Liloia.com

Water O' Lantern

Only four more months until our favorite holiday, but we just couldn't wait. Do you think we can start a new American Independence Day tradition?

Quote

"A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila."
-Mitch Ratliffe

The quest for free

Every so often, I get a compulsion to sign up for every catalog freely available. Or enter every contest I can find online. This week, my target is free products. Not free debt analysis, make money at home secrets or a crummy catalog. I don't want to pay shipping for anything. And no free trials or magazines that I'll have to cancel at a later date - I want actual, brand-name usable products. Here's what I found:

Buy one get one free 20 oz. A&W Root Beer

Cappucino Carnation Instant Breakfast

Centrum Energy Bar

Olay Body Wash

Neoteric Diabetic Skin Cream

Nesquick Double Chocolate Milk Powder

Rembrandt Toothpaste

Me and my shadow

I have just learned about an interesting phenonmenon known as Vardogr. It's a spirit entity that arrives ahead of you at destinations. For example, "The Vardogr is sometimes seen. But in other instances it may only be heard or even smelled. The Vardogr's footsteps are heard on the outside staircase, the door is heard to unlock and overshoes are heard being taken off, but when people go to greet their loved one, they are dismayed to discover the place empty. Minutes later, the person then actually arrives."

The Vardogr can precede you by a few minutes or a few months. But what I'd like to know is... can you have your Vardogr do little chores for you so that they're finished when you get there?

I'd like a Vardogr who:

Left the restaurant a few minutes before me and got my car from the valet.

Got home an hour before me and turned on the air conditioning.

Held my place in line overnight for Star Wars tickets.

Went home a few hours early and thawed the chicken for dinner.

The Power of Six Sigma

The Power of Six Sigma by Subir Chowdury

This fictional story takes non-Six Sigma trained individuals through the baby steps of what Six Sigma is and the amazing things that it can do for an organization. While I did not like the forced dialougue which was obviously written by one person trying to hit all the major points of Six Sigma, the message is a strong one. By using Six Sigma, empowering employees to affect change and satisfying the customer, everyone wins.

From Publishers Weekly
"Using a format similar to that in Spenser Johnson's Who Moved My Cheese?, Chowdhury (Management 21C) has created a fictional story that exemplifies the benefits of the business philosophy called Six Sigma. In Chowdhury's rendering, Joe, a middle-aged manager unexpectedly laid off from his position at a fast-food franchise company, is depressed and uncertain about his next move. He calls Larry, an old friend and former co-worker whose career is thriving. Over lunch, Larry explains how he has practiced Six Sigma, both to advance his career and to increase profits for his employer, and he teaches the program's basics to an initially skeptical, then wildly enthusiastic Joe. At the crux of this strategic program, advanced by GE's Jack Welch and instituted at many other major corporations, is a renewed focus on eliminating mistakes, waste and rework. Six Sigma is based on designated teams ("people power") that focus solely on solving a specific problem ("process power"), which may lead to efficiencies that please consumers and, by saving the company money, enhance the bottom line. What distinguishes Six Sigma from other popular quality management techniques, such as Total Quality Management and ISO9000, is that each team has a clear goal; moreover, employees benefit because companies usually tie a financial incentive to a team's goal. While Chowdhury's is not the first book about Six Sigma, what makes his stand out is its engaging and simple approach intended for a broad audience, from the assembly line worker to middle managers and CEOs of smaller companies."

Dog Detectives

From the time Trevor was around 18 months old. He has loved Blues Clues intensely. Of late, he has added another program to his favorites list. This time it is Scooby Doo.

For a few months we took this new interest lightly, thinking perhaps this was a passing phase, but now it is clear that Scooby is here to stay. We have picked up a Scooby lunchbox, Scooby clothes, and a Scooby Doo DVD for those days when we are home sick with him. (Like today)

It was only a few weeks ago that I noticed the similarities between these two shows.

1) The main characters are both Dogs.
2) The dogs can both speak with mumbled voices
3) They both solve mysteries in each episode
4) They are both accompanied by a young male character (Scooby has Shaggy, Blue had Steve and now has his brother Joe)

Interesting. Tara, the comparatist would have a field day with this and could probably write an entire book about the two.

Raisins

Trevor and I are both home from school and work today. I have two ear infections that are making me nutty and he has some kind of chest cold. We are sitting in the bedroom chilling out while he is playing a computer game and eating his lunch.

He has decided that he needs to teach me how raisins are made right now.

"Raisins are made from little tiny red grapes that are grinded up
and they add little ridgeys and then they dry them up."

He also just put raisins inside of his turkey and cheese sandwich. He is so totally my kid.

Tuesday

Here I am, Tuesday morning. I am tired, frustrated, and potentially hostile today. I checked my blood sugar and it is not a diabetic induced rage. (hah.) Turns out that I am just plain annoyed with the way things have gone over the last 12 months or so.

