Month: December 2005

  • Thank you for your thoughts on businesses – no, it’s not for a
    particular assignment, but I do wonder what other people tend to think.
    Most of you looked at their purpose from an external sense – what they
    do for the outside world, but I think Kari was on key by looking
    internally. If you aren’t in the management side of things, the money
    seems less important and the jobs and product or service seem
    all-important. Yet, if all your activities don’t yield a profit, you
    will soon be out of business and not providing any jobs at all.

    The beauty of capitalism is that it
    keeps profits in check through competition. We could charge $600/hour
    for our services, but we would never get any customers. Well, maybe one
    or two who thought it was worth it, but everyone else would use another
    company. For the vast majority of things, particularly with the
    knowledge available through comparison shopping on the web, this works
    out beautifully, even to the point of crushing margins to a sliver
    which is good and bad. This does not work with things like oil. Our
    testicular-fortitude-lacking government is not prosecuting the
    companies that are controlling oil in this nation and the other
    industries with just a few powerful players. Curious how energy is not
    factored in the Consumer Price Index…

    A couple quick thoughts here.
    Milwaukee is absolutely rocking the music scene. Unfortunately this
    means there are times when 4 bands I really like are playing at the
    same time. Richard Ashcroft of the Verve playing with Coldplay when
    Acceptance is playing with Hellogoodbye and The Academy Is. Oh well, I
    have 4 tickets. Looking forward to Ashlee Simpson on Saturday, The Fray
    before I leave for New Zealand, Yellowcard with Mae when I get back!

  • What should a business’s purpose or mission be?

    If you have more than one, please identify the most important one.

  • News from the Front! Okay, my mom.

    Hello everyone,
     
    I promised to send at least one more update on Christina and since
    we just saw the surgeon today, I thought this would be a great time.
    Altho, technically, for me, this would be a great time to sleep :)
     
    It has been 6 weeks since surgery and Christina is progressing
    very well. The first  two weeks were a real adjustment – basically
    turning the living room into a hospital room and caring for Christina
    on a rather intense level. Then she started to use her walker and with
    that mobility, came greater independence. On November 7th, her cast was
    cut down to below the knee as she was showing new bone growth on the
    femur (where the major surgery was done). Although she couldn’t bend
    her knee completely until just a couple of days ago(due to the length
    of time in the cast),it made a huge difference in her ability to sit
    and sleep more comfortably.
     
    Today, she had the cast removed completely for just half an hour -
    they took x-rays, and then removed the pin that stuck out of the skin
    from its position in the heel bone. It was supposed to just be a quick
    pull and not painful. The surgeon watched while the casting technician
    pulled and then the tech said, “this is really in there solid – she
    must have some good bone” – then he pulled harder and at this point
    Christina was crying in pain. It finally came out and gradually the
    pain left completely. Not fun. Like Christina said, “I trusted the
    doctor when he said that it wouldn’t hurt”. I really think that they
    were surprised that it was so tight in there. She was then fitted for a
    leg splint that she will wear after the cast is off. A new cast was
    then applied – hot pink this time !
     
    We return on December 15 for the removal of the cast and a great
    celebration will follow! She can now bear weight on her foot (Carla- we
    have an order for full weight bearing), but as you would imagine, it is
    very tentative for her to put any weight on her heel after having the
    pin just pulled out.

  • It’s The Force!

  • It takes me almost an entire minute to take a hot dog out of the fridge,
    out of the packaging and to put it in the microwave, with a bun then
    top it off with ketchup. I just don’t have the patience any longer for this kind
    of gourmet cooking! Maybe putting a fridge under my desk stocked with chocolate milk could save time.

    What’s the most time you’ll put into an everyday lunch?