is a strong emotionally based conflict, your adversary is probably not listening to logic…nor do they care about logic or your truth. They simply need to hear some form of validation of their point-of-view.

The validation of their position or point-of-view has a magical way of diffusing the emotions of the situation.

Once that is done….in the future, you can move forward because they will be receptive to having a more meaningful (and effective) discussion or negotiation.

How do you give a meaningful apology?

There are excellent examples in the media, thanks to the missteps of celebrities and politicians, on how to give poor apologies (i.e. I’m sorry I got caught) and how to give excellent apologies.

The author, Beverly Engle, has written several books and articles on the power of apology and came up with a very simple recipe: regret, responsibility & remedy.

- Regret: statement of regret for having caused the hurt or damage

While your intention may not have been to cause harm, you recognize that your action or inaction nevertheless did hurt this person. This regret needs to be communicated. This includes an expression of empathy with an acknowledgement of the injustice you caused.

- Responsibility: an acceptance of responsibility for your actions

This means not blaming anyone else and not making excuses for what you did. For an apology to be effective it must be clear that you are accepting total responsibility for your action or inaction. Therefore, your apology needs to include a statement of responsibility.

- Remedy: a statement of willingness to remedy the situation

While you can't undo the past, you can repair the harm you caused. Therefore, a meaningful apology needs to include a statement in which you offer restitution, or a promise to take action so that you will not repeat the behavior.

Unless all three of these elements are present, the other person will sense that something is missing in your apology and he or she may feel shortchanged.

Once that is done….it is possible to move forward and have more meaningful and effective discussions or negotiations.

Reference

Engle, B (2002). The Power of Apology: How to give and receive an apology. And it's worth it, on both ends. Psychology Today Magazine. Retrieved February 11, 2009, http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20020802-000027.html

Remember When

2009-02-06T13:21:00.006-09:00

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)

“History is written by the victors.” Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
***
Some people might refer to reminiscing as “oral histories” – others might call it sharing sea stories or for better or worse: creating mythologies.

In The Sopranos episode entitled, “Remember When” - Tony Soprano described “reminiscing as the lowest form of conversation,” when he realized that the content of most of his conversations with his thug friends consisted of a long string of “remember when” tales.

It seems that the ritual of repeating specific stories again and again empowers a single version of the story and turns it into a reality. And like the tale of “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence,” with enough repetition, eventually the legend becomes the truth.

The power of “remember when” tales is best illustrated in family gatherings or high school reunions.

In families, it is easy to label or stereotype which family member is the smart one, the trouble maker, the clown, the athlete, etc. through the repetition of family stories (or oral histories). This does not mean that the smart one is not funny…nor the troublemaker is not also an athlete…but the power of these stories becoming fact…is that they help to maintain the family constellation of pecking orders and hierarchies.

The same can be said for high school reunions. It doesn’t matter if the Quarterback blew out his knee, lost his scholarship, and is now pumping gas at the corner filling station. At the class reunion he is still the Big Man on Campus. By the same token, although the chess playing nerd who was bullied through high school is now a dot-com multimillionaire….he is still the considered a geek at the reunion…thanks to the repetition of those “remember when” tales.

So the next time you are sharing a family story…you might want to consider this question, “Are you sharing a complete vision of the family history? Or are you perpetuating a single version of a more complex story?

Today is a Gift

2009-01-04T12:52:00.010-09:00

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift.

That is why it is called the present.

*
*****************************************[Babatunde Olatunji, 1927 - 2003]

A Cautionary Tale

2008-11-24T16:17:00.009-09:00

Be careful what you wish for....you just might get it.

***

Or as Jacob so eloquently phrased, "everything you wanted, in the worst possible way..."

Many of us have preconceptions of how we might feel or behave once we have achieved or acquired all the things that make up the ultimate pretty picture for our life.

You know, the “if only” list: if only I had the power, celebrity, success, wealth, prestige, toys, entourage, trophy wife, etc….then I would be happy.

The biggest preconception humans have is that “success is the best revenge.”

Well, there is a healthy and thriving self-help industry in Southern California that services the very wealthy and very famous clientele of the area who discovered the hard way that money, power, prestige & fame aren’t what they assumed it would be.

Now that they have achieved all the things on their “to do” lists – they have found that they still aren’t happy….they feel a bit lost and either turn to self-destructive behaviors or self-help groups.

The Universe has a very twisted sense of humor.

One of the laws of this universe is that: for every good thing, there is an equal and opposite bad thing.

For example, if you make more money….you will pay more taxes. Or, if you are an extremely pretty & charming female…you will attract a lot more men then your less attractive counterparts – but there will be a lot of jerks in the mix as well as keepers.

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

It is important to reconcile the fact that there is always a consequence or a price for the choices we make or the gifts we receive.

I have found that moderation in all things works for me.

And that happiness (not success) is the best revenge.

Mr. Jordan

2008-11-09T20:11:00.007-09:00

"Joe, if you could not so much lower...but broaden your standards..."

******************************Mr. Jordan, Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Venus and Mars

2008-10-28T08:13:00.012-08:00

Leila: Star Trek is just one of those guy things that I don’t understand....

Robert: [trying to supress his need to question Leila and failing]

Robert: ...I gotta go the tote on this...It’s a guy thing?

Leila: Yes. Like personal electronics. Every guy I know is always bragging about the size of his speakers or his computer RAM. To be quite honest, I’m much more interested in the size of …

Robert: I *hate* the fact that women do not give a shit how anything looks or sounds, as long as they can sing along with the lyrics.

Leila: [disgusted little noise]

Robert: All right, I'm sorry - I get a little carried away sometimes. But you know what, I can say the exact same thing about women and their obsession with their shoes.

Leila: That's a sexist comment.

Robert: Is it?

Leila: Yeah.

Robert: How many pairs of shoes do you have in your closet?

Leila: I don't know. Maybe, um...

Robert: I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. What was that?

Leila: Fifty-three.

Robert: FIFTY-TH - and you're calling *me* crazy?

Leila: I don't know! Fifty-two, maybe? I'm, I'm not sure.

