Greetings from Big Island!

Just wanted to say hi!

I would blog more but, as you can see..... I'm a little busy! ;-)






More on the trip later!!

So it has happened......

We have gotten to the point in the season when American Idol annoys me and I stop watching.....

This is typically the point when the popularity contest portion of the show overweighs the talent/singing component......

I started to lose some interest when Sabrina got voted off a few weeks ago.... But I am officially disengaged now. Stephanie, who has one of the best voices, got voted off yesterday and Sanjaya and Hailey are still on the show....... The pre-pubescent white boys and girls of America are deciding this competition......

I guess I shouldn't be surprised..... this is, after all, season 6! But for some reason I keep holding out the hope that the one with the most talent will actually win one of these seasons.... (Well, Fantasia was good....)

I suppose I should be happy for Stephanie, she has escape the "Top Ten" and I think that means that she won't be obligated to tour with this group for the next year or make a record with these folks, after the show is over..... I mean, look what Jennifer Hudson did with her ticket back home.....

So Stephanie goes the way of Tamyra Gray and LaToya London...... Hopefully she will get some good management out of this opportunity and use it as a stepping stone. Everyone seems to forgot that she is only 19!

And I think, even though I still love LaKisha, Melinda & Jordan (and even Blake) and would be happy if one of them won it all, I don't think that I will be watching the show so much anymore....

I am......disillusioned once again......

Why are we so hard on ourselves???

So as we all know, we have a black candidate running for the Democratic nomination for president. This is something worthy of note, of praise even. This is the third such time in history. This is actually a candidate that has some of the highest credentials of any black candidate to date and the highest potential to garner broad appeal across the country, save perhaps someone like Colin Powell. So....... why aren't black people coming out in droves to support this man?!?!? Isn't that what happened when Jesse Jackson ran? Al Sharpton even seemed to have more popular black support than we seem to be giving Barack these days.....

So, why is this? He has a funny name.... He isn't really black, his dad was African and his mom was white..... The fact is, to the general public, he looks like a black man. And what ever his actual ethnic heritage, he has made a name in Illinois and in the US Senate as someone who is dedicated to the issues that black people really care about.

It is funny how we as people hold our own leaders to higher standards than the majority..... True they do represent the whole race when they take that position or that office but do they not deserve our support unless they are a saint or an icon? Are we shooting ourselves in the foot waiting for the perfect candidate? The point is, no one is perfect and you don't have to be perfect to be president (George Bush and even Bill Clinton, as much as I like him, are evidence of that!) we need more representation so that we can even the playing field, so that each and every black candidate can stop feeling this inordinate burden.

Or maybe this is more of the "crabs in a barrel" effect.... The fact is, most black people don't know any more about Hilary Clinton's politics than Barack Obama's, they are just lazily giving her their support because of her association with Bill. Yes, she is smart but she seems to lack to ability to transmit charm and charisma in her speeches and to the audience like her dear husband could/can.... And that is what, in the end, drives people to vote and support you.

So I am not saying just blindly support Obama because he is black...... But what I am saying is do your research, black people! Vote for the candidate that is most closely aligned with your issues. But if you are going to follow someone blindly......let it be the black man..... because, yes, even with a white mama and a funny name. he is still one of us!

An amateur takes on the NCAA.....

So, I finally decided to get in the pool at work for the NCAA championship..... And I made my bracket choices on ESPN. Now, I know really not much at all about NCAA basketball, despite the fact that I went to two big basketball schools. (I am sure many guys would find it a travesty that I only attended about 3 of the many free games that I could have attended while in school.) But, bolstered by the good performance by one of my alma maters and figuring that all of that college basketball news I have overheard over the year must be worth something, I decided to put my hat in the ring.

After a little bit of research, some school loyalty and some educated guessing, I have my bracket....


So far, only one of the teams I picked is out and I am tied for first in my pool! Now, I don't expect this to last but if it keeps up, I could do alright. Wish me luck!

A little bit can make a big difference......

