Sunday, September 30, 2018

Throwback Blog: No Words For Human Feelings

Blogger’s Note: Throwback blogs are blogs from my past. I start posting past blogs reflecting what I wrote. It's like my "A Second Look" blogs for which I give myself feedback.

Today's throwback blog is titled No Words For Human Feelings in Sep 2015. I remind myself sometimes we solve problems using our feelings. We use our intuition. Words can't explain parts of life. The feelings are the best way to communicate. Sometimes feelings are the only way to communicate. The late Steve Jobs said, "I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis . . . intuition is a very powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion. That's had a big impact on my work."


Humans have feelings. We live our lives with feelings every breath we take. Sleep or awake. Working or studying. Driving or relaxing. Feelings guide how we live our lives. We make choices based on feelings sometimes. These choices include professional, big life moments, leisure, and personal. Human feelings define us being human.

We know the common feelings: happy, goodness, sincerity, trustworthy, positive, comfortable, strong, and optimistic. There are also sad, evil, ungrateful, dishonest, negative, uneasy, weak, and pessimistic. More common feelings include anger, frustration, relief, fatigue, fresh, energize, focus, pain, and confuse.

On the other hand, no words describe some human feelings. Some human's aurora naturally spreads joy, comfort, and happiness. In contrast, some human's aurora naturally spreads depression, distrust, and sadness. How does a person portray himself or herself with a group of people? There's no thinking. The person's feelings come out naturally. How does a person improve their natural aurora in a positive way? I'm not a psychologist. My answer is wisdom, experience more life experiences, genuine, and strength.

Trust the gut feelings. Trust intuition. Sometimes no thinking is the best way to make good choices. There are no words to describe these choices. There are no words to describe the process for the conclusion. Sometimes the best way to get out of problems is gut feelings. Life is full of feelings. People must never fake human feelings. Life punishes fakers. Follow the feelings. Go with the feeling flow. Trust your feelings to understand today's blog.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Farewell Orchard Supply Hardware Store



Orchard Supply Hardware's (OSH) parent company Lowe's announced all OSH stores permanently close on Dec 31, 2018. All participating stores are liquidating their inventory with sales. Discounts increase as the days move closer to Dec 31, 2018. I share my memories and feedback below:

*Light bulbs. I'm attracted to light bulbs. I walked to the light bulbs aisle first when my family shopped at OSH when I was a child.

*Indoor plants. I purchased two indoor plants for my cubicle when I worked at Palo Alto Networks in Nov 2014. The air was dry on my floor. The indoor plants somehow made my cubicle bearable.

*Last purchase before liquidation. I purchased silicon tape for my car in case a tube cracked. The silicon tape temporary seals the cracked tube to drive home safely.

*A true hardware store. OSH was the hardware store I shopped before The Home Depot and Lowe's opened their stores in the Bay Area. I wrote a blog titled SOMT: When A Supermarket Was Just Buying Family Groceries on Dec 5, 2012. I wrote a grocery store is buying groceries, an auto store is buying auto parts, a drug store is buying drugs, and an office supply store is buying office supplies. There was no Costco, Target, and Wal-Mart in my childhood.

*Bad management. Many employees know people leave bad companies because of bad management. Perhaps Lowe's intentionally managed OSH terrible to the point of closing stores to eliminate competition.

*On the other hand . . . I believe out with the old and in with the new. Nothing lasts forever. If OSH failed to keep up with today's retail business environment, then it's inevitable OSH permanently closes. I hope for the best for the OSH employees.

*Black Friday purchases. I purchased a leaf blower in 2009. I purchased a flashlight set in 2014.

*We pay the sales tax. OSH promoted customers pay no sales tax on weekends.

*How To Fair. OSH's yearly event at a fairgrounds or convention centers. The How To Fair was like a trade show or home improvement convention. The fair attracts home improvement companies to sponsor, home improvement celebrities, free samples, classes, and coupons. I have three How To Fair buckets. My last How To Fair was 2006 at the Santa Clara Convention Center.

*Desk fan. My room got hot during the summers. Some days were not worth turning on the home air conditioner. The home air conditioner was poor keeping the second floor cool. I purchased a desk fan in Jul 2005. The fan works today.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Friday, September 21, 2018

**8-872-****

Everyone receives unsolicited phone calls. Some calls are cold call sales such as solar panels, home improvement, and real estate. Some calls are scams such as pay a fee to avoid getting arrested and bad credit cards. My household received a call from the phone number at today's blog title last night at 8:29pm. Someone is desperate for money the caller works night hours. I give the benefit of the doubt the caller is cold calling.

