Archive for September 11th, 2005
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
I don’t typically dwell on any regrets, but there are a couple that have been nagging at me recently. When I think about regrets, I not talking about those whimsical high school regrets, like I should have asked that girl out, or I should tried out for the school play. Nor am I talking about those would’ve/should’ve’s like I should have bought Google when they IPO’d. I’m talking about decisions I made that have fundamentally affected my family and continue to do so.
I think it is the “continue to do so” aspect that is what is causing me to dwell on these regrets. Typically, when I make a mistake, I first admit that I made a mistake and then try to determine what caused it. Often, I actually made the best decision I could with the information I had, I just needed more or better information. Sometimes it was the case where I should have dug deeper, but it could also have been that I didn’t know that I needed some other information. I learn from these mistakes and move on (no regrets). Some people may wonder how I can just move on. I believe it is my faith in God that allows me to do this so easily. He has forgiven me for my mistakes, so I am be able to forgive myself.
So what are these regrets, well the first is staying in our townhouse for too long. We should have moved to a single family home as soon as we could have, or waited a little longer until we could afford one. Why do I dwell on this, because it continues to come up in the context of where we will send Emi to school. Did we make the best decision we could, well we weren’t sure if we were going to have children, and we really liked our neighborhood. I just don’t think we thought enough about the growth of our family, even if we had weren’t able to have children.
The other regret that nags at me is leaving Adobe. I know that this decision was sound at the time. It was one of the harshest work environments I’ve worked in. I was working 80 hour weeks for nearly 6 months, more hours than I’ve put in at any startup. They were also paying me at about 30% below market. Previously my regret had been that I should have left sooner and tried to go to one of the hot companies at the time like Yahoo or Netscape. Now, I wonder if I should have stayed and just accumulated the stock options and benefits. Once again, this comes up in the context of where we will send Emi to school.
So what do I do about these regrets? Nothing really. I just finished reading Assassin’s Quest and it reminded me about what I should do. Fitz, the main character was given a horrible game situation and he had to figure out how to win the game in one move. At first he moaned and complained about how the game could have gotten to this sorry state, but he finally solved the problem. What I need to do is understand where our family is today, and figure out the best way to get Emi the best education we can.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
I started scanning some pictures from a “biiiiig box,” as Emi would say. Here’s one of Mom and Karen on vacation before I was born.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Well, I my blogging has fallen behind some due to focus on my work and personal projects, but I’m looking to change that. On a positive note, I’ve been exercising 5 days a week for the past 3 weeks now and I feel very good. Great will probably come in another couple of weeks.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
We had a great day at the Giants game this past Sunday. Erin, Emi, and I went to celebrate my birthday. We had tickets in the club area which was great. It did bring back fond and not so fond memories of my gForce days. Noah Lowry was awesome and so was Emi she lasted 7 strong innings (Noah lasted 8 innings) and she did some great cheering yelling, “Go Giants!”
On Monday I watched Matt Cain pitch and I was very impressed. He has a live fastball and great composure for a 20 year-old. I also heard an interview with him on KNBR. Very well spoken and intelligent. Certainly didn’t sound like a typical 20 year-old. The Giants could use a couple more pitchers like him.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
Eric Dauster at the Bayosphere has some pretty good thoughts on Corporate Social Responsibility. He opens with this:
Naturally, everyone would like to see corporations show a greater degree of support for social issues. Since a lot of revenue flows through major corporations it’s easy, for example, to suggest that corporations should demonstrate a higher Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through charitable and philanthropic means.
Which has me ready for a round of corporate bashing. You see, Mr. Dauster would classify me as unnatural. I wouldn’t like to see corporations show a greater degree of support for social issues. What sense does it make for Microsoft to be involved in farm workers rights?
But then he turns things around and hits the nail on the head:
After all, is it reasonable to expect that a corporation can answer to any master other than their bottom line profits? Think about it — how can there be more than one “bottom line”? Even if social good is part and parcel to the core mission of an organization, the bottom line will always be the bottom line, and that bottom line is profits. Executives will choose profit over social good, time and time again. It’s their job.
In most parts of the country, this is obvious, but in the Bay Area, this is revolutionary thinking. A business exists to make … profits! Not change the world, but make profits.
Mr. Dauster goes on to say that the way to make corporation more socially responsible is to have good social responsibility increase the bottom line profitability. He doesn’t give any specific ideas about how to do this, and my opinion is that it may not be possible. However, the important point is to note that thinking about an issue like corporate social responsibility is more productive than feeling that corporations are evil and should be boycotted unless they support your agenda.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
The general affinity of Silicon Valley and Americans of Japanese descent with the Democrat Party has always confused me. This subject came to mind after hearing of the death of Jack Herzig, a lawyer who was instrumental in gaining redress for Japanese-Americans (JA) interned during World War II.
Franklin Roosevelt, the President who interned the JA, is a Democratic icon. The Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the internment. We traditionally have a long memory over honor and those that dis us (Kev, I can throw some slang in too :-), and yet, this hasn’t translated to a distrust of the Supreme Court or Democrats. My guess is that the Vietnam/Watergate Era was key.. The distrust that the JA had for the U.S. Government was embodied by a Republican, Richard Nixon. While Watergate was Nixon’s own doing, JAs seem to forget that John Kennedy, another Democrat icon, and Linden Johnson kicked things off in Vietnam.
Silicon Valley is another story. Most preach a life based on meritocracy and questioning the rules. While I can see how questioning rules would seem counter to Republicans, Democrat policies don’t lend themselves to a meritocracy. My guess again would relate back to the Vietnam/Watergate era for basically the same reasons as JAs in that Republicans are identified with mistrust in the U.S. Government.
These two groups, both of which I belong to, have very fundamental beliefs in self-reliance and personal responsibility which are anathema (that means reviled/shunned, Kev) to Democrats in my mind. If you believe I am wrong, please explain why the Democrats’ answer to any problem is a government program or more government spending. It is my belief that it is the desire to appear like a nice person that drives both of these groups to Democrats, not necessarily a belief in their policies. Who wouldn’t want to be associated with a political party that believes in protecting the environment, caring for the poor and elderly, and educating our children unless of course the method by which they were achieving these goals was to restrict private property rights, take money from working people, and indoctrinate.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
My man Jacob Rosenberg of Formika Films did editing on the film Dust to Glory. It’s about the Baja 1000 (auto race through the desert). Retail DVD’s are a little expensive for me these days, so I’ll be checking for a deal at Fry’s or eBay.
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Sunday, September 11th, 2005
I started following Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger blog because I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate blogging into our various business ideas. Darren has a series entitled Strategic Blogging which shows how a blog is like a business (even non-business blogs) in that the ingredients to a successful blog are similar to those of a successful business. I’ve only gotten through the Mission, Values, and Vision and Goals posts, but I already feel like I have a better grasp on how I want to approach my blogs.
Posted in Micropreneur | No Comments »
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
I’ve been getting settled after my vacation which was nice. The time away from work was good, but it was too long away from home. I’ve got a backlog from my del.icio.us blog_this tag that I’d like to catch up on so they’ll be the subjects of my upcoming posts.
Posted in Micropreneur | No Comments »
Sunday, September 11th, 2005
We’re going to be in Lake Tahoe for vacation. Going to play some golf, read, and likely swim a lot with Emi. I don’t know if the places we’re staying at have internet access, so I might not be posting for a bit if they don’t.
Posted in Father, Husband | No Comments »
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