January 2008 Archives

After flying through the night, and kick starting my morning with the less-than-delicate shake of the flight attendant's hand, I am landed in New York City.

Somehow it seemed to make sense to fly red eye- I guess it's always one of those things that looks good on paper. But yet, here I am- eyes most likely at least a shade of pink.

I'll be in press/analyst meetings all day, so here's to being bright eyed and bushy tailed. At 8:14 am, I find it highly unlikely that my hotel will have a room ready for me. Hopefully they have an accomodating bathroom, for now, that will be my temporary command post. I'm really surprised that hotels don't have showers and a place to get changed/freshen up like an airline lounge.

Oh well, I think a teeth brushing is priority 0, everything else comes secondary.

And on a side note, I always enjoy picking my NYC transportation. Among a sea of cabs this Escalade emerged, cutting people off left and right - receiving several solid honks of the horn. I said with pride, "That's my driver".

Working at Microsoft is often an unusual experience. At times the pace seems really fast and productivity is literally rolling along at light speed, while other times I feel as though I'm hitting the wall. These walls I speak of are hard to describe, it can often be caused by mismatched enthusiasm between my colleagues and myself, or sometimes worse- an ambiguous project with goals and metrics that are difficult to get my head around.

The good news is there seems to be a notion of balance in all this - for as much time as I spend trying to ramp up on a challenging project, there is usually a proportionate amount of time being gained back from a task that generates much less friction. In the end, I essentially have less and less bad days - but increasingly find myself evaluating my performance on a week by week basis.

With that in mind, I'm really accounting for any of the ups and downs being caused by the more ambiguous projects - and by the end of a given week I have a tangible sense of how effective I've been.

More often than not - when I leave on a Friday, I feel fantastic. Today was not one of those days.

It's funny because the day itself had very favorable portions. I had some really good breakthroughs with my colleagues on a marketing positioning framework we've all been processing through. The meetings I led generally felt effective and a good use of everyone's time. In one meeting, which happens to be a lunch meeting, the lunch order hadn't gone in - but my co-lead BHos acted fast and was able to put in an order late. Everyone was still able to eat, and thus-- much more open to cross-group collaboration.

That said, I had also been managing a large portion of this other project all the while. This particular project had been keeping me in the office till midnight a couple nights in a row. I'm happy to spend the time because I know how rewarding it can feel to chip away at the big rocks. This project had been coming along slowly, and it was becoming clear that it was not going to meet our required deadlines on its current trajectory.

You see, the information I was preparing was to be used in a number of focus groups we'll be running over the next few weeks. A funny behavioral observation I made about myself through all this is that instead of stopping the wheels that were in motion - I instead thought of ways that I could fix this on my own. More hours. More phone time with the vendors that had been helping with the primary deliverables. For some reason, I was stuck in finding an organic solution - that is, one I could grow myself without outside influence or assistance.

Why wouldn't I just speak up? Is it pride?

Raising the red flag early can often cause less frustration than raising it too late. It's never to late to learn from an experience, and this is one I shall not soon forget.

I've just sat down for a 2 day training in one of our larger meeting rooms here on campus. When making small talk with a few co-workers, my eyes wandered up to the wall, only to discover our true view of the world...

It may have been even funnier if there were clocks, but they all read the same time. (Shout out to BSol for that one!)

It's been several  cloudy months since we've seen her, but she's back in all her glory.

Incidentally, we've had some fantastically clear days lately - if it wasn't for the piercingly cold weather I'd love it to be like this all the time. The replenished vitamin D is raising spirits across the city.

A couple months ago, I made the fairly life-altering decision to buy into a condo. There were a number of reasons why it made sense for me to buy, but I guess nothing could truly prepare me for that Belltown price gouging. All that said, I'm told it's a good investment, and within 3-5 years I hope to be eating out once again.

Aside from night after night of the frugal gourmet, there a number of other benefits that are just now beginning to avail themselves. The first of which is a phenomenon known as the hard hat tour.

According to the legend, this is an activity where I'm hoisted up to the 10th floor of my completely incomplete building, to apparently participate in some kind of space assessment. The condo reps tell me this will be a good opportunity to get a sense of my space, which to me is laughable since I'll be missing a key ingredient: walls.

Without walls, plumbing, fixtures, etc... I feel the space may seem artifically wide open. I wonder if I will find myself fooled into thinking I'd be able to fit those dueling grand pianos I always dreamed of (in my kitchen) - only to find out that darn gas range might get in the way.

