What I Did On My Winter Vacation

I have a big, three-month long project starting soon at work, so I thought I'd take some time off before things get busy. So, I took a couple of days and went to Vermont. 

It was snowing when I left my house, and snowed all the way up  my route to my first stop, the ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center/Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, located in Burlington's Waterfront.  The ECHO, which is part of the University of Vermont System, is named for Vermont's former senator, Patrick Leahy, and his wife Marcelle. Its mission and focus is the ecology and conservation of Lake Champlain.

The ECHO Center, Burlington, VT

The Center has over 100 exhibits and animals on display. It is a great place for kids and families to learn about the area, and ecology in general. As one who grew up in the 80's, one favorite interactive of mine is called "Rain Barrow". In this arcade style video game, found tucked in a corner, the player has to fill and empty a rain barrow, gaining points for every drop caught. It was fun. 

I also learned about "Champ", Lake Champlain's answer to the Loch Ness Monster. I don't know if Champ really exists, but it sure is fun to think about. 

The Champ display, ECHO Center

The weather wasn't that great that day, but normally you could see all the way across the lake to New York's Adirondack Mountains. The ferry to Plattsburg, NY isn't far away. 

At the end of the day, I left Burlington and headed back down I-89 to Waterbury, my base for the next few days. Staying at the Best Western Plus Waterbury-Stowe, I was in a perfect position to check out other points of interest. 

The view from the top of Blush Hill, Waterbury, VT. My hotel was at the bottom of the hill. 

After grabbing some dinner, and going for a swim in the excellent indoor, heated pool, I settled in for the night. 

The next morning, the weather was cold (as expected, it is winter in the mountains of Vermont, after all.) But it wasn't snowing. After taking complete advantage of the free breakfast, I read for a while, then headed off for my Ben and Jerry's tour. 

Ben and Jerry's Factory, Waterbury, VT

View of Ben and Jerry's from the parking lot. 

This half hour tour gives you a peek at operations at the ice cream maker. First there is a video explaining the history of the company (which is now owned by Unilever, but due to an unusual deal, Ben and Jerry's is able to keep its autonomy.) Next, the company tour---we see the inner workings of how the ice cream is made. This day, they were making Chocolate Brownie flavor. The brownies come from a bakery in New York. Finally, we eat! Free samples of the flavor of the day. 

Unfortunately,  I wasn't able to get to the Flavor Graveyard as it was snowed in at the top of a hill, but I'll be back!

After the tour I head off down the street to the Cabot Annex Store (when you go to Vermont, you have to get some Cabot cheese.) 

My final stop was the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, where you can watch apple cider being made right on the premises. I had lunch at Cold Hollow's Apple Core Lunchenette. The food is excellent there. 

While you're at Cold Hollow, be sure to pick up some freshly made cinnamon donuts,  and of course, some cider. 

Since this was not meant to be a ski trip, and I had seen everything I was planning on, after lunch I returned to the hotel and hung out at the pool the rest of the day. 

The next morning, another big breakfast, and hit the road back home. It was a great trip, which I will be making again--in summer. 

Racehorse Names

As I've written previously, with the exception of very specific events, I'm not that much into sports. One thing I do enjoy is the "Triple Crown" of horse racing: The Preakness Stakes, The Belmont Stakes, and, the most famous and popular American horse race of all--The Kentucky Derby.

I usually pick my horse by whatever name I like most. And how do they get their names?

There are actually a lot of rules and regulations for the naming of thoroughbred horses. First, the name must be registered by February of the horse's second year. There are many others, including these banned names:

•  Names consisting of more than 18 letters (spaces and punctuation marks count as letters);
•  Names consisting entirely of initials such as C.O.D., F.O.B., etc.;
•  Names ending in "filly," "colt," "stud," "mare," "stallion," or any similar horse-related term;
•  Names consisting entirely of numbers. Numbers above thirty may be used if they are spelled out;
•  Names ending with a numerical designation such as "2nd" or "3rd," whether or not such a designation is spelled out;
•  Names of living persons unless written permission to use their name is on file with The Jockey Club; Names of persons no longer living unless approval is granted by The Jockey Club based upon a satisfactory written explanation submitted to the Registrar

This last rule is what made it possible to have a horse named after actor Tony Danza at the 2014 Kentucky Derby. 

