For the first time in my life, I became a campaigner! Last Saturday, Beth and I paid a visit to our local Obama 08 campaign office, picked up some materials, and attended a rally in East Harlem. Last Sunday, I campaigned in front of markets and churches on the Upper West Side. There were several meeting places to choose from; I went to the Starbucks on 103rd. I couldn't believe that at 9:00am on a Sunday morning that there were FIFTY volunteers assembled and ready to go. It was a cold day, but I spent about four hours standing on the sidewalk, holding an Obama sign, handing out flyers, and asking people to "Vote Obama!" It was one of my best New York days ever! It was amazing to talk and interact with so many people -- the other volunteers, the Obama supporters who were ecstatic to see us, and some folks who were not happy to see us. It was amazing and strange to be proclaiming my politics so publicly. People would just stop and ask 'so why do you support Obama' and I'd have a chance to tell them.
It was such a good experience that Beth and I spent another hour Monday evening handing out flyers and talking to people as they exited the subway. Then, on Super Tuesday, I campaigned from 7 to 9 in the morning and 5 to 9 in the evening. The Obama volunteers were amazing! We had someone on nearly every street corner up and down the UWS. During the evening shift, I campaigned 100 feet from a polling place adjacent to a small group of Hillary supporters (the only Hillary supporters I had seen all weekend). We talked to each other about our candidates, the issues, our predictions for the night, and the (un)likelihood of an Obama/Clinton ticket in November. I campaigned with an old gentleman who is a former NY State Senator and with a lovely woman who campaigned for Bobby Kennedy in 1968. She said that this is the first campaign she has seen since that 1968 campaign that has inspired so much grassroots enthusiasm and participation.
My efforts on that Tuesday may or may not have won many votes for Obama, but I was rewarded to come home exhausted and hear Obama deliver this great speech:
"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
2008-02-06
2008-02-02
2008-01-26
A huge win!
Even after the huge misinformation campaign, the Clinton/Edwards tag teaming in the SC debate, and repeated attacks from Bill Clinton, Obama is unstoppable!!! Not only did Obama win, he pulled in more than twice as many votes as Clinton!
It's tough to maintain a positive message of hope in the face of everything that was thrown at him in South Carolina, but Obama managed to finish even stronger than he started. We're almost there, folks! -- 22 states go to the polls on February 5th. If you haven't had a chance to make up your mind about the field of candidates, learn more about Barack at his website and donate to make sure we get the right person into the White House!
It's tough to maintain a positive message of hope in the face of everything that was thrown at him in South Carolina, but Obama managed to finish even stronger than he started. We're almost there, folks! -- 22 states go to the polls on February 5th. If you haven't had a chance to make up your mind about the field of candidates, learn more about Barack at his website and donate to make sure we get the right person into the White House!
2008-01-13
OBAMA
About three years ago when presidential candidates started campaigning (okay, maybe it hasn’t been quite that long), I began to take an increased interest in Barack Obama. I was mesmerized by his presence and his message of hope at the Democratic Convention in 2004. That night, I talked to my mom on the phone and she said “I want to vote for that guy!” I was one of many who were privately wishing for Obama to enter the 2008 race. When he did, I was cautiously optimistic.
When he joined the race, I began to pay attention to his news coverage, subscribed to his podcast, and generally did everything I could to keep track of him. The more I listened and the more I learned, the more I believed Obama was unlike any presidential candidate I’d ever seen. He spoke about issues in such a reasoned and rational way, without any of the sensationalism that is typical of a congressman trying to get his or her name in the paper. Obama is older than I am, but for the first time I felt like I was hearing the voice of my generation: someone who wants to address the issues that I care about, who really appreciates the complexity of these issues, and doesn’t just treat them as a prop in his sound bites. In short, I believed that he must be completely unelectable!
Last Tuesday, the day of the New Hampshire primary, after Obama had won the Iowa caucus, the front page of the Wall Street Journal had an article about how Obama had double-digit leads over Hillary in NH polls. I was beyond ecstatic. I literally felt the same way that I felt on Election Day 2004 when exit polls showed John Kerry way ahead of Bush. I now completely despise pollsters, by the way. When Obama was edged out in the NH primary, I felt motivated like never before: This is too big an opportunity at too critical a time for our country. On Wednesday, along with more than 20,000 others similarly motivated, Beth and I donated to Obama’s campaign. We later discovered that our brother- and sister-in-law (registered Republicans, for the record) had also donated to Obama on Wednesday.
