Freezing on the Train

This is a new one. Riding in a meat locker of a train this morning. A large number of people evacuated this car for a warmer location but us stalwart few remained to a shivering commute. Now the train is crawling between Secuacus and Penn Station and another person abandoned the car. Well, almost there so I cam hold out for a while longer.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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

Tales from the Train - Training to Work on Sunday

It's been a while since I went to work on a weekend. Normally 5 days a week is plenty for my four hour round trip commute. I wanted to take Friday off so as to be at the J-Street home for the long-awaited arrival of the kitchen countertop so I chose to defer coming to work until Sunday morning.

I didn't get up as early as I had hoped and so am taking an 8:40 semi-express to NYC. I should have thought about the day-trippers that would be going to the city at this time. The train is now full but luckily I have avoided the interlocking knee situation.

Today is Sunday, December 30, and I need to get my office organized and cleaned-up for the new year. I am going to work to be more paperless in 2008, planning to get a scanner so as to digitize notes and non-electronic documents. I also need to work out an online file and document storage approach that will work for easy access and good organization of information. I am undecided whether to use a shared drive on the Columbia server, the personal workspace feature on Sakai, or some other online file storage approach.

Well, it looks like with the number of people getting on the train at Metropark I need to close now. More later...

Whew, I dodged the bullet on that one. I think people were trying to get the front of the train as an announcement sent people to the rear of the train where there are rumored to be plenty of seats available. A strange commuting phenomenon is that people will cram themselves together at the front of the train to save walking an extra 100 feet at the station. I guess that is similar to how people cluster in parking lots waiting to get a close in spot even though the walk from farther out would be mere minutes. People...

Well, it is two days until 2008 so I have to figure out how I am going to make this year different (and better) than any other. I suppose a good blog post for tomorrow would be my new year's resolutions so I can state them for the record with hopes of accomplishing them. I will give that thought the remainder of the day and come up with a good but manageble list. I hope others do the same.

Enjoy the final days of 2007 and I wish you a wonderful and special new year. Make it so!

Tales from the Train - Campus Technology Conference

So I blogged some the important things about my recent trip to San Francisco like the journey to the Golden Gate Bridge, Linda and Vincent on Lombard Street, swans, and biscuits and gravy, but I didn't put anything about the reason I went there in the first place.

I went to attend a winter conference for IT leaders in higher education that was sponsored by Campus Technology magazine. It was advertised as an immersive workshop in various areas important for leaders of IT in the higher education industry.

The immersive part was true in that the participants chose 2 daily tracks (out of 8 possibles) and each of the first two days was spent immersed in that subject.

I chose Social Collaboration in Teaching and Learning and Technology in Successful Learning Spaces. Both offered good exploration of areas that are important within my new job role.

The Social Collaboration session provided a good look at the millennial generation and how they differ in their learning styles and overall expectations. There was a great video provided through YouTube that I must locate and link here. The session explored the various offerings for incorporating social collaboration technologies into several institutions with varying approaches.

Duke highlighted their launch of the I-Pod and what cascaded from that starting point. The University of Santa Clara highlighted their support for the variety of Web 2.0 technologies including blogs, wikis, and even Second Life where they created a virtual version (a virsion?) Of their new Learning Commons library that was under construction.

The second day was another good immersion into how to incorporate technology and planning and aesthetics to make great formal and informal learning spaces.

To be continued...

Tales from the Train - new sci-fi author

My newest author is Charles Stross whom I discovered while browsing the sci-fi section at Powell's City of Books store in Portland, Oregon. Powell's is the largest bookstore I have ever seen (as I have not been to the Strand in NYC yet) and carries everything I could ever imagine. If you are a reader and visit Portland, Powell's is a must. Plan to spend a couple hours there.

