Thriving neighborhood

Friday morning I walked the dog as usual around the neighborhood. This particular morning I saw no fewer than 5 separate groups of people, either walking their dogs, jogging, or biking around. Not bad for 7 AM.

I also saw a group of eight 40-something people out playing Ultimate Frisbee in the park. Now that made me smile. Sure, they were hooting and hollering and probably waking up my neighbors, but what a sight that was! Folks were out using the park for what it’s meant to be used for. Two years ago I’d walk through that park in the morning and shady individuals would be there hanging out in their cars. They would often bolt when they saw me walking by. Now to see folks out exercising in the park in the morning really makes me happy. I don’t care how loud they are, that is just awesome.

Seeing people being comfortable coming to the park in the morning and the folks out walking around shows how healthy our neighborhood has become.

Byron King K4NGJ


I found out today that a HAM radio acquaintance of mine, Byron King K4NGJ, died when his motorcycle hit a deer this morning. He was 53 years old.

I’d only met Byron one time in person but you’d have thought we were best friends. That’s just the way he was: big, friendly, and outgoing. I don’t do much talking on the amateur radio repeaters around here but I do occasionally tune in. Whenever I heard Byron’s voice I couldn’t help but pause and hear what was going on with him. That’s mostly how I knew him: what he shared with others on the radio.

In addition to the ham radio public service stuff Byron did, he also volunteered for the Red Cross – assisting with their disaster recovery services.

It’s hard learning such a great person has passed on, especially since it comes on the birthday of my late friend Gerry.

Update 25 Sept: Byron’s funeral details can be foundhere.

Class president

My daughter is running for class president. So are 16 out of 22 of her first-grade classmates! Some of these kids have “campaign managers,” too. It sounds to me like the campaign managers outnumber the voters pretty decisively!

I’m proud of her, though. I hope it proves to be a good experience for her.

Woohoo, I’m gonna be rich!

Dear scammers: if you’re going to rip people off, do not put in your scam letter sentences that you don’t finish.

From: “vincent cheng” vchcheng73@w.cn
Subject: Awaiting your response
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2010 04:23:56 +0100
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Gracious Greetings

Am Mr.V.C.H.Cheng, of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Hong Kong . I am getting in touch with you regarding the estate of a deceased client with similar last name as yours and an investment placed under our banks management. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I contact you independently and no one is informed of this communication. In 2003 a Hong Kong businessman who was our Client, made a fixed deposit of $18.350.000.00(Eighteen million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only)
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Think Like Chinese

I actually did something quite rare for me nowadays: I finished a book! The book in question was Think Like Chinese, by Zhang Haihua and Geoff Baker. I’d been looking for a book which went into more detail about Chinese culture and business and this fit the bill perfectly.

When I made my trip to China a few years back, I had heard that face was important to Chinese. Think Like Chinese really opened my eyes to just how important it is.

Face rules everything in Chinese life: from the smallest interactions to international relations. Now when I read about Chinese naval dustups and Google threatening to leave China I just laugh, because I know these situations could’ve been defused long before they ended badly. And now when my Chinese hosts honor me with a “spontaneous toast,” I’ll know it’s a face thing and I am expected to toast them right back.

China has a fascinating culture, especially for anyone interested in diplomacy like I am. With the right amount of kudos and back-slapping just about anything can get done and any misunderstanding smoothed out. Thanks to Think Like Chinese, all of this now makes sense to me. In fact, it seems so obvious now. The book helped me get in touch with my inner Chinese, and that”s a pretty powerful gift.

Exotic trips on the horizon

It seems my traveling life may be about to get quite interesting! There has been talk of me traveling internationally soon: Canada, Europe, India. Maybe even Africa. I’ve got to become more of an expert on the company product before I go flying somewhere but it’s pretty cool to think about. The travel was one of the coolest parts of my prior sales engineering jobs and it looks like this one will be no exception. I’ve just gotta hit the books before I’m paraded before folks as some genius!

CompUSA

My inner geek was thrilled the day that TigerDirect opened a store on Capital Boulevard. It was nice having a broad range of electronics items for Internet-store prices.

However, as time went on it became a chore to shop there. There were never enough cash registers open, and the rent-a-cop they had working at the front door took his job way too seriously. More than once I had stood in line with my purchases and then gave up and put them back on the shelf. I didn’t want to spend 20 minutes at the register, waiting to pay them my money.

Fortunately, TigerDirect bought CompUSA. They’ve been slowly putting their CompUSA stamp on this store. There are now plenty of cashiers available, the rent-a-cop is gone, the store is laid out better, and the sales folks are far more willing to help you than they used to be. It’s now a joy to shop there.

I still like to head over to the local Intrex for stuff, but the CompUSA store is my preferred place to shop.

Summer’s over

The sun went down this evening on the last day of summer, 2010. I can’t say I’ll miss it, though I was so looking forward to it when we were in the midst of one of our coldest winters here last winter. So we went from the 6th coldest winter ever to the hottest summer ever. That’s crazy.

We went to lots of swim meets, went on a few greenway rides, spent time at the pool, took a long weekend at the beach, went sailing all of one time, but if you asked me if we made the most of the summer I would have a tough time answering that. The oppressive heat really wasn’t fun, and given a sunny but hot day we would most likely lie low. It’s tough to get motivated to do something outside when one’s energy is sapped the moment one steps out the door.

So bring on fall, I say. Cooler weather means more outdoor activity. Fewer mosquitoes. It also means one of the most beautiful times of year to be in North Carolina. I love it, and look forward to a nice fall season.