Montana Jones

Learning experience

Me:

I'm looking forward to B_'s first birthday party. How's our little guy doing?

He:

He is smiling, pooping and climbing up things. He got this bump on the head here when he tried to climb the rock out front.

Me:

Awww, did you take a bump to the noggin? Sounds like a learning experience to me.

She:

He is learning to stand up and to fall over.

Me:

Roll with it little buddy. You are going to have many opportunities in this life to discover that our best learning experiences are also a little painful.

The meeting earlier in the day was decidedly tense. We were determined to do our business on our own terms. BP_ and I had been preparing for weeks. Months in fact. We had the issues spelled out as clearly as possible. We had our goals defined. Our talking points were rehearsed. We were confident. We were prepared to meet anger, antagonism and personal attacks. We even had secret signals ready to help each other out if things started to go badly. It is a difficult thing to confront someone else, demand respect, and insist that they make sacrifices to change the status quo. As with most battle plans, ours did not survive the first contact.

Higher Power chastised us first thing for the stern tone we were taking in our written statements. A lot of people in that room were expecting the worst and in shields up mode. We were able to stand our ground quite successfully. They conceded many points we were not expecting. We conceded on points as well. I learned some things.

I learned that preparation is everything. Even though the battle plan was down in flames in the first moments we still had our goals, resources and a solid knowledge of the ground we were trying to cover.

I learned that while long standing issues are best resolved before they are long standing, sometimes they become long standing because of talking softly. For right or wrong, we had to remind some people that we also carried a big stick.

I learned that if a long standing issue is not getting resolved, being stern and wielding the big stick will suddenly get a lot of attention pointed at the issue. Sometimes more attention than expected. If you are sure you are in the right, and you will know if you did your preparation correctly, you can stand your ground confidently.

I learned that when you rock the boat it makes a lot of people very uncomfortable. Rocking the boat can make yourself very uncomfortable as well. I learned that I do not want to rock the boat very often.

For good or ill the stern tone worked. I don't know if it is the same thing as respect, but I do know that I was taken seriously and the outcome of the meeting was favorable to us. It is a day I will remember for a long time. The experience was a little painful. One year olds are not the only ones that ache for a while after a learning experience.

Labels: ache, business, confidence, conversation, learning, meeting, rock the boat, stern

Posted by: Montana Jones / 5:17 PM 0 comments

Things I have learned volunteering at the food bank

• You can usually get a little more if you just ask.
• You can also get toothpaste, soap, diapers, deodorant, tampons and other stuff. But you have to ask.
• Muffins tend to be more popular than doughnuts.
• It feels good to give someone something extra that they did not ask for.
• It is easier to give and to receive when you smile, are courteous, friendly and say thank you.
• Most of the volunteers are retirees that need something to do, teenagers, or people that have used the food bank and want to give back.
• In general, rich people tend to donate money, poor people give time and money, and middle class people donate food.
• Some people have no qualms about donating food that they would not eat themselves.
• I was surprised at how much meat is given out and how little rice and potatoes.
• There is little to no effort put into choosing healthy foods. At the food bank edible is more important than healthy.
• It is frightening how many people don't understand that dented canned goods can be dangerous.
• It would be political suicide for the health department to audit the food bank. They don't go near the place.
• The food bank is very clean anyway. Volunteers are constantly cleaning, raw foods are handled with gloves and there is easy access to hand sanitizer everywhere.
• People with new and expensive clothing do use the food bank, but I have never seen the same person twice. People with worn and cheap clothing are the repeat customers.
• Creating more rules and regulations with the intent to deter people abusing the system will stop some of the abuse. It will also stop some of the people that need help.
• People that think the world owes them something are more likely to need a handout.
• Some of the people that think the world owes them something don't need the handout, but they take it anyway.

Labels: charity, donation, food, food bank, health, learning, list, observations, volunteer

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:40 AM 0 comments

Learning the winter

I can hike up a storm in the warm months, the mountains and I are pretty tight. But I have never learned how to be in the wild during the winter. I broke the ice, so to speak, with new snowshoes last winter. This season I am putting them to more use. I am feeling something new on the trails, like I am out of place. Like I am vulnerable. Not a feeling I get on the hot days of summer. Not a feeling I enjoy.

