Semester Break

Start:	Apr 18, '08
End:	Apr 28, '08

NZ School is out... 1st session is over.

Good Friday / Easter Monday

Start:	Mar 21, '08
End:	Mar 24, '08

NZ schools are out. I think work is out too.

Martinborough Fair

Start:	Mar 1, '08 08:00a
End:	Mar 1, '08 4:00p
Location:	Martinborough, NZ

A one day craft fair held in Martinborough, NZ. Just a hop over the moutains East of Wellington.

Sprint...

Ah, Sprint… I hear there are more financial knocks to my former employer.  I won’t slam them or the 65,000 employees who are all trying their darnedest to be a good company.  I will suggest that Sprint should examine its history and determine what has lead from the 90’s to here.

 

When I started with Sprint, I remember listening to Bill Esry (the CEO) give speech after speech stating, “We must return value to the shareholder.”  That was his goal for about 30 years.  Cynics will immediately see the flaw in that philosophy, but for the non-cynics I’ll explain.  While yes, every corporation exists to make money and probably make money ultimately for shareholders, it is not much of a “purpose.”  It is hard to rally folks around the idea of making very rich men richer.  This doesn’t impress your customers much either.  Sprint is merely living the legacy of this long standing policy.

 

Now when Foresee took over as CEO, he at least started talking about the customers again.  I felt pretty good about that.  It was the right thing to do.  Unfortunately, Gary just never delivered on it.  Now to be fair, it can’t be easy to undo the customer screwing philosophy of 30 years.

 

Now Dan Hesse says they’ve “rolled out a new customer service culture.”  I hate to neigh-say, Dan, but you don’t “roll out a new culture.”  You can start to change a culture, you can make it a focus, you can work on it over the course of 2-5 years, but it falls well short of “rolling out”.  Still, I commend the effort.  It is sorely needed.  But Dan will fall in to the same trap as Gary if he can’t morph the culture into real customer service results.

 

Now don’t be too hasty.  It would seem natural to assume that poor customer service has equalled a loss of 700,000 subscribers.  That’s not as straight forward as it may seem.  That silly iPhone device launched last year and it pulled away a huge hunk of the technocrat market—Sprint’s self-stated target market.  Plus what is “poor customer service” anyway?  What made the service poor?  Gotta ask those questions—not just flog the call centers.  I would suggest that Sprint go right back to the foundation and eliminate vast numbers of its aging service plans.  I think a great deal of why accounts are perpetually mishandled is that the rating plans are too complex.  It is creating its own errors instead of facilitating easy commerce.  Sprint has well over 9000 billing plans… probably 90% of them are just copies of themselves with minor variations.  Way too easy to screw up a poor customer service rep.

 

Sprint also needs to learn how to say “no”.  Sprint has always had fantastic ideas and goals.  But for each great idea there are 15 bad to outright stupid ideas.  All of which Sprint attempts to implement—fully negating the great ideas.  This is where the leadership at Sprint has really failed.  For whatever reasons no short list of great ideas has been allowed to complete with clear and utter refusal of bad ideas.  Ironically, Sprint is lacking Vision.

 

Get out your binoculars, Dan!  Find a clear pass and herd your company into it.  There will be stragglers, let them die.  There will be other paths that may work… but avoid them.  Clear and Concise is what you need.  Good Luck!

Godspeed

"Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)"

Dragon tales and the "water is wide"
Pirate's sail and lost boys fly
Fish bite moonbeams every night
And I love you

Godspeed, little man
Sweet dreams, little man
Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings
Godspeed
Sweet dreams

The rocket racer's all tuckered out
Superman's in pajamas on the couch
Goodnight moon, will find the mouse
And I love you

Godspeed, little man
Sweet dreams, little man
Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings
Godspeed
Sweet dreams

God bless mommy and match box cars
God bless dad and thanks for the stars
God hears "Amen," wherever we are
And I love you

Godspeed, little man
Sweet dreams, little man
Oh my love will fly to you each night on angels wings
Godspeed
Godspeed
Godspeed
Sweet dreams

This song is on my iPod... hard to listen to now.  I remember reading Goodnight Moon and watching Peter Pan with you little guys.  So many little toys all over the house.  Not a single place I could look and not see tiny traces of small hands and feet.  Socks by the door, shoes in the living room, finger prints on every window, and pictures on the fridge.  I'll get all those hung back up soon.  Lots more movies to watch together yet! Love you sooo much.

