10,100 Pages

The official count is in and I accomplished my goal of reading 10,000 pages in one year. In fact, I beat my goal by 100 pages by finishing off Tony Hillerman's Skeleton Man this evening to get myself to my goal. For those who were or weren't keeping track, here is my official list of books that I read in 2010.

Title	Author
The New American Expatriate	William Russell Melton
The Blade Itself	Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged	Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings	Joe Abercrombie
All Quiet on the Western Front	Erich Maria LeMarque
Ender's Game	Orson Scott Card
The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul	Douglas Adams
The Prince	Niccolo Machiavelli
Siddhartha	Herman Hesse
A Game of Thrones	George R. R. Martin
Free Prize Inside	Seth Godin
Persuasion	Jane Austen
Heart of Darkness and Other Stories	James Conrad
A Clash of Kings	George R. R. Martin
How the Irish Saved Civilization	Thomas Cahill
Water for Elephants	Sara Gruen
Blood of Elves	Andrzej Sapkowski
Thunderhead	Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
A Storm of Swords	George R. R. Martin
Catcher in the Rye	J.D. Salinger
A Feast for Crows	George R. R. Martin
The Graveyard Book	Neil Gaiman
Skeleton Man	Tony Hillerman

23 books total. I hope everybody else met their reading goals as well this year. I don't think I'm going to set the bar as high next year, mostly because I plan on setting some writing goals for the new year. Happy New Year's everybody!

Dude, Where's My Blog?

First off, let me apologize for the lack of activity as of late. My intent for this post is to explain the lack of content for October/November.

One thing I need everybody to understand is that I love to write. It is one of my favorite hobbies. I love to tell stories, share my experiences with others, and make people laugh. This is why I'm not shy about sharing the "Stupid Things I've Done." I know that I'm not the only person that does stupid things, I just post those stupid things on the internet - which may be stupid in it's own right.

So why the lack of content?

There are two real reasons that I have not posted anything over the last two months. The first is that blogging is much harder than I originally thought it would be. When I committed myself to posting new content every day, I didn't realize how much effort it would take coming up with new content, writing it, and revising it to publishable standards.

Secondly, my international adventure has ceased to be an adventure and has become a chore. This happened around September when I worked in excess of 14 hours for 24 straight days. I burned out on the project and Ireland. The excitement of Ireland as dissipated. I miss my family.

When writing becomes work and one lacks inspiration, it makes it extremely difficult to do. Since I already have a day job, I am not motivated to work another.

I suppose I could have claimed that I've been working crazy hours to get the project live. The truth is that the go-live was smooth and uneventful (just the kind I like). We're live on SAP in Germany and working towards a Northern Ireland pilot in February.

So what's the deal?

I'm going to attempt to make this fun for me again blog at a "hobby level." What does that mean? I'm not sure I know. It does mean that I will post more, but frequency and length of posts are still up in the air. I hope that you all enjoy and keep reading. I'll do my best to keep posting.

Playing Golf the Irish Way

I've been over in Ireland for over a year now and I finally got out to play a round of golf. Why did it take me so long to get out? Mostly I had too many excuses not to golf (it costs too much, I don't have my clubs with me, I can't get a ride to the golf course, I've got too much work to do, etc.). Last weekend I was back out in Tralee, where our Corporate HQ is located, and I was invited to stick around and play golf on Saturday at the Killarney Golf & Fishing Club, home of the 2010 Irish Open. Unfortunately I didn't get to play the course that the Open was played on as it was already booked.

My foursome was comprised of myself, the company CFO, the Corporate Controller, and the Director of Corporate IT. I've mostly gotten over being awestruck by such people, but it still does put one on edge on the golf course. Add that to the fact that I hadn't played in over a year and the result was an especially awful game of golf. Regardless, I still had fun walking the golf course, hoping the rain would stay away (it did, but we got plenty of wind) and getting to know a couple of C-Level employees.

One interesting thing was the negotiations that went on at the first tee. We negotiated what my handicap was (I have no idea) and they settled on giving me 14 strokes. So it ended up being a pairs match with myself and the IT Director against the Finance guys. Out of 18, I won one hole for my team. We lost the front nine, won the back nine, and lost overall. So I had to pay my fiver to the Corporate Controller. It was all in good fun, but I wish I would have played a little better.

Cooking at the Castle

On a peninsula northeast of Dublin sits a small fishing village called Howth (pronounced hote). It's a beautiful little town that has a lot to do: eat seafood, feed seals, walk along the cliffs, see a ruined abbey, and much much more. Tuesday night we had a team-building activity which involved taking a cooking class at Howth Castle.

It was a wonderful experience. We broke into two teams of eight and began cooking a four course meal under the guidance of a chef. The chef taught us how to cut, mince, stir, reduce and refresh. Our menu consisted of:

Mediterranean Feta Salad with Pomegranate
Parma-wrapped Chicken Breast with Ricotta Stuffing
Mushroom and Truffle Oil Risotto
Chocolate Truffle Torte

When we were done cooking, we sat down at the table and enjoyed the fruits of our labors. In addition to the fine dinner, we were treated to some legends of Howth Castle by it's current resident - a direct descendant of the builders of the original castle in the 12th century. The legends include a story about a female pirate abducting the heir to Lord Howth because she was offended by the gates being closed - a breach of hospitality. The heir was returned on the promise that the gates would never be closed and that the dinner table would always be set with an extra setting for an unexpected guest. The table is still set with the extra setting over 400 years later. Additionally, a new set of gates were built that could never close.

An intriguing and fun event - fun was had by all! The meal seemed all the more delicious because we prepared it.