In the wake of legislation by Australia to phase out regular incandescent light bulbs, a couple big private companies in the US are leading the charge here in this country, trying to put pressure on the government to get out of the pockets of large industry lobbies and do something to encourage efforts to slow global warming and ensure that our children actually have land to live on and the world doesn't turn into one large lake!

A coalition led by Phillips, the countries largest lightbulb manufacturer, is recommending the phase our of regular incandescent bulbs by 2016. These light bulbs that we use everyday are huge wasters of electricity because they do not very efficiently convert it into light. In fact, think of it this way, if you can use it in your Easy Bake Oven to bake a cake, then then of all the energy that is wasted as heat in every single light bulb in every lamp or light in people's houses. Only 10% of it's energy is used for light. The rest is wasted.... Compact flourescent light bulbs, yes those funny spiral ones that you see in the stores that cost more than regular bulbs, use so much less energy. So while they may cost more up front, they will save you much more on you electricity bill later!


Also, WalMart, in support of these efforts, in conjunction with GE, another major US lightbulb manufacturer, has started a major push to support the use of CFLs and sell at least one of these light bulbs to each of it's 110 million customers over the next 12 months. And the impact of this effort would not be small......

"....if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads." "How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World? One. And You're Looking At It.," September 2006, Fast Company.

Not small stuff! So, next time you go to the store, consider getting one of those funny swirly lightbulbs and do something good for yourself and the world.

For more info see these articles....

http://abcnews.go.com/International/CSM/story?id=2948686

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/108/open_lightbulbs.html

My morning obstacle course.....

So, first of all.... it is supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny today! And then, I felt like I was in a level of the Sims getting to work today! Is someone conspiring against me?!?

So, my commute to work is only 2 miles but there where like 5 obstacles in my way this morning. First, construction had taken the main road that I take down to one lane for both ways about a 1/4 of a mile from my house so it took a few minutes before the policeman who was directing traffic let us pass. Then, about a block away, they had taken the street down to one lane each way at this intersection, which caused a little confusion.

So then, it seemed like I was home free.... I made the turn to cut through this residential neighborhood that runs behind my office building and when I got to the part where I vear left, there, with no warning of the impending detour, was a motocycle cop there directing folks to vear right instead because the road was closed. Curses! So I veared right and looped around back on the the road I started on to try to take an alternate route. Mind you, this neighborhood is notoriously tricky to navigate. My theory is that they made all the roads turn and winds aroound to keep the black people from coming near all the rich white folks homes! I mean, I am pretty directionally astute (people ask me for directions when I am in foreign countires!) but it even took me a while to get this whole things figured out...... So back on the other road, II veared left instead of right like a did originally to loop around and end up on the street I was heading for in the first place.

Home free right? Well, not quite..... When I am almost out of the neighborhood, there was another motorcycle cop pulling folks over for going over 30mph in this 25mph residential neighborhood as they cut through on their way to work. (Mind you, lets not talk about the fact that , 3 miles away, there are folks standing on street corners selling drugs just around the corner from the police headquarters -- that is a story for another time.) This traffic stop didnt surprise me --- they do this at least once every month, probably because some rich person complained about the traffic in their lovely tree lined neighboorhood and also because, it is much eaiser and more lucrative to harass people who are on their way to work with a ticket than actually do something to make the streets safer for the majority of it's citizens. I mean, if they are on their way to work, at least you know that they have a job and will likely just pay the ticket. (I won't how much revenue this little endeavor routinely brings in...)

With this on top of all the other obstacles in my way, I began to wonder if someone wasn't trying to tell me something and I shouldn't just turn around and head on back home.... But then I remembered that I have a meeting with boss this morning to talk about my annual salary treatment for the year.....

And here I am at my desk! Money can be a a good motivator for some things!

Its the little things.....

So, i got word a little while back about the bonus percentage that folks got for 2006 at my old company --- it was like a record high bonus percentage (I have my theories about why but we won't get into all that.) I couldn't help but feel a little upset. I had actually forgone a half year's bonus when I changed jobs last year and then, on top of that, I could have had a huge bonus if I stayed......