This is the first of many ways we hope to be able to support the campaign. I’ll post more about that later, but for now let me encourage you to go to the Barack Obama website. It’s a fantastic site and if you don’t know anything about Obama it’s a great place to see where he stands on the issues and watch some of his speeches. If you come away with as much hope as I have, then make a donation.
When he joined the race, I began to pay attention to his news coverage, subscribed to his podcast, and generally did everything I could to keep track of him. The more I listened and the more I learned, the more I believed Obama was unlike any presidential candidate I’d ever seen. He spoke about issues in such a reasoned and rational way, without any of the sensationalism that is typical of a congressman trying to get his or her name in the paper. Obama is older than I am, but for the first time I felt like I was hearing the voice of my generation: someone who wants to address the issues that I care about, who really appreciates the complexity of these issues, and doesn’t just treat them as a prop in his sound bites. In short, I believed that he must be completely unelectable!
Last Tuesday, the day of the New Hampshire primary, after Obama had won the Iowa caucus, the front page of the Wall Street Journal had an article about how Obama had double-digit leads over Hillary in NH polls. I was beyond ecstatic. I literally felt the same way that I felt on Election Day 2004 when exit polls showed John Kerry way ahead of Bush. I now completely despise pollsters, by the way. When Obama was edged out in the NH primary, I felt motivated like never before: This is too big an opportunity at too critical a time for our country. On Wednesday, along with more than 20,000 others similarly motivated, Beth and I donated to Obama’s campaign. We later discovered that our brother- and sister-in-law (registered Republicans, for the record) had also donated to Obama on Wednesday.
This is the first of many ways we hope to be able to support the campaign. I’ll post more about that later, but for now let me encourage you to go to the Barack Obama website. It’s a fantastic site and if you don’t know anything about Obama it’s a great place to see where he stands on the issues and watch some of his speeches. If you come away with as much hope as I have, then make a donation.
2007-11-29
Going Under the Scope
I hadn't planned to write again so soon after my last post. Two posts within such a short period of time only calls attention to the long span of nothing between July and November. But I decided to post anyway, since I will be "going away" for a while.
Thanks for your good wishes. Please send DVDs in lieu of flowers. Comedies. I don't think I'll be in the mood for deep meaningful art films.
A few weeks ago I finished the job on my ACL while playing soccer (the only way I would have it). Tomorrow afternoon I will go in for surgery. Dr. Schell will cut out part of my kneecap tendon and use it as a new ACL. I'm planning to remain conscious during the procedure and hope that the experience will be very educational. I learned a lot by staying awake during my knee surgery five years ago.
I am glad to have the surgery scheduled for a Friday, so that I can have the weekend to begin my recovery. And I blocked out my meeting schedule on Monday and Tuesday in case I need to work from home, and I expected to be back in the office on Wednesday, even if it was on crutches. This seemed reasonable based on my experience with my previous ankle surgery and two previous knee surgeries. However, I spoke to Dr. Schell today and he told me this was going to be a completely different type of recovery. Gulp.
So now I'm scrambling to prepare for what may possibly be a week or more of being very doped up and/or in quite a bit of pain. Today they delivered a "knee bending machine" to the apartment. I haven't seen it yet, but I am supposed to use it for FOUR HOURS A DAY every day after surgery. From what I've heard, it basically just bends my leg back and forth over and over. I'm sure I'll come to hate it.
I am glad to have the surgery scheduled for a Friday, so that I can have the weekend to begin my recovery. And I blocked out my meeting schedule on Monday and Tuesday in case I need to work from home, and I expected to be back in the office on Wednesday, even if it was on crutches. This seemed reasonable based on my experience with my previous ankle surgery and two previous knee surgeries. However, I spoke to Dr. Schell today and he told me this was going to be a completely different type of recovery. Gulp.