Treadmills are Boring

There is one sure way to get me to exercise. Organize a game of anything that involves two teams playing against each other. Send out an email asking for participants and I will be there. Soccer, I'm there. Softball, I'm there. Team thumb twiddling, count me in!

I've loved team sports since I was kid. I'm sure that my parents remember all the different sports that I needed to play when I was younger (which they paid for and drove me to). I don't know why, but individual sports never appealed to me as much. I do like golfing, but that's more of a "get out with the guys" activity than a sport for me. I certainly don't like going to the gym and walking/running on a monotonous treadmill or going to a track and running in circles.

As I get older, I am lucky to get out and play one game of football a year (Turkey Bowl!). The muscles ache bad after the day of annual exertion. One aspect of my assignment that I've loved has been playing 5-on-5 soccer on Monday/Tuesday nights. I sucked early on, but my play has gotten much better - specifically in goal. However, I still have two left feet when trying to dribble and pass.

My goal keeper skills have won me the starting position for an 11-on-11 grudge match between my company and the hotel where we're working. Next Tuesday night we'll see if I can translate my skills from a small, artificial pitch to a large, grass pitch. I don't have any cleats with me, so I'm not predicting a particularly good showing. Also, I have to protect a goal that is much, much bigger.

Wish me luck!

Tipping in Ireland

Whenever other Americans come over to the project, there's usually a point where we end up going out to dinner. For me, it's a way to connect with people whose customs are more familiar to me. When I ask them who won The Game, they can tell me that the Bears beat the Packers, not that Man-U got a result against Liverpool. whenever we're out, there's always one question that get's asked, regardless of who's picking up the bill. How much do you tip over here?

For anybody who's curious, here's the answer: 0-10%. Tipping isn't expected over here the same way it is back in the States. That is one reason that it seems more expensive to go out to eat. Their waiters/waitresses get paid a better base wage, which is reflected in the cost of your dinner. However, if you feel you've gotten excellent service, you can give them a 10% tip. I usually won't tip at the bar (when I go up to buy drinks), but will usually tip at a sit-down restaurant. Typically 5-10% depending on the service. Bon Appetit!

Crypts, Stacks, Food & Flicks

I had a day out today that should make my father proud. I've apparently inherited his ability to fill a day of travel with more things to see than are humanly possible - yet still keep the trip under budget.

10:30am - Marsh's Library 2.50 euro
Marsh's library is a library in Dublin that came highly recommended from my Frommer's guide. The library is old (founded 1701), small and you can't take pictures of anything. However, I found the exhibit they had on old medical books quite interesting. Some of the books dated back to the 13th century. It's interesting to see how medicine and surgery have developed over the years. More impressive, though is seeing medical books that have diagrams drawn by Remmbrandt before he was a famous artist.

11:30am - Christ Church Cathedral 6.00 euro
The Cathedral was built in 1030 AD but has been rebuilt once since then due to a collapse of one whole wall. Though it is now part of the Church of Ireland, it was built before the division of Christianity into its various sects. It is an absolutely beautiful building with wonderful stained glass windows and ornate stone and wood carvings. The crypts are pretty neat, too.

1:00pm - Fish 'n Chips @ Leo Burdocks ~10.00 euro
Leo Burdocks is a famous chip shop in Dublin. There are two locations, one on Liffey St. and the one I went to that is right across from Christ Church Cathedral. The fish was great and the chips were plentiful, but there's nowhere to sit and enjoy your meal. On a sunny day, you can probably set yourself down somewhere on the Christ Church grounds, but it was wet outside. So I found a pub that had a beer garden with an awning. Nobody was outside, so I was able to enjoy my fish and chips in peace, unlike my experience in Monaghan.

1:30pm - Chester Beatty Library FREE!
This library had two large exhibits: Muraqqa' and Sacred Traditions. The artwork in the Muraqqa' exhibit was beautiful (taken from books dating from 17th century India and Iran), however the history was not all that intriguing to me. The Sacred Traditions exposition, however, mesmerized me. It was a wonderful exhibit on three of the major religions of the world: Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. I love getting a more worldly perspective and found a place to do that here in spades. Wonderful exhibits, and it's free! Also there is a wonderful garden outside the library that looks up on Dublin Castle.

3:50pm - The Other Guys ~ 10 euro
After the Library, I got a ticket to see the new Will Farrell/Mark Wahlberg movie. It was freakin' hilarious. I recommend you go see it. It was an interesting perspective seeing the movie with an Irish audience. I found there were a couple of jokes where I was the only one laughing (because the Irish apparently don't know who Ralph Nader is - well at least not this audience).

6:30pm - Fries & a Shake @ Eddie Rocket's ~ 10 euro
Eddie Rockets is what we'd consider a revival 50's diner. You know the type: red vinyl seats, waitresses in pink uniforms, and mini jukeboxes on the table. It's one of my escapes to Americana that I can get while I'm over here. The food was good, but expensive.

8:20pm - Inception ~ 10 euro
This is the movie that's been out for awhile with Leonardo Di Caprio in it. All I can say is that it was a phenomenal movie. I don't go out to the movies to often . . . mostly because I don't like paying 10 euro (that's about $14 US) to see a movie that will cost $4.99 on Comcast in six months. However, this one was worth the price of admission.

It was quite a busy day and I know that my father would approve - with optional criticism that I paid too much for the movies. I did end up cutting one thing from the schedule, but we'll put that one onto the itinerary for another day. So what did I learn today? Chiefly that there are a lot of old books in Dublin and that the Irish don't know who Ralph Nader is.

Feel Free to Continue the Meeting Without Me . . .

