Chris's Musings

Read article: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080327/D8VLP21G0.html It appears that the glut of flight groundings continues, as the FAA is (rightfully) getting bullish on enforcing plane maintenance inspections now. My flight last night, originally a 7:20PM departure from Charlotte, was postponed till 9pm and then cancelled. Fortunately, Delta was kind enough to put me on a US Airways flight home, which wasn't too bad considering it is a 45 minute flight, I was tired, and I was just glad (at midnight) to be home. I did find out, as I was getting rescheduled and moved off of Delta, that the reason my flight was cancelled was because of an FAA-inspired inspection. Which makes me wonder, how long have they been sloppy on maintenance here, especially with the MD-80's and MD-88's, which I happen to fly a lot because it's the bulk of Delta's short range fleet. A little concerning... so I'm not too upset over getting bumped. On the good side, having spent over ...

Perhaps... only if the WWE was running the NCAAs... Hmmmmm.... 51-49? What would have happened if the officials had been on the ball and found an opportunity to use their whistle? Things that make you go... hmmmmmmm

I have spent most of this morning reflecting on what this weekend represents... getting away from the niceities of this weekend and taking time to meditate on "who," "what" and "why" for an event that monumentally changed the course of history and in a very personal way altered the course of my own life. On Friday night, I attended what may have been the BEST Good Friday service that I have ever attended. The service at Buckhead Church was... different... and a very good different because in it the story of the Passion was told about as beautifully and as powerfully as you could possibly tell it. In the background, scripture, stories about Christ's suffering for us, and music told the story of the trials, the humiliation, and the pain that He took for me and for you. In the foreground, three artists were, throughout the hour, painting a mural out of three plexiglas windows on the front of the stage... just painting away as the story and the songs cont...

Oddly enough, today is BOTH the day that marks the beginning of Christ's passion and the beginning of the basketball passion known as March Madness. Just an aside. Thursday: We all know what happened that day almost 2,000 years ago. The Son of God had His last supper with his disciples, went to the garden to pray in anguish, and then was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver by someone very close to him... taken to the temple courts to be mocked in a series of bogus trials... all of us who are even remotely familiar with the story of Christ or have seen Mel Gibson's movie know about this. Backtrack to my Sunday... in Upstreet we were talking about Jesus dying on the cross for us with our kids last Sunday. The question that we posed to the kids before going into large group was this: "What would you do if you were all-powerful for a day?" Now, I really liked this question, especially as it creates in me a lot of thought... and it was a good question to pontificate with 5 ...

I had myself quite a revelation the other day as I was preparing dinner. Being a Costco member and a pasta lover of some sorts, I started up a boiling pot of water to heat some frozen tortellini - to make a combo of basil- oregano sauce, spinach, shrimp, and cheese tortellini meal. I started the boil and then went upstairs to my office to check e-mail, and ended up checking Facebook and blogging for a bit... time passed and I went downstairs (obviously, I wasn't THAT hungry) and found the water completely boiled out... so I didn't find any H2O but what I did find at the bottom of the pan was very disturbing (see picture below)... On the left is the pan that had the water boiled out of it. On the right is the SAME pan (I have two of these) 100% clean (which is what the one on the left was before setting it to boil). What that first pan looks like to the naked eye is a lot of gringy metallic substances caked on the bottom, kind of a combo of a reddish and grayish substance. O...

Happy St. Patty's Day! How cool is it to be Irish for a day! If you had your green beer, raise a toast! Having been to Ireland, I can imagine why it is so easy to celebrate the Irish. If you go to a pub in Ireland, especially in the country, you're not really a stranger... you're just strange ;-). The Irish are just (as I have observed) good people... hard working, humble, and love life. They have a lot of fire in them too. The contrast between the events of today (if you've paid attention to the financial news) and the constancy of goodness, kindness, and brotherhood that we celebrate today is stark. If you haven't heard, Bear Stearns is being fire sold to JP Morgan Chase and sent ripple effects throughout the stock market today, to the point that President Bush and the Fed are moving at uncharacteristic speeds for government to ease fears and the possible aftermath of this news. I'm, like a lot of Americans, very concerned about where our economy is headed... ...

Tonight, I finally got an opportunity to get some time to myself and take one of the runs that is on my "list" to do. Being in San Francisco, there were two, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Embarcadero. Tonight, I ran the Embarcadero - and it was everything that I was hoping it to be. We got off work around 6:30 and walked back to the hotel down in Union Square. I then got my running clothes on and ran toward Market Street and followed until I got to the Bay and the Embarcadero and then proceeded to run from Pier 1 to Pier 39 and back right around dusk/dark. The weather was perfect for running... about low 50's and the scenery was amazing. The best part of the run was the trip back from Pier 39 toward Market. I had a great view of the Bay on my left with the Bay Bridge lit up and the San Francisco skyline (one of the better skylines in the country) lit up on my right. Not to mention, there were plenty of runners and walkers out and I got to pass by several resta...

I'm sitting here from my hotel room in San Francisco (Union Square area) working on a couple of customer projects, and about 15 minutes ago I hear this noise coming out from the street below. All the sudden, I see this line of people chanting as they pass by my hotel... it's a "Free Tibet" protest. I've honestly never seen one of these... it was cool. They were definitely passionate. The thing that I was wondering, is if Communist China is occupying Tibet? Why protest in San Francisco, California? A couple of thoughts came to mind: - There is some political power here. Speaker Pelosi is from San Francisco - There is a significant Chinese population here. - Or perhaps... If they were to protest in China (who actually needs to pull their army out of Tibet for it to be "free"), they wouldn't have police escorts protecting them. Probably the opposite... free speech is more of a health hazard in a Communist dictatorship than in our democratic sys...

A weekend of laughter... I've love having so many hilarious friends and good experiences this weekend. So, I give you... this weekend's ode to laughter. What makes laughter so great? * She is remedy for the soul when it's hurt * She is a glimpse of the eternal joy that God promises to those who call on His name * She can turn a mundane day into your highlight with one great punchline * She creates unforgettable quotes * She keeps and maintains young souls in old bodies * She is the magnet that attracts truly happy people into community * She is crying when you're not sad * She is the bond between great friends Why laugh? * Because the ring is no longer in the safe * Because noone could figure out to cock the video game rifle * Because "he works from home and it's mostly male" * Because the Upstreet kids are so much fun * Because the cat is a mack daddy * Because it's there. Cheers to all of my friends and to Bill Cosby for making this a hilarious weeke...

Not a pontification on my married friends, I promise!!! Not at all... I got asked this question at the airport yesterday. No joke. After a long consulting week, I arrived to to Memphis airport to see if I could catch an earlier flight back to the ATL and had some time to kill and a stomach to feed. As any good hungry business traveler would do, I moseyed through the aiprort looking for a place to eat and ran into an old Kelley School of Business classmate that I literally haven't seen in almost 5 years (May 2003 to be exact). After getting over the shock of running into each other so randomly (in the halls of the airport... we were both scurrying for food venues & ended up grabbing lunch at Corky's) we catch up on what we're doing in Memphis, what we do for a living (any good MBA will eventually go here), and then he asks me if I am married. Strange question, huh? Discuss among yourselves for a second... how would you react if that were you? I laughed under my breat...