So now I'm scrambling to prepare for what may possibly be a week or more of being very doped up and/or in quite a bit of pain. Today they delivered a "knee bending machine" to the apartment. I haven't seen it yet, but I am supposed to use it for FOUR HOURS A DAY every day after surgery. From what I've heard, it basically just bends my leg back and forth over and over. I'm sure I'll come to hate it.
Thanks for your good wishes. Please send DVDs in lieu of flowers. Comedies. I don't think I'll be in the mood for deep meaningful art films.
2007-11-27
Busy days
When I finished school in May I felt like I had an abundance of free time. No need to sit in class for six hours a week; No need to put in countless hours of reading during my weeknights; No dreaded group projects to suffer through on my weekends. Of course, we tend to fill whatever time we have available, don't we? So part of my newfound free time was given over to teaching a Financial Peace class on Sunday mornings as well as becoming more active in my role as Shiloh board member. (I also tried to rejoin my soccer team, but that had a swift and painful conclusion).
For a while, my work started to fill up that time as well. My trips to Amsterdam created a great deal of work for me to do, and for a few weeks this fall I would leave work, get home, eat dinner, pull out the laptop, and get right back to work. This obviously wasn't any fun for me or for Beth. So I started enforcing a no-work-from-home rule. I assumed this meant one of two things had to happen: stay late to get everything done, or leave without finishing everything. But what I found was something in between. By setting a deadline for myself each day to leave work on time and refrain from doing any work at home, I have been able to do a better job of addressing the more important tasks and finding other ways to deal with the less important things (which could mean delegating to someone else or letting them remain undone for some period of time). I have since learned that this is in line with Parkinson's Law which states that "work will fill the time available for its completion."
I am now able to finish everything that I need to accomplish and still get home at a reasonable hour and have a nice evening with Beth. There are still a number of projects that I would like to do and simply don't have time for, but I'm hopeful that I'll find a solution that doesn't involve working longer hours. I think I know a good place to start: Yesterday afternoon I was looking through my Sent Items on my email program at work, trying to find a message I had sent in the morning. It wasn't a particularly busy day for me, but there seemed to be a lot of sent messages to look through. It turns out that I sent 112 work-related emails yesterday. Over a 10 hour workday, that averages out to one email every 5 1/2 minutes. Considering the hours spent in meetings each day, the rate of emailing is even higher (not to mention all of the IMs and phone calls). There must be a better way...
For a while, my work started to fill up that time as well. My trips to Amsterdam created a great deal of work for me to do, and for a few weeks this fall I would leave work, get home, eat dinner, pull out the laptop, and get right back to work. This obviously wasn't any fun for me or for Beth. So I started enforcing a no-work-from-home rule. I assumed this meant one of two things had to happen: stay late to get everything done, or leave without finishing everything. But what I found was something in between. By setting a deadline for myself each day to leave work on time and refrain from doing any work at home, I have been able to do a better job of addressing the more important tasks and finding other ways to deal with the less important things (which could mean delegating to someone else or letting them remain undone for some period of time). I have since learned that this is in line with Parkinson's Law which states that "work will fill the time available for its completion."
I am now able to finish everything that I need to accomplish and still get home at a reasonable hour and have a nice evening with Beth. There are still a number of projects that I would like to do and simply don't have time for, but I'm hopeful that I'll find a solution that doesn't involve working longer hours. I think I know a good place to start: Yesterday afternoon I was looking through my Sent Items on my email program at work, trying to find a message I had sent in the morning. It wasn't a particularly busy day for me, but there seemed to be a lot of sent messages to look through. It turns out that I sent 112 work-related emails yesterday. Over a 10 hour workday, that averages out to one email every 5 1/2 minutes. Considering the hours spent in meetings each day, the rate of emailing is even higher (not to mention all of the IMs and phone calls). There must be a better way...
2007-07-14
Notes on Amsterdam
This week I had a business trip to Amsterdam to meet with colleagues from the Amsterdam Stock Exchange (the oldest stock exchange in the world) which is now part of the same company as the New York Stock Exchange -- NYSE Euronext. This was my first trip to Amsterdam and although it was only a few days and I had only a few hours of free time for exploring the city, I had a wonderful experience and learned a great deal about the city.