In any event, it sounds all very fascinating to me, especially since I'm not even sure they've built the elevators as of yet.

Over the weekend I caught up on some reading, specifically a book I've been meaning to read for several years now. The book in question is by no definition lengthy, but contained within is a poignant wisdom I had not come to expect. The book I'm referring to is Who Moved My Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

The subtitle reads, "An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life" - and it really does deliver on that promise. I won't give too much away about the book, for those that haven't read it, but I will say that it got me thinking about the kind of change that happens to us throughout our lives.

It's funny because I guess I never realized that change is more than just the point at which things become different. It's very possible to see that things are changing, get a sense of the tide and make the appropriate steps to adapt. This is by no means common. People often resist change. Once things go a new direction, for some reason we inherently see it as a bad sign, rather than an opportunity to achieve something better.

Interestingly enough, in my experience, people generally set their expectations pretty low. We get cozy in a situation, and we start to think that it might be the best we ever will have it. This can apply to a job, relationship, matters of faith, what have you. For some reason, humans have a natural predilection to assume that things are only in a state of decay. That the natural order of our lives is that we grow, hit a peak, and then start a swift decent.

Although I'm still young, and it's early in my career - I really started to think about the every day change that happens at work. Little things really start to add up, and over time the entire workplace climate can change. It's interesting, because in a way- I could start to pass up opportunities because I believe there will be a natural cycle to things. I may think that things went really well in the past on a given project, so I should expect to achieve those same results again. If those results aren't achieved on take #2, then perhaps on take #3.

The big eye opener for me is that there could always be better opportunities just waiting. Even though I have perfectly tasty and free cheese now, it may eventually turn in to old cheese. Mold may even start to grow. I think about my resume. I don't think I've even updated it in 3 years. It's really interesting how complacent we can get.

At the end of the day, I have to keep in mind that there may not only be fresher cheeses out there, but perhaps even new varieties of cheese. One can never know... I may even like them more.

Someone much wiser than me once shared, "You'll never regret taking a risk, but you may always regret playing it safe."

Head over to Moviefone to see a spy shot of the new Enterprise from the up and coming prequel film, Star Trek. Apparently the trailer is due to premiere tomorrow as part of the previews for the movie Cloverfield. Anyone want to bet how many more hours until a bootlegged version of the trailer shows up on YouTube?

Either way, looks like they are embracing the old design, it seems.

A few members of the team and I were scheduled to go down to Sunnyvale, CA this morning to meet with Palm. Those always make for interesting day trips, primarily because the flight out of Seattle is something like 6 am. However, in the ninth hour, plans changed - and I'm now heading into work as usual.

It would have been great to catch some California weather and maybe even see a few old friends, but the biggest thing I'll miss is the chance to eat at In-n-Out Burger. For the vegetarian member of our team,this was probably the greatest disappointment as well.

I guess the one up-side to all this is that my schedule has been completely cleared for today. Imagine a day with no meetings. What productivity awaits me!

This might even be the perfect opportunity to visit the most seldom used functionality my Outlook navigation pane, and click on a little button that no doubt will lead to a world of postponed and procrastinated work.

What button is this, you may ask?

Yesterday was one of the best days in the Seattle winter. It was an enigma, an unexpected event. Generally the winters here are full of rain and clouds. But yesterday, the sun made an appearance. And it just so happened that for one day only... the clouds were not in sight.

I saw a little girl pointing to the sky saying, "Daddy, what is that strange glowing orb?" He gently replied, "It's the sun, darling, and we never expected you to see it before you turned 8."

All around people had smiles on their faces and it was clear that the much needed shot of serotonin had begun to kick in. But, that was yesterday.

Today we were back to our normal weather patterns-- mildly cold temperatures with a mix of clouds and rain. I was in a meeting this afternoon when some light snow started to come. For the record, it very rarely snows in Seattle, but when it does people FREAK out.

Immediately, strange emails start coming out telling me to be safe and go be with my family in this difficult time. This is at 3:00 when a light, non-sticking snow starting coming down. 3:00 became the time for a mass exodus.

Co-workers were seen everywhere scurrying up and down the hallways, shoving laptops in their bags and grabbing their keys. Bellowing through the hallways I hear statements like, "If this gets bad, I'm working from home tomorrow".

