Finally went hiking this past weekend. Sarah, Joe, Joesy (anybody need a wonderful dog? Sarah's fostering her ad she's the sweetest & best behaved pooch) and I went hiking up MacAffee's Knob trail and enjoyed a spectacular view of Roanoke valley. Couldn't have asked for nicer weather. Even with an 8 hour roundtrip drive, it was totally worth it! 7 miles of hiking bliss, fresh air and great conversation. Thanks bera!
Finally had a week off... sigh. Flew out to San Francisco to visit old friends (slightly negelected... hadn't been out in 2 years) and unplug the brain from work and get it jump-started again with fresh views.
Here are some of my favorite freshies:
Exhibit at the De Young museum in Golden Gate Park of photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto.
Ok, so this guy is brilliant, both in the execution of a concept and concerning his technical skills as a black and white photographer. The image to the left is how he captured the concept of photographing an entire movie. He literally set up his camera and took a picture of an entire movie. Just the icing on the cake, the rest of the exhibit took my breath away... from how our prehistoric ancestors saw the world (one thing constant is the ocean and the horizon... you look out over his enormous photos of the world's seas and then realize that, yup, our great ancestors saw the same thing and it makes you feel incredibly humble and human and old) to how the diorama's at the National History museum actually look real if you glance at them quickly instead of just looking at them (this part just blew me away, you wouldn't think looking at stuffed animals with a painted backdrop that you know is 6 feet away could somehow be shot to look REAL, but he does it!).
Mount Diablo... finally made it out there... on the back of a bike, thanks to Nathan's fine riding skills. motorcylce + windy roads + gorgous weather + amazing views = fantastic way to spend your day. The national park allows for views of golden hills (the grasses are dry this time of year) and emerald oak trees tucked here and there in the lees of hills with a back drop of blue, blue sky. Oh, and dragonflies provide fantastic dog-fight displays at the summit.
Fort Funston. If you have a dog, or just love to watch dogs act like they're in heaven, go to Fort Funston. You can watch the hang-gliders leap off the cliffs and come peeling over the edge when you're walking down along the beach. And, if you want to check the weather first, the hang-gliders have provided a web cam, very thoughtful. Great place to dip your big toe in the Pacific (brrr!).
One of my favorite spots...the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park. A little gem with a terrific Zen garden. If anyone knows the name of the amazing little orange flowers (look like they may be in the lily/orchid family?) that are in bloom this time of year, please let me know, I'd love to plant them!
The food in San Francisco is only surpassed by the company at the table! Had plenty of good conversations, eats & drinks thanks to Nathan, Julia, Jason, Marilyn, Link & Jesslyn (sp? sorry), Bilal, Adam, Jonah (thanks for the cheese), Gail & Gernot and even Paola & Lola (sweet pooches). Thank you guys for being my soul's bread & butter for the week. Felt very nourished by the time I took-off for the east coast.
And there you have the joys of a week long trip to San Fran.
]]>So Jennifer has made me famous, at least in one of her classes. I got to model origami for one of her communications projects. And it isn't just your vanilla origami, folks, it's Sticky-note Origami, specifically how to fold a basketball hoop that will stick to your cubicle and let you practice your aim with paperclips. Obviously someone was very bored at work.
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Ok, so both of these are just entertaining. That and it makes me realize that sometimes you just need to think outside of the box. Even if you're a cat or a dog.
Cheers,
Lee
]]>So the very same professor I make fun of in my previous post expressed total compassion when I realized on Monday that I had GROSSLY misunderstood the due date for my mid-term.
It was due last Sunday at midnight, and I thought it was due today.
Not only did he humorously (he said he'd ask the instructor if it was ok) allowed me to turn in my midterm after the due date, he also made fun of himself infront of the whole class on Monday and smiled knowingly at me and didn't say a thing.
Nothing like Karma to put the 'ol ego in check. Gotta love it.
Sumimasen!
]]>"Don't forget the 'Extra' in Extraordinary!"
thus quoth my professor when he emailed us our midterm.
My gag reflex went nuts.
]]>Recently I raised my sleepy head and realized... holy cajoly, it's been three months since my last post. Much has gone on and yet very little as well. Work's been consuming most of my brain. I got thrown into marketing for our firm head first (have NO experience) so I'm inventing and researching things as I go along. We'll see how this goes. I must say it is exciting, though. If any of y'all have experience with writing marketing plans, I would love to hear about them.
