World Sojourner : 3760

Another flight home from Seattle; another chance to sit beside one of the lineman for the Cowboys.  I’ve noticed an interesting trend over the last couple weeks during my trips.  First, rather than the traditional 300 pounder muffin-topping into my seat occurrences that one would expect in the land of McDonald’s and Burger King my seat mates are huge guys in pretty good shape.  They’re just too big for their damn seat and my seat. 

The second observation on my Dallas to Seattle travels is that American Airlines must voice audition their captains.  Two weeks ago the captain sounded like Fred Thompson (Presidential Candidate, prosecutor for some TV show, and bag guy from Ghost Busters II).  This week, Bill Clinton.  And no, this captain hasn’t asked if any of the ladies want to see his giant stick (controls the, you know, plane).  The guy just sounds like Clinton.

By no means am I a novice flyer.  Between the trips from England to the US, in the US, and to and from Australia travel is something that’s pretty familiar, but thanks to the constant flights (four in four weeks) I’m moving from talented amateur to semi-experienced professional.  The benefits of flying that seemed silly like having the chance to board the plane first, now are favorites especially when the flight is pretty much full.  See, on first means there’s plenty of over-head storage available.  The funny thing is that about one-third to one-half of the people on the flight are business travelers so at some point it stops being an advantage to get on the plane ‘early’ if everyone is getting on early.  Look for double Whooper platinum get on the plane before it lands option soon.

The plane has started its decent.  As luck would have it, it’s a slow one.   Apparently, the Cowboys are winning - I bet they’d do a lot better if the guy beside me would be in pads tonight - hell, so would I. 

As an extra bonus, an unpublished blog post from my flight last week

Quote of the Week Candidate

I’m currently sitting on the tarmac of Dallas-Forth Worth Airport (DFW).  We’re currently grounded because of some communication issues involving traffic control and the stations monitoring all the birds in the air.  Apparently, our pilot just overheard the control tower tell one of the airplanes in front of us to - start up your engines, and you’re going to take off and ‘we’ll see how it goes.’

I wonder what the range of possibilities are with this experiment?

The football Gods allowed for the impossible over the last couple weeks.  After an embarrassing loss to South Florida that could have set the program back a couple years thanks to its ESPN coverage and our complete inability to play smash-mouth football the Mountaineers have improved and moved through the rest of its schedule nicely.  Once upon a time, a loss during the regular season all but assured a team that its National Championship chances were nil.  But, not in 2007.

Too many tough games, too many average teams have left the National Championship horizon devoid of undefeated teams and full of one-loss Division 1 what-ever-the-hell they call this division preparing for a trip to New Orleans.  Thanks to a nice dismantling of UConn and our loss occurring early rather than later in the schedule my Mountaineers are poised to go to New Orleans and play for the National Championship. 

The only obstacle is the University of pit.   At home.  I want to see if the score board for Mountaineer field has triple digits as we pound the Panthers into the artificial turf.  Ideally Pat, Steve, Noel and the other starters are enjoying Gatorade on the sidelines thinking about the BCS championship game by mid third quarter.

They say that if WVU wins the National Championship the burning couches in Morgantown will be visible from space.   To that, I say - where’s the matches?

"Let’s Bring on the Mountaineers!!!"

ESPN - Schlabach: Almost Heaven - College Football

College athletics is more than just what happens from the start of a game to the end.  I guess the same can be said for all sports professional to little league, but my love has always been college athletics.  WVU college athletics to be exact.  From the age of 0.01 I’ve been attending football and basketball games - rooting for Mountaineers, first in a stroller and later in a faded pair of blue jeans to watch the game.  It’s not just the game, but those who are involved with the game that add the true depth and breadth to the experience.

When first asked about my memories or thoughts on WVU things that come to mind are the highlights or low-lights.  Standing in pit stadium when Famous Amos takes his first handoff 69 yards up the middle for the score.  Same game, watching the pit fans exit around half-time and WVU having the only students in their student section.  Major Harris’ broken play; 18 points lost in two minutes to UMass; Run To and From Pitt; beer, pepperoni rolls and well, beer.  Jack Fleming and Woody O’Hara - the voices of WVU football and Basketball.   Doc Stevens - Let’s Bring on the Mountaineers.  And, large hairy men leading the YMCA. 

It’s easy to miss some of the scenery or background colors like overlooking the red, orange, brown and green collage of the West Virginia hills during an autumn game - why?  I guess the mind can only truly recall some many things so it sorts by frequency or highlights or something else referenced by my JDM class at NYU that I’ve already forgotten.  But, when asked to draw the picture only using the highlights of a fantastic run, the deep pass or an occasional beverage the picture is barren, unclear and incomplete.

This brings me to Henry "Yup Yup" Drosky.  Considered one of the greatest WVU fans of all time.  He attended nearly every game, with his radio tuned to WAJR for the before, during and after game commentary.  Why ‘Yup Yup’?  Because that’s what he’d say as he listened to the radio.   From Jack to Tony he’d listen and watch.  Apparently, Henry went to some of the away games and bowl games courteously of friends and fellow fans. 

Henry passed away two weeks ago.  WVU athletics has lost one of its great fans.  Yup Yup will be missed by me and other WVU fans around the country because his attendance was a much a part of WVU football as the flying WV on the helmets.  

Henry - thanks for the memories.  Hopefully you’ve got good seats up-top sitting beside Jack, Doc Stevens and other WVU all-time-greats enjoying the game and listening to your radio.

Charleston Daily Mail Article

It’s Sunday mid-morning and I’m looking at my PC, and a pile of bills and notes written down from the past week.  This scene isn’t too different from b-school or old work experiences but still a hurdle in the life of an information worker.  I wrote about reading Getting Things Done (GTD) months ago and how it really made a difference for my last term at school.  Now, the same GTD is helping me keep my sanity and work through consulting projects - but at a different pace. 

Well, maybe pace isn’t the right concept because things aren’t moving that quickly.  It’s challenging in a different way.  Now instead of desk-based work, I’m doing client centered non-desk-based work that keeps me moving.  First to a new city each week, then to the client’s office for meetings and working sessions.  All are good, but I’m finding that early in the week all is well mentally (ability to focus, mind like water, etc), but as the week progresses it starts getting a little slippery.  Confirmation of meetings logged or notes becomes less certain.  Who’s fault is it?  Mine, of course.  I’m not doing a good enough job processing and taking action on the right items.

So, today I’m doing the weekly review of all my projects; unscrewing my PC thanks to having two email accounts and a reset PC this week (new domain and two MS Exchange accounts).  By around 1pm CST, this problem shall be resolved.  Oh yes.

Then, I’ll move on to finding work nirvana and that mental freedom GTD when applied always seems to provide. 

Then, like during the final months of the MBA, I just have to hope everyone I work with figures out the same trick without the silly and sad excuse - he, he, I just haven’t gotten around to it.  For us in the know, we always shrug and suggest moving it up in their priority list.  And, then walk away promising ourselves GTD will be part of our hiring criteria.