Office After

After

Office Before

Before

Sunrise from slow train

Cynicism or Realism?

"Anyone who planned to enjoy the world
is now faced
with a hopeless task."

- Wislawa Szymborska

Poetical Thoughts

"Despair is turning away from human commerce, it is silence." Edward Hirsch from "How To Read a Poem."

Superman

Complete with cowlick (sp?) and stern countenance. No Kryptonite in
sight. Disregard the belt askew, Superman just came from a battle with Lex Luthor.

Poetry in my daily life - through 12/19

12/16 - "in America, you must say it twice, and then once again..."

12/18 - "We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the
quarrel with ourselves, poetry." W. B. Yeats

12/19 - Keats untitled poem "This living hand, now warm and capable Of
earnest grasping, would, if it were cold And in the icy silence of the
tomb, So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights That thou would
wish thine own heart dry of blood So in my veins red life might stream
again, And thou be conscience-calmed--see here it is--I hold it
towards you."

Training to Boston

I'm heading to Boston for meetings with folks at MIT and Harvard to discuss financial aid systems. I have an Amtrak train out of NYC at 6:20 and so am to taking the 4:38 out of Hamilton to get there.

The train was a little late and came in on the wrong track so the lemming herd had to rush to the grade level platform at the far end of the normal platform. Same situation for Princeton Junction where we are as I write this.

It will be a short trip coming back tomorrow but I will describe if anything noteworthy happens. So long for now.

Seven Survival Skills

I read a blog article recently on LeadingBlog that described seven survival skills for the new age. The material is from the book "The Global Achievement Gap" by Tony Wagner.

The article is located here:
http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2008/11/hiring_the_right_skill_set_and.html

The seven survival skills listed by the author are:
1.) critical thinking and problem solving
2.) collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3.) agility and adaptability
4.) initiative and entrepreneurship
5.) effective oral and written communication
6,) accessing and analyzing information
7.) curiosity and imagination

By my count that is 14 but I suspect that "good at math," is not among the seven survival skills. The MBA's who led our economy into the crapper seem certainly to be lacking in that 8th skill. Well, maybe lacking in other important skills like ethics, responsibility, and accountability.

To this set, whether 7 or 14 I would immediately add the following:

8.) Zeal for learning and embracing new methods (mindmapping, managing strengths, leading by clarity) and new technology tools (MindManager, Basecamp, Collaboration Technologies). Maybe that is included in curiosity and imagination or facilitates the rest but it is important.

Please respond with your own ideas. A priority ranking perhaps? Other missing skills?

I tested this set out with my AST team and many people seemed to be in agreement so I think this is a good set to start with.

Now, the difficult part, what is ACTIONABLE? And How? This is especially tricky with training and professional development budgets being slashed during these turbulent times.

Lights on College Walk Entering Campus from Broadway & 116th

Columbia lights

Train layout, scene 3

Train layout, scene 2

Train Layout, scene 1

Wiki Workshop

I led a Wiki Workshop yesterday to prepare for movement forward into the social technology arena for a significant unit at CU. I followed the POST method described in the book "Groundswell, Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies" and the method seemed to be well received.

The POST method has you focus on People, Objectives, Strategy, and then Technology rather than leading with Texhnplogy aspects. There was still a tendency to want to focus on the technology but I led the group with determination to stay pure to the process.

I also used my favorite group facilitization tool, MindManager, but this time used MindManager version 8 and also used Connect for ease in access. These are great tools and are overtaking other personal productivity tools in the toolkit.

This workshop was the first session but I think we got off to a good start using the new methods and tools. I will chronicle more as this moves forward.

Early Mormong Train

It is Friday once again and I am catching the 6:06 train for the third day in a row. The truth is if I could manage getting up I would take an even earlier train even though I get wiped out pretty early in the evening. I have always liked seeing the sun rise.

Well, train rolling in so will close for now. Have a great Friday wherever you are.

Upgrading to MindManager 8

I am just completing conversion to MindManager 8 to continue to develop my toolkit for knowledge tools. MindManager has been the go to tool for many management and leadership uses over the past several years and I think the new features will be very helpful.

It appears the development has gone further into Connect online collaboration features seeming to provide a SharePoint-like experience for work groups that use MindManager as their unifying technology.

I am reviewing the online documentation and tutorials now to see what advances are offered. I will report further what I find. Write back if you have MindManager experiences of your own.

Training to Work on a Short Week

I am heading to work on Monday morning of the Thanksgiving holiday week. I think that I need this holiday and extended time away from work more now than any time previous. A little get-away time would be just what the doctor would order.

There is a lot swirling in my mind now but too much to share in these short posts to my blog, especially while finger-tapping from my iPhone.