I ran across Charles Stross' books by browsing the shelves. I am sure I was looking for anything Simmons as in Dan Simmons. Powell's is where I purchased a hardback of Olympos for $7.00 during a trip last year. This was a match for the hardback of Ilium signed by the author I purchased from eBay several years ago. With Stross, here is an author that I had no clue about who had a body of work that included five or six novels in the cyberpunk, nanotech, speculative future genre'. Ah, a gold mine!

I purchased a copy of each of the books on the shelves and acquired several more through Amazon.com. I can't understand why Stross has not gotten the kind of attention of contemporaries in speculative fiction like William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. In my opinion he is right on the mark science- and culture- wise and his characters and stories are highly entertaining. How much more fun can you have when phones rain down from the sky with offer to fulfill any wish with the simple proviso of being entertained as payment (see Singularity Sky) and the main premis that "information must be free" (not free as in no cost, free as in unfettered) ?

Entertainment aside (as in for your reading pleasure) I am in awe of the projection into the future of the effect of technology on culture and individuals. From culture shock of those on the slow end of change through how children may be affected, every page of Stross' work seethes with remarkable and profound speculation. So far I have read Singularity Sky and Iron Sunrise and am part way into Accelerando. I have a copy of Glasshouse and still need to acquire The Atrocity Archives and several others to add to my collection of his novels.

I highly recommend Charles Stross if you want to expand you mind and have lots of fun while doing it.

OK, We are getting ready to dive under the Hudson River now so I need to hold my breath. All the best... David

Tales from the Train - What is Facebook Anyway?

I am beginning this tale from the train on Wednesday evening however since we just departed Princeton Junction bound for Hamilton as the next stop I only have five minutes to begin. I'll write more on the train tomorrow morning. This tale poses the question, what is Facebook anyway and what is it good for?

I started my FB presence several days ago and have amassed an amazing two friends, count them, two. Of course I have to say that these two first FB friends are true real-world friends and I would feel uncomfortable beginning this journey of discovery and experience. I look at one site and see a particular kind of presence. Lots of friends from a home he left and photos of a particular subject I know to be a significant interest. In fairness the other friend is from a newbie like myself and so her site is pretty stark for now. But still the question, what and why?

My sons each have FB sites but I want them to experience this social environment without the feeling I am looking over their shoulder. There is some risk in that from a parental point-of-view (especially over-protective types or helicopter parents) but part of the good thing about social networking is the peer correcting aspect.

So I have these basic questions and the two ways I know to answer them is to research it and experience it. Oh, I could also solicit other people's ideas, experiences, and opinions of others. Yes, I welcome your comments about this. I admit I still write this blog with the thought that I am speaking to myself. I do want comments, exchange, discussion, and sharing from people with different points-of-view.

And so the experience begins. The research begins. Hopefully your involvement begins. Help me make sense of this puzzling thing. You can see the direct link to my Facebook site over in the left margin of this blog. Follow that if you wish.

Become my friend?

Tales from the Train - Unable to Breathe

So here it is, the first real occasion of an overly packed train on my
morning commute that is causing major respiratory discomfort. Well,
there was the incident in winter when I ditched my choice seat so as not
to endure a blabby commuter with a bad case of rightious indignation and
so I spent 20 minutes in sub-zero temperature in the vestibule between
rail cars.

This time is different. Now it is summer, albeit not a particularly hot
day in July. This crowd condition involves a big commuter who rides a
bicycle to the station and then gets on a train for a one hour commute.
What is he thinking? There is not enough Tag or whatever heavy duty
deoderant in existence to keep that odor in check.

The question is, can I hold my breath for an hour. I hesitate typing
more as the physical activity of pressing buttons may drive up my
metabolism.

The really difficult thing is the other commuter that wedged into the
seat for four that truly only accomodates two. That person sighs and
shifts and does this irritating sotto voce commentary. I just continue
to hold my breath.

Wish me luck.

Takes from the Train - About Dan's Triumph

It is Friday already and I meant to write the tale of Dan's pitching triumph sooner. At least I can provide the synopsis before the event becomes obscurred by the passage of time.

