Martini’s and Burgers

Some of the most interesting places in Milwaukee that I have found over the past six months are the unique array of night spots they have. Of course everyone knows that Milwaukee has a lot of bar tours as there are major breweries in town. They also have really nice micro-breweries, there are a ton of neighborhood bars, they have great venues from a mix of diverse cultures (Caribbean, Mediterranean, Latino, etx), they have upscale clubs that rival much larger cities, but they also have a unique experience that I have yet only seen here. That is the Gourmet Burger Joint / Martini lounge. Yes there are Martini lounges in most cities, but they are not like the ones in Milwaukee. Those in Milwaukee not only have sheik and modern interior lounge settings and specialty drinks, they also make gourmet yet blue collar food. That’s right they specialize in sandwiches, fries, and burgers – but with a twist.

Most of the food is prepared in a great kitchen to recipes created specifically for that restaurant. While the food is classic and blue collar the preparation is no kidding 4 star in quality. Just as a chef in a French restaurant would spend a great of time on his signature dishes these restaurants have spent a great deal of time perfecting burgers. Some with exotic spices and peppers others with interesting combinations of cheeses and sauces. Just as with most restaurants I think the difference really is in the sauces and preparation of the food. Something these places take seriously.

Interestingly enough this combination produces a nice trendy place that I think most people feel welcome. The handful of times I have gone out to these places after a long day of work we went in just jeans and a button up, while this is normal it is just as normal to see people in sport coats, dresses, and done up to the nines. I think with the heritage of the town though it is hard for it to become a place where dress codes and a snooty atmosphere could be enforced. We are talking about the town that brought us Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Miller and Pabst Beer, and Lavern and Shirley reruns. It’s nice to see everyone doing there own thing and enjoying a great place.

I did take RB when she came to visit town. We went to a place called Elsa’s. It’s actually a favorite of my current projects main partner. That night they had fresh art work (they rotate every couple of weeks) and some ice sculptures. We sat in the back room (a first for me) in low easy chairs with a small marble table in between. We both ordered a burger and some wine. I had a Blue Cheese burger Covered with peppercorns and sautéed in a burgundy sauce that is one of the best burgers I have ever had. Very Tasty. Of course the real magic of these places is that while you are eating your $10 burger you are also polishing off drinks you would normally purchase at an upscale bar at the tune of $10-$15 each. So of course the owner’s of these establishments know exactly what is what and how to deal with the blend of people in Milwaukee. If you are in town I you have to try Elsa’s.

I guess stupid isn’t always funny

I admit that I tend to like really dumb movies. My favorites include Spaceballs, Caddy Shack, Wedding Crashers, most Adam Sandler films, and most Will Ferrel films. But lately I think the new “funny” movies are getting worse. Less attention is being paid to movie production (as seems to be the case with the majority of films today) and it seems like these movies are put together as quick as possible. Though many films used to be a farce they still centered around a loose story line. Something was actually happening. The last few movies in this genre that I have seen though have lost something. Writing, possibly, production value, sure, are they to quick to reference crude humor, ok; but really this has been part of all stupid movies. So what is it that is making them so bad and quite frankly not funny?

My most recent example would be Accepted. This seemed like a possible winner, at least for those of us that like dumb movies. But it was awful. The plot seemed like a good idea. A kid that had been a scam artist in high school was turned down by all of the colleges he applied to, to get his parents off his back he and some friends created a fake college with a website and all. The rub is that they made the website functional and it sent a letter to anyone that filled out a form online. So all of a sudden there were thousand of kids at the door with tuition money. Rather than turn them away they invited them in and craziness ensues. There are nice looking girls, some preppy frat boys (apparently only frat guys and deans can be the enemy in a college movie) that cause trouble, and an odd legal battle. All the elements are there but it just didn’t come together. I don’t know why other then the fact that the conflict was underplayed, and the climax was incredibly lame.

