The Rule of 5

Managing to the 5's

A few years ago I worked for a company called Veritas. Before I knew it, I was running two major groups of the Customer Support organization. I had 200 people and 5 managers working for me and I reported directly to the EVP of Customer Support who reported to the CEO. His goals became my goals and in a company that, at the time, was in the top 10 software companies in the world, the goal to maximize profits, reduce cost and have loyal customers was getting tougher and tougher. On top of that, I was managing during the "bubble" which meant if I didn't do a good job keeping my employees happy, they could leave for a better paying job pretty easily.


I came up with managing each manager to a list of 5 major goals they needed to hit for the year, and each quarter they would manage to 5 goals that helped them to achieve the 5 yearly goals. While goals could change, each manager knew exactly what they needed to do each quarter and if they did them, at the end of the year they would hit their targets.

Why 5? Who know, but at the time it seemed to work well.

My point... Why don't our politicians do that? I know it seems simple, and it may even seem like too few things but if you look at the top 5 things that plague this country and shoot to fix the top 5 each year (and even better the top 5 in each branch of government) then by the end of the Presidents term (for example) he (or she) would have accomplished between 20 to 60 major issues. Call me crazy but I can't think of any President that has accomplished "fixing" 5 major issues in my 40 years on this marble.

Just a thought.

Hooked on Sudoku

Sudoku

Wow - I have to tell you I am totally hooked... For a guy who is always looking for a hobby, this is really cool. Almost like reading but not.

I was on the train back from NY with a friend who said that they were totally hooked on it. I didn't give it much thought. Then I was on a plane and saw the game in one of those airline magazines so I thought I would try it. Wow, it sucked me right in.

Next think I know I am on line looking for a game to play while I am on line or to play it on my computer or on my hand held devise. No luck on the hand held, but I found the game on line at http://www.websudoku.com/. First thing I did was, for $2.95 created by own book of 12 puzzles and some cool ones at that. Then I downloaded the game for $14 and have been playing ever since.

Caution, may cause problems with Wife.

Yeah, she got pretty irritated with me playing it for so long, so I have had to back off, but it is very addicting. Great game. (Now I think I need to look up it's history. Very interesting.)

And the Oscar Goes To...

Best Character in an Animated Film...

I am waiting to see when this becomes a real category at the Oscars. With today's virtual world, we could easily see, from our very comfortable sofa's, and with the advancements of blue screen, Roger Rabbit walking down the red carpet w/ Jessica Rabbit on his arm.

I can see the animator (if that is what they are still called) sitting at their computer screens not just thinking about the character they are going to generate for a movie, but how they will strut their stuff along the red carpet come Oscar day. I wonder how far off we are from that day.

Customer Service and American Airlines - NOT AGAIN!!!

Just when you think you may be out of the woods???

I can't believe it... Let me get this straight, you call support to have them help you right? So here I am, back on the phone with American Airlines - who, I think I have it figured out now. You need to go to aa.com support when dealing with the internet. Anyway, I have been trying to book a flight on line for about 20 minutes. I am redeeming miles but I still have the pay the $60 fee for god knows what. When I get to the page to "purchase" the ticket, there is no "purchase" button. Instead is tells me if I am from a foreign country or based outside the US that I have to "hold" the ticket. I do so, figuring I can then go in an purchase my ticket via another screen. I search for another 20 minutes and cannot figure out how to "purchase" my ticket, so yes, you guessed it, I call support. After speaking with them for 30 minutes and them telling me that they are logged in as me and they do see a "purchase" button, yet I don't. I walk through the process of telling them how I created my ticket and the "foreign country" disclaimer at the bottom and they tell me that this may be an issue. They proceed to tell me that the system shows that I have changed my address to Afghanistan and then ask if I am not in the country. I tell them that I am in the country and I have never tried to change my address so I am unclear why this would be the case. (Keep in mind, I have had issues buying tickets over the web now for over a year.) They still can't understand why I can't purchase tickets, but they can for me. I reiterate to them that I have already kept them on the phone for more time than the $5 they are going to charge me for this ticket and if they insist on charging me because the issue "has nothing to do with them" as it is "my server serving up this page" (not sure where they get their technician but this is humorous to me, that I will keep them on the phone for at least $10 more worth of time. They proceed to put me on hold for 30 minutes and "claim" they test this on 5 different computers and it works with my login. They also decided to give me the: "Oh, you need to reboot" "Oh, you need to change your Internet Explorer settings" "Oh, you need to use IE because Firefox isn't supported" You know, all the things, non-technical people tell you to do when trying solve an issue where they can't figure it out. None of these worked. So, while I was on hold, I went to check my profile. Sure enough they had me as being located in Brookline, MA Afghanistan. I changed it to USA, relogged in and went to my itinerary and sure enough I could "purchase" my ticket. As I have always said, its not necessarily about the poor service, but the fact that the poor service takes 1 hour away from my day of being productive...