I took Monday as a vacation day to do several personal errands and also hoped to see Steve play baseball with his Freshman team. When I got to the school I learned that the game had been cancelled but the varsity team (Dan's) team would be playing in Hopewell. I have been chosing Steve's games over Dan's since he is the younger but with such a nice afternoon I drove to Hopewell Valley High School looking forward to watching Dan play centerfield.

When I got to the field and was positioned on the bleachers Coach Goldsmith came to tell the parents about a situation where the senior ace pitcher was declared ineligible based on playing on a high school team when he was in the 8th grade. Turns out the school players have 4 years eligibility from when they start playing.

This was devastating in it would reverse the two wins that the player had pitched but also he would not be allowed to play the remainder of this year. He was also slated to pitch the game that was being played that afternoon.

While taking that news in, I noticed Dan heading out to warm up as pitcher. He has been used only sparingly the past two years coming in as a relief pitcher and never going more than 2 or 3 innings. I was excited about being able to see what he could do.

The game began with the tall HV pitcher making quick work of the three Princeton batters. Dan came out to pitch the first inning and handled the HV batters quite effectively himself, getting the batters to hit easy ground ball outs to the infield.

In the next inning Dan led off and hit a long ball that flew over the centerfielder's head. It was a close play but Dan slid in to 2nd base for a double. He later came around to score and was followed by 2 more runs that inning. That would be the extent of the offense for Princeton that day.

The story of the day was how Dan kept coming back inning after inning pitching his game of ground balls and fly balls. The team behind him was making good plays and seemed to grow stronger and more confident with each made play. By the 7th inning taking a 3-1 lead into the final at bat by HV, Dan and the Princeton team seemed very sure of themselves.

The first pitch of the final inning was a ground ball back to the pitcher for an easy put-out. One pitch - one out. The next batter went down swinging at a change up for the only strikeout recorded for Dan. The next batter hit a grounder to the first baseman who flipped the ball to Dan covering 1st for the final out.

The celebration that ensued was a great moment for the Princeton team who had recieved such devestating news just hours before. The game was the best individual performance of Dan's life and I was so glad to have been there to witness it and to share his joy.

There certainly will be big things to happen to him in the future but this was a day that reminds me what baseball can be about. Good job, Dan! I love you and am so proud to be your dad.

Tales from the Train - Executive Coaching

I only have about 15 minutes for this blog post as we just stopped at the Newark Penn Station and soon will be heading to NYC. I wanted to write a little just to keep the blog pump primed.

I was writing in the journal we have asked to keep associated with a pilot team coaching program. A group of Directors from each of the units will meet once per week until the end of June to advance our capabilities with leadership in team settings.

The journaling is tied in to developing better self-awareness. Rather than do it by hand in a paper journal I would rather blog it, but the self-discovery may not be something I should reveal web-wide. I'll certainly bring over pertinent things I can share.

We also will be doing assessment tools like Myers-Briggs, DISC, and hopefully Strengths-Finders. My own Strengths Revolution is proceeding at Columbia through exposure to leadership, and my work team. It is fun to self identify and observe in others when we are working to our strengths.

This morning I observed myself being a Maximizer. Yesterday I pointed out a coworker being Competitive, and another is often using her Restorative abilities. I need to log various people's strengths so I can better see them in action. For one person, the people strengths of Individualization, Relator, and Woo are a very powerful set (you know who you are).

Well, that's all I have time for as we dive under the Hudson. All the best for you on this rainy Thursday. Keep working to your strengths every day.

Tales from the Train - What's He Reading Now

I know that question is burning on everyone's brain to the exclusion of any other thing you want or need to know. Not what is the meaning of life or what will happen tomorrow. Only what could he possibly be reading now on his daily traverse to and from central NJ to NTC.

I would like to tell you, I really would, and of course You shall in my own good time. Afterall, we are not even to New Brunswick yet so I have plenty of time to delay the answer to that question.