Moreover, I give the benefit of the doubt the caller is dealt a bad hand of cards. The caller is down on his or her luck. There have been bad moments. I experience a little sadness the caller disturbs people in the night. I experience a little sympathy the caller disturbs people in the night. The caller is working to make a living. My household lets the voice mail answer the call.

I took a moment to reflect my life. I'm lucky despite being unemployed and living with my parents. I could be the person making cold calls. I could be the person with no education. I could be the person with poor learning ability. I review my existing job skills and learn new job skills five days a week preparing for my next job. Unfortunately, there are too many people living today. The world is too crowded. There are too few opportunities. The size of the pie remains the same. I hope timing and luck favors me soon to earn my freedom.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

The Lesson To Be Successful Rarely Taught

What is the lesson to be successful? The lesson is timing, luck, opportunity, and chance. How are timing, luck, opportunity, and chance taught? Impossible. If there is a way, then someone teach me. Also, if there is a way, then it's likely the teaching is difficult. Forget the quotes from the most successful people in business, sports, politics, and arts. Timing, luck, opportunity, and chance are four simple words to success. Many people can be engineers. Many people can be plumbers. Many people can be doctors and nurses. Many people can be accountants. Many people can be athletes making an income. Many people can be actors or actresses. Few people achieve those professions.

Are you at the right place at the right time? If yes, then timing favors you. Are you in good health? If yes, then you're lucky. Similarly, do you have a good brain and do you live in a good community? You have good luck. Do you have a complete college education or do you have good training? If yes, then you have opportunity. Do you have interviews? Do you have callbacks? Do you have invites? Do you have offers? Are you in the second round of an audition? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you have a chance.

Some people have the timing, luck, opportunity, and chance. Some people don't have the timing, luck, opportunity, and chance. There are winners and losers in championship games such as the Super Bowl and World Series. There are winners and losers in life. Some bad people win. Some good people lose. Life is unfair. Pray timing, luck, opportunity, and chance come to you.

Update On A Past Blog

Do you need a conversation starter? Do you need an ice breaker? Click Tell Me You Games for tips to get people talking. My tips I wrote on Dec 2014 may be silly. My tips are successful when people talk. The games bring back old school socialization. There are no texting, emailing, and video chatting. Everyone is present. Conversations are intelligent. Technology is okay to lookup information.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Saturday, September 08, 2018

No Time To Plan

I was a person who must have a plan to complete tasks years ago. Research. Get information beforehand. Think it through. Learn it first. Plan ahead.

Sometimes planning ahead works. Sometimes planning ahead is infeasible. There is no time to research. Information is unavailable. Forget thinking. The learning manual is too complex.

I make a judgment call today. Plan ahead or do it now is a case by case basis. It depends on the situation. Sometimes there is no time to plan. Spontaneous planning is required to complete a task. Plan last minute. Immediate action. Learn by trial and error. Use intuition. It's faster to just do it. Do as it goes. There is no shame switching from a plan ahead to no time to plan mindset. There is no lower intelligence the situation calls for no time to plan ahead.

A Dating Tip

I have a better understanding some people prefer to date a spontaneous person; likewise, marry a spontaneous person. Spontaneity adds surprise and excitement to a relationship. Sometimes the unknown adds joy. Spontaneity tests courage--intelligent spontaneity is more accurate.

Update On A Past Blog

The 2018-2019 NFL season started. I was reminded I wrote September, The Beginning of the End when Sep was the beginning of my calendar year instead of Jan. Sep was the month my school year began and temperatures began to cool down. I take back Sep begins my new calendar year. One reason is school years begin in Aug before Labor Day. I'm with the crowd. Jan begins my new calendar year. If the past year was a bad year, then Jan is a fresh start. If the past year was a good year, then Jan continues the good year momentum to make the upcoming year better. New Year's Day is not just another day. New Year's Day can be a beginning.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Thursday, September 06, 2018

The New York Times Op-Ed I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration Sep 5, 2018

Blogger's Note: My feeling after reading the Op-Ed is good people still exists in today's complex world. I feel optimistic today. There are more good people than bad people. Some companies, governments, teams, organizations, and families are run by bad people. Yet there are good people who keep these companies, governments, teams, organizations, and families running as smooth as possible. Give these strong and courageous good people beers. These good people wait for the time the bad people are gone.

The article from The New York Times website I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration

I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

The Times is taking the rare step of publishing an anonymous Op-Ed essay. We have done so at the request of the author, a senior official in the Trump administration whose identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure. We believe publishing this essay anonymously is the only way to deliver an important perspective to our readers. We invite you to submit a question about the essay or our vetting process here.

President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader.

