Houston cool

May 23, 2013 6:46 PM , Leave a Comment ,

It has always been an oddity to me that the fourth largest city in America wasn’t all that popular.

At best when I told out of towners that I lived in Houston they would get this blank expression on their faces as they tried to come up with something to associate with the name.  “That town with the Astrodome right or NASA?”  At worst they might say “Ugh, George Bush!  How can you stand living there?!”

When I was growing up I described Houston as a modern factory town for modern factory workers with shiny office buildings instead of factories and dockers and button down shirts instead of overalls.

It’s not a showy city.  It’s not right on the coast with big beaches, or nestled in lofty snow-covered peaks.  Movie stars don’t live here, and it doesn’t have the cachet of a New York or Chicago or the cool of an Austin or Seattle.  But it is a livable city.

I have lived here for 35 years and have watched it grow and take on a patina of cool over decades.  I remember very well how some of the most sought after and trendiest places to live in used to be crime ridden pest holes.  Downtown was once eerie and silent after dark.  But now it’s full of activity and people actually live there. We have actual places to go and things to do and see now!  We have music venues, museums, old distinguished universities, international quarters, and more stadiums than we know what to do with.

Recently Houston has been gathering recognition and accolades in the press and going by in migration numbers coming from across the US and overseas it seems we are finally on the brink of achieving true coolness.  These new immigrants will bring their own contributions and if anything accelerate the coolness process.

To be totally honest here, I once considered leaving Houston.  I was disenchanted.  My life plans were that one day I would retire  and sell out and leave for “some place interesting”.  But now?  I don’t know.  It certainly bears a rethink.  In the meantime I will enjoy my little bayou city.  I will appreciate what I have, and I will stand up for her whenever someone bad mouths her.

Posted in: life in general

Gaming

May 22, 2013 9:08 PM , Leave a Comment ,

Whether it’s something with dice and a board or whether it involves a joystick and a keyboard I suppose games have been a pass time that has been with me since my childhood.

I don’t remember it but when I lived in Colombia my dad brought back one of the first home consoles for the game Pong and apparently I took to it immediately.

I started board games as a kid when one of my older brothers bought a copy of Dungeons and Dragons and I buried my nose in the rulebook for days and couldn’t wait to try it out with my elementary school friends.

From those humble beginnings I graduated to the Atari 2600 and more conventional board games like Monopoly, Life, and Risk.  As time carried on I graduated to text-based games on the Commodore 64 and Battletech.

In college my gaming opportunities became a bit more refined as I was introduced to card games like Hearts and Bridge but I was also introduced to the M.U.D. or Multi User Dungeon.  These were early text-based games played on the early internet against players from all over the world.  They would one day blossom into a billion dollar industry but back then we were just amazed that it worked at all.  I also developed a taste for gaming conventions those days.  A chance to just get together and forget school or other worries and just play games for a couple of days.

After college my gaming pass time took a back seat.  I was focused on getting established at work and had little time for gaming in person or money to buy a PC for gaming.

Around ’95 I finally bought my first PC and I found Battletech had taken a leap from paper and pen to the computer.  For it’s time the graphics was amazing.  With a little tinkering and some prayers you could connect to other players in a LAN party and play them.

In 2001 at the urging of my then girlfriend I got into EverQuest.  The first really big online game.  A graphic version of the old M.U.D. The relationship didn’t last but the game did, and no it didn’t cause the relationship to fail.  I will cover that in another blog.  Maybe.

Called Evercrack by its detractors for its seemingly addictive nature it kept players on for hours at a time.  Why was it so addictive?  Perhaps the contact with hundreds of others online, the fact that it was so well made and detailed, the competitive nature of the game?

This game added concepts that you never associated with games up to that time.  Things like weight.  If you were too greedy and collected too much loot you would be stuck.  You had to keep food and drink on you at all times or your character could starve. You had to deal with racism, religious bigotry, and politics as these might determine where you would or would not be welcome.