I did run across a very new iPhone application called Ocarina that turns the phone into a musical instrument. You blow into the microphone port and press buttons on the touch screen and you get a pretty good facsimile of the real ocarina.

A very near aspect is that the developer has included a way to use the GPS to allow others to hear players from around the world. A globe shows on the screen with music streaming up from featured players. Truly a very cool use of technology.

I imagine it is only a short time until other wind instruments make an appearance as iPhone apps. Can't wait for that flugelhorn that I have always wanted!

Enjoy the day.,,

Saturday Morning

It's Saturday morning and I am easing into the weekend. With a very tough week behind it's important to get some relaxation and recovery. We took it easy last night watching Kung-Fu Panda and having a combination of hot and corn dogs (yum).

I don't know precisely what the day has in store but the rumor is that there will be a BJs store marathon. Wish me luck.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

Wondering...

Either we are a free enterprise capitalist country or we are not, right? Are there degrees between free enterprise and government provided? An inbetween democracy and socalism? These are difficult confusing times.

New Peter Hamilton Book to Check Out

I spotted this book in the Hamilton Barnes and Noble bookstore. I need to check out the description and feedback on Amazon.com but if anyone knows about it, please let me know if it is any good.

I have been reading most of Peter Hamilton's work over the past several years. I find him very creative and immaginative in the science fiction genre.

Wonder if this book is any good?

I saw this in the bookstore the other day. There was a time when I would have simply bought it but with the Kindle offering books at $9.99 I hesitate to purchase the book 1.0 version.

I also need to check out the reviews and feedback to see if it is worth the investment in TRT (train reading time). I salready have about 4 books in the queue.

If anyone has feedback about this book or ideas for others to help with the social networking phenomenon as in how to make it useful rather than to simply waste time, let me know.

Reading on the Train

I finished "the Host" by Stephanie Meyer (?) on yesterdays TRI (train ride in) and while I enjoyed it as a casual distraction it was pretty forgetable. I have several business books queued up on my Kindle and started reading "Bit Literacy" but need fiction to transport me away from the everyday.

I downloaded "Accelerando" by Charles Stross and started reading thatvon the TRO last night. It's a fun and strange and really geeky book but I detect prophetic aspects as far as the near future it portrays.

Much like "Snow Crash" and other Neil Stephenson books it provides an all too feasible look into where we are heading.

I have been reading most of Charles Stross' books ever since discovering him at that great huge bookstore in Portland, Oregon. Some of his stuff is pure drivel but other is truly creative and inspired. I provide a list of my favorites and dogs when I have better I-access than my iPhone.

Well, landing at NYC now so need to close and send. Happy Friday, all!

More pumpkin-fest photos

More photos of the kiddos at the saturday pumpkin-fest.

October Activities

Here are several photos from October activities from the past several days:





Vincent and group of kids at Rocco's pumpkin-feet.

Other photos to be added soon..

An End to a Trip

A trip has to have an end just as it had a beginning. My trip to Duke University ended much as it started, in darkness and involving a train.

Is that the light at the end of the tunnel or is that an oncoming train? In this case it was a homeward bound train and therefore a welcomed sight.

Questions

Looking at the news this morning the questions come to my mind: When will it end? But probably more important where will it end?

So many questions and so much fear. How could the US economy lose 2 trillion dollars and where did it go?

I am starting to understand why Princeton Physics graduates were required to figure out Wall Street, they were the only ones smart enough to understand this. Where do you go after you understand the Standard Model? You go on to the really tough challenge of modern financial industry.

Either know one knows where this is going or those who might venture a guess are afraid to tell, probably for fear of making it happen. Afterall, isn't this all just a confidence game?

I am kind of glad I have not continuted supplemental to my 403B account. Wouldn't I have lost my money in addition to what my employer contributed? But maybe that is the wrong way to look at things. Maybe that is the same way that contributed to the mess?

I feel a root cause is living beyond your means but also not saving for this very rainy day. But then, it seems that those folks lost most who saved the most.

Back to the question, how will it end?

Trip Almost Done

Back at Newark and heading for Airtrain. Very glad to be home. Need to figure out why photos did not work but I have an idea about that.

An Afternoon Walk

After arriving at Duke in the early afternoon I decided to do some exploring. I asked the very helpful conference center staff for directions to some stores and the kindly drove me to a place off campus where there are several trendy stores.

The driver indicated he was happy to pick me up but I decided to walk back and see some of the campus sites. I didn't worry too much about getting lost since I have my handy GPS device. I had under-estimated the distance though.

Here are a couple of impressive buildings on campus that I saw on the trip back to the hotel.



Above was a neuro-science building. The one below is the Duke Chapel




I will get more photos of campus tomorrow.

An Oasis

During my trip to Duke I stayed at the Dave Thomas Conference Center (yes, named for the Wendy's guy. Here is an oasis that was near my room.