But this isn’t the only movie to disappoint. Most funny movies at least have their own theme, even if they are a spoof. Spaceballs was obviously making fun of Star Wars and other sci-fi movies. But at least it had it’s own story. Lately the worst of these movies haven’t even done that. Take for instance Scary Movie (1,2,3…), Not another Teen Movie, and Date Movie. These don’t even try they just string 70 minutes worth of sketches together based on scenes from movies of the genre they are spoofing. The last one in the list actually spoofed another type of comedy. This just isn’t funny. It seems that most of these movies are just plain being lazy; trying to score a quick buck from high school and college kids. I hope it works for them. I wonder though if they are just spreading out less money over more films because so many studios produce them on a regular basis. The end result for me though is that I don’t go to see many movies like this any more (though part of that is because my GF won’t go to any of them).

Not all dumb comedies are that dumb either. You, Me, and Duprie was pretty good, obviously Old School, and Wedding Crashers were hits. This season Night at the Museum could be pretty funny. Interestingly enough these all seem to be made by the same group of people. Why is it, that all the rest are so bad? Maybe as you get older the jokes get tired. Maybe there just isn’t that much new to come up with. So anyway I guess I still would say ‘Bring on the stupid movie’ just up the quality. Yes I know that seems like an oxymoron. But like I said I guess Stupid just isn’t always funny.

Just a part of life

Everyone has been there and recently I too had to have a maddening talk with the mechanic at my local shop. The maddening thing about the conversation was the high cost of the repair, it wasn’t that my pick broke down in the first place, and it wasn’t that Ford had such a stupid design in the first place. No the reason it was so maddening is that the mechanic seemed to have an inability to break down the costs of the repair and give me an itemized set of prices. How hard is it anyway to create a work estimate? First item labor X hours at Y rates gives Z dollars. Next put in part A in X quantity times a cost of Y dollars gives you again Z dollars. Repeat until all the component costs of the bid are covered, add them together, and walla you have a total. After 40 minutes on the phone and asking several pointed questions I finally got this. Of course I really didn’t know because it was a range based on if this was needed or if that was needed but at least I had a framework to deal with.

So why was I dealing with this mastermind of mathematics? Very simple a factory defect in my 2002 Ford Ranger decided to show itself at only 54,000 miles and we were unable to engage the engine to the transmission. Now looking at the shop bill you would have thought that maybe the transmission had gone out, or that there was a major failure. In reality it was only a $150 dollar part and a simple repair. Yet the bill was much larger than you would have guessed it would be. The reason is that Ford had the brilliant idea of taking a tried and true – as well as very reliable – way of doing something and made it complicated for no apparent reason. Most hydraulic manual transmissions are activated with a similar set up as that used in power brakes. A master cylinder forces fluid through a line the pushes a slave cylinder activating the desired mechanism. On almost all hydraulic manual transmissions the slave cylinder is located external of the transmission and a mechanical lever or fork is used to actually engage the clutch. Ford new and better design was to build this inside the bell housing.

The problem with doing this is that instead of the cylinder being a bolt on part it now requires major work just to gain access to it. Instead of pulling it off and replacing it in ½ hour the mechanic needs 2 1/2 hours just to pull the transmission out of the truck and another 2 1/2 to put it back. Plus another hour of related, and what should be unnecessary work. This extra labor is only half of the cost created by this design. The other half stems from the proximity of other parts to the failed cylinder, which by the way fails by blowing out a seal and leaking hydraulic fluid everywhere. Because the clutch is so close to the cylinder, when the cylinder leaks the fluid ends up on the clutch causing the clutch to fail. Apparently the material that clutches are made out of is quickly destroyed by hydraulic fluid. Therefore instead of a $150 part on it’s own, you must also replace the clutch and resurface the flywheel adding another $400 dollars to the job! So all in all the total cost is easily 5 times the amount to repair the same failure in these Fords than in most other vehicles with manual transmissions.

But I really can’t get that upset about it. While I did get rid of the extended warranty to save money, as long as there is no other major repair in the next 2 ½ years or 46k miles the repair was only 2/5 the cost of the warranty. On top of that the failure was caused by poor design (prompting me to buy an after market replacement part) not from anything I or my GF did. In fact nothing we could have done could have prevented. So as far as I’m concerned since the problem was not caused by either of our driving habits, or from anything we did, and we could not have prevented it I consider the matter simply and act of nature or god. So therefore it’s just a part of life. Make the repair pay the bill and move on. I will think twice from now on about buying a ford, but in all honesty had I know about this flaw I still would have purchased the truck. Automotive repairs are just part of life!