As far as my family is concerned, things are great. Trevor is growing up to be a fascinating and charming young man. Tara is flourishing in her job and is constantly surprising me with how beautiful she is inside and out, as well as constantly keeping me cracking up. There is never a day where I don't smile in her presence.

My frustrations are professional in nature. After a decent run of work over the last few years, I hit a roadblock as LearningBrands.com closed and sent us all home Nov 11th, 2000. I was able to get back on my feet relatively quickly by joining the team at CareScout in Wellesley, MA. While the pay was less than I would have liked and the atmosphere ultimately turned south, the people kept me going. There was a group of individuals whom I worked with there that kept things lively and interesting. Again, on November 11th 2001, I was notified that CareScout would be thinning it's ranks by 75%, and I was to leave at the end of that month.

During the months of December and January I was able to spend a large amount of time with Trevor as he and I stayed home, the unemployed and unschooled masses in the Liloia household. We enjoyed ourselves, but I found that the longer I was home, the more passionate I became to get out there fast and start using my noggin again. At the end of January, I connected with PerkinElmer's Customer Service group.

While I would like to think that based on the experience that I have collected over the last 5 years has moved me to a point past "Customer Service Rep", PerkinElmer was not offering any positions other than this to me. They did not have any openings in "Manager of Really Cool Projects that Let Dave be creative and inspired", which at the time was okay. I needed a job to make sure that food was purchased and bills paid, so I happily accepted the position that I currently hold.

Now I have been here almost six months and as expected, I am bored. I am not being challenged in what I do and I am finding myself to be more and more frustrated with the commonplacent events in a corporate atmosphere. It can only be described as what I have dubbed, "cubicle mentality". This is the attitude that as long as something is not an individuals specific responsibility (i.e. - within the 3.5 walls of the cube around them), then they should make every effort not to just get it done, or do not assist in coming up with a creative (or standard) solution to the problem posed to them.

On top of this, I have taken on a part-time job to supplement my now reduced income at a bookstore at nights. While this job is interesting and offers some great benefits, it is begining to be a bit much. I don't intend to stop working there anytime soon, but the extra hours are starting to wear me out.

Ideally, what I need to do, is to find a position with a company that will see the creative value I can offer to them and will allow me to work on more involved projects. I am very interested in the customer interaction and how it can be streamlined/improved, six sigma, process flows, and quality control in non-manufacturing settings. The obvious step is to work with a company or consulting group that uses/implements Six Sigma or some other related process. Unfortunately, while I am passionate and excited, I do not have specific experience in these areas. Catch 22. Until I can find some outlet for this, I'll just keep plugging along.

The Simpsons

I have been telling people for years that the Simpsons' is a smart show. Now there is proof.

The Simpsons Archive: "'Simpsons' Analysts Show How Math Figures into Episodes"

Monday and Martha

I don't like the rules we put on capitalism. I'd like capitalism to run free, breeding like rabbits in Australia. All this garbage about insider trading is just sour grapes from people who didn't have fast access to important information. Enron wasn't a fiasco, it was darned creative business. And it was all going along very well for a while there. People were making money, people were happy. Isn't that the pinnacle of what we aim for here in America?

In other news, it is probably not a good idea to fly your zeppelin on an extremely windy day like today. I base that assumption on my observation of the Hood blimp being flung turbulently across the sky outside my window. I don't think it's supposed to be on a 45-degree angle.

The Nanny Diaries

The Nanny Diaries with the relish of someone who is about to hear a juicy bit of gossip. I expected to see how the other half (really more like 5%) lives and laugh at their parenting inadequecies. But as I neared the end of The Nanny Diaries, I had a sinking feeling. There was no way this was going to end happily. Not in the 14 pages I had left. The affluent Xes were still treating Nanny like Mammy while alternately neglecting and smothering their child.

Four-year-old Grayer X is a smart, curious, loving ball of energy who lives with a joyless socialite mother and absent seven-figure salaried father. He lives in a world in which SAT scores are a kindergarten concern and children are accessories to be taken on and off like Cartier earrings. And if children are the accessories, nannies are the box that holds them; always at the ready, silently and patiently waiting to whisk their charges out of sight, and disposable.

There were a few chuckle-worthy examples of inept rich moms, like a crackhead showgirl turned society maven who needed her nanny's attention more than her toddler did. But most of the interactions between Nanny and Mrs. X inspired my outrage instead of amusement.

Throughout the book, Nanny complains to her family about the Xes treatment of her and Grayer.Their advice frustratingly echoes my own; leave, tell them off, lay down the law, ask for more money. Nanny calculates at one point that she's earning $3.00/hour at the Xes and I wonder why she doesn't just get up and leave? Even burger-slingers make more than that. But wishy-washy Nanny does nothing, even when she is held responsible for events that are nowhere near her responsibility. Money and status win the day.