Two weeks ago, amid my 24 day work-a-thon, I got fed up with the project. I was so stressed out that I just needed a night off. The opportunity presented itself when our Subject Matter Experts (SME's) from Northern Ireland and Germany were in town for system testing.

Roughly 30 of us went out to the local Asian restaurant (the only decent restaurant outside of the hotel within walking distance). I had a few glasses of wine with dinner and when dinner was done, everybody headed back to the hotel bar. I should have kept walking past the hotel and back to my apartment. Instead, I ended up staying up with the late crowd and finally left the hotel for my apartment at 4am, having had more than my share of alcohol.

I skipped my 8am meeting, arriving to work the next day at 8:30am. My colleagues that didn't stay out so late covered the meeting for me (which I have done for others in the past). I was tired. I was hungover. I had SME's leaving that afternoon who I still needed to meet with from whom I needed some vital information. Unfortunately, the only time that they could meet was at 10:30am.

It's hard to explain our location setup . . . we take up so much space in the conference area of the hotel, we now also have some hotel rooms converted into small meeting rooms as well. One of those meeting rooms was open, so I booked it from 8:30am until noon (when my 10:30 meeting was to end). This was a good room, it had a fainting couch. I got up there, locked the door, turned the alarm on my Blackberry to wake me up at 10am and went to sleep.

The alarm went off as planned and I had time to get setup for the meeting. I wasn't as tired, but suddenly, the coffee I had as breakfast was sitting so well in my stomach. I soldiered on, wetting down my hair so it didn't look like I'd just taken a nap in on a sofa in a meeting room.

My colleagues arrived for the meeting and things went well for the first 15 minutes. The coffee in my stomach started making me nauseous again. I excused myself from the meeting, went to the bathroom, vomitted (in a very professional manner might I add - I didn't get any on me) , rinsed my mouth out, then returned to the meeting, picking up where I left off.

Now I know I wasn't the first one to do something like this, nor will I be the last one to do something like this, but I'm embarrassed just the same. It was the first time it has ever happened to me. Mostly I'm glad that people are a little more relaxed about that kind of thing over here in Ireland. I've seen plenty others come in after hard nights on the town. Now I can sympathize with them. Everybody's human, I'm no exception.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

Just because I got back late (and I got a request for an update on my reading goals), today you get at Book Report. Stupid Things I've Done will be Friday thing this week. Look for it tomorrow . . .

Some of you may remember that I traveled over to Bristol and Bath a few months ago. On visiting Bath, I learned that the city was once Jane Austen's home and I even visited a Jane Austen Museum. The city was also frequently a setting for Ms. Austen's novels - specifically Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. Though I had not read either of those two novels, I had read both Pride & Prejudice and Emma. So while I was at the museum, I thought I'd pick up one of the novels that was based in the city. Opting for the novel written later in her career, I bought a copy of Persuasion.

Reading the novel was a pleasant enough experience. Reading Austen, like reading Shakespeare, takes a little bit of time to get accustomed to. You need to read a few chapters before you get into the language of the era. One thing I can admit was that the book was alive to me. Having just visited the city of Bath, I could easily envision the atmosphere and could picture the places that Austen names in her book. The assembly halls were fresh in my memory and I remember walking The Circus and The Royal Crescent.

Persuasion is quite critical of the Bath aristocracy, painting them as duplicitous and untrustworthy. Simultaneously it idealized the simple values of the country folk. As with the other two novels of Austen's that I have read, the plot focuses on the misunderstanding and miscommunication that occurs between men and women. So it's no surprise that the plot is resolved when the two would-be lovers finally talk frankly to each other instead of relying on their own perceptions and the perceptions of others who might persuade them. Still, a fun read, though.

Since I find it hard to compare Austen to other fiction, I can only compare this work to her others that I've read. I found it more interesting than Emma, but less interesting than Pride and Prejudice.

As far as my 10,000 pages goal, I'm still behind schedule (I have 2 book reports yet to write for you all on other pieces I've completed) but I'm in the neighborhood of 6000 pages with 3 months to go. I better get busy reading!

HRputer is Back!

So where the hell has HRputer been? Stuck in the mire of a thing called Soft Code Freeze. As you may remember from previous posts, I am working over in Ireland on an SAP implementation. When you're working on a large project like this, they usually have two different kind of code freezes: soft code freeze and a hard code freeze.

A soft code freeze is a point in a software implementation where you restrict all defect resolution to Critical (can't go live without) and High (major deliverable cannot go live) issues. Medium and Low severity issues can no longer be worked on.

A hard code freeze means that all defect resolution and the system goes live as-is. This is done to make sure that there is stability in the product that goes live. Once the system is live, the code freeze is lifted and the system goes into maintenance mode where all defects and issues are dealt with according to a defined maintenance process.

On this project, HR is considered to be an add-on module, so we don't have any defects that qualify as Critical or High severity issues. Thus I spent September 1st through September 21st working constantly to resolve as many issues as possible (Yep, three straight weekends included). We have bargained in a couple of High severity defects since then, but in essence we've built and tested the product that we're delivering. I'm not overly happy with where we are, but I'm a perfectionist when it comes to these things, so my standards may be a bit higher than others'.

So, now that we are just about to a hard code freeze, I have a few moments to spare to get back going on the blog. There are plenty of things that I have to catch everybody up on, including at least one installment of a fan favorite: "Stupid Things I've Done." Look it up on the tags . . . I've done some stupid things.

Remembering 9/11

We all remember 9/11 in our own way. I remember the events of that day every time I step onto an airplane. Of the many undesirable things that have come with this assignment, frequent air travel is one of them that I like the least.