Will this be the last time???

Customer Service and American Airlines - Tripple Play

Okay, it happened.

In my last rant about American Airlines I had to bash Northwest for screwing up a few years ago trying to get me home to San Jose, CA from Atlanta.Today I have a beef with US Air. Only three days after American Airlines rips the door off my plane, I am now experiencing the worst customer service I have seen in any industry. Apparently, some folks in the airport in Philadelphia, traveling on US Air headed to Florida were told to go to “gate 21” and talk to the ticket agent about what to do in order to get on the proper flight to Florida. Gate 21 also happened to be the gate I was boarding on to head back to Boston. These folks waited in line for over 20 minutes. When they reached the counter the gate agent barked at them “Don’t you listen, we are boarding for Boston. When we get done this process, in the next half hour, we may be able to help you.” To which the passengers were shocked. Then one lady pipes up, “Okay then, why did they tell us to come to this gate for help then? ” Well, the gate agent lifts her head up, looks her in the eye and says, “How the hell should I know lady!” “You know what, if you really want help, go to the US Air Service Desk near gate 25 and get out of the way!” I was shocked.

The group of passengers left and then the gate agent decides to speak to her colleague in a voice loud enough for everyone in the lounge to hear, “Well, I guess I am just a person on the street now.” “Don’t people understand we are tying to do a job here.” And then had more negative things to say about her job and the people (who fly and pay her salary).Well, there you have it. Three big name airlines, all with just incredible stories of bad service. So I guess in my earlier rants I should have been a little more easy on American Airlines, they all suck.

Now it is time to try some of these new air lines that are independently owned and operated and seem to be having some success. I know Jet Blue and Southwest will get my money on my next trip. I only hope they do better than the big guys.

Customer Service and American Airlines - Take 2

Why Can’t American Airlines Get it Right?

Okay, so I am new at this whole “blogging” thing, so I don’t know if it appropriate to append my last blog about American Airlines or begin a new one. I guess, since this is like a journal, I will just start a new one…

So, here it is, a continuation of my last rant about American Airlines…

First, I have to say that in order for any company to provide good customer support one of the main characteristics is to be consistent. What do I mean by this? I mean that in my last rant I discussed the fact that my wife and I had decided to consolidate our clothes into one piece of luggage. Doing so made our luggage weigh 7 lbs more that the allotted weight. Even though we were two travelers (allowed to carry 100 lbs combined) carrying only 57 lbs, we were required to pay $25 each way for the “heavier” bag. Now, like I said in the last rant, I didn’t get the memo, but if this is the new policy, then I will remember this going forward and pack appropriately.

Here is my issue. I am in line today in Orlando and a passenger throws his bag on the scales and what do you know, it comes to 57 lbs. Now I am standing back just waiting to see what is going to happen when they tell him that he has pay for the heavier bag. I wait, patiently, waiting, and the passenger walks off with his ticket and a smile. I am dumbfounded, so I have to ask the passenger if they charged him extra for his bag? He looked at me as if I was speaking a foreign language. Okay, so there is my answer, no he was not charged. I was, of course, irate, but hey, what could I do.

I will tell you what American can do, they can be consistent in the processes so when I see stuff like this, it doesn’t want to make me jump out of my skin.

Next up on the block, oh and you all are going to love this. I am in Boston getting ready to head south to Orlando. Everything is going well, we are loading up fine, we are on time and are ready to go… We think. I hear the door at the front of the aircraft close and I can feel the “tug” locking up to our wheel in order to push us back. At the same time this is happening, the gate agent decides that we should let one more person on our plane and the front door to the aircraft opens. As it does, a passenger walks onto the plane and just moments later, the plane begins to push back, with the door still open. The next thing we hear is a loud crash and a violent jerk of the aircraft which sends the flight attendant at the front of the aircraft into the middle of the first class section.

