Ecclesiastes 9:11 -I again saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift and the battle is not to the warriors, and neither is bread to the wise nor wealth to the discerning nor favor to men of ability; for time and chance overtake them all.

Unfortunately, the race will likely go to the swift in this case. Not much better this morning on the run, 45 minutes instead of 46. Short run ahead on Friday, then nothing until Sunday. We'll see how it pans out. It is quite a handicap for me that the winner will likely be a very skinny individual, where those of us who are built a bit more diesel on the frame will struggle. My opinion is that we need to insert a 1/4 mile section of the race that is more like this (sorry for the poor quality):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-khh-fPAiU

Test Pattern

Just a quick update on race preparation: I ran about 5.5 miles Monday morning. Paced 8 mins, 23 seconds per mile. Not what I'd hoped for, since past race times indicate I should be below 7:30. Even if I am getting older. I'm still optimistic that my time will improve by Sunday. You call them excuses, but I call them mitigating factors:

1. It was 6:00 when I was running. That's right, A.M.
2. The race course is billiard table-flat, while my house is on a steep hill
3. Running alone provides little... motivation to move faster. Herd mentality rules
4. I will be going straight from church services to the race. If God be with me, who can stand against me? Let's call it Stew's Crusade. I may break my ankle for saying that, remains to be seen.

Another 5.5 tomorrow morning.

The Gravity of the Situation

Isaiah 30:14 - Whose collapse is like the smashing of a potter's jar, So ruthlessly shattered That a sherd will not be found among its pieces To take fire from a hearth Or to scoop water from a cistern."

As I promised last post, more free-falling bodies. The above biblical verse perfectly describes the long-overdue demise of our toilet (above), now replaced by a model that's much nicer and less worn. Anyway, I took it to the dump this weekend for disposal, and I was directed to an overlook where, I was giddy to see, I was actually expected to HEAVE this porcelain lump over the railing onto the concrete below. The fall was at least 20 feet. The sound of impact was like every dish or cup you've ever heard break happening all at once, and a satisfying instantaneous separation into hundreds of pieces, none of which could have been pieced back together. Much worse than Humpty Dumpty. The only thing that would have been better was if there were a window frame handy, that I might defenestrate the toilet.

Quick related story: The night my senior mechanical engineering design team turned in our project (meaning we were done with college for all purposes), I was chosen to hurl a ONE GALLON jug of mayonnaise out of an 11th story window from the building pictured below. The explosion and ensuing mayonnaise blast pattern was one of the few sights I've seen cooler than the toilet.

What's the Good Word?

Imagine you're innocently walking by a large building, and you see an angry crowd rushing inward. You hear shouts from indside, and you linger. With no warning, a window on a floor above bursts open, and some unfortunate individual is hurled outward quite involuntarily and then falls to their doom. "WOW!" you think to yourself. "I wish there were a word to describe this fantastic yet horrific event I have just witnessed." My friend, there is such a word: defenestration. The English language has many oddities, and even more treasures. "Defenestration" is one of those treasures. Unsurprisingly, it's root is Latin, and, even less surprisingly, that root is fenestra, translated "window". Naturally.

Upon further consideration, it seems that the English language has a special word for almost any untimely manner of demise. Strangulation, decapitation, drowning, dismemberment, disembowelment... let's move on before anybody loses their appetite.

I think I'll stick with free falling objects for the next post.

Now I Will Wail On My Pec's

Having worked on our bathroom and had other business to attend to, the last 2 months were a low point for my workout routine. Thursday night I got back on the horse and lifted weights, it was a bit of a trial. Sitting behind a desk all day doesn't do much to help maintain physical fitness. Two days later, I am one sore man. To provide incentive towards excellence, I also signed up for the Tarzan Brown run in Mystic, CT.

This whole discussion has reminded me of one of my favorite photos of my daughter raiding the "gym" in our house over a year back. It always makes me consider the monkey see, monkey do relationship that our children have with us. Besides lifting weights, I always have to consider what I am teaching her to do.

Just Say 'No'

I promise that my next few posts will have nothing to do with work. This one is only partially work-related.

I have long held the belief that if you are in a position of authority (or parity) with somebody who makes a request, your default answer should be "no". Why? Because it's easier in most cases to rescind a "no" later than to renege on a "yes". This is holding up fantastically well with my young daughter. Once the Y and E escape your mouth, the deal is sealed before you reach the S, and there is no going back. Did I say she could have juice, when mother only wanted her to have water? We're in for a fight if we try to change it. It has become evident that a toddler who feels they are being cheated out of something they have been promised, even if the promise was improper, is a force of nature. Tidal waves, tornados, even the elliptical motion of the moon would be easier to challenge than a young child that "knows" they are right. I explain this only to buttress my point.