The biggest quirk was the online trading.  Quite organically and by chance players began to build up surpluses of goods and began to trade them.  Some went so far as to trade actual world money for goods via email.  At one point this fake, make-believe land had a net worth higher than Bulgaria

Of course over time these things come and go and World of Warcraft took over.  I tried it but the magic wasn’t there.  Warcraft is a simpler version.  Nowhere near as many restrictions or as technical as EverQuest. Anyone could come in and start playing it immediately.

Truthfully though I think that phase of my life is coming to the end.  Earlier in the year, the last old computer that held any EverQuest content was donated to charity and I don’t play Warcraft anymore.  I could say that I just don’t have the time but the truth is that it just doesn’t hold the appeal it once did.  These games had their time but I think now it’s over.

I will still go to conventions but more as a spectator nowadays than an active participant.  Maybe one day I will go back to the beginnings and try my hand at the simple board games for the companionship more than anything else.

 

Posted in: games

Painting with the full technicolor palette of words

May 21, 2013 1:36 AM , Leave a Comment ,

Last week a study was released ranking the american states by which state used the most curse words and who used the least.  Texas came in 4th as one of the states least likely to curse.  Good news for manners I guess.

While I admire the restraint it takes to speak in such a way that most of your audience can hear your words without any editing or bleeps I am in no way an advocate for censorship.

Human language, whether it’s written or spoken, is extremely limiting.  Concepts and feelings are regularly lost in the written word and I find that people trying to make themselves understood sometimes have to resort to convoluted explanations and even inventing words to transfer meaning to the other party.  Why then would we want to limit language by excluding words on purpose?  Granted curse words have limited utility.  But excluding any words is an artificial handicap that we must not accept.

Now all that being said, I am not a person that uses colorful language just because I can.  Being able to use foul language means that I am free to use but also free not to use a certain words.  As I said I want to be able to convey my message to another person.  If I purposely use a word that may offend them and that’s all that sticks in their mind then how is the rest of my message going to reach them?

As a speaker, as a writer I have to look at my intended audience and think of how I can arrange my words, what words must I choose, and what tone am I trying to set?  As General Patton once said “When I want it to stick, I give it to them loud and dirty.”  In my case when I want it to stick I give it to them straight and simply and I choose the words that I want to use to get my meaning across.

 

 

 

Posted in: language, life in general

cross-pollination

May 20, 2013 1:16 AM , 1 Comment ,

Earlier this year I was driving around running some errands and I had the car radio tuned to NPR.  A lecture had just begun.  I was just about to my destination but I kept on driving because the topic was so interesting.  I soon put on another 20 miles aimlessly driving around and listening to the lecture for the next hour.

Mainly it dealt with the rise of the modern age and how it been so shocking when it arrived in 1913.

One of the topics covered in the lecture was the cross-pollination of many different fields and how they inspired or altered one another to create new ideas and new concepts.

Artists read evolutionary theory and it inspired them to try out different styles of painting, music, and dance.  Doctors looked at the art and started thinking about mental illness and conditions in a different ways.  Scientists consulting artists and vice versa.  Architects, engineers, political theorists.  So many different fields intersecting, altering, and redefining themselves.

Now I look at our contemporary world (saying modern world would not be technically correct).  We have got to be the most interconnected people in history.  Yet we do so little with it.  Sure there are online groups for everything and anything you care to mention but they’re so insular sometimes.  They have their own rules, their own interests, own languages and coming in as an outsider is not always easy.

TED talks you say?  The TED talks are a series of global conferences that attempt to bring attention to new ideas and provide a platform for people with new ideas to spread those ideas.  If you have a day or two to spare, look them up on YouTube.

It’s a noble effort but I have seen in the last years that the TED talks are moving in the direction of becoming merely entertainment opportunities for the geeky.

Real cross-pollination happens when people from diverse disciplines come together without expectations, without agendas, and with an open mind ready to listen to one another.

An evening spent in a cafe just talking.  Gathering round a fireplace and chatting with friends with a cup of tea.  Being in the backyard with a couple cold ones and letting the late afternoon turn to early evening.

