Our American Adventure

Be sure to check out the weather where we are. There is a link to the right to our weather station. Data is uploaded every 30 minutes. Might get cold tonight!!!

You know, I have been in many positions in my life and my career. Each time, it was a little different. Each level of responsibility I achieved came with different positives and negatives. But, in each position, I did the best I could with concern for how I was perceived to be doing. I cared about not just how I was doing my job, but also how others thought I was doing.

Today, I see something new in management. A new style that has nothing to do with performance or what others think. It’s about pretending to manage and pretending to care. When a problem arises, you push it off to the point where it doesn’t matter anymore. When a new idea is presented, they ignore the idea and tell you how great their idea is. When they need a new employee, they hire anyone and then just try to fit their skills in the company rather than find the skills that are needed in the company.

I can only call this "Tetris Management". It’s just like the game. A new project or a new person is just a new puzzle piece that starts it slow desent from the top. The manager sees the piece and says, hum, where can I put this?. I can move it here. The manager turns the piece a couple of times and then realizes, "oh, it will fit here." Eventually, the manager takes so long for a decision to get made that the piece is destined for a poor location and then eventually, oops, well, it’s permanent now. Here comes another piece. No worries, everything will be better on this one. I’ll try my new ideas on it. Oh, oh, its not working. Geez, now it’s at the bottom too. Here comes another piece……..

I have watched the managers play this game all the way to the end. Rather than figure out how to make it all work, they just play again. They play the same strategy. It just doesn’t work. I remember when managers would tell the employees that "there is no I in team". Well, now, it’s the employees trying to tell the managers that there is no I in team.

All they have to do is match a project piece and an employee piece and make fit. When an entire line is matched, it gets completed. The line goes away. The project and the employee’s time are done. It’s time for the next piece.

If this is the future of managers everywhere, it’s time for a new game. Tetris got really old fast……

It has been suggested by a reader, stephen (a.k.a. brother), that I don’t post very often. Although it is true that I don’t type much on her currently, what isn’t seen is that I have been working on the back end getting the upcoming show together. With an audio podcast and a video show coming soon, there is much to be done. So, as they say, stay tuned……

Well, I am a computer guy by trade. I have been supporting fortune 500 companies for 17 years now. I am skilled in Windows Server technologies, Exchange email system, Cisco data networks and Large Storage Area Networks. I’ve been almost done it all for support. Recently, I switched over to a Mac. I had always enjoyed using the Mac before, but never as my main computer. I have come to love what it does for me. Our camper is now a Mac heaven with everyone having a Mac of some kind. It’s fun to work all day supporting Windows based machines and then come home to not having to support anything.

With my love of video editing and music production, the Mac has earned it’s keep as a powerhouse of tools. All of what you will see on this website will be edited on the Mac. All of the podcasts, HDTV releases, and even music created by us, is on a Mac.

Well, that’s just a little bit of a technology brief about us for now. Stay tuned for more computer updates over time. After all, I am a geek at heart.

I just got back on Friday from Vegas. Although I had a great time in Vegas, it was work. I want family……. Most of the time in Vegas I would sit there and think about what I am going to do next in the Great White. There is so much to do with her (yes, we believe Great White is a girl.) We never actually rolled her over to find out. We will be spending the next week gathering items for the Great White. 2nd Honda generator, artificial turf for the patio, a better built outdoor chair for me, and then working on converting some of the cabinets to other uses. Whew!!!! Doogan (the dog) just came in, HORRIBLE breath. Gotta do something about that. In a small space like our camper, it wouldn’t take long for the place to smell like his breath…. Not good.

Big days are coming.

It has become one of the most difficult decisions we have had to make. It seems easy to look for a house, but when you need to look for a 300 sq ft. place without a garage or many closets changes your outlook completely. It’s one thing to make a mistake on a house where you bought a library and don’t use it or you wanted two living areas and didn’t get but one. You can tend to make do. On a 300 sq ft home, there isn’t enough square footage for mistakes. You can’t add on. You can’t rearrange. We have spent a ton of hours looking, comparing, visualizing, and deciding on the home of our future. We have decided on a KZ Sportsmen Sportster 37KGX2. This unit is 37′ long and has a 6′ garage in the rear for my office and storage. The living room is the roomiesst we have seen to date and with the ability to get a dinette set and a movable couch, it makes the room even more useful. We haven’t purchased the trailer yet, so our opinion may change. It isn’t likely though. It just fits rights.

Before we purchase it, we have a lot more stuff to get rid of. We really need to be down to a skeleton collection of stuff and hopefully an abundance of money from the selling of all of the stuff so we can minimize our expenses on the road.

More to come.

Besides all of the preparation at home neccessary to complete our plan, we moved forward with a big step, purchasing our tow vehicle.  We wanted a vehicle that would tow "legally" and comfortably on our long journey.  We looked at many different models and really wanted a used vehicle to save on cost.  When it came down to it, it made more sense, to us, to purchase a new Chevrolet 3500HD Duramax Diesel Crewcab 4×4 truck.  With everywhere we will be going, 4×4 may become one of the most important choices we made.  With the camper that we are looking at, we need every bit of the 16,000 lbs of towing capacity that this truck offers.  The diesel became the only choice as Chevrolet doesn’t make a gas 3500HD with a 16k tow rating. 

We really believe in the cash based lifestyle that we have converted to and this is a step in the backwards direction.  Our only reason for doing it is it will be replacing the house payment that we already have and we have put it on a very short loan.

Scott

Here’s a pic of "Big Blue".