Upon inspection, the door hit the jet bridge and both were damaged pretty bad. Additionally, neither could move. If the jet bridge moved, the plane would jerk around too much with the passengers on it and they felt that wasn’t safe. If they moved the plane they would damage the door even more and drag the jet bridge and ruin that as well. What a conundrum.

The guy in the isle seat across from me says, well, looks like we not going to Orlando on this plane today.

Sure enough, just 55 minutes later, we are disembarking from the aircraft via a moving stair case at the door just behind first class (bummer, I really wanted to try out the slide – which I was informed later that evening at a bar, in Orlando, that every time people disembark from a full aircraft, 4 people end up injured). We were shuttled, without notice of what to do for instructions, back into the terminal to wait.

There was a stewardess on the plane stating that “… if we were in Dallas or Chicago where there are typically extra planes, then we could probably get out tonight, but they don’t have extra planes in Boston so we will probably not be going anywhere…”

She must have really believed this because, a couple of hours later, American did find a plane and our 2:30 flight was ready at 4:00 ready with pilots at a new gate. The only issue was, we had to wait almost 50 minutes for the flight crew to show up so we could board the plane and take off to Orlando. Wow, another fiasco. I got to know, how in the world does American rip a door off its plane prior to take off. With all the safety we passengers deal with these days, this shouldn’t happen.

Now, here I am getting ready to return to Boston. At the check-in counter I ask the person checking me in if I can have the bulkhead row. She say, “I will put you on the list, however, these seats are reserved for the gate agent to give out.” Again, I missed the memo. This has never happened to me. If the seats are free, they give them out. I say, with a smile, okay and proceed to the gate. I get to the gate, I wait for the gate agent to show up, a line has formed and I am second or third in line. I get to the counter and tell the gate agent I would like to see if the bulkhead row is available. The woman says to me, “Oh, I wish you would have been up here earlier, I just gave those seats to another couple.” I asked, “Did you see that I was on the ‘list’ for these seats?” The gate agent checks again to see that she didn’t look to see that there was a “list” for the seats and said she forgot and apologized but there was nothing she could do.
This reminds me of a Sinfield episode. “See, they are able to take the reservation, but they can’t keep the reservation. So what is the point?”

A few years ago I had ONE issue with another carrier I few frequently, Northwest. I wont go into the details of the issue, but they made a stupid mistake that cost me an overnight layover in MN on my way from Atlanta, GA to San Jose, CA. I wrote them a letter and said, I don’t want frequent flyer miles as “pay back” for your mistake. I want an apology in writing and wanted to know what they were going to do about the TIME they took away from me being with my family?

I got 5000 miles… Another good thing for customer service, listen to reasonable requests from your customers and accommodate them as long as the request isn’t out of this world. I was even letting them come up with how they were going to pay me back. You know, a free trip with my spouse anywhere in the continental US to make up for the time I lost with her would have been nice. Nope, 1/5 of a free trip is what I got.

This makes me want to start a list of what I would like in return for me being a loyal customer and dealing with their inconsistencies and hassles I have had to deal with this year.
I would like to be an Executive Platinum member for life. (I have been Platinum in the past and was for about four years running at one point.) I am a Gold member now.

I would like a life time member to the Admirals Club. Quite frankly I don’t know what all the allure is. I mean once you are back there you still have to pay for food and drinks.
I would like two round trip tickets to anywhere American flies – first class with no restrictions for my wife and I to take a vacation.

I am sure as more issues keep happening, I will want more. The question is, when do I give up and start flying another airline? How long will I put up with this? I am nervous that if I switch, the experience will be the same as this is probably and industry thing (but at least with another airline my expectations will be lower). Or, I switch and everything is way better and I have no more funny stories to tell. Well, perhaps I could tell stories of how everything went well. Nah, that would be no fun.

Funny thing is, I can’t send these rants to American. I have tried. I still get timeout errors on their web support site and to top it off, when I can get to the screen where they let you enter your complaint; I can only type in 500 words. Not nearly enough to describe all their screw ups.