Robert: Whatever, Imelda! That's totally obscene! I've got two pairs of sneakers, a pair of Docs, and a pair of boots, that's it!

Leila: I don't expect you to understand.

Robert: Of course not, because it's totally ridiculous.

Leila: You can wear shoes; they're practical.

Robert: Oh yeah, but can you wear 53 pairs? It's like women with a $30,000 engagement ring.

Leila: What's wrong with that?

Robert: Oh, come on. You know if it doesn't have anti-lock brakes and a passenger side airbag, it's *not* worth thirty K

*******************************************************[Paraphrased from Free Enterprise, 1998]

Shades of Grey

2008-10-20T09:38:00.007-08:00

How many of us, after the blush of a new infatuation has worn off, have awakened to the fact that we just don’t know who the person lying next to us in bed is anymore.

We think, “They have changed,” when in reality they are still the same person we met “x” number of months ago. Rather, we are the ones who have changed. We have finally taken off the rose colored glasses and are able to see, with clarity, the reality of the person for the first time.

Emotion is a funny thing.

When we are infatuated with someone…or we simply just really like someone…we ignore all the red warning lights showing us the entire spectrum of who they are as a complete human being.

The same thing goes for people we don’t like very much…or people we are very angry with. We tend to ignore all the green lights that indicate their positive (good) traits because we are really invested in not liking them.

As my dad always said, it is very easy to build a case FOR or AGAINST anyone at any time. (Just ask any lawyer!)

Even though emotion colors how we interpret people’s words and behaviors, it is important to remember that a human being is not a buffet that allows us to pick & choose the traits we like and ignore the traits we don’t like. (Or by the same token, pick the traits we don’t like and ignore the traits we do like)

Humans are not absolute creatures. They are not black or white or good or bad….they are many shades of grey.

It is important to accept people for who they are as a complete human being….both the good and the bad…and move forward from there.

***

Daddy's Princess

2008-10-03T21:06:00.010-08:00

In the interest of full disclosure – I am, or was, a Daddy’s Girl…at least until my dad passed away over twenty years ago.

There are many benefits to being a Daddy’s Princess…but there is also a big downside too.

On the upside – you get to experience a level of adoration and acceptance that is unparalleled.

On the downside – there is something that I like to call the “Marie Osmond Syndrome”.

Ms. Osmond did a series of interviews a year or so ago…in which she discussed the dissolution of her marriages as well as her close relationship with her recently deceased father…and her close relationships with her older brothers.

The interviewer asked her if her husband(s) just didn’t measure up to her father &/or brothers - to which Ms. Osmond agreed.

Speaking from experience, a Daddy’s Princess tends to expect her adult relationships (i.e. with her boyfriend or husband) to be similar to her relationship with her father.

After much trial and error – I came to the realization that this is an unfair expectation.

Why wouldn’t my boyfriend or husband treat me with the same level of adoration and acceptance that my daddy did?

The answer: Because he is your father. Not your boyfriend/husband.

My dear father did not treat my mother with the same level of adoration & acceptance that he treated me.

…and in Ms. Osmond’s situation – I would bet that if she did some research….she’d discover that her Dad did not treat her Mom the same way he treated her. In addition, I seriously doubt that her brothers treat their respective wives with the same level of adoration & acceptance that they treat their one and only “little sister”.

Many years ago, when I was experiencing the frustration that goes with trying to understand why my boyfriend (who later became my husband) wouldn’t comfort me (the way my dad did) when I was sad….I went to bed that night and had a very vivid dream.

In this dream, I had a three year old daughter who was sobbing…and my boyfriend/husband was comforting her…telling her that things would be okay….the way a daddy would & should do to his daughter. In this dream, as I was watching this scene unfold…I was getting angrier and angrier…and thinking to myself…”why can’t he treat ME this way when I’m upset?”

Then the answer came to me as clear as a bell, “because I am his wife….not his daughter….”

After I woke up from this life altering dream….I immediately started to change the way I thought about relationships.

I started to set realistic expectations for my boyfriend/husband….and moved forward with my life as a recovering Daddy’s Girl.

At the end of the day, it is truly unfair to expect a boyfriend or husband to treat you with the same level of adoration & acceptance you might have experienced from your father or brother….because they certainly do not treat their wives that way!

Accept Adapt Move-on

***

On Wisdom and Failure

2008-09-16T18:43:00.002-08:00

“Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure.

We get very little wisdom from success, you know.”

**********************William Saroyan (1908-1981)

No Trace Living

2008-09-12T14:13:00.008-08:00

An increasingly popular philosophy to camping in the wilderness is called: no trace camping.

The primary goal in “no trace camping” is to have a minimal impact on the location that is visited. In other words, “Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints," or “Pack it in. Pack it out”

On a personal note, I expanded this philosophy to how I approach life, and coined the term, “No Trace Living”.

Buddhists believe in the doctrine of non-permanence or the transient nature of life or existence.

Nothing lasts forever. It’s not good to become too attached to things or situations or people, as things break, situations change, and people change and die. In many ways desire and attachment are two sides of the same coin.

As a general rule, I am someone who is most comfortable in the shadows…and choose to inspire or influence from deep background.

I make a strong effort to not define myself via external things….like objects, job titles, or activities like making a mark or leaving a legacy.

Instead, I choose to keep it simple...and define myself simply by: who I am when I’m not doing the things that I do.

And someday, when I’m gone…there will be nothing to remind anyone that I was here.

I’ll just be a whisper on the wind.

***

Timeless Quotes

2008-09-02T19:13:00.003-08:00

The Ten Cannots

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot establish security on borrowed money.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away
men's initiative and independence.

You cannot help men permanently by doing for them
what they could and should do for themselves.

*From the pen of Reverend William John Henry Boetcker (1873-1962),
(often wrongly attributed to Abraham Lincoln.)

The Paperweight

2008-08-30T14:12:00.011-08:00

A former co-worker of mine kept an unusual paperweight on her desk.

It was an expended bullet suspended in a heavy acrylic dome. If you flipped the paperweight over, there was an inscription on the bottom that said, "one shot. one kill."