So, here are some horse names I've come up with. 

Inocentbystander

Friendly Fire

Dr. Doc Doctor

Ms. Smith Go To KY

Lazer Sharp Mind

High Momm

Back at the Ranch

Garfield's Lazagna

French Kiss

And of course.....

Soon B Glue

The last triple crown winner----the last time one horse won all three races----was Affirmed in 1978. That makes 36 years. Will it happen in 2015? It sure would be exciting!

Invented In New Hampshire

New Hampshire is my home state, the state with the first Presidential primary, and the "Live Free Or Die State".

It is also the state where these 10 inventions were first created.

1. Paper Towels
     
         Inventor: William E Corbin
         Year of Patent: 1920
         Place: Gorham

The story goes that when Corbin became general manager, in 1904, of the Brown Co's Gorham Cascade Mill, he got the idea because he was tired of wiping his hands on the then old-fashioned rolling cloth towel. "It was always sticky and greasy," he said.

His paper towels were made of Kraft paper, the same paper that today's paper grocery store bags are made of.

2. The Knitting Machine

      Inventor: Herrick, Walter, and Jonas Aiken
      Year: 1836
      Place: Franklin

Herrick and his sons were inventors as a family business. Their original machine could knit the tube of a sock, from knee to ankle.

3. The Sewing Machine

     Inventor: Elias Howe, Jr.
     Year: 1843
     Place: Nashua

It all started with an overheard conversation. After his first design didn't go over that well, Howe's second design was a big hit. For one thing, it had a needle with an eye at the point--an idea that came to Howe in a dream: an evil king threatened him with execution if he didn't complete his work within 24 hrs.

4. The Apple Parer

     Inventor: David Harvey Godell
     Year of Patent: 1863
     Place: Antrim

Goddell was a former New Hampshire Governor (1889-1891) who grew up on a farm. He invented the apple parer while working at the Antrim Shovel Co; at the height of its initial popularity, 24,000 units were sold in three weeks.

5. Tupperware

     Inventor: Earl Tupper
     Year: 1946
     Place: Berlin

The ubiquitous kitchen storage containers came after Tupper worked at the DuPont Chemical Company where he designed unbreakable and light masks and containers used during World War II.

Today, a Tupperware Party happens every 1.4 seconds.

6. The Alarm Clock

    Inventor: Levi Hutchins
    Year: 1787
     Place: Concord

Although it was never patented, and it was developed for his own personal use, Hutchins is still considered the inventor of this convenient yet somewhat annoying device. At least in the US, anyway.

7. The Spork

     Inventor: George Laramy
     Year: 1907
     Place: Enfield

This much maligned member of the silverware family did not have a name when the patent was accepted--the word "spork" didn't come about until 1909. However, the reason for its invention was so that the combined knife, spoon, and fork could be "adapted for use by persons with one arm," according to the patent application.

8. The Segway

     Inventor: Dean Kamen
     Year: 2001
     Place: Manchester and Bedford

In popular culture, the Segway is most famous its appearances in the movie Mall Cop, and the video for Weird Al Yankovic's "White and Nerdy." The two-wheeled, self balancing, electric transport is now used in tours, college campuses, and other tourist destinations.

9.  The Measuring Tape

     Inventor: Hiram Augustus Ferrand Jr.
     Year: 1922
     Place: Berlin

The measuring tape started life as the Rapid Rule, but it was very similar to what we have today. Commander Admiral Byrd even had one on his expedition to the South Pole.

10.  The Artificial Leg

       Inventor: Benjamin Franklin Palmer
       Year: 1846
       Place: Meredith

About 5 miles away from the Weirs Beach area of Lake Winnepasaukee,  Meredith is the center of activity in the Lakes Region.

Palmer's wood artificial leg was intended to weigh less than 3 1/2 pounds for the full leg, or less than 2 pounds for below the knee. He also created articulated joints in order to mimic the natural motion of a leg.


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Source material for this post is the article "In Praise Of The Spork And 14 Other Inventions" published in the Oct. 9-15 edition of The Hippo.

Where Was "Scrubs" Set?

