Eriko, Jerry, and I went to Vancouver, BC on Saturday. We spent about 8 hours in the car in exchange for about 8 hours in Canada - most of which were spent with Naofumi, Eriko’s cousin. We went to Stanley park, the aquarium, walked around downtown, and hung out at the Oakridge Mail (unfortunately it was raining.)

I finally had an opportunity to listen to some of the longer podcasts; I found this one particularly interesting. In it William talks about his new book and fields questions regarding the problem of inevitable nuclear proliferation. I haven’t exactly done research on this subject, but William was very unbiased and rational in his approach towards analyzing the problem. I recommend it for anyone tired of one-sided media coverage of this issue.

Jerry demonstrated the first use of his new sign language word - “more”, which he does by bringing his hands together (after making a cone with each hand.)

I think this is quite noteworthy because it is the first use of an action or feeling rather than just a noun.

Jerry does have signs for plane, gorilla, bird, and hat: plane is where he holds his hand up high over his head; for gorilla he beats his hands on his chest (or more typically, his stomach); for bird he moves his pointer and thumb together (like beak); for hat he hits his head with his hand.

This should really make you think…

From this wikipedia article:

The Seven Blunders of the World is a list that Mahatma Gandhi gave to his grandson Arun Gandhi during his last days. The seven blunders are:

* Wealth without work
* Pleasure without conscience
* Knowledge without character
* Commerce without morality
* Science without humanity
* Worship without sacrifice
* Politics without principle

My tenure at Isilon is starting to be a real struggle. It isn’t that the job has become significantly more difficult or that the hours are more pressing. In a lot of ways, I’m doing less actual work - but the additional responsibility weighs on me throughout the day (and evening… and night.)

I think I’m affected by a few things - career direction, a desire to spend time with my family, and general wear-out. More and more I feel like the management direction is not what I should be in at this time. It isn’t that I’m not learning a great deal; I am - how to govern my time, set goals, plan for the future, be accountable, and interact people. When I describe that, it seems obvious that I should be into my job. That leads me down the path of ownership, lack of focus, etc. While I love Isilon’s technology and think it is a game-changer in the marketplace, in my management position I am becoming more and more removed from that technology. I’m about people and process and growing the organization - but I don’t particularly care for big companies. So while I seem to be a natural leader, perhaps I need to be closer to the technology than I am.