This is beautiful advice that I got once from Jon Snoddy, my hero at Disney Imagineering.  I just was so taken with the way he put it.  “If you wait long enough,” he said, “people will surprise and impress you.”

As he saw things: When you’re frustrated with people, when they’ve made you angry, it just may be because you haven’t given them enough time.

Jon warned me that sometimes this took great patience–even years.  “But in the end,” he said, “people will show you their good side.  Almost everybody has a good side.  Just keep waiting.  It will come out.”

Ever since I’ve heard this from Randy’s actual lecture (below), this quote has stuck in my mind.  And come to think of it, I think it’s been mostly true.  People that I interact with usually impress me eventually.  I guess the times when I haven’t been impressed, I haven’t waited long enough.

Treat a person the same today as if you would any other day.  Don’t be nicer just because you need something from that person.  That makes you fake.  Individuals can oftentimes see through the fakery and realize whether or not you’re being genuine.

CDOs Explanined
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2008/10/collateralized-debt-obligations-cdos-are-investment-instruments-that-are-partially-to-blame-for-the-mortgage-crisis-what.html

Primer to the Subprime Mess
http://www.slideshare.net/guesta9d12e/subprime-primer-277484?type=powerpoint

Being an avid fan and an implementer of cool layouts (prints, web, etc..), it is crucial to have the ability to quickly generate a block of text.  Blocks of random text, aka Dummy Text, is extremely helpful when you’re trying to design layouts and want to get to a final look as quicly as possible.

This is where Lorem Ipsum comes in.  As defined on Wikipedia:

In publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum is common placeholder text used to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout. It is a form of “greeking”.

To generating your own Lorem Ipsum dummy text, here’s a fantastic website.

This is the moment — this is the most important moment right now.  Which is: We are about contribution.  That’s what our job is.  It’s not about impressing people.  It’s not about getting the next job.  It’s about contributing something.

The quote above was Benjamin Zander, a well known teacher and speaker who just happens to be the conductor for the Boston symphany orchestra.

What got me about this quote was the fact that it calls for one to totally immerse oneself in the moment.  And simply contribute.  This, in my opinion, is extremely difficult thing to achieve.  All our lives, we’re trained and reinforced to plan and plan and plan.  Think ahead about the next step.  Will I get appreciated?  Will I get promoted?  Do my actions impress other people?  That statements calls for all the opposites.  Be immersed in the moment and contribute to the current state of things.  The rest will take care of itself.  I like that.

http://www.petercallesen.com/

In spite of it all, I want to take a quick moment and point out two of the things I think that Delta is doing correctly.  They might be small things, but I’m all about the “small things” and those are big in my book.

1. 24hr full refund policy on delta.com - Yes, that’s correct.  If you didn’t know, you can order your tickets on delta.com and if you change you mind within 24 hours, you can change or cancel your reservation and get a full refund.  I don’t know if any other airlines do this, but this is one reason why I love delta.com.  Very often I’m booking my tickets late at night and I’m extremely tired.  I can then wake up the next morning and check my itinerary to make sure it’s correct.  Freakin’ awesome.
2. Skymiles expiration date - No guessing games as to when I’m gonna loose my 69,625 skymiles! I subscribe to the  Delta Insider newsletter, whic means I get a snapshot of my skymiles account activities on a monthly basis sent directly to my gmail account.  The best part is that my miles balance, activites, and expiration date get shown in a miss-it-and-you-are-an-idiot region.  No more logging into my account (like United) and realize that I just lost 14,000 miles.  Or having to email customer service (at NWA) and receiving a long-winded generic reply that didn’t answer the simple question of “when do my miles expire?”  Hopefully the NWA-Delta merger takes the good things from Delta.

But not tonight.  Tonight, I’m having trouble sleeping.  Maybe it’s because I’m sleeping on the futon in the living room because my bed is tucked away into the Budget truck outside.  Maybe it’s my subconscious wanting to keep me awake as to prolong my last official night in Boston.  Or maybe it’s just hard because I know I’m leaving behind the last 45 months of my life.

Boston was my first love.  It is the first city I lived in after the college years.  The past 3+ years in Boston have been amazing.  The places I’ve visited.  The experiences I’ve encountered.  The food I’ve eaten.  And most of all, I’m going to miss the people I’ve come to know in this wonderful city.