Today was a lovely day, and yesterday wasn’t half bad, either. Friday, also lots of goodness.
Breakfast, my Sunday usual activity, had two rarely seen faces: Cody and Chris Koch, who’s now at SFU.
After breakfast, I played some tennis, succeeding in: a) getting sunburned, b) proving I’m not very good at tennis, and c) learning that French Toast is not a good pre-prolonged-exercise meal. I was very shaky. But having something to blame == excellent!
This evening Susie and I got a phone call from Boris/James, who had been out crabbing, and we got invited over to James’ place for about $150 of fresh crabs. So, so SO delicious. We ran out of butter, that’s how much crab there was. Rachael was there too. She hadn’t eaten crab in years and years—she thought she didn’t like it. I think we cured her of that misconception!
I’ve been a little silent on the blog recently, but that’s because I have a few things kicking around my head that aren’t bloggable material. Nevertheless, they’re kind of clogging up my blog hole, so I"m trying to figure out how to clear them out of the way so I can write about what else is on my mind. So, I though I’d try to dismiss them here and see if that helped.
First of all, Matt, my brother-in-law / employee / housemate. There are some issues simmering here, and I appear to have very little ability to influence this relationship.
Second, finances and taxes. It’s not bad news, nor is it good news—it’s just complicated. And a moving target.
Third, balancing a social life and still having time to myself, and time to spend with Susie. It’s hard, and complicated, and again: things aren’t bad, but ponder-ful.
And lastly, my mom and sister Virginia. I miss them, and will be seeing them soon, but I feel like channels of communication aren’t as open here as they used to be. It makes it tough, and yes, it’s my fault. I’m busy these days, and distracted. Having Justin, the new employee, here for two weeks of training, was critical but difficult.
There. Let’s see if that garburates some of what I needed to say, and if this week reveals more blog posts.
“I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so. ... She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain—it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”
After over a decade of user testing, it is clear that the way we search the web is similar to the way we would search our home for valuables as it was burning to the ground. Frantically.
“We must shift the focus of companies back to the customer and away from shareholder value ... The shift necessitates a fundamental change in our prevailing theory of the firm… The current theory holds that the singular goal of the corporation should be shareholder value maximization. Instead, companies should place customers at the center of the firm and focus on delighting them, while earning an acceptable return for shareholders.”
You can scroll right easily by holding down the SHIFT key and using your scroll wheel. (Firefox users trying this will end up jumping to old Web pages until a) Firefox releases a fix, b) they change their settings like so.)