After I got to know her better, I asked what the story was behind the paperweight. She said the paperweight was a gift. And that the bullet was retrieved from the site of a specific mission. (She never elaborated the what, when or why of "the mission")

She kept it on her desk as a constant reminder that one person can make a difference….but not necessarily for the better. And that it is important to choose your battles carefully.

You don’t want to win a battle only to lose the war.

To paraphrase my favorite Vorlon, “The truth is a three edged sword.”

***

Loyalty

2008-08-25T18:12:00.001-08:00

“Fire him if you want. But I'd keep an eye on him.

You never know how loyalty is born."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxMad Men (2007)

Life Happens

2008-08-16T08:30:00.003-08:00

The arrogance of youth is not a new concept.

Every generation comes of age with a hopeful idealistic fervor that makes them feel optimistic and invincible...without any awareness that there are unforeseen consequences to their choices or decisions.

But then through time and direct experience…life happens…and reality sets in.

The young person is given a choice: get angry, sell-out, or adapt.

1) Anger. Many people choose to become angry and frustrated when a square peg will not fit into a round hole. Or as Albert Einstein once described, “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

2) Sell-out. Others choose to compromise their integrity & principles in exchange for personal gain....rather than follow the original path he/she laid out for him/herself before life happened.

3) Adapt. Or another way of saying "grow-up" or "evolve." John Maynard Keynes has a great quote on this subject: When accused of being inconsistent, Mr. Keynes said, "Well, when I get new information I change my position. What, sir, do you do with new information?"

The choice is ultimately theirs.
xxx

Vorlon Sayings

2008-07-31T18:13:00.003-08:00

"Understanding is a three edged sword.

Your side, their side, and the truth"

***

*********************Kosh, Babylon 5

Judge Slowly

2008-07-11T12:03:00.002-08:00

In one of comedian Robert Wuhl’s HBO specials, “Assume the Position”, Mr. Wuhl shared an anecdote about legendary beauty/actress Hedy Lamarr. Ms. Lamarr was the Britney Spears of her era….a pretty actress that had notorious nude scenes in her early movies. One could easily assume that Ms. Lamarr was just another dumb actress/model. However, the same Ms. Lamarr invented & patented the designs for frequency hopping technology – originally intended to be used for torpedo guidance systems in World War II…but is still the basis for many of today’s electronic toys such as cell phones and Wi-Fi.

This is why it is important to Judge Slowly.

But humans by their very nature are quick to judge and label.

There is an old analogy entitled, “Oog & Ogg”.

Oog and Ogg are two cavemen who were walking through the primeval forest one day when they heard a twig snap in the trees behind them. Oog immediately thought, “Saber-toothed tiger!” and took off at top speed in the other direction. Ogg turned around and said, “Uh…. What’s that?”

Guess whose decedents we are.

What we can learn from “Oog” is that the ability of humans to rapidly identify (i.e. label) the things in our surroundings has been a major part of our survival. Being able to name things and do so as quickly as possible is a strong factor of human nature, whether we have enough information for a correct naming or not.

But this same ability to quickly judge and label can get in the way of our relationships with others and with our self.

Contrary to how the media presents the news, it is impossible to distill an individual or an entire lifetime down to a single sound bite.

But we still try.

Not much in society changes from High School: there is still the Jock (Peyton Manning), the Beauty (Angelina Jolie), The Nerd (Bill Gates), The Bad Boy (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), etc.

Families like to Label too: there is the Star (usually the oldest), there is the trouble-maker (usually born somewhere in the middle), and then there is the baby who doesn’t know anything (yeah, the youngest).

These labels are hard to shake.

Go to any family reunion or class reunion…and these old labels still hold on strong – whether they are still accurate or not.

But think about it for a moment. Are you today….who you were when you were 10 years old and beat-up your sibling? Or are you the same angry / rebellious adolescent you were at 16 years old? Or the same idealistic & ambitious soul you were at 20 years old…before life happened?

I sure hope not!

Life is a fluid process, not a label or a sound bite. People (this includes siblings & parents) need to be given the space to evolve, change, and mature over time.

Being quick to judge & label might have worked well for the cave man…but learning how to Judge Slowly can help out a lot more in your contemporary relationships with others…and with yourself.

References

Anonymous. (1997). Female Inventors: Hedy Lamarr. Retrieved July 10, 2008, http://www.inventions.org/culture/female/lamarr.html

Buchanan, L. (2008). Problems>Solutions>Innovations. Retrieved July 10, 2008, http://www.crviewer.com/

Wuhl, R. (2007). Assume the Position 201 with Mr. Wuhl. Retrieved July 10, 2008, http://www.hbo.com/events/rwuhl/

How to Make God Laugh

2008-06-21T03:45:00.000-08:00

“If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.”
***
Woody Allen

A Failure of Imagination

2008-06-19T08:03:00.009-08:00

Astronaut Frank Borman coined the phrase, “A failure of imagination” at the Senate hearings which investigated the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts during a standard communications test on the ground in Florida.

At the senate inquiry following the Apollo 1 fire – Senator Anderson questioned Astronaut Frank Borman, “What caused the fire?”

Frank Borman: "A failure of imagination. We've always known there was the possibility of fire in a spacecraft. But the fear was that it would happen in space, when you're 180 miles from terra firma and the nearest fire station. That was the worry. No one ever imagined it could happen on the ground. If anyone had thought of it, the test would've been classified as hazardous. But it wasn't. We just didn't think of it. Now who’s fault is that? Well, it's North American's fault. It's NASA's fault. It's the fault of every person who ever worked on Apollo. It's my fault. I didn't think the test was hazardous. No one did. I wish to God we had."

To the credit of NASA and its contractors, after the Apollo 1 tragedy, the problems with the equipment and the program itself were addressed and corrected. And, in July 1968, NASA successfully transported humans to the moon and returned them safely to the earth.

Humans by their very nature are a reactive species. Only after a tragedy or a near miss, are humans capable of considering proactive measures to avoid future potential problems.