The place was very nice, surrounded by woods and the staff was amazing in their hospitality. They also had biscuits and gravy at breakfast but no fried bologna.

Charlotte to Raleigh-Durham

The second leg (or is that wing?) of my trip today was on a smallish jet called an E-190. The E stands for Embraer which I learned from iWikipedia is made in Brazil. It's a very nice airplane with a smooth ride.

Flying to Charlotte

The first leg of my trip is a flight from Newark to Charlotte, NC, on US Airways.

The flight is about one and a half hours and we have about 20 minutes until landing. I expect to have to turn off my i-phone in a few minutes so won't write too much.

I have to close now but will add more on the ground during my lay-over. Bye for now.


Beeakfast at Charlotte airport at Tequileria. Hasbrown casserole southwestern style. Digging in now.

Blog Journal of my Trip to Duke

I am trying out the I-phone blog tool and so will chronicle my trip to Duke.

Am leaving Newark Airport on 8:00 am flight. Day is rainy but I plan to snooze on the plane.

Here is a photo:


-- Post From My iPhone

Tales from the train - Gadgetry or Tools^^10?

So I am riding the train early this morning and my Verizon card did
not recognize my password so would not let me access the Internet. I
switched over to my Kindle to read about the AIG bail-out of course
while listening to Garth Brooks CD on my I-pod playing on the I-phone.
While reading I accessed information about AIG from Wikipedia using
the I-phone application I had downloaded for 99 cents from the I-tunes
store.

After learning that AIG had over a trillion dollars in assets (had
being the key word) I went back to the Times article and finished
reading. Then some email all before losing the signal in the tunnel
approaching Penn Station.

Gadgetry or tools? You judge. Tunnel approaching...

Lion with Lei

Lion with lei

El Cid the Ghecko

Cid as in El Cid. By the way, he eats crickets or mealy worms fed to him live.

Summer's End at Island Beach State Park

This is just one phone-pic of the day we spent at Island Beach State Park. We arrived early on Labor Day Monday as the day before we got shut out when the park filled up. By driving as far south as you can find a parking space you get to claim a section of beach for your own. The waves were 5-0 style, well, at least as 5-0 as you will see in Central NJ without a hurricane and the beach has powdery white sand. All-in-all an amazing day!

Excerpt of Poem from Bull Durham

Here is an excerpt from a poem that was quoted near the end of the baseball movie Bull Duram:

"Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

I found it from the poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray from the stanza:

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flow'r is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

The line from Bull Durham was when Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) hit a minor league record 247th home run to no notice by the baseball media.

I see that poem is also famous for the line:

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife,
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."

I don't know that my brain is wired for poetry...

Playing Golf in the Poconos

While on vacation last week I had the chance to play golf at a fabulous if little known course called Hide-Away Hills. The course was about 40 minutes drive from the townhouse at Camelback Mountain and was a very reasonable $30 greens fee with cart for play after 2:00 (twilight fee). The course features 18 quite distinct holes including several that had the tee box at the top of the hill and the green about 100-120 feet below. The photo at the right is a par 3 that played 230 feet from the very back blue tees. The tee boxes were on various tiers from blue, to two white tees, to the red and yellow tees. Steve and I tried to hit from the very back tees but we each did not make it onto the green so rehit from the white tees. The photo doesn't do justice to the elevation difference between where we were standing on the upper most tee down to the green.

Another hole had a similar drop for a par 5 that had you tee-off from the elevated green onto a landing area down below with the fairway sweeping off to the right. It was great to see the ball sailing out over the land and falling to the fairway far below.

The photo to the left shows another hole that was up hill all the way from the tee to an even more elevated green. This hole was listed at about 340 yards but played much farther with the continual rise. Steve and I hit just short of the green to a very steep slope and the balls bounded back and the the left for a very challenging shot that was like trying to hit the ball onto the roof of a 3 story house. Little did we know there was quite a bit of green to work with as we found out after getting up to the green.

I recommend this course to anyone wanting to play a challenging, fun, and very scenic round of golf. The panoramic views of the Pocono region were breathtaking and the golf was plenty fun as well. Be sure and invite me along if you go as you will need a guide to know where to hit your shots.

Photo of Steve on overlook to Bushkill Falls in the Poconos of Eastern Pennsylvania. We went on a hike that lasted about 1 hour and took us from the top of the falls to the very bottom. It was beautiful scenery and the photo doesn't do justice to the spectacular falls. The falls go from the level of the platform (just above Steve's hand on the wooden railing) to about 80 feet below.

Door

Thinker

View out my window

This is the view out my office window in my new Studebaker Hall digs. It's pretty nice to see water, especially for this old sailor.

Our World Runs on Dunkin

What a cutie...

