Marshal Ney: Merger Czar

I was going to be the merger czar at work but today I was relieved of that job because one of the execs wants to run the show. My boss was not happy abut it but I had warned him that this is the new shiny bright thing and I was fine in stepping aside and just working the HR side of things. Mergers are a like fresh meat out on the Serengeti. All sorts of prey animals (AKA...New Friends) show up for a piece of the action. Of course I wanted to head this up. Good players want the ball in their hands. It's their nature.

The problem is that the exec they CEO chose is like Napoleon allowing Marshal Ney to general much of the battle of Waterloo. Ney was the Bravest of the Brave but not a great general. The CFO just doesn't lead or communicate very well and mergers need good generals. He will say he is the general but in the end it will look more like an armed mob than an organized effort. Luckily he has some good officers under his command and they will do their best to deliver.

I have to hope our Marshal Ney will be successful. The fate of the last one was rather final in nature.




In the old days a merger like this would be call The Show. Roughly translated it is the Western Front of the business world.

No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. The outcome will be random in nature because there is a random characteristic to mergers and a randomness to the company I work for. I knew that coming back in.

I will ride off into the desert with my tribesmen "as usual" and let the big general run the big army. We'll stay on the flank and away from the heavy guns. Lately I seem to be spending more and more time out there anyway.

Went for it

I went for it today. I ran 45 minutes very slowly and non stop (well a bathroom stop, perhaps). I also threw in 4 x 100 in 20 seconds on average. The 100's were easy to carry off. No strain at all.

My achilles felt fine. I hate to say it but putting the heel lifts back in my street shoes seem to have alleviated the tightness.

This evening Sue and I went to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. It was fairly dead for a Monday night but towards the end of the dinner three E-staff's trooped in from different companies. Obviously it was BOD (Board of Director) meeting time. End of the quarter and all of that. One team raided their glasses to the toast "One Team" or all for one and one for all as long as it is me. Gag me with a spoon!

I always prefer the Inner Circle over the BOD but then that's me.

What A Heel I Am

Jack Lovelock-Miler



I finally had to give in and put heel lifts back in each shoe. Running and otherwise. My right achilles was just way too temperamental and even if it's only for the time being, it takes the load off of the heel. The transition needs to be more gradual. I will have to watch my calves which have not bothered me during this whole period.

I walked Amber for about 20 minutes this morning and then went and walked another 40 minutes by myself.

The question that lurks is what can I run for the mile. I have to stabilize my achilles and both calf's to have a chance. I would like a sub-6 which is equivalent to running a sub 4:40 at age 30. Just before the end of the year I ran a 4:50 1320 and believed myself to be in sub-6:30 shape (and I was hardly racing. It was a solo time trial).

Given than I can avoid injuries this is what I think I will need:

Some mileage but not much. 3-4 miles a day, four days a week will do it with one 6-7 miler for "strength". I need to not obsess about mileage.

Time trials over 800 meter, 1200 meters and 1600 meters. Gradually pulling the time down until I can see that I have a chance. I ran a 3:08 in December and felt strong doing it. Another solo effort. If I can hit 3:00 then I can try to work down to 4:30 at 1200.

A pacer now and then to help. Dimitri has offered to do this for me. It is The Bannister Touch.. He had Chateway and Brasher.

Some Progress

I got out early this morning and ran 25 minutes non stop (ya-hoo!!!!!). I then ran another 15 minutes with three 1 minute walks inserted in to break things up. The achilles is "there" but not painful. Just slightly tender. I will continue to monitor it.

The De Anza track was pretty much empty. There was very plump (OK..fat) women who was walking with a friend. The fat woman kept blabbing on at a steady rate and her friend, soft spoken and slender, murmured in response.

I drove over and had breakfast with the club afterward. There was a lively discussion on whether Hitler could have ever successfully invaded England in the early years of WWII.

I quote (God knows who).


Could the British navy have stopped the invasion?
Britain did, it's called the Battle of Britain.

Would the Germany air force be able to hold off the British navy?
First it would have had to destroy the RAF, but it lost to them. Hence the Battle of Britain.

Did the British navy have any large air craft carriers like the Americans and Japanese? Loads, but sea based aircraft were unecessary so close to land.

Would the British have used poison gas to defend their island?
It's possbile. It wasn't particularly effective in WWI.