Food and beverage seem to play a role in the creative process.  As I recall Compaq computers was founded by two engineers sitting down at the House of Pies

Perhaps it’s because the activity of sharing a meal or a drink makes the mind a little more relaxed and receptive.  You may think to yourself that no matter what else happens you will at least get some food or drink out of the process.

I try to keep up with people from different walks of life.  From different perspectives.  Sometimes I don’t like what I hear, many times I don’t understand.  But I am always willing to listen

Posted in: food and drink, internet, talking, technology

beginnings

May 17, 2013 6:29 PM , Leave a Comment ,

Last Saturday night I was running late.

My niece had completed her Master’s and Mother’s day was the next morning and I had nothing.  Flowers were the prescribed gift for both events.  I was slightly dressy since I had gone out that evening and now it was past nine at night and I was looking for bouquets.

All I could find were Mother’s day bouquets.  One event covered but I still needed something for my niece.

By chance I wound up at the old Randall’s supermarket where I had my first job ages ago.  Not too many people working that night so I called over a stock boy and asked him to find the floral manager.  He was a young latino kid, maybe sixteen.  He called to one of his friends in spanish.  I guess he thought I wouldn’t understand.

Roughly this is what he said “Hey, this rich Senor needs flowers.  Get him some help and off my back.”  I wondered if he would believe that the “rich Senor” once did the same job that he was doing right now.

My job history began in this place ages ago and I suppose the job is essentially the same.  Hard work and little need to think.  The hours are long and the pay is low.  Even with medical benefits you could easily end up with a hernia, or some sort of repetitive motion injury.  One of the big motivators for me to get a degree and an office job was the thought that I would end up in a job like this for life.

Yet it did have its good points too.  Our managers were exacting task masters and would explode at the stock crews if things weren’t just right.  We not only had to be quick but exact too.  I gained a rich and colorful repertoire of curse words from those managers.

You need stamina to keep going at full speed for 8 hours and thick skin not to mind all the razzing and hazing from older stock “boys”.  We would all end up with torn nails from ripping open cardboard boxes all day long and the pay was ridiculous although back then it seemed like so much.

I wonder if any of these kids working now will come back one day as I did and look back fondly at their time spent here.

Where did you begin your business career?

 

Posted in: business, life in general

Vacation choices

May 16, 2013 1:45 AM , 1 Comment ,

I have been working steadily for the last 3 or so years without a real break.  The harsh Summer of 2011 was specially cruel to my home’s foundation.  Even before the Summer began I knew what was coming and the high price I would have to pay.  So the Winter of 2011/2012 was spent watching tunnels sprout under my home and watching my bank account take a sizable dent.

However I think (fingers crossed) that I am finally ready for a vacation this Fall.  Most people would advise going now for a typical Summer vacation but I have never been a fan of hot weather vacations.  My most favored vacations have always been to cooler climes so I think I am going North once again.

What is not on the agenda?  Big cities and bright lights.  Not a fan of them so no Big apple, or Vegas, or Hollywood hills or anything like that.  I can go inside the loop if I want to see a big city.  I would in the future like to tour New York but not this trip.  I am also going to limit my driving.  Normally I wouldn’t mind but this time I want more time to relax.

New England would be good but I’ve been there before.  The Pacific Northwest is good but I’m not too well informed about it.  Canada or Europe?  Not this trip.

I have been seriously considering the Adirondack mountains in upstate New York.  Close to what I know but still new.  Some great resorts, some small bed and breakfast type places too.

In particular is the Sagamore resort on Lake George.  A place that one can spend a day relaxing but also full of local hiking destinations.

Maybe a quick trip up to Niagara to check out the falls, search for Champ at Lake Champlain, and plenty of chances to check out the changing foliage in the cooling days of October.

Exciting to think of and plan for.  Now I just need to make it happen and earn it.

Where would you go to vacation?

 

Posted in: life in general, vacations

conventions and reflections

May 14, 2013 1:49 AM , 1 Comment ,

Last October I walked through the Irving convention center surrounded by people dressed as stormtroopers, little kids with homemade Captain America costumes, a few catwomen in risqué costumes and assorted characters from film, TV, and comic books.  As I beheld the milling throngs taking pictures, buying memorabilia, and lining up for autographs I reflected on how comfortable I felt here.  These were my kind of people.