Living the Dream

It was interesting to hear one of my good friends speaking about ‘Living the dream’ one Friday night. He often asks the question, as greeting of sorts, ‘you liv’n the dream?’ or answers greetings with a similar saying “I’m liv’n the dream”. What I found interesting about the way he talks is that when he speaks about “Liv’n the dream” this particular occasion, he spoke in a sarcastic manner, not really in his usual cheerful manner. I wonder now if he no longer really believes, or if he and the others within my circle of friends ever did. I also thought over the next week about this phrase and what it means and if I believe it.

‘Living the dream’ to my friends mean essentially that. That you have obtained a life style or position in your life that you would dream to be in. I think that many of people’s view of this dream consists of having everything; a big house, great job/occupation, good people in you life, a ton of money, all the toys, endless leisure time and probably no really worries or problems. In fact after the conversation that night I started to think. What does it take to ‘live the dream’? Everything you ever wanted? A large fortune? A fancy car? A huge house? What? What is the dream?

The more I thought about the way my friends talk about “liv’n the dream”, the more I think they see the dream as being or becoming unattainable or very far off at best. I know many of them are not even half of the way to completing many of the goals they have set for themselves in regards of wealth; set years ago with out any real thought. I also know that this particular friend is not really happy or even content with his current job, and certainly does not have the leisure time he would like. But he has so many other things going for himself. He recently got engaged to a great woman, has a wonderful and supportive family, owns his own house, and is not really bound by any real financial constraints. He may not be able to buy an exotic car, go clubbing every night (though a couple a nights a week isn’t out of the question), or spend money like it is going out of style - but he really doesn’t have a lot to worry about either.

This is the case with the entire handful of other people that routinely use the phrase. They all have grim outlooks in the fact that they really don’t think they will ever truly live the dream. I truly think the only thing keeping their outlooks down is their instance on a particular way of dreaming, an insistence on the material, or a structured view influenced by the proverbial Jones. I say this not to be judgmental but because of my recent thoughts on my own situation as I begin to examine my own dreams. I wonder how far off am I from ‘living the dream.’ What do I need to be there?

Thinking back only five years, I remember another conversation. At that time I worked at a telecommunications company, had just purchased my house, and my pay was quite good for just finishing a one year technical program. I remember talking to one of my co-workers saying, well I have the job and house all I really need now is a good girl, a dog, and a truck. The more I ponder the question about ‘living the dream’ the more I come back to that statement. The one item I am missing from that list isn’t money, a bigger house, a fancier car, or anything really material. From that list I only lack the dog. So to obtain my dream I guess I need to just stop by the pet store one weekend.

Unfortunately, I have grown since then. I realized there were some things I was missing, at least at that time, that I didn’t realize I needed. They still aren’t the bigger house, the fancy car, the clubs, or any of that. No, the only things I really lacked at that time were professional challenges, and a sense of accomplishment. As the job was not easy, but it was not all that challenging either I was in a rut and didn’t even know. A couple years latter I was transferred to Iowa, and when I decided to try something new hit some major road blocks because of the my level of education and the economy at the time. I realized then that I needed more and had to accomplish certain things to get there. That is exactly what I did. I earned my degree(trust me, this was no small feat after my previous performance) and when it came time to interview and choose a career path I found I was most interested in the one that scared me the most. The one with the most challenges.

So as far as “living the dream” is concerned, do I know what it is, and how far away am I from it? Well I think I do know what my version of the dream is. It consists of just a few things, a great woman to spend time with and that challenges me, good people in my life (family and friends), many challenges and opportunities (inside or outside of a particular career), a place of my own to take care of and live in, and a pick up truck. The dog has become optional. So am I living the dream? In contrast to many of my friends, I have to say “Yes”, at least the only dream that really matters to me. All the other stuff is really just peripheral. So here’s hoping it just gets better!

Lessons Learned…. Effort based planning is BS

There are many different ways to schedule and plan work. Some are task based, priority based, time based, or - what most PMO organizations prefer – effort based. Effort based planning is based on using the amount of effort or time each task takes to create a bottoms up approach to planning. Anyone who has used MS Project is familiar with effort based planning. Essentially you take a list of tasks to complete work, assign them an order (1 before 3, 2 before 9, 4 before 1, etc) and the amount of time it takes to complete them, and whammy you have your schedule based on the start date you enter. This sounds like a good approach. The problems arise however in the details. After more than a year in consulting, planning is good, but the Devil Really is in the Details.