Tales from the Train - following footsteps

Yesterday I got to follow the footsteps of a prior associate in what had to be one of the worst commutes I have heard about. Jeremy Brown, prior Associate Dean of Faculty for Princeton University used to live in New Haven, CT and would make the daily trek to Princeton University. He would board a train in New Haven to Grand Central Station, would shuttle to Penn Station via the subway, board another train to Princeton Junction and then take the Dinky to Princeton University. This had to be about a four hour commute each way.

The path that I followed yesterday was the shuttle to and from Grand Central at 42nd street (Times Square). There was quite a bit of walking involved to get to the shuttle stop and then to Grand Central Station but the shuttle itself was fairly uneventful since it just went back and forth. I didn't have much time to explore Grand Central Station and all it's amenities but at least I know how to get there for a future exploration.

A footnote for this Tale from the Train, Jeremy did this commute for about a year and then moved his family to University housing in Princeton. His wife was from a highly placed family in the Panamanian government and they later moved to Panama associated with the canal being transferred to government ownership and operation. The Degenerate Bosons, our Physics softball team, lost a good bare-hand-catching outfielder (another story...) and Princeton lost a good science oriented Associate Dean.

I still can't comprehend that commute with all the connections and getting from place to place. God bless the man for sticking with it as long as he did.

1990 Lincoln Mark VII For Sale in Princeton

I came upon this car being shown for sale by a resident on Princeton Pike just south of Province Line Road on the way to Princeton. The interest is that I was currently driving the exact same car on loan to me while my son's car is being repaired (or replaced) after a rain-induced accident.

I enjoy driving the 1988 Mark VII as it is a smooth ride and has plenty of power. Mr. D's Lincoln is a 1988 with 67K miles while this one is a 1990 with 90K miles. The asking price was recently lowered from $3,450 to $2,900. A main concern for this auto is the gas consumption as it has the 5.0 liter V8. Otherwise it is a very solid and well-built car.

Reading Recommendations from Manager-Tools

Recommendations for books from Manager-Tools.com

http://www.manager-tools.com/favorite/

I have read several of these and respect the judgment of these guys. I agree especially about "The World is Flat" being an important book for at least every American to read.

Guess the Origin of the Plate

This Columbia plate was given to me by Maria Mosca on her departure as SIS Director. She gave this to me upon my promotion to the position she had held for about 6 years. I have forgotten the origin of the plate and whether this is part of a series so if anyone knows that please fill me in.

Cell video #2 of Snapping Turtle laying eggs

Look for the small white ping pong ball object that appears before dropping into the hole.

Cell video #1 of Snapping Turtle laying eggs

This video was taken with my cell phone without zoom. I had to get pretty close to the snapping turtle in order to shoot this video but the turtle seemed in a transe as you can imagine while laying her eggs.

Series of photos of Snapping Turtle layign eggs

Assorted photos of turtles laying eggs in Trenton New Jersey

Steve is the really good one

I have provided a lot of blog coverage for Dan's record-setting spring season so I should devote some time to his brother Steve. I have always felt Steve is the truly talented one as he is better at the various tools of baseball than his brother when the same age. Dan's true talents are his eyes, must be 20-10, and his confidence. His confidence writes checks that his body seem to be able to cash.

Steve on the other hand lacks in the confidence department and that seems to inhibit his performance. He doesn't believe that his talents can write checks and so looks for reasons not to succeed. A funny opposite to his brother for certain.

I can relate an especially good performance from yesterday, however. The PHS JV team was beating the Robbinsville team 7-1 entering the top of the 7th inning. All PHS had to do was hold the lead for the win. Steve had played short stop all game and the pitcher for PHS was Colby who had been sharp for 6 prior innings.

When Colby walked the lead-off batter of the inning the Coach replaced him with the reliever Marlow. Marlow is a crafty lefty pitcher with a decent curve ball but not much of a fastball to match with it. Marlow walked a few batters and the Robbinsville team got several hits so before we knew it the score was 7-4 with runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. The PHS fans were getting nervous with the tying run in scoring position and a big hitter at the plate.

Then when Marlow walked the bases loaded the Coach didn't hesitate in calling time out and heading onto the field. He motioned to Steve to come in for relief and I was elated. Ernie, a parent standing next to me gave his Kudos to the Coach for "calling in Mariano (as in the Yankees closer)" and he remarked to me "here comes a 4 pitch strike out." These pressure situations are where Steve really excels. He seems to draw energy from the pressure of a close game with runners on base.

Steve took his warm-up throws, mixing in fastballs, curves, and sliders. Ernie, remarked, "I think he will drop in a curve ball to start things off." I thought he was crazy as the right pitch is a fastball for strike to get ahead in the count. Sure enough, a curve ball came in at about 45 MPH just a little low in the zone for ball one. I was amazed and remarked that Ernie seemed to be calling the pitches.

