A little joy in one’s life is what it’s all about! Here’s a good post by photographer Scott Bourne reflecting on the joy of photography – and how joy matters.
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Month: July 2009
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Some Stunning Numbers!
Watching the financial reports of various companies over the past few days has brought to my attention some startling numbers – to wit:
- Amazon.com reported quarterly revenues up 14%
- Apple reporting quarterly revenues UP 12% – amazingly good!
- PayPal reported 11% revenue growth on a 12% increase in payment volume
- The New York Times Company reporting advertising revenues OFF 32% – a very big, ugly number!
- Microsoft reporting its first ever annual DECLINE in revenue – capped by a 17% decline in quarterly revenues year over year – UGLY indeed.
Our economic struggles continue – a quick look at the monthly charts of National Economic Indicators prepared by the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond confirms. Recommendation: Best viewed with a strong drink in hand!
We love our Weber – an early model of the Performa. A while back we had this fancy indirect heating gas grill – but it just didn’t provide much flavor for BBQing so we gave it away and bought the Weber over 10 years ago. It’s been our regular fire ever since – IMHO nothing beats a hot charcoal fire for the best flavor.
On one of our morning walks last week, friend Chris Gulker550 degrees) on the Performa’s built-in thermometer. Then, it’s time to sear the chops.
I seared them about 2 minutes on each side directly over the hottest part of the fire. After that, I moved them over to the indirect heat side of the Weber and cooked them for another 6 minutes without turning. By that time, the internal temperature was about 135 degrees. I removed them from the fire, covered them with foil and let them sit another 6-8 minutes during which the internal temperature continued to rise to over 145 degrees. At that point, they were ready to serve.
We cooked some sauerkraut with bacon and BBQ sauce in a skillet on the stove and served that with the chops along with some more of that tasty BBQ sauce. What a treat! – a very nice and relatively low cost Sunday BBQ. Served with a little summer rose wine, it was just delicious!
I was going through a pile of old files last night – sorting out stuff that still needed to be shredded from stuff that was just trash. Boxes that had built up over the years. When you have space, these boxes just seem to collect. For whatever reason, last night I dealt with a few of them!
Along the way I came across a very nice congratulatory letter written to me in the early 1990’s by Jim Blanchard, then CEO of Synovus. I was working for Visa in those years and had just been promoted to EVP.
It was a simple letter that Jim sent – passing along his congratulations and cheering me on to bigger and better things! But, remember how those kinds of letters and thank you’s made all the difference in the world in terms of just feeling good?
Jim was a great member of the board of Visa for many years – and a real example of servant leadership in action. It was great fun to find his letter almost twenty years later. Reminds me again just how important random (and not so random!) acts of kindness are to others in this crazy world of ours!
Robert S. McNamara died earlier today at 93. Five and a half years ago I posted about seeing the Errol Morris’ documentary The Fog of War – McNamara’s lessons about what he learned during the Vietnam War. It’s an amazing movie – one that each generation needs to watch.
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Happy Fourth of July!
My best wishes for a wonderful fourth of July!
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