But then I started thinking......"how would I really quantify the piece of mind that I have as result of my job change?" I was so unhappy at my old job, unmotivated by working on trials and projects that would only end up getting cancelled when it was time for the company to actually pony up real money to support it..... Instead, I am working at a new company in a new division that is viewed as the future of the company, that the company is reinvesting it's profits into to make it a success. I am surrounded by a bunch of people who are hardworking and engaged instead of just working for a paycheck and finding every way to not do anything more than the basics......

And really, it is the little things that show the difference. People care about their surroundings, they clean up after themselves in the kitchen and clean the microwaves out if they spill something, the mail people take down any mail that is left in the outbox, even if it is personal mail, the refrigerator gets cleaned out every week....... Now, none of these things seem like big deals but it was the opposite of how it was at my old company and it indicative, I think, of a general difference in attitude that I really appreciate.

I was talking to my mom on the phone, when a co-worker, who also used to work at my old company, called to confirm that the bonus % someone had told her about was really true. When I clicked back over, I was telling my mom about it and she made this comment about me being much happier now. I know I am happier now but I didnt really know it was that evident! So how do you quantify piece of mind? Guess money really can't buy you happiness.....

Feeling political.....The state of the Republican ticket for 2008 presidential race....

So I was watching Bill Maher last night. He may be irreverent at times but he really hits the nail on the head at times......



This is why I decided that politics and a government career was not for me..... At least in business no one professes to be anyone's moral compass.....

Annoyed......

So, this daylight savings time change is just another reason why I am annoyed with this moronic president that we have. Not only has he turned a trade surplus into a gaping, record setting trade deficit, used short-sided, sophomoric and duplicitous rationale to plunge us into a war analogous to a 21st century Vietnam, and set US diplomatic relations back 25 years, he's got to mess with time too!?!?

Now, the rationale for this change is the "energy savings" of less electricity used since there is more natural light during the hours that people are awake (yeah, I dont really get this either) and the potential economic lift that could possible come from more daylight in the evenings that would encourage people to be out, about and spending money during this additional time of light.

Oh come on! Talk about grasping at straws! How about the money that companies are having to spend in overtime to reprogram computer systems and apply patches to "accomodate" a change that has been automated for years?? I understand to benefit of DST in general (I'll talk more about that in a future post) but how about trying applying some real fiscal policy instead of grasping for lame meaningless PR attempts at improving the economy...... But then again, that would be contrary to anything that has happened during his two terms as president. Why expect it to change now?

I can't believe this is the guy folks elected to represent our country.....



Can we just get him out of here before he does any more damage???

Word of the Day: Eponymous

I learned a new word today that I have really never heard of before..... Thought i would share....

Eponymous: An eponymous person is the person referred to by the eponym. In contemporary English, the term eponymous is often used to mean self-titled. The word eponym is often used for the thing titled.

Example: Corinne Bailey Rae released her eponymous debut album in February 2006....

Hmph!......

Coming back to bite you.....

Here is my little Internet PSA, especially for those of you who are TV-less! :-) I was watching Good Morning America this morning and two stories really underpinned the affect that the internet can have on a person's professional reputation.....

The first was about the lopsided policies of American Idol with regards to treatment of contestants who had "racy" pictures appear on the Internet when they were contestants. Most of us remember Frenchie from Season 2 of Idol who was booted from the show for photos of her, topless and in lingerie, that surfaced on the internet. Now, Antonella Barba, a prettier, skinnier, whiter, and less talented contestant is being supported by American Idol and has remained on the show despite a number of riske and "Girls Gone Wild" like pictures that are bouncing around the web.

The second was a story about how a Yale law student with perfect credentials found that she could not get job interviews and callbacks because of false statements made about her by "friends" on the internet. Reportedly 11-33% of employers do internet searches on job candidates.