Would the Soviets have attacked the Germans while they were bogged down in Britan? It was impossible for the Germans to get to Britain, they lost the battle of Britain. However the Soviets were building up to attack Germany but would have liked to wait a few years. Each month that went by Soviet production was catching German up. The germans knew this so started an early war.

Getting Slaughtered

Back to Forbes Mill this morning and the slowest runner on the track experience. I jogged over to the Los Gatos Track and then proceeded to run as slowly as I could for twenty minutes straight. I took a short break and then finished the last 20 minutes with 4 on and 1 off segments until I was at 40 minutes total. My competition was a very slender woman with long blond hair who zipped around the track passing me multiple times. If she had even noticed, she was slaughtering me every several laps. That was how slow I was forcing myself to run.

Went for breakfast with Jake afterward.

Upping The Ante

Saratoga High Track





I took a day off from work and decided to go out and run at the Saratoga High Track. I upped the ante a bit and ran 5 minutes on and one minute off through a half hour and then shifted to 4 and 1 until 40 minutes. All was well except my right achilles. No pain but it is slightly swollen. The slant board has left its calling card.

I then ran 2 x 100 meters surprising myself with an 18 followed by a 17.

Saratoga Track is a zoo, by the way. Around 5 pm the place is a still filled with students suing the field for various sports, runners and walkers meandering or zigzagging across the track blissfully unaware of anyone running there. I find myself constantly changing lanes to avoid the masses. At any rate it is a very popular track but frankly I just don't enjoy running there. Danny does, because he is both coach and mayor of the track

Be the mayor, I told him. A few minutes later I lost him to some nice young thing (a blond) who joined him for his Tuesday 200 meter workout.

As for me, I am everyman when I run there. The slowest man on the track.

Picking up the pace

I picked up the pace of my recovery, running and walking 40 minutes this morning. For the first 30 minutes I did 4 minutes of jogging with one minute of walking. After 30 minutes I shifted to one minute "on" (run) one minute "off" (walk). My legs seemed fine.

Cool and crisp weather.

I emailed Dimitri on my recovery plans and he has agreed to help me do some time trials. I have no idea where I am on all of this having not run anything significant for quite some time.

40 Minutes of Something

Life is piling up. At work, I have been made the Merger Czar for some potential acquisitions. Can't say much more than that. Hopefully we come out the winner in all of this Barbarians At The Gate episodic corporate game playing. I have been though a overly large number of these in the past. Few work out in the long run. But the grow or become irrelevant drums are beating hard. And my job is to focus on making the integration process work if one (or more) of these decides to become reality. If (it is a big "if")I also get the book deal my life will be a slag heap of work. Hell, if I don't get the deal it will be a slag heap.

Strange dream #2. I am in an auditorium listening to a speaker. There are many peple in the room sitting quietly listening to the guy behine the lenctern. Right Wing Republican is sitting one row in front of me raising his hand and waving it around trying to distract the speaker but no one seems to notice him. The speaker keeps on speaking and even though Right Wing draws a few looks basically folks ignore him. I wake up.


On the running front, I regained 40 minutes of something. In this case something was 40 minutes of 35-25's. I preceded this with 15 minutes of walking with Amber the wonder dog. Now am I sure that Brian will have me stay at 40 and close up the walking gaps with running until I can run 40 minutes with no problems.

Whoa!

I drove over to Forbes for the first time in a month and walked 5 minutes over to the track. Then I jog-walked for 35 minutes. I then walked down another 10 minutes with Jake who told me about his recent heart related issues.

Whoa!

He has atrial fibrillation which is an arrhythmia of the heart. It is treatable through the use of medication, electrical stimulus or our patient surgery. The last is the most permanent if it is successful. He has chosen to the latter. So this might explain his 7:11 mile and continual tiredness over the last year or so.

News at 11!

Slowest of the Lot

I escaped at lunchtime and did a 5 minute walk followed by 30 minutes of 35-25. Walked again for a few minutes afterward.

It was warmer but with a cool breeze so not bad all in all. Baylands Park was crowded with walkers and runners. I was the slowest runner of the lot. Walking breaks do that.

Comeback Weather

I ramped up a bit this morning. 5 minute walk and then 25 minutes of 35-25. It was cool and overcast. Nice comeback weather. I should be at 40 minutes of run/walk by the weekend. Legs feel OK. No pain.

I plan to ship off my redux book proposal on my Lawrence leadership model sometime this week. I keep looking at it and tinkering. Somehow it doesn't seem enough. Of course I want the publisher to want to do this book but given the sum game nature of writing and publishing, I know it either hits their fancy and their plans or it doesn't.