It's been a full year of reading all kinds of things, from business and leadership books to sci fi to a book about a rampaging polar bear god to a biography of LDV to long-winded novels by Ayn Rand. Have I averaged a book a week? Well, pretty near, pretty near.

New Brunswick is here and then comes Jersey Ave followed by Princeton Junction then my stop which is Hamilton. I have about 20 minutes left. I suppose I can draw out the agony for a while longer.

I once read a book by Pat Conroy whs character spoke about a list of the 100 must read books that was given to him by a literature professor. Seeing as how this story was fiction and the student and professor both fictional I was still slightly disappointed when the list was never provided. Not even the top 10, damn. Jersey Avenue station now.

I wonder if I could write Mr. Conroy for suggestions. Well, I work at one of the premier institutions of higher learning (for?) so I suppose I could chase down (or scare up) literary types willing to make suggestions. But the top 100 must reads. That has a certain pull to it. That has power.

Anyhow, I am sure the suspense is killing you by now or at least causing you impatient types to skip over these hard-types words to get to the answer. OK, here it is. The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman is my read du jour.

I can tell this book is going to be interesting because while I like the writing the prose style is quite beguiling. What are the stones? They keep appearing in the text ina descriptive way but it is not clear. I feel that these works are literary IQ tests or methods for dwterming whether my brain is too left-brain-wired for anything truly artistic, anything truly abstract and symbolic. I hate doubting my own intelligence.

So what is it about? Read the damn book and don't take the short cuts. I know there is a documentary about it. I know I could Amazon or Google it. I choose the hard road.

Well, here is Princeton Junction so I need to prepare to detrain in a few minutes. I don't want to leave mid-thought. Have you read the Stones of Summer? If so, don't give anything away. I'll be back with an update. Enjoy the nightime.

Tales from the Train - Quiet Cacophany

Yes, the worst sin of the blog world is to have the site go quiet for more than a week. To my readers, I apologize. The past two weeks have been hell. I thought of writing something simple but just was not able to make the time.

I need to write down my thoughts for articles during the more sane moments so I have things lined up when the fury hits. Seeing as how part of the style of this blog is spontaneous I hadn't prepared a list of things that interest me to write about.

If anything I wanted to write about spring fever which I have been suffering from particularly during the recent ice and snow storm in March. Being from the south, to me March means spring. I have suffered for six weeks every year for the past 14 years. Spring here is beautiful when it finally arrives.

I have an idea, guest bloggers. I have been wanting to hear others voices through my homefield advantage and I extend the offer to become a guest or co-blogger on this site. I try to focus it on things of interest to my professional peer group but that a lot of territory.

If you have ideas within the scheme of topics including Clarity of Purpose, Tales from the Train (or subway, or car, or other commute method), Illuminatus, Prosperitas, Images of Life, or new topics, bring them on. I value your voice, your thoughts, or your experience. Help make MyHomeFieldAdvantage become more.

Until then, I'll be creating new articles very soon. Enjoy the sunshine. David

Commuting Part 2 - The Subway

Part 2 of this series on commuting is about being a 'Strap Hangar' as they call it. Riding what used to be called the Electric Sewer back in years before Sheriff Rudy cleaned up the town. It is interesting to see that he is likely to be a candidate for President. The 2008 presidential race may be the most interesting in my lifetime.

For those who are interested in how that subway and NYC turn-around happened there are good write-ups in the social engineering book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and in the business strategy book Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant. Each provides a different angle on the turn-around that make for good life lessons. The books are 'must reads' for relevant information and ideas.

On with the tale of my subway commute. I take the 1-train from 34th Street at Penn Station to 116th and Broadway where I am greeted with the tile mosaic shown in the photo. That is my to work route. Coming home I take the 1 to 96th Street and switch to the 2- or 3- express to 34th Street/Penn Station, I found that was on average the quickest way coming and going.

I sit at the front of the NJ Transit train as that positions me closest to the subway platform to get there quickest without running the maze of people in the central corridor. I stage myself at a particular place on the platform where I know the door will open and also will let me out closest to the exit. I have the same landmarks for the ride back, again optimizing my time as much as possible. It only took a couple of weeks of crowds to learn the best approach.