My thinking on this has been challenged lately at work where we've asked the government to say "yes" to something when they were under no obligation to do so. When the "no" came back, was I entitled to be as upset as I was? I think so. As I said above, the default answer ought to be "no". However, when somebody presents a well thought-out argument supporting their request, it is incumbent upon the authority to do the right thing, not the easy thing. A well (or even poorly) trained monkey could stamp DISAPPROVED on anything put in front of them. Maybe the doing the right thing means asking a few questions back to get more information, or seeking those answers elsewhere before responding.

As I've thought through this, it has forced me to consider how God works in our own lives. We have unlimited wants for different stuff, much of which is really not good for us. Presumably we pray only for things we figure we need and are important. How many times is the answer "no"? Is this because God's default is "no"? He's not saying "no" because of a lack of information, or out of a power trip, so why, then? I can only conclude it's because he has a Will (sovereign desire, not short for William) and all the information he needs already (no need for him to seek answers) to know what is best for us. When we ask for that, it will come abundantly. I need to model my own responses in that fashion. I need to consider, first and foremost, the needs of the person asking, and whether the request is good for everybody involved. No consideration of pride or selfishness should drive the decision making. If I don't have all the information I need to make a wise decision, I need to get it myself or ask additional questions, not play the trained monkey with a DISAPPROVED stamp. This is especially true in my own family, where I've got some sweet ladies who rely on me for a great deal. My answers, if improperly given, can crush their spirits. If I try to answer like God would, I'll get a wise answer to my daughter the first time, no reneging.

Aggressive Day at Work

Recently, my group put in a report and the Navy was all like DISAPPROVED. I'm all like, "you just did this to me":

So I fire back 3 pages of single-spaced typed disposition saying "a trained monkey can do your job when you just stamp everything 'DISAPPROVED' without even thinking about whether it's really a problem, or HOW MUCH YOU ARE CHARGING THE TAXPAYERS, of whom I am one. My 3 page response is best summarized below:

The Government comes back at me all "BLAH BLAH BLAH and STUFF and we are scared of independent thought and change frightens us and upsets our delicate constitutions. Furthermore, we could not care less about the noble taxpayer and would like to invoke as much pain as possible on you and your cohorts while minimizing the inconvenience to our lazy rear ends." That's actually a direct quote, can you believe it? OK, that's a bit of a stretch. So, after doing some homework, I found a way to prove that their lack of effort and diligence was actually going to cause them to do about 10 times the amount of work they expected, which just proved that we were right all along. If an artistic genius summarized my battle with the Government of this issue in a painting, it would like this:

In case you were wondering, I'm the one still standing.

I'm The Boss

I have spent just over 6 years in the field of mechanical engineering with a major defense contractor. During that time I have learned many lessons regarding how to think critically and how to conduct myself. In other words, knowing what questions to ask and when to ask (or more often, NOT ask) them. This process essentially was figuring out how to manage myself. Coming out of college in 2001, I had the intellect and moxie to do any task that an employer would ever ask, but my act was not... together. Over time, I was managing my own little corner of the military-industrial complex with reasonable skill (trivia: Eisenhower originally wrote his speech decrying the military-industrial-congressional complex, but that's a whole separate blog entry). Eventually, I started making independent decisions and, occasionally, making decisions for other people. This didn't mean any particular authority had been specifically conferred on me. People would meet to discuss something, and for whatever reason no supervisor or other responsible adult was present, and some issue would cause deadlock. Eyes would stare at the ceiling, sometimes people would argue, but it equated to the same thing: nobody can make a decision. So I would. There is no problem with an ongoing debate over a complex or monumental problem, but simple fear of being responsible for making the call disgusts me. My own internal statistics and polling bureau has reviewed my decision-making prowess and found that I made the right decision about 50% of the time. Another stunning fact the bureau unearthed: I NEVER was punished for making a bad decision. I had to fix a few things, but in no way has my reputation or potential for advancement been damaged. Remarkable.

This leads me to last week. My supervisor took a week of vacation. Not normally a problem. However, my group's experience level is so low that I am one of only two engineers in our group with over 3 years of experience. That means I got tagged with filling in for him, along with carrying my normal workload. THAT made for a rough week. Our toilet was leaking, as well, but that can be discussed another time. Anyway, the inevitable late Friday problems popped up right before the Boss Man left, which meant that I would have that waiting for me the next week. I was in working on a report on Sunday, trying desperately to finish some of my own individual tasks before the flood arrived, then worked 12 hours Monday dealing with the craziness. And you know what? Things worked out just fine. I credit the support of my wife, who knew that it would be a tough week for me and was very understanding. It left me convinced that I am really not enthusiastic about being a supervisor. At least where I work, it requires the mental agility to hop from one topic to the next, which are often on completely unrelated systems. Couple that with the inability of inexperienced workers (no knock on them, just a fact) to work independently and make decisions (see above), and it makes for a draining day. I can only conclude that I would prefer to remain in a strictly technical role, where I can immerse myself deeply in a single problem, or more realistically a set of related problems, and work them out.