As a former resident of Syracuse, NY, I remain relatively unphased. I go about the rest of my workday, go to the gym, and try to catch the bus home. Or so I thought.

The streets are empty, but the snow was starting to stick. The few cars that are driving by are doing so at around 10 mph. I go down to the depot for the Connector shuttle, which is a free bus service offered by Microsoft to get commuters across the bridge from Microsoft to Seattle, only to find no shuttles in sight.

Connector officials informed me that buses were "getting stuck" and that they were dispatching minivans to take us home. Apparently the minivans have 4-wheel drive, which apparently is a requirement when you have 1/10 inch of snow.

It's 8:25pm and I'm still not across the bridge and into Seattle. It could have something to do with the fact that this lightning quick steed of a minivan is doing about 8 mph.

Needless to say, I'm sure many people will be weathering this colossal storm from their homes. People of Seattle - God bless you and your families in this difficult time.

As I've been writing this blog the last few days, I'm starting to realize how therapeutic it can be. I think, and then I type. No rough drafts or pre-prepared banter, just brain to keyboard. This reminded me of Doogie Howser, M.D., a fairly popular TV show that ran from the 80s in the 90s.

If you remember, each Doogie Howser episode ended with him typing a diary entry on his computer (which, if I recall correctly was an IBM PC clone, with a blue screen with white letters - classic WordPerfect style).

He would pour over the excruciating details of his daily interactions, and eventually sum it all up with a cliche.

Nonetheless, this got me thinking. Did Doogie know that he was the original blogger? What he did at the end of each day isn't too different from what I'm doing right now - writing about what I'm thinking about. Maybe Doogie actually thought other people were reading, maybe he didn't realize that the whole dot-com boom and bust would have to come around before he'd have the readership he deserved. I'd have so many questions for 14 year old Doogie. For instance, would he still write about all the older women that caught has fancy at the hospital? Would he offer to pay his parents for the broadband charges? Would he eventually start writing out of his local Starbucks?

So many questions... if only he was still writing.

This was a sad week for me. It's the first time that I've really come to grips with the fact that men's clothing is going down a dark path. This dark path is not related to price, size, or color; although I do have observations in those areas as well. No, today I want to talk about SIZE.

Now it's a widely held belief that women have to try every article of clothing on before purchasing, even if it's a bandana. I don't want anyone to think that I am bashing women here, I certainly am not. They are victims. The crime being committed against them is a game of smoke and mirrors, one where inconsistent sizes are thought to be the standard for the shopping experience.

I've often heard women make statements like, "I'm a 4 at Banana Republic, but I'm an 6 at Ann Taylor Loft." Remarks like that used to make my head explode. How is it possible that something that was created around a set of dimensions (inseam, length, whatever it may be) has so dramatically moved off the mark?

The best explanation I have been able to come up with is that this is to trap the customer in some twisted game of flattery, which then sends retailer against retailer into a downward spiral of size. Before you know it the girl who was a 12 is now a 2. That all said, I didn't really think much about this while it was happening, frankly it just didn't affect me all that much.

While women played the guessing game, I would just walk up to the rack and pick up a pair of 32/32 pants- knowing they would fit exactly the way I'd expect.

But now, be warned gentlemen-- this is no longer the case. Lately in my quest for a new pair of slacks, I've discovered a disturbing truth: items fit differently depending on where I buy them. What? How could this be? We are guys-- we visit clothing stores on average twice per year, please don't make this difficult on us!

Dearest Banana Republic, I'll be returning your so called 32/32's tonight, and I'm not looking forward to visiting those small little rooms with the mirrors. Wait, what are those called again?

As some of you may know, Bill Gates' last day as a full time Microsoft employee is coming up this July. Last night at his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates remarked that his last day at Microsoft may be a strange one. He then queued up an absolutely star-studded video of what that day may be like.

Video: CES: Bill's Last Day

Much of it is filmed around the Microsoft campus, and the amazing part is the number of celebrities and political figures that were recruited for this video. Well done!

Everyone loves a good mystery. In the wake of the well publicized Writer's Guild Strike, the late night shows are some of the first to return to the airwaves with new episodes (that's right, I'm choosing to ignore reality TV). The offerings on CBS (Letterman and Ferguson) had the blessing and full return of the writers, while NBC's (Leno and O'Brien) did not.