Thanks to the magic of Netflix, I recently rediscovered one of my favorite sitcoms of the early 2000's. Scrubs, an early multi-camera half-hour comedy, told the story of the medical staff, patients, and others working at Sacred Heart Teaching Hospital. This is a new classic sitcom, with its unique mix of physical comedy, verbal wordplay (I wish the book of Dr. Cox's rants that JD gave him at the end of season 8 was a real book, I bet it would be a great read), and the best ever musical episode of a non-musical show. It's sure to make audiences laugh for years to come.


Unanswered Questions

By the end of its nine season run--if we include the last, when the show was renamed Scrubs: Med School--we learn almost everything about the people of Sacred Heart, including the name of its university (Winslow University). But with all we know,  three unanswered questions remain:

1. Where is the show set (city/state)?
2. What is Janitor's real name?
3. Why does Dr. Cox have such unrelenting hatred of Hugh Jackman?

While these are all important questions, today we are most interested in the first one. There are occasionally shots of licence plates, the state is never shown.


What The Production Says, and the "Seattle Theory"

The actual production of the show was at the decommissioned North Hollywood Medical Center, located at 12629 Riverside Drive, which was a real hospital from 1952-1998 (the site is now the location of an apartment complex.)

The cast and crew has famously said that the show was set in San DiFrangeles, California, encompassing the area triangulated by San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. This is interesting, but that is an awfully big area of California.

My personal theory, until my Netflix review of the show, was that it was set in Seattle, Washington. I had no real evidence of this. It was a really strong gut feeling. A feeling that was blown out of the water by the season six episode "My Road to Nowhere", in which the gang took a trip to Tacoma, Washington, which is only about 40 minutes outside of Seattle. On the show the trip took all day, so Seattle is out.


A Few Assumptions And Other Ideas

Seattle may be out of the running, but the San Diego area, thanks to Sea World, may still be a viable candidate. Elliot's on-and-off boyfriend is a trainer at Sea World San Diego, and she often takes the train there for the day or to stay overnight.

Detroit may also be a possibility due to the fact that when JD returns to work after his father's funeral, Dr Cox gives him a Red Wings jersey. But I feel that is less about location, and more that Dr. Cox is a Red Wings fan.

Before we go any further, let's consider a few assumptions:

1. The road trip mentioned above started from the hospital in the morning after sunrise, but they arrived in Tacoma before dark. There is no evidence from action or dialog that they traveled over night, so it is assumed that the outgoing trip (to Tacoma) happened in one day and they were on the road no more than 12 hours.
2. The overall average speed limit for the trip is 70 miles per hour. Let's assume that with traffic and rest stops the actual average speed they traveled is 65 mph.
3. This means that the maximum one-way distance traveled is 750 miles.
4. Finally, let's assume that the show was set in a major metropolitan area of California.


Now We're Almost There....

We can now picture a to-scale circle on a map, representing 750 miles, with Tacoma at its midpoint.

Using Assumption #3, we finally have to eliminate San Diego because it is over 1000 miles from Tacoma. We also must, based on Assumption #4, eliminate all of Washington State, Oregon, Canada, and of course the Pacific Ocean.

At the limits, however, we still have the Sacramento and San Francisco areas.

Conclusion (AKA "The Winner Is...")


Based on the above, I have determined that the location of the show is in a suburb of  California's capital Sacramento. Not only is this the only Californian metropolitan area that fits all assumptions, we have the additional fact that in all driving scenes over 9 seasons, there was very little driving up or down hills.

Movie Review: Mitt

When I started this blog, I promised myself that I would  purposely keep it non-political; there’s enough of that in plenty of other places.  With this writing, I will endeavor to keep that promise and simply do a movie review.  

With that said, Mitt isn't about politics. It’s about a family man, Mitt Romney, trying to successfully complete the most time-intensive, expensive, and grueling job interview in the country.

In this fly-on-the-wall documentary,  produced by One Potato Productions for Netflix, director  Greg Whiteley  gives us an inside look at the family life of a presidential candidate. We on the outside see only the glamour---the lights, cameras, and private planes. But behind all that is a long running string of take-out food, hotel rooms, and sleeping in buses.

The film follows Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who first came to national prominence after taking over leadership of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, on both of his presidential campaigns. We also meet his wife Anne, sons, and daughters-in-law. Various campaign workers and others make cameos.