Godspeed, little man.  Godspeed, little girl. *hug*

Our House in NZ

Pics of our house in Waterloo.

ZOMGWTFPWNLOL

http://masada-blog.blogspot.com
All things game oriented--just fun stuff.

Yahoo! 360° - Masada's Profile

http://360.yahoo.com/curtis_owings
Old Blog - Defunct

Nebraska State Fair

These are all from about 2002 so they are not current, but they are some of my favorite memories. The kids laughed so hard on the rides. I have often wished other events could have been as good as this.

A few pictures of Wellington

Whippy water sculpture off the downtown waterfront.

From the Botanical Garden, Mt Victoria and the Harbour.

Moments...

I have been pondering for months now why the heck move to New Zealand. I've been troubled by the lack of concrete answers. It would be easy to tell you I am making more money, it is a solid career move, a beautiful country, a life adventure and it would all be true. But arguably... I could make even more money in the US, as a solid career move, in one of the many beautiful places in the US and still be quite adventurous. New Zealand was not required. So why?

I do not have a logical answer. But I do have an answer.

It is somewhat hard to describe. Let me start at the begining. Well before I ever considered moving Amy and I discussed what we might like to do with our life together. Neither of us felt tied to Kansas and we decided to dream a little. Out of that discussion we came up with places we'd like to live. We had no idea how we would ever be able to live in any of them, but we wanted to. One of them was, of course, New Zealand. A week later I attended an industry conference with some fellow data engineers from Telecom New Zealand. A week after that I had an offer to apply. I will call this "a moment of clarity."

Immigrating to a new coutry is amazingly hard. There are literally hundreds of pages of requirements. Initially I was daunted. But... due to the nature of the job I was being offered, there was an immigration short cut that bypassed all the worst requirements and secured approval in 45 days. In the process of our application, after being warned many times of how impossible rapid approval was, we were always immediately approved. At each of these moments of clarity I knew I was doing something I was supposed to do.

Mere days after I left my former employer, announcement flew about a change in CEO, coming re-organizations, possible buy-outs and my old job was eliminated. It was perfect timing.

I specifically chose Jan 2nd as my termination date to qualify for all the end-of-year compensation that might be given. But as an offshoot, I discovered only after the fact that this also extended my insurance coverage through the end of January--quite coveniently covering my family during the gap from Jan 2nd to Jan 14th when I started in Telecom. A moment...

Since then I have had many more moments. Last week while driving half lost at dusk I came around a mountain to see the full moon rising huge over the far ridge. It was perhaps one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever been given. I instantly felt a sense of calm knowing I should be here.

This morning on my usual walk on the harbor, I was watching this cloud play hide and seek with the sun. At just the moment I looked up a sunbeam poked through and shined brightly on my little patch of the pier. It quickly faded. I felt another moment. I happened to have my camera and I took a picture of it. It isn't a grand picture... but trust me... it was beautiful.

I still haven't come up with a good answer to why I am here. But I do know that I should be here.

Love you all. Miss you all. See you all real soon!

Games Blog

Since just one blog is not geeky enough... and since I obviously have too much free time... I've started a 2nd blog that will only be game oriented. Since most of the folks *really* interested in my personal/family life don't really give a hoot about my game life (or at least the minute details of my game life), I've decided to subdivide. Here it is...

http://masada-blog.blogspot.com

Cheers!

Results-Based Outcome

Too many people live their lives worried about “results-based outcomes.” We fixate on goals and the achieving of tasks. We focus on the destination always in a rush to get there and finally enjoy something. I suspect many folks are familiar with the old saying, “life is a journey not a destination.” Of course it seems obvious when you think about it. We spent much more time in the act of pursuing a goal than the miniscule moment of achieving it. This may be clear to some of you. But there is more to it that perhaps is not considered. What happens when you don’t achieve your goal?

There is a secondary trap of results-based thinking that even “life is a journey” folks often fall in to. This is the sense of failure at never reaching their destination. We mourn for our loss and our failures. All that could have been if only we had… Stop. Hold up for just a few minutes and look at this. Consider that whether you achieved the goal or not, you still spent a good portion of your life getting there—where ever you ended up. Life will never be a smooth transition from one happy event to another. Pitfalls are inevitable. No matter how much you planned or how talented you may be, things will not always work out. But that doesn’t matter. We struggle to find meaning in loss or failure. There is none—or at least there is just as much meaning in failure as there is in success. What mattered was life—that you were there to live it.