Both of these stories really underpin how "unanonymous" the internet can be and how what you post can come back and bite you. While most of these hard lessons are being learned by a younger, MySpace generation who is manically sharing intimate details of their lives online, everyone should be aware of what the internet says about you. There is even a name for this -- narcisurfing! Now, I have googled my name before just to see what is out there about me. I am sure many of you have done so as well. But I was a little taken aback when a new friend of mine made a comment to me about a blue dress I wore in a wedding many years before we met and had never spoken about. So, even if you have done this before, as internet search engines become more robust and refined, the results that come up may change. I now see, in addition to the wedding pictures my friend mentioned, information from my high school alumni website coming up when I search my name, which wasn't there before. Now, none of this worries me personally but it is something to be mindful of......

Also, consider that your internet "alias" may not be as anonymous as you think either. I am amazed by the screennames and pictures that grown women are using to represent themselves on Internet dating sites..... In these profiles, people share where they live, it is conceivable that you could be recognized by someone from you internet dating profile. I remember when I first got on an internet dating site, did a search and easily found the profile of someone that I worked with. Also, I know of people with blogs high readership that get recognized on the street in their hometown or when traveling through the pictures they have posted.

Interestingly, this issue has spawned a new set of services available to "clean up" or defend a person's internet reputation. Companies like reputationdefender.com help people identify and "destroy" negative or inaccurate content about them on the internet.

This issue gives the saying "Know thyself" a whole new meaning! Just something to think about! Enjoy your day!

The "plug-in drug"

So a recent post from Brunsli about how she doesn't own a TV has gotten me thinking about my TV habits.....

I am one person with 4 TVs in the house! This sounds a little excessive, I admit, but in my defense i still have and use the first TV I ever bought myself in 1994 or 95.... And then I bought another one in, maybe.... 200o or so. I will say that TV purchases definitely picked up when I got my house (seems like a lot of purchases pick up when you do that!) and I added 2 new ones in the past 6 months. In defense, one is for the guest room, so I have never really watched that one at all.... But the other.....well!..... It is a work of art! Guys come over and drool about watching the Superbowl on it!!

Perhaps, I am overstating this slightly. But that empty wall in my den just tapped into the inner technology lover in me...... So when the inner budget shopper in me found a great deal on a 58" rear-projection DLP HD TV (that's right, I said 58") I just had to buy it!


So, honestly, I primarily watch this TV, understandably...... And my DVR allows me to not act like a TV-obsessed freak! In fact the season pass feature allows me to catch stuff that I probably would have missed otherwise.... But the cool thing is, I can watch the shows whenever I want or feel like it, as long as I dont run out of space.... For example, I am about 5 shows behind on Lost and that is okay...... I will catch up when I get in the mood. (I just have to avoid any clues in the commercials!)

So, I think that I have this "TV thing" because I didn't have a TV in my room when I was a kid and we didn't have cable (I had to go to friend's houses for that). In fact, I saw my first music video on MTV at my friend Kathy Belcher's house in first grade.... All of these things were probably good. TV never took over my life and I was always busy with activities growing up. But TV still had a certain importance in my life because, oddly, it made me feel closer to my dad. He and I "bonded" over TV. We had similar taste in TV shows when I was growing up and I remember fondly watching "Miami Vice" with him every Friday night for years....... Also, I have found that in my travels to other countries (especially the extended trips), as enjoyable as they may be, they can stressful. In those cases, it is a luxury to decompress by watch good ol' familiar American TV! There is just nothing like it....

So maybe, to me, sometimes TV means comfort.... For the reasons mentioned above....

Okay.... I am hooked!!

Wanted to turn you all onto a site that I was recently introduced to by my friend, Q....

I am hooked on www.last.fm!

Basically, it is a cool internet radio and music community site..... but it is more than that! The thing is.... it tracks and learns your musical taste! It allows you to

• share what you have listened to with others,
• make recommendations to friends,
• tag music,
• mark the songs you love,
• listen to playlists of songs by artists similar to ones you like,
• listen to playlists of genres of music that you like
• listen to your own personal radio station (based on your musical listening taste)
• listen to other's radio stations

Here is my dashboard:



Very cool! Most functions are available without a subscription but a subscription is only $3/month so that is totally reasonable. And I have to say that it is really refreshing to hear different kinds of music and be exposed to artists you have not heard of before, especially in these days when traditional radio stations play the same 20 songs over and over again. And, while I have always been a lover of hip hop from way back, seems like the genre it is going in the toilet right now.... Also, the site is British so I have heard some new things that I have never heard before, even some Tribe Called Quest songs that must have only been released in Europe.