The mystery, in my mind, was whether or not these shows had become so dependent on writers that they would not be humorous with nothing but their host's own wit and a meager stable of C-list guests. According to this article on E! Online, both Leno and O'Brien beat their timeslot rivals in the ratings the first night back to the air.

Now why did this happen? How could Leno have possibly beaten the polished, well-staffed, union-blessed Letterman?

Critics really wrestled with those questions. They tried comparing the guest list; which for Letterman contained A-list celebrities like Robin Williams, and for Leno - republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. While the strike continues, Leno and O'Brien will be extremely challenged to recruit stars of stage & screen as guests, mostly due to those guests required loyalty to the writer's strike.

Better get ready for more political, animal, and cooking related segments.

After watching the last couple night's of Leno, I'm not that surprised that he and Conan have been gaining ground in the ratings. There are two things that people likely find interesting about all this.

First, Leno and Conan are the underdogs, and people usually root for the underdogs

Second, when things are no longer as tightly scripted-  uncomfortable silences, blank stares, and failure in the shape of sharp, sharp knives enter. To some viewers, this is equal to witnessing a car accident.

And like any car accident, even though I know it may be really bad... I still can't look away.

Just a few short years ago, I really prided myself in not being dependant on coffee. I felt that I was doing my part to achieve a healthy lifestyle, and while all my friends' teeth would be losing their luster, mine would remain sparkly white. Over time I turned to an occasional latte as a bit of a treat, pretty much treating it like a dessert.

But time goes by and one gets into a career, sacrificing sleep for some extra quality time with his new best friend. I think to myself, 6 hours ought to be enough, right? At times, I'm not even sure it matters. Whether I had 8 hours or not, come 3:00pm, I was still yawning up a storm- usually during my bi-weekly 1:1 with my manager.

I would try to mask my fatigue by covering my mouth, scratching my nose, pretending to be a ventriloquist. I'd even start chewing some gum just to keep moving- almost like a little stairmaster for my mouth.

I think she started to notice.

Shortly thereafter, I started the afternoon coffee break. Just a quick cup around 3:00 really made a difference in those last 4 hours in the office. My productivity was going up, I would have two 5 minute conversations in less than a minute - life was grand!

Yesterday I returned from a holiday trip to the east coast. Usually a 3 hour time difference wouldn't be affecting me this much, but for some reason it was. I thought to myself, "just drink some more water, that's all you need." No chance that would save me. I had my first pre-8:00am coffee today, and it felt a little too good.

If you see me buying Whitestrips, you'll know my descent was swift, and irreversible.

As we enter the New Year, more and more people make resolutions to get into shape. For all of 2006 and about half of 2007 (pretty much before I went on a 2 month/8 country trip), I worked out regularly at my friendly neighborhood super-gym. I had an entire routine down. My workout partner, Deepak, was also a co-worker so it was pretty easy to stay motivated. He would come down after work each day, and we'd get our gym on.

Working mostly in the weight training area, we had a schedule that we could rely on like clock work. We would do all the various muscle groups depending on the day, and after each workout, a quick trip to the steam room to let out the stress (and make the skin glow). All in all, it was about a 90 minute ordeal and I was always home by 8:00 at the latest. That was when I lived in the suburbs.

Times have changed. Deepak now lives in Manhattan, I live downtown (thus relying on a Microsoft-provided bus for my commute), and my muscles are in a serious state of atrophy. I've even had to switch to a lighter laptop! (Ok, I did that for other reasons).

I could lie to myself and say that I will commit to a workout regiment equal to the old days, but I'm not even sure I could take myself seriously. I've toyed with the idea of morning workouts, mid-day workouts, and home gym equipment-- but I feel the key missing component is time.

Living in Seattle and working in Redmond means I'm spending at least 60-75 minutes a day commuting. Committing to a work out program taking into account commute time (and bus schedules) almost certainly guarantees I'll be leaving the apartment at 7:00am and returning around 9:00pm. That's a lot of time spent away from home base, then calling into question other health issues like "Should I really be eating dinner this late?", "Am I getting enough sleep?", etc.

It's a vicious cycle, and it seems to all come down to the commute. I could do what Deepak used to do and drive every day that I work out. That would help me shave some time off (no longer having to do the 15 minute walk to the gym, waiting at the bus stop, etc.), but now I'm adding in some costly gasoline that I never used to pay for.

So is it all worth it? I guess I'll have to decide before all this New Year's euphoria wears off.