2 Hunnert - This Life

Looking back
Two hundred posts on this blog
Reflections, near and far term
Of one life, just one life is all

The essence of life... mine
The mistakes of life... mine
The achievements of life... mine
The mistakes...
Ah, the mistakes...

I did not imagine this
It happened
I did not deserve this
It happened anyway

I just stepped off the curb
Without looking
And there it was
Life...large and in my face

So I wrote about those close to me
Testimonials to our family of four
Testimonials to our goldy, Molly
Testimonials to friends
Testimonials about the human condition

Right now... I feel the love of family
As they laugh and talk
While preparing Christmas dinner
I peeled the spuds - that was enough
Love is warm

We're not done.
We. Are. Not. Done.
There's more to say
Until there's life, no more.

To all who see this; Merry Christmas

Herding Cats (Julieann and Her Lefties)

Julieann Marie Campbell
Receiving  Air Force Certificate of Appreciation 

I asked her recently
If she had ever though of herself
As beautiful
She was surprised, and answered "No".

Then I showed her a photo
Taken of her when we left the Air Force
Years ago and said, "See"?
She remained surprised

*****

Once she said she regretted

That she had not completed college
I said, "Are you kidding?

You have four college degrees
One in Economics
A Masters in Health Care Administration
Another degree in Digital Media
And this coming Spring a degree in Philosophy"

The point being there likely would be no degrees
In our family were it not for her
Her energy, her optimism and her belief in all of us
Brought us to this point

She has been corralling three lefties all this time...
Like herding cats right?!

*****

In recent years I have noticed, and admired

Her sense of things is to give way in deference

To oncoming traffic 

On foot, in cars, in conversation... in everything

Her time is yours, in all things

I wish I was more like that

I wish we all were more like that

To step back, to let another in, to listen

Note:  This is my 200th post in the past four years.  Without Julieann Marie Campbell there would be zero - as in no posts. That is a fact - I am so fortunate to be able to do something like this, that I love... and to be with someone I love.  I'm not sure she is done racking up college degrees either!

Get a Job(s)

Yup.. that's a little adaptation of the title
From the old Fifty's hit by The Silhouettes

But this is really about today
Right now
As we 'speak'... so to speak...

Its about the best nonfiction book I have ever read
And why you should 'Get' one
Its about the best company for customers that perhaps has ever existed
Its about the man behind it all

Yes its Steve Jobs and its his biography by Walter Isaacson

Do you have to be an Apple fanatic to appreciate the story?
Nope.
Do you have to be a management expert to appreciate the seeming contradictions in his philosophy?

Photo from the book's cover

Nope.

Neither attribute would hurt but I am convinced...
If you like to read you will love this book

Now I'll confess, I am left-handed...
Therefore by definition I am a dreamer
As a result I have always leaned toward fiction

Haven't read much non-fiction... nope
But this... this book is proof that truth can be stranger than fiction
That truth can be just as intriguing as fiction

Okay, I am done fawning here
Lets move on to a few (just three) excerpts
That prompt me to add my $.02 worth

On the use of PowerPoint;

"I hate the way people use slide presentations instead of thinking," Jobs... recalled.  "People (at Apple) would confront a problem by creating a presentation.  I wanted them to engage, to hash things out at the table, rather than show a bunch of slides.  People who know what they're talking about don't need PowerPoint."

$.02 worth: He had just returned to Apple and was trying to review product lines.  He quickly realized how the company had turned bureaucratic, had too many products and was too confusing to customers.  He wanted them to engage each other and focus... PowerPoint wasn't (isn't) the answer.


On packaging;

(He understood) that people do judge a book by its cover... and therefore (made) sure all the trappings and packaging of Apple signaled that there was a beautiful gem inside.

Compact, precise and conveniently packed
inside and out... through and through

$.02 worth: If you have never seen the box iPhones come in they are something to behold.  I have a photo here but the real thing needs to be experienced to appreciate.  I have boxes from two iPhone models on the shelf in my office. To me, they represent the finest packaging I have ever seen.  If he wanted someone to feel there was "a beautiful gem" inside it worked. The look, the quality of construction, the fit... everything about it.  It is a classic.