In my opinion we can point to, “a failure of imagination” as the reason many day to day problems or larger tragedies occur.

In the 1980s a very successful corporation lost three members of its executive group in a helicopter crash. In addition to the human tragedy, this loss had a huge impact on the corporation’s bottom line. After that tragedy, it became corporate policy that two or more employees were not allowed to take the same airplane or helicopter on business related activities. They must be booked on separate flights.

When I entered the business world in the late 1980s I was stunned that this was not common practice among all organizations. At every organization I have worked for in the past twenty years (including the organization I work for today), it is not uncommon for over half the staff and the entire executive group to be booked on the same flight. Many times I have tried to bring up the potential huge loss that could impact the organization if the flight went down…but my bosses always gave me a blank stare…indicating yet another incidence of “a failure of imagination”.

By the same token, I recently had a conversation with the head of campus security for a big university. He shared with me that years ago he designed a forward thinking & progressive safety plan for students and faculty…if a lone gunman or other act of terrorism occurred on campus. He had a difficult time getting the University President and Chancellors to even consider reading his proposal let alone implementing it. HOWEVER, the day after the Virginia Tech massacre…they not only read the proposal but implemented it right away.

What does it take for humans to be proactive? What does it take for funding to be found to implement a progressive or pre-emptive strategy? It appears that only direct experience allows an idea to enter the realm of imagination….and then into a possible reality.

In the late 1950s, after the USSR launched Sputnik into orbit, the United States policy makers were launched into a frenzy to ensure that the United States remained competitive with the Soviets in the Space Race. In 1958, the United States passed the National Defense Education Act which increased funding for public education in math and sciences.

Similarly, after decades of educational complacency thanks to defeating the Soviets and ending the Cold War, the United States might need to consider a similar national education policy. In the book, “The Elephant and the Dragon”, the author discussed America’s possible response to the economic rise of India and China. To ensure the United States remains competitive in the decades to come with the exponential economic growth of China and India, the author proposes a 21st century twist to the National Defense Education Act to increase funding for education and innovation amongst America’s youth.

But at the end of the day, humans remain a reactive species. Only after the unthinkable has occured…or after the eminent threat of a tragedy is presented…are humans capable of even considering the possibility of taking (or funding) proactive measures.

References

Katz, S. (1998). From the Earth to the Moon. Retrieved June 10, 2008, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120570/quotes

Lederman, D. (2006) The Post Sputnik Era, Redux. Retrieved June 15, 2008,
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/27/aau

Meredith, R (2007). The Elephant and the Dragon. New York. W.W. Norton & Company.

Think Different

2008-06-08T15:12:00.011-08:00

“Commander, it is possible to commit no mistakes -- and still lose.”
Jean Luc Picard, Peak Performance, Star Trek: The Next Generation.

As every NFL Head Coach knows, and what the android Lt. Commander Data discovered playing Strategema against an alien Grand Master, is that it is possible to execute your game plan perfectly…and still lose.

In situations like this, it is important to learn to Think Different.

In the Star Trek episode, Peak Performance, Commander Data adapted his strategy from one of “trying to win”…to a strategy to play to a stalemate. In doing so, he sustained the game play for hours until the Grand Master became exhausted and quit.

In the late 1980s, the cyber crimes department of the federal government used a similar strategy when, during a two year period, there were a series of hacker break-ins to a variety of US Military Computers, including the computers of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories. The federal investigators initially implemented a traditional strategy of putting up a variety of firewalls and other security measures...which failed to stop the unknown hacker(s). In addition, the intruder’s connections lasted less than 5 minutes and were therefore unable to be traced.

The lead investigator, Dr. Clifford Stoll then decided to think different and allowed the hacker to easily break into a specific computer at Lawrence Berkeley Labs. Dr. Stoll ensured the computer held interesting documents on the Strategic Defense Initiative and other department of defense projects so the hacker stayed connected a long time reading and downloading these documents. This allowed the feds to trace the connection across the globe to Hanover, Germany and to identify the hacker and his accomplices who were ultimately brought to justice.

Sustaining the Signal

In Remote Viewing, the strategy is very similar. The main idea behind classic remote viewing is to sustain the signal.

If you have watched any movies or TV shows on psychic phenomena or what they call remote viewing, the process appears to be very dramatic as the psychic suddenly reacts as if being struck by lightening and then tells the audience of a dramatic revelation.

The TV strategy for psychic phenomena appears to be to conquer the signal line with lightning bolt clarity in a single step.

In reality, watching someone perform a remote viewing session is akin to watching paint dry. All you just see someone sitting at a table continuously writing and sketching on lots of pieces of paper.

The main idea behind all (or most) Remote Viewing Protocols is to sustain the signal for as long as possible. The first step in the protocol is to make a connection to the signal line…and each subsequent step in the protocol is designed to maintain the connection to the signal line for as long as possible while gleaning bits of information from the signal line…one piece at a time....to be pieced together later to (hopefully) form a complete picture.

The information gleaned by sustaining the signal is usually quite accurate…it is just not as sexy as conquering the signal with a melodramatic lighting bolt.

Reference:

Neuman, P.G. (1988) Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems.
Retrieved June 3, 2008, http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/6.68.html

Memorable Quotes

2008-05-30T19:34:00.007-08:00

"People with happy families don't become spies. A bad childhood is the perfect background for covert ops - you don't trust anyone, you're used to getting smacked around, and you never get homesick."

***

***

"Know what it's like being a spy? Like sitting in your dentist's reception area twenty-four hours a day. Read magazines, have coffee, and every so often, someone tries to kill you."

***

Michael Westen, Burn Notice (2007)

A Hierarchy of Needs

2008-05-27T18:54:00.017-08:00

I think I've learned exactly how the fall of man occurred in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, and Adam said one day, "Wow, Eve, here we are, at one with nature, at one with God, we'll never age, we'll never die, and all our dreams come true the instant that we have them." And Eve said, "Yeah... it's just not enough is it?"

Bill Hicks, comedian (1961 – 1994)

When I was working towards my Bachelors in Psychology…and later towards a MBA…I studied Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in classes related to organizational behavior and the psychology of personality.