These people had no hangups about getting out there and dressing strange.  They simply wanted to be part of the moment and reveled in the chance to be with other like-minded individuals.

I always get this warm and comfortable feeling around these conventions.  A feeling of belonging.  I drove up to Dallas alone, I wasn’t meeting anyone, but yet I didn’t feel alone.

I’ve been doing these conventions (comics, games, anime, movies) for about 25 years and it never seems to change though I certainly have.  From being a kid who could barely afford admission to one of those old guys who seriously considers buying some overpriced piece of memorabilia.  Yet I never seem to tire of these conventions.

I saw all the old familiar characters.  The kids running round wanting to see all the exhibits, the weekend dad trying to buy his kid’s approval by spending a fortune on junk.  The 30 something guy wearing a cartoon t-shirt and cargo pants carrying around a roll with his home made art trying to find someone who would tell him it was good.  The cosplayers trying to be their favorite superhero or villain fir a few hours and nonchalantly pretending that they didn’t like all the attention that they got.  The dealers that traveled the convention circuit going from town to town with this moving carnival trying to just make enough to get to the next convention.

That evening I went out to a fancy restaurant by myself.  I figured might as well since I was in town.  As I sat in my booth waiting for an over priced steak and drinking fine red wine I saw a party of about a dozen youngsters come in.  They were all in their mid twenties, maybe a couple of years out of college, and fresh in the job market.  A wedding rehearsal dinner party.

I could tell by the way one couple clung closer together than the others.  The boys all wore starched stiff shirts with ties and looked distinctly uncomfortable and the girl all wore nice dresses and giggled at the boys discomfort.

I speculated that these kids had just entered the process that led from college to marriage to a big house in the suburbs, to families, and full rich lives.  Golf weekends, country clubs, fancy events, box seats at big sporting events, family events, the works.  These kids had their lives figured out and mapped already.

I felt like a stranger peeking through a window at their lives.  I did not belong here.  I belonged in that over crowded convention center with the autograph lines, terrible convention hot dogs, and all those silly, silly dreams.

I reflected that if I had made a few key decisions differently in my life that I would have probably turned out like these privileged kids and would have been in a similar setting a decade and a half earlier.  My life would have been mapped.  Where had I deviated from the path?  Why had things turned out so differently than how they “should have”?  Why was I not sorry?

Posted in: Uncategorized

Design Philosophy – Clothes

May 11, 2013 2:53 AM , 2 Comments ,

A couple of weeks ago I asked a friend to do a blog on the style of clothing that she liked.  She wasn’t too thrilled with the idea.  I probably didn’t phrase the request right.  What I probably should have asked is what was her design philosophy.

We all have one.  We know what looks good, works good, and sounds good when we “see” it.  Design philosophy rules the way we dress, the type of music that we enjoy, how we work, and various other almost unconscious aspects of our lives.  Not as trivial as it sounds.

For me it all comes down to three words.  Simple, comfortable, long lasting.

Simple: Fancy fabrics, designs, or styles usually come with caveats and special care instructions.  You have rules of when you can or can’t wear them.  I don’t have time to consider whether I clash or to set my washer to the delicate but yielding cycle.

Comfortable:  I loathe the “monkey suit”.  Which is what I call the executive suit and tie.  Not too fond of the sport coat either.  I have spent time in waiting rooms, airports, cabs wearing these and it is just a horrible piece of apparel.  Perhaps it’s my imagination but the clothes seem to be trying to choke my body.  I recognize that in certain situations that it’s mandatory and I do own one but on no account will I put it on willingly.

When I was in an office I would wear slacks and a button down shirt and formal shoes.  Now that I have migrated to a home office I am usually in a t-shirt and jeans most of the time.  I probably need to dial that back but for now it’s working.

Long lasting.  I am not a fan of the mall or department stores.  Clothes need to last.  Typically I will run in once every 9 to 12 months and refill my simple clothing needs.

What is your design philosophy and how does it shape your world?