I don't mind an occassional flight, but when you are flying transatlantic every three weeks, you become very aware of your vulnerability to such events. No matter how often I tell myself that it is an unlikely of an event it is, I still say a prayer when the plane takes off and another one when its landing. Truly it isn't the risk of the event that I fear, but rather the severity of the consequences; the fear that I'd never see my family again.

So on this day of rememberance, I don't pray for the victims, but for the families of the victims. Nine years ago today, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, wives, and husbands were all lost to their families in the tragedy. May God bless them and ease their pain.

The Global Holiday Exchange

I have been asked by a few Americans what I did for Labor Day this year. The answer is quite simple: I labored.

Things are kind of odd working on an international project. Usually the Irish Holiday calendar takes precedence, but due the vast amount of British on the project, a practice has been put in play that we now refer to as the Global Holiday Exchange. This is how it works:

Typically each country has a public holiday calendar that has anywhere from 7-10 public holidays. When it gets close to an Irish or British holiday, everybody starts to plan their schedules to see which one they'd rather take. The Brits and the Irish will take their own holidays. But, if you're not on either of those holiday calendars, you trade one of your home holidays for a British or Irish holiday. For instance, I traded my Memorial Day holiday this year for what the Irish call their June Bank Holiday.

When the August bank holiday was coming up, I decided to take it instead of Labor Day so I could have an extra day off when my family was here. Or did I trade that one for 4th of July? Perhaps, I should start tracking the holidays that I'm trading . . .

By the way, Happy Belated Labor Day to those back in the States!

Too Busy to Shave

As we get closer to our go-live. I'm having fun working all weekend. I just got kicked off the system for nightly backups to run, so I'm going to call it a night.

I forgot to bring my razor back from the States with me. So I hadn't shaved all week until tonight. I didn't actually have time to get down to the local drug store to pick up a new razor. Instead, I found a replacement blade for my razor in my suitcase and proceeded to try to shave using that. It took a little longer than usual, but it did the trick.

The adventures of HRputer are getting a little less adventurous. I may sign up for a writing class in Dublin next weekend. If it's scheduled, perhaps it will give me a reason not to work next weekend.

Time for bed.

Never Raise Your Hand at a Comedy Show

Last night we went out on the town to celebrate two of our team members rolling off the project. We went to a comedy club and when the emcee asked people from out of town to raise their hands, I foolishly did.

Surprisingly (or not) nobody else at the table with me raised their hands thouhg they, too, were all from out of town . Even the other American at the table with me failed to raise her hand. So it was I, the lone (declared) American in the room that received the jibing. Last time I went to the comedy club, I did the same stupid thing. I can't resist; I'm a glutton for punishment.

It was the same emcee and though he didn't remember me, I remembered him well enough to know that not all of his material had changed. He did the same joke about "What the stupidest thing you can convince an American of." Apparently his buddy still holds the title for having convinced a few Americans that they don't have Wednesday in Ireland. There were some new jokes as well and the night was quite entertaining.

So why do I raise my hand when the comedians are looking to make fun of people? I've always subscribed to the theory that if you can't laugh at yourself, you shouldn't laugh at anybody else. Thus, to keep my life full of laughter I will often offer myself as the butt of a joke. So I'll proffer this advice to my readers:

Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive, anyway. Go ahead raise your hand.

And the Days Drone On

I'm certain that I've mentioned it before, but the last time I returned to Ireland after having spent 7-8 weeks with my family, the gravity of the situation hit me hard. Once again, I've found the harsh reality of being away from my family hard to swallow. The recency of events such as holding my son and kissing my wife are still firmly imprinted upon my brain.

Over time, the imprinting will soften. The brief respites back home are hardly enough to renew them. I'll easily lose myself in work and the feelings of closeness to my family that I've enjoyed for the past seven weeks will fade. It's getting old. Let me rephrase: It's getting older.

Yet, the light is at the end of the tunnel. I'll be transitioning off the project over the next 4-5 months. I can't wait.

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

Planning is often thrown to the curbside even though it is the most important part of any project or program. This post (fortunately, or unfortunately) is about how a plan worked (or didn't work) in my fantasy football draft today. It turns out that I planned well, but incompletely.

Today I surprised some of my friends by actually showing up at our fantasy football draft when I was supposed to be logging in remotely from Ireland. In Ireland, I have not had access to any real fantasy football information - plenty of fantasy soccer information, but no fantasy (American) football information. So when I arrived in Chicago with family in tow, I needed to get my hands on a fantasy football magazine post haste. I was able to get one on Saturday and began my preparation with only 24 hours left before the draft.

The nice thing is that I still had enough time to put together a plan for the first four to five rounds, but I was utterly unprepared for the last seven or eight rounds. I executed my plan flawlessly for rounds 1-5 picking up exactly who I wanted to pick up and event got one upgrade because a better player slid to me. Yet, I still left the draft with a so-so feeling because I didn't like what happened after round five. I may have done ok, but it didn't feel good because I didn't have a plan.

I like to think that if I had more time to plan, I would have planned properly for the last seven to eight rounds as well. Instead of shooting from the hip, I could have targeted specific players in specific rounds. In failing to properly plan for the full draft, I now have some work to get my team set for the season. Though I believe that fantasy football is 40% draft and 60% team management. I still have the opportunity to plan for the season (yet still remain flexible enough to pounce on opportunities when they present themselves).

So my little piece of wisdom for everybody today is that proper preparation prevents poor performance. It is easy to do well when you prepare. It's not as easy to do well when you have to wing it. I'm not saying that it's impossible to do well when you wing it, it's just harder.

I'm heading back to Ireland tomorrow night. I love these 3 day turn-arounds on trans-atlantic flights.