Canals
Amsterdam is a city built on water. Well, it's built on land, but it's very wet land (in fact it is named for the dam on the Amstel river). In addition to the port on the river, there are canals running throughout the city. Over 100 kilometers, in fact. The city is 85 square miles; over 20 square miles of that is water! These canals make for a beautiful and pleasant city experience with more than 1,000 canal bridges.
Bicycles
Soccer is the most popular sport in Amsterdam (and I hope to catch an Ajax game when I go back), but cycling has got to be a close second. No, I don't mean that they are big fans of the Tour de France. I mean that everyone rides a bike! They ride their bikes to work; they ride their bikes to the store; they ride their bikes to restaurants; they ride their bikes everywhere. I watched in disbelief as men in suits pedaled their way to work past older folks riding to the store. And in the evening young folks dressed up in their "bar scene" best hopped on their bikes and rode to the club.
For the most part everybody rides inexpensive, cruiser-style, one-speed, pedal-brake bikes. You don't need anything too nice -- the city is built on water so there are no hills anywhere that might require more than one gear.
Beverages
Heineken and Amstel Light are two of my favorite brands of beer -- both from Holland -- so I had high expectations for the beers in Amsterdam. I wasn't disappointed. We enjoyed many Dutch and Belgian beers as well as a Dutch gin called Jenever.
Beverages in the workplace are different in Amsterdam. People don't just get up and go grab themselves a coffee, water, or tea. Instead, they grab a tray and ask everyone whether they would like a drink. Sharing beverages together and serving each other is an important part of their culture.
My flight from New York left at 6:30 Monday night and arrived at 8:15 Tuesday morning. After arriving, I went straight to the office and began a blurry-eyed day of meetings. Needless to say, I drank and enjoyed coffee for the first time in my life on Tuesday.
English
I have visited many countries where English is not the native language. In those cases, I have usually managed to get by with my very poor Spanish, German, or Italian. And when I could not manage, there was almost always someone nearby who spoke English and could help out. But sometimes I could sense impatience or resentment from those helpers and others in the room that were subjected to this foreign language called English.
In Amsterdam, however, English is pervasive in spoken form. Whether it was a worker at my hotel, a clerk at the bike rental shop, or a random person that I stopped to ask directions -- they all seem to speak great English and don't mind at all. As for written language, the official signage is almost always in Dutch. But storefront signs, menus, advertisements, and most anything else that you need to read are written in both Dutch and English.
Realists vs. Optimists?
When I met one of my Dutch colleagues, I noticed a good-sized paperback on his desk entitled How to Work with Americans. Since our merger, my company has been learning about the cultural differences between the US and Europe when it comes to workplace practices and attitudes. The Amsterdam office had recently brought in an expert to speak with them about what to expect when working with Americans. One of the biggest differences that he pointed out was that Americans are generally optimists and Europeans are generally realists. This manifests itself in many ways in the workplace, usually with Americans wanting to dive right in to new strategies or product lines, while the Europeans are much more cautious and deliberate in their approach.
I was mindful of this when, during a conversation at dinner, one of my Dutch colleagues mentioned the "golden years" when answering my question about the prominence of Indonesian culture in the city. I recalled from one of my business school classes that The Netherlands was the economic world power during the 17th and 18th centuries (after the Italians and before the British). Their colonization of Indonesia (the Dutch East Indies) allowed the Dutch East India Company to become the most successful company in the history of the world. I am hypothesizing that this may explain the optimist vs. realist situation in which we find ourselves... we Americans are living in the midst of our economic dominance; we think we are invincible.
Thinking about the famous Dutch business acumen, I'd also like to mention here that our association of Holland with tulips may have different origins that you may believe. The Dutch are not famous for growing tulips; They are famous for their tulip market -- selling options on the tulip crop! Isn't it easy to see how New York evolved from New Amsterdam?