Without realizing it, all along your path, you have encountered many characters in your life story. Perhaps they seemed like small parts in your life. But what you don't know is if you may have accidentally played a large part in theirs. We have so little ability to comprehend the Grand Scheme. We only see our parts. But I can guarantee that even if you don't see it, your life has meaning to the world. Take heart that your story whether triumphant or tragedy has made the masterpiece of Life richer, deeper, more meaningful than anything we could have consciously done. A list of bullet point highlights makes for a poor life story. Be proud of your whole story. Share it with others. Laugh at its funny parts, cry in the sad parts, revel in its entire scope and compass, and know that all of it—every word—was worth reading. For the meaning of life is the joy of living it.

Nothing in particular

So we've moved to our permanent house and now my route work includes a train ride. I rather like the train. The whole walk is quite nice...

It starts with my front door. As soon as I step out I can see the morning sun falling on green hills dotted with wispy pines. It looks like sunshine on green carpet. One lonely pine stands out from the rest on the crest of a ridge. It catches my eye and I wonder what the view is like from that spot.

Off down the street. I have 2 blocks of homes to walk past followed by 1 block of shops before the tunnel to the station. Most of the houses in my neighborhood are single level. Many have low stone walls around their borders. Some have leaded glass. Others have exotic gardens. None of them are stunning--they are just good homes. For shops there two "dairies" (small grocery stores), a video rental, a "lotto" shop (I don't know either), our favorite fish-n-chips take away and then a "plunket" day care drop off right by the tunnel to the train station. There are a couple of other streets to the shop area, but these are what I walk by.

The train station I use is Hutt Central/Waterloo which is a main stop. It is a nice large station with a roof. Most of the others are bus stop looking affairs with no shelter. The only down side to the station is that it is one of the last stops on the route to downtown (or CBD as the locals call it). That means the train is already packed before I get on and about 200 other commuters are all getting on with me. I'm afraid it is going to be standing room only every day. The train ride is only about 20 minutes so it is not too bad. At first we turn through other neighborhoods and then we cross the Hutt River. The Hutt River is interesting as it is where the river scenes of LotR were shot. Just looking at its banks and you can recognize the stone and color of the water. There is a short tunnel and when the train emerges the full sweep of the bay come in to view. The sun is just coming over the hills and the water shimmers with light. I love looking at the other commuters who are universally looking away, reading books, or half snoozing. I seem to be the only one gawking out the windows.

The main station at 8:00 AM is a zoo to be sure. But folks flow out pretty quickly. The main station is only a block from the harbor edge and it works out for me to walk the harbor virtually all the way to my office on Tory Street. It is about a mile from the station to my office so my morning commute is quite healthy. The harbor is beautiful on a good day. So far I've only seen one non-beautiful day. Today the water was like a gently rolling mirror and the sun sparkled on the peaks of the waves.

For the last two blocks I have to walk through the city. But by this time the cool shade of the buildings is welcome. There is a small bakery just a half block off my path that I have come to enjoy. Cappuccino is farking awesome here. Then on to my office on "level 3" of "unit 1" on Tory Street. The floors in buildings start with "G" and then 1 floor up is "level 1". That has thrown me a few times. That's my commute... every day.

Nothing in particular

So we've moved to our permanent house and now my route work includes a train ride. I rather like the train. The whole walk is quite nice...

It starts with my front door. As soon as I step out I can see the morning sun falling on green hills dotted with wispy pines. It looks like sunshine on green carpet. One lonely pine stands out from the rest on the crest of a ridge. It catches my eye and I wonder what the view is like from that spot.

Off down the street. I have 2 blocks of homes to walk past followed by 1 block of shops before the tunnel to the station. Most of the houses in my neighborhood are single level. Many have low stone walls around their borders. Some have leaded glass. Others have exotic gardens. None of them are stunning--they are just good homes. For shops there two "dairies" (small grocery stores), a video rental, a "lotto" shop (I don't know either), our favorite fish-n-chips take away and then a "plunket" day care drop off right by the tunnel to the train station. There are a couple of other streets to the shop area, but these are what I walk by.

