Starbucks WiFi

I can't say I think much of their coffee, but the big advantage of a large corporation such as Starbucks is their access to WiFi when traveling around.

The best part is, you don't even need to step in their retail outlet, you can stand outside and access their WiFi from across the street. What I do respect about a company like Starbucks is their marketing, their brand is popular, their product is ordinary but their coverage is extensive.

I think the last time I purchased Starbucks coffee was in New York city wandering around lower Manhattan one morning. No doubt there is better coffee in NYC, I just didn't know where to look. I also purchased some Starbucks bottled ice coffee for a road trip from Daytona Beach to New Orleans in 2014 after the trip to NYC.

So, I guess I can say I am a Starbucks customer of sorts justifying my use of their WiFi connection, although I prefer not to drink their coffee if I can avoid it.

Smoking in public

Smokers are arrogant, they only care about their personal satisfaction and hold everybody else's well-being in contempt. This is a well known and established fact; I am glad I live in Australia where the rights of non-smokers are now no longer infringed upon by smokers.

Increase nicotine taxes, price smoking out of the realm of most budgets, significantly  increase the cost of insurance, limit areas where smoking is allowed including open air venues and locations and prevent smoking during work hours. Why do the smokers get to take off and take a smoke every hour when everyone else has to keep working? This must include only allowing smoking during allocated times - no excuses.

I am constantly appalled at the behaviour of smokers and the need for anti-smoking rules. On my trips to South-East Asia where pretty much no rules exist out of the major centres, I come to understand why such anti-smoking rules apply. When in bars and restaurants people just light up and blow smoke all over you, I have to go home and take a shower and change my clothes as the stench of cigarette smoke leached into everything.

Then there is the health issues, you choose to poison yourself; that's fine, but as a smoker with with a smoking related illness you should be made to pay a significant premium for health, that includes public health services that prevents non-smokers from the poisons they exhale. What gives you the right to blow your cancer causing smoke all over me - fuck you.

Managers not MBAs

Described as a hard look at the soft practice of management, Henry Mintzberg crafts a masterful analysis of contemporary management practice seeking to identify solutions in current management education.

Feeling that the conventional Master of Business Administration programs were teaching students more about the science of management than the art and craft of management, Mintzberg seeks to help organisations survive and thrive.

Mintzberg explores the concept of management as the practice of blending craft, viewed as experience with art, viewed as insight and science, viewed as analysis. Released as a sequel to The Nature of Managerial Work that sought to dispel the myth of overly analytical managers, this current work examines soft management skills lacking in current managers. 

Mintzberg described his personal growing disconnect between the practice of management taught in classrooms of the leading universities and what was really going on in the corporate world. Ironically for myself, I have undertaken all the soft management units to yet no avail.

You really need the scientific knowledge and skills of cost accounting, financial accounting, finance, quantitative analysis, macro-economics, micro-economics and decision making to firstly get a shot at certain jobs and to gain promotion to coveted positions.

My gripe is different, I constantly deal with people who have been promoted beyond their abilities the lacking the prerequisite technical and quantitative skills. Instead I see those possessing only the ability to build close relationships with people in power as their main skill-set. Soft management skills are needed in business, no argument there but they can't be rated higher than technical skills.

We all know what that means, promotions in my workplace are based on friendships and favours, not on skills, so unless you are part of the crony club - better to look for promotions elsewhere. As the old adage goes, if you are not on the inside then you are on the outside. 

Mobile phones and driving

I hate mobile phones, I dislike listening to mobile phone conversations on the train, in line at the check-out or people weaving down the street texting and I especially hate mobile phones and driving.

I hate the pure arrogance and selfishness of people willing to risk people's lives so they can carry out their bullshit conversations. How do I know they are bullshit conversations? Well, I have to overhear these conversations when on the train, bus, coffee shop or supermarket. Apparently these conversations and text messages are more important than the safety of other road users - these people need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Turning 50 and loving it

Fifty isn't the new fourty, I have learned that although in my mind I believe I am cool and relevant. The only problem in this personal delusion being that I was never cool and relevant in the first place. I was already suspicious that this wasn't the case - I guess I can't even fool myself anymore.

You come to the realisation that your life is more than half over; well, that isn't the case if you are planning to live to one hundred I suppose. Since the average male life expectancy in Australia is eighty two then you have reached the halfway point of your life at 41; so based on these scratchy calculations I guess I am already on the downward slide.

Most days I wake up and my kidneys hurt, my right side more than my left. I went from having brilliant sight to wearing glasses to laser vision to still requiring glasses to read. It takes about thirty minutes for my eyes to focus in the morning; not so brilliant went I shave in front of the mirror and miss patches only to identify this on the drive to work. I really should carry an electric razor in the car to fix up all the mistakes.

I'm still running and certainly feel better upon returning. I really do feel better about myself after getting up and heading off in the morning, I hardly run in the evening now although I know I should. My pace isn't great and I guess my running style less so - still, I enjoy the opportunity to think as I run.

As  I walk down the stairs after getting up, my right foot aches with every step, my left knee clicks and I'm still moving gingerly as my perennially torn left hamstring tightens up. If I can convince myself that this isn't hurting and decide to head out for a run, I really enjoy it, this isn't a chore and then home for a short and sharp weights session.

That being said, I am really enjoying this time in my life. I have changed jobs, taken on a career change and with that new challenges. Despite some minor knee and foot issues, I am still pretty mobile and hit the gym, ride my bike and run (albeit slowly now) and I look forward to the next phase of my life because for me, life couldn't get much better.

An aging workforce

As I am involved in training, I deal with the Department of Training and Workforce Development, a state government department concerned with identifying workforce development issues and trends to improve productivity for Western Australia.

Identifying skills gaps is important so as to forecast potential skills shortfalls to develop training strategies to not only provide opportunities for West Australians, such strategies, if implemented should negate the requirement to import costly overseas knowledge and skills so the state may prosper.

One of the identified issues is the aging workforce, during the last boom many older participants stepped up to fill the skills gap, make some extraordinary money and boost their retirement accounts. However, in the lean period when workers were laid off during the bust, this group reached retirement age and duly retired.

The knowledge and skills were not harnessed; younger worker opportunities were not available as training places plummeted as apprentices, trainees and newly certified tradespeople were laid off to save costs. Generally, an engineering based apprenticeship takes four years, that's a long lag period when the economy turns around.

Employers poorly forecast the last boom and then laid off staff during the bust. Now they have been slow to react to the slight upturn and training has not increased to the required levels. Feedback from industry and employer meetings is not positive, they know the next upturn is approaching and have now realised that they are woefully unprepared so the cycle repeats itself.

A nasty downpour

I was in the town of Wurzburg and got caught in a nasty downpour; well, that isn't exactly true, I missed a huge downpour by ducking into a bar and only got a little wet. The bar, as I found out was named Mozart and had a pretty cool ambiance. I scanned for WiFi and saw their connection was named 2Girls 1Router - not bad.

As I was in Germany, a local pilsener was the best choice; after pouring and allowing time to settle, a Tucher was placed in front of me. The staff peered out from behind the bar to look at the rain when their glances turned more wide-eyed. The awning at the front was caught in a wind vortex and lifting up, their concern no doubt was it would be torn off.

After I had paid my bill and left the bar, I noticed the damage caused. Tree branches were torn off, local businesses had furniture strewn around, rubbish was everywhere. As it turns out, my little side trip to the bar was well worthwhile, I missed the downpour, being hit by flying debris and I enjoyed my brief stay at Mozart bar in Wurzburg.