Customer Service and American Airlines

This whole rant starts with lost bags in Peru... Now if you have ever traveled to a 3rd world country you know the trip getting there is a journey. My wife and I left on Christmas day and headed to Peru with a connection in Miami. We left on time, but for whatever reason, we had to sprint to make our connection which left us without our baggage when we landed in Peru. All we wanted to do was land, get our bags, get to the hotel and shower and sleep. But noooooo.... we have to wait in line with all the other Boston to Miami customers who were missing bags, explain in English to Spanish employees at American all the details on their report such that we could get our bags at some point. I thought they were required to give you at least an hour and a half on international connections? What is up with that? The next issue came about 18 days later. My wife and I brought her niece and nephew back to the states with us from Peru. They were then going to go home with my wife's mom who goes to Peru every year. They all speak Spanish and get a little nervous when it comes to traveling. I brought my mother-in-law and the kids to the airport to see them on their way. I remember a few years ago, I had seen a small child traveling and his mom had asked for a "pass" to walk the child down to his gate and the lady behind the airline counter gave the woman a "pass" to go through security and make sure the child (12 yrs. old) got on the plane okay. I decided to try to use this to help my mother-in-law, the children and all their carry on bags for the long journey. The woman at the American Airlines counter in Boston wouldn't give me a pass to walk them to the gate. Well, sure enough, 4 hours later I got a call from my mother-in-law saying that "...they were unable to get on the plane." The reason, they didn't have seats together, so in an effort by my mother-in-law to get them together on the plane, she gave the gate agent her tickets and was asked to sit down and wait. She, not knowing, didn't realize, as the plane was boarding and she didn't have her tickets, to approach the gate agent. They shut the door and their they sat. Of course my mother-in-law was very upset and made a stink. Well, now due to inclement weather, they were unable to get out for 3 more days. Poor customer service on their part cost to them, 3 round trip international tickets plus food and this blog about how bad American Airlines customer service is and is getting. Next, it is now April and my wife and I are going to travel to Phoenix. My wife and I love to travel and making it as easy as possible is kind of a challenge for us. This trip we decide to bring a small carry on each for personal items and one bag for our clothes (to check) to save space and make it easier for us. The bag was 7 pounds over the 50 lb limit and so they charged us $25, each way. But we only brought one bag, doesn't anyone see the irony with this? I don't get it. How about a $25 reimbursement (each way) for making the baggage handling easier for them? And to top it off, the guy behind the desk was rude when I tried to ask, "Why again is there a charge?", "When were we notified that this was taking effect?" I mean, I am a Gold traveler (have been Platinum) with American and I didn't get the memo. Lastly, and this is the real killer. This past weekend my wife gets an e-vite for a friend who is having a wedding in Corpus Christie, Texas in July. So, me being the tech savvy shopper, I hop on the internet (Memorial weekend) to try to take advantage of the 125,000 frequent flyer miles I have with American to book our free flight. As I am trying to book my reservations, I am trying to get to the screen that lists the available flights on the give date that I want to travel and I keep getting a message that says "Request Timed Out". This only means one thing; their servers are swamped on this holiday weekend. On top of that, they tell me when I call to try to book my tickets that if I don't use the internet, that it will cost me $5 per ticket. So, I finally get through and I am in the process of booking my tickets when I tell the woman that I am not going to pay the $5 per ticket because I tried to use the internet, yet their site cannot handle my request. The woman proceeds to tell me that she is sorry and has to transfer met to "Technical Support" then in order to try to understand the problem but she is not authorized to wave the $5. I ask to speak to her supervisor and after another 10 minutes of explaining, she too tells me that she cannot wave the $5 and I have to talk to Technical Support. I say, "okay, but only under one condition, that they can fix my internet issue and wave the $5." They say, they can, so I let them transfer me. After working with the technician for about 20 minutes, I have had it. She starts going to the ...I am not an technically savvy person so I will start asking dumb questions sheet... just to bug me. She starts to ask questions such as, am I using a wireless device. I tell her that I have made hundreds of reservations sitting in this exact same spot, with the exact same computer with the same damn IP address (yes, that is right, I said IP address, I am a technical person) and that being on a wireless device doesn't matter. I then ask to speak to her supervisor to which she tells me that they can't do that but one can call me back in an hour. I get a call back in one hour from someone who starts asking all the same questions. I tell the manager that American needs to start at this moment providing good customer service, forego the 10 bucks, make my reservation and move on. The woman says okay, but since she can access the internet (mind you in the same building where the datacenter is) she can't wave the $10. I give up and say "fine", lets just book the flight. I tell her that not waving the $10 is going to cost her a letter to the travel editor at the Boston Globe, NY Times and anyone else that will listen and she doesn't seem to care. Now I am in the process of booking my tickets when she tells me, she can get me to Corpus Christie on the day I want to go, but can't get me home until 3 days after I need to come home using frequent flyer miles, unless that is, of course, I want to use 50,000 miles per trip... You have to be kidding me..... all that for this? Now, this last part I believe is becoming a larger issue. The Airlines can't afford to give up any free seats these days so they are screwing their customers by saying they don't have seats when in fact they just can't give as many away. It's too bad really.