]]>No, I wasn't in a car accident. I'm having an interesting bout with vertigo (on week five now) and in a nutshell, my audiologist performed the Epley Maneuver on me (second time) and in order to make sure I don't move my head around for 48 hrs I have to wear a collar.
Jennifer and I had a good laugh because when we went out to go get donuts at the corner Krispy Kreme, I realized, "Gee... I guess I don't need to wear a scarf." Gotta appreciate the silver lining, right?
Wow. I've been away from Richmond for a week and a half. Nothing like a change of perspective and unplugging oneself to get refreshed.
Mexico was terrific. Bird and I stayed at the Moon Palace (all inclusive resort, which is pretty popular in that area) just outside of the Cancun strip and I haven't had service like that ever. You just had to think of something and it was there. Mostly lounged at the pool, sunning myself. On Thursday we went to Cozumel. Bird went diving and I went snorkeling, absolutely gorgeous. Haven't seen that many fish ever. My favorites were the queen parrot fish, reminded me of herds of cows (they were enormous) as their school leasurely swam by, munching at the coral (you could actually hear them munching).
Next day we were off to Chichen Itza (our guide coached us for several minutes on how to correctly pronounce it: "Do NOT say Chicken Pizza"). I had NO IDEA that this site is so amazing. Everyone has seen pictures of the El Castillo, but there are literally hundreds of other ruins. A proper city. Unfortunately, because of vandals (graffiti) you can no longer climb to the top of any of the temples. If you have the chance to go, skip taking a tour and rent a car. The tour we were on only gave us 2 1/2 hours at the site, which wasn't nearly long enough. Splurge and get a tour guide, it's completely worth it.
It is very humbling to walk around Chichen Itza. We feel that we're so advanced as a society, but in all honesty, we just have faster communication tools. And lousy architecture. Though definitely a better standard of living and health care for the entire populace.
On Saturday I flew back to DC and attended the Schwab Impact Conference. The speakers were amazing: Dr. Alan Greenspan, Dr. Steven Levitt (author of "Freakonomics" which I'm definitely going to read), Thomas Friedman (author of "The World is Flat"), Sir Richard Branson. I could go on for hours about all of the stimulating concepts they discussed and the kajillion ideas they sparked off.
In a nutshell:
Greenspan is MUCH more open about voicing his opion now that he's no longer at the Fed. He applauded hedgefunds because he feels they squelch inefficiencies in the the market and also voiced that his major concern for the US was that it would subscribe to a protectionist policies.
Dr. Levitt's entire point was to understand exactly what question you are asking. If you don't ask the right question, you cannot uncover what you are looking for.
Mr. Friedman elloquently summed up the history of our information revolution.
Sir Branson was the most interesting of all. Mainly, not because of what he said, but because of what he is. This gentleman is fearless. Ok, maybe he has 2% fear in there somewhere, but anyone who's been pulled out of the sea 6 times because his hot-air balloons keep coming down out of the sky... need I say more? He didn't spark of great geneous, he didn't spark of having one great idea... instead you had the sense that the man is filled with an amazing belief in his people (Virgin) and truly understands the value of empowering them, which in turn sets him free to work on new projects that inspire his belief in humanity. A true Explorer and, I might add, a Hero. His company (there are actually 300 companies under Virgin) has a policy that no one will develop AIDS. Anyone who is HIV positive who's white blood cell count drops below a specific point (which he knew off the top of his head) was immediately put on drugs to suppress the full blown development of AIDS. And yes, his company pays for it. He is also actively involved in alternative fuel source development.
So, I'm going to stop here. It's great to be back and it was great to be gone. I hope all of you are doing well!
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Yesterday I was having some work done at the car dealer. A
blonde woman came in and asked for a seven-hundred-ten. They
all looked at each other, and the Mechanic asked, "What is a
seven-hundred-ten?"
She replied, "You know, the little piece in the middle of
the engine. I lost it and need a new one. It had always been
there."
The mechanic gave the woman a piece of paper and a pen and
asked her to draw what the piece looked like. She drew a
circle and in the middle of it wrote 710. He then took her
over to another car which had the hood up and asked, "Is
there a 710 on this car?" She pointed and said, " Of course,
it's right there."