It’s not just that the special counsel looms large. Or that the country is bitterly divided over Mr. Trump’s leadership. Or even that his party might well lose the House to an opposition hellbent on his downfall.

The dilemma — which he does not fully grasp — is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.

I would know. I am one of them.

To be clear, ours is not the popular “resistance” of the left. We want the administration to succeed and think that many of its policies have already made America safer and more prosperous.

But we believe our first duty is to this country, and the president continues to act in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic.

That is why many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.

The root of the problem is the president’s amorality. Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.

Although he was elected as a Republican, the president shows little affinity for ideals long espoused by conservatives: free minds, free markets and free people. At best, he has invoked these ideals in scripted settings. At worst, he has attacked them outright.

In addition to his mass-marketing of the notion that the press is the “enemy of the people,” President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic.

Don’t get me wrong. There are bright spots that the near-ceaseless negative coverage of the administration fails to capture: effective deregulation, historic tax reform, a more robust military and more.

But these successes have come despite — not because of — the president’s leadership style, which is impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.

From the White House to executive branch departments and agencies, senior officials will privately admit their daily disbelief at the commander in chief’s comments and actions. Most are working to insulate their operations from his whims.

Meetings with him veer off topic and off the rails, he engages in repetitive rants, and his impulsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.

"There is literally no telling whether he might change his mind from one minute to the next," a top official complained to me recently, exasperated by an Oval Office meeting at which the president flip-flopped on a major policy decision he’d made only a week earlier.

The erratic behavior would be more concerning if it weren’t for unsung heroes in and around the White House. Some of his aides have been cast as villains by the media. But in private, they have gone to great lengths to keep bad decisions contained to the West Wing, though they are clearly not always successful.

It may be cold comfort in this chaotic era, but Americans should know that there are adults in the room. We fully recognize what is happening. And we are trying to do what’s right even when Donald Trump won’t.

The result is a two-track presidency.

Take foreign policy: In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations.

Astute observers have noted, though, that the rest of the administration is operating on another track, one where countries like Russia are called out for meddling and punished accordingly, and where allies around the world are engaged as peers rather than ridiculed as rivals.

On Russia, for instance, the president was reluctant to expel so many of Mr. Putin’s spies as punishment for the poisoning of a former Russian spy in Britain. He complained for weeks about senior staff members letting him get boxed into further confrontation with Russia, and he expressed frustration that the United States continued to impose sanctions on the country for its malign behavior. But his national security team knew better — such actions had to be taken, to hold Moscow accountable.

This isn’t the work of the so-called deep state. It’s the work of the steady state.

Given the instability many witnessed, there were early whispers within the cabinet of invoking the 25th Amendment, which would start a complex process for removing the president. But no one wanted to precipitate a constitutional crisis. So we will do what we can to steer the administration in the right direction until — one way or another — it’s over.

The bigger concern is not what Mr. Trump has done to the presidency but rather what we as a nation have allowed him to do to us. We have sunk low with him and allowed our discourse to be stripped of civility.

Senator John McCain put it best in his farewell letter. All Americans should heed his words and break free of the tribalism trap, with the high aim of uniting through our shared values and love of this great nation.

We may no longer have Senator McCain. But we will always have his example — a lodestar for restoring honor to public life and our national dialogue. Mr. Trump may fear such honorable men, but we should revere them.

There is a quiet resistance within the administration of people choosing to put country first. But the real difference will be made by everyday citizens rising above politics, reaching across the aisle and resolving to shed the labels in favor of a single one: Americans.

The writer is a senior official in the Trump administration.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com

Wednesday, September 05, 2018

Another Lesson From Never Stop Growing Up Regardless When It Started

My regular blog readers know I grew up on Sat Oct 4, 2008. I wrote growing up blogs such as Top Ten Men Truths on Jan 2017, Growing Up Too Late Was Not My Fault on Nov 2015, My Foundation on Apr 2014, Chapter N: Playtime Is Over on May 2012, and I'm No Longer Nice on Mar 2010. I share another life lesson.

One positive growing up is finding our true selves. We find who we really are. One negative finding our true selves is growing apart from people. The people includes friends, acquaintances, neighbors, co-workers, and, unfortunately, family. We experience natural separation. Our true selves open new roads we must pursue. We say goodbye to people holding us back. The truth is sad. It's life. Also, finding our true selves applies to careers, interests, and hobbies. For instance, I said goodbye to baseball card collecting in college. I retired from anime years ago. We say goodbye to anything holding us back. There are new interests we must pursue. We don't have all the time to maintain all hobbies. We live one life. We don't live two lives.

Natural separation goes both ways. You grow apart from people. Other people grow apart from you. You go your separate way. They go their separate way. People separation is indefinite.

Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com