Wiki: For those who might wonder, the word "redux" does not mean what it would appear to. It is a Latin word that means "brought back", "revisited".

I have an ongoing search in progress. I have been looking for information on Clare Sydney Smith, wife of Wing Commander Sydney Smith. TE Lawrence, during his days in the RAF was posted to Mount Batten in the late 1920's and early 1930's where he became good friends with the commanding office (Smith) and his wife Clare. The Smith's moved on to Singapore after Mount Batten where Wing Commander Smith became Air Commodore Smith. After returning to the UK, Clare wrote a book called The Golden Reign about Lawrence's time there. It was published in 1940.

Then she disappears from history or at least from my capability to track her. She may have been part of a documentary on Lawrence done in the late 1970's (or not). I am not sure. At least I know that her husband died late in 1971. I can't find out where he is buried because the chances are she is buried next to him.

In any case she was quite attracted to Lawrence. She may have even loved him. He would have returned the friendship (deeply) but not the sexual love. He was incapable of that sort of love. Her photo is below.

Strange Breakfast Fellows

I almost didn't go but at the last moment I decided to head over to Carrows for the club breakfast. A very strange group was there. Few of the regulars but still I knew everyone and we got off on a conversation about picking a race and focusing on it. Especially when you don't have much time for training because of family and work life. Then your kids leave the house, you retire and guess what?

Your body is shot.

After I got back home I walked the usual 10 minutes and then did 35-25 for the next twenty.

Cloudy gray skies. Wind picking up.

Another Cold

I got up early and did by 10 minutes of walking followed 20 minutes of 35-25. Everything felt fine but my "node"...uh err...nose. Seems I have a slow moving and mild but annoying cold again. Second in two months. I thought that it was allergies but it is beginning to behave just like a virus. I think I am overexposed from being back at work full time again.

Anyway, I guess I am going through the toughening up phase.

Usually I stop running or exercising but I may just keep on going through this one and chance it. I am not doing anything that hard anyway. We'll see. I will take it day by day.

If this were a storm I would characterize it as slow moving, not alot of wind and just a steady, light rain.

It feels The Same

THE BUBBLE BURSTS in 2001, 2008. It looks and feels the same in Silicon Valley.





















One website I often visit (www.SFGate.com) said that the Dot.Com bubble reached it "height" 9 years ago today. The Dow hit a then all time high. So in the last 9 years we have gone through two big bubbles.

The dot-com bubble

The housing bubble

The bursting of each has wreaked havoc in the valley. I have survived both. The dot-com bubble was mostly localized here in the SF Bay Area. Other geo area were effected but the cratering took place here. This latest bubble is more wide spread because it has to do with mortgages and housing. But here t feels just the same. Contract recruiters begin to lose work. They migrate, either leaving the area or looking at other ways of making money. Start ups can't get that next round of funding.

I rode through the first one. My company had gone public and I had a fairly big cash injection so money wasn't an issue. I semi-retired and took 9 months off without fear. Eventually people started to call me asking me to come back inside and work. I became a consultant.

Folks forget that with 9-11 and Enron people were freaking. Here, in the valley, it looks the same.

A friend gets laid off. Their spouse has been out of work too. Hammer I told him. 5-10 new contacts a day. Don't get hung up on title and pay. Just get back in. A years passes. They are still out. Now the spouse is out. They may lose their home.

Foreclosure looms.

I held off giving any big advice. 5-10 contacts a day.

Hammer away. Hammer!

Still Throwing

I got out at lunch and did my piddly 10 minute walk followed by 35-25 for the next 20 minutes.

At work: I was thinking of Hoyt Wilhelm. I am still in the game pitching but now it's my knuckle ball and sinker that keep me going. I am not God's gift to baseball (uh...err, work). It's late innings and the sun is going down in a big red fireball to the west. The shadows are long reaching out and engulfing the outfield.

I am still "in" there.

Throwing.

Strange Dream

A very strange dream last night.

I dreamed I had quit work again. One of the women at work came to see me at home. She reclined on my bed rather seductively as we talked. Later on after she had left I decided to walk to work and see what was going on. On the way I saw Will Ferrell in a flashy red car popping wheelies and flexing his biceps. For some reason we knew each other. He gave me a thumbs up and I returned the salute.

I got to work. Priscilla showed me a hate letter from Imani signed Imani, the knife . Next to the signature was a crudely drawn picture of a knife blade.

