What would you do?

It is the fantasy of tens of millions of Americans; to win the big Mega Millions lottery jackpot.  The next drawing has an annuity value of over $150M USD.  That is a huge sum of money for one person to potentially win.  I recently replied, albeit jokingly, to the question What do you want for Christmas? with "A winning lottery ticket."


My friend then challenged me, and asked, "What would you do with all that money?"


I was gobsmacked.  My first inclination was to answer in the standard, selfish method "Get out of debt, buy a big house, greed, blah, blah, blah.  But, I would like to be able to teach."  Thankfully, one of the kids ran into the room and interrupted the exchange.  But my mind has not let go of the answer; my visceral, self-focused response really troubled me.


I realized, what I want, and really need, is not things, so much, but the experiences that a life unhindered by debt and physical attachments/confinements could bring.  For example, I am not truly happy with where I live.  Not that it isn't nice, more so, it is not right for me, my family, our interests and our ambitions.  I think there are many in a similar state of mind.  Hw can we be freed from our worldly bondage?


So, in thinking about it, I decided I'd leave a permanent record, so to speak, of my top 10 ways I'd manage such a windfall.  Of course, I would need to bring my family in line with these goals, but this is my fantasy right now.  And unlike a certain late-night talk show host, we are starting with number 1...

1. Get out of debt.  I cannot help anyone else until I clean up my own affairs.
2. Buy a home on a large piece of land, preferably farmland, that I could ensure remains farmland, but allow for us to use it for other purposes, too.  Key point is to what those purposes are is good and right.
3. Help our church find a permanent home.  It seems incongruous with my other objectives, but the current transient state creates some unique challenges.
4. Ensure my children's future; spiritually, financially, academically, artistically.
5. Help our family, where we can.  We have a big family.  Really big.  We're quite blessed that way.
6. Support specific causes, rewarding those who do much with little.  We have some very specific groups we've worked with that do great things with minimal resources, bring HOPE, and impact lives now by serving, and help people to be prepared for the future.
7. Travel to see the important places in world and natural history; to discover and learn.  That includes the seeing the great works.
8. Go back to school for a graduate degree.
9. Get a new car (no, not an exotic).  Given number 2, I'm more inclined to get a pickup truck.  And a couple of trailers to haul the other four-wheel or four-legged accessories.
10. Invest in the future.  Read into that what you will, I have some ideas that may surprise you, but I'll keep those to myself for now.

A long time ago, I was asked what were my dreams, my ambitions.  I struggled, not because I didn't have them.  No, it was because I could not find a clip art photo to stick on my fridge, to remind me daily.  For the most part, the things I wanted, and still want, are pictures in the mind (OK, the car is tangible but subject, like all things, to rust and decay, as is the property, but I am not going into specifics).  How do you picture the smell of a campfire the next day?  The tracks of wildlife in the fresh snow?  The moist air of the forest on a spring morning?  The inquisitive look of awe of a child seeing an eagle in flight or a bear and her cubs?  The sight of your daughter, confident and glowing, in the saddle of a mare, reins in hand?  These are not things; these are indelible memories etched into our minds and souls by divine providence.


In the end, I can only imagine; perhaps dream; I can't expect to get what I want. But I know if i try sometime, I just might find, I'll get what I need.  Not that two are always disharmonious.  On the eve of the Christmas holidays, I struggle both with what I want, and what I want to give.  Being able to give much more is what I really want.  Now, I need to find the methods and means to make this happen.  That is my dream.

Can we teach people how to write before we give them jobs, please?

I am in the midst of reviewing a document from a colleague.  It purports to be a user guide for a Quality Control process.  Sadly, it is lacking quality itself.  Microsoft Word thinks it is written on a fifth grade level (my third grade daughter is producing writings at a higher level); it is fraught with grammatical errors (yeah, I make them as well, but that is why we use a draft-review-edit life-cycle.  Thank you Writing in the Arts and Sciences and the Writing Center at Beaver College/Arcadia University). I digress (or was it the ADD, I'm not sure).  If there is a style in use, that too, is elusive.  Maybe it is hiding with the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and Elvis.

Today's business writings, be it technical manuals, inter-office communiques, CEO blogs, scientific articles, etc., seem to have moved from carefully crafted literary experiences to SMS messages (uh, text messages, my bad!) or Facebook posts.  I cringe when I read many of these documents.  The use of monosyllabic words and lack of vocabulary represented by these educated authors is appalling.  Maybe a technology-only education is not as all encompassing as advertised.  The failure to be able to effectively communicate ideas, decisions, and information can make even the most technically elegant advancement ineffective.

Apple, for years, failed to communicate effectively the efficacy of it's systems, how the ease-of-use could translate into increased productivity and a higher return on investment (or ROI, for you jargon jockeys).  Now,  Apple has found a new voice in communicating this, be it in the iPod, iPhone, iPad or MacOS, and as a result, sales are up, as is market share.  Despite offering technically superior products for most of the past 25 years, Apple could never communicate beyond the simplest levels these advantages.