For reference, here's my team for 2010 (keeper league):

QB: Carson Palmer
QB: Ben Roethlisberger
RB: Joseph Addai
RB: LeSean McCoy
RB: Ryan Mathews
RB: Darren Sproles
WR: Brandon Marshall
WR: Steve Smith
WR: Terrell Owens
WR: Santonio Holmes
WR: Devin Hester
WR: Jacoby Jones
K: Adam Vinatieri
K: Dan Carpenter
DEF: New Orleans
DEF: Detroit

Dealing with the Pile of Email

As so often happens, when I got back from vacation I had a pile of email clogging my inbox. I thought that it would be a good idea to share some advice on how to deal with this backlog that is inevitably waiting for us when we return to work. I have become a master of dealing with such situations. Are you ready for this sage advice? Can you handle it? Here you go:

Throw it all out without reading it.

What? I can't be serious can I? I'm deadly serious.

It works because it functions under one important principle: If something is REALLY important, somebody else has kept a copy of it. I learned this lesson from one of the first bosses that I worked for who would routinely throw things out without reading them. When I asked him why did this, he explained: "If it's really important, it will show back up on my desk." . People keep copies of important documents/emails. Don't be a pack rat; let somebody else be a pack rat.

Is this a perfect system? No. It typically fails when you have a boss that likes to make unilateral decisions without your input. You know, when somebody sends out an email (copying you) asking your boss to make a decision on something where they SHOULD wait for your input, but choose not to do so.

So - as with many systems - it's only perfect in a perfect world . . . and we all know that the world isn't perfect. So use the advice at your own risk. Personally, I have my email setup so that my VIP's show up highlighted when the come to my inbox and truthfully, I read the VIP email and then toss the rest.

Hopefully this advice lightens your workload at least a little, or at least helps you cope with the fear of returning from vacation.

Vacation Time!

It's about freakin' time! Beth, RJ and I are picking up my parents from the airport tomorrow and driving down to Tralee for a week of vacation!

Tralee is in County Kerry in Western Ireland. Even though it does happen to be the city that my company is headquartered in, I plan to do now work (right . . . ) while on vacation. I've done the whirlwind tour of County Kerry over a weekend, but it will be nice to actually spend some time out there instead of racing around the Ring of Kerry and popping my head out of the window every three miles to take a picture of the gorgeous scenery.

We haven't made any plans on what to do yet, but we have a 4 hour drive from Dublin to Tralee to plan our time out there. I look forward to getting away from work and spending time with my family (as work has made that hard, even though they are here).

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

I've often seen this book on the shelves at the book store and have always tempted to buy it. I just never pulled the trigger. Recently, when I was back in the United States (for a weekend), I stepped into the local used book store with my niece and we both walked out with an armful of books (for very little cash). My stack of books included this one by Thomas Cahill.

So how exactly did the Irish save civilization? I'll try to summarize as best I can.

At the point in history when the Holy Roman Empire was collapsing, Ireland was converting to Catholicism under St. Patrick. Ireland's geographic location aided them in their ability to seclude themselves from the barbarians in France and Germany that were one of the causes of the fall of Rome.

As St. Patrick was evangelizing Ireland, a trail of abbeys were left in his wake. These abbeys, protected from the barbarians by geography, were the seeds of civilization that fell from the flower of Rome (which had in turn, preserved civilized thought from Greece). Without these abbeys copying texts and adding their own Irish form (writing down their own oral tradition in the margins) to the newly copied texts, books such as The Bible and Plato's Republic may not have survived. The Book of Kells is the oldest existing copy of The Bible and it sits on display at Trinity College in Dublin. What St. Patrick started and St. Brigit continued in Ireland was passed on for three hundred years and the evangelistic Irish monks reached all the way back to Rome, planting the seeds of civilization along the way.

That is . . . until the Vikings came. The arrival of the Vikings in Ireland began the downfall of the Irish influence on civilization as the bejeweled texts (housed in the abbeys) were highly desired loot by the Viking raiders. Thousands of books were stolen or destroyed as Vikings raided the abbeys along the rocky coasts of Ireland. The Book of Kells survived only by being moved further inland to the city of Kells from whence it receives its name. The Vikings eventially created coastal settlements in Ireland and came to influence the Irish culture in their own fashion, but that - as they say - is a story for a different day.

As for books, I found it very informative and pertinent to all of the Irish monastic sites that I've visited. However, if you didn't find the above intriguing, you can probably do without reading this book. This book gets a 6.5 (out of 10) on the HRputer book rating scale.

Use the Black Pump, You Dolt!

I had my first mix up with diesel and petrol (gas) yesterday. I put petrol into a diesel van. That's a no-no. Lucky for me, I was still able to drive away from the gas station.

I was on my way back to the rental car agency and needed to just top off the tank. It probably wasn't a good idea to pull into the gas station a 7am, knowing that I needed to have my wits about me to know whether to use the green pump or the black pump. However, I'll maintain that it wasn't my fault. I shouldn't have had to return the rental yesterday. However, the rental car company screwed up my reservation.

I was supposed to have the van for 7 weeks, but the booked for only 4 weeks. So I was returning the van only so I could go across the road and rent a car from their competitors for the remaining 3 weeks. Apparently in Ireland, there's a tax law that states any rental over 28 days is considered a lease. Leases are taxed at a higher rate and the cars have to be specifically classed as "lease" vehicles. So despite the fact that I reserved a van with this company for 7 weeks, they put me in a rental-qualified (not lease-qualified) vehicle. Therefore, I needed to return the van after 4 weeks. Additionally, I couldn't rent another car from them (return one, take out another) because both cars would have to qualify as "lease" vehicles. If either one is a "rental" I was screwed. The only one they had available for me was a "rental," so I was screwed. Thus I reiterate, it was their own damn fault . . . OK, not really. I was half-awake, uncaffeined and perturbed that I had to return the car. Yet, I was still a dumbass.