The next pitch in was a 4-seam fastball for a strike. The pitch seemed about twice the speed of the first pitch but was probably closer to 77 MPH. By comparison it was on the hitter before he could react. Steve's next pitch was another fastball but he dropped down to a side arm slot that fooled the batter again. Strike two!

Now the batter seemed worried. He had seen a slow curve, a fastball that blew by him, and a side-arm pitch that he didn't know what to do with. What might be coming next? Ernie speculated another curve and I was thinking slider that breaks to the outside. With a 1-2 count he didn't want to throw anything too good so as to get the batter to chase a bad pitch.

Well, as you can imagine Ernie was writing the script on this one for number pitched rather than pitch selection because in comes another blazing fastball that the batter just waved the bat at weakly. Strike three, batter is out, game over, PHS wins! Steve gets the the save!

Seeing his smile from the field was the best part. When will he believe me when I tell him how good he is, and how good could he be if he would just believe in himself?

Dan's 2008 Bat

This is what I created to give to Dan to celebrate is amazing baseball season. I bought a Mizuno maple bat at Dick's Sporting Goods and used a wood burning tool to inscribe the results of his first college baseball season. .403 refers to his finishing batting average (the last person to hit .400 in major league baseball was Ted Williams - I think) which by itself was incredible. The fact that he hit 5-6 during his final two games to achieve that is also remarkable.

I inscribed the bat with .403 as you can see, and also 50H for 50 hits, 21 RBI, and 17 SB for stolen bases. I also wrote his name, 2008, and his school along the top of the circle.

It was a good thing that I created this for him as he was overlooked for any real recognition by his coach and the conference he plays in. Even though he was 2nd in hitting the Rookie of the Year went to a player who was well down in the ranks. Its all politics.

I reminded him that no one can take away his stats and what he accomplished this year. Good going Dan!

Tales from the Train - April 1st

Training to NYC on Tuesday morning,

Here it is April 1st. Is spring here yet? Well, the forsythia are in bloom and the daffodils are pushing up through the earth so it must be close. The trees are still quite void of leaves but I see promising signs in the buds swelling and getting ready to burst with flowers or leaves. I did see one of the pink-purplish flowered trees resplendent with its flowers. Whether that was a cherry tree, a pear tree, or crab apple I have no idea. It was pretty, though.

It's shaping up to be another wet spring in Central NJ. It was more irritating to me before when I was running a baseball league and always had to worry about rain-outs. Princeton baseball fields are notorious for being lousy after even the slightest rainfall. In my 10 years coaching baseball in Princeton that is still the most embarrassing part, being unable to provide decent fields that speak of the wealth of the area. Resource Rich and Priority Poor is the phrase I created to best describe it.

Now the only impact is whether it will rain-out one of Steve's games and since he is not eligible to play until next Monday, let it rain for a few more days and then be dry the remainder of the spring. I am looking forward to his return to the field after fighting Mono but I don't think he is preparing for it. It's just like this age group, expecting to walk out on the field Monday and be able to play at full effort. Another aspect of the "video game mentality." Just turn on the switch, dial up the power and let's play ball. If only it worked that way.

I need to do some forward planning, whether strategic or tactical, probably both. And both in my personal as well as business life. I've been focusing effort on specific things, the NGCW project and my new AST organization on the work side and the Vincent, Dan, and Steve stuff on the personal side and I've felt a bit swept along by strong currents. I think it great that my boss will be supporting additional executive coaching sessions as there are some important topics to discuss with T & J.

I hope my friends reading this blog are having a good early spring and that 2008 has brought you good things. I don't hear enough from most of you and too much from some of you (just teasing, alluding to Bilbo Baggins birthday speech in the Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring). It would be great for you to touch in either to this blog or email, phone call, or visit.

Well, I think I will shut down for the remainder of the train ride. We should be arriving NYC in about 15 minutes. A good opportunity to look out the window and ponder. Ponder, now there is an interesting word...

Here are three trees common to central NJ. You can see why I get confused.

The left one is flowering pear, the middle one is crab apple, the right is cherry. I think.

Subway Art - Subway Advertising

Truer words have not been spoken. I certainly can identify, particularly this morning.

Late night news from Dan

So I was anxiously awaiting the call last night from Dan after his games yesterday. After how well he did down in Florida and then going 0-6 in the two games played last week I was a little worried that his streak had come to an end. Well, the streak had but that didn't mean his hitting had come to an end. I just didn't want to focus too much on it.

I got the call around 9:00 and in typical Dan fashion he beat around the bush for a while telling me the game results, one win and one loss, what position he played, left field, and so forth. I finally asked how he hit and he told me, again quite too casually about hitting either 3 or 4 for 6 with 2 walks. He then said, "Dad, I have something for you." "What is that?" I asked. "A home run ball," he replied.

