Mark L. Van Name's Blog, page 223
December 15, 2011
Sometimes a weird notion
Most work days when I am in town, I eat lunch at the little cafe in our building. The food is generally good, and the people who own it are very nice--and working behind the counter preparing your food. We like the place enough that our company gives a benefit of a quarterly allowance to each staffer so they can buy some lunches there.
Like anyone who eats at the same place frequently, I tend to fall into ruts, eating the same few items over and over.
Yesterday, while I was deciding what to have for my lunch, an odd notion struck me: why not try everything on the menu at least once? Having considered that idea, I, of course, had to come up with an orderly way to proceed, so I decided to start in the upper left and work down and then left, as one reasonably would.
So, that's what I did.
Here's the menu. Click on it for a version large enough to read.
I've now eaten the first two items.
I also know what I'll be eating for many in-office work days to come.
Problem solved.
Welcome to my mind.
Like anyone who eats at the same place frequently, I tend to fall into ruts, eating the same few items over and over.
Yesterday, while I was deciding what to have for my lunch, an odd notion struck me: why not try everything on the menu at least once? Having considered that idea, I, of course, had to come up with an orderly way to proceed, so I decided to start in the upper left and work down and then left, as one reasonably would.
So, that's what I did.
Here's the menu. Click on it for a version large enough to read.
I've now eaten the first two items.
I also know what I'll be eating for many in-office work days to come.
Problem solved.
Welcome to my mind.
December 14, 2011
So bad it's mandatory
I can't artistically defend the fact that I'm already psyched to see this movie, but I am.
So it goes.
So it goes.
December 13, 2011
Health update
After seven weeks of being sick, five of them with this wracking, choking cough that will not go away, I finally visited my ENT today. Who says I'm slow to take a hint?
After checking me all over, he concluded, as Bill had said he would, that I have bronchitis. He said it was a miracle I was walking around and working, at which I shrugged; I'm not going to let bronchitis slow me.
He prescribed a strong antibiotic, which I will start tonight when I get home from work. He also said I should indulge in a couple of weeks of rest and no work; that would be no. He finally prescribed a strong cough syrup to help me sleep, but I'll probably also ignore it.
I expect to be fully recovered in three to four days.
Were I a doctor, I would not enjoy having me as a patient.
After checking me all over, he concluded, as Bill had said he would, that I have bronchitis. He said it was a miracle I was walking around and working, at which I shrugged; I'm not going to let bronchitis slow me.
He prescribed a strong antibiotic, which I will start tonight when I get home from work. He also said I should indulge in a couple of weeks of rest and no work; that would be no. He finally prescribed a strong cough syrup to help me sleep, but I'll probably also ignore it.
I expect to be fully recovered in three to four days.
Were I a doctor, I would not enjoy having me as a patient.
December 12, 2011
A few promised happy snaps from the Las Vegas trip
I'm overdue on these, but I just got around to downloading them. Most are from the Grand Canyon trip, and I already posted one of those, so I won't put up many.
As always, click on any image to see a larger version of it.
Our helicopter, on which you can read the name of our trip company. No, it was not the one that suffered a crash last week.
Lake Mead from the air was magnificent and almost jarring, the only blue against the unrelenting shades of sand and brown that constituted most of the desert landscape.
The Colorado river wandering through the desert, another life-affirming bit of blue, though one that from a distance looks rather fragile.
On the ground, on the Native American side of the Canyon (with their permission, of course), you can see both the many geological strata and also the shades of green in the vegetation that manages to live there.
We had to stop to refuel on the top of a plateau. There we saw what was for me the first snow of the season.
For the surprisingly (to me) many who have written and asked, yes, there was shoe shopping.
And, yes, Jennie went home with another pair of Louboutins, this one insanely sparkly and color-shifting. Jain called them "all lizardy and shit," an apt description.
Lest you think I've forgotten that it was near Christmas, here's an example of Christmas subtlety, Vegas-style.
Even Cthulu had a Christmas exhibit.
Where else but Vegas?
As always, click on any image to see a larger version of it.
Our helicopter, on which you can read the name of our trip company. No, it was not the one that suffered a crash last week.
Lake Mead from the air was magnificent and almost jarring, the only blue against the unrelenting shades of sand and brown that constituted most of the desert landscape.
The Colorado river wandering through the desert, another life-affirming bit of blue, though one that from a distance looks rather fragile.