The funny thing is that I didn't even realize that I had made the mistake until 8 hours later. I slowly remembered over the course of the day that I used petrol, not diesel. My inner monologue went something like this: "Did I use diesel? Yeah, I think I did. But it WAS making some odd noises. Perhaps I didn't use diesel. But I thought that if you used petrol in a diesel car it wouldn't start? Maybe since I just topped off, it was still diesel-ly enough to start and drive, but gas-y enough to cause the odd rattling sounds. Hmmmm . . . I think I used gas."

My next inner monologue was about what to do: "Perhaps they won't notice? But what about the next renters will they have an issue? How much will this cost me? Shit It's gonna cost me, but I need to tell them." So I called them.

Them: "Hello, __________ rental cars."
Me: "Yeah, I returned a car today and . . . . uhhhh . . . I think I filled it with petrol . . . ."
Them: "The ____________"
Me: "Yeah."
Them: "Yes, you filled with petrol. We're draining the tank now."
Me: "Sorry about that."

They seemed pretty cool about it, but being cool about it doesn't translate into "No charge, sir." I figure I owe them at least a tank of gas - even at exhorbinant car rental agency prices.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

A Clash of Kings is the second book in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. You may remember that I raved about the first book of the series: A Game of Thrones. This book was equally well written and the characters still intrigue the reader. However, I found that outside of progressing characters through their story lines, the plot was a little lacking.

As I've pointed out before, I'm not a fan of shifting viewpoints. I was not overly offended by the shifting viewpoints in the previous book, but in this book, it got under my skin. We lost a viewpoint from the previous book, so Martin felt he needed to add another viewpoint to the story - that of Theon Greyjoy. Theon's viewpoint appears to be unneeded, but we'll see what happens in Book 3. He could factor in quite considerably.

I also have a hard time reading chapters about Danaerys Targaryen. Through two books her viewpoint has been present, but her story lies so far removed from the other viewpoints that I struggle with understanding the value of her story. I can tell that eventually she'll have a larger part to play in the main plot, but I'm getting impatient as I've read 1800 pages of this saga and she hasn't.

Jon Snow's story, however, progressed well and culminated to an excellent climax. I am still anxious to start the third book (mostly to find out what happens to Jon Snow and Arya Stark), but I really hope that Martin starts to pull everything together. I felt that this particular book was 1000 pages of bridgework between major occurrences. The feud between the Baratheon brothers just didn't interest me as much because they were minor characters in the previous book.

This book gets an 8 (out of 10) on the HRputer book rating scale, falling a little behind Book 1 (which scored a perfect 10).

Working Like A Dog

Where did that phrase come from? I've rarely seen a dog work (dog sleds and seeing-eye dogs being the exceptions). Mostly, they just eat, sleep and evacuate.

Anyhow, our Project Team Leaders (which I'm a member of) agreed to have on-site Fridays. This doesn't affect me much, but it affects my work team. The on-site Fridays isn't too bad of a concept - it promotes cross-team working and keeps our team members productive on Fridays. The problem that I have with it is the enforcement of a 4pm end time on Fridays.

Though this doesn't affect me (I stay the whole day on Fridays because I'm "local"), it does affect some of my team members. I'm not too concerned about the ones that I suspect are less productive on Fridays. However, I know that I have a few team members that bust their butts when they are off-site and the only flights available to them are at 3:30pm. Their next available flight isn't until 9pm. Getting home at midnight on a Friday isn't a good way to reward your good workers. It's punishing all employees for the sins of the few.

The truth is that on a project of this size, you get plenty of productive people and a few unproductive people. The unproductive people need get their rears in gear or get off the project. Their manager needs to address the issue early and curb the behavior. If they don't, they end up in the situation that we're in now, punishing the whole for the sins of the few.

The last company I worked at put a policy in place that said that all Exempt employees needed to work 50 hour weeks. The reason for this policy was to address issues with a few employees who would show up at 10am, go to lunch at 11am, then leave work at 2pm and go to a Cubs game. All the policy did was piss off the people who were busting their butts. In other words the overachievers were being punished because some managers didn't have the backbone to tell their employees to work a decent working day.

That's what I'd call making your employees work like dogs, except dogs occassionally get a biscuit when they've done a good job. If we're going to ask our employees to work a little harder perhaps we should find a few more biscuits to hand out.

Criticism

I found myself making small talk with a couple of Northern Irish and Germans yesterday amidst the project. What is surprising is that I found myself more critical of the United States than I usually am. Was I providing accurate criticism of my home country from a different viewpoint than them? Or, was I trying to "fit-in" by presenting criticisms that I thought they would agree with? Probably a little of both. My question to myself is: why?

I've found that the general stereotype of Americans (amongst Europeans that I work with) pictures us as ignorant, arrogant, and bullish. That is: we don't know much about the world outside the United States, yet we believe our culture is the greatest in the world, and we try to impose it upon others. I first recognized where this stereotype when I overheard an American wondering about why, when an Irish colleague called in sick, he kept explaining that he had a doctor's certification. The American colleague's response was "What? Is he afraid somebody might think he's faking it?" The truth is, getting a doctor's note is common practice here, regardless of the number of days you're off. Instead of mocking his Irish colleague, he might have been better served to understand the culture before making a joke about it. (Though a good jibe IS part of the culture over here, perhaps that was just a bad attempt at humor).