I went crazy of course, "No you didn't!, No you didn't" I remember shouting into the phone. Maybe the young man is the real deal after all. I was quietly amazed that he is batting in the clean-up slot since he has never been one that I would call a power hitter. I could see him hitting 1, 2, or 3, but clean-up? Wow! A home run? Amazing! I could just imagine him trotting around the bases. well, running as his coach would never allow grand-standing.

Anyway, he promised the home run ball to me but I may see if he wants to give it to Courtney instead. I would treasure it, of course, but hearing about it from him was something quite special in itself.

OK, I am going to see if they updated the game results and stats on the CHC website by now. Of course it is way too early since they got home late last night but there is nothing wrong with being impulsive.

Before I close I should mention Steve as he has been eclipsed a little lately. The week of such good news about Dan was also met with equally bad news about Steve in that he has Mono. He is side-lined for at least a couple of weeks and this the week before his high school baseball season starts. He was doing so well in his preparation for his sophomore year so the news was quite devastating.

I did take him yesterday to watch his high school team play against Lawrenceville Prep and he seemed to have fun getting out of the house for the first time since Thursday. Both the JV and Varsity lost their games and the coaches really need Steve back on the team to pitch and play. He has to take it slow, though, to make certain there is no complication or relapse. I hope he will be able to play some within two weeks.

OK, that's it for now. That is my baseball report for the baseball that matters the most to me. Great news, tough news, but what is great with baseball you get to play again, and again, and again. Love you Dan, love you Steve for your triumphs and trials and yes, love you Vincent for the accomplishments that are ahead of you. In baseball or in life.

Dan's article, Dan's accomplishment

What can I say? What can I write? Rookie of the Week for the entire freaking conference? Has at least one hit in every game of the 7 game spring trip to Florida. I will have to check to see that he may have hit safely in every game he has played so far this year. A consecutive game hitting streak? WOW! Pinch me. More importantly stop me, don't jinx a streak. Everyone in baseball knows that.

I can only imagine what is going through Dan's head. He was so funny on Sunday when we were having lunch. So laid-back, so calm and within himself. So Dan. Two things are worth writing down to commit to the future.

"Dad, you know I figured it out?" Dan said.

"Figured out what?" I asked.

"I just hit fastballs. That is the secret" he replied.

"Oh, OK, That sounds simple," I remarked, amazed that he could figure something out that sounded so simple but others have such a problem with. Just hit the fastballs. It makes sense. Why would anyone ever want to hit something curvy or slurvy or slidey or sinky or changey? Just hit the fastballs. Hear that major league guys?

The other one was about his pre-at-bat routine. This one he told me he shared with a player friend who was struggling at bat and asked for advice. He told his friend, "put the Bratt's bat on the left side of the warm-up circle, put the regular bat on the right side. Swing the Bratt's bat five times in a circle with the left arm and then five times with the right. Take three swings with the Bratt's bat, then two swings with the regular bat and then go in and get a hit."

With that action he is showing what seasoned athletes do in establishing a routine and regimen that brings forward the ability to focus completely. Who taught him that? Not me, not coaches, no one, he figured this out himself because it makes sense to him. He very easily enters the moment and that is what success in his sport is all about. Entering the moment at the plate where there is nothing but him and the pitcher, even remove the pitcher and it's just him and the ball. Here comes the fastball that he is looking for and sees with his spectacular vision and "bam" there the ball goes. And run to first base really fast. Like I said before, simply amazing.

The great afterword is that he said the friend took his advice and not only went three for three in batting, he also played much better defensively after struggling before. And that is Dan, too, completely unselfish. Love you, Dan. Keep doing what you are doing, keep being Dan.

Amazing Dan

Now here is a truly amazing thing. Check out this article about Dan Etherton being the Rookie of the Week for his college baseball conference.

http://www.chc.edu/page_template.asp?section=1&file=592_Baseball_News#3_18_2008

Dan, I am very proud of you!

How to Keep Up? How to Get Ahead?

As I am riding the train this morning doing a little computing work I am puzzling over the questions of How to Keep Up and How to Get Ahead? What I mean by those questions is how to get the information that is meaningful to prevent becoming obsolete and also how to use that information to get ahead.

It's all about knowledge. Information. Not simply data blasted at you from a variety of sources. I have somewhat of an advantage because one of my strengths is INPUT. It is true that I seek input by the truckload. Much of it can be quite random and useless if I let it. I like to read science fiction. I like to watch cooking shows. I like to watch shows about how to make things, how things work, and the way things got to be the way things are. I like to discover, learn, and understand. Mostly I like to synthesize new understanding or new application of knowledge.

