UberPhipps

It hasn’t been a good month for me in terms of parking….

I have to admit…I am extremely addicted to Hulu.  I like not being tethered to my TV to watch the TV shows that I never get to see because I am always out or traveling for business.  It’s nice that everything is in one location, as oppose to searching for it relentlessly on youtube or alluc.

Interesting article about Hulu that I read a while back.

The presidential debates tonight got me surfing….surfing about renewable energy resources.  In the process I stumbled upon this company called 3TIER.  They are a company that is trying to understand and predict weather and climate changes and its impacts on renewable energy generation. Very cool stuff.

I think before any large scale efforts are done in terms of renewable energy resources or alternate energy here in the US we need to actually get some plans together to determine what can really help mitigate both our dependency on foreign oil and the destruction to the environment.  Things like where wind and solar farms should be placed need to be determined in a scientific manner.  Also the effects of creating these large scale farms need to be looked at.  I can almost guarantee a large wind farm will effect climate changes in neighboring states.  Anyway…the maps 3TIER has created appear to be very useful.  But I still think more detailed analysis should be done to find relations with the data that this presents with other climatology and energy research to make better decisions for the future in terms of energy management.

Went on another date tonight.  Sort of last minute.  As in she called me at 6 and asked me if I was free (I was playing videogames at the time…so I left immediately).  We didn’t really click.  Either I am too weird or she was too weird.  I can’t quite tell (I am hoping it is her).  It is interesting how certain people draw out different personalities in one another.  Tonight I was high strung.  I am normally high strung..but in a relaxed manner.  Tonight was just no good.

I have been going on a few different dates lately.  Some have been great…most have been bad.  Not bad in the “she had one arm and looked like Ronald Regan” bad.  More that I just didn’t like their personality and every word that came out of their mouth was poison to my ears and made me want to goudge my eyes out.  But that’s not too bad.

Of the few dates I have been on, only one girl had enough “promise” for me to make time to see her again.  Hopefully I can see her a few more times to form a good solid opinion of her.  She seems nice enough…..but then again..they all do at first.

I went down and visited my Dad this weekend.

It was nice out.  We went to the beach.

See the rest of the pics here.

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Every time I see my grandmother she always asks me about my “love life”.  She tends to ask me when the whole family is around as well expecting an answer right then and there.  Somehow this always seems to turn into a giant joke.  This weekend was no different.  She asked and I of course told her the truth.  I didn’t have one (love life that is) at the moment but I had been going on dates at least.

She then questioned why it was taking me so long to find a “good girl” as she put it.   She thought it had something to do with what I wore when I went out.

“Michael…you don’t wear that when you go out do you?  You look awful right now, so drab.” - (I was wearing a hoodie and I hadn’t shaved.)

“No.  I actually do look nice when I go out.  I know that is hard to believe but I am not new to the dating scene.”

“Have you thought of wearing bright colors.  Girls like bright colors.  You need to wear a RED shirt. Red would really win them over.”

“Red….I don’t really do red to well.  I am very pale.  It makes me look sickly.  I stick with earth tones reall….”

“Actually my mother always said if you can’t figure out what to wear go with the eyes.  You should try wearing blue as well”

“I do wear blue from time to time. I actually think I have more blue than any one color, but like i said I generally try to stick with Earth Tones…you know like greens, browns, and…”

“No no…you really need to get red shirt.  You know it should be a collared shirt, right?  You realize I mean a red collared shirt.  Not a t-shirt.  I am sure of it.  A nice red flannel shirt would do it for girls.”

“Flannel…like a lumberjack.  I don’t do the lumberjack look it makes me…”

“Should I ask if they are asian…these dates?”

“Um…..two of them were white….they weren’t all asian”

“I knew I shouldn’t of asked.  What is it with you and asian girls?”

“I don’t know..something evidently”

This went on for a good 20 minutes….god help me.

This makes me feel good.

click me

A lot of Journals are starting to have papers published about the knee I helped design back at Stryker.  It’s nice to see that patients are actually getting the results we anticipated.

…..

San Diego is always nice..

Breakfast is always good in hotels…

How do I know where I am…

This bed looks comfortable….

When is my next meeting?!?! (that’s AM)

Where is my next flight?

I am in Massachusetts for this..a box?!?

Why does traffic suck in Boston?

I am crazy happy to be back in Jersey…

—–

I am tired…..

So I was on the phone with one of my friends tonight.  She was talking to me about breaking up with this boy she has been “sort of seeing” for 3 months.  Because she has been only “sort of seeing him” she was thinking of doing it over the phone, but she wanted my opinion.  I of course told her to do it over the internet and to in fact do it as I was talking to her.

I was obviously kidding….  I personally think no matter how serious the relationship is that Face to Face breakups are the only way to go…but maybe that’s just me.

It’s interesting how people avoid confrontation……it seems to be more prevalent in this area.

So I have been doing some traveling for work this past month.  A large amount actually.  The travel has been centered around updating our surgeon panel on the current state of our design and  future project milestones we plan to hit.  All round good stuff.

So…one of the stops we had was in Chicago.  There the company was hosting a “Master’s Shoulder Course” or something like that.  This meeting basically involved getting all the top users of our company in the US and Europe who use our one Shoulder stem design and have them discuss there results and findings to each other.  It was a real “pow wow” so to speak.  Anyway since so many important Docs were there, the important corporate head figures made an appearance as well.  So during any one of the many cocktail hours that were held you would have a total mix of different corporate images/styles - The surgeon, the CEO, the wanna be CEO,  the engineers, and me ( i don’t fit any category) - hanging out mingling together.  This of course got me to realize…

…. “how good you look as a total package” really does matter in the corporate world…

I was constantly seeing people who were very important (either surgeon or corporate) be blown off because they just didn’t carry that level of sophistication that so many others brought to the table.  It was a very interesting environment to be in.  I also noticed that people who dressed more European (with the tighter suits) or with a little more adventurous attitude compared to the standard American Banker business suit had more people approach them than they would approach people.  Or to put it simply…if you knew how to dress people would more often than not approach you.

No wonder most CEO’s look like Aebecrombe and Finch models…

..I need to start working out more..hah….

if I didn’t say it was nice to hear from her.  That sure did cheer me up.

Here is something she wrote a long time ago……maybe to me..maybe not…..still nice to read regardless

——

learn patience.
stop and think for a moment about someone other than yourself.
ask yourself if there is anything you can do for someone else.

and mean it.

before you speak about your own life ask someone about theirs.

ask questions.
ask many questions because you really want to know.

tell the people you care about that you love them.
always tell them!
and be grateful that they are even in your life.

list all the selfish and shitty things you have done and do not do them again.
learn from your mistakes with people.

learn kindness.
always put others first.
always listen to your friends (not in them giving direction, i mean shut your mouth)

don’t be careless with your friend’s feelings.
lend them a hand or a shoulder because they need it.
don’t wait to call them.
don’t put them off.

become a caretaker and not a taker.

i am always thinking these things.
and i’ve thought about all of these things the past few days especially.
over and over and over and over.

i hope you will too.
i hope i can force these thoughts on you.
it’s not too late to change who you are.

——-

-phipps out