While in the subway I either sit or stand but always try to be near the door for my departure, I have only had to get caught by the doors a time or two to avoid that if possible.

There are all types of people riding the subway as I hear they have about 7 million passengers per day. The ones I particularly dislike are the people who seem to be bucking for a fight, whether man, woman, black, white, young, old, or ethnicity. Seems to be just frustrated people who can't control their anger and need to lash out.

The thing that always amazes me about the subway is when young kids ride alone to school. Seeing them get on and off unescorted has me think of Danny or Steve at 7 or 8 and how they may have reacted to that. And then there was the time I saw a young boy of 8 or 10 reading 'Silence of the Lambs' on the subway with eyes wide as saucers. Poor kid! There is much humanity to observe on the New York City subway. That is not even nighttimes, which I have yet to experience. Enjoy strap-hangers everywhere!

By the way, there are no straps to hang from for the subways I ride, however there are poles to hold onto. Maybe somewhere there are still straps so the name is not lost to obscurity.

Commuting Part 1 - The Train

This installment of 'tales from the train' is about commuting by train. For those that don't know, I commute by train daily from Hamilton Station in central New Jersey to Penn Station in New York City. The actual train time is between 50 and 90 minutes depending whether I get the super express or am forced to take a local. Mostly I try to time things so I can catch an express.

One of the positive things I can say is they have a good schedule between Princeton Junction and Newark Penn Station to deal with the horde of commuters. Normally there are 3-4 expresses running per hour to NYC in the morning and at least 2 per hour when I return in the evening.

OK, fairly boring stuff so far, hardly blog-worthy, hey, is that a term that has been used? I have to believe it has. With 30 million blogs out there I can imagine that not much is original. The thing that caused me to start putting thumbs to buttons on my Treo is that very horde of people on the 6:03 from Penn Station today. Standing room only for a normal train day. Not as bad as it has been when people are standing in the aisles up and down the train but certainly a day when all seats are taken including the ones at the front that face one another. Those are the ones I normally use as they are less claustrophobic than the rows.

Fortunately people get off at Newark and so the train thins out a bit by the long haul between Newark and Princeton Junction. If you are standing after Newark it is a long ride.
I don't seem to encounter that many rude people but there are certainly not many overtly friendly ones either. Mostly neutral is what you can expect. There are interesting stories about the extremes so I will have to chronicle some of those.

One commuting horror story I can recall is when there was a delay on the coldest day this winter. I had my normal face-to-face seat when the twice the normal horde got on at Petticoat Junction (as I call it). A woman insisted on squeezing into the little space next to me and a bout of claustrophobia ensued. I got up and offered my seat to a young woman who was standing and I took a position standing near the door. When we got to Newark I had the bright idea to ride the rest of the way in the vestibule which although enclosed is open to the frigid air. This normal 15-minute leg took about 30 that day as the train crawled along, seeming to laugh at my predicament. I arrived at New York almost frozen and rethinking the whole claustrophobia issue.

And then there was the occasion of sitting next to a show model working the NYC Toy Show. But that, of course, is another story... End of Part 1

Tales from the train - Treo vs Blackberry

Last Friday I had the opportunity to switch from the Blackberry I called 'the Waffle' to a Treo that I inherited from a departing staff member. This train tale is not really a tale but rather an experiment in comparison of using this device as opposed to the Waffle.'

At first glance this is much sexier and seems to be moving closer to a palm-sized PC. The look and features are certainly a step up from the utilitarian functions and plain features of the Blackberry. Form versus features? Appearance versus true value? Is it that age-old question again?

Well, this article installment will have to continue, Two things of immediate note: the Treo sucks juice and is tiring to type on. Right now the battery indicator is worrying me.

More later, Have fun, go Colts!