 

Posted in: life in general

Story Shard – May 8th, 2013

May 9, 2013 1:55 AM , Leave a Comment ,

From time to time I write out bits and pieces of a story.  Most of the time they go nowhere but sometimes they are the kernel of a short story or novella.  They can be anything from a sentence to a whole chapter.  This will be the main point of this blog.  Read along, comment, correct.  I won’t be offended.  It’s just exercise after all.

 

May 8th, 2013 (Character and scene description exercise)

Parent’s weekend at the college.  It was late April and already there was a slight warm breeze in the late Friday night.  He walked round the campus.

Mom and Dad had come up a few weeks earlier so there was no point in them coming back.  Not that they had much of an urge to come up.  They were strict Brooklynites and never liked to leave the neighborhood, much less leave the city and come out all the way to some little town in western Massachusetts.  The air didn’t smell right, the people talked funny and they no doubt had strange ideas.

Everywhere around the college kids led their parents round to see their classrooms and points of interest.  He deftly sidestepped a large mob taking pictures in front of the academic hall.

His best friend Jake who had indifferent parents had left him stuck.  Jake had a gig in Boston playing some dive pub near the water front and would be gone all weekend.

Becca had dumped him on Monday.  She had decided that a penniless english major was not the best prospect to present to her parents that weekend.  Instead she would present Pete Mayweather from the Boston Mayweathers.

He was past morose now and was somewhere between bitter and cynical right now.  He was also at loose ends.  All the school activities were centered on families and he didn’t have the money to go to some bar so he just wandered round the campus.

A baseball game.  The local team was hosting and the stands were packed with parents and kids.  Those unlucky enough not to have a ticket crowded behind the right outfield on the train tracks trying to get a peek at the game.  He was certainly never into all that rah rah school spirit crap that most of his classmates liked but this was better than nothing.

Posted in: Story Shard

First contact

May 7, 2013 1:34 AM , 1 Comment ,

me:  Hello, how can I help you?

Faceless voice on the phone (FVP):  What are your prices?

me: Can you tell me your name and a little bit about your project?  I could give you a much more accurate price estimate if you told me where your project was, how large of an area you want to cover and what field you’re in.

FVP: that doesn’t matter.  Tell me your prices and how much profit do you make after paying for data and how much do you pay your consultants?

me: What?!?

<click>

Competitors are always trying to get a feel for how well their prices stack up against the rest of the field.  However this guy was a little more desperate than most.  Most sales calls of course don’t go this way.

Our company mainly does business on the internet.  The average first contact is a person that suddenly finds a need for maps or for satellite imagery or other remote sensing applications.  That person could be anyone from a property owner that wants a view of their property from above to a GIS (geographic Information Systems) specialist with 20 years experience who is shopping around.

With a diverse range of people I have had to develop over time a “voice” to engage each and every one.  I cannot sound too technical and I cannot sound as if I am being condescending.  I have to strive to reach a balance in all my communications while I try to figure out their level of expertise.

First I have to assess what I have been presented with.

Did they use technical jargon and does that mean that they understand what they are talking about? Some people will cut and paste information from RFP’s (request for proposals) without really knowing what they want.

What can I tell by their contact information?  Sometimes they use company email addresses and I can look up the relevant company and get some idea of what they are after.  Increasingly however, people will make first contacts using generic email accounts like hotmail or gmail.

I then have to decide what I can present to the client that will be most beneficial to further the conversation.

If the person is not very well versed in technical matters I can present a wide range of example data and links to our website to help explain what we offer.  I might give them a call to engage more personally and coax more information from them.  Walk them slowly and carefully to the point where I can present a price for the product or service that they need.

On the other hand if they are technically knowledgeable then they just want straight answers.  No need for long explanations and no real desire on their parts for long emails.  They want plain and simple answers presented in a professional manner.  If they want a full proposal then I oblige them but most of the time they want a short and clear answer.

Knowing how to deal with people on different levels is very useful for dealing with new contacts.  You may not always get a sale out of the experience but they will remember the fact that you dealt with them in a courteous manner and that you gave them the information that they needed in a way that they needed.

Posted in: business, relationships