I've always been one to try to understand people. To do so, I'll often try to build repoire by trying to find something in common with others. When you're standing amongst a group of Northern Irish and Germans, there isn't much that you can find in the way of common ground for people to talk about. Once you get past the weather reports, you have to reach for something. I'd like to think that my mockery of our country's media and of our education system was just a way creating subjects for a diverse crowd of people to talk about.

Being a very talkative folk (another stereotype), the Northern Irish volunteered their own stereotypes (car bombs and civil unrest - yikes!) and the Germans remained silent and granite-faced (yet another stereotype). Though I know the Northern Irish can become just as granite-faced as the Germans and the Germans can be just as talkative as the Northern Irish.

So, I guess that I've answered my question. I was trying to get people to open up and talk. If I was overly critical of my home country, I apologize. I didn't really mean it. I was just trying to find common ground for some Germans and Northern Irish (who had never met) to talk about.

RJ Visits the Castle

Today we took RJ out to see Trim Castle. This castle was featured in the movie Braveheart. You might remember it from the scenes where William Wallace, played by Mel Gibson, gets hung drawn and quartered by the English. What we found was that a 3-story castle presented little room for RJ to (safely) run around. Did I mention that RJ loves to run? He loves to run. He needed his "Freedom!" (the quote is to be read with a bad Mel Gibson Scottish accent).

Since I had been on the tour before, I let Beth continue on the tour and I exited with RJ before we even got off the first level of the castle. RJ had plenty of fun running around the castle grounds. As I have probably mentioned before, RJ likes to run down hills more than he likes to run up hills. Thus we ended up spending most of our time on the river-side of the castle as opposed to the curtain wall side of the castle.


We ended the day with Spaghetti Night in Navan. As you can see, RJ likes spaghetti. He even finds that it's in fashion to wear his spaghetti.

Navan House

We've now been settled into our new abode for about a week and the verdict is in. I've gotten two thumbs up from my wife and a plethora of dolphin chirps from RJ. I did well this time.

As with my last experience securing Irish housing, this one was fraught with many stumbling blocks. Having been through the experience once already though, I was much better prepared to take on the challenge.

Our home-for-a-month has 4 bedrooms, has a garden in back (see picture below), and is well decorated. On top of that, it is actually cheaper than my apartment on the North side of Dublin (I still have to pay rent there, too). However, it is a 30-40 minute drive to work in the morning. I can't complain, though. At home, my commute is one hour each way. I'vegotten spoiled the last few months with my Dublin apartment being a 5-minute walk to work.


So now I get to see my family for 7 weeks straight. What a concept! I love getting home and spending time with Beth and RJ. We put RJ to bed a little later because the sun sets at 10pm. He doesn't like to go to bed when it's still light out (yet he has no problem sleeping-in in the morning).

Mostly, I'm glad that this time I got the dwelling space right. My apartment isn't a good fit for a family of three (or two even). I guess there's hope for me yet.

Outside the Signal

It's been a hectic week getting the family settled in our temporary abode for the next month. We've rented a flat (townhouse in American lingo) about a half hour northwest of Dublin. So far, so good. Beth is much happier with this choice than my choice regarding apartments. Granted, I still have the apartment, too, but use it mostlly as a place to keep my work clothes. I drive in, park the car in my apartment parking space, change into my suit, then walk over to the hotel where I'm working.

Unfortunately, I'm outside of the wireless signals that I'm accustomed to and thus may not have much time over the next month to update. I'll try to keep up to speed by doing 3-4 blogs a week. We bought Beth a wireless internet connection (and local cell phone) on a pay-as-you-go basis and should be able to write the blogs up on my computer, then post them from hers. Or I might write them up at night, then post them from work first thing in the morning. Either way, it's not as easy for me to post as it was before.

This past weekend RJ and I had a Daddy-Son Day and drove up to Kingscourt (County Cavan). I forgot my camera, so you get no pictures. It is a nice little town that has a Nature Preserve nearby. The Nature Preserve is beautiful, but it was not made for strollers and 17-month olds. Lots of hills and rocky paths. I did get some good exercise pushing the stroller up steep grade paths, but RJ didn't get as much exercise as I did. The paths were narrow and careened into a river valley below. I thought it best not to let him run loose. The few places where RJ could get out and run around were still hilly. He's mastered running down hill, but not up hill. So, no matter where I parked the stroller, as he ran we kept getting further away from it.

The Heart of Darkness and Other Stories by Joseph Conrad

Beth and I traveled back to Ireland today with RJ in tow. My brain isn't working quite yet so I doubt that I'll say anything profound about this book that I finished a couple of weeks ago. Joseph Conrad's novella "The Heart of Darkness" was a hard book for me to get through.

I found the frame narrative style quite difficult to read. The point of view is of somebody being told a story to, but the entire novella is essentially in quotes, dictated by the main character, Marlow. Still the story is good. Good enough for Francis Ford Coppola to make it into a film (though the time and location were changed). You might have heard of the movie: Apocalypse Now.

The story deals with a character, Kurtz, who develops a god-complex ruling over local tribesmen in the heart of the dark continent, Congo. In the beginning of the story, Kurtz is held in high esteem by Marlow, but as Marlow uncovers the mysteries surrounding Kurtz, he discovers Kurtz's heart of darkness and the evil that he commits to obtain ivory.

Good story, hard narrative style. I don't know if I need to recommend this book. I'll be checking out Apocalypse Now to see how the story was adapted and perhaps I will recommend the movie to you instead.