Wealthy Thieves

Wealthy Thieves?

Even Rich People Steal!While I write a lot and writing this saddens me.

The Setup

My wife and I were engaged on December 27, 2004 and married on July 31, 2004. However, let me backup. Picking out my wife’s engagement ring was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. See, my wife loves architecture, as do I, but she loved it so much she changed careers to do design work, and she is fabulous at it. I agonized over the ring for a long time because I wanted it to be perfect. When the day came and I gave the ring to her, there was no mistaking the look on her face as to how much she loved and appreciated it. I will never forget it. She even said at one point, it looks like the Lenny Zacum(?) bridge. Now to most, this may not sound good, but trust me, to me this was exactly what I was looking for. She would hold the ring up to the light and look at it every night.

In March of 2005 we decided that we wanted to buy a bigger place than the one we were in when we got married (which was originally owned by my wife). We wanted a place to start a family. We found a place we loved right away so we made an offer and it was accepted. We then began the process of selling our existing place. My wife called a realtor that she had worked with in the past, liked, and put our house on the market and start showing it.

The Let Down

Now let me state for the record that we were selling a place in Brookline, a decent neighborhood, for more than $600K. Everything was going fine. At our first open house, we had a ton of people pass though with a lot of excitement, no offers but a lot of interest. Additionally, each night I would see an email from our realtor asking permission to come in the following day with perspective buyers to look at the place. Each request was met with a “no problem” and we made sure that the place was spic-n-span and in tip-top shape for the showing. This is an important piece of the story because, at times, my wife or I may work from home, so being prepared and out of the house for showing was important.

Then the let down. We had a number of showings back-to-back one week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Nothing came through on Wednesday evening so we thought there were no showings on Thursday. The following day, my wife was looking forward to getting a bunch of work done with the only interruption of the day being a cut and color hair appointment.
At 1PM, my wife goes to get her hair done, and when you get a color job on your hair, the dye can go everywhere, so my wife put her engagement ring on her nightstand so she wouldn’t get dye on the ring.

At 1:30 PM, the realtor came to our house with another realtor and a couple to look at our place but forgot to tell us he was coming. When my wife came home from her hair appointment and looked at her nightstand, which is directly across the hall way from the front door and the ring… was gone! After several frantic phone calls to me, she got on the phone and called the police who sent over an officer and passed the information to a detective who was “on the case”.

The Big Question

We were told, by the police during the process of their investigation, that the people looking at our place were a professional working woman and he is a professor at prestigious university here in Boston. We were also told that they did not fit the “profile” and that they would have no use for such an item because she had on a “very expensive” ring herself. Our realtor told also explained to us that the realtor with the couple looking at our place has been in the business of selling homes for over 20 years. He said she is very successful, has an impeccable reputation and knows what something like this would do to her business if she were guilty of taking the ring. Our realtor has been in the business for some time and he too knows what this would do to his business. I also believe you can tell a lot about someone by looking them in the eye and my gut tells me, he didn’t do it.

So the big question is where did it go? My wife left for only 2 hours and in that span of time, four people entered and left that home. Before they got there, the ring was there, when they left, it was gone. I asked the detective, “I have watched Law and Order enough, can’t you dust for prints or something?” to which he replied, “If we are not charging them then I can’t dust for prints.” (So much for Law and Order mirroring the truth.)

The detective had the names and numbers of all the people involved and question them, together and separately on a couple of occasions. After a week, he reported to us that none of them “cracked” and I should probably check the pawnshop log at the Boston Police Department but he did not believe any of these people did it. When I asked why again, he said, they don’t fit the profile, they are wealthy and they don’t need it. He also didn’t believe the realtors did it either as they know the impact this would have on them.