Before anyone accuses me of being a Mac fanatic, I must confess an affinity to Apple's products.  Most of the time, they really have the best products, but there have been innovations Apple failed to exploit, and still does (can you say camera on the iPad?).  At one point, the Amiga was actually a superior product to the Mac, but Commodore (the NY Mets of personal computing) managed to under communicate the advantages.  Android is no slouch (I use an Android phone, and love it), Ubuntu is a great OS, WinAmp and Pandora are great music sources, etc.

Yet again, the point is about effective communications, not a soapbox to praise Apple.  If we are to effectively communicate, we need to make it easy for our reader to capture the ideas we implant with our words, to draw mental images of the scenarios we relate, and replicate the steps we follow to build towards our goals.  Go, Dog, Go! is great when we are learning to read, but we eventually need to head to the tree, and climb into a world of new ideas, creating a more vivid picture of what we imagine, so our readers may come away with useful information for the task at hand.  It could be an alien landscape, a relationship on the verge of collapse, or the set of instructions on how to run a program to check data quality.  If the words we choose are effective, then the possibility of success is increased.

Success, ultimately, is dependent on the reader.  If the brain bank is unable to handle the deposit, there is no amount of eloquence or clarity that will make the endeavor a success.

Offshoring

I recently read an article regarding the rise of type II diabetes in developing nations. The article (I think it was on the BBC) stated there are 1 million new cases a year in India.

It seems it has gotten to the point where the US cannot even keep it's self-inflicted diseases in-house.  Maybe we can offshore stress, conspicuous consumption, and the national debt (oops, we've done that.  The US is now a majority-owned subsidiary of the PRC.) as well.  Somehow, I doubt that those who strive take American jobs and money want the ailments that go with them, yet we keep sending jobs (or importing "cheap" labor as H1s.) overseas.

In my industry, I've seen imported labor as a poorly disguised version of indentured servitude, where hiring agencies exploit under-skilled staff as low-priced labor while reaping large profit margins.  And whatever wages are earned, much is wired overseas, never to return to the Western economy.  Yet, most of the world outlawed slavery in the 19th century.  I guess it really is not slavery if you get paid, but at what cost?

Then again, those in the West agreeing to sell-out their workforces (while earning their 7-figure compensation packages) for short-term gains seem to forget that once those same people that helped build their companies will no longer have jobs to pay for their goods, the income is going to go away.  And sending overseas totally removes it from the economy.  So the government then needs to increase tax rates to make up for lost revenue.

Clear cutting the forest proved disastrous, yet industry after industry chooses to repeat the experiment; when will sustainability be returned to the equation.  By God, what have we wrought?

Going through WaWithdrawal...

As a devout Philly native, living in the Wawa-less wilderness of North Jersey for the past 12 years has been sheer torture.  I feel guilty entering the local minimart chain, like a traitor, selling my soul to the Wawaless heathen for a cup of what is actually not horrible coffee. Guaranteed, with every trip south of the I-78 corridor, every effort is made to hit the closest Wawa, whether the frontier outpost on Route 202 North in Readington,  the gateway to the Poconos off exit 308 of I-80, or the Rio Grande or Marmora megaWawas; a stop is in order.  Gotta have my Wawa coffee, the kids want the shakes, and whatever else comes to mind.

So, earlier in 2010, Wawa announced the chain's first outlet in the NJ Highlands region(well, sort of), in Parsipanny, NJ off I-280 and New Road.  It is so close, I can almost smell the coffee, that is, once the store is finished.  You know it is bad when the kids are asking when it'll open.

I guess it could be worse, we could still be living in the south of England.  They don't even have Dunkin' Donuts there *GASP*.  For now, my fellow Delaware Valley expats, we can commiserate on Wawa's Facebook page.  Of course, until our local outlet opens, then all bets are off.  Just wish I could open one as a franchise...

Build a better mousetrap...

In the IT world, mice are often useful, so we usually don't try to kill them.  It's bugs we hate (sorry to those budding etymologists and pathologists out there, the term has its roots in the days of early room-sized computers, look it up).  Especially those that cause ID10T errors.  So, we don't build mousetraps.  We make things idiotproof.  However, I like to say, "If you make something idiotproof, they'll build a better idiot."

Case in point; the proliferation of scams on the web.  You can earn $500 dollars a day playing Farmville on Facebook.  You can see who is looking at your profile on Facebook (huge scam).  If you send your banking details to the lawyer/solicitor for a former Nigerian General (deceased), they'll deposit the sum of $2,000,000USD in your bank account.  If you forward this blog, Walt Disney Jr. and Micro$oft will fly you and your family to Dissney World.  This list is annoyingly endless; a relentless assault on our latent desires, greed and gullibility.

Perhaps P.T. Barnum was right; there is a sucker born every minute.

How would you define your generation?

Last year, I had to take a mandatory training regarding diversity, especially pertaining to generational differences.  Being I was born in the twilight of the Boomers, I don't really fit into the strict definition of any of the models.  Am I really a Boomer?  A Gen-Xer?  Given the state of the economy, I realize, I am actually Gen-F'd.  Though, seeing the current state of affairs, maybe that term can apply to all the post-boomer groups.  And no, I will no expand upon what the F stands for, as there are numerous connotations, and the most puerile is probably what the vast majority would suspect; but you must remember, who is throwing this definition out there...