The biggest problem with effort based planning – at least with a development project – is that you actually never know all of the tasks or the effort it takes to complete them. A good example of this is that a developer may tell you a modification will take 35 hours and instead it only take 5, while other days they will tell you 5 and it will take 35 hours. So to make the plan you need to know how long tasks take but this is always going to be a best guess scenario. Second more tasks will present themselves as soon as you start working on a project. For instance the software vendor may tell you something is automated but then you find that it is only automated in certain cases. Now someone has the task to once or twice a week update or validate configuration tables. This throws a monkey into the wrench for sure.

The next biggest problem with this approach is granularity. How detailed do you want the plan. Personally I think giving people blocks of time is more effective than planning to the hour. Unfortunately this is harder to measure to if you are measuring the effort. In the case of testing there should be a certain number of test cases for a team to accomplish any day. If they miss some they are behind if they complete some extra they are ahead. But many clients want to know by the hour when things will get done. Well just like with programmers this is nearly impossible you will always be ahead or behind. Some tests will take minutes others days. So a lot of effort can be put into developing list of all tasks and dependency involved and planning each of these tasks based on effort down to the minute, but what does it mean. As soon as one thing takes longer than it should the plan is worthless. It just moves forward into the future.

The real issue with this is you spend all your time planning and no time executing. Even when you are behind you keep reworking the schedule. The final deadline isn’t moving so the only thing to do is make people work harder and longer. However if the PMO isn’t strong enough this never happens. In fact they just keep reworking the schedule and report on-time and on-budget. Eventually the back log will catch up though and the project will be in real trouble.

Now personally I think taking a harder line on smaller milestones and letting the various teams worry about the details is a better approach then planning to the detail and never push issues to closure. So if 20 tests must be run by the end of the week… well… no one goes home for the week until all 20 are run and passed. If the development is holding up completion of the process… well…no one goes home that night until it is done. No amount of planning is going to get the work done; only time spent doing the work will get the work done! I think this is why some many projects go over budget and take so long. The management is not willing to step up to the fact that things are behind, that the plans can only be rough guides, and that eventually to get done there has to be people working extra to get tasks done. Effort based planning, especially down to a daily workload, is really a bunch of BS. You have to plan based on when things have to be done and make people hit those deadlines regardless of what needs to be completed. If management isn’t will to do this projects will never make deadlines.

To go along with this management also needs to know they have to give the employees a reason to pull harder and get things accomplished. So beyond realistic planning, taking a hard line on deadlines, people must get something personally from the project work, but that is a topic for another time.

Bad News

Well after a year or so battle with the bureaucrats RB was told that she lost her battle and will not get a letter of no objection. This simply means that she is not eligible to stay in the country beyond her original work authorization. So as of the end of August she will be back Russia. Now to all those who would ask… Why not get married? Or can’t she this? Or can’t she that? The answer is simply.. It doesn’t matter what she does at this point she has to either go back to school or back to Russia. Since she can’t stay in school her whole life it is going to be back to Russia. The reason for this goes back to the original program she came to the states on. It was crafted after the fall of the Iron Curtain and was designed to help westernize the former Soviet style communist countries. So the intent was that young people would come over, learn the American ways, go home and teach or influence change to bring about or help along reforms to create similar systems.

Now does it matter that the program was designed more than a decade ago. No. The requirement remains. She has to spend 2 years back in Russia before she is eligible to come back to the states regardless of her martial or any other situation. So while it is a ways off it looks like I/we will have to start planning what we will do for the 16 months she still needs in Russia to fulfill her requirement. The good news is that with my current occupation I have several different options available. It is also fortunate that the time she has to spend overseas does not have to be concurrent; therefore the time she has already gone back counts towards the requirement. However that doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges in getting her back, and we have to hope that her current employer will want her back. A fact I have no doubt of though.

So what then are the options then? Well the first and best option is if I can get on an international project. This would allow me to visit at least monthly and still come home on a semi-regular basis. I would continue to gain experience and move up, and best of all continue to collect a pay check! I hope that with a certain amount of persuasion I can work with my councilor at work to make this a reality. A process in fact I have already started. Of course with this options I would have some details to work out with my house and paying bills. Most bills are now online, but other I would still need to get back to take care from time to time. But these are small issues I’m sure will be easily ironed out as the time comes up.

