Author Archives: jdtharp

Making the switch…

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So I made the switch this weekend. The iPhone finally won me over completely (poor battery and all) and I embraced the dark side… or would that be the hippy side of the force. This is not officially an all Apple household. Getting all the files over has been something of your standard issue trauma, but now that most of what I need is set up and running (when I can find it), I’m very pleased with the setup overall. I’ve got a super-speedy laptop that when hooked up to the ridiculously beautiful 24-inch LED monitor produces some of the most amazing graphics I’ve seen in a long while.

The learning curve is a little steep and I’m doing my best to get by using wordpad until I can get a copy of Office and start accessing the vast bulk of my documents again, but otherwise I’m extremely pleased with how it’s working out.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve gone all zen crazy over the experience, but the longer I live with it, the more I suspect I’ll like it. I’ll need some time to really get into the nuts and bolts of the thing and start putting it through its paces, but for the time being, my satisfaction level is high… except, of course, for the ridiculous price tag they put on these things.

Road stand…

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After what seems like weeks, this four day road stand is coming to an end. I’m obviously rusty at this since I’m headed back to Memphis just about wiped out. I’ve probably been spoiled by too many trips where I’m the one setting the agenda. Four days of team cohesion seems to be just about the limit of my endurance these days. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to getting back to a place where I have the only set of keys to my vehicle, where dinner isn’t a lesson in group decision making, and where I don’t need someone to walk me around the building to unlock doors. I miss my little kingdom and look forward to getting back to it.

With less than three weeks back, I’m totally ready for another vacation. Now if there were just something worth doing within driving distance of Memphis. Where is the guy serving rum punch when you need him…

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Eclectic…

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I was loading up some new music for my trip this week and really looked at the “Just for You” box for the first time in quite a while. According to the wiz bang Genius at Apple HQs, my recommendations include: Waylon Jennings, Social Distortion, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Skid Row, Boston, and several selections from H.M.S. Pinafore. How’s that for eclectic taste in music.

For the record, what I actually downloaded was: All-American Rejects, Relient K, Simon & Garfunkel, The Byrds, several tracks from “Punk goes Pop II,” Bob Dylan, and yes, even Britney Spears (Yeah, I’m having a hard time believing I wrote that out loud too). So, I’m expecting my next recommendations from iTunes to be even more interesting.

Off guard…

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I got a call late this afternoon that one of my second cousins had died early this morning. I hadn’t seen him in years, but had fond memories of him from when I was growing up. I asked how old he was and wasn’t surprised to here 59 or 60 as I knew that was the general neighborhood he would have been in. What only dawned on my after the call had ended was that this guy had was *only* 60. Suddenly that doesn’t seem so old. That’s twice my current age and it occurs to me how quickly these first 30 have gone and that the pace only seems to be quickening. It’s a thought that caught me off guard and one that’s likely to fester for a while. I don’t generally ponder mortality, but tonight I think I’ll make an exception.

Godspeed and rest well, cuz. You will be missed.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Beautiful…

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I’m sitting on the back porch enjoying a cold beer, pulling on a Cohiba la Habana, tapping away on the blog, and keeping one eye on the dogs who always seem to always manage to lay squarely on my feet. It’s probably 70 degrees and there are no bugs to speak of this early in the season. I had a reasonably well cooked steak for dinner and interesting conversation with colleagues I respect. Things will look different at 4:30 tomorrow morning, but right now all is right with the world and that is a beautiful thing.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Revelation…

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I don’t generally think of myself as the boss. I’m a good old fashioned action officer. I get tasks, I churn them out, and then I move on. That’s why it came as a bit of a shock to the system this afternoon that while I was sitting in an impromptu meeting this afternoon someone made an offhand comment to the effect of “you’re the boss.” I demurred with a roll of my eyes and a typical “yeah, right.” No, she insisted, “it’s your project, you really are the boss.” There was no burning bush or anything, but it was like one of those Old Testament moments of revelation… At least in my little corner of the universe, I’m not just the guy who’s supposed to get the job done; now I’m supposed to be using other people to get other jobs done too. Honestly I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. I know I can play well with others when I have to, but my strong preference is to be an army of one. So much for personal preference, I suppose.

Havoc

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It’s 11:55 PM. My flight to Memphis has now been delayed three times tonight. The latest schedule is calling for a 11:59 departure. Since the plane we’ll be on hasn’t landed yet, I think that timeline has been pretty well blown. I understand weather delays happen, but after a hundred years of flight, you’d think there would be a better system in place for determining when a flight can reasonably be expected to leave than “it’ll be another 45 minutes”. Then again, I’m not a logistics expert. Oh yeah, I am. Grr.

P.S. The new “scheduled” departure time is 12:45 AM. You can’t see it but I’m rolling my eyes.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Good for what ails you…

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It seems that a few late-winter days in the sun are just what the doctor ordered to pick up the spirits. It’s been a marvelous trip so far and to my own great surprise I haven’t picked up my blackberry or turned on my laptop in the better part of five days now. Of course I know all that work I’ve been avoiding will probably bitchslap me on Tuesday, but at the moment I’m more concerned with the 5-7 inches of snow that are expected to fall in the Charlotte area tomorrow through the day. I’m not particularly enamoured with the ending this particular idyll with delayed flights and snowstorms. Call me crazy.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

A while yet…

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Even if all I did was sit on the beach and read, grab an occasional rum punch, and eat whenever the mood struck me, I’d have a while yet before this vacation got old. Of course that’s not all that’s in the cards. It’s a snorkling trip tomorrow, probably an island tour on Saturday, and then climbing back on a 757 for the ride back to the world. Time hasn’t grown so short that my thoughts have turned brooding just yet, but every sunset is a reminder that an end is coming and that it’s almost time to be an adult again.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Maybe a little too much…

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A little too much sun this afternoon combined with a little too much rum and a sunset cruise this evening have conspired to make this a bit of a rough evening. I definitely think I’m over the rum punch for the rest of the night. Of course if someone twists my arm, I could possibly be convinced to give it one more go. As it is, I’m struggling to get up the steam to wander across the beach for dinner and steel drums at Iggie’s.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]