As far as my 10,000 pages goal is concerned, I am about 600 pages behind at halfway through the year. So I'm on target to hit about 9,000 pages unless I pick up the pace. The next book I'll be reading is the 1000 page monster sequel to A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, so I expect to catch up quickly.

Four More Paws in Heaven

R.I.P. Montana.

Trips to Ireland for my family have brought sad tidings. Last time they came back to Ireland we had to put Kiowa down. This time we had to put Montana down. Lung Cancer.

This picture is one of my favorite memories of her. I don't remember exactly how she ended up with the underwear stuck in her collar, but I do remember her running around for about 15 minutes trying to get it unstuck.

Many days have come and gone.
Running 'round the fresh cut lawn.
But all we can now is look back
Remember paws go clickity clack
On the tile or hardwood floors.
Knowing those days will be no more.
Because there are four more paws in heaven.

Goodbye Montana, we'll miss you.

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I had the opportunity to read another classic. This one by Herman Hesse. Before I start into my understanding of the book, I will preface it with a quote taken directly from the book: "What is a treasure and wisdom to one man always sounds like utter foolishness to another."

Although this isn't one of the best books that I have ever read, it is one of the most profound books that I have ever read. This is another easy read you can probably go through in a night and the nuggets of wisdom that you will find between the covers is absolutely amazing. To quote just a few:

"Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal."

"Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better."

"If a person has nothing to eat, fasting is the most prudent course. If, for example, Siddhartha had not learned how to fast, to day he would have had to accept some kind of-any kind of-employment, whether with or somewhere else, because hunger would have driven him to it. But as it is Siddhartha can wait calmly, he knows no impatience, he knows no distress, he can let hunger besiege him for a long time and laugh as well. For that reason, Sir, fasting is good."

Throughout the book, you follow Siddhartha on his path to self discovery. Some of the things that he discovers about himself are sad like the realization that people like him cannot love. Love is the blessing of the "child people" as he calls them.

This is a book that I will read again.

The Castles, The Wall and the Angel (Part 2)

After taking the not-so-quiet approach to leaving the Newcastle University dorms, I hopped in the car and headed for Hadrian's Wall. I needed to exit the A1 at A69 going west. Unfortunately, I couldn't, because this bastard shot a police officer at that junction only 6 hours before. I did eventually find a way around and got on the A69, but it's not fun when you're lost and there's a gunman on the loose who was known to be in the area only six hours earlier.

Hadrian's Wall was not what I pictured it would be. Most of the wall has collapsed and where it is standing it is rare for the structure to be over three feet high (having collapsed down to it's base). Yet, it was still impressive, especially when you consider the terrain that it was built on. Though the prevailing rumor is that the Romans built Hadrian's Wall to keep out the wild Scots, that's only partially true. It actually acted as a border control to limit the number of people coming into England from Scotland . . . especially those that didn't have their green cards. ;)

To bring my trip to Newcastle and Northumbria to conclusion, I had to go see the iron icon of the area that is The Angel of the North. This piece of artwork was built by Antony Gormley in 1998. It welcomes all the visitors to the North that drive past it on the A1 . . . or if you live up North it welcomes you home. It is a most impressive structure. The wingspan is the same as that of a jumbo jet. You can see the scale in the picture below (a photographer in the bottom right and a person standing up next to the sculpture).


One more drive past the A1/A69 intersection (which was now open to traffic) and I was back at the airport. After a long week of work, it will be nice to fly home tomorrow and see my wife and son.

Incidentally the picture at the head of the post is the "new castle" that Newcastle Upon Tyne is named for. Not quite as impressive as the others.

The Castles, The Wall and The Angel (Part 1)

If you want to see some freakin' cool castles, go to Northumbria, England. There are other things to see like Hadrian's Wall and The Angel of the North, both worth seeing, but the castles were absolutely phenomenal. Last weekend, I flew over to Newcastle Upon Tyne and had an interesting weekend, which included avoiding a disgruntled convict with a gun.

On Saturday, I did the all-castles-all-the-time tour of Northumbria. The first castle that I saw was on Holy Island, Lindisfarne Castle. Holy Island is an island that you can drive to at low tide. A causeway opens up, just don't get caught trying to drive across when the tide is coming in.

The town was neat and I would have liked to stay a little longer, but I had a tonne (that's the British spelling) of castles to see and only one day to do it! Here is Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island:


Next it was down the coast toTHE most amazing castle that I have seen to date: Bamburgh Castle. This one deserves two pictures.

From the park:
From the beach:


And, although I have many other pictures of castles, I cut it off after this one as it's a good one to end on. This is Alnwick Castle, but you might know by it's other name: Hogwarts. This castle was the featured backdrop for Harry Potter as Hogwarts in three of the six films already released.


After my tour of the castles of Northumbria, I toured the cities of Newcastle Upon Tyne and Tynemouth. There really isn't anything spectacular about the city other than it attracts stag parties and hen parties from all over the United Kingdom and Ireland. For your reference stag party = bachelor party, hen party = bachellorette party.

I found cheap accommodation staying in a dormitory at the University of Newcastle. I'm such an old fart. I was in bed by 10pm. I first woke when the loud and raucous stag parties returned from the pubs (obviously of the same mind for cheap accommodations) at 2:30 am. I next awoke to my alarm and to extract my revenge, being loud (though not raucous) at 6am when I got up to start my Sunday adventures.

To be continued . . .

More Good Music

In my foray over to the landladies' house for tea yesterday, I discovered another good Irish music act. How did I discover it? It was playing on the radio at their house. In fact, it was one the ladies' son: Simon Fagan.

Check out the link here. If you sign up to his mailing list, you can get a free EP.

http://www.simonfagan.net/