As an intellectual exercise, Maslow’s Hierarchy Motivational of Needs seemed to make a certain amount of sense on how individuals are motivated…and to a certain extent how the needs and wants of communities/groups of people are established. But I never gave much thought to Maslow’s theory beyond class work. The below graphic outlines Maslow’s five basic levels of motivational needs in the traditional pyramid form: Physiological, Safety, Needs for Love Affection and Belongingness, Needs for Esteem, & Needs for Self-Actualization.

The gist of the hierarchy of needs is as follows…individuals/groups of people work their way up the pyramid from the most basic (deficiency) needs to the higher…more evolved (growth) needs…as each level of need(s) becomes satisfied.

I started to think about Maslow’s theory a lot recently, as I began to try to understand a variety of observations from my youth…and this theory seems to go a long way to explain many of them.

One example that comes to mind is within family groups. I grew up very middle class in a wealthy Southern California beach town and had the opportunity to watch rich & successful families up close & personal. Many of the wealthy parents in my town grew up poor and worked really hard to become rich and successful. If these folks had children AFTER they attained success, the children had a high sense of entitlement and demanded a lot of their parents. If however, these folks had their children while they were still struggling to make ends meet...the children seemed to be very grateful for whatever perks they received from (a successful) mom & dad.

Another thing I noticed is that parents (like mine) who grew up during the Depression seemed to function (as parents) on the lower levels of Maslow’s pyramid of needs: physiological & safety. Regardless of their levels of personal success, they felt they were doing a very good job as parents by providing their children with basic physiological and safety needs…probably because those needs were lacking in their own childhood(s). What was really interesting is that these parents felt completely confused and perplexed when their own children demanded so much more from them than they expected from their parents. Things like love, affection, a sense of belonging and self-esteem were perceived as trivial or frivolous rather than a legitimate need.

I guess at the end of the day, there really is something to Maslow's theory. Humans by their very nature are a needy bunch. As soon as one set of needs is fulfilled...they need something else...and can never seem to find contentment.

***

The late comedian Bill Hicks’ observation on human nature was right on target: “Yeah...it’s just not enough now...is it?”

References

Anonymous. (2007). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Retrieved May 27, 2008,
http://talkingtails.wordpress.com/2007/07/23/maslow-greek-philosophy-indian-mysticism/

Simons, J.A., Irwin, D.B., and Drinnien, B.A. (1987). Psychology: The Search for Understanding. Retrieved May 27, 2008, http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/maslow.htm

The Guest vs. The Thief

2008-05-17T22:43:00.006-08:00

“This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens when people stop being polite... and start getting real,” The Real World, MTV.

One of the analogies that Lyn Buchanan uses during training to illustrate the challenges that face the new remote viewer is entitled, “The Guest vs. The Thief”. This story is similar in concept to tagline for every season of MTV’s reality show, The Real World: where people stop being polite and start being real.

The analogy:

A person who lives in a house is aware of all the messy and unkempt parts of his home, and knows where all the secret things are, but has learned to live with them. For the most part, he cares very much about them, and vows to make them better one day, but for now, settles for things the way they are.

One day, a friend is expected to visit, so he cleans up the house for his guest to see, but generally puts more emphasis on those rooms in which the guest will actually visit. The guest sees what he is supposed to see and gets the impressions he is supposed to get, and then he leaves. For the most part, the guest cares about the person living there and wants the person succeed at being presentable.

A thief enters the house uninvited and begins to look into the medicine cabinets, the closets, the dresser drawers, under the beds, and other places which are not ready for his inspection, but which get visited, nonetheless. The robber, in looking for something to steal, sees that the person who lives there has hemorrhoids, keeps secrets, hides things under the beds, learns where the person doesn’t sweep or mop, and in general, learns a whole lot more about the person who lives there than a normal visitor would. For the most part, he doesn’t care about the person living there, except to find that person’s secret valuables and steal them.

The meaning of the analogy as it relates to remote viewing is as follows:

People, in their daily lives, allow their minds to become cluttered and disorganized. They mean to do better, but in general, learn to live with their minds they way they are.

When a person talks to you physically, face to face, that person plays the part of the invited visitor. That person sees your mind’s persona, its façade, and the personality you want to portray your mind as having. For the most part, the person talking to you wants to see that part of you. They want to deal with that part of your mind and then leave.

When a remote viewer enters your mind, or when you, as a remote viewer, enter the mind of others, it is as a robber in the night. The purpose of entry may be to simply seek one single fact – maybe plans and intentions for some stock deal or to learn about activities at some specific point in time. But in the process of finding that information, the remote viewer often has to look in the medicine cabinets or in the closets of the target person’s mind. He sees things which the target person thought were safely put away in mental hiding places. For the most part, the intruding viewer doesn’t care about these things, and only cares about what he is there to take. But he sees them.

The point is that when you remote view another person, you should be ready to see and experience some things you may not feel comfortable with (unless you really are a robber). You may find out things about a person you really don’t want to know. You may enter, wanting only to visit in that person’s mind, but uninvited or not, you can very easily wind up acting the role of the thief.

When that happens, the person can never feel the same about you again. Even if a friend of yours or some acquaintance invites you to remote view them – maybe to see that they are telling you the truth about some certain thing, be careful. You may learn much more about that person than you care to. You may find there some hidden resentment against you that they don’t even know about. You may find that the person you like so much is not likeable at all. You may never be able to feel the same way about them again.

The best general rule is to not remote view your friends, relatives, business partners, or other acquaintances, under any circumstances, unless it is absolutely necessary to do so. If you do, just be prepared to be very understanding and forgiving about what you may find in their minds.

Remember, you are there as a thief, not a guest.

The Unintentional Thief

One of the reasons I became trained as a remote viewer was because I am an anomalously sensitive person. In other words, I have a knack for unintentionally looking into the medicine cabinets and cupboards of other people’s minds. The remote viewing training has helped me to learn how to control this gift/curse, so now I have the choice of whether to look into the untidy parts of my co-workers minds….or not.