The train station I use is Hutt Central/Waterloo which is a main stop. It is a nice large station with a roof. Most of the others are bus stop looking affairs with no shelter. The only down side to the station is that it is one of the last stops on the route to downtown (or CBD as the locals call it). That means the train is already packed before I get on and about 200 other commuters are all getting on with me. I'm afraid it is going to be standing room only every day. The train ride is only about 20 minutes so it is not too bad. At first we turn through other neighborhoods and then we cross the Hutt River. The Hutt River is interesting as it is where the river scenes of LotR were shot. Just looking at its banks and you can recognize the stone and color of the water. There is a short tunnel and when the train emerges the full sweep of the bay come in to view. The sun is just coming over the hills and the water shimmers with light. I love looking at the other commuters who are universally looking away, reading books, or half snoozing. I seem to be the only one gawking out the windows.

The main station at 8:00 AM is a zoo to be sure. But folks flow out pretty quickly. The main station is only a block from the harbor edge and it works out for me to walk the harbor virtually all the way to my office on Tory Street. It is about a mile from the station to my office so my morning commute is quite healthy. The harbor is beautiful on a good day. So far I've only seen one non-beautiful day. Today the water was like a gently rolling mirror and the sun sparkled on the peaks of the waves.

For the last two blocks I have to walk through the city. But by this time the cool shade of the buildings is welcome. There is a small bakery just a half block off my path that I have come to enjoy. Cappuccino is farking awesome here. Then on to my office on "level 3" of "unit 1" on Tory Street. The floors in buildings start with "G" and then 1 floor up is "level 1". That has thrown me a few times. That's my commute... every day.

Alas Heath...

We all march together to our eventual demise. Men, women and, all too often, children fall in our ranks. We look at each death with the incredible ability to assign a cause that somehow excludes us–providing the necessary illusion to keep marching.

Rarely, we all take pause to mourn one of us who has captured our collective attention. Death is inevidable and so its darkness would seem perpetual. But who could live in such a world? Instead we celebrate the joy of living. We look in awe at the blazing candle that burned twice as bright. We take it in, we make it part of ourselves, and we march on together smiling through tears.

These kids today...

So here in New Zealand the topic du jour is child welfare. NZ recently passed what it calls "anti-smacking" laws. Basically, parents are not allowed to forcefully strike their child. This law is not meant to prevent the occasional attention grabbing bottow-swat, but rather the full-on butt whooping you may fondly remember. Hey, this sounds good to me. While I certainly survived my butt whoopings, I do think I could have learned my lessons to the same extent without them. Further, while I don't feel in any way "harmed" by my childhood, I recognize that many others are. It is far too easy to carry physical punshiment to the extreme. Why not reign it in?

Adding more fuel to the debate are reports of school yard bullying, street racing, and widespread "tagging" (graffiti). More alarming have been recent deaths of teens in what is probably best described as gang warfare, but not nearly to the scale of the US.

This is an election year for New Zealand and a new candidate is gunning for the Prime Minister. Thus an issue like child safety is an easy target. It has virtually no downside as both sides can claim to be pro-child while debating the particulars of how to achieve more child safety and better behaved teens.

In response to one such article I wrote the following...

The discussion of child laws reminded me of a John Quincy Adams quote…

“The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him wise, virtuous, or happy.”

It seems many societies today struggle with raising our youth. Indeed, the reactionary policies implemented after the fact are too little too late. We can all agree that loving parents is by far the best. But when a child has no responsible parents, then one of us must become responsible for that child. Either by occupation or by personal virtue, in the end it is the same — each child needs care. Making that commitment is enormous.

No parent is perfect. It is not possible to legislate perfect parenting. I think anti-smacking is a good thing, but simply not hitting a child doesn’t make a good parent. Simply not hitting a child won’t prevent bad behavior or criminal behavior. Using physical discipline certainly will not either. My point here is that what makes a good parent to a child is something that can not be defined in legal terms. The law can only dictate financial responsibilty and physical safety.

These children today are not alien creatures. They are not mysterious or unfathomable. They are you and me just a few years back (or a lot of years back). If they seem more aggressive or frightening, it is because we have taught them our disapproval and time has tempered our hearts. Regardless of the child/teen someone must accept them in all their flawed ways. From this we teach that child to accept us in all our flawed ways. We pass on what we have done to the next generation who will then confront the next. The young do not have the wisdom to reach out to us, we must go to them.

I actually got a compliment from the editor... hmph... *grin*

I have to say if you want to be politically active... come to New Zealand. Folks (small numbers of folks) can have a huge impact on life here. The scale of everything is smaller. This includes the problems. I find some comfort in the size of the problems here. They feel managable and solvable in a way I never felt in the US. One person could really make a difference here.