So again, I ask, where did it go? We tore the place apart and didn’t find it.

The Point

I share this because people really need to know whom they are dealing with at all times and that there really is no “profile”. I am convinced that one of the people that went into our home that day took that ring; there can be no others. I know all the people who were involved in this episode but choose not to share names, it wouldn’t do any good. These people know who they are, and I do believe in karma. Everyone gets what they deserve and they will get theirs.

Leave the Driving to Whom?

Leave the Driving to Whom?

In the days of GPS, Greyhound has to invest!You have got to be kidding me. This is the only reaction I can have. Here is the story. My wife and I travel quite a bit. From time to time, it is nice to take public transportation (i.e. planes, trains and busses) and “leave the driving to…” others. Last weekend we decided to travel to New York on Greyhound.

What happened next seemed funny at the time. The bus driver, a very nice woman, hops on the bus and says “I need to let you all know I have never driven to New York before. I have been driving a bus for 10 years, but I haven’t every driven into New York. Does anyone know how to get there?” Now I am thinking, either she is kidding, which would be pretty funny or she is just giving us a heads up that there may be a slight delay. I am thinking, we are on a bus… to New York… I have to assume other people on the bus know how to get to New York. Sure enough, someone on the bus proclaims they know how to get to New York and so she asks them to sit in the front of the bus and help her with the written directions given to her from her manager at Greyhound. I have to believe we are all set here.

We begin the journey with out much difficulty and for the next 2 hours and 45 minutes, things seem to be okay. Then it happened. We missed an exit. We ended up crossing the Tapanze Bridge in New Jersey having passed our exit about 30 minutes earlier. Now the chaos starts.
The bus driver beings shouting loudly, out her side window, at the toll takers asking for directions to the Port Authority in New York. Not a way to make your passengers feel safe or that everything is under control. It gets worse, too many people decide they know how to get us to New York and come to the front of the bus to help. Now there are four people in the front of the bus, barking directions, one guy is on his cell phone talking with a friend in New Jersey trying to give direction from where we were (very hard to explain) to the highway back to the city. The bus driver is not listening to the people on the bus, but now shouting at people in cars next to us while at red lights asking for directions. When asked of the bus driver, “…don’t you have a cell phone and a manager to call to ask for help?” she replied, “The battery died.”

At this point, I have to share with you that I am sitting near the front of the bus reading my new book, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. The book describes how technology, off shoring, outsourcing and a number of other technological advances have helped us to reach around the globe and bring people closer. The book speaks to how a number of culminations, including technology has not just flattened the world but brought it closer together and easier to communicate, share ideas and be closer to one another, I guess Greyhound could lean something here and apply it to their business. It is funny, we can move information anywhere in the world form point A to point B, but we can’t do it with people? And to think motorized transportation came way before the computer, have we left people behind and moved data up the “human” food chain? Here I am on a bus, driven by a major bus carrier, Greyhound, and they can’t seem to get a bus from Boston, MA to New York, NY. I find this very ironic.

We finally pull over and are able to ask directions of a taxi driver who somewhat know the region and between getting us on the right highway into the city and my wife with her trusty map, we make it to New York, 6 ½ hours later. Ouch.

I will say with all the heat coming from the passagengers, some who decided to get on their cell phones and bark “…well this stupid driver has us lost…”, that our driver remained pretty calm and collected. Moreover, was it really her fault? She was pretty honest with us up front, Greyhound sent her into the unknowing abyss.

My only question is, in today’s technology world, why hasn’t Greyhound invested in GPS technology? I have to believe it would be a huge win for them and these devices are cheap, the hand held ones (even that cover multiple cities) are less than $500. The ability to track buses, help them along routes with potential detour information if there is too much traffic. The ability to find vehicles that are lost (yes this happens, even a bus) and help new drivers get from point A to point B without too much hassle. Greyhound could then put any driver on any route without too much concern or training. I also know it would increase customer satisfaction.

The irony, even after that trip, we decided to take the bus home. Not bad though, 4 hours on the dot.

