From a stockbroker friend

Strategy ("doing the right things") is vastly more important than tactics ("doing things right").

Interesting for life? Sounds good anyway :)

Great Soul

Thanks for the good laugh I got from those puns you posted. The play on words with regards to Gandhi was superb! I looked him up in the wikipedia and he died at aged 78 in 1948, so rigorous fasting and a strict vegetarian diet never hurt him.

That got me looking at the average age of death and how that has varied over the years and various other death statistics. In England and Wales in 2001, 22 per cent of men who died did so in their own homes, while only 4 per cent died in communal establishments such as nursing homes (excluding hospitals and hospices), according to detailed mortality statistics published by the UK Office for National Statistics.

By contrast, only 16 per cent of female deaths occurred in the home and 11 per cent in nursing homes. This reflects women’s longer life expectancy, as they are more likely to be widowed and
be living in nursing or residential care homes for the elderly at the time of death.

In 2001 anyway, the average age at death was 73.2 years for males and 79.4 years for females. For those deaths due to land transport accidents the average age at death was 40.1 years for males and 49.1 for females. These 2001 statistics alone makes Gandhi's 78 in 1948 outstanding.

In fact, in Asia around 1948 the average lifespan turns out to be somewhere between 40 and 45.


Ever felt that you have lived too long? This lovely wikipedia article has all the gen.

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K's sister E just phoned. She is bored. She's one hour into sitting outside an Alcoholics Anonymous support meeting - it's a support meeting for those who are the partners of alcoholics. It's news to me (just now!) that A's Beau -- who incidentally has now dumped her I hear in favour of another female -- is an alcoholic. Do I care that my daughter was living in the same house as this person? K said to E on the phone, oh you shouldn't have said, mummy asked me not to tell daddy. I bet. I had heard that he lost his driving licence on a 1 year DWI ban. Poor girls, they need better female role models. I try my best.

Life is kind of like driving a car isn't it? It doesn't matter how careful you are someone can just crash right into you - I expect that Gandhi had people crashing into him all the time but he took it well, I mean, you don't get to live to 78 whilst all around you are dying at 50 without smiling a lot.

Puns

These are the top 10 from some pun-writing contest held somewhere. The details of that have been lost in the chain of e-mail from which I took these:

1. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."
2. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says "Dam!"
3. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
4. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, "I've lost my Electron." The other says "Are you sure?" The first replies, "Yes, I'm positive."
5. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
6. A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. "But why?", they asked, as they moved off. "Because," he said," I can't stand chess-nuts boasting in an open foyer."
7. A woman has twins and gives them up for adoption. One of them goes to Spain , they name him "Juan"; the other went to a family in Egypt and is named "Ahmal." Years later, Juan sends a picture of himself to his birth mother. Upon receiving the picture, she tells her husband that she wishes she also had a picture of Ahmal. Her husband responds, "They're twins! If you've seen Juan, you've seen Ahmal."
8. A group of friars were behind on their belfry payments, so they opened up a small florist shop to raise funds. Since everyone liked to buy flowers from the men of God, a rival florist across town thought the competition was unfair. He asked the good fathers to close down, but they would not. He went back and begged the friars to close. They ignored him. So, the rival florist hired Hugh MacTaggart, the roughest and most vicious thug in town to "persuade" them to close. Hugh beat up the friars and trashed their store, saying he'd be back if they didn't close up shop. Terrified, they did so, thereby proving that only Hugh can prevent florist friars.
9. Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, which made him rather frail and, with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. This made him (Oh, man, this is so bad, it's good) a super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.
10. And finally, there was the person who sent ten different puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Tweener

I'm in San Antonio for the zExpo conference. Today -- Wednesday -- I went for a walk around downtown. I came upon a faux English pub and went in for a Boddington's. The beer was good. Business was slow, so the wait staff had time to chat with the customers.

I noticed something. To my left was an elderly gentleman, perhaps in his mid- to late-60's. A doctor, he said, but exactly what kind I did not know. (There's a geophysicist convention in town, so he might just be a PhD.) Two of the young waitresses were very sociably discussing stuff with him. To my right were two young turks, perhaps in their early 20's. The young female bartender was fixated on them. The older man was safe; the younger men were hot. I, being 47, was still a risk of being a dirty old man pervert and therefore to be ignored. I barely got enough attention to order my beer.

I'm a tweener ... too old to be cool; too young to be safe.

Good Advice

Thank you pal. "Do enough to stay employed" ... that is what 90% of us do isn't it? There is nothing special about me so this is what I will endeavor to do!

I'd like to teach science and maths to teenagers I think, ideally, around the 16 - 18 age so they actually might be interested in the subjects as they have decided to stay on at school. Who knows, one of them might go on to discover something worthwhile.

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K has known death twice now. First four years ago when she was 6, a 5 year old at her school died of a brain tumor, and now her deputy head has suffered a massive coronary whilst at school and passed away. He was a jolly chap too, I was only talking to him last week.

The whole school has been invited to the funeral and K wants to attend, tomorrow she says she wants to wear black to school as a sign of respect.