On Setting Realistic (limiting) Objectives;

Jobs would stand in front of a whiteboard (he loved whiteboards because they gave him complete control of a situation and they engendered focus) and ask, "What are the ten things we should be doing next?"  People would fight to get their suggestions on the list, Jobs would write them down, and then cross off the ones he decreed dumb.  After much jockeying, the group would come up with a (prioritized) list of ten.  Then Jobs would slash the bottom seven and announce, "We can only do three."

$.02 worth: This is a spin-off from an old management adage that suggests during a  limited, 3-5 year tenure a top exec should limit objectives to five (Jobs liked three).  The point, whether three or five or something within reach, is right on target in my not-so-humble estimation.


Jobs was not without fault in his relationships with others and he apparently wasn't afraid to admit it.  On the other hand, he was a genius at knowing what people (we) wanted before they (we) knew it ourselves.  He was a 'product first, customer first' type person before bottom-line profit. The beauty of this philosophy was and is that profits followed... big-time.  If only more companies were like this today. 

Simplicity and quality
Beginning to end
That's all
That's everything
That was Steve Jobs
RIP Steve... you have changed our lives forever
Walter, you did a damn fine job too, thanks

Gimme' An M!...

Gimme an R!
Gimme an I!
Gimme an M. R. I.!
What's that spell?!

 Nothing.

Its an acronym
For Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Or what I like to now refer to as
A day in the looney bin.

You see I 'got this hearing loss
It all started in '72
When ultra patient wife Julie, brother Dave and I
Attended a rock concert
At the Los Angeles Forum
Iron Butterfly and Canned Heat

The sound engineer must have been on something that day
When we left my ears were ringing
And haven't stopped since
No problem, pretty easy to get used to...
But other noise since and aging
Have compounded things
To the point where "What?" is by far the most common word in my vocabulary

An ENT doc & pal from our soccer daughter's past experiences
Thought it would be good to check my head with an MRI
See if anything is there
(Many of you believe there isn't I know)
So I was off to get my head examined
(As many of you have requested in the past)

Fast forward to exam room...

Exactly as I was positioned
Note Lady Gaga apparatus over head
I was ready to sing "Edge Of Glory"
White object is mirror so patient (me)
Can see tech in room behind machine

The tech was friendly.
Got me quickly positioned with head in restraints
(As many of you have long hoped)
Positioned a Lady Gaga Memorial plastic face over me
Then crammed plugs in my ears & continued explaining things
"I can't hear you at all now" She just gave me a knowing smile
I picked up "...half hour", "...don't move", and few other tidbits anyway

As the machine crammed me into this giant tube my last words were; "2001, space Odyssey!"
She smiled again for me
Okay, okay I was desperate to break the tension with a little lame humor
My tube was snug-on-shoulders cozy
And I thought...I'm kinda' like human toothpaste right now!
Hope nobody squeezes it...

Then, a cacophony of loud frickin' noises hit my space capsule
First the sounds of a circular saw making passes at... My head?
Next a jackhammer... rhythmic and persistent
Then a klaxon (What? The hard hats taking a break already?)
And then, in "dueling banjos" fashion a klaxon and a hammer tapping some metal object,
All of them were in sevens; seven tolls of the klaxon followed by seven blows of the hammer

Finally at the end of the first round Klaxon II went off...
Louder and more persistent, it made me want to shout "All hands on deck!" and maybe "Abandon ship!"
...except I was never in the Navy so I kept quiet
Then, 15 minutes in, came the injection she had mentioned
"Contrast agent" she had called it
I thought it might in fact be some sort of shape altering substance

So I was laying there.. waiting for my eye teeth to grow longer... Much longer
Instead we made mashed potatoes... at least that is what it seemed like
It was the muffled sound of an electric mixer working partly mashed potatoes
And tapping against the side of an aluminum pan...
Ok maybe it was stainless steel

Trip over...
Gimme another M!
Gimme another...nah, never mind.