Global Warming
Another dinner conversation was about American politics. They are actually very aware of our presidential race and asked questions about Hilary, Obama, Bloomberg, McCain, and Giuliani. It was clear that they really had just one issue in mind -- global warming. They are big believers that human actions are shaping the climate and that they have already seen some changes in Amsterdam. I had seen An Inconvenient Truth just a couple weeks ago and mentioned that Amsterdam was featured prominently in a section of that film. They said that they were very hopeful when that movie came out that it would initiate a big change in American policies. They asked if I thought there was any chance that Gore would join the race for president and whether I thought he could win if he did. It was hard to break their hearts.
Pulp Fiction
Yet another conversation at dinner turned to films, including Pulp Fiction. One of my Dutch colleagues mentioned that it was not until she saw Pulp Fiction that she realized that the rest of the world might put something different on their french fries:
And I fulfilled a curiosity that I have had for 13 years:
It was delicious, but I couldn't finish the whole thing -- their mayo is much richer than ours!
Canals
Amsterdam is a city built on water. Well, it's built on land, but it's very wet land (in fact it is named for the dam on the Amstel river). In addition to the port on the river, there are canals running throughout the city. Over 100 kilometers, in fact. The city is 85 square miles; over 20 square miles of that is water! These canals make for a beautiful and pleasant city experience with more than 1,000 canal bridges.
Bicycles
Soccer is the most popular sport in Amsterdam (and I hope to catch an Ajax game when I go back), but cycling has got to be a close second. No, I don't mean that they are big fans of the Tour de France. I mean that everyone rides a bike! They ride their bikes to work; they ride their bikes to the store; they ride their bikes to restaurants; they ride their bikes everywhere. I watched in disbelief as men in suits pedaled their way to work past older folks riding to the store. And in the evening young folks dressed up in their "bar scene" best hopped on their bikes and rode to the club.
For the most part everybody rides inexpensive, cruiser-style, one-speed, pedal-brake bikes. You don't need anything too nice -- the city is built on water so there are no hills anywhere that might require more than one gear.
Beverages
Heineken and Amstel Light are two of my favorite brands of beer -- both from Holland -- so I had high expectations for the beers in Amsterdam. I wasn't disappointed. We enjoyed many Dutch and Belgian beers as well as a Dutch gin called Jenever.
Beverages in the workplace are different in Amsterdam. People don't just get up and go grab themselves a coffee, water, or tea. Instead, they grab a tray and ask everyone whether they would like a drink. Sharing beverages together and serving each other is an important part of their culture.
My flight from New York left at 6:30 Monday night and arrived at 8:15 Tuesday morning. After arriving, I went straight to the office and began a blurry-eyed day of meetings. Needless to say, I drank and enjoyed coffee for the first time in my life on Tuesday.
English
I have visited many countries where English is not the native language. In those cases, I have usually managed to get by with my very poor Spanish, German, or Italian. And when I could not manage, there was almost always someone nearby who spoke English and could help out. But sometimes I could sense impatience or resentment from those helpers and others in the room that were subjected to this foreign language called English.
In Amsterdam, however, English is pervasive in spoken form. Whether it was a worker at my hotel, a clerk at the bike rental shop, or a random person that I stopped to ask directions -- they all seem to speak great English and don't mind at all. As for written language, the official signage is almost always in Dutch. But storefront signs, menus, advertisements, and most anything else that you need to read are written in both Dutch and English.
Realists vs. Optimists?
When I met one of my Dutch colleagues, I noticed a good-sized paperback on his desk entitled How to Work with Americans. Since our merger, my company has been learning about the cultural differences between the US and Europe when it comes to workplace practices and attitudes. The Amsterdam office had recently brought in an expert to speak with them about what to expect when working with Americans. One of the biggest differences that he pointed out was that Americans are generally optimists and Europeans are generally realists. This manifests itself in many ways in the workplace, usually with Americans wanting to dive right in to new strategies or product lines, while the Europeans are much more cautious and deliberate in their approach.
I was mindful of this when, during a conversation at dinner, one of my Dutch colleagues mentioned the "golden years" when answering my question about the prominence of Indonesian culture in the city. I recalled from one of my business school classes that The Netherlands was the economic world power during the 17th and 18th centuries (after the Italians and before the British). Their colonization of Indonesia (the Dutch East Indies) allowed the Dutch East India Company to become the most successful company in the history of the world. I am hypothesizing that this may explain the optimist vs. realist situation in which we find ourselves... we Americans are living in the midst of our economic dominance; we think we are invincible.