But how can I possibly keep up? I am a member of about a dozen list-servs offering information daily about IT, leadership, management, and a variety of other topics. My email is regularly overloaded with snippets of information I hate to filter out but I rarely have enough time to review or read. I feel like I am drinking from a fire-hose of data, knowing there is important stuff in there if I had the way to process it better, not just faster but with more depth of understanding.

Maybe there should be a page rank value assigned to data or information so a person could know better what the value is of the data coming in. Who knows? If anyone out there in blog-land has ideas, let us know. For now, I have to continue trying to sift and sift and sift. The image of the gold prospector comes to mind. It seems I am sifting the Sahara Desert, though. With more and more coming each and every day.

Heading to Baseball

It's Friday and I am heading to baseball!

What a great thing. If the rain will hold off and the train will hurry to station and the traffic will cooperate I will be watching my son Steve play baseball for the first time this year. What a great and wonderful thing!

I was able to get to the train station to make an early enough train to be able to see him play his first game with his JV team at Princeton High School.

I'll report more later but need to close now to prepare to sprint to the car and head to the field. Happy weekend everyone!

6:45 AM - Report of the game from the following day

To continue, was first to the car, traffic cooperated, the evening was beautiful, and I made it to the Princeton Valley Road field in time to see Steve make the last defensive out of the 2nd inning. He made a play at 3rd base which he later recapped as "the ball hit my foot and kind of stuck so I picked it up and ran three steps to 3rd for the force-out." On thing I love about Steve is his ability to understate (rather than over-dramatize). Another is that he truly does understand the game of baseball and can make the right play from just about any position. Most young people get programmed in to a specific position and have trouble adapting to others.

The timing was perfect for my arrival as I got to see him bat in the bottom of the 2nd inning, and although it was a grounder back to the pitcher, it was an at bat that I got to see. Also, he was then able to spend the remainder of the inning warming up for going in to pitch the following inning.

He ended up pitching three solid innings, allowing no runs, no hits, no base-runners, nothing even out of the infield and most hit balls coming back to him for easy put-outs to first base. It was a typical outing for when Steve is throwing strong in that he had hitters off balance, swinging behind his fastball, or pounding the ball into the ground for easily fielded balls by the infielders. He also rung up 3 batters with strike outs.

The PHS JV team ended up winning the game 3-2 with the game going 6 innings and then time ran out. Steve was fortunate to be able to pitch 3 innings this early in the season but his work through February at pitching lessons enabled him to do that with ease. It helps that his pitch count is always low, yesterday he threw only about 30-35 pitches in his three innings. First pitch strike, getting ahead of the hitter, and always being around the strike zone has been Steve's hallmark from since he was 8 years old. A great example was when he got behind a hitter with a 3-1 count and battled back to get the out.

In all, a great 1st outing for Steve to chalk up a win and to build from. His coach talked to me during the game and expects that Steve will be the ace of the JV squad. That is good because I think he will get more play time and have more positive experiences with that coach and team rather than moving up to Varsity too quickly. Maybe he can earn his way up to Varsity for special games when the JV don't play. That is what happened last year between the Freshman team and JV.

Well, that is it for this report. Once again I am glad for having retired from coaching so I can be a full time fan of Steve (and Dan, too). Of course there is the little one on the way up but right now he is only 4).

Tales from the Train - Riding the Train from NYC to Hamilton

I downloaded and activated my Journal software on the new laptop and configured to be able to automatically post to my blog. It is a great thing to combine journaling with blogging as often my blog is like a journal. At least until people start weighing-in on various subjects with comments and opinions.

I don't know if I can use The Journal as a full-featured blog editing tool but I will experiment with the functions that I find most useful. For anyone interested in this software you can locate it at http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal . People may have better software for journaling, particularly within the aspect of online journaling or blogging but this one seems fairly full-featured with what I want it to do.

I like the aspect of it being secure and private, even though I am posting this entry as a blog-article. If anyone know of or has a recommendation for true online journaling software with public view capability as well as private, be sure and let me know.

It is Thursday and I am riding the train from NYC to Hamilton, NJ. I have been liking the 5:30 express train that only stops in Newark Penn Station, Princeton Junction, and Hamilton. It seems to make it out of the city before things get overly congested traffic-wise or overly full people-wise. For a long time I was taking the 6:03 but in addition to it being a busier train, it is normally one of the old types. This 5:30 express is one of the new double-decker trains being operated on the northeast corridor by NJ Transit. A very nice ride for commuting to NYC every weekday.

I was also checking the Chestnut Hill College website for a report of the baseball team's progress through spring training in Florida. Dan has been calling me or text messaging daily with updates but I wanted to check to see his overall stats. It seems his hitting has been doing very good averaging over .500 so I couldn't ask for a better start to his first college season. The Griffins aren't doing all that good as a team with a pre-season record of about 1-6 but Dan is off to a great start.

