Carbonboy's Blog - January 2005

Coming early February : The Don Laing Story - The Last Year - Chapter Two. The adventure begins.

Another completely non-eventful day, everywhere across the country. I should recover from this limbo state shortly.

I caught a little feature on NPR on this morning's commute - a book review of: In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World. I make no claims to be a linguist, but the interview with the author caught my attention and I picked up the book tonight. One theme in the book deals with words or phrases in some cultures that have no similar words or phrases in others. Here's an eye opener:

"Arabic has no word for 'compromise' in the sense of reaching an arrangement via struggle and disagreement. But a much happier concept, taarradhin, exists in Arabic. It implies a happy solution for everyone, an 'I win, you win.' It's a way of resolving a problem without anyone losing face."

So here we are fighting the war with a culture that has no word, and one can presume, therefore, no concept of "compromise." More is coming on this book in the Recent Reads section.

I delayed my trip north as snow is forecast for the Mid-Atlantic and I've acquired twice the stuff that I came with. I have the option to give it away or over-load my truck. A brief cold spell here has me thinking it's better not to rush.

Well, I thought I could ride out the winter here in Clearwater and avoid the ordeal of what many of you refer to as Winter. As a freelancer in the aerospace industry, one must be willing grab opportunities as they come.

My new client is in Baltimore and that is where I'll be starting next week. The good news is I can now spend my weekends at home in Piney Point! It's a mere 100 mile drive.

Mid-Atlantic winters are mild and by April I'll be quite happy with my decision. Yet I can't help thinking back to the President's Day Blizzard of 2003. Wish me luck! Of course all the big plans I had for this site and now delayed - no big deal with that!

I'm sensing a change of climate. I don't know, but the clammy Florida winder climate is not what I thought it to be (but it beats 95% of the rest of the country). Developing . . .

I have fully brought into the Tom Peters concept of a "corporation of one." We all need to be that.

It took me a solid week to "recover" from the holidays, though I must admit I had an enjoyable time away. Now it's back to the routine and I'm quite content to be back in Clearwater where it will be sunny and warm for the weeks ahead.

Given all the human tragedy the earth's been faced with, I find no reason to complain about a thing and I am simply thankful for life itself - mundane as it can get. I'm thrilled to be alive in 2005 and will be focused on a number of efforts to make my little corner of the world a better place.

As you can see, I'm working with a new format in this new year. I'm favoring blatant simplicity as an excuse for having no time to really master web design. The focus will be first, on enhanced content here, and then back over at Composites-By-Design. My goal is a twice weekly update.

I should have all the new links updated shortly. I've got a lot planned this year!