Thinking about the famous Dutch business acumen, I'd also like to mention here that our association of Holland with tulips may have different origins that you may believe. The Dutch are not famous for growing tulips; They are famous for their tulip market -- selling options on the tulip crop! Isn't it easy to see how New York evolved from New Amsterdam?
Global Warming
Another dinner conversation was about American politics. They are actually very aware of our presidential race and asked questions about Hilary, Obama, Bloomberg, McCain, and Giuliani. It was clear that they really had just one issue in mind -- global warming. They are big believers that human actions are shaping the climate and that they have already seen some changes in Amsterdam. I had seen An Inconvenient Truth just a couple weeks ago and mentioned that Amsterdam was featured prominently in a section of that film. They said that they were very hopeful when that movie came out that it would initiate a big change in American policies. They asked if I thought there was any chance that Gore would join the race for president and whether I thought he could win if he did. It was hard to break their hearts.
Pulp Fiction
Yet another conversation at dinner turned to films, including Pulp Fiction. One of my Dutch colleagues mentioned that it was not until she saw Pulp Fiction that she realized that the rest of the world might put something different on their french fries:
- Vincent: You know what they put on french fries in Holland instead of ketchup?
- Jules: What?
- Vincent: Mayonnaise.
- Jules: G-- d---!
- Vincent: I seen 'em do it, man, they f----n' drown 'em in that s---.
- Jules: That's some f----d up s---.
And I fulfilled a curiosity that I have had for 13 years:
It was delicious, but I couldn't finish the whole thing -- their mayo is much richer than ours!
2007-07-06
Mozy
I have been looking for a good PC backup solution for about 8 years now. About the time that I started taking digital pictures, sending significant email, buying music, creating anything that I wanted to be sure not to lose ... I have been looking for a way to protect it from that inevitable day when a hard drive crash would wipe it all away forever.
I have used zip disks, which were fine at the time but soon became insufficient. I tried CDs, but it was painfully slow. Then I added a second hard drive and backed up one disk to another and more recently I've used an external hard drive. These solutions work great, but it gets tricky when trying to back up multiple computers and I always need a larger drive eventually. And then there's the what-if-there's-a-fire issue...not a good idea to have the backup stored 2 feet away from the original.
Real exciting, I know. But this is where Mozy comes in.
Since March I have been using an online backup service called Mozy. This service backs up files and folders from both of my PCs by securely transferring them to online storage. As you might imagine, this was a slow process; But eventually everything was backed up and now any new files are backed up immediately. And best of all, Mozy provides unlimited storage. Currently, I have 115 GB of files backed up!
Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised with how well it works and I highly recommend it if you're looking for an easy way to back up your stuff.
I have used zip disks, which were fine at the time but soon became insufficient. I tried CDs, but it was painfully slow. Then I added a second hard drive and backed up one disk to another and more recently I've used an external hard drive. These solutions work great, but it gets tricky when trying to back up multiple computers and I always need a larger drive eventually. And then there's the what-if-there's-a-fire issue...not a good idea to have the backup stored 2 feet away from the original.
Real exciting, I know. But this is where Mozy comes in.
Since March I have been using an online backup service called Mozy. This service backs up files and folders from both of my PCs by securely transferring them to online storage. As you might imagine, this was a slow process; But eventually everything was backed up and now any new files are backed up immediately. And best of all, Mozy provides unlimited storage. Currently, I have 115 GB of files backed up!
Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised with how well it works and I highly recommend it if you're looking for an easy way to back up your stuff.
2007-06-17
Picture tour
Spent memorial day weekend with my dad and brother in Las Vegas. Won some money, but not as much as I lost :(
Poor penguins! Dallas?!?
The bus always has the right-of-way
My wife arranged the most wonderful date on Wednesday -- a two-hour sunset sail on the Schooner Adirondack down the Hudson to the Statue of Liberty. We sipped wine, ate chocolate-covered strawberries, snuggled under our blanket, and enjoyed the city views. Only when she tried to prevent me from singing "My Country tis of Thee" at the Statue of Liberty did things get tense...
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