Ryminate

Lawmaker Quits After He Pleads Guilty to Bribes

Lawmaker Quits After He Pleads Guilty to Bribes

"Representative Randy Cunningham, a Republican from San Diego, resigned from Congress on Monday, hours after pleading guilty to taking at least $2.4 million in bribes to help friends and campaign contributors win military contracts."  - NY Times

This is really a tragic story, one that we seem to see too often these days.  Here is a man who was a highly decorated Navy fighter pilot in Vietnam, and at least at one time a dedicated public servant, and now he has fallen.

Despite the tragedy of Cunningham, I genuinely respect his courage in stepping up and facing his wrongdoing head on.  He stated today, "The truth is, I broke the law, concealed my conduct and disgraced my office," "I know that I will forfeit my freedom, my reputation, my worldly possessions and, most importantly, the trust of my friends and family."  Here, there is no rationalization, no attorney speaking on his behalf, no half-hearted claim of innocence--just honesty, shame, and regret. 

So often today "indiscretions" are denied, a protracted legal battle begins, and eventually there is a qualified admission of guilt.  I could provide a long list of who have taken this latter route, but I'll leave such identifications up to you.

Finally, I hope there is some accountability for those  DoD contractors who paid the bribes.  I certainly didn't see their names published on the front page of the Times.  Let's hope that justice falls evenly to them as well.

RSS

If you're like me you have between 10-20 websites that you check everyday.  Sometimes you check them multiple times a day.  Then are a few that you may check a few times a week or month.  Often there is nothing new to see, or at least nothing of interest, but you still spend the time visiting the website.

Enter RSS.  RSS is a technology that checks a set of pre-designated websites for you letting you know when something new has been posted.  As you can imagine this saves a heap of time.  Instead of checking your regular 10-20 websites over and over again for anything new, (which may take 30 minutes), RSS does that for you in seconds. 

Bloglines is a great application out there known as a "RSS reader" that will do this for you.  You simply setup an account, type in the web addresses you regularly visit, hit subscribe, and it sets it all up for you.  Then, instead of going to your regular websites you go to your Bloglines account and it will let you know what's new.  My explanation is very basic, but once you get to Bloglines and actually try it out you will see that it is quite intuitive.

This is a great tool that really has the potential to save you time.  If your interested in reading a more technical explanation check out this link.

Running thoughts

Well, I just wrote a long post only to have it vanish before my eyes.  Technology can sure be frustrating at times.  I'll do my best to retype a condensed version.

If I actually went out and ran on a daily basis, I could probably start a second blog that would reflect the impressions gained while pounding the pavement.  Running to me is a form of meditation.  While I am out there streams of "intelligence" just seem to flow into my head.  The discomfort or pain, whatever you want to term it, seems to have a purifying effect.  I just see things so much clearer.

I was running in a race this past week and a few thoughts occurred to me that I wanted to record:

1. Capacity - Each of us have different capacities in terms of our abilities.  Even if I ran 60 miles per week I would never be able to run competitively in anything more than perhaps a local race here in town.  I just was not blessed with the lungs of Lance Armstrong.  (It is this principle that highlights why it is important not to get too proud of ourselves, or judge others too quickly.  We simply can not perfectly understand others in terms of where they've been or where they started from).
2. Goals - It is so easy to get caught up in the chaos that surrounds us in a race situation, that you can lose focus on what's ahead.  I have found that races are easiest run if I pick a landmark off in the distance that I can focus on.  I don't completely ignore that which is happening in my immediate vicinity, but it helps to focus on the what's ahead.  Once I reach that landmark I pick another off in the distance.
3. Downhills - The hill portions of a run are perhaps where I feel the most energized.  That is when you are forced to adjust your level of exertion, stride, etc.  It's difficult to get up and down a hill in autopilot.  Downhills are great because you have gravity on your side.  All you have to do is stride and gravity takes care of the rest.  Consequently, I try to lengthen my stride as much as possible to take advantage of this silent partner.

Love IS the Killer App

I picked up a book from the library this week entitled Love Is the Killer App: How to Win Business and Influence Friends, by Tim Sanders, after reading about it on Paul Allen's blog.  He described it as, (and I'm paraphrasing here), one of the most influential business books he has ever read.  He's right--it's a powerful read.

I began reading the book after work at about 6pm and finished it at around 12:45am; I could not put the thing down.  Sanders, the former director of Yahoo's in-house think tank, claims love of all things is the key to personal and business success.  While Sanders thesis on it's face may sound like some kind of  "hippie" approach to white-collar success, (he did work for Yahoo after all), his arguments are both logical and provide for several ah-ha moments. 

Sanders claims contrary to popular belief, business success is not a zero-sum game.  Rather, business success today comes as a result of becoming what he terms a "lovecat."  Again, despite the cheesy moniker, Sanders is definitely on to something.  He suggests a three points:

1. Knowledge - Set aside time to read as many cutting-edge books in your field as possible.  Take notes in the margins and inside covers so the book becomes a quick reference within your library for the key theories, observations, and prescriptions it promotes.
2. Network - Keep track of all your contacts, exchange cards as often as possible.  Use the knowledge you gain while reading to become a resource to those around you. 
3. Compassion - Love those with whom you interact.  Do this through your words and through actions.  Don't be afraid to give two handed handshakes and hugs.  Use the word love.