On the ground, on the Native American side of the Canyon (with their permission, of course), you can see both the many geological strata and also the shades of green in the vegetation that manages to live there.
We had to stop to refuel on the top of a plateau. There we saw what was for me the first snow of the season.
For the surprisingly (to me) many who have written and asked, yes, there was shoe shopping.
And, yes, Jennie went home with another pair of Louboutins, this one insanely sparkly and color-shifting. Jain called them "all lizardy and shit," an apt description.
Lest you think I've forgotten that it was near Christmas, here's an example of Christmas subtlety, Vegas-style.
Even Cthulu had a Christmas exhibit.
Where else but Vegas?
December 11, 2011
How awkward can I feel posing while dressed up?
This awkward.
Did someone say "no-necked Mafia enforcer?"
How awkward can two men, my business partner Bill and I, feel while posing dressed up?
This awkward.
That's more than enough.
Did someone say "no-necked Mafia enforcer?"
How awkward can two men, my business partner Bill and I, feel while posing dressed up?
This awkward.
That's more than enough.
December 10, 2011
Exhausted
Tonight was our company's seasonal celebration, the holiday party that culminates our year. A tradition we've followed since before we even started PT, the SC gives us a chance to thank our staff and their families. It's a swanky, fun event, but it's also exhausting, because I spend most of it working--and a great deal of time beforehand helping make it happen. So, for now, no tux picture, but soon, really.
Now, work, and then sleep.
Now, work, and then sleep.
December 9, 2011
The essence of great service
I think a lot about this topic, because our company is in the service business. I talk to others about it. I contemplate how we provide service, and I pay attention to the service that others provide me.
After all this consideration, I come back to a basic principle and a corollary, both of which fit nicely in one sentence:
Any way you phrase it, neither part is easy.
I'm going to ignore here those situations in which what the client wants is something you're not willing, for whatever reason, to do. In such cases, you have two reasonable choices: attempt to change the client's mind, or bow out.
Doing what your client wants can be difficult for multiple reasons. The client might not know what he/she wants or might have only a basic understanding of that desire. Doing what the client wants might cost more than the client is willing to pay. And so on.
Doing what your client wants might also mean not getting what you want from the encounter. If your client really wants a dress and you don't have any, you'll probably have to send the client elsewhere.
Which gets to the second part, not doing what you want to do. If you want to sell shoes and she wants dresses, you lose. That happens. Get over it. If your client wants his steak well done and you consider anything darker than medium rare to be an abomination, either kick out the guy or char that beef.
All of this sounds so easy it shouldn't be necessary to discuss, but it's not. Watch the next time you're serving someone, or someone is serving you, and odds are that the server will violate this principle sometime during the transaction. As best I can tell, at core most people don't want to put others first most of the time, so their service suffers. That's understandable, but it will always limit how good they are at what they're doing.
After all this consideration, I come back to a basic principle and a corollary, both of which fit nicely in one sentence:
Great service comes from doing what your client wants, not from doing what you want to do.Another way to say both parts, by the way, is that great service comes from putting your client ahead of yourself.
Any way you phrase it, neither part is easy.
I'm going to ignore here those situations in which what the client wants is something you're not willing, for whatever reason, to do. In such cases, you have two reasonable choices: attempt to change the client's mind, or bow out.
Doing what your client wants can be difficult for multiple reasons. The client might not know what he/she wants or might have only a basic understanding of that desire. Doing what the client wants might cost more than the client is willing to pay. And so on.
Doing what your client wants might also mean not getting what you want from the encounter. If your client really wants a dress and you don't have any, you'll probably have to send the client elsewhere.
Which gets to the second part, not doing what you want to do. If you want to sell shoes and she wants dresses, you lose. That happens. Get over it. If your client wants his steak well done and you consider anything darker than medium rare to be an abomination, either kick out the guy or char that beef.
All of this sounds so easy it shouldn't be necessary to discuss, but it's not. Watch the next time you're serving someone, or someone is serving you, and odds are that the server will violate this principle sometime during the transaction. As best I can tell, at core most people don't want to put others first most of the time, so their service suffers. That's understandable, but it will always limit how good they are at what they're doing.
December 8, 2011
On wearing a tuxedo
I was briefly considering this topic because on Saturday night I will don mine for my company's seasonal celebration. (Bill and I always wear our tuxes for this event.)