It is a nice pre-spring day in central NJ and I can't wait for the temps to warm up for actual spring. Steve starts his spring baseball season tomorrow and I can't wait to see him in his games. He indicated he will be playing short stop and will pitch one inning in the first scrimmage tomorrow. I would love to be there to see him but have a budget meeting in the afternoon. Maybe God will smile and make the meeting not happen.

As I write this and prepare to send it to my blog-site, I am reminded about how I began blogging using my Blackberry and Treo. At that time, the Tales from the Train series was much more difficult to write seeing as how I was punching the keys with my thumbs. On this laptop (Dell Latitude D430) I have an almost full sized keyboard and can keyboard much better. Of course one of the good things at least from a reader's perspective was that my articles were fairly short as it was so hard to type on the mobile devices.

I am enjoying this new computer and praise Scott for taking the care to set it up the way he did. It is a smaller and lighter laptop and is easier to pull out quickly and get something written. The other one was just too cumbersome to want to whip out and use during a normal commute. I am working to keep things better organized on this computer and am using various online tools including BaseCamp and Sakai to store things better. I have really enjoyed learning to use Sakai and bringing forward the ideas for a system that incorporates collaborative tools including blogs, wikis, file repository, podcast library, and discussion board. It will do more but those are the main things I have been using for my collaborative system needs.

Well, that is enough for this entry and I will end this to attempt to send it to the blog. I did a test yesterday and it seemed to work fine but we'll see. Have a great evening, everyone. David

Nolan Ryan Plaque from MBL Hall of Fame

This is the plaque for Nolan Ryan in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame. Linda and I went there for my birthday in 2007 and of course I had to search out the items for my favorite baseball player.

One interesting aspect is the photo of past and future stars which had Roger Clemens in the foreground and Nolan Ryan in the background. I wonder now if the Rocket will make it into the Hall.

I hope they take his record into account prior to "alleged" steroid and HGH use. One could argue that he shouldn't get into the Hall at all as penalty for the charges against him but it seems that rampant performance enhancing drug use was part of the history of the 80's and 90's. Keeping Roger out might send the message to others but I am sure there will be some inductees that did the same thing.

Nolan is untainted as far as I know so here is my tribute to the "Ryan Express."

So much for bucking peer pressure

A parent always cringes about those late night phone calls, and now text messaged photos from the offspring. Here was a recent entry from #1 son. It looks like the baseball team binding ritual scored another victim.

My reply to him was that he is only young and foolish once so he should make the most of it. I didn't have the heart to tell him there will be a time when it may not grow back. For now, he is living large.

Steve and his pitching coach Wild Bill.

GQ Steve

This is Steve before the Princeton Sophomore Cotillion. He is indeed looking very dapper in charcoal grey suit with maroon pinstripes, maroon shirt, and patterned silk tie. I was not allowed beyond the parking lot but I heard that he had a good time at the big social event.

Think, Hope, or Believe

I was asked recently if I think a highly desired outcome would happen. The question got me thinking about the subject of thought (reasoning), hope (wish), and belief (confidence) and which is the best predictor or preparation for an outcome.

As an optimist by nature I tend to believe in positive outcomes, particularly in matters involving right and wrong, or good or evil. I'm built that way. I read somewhere recently that people with even an unrealistic positive view tend to be right more often in part because they influence the outcome in that direction. Positivity creates good results because it influences people to those ends.

I also admit that I have never understood negative people or skeptics. Who would want to live expecting the worst in all things and situations?

Next there is rational thought to assess the likely outcome. That is an equally tricky one in that it is based on knowing all the possible variables and having a large amount of experience to determine the results.

To be continued...

2008 New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year 2008! I saw the Waterford crystal ball drop in Times Square albeit on TV and after waking up from a food-induced nap. I must be getting old because I think I then went to bed at about 12:15 AM. No celebrating for me last night. The dinner of King Crab Legs and Steak that Linda and I made pretty much assured I wouldn't be light on my feet for dancing away the night. I have to ask, how good is clarified butter (OMG!)

This is the day for setting forth the resolutions that will guide me through the new year. Of course I want to make this year different, better, and more special than any previous year and supposedly that begins with resolutions to make some changes, to do things differently, and to improve certain things. No blaming problems on others for me.

The problem is, where do I begin? Maybe categories for resolutions is the right place to start. Making sure not to be overly ambitious would help promote success. How about the following resolution categories:

• family
• work
• personal
• community
• society

Of course each of these could break into other sub-categories but I will resist getting overly optimistic. After all, having a few resolutions that I accomplish would be better than having many that don't last through the month of January.

I'll start with this set of categories and create a few specific resolutions within each. More to follow but for now I need to go help with breakfast... (to be continued)