Hello, Lovine.com

I’m beside the empty gate counters of Saipan’s airport. Totally empty. It’s 6:20pm but it looks more like 3:22am in terms of human activity. Even the guards by the security check point are nowhere to be found. This place smells like the old Topanga mall before it became nice.

Of the many times I’ve been here, I always seem to forget that they close the counters for a good solid hour before the flight back to Guam that only takes 50 minutes. Then I get flashbacks that this isn’t the only time I’ve been shuttered out from the 40 seater prop plane, which apparently needs to get controlled by border control and customs so much that you need to lounge around longer than you conceivably should together with all 8 passengers of the entire flight. And so here I am.

I’m just incredibly tired. Been busting my ass to get a project completed, and although I’ve been here for several days, it was barely enough for me to have a clear conscience leaving certain things (outside of my control) to piece themselves together. Whatever. I left work at 4am yesterday after pulling an almost 20 hour shift. Feels great to feel pain once in a while.

This morning after checking out, I went to the back of the hotel and realized that it is a very picturesque coastline, very muted and clean. To think of it, this island might actually be more of my liking than more developed places. It exudes a very provincial feel, with a sense of struggle from its very existence that makes it appear more real rather than constructed. I just had a miserable time trying to sleep because I kept imagining Japanese and American soldiers and civilians spilling blood from the horrors of WWII. Horrible. No thanks, suicide mountain!

The only thing that is bothering me right now aside from a potential change ticket fee, is the fact that I’m most likely going to miss an amazing sunset from the air. Ugh.

The best part is accomplishing something that senior tech support says cannot be done.

I am always quick to jump into the foxholes in an attempt to accomplish something that I think can and should be done in the name of efficiency, but I usually get carried away on the details, with detriment. Yet in the rare occasions that I stand my ground and make it worth having 40 tabs open on Google Chrome (EAFS and HTPS file systems, SCO Unix, SCSI controllers, jejemons), its almost comic relief to realise that I am possibly not that insane. Perhaps inefficient in coming across the winning formula, but still a win nonetheless.

I would gloss over the details, but I think it might cause me to throw up. Another long day tomorrow. Heeeell yeeaaaah, bring it!

My heart just imploded and my head exploded at the same time.

I’m sure you cats have experienced that feeling when you’re just about over a mini-tragedy, and have come to accept it for what it is. And then some twist of fate quietly slaps you in the face, and you realize that there may be a shining solution to your tragedy, that the terrible can be turned inside-out into something truly amazing. And you try your best to keep your feet on the ground as you slowly retrace your steps in order to fully evaluate the situation. It all boils down to that one moment when you find out the truth.

Time slows down to a crawl and the world outside your peripheral vision ceases to exist. And as your heart swells with anticipation and hope, it gets slayed wide fucking open by a small technicality, a small truth that destroys the very fabric of your day.

Count till ten, and the world is still the same as it was thirty seconds ago. And in a twisted way, that’s a really good thing.

I passed by a small warehouse in the valley in a quest to look for odd metric screws. As I got inside, there was nobody at the counter and was about to hit the “press the button for service” but I lay my finger on it while eavesdropping on the profanity exploding from the back door. Basically, the guy was ripping his employee a new asshole. About how he spent years working and taking orders and doing everything from the ground up, and about how this job isn’t effing easy and if you wanted to have a good time go sit your ass down in the movies and work there, about how he says things straight and doesn’t do bullshit. Say it like it is, brother.

Is it really Friday?

Right before I leave the house, the dog decides to piss all over his leg. Must be a sign of things to come.

When I get to the office, one of the guys tells me that a jackass customer ran off with a box of paint and other tidbits from the shop.

Fortunately, we setup surveillance cameras throughout the showroom floor, and caught the bastard on video. So I’ve spent the past couple of hours trying to figure out how to export the damn video, or even just screenshots of the schmuck into a USB key, and it ain’t working. Trying to access it through the network isn’t happening either, looks like it would only work with an old version of IE. Why am I always stuck with crap software? Nothing ever f cking works the way it should.

So I decide to take a break and pickup my freshly coated exhaust parts from Pyramid Powdercoaters down the street. I take the dog out with me, and he decides to piss on his leg. Again.

I need a beer. Like, 3 hours ago.

We as consumers have expectations on how things should work. A microwave should heat up my food. A brake pedal is designed to stop the car. We buy things because they’re meant to do something in particular. Manufacturers/service providers thrive in this capitalist market, and owe their existence to generating value through their ability to address a need and fulfill it. Of course there is that delicate balance between money and value, both horizontally and vertically through the supply chain. Doesn’t matter if you’re a consumer buying from a retailer, or a wholesaler buying from a manufacturer. Spend less, get less. Spend more, get more. Or that’s how it’s supposed to be.

