Spring 2014 April 16 Wednesday

35 degrees this morning..... all time low is 30 degrees in 1950!  I went ahead and did my exercises routine, not too bad.  Sunny day this morning.

Working on "iMovie" on the Mac, have another instruction period at the Apple Store today.  While I  rarely watch videos, I think I need to learn how to compose smoother and better quality videos. It is amazing what you  can do with just the basic "iMovie" structure.  (Notice, I said "you" not "I", at least yet.  I actually got pretty good with Keynote (Apple's PowerPoint) and enjoyed doing it, but there wasn't a lot of demand for slide presentations!  I do use it for business and sometimes just for fun for myself.  It is like a lot of things, the more you learn the more you know you don't know.

I have probably mentioned this before, but the app "WeChat" is truly amazing. The main restriction (like Apple messaging and FaceTime) is the other person needs the program, but the app is available for any cellphone platform.  You can message, call, walkie talkie, video etc.  I am still learning it.  So many apps promise a lot more than they deliver (or there is really no purpose to the app, or other apps or programs simply do it better), it is always fun to find an app that delivers and actually has a purpose.  

Tax day is past.  Computer programs have really saved time on taxes . Plus the fact that Aliene is so will organized, I spend very little time on fling taxes.  I always enjoyed preparing tax returns, and the computer takes away a lot of the paid.(still don't help on the pain of paying the taxes!)

The Tennessee City Managers Association (TCMA) is having a session on "Lincoln's Leadership Lessons" at its Spring Conference.  I am looking forward to these sessions.  The Conferences have become a lot more informative and valuable since the current Executive Director (a retired City Manager) took over.  

It is so nice to look out my back window and see the "forest" greening up again.  It seems like forever since they were last green.  This has truly been the "Winter of our Discontent" and a long, hard winter, both in actuality and in spirit.  Spring is coming!

That's it for now.

Spring 2014 April 14 Monday

61 degrees this morning, light rain (probably after heavy rain last week).

Listening to my Chinese language tape, I am somewhat surprised to learn that in the Chinese language, America means "beautiful land".  No reason I was surprised, I just was.  May mean that America was discovered by Chinese explorers!  Actually the basic simple spoken Chinese language (with the tones, which of course is something I will never learn) is fairly simple.  Of course, remembering what to say at the right time is more difficult!

This morning I read an article with the term "Grey Ceiling", to represent ageism in hiring and other personnel actions.  Four months ago, I wouldn't have believed it, or at least not understood the full prevalance of it.  Not me as such, but horror stories I have heard.

Speaking of criminals, I always get angry when I read about a group or individual that own the majority shares of a  business company (usually a "hedge fund"), who borrows a lot of money to issue a "special dividend" to themselves (I have seen as high as 3 billion dollars!), they then "spin off" the company to unsuspecting shareholders and the company is unable to operate under the debt load (which unjustly enriched the previous owners) and declares bankruptcy.  I guess in addition to wondering why these criminals aren't in jail, why do the banks (or whomever) loan the money in such a scheme?  I assume it is greed, the loan is probably high interest and they think "this time" the loan will be good.  How is this any different than looting a company of it's cash and leaving town? I get angry than realize I can't do anything about it (other than avoid their stocks) and don't worry about it.  However, I can state my opinion.  Lands End is the latest of these capers and I just read about it.  Probably the less I say about my feelings about this the better since I am sure they are well covered by contributions to lawmakers.

I discovered an app "WeChat"  (actually the person who we are consulting about our China trip told us about it, apparently it originated in China.  We will be able to make phone calls on it on wifi without using the very expensive international minutes. I have used it a little and it works well.  "Whatsapp" is another one.  (I think that was the one purchased by Facebook, so who knows what might happen with that).  Of course, the other party needs to have it also and I haven't been able to get on my iPad.

I'm debating bringing a camera with me.  The iPhone camera (or iPad camera) works so well, but it does have some limits.

Probably a rainy day today.  Made my first "Memorial" pictures of some hats that I am going to give/throw away (so I remember the event).  Trying to decide how to proceed after this, as far as where to post.  I really like this idea.

Making up some business cards in both English and Chinese for my trip, and for use afterwards.  I always have fun working on a project like this and probably spend a lot more time than I should on it.

That's it for now.