OK, back again. The Treo ran out of juice but I was able to send the email that brought the above article to the blog. I then added the photos to spiff things up a bit and am now completing the article on my laptop heading the reverse commute from this morning. To continue...

I see from looking at the various products that Blackberry comes in a sexier and more streamlined version and the Treo comes in a wider, more waffle like and probably easier to type on version. Are there any real differences between the two product lines? I suppose the technophile would be able to come up with a few, or perhaps many.

One thing I notice is the scroll-and-select wheel of the Blackberry versus the stylus or screen touch for the Palm Treo. I imagine that is a fundamental difference and probably well protected by patents. Using the Blackberry, you get used to the scroll-select and backout buttons allowing you to do most things with one securing hand and one operating hand. The Treo seems to need another hand and it would be especially helpful if that hand terminated in a rubber-tipped stylus. Maybe a nose-like proboscus that is structured like that would be the right morphological adaptation for natural selection to build a better Treo user.

I suppose the other side would say that development of a Blackberry user with diminished expectations would be the right direction of evolution in that user species. A de-evolution if you will. Treo does seem to have more capabilities and features. I particularly like not having to cable synchronize it for the email, calendar, notes, and other features that synch with Outlook Express in my case. Non-Outlook Express users, you are on your own as you have already chosen a different path. You probably use Mac's, too. Good for you.

As far as other differences, I encourage anyone needing to select a smart phone to do some investigation with online literature and colleagues. You should definitely do a test drive to see how your own anatomy is supported by either device. Have fun being more productive but remember, turn the damn thing off whenever you can. Enjoy real life!

Tales from the Train - Jan 26

Getting ready to roll on the 7:03 from Penn Station on a bitter cold Friday night. It's been a long, tough week but has gone mostly well. This the second week PG and I can see ahead to a time when we won't even remember.

There were a number of late Friday afternoon issues that could have been resolved through more communication and better follow-through by the transition team members. I will try to affect a change at the weekly meeting on Monday. Being adaptable and agile seem to be keys.

I will be training in to work again on Sunday as I need a day of rest. I like the situation of working for HFA while on the train and then doing my Columbia work when I arrive. Seems a fair split of my time.

Of course I will start to get spring fever in March so I better make sure things are working smoothly by then. Well, not much of value to write today so I'll close. Enjoy the weekend and stay warm.

Tales from the Train - Jan 22

Tales from the train - January 22nd, 2007

I am sitting on the 6:03 train getting ready to leave Penn Station in New York. The train has just begun rolling, the conductor has just come by to look at my ticket, and I have just finished reading my current book, 'Endymion' by Dan Simmons. Next will be 'the Rise of Endymion' which complete the four part 'Hyperion' work. Good and creative stuff!

I realize I owe the readers of this blog more information about the train fatality yesterday. It turned out that someone had committed suicide by stepping out into the tracks in front of my train. I did hear the body move under the train and that is a very grisly thought. The NJ Transit dispatched another train and we were on our way within an hour of the accident. The photos from the blog earlier are from my cell phone camera.

How to make this blog useful to the people I would like to reach for Home Field Advantage? Well, I guess I am starting with keeping myself interested and then may reach out to others as collaborators. Co-creators. Co-inventors. Participants in creating something that has yet to exist.

When the train hit that poor person I was working in the HFA Basecamp site as well as was listening to a Podcast called "the Accidental Creative." I found this on iTunes as one of the offerings of free podcasts. All about how to be a better creative talent of whatever artistic endeavor.

Home Field Advantage is starting to take shape with an initial set of product ideas as well as with plans for the formation of a company. Home Field Advantage, LLC is about to be born. Pretty exciting stuff.

Of course it would be exciting to get that first check for something produced and bought. Entrepreneurship can be lots of fun. I just hope it is not a distraction or substitute for something important or meaningful.

Well, I will close this installment of 'Tales' to rest my mind a bit and to let it float into the air. There is always too much to do or to even think about so no sense in trying to get it all done or thought today.

The final line in my recent book seems appropriate... 'I wish you sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.'