As an unintentional thief, I found it is important to have good manners and learned to be polite & vague when a friend, loved one, or co-worker is presenting a well maintained façade…while I know otherwise.

With a lifetime of experience being uncomfortably aware of the inconsistencies between the subtext of every human interaction with the polite conversation going on...on the surface …I’ve learned that everyone is not as they appear to be…not even the people I care most about in this world.

Finding a way to reconcile the fact that people are neither black nor white but rather everyone is a shade of grey…makes being an unintentional thief easier to live with.

References

Buchanan, L. (2008). Problems>Solutions>Innovations. Retrieved May 1, 2008, http://www.crviewer.com/

Ritchey, D. (2003). The H.I.S.S. of the A.S.P.: Understanding the Anomalously Sensitive Person. Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, Inc.

Blowback

2008-05-15T19:11:00.012-08:00

Blowback: A metaphor used to describe the unintended consequences of decisions &/or policies.

We'll See...

There is a Taoist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit.

"Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.

"We'll see," the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses.

"How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.

"We'll see," replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune.

"We'll see," answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

"We'll see" said the farmer.

References

Johnson, C. (2001). Blowback. The Nation. Retrieved May 10, 2008
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20011015/johnson

Sorkin, A. (2007). Charlie Wilson’s War. Retrieved May 10, 2008,
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0472062/

Zen Stories (2008). We’ll See. Retrieved May 10, 2008, http://goto.bilkent.edu.tr/gunes/ZEN/zenstories

Understanding vs. Judging

2008-05-06T06:15:00.006-08:00

"It is impossible to understand someone while simultaneously judging them."

***

(paraphrased) Yul 'Rock' Brynner II

Finding a Golden Ring

2008-04-29T12:40:00.009-08:00

What happens when you succeed in getting out of your own way?

“You'll find reality to be quite a bit different than you thought.” (Paraphrased) Lady Jessica Atreides, Children of Dune

Anyone who has attended one of Lyn Buchanan’s Controlled Remote Viewing (CRV) trainings is familiar with his love for analogies. There are 20 or so analogies included the CRV training manual and each student is expected to know them backwards and forwards. (Yes, students are quizzed on a random selection of these basic analogies upon returning for advanced trainings.)

The analogy that resonates most with me is entitled, “Finding a Golden Ring”:

Let’s say that you are digging in your back yard and find a golden ring. You will go and tell everyone you know about the wonderful windfall.

But let’s further say that you keep digging and find a large chest full of gold, gemstones, and other treasures. You will hide it and be very careful to tell only those select few people you can trust the most.

The meaning of the analogy – as it relates to remote viewing is as follows:

When a person first gets into remote viewing, he/she is amazed at what he/she can do. There is a strong initial desire to show off to friends and family. But once that person becomes a trained and experienced viewer, he/she realizes the big picture implications and thinks twice about who gets told.

For example, a new remote viewer may consider using ARV (associative remote viewing) to win the lottery or work the stock market. Initially, the viewer will make a big to-do about their new plans, ideas, or theories about how to make the system work better, etc. But when the money starts to roll in and the enormity of what they are doing finally dawns on them, they get quiet, drop out of public view, and drop off email lists, etc. In short, they stop wanting people to know that they have an edge over their competitors.

The public, in its desire to hear the loudest voice, moves on to the next new “expert”, and the person who has really become an expert goes on to very quietly develop a good thing into a great thing – a concept into a full-blown application – an idea into a science.

The bottom line to this analogy is that, if you want to find the people who know the most in this field, and who can do the best work, and have the most developed talents, look beyond those who are out making noise to the public. Look for the quiet ones.

In my opinion, this analogy is relevant not only to remote viewing but can easily be applied to any number of skill-sets or life lessons.

There is an old saying that: Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom

The impulse that drives us to attain new knowledge usually begins with pride and ends with a narrow perception of reality that is based on a lot of assumptions. The ego driven feeling that usually begins with the phrase if only:
· If only I could perfect my card counting strategy….I could Break Vegas
· If only I could hack through any computer’s security system…I could get rich
· If only I could perfect my healing technique…I could cure disease
· If only I could earn a 6th degree black belt in Krav Maga…I could get even
· etc.

And at first blush, any new knowledge has an initial wow factor…that initial enthusiasm combined with a strong desire to share with others. But there is a lot of wisdom in the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it.”

The direct experience of living with profound new knowledge has a way of altering or opening up one’s reality to a much bigger and more complicated picture.

Everything that you assumed would happen…the thrill of victory or success….evolves into an understanding of the greater burden of responsibility.

In my humble opinion, the lesson to be learned from the analogy of “Finding a Golden Ring” is: if you want to find the people who know the most in any field, have the most developed talents and the wisdom to know how to use it… look beyond those who are out making noise to the public. Look for the quiet ones…because Knowledge + Experience = Wisdom.

Reference

Buchanan, L. (2008). Problems>Solutions>Innovations. Retrieved May 1, 2008, http://www.crviewer.com/

The Challenges of Predictions and Prophecy

2008-04-26T21:07:00.008-08:00

Note from the publisher: It doesn't take a rocket scientist to make a correlation between today's headlines, blogs, & popular books to what some folks refer to as "end times". A recent interview between CNN's Glenn Beck and author Joel Rosenberg regarding his new novel, Dead Heat compelled me to re-publish this article I wrote for Miri's Corner back in April of 2006 on The Challenges of Predictions and Prophecy.

***

In the universe of Star Wars, a young boy named Anakin Skywalker was believed to be the Chosen One written about in Jedi prophecy. It was said that the Chosen One was destined to bring balance to the Force by destroying the Emperor and the Sith.

As the story goes, Anakin Skywalker did indeed bring balance to the Force and did destroy the Sith….but not the way that the Jedi Council “assumed” he would based on their interpretation of the prophecy. Instead, Anakin Skywalker joined the Sith as Darth Vader. It was only after many decades of bloodshed that Anakin finally destroyed the Emperor and brought balance to the Force. When Anakin did destroy the Emperor, he did not do it as a Jedi Knight, nor as the ambitious Darth Vader. Instead Anakin destroyed the Emperor as a concerned father who wanted to save his son, Luke Skywalker, from the evil Sith.