I will say, be patient about some of the searches, it take a while to learn to get what you want out of them. sometime genre searches work better than artist searches for some things.

The other thing is the online members have an ability to make it better. By tagging tracks, you help further categorize the music so searches are better....

Try it out, peeps!

Alright.....I admit it!.....

I have no butt!...... Well, not to speak of.....

I mean, not the kind of butt that black men talk about when they talk about butts..... It doesn't have a mind of it's own.... It doesn't follow me when I walk...... It doesn't jiggle and it doesn't clap...

In this age of internet dating, i am finding myself eventually asked if i have a butt.... And I will just admit to you all that this is not really one of my assets.....


Now, don't get me wrong.... I like my butt, I am not so worried about it getting droopy as I get older or anything but it is just not big.....and I am black. We are supposed to have butts, right?!?!

If I was white I would probably like my butt and have issues with other things that I am happy with about myself now....

So, I guess no matter who you are, there is always something that you wish that you can change... But it is what it is..... :-)

Thanks for accommodating my ridiculous rant!

The Big Reveal........

Sporting a luxurious black fur coat and white tipped boots, here she is!

So, she is almost 7 months old now...... Thought I would share how the puppy is growing!! She is looking rather dog-like now! And she is a real sweetheart and a really happy dog (with only a few bad habits ;-)

Unfathomable!!

I just met someone who doesn't really like desserts...... So initially you think...... okay, some people don't like asparagus, some don't like mushrooms, some don't like onions, this person doesn't like desserts and I moved on with the conversation..... But my brain just wouldn't let it go, like it didn't really fully compute.... Desserts is a big wide catagory and I really like a lot of things in it! Like chocolate.......cheesecake......ice cream..........cookies........cakes........ And this person says that they like vegetables!

Okay, so now I just think they are from another planet!! Doesn't like desserts, likes vegatables.... Is this phone being tapped!?!?! Should I get away from the windows before I get abducted by aliens?!??Actually, I have been thinking a lot about the importance that food has in my life, especially as I talk to new people.... And this is not just an emotional eating thing.... perhaps it is more an emotional cooking thing.... I like to eat but I also really like to cook, to experiment in the kitchen and to produce something that tastes great and brings people joy. I have a bookcase exclusively for cookbooks that is overflowing and even with that I routinely look for new recipes on the internet.... I hae developed forensic tastebuds, I am always trying to isolate the ingredients in the food I taste. I get inspiration from food I taste, and ingredient I see, magazines I read, a cooking show I watch and decide to cook something new just for the fun of it........I enjoy grocery shopping........ (What!? Okay now I am sure that you really think I am crazy!) I am excited by vacuum sealers, Danish filled pancake pans and hazelnut oil..... (yes, she is a straight loon!!)

I have loved cooking since I was like 10-11, when i discovered that I could cook dinner for my parents as an anniversary gift and get them to pay for the ingredients! ;-) And if I think back on a lot of my favorite places, or places I have visited, a lot of my favorite memories revolve about the good food I have had while I was there (which, as I think about it, is probably a little unusual).... I was so excited yesterday because I was looking through this coffee table/cookbook I had on food from Italy and there was a recipe in it for Fried Zucchini Flowers, which was one of my favorite things from Florence, Italy when I visited there after high school.....

And I could never be a professional bodybuilder because by nature, to succeed, you need to redefine food as simply fuel and I enjoy food and the variety of tastes too much. I have a friend who competes in amateur body building competitions and when she is preparing for a competition all she eats is plain grilled checken breast and dry salad....... I would be bald if I had to survive on that!!!


I love the variety and diversity of food...... Okay now, what was I talking about.... Oh yeah, well.....more dessert for me!!! :-)