I like goats... and spaceships

Disappointing Disneyland

So the fam went to Disneyland last week. Our last trip was in 2002 I
believe. We spent Monday/Tuesday there, avoiding the crowds for
Thanksgiving and got back in time to enjoy the rest of the week. The kids
each brought a friend and had a good time. We hit both Disneyland proper
and California Adventure.

So why was it disappointing? Kim and I were chatting about this on the
second day and trying to figure what was different. Something was just off.
We started rattling off the problems we saw and came to the conclusion that
Disneyland might be starting to lose its focus on detail and customer
service. Many of the costumes were dirty and a bit ragged and some of the
rides could use a bit of attention. Disneyland just had it 50th anniversary
a couple of years ago so I would have guessed things would be pretty
tight... Not so much. But the biggest problem? Attitude, and not from the
park patrons. As we walked through the gates, around the park, through the
security check points, etc, very few of the Disney folks were smiling. I am
just not sure why that is. My theory is that the last few times we went,
the job market was tight and people were happy just to have a job. This
time, unemployment is not too bad and people are less concerned about losing
their jobs. One of the guys at work suggested that maybe people are working
there to make payments on their subprime loans and just pissed about it.
Who knows. Just a bit sad to see.

See the gallery link to the left for some pictures of the trip.

CEO Exchange TV show

I stumbled across an interesting show the other day called CEO Exchange that
airs on PBS. From what I have seen so far, it showcases two CEOs and
interviews them individually in a talk show format and then brings them both
together towards the end of the show. The one I watched had Sony's CEO, Sir
Howard Stringer and Best Buy's CEO, Brad Anderson.

The link to the show is here: CEO Exchange -

http://www.pbs.org/wttw/ceoexchange/episodes/thisseason.html#507
It has the video for them individually but does not have the video for the
two of them together. You can still read the full transcript however.

I remember reading that Sony had hired its first non-Japanese CEO but had
not really paid much attention. This guy has a really great sense of humor
- talking about the Sony stores and the relationship with big retailers like
Best Buy and music business in general:
"So the relationship is not hostile anymore and the truth is, we can learn a
lot about, for example, the packaged goods business, the music and DVD
business is under stress. We make them and Brad sells them. And you all
steal them (laughter). I had to go there didn't I, didn't I? (laughter) So
the relationship is much more helpful than it is adversarial."

Brad Anderson was talking about his experience in going from a meek
salesperson to running the original store of what would become Best Buy.
Basically saying that you cannot tell what an employee's contribution is
going to be based on an initial impression. Every person has a contribution
to make, it is just a matter of figuring out what that contribution is and
finding a way to use it. It seems like that is the job of a good manager.

One tidbit from the show that I really liked was a comment Howard String
made on career paths today.
"But one of the things that is worth, I think remembering, is you ought to
always look like the job you are doing is the job you always wanted. And
you treat it that way. No matter how humble."
Sage advice in my opinion...

One of the most amazing people I have had the privilege to work with...

I had the privilege of working with this young man on two occasions as we
grew a couple of fantastic teams a few years ago.

http://dalf.livejournal.com/169478.html

This is one of those people that you get to know and ask why did HE have to
get cancer?
Another reminder that life is truly not fair.

Nice long bike ride through the bay area

Today some friends and I took a nice long (4+ hours), bike ride through
various parts of the bay area. I have not done much in the way of "long"
stuff this year due to hand and knee injuries so it was nice to get out and
push it a bit. The ride started out with two flat tires by yours truly so I
was not feeling real warm and fuzzy about this. One patch, one tube and
three CO2 cartridges later, life was looking much better. That tire is
going in the trash tonight! We went through parts of Berkeley, Orinda,
Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Lafayette, as well as wending our way through Tilden,
Joaquin Miller, Redwood, and Briones parks. 55+ miles and a max speed of
51.8 MPH - oh HELL yeah!

Click below to see the whole shebang.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=71388&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=3048844

I had been on a few of the roads but most of the ride was new to me which
was a nice change. At the end of the ride, I was glad it was over but I
still felt like I had something left and could have gone a bit longer.

Mountain bikers are not evil!!!

Here's an interesting article challenging the perceived damage that mountain
bikers cause the environment.
Basically the study says that hikers cause the same amount of damage to the
environment as mountain bikers and horses are the worst offenders.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/sports_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_83_5560106,00.html

Reading the article, I was reminded of the statement "In the absence of
truth, we make up stories."
That sure seems to be the case in this emotionally charged issue.

Witness to a random act of kindness...

Who says polite people do not exist?

Tonight my younger son and I were riding the BART home from the Oakland A's game, (they beat the Giants), and at one of the stops, a young father got on carrying his little girl.

My son and I were standing so we had nothing to offer in the way of seating but some young man (an A's fan with his banner and related crud), got off his duff, got the attention of the father by calling him "sir" and offered his seat.

A great opportunity to teach my son a "life lesson" for sure.

Who says politeness is dead?

Las Trampas MTB ride - cold, windy and foggy

Tuesday night after work I got in a quick ride up Las Trampas - a bit over 22 miles.  Cold, windy and foggy were the words of the day.

 

Here's a few seconds of video I snapped where the wind had died down a bit:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jdonohoe/LasTrampasMTBRideVideo

 

And my route via GPS:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/email/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=71388&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=2743015

 

The wind was blowing so hard that on the way up it was pushing me over a foot or two and I was leaning over 30 degrees or so just to keep on the trail. The fog was so thick that 20-30 feet was about all the visibility I had.  Good times!

 

I managed to follow the ridgeline and down a trail I had not been on before.  I saw a few others worth looking at for next time as well.

More riding this weekend!

 

Zoe the snake killer

We live next to a creek and a trail system so snakes seem to find their way into our back yard quite often and my dog, Zoe, hunts them down and then plays with them.

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/jdonohoe/20070513ZoeTheSnakeKiller

 

This snake came into our yard this Sunday morning while reading the paper.

To be clear. the snake was not reading the paper, Zoe was reading, I was rolling around in the grass sunning myself.

 

Zoe's ears perked up and she headed for the fence sniffing the ground with great enthusiasm.  When I heard her turning over the river rocks on the edge of our yard, I signaled to my wife inside to bring me my camera so I could catch the "SnakeKiller" in action.

 

Zoe does not quite understand that the snakes do not enjoy her playing as much as she does as she tosses them up into the air and tries to catch them.  She carried this snake around the yard, playing with it in different places.  After a short while, the snake played "possum" and Zoe started to prod it with her paw to get it to play more.  The snake was done with the play date and Zoe lost interest, heading off to explore her domain for other intruders.