Category Archives: General Stuff

On the China earthquake, from a friend who manages the Chinese manufacturing and development teams at a large company:

It’s much, much worse than what you hear through western channels. Think of 80% of downtown Seattle destroyed at 3PM on a weekday. Give if you can.

I thought I’d posted on this Tuesday night, but apparently I didn’t. Anyway…
I’ve been speaking on Exchange and other topics professionally for about ten years. During that time, I’ve probably spoken at more than a hundred events, ranging from the small to the gargantuan, and I’ve only cancelled one. Tuesday afternoon, I made the really difficult decision to cancel another, my appearance at Connections. My wife has been ill for the last week or so, and I just wasn’t comfortable leaving her alone. She’s feeling somewhat better now, and three of my four sessions were covered by people who are even smarter than I am (thanks to Jim, Jüergen, and John!) so I feel better about my decision. I still hated to miss Connections, though, and I’m really looking forward to the Vegas version! My apologies to anyone who was disappointed by my absence. I hope it never happens again 🙂

The boys and I went to grappling class this Saturday, for the first time in a while. It showed 🙂
Our school does grappling in an hour-long block, starting with about 20 minutes of position rounds. In these rounds, you’re not allowed to actually force your opponent to submit, and we usually use those times to practice. I was rollin’ with Jerry, who is about my height but quite a bit stronger, so I was a bit tired by the time we got done with that part of the class. Next, we do 15 minutes or so of instruction and drill; the instructor will teach a move or technique, and we’ll partner up and practice it. Missing this has hurt my performance the most, because I’ve fallen behind in my technical knowledge. This was well demonstrated when we went to the final part of the class: freestyle grappling, with submissions not only allowed but encouraged. In my first round, Adam (who’s about my build but a bit shorter) tapped me out twice. In my second round, I managed to prevent my opponent from submitting me, but that was because it was my son Tom 🙂 I hope to do better next week.

I didn’t post this yesterday because no one would have believed it (and I was skeptical myself). Here’s a video of a Finnish rock group, the Leningrad Cowboys, singing “Sweet Home Alabama”– accompanied by the Red Army Choir. Yes, that Red Army Choir. No word on whether the audience demanded an encore of “Free Bird“.

Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, is opening his own checkbook to help cover the cost of treatment for veterans at Atlanta’s Shepherd Spinal Center:

Marcus got involved in January after he heard of a soldier who was treated at the Shepherd Center and was improving, but faced the loss of funding. “It angered me,” said Marcus, a co-founder of Home Depot and now a billionaire philanthropist. “It is disgraceful and it is not something that we should have to tolerate in this country.”

I don’t know about you, but I plan to go spend some money at Home Depot tomorrow.

I’ve been hearing Yves Larock‘s “Rise Up” on XM, and I finally found it on iTunes. It’s a very cheerful, reggae-infused song with a great bass line. The video, which features some awesome jumprope stunts (how often do you get to type that>) is on both YouTube and iTunes. DJ Paul says “check it out!”

Here’s what Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft will be like.

This is a great song; I found it more or less by accident.

You might have been wondering how Marines can re-integrate to civilian life. A friend just sent me this handy guide (which I have edited somewhat to make it more family-friendly).

1. ADMIT you have a problem. Say “I am a Marine, I have a problem.”
2. SPEECH
• Time should never begin with a zero or end in a hundred. It is not 0530 or
  1400; it is 5:30 in the morning (AKA awful early)

• Words like deck, rack, and “PT” will get you weird looks; floor, bed, work
  out will work better– get used to it
• “F—” cannot be used to replace whatever word you can’t think of right
  now. Try “um” instead.
• Grunting is not talking
• It’s a phone, not a radio. Conversations on a phone do not end in “out”
• People will not know what you are talking about if you tell them you are
  coming from Camp Lejeune with the MWSS platoon or that you spent a
  deployment in the OCAC
3. STYLE
• Do not put creases in your jeans
• Do not put creases on the front of your dress shirts
• A hat indoors does not make you a bad person, it makes you like the rest
  of the world
• You do not have to wear a belt all the time
4. WOMEN
• Being divorced twice by the time you are 23 is not normal, neither are 6
  month marriages, even if it is your first
• Marrying a girl so that you can move out of the barracks does not make
  “financial sense”, it makes you ‘SPECIAL”
5. PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• In the real world, being able to do pushups will not make you good at your
  job
• How much pain you can take is not a personal accomplishment.
6. ALCOHOL
• In the real world, being drunk before 5pm will get you an intervention,
  not a “good for you”
• That time you drank a 5th of Jaeger and accidentally relieved yourself in
  your closet is not a conversation starter
• That time you went to the combat medic school and practiced giving vodka
  IV’s will also not be a good conversation starter
7. SPENDING HABITS
• One day, you will have to pay bills
• Buying a $30,000 car on a $16,000 a year salary is a really bad idea
• Spending money on video games instead of on diapers makes you a fool
• One day you will need health insurance
8. INTERACTING WITH CIVILIANS (AKA YOU):
• Making fun of your neighbor to his face for being fat will not be normal
9. REAL JOBS
• They really can fire you
• On the flip side you really can quit
• Screaming at the people that work for you will not be normal. Remember,
  they really can quit too
• Taking naps at work will not be acceptable
• Remember 9-5, not 0530 to 1800
10. THE LAW
• Non-judicial punishment does not exist and will not save you from prison
• Your workplace, unlike your command, can’t save you and probably won’t. In
  fact, most likely you will be fired about 5 minutes after they find out
  you’ve been arrested.
• Even McDonalds does background checks
• Fighting is not a normal thing and will get you really arrested, not
  yelled at Monday morning before they ask you if you won
11. GENERAL KNOWLEDGE
• You can in fact really say what you think about the President in public
• Pain is not weakness leaving the body, it’s just pain
• They won’t wear anything shiny that tells you they are more important then
  you are, so be polite
• Read the contracts before you sign them. Remember what happened the first time

I was delighted to get a Zibra OpenIt for Christmas, all the more so because I’d never heard of it before. The OpenIt is basically a pair of shears where the blades are perpendicular to the handle. It works a treat for opening those stupid blister packs, plus it has a built-in utility knife for cutting other kinds of packaging. I used it heavily for our family Christmas presents, and as a result we suffered no incidences of wrap rage. Highly recommended. I’ve already ordered one for our office.

Wow, this is neat– NewsGator just alerted me to a book review of a book called McIlhenny’s Gold: How a Louisiana Family Built the Tabasco Empire. This sounds like my cup of tea. Or something.

Courtesy of my Marine mailing list, here’s a video of this year’s Marine Corps birthday message from Gen James Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps.

I have a long list of stuff to blog about, but I’m far behind. Expect a stream of short (and possibly pithy) posts over the next few days as I get ready for my trips to Vegas and Barcelona. I’ve got book reviews, trip reports, and more!