In the final chapter, Nanny has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the last word, but she second guesses herself and opts for the moral high road. Mrs. X has been nothing but unreasonable throughout 352 pages; there's no need for Nanny to succumb to the voice of reason just a few short paragraphs from the end.

The Nanny Diaries is an interesting read, but it's little more than a step above a trashy beach novel. Don't expect to be cheered up and don't expect much zing from the halfhearted romantic subplot.

Fascinating but useless

Maybe I shouldn't have told you that it's useless before you tried it. But I sat there waiting for something besides this slick little game to arrive. It doesn't. It was the word "intro" that threw me off. I expected an intro to something. But it's just endless intro. Cute, looping, endless, interactive intro:

http://www.willing-to-try.com/index.html

A case against welcome

The word "welcome" has no place in the online world. If you make your visitors feel welcome by your quality of information, clarity of purpose, and ease of use, then there is no need for an explicit welcome statement.

• You wouldn't waste time and space putting "Welcome to Acme Motors" in a television ad or Yellow Pages listing for your company - no need to do it online.
  
• When someone bookmarks you, your page will alphabetized under "W" and you'll be lost with the other "W's"
  
• Your page will appear as "Welcome to.." in the Windows taskbar, which is not helpful when someone is switching between 4 browser windows that all say "Welcome to.."
  

The same can be said for using the word "homepage" anywhere online. Again, you wouldn't place a classified ad that said Acme Motors Adversisement. We know we're online; you don't have to remind us.

Six Sigma

Over the last few months I have been fascinated with the business philosophy known as "Six Sigma". This powerful fact & data based process was created by Motorola in the mid 1980's as a solution to their quality control and continuous improvement issues that had plagued them for years.
While Motorola came up with this process, it was GE and their charismatic leader Jack Welch who truly made it the powerhouse it is today. Through his ability to champion it within the organization, he was able to transform the then floundering GE into what he has since called a "World Class Organization"

The reason I became interested in this intitially, was because I found out that my company had been using Six Sigma for some time and I thought this would be a great way to get involved. The more I read about it, the more I am fascinated by how powerful it is and the simplicity of the ideas involved. I have read the following two books, and my comments on them follow. I have two more Six Sigma books sitting on my desk here, and I will post my opinions on them as well.

My intention is to ultimately become trained in the use, implementation and values of Six Sigma so that I may participate more fully in the projects my company is involved in.

Making Six Sigma Last by George Eckes
While this book would have been better used after being officially trained in these processes, it was still a fantastic read. Making Six Sigma last focuses it's efforts on two specific areas. First, it emphasizes the importance of affecting change on a cultural level within an organization. The ability to develop a strong following within your team/group/company has an immense impact on the ultimate success or failure or the Six Sigma implementation. The second component is proper analysis and measurement of the Six Sigma process that incorporates both tactials but cultural changes elements as one product. Most of the discussions in the book focus around the following equation.

Q x A = E

Where Q is the nuts and bolts of your program; i.e.-setting up teams, developing processes, hiring consultants, measurement and A represents the "softer" aspects (while equally or more so important) of the process. These "A" components can be; the acceptance/resistance of Six Sigma by the entire organization, the commintment by senior management to the process, proper communication, etc.

I found this book to be very well written and provided plenty of interesting anecdotes. I would have like to have had more technical information and hard facts, but apparently there is another book by the same author that covers this. I'll have to grab that one!

Knowledge Based Management - I would have provided a link to this book, but Amazon doesn't even carry it. That should be the first indicator as to it's quality. KBM (for short) was written, edited and published by a trio of consultants who specialize in Change Management. They also owned the publishing company that put this book to paper, otherwise they would still be peddling their goods elsewhere.
These consultants, while impressed with Six Sigma, argued that it was more complex than needed and by using their principles an organization could make the same savings and reap similar benefits to others using Six Sigma. What they failed to do, however, was to actually ever come out and say exactly what it was they had come up with. This horrendous book was filled with name-tossing anecdotes and poor examples of badly planned out ideas and concepts. Don't waste your time reading it.

Purple Train Ride

Last weekend when we went into Boston to see "They Might Be Giants", Trevor got to ride on (his favorite thing to do) The PURPLE TRAIN. Anyway, this is a picture of him goofing around on the platform as we waited.

DVD Geocaching

I wonder if Netflix checks inside the individual DVD sleeves before reshipping each movie. I was thinking it might be neat to leave a little note inside the DVD for the next person to receive it. Kind of like a DVD chain letter. Or I could leave online clues and people would have to try to guess the right movie and rent it - whoever gets the right copy will find something slipped inside the sleeve. Like DVD geocaching.

