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.