Family means everything to the Romneys. The entire clan is in on almost every decision from deciding to run through writing concession speeches.  Mitt owes it all to his father, George. While looking over Romney's notes for the first debate with President Obama, eldest son Tagg asks why he writes 'Dad' at the top of the page. "It's to remind me of my father, " Mitt answers. "Where I came from. Dad grew up poor but worked up to own a car company and then governor [of Michigan].  I have to remember that."

Whiteley does very little interviewing, he just lets the raw footage speak for itself. One interview, however, results in one of several comedic moments in the film.  During a South Carolina campaign stop in 2008, the hotel desk clerk is asked if they knew which candidate was staying in their hotel. He and a co-worker look through the records and eventually figure out it’s Romney. “I never heard of him,” he says.

Another funny scene takes place the night of  the  2012 Correspondent's Dinner, the annual tuxedo-and-ball gown Washington tradition where all the politicians and other Washington elite gather to make fun of themselves and the press. First, Romney tries to iron his tuxedo shirt cuff----while he's wearing it. Then, at dinner, he gets a big laugh: "You wear many outfits on the campaign trail, " he says. "Maybe jeans in the morning, a suit in the afternoon. But it's nice that Anne and I get a chance tonight to wear what we wear around the house."

After the good times of the dinner, we cut to Election Night 2012. Things are looking good, but then they look bad. Mitt and family watch as one state after the next is called for the president. And so it goes late into the night. Romney is getting nervous.

Although the West Coast polls are still open, they realize that statistically, it all comes down to Ohio. A few minutes later, the news comes in......Ohio is lost. The family is both relieved and disappointed--relieved that it's over; disappointed that Dad lost....again.

After writing the concession speech, there's only one decision left to make:  What to do about the Secret Service. It is decided that they will drive Mitt and Anne home, and that's it. "I wouldn't feel comfortable with them doing any more after that." Mitt says.  And so the film ends. Anne and Mitt carry their own bags into the house, and Mitt goes into the living room, a man alone with the rest of his life ahead of him.

The film won't change any minds on the politics of Romney, you either love him or hate him. But it is a very well done documentary.  It is an unprecedented look at what life is like on the campaign trail through the eyes of not just the candidate, but his family.  It's a very select group that gets to have such an experience, and thanks to  Whiteley and his crew, we get to experience it too.

Reebok has one. So does BMW. And You and I do too.

So, what exactly do you, me, Reebok, BMW, and all other organizations have in common? We all have a brand.

That's right. A brand. As Tom Peters wrote in his article "The Brand Called You" for the August/September 1997 issue of Fast Company magazine, "We are the CEO's of our own companies: Me, Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You."

This concept of a personal brand is new to me. I've only recently heard about it in a session on branding as part of the Career Enhancement Program (CEP) that I'm taking part in this summer at work. To be honest, I don't fully understand it.

As we discussed it in class, this is not unusual for people of my MBTI type (click here for more on this). We have to really be sold on the idea. For us, we should just be able to be the best employee we can be, do the best work we can do, and the rest should just take care of itself.

But I'll try.


Part I: What is a personal brand? Where does it come from?

Simply put, your personal brand is your organizational reputation. It is the match between what you would say about yourself, and what others would say about you. It's what comes to mind when your name comes up.

Your personal brand is the combined information from a variety of sources:

• Stories people tell about you and that you tell about yourself. 
• Beliefs that people have about you. For instance, if you keep a sloppy workspace, people may believe you do sloppy, haphazard work.
• Indirect exposure, i.e. if a third party asks your boss about you, they have indirect exposure to you. 
• Direct exposure, you with a co-worker. 
• Perceptions such as what people think about your personal appearance. 
• Personal experience--what people know about you outside of work. 
• Professional experience--what people know about your career and plans for the future. 

For a brand to be effective, it has to be powerful. It has to show how you are different from the others. Also, it has to be relevant. If you won "Employee of The Year" 10 years ago, but nothing since...well, who cares? It really comes down to: what have you done lately?