This may sound unrealistic, particularly the thought of giving your boss a big hug, but Sanders explains it in a way that is convincing.  You don't need to become a Carebear, but we could all do at least something to increase the love in our work environments (even if that only means more smiles and eye contact).  I certainly have not done Sanders' book justice in my brief summary, but I can honestly say this is one of the best books I've read this year. 

Let me know if you get the chance to read it.  I would love to hear what you think.

Thanksgiving

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  It's our annual tradition to run the Turkey Trot, which also seems to serve as a reminder of how slow I am relative to my high school glory days (which weren't that glorious to begin with).  Nevertheless, we really enjoy spending the morning outside; the weather always seems to be sunny and crisp here in Denver. 

We spent the rest of the day grazing until the big meal, which was amazing as usual. So, I figure between the morning run and all the eating we may have broken even, calorically speaking that is. 

We've truly have much to be thankful for this year, so many great friends and family members, so many great opportunities. 

This blog now available in Chinese, French, Spanish, etc.

I've added a feature to my blog that will allow for translation into Chinese, as well as a few other languages.  If you look at the bottom of the right sidebar you will see a box containing several national flags representing the available languages.  Unfortunately, a few of the languages were not working last time I checked.  If you speak one of the available languages let me know how you would rate the accuracy of the translation.  I know it's probably pretty bad in some instances, but is it functional?

10, 9, Thanksgiving, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, Graduation, Christmas, Bar Exam

Well, it's that time again, for the last time--law school finals.  I am looking forward to closing the law school chapter of my life.  Don't get me wrong, it's been one of the most challenging, yet fulfilling thing I have ever done (albeit intellectually), but it's time to move on.  Graduation is on the December 16th, after which I plan on thoroughly enjoying the holidays spending time with family and reading as many non-law books as humanly possible. 

Then, January 1st is when the bar studies begin.  I will study until I take the bar on February 22nd and 23rd.  Then, assuming all goes well with the bar, I will be free. 

I'm LinkedIn

I finally got around to trying LinkedIn and I am impressed.  Time will tell whether this is merely a novelty, or a bonafide business networking tool.  LinkedIn is essentially an online social networking web site for professionals.  You check your rolodex against the every other LinkedIn user, and all matches are linked.  For example, let's say I have a contact named Napoleon and Napoleon is also on LinkedIn, we then would be shown as a link.  The cool thing is, I can also see Napoleon's links and can contact them with his permission.  The chain goes on and on, however, there are very strict controls on what info you can see and how far down the chain you can contact people.  The privacy controls were designed so that even a Fortune 500 CEO would feel at ease using the application.  When I signed up I was pleasantly surprised to find several folks from my rolodex already LinkedIn.

How is this useful you might ask--well, it in essence makes all your immediate contact's rolodexes transparent.  For example, I could be looking for a someone who works in the plastics industry. Unbeknownst to me, my friend Bill who I golf with every week, has a good friend who works in plastics.  That connection could be right there under my nose for years, and unless I asked I would never know about it.  LinkedIn theoretically provides a solution.  If Bill and his friend were also LinkedIn, I could easily check if anyone I know knows anyone who works in plastics, and find Bill's friend.  Did that make sense? 

The previous example brings up an important point.  Unless LinkedIn gets a substantial critical mass of users, the solution is ineffective.  Currently, the number of users is increasing almost exponentially.  Provided that LinkedIn continues to provide a good service with  the best privacy protection possible, this could be huge.  In fact, it could change business "networking" forever.  For now, I recommend the application.  Get LinkedIn.

BillingOrchard - Great resource for entrepreneurs engaged in subscription model startups

Carson over at WorkHappy pointed me to a great billing company called BillingOrchard.  Everything is web-based and the application is built to be used by those who bill by the hour (e.g. attorneys, consultants), or those who do recurring billing. The best part about BillingOrchard is probably the price: the cost of service starts at $14.99 per month (for up to 500 customers).  This by far the cheapest solution I've found.

Entrepreneurship Merit Badge

Tonight I spent the evening working with some boy scouts on their entrepreneurship merit badge.  Yes, you read correctly--the entrepreneurship merit badge.  They certainly didn't have that badge when I was a scout.  What a great thing for young people to learn.  The requirements for the badge are impressive.  The scouts must interview a entrepreneur regarding some very specific issues (e.g. recognizing market opportunities, financing), and then develop a fairly comprehensive business plan based on one an idea of their own.  I was very impressed at some of the ideas the scouts were coming up with.  In fact, I hesitate to share them here because some of them were so good that I'd be afraid someone might actually act on them.

Well, this was a great night for me combining two of my favorite things: working with young people, and entrepreneurship.