The primary challenge for accurately interpreting a prediction or prophecy is the context.

Context is often defined as a set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event.

As a general rule, when a person has a clairvoyant or intuitive vision or dream, the individual receives a gestalt of images and facts…but the individual is rarely given the context or full meaning of the prediction or prophecy.

Let’s pretend for a moment that Rose Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy Clan, had her tea leaves read at a garden party in the 1920s or 1930s...and was told that one of her sons would become the President of the United States. At this moment in time, Rose Kennedy would probably assume that the tea leaf reader was referring to her eldest son, Joe Jr. After all, Joe Jr. was the chosen one who was being groomed for leadership. By the same token, at this moment in time the last person Rose Kennedy would assume would rise to Presidency was Jack...her sickly, studious and bookish son. However, without having the context of time, Rose would have no idea that her son Joe Jr. would come to a tragic end in an airplane accident in the 1940s or that Jack would overcome his illnesses to become a famous war hero and charismatic Congressman and Senator.

In a real life example, during the month of November in 1981 seven young people (Alphonsie, Emmanuel, Anathalie, Marie-Claire, Stephanie, Agnes, and Vestine) saw an apparition of the Virgin Mary as well as had many prophetic visions in Kihebo, Rwanda, Africa. During one vision of the future, which lasted 8 hours, the young people saw graphic images of tragedy including massacres, decapitated bodies, and so many bodies thrown into rivers…that it appeared the rivers were running red with blood.

Without the context of time, geography, or politics many people across the globe who heard of this prophecy assumed the vision was the prophecy of a global apocalypse. However, now we know that these visions were not of a global apocalypse, but instead of the Rwandan holocaust that came to pass 13 years later.

Context is also an issue for remote viewing. The former government remote viewer Paul Smith related the following anecdote in his book, Reading the Enemy's Mind. Occasionally the remote viewers were given a directed or open search task, in which the blinded prompt or coordinate was consistent with the phrase, "Tell us something important that is going to happen in the next 24 hours.” During an open search remote viewing session that occurred on Friday, May 15, 1987, Paul Smith described a US military vessel, moving through water at night being hit by a missile of some type from an aircraft flying above. In addition, Paul Smith suggested that the aircraft originated from a Third World country…possibly an Arabic location.

On Monday morning, May 18, 1987, Skip Atwater called Paul Smith and told him to look at the newspaper. The headline story in The Washington Post stated that a US frigate was attacked by an Iraqi missile in the Gulf. The USS Stark had been on maneuvers when an Iraqi Mirage fired a missile at it. The missile hit the frigate which was sinking in the Persian Gulf and many Americans were killed in the attack.

This is an example of a highly accurate and impressive remote viewing session that occurred several hours prior to the described attack. However, without the context of the described incident…such as the specifics of time, geography, politics or even the players involved…what is a person to do with the information?

Many futurists and clairvoyants of the 20th century described several Orwellian type predictions for the modern world. Some of these predictions included populations of drugged humans, experiments that included combining human and animal “parts” to create the ultimate warriors, and lastly Big Brother type surveillance cameras that would track the comings & goings of ordinary people.

Flash forward to the year 2006 and all of these predictions have come true…except not in the Totalitarian way that these futurists or clairvoyants assumed. For example today we have an unprecedented number of ordinary people who willingly take prescription drugs (i.e. Prozac, Oxycontin, diabetic medications, cholesterol medications, anti-aging regimens, Viagra, Cialis, Levitra, etc). In fact the average person demands access to pharmaceutical drugs. Consider the recent demand for Medicare Part D legislation by constituents.

In addition, the world of professional and Olympic athletics...one could describe these athletes as the warriors of today. The headlines over the past few years (i.e. the BALCO scandal) described the preponderance of steroids (synthetic, recombinant and animal steroids), human growth hormone, and assorted other drugs that the athletes willingly broke the law to take in an effort to give themselves a competitive edge.

Lastly, have you watched television lately? There is a wide range of Reality TV shows produced all over the globe. Ordinary folks stand in line for hours just for the privilege of auditioning to participate on a TV show in which they would be followed around with cameras 24/7…just to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Without the context of time or culture…the interpretations of above predictions assumed only a Totalitarian regime could force drugs and surveillance cameras on populations or force warriors to submit to chemical manipulations. Within the correct cultural context, the above predictions describe an ordinary life in the 21st century that demands access to prescription drugs, the opportunity to be on a Reality TV show and athletes that are willing to break the law to gain a competitive edge.

Another challenge to interpreting predictions or prophecies is the explanation of technologies that one doesn’t have any context for.

For example, how would a simple shepherd from a few hundred or a few thousand years ago describe two F-14 fighter jets dog fighting in the skies above their flocks? Perhaps the shepherd would describe two fire breathing dragons screeching in the skies overhead? Or maybe a more eloquent shepherd might describe something consistent with the Book of Ezekiel in the Bible?

The challenge of accurately describing technologies is not limited to ancient prophecies. This is also a challenge for today’s remote viewers and intuitive healers.

In their respective books, both Judith Orloff and Russell Targ described the importance of having a solid background in anatomy, physiology, or medicine prior to pursuing intuitive healing techniques. If the healer does not know what he/she perceives how can the healer help the patient?

In addition, if a remote viewer is being tasked to observe a laboratory or factory, it would be beneficial for the remote viewer to have a background in physics or engineering.

Think about it for a moment. Even the most accurate remote viewer would be challenged to describe a technology that he or she has no reference for. It is best to task a remote viewer that has the appropriate technological training or background to ensure the best chance of a proper description or context of what is being viewed.

Lastly, another challenge for accurately interpreting a prediction or prophecy…is the ability of the seer to clearly articulate and accurately describe what is being seen.