Technology needs to become more transparent. The last thing anyone in the cube wants to worry about, is a supposed solution that only causes more problems. Sometimes I feel like I’m stuck with 1988-era answers to 2010-era problems.

The hamster wheel is starting to spin faster, with less steps to hang on to. I mean, shit, it’s only a spreadsheet. Can you imagine taking over the world? I’m trying very hard to convince myself that anything other than aiming for total world dominance, is boring.

Hafa Adai, early morning greetings from Guam. Time for a power nap before heading back into the grind.

Ich bin running on three hours of sleep and nothing in my stomach. A mother would be pretty upset.

There’s a big chunk of tri-tip waiting to get rock-salted and thrown on the grill, but I need the help of 3 hungry appetites to weather the challenge. No takers yet though, everyone’s too busy running faster in their hamster wheel of perpetual slavery, loneliness, white collar pain and cubicle torture. Yes. Me too.

My hands are cold.

The real world needs less paperwork.

Everything can be done quicker, better, faster. At least there is always something better to aspire to. Boredom can be a bigger problem…

Content is always king. Information is the driver of processes, and more importantly, the driver of value. All other enablers (i.e. technology) should be transparent to ants marching, and the amount of human interaction for processes that only require pure logic (yes, no, if, else) should be kept at a minimum. Value is lost when time is dedicated to monkey work, especially when manual processes expose you to the risk of human error. Design the process well. Do it once, and do it right. Then you can allocate scarce valuable resources in performing higher level tasks, and assessment of (more) accurate data. Let value be the goal, and the method in which to achieve success and sustain it.

Life is not rocket science. Break it down, piece by piece, and conquer.

Perhaps the biggest advantage of a small organization is the speed it can maneuver and respond to its operating environment. Provided it has the aptitude and resources to make intelligent decisions to anticipate changes in the market, it can work its small size to its advantage against the bigger players in the industry. While it may not enjoy deeper pockets or expertise as bigger companies, as long as it streamlines and allocates its resources effectively, the player who can provide the best value to the consumer will always come out the winner.

When the market fails, there is no room for error. But the biggest error you can make, is to not even try.

So the whole family (sort of) is now in Las Vegas to attend the SEMA convention, which is basically heaven for anyone remotely interested in anything automotive. This is pretty much the most productive year I’ve attended. It used to be a shiny-cars and hot-chicks kind of deal, but I have graduated to actually talking to exhibitors and trying to find software solutions for the Family Empire. My sister and I have also between attending the free seminars that range from inventory management, small business IT, and online marketing presented by leaders of their respective fields. The last seminar we attended was chaired by execs from eBay Motors, Amazon, Google, Activant, etc! This is a pretty damn good deal for the $15 registration fee that we paid!

Rambling mode on. So it’s a cut throat market, and everyone’s out to make a buck. I used to subscribe to the school of modesty, and self-deprecation. “Set expectations low, and perform high.” Never acknowledge your talent, because there seems to be greater satisfaction when it comes unsolicited from a third party. There are, however, some potential drawbacks to this approach if it starts to manifest itself internally. To guise yourself from others through modesty, may be a formidable plan of attack, but be sure to always keep in mind what is real, and believe the truth in what you can do. It’s easy to get swayed into the cop-out that you cannot do something, when all you need to do is to take that first step and make the effort to make it happen. It’s easy to follow the crowd of lemmings and go with the flow. And this fear of ‘failure’ (that can present itself in many forms), marks the difference of those successful, and those who are not. And no matter how intelligent you are, no matter how much you understand it better than the monkey next to you, what stays in your mind as ideas can never be as real as the actions you put to follow the idea through.

There are constant disconnects between what I believe in, and the life I am stuck with. Each day is another opportunity to weed them out. Nothing that a few beers can’t fix. :)

Sleepy eyes rest on a tired smile
Trying to get out of the dizzying tumble
of a hamster wheel that answers no questions
Just an endless pitter patter
of stuff to do
Dues to pay
Things to consider
but it’s really up to you,
to decide what to do.

I’m sleepy. Hopping on a plane soon, for a slew of work and other trips. Need to finish packing. I’ll be doing six point-to-point legs on this trip. Sigh.

In a few hours I head back out to the madness of Manila.

Guam was pretty good for understanding the rotations of my new hamster wheel. I think it would’ve been nice to stay a bit longer and indoctrinate myself deeper into the operational nuances of what put me through school and food on our tables, but I’ll need to get moving to get an understanding of the bigger picture. Can’t stagnate, and can’t move too fast either. All that is the balance, that we keep ourselves perched precariously on.

Here’s something I came across on the intarweb that I found really interesting. African-American Photographs (Snapshots and Portraits).