Letter from Dick Cheney Himself

Dinner with Dick

Wow, now I do not have a political sway one way or another. This is probably bad, but I have to say I really didn't start learning about politics until later in life, and to be honest, it still confuses me. "Vote for the best person," I always say, but sometimes that is very hard to figure out. This however, really makes me laugh.

Today I get in the mail a letter directly from Dick Cheney himself. (Well, not really but...) The letter from him says;

"Dear Steve, Will you join President Bush, Laura and the entire Republican Congressional leadership as they gather on the evening of June 14th here in Washington, DC? (<-- This is funny, here for me is Boston, MA.) And will you allow all of us to recognize and honor the important role you have played over the years?" Bla, bla, bla...

I have never helped in a repulican campaign of any type nor have I voted repbulican, that I can remember. (Not that I wouldn't if the right person came along.) I have to wonder, for business, I think Bush is okay. As for the war well, that is another story. I only find him smart in that he surrounds himself with smart people, he himself seems pretty brain dead. I wonder why I would vote or even go to a dinner (at the cost of $150 to me) for someone who wants to thank me (then why am I paying, especially since he can't run again). I also wonder why, that if they applied any intelligence to half these mailers, they would actually send this, and pay the postage and for the money to print them, when they would know I wouldn't go. Seems like a big wate to me. It wont bode well for them the next time there is an election that is for sure.

What Do We Send Our Childern to College For?

What Do Our Children Do in the Future?

I have to say I am very concerend. Growing up as a kid, I never once thought "what am I going to do when I grow up?". I just always knew that I would do something, and have a good job and support my family. My dad, however, was adament that I would go to College and he didn't care what for, but I would go and get a degree. (I also hear this from my friends today who are my age and now they believe that their kids need to have a Masters in order to be successful in the world today.)

I wish that I had been given some guidance back then, in high school, as to what I could do and what may be interesting, not based on test scores and what my interests may have been then, but what was going on in the world then and into the future.

For example, in high school, I didn't know much about software at all, I wasn't using a computer until college and I did write some programs in college, but it was for a specific homework purpose but not for developing skills and thoughts around how software would / could change the world.

My first job out of college was with Parametric Technology. A huge software company. I fell intno this job. I went to school to be an mechanical engineer and after 80 resumes went out in 1991 and no job, these guys called me because they are a CAD vendor for mechanical products and thought I would be a fit. I took a job in support and had to learn software, unix, scripting etc... Now to my dad's credit, having good skills in "learning" from college, helped me do a very good job at my new company, but I still wonder how, based on how I grew up, I ever ended up in software.

The next question is, what do I do as a parent (not yet but hopfully soon) to prepare my kids to think of the world and its possiblities in 20 years. Skills that I see that are always transferable are:

• Sales skills / negtation skills
• A talent such as music (singing, instrument)
• Good manners
• Public Speaking

I am sure there are others so these are a good start, but in the global economy of 2025 what will be an important job for my kids to desire. With things like more and more software going overseas, developer may not be a great job.

I see a huge push in the on-line world with things like Second Life, Current TV (VC2), You Tube, Google etc... What are going to be the things to pay attention to in the future. How about dealing with global taxation on internet money? And what degree to you go get to prepare for that in the future.

I will keep thinking but if you have any qood ideas, I am all ears.

The Camera that Makes you Skinny

Thin Cam

Okay, I have now seen everything... I was watching the news the other night and they actually have a camera that makes you look skinny.

I guess in the future when we are all dealing with everyone on-line then showing a picture of the person we wished we would be, instead of us will be the wave of the future.

If this thing takes off, then I can see a decline in plastic surgery revenue. Last year plastic surgery grew by 40%. If this camera takes off, for the price of $200 you can have your own liposuction job with none of the pain.

I am keeping my eyes open for this.

Steve

TV on JetBlue

Not to sound too much like Andy Rooney but...

"You ever notice..."

That when you are on JetBlue, watching your 32 favorite channels and really into your show, it comes the time in the show when it is the pivotal juncture, where the plot is ready to change, Emily Proctor (Kalie on CSI Miami) is getting ready to tell you how the bad guys tried to get away with it, or they are just getting ready to score that touchdown... and all of the sudden...

"This is your captain speaking, we have just reached our cruising altitude and ..."

Damn!

Next thing we will need on planes is our own PVR at our seat to pause the show...
I mean we have it in our homes, why should we sacrifice this on the plane?