When I was young, I thought owning a tux was a sign that a man had arrived. Only later did I learn that a very basic tux costs no more than a middling suit.
I also hoped that wearing a tux would automatically make one as elegant, handsome, and suave as Cary Grant, who was the most elegant man ever in a tux. Period.
Alas, that is not the case. No one is as elegant as Cary Grant was.
Still, in my experience, most men in tuxes look well-dressed and, more importantly, the women around them say they are. I never garner as many compliments from women as when I'm in my tux.
I do appreciate those compliments, but I still yearn to be as elegant as Cary Grant--and I know I never will be.
When I was young, I thought owning a tux was a sign that a man had arrived. Only later did I learn that a very basic tux costs no more than a middling suit.
I also hoped that wearing a tux would automatically make one as elegant, handsome, and suave as Cary Grant, who was the most elegant man ever in a tux. Period.
Alas, that is not the case. No one is as elegant as Cary Grant was.
Still, in my experience, most men in tuxes look well-dressed and, more importantly, the women around them say they are. I never garner as many compliments from women as when I'm in my tux.
I do appreciate those compliments, but I still yearn to be as elegant as Cary Grant--and I know I never will be.
December 7, 2011
Some nights, I gotta be a DJ
Tonight is one of them. If you hate playing music selections from others, move along; I'll be back to something else tomorrow.
For now, though, I needed to listen to this Death Cab song, which also has a deeply sentimental and lovely video.
Speaking of honest sentiment, check out this great song from Van Morrison. The video is silly and at times dumb, but at least you get the original, uncensored lyrics.
Lest I spend the entire playlist in sentiment, here's Henry and his band with some advice for the next party.
I'm gonna close on sentiment, though, with a song I've featured before that I just love. It's not the original version, but it's my favorite.
For now, though, I needed to listen to this Death Cab song, which also has a deeply sentimental and lovely video.
Speaking of honest sentiment, check out this great song from Van Morrison. The video is silly and at times dumb, but at least you get the original, uncensored lyrics.
Lest I spend the entire playlist in sentiment, here's Henry and his band with some advice for the next party.
I'm gonna close on sentiment, though, with a song I've featured before that I just love. It's not the original version, but it's my favorite.
December 6, 2011
Child abuse changes your brain
If you were abused, you almost certainly already believed this.
If you read the March, 2002 Scientific American article (preview here), you were more convinced.
Now, though, the extremely respectable journal Current Biology has published an article, "Heightened neural reactivity to threat in child victims of family violence," that makes the point quite clearly with some excellent work from a group of top UK scientists. (Thanks to my pal, John Lambshead, for pointing me to this story.)
For an easy to read summary of it, check out this Wired piece, "How Abuse Changes a Child's Brain." The article opens with this line:
This bit summarizes the research:
I do not mention all this to make excuses, because I don't believe any of it provides an excuse for anything I or any other abused person does. We are each responsible for our actions.
No, I'm bringing it out because I want people to understand that the cost of child abuse is high and lifelong, physical and mental, and most importantly, unacceptable.
If you read the March, 2002 Scientific American article (preview here), you were more convinced.
Now, though, the extremely respectable journal Current Biology has published an article, "Heightened neural reactivity to threat in child victims of family violence," that makes the point quite clearly with some excellent work from a group of top UK scientists. (Thanks to my pal, John Lambshead, for pointing me to this story.)
For an easy to read summary of it, check out this Wired piece, "How Abuse Changes a Child's Brain." The article opens with this line:
The brains of children raised in violent families resemble the brains of soldiers exposed to combat, psychologists say.Hell, many of my readers and Dave's already knew that. I sure did. Still, the scientific confirmation is good to have.
This bit summarizes the research:
His team compared fMRIs from abused children to those of 23 non-abused but demographically similar children from a control group. In the abused children, angry faces provoked distinct activation patterns in their anterior insula and right amygdala, parts of the brain involved in processing threat and pain. Similar patterns have been measured in soldiers who've seen combat.The brain changes, of course, are not the only physiological adaptations to abuse (and PTSD of other sorts). As the Scientific American article and its sources made clear, key glands also change, one consequence of which is a heightened adrenaline response.
I do not mention all this to make excuses, because I don't believe any of it provides an excuse for anything I or any other abused person does. We are each responsible for our actions.
No, I'm bringing it out because I want people to understand that the cost of child abuse is high and lifelong, physical and mental, and most importantly, unacceptable.