I told her that the letter concerned me. She should go talk to Bill. She agreed and stood up to go find him. As we came out of her office Bill whizzed by mumbling to himself that he had to get to an appointment. He came down the hall several times. He reminded me of the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.

I'm late. I'm late....

I decided to leave.

"If you need me," I said, "Call me. I can come back."

Then I woke up.

Is The Pope Catholic?

I finally had to route Right Wing Dave to the trash bin on my email. He seemed to have an overwhelming need for victories over his friends. Usually a sign of great weakness. The old lion must kill even if is members of his own pride (or something like that).

So no more emails from him. I am gulched as far as he is concerned.

I went out early and walked the requisite 10 minutes before doing another 20 minutes of 30-30. Then I took Amber out for a walk around the neighborhood before heading over to join my club for breakfast.

I didn;t mention it but I talked to the publisher on Wednesday. The editor is interested in my Lawrence book but asked if I would be willing to do it as a leadership book. Is the Pope Catholic? In reality this was my passion around the subject in the first place. I just need to figure out how to make it different and compelling.

It doesn't guarantee a book deal but it does put me on the beach and that is the first step.

I Will Not Stop The Motor Of The World

I ran 20 minutes yesterday alternating 30 seconds walk with 30 or running. So 30-30. The right calf held up fine. I plan to keep doing this for the next several weeks to hopefully stabilize. Then I work my way up.

More communication with right wing Dave. It bothers him that I won't affiliate with the political right. It bothers him that I am all over the place on my values (his point of view). I always have liked restaurant menu's with plenty of choices. I do tend to vary my position. It is part of my life strategy. I remember this driving long neck Don crazy back in the 1970's.

I guess I haven't changed.

Change or die, they say.

Change comes to you whether you seek it or not. I have tried to stay ahead of the curve on that one but change catches all unawares eventually. And you even have to accept that.

I am not John Galt. I will not the stop the motor of the world even though I get that too and have stopped a few engines in my time. I will change the game though. I will shift and find my own way. When things got crowded for Daniel Boone he would move further west. He didn't try to force settlers to move away to give him "room" to live his life. He simply moved west.

Nine for mortal men doomed to die

Three rings for the elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for mortal men doomed to die,
One for the dark lord on his dark throne
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them,
One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the land of Mordor where the shadows lie.

I may have one of the rings of power. I can be invisible if I want. I have a way of not being noticed. Of slipping in and out of a room without drawing attention to myself. I have always had it if I wanted to draw upon that power. I am not immortal. Maybe young looking for my age but that is no magic.

Since, at present, there is no Dark Lord to attempt to control me through my ring, I roam free for the time being.

Staring Down Death

The Bay Area is getting pelted. The rain came steadily today like a bombing raid on an enemy city during a war. I had to talk myself out the door for 10 minutes of walking and 20 minutes of 30-30 (30 second jog, 30 second walk).

Danny and I had breakfast late in the morning and then went to see Linda, our friend who is battling pancreatic cancer. Battling is the operative word. I would have said dying but she is not going down without a fight. I think I walked out of there with a deep impression of her spirit.

She thinks she will make it back to work. Just not now. Her words. I am not strong enough right now.

She is down to 75 pounds, hasn't felt decent in 6 months and yet still has a strong sense of independence and retains her sense of wry humor.

One aspect of courage is staring down death. Linda is in the process of doing that right now.

I told her that I was enjoying work and that she had something to do with that. I am back inside because she can't be. Someone had to take your place, I said. We both laughed.

As I left I gave her a hug and said, "We miss you. We want you back."

"I am going to try," she said. I knew she meant it.

The Wrong Battle

THE BANKS SUCKING AT THE PUBLIC BREASTS











It will be tough to tell my friend Dave that the the battle he is fighting under the banner of Rush Limbaugh is no longer relevant. He still thinks the battle is between Obama, his brand spanking new cabinet, creeping socialism and the Republican right.

It is too late for that.

Our economic woes go beyond party lines and who is in power. Lack of oversight on the part of the government and the banks have led us into a hot fetid swamp. It will be some time before we emerge.

Someone (us) kicked the teeth out of the face of our solvency and we have pitched forward into the thick mud of despair. The media is having a field day. It's a feeding frenzy.

Regardless, the battle has moved on. The government has to inject funds into the economy because it is the last of the big spenders even if the money is simply paper and the paper is back by us taxpayers.

And yet for all of this we will work our way out. It is our nature to do so.