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Web Services, UDDI, XML, WDSL, SOAP these are all going through my head, CICS Service Flow Feature, Channels and Containers, Business Transaction Services, Rational this, beans etc. What a maze of standards and acronoym soup. Plus "code coverage" .. my next assignment :) Find out how much of the code actually gets tested. I'm waiting for my motivation, I hope it's not like Godot.

Inflection Point?

Have you and I reached a turning point in our lives, but for different reasons? You because of your single-parent status and me because ... well, I'm not exactly sure why the steam is out of my pipes.

One of the scenes from the movie "Breach" showed the character Eric O'Neill (played by Ryan Phillipe) rather down in the mouth and seeking advice from his father, who, presumably, was career Navy. The father, played by Bruce Davison, recounted what his father had told him when he, Eric's father, was a young man and frightened about going out to sea for the first time:

"Just get on the boat and do your job. The rest will follow."

I'm wondering if deep within that is what we need to realize. Perhaps we are coming to realize that the dream of our work being of any real significance is vaporizing before our eyes. Perhaps we need to realize that, truly, it's just a job.

That's easier said than done for me. I define myself entirely by my occupation. Sad, but true.

I don't think the same is true of you.

Here's something my lovely bride tells me whenever I'm feeling low about not contributing what I think I should: "Your half-speed is equal to everyone else's best effort." She's a manager ... she has some insight into these things. You are the same way ... you produce more in an "off" day than most do when they're actually trying.

Do enough to stay employed. Focus on your daughter. She will be grown up and married before you know it.

Foundational Cracks

It's coincidental that you should publish a post on realizing ones limits - I am going through such a stage at the moment. I used to have what seemed to be limitless enthusiasm for any challenge I would set myself - but now that all seems to be gone. The only thing I can use to even semi-motivate myself is fear .. but even that is not really working any more for some reason. The best I can do is "fear of being unable to provide" .. but it's a mere sham. I'm just lazy and I don't know what to do it about it!

I think I have got myself into a cycle of being a single parent (almost) and have neglected to balance this new activity with what I "used" to do. I guess it's coupled to the fact that I think what I do for a living is worthless in the grand scheme of things - so how can I get motivated about it? What happened to that desire to do a good job that I used to have? The desire to help people, it all seems to have evaporated as I just look after me and mine (and me and mine exclusively it would seem) the best I can.

Does a poor farmboy like you have any advice for moi?? :)

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I will catch the movie you suggest - into The Breach!

Realization of Limitations

There's a blog I read hosted by a conservative university here in the United States. They allow comments, and on occasion I've been known to weigh in one some issue.

The other day one of the primary posters to the blog commented on something said (or written ... I don't recall) by The Pope. I interpreted it as a rather simple reference to prayer, but based on subsequent commentary by others, including faculty at that university, the Pope's reference was more to some deep and arcane theological concept that's been brewing since the days of Augustine.

I was embarrassed to have misinterpreted it so badly. It displayed my lack of intellectual depth.

Compared to some folks, I am not that well-read a man. I do not possess a keen grasp on philosophical concepts. I can't speak to Hobbes or Locke or whomever.

I am but a simple farm boy, after all. :-)

Movie Recommendation: Breach

Title: Breach
Year: 2007
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillipe, Laura Linney

Synopsis: A film about the investigation into and ultimate apprehension of Robert Hanssen, an employee of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who sold state secrets to the Soviets and later the Russians from 1985 until his arrest in 2001. The film is told from the perspective of Eric O'Neill, a young FBI operative who was assigned as a clerk to Hanssen as part of the investigation.

What's Different: It is an almost unsettlingly quiet film. The suspense is not contrived, but rather a natural result of the gentle unfolding of the story. In addition, the details of the film are wonderfully aligned with the sense of personal tragedy -- dull, overcast skies; dull, drab government office buildings.

Will Kids Like It?: Probably not ... the film is too slow. But if you have a slow, quiet evening by yourself, and you're looking for a quiet, mostly intelligent film that unfolds somewhat like a chess game, then you may enjoy this.

What I Liked About It: First, it was filmed in and around where I used to live, so it brought back memories. The quiet nature of it allowed me to relax into the story line. Loud, aggressive action films unsettle me too much. But most of all I liked the portrayal given by Chris Cooper as Robert Hanssen. He projected the subtle sense of a man deeply ensnared, but fueled by some deep resentment towards ... what? ... insufficient recognition of his qualities and contributions? That was never explicitly stated, but rather the viewer was left to piece together the psychology for themselves.

Believability Factor: It's based on a true story, so to that extent it's believable. The film itself does little that requires suspension of belief. It is mostly very plausible, with little to no continuity or logical breakdowns.

Miscellaneous Commentary: There is always talk in the gossip rags about how Hollywood actresses that are over 30 face increasingly few roles, and over 40 actresses are essentially cast aside. Demi Moore of late has been complaining rather loudly. But Laura Linney in this film shows that there can be roles for older women, provided the role doesn't call for them to be sexy sirens. (An older woman can't plausibly play the role of a 20-something siren. Then again, a 20-something actress can't plausibly play the part of a powerful female executive or detective or whatever ... in the real world such power is not possessed by people so young ... but Hollywood overlooks that.) British films are much better at employing older, less glamorous women in satisfying roles. Hollywood is too beholden to the cult of youth.