There is a humorous scenario that was depicted in an episode of the HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon. In the episode the Apollo astronauts not only had to learn geology, but they also had to be able to accurately describe the lunar landscape to geologists and artists back on earth at NASA. The astronaut’s geology professor took the astronauts out to various desert landscapes and sent one astronaut out to a remote location with a walkie-talkie. The astronaut was instructed to describe the landscape to a fellow astronaut hundreds of meters away armed with a sketch pad & pencil. The clumsy montage of descriptions and rough sketches illustrated the importance of being able to clearly articulate and accurately describe what one is “seeing”.

In my basic remote viewing class we were given a very similar exercise that also illustrated this very important point. The students were partnered up and one student was given a sketch pad and pencil while the other student was given a photograph. The student with the photograph was tasked with describing the image in the photograph while the other student was tasked with drawing the image using only the other student’s descriptions as a guide. The results were both humorous and humbling…which illustrated the importance and the challenge of clearly articulating and accurately describing what is being seen.

It doesn’t matter how clear the image is in your head…if you cannot articulate it or communicate it in an accurate manner.

There are many challenges for accurately interpreting a prediction or prophecy. The context or set of facts or circumstances that surround the prediction or prophecy is a big challenge to overcome. The context of time, evolution of cultures, politics, or changes in relationships, or changes in emotional states can radically skew the interpretation of a prediction.

In addition, it also a challenge for a seer to accurately explain technologies that he/she doesn’t have any context for. And lastly, the ability of the seer to clearly articulate and accurately describe what is being seen is also a major challenge to be over come.

References

Atwater, F.H. (2001). Captain of My Ship, Master of My Soul: Living With Guidance. Charlottesville, SC: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Buchanan, L. (2003). The Seventh Sense: The Secrets of Remote Viewing as Told by a "Psychic Spy" for the U.S. Military. New York: Paraview Pocket Books.

McMoneagle, J. (1993). Mind Trek: Exploring Consciousness, Time, and Space Through Remote Viewing. Charlottesville, SC: Hampton Roads Publishing Company.

Nelson, R. (2006). Marian Apparitions & Prophecies. Retrieved April 29, 2006, http://www.rexresearch.com/mary/maryapps.htm

Orloff, J. (2000). Guide to Intuitive Healing: 5 Steps to Physical, Emotional and Sexual Wellness. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Orloff, J. (1996). Second Sight. New York: Warner Books, Inc.

Ritchey, D. (2003). The H.I.S.S. of the A.S.P.: Understanding the Anomalously Sensitive Person. Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, Inc.

Smith, P. (2005). Reading the Enemy's Mind: Inside Star Gate, America's Psychic Espionage Program. New York: Forge Books.

Targ, R. & Katra J. (1998) Miracles of Mind: Exploring Non-local Consciousness and Spiritual Healing. Novato, CA: New World Library.

Targ, R. & Katra J. (1999) The Heart of the Mind. Novato, CA: New World Library.

***

Zen Proverb

2008-04-18T12:42:00.009-08:00

Before Enlightenment
...chop wood...carry water.

After Enlightenment
...chop wood...carry water.

The Tao of Miri

2008-04-18T12:23:00.008-08:00

The "Tao of Miri" is a tapestry of balance:
(which is a nice way of saying...this philosophy is a work in progress...just like its author)

- Be serene amidst the madness

- Be gracious

- Be moderate in all things

- Be polite (respectful)

- Be in your body and in your heart

- Be one with yourself

- Be still

- Define yourself not by what you do, but by who you are (when you are not doing the things that you do)

- Surrender to the process

- Give yourself permission to be vulnerable (it takes courage to be vulnerable)

- Lead from the shadows (learn how to inspire others to act)

- Live your life with simplicity

*To paraphrase Bill Murray in Ghostbusters: Actually, these are more guidelines than rules...

;-)

Who is Miri?

2008-04-18T09:08:00.009-08:00

Born: 1964
Height: 5’7”
Ethnicity: Asian / Pacific Islander / White

Geography: I currently live outside of Anchorage, Alaska. I moved to Alaska from a sleepy little beach town in Southern California in 1992.

Personal Life: I am happily married to a terrific Alaskan guy. We have a lot of fun together and love to travel, scuba dive and fly fish.

Things I enjoy: In no particular order, I enjoy working-out in my basement, reading non-fiction books, watching movies & special edition DVD’s, conversations with my Mom, reiki, massages, shamanic healing, scuba diving and fishing.

Favorite Music & TV Shows (Past & Present): My musical tastes are quite diverse. But if I had to choose, my top two favorite types of music would be: Classic Rock & Jazz/New Age. Like my musical tastes, my favorite TV shows range from the fluffy to the intense. They include (but are not limited to): Deadwood, Dexter, Rome, The Simpsons, South Park, Star Trek, Babylon 5 & Battlestar Galactica.

Guilty Pleasure: ESPN Sports talk radio

Favorite All Time Comedian: Bill Hicks

Desert Island Movies: If I were stranded on a desert island, my "must have" movies would include: The Godfather, Chinatown, LA Confidential, Seven Days in May, Terminator and Office Space.

Desert Island Books: If I were stranded on a desert island, my short list of books would include: Lao Tsu’s “Tao Te Ching”, Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” and Viktor E. Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”. Although the above books are short in length, I get a fresh perspective with every reading.

Strengths & Weaknesses / Life Philosophy & Future Goals: I am at my best in a “crisis”. And my biggest challenge is living a balanced & serene lifestyle. My motto these days is: Life is not a “to do” list. My life goals are simple: to integrate learning, growing and evolving as part of my lifestyle.

Miri's Retreat & Miri's Corner

2008-04-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

Greetings Readers:

It has been almost two (2) years since my last post on Miri's Corner.

A lot has happened during this hiatus including assorted learning experiences (both spiritual and practical) that I would like to share with you on my new blog: Miri's Retreat.

The posts on Miri's Retreat will continue the journey that began on Miri's Corner.

I am not sure how often I will be able to post. But I promise that the blog entries will be interesting and of the quality you experienced on Miri's Corner. (Occassionally I may re-post a blog entry from the archives of Miri's Corner that might feel more timely today than yesterday.)

I hope you will find your way back to Miri's Retreat in the near future.

Enjoy!

***