I know how to cope with the trail in the summer. How much water to carry. What clothing works for both the heat of the day and layers well for cool evenings. How much food for how many miles of trail. What gear to carry just in case. I am at home and comfortable with the wilderness. In the winter I suddenly find myself a stranger again as ice crusts the streams and snow goblins climb the trees.

My biggest problem so far is with clothing. Learning what works and what doesn't. I understand layers and use them, but the wrong layers cause problems. If I trap too much heat I sweat and ultimately get wet and chills. If I don't trap enough heat I find myself in a race to keep moving and keep my body temp up. The middle ground is elusive.

The right gear to carry is different too. I learned the other week that my snowshoes can throw snow up the back of my legs and get my pants wet. Wet is bad and results in chills. Note to self: get some waterproof snow pants.

I am leery of the unforeseen too. When it is warm I am confident I could spend an unplanned night in the wild if an injury or other circumstance forced me to. In the cold I don't have the same confidence. I am reluctant to explore too far from the trailhead and safety.

So many things are different about this time of year. I feel like a novice again. Snow and ice are harder to walk on than dry ground. The trail is harder to identify. It even feels different to be thirsty. Add to that everything I don't know about avalanches and when ice is safe and my own limits and tolerance for hypothermia. I don't like feeling like a novice. Some days staying in like a hermit sounds better than feeling like this.

There are some wonderful things about the snow and cold. The still silence that makes breath and heartbeat ear shatteringly loud. How easy it becomes to see animal tracks. The way snow and frost paint old familiar landscapes into new, wonderful pieces of art. I think I have to keep going. To keep learning. To keep adding gear. What choice do I have really? Last winter I learned that being a hermit sucks.

Labels: cold, hiking, learning, novice, outdoors, snow, snowshoes, trail, wilderness, winter

Posted by: Montana Jones / 1:34 PM 2 comments

Toilet Paper

She:

Hey, I have an FYI for you.

Her:

Oh? Okay.

She:

When my grandmother had problems with her septic system and the guy came out to fix it, he told her that the worst stuff you could possibly put down the toilet and into the septic system is Charmin Ultra.

Her:

Oh really?

She:

Yeah. A small system just can't handle that beefy stuff.

Her:

And that is what I have in there right now, isn't it?

She:

Sure is.

Her:

So what is the best?

She:

Kirkland.

Her:

The Costco brand?

She:

Yup. That is what the guy said.

Me:

Since moving to Montana I have learned more about septic systems than I have ever wanted to know.

Labels: best, conversation, Costco, FYI, learning, septic, toilet paper

Posted by: Montana Jones / 9:59 PM 0 comments

From my outbox

Interestingly enough, the mortgage guy I used to double check the bank called me back after hearing my news. He started singing the praises of interest only loans and other novel ways to make the rates affordable for me. Made me clutch my wallet in fear. I might 'accidentally' loose his business card.

Yes, this has been a learning experience. One of the things learned is how professionals (bankers, brokers, et al.) that you hire to watch your interests really just watch their own.

MJ

Labels: bank, email, interest, learning, loan, money, mortgage, outbox, real estate

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:40 AM 0 comments

Things I learned making this new template

When using empty DIV tags as css hooks, IE will screw them up unless you put font-size:0px; in your style sheet.

Drop shadows are a pain in the ass.

There is a damn good reason that the pin stripes are 7px apart and the header is 126px tall.

I have never before appreciated photoshop masks so much.

Drop shadows are a pain in the ass.

There is a difference between this doctype: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
and this doctype: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

Don't forget to add the property type="text/css" to your style tag or your html will not validate.

If you think your design looks nice, change the resolution on your monitor to form a second opinion.

Drop shadows are a pain in the ass.

This css selector: #sidebar P,OL,UL,H6 {…} is not the same as this css selector: #sidebar P,#sidebar OL,#sidebar UL,#sidebar H6 {…}

When using multiple :hover elements dependant on class, you need to use !important to get the subsequent ones to display. This does not work in IE.

It can be a pleasant surprise to test in Internet Explorer and see something appear correctly on the first try. Most of the time nothing works right.

If you use Internet Explorer to browse the web you are contributing to the stress, anxiety and heart disease of thousands of web developers. The world will be a better place if you used the superior Firefox browser.

Blogger can be a pain in the ass too.

Labels: blogger, css, design, doctype, drop shadow, Firefox, html, Internet Explorer, learning, new, pain in the ass, photoshop, pixels, programming, web

Posted by: Montana Jones / 8:47 PM 0 comments