Weird Laundry

Have you ever done laundry only to find out that the washing machine or dryer has eaten one of your socks? Subsequent searching in the aforementioned devices will result in disappointment. The socks seem to have disappeared into an alternate universe never to be seen from again.

I have found this alternate universe.

Men, check your briefcases, satchels and other carrying devices. This morning I opened my bag on the train to get out my train pass, only to find one of Tara's socks inside one of the pockets. As Tara's socks and my bag are never in proximity to one another at any point or location in our house the only explanation can be that it was transported from our washing machine directly into my work bag.

Now if I can only find out where the Lindberg baby is.

Geeks lie in wait.

"You've spent a lot of time waiting in line here, how do you explain this to your imaginary girlfriend?"

and more... [video]

Bubbles

I was passed this link from a friend who talked to the inventor of these luminous creations. They are bubbles, just like one would give to a child to play with, except that these glow in black lights and come in an assortment of colors.

TeknoBubbles

I love naptime.

In order to engineer a few minutes of not being pestered to play Hungry Hungry Hippos or watch a particularly funny scene in Toy Story, I handed Trevor our digital camera and said, "Go take some pictures."

The great thing about digital cameras (aside from their ability to bounce) is that your 4-year-old can take 100 pictures of his thumb and they can be gone with a few clicks. No processing cost, no wasted film.

Trevor did considerably better than just thumb pictures - although there were two in there and several pictures of his shirt that I'm not sure were intentional, but you never know, he really likes his shirt.

Have a look at just a small fraction of his photography:
Trevor's Day

Sunday Update

Sitting here on Sunday night, I realized that there were some interesing things to note from this week.

Our car is worse than yours
Once again our car is not running well. Once again Dave and Tara have to play the game where we run around on a Monday off of our schedule just so a mechanic can work on our car, and then tell us that he needs another day to fix it anyhow. Grr. Someday I will get rid of our car and only use a pogo stick to move about the city.

Job, good. Feet, hurt
Today I worked my first 8 hours shift at Barnes & Noble. Although the day was long, it was very satisfying to be able to help so many customers in their quests for good (and some really bad) books. The only downside is that I am not used to standing for 8 hours at a time and my feet are killing me.

Changes to the site
We made a few changes to the layout of links on the left side of the screen this weekend. I found that I was using the links section more often than anything else, so I moved it up and seperated them into "links" and "projects". We are also talking about redesigning the entire site over the next few weeks, so be prepared for a new look and feel.

Sleepy Head

This is a picture of Trevor waking up from his nap today. Isn't he cute?

Making no friends in Boston

A few months ago, my parents gave Trevvie this outfit. Although he looks really cute in these clothes, and my Dad just loves this, I am sure that anyone in the Boston area that sees this will instantly think bad thoughts. Sorry. :)

A Saturday Story

When I was in the 8th grade, my junior high was only a few blocks away from my home. Most of the time, I took the bus like any good, lazy American. But one day I decided it would be really health-conscious, and somehow cool, to ride my new ten-speed to school instead. (It also bought me 15 more minutes of sleep time.)

I got everything together in my bookbag and headed out. I was fine for the first few blocks. I was providing my own transportation, and that felt good. Then a strategic error became my downfall. If I had chosen one route (Blenheim - Pine Book - Pease, for those who still live there), I would have had a clear and wide shoulder to ride on most of the way. But for some reason (the reason has been lost to antiquity), I chose a different road (Blenheim - Madigan - Pease) which took me through an area where the woods went right up to the edge of the road. (The woods are long gone from that area now.)

The bookbag, plus the fact that I was a tiny bit too short for my new bike, put me dangerously off-balance as it was. The lack of shoulder on the road sealed my fate. As I approached a 4-way stop, a shiny sedan pulled up right next to me — not giving me a speck of leeway seeing as I was a preteen on a bike and he was in a 2,000-pound car. As I coasted to a stop, I had to veer into the underbrush to avoid his wheels. And, not surprisingly, the bike pitched to the left and I fell over into the woodsy growth.

The car window goes down and the suited businessman inside leans out. I expect to hear the standard, "Are you okay?" or even an angry, "Watch it!" but instead, this Einstein-mixed-with-Mother-Teresa says, "Huh huh. That was funny." Thanks, Beavis. Move along. Being the goofy, awkward preteen that I was, I mumbled, "Yeah, funny." and righted myself. He drove away and I headed the last block to school with a bloodied leg, arm and ego. I never rode my bike to school again and I still have nightmares about idiotic stockbrokers laughing at me.

Someday, I hope to be present when this man's liver explodes from drinking one too many trendy martinis at client-schmoozing dinners so I, too, can have the pleasure of saying, "Huh huh. That was funny."