The second option, one that I am willing to do but that RB doesn’t particularly like, is for me to travel from time to time to visit her the first and last few months she is away and then to take a leave of absence and join her in Russia for the bulk of her stay. I actually already have leads on a job or two in Moscow and have talked to some friends in the firm about this process. So I think it is very doable and would be a great adventure. The problem is that six months off may put me a year behind in my career, and I of course would not be making any money on regular basis (unless I did pick a job while in Moscow). So for these negative career related reasons RB is against the idea. Of more concern this route is also what I do with my house. If I am gone for 6 months I would have to rent it out and I would need people to take care of it for me. Bills shouldn’t be an issue because I would most likely just cancel any service that I can’t take care of online.

The third option is to try to see RB on a regular basis for the 16 months she is gone. While I don’t like the idea of a long distance relationship it would be doable. I have already figured out I could spend 3 years of vacation and spend 6+ weeks over there, of course spaced out to make it worth while. I could also see her for long weekends about every month and a half. While this would cost more than the other two options with the alternate travel through my work, NWA world perks miles, and a bit of frugal airline ticket shopping it certainly isn’t out of the question. It would leave me with a normal career track, regular paycheck, and I wouldn’t have to worry about my house or bills. The problem is that I would be in a very, very long distance relationship. So if I can find a way to see RB more often I’m going to take it.

My firm always plays up that they are flexible and willing to work with people to get through any situation and I should be consultant by the time RB leaves. So we will see if they put the effort up to back up their big talk! I am really hoping I swing the first option. However I maybe become even harder for friends and family back home to get a hold of for quite sometime starting in August. We shall see.

To-Do Lists

For the last few months due to the crazy schedule that my current project is on I have less and less time to take care of personal stuff. As I think I have mentioned a few times in previous blogs. Not that I am complaining. I really enjoy being busy and having a lot to do. But I find it funny because my life is beginning to look like a series of To-Do lists. During the week I have a to-do list of client service activities, consulting activities, and a few personal activities. On the weekends I have to-do lists for social activities, things to do around the house, honey dos, and personal to-do lists. I have so many lists of things to do I actually started keeping online to-do lists on Google. The problem is that they never seem to move.

This is amusing because, as anyone who knows me, I like to plan. But lately my plans have just simply been to knock a couple things off the list at a time! So what do these wonderful lists look like? Well for a typical work day I will have to, run reports for the management team, administer the testing software we are using (make changes to accounts, problem solve, maintain the overall structure), build plans and schedules for the day/week/month/cycle of work, train people, create process documentation, attend meetings to make general project decisions, analyze a data for a number of reasons, change values in various tables, and so on.

The activities above are the client service activities, at the same time my firm requires I do a certain number of firm activities so I general have a parallel list to work from that includes things like: time and expense, arranging my travel, setting up my hotel, filling out evaluations (of myself, of others, of firm initiatives, of firm resources, etc), filling out administrative paper work for benefits, create materials for the knowledge management system, create materials for local groups, recruit, make presentations about the firm or firm activities, network (though this is normally more fun than a bother but it does take time), respond to requests for information, create materials for pursuit work (sales), taking online trainings, etc.

All of the items above are constantly being rehashed on a weekly basis and I have to manage the lists separate as Client service always comes first, but a lot of advancement hinges on firm activities so they can not be neglected. So after 50 hours of client service work I can generally expect 5 – 10 hours of firm administration.

On the weekends the do lists are normally better. Mostly consisting of people to try and visit with, things to do, and house work. I wonder though if this is how many other people manage their own lives, with a list of things that need to be taken care of. I don’t remember having lists until I bought a house, or if I did they weren’t very long. I also wonder if other people have a list of things they want to do in their lives as well. I always have in my mind a long list of places to see, things to do, and activities I want to try. I have never writen it down have heard of very famous people that have. I might have to start. I know I'll add that to my list of things to do... Hah

It does seems though that the older I get the more I have to do and the less time I have to do it! Though once this project winds down and I get another night at home and a day in the local office things should be easier to maintain. But doubt that my lists will disappear anytime soon!