Part II: The Recurring Elements of a Brand

There are 5 elements of a brand:

Personality

• Your personal style and energy
• Others' emotional responses to you as a person
• Perceptions and beliefs about you

Product

• YOU are the product--not just your role
• Total sum of your skills, experience, education, potential, knowledge, etc
• Features vs Benefits--as an example from the Peters article, a feature could be that you anticipate and solve  problems before they become crises. The benefit is the client saves money and headaches just by you being on the team. 

Wrapping

The things that "wrap" your product, such as appearance, word choice, meetings, reports, e-mails, etc. 

Marketing

• The strategic and proactive actions you take and behaviors you use to build and maintain your desired brand and reputation.
• It comes down to this: "It's not just what you know, it's who knows you know it."

"I Inc" Mentality

• Don't wait to be invited.
• Want to be the best. 
• Be accountable.

Part III: Assessing and Developing your own brand

In the few days since taking the class, I have made some progress in this part of the process. But sitting there at the table in group, I really struggled. 

Initiation

First, clarify the desired outcomes of your project. In this case, develop my personal brand. Start by asking yourself: how am I known? How do others experience  me? Do I have a following--an appetite for what I offer? 

Next, determine who will be involved in the project. Who is the Marketplace for "I, Inc"? Start with the answers for the third question above. 

Planning

Create your plan and determine a timeline----what steps do you have to take to complete the project? Define each step, decide who needs to be involved, and set a deadline for completion. I'm still working on this part. My coach, leader, and program cohort will help me with this. 

Execution/Monitoring/Controlling

Put your plan into action, manage changes, gather input and feedback, and work to complete the tasks required to achieve your goal.


As I said before, I've been struggling with this idea. But I'm starting to come around--even just writing this post has helped. By the end of the summer, I'll have it. 

**In addition to the Peters article mentioned, material for this post came from the "Enhancing Your Brand" Participant Guide put together by the Talent Management team of the BCBSMA HR department**

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

About a month ago, I applied and was accepted into a program at work called the Career Enhancement Program (CEP). Included in the program are various excersizes and group meetings meant to teach you not just about the company, but also about yourself. In the end, you should be armed to take your career to the next step.

One of the requirements is to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Commonly known as a "personality test", the MBTI surveys how you would react to and feel about various situations.

Based on the work of Carl Jung and created by mother-daughter team Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers during WWII, the team first published the full MBTI in 1962.

The Types

Isabel Myers developed four pairs of  "preferences". Everyone has all eight prefrences within them that they use according to the situation, but within each pair, you will skew towards one or the other.

The pairs are:

Where you focus attention:
Extraversion (easily relate to the outer world of people and things)
Introversion  (easily relate to the inner world of ideas and impressions)

The way you take in information:
Sensing (interested in what the five senses show, what exists in the present)
Intuition (use imagination to see new possibliities and insights, focus on the future)

The way you make decisions:
Thinking (base decisions on objective analysis and logic)
Feeling   (base decisions on values and people-centered concerns)

How you deal with the outer world:
Judging  (like to have things decided, life is planned and orderly)
Perciving  (don't want to miss anything, life is spontanious and flexable)

Once your questionaire is analized, to find your type, just take the first letter of your preference from each pair. There are 16 different types.


My results

How did I come out? My type is ISTJ--Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging. Remember--these are prefrences--we all have all eight within us, and we switch depending on the situation.


What this means

Like all things, all 16 types have benefits and negatives.

A few of the  benefits for my type:

• Strong sense of responsability and great loyalty to family, organizations, relationships
• Work with steady energy to fulfill commitments
• Go to any trouble to complete something seen as neccessary, but balk at doing anything that doesn't make sense
• Perfer to work alone and have accountablility but will work in teams when needed and when roles are clearly defined
• Have a profound recpect for facts
• Practical, sensible, realistic, sysematic
• Clear and steadfast in opinions
• Believe standard procedures exist because they work. Support change only when facts demonstrate it will bring better results. 

And a few negatives:

• If not developed in Thinking--may not have reliable ways of dealing with the world and instead may be preoccupied with thier internal memories
• If not developed in Sensing--may rush into premature judgements and actions without considering new information
• Generally don't share their wealth of Sensing observations and memories except with close friends
• Others see ISTJ's standards and judgements, but may not see the individual, sometimes humorous, private reactions

I think this is generally pretty accurate. It certainly sounds familiar.